need to tell us what you know, what you can do. If there is any way at all, you need to help us.”
Carragheen looked mutinous, but I saw realization dawning slowly across his features. Maybe Zorax had something we could use, as we went out there to face down this thing.
“What do you mean?” Zorax looked eager to help, now his tale was out, but unsure as to how he could.
“I don’t know,” I offered unhelpfully. Then I thought for a moment. “There is something, some kind of weapon, that uses sound to cripple and to kill. They have it, and they will use it against us if we try to find the girls.”
Zorax looked even paler at this news.
“It’s what they used to kill Cleedaline. So you owe it to her, Zorax, to think carefully about what you know that might be able to help us.” I wasn’t above using guilt to achieve my ends. “They’ve used it on me, several times now, but one time, the worst, my Mom did something that helped.”
I encouraged my mother with my eyes, and she tried to tell Zorax, as best she could, about what she did that night with the singing, about how she saved me.
He listened intently.
“I don’t know about any weapon,” Zorax pleaded. “I swear I do not. But what you’re talking about, what your mother did, the protection spell. I think I might understand a little.”
“Teach us then,” I commanded him. “You have exactly ten minutes before I’m leaving here to go and get these girls, whether I have any defenses or not.”
Zorax made full use of his ten minutes.
I could tell he was desperate to help, and not just because of the dark, murderous looks he was being treated to by Carragheen.
He had to make this good. For Imogen. And for his own conscience.
Sweet mother, what would Imogen make of him when she found out what he had done?
A foolish old man, blinded by flattery, playing mind games on the citizens she loved.
“I fear it all leads back to Kraken. I am sorry, Carragheen,” he said, nodding towards him. “But something about your father, it terrifies me. If he was involved in Imogen’s disappearance, then I do not know what will have happened to her.” He beseeched Carragheen with his eyes. “I know most people find Epaste the most menacing of the Triad, but I do not. I just…” This time he entreated me. “I do not trust Kraken. He is like a… beautiful sea snake.”
It was why Zorax had told Kraken about his discovery. The Priest had come to the Eye of the Goddess for their annual planning session, preparing for evensong, and Zorax had filled the empty spaces between Kraken’s cool assessments with chatter. Chatter that had ended in Zorax telling him what he had learned.
So Zorax talked, about the connections between song and action.
He was the Choirmaster. He had spent a lifetime studying sound in pursuit of beauty, and a higher truth, and worship of life. So he could talk about the subject forever if it was required. It was his life’s work, and his sole passion. Or it had been. Until Imogen.
So he talked.
He talked about how some things were already known, the physical possibilities of sound, of song. How it could be used to shatter glass on the land, for example, or transmit messages hundred of miles through water. How it could beach the hugest of whales and enable the tiniest of fish to find each other across the vast expanse of the sea. And he talked about how he had come to realize, through careful study, that sound, properly constructed, carefully arranged, could shape minds. Lead to forgetting, perhaps even bend wills.
His experiments had been basic, until the evensong episode.
As he spoke, trying to explain what he knew, I watched Zorax watching us, Carragheen and me. I could almost smell him becoming more and more distracted as he tried to tell his tale.
Eventually, I’d had enough. “What is it?” I was hissing with frustration.
“Rania,” Zorax whispered, his chubby little face drawn and suddenly very old. “Carragheen. I am so sorry. That I tried to turn you against each other.”
Really? This? Now? Save it, Zorax. You’ve got bigger transgressions than that to apologize for, once all this is over. I waved a hand at him in silent dismissal.
But Zorax was not to be deterred. “I see it, the way you consider each other, the fire that burns for the other. There is