Chapter Seven
“We still have another hour until dinner,” Professor Julian says as we pass through the double doors into the castle. “I can take you to the library if you wish? Or perhaps you’d like some time to rest?”
“Rest would be lovely, actually,” I admit.
“Yes. You’ve had quite the day already. Can you find your way to your room, or should I escort you?”
“I think I can find my way. But thank you.”
As I turn for the stairs, there’s another sound like the flutter of wings, and I look up to see a flash of movement in the rafters far above.
Pigeons, it seems. As huge as this place is, it isn’t a big surprise.
I climb the stone steps up and around to the third floor.
The halls are quiet, the trainees must all be in classes.
For which I am grateful, after my embarrassing incident in the bathing room.
When I enter my room, I lock the door behind me and sit down on my bed with a rush of relief.
I hadn’t realized how exhausted I was, and how much I desired solitude.
I’ve spent the years of my life that I can remember avoiding people for the most part, so interacting with so many strangers in one day is draining.
At least with my blacksmithing jobs, the conversations were usually short and perfunctory, if I had to have them at all…
often different shop owners did the talking while I did the heavy labor.
Kicking off my boots, I lay backwards on the bed and close my eyes…
I don’t realize I’ve fallen asleep until I am awakened by the sensation of something touching me. Something not just touching me, but walking across my chest. I open my eyes slowly and come face to face with something fuzzy and gray with bright green eyes.
With a shriek, I roll sideways.
The thing launches into the air with black wings, flying up into the rafters over my head. I jump up off the bed and back up against the wall farthest from it, staring up at the thing, heart hammering in my chest. Green eyes stare down at me from above.
I take in the details of the thing. It’s about the size of a kitten, and its fuzzy face and body look like one, too. But it also has small leathery ears like a bat, a row of spikes down the back of its neck, and two black wings. My heart rate begins to slow as I see how tiny it is.
“Did you follow me from the garden?” I ask aloud. Not as if the thing can understand me. Clearly not a pigeon.
To my surprise, at the sound of my voice the affronted expression on the creature turns to one of curiosity, and it lets out a chirping sound and opens its wings, drifting slowly in a spiral back down to my bed. It looks up at me and lets out another friendly chirp.
Fae magic in those gardens for sure…
Slowly, I peel myself off the wall and approach the bed slowly.
The thing lifts its little fuzzy tail, a gesture that seems feline in its familiarity, and walks over to sniff at my fingers when I offer an outstretched hand.
After a moment’s investigation, it butts itself against me, demanding to be petted.
I laugh and tentatively run a finger along the spikes of its back, which are strangely soft and flexible.
“You must have known I needed a friend,” I say softly, realizing in that moment how very alone I feel in this place.
The little cat-bat-dragon begins to purr loudly, and a small puff of smoke curls from its lips. I freeze for a moment, stopping mid-pet, which earns me a very pointed bright-green gaze until I resume stroking her back.
“Well, if we’re going to be friends, you need a name…” I stare down at her in contemplation. “Smokey?” This earns a petulant gaze. Does she actually understand what I’m saying? “Ashes?” An outright glare this time. “Um, let’s see…how about…Trix? You are magical, no doubt, like an Incantrix.”
The little thing flutters its wings and purrs even more loudly, which I take as a yes.
“Okay, then, Trix…”
A loud knock on the door startles us both, and Trix leaps back into the air and flies up into the rafters.
“Embyr? Are you ready for dinner?” calls Professor Julian.
I step forward and unlock the door, smoothing my hair behind my ears as I do. “Hello. Yes.”
Professor Julian smiles and gestures for me to follow. I cast one last look up at Trix from her perch above my room before I close the door behind me and follow him downstairs.
As we exit the staircase and step out into the main hall, I can hear the clamor of voices coming from the dining room. My chest tightens and my stomach drops a little. If Gielle is any indicator of the trainees who live here, I’m not looking forward to meeting another hundred of them.
When we enter the dining room, I force a neutral expression to keep from staring with wide eyes.
Everything in the room is massive, from the fireplace that could hold four cows standing upright, to the long table in front of it that appears to be reserved for Guardians and professors, to the tables running down each side of the room piled high with food.
The middle of the room is filled with more than a dozen round tables where the trainees sit.
Overhead, three huge chandeliers hang from the ceiling, amber crystals dripping from ornate bronze branches.
“Let’s fill our plates, shall we?” Professor Julian asks me, leading the way toward one of the long buffet tables.
It’s hard to choose from the different options. There are a half-dozen types of meats, twice that many vegetables and stews, and platters of fruit and cheese and bread. I pile my plate entirely too high, blushing when a berry rolls off one side as I turn around to head towards the tables.
“I’ll be sitting at the head table,” Professor Julian says, “But we’ll sit you at one nearby.” As we draw closer to one, he says, “Ahh, yes. Toryn! A hand?”
A tall blonde man rises from the table and approaches. As our eyes meet, I realize it’s the same one who came into the bathing room earlier today. The one who told the others I wasn’t a servant. The one who saw me completely naked.
“How can I help, Professor Julian?” he asks, not taking his eyes off me.
“Toryn, this is Embyr.”
“Yes, we met earlier today.” His lips twitch ever so slightly at the corners, and his eyes dance, not unkindly.
“Oh, excellent. If you can attend to her during dinner, I would be most grateful.”
“Of course, Professor,” Toryn says, nodding in deference.
When the professor walks off, Toryn smiles. “Embyr, is it? Please, come sit with me.”
I suck in a deep breath, hoping to cool the flaming of my cheeks, which with skin as pale as mine isn’t easy to hide.
“Thank you,” I say as casually as I can.
He gestures for me to take one of two empty seats at the table. I’m relieved to see that Gielle isn’t there, but his two companions from earlier are. They stare at me, slack-jawed, as I take a seat.
“Boys, pull yourselves together,” Toryn says. “It’s not as if you’ve never seen a human before.”
“I’ve seen one,” says the shorter trainee, “I’ve just never dined with one before.”
“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” Toryn responds dryly. He takes the seat next to me. “My apologies for these two. They are somewhat lacking in basic manners.”
I hear a noise of protest from his two friends, but Toryn turns to face me, his broad shoulders nearly blocking them from sight. “So, Embyr, tell me what brought you so mysteriously to Shadow’s Keep? The rumors have been absolutely flying today.”
He smiles disarmingly, and I remember he was the only one earlier who didn’t behave atrociously. Perhaps not everyone here is terrible.
So, I tell him the same story I told the Commander and Professor Julian.
I figure I might as well—if rumors are circulating, they’re bound to be inaccurate, so I can at least try to set the record straight.
I don’t mention my amnesia… that part is still a secret I’ve guarded for so long it feels a part of me.
When I’m finished, Toryn gives me the same appraising look he’d given me in the bathing room, as if he’s reading something within me. “So, Professor Julian thinks you’ve got some sort of special hidden magic that these hunters want? How intriguing.”
“He seems to think so.” I shrug.
“And you don’t?”
I try not to stare too directly into his eyes, which are far too pretty, golden like his hair. “I think I’m just a perfectly ordinary girl who works as a blacksmith’s apprentice.”
Those lips of his quirk up again at the corners. “I don’t think anything about you is what I would describe as ordinary.”
This time, I definitely can’t hide the color that washes over my cheeks.
“So, has Professor Julian begun testing you for a magical affinity yet?” Toryn asks, kindly ignoring my embarrassment.
I go through the events of the day, leaving out the detail about my new winged friend.
He tells me interesting tales of Shadow’s Keep and the Guardians, and is generally charming and pleasant and the first person other than Professor Julian to treat me like a normal person—even more so, because Toryn doesn’t look at me like I’m some puzzle box he’s dying to solve.
As we converse throughout dinner, I find myself occasionally glancing around the room at the surrounding tables.
I see Gielle a few tables over, and some of the other trainees I’d seen passing in the halls throughout the day, but I realize that one person seems to be absent.
The jade-eyed man who’d brought me here.
The one Professor Julian warned me away from.
“Are you looking for someone in particular?” Toryn asks me.
Apparently, I hadn’t been as inconspicuous as I’d thought. I fight another blush. “No… I guess maybe I’m as unused to being around fae as fae are unused to being around me.”
“We’re not so different,” Toryn says. “Other than our beauty, extensive magical talents, and near immortality.” He shrugs and chuckles.
“Oh, you know, minor things,” I say with a laugh.
After dinner, Toryn walks me back to my room. We pause in front of my door, and Toryn smiles in a heart-melting, knee-weakening kind of way. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a human quite like you. You are…unexpected.”
“I could say the same about you,” I say, offering my own small smile.
“Well, good night, Embyr. Sweet dreams.”
“Good night, Toryn.”
He turns and walks away, and I go inside my room and shut the door behind me.
Trix immediately flies down from the rafters, landing on the bed and looking up at me expectantly, waiting for attention.
I had managed to smuggle some grapes in my pocket, which I pull out and offer to the creature, though I’m not at all sure what she eats.
However, she seems satisfied enough and begins to nibble daintily on one of the purple orbs.
I kick off my boots and fall into bed. I’ve survived my first day at Shadow’s Keep, though it seems to have lasted an eternity.
I seem to have a couple allies, though for the most part I’m surrounded by enemies.
The Commander. Gielle. The professors and trainees.
Today has only proven that the mysteries of my past are growing more complex.
Do I really have some kind of hidden magic?
Can Professor Julian really uncover the reason for my amnesia and get my memories back?
I know one thing for certain… I may now be hidden away from the hunters, but I’m not sure I’m any safer than I was before.