The Whispering Echoes (Smoke and Mirrors Book 3)

by Melissa Giorgio

  “Thank you!” I yelled back.

  West was crouched over our satchels, organizing his medical supplies, when I walked up. “How are you doing?” he asked me.

  “I’m feeling a tiny bit overwhelmed.”

  West smiled. “Just a tiny bit? I feel like I’m going to start screaming if I don’t keep my hands busy.”

  I sank down on the ground next to him. “I knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but…”

  “But you didn’t expect three vigilantes bent on murdering anyone with magic would show up and attack our dragon, did you?” West asked. Claudette, Emile, and Michel weren’t sitting close enough to hear us, but West still lowered his voice. “Yesterday I saw Parnaby almost blow up a mansion, and today I saw a dragon nearly die. What’s going to happen tomorrow?”

  I groaned. “With our luck, something horrible.”

  “How come those three are still sticking around?” West asked. “Didn’t you get them to agree not to kill Vernen and Jaegger? Shouldn’t they be on their way, searching for their next victims?”

  That was a very good question. Why were they still here? Did they want to hear more about Dusk? About Jaegger? As if sensing we were talking about them, Claudette looked our way. Next to me West sputtered in surprise and quickly went back to repacking his satchel. I stared at him, my eyes widening when he started blushing.

  “Hmm,” I said, remembering how he’d teased me about my relationship with Leonid. “Maybe you don’t want them to go. Or at least not all of them?”

  West threw a roll of bandages at me.

  Claudette said something to her companions before rising to come join us. Swearing softly, West threw everything back into his satchel and stood abruptly, startling Claudette.

  “Oh,” she said, blinking. “Hello.”

  West didn’t say anything as his face turned an even darker shade of red. I watched him, bemused. Always quick with a quip, West had been struck speechless by a girl he didn’t even know. I laughed quietly and stood as well, taking pity on the man.

  “Claudette, have you met West yet? He’s another soldier from Dusk. He’s a really good artist and a medic.” I showed her the bandages on both of my hands. “Thanks to him, I barely feel a thing.”

  Claudette’s eyes widened. “What did you do to your hands?”

  “It’s a long story.” Which I can’t even tell you, I added silently. “Did you meet the others?” I hoped she didn’t notice my not-too-subtle change of subject. “The ones playing catch are Aden and Quinn. Aden is also a soldier, and Quinn is a girl we met…”

  “After she pickpocketed the captain,” West supplied unhelpfully. I glared at him. Now he decided to speak up.

  Claudette was looking a little overwhelmed by all of this information. “Wait. She’s a thief? And which one is the captain?”

  “Leonid,” I said.

  “The one Michel punched in the nose?” Claudette asked.

  “He didn’t punch him.” West’s voice rose in anger. “Is that what he said? He elbowed him. It was a cheap shot, too.”

  “West.” I put a hand on his arm. What was he getting so angry for? “Yes, that’s Leonid. He’s a captain and… my…” Now I was the one blushing.

  “Ah,” Claudette said knowingly. “Your sweetheart.” She flashed me a smile. “I already met Vernen and the dragon, but the girl? Who’s that?”

  “Elyse. She and I are both magician’s assistants.”

  Claudette’s eyes narrowed at that.

  “Street magic,” I added. “Tricks. We don’t actually use magic in our shows.” At least, I didn’t think we did, until I found out the truth much later…

  Claudette relaxed her stance. “And people want to see that?”

  I don’t think she was trying to be insulting, but what she said still irritated me. My words were clipped when I responded. “Of course. Our shows are very popular in Dusk.” Well, Parnaby and Elyse were always more popular than me and Bantheir, but she doesn’t need to know that. Actually, why was I telling her any of this? Despite getting off to a rough start, I was finding myself warming up to Claudette. If I wasn’t careful, I would start telling her things she didn’t need to know about.

  Claudette, no doubt hearing the frost in my words, held up her hands. “Don’t get upset, Irina. I’m not making fun of the shows. We had a traveling carnival visit us and it was very… popular.” Her expression darkening, she knelt. Ripping up more blades of brown grass, she tried in vain to weave them together.

  I watched her, feeling uneasy without knowing why. “The carnival?” I asked.

  Her gaze was on the ground as she worked. “They would show up every few years, without any warning, and set up their tents on the outskirts of Ayres. The main part of the city was situated on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. Emile and I lived on a farm outside the city. And to the west of us were plains, similar to this one. That’s where the carnival set up.” Claudette dropped the dead blades of grass with a sigh.

  Suddenly, it hit me, why her words were bothering me. It was something Aeonia had said that fateful day in her shop when she’d blackmailed me into retrieving the stone for her. She, too, had mentioned the carnival, telling me her people traveled from city to city putting on shows, and yet something had always kept them away from Dusk. She was referring to Parnaby’s magic, of course, but what if…

  I stared at Claudette. Were we connected somehow?

  Her hands, which had been reaching for more grass, stilled. “What? What is it?”

  “Irina, are you all right?” West put a steadying hand on my shoulder. “You’ve gone deathly pale.”

  “Claudette,” I said as my heart began racing, “how did Ayres fall into the ocean?”

  “Excuse me?” West exclaimed. “Your city—”

  “Is gone, yes,” Claudette said impatiently. “I told you, Irina, it was by magic.”

  I could barely breathe. “Whose magic?”

  “How did someone knock a city into the ocean with magic?” West asked. “I refuse to believe anyone is that strong, not even after what I saw Parnaby and Aeonia were capable of yesterday—”

  In a flash Claudette had freed her sword and was pointing it at West’s throat. He let out a startled yelp and held up his hands. “Wait, wait, I’m sorry! I’ll stop interrupting you—”

  “What did you say?” she screamed, attracting everyone’s attention. Emile got up and raced over. Aden, too, joined us, telling Quinn to stay back. He unsheathed his sword and looked to me for guidance. I held up a hand, letting him know to stay where he was for now.

  “Claudette, stop it.” Emile tried to get his sister to take a step back, but she shoved him off. “Claudette! What’s wrong?”

  “He said her name.” Claudette’s face had gone blotchy and her eyes were shining with unshed tears. “He said her name.”

  “Look, I don’t know what I did, but I’m sorry,” West began.

  “Aeonia.” Everyone stopped talking to look at me. When Emile’s face paled, I knew I was right. “Aeonia’s the one who destroyed your city, isn’t she, Claudette?”

  “How,” she breathed, “do you know her? And tell me the whole truth this time, Irina. Don’t think I don’t see how you’re hiding things. People don’t just accidentally stumble across dragons and magicians, all right?”

  “Actually, in Irina’s case, that’s pretty close to the truth,” West mumbled. He flinched when Claudette shoved the sword an inch closer to his throat. “All right, I’m sorry! I’ll shut up now.”

  “Start talking,” Claudette said to me. “And don’t you dare leave a damn thing out.”

  “Or else what?” Leonid said from behind me. I jumped; I hadn’t even noticed him or Vernen joining us. Vernen looked fine from what I could tell, but he did seem a little uneasy by the scene before him. And who can blame him for that? “You’re going to start stabbing us? Put the sword down, Claudette.”

  “Don’t tell her what to do,” Michel said, approaching us now that Leonid had
appeared.

  Leonid folded his arms over his chest and gave the dark-haired man a glare. “You want to go for round two?”

  “You sure you have it in you? You barely survived our first encounter—”

  “Enough,” Claudette snapped. “Rein it in for once in your damn life, Michel. This isn’t about you. It’s about her. Aeonia.” She said her name like a curse.

  “She’s the one you’ve been looking for,” Vernen said softly. “She’s the reason you’ve been traveling, hunting people like me.”

  “Aeonia and her people murdered everyone we knew and loved.” Claudette’s eyes flashed dangerously. “We need to find them so we can prevent them from doing something like that ever again. Did the carnival come to Dusk? Is that how you met her?”

  I shook my head. “Aeonia and her sister Aurora left their family years ago.” Michel stiffened at my words. “It was just the two of them who came to Dusk. She… Leonid?” I looked to him, asking him with my eyes how much I should tell them.

  He studied Claudette and her companions, assessing them each in turn. I wondered what he was thinking. Was he listening to his instinct? Emile we can trust, and possibly Claudette, but Michel… Unfortunately, the three of them were a team, and I knew the siblings wouldn’t just ask Michel to leave.

  “It’s fine,” Leonid said after a long pause. “Tell them.”

  I stared pointedly at Claudette’s sword until she lowered it with a huff of impatience. “All right, sit down,” I told everyone. Turning, I gestured for Elyse to join us. She rose, Jaegger clutched in her arms. I wanted everyone to be present for this conversation, even Quinn. “Is there someplace you can store the amplifier for now?” I asked the siblings.

  “I’ll put it in my horse’s saddlebag,” Emile said.

  As he went off to do that, I turned to meet Elyse. “What is going on?” she hissed. “Why is that girl shrieking and pointing swords at West? I know he talks a lot, but that’s going to the extreme, don’t you think?”

  She handed over Jaegger, whom I cradled in my arms as I checked on him. “Still sleeping…” I’d been hoping he could join us as we explained what we knew about Aeonia, but I’d have to fill him in later. In answer to Elyse’s question, I said, “Turns out we have a mutual acquaintance in common with Claudette. She knows Aeonia.”

  I watched Elyse’s blue eyes grow round. “How can that be?”

  Earlier when I’d looked at the map of the world, I’d marveled at how large it was. Now it felt small—suffocating. “I guess we were meant to meet?”

  Elyse shook her head. “It seems too convenient, don’t you think? The people we randomly meet also know the person we’re chasing?”

  “Let’s hear them out first before we make any sort of judgement,” I said. “We’re going to compare stories. Maybe they know something about her that can help us track her down and retrieve the stone.”

  Elyse caught my arm before I could walk away. “Whatever you do, don’t tell them about the stone. If they’re so intent on killing magical creatures like Jaegger, then they’ll try to destroy the stone. And I guarantee that’ll be disastrous.”

  She was right. The less they knew about the stone, the better. “All right. Just do me a favor and smack anyone if they start to reveal something they shouldn’t.”

  When Elyse laughed—cackled, actually—something told me she’d actually enjoy hitting us. We exchanged nervous smiles before rejoining the others.

  “ARE YOU READY TO START talking yet?” Claudette demanded. Everyone was sitting in a circle, sharing the bread and cheese we’d packed for the journey. Claudette, however, was hovering at the edge of the circle, pacing back and forth. She’d returned her sword to its sheath, but something told me she’d whip it out and start threatening us again if we didn’t start speaking soon, and quickly, at that.

  I swallowed my bite of food and settled back, trying to find a comfortable spot on the ground. Between walking for hours through the night, sleeping on the hard ground, and my various injuries, my entire body ached. I didn’t dare complain, not after what I’d seen happen to Jaegger.

  “Sit down,” Emile chided. After making a rude noise, Claudette joined her brother and accepted the water flask he held out for her.

  Leonid looked at me, asking with his eyes if I wanted him to be the one to speak. I shook my head. Out of everyone here, I’d had the most encounters with Aeonia. I knew what she was after, not to mention she’d slipped about why she wanted the amplifier, saying it was for someone other than her. But who could that possibly be? As someone who didn’t care how many lives she destroyed trying to get what she wanted, I couldn’t see Aeonia selflessly handing over the amplifier to someone else.

  Not knowing the answer, I hoped that Claudette could offer some insight regarding Aeonia’s intentions. I started with how Aeonia instructed Quinn to steal Leonid’s mother’s hairpin so our paths would cross with Aeonia’s. I didn’t dare mention Aeonia had interrupted Parnaby’s teleportation magic because I didn’t want them to know about his magic. With my luck, Michel would make it his mission to kill Parnaby, and the president would have yet another reason to despise me.

  But how could I describe what Aeonia wanted if I couldn’t tell them about Parnaby or his magic? I decided to keep the facts vague, which annoyed Claudette. “Aeonia wanted something magical, something that only I could get—”

  “Why?” Claudette asked.

  “What was it?” Emile said at the same time.

  I paused, stumped. What was I supposed to say? “Elyse? A little help here?”

  She glared at the three newcomers in turn, frightening even me with the dark look in her eyes. “Listen, there are things we can’t tell you. Dangerous secrets that could cost the lives of many.”

  “I’m sorry, but who are you again?” Michel asked her, his voice flat and condescending.

  “A street magician’s assistant, apparently,” Claudette said with a snort.

  Elyse’s hands balled into fists. “I am so much more than that, you stupid girl.”

  “Excuse me?” Claudette went for her sword again, but Emile stopped her.

  “Just tell them,” Jaegger said weakly from my lap. I jumped, not realizing he was awake. His aqua eyes were open and he seemed amused by the proceedings.

  “Did we wake you?” I asked. “How are you feeling?”

  “I am healing, little bird,” Jaegger said.

  Leonid leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Are you sure we should tell them? Everything?”

  “It’s fine.” The dragon opened his mouth wide to yawn, showing off his impressive rows of shiny, pointy teeth. “If we find out later that they spoke of this to another being, I will just eat them.”

  “Jae!”

  When the dragon started laughing, I knew he was feeling much better.

  “Tell us,” Emile said, still trying to restrain his sister. “You can trust us. Or do you need us to go first? Do you want us to tell you about Aeonia?”

  “That witch,” Michel spat, “and her family invaded our city and murdered our friends and family. Then they used magic to collapse the entire city into the ocean. What else do you need to know? They’re dangerous and we’ve made it our life mission to hunt down every last traveler and kill them for what they’ve done.”

  Stunned silence descended over us.

  “So that’s what this is?” Leonid asked. “A revenge mission? That’s why you tried to attack Vernen?” He gestured to his friend. “Even though he had nothing to do with what happened to your city?”

  “That—”

  “We wouldn’t have killed him,” Emile said quickly, speaking over Michel. “When we saw he wasn’t a traveler, we would have let him go.”

  “You’re lying,” Elyse said. “You’ve killed anyone who can use magic. Admit it.”

  Emile looked sickened by that. Michel, meanwhile, had no problem proudly saying, “Yes, we have.”

  Elyse stood. “Then we’re not telling you a damn thing.
Go find Aeonia and the other travelers on your own. I’m sorry about your city, but I will not let the same thing happen to Dusk.”

  “Seems like something’s already happening,” Claudette said. “Who is this Parnaby that West mentioned? He was fighting Aeonia with magic?”

  Elyse whirled on West, raising her fist. “You stupid idiot!”

  “I’m sorry!” He held up his hands. “I slipped. I didn’t mean anything by it!”

  “Enough!” Leonid yelled, standing as well. “Elyse, we have to tell them. If we want to stop Aeonia before it’s too late, then we need to know everything there is to know about her.” He paused, troubled. “If she’s capable of leveling a city, then I don’t know how we’re going to stop her.”

  “It wasn’t her,” Claudette said. “Not directly, anyway. It was a series of events that caused the destruction of Ayres, starting with Michel’s stupid idea to kill Aeonia once he saw her casting actual magic.”

  “It wasn’t a stupid idea.” Michel glared at her. “As a Knight of Ayres, you’re supposed to—”

  “I know what you’re supposed to do,” she snapped. “But if you’d behaved like a normal human being, Ayres would still be standing, and my parents would still be alive! Gilbert would still be alive!”

  “Who’s Gilbert?” West asked me in a whisper. I shook my head, too caught up in Claudette and Michel’s heated argument to pay him any attention.

  The two of them stood, facing off against one another. Emile remained sitting, but he had a wary look on his face, like he knew he was moments away from jumping between them to stop them from exchanging punches.

  “So you’ve finally said it,” Michel hissed. “It only took you four years, Claudette.”

  “I said it that night!” Claudette shook her head. “If you ever took your head out of your ass and listened to something besides the sound of your own voice, then you’d know—”

  He shoved her and Claudette took a few stumbling steps back, shocked. Before she could grab her sword, Emile was on his feet. He put both of his hands on Michel’s chest and pushed him away. “Don’t touch my sister.”