Cursed Song by Samantha Kroese

Author:Samantha Kroese [Kroese, Samantha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Samantha Kroese

Part II

Five Years Later…

Chapter 17

Shadow

Shadow grimaced and rubbed absently at the healing skin on his face. His latest tattoos crossed from his eyebrows down the sides of his cheeks. Black lines meant to look like scars left behind by a monstrous claw. Only those who looked closely would see that they morphed into a tear shape at the end. Five years. Five years he had searched for Derry. Every town he went to, he got another mark, so he wouldn’t forget his journey. His body was covered in tattoos now. He had seen much more of the world traveling alone than he had ever seen with the Band. He was deep into unfriendly territory now, where no one had ever even heard of the Dusksingers. That alone had taken a lot of getting used to. He was used to being well-known. Here he was nobody. Nothing. Just a lost refugee, a vagabond.

The Song had not killed him when he left the Band. It had killed only his connection with the Song and the others. Slowly, like a vine dying in the winter from the cold. Like a disease eating away at his soul. Now his Song magic was no more, but he still could sing decently enough on his own to earn a few coins here and there. Provided it wasn’t forbidden. That was the strangest of all, coming to cities or towns where music wasn’t allowed.

His hand dropped to the dagger hidden at his belt as rats scurried past him in the dark, filthy alley. He had learned to fight too. Some of his tattoos hid scars he had received while lost for nearly a year in the underground gladiator trade.

He carefully exited the alley and sat down on the edge of a fountain, as darkness fell over the quiet town. He didn’t have coin for a room tonight, so he just hoped no one chased him off from sleeping here. He curled up on the cool stone and closed his eyes, weary from a day of walking the dusty roads. His horse hadn’t survived past a few years away from the Band.

The sound of a beautiful male voice singing startled Shadow out of his sleep. A haunting heart-broken melody of love lost. Shadow had never heard the likes of the voice, not even within the Band. Yet something familiar drove him to his feet and down the streets to find its source. Impossible, he chided himself, even as his tired feet broke into a run. Derry had never had a voice like that, not even with the Song magic.

But as Shadow reached the open meadow before a great manor house, a man with a familiar gait strolled among the flowers, singing a tale to a lost love. Thin, frail, pale-skin, long brown hair. Dressed like a nobleman, but Shadow would have known him, no matter what. He stumbled to a stop at the edge of the meadow, afraid he was dreaming. He had chased Derry for so long in his dreams.

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