The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  “You think it’s something else?”

  Lucy shrugged. “I don’t even know. I haven’t given it much thought, but what if we have been maneuvered into remaining isolated?”

  “Now you’re sounding like you’ve been playing games with Carth.”

  “Even if I had, I have a hard time thinking I would be able to play them nearly as well as she does. No. I’m just trying to come up with an understanding.”

  She didn’t have an opportunity to expound on it any further. In the distance, she could make out where the bright light came from. The heat and the light made sense.

  “A volcano?” she whispered.

  Carth had stopped, staring into the distance. “It was difficult to place the stone here.”

  “Why did you bring it here?”

  “Many reasons. I suppose mostly because this is where it belonged.”

  “Because of Lashasn?”

  She nodded slowly. “Much like Ih, Lashasn had its own Elder Stone. When Lashasn failed, the stone was moved.”

  “To Nyaesh,” Daniel said.

  “It was. The people here moved because of the volcano. They had little choice. They were forced from their homeland, as much because of the volcano as because of the war with Ih. A new nation was formed, one called Ih-lash, but even that wasn’t able to remain intact. War eventually came for them, too. Now none of those ancient places remain.”

  “But the power does.”

  Carth nodded. “And while Ih still possesses the shadows, Lashasn had not maintained its hold on fire. Not until I brought it back here.”

  “Where is it?” Daniel asked.

  “Inside the volcano.”

  Daniel’s breath caught. “How did you bring it inside?”

  His gaze swept across the distant horizon. Lucy followed the direction of his gaze, probably feeling much the same as he did. Lava flowed down the side of the volcano, thick and hot. Flames crackled from time to time, and from where they stood, it was almost unbearable. She had no idea how they would even try to get closer. In the distance, near the peak of the volcano, lava flowed more readily, the steady red and orange burbling lighting the night, giving a glow to everything.

  There was nothing else around them. There was no life. No birds in the sky. No animals moved around them. There wasn’t even a breeze here. The air smelled hot and sulfuric, the stench of the earth erupting.

  How had any people ever lived here?

  “I am connected to Lashasn,” Carth said.

  “You used your power of the Flame,” Lucy said.

  Carth nodded.

  “Is that when you started to have difficulty with your powers?”

  Carth glanced over, studying her. “Did you just Read that?”

  Lucy shook her head. “Not from you, but from Daniel.” She turned to Daniel Elvraeth, and she forced a smile. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay. When I first met her, Carth said that she had been diminished. Her abilities had changed.”

  “And they had,” Carth said. “Moving an Elder Stone is incredibly difficult, but so too is being in proximity to it for as long as I was.”

  “You came alone?” Daniel asked.

  “It would have been dangerous for anyone else to come with me. I wasn’t willing to risk them. So I came alone, sailing with the Elder Stone. Moving it back to where it had been.”

  “And it changed you.”

  Carth nodded. “Perhaps not as much as when I held the Wisdom Stone, but now my connection to the power of S’al is different. Less predictable.”

  “And more powerful,” Lucy suggested.

  Carth nodded once. “More powerful, but without control, power doesn’t matter as much. I would much rather have control over it than complete power.”

  “Are you sure we should be so close to it?”

  Carth shook her head. “No. My hope is that the contact will be brief, and I will be able to shield you.”

  “Shield us how?”

  “One of the things that made Lashasn and Ih such uneasy allies was the fact that our abilities tended to counter each other. Shadows can counteract the flame. With enough power, I should be able to shield you.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Daniel said.

  “If you would prefer to return, all I would ask is that you help bring the A’ras back to Nyaesh.”

  Daniel met her gaze. “No. I’ll stay here.”

  Lucy touched him on the arm, and he turned toward her. “You don’t need to do this, Daniel.”

  “I think I do.”

  “If you do this, it might change you.”

  “And if you do this, it might change you.”

  Lucy touched the back of her head. “I fear that I’ve already been changed.”

  “And we must hope that Carth is able to protect us. Besides, if you have enough strength with Sliding us, you should be able to limit how long we’re in contact with the Elder Stone.”

  As he said it, she realized that he was completely confident in her abilities—much more so than she was. She wished she could share in that confidence. She was strong, and the augmentation granted by the implant had made her considerably stronger, but this was something else entirely.

  What would happen if she were to be touched by the Elder Stone? How much would she change?

  It was possible that she wouldn’t know at first. Carth hadn’t shared with her how much she had changed when holding the Wisdom Stone, though the longer she was around Carth, the more she suspected the other woman had changed from it.

  “How do we get inside?”

  “That has to be me,” Carth said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Even if you were able to Slide us in there—and I don’t think you can—I don’t know that you could handle the heat of this place.”

  “And how do you handle the heat of this place?”

  Carth smiled tightly. “I am born of the flames.”

  With that, Carth went running toward the volcano. Daniel started after her, and Lucy grabbed him, keeping him from chasing Carth down. “I don’t think you should do that,” she whispered.

  “What will happen to her?”

  “Probably nothing, but it’s possible that she won’t return to us.”

  Lucy stood watching until Carth disappeared. When she reached the first lava flow, she half expected something to happen to the other woman, but Carth glided across it, almost as if she were completely unbothered by the power of the flames. And Lucy realized it was likely she wasn’t bothered. With her control over flames and shadow, she had proven that she had a unique set of powers.

  All they could do was wait.

  “Did you know that there was danger with the C’than?” Daniel asked.

  “Carth has been concerned about that. After the attack in Asador, she worried that Alera had gathered others.”

  “And have there been others?”

  Lucy nodded. “Unfortunately.”

  Daniel turned to her. “How many?”

  Lucy closed her eyes, unable to take her thoughts off the faces that had poured through her mind when she had grabbed the engineer from Nyaesh. “Many.”

  “She has you trying to help her uncover them?”

  Lucy tapped her head. “I can Read. That allows us to try and uncover them.”

  Daniel turned back toward the volcano. “Here I’ve been worried about the Ai’thol. No, that’s not right. I’ve been focused on the Forgers, but even then, I wasn’t nearly as concerned as I probably should have been.”

  “I don’t think any of us have ever been nearly as concerned about what they might do as we should have been.”

  “Lareth has.”

  “I think Lareth and Carth are the only ones who have been working against them. Well, perhaps not the only ones. Even though it bothers Carth, the C’than have been doing it, too, in their own dangerous way.”

  “Should we support them rather than attack them?”

  Lucy frowned. For a moment,
she wondered if perhaps they should support the V’lar. At least now, they knew the name by which they called themselves. That was something they hadn’t even managed to acquire when she’d come across the engineers. But if they had named themselves the way that Carth suspected, it meant they were after power, too.

  “They have been willing to use their knowledge to hurt others.”

  “Like the Ai’thol,” Daniel said.

  Lucy nodded. “And that willingness to harm others is the greatest reason we need to act.”

  The light in the distance increased, and she realized why.

  Carth returned.

  As she did, there was something different about her. It was a strange type of energy that seemed to swirl around her. Carth glowed, light and heat radiating from her, and as Lucy stared, she realized that Carth dragged something behind her.

  “What does she have?” Daniel whispered.

  “I suspect it’s the Elder Stone,” she said.

  “What do you think it looks like?”

  “I have no idea. If she’s able to mute it with the shadows as she intends, we might not even be able to determine what it is.”

  As she approached, it was difficult to tell what exactly Carth held. It was glowing brightly, and yet streaks of darkness continued to swirl around it, and it took a moment for Lucy to realize that Carth used bands of shadow to drag it. As she drew nearer, those bands of shadow began to solidify, forming a shell over the Elder Stone.

  Carth slowed.

  Each step seemed to be difficult, as if the effort of dragging the Elder Stone with her was sapping her strength.

  Lucy grabbed Daniel, and they Slid toward Carth.

  The ground was hot, immediately beginning to burn through her boots, and she grabbed Carth as she began to fall forward.

  “Where to?”

  An image flashed in her mind. It was Nyaesh, but it was beneath Nyaesh.

  “Hold on,” she said to Daniel.

  “How do you know where to go?”

  “Know that I do.”

  With that, she Slid.

  Ever since having her powers augmented, she had been able to Slide easily. Even when she had Slid back onto the ship, there had not been much difficulty. The only times she had struggled were when she had attempted to Slide many people at once, and even that hadn’t been nearly as difficult as it once had been.

  This was something else entirely. The effort of attempting to Slide felt as if she were being torn apart. It was pain. Heat flashed through her, but it was mixed with icy cold.

  Lucy cried out, and Daniel squeezed her hand. She didn’t dare look at him or Carth, and she prayed that Carth held on to the Elder Stone as they Slid.

  Instead, she focused on keeping the image Carth had shown her at the forefront of her mind. If she could do that, she might be able to draw them through the Slide, and then she might be able to reach Nyaesh—where they needed to bring the stone.

  As it felt as if she were starting to fail, they emerged from the Slide.

  Bright light swirled all around them, almost overwhelming. It was hot and dry and overpowering. Despite her enhanced eyesight, Lucy couldn’t See anything. Carth dragged them forward. It was a strange sensation, and the further they went, the more the brightness began to retreat.

  And then they stepped through a doorway.

  The light began to fade. It was subtle, and then it steadily disappeared, fading into nothingness.

  It took a long time for her eyesight to return. Even then, there was a strange afterimage, as if she had been staring at the sun too long.

  “Is it done?” Daniel whispered.

  “Did we bring it where we needed to?” Lucy asked Carth.

  “It’s done. You did well.”

  “What now?”

  “Now we need to return the A’ras. And then we need to remove the C’than from the city.”

  Lucy looked over at Carth. “Are you strong enough for that?”

  Carth stood, and shadows swirled around her. “I hope so.”

  38

  Haern

  A gently rolling hillside spread out in front of them, with a city sprawling in the distance. The design of the city was unlike anything he’d seen before. It was odd, unique, and the place seemed to possess a power unlike other places. He wasn’t even certain where they were. His father had Slid them, which meant he could take them anywhere.

  An enormous river flowed toward the city and then past it. Dozens of vessels sailed upon the river, most looking as if they headed toward the city itself. Some appeared to be heading away, back to sea. Haern couldn’t see the ocean from here, but those ships didn’t look to be the kind that only sailed on rivers.

  “Why did we come here?” Haern asked.

  “Because of what you uncovered.” His father hadn’t questioned Haern when he had revealed what he’d learned from the Forger, simply making arrangements to leave. Haern didn’t even know how long they were going to be gone. “We need to keep looking for answers about what they plan.”

  “We know what they plan.”

  “We know that whatever it is has to do with the metal and the Elder Stones. We don’t know anything more than that.”

  The wrinkles around his father’s eyes told him all he needed to know. His father was troubled. This was about more than the Forgers, but Haern wasn’t sure what more his father worried about.

  “Do you think we’ll find them here?”

  His father shook his head, never taking his focus off the distant city. “They shouldn’t be here. This is a place of unique power.”

  “How unique?”

  “The kind that allows them to control fire.”

  “Like Carth?”

  His father nodded. “This is where Carth first began her training.”

  Haern studied the city with a renewed interest. If that were the case, it would make sense for them to be here, though his father couldn’t be the only one who knew that. “She told you that?”

  “Carth doesn’t tell me anything. What I’ve discovered about her over the years has come with great difficulty.”

  “Why do you need to know?”

  “In order to understand her and what sort of ally she might be, I need to know the person.”

  “Do you think she studied you the same way?”

  His father arched a brow, a smile quirking his lips. “I know that she has.”

  “What is this place?”

  “This place is called Nyaesh. The men and women who use fire are known as the A’ras, and they are incredibly gifted swordsmen.”

  “Have you faced them?”

  “I haven’t spent that much time here. Enough that I knew how to find it, and enough that I could return, but there hasn’t been much reason for me to come here before.”

  At the center of the city, it looked as if there was some sort of palace, though it stood out, massive towers rising into the sky. It was nothing like the Floating Palace, a place designed to be concealed from a distance. But then, all of Elaeavn was designed to be concealed from a distance. When it had been restored, great care had gone into rebuilding it in the same way, wanting to mask the design, making it so that the city itself would be invisible from the shore. It was the original design of the city, and the earliest architects had been incredibly skilled, so that parts of the city simply disappeared when viewed from various angles. The palace was different. Because of the design of the city, there were places within the city where the palace appeared to jut off the rock, practically floating, giving it its name. It was the only time the palace was really visible within the city, at least easily.

  This was quite a bit different.

  It was as if the palace were designed to be seen, to draw one’s attention.

  “Do you think an Elder Stone might be in Nyaesh?”

  “I think there are some ties to an Elder Stone here. It’s the only thing that makes sense, especially considering the type of power the people of Nyaesh possess. They control flames a
nd fire, much like Carth, and that kind of magic can only come from an Elder Stone.”

  “Wouldn’t the Forgers know about it?”

  Haern couldn’t imagine the Forgers not knowing about an Elder Stone like that, and if they knew about it, they would have come after it.

  “Most Elder Stones are protected. From what I can gather, the people who possess them are typically able to offer a certain level of protection. It’s the reason the Wisdom Stone had been so difficult for them to acquire. They had felt the need to bargain for it. Often, it’s finding the stone that’s the most difficult.”

  “How so? If others know about the A’ras and their connection to fire, why wouldn’t they know about the Elder Stones here?”

  “It’s more than just knowing about them. Many people knew about the crystals within Elaeavn, but how can they reach them?”

  “People outside of Elaeavn know about the crystals?”

  “More than you would realize. And it’s the same with the A’ras. If they have an Elder Stone—and I’m not certain that they do—the real challenge would be protecting it. It would have to be in a place that would be fortified, and that fortification would need to prevent the Forgers—or anyone else who might think to reach it—from getting to it.”

  “You would try to find it, then?”

  “I would try to find information. Nothing more than that. The Forgers have gone silent, and other than the attack on Elaeavn, I’m not certain what they are after anymore.”

  “Then maybe we did stop them when we pushed them back in Asador.” That might be why the Ai’thol had taken to using what the C’than had discovered.

  His father shook his head. “The presence of our captive suggests otherwise. They are after something, and though he’s the only one who managed to cross the barrier, I suspect there will be others. We need to be ready for the possibility that they will reach us, and be prepared for whatever they might do, and stop them.”

  Haern watched his father. This was the kind of comment Brusus had worried about. He was concerned that Rsiran would be too focused, and seeing him like this, seeing the intensity on his father’s face, Haern thought that maybe Brusus had been right.

  Haern should have acknowledged that when his father had captured the Forger in the first place. There was a darkness to him, and he had been filled with anger, and it was more than simply trying to protect the people he cared about. It was about vengeance.