nourished me. I had no idea what notes to utter, but then I looked over at Imogen and Lecanora, mute and cowering, and a protective surge was added to the white hot flash of my fury. It changed the song, and Carragheen’s voice followed mine, keeping tune with me the way his mind was clinging to the parts of mine he could find.
And as we sang, the pain receded a little. Not completely, it still filled all of the available spaces of our bodies and our brains, but it released its deathlike grip a little. Now I consciously tried to feed it. The song. I thought about all the things I knew and loved about Lecanora. Her beauty, and her brilliance. Our shared history. How kind she was to me when everyone else was not. How much my mother loves her. Something in that thought almost tripped me up for a moment, but I brushed it aside. I had to focus. I had to do this right.
Carragheen started feeding thoughts and memories into my brain. He could see how this thing was working too. He was thinking about the two of us dancing at the wedding, and about the dance of the dolphins, and kissing me on his bed. Whatever it was I was doing made the song stronger still, the notes higher, more perfect. The pain receded further.
I could see it was having the same effect on Imogen and Lecanora too. Their eyes focused again, they were watching without looking crippled. We were doing it. Protecting them. And Rila looked different too. Afraid. She raised the thing higher and her note changed. It was shriller, had a more vicious edge. The pain redoubled. The singing was starting to take a toll on Carragheen and me. I could feel it draining my strength, and wondered how long I could go on. I felt the answering fear in Carragheen’s brain, and a part of me started to surrender.
We tried, I thought, as I felt the song start to let go, and the pain start to build again, towards what could only be the end of us all. At least we tried.
Chapter Sixteen
The End of The Beginning
The Cave of Sighs
I was almost broken, as the thing that seemed to be coming from the box screamed and squealed higher, ever higher. We’d been winning against it, defeating it, but we began to lose our strength before we could overcome it. I was still singing, and so was Carragheen, but the song was a weak trickle from us now, and the pain was almost overwhelming.
I glanced over at Lecanora and Imogen, and I saw that their eyes were closed and the protection we had been able to afford them for a few, brief moments was waning. They were once again in the thrall of the thing.
I felt like we needed more, more fuel, more… oomph. An extra person, singing with us. I looked over at Lecanora and Imogen, and cursed their muteness. My gaze wouldn’t leave Lecanora’s face, and the truth hit me like a sledgehammer to my gut. If only she were able to join with us, we could overcome this thing, I knew it. My eyes bore into her, my mind too defeated to plead with hers, but my heart trying to offer her whatever she needed, the last shreds of my strength if it would help. As I looked, Lecanora’s eyes fluttered open.
We gazed at each other for what felt like hours, but could be only seconds. And then I saw Rila note the look that passed between us, and a renewed spark of fury and defiance light her eyes. I saw her throat ululate, like some mad howling witch, and I heard the note that she was singing start to change. It was impossibly high, like she was trying to call something made of pure evil from the depths of the little box she was holding.
With the last breath of energy in my body, I noticed, almost with disinterest, that the box started to shake and glow. It was quivering, alive, as it started to unleash the worst hell of its arsenal. But, somehow, I don’t know how, it released another thing as well.
A beam of something silver arced across the water. To Lecanora.
My mind was unable to comprehend what was happening, but as soon as the thing flashed across in front of us, Lecanora picked up the embers of the dying note coming from me, and from Carragheen, and