The Serenader

Chapter 9

Atlas' POV
I made my way up to my old bedroom, knowing full well that arguing with my father would be useless. He had made up his mind, and that meant we had to obey.

On the way upstairs, I passed by the old music room. The door was shut, but I smiled as I remembered how my mother used to play the violin, how the sounds always echoed down the halls. She'd taught me how to play after I'd just wandered in one afternoon when I was six. I suppose I did miss that aspect of the castle. Unless you counted the bugle calls, there was no music in the Navy. With the instruments so close, my fingers itched to get back to making music after three years away.

Then I remembered what Blythe had said. Hesitantly, I pushed the door open.

My heart wrenched. The room was stark empty. What used to be a haven for the arts was now bleak and barren. The piano, the harp, the violin, the flute - everything was gone. I was staring at an empty room, the stone walls washed out and the floor retiled to match. There was nothing special about it anymore. I felt as if I was looking at a graveyard, an empty shadow of what it had been before. And to top it off, I could still recall exactly what it looked like the day I had left. Even though my mother had died many years before that, the music room was her legacy. I couldn't believe anyone would dare touch it for anything other than to play the instruments she'd left behind.

With difficulty, I pulled my gaze away from that sad site. There wasn't time for me to focus on this, as utterly upsetting as it was. I had to hurry to my room before I was pushed out of here by force.

About halfway there, I realized I hadn't even seen Des and Eclipse since I'd got back. I hadn't had the chance to say hello, let alone goodbye. Things had happened so fast, there was no time for me to settle. Two days ago, my life had been stable, my country united as one. Now... I wasn't even sure.

I hung in the doorway of my bedroom for a long time, taking in how it hadn't changed at all. It was like stepping back in time. I doubted anyone had even stepped foot in here while I was gone - that was evident by the amount of dust on the windowsills, the curtains, and the floor. Why had this room been left untouched when the music room, a room that was so much more important, had been decimated?

I remembered immediately why I was here, what I had come to retrieve. I grabbed the dagger I had stowed in the back of my closet three years ago, since the Navy didn't permit unauthorized weaponry. It felt a good deal lighter than I remembered, but I loved having it back in my grip. My fingers curled perfectly around the hilt the way an experienced musician's fingers might rest on the keys. On a whim, I reached back and grabbed the other thing my nineteen-year-old self had stowed in there - a piccolo. My mother had given it to me when I was seven, days before she died. I hardly knew how to play it back then, but she had trusted me with it while she left for her voyage. Then that turned out to be permanent. It was the only thing left from the music room, and I was immensely grateful I'd kept it tucked away.

Hesitantly, I raised the little flute to my mouth. I played a few notes of the tune that had been on my mind for, well... forever. My embouchure was so out of practice and my fingers so stiff that I could barely make a sound, so that eased my worry of being overheard. Someday, when we were all safe, I could relearn how to play.

I sheathed the dagger and stowed it in a leather satchel. Then I put the piccolo in its carrying case and hoped it would hold up fine in the bag. It was clear it wouldn't be much safer here, and I wanted to keep it with me. With those two things I added a canteen I'd brought from the military, the box of matches, a compass, a small spyglass, and a spare change of clothes. That was all I could fit. I hoped that there would be berry bushes or animals grazing on the paths for food. I myself was used to rationing, especially towards the end of longer voyages, but I wasn't sure how well Cal would do in a situation like that.