The Shadow Accords Box Set: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  And why here?

  What would bring the Hjan here?

  Those were answers she didn’t have, but needed.

  And she had no idea how to find those answers.

  They wandered through the city for much of the morning, stopping in different taverns and supply shops, searching for answers. By the end of the day, when Carth and Dara were both tired, they sat on a bench along the seashore while waiting for Guya to return. He thought he had a source for information, and at least could discover if Talun and the Goth Spald had been into port, but claimed he’d have to go on his own. If the girls went with him, he’d not learn anything. Evening started to fall, leaving a cool nip to the air, and the stretching shadows that Carth appreciated.

  Neither girl spoke, and Carth had no problem sitting in silence. In many ways, she preferred to sit quietly, listening to the sounds of the sea as it lapped at the shore. Carth stared at the ships in the bay, looking for one that could be the Goth Spald. As she did, one particular ship caught her attention.

  She jolted to her feet.

  “What is it?” Dara asked.

  Carth stared, going so far as to try to pull on the shadows to see if they would augment her vision, but she couldn’t be certain. The ship looked like it, but was she wrong?

  “Do you see Guya’s ship?”

  She shook her head. The ship was too broad-sided for Guya’s fast-moving ship, but this might be something better.

  “No. I think… I think it’s the Levelan.”

  26

  A smaller boat rowed toward the shore from the ship she thought might be the Levelan, and Carth made her way toward the dock where it would arrive. She had to push through a crowd that hadn’t thinned in the time they had been here, jostling between people as they meandered toward the dock. Could Jhon actually have tracked her here?

  If he had, how?

  She hesitated. That was the better question, wasn’t it?

  How would Jhon have found her? Of all the places he could have gone, why would he have ended up here?

  The coincidence bothered her. The Levelan had been headed south and toward the Reshian, not back north. Even if they searched for Carth, they wouldn’t have ended up here, would they? None knew where she headed.

  Except Ras.

  She glanced back toward where Dara sat on the bench. Carth asked her to remain, not wanting her to follow, and not wanting to worry about her keeping up as she fought through the crowd.

  There was something she missed. She felt that deeply, only she didn’t quite know what it might be. In some ways, it felt like the first time she’d played Tsatsun, when the game didn’t make enough sense to her, and when the moves were too complicated. And here she had thought herself skilled. Maybe arrogance was her weakness.

  Lurking behind the crowd of people, she waited to see who might be coming off the ship. If it was Jhon, Carth might have to risk exposing herself and grab him, if only to determine why he had come here. She thought about the alternatives, and if it was others, Adam or Tessa… what would she do then? Carth didn’t know. They might not know why Jhon had come.

  As she watched, she noted a familiar face. Not Adam or Tessa, and not Jhon, but the captain of the Levelan. He was a dark-haired man and had a stern countenance, one that made him seem angry most of the time. As usual, he wore a long, dark gray cloak and had his hands stuffed in the pockets. Others around him backed away as he approached, either because they sensed his mood, or, she began to suspect, because he had some ability that pushed them back. After all she had seen, she no longer doubted that others had different magics, though she wondered how many different types existed. There was the magic she used, that of shadows, but also that of A’ras and the flame. What would Captain Isan use?

  She’d rarely spent time with the captain, but she’d seen how Jhon respected him and how much time he had spent with him, either to convince the captain that he needed to see them all the way to the south, or for reasons Jhon had never shared with her.

  Isan pushed through the crowd, parting them so that he could make his way. Carth intentionally avoided using any of her abilities, refraining from both the shadows and the A’ras flame, not wanting to trigger anything he might detect. She didn’t know if he could detect anything, but if it was possible, she didn’t want to expose herself before she knew what he was up to.

  He turned his head as he made his way through the crowd, and at one point, he nearly locked eyes with her. She lowered her head, careful not to meet his gaze, and waited until he passed before looking up again.

  When she did, she almost lost track of him.

  He was there, in the distance, and she noted only the hood of his cloak. He moved steadily toward the place she had been sitting, and Carth looked to see if he would notice Dara, but the girl was gone.

  Where would she have gone?

  Carth should have brought her with her, not left her on the streets in a port that Guya had warned her about.

  Swearing under her breath, she caught the attention of one of the men passing by, who flashed a grin of yellowed teeth. Carth lowered her head and hurried away, moving back toward where she had waited with Dara.

  The captain had passed through, and she could see the top of his hood, but not much more than that. If she didn’t follow him now, she’d lose him. She could always remain by the dock and wait for him to return, but she wouldn’t know where he had gone, or why he’d come to Wesjan.

  She thought about taking the dinghy out to the Levelan. If she did that, she might be able to sneak aboard and learn more, even see if Jhon remained on board, but that risked losing Dara and Guya both, and she felt an obligation to them. Not only an obligation, but a connection to Dara, with her ability to use the Lashasn magic.

  Casting one last look at the bench, she started after Isan.

  If she could catch him, she might be able to learn something. She could find Dara again afterward. She doubted she would have wandered far. What she needed now was information, of which she had so little. She knew the basics—that the Hjan were coming here, and that they wanted Lashasn born with the power of the S’al, but she didn’t know much more than that. How were the Reshian involved? They had to be involved somehow, but Carth didn’t know how.

  Isan moved purposefully through the city, leaving the lower section near the docks and making his way toward the stone buildings, those made of the gleaming marble that shone in the late-afternoon sunlight. Carth had to move more carefully here as she followed him, still unwilling to use the shadow magic, but able to track him through the skills her father had taught while he was alive. In that way, she felt more like when she’d lived with Vera in Nyaesh, using her sneaking skills to help her collect scraps, in a time before she knew anything about other magic in the world.

  The captain stopped at a small sloped-roof building and glanced down the street before ducking inside. Carth waited a moment before hurrying along the street and pausing in the space between buildings. There was a tingling sense coming from the building, one that sizzled against her skin.

  The sensation of A’ras magic being used.

  Carth recognized it easily. There wouldn’t be many who would, not if what Invar had told her was correct. To her, the A’ras magic burned through her, leaving her skin tingling and her pulse racing, almost as if her heart hummed along with the magic, calling to her.

  She had to get inside, but she would have to do it in such a way that the others wouldn’t know she was here. If they detected her, what might they do? Isan would recognize her, and she wasn’t sure she wanted him to, not until she was ready.

  Trying the door, she found it unlocked. That would have to be the last place she would use. The windows were locked, though, and if there was some sort of back entrance, she couldn’t find it.

  That meant she would have to go through the front door.

  Carth couldn’t do so in the daylight, even fading as it was. She would have to use the shadows, but doing so risked exposure if there
were others with her abilities.

  Only, she wondered if it would.

  Her abilities were different than those of the shadow blessed. She could use the shadows in ways they couldn’t. She was more than shadow blessed, something about which Ras had made a point of reminding her each time he’d worked with her. She was shadow born.

  Did that make a difference?

  Carth didn’t know. It had to, though.

  She took a deep breath and gently started wrapping the shadows around her.

  The touch was the lightest one she could use, barely more than brushing at the shadows, enough to gather them to her, but not so much that she would be apparent with them.

  When they cloaked her, and when she knew that they surrounded her fully, she prepared to open the door, knowing she risked that Isan or whoever of the A’ras were inside would detect her. The door opened before she could reach it.

  Carth threw herself against the wall, holding the shadows against her.

  Her breath caught. Isan left, but no one followed him. She had detected A’ras magic inside, hadn’t she?

  Now she no longer knew whether she had. The sense was gone, faded as if it had never been there; only the memory of it remained.

  She debated whether to follow Isan or try to sneak into the room. Isan might lead her to more answers, but going into the room would potentially help her understand what he was after in returning to the north.

  In her mind, she tried playing out the scenarios, using what she’d learned of gaming and strategy. If nothing else, she could find Isan again. The Levelan remained in port, and there would be time before they managed to get out ahead of the coming storms.

  That answered it for her.

  Wrapping herself more tightly in the shadows, she pulled open the door.

  Carth didn’t know what to expect when she entered. Empty chairs were arranged in a circle, and the hearth near the far corner was cold. The floor was dusty, but there were footprints throughout, most larger than hers, though there was one set that was smaller.

  She checked other rooms, but they were empty as well.

  Where had whoever Isan had met with gone?

  They couldn’t have disappeared, not unless he worked with the Hjan.

  Could he?

  The idea worried her, but it was possible, especially as she didn’t know much about Isan. He had sequestered himself away while she was on board the Levelan, never coming out long enough to do more than glance at her, as if dismissive of the fact that Jhon wanted to sail south with her and continue her education.

  The others on the ship had all supported the Reshian. Adam and Tessa. They would not have sided with the Hjan. They had battled against the Hjan and lost to them already, so she doubted they would have allowed Isan to work with them, unless they didn’t know.

  Was there anything here that would help answer whether the Hjan had been here?

  There weren’t many things that signified the Hjan. Whenever she had faced them, they would appear and disappear just as quickly, flickering from place to place as they traveled. They would have no need for the doors, but then they would have had no need for this place to meet either. They could have joined Isan on the ship.

  Carth needed to follow him.

  The captain was the only real lead she had, and if she wasn’t quick enough, she might lose even that.

  Still holding on to the shadows, she stepped outside the building.

  As soon as she did, she felt that something was off.

  It took a moment to realize what it was.

  Power built near her, and power that was familiar to her: shadow magic.

  The Reshian had found her.

  All the time she’d spent wanting to get to them, and now they had come to her.

  The realization troubled her.

  Why was Wesjan suddenly a place the Hjan had decided to attack? Why would the Reshian be here in such numbers that she could detect them?

  She needed to find answers, but she wouldn’t do that cloaked in shadows.

  As she lowered the cloaking and stepped forward, a face emerged from the darkness, one that took Carth back to a time years before. A face she saw in her dreams but had never expected to see in person again.

  Could he be real? Could he be here?

  It had to be.

  “Father?”

  27

  Carth paced in the small, windowless room, her mind racing. A single lantern hung on a hook, and a dusty desk had been pushed against one of the walls. The ceiling almost brushed her head, and would have touched the head of a taller person. She barely noticed that, just as she barely noticed the fact that shadows wrapped around her, practically writhing up her arms. The A’ras magic burned within her, and she brushed off her awareness of that as well.

  How could her father still be alive? All this time, she’d believed him dead. She had seen him dead, hadn’t she?

  But she hadn’t.

  The A’ras had claimed they had taken him away, but she had never seen what had happened to him. She had believed him dead, but had never seen his body, not like she’d seen what had happened to her mother.

  Her hand went to her neck, to the ring she wore on a chain there. Other than the books she’d left aboard the Levelan, she had only the ring as a reminder of her mother, nothing more. Carth had considered wearing it, but had never been able to bring herself to actually do so, preferring to keep it on the chain around her neck.

  Other than that, she had the knife that she’d learned had been her father’s, but she’d lost it to Ras.

  The door opened and her father stood framed by darkness. The shadows didn’t conceal him as well as they once had, and they didn’t prevent her from noting the heavier streaks of gray in his hair, or the way the lines around his eyes had deepened. Once, he’d smiled easier, and she wondered if he’d lost it during the last few years. He still smelled like her father, an earthy scent, one that mixed with something like the coming rain.

  “Carthenne,” he said with a sigh. His voice had changed, a little wearier and hoarser than it had been before. “I have found you. Finally.”

  Her heart lurched in her chest, and she wanted nothing more than to use the shadows and hide. She’d thought her parents lost. If her father lived, why was he here now? Why hadn’t he come to her before?

  Thoughts raced through her mind, and she couldn’t slow it, even if she wanted to try to piece through the possibilities. All that mattered was that her father was here—and that he had never come for her.

  “What happened to you?” she demanded.

  It was all she could say. As much as she might want to run to him and wrap her arms around him, feel the warmth and familiarity of her father, she wouldn’t allow herself to do it, not until she knew.

  “You saw what happened.”

  Carth shook her head. “I saw what I thought happened. Mother was killed. I thought the A’ras took her.”

  “They did not.”

  “I know they didn’t. Now. But I spent months blaming them.”

  “You know what really happened.”

  Carth squeezed her eyes shut as the image of her mother lying on the stones, not moving, raced to the front of her mind. It was a memory that haunted her at times, often keeping her awake long after she should have been asleep. “I know what happened to her. What happened to you?” She opened her eyes and fixed him with an accusatory expression.

  He didn’t shrink away from it. “The Hjan attempted to capture me. I was rescued by others.”

  “What others?”

  “The Reshian.”

  That surprised her. After seeing her father now alive, she hadn’t thought she could be surprised again, but she was.

  She had thought the Reshian wanted to work with her, that they recognized in her the same connection to the shadows. Was that not why they searched for her? “Why didn’t you find me sooner?”

  “Carthenne,” he started, stepping into the room.

  She raised a han
d and he stopped. “Don’t. I deserve answers. You taught me about the shadows, but you never taught me! Why did I have to learn after you were gone? Why did I have to suffer—”

  “You never really suffered. I saw to that.”

  She closed her eyes. “You saw to that, which meant you could have revealed yourself as alive at any time. Why hide from me?”

  That he hadn’t come for her sooner might hurt more than anything.

  “Your mother wanted you in Nyaesh. The journey was dangerous, but she felt strongly that it needed to happen. I couldn’t dissuade her, and when you started flashing tendencies—”

  “What tendencies?”

  “The kind that told me you would be strong. The blood of Ih flows through your veins, Carthenne, but so does that of Lashasn.”

  Carth opened her mouth to respond, but stopped. “I’m from Ih-lash,” she said. “Of course it does.”

  He shook his head. “The people may have united, but the old bloodlines never did. There has always been those of Ih and those of Lashasn.”

  “Then why did you bring me to Nyaesh?”

  He glanced over his shoulder and sighed. “We don’t have much time, but I’ll share what I can, but to understand, you have to know the history of Ih-lash.”

  “I’ve heard the history. I know how Ih and Lashasn were unified.”

  Her father smiled. “Someone shared with you the story of Carthenne?”

  She nodded.

  “A shame it could not have been your mother. It was her idea to name you after her. She thought that you could bring true unity.”

  “But Ih-lash was unified, at least until it was destroyed!”

  “Unified in name, but not in spirit. Lashasn has always possessed a power that countered that of Ih, but when Carthenne created a peace—a lasting peace—those of true Lashasn blood dispersed, settling farther south, where they could use the magic of the fire that burned in them without fear that those of Ih would intervene.”

  Carth’s heart started to flutter and resisted any effort she made to slow it.

  “You mean the A’ras?”