Chapter 4

 In the morning, I was surprised to find myself the last one awake.  I rubbed bleary eyes and yawned as I climbed to my feet just in time to join in on singing up the sun.  Noble led.  My voice was still thick with sleep.  Noble and Wren battled it out to hold the last note while Quin and I bowed out.  Before the boys even fell silent, Quin had me by the arm and was dragging me away from camp and to a clear stream.  I was grateful for the opportunity to wash up somewhat.  Then Quin and I replenished our drinking water.  When we got back to camp, we found Wren stowing bedrolls on the cart while Noble sat cross-legged with a thick branch of wood on the ground in front of him.

“Noble, what are you doing?” Quin asked in that special exasperated tone of voice that seemed exclusively reserved for siblings.

Noble looked up at her but kept running his palms along the wood.  He met his sister’s gaze and continued singing softly, not stopping to answer her.  She made a noise of irritation and then crouched down next to him, leaning in to put her ear closer to his mouth.

I watched with mild curiosity as I opened a crate of provisions and took out some salted meat.

“You’re pulling the wood,” Quin said with mild confusion.  She looked at the branch and then at her brother’s longspear which lay in the dry grass beside him.  Quin frowned at the spear, the branch, then her brother again.  “Why do you need a new spear?”

Noble shook his head and then tilted his head toward me.  He looked from his sister to me, and then back at his sister.

“It’s for Seren?” Quin asked, her voice invoking the surprise I felt.  When Noble nodded in confirmation, she spoke again: “Why?”

I certainly wanted to know the answer as well.  I wasn’t a Dayguard.  Why did I need a spear?

Noble looked at his sister with a level of disdain that only missed being rude by the grace of his being her brother.  Quin made another irritated noise.

“Does she always ask him questions when he can’t answer?” Wren said in his usual bored tone of voice.

I managed not to jump, but he’d startled me.  He was a quiet as a cat when he wanted to be, and I hadn’t heard him sit down beside me.  He picked up a piece of dried meat from the crate in front of me and tore off a bite.

Chapter 3

I woke up naturally before dawn.  I could hear distant muted voices and nearby breathing.  I opened my eyes and startled at the sight of a sleeping man a short distance from me.  After my initial shock, I quickly recognized Wren, his face slack and his lips slightly parted as he softly snored.

I sat up and stretched my back and arms.

“Good morning!” Quin said brightly, beaming at me from the other side of the burned out campfire.

I made a shushing gesture at her and pointed at Wren.

“He said to wake you two up at dawn,” Quin said with a slight frown.

“Well, it’s not quite dawn yet,” I said quietly as I donned my shoes and rose to my feet.  “So, let him sleep a little longer.”

Quin shrugged.

“If you say so,” she said in a dubious tone.

“Thank you, Quin,” I said sincerely.

I nodded at her as I headed away from camp to stretch my legs and take care of other things.  When I came back a short while later, the pre-dawn glow was brighter, painting the eastern sky golden yellow.  

“Now?” Quin asked as I walked back into camp.

I glanced at Wren and remembered the cool way we’d ended the evening.  I was still a little embarrassed about his rebuke, and I figured he could use as much sleep as he could get.

“I’m pretty sure the singing will wake him,” I told Quin in a mildly teasing tone.

Quin smirked.

“Especially Quin’s singing,” Noble said.

Quin’s grin vanished, replaced with a look of betrayal as she tried to bat at her brother’s arm.  Noble was too quick; he dodged out of the way, chuckling under his breath as he rolled up to his feet with easy grace.

I helped Quin to her feet but refused to play referee as Quin stalked Noble and Noble dodged his sister.  I stood to the side, watching the horizon.  When the first rays of sunlight broke, I lifted my voice.

Chapter 2

When I awoke on the morning after my brother’s testing, my first thought was how healing Cascade had felt almost like directing sunlight in the daytime, except there’d been no sunlight to direct.  Was that what it was like to be a Nightbringer?  I had no idea, but it didn’t feel like that was right.  Everyone knew that Nightbringing was completely different from Dawncalling.  Incompatible.  One was a push and one was a pull.  And Nightbringers possessed the magic they used.  Dawncallers used the magic the sun possessed.  Opposites.

So, what had I done?

“Seren?” Mother said softly.

I released the furrow in my brow and opened my eyes.  Mother was sitting beside my bed.

“Where’s Cade?” I asked.

Pre-dawn light filtered in through the window.

“Resting,” Mother said, reaching over to touch my hand.  “I thought you might be waking soon.  How do you feel?”

“Confused,” I confessed.  “But glad.”

Mother nodded.

“In line with the consensus, then,” she told me.  “Just about everyone feels the same.”

“Even the elders?” I asked with some hesitation.

“Well,” Mother said, “the elders haven’t said anything one way or the other.  They’re in conclave.”

I nodded.  Anything unusual resulted in the elders holding a conclave.  And what I’d done was a little bit beyond unusual.

“What can they say?” I asked, musing aloud.  Then I frowned.  “Can they say anything?”

Mother squeezed my hand.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Seren,” she told me fervently.

“I… I know,” I said.  “But… it wasn’t normal.”

“No,” Mother agreed.  “Not normal.  But not wrong.”

“Thank you,” I murmured.

She squeezed my hand again.

Chapter 1

I’m not usually awake after Fourth Corner.  Most Dawncallers retire in the hours between Sunset and Fourth or between Fourth and Midnight.  Only Nightbringers work between Fourth Corner and midnight and between midnight and First Corner.  Just like only Dawncallers work between Second and Noon and Noon and Third Corner.  Thus the day is divided.  I wake every morning in time to join the lilting voices of the First Corner shift Dawncallers singing up the sun, and my workday ends when the Nightbringer chants ring out as the sun sets in the west.  As days grow longer or shorter during the year, corners become closer together or farther apart, but the rhythm of the day stays the same.  It’s peaceful.

Cascade takes after Mother and Father.  He’s showing signs of being a Nightbringer.  He asked me to go with him to the midnight testing, and I agreed wholeheartedly.  I love my brother.  I had always hoped he’d be a Dawncaller like me, but no one chooses their alignment.  And Nightbringers are just as vital to the village as Dawncallers are.  

“Seren!” my brother said in a chastising tone.

It amused me to hear Cascade scold me.  Usually I am the one doing the scolding.  But I sensed his agitation and bit off the yawn I’d been making before he hissed my name.

“Sorry, little brother,” I whispered, leaning down to speak into his ear.  “You know I don’t usually stay up this late.”

“You didn’t have to come,” he said petulantly, feigning ambivalence that simply didn’t carry since he’d begged me to come with him.  “Go home if you’re so tired.”

“And miss the chance to watch you embarrass yourself?” I teased.  “Not hardly.”

Cascade scowled at me and then crossed his arms over his chest.  He looked ridiculous in the pose, still short as he was at twelve years of age and dressed in rumpled clothes that didn’t fit him properly.  Mother had laid out a fine outfit for him, but he’d insisted at the last minute on wearing one of father’s old shirts.  My brother wanted so much to be grown.  I sighed quietly and wistfully thought back to when I myself had been so foolish.  It hadn’t been long ago, just a handful of years.  But I’d grown up significantly when I joined the Dawncallers.  Just as Cascade would mature with the Nightbringers.

“I won’t embarrass myself,” Cascade muttered after a moment, making me smirk to myself.

“Of course not,” said Mother, ruffling his hair and making him whine and turn red.  “And if you did, it probably wouldn’t be as bad as what Serendipity did at her testing.”

My brother stopped frantically trying to un-muss his hair and looked up at me with squinty appraisal.  My eyes were wide with shocked indignation over Mother’s declaration.

“What did Seren do?” Cascade asked Mother while looking at me.