AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wasn’t sure what to do next.
“Are you all right?” the Governor asked, placing his comforting hand on my shoulder and gently stroking it.
“What? Yes, of course,” I said, smoothing my brow and smiling up at him. “Everything is… great.”
He reflected my smile back at me. “Good. I want tonight to be relaxing for you. Especially after the last twenty-four hours.”
His eyes crinkled at the corners in a very pleasing way.
He had kind eyes and a generous smile.
I hated what I was doing to him.
What I was beingforcedto do to him.
It wasn’t right.
It should never have happened.
He deserved peace and quiet, not for someone to steal from him.
I opened my mouth to walk back along the items again in case I had simply missed the Orb the first time around, but he spoke first:
“Shall we go into my office? It’s the only room I really spend much time in.”
Unable to come up with an excuse as to why I should say no, I nodded. “Yes. Sure. Why not?”
He led me away but I couldn’t help but glance back over my shoulder.
Blue Orb… Blue Orb…
Where are you?
The drawing room was far smaller than the others we had moved through.
I got the impression it was designed differently too.
It was more every day, with plain wooden furniture and a mismatch of tables and chairs.
I realized the Governor had likely chosen the furniture himself.
He was not exactly an interior designer, and it came away looking very much like a man cave back on Earth.
The tabletops were covered with books and other strange and wonderful items.
He picked one up and turned to me, showing me it. “Now this,” he said, “I picked up on the desert planet of Mor’ak’a’dhun. It doesn’t look like much… In fact, itisn’tmuch. Just an empty shell. Many of the animals there burrow deep beneath the sandy surface to protect themselves from the sun and hibernate until they sense moisture on the surface. Once they feel it, they wake up and wiggle up to the surface. That was when I found this little guy. Unfortunately, its occupant had died long before that but I didn’t want to let his shell disappear beneath with the sand dunes, so I kept it as a memento.”
He leaned in close. “Did you know that if you blow into it, it makes an interesting sound…?”
Earlier, when he was describing the official historical artefacts in the palace, he had come across as bored and disinterested.
Clearly, when he had no personal experience attached to them, he failed to take in much of the information.
But now, there was an excited glint in his eye that had not been there before.
He raised the shell up to me.
I took it and, wiping the spiraled tip, placed it to my mouth and blew.
