Her hand healed more quickly than she would have imagined. The day after the burn, the skin had peeled away, almost as if she had been in the sun for too long, leaving it red and sensitive, but not raw and blistered like it had been the day before. Carth had kept it wrapped that day mostly to protect it, but by the second day, she was able to leave it uncovered.
Had it healed so quickly because she’d been using A’ras magic? The A’ras generally healed from injuries rapidly, something she knew came from the connection to the magic, but she had never experienced a real injury to know. By the fourth day after the burn, there was no way to know that she’d been injured, other than the throbbing beneath the surface of her hand that never completely went away.
Alison sat next to her, almost dutifully. Carth sensed a hint of resentment from her friend when she shared how she had snuck out of the palace grounds with Samis, but Alison never said anything to suggest she was jealous, only acting slightly colder than usual.
And Samis continued his patrols. He would join the ashai every evening, but he was gone through the day and would eat quickly before disappearing once more. It was such a difference now that he had been raised to sai. Landon as well, but he had practically stopped coming to the dining hall, making his infrequent appearances that much more noticeable.
By the time the summons to meet with Invar came, Carth had begun to think he no longer wanted to work with her.
It happened nearly a week after she and Samis had snuck off the grounds. A younger woman came to her, an A’ras named Racha who had only recently been raised, and slipped a folded piece of paper to her. Inside were instructions to meet Invar.
Carth’s stomach sank when she realized where he wanted to meet. It was the same place where she and Samis had crossed the wall.
Racha nodded and disappeared, leaving Carth staring at the page silently.
“What is it?” Alison whispered.
“Only Invar wanting to meet.”
“I thought that was a good thing.”
“Not where he wants to meet.”
Alison’s eyes widened as she seemed to understand.
The rest of the class went by painfully slowly, and when it finished, Carth was tired, irritable from her slow access to her magic, and leery about what Invar intended by having her meet him there.
Carth made her way toward the wall with a nervous flutter in her stomach. It was nothing like the flutter she’d had when the Hjan had attacked, but that didn’t make her feel any better.
He was already waiting. The master wore a plain gray robe tied around the waist with a thick sash of maroon. In some ways, it made him more stately.
Another man waited with Invar. He had black hair the color of a moonless night and eyes that were nearly as black. A shirt of shimmering fabric that matched his eyes hung loose about him. There was no sash, nothing that marked him as A’ras.
What, then?
When she approached, Invar turned to her, a broad smile spreading across his face. “Ms. Rel,” he said.
Carth glanced at the other man, but he remained near the wall, staying near the ivy and in the traces of shadows found during a bright day like today.
“Master Invar.”
Carth hoped he would tell her why he hadn’t been willing to meet with her and why it had taken nearly a week for him to get back to her. “I thought we should return to the location of the first attack and see what else you might be able to tell me from that day,” he started, as if no time had passed since the last time they were together.
Carth glanced from Invar to the other man. Was Invar going to introduce him, or did he intend to keep her questioning why he had brought another here? “I’ve told you all I can about that day,” she said.
“You’ve said what you saw, but you haven’t shared what you felt.”
Her heart fluttered. “Scared.”
“I suspect you were, Ms. Rel. A natural feeling for one to have when faced with the Hjan, but that is not exactly the sensation I am asking about.”
“What do you want to know?”
“You are of Ih-lash, and you claim that you felt nausea when we were attacked.”
Carth glanced from Invar to the man behind him. The comment seemed directed at him, rather than toward her, but why would Invar make a comment like that?
“That’s what happened.”
“Then again a week ago, when we were in the city, you felt the same nausea. You used your shadow blessing to protect us.” The slight edge in his voice made it seem like Invar didn’t completely believe that, though Carth didn’t blame him. She still wasn’t entirely certain what she’d done, but the shadows had been involved.
“I did.”
“That is not how the shadow blessing works,” the man said. He had a strange clipped accent to his voice, almost a singsong way of speaking, one that in some respects reminded her of… her father.
“You’re from Ih-lash,” she said.
The man took a step toward her and she noticed the way the shadows trailed after him.
Not only from Ih-lash, but shadow blessed as well.
Carth tried reaching for the shadows, but failed.
The wall—the A’ras magic layered upon the wall—still prevented her. Why didn’t it prevent him?
“I made that claim, once,” he said. He tipped his head, eyeing Carth appraisingly. “You do not look like one of the Ih-lash.” His gaze went to her hair, then her face. “Your hair is too brown, and your eyes are much too light.”
Carth touched her hair, running her hand across it. The chestnut brown had always been more like her mother’s hair than her father’s, but she had often claimed she had his eyes. In some ways, her father had features that matched this man, with similar coloring.
“I…”
“I came as we agreed, Invar. There is nothing I can offer. She is not what you think.”
Invar watched Carth, his face clouding. Was it disappointment that he wore?
“Jicanl, I can only tell you what—”
The Ih-lash man started up the wall, climbing the ivy quickly. At the top, the shadows seemed to coalesce around him and he kicked over.
Carth almost gasped.
Invar turned to her, but she ignored him.
This man was shadow blessed. When he’d stood near her, with the shadows trailing around him, she had suspected but hadn’t known for sure. Now… there was no way to do what he did without having that ability.
Carth grabbed the token Invar had given her—she still carried it with her, even if she hadn’t left the city in days—and started pressing A’ras magic through it as she climbed the ivy.
“Ms. Rel!”
She ignored him, and when she reached the top of the wall, she pressed through the token, swinging her leg.
But met resistance.
Carth grunted in frustration, clinging so that she didn’t fall, but started to slip. She had strength for one more attempt and kicked her leg up again. This time when she did, she scrambled for the connection to the shadows. The sense came slowly, and she pulled on it, holding on to it with a ferocity. The man on the other side of the wall would be able to show her about her abilities! She needed to reach him.
Her foot eased through the barrier, and then she was falling.
Carth twisted, drawing on the A’ras magic to help her as she landed.
The man was nowhere on this side of the wall.
She reached for the shadows. If he was here, he would have a connection to the shadows, and she might be able to determine what it was. Free from the A’ras suppression, her connection to the shadows surged.
Almost immediately, she detected the slight difference in the shadows. Carth traced the connection, noting how it made its way along the street and away from the docks.
She ran.
Holding on to the cloak of shadows seemed to make her gait swift. She refused to let him get too far ahead of her. He would have answers for her—answers that she suspected Invar intended for h
er to have—but first she had to catch him.
As she ran, she realized she wasn’t fast enough. Through the connection to the shadow magic, she noted that he continued to pull away from her, gradually growing more and more distant.
Carth pulled on the A’ras magic and mixed it with the connection to the shadows.
She ran, racing through the streets. If she caught him, would he be able to share with her what it meant for her to be shadow blessed? Would she learn how he managed to use the shadows on the other side of the wall, even though the A’ras magic worked through them?
Near the edge of the city, a massive wall rose up, ringing the entirety of the city until it reached the docks. Right there, the sense of the shadows changed.
Carth paused, focusing on her connection to the shadows, trying to determine if she still even detected the other shadow blessed.
She walked along the wall, holding her shadow cloak as she went. She detected something here but wasn’t sure what it was. It didn’t feel the same as the shadows. She frowned. If she didn’t find him, would Invar help? He’d managed to bring him to the palace in the first place, likely to determine if she really was shadow blessed. Invar hadn’t believed her, but then, Carth had never lived in Ih-lash and didn’t know that she didn’t look like the shadow blessed.
After making her way along the wall, she still hadn’t discovered anything that made her believe Jicanl remained in the city. With a sigh, she started back toward the palace.
As she did, a wave of nausea rolled through her.
Carth froze.
It could be a coincidence, or it could be the Hjan.
She’d used the shadow magic more than she had in years, and maybe that had unsettled her.
The sense came again.
This time, she knew it came from her sense of the Hjan.
Worse, the sense came from near the palace.
15
As Carth ran toward the palace, she wondered what she was doing. If the Hjan attacked, did she really think there was anything she could do? The masters were there, and they would keep the palace and the grounds safe, something Carth wouldn’t be able to help with. She’d gotten lucky the last time she faced the Hjan, and the time before that, she’d only survived because Invar and the other masters had appeared.
The nausea intensified.
This was worse than the last attack.
Holding on to the connection to the shadows eased the nausea somewhat, at least keeping her from vomiting all over herself. She maintained the shadow cloak and held tightly to the connection to the A’ras magic as well.
The palace wall loomed into view.
An explosion thundered.
Carth felt the force of it nearly throw her back. Had she not already been holding both the shadow blessing and the A’ras magic, she might have fallen, but instead, she jumped.
And sailed through the air, landing nearly a dozen steps from where she had been.
Carth almost stumbled as she landed. Had she used A’ras magic to leap? There were those of the A’ras who could use their magic in such a way, but Carth had never managed to do anything quite like that before. Or was it the shadow blessing? She thought of how she had once used the shadows, wrapping herself in them as she swam through the dark, trying to help Kel.
She leaped again, and again she sailed.
Carth laughed, jumping again and again. Each jump took her the same distance.
Another explosion thundered from the palace wall.
Carth launched herself toward it.
A section of the wall had crumbled. As she arrived, she saw a line of A’ras facing five hooded figures. They had to be Hjan by the way they flickered as they moved, having a strange way they managed to attack, and as they did, the nausea rolled through her.
Invar and Lyanna faced against one of the Hjan, pushing him back. The other four fought among the A’ras, moving with a blinding speed as they flickered and then disappeared.
Carth unsheathed her knife and pressed A’ras magic through it. As she did, she added the shadow magic as well. She leaped forward, still wrapped in shadows.
She struck one of the Hjan, and he fell.
Carth jumped back, trying to get clear, but on this side of the wall, her jumps didn’t carry quite as far.
Two of the Hjan turned toward her, though neither was the man she’d protected Invar from.
Carth pulled on the shadows and had to do so at the expense of losing the connection to the A’ras magic. She wrapped them around her, cloaking herself, praying that she remained hidden enough that they wouldn’t—or couldn’t—see her.
Without the damage to the wall, she doubted she would have managed. She pressed on the shadows that she cloaked herself with and sent them surging through the knife.
She sliced at one of the Hjan.
Her knife caught the man on the arm and he fell. Blackness coursed through him.
The other Hjan swept brightly glowing knives toward her and she jumped back, trying to hold on to the shadows as she did. The man reached his fallen soldier and, with a quick flicker, they both disappeared.
She glanced around. The first Hjan she’d hit was missing, and the two facing the masters pressed them back. Carth surged through her knife and stabbed at the nearest.
It struck the Hjan in the back.
With a gasp, he started to fall.
The other Hjan flickered to him, grabbed him, and then disappeared.
Carth almost released her connection to the shadows, but decided against it. When she looked around, the attack appeared over. Invar scanned the yard, his gaze narrowed. He suspected her.
She raced through the yard, away from the fractured wall, away from the fallen Hjan, and reached the cosak. As she ran, the shadows slowly trailed away from her until she wasn’t able to hold them with the same strength, eventually losing them altogether.
Samis stood at the door to the cosak. When the shadows completely disappeared, he frowned. “Where have you been?”
“Here,” she said.
“There was another attack, but you knew that, didn’t you?”
“I heard it.”
“You were there again.”
“I…” She didn’t want to lie to Samis about this. “Just let me in and I’ll tell you whatever you want.”
Samis glanced past her and then pushed open the cosak door. Carth hurried past and reached her room, where she fell onto her bed.
As she lay there, the loud sounds of voices echoed from the other side of the wall. It was the sound of chaos and the remnants of battle. Carth wanted nothing more than to lie where she was, pull the shadows around her, and sleep, but she couldn’t. Her mind raced, working through what she had seen, how the man from Ih-lash had raced from the palace, and the timing of the attack. Had she been within the palace walls, there wouldn’t have been anything she could have done. Thankfully, she had been outside the walls, and she had been able to use the shadows. Had she not, she didn’t know if she would have managed to help stop the Hjan.
A pounding on her door startled her.
Carth reached for A’ras magic, which came slowly, pulled like thick syrup from her. She focused it on the knife, letting the sense of the magic flow through her and into the knife. She wouldn’t be unprepared for whoever was on the other side of the door. Had she the ability to reach the shadows, she’d simply have wrapped herself in them, letting them cloak her completely.
“Rel!” she heard through the door. “I know you’re in there!”
Samis.
She owed him for letting her back into the cosak. He could have turned her away and left her outside, where she’d have to answer other questions, but he hadn’t. And as far as she knew, he hadn’t shared with anyone what he’d learned the night they’d snuck away from the palace.
She pulled the door open a crack and peered outside. “What do you want?”
Samis glanced down the hall before pushing his face into the crack. He was stronger than her and cou
ld’ve tried pushing his way into the room, but he didn’t. “That’s all you’re going to say to me? What is going on, Rel?”
“There was another attack.”
“I gathered that from the way the masters had Landon and me stand watch over the cosak. I’ve never been asked to do anything more than observe, and now they’re giving us assignments?”
“The rest of the A’ras were needed,” Carth said.
“The rest? As in, all of the A’ras remaining in the palace?”
“That’s what the rest means, Samis.”
He leaned on the door and let out a long breath. Carth stepped away and he fell forward.
“What happened?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know. There were five Hjan attacking.”
“Five? And the last time when there were three, it took all of the masters working together to push him back.”
“Yes.”
“So what happened?”
Carth turned away, releasing some of the hold she had on the A’ras magic. She didn’t need it here, not with Samis. Besides, it increased the throbbing in her hand the longer she held the connection.
“Rel?”
When she still didn’t answer, he positioned himself in front of her. “What happened, Carth?”
She took a breath. She wanted to tell him what happened, but she hated the idea of sharing too much with him, risking more of the strange glances she got so often as it was. Coming from Samis, they would be that much worse.
“I used the shadows,” she said softly.
Samis frowned. “I didn’t think you could use them on this side of the wall. I thought the layering placed by the masters prevented you.”
“It does. Invar… Invar called me to meet with him. There was a man with him. From Ih-lash.”
“Your homeland.”
She nodded. “I… he claimed I wasn’t of Ih-lash. I think that was what Invar wanted to know. He wanted to know whether I was telling him the truth.”
“I’ve seen what you can do with the shadows!”
Carth looked down at her hands. Invar had seen it too, she thought. Maybe more than she wanted, now that she’d used them against the Hjan attack. “I don’t know what he’s seen. I don’t think he knows either.”
The Shadow Accords Box Set: Books 1-3 Page 31