A Shield of Faith (BOOK 4)

Chapter 28

YUVEN

'My promised song, I fear its shaken foundations,

'I have done my best along the sparkled days, though the end begins,

'Yesterday's song dreamt of beautiful peace,

'Yonder's voice calls out for the word of the promise I gave,

'Though I might find myself wrong, I shall fly into the dark.'

The stories about the ice sirens had to come from somewhere.

He saw him in the darkness, surrounded by snowroses sprinkled with pollen frost, his back against the obsidian names which provided temporary security, but no warmth to it. The flowers appeared to reply to the twirled notes in the air which gave birth from his voice, creating glyphs to add to the tonality of air; magick from art. His slender fingers drifted along the strings of the white-laquered lute with no wasted sound. His golden feathers weaved against the pressure of the breeze as he swayed and sang for an unknown, heart-felt reprieve. Lost in his thoughts, alone in the marble garden while he hid in his distortion, a ghost to time. Underneath the harsh Navei of the cloaked figures, his voice came out gentle, yet strong and certain; welcome and warm. a purposeful wave as he delivered the melodic passages and pierced space itself.

'Sing with me one time, for the out of reach melody,

'In my endless dream, I embraced the realm's cold light,

'Naught but a whisper on the breeze.'

Rust gathered in his throat when he left the ancient dream and found the one thing in his life unchanged. Neven's voice disappeared in the intense, crimson ringing when he drew his sapphire irides in his direction, lowering the lute against his lap. His fingers hooked the pegs when he leaned closer with a quiet huff of mist out of his nose. Magick in excess, released back into the world itself. "I am sorry if I disturbed you," he said in the tense silence, unbroken, and no 'siren' compared to the reality found in a single voice. "Maria will be here soon, I have offered to sit and observe you until she does."

"Fenrer," Yuven croaked out, and he chewed on his worthless, weak tongue when blood foam stuck it to the back of his teeth.

Neven's feathers twitched in response to the power of a name, and set the lute at his feet instead. "I will be going back to him soon," he said, and the foam burst into relieved bubbles. He scooped up one of the medicinal tinctures from Maria's desk and held it out to him, but he found the strength to shake his head, rueful when Neven placed it back with the rest, though his fingers faltered around its stout neck. A heavy sigh left his nose with another ruffle of the gold-shade feathers when he released it once more and turned back to him.

You weren't disturbing me, he wanted the will to cry it out in his own voice with the remnants of his strength, whatever it meant. "How is he?" he mumbled and raked his fingers against the puffs in the mattress. "I know he can't come down here... he is unable to." He sucked in his splattered lips and drank his own life to its clogged dregs. "I know Maria wishes to preserve my concern, but all I can think about is how I should have never agreed to become Oathbound. In that, at least I'd be the only one suffering this thrice-damned obscura hell." He hacked up a blood-soaked piece of lung, and Neven reached his hand forward to put it on his shoulder as he pressed a new cloth against his mouth to try and rid himself of the ceaseless taste, but no core as Evyriaz spat out his with ease. He slipped his fangs against the back of his lips when Neven squeezed his shoulder. "I am sorry if I puke blood on you, Miesero. I may have mistaken you for a bucket."

"Clothes can be washed, and I've been splattered plenty by Derelicts, and they are leagues more smelly," Neven quipped a shared humor in a dark song, but his brow creased with concern, though Yuven squeezed out a laugh past the coagulation in his throat. "In my seriousness, Yuven... I just want you to rest and not worry further. I am keeping an eye on Fenrer." His gaze swept over his weak, shaking body splayed across the bed in the room of ink walls.