The Book of Whispers

by Kimberley Starr

  He’s half a body taller than any other person here. The good looks that the Sisters used to talk about are a mask, draping over his true face like the loose skin of a moulting snake. His legs are long and bare, the knees facing backwards like a bird’s. They end in long, sharp talons. And he has wings! Heavy and black, they drape around him like the priestly habit everyone thinks they see. Eerie powers emanate from him in waves like heat from a fire. Every aspect of his true, evil nature that I thought was a trick of my eyes is real.

  His eyes are sharp and red. Beside me, I feel Luca stiffen.

  Eser moves to the altar. Luca pulls my hand. I follow him from the chapel. ‘You lived with him for years?’ Luca’s voice asks.

  ‘I didn’t know what he was. He’s disguised as a priest.’

  ‘Everyone sees him?’

  ‘Not as he really is. It must be something like the charm Percy uses to be visible to humans. We need to find my mother.’

  I lead Luca along the familiar path from the chapel to the rock-covered convent opening. There, Luca lets go of my hand, and the rock seems to moves itself slowly out of the way.

  I run downstairs and through narrow passageways to the underground cell I shared with my mother. Luca’s footsteps sound behind me. Other cells are empty. The Sisters are all at chapel.

  ‘Mother?’ I call.

  Of course, she can’t reply. But I expect her to step out and welcome me. She doesn’t. A moment later, I understand why.

  Long bars seal the cell entrance from floor to ceiling. Behind them, imprisoned, my mother stands in her dark robes.

  She’s beautiful. Maybe I’m seeing through some enchantment, or maybe I didn’t consider it, because I saw her every day. But I never noticed this before. Long, dark hair falls in smooth waves around her pale oval face. Her skin is creamy and gives off a subtle glow. Her eyes are a vivid topaz, lively and darkly fringed beneath arched brows.

  Luca arrives beside me. I hear him gasp.

  My mother nods at the spot where he isn’t visible, turning her head to one side as if to hear more clearly.

  ‘Take off your helm,’ I tell him. ‘There’s no one else here.’

  A moment later, I see him once again.

  ‘Mother,’ I say. ‘This is Luca. He rescued me.’

  Luca is staring at her, transfixed.

  I’m surprised that my mother doesn’t seem more startled by his sudden appearance. But then, she’s had the santur, she’s familiar with mystical things. She reaches through a gap in the bars. It’s wonderful to feel her hand again.

  She writes on my palm: ‘Why have you come back?’

  ‘You called me.’

  She folds my fingers over my palm to think for a while. ‘I woke up and there were bars. I didn’t mean to alarm you.’

  Beside me, Luca talks too. ‘You never told me your mother was a siren.’

  I catch my breath. My mother turns towards Luca, giving him a short, sharp nod. A siren?

  Footsteps sound behind us. Luca quickly replaces his helm and fades from sight.

  Black robes round the corner. I look up into the masked face and evil red eyes of the demon Eser. He stills when he sees me. ‘What are you doing here?’

  He doesn’t realise I see through his disguise. I have to pretend I can’t. ‘I’ve come to see my mother.’

  Beside me, Luca starts quietly reciting words I remember from his book. The charm. This is the moment. How I admire Luca for having the presence of mind to realise it!

  I pull one of my hands away from my mother’s and reach into my pocket for the red ribbon.

  Eser looks puzzled. Around his neck, he wears a silver medallion that begins to glow. Luca’s charm must be working!

  My mother still holds my hand. She squeezes my fingers and I look briefly at her. She watches the space where Luca is invisible to me, her face aglow with wonder.

  Eser is laughing. He has no idea what’s happening. ‘I have both of you!’

  Eser’s medallion grows brighter as Luca’s quiet repetitions of the verse continue. It gives a burst of blazing light, then fades back to plain silver.

  Confused, Eser stops laughing and touches the medallion. While he’s looking down I hold the ribbon towards the spot where I think Luca stands. Eser’s chain dissolves in his fingers. Eser looks baffled.

  A handful of dried herbs shoots from the nothingness where Luca stands, and covers Eser’s hand. Luca’s recital gets louder.

  To defeat a demon, loose its bind

  with mugwort, plantain, chamomile,

  and nettle that’s snake venom’s rout

  and water captured in a drought.

  With nightshade vines be full of guile

  and three times round the demon wind

  to defeat a demon.

  If you must the demon halt

  Then burn its silver skin with salt.

  Ginger and cinnamon, mirror mix,

  To vellum page the demon fix.

  This will be its final bind.

  Act quickly, don’t admit a doubt

  (or curse) the demon soul will shout.

  When it is trapped, the mirror grind

  to defeat a demon.

  Eser hears Luca now. His eyes glow, incandescent with rage. But it’s too late. I pull a mirror from my pouch with my free hand. It vibrates, as though seeking the right pitch. And Eser starts to shrink. Smoke pours from him. The mask he shows the world fades first, coming away in a shimmer of silver that shines like oil. Then the scaly skin beneath loosens. His legs weaken. From the mirror in my hand, tiny silver threads reach out and stretch towards him.

  ‘Hold the mirror to its face,’ my mother writes on my palm.

  While we watch, the smoke around Eser thickens. His medallion falls with a clatter to the stone floor.

  ‘Break the mirror,’ Luca says.

  I look at my mother. Mirrors are expensive and rare. She nods. I throw it onto the stone floor. It shatters. Eser shrinks. He’s my size; he’s smaller; he’s the size of a chicken. His eyes are still red and malicious, but now, instead of destroying my soul, he wants to peck at my knee.

  Finally the threads from the broken mirror thicken and reach him, pulling him closer, wrapping around his legs and neck.

  Eser looks up at us through red, vacant eyes.

  ‘What do I do?’ I ask.

  My mother makes a rapid movement behind me. I kick some of the shattered mirror remnants through the bars to her. The diminished demon Eser flows through into her cell as easily as smoke, then sits on the ground, bewildered.

  My mother carefully uses the toe of her worn leather slipper to push the mirror fragments into a pile next to one of the floor’s earthquake fissures. The shadowy cord leading from the shards to Eser pulses, smoke streaming from it. Eser shrinks still further, pulled towards the shards. Now the size of a flea, he falls headfirst into the gap in the floor.

  My mother takes my palm and writes, ‘Captured.’

  ‘We can capture demons like this?’ I demand.

  ‘One at a time,’ she writes.

  ‘Is that all we can do?’

  ‘I think so. In Jerusalem it will be different. All charms are stronger there.’

  Over the next two days, my mother and I talk, while Luca digs away at stones holding the cell bars in place. Other Sisters cluster around, bringing food, wondering where Father Eser is.

  My mother writes on my hand, telling me Luca is right. She’s a siren. Her tongue was removed because people believed she was too dangerous.

  ‘I fell in love with your father,’ she writes on my palm. I glance at Luca, who continues digging, oblivious. ‘If you could have seen him! He was a kind, true knight, the sort of man I did not think existed. Loving him changed how I felt about everything. It taught me humans are beautiful on the inside. They are more than just flesh. I didn’t know sirens could love, but I loved him. And he died. I didn’t know loving me meant he had to die. I thought I had a choice. I came here to live afterwards. I k
new I’d never love again, but I didn’t want to risk having anyone love me.’

  When Luca goes for water, I ask what I need to know. ‘Am I a siren? Are sirens demons?’

  My mother’s expression is deep and full of pity. ‘I suppose we are,’ she writes, eventually.

  ‘To love a siren is to die,’ I say.

  My mother nods. ‘I believe so.’

  The truth sears me. How much of a siren am I? How much danger could Luca face, if I allow him to become close?

  When my mother is free, she walks with us in the shade of the fairy towers. I ask her to accompany us back to Antioch.

  She shakes her head sadly. ‘I made the choice to come here,’ she writes on my palm. ‘I’m safe now. I want to stay, Suzan. Don’t look so sad. I’ll be accepted here now. It was Eser who ordered my mistreatment. He’s gone. My life will change.’

  ‘It’s safe for me to stay here now, too.’

  My mother’s gaze shifts from me to Luca. He looks alarmed.

  ‘You belong elsewhere now, Suzan,’ she writes. ‘You said demons want to reach Jerusalem. That makes sense. The mountain there is the link between the two worlds—physical and spiritual. It’s your task to stop them.’

  ‘What is she saying? Will she come with us?’ Luca asks.

  I shake my head.

  ‘She doesn’t want you to stay?’ Luca sounds worried. ‘The book warns of dangers in Jerusalem. We don’t know what dangers. I can’t read it without you. I need you.’

  My mother listens. She looks surprised, and scrawls on my hand, ‘You have a book?’

  ‘It’s called the Book of Whispers,’ I tell her.

  ‘My family’s had it for a long time,’ Luca adds.

  ‘Ask him if it’s from Venice,’ my mother writes, and Luca confirms it.

  ‘The Book of Whispers.’ My mother sighs, but she also looks excited. ‘I knew it could not simply be a rumour. You must look after that book, you two. Look after each other. If the old stories are true, you may have the ability to defeat all demons after all. But be careful. This will bring you powerful enemies as well as friends. Perhaps it has already.’

  ‘Have you heard of Thanatos?’

  ‘He came for your father. Not many demons can think ahead and plan.’

  ‘What’s she writing?’ Luca asks.

  ‘You’ll be able to trap demons in the book when you reach Jerusalem. Many of them. Save your charms for Temple Knoll.’

  The ankh vibrates, as if it’s time to leave.

  ‘Just remember to do exactly what the book says,’ my mother scrawls quickly. She stares at me intently, making sure I’ve understood.

  I nod.

  Fat tears pool in the corners of my eyes and run down my cheeks. Luca moves closer. ‘I’ll explain,’ I assure him.

  ‘I’ll look after Suzan,’ he promises my mother.

  She nods. I pull the ankh from my bodice. My mother watches as the ankh glows. Luca and I hold hands, ready for our strange journey.

  Otherworldly despair settles over me again, like the earth itself is rejecting us while we’re pulled eerily over its surface. A void, like we are nowhere and belong nowhere, and we are reduced to our hands, grasping one another. Then Cappadocia is gone and we’re back at the Antioch campsite beneath Mount Silpius.

  The ankh is still shrinking back to its usual size when I realise the light is wrong. Instead of the expected dark seclusion of Luca’s tent, we’ve emerged into the long sunlight of late afternoon—and the tent is gone.

  CHAPTER 14

  Twelve moons

  ANTIOCH

  Suzan

  My God.’

  Luca holds out a trembling finger, his eyes skimming over the Antioch fields we so recently left. The campsites and the horse yard are deserted. Around us, the vines have withered. How could so much have changed in just three days?

  ‘Our banners are in the city!’ Luca says.

  I turn and look. Sure enough, the vibrant silk banners of our fellow pilgrims are just visible over the top of Antioch’s white stone walls.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ I begin.

  ‘The invasion has happened! We won Antioch! The gates are open!’

  Brushing orange Cappadocia soil from our tunics, we approach Antioch’s wide Dog Gate. Its powerfully reinforced timber doors stretch open between two beautiful demon statues with canine faces. An armed guard leans indolently against the sandstone wall, helmet pulled low over his face.

  ‘Good day,’ Luca calls in his native Italian.

  The guard straightens, hand upon his sword. ‘Sir?’

  Luca threads my arm through his. ‘We’ve been walking. Do I know you?’

  The guard straightens. ‘I am in the service of Sir Tancred. Formerly of the de Falconi family of San Gimignano.’

  I exclaim, ‘Luca!’

  Before Luca can respond, the guard fixes his gaze on Luca’s face. ‘Sir Luca?’ he asks, and drops into a low bow. ‘Conte de Falconi,’ he corrects himself.

  Another guard appears behind the gate. ‘What is…?’ he begins. He sees his fellow guard bowing to Luca.

  ‘The other de Falconi boy must be summoned,’ the first guard says. ‘Sir Narlo is not the Conte after all. Sir Luca…the Conte himself is here.’

  ‘What’s going on?’ I ask.

  ‘Don’t get Narlo,’ Luca instructs the guards, as we pass through the gate. ‘Take me to see Mattiolas. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I trust him.’

  I’ve never been inside a city before. How noisy everything is! Sounds travel. The guard’s heavy footsteps echo down a cobblestone path, between rows of stone edifices as high as Cappadocia’s fairy towers. A cart rattles past. And despite the wall’s vast shadows, everything inside Antioch gleams! Those banners, carried from pilgrims’ faraway homes, flutter from doors and windows.

  We follow the guard until he pauses at one of the small stone homes. He turns and bangs on the door.

  A young man steps out. Mattiolas? It looks like him, except less starved and with somewhat longer hair…

  It’s Mattiolas! And the expression on his face is mystifying. He looks at Luca and me, his mouth opening wide, like he can’t believe his eyes.

  ‘Luca!’ he cries. ‘Luca!’

  He envelops his friend in a bear hug. Then he pulls away. His eyes search Luca’s face as if he still can’t be quite sure, as if this must be some terrible prank. ‘Where have you been?’

  Luca shakes his head. ‘We went for a…walk,’ he says lamely. ‘What happened here?’

  I peer around, back up to the gate. I thought the siege would take moons. Just days ago, all the gates were firmly locked against us! Now I see new stains on the uppermost stones. Crumbling bricks surround the towers.

  ‘Come inside.’ Mattiolas steps back from the door. ‘I suppose it’s your place as well. Everyone claimed a house back when the Saracens fled.’

  ‘What do you mean by back when?’ Luca asks. He steps inside the house and the guard turns back to the Dog Gate.

  ‘When the city fell, of course,’ Mattiolas says.

  Following them inside, I see signs of a settled household: fresh reeds and herbs, scattered over the floor, remind me of the smell of home. Mattiolas’s chainmail hangs on the wall and his belongings are scattered on the table. He’s clearly been here far longer than three days.

  A shiver runs down my spine. What trick has the ankh played with time?

  ‘What have you been up to?’ Mattiolas demands.

  I hear a cry, and turn to look through the door.

  A small, fair-haired woman is racing across the cobblestone road to us, her arms outstretched. She has a round, pretty face with a wide mouth and sky-blue eyes.

  ‘Luca! I thought you were dead!’

  Luca gasps and runs to the blond woman. He picks her up and, carrying her inside, swings her around like she’s as light as a tunic.

  Understanding stabs me like a spear. This is Serafina, Luca’s missing fiancée. She look
s fragile and lovely as she smiles and blushes. I watch Luca closely. I won’t let myself be jealous.

  ‘I thought you were dead!’ Serafina says. ‘I can’t believe you’re here! I prayed for you at matins this morning. Where have you been?’

  ‘When did you arrive?’ Luca demands. ‘Last night? Any other night I would have welcomed you to camp myself.’

  ‘Last night?’ Serafina repeats wonderingly. ‘We arrived here more than six moons ago.’

  ‘What?’ Luca drops his arms and steps back. ‘Six moons!’

  ‘Where have you been?’ Mattiolas repeats.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Luca is baffled. ‘We were gone only a few days. But Serafina—we were told you’d been captured by Saracens!’

  Her pale face is animated. ‘Some people I travelled with were captured, but we got away. Mattiolas says I got here just after you disappeared.’

  ‘Disappeared?’ Luca repeats.

  ‘Luca! Listen to me!’ I grab his arm. ‘Think about what we saw outside! Leaves on the trees have changed. The fruit trees are bare. Time has passed.’

  Understanding dawns on him. We’ve returned to a future many moons past the date when we left…just days ago. I rest my hand on the pocket where I’ve hidden the ankh. It took us where we needed to go, but extracted the payment of time.

  I turn to Serafina. She’s staring at me.

  Slightly dazed, Luca says, ‘Serafina, this is Suzan.’

  Serafina steps closer and rises to her tiptoes to brush her lips against my cheek in a cool greeting. Luca’s fiancée. Small, blond and delicate, she makes me uncomfortably awkward. If she’s jealous, it’s not unreasonable. Nothing has happened between Luca and me, but we have spent so much time alone together. ‘Suzan…’ she says, wonderingly.

  ‘I found her in Cappadocia,’ Luca says quickly.

  Serafina searches his face. ‘People told me about her. Everyone’s been so upset, Luca. I must go and let them know you’ve returned.’

  Mattiolas steps to her. ‘I’ll come with you.’

  At the door, Serafina turns. ‘We’ll be quick, Luca! Don’t disappear again!’

  When they have gone, Luca opens the book on the table. I stand beside him and turn the vellum pages, looking for the ankh.