Shadow Born (The Shadow Accords Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Guya and the other man didn’t have the same scar, so maybe they weren’t with the Hjan. Maybe it was simply a scar. Carth considered this and decided that it was possible, however unlikely it seemed.

  “I think I’ll keep what I earn. I am the one taking all the risk, aren’t I?”

  The scarred man shook his head. “Risk? The risk was ours in bringing her to you. You do this, and then we’re all better off.”

  The girl struggled. As she did, Carth saw a slight flash of light.

  It was brief, and so subtle that she wasn’t even sure what she had seen. Had she not spent the last… month?... with Ras, she might not have even recognized it, but she did. It was the same light he had used on her to suppress her shadows.

  Was that what they were doing? Did they take this girl because she had the ability to counter the shadows? Could she use that light to overcome the shadows of the shadow blessed?

  Then where was Wesjan? It had to be someplace where the Reshian were still active.

  She needed to do something. She couldn’t leave this poor girl here, not abused and injured like this… only, if she attacked now and removed the others as a threat, she would lose the chance to do something about whatever they might be planning.

  Wasn’t a willingness to sacrifice players a part of Tsatsun?

  Carth hated the fact that she even considered leaving the girl with them. Was that what she was to become?

  But if she didn’t, what more would be risked?

  She had seen it. It might only have been a game, but the concepts were the same. She needed to find out what they intended, and in order to do that, she would have to be willing to let this girl go with Talun. That didn’t mean that she would do nothing, only that she had to find a different play.

  Pulling the shadows around her, she thought she knew what that might be.

  15

  The night began to lighten by the time Carth found Guya. He lay in a heap on the side of the road, a massive gash on his head oozing blood. When she reached him, she touched his neck, checking for a pulse. At first, she worried that Talun had been too aggressive as he had incapacitated his captain, but then she felt the slow but steadily building presence of a pulse in his neck.

  Carth glanced around and noted a dark shape moving toward them.

  If it was Talun, she needed to be gone from here, but why would Talun have returned to Guya? Doing so would reveal that he knew what happened to the man, and that he wasn’t as intoxicated as he had appeared.

  Carth decided not to risk it and wrapped shadows around them, pulling not only herself but also Guya into the shadows.

  Had she been fast enough? Had the change been too much, so that someone would notice that Guya no longer appeared on the road?

  She didn’t move, not wanting to risk it.

  Through the edge of the shadows, she noted the figure approaching. As it did, there came a slight surge of light, and the shadows around her faded.

  Carth scrambled for them, clawing at them to try to keep herself shrouded. If she didn’t, she would have to defend not only herself, but also Guya. She wasn’t sure she would be able to do that.

  The shadows dissipated.

  As they did, she understood why. And how.

  “Ras,” she said, standing to face the man.

  He pushed back the hood of his cloak, and his deep gray eyes peered through the night. “How is it that you have already involved yourself in this, shadow born?”

  “I’ve involved myself in nothing.”

  The corners of his eyes twitched slightly. “I find that difficult to believe.”

  Carth glanced toward Guya lying on the ground. He hadn’t moved, and she began to wonder if he would. Had he been injured so badly that he couldn’t move? She’d seen men hurt so severely that their legs no longer worked, and others who couldn’t use their arms after hitting their head.

  “You didn’t tell me you had others like you,” she said.

  “Are there others like you, shadow born?”

  Carth looked over to him. “I don’t know.”

  “No. Perhaps you don’t.” Ras moved past her and checked on Guya, running his hands along the man’s sides, checking first at his neck, then his heart, before examining his head. “Who is this man to you?”

  “No one. A man I followed out here.”

  “Why would you follow someone out here?” Ras asked, standing and dusting his hands on his cloak.

  “I heard something.”

  Ras waited, no emotion on his face.

  “The same sound that brought me away from Odian the night I met you. There was another girl.”

  Ras’s jaw clenched. “Where?”

  Carth motioned back toward the copse of trees. “They’re gone.”

  “What happened to the girl?”

  “I let them take her.”

  Ras blinked and stepped toward her, light briefly blazing before he caught himself. “You let them take her?”

  “I suspect they intend to use her against the Reshian. They wanted to smuggle her to Wesjan.”

  Ras closed his eyes. “You heard this?”

  “I heard enough.”

  “Do you know how?”

  Had she not been in the tavern, sitting there while the men drank, she might not have discovered. “Casks of ale. I think they use casks of ale to hide them. This one”—she motioned to Guya—“is the captain. I don’t think he knows anything about it.”

  “Why didn’t you rescue her? With what you’re capable of, you could have.”

  “You taught me to look for the larger pattern.”

  He frowned, the briefest of expressions.

  “Had I rescued her, I wouldn’t have been able to discover how many others they plan to use. I wouldn’t be able to follow them, and wouldn’t be able to learn what they intend to do with the girls once they bring them to Wesjan.”

  Ras squeezed his hands together. “A dangerous move, shadow born.”

  “A necessary one.”

  Ras inhaled slowly and scanned the night before focusing his attention down the road and toward the docks.

  “Who is she to you?”

  “Nothing more than a piece on the board,” he answered softly. He turned his attention to Carth. “No more than she is to you, I believe.”

  Carth met his eyes. There had to be more to Ras’s involvement, but she didn’t yet know what that might be. “I intend to find a way onto that ship.”

  “You won’t sail south? That is where you were heading, is it not? Didn’t you wish to learn from the Reshian?”

  That had been what she wanted, but now she was no longer certain. “Maybe once it was, but you helped me see that I need to prevent the Hjan from attacking Nyaesh and other cities in the north. I can’t do that by leaving.”

  Ras watched her for a moment. “I will help you carry him back to his ship.”

  They struggled together as they carried Guya back to the city. Carth pulled on the shadows, using them to help augment her strength, but Ras exuded something that made it more difficult for her to hold on to them, even if he didn’t seem to have any of the light flowing from him.

  When they reached the outskirts of Odian, Ras tipped his head to her. “This is where I will leave you, shadow born.”

  “You’re not going to help?”

  Ras glanced from Guya to Carth before shaking his head. “There was a time when I searched for another who would be able to challenge me in Tsatsun. I learned from masters of the game, and have played it nearly my entire life. There are techniques that you do not yet know, though I think in time you will come up with them on your own, but you have shown a shrewd mind when you actually engage it.”

  “What does that have to do with your helping?”

  “I think one player is enough for this game. Our objectives would be similar.”

  He started away before pausing and looking back to her. “Remember, shadow born, they will not react the way you expect. Search beyond what seems imme
diately apparent, and look for ways you can outmaneuver them. This will not be the same game you and I played. When you lose pieces, lives will be lost.”

  Ras watched her for another moment before disappearing as quickly as his home had when she’d left it.

  Guya moaned, pulling her attention away from Ras.

  She lifted him and started carrying him down the street, using the shadows to help. As she did, she wondered how she would get him back on the ship. If she did, how would she get onto the ship? She considered sneaking about, but ships that size didn’t have many places to hide, and she doubted she’d be able to conceal herself well enough to keep the crew from detecting her.

  Yet… she had the answer in her arms.

  Carth stopped and dragged him to the side of the street, moving between a pair of low buildings and hiding them in the shadows. She laid Guya against the building, propping him up so that he appeared to be sitting, and waited for him to wake.

  While waiting, she found some dirt and smudged it above one cheek, trying to make her eyes appear bruised. This was a man who had gone into the night after someone he’d thought injured and in need of help. She could play on his sympathies.

  It took a while for him to come around, but when he did, he blinked and stared dazedly at her. “Who are you?”

  Carth had spent the last hour while watching him trying to prepare for this question. She thought she knew how to answer, but didn’t want to risk him asking too many questions. If she wasn’t careful, she could get caught in a lie.

  “I… I found you on the side of the road,” Carth said. “You were attacked and—”

  “Attacked?” Guya touched his hand to the side of his head, running his fingers over the gash there. He’d need to see a healer, or at least someone with the ability to help him.

  Carth leaned against the opposite wall. She had released the shadows, but held on to the faintest of connection to them, ready for whatever he might attempt. She didn’t think that he was in on whatever Talun had done, but she wasn’t entirely certain, either. It was possible he had conspired with him.

  She smiled inwardly at the realization of how much she had changed. Her confinement had forced her to think through things differently than she had before. Even without realizing she did it, she had begun planning for different ways she might need to react, depending on what she learned from Guya.

  “I found you on the side of the road. I don’t know what happened.”

  Guya started to stand but wobbled and settled himself back to the ground. He blinked, seemingly realizing that it was early morning, with the sun starting to reach the horizon, giving a hint of light along the lower edge of the sky. “What were you doing out so late for you to find me?”

  Carth touched a hand to her dark hair. She still looked young—actually was still young—but she’d experienced enough that she didn’t feel as young as she was. Her answer had to garner her sympathy but not make her appear so weak that he’d think to prey upon her. “Some of the men in the tavern drink too much,” she said. “I had to get one back to his ship before returning.”

  Guya’s eyes narrowed. “Which tavern?”

  Carth had been paying attention to them as she made her way through the streets and picked the name of one that was particularly ribald. “A place called the Crooked Pint.”

  He blinked. “That’s a tough place for a girl like you.”

  “You know it?”

  Had she miscalculated? If he knew the tavern, or was known in the tavern, it would risk her discovery, but the Crooked Pint was far enough off the road running along the docks that she had thought it unlikely that a ship’s captain would have ventured there.

  “Know of it,” he said. “I come through Odian often enough that I get to know most of the taverns.”

  Carth shrugged, her mind working through what he shared. If he came through here often enough to know the taverns, she would have to be careful with what else she shared. “I’m only here because of a mistake.”

  “What kind of mistake?”

  This was the part where Carth had to gamble. In some ways, it was like making a move on the Tsatsun board, not quite certain where the other person would move. “I was taken from my home,” she started, forcing a sob. “I—”

  Guya laughed, a heartier sound than he’d made in quite some time. “You want me to believe you were taken and ended up in Odian?”

  Had she guessed wrong? She’d thought she would be able to play on his sympathies, but maybe she wouldn’t. “I was brought here by ship. There were others with me. When we reached port…”

  “What?”

  “I snuck off.”

  “What ship?”

  Carth suspected that he only tested her, that he wanted only to know if she told the truth, and with this, she could tell the truth. “A big one coming from the north. I think it was called the Levelan.”

  He nodded. “I’ve heard of it.”

  “Then you’d know the captain doesn’t take to well to losing cargo.”

  He laughed again and got to his knees, seemingly testing how much his head still bothered him. “Damn slavers,” he spat. “Not many of them, but there have been more and more.”

  “They were heading… somewhere,” she said, screwing her face up and pretending to try and remember. “Asador, I think. I don’t know much about it, but the man claimed he’d establish a trade route to the north so I could see my family.”

  Carth practically held her breath. She’d thrown in enough detail that it would hopefully appeal to Guya, but not so much that he would be able to recognize anything.

  “What was his name?”

  “I… I don’t want to say.”

  Guya frowned. “Why?”

  “You’re a merchant, aren’t you? I mean, you have the dress of a sailor and you’ve mentioned that you knew the Levelan, so I assumed that you were.”

  “I’m captain of the Goth Spald,” Guya said.

  Carth almost laughed, but decided that might not fit with the person she attempted to portray. The name of the ship was slang for something quite disgusting. Did he know?

  “I don’t know where you’re headed, and don’t want to go to this Asador.”

  Guya shook his head. “I’m not heading for Asador, so your secret is safe with me.”

  Carth sighed and forced her face to look relieved. “That’s good.” She stood and started to scoot down the alley. “Now that I know that you’re not harmed, I’ve got to get back to the tavern before they think I’ve run off. I saw what happened to the last girl who did…” She shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to make herself look even younger. If he noticed the sheathed knife, he might not believe her, so she shifted her hips. “Most days I wish I would never have been taken from Bathsa.” She made a point of throwing out a name of a place in the north, one that she knew enough about were he to question her. “My parents must be worried terribly about me.”

  She slipped out of the alley and started down the road, careful to keep a measured pace. When she neared the road where she’d have to turn to get to the Crooked Pint, she heard the sound of someone behind her. As much as she wanted to turn and make sure that she wouldn’t be attacked, she didn’t risk it.

  Guya grabbed her by the sleeve and spun her around. Carth pulled on a sliver of shadows, trying to use only the slightest bit of them as she attempted to make the dirt she’d smudged on her face appear more like a bruise.

  “You don’t have to return to the Crooked Pint,” he said.

  Carth backed away from him, feigning looking around nervously. “I do. They give me a place to stay and food. It’s not much, but it’s better than some I’ve seen. I… I don’t want to be out on the street again. I’ve heard what happens to some of those girls.” She closed her eyes, peering through her lids at him. “I can hear them sometimes in the night. I don’t want to be one they smuggle out of here.”

  Guya’s eyes widened slightly. “Never knew they did that here.�
�

  She bobbed her head quickly. “They do. At least the Crooked Pint is someplace.”

  A pained expression crossed Guya’s face before fading as it appeared he came to a decision. “Listen, as I said, I have a ship. She’s not the biggest on the sea, but she’s fast enough and I’m headed near enough to Bathsa. I could take you back home.”

  She looked at him, trying to make it appear as if hope appeared in her eyes. “I don’t have anything to pay you,” she said.

  “You know how to cook?”

  “Some.”

  Guya snorted. “That’s more than most of my crew. I can get you away from Odian, and at least back to the north. From there, you can make your way to Bathsa. Who knows, I even might be able to find you a transport there as well.”

  Carth looked around with uncertainty before turning back to him and nodding.

  16

  The winds gusted out of the north, pushing the sails. They carried a bitterness to them, and a cold bite she didn’t remember from the journey south. Had she been using her abilities when she traveled, trying to keep herself warm? She didn’t think so. More likely was that Jhon had mostly confined her to the room, trying to teach her what he thought he could, which had protected her in ways the Goth Spald did not.

  The ship rocked beneath the waves with more force than the Levelan had as well. She nearly fell overboard the first few times she stood at the bow, looking out at the sea as the ship sailed through the rolling swells. Her stomach lurched, but she managed to keep from throwing up. She wondered how the sailors would take it if she didn’t succeed.

  “You have managed well,” Talun said. The thin man leaned on the railing, peering down at the sea. He rolled with the changing currents, not seeming bothered by the way the ship surged beneath him. Occasional spray would splash him in the face, and he did nothing to wipe it away.

  Talun turned out to be the first mate, which she should have suspected given the close connection he and Guya had seemed to have in the tavern. He had introduced himself when she’d come on board, and sought answers about why Guya would let her travel with them, but the captain hadn’t provided any.