Page 1 of Ties of Shadow

Chapter one

The Storm

The shadow storm swept in out of nowhere, drenching my clothes and basket with sticky, inky rain. The forest floor darkened with the black fog that billowed from the hot ground as toxic drops struck the surface. The seers had forgotten to mention this one.

Dashing behind the spiny bark of a razewa tree, I cowered, ducking and holding my basket over my head as I waited the tantrum out. The Shade was never angry for long, although it seemed like he was angry more frequently these days. If he could simply get over himself, that would be great—his storm was delaying my work.

Searing wind from the east ripped through the trees, their branches creaking ominously in the palace’s flaming retort as the infernus prince reassured us with his fiery magic. What measly shadow could withstand a flame? As always, Prince Leon stood on the balcony platform, surrounded by galers, their wind magic extending his burning reach. I could almost make them out if I squinted. The billowing black clouds rippled as thunder roared, buffeting back the hot wind. Dust flew into my face from the cracked earth. I quickly checked on my necklace—safely tucked inside my shirt—before wrapping my cloak around my mouth.

Another drop of the black rain fell onto my cheek, stinging as it landed and tacky as I wiped it with my fingertips. The storm was worsening. I glanced up at the shoddy canopy the razewa provided, studying the rolling black magic before quickly looking down to protect my eyes. I couldn’t stay here. The herbs I needed were nearby, just beyond the meadow, and we were running so low on supplies for the potion. The queen had looked so frail that morning; I couldn’t give up on her because of a stormy inconvenience.

Pulling out my luz lamp to ward off the dark and bolster my courage, I started to run deeper into the leafy forest, heading toward the rocks and the pines. It was close to the border of our lands—too close to the edge—but I’d been here before. It was fine. The Shade hadn’t found me then, and he wouldn’t find me now, preoccupied as he was in his fight against Leon. Lightning crackled, flashing a stark contrast to the black trees and bleaching for a moment the sickly rain.

I slid to a stop when I reached the racerbristle bush, relieved to see it still standing. But my heart sank as I touched it. The leaves crumbled between my fingertips, and the branches snapped off and disintegrated to ash in my hand. Another ruined bush. The rain pelted harder. I fought the urge to throw the basket in frustration. It had been so hard to find this one last month. They were rare to begin with, temperamental to grow, and exquisitely sensitive to environmental changes like, for example, shadowy rains and billowing winds. What were we going to do now? What wasIgoing to do?

The rain burned hotter, superheated by the fire, and stung my arms despite the sleeves covering them. I had to find cover fast. I sprinted again, this time ducking across the border into the darkened woods of the pines. Pine needles cushioned my flight beneath the black fog, and the trunks were so close that no light, and therefore no rain, could penetrate through the boughs. I’d find no herbs here, but at least I’dbe protected from the harsh weather. I pulled my mother’s necklace on top of my clothes; it cast a tiny glow before me, barely sending light a foot ahead. The coiled gold of the necklace burst like the sun from the glowing yellow stone within. Two longer sunbeams wrapped upward around the chain, and two longer ones trailed down the center of my chest while the other rays sprayed outward. A charmed gift from my mother, it had been brighter when I was a child but was now dimmed with age. Still, it produced enough light to comfort me at night. Although now, alone and in the dark, it didn’t seem quite enough. I held my lamp higher, wishing Father had let me take a lamp with more luz. This lamp was already dimming, nearing the end of its twenty-four-hour glow.

My skin prickled, and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. The darkness pressed in like arms around my chest. My traitorous thoughts slipped to the Shade’s manor somewhere beyond the forest—down a canyon and into the depths of death, if the seers were to be believed. Not here. Not the reason I felt like I was being watched. He was Death personified—a scourge, a menace. And all too close.

I backed up slowly toward the reach of the storm, torn between wanting to remain dry and safe from the rain and my inner senses screaming a warning. Then I heard a growl. A black wolf paced forward from deeper within the shadows, his silhouette backlit by a pulse of lightning. Wolves never came this far from the mountains.

“Nice pup. Handsome pup,” I crooned, willing my voice to stop wavering. “I was just leaving. Have to get back, you know.” I glanced down at the basket and pulled out a soiled strawberry. “Want one? It is…well, itwasdelicious.” The wolf stepped forward and growled again. “No? Next time.” My nervous laugh increased the tremor in my hands.

He lunged forward, and I spun and ran for my life.

“Bad wolf,” I panted, ducking around the trees. “Very bad wolf.”

He leaped, and I scraped my hand against a trunk; the momentum whirled me in a half circle just barely out of reach as he lunged. Some of the roots fell out of my basket, but I couldn’t stop to save them. The wolf twisted and clamped its jaw over the hem of my dress, jerking me backward. I yanked hard, and his sharp teeth—the only whiteness in all the shadows of the forest floor—bit through, taking a piece with him. I stumbled at the sudden release and took off again.

Glancing over my shoulder, I didn’t see the arching roots that coiled like a thousand arms from the base of a hemty tree. My toe caught on the elbow of a twisted root, and I flew through the air. I landed hard; the wind knocked from my lungs. I gasped, waiting for the air to enter back in, but the growling approached behind me.

Panic gripped my chest as I started crawling backward. A branch snapped on my right. I ripped my gaze from the beast to see a stranger emerge from the dark forest and step between me and the wolf. The wolf tilted his head one way and then the other as the man approached, his hands stretched out to either side. Then, the man gave a flick of his finger in a shooing manner. The wolf huffed once, pinned me with a glare, and then ran into the forest.

Relief flooded me, but when the dark stranger—a forester?—turned to me, the sense of danger returned. Dressed in dark leather, a long, thick coat brushed his calves, with belts across his torso. His face remained darkened under his hood, his eyes hidden, and his features shadowed by the weak penetration of light through the canopy above us.

“You shouldn’t be in this forest.” His voice was low, like the thunder around us.

I struggled to sit up. “I know. I was hiding from the rain. I’msorry. So sorry.”

I rose to my feet, and he huffed. “It isn’t my forest.”

“Still sorry. I’ll just—” I pointed my arm to the right, toward where I thought the castle was. “I’ll go back now.”

Reaching up, his left hand clamped around my wrist. My stomach clenched in glacial fear. But then he pulled my straight arm a few degrees until it was aimed in a different direction. “That way.”

“Sorry. Yes. That way.”

I reached for my basket, my heart thudding the cadence of my nerves. “Thank you, sir.”

I stepped and tripped again over the cursed roots. This time, I landed directly against his chest, my hands flung wildly, grasping at his wrist. The basket clanged against his side. My fingertips landed on the strap of a belt across his chest. His right hand reached to steady my shoulder but slid up to my neck as I fell forward. His fingertips threaded my hair as his thumb swept along my jaw. His warmth was electric. My skin prickled from his touch, which heated my marrow. This was too intimate for friends, much less strangers. My cheeks warmed, and I stammered as I pulled away. His eyes remained shadowed, but he tensed at our touch. “So sorry. Again. A thousand apologies. Thank you and sorry and bye.”

I rushed past him, careful of the roots this time, as I headed in the direction he guided me. The weight of his gaze lightened as I put distance between us. The pines thinned. The rain lessened. And as quickly as it started, the storm and magic disappeared, and the forest was still. I paced through the shrubby, deciduous forest, heading back toward the town, and turned—only then looking behind me for the man or the wolf. But nothing stirred.

My heart kept up its rapid rate as I sneaked quietly onto the dirt street, wincing at every shuffle, crack, or scuff I made. What had I been thinking? I would never go back to the pines. I would stay out of thatarea. Go home tonight and remain below anyone’s notice. Unseen by the forester, the wolves, or my father. And I’d also, somehow, avoid Leon. I held my lantern close, feeling foolish for needing its meager comfort. Glancing up, I tried to steal some more joy from the light tower of the castle. Beams of yellow poured from the hoard of luz behind the glass, glowing brightly to provide hope to a dark and tired city. I shivered from the residual dampness of my ruined dress and paused to breathe in the scene.The prince and king lead the nation with light and hope.

Then why did I feel so hopeless? I looked down at my sad, sad basket. Everything was ruined. The herbs I’d found near the creek were quickly drying; the strawberries and tubers that had remained in my basket were sooty and wrinkled. I grimaced as I held up a wilted wild carrot, blackened by the Shade’s rain and cracked from the heat the prince had used to save us once again.

I studied the wrinkled orange skin; the scent of acrid charcoal wafted from it. “So sorry. Your life ended too soon, little one. It would have been better if I had left you in the earth until the storm had passed.” I tilted the pathetic thing, wondering if I could somehow recover its essence, but who was I kidding? I was no washer who could rehydrate it; I was barely an herbalist, barely a lady, barely…anything. I set the carrot near a slimy, struggling caterpillar on the ground. Maybe the creature could be saved with the small offering. I shuffled through the rest. The baked herbs could be rinsed and dried again. And the roots could possibly be fried in oil if we cut off the bits where the rain had burned the surface. I closed my eyes and pressed my thumb against the bridge of my nose. Hours of work lost. Chef would be sad. Father would be furious. The queen would worsen yet again.

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