Shadow Found (The Shadow Accords Book 6) 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

  About the Author

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  Shadow Found

  The Shadow Accords

  D.K. Holmberg

  ASH Publishing

  Copyright © 2017 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover by Rebecca Frank

  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.

  If you want to be notified when D.K. Holmberg’s next novel is released and get free stories and occasional other goodies, please sign up for his mailing list by going here. Your email address will never be shared and you can unsubscribe at any time.

  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

  About the Author

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  Carth swung the longsword in a sweeping arc. It was met by a thick-armed woman by the name of Jesse, who caught Carth’s sword and deflected it downward. Carth didn’t use all the skill she possessed, not wanting to overwhelm Jesse. Instead, she toyed with her. How else would the woman learn?

  She had blunted the edge using the shadows, a trick she had discovered during one of her earliest training bouts, while wanting to find a way to actually use a sword as they trained. A blade blunted by the shadows could still hurt, and Jesse had many bruises where Carth’s blade had struck.

  All of the women of Reva she trained did.

  Jesse grunted as she swung again, lunging forward, this time with an angry glint in her eyes.

  Carth took a step back, sliding on the shadows as she did, bringing her blade around in a swift movement. Using her sword this way, she was able to deflect the attack and turn Jesse’s sword towards the ground. Swinging around, she caught her with the flat edge of her knife.

  Jesse dropped her sword and raised her hands. “That’s not fair!”

  Carth sheathed her knife. She motioned to the sword lying on the grassy area where they had been practicing. The area was set in between two buildings, their high, sloped roofs arched away, making it difficult for anyone to climb across them. It would be difficult for anyone not in one of the buildings to observe what was taking place in here, and Carth controlled both of the buildings.

  “That’s just the point. Fighting is unfair. When you’re fighting another person, the goal is victory. There’s nothing ethical or moral about the way you fight. Someone stabs a knife into you, or cuts you with a sword, you’ll die. Is your death worth fighting fairly?”

  Jesse picked up her sword and stared at the blade, saying nothing. Dara made her way over and offered a wide smile. Jesse looked up and gave her a relieved smile.

  Many of the women of Reva responded better to Dara than to Carth. Carth was too intense, though her intensity was well founded. She knew what needed to happen, knew that she needed that intensity. If she didn’t have it, then others died. She wasn’t about to sacrifice others for the sake of not hurting their feelings.

  Dara reached for Carth’s sword, and Carth arched a brow before handing it to her. Dara stepped back into a ready stance, smiling to Jesse as she did. “You just have to be ready for anything. Even if it’s not what you think you’ll expect.”

  Dara jumped, drawing on a trickle of her Lashasn ability, and exploded into the air.

  A soft glow came to her skin, one Carth might be the only one to see. When Dara landed, she twisted, coming around with her sword in a sweeping arc.

  It was a fighting style that Carth had taught her. There was a power to it, one that came from the way she utilized her abilities, drawing upon the flame, and augmenting her strength and skill. It was much the same as the way Carth used the shadows. Dara’s skill had grown in the time since she’d been held captive. They didn’t often speak of it, but Carth knew the captivity had triggered something for Dara, a desire to be ready so she couldn’t be overwhelmed again.

  Jesse laughed as she blocked Dara’s attack. “That’s… that’s amazing!”

  Dara smiled. “I don’t think you’ll be able to do anything quite like that, but you can be ready. You can learn to use your sword; you can learn to fight in such a way that, even if someone were to surprise you with an unexpected ability, you’d be able to counter it.”

  Jesse nodded, this time with less of the irritation she’d displayed when Carth had said something very similar.

  “Now, let’s try this again. I want you to be prepared for whatever might come your way. Know that you won’t—you can’t—expect all the attacks I might throw at you.”

  They began their practice again.

  Jesse focused with renewed intensity, though Dara handled her easily. Dara had improved so much, but she had spent hours working with Carth in order to do so. If only she could reach all the women the same way she taught Dara, but she didn’t have the same connection to them Dara managed so easily.

  They’d been training them for the last month to build up skill, having chosen Reva as the next stop in their network along the coast. Carth was determined to have a thorough network in place as quickly as possible. It was the only way she would be ready to counter the threat of the Hjan.

  Her claiming the C’than had been a start, but a dangerous one. Eventually, she would need to understand what that meant, though Carth suspected her claiming the C’than had been Ras’s plan all along. The damned man might even have tricked her into believing she’d defeated him playing Tsatsun.

  She needed information in these lands and Asador had shown her the key to obtaining it. Connections. That was the key for Carth.

  The coast was the most logical starting point, considering ships moved in and out, and rumors spread quickly in places like this. Once she had her network in place, they could prepare to better know what the Hjan might intend. It was all part of being able to see the board more clearly.

  Carth watched another pair practicing, their swords
blunted by Dara’s Lashasn connection. She could practically forge and reforge the swords using the power of the flame, heating it in such a way that the metal softened. It blunted them in much the same way as Carth did when she used her shadows on them.

  Finally, she turned away and entered the nearest building. The inside was a wide room, as much apothecary as anything else. It reminded Carth of some of the herbalist shops she had seen in Nyaesh, filled with herbs and spices and leaves and oils, all mixed together and used in such a way as to help not only heal these women, but augment some of their abilities.

  They were lessons taught to her by Hoga before she’d escaped. Thankfully, Carth had enough knowledge—and skill in mixing medicines—that what she’d learned from Hoga allowed her to empower these women. That was her intent. She wanted them to be stronger than they had been.

  Had she not lost Hoga…

  The woman was smart and had disappeared into the city. Finding her was something else Carth was determined to finish. The woman still had a penance to serve for the way she’d tormented others, sending women into slavery, essentially on behalf of the Hjan.

  Hoga would not be pleased when Carth found her again.

  The other side of the apothecary connected to a tavern, and she took a seat. There was noise and commotion, the kind she had known from her time in Nyaesh at the Wounded Lyre.

  Carth listened to the sound of the tavern. It was a gentle cacophony of noise with familiar rhythm to it. There was a certain joy in being in the tavern that came from her experiences after she’d lost her mother and had thought she’d lost her father. They had been difficult times, but there had been safety in the Lyre as well. That was the last time Carth had known real safety.

  Now she was in the tavern for different reasons. This was her place, a place where those who worked and served with her could help protect others. It was her way of providing a place of safety. Others deserved that as much as Carth had when she was younger.

  She sat alone until the door opened and Dara entered and joined her, carrying two mugs and setting them on the table. Dara leaned back and took a long sip, but said nothing.

  “Are you going to sit there drinking, or are you going to tell me what’s bothering you?” Carth asked.

  Dara looked up from her mug of ale, a hint of a smile on her face. “After what happened out there, I’m not sure you should be the one to speak.”

  Carth shook her head. “Me? You’re the one who came in here sulking.”

  “Sulking?” She laughed and ran her hand through her pale hair. “That’s not it. I’m tired. You have me training them hard.”

  “That bothers you?”

  “Not that.”

  “What, then?”

  Dara sighed. “It’s been… too quiet.”

  Carth grinned. “I would think that after everything we’ve been through, having a little quiet might do us well.”

  Dara scanned the tavern. “I’m just concerned that—”

  “You worry about that Hjan?”

  Dara nodded. “I haven’t wanted to say anything. I know how you get about them.”

  “And how do I get?”

  Dara looked down at her mug. “You get… impulsive. They’ve hurt you. And you’re scared of them. That’s why you push.” She looked up, meeting Carth’s eyes. “I don’t disagree with what you’re doing. Far from it. These women… they want the safety you provide. It’s just…”

  “Just what?”

  “That you need to see what you’re doing. You pushed me. Now you’re pushing them. What happens if you push too hard?”

  “The only way to get stronger, and better, is to push. Do you think the Hjan aren’t doing the same?”

  “There’s the truce.”

  “Truce. They do the same thing as I’m doing. They’re planning their next move. They’re moving pieces around them. They’re getting ready, the same as us.”

  “They haven’t done anything. There’s been no attack. There’s been nothing.”

  It was almost enough to trouble Carth, but there was peace.

  And she had been the reason for the peace. The accords had been her. Now she had to maintain it. “Not yet.”

  “What if they don’t?” Dara leaned forward, holding Carth’s eyes. “What if an attack never comes? When will you decide they won’t?”

  Carth inhaled deeply and glanced around the tavern. Her eyes took in women wandering from table to table, a confidence to them they hadn’t had before. “Even if they never attack, our preparations will have allowed these women—and others like them—to protect themselves. If nothing else, that’s valuable.”

  Dara nodded slowly, taking a sip of her ale. “It is.”

  Carth didn’t want to argue with Dara about the Hjan. She didn’t want to tell her that just because there was peace, the Hjan hadn’t stopped preparing. Eventually, she suspected they would make another move, and she needed to be ready. Those she cared about needed to be ready.

  “We’ve been here nearly a year,” Dara started.

  “We haven’t been here for nearly a year. We’ve only been in Reva for the last month.” Carth continued looking at the women in the tavern. The women of Reva had dark skin and quick smiles, making them naturals for what Carth intended. They were friendly, and there was an easy-going nature about them, one that allowed them to gather information.

  It was like this in most of the places where Carth had established her network. She helped the women become independent, preventing them from being used, and asked only information—which they willingly provided—in return. It required an interconnectedness, but that gave them a sense of purpose, and didn’t require them to rely on the kindness of travelers as they once would have.

  If nothing else, Carth had seen during her travels throughout the north and the south that she couldn’t simply sit back and watch as others were placed in danger. Too many places used women, putting them in a position of weakness. She would see them in a place of strength.

  “Not Reva. But we’ve been in the south for nearly a year. Don’t you think it’s been long enough? When do you intend to return north?”

  Carth cupped her hands around her mug. Returning north had always been the intent. It was her home, but that wasn’t where she was needed. The A’ras protected the north. The Reshian, too, in their own way. Who watched over the southern lands protecting them from the Hjan?

  So far, she’d seen no one.

  The longer she was here in the south, the more she realized these people were in just as much danger. The A’ras had power of their own, even if they were somewhat limited in how they could use it to protect themselves from the Hjan. The Reshian, those who could use the shadows, were protected by the nature of their abilities. It was that ability that the Hjan feared, and why they had wanted them either under their control, or destroyed. Both were safe—for now—because of the accords.

  The southern lands didn’t have the same safety.

  “We’ll be here as long as it takes to get established. I think if we leave too soon, we run the risk of the Hjan regaining their strength.”

  Dara looked back down to her glass. Something troubled her, something that she didn’t want to say.

  “Out with it,” Carth said. “Why are you focusing on our return?”

  “It’s… it’s my sister. Not only my sister, but all of my family. We’ve been away for so long. At first it wasn’t an issue. I thought we would return, so I didn’t worry about it. But the longer we’re here, the easier it is to remain.”

  Carth met her gaze. “I didn’t realize being away bothered you.”

  “It didn’t. Not at first. There is so much that I wanted to learn, that you could teach me. And I’ve grown so much in my skills. But…”

  Carth nodded. She knew where this was going. It was different for her. She’d been alone since she was twelve. She had spent time on the streets, living in a place like the Wounded Lyre, and then moving on to train with the A’ras, but even that had not
been home. Then, when she had left the city, presumably to train with the Reshian, she had been abducted, once more forced on her own.

  Now she no longer felt as if there were a real place for her to call home. Home was wherever she happened to be, and for the most part, home was aboard the ship. It was the kind of home she could move from port to port, a place that was fitting for her. Even when she’d been younger, even when her parents had still lived, she had moved from place to place, traveling, never settling, all because the Hjan had chosen to destroy Ih-lash.

  Carth should be resentful, and a part of her was resentful. She had wanted only to know peace and relaxation, but it was something she had never been allowed to have. She would never be able to settle down, to know the warmth of a hearth in a home. Yet at the same time, had she not wandered from Ih-lash, had she not lost her parents, had she not been forced to work with the A’ras and face the danger of the Hjan, would she ever have learned what she was capable of doing? Would she ever have helped as many people as she had?

  Carth was not foolish enough to be thankful for what the Hjan had done, but she was aware enough to recognize that what had come from it was not all bad. In fact, the Hjan might have helped her become the person necessary to destroy them. And she would destroy them.

  “I can get you back to the north. We can find your family.”

  Dara shook her head. “We don’t have to change the plans you’ve made. I know what we’re doing here is important. I just… I just want to be ready to return when we’re able to do so.”

  Carth took another drink of ale, forcing a smile. “Of course. When things settle down, I’ll make certain that we get you back to the north.”