Rise of the Elder

by D. K. Holmberg

  “You don’t know what she is either, do you?”

  Haern shook his head. “I know that she’s skilled in ways that we are not.”

  “Gifted by the Great Watcher?”

  “Not the same way that you and I are, but she has gifts of a sort. I don’t know that anyone really understands the extent of her gifts other than Carth herself.”

  “I asked her to join us in the fight against Venass.”

  Haern smiled. “Imagine she threw her support right in.”

  Rsiran laughed. “She said she had other things that she had to do.”

  “Don’t mistake that for not helping. Carth fights Venass, so she’ll do whatever she needs in order to accomplish what she seeks.”

  “Then why has she helped me so far?”

  “Because it suited her. Like everything that Carth does, it matters if it suits her goals. If not, then she won’t assist. Somehow, you fit in with what she has planned.”

  “If she’d share what she has planned, we could be a part of it.”

  Haern shrugged. “Perhaps. That would be the easiest for us, but Carth has one of the sharpest minds I’ve ever encountered. If she’s planning something, there are layers to it that you and I cannot imagine.”

  “Sounds like the way Brusus used to describe Josun.”

  Haern laughed softly. “I suppose it does.” He shook his head. “He’s one we haven’t seen again.”

  “Not seen, but he’s still out there, and now he’s sided with Venass.” It would make him more dangerous, more powerful even, and Rsiran dreaded facing him again, but he would have to. More than even knowing what he must do to stop Danis, Rsiran’s fight would not ever really be over until he dealt with Josun. “I need to return to Elaeavn. I’m going to face the council.”

  “As guildlord?”

  Rsiran shook his head. He’d considered going as guildlord, but that didn’t have the weight that he needed. “As myself. Naelm needs to know what I’m willing to do if he continues to side with Venass.”

  “And what is that?”

  Rsiran sighed. “Something stupid. That’s why I need your help.”

  “When are we going?”

  “Soon. I have to find Valn to set something up first, but then we’ll go.”

  “Where?”

  “Back to Elaeavn.”

  Chapter 12

  Elaeavn was quiet.

  The city often had a stillness to it, especially at night, a time when few people moved along the streets and there were only the sounds of the gulls circling or the steady washing of the waves along the shore. Tonight, there was something more to it, though Rsiran couldn’t place his finger on what he sensed.

  He walked the streets of Upper Town, keeping to the shadows, taking in the destruction leveled by Venass, wondering if the city could ever really recover. How could the council have allowed Venass into the city? Didn’t they see what Venass intended?

  Maybe they did, and didn’t care as long as they retained their rule.

  That had to change, like so much else had to change.

  Even when he’d lived here, he hadn’t taken the time to walk through the city and appreciate it this way. Most of the time, he had Slid, using his ability to avoid the streets. Jessa had always tried to get him to walk, to learn the alleys and other parts of the city that you couldn’t learn without taking the time, but he’d never felt the need.

  “You’re quiet,” Haern said.

  “What’s there to say?” He stopped, continuing to hug the shadow of the buildings. “The city is different.” Both men wore shirts of a fabric that seemed to make them one with the darkness around them, keeping them hidden from view, a fabric Jessa claimed was designed so that even those Sighted could not discern its presence.

  “It’s not changed quite as much as you think,” Haern said. He held a darkened blade of heartstone and lorcith, one he carried only at Rsiran’s insistence. Its soft blue glow that only Rsiran could see added to his somber mood, as did the glow coming from Haern’s bracelets, the ones Rsiran had made for all of his friends to prevent them from getting Read or Compelled. “The city has seen other changes over time. This will be just be one more.”

  “The city has stood for five hundred years,” Rsiran said.

  “How do we know what’s changed and what hasn’t in all those years? Think of your smithy. At some point, years ago, it was a well-maintained shop, surely a place its original owner was very proud of.”

  “I’m proud of it.”

  Haern grunted. “You’ve done plenty to get it to a condition you should be proud of it. But what is its history? Who owned it, and what happened to him? How long had the smithy stood empty?”

  “Years.”

  Another grunt. “That might be an understatement, don’t you think? There were holes in the walls if I remember correctly.”

  “Not the walls. The roof.”

  “Whatever. The smithy failed because something happened. Something changed and altered the course of whatever that owner had in mind for his future. Maybe he fell on hard times, like happened to most of those who live in these parts. So it was abandoned, until you came in and returned it to something that it once had been. The rest of the area where you have your smithy isn’t any different. That’s all part of Lower Town, and old Lower Town. You’ve been through there. You know the filth that’s there.”

  “The people there aren’t filth.”

  Haern shook his head. “Not the people. The trash, and the standing water from poorly repaired drains, and the theft. But it wasn’t always that way, was it? Surely it was once like your smithy is now.”

  “I’d like the entire city to return to something like my smithy.”

  Haern stepped out of the shadows and continued through the streets of Upper Town. “Wouldn’t we all, Lareth.” When they reached the end of the street, Haern turned to him. “What do you intend? You going to Slide us into the palace or do we just walk in?”

  “I Slid there once recently. That almost didn’t end up so well for me.”

  “You heal fast.” There was a question in there. Rsiran hadn’t explained to many how he managed to heal from the crossbow bolt injury. Della knew, but not many others did.

  “I heal fast,” he agreed. “Della sees to that.”

  Haern grunted again. “More than only her, I think. Glad that you figured something out. If we’re not walking up to the door, then you do intend to Slide in.”

  “I wanted to get a feel for the city before I did.”

  “And do you have a feel for it now?”

  Rsiran sighed. All he knew now was that Elaeavn wasn’t the city it had been when he’d been younger. Even that hadn’t been the city that he thought it to be. The Elvraeth ruled, but he didn’t think they had done so with the same autonomy they have now. The guilds had provided a certain influence, one he now knew the Elvraeth resented.

  “I know what needs to get done.”

  “Why the two of us?”

  “I don’t want to risk too many others if this doesn’t work.”

  “Not Jessa? Her Sight can help you navigate through the palace better than anything I can do.”

  “I don’t need Sight to get through the palace, but I do need someone I can trust to watch over me and make certain I remain safe.”

  “You trust me now? What’s it taken, a year?”

  “I’ve trusted you.”

  “No, you haven’t. Nor should you have. I didn’t much trust you, either, so I guess we were even with that. Took me a while to discover what kind of man you were.”

  “And what kind did you find?”

  “One that’s too much like me for my liking.”

  “I’m not an assassin. Carth made it clear that she didn’t think that I would ever be able to be much of one.”

  “And she still helped you. Seems that you’ve got something she respects.”

  “She respects Galen.”

  “Most who get to know him do.”

  �
�But he is an assassin.”

  “So was I. Not all men deserve to live, Rsiran. There are dangerous people in the world, some who want to do horrible things. Better to remove them and make the world a better place. Think of what your Jessa went through. Do you think I should have let those men live when I pulled her from them?”

  Rsiran shook his head. Jessa had told him what the men had intended to do with her, but she hadn’t gone into much more detail, thinking to spare him from it. What he’d heard troubled him enough. “No. I don’t think those men should have lived.”

  “There are others like them. Evil men. They might not be with Venass, but they would just as soon hurt you than help you. It’s what makes you a bit unique. You still manage to find reasons to help.”

  “I help those I care about.”

  Haern grunted softly. They stopped at the tall palace wall, and he leaned on it. “You didn’t care so much about me, but you still helped. You didn’t care so much for your sister and your pa, but you went and did everything you could to save them. You didn’t care so much about that apprentice of yours, but you managed to make something out of him. That’s not something that most would have been willing to do.”

  “I thought you said I was like you.”

  “Ah, maybe I was wrong. You’re too kind for me. I would have let most suffer. The only person I look out for is Haern.” He flicked his gaze to the top of the wall. “You going to get us up there, or am I going to have to climb?”

  Would Haern have let someone suffer? Rsiran had argued with Carth on behalf of Haern, claiming that he had changed, but what if he hadn’t? What if men couldn’t change?

  Rsiran didn’t believe that. He had changed. Haern might want to convey the gruff and occasionally angry exterior, but he had done much to ensure Jessa remained safe.

  “You can climb if you think you can,” Rsiran said.

  “Not whether I think I can, but whether I’m wiped when I get up there.”

  Rsiran grabbed him, and pulled them to the top of the wall.

  They emerged in a pool of shadows that reminded him of Carth and the way that she had used the shadows. Haern pressed himself flat against the stone, and with his dark shirt and pants, blended into the night. Rsiran copied him, lying flat so that he could hide from the eyes of Elvraeth or tchalit if they still roamed the grounds.

  “What are you looking for up here?” Haern asked.

  “Venass.”

  “They won’t be patrolling the grounds.”

  “No, but I needed to be up here to act quickly. This is where you do your part.”

  “What part is that?”

  “Protect me.”

  Haern grunted softly. “You’re willing to place that much trust in me that I’ll keep you safe?”

  Rsiran shrugged. “You might not do it for me, but you’ll for Jessa.”

  “Ah, damn, Lareth. I’d do it for you, too. Be safe.”

  Rsiran closed his eyes and focused on the inside of the palace.

  He Traveled.

  He still marveled at the strange sensation. It was something like a separation, a leaving of his body. Indescribable. Sliding was easy; you step into the Slide and emerge, or pull along the Slide. Traveling was both similar and quite different.

  As he separated, he raced into the palace, emerging in a wide hall. Rsiran waited, hovering in an insubstantial form as he tried to find whether there were any Elvraeth around. At this time of night, the palace halls were quiet and mostly empty.

  He needed to find Naelm for several reasons. Mostly to speak to him, but Rsiran needed to prove to Naelm that he could reach him, and that if he could reach him, he could do the same to those he might actually care about—like Cael. If he was right, maybe having Cael back would motivate him.

  The other reason was to determine how strong a Venass presence there actually was in Elaeavn. He didn’t know the numbers, but when Carth suggested that Venass didn’t want power, it made Rsiran wonder if maybe there might be fewer than he believed. The threat of power—whether they truly had it or not—could be very effective, especially with the council on their side.

  Rsiran moved into each room along the main hall. He found no one until he reached the end of the hall. There, in a small room no larger than a closet, he found a small, dark-haired man with a long, thin scar running down the side of his face. He sat in front of a lantern writing in a journal.

  Hjan.

  Rsiran returned to his body. “Wait for me,” he said to Haern and Slid to the man.

  The Hjan didn’t have time to react. Rsiran grabbed him, pulled him to the place in between Slides, and used the power of the Elder Trees to incapacitate him. He bound the man and knocked him out and Slid him to the Forgotten Palace, where Valn had prepared a cell for him.

  “Hjan?” Valn asked as he emerged from the shadows.

  The walls here were lorcith and heartstone, woven together in a way that would prevent Sliding. “One. There might be others.”

  Valn grabbed the hilt of his sword and smiled. “We’ll be ready.”

  Rsiran clapped him on the shoulder and Slid back to Hearn.

  “One is secured.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “As sure as I can be. He won’t trouble us while we’re here at least. Valn will keep him from getting free until I can reach him and remove his plate.”

  “Not sure how I feel about you going in and tearing the lorcith from the Hjan but leaving them alive.”

  “How many do you think there are?” Rsiran asked.

  “Hundreds.”

  “And we’re going to kill all of them? That doesn’t make me feel any better than what they attempt.”

  “Some may have to die,” Haern said. “That’s the way it is with war. You think you can convince hundreds who sided with Venass that they were wrong? I doubt these are men who were Compelled, Rsiran. They didn’t need any reason other than a desire for power to have the implant, and they don’t want anything more than a chance to continue gaining power. That the kind of man you think you can convince to integrate back into some sort of society? These men are extremists, Rsiran. I should know. I was there.”

  “But you changed.”

  “Maybe a little, but I’d still be tempted by power. Don’t know if that ever goes away.”

  “We have to find something,” Rsiran said.

  Haern shook his head. “I’ll do it your way, but only because you’ve proven that you can.”

  Rsiran watched him for a moment more. “Watch me again.”

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  Rsiran Traveled. This time, he emerged first in the room where the Hjan had been making notes. He should have grabbed the man’s book when he’d been here in person, but hadn’t thought about it. He’d wanted to get free before the Hjan managed to attack him. At least in the place between Slides, he could use the power of the Elder Trees, and had an advantage that they didn’t.

  Moving through the halls, he made his way to an upper level in the palace. Rsiran had visited the palace several times, mostly sneaking in, but lately, he’d come as the guildlord on an invitation, and even then, he hadn’t come to the upper floors. These were mostly the rooms of the Elvraeth.

  He drifted in and out, occasionally finding Elvraeth sleeping, other times finding them sitting at tables, and other rooms that were empty. Some were as ornately decorated as the one he’d discovered Josun in. Many were simple, and reminded him more of Luthan than of Josun.

  As he began to think that he might not find Naelm, he came across an empty room, one with an antechamber with the door closed to the back. Three voices drifted out from the door, and Rsiran paused to listen. One of them he recognized.

  Rsiran floated through the door. In this form, there was a strange sense to it, something almost substantial, so that he could practically feel himself moving across the barrier of the doorway, and then it was gone.

  On the other side of the door, Naelm sat at a small table.

 
; Though he sat with his head down, and a deep bruise that had bloomed on his face, he wasn’t what drew Rsiran’s attention.

  It was the other two facing him.

  A Hjan he didn’t recognize stood next to Naelm. His long sword unsheathed, catching the deep blue lantern light of the Elvraeth lanterns. Then there was Danis.

  His grandfather looked up, as if looking at Rsiran, but he couldn’t see him when he Traveled, could he?

  Danis smiled with a flash of bright teeth. “Rsiran.”

  Chapter 13

  Back to his body, Rsiran noted a faint sea breeze that gusted around him on the top of the wall, and nothing but moonlight lit his way. Haern watched him, knife in hand.

  When Rsiran stood and prepared to Slide, Haern grabbed his wrist. “What did you see?”

  “Danis is there. I can end this, Haern. All I need to do is—”

  “Stopping Danis won’t end this, Rsiran. If you go in there like you’re planning, you’ll just as likely end up dead as him. More, possibly, especially if there’s more than one.”

  “We can’t let him get away. He knows I was there, and we—”

  Haern released his wrist, and pulled a pair of knives from hidden sheaths. “Good. We. You brought me to help watch over you, so let me watch over you.”

  Rsiran nodded. “We have to act quickly.”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s a small room. Naelm is there. Beaten maybe. One Hjan is guarding him. Then there’s Danis.”

  “I’m ready.”

  Rsiran took a deep breath, pulled on knives to establish the connection and Slid.

  They emerged in the antechamber. He nodded to the door, and Haern nodded. Rsiran went to the door and kicked it open.

  The Hjan leaped toward him.

  Rsiran Slid to the side, emerging and pushing his knives at the Hjan. The man ducked, avoiding the knives. He swung his sword toward Rsiran, but Rsiran pushed another pair of knives at him, forcing him back.

  “I can do this. You get Danis!” Haern shouted, moving to engage the Hjan.