Chapter 1
The songbenders have faced persecution for over 200 moons now. We are now mostly in hiding. Del Segno, Del Adagio, Camilla, myself, and two other songbenders have sought asylum in Berain, which was graciously granted by the Berainian king. Marcellus’ soldiers have been hunting us, picking us off one by one. For the ones who say it was only a matter of time for him to embrace his father’s destiny, I know only the truth. The man who reclaimed the city of Angor from his brother is not Marcellus, but a spawn of Dal Kiara’s dark magic. She has placed a curse on him, yet no one, among our songbender army or in the city of Berain, believes me when I tell them what really happened. Adagio, who is still weak but much recovered from our previous battles, Del Segno and myself were the real witnesses the fateful night Kiara turned Marcellus into one of her demons.
Adagio has held council with General Del Josimus, head of the Beranian army and the son of the King of Berain. I know nothing of him, but one thing I do know - he is our only option now, as the Salbanians have followed Dal Joelle’s request, and come to King Marcellus’ aide. He is now the owner of 100,000 troops that could face battle at any time. Our time is short. We must gain the general’s trust and convince him to outsmart the monstrous Angorian forces, before it’s too late. The moment Marcellus conquers Berain and Salbain is the moment all of us, past, present and future, disappear from this world.
“Are you going to keep me waiting all day?”Segno in all of his boyish mischievousness peeked inside of Sara’s carriage.
“Yes!” She said, pushing him back out and closing the curtain. “I was just—journaling.” She quickly wrapped her scroll and stepped outside.
“Journaling? Who has time for that now?”
Funny, Segno was one of the few people Sara could completely rely on these days. The same Segno who never talked nor trusted her once upon a time. With Adagio speaking so few words these days and spending most of his time in his study, there was really no one else to keep company.
“It’s the only thing keeping me from complete insanity. Let me be.” She defended.
They walked arm in arm into the busy marketplace. Sara was no longer wearing her songbender robes these days, for all of the songbenders now kept a low profile for fear of being discovered. Besides the two that stayed with them as undercover servants, the rest had attendant jobs at the local school of scholars. They kept in correspondence with their leader, Adagio, by a secret messenger.
Today, Sara wore her ridiculous long hair (which she thought of cutting many times) partially up as was the style with noble born women in Berain. Her clothes were modest, a dress of two shades of blue with silver fastenings and accents. She had a few pretty rings on her fingers that were gifted to her by Adagio so that she could look like the other women her age. Her age. Sara thought the stress of the past year had made her look older somehow. And there was no forgetting that this wasn’t even her real body, though she rarely thought about that anymore. Sara was so used to being the former queen Carrabelle that she was beginning to forget who Sara was. It had started to feel like a distant dream. Her beloved father, who had spent time in this world with her for however brief a time, had left her to reunite with her brother, Jaimie, who she missed with all of her heart. They were living in a place called New York City, far in the future, where she was from and where she belonged. These memories were fragments in her mind now. She was torn between two realities—who really was Sara? Sadly, she no longer had an answer.
There wasn’t much time to dwell on these thoughts, however, because another busy day was upon them.
There was so much color in all the vendors shops of the marketplace she and Segno frequented for supplies. There were carts selling buns stuffed with cheese and candy covered fruit, smoked meat—all of the scents were delicious. There was another section of the marketplace that sold supplies such as fabrics and other household items. Children played in the street while the adults haggled for better prices.
This was the scene of Berain, a city bordering the Great Sea.
“Do you ever wonder what lay beyond?” Sara asked, as the two of them caught sight of the docks loaded with ships. They walked leisurely down one of the steep roads. She knew well how great and large this world was, because it was still her own, only very long ago, perhaps eons. But there was so much more out there that no one realized.
“Why does a fish concern himself with the affairs of the woodland, when he belongs to the lake?” Segno was quoting a poet. Sara smiled because he did that often now that he had more time for studying. She’d learned a lot in the past year too. She knew more about the customs of the people here. There were many poets and generals and scholars—those were the occupations of the ones favored by the kings.
“And we have a small army in our own lake to care for, so we best take a lot of this food.” Sara replied to him.
She and Segno scoured the streets and selected various fruits and vegetables. Adagio had even given Sara some money to buy candy—which was really just fruit covered in sugary shells. But they were DELICIOUS, and Sara talked about them nonstop when she wasn’t at the market.
After all of their shopping, she strolled over to the vendor selling the candies. Sara was about to make her choice when she noticed a movement out of the corner of her eye. She peered around the cart to see what it was—must have been an animal.
“Miss, anything you need?” The vendor, a middle-aged man with gentle eyes, pressed for her attention.
Sara couldn’t return her focus on him. “Did you see that?” She gasped. “There, something is hiding behind your cart!
He looked around. “I don’t see anything.” The man appeared to be purposefully trying to keep her from walking around and investigating the matter herself.
“But it might be an animal or someone trying to steal from you—”
“It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s probably just one of the children.” He said, laughing. “I’ll give you three for the price of one!”
Sara’s growling stomach kept her from pushing him any further. It was his business who was sneaking around anyways, not hers. And 3 candies for the price of one! Her mouth watered.
“How are you not my size with all that you eat?” Segno teased her as she downed a yellow-candied cherry. In protest, Sara spat the pit of the fruit at his feet.
“Ew!”
“Serves your right.”
The talking in the crowd stilled as the sound of horse hooves could be heard like thunderclaps coming down the street.
“It’s the general.” Del Segno said, looking over her shoulder.
“The general?”
Sara had always thought of Del Adagio as ‘the general’, as he was the only one she knew. Then she remembered—Adagio mentioned days prior about conversing with a general in Berain, the 5thson of the king. He was the one who they needed to appeal to most. They needed his men, his army to wage war against Marcellus. The trouble was getting them to realize what a problem Marcellus had become. And Berain was a wealthy city, with much to protect. It wasn’t as big as Angor after Marcellus’ grandfather had acquired Tasor and joined the two cities, but since Berain was located near the sea, it engaged with trade from foreign lands and made a lot of money doing so. Thus, it had a well-equipped military force with little to fear (according to ‘the general’).
The problem was, as Del Adagio pointed out, that Salbain had already made an alliance with Angor—thanks to Dal Joelle’s familial connection. The taste in Sara’s mouth turned bitter whenever he brought up the subject. Clearly, the consort was by Marcellus’ side to this day. He’d turned from Sara once, but didn’t turn from Dal Joelle. Ouch.
Sara spun around just in time for the rumbling flock of horses to appear around the corner and tear into the marketplace. The people scattered for fear of being trampled under the enormous black beasts’ hooves. ‘The general’ sat atop the largest horse, which looked more like a Clydesdale with its massive, hairy hooves and main as thick as a stormcloud. This was surely the most beautiful horse Sara had ever seen in her lifetime.
The terrifying creature stopped mere feet away from her, because while everyone else had moved, Sara hadn’t. She glanced upward at his rider, unaware that she was standing in his way.
Sara expected him to shout at her to move aside. But to her surprise, he just gazed downward. Their glance was fleeting, but enough time for Sara to form an instant opinion of him. He was much younger than Adagio made him seem in his conversations about him. He’d mentioned fighting in battles with General Del Josimus, but how could that be? This prince was old enough to be Adagio’s son! The general had long, blond hair with two braids running at the side, joining the rest of his hair into a topknot. Blond that reflected silver in the sunlight was a common hair color of the women and men of Salbain. Josimus had a face of iron, and clever, dark, violet-hued eyes like a raven’s. He had a slightly clefted chin and an arched upper lip. Grace and benevolence were the first words that came to mind, as should be the case of any prince.
But his attention was not on her long, for he appeared in a hurry. “Has anyone seen a thief? A young servant was seen headed this way!” Josimus’ resounding voice echoed throughout the street as his eyes scanned every face. “He’s wanted for treason!”
The crowd gasped aloud and began whispering among themselves.
Sara felt a hand pull sharply at her arm, backing her into the rest of the crowd. “What were you thinking?” Del Segno admonished her in a hushed tone. “You could have been killed if he didn’t see you!”
Sara didn’t hear him. She had no idea why, but her eyes instinctively landed on the vendor cart that was selling candy. Could the thing she saw… have been the thief the general was looking for?”
The mild-faced vendor was clearly sweating and his right hand fidgeted with his left, though it wasn’t clear if it was from the nerves of seeing the famed general or if there really was a thief that was hiding—perhaps even threatening him.
“Search every inch of this marketplace!” Josimus barked his orders and the 20 other men on horses quickly obeyed. The crowd flew into a frenzy to get out of the way. In the midst of all the commotion, Sara and Segno were separated. Sara tried to remember if what she saw at the vendor’s cart had really been a human or not. It was difficult to tell because whatever had moved was swifter than a fox. Then Sara saw it—a hand—very clearly on the ground underneath the cart full of candy. Someone was surely hiding.
Sara gazed down at the other sweets in her hand. She saw a young, dirty-faced girl running by and halted her.
“Would you do me a favor for one of these?” She held up both the candy-covered fruit.
The girl’s eyes nearly popped out of her skull. She had the widest, most angelic blue eyes. She couldn’t have been older than 8 or 9, Sara thought.
“Just—hand one of these to that man over there. The handsome general with all that armor on. Don’t tell him who told you to give it to him, just leave right after.”
Would her scheme work?
The girl hastily nodded without saying a word as she accepted the candy.
Sara quickly walked away to watch from a safe distance. She observed as the girl tapped on the general’s leg armor, which was almost bigger than she was. She obediently lifted the candy. The general looked down on the girl with tender eyes.
He accepted her offering and watched as she ran off. He immediately scoured the crowd. Sara pretended she was walking alongside a woman, all the while peeking backwards.
“Ah, sorry.” Sara said to the woman, who gave her a peculiar look. She glanced back again and saw the soldiers close in on the vendor’s candy cart. They’d taken her clue and discovered the thief. Sara didn’t get the chance to see who the offender was because the crowd of people closed in quickly to watch the action unfold.
“There you are!” Segno appeared at her side. “Adagio told me to watch you carefully. Did you want me to receive another beating for disobeying him?”
“I won’t tell.” Sara raised her eyebrow and walked past him. “We should be getting home anyways! It’s almost dark."
