The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I didn’t expect you to return so quickly,” she said, making her way over to his father and slipping her arms around him, squeezing him tightly.

  His father smiled widely, the expression much warmer than the one he’d given Haern. “Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to remain here for long. I have a lead on where the Forgers might be—”

  His mother shook her head. “There’s always a lead, Rsiran. What makes you think this one matters any more than the others?”

  There was a weariness in her voice that Haern hadn’t noticed before. Could she have grown tired of his father disappearing? Haern had always believed his mother agreed with his father and what he planned, but maybe that wasn’t the case.

  “We’ve lost so many. It’s why I don’t like others leaving the city.”

  “You don’t have to do this alone.”

  “Sometimes alone is the only way. Besides, this one is different.” He reached into his pocket and pulled something out, handing it over to Haern’s mother. She scanned it before stuffing it into her pocket. “I haven’t found anything quite like this before. I’m close, Jessa, and when I find it, when I destroy them, this can finally be over. Put this with the others so that we can examine it later.”

  “This was finished twenty years ago,” she said softly.

  “Only the first phase in that war was over. The evidence of the Forgers—”

  “The evidence that only you have been able to find,” his mother said.

  “The evidence is there. I’ve seen the movement from them, and if we do nothing, if we leave them to regain the strength they had when the tower still stood, we will end up going through the same thing we just survived.”

  His mother stared at his father, and for a moment, Haern thought she might object, but she only shook her head. “You will do what you must, the same way you always have.”

  “I won’t be gone as long this time.”

  “Because you think you’ve found them,” she said.

  “Because I’ll need help once I confirm their location,” his father said. “I’ve already alerted the others and advised them to be ready.”

  Her jaw clenched and the corners of her eyes twitched. Haern recognized the expression. It was her irritation. “I presume you came back for supplies?”

  “I did. Neran has continued to manufacture what I need.”

  Haern glanced toward the smithy. Long before he had been around, it had been an open-air forge, but ever since Haern had known it, the smithy had consisted of walls woven out of branches from the trees. They somehow managed not to burn despite the incredibly hot temperatures required by the dense lorcith.

  “You’re not staying?” Haern asked.

  His father turned to him. “Like I said, I’m close to ending this. I can explain more when all of this is over, but you know that I’ve done this for you.”

  His father hugged his mother, and with a flash of colors, he disappeared, Sliding away.

  “That’s it?” Haern asked.

  His mother turned to him. “Your father is off ensuring our safety.”

  “There’s no threat to our safety. If there was, it would have come before now. Whatever war happened, it was decades ago. You ended it.”

  “He ended it,” she said softly. Her eyes had narrowed, and the corners of them twitched again. “It should have been done then.”

  “Why wasn’t it?” He glanced down to her pocket, where she’d stuffed the item his father had brought. “I know they were responsible for the last war, but he’s been chasing them for… as long as I’ve been alive. And from what I can tell, he’s no closer to coming up with any answer.”

  “Just know that your father is doing what he believes necessary.”

  “He believes it’s necessary, but what about you?”

  “I go along with your father, at least in this. I trust him, as should you.”

  She stuffed her hand into her pocket and started away from him. Haern stared after her. Just once, he wished his parents would include him. Just once, he wished they believed him capable enough to participate in his father’s search. Haern could be useful, couldn’t he? He might not be able to Slide, but he shared his father’s gift with lorcith, a gift that should grant him some connection to the man—only it didn’t.

  His gaze drifted over to the blacksmith shop. Maybe it was best that he returned to work. At least his grandfather welcomed him, wanting his company, something he couldn’t say about his parents.

  And yet, he didn’t really want to return to work. He wanted to know what his father was doing, and what he had brought back to the city. He wanted to know if he would ever have an opportunity to be a part of what they did, even if he couldn’t fight the same way they did.

  Only he wouldn’t have that opportunity. They kept it from him.

  When he reached the edge of the forest, a sudden shimmering caught his attention and he turned, waiting to see which of the Sliders would return. Surprisingly, it was Lucy.

  “Haern. You’re still here,” she said, her gaze flickering around the clearing before settling once more on him. Her cheeks were flushed, and her hand rested on the hilt of her sword.

  “What is it?”

  “I need you to come with me.”

  “Why?”

  “When I left, I decided I didn’t want to go back to the city just yet.” Haern started to smile—it wasn’t so much the city that she resisted returning to, but the palace. But there was something in the way she looked at him that forced the expression back down. “I found something.”

  “What did you find?”

  “I’m not sure, but I think it’s a body.”

  3

  Haern

  The Slide pulled on him, a swirl of color streaking around him. Haern had the sense that if he were able to slow it down, he might be able to make out the distinct colors present within the Slide. But it happened so quickly that he wasn’t able to see anything other than the swirl that slipped past.

  When they emerged from the dizzying Slide, they stood at the edge of a river. It was the outer boundary of the Elaeavn lands. It was deeper in the forest than Haern preferred to travel, but by Sliding, it wasn’t difficult, at least not for him.

  Lucy looked tired. Sweat streamed down her brow from the effort of carrying Haern with her, leaving him wondering whether Lucy would be able to return them to the Aisl when this was done. There was a limit to how far and how much she could carry with each Slide, and since she had already brought him from the top of Krali Rock and back to the Aisl, carrying him a second time was beginning to stretch her capabilities.

  “You’re going to make me walk back, aren’t you?” Haern asked.

  She wiped an arm across her brow but smiled at him, her eyes practically sparkling with the expression. “It would serve you right. You were foolish enough to climb Krali. I wouldn’t have had to Slide you from there otherwise.”

  “You didn’t have to Slide me from there.”

  She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear while surveying the forest. “You wanted to get back quickly to see why you detected lorcith.”

  “Admit it. You didn’t mind.”

  Lucy shook her head. “You’re ridiculous, and I have no intention of admitting anything to you.”

  He flashed a smile at her.

  Taking a few steps into the forest, her cloak swirling around her, she paused to turn back to him. “Did you tell them?”

  Haern breathed out heavily. “No.”

  “Why not? I thought that was why you were doing it.”

  “I was doing it to prove to myself that I could.”

  “That’s the only reason? You didn’t want your father to know?”

  “Why would it matter? My father’s barely present most of the time. I doubt he cares all that much about whether or not I make it to the top of Krali Rock.”

  Lucy studied him for a moment, but she didn’t say anything. They’d been close for long enough that she understood Hae
rn’s sentiment on such things.

  “Didn’t you have something to show me? Or was this your way of getting me alone?”

  She glared at him. Haern couldn’t deny that he wanted something more, but he was careful about revealing his interest in Lucy—their friendship was too important to him. She might spend time with him in the Aisl, presumably because she wanted to better understand her ability to Slide, but she was still one of the Elvraeth.

  “There’s something you need to see.” She motioned for Haern to follow, and they headed over toward the river. The shore was rocky, with smooth boulders running along it, as if the shoreline had evolved over time, shifted into place by whoever had formed it. It seemed almost as if they had wanted the river to run through this particular place. The rocks seemed out of place, different from those found even within Elaeavn, and from those along the shore.

  “Where are you taking me?” he asked as Lucy guided him along the river’s edge. Water burbled through here, the current not terribly fast, but the river was wide enough that it would be challenging to cross without getting entirely soaked. He had no interest in plunging into the icy cold river.

  “I told you—”

  “You told me that you found a body.”

  She glanced back at Haern, nodding slowly. “I told you I think I found a body.”

  Haern chuckled. “Think? If I were to find a body, I would know it.”

  “Just come with me,” she said.

  Haern laughed to himself again, tagging along with his friend. They meandered along the shores of the river, and the longer they went, the more amused Haern was. “What were you doing out here anyway?”

  “I didn’t want to go back yet.”

  He cursed himself. He should have known better. Lucy often wandered away from the palace, trying to stay as far from it as possible, for as long as possible. “Why didn’t you just Slide us here?”

  “You’ll see,” she said.

  “You could have Slid us anywhere along here.”

  Lucy stopped and looked back at him. “Would you stop questioning? You’re sounding like—”

  “My father.”

  She flashed a smile. “You said it.”

  They continued onward. The rock along the shore was slippery, and Lucy made a point of keeping them away from the edge of the water, but even where they walked was a little dangerous, and the stones beneath Haern’s feet trembled with each step. The forest around them was dense, thicker even than what most considered to be the heart of the Aisl. The trees growing weren’t nearly as tall as those found more centrally, but the underbrush was much thicker. It had a strange aroma, a mixture of fresh green leaves and decay, an undercurrent of rot that carried through everything. An occasional bird chirped from high up in the trees, and every so often he noticed a scratching sound, one that he thought came from movement within the forest, but not from anything they were able to see. It left him uncomfortable.

  He had spent most of his life within the forest, but there were still parts of it that he didn’t visit. If he had the ability to Slide, maybe it would be different. But if he were stuck, or attacked—and there were creatures that lived within the Aisl that weren’t entirely friendly, though few claimed to have seen them—he would be forced to fight his way out rather than simply travel in the blink of an eye the way Lucy could.

  Lucy stopped along the shore and stared out toward the middle of the river. “You wondered why I didn’t just Slide us here. Well, this is the reason.”

  Haern followed the direction of his friend’s gaze, looking toward the water. In the middle of the river, something was being dragged along with the current, moving slowly, tumbling over the rocks, though it was difficult to make out exactly what it was.

  “That’s the body?”

  “That’s something,” Lucy said. “And with the current pulling it along, I wasn’t entirely sure where it would appear, so I brought us back to where I first emerged and figured that following the course of the river would bring us to it.”

  “It could be anything,” Haern said.

  “It could be,” Lucy said.

  “Why do you think it’s a body?”

  “Because I could swear I saw a face.”

  Haern started to laugh before realizing that Lucy wasn’t joking. “Let’s get it out of the water and take a look.”

  “How? I don’t have that kind of control over my Sliding. I’ve been getting better, but…”

  Haern frowned. His father would have simply Slid to the middle of the river, grabbed whatever was there, and then returned. Then again, his father was far more capable than most with the ability. He’d seen his father transport several people, something that was difficult for any other Slider to accomplish. There were rumors of even greater feats performed by his father, most of which involved him transporting dozens of people at one time, but Haern had never seen it and didn’t know if they were simply exaggerations. The stories of his father were often little more than legend. It was difficult to know how much of it was real and how much was made up.

  “You’re going to make me swim out there, aren’t you?”

  “I didn’t really want either of us to swim out there.”

  “What do you suggest?”

  “I figured you’d come up with something. You usually do. There has to be some other way.”

  The current continued to pull the form along the river. Haern wasn’t about to call it a body, not without more proof, but as it tumbled, rolling through the water, he had to admit that he shared some of Lucy’s concern. If it was a body, whose was it?

  The Aisl Forest was home to some of the people of Elaeavn, those who had chosen to move away from the city—and from the heavy hand of Elvraeth rule—to get closer to what they considered their ancestors. Since the attack on the city, the Elvraeth had shared their rule with the guilds, but it was an uneasy thing. The city—and the forest—were difficult to reach for anyone not of Elaeavn. It should be safe for them, it should be home, so if someone else had reached it who should not…

  They needed to know.

  More than that, there was supposed to be a certain level of protection placed upon the forest. During each return to the forest, his father continued to ensure his wards were in place. Haern knew they involved lorcith and the alloys, but not much more than that. His father preferred to keep the secret of the city’s protection to full guild members.

  “Let’s see if we can’t find something that can at least pop it out of the water.”

  “It? That’s someone, Haern.”

  Haern glanced over to his friend. “I’m not so sure. What if it’s nothing more than rocks moving along with the current?”

  Lucy grabbed one of the boulders lining the river and heaved it into the water. It splashed down and sank, moving nowhere. “Boulder. Notice how it doesn’t move with the current? Think about how far we walked. That’s where I first saw it. No boulder does that.”

  “Fine. Then maybe it’s a wolf or—”

  “A wolf? Come on, Haern. That’s a body. Just go along with me on this.”

  Haern looked over at his friend. Lucy was slender, and her long wavy hair hung loose today. She tucked it behind her ears, leaving her deep green eyes flashing, practically begging Haern to believe her.

  “Why don’t we grab a branch and see if we can dam up the river somehow?”

  “That’s a good idea. What do you propose?”

  Haern glanced back at the trees. All he had was his knives, and while the lorcith blades might be sharp enough to cut through the wood, it would be a slow process, and he would end up hacking at them, likely taking far longer than Lucy wanted, especially if this was a body and the current was pulling it along. They wouldn’t have much time.

  “You know, we could wait until the current reaches the rest of the city,” Haern said.

  “And then what? Watch as it spills out into the sea? At that point, the force of it would crush anything that’s in there.”

  “You
already said you think it’s a body. What more could be crushed?”

  “Our ability to determine who it is. If they’re crushed by the rocks, we might not be able to tell.”

  “The only way we’d recognize the person is if they came from Elaeavn.” And even that wouldn’t be guaranteed. It wasn’t as if they knew everybody in the city.

  It might be better for them to go and get help. It was what his mother would have wanted, but then, wasn’t that reason for him to try to do this on his own? His mother never wanted him to get too involved, fearing he would end up like his father. But that was completely baseless, especially as the only way he could Slide was by traveling along with someone like Lucy.

  “Hand me your sword,” Haern said. When Lucy frowned, he flicked his gaze to the trees. “I’m going to see if I can’t cut some branches down. I think the sword will be a whole lot more useful than my knives.”

  “I could help.”

  “You could, and I think you’re going to need to, but stay with the body for now.”

  Lucy nodded, relief sweeping across her eyes.

  He scrambled back onto the shore, away from the rocks, and when he reached the first tree, he wrapped his arms around it, shimmying up the trunk. Having grown up in the heart of the forest, he had plenty of experience climbing trees, but the trunk was slippery, making the climb difficult.

  He reached the lowest branch, and his arms trembled. They probably wouldn’t be that tired if he hadn’t just scaled Krali Rock. A scratching sound came from within the trees, and he jerked his head around, realizing that he wasn’t alone.

  He didn’t see anything, so he tried to ignore the sound, heading toward branches higher up. If he could reach them, he could cut them down, but he’d have to brace himself if he intended to hack at the branches.

  None of this was all that smart. They really should have gone back for help. They could have grabbed one of the other Sliders, someone who could Slide to the middle of the river and back before getting pulled under. Maybe even his father, if he had remained in the city.