Oaken (The Underground Series Book 1)

by Melody Robinette

  Autumn scrambled off of the fallen branch and backed up slowly.

  The Shadow took a step forward and Autumn took another step back, finding herself pressed against a tree. She reached down and picked up a heavy rock to use as a weapon if he attacked.

  “I order you to stop!” Autumn said. “I am the Princess of Arbor Falls.” She then held up her wrist to show the creature her Royal Mark.

  The Shadow stopped for a second, his eyes on Autumn’s hand, head tilting, and then continued to move slowly towards her. Suddenly he lunged. She leapt out of the way as he crashed into the tree behind her. She tried to run away when he grabbed a hold of her ankle with both hooves, pulling her to the ground. Autumn took the rock that she was still holding and smashed it into his snout.

  Letting out a guttural gasp, he temporarily released her. Autumn struggled to her feet, looking around wildly for something to injure him with as he leapt on her, this time successfully knocking her to the ground. He pulled out what looked like rope and began to bind her arms, pinning them to her sides. Autumn aimed a kick to his abdomen and he bent over double. She struggled to release herself from the rope and tried to run past him, but he tripped her, jamming her to the ground once again. He quickly wrapped the rope around her entire body, like a spider capturing its prey.

  This was it. She couldn’t get away now. The Shadow was going to take her to Vyra and Vyra was going to kill her. Tears filled her eyes as she thought of how she left things with Luke.

  Then she heard something in the distance and suddenly the Shadow was no longer on top of her. Someone had pulled him away. Autumn tried to look around, but she couldn’t move her head. The Shadow had lodged it between two heavy rocks. She could hear scuffling and grunting and then a loud cracking sound…then nothing.

  Someone called her name and then footsteps rushed towards her.

  Avery stared down at Autumn with a panicked look on his face. “Are you okay? Did it hurt you?”

  “I’m fine,” she breathed, relief flooding her.

  He knelt down and began untying her. “I’m so sorry I didn’t get here sooner. We all split up looking for you, but you went way off the path. I started running when I heard you scream.”

  Autumn hadn’t realized that she had screamed.

  Avery finished untying her legs and pulled her gently to her feet.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  He didn’t say anything, but wrapped her in a tight hug instead. The magnetic pull was back and she gave in to it, wrapping her arms around him too.

  “I’m sorry I’ve been a jerk. I just—”

  “Me too,” Autumn said.

  “We should find Luke and Crystal. They’re still looking for you.”

  They walked out of the little clearing and into the thick forest toward the path. Autumn tried to ignore the Shadow’s crumpled, lifeless body as they passed by. Avery grabbed her hand and led her through the foliage. He had marked the trees every so often so he could find his way back.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Avery asked again.

  “Just a few bumps and bruises is all.”

  “I can’t believe it didn’t kill you. It took me a long time to reach you once I heard you scream.”

  “Well I think it was planning on killing me, but then I told it that I was the princess and showed my mark. I think he decided to bring me to Vyra instead.”

  “That probably saved your life.”

  There was only a line of pink in the sky, the sun had set and the forest was rapidly darkening. The trees became sparser as they walked on. With the help of Avery’s trail they made it to the path by nightfall.

  “We’ll never find Luke and Crystal when it’s this dark,” Autumn said. “What if there are other Shadows?”

  “I’ll call a Castle Navigator to come find them.”

  “Call?”

  “Yeah,” Avery said. “I’m sure there’s one this way.”

  He began walking down the path toward town. Autumn had a few more questions about what the heck he was talking about, but she followed him anyway, sure he would eventually explain.

  “There,” Avery said, pointing to a tree just off the path.

  Autumn watched in confusion as Avery jogged up to an unnaturally red tree with a large hole in its front. This tree was especially unusual because dangling from its long branches were hundreds—maybe thousands—of overgrown acorns the size of apples. Avery plucked an acorn off the tree, pulled the top off and spoke into the hollow shell.

  “Navigator needed on Steam Springs Hill. Bring fay light.”

  He then put the top back onto the acorn, recited the castle address to the opening in the tree and popped the acorn into the hole.

  Autumn stared at Avery in bewilderment.

  “See? A Message Tree,” he said, laughing at her expression.

  Now that she thought about it, she remembered seeing a miniature tree like that one in her branch, but at the time she had just thought it was some sort of strange elf decoration.

  “Now we wait,” Avery said, sitting on a log just off the path. He patted the spot beside him, indicating Autumn should join him and she did. “I still don’t get why it took that Shadow so long to tie you up. I wonder if it was a newborn.”

  “Well I wasn’t going to just lay down and let it take me to Vyra without a fight.”

  “What did you do to it?”

  “I hit it with a rock and kicked it in the stomach and played keep-away for a little while.”

  “That’s impressive.”

  “It was nothing,” Autumn said, flipping her hair playfully.

  Avery snorted. “You may turn out to be a pretty amazing Warrior, Autumn Oaken.”

  “If I ever find my Power.”

  “You will,” he said as he put his hand over hers and squeezed.

  Her eyes flashed up to his, their stormy gray as inscrutable as ever. Autumn’s heart fluttered. Why did it always do that around him?

  Crunching leaves and snapping twigs sounded down the path, announcing the arrival of the castle Navigator. Avery greeted him and he ducked his head, looking rather uncomfortable.

  “He doesn’t really like to socialize,” Avery murmured under his breath as the Navigator closed his eyes and began walking up the hill.

  “Why is he closing his eyes? Won’t he trip or something?”

  “His Power is leading him.”

  It took him no time at all to locate Crystal and Luke, who were together and not far from the path. The Navigator retrieved them and then left for the castle once Autumn and Avery had thanked him and he had dropped his head once again.

  “Autumn!” Crystal cried.

  “Don’t do that again!” Luke said, a mixture of relief and anger in his voice.

  “Sorry,” she muttered.

  “I fell down like thirty times out there looking for you,” Luke said.

  “Well I fell down a few times myself, trying to fight off a five hundred pound Shadow,” Autumn said.

  Luke stopped complaining and looked at her quizzically.

  “It’s true,” Avery said. “I barely got there in time.”

  Luke looked at Autumn with an open mouth. She told him and Crystal the whole story. Avery added a few details here and there. By the time they finished Crystal and Luke were looking at them with impressed and slightly horrified faces. Autumn smiled in spite of herself. Their reactions filled her with a sense of pride in herself. It would appear she actually did have a chance in a fight.

  Power or no Power.

  Etherelles and Dummies

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The following week was both easier and more difficult. It was easier because Autumn was familiar with all of her classes, and Avery seemed to have put all of the angry silences from last week behind him. He and Crystal were the only true friends she had in the Underground aside from Luke. They knew the real Oaken twins, not the royal Oaken twins like everyone else.

  The week was harder because Autumn was forced to
make time for both her friends and Victor, who was rapidly becoming a major part of her day. They went to lunch together every day, hung out during breaks and—to Luke and Avery’s dismay—Victor had even started showing up on the castle’s front steps to walk Autumn to school.

  They had yet to kiss again, which she didn’t mind because she had never planned on taking things with Victor any further than friendship. It wouldn’t seem fair to him seeing as how Avery’s face popped into her head every two minutes.

  On top of all that, she hadn’t worked on her song for the Melodies Fall Concert. Every time she thought about it, her stomach flipped uncomfortably and her palms began to sweat. So she kept telling herself that she would figure it out over the weekend.

  The most difficult part of the week, though, was Powers class. Autumn was now the only elf in her class—the only elf on campus, actually—who didn’t have a Power. She tried to keep her jealousy hidden when Luke announced proudly to Atticus that he’d discovered his Power. She also tried not to glower when Atticus enthusiastically congratulated her brother and put him in a group with Avery and Crystal. With a wink, Atticus told Autumn not to worry.

  By Friday, though, she was beginning to think that she didn’t even have a Power—or worse—that it would be something ridiculously useless like growing her hair or being an exceptionally good gardener.

  When Magistra Halphnote asked Autumn about the name of her song that afternoon, though, she momentarily forgot about her Power problem. She was supposed to have already written her song so it could be entered into the program for the next weekend. Autumn swallowed and muttered that she hadn’t quite worked out a title yet.

  “But you have been working on your song, correct?” asked Magistra Halphnote with a disappointed frown.

  Autumn nodded, trying not to look too guilty.

  What with her lack of Power and her inability to write a song for Melodies, Autumn felt like crawling into a hole. Why did she have to choose Melodies? Even Sports would have been less embarrassing. And, even though she knew she shouldn’t, she put it off for another day. Maybe her Power was, in fact, the profound ability to procrastinate.

  Avery broke through Autumn’s constant laments that afternoon by saying, “I know what will make you feel better. Punching things. Really hard.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure it would. How will that help anything, though?”

  “The Warrior Test measures your physical fighting abilities too. That way, when you do find your Power, you’ll only need to practice that cause you’ll already know how to kick ass without one.”

  Autumn laughed. “I guess you’ve got a point.”

  “Training grounds, tomorrow morning, after breakfast,” Avery stated. “After a full-grown Shadow, this will be nothing.”

  The next morning she got out of bed with a sense of excitement growing within her. She had a feeling it had less to do with punching things and more to do with the person who would be teaching her how.

  Hoping some fresh air would release the butterflies in her stomach, Autumn opened the glass doors to her balcony and stepped outside. Her ears were immediately met with music. Someone was singing and playing some sort of instrument that sounded remarkably like a guitar. The sound was coming from somewhere above her.

  Autumn looked up, searching for the source. It was coming from the branch directly above hers. “Avery? Hey, Avery!”

  The music stopped and a few seconds later Avery was leaning over his balcony railing, looking down at her. “Autumn? What are you doing?”

  “Was that you?”

  “Was what me?”

  “That music.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “I’m coming up!”

  She hurried out of her branch and up the stairs, ideas running through her head. She may have found the answer to her Melodies problem, after all.

  On her second knock, Avery opened the door with a mingled look of humor and confusion on his face.

  “May I come in?” Autumn asked.

  Avery looked over his shoulder and then nodded, waving her into his branch. It was smaller than hers, but still just as elegant. The couches had frilly pillow accents, and empty perfume bottles sat in a row on the mantle above the fireplace. Autumn had a feeling they didn’t belong to Avery.

  “Do you live alone?” she asked, examining a sea-glass blue perfume bottle covered in a thick layer of dust.

  Avery shook his head as he led her back into his room. “My mom lives here too. She’s in bed.”

  “Oh no, I’m sorry. I hope I didn’t wake her with my knocking.”

  “She probably isn’t asleep. She just lays there.”

  Autumn gave him a questioning look, but he didn’t explain. She decided not to push the subject further as she followed him into his room.

  “Were you playing a guitar just now?” she asked.

  “A what?”

  “A guitar. You know, wooden instrument, six strings, hole in the middle.”

  “Oh.” Avery moved to his balcony and picked up what looked rather similar to a guitar, only it had eight strings and three holes in the middle. “You mean an etherelle?” He held out the instrument for Autumn to take. It was a beautiful golden color with circular designs carved into the wood.

  “It’s incredible.” Autumn ran her fingers across the smooth wood.

  “Do you play?” he asked.

  “No, my dad did. Well he played the guitar, that is, but this is almost the same thing. I guess he learned it all here. He was going to teach me, but he—well, he never got around to it.” Avery kept silent and Autumn remembered that she wasn’t the only one who had lost a father. “So, that song you were singing earlier. Is that a song from the Underground?”

  “No,” he said, running his hand nervously through his golden hair. “I actually wrote that.”

  “Really,” Autumn said, a sly smile spreading across her face.

  “What?”

  “I’m in Melodies and we have to sing an original song. Could you maybe loan me one?”

  “Aren’t you supposed to write that yourself,” he asked, looking amused.

  Autumn frowned. “Yes.”

  “Can you not write songs?”

  “I used to with my dad. He would write the melody and I would put in the lyrics. I tried to write more songs after he died, but, without his music, they never lived up to the ones we wrote together. So I just stopped.”

  “What about the songs you wrote with your dad before? Could you sing one of those?”

  Autumn shook her head. “I don’t think I’d be able to get through it without falling apart.”

  “You, fall apart? The Shadow-Fighter?” Avery said with a chuckle.

  Autumn rolled her eyes, but smiled in spite of herself. She sort of liked the sound of that—the Shadow-Fighter. It was a lot better than the names she’d been calling herself.

  “Well, I’m not going to just give you a song, but I will compromise. I’ll help you write one. That way it will be an original and you will have a part in it. I’ll come up with the melody and you can write the lyrics.”

  “I think I can deal with that,” Autumn said with a lopsided smile.

  Instead of going down to the dueling grounds, Autumn and Avery worked on her song all morning. They brainstormed about song ideas and eventually decided on a powerful and inspiring ballad song about adventure and enchantment to describe Autumn’s recent experience.

  Avery was an exceptional etherelle player. Autumn was a little embarrassed to sing in front of him at first, but the more time they spent together, the more comfortable she felt.

  By lunchtime they had completely finished writing her song and were both famished. They met up with Luke in the dining room and he told them Crystal had gone to help her mother complete a few gowns in the castle roots for the afternoon.

  “Where the heck have you two been?” Luke asked.

  “Avery was helping me with my Melodies assignment.”

  “But you’re in Sports,” L
uke said to Avery with narrowed eyes.

  “That doesn’t mean Sports is all he’s capable of,” Autumn said.

  Luke still looked unconvinced, but shrugged and said, “Do you guys want to go to Arbor Lake this afternoon?”

  “I was going to teach Autumn how to fight,” Avery said.

  Luke frowned and said, “Should I be learning how to fight?”

  “It wouldn’t hurt. There will be a strictly physical test during the Warrior Test where you won’t be allowed to use your Power,” Avery said.

  Luke frowned. “Damn.”

  After lunch, the three of them traveled down to the dueling grounds. First, Avery taught them how to get out of various different holds. He refrained from using his Strength against them so they would have somewhat of a chance. It took a while, but eventually Autumn and Luke were able to release themselves from each hold.

  Next, he taught them how to attack an enemy and most effectively bring them down. They used training dummies for this exercise so they wouldn’t seriously hurt one another. Once the twins had nearly mastered the art of attack, Avery paired them together to test who could use their newly found skills best. Luke attempted to pin Autumn’s arms to her sides, but she slid right out of his hold. Then he wrapped an arm around her neck and stomach, and she managed to get out just as quickly.

  Autumn could tell he was growing aggravated because a small storm cloud had appeared above their heads. He hadn’t exactly learned how to control his power efficiently yet. Luke was able to release himself from all of Autumn’s holds as well, though, so his little storm cloud soon dissipated.

  As the sun sank low in the Underground sky, Autumn, Luke, and Avery traveled back up to the castle sweaty and tired. Autumn felt as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. But when Avery congratulated her on her newfound fighting skills by clapping a hand on her back and letting it linger there, she realized she still had a few things in her life to work out.

  Melodies

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN