The Shadow Accords Box Set: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  Carth nodded. She hurried across the grounds until she came to the palace. The pair of A’ras who stood guard at the door let her in without question. Once inside, she hurried to the Master Hall and knocked, but no one answered. She tried Invar’s room, thinking he might be there if anywhere, but that was empty as well.

  Returning to the main door, she stopped. “Have you seen Master Invar?” Carth asked.

  Rond, a slender A’ras who had to be at least ten years older than her, shook his head. “Master hasn’t been here most of the day.”

  “Do you know when he might return?”

  “The masters don’t provide us with a schedule, Rel.”

  Carth sighed and left the palace. She wandered across the yard slowly. She could do as Alison asked and return to her, but Carth wanted to talk to someone about what she’d seen, and Alison wouldn’t understand the significance. Recognizing that pained her.

  “Rel.”

  Carth turned and saw Samis near a cluster of trees, watching her. She let out a relieved breath. She might not be able to share with Invar, but Samis should understand. “Samis.”

  He smiled as he stepped away from the trees. “I heard you can’t keep yourself from excitement. The others seem to think you’re a magnet for it.”

  Carth blanched. If that was the case…

  “Don’t worry. I don’t think you’re all that bad.”

  “We were attacked by Reshian.”

  “Really? We haven’t seen any traces in the city. They’re supposed to be here, but we’ve never come across any. Rumors outside, though.”

  She leaned closer to him. “They were using the shadows, Samis.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “I didn’t want to believe it, but that’s the only thing that makes sense. They shrouded themselves before they attacked. They nearly got to Trista.”

  Samis whistled. “Good thing you were there. Good thing you always seem to be there when this sort of thing happens.”

  Carth hated that he was right. Not only with the Hjan, but with the strange humming energy she’d detected, and now with this attack. What did it mean for her that she was always where the attacks came? Could she draw them toward her?

  “Rel… I see what you’re thinking. This isn’t on you. The Reshian have been making their way into the city for the last few weeks. There’s nothing about what you do that puts us at more risk.”

  Weeks. “Ever since the Hjan attacks,” Carth said.

  Samis shrugged. “I don’t think they’re the same. You know the Reshian have been here for much longer than the Hjan.”

  “I don’t know anything about them, really. Only that they tried abducting some of the kids along the docks when I lived there.”

  Samis nodded. “Slave trade. They’re a part of that. Kids are easiest to move, part of the reason we’re brought into the palace grounds when we train. They like taking women, too. My sister was almost snatched on the trip to Nyaesh.”

  “Why women?”

  Samis frowned. “Are you asking a serious question? Women for prostitution. There’s a market in the southlands, though it’s mostly across the Lhear Sea. Not much of that here. Not much of the slave trade here, either.” He smiled. “We’re a bit more refined.”

  “We should do something to stop it!”

  “You want the A’ras to climb onto ships and cross the sea so that we can prevent slavery? I think we’ve got enough trouble within Nyaesh, Carth. We’ve got magic, but it’s not as strong as what others possess. The Hjan attacks have shown us that. We can fight, but there are others with as much skill. My father always told me about a place called Neeland, where the swordsmen are deadly. What do we have that other places don’t?”

  “When I was younger, my family moved around a lot. We never found anything like what you’re describing.”

  “Like I said, we’ve got our own problems. These are violent lands, with enough fighting that it spills over to other places, but we don’t have the same slavery issue they have in the south. Trade one for another, I guess.”

  “Like the Reshian.”

  “The Reshian. They’re bad, Carth. They aren’t afraid to make the crossing. They have skilled captains, and skilled fighters.”

  “And they can use the shadows.”

  Samis sighed. “If they can, then that’s even more reason to be careful. Listen to what Trista has you do. She’s a skilled A’ras.”

  “I plan on telling Invar.”

  “Good, but you should know Master Invar doesn’t have the same reputation he once did. Some are thinking that his mind is going.”

  “I’ve not seen anything that would tell me his mind is slipping,” Carth said.

  “Would you know?”

  “I think I’ve spent enough time with him the last few weeks to have recognized it, so yes.”

  Samis shrugged. “You might be the only one who feels that way, at least from the rumors I’ve been hearing. The others… they put up with him for everything he did for the A’ras, but they all say that he’s slipping. Much longer, and I think the other masters will send him off.”

  She wouldn’t argue with Samis, but it troubled her that rumors were spreading about Invar losing his mind. Carth hadn’t seen anything that would make her think that his mind had gone. He was still sharp.

  “Be careful, Rel. I think it’s good that you’ve been raised to sai, but now that you’re out of the palace grounds, it gets more dangerous. And it’s been getting more and more dangerous over the last few weeks. I… I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  She shook her head. “Nothing will.”

  Samis flashed that disarming smile of his. “Good. Now, I’m supposed to report back to Erik. I don’t know what they have planned for tonight, but I’d better not keep them waiting.”

  When he left her, Carth stood in the growing night, watching him depart. In spite of the attacks, she felt strangely hopeful. She’d been raised to sai. Trista and Devn seemed to have warmed to her. Alison was back as her friend. And Samis… there was something there, even if she didn’t know what it was.

  With everything seeming to come together, why did she feel a growing discomfort?

  22

  Carth was awakened by a hand on her shoulder, her heart pounding.

  She sat up, reaching for the knife she kept beneath her pillow as she scanned her room. She strained for the shadows, but they didn’t respond.

  Samis grabbed her wrist and kept her from reaching her knife. “It’s me, Rel.”

  “Samis? What are you doing here?”

  “Come on. You’re needed.”

  “For what?”

  “I don’t know. The other A’ras sent me to get you. They were going to send Landon, but I volunteered. Hope you don’t mind.”

  “You’re better than Landon,” she said, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Samis pulled his hand off her wrist, and she grabbed her knife. Carth got up and dressed quickly, appreciative of the fact that Samis had turned away. She’d been dressed—one of the lessons the ashai learned was that you had to be prepared for awakening at any time of day—but not fully, wearing nothing more than a nearly sheer slip.

  As soon as she was dressed, she stuffed her knife into the sheath on her waist. “What can you tell me?”

  They started out of the cosak, and Carth noted the other sai coming from their rooms as well. Not only she had been roused, it seemed. There were nearly a dozen sai, each partnered with two A’ras to make a patrol, so for all of them to be dragged out of bed in the middle of the night meant something was happening.

  Carth waited, partly expecting the rolling nausea to hit, but it never came. Not Hjan, then.

  “There’s not much I can tell you, mostly because I don’t know myself. I got woken and told to get others.”

  They hurried across the yard, moving quietly in the night. She took a moment to try and detect anything else that might explain why she’d been woken, but found nothing.

 
It had been days since the Reshian attack, days that had passed quickly. Patrols had been benign, and Carth’s connection with Trista and Devn had continued to improve. Now they no longer ignored her as they patrolled, even included her in conversations discussing where they would patrol next. They hadn’t encountered any more of the Reshian, but she sensed that neither of them wanted to encounter any further threats. The last one had shaken them, and through the conversations she’d overheard, part of that fear came from the fact that they recognized that they wouldn’t have fared quite as well had Carth not been there. In some ways, that created a different sort of isolation.

  They reached the gate and found a collection of A’ras waiting. Trista and Devn were among them, and both nodded to her. Samis left her with them without saying another word.

  “What is this?” Carth asked.

  “Another attack,” Devn said.

  “Reshian?”

  Trista nodded. Her eyes were bloodshot and she carried the stench of ale. Was she safe to be out here? “We think so, Rel. Don’t know much more than what we’ve been told, and that isn’t too much, either.”

  “Why so many?”

  Trista glanced at Devn before answering. “A team was killed, Rel. All of them.”

  Carth’s breath caught.

  “I know you’ve been in other situations, so we’re not worried about you, but… we need to be safe. Use your potential, and be ready.”

  “For what?”

  Trista shook her head. “For anything.”

  They started through the gate, partnered up with another team. Carth didn’t know the A’ras on the team, but the sai was an older girl named Leah. She nodded to Carth but didn’t say anything more.

  Trista led the patrol. Rather than the spiral she usually used as they left the palace grounds, one that Carth had discovered helped ensure that they covered as much ground as possible, she marched them quickly through the streets, and they made their way toward the docks.

  Carth kept her eyes focused straight in front but wrapped the shadows around her, ready for whatever attack they might encounter. She didn’t even bother holding on to the A’ras magic. At night, she could use the shadows more effectively anyway. Besides that, she worried that if the Reshian used the shadows, she would need to be ready.

  Few people were out in the streets, but when they saw the A’ras, they went running, scattering. It left the streets with an ominous and empty feeling, one that Carth had never experienced in her time living along the docks. There were always people out.

  As they neared the docks, she felt a flash of pressure against the shadows. Someone moved through them, someone who was aware of the shadows and knew how to use them.

  “There’s something up there,” Carth said.

  Trista looked back at her. “You sure?”

  She nodded. “Don’t know what it is, but I can feel it.”

  Trista looked over at Devn. “Be ready.”

  “You’re going by what Rel has to say?” one of the A’ras asked.

  Trista turned sharply to the man. She was about a foot shorter and quite a bit lighter than he was, but she made him take a step back. “Damn right, I am. Rel kept us alive. Kept Master Invar alive. The least we can do is listen to her.”

  Trista tapped Carth on the arm. “Where now, Rel?”

  Carth focused on her connection to the shadows, noting how whatever she sensed cut through her connection. It was a strange sensation, one that she wasn’t even sure of the meaning of, but the sense of it was distinct, and real.

  She pointed at the strongest surge.

  Trista started in that direction.

  They had reached the River Road, which appeared different than it normally did. Carth struggled to figure out what she detected before realizing that it came from shadows diffusing across the street, growing thicker, almost like a fog.

  “Can’t see anything down here,” one of the other A’ras commented.

  “Fog coming off the river,” the other said.

  They disappeared into the shadows, going off down the road, away from the thickest part obscuring the street, leaving Carth, Devn, and Trista alone.

  “It’s not fog, is it?” Devn said.

  Carth could see him looking at her. Did he know she could use the shadows? Did he know that she could see through them as well?

  “It’s not fog,” she said.

  “You know what this is?” he asked, getting close enough that he could whisper.

  “Shadows. The Reshian can use them.”

  Devn breathed out. “Should have known there was something more to them.”

  “You don’t seem surprised,” Carth said.

  “There have been rumors of the Reshian possessing some sort of ability for a while. Didn’t think it would be anything like this.”

  Carth felt movement near the shore. “They’re near the warehouses,” she said.

  “How do you know?” Trista had gotten closer, and listened to them.

  “Because I can use the shadows too.”

  “That’s how you saved Invar, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “And the attack?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. We’ll need whatever we can get to keep us safe. If you can use it, then you should be leading it.”

  Carth swallowed. They expected her to lead. She wasn’t sure she was ready to lead, not when it came to the A’ras. It was one thing for her to go running off into the darkness on her own, with only herself to worry about, but it was much different when she was responsible for making sure that others were safe as well. She would have to make sure that Trista and Devn weren’t injured. That would be on her, and if she somehow failed—if the shadows kept them from determining what was coming—that would be on Carth.

  “Stay close to me,” she said.

  “Why?” Trista asked.

  Carth pulled on the shadows, cloaking them. As she did, it created something of a shimmery light that parted the depths of the shadows, making it so that they could see easier.

  “What happened?” Devn asked.

  “I cloaked us.”

  “Cloak?”

  “It’s something I can do with the shadows. I can use them to pull around me. Us, I guess. We’re able to use the shadows that way.”

  “Why does it seem like you made it brighter?”

  “Because something of the shadows shifted, coming around us but releasing around the rest of the street. That’s about as well as I understand it.”

  “How long have you been doing this?” Trista asked.

  “Before I came to the palace, but since I’ve been there, I can’t detect them the same way. Until recently.”

  “The attack?” Devn asked.

  “The attack disrupted something along the wall, the barriers that restrict my access.”

  “But not in the street?”

  “Not the rest of the city.”

  Trista glanced at Devn. “Good.”

  Carth moved quickly forward, staring through the darkness. The sense of someone pushing through the shadows persisted, but she couldn’t tell where they were. Veering toward shore, she waited, focusing on the sense of pressure. Creeping along the shore, she held on to the shadows, letting them cling to her. Wrapped in them as she was, she didn’t detect anything.

  Would it matter if she added A’ras magic?

  Gritting her teeth, she pulled on the sense of it deep within her, tearing it as it flowed through her. The magic came slowly, oozing toward her, and she grasped enough to add into the shadow blessing. It was only a trickle, barely anything, but as she did, the shadows shifted. There was no other way for her to describe it. The pressure she’d detected again was there, this time clearly only a few steps from her.

  And not alone.

  Nearly a dozen.

  Too many for them to handle by themselves.

  The attackers seemed to realize she’d noticed them. They moved quickly toward her.

  What could she do?
The shadows didn’t help, not against people who had some ability with them. It was possible they couldn’t use the shadows the same way she could, but even if they only shrouded themselves, that was enough to make it impossible for Trista and Devn, let alone the other A’ras patrol, to help.

  Running wasn’t an option. The river was a torrent behind them, the rapids giving the only noise in the otherwise muted night. The Reshian in front of them prevented them from getting past.

  But they were A’ras. Carth might not be full A’ras—not yet—but she couldn’t run, not while these men threatened the city.

  There was one thing she hadn’t tried, and she didn’t know if it would work if she did.

  “Be ready,” she whispered to Trista and Devn.

  Carth reached for the shadows and pulled.

  Tearing the sense of the shadows away from the Reshian felt similar to trying to pull the A’ras magic from herself. It came slowly, almost painfully, oozing away. Had she not had the experience with that magic, and had she not practiced fighting through it, she would have given up.

  Carth screamed.

  They were nearly upon her.

  Taking a deep breath, she pulled one more time.

  The shadows parted, leaving natural night.

  Carth released them, pushing them across the river.

  Trista and Devn leaped past her, attacking in an onslaught of activity.

  Carth stood, unable to move for a moment. When the first attack came at her, she moved slowly, as if dazed, and managed to block the sword swinging toward her. The second would hit her. She saw it but couldn’t do anything to stop it.

  Another was there, the sword catching the one meant for her and turning the blade.

  Carth took a step back and stumbled.

  Samis.

  “Get up, Rel. I think we’ll need your help for this one.”

  She took a breath and stood. Magic flared around her, burning through her skin from all the A’ras attacking. Carth joined in, her strength gradually returning. She helped Samis with the man he faced, then moved on to another, trying to grab for the A’ras magic as she did but failing. The next came at her more quickly than she could react and she pulled on the shadows, sending them through the knife as she did. His eyes widened as he died.