A Binding of Echoes

by Kalyn Crowe

  "Yes?"

  A chair scooted on the wood floor. "You mentioned what we imbue might cause itself to stay through time. How would that work with the Capstone seal and the Maw?"

  There was a long pause.

  Eda said, "I can not say."

  Silence filled the air and churned my stomach.

  Kepi sniffed at the door.

  Conrad said, "You also said you brought something for us, Eda."

  "A bird."

  He coughed. "Go on."

  "I trapped it out of concern for its health and intended to have Gunnar and Kat attend it and then take the girls home."

  Leyla pushed the door open. "The bird from the alley?"

  Conrad stood. "How long? Wait, you know what, never mind. Please, come in."

  Eda laughed. "You have trained all your daughters as spies. What did you expect?"

  He pulled over his empty chair. "Sit, Mere. You still look like a ghost."

  "Thanks." The weight of my bones settled in the chair. The sensation surprised me as if I'd forgotten my skeleton existed.

  Kat came over and touched my forehead. "We're lucky she isn't a ghost. I've seen far more seasoned invokers die from less." She smiled. "Tough as nails, this one."

  I almost didn't recognize the sensation of pride. "Thanks, Kat. I should say, I saw a blackbird the night I found Rhys outside."

  Eda sipped from a teacup. "We have much to worry about if it is the same one."

  "You think whoever is controlling these people could see through their eyes?" Conrad asked.

  "Yes," I replied before Eda could.

  She nodded and said, "I would like to see if you can cure it as you did the ill ones."

  If so, I cornered the wrong spy that night.

  Eda set her cup down. "I left it outside."

  "Are you up for this, Meredith? It will likely be only a moment of casting, but I won't risk your health for experiments." Conrad leaned on the chair back.

  Eda stood. "As if I would. It can wait until morning. I am certain."

  I pressed into the seat and pushed to a stand. "No. Bring me to this bird. If someone is watching us, we need to know as soon as possible."

  Kat and Conrad left, but I reached out to Eda.

  "What is it, child?"

  "I said something today to those people. I addressed them as one person."

  Leyla collected her scroll as a roll in her hand.

  "They all stopped still for a moment after I spoke."

  Eda said, "So they listened?"

  "It seemed like it, that's why I think they can watch us, but this happened near the end before I blacked out. I felt almost in a dream."

  She laid her hands on my shoulders. "Perhaps, you have started to see clearly through those sea eyes."

  ✽✽✽

  We stood on the back porch out of earshot of the bird.

  Eda brought it in a cloth-covered basket and kept it on her cart.

  Leyla looked over and squeezed my hand.

  Kat discussed everything for the hundredth time with Gunnar. They picked apart details, debated Duri's silence, and planned what to do if it failed.

  Rhys ran up. "You sure about this bird thing?"

  "We need to know if someone is spying on us." I leaned on the porch's rail. "Eda said this bird is from the alley I found you by, but a small flock watched the night I came to town. The person or people controlling these things can hear through them, and probably see."

  He bit his lip and supported my arm with his. "It's been what? Two days, I've known you such a short while."

  I chuckled. "And I've been nothing but problems."

  He didn't smile as I expected. "Just be careful, we don't know what we're dealing with here."

  Conrad came over with a deep frown. "The lad is right. If this works, whoever controls these poor souls will know we're on to them. It'll make them more dangerous."

  Eda brought the basket over and lifted the cloth.

  A lock secured the lid. No noise came from within, not a single wing flap or twitch.

  Kepi sniffed from her covered perch inside my hood.

  Leyla, Rhys, and I approached in a huddle.

  She reached for her scroll.

  I put my hand on hers and pointed at Rhys with my eyes.

  She unrolled it. "They know your secret. They can know mine."

  Rhys let his mouth drop open and then carved it into a wide grin. "Damn, you girls are full of surprises. Is that you?" He pointed to the scroll.

  "I can speak through it," Leyla said.

  "How?"

  "I don't know." She smiled back. "More importantly, right now." She pointed to the basket. "I don't hear anything. Is it dead?"

  Rhys said, "Does it even exist until we look?"

  "Our friend is both dead and alive, here and not, depending on how one wishes to define such things." Eda smiled at Rhys. "You will get there someday."

  He blinked. "I'm not sure I want to?"

  "Very wise, indeed. Mere, if you would." She unlocked the lid.

  Vines of Abyss filaments drifted from the ground and attached to each fingertip. They formed a lazy spiral in my palm. I closed my hand tight, and they twisted into an elegant black stiletto. "I'm ready."

  She flicked the lid open. The bird, disorientated and strange, twitched and fluttered to the basket lip. Its head turned mechanically toward me.

  I lunged.

  Feathers touched the outside of my hand, and the bird fell to the ground.

  A trail of gold dust hung off the edge of my Abyss blade and slowly faded into the night.

  Kat knelt and held the bird.

  The little thing shook in both panic and sickness.

  She whispered, and the bird stilled in a glint of gold. "They're asleep." She cradled it close. "What if I could have saved that man at the school? Why did I let Sybil stop me?"

  Eda touched her shoulder. "A man is much larger than a bird. You help Meredith, but she is special, you have said so yourself. Healing may kill you without caution. Especially other Attuned."

  Kat closed her eyes. "Still."

  "Meredith is also to be trusted." Eda's voice became firm. "You have a gift, one which someone may wish to abuse. Sybil was right to caution you."

  I knew the sting Kat felt, I couldn't save those templars. Even if they had listened, a seal large enough to protect us would have killed me. The templar I had saved might bury us.

  I didn't notice my ragged breaths.

  Leyla came over and pulled my arm toward her. "Let go."

  I loosed my white-knuckled fingers, and the blade unraveled.

  She smiled.

  No one else did. The truth laid bare, even for our enemy.

  Conrad said in a near whisper, "We need to ready the hideout."

  21 - Buried Secrets

  The others went back inside, but Eda stood by her cart and watched her donkey graze in the field.

  Kepi walked out between the tall grass. She sat and peered skyward.

  My breaths rose into clouds as I searched the sky. The brightest starlight pierced the ambient glow of nighttime Pinnacle.

  Eda lifted a cloth from a long wooden slat box in the cart.

  Inside laid a tiny dull metal coffin, a half hand wide and five hands long.

  That buried memory twitched in my mind.

  Eda said, "Rhys, may I trouble you to carry this to the kitchen table?"

  I didn't see him anywhere.

  He dipped out from the barn's nearest shadowed corner. "Oh, I'd be happy to, glad I happened to be around still."

  I rolled my eyes.

  He hefted it up with a grimace. "No. Problem."

  Leyla came out from the house with a coat on. "That's the biggest lead case I've ever seen!"

  "Is it not?" Eda said in a more amused voice. "Very old and quite thick."

  Rhys teetered toward the house.

  Leyla opened the door.

  We followed him inside.

  He put it on the kitchen t
able with a solid thud and leaned on the edge. "Not so heavy. It's fine." He took a deep breath.

  No one else was around.

  Eda unlocked the case with a small key, similar to Conrad's for his sneaky scroll case.

  The lid groaned as she opened it.

  A tattered roll of parchment with dark edges sat in musty blue velvet.

  Eda said, "This comes from the Northland Conflict archives."

  She unrolled the scroll on the table.

  Faded ink schematics and formulas covered its surface. It detailed the formation of something called a 'phylactery.'

  Eda floated her hand over the surface. "This is how to make a metallic vessel for a soul. In his notes, my brother mentioned examining some of the Northland scrolls. He did not name which ones. All are very old, from a time before the Order. This one had the least dust on it." She smiled.

  I thought of Sybil's request for me to dust. She couldn't have known, could she? I studied the parchment. "This is what you were looking for in the Reliquary."

  "It is. The Order carefully guards all the Northland documents and artifacts. It took an unfortunate amount of time to search through them unseen."

  Rhys leaned on the table. "I can't read any of this."

  "It is not in our modern language. I translated a few lines using the original archaic invocation words as a cipher." Eda indicated the upper right portion. "This is how I knew this was the right one. The mention of souls."

  Circumference measurements and robust metallurgy information showed by the text she referenced.

  I said, "This details how they made the disks." I pointed to a column of text. "The Attunement Formists see when they trace them aren't from a spell. It's from the soul; they are prisons for Abyss Attuned." I pointed to another part of the scroll. "They act like another Attuned, another channel for Anima, but through the same body."

  Eda said, "This would follow, although it does not explain why Apex is in the recently dead disk users."

  "I think we know why after today," I said. "Whoever possessed those people likely did the same to the disk users. The man at my school, his expression was completely different in those last moments. He tried to tell us something but couldn't."

  She nodded, and we stood in silence for a few seconds. Then she noticed where I pointed. "I was unable to translate so far through." She looked back at me. "You know this language better than most."

  A bright flash drew me from the memory of the school's courtyard and the dead man.

  Two more flickers of white blurred out my mind.

  Leyla held my shoulders, but I couldn't read her scroll.

  I heard and saw nothing.

  A blaze of light.

  Bars.

  A jail.

  I held an Anima dagger. Not one of Abyss or even Apex. One of emerald Conduction.

  Kepi stood on my shoulder.

  In my other hand, I held Leyla's scroll.

  Heart attacks killed her parents.

  Conrad's face came into my vision. "Mere, can you hear me?"

  "Conrad. I. Leyla?" I was on the floor.

  She held my hand.

  Kepi cooed long and owl-like.

  I sat up.

  Her black eyes narrowed, and she cooed again — this time shorter, more, affirmative.

  Again, she knew.

  I reached out.

  She jumped into my arms.

  I held her close. "What's happening?"

  She buried her face against my neck.

  Everyone stared, except Eda. She only looked sad, remorseful.

  Nausea swept over me. "I need some time alone." That was a lie. What I needed was someone to say I still possessed sanity.

  I knew that scroll, and I knew something else which scared me even more. I walked to the door.

  Conrad moved to stop me, but Eda touched his shoulder. "Let her think."

  I left the house and wandered for some time until my feet took me toward the coop.

  Eda was right. I started to see, but what, remnants, phantoms of my creators? She tried to help me understand more painful as it was.

  Steps came from behind. Almost too soft.

  I snapped around.

  Rhys stood there with a key ring in his hand. "Here."

  I took them.

  "I can't tell what you're going through." He ran his fingers through his hair. "I can't even tell what's going on if I'm honest, but I'll be here if you want to talk." He half-smiled.

  I wrapped my arms around Kepi and leaned my forehead onto his shoulder.

  He put an arm around me, not in some awkward romantic way, but more like how someone holds a cup of hot tea.

  I lifted my head and kept on my strange pilgrimage.

  He disappeared back toward the barn.

  The Chimeras' gate locks opened in screeches, and I left the apron and gloves in the closet.

  I opened the coop and ducked inside, then let the blackness swallow me. "Hello?"

  Harmonic howl-like hoots filled the metal space and quieted as sudden as they started.

  The first and largest pair stepped forward in their cage. The other duos followed their example. At the end of the row, Tilly squawked.

  I knelt by the first cage and wrapped my fingers around the bars.

  They sniffed at them and dipped their heads.

  I stood and opened each of the cages.

  Every creature tentatively left her space and filled the wide middle aisle.

  I sat with Kepi in my lap in the middle of the row, back against the cold metal bars.

  Tilly settled beside us.

  "The phylacteries were inorganic before, metal disks. Philomena found a way to make them from bones and blood."

  Eda had said her brother noted Tilly was a more adaptable vessel. It explained why metallurgy for the disks was so important. A more sophisticated soul only stayed in the proper mix of components.

  Was Tilly practice or a prison?

  She sniffed me and cocked her head.

  Light streamed in from the side, from the doorway.

  All the leathery heads around snapped toward it. Their eyes reflected the glow in green flashes.

  I turned and squinted into the light.

  Leyla.

  She held a lamp and gasped.

  "They won't hurt you." I touched the big one nearby. Her cold, slick skin slid under my fingers.

  She wiggled and warbled.

  "See?"

  Leyla took out her scroll. "I do." She stepped forward. "Your eyes in the light were just like theirs."

  I looked away.

  She put the lamp down and wrapped me in her warm arms.

  I said, "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you."

  She only squeezed tighter.

  "That scroll Eda brought, I could read it, but what I saw in my mind after." I stopped.

  She pulled back, and her beautiful face twisted in confusion.

  "I, but not me, had your scroll, and a Conduction dagger. What if Philomena killed your parents and made it look like a heart attack?"

  A shock of gold letters. "It isn't your fault." The room grew dark again before she said, "Eda might have only guessed as much about Philomena."

  "She loved your parents. There has to be a reason."

  Her face was a tangle of anger and confusion, but she nodded.

  "I can't explain a memory from my mother, but Eda thought she might have used her blood. Maybe that's it." I sat back but kept my hands around hers. "Leyla, I need to fix this. For those possessed people, the souls trapped in the disks for centuries, and our parents. Even us. Someone is pulling all our strings."

  She pressed her lips together. "What do we do?"

  "Each Chimera has a twin." I swallowed. "Including me. Philomena hid her, to protect her, and our families' secrets, but I know where she is."

  "Where?" She blinked and touched her forehead. "The Grand Counterbalance. Of course. Then if Sybil finds it, is this twin like you, or more like them?" She scanned the other Chimer
as.

  My stomach dropped. "Thirteen wouldn't kill Sybil."

  Leyla's eyes grew wide. "Not only that but if Philomena hid her to keep her safe, the Order might kill your sister."

  "You're right. We weren't a sanctioned pair; we're something extra."

  She kept her hand on mine. "So they'll kill you, too if Sybil finds her first and they figure it out." Her shoulders rose and fell with a huge sigh.

  "Thirteen will know who this other Attuned is my mother mentioned. They helped finish Thirteen, and are likely the one who controls the sick ones."

  Leyla said, "So, well, you call her 'Thirteen,' so I will, too. We find her first, but how?"

  "I don't know."

  "Philomena must have left a hint. She wants you to find it without Kepi's help, right?"

  "Or not at all."

  She shook her head. "No way. You learned about her in the office, right?"

  "Well, yes."

  "So, she wouldn't make it so only you could enter and learn you have a sister and not want you to find her. Anything peculiar in her office?"

  "You mean besides an eyeball in a jar and Thirteen's feather?"

  She frowned but then chuckled. "Yes. Although if you kept either, I want to see them later."

  I couldn't help but smile. "Well, there was a pair of muddy boots and a telescope by the window overlooking the Maw and its Capstone."

  Leyla pulled at her shawl and sat cross-legged. "Seems strange to bring those up to the office, she couldn't use the telescope here."

  "No, but she used it to navigate Phase."

  Kepi looked up and cooed cute and curious.

  Leyla grinned. "What else?"

  Kepi kicked at her necklace.

  The charm jostled around and caught the last light of Leyla's words.

  I immediately looked at the boots and telescope, was it like how someone left something out of place to jog a, "a memory. Philomena asked your parents to help her make a necklace. I found out from her journal," I said and lifted the charm in my palm.

  "Remember."

  I drew in a long breath. "This is it."

  She touched it with the tips of her slender fingers. "What do you mean?"

  I bit the inside of my lip. "I haven't told anyone that this speaks. It tells me to remember."

  "Like my scroll?"

  "A voice, in my head."

  "Whose voice is it?"

  "My mother's."

  Tilly leaned in and sniffed it. She warbled and smelled me again.