The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3

by D. K. Holmberg

  Eve glared at her before turning away, lifting the hunk of lorcith.

  “Nothing. That’s the point of this, isn’t it? Other people have begun to develop abilities, but me? I don’t have anything.”

  “Why are you so angry about it?”

  “Asks the woman who has all sorts of fantastic abilities.”

  “I’m sorry I was born with abilities,” she said.

  “You weren’t just born with them, though. You have whatever you had before, but then more was added to it. That just doesn’t seem quite right.”

  Lucy forced a smile. “I understand why you are upset.”

  Eve tossed the piece of metal away, and she turned back to Lucy. “Don’t play at condescending to me.”

  Lucy shook her head, and as she did, she noticed something in the distance.

  The lorcith moved.

  It had landed near the rocky overlook that would lead down to the shoreline, and as far as Lucy knew, the rock should have remained there, but the rock was following Eve.

  “You don’t have to smirk at me like that,” Eve said.

  “I’m not smirking at you.”

  “Then you’re making fun of me. That’s worse.”

  Lucy shook her head. “That’s not it, either.”

  “What is it, then?”

  She pointed toward the lorcith.

  Eve turned and stared at the rock, frowning. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Move.”

  “You move.”

  “No. Move and watch what happens.”

  Eve shot her a look before taking a few steps.

  As she did, the piece of lorcith reacted, following her as it had the last time. Lucy smiled to herself, more pleased than anything that the lorcith seemed to react. If nothing else, having some idea of what abilities Eve possessed was useful.

  “How is that possible?”

  “Well, we wanted to know whether or not you had any abilities.”

  Eve glanced over at her. “I have abilities?”

  “It seems as if you have a connection to lorcith.”

  “That’s lorcith?”

  “It is. And some people of Elaeavn have a connection to it. It’s considered a useful ability.”

  “How is controlling metal useful?”

  “You’d be surprised. I’ve known a man who can use it with weapons.”

  “That could be useful,” Eve conceded.

  “And I suspect there are plenty of ways to use it that I don’t even know about. Why don’t you continue to work with it, see if you can master a level of control with it, and if you can, then we can see if there’s anything more you can do.”

  “Why won’t you teach me?”

  “This isn’t anything I have experience with.”

  There were times when she wondered if it would have been beneficial for her to have access to the metal, if only to better understand what it might be able to do. Using lorcith seemed as mysterious to her as Sliding probably did to Haern. Even though he had lived around Sliding his entire life, he had no ability to do so on his own, and even though she’d lived around people who had control over lorcith, she had no ability to do so on her own.

  “How am I supposed to learn it?”

  “You can work on your own, seeing if you can’t figure out whether you can control it, or…”

  “Or what?”

  “Or we bring you someplace that you might be able to get answers.”

  “Where is that?”

  “The only place where I know people who can control lorcith is Elaeavn.”

  “No,” she said.

  “You wanted to know—”

  Eve cut her off. “No.”

  Lucy nodded. “Then we will work with you here. We can see what we can come up with, see if there’s any way for you to gain a better understanding of how to control the metal. But you do have an ability, Eve. Regardless of anything else, that much is true.” And as she said it, Lucy couldn’t help but realize that everybody else around here also probably had an ability. Even if they hadn’t developed it yet, they needed only the proper time and motivation in order to do so.

  “Now that you have discovered what you can do, it would be helpful if you would do me a favor.”

  “What favor?”

  “Others need to know if they have any abilities,” she said.

  “How am I supposed to help with that?”

  “Think about what you had to do. Think about what you wanted to know. And think about the others, how much they’ve been through. If there’s any way for them to gain access to the same sort of power you did, we should try to do it.”

  Eve held her gaze for a long moment, finally looking away, turning her attention back to the lump of lorcith that moved as she moved. A hint of a smile came to her lips, and though Lucy didn’t fully know what the woman had been through, whatever it was had put such an edge to her that she worried she would never relax and become what and who she was meant to be.

  “I will think about it.”

  “That’s all I can ask.”

  Eve stormed off, and the piece of lorcith went with her. When she turned back, reaching for the lorcith, Lucy swore she saw a smile cross the woman’s face.

  At least there was that. Regardless of anything else that happened, having Eve find a sense of peace was important.

  Others might need the same thing, and though it might not be quite as apparent as it was with Eve, some of them suffered just as much. Many of them might need a gentler touch. Lucy thought she had to find some way to help them, but how was she supposed to do that?

  She Slid, making her way back to the water’s edge. Standing there, she looked out over the water, wondering what it might be like beyond here. Carth would know what was out there, having sailed as often as she had, as far as she had. There was probably quite a bit beyond the sea that Carth have knowledge of, and the possibility that existed out there left Lucy filled with wonder.

  She closed her eyes and Slid.

  When she emerged, she did so within the tower.

  Hurrying up to the library, she found Ras sitting at a table as he often did. Strangely for someone as powerful as he reportedly was, he spent much of his time in the library. Much of it seemed to be cataloging the various works that were stored here, works that Lucy had begun to suspect weren’t found anywhere else.

  Ras looked up when she appeared, almost as if expecting her.

  “What have you uncovered?”

  “Nothing. I just thought it was time for me to return.”

  “Did you believe I was angry with you?”

  Lucy shook her head. “No.”

  “Good.”

  “You wanted me to observe myself. What do you think I can find?”

  Ras sat up, clasping his hands together. When he did, he held Lucy’s eyes. Something about him changed, the way that it often did, making him practically seem to glow, and he smiled at her. “What have you tried to do?”

  “Honestly? I really haven’t tried much. I know you want me to understand what I went through so that you can better comprehend the Architect, and in doing so, you want to better understand Olandar Fahr, but I don’t know how much I will be able to help you. Some of it I don’t even remember.”

  “Why don’t you remember?”

  “Because I was controlled by him.”

  “You think you are still controlled by him?”

  “There was a time when I did. I don’t anymore.”

  “Then you should have nothing preventing you from reaching those memories.”

  “I don’t think it works like that,” she said. She wasn’t entirely sure how it worked, though she had been the one to do the Pushing and understood that it was similar in some regards to Reading. She had tried to piece together what she had done when she had Pushed. It had involved forcing her thoughts on someone else, something she didn’t do very often, which made it challenging to recreate. Before, it had been done in a time of need, and now that she didn’t have
that same urgency, she wasn’t sure she even wanted to try it.

  “You know how it works?”

  “I have used that technique,” she said carefully.

  “So I’ve heard,” he said.

  “Is this your way of challenging what I had to do?”

  Ras smiled at her. “Did you have to do it?”

  “How else was I supposed to ensure our safety?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t there, so unfortunately, I can’t answer that for you; but as you were there, once again, if you observe yourself, you can decide if there was some other way you could have reacted.”

  Lucy took a seat across from him, meeting his gaze. She felt a strange stirring in the back of her mind, one that reminded her of someone Reading her, and yet she didn’t think he had the ability to Read. There were times when sitting with Carth, she had the feeling the woman could Read, and still she was quite certain Carth couldn’t do it. Perhaps it was little more than her ability to assess situations, one that Ras would likely share. Both of them valued Tsatsun, and both believed in playing the game, they could know their opponent.

  Perhaps that was all Ras was doing. She could imagine him appraising her, trying to view her as an opponent on the game board, trying to decide how she might react, and yet the stirring at the back of her mind seemed different, not like someone playing Tsatsun.

  “What would you have me do?”

  “I would have you start with a memory you are certain of,” Ras said. “Pull it apart. Analyze it. Decide if what you know is real or not.”

  “Why?”

  “As I think I’ve told you, you must know yourself in order to know others. And once you know yourself, then you can decide if what you are observing is accurate. When it comes to Olandar Fahr, we must try to understand all various angles, as until we do so, we cannot know him.”

  Lucy closed her eyes, thinking through what she could try to understand. She had encountered quite a few different situations while trapped by the Architect. Many of them might or might not have been real, and as she thought about them, she couldn’t help but wonder how much of what she had experienced was what she believed it to be. The more she considered it, the more she began to wonder whether she could even use that time to determine if she was in full control of her mind.

  What she needed was a different memory.

  What memory could she use?

  It would have to be an earlier one, a memory from before she had been changed, when she was just Lucy, not Lucy the augmented Elvraeth.

  As she often did, she drifted back to her sister, thinking of what had happened.

  They had never been terribly close, but losing her sister had been difficult. It had been challenging for the entire family, not just for Lucy. Her parents had blamed her for what happened, and Lucy had said nothing, the same way she often said nothing.

  She thought about that time, the memory of it, and…

  Pushed the thoughts away.

  “You were going into a dark place,” Ras said.

  “How do you know?”

  “It’s the way you winced as you were thinking of it. What was it?”

  “It was nothing,” Lucy said.

  “Nothing? Unfortunately, I doubt it was nothing. And that nothing seems to be important to you. If it’s important to you, then it’s important for you to work through, if only for you to get a better understanding of yourself.”

  “Like I said, it’s nothing,” Lucy said.

  Ras stared at her, and she let out a frustrated sigh before turning away from him and getting to her feet. She began to pace in the library, and yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that he was right. What had happened to her with her sister was important for her to address. More than anything, it was something she could use. If she could piece together what she had experienced and borrow from those memories, she might be able to understand who she was.

  Observe herself.

  That seemed to be the hardest thing for her.

  In some ways, she thought Carth had known about it. She might not have said what it was, but she had known that Lucy was tormented. Perhaps that was why she had not returned to Elaeavn.

  No. She had returned to Elaeavn, though briefly. And there was no reason for her to continue to go back, no reason to risk herself like that. There was nothing for her in Elaeavn. The only thing she had there was family, but even that wasn’t a reason to return. The family she had in Elaeavn wasn’t the kind of family she wanted to be around. The more time she spent outside of the city, the more she began to understand there was so much more for her in the world. With her new abilities, she couldn’t help but feel as if she were meant for more.

  Perhaps the Great Watcher had intended all of this for her, and if so, she needed to find herself, much like Ras suggested.

  It had to be something more than working as Carth’s tool, her way of finding other C’than.

  She thought she was starting to uncover her potential by working with the women of the village, but it would take even more than that, wouldn’t it?

  And in order for Lucy to do so effectively, she would have to find a strength she had never possessed.

  She wasn’t a fighter. Wasn’t that what she had told Carth over and over again?

  And yet, if she remained passive, others like Olandar Fahr and the Ai’thol and the Architect would continue to take advantage of her, to use her. If they did so, she would find herself back where she had been.

  Imprisoned.

  She wanted none of that. What she wanted was to do as Ras suggested, to know herself, and to find a way to ensure not only that she was safe, but that she would never experience that sort of torment again.

  What would it take?

  She turned slowly. Ras continued to watch her.

  She couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew the thoughts racing through her head and was somehow aware of the anguish she experienced, the struggle that rolled through her. In order for her to move past this, she was going to have to face—and embrace—some of the hard parts of her past.

  Was she able to do that?

  She wasn’t the same young woman who had left Elaeavn. She was different. Stronger. Perhaps augmented, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have strength within herself. All it meant was that she had a different type of strength, and she had to find some way of mastering what she possessed.

  Lucy turned her attention back to the shelves, staring at them.

  She would do this. She would be strong enough.

  Taking a seat again, this time at her own table, she rested her head on her hands and focused, thinking back to Elaeavn.

  22

  Haern

  Haern reached the edge of the city. Everything about it left him on edge, making him feel as if he were making a mistake. He didn’t like abandoning Galen. Leaving his friend—and mentor—behind left him troubled. Galen wouldn’t do the same were the situations reversed, but then, Galen also was far more capable than Haern.

  Did he have to leave him?

  It was possible that he could go back, that he could find some other way of helping, but in order to do so, he would need to get to safety, prepare in a way that involved arming himself differently, and then he could attack.

  The only problem was that he didn’t have enough connection to lorcith to mount a serious attack. The Forgers had proven they were far more capable than he.

  He paused at the edge of the city, checking the knives he had on him before pushing off with one knife, sending it streaking away then dropping the coin and pushing off on that. He traveled, going from lorcith to lorcith, connecting to the lorcith within each item, staying high above the ground as the wind whistled past him. He braced himself for the possibility that others might appear, but as he traveled in the darkness, there was nothing. Moving in this way was safer than traveling on foot. He continued to push and pull on coins, slipping through the darkness, the city behind him growing ever more distant.

  After a while, Haern d
ropped back to the ground, turning his attention toward the distant city. Galen needed him. What was he doing running?

  Back on solid ground, he looked around. There was a clearing here, and the sound of water rushing came from somewhere nearby. Haern headed toward it. He was thirsty, the effort of fighting his way free from the city nearly overwhelming him.

  Lights in the distance caught his attention. They were too close to be the city, and not bright enough to be a village. Haern approached slowly, carefully, feeling his way across the ground. He kept his collection of lorcith coins with him, prepared for the possibility that he might have to push away, traveling as quickly as possible to escape from whatever this was.

  As he neared, he heard the sound of voices.

  Haern froze. A thicket of trees near him would provide some protection, and he pushed off on one of the coins, soaring high into the air and coming back down to land slowly—gently—near the tree.

  “Quiet,” someone snapped.

  Haern froze, listening to the sounds, and heard a faint whimpering.

  What had he come across?

  “She’s hungry, Rally.”

  “I don’t care if she’s hungry. We don’t got no food, so she needs to be quiet. You know where we are.”

  “I know where we are. You’re the one who brought us here.”

  “Quiet.”

  Haern crouched, staying near the base of the tree, trying to listen. If only he had Listening as one of his abilities, it would be easier. Even a more enhanced eyesight might be beneficial, but the fire made everything difficult for him to See through. Smoke swirled around the campfire, clouding and obscuring his ability to make out more than he had.

  “At least let me go for water.”

  There was a moment of silence, and Rally grunted. “Be quick about it. If you’re gone too long, I’m sending the hounds after you.”

  Haern darted behind the tree, watching. After a moment, a shadowed figure made its way from the campsite, heading toward the stream he’d come across. He stared for a moment, wondering if perhaps he should intervene but knowing that would be dangerous. Anything he might do would only end up with getting someone injured, possibly this woman.

  At the least, he could figure out what was going on, couldn’t he?