Shadow Hunted (The Collector Chronicles Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Carth raced along the ridge overlooking the water, quickly getting through the outskirts of the city and then beyond, into the hard rock that surrounded all of Keyall. She didn’t dare take the time to go for her friends, though she knew that traveling in this way would anger Alayna, at least. Yet if she went for the others, she would run the risk of not figuring out what had just taken place. Not only that, but she needed to have somebody with Jenna as she continued to recover, and she trusted Alayna the most with that task. Boiyn could help—and was helping—but Carth was uncertain about the enhancements, especially as they had impacted Jenna in such a way.

  She needed to reach the explosion before the constable and his men did. As soon as they did, she wouldn’t be able to get the answers that she wanted. It meant that she needed to move—and quickly.

  Carth powered herself with the shadows, streaking along the surface of the rock, and raced into the darkness. She pressed out with connections to the shadow and the flame, reaching out from time to time so that she could gauge where she was heading and ensure that she was aware of anyone who followed. It was possible that she wouldn’t know, and that her connection to the shadows would be limited, especially with whatever resistance to her magic those within Keyall possessed, but if there were others—particularly, if there were others who worked for the Collector—she thought that she could reach them.

  A distant glowing appeared, and Carth slowed.

  It was out in the water, and near enough that she could just make out the outline of what clearly had been a ship. Possibly there was more than one ship out there. When she reached the ledge overlooking the place where the flames were, she stopped and peered out, then began pulling on her connection to the flame.

  Using the S’al in that way allowed her to draw away the connection to the flame and remove the heat.

  It didn’t work.

  Was it the distance?

  She needed answers, and answers wouldn’t come if she remained standing where she was. She needed to know what the Collector was after, and what he thought to do to oppose her, particularly if he was now attacking the ships from Keyall.

  The constable had been convinced that he could handle the Collector, but if he was already attacking his ships, then there might not be anything for the constable to do. It might be that he couldn’t stop the Collector and that everything would be dependent upon Carth and what she could do. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to help him—but then, would she be helping the constable or would she be helping the people of Keyall?

  She had to help.

  So she jumped.

  She held on to the shadows, using them to give her more strength so that when she crashed into the water, she had drawn upon them and used them to fill herself with so much power that she was able to prevent injury.

  The water was cold. Heat radiated from the flaming ships. There were three of them, each attempting to sail but none making much progress as they tried to get out of the cavern. Flames engulfed them.

  Carth pulled on the flames, drawing through her connection to the S’al.

  At first, nothing happened. She thought that maybe she wasn’t able to connect to it, but then she felt a strange shifting and the flames began to slowly ease away. Heat filled her and she felt her skin begin to grow bright, filled by the power of the S’al. She could only hold so much before it erupted, and she directed the heat into the water.

  Steam hissed where her connection to the heat touched the water. She held on to it, maintaining that connection, drawing more and more heat away from the ship. Her ability to withdraw the heat seemed limited. There was only so much she could do as she tried to pull more and more off.

  A shout from on board one of the ships caught her attention, and Carth strained to reach more of the flame. How many were on board? She didn’t know enough about these men, certainly not enough to know whether they deserved this fate, but if they were the constable’s men, it seemed unlikely that they would deserve it. If all they were trying to do was protect their city, could she blame them for attempting to defend themselves? Could she deny them help? Carth needed to draw more of the heat away, but she was not certain that she could. She was barely helping a single ship.

  Maybe there was a different way that she could try to help. It would require risking herself, but she didn’t mind, nor did she think it was that much of a risk.

  She swam toward the nearest ship. When she was close enough that she could feel the nearly overwhelming sense of heat coming off it, she used a surge of shadows and propelled herself out of the water. She landed on board the ship. It was like something out of a nightmare. Burning bodies were scattered all over the foredeck. Most had the remnants of the dark hair of the men who she now knew worked for the constable, men who she now understood were local to Keyall. Where had she heard the screams from?

  She attempted to use her connection to the S’al to determine, but that connection was weaker than it should have been. Or maybe it was the fact that she continued to try to pull on the flames, attempting to draw them away, that made her weaker. Regardless, she couldn’t detect anyone alive board the ship. If she were to help them, she would have to go deck by deck and search for whoever might be trapped.

  Her connection to the flames might not help her detect anyone, but she thought she could use the shadows. She pulled on them, demanding that they strengthen her. She had used them in such a way before, pulling the shadows inside her so that they helped solidify tissue and bone. Unlike flame, which seemed to come from within, the shadows were summoned by a darkness within her, but were not a part of her.

  She attempted to reach the stairs leading below deck, but there was no way to reach it. Flames engulfed it entirely.

  Carth focused on the wood and sent an explosion of flame through it.

  She jumped. It carried her through the ship. The area beneath was full of smoke and not nearly as hot as the surface. She searched for evidence of anyone else who might be there, praying that her connection to the flame would allow her that much, and she felt them.

  There was movement not far away.

  Carth raced toward it. She found a man huddled, barely moving but breathing. Next to him was another, younger man. She grabbed them both and carried them to the opening she had created in the deck. When she jumped, she searched for a smoke-free area to set them, but there was no good place.

  If she tossed them into the water, they would likely drown.

  Just as she was beginning to think that she wasn’t going to be able to help, she noticed a pair of ships making their way over. There was a third farther out, but she couldn’t tell which direction it was heading. They had the same hull and tilt to the sails as the one she was on, giving her hope that they were with the constable. She hesitated until they were near enough, then she tossed both men into the water, creating as much splash as she could.

  When she was done, she jumped back below deck. Was there anyone else? Carth searched, pulling away heat so that she could search through it for signs of life, and found two more men. Only one of them still breathed. Carth brought them both up to the surface and tossed them into the water. One of the ships was nearer, now pulling the first two men out.

  She looked across to the other ship. The flames continued to burn, and now that she was out of the water and closer, she could tell that it was more of a sickly sort of flame, an orange and unhealthy flame. This wasn’t naturally occurring. She wasn’t convinced it was magical, either.

  Could they have some other way of reaching for fire? Could there be something like an enhancement that would create fire like that? She had seen many things in her time, enough that she wouldn’t be surprised by the possibility.

  She pulled on the flame, attempting to draw it into the water as she had with this ship. Once more, there was a subtle sense of resistance and she couldn’t tell whether it came from whatever had been used to ignite the ship or whether there was someone nearby who had caused the ships to burn, someone who opposed her
.

  She needed to be closer.

  Carth jumped, thinking as she did what Alayna might say to her, the way she would chastise her for jumping in and attacking when she did not need to. But, despite any differences she might have with the constable, his men didn’t deserve to suffer. And this would be suffering. Enough had died already.

  She landed on board the second ship, pulling the shadows into her, strengthening herself. When she rolled forward, she pulled on her connection to the S’al, trying to draw it out into the water. Closer to it, she was able to send a stream of it into the sea.

  It was enough.

  A dozen charred bodies on board.

  She exploded a hole into the hull as she had the last time, and when she landed below, there was smoke and steam and the stench of burned bodies. She searched but didn’t find anyone still living.

  She had been too slow.

  She jumped back to the deck and jumped to the last ship. When she landed, she tore at the flames, sending them into the water, and angrily searched for signs of life. Seeing what she had on the other ship had angered her. This was a horrible way to destroy others.

  She found two bodies on the deck. As she was preparing to send an explosion through the planking, she heard a gasping breath.

  One of them still lived.

  Carth grabbed him and, as she dragged him to the railing, she realized that he was the one she had followed from Alistan Rhain’s home.

  There would be questions later. She tossed him into the water, flinging him as hard as she could out toward the waiting ships. When he splashed, she hoped that he didn’t sink before someone was able to get to him.

  With another explosion of fire and shadows, she went below, but she found no others here. Either they had gotten off or they had never been here.

  Carth jumped back to the surface. She looked around, hesitating for a moment to see whether there was any sign of who might have done this, and how they might have accomplished it. Maybe it was magical. Could there be someone else who had a connection to S’al? Maybe it was one of the A’ras. There wasn’t a particular reason that they couldn’t fight on behalf of others, and given what had taken place with the Reshian and the Hjan, there was a part of Carth that thought maybe they would.

  She detected nothing nearby.

  Drawing on the shadows again, she jumped.

  This time, it carried her to one of the two ships that had appeared. When she landed on the deck, she was unsurprised to see the constable working at pulling one of the men out of the water. The others were lying on the deck, still breathing.

  “Will they live?” she asked.

  The constable looked up. “You did this?”

  She glared at him. “I was with you. I think you know that I didn’t cause the explosion.”

  “Not the explosion. You went after my men.”

  “They didn’t deserve to die that way. No one does.” She looked across the water at the burning boats. One of them had begun to sink, and as it drifted below the surface of the water, steam rose around it. “There were others I couldn’t get to. They were already gone.”

  The constable stared at her and nodded slowly. “This was to be our way of preventing the Collector from succeeding,” he said. “We had a fleet—”

  “I know.”

  “I don’t know how many ships in the fleet remain, but—”

  “None,” one of the men said, coughing. He opened his eyes and looked around. His gaze seemed to drift past Carth, as if he didn’t see her. Perhaps that was for the best. If he had seen her, would he have grown angry at the fact that she was here? “We’re all that managed to escape. The others were destroyed inside the cave.”

  He coughed again and sagged back onto the decking.

  Carth looked over, seeking the spot where the cave mouth should be. She could see the rocky prominence where she had tied up her dinghy, and she exploded from the deck, landing in the water near it.

  Carth powered forward with the shadows, using them to propel her deep into the water. If there were anyone remaining here, she would need to help. No one else could get there faster.

  By the time she saw the glowing remains of the rest of the fleet, she knew that it hadn’t mattered. Even had she gotten there any faster, she doubted there would have been anything she could have done.

  The walls of the cavern were splattered with fire. The way it glowed and burned was unnatural, but even more unnatural was the way the flames burned across the surface of the water.

  She saw no sign of life, nothing that would tell her that anyone still lived here.

  At least she knew this wasn’t a magical attack. A magical attack wouldn’t burn the way this did. A magical attack wouldn’t float on the surface of the water. This was almost as if someone had used a flammable substance, one that was nothing like anything she’d ever seen.

  Maybe Boiyn would have answers, but there would be no way to bring a sample to him, even if he might be able to tell her what had happened.

  Carth turned away and swam back toward the opening, a heaviness within her. It was not fatigue, though she was tired. This was fear, uncertainty. Whoever this Collector was, he was dangerous. And he wanted to reach Keyall badly enough that he was willing to destroy all of these men.

  When she pulled herself out of the water and back onto the constable’s ship, she shook her head. “There’s nothing remaining.”

  He looked back toward the cavern, and the unasked question on his lips was how she might know, but he didn’t say it. Instead, he breathed heavily. “Then the Collector will have won.”

  25

  A southerly wind gusted, carrying strange scents on it and making the waves the Goth Spald crested wilder than she had seen in some time. These were not the kind of seas for her to be risking the Spald to intercept another ship, but that was what she intended.

  “We’re not going to find anyone like this,” Alayna said, leaning over the railing.

  “I don’t need to board them,” Carth said. Alayna arched a brow at her. “Fine. I don’t need you to board them.”

  “You will do this yourself?”

  That was what she had decided. In the time that she had spent watching over Jenna, waiting to see if she would come around, she had decided that she had to be the one who did this. If for no other reason so that the others wouldn’t be placed in any danger.

  “You have to keep Jenna safe.”

  “We could sail on. We don’t need to do this, especially now that we have Jenna back. We could return to Cort or Asador—”

  “We will. Now that she’s responding”—that had been a relief when Boiyn had come to her and told her that Jenna had begun speaking—“I feel more comfortable doing this.”

  “But why? What makes you think you need to do this?”

  “The attack on the constables makes me think that I need to do something. They think they’re doing the right thing, but…”

  “What if they are and we’re not?” Alayna made a point of getting in front of her, forcing Carth to look at her. “We all have to make choices. Think of Jenna. What happened when she got into that fight? She ended up trapped. Again. Mine got me exiled from my homeland. It was my fault. I knew what the possible consequences of what I did would be. When I was Forgotten—”

  “Exiled. Not forgotten.” Carth thought that part of the punishment Alayna had experienced was even worse than some of the others. How could they simply think to wipe people from existence? That made the punishment even more horrible than so many others.

  “It’s the same. When I was exiled, it was because of a choice that I made. Not anyone else. What if the same is true for Talia? You can offer an alternative, but unless she wants to take it, you can’t force her to make the decision you want for her. You can’t save everyone, Carth.” Alayna smiled. “You try. The Great Watcher knows that you try, but there are some people who simply can’t be saved. You should focus your energy on those who want to be.”

  Carth swallow
ed. “Like Jenna.”

  Alayna nodded. “Her. Others. You’ve helped so many. I don’t want you to forget that. Just like I don’t want you to think that we would be the same if something happened to you. We would continue, but we wouldn’t be the same. None of us thinks that we would.”

  “There might be a time when you have to.”

  “Maybe, but let’s try to keep that time as far off as possible, can’t we?”

  Carth smiled and turned her attention to the sea. With the water this rough, it was difficult to see that far in front of her, but she had the advantage that she could search with her connection to the S’al. That helped as much as anything out here. She could use the shadows—and had—but they were a little more limited than trying to push out with her connection to the flame and see what she could find that way. It was how she knew there was a pair of ships nearby.

  “As you’ve told me, we’ve faced much worse before. The Collector is nothing more than anyone else we’ve ever faced. I don’t fear him, and the smugglers know something. They’re our connection to the Collector.”

  “That’s why you’re doing this?”

  “I intend to disrupt what they’re doing. Then we find the Collector.”

  She nodded to Alayna, indicating for her to take the wheel, and Carth went to the railing, staring out over the rough seas. The nearest ship was close, though she couldn’t see anything yet.

  Then she noted the top of the mast.

  Alayna noticed the mast as well and steered them toward it. When they were close, Carth jumped.

  She used the shadows within the sea to give her strength and added a hint of the S’al to it to help launch her with more force than a simple jump could provide. It was a risky technique, but with the seas as rough as they were, she thought it worth taking. The worst that would happen would be for her to fly past the ship and crash into the sea. From there, she could swim her way over.

  The jump had launched her a little high.

  She grabbed for the mast as she nearly went past, jerking to a stop and swinging down.