Alecyn walked into her mother’s room. Adults lined the way, all staring at her silently, their faces grave. At the end of the procession was her mother’s bed, where she lay. The little girl fought back the tears as she reached the pale, thin shape that had once been her mother. She could not reconcile the image of the vibrant woman, full of energy and laughter, with the figure in the bed. She put down her doll and reached for her mother’s hand. She squeezed and felt the shadow of a squeeze return. The air smelled overwhelmingly of flowers, and the sun shining through the windows was warm. A bee was buzzing somewhere nearby. Blue eyes in a drawn and shadowed face focused on hers.

“I am going away soon, Alecyn. And I am so sorry, but I cannot take you with me.” Tears filled the eyes of mother and daughter.

“But you have your own journey to make, my little princes. A great adventure. Do not waste a day of it, my darling.”

Alecyn shook her head. Her mother fell silent; her eyes were still on her daughter, but her grip was lessening.

“I will make you better, mommy. Do not go. I will make you better.” She was crying now, as her aunt was pulling her away, pushing her into the arms of her grandfather. Alecyn screamed as she was carried from the room.

***********

Alecyn awoke with a shuddering gasp. She sat up, immediately wincing at the protests from her limbs and joints. A wood fire crackled in front of her. She was lying curled between the roots of an oak tree. Madeleine was tending something she had staked over the fire, apparently meat, though Alecyn could not tell what animal. Her stomach growled loudly as the smell of roasting meat hit her nostrils. She flexed the kinks from her muscles. It was nighttime, and beyond the fire was impenetrable darkness.

Madeline’s eyes were as bright as stars from the depths of her hood, fixed on Alecyn.

“You are well, lady?”

Alecyn nodded. It had been a long time since she had dreamed of her mother’s death. The resolution she had made that day as a six-year-old child was that if she could not make her mother better, she would do it for everyone else. The dream left her with a deep chasm inside, a void. She reached for the comforting shape of Eevee but then remembered. Am I alone in this nightmare? Alone but with magical powers. She suddenly remembered how she had come into this forest, remembered what she had done in the city.

“I used magic.” She spoke aloud without realizing it, her tone wondering. So much had happened that this was the first time she could pause and take stock.

“Yes. You did. But in a very mindless way.” Madeleine replied. “You will learn though. Where we are going...you will learn.”

The rational, medically trained part of her rebelled at the thought. It simply was not possible. Her blood said differently. Nordic from her father’s side, Irish from her mother’s. Two ancient ancestries steeped in mystery and lore. She reached into her pocket for the flute, which was the key. In this world, music was magic. It was gone. She looked around in the firelight to see where it may have fallen, but there was no sign. She became more frantic, feeling truly alone, with no means of protection against whatever horrors might be lurking in the shadows.

“Madeleine, have you seen my flute?”

“No, lady. You must have dropped it in Argent when you took us away from there.”

“No! I cannot lose it, Madeleine. Not on top of everything else. It is all I have left!”

Madeleine looked away, her face unreadable. Alecyn sat back, her body limp, head in her hands. Despair choked her. It felt like everything she knew was being taken away from her one piece at a time. She felt like she was six years old again, unable to comprehend why her grandfather would not let her go back to her mother’s side. It was a great adventure. She heard her mother’s whispered words. If only you knew, Mom.

The triage nurse in her awakening, she lifted her head. Emotion repressed as she assessed her situation. She did not know how to get home, but Madeleine said she knew someone who could help. She had lost Eevee and the flute, which was her only weapon in this world. She needed answers, unwilling to continue running mindlessly into the night.

“Do you know where we are?”

“We are amongst the foothills of the Hasten Mountains, far to the south of Argent. We are beyond the reach of Atramen here. Safe for the moment.”

“Will he come looking for us?”

“Certainly. He will have sensed the magic you used to bring us here, though he will not be able to see where we went. He will send forth the Shriekers to hunt us down.”

Alecyn repressed the urge to ask. There were so many questions, and she had to ask the most important one first.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Madeleine, tell me why I am so important.” She hesitated a moment and then reached over and pushed back the other woman’s hood, considering her eyes, and holding her gaze.

“It is the prophecy of the True Voice.” She paused as though ordering her thoughts. “In the beginning was the Great Song, and from this came the world and all its people. The Great Singer fell silent after bringing the world and everything into being. Mankind was the oldest of the peoples of Jonrah and was entrusted with continuing the Song, and for a long time, they did, and all was peaceful and plentiful. But then discord came into the Song. Kragen Onyx, one of the greatest of the Singers, wished to add his music to the song and change it.” Madeleine paused again, shuddering, and wrapping her arms around herself.

“Forgive me, lady. But there is power in a name, and to utter his is to be avoided. I will call him the Silence.”

“You have mentioned that before. Why the Silence, Madeleine?”

Madeline held up a pale, thin-boned hand. For the first time, Alecyn noticed how unnaturally long her companion’s fingers were. She is not human. With everything that had happened, this thought had been muted at the back of her mind until now.

“I will come to that, lady.” She waited for more questions and continued when there were none. “The Silence was not the Great Singer and could not match the perfection of Its music. The Song was soured; the world was corrupted. It came to war between mankind and the other peoples of the world, including the Nelim, my people. Everything was undone. Places and people were scattered or destroyed, the very shape of the world was transformed, and much that had been known was lost. Eventually, his people rebelled against him and helped to imprison him on the Black Isle, Satan’s Kingdom. He was bound in Silence. No sound can penetrate his prison or leave it.”

“Satan’s Kingdom? That is a name from my world.” Alecyn seized on any connection to home.

“It is an ancient word for evil. From the Great Song itself.”

“But that means there is a connection between this world and mine.” Alecyn was becoming excited now. “It is a word for evil for me, too. My world came from the Great Song as well.”

Madeleine nodded sharply. “Of course, all comes from the Song. But you wanted to know of the prophecy.”

Alecyn leaned forward intently. “Yes, tell me.”

“In the aftermath, the world was in disarray. Many races had been wiped out, and others clung to existence any way they could. It was in those days that the Cercarin created the gateways.

The Wayfarers used them to escape into the Beyond. They sought new worlds where the Great Song was still sung.

They left the gateways behind. Humans were the first to see their potential. They could not travel through them as the Wayfarers did, but they could bring things into this world.

“Things? Like me? They made these great holes, sinkholes, in my world to obtain things from my world that would be useful to them. Did they not realize the potential hazard that this could cause to my world?”

“I don’t know.”

“Have there been others?”

“No, there has never been another living being coming or going through the gateway since the Wayfarers left. It was they who gave us the prophecy. When the last of the Wayfarers left through the gateway, they sang…”

Madeleine hesitated. “The prophecy must be sung. Speaking it is a poor substitute. But the power of Song is lost to me now.”

Alecyn was becoming frustrated, feeling a pawn in a game she did not understand.

“Just tell it, Madeleine!” She softened her tone with effort, not wanting to drive away the closest thing to a friend she had. “Please, I need to know.”

“They warned not to try to follow, for none but they could travel the gateways except for the Great One who would come. She would be of ancient blood, with music from a hundred generations. The Silence, once born, would not be contained by all the Songs of mortal races. Only the True Voice of a Great One could fill it and restore the Great Song. Since then, the gateways have been used wherever they are found to gather needed things. Humankind formed the Higher Hundred to try and rebuild as best they could. They were the ones who found your world, knowing from the last Song of the Wayfarers that it was the home of the Great One to come. They fixed the gateways on that world and, while they waited for your coming, used them to gather resources and materials that their communities needed.” “And then they gathered me!”

“They cannot control the gateways, only use what is caught up in them. But the Silence on the Black Isle began to stir when the gateway became fixed on your world. Began to reach out and touch the world again.” Alecyn wanted to scream. She did not want to be here at all. She certainly did not want to be a champion for these people. She wanted to go home. She covered her ears and closed her eyes. Wanting to shut out the world, make it go away.

“Madeleine, you have it wrong. Trust me. I am not a gifted musical genius. I can play the flute, but that is all. I cannot even sing all that well!”

Madeleine shook her head. “In your world. But here, the music is rising from sleep within you. Look what you have done!”

“No, I do not want this. Any of it! I want to go home.” Alecyn stood up, hugging herself. “I have lost Eevee. I have even lost that stupid flute.” She stormed away from the fire into the darkness. Madeleine called after her, but Alecyn ignored her. She stood beyond the reach of the firelight and looked up, tears filling her eyes. Above her, a strong breeze was whipping scudding clouds. Stars were revealed.

For a moment, she was bathed in their cold light, and she wondered if the earth was out there somewhere, if she had been transported to another planet. She suspected that the truth was something far different. She closed her eyes to the alien sky, trying to picture Lake Wales. Her parents, her house, and Eevee. She hummed the wordless tune that her mother had always sung to her as a child when she had nightmares. It always brought her peace when she needed it. Eevee.

An image suddenly formed in her mind, as vivid as though she was seeing it through her own eyes. A man stood before her, tall, slender, dark-haired. His face was stern, hair and eyes dark. She gasped, dimly aware of Madeleine calling her. His eyes widened. He looked directly into her eyes and raised a hand towards her. Alecyn’s heart beat faster. She had seen him before, glimpsed him in Argent. He had ridden the stormbird. But now she knew he was not an enemy. She felt...something. And it told her the rightness of this man and spoke to her of trust.

Then the connection was gone, and with it, the vision. A single female voice remained in Alecyn’s mind as though its speaker was beside her. Its tone was urgent, smooth, and familiar, though Alecyn was sure she had never heard it before.

“We come!”