Songbird

by Colleen Helme

  Bran bristled. “I wondered what your punishment was.” His jaw clenched and she realized he was angry. “At least he can’t do that anymore.”

  “You’re right,” she said, letting out a breath. “He’ll never be able to put me in that box again.”

  Bran opened his mouth to say something else, but held back. She suddenly wanted to thank him again for rescuing her, but knew he wouldn’t like it. “I hope my people have the answers you’re searching for.” It was small consolation for everything he had risked.

  “I hope they can answer your questions as well.” Bran stood. “Get some sleep. I’m going to take care of the horses.”

  After he left, she sat listening to his movements, taking comfort that he was close by. She knew that finding the Kalorians and sym was important to his task, but to risk his life to rescue her? It took a lot of guts to do something like that.

  Maybe part of it was because he actually believed her captivity was wrong. He seemed truly outraged at how the king had treated her. Then he had trusted her enough to take off the kundar. She didn’t know anyone who would have done that. Not one soul. He seemed too good to be true, and that didn’t sit right. Maybe there was something more he wanted from her?

  Finally giving in to fatigue, she tried to find a spot that wasn’t too rocky and snuggled into her blanket. As she drifted into sleep, Bran kept watch. Even with her suspicions, it warmed her heart. Somewhere deep inside she wanted to trust him. It was nice having someone on her side for a change, and she decided to believe what he said. For the first time in years, the dark cloud of oppression looming over her dissipated into a mellow contentment, and she slept peacefully.

  ****

  The gray light of dawn filtered through the trees, waking Teya from a sound sleep. The horses chomped on grass nearby, but there was no sign of Bran. Untangling from the blankets, she stood and stretched, then used her fingers to comb through her hair. She straightened her clothes and brushed at the dirt on her pants. She wasn’t used to being dirty and sleeping in her clothes, but to be free, she could get used to it.

  She glanced up at Bran’s approach, and her heart pounded at the sight of him. He wore the same clothing, but his wet hair curled enticingly around his ears. Taller than most men, he walked with an easy grace that she admired. With his unshaven face, he exuded masculine strength that was more than a little exciting. His dark eyes danced when he smiled, and left her speechless.

  “There’s a stream if you’d like to wash up.”

  Teya couldn’t seem to think straight and merely inclined her head in acknowledgment before she fled his presence. Her heart still pounded when she found the stream, but the cold water shocked her back to her senses.

  What was she thinking? Bran was her rescuer, and nothing more. There could never be anything between them. He had a mission to accomplish. Once he took her home, he would leave and go back to Braemar. End of story.

  Too bad she’d confided in him last night. For some reason it had opened a crack in her heart. Sure, she liked having someone to talk to, but it left her feeling vulnerable and unsettled and she didn’t like it. Everyone she’d been close to was gone, and once he took her home, he would leave as well. It was better to keep a distance between them.

  With a deep breath, she pushed her attraction to him aside. It didn’t matter anyway. All that ever mattered was getting home, and hopefully, today she would be there. Excitement coursed through her. After so long, her memories of home had faded, but not her feelings. Home meant love and warmth. She was willing to risk anything to have it again. But what if they weren’t there? What if the king had killed them all? What if they’d left to some distant place?

  She shook off these senseless worries and pushed them to the back of her mind. Now was not the time to get panicky. She had to believe that they were there and she would see them soon, or she’d go crazy.

  She returned to camp to find everything packed and ready to go, with Bran tightening the straps on her saddle. “I was wondering,” she asked tentatively. “What if the Kalorians aren’t there? What will you do?”

  He glanced her way, then continued with his task. “I’ll help you look for them until we find them.” He turned his full attention on her. “Are you worried that I won’t keep my end of the bargain?”

  “No,” she stepped back. “I just want to make it clear that I’m not stopping until I find them, whether you’re with me or not.”

  “I’m not your jailor,” Bran said, pursing his lips. “I released you from that, remember?”

  She flushed, realizing she had just insulted him. After everything he’d done for her, she still had trouble trusting him. “I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. I just needed you to know.”

  He stopped what he was doing and caught her gaze. “I know that you’ve been living in hell for the last ten years, so I’ll try not to be offended. I just hope you won’t let that experience cloud your judgment of me. Not everyone is bad.”

  “I’m sorry.” Teya glanced at her boots in embarrassment. “I didn’t mean that you were. You’ve more than proven yourself. It’s just that I’m new at this, and I don’t know the rules.”

  Bran lifted her chin until she met his gaze. “Rule number one, you can trust me. Rule number two, I’m not going anywhere until we find the Kalorians. Now, let’s get going.”

  This coaxed a smile out of her, and she nodded. Bran helped her mount up and hope lightened her mood. The clear blue sky soared overhead, and it seemed warmer than it should at this elevation, but Teya didn’t complain. She was free.

  Feeling the pull toward her people, she led the way with Bran riding beside her. Curious about him and his country, she decided to ask a few questions of her own. “What’s it like in Braemar?”

  A smile lit his eyes. “It’s very different from here. We have a lot of things that you don’t have.”

  “Like what?”

  “Motorbikes. If we had one of those, we would have found your people yesterday.” At her puzzled frown he continued. “They’re machines that can take you anywhere you want to go. They have two wheels, and the front wheel has a handlebar on it that you can turn to guide it. You sit in the middle like on a horse.”

  “How do you keep from tipping over?”

  He shrugged. “You learn. It has a gear mechanism that turns the wheels, and it runs on halo crystals, so it can go for miles.” His brow tilted at a rakish angle. “And they’re very fast.”

  Teya couldn’t comprehend such a thing. “How do the crystals make it work?”

  “They contain energy.” At her puzzlement, he continued. “The energy turns the gears.”

  “I’m not sure I understand, but I can tell you love them.”

  He smiled. “Yes.” Then with heartfelt excitement he said. “Someday I’ll have to take you for a ride.”

  She couldn’t help the lurch of her heart, nor his contagious enthusiasm. “I’d like that. When was the first time you ever rode one?”

  Bran regaled her with several stories, some of them downright hilarious. It was so easy to talk to him. He was different. He didn’t look at her like she was a freak. She almost envied the freedom he’d had growing up, knowing it was nothing like the last ten years of her life. But it was nice to carry on a normal conversation, and her laugher at his escapades surprised her. She hadn’t laughed for years.

  A little while later she noticed the beginning of a change in the countryside, and worry tightened her stomach. Here, the grass had turned brown from lack of water, and in many places, nothing grew out of the dry and dusty ground.

  “It looks like this area has had a dry spell,” Bran said.

  “It feels wrong, but I know this is the right way.” Every time she thought about changing direction, she was pulled back to this course. Foreboding entered her heart and she shivered. They continued on, and the further they went, the worse it got. Soon the trees showed signs of stress. Instead of growing straight and tall, the trunks were misshapen and craggy. So
me of the leaves had curled black with decay.

  Further on, the trees leaned toward the earth, broken and bent as if struck by a whirlwind. The forest stood in silence. Clouds blocked the sun, and cast a gray shadow over them. There were no birdcalls or movements of animals in the underbrush. No wind stirred the air. It seemed empty, like every living thing had died.

  The panic she’d held back took hold, and Teya’s heart shrank with despair. What if her people were dead after all? She closed her eyes again and felt the pull. “This is the right way,” she said. “I can feel the pull, but something’s not right.”

  Bran met her gaze with a troubled frown. “There’s a rise up ahead, we should be able to see better from there.”

  With a quick nod, Teya followed Bran up the rise. At the top of the hill she gasped. As far as she could see the ground was covered with blackened tree trunks. The earth was bare of life, and the trees stood in stark nakedness, their limbs like twisted fingers reaching for the sky.

  She stared, horrified at the destruction, yet too absorbed to pull her gaze away. In breathless shock she whispered. “It’s like a blight of some kind, or a curse. What would cause such an appalling thing?”

  Before Bran could answer, something moved in the dimness below. “Did you see that?” he asked.

  Teya strained to see it again, but found nothing. “I’m not sure. Maybe it was a shadow.” A chill ran up her spine and her skin crawled.

  “How much further?” Bran asked.

  “The pull of magic is strong here. We have to be close, but it leads straight through that.”

  “Maybe the Kalorians caused this to discourage outsiders. Whatever the reason, the only way we’ll know is to keep going.”

  “You’re right, but what if they’re... not there?” She couldn’t say dead, even though it was what she meant.

  “I suppose it’s a possibility. Do you want to keep going?”

  With a deep sigh, she nodded. “Of course. It’s just hard. This blight feels wrong. I don’t think my people would do this, but I don’t know. I want to find them, but going through this makes me nervous.”

  “Then we’ll just have to be careful.” Bran scanned the landscape and pointed. “See that outcropping of rocks in the distance?” She nodded, but it was so far away that she could barely make it out. “We’ll head for that. Maybe we’ll see something from there.”

  “All right,” she agreed.

  “I want you to have this.” Bran pulled a short sword from his saddlebags. “Do you know how to use it?”

  “Are you serious? I wasn’t allowed anywhere near something as lethal as that. My weapon is my voice, I don’t need anything else.”

  “You’re probably right, but since I don’t have that luxury, I’m not going to take any chances.” Bran strapped the sword to his back and then took out another belt that held a weapon Teya had never seen before.

  “What’s that?”

  “This is a gun.” He held it out so she could see it and opened the chamber. “You put bullets in here and when you pull the trigger, the mechanism will fire the bullet out of the barrel. Depending on how good your aim is, you can hit something at least fifty feet away, maybe more.”

  “Okay. How good are you at shooting that?”

  “I’m not bad.” His lips quirked up in a smile. “But if anything should happen to me…”

  “No,” she said, inhaling sharply. “Nothing’s going to happen. Between the two of us, we’ll be fine.”

  “Good, because I think you’re right. There is something strange here, and it makes me uneasy.” He loaded the gun, then settled the holster around his waist and cinched the belt. Ready, he glanced at her with grim determination. “Let’s go.”

  As they started through the dead trees, Teya kept her senses alert. Once or twice she caught a flicker of movement, but when she looked, nothing was there. She jerked at the sound of loose gravel behind them, but still saw nothing. “I think something’s following us.”

  “Keep going,” Bran said. “Stay focused on the rocks. If we get separated, head for them.”

  “No,” Teya disagreed with alarm. “We should stay together.”

  “If I have to fight,” Bran argued. “The least you can do is stay out of my way. I don’t want to shoot you by mistake.”

  “Fine,” she said. Picking up on the tension, the horses began to pull on their reins, prancing with alarm. In an effort to calm them, she hummed a tune. Immediately, the threat diminished and she swallowed with relief.

  She kept up the tune until they reached the shelter of rocks. Needing a break, she stopped humming to take a drink of water for her dry throat. “Is it safe to rest here for a few minutes?”

  He nodded, but the muscles around his eyes tightened. “Maybe we should stay here for the night.”

  “Why? Is it that late already?”

  “No, but…take a look at that.” He pointed back the way they had come. The gray twilight was enveloped in a dark mist that slowly crept toward them. Behind that, huge dark clouds followed. It looked like a terrible storm, getting bigger with each passing moment.

  Transfixed by the sheer enormity of it, Teya could hardly tear her eyes away. As it neared, a faint breeze carried the echoes of a low moan and the stench of decay. It came closer, and the dark mist coalesced into the form of a body that seemed to fall apart and come together in a horrible aberration of a man. Then an inhuman cry shook her to the bone.

  “Oh no!” Teya cried. Her heart raced with fear. “We have to make a run for it! We’ve got to get out of here!”

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a demon of death! And it’s coming straight for us!”

  Chapter 3

  Teya urged her horse into a gallop and glanced over her shoulder. Pure horror filled her chest. The dark form raced closer, gathering speed. An unearthly howl came toward them sounding hungry for living flesh. She kicked at her horse in panic, needing every second of swiftness it could give. On her left, Bran shouted something, but she couldn’t understand what he said.

  She scanned the horizon for signs of her home, but found nothing to relieve her fear. How were they going to escape? Bran shouted and veered further to the left. Teya strained to keep up and was almost knocked off her horse by a blackened tree limb. She kept her head down and thundered on. The light faded into gray shadows, and it was hard to see Bran ahead of her. Using all her concentration, she focused on his back and hoped he knew where he was going.

  An eerie quiet settled over her, the only warning that the mist was at her heels. A cold tendril of shadow touched her back and she flinched, but couldn’t get away. It slowly crept up her spine and icy fingers caressed her cheek. She jerked her head away, shaking it off. The mist withdrew and she took a quick breath before it came at her again. This time, the shadow penetrated into her back and she gasped in pain.

  Her horse floundered in terror, and she lost sight of Bran. As the burning pain entered her chest she heard a high whistle. It sounded like reeds blowing in the wind. All at once, the pain lessened and she was able to breathe again. Focusing with all her senses, she sang the exact same tones she heard. Immediately, the darkness recoiled, freeing her.

  Giddy with relief, she searched for Bran and found him a short distance away slumped over his horse, his lips tinged with blue and his skin gray. The mist receded as she approached with her song, and Bran gasped in a deep breath. His dark eyes fluttered open and he tried to sit up.

  Teya reached to steady him and stopped singing to catch her breath, but the mist came back with a vengeance. She quickly took up the tones again, and grabbed Bran’s arm, using all her strength to hold him upright until his strength returned. After a few deep breaths, he nodded and she let go. With Bran safe at her side, she prodded her horse toward the whistling tones she heard in the distance.

  All at once, the mist thickened into a solid wall around them, but she tried not to panic. Closing her eyes, she concentrated hard, knowing their only hope to surviv
e meant finding the source of the music. At last, a faint breeze carried the tones to her once again, and she jerked her horse toward the sound. Bran nodded to hear them, finally understanding her intent.

  As they got closer to the tones, the darkness thinned in front of them, then disappeared altogether. What she had imagined as reeds were actually pipes, turned to catch the wind and placed on a wooden stand. About ten feet in both directions, more pipes formed a barrier against the mist. With a cry of relief, she and Bran surged between them to safety. Gasping in huge breaths, Teya slid off her horse and fell to her knees.

  A sudden moaning shriek surged from the darkness toward them. In response, Teya’s horse reared in fright, jerking from her grasp and galloping away. As the darkness swirled into a churning mass of turbid malevolence, Teya jumped to her feet, only to shrink back in horror from the small tendrils of mist that crept forward between the pipes to reach her.

  Instinctively, Teya lashed out with her song. The mist jerked back as if stung. Seeing this, she strengthened her tones. The darkness hung in the air for a few moments, then suddenly disappeared into the dead countryside.

  Taking huge breaths, Teya swayed. Bran came to her side, his breath shallow and uneven. “That thing almost had us,” he said. “For a minute there, I thought I was dead.”

  “I know...me too.” Her trembling legs barely held her up. Bran caught her and they clung to each other as the shock of their narrow escape washed over them. With Bran’s firm arms around her, Teya’s trembling subsided. Finally calm enough to notice her surroundings, she pulled away in astonishment.

  “Look at that,” she exclaimed. “It’s grass.” The green carpet began a few feet beyond the barrier of pipes and continued up a slope. Now that the darkness was gone, the orange and yellow rays of the setting sun cast golden light across the land.