Tree Singer by Jacci Turner (best novels for beginners TXT) 📕

Fifteen-year-old Mayten loves training as a tree singer, an esteemed position among her clan. But when she feels pain coming from the trees, she finds herself on an unexpected quest, one so dangerous she might never return home.

Now Mayten must use her unfinished training to face betrayal, fear, and a deadly foe. Is she a match for the ancient evil attacking her trees or will the entire kingdom fall to ruin?

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About the Author

A Lucky Bat Book

Tree Singer

Copyright 2021 Jacci Turner

All rights reserved

Cover Design: E.R. Canedo

Published by Lucky Bat Books

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

License Notes

This e-book is licensed for the enjoyment of the person who bought it. If you’re reading it, and you didn’t buy it, c’mon, it’s really cheap; just go buy your own.

~*~*~

To David, my love. In the trees with you—always.

Chapter One

Mayten lay with her legs stretched along the sturdy limb of her favorite oak tree, the smooth bark cool against her bare legs, the rougher patches prickling her skin. She pressed her back against the thick trunk and turned her face upward as if trying to catch the sun’s warmth, the earthy woodiness of the oak tree tickling at her nose. The gnarled limbs overhead reminded her of a child with arms akimbo, jutting out from the trunk in every direction.

There was beauty in the chaos above her, sunlight weaving its way through the branches like a blessing, birds twittering invisible among the leaves.

She’d always felt at peace sitting in her auntie tree, usually with a good book, but sitting and thinking was just as peaceful.

Until today.

She’d come to the tree this morning for selfish reasons, nervous about the upcoming ceremony. She was fifteen now and would be leveling up tomorrow. Today was the last chance she’d have to simply ‘chat’ with her beloved auntie tree. She’d poured out her hurt and pain and worry just as she had for as long as she could remember.

Perhaps because she was leveling up or just growing up, for the first time Mayten actually received an answer. Not in words.

In feelings.

A rush of confusing emotions that threatened to curl her into a tiny ball.

She didn’t know what the auntie tree was trying to tell her, but there was a surety in Mayten’s bones that something was deeply wrong with her beloved trees. Not just her auntie tree.

With all the trees.

Mayten placed trembling hands on the branch beneath her, trying to ignore the way her belly churned, trying to feel what the tree was saying.

Trying to understand.

Listening to the trees wasn’t easy. Listening took focused concentration. Which was why the youngest singers spent all their time talking to the trees.

The time for talking is over, she reminded herself. Tomorrow she would begin her Level Four training. She’d learn to not only send but to receive feelings, to truly communicate with the trees.

Judging by the intensity of emotions sent from the tree, she needed to understand now. If she could understand what Auntie was trying to tell her, Mayten could pass the message along to her mother and her clan could fix whatever was wrong.

Mother is busy preparing for the Leveling Ceremony, a tiny voice whispered at the back of her mind.

Yes, Castanea was the clan’s chief tree singer and she was busy preparing for the Leveling Ceremony. But surely she would make time to listen to her daughter.

Wouldn’t she? It seemed as though her mother had been avoiding her lately.

Time enough to worry about her mother later, Mayten decided. Right now she needed to try again. See if she could figure out what was wrong with the trees.

She firmly closed her mind to the outside world in much the same way she closed her bedroom door. Closed out the sun’s warmth on her face. Closed out the chatter of squirrels amid a flutter of birds’ wings.

Then she pulled a mental curtain shutting out the insects buzzing about her head and sounds of laborers out in the fields calling to one another as they worked.

And focused on her auntie tree.

Remembering the storm of emotions, she cautiously opened both mind, then soul to whatever message the tree was trying to send.

It seemed to take an eternity, but she knew it was only seconds before her gut tightened with anxiety. Once again emotions exploded in her skull like sparks from a fire, a jumble of feelings she couldn’t identify cascading along her skin, flooding through her body . . .

“Auntie?” she whispered. She didn’t understand. Couldn’t connect what she was feeling with any sort of message—

Mayten cried out as the emotional storm intensified, striking her with stinging blows from all sides like hail from a midsummer storm. Leaving her shaking and uncertain.

“Mayten? Mayten!”

Her little brother’s voice knifed through her concentration and focus like a bolt of lightning, shredding the emotions and scattering them to the wind. Mayten startled, almost toppling from the branch. She struggled to cling to the memory of all those emotions, to somehow fix them in her mind so she could discuss them with her mother later . . .

The emotional storm faded, drifting away like dying sparks on a breeze. All she could remember of the message—if it had been a message—was what it wasn’t. It wasn’t pain she’d felt. And it wasn’t exactly fear—

She rose to her feet, knees shaking, and steadied herself with a hand against the trunk. “Sorry, Auntie. I’ve got to go. I’ll come back when the ceremony’s over.”

Mayten’s heart twisted. After tomorrow, there would be no more time for childish chats. Tomorrow she would begin her life’s work.

Levels One through Three were easy as far as she was concerned. Talking to trees came naturally to her. Her mother, apparently, expected Mayten’s listening skills to come just as easily. She’d lost count of the number of times her mother had reminded her to ‘stop talking to the trees and start listening!’

Listening was proving to be the most difficult thing Mayten had ever tried—

“Are