The Canticle of Whispers Read Free Page B

stayed with him—the smile he had so little deserved and which she had given freely. Despite Ben’s endless energy, the smile had a kind of calmness that was hugely reassuring. But she had run off, minutes after he had arrived, saying she was going to find someone, and after that, they had all been too busy preparing for the receivers to sit and talk.
    â€œIt’s rather difficult to explain,” Mark admitted. “But I’ll try.”
    â€œYes, that is something that we would all appreciate, Mr. Mark.”
    The voice came from the top of the stairs. Mark looked up.
    Again, Mark marveled at how much someone could change in over a year. Laudate, known to his friends as Laud, had never been a particularly cheerful young man, but the pressures of running the Temple Almshouse had really taken their toll. His long red hair was unkempt, and there was a scar above one eye from an old wound. Now that Mark had a chance to look at him properly, he could see a wariness in his tread that went beyond his usual cynicism. This was a young man who was used to the world dealing cruel blows, and his attitude at the moment was distinctly hostile.
    â€œI think that you owe it to us, don’t you?” Laud said, bitterly. “Call it payment for hiding you from every receiver in the city. Or didn’t you know that they’re scouring every back street from here to the Aquarian dockyards looking for you?” He cast a cursory glance at Cherubina as he descended the stairs. “They don’t name you, of course, but it’s pretty clear from the descriptions that you and Mrs. Snutworth are the fugitives.”
    Cherubina bristled, but Mark laid a hand on her arm. Laud was not the most tactful host.
    â€œLike I said,” Mark repeated, “I was being held prisoner, in the old Astrologer’s Tower, by Snutworth. And now I find I have to call him the Director…”
    â€œI still find that hard to believe,” Laud muttered. “Surely everyone would know if the old Director had been replaced?”
    â€œReally, Laud?” Theo asked, reasonably. “We never saw the last one in public at all. I don’t suppose it would be too surprising.” He frowned, pulling forward another stool for Laud. “You worked with Mr. Snutworth. Would you put such a thing past him?”
    Laud conceded that with a shake of the head.
    â€œPerhaps, but I don’t see why he had to hold Mark prisoner in his own home.” He turned back to Mark, looking a little more ready to listen. “You should still be in jail. When you disappeared last year, we didn’t know what to think. Tell us what happened. Right from the beginning.”
    Mark stood up, trying to gather his thoughts.
    â€œI’ve been outside the city,” he said.
    The stunned silence said it all. Even Laud couldn’t hide his astonishment.
    â€œThat’s impossible,” Theo said, dully. “There’s nothing outside the city. Everyone knows that.”
    Mark sighed.
    â€œThat’s what I believed too…”
    After that, it came pouring out. How he and Lily, his oldest friend, had been forced to leave Agora. About the strange woman who had plucked him from his prison cell, and the care of his long-lost father, to send him out into a strange new world. About the land outside—Giseth—a place of thick forests and lush farms, where all the people lived in harmony, with everyone sharing and no one set above anyone else. How they had taken refuge in the idyllic village of Aecer, and how they had discovered that this supposed “paradise” was maintained by the tyrannical rituals of the Order of the Lost, the red-robed monks, and the absolute power of each village’s leader—the Speaker. He told them how he had seen their friends terrorized and attacked for going against the will of the Speaker, and about the mystical Brethren who opposed the monks and had given him and Lily