Shadow Born (The Shadow Accords Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  She spun free and lashed out with her other leg while coming around to land behind him. As she did, she kicked out again, this time catching him in the back. His head whipped forward and struck the wooden flooring with a sickening crack before ricocheting back. The man stopped moving.

  “Dara,” Carth shouted, watching the man for signs that he might be coming around. She didn’t think he would, not with the force of the kick she’d managed to catch him with, but she had learned not to put anything past a man like that. If she could reach the shadows, and if she could reach the A’ras magic, there was no reason that others couldn’t have similar abilities. And, in the case of Ras, they did. “I need you and the others to move. We have to get going now.”

  Dara started moving with more urgency, eyeing Carth with a different expression as she did. There was nothing to be done about that. Had she not attacked the man, they would have been trapped. She might not have needed to attack him quite as forcefully as she had, but she had to ensure that he wasn’t going to be a threat to them.

  In the hall outside the room, she held her breath, moving through the smoke and keeping her head low. As she did, she tried to use the A’ras magic to control the fire raging through the hull of the ship, all too aware of how hotly it burned, but there was nothing she could do to slow it. She could keep it from burning too close to her… at least, she hoped she could. And if she could control it a little, she hoped she could keep the girls behind her from getting caught in the smoke as well.

  When she reached the stairs, she paused long enough to make certain that Dara and the others followed. She saw them moving behind her, but cautiously, approaching her carefully. Carth waved for them to follow, and hurried up the stairs.

  Chaos greeted her on the deck.

  Flames crackled around the ship, engulfing it completely, running along the sides and up the mast. A nearby ship had been caught as well, sending it up in flames. The wind kicking up didn’t help, and the sputtering rain did nothing to slow the raging fire.

  This ship would be lost. Carth didn’t know if others would be as well. She feared she had used too much of the A’ras magic, pushed too hard. Voices on the other end of the ship called out and she could tell that others tried working together to put out the flames, but the fire was too ferocious.

  Carth cloaked herself in shadows, wrapping them around her and stepping to the side of the ship as Dara and the others appeared from below deck. They were tentative, but as soon as they realized they were out, they hurried for the port side, racing for the edge.

  Using the shadows to obscure her, she tracked them, not wanting to expose herself too much, but needing to know if they were able to get free.

  At the railing, Carth saw no way down.

  Men stood on the dock trying to quench the flames, a line sending buckets of water toward the ship.

  Carth thought about her options. The odds were good that the majority of the men on the dock were good men and wanted nothing to do with what had happened to these girls. She needed to ensure that they would do the right thing, and that they would continue to provide the distraction she needed. Too much time already had been spent on helping them escape. It had been necessary, but it distracted her from her real purpose in coming to this ship.

  Pitching her voice high and helpless, Carth called out. “Help! The fire… we’re trapped. Slavers!”

  She said the last with just enough force, enough inflection, that she hoped she drew the attention she wanted.

  Someone shouted below and one of the men she’d seen playing cards in the tavern the first night in port looked up. He didn’t see her, but he noted the other girls and his eyes widened.

  “Ladder! Get a ladder! There’s women up there!”

  Two men raced away, their buckets ignored. When they returned, they carried a tall ladder between them and settled it against the hull, hurrying up. They reached the women and were met with fear and uncertainty.

  The man tried shushing them, but the flames cast his face in a terrifying light.

  “Go with him,” Carth urged, still hiding beneath the shadows.

  Dara glanced over to her, almost as if she could see through the shadows, and said to the other girls, “Go. We have to get off the ship before it burns up!”

  The others started moving then, climbing down the ladder to the dock, where men helped them down and escorted them to shore. One after another the girls made it down, until they were all safe.

  Only then did Carth relax.

  The ship cracked, and flames pressed on her with enormous heat.

  Something thudded behind her and she barely had time to look up as a fist swung at her.

  Carth ducked, pulling on the shadows.

  The large man she’d kicked lumbered after her. She’d thought him down, but he attacked with more vigor than she would have thought possible given the circumstances. A massive gash crossed his forehead—likely from when she’d slammed his head forward—and both of his eyes had deep bruising already forming around them.

  He swung again, nearly catching her in the side of the head with his meaty fist.

  “You took my girls,” he said.

  That kind of comment did nothing but anger her. Heat from the A’ras magic flared within her. “They were never your girls.”

  He grunted as he swung again. “They were mine. And you took them. Think I need to get something for it.”

  “You got something.”

  “I got nothing. No ship. No girls to trade. Nothing.”

  “You got justice.” Carth jumped, using the power stored within the shadows as she did, and kicked him in the head. The man stumbled backward, and she landed in an awkward twist.

  Her back ached from how she landed.

  Something was wrong. Carth might not know what it was, but she could feel that there was something off.

  Rolling to her side, she attempted to stand, but her legs didn’t hold her the way that they should. Carth resisted the urge to scream and settled for clenching her jaw.

  She’d been too stupid. All she had to do was run. The shadows would have carried her off the ship; she wouldn’t have even needed to try and fight this man, but his comment, and the fact that he had attacked those girls and held them as he had, had pushed her into doing something she knew that she shouldn’t have.

  Now she couldn’t move.

  The man got up. His eyes blazed with hatred, reflecting the burning of his ship as he crawled toward her. Carth tried to roll again, but again she found that she couldn’t. Was it her back? She had landed awkwardly, so it was possible she’d broken it, but she didn’t think that likely. She could still feel her toes, and could still move her legs, but it hurt. Not paralyzed, though she hurt enough that she might as well have been.

  Carth reached for the connection to the shadows. She could try to use them, to push the man away, though she didn’t know if that would do anything.

  Pain screamed through her as she reached for the shadows.

  She grabbed for them, remembering a similar awful sensation when she’d faced Ras in the cell, but this was a more primal pain, one that she couldn’t ignore.

  Then she sank into the shadows, the darkness filling her mind, easing the pain back and away from the forefront of her mind. Using the cloak of shadows, she pushed away, trying to congeal it into something real, something she could use as a barrier to the man, but it didn’t work as well as she needed it to. She could feel him pressing up against the barrier she’d formed, and slowly but surely forcing himself through it.

  His face appeared through the fog of shadows. He’d found a knife somewhere. Flames from the fire that engulfed his ship reflected off the blade, gleaming with a violent beauty. Were it not so near to her death, she might appreciate the power she’d managed to create using the A’ras magic. The storm of power that she’d somehow summoned would leave more than only this ship leveled.

  Had it been worth it?

  The girls might be free, but if she perish
ed, there would be no one able to stop the Hjan. She had misplayed her hand and risked too much. She should have attempted a less aggressive approach, one that wouldn’t leave her in such desperation, but how else could she have played this? These were people, and she’d had to do what she had done in order to get them to safety. If nothing else, these girls would not be slaves. That meant something. It had to.

  The man lunged toward her.

  Carth attempted to reach for the A’ras magic, but pain made it difficult. The shadows didn’t respond as she needed either, not enough to keep the man from reaching her. She suspected he had some way of pushing back, though she didn’t know what that might be.

  Attempting to kick at him, she watched as the knife arced toward her. There was nothing she could do.

  His face contorted from an expression of celebration to one of pain.

  His hand trembled and the knife dropped from his grip. Blood bloomed from his chest as a blade poked through. He tried to say something, but no words came out. Blood bubbled on his lips.

  Dara stepped into view and looked at Carth. “Can you move?” she asked. Her voice only quavered a little, less than Carth would have expected when she’d first met the girl.

  “My legs don’t work quite right.”

  Dara ran her hands along each of Carth’s legs, squeezing with something that resembled familiarity before stepping back. “The right one is broken. It should heal in time, but you’ll need six or eight weeks in a splint. You might not walk right afterward.”

  Carth squeezed her eyes shut. Six or eight weeks. Too long for what needed to be done.

  But she would live.

  “Can you help me off the ship?” she asked.

  Dara glanced over her shoulder before turning her gaze back to Carth. “You saved us. You didn’t have to, but you saved us.”

  “I had to save you. I couldn’t let you stay on board the ship.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I set the fire.”

  Dara looked to the dead man, his blood now pooling around him. If she didn’t move, Carth would be covered in it soon. That sickened her more than the idea of his death. “Good. The bastard deserved worse.”

  “What of the others with him?”

  Dara nodded toward the port side of the ship. “The sailors will take care of them.”

  Carth smiled then. If nothing else, she had found some justice here. It was victory, though a small one.

  But the cost… if she thought about it in terms of playing Tsatsun, she didn’t have to think hard to know how much losing a piece like herself from the board would cost. And she might not be completely removed from the board, but without being able to do anything, she might as well have been, especially now that it would be almost two months before she recovered, if she ever fully did.

  The pain made her mind woozy. She felt tired and leaned back on her elbows, but she forced herself to stay awake. She needed to get off the ship, and then she needed to get to Guya. Only then could she relax.

  “Will you help?” she asked Dara.

  Dara took another glance toward the port side of the ship and then nodded.

  22

  Carth barely made it off the ship.

  Using the cover of smoke, Dara led her to the starboard side, where she stood propped against her. Carth pulled on strength borrowed from the shadows to help keep her upright, but she didn’t know how much longer she’d be able to hold on to it, or how much longer that strength would hold out.

  The small ship loomed in the night sky, impossibly far away. Somehow she had to reach the dock, and then she would have to reach the ship. At least the fire had served as intended, drawing practically everyone away and toward the flames to prevent them from spreading.

  “Where are we going?” Dara asked.

  Carth pointed to the small ship. “I need to get down there.”

  “To a ship? Storms are coming!”

  “And I intend to outrun them.”

  Dara stared at her as if she were mad, which Carth realized might be the case.

  “If we don’t, others will suffer. Those like yourself. Those who can’t do anything to protect themselves either.”

  “Your leg—”

  “I’ll figure out a different strategy later. First I need to get onto that damned ship.”

  Dara sighed and helped her to the railing. “I can get us down, but it’ll jostle you too much.”

  Carth didn’t like the idea of that. As much as she fought it, the pain was starting to return. She didn’t know how long she’d be able to hold out. The worse the pain became, the less connected she felt to the shadows. If she lost that connection… she didn’t want to think what would happen if she did.

  “The water,” Carth suggested.

  Dara shook her head. “You go in the water injured like that and you’ll drown!”

  “I can swim to the other ship.”

  “With a broken leg?”

  “Yes.” She hoped that was true. Even if it was not, she had a better chance in the water. At least there, she could pull herself along with her arms.

  “How do you intend to get down there? You can’t jump.”

  “The rope,” she said, motioning toward a coil of rope near the mast. It was a wonder that it hadn’t burned, but then the deck remained mostly flame-free. Smoke billowed around her and she felt heat rising from the belly of the ship, but there wasn’t anything more than that. Yet. Eventually the flames would reach the deck and then she’d be in trouble if she didn’t get down from here.

  Dara hesitated a moment but then hurried to the line and tied it to the railing before throwing it over.

  Carth grabbed onto it and squeezed. If she could slide down the line—even somewhat controlled—and reach the water… It didn’t appeal to her, but it was all she could think of that might work.

  “Help me over,” she told Dara.

  The other girl lifted Carth over the edge of the railing.

  Carth wasn’t a large or heavy person, but Dara still managed to flip her over without as much difficulty as Carth would have expected. When she dangled from the side of the ship, her injured leg slammed into the side of the ship and she bit back a scream.

  Then, slowly, she started lowering herself down the rope.

  As she did, she held on to the shadows, using them as much as she could to augment her strength. With this, it wasn’t so much about strength, but about forcing herself through the pain. When her arms started shaking, she was forced to reach for even more of a connection to the shadows and managed to stabilize herself. Even that wasn’t enough, and she started sliding toward the water, her grip failing her, the rope burning through her hands.

  She splashed down.

  Pain surged through her again, and she tried to calm her mind, but struggled to do so through the agony. Slowly she gained control. As she did, she swam with her arms, popping above the surface and taking a deep, gasping breath.

  She started toward the other ship when she heard a soft splash near her. Carth glanced over and realized that Dara had joined her.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “You helped us, now I’m going to help you.”

  “I can make it to the ship on my own. You need to get back to shore. The others need you.”

  “They don’t need me. They needed me more when they were trapped. Now that they’re free, they don’t need me. You, on the other hand, do need me.”

  Dara slipped her arms around Carth and started kicking. Combined with the way that Carth swam using her arms, they managed to move through the water with some speed and reached the small, narrow-bodied ship Carth intended for them to take.

  Now she only had to worry about whether Guya had done his part and secured the ship.

  “How do you intend to get up?” Dara asked her.

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” Carth said.

  “I thought you’d thought of everything.”

  Carth let out a frustrated breath. That had
been what she wanted to do, but she’d overlooked this detail, one that might end up costing her… and Dara.

  “Can you tread water?” Dara asked.

  “What do you think I’m doing?”

  Dara shrugged. “I wanted to make sure you’ll be okay while I get up onto your ship. I’ll throw down a rope.”

  Before Carth could object, Dara swam over to a ladder hanging from the dock that Carth hadn’t seen. She should have known there would be access to the docks from the water, but the better question was, how had Dara known?

  The girl scrambled up the ladder and then disappeared.

  Carth treaded water, her arms starting to get tired, forcing her to draw on more of the connection to the shadows. She wondered when that would fade. Would she be strong enough to reach the rope?

  A thin rope dropped into the water.

  Carth swam toward it and grabbed onto it. As she started making her way up the rope, pulling hand over hand, someone whispered into the darkness. “Hold on!”

  She squeezed tightly. Then she started getting pulled up, the rope dragging her up and then onto the ship, where she collapsed onto the deck in a heap of pain.

  Guya stood watching her, his gaze flicking to Dara every so often and then back to Carth. “Seems you picked up another.”

  Carth nodded. “Ready to sail?”

  “Some distraction.”

  “It worked.”

  “It worked,” Guya agreed. “I’ve already got us starting away. You well enough to lay here?”

  “I don’t think I can do anything else.”

  “You’re damn lucky I didn’t brain this one when she came sneaking aboard and grabbed that line. Thought I’d missed someone until she said she was helping some girl named Carth.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at her. “I’m guessing that’s you?”

  Carth sighed softly. “That’s me.”

  He shook his head. “You still think we should make this foolish run of yours?”

  “Those girls…”

  Carth made a point of avoiding Dara’s eyes. She didn’t want the girl to look at her, didn’t want her to see her as she pleaded with Guya to risk the sail toward the north.