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Chapter Nine: A Voiceless Song
Dirk looked directly at Ilyria. She reached again for the sensation of flickering shadows as she had done all those nights ago, desperately searching for the glamour that would conceal her but feeling it slip away from her like sand. He saw her, there was no doubt. His eyes widened and his lips parted to call out to his henchmen, but something seemed not quite right.
Slow. It was all too slow. Her own movements felt trapped in thick honey, each breath came and went as measured and inexorable as the tides of the desert. Her panic, her terror of moments before felt as far as the moons.
She tore her eyes away from Dirk and saw that Madame Skia had pushed herself up on one elbow. She had raised up her face to the sky and her usual thick mask of make-up wavered like a thin veil over her face. Through the veil, Ilyria saw a face of such heartrending beauty she thought it would forever be seared into her memory. Madame Skia’s mouth was open as she sang without voice.
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Ilyria and the Lightning Bird Chapter Thirteen: An Unlikely Ally
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