The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  He didn’t know if that was true or not. When he played Rayen, she seemed creative enough, but sometimes having a rigid mindset helped. Using that more deliberate, more regimented approach could be helpful in ensuring that any move they made would be successful.

  What he wanted was to play together, to work together, but somehow they would have to be able to communicate. Unless Carth were somewhere else, he didn’t have any way of communicating to Rayen.

  But Lucy might.

  He already knew that Lucy could Read him. She could also Read Rayen, and in doing so, it was possible that Lucy would be able to serve as the go-between, the key for the two of them playing together while Carth sat in front of them.

  It would involve them letting Lucy Push them while playing, and he didn’t love that idea, not caring for the possibility of being out of control of his body, but as far as he knew, it didn’t hurt when Lucy Pushed someone. It was merely a lack of control.

  A lack of control was not something to be taken lightly, but he believed that in this case, if they could prove this could work, then there would be other ways to use it.

  He focused on Lucy, trying to get her attention, and didn’t know if he was even successful. Maybe this was a useless idea and a mistake in general, but in order to play as a team—to truly play as a team—he and Rayen needed some way of working together.

  It depended upon Lucy knowing what he wanted.

  At first, there was no indication that she did.

  Until he reached for a piece, but it wasn’t him doing the reaching.

  Daniel resisted the urge to smile to himself. If he did, Carth would realize something was up. Instead, he let Lucy make the move, holding on to the piece, getting a sense of what Rayen was thinking.

  He understood where she was going with it.

  It wasn’t a bad move, but there was danger in it, and as he saw what she was intending, he began to pull away, guiding a different way.

  In this case, he was in control, and he could feel Lucy’s presence, little more than an awareness in the back of his mind, though perhaps that was intentional. It was possible—even probable—that she wanted him to know she was there.

  He moved slowly, giving Lucy a chance to communicate to Rayen, and then he felt his piece moving again, once more without his control over it.

  Interesting. That maneuver might work, and as he studied the board, he realized the way she intended to play it would be effective, perhaps even more effective than what he would have tried.

  He let the piece move, and as he did, he smiled.

  The approach was going to work.

  Carth made her move, continuing her aggressive stance, and he prepared for the next play, but as he did, Carth reached across the table, grabbing his wrist.

  “It’s not going to work.”

  “What’s not going to work?”

  “Your intention here.”

  “What intention?”

  Carth smiled, looking at the way he was using the piece, and she winked at him.

  He frowned. Could she have known?

  How, though?

  He set the pieces down, glancing at Rayen.

  “Can you Read us?” he asked Carth.

  She winked again.

  Great Watcher! If Carth could Read them—and since she’d been close to the sacred crystals in Elaeavn, it was possible that she could—then they wouldn’t be able to outmaneuver her.

  “I think you have the right idea,” she said, glancing from him to Rayen before nodding to Lucy. “The only problem is, it’s far too obvious what you are doing. Find a way to make it work where it can’t be observed, and then we will see how this plays out.”

  “We didn’t finish the game,” Daniel said.

  Carth made a series of moves, sliding her piece across the board and then moving theirs. Each move that she made was one Daniel most likely would have chosen, and he realized that she had known the moment he’d sat down how to defeat him.

  She really was a master of Tsatsun.

  “I think you have come across the possible solution,” Carth said aloud, as if answering what he hadn’t asked.

  “What if it doesn’t work?”

  “As with any strategy, we must be prepared for all possibilities.”

  “What if something happens to one of us?” he said.

  “As I said, we need to be prepared for all possibilities.”

  Carth got up, glancing at the table one last time before making her way out of the room. Daniel stared at the board for a long moment, struggling with what had just happened, realizing that they had been outmaneuvered. And despite that, he had still learned something.

  “Did you know?” he asked Rayen.

  “Know what?”

  “Did you know that Carth can Read us?”

  “She’s always seemed to know what’s happening.”

  “Did you know?” Daniel asked, twisting to look at Lucy.

  She frowned, seeming more nervous than she had been before.

  “No, and I’m troubled that I didn’t.”

  “It’s Carth,” Rayen said. “She has managed to keep many things from many people. It’s all part of her game.”

  “I don’t like being a piece in someone else’s game,” Lucy said.

  “To Carth, I think we’re all pieces. We just have to learn our role.”

  19

  Daniel

  The stone rested on the ground out in the bright sunlight. Daniel crouched in front of it, staring at the silver veins running through it, thinking they had to be critical to understanding what the Ai’thol had wanted out of this stone. Maybe if he had Rsiran’s connection to metal, it wouldn’t be so difficult to figure it out. Even Haern might be better. Though his connection wasn’t as potent as his father’s, Haern’s knowledge of metal was still far beyond Daniel’s.

  “Do you detect anything?” Carth asked.

  He shook his head, looking up to see her staring at the ground. Other stones were arranged around it, almost as if she intended to play some massive game of Tsatsun. She had placed the stone they had dragged from the bottom of the sea outside the wall—at least, the remnants of the wall. He still didn’t understand why, though Carth often had various reasons for things.

  “There isn’t anything that calls to me. I’ve wondered about the darker stone.”

  “And why have you wondered about that?” Carth asked.

  “Well, since we were attacked on Ih, I questioned if they could have used something in that stone to do sort of the same as what they had done here.”

  Daniel turned. In the distance, the city rose up. It was almost as if Carth feared having the stone too close to Nyaesh, though the fact that it was something of the Ai’thol meant that caution was appropriate.

  “It’s possible they would try something similar,” Carth said.

  Daniel studied Carth for a moment. He had been wanting to ask a question ever since they had returned, but he had hesitated. Something about what Rayen had said left him troubled, and now that it was just him and Carth, he thought it was an appropriate time to ask.

  “Rayen said that she had never been to Ih before.”

  “She had not.”

  “Did you keep her from it?”

  Carth looked up slowly, meeting his gaze. As there usually was, there seemed to be a hint of shadows swirling around her eyes, making them even darker than he knew them to be. Heat radiated off her, her connection to the A’ras—or Lashasn, he realized. “Do you think I would keep Rayen from something important to her?”

  “If it meant you were protecting the Elder Stone, I think you would.”

  Carth smiled slightly. “I would.”

  “So were you keeping her from it?”

  “Ih is unique. It does not require someone to protect it actively the way other places do. It is naturally protected, hidden, the land itself concealing it from outside eyes.”

  “How?”

  “When you were there, did anything feel off?”


  Daniel stared for a moment. “Not until we were within the walls of the temple.”

  Carth frowned. “Yes. About that.”

  “About what?”

  “There is great power found within those ancient temples. The people of Ih understood the shadows better than anyone else, and they knew there was power to be found by concentrating the shadows.”

  “Rayen called it a”—what had she called it?—“something like that, but we were trying to escape from the Ai’thol, so we were willing to do whatever it took to ensure our safety.”

  “She tells me you got lost in the shadows.”

  “I did.”

  “Describe what you experienced.”

  “Why?”

  “Consider me curious.”

  Daniel watched her, squinting against the sunlight reflected off the stone he’d collected from the bottom of the ocean. “Why are you curious?”

  “As I’ve told you, there is great power to be found within the temples.”

  “Are you worried that something happened to me?”

  “Yes.”

  Daniel smiled to himself. “I’ve been fine.”

  It had been several days since their return, and other than the brief game of Tsatsun, Carth had been out of the city, though neither she nor Lucy would say where they had gone. Then again, it didn’t matter to him that Carth was out of the city. The time alone had given him an opportunity to continue to recuperate. He had played Tsatsun with Rayen, managing to get in more games than they had over the last few months. Most of them, Daniel won. Occasionally, Rayen would come up with a maneuver that surprised him, and when she did, he found himself rooting for her, wanting her to defeat him.

  If only Lucy had been around, they could have worked on practicing together, trying to coordinate their attack the way they had attempted with Carth. If they could find some way of doing so more effectively, then perhaps they could use that. It seemed to him there was something important in doing that, and if he could uncover the secret to communicating without anyone else being aware, it would be valuable in the coming war with the Ai’thol.

  “Fine?”

  “I’m not injured, if that’s what you worry about.”

  “The fact that you managed to return to the city tells me that you are fine. What I do question is how you feel.”

  “Like I said, I feel—”

  “Fine. And what I’m asking is whether you’ve noticed anything different.”

  He met her gaze, once again noticing the shadows swirling within her eyes and averting his own. He stared at the stone, wanting to determine what the Ai’thol had done, how they had used the stone, but could come up with nothing. “I don’t feel any different. Why do you keep pushing this?”

  “The temple is powerful.”

  “You keep saying that, but I’ve told you over and over again that I feel fine.”

  He met her gaze, wondering why she would be so focused on that, and a thought came to him.

  “It’s not just the temple, is it?”

  Carth met his eyes. “No.”

  “The Elder Stone?”

  “Shadows are different than other abilities. You can’t simply confine them within a crystal or house them inside a flame. They must be concentrated. Collected. The ancient temples did that, and in doing so, they created power. Or perhaps a better way to describe it would be to say they concentrated power.”

  “You credit the ancient people rather than some ancient elder?”

  “I don’t know who to credit. In the case of the crystals from your homeland, it seems to me they were a storehouse of a certain type of power. The same could be said about the stone in Asador. Even here, the concentrated power is something that can be moved, augmented if necessary, and can give those who touch it a connection to the Lashasn and flame. There are other Elder Stones that are similar, though they are often difficult to reach.”

  “And the shadows?”

  “The shadows are different. It’s possible that the ancient people of Ih merely built the structure around natural concentrations of shadows, and given the age of those places, we may never know.”

  “That’s why I was lost in the shadows?”

  “You were lost in something greater than just the shadows. I suspect you were lost in the power of the Elder Stone.”

  If that was the Elder Stone, what did it mean that he was lost within it? That power had swirled around him, pressing upon him. Flowing into him.

  “That’s why you wanted to know how I feel.”

  Carth nodded. “When you hold one of the Elder Stones, something changes.”

  “Not always.”

  “No?”

  “I was near enough the Elder Stone for Lashasn. So was Lucy.”

  Carth smiled. “That is because I protected you.”

  That was probably for the best. Had she not, what would have happened to him?

  “Some who hold one of the sacred crystals never experience change,” he said.

  Carth smiled. “Only because they don’t know how to force the power.”

  “Force it?”

  “Do you believe only certain people are destined to hold one of the crystals from your homeland?”

  “We have presented many people with the opportunity to hold one of the crystals.” In the years since Rsiran Lareth had gained a level of control over the crystals, anyone who wanted to handle one was given the opportunity. Always before, it had been a ceremony reserved for the Elvraeth.

  “Having the opportunity to hold one of the crystals is very different from using one of the crystals. It’s the same with any of the other Elder Stones. Most of the time, you simply need to know how to utilize the power stored within it. Once you do, you will find that it changes something about you.”

  “The same way as when you held the Wisdom Stone?”

  “Unfortunately, it seems that when I held that stone, the effect was temporary.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. As much as I would have wanted that ability to remain, it has faded.”

  Daniel stared at Carth for a moment. From what he knew, she had gained knowledge and abilities after holding that stone. Having access to it would allow them the chance to defeat the Ai’thol. Why wouldn’t she utilize that power if it would allow them victory?

  Unless she had seen something while using the stone that told her otherwise.

  “And you think my presence in the temple has changed something about me?”

  “I don’t know. Which is why I question.”

  “When I was there, when I got lost in the shadows, all I felt was the shadows swirling around me. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t hear anything other than the sound of my own voice, and that was muted. Rayen was lost to me.”

  “I’m sure that made you uncomfortable.”

  Daniel remembered the terror he had felt at the idea that he was trapped within the shadows. That had all gone away when he had discovered he could still Slide, but that didn’t change the fact he had been terrified while there.

  “I’m not sure that uncomfortable is quite the right word.”

  “And yet you escaped.”

  “I was able to Slide away.”

  “Despite the fact that the shadows can contain someone who can Slide.”

  “I don’t know how else to describe it. Why is this important?”

  “I don’t know. I’m still trying to understand myself, though something about this leaves me troubled.”

  “Why?”

  “As I said, not everyone can reach Ih. The land itself is practically designed to ensure outsiders don’t reach it, and yet not only did you reach it, you managed to Slide away from it. That tells me that something changed for you.”

  Daniel met Carth’s eyes for a moment before looking down at the stone. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “I’m not asking you to know what to say, but I am trying to understand.”

  When he had been within the temple, when the s
ense of the shadows had struck him, he had felt a chill that tore through him. But since then, nothing had been different for him. Whatever Carth was alluding to hadn’t been his experience. While he might have been in the presence of an Elder Stone, it hadn’t changed anything about him. It was much like when he had been in the presence of the crystals. Nothing had changed for him then either.

  “What about the Ai’thol that were there?”

  Carth frowned. “I’m not sure about that, either.” She looked down at the stone, her brow furrowed. There was something she wasn’t telling him. “Why don’t you tell me if you detect anything about this stone?”

  “I don’t. We could go to Haern or Rsiran or…” He shrugged. “Anyone from the guilds, I suspect. See what they know about it.”

  “To begin with, this isn’t lorcith, so they would be unlikely to have any connection to it.”

  “Then why are you asking me?”

  “You have been around it longer.”

  Daniel looked at her for a moment and then started laughing. “That’s it?”

  She shrugged. “Should there be more?”

  “I don’t know, it just seems to me that isn’t much of a reason.”

  “On the contrary, sometimes having exposure to something gives you a greater understanding of it.”

  “I don’t know anything about it. And why do you have these other stones around it?”

  “Because each of these were found around that island.”

  Daniel tensed, standing upright and staring. “What?”

  Carth nodded to him. “Try Sliding.”

  Daniel frowned. He started to Slide but wasn’t able to go more than a step or two. The ring of stones all around him prevented him. And here he’d thought this was some sort of strange Tsatsun board.

  “How did you manage to collect all these stones?”

  “After we discovered the island where you were trapped, we went looking.”

  “We?”

  “Lucy and I.”

  Daniel wondered how much it bothered Rayen to be excluded from things like this nowadays, though there might not have been anything Rayen would’ve been able to do. While she might have helped find the stone, she wouldn’t have been able to pull it out.