Shadow Lost (The Shadow Accords Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The sky was overcast, fitting in some ways, letting shadows slide across the ground. Carth maintained a connection to the shadows, but not tightly. She didn’t want to reveal her presence too soon, though she needed the connection in order to detect whether there were others with the shadow blessing.

  “Where should we go?” Dara asked.

  Carth scanned the street running along the harbor. Where in the city would she go to find the help she needed? Holding on to nothing more than a streamer of shadow ability, she used that connection to try and detect others with shadow ability, but did not find anything, not while standing on the shore. For her to find what she needed, she would need to go deeper into the city, something she wasn’t sure Dara would be willing to do.

  “You can return to the Spald. I’ll go in—”

  “You’re not going to do this alone. Haven’t you shown me enough to keep me safe?”

  Carth wasn’t sure that she had. If Dara had more time with Ras, she might have learned enough to use the S’al ability—the girl was talented, and maybe more than Carth when it came to that aspect of her ability—but Dara had wanted to come with her. And now Dara had shown an impulsivity that left Carth nervous. What if she attacked again?

  “Maybe other places, but here? This is where you will face those who control the shadows,” she said.

  Dara forced a smile. “You’ve shown me there is nothing to fear with the shadows, not the way I once did. Besides, you need the help.”

  It wasn’t that she wanted to head into Isahl on her own, but she understood that welcoming Dara into the city and bringing her with her created a different set of challenges. She would have to stay near Dara, protect her if things turned sour. And prevent her from doing anything stupid. Within Isahl, there was a possibility that others might be able to counter her ability with shadows.

  But since she didn’t know what she might encounter, having another with Lashasn abilities would help, and might keep her safer.

  A door to the nearest building opened, and a young man with a pale face stepped out. He eyed Carth and then Dara for a long moment before stepping back into the building and closing the door.

  Dara tensed but didn’t make any other movement.

  “I need the help,” Carth finally agreed.

  They started into the city, simply walking the streets. Carth didn’t know what she searched for, more of a sense against her, a presence that would help her know that others who could control the shadows existed. What would she do when she found them? She hadn’t worked that out yet, other than knowing she needed answers. If anyone would have them, it would be someone in Ih-lash, wouldn’t it?

  “How do you intend to find your father?” Dara asked in a whisper.

  Carth glanced at her. Dara was intuitive, and though she hadn’t said anything about what she intended with finding her father, Dara still had known. She shouldn’t have expected anything else.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “You haven’t said anything about him since we left Wesjan. I thought you might want to search for him before now.”

  “I have.”

  “Not really. We’ve sailed to different ports, but you haven’t really attempted to find the Reshian before now.”

  “What would I say?”

  “What do you intend to say now?”

  Carth shook her head. She didn’t know what she would say, but there would be questions asked. They had been running through her mind since she had first seen her father alive, and many of them she hadn’t had the time to get answers to, but now that she was no longer searching for a way to keep her friends safe, and no longer chasing after the Hjan, she did have the time.

  But those weren’t the questions she wanted answered.

  She needed to know about the Reshian, and she needed to know about the attacks she’d seen. What was the blood magic? She knew it wasn’t the Hjan, but the Hjan were interested in what had happened.

  As she turned a corner and saw a small square that brought back memories of her mother’s death in Nyaesh, she felt a flicker of shadows moving.

  The sense was indistinct, but definitely there.

  Carth paused and Dara glanced over to her.

  In the darkness, she noted the soft glow to Dara’s skin, the sign that she used her S’al ability. Carth shook her head at Dara. “You shouldn’t—”

  She didn’t get the chance to finish warning Dara to release the light.

  Shadows surged around them, thick like a sudden fog, and Dara cried out.

  Carth remained motionless.

  The shadows didn’t affect her, but they did cut her off from her connection to the S’al, even augmented as it was by the ring she wore. More than that, by overpowering the shadows, whoever attacked was able to take that ability away from her as well. It was the same thing Ras had done, using the S’al against her, using his connection to the flame to steal away the heat, and the light to push back the shadows.

  Dara looked over to her, panic flashing in her eyes, but Carth shook her head slightly. “Wait,” she mouthed, uncertain whether Dara could even see through the darkness. Carth could, but that was more because she was tied to the shadows.

  The other girl slid toward Carth, holding her hand near the knife she carried. If she unsheathed it, Carth suspected the shadows would constrict even more.

  They had to wait.

  She didn’t know what they waited for.

  Not more of an attack. This would likely be all they experienced. The shadows were dense, but likely only to prevent them from escaping.

  The longer she stood, the easier it was for her to sense the depths of the shadows. As she did, she could feel the power swirling within it. This power had both a direction and a source.

  Taking a deep breath, she swept her hand around her, drawing the shadows toward her, and then up, lifting them from the street.

  There was resistance. With the shadows, she had rarely felt any such resistance. She either had the connection, or she did not. Bright sunlight could obscure them from her, as could someone like Ras, powerful with the S’al, the A’ras flame. This was something different—someone with the strength of the shadows, and given the way they were used, possibly shadow born.

  But Carth was stronger.

  She detected that as she pressed upon the tendrils of darkness, raising them from the street, tearing them free from where they attempted to hold both her and Dara.

  With one final surge of strength, Carth forced them completely away.

  The street was clear. There were only her and Dara, standing alone.

  Carth clasped her hands behind her back. Whoever attacked would come again. And she would wait.

  12

  Carth noted the way Dara shifted her stance from foot to foot, her gaze darting around the buildings, as if she could determine the source of the attack. There was no source identifiable, just as there was no attack right now. They had to wait.

  “Where are they?” Dara whispered.

  Carth motioned toward the building nearest them. She could detect the pull of the shadows strongest from there, but nothing else.

  “What are we doing?” Dara asked.

  “Waiting.” Was this why Ras had suggested she return to her homeland? Had he known she needed to find this?

  “For what?”

  The shadows built again, but this time it was a subtle sensation, barely more than a pulse against her senses. Carth pulled on the shadows, folding them around her, as she allowed the user of the shadows to realize that she was here.

  “For that.”

  The door to a building down the street opened and a dark-haired man with eyes that blazed a deep brown—nearly black—exited. Shadows swirled around his feet, tracing down his long leather overcoat, trailing along the street. Carth had never seen anyone like him.

  When she had studied with the A’ras, she’d considered Samis attractive. He had the traditional brown hair and muscular frame that so many within Nyaesh posses
sed, but it was his intelligence and compassion that had always drawn her to him, even when it should not have. This man made Samis look plain.

  Was it the shadows that pulled her toward him, or was it something else, a more primal connection, one forged by the shadows and her connection to the people of Ih-lash?

  Dara grabbed at her arm and held her in place.

  Carth took a deep breath, shaking away the fog that had fallen over her mind.

  How could some man have such an effect on her?

  “I know he’s pretty, but stay by me?” Dara suggested.

  Carth nodded, trying to keep her face neutral as the man approached.

  “You are shadow born,” he said. Even his voice had a deep timbre, one that matched his dress and the way the shadows swirled around him.

  “Who are you?”

  The man offered a half-smile. “You come into Isahl and question me?”

  “You attacked me. I think I have every right to question.”

  The man shook his head. “Not you.” He motioned to Dara. “We attacked her. We’ve been assaulted often enough by Lashasn to recognize them.”

  Carth kept Dara close. If they thought to attack her again, she might need to use her control of the shadows on him again. She’d discovered that she was stronger than him—at least she thought she was—so she hoped that if it came to that, she would be able to ensure Dara got to safety. She didn’t want it to come to an attack, though. She had come for answers.

  “Are you Reshian?” Carth asked.

  The man’s eyes narrowed. “What do you know of the Reshian?”

  Carth shrugged, hoping it appeared casual. She realized that she might have been too trusting coming into Isahl. She didn’t know anything about the city, and had come thinking that her ability with the shadows would have her welcomed, but she should have planned for the possibility that they would have been displeased with her coming.

  “I know of many things. I have seen the Reshian. I have known the A’ras. I know there is a peace accord now, one that should bring a lasting—”

  He turned away from her, the shadows swirling around him.

  Carth wasn’t accustomed to others turning their backs on her like this man. She had already proven what she was capable of doing, but it didn’t seem to matter to him.

  Carth stretched the shadows toward him, but he waved them off.

  The way that he did proved that he was stronger than he’d let on during the first attack.

  Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he was stronger than her. If that was the case, she needed to be more cautious.

  Carth followed him toward the building.

  Dara clung to her arm, squeezing tightly. If she could, Carth would have preferred to send Dara back to the ship to wait for her. She needed to know what was going on here, and why this man seemed annoyed by her referencing the accords.

  When they reached the door inside the building, she hesitated.

  The shadows were deeper here. As she reached for them, she had a sense that they wouldn’t respond as well to her as they did to the man. Did the shadows care who used them?

  More than information, she had another reason for wanting to follow him. If he was shadow born like her, what could she learn? She had none to teach her how to use that skill of hers, and had fumbled along, trying to do what she could with it, discovering the extent of her abilities as best as she could. But learning from someone else would be easier, and she might discover a way to use the shadows in ways she hadn’t considered. Maybe he would have answers about the blood magic, and why the shadows had failed her then.

  “Are you sure we should do this?” Dara asked.

  Carth wasn’t, but they weren’t going to get anywhere by remaining cautious. She wasn’t going to learn what she wanted being cautious. The man could use the shadows, and she hoped he could lead her to the Reshian—and her father.

  She stepped into the shadowed room.

  As she did, the darkness retreated. It was as if it needed to stay away from her.

  Not her, she realized. The darkness retreated from Dara.

  “I don’t think I’m supposed to be here,” Dara whispered.

  “Because you’re not supposed to be here.”

  The shadow-born man stepped toward her. His arms were crossed, and Carth noted a knife strapped to his belt, one that reminded her of the one she now possessed from her father. He didn’t unsheathe it. If he did, Carth would do what she had to in order to protect Dara.

  It wasn’t that she was completely dependent on her magic, either. She had trained with the A’ras, which made her skilled with both the sword and the knife. Those skills had saved her before, such as when she had faced the man on the ship while rescuing Dara and the others who had been captured with her.

  If it came to needing to attack, Carth would be ready.

  She watched the man, studying him as he approached. The shadows seemed possessive of him, swirling around him in such a way that Carth doubted she would be able to separate them from him were she to need to escape.

  “Why have you come here?” he asked.

  “This is Ih-lash. I didn’t realize that I needed to answer for why I would come.”

  He shot Carth a hard look, which she matched. “I didn’t speak to you. Her,” he said, jabbing his thumb toward Dara. “Why have you come? Your place is in the south. That was the agreement. Do you think to violate it again?”

  “That wasn’t the agreement.” Carth didn’t know everything about the differences between Ih and Lashasn, but she understood the accords.

  The man sneered at her, the expression soiling his otherwise lovely face. “You have come to Ih and you think you know all that we have been through?”

  “Ih? Not Ih-lash?”

  He waved his hand and the shadows started to thin. “Ih-lash is no more. Now we are only Ih.”

  “What of Lashasn?” Carth asked.

  “Those lands were destroyed by the invaders.”

  Carth glanced over to Dara, wishing that she had someone else with her who might know more than she did about what they were encountering. Everyone she’d spoken to had told her how Ih-lash was no more. They had said nothing about how it was now only Ih once more.

  “What attack?”

  “The one her kind instigated.”

  “Her kind. We were once a single people,” Carth said.

  The man turned his attention to her. In the darkness and shadows, Carth could still tell the way his eyes blazed, anger and a touch of hatred burning within them. “We? You are not of Ih.”

  “I was born of Ih-lash.” Carth made a point of pulling on the shadows, wanting to draw his attention. There was nothing else she could be other than of Ih-lash.

  The man stood, arms crossed, disinterested. “You might have been born in Ih-lash, and you might be shadow touched, but you are not of Ih-lash. If you were, you would never travel with one like her.”

  Carth wondered what had happened. The last she had heard, there had been peace in Ih-lash. The Reshian might have fought against the A’ras, but that was part of an older war, one that was separate from Ih-lash.

  And she had thought that the accords had brought peace. That they would have settled the ancient conflict. They had not.

  “It was a mistake coming here,” she said to Dara, turning her so they could leave.

  When she turned, she saw two others blocking her way. Both were younger, one a girl who couldn’t have been much older than Dara, and the other a young man with long hair hanging over his eyes. Though both watched her, creating a physical barricade that wasn’t the reason she paused. It was the way the shadows swirled around them, practically clinging to them the same as they did with the other man. There didn’t seem the same level of control as what she’d seen from the man, which made her suspect they were shadow blessed only.

  Carth wondered if she could manage something like what they did. When the other man had approached them in the street, the shadows had remained around him,
as if providing protection. When she’d first discovered her shadow ability, Jhon had taught her how to sink into the shadows, and how to use them to cloak herself. That was when he’d thought she was only shadow blessed. Having the shadows linger would give her an advantage, and would allow her to have them accessible at all times.

  She tried pulling on the shadows, using a subtle touch, but they didn’t move. The shadows didn’t respond to her, as if these shadow blessed had used them to cloak themselves, or had claimed the shadows in some way.

  She frowned.

  The two watching her blocked her from leaving, but Carth stepped forward. “Move,” she said.

  The woman looked past Carth to the other man.

  “If you don’t move, you’ll learn what I can do with the shadows,” she said.

  This time, Carth didn’t use the same subtle touch. She pulled, drawing with all the strength she possessed, tearing the shadows free from the other two. The shadows might be attuned to them, but she was shadow born.

  The woman gasped, but it was the younger of the two Carth focused her attention upon. As she watched, he faded.

  There was no other way to describe what he did.

  He was there, and then he was not.

  Carth pulled the shadows away, tearing them free from both the man and the woman, but she still saw no sign of him. Spinning, she noted the other man was gone as well.

  What had happened? How had they disappeared on her so quickly?

  “Where did they go?” Dara asked.

  Carth used the shadows, pulling on them as she tried to determine where the two men had gone, but detected nothing.

  The girl tried sinking into the shadows. Carth noted it as a shifting of them, as if she intended to sag into them, cloaking herself. She’d worked with the shadows enough that she recognized what the girl did, and resisted.

  Turning to her, Carth stared.

  “Where did they go?”

  The girl shook her head.

  “I won’t ask again. Where did they go?”

  “You won’t find them. Andin would have taken them both to safety.”

  “Andin is the shadow born?”