Page 24 of Spears and Shadows (Defenders of the Light)
The silence that followed was so thick that it felt as if nobody was breathing. Nora’s mouth hung open, and Drew peeked up apologetically through his lashes.
Nora pushed to her feet, making the stool beneath her topple over, causing a harsh clatter in the silence that had fallen in the courtyard. Then she turned and stomped back into the Sanctuary. Another stool scraped as if somebody stood, but Drew’s voice cut in.
“Let her go. Just give her a minute.”
She didn’t look back to see who had tried to follow her.
* * *
It wasn’tlong before Nora was hopelessly lost in the labyrinthian hallways of the Sanctuary. In her retreat from the courtyard, her only focus had been on putting distance between herself and the people there, and she hadn’t thought to look for landmarks or paid attention to where she was going. Now she continued to wander, although at a much more reasonable pace. Her initial anger had faded, but she still wasn’t ready to face the group again. Instead, she distracted herself with wondering where all these hallways could lead.
Seeing a door ajar ahead, she peeked in to find an empty bedroom. It looked like the one she had woken up in, except without the elaborate painting on the ceiling. She continued to peer into every open room she passed as she walked, finding the same sight behind every door.
Just as Nora was calm enough to consider turning around and trying to retrace her steps, she came upon a pair of carved double doors, much grander than any she had passed so far. Nora only paused for a moment before her curiosity got the best of her and she pushed it open to step inside.
The room was filled with rows upon rows of weapons, all made of bronze and shimmering softly in the faint light of the hallway. She drifted into the room and had to tuck her hands behind her back to not run her fingers over the racks of swords and spears as she passed. The collection was three times the size of the entire inventory at the Field Museum, and her head spun as she glanced around, hoping to find other types of weapons, or perhaps even a shield.
As she searched, her eyes caught on something else. In one corner, there was a tall case, just like the one at the museum that contained the replica armor of a Greek hoplite. It only took Nora one glance to tell that the armor in the case in front of her now was no replica. She strode across the room to stand in front of it, stepping as close to it as she could manage. Her nose was inches from the glass, so close that her breathe made a thin coat of fog. It was magnificent.
Her eyes ran along the intricate whorls on the breastplate that seemed to dance in the dim light, and she considered the type of mold that would have to be used to craft such a piece. A dent had once caved in one side of the helmet, but somebody had done their best to return it to its original form. This was not just ceremonial; this outfit had seen real combat. Whomever this armor had been made for, they couldn’t have been much taller than her.
Nora had become so enraptured by the armor that she didn’t hear the footsteps coming up behind her.
“See something you like?”
Nora started so hard that she jumped backwards and landed directly on Adam’s foot. She spun around to face him, ready to chastise him for sneaking up on her, but as she turned, she lost her balance and his hands shot out to grab her waist, steadying her. Nora involuntarily stepped into his space at the feeling of strong, warm fingers on her hips before her brain caught up with her. Even if she found Adam charming, Nora didn’t know enough about his life as an immortal sorcerer to be having those kind of thoughts. She backed out of his grasp before any more distracting images of his hands on her waist got the better of her.
“I didn’t mean to startle you. I assumed you had heard me come in,” he apologized, shoving his outstretched hands into his pockets.
“Yes, well. I was distracted by the armor.”
Adam glanced over her shoulder at the display case. “I suppose it is worth being distracted by. This set belongs to one of our greatest commanders.”
Curious, Nora pressed him. “Really? Who is he? Does he live here in the Sanctuary?”
Adam took a moment to swallow before responding. “They died, a long time ago. In the battle against the Shadow.”
Adam’s face was obscured, with the light coming from the door behind him, but Nora didn’t need to be able to see his face to know the pain she would find there. The tightness in his voice was enough.
“I’m very sorry,” Nora looked down at her toes in her sandals.
“It’s okay, they would have been happy that you were admiring their armor.” Some of the tightness had left Adam’s tone, and his usual musical lilt was edging its way back into his voice.
“I was admiring all of it.” Nora gestured to the room in general. Then she added sheepishly, “I had an itch to go exploring. I hope that was all right.”
Adam chuckled. “I figured you would. I wouldn’t have left you alone if I wasn’t okay with you poking around a little bit.”
“Good, because I wasn’t going to be that sorry anyways. I hope that doesn’t get you in trouble with your leaders or anything.”
Adam shrugged. “There are too few of us to have any sort of organized governance anymore. We all just try to do what we think is best and hope by this age we’ve managed to develop good judgement.”
Nora nodded, and silence fell between them once more. She looked down at her toes and wiggled them in her sandals, knowing they couldn’t avoid the inevitable discussion forever, though she didn’t want to be the one to start it.
“Are you okay?” Adam asked.
Nora’s eyes snapped up, not expecting that to be Adam’s opening line.
She thought for a second before shrugging. “I wouldn’t say ‘okay’, but considering the circumstances, I think I’m faring admirably.”
