The Spald was tied out in the deep water, and she had rowed to shore. She would need to find a crew, now that Dara remained in Reva. Lindy would help, but she suspected Lindy felt much the same way as Dara, and wanted to return to the north. At a certain point, she would have to start helping her friends return. That was what she had promised when they had first sailed for the south.
From above the street, Carth could feel a certain energy. It came from the city in something like waves. It pressed on her, moving through the shadows, filtering through her connection to the flame, a vibrancy and a life that only cities possessed. Villages she had visited had none of that. They were quiet, a place of calm, and oftentimes shut down shortly after dark. With Asador, much like it had been in Nyaesh, the city never really shut down. There was always activity, always something happening.
Carth listened in the distance, enjoying the muted cacophony of sounds, content to simply stand above the city like this. Here, this close to the shore, where she could see both the sea and the rest of the city, she felt connected to the life of this place.
She would need to get moving. She had promised Dara that she would continue working on her network, which meant finding another city, starting again. She would not have the same help she’d had the last time, but then again, Carth had always known she would need to do this alone. Her intent was to continue setting up an interconnected network that would allow her to know everything before anyone else. She would control the flow of information, and through that, she would finally know where the pieces moved on the board. This was the first step.
A cry caught her attention. It came from within the city, away from the shore.
There was a shrill quality to it, one that Carth had always been drawn to, the sound that she felt compelled to help. This time was no different.
Carth raced along the rooftops, jumping between buildings, augmented by the shadows. There were few who could travel this way, and Carth enjoyed the freedom of moving unencumbered by the crowds below. At this time of day, well after midnight, there weren’t many crowds, but there were enough people that she was able to move more easily up here.
It wasn’t just hiding from the crowds that compelled her to move along the rooftops; it was the fact that she could sink into the shadows and draw upon the A’ras flame, both without needing to worry about harming someone else down in the street. There was a risk with the flame that she could lose control of it.
She hadn’t so far, but the more she used it, the more she felt it burning within her. It was a dangerous sort of fire, the kind that could destroy all of the city if she truly unleashed it.
The shadows didn’t pose the same threat, but there were enough people who recognized the shadow magic, enough who understood the Reshian, that Carth preferred to remain hidden.
She jumped across a street and saw a woman lying sprawled across the cobbles. A young man crouched over her, reaching for her head.
Carth acted.
She jumped, landed, and, with her shadow enhancements giving her strength, rolled as she did. She kicked, sending her heel into the man’s stomach, and he went flying backwards.
Carth grabbed the woman and raced forward. She heard a shout behind her and jumped, drawing upon her shadow magic most strongly, using that to give her strength.
She jumped, reaching the nearest rooftop, and ran across them. When the shouting stopped, she paused and set the woman down.
Carth examined her, searching for injuries. She found an angry bruise on her forehead, the gash still losing blood. She had dark black hair, and pale skin that reminded her of herself. She wore a dirty brown dress and well-worn shoes. A simple band of twine had been tied around her wrist, something she’d learned was a marker of betrothal in Asador.
She checked the woman’s neck for a pulse and found it beating steadily. She breathed regularly, and there was no other sign of injury. She would need to be stitched, but more than that was likely unnecessary.
She could bring her to Evie, and then the woman could help make certain she was freed from whatever aggression she’d been exposed to.
When she was confident the woman was stable, she started along the rooftop, carrying her, but not moving with the same urgency as she had before.
When she neared the street where she would find Evie and the healers’ hospital, she jumped, hurried into the building, and delivered her to Evie. The woman blinked, looking at her with disappointment in her eyes.
“Just because we had open beds didn’t mean you had to bring me others.”
“I don’t think she’s badly hurt.”
Evie quickly ran her hands over the woman’s body, finding the wound on her head before turning her quickly and scanning her backside. “No, I think there is just the one injury. That should be pretty easy to stitch up.” She fixed Carth with a curious expression. “What happened to her?”
Carth sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know. An attack near the docks. I had to grab her from the man who assaulted her.”
“There are one or two of these each night.”
Carth didn’t realize there had been so quite so many assaults. “Are they getting to you for help?”
Evie nodded. “Your network brings them to me, and the others. We bind them up, get them back on the street. We tell them they have a safe place if they need us.” Evie looked at her. “On the streets, that’s what we’re known as. Binders.”
Carth frowned. “There wouldn’t be quite so many attacks if they knew we were here, and if they knew that they had our protection.”
“Or would there be more, thinking to unseat you?”
That was possible, and it troubled her. That was part of the reason she hadn’t revealed herself yet, though not all of it. “I don’t know.”
Carth sighed again. That had been the intent. It seemed that the more she saw, the more she experienced, the more it became clear that she had to make others aware they had her protection. Not just from her, but from those who were with her.
How could she remain hidden if others suffered?
She couldn’t. That wasn’t in her.
The only problem was, she didn’t know how to go about spreading the word that she offered her protection.
She had an idea where to start, though.
As Carth turned back to the door, Evie hollered after her. “Where are you going?”
Carth paused long enough to look back. “It’s time Asador at least learns that there are those who have my protection. If they harm us, we’ll do as you said and bind them up. Then they’ll be under my protection, and they’ll be loyal to our cause.”
Evie chuckled. “I don’t think you need to prove anything quite so dramatic. Most who have learned about your protection have already become loyal to your cause. That’s what doing the right thing tends to do for you, you know?”
“It’s time for me to make sure that I spread the word.”
Evie pulled the tray over and began stacking her supplies, threading a needle in setting it down next to some dressing. “Just make sure that when you do this, you don’t give me too much more business.”
It was Carth’s turn to laugh. “I thought it didn’t matter. You have a total of ten beds here?”
Evie looked up at her and met her eyes. “Ten for now. If things get active, I fear that won’t be enough.”
Carth left Evie and hurried down the street. She reached the corner and jumped up to the roofline, racing along it, drawing on the strength of the shadows to help her race more quickly than she could without it. There was almost a sense of flying, a sense of weightlessness as she moved along the rooflines. There was freedom here.
Carth found the street corner where she’d heard the girl’s cry. There was still a stain of blood on the cobbles. Otherwise, the rest of the street was quiet. Carth pulled on the shadows, sinking down into them, cloaking herself entirely.
Up here, on the roof, such a thing would not look entirely unusual. There was a risk down in the street wer
e she to cloak herself that she could make the shadows look too unnatural. She had learned to exercise caution when drawing on the shadows, not wanting to create strange contours to them.
When she really pulled, when she really drew upon her shadow-born ability, she could pull the shadows like a fog, darkening the entire street. It was something she’d only done a few times. It announced her presence, and those who were particularly skilled at detecting her type of magic—men like the Hjan—would know that she was here. She preferred using her shadow magic in smaller increments, barely enough that others would recognize her presence, but enough that it augmented her abilities.
Carth dropped to the street, staying close to the building where she could hold on to her shadow cloaking and would not appear out of place. She studied the street, looking for signs of the man who had been crouched over the woman she’d rescued.
Carth had kicked him hard—hard enough that it should have knocked him out. Had he been with others, there was a chance they might’ve dragged him off and brought him to safety. Had he been alone… Carth hoped that he had been alone. She needed to find him to get answers.
She found him lying in the alley of a neighboring building. From the sign, it appeared to be a candlemaker’s shop. The man leaned against the wall and took shallow breaths, his eyes halfway open.
Carth approached slowly, watching him carefully, but he barely moved.
When Carth had moved past him, getting behind him in the alley, she unsheathed her shadow knife. She stood far enough away that she couldn’t be surprised by him, and crouched down so that she was at his level. Then she released her shadow cloaking.
It took a moment, but the man’s gaze settled on her.
“Why did you attack her?” Carth asked.
The man coughed.
“Why did you attack that woman?”
He shook his head. He coughed again, and a little bit of blood-tinged phlegm came up.
Carth might’ve kicked him too hard. She might not get any answers from him. She started towards him but paused when she noted a loop of twine on his wrist.
It matched the woman’s.
She swore under her breath. She had misinterpreted what she’d seen. This wasn’t the man who’d attacked the woman. This was her betrothed.
Which meant someone else had attacked her.
Which meant… it meant that Carth had to find help for this man. It was her fault that he was injured—possibly seriously, given the force she’d driven through his stomach.
She sheathed her knife, scooped him up, and jumped to the roofs, heading towards the healers’ hospital for the third time tonight. She intended to get answers, but first she needed to get this man help.
4
“Are we going to talk about what happened?” Evie asked Carth.
Carth paced in the room outside the hospital, a hint of the antiseptic odor in the air still present despite the doors and walls that should have kept it out. How much of that odor lingered on Evie? How much of it was the hospital?
“What happened was that I made a mistake,” Carth said. It really was as simple as that. Try as she might to come up with another answer, that was the only one that fit what had happened. She had seen the woman lying injured, unmoving, and had reacted. And now a man had been beaten while protecting his beloved.
“You can’t make mistakes, Carth. You have to set an example.”
Carth glanced over to Evie. It was good advice—sound advice. As much as she might want to help others, she first had to gather information so that she didn’t make poor choices like this again. It was all about understanding the game board, knowing what moves were happening around her.
“I know that I need to set the example. I’m doing the best that I can.”
“And you are doing better than most. No one faults you for the anxiety you feel when you see others getting hurt. Gods! I feel much the same when you bring me each of the women that you have. No one deserves to be injured, not the way we’ve seen.”
“You said he’ll recover?”
Evie frowned as she nodded. “He will recover, but it will take time. You broke a few ribs. He’ll be bruised. The other…”
Carth looked up. “What of her?”
“She was poisoned. The wounds didn’t look life-threatening, but it will be difficult to help her until we manage to control the poison.”
“You could ask Alex.”
Her expression soured. “Alex is nearly as bad as her mistress was.”
“Alex is nothing like Hoga. Alex has helped us.” Alex had trained under Hoga, and had been useful now that they didn’t know where to find Hoga, but Evie did not get along with her at all.
“Because you have forced her to help. Forced help isn’t the same as someone who came to you willingly.”
“Most of the women who are here were forced in one way or another,” Carth said.
Evie crossed her arms over her chest. “I believe you know the truth of that better than most. These women—those who have chosen to work with you—are here for that very reason. They chose to do so. Do not lessen that choice. For many, it was the most difficult one they ever had to make.”
She knew that she needed to be careful. Evie was right. Many of the women who now willingly worked with Carth did so because of what had happened to them. Many did so because of the way that Hoga had attempted to use them, and force them into servitude. Many did so because Carth had rescued them from certain slavery.
“I’ll do what I can, Evie.”
Evie watched her for a moment before nodding. She returned to the hospital, leaving Carth pacing, thoughts racing through her mind.
Carth lost track of time as she paced, trying to think through what she needed to do. Answers did not come to her, not as she would have liked. After a while—and she had lost track of just how long it was—Evie returned, a concerned expression on her face.
“What is it?” Carth asked.
“The woman. She isn’t the first poisoned like this.”
“She’s not the first to be attacked, but the others haven’t been poisoned.”
“Jamie—that’s the man you attacked—came around and said that there have been others.”
“Has he said why?”
“He believes it has to do with the smuggling guild.”
“Why the smugglers?”
“It seems the university has been squeezing them lately. The scholars there have grown impatient with the measures they are taking.”
“I find it hard to believe that the university would employ someone to attack people in the street. Especially women.”
“You haven’t been in Asador for long. The university has often taken extreme measures. They prefer to control movement through the city.”
Carth had experienced similar attempts at control in other places she’d been. It never went well. Anytime a ruling faction attempted to control another faction, some sort of underground movement became established. In this case, the university attempted to control the movement of supplies through the city. The smugglers charged less, and often provided higher quality.
“It still doesn’t seem like the university would attempt to attack others the way we’ve now seen.”
“Long before you came here,” Evie began, “the university struggled for prominence. There is another place of study along the coast, a place in—”
“Thyr. Yes. I know of it.”
“Yes, well, Asador has long had a sense of competition with Venass.”
“Does the university in Asador employ assassins?” Evie arched a brow at her. “Because the Hjan are the assassins of Venass.”
“No. They don’t employ assassins.”
“And I doubt they would be responsible for the attacks. There’s something else to this,” Carth said.
It troubled her, but almost as troubling was the fact that she felt like there was something she didn’t fully grasp. It was there, but it seemed like a piece was missing from the board, one that was cr
ucial for her to know the next move in the game.
All it meant was that she had to continue to search. There was nothing new in that for her. She often had to search for information. It was how she would ensure that the accords remained stable.
Carth would have to get Lindy working to find more information. Lindy had better connections here in Asador, especially after Carth had spent time roaming the coast.
“How many others have been poisoned?” Carth asked.
Evie frowned. “I don’t know. Jamie didn’t know. When his betrothed fell, he knew immediately what had happened to her, if not who had done it. Carth,” Evie said, biting her lips and hesitating. “They are doing this because of you and what you represent.”
Carth suppressed a frustrated sigh. That had been her fear. As much as she wanted to do something to protect women of the city—as well as others—she didn’t think that she would be able to do so. It would require more information than what she possessed. It might require that she remain in the city for much longer than she had planned. She needed to keep moving, especially if she intended to set up the network as she had in Reva.
“See what else you can find out,” Carth began. “And make sure you get word to me.”
“What do you intend to do?”
“All I can do right now is continue to search for understanding. I want to ensure that no others are hurt. That’s what I can do.”
It didn’t feel like enough. And, she had regret about what had happened, about the way she had attacked Jamie. It was time that changed as well. “I need to see him.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
She nodded. “I think I have to.”
“Keep it short. If he gets angry, know that it’s only because of what you did.”
“If he gets angry, I can leave.”
Evie arched a brow. “Can you? Are you willing to take yourself away from situations? That’s never been your strong suit, though I can’t claim to know you as well as some.”
Shadow Found (The Shadow Accords Book 6) Page 3