Slight and Shadow (Fate's Forsaken: Book Two)

by Ford, Shae

  “Thank you, Declan.”

  Chapter 19

  The Grandmot

  The sky was just pink enough to scare the minceworms back to their burrows when Elena bid them all farewell — saying that she’d rather strike out on her own than tie her lot in with a mage. And though that seemed to hurt Jake’s feelings considerably, Kyleigh thought it was all for the best.

  Once Elena was halfway to the dunes in the distance, Kyleigh turned to her next task at hand: discovering what it was that Jake was trying so desperately to hide in his pack.

  “It’s just an experiment,” he grumbled. The pack squirmed a little, and he punched it roughly. “I’m trying to measure the effects of heat on minceworm skin,” he explained, when Kyleigh narrowed her eyes. “We know how fire effects them. But I’m trying to deduce whether it’s the light or the heat that keeps them hiding under the sand all day. Firelight doesn’t seem quite bright enough to harm them, but the sun —”

  “All right — which of you did it?”

  Kyleigh was slightly grateful when Elena chose that moment to come storming back into camp. She knew how long-winded Jake’s explanations could be. “Which of us did what?” she called as Elena approached them.

  Good lord, that woman could melt flesh with her glare.

  Her shoulders were stiff; her fingers curled into fists. An empty pack hung from her right hand. “Which of you did this?” she snapped, flinging the pack at Kyleigh’s feet. “All of my supplies are gone. My rations, my water — everything!”

  “Why do you think we’re to blame?” Silas mumbled. He was lying on his back against the glass floor, smiling contently as the morning sun warmed it. “You left food out in the middle of the desert overnight. Did you not see the hundreds of hungry mouths waiting around our camp?”

  “Yes, I saw them,” Elena said, with over exaggerated patience. “But did you not see, cat, that my pack isn’t torn to shreds? So unless the minceworms have discovered a way to work buckles and canteen caps, I’d say the head I ought to crack is somewhere amongst you three. Or perhaps I ought to just crack them all.”

  They hadn’t been together an entire night, and Silas had already made Elena his enemy. When the morning sky was still dark, he’d snuck into Kyleigh’s tent in his lion form and let out an ear-rattling roar. It startled Elena so badly that she’d nearly torn a hole in the tent’s wall just trying to escape.

  Silas had been chuckling about it all morning. Even now, his white teeth glinted as he grinned at her threat. “Well, I certainly didn’t do it.”

  Elena spun on Kyleigh, and she shook her head quickly.

  “I don’t trust you,” Elena snarled.

  “Well, that’s probably for the best,” Kyleigh allowed. “But though I’m many things, a liar isn’t one of them.”

  When Elena couldn’t match her glare, she stomped over to Jake.

  “Hold on a moment.” He fumbled with the strings on his invisible canteens before he managed to pull one free. Then he held it out to her. “I didn’t do it. But here — take this.”

  Kyleigh had to prop a fist under her chin to keep her mouth from falling open. She knew very well that the canteen he’d offered Elena was his last. And had she been a nicer person, the gesture might not have been all that astonishing. But as it was, Elena was about as nice as a cut under the fingernail.

  She glared at Jake’s hand. “Are you mocking me?”

  “Not at all. It just looks like nothing —”

  “So you’ve stolen my rations, and now you’re content to sit back and laugh at me?”

  “No, that isn’t it.” Jake got to his feet, and though he stood nearly a head over Elena, he hunched his shoulders forward and looked down at the ground. “I’m truly sorry for what happened to you. I’m only trying to help —”

  “Don’t apologize to her,” Silas said, springing to his feet. He stuck his chest to Elena’s arm and met her fiercely in the eyes. “The shaman is far too polite,” he growled, “but I am not. Slight him again, and I’ll chew you into pieces.”

  Elena glared daggers at Silas — who sneered defiantly back. And Jake, for whatever reason, looked remarkably close to tears. Kyleigh decided that now was probably the time to step between them.

  She pushed Elena and Silas apart, with one firm hand on either of their chests. “I don’t know what happened to your pack,” Kyleigh said sharply, “but if Jake and I say we didn’t do it, then we didn’t do it. As for Silas —”

  “You’ll never know!” he crowed, laughing in her face.

  Elena’s hand twitched for one of her daggers.

  Kyleigh grabbed her wrist. “Don’t even think about it,” she growled, shoving her back. “There’s no changing what’s been done, and we haven’t got enough supplies to share,” she added, with a pointed look at Jake. “So, you have two choices: follow us to water, or try to survive the journey back on your own. It’s entirely up to you.”

  *******

  By midday, Kyleigh was beginning to wish that she’d just killed them all and been done with it. They had no meat for breakfast, and so Silas had gone back to being one high pitched and never-ending moan of despair. Jake still asked her a thousand questions every hour — none of which she was able to answer to his liking. But now Elena was there to make it all worse.

  When Silas whined, she’d very tartly turn around and tell him to shut it — which would start a fist-flying argument that Kyleigh had to step in and settle. Then Elena complained loudly about having to walk downwind from Jake, and he’d gotten rather hurt about it.

  The next time Kyleigh turned, she spotted Jake several yards away from the main party, walking stubbornly in another direction.

  So she made Silas and Elena sit with their backs to each other — and swore by the sky above them that if she had to separate one more fight, she’d reduce them both to smoldering craters. Then she went after Jake at a run.

  “What are you doing, you silly mage?” she said when he was within shouting distance.

  “I’m going home!” he snapped from over his shoulder.

  “No, you’re going east.”

  He stopped and squinted up at the sky. Then he spun around and with a good amount of cursing, began to walk in the opposite direction. “I can’t take it anymore,” he said as he drew even with her. He tried to push past her, but she wrangled him in by the shoulders. “Let me go!”

  “Not until you tell me what’s the matter,” Kyleigh said, trying not to crush him as he struggled. “Was it what Elena said?”

  “No,” he snapped back. Then all at once, his anger deflated. “I don’t like being a bother. Whisperers obviously can’t stand the smell of me. That’s part of the reason why I followed you out of Gravy Bay: I knew I was bothering Kael. He was nice about it, but I could tell that I bothered him. And I just …”

  “Yes,” Kyleigh said after a moment. “He was nice about it. And do you know why that is?”

  “No.”

  “Because, underneath that prickly skin of his, he’s actually a very nice person.” It was surprisingly difficult to talk about Kael. She tried to keep her voice steady, but for some reason, her chest was suddenly tight. What in Kingdom’s name was wrong with her? She cleared her throat roughly and pressed on. “Elena, however, is not a nice person. She’s a terror and a child — a spoiled ruler’s pet who’s been given everything she ever asked for. Believe me, I’ve seen her type before.”

  Jake shook his head. “No, you’re wrong.” He struggled again and this time, she released him. He dropped his pack on the ground and began to work the straps. “Here, I’ll leave you with the cook pot and —”

  The pack opened and a cloud of ash whooshed out, covering Jake’s face and beard in soot. He swore.

  “Perfect, just perfect,” he muttered. His brows bent into a glare, but his spectacles were so filthy that Kyleigh couldn’t see his eyes behind the lenses. “I can’t believe I forgot about that blasted minceworm — now my experiment is ruined! See? You’re be
tter off without me.” He ripped his spectacles off and began to polish them furiously against the hem of his robe. “Elena would be nicer if I wasn’t here. If I stay, I’ll only make a mess of things.”

  “Jake — she’s treating you like one of her servants. She orders you about, tells you to walk so many paces behind her, to give up a portion of your water, and instead of standing up to her — you just let her do it!” When he shook his head, Kyleigh dropped down to face him. “You are not her slave, do you understand? So what if she has a problem with you? That’s her problem — not yours. Silas and I don’t put up with her nonsense, and neither should you. So the next time she snaps at you, I want you to tell her to shove —”

  “Dragoness!”

  Kyleigh jerked her head around to yell back at Silas, and instead saw something that made her heart catch in her throat.

  A monster barreled up from the south: a huge, swirling cloud of wind and sand. It blotted out the sky behind it, swallowed up the massive dunes in its path. The storm rushed towards them in a perfect wall, breaking across the earth like foamy surf upon the shore — and they were nothing but tiny fish about to be swept away.

  The storm stretched from horizon to horizon, thundering as it raced to devour them. It seemed to gain speed as it tore across the dunes; the sands caught in the gales thickened it, reaching up to cover the sun in a dense, brownish cloak.

  Kyleigh knew there was no escaping it.

  A blur of movement caught her eye, and she looked down in time to see Elena tearing off in another direction. She followed her sprint and saw that she was heading for an outcrop of gray rock in the distance — the only thing in sight that wasn’t made of sand.

  “Follow her!” Kyleigh shouted to Silas.

  “What about the packs —?”

  “Leave them! Go!”

  The shrill in her voice seemed to convince him. He dropped on all fours and burst into his lion form. Kyleigh grabbed Jake by the hand and jerked him forward. She knew they didn’t have much hope of making it to shelter before the wall overcame them, but at least they wouldn’t be separated.

  “It’s a sandstorm!” Jake gasped as he struggled to keep her pace. “I was beginning to think we wouldn’t see one. Is it true what they say? That sometimes the sand blows hard enough to strip flesh from bone —?”

  “I don’t know, and I sure as Death don’t want to find out!” Kyleigh yelled over him. The storm thundered towards them, aiming to strike them in the side. She could feel its fury in the hot wind that cut across the nape of her neck.

  Ahead of her, Silas had outstripped Elena by the power of his four legs. He was nearly at the rock shelter. Kyleigh reached with her free hand and pulled Jake’s turban over his eyes.

  “Unless you want the sands to scratch them from their sockets, you’re going to have to keep them covered!” she said when he complained. “I’ll guide you — trust me!” She got one last glimpse of their target before she pulled her hood over her eyes — and not a breath too soon.

  The gales struck them hard, blowing them sideways. Jake fell and Kyleigh nearly tripped over him as she struggled to keep her footing. She felt as if she was trapped beneath the ocean, with the currents ripping her limbs in every direction. It wasn’t long before she lost all sense of where she was, and the sand showed no mercy: it lashed her flesh, burning like flakes of hot ash.

  She pulled Jake up by their clasped hands and heard him yell as she dragged him on. The fiery earth rose like floodwaters over their ankles and knees. As the sand tried to drag them under, they bent nearly double against the wind, fighting their way through the thick, burning drifts.

  Grit caked Kyleigh’s tongue. She felt as if every gasping breath she drew was half-sand. She didn’t know how long they would have until they ran out of air. The shelter of the rocks was their only hope.

  “Run!”

  She pulled Jake into a desperate sprint. They moved quickly, jerking their legs stubbornly out of the drifts and dashing for a few steps along the shifting surface. Kyleigh wagered they would be at the rocks in thirty paces. Surely they could hold on until then.

  She leapt free of another drift and went to take the next step, but her boot touched nothing. Her leg fell through an open space and dragged her body down with it. She was too shocked to let go of Jake. She heard him cry out as the weight of her body pulled him down.

  The burning heat, the sand, the roar of the storm — it all suddenly disappeared, snuffed out as the earth sucked them downwards. Wind whistled across Kyleigh’s ears and she dragged her elbow against the wall behind her, trying to slow their fall. The path curved, and she grimaced as her rump struck unforgiving stone. Then the tunnel spat them out.

  Kyleigh slid until her back struck a wall, jarring her innards. Jake certainly didn’t help things when he collided with her middle. She lay still for a moment, checking to make sure that she had all of her limbs. Once her arms and legs had all been accounted for, she looked to see where they’d landed.

  Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dimness: gray walls of rock surrounded them. They must’ve fallen into some sort of cave.

  Jake lay just in front of her. She reached out to make sure he was in one piece. When she gripped his shoulder, he didn’t respond. She shook him gently — then much rougher when his body rolled limply to the side. “Jake? Jake!”

  Her shout echoed sharply off the walls around them, but she didn’t care. She pushed Jake onto his back and gripped his face between her hands. Hot, sticky blood stained the pads of her fingers. She felt through his shaggy beard and along his scalp until she finally found it: a gash the length of half a finger. Though it was no wider than a bootlace, the wound gushed blood at an alarming rate.

  Something dug into Kyleigh’s neck. She was so worried over Jake that she knocked it away without thinking. A second later, the pressure came again. And this time it was followed by a voice:

  “What are you doing in our tunnels, outlander?”

  Kyleigh turned — slowly, because she now realized that the object digging into her neck was the pointed end of a spear.

  A woman’s face was the first thing she saw. She was young. The black hair that fell just past her shoulders was held back by a silver clasp. Though her features gave her the same exotic look as a desert woman, her skin was almost the color of sand, the lightest brown Kyleigh had ever seen amongst the tribes.

  The woman’s stern look was tinged with surprise. Kyleigh guessed by the way her eyes wandered that she hadn’t seen many travelers. “Why have you trespassed here?” she said again.

  Kyleigh didn’t have time to explain. “Do you have a healer? My friend’s hurt.”

  The woman obviously hadn’t been expecting a question. She eased back, and Kyleigh moved like a flash — ripping the spear out of the woman’s hand and leveling it at her throat.

  She was surprised to find that the shaft was made of metal. It was heavy, too. It didn’t feel like iron, and wasn’t as bright as steel. “Silver?” she said.

  The woman nodded. She’d retreated back a few paces and was now standing protectively before the tunnel’s opening. A dim light glowed behind her, and a little girl in a yellow silk dress clutched at her hand. Kyleigh thought the little girl’s eyes looked strangely familiar. There was a depth in them that she recognized, and they held her with an odd power — almost as if they could see through her skin.

  A memory flashed across the backs of her eyes. It darted by, teasing her with a flick of its tail as it swam away. The little girl’s stare crept over her, and Kyleigh bit down on her lip. She was angry — not at the little girl, but at her stare. And something told her that she had a good reason to be upset … but she couldn’t remember why.

  After a moment, the little girl blinked. The eerie depth disappeared from her eyes as she tugged on the woman’s hand. A childlike excitement lined her smile. “Nadine — look!”

  “I see, child,” Nadine whispered back. She stared at Kyleigh, and the dark brows above her eyes t
ipped — from surprised arcs, to firm, determined lines.

  Nadine was not dressed quite like the traditional desert woman. Her red silk dress had been altered to look more like a warrior’s garb: one shoulder was bare, but across the other was a metal guard. Her skirt was cut to her knees and covered in heavy chainmail. She wore sandals on her feet, and the metal plates that wrapped around her calves protected her shins.

  The gauntlets on her wrists were close enough for Kyleigh to get a good look at them. They had intricate designs carved into their surfaces, and the trail left a darker line than it would have in steel.

  So, even her armor was made of silver.

  “Why have we stopped?” a commanding voice said from deeper in the tunnel.

  Nadine stepped aside, and another woman slipped out from behind her — placing herself firmly between Nadine and the little girl.

  The hair on this woman’s head sprouted short and wild: it stuck up in every direction and glinted strangely in the dim light. It took Kyleigh a moment to see that most of what she thought was hair was actually an astonishing number of tawny feathers. They’d been woven carefully among the dark strands, until most of them stood up straight. Kyleigh thought the feathers made the woman look slightly ruffled — like a barn owl caught in a gale.

  A soft rattle of armor came from the tunnel behind them. Kyleigh took a protective step towards Jake when she saw the small force of spear-wielding guards gathered behind Nadine. One of them craned his neck over the crowd. He broke out into an excited grin when he saw Kyleigh.

  “Dawn Hessa’s vision has come to pass, Grandmot,” he said to the feather-haired woman. He pointed his spear at Kyleigh and called behind him: “One more deserving has fallen into our path. Nadine will be spared!”

  His announcement set off a round of muffled cheers from the other guards. More smiling heads popped over the Grandmot to get a good look at Kyleigh — who was trying desperately to wrap her head around the strangeness of it all.