The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Why would Venass risk coming so close to the city for the lorcith here?” He detected the heartstone as Jessa approached and she slipped her arm around his waist.

  “I don’t know.”

  “That goes somewhere.” He pointed down the tunnel. It descended deeper and to the west, leading away from the mine. Rsiran thought that it might be a way to sneak into the city, but the angle was all wrong. Heading that direction would take it more toward the Aisl than any place else.

  Seval reached them, and Rsiran thought about Sliding with all of them deeper into the tunnel, but noted the expression on Seval’s face, one of a growing discomfort at remaining in the mines. He’d accomplished what he had wanted, and managed to hear the lorcith. It was time for him to return.

  And then Rsiran would have to come explore again on his own to find out what else might be hiding here.

  Chapter 18

  Rsiran stood once more in the depths of Ilphaesn, lorcith pressing all around him. It weighed on him, a powerful presence. This deep in the mine, lorcith glowed with a brighter intensity, with occasional surges where he knew he’d find paired lorcith.

  He’d returned without Jessa, though this time, he’d told her what he intended. She claimed she had something she needed to do with Haern, so hadn’t minded, leaving Rsiran to look on his own.

  As he suspected, the mine stretched far beneath Ilphaesn, as it reached toward the Aisl. Strange that the mine should head in this direction. He found a few side tunnels, but none as wide as the one that he traveled. For the most part, he walked, Sliding every so often when the way appeared straight, eventually coming to a wide natural cavern. Somewhere, he heard the sound of rushing water, and moisture slicked the ceiling high overhead.

  Rsiran thought it likely that most of this area hadn’t seen anyone else for ages when he came across a trail of footprints. They were staggered, almost irregular.

  Sliding.

  His heart started racing as he followed them down a tunnel, which seemed to go even deeper into the mountain. He came upon a narrower side tunnel. Seeing no prints further down the path he was on, he turned and followed it, pushing a knife away from him as he went for light and the possibility that he might find someone.

  The prints continued through the tunnel, which eventually opened up into a small chamber where they disappeared. Rsiran looked around and saw nothing that would tell him who might have been here.

  A piece of lorcith in the corner caught his attention. Sliding to it, he examined it. Long and slender, it looked to be a handle of sorts. He frowned to himself. It seemed that he’d seen that shape before, hadn’t he?

  Rsiran pushed four knives away from him, lighting the chamber. Two other pieces of metal were nestled into a shelf cut into the wall. When he Slid over to them, he noted the ground below was blackened. He sniffed, noting an odd odor to the air. Not lorcith, though lorcith ran through the walls. And not heartstone. The odor was almost a sickly aroma. When he touched the blackened ground, his fingers tingled, and he jerked his hand back.

  The blackened section of the ground was a large circle, nearly ten paces across. He stepped into the circle and his feet tingled the same way that his hand had when he’d touched the blackened ground.

  As he studied it, he realized that it was more than simply blackened earth. A rim of curved metal was pressed into the ground forming a circular enclosure. Rsiran touched this, trailing his finger around it. Not lorcith, and not heartstone, but a mix of iron and copper and possibly another. Near the center of the circle, covered by what appeared to be the same dark ash, was a deep depression. No lorcith pulled on his awareness. He kicked at the ash in the depression and found what appeared to be coals, as if a fire had burned in this spot.

  What had he discovered here?

  Rsiran Slid out of the blackened area and looked around the rest of the cavern. The walls here were smoother than in other parts of the mine, more regular, as if the room had been created for a particular use, not mined for access to what was within the walls. The lorcith here had a muted sense, nothing like the other parts of the mine. The racing in his heart continued, and a slight sweat slicked his palms.

  Then there were the other pieces of metal. He focused on those pieces set into the wall. He had seen them before, but where?

  Then it came to him.

  He reached into his pocket for the schematics he’d found in the Forgotten Palace, schematics he suspected had come from Venass. There on the page, he noted pieces of metal matching those he now saw on the wall.

  Whatever these were for, Venass had been here. And he needed to understand what they might be after.

  “I would like to see Ephram,” Rsiran said to Sarah.

  She wore a long gray cloak and kept the hood pulled over her dark hair. When she’d arrived, Rsiran had first noted the lorcith she wore. “Ephram is busy with preparations.”

  “For Venass, I hope.”

  “The Alchemist Guild must prepare. With what happened to the smiths…”

  “Only the alchemists?”

  “You don’t understand, Rsiran.”

  Rsiran glanced up the street. They stood near the edge of the city, with the Aisl Forest looming behind him. To his right, Lower Town spread toward the sea. From here, it was easy to overlook the rundown buildings and how the faded paint made the buildings appear more desolate than in Upper Town. The earliest city architects had intended for the entire city to fade into the rocks when viewed from the sea, but Rsiran had stood upon a ship out in the bay and had seen the way Lower Town stood out in stark contrast to the rock, and different than Upper Town. In some ways, it almost appeared as if nothing more than a small village rose from the shore, as though concealing the presence of Upper Town.

  “I found something the guild should know about,” Rsiran said.

  Sarah frowned. “Another visit to the Forgotten? Everything we’ve found indicates that the Forgotten are fragmented.”

  “That’s not the same as destroyed,” Rsiran noted.

  She took a deep breath and nodded. “No, it’s not the same. Clearly, after all these years, there are still many exiles out there. Men and women not of the Elvraeth. But only the Elvraeth have coordinated their efforts enough to be a threat. We are aware that, even after everything we have done, there is no way that we could have destroyed their forces completely. But they are not the threat they once were, and we must focus on Venass.”

  Rsiran didn’t agree, not after what he’d discovered in the palace. There were still many Forgotten that they had not found, Elvraeth like Brusus’s mother and Rsiran’s grandfather, and those not Elvraeth born. If they were still out there, and organized, they couldn’t ignore them, could they?

  “It’s those exiles I fear,” Rsiran said. “Those Forgotten not Elvraeth who founded Venass. But that’s not all that concerns me. I found something in the palace, and now in the mines—”

  “I won’t return to their palace. After what happened there…”

  Rsiran wondered if he could even return. Did he risk it, given what he’d found? With Venass and the Forgotten working together to create a cell he didn’t think he could Slide out of, returning would be dangerous. “We’re going to have to return, if only to understand what they intend. But it’s what’s in Ilphaesn that worries me. I found something there.”

  “With what happened to the Smith Guild, all of the guildlords made a decision to shut the mine. All of the miners sentenced by the council were moved to an iron mine in the north. The others are in place there for now.”

  “Others?”

  “There have always been members of the Miner Guild in the mine. They use their ability to prevent too much lorcith from getting harvested.”

  “And they Compel the miners?” Rsiran asked. That had been what he had long suspected, but having Sarah here gave him the opportunity to know for sure.

  Sarah sighed. “I don’t know what they do. It must be similar to Compelling for it to be effective, but I do not know.
Father might know, but as guildlord, he keeps those secrets to himself.”

  Having the mine closed actually might work for Venass. “When do they plan to reopen it?”

  Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know. There’s pressure from the palace. The Elvraeth don’t like it. They’ve grown accustomed to having access to the lorcith. Many of them think it’s nothing more than decoration, and the more you have, the more power you have. But the council… they know that there is potential to the metal. That’s why they’re willing to keep the mine closed.”

  Rsiran gazed toward the palace. “The Elvraeth will let the mine remained closed?” There was so much about the dynamics of the guilds and the Elvraeth that Rsiran didn’t know. He thought that the Elvraeth directed the guilds, and had never considered that the reverse might have been true, but the guildlords allowed the Elvraeth to remain in power.

  Sarah glanced toward Upper Town. Rsiran wondered if she looked toward the palace or if she focused on the guild house. “Whatever Venass plans is bound to be dangerous. They’ve attacked guild members caught outside the city. Had they worked together…” She shook her head, as if trying to shake off her frustration. “We’re still safe here, but how much longer will that be the case?”

  Rsiran frowned. The way the corners of her eyes pulled, he knew more bothered her than only what he’d shared. “What is it?”

  She nodded, as if reaching a decision. “You’re a smith. Maybe not of the guild but you’re as much a part of this as the rest of us.” She motioned toward the Aisl Forest. “Come with me. There’s something there you need to see.”

  Sarah started into the forest, quickly disappearing into the trees.

  Rsiran watched her for a moment, debating what Jessa might say when she learned that he went off into the woods with Sarah, before Sliding into the forest after her. When he emerged, she glanced over to him.

  “Some day, you’ll have to share with me how you hide when you Slide.”

  Rsiran grinned. “Since I held the crystal, when my connection to lorcith became even stronger, I’ve been able to. More than that, I think I can tell when others are Sliding near me.”

  “That is a skill of the thenar,” she said. “You’re smith born. You shouldn’t have multiple talents.”

  “Like you with alchemy and thenar? With your thenar ties, you can detect Sliding. Influence it, too.” When she didn’t say anything, he went on. “I never had any awareness of when someone Slid around me, but now… now I can almost hear it, much like I can hear lorcith, or see its potential.”

  He hadn’t even told Jessa about that. It opened him up to more questions, and he had no answers. He was quickly reaching the point where even the person he usually went to for answers might not have them. Della would want to help, but how much could she understand? Sarah, at least, was a guildlord for the Thenar Guild, which made her the logical person for him to question.

  “You shouldn’t develop abilities. Not when it comes to these. You’re born with them.”

  “Why? Why are they different from the other abilities?”

  Sarah looked toward the forest. “You… you have been away from the guilds for too long. Had things gone as they should, you would have been raised to the guild and would have learned what you should have known before now.” She sighed. “You are smith born. I should not be the one who explains this to you.”

  “Please, Sarah. My father is missing, and who else from the guilds would share?” Rsiran wondered if maybe the time he’d spent with Seval might bring them closer together, but Seval had still made it clear that he wouldn’t share information about the Smith Guild.

  They continued deeper into the forest. As they passed through the first row of sjihn trees, a tingle washed across his skin. It wasn’t the first time that he’d noticed the tingle, but the sensation was more distinct this time than it had been before.

  “There was a time long ago when this was all our home,” Sarah finally went on.

  Rsiran thought of all the time he spent in the forest with his mother when he was younger. “I know.”

  She nodded. “Most have heard the stories, but few have ever visited the ruins of that time. They are protected, kept safe from those who would reach them for a different purpose.”

  “Why would it matter? We left the trees and moved to Elaeavn centuries ago.”

  Sarah continued deeper into the forest. A part of Rsiran felt the urge to turn north, toward the small clearing where they had buried Lianna. He’d always felt that to be near the heart of the forest. Sarah led him away from there.

  A low howl erupted. Rsiran paused, but Sarah continued on, as if unimpressed by the wolf howling at them.

  “We moved to Elaeavn, Rsiran, but not all left the trees.”

  They reached a darker section of the forest that he had never visited. Rsiran had once thought the sjihn trees near the clearing where they’d buried Lianna had been enormous, but what grew here surpassed them, rising so high overhead that even the lowest branches were higher than the tops of those trees. It was almost as if they had entered a different forest. The farther they went, the taller the trees rose overhead.

  Finally, Sarah led him into a wide clearing. Five enormous trees rose up around them, with gnarled trunks larger than any building, and their branches so high overhead that he couldn’t even begin to see them. How massive must these trees be for him to be unable to even see the branches?

  “Where are we?” he asked in a whisper. Speaking any louder than that felt wrong.

  “This is the Aisl. The true Aisl… nothing like the part of the forest that everyone else knows. The rest… that is new growth. These are the Elder Trees. Only a member of the guilds can find these trees.”

  “That’s why you guided me here?”

  She nodded.

  “And this is where the people of Elaeavn lived?”

  He scanned the trees, but found no sign that anyone had ever called this home. But then, given the time that had passed since his people had moved from here, that wasn’t surprising. In the rest of the forest, smaller trees and bushes grew, but none of them were present here, leaving the ground free from anything other than fallen leaves and detritus.

  “They were here, once,” she said. “When I close my eyes, I can almost imagine the homes suspended from the branches, with bridges connecting them. Men and women traveled from branch to branch, and each clan worked together.”

  “Clan?”

  She continued to stare into the trees. “They were clans then, not distinct families. Each organized by abilities. There were the smiths, the alchemists, the travelers, the woodsmen—now the miners, and the thenar.”

  “The guilds?”

  “The guilds, but before they were guilds. They were part of a community. The woodsmen discovered something here, great power buried beneath the ground, that changed our people.”

  “You’re talking about the crystals.”

  She nodded. “They sit beneath each of the Elder Trees. Strange that there were five crystals, much like the five clans, but then most still believe that we settled here because of that, drawn by the power of this place.”

  Rsiran slowly made his way around the trees. He had trouble grasping the enormity of them. As he worked around them, he heard a soft sound, almost a hum or a song, like that of lorcith, but different.

  “You said they sit beneath the trees. Not sat.”

  Sarah nodded slowly. A conflicted expression slipped across her face. “As I said, I should not be the one to show this to you. Members of each guild—full members—are brought here when they are raised to their guild. It was a part of the tradition of the clans, and now the guilds. When raised, they go to their Elder Tree, the same one that the clan once had claimed.”

  “Which one is the smith tree?”

  Sarah shook her head. “That is a secret of the guild. I only know the tree of the Thenar Guild.”

  “Which you will not share with me.”

  “You are not of the gui
ld.”

  “I’m not of any of the guilds.”

  “And yet, as you’ve begun to suggest, you are of all of them.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  She nodded toward the trees, leading him back out and away from the Elder Trees. Rsiran would like to have had more time with them, and even thought that with enough time, he might be able to tell which tree was the smith tree. But then, seeing the struggle that Sarah had just bringing him here, he knew that he should follow her.

  “The prophesy that you’ve heard—”

  “That of the Blood of the Elders and the Blood of the Watcher joining?”

  She nodded. “There was a time when the clans were guided by a single leader, but when the crystals were discovered beneath the Elder Trees, they could not agree. Within the clans, those with the talents the clans were named after could not reach the crystals. Only those without any talent were able to reach them.”

  “The Blood of the Watcher,” Rsiran noted.

  “Now you begin to see.”

  They reached a part of the Aisl Forest familiar to him. After being near the Elder Trees, these all seemed tiny in comparison. Rsiran could actually see the lowest branches of the trees, and could walk around their bases without growing winded.

  “I don’t think I do.”

  “Even back then, our people were divided,” Sarah said. “There were those who were born of the clan, and those who sided with and supported the clans. No one knows what they were called at that time, but the guilds identify them now as those with the Blood of the Elders and the Blood of the Watcher. Only those with the Blood of the Watcher were able to reach the crystals. When they did, something changed within them, and they developed abilities they had not possessed before.” She sighed. “Over time, these abilities have diluted generation to generation, as have the talents of the Elders.”

  “And the Elvraeth?”

  “They are direct descendants of those who first held the crystals, and believe they are able to draw on more of the crystals’ power. Over time, the Elvraeth have kept that power focused, putting as many of the Elvraeth as they can through a test to determine if they might be able to reach the crystals. Not all can, but those who do—those who reach the crystals—return stronger than they were before, with abilities more focused than they were before. In much the same way, members of the guilds send the masters to the Elder Trees.”