Shadows Book 1 in the World of Shadows (23 page)

I passed several Nathos servants with their
pale skin and dark hair. A few stared after me and I started to
wonder if someone might have a problem with a Duskie in the halls
when a young man with searching dark eyes wearing the tunic of the
kitchen staff passed me, then paused and turned.

“
Lady Nexa?” he asked in an
uncertain tone.

I turned to face him, surprised. He gave a
charming grin and dropped into a formal bow. When he rose, he
gestured with a flourish toward the kitchen. “Can I interest you in
some midnight delicacies?”

A smile touched my lips at the excitement in
his tone. “I had dinner not too long ago,” I said, hoping not to
offend him.

He shook his head. “Those Luminos know
nothing about food.” At my stare, he gave another bow. “Allow me to
demonstrate.”

I hesitated, my stomach still full from the
feast, but his eyes twinkled and I was curious about the Nathos who
shared the Lumini palace. I followed him and he talked lightly of
life at the palace at night and the things I hadn't had the chance
to see by spending my time only with the Luminos.

“
And the crathias open at
midnight, their faces turn toward the moon, their petals basked in
the green and gold that gave Lumini its royal colors.” He winked.
“I'll bet you didn't know the Lumini colors originally came from
the Nathos.”

I laughed. “I had no idea.”
He opened a door and gestured for me to enter the kitchen before
him. I stepped into a low-ceilinged, wide room with four monstrous
cooking ovens along one wall and enough tables to fill half of the
great hall. Nathos cooks, assistants, and servants ran madly about
with armfuls of wood to stoke the fires, baskets of flour, sacks of
dried wheat still on the stalk, a wheelbarrow full of potatoes,
several dead fowl with their heads cut off, and some strange
creatures strung to a thick pole with twine around their six clawed
feet and stingers discarded in a pile near one of the ovens. Piles
and rows of every kind of fruit and vegetable imaginable and that I
hadn't known existed were being used to flavor, decorate, spice up,
and serve as main dishes on great plates where they were carefully
arranged with consideration to color and texture, some even crafted
into exotic animals and flowers.

One Nathos servant noticed us and stopped
walking. Another servant ran into him, dropping the carefully
balanced orange eggs he carried on a plate. A cook turned to yell
at them, then her eyes fell on me and they widened. Word spread so
quickly that before the servants had time to kneel and pick up the
eggs, everyone was staring at me.

The first cook, a rotund Nathos with flour
coating her dark hair and a spark that was not to be messed with in
her dark eyes, cleared her throat. “Sampton, may I speak to you for
a moment?” she asked in a carefully level tone.

“
Of course,” the young man
who had brought me to the kitchen said. He gave me a cheery smile.
“Excuse me.” He bowed deeply and hurried to her side.

Their exchange was quiet, but punctuated
with several gestures in my direction and the uplifting of voices
on more than one occasion. I got the impression that the head cook
didn't like Duskies and certainly didn't approve of one in her
kitchen even if I was the guest of the Prince himself.

He was saved a reply when the door opened
behind me and the kitchen workers fell even quieter than before. I
turned to find a man with coal black eyes and black hair touched
with gray at the temples standing in the doorway. He had a scar
that ran from the corner of his left eye down to his jaw; it pulled
his eye downward and made him look extremely upset at the world in
general. He wore the Nathos green and gold, but the three solid
stripes at his shoulders marked him a commander.

“
Commander Thursten,” the
head cook said, gaining her composure before the others. “How
pleasant of you to join us.”

The Commander glanced at me, his eyes taking
in my attire, my hair that I could never quite get to look normal,
and my bare feet before he turned back to the cook. “Yes, thank
you. There's a bit of a nip in the air and my boys have just
returned from rounds. Vinish would do them well while they wait for
dinner.”

“
Yes, Commander,” the head
cook replied. The other servants set to preparing the drinks before
the command left her mouth.

Commander Thursten turned his attention back
to me. “Decided to see what the rest of the world does when the
Luminos sleep?”

He said it as more of a statement than a
question, and I didn't know how to reply. There was a hint of
disapproval in his gaze, but I didn't fidget when he looked at me.
Instead, I studied him as carefully as he did me, knowing full well
that with the Luminos asleep, I was at his mercy. My plan was to
make sure he knew I wouldn't be taken lightly.

“
I owe you my gratitude for
rallying the Duskies so I could speak to them,” I said
levelly.

He tipped his head in assent. “It was a good
plan, but I wasn't sure if anyone could pull it off. Needless to
say, I went to sleep a bit uncertain of what the next nightfall
would bring.”

“
Me, too,” I admitted
honestly.

His eyebrows rose slightly. He glanced once
around the kitchen, then motioned toward the door. “Let's take a
turn about the palace and get to know one another, shall we?”

I fought back a wry smile. “Is this getting
to know your enemy, or hoping to turn an acquaintance into a
valuable asset?”

He held open the door and glanced at me.
“The second one, mostly.”

I nodded and stepped through. The Commander
shut the door and talking exploded in the kitchen beyond it. He
gave the door a thoughtful look, then turned and led the way down
the hall. “You haven't been around here much at night, have
you?”

I shook my head. “Too tired for the most
part.”

“
And for the other part?”
he pressed.

I shrugged and tried to sound casual. “I
don't know any Nathos and didn't want to press my presence on
anyone unwilling to receive it.”

He nodded and motioned for a servant to open
a side door. Night flooded into the palace, making dark shadows of
the unlit torches along the wall. We stepped out into the brisk
night air and I regretted not grabbing the cloak in my bedroom.
Bushes rose on either side of the path effectively limiting the
view and leaving a channel next to the palace wall. Moonlight
pooled at our feet, lighting the cobblestone path. Several
varieties of plants crept along the stonework. One vine glowed with
the luminescence of the moon the way the mortar of the palace had
with the light of the sun. I traced it with my eyes from its origin
near the doorway all the way to the far corner where the path
turned out of sight.

“
I heard some tales about
you from several of the Duskies that fought in the last
battle.”

I glanced at him. “Do you confer with
Duskies often?”

He shrugged lightly, his eyes on the end of
the path where it disappeared around the corner. “When I must.”

I bit back a smile. “Me, too.”

He laughed, then looked surprised at his
laughter. He glanced at me again. “How do you like it here?”

“
Lumini is amazing. Far
beyond anything I could have imagined,” I said honestly.

He shook his head and indicated the palace.
“I mean here.”

I looked back at the moon-washed walls. The
Nathos Commander wasn't looking for an easy answer. He wanted an
honest one. I debated whether I could trust him, then realized I
wouldn't be out alone at night with him if I didn't. I took a deep
breath and let it out slowly, my eyes on soft, tiny yellow flowers
that swayed gently in the midnight breeze. Their vines wrapped
around the trunks of the carefully pruned trees that lined the
path. During the day, I hadn't noticed the tiny buds closed to the
bright light, but at night under the softer light of the moon and
stars, the delicate flowers danced slowly as if in time to a song
they shared.

“
Politics are strange,” I
said. “I guess I've never understood why the races don't trust each
other when we need each other to survive.”

A slight smile touched the corners of his
lips. “Are you familiar with the Reathe powder? Being from the
Caves, I assume you know why they were originally created.”

I nodded. “Nathos and Luminos used to take
Reathe because it gave them the ability to stay up during the time
of day or night when they are normally weak. But the supply ran out
long ago.”

He plucked a leaf from a bush and turned it
over in his hand. It was dark green with a serrated, burnt orange
edge that reminded me of the poisonous lizards that inhabited the
lower, cooler caves. “Yes, but for a while there were hoards of
Reathe, carefully guarded and valued at ridiculous amounts. The
Nathos began to fear that the Luminos had more hidden away, and
would use the powder to overwhelm them and kill them, and vice
versa. So the races separated. The Nathos moved to the forests, and
the Luminos to the plains and desert. It wasn't until the Sathen
began to appear that we were forced to move back together.”

I had heard most of what he said in bits and
pieces when I was younger. I thought the Sathen had come back
centuries ago; yet there was a hint of longing in his voice that
said he knew of the forest he described, and missed it. Confused, I
asked, “How long ago did the Sathen appear?”

He held the leaf loosely in his hand,
forgotten; his eyes took on a distant look. “Seventy years ago,
give or take. At the beginning they were manageable, but as time
passed they grew stronger until our fortifications couldn't keep
them out. I remember waking up from a sun sleep to find my family
in pieces around me. The Sathen left Destere when the sun set and
they knew we would be strong again, but there was such a trail of
destruction and death in their wake that the few of us who remained
had no choice but to join the others in fleeing our forest cities
where the force of the Sathen had become the strongest.” He fell
silent and I could see the remembered horror in his eyes at
memories long suppressed.

I didn't know what to say, and so waited
with my chest tight and a knot in my throat.

After a few heartbeats, Commander Thursten
took a rattling breath, then glanced at me. “There is a prophecy
that a Duskie with royal blood will lead the races to defeat the
Sathen, and that he'll be stronger than both the Nathos and the
Luminos at their full strength.”

My mouth fell open. “Where did the prophecy
come from?”

He shook his head. “There are many such
prophecies, but they are older than any of our people. They get
passed down at gatherings and from grandparents to grandchildren,
but no one knows where they started.”

I toyed with a thread that had come loose
from my shirtsleeve. “Than why give them any consideration?”

His eyebrows lifted slightly when he looked
back at me, his coal black eyes serious. “They predicted the
Sathen.”

A cold chill ran through my body. I pushed
it away with my next question. “Where did the Sathen come
from?”

His eyes darkened slightly. “From the south
past the Nathian forest and the Tarnosh Mountains. Their origin is
a bit,” he paused, searching for a word, “Cloudy. There are several
different stories, but I don't think any of them are the truth. I
believe the key to their defeat is in their origin.” He let out a
small, grim sigh. “But one battle at a time. I've only just sent my
brethren along their path. It's too soon to talk about more
bloodshed.”

I agreed completely. I felt bold after
Commander Thursten's honesty, so I asked another question that rose
to my mind. “If there were no more Sathen, would you go back to the
forest?”

“
Definitely,” he answered
without hesitation. At my searching look, his eyes creased slightly
at the corners. “But I wouldn't mind if a few Luminos visited once
in a while, with Duskies, of course.” He let out his breath in a
small rush. “It was easier when there was Reathe. Our energy runs
out before morning, and the Luminos are asleep before nightfall.
For the few moments we have to speak, one race is exhausted and the
other is just waking up. It doesn't make for very riveting
conversation, and trust is based on knowledge. If we don't know
each other, it's hard to completely let go of our suspicions of the
other race.”

I frowned; I had never given much thought to
the situation. ”If Reathe is so important, can't it be found
somewhere else?”

His eyes tightened thoughtfully. “You're
full of questions.”

I shrugged, embarrassed. “I guess I haven't
found anyone so willing to answer them.”

“
Fair enough. Follow me.”
He tossed the orange-edged leaf to the ground and continued down
the path. I fell into step beside him. He followed the path along
the edge of the wall until it turned a corner to the side of the
palace facing the ocean.

My breath caught in my throat at the sight
below us. Tears I thought I had cried out in Axon's arms stung my
eyes.

Commander Thursten crossed his arms in front
of his chest, he shoulders bowed and head turned away from the
probing light of the moon. Below us, the piers on which the Luminos
and Duskies had been burned were now lined with the bodies of the
fallen Nathos. Their still forms had also been wrapped in white,
but the flowers spread across their bodies were the green and
purple crathias Sampton had told me about.

“
Shouldn't you be down
there?” I asked gently.

Commander Thursten kept his eyes on the
people below, his expression unreadable. “My second, Captain Sared,
has orders to carry out the burning of the bodies. I choose not to
be there.” His voice tightened with pain. “My son is one of the
bodies.” He turned his face away, but not before I saw tears catch
moonlight in gems of sorrow before falling to the ground at his
feet.