Shadow Hunted (The Collector Chronicles Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  She continued to send pulses of power radiating away from the ship, and with each one, she felt as if she could determine nothing. Other than their ship, there was nothing for leagues.

  Sailing brought a certain bit of peace to her. She enjoyed the quiet and the sense of solitude that she had while out on the water. She enjoyed the rocking, the steady waves that slapped against the sides of the ship, and even enjoyed the creaking of the ship, a sound that had become familiar to her. Everything about this ship was home. It was so strange that a ship would be what was home, but it was, more than anything else that she had.

  “Why don’t you work with her?” Jenna said, tucking her knives back into her pouch.

  Carth glanced over and noticed that Jenna had become frustrated. Was working with Linsay too much? Normally it was Alayna who trained with Linsay, but as part of the work that Carth had been doing to help draw Jenna out from the darkness that still filled her, she had asked her to play the role of instructor.

  Carth glanced at Alayna and the slender woman hurried forward and took the wheel from Carth.

  “What were you struggling with?” she asked Linsay.

  “This time or in general?” Linsay asked.

  Carth smiled. “Maybe we start with this time.”

  “Good. If you wanted to talk about what I struggled with in general, it would be a lengthy list. Since joining you, all I’ve managed to do is get in the way.”

  “You haven’t gotten in the way at all. You’ve been helpful. We’ve used your expertise—”

  Linsay laughed and silenced Carth. “My expertise? I’ve had some time spent studying, but Boiyn is more of the expert at things than I ever will be.”

  “We all can’t be Boiyn,” Carth said. Yet Linsay spoke the truth. Boiyn had such an impressive mind that he was a wealth of information. Maybe he could help Carth understand what might be beyond the boundaries of her map. She hadn’t taken time to ask, but maybe now was the time to do so. “What was it this time?” Carth asked.

  “She was trying to teach me how to handle the knives better. There is only so much I can do with them. I don’t have the same dexterity she does. Not without Boiyn’s enhancements.”

  “You need to practice without the enhancements so that you know how much they make a difference when you have them,” Carth said.

  “I understand that, but when I practice without them, I feel as if I am always thinking too slowly. I’m always behind Jenna, particularly.”

  Carth glanced over at Jenna. She had taken Alayna’s place in the rear of the ship and stared out at the water. It seemed as if shadows splayed across her face, that somehow she summoned darkness, cloaking herself in it. That had to be Carth’s imagination, or maybe it was nothing more than the deep glower that she wore.

  “Most of us would be a step behind Jenna,” Carth said.

  “Not you.”

  Carth shrugged. “Perhaps not me, but I don’t ever put myself against Jenna.”

  “Why not? Don’t you want to test yourself?”

  It wasn’t so much that Carth didn’t want to test herself, it was that she feared how Jenna might react if she were tested. Would Jenna grow angry, or would she tolerate losing to Carth? Carth wanted to maintain the connection that she had with Jenna and didn’t want it to end up soured simply because they’d sparred.

  “There are other ways that I test myself,” Carth said.

  “Such as?”

  “Such as playing Tsatsun.” She smiled at Linsay. That was the one thing that Carth shared with Linsay. They had played a few games of Tsatsun, and though Linsay had never demonstrated much skill at it, she had enough that the games were interesting. Playing against someone—even someone without much skill—was sometimes preferable to playing by herself, though Carth did that often enough. If she could ever convince Boiyn to play…

  “I’m pretty sure that you don’t want to play Tsatsun with me,” Linsay said.

  “I’m always willing to play Tsatsun.”

  “Everything is a game to Carth,” Alayna said, shouting from her station at the wheel. “Even times when others of us aren’t convinced, Carth still sees everything as a game.”

  “Not a game,” Carth corrected. “It’s strategy. The game helps you understand strategy.”

  “And when was the last time you lost?” Alayna asked with a smile.

  “It has been a while,” Carth said. Her mentor, a Tsatsun master by the name of Ras, had taught her to play by forcing her to understand different mindsets so that she could understand every move in the game. That had been incredibly valuable, as it had helped her understand her enemies, allowing her to think as they might. It was because of Tsatsun that she had forged the accords, a peace treaty among powerful people, so that they didn’t use magic to destroy each other.

  “What happens if you find someone who does defeat you?” Linsay asked.

  “Then I start a new game,” Carth said. “One loss allows us to learn, and there are lessons to such things. We get stronger, don’t we?” she said, looking over at Alayna.

  Alayna chuckled, shaking her head. “Stop using my words against me,” she said.

  “I will when they stop making such sense.”

  “Would you like to play?” Linsay asked, studying Carth with a hint of a smile on her face.

  Carth appreciated that about Linsay. She was persistent, even if it meant her failure. She continued to push herself, as if she were willing to get better. There weren’t that many people who were willing to do so.

  “You don’t want to work with your knives?” Carth asked.

  Linsay shrugged. “I might never be skilled enough to do anything with the knives, but I am hopeful that I can learn strategy like you, Carth. If I can, maybe I won’t need to fight.”

  “Even when you learn strategy, there are still times when you are forced to fight,” Carth said. She hated that it was true, but too often, strategy led to fighting, and often it was fighting that established peace.

  They made their way below deck and Carth guided Linsay to her cabin and inside. A wave struck the ship, sending them listing to the side, and Linsay stumbled. Carth kept her balance, rolling with the wave.

  “Maybe someday I’ll even have the same balance as you,” Linsay said.

  “It’s just knowing that you have to roll with what happens. If you fight it, you end up falling.”

  “Sometimes if you roll with it, you might end up falling anyway.”

  Carth laughed. “I’ve fallen. All of us who have sailed long enough will eventually stumble.”

  They took a seat on either side of the Tsatsun board, and Carth quickly arranged her pieces. She placed the Stone—the key to ending the game—last.

  “How many ways can the board be set?” Linsay asked.

  “Only one way. Once the game starts, it can be played in countless different patterns, but only once it starts.”

  “Have you ever considered changing it?”

  “You mean, changing the rules?” Carth asked.

  Linsay nodded.

  Carth stared at the board. There was something relaxing about Tsatsun, and she found it calming even looking at the board. After a night like she’d had before, she thought that she needed to study the board, to see if there was anything that might help her know what she should do next. And maybe there wasn’t. Maybe what she needed was to continue sailing onward, to make her way toward Keyall, or even possibly to risk sailing farther, to head beyond the borders of her map and see what existed in the far west.

  “The moment you place the pieces in a different way is the moment you’re playing a different game,” Carth said.

  “Wouldn’t that be interesting?” Linsay asked. She smiled and then shrugged. “Or maybe it’s only interesting because I don’t understand the game that well.”

  “Master this first and then you can see that there are countless variations, an intricacy to gameplay that no other game I’ve ever found can replicate.”

  Linsay ma
de her move, knowing that Carth expected her to take the first move. She always allowed her opponent to move first, wanting to get a sense of how they would navigate the board before she took a turn. It was this way that helped her gain better insight into their strategy.

  Carth countered, sliding the Watcher across the board, positioning it in a place that would create a barrier. How would Linsay react? Would she recognize that Carth’s piece would not pose a threat, and certainly not from the position she had it in? Or would she think that she needed to claim it? Too many who played Tsatsun who hadn’t much experience with it would think that they needed to clear out their opponent’s pieces, destroying them in the process, so that they could win. Winning required them to claim the Stone, moving into a position on their opponent’s side of the board, but you could do that even without claiming all of your opponent’s pieces.

  As Carth feared, Linsay went after the Watcher piece. As she pulled it off the board, she smiled to herself.

  Carth moved again, taking one of her Raiders forward. This was a piece that had little value other than to surround other pieces, to restrict their movement on the board. When Linsay moved, she ignored the Raider, and Carth was thankful for that. Had she had attacked it, Carth would have known the game was over within three moves. She hoped that Linsay would be a better player than that by now.

  “You’re not playing me very aggressively,” Linsay said.

  “How do you know?” Carth asked.

  “The pieces that you’re moving.”

  Carth smiled. “It’s good that you can see that.”

  “Was that your intention? Did you want me to see that you aren’t playing me aggressively?”

  Carth stared at the board, and her mind quickly worked through the various combination of moves, knowing as she did how Linsay might react based on her relative inexperience and the few moves she had already made. Linsay wouldn’t win.

  It wasn’t that she couldn’t win. From her position on the board now, if she made a few strategic moves, she could win, but it would take planning that Linsay didn’t have. It would take patience that Linsay didn’t have.

  “My intention is to help teach you.”

  “Do you teach me by letting me win?” Linsay made a move, sliding her Fox across the board.

  It was an interesting technique, and one that Carth actually hadn’t expected. It was one of the moves that Carth had considered she might make, but then had discarded, thinking that Linsay might not be able to plan that far in advance. The Fox might be an effective piece, but only three moves from now.

  “Who said I was letting you win?” Carth asked.

  “You aren’t?”

  Carth moved another piece forward and positioned it close to the Stone. From this position, she could begin moving the Stone across the board and didn’t even have to worry about capturing too many more of Linsay’s pieces. From where Linsay was arranged, it would take considerable effort for her to capture Carth’s piece. The Stone itself would prevent her from moving too close to her.

  Linsay reacted and maneuvered a piece forward, reacting with less hesitation than she had the last time they had played.

  “Good,” Carth said. “You’re beginning to play to strategy.”

  “I don’t know that I’m going to be able to take your Thorn.”

  She stared at the piece near the Stone. There were probably a dozen different moves that Carth could see making that would remove her Thorn from the game board, but any one of them would require sacrificing a few of the other pieces, and novice players were rarely willing to make such a sacrifice. Linsay had some talent, but she was still a novice at Tsatsun.

  “Probably not,” Carth said with a smile.

  “You don’t have to taunt me with it,” she said.

  “Not trying to taunt you. I’m trying to teach you,” Carth said, making another move, this one designed to remove Linsay’s ability to use her Cavalry.

  This time, Linsay did panic, and she shifted a piece forward that would abandon her position and removed any chance that she might eliminate Carth’s ability to push with her Thorn.

  With that move, the game was effectively won, though Linsay didn’t yet know it. It would take five moves, maybe seven at most, and Carth would have the Stone on the other side of the board, with Linsay unable to do anything other than continue to chase, not able to remove Carth’s pieces.

  Carth shifted a piece. “Better, but you still have some work to do. What you need to do is begin to think through every possible move, and then think of the counters to that move, and then think of your counter to that counter. Keep extending that planning, and you’ll have a better chance at victory.”

  “Is that how you play?” Linsay asked. “I thought you memorized a series of movements.”

  “There are certain movements that you can memorize that would give you a chance at success, but what happens if someone makes a careless move that you weren’t expecting? A memorized series of movements wouldn’t allow you to react. Being prepared, planning for all the possibilities, is the only way to make sure that you’re ready to take advantage of a mistake your opponent might make.”

  Linsay stared at the board and her brow furrowed. It seemed as if she attempted to figure out where she had gone wrong and she brought her hand over the board, tapping out different positions, replaying the moves that Carth had made.

  “You had me beat two moves ago,” Linsay said.

  “Five, but the fact that you can see that gives me hope,” Carth said. “Learn from this game. Do what I do and continue to play as yourself.”

  “I thought you said you didn’t play as yourself. I thought you said you played as other people that you knew.”

  Carth smiled. “Fine, play as me. When you can play as me, then you’ll know the key to beating me.”

  “And what is that key?” Linsay asked.

  Carth laughed. “Look for my weakness.”

  “Do you have a weakness?”

  “Everyone has a weakness, it’s just a matter of figuring out what it is.”

  “Do you know what your weakness is?”

  Carth shook her head. “If I knew my weakness, I would plan for it and do what I could to turn it into a strength.” Carth stood and patted Linsay on the shoulder. “Stay here and play, practice. Get yourself better.”

  When she left Linsay, she was staring at the board, and Carth wondered if Linsay might have a chance to someday pose a challenge to her, but she doubted it. If so, she should have shown some potential before now. Maybe Carth would never find another person who would be able to challenge her unless she ventured back to Ras, and she still didn’t know whether he had allowed her to win the last game they had played or not. If he had, what would the reason have been? What lesson was there in letting someone win?

  8

  Sleep had claimed her by the time she heard shouts above. Carth awoke, struggling to shake the sleep as her heart fluttered in nervous anticipation, the same way that it did each time she was faced with the possibility of an attack. She lunged from the bed, throwing on a cloak and grabbing her sword as she raced topside.

  “What is it?” she asked of Alayna.

  Alayna stood at the helm, staring into the darkness.

  “Nothing more than three ships heading our way.”

  Carth stared into the distance, using her connection to the shadows to part them, separating them enough so that she could stare through them. There were three ships, and they were moving toward them, with enough speed and focus that Carth suspected that they were aware of their presence.

  “When did you first notice them?”

  “A while ago,” Alayna said. “I didn’t want to alert you unless it was clear that they were coming toward us.”

  “They haven’t changed direction?”

  “No. They’ve been focused on us, heading in this direction without veering off.”

  Carth looked out at the ships again and could see that they were gradually closing the di
stance. She could gauge the time before they reached them and had a sense that within an hour, maybe more, but certainly before morning, the ships would get to them.

  “Do you want to fight?” Alayna asked. She glanced up at the masthead, where Jenna would be keeping watch.

  Carth sighed. “Not without knowing what we’re dealing with,” she said.

  “And once you do, what happens then? Do we want to risk confrontation? Three ships would be more difficult than just a single one to manage. Even with your abilities, I worry that we won’t be able to navigate quickly enough.”

  “I can manage with three ships,” Carth said.

  “And what if they’re equipped with others like the last one we faced? What happens if your magic doesn’t work on them?”

  Carth didn’t like the idea of running. But she wondered what choice they had. They needed to ensure that they reached safety, and she couldn’t do that by putting them into harm’s way.

  They kept ahead of the three ships for a while, keeping a reasonable distance. They were massive ships—merchant ships. It had been a while since she’d seen any merchant ships, and Carth was surprised to find them now. Why here?

  Could they have come for Keyall?

  The city was far enough away from anything else to make it interesting for merchants. Not only would they likely be able to sell their products for a significant markup, but she suspected that Keyall would have unique items that weren’t found anywhere else. Maybe they would have items from beyond the stretches of her maps. They were places that Carth longed to see.

  “Are you sure this is… wise?” Alayna asked.

  “Following these ships? They’re nothing but merchants,” Carth said. “And we can manage when it comes to merchants.”

  “What if they’re something more than only merchants? What if we’re attacked again?”

  She glanced over at Alayna. It was surprising to see her seemingly concerned. Alayna was typically fearless and, given everything that she had experienced in her life, it would not be surprising for her to be more concerned more often.

  “Something about the attack unsettled you.”