Shadow Trapped

by D. K. Holmberg

  Ras maintain a serene expression, but she saw the way his eyes flickered from piece to piece and could tell that perhaps he wasn’t as serene as he seemed. If she accounted for four players, that meant that one would be Linsay, one would be Carth, and one would be Ras. Who was the fourth, if not the Ai’thol?

  “You have thought the Hjan your only threat, Carthenne Rel. It was necessary to reveal a greater threat.”

  “What was necessary? Deception?”

  “It is a game, Carthenne.”

  “They are my friends. People I care about. Lives were lost.”

  “Pieces are lost in the game.”

  Her heart seemed to stop. Was this how her friends felt when she talked about Tsatsun? “What would you say if I told you the Ai’thol were sailing off the coast of Odian?”

  “I would say that you have made a grave mistake in your play.”

  “Have I?” She leaned forward, fixing Ras with a hard expression. “Or have you?”

  He met her eyes, his expression unreadable, and took a sip of his tea. When he was finished, he set the cup down on the tray and shifted a piece on the Tsatsun board. “It seems that we are much closer to reaching the Stone than before.”

  “What can you tell me about the Ai’thol?”

  “I can tell you what you have probably already heard.”

  “You would agree with the assessment of them that they had in Keyall?”

  “What assessment have you heard?”

  “A story. It probably means nothing, much like this game means nothing.” She smiled, and she took another drink of her tea before setting it down next to Ras’s. “Though in Keyall, they believe that the Ai’thol are the reason that the Elder Stone was placed there, as a way to give them protection.”

  “Is that what you believe?”

  “I don’t know what to believe. What I know is that there is a power in Keyall, much like there is a power here. I suspect there is a similar power in other places, such as in ancient Ih. Possibly even in Elaeavn.”

  “Do you fear the Hjan?”

  The question took her aback. “You have been a part of my experience with them.”

  “Do you fear the Hjan?” Ras asked again.

  “I don’t know that I would say that I fear them. I respect Danis, and the way that he has managed to maneuver his pieces, and the game that he appears to be playing. Beyond that, should I fear them?”

  “You have managed to neutralize them as a threat. At least for now. There aren’t many who can make the same claim. So if anyone should understand them, it would be you.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “My point is quite simple, Carthenne Rel. It’s that you have faced a great threat, and you have managed to create accords so that they are no longer the threat that they were.”

  “What does this have to do with the Ai’thol?”

  “You do not fear the Hjan, not as so many others who face them do. In that, I think you have shown great courage and strength. Yet, you do not fear the Ai’thol, when a great many others do. In that, I think you are making a mistake.”

  “Are you saying that the story the people in Keyall believe about Ai’thol is accurate?”

  “I’m saying that the board has changed. Soon, the Stone will be moved.”

  Ras touched the Stone on the top of the piece and stared at it.

  “Are you ready, Carthenne Rel?” Ras asked.

  “For what?”

  “For the real game.”

  27

  Carth found the ship barely two hundred yards off the shore. The sky over the water was overcast, much different than it was where she had found Ras. The air smelled of rain, and smears of darkness created shadows all around her. Despite that, Carth still found reaching for the shadows to be difficult.

  She needed to reach the ship, which meant that she needed to jump, but she wasn’t sure that she had enough potential from here. Could she jump and reach it? She would have enough connection to the S’al, but would she have it to the shadows in order to mix them together for her to make the jump? And if she miscalculated, she would overshoot. There was danger in that here, and she feared making a mistake, especially now that Ras had made her nervous about the Ai’thol.

  He had left her in the game room and not returned. Carth recognized that as his dismissal and took no affront at it. She had stared at the board, trying to take into account the different pieces. She still didn’t know which player was represented by the fourth set of pieces. The longer she stared, the easier it was for her to identify the pieces that represented her. She was the one with only a few pieces remaining—or the one with only a few pieces to begin with. It was a position of weakness, and it put her at a disadvantage to start with, but it also meant that she was overlooked. Powerful pieces would attack other powerful pieces.

  She had to determine which ones were the strongest positions. Which pieces did Ras intend to represent by the other positions?

  Carth jumped, surging shadows and flame together, and exploded away from the shore. She went too far and too fast and tried to redirect herself as she traveled. Had she not had some experience soaring in this way, she might not have been able to do it, but all the times she had used this technique to reach the other ships had given her a finer control of flying.

  When she landed on the deck of the ship, she rolled to a stop.

  Alayna looked over at her. “I’m glad you’re back. We have started to see a lot more activity.”

  She motioned out in the distance. Carth noticed several dozen ships arranged out there. All had the wide bodies and the massive sails that she associated with the Ai’thol. There would be too many for them to face, and probably too many for them to outrun.

  “Have they come any closer?”

  “No. It’s almost as if they’re waiting. They’re holding a position.” Alayna glanced over before returning her attention to the water. “You learned something. I can See it.”

  “I learned that Ras fears the Ai’thol.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m not entirely sure. But he tells me that I should fear them as well.”

  “Do you?”

  “I don’t understand them enough to fear them.”

  That was what troubled her. Ras had never been irrational. He had avoided fighting the Hjan, but that was more out of a desire to stay neutral than out of fear on his part. This was something else, and it seemed as if he was actually afraid of the Ai’thol. Why? What was it about them that troubled him so much?

  Light began to bloom behind her.

  She turned and stared out at the island. The entire island glowed with bright light, surging with the power of the S’al. Why would Ras suddenly press out with his magic in such a fashion?

  “Carth?” Jenna asked.

  Carth stared at the island, trying to figure out what it was that Ras was doing. She could feel the pressure from his magic against her, the way that it burned as it pushed out. It was a constant sense, then there was more power in it than what she had realized that Ras was capable of generating.

  “What is this?” Alayna asked.

  “I don’t know. He’s doing something.”

  “I can tell that he’s doing something,” Alayna said with a nervous laugh, “but what is it?”

  Carth felt the ongoing pressure away from the island and realized what it was.

  “He’s preventing the Ai’thol from reaching Odian.”

  “He can do that?” Jenna asked. “Can you do that?”

  “I don’t think I have the same connection to my ability as Ras.”

  “I thought you were the one who was the most powerful with this.” Jenna looked at her, and she had concern etched on her face. “We need for you to be the one to protect us,” she said.

  “I have talent with the shadows, but my connection to the S’al isn’t quite the same.”

  And it wasn’t that her connection to the S’al was weak. She had a strong connection to it, but apparently, she didn’t
have nearly the same connection that Ras did.

  Then again, she had known that her connection to the S’al wasn’t what Ras had. She could use it, but she couldn’t use it with the same control as he managed. If she could, it would be possible for her to prevent others from reaching their connection to magic.

  Could Ras use his connection to the S’al to overwhelm all types of magic?

  If he could, that was a skill that she would find valuable to learn.

  Yet, she could feel what he was doing. And now that she could, could she replicate it?

  Carth focused on the connection to the flame, focusing on what Ras did, and the way that he used his power. There was significant strength to it, and there was something else buried within the use of magic. Ras wanted her to detect how he used it.

  Carth chuckled.

  “I’m not sure this is anything that we would want to laugh about,” Alayna said.

  “But it is. Ras intends for me to detect what he’s doing.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I think it’s part of his lesson.” She glanced back to Odian. “He said that everything has been part of my training, his way of teaching me a game, but I hadn’t understood what he was referring to.”

  “And you do now?” Alayna asked.

  “I don’t know that I do, but this appears to be another lesson.” Had Ras never ceased serving as her mentor? Could it be that he had always been trying to train her? She could imagine that he used various ways to try to influence her, and she could even believe that he had used Linsay, thinking that by pulling her into the game, it would force Carth to consider more complicated solutions.

  And wasn’t that helpful? She had been focused on playing one versus one, but that wasn’t the real game. She had coordinated the allies that she had formed against the Hjan, essentially forming two sides. It was a different game altogether when there were multiple sides.

  And before she had encountered Linsay, had she been playing multiple sides? Was she playing them even now?

  It seemed as if this was the lesson that Ras wanted her to learn, but it was one that Carth wasn’t sure she was quite prepared for.

  Carth pulled on her connection to the S’al, generating the same sort of energy as what she detected Ras creating, and began pushing out with it. It required her to abandon her connection to the shadows, and she pushed them to the back of her mind, practically extinguishing them.

  “You’re glowing,” Alayna whispered.

  “Good,” Carth said.

  She could feel her pressure as it radiated away from her, flowing across the water, where it reached the ships. It was a barrier, and she pushed on them.

  Carth smiled. It was working.

  “We need to go farther out into the water,” Carth said.

  “Why?” Alayna asked.

  “Because I am not strong enough to do this from here. I think we need to be farther so that I can access the connection to the shadows more easily.”

  Alayna nodded. She started changing tack, and they headed out toward the sea, away from Odian. Alayna took a zigzagging course, avoiding obstacles that Carth could not see or otherwise detect but Alayna was somehow aware of. Her connection to what she Saw was impressive, and she kept them safe as they steered out deeper into the water.

  “What happens when our other ships come?” Jenna asked.

  Carth almost forgotten about the fact that she had sent word to Asador, advising them to send ships. From Asador, it wouldn’t be a long journey to Odian. They would have reached them long before Carth would have had a chance to warn them off.

  She stared out over the water, beginning to fear that people she cared about might be out there, and that she would be responsible. It was one thing having Linsay and Talia on board a ship, risking their lives, and another sending her paltry fleet of ships against something as potentially dangerous as the Ai’thol.

  Then there were the priests of Keyall. Would they have come after her? They knew that she had Linsay, and they also knew about the Ai’thol. She had thought to use them to help maneuver pieces into place, but perhaps that had been a mistake. If the priests were going to be in danger because of what she had done, Carth would need to somehow isolate the ships of Ai’thol from the others.

  Could she?

  Ras had demonstrated how to create a barrier and prevent ships from getting too close to the shore, but that wasn’t what she needed.

  She needed the shadows.

  “We need to get close,” Carth said to Alayna.

  “Are you sure that is the wisest choice?” Allay asked.

  “If we don’t, then our friends from Asador and possibly the priests of Keyall will be caught here. We’ll be looking at a full-scale war.”

  “It won’t only be those two,” Rebecca said, looking over at Carth. She had been silently watching Carth as she made her plans. “Our people have trailed us the entire time we’ve sailed.”

  Carth groaned. That would make four players. It fit with Ras’s board, though one of them would have to have been Ras, wouldn’t it?

  Unless she’d interpreted the board incorrectly.

  She wasn’t sure. And she knew that Ras wouldn’t share the answer with her, but maybe he didn’t need to. Maybe what she needed was to know that there was something for her to do. There was a way that she could stop the Ai’thol.

  First, she had to reach them.

  “We might not succeed,” Carth said, glancing from Jenna to Alayna. “You don’t have to do this.”

  “We’re not going to be scared away from a little fight,” Jenna said.

  “I doubt you’ll even allow us the chance to fight,” Alayna said. “But even if it comes down to it, we’re here with you, Carth. We have always been with you.”

  Carth looked over to Rebecca. “What of you and the others?”

  “We’re happy to do whatever it takes to help the Cason.”

  “Even if that involves you watching?”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “We have to appear intimidating,” Carth said.

  “How do you propose we do that?”

  “Weapons. Lots and lots of weapons.”

  “There are dozens of ships out there,” Rebecca said. “You don’t think that we can actually take them on, even with the enhancements that she’s provided, do you?”

  “If everything goes well, you won’t be leaving this ship.”

  Rebecca considered her for a moment, and then she turned away and hurried below deck, presumably to speak to the others.

  Carth took a deep breath, pulling on her connection to the shadows. She had to isolate the ships. In order to do that, it would take a greater connection to the shadows than she had attempted in quite some time. It might require the greatest connection to the shadows that she had ever attempted.

  And that wouldn’t be the end of it. Once she connected to the shadows, somehow she had to find the ship that Linsay and Talia were on, and then she had to get to them. It all seemed far too difficult, but what choice did she have?

  She couldn’t abandon her friends. She couldn’t abandon people who were here. And she couldn’t risk having exposed knowledge to those who shouldn’t have it.

  That more than anything else motivated her.

  As they neared the ships, Carth drew upon her connection to the shadows. She pulled from the clouds overhead, thankful for the fortuitous storm. Or not fortuitous. She glanced back at Odian, noticing the way that it glowed. Could it be that as Ras pulled power, he darkened everything around him? Could he have intended for her to do this? There would be more questions, and she wasn’t sure that she had all of the answers.

  Carth wrapped her connection to the shadows around the ships, creating a circle, cradling them within the shadows. There was no way to do it and exclude her ship, which put them into a dangerous position, one where she might not be able to protect everyone on the ship. That was the reason that she needed to appear threatening. They had to be ready for the app
earance of an attack, regardless of whether they would attack.

  Commotion on the ships told her that they were aware of something changing.

  With the shadows swirling around them, the skies darkened even more. Thunder began to rumble, and Carth thickened the shadows, creating a fog. She had used fogs like this a few times in the past, but each time she had, she had not attempted any sort of fine control. This time, she wanted to focus the fog in a specific area, not wanting it to spread, not wanting to put her people—or any of the others—into any danger.

  And then she was among the ships. She continued to pull on the fog, leaving it tightly bound around her. Alayna remained stiff-backed at the wheel, navigating the ship as they somehow managed to maneuver around the other ships. Carth kept them concealed as they did, using her connection to the shadows to prevent anyone else from seeing that they were there.

  “Carth,” Alayna whispered. She kept her voice low. Carth glanced over and saw Alayna staring straight ahead, her brow knitted. “I know you can navigate through this without difficulty, but I’m not quite as capable as you.”

  “I have to hold the fog in place, or they will see us.”

  “I wish Boiyn were still here,” Alayna said.

  “Did he have an enhancement that was effective?”

  Alayna nodded.

  Carth turned to Jenna. “Go get Rebecca.”

  Jenna frowned for a moment and then hurried off. It took only a moment before Rebecca was there, looking out at the darkness all around them. “What can I do?”

  “These enhancements that Linsay provided. I need to know if you have one that can help you see through shadows.” Carth suspected that there would be, especially since it would be incredibly useful for Linsay to be able to use it, not only against Carth but against other shadow blessed as well. It would grant her some of the skills that Talia had acquired by drinking the water in Keyall.

  “I thought you didn’t approve of enhancements.”

  “I don’t necessarily approve of them, but there are times when they are useful.”

  Rebecca sighed and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a leather bundle and unfolded it. Inside were nearly a dozen different vials, each with markings along the side. Rebecca sorted through them until she found what she was looking for and handed the vial over to Carth. “This will provide some enhancement.”