BooksBarbecue
Back Sea of Shadows Save as PDF
Chapters (61)
  1. Dedication
  2. Prologue
  3. Ashyn: One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Moria: Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Ashyn: Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Moria: Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-one
  24. Twenty-two
  25. Ashyn: Twenty-three
  26. Twenty-four
  27. Twenty-five
  28. Twenty-six
  29. Twenty-seven
  30. Twenty-eight
  31. Twenty-nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Moria: Thirty-one
  34. Thirty-two
  35. Thirty-three
  36. Thirty-four
  37. Thirty-five
  38. Thirty-six
  39. Thirty-seven
  40. Ashyn: Thirty-eight
  41. Thirty-nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-one
  44. Forty-two
  45. Forty-three
  46. Forty-four
  47. Forty-five
  48. Forty-six
  49. Forty-seven
  50. Forty-eight
  51. Forty-nine
  52. Moria: Fifty
  53. Fifty-one
  54. Fifty-two
  55. Fifty-three
  56. Fifty-four
  57. Fifty-five
  58. About the Author
  59. Back Ad
  60. Credits
  61. About the Publisher

It took a moment for his words to process. He thought Moria had become a shadow stalker. That’s why he hadn’t questioned the lack of a body.

No. There was an equally logical explanation. Her sister had been injured but escaped, shucking her cloak and running.

Running where?

There was no question where she’d go.

“She’s headed back for me, and we’ve missed her.”

She started for the door. Tova finally rose from his place beside their father.

“Ashyn . . .” Ronan said. “There’s a lot of blood.”

“Then take supplies and go. I’m finding my sister.”

Sixteen

Sixteen

Everyone’s dead.

The thought looped through Ashyn’s mind as she walked down the dark and empty lanes.

As they’d made their way to the barracks, she’d insisted on checking each house they passed. She listened for survivors while Ronan looked.

“One man in his third decade and a younger woman,” Ronan reported as he walked from a bedroom of the last house.

“You don’t need to spare me. I asked for a thorough accounting, and you haven’t given one yet.”

“What?”

She marched to the second bedroom. He didn’t make a move to stop her. She threw open the door to see two small sleeping mats. Unmade but empty.

She turned to him. “Where are the children?”

He looked perplexed for a moment, then he nodded. “I haven’t seen any. That’s odd . . . Unless . . . Are children more susceptible? More likely to become shadow stalkers? Or perhaps they’ve been taken—”

Now he paused, obviously realizing what he was suggesting. Shadow stalkers were predators. If they took the children, it would be no different from a bear carrying off what it could easily drag back to its den for . . .

“We’ll figure that out later,” he said. “We’re almost at the barracks.”

Moria wasn’t in the barracks. There was no sign she’d been there in their absence—the door was ajar, as they’d left it.

“She’s rescued the children,” Ashyn said as they stood in the empty barracks hall. “They escaped and ran to her. They trust her. She’d take them someplace safe.”

“Without fetching you?”

“She must have had a reason. I know a few places she might hide with them.”

Ronan stepped into her path. “That doesn’t make sense, Ashyn. If she was looking for a safe place, why not bring the children to us, in the cells?”

She skirted past him. “There’s no escape route down there. If the shadow stalkers came, we’d be trapped. And she might lead the stalkers there. She’d take the children someplace else and return for me when she could.”

Ashyn kept going until she reached the wall of the livestock enclosure. From within, she heard silence. No cackle of chickens or grunt of pigs.