Free Shadows Book 1 in the World of Shadows by Cheree Alsop Page B

emotions of the night before along with the
memory of the kiss made my heart flutter. I could still taste his
lips, soft and fleeting.
    Axon cleared his throat and met my eyes
again, speaking rapidly. “I just came to say that I’ll be at a
council all day and you will probably be more comfortable here
instead of chained to a seat like me.”
    I stared at him and he laughed.
“Metaphorically speaking, of course.” He sighed and brushed the
hair out of his eyes in the first self-conscious gesture I had seen
him make. “Please relax here and recuperate from our journey. You
deserve the rest.”
    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