The Whispering Echoes (Smoke and Mirrors Book 3)

by Melissa Giorgio

  All rights reserved.

  Printed in the United States of America.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, including written, electronic, recording, or photocopying, without written permission of the author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  The Whispering Echoes by Melissa Giorgio

  © 2017 by Melissa Giorgio. All rights reserved.

  Published by Melissa Giorgio

  Cover by Regina Wamba at MaeIDesign

  Image of sword by Merritt Sloan

  Map of Dusk and image of dragon by Merritt Sloan

  Book designed by Inkstain Interior Book Designing

  The characters and events appearing in this work are fictitious. Existing brands and businesses are used in a fictitious manner, and the author claims no ownership of or affiliation with trademarked properties. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental, and not intended by the author.

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Acknowledgments

  About Melissa

  THE WORLD WAS A MUCH quieter place than I’d anticipated. Inside the city of Dusk, I was always surrounded by noise. Vendors hawking their wares at the marketplace, children laughing as they played tag in the park, and the roar of the crowd at my magic shows were common, everyday sounds to me. But the moment we crossed the gates, we left all of that behind and stepped into a world much different from the one I’d lived in for the past seventeen years.

  There were no towering buildings crammed into every available space. The road we traversed was all but empty. The only sounds were the scuffling of our boots against the dirt road and the wind whistling through the trees to our right.

  Leonid and I, no longer holding hands, were in the lead, with Vernen to my right. Behind us were West and Elyse, and a few paces behind them were Aden and Quinn. Only the young girl was glancing at her surroundings with bright, curious eyes. The rest of us wore matching grim expressions as the weight of what we’d been tasked to do settled on our shoulders like heavy boulders.

  Track down Aeonia. Reclaim what had been taken before she realized what she held in her hands: a prison stone that contained three of the most fearsome magicians who’d ever lived. If those three broke free, the world would burn again, like it did during the old wars.

  We were safe for now. Aeonia thought what she was holding was an amplifier—a stone containing the sacrificed magic—and lives—of magicians, created during the old wars as a means to kill a dragon. It was only when she went to use it to boost her magic that she would realize she’d been mistaken about the stone. I had no idea what she wanted the extra magic for. The two times she started to tell me, she’d cut herself off abruptly and said it wasn’t my business. Perhaps she was right. What she planned to use it for didn’t matter. What mattered was stopping her before she tried to harness the stone’s energy.

  The stone was… evil. It spoke to you, and I worried that even now it would try to contact Aeonia. When it addressed me, it told me to pick it up and use it. The whispers said I deserved to take the power and make it mine, and for a moment, I’d listened to it. When I tried to touch the stone, it’d burned my hand. I glanced at my bandaged right hand, wincing as I remembered the fierce pain that had jolted through not just my hand, but my entire body. Pure evilness rolled off that stone in waves, and I instinctively knew if Jaegger hadn’t been protecting me with a shard of his Essence buried in the palm of my left hand, my injuries would have been much worse. Maybe, despite the burns, I would have continued to grasp the stone, listening as the whispers echoed in my head, insisting that I take what was mine. They had seized control of me, and I was too weak to fight back.

  Vernen, however… He’d been able to hold the stone, and while he’d said he heard the whispers, he couldn’t make out what they were saying. Vernen, my dear friend whom I’d watched die, and then come back to life after I inadvertently wished for him to trade places with my master, Bantheir. Somehow, Vernen had come back with Bantheir’s magic. He was only just learning how to wield it, and it was frightening to watch. But I refused to believe that he was evil, like Parnaby insisted. Despite the changes, Vernen was still Vernen. I would always believe in him.

  Vernen had held the stone and hadn’t used it. That counted for something, didn’t it?

  “We should buy horses,” West said from behind me, his voice breaking the silence and startling me.

  Leonid glanced at him over his shoulder, scowling. “Do you even know how to ride one?”

  “No, but how hard can it be?” West smiled confidently. “And it sure beats walking. With horses we’ll catch up to Aeonia and her sister and have the stone back in Dusk before noon.”

  “Wouldn’t that be nice,” Elyse murmured.

  I looked to my left and right, seeing nothing but rolling hills and mountains dusted with snow in the distance. “Where would we even buy horses?” A thought occurred to me. “Have any of you ever left Dusk before?”

  No one responded and my heart sank as I realized how unprepared we were.

  Jaegger, who sat on my shoulder, gave a low chuckle. “What a hopeless bunch you are.” He stood and stretched, his talons digging into the thick lining of my coat. “It is a very good thing you have me along. I, at least, know the lay of the land, and can tell you—” He froze in place, his aqua eyes growing distant.

  I came to a stop, my friends quickly following suit as they surrounded me. “Jae, what is it?”

  “Smoke,” he murmured, sniffing the air. “And magic.”

  “Where?” Leonid asked, his hand going to the hilt of the sword that hung at his waist.

  “Close.” Jaegger jumped down from my shoulder, his body effortlessly growing from the size of a tiny kitten to a large dog. He raced toward a hill in the distance and we struggled to catch up.

  When I reached the top of the hill, I gasped. In the distance the burning skeletal remains of a barn stood. People were gathered around it, throwing pails of water from a nearby stream at the flames in vain. The wooden beams holding up the barn collapsed with a loud crack and the people closest to the building scrambled to avoid being crushed. The wind picked up, sending the smoke and ashes in our direction. Coughing, I turned away, fearing I would forever be haunted by this smell, along with the taste of ash coating my throat.

  This was the second time in only a few short hours that I’d watched a building burn. Earlier, it’d been Parnaby’s misdirected blast of magic that had set a mansion in Rise on fire. I wondered how the burned victims were faring and what Parnaby was doing to calm the masses. We’d left before the rumors of what’d happened had taken flight throughout the city. Would people believe it? Or would
Parnaby use magic to calm them down? Could he? Elyse could probably answer my questions, but she’d left her lover after he’d used magic on her. Now, she wanted nothing to do with the man.

  “Let’s see if they need any help,” Leonid said grimly. We followed him down the hill, Jaegger staying behind, his dark body melting into the shadows. Leonid held up a hand and called out a greeting.

  The man nearest to him bent over to pick up a shovel, which he aimed in Leonid’s direction. My friends and I halted as the man began screaming at us, swinging the shovel wildly like a sword.

  Leonid’s hand once again went to the hilt of his sword, but he didn’t unsheathe it. “We mean you no harm, friend.”

  “You’re no friend,” the man spat as the others picked up farming tools and approached us. Behind me, West cursed, and I heard the whistle of steel as he and Aden unsheathed their swords.

  “Don’t,” Leonid warned them before turning his attention back to the man holding the shovel. “We only wanted to see if you needed help. If anyone was injured—”

  “You’ll stay away from us!” the man with the shovel hollered. “That other woman pretended to be kind as well, and then she set the barn on fire!”

  “Why the barn…?” I started to say before the loud, panicked neigh of a horse cut me off. To the left of the barn a woman and two men were trying to calm about five horses, stopping them from bolting.

  “So much for the horses,” West muttered.

  Aeonia had done this. She set the barn on fire to stop us from buying horses. She knew someone would come after her.

  “Are the horses all right?” By the firelight I could see Quinn’s eyes were shining with tears. “Did she hurt them?”

  A couple of the people lowered their farming tools, their expressions going soft when they saw how upset Quinn was. “No, sweetheart,” one of the women answered. “We got them out in time. A couple bolted, though, and our friends are looking for them.”

  “You’re from that strange city, aren’t you?” the man with the shovel asked, looking us over. “You’re bringing your trouble out here to us now?” He gestured to a smattering of buildings—homes—that lay east of the burning barn. The small, modest village was such a contrast to the vastness of Dusk. Everyone must know one another, I thought. And they all came together to put out the fire. I felt a stab of anger. Aeonia had no right to disrupt their lives like this. Would she leave a trail of destruction from Dusk to wherever her final destination lay?

  “We’re just a group of travelers,” Leonid said, responding to the man’s question. “If you don’t need our help, we’ll be on our way.” He looked unhappy about that, but we couldn’t force these people to accept our help. They had a reason to distrust us.

  “Good. You do that.” The villagers didn’t move as they watched my friends and I retrace our steps back to the hill. When I glanced over my shoulder, my eyes met the one holding the shovel, and he scowled, his grip tightening on the shovel’s handle. I quickly glanced away, his earlier comment ringing in my ears. “You’re from that strange city, aren’t you?”

  What was so strange about Dusk? Did they somehow know about the magic?

  I didn’t have time to dwell on that. At the top of the hill, I called softly, “Jae?” The dragon trotted up to me, his body small again. I picked him up, hugging his warm body against my chest and taking comfort from his steady presence.

  “Aeonia?” he hissed.

  Nodding, I filled him in on what the villagers had said. “She knows we’re coming after her.”

  “She knows someone is after her,” Jaegger responded. “I am certain she doesn’t imagine it’s the seven of you.”

  “So we have the element of surprise?” West asked as we followed Leonid back to the main road.

  Jaegger snorted. “Yes, she will definitely be surprised.”

  West made a face. “Why does it sound like you’re insulting us?”

  “Probably because I am.”

  “Enough,” Leonid cut in angrily. “If you’re going to spend this entire trip bickering, then do us all a favor and go back to Dusk.”

  Eyes wide, West held up his hands. “Sorry, Captain.”

  Leonid held himself stiffly as he pushed ahead of everyone, walking at a rapid pace. Watching him go, I sighed deeply. Normally I would go to him and ask what was wrong, but I’d hurt him badly by lying to him about my involvement with Aeonia. We both agreed it was too soon to give up on us but we also knew we needed time to mend things. Time we didn’t have as we raced after Aeonia as we tried to save the world.

  I was so, so scared we would rush into something horrible and life-changing before the two of us had a chance to talk, and we would spend the rest of our lives regretting what wasn’t said. No. I couldn’t let that happen. After what’d happened with Vernen, I couldn’t live with that remorse again. Setting Jaegger on the ground I rushed to catch up with Leonid. “Are you all right?”

  “Let’s just keep moving,” he said, eyes on the horizon. “With the moon nearly full, we have plenty of light to see by. Every moment we stop, Aeonia is another step ahead of us. We need to catch up to her before she does something like this again. It was horses this time, Lark, but next time…”

  “It could be people,” I finished for him.

  “This is why we need to focus,” he said.

  “West and Jae… They didn’t mean anything by that,” I said. “That’s just how they are. You know that.”

  “I know how West is.” Leonid’s lips pursed together tightly. “I’ve only just met Jaegger, so I have no idea how he is.”

  “Proud,” I said. “Arrogant. But he’s also fiercely protective. Without him, I…”

  As I trailed off, Leonid looked at me, really looked at me for the first time since we’d set foot outside of Dusk. Some of the tension melted from his shoulders and he ran a hand through his hair, exhaling loudly. I waited patiently for him to gather himself. After a moment, Leonid took my injured left hand in his and squeezed my fingertips lightly before letting go. “I know. Without him, things would have been much worse for you. I could have lost you.”

  I nodded.

  “I’ll forever be in his debt for what he’s done to keep you safe.” Making a face, Leonid glanced at the others. “But don’t tell him I said that.”

  “I have very good hearing, soldier!” Jaegger boomed. “I also have an excellent memory, so I will not forget that you just said that you’re in my debt.”

  Scowling, Leonid increased his pace until he was practically jogging down the dirt path. “I really don’t like you, dragon!”

  “Of course you do! It is impossible not to!”

  As Leonid muttered curses under his breath, sounding like his old self again, I sent Jaegger a grateful smile, knowing somehow, together, we would survive this.

  WE TRUDGED ONWARD THROUGH THE night, only stopping when smears of pinks and oranges began brightening the sky. Leonid would have had us continue, but we were exhausted, with the majority of us tripping over our feet for the last hour. It’d been a long, long day and my body ached for the comfort of my warm bed. Instead we had to gather sticks and leaves for a fire, which Jaegger lit with a blast of flames from his maw. Despite my exhaustion I stared at him in wonder, wondering what else the dragon could do.

  “Sleep,” he told us as we all collapsed around the fire. He settled next to me, dog-size once more, and curled his tail around his body before resting his head on the frozen ground. “I will keep watch.”

  “Only for a few hours,” Leonid said, glancing into the distance with a frown.

  “Tiring ourselves out will get us nowhere, soldier.” Jaegger opened his mouth to yawn, his sharp teeth reflecting the light from the fire. “Aeonia is a powerful magic user, and we must face her at full strength if we hope to best her.”

  “Can we beat her?” I asked him in a whisper as I lay down. Between him and the fire I was quite warm, and I struggled to stay awake as I waited for a response.

  Th
e dragon’s eyes, old and wise, met mine. “We have to, little bird.”

  His words chilled me, but even they couldn’t prevent me from falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  “WAKE UP. LITTLE BIRD, WAKE UP.”

  I came to with a startled gasp as something collided with my shoulder. Jaegger loomed over me, his eyes wide with panic. “What…” My head felt like it was stuffed with cotton, and the glaringly bright sunshine stung my eyes. Why was it so strong? Hadn’t it been dawn just minutes ago?

  “Riders on horseback are heading this way.” Jaegger nudged me again. “Get up, little bird!”

  Riders? Horseback? I shook my head, once, twice, trying to clear it, Jaegger butting me with his forehead all the while. Our fire had burned down to embers and the unwelcome cold was creeping back in under my collar. I got to my feet, squinting into the distance. I didn’t see anyone, but if Jaegger said someone was coming, then they must be.

  “There’s something… different about them,” Jaegger continued as I shook Leonid awake. “They’re tracking us, I think.”

  Leonid jolted, his hand going to his knife before he realized it was me. “Lark? What…?”

  “Someone’s coming,” I explained. “And they don’t seem friendly.” Turning to Jaegger I said, “You need to hide.”

  “Not just me.” The dragon trotted over to Vernen, who was sitting up and rubbing his eyes. “Come. We must go.”

  Vernen sent me a confused look. “I don’t…”

  Leonid was already on his feet and strapping his sword around his waist. I envied him for being able to make the transition from asleep to awake and alert so easily. Kicking Aden awake, he said, “Go, Vern. Hide in those trees with Jaegger.” He indicated a wooded area to the east. “Don’t come out until I say so, all right?”

  “I don’t think—” Vernen’s protests broke off as Jaegger grabbed a mouthful of Vernen’s coat and yanked him toward the trees.

  I watched them go, only able to breathe once they’d vanished from sight.

  “All right, someone want to explain what the heck is going on?” West asked. He was squatting in front of the dying fire, trying in vain to warm his hands. Tufts of his brown hair stuck up in different directions, making him look like a little boy. Next to him Elyse and Quinn yawned loudly, looking equally miserable.