Page 60 of A Fractured Song

May the land be firm beneath your feet and gentle under your touch.

Marieke turned the words on themselves, singing an invocation to the land to rebel against the attacking elves, to be unstable underneath them and sharp as knives to their hands.

She felt the magic churning forward, eager in its response. It felt like she held a roiling, surging patch of rapids in her mental grasp, and as it raced toward the elves, the ground surged as well. The cave floor where she and Zev stood remained solid, but the strip of stony ground between themand the elves moved like a bedsheet shaken out in the wind. It rose and fell in a rhythmic motion, more unnatural and targeted than any earthquake.

Marieke heard cries of shock from the elves as the ground under their feet cracked and shifted. They darted for the outside of the cave, trying to escape the path of destruction caused by the roiling magic. Shards of rock were lancing upward, and one of the elves let out a horrible, gurgling scream. A shaft of stone, sharper than a blade, had jutted up from the ground and impaled his hand.

Her stomach clenching, Marieke changed her song, continuing to sing her inverted version of the blessing, but leaving out the part about the land being sharp as knives. She’d never imagined the result would be so literal as well as so powerful.

The shard broke away at the base, the rock falling back to the ground and leaving the elf with a bleeding hand. And simmering rage, judging by the look he cast at her.

“Come on!” Zev called over the top of Marieke’s song, grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the entrance of the cave, which was now clear.

Struggling to maintain awareness of her surroundings while singing furiously, Marieke stumbled after him, focusing her physical senses on just the firm grip of his hand and trusting him to guide her while she gave the rest of her attention to her magical sense.

The ground stilled under their feet, the patch where they ran not only holding steady, but clearing a path before them from the debris caused by Marieke’s song.

When they emerged into daylight, Marieke’s song petered out. As she tried to catch her breath, she saw Rissin picking himself up from the ground nearby. Unease washed over her as she realized that his eyes glittered as much with greed as with anger. He knew as well as she did that something remarkablehad just happened, magically speaking. He would be doubly eager to get his hands on the pair of humans now. Marieke saw with alarm that Rissin’s talisman from earlier lay nearby, only just out of the elf’s reach.

Fortunately, Zev had also seen the situation, and his energy wasn’t depleted by the song like Marieke’s was. He lunged forward as Rissin scampered toward the metal disc.

Remembering what Kaine had said about combat singers using songcraft to strengthen the attack of other fighters, Marieke raised her voice once again. To her relief, the canyon hadn’t stolen her voice again—she was still able to sing. The words of her song were simple. She declared Zev’s feet to be swift and his arm to be strong, and before her eyes, they became so. Zev reached the elf with dizzying speed, and his fist connected with the little creature’s jaw with enough force to send Rissin flying.

Zev kicked the disc hard, sending it skittering out of reach as he turned back to Marieke.

“Are you all right?” he asked urgently.

Marieke didn’t answer, once again letting her song die for a moment as she tried to catch her breath. What Kaine hadn’t had time to teach her was that using magic to power another person’s movements apparently took significantly more energy than using it to affect natural elements around her. It made sense, given that any magical attempt to counter someone else’s freedom of movement meant that the singer was battling against that person’s will, which was a deep and complex struggle. Not that she was attempting to counter Zev’s freedom of movement—that would have depleted her completely, quite apart from being highly illegal. She was enhancing the movements of his own choice, which was perfectly acceptable. It just made sense that it also required significant energy.

There wasn’t time to explain any of thisto Zev, of course. With her academy training, this analysis flashed through Marieke’s head in a moment, but she could see that the elf with the injured hand and the third elf were moving toward them with purpose. Even Rissin was starting to stir on the ground. They probably had more talismans on them, and they would be willing to use whatever force necessary to bring her and Zev in now.

“Come on,” she gasped, gathering her voice and her energy. She had to make one final effort to get them out of there.

“Do you have a plan?” Zev asked, following her as she scrambled away from the elves, back down the canyon in the direction they’d come.

“Yes, but it’s very risky,” she panted, glancing behind her. The uninjured elf was already chasing them, and the others were rummaging in a pack on the ground behind him. “Do you trust me enough to take the risk?”

“Of course.” There was no hesitation in Zev’s reply.

Marieke’s eyes scanned the cliffside on their left, on the southern side of the canyon. “Then start climbing.”

She took a deep breath after the words, commencing a new song. Inspired by what had happened in the cave, she sang of smooth paths and gentle climbs. She was barely aware of Zev’s hands boosting her up as she grabbed at the stone in front of her. To her delight, the sheer cliff face shifted, surfaces evening out slightly, and the incline changing—only subtly, but enough to mean it was sloping outward a little as they climbed, rather than going straight up.

Zev climbed just below her, encouraging her to keep going any time her voice flagged. At one point her foot slipped, and his hand was on it at once, pinning it in place as she pushed herself up to the next foothold.

“Don’t look down,” he told her firmly,when her head started to turn. “Don’t worry about the elves. Just keep singing and keep moving. I’ve got you, Mari.”

Confidence swelled inside her, and she pushed her ragged voice on with determination. The ground rippled before her every time she paused for breath, becoming momentarily more treacherous. But as she once again raised her voice, it yielded beneath her hands. Her arms were straining with the effort of climbing hand over hand, and she dug deeper within herself, calling on her training to try to add nuance to the raw power she was wielding.

With her mind and magical sense still directing power to disperse through the ground under her hands, she introduced a new strain with her words. She sent a puff of magic into the air, swirling it through the breeze blowing past her and redirecting the wind.

The chaotic magic of the canyon responded to her more and more readily, and soon a steady wind was blowing up from the ravine, cushioning them as they climbed and urging them onward.

“Keep going, Mari!” Zev encouraged from behind her, his voice again raised over her continued song. “We’re out of reach of the elves now. The cliffside is becoming sheer again behind us. They can’t follow.”

She nodded wearily, fighting the urge to close her eyes for a moment. She needed the use of all her senses. She was glad they’d left the elves behind, but she was still keenly aware of the danger they were in. Sundering Canyon was unpredictable. Last time, when it had taken her voice, it hadn’t given it back until she was safe on solid, Aeltan ground at the top. At any moment her song might stop, and then they would be stuck, halfway up a sheer cliff face. And even with her song in play, they were a long way above the ground. If either of themmissed their step and fell, the magically enhanced wind wouldn’t be enough to stop them plunging into the gorge.

It was tempting to glance down and see just how far they would fall if that happened, but she took Zev’s advice and kept her gaze pointed upward. She had a handle on the magic now. It still felt slippery and powerful, but it wasn’t like an escaping fish anymore. It was more like a huge rope, one with more strength than she could fully control, but which was traveling through her hands in a predictable direction, not trying to yank to one side or the other. As long as she kept her hold steady, it would continue to pass through her guiding grip, responding to her direction even if not fully in her control.

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