The Guild Secret (The Dark Ability Book 6)

by D. K. Holmberg

  They made their way to the door when Hester paused, tilting his head to the side. “Someone is coming,” he said.

  Panic flooded Neran’s eyes. “They can’t find me with you! The pain… the pain!”

  “Damn, man, shut up!” Valn said.

  “Can’t you see he’s been tormented?” Firell asked. “Take it from someone who has been there. This man needs our help, not you yelling at him.”

  “We still haven’t found this damn forge,” Valn said.

  A harsh laugh echoed toward them.

  “The forge? That’s what you came for?” A figure stepped away from the wall, one that sent a chill through Rsiran. Danis.

  And he wasn’t alone. Six other men were with him, each with long lines across their face marking them as the Hjan.

  “When we faced no resistance, I feared that I had misjudged. And now… now we have both my son-in-law and my grandson’s favorite girl.” He tilted his head and studied Jessa. “Strange that he would let you leave without him.”

  Jessa held her knife away from her. “Slide away,” she said, though not to those from Venass. She spoke to Valn and the others. “Get free while you can.”

  “Oh, I’m afraid it is much too late for that,” Danis said.

  A gasp echoed from along the hall. “I can’t Slide,” Marin said.

  Danis took a stuttering step toward someone at the end of the hall, and there came another gasp, and then the sound of a body crumpling to the ground.

  “The time for holding you is over,” Danis said. He stopped in front of Hester.

  Hester swung his sword, but Danis swung a heartstone sword around, catching the one Hester used and knocking it away. His next slice caught Hester through the chest, and he fell.

  Danis turned his gaze to Jessa. “Too bad he refused to come. And if he was foolish enough to Travel, he can watch as you all die.”

  Chapter 38

  Rsiran had to do something, but what could he do? If he Slid to his friends, he would be powerless within the shadowsteel walls, and just as trapped as they. And in this form, he was equally powerless.

  Wasn’t he?

  He’d tried pulling on power from the Elder Trees while Traveling and had failed before, but that was before he had learned that he could straddle the Slide, that he could exist in both places at once. He doubted that Danis would have discovered that secret yet.

  But he had to act fast, or someone else would die.

  Danis now stood in front of Sarah.

  Rsiran couldn’t return to his body and then Slide back, but could he pull his body toward him? He’d never tried it, and didn’t know if it would even work.

  Hopefully, Della would understand.

  He pulled.

  Rsiran paused the Slide partway, now existing in three places.

  His mind split with pain, but the power from the Elder Trees was there. He could feel it.

  Now, could he pull on it and use it?

  Sarah fought his grandfather, but her sword was slow. As the next slice came, one that would take her head off, time seemed to slow.

  Rsiran pulled on the power of the Elder Trees, filling with it.

  Someone sucked in a sharp breath.

  He directed the power at his grandfather.

  The blow struck him in the chest, and he went spinning backward.

  Rsiran didn’t wait, attacking again, this time splitting the energy so that he could hit the other Hjan. Three went flying backward in blasts of light drawn from the Elder Trees.

  To their credit, his friends lurched forward. Valn struck one of the Hjan, taking off one arm and then another. The man dropped. Sarah moved quickly, stabbing with her sword, and dropping another Hjan. As Rsiran surged another blast of power that hit the remaining Hjan, even Shael darted forward, moving more quickly than a man his size should be able to. He crushed one of the Hjan between his massive hands, holding him in place as the man tried to Slide.

  “Rsiran!”

  He jerked around at the sound of Jessa’s scream.

  Danis held her, his sword nearly to her back. “Interesting trick you’ve developed, grandson. As I said, I didn’t think that you would pose such a challenge. Now that you have…”

  As he slipped his sword forward, Jessa gasped.

  Neran darted toward Danis, moving more quickly than he looked like he could in his condition, and grabbed the blade before it could penetrate too deeply. Years of working at the forge had made his father strong. Much of that strength had disappeared, wasted away as he’d been trapped, but Neran managed to throw Danis backward, likely out of sheer shock.

  Jessa coughed. Blood spilled out from where the sword pierced her back, and she would need healing, but she had time. Rsiran’s father balled his fists, and blood poured out from between his fingers.

  Rsiran took a moment to note that the rest of the Hjan were all down, but so, too, was Tia. When had she fallen? Valn and Sarah approached carefully. Shael and Firell stood to the side, a dark and angry expression on Shael’s face.

  Danis merely smiled at them. “We have still claimed the city—”

  Rsiran hit him with another blast of energy that threw him back. Before he could hit the wall, Danis disappeared.

  “How are you here like this?” Jessa asked him.

  “Traveling.” His words came out strangely, filled with the power of the Elder Trees.

  “We haven’t found the damn forge,” Valn said. “That was the entire reason for coming here!”

  “All of it,” Neran whispered.

  “What?” Valn asked.

  “All of this is the forge.”

  Rsiran’s breath caught. Could Venass have used the entire mountain to create the shadowsteel forge?

  But why couldn’t they? He didn’t fully understand the dark power of shadowsteel, only that it had nearly killed him multiple times, but forging it seemed as if it would take enormous energy, and where better to draw it from than a place filled with lorcith?

  “Return to the Aisl,” he said to Valn.

  “What about the forge, Lareth?”

  “Leave that to me.”

  Valn looked at the fallen forms of Hester and Marin before kneeling next to Tia. He checked her for a pulse, and tears came to his eyes. Rsiran didn’t need him to tell them that she was gone.

  He slipped a necklace off her neck. The serpent symbolizing the head of the guild. He tucked it carefully into his pocket. “I can Slide two with me.”

  “I can take the others,” Luthan said.

  “You do be findin’ that I’m harder to Slide with,” Shael said.

  Luthan eyed the large man. “Perhaps only one then.”

  “I need Jessa and my father,” Rsiran said.

  “You Traveled here,” Luthan said. “Do you think you can Slide with them?”

  He seemed genuinely curious as he asked.

  Rsiran didn’t know, and used energy to pull on Jessa. She Slid with a soft gasp. “Yes,” he said.

  Luthan grabbed Shael. “Where should we go?”

  “The Aisl, if you are willing. The rest of the council has betrayed the city, allowing Venass access.”

  Luthan took a deep breath. “That… I did not See. I will meet you in the forest.”

  With that, he Slid, dragging Shael with him.

  Valn nodded to Rsiran, grabbing onto Sarah and Firell. “Guildlord. Return safely.”

  “I will.”

  When he was gone, Jessa looked at him. “What are you going to do?”

  “This has to be destroyed before Venass can use it again,” he answered. He pulled Jessa and his father in a Slide, leaving them in the space between, before returning to the inside of the mountain. While there, he floated, insubstantial, but full of power from the Elder Trees. Would he be able to shut the forge down?

  Even if he could, how would he do it?

  He had no idea what it would entail.

  Remaining as he was, he sensed the shadowsteel lining the walls as a pressure against him
and his power. He had burned off shadowsteel before, could he do it again?

  Would it take so much energy that it would damage the Elder Trees?

  If he did nothing, and Venass remained in control of shadowsteel, there would be more risk to the trees than if he attempted to do this now.

  Rsiran pulled on that power. It filled him, flooding him with a warmth that he shouldn’t feel when he Traveled. He continued to draw upon it, and it radiated from him, flowing through him. Where it touched the walls, the shadowsteel disappeared.

  He unleashed it, acting as something more like a vessel that allowed the power to flow through him. As it did, lorcith bloomed into his mind, released from the touch of shadowsteel. That lorcith lent power to him, somehow adding to what he could draw from the Elder Trees in a way that he had never experienced before.

  Rsiran moved, untethered from his body, letting the power that he summoned fill the mountain. As it did, it spread, snaking away from him through the tunnels, and lorcith appeared, flaring in his mind, forming something of a map. Farther and farther he pushed the power, sending it deeper, until there was no more shadowsteel.

  Lorcith in the walls gave a vision to him. Rsiran hesitated, before acting on the vision.

  He pulled on lorcith.

  Even filled with power, what he did should not have been possible.

  The mountain groaned.

  He continued to pull.

  Cracks started to form in the ceilings. Debris fell through him, a strange sensation. Lorcith appeared in the ceiling where the shadowsteel had fallen away.

  Rsiran pulled again.

  Lorcith fell around him. The entire mountain began to collapse, the empty caverns now filled with lorcith. Still he pulled.

  The mountain continued to rumble. Rock settled through Rsiran so that he was buried. He remained where he was until the sounds faded. Only then could he tell that the lorcith of this mountain was satisfied with what he had done.

  Rsiran returned to his body.

  Light from the trees surrounded him, four blindingly bright sentinels rising into the sky. The fifth remained dark, though was it as dark as it had been before?

  He Slid back to the place between Slides where Jessa lay on the ground, blood seeping from her wound. His father knelt over her, shoving his hands down on the wound, but blood continued to leak. As Rsiran appeared, he looked up.

  “I tried…”

  Rsiran stepped in front of his father, and pulled on the power around him. With that power, he forced it into her, filling her as he had filled himself. There was a resistance, but he continued to pull, letting that energy wash around her until it overwhelmed the resistance that he detected. She took a shallow breath and looked up.

  Rsiran turned the energy to his father and sent the healing power through him as well. If the sword had been poisoned—and judging by the way that Jessa bled, he suspected that it was—his father would bleed out next.

  Neran gasped as the energy washed over him. Rsiran continued to pull on it until he no longer met any resistance within his father, and then released his connection to the trees.

  Jessa sat up and kissed him on the cheek. “We found him,” she said.

  “And the shadowsteel forge is destroyed.”

  “Destroyed?” his father asked. “How were you able to destroy it?”

  Rsiran shook his head. “Later. For now, I need to know if you want to return to Elaeavn. When I saw you last, you were content to die.”

  “There is nothing for me there.”

  “There is Alyse. There is your smithy.”

  “The guild would not allow it.”

  Rsiran laughed softly. “I’m not so sure about that.”

  “What of Kala?”

  Rsiran shook his head. “I’m sorry. Mother is gone. When Danis attacked, she was caught.”

  His father only nodded, less emotion than he would have expected. How much had Neran known about?

  “You protected Alyse, didn’t you?” Rsiran asked.

  “They wanted to use her. I would have done anything to protect her.” He blinked. “And you, but you had more of my bloodline. You had not the same need.”

  “I know.”

  “You know?”

  “I know about Danis. I know that Mother was born of the Forgotten. And I know the price you paid to return with her to the city. So yes, I know.”

  “What now?” Neran asked.

  “Nothing has changed. You have to decide if you want to return to the city.”

  Neran looked around, and his eyes widened slightly, as if he could see the power from the Elder Trees. Maybe he could. “I will return and face the judgment of my guild.”

  Jessa met Rsiran’s eyes, fighting a smile.

  “Good. Because the guild will need all of us if we are to stop Venass for good.”

  He held out his hands, and Slid them to the Aisl.

  Epilogue

  When they arrived, Rsiran let out a slow and tired sigh. Time spent in the place between had restored his energy, but he had a physical tiredness that he couldn’t recover from as easily. Seval found him first, with Luca walking with him.

  “You made it. Were you successful?” Seval asked Rsiran.

  “As much as can be done for now.”

  “Your apprentice shared with me what you told him,” Seval went on. “Do you really think it’s safest that we remain outside the city?”

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Rsiran said. “If it doesn’t matter, then we can return.”

  “But you don’t know.”

  Rsiran shook his head. “I thought it prudent to be careful.”

  “What now?”

  “Now we plan,” Rsiran said. “Gather the others. The guild will have much to discuss.”

  Seval tapped his knuckle to his forehead and nodded to Rsiran’s father. “Neran. Glad to see you returned.”

  When Seval left, his father looked at Rsiran differently. “What is this? Why does Master Seval address you that way? How is it that you have an apprentice?”

  Rsiran patted his father on the shoulder. “You are a master smith, otherwise I could not share this with you.”

  “Share what?”

  “I’m the smith guildlord.”

  “That… that’s not possible.”

  “Believe it or not, but get used to the fact that the other smiths listen to me, and I speak for the guild. With what we’re about to face, I will have to lead the guildlords as well, especially with the Sliding Guild guildlord now gone.”

  “There is a Sliding Guild?”

  Rsiran nodded. “There’s much you don’t know. But if you want to know, I am willing to share with you.”

  Neran looked toward Seval talking quietly to Luca. A few of the other smiths were with him, and they occasionally glanced over to his father. “What will it cost me?”

  Rsiran shrugged. “Your choice. Seval and some of the others have regained the ability to listen to lorcith. They’ve become more talented smiths because of it. A few have no interest, but recognize the value. Lorcith is plentiful, Father. If you want to listen to it, you can use it without worrying.”

  His father sighed. “I know that it’s plentiful. When they held me, they… they forced me to listen until I could hear it again. The damned song fills me now. I had to tell them when it changed, when lorcith screamed. That was how they knew their damned weapons worked.”

  Rsiran shivered. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault they held you.”

  “It is. But I drove you away.”

  “I can help you,” Rsiran offered. “I can teach you to listen to lorcith the right way. You can learn to enjoy the song.”

  Neran shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ll think on it.” He started to turn away when Alyse appeared from a small crowd. “Alyse?”

  Alyse glanced from Rsiran to their father. “You found him?” she asked Rsiran. She pulled her hand from Brusus’s and ran toward him. “Rsiran found you?”

  His father started sobbing th
en. “I’m so sorry,” he said to Rsiran. “For… for…”

  Rsiran swallowed the lump in his throat. For so long, he’d wanted nothing more than his father’s approval, but he’d grown past needing that. Now that his father was returned, he wanted to show him that he wasn’t the foolish, undisciplined boy he’d thought, nor was he the petulant son who had stolen from his smithy. Rsiran wasn’t sure who he was anymore, but he felt a part of something greater than himself now.

  “I am, too,” he said.

  He left Alyse and his father alone, and moved to the center of the clearing. Della approached, relief on her face. Ephram was with her, and Sarah walked next to him. Luthan followed, every so often glancing at Della with a curious expression on his face.

  “You should not have been able to Slide like that,” she told Rsiran.

  “I think there are many things I should not be able to do,” he said. He looked to Ephram. “The shadowsteel forge is destroyed. They used an entire mountain to create it. We will have to protect Ilphaesn.”

  “I will have the miners begin work.”

  “Are you sure they can be trusted?” Rsiran asked.

  “When Gersh realized what Naelm intended, he returned.”

  “This isn’t the miners’ fault. None of this is,” Rsiran said. “But we must be the ones to end it.”

  Luthan turned his attention to Rsiran. “How do you intend to end this, guildlord?”

  He didn’t know, not fully. “We need the crystal. Venass doesn’t have it—not yet—but that doesn’t mean they won’t go after it. The guilds must work together. We must drive Venass from the city. And the Elvraeth,” he said, turning to Luthan, “can no longer rule as they did.”

  Luthan turned his cloudy eyes to him. “You would rule as guildlord?”

  Ephram’s eyes widened slightly, as did Sarah’s.

  Rsiran shook his head. “I don’t think that’s the kind of rule the people deserve. I’m not sure of the answer, but the first step is not depriving our people of their birthright.”

  “You would open the crystals to anyone?” Ephram asked.