Rise of the Elder

by D. K. Holmberg

  He started away, gaze sweeping through the clearing as he searched for Haern. There were different questions that he had now, and he didn’t think that Della would be able to answer them, not if she didn’t have any way of tracking Galen. Knowing that he lived was enough for now. If he could find him, and if he could get to Cael…

  “Rsiran?” Luthan said, hurrying to catch up to him.

  Rsiran glanced over to the elderly councilor. “What is it?”

  “A… thought. We need to remove the risk of Venass from Elaeavn, but we will need the council’s support.” When Rsiran arched a brow, Luthan pressed on. “I know how you feel about the council, especially after the way it appears they sided with Venass.”

  “Appears? I think we can fairly confidently say that they did side with Venass. You were abducted, Luthan.”

  “And rescued. But if you find Cael, we will have a different kind of leverage, at least with Naelm. If we can get her, and get to the council… It might be a way of getting the city back without heavy fighting.”

  Rsiran started to shake his head, but Luthan was right. If they could do anything to end it without a battle, he had to try, didn’t he?

  “I’ll find her. And the crystal.”

  A relieved expression swept over his face. “Good. I trust that you’ll do what is right.”

  “I’ll do what I can.”

  He started away from Luthan, frustration beginning to bubble up within him. If the council hadn’t sided with Venass, none of this would have been an issue. The guilds shouldn’t be solely responsible for protecting the city, not if the Elvraeth truly believed they were meant to rule. The Elvraeth should take an active role as well. If Luthan believed the council would help, Rsiran needed to know what help they’d find in the palace. More than that, he needed answers.

  An idea came to him, and he Slid before he thought too much about it.

  He emerged in the Floating Palace, bypassing the heartstone that prevented others from Sliding into it. Lights glowed in sconces around him, and the halls were empty. His heart hammered as he hurried through the halls.

  What was he thinking? Returning to the city was dangerous, and now he was going to the one place that would be the most dangerous if caught?

  Rsiran checked his knives, ensuring he had enough if it came to it. Even better, there were dozens of knives within the palace now, some of them forged by his own hand, giving him an even greater connection to the metal. Others were forged by ancient smiths, and he’d often longed to have a chance to study the craftsmanship, but had never had the time. Now he wondered if he ever would.

  He paused at the massive doors leading into the council hall before Sliding past.

  The hall was dark, and as he pushed a pair of knives around the room for light, he saw it was empty. The enormous table that took up most of the middle of the room was darkened in shadows. A jagged rent at one end of the table told him that something had happened here.

  Rsiran Slid, this time emerging in one of the upper floors of the palace. He focused on lorcith, letting the call of the metal draw him from place to place, having no other focus about where he’d go to search for Naelm.

  The first room was nothing more than a storage room. In it, he found a couple of lorcith knives—some of the earliest that he’d created. Brusus had used them to trade for information. He pulled them, and noted the lesser skill that he’d used when hammering them. These had been formed when he first began working with the forge, a time when he had still been somewhat hesitant, even if he hadn’t known it at the time.

  Rsiran pocketed them. They were his, regardless of how the Elvraeth had come to possess them.

  The next room was someone’s quarters. The room was empty, and the knife he’d sensed hung over the fire, crossed with one made of steel. He pulled on this one, as well, returning it to his pocket.

  The third room where he detected lorcith, he found no knife.

  Rsiran focused on the awareness of the lorcith that he detected. As he did, he realized that it wasn’t a knife at all, only shaped similarly.

  Next, he stopped outside a closed door further along the hall. Another sense of lorcith came from the other side.

  After Sliding inside, a crossbow bolt flew at him, striking him in the leg.

  Rsiran bit back a scream as pain surged through him.

  A dark-haired man—the same one who had looked so much like him when he had attacked Galen—stood holding a crossbow.

  He felt the poison coursing through him.

  “You are a fool, Lareth. First you come to Eban, and now to the palace? Do you really think you’re so powerful that you can stop—”

  He didn’t let the man finish.

  Rsiran pulled himself in a Slide, and grabbed the man before pausing at the place in between Slides, where he used the power of the Elder Trees, letting it fill him, healing the injury from the crossbow attack.

  The Hjan tried to jerk away, but Rsiran wrapped him in bands of power from the Elder Trees.

  “Where is Galen?” Rsiran asked, pulling the crossbow bolt from his leg and tossing it on the ground next to him.

  “That’s what you’re after? You really care that much about the man?”

  “Not the man.”

  “The coin? Perhaps we have misjudged you, Lareth.” He smiled darkly. “Or should I say Lorst?”

  Rsiran used the energy he alone could manipulate here and twisted it more tightly around the Hjan. “I think either will work. Where is he?”

  The man’s face started to turn purple, and Rsiran eased back on the power. “Escaped. Why else would I be in the palace?”

  The comment made no sense to Rsiran. “Where is he?”

  The dark smile returned. “He returns to Elaeavn with the girl. There’s nothing that you can do about it, Lareth, unless you intend to actually kill him yourself, and I think you found he is unique in how he can escape.”

  Rsiran was getting tired of all the praise heaped on Galen. “Where is Danis?”

  The Hjan’s mouth tightened.

  Rsiran pulled on the power, squeezing him again. “Danis. Where is he?”

  “You won’t find him as easily as that. You can torment me all you like, but I don’t know how to find him.” He smiled at Rsiran. “You’ll have to kill me, if you have the stomach for it.”

  “I have something else in mind.”

  Rsiran struck the Hjan on the back of the head, knocking him out. Holding onto the man tightly, Rsiran Slid him to the inside of Della’s hut in the Aisl. Once there, he waited.

  It didn’t take long for Della to come running into the hut. “What did you do?”

  Rsiran nodded to the Hjan. “His plate. Can we remove it?”

  Della sucked it a sharp breath as she stared at the man he’d brought back to the camp. There was no denying the resemblance. “Rsiran—where did you find him?”

  “Doesn’t matter now. Can we remove the plate?”

  Della placed a log in the hearth, getting the flames rolling even more. She made a slow circle around the man, pausing at his head. “Haern was able to successfully remove his plate, but he hadn’t been as connected. I don’t know how they fuse it to the person.”

  “I can do that, but can you heal him.”

  Della looked up. “Is that really what you want to do? It might be better were we to let him die.”

  “No. We need answers, and we won’t get them with a pile of dead Hjan.”

  Della nodded slowly. “If we do this, you will need to remain here as I do.”

  She gathered a few sharp implements and crouched in front of the Hjan’s face. Della pressed her fingers against his skin, running them along the scar before taking a deep breath. She looked up at Rsiran, and her eyes blazed a green so deep that they were almost black. “You will have to act quickly. Once the plate is removed, I will need to heal him. I suspect he will fight.”

  “He’s unconscious.”

  “There are other ways to fight, Rsiran.”


  She placed a sharp knife to the scar and made a quick incision.

  Rsiran expected blood to pour out, but it didn’t. He saw a flash of metal beneath, and Della peeled the skin back, revealing the size of the plate. Only at the edge of the flesh did it bleed.

  “Now, Rsiran.”

  He focused on the plate, and pulled.

  Always before when detecting the metal buried in the Hjan, there had been something that limited him. Now that the flesh was peeled back, he realized the limitation came from the skin overtop.

  The plate resisted him.

  Rsiran pulled again, this time with more strength.

  Della pressed down on the Hjan. Muscles in her arm quivered, and her jaw set in a tight line. “Quickly now.”

  Rsiran pulled again.

  The door to her hut opened and Luthan entered. He scanned the hut and hurriedly joined Della, crouching next to her without saying a word. He pressed his hands on the Hjan’s shoulders, as well, giving her support as they held him to the ground.

  The plate began to move, but still it clung to him.

  Rsiran had to try a different approach. Pulling it off the Hjan wouldn’t work, but could he change the metal, perhaps change the shape? Lorcith couldn’t take on another shape once forged, but he’d never tried using his connection to it to try before.

  This time, he pushed and pulled at the same time. He didn’t want to remove the plate, only to deform it and change the focus of energy from it.

  The lorcith buckled slightly.

  He pressed harder.

  The lorcith resisted, but Rsiran focused on the sound of lorcith, on the song he heard from unshaped lorcith deep in the mines of Ilphaesn, and sent that as he pushed and pulled.

  The lorcith softened.

  The Hjan screamed.

  Rsiran quickly wrapped the lorcith into a tight roll, and pulled.

  It came away quickly, separating from the Hjan, and he dragged it free. Once free of the Hjan, he sent it to the fire and let the lorcith not only grow hot, but burned off the remnants of the Hjan in a flash of horrid green. He started to pull the lorcith out of the fire, but sensed from the metal that it wanted to remain, so he left it.

  Turning his attention back to Della, he saw her and Luthan whispering softly to each other as they worked on the Hjan.

  “The defect will require much healing,” Luthan said.

  “I can see that.”

  “You cannot risk such strength. We will have need of your strength.”

  “There is no other way, Luthan.”

  Rsiran crouched next to her. “There might be.”

  Rsiran reached for her hand, then grabbed onto the Hjan and pulled them to the place between Slides. As he emerged, power flowed around him, even more potent now that he was at the heart of the Aisl Forest with the Elder Trees physically near him.

  “Rsiran—”

  “We need to do this, Della. We need to know what they intend, and we can’t continue to kill them. When this is over, will we exterminate all of Venass?”

  “You have compassion, and that is a valuable trait, but when it comes to Venass, that compassion might not be well placed. Those you speak about have done unthinkable things, many that we cannot begin to understand.”

  “Someone once said the same about Haern.”

  Della’s eyes softened. “Haern… he is unique in that he chose to leave Venass before he managed to sink too deeply. These men, this is something you’re taking from them. They might not want to remain this way.”

  “Then we give them a choice. Later. For now, we need information.”

  He pulled on the power of the Aisl Forest and funneled it into her. Rsiran had done something similar once before, using the same technique when Della had nearly died while trying to heal the Elder Tree. Had it not been for her, the smith tree would have died as well. Would they have lost another crystal then? Losing even the one was too much. At least he could help Della, much like this place restored him when injured or weakened.

  Della focused on the Hjan, letting her hands trace over the man. As she did, the skin slowly knitted back together. Rsiran could see what she did, could watch the way that she used the power and let it flow through her.

  The Hjan shook.

  Then he woke.

  He glanced at Della and then turned to Rsiran. He tried something—likely trying to Slide—and his eyes widened. “What did you do?”

  “The same as I’ll do to the rest of the Hjan. I removed the ability you stole. And now you’ll answer questions.”

  With that, Rsiran Slid them back to Della’s hut.

  Chapter 10

  “I don’t see anything,” Jessa said.

  They stood on a wide plain far outside of Eban searching for Galen and Cael. Should it surprise Rsiran that she was Naelm’s daughter? In a twisted way, it made some of his decisions make sense, possibly even the decision to allow Venass access to Elaeavn.

  In the distance, a forest lined a wide river, and farther still, the vague outline of the city rose. This was the direction Amin had told them to go, and even if Rsiran didn’t fully trust the Hjan, it only took a few moments to check.

  “Maybe they turned a different direction,” Jessa went on.

  “He said they returned to Elaeavn,” Rsiran said. “There are only a few options if they intend to go by road.”

  “We could wait for them to appear. Then we could grab them.”

  Rsiran let out a long sigh. “Della doesn’t think that we should grab them. Just keep them safe and take the crystal from them.”

  “You don’t need to take them, then.”

  He didn’t, but Della thought he needed to pull Galen in for some reason. “The crystal needs to return. If that takes Cael bringing it back…”

  “If it reaches the city, the council will gain control of the crystal. That’s not what we want.”

  “The council won’t. I intend to see to that.”

  “How?”

  Rsiran surveyed the landscape again. They weren’t here. Della would have detected had something happened to Galen, and she said he was still out here somewhere, if only Rsiran could find them. It would be easier if the damned man had lorcith on him.

  With another long sigh, he Slid her back to the Aisl.

  “I need to return to Elaeavn for the next part,” he told her.

  “You can’t take on the council on your own.”

  Rsiran didn’t argue, but he thought he could take on the council if it came to that. It was the presence of Venass he couldn’t, but now they had another way. He might not trust Amin to do anything other than betray them, but he could use him and what he knew.

  “I don’t need to take on the council, only convince them we’ll return the crystal. Luthan claims—”

  “I know Luthan claims the council only cares about the crystal, but do you really believe it will be easy to expel Venass from the city? Do you think to convince the council they supported the wrong side and simply ask Venass to leave?”

  “Not easy, but necessary.”

  “Rsiran…”

  “What choice do we have?” he asked. “This has to be the first step. If we can reclaim the city and push back Venass, then we have only to take the fight out of the city. When I find Danis—”

  “When you find Danis, what do you really intend to do? You intend to destroy him?” She turned to him and took his hands, and stared into his eyes. “This is your grandfather, Rsiran. I’ve seen how much you struggle with the idea of harming family.”

  “He’s not family.”

  She squeezed his hands. Rsiran breathed out, trying to let the anger he felt toward Danis ease away from him, but not certain if he could. Too much emotion was tied up in what Danis had done, the way that he’d destroyed his family.

  Jessa pulled him through the forest, leading him toward the row of huts that had been built at the edge of the clearing, between the massive sjihn trees. As she did, he realized where she took him. A steady hammering came fr
om somewhere behind the row of buildings.

  “I don’t need to see him.”

  “Don’t you? Since you returned with him, you haven’t taken any time to sit and speak with him. You’re the guildlord, Rsiran.”

  “The guildlord of what, exactly? Until we return to the city, we don’t have anything we’re guilds of. Everything I have come to know is gone until we take back the city. That involves attacking Venass that might be there.”

  “I’m not saying that you can’t do that, only that you can’t be so focused on it that you forget what you’ve committed to. Our people had guilds before we ever moved to the city. You were the one to tell me that.”

  “They weren’t the guilds,” he said.

  “Fine. Clans. The idea is the same. Now come on. You need to meet with your guild. And your father.”

  When they reached the row of huts, she guided him between them. Rsiran was surprised to see that a massive fire buried deep in the earth burned, the coals hot enough to melt steel… which was exactly what the smiths used it for. Someone had fashioned an anvil out of a thick stump of sjihn wood, and three men stood around it, taking turns hammering.

  As Rsiran approached, Seval stepped off to the side and smiled, wiping his hand across his forehead. “Guildlord,” he said with a smile. “You finally have come to inspect our forge? The masters have approved it, but I suppose we should formalize it and have you grant it final approval.”

  Rsiran hadn’t known he was expected to approve a smithy. Did that mean he could formalize his own when they returned? The guild had pressed him to return to his family smithy, but he’d preferred to remain in the one he’d acquired from Brusus. There was familiarity to it.

  “You have my approval,” he said. “I should have returned to check on the guild sooner. I’m sorry, Seval.”

  Seval nodded. “You’re the guildlord,” he said, as if that answered everything. “Have you finished with what you plan?”

  Rsiran suspected Seval only wanted to return to the city. Since he felt the same way, he understood. “Not yet. Now we have a new plan, one I hope will lead us back into the city.”

  Seval looked to the pit and then to the stump, a troubled expression on his face. “That would be good.” He leaned toward Rsiran. “We’re going to be short on weapons, Lareth. Only a few of the masters are comfortable making swords. They’re learning, but to truly make a fine blade… well, you have to listen to the lorcith if you intend to use that, or you have to fold the steel more than most believe if you go that route. We could really use your guidance.”