Shadow Blessed (The Shadow Accords Book 1) (15 page)

The footsteps paused.

Carth’s heart thudded in her chest. Jhon did not move, though she wondered if she would see it if he did. Would the A’ras hear her heart beating? Would they know she was here?

Then the footsteps started away, continuing down the street.

Jhon tapped her on the arm. “You may release it.”

Carth didn’t know how to release it, but she allowed herself to breathe and took a step forward. As she did, the darkness settled back into place, the fog lifting.

This time, there was a clear sense that she had done something, though she wasn’t exactly certain what it was. “How is that possible?” she asked.

“You are shadow blessed,” Jhon said again. “Come with me, and I will explain as much as is safe.”

C
arth stood atop a stooped roof
, looking down at the city. Was this the sort of view her father had had when he had crawled along the roofs? From here, she just made out the edge of the river, a black line where the lights of the city ended.

“Why did you risk going to the palace garden tonight?” Jhon asked. He stood on the edge of the roof, his hands clasped behind him as he studied the night.

Carth kept back from the edge. She wasn’t afraid of heights so much as she was terrified of them. She debated how much to answer Jhon, but then without him, she wouldn’t have been able to get away from the A’ras. “You killed two of them,” she said.

He made an expression like he’d just eaten rotten fish. “Not killed, but I fear they will not see it any differently. Besides, it could not have been helped, not if you were to get free. Had you not approached as you did, it might not have been necessary.”

Carth flushed. Anger had overcome her when she had finally managed to get free of the A’ras magic.

“An interesting knife you have.”

She reached into her pocket and squeezed the hilt. Did he know that it was one of the A’ras knives?

“Few are able to safely possess such a blade.”

“It’s an A’ras blade.”

He arched a brow. “Is it? Those who hold one of the A’ras blades usually suffer in some ways.”

“What do you mean, they suffer?”

“You felt the power the A’ras are able to work. They place some of that power into their swords and knives. It is why they are so dangerous.”

“I thought they were poisoned.”

“Perhaps some. Others use their particular brand of magic through the blade.”

Carth relaxed her grip on the knife. Was it the same way?

“Weapons are crafted by the A’ras, and typically linked in some ways to the maker. That gives them greater strength, and makes them more dangerous as well.”

“A man named Al-shad had this one.”

A half-smile tugged at his lips, almost amused. “Did he give it to you?”

Carth shook her head. “He… he was one of the A’ras who…” She swallowed and couldn’t finish.

“Your mother?”

She nodded.

“You were there that day.”

She nodded again, her hand slipping into her pocket and fingering her mother’s ring.

“Ah, child, you should not have been exposed to that. These are dangerous people, and that”—he pointed to her pocket where she held the knife, the hilt no longer biting cold as it had been—“was made by a man with much power.”

He touched her head and a warmth washed through her. It happened briefly, so quickly that she couldn’t react.

“Why did you help me? Why have you been following me, for that matter?”

Jhon looked at her for a moment, then turned back to stare out over the city. “What do you know of your place of birth?” he asked.

“I don’t know anything. My parents rarely spoke of Ih-lash.”

“Yet they taught you many of the lessons of the people.”

“Like what?”

“There are skills that are—or were—taught to the children of Ih-lash. They would learn to follow without being seen. They would learn to see what wished to remain hidden. They would be able to slip in without others knowing, and disappear again.” Jhon looked over his shoulder at her. “I can see from your expression that you have some familiarity with what I am telling you.”

“The games,” she said. When he frowned, she went on. “My parents used to play games like that with me. I would trail my mother, but as it went on, I had to remain a certain distance from her. Eventually, I had to let her get so far ahead that I couldn’t see her. That was what we were doing that day… that day…”

She swallowed the lump in her throat, trying to keep from crying again. Every time she thought of that day, tears welled in her eyes unbidden. She hadn’t managed to find a way to keep them from coming.

“That is why you weren’t with them when they were discovered,” Jhon said.

She nodded. “My father was behind me. Watching me. My mother…”

The image of her mother lying on the street, unmoving, came into her mind. It was an image that came to her while she slept, and often while she was awake. The complete lack of concern from Felyn or the A’ras made it even more difficult for her to bear.

“Were there other games your parents played with you?” he asked.

Carth nodded. “There were many.”

“Tell me about them.”

Carth didn’t
want
to share those stories with a stranger, but if she didn’t, if she didn’t explain what she had been through and share with him what her parents had done with her, would Jhon ever help her understand
why
they were gone? Answers were the thing she wanted most of all, and here she was with a man who seemingly had them.

So she shared with Jhon the details of the games she had played with her parents. As she did, Jhon watched her, his face unreadable. When she got to describing how she sank into the shadows, he actually smiled again. As he did, the blank slate expression that he wore changed, making him appear much more youthful. In that moment, Carth wondered exactly how old he actually was. In some ways, he didn’t appear that much older than her.

“That is what proves you are shadow blessed,” Jhon said.

“What is shadow blessed?”

“There are few, even in Ih-lash, but the games you describe are meant to determine who is born with those gifts. Most in Ih-lash are able to move without being seen, but the shadow blessed, they are able to do something else entirely. Not only can they move without being seen, but they can manipulate the shadows, make it so that darkness shrouds them. In Ih-lash, it is considered a particularly blessed skill to possess.”

“Why do you think that I am shadow blessed?”

“There are telltale signs one can look for. When I first discovered you, the way you moved made it clear that you had the skills of one of Ih-lash. That intrigued me. It had been years since I had come across someone of Ih-lash who was not a part of…” He seemed to catch himself and smiled. “No matter. Only know that it intrigued me. And still does.”

Years? Carth would have guessed Jhon no older than his early twenties, but the way he spoke made it sound as if he were much older, unless he had been training for such a long time.

“I have trailed you. When you shrouded me near the river, I suspected, but with this,” he tapped his head where remnants of the bruise remained, “I knew with certainty.”

Carth flushed. “Kel is sorry about that.”

Jhon shrugged. “I live. That is more than most who come across the A’ras in that state can claim. But for you to have hidden me, that takes a skill that few possess. I waited, watching you as you made your way into the city. Consider me curious. And then I find that you climbed over the wall, putting yourself in danger by going into the palace yard. I watched, unable to enter myself, only to see that you were not in the danger that I expected.”

Too many questions came to mind for her to pick only one. “But you knew my name. You knew where I was from before then.”

Jhon shrugged, the barest movement of his shoulders.

There was more than what he told her. Why wouldn’t he share?

“Are you from Ih-lash?” she asked. That seemed the one that she most wanted to ask. It would explain why he had recognized her heritage when she tried to lie about it, and how he knew as much as he did about the games.

“I am not. I have studied with one who is.”

“Studied?”

He nodded.

“Can he teach me?”

“He is not in Nyaesh, and I would not be able to bring you to him.”

Carth turned away to hide her disappointment. All she had wanted was to understand what had happened to her parents, but now she had other questions she wanted answered. Now that she knew her parents had known her to be shadow blessed, why would they have taken her from Ih-lash? If her ability was considered blessed in their homeland, why take her from it?

“Then why do you follow me?” she asked.

Jhon smiled. “Many reasons, but curiosity might be the most apt. I have never met someone shadow blessed before. As I have said, even in Ih-lash, it is a rare ability, and one that is considered particularly fortunate. Now that I have seen it, I think there is something that you can do to help me.”

“How can I help you?”

Jhon lowered himself until he was at her level, crouching so that his deep gray cloak spread around him. “I have told you that I am not of Nyaesh. I am here for a reason.”

“Your assets?” Carth asked.

“Partly. But there is another reason, one that I think you could help with.”

“Why would I help you?”

The edges of his mouth twitched, almost as if in a smile. “You have much anger. I saw it when you attempted to attack the A’ras.”

“They killed my mother. My father.”

“So you have said, but what purpose does your anger serve?”

It was the same kind of question her father would have asked. “They deserved better,” Carth said, trying to keep the bitterness from her voice. Jhon wouldn’t understand. She had nothing else in Nyaesh. With her parents gone, there was nothing for her here. This city was to have been a stop, a brief interlude as they continued south, but now this was all that she knew. Without her parents, she could go nowhere else. Without them, she would
be
nothing else.

“They deserved better,” Jhon agreed.

Carth stared at her hand, twisting her fingers together. The painful gnawing she felt in her stomach when thinking of her parents had returned. “What do you want from me?”

“You have a gift, one that might be of assistance to me while I remain in the city, much as I think I might be of assistance to you. In exchange, I will help you find what you want to know.”

Carth looked up. “How?”

“I may not be shadow blessed, but I can help you understand your ability.”

What would he ask of her in exchange for teaching her about her ability? Would he demand that she steal for him like she had learned to do for Vera? Would there be something else he’d ask, something equally—or more—likely to get her in trouble, possibly even end with her dead?

“What kind of things do you think you can help me learn?”

He smiled. “There are ways to use shadows, those that I have heard discussed, that I can tell you about.”

“In exchange?”

“You will shroud me when asked. And you must not talk about what I ask of you.”

Carth considered refusing. If she did, she could return to the docks, to the Wounded Lyre, and help Vera and Hal as they paid the bounty to keep the strays safe. She might even be able to discover ways to use her ability on her own, not needing Jhon to guide her. Hadn’t she taken the first step on her own? She could to do more, learn to use the shadows as she remembered the lessons that her father had taught her, and maybe she would be able to help Vera and Hal so that they didn’t have to pay off the A’ras. With such an ability, she would be able to collect even more coin and wouldn’t have to fear getting caught.

But that felt too mundane, almost as if she would waste the chance to learn more about what she could do. And doing so would be a disappointment to the memory of her parents.

“When would you start?” she asked him.

This time, Jhon did smile. “How about tonight?”

I
n the days
since Jhon had revealed her ability to her, Carth had met with him a few times, always in the evenings after she had collected enough scraps to appease Vera, and always away from River Road, far enough that Kel or Etan wouldn’t find her by accident.

Carth had grown increasingly comfortable with shrouding herself in shadows. Cloaking. That was what Jhon called it, and in some ways it felt much like she placed a cloak on, but in other ways it was different. She got comfortable pulling at the edge of the shadows, rolling them toward her. There was a trick to it, memories of what her father had told her making it easier. Her father had described it as finding the edge of the shadows and pulling it to her; Jhon described it more like she drew the darkness away from the edge of the light.

“Think of a pool of darkness as it sits between two lanterns. You want to be that darkness, that place where light cannot reach. That is where the shadows will be thickest. Much like light calls to light, shadow will call to shadow.”

She held those words in her mind as she pulled on the shadows, waiting again for Jhon to return. Much of what he said reminded her of her father and the lessons he had taught. Tonight she stood in the middle of a street—one she had been to before, and one where she knew that darkness tended to linger. Pulling on the shadows was easy enough when she stood still, but harder when she attempted to move. That was what Jhon wanted her to master next. If she could move while holding on to the shadows, then she could reach anywhere. She had the sense that what he needed of her required that she would sneak him somewhere while holding on to the darkness.

Carth breathed out, forcing herself to continue to take steady breaths while holding on to the shadow. It was too easy to hold her breath, but when she did, nothing moved. For her to take this next step, she
had
to take a breath.

As the breath left her, she tried taking a step forward, pulling the shadows with her.

They slipped and she paused, trying to gather them back around her. When she stopped moving, it was much easier to focus. Jhon still hadn’t told her if there was any way to be noticed while holding on to the shadows. There must be, but he wouldn’t share that.

Jhon hadn’t shown last night. It was the first time since he’d agreed to work with her that he hadn’t appeared. Carth tried not to let that bother her, but learning that she had a talent and then trying to understand how it could be used left her feeling anxious. Besides that, she still didn’t know what Jhon intended her to do, only that it had something to do with her ability.

She paused at an intersection and ducked into the shadows between a pair of streetlamps. Whereas before that had always been habit, now she did it intentionally, knowing that if she could get deeper into the shadows, she would be able to cloak herself better. She had even started to rate the different levels of darkness. Some shadows were deeper, and she found it easier to cloak herself in those places, almost as if the darkness
wanted
her to gather it.

As she practiced cloaking herself, voices drifted down the street.

Carth moved along the walls, making her way toward the sound of the voices, not attempting to use the shadows yet. Not that she would be able to do so while she moved anyway.

Was it Jhon?

When he’d rescued her from the river, there had been another with him, but she hadn’t seen him with anyone else since then. And the voices made no effort to hide, speaking more loudly than she would have expected were it Jhon. He was careful, measured in the way he spoke, and she doubted he would risk himself like that.

“Stop kickin’.”

Carth froze. She was too near a streetlight but pulled on the shadows anyway, drawing them around her. They shifted, unfurling from the pools of darkness between the lanterns and sliding toward her. It would look unnatural, and she knew that. That had been one of Jhon’s warnings.
Use the darkness as it appears.
Cloaking as she did now appeared unusual and would draw attention to her.

“Maybe she’ll stop kicking when you stop squeezing her arm so tight.”

Carth couldn’t quite see who spoke. They were across the street and behind buildings, but their voice carried to her, muted in that strange way things sounded when the darkness shrouded her.

“Gotta squeeze or she’ll wriggle free!”

Carth had to know what was going on.

She moved away from the lantern, where the darkness should be. As she did, she felt the shadows shift with her. She almost let out a whoop of excitement. That was the first time she had managed to move
with
the shadows.

Pausing a moment, she collected herself, holding on to the shadows again before continuing toward the voices.

As she did, she couldn’t maintain her connection and the shadows slipped away from her.

“Quit it now, or you’ll get the hand again!”

Carth reached for the knife and paused at the intersection. Standing behind the wall, she reached for the shadows, cloaking herself. Each time she did it, it became easier, so that now she managed to cloak herself quickly.

Leaning forward, she peered around the corner.

Two men stood with their backs to her, and a young girl was clutched between them.

Living along the docks, she’d seen men like them before.

Thevers.

Why were they taking a girl?

“Get her moving so we can get back to drinkin’. Tom wants to ship out in the morning.”

They started down the street, dragging the girl with them as they went.

Carth stood watching. The girl fought, but there was only so much she could do to get free. The men holding on to her were bigger than her, and much stronger. The poor girl wouldn’t be able to free herself.

Carth squeezed the knife as anger roiled within her. She was to meet Jhon, but she couldn’t do nothing, not if this girl was in danger. Jhon would understand.

As she stepped into the street, she tried to hold on to the shadows, wishing she had greater control over them. She stayed near the edge of the buildings, moving as quietly as she could, giving enough distance that she could track them, but not so much that they got too far ahead of her. It was a difficult balance.

The men turned down Doland Street, making their way toward the docks.

At this time of night, the streets were mostly empty. A man passing by turned away, hurrying down an alley as if he wanted nothing to do with what happened here. For the first time since she’d been in Nyaesh, she wished for A’ras involvement. They might attack her, but they also managed to keep the peace.

If the men reached River Road, there would be little that Carth could do, especially if they reached one of the ships docked there. Her best chance of doing anything was now, before they got too far.

Taking a deep breath, she tried cloaking herself in shadows, pulling them around her, and then hurried down the street. Her steps were muted, as if she managed to hang on to part of the shadow cloaking, giving her some silence that protected her.

When she was nearly to the men, one of them started to turn.

Carth stabbed with the knife, catching him in the back of the shoulder before he could turn all the way around.

He screamed. It was a high-pitched sound and full of agony.

Carth almost lost her nerve.

The other man jerked on the girl and started running, leaving his partner writhing on the street. Carth glanced at him, noting that the arm she’d stabbed had blackened, then sprinted after the girl.

They reached River Road before her.

Carth barreled onto the street, trying to stay near the shadows, having the advantage of knowing this part of the city well and knowing where the darkness was deepest.

The man tried hurrying, but now that it was only him with the girl, she was able to fight. She struggled, but then he threw her over his shoulder and ran.

Carth wasn’t as tall as him and didn’t have the same length that he had, but she was quick, and she could duck between the other people on the street, people he was forced to weave around.

He reached one of the docks.

Carth had to act now. If she didn’t, and if he reached the long ship tied to the dock, she doubted she would be able to do anything to save the girl.

She needed a way to distract him and slow him.

“Hey! That’s my sister!” she shouted.

She doubted something so simple as that would get him to turn, but it did slow him.

That was enough.

Carth leapt. In her anger and fear, and with the shadows all around, she sailed across the distance, traveling much farther than she normally would.

She landed too close to him. The man took one look at her and swung his fist.

Carth ducked while at the same time stabbing upward. She caught him in the stomach and rolled out of the way.

If the injury was anything like the others, she would see him fall quickly.

The man gasped.

Rather than dropping the girl as Carth had hoped, he staggered down the dock.

Carth chased him and jabbed him with the knife again, this time in the leg. “Just let her go!” she told him. That was all she wanted. If the man would let the girl go, then she would leave him alone. She didn’t
want
to hurt him.

He ignored her pleas and limped down the dock. Near the ship, a lantern blinked on. Three men stood watching. The moment they came this way, Carth would have failed.

Water lapped at the dock, swirling around it.

The men started toward her.

Carth did the last thing that she could think of: she rammed into the man, sending him toppling into the river.

She went with him, and her breath burst away when she hit the cold water. Now it was twice that she’d been in the river, only this time, it was about more than saving her friend’s life. She needed to get the girl free of her attacker, and they both needed to get out of the river.

The man had released her as soon as he’d hit the water.

Carth swam toward the girl. She didn’t move, and for all she knew, the girl didn’t live. As she swam, the man grabbed at her ankle. Kicking herself free, she looked back to see him sinking beneath the surface.

Where was the girl?

The night was too dark to search easily. Had she made a mistake? Would the girl die because of her? The river was a fast-moving sheet of darkness, and they rushed down the shore. She bounced off a rock and bit back the cry that came to her lips.

Trying to swim backward, she heard the sounds of water splashing, but it seemed like it came from far away.

Carth kicked at the water, swimming as quickly as she could in that direction. She neared and saw that the girl struggled to stay above the surface of the water. When she reached her, Carth slipped her arm around her waist.

The girl thrashed with a wild energy. One hand slapped Carth’s face, leaving stars flashing in her eyes.

“Let me help you! I’m the one who tried to save you,” Carth said. “Can you swim?”

The girl stopped kicking and shook her head. Dark hair hung in her face, but what she could see told her that the girl had been struck. Bruises streaked up the side of her cheek, reminding her of those Kel had worn after being attacked by the man he’d tried stealing from.

“Can you?” the girl asked in a whisper.

“We’ll see.”

As she angled them toward the shore, she heard another sound in the water, one of a steady slapping. She looked over her shoulder and realized that a small rowboat sliced through the water, coming straight toward them. A lighted lantern in the bow made her think it was the men she’d seen on the dock.

“They’ll get me!” the girl said.

Carth swallowed. She couldn’t outswim the boat. The shore was nearly ten yards away, and rocky. Even if she could swim fast enough, she would need to be careful around the rocks to keep from getting thrown into them and crushed. So would the boat, but she suspected whoever rowed it had experience around rocks.

Could she cloak her and the girl in shadows as they floated here?

She had to try.

There was no real edge to the darkness. Here it was all around… other than the lantern coming toward them. Could she roll in the edge of the light leading from the lantern?

Focusing on the shadows, she sunk into the darkness, rolling it up and toward her.

Sounds became muted. The light from the lantern on the boat dimmed. The splashing of water along the rocks softened as well. There was only the pounding of her heart, and that felt distant as well.

The girl started to say something, but Carth clamped a hand over her mouth, silencing her. Waving a finger to shush her, she pointed to the boat.

The girl watched with wide eyes, but remained silent.

They floated, but Carth was able to hold on to the shadows as they did. Were it only so easy on the street.

The rowboat drifted past. One of the men on the boat held the lantern over the edge. They had to be only a few feet away and the lantern swept over their heads, but they continued on, swinging the lantern back in a different direction, now away from them.

Carth sighed. It had worked.

She hadn’t been sure it would, especially with them coming so close, but she and the girl had remained hidden even as the small boat passed them. Now she had to get them out of the water.

She didn’t want to release her hold on the shadows, fearing that if she did, the rowboat would see them. Instead, she kicked, losing her connection to the shadows for a moment, and then grabbing onto it again. The kick sent her smacking into a sunken rock and she winced again. The next kick got them close enough to the shore that she could see the outline of the rock. One more and she reached the shore, holding steady while the girl climbed to safety.

Carth followed her and sunk next to her, water streaming from her cloak.

The girl watched her, eyes still wide. “Who are you?” she asked.

Carth breathed out shakily. How could she answer when she didn’t really know who she was anymore?