Read Online Shadowborn (Light & Shadow, Book 1) by Moira Katson - Free Book Online Page A

stupidity, I went
on the offensive. “And he won’t even tell you why. You’re just
following his orders, too scared to wonder what it is you’re
doing.”
    “ I know what I’m doing!”
she shot back, her hands in fists. I crossed my arms and shot her a
knowing grin, and she leaned forward as if she would scratch my
eyes out. “I’m to go to Court.”
    “ Everyone knows that,” I
pointed out, feigning boredom. I was surprised to see her draw
herself up, her spine ramrod straight. I was even more surprised at
the words that came out of her mouth.
    “ I’m for the King,” she
announced.
    I blinked at her. “You’re fourteen years
old,” I said blankly.
    She rolled her eyes.
“Not now ,” she
said. “Later. When I’m old enough, I’m going to make him fall in
love with me.” She was glowing with her own importance, but as she
tossed her head proudly, she realized what I had done. She
stiffened, drew in a breath, and then could find nothing to say.
Her glare was venomous.
    “ Never speak to me again,”
she hissed. Vengeful, she formed her mouth into a smile. “My mother
will have you beaten for this.”
    “ You’d never tell your
mother you told me,” I bluffed, genuinely scared. I had been the
victim of my own pride once more. Would I never learn? “Telling the
servants you’re for the King.”
    She drew back from me. She could have told
her mother any lie, but it had not occurred to her yet; I could
only hope that it would not occur at all. She whirled and ran back
down the hallway, never sparing me a glance, and I watched her go.
I had learned more, but felt, somehow, as if I knew less than I had
before. I knew very little of the world, but I was certain that if
Miriel was betrothed to the King, someone would have mentioned
that. It seemed important. My head buzzing with thoughts, I went
off to find Roine and finish packing.
     
     

Chapter 7

    Leave-taking was a curious thing, a
strangely hollow thing. We left near dawn, so as to be at one of
the garrisons by nightfall. I helped Roine haul the last of our
furniture down to the servants’ quarters, and then ran out into the
courtyard to see the cavalcade of carriages. In the morning dark,
the courtyard was lit by guttering torches, casting long shadows
around the men who ran and yelled to each other, leading horses out
and checking weapons.
    I had to dodge amongst them, avoiding curses
and horses hooves, to get to our cart. I stowed my pack in the cart
where I was to ride, amongst Roine’s books and herbs, and then
stole away, heedless of Roine’s call to stay close. I dashed across
the flagstone floor of the great hall, cutting down the side
hallways that would bring me quickest to our tower, and I pounded
up the stairs to it, taking them two at a time.
    The tower room where I had lived with Roine
was now empty of everything I had known: the floor was swept bare,
even the hay and strewing herbs gone. The tables and shelves were
gone and stowed in the carts with Roine’s books and herbs. My
little cot had been moved down to the scullery for one of the
maids, and even the rag carpet that Roine had placed on the floor
between my bed and hers, so that we should not have to place our
bare feet on the cold floor, had been packed away.
    I cast a final glance around the room, but
it no longer resembled the room in which I had been raised. It was
as if every memory of cozy winter nights, bedtime stories, and
Roine’s healing had been swept away with the dust and cobwebs. The
room might have been inhabited by my ghost, I thought; I could
almost see myself, sitting at one of the tables, lying on my cot. I
could see Roine, faintly, leaning over a mortar and pestle. But it
was as if they were people far away from me, centuries removed;
there was nothing to say that Catwin had been here only a week
gone.
    I shook my head to clear it, then went back
down the winding steps without a backward glance. I did not look
around me at the corridors I walked