Shadow Born (The Shadow Accords Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  24

  They didn’t outrun the storms in a couple of days.

  Carth had taken to sitting with Guya, taking turns watching the darkness. Her overall conditioning gradually returned, almost as if whatever strange healing had fixed her leg drew from the magic that she could access, keeping her from recovering as quickly as she thought she should. The pain faded, first to a throbbing, then to a stiffness that she could walk off, and finally to nothing more than a twinge she noted when she turned wrong. Eventually, she suspected, even that would disappear.

  The winds buffeted her out in the open. How had Guya managed for as long as he had? The captain stood staunchly before the storms, facing the wind and the rain as they sailed, and barely moved while she watched. Carth had thought herself strong, had thought she had stamina, but watching Guya, she decided she wasn’t nearly as strong as she had thought.

  “Do you see anything?” Guya asked the same question every half hour or so, knowing now that with Carth’s connection to the shadows, she would be able to see more than him. She no longer hid anything about her abilities from him.

  “Nothing out there.”

  Guya nodded. “Get some rest, then. I’ll need you to relieve me in a bit.”

  Carth had taken turns with him, glad that he accepted it. She hadn’t been sure he would, but after the week he’d spent as the only one steering the ship, he had slept for nearly four hours straight when she’d taken the helm. When he awoke, he’d seemed more refreshed than her.

  Below deck, and away from the wind, she debated going to the bunk and sleeping, but decided to find Dara. The girl still hadn’t spoken to her much since Carth had revealed what she knew, preferring to remain hidden. Guya had advised Carth to give her space.

  “We’re on a ship. There’s no place for that girl to go, so if she needs time, then you need to give it to her,” he’d said.

  Carth had agreed, but reluctantly. Before reaching the north—if they reached the north—she needed to learn more about what Dara might know about the ability the Hjan sought.

  Now would be the time.

  She paused at the door leading to the storeroom Dara now called her quarters. Carth knocked softly, and then with increasing intensity when there came no answer.

  Forcing open the door would do nothing but set Dara against her, so she had to let the girl come to her on her own terms, but when would that be? If she waited too long, they would reach their destination first.

  Carth tried again.

  This time, Dara pulled the door open.

  As she stood in the darkness, Carth noted a hint of a glow to her skin again. “I have questions for you.”

  Dara nodded.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Do I have any choice?”

  There was a hint of fear in her voice, an edge that Carth didn’t feel was warranted. “You have a choice.”

  “You’re of Ih-lash. You said so yourself.”

  “I don’t understand why that matters.”

  “It matters.”

  “Help me understand why.”

  Dara turned her back to her. The dress was cleaner now than it had been even a few days before. Had she taken the time to wash it, or was there something about the magic she used that cleaned the dress?

  Carth moved so that she stood in front of Dara. “I helped you. Whatever you think I am, remember that.”

  “I remember.”

  “Then help me so I can understand what the problem is.”

  “There’s no problem.”

  Carth shook her head. “Were that true, you wouldn’t have hidden in your room for the last few days.”

  Dara opened her mouth before clamping it shut again, then gripped the sides of her dress and pulled it up a bit before taking a deep breath. “You mentioned the name Ras.”

  “I did.”

  “That’s where I was trying to go when I was captured.”

  “You were trying to get to him?”

  She nodded.

  “I don’t understand.”

  Dara faced her. Tears streamed down her eyes and she wiped them away. “I’m descended from Lashasn bloodlines.”

  Carth stared at her, not completely understanding. “So you’re also from Ih-lash?”

  She shook her head. “Lashasn, not Ih. They were separate once.”

  “So I’ve heard.”

  What had Jhon told her about Ih-lash when he’d shared with her the history of her homeland? Only that Carthenne from history had helped settle an ancient feud, but no more than that.

  “With the shadows you control, you would be descended from Ih.”

  Carth almost laughed, but she saw how serious Dara was as she watched her. “I haven’t known a home since I was born,” Carth said. “Ever since I could remember, my family moved me from city to city, never staying for long enough for anyplace to feel like home. When we reached Nyaesh, they were taken from me.” Carth felt a moment of pride at the way she managed to keep her voice steady. “Nyaesh became a home, but one I didn’t really want, not without my parents.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “So that you understand where I come from.” Carth took a breath. “I lived on the streets for a while, stealing because I thought I should and because it fit with games my father used to play with me. I wanted vengeance for what happened to my parents, but never expected I’d ever get it. For so long, I thought the A’ras responsible for what happened to my family, but they weren’t. As I discovered the truth, I also discovered a connection to something else.”

  “The shadows?”

  Carth nodded. “The shadows. A man I met promised that I could learn to use them, but he also thought I could learn something else. He sent me to learn from the A’ras. When the Hjan attacked the city again, I was able to stop them. I left, thinking that doing so would keep them safe.”

  “Then why do you return?”

  “Because Ras helped me to see that they would never be safe in my absence. The Hjan want power, but not like the kind it takes to rule. They want magical power. I’ve seen how they use it, and the destruction they wield with it. I will do what it takes to stop them.”

  Carth fixed Dara with a steely-eyed expression. “I have no bond to Ih-lash. None to Ih or to Lashasn, nothing other than knowing that I might have been born there, and no knowledge about why I should not get along with you.”

  Dara blinked. “You really don’t know.”

  “I don’t.”

  “But you faced Ras. You would have killed him.”

  Carth fought the urge to laugh. “I fought him and lost. I doubt I could kill him.”

  “How are you here, then?”

  “He released me.”

  “Released?”

  “I played a game with him and won.”

  At least, she thought she’d won. A part of her wondered if Ras had only let her win. Though she didn’t think so, a true master of Tsatsun would have managed to convince her that she had won. That idea had as much merit as the possibility that she’d actually defeated him, and in some ways it amused her.

  “A… game?”

  Carth nodded. “It’s called Tsatsun. A large board with dozens of pieces. You play it by—”

  “I know how to play Tsatsun,” Dara said. “It’s taught to all children of Lashasn.”

  “But Lashasn is gone. It was Ih-lash, and perhaps now it is nothing if what I’ve heard is true.”

  “That may be, but there are those descended from ancient Lashasn. We are spread, dispersed to keep us safe, those with the ability to use the power of S’al.”

  “That would be the light magic?” Carth asked.

  Dara nodded slowly. “Tsatsun is a game taught to all of us to train our mind to use the S’al. If you have learned…”

  Carth shook her head. “I can’t use your magic. I think if I tried, I wouldn’t be able to use the shadows either.” Carth started pacing around the small room, her mind racing. “Where were you when you started for
Ras?”

  Dara sobbed. “My family lives on a small island off the coast of Ganduhl. We rarely get merchant ships—only a few times a year. When the ship neared, and the small boat rowed toward the shore…” She sobbed again and wiped her tears on her dress. “We thought merchants had come to trade. Only too late did we realize they did not.”

  “If you can use the power of the S’al, how did they capture you?”

  She met Carth’s eyes with a flash of anger. “They used the shadows, Carth of Ih-lash.”

  Using her name like that sounded like more of an insult.

  Carth decided to let it pass. Dara needed to know that Carth wasn’t like the people who had come to her home and abducted her. But she didn’t think the Reshian were those people either, and who else could use the shadows?

  “The Reshian wouldn’t have done that,” she said, but as she did, she wondered if that was true. What did she really know about the Reshian? Tessa and Adam didn’t seem like they would have attacked like that, and certainly not to help the Hjan, which—if she was heading to the same place where the other girls had been brought—was what Dara’s abductors had intended. Had Carth reached the Reshian, she might know the answers, but now… now she didn’t.

  “I don’t know about the Reshian, but my parents have warned us against the shadows. They warned us about those who control them, telling us that we’re safer in the light. They taught us to embrace the power of the S’al if we could reach it. Only a few ever can. My sister…” She swallowed, shaking her head as she did.

  “What happened to your sister?”

  Dara held her head high and jutted out her chin. “I don’t know. When we were taken, they split us up. I thought she was still on the ship with us, but I never saw her.”

  Carth ignored her suspicion about what might have happened with Dara’s sister, thinking it too unlikely. “Can others be taught to reach the S’al?” she asked.

  “It is something born to a person, and one has to master their mind if they are to reach it. No, Carth of Ih-lash, it is not possible for someone else to reach the S’al.”

  There had to be a reason the Hjan wanted the girls brought to the north. Either they intended to use the girls’ power, or they intended to use the girls themselves. Either way, the Hjan would pit the girls against the Reshian.

  And… maybe they didn’t have to do anything more than that.

  Carth looked at Dara with a new understanding. She had detested Carth as soon as she had learned of her heritage. Wouldn’t others feel the same? Wouldn’t they fight the threat of the Reshian, and against their abilities with the shadow, without needing any sort of motivation—especially if they believed the Reshian abducted them?

  If that worked, the Hjan could sit back and wait for the Lashasn and the Reshian to face each other, either destroying each other, or weakening enough that they were no longer a threat.

  It was the kind of thing they had attempted with the A’ras, only this time, they would prey upon old prejudices, and there might actually be enough power to succeed.

  Carth didn’t need to see a game board to know that it would work.

  How could she counter it?

  More than that, how could she ensure that the Hjan no longer threatened those in the north? That was the reason she had been willing to return, the reason she had to return.

  “What is it?” Dara asked. “Why do you look at me like that?”

  “There’s more taking place than I knew before,” she answered.

  And more than that, she had to wonder about Ras’s involvement.

  Carth placed herself in his position, thinking about what he might have planned. She knew he could react in ways that she wouldn’t predict, and she had thought that she had played him, but if she hadn’t, and if he used her in some way, as if she were a piece in some massive game board, she had to think about what objective he might have.

  What did she know of Ras?

  He used the power of the S’al. She had seen that herself and had experienced the easy way that he slowed her. There was whatever power of the cold that he controlled, a magic that took away her edge with the A’ras flame. She didn’t know if he had other abilities as well; he hadn’t needed them against her, and knowing Ras, he wouldn’t have revealed them unless necessary.

  Carth had to assume that he could do more than she realized.

  If he sided with those of Lashasn, then she would have to worry about what he planned with the Reshian, but he had seemed sincere in his reaction to her mention of the Hjan. She believed the anger and disgust he had displayed when discussing them.

  That made it more likely he wasn’t faking that. Unless he wanted her to believe it.

  Her head spun, and she began to force it to slow, to work through the possibilities and see the board from all angles, including those of the Hjan and Ras. She thought about what victory meant for her, what it would take for her to feel as if she had succeeded, as if the Stone had moved to the other side of the board, securing her position. As she did, a pattern began to emerge.

  Carth couldn’t be certain that it was right, but it was all she had to go on.

  What she planned might work, but it would require them to reach the north before much longer. And it might require a little bit of luck.

  The muffled sound of boots on the deck came to her as Guya stomped across the ship, starting down the stairs. Carth stepped out of the room and looked down the hall, meeting his eyes.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Land. We’re nearing land.”

  25

  The storm settled somewhat as they neared the darkened shape of land. Carth thought it fitting that she would return in the night. She had left the north in the night, sailing south without her involvement in any planning, and had returned with an audacious idea, one that she still wasn’t sure would work.

  A distant spark of light on the starboard side caught her attention. Carth used the shadows and parted the darkness enough to see, revealing a small lighthouse that flickered with a glowing yellow light.

  “Do you know where we are?” Carth asked Guya.

  “Aye. We’re closer than I expected to Wesjan. The storm blew us south, but not so much that I can’t find my way back north. See that there?” he said, motioning to a distant darkened piece of land. “That would be Yelsh. The lighthouse over there is Polaun. Straight north would be the tip of Gibrand. And from there—”

  “I get it,” Carth said. “You’ve proven you know where we are.”

  Guya nodded. “Now to get me my ship.”

  “You don’t like this one?”

  Guya’s face clouded slightly. “This is a fine enough vessel. She survived the storm as best as she could, and she moved fast enough, but she’s not mine.”

  “She’s no one else’s anymore either.”

  Guya laughed. “True enough. Maybe I’ll claim both. Two ships mean I have a navy now. Maybe you’ll have to call me Admiral Guya now.”

  Carth smiled as she took a position in the bow, watching the waves parting below the ship. They sailed quickly, and she wondered how long before they reached port.

  Dara stood next to her, remaining silent. She hadn’t said much since coming topside with Carth, and Carth hadn’t revealed much of her plan to the other girl, not certain if it would work. Maybe it wouldn’t, but she had to try.

  “What do you intend to do?” Dara asked as she stood by the railing at the bow.

  Carth watched as land came steadily closer. The winds shifted, as did the shadows, as they neared. She considered reaching for the shadows, and holding on to that connection, but wondered if the Reshian would notice if she did. With what she had in mind, she didn’t want the Reshian to know that she came.

  “I intend to play the game,” she answered, looking over at Dara.

  “This isn’t a game,” Dara said.

  “Isn’t it? It seems that the more I think about it, the more like playing Tsatsun with Ras it is. Each move is made seekin
g a strategic advantage, and the others counter, trying to find their advantage.”

  “You can’t believe that this is like Tsatsun, Carth. These are people. My people. Yours.”

  Carth turned her focus back to the water and the looming shoreline. “I have no people.”

  “If it’s like a game, what’s the Stone piece? How will you know you’ve won?”

  Carth had considered the answer as she’d pondered how to maneuver. When she’d first started working through the problem, she had wondered if maybe power itself wasn’t the endgame. Without question, the Hjan wanted power. She didn’t know if Lashasn and the Reshian did as well, but if they still warred, even after supposedly centuries of peace, then it was possible they did. Yet… that didn’t feel right to her. Lashasn had a sort of power, and could use the power of the S’al, which made them more of a piece on the board than an endgame. The same could be said about the Reshian with the shadows. They had power already, and from what she’d seen of how the Hjan attacked, wanted only to keep safe.

  The north itself was another option. She could imagine the different factions arrayed around the north, each vying to push their side, gain the advantage, but that didn’t feel right either. In her mind, the north was more like the game board, and she had only recently learned how to play.

  She’d considered several other options, but none felt quite right.

  That left her with only one, but one that didn’t make as much sense, only… it had to be.

  “I will be the Stone piece,” Carth said. “But I will see to it that none will play me.”

  They reached the shore as dawn started breaking. Light reflected off the now-calm water, and there was a certain stillness in the air, one that left Carth with a sense of coming power. The storms were not over. They had only managed to outrun them.

  After anchoring deeper in the bay, Guya rowed them in to shore. A row of bustling docks already carried the activity of the day, that of fishermen hurrying to get out on the water, some already coming in, carrying the catch in their smaller boats and throwing it to dockhands, or well-dressed merchants making their way to and from the docks, typically with their heads held high and a train of others following them. Carth saw no sign of Talun, and nothing that would indicate this was a place of the Hjan.