Page 20 of Wolf Caged (Bound to the Shadow King #1)

SAPHIRA

B irdsong pulled me from turbulent dreams about those strange trees with their glowing violet veins and beautiful shimmering blooms, surrounded by boulders draped with thick dark moss and the clearest stream I had ever seen.

Despite how familiar the sound was, it was still foreign to me, the song not one I knew.

I lay with my eyes closed beneath the thick but feather light black covers of the bed, drifting in that song, strange warmth slowly filling me as the melody rose and fell, growing closer and fainter at times.

What did those birds that sung so beautifully look like?

Curiosity pulled me from the comfort of the bed and I grabbed the black robe from the chair near the dressing table, where I had left it when sleep had finally rolled up on me.

Last night came flooding back as I tied the belt, cinching it tight around my waist, and stared at the dark fireplace near the door.

I couldn’t figure this fae king out. I was normally good at understanding others, the training I had undergone as a healer teaching me to observe people closely so I could tell if something was wrong with them without them telling me.

It was surprising how many wolves didn’t like to confess they had an ailment or had hurt themselves.

But this male. I couldn’t keep up with his changes in mood.

Was he the dark, scary unseelie king?

Or the gentler male who had laughed at things I had said, the warmth of it reaching his eyes at times?

Which king would await me today when I joined him at the lake?

Wanting to see if I could spy that lake, and if I had a view, I drifted to the arched window in the tower area of my room, kneeled on the pillows covering the seat that followed the curve of it, and unlatched the heavy wooden shutters, drawing them open.

Muted sunlight greeted me.

Together with the most breathtaking vista I had ever seen.

Shivers danced down my spine and arms as I unlocked and pushed the leaded windows open, an urge to immerse myself in that view and be closer to it controlling me. A cool salty breeze swept around me, laced with the scent of flowers, and the birdsong grew louder as I took in the scene before me.

It was incredible.

Below me stretched a formal paved garden with arbours and statues and a large fountain together with a long white wooden pergola dripping with spears of lilac flowers and a beautiful gazebo.

Raised flowerbeds bordered the paths that intersected at the fountain and the ones that led towards the gazebo and pergola, filled with blooms in so many colours that shock rippled through me.

Some foolish part of me had expected the flowers in this kingdom of a dark fae to be sombre hues and shades of night or blood.

Between those blooms, fist-sized bees bobbed and buzzed, and I had to blink to be sure I wasn’t imagining them. Pretty jewel-toned birds flitted past them, darting through the stems of some of the taller flowers and the branches of a tree, their song now familiar to me.

But what really stole my breath were the black mountains that rose like jagged teeth beyond the crystalline lake that nestled among them and lined the edge of the half of the garden to my left.

Mist from the waterfall that fell over the rim of the plateau glittered in the air directly in front of me, shimmering with not a rainbow but an aurora of purple, blue, green and red.

My gaze tracked the water as it plunged downwards, some of it hidden behind the garden where it continued around to my right, hugging the top of the cliff, and then trailed along the vicious line of the black mountains that jutted beyond the waterfall, forming a bay below where they crashed into an azure sea.

The sea.

I couldn’t take my eyes off it as it glittered and sparkled beyond the mountains, stretching far to the horizon, calling to me—eyes that had longed to see it since I had been a pup.

By the gods.

It was beautiful.

A shiver danced over my limbs again.

I had wanted adventure, and here it was, in a whole new world!

One that now I saw it I finally believed was real.

This wasn’t my world.

It was too beautiful, too dreadful, and the air glittered with faint motes of gold, as if laced with magic.

And the sky…

It was twilight kissed with aurora, threaded with stars, as if night never really left this land.

Another bird called, this song different and harsher, and I looked for it. Great black gulls hovered and played on the breeze rolling up the cliff from the ocean, their wingspans as long as my arms.

The door behind me opened.

My heart shot into my throat and I whirled towards it, placing my back to the stunning scenery.

My handmaidens , as Kaeleron had called them. I had servants apparently.

I had spent my entire life waiting on others, taking care of others, and now I had two strangers devoted to my care.

It was difficult to process that. I squirmed a little as they entered the expansive room that was all mine and was far larger than my family’s entire cabin, both carrying a silver tray.

One had a delicate fine china cup and teapot on it, and the other had more very-human food.

A full toast rack, a pot of butter, and what looked a lot like one of preserves, but it was the bacon and eggs that snared me in their spell, making my mouth water.

I didn’t fail to notice there was more bacon than eggs, the rashers piled in a mound that beckoned me.

The bastard fae king already knew my greatest weakness and was employing the knowledge with deadly aim. If he kept this up, delivering me delicious meat to devour, I might be tempted to change my opinion of him and downgrade him from monster to something closer to a male.

The handmaiden with the tea set her tray down on a wooden table near another set of doors in the wall to the left of me, beyond my bed.

She turned and opened the heavy wooden doors and I caught a glimpse of sea.

They weren’t doors to another room after all, but rather another set of shutters hiding arched glazed doors that led to the outside world.

She opened those doors and returned for the tray.

“King Kaeleron believed you might prefer to take your breakfast on the balcony this morning.” The one with my food glanced at me before she disappeared through the doors.

I had a balcony.

I tried to act demure and not rush to see it or what lay beyond it. It looked out on the other side of my room and I wanted to see the view in that direction, because I was sure I could spy other buildings and possibly distant hills there.

“Where is the king this morning?” I presumed it was morning anyway. The light was muted and the sky star-kissed, and if this was morning, then I wanted to get a better look at it too now.

“King Kaeleron is holding court this morning, but he expects you to meet him at the lake early this afternoon. We will come to help you dress and escort you there when it is time.” The one with the tea returned with her empty tray held downwards before her hips, the flat of it resting against her legs.

They both bowed and headed for the door, while I nodded and drifted towards the balcony.

My balcony.

This whole experience was only getting stranger as it went on, but it was a wonderful distraction, pushing what Lucas had done to me to the back of my mind and burying the pain that still throbbed in my heart.

It was easy to forget I was a servant myself as I stepped from my luxurious quarters onto a balcony that overlooked a land just as Neve had described it—one far beyond my imagination.

I felt as if I had been transported back in time as I looked down on this new world, at the layers of the castle town tucked within several great black stone walls complete with parapets.

Elegant stone townhouses packed the space between the wall that surrounded the main castle and one that was thinner and less fortified.

They looked expensive, each beautifully crafted with their columned facades and tiled pitched roofs, and smoke billowing from their chimneys.

Every single one of them had their own small garden too, neatly divided by low walls laced with greenery, and an avenue dotted with trees separated them.

But they didn’t hold my attention or pull at me to get a closer look.

It was the buildings beyond that thinner wall that tugged me towards them.

The half-timber houses that spilled down the terraced hill looked as if they had fallen right out of a medieval history book, and the busy thoroughfare that snaked and branched between them captivated me as my eyes followed its trail.

I tugged the stone table on the balcony towards the balustrade that embraced it and sat on it as I sipped tea and nibbled my breakfast, watching the world in motion below me.

Carts trundled between the distant large arched gateway at the end of a dirt road flanked by two colossal statues of armoured knights riding some kind of beasts and a smaller gate set into the thinner wall, and some even navigated the fortified castle gatehouse to pull up outside it below me.

The great black or white stags that pulled them huffed and shook their double sets of antlers, the front of which were little more than sharp horns, their pointed ears flapping.

They looked as big as a horse but as elegant as the deer I had often watched and hunted back home.

Men dressed in leather breeches and loose shirts tended to them while shirtless muscled males hefted the goods from the back of the cart.

Barrels. Wooden boxes. They carried them on their shoulders as if they weighed nothing.