Rise of the Elder

by D. K. Holmberg

  Both missed. Somehow Josun managed to Slide to the side, away from the knives.

  Galen crept off. Rsiran hoped he was quick enough to rescue Cael. If he could, Rsiran could grab them both and Slide them to the safety of the Aisl so that he could get answers.

  Josun was faster than he remembered, and he had been fast then. Now, with the skill he demonstrated, Rsiran wondered if he would be able to outmaneuver him.

  “You should be dead, Lareth,” Josun said. “Or would you prefer Lorst?”

  “Call me whatever you want, but the only reason you had that implant placed is because you fear me.”

  Rsiran Slid again, pulling on a pair of knives. These nearly caught Josun, but missed, sinking into one of the boxes behind him.

  “If you only knew how much stronger you could be if you were just willing to understand. You will never know what you’ve missed.”

  “I know that I don’t need an implant to be able to do this.” He sent another pair of knives toward Josun, and again he managed to Slide fast enough to avoid it. Could Josun pull himself in the Slides? Had the implant given him the ability to Travel?

  Rsiran was running low on his knives. He pulled on the ones that he’d used, and dragged them back to him, thankful that so far Josun hadn’t managed to stop him. At least that was one ability Venass hadn’t given him.

  “And yet you continue to come here, Lareth. Look around you, at everything that they have kept from your kind. Don’t you wonder about that?”

  “My kind? You don’t even know what I am. Or who.”

  “A smith. That is all you are.”

  Rsiran could almost laugh, but taunting Josun would come later. First he had to end this.

  “Yet it’s you who’s here again, Josun. You have not given up on this delusion. Has not Brusus shown you that you were mistaken?”

  Josun Slid, almost faster than Rsiran could track.

  Rsiran chased Josun, emerging briefly before attacking again. Back and forth, neither of them leaving the clearing.

  Only then did Rsiran realize that he’d been set up.

  From the light of the lorcith, he saw movement near the corner of the boxes and the glint off a sword. Another Slide, and he saw a circle of sellswords, with Galen and Cael stuck in the middle. The crystal would be here, somewhere.

  He Slid closer, and heard a soft cry as he emerged.

  Rsiran glanced to Galen, thankful that the assassin had proven capable of stopping at least one sellsword with a dart. If he was right, they would be Neelish, and the poisons on swords—or crossbow bolts—deadly.

  Now he understood why Josun delayed.

  He knew he wouldn’t be able to stop Rsiran, but if he could distract him, the sellswords might stop him.

  Damn.

  Rsiran debated Sliding away, but he needed Cael and the crystal. He wasn’t about to let Josun escape with her, or with the crystal.

  That meant fighting.

  He Slid, emerging briefly.

  As he did, pain surged through him.

  He glanced down, clutching his stomach.

  Josun laughed as Rsiran realized what had happened. From the burning pain of the crossbow bolt through his stomach, he suspected it was poisoned.

  Chapter 20

  Rsiran felt his vision begin to fade, clouding from a combination of pain and the likely poison that coursed through him. If he did nothing, he would fall here, dead because of Josun, and he’d lose the crystal as well. Somehow, he had to hold it together long enough to stop Josun.

  “After all that, you let a simple crossbow kill you?” Josun asked.

  Rsiran grunted and staggered forward a step before catching himself. He could still Slide himself to the place between, and to the Elder Trees. When he lost that ability, then he might be dead. “Not killed.”

  “You won’t get the crystal. You might Slide off, but even then, you will not survive. Those were Neelish bolts.” Josun turned to Galen, ignoring Rsiran. “I should thank you, Galen. Without your interference, none of this would have been possible. Young Cael there would have died in Eban, the crystal returned to the thief-master there. Eventually, the council would have come for it, and I would have lost my opportunity.” A dark grin spread across his face as he Slid a few steps toward Galen. “But now? Because of you, now I have no use for the council. And Venass has promised quite the reward.” He pulled the pulsing blue crystal out of a pocket and held it in front of him. “Have you ever wondered what it would be like to speak to the Great Watcher? What he might say?”

  Rsiran tried pulling the crystal to him, but the poison prevented him from succeeding. “Are you certain that you’re willing to risk that, Josun?”

  Josun grinned at him, pocketing the crystal and Sliding toward Rsiran. This close, his deep green eyes shone in the light from the lorcith all around. Josun grabbed the crossbow bolt piercing Rsiran stomach, and twisted.

  Rsiran fought not to scream and tried to Slide.

  He failed.

  Rsiran’s heart hammered. He’d waited too long, and now Josun would succeed in killing him. After everything that he’d been through, he didn’t want to die at Josun’s hand, with Jessa not knowing what happened.

  He tried to Slide again, and again he failed.

  “You will die here,” Josun taunted. “After everything you have been through, you failed here. And once I have used the crystal, the rest of your friends will fail, too. No longer will you be able to protect them.”

  Rsiran couldn’t lift his head. He managed only to hold his gaze up, glaring at Josun. One last taunt, then. “I may die, but I will not do so alone.”

  He pulled on three knives behind Josun.

  Josun managed to get away from one, but the other two hit.

  One caught him on the shoulder, spinning him. The other streaked past his face, tearing a chunk of flesh free.

  Josun screamed and grabbed at his face with his good arm. He tripped and fell to the ground, and pushed himself away from Rsiran.

  Rsiran grunted with effort, and pulled on another knife. It streaked toward Josun, striking him in the back. He cried out again.

  “You always underestimate me,” Rsiran said, no longer able to stand, his knees gave way and he fell to the ground.

  Rsiran felt the cool of the ground against his back. He might have failed, but he had stopped Josun. They had saved the crystal. That would be enough. It would have to be.

  Galen reached toward him, but Rsiran pushed him away. “Don’t,” he said. “If you care for her, then save her. There will be other sellswords outside the warehouse. Move quickly.” How many more Neelish sellswords would Josun have hired? He didn’t know, just as he didn’t know how many more might remain in the city. That was the warning he needed to get out.

  “Let me stabilize the wound. I was apprenticed to Della for a time.”

  Rsiran looked up at him earnestly, trying to meet his eyes. “Why do you think I helped you?” He could no longer even move.

  He tried to Slide again, but nothing happened. The poison somehow prevented him from Sliding.

  Did Josun know that effect? Was that why he had used Neelish sellswords, or was it coincidence?

  Galen knelt next to him and touched the bolt. Pain shot through Rsiran as he did, and warmth spilled over his dark shirt. No longer would it hide him from the Sighted. Galen reached into his pocket and started to smear something on the wound. The thick ointment stank, a bitter scent that was much like lorcith in a way. Rsiran knew it wouldn’t matter.

  “Can you Slide one more time?” Galen asked.

  Rsiran swallowed hard and blinked at Galen.

  “To Della’s house. I might be able to help. Just get me back there and—”

  Rsiran shook his head once. He tried to Slide, and realized that whatever Galen had done might actually have given him a chance. He felt a trickle of movement, and if he managed to pull hard enough, he thought he might be able to get away from here.

  “Too hard. Too hard to take yo
u with me.” He swallowed. Blood dripped from his nose, running down his face. With every bit of effort he had left, he pulled on a Slide. “Just me, Galen. Get the crystal back to Naelm…”

  With a scream, he Slid.

  Rsiran emerged in the place between Slides, with the power of the Elder Trees all around him, and collapsed. The bright light of the trees pressed in on him, and he didn’t feel the warmth from them that he normally did. Rsiran realized that it wasn’t that the trees had lost their warmth, but his body growing cold, his life draining away. He tried pulling on the energy of the trees and failed. It had taken all of his remaining energy to simply reach this place.

  Lying there, his blood oozing from his wound, he clutched the ground, wishing that he would have managed to see Jessa one more time before he died.

  He dreamt.

  Rsiran didn’t know where he was, but it was a place of darkness filled with spots of light. It felt as if he floated, but he was insubstantial, almost as if he Traveled. Perhaps that was what it felt like when you died. Maybe everyone Traveled in a sense, getting the chance to join with the Great Watcher.

  He continued to float, noticing that the bright lights beneath him seemed to coalesce. They didn’t remind him of lorcith as they had the last time he had experienced something like this. These were too scattered for them to be lorcith, and too bright to be heartstone. What then?

  Strangely—or perhaps, not strangely—he felt no pain. There was no sensation at all, just an awareness, similar to when he had nearly died by the explosion in Seval’s smithy. That time, he was certain that he was in a different place, and recognized that he moved without his body. This time was different, and he had a sense that he moved, similar to when he Traveled, but not the same. This time, it was almost as if he were substantial.

  A sense of a great power flowed around him.

  Rsiran tried to look around, searching for the Great Watcher. Each time he’d held the crystals, he’d had the same sense, that of the Great Watcher sitting off to the side, so close that he could practically reach him. This was no different, only, there was no crystal. Either Josun still had it and had escaped, or Galen had managed to rescue it, and would return it to the palace. If Naelm took possession of the crystal, he could get word to the guilds so they could return it to the chamber.

  But they wouldn’t be able to.

  Rsiran had bound the crystals in the protections granted by the Elder Trees. He’d used their power, and had sealed the crystals off. No one could access the chamber except for Rsiran. Even were Galen to get the crystal back in their hands, there wouldn’t be anything anyone could do to return it to the chamber, all because Rsiran had thought he knew best and had blocked the council from accessing the crystals. Now, none would ever have the opportunity to hold one of the great crystals. He had wanted to give others the chance, and now with his death, he will have taken it from everyone.

  He continued to move, carried by some invisible wind in the darkness. As he floated, he noted additional flashes of color, but none came any closer. All seemed extremely distant, nothing more than a vague shifting in the darkness.

  The sense of power didn’t change.

  It didn’t come any nearer, but the power still flowed all around. Rsiran almost believed there was something familiar about it, a sense from it he had known before but not from when he had last held the crystal. This was a personal connection.

  Realizing that sent a chill through him.

  Could it be that he wasn’t near the Great Watcher? Could this be something else—something darker? He had seen power in the world that seemed to come from something other than the Great Watcher. Having worked with Carth, he knew that there were others with abilities that were different from his. In some ways, her abilities might exceed his. What else might exist in the world that he didn’t know and understand?

  What else might Venass have attempted to discover?

  If not in this form, he might have shivered.

  Rsiran had long assumed that Venass only sought power similar to the gifts given by the Great Watcher, but what if there were other abilities they had discovered, and other ways of augmenting that power? Haern had warned him to be careful, alerting him that there were other people in the world with power, but Rsiran hadn’t given it the thought he should have.

  As he continued to move, he wondered why he floated like this. If this was death, was this all there was to it? Would he float endlessly above the world, staring at flashes of color he didn’t understand, or would there be something more? Was this what happened to Haern, or had he suffered a different fate?

  A particularly bright surge of light appeared beneath him.

  Rsiran focused on it, and tried pulling himself to it.

  With the attempt, there came movement, a kind of motion that was more a rustling against the steady wind blowing him along.

  He tried again, pulling harder.

  The light zoomed closer.

  Rsiran studied it, wondering what it might be. Not lorcith this time. The size wasn’t large enough to be lorcith. And he thought he’d seen heartstone in the past, but this didn’t seem to be heartstone, either.

  What then?

  Rsiran continued to pull himself toward the light. It grew brighter and brighter. There was no sense of warmth, not as he wished for, and he hesitated.

  Maybe this was a mistake.

  He stopped pulling and pushed.

  With that, he flew away from the light, moving more quickly than he had. It was effortless, and he soared, reaching a height above the flash of light once more, and remained there. Whatever lights he had seen below unsettled him for reasons that he couldn’t explain.

  If he was dead, if this was the end, would there be any way for the barrier he’d placed around the crystals to be lifted? If it remained, if the barrier persisted, his friends would suffer even more because of him.

  But he was gone… wasn’t he?

  He’d collapsed in the midst of the Elder Trees, at the place of their power. Were he alive, he could use that power, and undo the protections that he’d placed there.

  Could he unravel them in this state?

  If this was some sort of place before his passing, some way of moving him beyond and to the Great Watcher, would there be any way for him to connect to that power?

  Rsiran turned his attention to trying to reach the power of the Elder Trees. Normally, reaching that power was difficult, something that he could only do when he was in the place between Slides. The sword he’d forged might have acted as a kind of intermediary, but it still hadn’t given him the same connection that he had while in that place. Lying there, with his body there, shouldn’t he be able to reach it?

  He pulled, thinking of the power.

  At first, nothing happened.

  Rsiran floated, the scattered lights below him still unsettling.

  He pulled again. This time, he felt a stirring, the faintest of fluttering.

  Rsiran fixed a desire in his mind. The crystals couldn’t remain apart from their people forever. Doing so was a mistake.

  When he pulled again, power surged. Rsiran felt it within him, something that occurred to him as more of an unraveling. The lights below brightened, now mixing with faint blue hues and greens. Other colors flashed.

  Power raced through him.

  For a moment, he worried he’d made some sort of mistake, that he’d accidentally unleashed something, but then he felt the steady hum of energy, a familiar sense of the Elder Trees. They glowed brightly near him.

  Rsiran pulled, this time returning to his body.

  Chapter 21

  When Rsiran awoke, his body was restored. There was no evidence of the crossbow bolt that had nearly ended him, and the poison that coursed through his veins no longer burned as it once had. He took a deep breath, and noted the strange bitter lorcith odor he associated with the place between Slides.

  Sitting up, he saw that he sat at the edge of the clearing. The four remaining sjihn trees g
lowed a bright light as they did in this place, and the fifth remained darkened near him. Each time he saw it, he knew he would have to find a way to restore that tree.

  At least he still lived.

  Rsiran didn’t know how it was possible. The Elder Trees had healed him before, but that hadn’t been nearly the injury he’d sustained this time. Facing Josun had nearly killed him, and he was lucky to have survived.

  The crystals.

  Had he released the protections upon them?

  Rsiran pulled strength from the Elder Trees and Slid.

  When he emerged, he stood amidst the crystals. Four crystals rested atop wooden pedestals, glowing with the bright bluish light. None pulsed more brightly than any of the others, not the way that they had when he had held the crystal the first time—or even the second time while Traveling. Though he might want to, Rsiran doubted that he would be able to claim any of the crystals a third time.

  The fifth was still missing.

  He hadn’t really expected it to have returned yet. He had barely released the protection around the crystals. The council—even if the crystal had been returned—would not have been aware that they could now access the chamber, much less had the time to replace it.

  Had he made a mistake in releasing the protection around the crystals?

  Without that, there would be no way to prevent Venass from reaching them. Already, they had damaged one of the Elder Trees, harming it enough that one of the crystals had been vulnerable. He didn’t doubt they would come searching for it again, trying to take another—possibly all of them.

  He’d never considered the question of who would release the barrier if not for him. Pride had made him think that he would survive. In spite of everything that had happened to the others, including losing Haern, there was a part of him that still believed he would live when others failed. If Josun Elvraeth had nearly killed him—and not even Josun, but a sellsword using a poisoned crossbow bolt—others could harm him as well.