Page 25 of A Fractured Song

“I haven’t done anything wrong. I’m not running from the law or anything.”

“I’m sure you haven’t,” Veronica reassured her. “I wasn’t thinking that. But I’m worried about you. You’re here all alone, buying provisions for a journey, giving me vague answers…where are you going, Marieke?”

Marieke bit her lip, teetering for a moment before impulsively spilling the beans. “To Sundering Canyon.” The words were abrupt. “I suppose someone should know where I’m headed in case I never come back.”

Veronica’s stare conveyed nothing but bemusement. “You mean the crossing? Why wouldn’t you come back from there? You know the bridge is closed, right? You’re not going to try to go across it anyway, are you?”

“Not the crossing.” Marieke shook her head. “I’m going to try to get into the canyon itself.”

“But…why?” Veronica still seemed more confused than concerned. “What’s the point of trying to get into a barren gorge?”

Marieke let out a slow breath, stalling for time as she tried to decide how much to tell the Aeltan girl. “Have you ever heard of people living down in the ravine?”

Veronica’s surprise seemed genuine. “No, I haven’t.”

“Well, they’re down there,” Marieke said. “And I believe their presence is fairly well known in that region.”

“How do you know for sure that they’re there?” Veronica asked.

“Because when I fell into the canyon on my previous trip, I saw them,” Marieke told her. “In fact, I was taken captive by them. One of them freed me, but not to help. He got me to follow him, then tried to kill me.”

“Marieke!” Veronica’s eyes were wide.

Marieke shrugged. “It ended up all right. I escaped and managed to get out of the canyon.”

“With the help of that farmer,” Veronica chimed in.

To Marieke’s annoyance, she felt her cheeks heat. She’d forgotten that she’d mentioned Zev to Veronica.

“Yes.”

“I can hardly believe this,” Veronica said, shaking her head. “If they tried to kill you, it should really have been reported to the Council of Singers.”

“It was,” Marieke said. “I told the leader of my delegation, and she passed it on.”

Veronica frowned. “And yet all this time later, I still haven’t heard about these people living down there?”

Marieke hesitated. “I guess they have their reasons for keeping the information to themselves.”

Veronica didn’t look satisfied with this answer, which was heartening in itself.

“What do you know that you’re not telling me, Marieke?”

“So, so many things,” Marieke said frankly. “But I doubt you want to know half of them. I will say this, though—the people in the canyon hate singers. The one who tried to kill me was so upset about my escape that he followed me out of Sundering Canyon and back to Oleand, where he tried tofinish the job.”

Veronica looked horrified. “Mari! That’s terrible. Is that why you’re here? Are you running away from him?”

“No.” A shudder went over Marieke as she remembered the sight of Gorgon’s body lying in the gardens outside her academy. “He’s dead now.”

“I don’t understand,” Veronica complained. “Any of it. Why would the council keep these people’s existence a secret? Why would you want to go back down there if they tried to kill you? Why would people want to live in a ravine in the first place?”

“I can’t speak for anyone else,” Marieke said, smoothly sidestepping the topics she didn’t want to dive into. “But I’m going down there because I want answers. There are some things that aren’t adding up in Oleand, and I think the people down there know things we don’t know up here.”

“And you want these answers enough to die for them?” Veronica demanded.

“I’m hoping it won’t come to that,” Marieke said, a chuckle rising at the look of outrage on Veronica’s face. Clearly her friend thought she’d lost her mind. “Remember, the one who tried to kill me is dead now.”

“Still…” Veronica twisted her mouth to one side. “Marieke, I don’t think you should go into the ravine. Definitely not alone. Maybe I should go with you.”

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