Shadow Games (The Collector Chronicles Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  She approached slowly as she made her way toward the building, not wanting to make any sound. She risked using the barest hint of the shadows, just enough to mute her footsteps, but nothing more than that. Anything more than the lightest of touches would reveal her presence.

  She saw no other guards and counted herself lucky.

  At the door, she paused. She could go in through this entrance, but was that the right strategy? Using this door risked revealing herself much sooner than she intended, and there was the possibility that she would be seen. The plan revolved around her intent of sneaking Linsay out of the building without anyone realizing what she did. She needed it to seem as if Linsay had chosen to leave, so that the Collector would believe that Linsay had betrayed him.

  The door didn’t make sense, then, and there might be an easier way to know where she needed to go. Each person she worked with had a certain heat signature that she could use with the S’al.

  Could that work?

  Where was she?

  She would need to act quickly once she did it. It was possible that she would reveal herself by using her connection to the flame. Could the Collector determine where she was based on her magic?

  She sent a flowing pulse of S’al magic—the flame—into the building.

  Distantly, toward the center of the building, she detected a familiar heat signature. That had to be Linsay.

  At least she knew that she was not mistaken in her belief.

  Carth reached for the window and found it locked. She focused on the lock and sent a trickle of shadows into it, triggering it. She couldn’t have done the same with her connection to the S’al. Carth pulled the window open and climbed inside.

  It was a sitting room of sorts. A pair of chairs sat angles toward the door, a table between them. A stack of books occupied the top of the table. In the corner, Carth noticed a square board. A Tsatsun board.

  Since hers had been destroyed, if she had time, she would return and grab the board, but only if she succeeded. She could blame that on Linsay as well.

  There was no one else in the room. She reached the door and pulled it open a crack. As she looked down the hallway, searching for any movement, she felt the sense of Linsay moving.

  Could she somehow draw Linsay to her?

  How? And if she did, would Linsay be enhanced? That was a factor that Carth hadn’t fully considered. She would still have had all of the enhancements that Boiyn had made for her, and if she used one, it would make it much more difficult for Carth to accomplish what she had come here to do.

  She pulsed on the connection to the flame again.

  When she did, Carth used only the faintest of touches, as light a connection as she could, and focused it on where she detected Linsay. If she could somehow make her question, maybe she could pull Linsay toward her.

  Carth waited, focused on what she could detect, trying to determine whether the woman moved after she had sent her connection to the flame.

  There was nothing.

  She tried again, this time using a little more power, enough that she should draw Linsay to her.

  She didn’t detect anything.

  Carth would have to move and see whether she could find Linsay. She could use her connection to her magics to determine whether the others in the building were nearby and possibly avoid them. If she couldn’t avoid them, she wasn’t above fighting them, if it came to that.

  Carth crept along the hall, once again pushing the faintest of connections to the shadows through her feet, muting the sound of her movement. She was lucky and there were no others in the hall with her. She reached another room and hesitated. This was not quite where she would find Linsay, but if she continued through this room and on to the one beyond this one, she would reach her.

  Carth breathed out, letting a hint of her connection to the flame flow through the door and into the other room. There was, indeed, someone in the room.

  She could use her shadows to try to sneak through or she could simply attempt to fight her way through, but neither option appealed to her.

  Was there another way that she could use her magic?

  She had used the shadows to restrain people before, but could she use them to incapacitate in a different way?

  She would need to know exactly where the person in the room would be found.

  Carth focused on where she detected them and how she could best incapacitate whoever might be on the other side of the door.

  She didn’t need to kill—and preferably, she wouldn’t.

  The connection to S’al let her know where the person was, and she tried to gauge where their head would be. When she had it, she swirled the shadows through the door and attempted to wrap them around the person on the other side.

  The attack would be—and should be—invisible.

  She held the connection, counting quietly to herself, until she heard a soft thud that indicated the person on the other side of the door had collapsed.

  Carth grinned. That would be a useful tool to add to her fighting routine.

  She cracked the door open, carefully making her way inside. A man lay motionless on the ground. She checked him for a pulse, ensuring that he wasn’t dead.

  Before leaving, she frowned at him. She needed it to look like Linsay had overpowered him. Would there be a way that she could do that? She looked around. The room was sparsely decorated, mostly a table and chairs and some food stacked on a plate.

  There didn’t seem to be anything that she could leave as a weapon—other than the tray.

  Carth pulled the tray free and pressed it against the back of the man’s head, deforming it enough to make it appear as if she had used it to knock him out. It might not survive more than a cursory examination, but it would have to do.

  She paused at another door. It was locked. She could detect Linsay on the other side and knew that this was where she had wanted to come. Carth pressed a trickle of shadows through the lock, forcing it open. She hurried inside.

  On the other side of the door, Linsay sat with her back to her, a thick carpet spread across the floor. Three plush chairs were stationed on the rug, and a table rested in the middle of it. A hearth crackled with a comfortable flame, creating a warmth within the room.

  “You don’t need to check on me…”

  Linsay glanced back, looking over her shoulders and seeing Carth for the first time. She opened her mouth to shout and Carth shoved a streamer of shadows into her mouth, muting her. Linsay’s eyes widened and Carth hurried over to her, grabbing her arms and lifting her.

  “If you scream, I will silence you. Do you understand?” Linsay bobbed her head. “Do you question whether I am capable of this?” Linsay shook her head. Carth nodded. “Good. We are going to have a talk.” She relaxed her connection to the shadows, but only a slight amount, enough that Linsay could speak, but her voice would be muffled. “How many are here?” Carth asked.

  Linsay flicked her gaze past Carth, as if looking toward the door, where the other guard had been. Carth nodded. “Yes, I’m aware of that one. How many others?”

  “Maybe five,” Linsay said. “There might be more, depending on the time of day. They’re holding me here, Carth. He thinks that I—”

  Carth shoved the shadows back into Linsay’s mouth, silencing her again. “I no longer care what he thinks that you’re doing. What matters is what you did.”

  Linsay shook her head. “Carth, you don’t understand. I didn’t do what you’re accusing me of doing.”

  She started to cry, and when the tears streamed from her eyes, Carth had a moment where she questioned. It passed quickly. She had seen far too much to believe that was coincidental. Carth checked Linsay for any of Boiyn’s enhancements, but they were missing.

  “They took them from me,” she said. “He knows about the enhancements, and he knows that you don’t like to use them. I don’t know how he learned that.”

  “Because you told him,” Carth said.

  “No, I didn’t. I don’t k
now what I’ll have to do to convince you, or if there’s anything that I can do to convince you, but I didn’t do this thing. I haven’t been helping the Collector. He found me after I came to the cell and forced me back here.”

  Carth pushed her toward the door. “You wouldn’t have been able to reach the cell if you didn’t have his permission. You might as well admit it. I know that you’ve been working with him.”

  Carth detected movement nearby.

  She sent out a pulsing connection to the shadows and strained beyond the wall, detecting where the others were.

  Two approached.

  The moment they noticed the other man, Carth would be forced to act.

  She pushed against the shadows, circling them toward the men she detected a room away, and wrapped the shadows tightly around them. She counted, waiting as long as she needed until they collapsed. It took about the same amount of time as the man on the other side of the wall had taken.

  “What did you do?” Linsay asked.

  “The same as I’ll do to you if you don’t get moving,” she said.

  Linsay started forward, but each step seemed as if she dragged her foot, intentionally delaying, forcing Carth to shove her forward. Carth let out a frustrated sigh as she pushed Linsay toward the door. “This doesn’t have to be this difficult,” she said.

  “It does because you’re not listening,” Linsay said. “I thought you were some amazing Tsatsun player. If you were as skilled as you want the rest of us to believe, you would know that there is no way that I could have done what you’re accusing me of.”

  It was almost enough to convince Carth, which worried her for what would happen when she brought Linsay back to join the others. How would they react to hearing their friend accuse Carth of not listening? Would they think that Linsay was telling the truth?

  It was a risk that she would have to take.

  When they reached the two fallen men, Carth paused. She searched Linsay and found a pair of knives and slammed each of their hilts into the men’s temples. She dropped the knives next to them and pushed them forward. Linsay frowned for a moment before realization started dawning on her about what Carth intended.

  “You can’t do this. Carth—you have it wrong. Even the great Carthenne Rel can make mistakes, and this is a mistake.”

  Carth stared at Linsay. “I wish it was. I wish that I could believe that you didn’t betray me. I wish that I could believe that you could be trusted, the way that I once trusted you. I wish that I could believe that you won’t betray us again, but I simply cannot. I can’t risk what you might do to the others.”

  Linsay stared at her and licked her lips. “What are you going to do to me?”

  Carth only smiled. “We’re going to play Tsatsun.”

  13

  Music from the tavern drifted up to the room, and Carth was thankful for the distraction. It was strange having Linsay, Alayna, and Boiyn all together in the room again. Jenna watched outside the door, providing cover. Her holding watch served a secondary purpose. Jenna would be more likely to be influenced by what Linsay had to say. Alayna might be influenced, but she also had enough experience with Carth to know that she should give Carth the benefit of the doubt.

  “Alayna, why don’t you wait with Jenna? Keep an eye on the door and let me know if anyone is approaching.”

  Alayna stared at her for a moment. She didn’t say anything before nodding. She glanced at Linsay and the other woman gave her a beseeching glance.

  When Alayna left, Linsay glared at Carth. “Are you so afraid of your authority that you won’t even give me a chance to speak on my behalf to them?”

  “I don’t need to give you a chance to speak on your behalf. You have already proven yourself.”

  Linsay shook her head. “If I had proven myself, you wouldn’t be doing this to me.” She turned to Boiyn. “You know me, Boiyn. You know me as well as anyone here. Do you really think that I’m capable of what she claims?”

  Boiyn glanced from Carth to Linsay before his gaze drifted to the Tsatsun board that Carth had pilfered from the Collector. “I admit that it was difficult for me to believe you capable of this.” Linsay flashed a tight smile. “But then Carth taught me Tsatsun. I can see what she’s laying out before me. There is a certain strategy in what she describes.”

  Linsay considered Boiyn for a long moment, her hands clenching in her lap. Was Boiyn aware of how she tensed? “You have begun to play Tsatsun?” Linsay asked.

  Boiyn nodded. “Carthenne thought that it would be best if I begin to understand this game. I’ll admit that I was reluctant, but I see the appeal in playing a game of strategy. It is interesting to get within another person’s mind like this.”

  Linsay sat silently and stared at the Tsatsun board. “You know that I’m not much of a player,” she said to Carth.

  “You’ve tried to show me that you’re not much of a player, but I wonder how much of that is true. I wonder whether you’re a more skilled player than you’ve let on.”

  Linsay laughed bitterly. “If you’re as skilled as you claim, you’ll know that I’m not. I might not be nearly as good at Tsatsun as you, but I do recognize how difficult it would be to fake.”

  “Perhaps for an unskilled player, but I’ve begun to see that you would have learned from a very skilled player. One who rivaled the master who instructed me. Someone like that would be more than capable of teaching you what you need to know to fake your way through a game of Tsatsun to make it appear as if you were unable to be the player you claim.”

  “I’m worried about you, Carth. Something has happened to you. You’ve become obsessed with this belief that there is some great conspiracy, and that only through your playing of Tsatsun can you understand all parts of the conspiracy.” She looked over at Boiyn and there was sadness in her eyes. “Boiyn, you need to help her. If she won’t believe me, I know that she will listen to you. Please. Help her see reason.”

  “I don’t know that I can,” Boiyn said. “I don’t know that I want to.”

  Linsay blinked at him, sadness filling her eyes. “You won’t help me? After everything we’ve been through, and all that we’ve done together, you’re unwilling to help me?”

  “I…” Boiyn started.

  “Why? Why won’t you do that?”

  Boiyn glanced at Carth before shaking his head. “I would have to believe you first, and I’m sorry, I just… don’t. Everything that Carthenne has shown me has been right.”

  “Even Carthenne can be wrong,” she said bitterly to Boiyn. “And she is wrong with this. I wish that you would see it, and that you would understand, and I am so very disappointed that you aren’t willing to help me. I thought we were closer than this.”

  “Enough,” Carth said. “You’ve proven that you can be quite convincing. Now we’re going to play Tsatsun.”

  “And if I don’t?”

  “If you don’t, I will bring you to the Collector and will make sure that he knows that you’ve been helping me.”

  Linsay’s eyes widened slightly. “You wouldn’t do that. You rescued me from him. Why would you subject me to him again?”

  “I rescued you so that I could get answers. If you’re unwilling to provide those answers, then I will return you to the Collector. Don’t think that I would hesitate to do that.”

  Boiyn watched, and Carth wondered what was going on inside his mind when she mentioned bringing Linsay back to the Collector. Would it ultimately place her at odds with the others that she wanted to help? Would her persistence at this be too much?

  But if she didn’t, if she refused to push through this and was afraid of how it would be perceived, Linsay would win.

  “You don’t want to play a game of Tsatsun?” Carth asked. “You were always the one who asked me to play. Now you’re suddenly no longer interested?”

  Linsay stared at her. “It’s one thing when it’s a game, and when I thought it was helping you, but this is something else. I thought I knew you, Carth. I thought I kne
w what kind of person you were. But it seems that I didn’t know you. I don’t think anybody here knows you.” Her voice started to rise and she looked past Carth, her gaze hanging on the door.

  Carth glanced over her shoulder and realized that Alayna had cracked the door open.

  “We all thought that you wanted nothing more than to help us, and to help those who couldn’t help themselves. But that’s not it. You have something else that you needed.” Linsay leaned forward, staring at Carth. “This has been a game for you. But this is our lives. And now you’re blaming me? Now you’re accusing me of working with the Collector? I could almost understand. Almost. But you’re trying to divide us, and you don’t even want to give me the chance to speak up for myself. If you’ve taught me anything, it’s that I should have a voice.”

  Linsay was yelling at the end, and Carth did nothing, simply letting her yell. If this was all an act—and she remained convinced that it was—she needed to let it play out. She had to let Linsay think that she had swayed the others.

  When she looked over at Alayna standing in the doorway, she wondered if perhaps Linsay hadn’t swayed them.

  “I’m only asking you to play a game with me,” Carth said quietly.

  Linsay turned and glared at her. “If you love this game so much, why don’t you play it with Boiyn? It seems that even he has decided to work against me.” Linsay crossed her arms over her chest and clenched her jaw.

  Carth glanced at the door. “Please close the door, Alayna.”

  Alayna studied Carth for a moment and then nodded.

  When the door closed, Linsay laughed bitterly. “You still want to control everyone. I wonder when you will see that you’ve pushed us all for independence and that we can’t be controlled.”

  Carth considered her for a long moment. She was impressed by the act. The more Linsay spoke, the more certain Carth was that it was an act. But the others would not be. That was the entire purpose. “You really are quite skilled,” Carth said.