Songbird

Chapter Seven - Strategy

Wren's heart lightened when Kal appeared in the dream that night, and she couldn't help the radiant smile that parted her lips at his quick grin.

"Kal!"

"Hello, Wren." His smile faded as he drifted closer to her. "What happened?"

Her heart fluttered as he raised a hand to her cheek, but as ever, he couldn't touch her. She remembered the scar.

"Oh, there was...an incident today."

He tilted his head, brow furrowing in concern. "An incident?"

She had to take a breath before answering. "Yes. An unruly suitor."

An anger that she hadn't seen in him before darkened his brow, and she was almost overcome by how much this boy she had never seen in person cared about her.

"Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head, one hand drifting to the opposite wrist. "No. I had a flare, threw a vase at him." She tapped the small white scar forming on her cheekbone. "A shard cut me."

"I'll be there soon," he said. "Corvin says we're a few weeks from the city."

She frowned, not recognizing the name. "Corvin?"

"He's the leader of the group I'm travelling with."

"Hm...we should come up with our plan."

He nodded. "Can you show me the city?"

At the moment, they were floating in darkness with Wren's stars overhead.

"I'll try..."

She closed her eyes, concentrating, and Bellhaven began to materialize around them, winding streets flowing like rivers until they shivered into place, buildings growing from the cobbles, stretching upward like spring shoots.

Kal watched it all with wide eyes. "Amazing...you're amazing, Wren."

Her cheeks flushed. "Oh, you..."

At last the dream city stabilized, a silent copy of reality where the two of them stood on the empty street between manor houses at the top of the hill that crowned the city's central district. Wren pushed open a gate that lead to a tiled path lined with classical pillars. The white columns were ringed with flowering bushes planted symmetrically on either side of the path, heavy with multicolored blooms.

Kal followed Wren, moving as if on sacred ground. "You live here?" he asked. "It's like a castle."

"And this is my cage."

The world streaked past them in a rainbow blur as they melted through the manor until they stood in Wren's bedroom. She wrung her hands, glancing around—it wasn't any tidier than it was in reality. But Kal didn't seem concerned with that as he examined the various instruments scattered around the room, and Wren watched him, enjoying the wonderment on his face.

"You can play all of these?"

"With varying degrees of success," she said.

He grinned, shaking his head. "You are a marvel, do you know that?"

Her cheeks prickled, ears burning. He went on before she could answer.

"My mother was a musician when she was young," he said. "She taught me and my siblings a little, and she still plays her guitar at the harvest festival every few years."

A shadow crossed his face, and her heart sank. "I'm sorry," she said. "You must miss her."

"I do," he said. "She would like you."