Madeleine turned the flute over in her hands. Alecyn lay asleep, exhausted by the magic she had wrought within the clearing. Madeline crouched within the trees where she could see Alecyn but not be observed. A fire crackled heartily, illuminating the clearing for Madeleine but casting a wall of darkness on its fringes for Alecyn. She put the stolen flute into her pocket and carefully moved further into the trees. She walked carefully, making as little noise as possible in the midnight forest. She was pleased that after years of living in the cities of humankind, she still possessed something of the Nelim affinity for the forest. She felt at home, deftly finding her path among the trees and undergrowth without stumbling, as though a path were being opened for her.
When she was far enough away that her voice would not carry, she stopped. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, she held the box in two hands before her, trembling. She opened the box and began singing a low, mournful, wordless tune. She closed her eyes, focusing on the sounds, visualizing her voice rising from the box. She grew with it as though carried by wisps of smoke into the air. She focused on a place. A place she had found once before as an apprentice to Peerless of Welcome. A place that had welcomed her questing spirit, her desire for greater knowledge and power than her master would allow her. A presence within that place that had embraced her and shown her secrets. Such secrets that Peerless had cast her out of his employment with nothing to her name but the clothes she stood in, publicly shaming her. Even now, the rage boiled within her at her humiliation.
She heard a murmur at the edge of her hearing, a whisper almost indistinguishable from the sighing of the breeze in the treetops. It grew in volume, and she could hear voices, their words sliding over each other, creeping and slithering. And then one voice deep and thrumming with power. It terrified her. It resonated deep within her. She was filled with a sensation that was equal parts pain and pleasure. It was tearing her apart, but she never wanted it to end. She did not recognize the language. She knew it was ancient. The voice stroked her mind, awakening old memories. She had the overwhelming feeling that it was searching, searching for who she was. Just as it had been before.
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Madeleine suppressed a scream that would have awakened Alecyn. She whimpered as she relived the memories that the voice held up before her. Ameri was her name, not Madeleine. That was her Nelim name. The Kajani raiders were burning her village. They had come from the west, from beyond the mountains, seeking new hunting grounds. She watched as the monstrous feline creatures darted amongst the villagers. As she watched her parents cut down and devoured, she found her voice for the first time and Sang. The untrained power had killed several of the creatures, the closest dead before he hit the ground with blood running from his ears and mouth. She turned, nightdress stained with blood and ash, as a figure loomed behind her, raising a huge, armored paw to strike her.
Madeleine choked, the grief and the terror as real and present as the feel of the earth between her fingers as she crouched. More memories were brought before her eyes to relive.
In the slave market where the Kajani had sold the adept, they had found a human, an older man with a stern face and eyes that seemed to see through her. He had asked her to speak and immediately paid for her release upon uttering a single word. His name was Peerless, and he was a sorcerer, and he told her that her voice had the ring of magic. She had clung tightly to his back as they had ridden away from the Kajani camp. He smelled of horse and sweat. He had named her Madeleine.
The voice recognized her, and it welcomed her. It probed further.
She was cast out. Peerless turned his back as she was taken, bound, and gagged through the streets of Welcome. She had been found guilty of delving into forbidden secrets. But she had been innocent, the real culprit, a jealous fellow apprentice who had resented her power—a human. And none had believed the Nelim girl, the outsider. They had cast her out, intending to give her to the waves, casting her from the cliffs where the city sat. Giving her to the dark power beyond the western sea with which she had allegedly conspired. But they had failed. That power had intervened, her captors murdered, and she had been taken to…
She threw her head back and drew in a breath as though it was her first, sucking in the air frantically. The present returned to her, the pain of the past fading. The voice was gone, but it had left its imprint on her. She knew what she must do. It had told her. The Black Hand walked the world once more. She must go to Nameless. The Hand would take Alecyn there, and Madeleine would receive her reward.