From a High Tower Read Online Free PDF

her bedroom, none of the rooms had anything but slits for windows.
    She breathed a sigh as she got to her own room and the wide-open windows again. So did Luna. The sun was just setting, and the view from the tower was particularly glorious tonight. The very air seemed full of golden light, and the long shadows cast by the trees across the meadow were a deep, deep amber.
    Damozel woke up, stretched and yawned. Linnet flitted down from the lantern and landed beside the west window. Her fellow sylphs joined her.
    â€œWe will see you at dawn, magician,”
Luna said, as the other two took turns balancing on the windowsill before launching themselves out onto the evening breeze. She did not wait for an answer; sylphs lived very much in the moment, and seldom waited on human politeness.
    Sylphs could flit about at night, of course, but the ones that did tended to be shy and secretive and seldom visited Giselle. Giselle leaned out of the window to watch her friends soar up into the clouds. She often wondered if they slept up there, and if the clouds were as comfortable as they looked.
    She remained leaning out of the window, dreamily watching the sunset and twilight stealing over the forest. From here, it looked so peaceful, and near the abbey, it actually was, but all sorts of things could be lurking deeper into the trees—
    â€œHello up there!”
    A deep voice called from just beneath her, startling her and making her jump, yelp and nearly hit her head on the top of the window frame. Her heart beating wildly, she looked down to see that there was a man standing just beneath the window. A man . . .
    She knew what a man was, she’d met at least three when members of the Bruderschaft came to consult with Mother. But none of them had been nearly this handsome. Or young.
    Because he certainly was younger than any man she had seen before. She wasn’t very good at estimating ages, but she didn’t think he could be more than a few years older than she. He was blond, his hair pale in the twilight, with a wonderful face, like a warrior in one of her books: clean-shaven, square jawed, with a fine brow and clear eyes. She couldn’t tell what color they were in this light but she thought, given that he was blond, that they were probably blue.
    â€œI’m very sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you!” the man said, pulling his hunter’s hat off and clutching it at his chest.
    â€œHow did you get down there?” she asked, telling her heart to calm down. It didn’t, but at this point she suspected that had more to do with the man’s handsome features than the fact that he had startled her.
    â€œI came around the east side of your tower,” he said. “I’m a hunter, I’m very quiet. I didn’t even know there was anyone living here until I saw you at your window. I apologize for frightening you!”
    She smiled down at him as he peered earnestly up at her. “Apology accepted. It’s all right, really, no harm done.” She felt an odd shyness and found herself tongue-tied. What to say to a handsome young stranger? She had no idea.
    He seemed under no such burden. “I thought I would come survey this part of the world before hunting season begins,” he continued, and shrugged. “Too many others in what used to be
my
forest. Time to move on.”
    â€œOh,” she managed, resting her chin on her hands so she could look down at him more easily. “I don’t know anything about that.” After all, the men of the Bruderschaft, although they were hunters, were not
primarily
hunters of game. It was the evil things of the forest that they hunted . . .
    â€œBut what are you doing, out here in the middle of the wilderness?” he asked, putting his hat back on his head and tipping it at a jaunty angle.
    â€œI live here, with Mother,” she replied.
    He shook his head. “I cannot imagine living alone in such a remote