Tarashana Rachel Neumeier (top 10 motivational books TXT) 📖

Iro was frowning at Inhejeriel. “What manner of enemies are in this shadow of your black tide?”

She gripped her hands together, taking in shallow little breaths. The great warriors, the ka’a, the shadows of those warriors. They will not care about Ugaro. They have come seeking me. They may follow—

Emptiness streaked the sky, erasing the world just beyond the curve of the mountain, where the stone fell away into the sky. A shadow spilled out of that emptiness and folded itself upright, becoming a person—the shadow of a person. He was not like a shade, not colorless or transparent, not made of air or light. He was a person made of nothing, a shadow that somehow took on solidity and stalked forward. Light slid across him and somehow into him, confusing the eye in a wrenching fashion I would never have been able to imagine. More than anything, he seemed to me like a man carved out of coal and the midnight sky, but then emptied of substance, and yet brought to a semblance of life.

His eyes were emptier even than the rest of him—black against black against black, layer upon layer of emptiness. When he smiled, his teeth were like that too: black against black, sharply pointed.

He was as tall as a Lau, but as broad as an Ugaro. In one hand, he carried a sword, curved that was black, into which light fell as it fell into his form, into his eyes. In the other, he gripped a weapon with a short haft and three vicious curving claws.

All this, I saw in one appalled instant. Almost before I knew what I saw, another such shadow fell across the mountain and rose up, and another after that. Three shadow warriors—five—too many, and another came out of the emptiness even as I thought so. They all smiled, translucent black teeth gleaming in translucent black faces. They were very, very pleased to find us—to find Inhejeriel.

Tano had whirled to face the threat that had followed him out of the shadow tide, his knife in his hand, but he also backed quickly toward us. Suyet was shouting, on his feet, reaching for a sword, but like Tano he had no weapons except his knife. He drew that. Inhejeriel was making a thin sound, strangling a scream to something almost inaudible. I was all but overwhelmed by the desire to protect her; if I had not already been running forward, I would have done it then.

Even as I moved, I was aware of Etta was pushing Inhejeriel back, her own knife in her hand; even Lalani leaped up and put herself between our enemies and the Tarashana woman, snatching up the pan from the little fire and brandishing that like a weapon. Aras stepped before them all. He was speaking, shouting, but I did not have time to listen. Eleven shadow warriors faced us now. I now stood shoulder to shoulder with Iro on one side and Tano on the other, but Tano had no weapon but a knife. “Get back, Tano!” I ordered sharply. “Stand with Aras!” I thought Iro and I could hold the narrow ledge, while Tano and Suyet and Aras formed a second line of defense, the last line between our enemies and the women, to stop any enemy that got past us.

But Tano ignored me, and before I could make him obey my order, the foremost shadow warrior reached us.

Behind me, Etta sang a long, clear word, just as the warrior struck at me. I took the blow, which had more strength and weight behind it than I had hoped, so that I had to lead the blow rather than throwing the warrior back. I attacked as aggressively as possible, and as I had hoped, the shadow warrior fought like a man and forgot he had other opponents. Iro took the opening I gave him, opening a long, gaping wound along the warrior’s back and side. The wound gaped wide, but blood did not pour out—shadows do ont bleed. Instead, moonlight poured into the wound, and the shadow warrior shredded into wisps of darkness and disappeared.

But the second warrior was already leaping forward, and others behind him. Tano cut at one of the shadow warriors, which was brave, but stupid; his knife was not enough against those curved swords. I cut across that warrior’s belly. My sword tore through him with much the same feeling as though I had cut against armor—perhaps I had—the iridescense slid across the shadow warrior in a way that suggested armor. I did not have time to cut at him again; I had to pivot at once to meet a different attack, then duck low to evade a stroke from yet another warrior. I cut at one enemy and thrust my knife into another warrior’s throat. Darkness spilled out of him and light into him, and that one was gone, but there were so many.

Etta’s voice rose, the tone pure and sweet, pitched high to carry, but I did not have time to listen. Tano left his knife in an enemy’s chest and ducked away from a return stroke—I shouted his name and threw him my knife, as better than nothing.

He snatched the blade out of the air, dropped it, caught it again, and pointed past me, shouting, but though his tone was urgent, I was trying to keep a shadow warrior from striking Iro in the back—Iro was fighting two other enemies and could not manage three—also, an enemy was trying to slip around me—he was past me, I could not stop him—

Suyet flung himself between Aras and the shadow warrior. Before I could do anything, the shadow warrior caught Suyet’s knife with the claw-weapon, jerked it out of his hand, and whipped the curved sword across his belly. Our enemy did not allow enough for the long