If it hadn’t been painted, I would have thought it was a mirror.
She looked like me.
Sure, there were a few differences—I would have killed to have her nose—but there was no doubt in my mind who this woman was and the impact she’d recently had on my life.
She was both the reason Kal was attracted to me and why he was afraid to get closer.
It was his wife. The one Emana said had died.
I felt embarrassed, ashamed of myself for betraying his trust. He was a lord but he was also a Titan with regular thoughts and emotions.
He deserved better than for me to take advantage of him and learn his deepest secrets. Especially when it was his departed wife he was struggling to get over.
The Changelings must have known I looked like her.
“She looks just like her,” was what they said that day they sprung me from my pod.
It was the reason they had bought me in the first place.
Because I looked like his wife and I could get closer to him than anyone else.
And if his wife were looking in, staring at me right now the way she was from this portrait, what would she think?
I turned away from her unblinking gaze. I couldn’t bear for her eyes to be on me, judging me.
I shook my head and erected a wall to block the worst of the guilt. I was there to do a job and return home. That was all.
What happened on this planet had nothing to do with me. I was a human from Earth. Until just a few days ago, I didn’t know there was intelligent life out there, never mind that they mourned the loss of their lovers.
I hung the portrait on the wall and backed away from it.
I needed to get out of there. I needed to get to my room. Then I could take stock and prepare to leave this place, leave Kal, his dead wife, and never think about them ever again—
I bumped into something. It sent my heart rate soaring.
It was just a desk, I told myself. It’s nothing.
And then I felt it.
A cool breeze tickled the hairs on my arms, making them stand to attention. I looked at the window but it was shut. I raised my hand and felt the wind whisper against my sweaty palm. It wasn’t even coming from the window. It was coming from directly ahead.
From the bookshelves.
It didn’t matter.
I turned and ran from the room, just as Niik licked what remained of the bacon crumbs from his hairy upper lip. He looked very pleased with himself.
I couldn’t bear to face the party and the happy revelers. I needed to get away from them, as far away as I could.
I drifted past the revelers and up the stairs, feeling like a ghost passing through an uninhabited world. I climbed the stairs as fast as I could without looking like I was running from something.
I could have gone to my bedroom and hid there but the house servants knew I might go there. I needed to go somewhere I wouldn’t be disturbed, where I could hide until the Changelings came to get me and take me home.
I wound up one staircase after another, and when I couldn’t go any further, I marched down the endless hallways until I met another series of stairs. These weren’t built like the others. They were narrower, cruder, and steeper.
A tower, I thought. These steps would lead to one of the corner towers. No one would be up there.
Perfect.
They were difficult to climb with my high heels, so I removed them and carried them in the crook of two hooked fingers. The stone steps were roughly cut and the decades of dust caked the souls of my feet.
My breath became thick and I pushed myself harder.
My heart raced and I could barely lift my legs high enough to reach the next step. I didn’t slow. And when they became too steep, I pressed a hand to every fourth step, climbing them like a concrete ladder.
Up and up I went, higher and higher until glancing down gave me vertigo.
I paused a moment. I felt lightheaded and woozy. I thought I might trip and fall down those steps. Just one flight would be enough to kill me if I fell badly. I waited a moment, my forehead beading with sweat.
Then I continued to climb, slower this time, but onward and upward. Then, finally, I reached the top.
There was no sign of congratulations, no finish line ribbon, but it felt like an achievement.
The floor was varnished wood and polished to a high shine. I pulled myself up and moved away from the hole in the floor in case I stumbled through it. The odds were good I would end up doing something like that.
I placed my hands on my head to expanded my lungs. I panted for a good five minutes before I recovered. It felt good. I usually exercised every day and I’d missed it.
I turned to the room I now found myself in. It was surprisingly large, circular, with a pitched roof. A bookcase blocked most of the view but it was a room that was used often.
But for what purpose?
I moved around the bookcase to the other side. A single square table took up the majority of the space. On it, hundreds of tiny, intricately carved models of tiny houses perched on a shallow river. A town. A mountain encircled it on one side and a castle sat like a watchful guardian on the other.
Someone had built a to-scale model of the entire town and surrounding area.
I giggled in wonder and covered my mouth with my hands. I’d always loved little models as a girl. I liked to wander amongst them and feel like a giant.
I peered closer at the tiny buildings and the little people walking through the streets.
