A Shaper's Promise

by Karen MacRae

  Anna had heard of a weather gift, but she’d never seen one in action. There was no other possible explanation that she could think of. But why use such effort and waste so many lives on a prison caravan? She saw Sy slump in his saddle out of the corner of her eye and cursed her lack of attention; his wound would have worsened with each jolt in the saddle. She pulled alongside him to see black eating away at his shoulder, spreading down his arm and across his chest. She’d only seen this type of injury once before: when Spider had been stabbed with the crested knife. “Help!” she shouted.

  Estrell was on the other side of Rojoch within moments.

  Sy was a mammoth dead weight. Spider and Estrell supported him as best they could as Anna automatically pulled at the oil slick that threatened the giant’s life. She swore as she realised she was doing the wrong thing. Taking a deep breath, she drew energy from her crystals and dagger and focused it through her peristone beads into a needle-thin burst that she sent right into the heart of the black. Pain pierced her skull as she let go, but the black remained. She sent another burst, stronger than the first. The black wavered but solidified once more. Her head pounded as if a blacksmith’s anvil. Her vision narrowed and her mouth dried. She was on the verge of passing out when she remembered her new staff. She fumbled for it blindly, her head spinning. As soon as her fingers found it, she pulled energy with everything she had, frantically pushing the light through the peristones, envisioning a burning, white blade shattering the blackness. She felt it crush her skull at the same time it crushed the enemy.

  CHAPTER 11

  S pider cursed loudly as Anna’s dead weight was added to Sy’s. He eased Sy’s upper body onto Estrell’s shoulders and neck and jumped off to run around to Anna. She was slumped over Sy, her legs still on Hope, but her upper body on Rojoch. The three horses stood rock solid as Spider manhandled Anna back onto Hope. Next, he wrestled Sy’s upper body back onto Rojoch, his arms aching with the effort. Finally, he tied the two in place. They’d wake with bruises, but they needed to get to the meeting place and he couldn’t hold both of them in their saddles at once.

  The newly released prisoner was dozing when Spider arrived at the copse late in the day. “Sorry it took so long,” Spider called out. “Finn? Are you here?”

  Finn opened his eyes to see his friend untying what looked like a small woman from the back of a chestnut mare. Sy was tied to Rojoch. Both were out cold.

  “I’m dying to hear the explanation for this,” he laughed from halfway up the giant cepren tree. He climbed down and gave Spider a back-slapping hug. “My thanks for the rescue. I was beginning to think I’d never get out of there.”

  Finn gave his friend a hand to lie the woman, girl really, on an opened bedroll.

  “Her name’s Anna,” Spider replied to his friend’s unspoken question. “All she knows is that you’re a friend who got in trouble with the Graysons. She think’s your name’s Kai. She’s… well, she’s complicated. I’ll tell you later. First, you better give me a hand with the man mountain.”

  The pair turned to Sy and Rojoch.

  “Is there any way we’re getting that great lump down without letting him fall?” Spider asked.

  “How on earth did you get him up there in the first place?”

  “Sheer luck. He was already up there when he passed out. He fell across Estrell so all I had to do was get him repositioned on Rojoch and tie him on. If he’d fallen, I’d have needed divine intervention to do anything other than wrap a rope around his ankles and have Rojoch drag him here.”

  Finn grinned. “You’d have been popular, but what happened anyway? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Sy out cold.”

  “That’ll be twice in the past week. It seems he’s forming a habit.”

  Finn raised his eyebrows. “You have a lot to tell me.”

  “You won’t believe the half of it.”

  When Anna woke the next morning, a man she’d never seen before sat looking at her quizzically. He was about thirty and incredibly good-looking with deep auburn hair, long-lashed green eyes and the kind of physique that turns heads. His aura was almost pure white. It was the strangest thing she’d ever seen.

  “Good morning,” he said with a smile. He had the most amazing voice: like molten caffe with extra cream and candy on top. Luscious.

  “Food?” she asked, sitting up, her headache overriding social niceties. She felt bruised all over. That was new.

  “Trail rations only, sorry. Our chef is still asleep.”

  Anna washed down four dry bars with water before slowing. Her brain knew they’d taste wonderful if she slowed down, but her body urgently demanded fuel. Once her insatiable appetite was under control and her headache hangover had eased enough for her mind to function more normally, she looked around for Sy. She stumbled over to him, her body objecting to every movement.

  She was confused by all the bruises he had, but immensely relieved to see the black was gone. His gift must have helped, she realised. She’d been almost certain the black would win this time.

  “Is he going to be all right?” the stranger asked from beside her. Kai, she assumed. There didn’t seem much point in pretending that she didn’t know. Spider would have filled him in on her gift while she slept. She turned to see the stranger looking down on Sy, his hand touching the big man’s shoulder, his face full of concern. His white aura was now a stone wall. Confused, Anna blinked and looked again. He had turned to look at her and his aura was once again pure white with grey around his temples and elsewhere on his body. He had a headache and bruises. No, she had a headache and bruises. She closed her eyes, confused and dizzy. What on earth was happening? Was she seeing things? “I’m sorry. I’m not quite with it yet. Yes, Sy is going to be fine.”

  “Thank you. And thank you for your help in getting me out of that box.” His sincerity was true and Anna’s heart warmed to this man who had led them into such danger. It probably hadn’t been his fault after all.

  Spider reappeared with full water skins. He didn’t waste time on niceties. “What happened to Sy?”

  Both men listened intently as Anna described the blackness and how difficult it had been to defeat despite Sy’s gift. “It was worse than the last time. Maybe because it was left longer than yours, Spider?”

  “Last time?”

  Spider retrieved the knife from the bottom of Sy’s saddlebag and passed it carefully to his friend.

  “Take care,” Anna warned. “Don’t touch the blade.”

  The man’s eyes widened ever so slightly at the crest, but he said nothing. He rewrapped the knife and handed it back to Spider.

  “You’ve seen the crest before,” Anna said.

  “Yes,” he answered quietly. He would say nothing more.

  Anna laid back against her bedroll and closed her eyes. She was still exhausted. When she opened her eyes a little while later, Kai was sitting talking to Sy and Spider. His aura was bronze stone. She wasn’t seeing things.

  She made her way over to them, keeping her eyes on Kai’s aura as she approached. The men turned to look at her. Kai’s aura switched to white.

  “What’s your gift?” she asked him, her eyes daring him to lie.

  “They termed it Attraction at school, but I also have a talent for stealing things. Basically, people like me. I use that to my advantage. To my master’s advantage.”

  “Your master?”

  He didn’t answer. Anna couldn’t read his aura at all. It had stayed quiet throughout his short speech. Expectant. Listening. The words had sounded honest, albeit abridged, but he could have been lying his head off.

  “I can’t Read your aura. It shifts when you look at different people. You reflect their own selves back at them.” She laughed. “It’s probably why they’re attracted to you.” The strange truth hit her that she had seen her own aura today. White. She would never have guessed.

  “Interesting,” he murmured. “No doubt we’ll talk more about this, but we need to make a move now we’re all up and
awake.”

  “Hang on,” Spider interrupted. “Do you see your own aura when you look at Finn?” he asked the girl.

  “Finn?” She noticed Kai glare at an apologetic Spider before turning to face her.

  “Kai is an alias I use sometimes. My real name is Finn.”

  Anna wondered what kind of people used aliases and what she’d got herself into, but Spider distracted her by repeating his question.

  “Your own aura, Anna? Do you see it when you look at Finn?”

  “I think I must. I can’t know for sure because I’ve never seen it before, but his aura changes when he looks at each of us.”

  “What does it look like? Your aura.”

  “White,” she answered. “Pure white.”

  The reply came in triplicate. “Interesting.” Clearly these men spent far too much time together.

  They set off hard and kept up the pace all day, stopping only to rest the horses. There was little time for talk. Anna felt unnerved by being unable to Read Kai/Finn or whatever his name was. She hadn’t realised just how much she relied on the tell-tale signs of truth and emotion in people’s auras. She had instinctively extended her trust of Spider and Sy to their friend, but she had no way to check the sense of this decision. She had no way to tell if he was using his gift to influence her.

  Finn sensed the Shaper’s unease and tried to reassure her. “I would never do anything to harm a friend.”

  Anna didn’t answer. She believed she was Spider’s friend. She believed she was Sy’s friend. She didn’t know if she was Finn’s friend.

  She looked over at the horses. Blue and Hope were as inseparable as ever, side by side as they grazed by the stream. Blue’s aura was once again a glorious green with no hint of depression. Hope’s was the palest green with quiescent whirlpools of colour. Both were content.

  “Look at Blue for me,” she asked Finn, curious to see if his gift extended to horses.

  He obliged, turning to focus on his loyal mount. “I haven’t thanked you for rescuing Blue,” he said, his face averted. “I am truly grateful. I don’t know what I would do without that horse. We’ve been through a lot together.”

  His aura was green, but not the emerald green of Blue’s. Instead it was a sea green, the kind of colour that Anna had seen the lagoon at Smithy Bay appear on a beautiful summer’s day. Sea green marred with the effects of being cooped up in a chest for days on end. He was weak and covered in bruises.

  “Please keep looking at Blue. Now tell me again that you won’t do anything to harm me.”

  “I would never do anything to harm a friend,” he repeated. His aura didn’t waver the slightest. He spoke the truth.

  “That’s not what I asked,” she challenged.

  “You can see my aura?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Then there’s little point in trying subtlety. The fact is that I don’t know you. From what Spider and Sy have said, you’re a good friend. But I know the stories of Shapers. I’ve read the books. I know what they’re capable of. If you’re truly a White Shaper, you may be one of the best friends that we could ever have, but I can’t know that until I know you.”

  “White Shaper?” she asked, suddenly desperate to start interrogating this man about everything he knew.

  He seemed puzzled by her ignorance. “How much do you know about Shapers?”

  “Next to nothing. I was heading to Ionantis when I met Spider and Sy. I wanted to know what I was.”

  “Going to Ionantis would be a mistake. If the Quorum knew you could Shape, they’d kill you immediately.”

  “Spider said that too. I don’t understand,” the girl said sadly. Finn felt his heart ache in response to her pain. She was only a child and a child who had been instrumental in saving his behind. He focused on addressing her questions. As long as there was no threat to The Kingdom, he would do what he could for her.

  “White and Black Shapers share the same abilities, but they have different motivations and, ultimately, different specialties and different goals. Very simply, Whites are good and Blacks are bad, but they start out the same. There’s no way to tell how a Shaper will develop. The official policy for the past three hundred years is not to take the chance.”

  “I’d like to think I’m a good person,” she said quietly.

  Finn gave her a small, heart-warming smile. “So would I. I certainly can’t see a Black Shaper causing themselves excruciating pain to Heal a friend or Healing random strangers for no benefit whatsoever. You’re of an age to be following one path over another, but from what I’ve heard, you’ve only just started to really develop your gift. I’m truly sorry, but I have to reserve judgement.”

  “You’re scaring me.”

  “You asked for honesty.”

  “Will you help me? Will you tell me what you know? Help me to be White?”

  “I’ll do my best,” he promised.

  With little time for talk as they rode on, Anna’s mind was free to think over the events of recent days and to endlessly ruminate on the questions she needed answers for. How did she find out if she was a White Shaper? If she couldn’t go to Ionantis, how could she get training in her gift? Why was the dagger more effective than her other Aurovian crystal? How did the peristones work? Why did she need them to defeat the black poison that had infected Spider and Sy? What was that blackness? Whose crest was on the black knife? Why would different groups of outlaws band together to attack a caravan protected by the King’s Guard? Who were Spider, Sy and Finn working for? What was their purpose?

  Her mind was boiling over by the time they stopped to make camp for the night. Distracted, it was only when she was rolling out her bedroll when it dawned on her that the sun was setting in the wrong part of the sky. They’d travelled miles past Sienna and in the wrong direction for the main road to Ionantis. Infuriated the men hadn’t bothered to consult her about the change in direction, she determined she would have some answers this evening or she would be parting company with them in the morning.

  The men took one glance at her face and made themselves busy. Anna looked around for someone to question. Only Sy was still in camp. He was about to start cooking. “Give me your hand, Sy. For everyone’s sake, it’s time that block came off.”

  “It’s like the world came back to life. Thank you, Anna,” he said politely when she’d done.

  “Tell me who you work for, Sy.”

  “I can’t say, but please believe me that we are on the right side.”

  She was inwardly cursing the tight lips around here when she heard footsteps coming from the trees behind her. She turned quickly, her hands on her hips, her elbows jutting out aggressively.

  Spider stopped dead at the sight of her. “I better get more kindling,” he muttered before dropping a huge pile of wood at his feet and turning tail.

  Anna nearly growled out loud. “Someone had better start talking or I’ll turn you all into newts,” she threatened at the top of her voice. “I have no idea how, but I swear by the light that I’ll find a way!”

  Finn laughed from behind her. It was a rich, husky sound that made her knees go weak and her resolve to push for answers almost melt away to nothing.

  She turned on him angrily. “That’s cheating,” she snapped.

  “What is?” he asked, his voice innocent, her reflected white aura no use in understanding what he was up to.

  “Don’t you dare use your gift on me!” she raged.

  “I didn’t!” he spluttered.

  Anna glared at him. Having that face and body, that voice and that laugh on top of a gift that supposedly made most people do whatever you wanted simply wasn’t fair. “We need to talk,” she growled at him.

  Finn held up his hands in surrender and Sy brought them two mugs of freshly brewed caffe. Finn sipped while Anna breathed in the rich scent and struggled to get her filthy mood under control.

  “Will you please look at Blue while we talk?” she eventually asked.

  Finn turned to
watch Blue napping next to Hope, his aura a sleepy emerald green.

  Anna looked back at Finn. His aura was now a calm, sea green. “How do White and Black Shapers’ auras differ?” she asked first.

  “As far as I know, both start out grey until a path is chosen. White Shapers’ auras turn white. Black Shapers’ auras turn a dark grey, almost black if they’re really strong.”

  “My aura is white,” she said with a massive sigh of relief, tears welling in her eyes. She wasn’t on some self-destructive path to evil.

  “So you say.”

  “So I sa… oh… None of you can see it.”

  “No.”

  “Who could?”

  “Any Reader, but they’re few and far between and they may not know the significance of what they saw.”

  “Would any of them have the clout to have the automatic death sentence lifted?”

  Finn thought for a moment before answering. “I know of two who could recommend the law changed, but there’s no guarantee they’d be listened to.”

  “Where do I find them?”

  Finn looked uncomfortable. His sea green swirled slightly, then settled. “One’s in Ionantis. One, I can’t tell you,” he said honestly.

  “You mean you can, but you won’t.”

  He just nodded. Frustrated, Anna tried a different avenue. At least she’d learned she was White and there was someone out there who could save her. “Who do you work for?”

  “We work for the King.”

  “King Rybris?”

  “Yes.”

  That she had not expected. She knew she’d be learning absolutely nothing more on that topic. Stumped, she switched tack. “Do you know anything about peristones?”

  “Sorry, not a lot. I have a vague recollection of an image from an old book I flicked through once. I think it showed a Shaper with light bursting from a stone they held in their hand. It might have been a peristone, but I could easily be wrong.”