Accounts for the said shadows (5)
I believe the answer is:
tales
'accounts' is the definition.
(tale is a kind of account)
'the said shadows' is the wordplay.
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'said shadows' becomes 'ales' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
't'+'ales'='TALES'
'for' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tales that I've seen before include "provided for defective juries" , "Relations" , "Lies" , "Stories, perhaps tall ones" , "accounts" .)