Page 79 of A Fractured Song

“You want to strike out at night?”

“No,” he said quickly. “I’m suggesting we skirt around the town, go a little way past it, and camp somewhere near the road, near enough to be inside the boundary enchantment but not visible to passers-by. Then strike out in the morning.”

Marieke thought it over, then gave a shrug. “I’m willing to risk it. The jungle isn’t as frightening as I expected, either.”

With a quick song, she dispersed the magic that was stillcollecting energy and turning it into light. The glowing orb died away instantly, leaving them in the close stillness of the humid night.

“Come on.”

Zev’s voice was whisper soft as his hand found hers in the darkness. Tugging her gently behind him, he stepped just off the path, wending between tree trunks. Progress was slow off the road, the undergrowth relatively sparse so close to the cleared zone but still difficult to navigate in the dark.

“Are you all right?” Zev asked, when Marieke stumbled slightly over a root. “Do you want to turn back to the road?”

“No, I’m fine,” she assured him. “I just lost my footing. I’m not afraid.”

He squeezed her hand. “Good. You don’t need to be. Together, we can handle anything this jungle throws at us.”

Marieke smiled in the darkness. Yes, they were stronger together, and they both knew it. Walking through the jungle hand in hand with Zev brought to mind their walk from his orchard to his house, and the moment that had come before it. She’d decided to trust that his path would lead him to her if she was patient. And here, alone in the darkness, on a mission no one but them seemed to care about, it felt like every step was bringing him more inevitably to her.

It was worth whatever dangers the jungle might be hiding.

Chapter

Twenty

Marieke’s silent declaration was tested the moment they struck out the following morning. They’d passed a surprisingly uneventful night in their makeshift camp, the boundary enchantment like a comforting blanket over her as she drifted to sleep. But as soon as they crossed the invisible line where the protection ended, all comfort disappeared.

The jungle was like another world, every sense overwhelmed by new experiences. Perhaps most disorienting of all was the effect on her magical sense. The power in the ground under her feet on the path had already been stronger than outside the jungle. But it hadn’t prepared her for how it would feel off the path. Magic writhed and twisted through the terrain, so thick in the ground that it felt like it was starting to climb up the trees. The sheer volume of it was uncomfortable. Usually Marieke had to call magic to her to get it to come up through her form. But this magic was almost aggressive—it wanted to pour into her even without being asked, and it took focused effort not to let it.

Not to mention the mosquitoes. They were much worse than Marieke had imagined, even with the warning of theshopkeeper in the village outside the jungle. Thankfully the salve they’d smeared over their exposed skin kept most of the insects from landing on them, but their constant whining buzz still grated on Marieke’s ears.

They didn’t talk much as they pressed into the jungle. Zev seemed as on edge as she was, the thickness of both the foliage and the air feeling suffocating. The steady dripping of water from the canopy suggested a light drizzle above, and they were soon damp and miserable. Marieke had never been so sweaty in her life, her skin sticky and her pack feeling heavier than its meager contents justified. Zev paused every now and then to score a tree with his blade to mark their route, and each time, Marieke let out a quiet lighting song to make the marks glow.

“It won’t last forever,” she said after the first such instance. “But if we try to retrace our steps within the day, it should light the way.”

“Good thinking,” Zev said. He studied her carefully. “Are you all right?”

Marieke nodded. “It’s just…a lot,” she said. “The magic, I mean. There’s so much of it that it’s hard to sing.”

Zev looked bewildered. “Shouldn’t more magic make it easier, not harder?”

“You’d think,” Marieke acknowledged. “And to an extent, it’s true. But not once you reach this kind of volume. Outside the jungle, the magic is like a steady river running under my feet, and I can reach into it and pull out as much magic as I want for my enchantment, up to the limit of what I’m capable of wielding. But here, it’s more like an overflowing torrent which sees me as an outlet it wants to pour through. There’s no way I have the strength or skill to wield the volume of magic trying to enter me, and my instinct tells me it would be dangerous to let it come through me at all. The trouble is, itactually takes a lot of finesse to take hold of only some of it. I have to focus hard to manage any songcraft.”

“That sounds volatile,” said Zev, alarmed. “If it might hurt you, maybe you shouldn’t do it at all, Mari.”

She shook her head. “It’s fine. I just need to pay attention.” She saw that he still looked concerned, and she laid a hand on his arm, which was as clammy and hot as her own skin. “Truly, Zev, I’m a fully qualified singer, and I know what I’m doing. Trust me.”

He nodded, his expression easing. “I know.”

Marieke smiled back as she wiped a trickle of sweat from the bridge of her nose. His faith in her meant more than he could imagine.

They’d walked for another half an hour when Marieke reached to push a vine out of the way only for Zev to reach out with lightning speed and grab her wrist.

“What?” she asked, her heart racing in an instinctive reaction as her eyes darted around them. The jungle was quiet, but as always, she could see only as far as the closest thick foliage. “What is it?”

“That’s not a vine.” Zev tugged at her, pulling her backward away from her projected path, his eyes fixed on the point ahead.

Marieke followed his gaze and barely stifled a scream as she saw the long-bodied snake looping down from the branch above. Thankfully it didn’t seem interested in them, but she still backed away with such haste that she stumbled over a mossy log.

---