Shadow Blessed (The Shadow Accords Book 1) (16 page)

T
he inside
of the tavern was warm, and the hubbub from earlier in the night finally settled, leaving a minstrel playing quietly near the back of the tavern and a few intoxicated patrons slumped over tables. Vera moved between the tables, clearing off plates and mugs and carrying them to the kitchen. Kel helped, staying close by her side. Etan was nowhere to be seen.

“What do you mean you found her?” Hal asked.

Carth nodded to the girl huddled near the hearth. She hadn’t moved since Carth had brought her in and set her by the fire for warmth. “I found her.”

“Carth,” Hal started, “you can’t simply bring a girl here like this. It’s dangerous for her.”

Carth doubted it was dangerous. If
she
could be here, then the girl could be as well. “She needed help.”

“Then we’ll see her to her family.”

“What if she doesn’t have any family?” Carth asked. “What if she’s a stray like us?”

The girl hadn’t really said anything either. Carth wanted to know why the men had grabbed her and where they were taking her, but hadn’t gotten answers yet.

“Not everyone is a stray,” Hal said. “Even when they look to be a stray.”

“What if she is? Can we not help her? I think the Thevers—”

Vera shot her a hard look, getting her to cut off.

“Why do you think she needs help?” When she didn’t answer, Hal pressed. “Carth, why do you think she needs help?”

She told him about the men carrying the girl along the street. She didn’t tell Hal that she had stabbed them with an A’ras knife. That would open her up to more questions that she didn’t want to answer. She ended by telling him that she had crashed into one of the men and they had tumbled into the river. It made no sense not telling the truth there, especially since they were both still soaked.

Hal shook his head, his brow knitting together in a worried expression. “This isn’t our business, Carth. You’ve intervened in something you shouldn’t have. Ahhh…” He started pacing, glancing at the girl every so often. “Damn it. Now we’re not safe even here.”

“Why? What is it they wanted her for?”

Hal shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It matters!” Carth spoke more loudly than she intended. The girl turned toward her, making the most movement she had since getting rescued and coming to the tavern. Lowering her voice, she caught Hal’s attention. “Is that why you took us in?”

Hal flushed. “What? No! Nothing like that.”

“Like what? What did they want her for?”

Hal sighed, pulled a stool out from one of the tables, and sat heavily on it. “We’ve taken you in to keep you safe,” he said.

“That’s what you claim, but how do we know that’s what you intend?”

Hal’s face looked hurt. “We have done nothing other than feed you and give you a place to live,” he said. “We’ve kept you
from
men like that!”

Carth looked down, feeling ashamed she had said something that hurt Hal. They hadn’t been anything but welcoming, a family of sorts, if not the one she wanted. They
had
taken her in when she had no place to go. They did provide food for her. What did they ask in return?

“I’m sorry, Hal,” she said. “I shouldn’t speak like that. It’s just… it’s just that I’ve seen things.” She said it in a rush, afraid that Hal would question what she had seen, and how she had seen it. “I’ve never told you what happened to my parents—”

“You don’t have to. Vera and me, well, we saw the way you looked when you returned that first night. We knew something must have happened. There’s enough darkness in this world that we didn’t want to force you to relive it.”

In some ways, that was the kindest thing she’d ever been told. In others, it reminded her of the fact that she had now become a part of that darkness. What else could she be when she used an A’ras knife to stab a man, turning his skin black? What else could she be when she forced a man into the river, where he would drown? What else could she be when all she wanted was revenge for what happened to her mother and father?

“Why would someone try to take her?” she asked Hal.

He looked over at the girl. “This is a dangerous time, Carth. Reshian and A’ras fighting… leaves children without homes.”

“What kind of children?” Carth asked. When Hal didn’t answer, she pressed. “What kind? Not A’ras, because they’d have homes here.” She looked at Kel and her eyes widened. “You’re taking in
Reshian
strays?”

Hal sniffed. “The children we’ve taken in have done nothing wrong. They’ve lost their home no different than—” He shook his head when Vera shot him a hard glare. “Don’t matter now. We help those we can. Move them on to family if they got some. Otherwise keep them from Thevers. They’d move them south, sell them if they could.”

“Sell them?”

Hal sighed. “It’s happened before.”

“Like Gustan?” she asked, thinking of the name of the boy who had been here before she came.

Hal nodded. “Like Gustan.”

“What about those without family?”

“We do what we can, Carth.”

“Won’t A’ras come after them?”

“That’s why we pay the Thevers. Gives you some protection from both.” He raised his hands to silence her. “This is something beyond you, Carth. You’re too young to understand, and pray that you don’t—that you won’t—understand.”

Carth studied the girl huddled near the hearth, wondering what Hal wasn’t telling her. “Can she stay for tonight?” Carth asked.

Hal nodded. “Not going to kick her out tonight. Tomorrow we’ll have to figure out what will happen. Now I’ve gotta look for her family, see what I can learn.”

He stood and made his way into the kitchen. Carth watched him for a moment. She walked over to the girl and sat next to her, letting the warmth of the fire push the chill from the night and the dampness of the river from her.

“What’s your name?” Carth asked.

The girl tensed. “Taryn.”

“I’m Carth.”

Taryn looked over to her. Her eyes were deep hollows and carried a haunted expression. “Thank you.”

“Why were they after you?”

Taryn shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Carth didn’t know how to ask the next question delicately, but she needed to ask it. “What of your family?”

Taryn blinked and turned back to the fire, all the answer that Carth needed. Her family was gone, making her a stray, much like Carth. Why would the men have been after her? Why would they have brought her to the ship?

“What happened to them?” Carth asked.

“They were… they were at the Laseer Festival. There was an attack. They were caught in it.”

The Laseer Festival. That couldn’t be a coincidence that Taryn’s parents had been lost the night that Carth had gone and attempted to sneak into the palace. The same night when the A’ras had nearly killed her.

“What kind of attack?” Carth asked, feeling a sickening sensation in her stomach. Was it her fault that Taryn’s family had been lost?

Taryn shook her head. “They found out we’d snuck into the city. All we wanted was a safe place, but… but… there’s no safe place,” she sobbed.

Carth looked at the ground. That no one would talk about it made it even more likely that it was the A’ras. And the fact that the attack had occurred when she had been there made her worry that she was somehow responsible.

What could she say to Taryn? Nothing that would put her at ease, and nothing that would make any difference. If the A’ras had killed Taryn’s parents, and if Carth was in part responsible, there would be nothing for her to say.

“You can stay here tonight,” she said.

Taryn looked around the tavern. “I… I don’t think that I can stay here.”

“Do you have someplace else that you can go?”

Taryn studied her hands. “There is nowhere else.”

That had been Carth’s fear. “Then you will stay here. The bed is comfortable enough, and the food is good. We’ll keep you safe.”

Taryn looked up, hope mixed with the tears that welled in her eyes. “For how long?”

How long? Hal didn’t want her to stay for long, afraid that she’d been claimed by someone else, but Carth wasn’t willing to leave Taryn to get kicked back out on the street, especially not after everything she had gone through to ensure that the girl would be safe.

“As long as it takes.”

* * *

A
fter she got Taryn situated
, Carth snuck back onto the street. She should just go to bed, worry tomorrow about what else she could do to help Taryn, but she was supposed to have met with Jhon. She didn’t want him to have come for her and for her not to have shown.

As she slipped out the hall and into the alley leading out to the street, Kel caught her. He approached hesitantly, as if he wanted to come closer but didn’t dare.

“Vera is upset that you brought her here,” Kel said.

Carth didn’t turn around. “I thought they collected strays.”

“They do, but this is different. I’m not sure why, but they are both upset.”

“You don’t know what it took to help her,” Carth said.

Kel took a step toward her. She heard his footsteps on the cobbles without turning. “I saw you.”

Carth tensed. “What do you mean, you saw me?”

“On the street. When you chased that man. You stabbed him. I saw it.”

Carth swore under her breath. If Kel had seen, then he might say something to Vera and Hal. Then would they allow her to remain? She didn’t love the fact that she was here, and that she had no place else to go, but if that was taken from her, she really wouldn’t have anywhere. She truly would be a stray.

“You did the same with the man who attacked me,” Kel said. He took another step toward her. “You have a knife. A strange one.”

Carth turned to face him. “What are you getting at, Kel?”

“Why did you save her?”

“The same reason I saved you.”

“I don’t think so. You helped me because you know me. You don’t know that girl. What would make you risk yourself to help her?”

Carth had asked herself the same thing. Why would she risk herself? It wasn’t that she knew the girl. Not like when she’d helped Kel. This had come from a sense that she had to do something. She hadn’t been able to stand around, not like everyone else had done. Not only with her, or even with her mother, letting them suffer when intervention would have made a difference, but with Kel and how the man had simply thought to harm him. So many had a chance to intervene but never did, and when she had seen the way Taryn was harmed, dragged down the street, she hadn’t had any choice but to get involved.

And wasn’t that what Vera and Hal did?

More than anything, that seemed to be the lesson they taught. Hal hadn’t needed to get involved when he’d discovered her the day her parents had died, but he had. No one else had done anything. Had he not, what would she have done? She would have gone back to her home, likely waited for her father, and then when he didn’t appear, what would she have done?

“Because I had to,” she finally answered. “It was what Hal would have done.”

“Hal’s afraid that you brought her.”

Carth nodded. “Maybe he is now, but he would have helped her too.”

Kel studied her before taking a step toward her. She turned, unwilling to listen while he berated her more. Taryn was safe. That was enough for now. Whatever Hal feared, whatever reason prevented him from wanting to help when he knew that he should, she had to discover.

“Where are you going?” Kel called after her as she reached the end of the alley.

“I don’t know.”

C
arth didn’t find
Jhon at the meeting place that night, or the next night either. By the third night, when he still hadn’t shown, she began to wonder if he’d decided against helping her. During that time, she had a growing worry about the activity near the docks, and whether the Thevers would come to blows with the A’ras again.

The days were filled with working with Taryn. Hal disappeared each day, likely to search for Taryn’s family, but allowed her to remain with them as he searched. Like Carth, she took the top bunk, making the room full again.

Kel worked with Taryn, teaching her the bump and lift, demonstrating how to collect scraps with something bordering on excitement, an emotion that he’d never shown when it had been Carth. A part of her felt jealous, but then, Taryn was only with them because she had intervened. She wanted Taryn to be accepted.

Etan remained distant. Each day, he disappeared for hours at a time, something he never had done before, appearing late in the day with enough scraps to appease Vera. Neither Vera nor Hal ever questioned where he disappeared to, almost as if they didn’t want to know. Etan became more distant with them, even when he was there. The quiet anger that had always simmered beneath the surface came forward more often, leaving him lashing out at times, yelling or sulking. Surprisingly, Kel was the victim of most of the outbursts, not Carth any longer. That only served to drive an even greater wedge between Carth and Kel, and in the short time Taryn had been with them, Kel had taken to spending much of his free time with her. Every so often, she caught sight of him, and more than once she thought he was with men she knew to be Thevers, but could never quite be certain.

Carth had worried about the repercussions of having Taryn with them, wondering if the men after her—likely Thevers—would discover that she’d been kept so close to the docks, but the ship she’d been brought to had sailed the next morning, leaving nothing but an empty dock and a few stacked crates. Carth felt relief to see that the ship had left, and that only increased the longer they went with nothing more coming of it.

“Why do we need to give part of this to Vera?” Carth overheard Taryn asking.

Kel flashed a smile. “We got to pay our part for the room and the food. Either this or we sell her breads.” He pointed to a stack of sweetbread that Taryn hadn’t managed to sell.

“But she owns the tavern. Doesn’t she have enough?”

Kel shrugged. “She doesn’t ask much, so we do what we can,” he said. “Besides, it can be kind of fun for us to collect, you know? Take the time to gather a few extra coins, and then you can buy yourself something.”

Taryn smiled. “I never see Carth collecting scraps. Doesn’t she have to give some to Vera as well?”

Kel shot Carth a look that seemed to warn her off answering.

She pulled her coin purse from her pocket and shook it, jingling the coins within. “I collected already.”

Carth didn’t have to collect every day, choosing her targets more carefully now. If anything, that drove an even greater distance between her and Kel. He didn’t have the luxury of collecting only when he wanted to.

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.

“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.