Shadow Cross (The Shadow Accords Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The inside of the next wagon was crammed with women. Some lay on the ground, side by side, packed in more tightly than in the other wagon. Several were injured, and she could smell the stink of their infection as it rotted through them. If nothing were done, the infection would likely claim them within a few days. She had seen injuries like that before, but it’d been many years, since she had traveled with her parents and her mother had performed healings. Like before, she didn’t see any sign of Dara.

  The fact that the slavers could let these women suffer with such injuries sickened her and steeled her resolve.

  She moved to the next wagon. It was no different than the others. Already she had counted nearly a hundred women. There weren’t supplies for this many women, not nearly enough food and water to keep them drugged. Unless they used the other wagons specifically for supplies. It seemed an awful waste to do that, especially as space seem to be at a premium, but it was just the sort of heartless things she would expect from the slavers, especially knowing that what they intended to do with these women.

  Where was Dara?

  Had she not been brought out of the city this way?

  The next wagon held mostly food and a few casks of water. One smelled of wine, and the red stain on the wood confirmed it. She doubted the women ever saw the wine and suspected they saw little of the food either.

  The next wagon was different.

  Two bunks were set on either side of the walls. Men rested on them. One snored, taking deep, sonorous breaths. Carth held on to the shadows, drawing away even more of the night so that she could study these men.

  There was the flat-eyed man.

  Her heart quickened.

  Here was the man who’d captured her. He’d poisoned her. All she wanted was revenge.

  But… if she obtained revenge now, she would miss the chance to understand what exactly they were doing with these women. She needed to know where they headed with them. Wasn’t that the point of the lessons she had learned from her Tsatsun master? She needed patience, and needed to be able to arrange her pieces so that when she did act, there could be only one movement—the one that she wanted.

  The movement she wanted was the one that provided her with answers as to who these men worked for, and where they brought the women.

  There had been a time when she’d been willing to use others in a greater move, but after what she’d been through, she couldn’t leave these women here.

  She slipped into the wagon, padding across the floor on feet muted by her magical abilities. She searched for how they’d sedated the women. It was the same way she would see them sedated.

  A trunk pushed up against the far wall caught her attention. Carth cracked the lid, and inside she saw three large jars filled with a familiar white powder. It was a same powder Chathem had intended to use upon her.

  Carth grabbed all three jars and backed out of the wagon, retreating from the men.

  Timothy waited for her outside, his sword unsheathed.

  “Is this it?” She held up the contents of the trunk.

  Timothy pried open the top of one of the canisters. He dipped his head close and took a deep breath. “This is slithca. This will be enough to sedate. If any of them have any extra abilities, this will prevent them from reaching them.”

  “That’s a foul sort of powder,” Carth said.

  Timothy chuckled, and Carth made a point of keeping the sound muted. “The powder is far better than what most in these lands know. They know it as a syrup, and the syrup is particularly awful.”

  “How can I dose them with this?”

  “A little of the powder placed in their mouth or beneath their nose so that they inhale it will do the trick. It will achieve the same goal as if you had forced them to drink it, or even injected it. The concentrated nature makes it even more potent. Something like that will probably last for several days. By the time they awaken, we should be far from here.”

  “Why didn’t Chathem use the powder on me that way?”

  Timothy chuckled again. “Chathem didn’t dare use it on you in that concentrated a form. He didn’t know what abilities you possessed, and he didn’t know how long he would need to suppress them, and he only had a single vial. Had he used too much, he risked you regaining your abilities before you were able to be brought to the end destination.”

  Carth frowned. “You’re saying I’m lucky?”

  “Not lucky. Just that he was conservative. He had calculated the likelihood of your escape, balancing that versus his need for ongoing suppression and knowing that in liquid form he could continue to dose you in such a way that you would be suppressed indefinitely. I think he played the odds.”

  “It was a game he lost,” Carth said.

  Timothy eyed her a moment, and then nodded.

  Carth took the canister and kept herself wrapped in the shadows. She held on to an edge of the A’ras magic and slipped back inside the wagon. She took a pinch of powder and dropped it into each man’s mouth, catching it as they breathed.

  The man snoring presented a difficult challenge. When he blew out, he puffed the powder towards her. Carth had a moment of fear that she would lose her ability with the shadows, that she would lose that suppression, but wrapped in the shadows and with the flame magic, the powder seemed to burn off in the air and a burst of sparks. She dosed him a second time, just to be safe.

  She moved out of the wagon and began making her way through the camp. Most of the soldiers were sleeping, making it easy for her to dose them with the powder. The two sentries were a little more difficult. Timothy helped with that, sneaking up behind them and striking them on the back of the head with his sword so that Carth could then dose them with her powder.

  “Is that everyone?” Timothy asked.

  Carth focused on the power of the S’al magic, using that to detect flickers of heat, and when that didn’t give her a clear answer, she shifted to listening with the power of the shadows. She didn’t detect anything that would indicate others that she might’ve missed.

  “I think so.”

  Timothy nodded to the line of horses. “We should take all of them. They move faster, and we’ll be able to keep them from catching us.”

  Together they began hitching the horses to the wagons. When they were done, Carth hesitated. She glanced back to the wagon where the men had been bunked, and her gaze skipped to the remaining wagon that she hadn’t yet investigated. What if they had missed one with women in it?

  “Where you going?” Timothy asked.

  “I need to check on that one.”

  She waved down the road, motioning towards Timothy. “Get the wagons moving, and get the women out of here. I will catch you soon as this is done.”

  Timothy nodded and started the horses, shaking reins to get them walking, motioning them forward.

  When the wagons had cleared the area, leaving the sedated soldiers as well as the remaining three wagons, Carth hurried into the one she hadn’t yet investigated.

  Inside, she found weapons of all sorts. Several of them reminded her of the one that had punctured her hand and left her injured. That was not the kind of weapon she wanted to leave.

  Where were her knives?

  Carth searched the collection along the walls before moving on to the drawers. Inside one of the drawers she came across her shadow knife. She found her A’ras knife as well and slipped both into her waistband.

  Leaving the wagon, on a whim, she sent a surge of power of the A’ras flame through the wood of the wagon, heating it to an extreme temperature, and it began burning red hot.

  At least they wouldn’t be able to use the weapons.

  As Carth slipped down the road, into the night and after the wagons, she felt a hint of hope.

  21

  They traveled through the night, guiding the horses along the road until they met an intersecting road that was harder-packed than the one they had been traveling. Timothy had shown himself to be quite skilled at guiding the horses, leading them
rapidly so that Carth had to race to keep up. She had little experience with horses, much like she had once had little experience with sailing, but she saw the way Timothy steered them and noted the way he prompted them with simple commands.

  Carth mimicked him, trying to learn the commands. There would come a time when she would need to help with the wagons, and she wanted to be ready. They hadn’t attempted to free the women, not wanting to frighten them so that the women panicked and made it more difficult for them to get them to freedom, but she would need to let them know soon.

  As light gradually swept across the sky, the sun rising in beautiful streaks of color, fatigue began to overwhelm her.

  How long had she been away? The attack had taken much out of her, as had the escape. Then there had been the race to get to the wagons, all of which had required that she use her magical abilities, something she had not done in several days, possibly even weeks. She was no longer certain how long she had been gone from Asador.

  When she began to stumble, Timothy signaled to her that they should halt. “We don’t have to keep pushing like this.”

  Carth shook her head. “We have to keep moving. We don’t want them to catch us.”

  It wasn’t all she was concerned about. She didn’t have supplies for the women, nothing to provide them with food or water, and the longer they traveled, the more likely it was they would starve.

  Moving quickly would allow her to get them to a place where they could get some help that much sooner, but she still didn’t know quite where they were heading. Timothy had taken them east, back in the same direction Carth had first traveled.

  She thought about her options. Asador would have places where she could find help, but it required that she find others willing to risk themselves. Would they be able to keep these women safe? That was her biggest concern at this point. She wasn’t willing to have rescued them only to turn around and lose them once more to the same people who’d captured them the last time.

  “I’m not sure where to take them to get them to safety.”

  “There are a few places, but you said there were nearly a hundred women?” When Carth nodded, he let out a slow sigh. “That’s a lot of people to try to hide. We need a bigger city, or someplace where they wouldn’t think to look in the first place.”

  And it had to happen fast. Carth needed the wagons to finish what she intended. She wanted to draw the attackers away, and wanted to entice them into thinking that they could recover the women.

  She thought she could follow them and use that to discover more about their operation. If she could, then she could ensure this didn’t happen again.

  “There’s a village not far from here,” Timothy began. “It’s not a large place, but I’ve had some dealings with them and know them to be fiercely independent. They have no interest in trading like this. They might be able to help.”

  “What village is that?”

  “It’s a coastal village. Goes by the name of Praxis.”

  Carth scratched her chin. Coastal meant she could reach it by ship. Once she found Dara and Guya, they would be able to check on the women.

  “How far?”

  “From here? Probably only a few hours more. We can reach it before morning for certain.”

  Carth took a deep breath and realized she didn’t have much choice. Not if she intended to trap the slavers, and not if she intended to find out more about their operation.

  They reached the village of Praxis well after midnight. It was dark, and the sounds of the sea crashing on rocks was a familiar one to her, one that reminded her of Nyaesh and all the cities she had traveled in the time since she had left. Despite enjoying the scents of the forest, and those of the grasses and flowers, there was a familiarity to the sea, one that she had somehow grown comfortable with.

  They brought the wagons in to the edge of town. Timothy motioned to her, and Carth waited at his suggestion, not certain what he intended at this point. They had spoken little since deciding to make their way to Praxis. Carth was fine with that, especially as she was barely able to keep her eyes open on the walk. She found herself pulling on the shadows, using that to provide the energy she needed to keep going. Despite that, she still struggled to maintain a steady pace. She was happy when they reached the village.

  While Timothy was heading into the village, Carth decided it was time to search through the wagons more closely, looking for Dara. That was the reason she had disappeared in the first place, and the reason she had risked so much.

  Would she even find her friend?

  The first wagon she opened had fewer women in it than the others. She pressed through the S’al magic, letting a soft glow light her hand, and surveyed the faces within. Dara was not here. She recognized several of the other women, having seen them when she had been a captive. They needed food, and safety, but she didn’t dare do anything until they were within Praxis.

  At the next wagon, she pulled open the door to see the crowd of women. They all looked at her with an expectant expression. Many of them cast their gaze to the ground, afraid. Carth had seen that same expression from too many people over the years. Had she worn it herself? She no longer knew. She held aloft the light, searching for her friend, but saw no sign of her there either.

  That left the third wagon. She didn’t recall seeing her when she had searched through them the night before, but then, Carth’s goal had been simply to help rescue the wagons, and to secure all that she could.

  She pulled open the door, looked inside, and searched for Dara. With the light glowing from her palm, she scanned the faces. Many were covered in dirt and grime, and there were women with different colors of hair, different colors of skin, and women of all different ages. None of which were Dara.

  Carth took a step back. Fatigue continued to overwhelm her. She pulled on the shadows, reaching through them with all the strength she could. Unintentionally, she sank into them, retreating, but there was no nothing else she could do. She closed the door of the wagon and sank to her knees.

  All of this had been started to find her friend, and she had failed.

  Tears streamed down her face. It took a moment to for her to realize and understand why she was so upset. She recognized that it was more than the fact that Dara was missing. It was knowing the likely reason why she was missing. If Dara was not here, she likely had already been sold.

  She was tired.

  So tired.

  She needed rest.

  Without meaning to, she sank to the ground, and sleep overcame her.

  22

  A hand on her shoulder woke Carth from a deep slumber. She had dreamed, but the dreams made little sense. There had been nothing in them other than visions of men with dangerous weapons. She had flashes of her past, flashes of her parents, even, but for the most part it was a dreamless sleep.

  Timothy looked down at her, his half smile still crossing his face, this time mixed with something that resembled concern.

  “You extended yourself too far.”

  Carth sat up and glanced around a small room. It was simple and plain, with walls of wood and a curtain covering the window. She was on a flat mattress, with sheets more comfortable than anything she’d slept on in weeks. A bowl of water rested on a stand next to her. An unlit lantern was next to the water. And Timothy, sitting on the edge of the bed, his hands clasped in his lap.

  “What choice did I have but to extend myself?”

  Timothy flashed a smile. “Perhaps none. You will be pleased to know that the village council has agreed to support the women. They will be safe. At least for now.”

  Carth breathed out a sigh. It was a relief knowing the women would be safe. She wasn’t sure how long such safety would last, not with slavers who had access to soldiers and weapons and poisons, tactics that would enable them to search for the women in a way that didn’t necessarily keep them safe indefinitely. This was a temporary safety, but now that she was awake, Carth was more determined than ever to ensure that it became a
permanent safety. She would see that slavers were not able to torment these women any longer. If she would be able to give them anything, that was the gift she could offer.

  “Where are they?”

  “Praxis is a village of nearly five hundred. Everyone has been willing to take in several of the women. They’re getting food, water, and a place to stay.”

  Carth stood and reached for the shadows and then the flame. She tested her connection, the time when she had lost it making her fearful of that time returning. Both responded, though Carth hadn’t expected that they wouldn’t. Timothy had helped her, and she was not surprised to note that he made no threatening movement towards her now that they were there.

  “What do you intend to do?” Timothy asked.

  “I still intend to complete my plan.”

  Timothy studied her, his eyes nearly as intense as Chathem’s had been when he’d studied her, as if he knew things that he shouldn’t necessarily know. It was possible that he did, and possible that he had determined something about her in the time they had traveled together. Carth didn’t know if he had, and wasn’t entirely sure that she cared.

  “The person I was trying to find wasn’t in the wagons.”

  “This was all about finding one person?”

  “It started that way. And now that I haven’t found her, this isn’t over.” She looked to Timothy, knowing that there would be value if he were to stay and protect the women, but there would be just as much value if he were willing to come with her, especially with what she intended. She needed help.

  Carth thought about others who had helped her in the past, about Lindy and Guya and all the shadow blessed. She wished she had their support right now.

  “What of you? You still have a job to do?”

  Timothy shrugged. “There is a job. It will get done.”