Page 8 of A Fractured Song

“True.” Her father nodded. “You can send me a report in a day or two. I’ll speak to them before I leave, if you like.”

“I’ll come with you.” Marieke stood as well. “I won’t be around more than a week, I’m sure.”

With a final glance at the apple lying abandoned on the tray, she followed her father from the room.

As it happened, she was in Bull Creek for only half the predicted week before a group from the capital arrived. Marieke was surprised by the efficiency—the singers must have been dispatched the moment the report regarding the fire was received.

She had mixed emotions when news of the arrivals reached her. It would probably be safer for her to make her report tothese envoys than to the council itself. But she’d been hoping for more time. She’d learned very little from her inexpert investigation. No natural cause for the fire had been identified, yet no one had seen or heard anything unusual. And she’d spoken to what felt like half the town.

Most people seemed to have concluded that the fire had a natural cause, but Marieke knew what she’d sensed. Magic had definitely been involved. And it had felt much stronger and more targeted than the magic she’d sensed when Gorgon had almost drowned her from a distance. She still had no explanation for how magic had been involved in the attack from the canyon-dwelling rebel—who definitely wasn’t a singer. But the trace of the magic had been faint and confusing. By comparison, the magic in the fire had been familiar, at least in form. It was surely the targeted magic of an active song, which she’d experienced countless times when training with other students at the academy.

In any event, whoever was behind it must be smarter and more careful than Gorgon and his group had been, to leave no trace of their presence. If Marieke hadn’t happened to be there and to have felt the magic herself, there would be no reason whatsoever to think a singer had been involved.

Marieke joined the group of curious locals trickling into the center of town to see the arrivals from the capital. She told herself that her nerves were unjustified. The council wouldn’t have sent anyone senior or important in this little group. It wasn’t as though she was about to see the Head Instructor. In fact, no one from the academy would be sent to investigate a fire.

The thought had barely crossed her mind when she emerged into the town square and caught sight of the delegation. She paused in surprise as she realized that the group did indeed include an instructor from the Academy of Song. ButInstructor Oriana was one of the friendliest people Marieke knew, and her presence was no cause for anxiety.

Marieke started walking again, her eyes scanning the group and widening further as they landed on yet another familiar face. Thankfully, this one was even more welcome than Instructor Oriana. Marieke picked up her pace as she strode across the clearing, her hand raised in greeting.

“Solomon!”

Chapter

Three

Zev’s muscles strained as he lifted the bale of hay, depositing it on top of the others in the corner of the barn. Four more to go and he was done.

The impatience wasn’t like him. He wasn’t generally in the habit of counting down his tasks. But lately he’d been finding indoor work increasingly oppressive. He wanted to be out in the open air, where he could breathe and think.

Or at least that’s what he told himself. It was better than acknowledging that what he really wanted was to be back on the road, heading northward. Never before had he felt restricted or trapped on his family’s farm, and he hated that he felt that way now.

But he didn’t hate the cause of his restlessness. He didn’t even resent her. None of this was her fault, after all. If anything, she was the one who should resent him. She probably did.

Not for the first time, her face appeared in his mind’s eye, her voice clear in his ears, right down to the shyness of her tone, uncharacteristic as that was for her.

I’m not really done looking for answers. Perhaps we can try to unravel it all together.

She’d looked so hopeful as she said it. Zev didn’t think himself conceited, but he would have had to be blind to miss her meaning as she’d shifted toward him in that moment. She’d been so near, her skirt swishing against his legs with the movement as she’d tilted her face up toward his.

She’d wanted him to stay with her, to help her with the overwhelming task of trying to solve Oleand’s troubles. But it was more than that. She’d wantedhim. Unless he was mistaken, she’d wanted him to kiss her again, like he had after he’d almost been too late to stop Gorgon from killing her.

A thrill that was some tangled mixture of pain, elation, and regret passed over Zev as he heaved the final hay bale into place. It didn’t feel conceited to acknowledge what Marieke had wanted. He’d wanted the same thing, after all. But instead he’d walked away, constrained not just by his own circumstances, but by generations of complexity.

And he wasn’t conceited enough to assume she was pining for him. It had been a month—a long and restless month—since he’d left her. She may be angry with him for entangling her in whatever had started to grow between them and then just abandoning her. Or she may have gotten past any attraction she’d felt. She may be too consumed with trying to solve her country’s troubles to think of him at all.

Or, a hard, cynical voice said in his mind,she might have gotten herself hurt, imprisoned, or even killed by her council in her attempts.

He tried to push the dark thought aside, as well as the guilt that came with it. When he’d left Marieke, he hadn’t thought her in imminent danger from her country’s Council of Singers. Not if she kept her head down. But as the weeks had passed without any contact with her, his certainty had ebbed. How long would she lie low for? If he knew her, not much longer. And he’d left her all alone in her fight, in spite of knowingthat at least one member of the Oleandan council would be untroubled to see her dead.

But what could he have done? If he’d stayed with her, he’d be embracing a fight that wasn’t his. And he’d be consumed with guilt over abandoning his family instead of abandoning her. After all, they had just as much to lose. More. Surely his first loyalty should be to his own flesh and blood, not to a girl he’d only known a matter of months, no matter how captivating.

So why did he feel like he’d betrayed himself by leaving Marieke behind?

“Zev!”

Azai’s voice from outside the barn broke into Zev’s thoughts, the sharpness of the tone catching his attention. Something was wrong.

Zev strode from the building, his muscles tensed as his eyes scanned the area. He spotted his brother quickly, standing near the front gate with his eyes fixed on something outside the property. Zev joined him in a few swift paces, searching the trees on the far side of the dusty road.

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