Shoreseeker

by Brandon M. Lindsay

  Now, however, as Nina was staring into the crackling fire, lost in thought, he plopped down beside her and crossed his legs, his knee only inches from her own. Out of the corner of her eye, Nina looked at him. No smile touched his lips, but his eyes were twinkling, as if she were some butterfly that had finally fallen into his trap.

  Nina felt her heart race. This was the first time he had gone out of his way to sit so close. What was she going to do? Talk to him? Get up and leave? Neither choice seemed like a good idea, so she went for what she usually did: pretending like she didn’t exist and hoping he would come around to the idea.

  He didn’t. Instead, he spoke to her. “Name’s Chad Forder.”

  She glanced at him, then back at the fire.

  Chad leaned back, propping himself up with his arms. “But I bet you already knew that. I’ve been watching you. You’ve always got your eyes and your ears open. I bet not much slips past you.” The smile in his eyes began to spread to his lips. “I bet you know more about me than I do.”

  “Yeah?” she said, turning to him. “I bet you know more about me than I do about you.”

  He leaned forward. “I bet you don’t have nothing to bet with.”

  Nina cocked an eyebrow. “How much you want to bet?”

  The smile finally stretched across his face. He shrugged. “All right, you got me. I don’t have nothing either.”

  Nina snorted and returned her attention to the fire, pretending to be less interested than she was. “Everybody has something.”

  “Really? And what do you have?”

  Instinctively, Nina glanced down at the Raccoon family hanging from her belt. She had been clutching them tight; she always did. She folded her hands in her lap and decided that she didn’t want to talk anymore, taking more interest in the few stars she could see in the gaps between the leaves.

  Out of the corner her eye, she saw him nod. “You’re right,” he said. “You do have something. But I think that’s too precious to bet. You’ve got to have something else.”

  “And what do you have?” she asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

  His teeth gleamed in the firelight. “Secrets.”

  The skin on Nina’s arms prickled. She knew what kind of secrets he meant. The kind of secrets all the children here had; the kind of secrets that none of them seemed to want to talk about. “Then I guess I don’t know very much about you,” she said.

  He chuckled softly and snapped his fingers. “I walked right into that.”

  “So? Did I win the bet?”

  Chad tilted his head. “You did know my name already, didn’t you?”

  In her loftiest Esta impression, Nina lifted her nose and said, “I’ve already forgotten it.”

  “Nice try. Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “There’s a graveyard up ahead.” Nina glanced out into the night.

  Chad turned to look, but there was nothing to see. Nina couldn’t see it either, but she just … knew it was there.

  His head swiveled back around, the touch of a frown on his brow. “Been out this way, have you?”

  Nina didn’t answer. He knew she hadn’t. None of them had.

  Chad grinned. “You’ve got secrets too, don’t you? Well, we’ve all got secrets. I’m guessing yours is why you’re here. Just like me. Just like the others.”

  “What’s your secret?” Nina asked. She figured the more this Chad was talking, the less she’d have to. She already regretted saying as much as she had.

  “It wouldn’t be much of a secret if I went around telling people, now would it?” Although Nina still didn’t quite trust this boy, she decided she did like his wide, toothy grin. The glint in his eyes seemed to say that Nina was included in the joke, and not the butt of it. Despite herself, she was smiling right along with him.

  He stood, dusted off the seat of his pants, and with a sideways glance at the others, leaned in close to whisper with his hand cupped against his mouth. “I’ll do better than tell you. I’ll show you.” With that he crept towards the fire, where the others were seated. Rogert and Noil, exhausted from their play, barely glanced up at him. The Falconkeepers didn’t even acknowledge him with a glance. Chrissoth and Thomerlin sat with their backs to Nina, silhouetted by the fire. Chad gave a little wave and crouched down right behind Chrissoth’s bulk, disappearing into his shadow.

  Nina gaped, astonished at his boldness. Was his special ability getting beaten for acting so foolishly? She didn’t know what Chad was trying to prove, but the one thing he had proved was that he was stupider than he looked. Once Chrissoth turned around, or even glanced to the side, he would see Chad sitting there, hiding in the large shadow he cast. Chad might as well have called him fat and spared himself the waiting. Either way, Chad would earn himself a thrashing.

  Nina watched, waiting for that fateful moment. How could Chad could sit so still for so long? Was that his special ability? Sitting for a long time? If so, it wasn’t much of a skill, but he managed to be doing an impressive job of it. Chad was so still that Nina couldn’t even tell he was there, hidden in Chrissoth’s silhouette.

  Someone tapped her on the shoulder. Nina spun with a loud yelp.

  Chad stood behind her, grinning his wide grin as if he had expected her reaction.

  Nina looked at him, then at Chrissoth and Thomerlin, who were now scowling at her, then back at Chad. “How—”

  He raised a finger. “I said I would show you. That’s what I did. Never said I would tell you how I did it.”

  Her voice dropped to a sharp whisper. “But, but that’s impossible! You were in his shadow! If you’d moved, I’d have seen it!”

  “Well, if it’s impossible, how am I standing here?”

  Nina had no idea. But she understood then that he had shown her what he could do. She just couldn’t make sense of it.

  With an exaggerated sigh, he took his seat next to her again. He crossed his ankles, leaning back on his elbows. She watched him and waited. He was only trying to look calm and cool, but she knew he was aching to tell her as bad as she was aching to know.

  Finally, he leaned over and whispered. “There are places that other people can’t go. Places in the shadows. No one else can see them but me. No one else can go in them but me.” He met her eyes then. “I can walk in and out of the shadow world.”

  A … shadow world? Chad didn’t give her the chance to ask about it. Abruptly he stood up and sauntered over to the fire. “What’s that in the pot?” he said to no one in particular. He peered in. “Stew, huh?” He snatched up a bowl and scooped some into it.

  Nina doubted he would talk with the others nearby, and her grumbling stomach was demanding her attention, so she scooted over to the fire and silently filled her own bowl, only once catching the amused glint in Chad’s eyes before it was gone.

  * * *

  The next day, it rained.

  Fat droplets splashed on the sills of the carriage. None of the Naruvian children sitting inside wanted to close the shutters, not even when Lora Bale, crowded in the carriage with them, stared malevolently at the wet seat fabric nearest the windows. Even Wenny stared at the downpour with open interest.

  It wasn’t the first time Nina had seen rain, of course, but she’d never seen it quite like this. When it rained in Naruvieth, it did so sparsely, intermittently. Here it was like someone had filled a bucket with the sea and was dumping it on their heads. The trees and ferns around them were alive with motion, rocking and swaying with each rain drop that struck them. Nina had never seen so many things moving at once. It almost made her feel a little sick, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to keep watching it.

  At the front of the wagon there was a narrow slot with a board slanting over it, shielding it from the rain, though some came in there too. Through the slot, Nina spied Vidden and Alicie, hunched in the driving seats, wearing large hooded oilcloaks. They looked miserable, hunched over like that, though Nina was jealous. She desperately wanted to walk outside in the rain,
but that would mean speaking up, drawing attention to herself.

  She glanced at Chad, sitting across from her with his legs folded up beneath him. He must’ve felt her look at him, for he tore his gaze from the outside to meet her eyes. And, as if he could read her mind—and who knew that he couldn’t?—he grinned.

  Nina grinned back. “Mistress Lora Bale,” Nina said, turning to the woman. All heads swiveled at once to look at Nina. She felt herself flush at all the attention, but it was too late to back out now. “Is it all right if I walk next to the wagon? I’ll make sure to keep up.”

  Lora Bale raised an eyebrow, mouth set in a thin line. “I don’t have any extra oilcloaks, child. If you catch a cold, you’ll have only yourself to blame.”

  “I know.”

  “Well.” Lora Bale sighed. “As long as you understand the risks, I don’t see why not. Make sure you stay in sight of the carriage.”

  Before Nina could respond, Chad shouted, “Thanks!” and burst out the door. Nina followed him out, slamming the door shut behind her. They sprinted into the foliage, cold mud sucking at their bare feet. Nina almost went back for her boots, but that would mean looking at the others and that would spoil the moment.

  They careened into a patch of ferns taller than they were. Chad seized a stalk of one and snapped it off. Nina followed suit.

  “There,” he said, holding the wide frond over his head. “Now we can stay a little dry at least.”

  Nina looked at his mud-spattered knees and then down at her own, thinking there was little danger of them being dry anytime soon. Still, at least they were making an effort to be sensible, even if the fronds didn’t do all that much.

  Making sure to be where the two Falconkeepers could see them, Nina and Chad walked close to each other.

  “How much longer do you think it’ll be?” Chad asked quietly. Almost to himself as much to Nina, it seemed.

  She shrugged. “I’m just glad we’re not on that stupid road.”

  “The Runeway?” Chad eyed her. “Why don’t you like it? It seems pretty neat to me. All that metal … more metal than a thousand blacksmith shops will ever see.”

  Nina didn’t answer. In truth, she didn’t like it because Uncle Tharadis thought there was something wrong with it. She trusted him more than anyone else, and if he didn’t like the Runeway, Nina was sure he had a good reason.

  Chad launched his fern into the bushes and stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets with a thoughtful expression, letting the rain fall onto his head. “I wonder why we aren’t taking the Runeway. It’s got to be faster, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know.” Nina held on to her fern. It was better than being totally soaked. “Maybe this way is safer?”

  Chad grunted doubtfully. “I heard the Accord’s got guard posts along the Runeway with lots of soldiers. If there are any bad guys around, they probably won’t be on the Runeway. They’d be hiding in the forest, where we are.”

  “Huh.” Nina didn’t know what to make of that.

  Back at the carriage, Alicie called their names and told them to come back. The carriage was stopped, and Vidden was feeding apples to the horses, whose drenched manes clung to their necks. All the children were still inside—Thomerlin and Chrissoth staring at Chad and Nina with clear envy—but Lora Bale was crouched down in the mud with the folds of her skirts piled up in her lap to keep them off the ground. She had a floppy straw hat on her head and appeared to be studying a patch of grass near the wheel ruts. As they got closer, Nina expected her to be inspecting animal tracks or something of the like, but Nina didn’t see anything like that. Just regular grass, the blades bowed with the weight of the rain.

  Abruptly, the woman stood and turned to them. All the warmth was gone from her face. “Get into the carriage. No arguments. Alicie,” she said, turning to the Falconkeep girl. “On the roof. Hurry.”

  Teeth bared like a snarling wolf, Alicie vaulted up on the roof as Nina and Chad clambered in. Lora Bale shoved Vidden over to make room for herself on the driver’s seat, took up the reins, and snapped the horses into a trot. Nina could hear Alicie stumble up on the roof as the carriage lurched into motion. Lora Bale snapped the reins again until the horses were nearly galloping.

  The carriage seemed to find every rock and root, jarring Nina’s teeth as the trees, ferns, and bushes whipped past them. Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, Nina poked her head out the window and looked behind them, ignoring the rain smacking the back of her head. The other children quickly joined her, heads hanging out the windows to catch a glimpse of the road behind them.

  First one, then two more riders shot out of the foliage and onto the tracks thirty paces behind them. Uniformed soldiers, like the Shoresmen in Naruvieth, but they were wearing gray and white, with gray cloaks whipping behind them. The rear two had crossbows slung to their backs, and the one in front was shouting and holding up his sword, but Nina couldn’t hear the words over the rain and the thunder of hooves.

  Nina felt her heart thumping wildly, her breathing uncontrollably fast. What did these soldiers want? They weren’t criminals or anything! They were just a bunch of children!

  The boards of the carriage roof creaked as Alicie shifted her weight. Nina had almost forgot she was there. She glanced up, but from this angle, Nina could only see the top of the other girl’s head. Alicie’s eyes were fixed on the lead rider. A thin, low-hanging branch lashed the girl’s back, but she barely flinched, so intent she was. Alicie raised her arm and pointed it at the rider.

  Nina turned to look back at him.

  It was hard to make sense of what she was seeing at first. She had thought that maybe the rain in her eyes was making her see funny things. She remembered the time when the hem of her favorite dress, the light green one, got snagged on one of the pricker bushes growing along the Face, but Nina hadn’t noticed and yanked a large bit of string loose. She tried pulling the string free from the thorns, but only ended up pulling more string loose. No matter what she tried, it only got worse until nearly a hand of fabric was missing from the bottom of her dress.

  Like her dress had done that day, the man unraveled.

  It started at his sword hand. Flesh and glove leather alike were stripped away from bone by an unseen force in a sudden mist of blood. The man screamed and dropped his sword as the ribbon of skin and muscle fell away from the bones of his arm in a spiral. The ribbon got tangled in the galloping horse’s legs and the sudden jolt of the horse’s powerful legs yanked the ribbon—as well as the bloody bones of his forearm—clean off. In the space of a breath, the man’s other hand, his chest, his legs, even his face began to unravel, and his scream died away as his throat was no more.

  Nina wanted to scream, but she vomited all over the door of the carriage instead. She felt hands, gentle hands, pull her back inside, hold her face. It was Chad. He made soothing sounds like Nina was a spooked mule, but they weren’t working and it was so hard to breathe and why did that man just fall to pieces like that and why oh why couldn’t she just wake up and end this nightm—

  A hard slap threw Nina’s head against the wall of the carriage.

  “Thomerlin! What do you think you’re doing?” Chad shouted.

  Thomerlin’s voice. “She should be thanking me.”

  Strangely, Nina felt a little better, even though her cheek stung like mad. She turned to face them. “It’s okay, Chad.” Then to Thomerlin. “Thank you.”

  Both boys, standing hunched under the low ceiling, sat down. A smirk of vindication spread across Thomerlin’s face.

  Through the slot, Nina could see Lora Bale twist around in the driver’s seat to look back at Alicie, still on the roof.

  “Well?” the woman asked. “Are they gone?”

  Alicie didn’t answer. At least not with words.

  She laughed.

  Hearing that laugh made Nina’s stomach churn even worse than seeing what had happened to the rider. Nina met Chad’s eyes then. He reached out and seized her hand. “Do
n’t worry,” was all he said.

  Nina, not caring what the others thought, nodded and didn’t let go of Chad’s hand until they stopped later that night.

  Chapter 17: Traveler

  Esta crouched behind a thick cluster of ferns at the forest’s edge, peering through the gaps in the fronds to the cluster of houses scattered about in front of her. Sheep and goats milled about in large pens between the houses, occasionally bleating. Seeing them made Esta’s mouth water. There were more birds than boars north of the Rift, and Esta was no archer—she didn’t even have a bow, nor did she know how to make one. She’d had to resort to eating berries for the past two days. Luckily, she’d avoided poisoning herself, but she wasn’t one to count on luck. She needed real food.

  Hungry as she was, Esta couldn’t very well spear someone else’s goat in broad daylight. She leaned her spear against the trunk of a tree, pulling the leafy green branches down around the spear to obscure it. She hid her pack as well at the base of the tree. Her mother had given her some coins, which Esta had divided into three handfuls—one in her pack, one hanging from the purse on her belt, and a smaller one sewn into the inside of her dress. A young woman traveling on her own could never be too careful, which was why she also kept her knife, the blade as long as her forearm, sheathed at her hip and in clear sight at all times.

  Her mother had insisted she bring some Shoresmen with her, but Esta knew that they would just tell her to stay home and let them deliver the message to Tharadis themselves. Which was, admittedly, the sensible thing to do, but doing the sensible thing was often merely an excuse to avoid doing the right thing. Esta couldn’t help but think that she was partly responsible for Nina having been taken, that she hadn’t fought hard enough. She also knew that Tharadis had been too trusting when he’d let Larril decide what to do with Lora Bale’s request, and it was only right that she upbraid him in person, rather than try to convey her anger in a letter.