Beyond the Shadows: Second Edition (The Shadow Series Book 1)

by Anna Hub

  “Did you sleep at all?” I asked him.

  “Not completely but minimising mental processing can be just as affective.” His eyes were almost completely grey.

  “Are you in there today?” I asked.

  “Where?”

  I frowned. Perhaps he couldn't judge emotions in language either.

  “Pull your shadow over your arms.” He stretched his shadow once again. “You should walk in the front this time.”

  Sometimes he placed a hand on my shoulder to lead me in the direction he wanted me to go but he rarely spoke.

  We reached the river and washed our faces before gathering our shadows into pouches and filling them with water for the trip.

  The cats played with us, running alongside and sometimes hissing between the trees. The anticipation became unbearable and I found myself wishing they would launch their attack and be done with it.

  Brayden kept his eyes on our surroundings, and I tried to let go and trust in his ability.

  We reached the edge of the forest once more. The mountains hung in the distance with a stream of smoke spiralling between them.

  "Brayden, look." I only prayed that whoever it belonged to was welcoming.

  We started walking down the slope, the trees growing further apart once again. It was quiet. Too quiet. Turning full circle, I searched for the unnatural sway of the plants, but everything was still. "Where have they gone?"

  Brayden's posture straightened, grey eyes trained straight ahead. My heart raced as I followed his gaze, instinctively stopping as I saw eight cats waiting. All of them mature in size, their tails intact and coiled above their bodies. My hands shook as Brayden stepped forward, lifting his three tails up high. The biggest cat exposed sharp fangs and leaned forward in a hiss. Behind it, two paced the ground, their eyes locked upon us.

  A crunch sounded behind, and I turned to find three more. “Brayden?”

  A cat cracked its tail high above me, too fast to see but I felt the breeze.

  "Stay calm, Selena." Perhaps his instinct was also aware of my increasing anxiety.

  The cats snarled and whips cracked on either side of us. Brayden loosened his own whips before releasing them into the air with amazing unison. They snapped as they reached full capacity.

  The display seemed to fuel the rage of the cats. “Stop, you’re going to make them attack.”

  “That’s my plan.”

  There was no escaping the horror that waited for us now.

  “Whatever you do, don’t run,” he said. “With your shadow, they'll have trouble breaking through to your skin. They'll likely go for your legs.”

  The pain of my previous injury came rushing back. I wrapped the shadow around my legs and checked the trees for places where the shade might leave me without armour.

  The cats circled us. They had us exactly where they wanted us—their lair. Close by, another cat emerged from a crack in the valley wall. Perhaps there were even more to come.

  At that moment, I would have done anything to know what was in Brayden’s head—to hear him calculating the fight. He would know things I could only guess at. His whip cracked as he attacked and the cats screamed back. Their cries combined, sending my head into an instant spin.

  A cat fell to the ground, blood spilling from a wound in its neck. Everything from that point moved too quickly for me to make sense of. Brayden’s body twitched and jerked beside me as he fought. The cats screamed relentlessly, testing my balance and disorientating me.

  A whip flicked at my face, and my own reflexes forced my shadowed arm up as a shield. The pain was excruciating as it wrapped around the limb but the shadow kept my skin intact. I clutched at the pain, unaware I had trapped the tail in my grip. The cat jumped forward and screamed, its mouth full of sharp teeth.

  A second whip wrapped around my ankle and knocked me to the ground. Brayden stomped on the tail that I held tight. I could hear the cracking of his weapons while he still managed to throw the blade down and release me from my attacker. The cat collapsed in pain, and I realised I was still holding the amputated tail. The strong leather was covered in spiky hairs. I threw it away in disgust. I rose into a crouch, checking the positions of the cats before I tried to stand.

  Brayden swung in all directions, arms and legs both moving together as he lashed the whips. A tail hit him in the back, and he fell forward, knocking us both to the ground. He cried out, and fear drove right through my heart. But he jumped up quickly, his shadow still serving as armour where the whip had struck.

  Carnage surrounded us. Blood scattered over the dirt between the bodies of fallen cats. I jumped to my feet once more, turning full circle before a whip hit my shoulder. I cried out and jumped to the side before the cat could strike me again.

  The skin split clean open, but it didn't bleed. It wasn't as bad as my previous injury. I clamped my shadow over it and turned to see Brayden. His instinct was far stronger than I'd anticipated. He moved with inhuman skill and agility, predicting attacks and moving against them before they were even initiated. The furious cats stepped back, watching him carefully before they prepared to strike again.

  Small cuts that barely oozed blood were scattered over his back and arms wherever the shadow didn't cover. Thankfully it wasn’t enough to weaken him.

  The smaller cats retreated into their den, and only five remained.

  "Time to run," Brayden shouted over the whips.

  I took flight, legs trembling as I passed the remaining cats. The final whips cracked, and I turned back, relieved to find Brayden running after me.

  “Keep going.” He looked back to the trees, and I saw a long laceration on his back where his shadow had slipped. Blood had dried beneath it, but amazingly it was no longer leaking.

  I ran until my breath heaved in my chest, throat burning. And finally, Brayden gave the go ahead to walk.

  Five cats still watched us from valley slope, but they showed no sign of following. The river flowed fast beside us, splitting the barren land between the valley and mountains. We were only a couple of hours away from the mountain base.

  Brayden eventually passed me, his eyes thick and cloudy as he briefly met my gaze. I stared at his back as he walked, the wound gaping in front of me. It defied logic that it didn't bleed.

  Whenever he turned back, his eyes seemed a little less grey, until my final check exposed only a thin streak from his outer eye to his pupil. He stopped in his place and watched me as I walked past. I had taken only a few more steps before I heard his body crash to the ground. He’d landed face first, the previously dry wound, now flooding with blood.

  “Brayden?”

  I squeezed the sides of the wound together and pressed all my weight to stem the bleeding. I cried his name, but he'd lost consciousness. I leaned close, checking that he still breathed.

  "Brayden? Wake up!"

  Blood oozed over my hands. I grabbed his shadow and pulled it over the wound, pressing my hands against it until I was sure it had sealed. We only had hours left before sunset. When the shadow disappeared, there would be nothing to hold his wound together.

  I grabbed his hands and tried to drag him toward the mountains, but he was too heavy. The five cats watched from the edge of the forest and panic built as I imagined them coming for us.

  Smoke still streamed between the mountains, so I knew help had to be close. It was the only chance I really had. Checking Brayden one last time, I urged myself to run faster than I ever had before.

  Chapter Twenty One

  Leaving Brayden behind was hard, but there was no other choice. I ran as fast as I could, trying to ignore the vision of the cats finishing him off while I was gone.

  My legs burned with each step, but I couldn't afford to slow down. Smoke still rose from a passage running between two mountains, but there were no other signs of life yet. I almost cried out for help; people couldn't be that far away. But something held me back. There was no way to know what kind of people they would be. Hunters. Savages. Tribesm
an.

  With each step, the trepidation grew worse. The wind blew hair across my face, and I snatched at it, desperate to keep my eyes trained on the mountains. Each step was on the balls of my feet, my shadow still wrapped over the front of my body for armour. An unnatural silence hung between the two mountains as I stepped into their embrace. There were no insects chirping, no birds flying. I scanned the rocks and shrubs in the pass; they were large enough to conceal a person. The smell of smoke grew strong—I was close.

  The passage rounded, revealing a fire burning in a small alcove hidden between rocks. Logs rested like camp seats. I turned in a full circle. There were people here. I could feel it somehow.

  “Hello?” my voice shook. I checked over my shoulder. “Please, I need help.” I stood close to the fire, careful not to back myself into the corner. I held my hands out in surrender. “My friend is dying. I need help.”

  Saying those words aloud sent a tremble right through my body. Brayden was dying and the longer I wasted, the more danger he was in.

  A blonde haired man stepped forward, his eyes sharp as he pointed a loaded bow at my face. I raised my hands higher. "I just need help."

  "Show me your face,” he ordered.

  I dragged hair away from my eyes with one hand, the other still held out as a symbol of submission. “We were attacked by cats just outside the valley. My friend was hit in the back. I had to leave him unconscious to come here.”

  His grip on the bow relaxed a little and a second man stepped forward. He was much smaller than the first, but his body was solid muscle. “How did you make it to the edge of the valley?”

  “We ran. Please, we have to hurry, the cats were watching us when he fell.”

  The men looked to each other. The blonde one nodded, but the smaller man shook his head. “We can’t risk being attacked by the whip cats. We’re outnumbered.”

  “What? You can't leave him there to die!”

  “Why don’t you go and warn the villagers, Robert?” a woman's voice sounded behind me, and I turned. She had her shadow wrapped around her chest, the hand fanned over her neck beside a long dark braid.

  I struggled to contain my impatience, knowing that pushing them too hard wouldn't help my cause. "Please, it’s not far.” We had to get there before the sun set and Brayden lost the shadow covering his wound.

  The smaller man stared me down. “You have no idea what the cats are capable of. We can't endanger our own lives."

  "I've seen what they're capable of. But he's dying out there."

  “Quickly, Robert!" the woman pushed. "Take the message back to the elders, we’ll keep guard here.” He scowled and opened his mouth to object, but the woman snapped at him. “Go now, Robert.”

  He shook his head in anger before he turned away and left us. She walked closer to me, a bow hanging over her shoulder.

  "Be careful, Tara" the blonde man warned.

  She ignored him, stepping forward to grip my chin and examine my eyes. "She's harmless." Tara stood almost a foot taller than me with an athletic build. She was right. I was harmless. "Leaving a corpse out there is more dangerous than collecting it. The cats will come for him if we leave him there.”

  Corpse? "He's not dead, he's injured," I insisted.

  The blonde man lowered his bow. "Let's go then."

  As soon as we cleared the mountain pass we broke into a run, the cats still observing from a distance. The two archers ran fast, keeping their bows loaded as they made their way toward Brayden's limp body.

  Cats cracked their tails from the rocks by the valley, but Brayden was getting closer as we charged. I prayed for the beasts to hold off just a little longer. My vision blurred as I pushed my body to keep going. But without food or water, the adrenaline of the past few hours had wiped me out. My legs turned soft. No. Not here, I urged myself. I just needed to last a little longer. Long enough to see Brayden was safe. But I couldn't keep up. My knees buckled, and I stumbled to the ground, head spinning as I fell.

  “Get up!” The woman hoisted me by my armpit.

  I shook my head, struggling to fight off the blurred vision. I must have lost consciousness for the blonde archer now ran toward us with Brayden hanging over his shoulders.

  “Come on," she urged. "Run."

  I felt my shadow becoming weaker as the sunlight faded. My stomach twisted at the thought of what that might mean for Brayden. “He has a wound beneath his shadow.”

  “Faster then.” The woman shouted, the man grunting as he forced himself to run with the weight of Brayden bearing down on him. "I'll run ahead to get the healer."

  The woman checked I was still behind them before she quickened her pace and disappeared between the mountains. Once more, my legs wobbled, and I wasn't sure if I would make it all the way the camp. I turned back checking the cats hadn't followed us. At least, if I fell now, I wasn't far from safety.

  We turned into the passage, the fire smoke blowing toward us. The distance between the man and me was growing wider, but once I saw the firelight, I knew I'd made it. I dropped to my knees, unable to take those last few steps before complete exhaustion took over.

  Chapter Twenty Two

  I woke with a jolt, a nearby fire giving light to the darkness. An unfamiliar hand pushed me back down. “Just rest, you’re weak,” the voice of an older woman said. I could only make out her grey hair as she turned away from me.

  “Brayden?”

  “He's being taken care of.”

  The woman with the braided hair squatted down beside me. Her shadow still spread over her shoulder as she stuffed something under my head and tipped a wooden bowl to my lips. “Drink this.”

  I almost choked as she poured warm soup into my mouth. The smell filled my nostrils and gave me the energy to grasp the bowl with my own hands.

  “Just let that sit with you for a while.” Her angular features made her quite striking when she wasn't scowling.

  “Your friend is very lucky you had the sense to cover him with his shadow,” the older woman spoke again. “Most people don’t understand it creates suction when applied to a wound like that.”

  “Ethel is our healer,” the woman with the braid explained. “And my name is Tara.”

  I remembered her name. “Is Brayden okay?”

  Tara turned away. Was that intentional or coincidental?

  “I don’t expect him to wake for some time, his body needs to focus all his energy on healing,” Ethel answered.

  It wasn't a bad answer, but I still wanted more. "How's his wound?"

  Ethel moved closer. “What is your name?”

  I lifted my head and could just make out Brayden’s form on the other side of the fire. “My name is Selena.”

  "You have to understand this world isn't like our old one, Selena. Your friend's wound will likely heal, but infection is a big problem here."

  I sat up and shifted closer to Brayden. His chest rose and fell with each breath as he lay in the recovery position, his shadow covering his back.

  "We'll keep the wound sealed for now," Ethel said. "I promise you, I'll do whatever I can."

  Even though Brayden couldn't feel it, I slipped my hand inside his. So many questions were running through my head, about this world and the village I'd heard mentioned the day before. But for the time being, what mattered most, was seeing Brayden live through.

  --*--

  Smoke from a recently extinguished fire woke me; the wind blowing it straight into my face. I tried to sit up, but my body still felt weak. The last couple of days had been traumatic. They had drained my body of absolutely all resources. It was like a bad hangover. I was dehydrated and dizzy from starvation.

  “It might take you a while to come round.” I had recognised Tara’s voice before I saw her. “Ethel has applied a poultice to that wound on your shoulder. Keep your shadow over it for the rest of the day, and then it should be fine.”

  I rolled onto my side, heart thumping as I realised Brayden was missing.

  “Yo
ur friend has been carried to the main camp where it's safer. Ethel's gone with him. She's very good; you shouldn't worry.”

  I sat up slowly this time, closing my eyes until my head stopped spinning.

  "Here, have some water."

  I took a drink, grateful to soothe the dryness in my throat as I looked around. Robert had returned, his expression was still stony.

  The blonde man pulled shoulder length hair back into a ponytail and smiled warmly. “Hi, I’m Matt.”

  “Once you’ve eaten, Robert will take you back to the main camp,” Tara said.

  Although I'd rather not travel anywhere with him, at least, I would be closer to Brayden.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  Tara handed me a fresh bowl of soup waving away my gratitude.

  “For saving my friend, I mean.”

  Finally, she stopped and looked at me, her eyes a stunning blue. “You’re welcome.”

  I finished my soup, and Robert stood up instantly. “Are you ready?”

  His attitude irritated me, but I didn't want to wait any longer to see Brayden anyway.

  Tara took my bowl. “We guard the mountain pass in shifts of three days. I’ll return to the village at dusk.”

  I nodded but couldn’t help feeling uneasy about being alone with Robert. Checking my shadow remained in place, I stood, working hard to keep confidence in my posture.

  Matt brushed my hand and spoke in a lowered voice as I passed him, “People around here are afraid to accept newcomers, especially from the valley. Be prepared for that.”

  Maybe that's why Robert was so standoffish. "Thanks," I whispered.

  Robert walked ahead of me, his shadow wrapped around his waist in the same way Brayden usually wore his but with one arm flat over his chest and the fingers fanned out. These people seemed to like them displayed in a certain way. I wondered if that represented anything.