The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  He motioned for her to follow him into the ring of the Elder Trees. Once there, he pointed to the three that he thought were the brightly lit ones in his vision. “Those are the ones that are so brightly lit in my vision.” He turned and looked to his right. “That is the one that is dim to me.”

  “And the fifth?” Jessa said.

  Rsiran turned until he faced the tree that was dark to him. In person, he saw nothing that seemed wrong with the tree, only the massive trunk rising high overhead. “That one. When I Travel, that one is dark.”

  The alchemist guildlord approached and fixed Rsiran with a hard expression. “What do you mean that it’s dark?”

  “I don’t really know,” Rsiran admitted. “I think it has something to do with what Venass has done to the tree. Why? Which one does that represent?”

  Ephram looked away, answer enough for Rsiran.

  “What of the other, then?” Rsiran asked. “The one that still seems to have some light within it, but is otherwise dim? What does that tree represent?”

  Sarah came over to him and stepped between Rsiran and Ephram. “The trees hold special meaning to the guilds,” she said.

  “I know. Each tree represents one of the ancient clans.”

  Sarah nodded. “That, and more. They were home to the clans, the first guild houses, if you will. As I told you when I first brought you here, the identity of each tree is kept secret, known only to each guild member.”

  Rsiran let out a frustrated breath. “So you know which tree represents your guild, but not the others?”

  “That’s not how it was done. There is a certain tradition—”

  “There wasn’t always such a tradition.”

  A shape emerged from the darkness. His breath caught when he realized who it was.

  “Della?”

  Chapter 36

  Della limped toward them. Her eyes blazed a deep green that Rsiran had never seen from her before, a green so deep that it could nearly be black, and a color that reminded him more of what he’d seen of his grandfather.

  “What happened to you? We went to your home to warn you…”

  She nodded. “I know.”

  “Haern is injured. He needs Healing or he might not survive.” For some reason, it was Haern that he thought of, and not the fact that he had trapped his grandfather in the Forgotten Palace. Della would need to know, but he would not do that in front of Ephram.

  Della’s mouth tightened, and Rsiran realized that he wouldn’t have to. She Read him.

  This time, he didn’t mind.

  “And Haern will have it,” she said, though a troubled look clouded her face.

  “Why are you here?”

  Della took a deep breath and let it out. “I was called.”

  “Called?”

  Della smiled sadly. “I had forgotten so much about this place, and about the power within it. So much….”

  “What are you talking about?” Rsiran asked.

  “When you brought me here, it awoke something in me that even I had not known was buried.”

  “What did it awaken?” Rsiran asked.

  “Memories.”

  She limped in a slow circle, leaving Rsiran wondering how badly she had been injured. Had her brother hurt her seriously? Della was always the one to Heal others, what would happen if she were in need of healing? Who would help her then?

  “I was able to stop what I could,” Della started. “But the attack had already begun. You saw that, only I didn’t know what it meant,” she told Rsiran.

  “What attack?” Ephram asked.

  Della continued to move in a circle. “Danis shared arrogance with Evaelyn.” She met Rsiran’s eyes. “He thought to draw away the guilds. I Saw that, and came here.”

  “But the attack—” he started, thinking of Venass in the tunnels near Ilphaesn. How many more had attacked?

  “I am not as helpless as I might seem, Rsiran Lareth,” she said.

  Rsiran smiled. “I would never call you helpless.”

  She tipped her head. “But I was not in time. I prevented part of the attack, but not all. Not all,” she said softly. Della inhaled deeply and looked around the clearing. “I have been here before, only I did not remember the details. That troubled me, and I spent much energy attempting to Heal myself, focusing inward.” She tapped the side of her head with a long finger. “Such a thing is dangerous, even for me.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Della sighed. “This place. A place of ancient power. A place our people once called home, before the first of us held the Great Crystals. I had not realized that they were the same, that the connection to the crystals was a connection to the Elder Trees, but when you brought me here… As I said, it awoke something inside of me.”

  “But you told me that you’ve held one of the crystals before. You must have known about this place,” Rsiran said, a troubled sense rising within him.

  “I knew of it, but I had not thought that I had been here before.” She smiled at him and stopped, turning her attention upward toward the treetops much like she had when she first came to the forest with him. “And yet I had.”

  “What does this have to do with the poisoned trees?” Rsiran asked.

  Della pulled her attention away from the treetops and met his eyes. “Perhaps nothing. And everything.” She nodded to Ephram. “They have fought against Venass, and failed more often than they would like to admit. The only success has been with you, or through you, Rsiran. I am not certain that I understand why, but there is something about you that thwarts my brother. I am sure that it bothers him greatly. Enough that he is going to great lengths to find a way to stop you.”

  “I saw him at your house. And then at the Barth.” Rsiran swallowed, thinking of how he had nearly failed trying to confine his grandfather. And had Jessa been with him, what would he have done? Would he have managed to get free?

  Della nodded. “Yes, he came to my home. They thought that I was weakened enough that they would be able to destroy me.”

  “And they tried to use my sister.”

  Della’s face darkened. “I Saw that as well. You were able to prevent her from succeeding?”

  “I stopped that attack, and then we returned the lorcith necklace that my father had forged for her that prevented my mother from Compelling her. Did you See that as well?”

  Della frowned. “Your father?”

  “He must have known that my mother attempted something. Why else would he have made her the necklace like that? And Danis says that he lives.”

  Della made another slow circle around the clearing. “Yes. I have struggled to understand the connection, Rsiran. I did not understand at first, but now… now I think that I begin to see what I might have missed. A connection older than any I would have realized, one that others have hidden.”

  Ephram looked away.

  “And now the Elder Trees begin to fail. She pulled something from her pocket, and Rsiran sucked in a surprised breath, recognizing one of the cylinders that they’d found long ago within the warehouse. The curve and the color to the cylinders reminded him of what he’d seen in the mine. “These. I struggled to understand why both the Forgotten and Venass wanted these.”

  “Why did they?” Jessa asked.

  But Rsiran thought he knew. “Those are how they make shadowsteel. That’s how they poisoned the Elder Trees.”

  Della nodded.

  “But Brusus thought those crates were hundreds of years old!”

  “Most were. And that is what bothered me. Why were they sent to Elaeavn?”

  “Only the guilds knew where to find the Elder Trees, and only the guilds would have access.”

  She nodded. “Venass—or some form of Venass—has been trying to infiltrate the guilds for generations,” Della said. “Waiting to bring a way to damage the trees. I wonder if the crates were once intended for the guilds. Had the Elvraeth allowed them out sooner… but they did not. They sat, untouched until Brusus found them, secr
ets lost for many years until Danis discovered the location of the trees.”

  Had the warehouse been the key to shadowsteel?

  Rsiran had thought he was the reason the trees were damaged, but it went deeper than that, didn’t it?

  He looked up at the trees. “The alchemist tree is dark,” he said. “Which other guild’s tree is damaged?”

  “Ephram, will you still not reveal to Rsiran which tree belongs to each guild. Do you think the ancient traditions still matter?” she admonished.

  Rsiran studied the Elder Tree nearest him. Like with the crystals, there was nothing about the tree itself that he could detect that gave any indication of what it aligned with. But did that matter? Was the tree itself important, or was it the fact that it was damaged?

  “The ancient traditions are all that separate us from them,” Ephram was saying.

  “I would argue that much more than that separates the two,” Della said.

  Could he Slide up into the tree canopy? From here, it seemed impossibly high up, but their people had once lived in these trees, hadn’t they? There must be a way for him to reach the upper branches.

  Only, Rsiran feared Sliding without knowing where he would emerge. What would happen if he attempted to Slide to the top of the tree and failed? Would he fall back to earth or would he have a chance to see the upper most branches, and adjust his Sliding?

  “If we lose those traditions… if we lose the people that we were,” Ephram argued.

  “How long have we lived in Elaeavn?” Della asked. “We have already lost those traditions. We no longer live among the trees. If there is anything that we can do to save them…”

  Rsiran focused on the trunk itself. That part of the tree was massive, and wide enough to house a village…

  “What is it?” Jessa asked.

  Rsiran started toward the nearest of the Elder Trees.

  “Rsiran?” She caught up with him and grabbed his arm. “What are you doing?”

  “The tree,” he said. “I’ve been trying to think about what I could have missed, how Venass could have poisoned these trees. They’re too large to even cut down. And we see no sign of damage to the trunk.”

  “You said it was shadowsteel.”

  “But how would they get it to the tree?”

  He closed his eyes, focusing on the inside of the tree. He didn’t even have to risk himself with a Slide. Now that he could Travel, he could move with a different technique, one that might be safer for him, where he didn’t have to worry about emerging someplace that might kill him.

  As when he Traveled, there was the sense of separation, and then he pulled free of his body. This time, rather than floating up, searching for the energy in the tops of the trees, he went forward, moving into the tree itself.

  If this failed… if this wasn’t the missing secret that their people had lost, would he even be able to do it?

  But he did. His mind floated into the tree, into a darkness and then… then there was a sense of great light all around him.

  Rsiran stopped. The light was much like what he saw when he moved above the trees, only this encircled him and rose high overhead. This was the tree itself.

  Had he a mouth and a body, he would have laughed.

  Instead, he focused on the next tree, turning to the one that was dim rather than dark. He floated into the tree, and the trunk there glowed with a sickly green light. Occasionally, the light would flicker, before growing more solid again.

  This was where he needed to be.

  But not in this form. Traveling gave him no opportunity to change things. For that, he needed to be here in full. Which meant Sliding.

  Rsiran returned to his body and his eyes snapped open. Della and Ephram still debated. He took Jessa’s hand and focused on the inside of the tree that he’d come from. “Hold on,” he whispered.

  Then he Slid.

  As he attempted to Slide, he felt pushed back.

  The sense was nothing like when he had first been trapped in heartstone chains, or even with what Venass had done, trapping him surrounded by lorcith. This was a living pressure against him. The Elder Tree resisted him.

  Rsiran tried again, and again he could not reach the inside of the tree. By Traveling, he knew that he could, only he couldn’t physically Slide himself there.

  At least not with Jessa.

  “Wait for me.”

  “Rsiran—”

  He released her hand and focused on Sliding, this time attempting to pull himself into a Slide. As before, it didn’t work. He met resistance, as if the tree itself kept him out.

  But he could Travel there. Which meant the tree didn’t intend to completely keep him out.

  Could he attempt the same as he had when escaping his grandfather?

  He stepped into the place in between and stopped. Brilliant white and blue light surged around him. The scent of lorcith and heartstone were stronger than he’d smelled when he came before. Mixed within it, there was a sense of decay.

  Rsiran took a breath, and then pressed into the tree.

  As he did, he experienced a strange sense of movement, something akin to the separation he felt when he Traveled, and the movement he felt when Sliding, and then emerged inside the tree.

  Beneath his feet, the ground was spongy, like soft dirt or sand. The air was still and stagnant, but carried with it the stink of rot. The space around him was enormous, a vastness that his eyes couldn’t fully grasp, but could he imagine his ancestors living here? Without the ability to Slide, how would they have reached the inside of the tree?

  To his eyes, the inside of the tree glowed with a greenish hue, like moss or algae on stale water. Rsiran took a few steps toward the wall, and placed his hand on it. It felt warm, almost hot to him, almost as if the tree had a fever.

  It needed Healing.

  “We need Della,” he whispered to himself.

  His voice carried up into the darkness overhead, and faded like a sigh.

  All of this was the sickness of the tree. And if nothing was done, he knew that the tree would die completely.

  But how would he reach the inside of the tree with another? When he’d attempted to Slide with Jessa, the tree had pushed him back. Traveling the way that he had was different, and Rsiran doubted that he would be able to pull another with him.

  Which meant that there must be another way inside.

  Rsiran focused on the clearing where the others were, and Slid.

  Again, there came the strange sense, that of a separation, followed by movement, then he emerged in the clearing again.

  Jessa breathed out a relieved sigh.

  “Where have you been?” Della asked.

  Rsiran focused on Ephram. “The guilds can access the inside of the trees, can’t they?”

  Ephram’s face blanched, and Rsiran knew that he was right. Without Sliding, there would be no other way to reach the inside of the tree, but the guilds must know something. “How did you—”

  Rsiran pointed to the tree he had been inside. “That one. It’s dying from whatever Venass did to poison it. And that one,” he said, turning toward the darkened tree, “might already be dead. I don’t know if it can be saved.”

  “Only the guilds can reach the inside of the tree. There is a key…”

  A key. Which meant that there was a way to reach inside the tree. “With the key, who can enter?”

  Ephram shook his head. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

  “We’ve already lost one. Are you willing to risk losing another?”

  Chapter 37

  Rsiran stood in the clearing, with Della and Jessa, waiting as Ephram went for the other guildlords. With the trees around them, there was a sense of weight, and great age, mixed with power, but the power had already begun to fade. Rsiran felt it, and felt the sputtering of the injured tree. The power flickered, already fading. If it went out, would they be able to rekindle it?

  “We can’t wait,” he said to himself.

  “Only t
he guilds can reach inside the tree,” Della said.

  “Not only the guilds. I can too.”

  But could he Slide Della with him, and stop in the space between Slides? Seeing the way Jessa watched him, he knew that she wouldn’t let him go without her as well.

  Without overly thinking about it, Rsiran grabbed Jessa’s hand, and hooked Della’s arm, and then Slid.

  When he stopped in the midst of the Slide, he found it harder than when Sliding alone. There was a pressure that pulled on him, but Rsiran drew upon the strength that he sensed around him, that of the brilliant white light he attributed to lorcith and the glowing blue that he considered heartstone. Strength and vigor returned to him, and stabilized him.

  “What is this, Rsiran?” Jessa asked.

  Her voice sounded different in this place, muted, but fuller as well. The contrast was strange, and striking. “This is the place between Slides.”

  “How are you doing this?” Della asked.

  In this place, he noticed that she glowed with a light of her own, different from the bright white and the blue around him. Della practically oozed power. Had he any question about her strength, he no longer did.

  “I don’t know. This was how I escaped from the cell in the Forgotten Palace.”

  “This is… this is something that has never been done before,” Della said. “I have never seen—or heard—of anyone able to stop their Slide in the space between.”

  “Why did you do this?” Jessa asked.

  “Because there’s something about this place that strengthens me. I don’t really understand, but it’s like when Della Heals me.”

  Jessa squeezed his hand. He took another step and finished the Slide, emerging within the damaged tree.

  Della gasped. “You should not have been able to do this.”

  “This is what the guilds can access,” he said.

  “Not this,” Della said. “The guilds… they can reach something like a guildhall with the trees. This… this is something else.”

  “Can you Heal the tree?” Rsiran asked.

  Della closed her eyes and turned her head toward the top of the tree. All around was the sputtering glowing of the tree. If they did nothing, the tree would fail. What would be lost then?