Starfall (The Fables of Chaos Book 1) by Jackson Simiana

Author:Jackson Simiana [Simiana, Jackson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

Act III

Fire in the Sky

Chapter 25 - Consequences

Ten years earlier…

Katryna Bower peeked through the opening between the towering, red, oak doors before her, into the Castle Bower war room. Right behind her was her handmaiden Trish who tried to peer through as well.

At fourteen years of age, the two girls were both quite pretty and adorned long frilly dresses of different colours. Trish’s golden hair was braided in a ponytail while Katryna worse hers out.

“It looks empty,” Katryna whispered. “Come on.”

“M’lady, wait,” Trish murmured with a worried tone, grabbing Katryna’s shoulder. “Are you sure? I don’t think your father-”

“He won’t mind! It’s fine.” The rush to explore a place she wasn’t supposed to go was strong.

“Your mother will mind. You are supposed to be in your room studying.”

Katryna scrunched her face up. She knew the war room was off limits to children, and it was especially taboo to include women in such affairs of state. But she had always wanted to see what was behind those huge red doors.

She looked back in through the crack. She could not make anything out with clarity; only a few candles were lit within.

“Mother never lets me do anything exciting anymore,” Katryna complained. “I’m forbidden from attending festivals and weddings. I’m rarely ever allowed to leave the castle anymore, Trish. She hides me away like some fiend.”

Trish looked at Katryna sympathetically with comforting, forest-green eyes. “I know it’s frustrating, but you must follow the rules your parents set out for you.”

Katryna could see the fear in Trish’s face. She was a girl who was raised a follower, and she was afraid of the repercussions.

Katryna thought back to her race with Willem two years earlier. The thrill of the wind blowing through her hair as she weaved in and out of buildings and crowds, the coolness of the water of Pott’s Creek, and the joy she felt in spending time with her twin brother.

Katryna remembered what she had told Willem that day. “I want to do what I want to do, not what I’m forced to do. And right now, I want to go inside. I have lived in this castle my entire life and have never seen what’s within.”

Trish anxiously looked down the corridor they were in, making sure there were no onlookers to stop them, before nodding. “Alright, but quickly.”

With a grin on her freckled face, Katryna opened the doors to the war room and crept in. Trish was right on her tail like a nervous hound.

The war room was rarely used and, as such, had a musty, old scent to it. It was immense in size, spanning two storeys in height with an enormous, rounded chandelier hanging from the domed ceiling. The walls were trimmed with stunning timber mouldings of various symbols and designs.

Trish walked to the other end of the room and found a lever by the far wall. Katryna instructed her to pull it.

The shutters against the wall pulled back into the pillars standing the corners of the room, revealing floor-to-ceiling stained-glass windows.

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