The Shadow Accords Box Set: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  The girl thrashed with a wild energy. One hand slapped Carth’s face, leaving stars flashing in her eyes.

  “Let me help you! I’m the one who tried to save you,” Carth said. “Can you swim?”

  The girl stopped kicking and shook her head. Dark hair hung in her face, but what she could see told her that the girl had been struck. Bruises streaked up the side of her cheek, reminding her of those Kel had worn after being attacked by the man he’d tried stealing from.

  “Can you?” the girl asked in a whisper.

  “We’ll see.”

  As she angled them toward the shore, she heard another sound in the water, one of a steady slapping. She looked over her shoulder and realized that a small rowboat sliced through the water, coming straight toward them. A lighted lantern in the bow made her think it was the men she’d seen on the dock.

  “They’ll get me!” the girl said.

  Carth swallowed. She couldn’t outswim the boat. The shore was nearly ten yards away, and rocky. Even if she could swim fast enough, she would need to be careful around the rocks to keep from getting thrown into them and crushed. So would the boat, but she suspected whoever rowed it had experience around rocks.

  Could she cloak her and the girl in shadows as they floated here?

  She had to try.

  There was no real edge to the darkness. Here it was all around… other than the lantern coming toward them. Could she roll in the edge of the light leading from the lantern?

  Focusing on the shadows, she sunk into the darkness, rolling it up and toward her.

  Sounds became muted. The light from the lantern on the boat dimmed. The splashing of water along the rocks softened as well. There was only the pounding of her heart, and that felt distant as well.

  The girl started to say something, but Carth clamped a hand over her mouth, silencing her. Waving a finger to shush her, she pointed to the boat.

  The girl watched with wide eyes, but remained silent.

  They floated, but Carth was able to hold on to the shadows as they did. Were it only so easy on the street.

  The rowboat drifted past. One of the men on the boat held the lantern over the edge. They had to be only a few feet away and the lantern swept over their heads, but they continued on, swinging the lantern back in a different direction, now away from them.

  Carth sighed. It had worked.

  She hadn’t been sure it would, especially with them coming so close, but she and the girl had remained hidden even as the small boat passed them. Now she had to get them out of the water.

  She didn’t want to release her hold on the shadows, fearing that if she did, the rowboat would see them. Instead, she kicked, losing her connection to the shadows for a moment, and then grabbing onto it again. The kick sent her smacking into a sunken rock and she winced again. The next kick got them close enough to the shore that she could see the outline of the rock. One more and she reached the shore, holding steady while the girl climbed to safety.

  Carth followed her and sunk next to her, water streaming from her cloak.

  The girl watched her, eyes still wide. “Who are you?” she asked.

  Carth breathed out shakily. How could she answer when she didn’t really know who she was anymore?

  19

  The inside of the tavern was warm, and the hubbub from earlier in the night finally settled, leaving a minstrel playing quietly near the back of the tavern and a few intoxicated patrons slumped over tables. Vera moved between the tables, clearing off plates and mugs and carrying them to the kitchen. Kel helped, staying close by her side. Etan was nowhere to be seen.

  “What do you mean you found her?” Hal asked.

  Carth nodded to the girl huddled near the hearth. She hadn’t moved since Carth had brought her in and set her by the fire for warmth. “I found her.”

  “Carth,” Hal started, “you can’t simply bring a girl here like this. It’s dangerous for her.”

  Carth doubted it was dangerous. If she could be here, then the girl could be as well. “She needed help.”

  “Then we’ll see her to her family.”

  “What if she doesn’t have any family?” Carth asked. “What if she’s a stray like us?”

  The girl hadn’t really said anything either. Carth wanted to know why the men had grabbed her and where they were taking her, but hadn’t gotten answers yet.

  “Not everyone is a stray,” Hal said. “Even when they look to be a stray.”

  “What if she is? Can we not help her? I think the Thevers—”

  Vera shot her a hard look, getting her to cut off.

  “Why do you think she needs help?” When she didn’t answer, Hal pressed. “Carth, why do you think she needs help?”

  She told him about the men carrying the girl along the street. She didn’t tell Hal that she had stabbed them with an A’ras knife. That would open her up to more questions that she didn’t want to answer. She ended by telling him that she had crashed into one of the men and they had tumbled into the river. It made no sense not telling the truth there, especially since they were both still soaked.

  Hal shook his head, his brow knitting together in a worried expression. “This isn’t our business, Carth. You’ve intervened in something you shouldn’t have. Ahhh…” He started pacing, glancing at the girl every so often. “Damn it. Now we’re not safe even here.”

  “Why? What is it they wanted her for?”

  Hal shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters!” Carth spoke more loudly than she intended. The girl turned toward her, making the most movement she had since getting rescued and coming to the tavern. Lowering her voice, she caught Hal’s attention. “Is that why you took us in?”

  Hal flushed. “What? No! Nothing like that.”

  “Like what? What did they want her for?”

  Hal sighed, pulled a stool out from one of the tables, and sat heavily on it. “We’ve taken you in to keep you safe,” he said.

  “That’s what you claim, but how do we know that’s what you intend?”

  Hal’s face looked hurt. “We have done nothing other than feed you and give you a place to live,” he said. “We’ve kept you from men like that!”

  Carth looked down, feeling ashamed she had said something that hurt Hal. They hadn’t been anything but welcoming, a family of sorts, if not the one she wanted. They had taken her in when she had no place to go. They did provide food for her. What did they ask in return?

  “I’m sorry, Hal,” she said. “I shouldn’t speak like that. It’s just… it’s just that I’ve seen things.” She said it in a rush, afraid that Hal would question what she had seen, and how she had seen it. “I’ve never told you what happened to my parents—”

  “You don’t have to. Vera and me, well, we saw the way you looked when you returned that first night. We knew something must have happened. There’s enough darkness in this world that we didn’t want to force you to relive it.”

  In some ways, that was the kindest thing she’d ever been told. In others, it reminded her of the fact that she had now become a part of that darkness. What else could she be when she used an A’ras knife to stab a man, turning his skin black? What else could she be when she forced a man into the river, where he would drown? What else could she be when all she wanted was revenge for what happened to her mother and father?

  “Why would someone try to take her?” she asked Hal.

  He looked over at the girl. “This is a dangerous time, Carth. Reshian and A’ras fighting… leaves children without homes.”

  “What kind of children?” Carth asked. When Hal didn’t answer, she pressed. “What kind? Not A’ras, because they’d have homes here.” She looked at Kel and her eyes widened. “You’re taking in Reshian strays?”

  Hal sniffed. “The children we’ve taken in have done nothing wrong. They’ve lost their home no different than—” He shook his head when Vera shot him a hard glare. “Don’t matter now. We help those we can. Move them on to f
amily if they got some. Otherwise keep them from Thevers. They’d move them south, sell them if they could.”

  “Sell them?”

  Hal sighed. “It’s happened before.”

  “Like Gustan?” she asked, thinking of the name of the boy who had been here before she came.

  Hal nodded. “Like Gustan.”

  “What about those without family?”

  “We do what we can, Carth.”

  “Won’t A’ras come after them?”

  “That’s why we pay the Thevers. Gives you some protection from both.” He raised his hands to silence her. “This is something beyond you, Carth. You’re too young to understand, and pray that you don’t—that you won’t—understand.”

  Carth studied the girl huddled near the hearth, wondering what Hal wasn’t telling her. “Can she stay for tonight?” Carth asked.

  Hal nodded. “Not going to kick her out tonight. Tomorrow we’ll have to figure out what will happen. Now I’ve gotta look for her family, see what I can learn.”

  He stood and made his way into the kitchen. Carth watched him for a moment. She walked over to the girl and sat next to her, letting the warmth of the fire push the chill from the night and the dampness of the river from her.

  “What’s your name?” Carth asked.

  The girl tensed. “Taryn.”

  “I’m Carth.”

  Taryn looked over to her. Her eyes were deep hollows and carried a haunted expression. “Thank you.”

  “Why were they after you?”

  Taryn shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  Carth didn’t know how to ask the next question delicately, but she needed to ask it. “What of your family?”

  Taryn blinked and turned back to the fire, all the answer that Carth needed. Her family was gone, making her a stray, much like Carth. Why would the men have been after her? Why would they have brought her to the ship?

  “What happened to them?” Carth asked.

  “They were… they were at the Laseer Festival. There was an attack. They were caught in it.”

  The Laseer Festival. That couldn’t be a coincidence that Taryn’s parents had been lost the night that Carth had gone and attempted to sneak into the palace. The same night when the A’ras had nearly killed her.

  “What kind of attack?” Carth asked, feeling a sickening sensation in her stomach. Was it her fault that Taryn’s family had been lost?

  Taryn shook her head. “They found out we’d snuck into the city. All we wanted was a safe place, but… but… there’s no safe place,” she sobbed.

  Carth looked at the ground. That no one would talk about it made it even more likely that it was the A’ras. And the fact that the attack had occurred when she had been there made her worry that she was somehow responsible.

  What could she say to Taryn? Nothing that would put her at ease, and nothing that would make any difference. If the A’ras had killed Taryn’s parents, and if Carth was in part responsible, there would be nothing for her to say.

  “You can stay here tonight,” she said.

  Taryn looked around the tavern. “I… I don’t think that I can stay here.”

  “Do you have someplace else that you can go?”

  Taryn studied her hands. “There is nowhere else.”

  That had been Carth’s fear. “Then you will stay here. The bed is comfortable enough, and the food is good. We’ll keep you safe.”

  Taryn looked up, hope mixed with the tears that welled in her eyes. “For how long?”

  How long? Hal didn’t want her to stay for long, afraid that she’d been claimed by someone else, but Carth wasn’t willing to leave Taryn to get kicked back out on the street, especially not after everything she had gone through to ensure that the girl would be safe.

  “As long as it takes.”

  After she got Taryn situated, Carth snuck back onto the street. She should just go to bed, worry tomorrow about what else she could do to help Taryn, but she was supposed to have met with Jhon. She didn’t want him to have come for her and for her not to have shown.

  As she slipped out the hall and into the alley leading out to the street, Kel caught her. He approached hesitantly, as if he wanted to come closer but didn’t dare.

  “Vera is upset that you brought her here,” Kel said.

  Carth didn’t turn around. “I thought they collected strays.”

  “They do, but this is different. I’m not sure why, but they are both upset.”

  “You don’t know what it took to help her,” Carth said.

  Kel took a step toward her. She heard his footsteps on the cobbles without turning. “I saw you.”

  Carth tensed. “What do you mean, you saw me?”

  “On the street. When you chased that man. You stabbed him. I saw it.”

  Carth swore under her breath. If Kel had seen, then he might say something to Vera and Hal. Then would they allow her to remain? She didn’t love the fact that she was here, and that she had no place else to go, but if that was taken from her, she really wouldn’t have anywhere. She truly would be a stray.

  “You did the same with the man who attacked me,” Kel said. He took another step toward her. “You have a knife. A strange one.”

  Carth turned to face him. “What are you getting at, Kel?”

  “Why did you save her?”

  “The same reason I saved you.”

  “I don’t think so. You helped me because you know me. You don’t know that girl. What would make you risk yourself to help her?”

  Carth had asked herself the same thing. Why would she risk herself? It wasn’t that she knew the girl. Not like when she’d helped Kel. This had come from a sense that she had to do something. She hadn’t been able to stand around, not like everyone else had done. Not only with her, or even with her mother, letting them suffer when intervention would have made a difference, but with Kel and how the man had simply thought to harm him. So many had a chance to intervene but never did, and when she had seen the way Taryn was harmed, dragged down the street, she hadn’t had any choice but to get involved.

  And wasn’t that what Vera and Hal did?

  More than anything, that seemed to be the lesson they taught. Hal hadn’t needed to get involved when he’d discovered her the day her parents had died, but he had. No one else had done anything. Had he not, what would she have done? She would have gone back to her home, likely waited for her father, and then when he didn’t appear, what would she have done?

  “Because I had to,” she finally answered. “It was what Hal would have done.”

  “Hal’s afraid that you brought her.”

  Carth nodded. “Maybe he is now, but he would have helped her too.”

  Kel studied her before taking a step toward her. She turned, unwilling to listen while he berated her more. Taryn was safe. That was enough for now. Whatever Hal feared, whatever reason prevented him from wanting to help when he knew that he should, she had to discover.

  “Where are you going?” Kel called after her as she reached the end of the alley.

  “I don’t know.”

  20

  Carth didn’t find Jhon at the meeting place that night, or the next night either. By the third night, when he still hadn’t shown, she began to wonder if he’d decided against helping her. During that time, she had a growing worry about the activity near the docks, and whether the Thevers would come to blows with the A’ras again.

  The days were filled with working with Taryn. Hal disappeared each day, likely to search for Taryn’s family, but allowed her to remain with them as he searched. Like Carth, she took the top bunk, making the room full again.

  Kel worked with Taryn, teaching her the bump and lift, demonstrating how to collect scraps with something bordering on excitement, an emotion that he’d never shown when it had been Carth. A part of her felt jealous, but then, Taryn was only with them because she had intervened. She wanted Taryn to be accepted.

  Etan remained distant. Each day, he disappeared for h
ours at a time, something he never had done before, appearing late in the day with enough scraps to appease Vera. Neither Vera nor Hal ever questioned where he disappeared to, almost as if they didn’t want to know. Etan became more distant with them, even when he was there. The quiet anger that had always simmered beneath the surface came forward more often, leaving him lashing out at times, yelling or sulking. Surprisingly, Kel was the victim of most of the outbursts, not Carth any longer. That only served to drive an even greater wedge between Carth and Kel, and in the short time Taryn had been with them, Kel had taken to spending much of his free time with her. Every so often, she caught sight of him, and more than once she thought he was with men she knew to be Thevers, but could never quite be certain.

  Carth had worried about the repercussions of having Taryn with them, wondering if the men after her—likely Thevers—would discover that she’d been kept so close to the docks, but the ship she’d been brought to had sailed the next morning, leaving nothing but an empty dock and a few stacked crates. Carth felt relief to see that the ship had left, and that only increased the longer they went with nothing more coming of it.

  “Why do we need to give part of this to Vera?” Carth overheard Taryn asking.

  Kel flashed a smile. “We got to pay our part for the room and the food. Either this or we sell her breads.” He pointed to a stack of sweetbread that Taryn hadn’t managed to sell.

  “But she owns the tavern. Doesn’t she have enough?”

  Kel shrugged. “She doesn’t ask much, so we do what we can,” he said. “Besides, it can be kind of fun for us to collect, you know? Take the time to gather a few extra coins, and then you can buy yourself something.”

  Taryn smiled. “I never see Carth collecting scraps. Doesn’t she have to give some to Vera as well?”

  Kel shot Carth a look that seemed to warn her off answering.

  She pulled her coin purse from her pocket and shook it, jingling the coins within. “I collected already.”

  Carth didn’t have to collect every day, choosing her targets more carefully now. If anything, that drove an even greater distance between her and Kel. He didn’t have the luxury of collecting only when he wanted to.