Shadow Hunted (The Collector Chronicles Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  And that was saying nothing about what would happen when Jenna was freed.

  “What will it take for her to get out?”

  “Hers was a crime of anger. When she calms enough to be released, we will do so. Until then…”

  “Do you think to torment her?”

  “Not torment. This is meant to serve as a lesson in patience.”

  Carth watched as someone in the crowd hurled a fruit at Jenna, striking her in the temple. Jenna snarled and snapped at the person, as if she were some sort of wild animal. “She won’t find calm. Not like this. I’ve been trying to help her for the last few months, and she’s come a long way, but…” She shook her head again. Now everything that she had accomplished would be lost. That hurt Carth the most of anything, especially as she knew how hard-won those changes had been for her friend.

  “It seems as if your attempts to help her have been quite effective.”

  “Better than this,” Carth said. “You would treat violence with violence?”

  “She will remain here until she realizes that reacting with anger and violence to everything that comes her way will not get her anywhere.”

  “Do you beat your children in Keyall?”

  The man frowned. “I fail to see how that matters.”

  She nodded at Jenna. “There are times when such lessons are necessary, and there are some criminals who cannot be reformed.” Carth certainly had met enough of them that she had been unable to help despite everything she had tried. In those instances, it was often better simply to realize there were some who couldn’t be helped, and move on. “There are times when treating violence with violence does nothing more than teach violence.”

  The constable smiled at her. “You would accuse me of attempting to teach violence?”

  “That’s all this does. It’s no different than smacking a child to get them to stop fighting. All that does is teach that whoever is bigger gets to make the rules, even if they don’t apply to them.”

  “You would equate your friend to a child?”

  Carth watched Jenna. With the wildness she saw in her eyes, and the way that she snapped at anyone who came too close, she thought it an apt comparison, though it might be giving Jenna too much credit. In this form, she was less than a child. Less than a woman. It broke Carth’s heart.

  “I would equate your discipline to that. There are much more compassionate ways of teaching. That is what I would attempt. That is why I have worked with her.” Carth looked up at him. “I will see her freed.”

  “When she learns how to find calm,” the constable said. “And on the chance that I was not mishearing when you first appeared, I would warn you that we have archers trained throughout the square. If you make an attempt to free her, they have orders to loose arrows on whoever makes the attempt.”

  “I don’t fear your archers.”

  The man studied her. “Perhaps you don’t. Then I will instruct them to aim at your friend. The lesson would be for you in that case.”

  “I see.”

  “Do you?”

  Carth nodded. “You know only cruelty. That explains much to me that I hadn’t understood when I first reached Keyall.”

  “Such as?”

  “Such as the Collector. Alistan Rhain. I understand the cruelty he displays, as I do the cruelty of those who think to oppose him. They have learned it from their leaders. What else could they be but cruel?”

  The constable laughed softly. “I think that you have quite the wrong idea.”

  “Do I? And what would the right idea be?”

  The constable turned to her, arms crossed over his chest. “You are new to Keyall. I will not hold that against you with your statements, but you would be wise in exercising more caution, especially with regards to him.”

  With that, the constable turned, leaving Carth staring after him.

  She watched his back for a moment before turning to Jenna.

  She started toward her friend and dropped low, getting in front of Jenna’s eyes. A fruit whizzed toward her, but she batted it out of the air. “Jenna. It’s Carth.”

  Jenna glared at her. It was an expression that Carth remembered all too well from when she had first been found. She had been wild like this, and Boiyn had had to prepare sedatives for her so that Carth could get her away. Would she have to do the same this time? If all Jenna had to do was find a sense of calm, could she settle herself long enough to get herself free?

  Not like this.

  “You have to calm yourself, Jenna.” She moved forward, trying to force Jenna to meet her eyes. “Please. Jenna. Look at me. If you don’t calm yourself, they won’t let you out.”

  Carth tried to reach for Jenna. When she did, she saw a flicker of movement on one of the rooftops. The archers.

  She jerked her hand back. As she did, Jenna snapped her head toward Carth, as if to bite her hand.

  “We’ll stay with you. All of us. I’ll see if Boiyn can do anything. If he can, maybe we can get you out of here.”

  She stood and turned to her friends. “Stay with her until I return.”

  15

  Boiyn poured a liquid into a tall bottle and shook it vigorously, then held it over a nearby flame until steam rose from the top of it. Weary lines marred the corners of his eyes, and ink or soot was smeared along his forehead.

  “This one should work,” he muttered.

  “You said that about the last,” Carth said. She glanced at the row of vials on the table, each a failed attempt to create a sedative that would allow Jenna to remain awake but calm the aggression within her.

  “The last was close. Each iteration gets us closer. Now, if you wouldn’t mind testing it?”

  Carth sighed and took a drink of the elixir. She didn’t know if it would work, but she had the advantage of being able to burn off the effects, regardless of what it might do. She could wait, see what effect it would have, and if it seemed as if it might offer the necessary sedation, she could burn it off using the S’al.

  The elixir tasted foul, much like all of them had.

  “Why don’t you add mint to these to make them a little better?”

  Boiyn considered her for a moment. “The mint would react with the tashenberry, rendering it ineffective. There are other flavorings I could use, but that would take even more testing to know whether they will damage the intended effect. Now, can you tell me what you feel?”

  Carth thought about what she could detect. As usual when she took one of Boiyn’s enhancements, she felt a fluttering in her chest. She wondered how much of that came from nerves about what the enhancement would do to her and how much from the compounds involved. She had to treat it like she would any poison, and Carth had much experience with burning off poisons. This should not be a problem for her.

  “There’s the fluttering—”

  “Yes. You have mentioned that each time. I think you will notice that each time. What else do you notice? Is there any sense of sedation?”

  Carth didn’t think so. She felt no different, if only perhaps a little tired because of what they had been doing with these experiments.

  Then it hit her.

  It came on suddenly. There was a sense of emptiness. A hollow sort of thing. It filled her.

  Carth panicked and sent a flash of the S’al burning through her.

  The effect burned off as quickly as it had come on.

  “Something happened,” Boiyn said. “I felt your heat if nothing else, but there was an alarmed look on your face that tells me there was something else.”

  Carth nodded, looking at the vial. That was like nothing she had experienced. That couldn’t be considered an enhancement so much as it took away from her. It stole her sense of self.

  She was thankful that it hadn’t taken her ability to reach the S’al. What would have happened had she been trapped with that sensation and unable to burn it off? How horrible would it have been?

  “It was… emptiness.”

  “Emptiness? No, this should ha
ve worked to take away anger.”

  “It took away everything. All emotions,” Carth said.

  “That should not have been. Let me try a modified version. Perhaps we can tamp that down a little.”

  “Only a little?”

  He shrugged. “You need for the rage to leave. This will take away the rage, but it has an unfortunate additional effect.”

  Boiyn started working to mix more of his compounds, pouring various liquids together. He would occasionally bring them over to the flame, heating the mixture for a while before moving on and adding a few other items. He hummed to himself as he worked, a habit that she had always found amusing.

  “Boiyn?”

  He paused his humming and glanced over at her. “Hmm?”

  “Have you ever heard of the Elder Stones?”

  His hand stopped moving and he swiveled his head toward her. “Carthenne?”

  “Apparently, the Collector seeks something called an Elder Stone. I don’t know what it is, and Linsay claims that it’s nothing more than a story, but there are many things in the world that I’ve learned are real when others felt they were nothing more than rumor, including myself.”

  Boiyn set the vial down and leaned forward, resting his hands on the table as he looked at her. “Carthenne, the Elder Stones are very much real. And they should not be touched, certainly not by those who are not meant to have them.”

  “Meant to have them? Don’t tell me you believe in the same stories that Linsay said others do.”

  “I don’t believe in anything. I have seen evidence of their existence.”

  “And what are they?”

  “They are concentrated power. There are some who would believe that they come from the Elders themselves, though I think that might be more than a little bit story. Whatever they are, they are old—some of the oldest known artifacts of power.”

  Carth stared at him, not knowing what to say. Linsay was usually the one to know about such things. She was the archaist, after all, but if anyone else would know about them, it would be Boiyn. So much of what he had said made no sense to her.

  “What are the Elders?” she asked.

  “Not what. They are ancient beings of power. Most consider them gods, though perhaps not the gods that you are familiar with.”

  “Like the Great Watcher in Elaeavn?” she asked, thinking back to what Linsay had said about the stones.

  “Exactly. And there are some who think the Elvraeth in Elaeavn possess a set of stones.”

  “A set? How many of these are there?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think anyone can say that they know. Perhaps the Elders,” he finished with a smile.

  “And these have power?”

  “Carthenne, they are rumored to be quite powerful. If they exist, which, of course, I can’t confirm.”

  She smiled at him. “You said that you have seen evidence of their existence, and now you tell me that you can’t confirm it?”

  He shrugged. “The evidence is indisputable.”

  “Which is?”

  “There are many recorded documents that refer to these stones. They are too many to believe that it’s chance, and from places that would be far enough separated that they should not share similar stories. It is unusual that they do.”

  “If the Collector is after an item like that, from what I’ve seen, he should not be allowed to have it.” None she had met in this city should be allowed to.

  Boiyn tapped his lips thoughtfully. “It would make sense for there to be an Elder Stone here, though.”

  “Why is that?”

  “If you believe there is a collection in Elaeavn”—his tone suggested that he wasn’t completely convinced that there was—”and if you believe that there are other Elders—or gods, if you prefer—then it would make sense for them to be scattered.”

  Carth imagined what would happen were the Collector to manage to gain control of something of power like that. It also made her realize something else, something that she hadn’t fully considered yet.

  “How long do you think the Collector has been in Keyall?” she asked Boiyn.

  “I don’t know. I haven’t spent any time in the city to know.”

  Carth smiled to herself. “That’s not entirely true. When we first went into the city, you went off, and you were seen making your way into the city. You still haven’t told me where you went.”

  “There’s nothing for me to tell you. I got off the ship simply to see something other than these walls,” he said, motioning around him.

  “If there’s something I should know…”

  “If there was something you should know, I would make certain that you did, Carthenne. I have done nothing other than fulfill your requests. I have not been deceptive about any of it. Please do not accuse me of something like that.”

  Carth sighed. He was right. “It’s not you. It’s this place. It’s Jenna. She will remain in the stockade until she can learn to find a sense of calm.”

  “I take it from your expression that you don’t anticipate her finding a sense of calm very easily.”

  “Boiyn, you were there when I first came across her.”

  “I think ‘came across’ is a bit too light. You found her caged, and you freed her.”

  “Freed her, and then spent the last year trying to find a way to restore a sense of normalcy.”

  “I would say that she has recovered quite nicely. She might be a little impulsive, but other than that, she is no different than any of the other women you work with.”

  Carth didn’t know whether that was a compliment or a criticism. Many of the women Carth worked with were damaged in some way. Often they had been through something terrible, and Carth had rescued them, finding a way to restore them after they had lost so much. It was that way with Alayna, and it was that way with Jenna.

  “You should see her, Boiyn. She’s reverted to what she was before. I don’t know how long it will take her to recover.” Seeing the horrible expression in her eyes, Carth wasn’t sure whether she would be able to recover at all. It would take time, and more patience. “Maybe it was a mistake bringing her with me on this journey. We’re so far away from the others, and it will take too long to return her.”

  “Would you say the same about Alayna?”

  Carth shook her head. “Alayna is… stable.”

  “There was a time when you couldn’t make such a claim.”

  “There was a time,” Carth said.

  “Don’t doubt yourself, Carthenne. You have done amazing things for all you have saved. Now, if you’ll allow me to get back to this mixture, perhaps we can settle her anger enough to get her freed from the stockade, so that you can begin your work with her once more.”

  Carth leaned back, watching Boiyn work. There was something rhythmic about the way he went about mixing the various liquids. It reminded Carth of her mother and the patience that she had demonstrated when she had mixed various leaves and berries and other combinations together to create different compounds. Carth had never had the same touch, though she did wonder whether she might have learned from her mother and might have eventually been able to take after her, had her mother not passed as early as she had. She had spent time watching Boiyn and other herbalists like him mix their concoctions, and had spent time learning, wanting to know what they were doing.

  Boiyn began humming and added a bluish powder. There was a flash, and then it dissolved into the liquid. He frowned to himself as he stirred it, holding it over the flame. Carth had learned that the flame allowed the concoction to dissolve better, mixing more evenly. She didn’t know why that should be, and was more than happy to add her connection to the S’al to help with mixing, but Boiyn never asked.

  “If I were to go looking for an Elder Stone, where would you suspect they would be found?”

  Boiyn stirred his mixture a little more before glancing over at her. “They would be places where you would detect power, Carthenne.”

  “O
nly where I would detect power?”

  Boiyn held his gaze on the liquid. “Others might notice, but they would notice it as an energy. Most would be unlikely to know what they were even picking up, but there would be a sense from the stone, and someone with as much power as you have would be able to determine it.”

  “Can the stones be destroyed?”

  “Anything can be destroyed, but the better question would be whether you wanted to destroy them. Why would you want to destroy an artifact of such power?”

  “If this artifact is acquired by someone like the Collector, I would prefer to do anything that I needed to ensure that he didn’t hang on to it. If that involves destroying it…”

  “You don’t think that you can protect it?”

  Carth didn’t know. Could she protect an item of great power? She knew that she wouldn’t be tempted to use it, though others who worked with her might be. As much as she trusted Jenna—at least when she was well—and as much as she trusted Alayna, she knew that they would both be tempted by the idea of power.

  “I think… I think that I would try.”

  “Do you intend to find it before the Collector?”

  Carth stared straight ahead. Was that what she intended? If that was what it took to prevent the Collector from gaining more power, then perhaps it was worthwhile. It would be useful for her to at least meet him, to understand what he intended, but so far, all she had was rumors. Everything that she’d heard made him seem like a monster, but no one could be quite that bad.

  “I’ll get Jenna free first, and then I’ll worry about what the Collector is after.”

  Boiyn swirled the mixture again and set it in front of her. “Try this.”

  Carth didn’t hesitate and took a drink. She waited until the effects settled in, noting the same hollowness she had felt before. It was there, stealing all sense of emotion, but less so than it had before. She didn’t panic quite as she had the last time, letting the effects simmer within her. She felt empty, hating the sensation but knowing that she needed to let the effect work through her as long as she could tolerate it. Nothing more came.