“Elaeavn? No. You haven’t said much about it.” Carth had learned something about that land, but what she had heard was strange. Everyone in the city had abilities of some sort, nothing like anywhere else in the world. Alayna had been tight-lipped about her homeland, and Carth had chosen not to push, especially as it didn’t make a difference. Eventually, it might, especially as Carth tried to increase her connections, which meant finding information in even Elaeavn.
“I always think that you know more than you do and find it easy to forget that you know so little about those lands.”
“They aren’t my home.”
Alayna breathed out. They passed a row of shops. The store owners sat out front, eyeing them strangely. Carth thought they would do better if they were more welcoming, but maybe something had happened—was happening—here that made it so that they were suspicious of outsiders.
“You’ve done so much even though it’s not your home. Do you realize that?”
“I’ve done what I can,” Carth said.
“You’ve given hope. Even to me, exiled from my homeland, I have… hope. For so long, I had given up. When I was captured, I thought it would be the next in a long line of horrors that had happened to me, and instead you saved me. You brought me to a safer place, and you gave me the chance to think that things might get better.”
Carth looked over at Alayna. “I’ve seen too many horrors in the world to let them lie,” Carth said.
“I know you have, which is why so many follow you willingly. It’s also why, when you think that you will be leaving the Binders behind, those of us who know what you mean worry what would happen if you were gone.”
Carth looked up the road. In the distance, she could see the first row of buildings on this level. There were maybe two dozen all told, and from what she could tell, most were shops, though the faint traces of music drifted toward her, telling her that perhaps there might be a tavern nearby. None of the storefronts were as elegant as some she’d seen. Carth suspected that only those on the main level were the more profitable ones.
“I will be careful,” she said.
Alayna nodded. “That’s all I can ask. That’s all any of us can ask. We want to know that you won’t risk yourself needlessly.” Alayna nodded at Jenna. “Besides, I don’t think that any of the rest of us would be able to get through to her quite like you have.”
Carth laughed. “I don’t know that I’ve gotten through to her quite as well as I had hoped.”
“Maybe better than you give yourself credit for.”
They fell into silence as they continued to make their way into the city. When they reached the first series of shops, Carth looked around but saw nothing that tempted her. She watched people coming and going from the tavern for a few moments, but they had the appearance of fishermen, men who likely wouldn’t have the kind of gossip she needed.
The others followed her lead, and they continued up into the city itself.
Carth stopped at the cliff’s edge as they reached the top of the road, and looked down at the docks. Everything seemed so small from up here. Even the Goth Spald looked so much smaller. As she watched, she saw a hooded figure on the deck of the ship, and she waved to Boiyn. He didn’t seem to notice her and, surprisingly, scurried off the ship and down the dock.
Where was Boiyn going? It was unlike him to disappear like that. Typically, he would remain on the ship, almost doggedly so, so that Carth and the others had to practically drag him to shore when they reached safer ports.
Had he discovered something? Was he coming for her?
Questions surged into her mind, but Boiyn had earned the benefit of the doubt and she wouldn’t question him unnecessarily. She turned away and headed into the city, looking for answers.
“So which tavern do you think we should start with?” Jenna asked.
“You’re starting to get as bad as her,” Linsay said, motioning to Carth.
Jenna shrugged. “It wouldn’t be her first good idea.”
“Look for places where they’re playing games. Those are the kind of places where we’ll likely find what we need.”
As they made their way through town, she found a likely tavern and motioned for them to follow. Whatever Boiyn was up to, she hoped he didn’t get himself into any trouble, especially not without any of them there to help.
Those thoughts faded as they entered the tavern.
10
The tavern had proven boisterous, and the music that she’d heard from the street played even more loudly inside. There was a certain sort of pleasant chaos found within. The smells of food were unique to this part of the world, but the scent of ale on the air was familiar everywhere, as was the noise and gaming found within.
“Why are you smiling?” Jenna asked.
“These places always remind me of my childhood.”
“You lived a strange life, Carth.”
Carth only shrugged. She couldn’t help that she had lived a strange life. She had spent quite a while growing up in a tavern after wandering for years with her parents. The tavern had become the first real home that she could remember. All the others since then had been temporary, but that one—though it had also been temporary—had at least given her hope for more permanence. And she had happy memories, as happy as an orphan could have in a place where men came to drink and gamble.
Carth finished her ale and stood. “I am going to join those gentlemen there,” she said, motioning to a table of four men dicing. “Why don’t you see what you can learn?” The others would be better at speaking with the staff. That had never been her strength. She could gamble, and she could game with anyone, enough that they wouldn’t necessarily question her presence.
She grabbed an empty chair near the table of men dicing and dragged it over, flopping down on it. The smell of ale on her should have been heavy enough to make it convincing that she was inebriated. She’d found that men in places like this often thought they could take advantage of an inebriated woman.
“What game are you playing?” she asked, slightly slurring her words.
The man nearest her looked up. He had a thick beard and deep-set eyes that quickly dismissed her. “The table’s full.”
Carth looked around. “Full? Doesn’t seem too full to me. Unless you’re afraid of a little competition.”
She brought out a pair of coins from her pocket and trapped them beneath her palm. They were only silvers, and not enough money that she would mind parting with it. When she gambled, she had learned that she couldn’t be concerned about parting with any of her coin. If she cared, that was when things happened that she couldn’t account for. Most of the time, she managed to keep games under control, but there were occasions—and more than she cared for—where even with her abilities, the hands didn’t fall the way she wanted them to. It was something she was working on.
Dice were particularly challenging. If she could anchor to the dice, she could often force them the way that she wanted, but some dice were harder to anchor to than others, preventing her from being as successful as she wanted. Games of skill were easier for her, mostly because she understood the strategy involved to win those.
“This isn’t your game,” the man said again.
“Because I’m a woman?” Too many men thought like that, quickly dismissing her—or those she worked with. It was what gave them the advantage. Carth preyed on that, thankful that men were foolish enough to believe that they could easily dismiss her.
“Because this isn’t your game,” the man said. He leaned toward her, and Carth played the part, backing away. It wouldn’t do for her to be too pushy. If she was seen that way, she would reveal herself far sooner than she intended. No, the better move was to get up and find another game.
Carth glanced at the rest of the men around the table through heavy lids, feigning drunkenness, before standing and staggering off. She leaned against the wall, ostensibly for support, and concentrated the shadows just a bit. Doing so allowed her to clear them, letting her hear more c
learly the men’s conversation.
“You could have let her play, Jack.”
Carth tipped her head to the side and noticed Jack shaking his head. “I’m not taking money from someone like her.”
“You and your foolish ideals.”
Jack glared at the other man. “Foolish? Ideals are never foolish. Only the man who refuses to have them is foolish.”
“I would have been happy to take her coin. Even if it was a few coppers. Besides, what’s the harm in having a pretty woman sitting across from us for a few tosses?”
“Those aren’t the kind of tosses you would like to have with her, are they, Ricken?”
Ricken was a smallish man who had thin lips and an even thinner nose. He tapped his thumb along the side of his nose, grinning at the others. “Maybe I would.”
“You wouldn’t know what to do with a woman like that,” one of the men said. “She had a little spice to her. When a woman has spice like that, you have to take the time to dilute it, soften it up.”
“Now you want me to think that I need to be soft for a woman?” Ricken asked.
The others laughed.
Carth watched Jack for a moment longer, but he remained silent, not joining in with the others. Maybe she had misread him. She had thought him like so many other men that she’d met, quick to think that women didn’t belong, but maybe he was mistreating her in a different way, trying to be too respectful with her.
Carth moved away from the table of dicing and found three men leaning over a board near the back of the tavern. Game pieces were set along the board, points on a triangle, and they each took turns moving them. It was a game Carth didn’t recognize, but a game like this would be one of skill rather than chance. It would be something like Tsatsun, though likely without the same complexity.
As she watched, she got a sense for the flow of the game, the way each piece would trap and take the others. There were limits on how many moves each piece could make. Each game piece was identical, nothing like Tsatsun, where each piece had meaning, and each piece had specific movements it could make. There wasn’t quite as much strategy to this game. Already Carth could see how to win each man’s position, counting out the dozen or so moves it would take for each of the men around the table. None of them seemed aware of how easily they could win their side.
As she listened, she heard nothing that would benefit her. There was no chatter about the Collector and no talk of smugglers getting attacked by shadows. Then again, she hadn’t expected much of that. Most likely, the smugglers would have wanted to keep that fact concealed.
Carth made her way around the tavern, listening at each of the tables, coming up empty. There was nothing that would be beneficial. As much as she hated to admit it, perhaps she wouldn’t find anything here.
When she reached the back of the tavern, Carth nodded at Linsay. Jenna had found a table with two other women and she sat there, drinking and chatting loudly with them. Alayna had disappeared—likely having returned to check on Boiyn as Carth had requested.
“Have you learned anything?” she asked Linsay.
“What’s there to learn? The men of this place enjoy drinking and gambling, and several of them think that I’m for sale.”
Carth shrugged. “It’s not like we haven’t taken advantage of that in other places.”
Linsay sniffed. “Just one time I would like to enter a tavern and not worry about who else might come in and what they might assume.”
“Can you gather Jenna?” she asked.
“She’s not going to be thrilled with that. She thinks she’s only just gotten started.”
“With drinking?” Carth asked.
“With gathering information, I think is how she put it. Why don’t you let me keep an eye on her and you can continue to see what you can come up with?”
“There’s nothing for me to learn here. The tavern is not what I expected.”
“Maybe it’s finally letting you see what the rest of us see,” Linsay said.
“And what is that?” Carth asked.
Linsay flashed a smile and rubbed her eyes. For the first time, Carth realized that she was tired. They all had to be tired. They had been pushing hard and probably should have taken a day or two before coming into port, simply to recover. Instead, Carth had pushed them, wanting answers, but at what cost? How much did she risk those she cared about by trying to push forward and find out information?
“See if we can find a place to rest while we’re here.”
“Not on the ship?” Linsay asked.
Carth shrugged. It was uncommon for her to leave the ship unprotected, but maybe it didn’t have to be. “We could take shifts. The docks are so far away from the city that it doesn’t really pay for all of us to make our way down there each night. Besides, I think it would be good for us to get some rest.”
“How long do you intend for us to be here?”
“I don’t know.” She glanced over at Jenna, watching her friend as she spoke. She waved her hands around in an animated fashion, and the man now sitting at the table watched her. “Can you keep an eye on her? I know that she can handle herself, but when she gets like this…”
Linsay smiled. “When she gets like this, I worry more for the rest of the tavern than for her.”
Carth grinned and patted Linsay on the shoulder. “Wait here until I return.” Linsay nodded and Carth headed out of the tavern.
The sun had begun to set and the sky had streaks of color. Carth stared at it a moment. The sky was beautiful, especially on evenings like this, where the air was still and only a few clouds touched the horizon. On nights like this, the starlight would make her think of her mother as she stared up at it, wishing that they could be reunited, that she could have had even another day with her. It was nights like these when she wondered what her mother would think of her. Neither of her parents had been what she had believed them to be. Both had had power that they had not revealed to her, but her mother had wanted to share it with her. It was the reason she had brought Carth to the distant city of Nyaesh in the first place.
She shook those thoughts from her head. Memories of the past did nothing but haunt her, and though they might motivate her to act, they only served to bring her sadness. And that was something she doubted her mother would have wanted for her.
She made her way into the city, examining storefronts, noting how much nicer the stores in this part of the city were compared to those along the road leading into it. Most of these storefronts had bright paint, and all of them had signs that marked what type of goods they sold. She saw seamstresses and tailors and candlemakers and bakers, and when she went further into the city, she heard the sound of metalsmiths and carpenters and dozens of other activities all around her. It was a busy city and likely a prosperous one, considering what she had seen of it. It would be a center of trade, located as it was in the middle of the sea, a place between this world and the next. Though she looked, she saw no evidence of stores that sold items out of the west. That would almost be worth taking time to explore.
After a while, Carth reached the edge of the city. A road led away from it, and she wondered whether it would eventually lead up to the village she had come across the night before.
Carth turned and headed back into the city, passing people dressed in various styles of clothing. She had yet to determine the native style for Keyall. Was it any of these? Or was it a mishmash of styles, much like places like Asador had a combination of styles that came from all the different people coming through?
A shadowed figure moved across the road.
It wouldn’t have drawn her attention other than for the fact that the figure was trying to remain concealed, ducking from one side of the street to the other, pressing themself against the side of a building.
Carth stepped back, pulling the shadows around herself and cloaking within them. She moved carefully, not wanting to draw any attention to herself but wanting to see what this person might do. She kept a safe distance, clos
e enough that she could watch and observe, but not so close that they might notice she trailed after them.
The figure moved onto a side street, and Carth continued to follow. The street here was much narrower and as she approached, she realized the person she followed had disappeared down an alleyway. Carth allowed herself to get a little closer, risking the chance that they might see her. She kept the shadows around her, maintaining concealment, hoping that she didn’t do so in a way that would be noticeable.
She found the figure hunched over a doorway, working at the lock.
They didn’t use a key. Whoever was here was trying to break in.
Carth leaned back against the stone, smiling. Was this simple theft, or something more?
A soft click sounded against the muted night, fading quickly into the shadows. The figure stood, and Carth realized that it was a woman. She was striking, with a sharp jaw and deep brown hair, and she wore a tight-fitting black jacket and matching pants. Clothing like that would blend into the shadows, much like Carth’s preferred clothing did.
The woman slipped inside.
Carth hesitated. She didn’t care that the woman was breaking into this shop. There was no reason for her to be concerned by it, but curiosity sent her forward. Inside the shop, she kept the shadows wrapped around her, easing them back as she surveyed the room.
It was some sort of artifact shop. Most of the items here were odd. Carvings that were made in strange shapes, either of figures or of creatures that did not exist. There were jars of liquids and some that contained what appeared to be preserved animals. It reminded her of the storeroom that she had discovered in the village.
The woman made her way along the row of items, clearly searching for something. Carth waited, saying nothing. The woman reached the end of the shelves and began tapping on them. It took Carth a moment to realize why. She was listening for hollow spaces, a place where something might be hidden. She was rewarded by a change in the tone to her tapping and she pried a panel free, revealing a golden statue within.
The woman let out a cry of victory that she quickly suppressed.
Shadow Hunted (The Collector Chronicles Book 1) Page 8