Shadow Games (The Collector Chronicles Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “And that one dried out?” Carth asked.

  “It was there for a few days before disappearing. I collected as much of the water as I could before it disappeared, but when it was gone…” Talia looked past Carth. “It has been a long time since I’ve seen another. I’ve found three, and this was the third. I haven’t been able to find any others.”

  “Why haven’t you shared this with your sister?”

  Carth hoped that Talia would provide more of an answer, but she didn’t. She simply glared.

  “I want to help my friends. And the people of Keyall deserve to keep this connection, whatever it is. There is power in it, but not as much as what I suspect your sister would like.”

  “I’m not sure why she wants the power. Probably the same reason that Alistan wants power.”

  It was a very specific power. If it gave resistance to Carth’s magic, she was the only one who would be in danger from it. The Reshian, the descendants from Ih who had a weakened connection to the shadows, would be endangered, but there weren’t many of the Reshian left, and those who remained had a lesser connection to the shadows compared to Carth. There were the A’ras and their connection to the flame magic, but even that seemed like a pretty focused interest. Could the A’ras have angered Linsay at some point?

  She had spent so much time trying to figure out what Linsay wanted and then how to acquire it that she hadn’t given much thought as to the why of what Linsay sought.

  And as she thought about it, it hit her.

  This was about destroying Carth. That was all this was about.

  32

  The Tsatsun board in front of Carth was half-played. It was her board, washed up on shore, a gift from Alistan. Carth still couldn’t believe it had survived mostly intact, with only a few missing chips. At least she had this much from the Spald.

  The move she made was intended to help her understand Linsay, though it was only the beginning of the game. Carth wasn’t sure whether to continue—or if it mattered. Alistan sat next to her in his library, remaining silent. A vial of the glowing water rested on the table next to him, untouched. Every so often he would pick up the vial and breathe in the smell. Though Carth smelled nothing, it seemed as if Alistan did, and he seemed pleased by it.

  Carth had assumed that Linsay was using her to find the Elder Stone and to acquire power, but that wasn’t it. This was more than about Tsatsun. This was a deliberate attempt to gain the power needed to defeat Carth.

  But why?

  Carth thought through what she knew about Linsay, but realized that it could be that nothing she knew was real. How much of what Linsay had shared with her was accurate? It could all have been an act, all part of a ploy to play her. And the more Carth thought about it, the more likely that seemed.

  Carth had made plenty of enemies since she had first left Nyaesh, angered enough different people that it was possible any of them could have asked Linsay to search for the means to destroy her. The most likely was for Linsay to be acting on behalf of the Hjan, though Carth wasn’t certain that was what this was. There was a truce—the accords—and though Carth knew that they would eventually fail and she would need to deal with it, she didn’t think that Danis and the Hjan were actively attempting to violate the truce. Not yet, at least.

  What if they were searching for a way to handle Carth first?

  They had attempted to counter her magic in other ways, and each attempt had failed. What if Linsay had been sent to find another way, one that did not rely upon controlling others or stealing power that was unreliable?

  Maybe it had nothing to do with the Hjan. if that were the case, Carth would be relieved. She had dealt with them enough and was tired of trying to come up with a new way to counter their attempts to destroy her. Maybe all Linsay wanted was power and she would stop at nothing to acquire it, even if that meant destroying Carth so that she could assume control over Carth’s network.

  That was even more reason to stop her.

  Playing the game as Linsay would be different when the goal of the game was not simply to win, but to destroy.

  Suddenly, removing Boiyn the way that she had made more sense. As did taking away the help of Jenna and Alayna. Carth had to think that both could already be dead. If that were the case, should she even be trying to come up with a way to stop Linsay?

  But she would have to. If she didn’t, Linsay would continue to pursue Carth, especially if her goal was to destroy her and less about acquiring power.

  “You seem troubled.”

  “I’ve been playing the wrong game,” Carth said.

  “And what would be the right game?”

  Carth stared at the pieces. Maybe it was time to stop attempting to think things through as a Tsatsun game. Maybe it was time to acknowledge that she couldn’t win a game in this way. Maybe it was time to acknowledge that with her friends gone, she needed to return to her place of strength and do whatever she could to keep the rest of the people she cared about safe before Linsay managed to do something that would harm them.

  “The right game would be not playing this game at all,” Carth said with a sigh. “The right game would be finding a way to help my friends, but I think they’re already gone.”

  “Why? What purpose would there be for her to have killed them? How could she get you to do what she wants if she does that?”

  Carth didn’t know what she could do to end this game, and the longer she stared at the game board, the less clear it was.

  She reset the pieces, doing what she had intended to do with Linsay, and she tried to see how the game would play out when she did that. Was there any way for her to work through what Linsay might attempt to do with her? Linsay wanted to destroy her, and Carth first needed to stop her and then she could find out why.

  “Does playing help you figure out what you need to be doing?” Alistan asked.

  “Playing helps calm my mind. When I move through things, I’m better able to get a sense for what I need to be doing.”

  “And have you gotten that sense?”

  Carth shook her head. “No.”

  If she was right, and what Linsay wanted was to destroy her, all she wanted was power first. It was possible that Linsay didn’t know that Carth was aware of her plans, and if that were the case, then maybe Carth could use that ignorance, though she wasn’t certain that there was ignorance. With what she’d seen of Linsay and her ability to anticipate, she wasn’t sure that ignorant was ever a fitting description.

  “I think I’m going to have to confront her,” Carth said, staring at the game board.

  “I thought that was what she wanted.”

  “What she wants is for me to bring her the Elder Stone, but if I can’t do that, then I need to attempt something else.”

  “What do you intend to do?”

  Carth shook her head, sighing to herself. What was she going to do? She didn’t know how she intended to stop Linsay or how she was going to get to her friends, but there had to be some way to draw Linsay out.

  “I think I need to do what I have avoided doing all along.”

  “And what is that?”

  “I need to return to the pool. And I need for Linsay to follow me.”

  But how? Carth wasn’t sure how she would draw Linsay to the pool.

  She fingered one of the Tsatsun pieces. As she did, the bottom shifted.

  That was unusual. Her pieces were incredibly expensive, and there shouldn’t have been any wobble to them.

  She examined the piece and noticed that there was a subtle change to it. The base had been separated from the rest of the piece. She unscrewed them and realize that there was a vial inside. One of Boiyn’s enhancements.

  Her eyes widened. She had thought that when the ship was destroyed, all the enhancements Boiyn had created for them had been lost. Could he have hidden some within her Tsatsun pieces?

  She looked at the other pieces. They were the same. Within each piece, there was a vial that contained one of Boiyn’s enhancemen
ts.

  A different idea began to come to mind, a move that Boiyn had made when playing Linsay. Would it work for her?

  A sacrifice. For this to work, a sacrifice would have to be made.

  She looked over at Alistan, wondering if it was a sacrifice that she even could make. Linsay had wanted her to be more ruthless, but Carth didn’t know that she could be. Yet she thought that she might be able to make a sacrifice, at least the kind that Boiyn had made. That would be how she survived.

  Carth had to try. It was the only thing that might be effective.

  33

  Carth stood on the edge of the platform, looking down at the water. It was midday, and though the wind gusted around her, there was a bright sun shining overhead, enough that she hoped she could see along the edge of the water so that she could tell where she was swimming.

  Froth churned below her, far too close for her comfort. Did she really intend to jump in? The last time she had tried this, she had nearly died. When they had come here before, she had considered jumping in, but the arrival of Talia had changed her mind. Now Carth relied upon the fact that Talia might appear. Carth would need her to draw out Linsay.

  “You want me to raise the platform when you’re gone?” Alistan asked.

  “Not only that, but you need to complete the task that I assigned for you.”

  “I don’t understand, but I will do as you ask.”

  “Thank you, Alistan. If this doesn’t work, if I don’t reappear, I want you to know that I appreciate your help. I misjudged you.”

  “I think I intended myself to be misjudged, Carth.”

  “Before you drink the water, speak to Durand. Work with the priests. Follow the channels that they have set for this.”

  “I will. Thank you,” he said.

  “When you reach the surface, avoid the constables.”

  “The constables?”

  Carth nodded. “It’s part of my move. Part of my sacrifice.”

  Carth took another look at Alistan, then combined shadows and flame together and exploded off the platform, diving out.

  Before she hit the water, Carth sucked in a breath, filling her lungs as deeply as she could. She plunged deep below the surface and swam toward Keyall as she had before, attempting to use an explosion of shadows and flame that would propel her onward. She drew the shadows out of the water, giving some clarity to it so that she could find her way along.

  As the water pushed against her, Carth fought, but not so much that she would move beyond where she intended to be. She knew that she needed to reach the tunnel, but where was the inlet?

  The effect of pulling the shadows away only cleared a little bit of the space in front of her. Water pushed on her, threatening to send her back into the rock and crush her. Carth had to push off, gliding forward on the strength of her connection to the shadows and flame, thankful that she had rested well before attempting this.

  And then she was pushed back.

  Carth didn’t fight it, not as she had the first time. She went through the opening and flipped around so that she could float through the tunnel, exploding herself deeper into it. This time, she didn’t attempt to fight her way out and she didn’t have to hold her breath nearly as long before she emerged into the chamber.

  The light glowing around her seemed even clearer than it had before. She crawled up to the ledge, taking deep breaths as she gathered her strength, not feeling nearly as weakened as she had before.

  Now she had to wait.

  She counted on the fact that Linsay would follow her and that the arrangements that she had made would create difficulty for Linsay. But stopping Linsay was only part of what she needed to accomplish. That was what Carth had struggled to realize. Even if she managed to overwhelm Linsay, there was still the matter of rescuing her friends. She couldn’t do that without another move.

  Would Talia respond as she expected?

  Knowing what she did of her, Carth thought that she might. Talia wanted knowledge. She wanted to understand the Elder Stone. And she wanted power of her own.

  That was the sacrifice.

  Carth had to be willing to allow Talia to have that kind of power, believing deep within her that Talia wouldn’t use it against her. Talia had lived in Keyall long enough that she understood the city, long enough that she had gained the respect of many of those within the city.

  That had to be enough.

  While waiting for Talia, Carth explored the pool. The water had a light of its own that seemed to come from deep within it. Now that she didn’t fear it as she had before, she tasted it, recognizing that it had some of the same pungency that she had noticed from the water near the temple.

  Would this water and its effect somehow impact her connection to the shadows or to S’al? Would it change her the same way that it had changed Talia?

  She swam around the pool, looking for other openings. If she were right, the opening that she had come through would not be the only one. It couldn’t be. There had to be other channels—other ways to reach this place—that the priests had access to.

  That was the move she counted on.

  As she swam, she hoped that her moves had been made in such a way that she would force Linsay to act, but she didn’t know what the other woman would do. Everything that she thought she knew about Linsay had been wrong. Everything had been an act.

  If Carth were right, Linsay would follow Carth here. She counted on the fact that Linsay wanted her to come here, wanted her to lead the way to what she thought was the Elder Stone. Whether or not it was didn’t matter. What mattered was what Linsay believed.

  If she followed, Carth’s subsequent moves would be successful.

  Waiting was the hardest part.

  The second part would be more difficult. Would Talia follow? For the other parts of her plan to work, she needed for Talia to follow.

  She crawled back up onto the ledge. How long was she willing to give before she abandoned the idea that the other woman would appear? How long would she stay here, thinking that Talia would try to find her here?

  There was a rustling in the water and Carth looked down to see a face appear below her. “Talia,” she said.

  Talia took a gasping breath of air as she studied Carth. “You’re not surprised to see me.”

  “No. I hoped that you would come.”

  “You wanted me to come here?” Talia asked.

  Carth nodded. “I knew that you could reach it. With your ability to pierce the shadows, I figured you would be able to see the tunnel through the darkness.”

  When she had realized that, she had understood how the priests would have gained access. If they used the same entrance, it made sense that they would be able to pierce the darkness that granted entry to this pool. What she still didn’t know was whether there was an easier way out.

  “Why?”

  “Do you know why Linsay wanted the power of this place?” Carth asked.

  “I don’t know. Is this the Elder Stone?”

  Carth looked around. “I don’t know if this is the Elder Stone or if the entire land here is the Elder Stone and this is a place where that power is concentrated. Whatever it is, this is a place of power. That much is indisputable, and you have come to appreciate that.”

  “She will find it. Now that you’ve shown me, she will find it.”

  “I need for her to find it,” Carth said.

  “Why?”

  “She wants to use the power of this place to destroy me.”

  “Why do you think she wants to destroy you?”

  “That’s what everything has been about. Every plan she has made. Every move she has attempted. Everything has been about attempting to destroy me. I thought it was all about winning a game, or gaining an item of power. It took me a while to realize that it was not. None of this has been about winning so much as it has been about ending me.”

  “She would gain nothing by ending you.”

  “No? She calls herself the Collector, accumulating power,
and you think that she would have no reason to remove me? I’m a threat to her and what she intends.” Carth still didn’t know what that might be, but she was certain Linsay had intended to remove the threat—Carth herself.

  “Why did you have me come here?” Talia asked.

  Carth smiled. “Because it was my turn to remove a threat.”

  Talia’s eyed widened. “Me? I thought you protected the helpless.”

  Carth frowned. “Are you helpless? That hasn’t been my impression of you at all.”

  “You don’t understand her, then.”

  “I think I’m beginning to,” Carth said. “Maybe I don’t the way it is now, but if I’m right, your sister has been neutralized—for now.”

  “How?”

  “The constabulary is quite particular with how they interpret their laws. And your sister will have just violated one of them.”

  “What law?”

  “Other than killing those people at the inn where I’m staying? Now she’s attempted to wrest control of the platform to break into the cells.”

  “They wouldn’t do anything with that.”

  “Wouldn’t they? I’ve made certain there were a few compelling reasons that they do.”

  “Such as?”

  Carth smiled. “I intend to see Linsay gets justice for what she did to those people. She will be discovered with a pair of knives matching the one used on the others who died in the kitchen.”

  “How?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Maybe not, but you still won’t have your friends back. Was your revenge worth that?”

  “It’s worth it to me to have stopped her. This way, she won’t be able to harm anyone else.” And if Durand and the others had done as Carth asked, the knives would be a match. Would it work?

  Carth hoped so. Even if it didn’t, she would have time. That was what she needed.

  “She’ll escape. You know that she will.”

  “Not from there. Not easily. Unless you help her.”