Shadowborn. Katie MacAlister

keeping them near him to witness their suffering.

      “Take the prisoner,” Mayam commanded one of the Shadowborn who stood guard outside the gaol. It was empty, I noted, but that didn’t surprise me. I couldn’t imagine how Nezu expected to confine an incorporeal spirit, but figured now was not the time to try to puzzle that out. “Lord Racin wishes her confined near him, where he might enjoy her screams.”

      Mayam released my wrist at the same time the man stepped forward. He grabbed me by the arm with a painful bite of his fingers into my flesh, drawing from me a gasp of pain. Mayam ignored it, and entered the tent, no doubt to complete her master’s bidding, taking with her my swords and only hope of escape.

      I stood for a moment, unmoving when the guard tried to push me forward, my heart sick at the idea of being Nezu’s prisoner. The thane was bad enough, but I’d beaten him once—kind of—and I knew I could do so again. But Nezu was different.

      “You come,” the guard ordered, trying to give me a shove, but he was smaller than me, and I was tired of being pushed and pulled around.

      If only Kiriah would hear my pleas. If she would allow me to tap into her power, then I could blast the guard, grab my swords and the moonstones, and be away before Nezu knew what happened. But it was no use even trying, my heart said in a sad little dirge. Kiriah, for whatever reason, had abandoned me when I most needed her strength. I bowed my head, about to give in to the inevitable when my brain prompted me with a mental image of Hallow shaking his head, his eyes glittering like topazes in a bubbling stream while he told me to have faith in myself.

      “You will do as I order,” the guard warned, giving me a hard shove toward the door. “Else it will go badly for you.”

      I closed my eyes, flexing my fingers, my mind working through the words of the invocation of Kiriah, calling for her grace and power to fill me.

      Nothing happened. There was no sense of Kiriah, no familiar tingle of heat sweeping through me.

      “What’s going on out here?” Mayam asked, emerging from the tent with an object wrapped in a dirty bit of cloth. “Why haven’t you put her in the gaol? For the love of the night, must I do everythi—”

      Fury roared to life in me at her words, at the whole situation. “How dare the thane take me?” I almost yelled, jerking my arm from the guard’s hold. “And your precious Nezu—who does he think he is that he can just order me to a gaol where he will subject me to the most heinous tortures imaginable? And for what?”

      “I…you…you can’t…” Mayam’s eyes grew round when I snarled at her. Rage, hot and fiery, swept through me.

      The guard lunged, but before he could touch me, he shrieked and leaped backwards, his hands singed with the strength of my anger.

      The heat of Kiriah filled me, lighting up even the smallest part of my body, making my soul sing with the joy of it all as I spoke words of gratitude to the goddess, along with the promise that I would not repay her kindness with shame. The power of the sun roared in my ears, my body an inferno of intent. I glanced at Mayam, and knew without the slightest shred of doubt that I could destroy her where she stood.

      But Kiriah’s blessing was not that of vengeance, so instead of smiting her on the spot, I simply flung a net of light onto her that my fingers had automatically woven, and snatched from her hands the dirty bit of cloth that hid the moonstone.

      “Blessed goddesses!” she yelped, and threw herself to her knees, words tumbling over each other while she sobbed out an apology, almost gibbering in her fear and anguish. “Blessed Kiriah and Bellias protect me. I meant no disrespect, for I am the humblest of all your servants. Show mercy to me, and I will become your devoted slave for the rest of my life…”

      I flicked a glance toward the guard when he took a hesitant step toward me. His hair lit on fire. He screamed again, and ran off, disappearing into the gathering crowd of Shadowborn…and a couple of Harborym.

      Two Harborym ran toward me, swords lifted high, their voices calling guttural oaths, but they were stopped in their tracks by a column of white-gold light that I called down upon them. Behind them, the remaining Shadowborn backed away slowly, their faces twisted with fear and disbelief.

      I unwrapped the dirty bit of cloth and beheld a long greyish-green crystal about the width of my palm and twice as thick. “This ought to do the trick,” I said, wrapping fingers that glowed golden around it. I spun around, intending to return to the cave where Nezu remained with the thane. It would have been the sheerest folly to face Nezu without Kiriah’s blessing, but now that it flowed through me, I knew I had the power to wield the moonstone against him. I might not be able to destroy him outright, but I was willing to bet I could contain him in some manner, and force him back to the mortal realm, where Hallow and his arcanists could bind him.

      I took one step before the light within me faded, leaving me feeling bereft and empty. “No!” I yelled, holding up my hands, watching as the glow slowly melted from my arms. “No, no, no! Not now! Kiriah, just two more minutes! That’s all I need!”

      Kiriah evidently didn’t see things as I did, for she withdrew her power completely, leaving me as I was before: trapped in the spirit realm, the prisoner of a merciless god, weaponless, helpless, hopeless.

      “Deo named me Hopebringer, and by the twin goddesses, I will not lose that, too,” I growled to myself. Holding the moonstone firmly, I snatched up my scabbard from where Mayam had let it fall, quickly strapping it on, the familiar weight of the swords against my back giving me comfort.

      Mayam remained on her knees, her body curled upon itself as she rocked back and forth, repeating a whispered prayer to Kiriah over and over.

      “Right. I can’t tackle Nezu without Kiriah’s help, but I can take the other moonstones.”

      Just then a shout caught my attention. I whirled around and saw a veritable battalion of Harborym pouring around an outcropping of rock. A few Shadowborn had run to meet them, and were even now pointing back to the camp.

      “Or not.” I amended my plan. “One will do fine.” I ran forward in the direction opposite from the Harborym, pausing when my conscience twisted painfully. I paused, swore to myself, then with a muttered curse that I really hoped Kiriah would never learn of, grabbed Mayam by the back of her tunic and hauled her to her feet. “Come on, you annoying woman, you.”

      To my surprise, she didn’t fight back. She didn’t even respond; she just followed meekly when I released the cloth and took to my heels, keeping up with me as we dashed around rocks, fallen trees, and large, dusty-looking shrubs, heading to the fringes of a forest that swayed in the light breeze.

      “I can’t believe I’m doing this. I should have left you where you were, but Sandor always said that Kiriah honors those who show mercy in her name, and since she’s just blessed me—well, you can thank her for the fact that I didn’t leave you where you were, that’s all I can say. Not even going to tell me how bossy I’m being?”

      We reached the edge of the forest as I spoke, the noise of the Harborym growing ever closer as they made up ground, but for some reason I believed the forest offered us a safe haven. It was a place of life, of growing things, of sanctuary for those who wished to hide.

      Mayam gave a hiccupping half-sob, saying in a voice that had lost all its arrogance, “I’m not—I wasn’t—Lord Racin said that you wish to destroy him. He is not as evil as you think. Once, I thought as you do, but then I learned that he has been betrayed, exiled from those he loves. Those who should have been closest to him drove him from all he held dear. It is for that reason that I plighted myself to his cause, but I see now that the goddesses viewed that as spurning them. Which I would never do! They are most beloved in my eyes.”

      “Mmhmm,” I said, deciding that her mind must have become unhinged when I cast the light net on her. I wound my way around massive trees that caught at our hair and tunics, long streamers dripping from the upper branches, waving in the wind in a manner that reminded me of the thane’s hair. “Stay close. It’s getting thicker, and if I