The Shattering Song (Song Magic Book 2)

by Imogen Elvis

  There was no other option but to do as she was told, following Kade and Lara as they were hauled along, despite their struggles and protests. The door to the captain’s cabin yawned open, like a black mouth, ready to swallow their hope. Not again.

  “You’ll never deliver us,” Lara bit out as they passed the captain. “We’re not cargo that you can simply drop off at the next port. You don’t care about doing the right thing. You only care about money.”

  “Darling, who’s going to stop me?” Finbar said with a sneer. “I’m doing everyone a favour by handing you in. And if we get paid for our work too, well, I’m not about to complain.” He looked to the sailors now. “Lock them up. And take their gear. Let’s not give them any ideas.”

  A girl with tight blonde braids running down her back ducked inside the cabin, emerging a moment later, dragging their packs with her. She dumped them in the middle of the deck, kicking them over. The top of one flapped open spilling travelling bread, a spare shirt, and other items. Briar swallowed hard, her eyes burning. Everything they owned was in those packs.

  “Take their weapons too,” Micah said. “Don’t want anyone getting any foolish ideas about escaping.”

  Someone gave a sharp bark of laughter as if the idea of escape was ridiculous. Micah took Kade’s sword and patted him down, checking for any other weapons. All he found was a small dagger on Kade’s belt, which quickly joined the pile of belongings on the deck. Another crewmember did the same for Lara, taking her knives and sword, throwing them down with a clatter. Kyla patted Briar down, searching for hidden blades.

  Briar stood still, her eyes on her boots. “I don’t have anything. I’m just a healer.” Maybe she should have had a weapon. Then she might have been able to protect them.

  The crew pushed Kade into the cabin first, then Lara. Finally, it was Briar’s turn. She shook off Kyla’s hands and stepped inside by herself. She might be a captive, but she still had her pride. The door slammed shut behind them. Briar closed her eyes, listening to the sound of the key snapping in the lock. They were so close to Mizra. So close. And now… She pressed her lips together, opening her eyes. There would be a way out of this.

  The only light in the cabin came from the gap around the door. Apparently, no one had thought that anyone might ever want to be in the cabin during the daytime. Briar stepped carefully over to the wall and pressed her back against it, easing herself down to the ground. The sailors wouldn’t be able to keep them here for long. Kade would come up with a plan and they’d be out of here long before they ever saw Mizra.

  It was Kade who broke the heavy silence first. “Your signet ring, Lara? Why did you even have that with you?”

  “It’s not mine.” A flush crept into Lara’s cheeks and, despite her protests, she couldn’t quite meet Kade’s eyes.

  “It’s your family crest, found in your bag.”

  “It’s not mine.” Lara repeated. She sucked in a breath and added in a quieter voice, “It was Rowen’s.”

  Small wonder Lara found it too hard to leave the ring behind. She would have left her own ring, but to throw Rowen’s away, well, Briar could understand her need to hold onto it. There was silence for a while after that, a heavy silence, filled with too many thoughts and worries. Briar’s throat tightened. Finally, unable to take the quiet any more, she asked, “So, what do we do now?”

  “We find a way out of here,” Lara said. She lifted her head, her eyes burning. “I am not letting myself be handed over to Sachio in chains like a common criminal.”

  “Let me have a look at your ropes,” Kade said. Lara shuffled around, turning her back so that Kade could inspect her bonds. He frowned. “They’re good knots.”

  “They were tied by sailors. Can you free my hands?”

  “I can try.”

  Kade turned around too, reaching behind him and feeling Lara’s knots with cautious fingers. For a while, he picked at the bindings with a frown of pure concentration. The only sound in the cabin was the occasional muffled curse as the knot stubbornly refused to pull free.

  “It’s no use,” Kade said finally. “I’ll never get these knots untied like this.”

  “Maybe we can cut the ropes on something,” Briar suggested.

  “They took all our weapons,” Lara said. “We can’t even use the sharp edge of a buckle from our packs.”

  The sailors really were thorough. Briar bit her lip. “Is there a corner or a rough edge we could try and saw through the ropes on?” she asked, hope turning to desperation. They were tough ropes and thick.

  “Maybe.” Lara shuffled around, eyes searching the room. “What about the corner of the bunk?”

  Kade shook his head. “I don’t think it’s sharp enough.”

  “Well, we’re not going to find anything better in here.” Lara moved to the side of the bunk, her fingers reaching for the bed frame. “I’m going to try it.” She got up on her knees and sawed at her bonds, the tip of her tongue sticking out between her teeth as she concentrated.

  While Lara worked at her ropes, Kade stared off into the distance, a slight furrow between his brows. “Someone will come and check on us eventually, which is probably our best chance to escape. They will need to feed us at some point. Even if this wind continues the way it has been, it’s still three days minimum before we reach Mizra. They’ll unlock the door to bring food and water to us. We might have a chance then.”

  “Briar could persuade them to let us go,” Lara said, a little breathless from her efforts. “Then we tie them up and sneak our way off the ship.”

  “I could try,” Briar said cautiously. “But it might not work.” She’d already tried with the captain, and look where that got them. Who knew if she could do any better next time?

  “You’ll be fine,” Lara said. “You’re a magician.”

  That was hardly a comfort. But Briar kept that to herself. “Once we’re free, what then?” she asked when no one volunteered any more opinions. “We still have to get off the boat and then to the shore.”

  “That shouldn’t be too difficult,” Lara said. “We wait for people to be distracted, and when they’re not watching the cabin, we can sneak to the rail and jump overboard. If we’re careful, they’ll never even see us leaving. By the time they realise we’ve gone, it’ll be too late.”

  It sounded so simple when she said it that way. Briar wanted so much to believe that things could be that easy. But what if it wasn’t? What if someone spotted them before they got away? Her stomach clenched at the thought of getting all the way into the river, then being spotted and hauled back on board, dripping and humiliated.

  Lara sawed away at her bonds in silence for a while longer, before finally heaving a sigh and slumping back down. “This is not going to work.” Her lip curled in disgust. “What are these ropes made out of? I don’t think they’ve even begun to fray.”

  Kade shrugged. “We’ll just have to be patient.”

  With another heavy sigh, Lara settled down again. “It’s not as if we have any other options, is it?”

  Briar leaned her head back against the wall. They just had to wait. An opportunity would present itself at some point. There was still plenty of hope for them freeing themselves. She had to hold onto that and be patient. Everything would be fine, she had to believe it.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Silence filled the stuffy cabin, thick and stifling. It was hard to tell how long they had been sitting there, but it felt like a lifetime. Kade sat with his back straight, head erect, alert to every sound coming from outside the locked door. The blood on his face had dried and crumbled, but he seemed to have forgotten all about it. By contrast, Lara was slumped in the corner, her chin resting on her chest. Was she asleep? Her slow, rhythmic breathing and relaxed posture certainly suggested she wasn’t worrying about the possibility of escape just at this moment.

  Was Briar the only one with a dry mouth and a shaky feeling inside as she turned over all the ways their escape plan could go wrong? She and Kade had been im
prisoned once before, captured by the Nameless Ones and trapped in Master Sachio’s fort, and they had managed to escape. This should have been an encouragement, and yet, she struggled to trust that their luck would be that good a second time.

  The dim light on the cabin wall faded almost to nothing before, finally, Briar caught the welcome sound of a key rattling in the lock. She straightened, her hands clenching behind her back. This was her chance to redeem herself and to get them out. Kade’s and Lara’s eyes flicked from the door to her. The weight of their hope had settled heavy on her shoulders, and the sailor hadn’t even stepped through the door yet. Briar took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She could do this.

  The door swung open, and Micah stepped inside, clutching a worn wooden mug in one hand, and a pitcher of water in the other. He hooked the toe of his boot around the edge of the door and kicked it shut behind him.

  “I’m going to untie your hands,” Micah said. “You’ll all get a drink, one at a time. But no funny ideas.” His hand dropped to his belt, caressing the hilt of his knife. “Otherwise you’ll be feeling the point of my dagger somewhere unpleasant. Got it?”

  “We’ve been locked in this stuffy cabin all day,” Lara said. “All I want is a drink.”

  Micah narrowed his eyes. “Great. I’ll just trust the word of traitors and criminals.”

  “Are we though?” Briar let persuasion smooth out her voice, like liquid honey, pouring her magic into every word as she connected with the sailor’s life song. “Are you really holding us here because you think we deserve it, or because the captain says so?”

  “I’ve never known the captain to be wrong.” Micah pulled the knot free on Lara’s bindings and pushed the pitcher and mug in her direction, one hand staying firmly on his dagger. “Drink.”

  “No one can be right all the time.” Briar pushed on his song, searching for a single note of weakness. Something she could pour her magic into, feed the doubt until it took root in his mind. “Maybe the captain just wants to believe we’re the fugitives because the reward money is good. He never does anything without getting paid for it, does he?”

  “Can’t run a ship off charity,” Micah gathered up the loose ropes and looped them around Lara’s wrists again, pulling them tight with a snap. “We work. We get paid.”

  “Of course. But consider this. The captain sees that we might vaguely fit the description of someone on a wanted poster, and he thinks that he could get a little extra for handing us over to the guards. It doesn’t matter to him if we are actually innocent.”

  “Do you know how much money is being offered for the three of you?” Micah’s lip curled. He freed Kade’s hands, letting him take the next drink. “More than you’re ever likely to see in your lifetime, that’s for sure.”

  “That is probably very true.” Magic gave Briar’s voice an unnaturally sweet, empathetic tone. She hated it, hated how much she reminded herself of Master Sachio in this moment. But it was necessary. “But if we were fugitives, why would we be going to Mizra? Wouldn’t that be the worst place to go?”

  “I suppose.” For the first time, a note of doubt crept into Micah’s voice. “Only a fool would go there. You’d be caught as soon as you set foot inside that gate.”

  “Exactly.” Briar drew more deeply on her magic, pressing on the faint quiver of doubt that shook in his song. “Why would we risk that?”

  “But the captain said-” Micah shook his head as if to clear it, his eyes shadowed and filled with doubt, even as he retied the knots around Kade’s wrists. “He told us-”

  “He told you we are criminals because he wants us to be. Because if we are, then he gets paid more money than any load of cargo is worth. He knows you will believe him. Maybe he even believes it himself.”

  “I-”

  “You’re clever, Micah. You know it makes no sense.” Briar threw every bit of magic she had left into her words. “You don’t have to listen to him. You could let us go.”

  The struggle on Micah’s face was intense. Briar could see as well as feel, how torn he was between the inescapable lure of her magic and his own blind trust in his captain.

  “The captain-” he stammered. “The cap-” He stopped and shook his head. A look of pain passed over his face.

  Just a little more and he would untie them all. Just a few more words and they’d be free. Briar tried to stamp out the guilt that said she was no better than Master Sachio and kept that sickly-sweet smile firmly on her face.

  Someone rapped on the door. “Micah, the captain wants you.”

  Micah blinked, and the doubt drained from his face. No. She was so close. “You can believe us,” Briar pushed, a wave of desperation hitting her. “You can trust us.”

  “Sure, I can. All the way to you jumping ship like the rats you are.” Anger hardened in Micah’s eyes, turning them into chips of flint. The faint strains of doubt faded from his life song, leaving nothing for her magic to play off now. “I know what you’re doing. You think you can just speak a few words and have me jumping to do whatever you want?”

  “No. That’s not what I-”

  Briar’s head snapped around as Micah’s hand made contact with her cheek. Stars burst across her vision, and her teeth sank into her tongue. The taste of blood filled her mouth. She reeled back, her eyes instinctively shutting as she struggled to hold in a cry of pain.

  “Not another word out of you. Any of you.”

  “Easy,” Kade said, and now he was the one trying to be soothing. “We’re not looking for trouble.”

  “Not looking for trouble?” Micah grabbed Briar’s hair and turned her to face her friends. “This isn’t even trouble yet.”

  Briar’s whole face throbbed with pain. She spat out a glob of blood and winced as the movement pulled her already swelling cheek. “Please. You don’t have to do this.” Her tongue was thick in her mouth.

  “Be quiet” Micah lashed out again, catching Briar in the exact same place. Briar’s head spun with the force of the blow. Tears sprang to her eyes. Be strong. Don’t show him how much it hurt. Briar gritted her teeth and held in the moan that threatened to escape.

  “She’s not going to do anything,” Lara jumped in. “There’s no need for this.”

  “Oh, I’ll make sure she won’t.”

  Briar forced her eyes open to see Micah dig a dirty scrap of cloth out of his back pocket. It was probably a handkerchief once, but now it was the most disgusting thing Briar had ever seen. Micah shook it out with a snap.

  “Seeing as you can’t follow simple orders, let me help you.”

  Words bubbled to Briar’s lips as she shrank away from him, already wincing in anticipation of the blow that would surely fall if she made another sound. Micah forced the rag between Briar’s teeth, knotting the ends of the handkerchief behind her head. Briar gagged at the taste, struggling not to be sick. Throwing up with this in her mouth would be so much worse than enduring the rag by itself. She took a couple of deep breaths through her nose.

  “I warned you.” Micah scooped the pitcher of water and the mug up off the floor and left the cabin, slamming the door behind him.

  “Are you alright, Briar?” Kade asked. His eyes were dark with worry.

  Briar shrugged and turned her face away. Her cheek throbbed where Micah had struck her, and the skin was hot and tight, pulsing with pain every time she shifted. Besides that, the rag in her mouth tasted absolutely foul. Better not to imagine where it had been, what it had been used for, or the last time it had been washed.

  “What now?” Lara asked.

  What now, indeed? Micah had been moments away from untying them all. And still, no matter how hard Briar tried, she couldn’t quite persuade him. She couldn’t save them. She was a failure, and now they were all trapped here because of her. Briar closed her eyes and huddled in on herself, turning her back to her friends so they couldn’t see how the tears of pain and disappointment slipped from beneath her eyelids. She had failed them both. Again.

  Night pa
ssed, slow, sleepless and heavy with dread, and the new day dawned, the grey light filtering gradually into the cabin. The gag chafed at the corners of Briar’s mouth, and her throat was oh, so dry. Even if someone untied the grubby rag, she would barely be able to croak, let alone sing. No one had come to give them so much as a sip of water, or a crust of bread since Micah left, the night before. Maybe the captain thought that the three prisoners would be more compliant when they were hungry and thirsty. He wasn’t wrong.

  Kade sat upright against the wall across from Briar, his head erect, but his eyes closed. Even in the gloom, Briar could see the bruises that shadowed his face from the beating he’d taken the day before. Briar’s stomach twisted at the sight of those bruises and welts, wounds he’d gained protecting her. It was impossible to tell whether he was asleep, or just deep in thought. Had his thoughts taken a dark turn, the same way Briar’s had? She couldn’t quite banish the lingering ghosts of her memories, no matter how hard she tried. Meanwhile, Lara was curled on her side, snoring gently.

  The thin strip of light around the door, their only source of light, glowed a little more strongly as the sun rose. Kade shifted for the first time, his eyes opening, fully alert. Briar felt his gaze land on her, and she turned her head away a little. By the stiffness in her cheek, and the pain that stabbed whenever she moved too quickly, she was sure that her face had swollen, and bruised into an ugly lump under her right eye.

  Kade stayed silent, and Briar was almost glad of that fact. It really wasn’t worth his trying to strike up a conversation when she couldn’t talk back. Briar’s stomach rumbled, and she gritted her teeth. It was hard to pretend to be strong when she was so hungry that her stomach growled like a banewulf.