Read A Cast of Shadows: An Araneae Nation Story for Free Online

I had just met. No doubt that was the source of his appeal.
    Before trailing after him, I ducked my head under the falls and prayed the rushing water would beat some sense into me. Let him think that was why my cheeks were flushed and I was breathless.
    While shaking the water from my hair, I heard soft laughter and spotted him watching me.
    Fresh heat burned in my cheeks.
    “Are you ready now or should I make myself comfortable?” he asked.
    “I’m ready.” I straightened my shoulders. “What is it you wanted to show me?”
    “There is only one way out of Cathis, unless you go over or under the walls.” He stared into the forest. “The Mimetidae keep their prisoners in a grotto beneath the city. There’s a tunnel used for transportation and…private liaisons…near here.” He grinned at my surprise. “What’s another secret between friends? Besides you don’t strike me as the type to go about liberating prisoners.”
    I shook my head. “My clan has plenty without me borrowing more from the Mimetidae.”
    “Most clans do,” he agreed, bending to examine a pile of smooth stones.
    Leaning over his shoulder, I asked, “Do you find stones so interesting?”
    Amusement deepened his voice. “Not so much the stones as what they conceal.”
    Ah. Our outing began to make more sense. “You have a cache hidden here.”
    “I do.” He shook out his arms. “Give me room.”
    “Why?” I backed up a step. “What are you doing?”
    “Must you question everything?” He sounded as if he didn’t mind my curiosity.
    So I said, “Yes.”
    I believe he muttered about the inquisitiveness of the young or some such nonsense. If I had to guess, I bet his age was within five years of mine, so he was hardly an authority to lecture me.
    As he worked, I hovered at his shoulder. “If the grotto’s proximity mattered to you, then you must have intended your cache to be part of a contingency plan. Say the city fell, you would take the secret exit through the grotto, stop here and then raid the cache before you went into hiding.”
    He shook his head. “Only a coward leaves his city while it’s under siege.”
    “Oh?” I savored the view while he worked. “Then why have this made? Why here?”
    “The rest of your theory was sound.” He glanced up. “I did this for my family, to provide for them if I was unable to. We were poorer in those days. Their fortunes have improved since then.”
    The words fell from my lips before I could catch them. “You have family in Cathis.”
    Of course he did. What other tether could tie a male with no clan to Mimetidae land?
    “I do.” He nodded. “This cache was meant for my son…and for my wife.”
    “You have a wife.”
    “I did.” Muscles in Brynmor’s neck twitched.
    “I shouldn’t have asked.” It was none of my business, even after… No. It didn’t matter.
    His thick voice carried over the frothing water. “We lived separately for years before…”
    “You don’t have to tell me.” I didn’t want to hear how his heart belonged to another. Or that his earlier burst of passion was the response of a male deprived from activities in his marital bed.
    “It’s not what you think,” was all he said.
    “With married males, it never is.”
    He didn’t disagree with me, but straightened with a grunt. “Here you are.”
    A shimmering gold pendant set with a glossy black stone hung from his fingers on a slender chain. My fingers curled with desire to snatch the bauble and examine it. When he coiled it in my palm and folded my hand closed over it, my covetous heart fluttered despite the blow he had dealt it.
    My first treasure—the first spoils earned during my journey—warmed my hand.
    “This is yours.” He tapped my clenched fist. “Or it can be if you earn it.”
    “A net is all you want?” I wanted to be very sure. “I can weave a large one in two days.”
    Appearing to consider my question, he finally said, “A net is all I require.”
    Aware of the thin