Shadow Lost (The Shadow Accords Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  She blinked. His admission surprised her, and while she didn’t know if she could trust him, she had to try. Wasn’t that what she was discovering? She needed the help of others as she tried to understand what they faced.

  “Give us warning if something comes.”

  Samis nodded, his shoulders drawing a little straighter. “You won’t have much time.”

  Carth tapped Dara on the arm and turned down the hall to follow Invar.

  The A’ras master hadn’t waited for her, and she found him at the end of the hall, stopped at a section of the wall.

  He looked over his shoulder and fixed Carth with a steady gaze. “You will need to be ready, Ms. Rel. The other with you as well.”

  Carth glanced to Dara. “Are you ready?”

  “For what?”

  Carth shrugged. “I know about as much as you. Just be ready. Do the things we’ve trained for and you should be fine.”

  Dara clenched her jaw and nodded once. As she did, power began building from her, a steady burning Carth felt deep beneath her skin. It was a steady sensation, one that started first as a throbbing and then increased to a clearer aching sense.

  Carth used her own connection to the S’al and pulled on power, drawing through the ring.

  Invar nodded once, as if satisfied now that they had begun pulling on their magic.

  He pressed his hand against the wall.

  Where he placed it, the stone began to glow. A latticework of pale yellow began crawling out from his hand, creating a trail of writing that Carth couldn’t decipher, but that she recognized. It was like the writing in her mother’s old books, what she had believed to be Ih-lash writing but now wondered if it might be Lashasn.

  Invar tapped a few of the words with his other hand. The glowing seemed to brighten steadily, building with each placement of his hand on additional symbols, so that by the time he rested his other hand on the wall, an entire section of the wall around him glowed with an almost blinding light.

  “Evan would have known how to open this?” Carth asked.

  Invar shook his head. “Only masters would have known about this,” he said softly.

  She sensed the disappointment within his voice.

  A door slid open.

  Light brighter even than the wall poured out.

  It slammed against them, a brilliant connection to the S’al, drawing more than she ever had seen, more than even the bright white light she’d suffered through while trapped by Ras. The light was like a weapon that spilled out. Were she not connected to the S’al, she was afraid it might burn through her and destroy her.

  “Invar—what is this?”

  He didn’t look back at her. “This is a place where our ancestors brought those they feared.”

  “Lashasn ancestors,” Carth said.

  Invar nodded once.

  “And they brought shadow born here, didn’t they?” That would be the only reason for such powerful brightness. It would overwhelm anything the shadow born might be able to accomplish, eliminating any possible connection to the shadows.

  “At first. The records indicate this was built for someone particularly strong with the shadows. Over time they began using it on others.” He took a deep breath and looked back to her. “You must hold on to your connection to the flame, Ms. Rel. If you lose it here, I can’t promise what will happen.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “This protection was designed for someone with part of your abilities, though not both of yours. There has never been one so connected to both lines as you, I don’t think. But the shadows—you might find that they fade from you while you’re here.”

  “Fade? As in disappear?”

  Invar nodded. “This was designed not only to capture, but to eliminate the threat for good.”

  Carth looked down to her ring and pulled on the power she felt within it, drawing the strength of the S’al as she did. It would have to protect her, but in order for it do so, she would have to be stronger than what she sensed here. Could she?

  To save those who had entrusted her with their care, she would. What choice did she have?

  Invar stepped across the barrier and into the room.

  Carth started forward, but Dara grabbed her arm and held her back.

  “Are you certain this is safe for you? If he thinks you need to hold on to your connection to the S’al while in there, what will that do to your other connection?”

  “If they’re in here, I have to help them.”

  “What if we help them, and you watch?” Dara asked.

  She smiled. Having Dara worry about her was unexpected, and appreciated. “I think I need to do this,” she said.

  It wasn’t only that she needed to help the Reshian they’d brought to Nyaesh; there was a part of her that also needed to know what had been done to the shadow born long ago. She needed to know what the A’ras had once done. It might help her to understand the animosity that remained, and why the accords were such a tenuous peace agreement.

  Dara unsheathed her knife and handed it to Carth. “Use this if you need something.”

  She patted the knife she had sheathed at her waist. “I have one.”

  “You have one you use with the shadows. This is a knife my father gave me. My mother could use the S’al, but not quite the same way my father could. He was powerful, and had control much like what I see from your Invar.” She pointed with the knife. “This was his.”

  Carth took the knife, feeling the weight of it. Had she remained in the A’ras, she would have forged a knife of her own, adding her strength to it. The only knife she had remaining had been her father’s, and that had connected her to the shadows more than to the flame.

  “I’ll get it back to you.”

  Dara nodded. “You will.”

  Carth pulled on the S’al, now using both her ring and the knife. Both augmented her power, allowing her to reach for much more than she could have reached on her own. She drew upon the S’al, taking in as much power as possible.

  Then she stepped across the barrier and into the room.

  27

  Light surged around Carth.

  When she had been trapped by Ras, there had been a bright white light like this, but also a sense of biting cold. That cold had prevented her from reaching the flame, and the brightness to the light had prevented her from reaching the shadows. The combination had held her, confining her inside the cell until Ras had chosen to release it. Carth had never figured it out on her own, thought she had tried.

  This light had none of the cold. There was a sense of warmth to it that mixed into the overwhelming brightness, but not warmth like standing under the sun. Her eyes slowly adjusted, taking in the brightness and gradually allowing her to see more than white and yellow.

  Invar loomed in front of her, outlined as a lesser glow within the room. She turned and saw Dara coming up behind, dimmer than Invar, but not so much as she would have expected. Dara would be powerful one day, if she was given the chance to train.

  Carth wondered what she looked like. Probably not as bright as either of them.

  “Where are they?” she asked Invar. Her voice sounded strange. Not muted the way it did when she was wrapped in the shadows. This was almost a sense of emptiness.

  Wrapped in this emptiness, she had a sudden surge of fear about what would happen were she to release the connection to the S’al. What would it do to her connection to the shadows? Would it make it fade, the way Invar had warned?

  “They will be deeper into this room.”

  “How deep?” Carth asked.

  “Much deeper,” Invar said.

  He continued onward, and Carth followed him, worried that she might lose him in the enormity of the space. Dara remained close, almost pressing against her back. Carth didn’t want to lose her either.

  “How does he know how to get through here?” Dara asked softly.

  Invar paused and turned to them. “He has gone through here before. He has never expected this pl
ace to be used before.”

  “This is more than a prison,” she said as they went further.

  “This is more than a prison,” Invar agreed.

  She felt power around her but didn’t know why that should be. Why would she be aware of the power, almost as if someone used the A’ras magic here?

  A terrifying thought came to her. Could all of this be powered, much like the flame in the Master Hall?

  Carth decided to test it.

  She pressed out, using a hint of power, enough that she could push out against the brightness she detected around her.

  If it was like the flame in the Master Hall, it would dim.

  It did, but only slightly.

  “Careful, Ms. Rel. This is an ancient construct and one that even the masters here did not fully understand. We would not have been able to recreate it.”

  Carth stopped pushing against the light but held tightly to the power coursing through her.

  Invar stopped.

  Carth looked, searching for sign that there might be others here, but didn’t see anything. The light was too bright around her, too overwhelming. She noted shades of brightness, but that was all that she could see.

  “Invar?”

  “They will be here, Ms. Rel,” he said. His voice was soft and echoed strangely.

  Carth didn’t see any shift to the intensity of light, nothing that would indicate there was someone else here with them, but then would she? Invar used the A’ras flame in order for her to see him, as did Dara. Those of Reshian wouldn’t be able to do so.

  Worse, the shadow connection they did possess would be stifled.

  “How will we know? Are they chained somewhere?”

  He shook his head. “There is no need for chains, Ms. Rel. This type of enclosure is such that it would be unnecessary. Imagine what you would experience without your connection to the flame.”

  That meant this was exactly like what Ras had used against her, only with a twist so that it would counter both of her abilities. How would he have known how to do this?

  Ras had managed to navigate in the brightness and find her, but then, he had placed her in such a way that there were only a few places she could have gone. Was this the same? Would it direct her the way that Ras had directed her?

  “Can you find them?”

  “Eventually.”

  “We might not have time, not if the others of the A’ras reach us first.”

  “I am aware of our time constraints,” Invar said. “It takes time to navigate and find where they would go. This is designed to confine them, not us.”

  Carth knew how she would find where they might have been held, but it required her to do something she didn’t know whether it was safe for her to do. Would her connection to the shadows fade? Would she lose it completely and not be able to regain it?

  To find the others, those she had put in danger by bringing them to Nyaesh, she had no other choice.

  She released her connection to the S’al.

  Pain surged through her and she staggered.

  “Follow me,” she said.

  “Carth?” Dara cried.

  “Follow. Me.” The pain pushed on her. She had felt something like this before, but it was even worse than what she had experienced when she was under Ras’s control. This was like fire racing through her blood, as if everything she knew had been burned away. She could feel the part of the shadows that she knew, the part that she should be able to detect, fading. There was no other word for it, nothing other than fading. There was nothing.

  Carth staggered again, the pressure from the light and the warmth pushing on her. It overwhelmed her, but she knew what she needed to do. She needed to find her way toward where the light pushed her. She needed to find the children of Ih.

  She was distantly aware of the presence of Dara’s hand on her back, clutching at her cloak. Did she even still hold on to the knife? Squeezing her hand, she felt the hilt of it press into her palm.

  The light pushed her and she followed.

  The pain eased as she did, growing gradually less, though not lessening completely. In that way, it was just like what she had experienced with Ras.

  “You need to reach the S’al,” Dara whispered.

  “The S’al blocks me from reaching what I need,” she said.

  The pressure of the light pushed.

  She could do nothing more than follow. What other choice did she have?

  Then it eased.

  Nearby, she heard whimpering.

  “Andin? Lindy?” She cried out their names.

  “C-Carth?”

  She reached for the nearest voice. Hand gripped hers and squeezed. “I’m here,” she said.

  “They caught you too?”

  This was Lindy. She knelt, and Carth imagined her face pressing up against her though she couldn’t see it. “I’m here to help.”

  “There is no help,” Andin’s voice called through the brightness.

  “Take my hands,” she said. “I’ll see you out.”

  “How? You’re trapped the same as the rest of us. There’s nothing, Carth!”

  “Andin!” Lindy snapped.

  “It’s her fault that we’re here,” Andin said. “We trusted her and she led us here. She claimed a truce, that peace would keep us safe, but there is no peace, not for us. We’re from Isahl, and they are descendants of Lashasn.”

  “We might be descended from Lashasn, but that doesn’t mean we all agree with your treatment,” Invar said.

  He practically glowed, and Dara next to him as well.

  Now that she was here, and now that she was with them, she pressed through her mother’s ring, through the knife that Dara had lent her, and reached for the power of the S’al.

  It flowed slowly at first, as if even that ability had faded.

  Carth pulled on it, raging against the connection. When it came, it did so suddenly, and with a fury.

  “Carth?” Dara asked.

  She surged again, drawing more and more of the power in this room.

  The walls flickered.

  It was subtle, but she saw it this time.

  With it came a surprising faint connection to the shadows.

  They were there, but distant and muted, like a soft edge of shadows on a bright summer day. Carth pressed again, this time pulsing outward with all the strength she could summon through both the knife and the ring. This time, there was a definite connection to the shadows.

  “Ms. Rel, what you are doing is dangerous. We must depart if you are to get them to safety.”

  “If they can reach the shadows, they will be safe,” she said.

  “You risk exposing our presence here before we have a chance to understand all that has taken place.”

  Carth noted brighter shapes in the distance. She had felt them as well, especially while pulsing with the S’al. “I think our presence has already been exposed.”

  She tapped on Dara’s hand. “We need to reach the doorway. Can you find it?”

  “I… I think so.”

  “Invar. You can’t be caught here with us.”

  “Ms. Rel, I think I can take care of myself.”

  “I need someone trustworthy in the A’ras,” she said. “Someone who recognizes the value of the accords. If you’re caught with me, there won’t be anyone here who will be able to help. Please, Invar. Mask yourself.”

  He stepped close to her. She felt him as much as she saw him. When he grabbed her arm, she felt strength in the grip. “Move carefully, Ms. Rel. If you press too hard against the flame, even you can get burned.”

  She smiled but knew he couldn’t see it. “Don’t forget, Invar, that I can use both shadows and flame.” Turning to the others, she said, “Come on. Hold on to each other and we’ll get free.”

  Dara slipped past and started away, though not in the direction Carth would have expected they needed to go. She had to trust Dara, so she trailed after her, this time holding on to her.

  They grabbed onto her
cloak and followed, trailing her. She couldn’t see them the same way she saw Dara… or the way she saw the three A’ras coming toward them.

  “We have to hurry, Dara.”

  “I see them.”

  They weren’t going to move fast enough. The Reshian could follow closely, but they were limited in that they couldn’t see anything but the brightness of the light. Carth doubted that they would even be able to make them out. Were it not for the physical connection, they might not be able to stay with them.

  Carth took the hand of the person who held on to her and placed it on Dara’s back. “Go!” she urged. “Get out of the room and I’ll join you.”

  “Carth?” Dara asked.

  “Just go.”

  They slipped around her.

  Carth turned toward the approaching A’ras. They moved more quickly than the Reshian were able to move, and Carth would have to intervene.

  She unsheathed her father’s knife and held it in her opposite hand. Armed now with knives for shadow and light, she strained for her connection to the flame and pressed outward.

  Power surged, and the light within the room dimmed.

  It was subtle, slight, but she felt the edge of the shadows and grasped for it.

  And missed.

  Carth pulsed again, this time with more force than before. There came an echoing pulse, and she recognized Invar helping her.

  The light within the room dimmed slightly more.

  She grasped for the shadows. They were there—faint, but there.

  Then she reached them.

  And the A’ras reached her.

  These were A’ras, but if they were responsible for attacking the children of Isahl, and if they were responsible for coordinating the attacks with the blood priests, they were no longer her allies.

  Carth struck, not only with the flame of the A’ras but with the shadows, ducking as she went, cutting at them until she caught the nearest person with the knife and pressed shadows into the blade. When she’d attacked near Master Hall, she had wanted to incapacitate rather than harm. This time, she had seen others tormented and she would do what it took to see them to safety, even if it meant attacking when she didn’t want to.

  The person fell.