Shadow Cross (The Shadow Accords Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “What now?” Lindy asked, covering her mouth as she yawned.

  Carth was tired too, but she didn’t let herself feel the effects of the fatigue. They needed to find Guya now. His absence left her unsettled, and given the way they had been greeted by the healer, Carth hoped there was nothing nefarious about his disappearance.

  “We need to find answers.”

  “How do you propose we do that?”

  Carth turned to her with a smile. There was only one answer when coming off a ship and into a port. “If you want answers, we need to go where tongues are loose.”

  Lindy shook her head. “You’re predictable, Carth. What is it with you and taverns?”

  5

  Taverns held a special place in Carth’s heart. They were a place she had been welcomed, one where she had gained the confidence to live independently, but in a way, it was the last place of innocence for her. After leaving the Wounded Lyre, she had gone to train with the A’ras. That was the end of any innocence she had ever possessed.

  Maybe it was more than that. Maybe it was the fact that she truly could find information within taverns. Men and women were often quick to share and gossip in the tavern. Part of the reason she’d desired to come to the southern continent had been her hope of finding a way to more easily obtain information about the Hjan, to ensure that they wouldn’t be able to attack without some warning, and doing that involved setting up a network. Ras had demonstrated how such a thing was possible, but over time, she intended to do much more than what he had accomplished.

  As they returned toward the docks, Carth counted nearly a dozen different taverns. The darkness of night had settled, giving long shadows that stretched across the street, shadows that Carth welcomed. From here, there were the muted sounds of waves crashing along the shore, and the sounds of music coming from the taverns, a restless sort of revelry.

  One tavern seemed especially lively. Carth nodded to it, motioning for Lindy to follow as they entered. The tavern was much more compact than many of the taverns they had visited, but like the others, it was quite crowded, people of many different styles of dress all crammed together, talking loudly. A lutist played near the back of the room, and several people attempted to dance near the musician, but there was not enough space. A few serving women hurried through the tavern, squeezing between the crowd, carrying mugs of ale and trays laden with food. Other than the crowd, it all looked familiar to Carth.

  Despite what they’d been through, a slight smile spread across her face. It shouldn’t surprise her that taverns were all the same. This had more of the fishing crowd, men who smelled of the sea and had grime coating their hands. Shirts were stained with sweat and oils and, in many cases, blood. Few of the men were armed, a difference compared to the other taverns.

  Lindy nudged her as a server approached carrying a mug of ale.

  “Five coppers,” the server said. Her eyes scanned the crowd, almost as if looking for others who might have empty hands and a look of thirst.

  Carth blinked. “Five coppers? Isn’t that price a little high?”

  “If you think five coppers is too pricey, why don’t you go on down the street to the Frosted Pint or the Dragons Eye? They might have a little better quality ale, but is that worth the ten coppers they charge?”

  Lindy shrugged, and Carth took money from her pocket and slipped it into the woman’s hand. It was more than they wanted to spend, but she needed answers, and this seemed like as good a place to get them as any.

  The woman glanced down and noted the silver piece before cupping her hand around the coins.

  “Consider that payment for this round and the next,” Carth said.

  The woman’s eyes widened slightly as she nodded. “Make sure to ask for Julie when you need another round,” the woman said.

  When Julie left them, Carth and Lindy surveyed the tavern. They hadn’t had much luck so far this evening finding out anything they needed. Carth wanted gossip. Oftentimes that was easy in a tavern, especially if you kept your head down and listened, but so far, they’d heard nothing.

  There had been some local city gossip, mostly about orphans—which Carth discovered was a bigger problem than she had realized at first. From the rumors she heard, it seemed like there were hordes of orphans running the streets. They had taken to thieving, doing so openly and angering the city elders.

  Carth hadn’t determined how the city governance was structured, other than the fact that several elders led the city. She’d visited places where the structure was similar, and those elders had been elected, but she hadn’t been able to determine whether that was the case in Asador.

  “Why here?” Lindy asked.

  Carth took a sip of her ale. It was watery, had too much of a barley taste to it for her liking, but had just the right amount of fizz. “I don’t know what we’ll find, but we need to figure out what happened to Guya. I don’t think he would’ve just disappeared.” Not and leave Dara on the ship. And, if nothing else, he wouldn’t leave his ship alone.

  “The healer—”

  “Yes. That bothers me as well.” She’d disappeared when they had mentioned the Goth Spald. Could the healer be responsible for what happened to Guya? That seemed unlikely, but equally unlikely was how the healer had reacted to their presence.

  As Carth sipped her ale, she held on to her connection to the shadows, using them to disappear slightly, enough that they wouldn’t draw attention. Lindy did the same. They masked themselves, nothing more than that.

  Carth weaved around the tavern as she remained shrouded in the shadows, listening as she went. She heard nothing that would provide her with the insight she needed. There was nothing here that suggested where Guya might have gone.

  A part of her had hoped Guya had simply gone into one of the taverns, as unlikely as that might be. It wouldn’t be like him to disappear like that, just as it wouldn’t be like him to leave Dara behind, as sick as she was. But after all the time spent on the ship, maybe he’d only needed to get away for a while.

  And leave Dara?

  No. That wasn’t Guya.

  Something else had drawn him off—or else he’d been attacked—but what?

  They reached the other side of the tavern having nothing that gave her any sort of insight. She let out a frustrated sigh and set down her mug of ale, not surprised when Julie made her way towards her, bringing Carth another cup to drink.

  “What is it, girl? You look like you can’t find the answer you need,” Julie said.

  Carth should have been more careful with her emotions. She didn’t need it to get out that they were looking for Guya, or that someone they cared about had gone missing. Conversations like that would only get tongues wagging, and she wanted nothing more than to remain hidden, remain discreet. Having others know that she searched would only lead to more questions.

  “You think you’re going to keep your secret,” Julie said. “Most in the tavern think the same thing. Enough ale, and tongues start moving. We hear pretty much everything in here. Not much comes through the taverns we don’t pick up on.”

  Carth glanced to Lindy. Was it possible that Julie might have an answer they needed?

  “What sorts of things do you hear?” Carth asked.

  “Oh, all sorts of things. Most of the time it’s the orphans. They get out of hand at times, stealing for the guilds. Then the excitement dies down and the council forgets about them.” Julie shrugged. “Other than that, there’s word about disappearances, but those have been going on for years.”

  “What sort of disappearances?” Lindy asked, leaning forward.

  Julie shook her head. “The kind of disappearances you should be careful of. Too many been taken off the streets and sent… well, sent other places.”

  They thought she might say more, but Julie left them.

  Carth glanced over to Lindy, frowning as she did. “Is she talking about slavers?”

  Lindy shrugged. “I don’t know these lands. I don’t know what takes place
here. Do the slavers make their way through here?”

  From Guya, Carth knew they did. She also knew how Guya had felt about slavers. He had some history with them, though she wasn’t entirely sure what it was. He had been angry when he’d discovered his ship had been used for slaving. That was part of the reason she had come to trust Guya so much.

  They drifted toward the back of the tavern, where the music played. One musician carried a large stringed instrument, and another played some sort of lute. A third, a young woman with curly raven-colored hair, sang in a warbly voice that pierced the din of the tavern.

  Carth and Lindy stood silently, simply observing for now. This wasn’t the first time they had come to taverns together, searching for information. Lindy had been with Carth often enough that she understood what was intended. Finding information was often about listening, sitting back and letting the conversations swirl around her. It was how Carth intended to get a flavor of Asador and learn what she could about rumors she’d heard on the sea.

  Pulling on the shadows, Carth used them in a subtle way to shrink backwards, not quite disappearing, but fading in a sense. She included Lindy in this, though the woman used her own connection to the shadows to help her fade as well. This was a technique Lindy had taught her, one that Carth had mastered. Others would still be able to see them, but they wouldn’t necessarily notice them.

  Lindy nodded to her and slipped away to listen to other conversations.

  Carth remained where she was and noted a table next to her filled with armed men. Maybe she could find more than what Julie had shared. Most of the men at the table carried swords, but two wore crossbows hooked to their belts. Having a sword of her own—one she had trained to use were the need to arise—made her more comfortable in this strange setting. Leather helms rested on the table, in front of them three men dressed in thick leather, a kind of armor Carth had not seen in the north. The table was covered with mugs, most of them empty. She noted the nearest man slurring his speech. He propped his head on his fist as he talked, and his eyes had a glazed appearance to them. Two of the others shared a similar expression.

  She hesitated. Sometimes intoxicated men would provide her with information. Other times, the intoxication would prevent them from saying anything of use. It all depended on the degree.

  “Nothing moving through here the way it used to,” the drunk said.

  Carth could tell he spoke to the heavier-set man sitting next to him. That man had thick jowls and small, squinty eyes that somehow still seemed to manage to take in everything around him.

  The squinty-eyed man shook his head. “Quiet.”

  The drunk one laughed with gusto. He looked around him, his gaze skipping right over Carth and Lindy, pausing at the door before returning to his heavy friend. “What’s there to be concerned about? No one knows we’re here. Any who would know—”

  The heavier man beat the table with his fist, drawing the attention of the intoxicated one. His eyes cleared for a moment, almost as if hammering on the table had shaken away some of the intoxication.

  “This isn’t the place to talk about such things. Too many others have an interest.”

  The drunk nodded slowly and returned his attention to the mug in front of him.

  Carth glanced at Lindy as she returned to her. There was potential there, though it could be nothing more than smugglers. They’d encountered dozens of smugglers in dozens of different ports in their travels. All of them had a similar paranoid nature to them. Often, they seemed affable on the surface, but beneath the surface they possessed concern and uncertainty. What they needed was someone with deeper ties to the city; then they could find answers.

  “Towards the back,” Lindy whispered.

  Carth let Lindy lead her, not certain what the other woman might have observed, but having learned long ago that Lindy possessed talent in picking out critical pieces of conversation. They weaved their way through the tavern, navigating around tables in between different groupings of people, both of them remaining hidden within the shadows. Lindy brought her towards the back of the tavern, surprisingly, leading her towards the musicians. She nodded at the singer, who continued to sing in a soft voice, one that had a haunting quality to it. She sang in a language Carth didn’t recognize, but the words carried all the emotion needed.

  “Do you recognize what she’s saying?” Carth asked.

  Lindy shook her head. “I’ve not heard that before, but there’s something about her that concerns me. I don’t know quite what it is.” She glanced at Carth, meeting her eyes with a soft intensity. “It’s mostly a feeling I have. We need to help her.”

  They watched the musicians playing, and Carth realized what it was that troubled her. There was an almost sedated quality to the woman, as if she had been dosed with something. It was evident in her glassy eyes as she looked around the room, and was likely the reason for the haunted quality of her voice.

  When they finished, the musicians hurried away, forcing the woman to the back of the room and then out the door.

  Lindy looked at Carth. “What do you think that was about?”

  “I don’t know. Not Guya.”

  “Not Guya, but it’s something.”

  Something. Not Guya, not as they needed, but it was something. Carth only wished she knew what that something was. They were in a strange land, and she knew they had enemies here. The Hjan existed in these lands. And her friend was missing.

  She needed answers. Would helping this woman bring her closer to those answers?

  “What you want to do?” Lindy asked.

  Carth stared at the doorway. “I think we find her first, then we find out what happened to her…”

  “How do you expect to do that?”

  “The same way we looked for Guya and Dara.”

  Carth hoped they’d have better luck than they had so far in searching for Guya.

  6

  The air outside the tavern had a stink to it. This was the smell of water that had been left standing for too long. It took a moment for Carth to realize that it wasn’t water, but something else, like the decay of rot. Even that wasn’t quite right. This was an unnatural sort of odor, one that didn’t fit here—or anywhere, really.

  Lindy stood on top of a box, peering down the street. She held her shadows wrapped around her, and without Carth’s own connection to the shadows, she doubted she would have been able to see the way Lindy held her own connection to the shadows. The other woman stared intently, and every so often, she would motion to Carth.

  “I don’t see anything,” Lindy said, stepping down from the box. Somewhere distantly, a cat meowed. Lindy chuckled. “I’ve heard that some in these lands are superstitious about such things.”

  “She couldn’t have disappeared,” Carth said. “I still detect her.”

  “I think you scared her.”

  “I didn’t scare her. They pushed her out.”

  Carth didn’t know why, but she had a sense the singer needed help, though they didn’t have any way of finding her. If she’d disappeared down the street, there wouldn’t be any way of following her, at least not easily.

  “Let’s go back inside the tavern,” Carth said.

  They started around the outside of the tavern when they caught sight of motion.

  Carth grabbed Lindy’s wrist, stopping her. The two of them sank into the shadows, fading into the darkness. They waited.

  Carth could slide with the shadows, but she didn’t think Lindy could. That was a difference between being shadow born and shadow blessed, one of many.

  A male voice drifted through their shadow cloaking.

  “Where did she go?”

  Carth glanced to Lindy. Had they been followed?

  There was something coarse—and angry—about the voice.

  “We’ve got to find her and bring her south. That was the whole reason we came through here.”

  “She can’t have gone far. Not with what we gave her.”

  “You were responsibl
e for watching her.”

  “I did. Something spooked her and she ran. Like I said, I’ll find her.”

  Carth eased off her connection to the shadows enough to see the two musicians from the tavern hurrying along the street. They searched for something—likely the singer. Had she managed to get away from them?

  She trailed them, and Lindy came with her. They remained in the shadows, hurrying along the street. If the singer needed help, they would be there to offer it.

  One of the musicians twirled a knife as he walked. He had quick hands, not surprising given his skill on the instrument. In the taverns she had visited over the years, she had always known the musicians to have the fastest hands. Often they weren’t paid as well as they should be either, making such skills necessary.

  The men stopped at an alley and hurried along it. Carth paused, listening.

  “There you are,” one of the men said.

  “I—I don’t want to be here.”

  It was the singer. Her voice was tentative, and clearer than it had been in the tavern. Lindy started to step forward when Carth grabbed her arm.

  “We should listen first,” she said.

  “It doesn’t sound like she wants to be with them,” Lindy said.

  “Probably not, but we should get all the information we can before we act.”

  “Please. I just want to return to my home. You have to understand that.”

  One of the musicians laughed. It was a dangerous sound. “You have to understand that we have a job to do.”

  “Why make me do this? Why force me to sing?”

  “Force? You enjoy this. And besides, how else are we going to find a buyer for you?”

  Carth’s heart started pounding and she began to pull on power. These men had abducted this woman and now they sought to sell her?

  That was more than she could tolerate.

  “Be ready,” she said to Lindy. “When I give you the signal—”

  She didn’t have a chance to finish.

  Lindy pulled on her arm, spinning her away from the alley to face three men that had appeared along the street. Carth hadn’t seen them coming. Two of them carried swords. They were the kind of men she’d seen on the docks, the kind who had a dangerous sort of attitude about them.