Altarboy novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Kyrie

Kaz did not whisper the next line.

He knew that whispering would not reach him.

Fintan had said the old man took things faster when nobody else could hear.

But Father Cyril had stopped taking anything at all.

So Kaz stepped forward, out of the altar server's place beside the chair, and into the middle of the sanctuary.

He turned to face the church.

"Lord, have mercy," he sang.

His voice cracked on the first note.

Then it steadied and rose, thin and clear, into the cold stone dome.

It was the old setting that every child in the parish learned.

His mother had sung it at the kitchen sink, with her hands full of soap, and made him sing the answer.

"Christ, have mercy," he sang, in her place.

Nothing.

Nobody moved.

Halina's pen stopped.

Then, from somewhere in the third pew, an old man's voice came in rough and low.

"Christ, have mercy."

Another voice joined it, and a woman's, and then the six widows all together, strong and a little flat.

A baby shrieked along with them.

So did a row of teenage boys who had clearly been dragged there.

The sound grew until it filled the nave.

Kaz sang the third line.

The whole church answered.

Somewhere above and behind them the organ woke up with a soft rumble, and a pedal note settled under the singing.

Fintan had run up the spiral stair.

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