Prologue
The room spun and spun all around her. Blurred images of pianos and paintings swirled across her vision as she tumbled and fell. Dirt and dust, pieces of broken furniture, books, chairs, everything fell across her line of sight and down, down, down, quicker than she could make sense of anything. Horrible twisted vines reached out to grab at her hair or her dress, and she screamed as she felt tugs and pulls from the menacing plants.
Finally, they let go of her, and she inhaled deeply as the cramped tunnel came to a halt, landing on a dirty checkered floor with a loud thud that made small rocks and clumps of Earth fall on top of her. She closed her eyes as tight as could be—maybe this was all a dream. Her head pounding was just the headache from the boredom of lessons. The dirt on her clothes and in her hair was from falling out of a tree and landing in the mud. The darkness around her was nothing more than a dreamless sleep.
When at last she braved opening her eyes, what she saw was not what she expected, at all.