Shadows Book 1 in the World of Shadows (9 page)

I gave a slight frown. “You need to rest,
too.”

He smiled with a boyish charm. “No rest for
kings and queens and their pawns,” he recited from somewhere in his
past. He winked. “The trouble is, I think I’m a pawn.”

He bowed and turned away, his cape waving
slightly in the wind of his wake. I watched as the rest of the
Luminos joined him at the end of the great hall and left through
the massive wooden doors. The doors shut and left me in a silence
that felt so deep I wanted to scream just to break it. The Caves
had been filled with tapping, rock breaking, and the sounds of
hundreds of people living within a confined space. Even with my
fingers in my ears, I had never experienced true silence. The
effect was unnerving.

I pushed my hands to my temples, realized I
was still standing in my doorway, and was about to return to my
room when a tantalizing scent touched my nose. A glance at the
other end of the room showed two tables set with more food than the
Duskies ate at the Caves in a year. Several plates from the rest of
Axon’s Luminos sat partially eaten on a third table waiting for
disposal.

I decided that Axon’s suggestion to relax
and recuperate definitely pertained to eating as much as I could as
long as there was no one to stop me. I filled a plate up with
lightly scented cheeses, pastries dipped in a light brown sauce
that tasted of cinnamon and sweet cream, and honey-baked meat
strips that fell apart at my touch. I grabbed a couple of peeled
fruits I had never tasted, hesitated about putting them in my new,
clean pockets, and ended up taking a second plate to carry
them.

Feeling glutinous, I carried the plates to
one of the couches, then worried that I would spill on them. I took
the food to a corner and sat with my back against the wall. It
smelled so good my stomach growled loud enough that I feared the
Luminos would hear it; but unlike the pastry I had stolen at the
Caves, it tasted as good as it smelled. I had to remind myself to
eat slowly because there was no one to take the food away.

As I ate, I twisted the manacle on my wrist.
It felt small now, almost decorative without the heavy chain
attached to it. Dathien had mentioned having it removed here, but I
didn’t mind that they had more important things to worry about.
Somehow, the manacle reminded me of my roots, that I had a past, a
home even it if wasn’t luxurious or even homey, and lost amid the
finery of the castle, it was nice to remember I had a mother and
father somewhere, even if they never knew me. I sighed and pushed
the thoughts away.

Chapter 10

I finished the first two plates and carried
a third with only mild pangs of guilt back to the corner; I sat
down, but felt washed out and highly conspicuous in the bright,
sunlit room despite the fact that there was no one else in the
hall. I took my plate into my room, but light streamed through the
windows and I couldn’t relax. I felt a fierce, sudden need for a
dark tunnel where I could feel safe. I opened the door to my
closet, climbed past the multitude of dresses and fine shirts and
pants, and settled in a corner where two wood panels met.

I grinned at my own foolishness, but the
tension in my shoulders and heart eased at being in a dark, tight
space once more, even though this one smelled of animal fur,
strange fabrics, and aged wood that gave the closet a sweet,
cloying scent. I ate a roll slowly, enjoying the darkness; then a
wisp of stale air tickled past my ear. Curious, I turned on my
knees and studied the wall. Another brush of air, as faint as the
smallest breath, whispered against my face.

I set down my food and ran a hand over the
wooden panel against the back wall. A seam, fit as tightly as the
rock under which my leaf had been hidden at the Caves, ran up one
side of the panel. I pushed against it and it gave slightly. I
followed the seam to the top of the panel just level with my head
when I knelt, and put pressure on the top corner. It gave a small
click and the corner opened, but the bottom still stuck. I put my
fingers in the gap and pulled. A slight crack sounded and the
bottom swung free to reveal a small passageway. Cobwebs and dust
lined the darkness beyond; it looked as though the tunnel hadn’t
been cleaned or walked through in years.

I studied the passage and debated whether it
would be proper to explore a bit. I had been left to my own devices
and the food, as good as it was, could only keep me occupied for so
long. Besides, I had never found a passageway I had left
unexplored, even when I had chains attached.

I wrapped a couple of soft, buttery rolls,
some slices of juicy, honeyed meat, and a couple of hard fruits
from my plate in a napkin and crouched to enter the tunnel. I
hesitated and looked around for a way to secure the door behind me.
As slim as the chance would be, it wouldn’t do for someone to look
in my closet and find the passage open, whether or not they already
knew about it.

A small rope had been attached to the inside
of the door. I pulled it shut, then found a small piece of wood
that tipped to close the door from the inside, shutting the light
out and me in the very empty tunnel. I took a breath of musty air
and walked slowly along the narrow walkway. Wooden beams lined two
solid walls of red rock bricks as tall as I was. The passage
wouldn’t have accommodated anyone much wider than I without great
difficulty. I guessed it was made for Luminos by Luminos, because
Nathos were thicker and would have avoided such narrow passes, thus
their fondness for blasting and chipping away at the inside of the
Caves.

I stepped gingerly over a few small, decayed
mouse bodies of which barely more than bones remained. I could feel
the cold stone beneath the dust with my bare feet. The passageway
would have been difficult to create. I wondered how long ago they
had forgotten about it, or if it was just my small section that was
unused.

A few paces down I reached the next room
which was Marken’s. Cool air from a tiny board nailed between beams
brushed past my face. I leaned close to it and smelled desert sand
with a hint of sage. The scent brought a smile to my lips. I
twisted the wood and it pivoted on a center nail to reveal a tiny
eyehole positioned to give practically a full view of the room.
Bothered, I straightened back up and closed the hole. The fact that
anyone who knew of the passage could spy on the inhabitants of the
rooms made me uncomfortable. I backed away and continued down the
tunnel.

The passageway followed the walls, twisting
and turning between every room with spy holes covered by small
boards nailed to the wall. I ate the rolls and fruit while I walked
slowly onward. It was strangely comforting to be in such a tight
space again, like I was safe in my element. I could see ash marks
on the ceiling beneath the spider webs where Luminos had used
torches to make their way along safely. I was grateful for the
eyesight of a Duskie which allowed me to see in the dark. Torches
and hiding the light must have been a great inconvenience for the
Luminos when it came to spying in the holes. One would have to
snuff out the torch in order to look through the holes to avoid
being seen, then light the torches again when finished spying to
get back to the beginning of the passage.

I rounded the next corner and made my way
down the tunnel; booming voices met me before I reached the spy
hole. I turned the wood and saw a massive room, far bigger than our
great hall, which had been set with tables and food the likes of
which made my feast for breakfast look like a paltry morsel for an
ant. All of the chairs were occupied by Luminos men and women
wearing clothes finer than anything I had ever seen. Jewels, furs,
and intricately worked lace and leather covered every inch of their
bodies. Some even wore masks of feathers and fur inlaid with
sparkling stones. Each person seemed to be trying to talk louder
than their neighbors, creating a booming uproar that made me
stumble back and almost trip over the wooden beam behind me.

I peered through the hole and searched for
Axon’s party. Axon was the easiest to find. He sat on a raised dais
along the front wall on the right hand side of a laughing,
overweight man in green with a jewel encrusted crown tipped to one
side of his head. The King sat next to a woman with flowing white
curls woven with beads and dyed feathers underneath a hat bejeweled
with green and red gems. I would have laughed at her crown if she
didn’t stare down every person who looked her way.

The girl sitting next to her looked to be a
few years older than me with her mother’s fine white curls and
piercing green eyes. She kept leaning forward on the table to look
around her mother at Axon, and would have tipped over her glass of
wine on more than one occasion if not for the timeliness of the
servant who stood behind her and snatched it out of the way,
replacing it the moment the area was clear.

Axon was all smiles, though it surprised me
to see that the smiles were more for show than they were real.
After our journey together, it was hard to forget the way a real
smile lit up his light blue eyes and brought out a dimple in his
right cheek. He glanced down to the tables below them and I
followed his gaze to Dathien, Marken, Jatha, Staden, Dyloth, and
Rasa. They joked and talked to the nobility around them, but still
managed to keep an aloofness that said even if they didn’t wear
their weapons, they were not to be trifled with.

I turned my gaze back to the Princess who
contrived to drop her napkin behind her father, two seats down, so
that Axon would rise and retrieve it for her even though she had
servants waiting to do just that. Axon returned the napkin with a
look that was all charm, but eyes that studied her intensely.

The Princess simpered and batted her
eyelashes which had been darkened to accentuate her green eyes. She
wore a deep golden dress with white lace at the sleeves and neck,
though not high enough to hide the line of her bosoms. I studied
her dress, aware of how it accentuated her figure in a way that my
shirt and pants never could. The rouge on her cheeks was a touch
too red for my liking, and I frowned at the way she took her napkin
back so that their fingers touched, then laughed lightly as though
it had been an accident. Axon bowed and returned to his seat. I
twisted the wood back to its original position and leaned against
the wall.

Why did I care who he chose to marry? It
should be his decision and if he wanted to marry a twisted,
conniving girl who would end up exactly like her mother, staring
down any who dared even look up at their dais, then good for him. I
pushed off the wall and made my way back down the passage to our
rooms. I was less careful and stubbed my toe three times before I
stopped at the hidden door in my closet. I ran my hands through my
short hair to brush off any spider webs and dust, and couldn’t help
comparing my mismatched strands to the Princess’ long, beautiful
white curls. I shook the image from my mind and twisted the catch
to open the door.

I crawled into the closet and rose, then
made my way to the empty great hall. I noted with a sigh that
someone had cleared away the tables and food. I still had some
cheese and meat left in my napkin, so I carried it back to my room
and went to the bowl to clean off with the scented water.

It took me two splashes to stop and laugh at
myself. I had never before cared about cleanliness. Wash water
wasn’t readily available for Duskies, though the Luminos and Nathos
often complained of how we smelled. I had become used to making due
with what cleanliness I could contrive from the remains of my
ration of drinking water in the morning, and occasionally sneaking
into the pools at the bottom of the Caves when no one was looking.
I had been whipped for swimming in the pools before, even though
that’s what they were for; but no one wanted to share dirt with a
Duskie.

I used my sleeve to dry my face, then
studied the bed. The blankets looked soft, comfortable, and
beckoning. I glanced sheepishly around the room to make sure no one
was watching, then flung myself with wild abandon onto the bed. The
blankets sank in like a cave bear’s thick fur, and the mattress
held me as though I was a mouse in a tiny burrow.

I hesitated a moment, uneasy though I
couldn't figure out why. I glanced around the room, then rose and
searched for the small peep holes craftily hidden among the
swirling flower scroll work. It took me a second, but I finally
located them and took a picture down from another wall and hung it
over the holes. Satisfied, I curled into a ball on the mattress and
made myself promise to get up in a few heartbeats; then I was
wandering Firen Caves in my dreams.

Chapter 11

“
Be glad you missed such a
boring breakfast.” Axon’s voice jolted me from sleep and I sat up
quickly.

Axon stared at me from the door and a touch
of color brushed his cheeks. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to wake
you.”

“
No, no,” I protested,
moving to sit on the side of the bed in order to get my wits about
me. “Come in, please.”

He smiled and let the door shut behind him
before he made his way to the bed and leaned against the frame.
Though he looked rested, weariness touched his eyes and made him
look older than the days on the desert. He hesitated, then sat on
the edge of the bed as far from me as he could get. “I’m sorry for
the informality. I’m just afraid if I don’t sit down, I’ll fall
down at this point.”

I couldn’t help but smile at his honesty.
“Sounds like you had a marvelous time.”

Axon shot me a withering look softened by
the smile that played about his lips. “It was marvelous. What a
perfect word to describe it.” He studied his hands for a minute,
then fell backward on the bed with sigh that was loud and
self-deprecating. “I don’t know what to do, Nexa.” He turned his
head to look at me and the icy blue of his eyes caught in the light
of the sun that streamed through the windows.