Melody Verdane's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Melody Verdane stepped onto the polished wood platform inside the glass gazebo and finished her song. Pink hair damp at her temples, she bowed to the small, perfumed crowd. She had only meant to sing for coin enough to leave the city. One more road, one more land she had never walked. That was the whole of her plan. The patron rose from his velvet chair. He pressed a gilded cage into her hands. Inside sat two sleek black crows, their orange eyes fixed on her face. "They will travel with you," he said, smiling. "Everywhere. So I always hear my bard's voice." He told her the gazebo had been built for her. He told her she would sing here, and only here, from now on. Melody set the cage down on the platform. She thanked him plainly and said no. She said she was leaving at dawn. His smile did not move. He told her the city's main gatehouse answered to him. A stone keep with ironbound doors, the only road out wide enough for a traveler on foot. By morning, he said, her name would be on a list there. The crows shifted in their cage, watching. Melody picked up her pack and walked out into the night. The road north was closed to her now. But she had heard him flinch when she sang the last verse, and that meant the song had struck something true. She turned toward the narrow woodland path no carriage could take, and started walking.