Chasing Shadows (Saving Galerance, Book 1) by Natalie Reid Read Free Book Online Page A

with her grandfather in their orchard of trees, her arms could
barely reach up to touch the lowest hanging branch. Then her grandfather had
plucked a nut from the tree and had given it to her, and when she opened it up
and ate the nut inside, she found this star pattern hiding underneath. She
remembered gasping and looking up to her grandfather when she saw this. Of all the
times she had eaten an Albatross Seed, the pattern behind the nut had always
been a random and wrinkly set of lines. But the star—the star was beautiful.
    “You know what that is,” her grandfather had said, crouching
down in the dirt to look her in the eye. The large brimmed hat he always wore
was silhouetted against the bright sky behind him. “That’s one of this world’s
greatest rarities. In my lifetime working here, I’ve only ever found three.”
    Norabel’s eyes had widened, and she asked, “What does it
mean?”
    “It’s a sign,” he had answered, giving her a smile and
tousling her pale hair. “A perfect star on the inside of this nut means that
your Guardian Albatross has laid his hand on it. So, every time you hold that
nut, it’s like you’re shaking his hand.”
     
    Norabel kept her eyes closed as she gripped the Albatross
Seed firmly in one hand. She had loved it when her grandfather would tell her
about the Albatross. Her family’s land was located on the side of a mountain
where the butterfly called the Woodland Albatross would migrate across during
the spring and fall. He would take her to a meadow that was filled with them
and recount the story of the Albatross to her. He would point to the snowy-white
wings of the butterfly, telling her that her Guardian Albatross had those very
same wings; that her guardian was, in fact, very much like the butterfly, only,
instead of an insect between his wings, there was a man. But he never
migrated away. He would be there, watching her at all times, making sure that
nothing bad would happen to her.
    Then her grandfather would pat her on the head and call her
special, for her hair was nearly the exact same color as the wings of the
Albatross.
    “You have a connection to them,” he told her. “One that most
people will never experience. And they may not understand it, either. They may
even dislike you for it. But you should never forget how special it is,
Norabel.”
     
    She lifted the Albatross Seed up to her face, cupping it in
her hands like a pool of water. The shell still carried the faint earthy and
smoky scent of the nut, reminding her so much of home. Then, lowering the seed,
she whispered out a solemn goodbye. Of course she knew that her Albatross
wouldn’t leave her just because she was about to give up the seed. But, just
the same, she felt like a fragile thread was breaking between them, and she
didn’t know how many there were left before she was cut off completely from her
guardian.
    Opening her eyes, she willed those thoughts from her head
and promptly rose to her feet. She straightened her skirt and took in a deep
breath before heading out of her bedroom.
    Going outside, she found Iris and her mother and father
retrieving the small Pax basket that was sitting on their doorstep. This was
called the Amias Gift. Every single household in the kingdom of Galerance
received one each morning. Normally it was filled with simple, cheap things—an
old loaf of bread, a few grains of wheat, the things that any villager would be
able to buy for themselves if the Pax didn’t constantly seize any of the excess
money they tried to save up.
    Norabel had a hard time excepting even the most menial thing
inside of her Amias Gift. It was a patronizing and sneaky act. Those in the
kingdom with only half a brain would take this daily gift for benevolence and
the sign of a good leader. They didn’t realize that he was only able to give
these things away because he stole them from other villagers during house
raids. And the worst part was, those that were considered friends to the