Shadow Hunted (The Collector Chronicles Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Would it be easier if we had others of the Binders come join us?” Alayna asked.

  Carth sighed. It would be easier if others of the Binders came, but if they did, it would weaken the networks where they had been. It would be better if she could establish something here, and she still hoped to, but who would she use? Either people were afraid of the Collector or they worked for him.

  “It will be fine,” Carth said.

  “Fine, but you continue to run off to check on the ship. Eventually, you will have to trust that the ship will be fine.”

  “If we lose the ship, the rest of this plan will fail,” Carth said.

  Alayna nodded. “And if you don’t rest, then you place yourself in danger. I’m just suggesting that you not push yourself quite so hard.”

  Carth took a seat, wishing that the village felt more like home rather than the sense she had that they were hiding, running from something. They had interceded on three ships today. Three ships that had attempted to leave the city—all smugglers. Carth had turned them back, forcing them into hiding. Even better, they had managed to follow one of them, so she knew where the smugglers had gone.

  “I’m sure you have his attention,” Linsay said.

  “I might have his attention, but I intend to send a message with this.”

  They had encountered three more of the ramming ships, and she had incapacitated each of them. It became easier the more she did it, and she had found the way that she needed to focus her flame magic to ensure that the ships sank, but not so quickly that the men on board were lost. They needed to return, to bring word to the Collector, and perhaps through her compassion they would think differently about her than the Collector did.

  Carth watched Boiyn work. As she often did, he mixed liquids and powders together, bringing them to heat, stirring. When he was finished, he handed this vial to Linsay, and she glanced at Carth with a shrug and then took it.

  “What will this do?”

  “You don’t bother to ask before taking it?” Carth asked.

  Linsay shrugged. “I’ve learned to trust Boiyn and his enhancements. Besides, some of them work differently on me than he intended.”

  Carth frowned. Some of his enhancements worked differently on others than how they worked on her, which was the entire problem. Had they worked the same, perhaps Jenna wouldn’t have been quite so challenged.

  “What do you detect?” Boiyn asked.

  “It’s strange. Everything seems to be moving more slowly, even you, Carth.”

  “I haven’t done anything yet.”

  Linsay smiled. “It’s interesting. Was this the intended effect?”

  “This is part of the effect, though I had hoped that you would see more clearly also.”

  “It’s light enough in here that it would be difficult for me to tell whether I could see anything more clearly.” Linsay jumped to her feet and hurried outside. She stared into the darkness, laughing softly. “Everything is so clear. It’s almost as bright as if it were daylight.”

  Could enhancements like this be the reason that the people in the city—and the Collector—were able to ignore her magic? Could it be that they had found some way to counter the effect of what she did?

  Carth pulled on the shadows, wrapping them around Linsay. “What about now? Do you see anything differently?”

  Linsay looked around. “Did you do something?”

  “I tried.”

  “It’s like a cloud covered the sun. Everything is still clear, but slightly less so than it had been.”

  Carth glanced back to Boiyn. “How long do you anticipate this to last?”

  He glanced at the vial. “The ingredients are all of a sort that they should work through her system within a few hours.”

  “Is there any danger if she were to take this again?” She could imagine other people consuming enough quantities that these elixirs could become dangerous.

  “The basic ingredients aren’t necessarily dangerous, but there is a possibility that, if consumed frequently enough, they would begin to have toxic effects.”

  “Is it possible that enhancements like this are how the Collector and his people are able to counter my magic?”

  Boiyn shook his head. “I’ve been struggling with that since you first mentioned how they managed to ignore your magic. It’s possible, but they would’ve had to know exactly what effect they were trying to counter. Far more likely that they have some innate immunity to your magic, or possibly that they simply possess items that give them the ability to ignore it.”

  “We haven’t come across anything like that before,” Alayna said.

  “Just because we haven’t come across it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.”

  Carth stepped back out into the night. To her eyes, darkness surrounded everything. She could lighten it by pulling on the shadows, surrounding herself with them, but she did not see the same way that Linsay appeared to with the enhancement.

  “Do you see anything in the night?” Carth asked.

  Linsay shook her head. “That’s just it, Carth. It’s not night, at least not to me. It’s practically daylight.” They made their way through the smugglers’ village, and Carth let Linsay lead as she explored the extent of the enhancements. She had to admit that an enhancement like this could be useful, especially to her friends when she drew upon the shadows. Why hadn’t Boiyn considered something like this before?

  Unless he had but hadn’t managed to create it yet. It was a strange coincidence that he would suddenly be able to make such an enhancement now.

  When they neared the edge of the village, Carth paused, but Linsay didn’t, continuing beyond the borders.

  “We shouldn’t go too far. I’m not sure how far you can go that I can protect you,” Carth said.

  “There’s nothing…”

  Linsay paused, leaning forward as if trying to focus on something.

  “What is it?”

  “There’s movement.”

  Carth pulled on the shadows, drawing them to her just enough to reduce the darkness. Even when she did that, she couldn’t see what Linsay saw. Maybe it was nothing, but with staying here, and with the smugglers knowing about this place, she had to consider the possibility that they would try to use the village—or at least discover that Carth had started to use it.

  She thought about hurrying back to Boiyn, using the same elixir to enhance her own eyesight, but decided against it. If there was anything out in the night, she didn’t want to waste time going back, especially if they snuck toward the village.

  “Show me what you saw,” Carth said.

  “Maybe it was nothing but an animal,” Linsay said. She was more hesitant now and forced a smile.

  “Do you think it was only an animal?”

  Linsay shook her head. “No.”

  “Do you have a weapon?”

  Linsay checked her side and patted the daggers hidden beneath her jacket. “I’m not completely unarmed,” she said. “But what happens if these enhancements wear off while we’re fighting?”

  “That’s why I’ll be there.”

  Linsay considered her for a moment before nodding. They continued into the night, heading away from the village, and Carth hoped that Alayna would remain on edge for the possibility that an attack might be nothing more than a diversion.

  They reached the narrow path leading up and away from the village, heading up toward the city in the distance. It would operably be two days’ hike if she were to go by foot, much longer than traveling by sea, and much of it would require going up a steep grade.

  As she approached the path, she noticed movement.

  “Step back, Linsay,” Carth warned.

  “Did you see something?”

  Carth shook her head. “I don’t know what it was, but…”

  She pulled on the shadows, lightening everything. As she did, she knew that it would create a disturbance among the shadows and would reveal the fact they were here. She no longer worried about that
, especially if there was something here.

  Figures appeared around them. She counted five.

  Who did they side with? Were they with the Collector or were they part of the rest of the city? Had the constabulary come after her for rescuing Jenna?

  Carth stepped forward, drawing on the shadows for strength, pulling them within herself. If these people were with the Collector, she was prepared for the possibility that her magic might fail her, and was ready to unsheathe her sword if it were necessary.

  “You’re outnumbered,” a voice called from a nearby tree.

  “Am I? Do you think numbers matter when I have superior strength?”

  Someone chuckled. “Is that what you believe?”

  It was a strange voice, and with a hint of an accent, enough that Carth realized that the speaker would not be from Keyall. She pulled on the shadows again, wanting to see through them, when her connection to them failed.

  Darkness surged around her.

  “Carth?”

  There was worry in Linsay’s voice, and Carth thought that she understood. If the figures were approaching, it could be that they were readying an attack, and Linsay might be the only one able to see it.

  Her connection to the shadows was gone. It was simply that she could not pull them away from her any longer. That was unusual. When she’d lost a connection to the shadows before, it had separated from her. As part of her training with her S’al, the shadows and the flame had been taken from her. In this case, she simply couldn’t use them.

  Carth took a deep breath and focused on the connection to the S’al.

  As with the shadows, it was there. But when she tried to use the connection to the flame, it failed.

  Interesting.

  There was something else she could try, but it would be difficult—and possibly dangerous.

  Carth turned her connection to the flame inward, letting the power surge through her and continue to build. As it did, she began to glow. She pushed more and more, letting the power of the S’al flow out of her, through her, a connection that they could not distort.

  She saw the figures. They were near her, but as she continued to glow, they stepped back, finally halted in their approach.

  “The Collector, I presume?” Carth asked.

  Linsay sucked in a deep breath.

  A tall man stepped from behind a tree. He was muscular and his clothing fit him well, cutting a striking figure. He had a youthful face and dark eyes that studied her with a curious interest. “You must be Carthenne Rel, shadow born, trained by the A’ras, and master of the Binders.”

  Had Talia shared with him?

  She wouldn’t put it past Talia, especially if she were afraid of the Collector, but she hadn’t mentioned anything about the A’ras—or the Binders—to Talia. That meant that the Collector had learned about her. Maybe he had anticipated her coming.

  “I prefer to be called Carth of C’than.”

  The Collector tipped his head as he studied her. “That is news to me. I hadn’t realized that you made claim to the C’than.”

  “What have you heard of me?”

  He stepped closer, seemingly unmindful of the fact that she was glowing from the power of her S’al magic. Would he have some way of countering it? If he did, she had to be ready to resist—and be prepared to fight.

  As he approached, she sensed energy from him. She was attuned to many different types of magical ability. It was something she had first noticed when facing the Hjan and their ability to flicker from place to place. She noticed it with others connected to the A’ras and was also able to detect those with shadow ability, but it didn’t require only a connection to the magics she possessed.

  What she sensed burning within him wasn’t the kind of power that she had detected from others with magic. Whatever connection he had, it was unlike other magics.

  “I have heard that you seek to make a claim upon the entirety of the north.”

  “I don’t seek to make any claim. I seek to protect.”

  He spread his hands and flashed a smile. There was something disarming about it, and Carth imagined that he must be appealing to some, though she had long ago learned to look past simple superficial appeal. His smile widened, as if he were realizing that his charm was not working on her.

  “In that, we are much the same.”

  “You intend to protect Keyall?”

  “Eventually, but first I must influence.”

  “And by influence, you mean that you intend to control the flow of merchants through the port.”

  He shrugged, and it was the barest movement of his shoulders. Somehow even that managed to look appealing. “Perhaps, but you say that as if I have done anything wrong. I am simply gathering my influence.”

  “You’re trying to acquire something. Rumor has it that you seek an Elder Stone.”

  “Ah, rumors have a way of spreading.”

  “You don’t deny it?”

  “Why should I deny it? If I were to find an Elder Stone, it would be incredibly valuable.”

  “And that’s all you want? You want money?” That didn’t seem to be what she had heard. Everything she had heard made it seem as if the Collector wanted power more than he wanted money.

  “What more do you think that I want? With money, I can have everything I want.”

  “You intend to use money to get power. That is less surprising.”

  The Collector studied her for a moment before his smile faded. Any effort to charm her ceased. Carth maintained her connection to the flame, continuing to glow, pushing back the darkness of night. She had never tried adding shadows inwardly, not certain what effect that would have—or if she would explode herself much like using shadows and flame together caused an outward explosion—but would risk it if needed against the Collector.

  “You are trying to disrupt my profits.”

  “I wanted a chance to speak with you.”

  “And now you have it. It is time for you to end your attacks on the ships coming to Keyall.”

  “I’m not attacking the ships.”

  The Collector arched a brow and stared at her with an unreadable expression. “You are attacking my ships.”

  “Am I?” Carth looked at him with an innocent expression. “I thought I was defending these merchant ships from pirates. The seas can be dangerous, especially around here.”

  The Collector watched her for a long moment. “Indeed. Much like the constables can be dangerous if you attempt to violate their rule of law. Rumor has it that a young woman who thought to attack one of the local constables was broken free from the stockade.”

  “Rumors have a way of spreading.”

  His smile returned. “You don’t deny it, then?”

  “Why deny it?” Carth looked at him. Her breaking Jenna free had an extra benefit. It had shown the Collector what she was capable of doing. It might have revealed more than she wanted, but at least this way, he would be forced to take her threats seriously.

  “You will leave my ships alone.”

  “Or?”

  “There is no or, Carthenne Rel.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t do that. You see, if you know anything about me, if you’ve heard anything about me, you would know that I tend to take a particular stance when I see others in danger.”

  “I didn’t realize that you had chosen to make yourself a constabulary of the sea.”

  “I do what’s necessary to protect those who need it.”

  “You do what’s necessary to protect women you think need it. Not all need your saving, Carthenne Rel.”

  Carth stared at him, neither of them blinking. “I think it’s time that you depart, Collector.”

  He bowed his head. “Collector? Is that who you think I am?”

  “You would have me think that you’re not?”

  A predatory smile parted his lips. “I am Alistan Rhain. I serve the tribunal. I would not risk that position.”

  Carth glanced over at Linsay. Had she made a mistake? C
ould Rhain not be the Collector?

  “You disrupt my plans.”

  “Your plans with the smugglers?” Carth asked. She thought she was beginning to understand but needed to be certain.

  “Smugglers? They facilitate trade that has been cut off. I’ll admit they were difficult to hire. Few are willing to risk themselves with the Collector.”

  And Carth had attacked the smugglers. Was she now responsible for what happened to trade in Keyall? Was it her fault?

  “This conversation was… beneficial,” Rhain said, watching her.

  “In what way?”

  “I find it always helpful to get a sense of the opponent, don’t you? How else will you know how to anticipate their next maneuver?”

  He flashed another smile, this one lingering longer than the others, and turned away, motioning to the men around him. They responded, disappearing back into the darkness. Carth held on to her connection to the flame, pushing back the shadows, until it was clear that they were gone. For good measure, she reached out with her connection to the shadows and to the flame, searching for evidence of any of the men still out in the forest, but there was none. They had completely disappeared.

  Slowly, ever so slowly, Carth began to relax her connection to her magic. She backed up, feeling shaky, as she bumped into Linsay.

  “What is it?” Linsay asked.

  Carth shook her head. “Only that I might have underestimated him.”

  “Because he can restrict your connection to your magic?”

  “No. Because he’s not the Collector.”

  And if he wasn’t, then who was?

  23

  The trek up the slope leading to the city took less than two days. Carth chose to walk, not trusting the port, leaving the others behind with the Goth Spald. There were times when it made sense to travel together, and there were times when her presence simply put the others in danger. This was one of the latter.