Shadow and Bone - The child of shadow and light

Chapter 13

I sat frozen in my seat, too stunned to speak. Me, a Grisha? this had to be some lame joke. Though by the look on the two grishas faces, it seemed highly unlikely. I swallowed dryly before choosing my next words carefully.

"So let us say that I am a Grisha. What is my power? What element can I control?"

"Oh by the saints child, did Mikhailov knock your head so hard that your brain fell out? Of course, you are an Etherealki. You are a summoner of shadows. Have you never experienced shadows appearing out of thin air? never wondered where they came from? Because they did not appear out of thin air. No, they were summoned. Summoned by you, Sasha."

Her words left me stunned to silence again. Leaving me to think back at the dark memories of when I had been the most vulnerable. When I had nearly been drowned by the boys older than me. When I had been harassed and bullied by Natasha and her minions. And all of a sudden everything seemed to clear. The shadows had seemed to always appear when I needed them the most. When I needed protection the most, or in the very rare cases I became furious, like I had been the day before. Or at least I thought it was. I had no idea how long I had been unconscious.

"Are there other children like me?" I asked unable to help my curiosity.

Victoria and Mikhailov took a moment to look at each other, as if unsure what to say. But at last, Mikhailov opened his mouth and said wearily, "No, but there is one person who oddly enough shares the same power as you."

"And who is that?" Mikhailov looked at Victoria again, who answered in her companion's place.

"The darkling. The tsar thought he prefers the title Soverennyi, can also summon shadows."

After that we sat in silence, me deep in thought and the other two watching me like hawks. I couldn't help thinking of my mom. Was she worried about me? Were she and Mal looking for me? Or did they let me get captured on purpose so that they could escape? I could feel my heart clench with hurt and my eyes watering at the thought. I knew that Mal did not like me, the looks of disgust and cold - ice-freezing hatred were enough to tell me what he felt and thought of me. What I could've possibly done to deserve such hate, I had no idea. <

"Her pulse is increasing. It would be best to put her out" I heard a low voice whisper before I suddenly felt my heartbeat slow down and my eyelids gradually lowering until they were fully closed. Making me fall into a deep slumber.

The next time I awoke was when I felt hands shaking me awake. I opened my eyes only to stare right into a pair of brown large eyes. Mikhailov looked tired and his long brown bangs were covering most of his forehead as well as his eyebrows. When he saw that I had awoken he took a step back.

"We have arrived, follow me and don't even think about running. I am really not in the mood for a run at the moment."

I gave a weak nod, still feeling drowsy from the deep coma-like sleep.

"How long was I asleep?"

"Nearly three days" I was about to give a shocked shout of protests and accusations but was quickly shushed by Victoria who appeared in the doorway of the open carriage.

"Let's go. And be quiet." Mikhailov grabbed my arm pulling me to a nearly standing position, making me follow him as he got out of the carriage. It was dark, almost night, which told me that it must be very late at night. I quickly looked around as I started to feel more and more awake. We were standing in a stone courtyard outside of a large beautiful castle-like building. But a person entering the courtyard caught my attention. The cover of darkness helped the person conceal his or her identity, though as the person got closer it was fairly easy to tell that the person was either a woman or a very slim boy.

Victoria turned and gazed at the person before walking over to meet him or her halfway. She greeted the person 

"Petra what are you doing here this late at-" but she was cut off by the person who turned out to be a woman named Petra.

"I was told to meet you here when you arrived. You are late, did you meet any difficulties on the way?"

"It took us longer than planned, she wasn't really cooperative but other than that there were no issues. Did he tell you to come here? For what purpose?" She asked emphasising the 'he'.

"yes. I was told to make a few modifications in case - you know..."

"I see," Victoria said looking grim.

"Well, we better get on with it before someone comes snooping about" She turned and together they walked towards where I and Mikhailov stood standing, his hand still grasping my arm tightly, though not enough for it to hurt. When Petra finally came into view it made sense that I had not been able to make her features out as her face was mostly covered by the hood of her cloak. She was not as tall as Victoria and under the hood, I could distinguish a braid of brown hair. She suddenly drew in a sharp breath as she seemed to take me in.

"She- She looks just like-" she cut herself off before she could finish her sentence, shaking her head, she pulled something she had, had folded over her right arm. It was a cloak like hers but If it was black or another dark colour, I could not see because of the lack of light. She pulled it over my shoulder and clasped it at my front before pulling the hood up.

"I can't do it here in the dark, I can hardly even see where the hell I set my own feet"

"Don't curse in front of the child!" Victoria scolded. And before I could get a word in I was pulled alongside them into the large castle-like building. The hallways were dimly lit by lamps placed alongside the long hallways. One thing that I could understand in all of my confusion was that the three persons dragging me along were in a great hurry to do so, as if they wanted to hide me, or at least keep my presence unknown to the other inhabitants of the castle.

There was no other reason that I could think of that required all the secrecy, the cloak, the hushed whispers. And I would bet that our arrival being so late at night, was no coincidence either. For which time could be more suited to smuggle things you did not want to be seen, than in the dead of night under the cover of darkness? I stumbled on my very tired, sore legs as I was dragged up numerous staired and through numerous hallways which all just rushed past me, reminding me of a labyrinth. It felt as if we had been walking or rather half running for ages before we came to such a sudden halt that I walked straight into Malkhailovs back.

"In here," Petra said in a low voice as she opened a door and held it open, gesturing for the others to enter.

A/N: Hello everyone! As you probably have noticed I've been on a very long writing break. And to be honest I was having a hard time finding the motivation to continue writing. But after seeing so many people reading and commenting, I decided to try again. Because what kind of people would we be if we just gave up?