“Why add to her troubles until we see this spirit ourselves and have proof there’s something to this?” Jax asks, the words muffled slightly by the cloth he’s wrapped over his mouth to protect against the fever. “Firiel could still have been mistaken, and even if she wasn’t,the soldiers are locked up and about to be melted down for scraps. The spirit can’t use them to hurt her again.”
“I’m worried about other ways they might try,” I insist. “And the flowers were proof enough to me that something’s up.”
“I don’t know... I’m with Jax on this one, Sparrow.” Simeon shakes his head. “Once Valoria makes peace with her people,thenwe can tell her what we saw today and ask her permission to start visiting the Deadlands regularly again. But she’s got enough to handle at the moment as is, and she’s already constantly under guard.”
I can’t argue with that. As we come within sight of the palace, we go our separate ways—Jax and Simeon to the temple, and Nipper and me to the palace to find Meredy. She’ll definitely appreciate hearing what we learned in the Deadlands.
Approaching the door to our room, I hear voices issuing from the gap beneath it. No—make that just one voice, though it changes its tone every time it speaks. Sometimes, it sounds like Meredy, and sometimes, it sounds higher than her usual voice.
Quieting my breath, I put my ear to the door and listen until the words become clear.
“Firi, why can’t you just tell me where you are? I could come to you. Wouldn’t you rather talk face-to-face?” Meredy pleads. “No one has to know. Odessa doesn’t even realize we’re still talking—that orange salve she gave me works wonders. My burns are completely healed, see?”
Reeling, I lean against the wall beside the door, feeling like I’ve just been punched. Meredy hasn’t stopped using the crystal after all. Just when I thought she was doing better, when things were finally normal between us again, whatever normal means—it turns out she was lying to me this whole time. My stomach twists as I force myself to keep breathing, to keep listening.
“We’ve been over this,” Meredy sighs in a high voice so unlike her own.
I shudder as a mix of revulsion and shame course through me. Apparently the crystal relies on the user’s own voice and tricks the mind into thinking that someone else is speaking by drawing from memories. That explains why neither of us realized how it worked before—we were using it at the same time, both being fooled by its illusion.
“I can’t tell you,” Meredy continues in an imitation of Firiel’s voice, drawing my attention once more. “I’m sorry. Isn’t talking like this enough? Aren’tIenough?”
“No,” she answers as herself. “Firi, you know how I feel about Odessa, but I still love you, too. Come back to me. Please!”
How she feels about me? My heartbeat quickens for the briefest moment before the longing in her voice, longing for someone else, brings tears to my eyes. I’m scared for her. Scared of what will happen if I don’t help her break the crystal’s sway—and soon.
There’s no denying that she betrayed me and lied to me repeatedly, but I’d still do anything to help Meredy. I’ll pull her back from the brink of this madness even if she’s unwilling, even if our relationship doesn’t survive it. Just like she would—like she already has done—for me.
Her safety comes first.
Turning away from the door, unable to listen any longer, I rub my temples and try to think. How can I prove to Meredy that it isn’t really connecting her to anyone? She certainly won’t take my word for it, or it would be long gone by now. What I really need is some way to capture voices and then hear them aloud. If she could listen to herself imitating Firiel, she would surely come back to her senses.
But where would I find such a strange thing? Something that doesn’t yet exist?
Keep talking, I silently plead to Meredy as I run half the length of the palace to Valoria’s room, stopping only to get permission to sprint past the blockade of guards set up around the base of the tower stairs.
By the time I reach her, my breathing is ragged, and I drip sweat on her clean-swept floor. She doesn’t seem to care, though.
Taking one look at my stricken face, Valoria drops the tangle of wires in her hands and demands, “What’s wrong? Is it—Meredy? The crystal?”
I nod. I don’t want to waste time explaining how the magic in the crystal works, so instead I blurt, “I need something that captures voices. Something that lets you hear words after they’ve been said. Do you...?”
I let my voice trail away as Valoria’s eyes light up with the fierce pride of an inventor.
“You need my recorder. One moment.” She grabs a stool and moves toward a high shelf piled with junk. I recognize some of the objects as former mechanical bird designs as I hover beside Valoria, ready to catch her if she falls.
At last, she hops down from the stool with a clunky black box about the size of my head tucked under her arm. She points to a few buttons, explaining how to use them to capture voices and then replay them.
“I’ve only tested it with my sisters once or twice, and it’s been a while, but it should work.” She frowns as I take the recorder from her. “Odessa, I know you’re in a hurry, but can you just tell me if she’s in any immediate danger?”
“I don’t think so.”
“But she’s not all right?” Valoria twists her clasped hands, smearing grease across the skirt of her gown.
“She will be,” I say firmly, a promise to Meredy and Valoria both.I give the buttons on the recorder another glance. “This is just what I needed. Thank you.”
***
By the time I return to our room, recorder still in hand, there’s no way to disguise the fact that I’m panting from all the running. I just have to hope Meredy is still too involved in her conversation with “Firiel” to notice.
