Free The World Above by Cameron Dokey

why you send the practical ones in last, the ones who don’t care about having an adventure.”
    I gave her fingers a squeeze, and then let go. “But first I need a nap and something to eat. I hate to sound like a wimp, but I’m exhausted.”
    “Of course you’re tired,” Shannon said. “You just climbed a magic beanstalk.”
    “I did, didn’t I?” I said. I gazed over the side of the stone bridge, out into the World Above.
    Was the green here more vivid, or was that just my imagination? Was the air filled with sweeter smells? I tilted my head back to watch a flock of birds as it wheeled across the sky. They were of no kind I recognized.
    “I really, really did. I’m still not quite sure how.”
    “You climbed the beanstalk the same way you do everything else,” Shannon said simply.
    “By doing it,” I replied.
    This time she laughed, the sound pure and high. Above our heads, I heard one of the birds call, as if in answer. I felt my heart lift, rising to join the sound.
    “Okay, now I
really
like you,” Shannon said. And I knew it was because I’d given the same answer she would have herself.
    “I’m really glad to hear it,” I answered.
    Side by side we entered the great stone castle. With enough practice, I thought I just might be able to make it feel like coming home.

 

E LEVEN
     
    “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you,” I said some time later. Shannon and I were seated at the wide trestle table in the castle’s sunny kitchen. Above our heads, herbs hung upside down to dry on a rack suspended from the ceiling. They gave the room a pungent yet homey smell.
    Like Jack, climbing a beanstalk had given me a healthy appetite. The remains of the meal Shannon and I had, including the best bread I’d ever tasted, lay on the table before us.
    “What do you want to know?” Shannon asked now.
    “Why did you help Jack in the first place?” I asked. “I mean, aside from the—” Suddenly afraid I might give offense, I broke off.
    “I think the word you’re afraid to say is ‘obvious,’” Shannon said with a chuckle.
    “I’m sorry. It’s really none of my business how you and Jack feel about each other. But he was pretty clear about his feelings for you. What does it feel like to fall in love so suddenly?”
    Shannon made a wry face. “Sort of like falling down a hole. The ground beneath you disappears without warning, and your stomach goes right up into your throat.”
    “I don’t think I’ll try it,” I teased. “It doesn’t sound all that pleasant.”
    “It’s not so bad,” Shannon said. We smiled at each other. “But we both digress. What was it you really wanted to know?”
    “Why you and Sean helped Jack,” I replied. “You pretty much had to take him on faith. He had no real way of proving he was who he said he was.”
    “As a matter of fact, he did,” Shannon countered. She got to her feet. “He just didn’t know it. Sean and I weren’t sure if we should show him this. He had such stars in his eyes about the World Above. But I think it’s safe to show you. Come on.”
    With Shannon in the lead, we left the kitchen and made our way through a wide passage that connected to the main part of the house.
What must this have been like when my parents lived here?
I wondered. Men and women dressed in their finest to attend a state banquet or a ball. Servants bustling back and forth, staggering under the weight of trays laden with food and drink. The rooms through which I walked were cold and silent now. But once they would have been filled with the sounds of laughter, the whispers of court intrigue. They had been filled with life.
    “My mother never talks about her life here,” I murmured. “Except for the bedtime stories she used to tell us.”
And I never asked her about it
, I thought.
    “Is that so surprising?” Shannon asked. We ascended a flight of stairs, our feet slapping softly against the stones. “Everyone talks about how happy the duke and