Instrument of Fate — Christie Golden

""Take the lute. Be safe, be careful, trust no one, and live, my child, live to write a glorious ballad about your adventure..."" With these words, a dying elf gives young bard Gillien Songespynner a magical lute and changes her life forever. For someone is after the lute—a relentless adversary who is never what he seems, and who will stop at nothing in order to prevent Gillien from delivering the lute safely to Queen-mother Ariel.

All too soon, the young musician is on the run, brutally bereft of family, even of her true identity. Her only companion on this desperate adventure is a former swordsman named Daric, charged by a mysterious patron with protecting Gillien and the lute. But Daric has a haunted past and secrets of his own that may well betray them both...that is, if they live long enough....