The Sundered Sky
THE WHISPER
The northern villages were worse than she had expected.
The shadow-stain had not faded here. It lingered in the soil, in the water, in the bones of the dead. The crops would not grow. The children were sick. The old people were dying.
Lyra walked through the fields, her hands in the earth, humming the Songs of Healing. The soil responded — slowly, grudgingly — but it responded. The shadow-stain receded. The seeds sprouted.
But the work was slow. And the whisper was getting louder.
She heard it first at night, when the village was asleep and the only sound was the wind in the trees. A voice. Faint. Distant. Calling her name.
“Lyra.”
She sat up in her bed.
The room was dark.
Davin was asleep on a pallet on the floor.
“Lyra.”
She put her hands over her ears.
The voice did not stop.
It was not a sound. It was a vibration. A frequency. A presence.
“Come to me.”
“Who are you?” she whispered.
“I am the one who sleeps beneath the ice. I am the one who remembers the first song. I am the one who has been waiting for you.”
“I don’t know you.”
“You will. Come north. To the frozen city. I will show you.”
The voice faded.
Lyra sat in the darkness, shaking.
She told Davin in the morning.
“I’m going north.”
“North? There’s nothing north but ice and ruins.”
“There’s a city. Buried under the ice. And something is sleeping there.”
Davin’s face went pale.
“You heard it too.”
“You knew?”
“I’ve been hearing it for weeks. Since the Sundered King died. I thought it was my imagination. I thought I was going mad.”
“It’s not madness. It’s a god. A sleeping god. And it wants me to wake it.”
Davin grabbed her arm.
“You can’t. The Sundered King nearly killed you. Another god —”
“Another god might be different. Not all gods are enemies. Seraphine said some are still waiting. Still hoping. Still listening.”
“Or it might be lying. Gods lie. The Sundered King lied.”
Lyra looked at the mountains in the distance. At the snow-capped peaks. At the gray sky beyond.
“I have to know.”
“Lyra—”
“I have to know.”
She packed her bag.