Chapter 45: The Moon Hymn

The girl’s voice broke on the very first word, so that it came out more like a squeak than a song, and behind Kai, Princess Seris flinched.

"Sing to me," the girl sang, and then she broke off, because she was trembling all over.

There was silence for a long while after that. The ray of light coming through the window didn’t change, and neither did the pool below it, and every one of the sisters had her veiled head turned towards the girl in horror, as if they were all waiting for something terrible to happen.

[Kai, she stopped crying]

"Is that good or bad?" Kai whispered.

[I believe she is listening]

The High Sister stood frozen with her arm still stretched out towards the girl, and for a long time, nobody else in the temple moved either. Then the girl swallowed, squeezed her eyes shut, and started over from the beginning, and this time, her voice didn’t break.

"Sing to me when the night is long, and I will answer with my light," the girl sang.

Her voice was shaky, but it traveled up the inside of the tower towards the window like a bird taking flight, and as she sang, the light falling into the pool began to grow brighter. It wasn’t by much at first, but Kai noticed it, and so did every priestess in the room, because all of them sat up straight at once.

The girl kept singing, and when she reached the next line and realized she didn’t know it, she looked up at the wall and read the words as she went, stumbling over a few of them. Then another voice joined hers from the other side of the pool, a woman who had pulled her veil up just enough to uncover her mouth, and then another, and another. One by one, the silent sisters uncovered their mouths and began to sing, and some of them were crying so hard they could barely get the words out, until the song filled the entire tower.

The light kept growing until it was no longer sunlight at all, but a bright, pale silver that filled the whole pool and spilled over its edge onto the stone floor. It reminded Kai of moonlight shining on water, and everywhere it touched, the priestesses began to glow.

"Their lights," Elowen whispered. "Kai, they are growing. They were candles, and now they are lanterns."

The High Sister was the last one to sing, and for a while, Kai thought she might never sing at all. She stood in front of the wall with her hand resting on the carvings, trembling, and she kept her mouth closed through the first two verses. When the third verse began, she slowly lifted her veil, and Kai saw an old woman with deep lines around her mouth and wet silver eyes.

She sang the third verse in a voice she hadn’t used in forty years, rough and cracked, and it was the most beautiful thing Kai had ever heard in his life.

When the song ended, the silver light lingered above the pool like mist hanging in the air, and Kai heard a voice inside his head that wasn’t Syraphim’s.

"Little god," the voice said.

It was cool and gentle, like the wind on a warm summer night, and it sounded almost sad, as if she had been crying for a very long time.

"You found my voice," the voice said. "My daughters were robbed of their songs, and without them, I could not reach them. I wept every night, and no one could hear me. Not until you."

Kai looked around the tower and realized that no one else seemed able to hear her, because the priestesses were all crying and embracing one another, and Mira was frowning at him with concern.

"I didn’t do much," Kai whispered. "I just hit a plaque."

"You hit the right one," the Lady of the Silver Moon said, and Kai almost smiled, because he could hear that she was smiling at him. "You always do, little god, even when you are aiming at something else."

[I did not like the way she said little]

"Now is not the time," Kai whispered, and Mira’s frown grew even deeper as she watched him argue with the empty air.

"Listen to me, little god," the Lady said, and her voice hardened. "We were all silenced at once, in the same year, by the same hands. The Sea. The Moon. The Harvest. Even our sister in the Cathedral, who has been silent the longest of all."

"The Mother," Kai whispered.

"The sun knows who is holding her tongue, so go and ask him," the Lady said, and her voice began to fade into the mist above the pool. "But hurry. The one who silenced us is still afraid of what we have to say."

[Kai. She saw me as well, just like the Tide Mother did]

"What does that mean?" Kai whispered.

[I do not know. But I believe they know what I am, and I do not]

Kai didn’t have an answer for that, so he didn’t say anything at all, and a moment later, the High Sister came over and stood in front of him. She didn’t pick up her slate this time, and when she spoke, her voice was raspy and pained.

"Forty years," the High Sister said. "I allowed them to silence her for forty years, and I called it faith."

"You didn’t know," Kai said.

"That is what everyone tells you," the High Sister said. "And it is never the truth. We did not ask." She held her head high and met Kai’s gaze. "The Lady of the Silver Moon will vote for you, God of Failure. And when we vote, we will sing."

The young girl who had started the song was standing behind her, holding onto her veil with both hands, and she walked up to Kai and bowed her head so far down that her hair brushed the floor.

"My name is Lysa," the girl said, her freckled cheeks bright red. "Thank you for missing, God of Failure."

[Faith gained. New follower: Lysa. Faith: 21%. Status: Brave.]

[Faith gained. New follower: High Sister Aurel. Faith: 9%. Status: Awakened.]

[You have also gained 23 new followers from the Sisters of the Silver Moon. They all wish to sing to you]

"Please don’t sing to me," Kai whispered.

[It is too late. They already have]

Behind the High Sister, all of the priestesses had begun to sing again, softly this time, and Princess Seris was scribbling in her notebook so fast that her charcoal snapped in half.

"Two and a half," Princess Seris said, looking up at Kai with her green eyes shining. "You have two and a half votes."

"I need four," Kai said, though he couldn’t help smiling as he listened to the singing drift up the tower.

"You only need one and a half more," Princess Seris said. "Which is not nearly as many as four."

By the time they stepped back out through the silver doors and into the narrow street, the sun was beginning to set over the rooftops, and someone was waiting for them on the steps of the temple.

He was tall and skinny, wearing robes the color of ash, and his skin was so pale it was almost white, and he smelled strongly of wood smoke, like a fire that had gone out long ago. He didn’t greet them or tell them his name, and he simply held out a small round piece of black clay, carved with two faces looking away from each other.

"The Ashen Twins have taken an interest in you," the man said, in a voice as dry as old parchment. "The dead have been asking about you, God of Failure, and the Twins would like to meet you."

Kai took the piece of clay, and it was ice cold in his hand, as if he had just picked it up out of the snow.

"When?" Kai asked.

"At dusk tomorrow," the man said. "Come to the cemetery, and bring nothing that is alive."

He turned and walked away down the street without another word, and Mira leaned over Kai’s shoulder to look at the token, while Sunny’s hand came to rest on the hilt of his sword. Elowen kept her blindfolded face turned towards the man until he disappeared around a corner, and she was frowning.

"He has no light," Elowen said quietly. "Not dim, like the sisters were this morning. He has none at all, as if there is nothing inside him to burn."

Kai stood on the steps of the temple, staring down at the cold piece of black clay in his hand for a long time, while the singing from the tower drifted out over the rooftops behind him.

"I’m alive," Kai said slowly. "Does that count?"

[Yes. I believe that is the point]