Shadow Games (The Collector Chronicles Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Epilogue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  Shadow Games

  The Collector Chronicles

  D.K. Holmberg

  ASH Publishing

  Copyright © 2017 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover art by Damonza

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  www.dkholmberg.com

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  Wind whipped off the ocean, twisting Carth’s hair and sending it flicking into her face. She grabbed it and clasped it behind her head, tucking it into her cloak as she surveyed the city from the rooftop. From here, she was able to look out over Keyall. She thought that she could sense movement, but everything that she detected was faint, almost muted compared to what it should be. There was a strangeness about Keyall, and she still wasn’t certain what it meant.

  “We haven’t seen any sign of her,” Alayna said. She crouched next to Carth, stationary on the rooftop, neither of them moving, not wanting to do anything to draw attention to themselves in the night.

  “Not yet, but we will,” Carth said.

  “What happens when you find her?”

  She glanced over at Alayna. Even in the faint moonlight, she was able to make out her deep green eyes and wondered what she Saw. Alayna had the gift of foresight, a gift of her people that granted her the ability to glimpse possibilities. Was she using it now?

  “I haven’t decided what happens,” Carth said.

  “Do you intend to harm her?”

  Carth took a steadying breath. “You know me, Alayna. Do you think that I would harm her?”

  “If she’s working with the Collector, I am not certain what you might do.”

  “I still don’t know who is working with the Collector. Someone is, and is feeding information to him.”

  “But maybe they’re not,” Alayna said. There was a distant sound of a cat meowing in the night and Alayna tensed briefly before shaking her head and looking over at Carth. “Maybe the Collector has figured things out and has figured out some way of maneuvering around you.”

  “If that’s the case, then I’m even more concerned,” Carth said.

  “Why?”

  “Because I can’t figure out the game.”

  Alayna smiled. She had thin lips, and they barely parted as she did. “The game? Carth—this is us you’re talking about. This is the people of Keyall that you’re talking about. Whatever is happening here with the Collector is something other than a game.”

  “I think it would be, but everything feels coordinated.” Carth couldn’t shake the way that she felt, and she couldn’t explain it—not easily. Only that she felt as if she were maneuvering through a dance that she didn’t know all the moves to. When she thought of it as a game, it made it easier—and harder. as much as she wished that everything didn’t feel like Tsatsun, it felt as if that’s exactly what everything was.

  And she had thought she was the master of Tsatsun.

  “And you’re now convinced that this merchant that we’ve encountered is the Collector?”

  “I don’t know who else it might be,” she said. “If it’s not him, then it’s someone like him. It’s someone who has a connection to the city.”

  “Why would he have wanted to destroy trade to Keyall?”

  That was a question Carth had struggled with. “Because doing so allows him to draw more power to himself. If he consolidates trade, enforces it through him—and his army of smugglers—then he gains the upper hand and becomes indispensable.” It was the same reason that she thought the smugglers had been hired to work against the constables. Not only did it force a division, but it weakened the constables. When the Collector came in, he could consolidate that power as well.

  It was clever. Carth hated that she felt that way, but there was no denying the fact that it was a sophisticated move.

  Even the appearance of sacrifice had been a sophisticated move. The Collector had sent his own people, integrating them with the smugglers, attempting to create a diversion. It had almost worked on her.

  “And this Talia?”

  “I can’t shake that I feel she’s the key to it all,” Carth said. “I don’t know whether she is or not, only that she’s tied to it somehow.”

  And it frustrated her that she wasn’t able to figure out where to find Talia. She had hidden, and ever since the moment Carth had begun to suspect her, she had been difficult to find. It was enough to confirm Carth’s suspicions.

  “You have Jenna searching through the streets, but I don’t know that she’s in the right place for looking for someone like this.”

  “I know, but she’s also not ready to spend time scouting with us,” Carth said. “It’s better for her to search alone, to feel as if she’s important in this. She needs to find a way to calm herself.”

  “And if she can’t?”

  “She will. I don’t intend to have Boiyn continued to mix elixirs for her until I am confident that she is well enough to handle them.”

  “Are you sure that Boiyn has agreed to that?”

  “Boiyn has agreed that he will help her in any way that he can.” Partly it was because Boiyn felt responsible, though he shouldn’t
, not really. It wasn’t Boiyn’s fault that Jenna had been tormented the way that she had, and it wasn’t Boiyn’s fault that his enhancements had muted her the way that they had. If anything, it was Carth’s fault that she had forced him to let her use them, and she was willing to take the blame for it.

  She felt movement against her senses and darted across the rooftops.

  She didn’t need to wait for Alayna, knowing that she would follow. It was reassuring that Alayna could follow so easily. Then again, Alayna had been using Boiyn’s enhancements, and that granted her many of the same traits that Carth possessed using her magic.

  When she reached the edge of the rooftop, she pressed off with the shadows, jumping to the next roof. She glanced back, noting that Alayna sailed over the distance between the roofs and landed in a roll next to her. Alayna looked up with a smile.

  “There are times when I really enjoy what Boiyn has done,” Alayna said.

  “I think you always enjoy what Boiyn has done,” Carth said.

  “Maybe.”

  She could only shake her head. The elixirs were created out of various naturally occurring compounds, combined in a way that granted various enhancements. Boiyn was a master at mixing them and continued to study, working on other ways that he could add to those enhancements. His quarters on the ship were essentially a laboratory, and it rivaled anything that Carth had with her Binders, even in places like Asador.

  “Come on,” she said, noticing movements again.

  She raced across the rooftop and was drawn toward a familiar pressure on her senses. Using both shadows and the flame in the way that she did, mixing them so that she could pick up on such distinctions, she was able to identify the familiarity that was Talia. She recognized that her abilities were less effective here—but they were effective enough to enable her to recognize Talia, and that was what she needed.

  She passed a series of ruins that a line of priests made their way through. They wore dark robes—reminding her of the constables—and one of them chanted softly, though Carth couldn’t make out the words. Another time, she might try, and she might get close enough so that she could see what they were doing and saying, but now that she had discovered Talia, she had no luxury of time.

  They raced toward the shore. The buildings ended here and Carth hesitated, looking out. Why would Talia have come here?

  She was certain that she detected her, though maybe her abilities failed her, especially muted as they were in this city.

  “Are you sure this is the right place?” Alayna asked.

  “It’s the only place I can find that makes sense,” Carth said. “It’s the only place that I’ve found that there’s anything here to detect.”

  “Why here?”

  Carth looked around. There was nothing. They were on the outskirts of the city, only ruins—the remains of the city itself, at least the earliest parts—collected here. Much of the ruins were made of a strange black rock, the same kind of rock that comprised the towering cliffs that looked out over the sea.

  “This doesn’t feel right, Carth,” Alayna said.

  “Why wouldn’t it feel right?”

  “We’ve searched for her for the last few weeks and you’ve found nothing. Now after all this time, you suddenly find her and you’re suddenly able to track her here?”

  Carth swore to herself. Alayna was right, and it bothered her that Alayna would see it while Carth did not. How was it possible that she had been dragged out here? There had to be some purpose.

  “We need to move carefully,” she said.

  “If the Collector is here—” Alayna started.

  “If the Collector is here, then I don’t want you to rush in too quickly. If there is anything that will put you in danger, I want you to make sure that you let me head in first.”

  “And by that, you mean you want the first shot at the Collector.”

  “It’s not about wanting a shot at the Collector,” she said. “It’s more about wanting to ensure that there’s no other tricks planned. I don’t really know what he’s intending, but there is something going on here.”

  She tried thinking about what the Collector might intend in allowing Talia to draw her out here. The problem was that Carth couldn’t think of anything. Unless Talia wanted to have a conversation with Carth and she wanted to make sure that she did so outside of the constables’ attention. That might make sense. Anything else simply did not.

  “Do you think he’s really after the Elder Stone?”

  Carth didn’t know the answer. Everything she’d been led to believe told her that the Elder Stone might not even be real. Boiyn believed, but Boiyn believed in many mystical things and though he was incredibly intelligent, it was marred by a strange sort of faith that Carth didn’t share. The fact that Linsay didn’t believe in the Elder Stone made it more likely to be a myth of some sort. That, and the fact that the constable had made it clear that there was nothing of magical value in Keyall.

  Still, there was the fact that Carth’s magic didn’t work quite the way it did in other places. That had to matter, though she wasn’t sure why or how.

  “I don’t even know what to make of the Elder Stone. If the Collector is after it, and if it’s real, I don’t think he should be allowed to reach it.”

  “And if he does?”

  “If he does, then I have to understand what it is that he’s after, why he might be after it, and…”

  “And?”

  Carth sighed, pressing out with shadows and the flame again, feeling for the connection to Talia. She was there, close. Carth couldn’t shake the fact that Talia hadn’t moved, not even a little, and that troubled her. It was almost as if Talia wanted to be found. But why now? Why not earlier, when Carth was actively looking for her?

  “If there is such a thing as an Elder Stone, then I will have to do whatever I can to prevent the Collector from reaching it.”

  Carth had started forward when she felt a buildup of heat.

  It came on her senses as a grating sort of awareness. She had detected such buildups several times before. Always before, it had occurred on ships, and always before, it had been tied to the Collector. There hadn’t been any additional explosions in the time that she had remained in Keyall.

  Not until now.

  Carth pushed out with her connection to the S’al.

  She dropped her connection to the shadows entirely so that she could focus only on the flame. It burned within her. Unlike the shadows, where Carth had to use a connection to an internal darkness to pull on the external shadows, the flame was all about her. She was connected to some magic deep within, something burning within the blood that she shared with her long-lost mother.

  Power exploded.

  “Carth?” Alayna asked.

  She glanced over and realized that she was standing. It didn’t matter. The explosion lit up the night, and Carth wondered whether she would be visible regardless of whether she stood.

  Flames tore through something down near the shore. A ship.

  With a dawning horror, she knew exactly why Talia had drawn her out here.

  “Stay here and track her. I want to know where she goes.”

  “Where are you going?”

  Carth nodded toward the flames burning in the port.

  “There’s nothing you can do, not without Boiyn’s concoction, and it will take him too long to mix more up.”

  “I don’t think it matters, not anymore,” Carth said.

  “Why?”

  “Because that’s my ship. Our ship. That is the Goth Spald burning down there.”

  As Alayna gasped, Carth jumped off the rooftop, powered by shadows and flame. When she reached the rocky overlook, she stared down at the water. Pulling on a connection to the shadows and to the flame, she exploded and soared out over the water, angling toward her burning ship.

  Even as she did, she knew it was too late. Her ship was gone. Her home was gone.

  2

  Carth found Boiyn floating in th
e sea, clinging to nothing more than a bench. He was alive but barely breathing, and had a burn across his hands.

  When she dragged him into a dinghy she’d stolen from a local merchant, he blinked up at her.

  “My supplies…”

  “They’re gone. Everything’s gone. We’ll get you back and then figure out what we’re going to do next.”

  Carth rowed them toward the shore, bypassing the docks and pulling the dinghy directly up to the water’s edge. She didn’t need the dinghy. She didn’t have a ship anymore, which meant that they were stranded here unless she was willing to steal one of the ships docked in Keyall. It wasn’t that she was opposed to stealing a ship—Carth had done that before—but the idea of leaving before she had finished things with the Collector left her with a strange sense of disgust.

  As they made their way toward the city, Boiyn looked back at the docks. “How are we going to get you back to Asador?”

  “We’re not. Not yet.”

  “What of the others?”

  “They’re staying here.”

  “Carthenne—”

  Carth shook her head. “They’ve agreed to stay here, Boiyn.”

  “Only because they know that you would want to,” he told her.

  Carth knew that to be true. The others would do what they thought she wanted. Would they feel the same as her? She already knew that they would do what they thought she wanted.

  “It doesn’t matter. Not now.”

  “There are other ways for you to return to Asador,” Boiyn said.

  “There are.”

  “But you don’t intend to take them.”