Dead Light March
Page 8
“Spit it out, Mina. We’re not safe here.”
“I know,” Mina said. “That’s what … that’s what I’m here to say. A warning.”
The shadows around Mina rustled, seemed to whisper to each other. Mina glanced up, her eyes widening even more. She had the spirit vision, Sierra realized, just not very advanced. At least, that’s how she made it seem.
“You have a warning for me, so you hide out in the woods and wait for me to come to you? You couldn’t send a text or something? This is creepy.”
“No, I know, I … I was gonna come out and talk to you, but then I felt it nearby and …”
“Felt what, girl? Come on, now.”
“The …” She sighed. “Here.” With a trembling hand, she held up what looked like an old playing card.
Sierra didn’t move. “What’s that?”
“It’s from the Deck of Worlds. Take it.”
Sierra shook her head. “My mama told me not to take freaky magic cards from strange white girls I meet in the woods.”
“Sierra, I’m … I’m not here to hurt you. I know you’ve had problems with the Sorrows before, but —”
“You’re with the Sorrows?” All the shadows tensed and took a step forward. Sierra clenched her fists. “Get out of here. Leave. Don’t talk to me in the hallway. Don’t talk to my friends. And definitely don’t let me catch you skulking around these woods while I’m working with my shadowshapers.”
“It’s not like that, Sierra, listen —”
“I listened. I heard what you said. Get out of my sight before I let these shadows loose on you.”
Mina shook her head, took a step backward. “You don’t understand,” she whispered, placing the card in the soft forest soil at her feet. “But when you do, come find me. I’m not … I’m not your enemy, Sierra. Take the card. Don’t leave it there. You need to … you need to take it.” She turned around and ran.
Sierra took a step toward the card.
“Sierra?” María called from behind her. “¿Estás bien, m’ija?”
“Sí, Mami,” Sierra said. “Ya voy.”
She crouched down to get a better look. An archaic, faded drawing was scrawled on the front of the card. It showed a white wolf with blue glowing eyes, its jaws open and lips pulled back into a snarl. Gleaming castle towers spiraled toward a stormy sky in the background. El SABUESO de la LUZ was scrawled across the top in elegant, medieval print. On the bottom it read, The HOUND of LIGHT.
Sierra stood up. The spirits flushed around her as she backed away from the card, then turned and walked quickly out of the woods.
Daniel José Older’s first young adult novel, Shadowshaper, received four starred reviews, won the International Latino Book Award, was nominated for the Kirkus Prize and the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, and was also recognized as a New York Times Notable Book and an NPR Best Book of the Year. It went on to become a New York Times bestseller. Daniel is also the author of the Bone Street Rumba adult urban fantasy series and the short story collection Salsa Nocturna. His essays on race, power, and publishing have been published online and in the collections The Fire This Time and Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World, and his short stories have appeared in many science fiction and fantasy magazines and anthologies. He also writes music and plays bass in the soul-jazz band Ghost Star.
Daniel lives in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, where the Shadowshaper Cypher is set. You can find his thoughts on writing, read dispatches from his decade-long career as a New York City paramedic, and hear his music at his website, danieljoseolder.net, and follow him on social media at @djolder.
Copyright © 2017 by Daniel José Older
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e-ISBN 978-1-338-17131-0
First edition, June 2017
Cover design by Christopher Stengel
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