Rsiran stood next to a jagged wall of one of the fallen buildings. Moonlight filtered through thick clouds that carried the scent of a coming rain, but not enough light to help him see. Rsiran pushed on a pair of knives—the only two that he had remaining after the attack—and used their light to see around him.
The guilds had left the wall, supposedly thinking they might save it since it appeared sturdy, and build onto it rather than tearing it down, but no one had yet made an effort to rebuild. He didn’t know why it troubled him to see nothing had changed since the attack, but it did.
“You look troubled.”
Rsiran turned, startled. He hadn’t expected anyone to find him here, especially not at night standing in the ruins from the attack. “Della?”
“You don’t need those knives floating around me, do you?”
Rsiran pulled on the knives, drawing them back to him, but kept them hovering in the air. Without the knives, he couldn’t see anything. “What are you doing out here?”
“I thought to ask the same of you. There I was, sitting at home with a nice cup of tea, when I Saw that I should come to Upper Town. I didn’t know why, but I’ve learned not to question.”
Rsiran sighed. There were times when he wished that Della could See him. Then he might know what he was supposed to do.
“I was in Thyr tonight.”
“Not alone, I hope.”
“Sarah and Valn were with me.”
Della took a step toward him, batting a hand at his knives. “You left Jessa here?”
“We’ve been making trips outside the city for a while, trying to find out what Venass might be up to. Jessa came with me on a few of them, but I think she realizes that Valn is a better fighter than she is.”
“And Sarah?”
“She can help if someone Slides.”
“I’m glad to hear that you’ve not been attempting this on your own.”
“We all have to deal with Venass.”
Della surveyed the street. “You can almost imagine what it must have looked like before the city was here. In some ways, it is actually beautiful.”
“The attack was anything but beautiful,” Rsiran said.
“I didn’t mean the attack, Rsiran.”
“Venass used a new way to attack us this time.” He described the sphere and the shadowsteel sword. “I worry that they might have discovered a way to counter my ability.”
Della smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “They were always going to find a way to counter your ability, Rsiran. You have become powerful, but they have studied for years. Some would say centuries. In all that time, they have sought the secret to power, longing for more than what they possess. Does it really surprise you that they would find new and deadly ways to attack?”
“How can I stop them if they always manage to stay a step ahead of us?”
“You cannot do so alone.”
“I didn’t mean to imply that I wanted to.”
“And yet you said ‘I.’ You are one man, but you are part of something more now. You are a guildlord, and that connects you in ways that you have never been connected.”
“I don’t always feel like part of the guild.”
“That doesn’t change that you are.” She studied him, and his bracelets went cool for a moment as she tried to Read him. “That isn’t the only thing that bothers you, is it?”
Rsiran swallowed. He hadn’t told Sarah or Valn about what he’d discovered. They wouldn’t understand what Josun had put him through, but Della would. “When we were in Thyr, I found a knife. There is something about the knife that tells me who last possessed it.”
“Do you have that connection with all lorcith you forge?”
“I didn’t think so. It’s almost as if the lorcith tried sending me a message.”
“There are times when you speak of it as something almost sentient.”
“Jessa says the same thing. I don’t know any other way to describe it.”
“Perhaps there is no other way to describe it. Perhaps the Great Watcher has connected through lorcith to you, giving you some of his abilities.” She sighed. “What did you find that troubles you so much, Rsiran?”
“Josun had the knife. He was the man I chased through Thyr, almost as if he knew that I was there and that I followed him.”
Della remained silent for a moment. From the light of his knives, he saw her rub her chin and adjust the shawl around her neck. “Well, we knew that he was not dead. I am unable to See him, though, and do not know what it means that he has reappeared.”
Rsiran Slid away from the wall, emerging in a clearing where he pulled his knives toward him. The ground had ash residue from the attack, leaving it blackened. This had been where he had faced his grandfather, and where he had nearly died. He had managed to push on the lorcith in the spheres he carried then, stopping Danis from harming him. What had Venass changed in those spheres that kept him from being able to do the same in Thyr?
“I should have gone after him as soon as I discovered he’d escaped the mines,” Rsiran said. “I knew that he would come after us again. That he was in Thyr…”
Della approached him carefully, eyeing the knives he held suspended in the air. “You did what was necessary at the time.”
“Necessary? Had I been more decisive, we wouldn’t be facing the possibility that Josun Elvraeth accepted implants from Venass, thus cementing his alliance with them. I wouldn’t have to fear that he might come after me, or work with my grandfather as they both come after me.”
“Decisive? Do you really think that you could have killed him? That is what you mean by decisive, is it not?”
He’d kept Josun trapped in the mines above Ilphaesn, but Firell had rescued him in exchange for the return of his kidnapped daughter. Rsiran didn’t blame Firell for what he’d done. He would have made a similar exchange had it been Jessa—or even Alyse. But it had been a mistake to not pursue Josun before now. The longer he went without finding him, the more likely Josun could simply disappear. Only, Rsiran knew Josun. He wouldn’t simply disappear. Josun was overly confident, and didn’t think that someone like Rsiran could beat him.
“I don’t know what I could have done,” he said. “All I know is that I should have sought him sooner. Now it seems he’s coming after me.”
“Are you so certain of that?”
Rsiran pulled on the knife he’d found, bringing it from his pocket. It was one he would not use against Venass, not until he had a chance to understand why he’d felt the connection to it that he had. Even now, he felt the connection to the knife, the way the metal practically told him what had taken place during the time since Rsiran forged it, including the way that Josun had used it.
Was there any way that he could track Josun through that connection?
Maybe if he took the time, he could discover a way. But where would he get that time? He already spent too much time away, Sliding away from Elaeavn, in some ways neglecting his role as guildlord. As a new guildlord, he couldn’t afford to be gone from the city as often as he was.
“I don’t know,” Rsiran admitted. “I know that he was in Thyr. I know what he’s done to us in the past. More than that… I don’t know.”
Della patted his arm. In the months since he’d learned that they were related, she had not treated him any differently, but then Della had always been welcoming to him. She had been the one who had ensured he got help when he needed it, and had helped convince him of the need to abandon his apprenticeship and accept the offering of friendship from Jessa and Brusus.
“Rsiran,” she said, her voice a whisper, “I wish you would be careful. I have not had family for many years, and now that I know we are family, I would not like to lose you, too.”
Rsiran breathed out heavily. “I’m being as careful as I can, but there are things that need to be done, and I don’t know if anyone else can do them.”
“There are others who can help. You may have to look beyond the borders of our city, but they
are out there. For now, come with me. Let us sit by the fire and have a cup of tea. Worry about this tomorrow.”
Rsiran pulled the knives back to him. As he prepared to Slide them to her home, he couldn’t shake the worry that he felt, or the fact that with each passing day, there was more for him to fear.
Chapter 4
The door to his smithy was open and sunlight streamed in. Rsiran still found it strange to finally be able to leave the door open. For so long, he’d hidden his presence here, fearing not only the Elvraeth, but the Smith Guild discovering him. Either would have led to the same punishment. Now he worked openly, letting in the light from outside, not mindful of who might pass by, though few used the narrow alley outside his smithy. This part of Lower Town was dingy and run down, though Rsiran had in mind ways he could turn it around.
The lorcith-coated sphere of shadowsteel rested on the floor of the smithy. He hesitated placing it on the anvil or even too close to the lump lorcith he possessed, not wanting the shadowsteel to somehow taint his smithy. He had wondered if he should even bring the shadowsteel here to work on, but where else would he have gone that he could examine it? Now, as it rested on the floor, he realized he might have been better off simply disposing of it altogether.
“Are you just going to stare at it?” Jessa asked.
He glanced over to where she sat on their mattress, arms wrapped around her bare legs. Long brown hair hung half in her face, still mussed from sleeping. A mug of steaming black tea rested on the ground next to her.
“I don’t know that it’s safe to work with. The shadowsteel changed my connection to my lorcith and heartstone knives when we fought with the Hjan.”
“And that’s never happened before?”
He shook his head. Would there have been some way for him to reclaim that connection had he remained there? They were still knives that he had forged. That connection was stronger than any other he possessed.
Jessa stood and dusted her hands on her shirt. She slipped her arm around Rsiran’s waist and gave him a brief hug. “What do you think you’re going to be able to learn from that thing?”
“It targeted me. I don’t know how they did it, but it seems to recognize me.”
“Are you sure the Hjan didn’t just control it the same way that you control lorcith and heartstone?”
Jessa often asked the very questions that were in his head. He knew she wasn’t a Reader. It was simply evidence of how well she knew him.
Though he’d considered the same idea, the fact that the sphere continued to pursue him even when the Hjan were distracted told him it had a mind of its own, or a link to him somehow. But how was that possible?
When he didn’t answer, she pointed to the forge. “Why don’t you just throw it on the coals. Heat it up and see what comes out?”
“I don’t want to ruin my forge.”
She laughed. “Do you really think just heating it will cause problems?”
“I don’t know anything about shadowsteel. Sarah is going to ask Ephram about it, but I don’t think the alchemists alone will be able to determine what shadowsteel can do. They might know how to make it, and possibly even see the potential within it, but using it?”
“And you think that you can?”
“I think…” He paused and frowned at the sphere. The lorcith surrounding it still had a muted sense, but the longer watched it, the more aware he became that it continued to change. The lorcith thinned somehow.
As he watched, it began to bubble.
Rsiran grabbed a lump of lorcith and pushed on it, wrapping it around the sphere. As he did, it took the shape of the sphere, but he detected through his connection to lorcith that it would not hold. Whatever Venass had done with this shadowsteel wanted release, and if he did nothing, it would get free. Would it chase him again? Would there even be anything that he could do to contain it?
Maybe there wouldn’t be any way for him to stop it short of destroying it. Only, where would he destroy it? Not in his smithy. He didn’t want to place it on the coals here. What he needed was a place that he didn’t care whether it ended up destroyed.
A smile came to his face as he thought of just the place.
“What?”
“Want to take a little trip?”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Jessa said.
Rsiran grabbed the lorcith-coated sphere off the ground and held it away from him. He pulled all the knives that he had lying on his bench and pocketed some of them, slipping others into sheaths.
“Do you think that’s really necessary?” Jessa asked.
“I don’t know what will be necessary, but I’ve learned that you can’t be over prepared when it comes to Venass—or the Forgotten.”
“Forgotten? Is that where you intend to Slide us?”
With a nod, he took her arm and Slid.
They reached the Forgotten Palace. Why was it that he felt compelled—but not Compelled, he didn’t think—to come back here as often as he did? Why did it seem like this place had answers to questions he had not yet learned to ask?
They emerged in the heartstone room. He could think of no other way to describe it. The soft blue glow of heartstone was everywhere, filling the space. Shelves that had held books, the entire collection once Evaelyn’s, had been ransacked, either by the few remaining Forgotten or by Venass. What secrets had Evaelyn kept here? What might they have managed to learn from her if only they had a way of knowing what she kept here? Would there have been anything that might help him understand his family? Having learned that Evaelyn was related to him as well, surely there must be something here to help. Rsiran still found it ironic that, after all the years he’d spent wanting more of a family, when he finally discovered his newfound relatives, he wanted nothing to do with them.
No, that wasn’t quite right. When he discovered his newfound relatives and learned of their evil intentions, it was clear he couldn’t just turn away from them, he would have to kill them. First Evaelyn, and now Danis if he could ever find him. Now that he knew Josun still trailed him, even surviving Danis might not be enough.
Jessa glanced over to him. “It doesn’t have to be done here, you know. There are other places where we could choose.”
Rsiran shook his head. “Where else could we choose where I don’t care if shadowsteel taints it? For all I know, this was where they made shadowsteel. It might be the key to stopping Venass. We have to find a way to keep them from making more.”
“Where do you think they make it?”
He didn’t know. “Thyr is most likely, but…” He frowned, looking to the back of the room. A doorway led into hidden rooms where he had discovered the place where the Forgotten and Venass experimented with lorcith, using paired metal in a way to increase their control. Hadn’t he found the schematics? Not only that, but parts of it as well? Much like what Josun had wanted from him when he attempted to force him into making heartstone alloy, the schematics would be a way to make something, possibly shadowsteel.
“You look like you figured something out.”
“I don’t know if I did or not. What if they were trying to make it here?” And in the depths of Ilphaesn as well. That was another place where he’d found parts much like what he’d come across here. But, though there were what seemed to be parts of something bigger, he saw no evidence of a forge at either location.
But Venass had a forge somewhere. The question was where. They would have to destroy it if they intended to defeat Venass, but would that even be enough? If Venass knew the secret to creating it, wouldn’t they just build another?
The shadowsteel worried him, especially as he continued to discover the ways Venass used it. If they added to its potential, and found more ways to use that against him, limiting what his connection to lorcith and heartstone allowed… he had to find the forge, as well as their supply of shadowsteel, and destroy them.
“We didn’t find shadowsteel here,” Jessa said.
He shook his head. “Not here, but we
found what I think they used to build their forge.”
He wanted to return to his smithy and study the schematics. Maybe he could find an answer there, especially now that he better understood how to read them.
Rsiran led the way out the back door of the heartstone room. The long hallway carried memories, like so much else in this place, of when he had needed to fight back those of the Hjan coming for his grandfather. No bodies remained, but Rsiran couldn’t miss the stain of blood on the stones, or the splatter he caught on the walls.
Jessa pulled on him, dragging him through the hall.
They stopped in the room where they had discovered the paired lorcith. Tools lined a bench, still not claimed in spite of the fact that Venass and the Forgotten had come back through here. Maybe the tools weren’t of any value, or maybe those who came for the bodies hadn’t wanted to risk taking the time to recover anything other than the bodies.
Rsiran looked around for something that might help him to study the shadowsteel sphere. Near one wall, and vented through it, he found a supply for heat. A forge of sorts, if he could even call it that.
He searched the room until he came across coals that he could use and quickly lit them, stoking the fire until the coals glowed with a warm light.
Jessa sat back, watching him, saying nothing. She had grown accustomed to watching him work the forge, so even here in this strange place, she understood to wait.
When the coals glowed with a steady heat, burning brightly enough that he knew they were ready to heat the lorcith, he set the sphere atop it and took a step back.
Then he waited.
Slowly, the metal took on the heat. First the lorcith heated. Even muted, Rsiran could feel the way that the lorcith steadily grew warmer, the soft and distant song becoming clearer.
The Guild Secret (The Dark Ability Book 6) Page 3
