Shadowbound (Shattering of the Nocturnai Book 2) by Carrie Summers

Author:Carrie Summers [Summers, Carrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lonely Crag Press
Published: 2017-01-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eighteen

I WOKE, CONFUSED, to the sound of banging and grumbling. Da was at the stove with a skillet in hand. But the light outside was wrong for breakfast. Everything was red, as if the sun were setting.

“Da?”

“Fool traders,” he cursed.

“What is it?”

Jaret, who was covering the table with wood shavings as he whittled—injured arm awkwardly holding the thick piece of alderwood—pointed his knife at the window. “’Nother alarm.”

I blinked, peering out the wavy glass. The light beyond was not the ruddy glow of sunset, but rather the lanterns blazing red to warn of an attack.

“What time is it?”

“Almost dawn,” Da said.

“Rot,” I said, throwing off the covers.

Da spun, uncracked egg in hand. “You aren’t leaving?”

I threw a padded jacket over my linen shift, belting Tyrak to the outside. Pulling loose trousers over my underclothes, I shoved my feet into closed-toed shoes—I’d learned my lesson on stubbed toes lately.

“I need to get to the harbor,” I said, hurrying for the door.

“Lilik, you’ll just get hurt. What if it’s the Waikert?”

“It’s not,” I said. If the Waikert were attacking, we’d hear the screams. On clear nights, the sentry posts and watchtowers gave reasonable warning of a sea tribe attack, but with the fog last night, the savages would have crept into the city undetected. In fact, that’s how most attacks had come in the last five years, and a major part of the reason we were faring so poorly against them.

“Ulstats?” Da asked.

“Who else? I’m starting to think that the monster-heir’s madness lurks in every one of them.”

Laying his carving—a seal, by the looks of it—on the table, Jaret jumped to his feet. “I’m coming, then.”

I shook my head. “You can’t.”

His face screwed up, an expression that looked childish enough to justify my refusal to let him accompany me. “Why is it okay for you to go?”

“Because . . .” What could I say that wouldn’t hurt his feelings. Because I was wiser than him? More important? “Trader Yiltak will expect me there. I need her help, Jaret. I don’t want to deal with this.” The lie came so easily. I hoped the red light hid the guilty flush in my cheeks.

His eyes narrowed. “And because you’re a nightcaller—excuse me, a channeler—you’re part of the Trader Council now.”

“Someday, maybe,” I said with a wink that hid the truth in my words. I’d never be a member of the Trader Council, of course, but someday soon I hoped gutterborn would be as much part of the leadership as the traders were. Neither Da nor Jaret knew about the resistance yet. I’d been meaning to tell them this morning, including my plans for us to separate. But it would have to wait. And in the meantime, I’d have to think of a few resistance tasks for Jaret. Things that wouldn’t expose him to danger.

Da cracked the egg on the edge of the skillet. The innards sizzled when they hit the pan. “Just be safe, Lilik,” he said, recognizing that arguing wouldn’t sway me.

The

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