Killian's Crow

©2008-2009, Martin Sagadin

For Kaelan Alisdair Killian, time is not measured in hours and minutes, but broken into two pieces, a scar brutally dividing the face of his world; the before, and the after.  In the before, he was a child prodigy; his talent for the violin bordered on the supernatural, challenging tired preconceptions and surprising even the most dedicated cynics.  In the after he is a street musician and a coffee jockey, a man who is hiding from his past and an uncertain future, seeking contentment in a life he did not choose.

Killian’s Crow begins with the death of Kaelan’s estranged father; his only inheritance is Kai, a bad tempered crow.  As soon as he brings Kai home, Kaelan’s world begins to shift; as if the broken timeline of his life has been corrected, pulling him back onto the path of a previous destiny.  He regains full use of the fingers on his left hand and can once again play the violin with the brilliancy of his youth; the girl he loves inexplicably wakes from a coma she wasn’t supposed to survive; the Lipinski Stradivarius – a treasure stolen from Kaelan when he was sixteen – resurfaces, leading him on a journey to Ireland and the brothers he has never known, where the dark legacy of his inheritance is finally revealed.  During this slow uncurling of almost magic, Kaelan exposes glimpses of his previous life, pieces of the before.

At the age of ten, Kaelan discovered his destiny from the second balcony of an unknown theatre, in the unforgettable music of Tchaikovsky.  He fell in love with the ballet, Swan Lake, with the tragic melody of the violin, and he saw his future unfurling before him like a shining mantle of golden opportunity.  Nico de Luca, one of the most sought after instructors in the world, is known for his reticence when it comes to selecting new students; but he recognizes in Kaelan a bright talent and agrees to teach him.  The boy is thrust into the lush culture and instant fame of the musically elite, a foreigner in an exotic land where loyalties are fickle and competition a lifestyle.  Kaelan’s only companion, a beloved veteran in the sometimes rough and uncertain waters of the prodigy, is Nico’s only other student; Arius Gabrieli.  

Arius is as rich in charm and diplomacy as he is in wealth, bringing him popularity in the classrooms of the Swan King Academy as well as the often cruel society of money and privilege.  Where Kaelan is introverted and socially awkward, Arius takes refuge behind a mask of amiability, secretly despising those who would worship him.  He is an enigma even Kaelan, who knows him best, has difficulty unraveling.  Arius is drawn to Kaelan with an intensity that borders on obsession, haunted by his peculiar golden eyes and unparalleled talent, seduced by his devotion; the two boys jealously guard their friendship in the face of people who would see it destroyed.  Arius’s long time adversary, Mark Pevensey, captain of the school’s water polo team and a fellow violinist, becomes Kaelan’s enemy when he insinuates another, more secular nature to his and Arius’s relationship; the rumors flourish in the academy’s fertile, gossip ridden soil.  Increasingly hostile mischief ensues between the two rivals after Kaelan succeeds in securing first chair, a highly coveted position within the school orchestra, which eventually ends in a brutal confrontation that sends Kaelan’s carefully imagined future spinning off in a new and terrifying direction.  His musical gift shattered and his friendship with Arius splintering at its core, Kaelan struggles to continue winning competitions he’s afraid he cannot, unable to admit to himself the extent of the damage inflicted on his career as everything he loves slips away.

In the after, Kaelan wonders if Kai’s magic can heal what six years apart has failed to reconcile.  There is only one thing he loves more than the violin.

Arius.