Page 28 of A Fractured Song

“Addressed to you?” He could hear the alarm in his mother’s words. “Ordinary letters don’t fly through the air, Zev.”

Zev didn’t respond, his thumb moving across the letters written in a slanting, feminine hand. It was his name all right, and the location of their farm, as clear as day. There was only one way to find outwhat it was about.

He pulled out his knife and flicked it open, slitting the envelope roughly. There was one folded sheet inside, in the same neat writing. His eyes jumped at once to the bottom, his heart doing a strange lurch when he saw how the note was signed. He would have preferred to read it without his mother present, but there was no way she was going to give him that option. Trying to keep his face impassive, he read through the note from the start.

Zev

I’m back in Aeltas. I thought about coming to see you, but I didn’t know if you’d want that. I won’t explain in a letter all the reasons I came. I was going to write something about thinking you might want to know my plans, but that’s not the truth. The truth is thatIwant you to know. I don’t want to come so close to where you are without you even knowing that I’m here, or where I’m going.

And where I’m going is into Sundering Canyon, or at least that’s my plan. I’m hoping to find roughly the same area where you pulled me from the cliff face.

I expect to be there on Thursday. I won’t try to enter the canyon until noon. Just in case.

- Marieke

Zev stared at the letter, his heart thumping so forcefully he felt sure his mother must hear it. Marieke was in Aeltas? And she’d written to him.

“What is it, Zev?” his mother asked. “How did it find you?”

Zev blinked at her, struggling to comprehend her question. The contents of the letter had driven out all thought of its method of arrival. What was Marieke thinking, going intoSundering Canyon? She’d barely escaped from the monarchists with her life last time. Why would she take that risk?

And she was going to wait at the canyon’s edge for a while…just in case.

Just in case.

Zev’s mind whirled. She hadn’t explained those words, but she didn’t need to. He understood. She wasn’t asking him to come with her—she wasn’t going to pressure him after he’d told her so clearly that her self-appointed mission wasn’t his fight.

But underneath everything said between them, and everything not said, the simple truth was that shewasasking him to come with her. Reading her words, he could almost see her hopeful face as it had looked when she’d suggested they unravel Oleand’s tangled problems together.

And what would his answer be? Would he turn away again, and leave her to whatever fate befell her?

“Zev?” His mother’s voice reminded him of the fact that he wasn’t alone.

“It’s a letter,” he said gruffly, folding it so that the words were hidden again. “For me. Like I said.”

He could see the impatience on his mother’s face, but she stopped herself from dragging the information out of him, instead ushering him toward the doorway she was occupying.

“Come inside, Zev. Unless…” She paused as she looked at the folded letter in his hand. “Do you think it’s safe to bring that thing with you?”

“Of course it is.” Zev stepped over the threshold, unenthusiastic about sharing the letter with his whole family, but unable to imagine a scenario where he could get away with anything less. “It’s a letter, Mother. Just a letter.”

She didn’t reply, but he could sense her skepticism without the need for words. He strode ahead of her, all thought ofwashing up for supper forgotten as he made his way to the kitchen, where the family ate on all but formal occasions. His brother was already at the scrubbed wooden table, and his father appeared moments after Zev and his mother entered the room.

“Did I hear Zev come in? Is supper…” The question petered out as he looked from his eldest son to his wife. “Is everything all right, Narelle? What’s going on?”

“A letter came by magical wind,” Zev’s mother said matter-of-factly. “It’s for Zev, from Marieke.”

“Mother.” Zev ignored the splutter from his brother, who seemed to be choking on his sip of ale. Had his mother peered over his shoulder without him realizing? “You shouldn’t be reading a letter addressed to me.”

“I didn’t read the letter,” she informed him. “I didn’t need to. I just read you, Zev.”

Zev shut his mouth.

“Is it true?” Azai demanded. “You got a letter from that Oleandan singer?”

“Yes.” Zev was unimpressed. “You know, pretending that you don’t remember her name just makes you look foolish.”

“I remember her name,” Azai said tartly. “I just choose not to use it.”

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