The King’s Ransom
I hold him up at arm’s length, an offering to the gods, a tribute. He gurgles and squeals, wriggling in my arms.
The sun kisses, then stings us. Beneath, his shadow wriggles along with him.
I shudder, without a dark echo.
That was the price for our freedom.
Image credit: Photo by Riccardo Farinazzo on Unsplash
Asha Rajan 
I love the phrase “a dark echo”! I was a bit confused about offering the child as tribute if they were already free…
Thanks! The child wasn’t the price paid, the shadow was. The child was held up in triumph, a tribute to the sun and sky, to light (after coming through the dark of the trials they had to endure). All of which is hard to convey in 48 words, and hard to guess at if you don’t know the backstory to Labyrinth and the Goblin King stealing babies.
Ah! Thanks for the explanation.
Oooo, I love this, and now I want to have the story of the child who grew up without a shadow. 🙂