A slight shimmering caught his attention, and Daniel glanced over to see Lucy appear on the rocky shore nearby. She watched him, ignoring the ships completely. Her golden hair was braided and tied, having grown much longer over the months they’d been away from Elaeavn. Her deep green eyes caught the light, and there was a look of concern on her face.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Why must it be something?”
He turned away from Lucy, not even bothering to shield his thoughts from her. She was far too powerful for him, and besides, she already knew that he came out here to get away from everything within Nyaesh.
Still, there were limits to how much he could escape. He had chosen this, and it wasn’t as if he wanted to do something different. Far from it. He understood the need to continue his training, to continue improving as he worked with the others, learning not only to control his abilities better, but to hone his mind.
“You’ve been gone long enough that there’s likely a reason for your visit.”
Lucy sighed. For a moment, Daniel thought she might reveal something more, but she bit it back. “Carth has plenty of people fully capable of recording everything moving through here. Do you think it necessary for you to do so as well?”
It wasn’t a matter of his capability. Then again, it wasn’t a matter of him coming out here to take inventory of the ships. After the attack, he wanted to keep watch on the Ai’thol.
Lucy would know that, much like Lucy would know most things about him.
It left him feeling raw. Exposed. Surprisingly, he didn’t necessarily mind. She already knew how he felt about her, and that she was the reason he was here in the first place, though that had never been a secret. While she might have been the reason he had come, she wasn’t the reason he had stayed. She needed to know that, too.
“You remain troubled,” Lucy said.
“You know what I’m thinking.”
“Just because I can Read you doesn’t mean that I want to do so. There are times when having a conversation is more valuable.”
He turned to her and smiled. It was for his benefit, but he still appreciated her offering to have a conversation with him, knowing it would be unnecessary for her.
“I’m troubled by the Ai’thol.”
“I believe Carthenne remains troubled by them as well.”
“Carth has dealt with them for most of her life.” Daniel didn’t know quite how old Carth was but knew that she’d been fighting the Ai’thol for the better part of twenty years or more. Even if she was in her forties, she was still formidable. “She at least knows what she’s dealing with when it comes to facing the Ai’thol.”
“We know what we’re facing.”
Daniel turned to her, meeting Lucy’s gaze. The light shimmered across her deep green eyes, giving them something of a metallic sheen. “We don’t fully know what we have to face. That’s part of the problem. Not only don’t we know what they’re after, but we don’t know how to stop them.”
Only that wasn’t entirely true. They knew exactly what the Ai’thol were after. They wanted access to the Elder Stones, and once they gained that access, they would use it to claim that power and twist it. He didn’t know if that meant they intended to try to rule, but it seemed a reasonable assumption.
“Why watch the shores of the river?” Lucy asked.
Daniel turned his focus back to the river. It was a fast-moving water, and eddies of current swirled around, creating whitecaps. The far shore was distant enough that it looked little more than a smear of land. The gray sky fit his mood, and the gusting of the wind carried the now familiar scent of Nyaesh to him. Despite that, all of this was foreign to him. He would rather be anywhere but here, and with his ability to Slide, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to be anywhere else.
“You wouldn’t understand,” he said.
She rested her hand on his arm. Where she touched him, his skin tingled, leaving him to wonder if she was using some new element of her abilities. Lucy had always been strong, even before the augmentation had taken hold. Then again, her abilities had always been Reading along with a weak ability to Slide, nothing like what she now could do. If she wanted, she could control him. That was one aspect he didn’t understand. He might be Elvraeth, gifted with aspects of each of the abilities, but he had nothing like that.
“You don’t trust me to understand?”
“It’s not about trusting you, Lucy.”
He turned away, heading up the shore. The ground sloped down toward the water before dropping off into it. He’d never attempted to swim here, the current far too fast for him to even contemplate it, but he’d seen others out in the water, making their way downstream. Most of them were older children, and they would jump from the rocks, dropping to the water, but the current carried them downstream. He couldn’t imagine being a strong enough swimmer to do that. After what he’d experienced with the Ai’thol, though, he now knew he could Slide free of the water if it came to it.
Lucy followed him, staying a step behind him, and he felt no intrusion into his thoughts. Maybe she wasn’t attempting to Read him, though these days he wasn’t sure if he would even be aware of it. In Elaeavn, he had grown accustomed to holding his mental barriers in place, using anything he could to prevent anyone from Reading him, but Lucy had such a subtle touch when she wanted to that he might not even know what she was doing. Daniel trusted that she wouldn’t. She’d told him he’d know when she was Reading him, though he still wasn’t sure if that was entirely true.
At the top of the slope, he paused. In the distance, the city of Nyaesh rose into view. It stretched from a gently sloping hillside where the palace loomed above everything else, the tattered remains of the wall that had once surrounded the palace nothing more than a blackened line leading through the city, evidence of what had once been there. Buildings arranged in orderly lines along the roads stretched down toward the shore, and a dozen or more ships were docked there while trading in the north. It was midday, and the city was awash with activity. People moved along the streets, only visible from his vantage because of his enhanced eyesight. A subtle sense of energy covered everything, power that emanated from Nyaesh. It was the power of the flame, the same power Carth could summon. Despite the attack, the A’ras remained powerful and the Elder Stone was still held within the city.
Lucy rested her hand on his arm again, and he turned to meet her eyes. She smiled at him, a smile that reminded him of when they had been in Elaeavn, a time when he had pursued her more aggressively. But then, when hadn’t he pursued her more aggressively?
“You could return,” she said.
“So could you.”
She turned away from him. “I’m not sure that I can. Besides, there are other things I’m responsible for now.”
He waited, hoping she’d share more, but she didn’t. That wasn’t uncommon. Not only was Lucy frequently absent, but when she was around, she didn’t share with him what she’d been doing.
“Do you know what Carth intends to do?” he asked.
“She and I haven’t had much opportunity to talk about her plans.”
There was something more in that than what she stated, but Daniel didn’t push to try and understand. “I think she’s trying to find another Elder Stone before the Ai’thol do.”
“That’s what I can tell, as well.”
Daniel glanced over at her. She seemed troubled—could it be annoyed?—that Carth would be able to hide something from her. “She poses a challenge to you.”
“Of course she does.”
“But it upsets you.”
“Now who’s Reading the other?”
“I don’t need to Read you to know.” He watched her, but her expression remained neutral. “Maybe it’s time for me to return.”
She nodded, and he stepped into a Slide.
When he Slid, it happened quickly, with a flutter of movement along with a swirl of translucent colors. As she usually did, at least since having the augmentat
ion placed, Lucy arrived before him, so that she was there when he stepped out of the Slide.
They emerged in the courtyard with trees growing all around them. It was an enormous courtyard, and had the palace wall still been here, it might have been even more impressive. As it was, it seemed lessened somehow by the absence of the wall. All that remained of it was the broken debris, a gouge in the ground from the destruction caused by the Ai’thol.
Daniel turned toward the palace. Had the wall still been here, he doubted he would have been able to Slide here in the first place. There was something about the wall that supposedly prevented Sliding, though he didn’t know what that was. Carth wasn’t eager to share either, though Daniel suspected some of it had to do with the Elder Stone she’d moved here.
When he reached the palace, he made his way up the stairs. He’d been here often enough that there was a certain familiarity to it, though Lucy still hesitated. He wondered how much of that was because she hadn’t grown up within the palace in Elaeavn the way Daniel had. It was something she didn’t talk much about, and he didn’t have any desire to put her on edge, not wanting to upset her.
The palace in Nyaesh wasn’t nearly as nice as the one in Elaeavn, though there was still a certain amount of formality to it. Paneled walls ran the length of the hallway, gleaming with brightly stained wood. The carpet ran down the hall and into each of the rooms. Portraits hung along the walls, and though they appeared to be exquisitely made, Daniel didn’t know who they represented and hadn’t taken the opportunity to try to understand.
They reached a staircase at the back of the hallway, making their way up. It spiraled around, the stone covered with a thin runner of carpet, unable to conceal the fact that this had once been a much stouter fortification, and a remnant from a time before. At the top of the stairs, Daniel hurried toward the main room.
Inside, a table occupied much of the center of the room. There had been a time when it had served as the throne room, but since Carth’s arrival in Nyaesh, that had changed, and now it was little more than a gaming station. Carth sat on one side of the table, and Rayen sat across from her. A Tsatsun board rested in between them, the pieces arranged outward. Even from a quick glance, it was obvious to Daniel that Carth was in complete control.
He crouched behind Rayen, looking at the game board. “You should move the Ranger over to here.”
“Do you want to play?”
He grinned. “I’d do better than you.”
She laughed softly, staring at the board for a moment before shaking her head. “That move would trap me here.”
“Only for a moment. Then you can claim three of her pieces.” Daniel pointed to the three pieces he thought Rayen could claim by playing it that way, and she frowned to herself. It would take several moves, but that was the point of Tsatsun. It was a game of strategy, one where maneuvering the pieces in specific patterns allowed for the player to push the piece called the Stone across the board. One advantage of having spent so much time in Nyaesh was that he had improved at the game. He still wasn’t much of a challenge for Carth, but eventually he hoped he could grow more skilled.
“I see it,” Rayen said.
“No teaming up,” Carth said from the other side. She flicked her eyes up to Rayen for a moment before looking back down at the board.
“Are you afraid the two of us will beat you?” Rayen asked.
“The two of you?” She shook her head. “Not yet. You get closer, but neither of you is quite ready.”
Daniel tried not to be irritated by the comment, regardless of how true it might be. He wasn’t able to challenge Carth yet. No one he’d met was really able to pose much of a challenge for her.
“There is something to be said about learning to play the game yourself. You begin to understand your own strengths and weaknesses.”
“And what if we’re stronger together?” Daniel asked.
Carth paused, sitting up and clasping her hands in her lap. “If you think so—but what happens if you are isolated and you have become dependent upon others to strategize?”
“And what happens if we aren’t able to create the appropriate strategy because we are depending only on our own abilities?” He studied her, wondering how she might react.
Carth surprised him by chuckling. “A valid point. If you would prefer to work together, feel free.”
“And what if we want to work with you?” Rayen asked.
“When it comes to Tsatsun, I play alone.”
“Do you need to play alone?” Lucy stood off to the side, her hands clasped in front of her and her head cocked to one side. It was tilted in such a way that Daniel wondered if she were Listening, though what else could she hear? More likely she was trying to Read something about Carth.
“I don’t need to play alone, but I enjoy it. And until you manage to defeat me, there’s no challenge in joining.”
Daniel pulled a chair over and took a seat in front of the board. This was one of the fanciest Tsatsun boards he’d ever seen, though admittedly he hadn’t seen all that many. The board itself was black and white checkered, each square cut individually from marble. Cheaper boards were painted, and some of them faded over time, or the paint became scratched, making it obvious that moves had been made over the years. Even the game pieces were carved from marble. Many of them were incredibly exquisite carvings, far nicer than any he had played with prior to coming to Nyaesh. It was a board Carth had commissioned when they had overpowered the Ai’thol, and it had taken a while for the complete set to arrive. Only in the last week had the final piece come. Fittingly, the Stone was the last one carved. Prior to that, they had used less well-made pieces. He still wondered why she would have gone to the effort of having this board made, questioning if she intended to bring it with them when they traveled.
Rayen made the move Daniel had suggested, and Carth quickly followed. She sat back, her gaze darting from Daniel to Rayen before turning her attention back to the game board. As far as Daniel knew, Carth worked through hundreds of possibilities. It seemed impossible that she could account for so many variations of what they might do, but that was what she claimed. Often times, she knew after a single move how the game would end, something he still marveled at. How was he ever to defeat her if she could anticipate every move he might make?
It wasn’t as if Tsatsun had an unlimited number of moves, though with the number of pieces in play, over fifty in all, the variations were incredibly complex. He’d read several of Carth’s books on Tsatsun, and while they had helped him understand strategy and anticipation, many of them seemed to require straight memorization, forcing him to try to recall each movement as it was made, predicting the odds of other moves that might follow.
As far as Carth was concerned, Tsatsun was how she trained for battle. She viewed everything in relation to the game, and though there was something to be said for that, he had seen how not everything could be interpreted in such a way.
Rayen reached for one of the Wardens, pieces that were relatively important, and he grabbed her wrist before she could make the move. He feared letting her complete it, worried that if she did, they would end up sacrificing another of their more important pieces.
“Not that one,” he said.
Carth glanced up at him, a hint of a smile on her mouth.
“Why not? This move would allow me to place this piece,” she said, motioning to one of the Archers, “near the Stone. Once we have that, then we can begin to push it.”
“You’ll never get the Archer quite close enough to the Stone.” Daniel could see the way it would play out. The Stone might be there, but the moment she placed the Archer where she intended, the rest of the game would fall apart quite quickly. It had more to do with how the pieces would come together, requiring that they sacrifice piece after piece in order to maintain the Archer’s position near the Stone. All the while Carth would be able to arrange her pieces on the other side. They wouldn’t be able to do anything other than defend.
As he studied the board, there was another possibility. It involved a sacrifice, but the payoff was significant—if it played out the way he needed it to. He envisioned a dozen different possibilities based on that one move, and in more than half of them, he could see them gaining an advantage, however slight. When it came to playing Tsatsun with Carth, any advantage was better than none.
He reached for the piece and started to move it when he caught himself.
That wasn’t the right move, either.
As he studied Carth’s board, he realized she was playing cautiously, but it was all an act. It might appear she was moving her pieces more defensively, but the more he stared at the board, the clearer it became that those pieces weren’t defensive at all. They were subtly moving in an advantage, pressing an attack, and he saw the way she anticipated using them.
Could he make her think they would continue along the same pathway?
He shifted, moving the Troop off to the side.
“Well, that was a wasted move,” Rayen said.
“I’m sorry.”
He reached under the table, tapping her on the leg, trying to signal to her. Rayen showed no sign that she noticed, not that he’d anticipated that she would. She was incredibly talented at hiding emotion.
Carth made her move, approaching the Stone—further proof that she was attempting a subtly aggressive approach. He was impressed by the way she played. How could he not be, especially in the way that she was maneuvering?
“Since you decided to make a stupid move the last time, why don’t you go ahead and make another one?” Rayen said.
Daniel smiled to himself. She understood what he was getting at, though that didn’t surprise him. What would surprise him would be if she managed to know exactly what he was doing. Rayen had some skill with Tsatsun, enough that she often beat him while playing, but something Carth had once said about Rayen stuck in his mind. She didn’t have much creativity.
The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3 Page 124
