Page 123 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
a question to the dark. The tunnel returned her
breath with a hollow sympathy.
“Careful,” Carolina said. “Echoes down here
aren’t polite.”
A door waited at the next bend, industrial gray.
No handle. Only a circular disk set at chest height,
polished to a mirror. Henry’s face arrived late in it
by half a heartbeat — that old wrongness. He
touched the rim and felt a faint pulse.
The disk warmed. Lines of light fanned outward
in thirteen arcs. The seam snapped. The door slid.
Air moved like a slow creature.
They stepped into the maintenance bubble Jinji
had described — a chamber beneath the river’s
belly, safer than any museum, more dangerous than
any church. Cables crossed like string art. A waist-
high ring of glass ran the perimeter, full of water
that didn’t ripple, reflecting a sky that was not the
one above Lisbon.
Sera’s breath hitched. “It’s listening.”
“Then we make it hear the right thing,” Henry
said.
3. The Man Without Voice
They weren’t alone.
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