Daughter of Shadows, page 1
DAUGHTER OF SHADOWS
OUTLAWED COLONIES 7
Colony of Shangri-La 2
GAIL DALEY
GAIL'S OTHER BOOKS
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Warriors of St. Antoni
The Enforcers
The Gaslight Bandits
The Portal Lawman
Cradle of Fire
The Clone Initiative
THE OUTLAWED COLONIES
Game Theory
Heirs of Avalon
Apex Predator
Babylon Shattered
The Arcadian Web
Cloned Ambition
Daughter of Shadows
City of Deception*
Riddle of the Halivaara Wheel*
Day of the Clone*
MAGI OF RULARI TRILOGY
Spell of The Magi
Magi Storm
Paladin
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Introduction to The Internet #1
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*Working Title. Release dates TBA
DAUGHTER OF SHADOWS Copyright © 2023 by Gail Daley dba Gail Daley's Fine Art
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
E-Book ISBN: 9781685640231
Print ISBN- 9798886272796
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Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any persons living or dead is unintentional and accidental.
Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
Book DAUGHTER OF SHADOWS Gail Daley -- 1st ed. Copyright © 2023 by Gail Daley dba Gail Daley's Fine Art
Cover Art by artist fszalai Pixabay link:
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/woman-horoscope-astrology-stars-7751363/
Cover Copyright © 2023 BY GAIL DALEY Used with permission.
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Welcome to Shangri-la, a planet of psychics. This thrilling science-fiction mystery will keep you guessing until the very end!
The mysterious Psychic Colony of Shangri-La is home to many secrets, and Tracy Lucent is determined to solve them. After arriving with no memory of who she is, Tracy's only clue to her identity is a locket with her name engraved inside. With each passing day, Tracy struggles to unravel the threads of her past, but when there is an attempt to kidnap her which she narrowly escapes, she knows she can no longer ignore the mystery of her past. With danger lurking around every corner and secrets waiting to be uncovered, Tracy must uncover the truth of her identity before it is too late.
If you enjoyed the suspenseful journey of identity discovery in books like The Maze Runner and Divergent and the suspense of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, then you'll love the thrilling ride that is Daughter of Shadows.
Table of Contents
GAIL'S OTHER BOOKS
ABOUT THIS BOOK
PROLOGUE
AWAKENING
A GLITTERING EYE
SHADOWS CREEPING BY
MORSELS AND SHARDS
DARKNESS ON THE RISE
A SON OF THE MOUNTAIN
SNAKE IN THE GRASS
THE CONTROLLER IN HIS COUNTING HOUSE
TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE
MIDNIGHT RENDEZVOUS
A LANCE AT REST
BUBBLE, BUBBLE, TOIL & TROUBLE
WARE! LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR!
BITS AND PIECES
THE FIRE-EYED MAID
DAWN COMES UP LIKE THUNDER OVER THE SEA
BAD MOON ON THE RISE
SAILOR TAKE WARNING
RED SKY AT MORNING
THE ROOSTER’S DAWN CROW
CRY HAVOCK!
SABRES RATTLING
DEAD REKONING
ON TOP OF THE WORLD
TIME TO SPEAK OF MANY THINGS
CULLING THE HERD
UNTIL THE 12TH OF NEVER
LAUGHING MOUNTAIN - THE PORTAL YEARS
ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR
EARTH: GATEWAY TO OTHER WORLDS
SHANGRI-LA COLONY
HISTORY:
CAPITAL CITY
SOCIETY VALUES
ANIMALS*
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A NOTE FROM GAIL
GAME THEORY – BOOK 1
HEIRS OF AVALON – BOOK 2
APEX PREDATOR – BOOK 3
BABYLON SHATTERED – BOOK 4
CLONED AMBITION BOOK 6
PALADIN -BOOK 3
QUANTUM LIGHT
*Some animals in the colony information sections were created from written descriptions furnished by the author using A.I. assistance.
PROLOGUE
EARTH, FIVE YEARS AGO:
A MAN AND a woman stood looking down at the young girl about fourteen who lay on the gurney. The child was of slight build, with long dark hair, and a honey toned complexion . Her dark green eyes were closed in sleep.
The woman was Dr. Jolene Marston. She was tall and angular, her graying hair pulled back in a messy bun. She felt a brief moment of regret that she wouldn’t be the one to teach this child to use her abilities. Long ago, before she had been embittered by the death of her son, she had been like this child; just teetering on the edge of her burgeoning mental abilities. It was better this way, she told herself. On the psychic colony, this girl might never learn how powerful she was—but no one would be crafting her into a weapon either.
“You’re sure she won’t remember?” the man asked. Simon Torrent was ex-military. His badly scarred visage and hands gave evidence he had once been a powerful warrior.
Marston lifted her shoulders and let them fall. “Well, nothing is absolute, of course,” she replied, “but unless she is brought back into contact with something from here to trigger a memory, it’s unlikely.”
He frowned. “What about the others?”
“They’re only three. They were in Franklin’s compound when it was attacked by that group of wild clones. Our sources learned all the toddlers were
adopted by Mathias and Ivette Bedingfeld, a pair of students from Laughing Mountain.”
He nodded, satisfied. “They will be out of reach of the Others there, No one will be able to weaponize their abilities. What about the infants who were scheduled to be decanted?”
“They’ve apparently been adopted by a Man named Liam Brendan and his wife Tally Higgens. Higgens is also from Laughing Mountain. Not a lot is known about Brendan: he and his sisters disappeared for about thirteen years. He returned alone to Laughing Mountain after his uncle, Robert Masters died. Masters was rumored to have links to the mob. Shortly after Brendan and his wife claimed the infants, they disappeared from Laughing Mountain too.”
Just then, the door opened, and an aide said, “The runner from Shangri-La is here, sir. What do I tell her?”
“Tell her we’ll be right along.”
“Shangri-La? That colony of Psychics?”
“Yes. Her abilities should pass without too much notice there.”
“How are you going to pay her emigration fee?”
“I’m not.”
“But then she’ll go in as an indentured servant,” the woman protested. Shangri-La’s Indentured Servant program was a controversial platform in some circles. It was based on an old system popular in Colonial America. An already established colonist would pay the emigration fee, and provide housing, food, and clothing for a period of five years while the new emigrant worked off what they owed the sponsor, At the end of the period, the new emigrant would be free to seek another position.
“I’m, sorry, but it can’t be helped. We can’t take the chance the money could be traced back to us. Besides, she’s still a minor. They don’t assign hard labor to children.”
The woman frowned. It was true, but while Shangri-La laws precluded the girl from being assigned rigorous duti
He stooped and lifted the sleeping child in his arms. The aide held the door for him.
He carried her out to the truck and the Runner helped him fasten her seat belt. He stood back and handed the runner the locket with the name ‘Tracy Lucent’ engraved on it. “Be sure she is wearing this when she goes across,” he instructed.
“How long will she sleep?” the runner asked.
“The drug should wear off by the time you exit the Portal on the other side.”
AWAKENING
THE FIRST THING Tracy remembered was also her first sight of the city of Fortuna and the planet Shangri-La. Both were beautiful. Shangri-La was a pastoral paradise capable of sustaining human life. It had no sentient species. The planet was Approximately 67% water with seven continents and three islands large enough to be called semi-continents equidistant from each other. It had one large moon orbiting it. The planet took 465 days to orbit a yellow sun. The axel tilt was enough to provide seasonal change. The capital city and the Portal were in a temperate zone of one of the northern continents near the ocean.
“Miss, can you hear me?” the woman who shook her shoulder was in her forties, with dishwater blond hair cut in a short bob. Her rotund figure was clad in leggings and a loose, long-sleeved shirt dyed with many colors.
Tracy sat up slowly, looking around. She had been lying on an ornately carved stone bench. Behind her she could hear the crash of waves hitting the white sand beach and overhead the scream of sea birds. The sun made a sparkling aureole in the east, and the crisp air held the tang of sea salt.
“Where am I?” she asked.
The woman stood back and looked her over. “You’re on Shangri-La. What’s your name?”
“I—my name?”
“Well, you’ve got a name don’t you?”
“I suppose I must, but I don’t know it,” Tracy said numbly. She glanced down, seeing the locket dangling between her little girl breasts for the first time. She lifted the locket to look more closely at it. It had a name carved into the silver finish. She showed it to the woman. “This has a name. Tracy Lucent. Is that me?”
“It’ll do for now. How old are you?”
Tracy’s brow wrinkled. “I’m not sure—fourteen?”
“Do you remember coming through the Portal?”
Tracy shook her head. “I’m sorry. Is that how I got here?”
“You must have come through it. You aren’t a native. Come with me. We need to get you checked out by a doctor.”
Following her, Tracy stumbled, so busy looking around, she forgot to look where she put her feet.
The city dazzled her. Fortuna, the capital of Shangri-La was set on a narrow peninsula of rocky land, jutting out into the Crystal Sea. The Founders had spent a lot of money on aesthetics. The buildings lining the wide paved streets were graceful and ornate with stained wood rooftops and white stone walls. Water fountains and statues of Greek and Roman figures graced the fronts of buildings and street corners.
Delivery wagons pulled by large, sturdy Llandaffs filled the lanes as they distributed todays fresh produce, grains and meat to the houses and businesses lining the streets. Somewhere far back in their evolution, Shangri-La’s Llandaffs and Kookabura, used by the colonists for transportation, were genetically related to camelids, and resembled earthly Llamas and Alpacas although much larger (the Llandaffs were about the size of a Clydesdale horse).
Like all of the Outlawed Colonies, Shangri-La didn’t possess an industrial base, so they had needed an alternative form of transportation. Occasionally, an air sled was imported, but they were rare.
The settlers had domesticated three native breeds of camelids to use as draft animals, riding animals and for other things horses had once been used for on earth. Llandaffs have long necks, slender limbs, and rounded muzzles. They have protruding lower incisors (front teeth), and their upper lip is split. Partly because they have been domesticated for their wool, it can be found in a wide variety of colors. The Llandaffs under-coat wool was famous for its softness, whereas the upper-coat wool (known as “guard hairs”) is a little coarser and serves to protect Llandaffs from debris and rain. Both coats are used for weaving into fibers. Kookaburas were smaller and lighter boned than Llandaffs. As they walked toward the trolley stand Tracy saw a few of them being ridden down the street. There were also a few of the Vicuburas, the smallest of the three breeds, hitched to small, lightly laden carts.
“Who are you?” Tracy asked,
“My name is Ramona Frost. I’m in charge of unattended minors who come through the Portal.”
Ramona ushered Tracy into a seat on the trolley, pulled by a team of six Llandaffs.
“Get aboard girl and take a seat.”
“Long night?” Caley, the trolley driver clucked to her team and the trolly meandered down the street toward the town civic center.
Ramona leaned her head back against the seat. “Yeah. As soon as I can get this one sorted out, I’m heading for bed.”
“Excuse me,” Tracy said, “but what are those called?” She pointed at the Llandaffs.
“Those are Llandaffs. We use them as draft animals,” Caley answered her.
It was a new word. Tracy savored it on her tongue. She wanted to know more, but a more pressing worry diverted her. “What’s going to happen to me?” She asked.
“First, you get checked out by one of our docs to determine how old you are, and if you are healthy, then we try to find your parents or guardians.”
“What if you can’t find anyone?”
Ramona smiled reassuringly at her. “Then you go into the system. Don’t worry, we take good care of our children here on Shangri-La.”
Tracy said nothing although she sensed Ramona’s unease, instinctively, she didn’t feel comfortable revealing her own ability to pick up on other’s emotions. Plainly the woman didn’t choose to discuss whatever was bothering her.
The pediatrician was a slim young woman with short-cropped black hair and a café-a-late complexion.
“Well, Ramona, what have we here?”
Tracy unconsciously sent out a feeler to get a reading on the woman’s intentions, then relaxed. She felt no animosity or ill will from the doctor. I didn’t know I could do that, she thought. I wonder what else I can do?
“She doesn’t remember her name or coming through the Portal,” Ramona said, “but she’s wearing a locket with a name engraved on it. Tracy Lucent, so we’ve been calling her Tracy.”
“Humm, no parents or guardian looking for her?”
“Unfortunately, no,” Ramona replied. “The gate keepers noticed her asleep on one of the benches near the unloading area. She woke up when I spoke to her.”
The doctor pulled a handheld scanner out of her pocket and ran it over Tracy.
“Any idea how old you are?” she asked.
Tracy searched the blank slate of her memory and came up empty. “I’m sorry. I think about fourteen, but I don’t know.”
The scanner transferred its readings to the large holo screen mounted on one wall. The screen beeped a complaint.
“Humn,” the doctor said again.
“Is something wrong?” Tracy asked fearfully.
“No, you appear quite healthy, and you’ve had all the regulation inoculations. But I do notice there seems to be some smudging showing up on the brain scan here,” she pointed to an area on the chart.
“Smudging?” Ramona asked. “What does that mean? Is it dangerous?”
The doctor looked at her in surprise. “Dangerous? Oh, No, this in the area where we find personal memory. It’s just a guess at this point, but in my opinion, this young lady has been subjected to an extensive memory wipe.”
“Are the memories recoverable?”
The doctor shook her head. “I doubt it. The wipe was too widespread.”
“So, no recoverable memories, then?”
“’Fraid not.”
“How old is she?”
“Around thirteen or fourteen; I’d say just entering puberty.”
“Let’s get you set up in the dorms, Tracy, and then we’ll get you some breakfast.”
