“Haern?”
There it came again.
The first time he’d heard his name, he could almost believe it was imagined, but this time, the soft and gentle way his name was said suggested perhaps it wasn’t an illusion. Maybe this was real.
Haern looked around. He tried to blink away the pain, the tears, but there was nothing he could see. The room was empty, wasn’t it? Chairs lined the walls. Banners hung from overhead. Otherwise there was nothing but blurriness around him. There wasn’t any light, nothing that he could see through, and as he lay there, looking around, trying to make out what it was that was calling to him, Haern shivered.
The voice had sounded so familiar.
He looked at the Forger. His breathing came out slowly, raggedly, and he was wheezing. All Haern could think of was that this man had been responsible for what had happened to his father.
More than that, this man had been responsible for Haern leaving Elaeavn, and because of him, Haern had come after the girls, finding them, rescuing them.
Something Galen had said worked its way into his mind, drifting to the forefront, overriding anything else he could think of. It was surprising coming from Galen, a moment of hearing the other man talk about believing in something of a higher power, but in this case, that was what Galen had said.
“Haern?”
This time there was no denying it.
He released his grip on the Forger, getting to his knees. It was painful. Staying where he had, holding on to the Forger, his hands wrapped around the man’s neck, there had been less pain than there was now. Moving sent renewed pain rolling through him. Nausea filled him along with it, and with each movement, every time that he tried to do something—anything—he found he could not. He stayed on his knees for long moments. The pain continued to work through him, and he shook, jerking each time the old sense of electricity rolled through him. When it finally passed, Haern took a few breaths before opening his eyes.
He remained on his knees. The Forger was near him, and he didn’t know if he had killed him.
The sense of others nearby drew his attention, looming close to him.
It was more than just the sense of others nearby.
Lorcith.
He pulled on that sense, focusing on it, and felt for the sense of his coin. He had forged these coins, they were his, and he had given them to Elise and the others to hold while he went looking for them.
Elise.
That was why he was here. If he could find her and the others, he could rescue them from this.
“Elise?”
Why was she here?
How was she here?
His voice came out hoarse, but he managed to get it out. Staggering to his feet, he looked around. There would have to be more than just this Forger here, wouldn’t there? He couldn’t have been the only one in the room, but then, Haern had the sense that the Forger had drawn him here, wanting him to be present for whatever dark reason he had in mind.
The coin was close. He turned, looking for it, and saw nothing more than a glowing brightness in front of him.
“Haern. I’m here. What… what happened?”
“Elise? You need to get moving. The Forgers—”
“We’re safe.”
“How?”
“They didn’t want to hurt us. The others—”
Something else moved, drawing his attention. There came a different sense, a powerful explosion, and as he focused on it, he realized it came from deep beneath him. Somewhere deep within the tower, the temple rumbled.
“What happened with the others?”
“The others were going to hurt us.”
Would the Binders have done that?
A hoarse cough caught his attention. Haern turned, barely gritting through the pain rolling through his hand, and the Forger lying on the ground started to laugh, a dark and horrid sound.
“The Binders? Is that what you believed, Lareth? There are no Binders here.”
No Binders? But weren’t they the Binders?
Then again, who had suggested that? Had it been them, or had it been Haern?
The more that he thought about it, the more his mind managed to clear, the more certain he was it had been his fault. Was he the one who had suggested that they were Binders?
“They were protecting us, Haern,” Elise said, her voice distant, weak.
No. He couldn’t believe that. He didn’t want to believe that. Even if the Binders were not what they had made themselves out to be, he couldn’t believe the Forgers had any interest in helping these women. He had known the Forgers too well, had faced them too often, to believe that they would have any motivation to help someone else.
It meant that they were somehow coercing Elise and the others.
He had seen how the Forgers had the ability to do that but hadn’t expected them to be able to use it on someone so quickly—or perhaps not on so many at one time.
If it wasn’t this Forger, then it had to be another.
He reached for the man, finding him lying on the ground.
“You lost, Lareth,” the man said.
Haern grabbed his head, and he slammed onto the ground.
He got back to his feet. Why couldn’t he see anything?
There had been chairs. Banners. There was the Forger. But now there was nothing. All around him was darkness. He couldn’t see a thing, and the more he tried, the more he strained to see into the darkness, the worse off he was.
They were poisoning him.
That was the only thought that rolled through his head, and it was one that made sense. Galen had taught him to recognize poisons, and in this case, the poison they were using had to be something attached to him. His hands.
Whatever metal they had used was reaching into his bloodstream. The longer it was there, the more likely it was he wouldn’t be able to recover from it.
Somehow, he had to get these bars off.
He should have forced the Forger to take them off before he did anything.
“Elise?”
She was here, but where?
Then again, she’d seen his brutality. She’d seen the way that he had slammed the Forger into the ground, and why would she want to be around him any longer?
“Please, Elise. Help me.”
Someone was there, arms wrapping around him. Haern tensed, every part of his being wanting to rebel, to resist, fearing that touch, mostly because he had been exposed to such dangers ever since coming to the temple.
“I’m here,” she whispered.
“How?”
“They… they brought me.”
The Forgers had done this to her. Anger surged within him. “What about the others?”
“The others are unharmed. They protected us. They brought us here.”
“Not protected. Not yet.”
“Haern?”
“They did this to me.”
“Because you attacked. They told us—”
Haern tried to look toward her, but he couldn’t find her. All he could feel was the sense of lorcith flowing from her, and he was thankful that he hadn’t lost that.
Surprisingly, there were shades of light that swirled around him, and as he tried to see through it, he found that areas of lorcith seemed to glow a little brighter.
“I need you to bend these bars. I need them out of my hands.”
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Please.”
Elise moved her arms, and he wanted nothing more than to have her slip her arms back around him, to comfort him, to feel the welcome touch of someone. After feeling pain for so long, he wanted that relaxation.
It was not to be.
Pain jolted his left hand.
He started to jerk away before his mind overrode instinct, realizing Elise was trying to pull off the metal bars as he had asked.
He didn’t know if he screamed or not, only knowing pain continued, an unrelenting sense of torment, almost as if Elise knew exactly what she was doing to him but
continued to do it.
And it was gone.
Long moments passed while he panted, each breath a struggle, straining to try to gather himself to control his response, and finally, the pain began to abate.
“Is it done?”
“As much as I can, Haern.”
“It’s a bar of metal. All you need to do is pull it out.”
“I don’t know what they used on you, but I wasn’t able to pull a bar of metal out. Something remained in there.”
He swallowed, thinking about what had happened to Lucy. She had been changed, augmented, however intentional or not by something similar.
“Do the other.”
He braced himself, and this time he didn’t think he jerked away. When she grabbed for his hand, pulling on the metal bar, he tried not to resist and thought he managed. When the pain flooded into him, he bit back a scream, though perhaps not as well as he believed. His throat felt ragged, some part of him exhausted from shouting, and he tried to silence himself, not wanting to draw any more attention to them than he already had. He didn’t want to be the reason the Forgers came after them, but he also didn’t think he would be able to withstand the pain he was feeling for very much longer. He might have asked Elise to do this, but the longer she worked, the further she pulled out the metal in his hand, working it out, the more he…
The pain began to ease.
He breathed out. Could it be over?
He didn’t know. Hopefully, but even if it wasn’t, he was thankful that she tried.
“I got as much as I could on the side, too,” Elise said.
“I’m sure you did well.” His voice was hoarse, ragged, and he lifted his arms, wondering if he would even be able to move his hands. Would the pain be too much for him?
He was able to move more freely than he had before, and he waved his hands around, thankful that he no longer had the board attached to them.
Then again, those had served as weapons, and he had been able to use them to protect himself. He looked around, but still saw nothing more than the bright light all around him.
Whatever they had done to him had changed him. He was certain of it and knew it had poisoned him in some way. His only hope now was that it hadn’t been anything permanent.
He touched the left hand where the bar had gone through. The skin felt strange where the metal had pierced him, but it was more than just that. It was almost as if where the metal had been had somehow changed.
Pain throbbed in his hands, but it was different now.
If this had poisoned him, then he needed time to see what effect the poison would have, and hopefully, it wouldn’t be anything too significant so he would have time for recovery, though it was possible the Forgers had created some way of poisoning that had no recovery. They knew he was working with Galen; he couldn’t help but think that they would use that as an opportunity to get back at Galen for everything he had done to their people.
“I’m sorry. I did as much as I could, but I couldn’t get everything out, Haern.”
He looked toward Elise, though he couldn’t see her easily. “You did well. I don’t think you could even do anything more.”
Now that he could move without pain, he looked around. It might be only his imagination, but it seemed as if his vision were starting to clear a little bit, and now he no longer saw only brightness. He was able to make out faint outlines, and he reached toward the nearest, realizing it was Elise.
His hand brushed her cheek and her breath caught. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to—”
Elise took his hand, pressing it up against her cheeks, holding it there. “You startled me, that’s all.”
“We need to get moving. I don’t know what’s going to happen when he comes around or when more of the Forgers appear, but I don’t want to be here.”
“They didn’t want to hurt us,” she said.
“Maybe not, but they wanted to use you the same as the Binders—or whoever they were—intended to use you.”
How would they find a way of getting to safety?
They needed to get moving, get out of here, and then where?
Rumbling echoed again, and he felt the sense of it filling him.
“The Binders are attacking the temple,” Haern said.
Haern took a few shallow breaths. With each breath, everything started to clear even more. Eventually, he felt as if he might finally be able to see again. The effect of the poisoning would clear, and from there he should be able to make out where he was and figure out some way of escaping.
“Where are the others?”
“They’re back here.”
Elise took his hand, guiding him, and he didn’t resist. He could see the shadows, the faint outline of everything around him, but nothing more. As she guided him to the back of the room, he heard the soft whispers of others around him.
“It’s okay,” Elise said.
“We saw what he did,” one of the girls said. Haern didn’t recognize the voice, and he couldn’t see well enough to make out who might have spoken, but some part of him withered as she said it.
“That man is the one who abducted my father,” Haern said. “He’s holding him captive somewhere, and he’s the reason I left my city. I came looking for my father, and now…”
Now he didn’t know if he ever would find his father. The Forger wasn’t going to tell him, and some part of Haern knew that even if he did, it probably didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to be able to find Rsiran like that. If the Forgers had him, what hope did he have of ever getting into their fortress?
Even with Galen, they wouldn’t have been enough.
An idea came to him.
“Are any of you harmed?” he said.
There came another soft whisper, and it was Elise who answered. “Everyone is fine, Haern. They didn’t want to hurt us.”
“They were going to use you. You’re bait.”
“Bait?”
“They wanted to draw out the Binders. And it worked.”
Haern turned away, the faint outline that he was able to see enough for him to make his way. “I’ll be back.”
“Haern?”
“Keep them safe,” he told Elise.
Stumbling forward, he reached the place where the Forger lay. He still hadn’t moved, but then again, Haern had slammed his head onto the ground with enough force to crush his skull, so it was possible he wouldn’t be able to get up. He crouched near the man’s feet, grabbing on to his ankle, and simply held it.
He waited for long moments, watching the Forger as he breathed. Every so often, there came a faint rumbling from deep within the temple, but that passed. How long would it be before the attack reached them here? They might be powerful, but so far, the Binders hadn’t managed to penetrate that deeply into the temple. It might take them a few hours to reach into it. The sense of lorcith he detected was far below him, and he paused only a moment to wonder why he felt that sense so acutely now. As he focused on it, he could feel the lorcith coins Elise and the other girls carried on them, and if he wanted to, he could pull on that sense, draw it to him—or him to it.
The Forger continued to breathe slowly, but gradually, his breaths became increasingly rapid, until he was coming around. That was what Haern needed. He continued to hold on to the man’s ankle and wait.
It didn’t take long before he awoke. When he did, he immediately started to move.
Haern kept himself low, gripping as tightly as he could onto the Forger’s ankle. If his own experience meant anything, the Forger wouldn’t be able to focus on anything other than the pain throbbing in his head. That was a distraction Haern counted on, believing the Forger wouldn’t know there was someone else there, someone clinging to his leg, someone who would be holding on while the Forger Slid.
The Slide started, beginning with a folding of the air, turning it more translucent, and then it began to shimmer. He waited. Though he knew that he wasn’t thinking quite as clearly as he should, all he wanted was to follow the F
orger, hopefully to wherever his father was trapped.
The Slide dragged him, tearing him from this place to another.
When they emerged, Haern continued to hold on to the Forger. He looked around, searching for any way to recognize where they were, but he saw nothing.
The air stank. It smelled of fire and ash, but there was another odor mixed with it, equally unpleasant. It was pungent, a sour, sulfuric sort of smell, and his nose wrinkled.
Maybe it was nothing more than the abrupt change from the floral and incense aroma of the temple, but he could scarcely stand it.
“You,” the Forger said.
Haern turned his gaze to the Forger, who had his neck bent, looking at Haern.
“You have made your last mistake, Lareth.”
“This is where my father is, isn’t it?”
“Your father is gone, Lareth.”
“I don’t believe that.”
“Don’t you? You also didn’t want to believe he could be captured, but I have proven he can. And now his son will share his fate. I suppose there is some cruel irony to that, but given everything your family has done to mine, I find it difficult to care.”
“My family has done nothing to yours.”
“Oh, Lareth, how naïve you are.”
The Forger got to his feet, moving far more easily than Haern would’ve expected. And here he’d thought that the other man had been too injured to do anything, but maybe that had been partly an act.
He needed to use this Forger to get back to the temple. The longer he was away, the more likely the Binders—or false Binders—were to reach the others.
What had he been thinking?
He hadn’t. He had wanted to figure out where they were keeping his father, but maybe he hadn’t needed to Slide with the Forger in order to come up with that.
It might’ve been better—safer—for him to have held the Forger, forced him to reveal his secret, but then, it was equally possible that the Forger would not reveal anything.
“Where is this?”
“This is a place you will never escape.”
Haern held on to the Forger, keeping him from Sliding, and yet the Forger did nothing to try to move, not attempting to kick Haern off, and simply allowed him to hold on to him.
“This is your hideout.”
“Hideout? You make it sound as if we were little more than criminals, Lareth. The Ai’thol serve a noble purpose.”
The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3 Page 145
