Music is everything in the community. On Little Drum everyone is born with a birth instrument and this stays with them right through their life. This tiny island is also home to the dead - the ghasts. The ghasts sing songs to help the community with decisions and they guard the Great Barrow which contains eight of the nine ancient musical instruments - fiddle, barrow fiddle, seahorn, bombard, reed pipe, bagpies, bodhran, and handpan.
One instrument is missing - the cithara. This is Oran's birth instrument and she is one of the most skilled players on the island. The ancient instrument was stolen many years ago and is it now on the Headland, at the Court, home to the Duchess.
One evening when everyone is gathered in the local tavern the Duchess, ruler of the Far Isles arrives. She declare all music illegal and instructs her guards to confiscate every musical instrument on the island. Oran refuses. Now read this, the first of many harrowing scenes in this book:
"She felt a tug. She missed a beat, and the tune faltered. Then another, and Lord Magmalley wrenched her birth instrument from her hands. ... With the ragged edges of the tune still trailing in the air, Magmalley swung the cithara against the trunk of the tree. It held together at first. One of its curved arms became crooked, the bridge came loose, the strings slackened. He hurled it again, more violently, and this time the wood snapped completely with a sound like bones breaking ... He smashed the instrument against the tree over and over until it was in five or six splinterd pieces."
Oran decides to travel to the Headland, retrieve the ancient cithara, play it for the Duchess and through music change her decision and restore her community. All of these are lofty and worthy goals but Oran can never anticipate all the things that will go wrong on her quest.
She and her friend, a young ghast called Alik, set off in her small boat. Early into the voyage they are attacked by enormous creatures called wispfish. They devour everything - the boat and her supplies. Luckily she is able to save the urn which contains Alik's ashes - carrying these off the island is the only way he can travel with her. Equally luckily Oran and Alik are rescued by the the Opera. This is a sailing boat filled with performers who also double as pirates. They are heading to the Headland because they plan to steal back all of the confiscated instruments. As a reader at this point you might relax - Oran has a ride, the Opera performers are a friendly group and surely it will be easy to retrieve the ancient cithara.
Of course everything goes wrong. Oran is captured and thrown into an underground dungeon. She does, however meet Dugald, son of the Duchess. He is able to take her to the attic room containing all of the precious musical instruments but the pair are discovered and the next day Oran is taken into the town where the hangman and his noose are waiting.
There are so many twists and turns in this story and such a brilliant invented world - I am happy that I have discovered Song of the Far Isles. Another gem of a book from Chicken House!
Take a look here on Etsy to see a cithara. You can hear this ancient instrument here (Scroll forward to 3.58). I was not surprised to read Nicholas Bowling is a musician.
Other books by Nicholas Bowling:
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