(eng) Jon Sprunk - Shadow 03 by Shadow's Master

Author:Shadow's Master [Master, Shadow's]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Caim watched his crew as they marched ahead of him. After just a couple hours' sleep, everyone rode in silence, but they were wound tight. Though he'd been riding with Malig and Dray for weeks, he didn't know them well enough to recognize their breaking points. When they came, he was afraid it was going to be ugly.

“You look troubled.”

Shikari looked down from atop his horse. Though the temperature had dropped overnight and remained uncomfortably frigid, the former slave didn't complain. And Caim couldn't criticize her resilience; she and her protector kept up with the pace without faltering.

“Just thinking about what's ahead.”

She gazed northward, her eyes narrowed as if studying the darkness. “Yes, Erebus. Aren't you afraid?”

The question caught Caim off guard. Fear wasn't the word he would use for his feelings. Resigned, maybe. “Back at the ruins, you—”

“Sturmgaard,” Shikari said. “That is what the Northmen call the place. It's very old. Older, perhaps, than anything else in the wastes.”

“You know a lot about this land. How long were you a slave?”

“Less than a year, but it felt like most of my life.”

Caim considered the path ahead. The tugging had intensified. Was he getting close to his goal? “Don't the Northmen brand their slaves?”

“Sometimes. I had the good fortune to be owned by a man who didn't want me blemished. Hoek, show Caim your mementos.”

The big slave pulled up his shirt to reveal several marks burned into his skin. The older ones were seared over, but Caim could make out an animal paw with three claws and a wolf's head under the scars.

“You don't trust easily, Caim,” Shikari said. “In that way you are like the people of this empty land.”

“I've learned that things aren't always what they seem.”

“All that is gold does not glitter?” She laughed. It was more sultry than her petite frame would suggest.

“You were held by the Bear tribe?” When she nodded, Caim asked, “What are they like?”

“They are a grim people. They never laugh and seldom cry.”

“Not even the children?”

“When they reach the age of three, every child is taken from their mother and given to the asherjhag—the priests. Those found worthy are given to the warrior's society or the women's hall to raise in the ways of the tribe.”

Caim didn't want to know what happened to the children found unworthy. “We saw some of those priests. Do they hold much power in the Northman tribes, then?”

“Not even a chieftain will defy the asherjhag. They speak for the dark lord, and as such their word is law.”

Caim stepped carefully over a patch of ice. From what he'd learned from the Eregoths, the relationship between the priesthood and the Shadow Lord sounded suspiciously like the cult Sybelle had formed in Liovard. It sounded logical, to control the populace through a state religion. “What do the Northmen say about this dark lord?” he asked.

“They speak of him as a god. According to the asherjhag he is the Prince of the Night who once ruled these wastes millennia ago.

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