29
The inside of the tavern was less raucous than the last time Carth had been there. She looked around, searching for familiar face, keeping Chathem leaning against her, hoping that he appeared nothing more than an intoxicated man. Timothy sat next to her, his hand gripping the other’s back, keeping him propped upright so that they could look for the barmaid Carth had met here last time.
“Why this place?” Timothy asked.
Other than the Goth Spald, she didn’t have anywhere else to go. She wasn’t willing to tell Timothy that. He didn’t need to know that after everything they had gone through, she was unprepared to find the answer she needed.
Worse, she had left Guya bound on the ship. He shouldn’t be able to find her—this was the place she had come with Lindy—but she had no idea if he had been following her, or if he’d sent others to follow her. Now she felt truly isolated.
“There are other ways to find information.” Timothy’s eyes took in all of the tavern, searching around him with an observant gaze.
Carth nodded. There would be other ways to find information, but in a town like Asador, one she was not familiar with, taverns were the places she defaulted to. What better way for her to obtain information than from a woman who lived in the midst of it?
Julie appeared from behind a door leading to the back of the tavern. Carth nodded to Chathem. “Watch him?”
Timothy nodded his head in a quick agreement. Carth stood and hurried towards the back of the tavern, where Julie started to make the rounds. She caught Julie by the wrist, and the woman turned to her, eyes widening when she saw her.
“You.”
“What about me?” Carth asked. Julie glanced around the tavern before her gaze settled on Timothy, with the other man propped against him. Her eyes widened slightly.
“You recognize him, don’t you?” Carth said.
Julie motioned her to follow. She weaved through the tavern, making her way towards the back, to the door leading to the kitchen. Carth followed closely, keeping her eyes on her, afraid to let her get too far away, still not certain whether Julie would attempt to run or say something.
Once inside the kitchen, Carth glanced around. There was a certain sensation that came to her from being within the kitchen of a tavern. It reminded her of Vera and the time she had spent with her. She didn’t think of Vera too often these days, but that had been the first stable place she’d had after her parents were killed. Vera had always treated her well. And Carth appreciated that from her.
The inside of the kitchen smelled of baking bread and roasting meats and vegetables, all smells that Carth was familiar with from her time in Nyaesh. More than that, it made her mouth water, reminding her of how hungry she was.
“It’s your fault,” Julie started. “You had to go after Terran. Because of you, they took—”
“I found her. She’s safe.”
Julie blinked. “You found her?”
“They didn’t bring her from the city. She’s safe.”
“Safe?”
Carth nodded. “Help me, and I’ll show you how to find her.”
“What kind of help?”
“I need to find Terran.”
Julie sighed. “That will only lead to danger.”
“I know. But I will find him.” Her stomach rumbled again.
“How long has it been since you had a good meal?” Julie arched an eyebrow. “If you’re hungry, you don’t have to have your stomach growl at me.”
She turned to a pot and began scooping heaping spoonfuls onto a plate. She handed this to Carth, setting a spoon in her other hand.
Carth could only stare at her, mouth agape. This wasn’t what she had expected, though she wasn’t sure what she had expected.
“Last I heard from you was when you planned to go after the missing women.”
Carth took a spoonful of the stew, letting it fill her mouth with flavor. She nodded. “I did. I had to, since no one else would do anything.” She took another few bites. Julie stood there watching her, her face unreadable. “I was captured.”
She took another few bites of the stew, her mouth watering with each one, eating until her stomach began to finally settle.
Julie stood back and simply watched Carth eat.
When her stomach was full, Carth shook herself. “Thank you.” It was strange for her to experience such kindness. After the torment she’d been through, all the suffering she had dealt with after being captured, drugged and attacked, it meant a lot to her to be shown some kindness.
“There wasn’t anything we could do. All we wanted was to find them and see if there was anything we could do to bring them back home. So many have been lost from here.”
They could have done more, but Carth wouldn’t push that now. “Do you know why?”
Julie shook her head. “Women have been taken from the city for many years. We haven’t known where they went, only that they would disappear. We’ve never discovered where they’ve gone, or who took them. Others have searched for answers, but haven’t been able to find anything.”
Carth studied her. “Others?”
“There are those who work to keep these women safe. We’ve tried for many years to stem the tide of disappearances, but we’ve failed. Then you come into town. You disrupt attacks that have taken place. You seem as if you actually want to help. It’s something we are unaccustomed to here.”
Carth frowned. “I do want to help and have been trying to since I first came to town. First by trying to find my friend, and then, when I was captured along with her, I did what I could to help the others I found. We rescued them and left them in a village, safe from those who would harm them.”
Julie’s breath caught. “How many others?”
“Nearly one hundred,” Carth said. “There were men, slavers, who wanted to harm them, but we kept them safe, preventing the slavers from reaching them.”
“And where are these slavers now?”
Carth nodded to the other room. “There’s one out there. He thought to attack me, but he wasn’t alone. There were others with him. I intend to find out what he knows and stop the others.”
Julie stared at Carth. “You… you did it.”
“Did what?”
Julie stepped away from the counter, and Carth realized she had a knife clutched in her hand. It was a simple kitchen knife, one that could do damage but was not meant to be a weapon. It was an instrument, nothing more.
“Julie?”
The other woman looked to Carth, almost dragging her gaze away from the doorway into the kitchen. “We’ve not discovered the key to the network. We always knew there was one. It’s been more than Terran.”
“The key was Hoga.”
Julie blinked. “Hoga?”
“You know her.” Carth wasn’t surprised that she knew of Hoga. The woman was a healer, and there likely weren’t many to be found in the city.
“How could she?” Julie wondered aloud.
Carth shook her head. There were no answers as to why, or how. All she knew was what had happened.
“Hoga lost her own daughter to an attack long ago. Her son left seeking vengeance…”
Carth closed her eyes. Son? A missing daughter?
They fell into her mind like pieces on a game board. Could it be that everything Hoga did was for revenge?
Worse, was it possible that Guya sought revenge for his sister?
It almost made her feel remorse for stabbing him. Almost.
He had still betrayed them. Had he asked her for help, had he only come to her when he’d learned about what she could do, she would have been compelled to try and help him. As it was, now there was little reason for her to help him, other than for the fact that she understood the need for vengeance against the Hjan.
“Was her son a man named Guya?” Carth asked Julie.
Julie’s eyes widened slightly. “You know him, don’t you? Wait… is his ship the one you came to Asador on?”
Carth sighed. “Unfo
rtunately, it is. He betrayed me. Us.”
At least now she understood the why, but she still didn’t know what had happened to her friends. She still didn’t understand how Hoga had captured Dara… and Lindy now. But she understood why. Hoga wanted to use them, study their abilities, and find a way to counter them.
Carth understood that—could actually get behind it—but betraying her as Guya had done, she didn’t understand.
“I need your help.”
Julie nodded. “Anything. I will help.”
“I need answers. I need information about how to find Hoga and what she intends to do next.”
“She wouldn’t leave her shop. Almost as much as her children, her shop is everything to her.”
Carth’s brow furrowed. After rescuing the other women, she had left the healer’s shop empty, dragging Guya and the other man away. Had she given Hoga the way back?
But then, Carth understood why she would value her shop as much as she did, if it contained all the powders and other items she needed in order to mix the right concoctions to counter magic.
Hoga’s attachment to the shop was much like Guya’s attachment to his ship.
With that realization, she wondered how Hoga would react if her shop was taken from her.
She might have a way to bargain for her friends. It would require her to be ruthless, but after what she had been through, what Hoga had put others through, Carth decided that the woman deserved ruthlessness.
30
Carth crept along the street outside the healer’s shop. She shrouded herself in shadows, keeping herself concealed, for the most part. She resisted the urge to retreat too deeply into the shadows, knowing that if she were to do so, she would expend more energy than what was safe. After the constant fighting today, she feared expending too much energy. She still didn’t know what she might encounter with Hoga.
The windows of the shop were darkened. The yellow door was shut and Carth imagined it was locked as well. She waited alone. Timothy had chosen to remain with Chathem, telling her that the scholar was part of his assignment. It was for the best. This was something she needed to do herself.
All she needed was to draw out Hoga. Then she could find out where the woman had kept Lindy and Dara, rescue them, and destroy what Hoga planned. That was all she could think about at this point.
Still… still, she kept her focus on her next move, and the one after, and multiple moves beyond that. If she took her focus off the endgame, she risked getting outmaneuvered. Already she feared that she had made mistakes in how she played.
Cloaked by the shadows as she was, she felt a hint of movement. It was subtle, and had she not practiced with drawing on the shadows to use them to detect movement, she doubted she would have been able to pick it up.
Carth slipped forward, reaching the door to the shop. If necessary, she was prepared to explode outward with heat and fire, destroying the shop to draw Hoga out.
The shadow cloaking failed.
It happened without warning.
One moment she was holding on to the shadows, cloaked within them, and the next moment they were gone.
It felt as if they were torn from her. It was painful, but she still could reach them, though she was weakened, drained from the effort of what had happened. She could still reach the edge of the shadows and could still pull on it, but her attempts to do anything more with it were unsuccessful.
Carth looked up and down the street, searching for signs of Hoga or any who were with her. There was no sign of anyone.
That meant inside the shop.
If they could tear her shadows away from her so easily, they had come up with a way to counter them without dosing her with powders. Had they managed the same with her connection to the flame?
Carth reached for her S’al magic.
She exploded it out from herself, hitting the door to the shop. When it struck, she raced forward, driving her heel through the handle of the door.
Without intending to, she had used the shadows as well.
They weren’t restricted from her, and she could use the shadows for strength and speed. The combined magic allowed her to shatter the door.
Inside the shop, she took a quick survey. She saw no sign of Hoga or any of the others.
A slight haze hung in the air. Carth resisted taking a deep breath, afraid that Hoga had set a trap for her. She focused on the fire and pressed out with an explosion that ripped through the shop. Carth turned her attention to the rows of medicines. The dried leaves, berries, and various oils ignited quickly, the flames racing through them. Fire quickly engulfed the entire interior of the shop.
The pressure preventing her from using her shadow magic remained.
Whatever it was that Hoga did to her, she hadn’t stopped her yet.
She turned towards the back of the shop.
She glanced at the door leading to the alleyway, for a moment considering going through it and searching for Hoga there, but there would be no place for her to hide in the alley.
She then turned her attention to the next room, the one where she had discovered the captives. A question came to her: why had Hoga held these women here?
Carth didn’t believe she wanted to use the women as prostitutes. What purpose would there be in that if she really sought revenge for what the Hjan had done? She cared about studying those with power.
Was that why they had claimed Dara?
Why not Lindy then as well?
Carth paused in this room, noting traces of fire and a hint of chemical odor here as well.
They hadn’t been just captive women. They had been women with abilities.
That had to have been the reason Hoga had kept them here.
Carth had freed them, released them back into the city, but had that been the right move?
She used the power of her flame magic and surged through the room, letting fire engulf it as well.
Racing through the door leading to the office space, Carth paused. Inside here, she noted evidence of recent activity. Furniture that had been knocked down in the fight had since been set back upright. The damage to the room had been repaired.
Carth hesitated, heart racing, thinking about where Hoga might have gone. If this shop was like the Goth Spald was to Guya, she wouldn’t have left it.
But were the medicines in the outer shop truly her prized possessions?
Might there not be another section to her shop? There certainly was another doorway.
Pushing open the door, she headed into a darkened hallway.
Behind her she detected the power of the fire that she had lit, now engulfing the entirety of the shop. She kept it confined to the walls of the shop, commanding the flames to burn out once the contents of the shop were consumed.
That wasn’t the only sense of heat she noted.
There was movement down the hallway in the distance. Carth reached for the shadows but still felt resistance. She might be able to use them for strength and stamina, but anything more than that was restricted from her.
Carth made her way down the hall. At the next door, she paused before throwing it open.
A narrow room greeted her. A door on the opposite end waited. She stepped inside, and as she did, she tripped, an unseen line catching her legs.
A bucket fell from the ceiling. Powder sprayed across her.
Carth rolled. She knew better than to breathe in, just as she knew better than to panic. That was what Hoga wanted from her.
How could she have gotten caught in such a simple trap? But, as she knew, sometimes the simplest solutions were the most effective.
Closing her eyes, she focused on her skin, letting the flame race over her, consume the powder that now coated her skin.
It began to sizzle, a hot fire coursing over her skin.
She had learned that her own flame magic would not impact her the same as it did others. The power of her own magic would not burn her.
She didn’t breathe as power surged from her.
/> Then the powder was gone, burned off.
Carth got to her feet, pulling on the shadows, using them to sustain her.
She reached the next door and kicked it, driving shadow and flame magic through her body as she did, throwing the door off its hinges.
Another office greeted her on the side. Carth hesitated, looking to see if there was another trap before deciding to simply ignite the room. Flames raced through it, exploding pockets of powder she hadn’t seen.
Carth went through the room into the next room. As with the last, she opened the door, and as soon as she did, a sword swept towards her head. Carth had expected something, but the sword nearly caught her off guard.
She dropped, rolling to the side, swinging her heel around. It collided with her attacker’s knee. Connected to the shadows as she was, he caved backwards, crumpling.
It was the large man from the forest.
Magic wouldn’t work on him, but could it work around him?
She had to end this quickly. Delay would only lead to her injury. He was much too large for her to handle otherwise, and he was immune to her magic.
She lit the floor on fire.
The man screamed.
She flipped around, stabbing with her knife, sending out a surge of fire and flame that caught him in the chest.
Carth didn’t have a chance to question her actions. Another attacker reached her.
This time, Carth jumped over him and kicked him in the back as she landed. She flipped forward again, her knife connecting and stabbing him in the back, the power of the flame roaring from it.
Would another attack come?
She waited, but none did.
Carth reached the next door and opened it more carefully than the others.
No sword met her.
Instead, she was greeted by six attackers. One of them raised his hands to toss powder. To others held crossbows. The remaining three stood behind them, swords in hand.
Carth couldn’t wait. She pressed out with the flame, igniting the air itself.
Men screamed.
Shadow Cross (The Shadow Accords Book 5) Page 16