The Silent: Irin Chronicles Book Five(84)
“Leo thinks it’s some kind of music,” Kyra said.
Music?
One of Prija’s old visions came to life. Stars across the sky. Scattered. Rising and falling voices and notes.
Of course. Intira had taken her own stars and turned them into mathematics. Into geometry. It was how she saw everything.
Did she know?
How could she have known?
She couldn’t hear anymore, but if Prija could read the music, she could kill Arindam the same way she’d killed her father.
This time when she opened her mouth, she couldn’t stop the words.
“Who showed her this song?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kyra couldn’t speak Lao, but Leo could.
“Vasu,” he said. “At least that’s who we think showed her.”
“I don’t know… Vasu.” Prija’s voice sounded like rusted nails.
“He’s one of the Fallen.”
Prija’s lip curled.
“But he’s not… predatory. Or not always. He has helped us in the past. And he wants to kill Arindam.”
“Wings,” Prija choked out. “Not… real.”
“They look real to me.”
Prija shook her head. “Created. Mind.”
“He can create wings with his mind?”
Prija nodded.
“So Prija”—Leo leaned forward—“if he can create things in his mind, what can you do?”
Prija’s eyes dropped to the weaving. Then she looked at Kyra. “She hears him?”
“Yes. But she doesn’t know how to write music this way.”
“I don’t.” Prija shook her head. “Intira… not understand. Not all minds like hers.”
Leo’s heart sank. “So this means nothing to you?”
“I know what it means,” Prija said. Her voice was growing stronger the longer she spoke.
Leo handed her water and watched while she drank.
“I know,” Prija said, her voice a little smoother. “But I don’t hear anymore. She thought she could write the music so I could play, but her mind sees things that others don’t.”
Leo didn’t know how to wrap his mind around that, but he tried to make sense of what Prija was saying. “So you’re saying that if you could hear what the angel sounds like, you can do… what?”
“Is my instrument still in the complex?”
“Yes.”
“Then I can do what I do.”
“Is that how you killed your father?”
Prija offered him a narrow smile.
Leo turned to Kyra, who’d been waiting patiently while Prija and Leo spoke in words she had no way of understanding. “Can you sing Arindam’s song to Prija?”
She blinked. “Can I what?”
“Can you sing—”
“I can’t sing. Leo, you know I can’t—”
“Not magical singing. Just… singing. Let her hear what the Fallen sounds like. To your ears, sing that.”
Kyra shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“There are harmonics. There are multiple notes. There are—”
“Tell her to show me,” Prija said.
Leo looked between the two women. “She said you could show her.”
“Show her the music?” Kyra threw up her hands. “I can’t do that either!”
Leo smiled. “Speak to her mind, Kyra. Just like you have been. Listen to Arindam’s song and let her hear it too. You’ve done it with me!”
Kyra shook her head. “You don’t understand. I don’t know how I do that with you. I’ve never done it before. I don’t—”
“Try.” Prija spoke in broken English. She forced her lips and tongue around the words. “You try.”
Leo rose to his feet when he heard footsteps outside.
“It’s Niran,” Kyra said before he could turn. “The fight against Arindam isn’t going well.”
“I’ll go,” Leo said. “You stay with Prija and find a way, Kyra. Find a way to let her hear Arindam’s song.” He grabbed her chin and planted a hard kiss on her mouth. “I know you can do it. Just because it’s not the same as the Irina doesn’t mean you don’t have a song.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Kyra was left with Prija, still having no idea how she was supposed to “show” Arindam’s strange music to the other woman.
“You can understand English?”
Prija nodded.
“More than a little?”
Prija shrugged.
Kyra sighed. “I wish I spoke more Thai.”
“Lao,” Prija croaked. “I speak Lao.”
“Sorry. Lao.” She rose. “You need your instrument from the other building to do this?”
Prija nodded.
“Then that’s what I’m going to do.” She took the gun Leo had given her from the holster at her waist. Silence was no longer an issue. The compound around them rang with sound. Crashing and screaming for the most part. The smell of smoke filled the air. “Can you use this?”