Read Online Shadowplay by Laura Lam - Free Book Online

run away from a blonde boy in the library with blue eyes and long fingers. As if inside, I was still Iphigenia Laurus and none of the events that had happened after she ran away had touched her.
    But at the same time, I knew that wasn’t true. If I woke up tomorrow in my old bedroom, with Lia singing her song to wake me up, if I dressed in skirts and found myself back in that life as a girl, I’d chafe even more than before.
    I thumbed through a pile of old newspapers on the table while I waited for the hiss of the kettle. It was all the usual doom and gloom – prices would rise on glass due to a temporary shortage of shipments from Kymri. The Foresters lobbied Parliament for more seats on the council again and were angry that they lost, threatening more protests. Infected meat had caused sickness in one of the southern coastal towns. The Royal Physician was set to return from a brief sabbatical in Byssia and there’d be a banquet in his honor.
    A scandal caught my eye. Lord Chokecherry had been caught having an affair with several young women from the docks. I closed the newspaper, my gaze lingering on the headline of the article about Drystan and me. Questions haunted my mind. Did Maske truly trust us? Could we trust Maske? What would become of us? No answers came.
    Without a thought, I threw the newspaper on the fire, watching the edges of the paper curl like the dying leaves of autumn.
     
    That night after dinner, my injuries ached, so I made my way to the loft, away from the quiet magician and his former apprentice.
    I thought that as soon as I reached my bed I would fall into a dead sleep, but my mind would not rest. The shadows in the room were long and dark, and so I lit a candle and dragged my pack onto the bed. I took out my small treasures, laying them side by side. The soapstone figurine of the Kedi, given to me by Mister Illari, the spice merchant who took me in briefly after I ran away. I ran a fingertip over its rough face, remembering the two visions of the Phantom Damselfly where she had called me by that name.
    A Kedi was worshipped as a minor deity in Byssia, a possible Chimaera born both fully male and female. Looking at the figurine again though, I wondered if a Kedi was actually a Chimaera. It looked human. It was not furred or scaled. Though its face was reminiscent of Alder features with its high cheekbones and long neck, like the Phantom Damselfly.
    I held up the disc that contained her to the candlelight, rainbows flickering across the surface of the strange metal. I turned the disc over. A small clasp or button was on the bottom center. I did not press it.
    I settled back onto the pillow, staring up at the rough ceiling beams. What did I hold in my hand? She was more than an apparition, more than an ancient recording. She spoke to me in the circus and met my gaze. I remembered the tilt of her head as she regarded me, the thoughtful pulsing of her wings. She told me that it had been so long since anyone had seen her or spoken to her. How long? Since the Alder Age?
    I sighed. I tormented myself with questions I did not know the answers to. Maybe the Phantom Damselfly had those answers, but I was too afraid to ask.
    I rummaged in my pack until I found my crumpled sheets of paper, an old stub of a graphite marker and a thin, ratty paintbrush. I took the lemon I’d claimed from the kitchen the other day out of the bedside table drawer. I squeezed the juice into a bowl, dipping the paintbrush into the juice in order to write a real, hidden letter to my brother:
     
    Dear Cyril,
    I hope you received the cipher I sent a few weeks ago, so that you know to iron the letter to show the ink. Might be the first time you’ve ever ironed anything, if so!
    I know you’ll have seen the newspapers. Please do not worry. What happened was beyond terrible, but the articles make it all sound much worse. But the policiers are looking for me. I don’t know how to make it right. I wish I did.
    I can’t tell you