Dissent (Echoes of Earth Book 2) by Katy Haye

Author:Katy Haye [Haye, Katy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-04-28T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

It was a good job Samir had been promoted to first flute, because I could barely play to save myself. I wasn’t the only one. We got worse instead of better the longer we rehearsed. When we broke for lunch, Xian did a frantic reassessment and assembled a new programme for the next concert, containing only pieces we were already familiar with.

Scar appeared in the rehearsal room after lunch. “That one.” He pointed straight at me. “Show me what you can do.”

Xian gave a tired nod. “You’re excused, Hiran.”

Which was the last thing I wanted: to be alone in a room with Scar. But what protest could I make? He was in charge. I followed Scar out of the rehearsal hall to the nearest practise room. I hadn’t supposed he really wanted to hear me play. I rounded to face him and held up my flute. “Shall I put this down? I assume you’ve only brought me here to shock me.”

Scar looked at me, saying nothing. Doing nothing. I shifted, braced for the lunge of his pincers. He just waited.

I wished he would say something. Finally, I wished he would shock me and get it over with. I turned away, found the music for my solo and started to play.

Scar circled me. I ignored him as long as I could. He muttered something as he crawled. For a while it was just a low murmur under my music. He was trying to put me off, the petty bully. Around and around. Finally, he grew loud enough for me to understand him. He was repeating the word ‘trouble’ over and over again.

I finished my piece and stopped. He wasn’t listening, and I wasn’t getting anything useful from the practise.

Scar stopped, too. He glared at me. “I know you’re behind all the trouble in this place, plotting behind my back, searching for ways to disobey. We should kill you. Like we did the others.” His pincers moved restlessly. I braced myself, dull inevitability sliding through me at the prospect of another shock. “I don’t make the same mistake twice,” he told me. “Roisin is fond of you – I can’t imagine why – so she won’t kill you. But if you cause any more trouble I won’t hesitate to do so.”

He swung away from me and crawled to the door. It took me a minute after it slammed behind him to accept that he wasn’t going to come back and shock me.

*

Samir found me in the practise room when general rehearsal ended.

“I see you can still feel your fingers,” he said as I finished the phrase I was playing and stopped. He looked deliberately around the room. “How did you kill Scar, and what have you done with the body?”

I put my flute away. “He just wanted to threaten me today.”

“Going soft in his old age.”

I remembered the cold gleam of his eyes and suppressed a shiver. “Maybe Spot agreed to sleep with him; that would put him in a good mood.

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