Shadow Found (The Shadow Accords Book 6)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Carth did the calculations.

  “Let’s call it two weeks. Let’s say killing might be involved.”

  “What kind of killing?”

  “You need to find the man who carried this knife.”

  She pulled the once-poisoned blade from her pocket and flipped it to him. He caught it and studied it, no look of recognition on his face. That was disappointing. It would have been easier for the assassin to have been a sellsword, but this could work for her as well.

  “Where did you find this?” the man asked.

  “An assassin. One I want you to kill. Do you think you can do that?”

  The man considered her for a moment before nodding.

  24

  As the ship sailed away from Neeland, Carth watched the city grow increasingly distant. Marna stood next to her at the railing, no longer struggling with the same nausea she’d experienced traveling here, but her face remained pale, almost ashen.

  “So you hired them for what?”

  “Presumably I hired them to find our assassin.”

  “Presumably?”

  Carth shrugged. “There’s another task for them if this works out.”

  “If? You don’t believe it will?”

  Carth stared at the ship sailing behind them and shook her head. “I don’t believe this will end as I hope.”

  “Why aren’t they sailing with us?” Marna asked.

  Carth laughed softly. “Mostly because I don’t trust them.”

  “You trust them enough to use them to find this assassin.”

  Carth shrugged. “Finding an assassin and keeping people I care for safe are two entirely different things. One involves finding someone who has already harmed someone I care about, and another involves keeping the remainder of the people I care about safe.”

  “The more I learn of you, Carth, the more I realize how little I know you. Perhaps studying you a little longer will help me beat you at Tsatsun.”

  Carth smiled. “You can only learn so much watching someone. You need to place yourselves in their mindset in order to discover the key to their thought process. Only then can you know how to beat them at Tsatsun.”

  “Why do I have the feeling that even then I won’t know how?”

  Carth watched the narrow-bodied Neelish vessel as it split the water, keeping far enough away that she could change course if needed. The vessel held the dozen Neelish soldiers, mercenaries, men she’d hired to find this assassin for her. They believed they could, and Carth suspected they knew something, but did they know enough? Did they really know who had attacked Lindy, who had come after Marna?

  Carth wasn’t certain how accurate their information was, but it was more than what she’d had. And she believed they had connections she didn’t. She also believed they were dangerous in ways she didn’t fully understand.

  Marna disappeared belowdeck for a moment before reappearing. When she did, she carried with her the Tsatsun board and game pieces. She began setting them up, moving them into place with a practiced hand. Carth could only smile and nod when Marna indicated she was ready to begin.

  The Neelish ship had stopped three times at port. Each time they had gone to contacts they claimed to have, contacts Carth had not been allowed to accompany them to see. Each time, she thought perhaps she had gotten close enough to the man who had killed Lindy, only to find out that she had not. This time, the ship sailed past Asador, making its way along the coast. Carth felt a growing trepidation as it did, wondering why the sellswords would be heading towards Reva.

  There was no reason for them to visit Reva, none other than the fact that Carth had established her network there and that Dara was there.

  “I can see that something’s making you nervous,” Marna said.

  It was early morning, the sun starting to creep above a clear horizon. The day would be bright, the sun warm and comfortable. And yet, troubled thoughts plagued her mind. She had a growing fear as they traveled, one that was not satiated by the occasional stops in port. When they had neared Asador, Carth had thought they were going to stop, but wasn’t entirely surprised when they kept on towards Reva.

  As they pulled into the small port, Carth pulled alongside them, tying up. The captain, Delpar, one of the sellswords Carth had spent time with, stepped off the ship first.

  Carth met him, hand hovering near her knife. She didn’t want to make too aggressive a movement, but she needed to know what was going on here. Why were these men in Reva?

  “You can stay on your ship, we’ll let you know if we discover anything here.”

  Carth met his gaze. “I intend to accompany you into this city,” Carth said.

  The captain shrugged. “It’s your choice. Only that there is no need for you to. You won’t be able to follow us to our contacts.”

  Carth offered a half smile. “And you won’t be able to follow me to mine.”

  The captain studied her, then started laughing. “I would love to believe that you had your own sort of contacts. If you did, you wouldn’t need us.”

  “I don’t need you for your contacts. I need you for your skills in stopping the man I hired you to take care of.”

  The captain made his way up towards the city, followed by three of the Neelish sellswords. Carth watched them, studying them as she did.

  When she returned to the deck of the Goth Spald, Marna approached. “What is it you worry about?”

  Carth shook her head. It was hard to put a finger on what it was that troubled her, only that they had stopped in several port cities along the way from Neeland, and each time Carth had let them go alone. This time, she could at least discover what they were after. They didn’t know that she had a way to reach them. They didn’t need to know, either.

  “Would you be comfortable remaining on the ship, keeping an eye on the rest of the sellswords?” Carth asked.

  Marna glanced over at the ship before nodding. “You think you’re going to follow them?”

  “Not follow. I have another small network started here.”

  Marna started laughing before she realized that Carth was serious. “Why here?”

  “I intend to have a network all along the coast. This was the next one in my progression.”

  “In Reva? The trade isn’t that good in Reva. You’d be better off a little further down the shore in Thyr.”

  Carth’s eyes narrowed. Marna must’ve seen it, because her breath caught.

  “That’s we you’re after? You think to take on Venass?”

  Carth shook her head. “I don’t intend to take anyone on. I intend to ensure that those who’ve made promises will keep them. The best way I know how is to know more than they know.”

  Marna glanced over at the ship. “I will watch,” she said. “What do you want me to do if they begin to move?”

  “Find me. Come to the Red Lion and give them this.” Carth fished in her pocket before grabbing a small coin. “They’ll know what it means.”

  Marna held the coin out, twisting it. It was a Nyaesh coin, one that Carth had added her own signature to. It had been designed to send signals back to others in the north, ones that would indicate that they could come for her, but she could co-opt it for a different use.

  Carth made her way off the ship, trying not to look back at the Neelish ship. It was difficult, and she found her gaze drawn to them. With four soldiers in the city, that left eight on board. It was enough that she knew she would need to be careful with them, enough that she worried about Marna were she attacked, even enhanced as she was with Hoga’s concoctions.

  Once up in the city, she thought back to the last time she’d been here. What would happen if the assassins had come here? She hadn’t considered the possibility, not thinking that there would be anything here for them, believing that they had been after Marna, but… she was forced to wonder if that were true.

  What if there was another reason they had come to Reva? What if the real reason was Carth, and her network?

  The thought troubled h
er as she made her way into the city and reached the Red Lion tavern. She hoped Dara was there and would have answers for her.

  25

  Carth found the inside of the tavern to be less chaotic than the last time she’d been here. There was a certain energy here, one that came from the women that Dara managed. Carth was pleased with the way everything still seemed coordinated. She didn’t recognize the two women working in the tavern, but she did recognize the way they maneuvered through it, seemingly unfazed by the presence of the others here. A few men sitting at tables attempted to grab at them, but the women shifted so that they avoided it. They were otherwise inconspicuous as they made their way around the tavern.

  Carth took her seat at a booth, surveying the inside of the establishment. There was really nothing for her to say; this was designed for her to have an opportunity to simply observe, but she needed to find Dara, so that she didn’t have to worry about what was taking place here.

  “What’s a lovely lady doing here alone?” a man said as he approached. He had a thick slur to his words, too much drink in him. He wore a faded gray cloak and made no effort to conceal the short sword strapped to his waist.

  Carth glared at him. “I don’t think you want anything to do with me.”

  The man slid into the booth on the other side of her. He leaned forward, his breath stinking of booze, and she noted a smile emerge from beneath the hood of his cloak. There was something about it that seemed almost familiar. “Everybody wants a little company,” he said.

  He waved to one of the waitresses, who made her way over. Carth tried to make eye contact, but the woman didn’t seem to notice, or if she did, she had no reason to think that there was anything Carth could tell her.

  “My friend and I here would like a tankard of ale,” he said. He managed to make the words sound a little less slurred. The woman smiled sweetly and hurried off.

  “I’m waiting for a friend,” Carth said.

  “And you found one,” the man said.

  Carth unsheathed her shadow knife and set it on the table. She started surging a hint of the shadows into it. “I think you’re misunderstanding. You’re not the friend I’m waiting for.”

  The man stared at the knife and then started laughing. It was a slightly wild sound, but it didn’t carry very far into the tavern. Carth was frustrated, wishing he’d pull back his cloak. A man who tried to hide his features in a tavern made her slightly nervous, knowing that there weren’t too many reasons someone would do that.

  The waitress returned, carrying two tall mugs of ale. She set them down, and the man fished out a stack of coins, which she scooped up and deposited in her pocket before hurrying away. Carth caught the slight glimmer of silver from the coins. How much had the man paid her? Was he so intoxicated that he didn’t realize that he’d drawn that much out of his pocket? She’d seen more foolish things while at the Wounded Lyre in Nyaesh, so she wasn’t entirely surprised by that.

  The man lifted his mug and took a long drink before setting it on the table. “Aren’t you going to have a drink?”

  Carth slid the knife forward a few inches across the table. “As I said, I came here to meet with a friend.”

  “And I said,” the man said, pulling the hood of his cloak back, “you found one.”

  Carth suppressed a groan as she recognized Timothy. “Not drunk, I suspect, either.”

  “I find that giving off the appearance of drunkenness is a good way of being overlooked, don’t you?” He watched Carth’s face for a moment and then took another drink of his ale. His mouth twisted in a sour expression as he did. “Of course, you have to enjoy the taste of ale in order to truly enjoy its effects. Unfortunately, I do not.”

  “What are you doing here?” Carth asked.

  “You came looking for me. I only thought to find out why.”

  Carth reached for the marker she had in her pocket, the one Timothy had given her before he had left following the attack they’d survived in Asador. “I came looking for you, but I didn’t find you.”

  Timothy’s eyes narrowed slightly. “No, you found something worse.”

  “Worse? I found men for hire.”

  Timothy chuckled. He took a drink of the ale and swept the hood of his cloak back up over his face. His eyes scanned the tavern, little more than pinpricks beneath the hood of his cloak. The shadows there seemed to dance and move, almost as if he controlled them, though Carth knew that he did not. Timothy was skilled, his training in Neeland giving him a dangerous competence, and she suspected he had enhanced abilities much like Marna had managed, but other than that, she knew he was not powered, not in any way similar to her. He had been a skilled ally, one she would not have been able to survive without.

  “I warned you to find only this marker,” Timothy said, tapping the coin in her hand.

  “You didn’t tell me that there were dozens of similar markers,” Carth said.

  Timothy shrugged. “Similar, but not the same. Even in my homeland, there are different factions. Some have less honor than others.”

  Carth started to smile. “I take it that you feel you have more honor than the others?”

  Timothy leaned forward, the hint of ale still strong on his breath. He had another scent to him, one that was a mixture of earthy undertones, as if he’d been buried. It seemed strange here on the rocky shores of Reva. “There are men with honor you can hire for the task at hand.”

  “What do you know about the task I have?”

  Timothy grunted. “Only that the fools you did manage to hire have been making enough noise along the coast that they brought attention to them. I thought you were cleverer than that.”

  Carth sighed. “It’s not a matter of being clever. I’m searching for an assassin, one who worked through Asador, using this.” She pulled the knife from her pocket and set it on the table across from them. “Is it anything you recognize?”

  Timothy pulled a dark blue handkerchief from his pocket and used it to take the knife. As he twisted it, studying the blade, his posture changed. His back straightened, and he seemed somewhat taller, if anything.

  “Where did you come across this?”

  “As I said, there was an assassin in Asador who thought to eliminate one of my friends.”

  Timothy glanced from the blade to Carth’s face, noting how she held the knife. “How is it that you can withstand the effects?”

  “My abilities grant me a certain immunity.”

  “I would imagine it’s not infinite.”

  “How did you know?” She had nearly died on her way to find Alex, thinking that she had infinite immunity to the poison. That had been a mistake, and it was one she would not make again.

  “This has a certain lifespan once it reaches the blood. I imagine that even with your strength—and I have no doubt about your strength—you would still struggle to withstand it. You can touch it, and burn it from your skin,” he said, looking up into her eyes, “but I suspect that more than that is difficult, even for you.”

  “Whose was this?”

  “Someone who has betrayed the trust of the guild.”

  “The guild?” Carth asked.

  Timothy nodded. “There is a guild of assassins, men trained in the deadly art of using various poisons. This guild has a certain honor to it. If he eliminated one of your friends, that means he has violated the honor the guild is known for.”

  “How is it that you know this?” Carth asked.

  “Because I am a member as well.”

  “I thought you were a sellsword.”

  “At first. The guild members are recruited from many places.”

  “Such as the Caulad?”

  “Where did you hear that term?”

  “Hoga was one of them.”

  Timothy leaned forward, the hood of his cloak slipping a little, and frowned. “If Hoga was a part of Caulad, then she also would have abandoned it.”

  Carth wondered if that was true. Hoga might have used her knowledge in ways she shouldn’
t have, but she hadn’t been quite as dangerous as this assassin. And she still used her knowledge to benefit Marna, and others like her. In Carth’s mind, that made her a little bit less like this assassin.

  “Why are you here, Timothy?”

  “Because you are in danger.”

  “Because of this assassin?”

  Timothy scanned the tavern, his eyes drifting around, settling on an older couple sitting near the door before turning back to Carth. “As I was saying, some of the men from Neeland are less honorable than others. When I had given you my token, it was a way for you to find the Caulad Guild. Instead, you found sellswords.”

  Carth laughed softly. “Since you didn’t tell me there was a difference, I didn’t realize that I was searching for a difference.”

  “No, and you shouldn’t even know about the Caulad Guild. Few who are not members do.”

  Carth wondered how the chief of Praxis knew. Why had he known?

  “Why am I in danger from the sellswords?”

  “Because—”

  He didn’t get a chance to finish.

  The door to the tavern slammed open. Six of the sellswords slipped in, each with swords unsheathed. Two of the men sitting near the door jumped up, both unsheathing swords. Timothy closed his eyes before blinking them open.

  “As I said, danger.”

  He jumped, flipping knives from beneath his cloak.

  Carth had seen Timothy fight before, but he moved with a lithe grace, one that reminded her of Marna.

  Carth grabbed the shadow knife from the table and used it as well as the flame knife as a focus, pressing her power through them as she met the sellswords. She counted six still standing. Three more men suddenly appeared in a corner, and Carth realized she’d underestimated their numbers. She wondered if the sellswords had been arranging things so that they would meet in Reva, using this as a base to attack. How had they known Carth would come here to this tavern?

  Unless… unless they had somehow already overpowered Dara.

  Timothy turned to face the three men in the corner, leaving Carth with the six. Normally, the odds would be in her favor, but these mercenaries fought with a fluid grace, one that Carth struggled to defend against. In addition to that, she had only her knives, and they had swords.