Shadow Hunted (The Collector Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  Table of 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

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  Shadow Hunted

  The Collector Chronicles

  D.K. Holmberg

  ASH Publishing

  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

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  Carthenne Rel leaned over the bow of the ship as it sliced through the water, ignoring the salt as it sprayed up over the railings, inhaling deeply of warm air so different than that of her homeland. Sunlight glittered off the water, with the rippling waves seeming to sparkle. It was a sharp contrast to the dark-sailed vessel making its way toward them.

  “What should we do?” Jenna asked.

  She stood at the wheel of the Goth Spald, keeping them cutting through the waves. The ship was quick—once a smuggler’s vessel and now something quite different—and they could evade the oncoming ship if necessary, but Carth wanted to know more about the strange arrival. Everything they had learned had brought them here.

  The square sails were enormous—much larger than a ship its size needed—and it cut through the sea nearly as quickly as the Spald. Holes cut into the hull looked as if they were meant for weapons—or for oars. It wasn’t a merchant ship—at least, it wasn’t anything like she’d ever seen.

  “Keep our course,” Carth said.

  “That will take us directly into its path,” Jenna said.

  Carth glanced over at the raven-haired woman. “That’s the plan,” she said.

  “Do you think we’ll have to fight?” There was an eagerness to the question, which Carth tried to ignore.

  “Hopefully not. I’m still tired from the journey.” They had been sailing for several weeks, searching for information about why supply lines to the north had failed and why several of her ships had disappeared, but nothing in the northern part of the continent had provided any information. Then again, Carth hadn’t expected to learn anything there. Her own network—a group of women who had dubbed themselves the Binders—would have known were there something about that part of the world that could have been learned. The silence, which had been troubling, had been the reason Carth had needed to make this journey.

  Carth looked over the others standing on the deck of the Spald. She had a crew of four, including Jenna, all of whom had been with her for months and all selected not so much for their sailing abilities as for their other talents. None were quite as talented as Carth, but each of them offered other skills that she needed during this journey.

  “I didn’t think you needed so much rest,” Linsay said, approaching the railing and leaning forward. She had her chestnut hair pulled back into a thick braid and she wrinkled her nose as she stared at the oncoming ship. There wasn’t fear in her expression—none of the women feared a fight—but a distinct interest.

  Carth suspected that Linsay in particular would be interested in the strange ship coming their way. She was the archaist among them and, in the few months she’d traveled with them, had demonstrated considerable skill in identifying the various items they discovered. With a ship like what came toward them, they might need Linsay’s knowledge.

  “I don’t, but the last battle was only two days ago,” Jenna said.

  “Two days where you’ve done nothing,” Linsay said. “You’re getting lazy on the sea.”

  “Maybe the next time we face pirates, you could get involved.”

  Linsay shook her head. “That’s not my area of expertise.”

  “And what is your area of expertise?” Jenna asked.

  “Careful,” Carth said. She didn’t need her crew arguing, especially not with the ship bearing down on them. They would need to work together, except these women were the ones who needed the most help, which was the reason Carth had brought them with her. Had they not, it would have been easier to have left them with the rest of the Binders.

  Carth turned away from the railing and took the helm. “We’ll have plenty of opportunity to rest off any laziness when we reach the next port.”

  They were making their way along the coast, stopping in each port, searching for word about why ships had stopped traveling with supplies. The trade routes farther north of here were intact, but more southerly trade had become scarce. That seemed odd to Carth, odd enough that she needed to investigate.

  “What if we don’t find anything different?” Linsay asked. “We’ve been searching for word, anything that might explain this, but we haven’t come across anything. Maybe it’s time that we return to the Binders.”

  “Return?” Jenna said. “You’ve never been a part of the Binders.”

  “Careful,” Carth said again. She looked over at Alayna, who stood staring out at the sea, her hands gripping the railing. She alone avoided confrontation, and Carth needed her to take a greater leadership role. That was the reason she had come, not because she was some reclamation project—at least, not like the others.

  Jenna turned them slightly so that they would come at the ship from an angle. It was better than heading straight on, especially for boarding.

  “Do you think it makes sense to risk a fight?” Linsay asked.

  “You don’t have to be scared, especially not with the great Carthenne Rel,” Jenna said. There was an edge of sarcasm to her voice, and it would have made Carth uncomfortable if she didn’t know that this was the way Jenna coped. She had been through more than Carth yet knew, though she was determined to understand.

  “I don’t want to fight, but regardless of where I go, trouble always seems to find me,” Carth said.

  Alayna approached and leaned into Carth. She was stick thin, with none of Linsay’s curves, and had a pale complexion with pale brown hair, but it was her bright green eyes that were the most striking. Her mouth was quirked in a hint of a smile. “Have you ever considered that perhaps you are the one who brings trouble?”

  Carth grinned. Alayna was growing more skilled, especially with her assessmen
t of ways to defuse the tension between the others. “You’re the one to ask? I seem to remember how we met and how you were in the middle of—”

  “Carth!” Jenna shouted.

  Movement from the ship caught her attention and she looked up. An enormous ballista bolt rocketed toward them.

  “Alayna. Take the helm,” she said calmly and jumped to stand atop the bow railing while focusing her magic.

  Carth was shadow born, one of the few born with the ability to manipulate shadows, an ability that came from her father. She could sink into them, solidify them, or use them to strengthen her. It was an ability she had taught herself, not having anyone who knew enough about the shadow born abilities to demonstrate them to her, and she defaulted to using this power whenever challenged. It had saved her countless times over the years. There were others with the ability to borrow the shadows—shadow blessed—but they didn’t use them the same way that she did.

  She had another aspect to her magic that came from her mother’s side. Others who shared this ability called it the S’al magic. It was the power of fire and required her to focus a flame burning within her before she could pour it out. She had strength of fire and had spent years training with it, only to learn that she needed a focus for it.

  It was the S’al that she called upon now.

  Though she preferred to use the shadows, in the daylight—especially as bright as it was now—she had to use the S’al. It was difficult to control with as much finesse as she commanded with the shadows, but it would be helpful against the ballista bolt—if she focused it correctly. If not, she ran the risk of burning down the ship.

  “Carth?”

  She ignored Jenna, focusing the flame.

  When she unleashed it, it consumed the ballista bolt.

  The bolt exploded barely a boat length in front of them. Debris scattered off it, some of which struck the ship. Carth pulled the heat from the debris, keeping it from burning through the hull.

  “I guess they didn’t want to talk,” Jenna said. “Too bad, because they look like they would make for excellent conversation. I’m mostly interested in their style. I mean, look at those sails.”

  Carth snorted. “Stay here,” she said. She didn’t need Jenna or her impulsivity causing more difficulty. Jenna was a skilled fighter—that was one trait that Carth wanted to help her hone—but she struggled with controlling her temper.

  “And let you have all the fun?”

  “You’ve had plenty of fun,” she said.

  Carth focused on the edge of shadows found along the deck, borrowing from what she could find along the ship. She didn’t need much for what she planned—not nearly as much as what she would have needed to stop the bolt. Reaching for the shadows required her to draw from something within her, a darkness that she had never fully understood, in order to connect to the shadows. Somehow, that part of her that was shadow born was able to grab for the edge of shadows—or, when they were thick enough, she could use all of them—and gain great power.

  When she forged the connection to the shadows, she used it to push off, sending her flying across the sea.

  She’d practiced jumps like this countless times, enough that she knew how to gauge the distance, even taking into consideration the movement of the ship. There was still risk involved if she misjudged. She could go flying past her target—it was unlikely she would fall short—but she didn’t fear leaving the Spald to the others. Jenna and Alayna were incredibly skilled fighters, and Linsay was capable enough. Only Boiyn wasn’t much of a fighter, and his skill with herbs more than made up for that fact.

  Carth landed as the other ship readied another ballista bolt.

  The ballista was enormous, and they had it anchored to the deck and hurriedly prepared another round. She could stop another, but there was always the chance that she would misjudge. If that happened, one of her small crew might be placed in danger. Carth had lost too many she cared about to lose another through inaction.

  Within the span of a heartbeat, she surveyed the ship, taking stock of how many were aboard. She counted five on the deck and, using her connection to her S’al, could detect another three below. It was something she should have done before. Distance didn’t matter too much when using the S’al like that.

  Two men prepared another bolt.

  Carth spun to them and pushed out a burst of flame toward the ballista. The ballista exploded.

  She pulled the heat from the explosion, preventing it from reaching their ship. There was no reason for her to sink the ship—yet. That time might come, and it wouldn’t be the first ship she had been forced to sink, but she wouldn’t get the answers to her questions if she destroyed the sailors.

  Two other men leaped at her, swords unsheathed.

  Carth spun, pulling her sword from its sheath in a single movement, and blocked both of the attackers, forcing them back.

  She used the thick shadows on the deck, an advantage the enormous dark sails provided for her, in her attack. Even without the shadows, she was a skilled swordsman. She had trained with some of the best swordmasters in the world, men and women who called themselves the A’ras and who had trained her to fight without the need to rely only on her magic. There had been too many times when her magic had failed her and she had trained so that she wouldn’t be helpless were that to happen again.

  The men were decent swordsmen, but decent wasn’t enough.

  She forced them back with a series of attacks before wrapping them in the shadows and cracking the hilt of her sword on their temples.

  She spun, turning her attention back to the others.

  The two men who had been loading the ballista had recovered and both had scurried back, retreating to the railing. The other person on the deck—a young woman who barely came to Carth’s shoulders—clutched a jar to her chest.

  Carth eyed the jar and wrapped the woman in shadows before she could use whatever was in it. There had been too many times when powders had affected her, leaving her weakened. She had learned not to take any sort of powder too lightly—especially if they were anything like what Boiyn created.

  “You can have it,” the woman said as Carth leaped toward her. Her voice squeaked as she spoke, and Carth noticed that she trembled.

  “What is it?”

  “He can have it. Just don’t kill us.”

  Carth grabbed the jar. Boiyn would have to study it to determine what it was and whether there was anything in it that would be dangerous. If this was what they protected, it must be valuable. She wouldn’t have stolen it—they weren’t pirates—but the circumstances didn’t give her much of a choice.

  “What is it?”

  The woman trembled as she shook her head. “Please. I—I don’t want to die. The Collector can have it back.”

  Collector? What had she stumbled into?

  Was this why she hadn’t heard from several of her ships? Was there someone who was attacking them?

  “How did you take this?” Carth needed to find out more, and the best way to do so might be to let the woman think she worked for this Collector.

  As she often did when trying to come up with a plan, she thought of a game board. She had learned strategy by playing a game called Tsatsun, a game that required skilled players to think dozens of moves in advance. Carth could plan at least a hundred or more and could see dozens of different possibilities. Few played, and of those, she had yet to find someone who challenged her.

  “We had—”

  “Kiara!” one of the men shouted.

  Kiara turned to him and shook her head, her eyes wide and beseeching the man. “She’s going to kill us if we don’t tell her.”

  “She’ll kill us either way. If you say anything, you expose those who still might oppose him.”

  “Tell me and I won’t kill you.” Carth leaned toward the woman and met her eyes. “Or don’t. At least by telling me, you have the chance of survival. It’s your choice.”

  The woman—girl, really—trembled again. Cart
h hated addressing her with such venom, but they had attacked her first. “We have a person inside,” she said hurriedly. “They helped us get it out.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “If I tell you, they’re dead.”

  “If you don’t, then you are. Whose life is more valuable?”

  The woman stared at her, more defiance in her gaze than had been there before. Whoever their insider was, this Kiara cared about them. Experience had taught her that she wouldn’t get someone like that to share—especially if she feared protecting someone she cared about.

  “Fine. Don’t tell me.” She turned to one of the men near the railing. He had dark hair and a thick beard. “You. Go get the others from below.”

  He shook his head. “There aren’t any below.”

  Carth glared at him, putting as much anger into the expression as she could. “If I go down, they’re dead. Which way do you want this to go?”

  “There aren’t—”

  “I’ll go,” Kiara said. “Please. Let me go.”

  Carth studied her a moment. Could she trust that Kiara wouldn’t go and destroy whatever was below deck? The woman came across as meek, but there was an edge to her.

  “Go, but be quick about it.”

  Kiara nodded and hurried below. Carth strode across the deck, surveying everything around her but keeping an eye on the shadows in case she were to need them. She didn’t know whether she would or not, and she seemed to have everything under control for now, but she had seen how even that could change in an instant.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  The man speaking leaned on the railing, looking at her. His face had already taken on some bruising. Carth would have felt worse were it not for the fact that they had attempted to destroy her ship.