Requiem of Silence by L. Penelope

Author:L. Penelope
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Dance with unhalting steps to share

your joy.

Offer it to the ground.

Stamp the soil down.

And let it echo across the land.

—THE HARMONY OF BEING

True to her word, Zeli told stories while they traveled across the country in the great mechanical walker. Stories of the land of Varten’s father, a place he’d never seen and hadn’t really thought much about before. But he hung on her every word.

She painted a picture of a childhood that was so different from Varten’s as to be unrecognizable. She did not speak of her parents or of losing her Song—except for a brief mention that it had happened when she was just six years old.

Mostly she spun tales of walking barefoot around a picturesque lake near her home, enjoying the quiet moments of sunlight on her face in between chores, the taste of kinnifruit juice dribbling down her chin or the pies and tarts the staff would share after some big celebration or other, when food was unusually plentiful.

He wondered at the spaces between her stories, the things she left out. There was no talk of school, though she’d learned to read and write in order to better serve her mistress, a girl of the same age who sounded as selfish and spoiled as any Elsiran aristocrat. (And people thought their two races were so different.) She did not speak of having friends or time to wander and play and cultivate her own interests. She talked around so many topics that Zeli’s Lagrimar was a tapestry full of holes.

The Tinker was largely quiet as he operated the vehicle, shining a sweeping light out before them to illuminate the countryside at night. Varten had a thousand questions he kept inside, not wanting to interrupt or bring up things that may be painful. He was happy to listen and imagine what it must have been like, growing up the way she did.

She talked until her voice grew raspy, and then she fell asleep. At some point during the night, her head slipped onto his shoulder. He was wide awake, holding himself very still, eyes closed, not wanting to jostle or move her. Enjoying the weight of her against him, but knowing he did not deserve the simple act of trust.

He must have also fallen asleep at some point because when he next opened his eyes, sunlight streamed in through the tinted glass and Gilmer City rose up before them.

The city was at the edge of a large lake, partially bordered by mountains. Leggsy rounded the far side of the lake, traveling between its sparkling green-blue waters and a busy roadway. The metropolis they approached was much larger than Rosira, but unlike in Melbain City, giant buildings didn’t poke out across the skyline.

This place was constructed differently. Spread out across the north of the lake, the structures were lower, six to ten stories for most, with many shorter than that. Snowcapped mountains loomed up behind it to the north and even the air inside of Leggsy had cooled considerably during the trek.

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