Lost Voices by Sarah Porter Read Free Book Online

on the darkness. She had a sensation of falling very rapidly, and for just a second she realized that she must have somehow slipped over the edge of the cliff.
    It was hundreds of feet, here, down to the knife- sharp rocks and then the sea. Nobody could survive a fall like that. It just wasn’t possible.
    So then it only made sense that the absolute violet black-ness all around her must be death. It was cold and silky, and it went nowhere, and it lasted for a very long time.

    * * *
    After a while, though, she began to realize that the perfect darkness was moving. It was moving faster than she ever could have imagined possible, swirling past her at amazing speed. If it could rush past her that way, did that mean that she was somehow still alive? Whatever the movement was, she could feel that it was strong and rippling. The darkness wasn’t quite so solid anymore either. Once or twice she saw specks of living light like twisting scarlet threads. The lights pirouetted closer and then, with a blink, they were far behind her. Behind her, 38 i LOST VOICES
    Luce suddenly thought, and she was so astonished that she almost stopped. Then it wasn’t actually the darkness that was moving so quickly. She was the one who was moving through the darkness! She gave a kind of squirm, and found that she could control the direction of the movement. She could curve in long, dizzy swoops, shoot up, and even let herself roll over and over. Mostly, though, she kept moving forward. Nothing felt as good as knowing that she could send the darkness streaking out and away at her back, traveling faster than any car she’d ever been in.
    One of the red lights swam close to her and opened its hollow mouth as if it wanted to blow her a kiss. Then it was gone.
    Just a shining little worm.
    It wasn’t so dark here, really, or anyway the darkness didn’t stop her from seeing things in the way it used to. It was a living, leaping darkness, full of shapes that were just as free as she was.
    Luce knew at that moment that she’d never experienced anything nearly as beautiful as this power and this gracefulness. All of it was hers, a marvelous gift. And at this moment of deepest joy, Luce began to hear the sound.
    The closest word for it was music, but it was better than any music. Every molecule shook with soft, sweet excitement.
    Every note washed around her and covered her in a bath of dancing silk. She thought that the beauty of it must be more than she could bear, but somehow she went racing on and on inside the sound.
    People were looking at her, pointing. It was the strangest thing she’d ever seen. They were up above her somehow, waving their arms, but then the sound rose and spun around them, i 39
    too. Of course so much beauty made them stop their ugly hub-bub right away, which was what Luce wanted. She didn’t like being pointed at. It was terribly rude. Instead they stared at her, and then, Luce could feel, the music began to take the shape of their secret hearts. It knew them, it forgave them for every bad thing they’d ever done, and they loved it more than they had ever loved anything in their lives.
    Up above, the moon was golden and wide- eyed, and it watched Luce tenderly. Its light gleamed like floating coins all over the tops of the waves, and a slab of shining ice bobbed past.
    A misty glow covered the smooth side of the cliffs just behind her, and then Luce realized that all those dreaming people were on a ship, and that the ship was coming toward her, and toward the cliffs, as fast as a train driving out of a tunnel. Still the music throbbed on, coating the night with its bliss, while the ship’s sharp metal prow sped straight at her forehead.
    Luce dove just in time, pushing her way through the deep black water, and still the music that was somehow more than music shook around her, in her chest, in her throat. The only thing that almost drowned it out was the terrible metal shriek when the boat’s steel hull sheared in two as it