Jade Riff's Arc

Chapter 2 of 6

The band held the anthem together for one full pass through, then Jade lifted her hand and the sound stopped. The tavern went still. She could hear her own breath. The melody was strong. The chords were strong. But when she reached the place where words should have carried the song, there was nothing there. She had been humming past that gap for months. Now four other players were waiting for her to fill it, and the Silence was closer every hour. "The bridge needs words," Luna said. She was leaning on the bar, arms crossed. "You keep skipping it. A crowd won't sing what isn't there." "I know," Jade said. "Then write it." "I've tried. Everything I put down sounds like somebody else's song." Riley set her bass against the wall. "What are we fighting for. Answer that. Words come after." Jade opened her mouth and closed it. She had written about the Silence. About what it took. She had never written about what her generation still held. She looked at the four of them and did not have an answer yet. Tsuki stepped onto the bench so her eyes were level with Jade's. "My tribe forgot my drum. I came back because one listener is enough to start. Ask them why they came." Jade turned to Luna first. "Why are you here. Not the court. Here." "Because I've slept in barns for six years and nobody in a stone hall ever listened," Luna said. "But drunks in a tavern did. That's who I sing for." Riley next. "My old band's chasing a weapon. I'd rather play one." Tsuki. "To be heard once more before I go quiet." Melody had not moved from the wall. Her wings hung torn behind her. "A woodpecker knocked three times," she said. "Then nothing. I want the third knock back." Jade pulled a scrap of paper from her jacket. She wrote as they spoke. Barns and drunks. A weapon you play. One more listen. The third knock. She read it back and it was still not a song. It was a list. She crossed it out. Then she wrote one line under it. We are the sound they forgot to take. She played the bridge again and sang it. Luna caught the line on the second pass and doubled it an octave up. Riley found the low note under it. Tsuki's drum came in on the third beat. Melody closed her eyes. The words held. The bridge did not sag anymore. Jade felt the song lock shut around a center it had been missing. Outside, the wind carried a thinness through the shutters — the front edge of the Silence, closer than yesterday. Melody's head turned toward the door. "It heard us," she said. Jade lowered her guitar. The anthem had a heart now. And the Silence knew where they were.