Shadow Trapped

by D. K. Holmberg

  Carth chuckled. “When you put it like that, maybe she does deserve to suffer, even a little bit.”

  “See that she does,” Jenna said, watching her intently.

  Carth nodded. She took a moment and then jumped back to the deck, finally heading toward the helm, where Alayna was guiding them. She kept her gaze staring straight ahead as Carth approached, and pitched her voice low. “Well?”

  “We have more information than we did before. It still might not be enough to stop her, but at least I have a better idea of what game we’re playing.”

  “I still think that we just kill her, and then we can figure out what happened to your friend.”

  “There is some merit to that idea. I think Jenna would agree with you.”

  Alayna glanced up to the masthead and shook her head slightly. “She’s been on edge ever since they came on board. I don’t think she’ll do anything, but I worry that it might come to more than what you want.”

  “No. Jenna won’t act that impulsively.”

  “Are you so certain? I think that Linsay counts on Jenna acting in a certain way, and the moment that she does, she will have us exactly where she wants us.”

  “That’s just it. Linsay doesn’t understand Jenna the way that I do.”

  “You’re going to talk with her?”

  “I think it’s time that she and I have a conversation,” Carth said. Carth wasn’t certain how that conversation would go, but she needed to know whether Ras was in any danger or whether this was simply all some sort of trick to guide them toward Ai’thol.

  “Be careful.”

  “I’ve already learned that there is no careful when it comes to Linsay.”

  Carth took a deep breath, and she patted Alayna on the shoulder before making her way below deck. At Linsay’s cabin, she knocked. When the door opened and Margo greeted her, Carth looked past her, noticing that Linsay sat at a small desk, staring at a book.

  “I need to speak with her. Alone.”

  Margo shook her head. “The Cason won’t meet with anyone alone.”

  Carth flipped a knife out of her pocket and jabbed it up underneath Margo’s chin faster than the other woman could react. “If I wanted to harm either of you, I would’ve done it long ago. This is my ship. I decide what happens. Not you. Not your Cason.” She glared at Margo for a long moment. “Now. I intend to speak with her alone.”

  Linsay looked up, and she grinned at Carth. “It’s okay, Margo. I doubt that she’ll hurt me,” she said, and there was an edge of concern to the word doubt that was meant for Margo more than it was for Carth. “If she needs to speak with me so badly that she would risk your safety, I’m willing to speak with her. You can join the others above deck, and I will come up there later.”

  Margo stared at Carth until Carth pulled back the knife. With barely more than a flicker, she slipped the knife back into her pocket. It had been a mistake attacking Margo that way, and Linsay knew it—and she had played it exactly the right way. Now Margo would go back to join Rebecca and Alessa and would speak to them about the way that Carth had treated her. Was that the way that some benevolent savior would treat those who intended to help them?

  Carth stepped off to the side, letting Margo slip past. She watched the woman until she disappeared, and Carth entered the room and pulled the door closed.

  “You really shouldn’t harm my friends,” Linsay said.

  “You know I wouldn’t have hurt her.”

  Linsay cocked her brow. “Do I?”

  “You do.”

  “But they don’t.”

  Carth took a seat and stared at Linsay, trying to understand what books she had in front of her. As before, there was nothing from the covers of the books that revealed their contents. It could be that they held nothing more than records or a journal. Carth doubted it was something as simple as that. Whatever Linsay researched had meaning to her. Did it have something to do with Ai’thol?

  “Why do you play this game? Why do you try to make it so that they will distrust me? You and I both know that if I wanted to harm you, it would take nothing more than a quick attack. I could have ended it before your people could react.”

  “Do we both know this?”

  “You do, which is why you think to play me. Whatever enhancements you think you’ve given them, they aren’t enough for me. They probably aren’t enough for Jenna. I saw the two of you sparring before you killed Boiyn, so I know that even with the enhancements that Boiyn created for you, you weren’t able to challenge her.”

  “Did you come down here to threaten me? I’d think that your threats would have been more effective in front of them, but then again, you did that as well, didn’t you?”

  “No. This isn’t a threat. This is a conversation about what you intend for us.”

  “I’ve shared with you that this is about helping you find your friend.”

  “If this is about finding Ras, then help me find him. What happened to him? Does it have to do with those ships?”

  Linsay hesitated and Carth stared at her, practically demanding that she answer. “More than I would like.”

  “And you fear them?”

  “If you knew better, you would fear them as well.”

  “I know you, so I know that whatever reason you fear them might not be the same reason that I should fear them.” Carth leaned forward and grabbed the book that Linsay was looking at from beneath her hands, and propped it open on her lap. She was done with pretending to be scared of or intimidated by Linsay. There was a part of her that was intimidated, at least when it came to trying to figure out what game Linsay might be at, but she couldn’t allow that part to be the one that dictated how she reacted.

  The book was impossible for her to read. It consisted of symbols that had no meaning to her, almost as if they were written in a cipher. Carth stared at the page, trying to memorize it, and began flipping through it, page by page, studying each one as she went. She had a good memory—the years playing Tsatsun had helped hone that skill—but not quite as good as Boiyn. He had a nearly perfect memory and had been able to recall everything that he saw. Carth hoped that by staring at the pages, she might be able to recall them after she left Linsay.

  Linsay stood and grabbed the book from her, slamming it back on the table. “That is not for you.”

  “No? It’s on my ship, which means that it is for me. I think that if you’re trying to conceal anything from me, I have a right to know what takes place on my ship.”

  “The contents of my private records matter not at all to you, regardless of whether it happens on your ship.”

  Carth resisted the urge to smile. It was the first time that she had seen Linsay rattled, and it came over a book?

  “What about the others? Are those off-limits too?”

  “Anything in my cabin is off-limits to you, Carthenne. And I will know if you attempt to violate this space.”

  “Violate? Such a loaded word for my presence.”

  “There is nothing loaded about the word. Your presence here does violate my space.”

  “And your presence on the ship violates mine. What’s in the book?”

  Linsay sat back down and leaned back, her face going neutral. After a while, a smile came across her face. “The new tactic. Good. I had begun to think that you had stopped playing the game.”

  The quick way that Linsay shifted her demeanor bothered Carth, and she was left slightly unsettled. Carth pushed away that sensation, focusing on the books on the table. They mattered to Linsay. “I could slip in here under the cloak of shadows and you would never know.”

  “I would know when you came in,” Linsay said.

  “Did you know the last time?”

  Linsay frowned, watching her. After a moment, she smiled. “There was no last time. If there had been, you would have alerted me.”

  “You seem to believe that you know everything about my abilities, when you do not.” Carth let that comment linger for a moment. She crossed her arms on her l
ap and shifted her gaze, looking up at Linsay. “Why are you scared of those ships?”

  “As I said, the fact that you have to ask tells me that you are not prepared for them.”

  “Does it? Or maybe I know all I need to know about those ships and I’m only curious about why you’re afraid of them. You seem quite eager for me to destroy them, but maybe that’s not even possible. Maybe I can’t destroy them.”

  “Perhaps I don’t know everything about your abilities, but I know enough to know that you would have little difficulty in sinking those ships. The ships of Keyall might be prepared for your particular strain of magic, but those of”—she paused to catch herself and smiled again—“anyway, you would not have any difficulty with those ships. I am quite certain of that.”

  “If you knew me at all, you would know that your eagerness for me to destroy them only raises questions.”

  “My eagerness has nothing to do with it. You always have taken too long to gather information.”

  There was something about the way she said it that made Carth hesitate. Had Linsay known that she had gone to the other ship? If she had, did that mean that all of the information that Carth had gathered was now less valuable?

  She didn’t think so, but maybe.

  “What information have I taken too long to gather?” Carth tried to present herself as merely curious rather than worried, but when it came to Linsay, she wasn’t certain that she succeeded.

  “In everything you do, you are far too deliberate. Sometimes you have to move beyond gathering information and begin to take steps to act.” She leaned forward, the obnoxious smile that she often wore when it was only her and Carth plastered on her face. “You do understand how to act, do you not, Carthenne?”

  More because of the fact that she knew Linsay didn’t know that she had been to the ships than anything else, Carth managed to fight back the urge to flick one of her knives at her. It would take nothing more than a quick stab to the chest, and Linsay could be ended. Carth wouldn’t even mourn, and would probably have no difficulty with the other three. She could even have Jenna take care of them, and give her an outlet for her frustration.

  Instead, Carth only watched Linsay with a deliberate smile. “I know how to act. And you had best hope that I choose not to act when it involves you.”

  “On the contrary, I anticipate that you will. That’s the entire reason that I have arranged for your presence.”

  It was the confirmation that Carth had not wanted that Linsay had been responsible for pulling Carth to her. “And what reason is that?”

  “Those ships that we just saw are tied to Ras.”

  They were too far from Odian for that to be the case. “I doubt that,” Carth said.

  “And why is that?”

  Carth looked around the room. “I’m beginning to think that you know nothing about Ras. All you’ve given me are empty statements. I think you did something to them and you intend for me to attack.” Considering what she had seen of the captain, she didn’t think that was necessary.

  “What if I told you that I know not only Ras, but also Jhon. Would you believe it then?”

  Carth tensed slightly. She’d never mentioned Jhon’s name to Linsay before, never wanting to share certain parts of her past with others. He had been the man who had been responsible for helping her understand her connection to the shadows from the beginning, helping her understand that she was shadow blessed, and subsequently helping her understand that she was shadow born. It was because of him that Carth knew more about herself. And yet, through all of that, she’d had the sneaking suspicion that Jhon had been working on behalf of her father and attempting to maneuver her into serving the Reshian. Carth had been unwilling to do that and had wanted to choose her own path, but it was because of Jhon that she had been put into contact with Ras. As much as anyone, Jhon had been an influential person in her life.

  “I see that I have your attention now.”

  “Where are they?”

  Linsay smiled. “That is not how this game is played, Carthenne. As you can see, I have the information. I believe that you understand how that is important, especially when you try to lay out the game board.”

  Carth clenched her jaw, biting back the comment that she wanted to make. She needed to hang on to the few pieces of information that she had that Linsay did not know she had learned. Those could be revealed at the right time and would have a much greater impact when they were. If she released that information too soon, she lost her leverage.

  “I have no intention of destroying those ships or those people,” Carth said. “If that’s what you need of me, then all of this will fail.”

  Linsay regarded her for a long moment. “And what if you learned that they were in possession of great power? Haven’t you made it your mission to ensure that dangerous power is only possessed by those who are equipped to use it?”

  “What kind of great power?” Even as she asked, she thought back to the stories that Alistan had shared with her about the Elder Stones. There might be countless such stones, but there was one named after the Elder who had supposedly granted the gift of fire. It was the stone she suspected Ras was named after.

  Could the people of Ai’thol be in possession of such a stone?

  “The kind of power that you have attempted to keep me from.”

  Carth looked down at Linsay. “If this is true—and I’m not saying that it is—why would I help you if it meant that you would be granted this power?”

  Linsay smiled at her. “Even if there wasn’t something to worry about here, and even if you didn’t need to concern yourself with these people causing great harm with this power, you would search for it regardless, especially as Ras would want you to search for it. He’s your friend, which means that you will do anything for him. I think we’ve already established that trend quite well.”

  Carth leaned back, but there was nothing for her to say. Once again, Linsay was right about her, but that didn’t mean that Carth would continue playing the way she wanted. Rather than sharing what she’d learned of Ai’thol, she stared at Linsay.

  It was best to let her think she had won for now.

  18

  Carth stood alone on the deck of the ship, staring out at the sea. Massive waves rolled toward them, tossing her from side to side, and she flowed with them, keeping to her feet, holding on to the tiller wheel as she guided the ship. Winds gusted around her, pulling on the sails, and she stared at the darkness with the growing shadows, as if she could find answers. The night offered none to her.

  Linsay’s women were all below deck and were all either sleeping, or more likely, standing guard over her. There wasn’t much that they would be able to do were Carth or even Jenna to go after them, but the belief that they could helped them in some ways.

  Carth didn’t know what she was going to do. Could Ras—and Jhon—be involved in some way? Did the captain have information, or was this only about Linsay reaching more power?

  She contemplated trading Linsay to the Ai’thol, but what if that was what Linsay wanted? Everything, every decision, became more difficult as she struggled to know whether Linsay was playing a game with her and whether she was falling into the trap of doing exactly what the other woman wanted.

  On the surface, Linsay had made it seem as if she wanted Carth to attack the captain and his ships, but she had also made a few comments that left Carth wondering whether that was what she really wanted. It was possible that Linsay had anticipated that Carth would go to the ships for information, would learn about the captain, and would think to ally with him to eliminate her as a threat.

  If that was true, then trading Linsay for the others was exactly what Linsay wanted. But why?

  The only thing Carth could think of was that she wanted it because she had failed to get close to them. Once she got close to them, then Linsay could begin attempting to play her games with them, and Carth had little doubt that she would be effective.

  What she wouldn’t give f
or the ability to flicker like the Hjan and travel from place to place the way that they could. There was information she needed, and she hated that she was limited by distances in her ability to gather that information.

  She heard the creaking of the ship and glanced behind her, noticing Alayna coming up the stairs.

  Alayna’s hard glare softened and was replaced by a worried expression. “You didn’t wake me for my shift,” she said.

  “I’ve been stuck here trying to decide what I should do,” Carth said.

  “And?”

  “And I still don’t know. Everything that I think of, I wonder whether it’s exactly what Linsay intends for me.” Carth took a deep breath and guided the ship around a massive swell. Another came toward them, and she started to adjust the ship, but Alayna reached over her and steered them differently. When she did, Carth smiled to herself, realizing that the way Alayna had guided them would be a smoother ride.

  “Haven’t you told me that when everyone seems to know what move you might make, it’s time to act irrationally?”

  “I’m pretty sure that’s not something I would have said.”

  Alayna smiled. “Maybe not. Maybe it’s something that I’m telling you.” She gently moved Carth over to the side and took control of the ship. “This is about more than you versus Linsay. I think this is you struggling with using Tsatsun as a marker for all strategic decisions that you make. It’s a part of them, and it has helped you think in ways that others do not, but you are more than the game. We all have seen that, and it’s your obsession with it that has frustrated us. Not because we don’t care for you, but because we know that you are more than that.”

  “I’m… I’m not sure I know how to do this,” Carth said.

  “Maybe not yet, but I have faith that you will quickly come to know exactly what you need to do. It’s the same faith that we all have in you, Carth. That’s why we follow you.” Alayna looked behind her, as if attempting to stare down below deck. “It’s different with them,” she said. “I don’t know why they follow her. Maybe it’s power, maybe it’s fear, or maybe there’s something else. Whatever it is, I doubt that you or I will be able to get through to them, not with her in place and with the way that she has manipulated them.”