The Deepest Blue(78)

She felt the Silent One begin to slow. I won’t kill her. Just let her lose consciousness and then . . . She could deposit her on one of the outer islands and escape before she woke.

But the Silent One didn’t black out.

Instead, spirits came: three of them, from the island.

She felt them inside her head, as if they were clawing the inside of her skull. Mayara released the Silent One and swam to the surface. She popped up and sucked in air and saw three dolphin-shaped spirits aimed toward her.

Pivoting, Mayara looked for her friends.

Just beyond the reef, where she knew they were, a storm had sprung up. The sky was blue on either side of it, so she knew it wasn’t a natural storm, even without feeling the swirl of wild spirits within it. She glanced back.

The Silent One had risen out of the water, on top of a tortoise-shaped spirit.

Mayara wondered if she could pit her strength against a trained Silent One. There’s only one of her. So far. She reached out to spirits of her own. She’d avoided trying to control them, but now she didn’t have a choice. . . .

“Mayara.”

The Silent One had said her name. Out loud.

Mayara stopped. She pulled her thoughts back, treading water. The three dolphin spirits didn’t attack. Instead, they circled around her as if corralling her. “You spoke.”

The Silent One glanced right and left. And then she removed her mask.





Chapter Nineteen

I held my breath too long.

I’m dead.

Because there was no way she could be seeing what she was seeing.

Mayara stared at her sister’s face, a little older, a little paler. Her eyes were sunken, as if she hadn’t slept in days. She wasn’t sure if she whispered or shouted when she said, “Elorna?”

It couldn’t be.

She felt a lurch beneath her, and suddenly, she was sprawled on a rock. Not a rock. A spirit, with a shell like a turtle, buoyed her in the water. It was a match for the spirit that held her sister.

If it was her sister.

“Don’t be afraid, little minnow,” Elorna said.

Her voice cracked and wavered, as if her throat had been sanded raw. Or, Mayara thought, as if she hasn’t spoken in years. Beneath the crackling, though, it sounded like Elorna. Or Mayara thought it did. She’d had so many imaginary conversations with her lost sister in her head that this wasn’t proof of anything. “You’re dead. Am I dead?”

Elorna grinned, and it felt like a wave hitting Mayara. Her grin was the same. Mayara’s memory had conjured up that grin a thousand times, but she’d never imagined it creasing the face of this older Elorna, dressed like a Silent One.

“We don’t have much t-time,” Elorna said. Her voice broke. She swallowed, then continued on, stronger. “My silent sisters will notice I’m not fighting beside them. They’ll wonder why I’m on this side of the island. C-clever to send the spirits against us. It’s been done, of course, so we knew to expect it, but how did you reach the other side of the island so quickly?”

“You died on the island,” Mayara said, still not able to process what was happening. “We mourned you.” For years. And she wasn’t . . . And she didn’t . . . “Elorna.”

“I chose to become a Silent One. I knew . . .” Her voice seemed to fail, and she continued in a rough whisper. “I knew you’d be disappointed in me. I asked them to lie for me, so you wouldn’t be ashamed. I knew you’d lose me either way. And I’d lose you. I’m deeply, truly sorry.”

Mayara felt as if a whirlpool had formed inside her. Joy. Anger. They swirled around each other so fast that she had no idea what she felt or what to say.

“Go back to the island,” Elorna said. “I’ll help you survive, as best I can. If you’re careful, you’ll be able to make it the full month. And then you’ll be safe.” With every word she spoke, her voice was stronger.

“I can’t abandon my friends.”

“If you leave, you’ll be on the run forever, until they catch you and they execute you. It’s treason to abandon the test.”

“And it’s treason for a Silent One to speak,” Mayara replied.

“That’s why we have to talk fast. Go back, Mayara. Don’t do this. It’s not your destiny. You’re supposed to survive the island, become an heir, and keep our family, your Kelo, and all of Belene safe.”

Kelo! “He’s alive? Truly?” She had hoped, even believed, it was true, but Lord Maarte had proven himself a liar and even he didn’t know for certain. She’d been relying on pure faith.

“Yes. I stopped the spirits. That much I could do for you.”

Kelo lives!

And my sister . . .

“That was you, on the cliff? You were there?” She’d never imagined, when she looked at those masks, that she’d been looking at her sister. Elorna hadn’t given any sign, any hint, any hope—

“I was there with you,” her sister said. “And I’ve been here watching. Mayara, you can do this! You’ve always been the strong one, the brave one.”

I’m not the brave one, though. That had always been Elorna, chasing after death. Mayara had merely tried—and failed—to live up to her, to fill the void she’d left. “I’m not a hero.”