The Shadow Accords Box Set: Books 1-3 Read online

  Instead of collecting scraps, Carth remained in the darkness of the alleys, trying to cloak herself, practicing using the shadows during the daytime. It wasn’t as easy in the daylight, or as effective. Better, then, to sneak quietly as her father had taught her.

  Then at night, she continued to work on trying to move as she held on to her shadow cloak, but so far had not managed to do it any more effectively than she had before. The only time she’d come close was when she had been in the river, floating with the current, but then she hadn’t needed to be the one to move. She needed to master it if she was going to find out what Jhon knew of her parents.

  Carth made her way toward the docks. Since she’d brought Taryn to the Lyre, Hal had been off. Almost agitated, but that didn’t seem quite right. Jumpy. Whatever it was he hadn’t shared with her bothered him.

  With her ability with shadows, she decided to find out the answers on her own. The ship where the men had tried taking Taryn might be gone, but there were others like it, and other Thevers, men like those who had attempted to drag her away. Carth didn’t need to attack someone to discover answers. All she needed was to stay in the shadows and listen.

  As darkness fell, she moved slowly along the street. A girl like herself would be out of place at this time of night, but she stayed toward the edge of buildings as she carefully moved forward, using the techniques her parents had taught her about moving silently.

  No sudden movements. Avoid bright light. Wear dark-colored clothing. All of those were lessons she had taken from her father. When she had done each of those things, she still hadn’t managed to follow her father. Now that she knew about her ability with shadows, she wondered if he had something similar. Was that the reason he’d pushed her as hard as he had?

  Now she would never know. In some ways, not knowing that part of her father hurt more than losing him.

  Carth leaned against the wall of one of the warehouses lining the street. A wide doorway created even deeper shadows near her, but she wasn’t willing to risk someone seeing her if they came out the doorway. Standing at the edge of the building would be hidden enough.

  From here, she could see the street and watch the ships tied to the docks. A few had lanterns lit, pale light drifting through the portholes. Shadows occasionally moved in front of them, but then disappeared again. Other ships were completely darkened. At first, she focused on the ships where she saw light and movement, but she wondered if she shouldn’t be watching the ships where she saw nothing. Hadn’t the ship that had wanted to claim Taryn been shaded?

  Carth waited, not moving, the cloak of shadows pulled around her, keeping her obscured from anyone passing by. There was a strange, muted sense when she stayed in the shadows like this, one that did not prevent her from hearing footsteps across the stones, or the sound of the water as it rushed along the shore, but somehow made sounds that didn’t belong stand out.

  Movement on one of the ships caught her attention.

  No lanterns lit the ship, and she saw nothing at first other than the outline of the vessel. The darkness around it made it difficult to determine what else there might be. Then a shadow moved nearby as the smugglers moved cargo onto the deck.

  Curiosity made her bold.

  Carth drew the shadows around her, pulling the cloak of shadows as much as she could. As she did, the darkness around the ship eased, almost as if drawing the shadows away made it easier for her to see. The outline of two men stood on the deck of the ship.

  Had they been there before?

  She couldn’t tell. The longer she stared, the clearer it became that there was something other than the two men on the ship, though Carth couldn’t see it well, even as the shadows receded.

  What she wanted was to cross the street and get closer, but doing so risked exposing her. When she learned to hide within the shadows and still move, she wouldn’t have to worry quite as much, but that was a part of her ability she hadn’t discovered yet. Maybe it wasn’t possible, though Jhon had alluded to the fact that it was.

  Instead, she had to release the shadows, if only briefly. Doing so put her at risk, but if she wanted to see what else might be across the street, she would have to take that risk.

  The need to understand why the men had grabbed Taryn pushed her. There was something about that she didn’t understand, the same reason Hal protected them, risking himself searching for families for the strays.

  She let go of the shadows.

  They drifted away from her, easing slowly.

  Carth trailed the departing darkness, staying as much within it as she could. She crossed the street, keeping pace with the darkness, pausing long enough to pull on the cloak of shadows. When she released it again, she followed it onto the dock, finally stopping next to the ship.

  As she stood here, she pulled at the edge of shadows again. In moments, they swirled around her. A moment of concern for whether she was where she should be struck her, and words that Jhon had said to her during one of their sessions resonated in her mind, similar to lessons her father had taught. There is an art to the darkness. Shadows cannot be where they should not be.

  Had she created shadows that were where they should not be? She didn’t think so. Alongside the ship where she stood, shadows naturally trailed away, stretching not only out onto the dock, but around the water as well. It was something she had to think about, not wanting to risk making herself more visible.

  Muted voices came from the deck of the ship.

  “When do you think he’ll come?” Carth heard. The man’s voice was harsh and had an accent that made it seem like he came from the north.

  “Said it would be tonight.”

  “That doesn’t give us much time.”

  “Time enough. You know what happened with that last crew.”

  “They failed. That’s on them.”

  There came the sound of boots softly stepping across wood. “That’s not what I heard. I heard the A’ras caught them.”

  “Careful using that word,” the other man said.

  “You’re as bad as the locals.”

  “Only because I’ve seen what they do.”

  Carth wanted to see the men, wishing she could somehow get a different vantage, but that would require climbing onto the ship. Risking herself by coming this close was bad enough. Attempting to climb on board would be true folly.

  “They don’t worry about the A’ras, so I don’t either.”

  Something pressed on her, as if trying to separate her from the darkness. Carth backed up to the edge of the dock, her heels hanging almost over the edge, where she could practically feel the wood of the ship behind her. Another step and she might fall into the water. Natural shadows surrounded her, and she used these to draw even more darkness around her.

  “You should worry about more than the A’ras.”

  This was a new voice, distracting her from the strange sense she had of the shadows failing her.

  Boots scuffed across the deck and then stopped. “You’re early,” the northerner said.

  “I am when I am.” The newcomer had a cold tone to his voice, and something about it seemed familiar, though Carth didn’t know why that should be.

  “We didn’t mean—”

  “I don’t care what you meant, but you would be foolish to dismiss the A’ras so easily. The Hjan do not.”

  “We weren’t saying that they—”

  Carth felt more pressure on the shadows, and the protection around her parted. She felt it disappear with a sudden rush, leaving her standing only in the natural shadows without the benefit of the cloak.

  What happened? Was there a limit to how long she could hold on to the shadows? She hadn’t detected any before, but that didn’t mean that one didn’t exist. When she’d used the shadows, the biggest struggle had been simply gathering them to her, creating the cloak. Now that she’d grown more comfortable with it, that process had become easier for her.

  “What happened the other night?” the northerner asked.
<
br />   “We are still trying to determine that.”

  “You don’t know? Thought it was the damn A’ras.”

  “Ranud…”

  “What?” the northerner—Ranud—asked. “Can’t keep up this smuggling if they’re gonna get so close. We need to know what we’re facing, even if it’s something as simple as an accident.”

  “It ain’t no accident. You saw what happened to his arm.”

  Carth tensed. They were talking about the man she’d stabbed in the arm when she’d rescued Taryn, his flesh turning black from the poison on the knife.

  “That was not an accident, but it is not clear whether the A’ras attacked, either. They have been limited from this part of the city, as we agreed.”

  Limited?

  She crept along the side of the ship, knowing that she shouldn’t. Even walking here put her at risk of exposure. It would be bad enough were the men to reach her, but if the other man—one who spoke easily about the A’ras, as if unconcerned about their presence—caught her…

  There weren’t many that she’d met who were unconcerned by the A’ras. Jhon and the others like him were not. The man she’d seen when her mother was killed. That was it. She still hadn’t discovered whether Jhon was with Felyn or whether he was only with the man who had grabbed her that day.

  A slender ladder led up to the deck. Carth grabbed one of the lower rungs and pulled herself up, listening for the voices of the men on the ship as she did. They were still there, but distantly, although not muted as they had been when she was shrouded. Strange that she actually seemed to hear them better when she used the shadows.

  When she neared the railing, she hesitated. She didn’t want to risk being seen here. Carth searched for the edge of shadows and found it far from her, nearly to the street, and used that sense to pull it toward her, wrapping herself as much as she could in the shroud.

  The effort in doing that was much more than usual.

  Carth continued to pull, for the first time feeling the effort of straining at it. Spots formed in her vision, and when the shadows came free, she almost let out a soft gasp, tearing the shadows into her.

  Darkness surrounded her.

  It came on suddenly, and so fully that she knew immediately that she’d made a mistake. The muted voices sounded suddenly closer, and she heard the newcomer speaking to the others, but he cut off before she could determine what he’d been saying.

  Carth froze, holding on to the shadows.

  A pressure built on her, and she knew she’d pulled too hard. She felt her grip on the shadows begin to slip, growing weaker the longer she stood there. Carth didn’t even trust herself to remain on the ladder without falling. There was no way she could attempt to climb onto the ship, not without being seen by the three men.

  Footsteps thudded toward her.

  Carth felt her grip on the shadows slip.

  She released it and hurried down the ladder.

  Reaching the dock, she raced toward the street, berating herself for even attempting to discover what those men were up to.

  The problem was, she had learned there was something going on, only she hadn’t been able to discover what exactly that it was. Worse, they knew she had been there.

  21

  Carth sat away from a lamppost, holding the shadow cloak around her. If she could come up with a way to do it the same as she had in the river, she might be able to move while holding onto it. Then she wouldn’t have to fear moving at night at all. Maybe there was something to the way she had floated while in the river, but how could she replicate that on land?

  As she pulled on the shadow cloaking, she felt resistance, and a shiver worked along her spine.

  Carth leaped to her feet and ducked back into a nearby alley, pulling on the cloaking again. There was resistance there, but not the same as before, and she managed to pull it around her, shrouding herself in the night.

  Had the A’ras detected her?

  If they had, and if there was some way for them to track her by her use of the shadows, then she needed to be much more careful than she knew. If that was possible, why wouldn’t Jhon have warned her?

  Unless he didn’t know. Even Jhon had admitted to her that he was not shadow blessed. Without that, what could he really do to help her understand what she could do with this ability?

  Carth waited, afraid that whoever had detected her manipulating the shadows knew that she was here, but nothing else came. There was no sense of energy in the air, no sense of her skin growing tight, and not even that itching along her spine that told her someone watched her.

  Forcing herself to relax, she released her grip on the shadow cloaking.

  It had to be well after midnight. Long since time for her to return to the tavern, and her bed, so that she could actually get enough sleep. The past few days, she had stayed out too late and then been awoken early in the morning by Etan bumping the bunk or by Kel and Taryn chatting excitedly. Maybe it was only fatigue that she felt tonight.

  “You should be more careful.”

  Carth spun, pulling the knife from her pocket. She relaxed when she saw Jhon. “You haven’t come back for days. After what happened—”

  “I know what happened. The Thevers are of no concern of mine.”

  Carth took a step back. “They concern me.”

  “I thought you wanted to know about your parents.”

  “I do, but I thought you’d have done more to tell me. Instead you keep it secret, making me wait to know what you want with my shadow ability!”

  “I have certain responsibilities, Carth of Ih-lash.”

  “You could have sent word.”

  He nodded, motioning for her to follow him deeper into the alley. Had it been him that she’d detected? She hadn’t thought so, but the strange sense had appeared—and disappeared—about the same time he had come. “I could have sent word, but that would mean that you think I am beholden to you in some way.”

  “You agreed to work with me.”

  “I did.”

  “How can you work with me if you’re not here?”

  “You’ve been practicing. You don’t need me for that part of your training.”

  He stopped near a wall at the back of the alley. Jhon waved his hand over the wall, but she couldn’t tell if he touched anything. A door opened with a soft click, and he motioned her to go through.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked.

  “First you question why I haven’t been available to instruct you, and now you question how I will instruct you?”

  Carth didn’t want to argue with him, but at the same time, she felt she had been through enough that she deserved some answers. “I question where you’re taking me. That’s all.”

  “Good. Now come with me.”

  Jhon stepped through the wall. Carth glanced behind her and attempted to pull at the shadows, cloaking herself briefly. Mostly she attempted it because a nagging feeling made her question whether she would be able to. There had been resistance against her when she had attempted it before. Would she have the same resistance?

  The shadow cloak came to her, but slowly. Not with a resistance so much as it felt almost like when she attempted to pull on the cloaking during the daytime. Under the sunlight, even when she stood in the shade, reaching for it was more difficult. That was what it felt like now.

  A crawling sensation ran along her back, up between her shoulder blades, and she shivered.

  The shadows clung to her, but she still had the sense that someone watched her. She had thought her ability protected her from others observing her while she was cloaked, but if that wasn’t true, she would have to be more careful.

  Carth turned away, stepping through the wall. Once she did, Jhon did something and the wall sealed closed again with another click. The pressure on her faded.

  She let out a sigh.

  They were in a small room. A faded wooden table took up most of the space, and three chairs sat around the table. Another low table ran along th
e far wall. A lantern rested on the center table, revealing books and vials stacked beside it. Another door on the far side of the room was closed.

  Carth took a seat in one of the chairs and slouched back, letting out another sigh, this time relieved. She’d been searching for Jhon the last few days, and had worried that he had given up on working with her. Finding him again took away that worry but left her with other questions that she wanted answered.

  Jhon watched her. “What is it?”

  “Tired. That’s all.”

  “Tired?”

  Carth nodded. “I think I’ve been pushing myself too much with shrouding. It’s making me tired.”

  “It wouldn’t do that.”

  “What do you mean? When I attempt to use a shadow cloak, most of the time I can, but sometimes I find that it’s just too much work and I can’t hold on to the shadows.”

  Jhon frowned at her for a moment and then shook his head. “Perhaps that is all it is. I will have to check with…” He trailed off before mentioning who he would ask. “You have felt this before?”

  She nodded. “I’ve been practicing.”

  “I can see that. You’re more skilled than the last time I saw you.”

  “That was only a few days ago.”

  Jhon stood behind one of the chairs and tapped the top of it. “Indeed. Something has happened that you do not want to share.”

  Carth sighed and told him about the men abducting Taryn, sharing what had happened to the one attacker’s arm when she’d stabbed him with the knife.

  Jhon watched her with a concerned expression on his face. “You should not have been able to use the knife in such a way.”

  Carth pulled the knife from her pocket and set it on the table. “It’s a knife. You stab with it.”

  Jhon stared at the knife. “What you describe is using the magic through the blade. That is what is unexpected.”

  “I didn’t use the magic through the blade. And didn’t you say they’re poisoned?”

  Jhon reached for the knife and lifted it more gingerly than Carth had since she had started carrying it. “The A’ras layer poison atop their swords and their knives, but this isn’t poisoned in that manner.”