“It may be hisht advice, but you’ll never outrun whatever haunts you. So, fight or drink or foc. Do whatever it is you need to do to keep it under control. If you let it get away from you, you’re as likely to be the cause of your own ending as you are someone else’s.”
“You are right,” I say with a sarcastic smile, “That advice is hisht.”
“Ididsay that.” He smiles as he stands, slipping my daggers into his sack as he heads toward the door. “I’ll see you for breakfast.”
As soon as his footsteps fade, I stride across the room and pull the small rope that hangs by the door, ringing the service bell. The captain appears shortly after, his face twisted in annoyance due to the hour.
“Ale,” I say through a crack in the door, “Lots of it.”
CHAPTER 4
THE SMUDGE
Six Years Earlier
Idon’t question the shadow master when he comes for me before dawn. His pack hangs low on his back, heavier than usual, but I say nothing as I wipe the sleep from my eyes and stuff an empty brown sack with some essentials just like he asks me to.
“Where are we going?” I yawn.
“It’s a surprise.”
“How long will we be gone?”
“Pack for one week, and I’ll bring you back sooner if you hate it.”
He knows I won’t hate it. Since meeting the master of shadows, my time with him has quickly become my most valued commodity. Not that I will ever tell him that. Not that I need to.
I follow him into the forest, the sky still tinged with darkness where the faint light of dawn has yet to reach its western most reaches. He doesn’t say a word, but I don’t mind the silence. I take the time to get my bearings, becoming increasingly alert as he leads me south. By the time we stop midday under the shade of a cottonwood I’m full to bursting with questions.
Setting my pack against the tree, I open my mouth, snapping it shut again when the shadow master hands me an apple and a wedge of cheese with a sly smile. Of course, he knows I’m curious, but I won’t give him the satisfaction of breaking and asking him where he’s taking me.
I throw myself onto the ground gracelessly, the movement sending a small puff of silt into the air around us. Crossing my legs, I bite into my apple, giving my mouth something to do other than rattle off the list of growing questions in my mind.
He laughs heartily at the display and his eyes gleam. “What I wouldn’t give for one day inside that brain of yours.”
“It isn’t that interesting,” I argue.
“If you say so.” His eyes sparkle with the high sun as it shines through the canopy of the deadwood.
Like much of the woods surrounding the keep, these trees have been dead for many years. Their branches dried and fallen, bark stripped to reveal the smooth surface beneath. Little remains but the skeletal frames of once great stands reaching toward the sun in the graveyard of our forests.
I take another bite and decide on a different approach. “We are heading south.”
Not a question.
“We are.” He smirks.
I hate the way he looks at me like he’s won something. My brow pinches in and then the tension leaks out of my shoulders as he gives me answers to all the questions I’m too proud to voice.
“I told Leanna I wanted to work on your survival skills. Foraging, hunting, tracking…”
He told me months ago that I perfected these skills, and I couldn’t help the pride that had welled within me at his approval. To hear now that he is second guessing that decision lands like a blow, and that he voiced that opinion toLeannamakes it so much worse. If the master of shadows finds me lacking, I will spend the week proving to him just how wrong he is.
“I lied,” he says around a mouthful of cheese, “Your survival skills are flawless.”
“You lied to Leanna about my training?”
My eyes grow wide. If Leanna ever finds out he lied to her for any reason, I sincerely doubt I will ever see the man again.
