by Terah Edun
“What do you mean I’m the key?”
“You’re calm for a girl who thinks she’s going to die.”
“Am I not going to die?” she asked hopefully. “I mean, I assume you wanted me here to help you increase your powers, but it’d be nice to get some assurance.”
When in dangerous situations, Ciardis tended to be flippant.
He looked at her as if she were crazy. With a motion he called forth his shadow. Out of the darkness of the trees behind him it came, first a dark indistinct blob moving on the forest floor. When it reached a bright pool of moonlight in the clearing, it began to rise up. The blob elongated until it was as tall as a man, and then it began to take a human shape with arms and legs, a head, and a chest. Ciardis watched in detached fascination. And then the shadow man extended its two middle fingers into a long, pointed shape. Ciardis knew she was in trouble. It was a sword.
Ciardis began to backpedal across the grass. Stumbling and looking around for an escape, she noticed her way was blocked by the shadow vines, which had grown shoulder-high and were writhing together to form a wall.
“Damn vines,” she muttered, turning desperately in a circle.
The man watched her dispassionately as his shadow stalked her.
“It’s not personal,” he said lazily, “but with your death I can spark the war. It’s funny, really, how one death among so many counts for everything. Maybe then you’ll amount to something bigger, something great.”
“What do you mean?” she asked shakily.
Seeing the shadow pause as he contemplated her, she asked again. Desperate to get more time.
“What do you mean?” she repeated. “Why does my death mean so much?”
“There are bodies and there are bodies, Miss Weathervane.” He shrugged. “I’ve been killing for years—at the behest of the emperor, at the behest of the nobility. But they don’t care if the job gets done with casualties. Especially non-human ones.”
“So you’re one of the emperor’s men?” she said, trying to sound calm while eyeing him and his shadow. If she could keep him calm, then maybe, just maybe, she could reason with him.
He laughed cruelly. “The emperor’s man? No, never that. I do my work for the empire, but I was never good enough to be called the emperor’s man. I do the Empire’s dirty work and disappear into the shadows.”
“What kind of dirty work?”
She noted that although the clearing they stood in was devoid of weapons of any sort, long vines were hanging loose from the trees above into the clearing below. If she could reach them perhaps she could climb over the vine barrier.
Assuming the shadow man stays where he is and assuming the living vine barrier doesn’t grab me. Lots of assumptions there.
“Assassinations and disappearances mostly,” he said resentfully.
She took note of his tone. “And you wanted to be more? To be recognized for more?”
“Impossible,” he hissed. “Always impossible living in the shadow of my brother. I was never good enough to be a true mage. I could do parlor tricks calling shadows and fading into the night, but now I can do more—so much more.”
His mouth curled distastefully. “The mages had no use for things like that after the wars. Well, now...now they will.” He said it in a tone that gave her the creeps. The man was insane.
But he was still talking to her, and as long that kept up she was still alive.
“There’s another war,” she said. “One in the North. You can go there and be the important person you’re supposed to be.”
He laughed. “My brother’s war, you mean?”
“Who’s your brother?” she said, fishing for a name, anything to link him to a place, a time, or a family.
He continued furiously, ignoring her query. “He never wanted me by his side. Never thought I was good enough. Well, we’ll see who is good enough now.”
Looking at her in surprise, he admitted, “You’ve been a good listener.”
Ciardis smiled, relieved that she was breaking through his barriers.
He smiled back and looked over at his shadow man to give a single order.
“Kill her.”
Chapter 29
Barren had successfully tracked Ciardis to the clearing.
Biting his lip, he whispered to Terris, “She’s in there.”
Terris didn’t bother replying; she could hear Ciardis speaking now and was looking for a way around those damn vines. The best way seemed to be to climb the tree trunks. Surging forward, she tried and fell on her ass just as quickly. Her people were great swimmers and divers, having lived on small islands their whole lives, but tree climbers they were not.
“Quiet,” whispered Barren. “I’ll go over the barrier. Once I get those shadow vines down, you come in as backup.” Before she could object that she hated his plan, he was up and scaling the large tree like a squirrel. As he disappeared into the leaves, she hoped he got over the barrier.
She paced around the perimeter, keeping an eye out for weaknesses and hoping for a fallen branch that arced over the side. A girl can dream, right?
A crunch of leaves was her only warning that something was behind her. She felt something hit her across her back and push her face first into the dirt and leaves. It felt large. She tried to get up. Whatever it was still lay on top of her. Maybe it was just some dead forest thing that had fallen on her. She raised herself up on to her hands and knees, trying to roll it off. And then she felt its warm breath on her neck.
Her heart pounding as the thing moved, Terris looked at the clawed hands resting on either side of her own and she almost sobbed in fear.
Then she heard its voice.
“Human. Food,” it cooed.
“No,” Terris corrected desperately. “Friend. Not food.”
“Food,” it insisted.
Terris was frightened beyond belief. Any second now it was going to bite down on the back of her exposed throat.
Feeling the wendigo on top of her, she prepared for death, closing her eyes and hoping it would be over quickly. And then her eyes snapped open. How had she known it was a wendigo, and why did it feel familiar?
Tapping into her power silently, Terris sent her feelers out. There was a bond there. However slight, she could feel a tenuous connection between her and the disgusting creature that was crouching on top of her, ready to eat her brains.
Pushing for more, she realized that it was the same wendigo that had nearly killed her that first night in the forest. Then it began to hum deep in its throat. Why wasn’t it chomping down on her neck yet?
She felt its confusion and its hunger. It wanted to eat her, but it also recognized her.
Second shock of the night: The thing was sentient. Most kith were but she never expected a cannibalistic carnivore that howled in the night like a banshee and looked like the living dead to be intelligent.
She tried once more to reason with it. “Up! Get off me. Not food. Friend.” It stayed put, still humming with hunger, confusion radiating from its mind.
Talking wasn’t helping. Maybe magic would. Her talent was supposed to give her the ability to assume control of any creature, magical or mundane. As the wendigo’s drool crept down her neck and it sniffed her, she felt like there was no time like the present to figure out if her ability to assume control of the practice dogs in Sandrin extended to kith.
Silently hoping that Barren and Ciardis were doing okay—Ciardis was still talking, after all—she mind-merged with the wendigo. Just as she lost herself in the creature’s mind, she heard the shadow man say two chilling words: “Kill her.”
Barren managed to drop from the trees at the exact instant the shadow mage announced the death sentence. With the strength of a childhood spent in the Ameles Forest, he tackled the shadow mage, bringing him down quickly. Unfortunately Barren had no weapons on him and the shadow mage was no slouch—he clearly knew hand-to-hand combat.
As they struggled on the ground, the shadow creature raced from where
it stood over Ciardis Weathervane and maneuvered to defend its master.
“Barren!” cried Ciardis. “Watch out! That shadow is coming and it’s got a sword.”
Barren was too busy trying to unwrap the mage’s fingers from around his neck to answer.
The mage stared down at the boy in confusion in the meantime.
Narrowing his eyes the Shadow Mage spat out, “Who are you?”
Barren smiled through a bloody mouth—courtesy of the mage on top of him—and said, “What? Don’t recognize me? You nearly killed me.”
When recognition flowed into the mage’s eyes, Barren head-butted him, sending him tumbling back and clutching his forehead in pain.
Unfortunately that didn’t take care of the shadow creature; it was almost on top of him. Ready to defend its master.
And then their world dissolved into a high-pitched screech.
*****
On the other side of the barrier, Terris had used one large push to force herself into the wendigo creature’s mind. It was sentient, but not much smarter than a dog. Which made this easier. Without too much effort, she located its consciousness and sent it to sleep with a whispered command. Unfortunately she had underestimated it. It might have been as simple-minded as a dog, but it also had the resilience of a caged tiger. It did not want her to take over its mind, and since she hadn’t done this before, she was having a hell of a time doing so.
Trying to halt the attack, it dug its back claws into her ankle. Terris screamed in agony but it couldn’t go any further. The control she’d already asserted halted its mobility and she knew if she lost that control she’d lose her life. Anger, rage, and desperation began to fuel her attempts. As they struggled for domination, Terris started to clear its mind, inch-by-inch. She managed to push the consciousness of the wendigo in a corner temporarily and lock it into the back of its mind. After assuring herself that she commanded the creature’s movements now, she ordered it to get off of her and stood up.
Staring at the nightmarish vision less than a foot from her, Terris felt her stomach flip. It was just as she remembered, with multiple rows of sharp teeth in its mouth and long, dirty claws on its paws. It stood four feet tall on two legs. Its skin was gray and wrinkled, with loose flesh hanging in odd places. Its eyes were bloodshot and clumps of straggly hair hung from its head.
Feeling its dormant consciousness one more time, she made it turn around.
“Screech!” she commanded it.
For a long moment, the wendigo did nothing. Its mind was empty and it didn’t recognize the command, so Terris called up a memory of the terror she’d felt when they’d first heard the creature’s call echo in the midnight air. Following her example, it let out a loud, echoing screech at the shadow barrier.
Terris could physically see the shock of the screech hit the barrier of twisting shadow vines. On impact it forced the shadow vines to dissipate.
That’s more like it, thought Terris.
“Now,” she said directing its mind for another screech, “get that stupid shadow creature.”
With no further imagery needed, her wendigo leapt into the air on its powerful hind legs and emitted a long, loud screech echo directly at the shadow man. The shadow put up its hand in defense as if to ward off the screech and disappeared into thin air.
Smiling in relief at Ciardis, who was standing up, Terris ran over to her friend.
“Are you okay?”
“Are you?”
“Hello, ladies,” said Barren from the other side of the clearing.
When they looked over at him in irritation for interrupting their reunion, he sighed and said, “Anybody seen the shadow man?”
They looked around, but Barren was right. The man who’d caused all of this...was gone.
Terris let loose a string of curses that her brothers would have been proud of.
And then the cavalry arrived.
Out of the darkness of the trees, Panen warriors materialized. The wendigo melted into the trees with a final screech – Terris’s hold gone from its mind. With a little more noise, Lady Vana, Meres Kinsight, and Alexandra also showed up. Surrounding the empty glade, Vana, Meres, and Alexandra were armed to the teeth and looked like avenging angels in the night.
Holding up his hands as if in surrender, Barren said, “I can explain.”
From behind him, his mother stepped out of the bushes with a look on her face that promised murder. “You’d better.”
Ignoring the tensions between the young people and their guardians, Alexandra’s brother Julius stepped forward and declared, “The perimeter is secure. I think we should get a full account of this evening’s activities from the youth and then you can tear them apart.”
When Vana and Barren’s mother leveled a glare at him, he quickly amended that to, “Or you can skin them alive now.”
Meres Kinsight sighed. “All of you. Everything. Spill it.”
Ciardis, Terris, and Barren jumped all over themselves to detail all of the events that had occurred from the time Ciardis and Terris had followed Barren into the forest until the shadow vine barrier had come tumbling down.
“And he never told you his name?” demanded Alexandra while looking at Ciardis.
“Or where he was from?” This query was from Vana.
“No, I tried,” said Ciardis, shaking. The night’s events were beginning to overwhelm her. The man had tried to kill her. Not that she wasn’t used to it, but hell, he didn’t even know her!
Terris wrapped a comforting and slimy hand around Ciardis’s shoulder and leveled a glare at all of the people upsetting her.
“Well,” said Meres, “this is unfortunate. The shadow mage wants to kill Ciardis. I guess the plan to spread outrage and eventually start a human-kith war wasn’t working. Nothing like an Imperial Companion’s death to add fuel to the fire.”
“I’m not a Companion,” muttered Ciardis half-heartedly.
Vana laughed bitterly. “He’s a Shadowwalker; all we need now is for him to manifest necromancy or telekinesis and we’ll be right back where we started during the Initiate Wars.”
And uneasy look passed across Terris’s face as they walked back. Ciardis nudged her to get her to talk, but whatever it was was troubling her too much for her to speak. When she turned to look behind them at Vana and Meres, who were bringing up the rear, the look on her face stopped them in their tracks.
“Something you haven’t told us, child?” Meres asked.
Terris stiffened imperceptibly when Meres spoke. Ciardis knew she wasn’t afraid of Lord Kinsight. They’d gone toe-to-toe on several occasions while living with the Panen. There was something else going on, but she didn’t have time to find out what right now.
“There’s one other thing,” said Terris, her face a mask of guilt as she looked over at Barren.
Sighing, she continued, “When Barren faced me in the forest just after Ciardis had been taken, his eyes were black...as black as night.”
Meres didn’t question her, didn’t hesitate. “Vana,” he shouted. Before Ciardis had managed to turn Terris and herself fully around to face the boy, Vana had his head pulled back at an awkward angle and a silver knife at his throat.
Meres was furious. He moved to stand in front of the two young women while eyeing the boy that Vana held with a knife at his throat. He was furious at himself for letting a threat anywhere near Terris and Ciardis as well as furious at them for not thinking to warn them of this sooner.
Ciardis asked, “What does the darkness in his eyes mean?”
“It means that he could be shadow-touched,” said Meres grimly.
“Is that right, Barren? Are you being controlled even now?” Vana crooned in his ear, her blade grazing the skin on his neck, prepared to cut it at any second.
He was scared and crying as he shouted back, “No! No, I was. But I’m not now. He’s gone. I swear.”
“Why didn’t you tell us about this before?” Meres said.
Barren blanched before a sob e
scaped him. No matter what he said, it wouldn’t sound good.
Finally Vana hissed, “Answer him!”
“Because he was controlling me,” he finally spluttered.
Meres sighed. “Ciardis, Terris. Go back to camp.”
To her surprise, it was Terris who stepped forward to argue with him.
“We’re staying.” The look he gave them over his shoulder made Ciardis wonder if challenging him was wise.
“This is no place for girls.”
“We’re not girls.” The words were practically snarled by Terris.
“Young women, then,” replied Meres with a hint of irritation.
“Whatever is going on we should see,” said Terris with a stubborn look on her face.
“It’s not a pleasant experience!”
“No one said it would be!” shouted Terris.
Yep, there’s definitely something going on between these two, thought Ciardis.
In the meantime, Vana was watching the exchange with something akin to amusement, and Barren just looked baffled.
“Fine, you want to stay,” said Meres gruffly. “Does that go for you, too, Ciardis?”
She nodded. Not trusting herself to speak. She wasn’t experienced in lot of things, but sometimes it felt like she knew more about the ills and cruelties than Terris, who’d come from a sheltered background in the Western Isles and was bonded at the hip—usually, anyway—to her sponsor. She had a sick feeling that they were both about to get an abrupt training in the tactics used on the battlefield to coerce information out of captives. Meres and Vana were going to get answers out of the boy in any way they could.
Pushing his hair back on his forehead, Meres turned back to Vana and Barren.
“We can’t torture you,” he said softly. “The treaty between the empire and the people of the forest prevents that. But we need information and we cannot let you just walk around if you know something pertinent, or worse—could be controlled by the shadow man at any moment.”
For the first time Barren exhibited some courage. He looked Meres in the eye as he said, “I understand.”
