The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  At the top of the stairs, a narrow hall led toward three closed doors. “Which one do you think is hers?” he asked.

  Jessa shrugged. “I’ve never been up here. You know how Brusus can be. Doesn’t want anyone to know anything. Probably thinks he’s protecting us.”

  Rsiran hadn’t been here, either. He knocked on the first door and there was no answer. Moving to the next two, he found the same. All were locked as well.

  “Guess no one is here,” he said.

  “You don’t want to Slide in and see?”

  “You don’t want to pick the locks to see?” he countered.

  She smirked. “Can’t say I have the same practice that I used to. With what Brusus has been up to, I haven’t had the same opportunities to use my skills.”

  “Just Brusus?” he asked.

  Jessa shrugged. “Mostly Brusus. But you make needing to sneak past doors less of an issue. Most of the time, I don’t miss it.”

  “There are still doors I need you to open.” He thought of the strange cell that they’d found in the Forgotten Palace. Without Jessa, he wouldn’t have been able to open it. Rsiran doubted that he would have been able to Slide past the door.

  “Not all that many,” she said.

  “Let’s see which of these is Alyse’s,” he suggested.

  “Sliding or sneaking?”

  “Your choice.”

  Jessa scanned the doors, the muscles at the corner of her mouth twitching. “I think Brusus will know if I sneak. Better Slide.”

  Taking her hand, he Slid them past the first door.

  “This is Lianna’s room,” Jessa said with a whisper.

  There was a canopy bed along the far wall. A dresser with decorations on top stood against another wall. A few paintings hung on the walls, and a plush carpet was under his feet. The room looked as if it hadn’t been touched since Lianna had died.

  “Let’s go,” Rsiran said.

  Jessa nodded.

  They Slid through the wall to what appeared to be Brusus’s room. The bed was simple and unmade. A washbasin in the corner had murky water in it, long in need of refreshing. There was a stack of clothes on a trunk at the end of the bed. A few lorcith items—mostly knives, though a few were other decorative items that Rsiran had made—sat on a narrow table and glowed with a soft light, making Rsiran’s knife lantern unnecessary.

  “Brusus,” she said. “He needs to clean this more often.”

  Rsiran smiled. “I would guess Brusus doesn’t think about cleaning too often, at least not here.”

  “He’s got enough help these days. Have one of the pretty girls he’s hired clean up after him.”

  He chuckled. “You think that matters to Brusus?”

  “I think he likes to look at them,” she said.

  “Not the girls. The room.”

  They Slid out and then into the last room. It was the one farthest back from the top of the stairs, and surprisingly, one of the larger rooms, at least as large as Lianna’s room, and much larger than what Brusus occupied.

  The room was empty, though Rsiran hadn’t expected Alyse to be here. Had she been, she would have answered the knock. “Where do you think she went?” Jessa asked.

  “I don’t know.” He held the knife out so that he could use the light to look around the room and saw nothing that would help him know where she might have gone. He needed to take another look at her necklace to see if there was something about it that might explain why their father used the symbols that he’d found in the cell.

  There was nothing.

  But not nothing. A scrap of paper on one end of the table caught his attention. Rsiran picked it up and looked at it. He recognized the handwriting as his mother’s.

  “She’s seen Mother since she started staying with Brusus,” he noted.

  “Are you certain that it was after she came here?”

  Rsiran passed the note over to Jessa. In it, their mother spoke of Alyse’s new residence, as well as keeping an eye on Rsiran. “Pretty sure.”

  He returned the paper to the table and Slid them out of the Barth to the part of Lower Town where he’d found his mother. When they emerged, the sounds of waves crashing on the shore drifted up to him. The air tasted of salt, and a faint breeze drifted through, but not with much force.

  They stepped toward the door of his mother’s home. Like much of the rest of Lower Town, the house was rundown, with fading paint and cracked stone. The street smelled of the rot of some dead animal, somehow worse than the alley outside his smithy. Rsiran considered Sliding inside, but chose knocking. He wouldn’t have her accusing him of sneaking into her home.

  The door opened to his knock, and his mother’s wrinkled face peered out, glancing first at him and then Jessa. Her eyes narrowed, but she pushed open the door and let them in. “I didn’t think you’d come by here again,” she said.

  “No? Not even considering the fact that you knew that I’d helped Alyse find different employment?”

  She fixed him with an unreadable gaze. When he’d been a child, she had always sided with his father and had seemed so quiet and subservient. Now, she reminded him in some ways of Evaelyn. Sizing him up, as if she was trying to come up with ways that she would use him.

  “It is good that you found her,” was all that she said.

  Rsiran glanced to Jessa and shook his head. “That’s all you have for me? I think you have more for Alyse than that.”

  “Alyse wanted to know what happened to your father.”

  “No. I’ve told Alyse what happened to Father. Don’t think you can lie to me.”

  She tipped her head to the side and then winced. Rsiran smiled, realizing that she attempted to Read him. She would find the same difficulty with Jessa.

  “What’s the matter, Mother? Are you having difficulty trying to Read me?”

  She squeezed her eyes shut, and when she opened them again, she forced a smile. “Why did you come here today?”

  “I was looking for Alyse.”

  “From what I understand, you helped find her employment, so you would know where she was at all times.”

  “Then you understand wrong. I helped Alyse find a job where she wouldn’t be hurt every day. Would you have it any different?”

  “I would have her back with me.”

  The comment seemed strange to him. Hadn’t his mother wanted Alyse to move on, to leave the home, eventually to marry? Being both Sighted and a Reader, it would have been easy for her to identify a suitable partner for Alyse, especially with the connection their family had to the guild.

  “Why would you have her with you?” he asked.

  His mother turned away.

  Rsiran Slid, emerging in front of her. The house wasn’t large, and Sliding even such small spaces required him to have a tight control. She took a quick step back and away from him.

  “Do not do that here!” she hissed.

  “What are you afraid of? That the Forgotten will come for you like they did for Father?”

  She said nothing.

  “They’re gone, Mother. I helped defeat the worst of them. Your aunt.”

  He waited, wondering if she knew about Evaelyn or if that had been something that she had never learned. Rsiran shouldn’t antagonize her, but she had never done anything to fix the distance between them or to prevent his father from abusing him. She had done nothing when his father sent him to the mines.

  And then when he’d learned about the connection to the Forgotten, a connection that she’d hidden from him… Rsiran felt little more than a numbness toward her.

  “You learned of her.”

  Rsiran nodded.

  “Does Alyse know?”

  “I haven’t told her everything that I’ve learned. Most of it.”

  “Have you found Danis?”

  Rsiran sniffed. “You mean my grandfather? No, I haven’t found him. But his sister is dead.”

  His mother took a sharp breath. “Evaelyn is gone? How?”

  Rsiran consid
ered lying to her, and telling her anything but that he had killed Evaelyn. Admitting that to his mother seemed akin to admitting that his father had been right about his ability. But Evaelyn had tried to hurt him. She had tried to hurt those he cared about. Possibly even his father. She had deserved the fate that had fallen to her.

  “She died trying to harm me and those with me.”

  His mother frowned. “It was you? You killed Evaelyn?”

  Rsiran nodded. “I did what was needed.”

  “Then why was your sister attacked? If you took care of Evaelyn as you claim, then how could she be after your sister?”

  “It wasn’t Evaelyn who had Alyse attacked.” Possibly Venass, but if it had been Venass, it meant they were already making the push into the city. “But I’m keeping her safe.”

  “Safe? I know how little you care about keeping your sister safe. Better to send her here to live with me.”

  Rsiran looked around the small home, his gaze settling briefly on Jessa, then turned back to his mother. “I will do whatever is necessary to protect her.”

  His mother leaned toward him. “Why now? What has changed so that you suddenly care about your family?”

  Rsiran sighed as he shook his head. “That’s just it. I’ve always cared about my family. They just haven’t cared about me.”

  Chapter 12

  The Alchemist Guild house was no longer as mysterious as it once had been. There was still an air of mystery to it, but not like there had been when he had been forbidden from entering. Now, he knew some of the alchemists’ secrets, much as they knew his. He tapped on the long guild table, impatiently waiting for Sarah.

  Jessa stood behind him, one hand resting on his shoulder. The other twirled a knife, a technique she mimicked from Haern to maintain the dexterity in her hand. “Tell me again why we came here?”

  “They need to know what we found when we went back to the Forgotten Palace.”

  “What if they’re the reason the bodies were moved?” she asked.

  It was something he’d considered. If the guilds had moved the bodies, had they found the other rooms? But why would they have moved the bodies in the first place?

  When the door opened, Ephram entered. “Have you waited long?” the Alchemist guildlord asked.

  Rsiran shook his head. “You knew we were here?”

  He waved his hands around him. “That is something of the guild house. It shares when there are visitors. Much like your first visit to us, Rsiran.”

  That explained how they knew so quickly that he’d come. If there was something to the building itself that gave them a warning, then he would never have been successful at sneaking into the Alchemist Guild. Maybe he hadn’t really snuck in at all. Was it possible that they had known that he was coming, and had let him in? That was a question to ponder another time.

  “Something troubles you,” Ephram said.

  “You could say that,” Rsiran agreed. “We went back to the Forgotten Palace.”

  Ephram tilted his chin. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because of what you and Della told me about my grandfather. It seems to me that if he is one of the Forgotten, and related to both her and Evaelyn, that he would be a man with some power and influence.”

  Ephram nodded. “That might have been the case once, but Evaelyn wrested control from him. The Forgotten have failed, Rsiran. You saw to that when you helped us reclaim the smiths and took down Evaelyn. Some exiles remain, but they are not organized, not like they were before. Now we must focus on the remaining threat. The guilds finally agreed to send others outside the city to search for signs of Venass activity. Everything we’ve found points to preparation on their part.”

  “Outside the city? People are leaving by choice?” Brusus asked as he strode through the door. He grinned at Jessa and threw himself into a chair next to her at the long, oak table. Haern followed, eyes scanning the room.

  Ephram frowned and considered Brusus for a moment. “The Forgotten—”

  “Aren’t completely gone,” Rsiran reminded. “There might be others.”

  “But not organized,” Ephram said. “Unlike Venass.” He turned to Brusus. “And there is a plan in place for them. You would be welcome to participate. All of you.” He swept his gaze around the others in the room, finally settling it upon Rsiran. “We believe we still have time before they attempt a direct attack on the city.”

  “Not sure you have time like that,” Haern said. “And I don’t think that you believe you have time like that.”

  “What have you Seen?” Jessa asked.

  Haern’s eyes went distant for a moment. “Nothing of use, not when it comes to Rsiran, but they don’t always have the same limitations,” he said, nodding toward Ephram.

  “I think you overestimate our abilities,” Ephram said, “and underestimate yours. We can agree that darkness comes, and that Venass is at the heart of it, just as we can agree that Lareth might be the key to surviving what Venass intends.”

  “Survive? You make it sound like they intend to destroy everything.” Jessa said.

  Haern’s eyes went distant again as they did when he attempted a Seeing. “Not destroy, but with you, Rsiran, it is difficult to know what they intend. I don’t think it’s about destruction so much as it is about gaining power. I’ve been there, and I know how they think. Well, to a certain extent. I was never embedded deeply enough to know the long-term plans. Everything that they’ve done, and that I’ve seen them do, is about power.”

  “We can’t ignore the risk that the Forgotten still pose,” Rsiran said. “They know the limits of my abilities and made a cell to hold me. That’s what we found in the palace. That and the fact that someone had cleaned up after our attack.”

  “Cleaned up?” Brusus asked. “They would only do that if—”

  “If they were still there,” Rsiran finished. “You can see why I’m concerned. They knew enough about my abilities that they would be able to counter them.”

  That hadn’t bothered Jessa nearly as much as it bothered him. How many more prisons would he have to escape? His greatest fear was what would happen when he finally found a prison that managed to secure him.

  “The Forgotten are no longer strong enough to present a threat,” Ephram repeated. “Our Seers can tell that. But Venass… Venass is a different challenge altogether. They will continue to come after us, after you,” he said to Rsiran, “until they understand what you can do, and how you do it. They know you managed to reach the crystals, and they think they would be able to do the same.”

  “Are you sure they can’t?” Rsiran asked.

  “Reaching the crystals requires a connection to the Great Watcher. That was why you were able to do it. But it takes something else. They must be chosen, in a way. Without that, the crystals will not accept the bearer.”

  Brusus leaned forward. “And what happens if someone manages to take one of those crystals from that room?”

  “That cannot happen.”

  “Oh, I get that it shouldn’t happen, and that we want to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening, but let’s just say that it does happen. What then?”

  Ephram sighed. “Ask Rsiran.”

  Brusus and Haern both turned to him. Rsiran crossed his hands over each other, thinking back to what had happened when he had held one of the crystals. He had felt as if he sat alongside the Great Watcher, as if he looked down upon the world and was able to have any question answered. There was power there, unlike anything he could ever have imagined.

  “Holding a crystal unlocked something within me,” he said. There wasn’t a better way to describe what happened to him other than that. “Before I held it, I was able to detect lorcith and heartstone, and I could push on them both. I could Slide. But since then… my connection to the metals has changed. My ability to Slide has changed as well. Everything is different, stronger, more connected, if that makes any sense.”

  Emotions worked across Brusus’s face as he considered Rsiran
. “They claim it can only work on those chosen by the Great Watcher. If someone isn’t chosen, then the crystals won’t do anything, will they?”

  Ephram took a seat across from Brusus. “It is unknown what would happen were the crystals held by someone not of Elaeavn, and not chosen by the Great Watcher. Such a thing has never happened. Perhaps nothing. Those who have held one of the crystals know that there is power within them, but it is a reflection of something greater. So it’s possible that without being chosen by the Great Watcher himself, nothing would happen. That the crystals would be inert.”

  “But this is Venass,” Haern said.

  “This is Venass,” Ephram agreed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a barbed piece of lorcith. One end was smooth and shaped something like a ball, while the other ended in a five long, sharp spikes. “These were recovered from the bodies of the Forgotten after your attack. There are others that we’re studying, but we haven’t found how they used them.”

  Rsiran pulled the piece of lorcith to him and held it up. The metal glowed softly, a pale white light. “There were others like this in the Forgotten Palace. I destroyed them.” The metal had wanted that release, and Rsiran had been more than happy to provide it. “This was what the scholars used as part of their piercing. The scholar in the tower had two like this”—he pressed it to his lip—”and he tapped them together. Somehow, that helped him control lorcith.”

  Rsiran focused on the lorcith, listening to it. The metal offered a soft call that came to him quietly. Through his connection to the metal, he traced the history of this piece of lorcith. It offered him the story of its origin, telling him how it had been mined from a place deep beneath the ground. The small lump a part of something larger, but had been separated. When brought together…

  He blinked. “I know how this works.”

  Ephram frowned. “How can you know how this works? The master smiths have been studying this since their rescue, and they not been able to determine what about the metal allows the control.”