Three Broken Kingdoms-Book 1 of the Lost Continent (Completed)

Chapter Two: The Singer

They were on their weekly parade through the city and Layla wished more than anything that she could actually walk through the streets, rather than waving from a carriage.

Celeste was a beautiful place to walk in, too: towering skyscrapers, glass buildings and marble statues. The whole city was filled with rivers and lakes, and if you weren't part of the fussy nobility, you would make your way through the blue and silver city on boats, gliding across water as clear as the glass around it. And at night...

But no. They were in a carriage, feeling distant and royal and waving. Royalty held a very low status to Layla despite the fact she was spare heir to two city-states and two powerful dynasties.

Layla breathed in the clean, fresh air of Celeste, the crisp morning wrapping around the city.

If Veron was hearth-fire, Celeste was a shimmering lake.

Sighing, Layla made her best attempt at a pretty little wave that seemed extraordinarily pretentious to her, but everyone else seemed to like.  Maia mimicked it, looking even more frustrated.

That was when a scream pierced the air, and the whizz-thud of arrows splintered through the calm. The carriage erupted in flames that did not burn. She was shocked enough that her mouth opened in surprise, and before she could stop them, words began to slip out...

The Song was nameless and eternal. It did not belong to this world. It belonged to a goddess, not an elf. It was beautiful and wild, as though a goddess was singing. In a way, one was. It was death and life and rebirth; it was the sky she held so dear and the fire burning in human hearts and the raging sea that valkyries so loved.

It came like a ripple, across the city. No fire, and no ice, but simply a ripple of destruction, like a painting of before-and-after. No matter how much she tried to close her mouth, the song raged wild and fierce, as everything faded to nothing.

She felt fire and ice and lighting reach for her, her mother, father and twin trying to stop her. She wished that their powers would halt her, she wished they might weaken the song long enough for Layla to take control again. But they were nothing, and the song swept them far away.

Layla was drowning, drowning in herself. She pulled, as she had before, to rein the song back into herself, but it was like riding a tsunami. It tore free of her grip, and then she plummeted deep into the water.

She felt a sting of pain and heard the thud of a hand that made contact with her face and suddenly she realised that she could not speak. Someone had put a hand over her mouth. Layla felt a sudden relief, and then looked at the world around her.

Her father stood over her his hand still clapped to her lips. Selene, her mother, clutched Maia tightly. They were all unharmed. But Celeste itself...

The streets were ash and ruin. The people huddled amongst the wreckage and her parents stood, exhausted, fire and ice still gathered in their hands. They must have been trying to use to stop her or shelter the city from her Song. No. No, this couldn't have happened again.

Layla vomited, and then fell to her knees and passed out.

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From the very first time that she had summoned it, it became very clear that she would never control her magic.

Once she had heard her father liken it to a wild wolf that thought it was a dog, and Layla, its owner. Her magic loved her. Unconditionally. Obsessively. Dangerously. Any perceived threat and it would lash out, destroying anything in its path. Layla had to be protected, no matter the consequences. And quite without meaning to, her magic drowned her. The moment she let it free, it could no longer hear her, and so she couldn't control it.