Carth frowned. Maroon? That didn’t sound like the Lashasn—or the A’ras. The descriptions reminded her more of what she had seen in the tavern, and on the ship where they had found the lost girls of the village.
She turned to Lindy but didn’t get a chance to ask.
A pressure against her senses caught her attention.
It was a strange sensation, one that felt like she was being pushed, almost a physical touch, but nothing was near her. She took a deep breath that helped steady her connection to the different magics she possessed.
It took a moment, but she realized the source of the sensation. It was pressure against her connection to the shadows.
She frowned, staring into the darkness and into the sea. As she did, she pulled on the shadows, wrapping them around her, cloaking her.
Lindy looked at her strangely. “Carth?”
Carth shook her head. “Do you see anything?”
To her credit, Lindy didn’t question and simply stared into the darkness. She was shadow blessed and could use the shadows in ways that were similar to what Carth could do, but her talent was not quite as potent as either Carth’s or Andin’s.
She cloaked herself. Carth had rarely seen another use the shadows, and seeing Lindy fade in this way helped her know the other woman was using the shadows, and then she returned. “There is something there,” Lindy said, “but I don’t see what it is.”
Carth turned away from the railing.
“Where you going?” Lindy asked.
“I’ve seen something like this before,” Carth said. “The last time, many died. Guya and I both almost died. If this is the same, we need to be prepared.”
She raced towards the helm of the ship and found Guya holding on to the wheel lightly, speaking softly to one of the shadow blessed. As Carth approached, the young girl scurried away.
Since picking up the additional crew, his mood had lightened somewhat. It was almost as if having only Carth and Dara on the ship had strained him. Now there were others, and he had taken to working with those of the shadow blessed who were willing to work with him. Some, like Andin, had no interest. But others, like a boy named Tom or this girl, had shown a willingness to work with Guya, almost eagerness.
“The blood magic. I feel something like it again.”
Guya’s eyes widened and he grabbed for his spyglass before scanning the horizon. With the darkness, Carth doubted he would see much. She considered using the spyglass, but doubted it would work with her shadow magic.
“Are you certain?”
“I feel it.” The more she was aware of it, the more certain she became. This was the same sort of pressure she had felt when the ship had passed towards them the last time. Then, she had thought it had more to do with the fact that she had sunk so deeply into the shadows. Now she knew that wasn’t exactly the case.
“You said they were resistant to your shadow magic,” Guya said.
“The shadows didn’t work, but the flame did. Without that…”
Guya surveyed his ship. Carth could almost imagine him counting the number of shadow blessed now aboard the ship. How many lives were in danger because of this blood magic?
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
Carth shook her head. What was there to do? If they encountered the so-called blood priests while they were sailing, they would be forced to attack. That was no answer, not with everyone on board. If even a single one of them were placed in danger, it would be her fault.
Was there some way that they could turn away from this? Was there some way she could use the sensation she detected to avoid these blood priests?
She closed her eyes, wrapping herself thoroughly in the shadows. As she did, she felt something like a dark cloud emanating away from her. She used the sensation, using the power she detected, and pushed out. It oozed away from her, something like a fog. In her mind, she could see the shadows. It wasn’t real, but it gave her a sense of the sea, almost as if she could feel the waves as they washed beneath the shadows. Connected as she was this way, she felt the pressure. It came from the north and the west. The ship was moving fast, faster than the one they were on.
She opened her eyes. “Which direction are we headed?”
Guya nodded to the sky and pointed at a star. “That’s the prince star. He guides us at night. Always to the south this time of year. We sailed towards the prince star and can continue heading south.”
They needed speed. She could do it herself, but it might not be enough. They needed to get away from the blood priests. She feared what they might do to her were she captured, but she worried more about those she had rescued from Isahl. They were her responsibility now.
She hurried back to the railing and found Lindy. “Grab Andin. I need his help.”
Lindy nodded and hurried off, disappearing below the deck of the ship.
Carth made her way to the stern. Wind moved around her, catching her dark hair so that it slapped her face. The spray coming off the sea did not affect her quite as much here. She shivered, cold from the gusting wind and the moisture in her cloak.
Reaching for as much of the shadow as she now attempted was difficult, but she managed to grab onto them and pushed them behind her, using them to drive the ship forward. Now more than ever, she wanted to keep moving. Maybe reach the Reshian. They could help.
There was another option, but she doubted it was one the children of Isahl would agree to. They had barely agreed to come with her to find the Reshian. But if she could get them to Nyaesh, they would have others with them who could use the flame, and would be able to resist the blood priests.
Andin appeared. Outlined against the night sky, his muscular frame would’ve been attractive were it not for the dour expression he always carried and the anger she sensed within him.
“What did you want?”
Carth pointed behind her, motioning towards the north and where she sensed the pressure. “Use the shadows. Can you feel it?”
Lindy stood behind Andin, remaining near the mast. She did not come too close, but listened. Her face was a blank mask.
Andin approached carefully and stood at the railing without needing to hold on to it the way many of the other shadow blessed did. His eyes took on a faraway expression. Carth could feel him using the shadows, but couldn’t detect what he did. There was nothing like the cloaking, nothing like what she’d seen from Lindy, but she was able to detect them used. Strange that she could even feel what he did.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know who they are, but we call them the blood priests.” She continued to use the shadows and thrust behind her, driving the ship forward more quickly than it would move even with the powerful wind blowing them forward. “They use some sort of magic where they draw the blood of their victims across their skin. I fought several of them before reaching Isahl, but I don’t know any more about them than that.”
Andin glanced behind him to Lindy and they shared a look. Carth wondered what passed between them, and wondered what they might know about these blood priests.
“You know something.”
Andin shook his head. “We don’t know anything. We’ve seen those who can avoid our magic. We thought they were the descendants of Lashasn, but they use no flame. There is no heat. They come and they kill.”
“I don’t know what they are either, but they can avoid the shadows. They are able to overwhelm our magic. Between the two of us…”
Andin glanced once more to Lindy before returning his gaze back to Carth. “I will help.”
The two of them worked, both of them wrapped in shadows and driving darkness behind them. As they did, Carth felt a growing speed from the ship. The presence of strange blood priests behind them gradually eased off of her shadow awareness.
Hours seemed to pass, though she doubted it had been that long. She lost track of time as they worked throughout the night. The sense of the ship began to ease, slowly leaving them, and Carth began to back off her connectio
n to the shadows, exhaustion washing through her. Did Andin feel equally fatigued? If he did, he didn’t show it.
When they got far enough away, Andin relaxed and released his connection to the shadows. He went with Lindy, and both disappeared below the deck of the ship, saying nothing more to her.
Carth stared into the distance behind the ship and towards the north. A nagging worry troubled her. Who were these blood priests, and why did they now pursue them?
16
“They know something more than what they’ve told me, even if they don’t know what that is.”
Guya glanced at Carth, the sunlight reflecting in his eyes. He didn’t look nearly as tired as she felt this morning, even though she knew he’d stood at the helm most of the night, steering them to safety. He didn’t trust anyone else, and claimed not to need sleep. Carth wondered if the truth was that he could sleep standing up. She’d certainly seen him staring blankly a few times while traveling, making her suspect that was his secret.
After working throughout the night with Andin on driving the ship forward, she had sunk into her bunk, falling instantly asleep until being awoken by a particularly large wave that crashed into the ship, sending her rolling from her bunk and crashing to the floor. She rubbed the back of her neck, trying to work out the sore spot from falling, but it didn’t work.
“You know that you’re talking in circles? I thought I was the one who was tired.”
“Guya—”
“What do you think they know?”
Carth looked over at the shadow blessed now arranged around the railing. They’d played games throughout the morning, some she’d recognized, and now she noted how Lindy worked with them, teaching several of the younger ones how to use the shadows. She was surprised to learn that she knew many of the same tricks. They practiced cloaking and releasing the cloaking, one after another. The boy whose name she now knew to be Ragan worked with Lindy, and together the two of them demonstrated their abilities with shadows. Andin had climbed into the crow’s nest, hiding beneath the shadows of the highest sail, and she noted him watching both her and the students.
“They spoke of an attack on Ih-lash, one that sounds too much like what we saw with the blood priests.”
Guya shook his head. “I’ve never seen anything like those attacks before. There are stories of power, but none where people are slaughtered and their blood utilized to make their killers stronger. It would be a dangerous sort of magic, especially considering who else might want it.”
What would have happened if the Hjan had been able to use blood magic or the A’ras flame during the attack? They might have had the strength to withstand her attacks. The blood priests were able to withstand her shadow magic, and she had seen the Hjan withstand her shadows using something like a flash of light to burn them from her, but during the accords, they hadn’t been able to do so. She didn’t know if she had gotten stronger or they had lost the ability.
Then there was the fact that the Hjan had appeared in Lonsyn.
Why else would they have been there unless there was something for them to learn? Everything she had been taught about the Hjan told her that they sought power. What better source of power than those who could use the blood of their victims to gain increasing strength? She could imagine the Hjan using such power and gaining great strength, possibly enough to overwhelm both the remaining Reshian and the A’ras.
“I don’t think we can make it to the Reshian before they reach us,” she said, focusing her shadow connection behind the ship. She maintained a faint connection to the shadows even while sleeping. Doing so had allowed her to remain aware of the location of the ship that trailed them. It slowly closed on them, but they still had to reach the river and navigate down those waters before reaching Nyaesh. If the blood priests reached them prior to that…
“What choice do we have but to continue to sail?” Guya asked.
“We can fight, or we can run. Those are our options.”
Guya turned his attention to the shadow-blessed students working in the bow. “We can’t risk them,” he said softly. “They’ve suffered enough already. We need to be able to do something to protect them. Isn’t that why you brought them from Isahl?”
What she really needed was to find a connection to the Reshian. If she could find them, she would be able to provide protection. She might even be able to provide additional training. Andin seemed disinterested in working with the students. He was powerful, and had helped them escape the night before, but he was reserved, and that reservation was dangerous.
Of course, Carth needed to spend more time working with the students as well—almost as much for herself as for them. There was much she might be able to learn from those who trained with shadow blessed. They knew of the games her parents had taught her, games that were the key to understanding the secrets of the shadow blessed.
“How far are we from Nyaesh?”
Guya arched a brow. “Is that your plan now?”
“Only if nothing else works.”
“A dangerous gambit. You know what happened to them. They already think Lashasn attacked.”
“What choice do we have?”
Guya breathed out heavily. “I don’t know.”
Guya reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded and faded map. Carth had seen it from a distance a few times during her travels, but Guya usually watched over it protectively. On the map were the positions of different islands, with the large mass of land in the center representing the northern continent. Nyaesh, accessed only by the Malenth River, sat near the center. To the far north, near a bay labeled in old Ih, she saw Isahl represented. A large island sat at the northern section of the bay, representing the original Lashasn.
Guya’s smoothed the map on a flat section of the rail near the helm. He pointed at it with a thick finger, which he traced along the coast, running from Isahl down towards the mouth of the river.
“We’re here,” he said, pointing towards a section of the map that was still farther north than she’d thought they had sailed. His finger traced along the map into the river. “This section is a little more treacherous. We have to move around rocks and reefs. I’ve sailed them a few times… but these seas can be dangerous. They call them the Lost Seas.”
“Lost?”
“Ships. Hundreds of ships crash around here.”
Carth studied the map. Guya was a skilled captain and seemed to know his limitations, but she didn’t want to risk sinking by rushing.
“Once we reach the mouth of the river, it would probably only be a few days depending on the winds,” he went on. “The return trip would be faster, but of course then we have the current with us.”
Carth stared at the map. It’d been years since she’d seen a map quite this detailed. Her father had once possessed one, and he had sat looking down at the map at night. She remembered her mother working in the kitchen, quietly cooking or mixing combination of herbs and leaves and oils, making her various concoctions that she used for healing or to sell. She had never understood why her father stared at the map the way he did, but she’d thought he was planning their next move in a game she hadn’t understood. Even while in Nyaesh, he had still looked at the map each night.
Carth closed her eyes, reaching through the shadows and feeling the connection to them. It was more difficult in the sunlight, but with this connection, she could reach far from herself. She delved beneath the sea, pulling shadows from the depths that she could use to stretch all the way towards the blood priests’ ship. It moved quickly against the waves, pounding through them, almost as if driven by the power of the sun.
They didn’t use the A’ras flame, and they were not Lashasn. Still… they were powerful. They were dangerous. And she agreed with Guya that she needed to keep the children of Ih-lash alive. They might be the last children of Ih.
“Would there be any way to lose them in the Lost Sea?”
Guya stared at the map, his eyes intent. He circled a section of the sea with his fi
nger. “We won’t find the Reshian that way.”
“Not at first,” she said.
Guya nodded. “This part… this section of the sea is more dangerous than any other. Some of the older sailors call this the Elders Jaw.”
“Why is that?”
“This is the part of the sea where most of the ships have been lost. Countless lives as well. Countless more have been damaged, taking on water only to come limping into shore and require extensive repairs. My own ship took a gash in the bow the last time we came through here—part of the reason I had refused to sail here in the past.”
A plan started forming in Carth’s mind. Could they lose blood priests in the Elders Jaw part of the sea? If they could, what did that buy them?
Not answers. And answers were something she wanted.
A part of her wished she hadn’t been so aggressive with them when they had attacked the ship the last time. Had she only been willing to keep the captive, she might’ve been able to get answers. Of course, then she hadn’t known that there might be a connection to Ih-lash.
The only other option was for her to somehow reach the other ship and see what she could do.
Did it have to be only her?
What if she had someone else to help?
She glanced down at the shadow blessed working on the bow. They all seemed so… innocent. They worked on cloaking and sinking into the shadows but didn’t have the experience of facing someone willing to murder them. They had suffered enough in Isahl, and she didn’t want to be responsible for bringing them back into that horror.
No. She couldn’t use them to help.
Her gaze turned to the crow’s nest, and she thought about Andin. As another of the shadow born, he would be an option as well, but she doubted he would be interested in working with her. Besides that, if they were to get ahold of him and his ability, Ih-lash would lose another shadow born. More than that, she didn’t know if the blood magic gained anything from the powers of those they took it from. What if they could use the blood of the shadow born’s to gain increased strength?
Shadow Lost (The Shadow Accords Book 4) Page 12