Page 65 of Ties of Shadow

Chapter twenty-six

My Father’s Workshop

We bolted down the servants’ passageways, but voices ahead echoed down the stone. Then I heard three long gongs of the bell to rally the guards. The Shade’s blackness deepened the natural shadows of the servants’ corridor, but I wasn’t sure how it would stand up to the guards’ luz lights or keen eyes. A cacophony of stomping footsteps forced us to duck into a supply closet, too small for the three of us and the wolf.

We held our breaths as they passed. The Shade called mentally for Jamison, but there was no response. The hall went silent again, and we rushed into the corridor, racing toward the back garden. But additional voices—louder voices—stopped us. Diving down the right hallway, I ran into the only place I knew we could hide for a moment. My father’s workshop.

We came through the doorway and sprinted down the corridor. The Shade was limping and his breath becoming more ragged.

“Don’t worry about me, Dayspring,” he muttered when he saw my worried expression.

I pushed open my father’s door, ushering the Shade, Uncle Koll, and the wolf into a room lined with jars, herbs, oils, and candles. Clicking the door shut behind us, I pressed my back against it and letout a slow breath. The Shade began picking up various canisters and tilting the substances within.

Uncle Koll sat heavily in the chair. “Can you reach the others?”

The Shade nodded. “The wolves stationed at the gate have hidden farther up the mountain. The bats are watching. The others are hiding for now.”

“Jamison?” I asked.

The Shade just shook his head. “I haven’t heard him since his first missive.”

I rubbed my hand on my chest. I didn’t want to worry about that tiny, annoying bat, but I was. When had he wormed his way into my affection? The Shade clacked his teeth twice—he was worried too.

“Okay, so”—I pushed up off the door and came to lean on the desk—“the other side of this hallway goes toward the kitchens. We could go there. I know Chef will be good to us, but—”

“The guards will be everywhere,” the Shade finished.

“We can’t stay here.” Uncle Koll pointed around the room.

The room door shut with a bang. The Shade shoved me behind him, his shadows curling around my shoulders as he faced off with the intruder.

“No. You cannot.” The speaker was wrinkled and bent, his eyes sunken, and the lower lids dark and scabbed. I hardly recognized him.

“Father,” I breathed.

He glanced at me, his expression both unreadable and showing a thousand emotions at once. “Aelia.”

The Shade stiffened, took three strides forward, and then punched my father across the jaw.

“Shade!” I squawked and rushed after them.

The shadows picked up my father and set him back on his feet. He rubbed his cheek, but there was no fire in him. No fight. His shoulders slumped.

“What were you thinking?” I asked as I tried to brush past him, but the Shade stuck out a hand.

“I’m thinking I’d like to do more than that.” The Shade’s sharp finger pointed at my father. “You let them take her. You didn’t protect her when it mattered, and you didn’t love her well before.” Instant tears sprung to my eyes, a lifetime of emotion on the brim. The Shade continued. “You should have done better. Been better.”

Each word struck my father like a blow, though the shadows and the Shade’s fists had stilled. My father…cowered. His small frame shrunk into itself, and I saw nothing left to fear. He was a broken, pitiable man. Disgust mixed with the residual ache in my chest.

My father shook his head. “You’re right.” Icy prickles covered my skin. “I should have…should have.”

“You didn’t,” the Shade said, the shadows boiling around him.

“I should have stopped the prince somehow.”

“You’re a coward.”

My father shriveled. “Yes. To my shame. I’ve thought it a thousand times, considered a million ways I could have done anything besides what I did.”

---