Welcome to the eighth stop in the #exploreleira blog tour where we’re celebrating the (almost) one year book birthday for Songkeeper! It is the second book in the Songkeeper Chronicles, which tells the story of a girl who can hear the song that created the world.
If this is your first encounter with the blog tour, we are continuing a series of alphabet posts looking at the world and characters and magical creatures of the Songkeeper Chronicles.
Today, we’re looking at the letter …
H is for the Hollow Cave
“There are places in this world where the echoes of the master melody run truer than in others.”
After the world of Leira was created through the Song of the Master Singer, Emhran, he bound the Song in a river that flowed throughout the entire land. When the river failed, the Song fell silent, until only five broken notes beat in the hearts of every living creature. At that time, the Songlings and Songkeepers were born, each gifted with a blessing of the Song to keep the memory alive, although Songkeepers alone can hear the full melody.
Hidden throughout the land of Leira were several hallowed places. Caves, wells, vales—places where the memory of the Song burned brighter, where echoes of the melody could still be awakened, and where the Songkeepers could more clearly hear the voice of the Master Singer.
The Hollow Cave is one such place.
Located an hour’s ride south of Nar-Kog (capitol of the Vituain Desert), the Hollow Cave is regarded by the desert tribes as a sacred place. It is used for the testing and confirming of Songlings and Songkeepers, for the hum of melody that fills the Hollow Cave cannot be heard by others. And yet, even those who cannot hear the melody and yet dare to step across the threshold, are filled with a sense of awe and wonder.
But for a Songkeeper …
The humming radiated until it filled the entire cave, until it seeped beneath her skin and reached inside her bones and lodged somewhere in her chest … It blazed through her like a raging fire. It shook the earth beneath her feet until the very stones seemed to crumble. It gusted around her like the winds of the gale that had beleaguered the Langorian ship.
A voice thundered in her ears, and in her mind, words materialized from the melody and became images painted across her closed eyelids.
I don’t think there is any one thing that inspired the Hollow Cave and other such hallowed places in Leira. But there are two things that I can point to that definitely provided some inspiration. During the original development of the series, years ago, I took a senior trip to Scotland with my dad. We visited Fingal’s Cave on Staffa Island and the Mealt Falls at Kilt Rock on the Isle of Skye.
At Fingal’s Cave, the wash of the waves into the hollow at the back creates a melodic roar that sounds like a giant sleeping within. At Mealt Falls, the builders of the overlook installed pipes as a part of the railing with strategically placed holes so that the wind would whistle through the pipes and create a sort of fairy music. Blended with the roar of the falls and the crash of the waves beneath, it was truly magical.
Neither of these in and of themselves inspired the hallowed places in Leira, but they certainly inspired me to expand the magic of the world and explore it further.
Inali halted beneath the shaft and turned to face her. Caught between light and shadow, his bronze skin appeared pale. “This is the Hollow Cave.” He spoke in a whisper, but his voice magnified off the walls so Birdie could hear it even over the humming. “This is your testing, little Songkeeper.”
She turned in a slow circle, taking in her surroundings. “But what do I do?”
“Listen.”
Don’t you love stumbling across places like Fingal’s Cave and Mealt Falls? Places where imagination and inspiration suffuse the air that you breathe. Glades where you can imagine fairies dancing. Woods where it is not difficult to picture Robin Hood and his Merry Men running from the Sheriff’s guards. Shimmering pools where you expect to see Excalibur raised aloft in the hand of the Lady of the Lake.
What places make your imagination run wild?
Want to find out more about the Hollow Cave? Check out the links below to purchase the books:
Amazon: Orphan’s Song, Songkeeper, Song of Leira
Barnes and Nobles: Orphan’s Song, Songkeeper, Song of Leira
I love that first Songkeeper paragraph you put in there. It’s a vivid picture of both beauty and power.
Fingal’s Cave and Mealt Falls sound lovely. I must go sometime.
For me, there’s something inspiring in green places. It doesn’t take much more than a patch of moss to send me into a reverie. It’s why I love working in fields and garden centres. My hands may be busy with menial jobs, but my mind is busy with plotting and praise, dreams and debates.
Green growing things are certainly inspiring, aren’t they? There’s something indescribably peaceful about them. Springtime has hit my pastures, so I’ve been spending a lot of time out with the herd of horses, and the pastures are cocooned in a beautiful, vibrant, life-filled sort of peaceful. It leaves me feeling invigorated and set at ease all at the same time, and yes, that’s when the creative parts of my brain just start whirling!
I really loved your description of Birdie’s experience in the Hollow Cave. Truly amazing.
Fingal’s Cave and Mealt Falls sound incredible! I especially love the idea of the pipes making music.
Green meadows, mountains, waterfalls, and even the smallest bit of beautiful plants or water inspire me. We’re in Colorado right now for spring break, and interestingly enough, the plains, mesas, and scrub bushes of New Mexico really inspired me on the way here. I’m already planning to work that setting into a story – perhaps with a bit of Mesa Verde-like cliff dwellings thrown in?
Yes, the musical pipes were so cool. Such a small detail, but it certainly added to the eerie magic of the place! Ooh, I love the idea of that setting for a story, and Mesa Verde cliff dwellings sound amazing. New Mexico is beautiful! Visited there recently with my family and fell in love with the vast contrasts between one side of the mountains – chilly, damp, green – and the other – hot, rugged desert. Beautiful!
In answer to your question at the end of the post: I’ve found that all it takes for my imagination to start running is a brisk breeze or the feel of a storm about to come in but not quite here yet. Though being near a lake or in the Pennsylvania forests when that happens helps too.
Mealt Falls sounds so cool! I love the idea of pipes in the railing. Maybe I can get my family to go there, if we ever manage that trip to Europe we keep talking about . . .
Storms! Yay! I always love finding another storm-lover! There’s just something about the gusts of wind that herald the onrush of a storm, and then the crack and rumble of thunder, and the blinding flash of lightning. You can almost always find me out on the porch when a storm is rolling in.
I can’t wait to read more about the hollow cave! These photos are amazing! :)