Shadow Born (The Shadow Accords Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “She was a spy?”

  The A’ras had some spies. Many within the palace would train in deception, and would be sent from Nyaesh to discover secrets of the neighboring nations. They were the reason that the Reshian were discovered, and she suspected the reason that they knew how to create the barrier around the palace that prevented the shadow blessed from getting through.

  “A spy, though they didn’t refer to themselves in such ways. Informant. Diplomat. The shadow blessed played many roles in ancient Ih, and none were soldiers. They had no need. They could obtain information much like Carthenne did, and they could disappear without any knowing that they were there.”

  “If she was a spy for Ih, how did she become renowned?”

  “Because she was the reason the people of Ih and those of Lashasn were united into a single people, one that was stronger than either had been before, and all without additional bloodshed. Carthenne gave them the name Ih-lash, one that carries with it the memories of both, but the strength of the people who followed. But even that wasn’t her greatest accomplishment.”

  Carth knew so little of her homeland. She’d left there when she was too young to know anything about Ih-lash, and she could barely read the language. The few books she had that had once been her mother’s were difficult for her to read.

  “What was her greatest accomplishment?” Carth asked.

  Jhon smiled. “Not only did she unify the people without further war, she managed to do it in such a way that she was celebrated as something of a savior, and named ruler. Think of that—a spy as the savior of her people.”

  Carth sat back in her bunk. Hearing that story made her feel somewhat fonder of her name. “I still prefer Carth.”

  “And I will call you that, as you have asked.”

  Carth sighed. “My mother… she was the only one who used my full name, but it was my father who was from Ih-lash.”

  “That I can prove.”

  “My mother would have had the connection to the A’ras.”

  “It is possible that neither did.”

  “But I can reach the A’ras magic!”

  “Possessing the ability to use the A’ras magic does not require that you descend from the A’ras. It only means that you are sensitive to the flows of that magic.”

  Carth sniffed. “In all the time I studied with the A’ras, I could never reach the magic the same as others.”

  “Invar tells me that your connection to it is deeper than most. You are tied to the flame.”

  Carth remembered the way the flame burned within Master Hall. Invar had been concerned that the Hjan would extinguish the flame, that by doing so, they would cause the rest of the A’ras to lose their connection to the magic.

  Then they had.

  Somehow, Invar had reignited the flame and claimed that Carth—like him—had the ability to access the magic more directly. She had assumed that connection came from her mother, but what if it didn’t? What if she had only been born to that connection, not tied to it because of her lineage as she had thought?

  “I…”

  Jhon finished his tea and set the cup down. “We will have you to the Reshian soon enough. You’ve spent long enough learning of the flame—it is time you understand the shadows.”

  The Reshian. She’d spent her time in Nyaesh fearing them, and now she would learn from them. Jhon still hadn’t told her where they traveled, though. Leaving Nyaesh and heading away still felt in some ways like she ran from the Hjan, and from those who had helped her. Would that ever change?

  “Where are they?” she asked.

  Jhon shook his head. “They do not stay settled, Carth. It is too dangerous for them.”

  “Because of the Hjan?”

  “The Hjan, and others.”

  “And they will teach me to master my abilities?”

  “You won’t be the only shadow blessed there, Carth. You might be the only shadow born, and you certainly will be the only one with the ability to detect the flows of the A’ras magic, but you are not as alone as you think.”

  “And the Hjan?”

  “When we reach them, it will be different.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they will keep you safe.”

  He grabbed his cup and started to stand.

  “You haven’t said anything about why.”

  “There is nothing to tell you yet.”

  Carth moved toward him, grabbing at the shadows for strength without meaning to. Jhon seemed to notice and frowned. “Because I’m from Ih-lash?”

  “No, because you are not as yet of the Reshian. The Hjan have not discovered how to defeat them. They still seek power, which is why they travel to places like Nyaesh. They thought claiming the A’ras would be easy.” A slight smile tugged on the corners of his lips. “They did not expect to find one like you there. That they didn’t know provides me with some hope.”

  “Hope for what?”

  Jhon took a deep breath, and for a moment, she thought he might answer. Then he shook his head slightly. “When we reach the Reshian, you will learn all you need. For now, I think you understand how dangerous the Hjan are.”

  He reached the door and rapped with his knuckles on the hull. “When the storm passes, we should be able to continue onward. For now, you should stay aboard.”

  Before he had the chance to disappear behind the door, Carth called after him. “I heard something in the city last night.”

  “You heard nothing, Carth.”

  “I heard an attack. There were screams.”

  “This is Odian. Not all is what you think.”

  “I’ve heard similar sounds in Nyaesh. I didn’t do anything there either.” She didn’t want to have more nights like last night where she lay awake, knowing that she could have done something but didn’t. The sound of the screams had chased her into her sleep and remained with her. If she had another night like that, she would have to act, wouldn’t she?

  “Nyaesh is nothing like Odian.”

  He closed the door behind him.

  Carth hesitated and then leapt from the bed, chasing after him. When she reached the door, he was gone.

  She followed Jhon down the hall but saw no sign of him, as if he had disappeared in shadows, but she didn’t think he had that ability. At least, he hadn’t shown any sign he was shadow blessed and had made it seem he couldn’t provide any more answers about her ability than she already had.

  Through Jhon, she had learned to cloak herself, and she had learned to use the shadows in ways she might not have considered, but she suspected there were other ways she still didn’t understand. Every so often, she would do something with the shadows that made her realize how little she knew. There was the time when she had discovered that she could use the shadows to augment her strength, or to help her fly across the night. How much more would she learn if she had someone who could teach her?

  Wind and rain pounded on the hull of the ship, audible even deep within its belly. Carth reached the stairs leading to the upper deck and hesitated. Jhon wanted her to remain safe, but she didn’t want to simply sit and wait. Remaining on the ship was hard enough, and it was worse the longer she remained below deck.

  At the top of the stairs, she hesitated. None of her magic or her abilities would protect her from the storm, but she didn’t mind the rain. Living near the docks in Nyaesh for those months had exposed her to storms, but she’d already been exposed to worse on her travels to Nyaesh in the first place. Her parents had brought her from city to city by foot, and there had often been storms that had passed through. In the north, the storms could be violent, and came with the chill of the wind and the sharp needles of rain. At least the storm here was warm.

  Carth stood in the rain a moment, drenched instantly. It came down in sheets, and though it was daylight, she could see nothing of the city from where she stood. Carth reached the railing at the edge of the deck and gripped it tightly. She didn’t want to think of how hard it would be to swim in the sea, as choppy
as it would be, and even with her ability with the shadows, she doubted she would be able to make it back to shore if she were to fall overboard.

  She stared toward Odian, listening. There was nothing but the heavy sound of the rain, the steady pounding of the waves as they slammed against the ship, and the occasional peal of thunder that rumbled across the sky.

  “You should not be out in this, Carth of Ih-lash.”

  Carth turned to see Tessa standing behind her. She wore a thin wrap of fabric around her, and rain ran in rivers down her chest. Even soaked as she was, Tessa was a lovely woman. “I couldn’t stay below any longer.”

  “The storms are heavy,” Tessa said.

  “Can you tell when they will pass?”

  Tessa smiled. “We do not speak to the storms, Carth of Ih-lash. We can listen to the blowing of the wind and hear the way the ship groans when the waves crash into it, but we don’t know when the clouds will abate and when the sun will next shine. If we were able to do that, we would always have clear skies.”

  “You don’t seem to mind the storms.”

  Tessa glanced to the sky. “Why mind the rain? It is as much a part of the sea as the sun and the waves. We understand we’re only a part of something larger, and we cannot control many of these things.”

  Carth held on to the railing as a particularly strong swell struck the ship. Her feet slipped, and she had to brace herself, barely managing to maintain her footing. Instinctively, she used a hint of shadow to fortify herself.

  When the wave settled, Tessa watched her with an interested expression, the hollows around the corners of her eyes asking a question that she never spoke.

  Carth released the railing and hurried back below the ship, unable to feel that it was anything but a retreat.

  3

  When the storm finally passed, Carth still hadn’t left her room. The air begun to stink of dry sweat and dampness, odors the flowers Jhon had placed did nothing to alleviate. He’d barely been back in the room the last few days, leaving her alone. That was just as well. She was not in any mood to discuss her confinement with him.

  The door creaked open and she looked up to see Tessa standing in the doorway. Carth hadn’t spent much time with her since seeing her in the storm, though that was not uncommon. Most of the crew kept themselves sequestered and separate from what they considered their cargo. Tessa and Adam spoke to her regularly, but they did so only when she found them with no other choice. The captain was the only exception, but Jhon spent much of his days with him, hidden away.

  Carth sat up and tucked the book she’d been staring at back under her pillow. It was one of the few books she’d managed to rescue from her home in Nyaesh, one that her mother had once held dear enough to hide in the walls of the house. They were written in Ih, and Carth could barely read them, but she derived a strange sort of comfort from looking at the diagrams of different leaves and plants, knowing her mother had once studied this book and that she had used these pages for reference many times.

  “I thought we might visit a bit,” Tessa said.

  Carth moved to the edge of the bed and Tessa leaned on the bed Jhon used. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight braid, and she wore a nearly sheer wrap. “You want to explain to me why we’re still not sailing?”

  Tessa grinned. “I don’t think anything I tell you will make you any more pleased about that, Carth of Ih-lash.”

  “Then why did you come?”

  “I came to see what questions you might have about Ih.”

  Ih. Not Ih-lash.

  Carth frowned, forcing herself not to glance at the book now resting on the bed. The cover would be exposed, and if Tessa knew anything of Ih, and of the language that Carth did not, she might know exactly what secrets hid within the pages of the book. Eventually she wanted to know those answers, but for now… for now she wanted it to remain something of a mystery, so that she could hold on to the belief that her mother had been nothing more than an herbalist. The more she learned about herself, and about the things that she could do, the more she questioned the accuracy of that belief.

  “I’m from Ih-lash,” Carth said.

  “You are, but you have the blood of old Ih. I saw that when you held yourself on the railing, though I should have seen it in the days before.”

  “I’m shadow blessed. There is no secret in that.”

  Tessa smiled. “Perhaps that is all it is. There was something that I saw.”

  “Jhon tells me that Ih and Lashasn were united by someone who shared my name.”

  “Carthenne. Yes, she is well known to our people. The first of the shadow born. One who controls the shadows, uses them in ways that others cannot. They are more than the shadow blessed, more than the Reshian of today.”

  “Tell me,” Carth said, thinking of questions that had bothered her since her time in Nyaesh, working with the A’ras. “What happened with the Reshian?” She might be traveling to join them, but what did she know about them?

  “That is a story of sadness, Carth of Ih-lash.”

  “I think I need to know it. My parents were of Ih-lash.”

  Tessa nodded. “Of course, or you would not have been allowed on this vessel. They are the remnants of Ih-lash. They remember.”

  “Remnants? But Ih-lash—”

  “It is no more. The Hjan have destroyed it, and they would destroy its people, but they have failed. They sought to force the A’ras against the Reshian, those who remain, but they have failed in that. You stopped them, Carth of Ih-lash.”

  Some of the comments she’d heard from the Hjan now began to make a different sort of sense. “All of Ih-lash is gone?”

  “The people remain, but those with any ability, those shadow blessed, do not dare return. Too many of the Hjan remain, and they are determined to destroy those who appear.”

  “They want power,” Carth said.

  “They want to destroy those with power,” Tessa answered. “They would steal the power of others, if they cannot understand it. With the shadow blessed, there is nothing they can steal. It is a gift born to those of Ih, born of the ancient bloodline.” She flashed a sad smile at Carth. “It is unfortunate your parents never shared with you your heritage.”

  “I never knew why we left Ih-lash. I knew there was some reason…” She flushed as she remembered wondering—however briefly—whether her father had been a thief, and whether that had been the reason he’d taught her the games he had. They had traveled to so many cities in her short life, and had stayed for brief times in each of them. Nyaesh had been her home the longest, but it was the home that she’d had without her family.

  “They escaped, like so many other did before them. They were lucky; they managed to get out before the attacks became too fierce. The fighting with the Hjan… it was brutal. Only a small number of those with the shadow blessing escaped.”

  “How? With our abilities…”

  “The shadow blessed were never soldiers, Carth of Ih-lash. They would seek knowledge and understanding, and could travel where others could not, but only to maintain the peace. The shadows cannot be used to fight.” She paused, a slow grin spreading across her face. “Unless you are one of the shadow born. Then the shadows will answer you in ways that they will not for others.”

  Carth considered the ways the shadows had responded to her. Hadn’t she used shadows to augment her strength, or to give her abilities to escape places that she should not? Hadn’t she used the shadows to kill, pressing them through the knife?

  “What of you?” Carth asked.

  Tessa smiled. “I can see the shadows, and I can sink into them, but not like some. That is not my gift.”

  Tessa was silent for a time, and Carth looked over to her. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “If you are shadow blessed, then it is even more important that you reach the safety of the Reshian. So few remain. You must learn what you can do, and how your abilities can be harnessed. Your people depend on that, Carth of Ih-lash. And now that you have
trained with the A’ras, perhaps you can bring a different sort of peace.”

  Tessa left, disappearing in a swirl of shadows that left Carth smiling. The woman used shadows far more than she admitted, though probably not in the same way Carth used them. In that way, it was no different than how she used the A’ras magic; not the same as the others of the A’ras, different enough that most didn’t know what exactly it was that she could do, and had no idea of how to help her.

  Carth sat in place, pulling on the shadows, drawing strength from them, and wondering if she would ever learn the truth of her people. Even those who seemed like they should know something weren’t eager to share.

  “You should come out of the berth,” Jhon said to her.

  “Why is that? What is there for me outside this room? We don’t move yet, and you won’t let me off the ship to go into Odian.”

  “Because it is not safe. You must understand that I have only asked that you remain here for your safety.”

  “Mine? Have you heard the sounds that come out at night? The screams?” Last night had been another hard night. The storms had passed and when she stood on the deck, staring into the darkness, she’d heard the same sort of scream she’d heard before. Tessa had sat in the shadows watching her, and Carth had forced herself to turn away and return to her berth. Had she not, she wasn’t sure what she would have done. Probably something stupid.

  “Odian is dangerous.”

  “So am I,” she said. As she did, she pulled on the shadows, wrapping them around herself. With enough strength, she could completely conceal herself.

  Jhon stepped toward her, and Carth jumped out of the way, moving to the side of the berth. Holding on to the shadows as she did, she found the movement easy, augmented in some way by the shadows.

  Carth released her connection to the shadows and stood before Jhon. “See?”

  “I see that you rely too much on your abilities. Power has limits, Carth. Even yours.”

  Carth hadn’t discovered the limits to her abilities. With the shadows, there had only been the A’ras magic in the wall that had prevented her from reaching the shadows. Once she’d managed to get past that, she had been able to use the shadows for many things. With the A’ras magic, the delay came from her mood. If she managed to get angry enough, or scared, then the magic flowed.