Larkspur Mittel: The Lark & Owl Trilogy

14 - The Silence Was Loud

"It was you all along!"

She could have laughed, but then Adelmus was lying next to her covered by a slimy, now unmoving creature that would soon make him its meal.

"What shall I do?" Hero felt foolish talking to the insect, but it was her only hope.

The dragonfly buzzed around in circles and then disappeared into one of the tunnels.

What if she were wrong?

What if the dragonfly wasn't a sign, and she left Adelmus here on his own and followed it all for nothing? What if she only wished it were a sign?

But if you should find a sysil-like bind, remember this piece of advice...

The singing rhyme repeated itself, teasing her. The last part hovered just beyond the edges of her mind.

The sysipal looked like a blanket now that it had stopped moving. A slimy, suffocating blanket that had tucked her best friend to sleep. A very long sleep, if she didn't move fast enough.

The dragonfly emerged briefly again as though waiting for her, and then ducked back in to one of the tunnels.

Yer master has a great fondness for the wee critters, Hero could hear Gerd's voice again.

Gaulus must have somehow trained or enchanted the dragonflies and other insects. It made sense now, as to why they always headed for the hearth.

They were trying to follow him.

"I'll be back as soon as I can Mussie, just hang on!" She leaned over and whispered tearfully into Adelmus's ear.

She dashed after the insect.

The mineral in the walls lit up again as she ran, and after only a short while, the dragonfly led her to a fissure in the wall that she might have easily passed had it not been for his help.

She slid inside, and found a stone staircase which she climbed quickly. When she pushed open the grate at the top (it opened easily to her surprise), she was surprised to find herself on the edge of the field opposite Wobash Cynders.

She was so relieved, and never would have guessed that she was so close to home. In the long day or days that had passed she realized that she'd lost all sense of time. It was night now, long after sunset, and the moon and stars shown brightly in the sky.

Sand from the shamal had blown across the field and was piled high in dunes on the sides of the road and before the river, where a heavy mist lay over the water.

The mist on the river... it is a sign, if I ever saw one, she remembered Boer Mam saying.

Hero closed the grate quietly behind her and looked for something to mark the location. As if in response to her concern, the dragonfly hovered nearby, as though to say, 'don't worry, I'll wait here for you.'

Glancing around to make sure nobody saw her, she scrambled over the hills of sand, and stole across the road, and into the storeroom door entrance of Wobash Cynders.

It was much too quiet inside.

Even late at night the children normally heard the comforting sounds of old Pushba and Boer Mam moving about in the kitchen, arguing by the fire in the drafty front sitting room, or rocking a young one back to sleep with a song.

Their work never seemed to end.

But now, Hero thought, the silence was loud, as though shouting out a warning.

She thought of the clocker crow and how it had hunted her. She instinctively glanced up into the rafters of the stairwell as she climbed.

She'd also nearly forgotten about what had gotten her into this mess- the globe in her satchel.