“I can help us move more quickly,” Carth said. She watched the distant clouds. In the time that they had been talking, they had thickened and had grown darker. How much longer would it be before the storm was upon them? Could she move them fast enough to get ahead of it? “And if the storm continues to move the way I think it will, we might need every bit of speed that I can facilitate.”
Alayna returned to steering the ship and Jenna hurried below. After a while, Linsay came above deck and joined Carth at the railing. “You’ve turned back.”
“I didn’t have much choice,” Carth said.
“You don’t think we can outrun the storm?”
“I don’t know what’s out there, if anything.”
“What about the smugglers?”
Would the smugglers be in danger of the storm? Could they outrun the weather?
How long had they been following? In the time that they had, she hadn’t seen any sign of the smugglers, not enough to know where they might have gone. For all she knew, there was some remote island out here where they would have been able to get to safety.
“I don’t know that I can help the smugglers.”
Linsay glanced over at her. “You can’t leave them. It’s because of them that you have some idea of where to go to find the Collector.”
Carth looked back at the storm front. It was moving quickly, and though she used her connection to the shadows to propel them back to Keyall, the storm was still gaining on them.
“If we attempt to turn back, our ship will be destroyed. We need to keep going.”
“She’s right,” Jenna said, joining Carth. “You can’t leave them. We can’t leave them.”
“You’re agreeing with Linsay?”
“Only when she speaks the truth. I don’t like it, but she’s not wrong.”
“Our ship won’t be able to withstand heavy winds. The sails will fail and then we’ll be stranded.”
Jenna glanced at the dinghy tied in the back of the boat. “Not all of us. Do what you know you need to,” she said.
It was tempting… and it was the sort of thing she was typically willing to do. So often, she went off on her own, and now Jenna was encouraging her to do so. “If I go, I can’t help the Goth Spald, not in a way that will keep her safe.”
“Trust Alayna. She’s been sailing the Spald long enough that she knows how to navigate us. Besides, I think we have enough of a headway that we should be able to keep moving,” Jenna said.
Linsay studied Jenna. “You want Carth to go alone out into that?”
“You would risk all of us?” Jenna asked her.
“If one of us goes, all of us should go.”
“No. Jenna’s right,” Carth said with a sigh. “This is something that I can do, but I’m not sure that the rest of you can participate in. I will go.”
30
Wind whipped around Carth, tearing at her hair and clothes. Mist coming off the sea already had her soaked, and she was forced to pull on a trickle of connection to the S’al to stay warm as she pushed through the water with her connection to the shadows, sending the small dinghy through the water at incredible speeds. Carth was no longer certain how much of the wind was from the oncoming storm and how much was from the speed with which she propelled herself forward.
She couldn’t see the Spald. It hadn’t taken long for it to grow even more distant, enough that it disappeared into the horizon. Alayna would guide the ship and should be able to get them to safety, though it might not be to Keyall. That had been the agreement. If the storm overwhelmed them, they should be able to get someplace. There were other islands nearby, some that could offer shelter, though they might lose the ship.
It wouldn’t come to that. Carth couldn’t let it come to that.
She saw no sign of the smuggler ships. It was increasingly difficult for her to hold on to her connection to the shadows while she also held on to the connection to the S’al and use it to search for signs of anyone who might be out there.
Had this been a mistake?
She didn’t think that it had, but then again, she had thought that she could reach the smugglers before the storm. They had been following them for days, long enough that she should have been able to reach them before the storm. Now she wasn’t certain.
The storm rumbled overhead. It would be significant. Lightning flashed and blinded her, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut to adjust. When she did, she lost track of where she headed. That was a danger.
Waves crashed around her.
The little dinghy wasn’t the kind of boat she wanted to spend much time in on the water, but it was better that it be her out here on the dinghy than to risk the rest of her crew. They wouldn’t have been able to do anything, and it was easier for her to push a smaller boat with speed than it would have been for her to use the Spald.
The dinghy rolled to the side. Carth clung onto the gunwale, wanting to have a grip on it if the boat were to flip. Without the boat, she’d have no way of getting back to the others. She wouldn’t be able to swim in this, and even her abilities would be overmatched.
It reminded her of stories of the sea she’d been told by men of the Reshian long ago. They had believed that the sea was alive and that there were creatures within that would swallow entire ships. In all her time sailing, Carth hadn’t seen anything that would make her believe those rumors, but she had seen things that had surprised her. For all she knew, maybe one of the sea creatures of rumor was responsible for this storm.
Eventually, she would need to turn back if she found nothing. But when? What would be the point where she decided that she couldn’t go any further? When would she decide that she had to turn around?
Another peal of thunder rumbled.
A wave slammed into her, sending the dinghy spinning.
Lightning flashed.
With the afterimage, Carth saw the outlined form of a massive ship.
It was close enough that she should have noticed it, but was she spending too much energy trying to keep herself warm?
The only way to know was to release the connection to the S’al that kept her warm.
When she did, she sent it in a pulse around her.
The ship was there.
Were there others?
Carth directed herself toward the location of the ship. The storm pushed against her, almost as if it wanted to prevent her from reaching the smugglers. Could the sea be angry with them? Could the storm side with the Collector?
As she approached, she recognized the ship. She’d seen it in the smugglers’ village.
She had found the smugglers.
At least, she had found one of their ships.
Carth surged toward it, sending the dinghy streaking toward it and practically colliding with the side of it. With the waves rolling around her, there wasn’t anything that she could do to control her speed.
She grabbed the line at the bow of the dinghy and jumped, powered by the shadows, only pausing once she landed long enough to tie the dinghy to the railing.
Five smugglers worked on the deck, each attempting to keep the sails under control. She recognized several, including Kiara, and approached. She would start with Kiara but would likely need to find the captain. “Where are the others?” Carth yelled over the sound of the storm.
Kiara jerked around and her eyes widened when she saw Carth. “You? How?”
“The other ships. Where are they?”
“Lost!”
“What of the people?”
“We’ve managed to get most of them on board, but we lost some…”
Carth sent a pulse of S’al through her, reaching through the ship. There were dozens of people below deck. There might be something she could do to help, at least to get them to safety.
“You have to turn back,” Carth said.
“We’re trying. The wind keeps changing direction. It’s difficult to hold a steady tack.”
Carth looked away from the storm, toward the east. “Have your people
pull my dinghy onto the boat. I’ll see what I can do.”
“What you can do? This is a ship! You can’t—”
Carth leaned into her. “I reached you, didn’t I? Pull the boat on board.”
Kiara watched her for a moment and then raced off. Carth wondered whether she would listen or whether she would go to the captain, but it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that the captain attempted to head east. She could influence the rest.
When she stood at the stern, pushing on the shadows, she felt as if the water itself resisted.
Carth sent another surge, this one with even more force.
It wasn’t that the water resisted but that the waves were enormous. They were almost too much to navigate over.
Carth ignored them and focused only on the darkness. She pulled from the water, from the clouds, from that small part within herself, and sent it through her, thickening the shadows so that she could send the ship up and over the waves.
She didn’t know whether it would be enough.
It had to be.
The ship started to list, tilting to the starboard side as a gust of wind hit with the waves. Several of the smugglers began shouting. Several of them worked near the railing. Had someone fallen in?
Carth shifted her focus, sending the shadows to oppose the sudden change in direction. If she could resist it…
The ship continued to tilt.
Water surged over the deck.
Carth slipped and started sliding toward the railing. She struck it and lost her connection to the shadows. She gathered them back to herself, but the momentary lapse was enough that when she looked up, she saw the ship tipping further.
With an explosion of flame and shadows against the water, she pushed up, trying to right the ship. It wasn’t enough.
They would sink.
People shouted around her. She ignored them—she had to, or she wouldn’t be able to focus on what she could do to help.
Using another explosion of flame and shadow, she attempted to right the ship again. She was standing on the railing, the ship nearly completely tipped over, waves crashing against the deck. Were those below deck drowning?
The ship started to correct.
It wasn’t enough.
Another wave came, this one massive.
If she failed, she could see the wave pulling them under.
Carth surged again, pushing everything she could into the effort. Water hissed and steam rose around her.
The ship continued to correct its course.
A little more and they might make it.
She surged again.
It wasn’t enough.
The ship tipped.
“Abandon ship!”
The call rang out, louder and calmer than Carth thought she would have been able to manage. People started splashing into the water, each piling into the dinghies tied to the ship, including Carth’s.
Someone grabbed her sleeve and pulled on her. “Come on!”
She turned and found Kiara trying to pull her away. She stumbled along the railing, weakened from the effort of pushing with her shadows and flame, and was dragged into one of the awaiting dinghies. People had piled in, so many that Carth couldn’t imagine that they would hold them, but somehow they managed.
The small boats bobbed on the water, and the people in them were crammed so tightly that no one could row.
Carth would have to push on the shadows.
Did she have enough strength remaining?
Thunder rumbled and lightning crashed around them. Carth pushed her way toward the back of the dinghy and found an opening. She pulled on the shadows, sending them through the water, over the waves, and away from the storm.
She doubted they would outrun it, but she had no choice other than to try.
The effort of what she did created an area around both of the dinghies, and she worked on them.
Carth continued to push on the shadows, sending the dinghies sweeping away from the storm. Thunder rumbled, and every so often she noted flashes of light around her, bright enough that it made it difficult to keep her focus. Those bright flashes would blind her temporarily. She looked behind her and happened to do it at the same time as one of the flashes of light. For a moment, she thought she saw another ship trailing them, but she decided that had to be only her imagination. The only ship that was out there would be hers, and if Alayna had done her job, she would be far removed from here, far enough away that they wouldn’t be able to catch up.
She stared in the distance, trying to make out what she had seen, but the skies remained dark. The winds shifted and began pushing against her, as if trying to drive her back into the storm itself.
“We have to row harder,” someone shouted. Carth wasn’t sure who had called out—she was having a difficult time with maintaining her focus with the storm battering her—and she continued to push, straining against the effort of the storm to drive her the other way.
They wouldn’t be fast enough.
The longer they were here, the more she was aware that they wouldn’t be able to outrun the storm. Not only was she not strong enough, but with the winds blowing the way they were, it pushed against them. She’d already expended so much strength trying to keep the ship from sinking—and failing—that she didn’t think she had enough strength remaining to get them any further.
They would sink, and they would be destroyed in the storm.
The winds shifted again, swirling around. Carth had been in storms like this before, but never while sailing. She had always had the sense to get off the water when a storm like this was approaching, and had always had the means to do so. Out here in the middle of the ocean, there was no way for her to get to safety, not easily. She was stranded. They all were.
She continued to press through the shadows, but even as she did, she was aware that it wasn’t going to be enough. Rain battered them. It came down in sheets, and Carth couldn’t see anything other than the rain. She couldn’t hear anyone around her other than the steady sounds of the thunder. The occasional flash of lightning no longer illuminated anything other than the water sluicing around her.
She wouldn’t give up. She couldn’t.
It wasn’t in her to simply abandon those with her, though failing also wasn’t something she was accustomed to. Carth had never failed to protect those she cared about. And now she had failed repeatedly. She had failed at understanding what—and who—the Collector was and what he was after. She had failed to protect the constables and their ships. She had failed to protect the smugglers. And because of that, she would let down her Binders. They would lose her and whatever protections she could offer.
Still, she refused to give up. She refused to stop pushing on the shadows, refused to stop trying.
Between the rain and the thunder and the lightning, Carth lost track of time. She lost track of everything other than her discomfort, and she knew that she wasn’t alone. Everyone with her was equally uncomfortable.
The winds shifted again, once more blowing them back into the storm. At the same time, she felt her strength, her connection to the shadows, fade. There was nothing more that she could do. They were at the storm’s mercy—and they were failing. The storm would claim all of them.
31
Someone shook Carth awake.
She didn’t know when she’d fallen asleep—or how she had fallen asleep—but she was lying half out of the dinghy, her hand trailing through the water, and jerked around to see Kiara staring at her. Carth blinked and it took a moment to realize that the storm had eased. Rain still battered them, but it was growing less intense with every passing moment. Thunder rumbled, though it was a distant sense. The sky was even lighter.
“What happened?” Carth asked.
“Somehow, you fell asleep.”
“I did?” she asked.
Kiara shrugged. “We were screaming, and a wave struck us, and you… glowed… for a moment. After that, we passed beyond the storm.”
Carth looke
d around. How had she done that? She didn’t even remember using her connection to S’al, but that was what Kiara was describing. Could she have somehow used it without realizing it? It was possible, but it wasn’t something that she had done before.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“I don’t know. The storm is behind us. It seemed like it was going to roll over us, but then it fizzled out. We’ve continued to row, trying to get beyond it, and we think that we’re far enough away from the storm that it shouldn’t overwhelm us again.”
Beyond the storm. Had the Spald managed to outrun it too? There had been that ship she thought she had seen within the lightning flashes, but maybe it hadn’t been anything more than her imagination.
“Where are your people rowing to?”
“We’re trying to reach one of the barrier islands. From there, we can try to find another ship. Maybe we can get passage back to the north.”
“If we can reach my ship, I can offer passage to as many as I can carry,” Carth said.
“Why?” Kiara asked.
“Because I can help.”
“Not that. Why did you come after us?”
“Because you needed help,” Carth said.
Kiara stared at her. “We’ve heard the stories of Carthenne Rel. I don’t know anyone who travels the sea who wouldn’t have heard those stories. You’re not what we expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“Violence. Destruction. The same as you’re rumored to have done everywhere else you’ve gone.”
Carth smiled. It wasn’t the kind of rumor she wanted, but there was value in others seeing her in such a way. She tested her connection to the shadows and found that it was mostly restored. She pushed them forward, sending both dinghies surging through the water.
“Rumors are merely that.”
“The rumors about the Collector are more than that.”
Carth sighed. “I thought that you might have found him. We were following you, hoping that you might draw him out.”
“He’s too clever for that.”
“What do you know of him?”
The other smuggler she knew, Eran, was sitting nearby. “The Collector is about power. He has destroyed trade, forcing it to go through him. We wanted only to keep our cut.”
Shadow Hunted (The Collector Chronicles Book 1) Page 24