LYRA OF THE TRENCH's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The colony's lights still spelled the third symbol against the wall, faster now. Something on the far side of the open portal was coming. Lyra needed a name for it. She turned to the one person who always knew more than he admitted. Kaelen leaned against a bending pillar, tossing a coin, watching the black water beyond the thinned wall like a man watching rain. "You've seen this before," Lyra said. "Name it." "I've seen a lot of things." Kaelen caught the coin. "Most of them wanted to eat me. Charming company." "Kaelen." "You know, the trick with a hungry god is to never look interested." He grinned. "Play hard to get." Every question slid off him like water off oiled cloth. Lyra had aligned the portal to learn the Song of the Maw. Now the Song was answering back, and she could not read it in time. She pressed her palm to the cold wall. The water beyond bulged toward the light. A quiet voice spoke behind her. "He can't say it." Lyra turned. Two women stood in the shifting doorway. They wore the same green robes lined in gold. They had the same red hair, the same freckled faces. Only one glowed, her curls lit like embers. That one held a small cat close to her chest. The cat had violet eyes and did not blink. "Saraphillia," Kaelen said. His grin dropped. "And borrowed friends." Saraphillia ignored him. She looked at Lyra. "The smiling gods take a name when they give one. He knows that. That's why he jokes." The cat in her arms stretched and became a small girl with violet eyes. "He's not lying," Nyx said flatly. "He just can't pay." Lyra looked at Kaelen. For the first time his shadow moved wrong. It pulled toward the portal though he stood still. "If I say its name," Kaelen said, low, "it hears its name. And it comes faster." No joke this time. "That's the price. You want the word, it costs you the thing you named the word for." Saraphillia set a hand on Lyra's arm. "I trade names. I keep the ones that hurt to say." She met Lyra's eyes. "I'll carry this one for you." Lyra understood. A name spoken aloud would draw the thing. A name held by someone else would not. She nodded. Saraphillia leaned to Kaelen. He whispered one word into her ear. Lyra heard nothing. But Saraphillia flinched, and her glowing hair went dark for a moment, then lit again. "It's called the Verse-That-Wakes," Saraphillia said. Her voice stayed plain. "It is the last verse of your Song. It doesn't drive the island mad. It is the island, waking." The water beyond the wall stopped bulging. It went still. Listening. "You aligned the door that opens it," Saraphillia said. "Now you have to learn how to close it."