Bobby was up and out onto the streets of Hush before most people had even opened their eyes at the bright morning sun. Only Gemma was out of bed before him. She sat on a bench in front of the inn, basking in the sunrise and pretending to strum an invisible guitar. She’d thrown an oversized light grey jersey over her purple polo shirt. Despite the clear sky, the air still had a chill in it and the never-ending wind nipped at the skin.

“Where are you off to?” she asked in surprise as Bobby shoved open the door and rushed past her.

He spun with a skip in his step and called back without stopping, “Nowhere, somewhere, just exploring.” Then he took off down the alleyway alongside the inn, before Gemma could ask any more questions.

She looked after him, her face bearing a puzzled frown. Then she sighed and turned her palms up. She thought about summoning fire. She worked a flame upward and then snuffed it out again. When it was in the palm of her hands it was easy enough. She’d long ago learnt how to do it without burning herself. Any firestarter who didn’t learn that by their teens, usually didn’t make it into adult hood. Controlling a small fire in her own hands was easy work now. It was controlling it when it was out of her hands that was the challenge. She looked around for something to practice on. Something that wouldn’t be too risky if it caught fire.

She found some stones lying in the street nearby. Without moving she focused on stirring the heat within them. Stones were hard to set on fire themselves but they made for a good focal point and what she actually set alight was the air around them, at least initially. Try as she might however, once things got burning she couldn’t seem to put them out herself. The flames dimmed eventually but the heat was there in the rocks still and she had trouble getting the flames to stay the exact size she wanted. It was always too much or too little. Usually the former.

The door to the inn opened and Amanda stepped outside. She’d come into the dining room, just as Bobby was leaving and she’d caught sight of their brief exchange through the window.

Gemma glanced up at her with wary eyes. She didn’t like her mother seeing how terrible her magic practice was going. She preferred to act like she was unbothered by her lack of control with it.

“Where’d your brother run off to in such a hurry?” Amanda asked.

Gemma relaxed a little and shook her head. “I dunno. He said he was going exploring.”

Amanda nodded, then eyed her daughter thoughtfully. She glanced past her to where the charred rocks lay, still silently radiating heat. “Do you want some tips?” Her question was asked with a wary note, like she was worried she might be intruding.

Gemma scowled at first but sensing more an offer than a command she relaxed and nodded.

Amanda sat down on the bench next to her daughter and held her palms face up. “You know, it’s easier to practice control if you practice with the flame in your hands.”

Gemma rolled her eyes. “I can do that already.”

“No, no. Look.” Amanda spoke softly and nodded toward her hand where a flame burned brightly. It’s shape was smooth and powerful, like the ones that come from the Bunsen burners at school. “You make one.” Amanda nodded at Gemma.

Gemma sighed and turned her palms over. She summoned a flame that was just as bright and almost as powerful.

“See the difference?” Amanda asked.

As Gemma looked from one to the other she started to nod slowly. She could see now that they were side by side, what she hadn’t noticed before. Yes her flame was just as bright, but it was nothing like those Bunsen burner flames. It wasn’t smooth. It was wild, untamed, and it shook in the wind.

“But if I don’t practice at a distance I’ll never get good at that,” Gemma complained. But she knew she was being ambitious. Even many adult firestarters would create flames in their hands before they attached them to something. Any firestarter could throw a fireball, but it took some skill to light a candle from across the room.

“You can do both, just work on the control before you aim for distance okay.”

Gemma nodded.

“Morning!” Sirius poked his head out of the inn door.

“Morning,” the other two replied.

“Brutus just passed me in the hallway. Said he can show us where we are on a map. I’ve sent Griff with him. You want to come join?”

Amanda nodded and with a glance to check Gemma was alright, she followed Sirius back inside the inn.

An hour later, Amanda left Benny at the inn with instructions to watch the kids, while she, Sirius, and Griff headed back to the ship to check on things there.

As they walked along the beach, Amanda eyed the little rounded hills of orange stone that poked out of the dunes, and she frowned.

“What?” Sirius asked, seeing the look on her face.

“It’s all sandstone. Everywhere around here.”

“And?”

“Brutus said, the last time someone was out of the village after dark they found charred corpses the next day. So I was thinking that maybe it was that dragon, the same one that attacked us, but-”

“He said they’ve never seen one. How does a dragon that big not get seen?”

“Well, they are shy, and it’s not like they have cars or planes here or anything that would draw a dragon out. But the howls don’t fit. I’ve never heard anything like that. But it’s more than that. If all the rock around here is sandstone, what’s the dragon eating? There’s no metal deposits in sandstone, it’s all silica based. And it’s flat, no mountains that I can see.”

“Mmm. Maybe the dragon we saw came from another island nearby.”

“Maybe.”

As they approached the ship, they could hear music coming from up on deck.

Sirius frowned as he realised the boat was more beached than he’d initially thought. “Must drop off fast,” he mused eyeing the waves. “We’re gonna need several telekinetics, and me, and Alice, and Dickie, and the fates knows who else to get that ship back in the water.”

“Well, there’s plenty of telekinetics.”

“Mmm, last time we ended up sideways.”

“In the water?”

“No, in the dry docks, after cleaning the bottom. Almost crushed someone.”

“How’d you get it upright?”

“Lots of patience, and I borrowed some extra men from another crew.”

“Ah.”

“Even then, they almost tipped her getting her back in the water,” Griff chimed in.

On the ship above them a face peered over the railing. Shiv. “Ahoy, how was the village?” He tossed down the ladder.

Sirius waited until he was up on deck before he gave Shiv a brief report.

While he was doing that, Amanda surveyed the deck. Neko was up and about and he’d gathered a group of sailors and formed a band right on the main deck. A large portion of the rest of the crew were singing and dancing along to the songs.

Neko spotted them and paused for a quick second to wave. “Come join us, there’s some drums around somewhere.”

The drums were Amanda’s specialty, but she shook her head and turned to Sirius and Shiv. Catching a break in their conversation, she asked Shiv, “Were they playing music last night?”

Shiv shook his head. “Nah, everyone was shattered. Earliest I’ve seen them go to bed in some time. There might have been a few drinking in the galley but Neko was out of it, and you know he’s the main music man. That and...” Shiv turned toward the other side of the deck as he trailed of, “Well, that.” He pointed further down the beach.

In the distance they could make out another ship, of similar size to their own, and just as beached as they were. Unlike their own ship, which had kept it’s natural wood colour, this new ship was painted a dark black. Even the sails looked like they’d been soaked in soot.

“Once the mist cleared we could see them, and well, I thought it better we keep vigilant.

They crossed to the other side of the deck so they could get a better look.

“Do you recognise it?” Amanda asked Sirius. It wasn’t one she was familiar with but Sirius was more likely to know it than she was. She turned to Shiv. “Did they raise a flag?”

Both men shook their heads.

“No,” Sirius answered. He turned to Shiv. “Has anyone left it?”

“Not that I’ve seen, and we have been watching her. But there was that mist.”

Sirius gave a singular nod. He glanced up at the sail. Sable, the ship’s materiokinetic was up there at the moment, mending the cut with magic. “That’s not looking too bad.”

Shiv looked half as hopeful as Sirius did. “Except he’s been up there since before sun up. He’s gonna need a rest soon, and probably a long one. At the rate he works I don’t reckon we’ll be done until tomorrow evening so...”

“So we’re staying another two nights.” Sirius finished for him as he looked back toward the other ship. “All the same, it would be good to get us back on the water. We’ve still got a few good sails.”

“You don’t want to leave at night?” Shiv asked.

Sirius frowned as he thought about it. “The innkeep’s husband showed us a map of the area. Seems there’s a few islands between us and the tundra, just small ones, but hard to see. I’d rather have the light, just for the first little bit.” Sirius nodded toward the wheelhouse where Griff had gone. “I’ll get Griff to show you, then I’m going to head back into the village and see if they have some people who might be able to help move the boat, or an extra mender to help Sable with the sail.”

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“Speaking of, I’d like to raise the point again that we should carry a spare sail.” Shiv raised one finger in the air.

“It takes as long to rig up a new one as it does Sable to repair the one that’s up there,” Sirius complained. He’d heard Shiv’s suggestion many times before.

“Oh it does not. It does not take two days to rig up a new sail.”

“It does the way Fallon does it.”

They continued to argue while Amanda stared out at the new ship, it’s black sails rippling in the wind.

Back in town, Bobby had almost given up on finding his mystery girl. He’d just paused for breath next to what looked like a butcher shop, when he heard the faintest meow coming from down a skinny alley between the butcher’s and a bookstore.

He turned sideways, squeezed through the tight gap, and followed the sound. Around the corner, behind the butcher’s shop he found the girl feeding a couple of cats. One of them was the same white one she’d been holding last night. She crouched low and from a dark blue bucket she pulled out strips of raw meet and placed them into three separate bowls. The meow he’d heard was coming from a fat ginger one that ate it’s food like it hadn’t eaten in days. From the size of it, Bobby was sure that was not the case.

The girl glanced up.

Bobby stepped around the corner but went no further. He didn’t want to scare her. “Are those your cats?” he asked.

She nodded as she stood up. She set the bucket on the back steps to the butcher shop. Her hands were covered in blood. She studied him. He could see she was wearing some makeup. Not much, just a dark line around the outer edge of both her eyes which flicked out in what Katrina often called a ‘wing’. Before now, Bobby had never understood why girls bothered so much with makeup, but on this girl it looked different. The black outlined her eyes making their colour stand out even in the shade of the alleyway. They were green with flecks of brown, or perhaps brown with flecks of green. Bobby wasn’t sure which way around it went.

Between then a cat meowed. The ginger one.

The girl ignored the cat. Recognition flashed across her face and her eyes lit up. “You’re the boy from the window!”

Bobby could only nod. The smile on her face had taken away his voice.

The girl took a step toward him and held out a hand. “I’m Seraphina.” She glanced down at her hand and realising it was bloody from the meat she quickly withdrew it. “Uh, I need to clean these. Wait here.”

She turned and ran up the steps to the butchers, taking the bucket of remaining meat with her.

Bobby waited. He’d forgotten how to move anyway.

By the time she returned Bobby had regained some of his composure. She, on the other hand, now seemed a little more hesitant. She looked up at Bobby through pretty eyelashes and twisted her fingers together nervously.

Bobby gave her a reassuring smile and held out his hand. “I’m Bobby.”

Her smile widened and she shook his hand. She had a soft grip but her enthusiasm returned. She stepped back and clasped her hand together again. “Where are you from? I saw a ship. You’ve come across the sea right?”

Bobby nodded. “From Little Rock, Greenstone Valley.” Seeing a confused look on her face he added, “North-east of the Emerald city. South of Myst.”

Her eyes opened wide. “Oh, I know them. Is it true the Emerald city is made of jade?”

Bobby laughed and shook his head. “No, but I suppose you could say it was made with jade. They used to mine it there, hence why the Greenstone Valley is called the Greenstone valley. They don’t mine it so much anymore but back when they did, the profit basically paid for the city.”

“Wow, they must have been so rich. I can’t imagine just finding jade in the ground.”

“Yeah. I’ve never been to the city though. Little Rock’s a lot smaller.” He pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, hoping he looked calmer than he felt. Inside his heart was racing.

“Do you have dragons? I heard Myst has dragons. That it’s built into a mountain and that the sorcerers have secret underground tunnels all through the mountain where they practice all sorts of experiments.”

“I dunno about secret tunnels. There is a sorcery school in Myst but they’re on the other side of the dragon mountains, and yeah there’s definitely lots of dragons. They mostly stay in the mountains though. It’s really dangerous to travel through. We’re not allowed to fly planes or choppers anywhere in the Greenstone valley, unless it’s for a really special reason, which pretty much never happens. There is a road that goes through the mountains but only crazy people drive that, like my aunt, but she’s really into cars and she drives super fast so they can’t catch her.”

“So how do most people get through?”

“By ship mostly or teleportation if you’re rich or a sorcerer. If you want to go faster you can go by air balloon or pegasus or you can pay a driver to drive you through. But those options are all still kind of dangerous.”

“Must be scary, living so close where the dragons live?”

Bobby felt a slight twinge of pride at the awe in her voice but he shook it off. He was glad she had lots of questions. It made the conversation flow easily. “Nah, it’s not so bad. We never see them, not unless you’re actually in the mountains, and there’s enough distance between us and the mountains that we can even have cars, although apparently some people want to ban them again, which would actually be good for us in a way, cause then more people would have horses, but I still think they’re silly. Dragons aren’t so bad. They’re territorial so they don’t wander far once they’re settled. You can actually tame them, if you’re careful, and you know what you’re doing. Just last week I hatched my own dragon.” He said that last bit proudly.

“Cooool!” Seraphina pressed two fists to her chin and her eyes grew wide.

“I had to give it back though,” Bobby admitted sadly. “I mean they are dangerous, but I’d have been fine. Baby dragons can’t light a whole person on fire and I’m a healer so I can heal small burns.”

“You’re a healer?! Me too!”

“Really?” Bobby blinked at her in surprise.

She nodded, then looked around the alley searching for something. Her gaze stopped at the butcher’s door. “I’ll show you.” She dashed back inside the butchery again.

Bobby frowned, unsure if he was supposed to follow this time.

But she returned a moment later with a small pink-handled pocket knife in her hand. “Watch this!” Holding the knife with some skill she sliced a small cut in the back of her forearm.

Right before Bobby’s eyes, the skin mended itself back together.

“See.” She smiled up at him.

“Wow,” was all Bobby managed to say. Here was this pretty girl, standing right before him, interested in what he had to say, and not only that, but she even had the same power as him.

She seemed as awed as he was. They both stood there staring at each other with silly grins plastered on their faces, for what felt like an eternity.

Eventually, Seraphina dropped her eyes and her cheeks went a rosy pink. Bobby felt he should say something before the silence descended into awkwardness.

The ginger cat saved him from having to think too fast.

At it’s meow he asked, “Do you need to feed them more?”

Seraphina laughed. She had a pretty laugh. It was gentle and musical. “That’s George, I’m actually not even supposed to feed him as much as I have. He’s supposed to be on a diet.” She slipped her knife into her pocket and pointed to the white cat and then the stripey grey one. “That one’s Thumbalina, and that one’s Blinky. We thought Thumbalina was a girl but it turns out he’s actually a boy.”

Bobby nodded and scrambled for something else to say. He felt like his brain was stuck. Usually he was good at making conversation. He wanted to know more about her. She had asked him about his home so perhaps the same would work. “Uh, so what’s with the whole ‘no music’ thing here?” he asked, reaching for the first thing that popped into his mind.

She glanced down and looked somewhat forlorn for a moment. “Oh, that’s cause of them.”

“Them?”

“The howlers. You heard them right? Last night for a little bit.”

“The howlers, that’s what they’re called?”

“No, that’s just what I call them. Nobody’s ever actually seen one. They haven’t always been here. They arrived almost ten years ago I think. I was really young. I don’t remember much. I just remember being really sad when we weren’t allowed to play music anymore.”

“You used to play music?”

“Yeah.” She met his eyes and he could see the sparkle in them, as she thought back on her memories. “We used to have weekend concerts in the town hall, and festivals in the forest. I think at first, it was just at night that we had to be quiet, but then one day some kids, about our age now, were celebrating with music just at the edge of town, in the forest where we used to hold our festivals, and well...” She trailed off.

“What happened to them?”

She spoke more softly now and leaned in close. “All they found were the bones. Sometimes, if you sing really loud, even in the middle of the day, you can hear the howling in reply.”

“What if you sing quietly?” Bobby whispered.

She smiled at the thought. “I don’t know. People got too scared. Nobody sings at all anymore. The howlers like the rhythm I think.”

“But you all used to like music too?”

She nodded. “Now we keep all the instruments stashed away. I can show you where if you want to see? In fact, I can give you a tour of the whole town!” She stretched her arms out wide.

“Okay.” Bobby smiled encouragingly. He had already decided he would follow this girl anywhere.

“I’ll just go tell my dad I’m showing you around.”

Bobby waited until she came back and then he followed her out into the sunlit street. She looked back and watched him as he squeezed out of the alleyway. She was even prettier in daylight, her bronze skin looked so warm. Her hazel eyes so inviting.

Just as he was getting lost in Seraphina’s eyes, another voice shouted out, “Bobby!”

They turned to find Sasha running up to them. “You have to come see what I found!” she cried in excitement.

“Uh,” Bobby hesitated and he glanced at Seraphina. Sasha had picked the worst time to interrupt. “Can I look later?”

Sasha pouted. “But it’s really important.”

“Is it an animal you’ve found?” Bobby asked.

The look on Sasha’s face suggested he’d guessed right.

“You know there’s cats down that alleyway.” He nodded at the alley they had just come from.

Sasha glanced curiously toward the alleyway.

To Seraphina, Bobby said, “This is my sister, Sasha.” Then to Sasha, “Sasha, this is Seraphina.”

The two said hello to each other. The Sasha turned to Bobby, “But...”

“I’ll come look at whatever animal you’ve found later okay. I promise” Without waiting for a reply, Bobby turned to Seraphina and in a happy tone said, “Let’s go.”

Seraphina smiled. “Bye Sasha. It was nice to meet you.”

They turned and walked off. Neither one saw Sasha glance once more at the alleyway, and then sprint off in the other direction.

Seraphina led Bobby to a row of old stone houses. A few doors down, and on the corner, an old couple were sitting at an outdoor table outside what looked to be a cafe of some sort. They each had a small glass of golden looking liquid.

Seraphina noticed him looking. “That’s the meadery. We make a lot of honey here and some people make it into a drink. I tired some once but it’s not as nice as just eating the honey. We’re going under there. Sort of. Gotta go in this way though.”

He followed her down some stone steps and then through an unlocked red door into a surprisingly well lit basement. Daylight poured in through high, ground level, windows.

“It’s not kept locked?” he asked.

She turned to him with a funny look and then smiled. “Who would want to steal instruments in this town? They lock the mead up but this room is just mostly empty extra storage here now, since the meadery moved most of their stock to a bigger storehouse.They just keep a small amount next door now.” She gestured at a bunch of things covered in sheets, then she stepped forward and pulled of the sheet to reveal a pile of all sorts of musical instruments.

It was the guitar that caught Bobby’s eye. It was made of a natural red coloured wood and it looked almost brand new.

Seraphina looked at the instruments with a sadness that tugged at Bobby’s heartstrings. He looked from her to the guitar, and from the guitar to her, and he had an idea.

“What if I played a really soft song?” he asked.

She turned to him, eyes wide. “You can’t. It’s forbidden.”

He frowned and gave her a sympathetic look. “But you miss it right?”

She dropped her eyes. Then she looked at the pile of instruments and nodded.

“Listen, I’m pretty good at guitar, and I can play really soft, softer than anyone. I can play so soft, even the people out of the street won’t hear.” He watched for her reaction. He wouldn’t do it if she really didn’t want him to.

But she looked back at him with hopeful hazel eyes and then she gave the slowest of nods.

Bobby picked up the red guitar. Playing as gently as he could, he tuned it by ear. He wasn’t as good as Gemma, or his mum, but he could hold his own. And he had been truthful, he was an expert at a soft song.

As Seraphina watched with baited breath, Bobby plucked gently at the strings. And then in no more than a whisper he sang,

“Hair of white,

Eyes of green,

A pretty smile,

That’s so serene.

She stills my heart,

She stops my soul,

She’s worth as much,

And more than gold.

Her laughter twinkles in the night,

Her voice is warm like candlelight,

Her kiss...”

He paused. The unspoken words trembled on his tongue. But emboldened both by the music and the look on her face, he found the courage to go on.

“...Enough to light a spark,

And send the whole world burning bright!”

There he stopped.

Her face was lit up like the sun. She giggled and clapped her hands together loudly before she remembered herself and clasped them together in her lap to keep them quiet. “That was beautiful. Did you write it yourself?”

Bobby nodded.

“Just now?”

He nodded again, and couldn’t help grinning.

She took a step toward him until they stood barely a metre apart. Bobby would have sworn that his heartbeat could probably be heard half way down the street.

Before anything else could happen however, there came a sharp tap on the glass window facing the street. A stranger’s face appeared. “Oi! What are you kids doing down there?!”

“Quick! This way!” Seraphina grabbed Bobby’s hand and pulled him after her. They dodged the person who had interrupted them and took off at a run, laughing all the way down the street.