“You never struggled before,” Galen said.
“I’ve always struggled with them. The Hjan were little more than sacrificial pieces in a larger game.”
“Even Danis?”
Carth’s eyes narrowed for a moment. “He was something else. I think he was a piece they hadn’t accounted for.”
“Danis. As in my grandfather?” Haern said. There were stories of his grandfather, and none of them were good. He was the reason his father had become the man he was, for better or worse. To hear others tell of it, Danis had become incredibly dangerous and violent, and Haern’s father was the only reason Elaeavn had survived his attack.
“Sometimes pieces begin to take on a life of their own,” Carth said, watching Galen.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Haern asked.
Carth chuckled. “Nothing.”
Galen grunted. “According to my friend Carth, I was once little more than a piece on a much larger game board. She and others thought to push me around, but when I started pushing back, the game changed.”
Haern couldn’t imagine anyone pushing Galen around. “All of this is about the Forgers?”
Carth met his eyes for a moment. “You call them Forgers. I call them the Ai’thol. I have known about them for many years, and they have manipulated me for far longer than I care to admit.”
“I didn’t think anyone ever manipulated you,” Galen said.
“Galen, if only that were true. I am skilled at Tsatsun, but the Ai’thol… they are masters. And one among them in particular is incredibly gifted. The games I play are nothing compared to what he plays.”
“These Ai’thol are the same as the Forgers?”
“In a way. It’s no different from how the Ai’thol are the same as the Hjan, and how the Ai’thol are responsible for the Forgers. They coordinate all this. It’s their way of acquiring knowledge.”
“It’s more than knowledge, Carth,” Galen said.
“That’s true enough. It’s about more than knowledge. They want what the knowledge can provide. They want power.”
“The sacred crystals,” Haern said.
Carth nodded. “Your crystals are but one Elder Stone. And according to someone you know, the ones within your homeland are in danger.”
“What do you mean?”
“A friend of yours has traveled with me.”
Haern looked around. “Who? Where?”
She nodded to the hillside behind them. “Go and see. I have much that I need to speak to Galen about.”
Haern glanced to Galen. He didn’t like leaving the man, especially not knowing what might be out in the darkness, but Galen only nodded. He trusted Carth, which meant that Haern should trust Carth.
He slid off the rock and headed up the hillside. As he made his way, he came upon a small fire that had burned down to embers, and someone slouched forward, obviously asleep. How had he not Seen that before?
Glancing to where Carth sat with Galen, he wondered if she had intended for them to find her. Someone with her powers would have to intend that to happen, wouldn’t she?
Haern approached slowly until he realized who it was.
Not a friend at all.
“Daniel Elvraeth?”
The other man awoke with a start. He jumped to his feet, reaching for his sword and unsheathing it, jabbing outward.
A lorcith sword—and knowing the kind of man Daniel was, it was probably one that Haern’s father had forged.
Haern pushed on the metal in the blade, preventing Daniel from stabbing him with it.
The blade went spinning away, and Daniel moved with it, raising the blade before hesitating. What did it say about him that he would attack first?
“Haern? What are you doing here?”
“I would ask the same thing. Why are you in Asador?” From what he knew of Daniel, the things Lucy had told him, he wouldn’t have expected the other man ever to leave Elaeavn. He enjoyed the power his position entailed within the city far too much.
Daniel waved his hand. “I wasn’t trying to get to Asador. We got sidetracked and I didn’t make it to Asador right away. We went to Eban and ran into trouble there, where we had to overpower a thief master before it turned out I was betrayed, and then I came across Carth, who… how are you here?”
Haern shook his head. “What do you mean we?”
“I came with Lucy.”
Haern tensed. She tolerated Daniel, but he couldn’t imagine her willingly leaving the city with him. “Lucy is here?” Having someone with her ability to Slide would be beneficial if they needed to travel someplace quickly. “Lucy is not here,” Haern realized. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story. After you abandoned the city—”
“I didn’t abandon the city.”
Daniel ignored him. “Some of us went looking for answers out in the forest. There must have been a straggler. One of the Forgers remained, and one of their weapons discharged, catching Lucy in the head.”
Haern gasped. “In the head? How did she survive?”
“It was the same strange metal they used on your trees, and when the Healer tried to help her, the metal began to work into her skull, making it impossible to remove.”
Haern looked around them, searching for signs of Lucy. Where was she?
Better yet, why would she have come here?
“Why take her from Elaeavn if she’s injured?”
Daniel’s face soured. “There was no way to help her in the city. We tried everything, and were there any other option…”
“What option?” Haern said, stepping forward. He found his hand already reaching into his pocket for the knives and had to fight down the urge to stab Daniel with them. It was the Forger’s fault that Lucy had been hurt, not Daniel’s.
“There’s only one person who might know enough about the metal to save her.”
Haern understood. It was the same reason he was here. “My father.”
“We need to find Rsiran to save her, but I’m not even sure if that will be enough. The metal… it changed her, Lareth.”
“What do you mean?”
“At first, it augmented her abilities. She was able to Read far too much, to the point where it was overwhelming. Your mother gave her a pair of bracelets Rsiran had forged that would suppress it, but when she was attacked and abducted, she was poisoned and lost to us. When I got her back, something had changed, and she disappeared. Now it seems as if she’s controlled by the Forgers.”
Haern stared at the other man. And here he thought he had been through quite a bit, coming to Asador and getting chased by Forgers. “Where is Lucy now?”
“I don’t know. With her augmented ability to Slide, she could be anywhere.”
“I don’t understand any of that.”
“According to Carth, the Forgers have some way of controlling people under their influence.”
“Even if those people didn’t want to be under their influence?”
“I’m not sure that matters. Lucy certainly didn’t want to be under their influence.”
“I’ll find my father and Lucy.” Suddenly, the two Forgers in the room would be far more useful. Torturing them for information had been hard when it was for his father, but for Lucy? Haern thought he could do it for her. “You can return to Elaeavn. I’m sure you’ve been gone longer than you want.”
“I’m not returning until I find her.”
“Do you think that will impress her?”
“Careful, Haern. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know how you’ve been chasing Lucy. You don’t have to worry about her anymore. I’ll make sure to find my father, and he’ll help her.” Haern hoped that was true. His parents didn’t love anyone whose last name was Elvraeth, so he didn’t exactly know what his father might do.
“She’s not the only reason I came.”
“Why else?”
“Your Smith Guild members talented with lorcith tried removing it, but they weren’t
able to connect to the metal well enough.”
“I wasn’t able to either,” Haern said.
“Which is why we need the real Lareth.”
Haern glanced over to where Carth sat with Galen. The shadows around them made it difficult to make anything out. “I’m trying to find him. We came to find Carth. Apparently, she is the only other person who might know where to find him.”
“You came looking for her?”
Haern nodded. “My mother suggested that she might be able to help and sent me with the one person she would be willing to meet with.”
“Who was that?”
“Galen, Cael Elvraeth’s husband.”
Daniel’s face twisted into a frown. It was almost enough for Haern to smile. If Daniel didn’t like Galen, that was even more reason for Haern to like him. “Why him?”
“You’ll never believe it, but he used to be an assassin. He was one of the exiles back in the day.”
“Oh, I know what he was.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It’s supposed to mean nothing.”
They fell into an uncomfortable silence, and Haern backed away from Daniel. “Now that we’ve found Carth—”
“You mean I found her.”
“Whatever. She’ll know how to find my father, and then we can get to the bottom of what the Forgers have done.”
Daniel looked off toward the shoreline. “I’m not sure she will. She’s powerful, don’t get me wrong, but she’s more concerned about this person who served under her and betrayed her.”
“We met her, I think.”
“You met Rayen?”
“I’m not sure that met is quite the right way to put it. We came across her, but Galen got us out of there before anything came of it.”
“It’s good that you didn’t face off with her. She’s dangerous. She helped me rescue Lucy, but then she betrayed us. She sold Lucy off to the Forgers to ensure the safety of the Binders.”
“We can’t leave Lucy with the Forgers,” Haern said.
Daniel shook his head. “I don’t have any intention of doing that. She’s far more powerful than she was before.”
Haern took a seat with his legs crossed, looking at the glowing embers of the fading fire. They needed some way of reaching his father, some way of finding out where he might have gone. But even when they got to him, it would be no guarantee that they would be able to rescue him.
Once they did, what would happen then?
Would the Forgers come again?
It didn’t matter. They needed his father in order to save the Elder Trees, and with them, the sacred crystals. Without him, they would be lost. The power gifted to their people by the Great Watcher would be lost.
And now he needed his father to find Lucy.
Which meant he might have to work with Daniel Elvraeth.
There might be another way. The Forger in their room might not reveal what had happened to his father, but would he reveal what had been done to Lucy? “What if there’s a way of finding out what the Forgers did with them?” Haern said, looking away from the fading fire and over to Daniel.
“You came after Carth, and I’ve told you that Carth has no way of knowing where to find him. She’s been out of it. From what I can tell, she has been either hiding or preparing, but either way, I didn’t get the sense that she knew where to find Rsiran.”
“I’m not talking about Carth. I’m talking about the person you want to find.”
“Lucy?”
Haern nodded. He twisted one of the knives in his hand absently, flicking it around and around. Every so often, he added a touch to his connection with lorcith, spinning it on top of his palm. He did the same with the other knife in his other hand, focusing his thoughts, trying to increase his concentration.
Daniel watched, his eyes locked on to the way Haern spun the knives. Haern found he wanted to do it even more with Daniel watching. Let him know that Haern wasn’t completely helpless.
“You said that she is controlled by the Forgers.”
Daniel nodded.
“And you also said that this metal that attached itself to her has augmented her abilities.”
“What’s your point?”
“All of her abilities.”
“Yes. All of them, Lareth. What are you getting at?”
“If we can find her, if we can rescue her, what if she’s been able to determine where they are keeping Rsiran in the time that they’ve been controlling her?”
Daniel sat up. “She would have been around all of the Forgers. Anything they would have been thinking about, she would know.”
“Right. And if we can rescue her, then we can hopefully figure out what they did with my father. We can help her and the Elder Trees.”
“It’s not a bad idea.” Haern could tell how much Daniel hated saying that. “There’s a catch.”
Haern shrugged. “There’s always a catch, but at least we have an idea.”
“Your idea might work, but we still don’t know where she is.”
“So you want to just head back to Elaeavn?”
“That’s not what I was saying.”
“Close enough. We know where she was, and if she knows—or if the Forgers know—that we’re after her, maybe we can draw her to us.”
“That involves having a Forger to use.”
Haern started to smile. “Exactly.”
“You captured a Forger?”
Haern nodded toward Galen. “He did. Questioned him too. He’s brutal when he wants to be.”
“That’s not all he is,” Daniel muttered.
Haern ignored this and allowed himself a moment to relax, to feel as if this plan might actually work. In all the time since he’d left Elaeavn, he had felt out of his depth, and while Galen had kept him safe, there was something secure about having an idea about how to proceed.
“Why don’t we go and talk to Carth and Galen?”
He stood and started toward the shoreline, not waiting for Daniel. As he went, the depths of shadows along the shore caught his attention. He slowed, and Daniel glanced over.
“What is it?”
“Why would Carth be holding on to her shadows like that right now?”
“What do you mean?” Daniel asked.
“You have some enhanced Sight. Look at the shore. You can see how the shoreline has this increased density to the shadows.” The more Haern stared, the more certain he was of what he saw. When he’d left, Carth had not been thickening the shadows, so why was she doing so now? Was she trying to keep Haern and Daniel from overhearing what she and Galen were talking about?
“How is it that you can See that?” Daniel demanded.
“It’s something Galen taught me. It’s a matter of looking for the change in the patterns. It doesn’t have to be a lot, just enough to notice that there’s something a little different. Once you see it, you can’t help but see only that.”
“I don’t see anything,” Daniel said.
Haern approached slowly. He peered through the darkness at the shadows. When he did, he managed to See through them.
He expected Galen and Carth to be sitting on top of the boulders along the shore, but there was no sign of the two. What he noticed was five figures making their way along the shoreline. The shadows seemed to emanate from them.
“How much can you See?” Haern asked.
“Not nearly what you do,” Daniel said.
“There are five making their way toward us, and one of them is manipulating the shadows.”
“Is it Carth?”
Haern stared into the darkness. “I don’t think so. I don’t see anyone that looks like Galen, and I doubt that Carth would have left him. They were having a conversation when I left him.”
“Take my arm,” Daniel snapped.
Haern hesitated.
“Now isn’t the time to be stupid, Haern. I’m not going to get you killed.”
Haern did as he instructed, and Daniel stepped into a Slide, pu
lling them toward the shoreline. When they emerged, the figures were in front of him. They moved quietly, and he suspected they were after Carth, or if not Carth, then Galen.
With their quiet and stealthy approach, he wondered if it was the Forgers. But how would the Forgers have found them here?
The shadows seemed to come from one direction.
The other.
What had Daniel called her?
Rayen. She was the one responsible for what had happened to Daniel, and perhaps for what had happened to Lucy.
Finding Lucy would help him find his father. It would allow him to save her and the Elder Trees. He would succeed.
He motioned for Daniel to follow, and they crept forward. They moved softly, staying behind the figures. Haern used every bit of what Galen had taught him about concealing his presence. He didn’t need to stay too close, just close enough to keep them in sight. But as he made his way forward, he feared that he was far too recognizable. If this woman had abilities similar to Carth’s, she might be able to detect him.
He grabbed on to Daniel’s arm, keeping him from moving forward.
They needed to be ready to Slide at a moment’s notice, in case things went wrong. Would Daniel Elvraeth be ready? Could Haern even trust him?
Daniel nodded, seemingly understanding what Haern needed from him.
They continued forward, getting close enough that Haern could make out the features of the woman in front of him. She was dark-haired, with skin that seemed deeply tanned, and she moved with the same dangerous and deadly grace he had seen from Carth. She could be her daughter, but somehow, Haern didn’t think she was. If she were, Carth would have revealed that to them, wouldn’t she?
“They were here,” a voice said, penetrating the muted darkness.
“I know they were here. Which means that she has returned.”
He tapped Daniel’s arm and motioned back toward the hillside. They Slid, with a surge of colors swirling around them, and Haern let out a shaky breath.
“They’re gone,” he said.
“What do you mean, gone?”
“If they were still there, they would’ve found them. Carth must’ve noticed Rayen approaching.”
“But where would they have gone?”
They could wait here, but doing so meant simply waiting for another attack, and he had no interest in that. Not when there was still so much that needed to be done.
The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3 Page 40
