Song of Blood & Stone (Earthsinger Chronicles #1)(76)

“He is not strong enough to do that.” Usher stepped to the bars and slipped a thick, warm blanket through a gap. Jasminda accepted it, lay down on the thin cot, and cried.




That is impossible, Vaaryn says through his Song.

Then how would you explain it? replies Deela. Yllis’s mother, Vaaryn, and I sit in the Great Hall of the Citadel. There are still loyal Silent working as servants here, but there are no doubt also spies for the other side, as well. No important conversation is held out loud any longer.

No Songbearer would gift Eero their Song. There are only two who even know the spell. Deela looks at me, and I shrink a bit more inside.

So you believe he has learned to steal Song from a bearer? Vaaryn’s forehead wrinkles in disbelief. That would be . . .

A disaster, I finish. But it must be true. Eero is singing again. Through the window, the battle for the skies is clear. Only hours ago, the placid, clear day was interrupted by sudden, unnatural clouds. Songbearers on the front lines had to fend off tornadoes, hurricanes, snow, and ice all afternoon.

Who has he stolen from? Deela says.

I shake my head. We are still accounting for all of the Songbearers in the city.

Will all the Silent want Songs now? Vaaryn wonders.

I frown, considering. I do not think he will want to share. My brother was never generous.

How do they still follow him? Do they not find him a hypocrite? Especially when his demands are for a separate land for the Silent. Deela’s face is so like Yllis’s, even moreso when working out a difficult problem. He has split us apart and wants to make it official, by creating a land just for them, yet he steals the Song of a Songbearer.

His gift is winning the hearts and minds of others, I say. Logic is not always required for that. And as for his demands, perhaps we should give him what he wants.

Vaaryn’s rheumy eyes go wide.

Hear me out. If we take the abandoned land east of the mountains, we could reform it and rebuild, just as our grandparents did this land, I say. We could leave the west to the Silent and rebuild to the east.

I let them mull over my suggestion for a while. The thought of leaving my home sickens me, but this war must end.

We must bring this to the Assembly, Deela says.

I nod, certain I can convince them.

At least once he is separated from the Songbearers, he will not be able to steal what the Silent do not possess. Deela seems reassured by this.

Eero has already stolen so much from the Silent—their peace, their stability, their future—but I keep these thoughts to myself as we take our leave.

Yllis finds me before sunset as I pace the floors of the Citadel, awaiting updates from those on the front lines. He is rumpled and creased, his hair is lopsided, but he is as beautiful to me as ever.

“You must come with me,” he says. I startle at hearing his voice aloud, but I am so grateful he has spoken. He leads me to his office in the laboratory of the Cantors.

“I think I have found a way —”

“Do you think it wise to speak?” Though I love to hear his voice, I too have been seized by the paranoia affecting the other Songbearers.

“You too, Oola?” He pins me with a withering glare, one I must grow used to seeing from him. What once was soft and cherished between us is now all hard edges. “No Silent are allowed within the walls of the Cantors.”

“Very well. You think you have found a way to do what?”

He points down to his leather-bound notebook. Tight handwriting fills every page obscuring the color of the original paper.

“I have studied everything we have on the ancient ways of the Cavefolk. They were Silent but managed to harness a vast power different than Earthsong—from a different source. Just as powerful but not as limited. Cantors have long used the Cavefolk techniques, but only with Earthsong. They have never attempted any of the more robust spells because they all require one key ingredient.” His finger stops below one word, written boldly, traced over and over.

Blood.

I meet Yllis’s eyes, which gleam in the lamplight.

“With blood magic, we can create a spell to silence any Song,” he says.

“Blood magic?” I shake my head and step away. “We cannot.”

He steps toward me, his eyes on fire. “We must.”

“No, there is another way.” I tell him of the plan I shared with the others. “What he wants is his own land. The war will end once we give him this.”

Yllis stares at me for a long while and shivers run up my spine. “You were always blind when it came to him.”

“What do you mean?”

For a moment, the hard shell he’s constructed around himself cracks, and I see a glimpse of the man I fell in love with. Yllis moves closer to me, placing his hands on my shoulders. “He wants what he has always wanted: power.”

I shiver. Both from the truth of his words and his close proximity.

“So this spell . . . how does it work?”

“It is a binding spell to prevent connection with Earthsong.”

“And we will need someone’s blood?”

His eyes darken, and he nods. “Let me worry about that. Link with me, and I will teach you the spell.”

His hand is the same as I remember. Warm and big, it swallows mine. I hardly get to relish the feeling of his skin when I’m thrown into his link, and he teaches me the spell. The feel of it sours my tongue, but I commit it to memory.