Shadow Born (The Shadow Accords Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  That wasn’t quite right. The longer she remained underwater, the more she sent the A’ras flame into the water, using that to help her pierce the darkness.

  Light bloomed around her, bright enough now for her to see.

  Fish swam away from her, great schools deep below her.

  Carth turned, her breath burning against her lungs. As she began to think she wouldn’t find anything, a dark form loomed in the distance, not moving the same way the fish did.

  She needed to take a breath, but she feared that if she did, she’d lose sight of the person.

  Kicking herself forward, she prayed she would have enough breath remaining to reach them.

  Each stroke carried her closer, and by the time she did reach the person, she could barely hold what remained of her breath. She didn’t dare let it out; if she did, she knew she would suck in a mouthful of seawater, and then there would be two bodies floating.

  Pulling from reserves she didn’t know she had, she grabbed at the person’s shirt and yanked as she started kicking toward the surface. If this didn’t work, she’d have to try again, but she didn’t know if she would have the strength.

  Carrying another with her, especially as weakened as she was, was difficult, but each kick carried her closer to the surface. Carth’s vision began to fade. If she didn’t reach the surface soon, she’d black out.

  She pulled on the shadows within the water, trying to reach the flame as well. There was a momentary burst of strength. She held on to that and kicked again, this time with more strength.

  Her head pierced the surface and she took a gasping breath.

  Her heart raced and it took a few moments for her vision to clear so that she could see where she was. She had no idea how far out from shore that she was, or even which direction she would need to go. Reaching for this person had disoriented her.

  She kept his head above the surface of the water and rolled him over. With a gasp, she realized it was Guya.

  Carth scanned the night, searching for the Goth Spald, but the ship was gone. Talun had wanted to remove Guya from his place as captain, and now it seemed that he had.

  Carth tried pushing on his stomach, forcing the water from him, but bobbing as they did in the water, it was difficult for her to get the necessary leverage. She tried again, and this time, she held on to his hands and used her feet to push against his stomach. Water spewed from his mouth, and he took a shallow breath, then a deeper one. With each passing moment, he breathed deeper. He still didn’t open his eyes, and she knew that was a problem, but at least he lived. Talun hadn’t succeeded in that.

  A distant cluster of lights burned far from her and she started toward it, not knowing whether it was the city, or some ship that might be moving away from her. She had no choice but to swim toward it. At least she had the strength of the shadows, and with that, she might be able to reach it.

  Carth lost track of how long she had been swimming. Had it been hours? In that time, Guya still hadn’t woken, and she dragged him with her, switching arms supporting him so that they didn’t get too fatigued. The shore loomed closer; by now, she was convinced that it was the shore and not some ship that taunted her with how close it could be, but always moving away.

  She hadn’t worked out what she would tell Guya when he came around. If he came around. Did she admit that she had swum out to him? Maybe she could convince him that she had heard him go overboard and had gone after him, but if she did that, she would need to be ready for the questions about what she had seen, and how he had gone over.

  She couldn’t worry about that now. For now, she had to find a way to get them back to shore.

  The longer she swam, the more she felt an overwhelming fatigue. She paused often, but the more breaks she took, the harder it became for her to resume swimming. After a while, Carth stopped taking the breaks, preferring to swim slower. If only Guya would wake up and assist her, but the damned shadow-forgotten man remained deadweight. Not dead, though, at least not yet. She hoped she could get them back to shore, where she could work on figuring out a way to help him.

  Only then could she begin thinking about the other thing that she needed to do. Somehow she would have to get on another ship. It didn’t matter what Guya chose to do, but what happened to those girls on the Goth Spald was on her, especially as she had made the choice to do nothing for them, instead choosing to use them as a piece in her larger game.

  Carth cursed herself.

  Ras had warned her; they weren’t pieces in a game. Real lives were at stake and she was responsible for what happened to them. Even that wasn’t the only reason that she needed to get to them. They were still part of a larger play, though she didn’t know what it was. She needed to find out what the Hjan intended, but she had to take possession of a ship.

  Rocks loomed in front of her, and the current shifted, now slamming her toward the shore. Carth tried to keep them from hitting it too hard, but the waves slammed them into the rock.

  She tensed up as she hit. The wind was knocked from her, the same as when she had landed in the water the first time. Guya grunted and started moving, as if the collision with the rock had finally jarred him awake.

  She dragged him up to the top of the rock with the last of her strength. Once there, she flopped onto her back and simply rested. Her body ached, and she didn’t think she could do anything more. It was a damn miracle she’d made it this far. There had been a time when she’d thought that she would drown, or that she would lose Guya and neither of them would make it.

  “Anisa?” he said with a cough.

  Carth rolled toward him. “You’re awake.”

  Guya coughed again and sat up. He took in the fact that they were on the rocky shore and that the port was nearby in a slow glance, and then he looked back to her. “How?”

  Carth should have planned her answer better, but she didn’t have one yet, not that would take away questions… and maybe that wasn’t as much of an issue as she thought. Would it matter if she told Guya the truth, especially now that she knew what she did? She could play on his desire to help, though how would he react, knowing that she’d lied to him? Not well, she suspected.

  She had to find a different solution, one that wouldn’t risk his anger too much, but one where he would still be compelled to help.

  “You went overboard,” she said.

  “I’m aware that I went overboard. Damn Talun thought he could take my ship? When I catch up to him—”

  “He smuggled something on board. I… I overheard him talking with someone. They have some girls there.”

  Guya frowned and rubbed at his eyes. “Not possible to smuggle on the Spald. Ship is too compact for him to keep me from knowing.”

  “I don’t know how he did it, but I know what I heard.”

  Guya stared out at the water and was silent for a while. “How did you reach me? I should be dead.”

  There was no getting around that. By all rights, he should have been dead. Had she not reached him, he would have been dead.

  Guya turned and watched her, as if waiting for her answer. Carth knew that whatever she told him now would have to be close enough to the truth that it would deflect more questions.

  “I haven’t been completely honest with you.”

  “I know.”

  “You know?”

  “If you could swim out to me, there’s something you’re not telling me. Don’t know what it is, but I’d like to.”

  “My family is…” She almost told him that she was from Ih-lash, and admitted the truth of her heritage, but there was another option, one that, as she processed the possibilities, she decided would make more sense and allay the agitation that he might have. “Reshian,” she finished.

  She waited to see how he would react.

  “Reshian,” Guya said carefully. He backed away from her, considering her with a hard glint to his eyes. He was a strong man, and if he decided to resort to violence, she would be forced to use either the shadows or her connectio
n to the A’ras flame. Or both.

  “You’ve heard of them.”

  Guya nodded. “Heard of them. I understand the war they’ve entered and want no part in it. Still doesn’t explain how you were able to reach me, Anisa. A swim like that—even under the best conditions, and this was at night and far from the best conditions—is possible only for a few men.”

  Carth almost smiled before she remembered she was supposed to be acting worried about his response. “Some among the Reshian have… talents.”

  “Talents. Like superhuman strength? I’ve heard of magic in the world, but what you’re describing isn’t possible for a girl.”

  Carth sighed. She didn’t want to argue with him, mostly because it wasn’t important to what she wanted to achieve, and that was getting his help in finding a way across the sea and to Wesjan. She might be able to do it on her own, but she thought it would be easier with his help, especially as a slighted captain might be able to drum up more sympathy than someone who looked as young as she often did.

  “I don’t have any more strength than you, but stamina… that’s a different story. That’s how I was able to swim out to you and pull you to shore. It doesn’t change the fact that I need to get back to Bathsa. I need your help with that.”

  “Maybe you haven’t seen, but I don’t have a ship. Damn Talun made certain to take that. Can’t believe he got that many of the crew to help.”

  “Don’t you want to get your ship back?”

  Guya glared at her. “Of course I do, and I will, but it will take me time to get back there.” He sighed. “Might not be fast enough, especially if he turns away from Wesjan. He could take the Spald anywhere. Then I wouldn’t find her again.”

  “I heard him. He’s still going to Wesjan.”

  “Not if what you heard was true, Anisa. If he did somehow manage to smuggle girls onto my ship”—his tone made it clear how unlikely that he thought that possibility—“then he wouldn’t go to Wesjan. There’s no market there. Not for slaves. He’d be better off going back to Odian. Least there he can make a few trades, and might even find a way to negotiate for a better deal than he would in some of the other places he could go. No, he’s not going to Wesjan if he’s decided to get into slaving.” He slapped his hands down on the rock next to him and swore softly. “Worst part is, the Spald would make a good slaving ship. Fast and easy to obscure. That’s probably why he wanted it.”

  “Captain Guya,” she said, throwing in his title in the hopes of coaxing him a little more, “I don’t think he’s going to Odian. There’s something in Wesjan. He has a partner there. That’s what I overheard.”

  He shook his head. “Even if he is, nothing we can do to get us there. Need a ship.”

  Carth closed her eyes. She had thought Guya would be able to help, but if he wouldn’t, she might have to take a different tack, shift the way she played. “What if I can get you one?”

  18

  Another tavern, though Carth thought this one had more of the feeling of the Wounded Lyre rather than what Guya had described the Crooked Pint as being like. Tables were spaced widely enough that they weren’t crowded next to each other, and the food within the tavern had a savory aroma, one that filled her nose and left her mouthwatering, reminding her of Vera’s cooking. It had been too long since she’d had quality cooking like that, long enough that the scents of the tavern not only reminded her of her hunger, but of those she no longer had in her life.

  Faces flashed before her, those of Vera and Hal, Kel and even Etan, though he had never been particularly kind to her. She’d never played Tsatsun as any of them and didn’t know if they could have offered her much, other than a different perspective than the one she normally would have played.

  “This the kind of place you wanted?” Guya asked.

  Carth shrugged. “Maybe not quite like this. This might be a little too nice for what I need.”

  “Ah, all the taverns look like this here in Pog. They might look nice, but they’re no different than what you’ll find anywhere else. Same sort of seedy characters.”

  “It’s not the seedy kind that I want to find.”

  What she’d asked was for him to search for a tavern where she could gamble. If she could find the right man, she thought she could come up with a way to play them back to Wesjan, though she saw no one here that made it seem likely.

  “Still can’t believe that you’d know gaming, Anisa,” Guya said as they took a seat at a table at the opposite end of the barroom from the kitchen. Carth wanted to sit closer, but there were no closer seats.

  “I told you I spent time at the Crooked Pint,” she said. Though that was a lie, she had spent enough time at the Wounded Lyre to know the typical sort of gambles that took place in taverns. If she earned enough coin, or—perhaps better—if she managed to get the right person deep enough in debt, they would have their transportation.

  “There’s not that kind of gaming done here.”

  “So long as it’s close,” she said.

  She scanned the people in the tavern. Most appeared to be from anywhere but Pog. There was dress from all over, and none of it the same. Those who sat together were likely crew who worked together, all drinking and gaming. That wouldn’t do for what she needed; she would need to separate them, even if for a little while, so she could begin gaming with them.

  A pair of men diced at a nearby table. Not a game of skill, but there might be a way to influence the odds, especially if she risked using the shadows or even the A’ras flame. Another table had men playing a card game, but it was one she didn’t know. She’d have to pay attention to it and see if there was anything that she could learn. Another group of men near the back of the tavern were hunched over the table and occasionally glanced up conspiratorially.

  “Do you have any coin?” she asked.

  Guya touched his pockets. “How would I have any coin? Damn, girl, but anything I might have had would have washed out of my purse when I was thrown overboard. The bastards probably stole what I had anyway.”

  Carth shook her head. She shouldn’t have asked, but she also didn’t want to run through this tavern and collect scraps. It was too open, so that whoever might be here, and whoever she might grab coins from, would be more likely to notice her.

  Only… if she didn’t do anything, she wouldn’t have a place to start. There weren’t many gamers willing to let another join them without any money at all.

  She stood and started toward a table where several men sat closer together. Not optimal, but it would have to do.

  “Where are you going?” Guya asked.

  “To get coin.”

  When she reached the men at the table, she pretended to stumble, and as she did, her hand dipped into the best-dressed man’s pocket and back out. She’d guessed right, and he had a heavy purse that she palmed.

  Carth made little effort to catch herself as she sprawled across the floor. The men barely looked over at her, seemingly unmindful that she had fallen and not at all concerned about whether she was injured. At least she’d chosen well and didn’t feel at all guilty about taking from him.

  As she dusted herself off and pocketed the purse, she realized that a man at the corner table appeared to be watching her. He was one of the men who had been bent over the table when she’d looked over at them. She turned, trying to hide the fact that she had anything in her hands.

  When she returned to their table, Guya shook his head. “What was that about?”

  She pulled the purse out and shook the contents onto the table. A few coppers, three silver coins, and—tucked behind a fold of leather—a single gold. It would have been a decent collection when she worked Nyaesh, one that would have kept her from needing to collect scraps for several weeks and still given her enough to spend as unwisely as she wanted.

  Carth hadn’t known how Guya would react, and as he eyed the coins, he only shook his head, finally barking out a laugh. “I think you haven’t told me everything about yourself, Anisa.”

>   “Do you want your ship back or not?”

  His laughter faded and his flat eyes carried a hard edge to them. “Yes. I want my ship back.”

  “Then you’ll have to let me play.”

  Carth took the silvers and coppers, pocketing the gold coin so that she had something in the event that she needed more than the silvers. She wouldn’t, at least not at first, but she might need it depending on how they had to find a way onto a ship. With a gold, she wondered if she might have enough to buy their passage, but doubted it would be enough for both herself and Guya, and she wasn’t about to leave him behind.

  She stopped at the table with the men dicing. This would be how she’d start. If she could get in dicing, then from here she could figure out what the card game might be, and maybe hear enough about who else here could help her.

  “Go away, girl,” a man with reddened eyes and long, dirty brown hair said. He had a hint of scruff on his face, enough that it made him look slightly older than he probably was. He wouldn’t be a high-ranking crewman on any ship, but he might know some gossip, if nothing else.

  “I just want to dice.”

  “Said go away.”

  The other man at the table was a little older, with a fuller face and a bit of a paunch straining at his shirt. He leered at Carth briefly before lifting the dice and sending them skittering across the table.

  “You don’t dice for money? Where’s the fun in that?” Carth said, trying to sound as affronted as possible. She’d seen men act like that at the Lyre before and decided to take on that persona, if only to help get her playing.

  “We gamble, but nothing you could afford, so go back to your table.”

  Carth flipped one of the silvers in her fingers, flashing it enough that the younger of the two would see it. “That’s fine. Maybe you don’t have the kind of game I want to get into anyway.”

  She started away, turning back to Guya. His brow creased as he watched her, and his head tipped to the side as if seeing her for the first time. There was no way of getting around that, especially as she needed to play different roles if she really intended to get them back to the north, and as quickly as possible.