Page 10 of A Fractured Song

“There’s obviously magic involved,” Zev said. “A singer must have enchanted it. Possibly multiple singers, who knows?”

“All the more reason to get hold of it and destroy it.”

Zev wasn’t looking at Azai, but he could hear his brother’s scowl in his tone.

“I think it’s some kind of tracking document, Azai,” he said impatiently. “If it has a description of the next farm over, it must have some magical method of taking in information from what’s around it. Who knows what it might record about you if you touch it?” He sent his brother a piercing look. “Or about our family if you take it into our home?”

“I don’t need to take it inside in order to burn it,” Azai muttered. But he’d already withdrawn his hand. “So what do we do with it? You want to just leave it there?”

Zev considered the matter. “No, I don’t like the idea of it hovering here,” he said. “Not if it’s recording information.” It would be like having someone hiding in the tree, spying on them. “Let’s prod it free with a stick and see what it does.”

“You want to free it to enter our property and make notes of everything it sees?” Azai protested in outrage.

Again Zev took a moment before responding. “No,” he said at last. “If it enters our property, I think we should destroy it rather than let it leave again.”

“Finally you’re talking some sense.” Azai wrapped a leg around a thick branch to steady himself as he pulled a dagger from his hip. With a few swift strokes, he hacked himself a stave of sorts from the tree.

Zev watched as Azai pushed and poked at the parchment with his stick, trying to get it loose. It was properly tangled in the branches, but eventually he managed to free it. At once, it took to the air, and Zev instantly saw what Azai had meant. The way the parchment darted from side to side definitely wasn’t a natural response to any wind Zev had ever experienced.

As the parchment swooped toward the nearby road, both brothers tensed. But they didn’t need to. The mysterious itemdidn’t make it onto their property, once again thwarted by the line of trees that marked its edge. Zev felt a rush of what he thought was elation at this protection of his home. But as the feeling shifted and subsided upon the parchment going still, he realized it was more than just emotion. It was more like intuition, and it had seemed to come not from his heart or his head, but up from his feet.

Interesting. Just like Azai had said, the land had somehow responded to the parchment’s approach. Specifically,theirland. Their family’s property.

“What do we do now?” Azai asked. His expression was disgruntled, but Zev caught the smile in his words. He was also pleased that their farm remained un-breached.

By way of answer, Zev snapped his own rod from a nearby tree, pulling himself hand over hand until he could reach the parchment. He deftly inserted the stick into the folds of waxy paper, flicking it away from the entangling foliage.

Again it flew toward their farm, and again it didn’t make it. The brothers had to redirect it four more times before it eventually gave up and drifted off toward the north.

“It won’t find much that way,” Azai said in satisfaction. “It’ll be at Sundering Canyon before long.” He frowned. “Unless you think it will try to find another way onto our farm.”

With a casual flick, Zev sent his makeshift rod spinning into the undergrowth. “If it does, I have a feeling it won’t have any more success than it did here.”

“It was more than just luck, wasn’t it?” Azai said, following Zev as he strode across the dusty road and through their gate. “Do you think the land somehow kept it off our property?”

Zev ran a hand across the back of his neck in thought. “Seems that way.”

“Huh.” Azai sounded pleased, and Zev could understandwhy. “I guess generations of defensive power have had some effect.”

“Of course they have,” said Zev, a touch of impatience in his voice as his gaze darted over his shoulder, scanning the solid line of trees that bordered their property and taking in the glimpses of the closest circle of hills beyond. He knew his history. Neither feature of the land had been there when his ancestors first settled in this area.

He understood Azai’s surprise, however. Subtle changes to the land over generations were one thing. Whatever had happened with the parchment was more immediate. More concrete.

Was their power getting stronger, or was the magic of the Council of Singers getting more aggressive?

“Too bad the defensive effect isn’t broader. It would be great if it could keep out not just enchanted objects but the singers who create those enchantments,” Azai said. His voice dropped to a mutter that he nevertheless clearly wanted Zev to hear. “One in particular would have been nice.”

“Let it go, Azai,” said Zev in irritation, his moment of fellow feeling with his brother fleeing rapidly.

Azai scoffed. “Let it go? I don’t think I’m the one who needs to hear that advice.”

Zev felt his face set like steel. He refused to engage with the conversation.

“Seriously,” Azai pressed, unwilling to drop it as usual. “You’ve been moping ever since you came back from Oleand. If Ramsey hadn’t spilled your secret, would you have even told us you were with Marieke the whole time you were across the border?”

Zev gave a grunt of annoyance. “Don’t be a fool, Azai. None of it was a secret. And Marieke wasn’t with us the whole timewe were there. How many times do I have to tell you that I ran into her by coincidence, not design?”

“Then it’s quite the coincidence,” Azai said dryly. “You know one Oleandan, and that’s who you run into, in the whole country? You expect me to believe it wasn’t by design?”

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