Page 4 of To Touch A Silent Fury

It was pitch black in the wardrobe, and I nearly yelped when something touched my wrist before realising it was only Seth. I gripped his hand again as we listened, his legs folded on either side of mine in the small space.

His fear seeped over mine, overlapping like two waves. Seth was usually anxious, but his current level of stress was far more palpable than normal. There was something protective there, too, and angry.

Seth never cared about shielding his emotions from me, always offering me his touch and the window into his mind freely. I hadn’t worn my gloves today despite the cold, and he had taken his off the moment he’d noticed, to offer me a means to touch his skin and use my small power. He knew I needed his reassurance.

“All the rooms empty?” Harum replied, from back towards the stairs.

“Think so,” the voice said. “She’s probably gone out into the back fields.”

“I didn’t ask for your wisdom, Patrik, I asked if the rooms were empty.”

A grumble accompanied the sound of more glass breaking underfoot. “They’re all full of dust and nothing else.”

“Are they hiding with Scary Sollie?” Harum asked.

More glass, closer now.

“Door’s closed.”

I held my breath, hoping the fear would be enough.

The Wings of Eavenfold outdated the arrival of the Moontouched Brotherhood. The fortress on this island was built a few centuries ago in the lifetime of Courvin as a military stronghold. Then, when the Nox wiped out halfthe population of the mainland a century and a half ago, Eavenfold became the place they sent the sick to die.

The manacles by Sollie’s bed used to be in every room, chaining up the infected so the doctors could tend to them without the risk of a flailing touch. In the dormitories, only the nail holes remained, but here the Brothers had found a new purpose for the restraints. Holding a tormented child.

“Then open it, idiot,” came the reply.

Seth squeezed my hand, and I squeezed back. The door opened, and this time, it creaked.

“There’s no one here,” Patrik said.

“I can see you standing in the corridor,” Harum said. “Your Fate Ceremony is in what, two years? And you can’t even stand in a kid’s room?”

“Fine,” Patrik replied.

Boots shuffled into the room. I breathed as quietly as I could, hoping the clothes around me muffled it further as creaking floorboards signalled his every move.

Patrik stepped towards the wardrobe, and I tensed.

If he opened the door, I would jump straight on him, get my hands to his neck before he could make a noise. What I’d do next, I could hardly think. How high up was the window? Was there grass beneath it, or icy stone?

The steps continued past the wardrobe door. A chain moved. A mumbled prayer to Dional, the Tastelands’ Founder. Then the steps hastened out of the room, and Patrik slammed the door behind him. “She isn’t in there.”

Harum swore. “Right, spread out. If one of you brings her to me before dawn, I’ll send you a fine bottle of ciante when I get home.”

We both kept utterly silent as the footsteps on the glass retreated back down the corridor, and then for severalminutes beyond that, until nothing could be heard but the wind through the holes of the building.

Seth finally let out a large sigh and pushed open the door of the wardrobe, but he made no move to stand. I released his hand and felt a little guilty when he flexed it.

“What did you mean?” I asked, still sitting amongst the clothes. “When you said there were two reasons Harum would have been given Death?”

Seth sighed. “Death is the quickest to accomplish. My Fate was considered favourable, and it’ll still take me eight years to unlock my full power.”

We locked eyes, both knowing Harum’s Fate would be the work of mere hours. “The Fates must need him for something quickly, then, for his blood to turn to Death.”

Once a Fated condition was met, the change would happen. The Fated Mark would settle on the skin, and whatever power its bearer held before that moment would expand or amplify. Improved range, greater influence, or some added element which lay dormant until that very moment.

Seth nodded. “That is the first possible reason. His Fated power is needed now.”