Whisper

by Lynette Noni

  “I am Liana,” she tells me in a voice that is somehow both deep and high-pitched at once. “Your future is cast in shadow and song, your destiny filled with echoes.”

  A shiver trails down my spine. I have no idea what her words mean, but I’m unnerved by the soft light I saw flare when she uttered them. I glance around at the others and note that while Dante seems unperturbed, Kael appears more alert than ever.

  “Do you feel it now?” Dante strangely asks.

  Kael gives a slight nod, his eyes roaming the darkened room. I don’t know how he can see anything, because I sure can’t. The candlelight picks up a vague shape of a bed and an outline of some other large piece of furniture, but everything else is hidden from sight.

  Dante moves to lean against the door. It’s a casual movement, but I sense there is purpose in the action.

  “He was keeping his distance before,” he says, “but there’s not enough space to hide in here. Plus, I’m guessing his energy is crashing from having to maintain it at full for so long.”

  Unable to curb my irritation, I demand, “What’s going on?”

  Kael’s eyes narrow in on the space directly to my left as he says, “We’re not alone in here.”

  And with his declaration, Liana blows out the candle, and the room goes dark.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  I’m pushed into the wall, and I hear a scuffle in the pitch-black room that barely lasts seconds before another flame is lit. What it illuminates causes my eyes to widen and my heart to drop.

  “Sneak?”

  The young boy is trapped in Dante’s arms, and he looks terrified. I feel for him, I really do, but I’m also struggling to understand what I’m seeing — because he’s not transparent at all. He’s not even semitransparent. He’s completely solid, something I know he’s not capable of controlling on his own yet. Like my Speaking ability, something is blocking him. Or perhaps, someone.

  I turn to Kael and demand, “Are you doing this?”

  He doesn’t take his eyes off the white-faced Sneak. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific, princess.”

  I frown. “Stop calling me that. And answer my question.”

  “The time for your questions is later.” Kael takes a menacing step closer to Sneak. “What are you doing here, boy?”

  I move forward, ready to jump in if needed. “His name is ‘Sneak,’ not ‘boy.’”

  It hits me suddenly how ridiculous I sound, since I doubt his real name is “Sneak.”

  “I don’t care what his name is — just that he knows mine,” Kael says. “And you do, don’t you, boy?”

  I clench my jaw but keep silent this time.

  “You’re Kael Roscave,” Sneak says, his fearful voice barely above a whisper. “Everyone knows who you are.”

  Everyone?

  “I am,” Kael confirms. “And I want to know why you’re here.”

  I can see Sneak trembling from where I’m standing, and my protective instincts want me to close the distance between us and demand his release. But I have no power here — that much is clear.

  “I’m not — I won’t —” Sneak takes a fortifying breath and stands up a little straighter. “I don’t have to tell you anything.”

  Kael cocks his head to the side. “You’re right. You don’t.” To Dante, he asks, “You getting anything?”

  It’s only then that I realize Dante’s lips have been moving the whole time in a silent litany and a soft glow is emanating from around him. His gaze is unfocused, but when Kael addresses him, he seems to snap out of his thoughts.

  “Ward sent him to keep an eye on her,” Dante says, gesturing to me. “He made it look like the kid had to stay behind, but he’s been tailing her ever since they left Lengard.”

  I suck in a sharp breath, the only outward sign of how much this news rattles me. Sneak has been following me? Spying on me? But … that doesn’t make sense. Ward was the one who told Sneak he couldn’t come with us. He’s the one who —

  There’s something I need you to do for me … It’s really important, and you’d be doing me a huge favor.

  I shut my eyes tight against the memory of what Ward said to the younger boy. He never intended to keep Sneak from the outing — he just didn’t want any of us to know we were being followed.

  He didn’t want me to know.

  That stings more than I would like. More than it should.

  Craning his neck to get a better look at his captor, the young boy breathes, “You’re Dante Oberon.”

  “Smart kid,” Dante says. I can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or not.

  “Wait a second.” I hold up my hands. “How do you know he’s been following me?”

  Dante’s shoulders lift and fall. “My Speaking ability — I can read people.”

  “As in … their thoughts?” At his second shrug, I close my eyes again, wondering if this day could get any worse. A real mind reader? I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t just seen him use his ability for myself.

  A soft touch on my hand makes me jump. Liana is directly beside me, her gaze unwavering in its intensity.

  “Your future is cast in shadow and song, your destiny filled with echoes,” she repeats in the same eerie voice as earlier, but no light flares this time. “No one knows what lies ahead. But more than any path I’ve ever seen, yours is hidden most of all.”

  Like the first time, the power in her words makes me shiver. “What —”

  “Liana has a rare ability,” Dante interjects. “She can Speak news of the future into the present, warning us of what may be coming.”

  I swing back around to gape at Liana. First mind readers, now people who can see the future. What’s next?

  “She’s the reason we knew to expect your bodyguard here,” Dante continues. “Not to mention,” he adds, “she saved the kid’s life, since she saw that he was gonna run off in a panic and get lost down here. He wouldn’t be the first person to never make it out again.”

  Sneak swallows. “You mean …”

  Dante sends a wolfish smile down at him. “Better stick with us, kid. You’ll never find a way out on your own.”

  Sneak’s pupils are huge, his fear tangible. Despite him being sent here to spy on me, I still feel protective of him.

  “What are you going to do with him?” I ask the room. “With me?”

  “We don’t have time to do anything but bring him along,” Kael says. “We’ll figure out the rest as we go.”

  He moves toward me, and I automatically back away, but he reaches out and wraps his hand around my wrist.

  “We’ve wasted too much time,” he says, dragging me toward the door and out into the tunnel. “We brought you here for a reason. Now you need to learn what it is.”

  Well, finally. But as relieved as I am, I’m also apprehensive. Because if my captors are as dangerous as Manning claimed …

  “You didn’t answer me before, so I’m just going to ask straight out,” I say as Kael drags me along. “You’re the Remnants, aren’t you?” I look over my shoulder, to see Liana following with Dante and Sneak. “The rebel group of Speakers who broke away from Lengard. The terrorists.”

  “We are many things, known by many names,” Liana answers.

  “Renegades, fugitives, deserters,” Dante offers. “Insurgents, revolutionaries, anarchists.”

  Kael’s grip tightens, and I hear him add, “Survivors.”

  “If there’s one thing we aren’t, it’s terrorists,” Dante says as we step out of the tunnel onto a ledge that overlooks another immense catacomb chamber, this one even larger than the first.

  My feet stop without my permission as I take in the sight. I feel as if I’ve stumbled upon another ancient archaeological wonder. But it’s not just the expanse of the cave, with its torch-lit flames lighting up stone walls, archway exits and labyrinthine pathways. No — it’s the people. They’re everywhere. Walking, talking … some of them sitting, eating, reading, laughing.

  … Living.


  Are they living down here?

  Is this place their home?

  “Survivors are what we have to be.”

  Kael’s voice comes to me as if from far away while I stare at all the people spread out beneath us.

  “Because it’s those at Lengard who are the real terrorists. And soon enough, Alyssa Scott, you’ll understand why.”

  Two words.

  That’s all it takes for my heart to stop and the walls to close in around me.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “How do you know that name?” I whisper, my voice barely a breath of sound.

  “All in good time, princess,” Kael says.

  How — how — can he possibly know that name?

  I’m too afraid of what his answer might be, so I don’t ask again. I keep my lips sealed and try to steady my raging thoughts, bracing myself for whatever might come next.

  We traverse a spiral path downward until we’re walking through the center of the cavern. Some of the inhabitants glance at us as we pass. They are all different ages and genders and cultural backgrounds — as diverse as the people of Sydney itself.

  “This way,” Kael says, yanking me through an archway and down another tunnel. At the end is a single door that he opens with his free hand and pushes inward with a booted foot.

  “It’s about time you guys got here!” Jet cries upon our entry. “We’ve been waiting forever.”

  I glance around the room and take in the large, semicircular desk facing what appears to be live newsfeeds broadcasting across numerous screens mounted to the stone walls. Other screens show real-time surveillance of the zoo, and I immediately hone in on the footage of Abby sitting in my replica’s lap and watching the after-dark seal show. I want to shout at the imposter to take her hands off the child, but I know there’s no point. Even if I could Speak, she still wouldn’t hear me from here.

  “Jet’s right,” says a new female voice. “I was beginning to doubt you’d made the swap, despite what she claimed.”

  The owner of the voice is someone I haven’t yet met. The girl is a few years older than me, but she barely reaches five feet. Purple hair parts in the middle to form pigtails on either side of her asymmetrical face, with a nose too small and eyes too large, adding to her childlike appearance.

  “What’s up, Creator girl?” she says with a wonky grin. “I’m Pandora. It’s about time you stopped by for a visit.”

  Fear creeps along my spine at the casual way she mentioned my Speaking ability, proof that they all know what I can do. None of them seem afraid of me, but Sneak … he lets out a strangled-sounding gasp at the revelation.

  “You make it seem like I had a choice in coming,” I say to Pandora, ignoring Sneak’s reaction. If Ward didn’t want anyone else at Lengard to know about me, then he shouldn’t have sent along a spy.

  I nod to the screens and ask, “If you can run electricity down here, then what’s with all the fire?”

  “We don’t exactly want to broadcast our position to Lengard,” Pandora answers, as if the answer should be obvious. “This room is tapped into the zoo’s electricity feed, and its output is low enough to travel under the radar. But to light up the entire catacombs? For sure someone would be sent down to investigate.”

  That makes sense. It’s also unfortunate, since I wouldn’t mind Lengard knowing about this place and swooping in to retrieve Sneak and me right about now. Despite what Dante and Kael both said about not being terrorists, I know better than to trust them. Manning even told me that’s what the rebels say to the new breakout Speakers they find first — that Lengard is evil and the Remnants are good.

  “Take a seat, princess,” Kael orders, and if that’s not enough, he shoves me into a chair. “Judging by the look on your face, it’s time to correct your education.”

  Liana, Jet and Pandora fan out around the room, taking up positions around us, while Dante continues to keep a grip on Sneak.

  “I’m going to jump straight in here,” Kael says, straddling a chair backward and resting his arms across the top. “Lengard has lied to you.”

  I raise my eyebrows and barely hold back a snort. “It’s a secret government organization. Emphasis on the secret. And on the government. Of course they’ve lied to me, even if I don’t know the specifics.”

  He shakes his head. “Lengard’s not a branch of the government — secret or otherwise.”

  I just look at him, not comprehending. “Of course it is.”

  “I’m guessing Falon told you that once the first round of Xanaphan teenagers began exhibiting supernatural powers, the government rounded them up and locked them away to carry out tests on them.” I nod, and he admits, “That part is true.”

  “Then why —”

  “It’s everything else he told you that’s a lie.”

  I’m willing to hear him out, if only so I know exactly what kind of brainwashing threat I’m dealing with here. “Go on, then. Set the record straight.”

  He doesn’t react to my tone, just continues his story. “The testing the military carried out on the first-generation Speakers was highly trial and error, since supernatural abilities were — and still are — beyond the scope of human understanding. The experiments were painful, violating, and more than once resulted in death.”

  “I know all this,” I say. “Falon told me. Manning, too.”

  Kael continues, “When they’d had enough of the routine electroshock sessions and waterboarding —” I wince at this, since I’ve experienced both at the hands of Vanik during my time at Lengard “— and when they were sick of mourning over their friends and wondering if they would die next, the Speakers rallied together under the leadership of a man named Jeremiah and planned a coup. Together they managed to overthrow their guards and take control of the facility.”

  “Jeremiah,” Sneak whispers, and I turn to find his face ashen. With wide, terrified eyes he repeats, “Jeremiah! He’s —”

  Dante’s arm moves in a flash until his meaty hand covers Sneak’s mouth. “It’s rude to interrupt, kid.”

  Kael’s voice pulls my attention back to him.

  “Jeremiah was charismatic. He had influence, but more than that, he had power — the kind of power most Speakers can never dream of commanding. Whatever his mind could conceive, he could achieve. He was the ultimate weapon.”

  Remembered words invade my thoughts: They can create the unimaginable, unleash the impossible. They’re the ultimate weapon.

  I gasp with realization. “Jeremiah was a Creator? As in, the Creator — the power-obsessed psycho everyone fears?”

  Kael’s expression seems to close off. “I see you’ve heard of him.”

  “Of him, yes, but not about him,” I answer, my mind spinning. “All I know is that it’s because of whatever he did that people will panic if they discover I’m a Creator, too.” I glance at the others in the room and amend, “Well, the people at Lengard. You all seem to be the exception.”

  “Or perhaps we’re the norm, and your pals at Lengard are the exception,” Pandora offers, finger-combing her purple pigtails. “Just a thought.”

  “The coup may have freed the Speakers from their immediate prison,” Kael goes on, “but they were still just a lost group of teenagers at the time, and they had the full force of the Australian military beating down on the door to the facility. They were trapped, and they knew it. And that forced them to carry out some desperate measures.

  “Among the Genesis Speakers, there were two others Jeremiah was close with — Maverick Falon and Kendall Vanik.”

  I give a small jolt at the familiar names, my attention now piqued.

  “Falon’s Spoken words were supernaturally wise, so he assisted with insight, logic and strategy when it came to complex reasoning and decision making. As for Vanik, he was able to read minds like Dante can, but his ability was phenomenally powerful. He was also considered a genius, and he managed to convince Jeremiah to act out against the military, to cut them off from ever being able to regain co
ntrol of Lengard or the Speakers inhabiting it.”

  I’m fascinated by his version of Lengard’s history, and I find my categorization of good versus bad beginning to blur.

  “Vanik told Jeremiah that the only way they would all be safe was if they were forgotten. That anyone who had ever heard so much as a whisper about the existence of Speakers needed to have his or her memory erased.”

  Ward’s voice sweeps through my consciousness: Just center your thoughts on Abby, and imagine the people who watched that happen forgetting what they saw. Then Speak.

  I know the kind of power Kael is talking about. I’ve experienced it myself.

  “Jeremiah followed through with Vanik’s advice,” Kael says. “In a matter of seconds, any knowledge of Lengard disappeared from the minds of anyone without a Speaking ability. Jeremiah and the others were free.”

  I lean back in my seat, having moved to the edge of my chair at some stage during the story. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ here.”

  Kael nods once. “The ‘but’ is that the military’s initial testing on Vanik made him crazy. As in, clinically insane.”

  This description is not news to me.

  “His condition deteriorated as the years passed, and Falon and Jeremiah’s concern grew, until everything came to a head about a decade ago,” Kael says, his eyes unfocused, as if looking into the past himself. “That was when the second round of Xanaphan children began entering puberty and awakening their Speaking abilities, meaning it wouldn’t be long before the government swooped in to repeat their actions with a new generation of Speakers. Jeremiah and Falon — even Vanik, in his sane moments — wouldn’t allow that to happen.

  “So, while Jeremiah and Falon concocted a strategy to reach the newly Speaking teenagers and get them safely to Lengard before the military stepped in, Vanik went about his own, separate mission. He figured that if everyone had the capacity to Speak, then the military wouldn’t care about a rogue group of supernaturals living underneath the city. They’d be considered the same as everyone else. So he decided to make it so everyone, anyone, would be able to Speak.”