The night watch guard's Arc

Chapter 1 of 4

The night watch guard stepped into the cold stone corridor, counting her strays. Six tonight. She wanted a full patrol, every hall covered, every corner watched. But the deeper halls had been spitting her cats back out for a week now. Tonight, she would find the cause. Past the second bell, the dark grew thick. A trail of glowing blue notes drifted down the corridor, humming a tune that made her ears feel stuffed with wool. The strays froze. One of her sleepy-eyed guard cats raised his sword at nothing, swinging at the empty air as if fighting a dream. The notes poured from the decrepit tower at the west end. She pushed inside and saw it. A tall black harp, wrapped in cobwebs, strings trembling on their own. No hand touched them. The music swelled, and her strays bolted as one, tails low, claws skittering on stone. She chased them out into the courtyard. They streamed across the wet grass toward a gnarled tree she had never trusted. Its trunk gaped open like a mouth. One by one, the strays vanished down the hollow into the dark below. The guard knelt at the opening. Cold air breathed up at her, carrying the same faint tune. The roots curled down into a tunnel she could not see the end of. Her drowsy swordsman caught up, blinking hard, finally awake. She drew a slow breath and climbed down after her cats. The harp's song followed her into the earth. Whatever fed those strings, it lived below the castle. And tonight, for the first time, she was going to meet it.