First, as always, thank you to those who have been reading - and a very heartfelt thanks to those who review. I look forward to those emails in my inbox every day, I can't tell you how wonderful they make me feel. I appreciate you all.
I hope those of you along the eastern US coast are staying warm and safe through this ridiculous cold! Freezing, right? Regardless of where you are, I hope you enjoy this next chapter!
Silence of the Sound
Chapter 3
"Here she is," the healer said softly, pulling back a pale blue sheet to uncover the victim found not to have died in the avalanche. "Her name is Zulani. She has only been living in our town for about six months, came from another small village far east of here. None of us knew her very well. She was found in her home, buried under the snow."
Tenzin stood back as Lin went toward the table where her body had been preserved in the makeshift morgue, a room lined with walls of bended ice. "Did you find anything suspicious in your examination?" she asked, looking over the middle-aged woman with trained eyes before touching anything herself.
The healer, a young, enthusiastic woman who had introduced herself as Eri, shook her head and let out a frustrated sigh. "No," she explained without looking at the scrolls with her notes. "But that, to me was more suspicious than anything else. There was absolutely nothing to explain why this poor soul died. Everything about her body was in perfect condition, her heart, her lungs, stomach, everything. It almost appears as if they just…stopped functioning."
"Are these the other two?" Lin glanced at the two tables lined up behind Eri, who nodded. Lin walked over and uncovered them both to see all three side by side. Not a single body had a mark to be seen. It was a bit bizarre, if she were honest. "Where were they found?"
"In their homes, as well."
Done with the initial assessment, she returned to Zulani and started by reaching out to touch the dead woman's face with the intention of moving her head side to side, hoping to perhaps find something of interest. As soon as her fingers made contact with the waxy skin, however, she jerked her hand back as though something had bitten her.
She gasped in surprise, ignoring Tenzin's questioning look and holding up her hand to stop him before he could speak. Without pausing, she moved quickly to the other two, pressing her fingers first to one man's cheek, then the other's. The same startling sensation tickled her skin both times, and she withdrew her hand, finally raising her head.
"Are – were – these people Earthbenders?"
Eri appeared taken aback by the question. "No, I don't believe so," she answered honestly, an expression of bewilderment on her face. "At least, I know Tarnon and Tarrak weren't. They're brothers, their family came from the North Pole about fifteen years ago. I'm pretty sure Zulani was not a bender, either." She lowered her gaze, sucking on her lip as she thought for a moment. "There's only one Earthbender in our town, as far as I know. A little boy."
"Why, Lin?" Tenzin asked, his eyebrows coming together in concern.
Lin glanced at him and away, confused herself. "I…well, I can feel earth. Inside their bodies."
She let out a heavy breath and gently touched Zulani's shoulder, letting her hand linger this time. There was a very faint throbbing coming from somewhere near where her heart should have been pumping, but instead it seemed foreign, as if it did not belong there. It felt like a very old piece of stone, pulled up from deep in the earth. She had never felt anything similar in a living person before, not even an Earthbender. Not even her mother, whose entire existence was Earthbending and earth in some shape or form.
She slid into a familiar form and beckoned with her hands. Nothing happened. She tried again, putting the full force of her will behind the movement of her arms. Once again, though, nothing stirred from inside the woman's body. It almost felt as dead as Zulani was, and even if Lin could still sense it there she wouldn't be able to bring it back to life.
"Oh!" Eri nearly dropped the pen in her hand with her excited outburst. Lin and Tenzin looked at her, startled. "Oh, goodness, I can't believe I forgot! There's another Earthbender nearby! Well," she added, composing herself despite the light blush creeping up her cheeks. "I suppose he's not exactly nearby, but he comes into town every two weeks or so to pick up food and parchment and things. Sometimes he leaves mail to be sent off."
Tenzin touched her arm. "How far away is he, exactly?"
"About halfway around the mountain, maybe half a day's ride by ostrich horse." She bit her lip before remembering, "His name is Weyoun. He lived out here before Rala started building the town. He's a bit…odd. My mother told me he was spirit-touched as a child after a cave collapsed in on him. But he always seemed nice enough when he came by for supplies. It's been a while since I've seen him, I hope he wasn't hurt during the avalanche."
xXx
"This is idiocy, Tenzin. You realize that, don't you? That you are doing something very, very stupid?"
Lin crossed her arms tightly across her abdomen, watching stiffly as he checked over Oogi's saddle one last time. They were standing outside the small healer's clinic that was trying – and failing – to pass as a hospital. Eri was inside gathering patients with the worst injuries with her mother, readying them for travel.
"They need to be taken to a real hospital," Tenzin said shortly. "Oogi can take them all to Republic City, and then Eri can bring him back with more medical supplies to help her here. It's the right thing to do. They'll be back by tomorrow night."
Lin didn't respond, knowing if she did she would say something she would regret as soon as it came out of her mouth. She did not like seeing their only – or at least, most reliable – method of travel leaving without them. It made her extremely uncomfortable.
Eri broke the silence moments later when she came hobbling out of the clinic supporting a man who could hardly walk. Her mother was behind her with two additional people. Lin and Tenzin rushed forward to assist as three more, parents with a severely wounded child, limped out into the cold evening. Lin quickly lifted a ramp from the earth so those who were able could climb onto Oogi's back before taking bags of personal belonging to hand up behind them.
"Thank you again, so much," Eri said, the relief in her face clear as she gazed up at Tenzin once everyone had been settled. "I don't know how I would have handled this without your help. I'm the only healer here and it's just…so far beyond me."
He smiled gently. "The healers in Republic City will take you right in, don't worry. Your patients will be good as new in just a few days." He patted her shoulder supportively, like he would his daughter. "Oogi knows the way home, and he can bring you back here tomorrow with your mother. Just speak to my wife once you land, she'll watch after you."
She nodded once, quickly, before letting him lift her up onto the bison's head.
All Lin could do was continue watching in silence as Oogi took off, heading to Republic City without them. She swallowed back the sudden surge of dread that welled up in her chest when the wind from his tail hit her, and she took a step back, not able to meet Tenzin's eyes when he turned to look at her.
"Let's go inside out of the cold, shall we?"
He held out his hand in an open gesture toward the street that led to the inn. It was also meant to be a gesture of goodwill and an unspoken apology, and she followed him without a word, already forgiving him for his generosity if not for his unintended stupidity. He moved his hand to place on the small of her back when she came close enough, intending to pass him.
Lin remained silent as she subtly quickened her pace so his hand would fall away again.
xXx
It was nearly two hours later when they had finally found a chance to speak alone in their single – still much to Lin's displeasure – room over a simple meal of fresh cheeses and warm bread. The sun had started to set on their first day in this diminutive town so far from home not long before, and they were sitting at a round table pushed up against the only window in the room as they ate. Lights were dotting other windows down the back lane they faced, but otherwise darkness was falling steadily, bringing with it the damp, rigid chill of the cold mountain night. Snow-heavy clouds hung in the sky, blocking the moon.
"What do you think it was, then?" Tenzin asked, trying to bring Lin's attention away from the movement outside as a woman put out her goat dog.
She slowly brought her gaze around, lowering the piece of bread in her hand back to the plate on the table. Her appetite was waning the longer she thought about the odd sensation she found in the bodies in the morgue and she no longer felt like eating. "I'm not entirely sure," she muttered softly, leaning back in her chair and looking outside again. "It was definitely the same in each of them, though. Like it came from the same…the same being. It seemed as if it were alive at one point and died when they did."
"Was this being what ended up taking their lives?" Tenzin pushed a bit more when she stopped talking.
Lin just shrugged, not quite willing to dwell on it very hard. For some reason the whole incident was making her very uncomfortable. It was unnatural, that much was certain, and she wasn't sure she wanted to follow this one through to the end.
"This Weyoun," he hedged, guiding the subject down a different path when he saw how stiffly Lin was sitting across from him. "We should go speak with him tomorrow, do you agree?"
"I suppose we should," she conceded grudgingly.
"At least we can take Rala off the list of suspects now, right?" Tenzin said with a false cheeriness.
"Of course not," Lin snapped, the long day making her much more aggravated than she would have liked. She sucked in a quick breath of air and let it out through her nose before continuing. "Leave the detective work to the detective, all right, Airhead? I'm still considering everyone, especially that -"
A sharp knock interrupted her growing tirade and she frowned, getting to her feet before Tenzin could to answer the door. He stood a few steps behind her anyway, coming to the center of the room by the time she swung the door open.
Rala's calm face greeted them in the doorway, and he clasped his hands loosely to give them both a small bow. "Good evening," he began as he rose, his voice smooth. "You didn't come find me earlier, and I wanted to see how things were progressing. Have you made any headway?"
Lin clenched her jaw tightly and let it go again, expertly releasing the emotion from her stance so as not give him anything to use against her. "Some, yes."
"May I?" he asked, making a short gesture and striding past her into the room without waiting for answer or invitation. "You have quite a bodyguard here, Tenzin," he said to the other man with a grin, focusing solely on him. "She certainly hasn't changed much in that regard, and neither have you if you still need to bring her everywhere with you. Connected at the hip as always?"
Tenzin caught Lin's angry glance, and they both silently agreed not to rise to his thinly veiled taunt. "Chief Beifong is here to help, just as I am," he replied instead.
"Ah, yes. Chief. I thought I heard something over the radio about that a few years back." He turned to find Lin again, who had covered her face in a hard mask he couldn't see her irritation through. "Like mother, like daughter. Of course, there was always speculation you were only promoted because of her. Talent can run thin through family lines, don't you think?"
"Was there something you wanted, Rala?" Lin asked tonelessly, one eyebrow quirking briefly.
He seemed to lose a small fraction of his bluster when neither of them reacted the way he expected them to, the way they had as children, but he smiled regardless. "Aside from finding out if you have come across anything that could help the people under my protection here?" He opened his arms in what appeared to be a sign of benevolence when Lin didn't reply. "Very well, I can tell when my presence is unwelcome. Please, go back to whatever it is you were doing before I interrupted. I do hope you enjoy the room, by the way."
He gave them another, lower bow, before backing out and closing the door.
Lin and Tenzin looked at one another in silence, waiting a minute more to be sure he was truly gone. Neither broached the subject of what had just taken place.
"The real bed is mine," Lin said suddenly, rushing toward it and peeling off her armor, dirty from a day's work, to drop face-down onto the mattress the way she would have in her younger years.
It took a second for her words and actions to sink in, but when they did all Tenzin could do was laugh. He was so glad, in that moment, that she was there with him. Protector, bodyguard, friend, it didn't matter so long as she was there at all. Sometimes it felt as though she were a thread holding his sanity together through the confusion pulling in all directions, and she was certainly needed now. "Fine, fine. Only if we switch tomorrow night. I can't sleep on a cot two nights in a row."
"Yeah, we'll see."