The Whispering Echoes (Smoke and Mirrors Book 3)

by Melissa Giorgio

  Frowning, she let go of the stone and sat back in her chair. “And yet I couldn’t use it, no matter what I tried. I knew it was an amplifier; why else would Parnaby guard it so closely? But what was I doing wrong?”

  I struggled to keep my emotions in check. She was still referring to it as an amplifier. Did that mean she hadn’t realized what it actually was yet?

  We had a chance. A nearly impossible one, but I wouldn’t ignore this gift, this sliver of hope.

  “Then the stone started speaking to me.” Aeonia smiled while my stomach sank. “Aurora couldn’t hear it, which confirmed my suspicions that only magically blessed people could communicate with the stone. That’s why you can hear it.” She held her right hand over the table and a dagger shivered into existence under her fingers. It was unsheathed, the metal polished to a shine. There was no ornamentation on the hilt, but it didn’t need it. With its long and sharp-looking blade, this dagger was meant to hurt, not impress.

  Aeonia’s fingers curled around the dagger’s hilt. Standing, she walked behind me and I closed my eyes, wondering if she was going to stab me in the back. Claudette’s muffled cries rose in volume and I could hear the sounds of her body scuffling over the ground as she tried to come to my aid in time.

  The dagger easily sliced through the ropes tying my left hand as if they were butter, and then Aeonia was pulling my numb arm in front of me and resting it on the table, next to the stone. I curled my hand away from it, not wanting to be burned again, but she pinned me in place with the hand that wasn’t holding the dagger.

  “Do you want to know what the amplifier said?” Aeonia purred.

  Sweat dripped down my face as I stared into her gray eyes. I expected to see them tinged with madness, but only clarity existed. She knew what she was doing.

  Worse yet, she wanted to do it.

  Her fingers curled around my wrist. I struggled, but I couldn’t escape her grip. Angling the dagger over my palm, she continued, “It said if I wanted to use it, I needed to unlock it first. And the only way I could do that was by bringing forth a dragon and killing it with a blade imbued with magic.”

  A memory flashed in my mind:

  “How do you release the prisoners?” Leonid asked. “Is it something that can easily be done?”

  To my relief, Parnaby shook his head. “No. It requires incredible power, and a blade imbued with magic that was used to fell a dragon. Most of those blades were destroyed or lost, but there have always been whispers that some still do exist.”

  The magicians in the stone knew how to break free. They thought Jaegger was still with me—

  I exhaled carefully. For the first time I was grateful he’d left me.

  “I have the blade,” Aeonia continued, gesturing to the couch, where Claudette’s sword rested against it. “Four years ago, I imbued it with magic. I thought I’d have to make another, but fate is on my side today. Imagine my surprise when I saw the two of you traveling together.” She smiled. “It’s like the two of you want me to use the amplifier. For Ayres.” Here her smile slipped a little as she gave Claudette a nervous glance. “All of this—it’s for Ayres. I will bring the city back for you. You’ll see.”

  Claudette snarled something unintelligible through the gag. I imagined it was a curse.

  “I have the blade,” Aeonia said again, “and now I just need a dragon.”

  She swung the dagger down in a fierce arc, piercing my skin in a painful blow. I screamed; through the pain I could hear Claudette yelling through her gag.

  “And now,” Aeonia said, “I will have my dragon.” She yanked the blade out of my hand and I shrieked again. Ignoring me, she slammed my bleeding hand over the stone. The smell of charred flesh filled the air, telling me my hand was burning even though I couldn’t feel it through the pain I was already experiencing from the stab wound. Aeonia was laughing, but it died off when nothing happened. Yanking my hand away, she picked up the stone, her expression growing distant as she tried something with magic.

  Slamming the stone down on the table, she lifted me up by the collar of my coat and shook me. “Where’s the dragon?”

  I laughed in her face. “Who knows?”

  Aeonia grabbed the dagger again. “Do you think this is funny? Will you still laugh when I’ve carved you into tiny pieces, Irina? I don’t care how many times I have to stab you—I will have the dragon!”

  She was aiming for my hand again, but suddenly Aeonia was knocked off balance and the blade slipped, slicing into her own skin this time. Cursing, Aeonia let go of the blade and looked behind her.

  Claudette had crossed the distance between us and thrown her body against Aeonia’s legs. Fumbling for the knife, Aeonia’s blood spilled from the cut on her wrist, mixing with mine and soaking into the tablecloth. The stone flashed blindingly white and I felt a pain deep in my hand that traveled up my arm and wrapped itself around my heart. I cried out, recoiling, wanting to put as much space between me and the stone as possible. But my chair was made of heavy oak, and I couldn’t move it.

  “You damn fool!” Aeonia yelled at Claudette, shoving her away from her legs. “Why do you keep getting in the way? I’m trying to help you!”

  Taking advantage of Aeonia’s distraction, I reached into my pocket with my bloody and aching hand. It was hard to grasp the obsidian horse, but I persevered, removing it from my pocket and slamming it against the side of Aeonia’s head. She made a sound of surprise before slumping over in front of a stunned Claudette.

  I dropped the horse, my hand flaring with pain. It hadn’t hurt nearly as much when Parnaby had stabbed me. Why was this time any different?

  Claudette was kneeling by my side, saying something behind the gag. I blinked drowsily at her; I hadn’t even seen her move. Her eyes shone with frustration as she gestured to the dagger with her chin and turned around. Understanding what she meant, I used my injured hand to first free my right hand before sawing through the ropes that bound Claudette’s arms behind her back. My breathing grew unsteady as I worked with one eye on Aeonia, fearful she’d wake up at any moment. Thank goodness she sent Aurora away first, I thought.

  The blade was sharp and the ropes soon gave way. I dropped it with a muffled sob as Claudette jumped into action, first yanking off her gag and then sawing through the bonds at her feet. “Stay with me, Irina. I know it hurts, but we need to get out of here.”

  “F-Fire,” I said.

  “What?”

  My body felt like it was on fire, I wanted to say. But even the act of speaking was beyond me now. I sat, slumped over in my chair as she worked through the ropes wound around my legs. When she finished she grabbed the horse and shoved it back in my pocket before tearing a strip of the tablecloth and wrapping it around my hand. Pain rippled from the cut and I struggled to shove Claudette away, but she ignored my weak attempts and tied the cloth as tightly as she could. Satisfied it would hold, she ran for her sword.

  My hand throbbing, I stared at the stone, knowing what I needed to do. We couldn’t just leave it. But the thought of touching it again sickened me.

  “Come on!” Claudette said, pulling me to my feet. I swayed and she cursed, swinging my arm over her shoulder. “What is wrong with you?”

  “The stone,” I said, still looking at it. “Can you touch it?”

  With a noise of impatience, she reached for it, screeching when it burned her. Nearly dropping me, Claudette let out a string of curses. “What is that damn thing?”

  “Evil,” I said tonelessly.

  “How are we supposed to bring it back to Dusk if we can’t even touch it?”

  Resigned, I said, “Wrap it in something and give it to me.”

  “Are you sure?” Claudette asked skeptically. “You look like you’re about to fall over onto your face. How can you possibly carry it?”

  I watched Aeonia begin to stir and panic rose up in me. “Just do it!”

  Following my line of vision, Claudette braced me against the table before smashing the hilt of h
er sword against Aeonia’s head. “That should keep her down for…” Her eyes widened and she unsheathed the sword with a startled oath. “This isn’t my sword! Aeonia said this was! Where’s my sword?”

  There was no time for this. Realizing it the same time as I did, Claudette sheathed the sword, slipped the strap over her back, and bent to pick up the gag from the ground. After she handed it to me, I wrapped it around the stone and picked it up, gritting my teeth as waves of pain crashed over me.

  “Easy,” Claudette said, steadying me before I toppled over. “I got you. I’ll get you out of here, Irina. Promise.”

  Without another glance at Aeonia, we stole from the tent.

  THE SUN WAS SETTING, WHICH meant the carnival was waking up. As the sky turned blood red and orange, people were slipping from their tents and heading down a hill where more tents, larger ones of varying shades of color, were set up.

  “These tents are where they sleep and eat,” Claudette explained, guiding me toward the edge of the carnival, in the opposite direction everyone else was headed. Aeonia’s tent was set away from the others, adjacent to a thick, wooded area. “The other tents—the ones they’re walking to now—are for the patrons to visit. It’s where they do their tricks and have their shows and sell trinkets and food.” Her grip around my shoulder tightened unconsciously. “I went there every night with Aeonia and Emile. It was fun. It was wonderful. But these people… They killed everyone in my city, and they cheered.”

  “We need to go,” I said softly as Claudette stared at the tents. Her brown eyes were reflecting the colors of the sunset, and when she turned to me, I could see they were glassy with tears. “I’m sorry.” Because I was. I was sorry Ayres was gone, that Claudette and Emile had been forced to witness such unspeakable horrors. But if we didn’t move, if we didn’t get this stone far, far away from Aeonia, something even worse would happen.

  “You’re right,” she said. “Come on.” Wordlessly we headed for the wooded area, skirting trees and exposed roots. My breathing was labored and I was afraid if we stopped, even for a moment, I wouldn’t be able to go on, not with the way my head was spinning and my limbs feeling like they were encased in lead. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. Parnaby had stabbed my hand and a dragon had emerged from it and all I’d felt was a dull ache in my palm. Now, it felt as if Aeonia was still standing there, twisting the dagger round and round again.

  We broke free from the woods and Claudette paused, glancing around. The sky was turning dark and a few stars blinked into existence. “I wish Emile was here,” she said. “Him and his maps… He never gets lost. I wish I hadn’t left him behind, but when I heard you screaming…”

  If Claudette had waited for her brother, I would have woken up in the tent alone with Aeonia stabbing me to her heart’s content until she finally realized Jaegger’s Essence was no longer with me. I shuddered.

  Oblivious to my bleak thoughts, Claudette nodded to herself. “We need to head toward Fairfield. That’s where they would have taken your captain, and it’s our rendezvous point.” Walking again, she kept talking, her words providing me with the energy to lift my foot and take the next step. “We always had a rendezvous point, in case we were split up. It’s never happened but…” She laughed humorlessly. “There’s always a first time for everything, right?”

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. Instead, I pictured Leonid waiting for me. What would he do when he awoke and realized I wasn’t there?

  What would I do if he didn’t wake?

  A sob pierced the air and Claudette shushed me soothingly. “It’s all right, Irina. We’ve come this far. Just a little bit more. Look. You can see the lights of the city in the distance.”

  She was right, but it was so far away. Between us and Fairfield stood hills, many, many miles of hills, and the thought of traversing all of that made me want to give up and sink to my feet. The stone was burning a hole in my pocket, singeing the skin on my waist, and I could hear it talking to me, telling me to kill Claudette and free them, free them, free them—

  I tripped, bringing us both to the ground. Crying out, I curled into a ball as wave after wave of pain assaulted me. Claudette tried to help me to my feet, but I shoved her off.

  “Irina, don’t! Don’t give up! Please, Irina. We have to keep moving. Aeonia’s not going to give up so easily and I don’t know if we can beat her a second time.”

  As if on cue, the sound of a galloping horse filled the air. Cursing, Claudette rose to her feet and unsheathed the sword that wasn’t hers. Squinting into the darkness, she hardened her gaze, waiting.

  And then she let out a delighted scream and raced forward. “Emile!!”

  The horse came to a sudden stop and the rider threw himself off, racing up to Claudette and embracing her. Brother and sister were laughing and crying at the same time, Claudette asking him repeatedly, “How did you find me?”

  “It was the amplifier,” Emile explained. He gestured to the horse, and that’s when I realized he wasn’t alone. Quinn sat atop it, clutching the glowing blue amplifier between her fingers. “When I caught up to you, you were already gone, but your horse was still there, so I thought you were nearby. Then… I saw….” Emile’s face constricted with pain, and it took him a moment to speak again. “Leonid and Vernen were on the ground, injured and I—” He cut himself off and turned away, his hands balled up into tight fists.

  Claudette touched him hesitantly on the shoulder. “Emile?”

  “It was like before, in Ayres,” he whispered. “When we watched Gilbert die. I thought it was happening again and I just froze, Claudette.”

  She blinked rapidly. “It’s all right.”

  “No, it’s not,” Emile said. “I knew in an instant that it was Aeonia who attacked you. Who else could it have been? And because I couldn’t act and instead waited for the other stagecoach to catch up… They left later than Irina’s coach; that’s why they were so far behind.” Frowning, Emile touched the bruise on Claudette’s face. “Did Aeonia hurt you?”

  “I’m fine. I’ll explain later, but Irina needs help. She’s hurt—I don’t know what’s wrong with her,” Claudette said.

  Emile helped Quinn off his horse, and then all three rushed to my side, kneeling around me. I reached out for Quinn and she took my hand in hers, squeezing tightly. “Leonid?” I asked.

  “He’s in Fairfield,” Quinn said, confirming Claudette’s earlier statement. This close, the glow from the amplifier was so bright it was painful and I had to look away.

  “The stagecoach driver’s brother is a doctor,” Emile explained as he helped me into a sitting position. Each part of my body cried out and I gritted my teeth against the sensation. “They took Leonid and Vernen to him.”

  “Are they…?”

  Emile scooped me up into his arms and carried me over to the horse. “Vernen is awake. He’s just…” A shadow passed over his face. “Upset about what happened. Understandably.”

  “And Leonid?” I asked, fearing his answer.

  There was a pause as Emile decided if he should tell me or not. “He was lucky. The sword pierced muscle, no organs. But he lost a lot of blood before we got to him and some of his ribs were cracked, maybe broken. Was he kicked?”

  “Aurora,” I said.

  “Ah,” Emile said knowingly. “He was passed out by the time I reached him, and they gave him something to help him sleep in Fairfield, so I don’t think he knows what happened to you.”

  “Good.” Leonid would never rest in bed if he knew I’d been taken by Aeonia. Now I just needed to reach his side before he woke.

  Emile lowered my feet to the ground, Claudette and Quinn supporting me on both sides. Putting his foot in the stirrup, he mounted the horse and then reached down for me. Somehow they got me on the horse so I was sitting in front of Emile as he reached around me for the reins.

  “Go,” Claudette said. “Go to Fairfield. We’ll be right behind you.”

  Emile shook his head. “I’m not leavi
ng you again.”

  “Emile, you don’t understand. You need to get her away from Aeonia before—”

  The snap of a branch had her whirling around, unsheathing her sword once more. Aeonia and Aurora emerged like specters from the wooded area that separated us from the carnival. The stone heated up in my pocket, calling for Aeonia to free it, free it, free it…

  Claudette shoved Quinn behind her, telling her to hide the amplifier. The girl obeyed, shoving the disc under her coat.

  “You have something of mine,” Aeonia called. “And I’m no longer in the mood to play nice. I won’t hurt you, Claudette, but I’ll kill your friends. I’ll kill your dear brother, even. Just give me back my amplifier.”

  “Go,” Claudette said once more.

  Emile’s grip on the horse’s reins tightened, but he didn’t urge the horse away from his sister.

  The sun was sinking rapidly, and in the waning light it was hard to see the extent of Aeonia’s injuries. Was it my imagination, or was she swaying on her feet? We should have tied her up, I realized grimly, but Aurora would have just cut through the bonds. Them coming after us was inevitable, especially with the stone practically singing to Aeonia from my pocket.

  Free us, free us, free us.

  The noise was no longer an echo of a whisper, but loud chants that buzzed in my ears and vibrated throughout my entire body. I pressed my hands to my head, crying out, but nothing could silence them. They were so close, closer than they’d been for a thousand years, and nothing would stop them from taking that one final step to freedom.

  Aeonia stilled, watching me. “You hear the whispers too? Why? Your dragon is gone, you don’t have magic…” Her face hardened with anger. “That stone is mine, Irina. You are nothing. You do not deserve it. Give it to me!” She lifted a hand and Claudette went on the offensive, rushing toward her with her sword drawn.