I Sing
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The Girl Who Must Not Sing Ch. 12 free porn video
Chapter Twelve
‘Have the others been briefed on the escape plan, Sire?… Sire?’
‘Hmm? What were you saying?’
‘The escape plan. I just want to be sure that, if need be, it won’t turn into a bedlam.’
‘You think it might come to that?’
‘She woke me up last night. She hasn’t done that in months. What’s more, she actually spoke to me from the tower. She said ‘let me out’. That shouldn’t have been possible with the earmuffs. Either she took a tremendous risk just to say those words, or she is learning to get past her shackles.’
‘You’re sure you weren’t—’
‘Sire, we need to do something. We need to do it now.’
‘Mm, I always feared this day would come… Open up the tunnels, at night so the children don’t know. Be sure all the paths are clear. But we’re not going yet. That would only guarantee the seemingly inevitable. I’m starting to think that this has been building longer than we realized. But maybe we will be lucky and she will yet relax.’
‘Maybe…’
===
A spear of pain shot into Eldrian’s ankle as he stepped out of bed. It still looked a little crooked from where it had healed in the days before. And sprinting down from the tower hadn’t helped either. But the girl hadn’t bothered him during the night. He had delivered her dinner an hour early, too so as to sneak by her watchfulness.
Nobody knew about what had happened in the tower. Eldrian had yet to tell a soul, nor would he.
It’s all okay, Eldrian told himself. He shuffled past the bunks where the rest of his dorm still slept. The hour remained early.
Today Eldrian strode past the passage that would take him to the kitchen. He aimed for the manor’s first floor instead. The infirmary, to be precise.
In the shade of the morning, a lone occupant lay in bed. He hadn’t stirred since Eldrian had last checked in. Yoled, still sleeping as though he were dead, but not dead. Impossible to rouse.
Miss Belamy had been there last time, working her healing magic to no avail. Mind problems were so much harder to fix, if they could be fixed at all.
‘Wake up,’ Eldrian whispered to the boy’s silent and sunken face.
They could give Yoled water. Dripped carefully and directly down his throat over several minutes. Food remained an impossibility and the days were seeing him waste away. Another week, Miss Belamy had said the day before last.
‘I’m sorry.’ Unable to stand the deathly quiet any longer, he headed back through the house, towards the kitchen.
Because it was his fault. Of course it was. If he hadn’t lashed out to grab Yoled’s ankle and dragged the poor kid down too… Well, it didn’t matter now.
Stupid, stupid.
This is life now. Work day by day and misery between. The kids of the manor were right, he was stupid. He had always been stupid, so much so that he had denied it for a while. But they were wrong about him running away. Yoled wouldn’t be in this mess if Eldrian had kept trying to escape.
His pace faltered and stopped beside a sofa that rested across a tall window, looking out over the front garden. Several pillows lay in the corners of the padded arms. Eldrian approached one and gave it a jab. Then another. Then a punch and a second one until his fists flew in a clumsy barrage that thumped against the fabric.
Why?! He shouted to himself.
Why did you send me here? I don’t belong here. Everything would still be fine if they didn’t have me! Why couldn’t you just tell me whatever was so important before you died?! He shouted to his father.
Why put me on the roof with him?! Why send me here?! Why not let me leave? He shouted to Sire Mastro.
Why won’t you wake up?!
Eldrian stepped back, his eyes falling on the pillow. Dents fell deep into the fabric and creases marred the white. He grabbed the corners, gave it a shake back to life, and replaced it. Even so, some of the damage remained clear. Eldrian walked away before any jailers strolled by.
Half an apple for the girl and a bowl of porridge with a drizzle of honey spiraling on top. Much nicer than some of her previous meals. Eldrian’s stomach made a deep growl at the sight.
The bridge no longer creaked when he walked across it. His feet knew where to tread. They carried him up the stairs, round and round in the flickering glow of the lighting wards. Eldrian went through the ritual at the door, the same as always. Down with the tray, key in the lock, turn, open it a crack, retrieve the key, up with the tray and enter.
The girl sat in the middle of the room. The blackened streaks of her occumarks were on him.
Eldrian took a deep breath and walked to the side where her table stood. Only then did he hear her voice, so soft it could have been dreamt.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
Eldrian turned around. She hadn’t moved.
‘Nothing,’ he said.
‘There is. I can see it. You’re… angry? But also sad.’
‘I’ll be okay.’ He started towards the door, making a point not to look at her.
‘Please don’t go.’
He kept walking.
‘Please, stay like before. I won’t get mad or anything.’
No.
‘I’m lonely.’
He glanced at the girl. Her legs were hugged to her chest now, knees right under her chin. That made him stop.
‘Why did you talk to me before?’ she asked. ‘None of the other orphans ever have. Why did you?’
‘I was curious if you were as bad as they all said.’ As soon as these words had left Eldrian’s mouth, he questioned their sense.
‘Well you know now.’
You are, he filled in. Everything that Sire Mastro had said about her had been true. Eldrian took a step closer then sat down.
‘I want to leave. I don’t like it here anymore.’ She reached up and pushed some hair behind one of the earmuffs, then scratched the skin around it. ‘I told you about me. You never told me about you.’
Eldrian blinked in the darkness. Her mention of escape had almost compelled him to try the same. But now a new direction. ‘What do you want to know?’
‘Do you remember your parents?’
‘Ah. My father, at least.’
‘Why not your mother?’
‘I was too young. But she used to mix things in our kitchen. Ointments and poultices and potions. She liked to experiment too. One day something happened with her experiment and the house exploded into flames. I was outside with my father. He tried to stop it but it was too late.’ Eldrian told the story without a hint of mourning. The years, and his father’s telling, had numbed him to it.
‘What about your father?’
‘He got a kind of sick that the healers couldn’t mend. They couldn’t even figure out what it was. Then it got so bad that I think they stopped trying. They just let him go.’ It felt like a hand had clenched around Eldrian’s neck as he pressed on. ‘They called me in at the end, but he barely noticed me. He didn’t say goodbye or anything. He said sorry to someone else. Someone called Anahid. He said he wanted to tell me something too, but he didn’t in the end. Why would he wait so long to tell me?’
Eldrian wiped a hand across his face and it came away wet. Tears. And mucus. Why cry? He didn’t feel sad, he felt angry… right?
If the girl held any concern, not much showed. She placed a hand on his knee but that was it.
‘Who’s Anahid?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know. He— he wanted me to f-find him… or her ‘ The hand clamped tighter still. Lower down, a second had begun to throttle his lungs of breath. The girl had to be doing this, he realized. Some spell. Why else would he cry over the person who put him in this mess. ‘But I’m stuck here now.’
‘Then we should both try to escape so we can find your father’s friend.’
‘I don’t care about that.’ Even through the smothering of tears, Eldrian found enough sense to shake his head. ‘Besides, the Empire is huge. He never even gave me a clue about where to l
ook.’
‘So I’ll help you. If I didn’t have these earmuffs on I could send my voice further than anyone. Then all we would have to do is wait for someone to say this Anahid’s name.’
She had a strong voice, a fact everyone attested to. It could—
No, she’s dangerous. ‘I’m not helping you escape. I thought you were happy here. Sire Mastro said you were.’
‘Not anymore,’ the girl muttered. ‘I want to see again and go walking outside the walls. I won’t hurt anyone. I won’t even use my magic. But they don’t listen to me.’
Eldrian held his tongue.
‘Why do they want me here? Do you know? They kill murderers and Marisins alike elsewhere but they keep me locked up.’
‘Maybe they don’t think they can kill you.’
‘They can. I can’t do anything with these earmuffs on. There are so many spells tied up in here, Eldrian.’ She pointed to her head. ‘So many spells and it’s been so long since I said one that I can only remember a few. But they’re coming back. I think about doing something and suddenly there’s a spell for it. But I can never say it or the earmuffs will make it wrong and people will get hurt.’
So many spells.
‘What about a spell to wake someone up?’ Eldrian asked. His tears dried up in a flash of clarity.
‘From what? A sleep, you mean—’
‘A troubled sleep. Someone who hit their head and no shaking or yelling or anything else can wake them, not even healing spells.’
The girl fell silent, her face still. ‘That boy. You fell and there was another boy with you who didn’t move. He’s still asleep.’
‘They’ve tried everything and he can’t eat while he’s like this. He’s going to die.’
Another pause. The girl’s lips quivered a little every now and then as she thought. Then they parted for her to speak. ‘Yes. I have a spell for that.’
‘Then you can do it. You can go down there and save him.’
She shook her head. ‘Only if they take off my earmuffs. And you know that they won’t. Otherwise I might wake him up. Or I might push him deeper down. Or make it so that he can never sleep again, no matter how tired he gets. Or wake him so quickly that he gets hurt.’
‘Can’t you be careful? Make the spell as soft as you can and put all your focus in it.’ But even as Eldrian asked this, he knew the answer. No. That wasn’t not how sound magic worked. That wasn’t what the earmuffs were for. If the girl couldn’t hear what she was doing, she couldn’t keep the magic in check. It might work. More likely it would make things worse. The same as she had done to that cook in the kitchen. She told him all of this as he thought it.
‘You have to take off the earmuffs,’ said the girl.
‘I can’t.’
‘Then I can’t help him.’ She stood up, turned around and disappeared into the darkness of her room beyond. The door clicked shut.
Eldrian stayed put for a few minutes. Her voice had left with her so he knew he had the time alone. There had to be another way. A compromise. Sire Mastro wouldn’t let Yoled die, would he? Desperation would take hold and the jailers would see reason.
Of course.
===
‘No,’ said Iyda and she slapped the dining hall table. Her bowl of vegetable stew sloshed a little, almost spilling the thin liquid over the edge.
‘He’s going to die if you don’t.’
‘Then get someone else, ah? Or better yet, do it yourself.’
‘I can’t,’ hissed Eldrian. ‘They’ll know I’ve been talking to her.’
‘Uh huh, and you shouldn’t be. Then this idiot idea wouldn’t be swishing around up there in your big idiot head.’
Eldrian recoiled and blinked as Iyda prodded him in the brow. ‘But we have to do something,’ he begged.
‘So find someone else. I’m not asking the jailers to set the Marisin free, even if it is just for a little while. Even if it is to help someone. The second she has her earmuffs off, she’ll say some word that will cook us all in our skins and you, shrimp, will be the first.’
Another prod shot out but Eldrian slapped it away this time. ‘Then that’s it. You’re going to let Yoled die.’
Iyda shrugged. ‘Better than all of us.’
‘What’s better than all of us?’
Suddenly Dodeb dropped down at the table. He must have already finished since he didn’t have a bowl.
‘Nothing,’ Eldrian muttered. Why had he gone to Iyda? Maybe he secretly wanted to be talked out of it. More like insulted out of it.
‘No, not nothing.’ Iyda leaned across and switched back to a whisper for the sprout. ‘Shrimp here wants to let the girl out so she can wake up Yoled.’
‘The girl? You mean the Marisin?’ He looked at Eldrian, eyes wide. ‘You were talking to her, ah? That’s why you were slow to come back from her dinner the other day. She’s not going to wake up Yoled. Miss Belamy will, just wait. The Marisin will only make things worse.’
‘Stop calling her a Marisin,’ Eldrian snapped. He shut his mouth straight away. Fortunately the conversations of the dining hall were loud enough to drown him out. Those nearby lost interest quickly enough.
‘She is one though, ah?’
‘…Ah,’ Eldrian admitted after a few seconds.
‘Then she’s bad. Just bring her her food, that’s all.’ With that, Dodeb stood up and wandered away to talk to some other boys from their dorm.
‘You’re not going to leave it alone, are you?’ Iyda asked.
Eldrian shook his head.
The Earthborn girl picked up her bowl and moved away too.
Even if he had wanted to, it seemed the other orphans weren’t going to let him. A cloud of murky thought saw Eldrian returning to the dorm later than most. All eyes were upon him the second he walked in. All but Dodeb who suddenly appeared to be entranced by one of the floor’s bricks.
Bossman stepped forwards. ‘Word is you want to let the girl out and take her earmuffs off, ah?’
‘So she can save Yoled,’ said Eldrian as he stood firm in the face of almost every boy in the dorm.
‘Doesn’t matter what the plan is. If it means setting her loose, it’s crazy.’
‘So you don’t care if Yoled dies either?’
Bossman shrugged. ‘He’s been here shorter than most so I never knew him well enough to say. But it’s not the first time some kid has gotten killed round here. Sometimes the jailers say that someone’s graduated early when they really mean that someone had an accident. Apparently they throw you down the ravine when that happens. But everyone already knows about Yoled so they might bury him proper.’
‘Fine, I guess he dies.’ Eldrian tried to shove past Bossman but he didn’t move.
‘I didn’t say we were going to stop you.’
‘What?’
‘You want to try letting out the girl, do it. It’s a stupid idea, ah, but I’m not about to rat out a shrimp to the jailers. Nobody would. And you don’t seem the type to give up on making trouble just cause someone told you to.’
‘But she might kill everyone.’
Bossman smiled. ‘It’ll be you first. And in all the commotion, the rest of us’ll have a chance to escape.’
Eldrian frowned. ‘I thought you liked it here.’
‘We do,’ said Ajan. The boy sat still upon his bed, hood pulled further down than normal. ‘But there’s tunnels under the manor. The jailers try to hide them but they can’t. And they started cleaning them up last night.’
‘They must think the girl’s about to go crazy on her own and there’s nothing they can do to stop it,’ Bossman explained. ‘So I say go let her out to give the rest of us a distraction.’
Only then did they let Eldrian past. His feet staggered on the stone floor. Tunnels under the manor. The jailers must want them a secret or he would have known about them earlier. A last ditch plan on their part, just as Bossman had theorized.
For once his bed felt something close to comfortable. Suitable considering how much else had just fallen out of place. The murmuring of children and their games kept Eldrian awake, distracted. When the night crept on enough for them to settle
down an idea began to form. A plan. The girl needed her earmuffs off. They were locked and the key lay someplace unknown. But, with the jailers distracted, he could find it. And why not let her out beforehand?
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