The Crystal Tree (Song Magic Book 1)

by Imogen Elvis

  “Why you little-” The guard slapped her across the face. Pain burst in Briar’s cheek, and she tasted blood. “You’re going to regret that.”

  Not as much as she would have regretted not doing it. At least he only held her arm now, a fact Briar was pitifully pleased by. They went into the main building through the same small wooden door in the back that Kade had entered by. Like the door at the front of the house, two men guarded the entrance. They moved apart to let Briar through. The air inside was cold and damp. It clung to Briar’s skin like cobwebs. She shivered.

  They turned right, and headed down a hallway lit only by a couple of slotted windows. These cast narrow shafts of light into the otherwise stifling darkness. The walk along this corridor seemed to last forever, but finally, they stopped outside a heavy wooden door, studded with iron bolts. The sort of door made to keep something inside. Keys jangled and scraped in the lock, and the door creaked open.

  Beyond the door lay a staircase that spiralled into more darkness below. Briar crept down as slowly as the grip on her arm would allow. A single lamp hung on the turn of the stairs, providing just enough light for her not to trip over her own feet. Briar focused on each step, trying to block out the hand on her arm, the closeness of the guard pressing behind her, and the powerlessness of her position.

  Down, and down they went. At the bottom, the stairs opened out into another dark, freezing corridor. Doors lined both walls, each banded with more iron, and a couple of lamps burned on the walls, casting an orange haze. Briar pulled back against the grasp on her arm. The air down here smelt of damp and fear.

  They came to a halt outside the very last door in the row, at the far end of the corridor. One of the guards pushed it open with a screech that set Briar’s teeth on edge. Beyond the doorway, there was only darkness.

  “In you go.”

  The two men holding Kade dragged him to the door and tossed him into the cell. Briar flinched at the heavy thud that followed. Limp and unresisting, Kade would have fallen face first on the flagstone floor. How could they be so cruel?

  “Come on, darlin’. You too.” Briar’s guard forced her towards the door.

  Briar dug in her heels, eyes widening as she stared at the yawning black mouth of the cell. “No. Please, no.” She couldn’t go in there.

  “What, scared of the dark?” The guards laughed. The man holding her arm gave it an exaggerated pat. “Not to worry, girl. There’s plenty of rats to keep you company down here.”

  He shoved Briar right in the middle of her back. She staggered forward, and the door slammed shut behind her, cutting off the light. Laughter echoed from the hallway. The key turned in the lock. Briar stood still, listening as the footsteps died away.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. If she kept them closed, maybe it wouldn’t be real. Maybe this was all be a trick of her imagination, a vivid nightmare. But the cold seeping into her bones was real. So were the cords biting into her skin. Briar opened her eyes and drew in a shaky breath. A single shaft of light slipped in through the small slot of a window cut into the door, striking the back wall. As her eyes adjusted, she could just make out the four walls of the little cell, as well as Kade’s body, still crumpled on the floor.

  “Kade?” Briar called softly.

  He groaned and shifted. Briar’s heart leapt. He was awake. Or at least, not fully unconscious anymore. She stepped slowly to his side. As she moved, her toe caught on an uneven stone, and she stumbled forward a step or two, struggling to find her balance without her arms. Her foot knocked into Kade, and he let out a breathy cry of pain.

  “I’m sorry.” Briar stepped back and crouched next to him. “I didn’t mean to.”

  “It’s not your fault. Watch out. I’m sitting up.” Kade broke off with a raspy grunt as he moved. Then, “I’m alright.” His voice held a note of forced cheerfulness. “No need to worry about me.” Kade’s head turned as he took in the cell. “Where are we?”

  “I don’t know,” Briar said honestly “After they captured us, the Nameless Ones put us on horses and we rode for a while, and then we came here. It’s like a little fortress.” The words stuck in her throat. It was the sort of place you didn’t come out of alive.

  “Ah.”

  The word hung in the air. Briar shifted round and leaned her head back against the cool stone of the wall, closing her eyes again. Kade didn’t ask any further questions, and they sat in silence for a while. Briar tried to block out the hopeless thoughts that crept in through the dark, but it was hard to keep the voices of despair at bay. Kade would come up with a plan to get them out. He always did. She just had to be patient. And yet, what could they do, locked in here?

  “I’m so hungry.”

  Briar’s eyes opened slowly. That didn’t sound like a guard. The voice was too high, too young. It sounded like… a child? Briar frowned. What was a child doing down here? She rose and stepped carefully over to the door. Peering through the tiny window was no help. The hallway beyond, or at least what little of it she could see through the narrow slot, was deserted. But from here, the voices were a little louder at least.

  “They’ll bring food soon.”

  “But I’m hungry now.”

  “I know.” The second voice was weary, as though they’d had this conversation many times before. “It won’t be long.”

  “You said that before.”

  “It’ll be even sooner now. Hush.”

  The voices died away. Though Briar strained, she couldn’t catch so much as the echo of a whisper. She ached to hear those voices again, to know that there was someone out there other than herself and Kade. To know why these children were here, in a place as dark and desolate as this. Briar hesitated, then called softly. “Who’s there?”

  Silence.

  She bit her lip. She hadn’t imagined the voices. There was someone else out there. Should she try again? Well, it couldn’t hurt. She was already trapped in a cell. What else could happen to her? “My name is Briar,” she said. “Who’s out there?”

  “Briar?”

  It couldn’t be. It couldn’t. But, that voice… “Ava? Is that you?”

  “Yes. Yes, it’s me.” Excitement filled Ava’s hushed voice. “How did you get here?”

  “Shh,” a little voice broke in. “They’ll hear you.”

  So many emotions bubbled up inside Briar that, for a moment, she was lost for words. “I came for you,” she said at last. “Did they hurt you?”

  “I’m alright.” Ava’s voice was brave still. It brought a smile to Briar’s face. “How did you find me?”

  “I followed you.”

  “All the way from Osman?”

  “Yes.”

  There was a pause. Then Ava said, “You really came all this way for me?” as if she couldn’t quite believe that anyone would have journeyed quite this far just for her.

  “Of course. You’re my sister.” Briar closed her eyes for a moment, fighting back the sudden need to cry from relief. “Listen, we’re going to find a way out of here.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise. I’ll get you out, just as soon as I can.” There didn’t seem to be any way out as far as Briar could see, but she wouldn’t admit that to Ava. Not when she was so hopeful, maybe for the first time since the Nameless Ones took her in Osman. They’d find a way out. They had to, more than ever now.

  “Briar, I-”

  “Shh,” someone squeaked.

  Footsteps approached. The cells fell silent. Briar pressed her face to the window, straining to see. A group of guards stepped into the edge of her view. They stopped outside one of the other doors nearby. Keys jangled, then the guards stepped into the doorway, blocking Briar’s view.

  “Get up.”

  “Line up. Move it.”

  A line of children shuffled out of the cell, walking in single file. Their eyes were downcast, and their hands were bound in front of them. The light from the torches on the wall lit up their faces just enough for Briar to be able to make out t
heir features. She bit her lip. They were all so young. Why, the youngest could barely be eight, his round cheeks and golden hair just visible in the flickering torchlight.

  The last child filed out of the cell, and the bottom fell out of Briar’s world. Ava. She stepped out with her head held high, meeting the guards’ eyes with a challenge. Briar’s hands clenched into fists. They couldn’t take Ava away. Not now. Not when Briar had only just found her again.

  “Ava.” The word burst out of her.

  “Briar?” Ava’s head whipped round, her eyes searching. “Briar.”

  “Get in line. Don’t make me move you.” The guard cuffed Ava round the back of the head, and she stumbled forward, following the other children as they shuffled towards the stairs in a single line.

  “Where are you taking them?” Briar’s voice cracked.

  “Nowhere you’re likely to go,” one of the guards snapped. “Now shut it.”

  Briar pressed her face against the window, straining to keep Ava in sight just a few moments longer. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not after she’d come so far. To see Ava again, to be so close to her, and yet so impossibly far away, it cracked something inside Briar.

  The door slammed shut, and Ava was gone. Briar slid slowly to her knees, her forehead resting against the cell door. She closed her eyes as hot tears spilled down her cheeks. Kade shuffled next to her, his arm pressing against hers, warm and comforting. Briar leaned her head on his shoulder. She’d been so close. And now Ava was gone, and this time, she couldn’t follow.

  CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

  Briar and Kade sat silently, side by side. A chill from the stones seeped through Briar’s habit. She shivered and hunched in on herself. Over and over, she saw the curve of Ava’s cheek as she turned her head, the flash of hope reflecting in her eyes as she searched for Briar. Then, always, turning away and disappearing where Briar couldn’t follow. And then the heartbreaking weight of failure that descended as the door closed, and Ava was gone.

  “We’ll find her,” Kade murmured. “They didn’t hurt her before. I doubt they will now. Whatever they have planned, they need her unharmed.”

  “I suppose.” It wasn’t much of a comfort. But it was something at least.

  “Anyway, there’s bound to be a way out of here.” Kade’s words rang with a hollow cheerfulness. “We’ll find a way to escape, and then you can rescue your sister. They won’t keep us here for long.”

  Briar didn’t need magic to hear the lie in his words. And yet his attempt at comfort did spark a tiny flame of warmth in her chest. “What do you think will happen to us?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I keep trying to imagine what the Nameless Ones are planning. Though I’m not sure I want to know.”

  “It’s not the Nameless Ones we really need to be worried about.”

  Briar frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “The Nameless Ones are just the foot soldiers. They work for someone far worse.”

  What kind of person was worse than even the merciless Nameless Ones? Briar couldn’t imagine it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to. “What do they want with us?”

  Kade shifted, letting out a small hiss as he settled back against the door. “It’s complicated,” he said. “See, the Nameless Ones first appeared about a year ago. They attacked a small town in the far northern reaches. They razed the place to the ground, then vanished before morning. A month or so later, they did the same to another town. People thought they were bandits at first.”

  “But the attacks on the order houses only started in the last few months.”

  “From what I can tell, those early attacks were practice. Because all of a sudden, the Nameless Ones started hunting down the magicians instead of just destroying the towns. They were less focused on burning every building and more concerned with killing magicians. Of all the buildings they destroyed, in each town it was the order house they targeted most. It was like suddenly they had a new purpose.”

  “But why attack us?” It didn’t make sense. If they were bandits, the magicians would have done nothing to provoke this. If they were magicians, why burn the other towns, the ones without order houses?

  “From what Lara, Rowen and I have been able to piece together, it was most likely a plan to get to the song council together.”

  “To kill them?” Briar swallowed hard. Logically, it made sense. If someone wanted to weaken the Order, they would want to get rid of the ruling council first. “But they only k-got Mistress Rhosmari.”

  “I don’t think killing the council was their intention.” Kade hesitated, and for a moment Briar wasn’t sure he was going to continue. “You’ve heard of the song catchers?”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, I think they were trying to create a threat big enough that the council would be forced to use a catcher.”

  Briar frowned. “Mistress Rhosmari mentioned the song catchers before the attack. But she refused even to consider using one. I don’t suppose there was ever a catcher in Osman.”

  “I’m not so sure about that. See, there are two song catchers. One is held in Mizra, under the protection of the royal guard. Technically, it belongs to the royal family. The head of the song council holds the other. And usually, they carry it with them at all times.”

  “Mistress Rhosmari,” Briar breathed. It was all making a terrible kind of sense now. “The Nameless Ones created a threat large enough for the council to gather so that they could get to Mistress Rhosmari and be sure she brought her catcher.”

  Kade nodded. “She might have said she’d never consider using the catcher, but she would have brought it in case the situation required her to. Mistress Rhosmari was always very cautious.”

  “That explains they didn't kill any other councillors, even though they were all in Osman at the same time. They weren’t trying to destroy the Order after all.”

  “That’s what I believe. Mistress Rhosmari didn’t have the catcher on her when her body was found. I think the Nameless Ones killed her and then stole it.”

  “And that’s why you were following them?”

  “Pretty much.” Kade gave a dry laugh. “That turned out beautifully, didn’t it?”

  Somehow, Briar didn’t think being thrown into a prison cell was quite what Kade had in mind. “And you wanted the song catcher so you could stop the Nameless Ones?”

  “To stop their master.” Kade’s voice turned cold.

  The door at the end of the hallway creaked, and footsteps approached. Guards again? The hairs on the back of Briar’s neck prickled. What could they possibly want now? Apprehension added a touch of urgency to her voice as she asked, “This master, who is he?”

  Kade hesitated, though why he’d have a problem telling her that one fact after everything else he’d just revealed was beyond her.

  “Please Kade-” Briar broke off as the footsteps stopped outside their door.

  Keys jangled. “Move away from the door.”

  Briar and Kade shuffled out of the way. The door swung open, filling the room with light that, after the dimness of before, was blinding. Three guards stood silhouetted in the doorway.

  “Get up.”

  Neither Briar nor Kade moved. Dark and unappealing as this cell might be, it suddenly seemed the safest place in the world compared to wherever these guards might take them.

  “I said get up.” One of the guards grabbed Briar’s arm and hauled her to her feet. Briar pulled back, her heart beating fast. But he dragged her out of the cell anyway and nodded to the two other men. “Bring him.”

  The other guards stepped into the cell, and there were sounds of a scuffle. Kade let out a thin, breathy groan. Briar winced at the sound. Then the men reappeared, holding Kade securely between them. His face was tight, and there were lines of pain around his mouth, but he held himself upright, meeting Briar’s anxious gaze with a small nod. He was alright, for the moment at least.

  Surrounded by the three guards, Briar and Kade started the
long walk back through the prison cells and up the steep, winding steps again. From there, they retraced their path through the narrow corridor they’d first entered by. The sky outside was turning purple, and a single star glimmered. Evening already? The guard jerked on Briar’s arm, and her eyes snapped forward.

  Instead of leaving the building, the guards turned right, up another set of stairs. They climbed one flight, then another. From there, the group passed into a candlelit hallway. It couldn’t have been more different to the prison they’d just left. Red curtains covered two wide windows. A couple of bookshelves sat against the wall, filled with thick tomes, bound with matching covers. A long green rug covered the floor. It was so beautiful, and yet so ominous at the same time.

  Finally, the guards brought them to a halt outside a large door at the very end of the hall. One of the men rapped on the door. Briar glanced at Kade. He stared straight ahead, his face blank and unreadable. He didn’t seem to be aware of anything around him, not even the men gripping his arms.

  “Enter.”

  Briar shuffled through the door, forced forward by the hand on her arm. Dread sat heavy in her chest, and her steps were slow and unwilling. Kade followed, marched between his two guards, who gave him no chance to resist. The door closed behind them, cutting off any exit. Briar took a deep breath and tried to squish down the sudden stab of panic that rose at the finality of that sound.

  The room they entered was more spacious than she’d expected. A massive wooden desk sat in the centre, facing the door. Bookshelves lined the walls, filled with more books than Briar had ever seen in one place, even in the order house, and they had a modest library of their own. Behind the desk, a cheerful little blaze crackled on a hearth, chasing away the chill of the evening. But what drew Briar’s eyes was not the books or the fire, but the man standing by the desk. Her mouth went dry at the sight of his familiar grey robes and the silver medallion hanging around his neck.

  Master Sachio.

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE