03 Downshadow by Forgotten Realms

Author:Forgotten Realms [Realms, Forgotten]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-04-10T16:06:55.274000+00:00

"There, lass, there." Cellica stroked the girl's hair. "Kalen's just an idiot." Myrin wrenched away. "No, he's not!" she said. "You know he isn't. Shut up!" The halfling blinked, stunned by her outburst, and leaned away. She tried to speak, but a compulsion in Myrin's words had stolen her speech. My voice, Cellica thought. She took my voice? The girl's anger turned to a sob. "He doesn't love me," Myrin said. "I thought maybe he followed me from the ball because he loved me, but... but..." She sniffed and wiped her cheeks. "He followed because it was his duty, because he was guarding me. That's all." "But that's not true," Cellica said. "I've never seen him look" "Go away," Myrin said. "Take your false hopes and just go away!" Cellica found herself rising to her feet without thinking. Her conscious mind wanted to stay and talk, but her body obeyed without her consent. It was the voice. Cellica's own command, but from Myrin's lips. How was this possible? "Go away and go to sleep," Myrin said. "Here." She handed Cellica the blanket. The halfling closed her door softly, leaving Myrin alone in her chamber. She wandered, increasingly sleepy, into the kitchen and main room. She felt so tired, as though she had run fifty leagues that day. Just a little She slumped down on the floor and was snoring before her chin hit her chest. "Mother!" Fayne gasped, waking with a start, that one word on her lips. Merely a nightmare, she assured herself with some disgust. She'd been sleeping again. Fayne leaned back, her naked body glistening with sweat, while the world drifted back. A sparse tallhouse chamber. A plain bed. A man sleeping beside her, head nestled in her lap. Her tail curled around him like a purring cat, restlessly flicking back and forth. Who was this man, and why did she smile when she thought of him? She remembered the dream. An elf woman screamed and tore at herself to fight off a horror that existed only in her mind. A gold-skinned bladesinger without a heart moaned on the rough, slick floor. Fayne's own mother, dark and beautiful and dead, lay impaled at her feet. The cold, bone wand in Fayne's tiny hand sent pain through her arm and into her soul. And the girlFayne had seen the girl wreathed in blue flames. The girl flickered into being just as Fayne's mother's magic burned her from the inside out. She looked down at the muscled, scarred man who embraced her naked thighs and slept. Kalen, she remembered. Then ir all returned, chasing the nightmares away once more. She whisrled in relief. Gods, she hated sleeping. So barbaric. It limited more pleasant activities, anyway. Fayne slipped out of Kalen's embrace and left him on the bed alone. She smiled at him for a moment before shaking her head. "Belt up, lass," she chided. "You're going all giggly." She emptied the chamber pot out the wall chuteagain, a barbaric necessityand sat on the cold floor for a moment, collecting herself.

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