Awaken Read online

  Awaken

  Melody’s Song Book 1

  Tanya Schofield

  TEXT COPYRIGHT © 2018 TANYA SCHOFIELD

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  ISBN: 9781947683044

  Cobble Publishing LLC

  Sugar Land, TX

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Thank You and How to Contact Me

  For Jared, who reminded me to always keep fighting;

  and for Simon, who picked up the pieces when I couldn’t.

  1

  “She cannot stay here, Calder.” Gorlois pointed a gnarled finger at the approaching ranger. The Dweller’s voice was rough from disuse. “You have delayed too long. You must take her now, today.”

  Chastened, Calder said nothing.

  The old man glanced at the ranger’s carved staff, and a frown deepened the wrinkles on his weathered face. “That should be hers.” He strode back towards the concealed glade, surprisingly swift.

  Calder followed. “Elder ...”

  “This task was yours alone.” The Elder paused at the small clearing where the girl sat in silent communion with her Dweller sisters. Melody’s gleaming black hair and delicate frame were in sharp contrast to their blonde, sturdy features.

  “You have endangered us all,” the Elder said, not looking at the ranger.

  “I’m sorry, Gorlois. I should have—"

  “You didn’t. She is not prepared.”

  Calder refused to hang his head. “I delayed for her, Elder. You must understand – Duke Korith now searches for her in earnest. The anonymity of your people is all that keeps her from him. She is not yet safe outside this glade.”

  Gorlois shook his head. “Safety has never been her destiny, Calder. Solus knew that when the two of you brought her to us. He trusted her childhood to me and her future to you, because he knew.”

  Well did Elder Gorlois recall that day, and he knew Calder would never forget it either. But Gorlois knew what Calder did not – Melody’s very existence was impossible. A mage of Solus’ power should have been sterile by simple virtue of the magic coursing through him, and yet he had fathered the girl. The Elder also knew that an evil was awakening, feeding on the untapped magic in the land itself. He knew the name of that evil. And Gorlois, blessed and cursed from his birth with a vision beyond his sight, knew that this one small, impossible girl was all that could keep that evil at bay.

  “I swore to him I'd watch over her.” There was remorse in the ranger’s words. “I gave my oath.”

  “Watching is not enough.” Gorlois looked through the branches at the smiling girl, so unaware of her future as she sat with her sisters.

  Calder straightened. “You're right. I will speak with her tonight, then in the morning—"

  “No.” Gorlois was insistent. “You leave within the hour.”

  “Elder…” The road had been long, and he was not so young as he once was. Calder would welcome a rest and a meal. “Surely one night will not change her destiny.”

  “Four years already has.”

  “Gorlois, I had no choice! I was in Epidii three years ago, on my way here, when Korith announced his intention to unify the country. His father was strict, but Korith is a zealot. He spoke of a safer world, one with no magic at all— where magic is treason and treason is death.”

  The Elder, not unsympathetic, shook his head. “She was destined to change that world, Calder. Your delay—”

  “Fight Korith? At sixteen? Solus never meant—"

  “Solus never said fight,” Gorlois reminded him. "He said change. Will it be any easier for her now? Is nineteen years enough?”

  Calder sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. “Elder, you don’t understand. Korith is searching for Melody, specifically. Not outright, of course. But there are rumors. Korith’s wife and a powerful mage, a secret child before she became Duchess… It makes him look weak. It undermines his whole stance on magic.”

  “The Duke is not important, Calder.”

  “How can you say that?” The ranger tried to keep his voice lowered, but his frustration was clear. “Melody is everything that man has been trying to exterminate! He has supporters everywhere— her only safety is here, with you!”

  “Not anymore. You leave now.” Gorlois stepped into the clearing, and the ranger followed.

  Melody looked up from the flowering vines she was braiding into her foster sister’s hair, and her eyes went wide.

  Calder! Her voice in his head was a squeal of delight. Flowers spilled out of her homespun skirt when she scrambled up and bolted to him across the grass on her perpetually bare feet. He returned her infectious grin, catching her when she threw herself into his arms. You’re back!

  He spun her around before setting her down, as he had done when she was very young. “Oh, I’ve missed you.” He kept his voice low, reluctant to disturb the easy silence of the glade.

  It’s been ages, where have you been? Is Attilus here? Will you stay? Sherron is handfasting to Brison tonight, and I am to stand with her. They asked me to sing— Her thoughts flooded into his mind, and he took an involuntary step back under the onslaught. Her power was stronger than he remembered— much stronger. The magic had always been with her, even as an infant she had displayed her father’s gifts, but this was … intense. Calder knew all too well what fate awaited her in Duke Korith’s world.

  “Oh, Songbird,” he whispered, smiling down at her and taking in the changes he’d missed in the last four years. Melody hadn’t grown up, exactly, she remained barely five feet tall. Still reed-thin, he noticed, and though she had been nothing but knees and elbows when he last saw her, she had certainly grown into poise and curves and grace. She had her mother’s pale skin and high cheekbones, and her father’s raven-black hair. Combined with her unusual red-gold eyes – wide set, as Solus’ had been – her face was a study in contradiction for which she was no less lovely. He hated to break the moment.

  “I’m sorry, but we need to go. Today.” Calder watched her smile crumple.

  “Go?” She spoke the word aloud, and the magic surged with it.

  Elder Gorlois and the other Dwellers did not react beyond a blink, but Calder physically stumbled as disappointment and anxiety – Melody's disappointment, Melody’s anxiety – was forced into his knowing with that one word. It was like a blow to his ribs from a kicking mule.

  Melody stepped back, her hand over her mouth and a flush of shame rising in her cheeks. She looked down, curling her toes in the soft grass.

  I’m sorry, she sent him. I just … I was surprised. I’m so sorry. Are you all right?

  Calder felt Gorlois' gaze burning into him and the unspoken reprimand was clear. Her power had grown in the years he had been gone. She should know what she is by now, Calder thought. I should have prepared her. I swore an oath to Solus I would be for her what he could not. But if anyone beyond this glade were to experience that … Heaviness gripped his gut.

  “I’m fine.” Calder forced a rea
ssuring smile. "Please, get your things. Everything. We will not return. I should have come sooner.”

  Not return? Her reluctance was plainly evident. But the handfasting, I was to sing!

  Gorlois intervened, touching Melody’s shoulder. “We have spoken of this, little one. Go, and get your things.”

  Melody lowered her eyes with a respectful curtsey and stepped away with no more protest. It wasn’t that she did not want to go with Calder, she did. She’d always known he would come for her one day, not for a visit but to bring her … away, into a world beyond her forest. How often had she dreamed of what adventures they might have when they left the Glade and traveled together?

  Her dreams were never like this, though. This felt nothing like the beginning of a long-awaited journey, or the start of an adventure. This felt like … running. It was the urgency that tightened inside her so uncomfortably. Not just from Calder, but from Gorlois as well. Their Elder was not often anxious.

  Melody reached her tree, and her hands trembled as she climbed. She had woven the hammock into the branches herself, as every Dweller did when they gained the skill to ask the spirit of the tree for permission. Calder had given her the satchel hanging from a nearby branch ages ago, and her extra skirt and tunic were already inside it. Melody slipped her hand into the hidden pocket of her hammock to retrieve the only other thing she claimed as hers.

  Elder Gorlois had given her the small, leather-bound book on her thirteenth name-day, privately. He told her then that she would have to leave them one day, but had given her no hint as to why. He said it was her father’s journal – her true father, the man who had brought her to the Dwellers when she was a baby. She couldn’t read it, of course, but perhaps one day she would learn what it held. Calder could decipher the pages, Gorlois had told her, but Melody would not ask the ranger. He had remained silent about her past so long, she didn’t know if he ever intended to tell her anything. No, she would not leave this book behind. It was the only link to a past she knew nothing about.

  Finally, she stroked the familiar bark of the tree and took a moment to bid farewell to the spirit who had sheltered her these past years.

  Calder watched Melody depart, and then turned to the Elder. “What haven’t you told me, Gorlois?”

  “I have spoken with the spirits of the forest,” he said. “Men approach. They come for Melody. They intend nothing good.”

  Calder's blood went cold. “Duke Korith’s men?”

  “I know not their allegiance, nor do I care. She must not be here when they arrive.”

  The ranger was already planning their escape route in his head. “She won’t be. What of the rest of you?”

  Melody had returned, the simple bag slung across her chest and her face damp with sadness. She stopped and embraced Sherron, who tucked a bright wildflower into the top of Melody’s braid and kissed her forehead. The others touched her shoulder in silent farewell.

  “She must live, Calder. Nothing else matters. Keep her safe, at any cost.” His final words were barely louder than a breath, and then Melody was beside them.

  I’m ready.

  Gorlois wrapped her in a gentle hug, clasped Calder’s hand, then turned and walked into the clearing.

  Melody blinked back more tears as she followed Calder through the thick underbrush. Where will we go?

  The ranger held up a finger for patience and let out a long, low whistle. After a brief moment, a joyful bark rang out and the underbrush rustled.

  Attilus! Melody’s tear-streaked face brightened.

  The massive dog bounded towards the girl, who sank to her knees in greeting - and was promptly knocked over. Attilus sat on her stomach and nuzzled at her face, making Melody squirm with helpless silent giggles until a smiling Calder rescued her with a snap of his fingers. She sat up when Attilus backed off, breathlessly pulling fallen leaves from the few loose black curls that framed her face.

  “Now we can go,” Calder said, taking her hand and helping her to her feet.

  Where? Melody asked again.

  “West,” was his reply.

  Hours later, when dusk had turned to full dark, they finally stopped to rest. The strain of the journey ached in Calder’s legs, and he knew Melody was already exhausted. There would be no fire tonight, though, not after what Gorlois had seen. They needed to stay hidden.

  Calder stretched. “Will you help me gather some food, Songbird?” Though he would have much preferred a hot stew, tonight he would settle for wild fruit and nuts. Two sets of eyes in the darkness were better than one.

  Melody set her satchel down and nodded, disappearing silently into the trees with Attilus.

  “I will make this right, Solus,” Calder whispered when she had gone, placing his pack beside hers and rubbing the exhaustion from his eyes. “I will prepare her, I swear it.”

  But how, he thought. How could he even begin to explain to Melody about the world beyond these woods? She knew nothing of … anything, not money or business or trade or politics or war. Melody did not know about Duke Korith and his war against magic, or his quest to become King. She knew nothing of Solus, and why he had been killed. And her mother, Bethcelamin – now a Duchess, wife to Korith himself. Melody didn’t know any of it. “Forgive me, old friend,” he breathed. The task was overwhelming.

  Just beyond Calder’s line of sight, Melody stopped and leaned up against a sheltering oak. Her feet and legs were beyond sore from the pace they’d kept on this unexpected journey, but that pain was small compared to the ache in her heart. She looked up at the tiny pinpricks of starlight in the sky, and thought of her home - now hours away. Sherron always loved the stars. She and Melody had often climbed trees to their very topmost branches just to get a better view. Melody rested her head against the warm, comforting bark of the tree, and imagined the handfasting ceremony she would not be singing at.

  Please, friend, will you show me? The tree’s spirit rose at her call and welcomed her energy even as it reached out to the others, seeking the Dweller’s glade. Soon an image flickered in her mind, shadowy and turbulent. Her forehead wrinkled as she tried to bring it into focus. Clarity came, and Melody reeled.

  There was a face, half of a face, a man with cold gray eyes glinting above a close black mask. The vision widened, showing her Gorlois. The masked man was behind him, and there was a knife in his hand. The knife sliced through the Elder’s throat and blood burst forth from his body— Melody cried out, a low moan full of rough power that sent Attilus fleeing with tucked tail and brought Calder to his feet.

  “Melody?” he called.

  She didn’t hear him. The tree showed her the rest of the scene, and her fingernails broke under the strain as she clung, desperate, to the rough bark. She didn’t feel it. The vision stole her breath, her heartbeat. The masked man, the killing, more men with more knives and swords and dear Goddess the blood – there was blood everywhere, arcs of blood on red and yellow tunics, blood erupting from her friends, her family, drops and drips and rivers of blood on bark and flowers and stone, so much blood…

  Calder found her quickly, taking in her torn, bloody fingers and shaking shoulders, and panicked. “Melody?” He turned her from to the tree to face him, but it was obvious she did not see him. Her pale face was soaked with tears, and her chest heaved as she struggled to breathe. “Melody, Songbird, what is it? What do you see?”

  “Blood.” Her single whispered word was all it took – the full force of everything she had been shown slammed into Calder like a physical blow, leaving him bruised and breathless. Gorlois had spoken true.

  Calder saw what his young charge had seen, and knew immediately that it was Korith’s men slaughtering the Dwellers – the men wore his colors. He could feel what Melody felt as well, though, her disbelief and shock, her fear and revulsion, her enormous sense of confusion. Calder realized this was Melody’s first encounter with human violence. She simply didn’t understand.

  “It’s all right,” he lied. There was little else to say. �
�It will be all right.”

  His mind raced. This should never have happened. The Dwellers were myths, no one believed they even existed. The trees surrounding the secret glade protected it, the branches grew not towards the sun, but down and around the space. Of the original party that brought Melody to Gorlois and his people, only Calder and Bethcelamin remained. Surely Melody’s mother had been so concerned with her forbidden infant that she held no memory of their journey. Impossible or not, though, the Dwellers were dead.

  Melody sank to the forest floor with her back against the tree. Breath would not come. They were dead. She slid her fingers into her hair, pressing on her temples with the heels of her hands as if she could somehow squeeze out the sight. Her chest ached, she couldn’t breathe. Sherron. Gorlois. Brison. All of them, dead. She imagined she could smell the blood from here, thick and metallic. It overwhelmed her, and she had to turn her head and be sick, clutching her stomach though the pain was in her heart. None of it made sense, it was too big, too much.

  “Oh, Melody.” Calder knelt by her side, bracing her shoulders and keeping watch as she retched. There was little time to waste. He needed to get her as far away as possible, and fast. No matter the cost, Gorlois had said.

  Melody finished and wiped at her cheeks with her sleeve, catching her breath as she sank back on her heels.

  “We have to go. Now.” Calder could not risk patience, and pulled her to her feet, perhaps too forcefully. Melody gasped.

  She stared up at Calder, shaking her head. He had never been so insistent in all the years she had known him. No, she sent. We need to go back, they—