Free Songbird by Colleen Helme

continued on, and the further they went, the worse it got. Soon the trees showed signs of stress. Instead of growing straight and tall, the trunks were misshapen and craggy. Some of the leaves had curled black with decay.
    Further on, the trees leaned toward the earth, broken and bent as if struck by a whirlwind. The forest stood in silence. Clouds blocked the sun, and cast a gray shadow over them. There were no birdcalls or movements of animals in the underbrush. No wind stirred the air. It seemed empty, like every living thing had died.
    The panic she’d held back took hold, and Teya’s heart shrank with despair. What if her people were dead after all? She closed her eyes again and felt the pull. “This is the right way,” she said. “I can feel the pull, but something’s not right.”
    Bran met her gaze with a troubled frown. “There’s a rise up ahead, we should be able to see better from there.”
    With a quick nod, Teya followed Bran up the rise. At the top of the hill she gasped. As far as she could see the ground was covered with blackened tree trunks. The earth was bare of life, and the trees stood in stark nakedness, their limbs like twisted fingers reaching for the sky.
    She stared, horrified at the destruction, yet too absorbed to pull her gaze away. In breathless shock she whispered. “It’s like a blight of some kind, or a curse. What would cause such an appalling thing?”
    Before Bran could answer, something moved in the dimness below. “Did you see that?” he asked.
    Teya strained to see it again, but found nothing. “I’m not sure. Maybe it was a shadow.” A chill ran up her spine and her skin crawled.
    “How much further?” Bran asked.
    “The pull of magic is strong here. We have to be close, but it leads straight through that.”
    “Maybe the Kalorians caused this to discourage outsiders. Whatever the reason, the only way we’ll know is to keep going.”
    “You’re right, but what if they’re... not there?” She couldn’t say dead, even though it was what she meant.
    “I suppose it’s a possibility. Do you want to keep going?”
    With a deep sigh, she nodded. “Of course. It’s just hard. This blight feels wrong. I don’t think my people would do this, but I don’t know. I want to find them, but going through this makes me nervous.”
    “Then we’ll just have to be careful.” Bran scanned the landscape and pointed. “See that outcropping of rocks in the distance?” She nodded, but it was so far away that she could barely make it out. “We’ll head for that. Maybe we’ll see something from there.”
    “All right,” she agreed.
    “I want you to have this.” Bran pulled a short sword from his saddlebags. “Do you know how to use it?”
    “Are you serious? I wasn’t allowed anywhere near something as lethal as that. My weapon is my voice, I don’t need anything else.”
    “You’re probably right, but since I don’t have that luxury, I’m not going to take any chances.” Bran strapped the sword to his back and then took out another belt that held a weapon Teya had never seen before.
    “What’s that?”
    “This is a gun.” He held it out so she could see it and opened the chamber. “You put bullets in here and when you pull the trigger, the mechanism will fire the bullet out of the barrel. Depending on how good your aim is, you can hit something at least fifty feet away, maybe more.”
    “Okay. How good are you at shooting that?”
    “I’m not bad.” His lips quirked up in a smile. “But if anything should happen to me…”
    “No,” she said, inhaling sharply. “Nothing’s going to happen. Between the two of us, we’ll be fine.”
    “Good, because I think you’re right. There is something strange here, and it makes me uneasy.” He loaded the gun, then settled the holster around his waist and cinched the belt. Ready, he glanced at her with grim determination. “Let’s go.”
    As they started through the dead trees, Teya kept her senses alert.