Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The draasin shook its head as the shaping layered over it, and then slowly settled back to the ground, its eyes growing glassy.

  Were he able to shape, Shade would have been able to create such an effect on the draasin. It would not hold, not long enough to control but to subdue… the shaping did that quite well.

  “You see? You add the seduction of fire, and the draasin has no choice but to respond.”

  “That did nothing other than put it to sleep.”

  “Sleep. Now you can begin the next step in the training.”

  The man glared at Shade. “How is it that you know of this?”

  The answer to this would be the riskiest. He needed to coax the shaper into helping him, and more than that, he needed to convince him to answer his questions. “I am of Hyaln.”

  Would the man know the name or would it even matter to him? It was possible—unlikely, but possible—that Atenas had managed to work out how to use runes, and how to begin the calming of the elementals, and possibly even had Enlightened among them, but Shade didn’t think that was the reason Atenas suddenly possessed competence with such things.

  “Another made a claim like that,” the man said.

  That was the piece of information that Shade needed, confirmation that not only had the Khalan interfered with events in this land, but that Hyaln had as well. “Indeed? Do you recall his name?”

  The man snorted. “I do.”

  Shade waited, but the shaper didn’t seem like he would answer. “In Hyaln, I am called Shade.” Not Hyaln, but it was the name he’d taken when he’d joined the Khalan. His name in Hyaln had been much different. “Do you have a name?”

  “I’m Calan.”

  Shade held onto the tapping, holding onto the summons to the darkness. Calan didn’t seem to fight it, and so far, had not seemed to even realize what Shade did. Before he could say anything more, he felt the stirring of the wind and the shifting from a summons. Shade glanced at the sky, expecting to see Restain and Sevn returning.

  Calan frowned deeply when they landed. “What is this? You would attack me now?”

  Shade quickly stepped forward. “No. They are like me.” He glanced over his shoulder at them and shot Restain and then Sevn a warning look. “There is much that we can teach you. Not only about subduing the draasin but about your shaping as well.”

  Calan looked past Shade and seemed to note the old woman and the shaper. Damn. Too late, he started to increase his summons on the darkness. Had he more time, he would have shrouded them from Calan.

  “And what of them?”

  Restain answered for him “They are from Hyaln.”

  Calan’s eyes widened, and Shade pressed his summons with a sharp force, subduing him.

  21

  Ciara

  I must involve myself. Doing so risks revealing my intentions before I am ready. I had hoped to maintain secrecy longer, but perhaps that is not possible.

  —Ghalen, First of the Khal

  Pain surged through her, and Ciara rolled to the side.

  The pain was an agony unlike anything that she’d ever felt, a burning sensation, almost like her blood boiled and her body was being torn inside out.

  She screamed.

  Something rubbed against her arms, and then her legs. She screamed again, then realized that she felt Reghal as he worked his tongue against her.

  Flames burst around her. Had they summoned fire to destroy her? Would the summons that she had used on the tower hold? Without her j’na, she felt as if she were helpless, though she knew that she could summon without it.

  Reghal!

  Calm yourself, Little Light. You have done well.

  I’m dying.

  You’re not dying. Not while I remain bonded to you.

  The pain began to abate, and she managed to open her eyes. She lay flattened on the ground, outside of the circle that she and Reghal had formed around the tower. Her j’na was no longer visible, as if by tossing it into the circle, she’d incinerated it. The power that they’d called remained, a steady, powerful glow, one filled with warmth and, if she turned her head the right way, light.

  What happened?

  Talyn awoke.

  As Reghal had indicated, the draasin was perched near Ciara’s head. In fact, Ciara was cradled in Talyn’s tail. At least she understood the heat that she felt. The draasin flapped her wings once and twisted her head to look back at Ciara before huffing out a streamer of smoke and fire.

  The Khalan?

  They are gone. For now.

  Did we… were we successful?

  Voidan is contained here. There are places where it remains.

  How many others are there like this?

  I know of two.

  And they must be sealed?

  They must be sealed, or Voidan will continue to escape.

  Ciara lay back and stared at the sky. Even if we’re able to contain Voidan, that does nothing for the power that remained free in the world.

  Reghal licked her. You have done well, Little Light.

  My j’na—

  Is but a tool. You have the skills to craft another.

  She let out a sigh, and then remembered what she had seen before collapsing.

  Volth?

  Where had he fallen?

  She needed to find him, if only to see if there was anything that she could do to help him, but without her j’na, would she have any way to focus her summoning to help if it came to that?

  Ciara crawled across the ground, moving away from the protection of Talyn’s tail, and found Jasn where he had fallen. His neck twisted at an awful angle, and one leg was bent behind him, twisted in such a way that it must have been shattered when he fell.

  She looked away, unable to see him like that. Jasn had fought off the Khalan to give her the chance to succeed. She hoped that he found peace.

  Little Light…

  Ciara crawled across the dried grass, not wanting to remain so close to Jasn. She would have to find a way to give him a proper burial, but first, she had to find Cheneth. He had been here too. Had something happened to him as well? Was that why the Khalan managed to reach her with their attack?

  She found Cheneth not far from Jasn. Unlike Jasn, Cheneth rested on the ground almost as if he had been cushioned in his fall. Either Cheneth had brought himself safely down, or Jasn had helped him before he’d died.

  Her vision blurred, and she wiped her eyes.

  Little Light.

  She ignored Reghal. What would nobelas say to her? There was nothing that could be done for Jasn, nothing other than provide him with the proper send-off to the other world. What did Ter do with their dead? She hadn’t spent enough time within Ter to know. Probably something foolish, like sending them down a river. Given as much water as they had, it would be the sort of thing that Ter would do and considering Jasn’s connection to the elemental of water, perhaps it would be the right thing to do for him.

  She touched Cheneth’s neck, checking for a pulse, and found a steady rhythm. Water sensing told her the same, but lately, she often forgot to use her water sensing, especially in places like this where water was so plentiful; it often overwhelmed her, making it so that she couldn’t sense anything else.

  Cheneth would live, unlike Jasn.

  She hadn’t even had the chance to really know him. Whatever connection that she thought she felt between them would never have a chance. Why did it hurt her so much?

  Ciara.

  Reghal never used her name.

  She looked up, wiping tears away from her eyes, and searched for the lizard. Did he need her help?

  Reghal crouched near Jasn, resting on his belly, his long tongue slowly running along Jasn’s chest. She hurried over to him.

  Leave him, Reghal. There is nothing that can be done.

  Nothing? This is a child of water, and you claim that nothing can be done for him?

  Look at his neck!

  Water heals. Light heals. You must have faith, Little Light.
/>   Ciara stared at Jasn, unable to bring herself to get too close. She wanted to touch him, wanted to believe that it was possible that somehow he could be brought back, but she knew better. She knew that he was gone and that there was nothing that could be done about it. She didn’t need to be a healer to know that a man couldn’t live with his neck bent the way that his was. Even his leg, crushed as it was, might be enough to kill him.

  Little Light.

  Ciara touched Jasn’s face. It was cold. A deep sob wracked her, and she lowered her head, resting it next to his. As she did, she felt a strange humming, a thread of painful pulsing.

  Tenebeth.

  Darkness coursed through Jasn.

  For some reason, that angered her.

  Wasn’t it bad enough that Tenebeth had killed him? That he had claimed Jasn before they could know whether there would ever be anything more between them, did Tenebeth have to remain within him?

  Ciara brought her hands together, holding all that anger, all that frustration, within her mind as she did.

  Light exploded from her hands.

  She placed a hand on either side of his head, letting energy surge through him.

  If nothing else, she would banish the darkness from Jasn and let him find peace.

  Reghal licked him, and she understood now why he did. Not to attempt to heal him—there was nothing that could be done to heal Jasn now—but to banish Tenebeth. They would find a way to contain the released darkness later.

  Ciara pressed her hands down, holding onto the image in her mind, the focus that she held, and formed the movement over and over again within her mind, that of bringing her hands together, of creating the blast of light.

  Slowly she felt the darkness receding from him.

  Then it was gone.

  No longer did the darkness throb against her hands as it had before.

  She lowered her face to his and kissed him softly on the lips, wishing that she had risked doing that while he lived.

  At least now Tenebeth would not live on within him. Now Jasn Volth might finally find rest.

  Ciara took a deep breath, and the weariness caught up to her. She should move away from him, at least closer to Talyn to watch over her, but there was something peaceful about lying next to Jasn, even in death.

  So she slept.

  22

  Alena

  The darkness is powerful, though few really understand. For years it has been suppressed, held in check by powerful seals placed by those with more knowledge than what we’ve managed to acquire. As the seals falter, darkness emerges, but so too does something else.

  —Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars

  “What do you intend for us to do?” Alena asked Lachen. They stood again in the toss yard, the remnants of the shaping now smoothed as much as had been possible for Jef to take care of, but there was still plenty of evidence that massive power had flowed through here, destroying the earth. Alena once would have been surprised to know that the students were capable of shapings like this.

  “I intend for us to be prepared,” he said.

  “By coming to the toss yard?” she asked. “Do you think that these students will be ready in time for what comes?”

  Lachen turned back to her and smiled. It was disarming when he did that. This was a powerful man, one who was fully aware of how powerful he was, and he simply exuded strength. One hand tapped softly on his arm, and the fingers of the other hand drummed along his chest. Summoning.

  What kind of training had Lachen managed? When Cheneth described Hyaln, he spoke of a place of learning, one where shapers could learn even more skilled ways to shape, where he had learned to use spirit, and where others could learn to summon the elementals much like Ciara, or they could learn to create the runes that held power such as they used in the barracks. Had Lachen trained in Hyaln?

  “I had thought to have others trained,” Lachen said softly, his gaze drifting around the toss yard, “but that is not to be.”

  “What do you mean that you thought to have others?”

  Lachen turned to her, the steady movements ceasing, and his smile faded. “The barracks was not the only place where shapers with talent went.”

  “Cheneth had another?” She should have suspected, especially given the fact that he continually disappeared for long stretches of time, but why not consolidate them rather than keep them separate?

  “Not Cheneth,” he said.

  Alena frowned. “If not Cheneth, then who… You? You had another place training shapers?” Was that where the commander disappeared to? Most thought that he fought in Rens, that the commander was the reason that they had such success in pushing back the border, especially since he was frequently seen in Rens.

  Lachen sighed and nodded slowly. “Another place, one where I brought the most talented shapers, those with the most potential. I taught them myself, wanting them to learn what I knew.”

  “But you sent Jasn to the barracks.”

  Lachen smiled briefly and nodded. “For information. Had I known what he was capable of… I might have claimed him for my camp. There are things that even I was not able to predict. In that, I am thankful that Cheneth had his barracks.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Lachen sniffed. “I can see that.” He flicked his gaze to the sky and then took a deep breath. “Come with me.”

  With that, he shaped.

  When the commander called upon a warrior shaping, power practically crackled around him. Alena felt it as the hairs on her arms standing on end, as the pulsing of her heart within her chest suddenly beating with more vigor, with an energy that sizzled practically to her bones. He disappeared on a bolt of lightning and a massive clap of thunder.

  Alena could sense the direction of his shaping, which told her that he wanted her to sense it. When he had arrived the last two times, she had not detected anything. It didn’t surprise her that the commander was capable of masking his shaping as he did, much as she could mask her shaping, but would she be able to mask it entirely, especially when drawing as much power as he could?

  I will return, she sent to the hatchling.

  The draasin shifted contentedly and crawled closer to the hearth. Alena imagined immense heat in her room, enough that others would know that something was up while she was gone. There was nothing to do about that now.

  With a similar shaping to the commander’s—though not nearly as strong—she disappeared on the lightning.

  With this shaping, there was always a sense of vast movement, and she felt torn across the sky, wind whipping around her. She held tightly to the shaping, focusing on where she sensed the commander had gone, and chased him across the sky, moving south and to the east.

  The shaping carried her farther than she had ever gone, farther than she had ever dared go, and were it not for the fact that she still detected the commander had gone even farther, she would not have risked it. Her strength began to wane before she sensed the end of the commander’s shaping. Alena pushed onward, willing herself forward. Eventually, that wasn’t enough, and she started to fail. As she did, a surge of power came to her—fire, she realized, and likely from the hatchling—that bolstered her and gave her enough strength to carry her the rest of the way.

  Then she detected the end of the commander’s shaping and lowered herself to the ground on another burst of lightning. It wasn’t as controlled as she would normally be able to perform and she crashed to the ground, throwing dirt and leaves around her.

  The commander looked at her with a smile on his face. “I thought that you would be able to make it.”

  “You thought?” Alena panted, leaning forward on her thighs. She felt as if she had just run for hours, though her shaping ability was not as weak as she would have expected. Normally, exerting herself as she had would sap her strength so that she wouldn’t be able to shape for hours, even days, but while she felt weakened, she thought that she might be able to shape were she to have the need.

&n
bsp; “Not all have the ability to reach this place,” Lachen said.

  He even managed to sound amused. If Alena had more strength—and hadn’t been so damned tired—she might punch him for his smugness. She tipped her head back and looked around, finally managing to take in where Lachen had led her.

  A massive forest rose around her. Trees taller than any she had ever seen towered into the sky, blocking the sun. Oval leaves larger than her head drooped from the massive branches, and droplets of water dripped from them. Thick underbrush around her appeared to have been cleared. How dense must it have been before someone had shaped a clearing?

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  Lachen nodded toward a pair of trees. Between them, Alena could see the beginning of a building. “An island to the south.”

  “An island? You dragged me off to some island?”

  “Not dragged. You shaped yourself here. Had Cheneth not already claimed you, that would have been enough for me to think I could have taught you.”

  Alena stood and started toward the trees. Lachen grabbed her wrist and held her back with a shake of his head.

  “Think of this like your barracks,” he said.

  “The barracks are easier to reach.”

  “I thought that would make it more exposed. I think what I created isolated mine.”

  “What is this?” she asked.

  Lachen led her to the first tree and stopped between them. Spread out before her were a series of small buildings that blended into the forest. Vines crept along the top of the buildings, and unlike the rest of the forest, the space between each of the small domed structures remained clear. A tall, triangular-shaped structure rose in the middle of the camp. She searched for any signs of the students Lachen taught but saw no one. Using earth and water sensing, she tried to find anyone but did not. The camp was empty.

  “We called this Alast,” he said.

  Alena frowned. “An odd choice, don’t you think?”

  Lachen smiled. “Any odder than Atenas?”