The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  She followed him, trailing after as he picked his way across the ground. His hands were balled into fists, and his back completely stiff. Something unsettled him.

  It put her on edge. In the time that she had traveled with Olandar Fahr, she had seen quite a bit, and yet she had been kept from any dangers. That wasn’t to say that she hadn’t been in danger. There were times when he had traveled to various places and she had risked herself in order to follow him. It was part of whatever test he had for her, his way of trying to ensure she would understand what he wanted, and yet they had never encountered any real, active threat.

  This time seemed different somehow.

  With just the two of them here, if they came across the real threat, was there anything they might be able to do to get themselves to safety?

  She’d never seen Olandar Fahr fight, though from the way men within the temples they had visited regarded him, it seemed he was viewed as some sort of skilled fighter.

  Maybe it would be better for her just to stay close to him, prepared for the possibility they might need to escape at a moment’s notice.

  Other than the strange odor in the air, Ryn didn’t see anything. There was no movement, nothing that suggested they were in any danger.

  “What is it that—”

  Olandar Fahr spun toward her, raising a finger to his lips. Intensity burned in his dark eyes, and he scanned the land around them. With a flicker of movement, he appeared next to her and leaned close, whispering in her ear. “Say nothing.”

  She nodded.

  Her heart hammered wildly, though it felt as if she were reacting to him rather than to any real threat.

  If there was a threat, why would he have brought her here?

  Ryn remained silent as instructed, searching for anything that might explain what they were going to encounter. The longer she looked, the less certain she was that she would find anything to explain what had unsettled him.

  It was possible he had only brought her here to scare her. But that didn’t fit with what she knew of the man. When he took her places, there was always a purpose behind it.

  What had he wanted from her?

  Observe.

  Ryn turned slowly and looked everywhere around her. What if he wanted her to look in a different direction? To see beyond the obvious?

  She felt as if something were changed, as if something about this place was wrong, and the more she focused on it, the more certain she was. The damage seemed to be caused by fire, as if the entire land had been burned, almost as if to…

  “What are they hiding?” She whispered it, before remembering he had warned her to silence.

  Olandar Fahr turned back to her, his brow furrowed. “Hiding?”

  Heat worked up her cheeks as she flushed. “I’m sorry. You told me to be quiet.”

  He took her arm and they traveled. They stepped free near the water, waves lapping at the shore with a soft murmur. Sand pressed beneath her boots.

  “What did you observe?”

  She turned back toward where she thought they had been, though she wasn’t certain whether she was even looking in the right direction. When they traveled like that, it was difficult for her to know where they appeared and what direction they went. She thought they had been directly to the east, but it was possible he’d brought them north or south along the shoreline.

  “I’m not exactly sure. All I know is the fire seems to be significant.”

  “Fire?”

  “Wasn’t there a fire?”

  He pressed his fingers together. “It’s possible that there was. What did you detect?”

  Ryn thought about the strangeness, the odor in the air, and the overall feeling she’d had. Maybe it wasn’t a fire at all. It was possible it was something else entirely, and it was possible that she was completely wrong about what she had sensed.

  “I just thought there might have been a fire,” she said, looking down at the ground. Here he had wanted her to try to observe in a different way, to see if she might be able to uncover anything, and all she had done was make a fool of herself. “I’m sorry I let you down.”

  Olandar Fahr started to chuckle, and she looked up at him. “You didn’t let me down. As I told you, you might be able to observe things I cannot.”

  “What happened there?”

  “The better question would be where we were.”

  “Why?”

  “It is nowhere near any land you would easily have visited.” He stared over the water. “Until I developed my ability to travel, such places were isolated for me. I had to travel by ship, and going that way is almost painfully slow.”

  He stepped toward the edge of the water, and an occasional wave sent it rolling over his boots, but Olandar Fahr seemed not to mind.

  “When we first encountered some of these isolated places, we thought they were devoid of any life, but the longer we spent here, the more we realized there was something else taking place.”

  “What?”

  Olandar Fahr took a deep breath. “Unfortunately, I don’t have those answers. I’ve been talking to you about understanding the game, and knowing various moves, and you wondered why I have been spending my time like this. Well, this is the reason. I have been trying to understand what exactly is taking place. There are things I don’t see, and I need someone like yourself to help.” He turned toward her, watching Ryn for a long moment. “Are you willing to help?”

  It seemed as if this were some sort of test, and that answering incorrectly would lead to her not only disappointing Olandar Fahr but also finding herself perhaps exiled from him. She still wasn’t sure exactly how she wanted to serve, but she did know that she didn’t want to be sent away.

  “I am.”

  Olandar Fahr watched her for a moment and then smiled. “Good. There are a few other things I need to show you first, and then we will see about your blessing.”

  He took her arm, but as he did, she trembled.

  5

  Haern

  Darkness surrounded Haern, and he looked around, feeling as Sightless as if he were without any abilities at all. Normally his ability to See kept him from having this sense of helplessness, but within the mines of the Ilphaesn Mountain, darkness so complete that all he managed to see were small gradations of shadow overcame him.

  The sense of lorcith pressed all around him. The metal was dear to his people, causing great heartache over the years, and for a while had been believed to be incredibly rare. It surrounded him, nearly overpowering him, which was exactly the reason he was here.

  “Can you use it?” Galen asked.

  His voice came from behind Haern, but near enough it almost felt as if he should be able to reach out and touch the man, though he doubted he would have that opportunity. Galen was Sighted, much like Haern, though his Sight was much more powerful, tied to the time when he had carried one of the great crystals.

  “I don’t feel anything different.”

  “You need to focus. You need to—”

  Haern grunted, cutting off the other man. “I know what I need to do.”

  Irritation surged within him, mixed with a sense of helplessness. He hated that it seemed as if there were nothing for him to do. His father was missing, taken by the Forgers, injured—possibly dying and perhaps even dead already—while he did nothing other than continue to train. While his abilities had improved, nearing the point where he thought he would be able to withstand another Forger attack, he still felt impotent when it came to figuring out how to reach—and help—his father.

  In the time since Galen had rescued him, he’d pushed Haern but had done so by returning to basics. It was incredibly irritating.

  “There’s no point in taking out your anger on me,” Galen said.

  “I know you’re only trying to help. It’s just I can’t pick out the sense of lorcith from within here.”

  “Your father could.”

  Haern squeezed his eyes shut. It did little but make it that much darker. He clenched
his jaw, forcing down the frustration. “I know what my father would have been able to do. He had more talent with lorcith than I do.”

  “Only because he worked with it. You can do the same. That’s all I’m demanding that you do.”

  Demanding. That was the difference now. Before, he’d asked. Now Galen didn’t take it as easy on him.

  Worse, Haern knew he shouldn’t get frustrated with Galen. The other man was only trying to help him use his abilities in a way that would allow Haern to find his father—and have a chance at rescuing him when he did. The people he was going against had far more experience using lorcith, in ways that were beyond what he was capable of doing. And that meant he needed to continue to practice.

  He’d seen it himself. He’d failed to understand it, but Galen was determined to help Haern realize just how much he needed to learn.

  “My father could use metals other than lorcith.”

  “You don’t think you can?”

  “I’ve had no ability with any other metal.”

  “Because you haven’t tried to foster it.”

  “I’ve tried.”

  “No. You pay lip service to your attempt, but you haven’t really tried. If you had, then you would have discovered some way.”

  “How do you know?”

  A soft shuffling told him that Galen came closer. “Has your father ever told you much about his time within these mines?”

  “He told me that he was sentenced to serve here.” It was something Haern still struggled to understand. The mines had once been a punishment to the Elvraeth, something he couldn’t fathom. Why would men be sentenced to come in here blindly? Now the mining guild, along with those of the smith guild who had a connection to lorcith, pulled the metal from the walls of these mines. They worked together, the way the Great Watcher would have wanted.

  “It was here that he discovered his full ability with lorcith,” Galen said.

  “He had an ability with lorcith before then. That was why he was sentenced here,” Haern said.

  “But it was here that he began to fully understand the depth of that connection and what that meant for him. Surrounded by lorcith like this, how could he do anything else? It’s why I have brought you here. I want you to explore it in the same way he did.”

  “My father had no choice but to explore his connection. If he didn’t, he would’ve been trapped here.”

  “With his ability to Slide, your father was never trapped.”

  “My father was not all-powerful.”

  “Not at first. It took him time to reach the point where he would become nearly impossible to stop. All of that stemmed from his experience and his training.”

  “I’m not my father.”

  “Which is what you keep telling yourself.” Galen was nothing more than a shadow in front of Haern, close enough now that he could feel the other man breathing on him. There was a faint awareness of lorcith coming off him, but it was difficult for Haern to ascertain whether that came from something Galen carried or the lorcith within the walls of the mine shafts. “You compare yourself to him, regardless of whatever else you tell yourself. You like to think you aren’t his equal.”

  Haern coughed. “I’m not his equal.”

  “You are something different. You are both your father and your mother, and both are strong.”

  Haern bit back the first response that came to mind. His mother was strong, but in a different way than his father. His father’s abilities were what mattered now. They needed Rsiran and the powers he possessed, not the Sight Jessa had.

  “Galen, this is pointless. Let’s get back to the forest, where we can continue our training. I made a mistake. You’ve proven that.”

  “You did make a mistake. And until you begin to hone your abilities, I think you need to experience something similar to what your father once suffered.”

  “You intend to sentence me to the mines?” he asked, laughing nervously.

  “Yes.”

  “There’s no way. The guilds spend too much time here, and even if they didn’t, we would have to…” Haern frowned. It seemed almost as if the wind whispered a different way through the mines than it had before. “Galen?”

  No answer came.

  “Galen?”

  His voice echoed off the walls, a muted sound that carried, reverberating throughout the mine shaft, disappearing.

  Could Galen actually have abandoned him here? Haern wouldn’t have believed that before, but the old assassin was angry with Haern over leaving the city, so maybe it was possible.

  He had to be here somewhere. Galen could move more quietly than Haern could manage, but he thought he would have noticed. Then again, maybe not. Anytime Galen made a noise, he did so intentionally. Much like when he had stepped toward Haern within the mines.

  Great Watcher.

  Was he truly trapped?

  Without any way to Slide himself to freedom, he would be stuck here, which was exactly Galen’s point.

  Presumably, the reason they had come down into the lorcith mines was so Haern could get some experience using his connection to the metal, trying to pick out something as small as one of his knives while surrounded by all this lorcith. But while he did have an awareness here, it wasn’t one he felt he could do anything with. The lorcith overwhelmed him. It filled the walls and the floor and the ceiling of the mine, coming from everywhere. His father once had told him that the metal could guide him, that he could use it to navigate, but Haern didn’t have that same ability. As he had told Galen, he wasn’t his father.

  Now that Galen had disappeared, he had to wonder if the other man had planned this all along. What would he ask of Haern?

  To escape. That was what he asked of him.

  Haern tried to focus on the knife he knew was on the ground. Maybe Galen was waiting nearby, counting on Haern discovering his connection to lorcith in a way he approved of, and once he did, Galen would come to him, allowing him to leave. Even if he didn’t, Haern thought he could navigate out of the mine, though it would take time. They had Slid in, and supposedly they were going to be Slid out, though if Galen had intended to leave him here, Haern wondered if perhaps that wasn’t going to happen as promised.

  Focusing on the knife brought him no closer to being able to grab it with his ability.

  He crouched down, swiping it off the mine floor in frustration, and pain shot through his hand.

  Great Watcher. Now he’d cut himself on his own lorcith-forged blade.

  He clenched his hand tightly, squeezing it into a fist, trying to ignore the way it throbbed, but it continued to pulsate. At least it took his mind off the fact that he was here.

  He could wander out of here, but how long would it take? When Galen had guided them here, he had instructed Erric to Slide them deep within the mines. Haern doubted he would easily find his way free. Worse, he had no idea which way he needed to go.

  He was tempted to wander off, head out into the rest of the mine, but if he took a wrong turn, then Galen wouldn’t be able to find him when this test was over. And it had to be a test.

  Haern took a seat. What else could he do? He was trapped, and without any way of getting free, he might as well focus on lorcith, searching for some way of connecting to the metal. Whatever way that was would have to be greater than his typical connection. That connection had been honed by his father, a way of reaching for the metal that Haern had never managed before. But then, Rsiran had taught him to do so in a way that allowed him to fight, pushing and pulling with lorcith so he could practically fly. That wouldn’t be helpful here.

  He swore to himself.

  It was a helpless feeling, one he had known far too much these days. Ever since his father’s capture, Haern had felt completely helpless. The only way to escape the feeling would be by coming up with some way of saving his father.

  He focused on what he knew of the metal, the tricks his father had suggested he would be able to perform when he began to master that connection. According to his f
ather, lorcith would practically glow, though he had no sense of that now. It was dark, pitch black in here, and he wished it would glow if only to light his way.

  His stomach rumbled. He’d already been training with Galen for several hours before the other man had decided to pull this trick on him.

  “You can come back at any time,” he called out. His voice echoed off the rock. “I’m just going to sit here and wait until you come back.”

  A soft breeze billowed through, whispering across his face. The air smelled of the strange metallic scent of lorcith. It was a distinctive odor, and down here in the mine, a steady and consistent breeze gusted through, and the smell of the metal was nearly overpowering.

  He lost track of how long he sat. Moments stretched into minutes, which stretched into hours. In all of that time, he came no closer to understanding lorcith. Somehow, when his father had been trapped within the mines, he had come away with a greater understanding of the metal. That didn’t seem to be Haern’s fate.

  After a while, he got to his feet. The breeze had to be coming from somewhere. What if he followed the tunnel’s breath? If he did, he could track it out and chase down Galen, and demand he not pull anything like that again.

  Only, if he didn’t get challenged in such a way, he would never fully explore his abilities and would never rescue his father.

  As he wandered, he tried to think of the lessons his father had taught him about his connection to lorcith. There weren’t many. One of the issues he had with his father was that he hadn’t worked with him. His father had always been so busy chasing after the Forgers that he was never at home. If he had been, maybe Haern would be better prepared for this.

  At one point, he found a branching off of this mine shaft and turned, heading in a different direction. He continued to follow the steady sense of wind coming through the mines, and he thought the light began to change. At one point, he paused, staring and trying to determine if that was real or not. He thought it was, though with his connection to Sight, he might only be Seeing more. Then again, he hadn’t been able to See all that much before.