I Sing
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The Girl Who Must Not Sing Ch. 06 free porn video
‘Paetin will be along with our refreshments shortly. In the meantime, I invite you to make yourself comfortable.’
‘I can see why the others speak so highly of this place. You live like a king, Sire Mastro.’
‘Pah, no need for the formalities.’
‘Well, before we relax entirely, I hear rumors that you have something here. Quite a prize.’
‘Oh? And what prize is it that I am supposed to have?’
‘They’re only rumors. A great work of art, an incredible weapon, a font of knowledge? A prize to one man is a bit of cork to another.’
‘Wise indeed. Ah, but here’s Paetin so let’s see if we can’t drown some of that wisdom, hmm?’
===
Dinnertime neared when Eldrian finally found himself freed of the cellar. He could mark the approach by the activity heard overhead and the occasional patter of feet as someone came down to retrieve an ingredient. The boiling of their evening stew was already well underway by the time he entered the kitchen. At least it tasted a bit different every day.
With nothing better to do, Eldrian helped to fill bowls and bring them out to the tables. Kitchen duty hadn’t come up in his roster yet so the tedious work still felt new and interesting.
A short time later and the thunder of footsteps, that heralded a hundred children approaching, started up. Nobody moved with the dreary fatigue that they tended to normally. The day had been relaxing, a rare vacation brought about by the visiting of the guard. The only kids who had to do anything were the ones pretending to learn in the classrooms.
‘They made Iyda stand up and count to ten,’ reported Yoled. ‘She only got there cause they made us count to ten a lot of times before the guard arrived.’
‘Can you count to ten?’ Eldrian asked, suddenly interested.
Yoled nodded then sounded off the numbers one by one. He had to search a little for nine but he managed in the end.
‘What about past that?’
The Skytouched boy frowned. ‘Those numbers are different. It’s eleven and twelve, I think. But then you have the teems. Like three-teem and four-teem.’
‘Teens, not teems.’
Yoled perked up a little. ‘Dajoo know them?’
‘Ah, they’re easy once you get the pattern. I’ll show you later.’
After eating, Eldrian approached Iyda and asked if she wanted to be shown counting as well.
The Earthborn girl brushed off the suggestion. ‘Counting’s stupid.’
‘But you could count how many bugs you stomp,’ said Eldrian with a smile.
Iyda considered the concept for a moment before shrugging. ‘I’ll stick to stomping, let Dawn count them.’
Back at the dorm, Eldrian found only a handful of boys with any interest in how to count properly. A bit disheartening but he taught them all the same. He tried to, at least. They learned slowly but the more he taught, the more he realized that their lack of knowledge may not have stemmed purely from a lack of teaching.
Eggs for breakfast the next morning. Grilled bread and apple jam to go with it. Did the job change have anything to do with the menu adjustment?
‘We get a special breakfast on new jobs day,’ Yoled explained. ‘It’s for something called morale.’
The jailers stopped by once the eating began to wind down. Everyone was called, one by one, to different sections of the room and the passageways beyond. And, once again, Eldrian was sent elsewhere.
‘Did you think we had forgotten?’ Miss Belamy asked, looming over him.
‘No.’
‘Good. Maybe you are learning something.’
She led him to the upper section of the manor, across the ravine, and to the door outside Sire Mastro’s study.
‘Enter,’ he replied to the rasping of her knuckles.
Eldrian stepped inside and sat.
The Sire had some document in his hands that his eyes perused, even as he began to speak. His tone suggested that his thoughts lay elsewhere. ‘Master Eldrian… I’m told you were a tad disobedient yesterday around noon. Would you mind explaining yourself to me?’ Only then did Sire Mastro look up, that friendly smile returning with its too-neat moustache over the top. In some twisted way, he almost looked like Father before the illness had worked its poison. On second thought, maybe not twisted. Maybe suitable.
‘Did you tell him about the girl?’ Eldrian asked.
‘He never inquired and the subject never came up. Why does the girl interest you so?’ Sire Mastro tilted his head like a bird eyeing something enticing.
‘She’s dangerous. She’s a Marisin and you’re keeping her here with us.’
‘We’ve been through this already and I’ve assured you she is no danger. But for a moment, let’s suppose she is. Let’s suppose she desires to kill again even though she can’t. Do you think she should be held in an actual prison, rather than here?’
Eldrian didn’t have to think long about that one. But when he opened his mouth to answer, Sire Mastro got in first.
‘Have you ever seen a real prison? One where they send adult murderers and Marisins? She is a killer, yes, a child first, roughly the same age as you. But a real prison wouldn’t hurt her. Not her. She’s here because, were she ever sent to a real prison, she would spell the doom of everyone inside it, captives and guards alike. Not to mention anyone living nearby.’
This time Eldrian didn’t have a response.
‘I haven’t told many students this, young master but I feel you’re intelligent enough to understand it properly. The fact of the matter is that the girl doesn’t want to escape. We treat her as we do to make sure of this. You see, if she did desire freedom, no force in this world could stop her. A prison would only hold her until someone did something extremely stupid. I’ve seen some of the damage she can cause, Eldrian, but I pray never to see its limits. Do you understand?’
He nodded slowly, though still uncertain as to whether he agreed with all this, or even whether or not he heard the truth. ‘Thankyou, Sire,’ he said at last, for lack of something else.
‘You’re most welcome. But it still concerns me that you were so intent on attempting to close down Children of Light.’
Another lecture. Eldrian didn’t want to listen but he stayed sitting anyway.
Sire Mastro kept talking in the absence of a reply. ‘I know you don’t want to stay here. I respect that you likely never will. It’s a step down from what you’re used to and it saddens me that there’s little to be done about that. But for most of your fellows, it’s a vast step up. They’re safer here, Eldrian. They’re warm, sheltered and fed, besides the fact that they’re kept out of trouble, all of which would not be the case were they left for the streets and their own devices. So let them be, Eldrian. Please.’
He nodded. He had known something like this was coming. More words that, in Eldrian’s head, sounded so wrong until they were said aloud. Then the tables turned and they assumed a twisted rightness that only he seemed able to see through.
‘Now, Miss Belamy wants you to be sent to punishment but she’s quite the firehead and after our little talk, I think you’ve learned your lesson, correct?’
‘Yes Sire,’ Eldrian half-mumbled without meeting the man’s eyes.
‘Good. I understand your short course on repairs is today and the crew is tackling the roof so best be on your way. You’ll find them under the ivy trellises, I imagine.’
After another ‘yes sire, thankyou sire’, Eldrian thudded downstairs and back across the closed bridge. The gardens were a buzz of activity with children weeding, trimming, harvesting and watering the many exotic flora that Sire Mastro kept. Everything looked unnaturally neat, from the gravel pathways to the box-shaped hedges and shrubs that lined them.
Eldrian eventually found his way to a wall that had become covered in thick vines, but nobody else was around.
‘Hoy?’ he ventured.
‘Up here.’
Peeking over the eaves of the roof was the face of Yoled. He waved, wobbled and, for a moment, Eldrian’s heart jumped into his mouth at the thought of the boy falling. Then he remembered that Yoled had atoh blades growing from his back so a fall wouldn’t faze him. As if to demonstrate this fact, Yoled hovered partways off the roof on rippling wings of wind.
‘Climb the vines,’ the flit instructed.
Eldrian stared high at the roof for a few seconds longer. Sire Mastro had seemed to be letting him off without punishment but the yawning height said otherwise. Didn’t they have plenty of Skytouched to fix a roof four stories up?
‘Doh’ worry, I’ll catch you if you fall.’ Yoled swooped from the eaves to hover a reach above the ground, the atohs poking from his shirt casting a faint breeze upon the neatly-trimmed lawn.
‘Are you strong enough?’ Eldrian asked.
Yoled gave a shrug. The subtle movement caused him to shift a little in flight.
With a deep breath, Eldrian grabbed a handful of vines and started pulling himself up. They were stronger than he’d expected. None showed any desire to give or snap beneath his weight. The leaves on the surface belied far thicker coils underneath, wrapping themselves over the trellises and digging into the house. Luckily his shoes were soft and flexible from wear or it might have proven difficult to find purchase.
When at last Eldrian reached the top and clambered over the gutters, he saw that only a few of the children present were Skytouched. Why so many not? Unless Sire Mastro meant for everyone to possess the same set of skills when they finally graduated from the orphanage. No specialists here.
‘We already got told what to do,’ Yoled explained as he offered a hand. ‘We have to go up to the girl’s tower and pry up the roof so they can get underneath.’
Eldrian froze at those words. ‘Pry up the girl’s roof?’
‘Ah, but quietly so we don’t disturb her. Then we can start pulling out the bad bits of wood.’
He was about to look over the side of the house, wondering if a fall might get him out of this in a non-fatal manner. Then Yoled’s words struck home. Dodeb had said something similar too. ‘Why quietly? She has those earmuff.’
‘Oh yeah, I guess we can be loud then.’
At the very least, the knowledge that the girl wouldn’t be able to hear them prying up her roof settled Eldrian’s nerves. He still didn’t relish the thought of stomping around above her prison. But there were plenty of handholds along the roof, as he discovered during the jaunt over. Some were purely aesthetic tidbits while others looked built for the task. Two step ladders carried them onto the top of the bridge, then up the other side. Then came the greatest obstacle, a narrow path of steps to their destination.
Once away from the edge, Eldrian took a moment to stare over their surroundings. This happened to be the highest point of the manor by a fair way. A fall from up here would certainly kill but the view at least tried to make up for that. River Run stood clearly in the distance, marked out by several smoking chimneys and the faint movement of a spinning watermill.
‘Here,’ said Yoled.
Eldrian glanced at the boy and took the shard of metal being offered him. It had a curved shape, blunt at one end but flat and pointed at the other. A device to wedge under nails and lever them up.
‘So where do we start?’ he asked the flit.
Yoled pointed towards the other side of the roof’s peak. ‘Fiye showed me already. It’s not very big but there’s loads of nails. Also, we have to save the ones that aren’t too bent or rusty cause they’re still good, ah.’
Stooping low to the roof, Eldrian shuffled around the curve, one hand on the slats at all times. Yoled, meanwhile, hovered and this produced a faint breeze that proved enough to be quite sickening.
The damage in question looked relatively insignificant. There was a small section where the slats were twisted and rotten, sprinkled with bits of fungi that peeked through the gaps where the sun couldn’t quite reach.
‘How did your parents die?’ Yoled asked suddenly as he sat on one side of the rot and wedged his shard of metal underneath.
‘Why would you ask that?’ Eldrian replied. He would have thought the topic to be somewhat private. Nobody had cared until now.
‘Everyone shares eventually. We wait till a shrimp’s settled first. Now’s a good time, ah?’
Settled didn’t seem the right word for the present. Eldrian shrugged. ‘My father died before I came here. Some kind of disease.’
‘At least you’re not sad anymore, ah?’
He ripped up a slat. ‘Mother was different. She used to mix things together. Alchemy and such, but different. One day she mixed something wrong and our house exploded while father and I were outside in the garden.’
‘Wow… How old were you?’ The shard of metal lay limp in Yoled’s fingers as he listened to the story.
‘Two. I don’t remember it or her. I think… there’s this big crash but maybe I made that up.’ Another slat came free. With it came some of the frame beneath. Eldrian paused a moment to peer through but part of the rotting ceiling inside still blocked their view of the girl’s room. ‘Do you think we—’
There came no warning for what happened next, not even a groan, only a deafening crunch and crash, followed by the sickening jolt of lost balance as the roof gave way beneath him. His muscles knotted reflexively and he lashed out for something to stop the fall. That something happened to be Yoled’s left leg.
The dark swam up to swallow them. There came a scream from both, Yoled’s cutting out abruptly before they hit the ground. Eldrian landed on one foot, then the next, bent, and fell. Yoled thumped on top of him. The pain swiftly followed amid fragments of timber and roofing slats. He could feel sharp stings along his body that may have been nails or nothing at all.
Yoled didn’t move so Eldrian pushed him off. He tried to sit up but his right ankle shrieked in agony. A glance down confirmed the odd angle that he feared. Broken. Badly. Instead Eldrian twisted over to peer at the Skytouched lad. His eyes were closed and a dark, bloodied mark occupied the side of his head, matting with hair. A bump from a beam on the way down? Otherwise the boy looked fine. He’d had a cushioned fall, after all.
A thousand tiny needles dug themselves around the flesh of Eldrian’s ankle. He hauled himself upright and his fingers curled and twisted around the wound. In the column of light that shone down from outside, he could see blood seeping through his pants. He didn’t dare a closer look.
Basic healing magic formed a staple of the spectrum of light and Eldrian had studied that section in the past. The grinding, piercing pain cried that he put it to the test. The drowning voice of logic told him that he knew enough for a bad cut at best, not a shattered bone. Such could only lead to far worse damage. Instead he huffed and clenched his teeth, eyes scrunching closed and senses seizing up to escape the relentless spasms.
Nearly a minute passed before Eldrian’s lungs started to burn too and he realized he had been holding his breath. A gasp for air opened his eyes. At that point their surroundings fully registered.
Darkness here, the kind he’d seen once before with Dodeb. Boarded-up windows, a few lonely bookshelves and a table with two chairs. The parlor of the girl’s tower and them sitting near its center in a beacon of light. Eldrian jerked his head this way and that, searching out every inch of the room. No girl. Her earmuffs would keep out the racket that their entrance had made. With any luck, she would stick to her bedroom.
Eldrian looked up at the hole in the ceiling. Someone must have seen them fall. Except… he and Yoled had been on their own and the curve of the tower’s roof might have put them out of sight. Not to mention they had b
een at the highest point of the manor. And anyone down below, either in the gardens or the orchard, would be contending against sunlight, foliage, wind or all combined in order to notice anything.
The tower’s door stood nearly ten paces away, were he capable of standing. They couldn’t stay here. Eldrian twisted and rolled onto his side, keeping his crushed ankle elevated. A sickening wobble from his foot told him that it had begun to hang loose and limp, swinging with every movement. He started pulling himself along the floor. The grain of the wood caught against his clothes and a rug ended up accompanying him. Every huffing movement sent needling jolts through his battered body. Old wounds, and new, did their best to stop him.
‘Gah!’ Eldrian cried as his bad leg accidentally tapped against the floor. For several moments he could do nothing but coil up in agony and clench his teeth until the throbbing died a little. A glance back revealed no activity from the girl’s room and nothing from Yoled either.
Reaching the door was hard enough, opening it proved a different challenge entirely. Eldrian propped himself up on his elbow and clawed for the handle. He came up about a forearm short. Higher. He folded back into a half kneel, just a little— yes! The cool kiss of brass had never felt so sweet. But no movement came when he tried to turn and the high faded immediately. Of course it was locked. If not for the pain, maybe he could have thought clearly enough to predict that.
Or levitation, Eldrian realized with a groan that, for a change, didn’t come from physical torment. He could have just as easily used his magic to try the door from the other side of the room. Well, there would be no further oversights. He sank back down and held out one hand. Never before had he tried the trick he had in mind but, with Dawn’s mercy, it would work.
The magical energy that extended from Eldrian’s glowing palm crept up to envelop the door handle. A slight wave of levitational force worked its way into the lock and began fiddling with the tumblers. Things looked promising until another force pushed him back out.
For a moment Eldrian frowned in confusion. Then he realized that the lock must have some kind of tampering enchantment in place. Given what it aimed to protect, perhaps it hadn’t been the best idea to go fiddling. Other such spells sometimes punished would-be intruders.
So we’re stuck. Eldrian slumped to the floor again and rolled around to check on Yoled. His stomach lurched and his heart leapt into his throat at the sight that greeted him.
Yoled hadn’t moved. The girl had. Like a ghost, she’d swung open the door to her room and stepped outside. Her bare feet padded across the floor, carrying her closer and closer to the crumpled body of the flit.
No voice greeted Eldrian’s ears so she hadn’t spotted him yet. But she did slow and stop several paces from Yoled. Behind the beacon of light, none of her features were visible. Only a rough outline of her shape. Still, there came a faint movement as her head tilted down to the boy, up to the roof, back to the boy.
Some twisted side of Eldrian hoped that Yoled would be enough to entertain her. Maybe fate heard him for the girl decided instead to step over the flit’s body and continue her advance.
No, Eldrian begged. He looked at the floor in front of him, unable to face anything else.
Closer.
Please no.
Closer.
Tears began to creep into his eyes. They’d broken her roof, brought light into her room. Did the man six years ago cross a similar line to earn his punishment?
Closer.
Singing started to fill his ears. A gentle, sweet and soothing melody that might have calmed him had he not known its origin.
Two feet appeared in Eldrian’s view and he couldn’t help but look up to meet the face of their owner. Her other features went unnoticed behind her occumarks. Two long streaks of coarse skin, black as the night sky. The tips reached beyond her hairline while the ends stretched down to be in line with the corners of her lips. Long, thick gashes of darkness. Never before had he seen a Vocal with black occumarks.
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