The Tower of Venass (The Dark Ability Book 3)

by Holmberg, D. K.

  Rsiran looked up. “I think Josun had someone Firell cared about.”

  “Probably Lena. She’s the only one he would have done that for.”

  Rsiran spun. Brusus stood in the doorway to Della’s back room. Normally faded green eyes shone with a bright intensity. He looked weakened and pale, but alive.

  “Brusus?” Jessa said his name and took a step toward him before catching herself.

  Brusus smiled and brought a hand to his mouth as he coughed. Bloody phlegm splattered in his palm. “The same,” he said. His voice sounded different. Hoarse, as if he’d been yelling for hours.

  “How are you?” she said.

  “Same as any of us. Della Healed me.”

  “I thought she didn’t know what poison had been used on you,” Rsiran said. That was the reason he’d gone with Thom, the reason they’d Slid all the way to Thyr for the chance they might find an antidote.

  Rsiran held the wooden bottle, finger running along the charred edges. What had he sacrificed unnecessarily? Had he only listened to Della, he might have learned she could Heal Brusus. Instead, Thom was lost. His father now trapped in the Tower. And Rsiran owed the scholars… something.

  Jessa looked over at him. The look on her face told him she shared his thoughts.

  “I’m not sure that always matters for Della,” Brusus said. He took a few unsteady steps into the room. Rsiran hurried forward to put an arm around him and guided him toward a chair in front of the fire. Brusus smiled at him weakly. “Where have you two been? When I came around, Della said you were the reason I was alive.” He laughed. “Again. I’ve got to stop getting into situations like this, Rsiran. Can’t keep owing you my life. Hard to repay that debt.”

  “Who is Lena?” Rsiran asked.

  Brusus ran a hand through his hair. “Lena is Firell’s daughter.”

  “Daughter?”

  Brusus nodded. “Mother is Ylish. A woman Firell met while smuggling. She sailed with him for a while, but when she became pregnant, she returned to Yl. He doesn’t talk about her much. I think he regrets that he can’t be with her, but Firell doesn’t know anything other than his ship. Asking him to give up the sea would be like asking Jessa to give up sneaking. Or you to give up your smithy.”

  Rsiran thought of how hard that would be. Would he be willing to do it? Would he really give up working with lorcith?

  He looked over at Jessa. For her, he would. He would give up everything to be with her.

  Is that what she had done to be with him? Had she given up what she was?

  The idea made his heart sink.

  “But if you know of her, why wouldn’t he have come to you for help?” Jessa asked.

  “That’s not Firell. He takes care of his own business.” Brusus shrugged. “If Josun was threatening harm to Lena, then I can’t blame him for doing what he needed to save her.”

  Rsiran tried to imagine his father doing something similar for him but failed. For Alyse, he likely would do anything. But for Rsiran?

  Now that Josun was out of the way, trapped in the mines, what would happen to Lena? What would Firell do now?

  “You haven’t told me where you were,” Brusus said.

  Rsiran looked over to Jessa. She shook her head.

  Brusus frowned. The brightness to his eyes faded the longer he was with them. “What don’t you two want to say?”

  Rsiran turned to face Brusus. He clutched the bottle of the antidote in his hand. “We thought you were dying.”

  Brusus leaned forward. The green to his eyes surged briefly. “What did you do?”

  “I thought I could help you. Della said she couldn’t help you. You needed an antidote or you wouldn’t survive.”

  “An antidote? How did you expect to find an antidote?”

  “We went to Thyr. There is a place where poisons and their antidotes are studied. I thought if we could find something…”

  “Thyr?” Haern asked, puzzled. “Why would you go to Thyr? There are other places… safer places… than Thyr.”

  Rsiran glanced at Jessa again before turning back to Brusus. “Thom suggested we go to Thyr. Other than Asador, I haven’t been anywhere.” Brusus wore a look of confusion. “I didn’t know what else to do, Brusus. I couldn’t just wait for you to die.”

  Brusus blinked. As he did, his face relaxed, and Rsiran could tell how much the poisoning had taken from him. Where he’d once worn his age well, the wrinkles around his eyes giving him a dignified air, he now looked beaten. His dark hair streaked with silver stood on end, making him seem wild. More fitting for someone of Lower Town than Upper Town where Brusus always pretended to live.

  “I don’t understand,” Brusus said. “Who’s Thom?”

  Chapter 19

  Rsiran waited for Brusus to laugh, but it didn’t come. “What do you mean?”

  Brusus shook his head. “Who’s Thom?” he repeated.

  Rsiran looked to Jessa, but she frowned. “Thom. Man from Thyr you hired to watch my father.”

  Brusus turned to Haern. “You weren’t watching him?”

  Haern stood and walked toward the fire. His jaw clenched. He’d slipped a coin from his pocket and worked it along his fingers, making it dance from one finger to the next. “I’d been watching. I had.” He flicked his eyes to Rsiran. “Keln watching with me. You couldn’t expect me to be there all the time.”

  Brusus sighed. “You seen Keln recently?”

  Haern’s eyes lost focus and he looked as if he stared past Brusus. His face flattened into an unreadable mask. Moments passed and then he blinked, shaking his head. “I can’t See him.”

  “What does that mean?” Brusus asked.

  Haern gave Brusus a look. “It means I can’t See him.” He shook his head. “It’s not like with Rsiran. This is different.”

  “Dead?” Brusus asked.

  Haern pursed his lips and his brow furrowed, pulling on his scar. “Maybe dead. Maybe not. Like I said, I can’t See him.”

  “Then what?” Brusus pushed.

  “I don’t know.”

  Brusus studied Haern, but he didn’t elaborate.

  “Shielded?” Rsiran asked.

  They turned to Rsiran. Haern frowned and asked, “Shielded, how?”

  “Like how the alloy prevents me from Sliding,” Rsiran started, not explaining that it no longer did. “Or how we can barricade our minds to keep from being Read.”

  Haern frowned. “It is possible. Always before, I could See Keln. Now… now I simply can’t. Perhaps that is it.”

  His tone told Rsiran that he thought it unlikely.

  Rsiran looked at Brusus. “You don’t know Thom?”

  Brusus watched Haern for a moment more before turning back to Rsiran. His head wobbled as he moved, swaying as if he’d had too much ale. “No. And from Haern’s expression, he’s not someone he hired.”

  Rsiran thought about what Thom had said. Hadn’t he mentioned Brusus? Or had Rsiran been the one to bring him up? He couldn’t remember. Now, it didn’t matter. Thom had died in the forest.

  But why would Thom make up a story and then agree to take them toward Thyr? Unless there was something he needed, something only Rsiran could do?

  Like Sliding him there.

  “Tell me about Thom,” Brusus suggested.

  Rsiran sighed and grabbed a stool from along the wall and sat. Jessa came and leaned against him, choosing to stand. One hand gripped the charm on her necklace. The other rested on his shoulder. “Not sure what there is to tell, now.”

  Brusus grunted. “You thought he knew me?”

  “He said you did a job together in Thyr.” Rsiran watched Brusus, looking for a hint of reaction. When Brusus’s eyes widened briefly, Rsiran frowned. “You know him, don’t you?”

  “What did he look like?”

  “Dressed in black leathers. Carried a sword—one of mine, I think. Not scared when I Slid around him. Had a long scar across the top of his head.”

  Brusus leaned back and closed his eyes, sig
hing. “I know him,” he agreed. “But not by Thom.”

  “Who is he?” Rsiran asked.

  Brusus shook his head. “Name doesn’t really matter, not with him.”

  “Is he really from Thyr?”

  “Ahh, who knows with him?”

  “Why?”

  Brusus leaned forward. “He’s a powerful Reader, but more than that. He can Compel too. Not many with that set of abilities.”

  “A Reader? But he’s from Thyr! I saw his eyes—”

  Brusus smiled. “Like mine?” he asked. His eyes suddenly appeared a deep brown, the shade nearly identical to Thom’s, before fading back to the pale green they’d been when Rsiran first met him. Brusus shook his head. “Like I said, he’s powerful. More skilled than me in that area.”

  “Why would he say he’s from Thyr?” Jessa asked.

  “For all I know, Thyr might be his home. I don’t know if he was Forgotten or the child of a Forgotten. Either way, he’s not of Elaeavn.”

  Rsiran leaned back, trying to think of everything Thom had told him. Had everything been some sort of plan to get him out of the city? Had he known what would happen in Venass? Did he expect Rsiran to get stuck, unable to Slide away?

  “If you went with him, where is he now?”

  Rsiran shook his head. “Dead,” he started, thinking of how they became separated in the forest. Had that been Thom’s plan as well? Not the dying, but separating from them? “I can’t Slide someplace I’ve never been, at least not all at once. Traveling to Thyr took lots of smaller Slides. One of them let out near a small forest. I went ahead, looking for the way to Thyr, but we lost him in the forest.”

  “Lost?”

  Jessa’s face darkened and she answered. “There was a presence there. Something Pushing dark thoughts onto us.” She shook her head. “I’ve never experienced anything like it before.”

  Brusus’s eyes narrowed. He coughed again, a bit of dark blood coming from his mouth. “He got lost in the forest because of this presence?”

  “I went back and found him,” Rsiran said. “I don’t know what happened, only that whatever else was in the forest got him.” He’d intended to go back to bury him, but maybe he needed to go back to investigate what strange presence might be in the forest.

  “Do you know what he wanted with you?” Brusus asked.

  Rsiran shook his head. “He was taking me to Thyr, to a place called Venass.”

  “Venass?” Brusus said.

  Haern sucked in a breath. “He told you of Venass?”

  Brusus turned to Haern. “You know of this place?”

  “You know what I did before.” He said it as a statement rather than a question.

  “Yes, but what does that have to do with this place?”

  Mystery seemed to surround Haern, and his past, so the idea that he might know of Venass shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the group. And though Rsiran hadn’t known it when he first met the man, he later learned of Haern’s previous occupation as an assassin before returning to Elaeavn with Jessa. He’d learned of Haern’s attachment to Jessa one night when Haern thought Rsiran had been putting Jessa in danger. The man had grabbed Rsiran and prevented him from Sliding. It was during that scuffle, a knife had been drawn and Rsiran learned about his other ability: he could push on lorcith. Because of Haern’s “attack,” Rsiran had learned to push and pull on his knives, which was how he got Jessa away from Josun that night in the palace.

  Haern had a dark expression on his face and had yet to answered the question, so Brusus asked again. “Haern, what do you know of this place?”

  “Venass is a dangerous place. Different from what you’ll find in Asador. There, the university is prized, a part of the city.” He shook his head. “Venass stands apart from Thyr. Even I never managed to reach its doors.”

  Rsiran turned to Haern, but Jessa spoke first. “Why would you try to reach the scholars?” she asked.

  A cynical expression slipped across his face. “Scholars? Is that what you think they are?”

  Rsiran shook his head. He had no idea what took place in Venass. The only scholar they’d seen had lorcith piercing through his skin that Rsiran suspected gave him power over the ore. And they nearly trapped him in a room, the lorcith-infused stone all around him nearly too much for him to escape. “The antidote we needed to help Brusus was supposed to be found in Venass. That was why Thom wanted me to go there.” Except, if Thom didn’t really know Brusus, then there had been another reason he wanted Rsiran to take him there.

  He looked over at Brusus, at how weakened he was. Thom had supposedly gone looking for him after the attack. Had he known about the poisoning? If that was the case, maybe he wanted to draw Rsiran away from Brusus and eliminate one threat.

  Haern leaned toward him. “Tell me you didn’t reach Venass.” He studied Rsiran’s face and then turned to look at Jessa. His eyes took on the faraway expression he wore when using his ability. He blinked. “You did, didn’t you?” he whispered.

  Rsiran held out the wooden bottle as an answer. He set in on a small wooden table. After everything they’d been through to get it, having it out of his hands was both a relief and distressing.

  “Did what, Haern?” Brusus asked.

  Haern leaned back and sighed. His eyes drifted closed again. He’d palmed the coin in his hand while asking about Venass, but now brought it back out and made it slip from finger to finger. “Fools. All of you. You’re damn lucky to be alive.”

  “They didn’t want to hurt us,” Rsiran said.

  Haern snorted. “No. You’re no good to them dead.”

  Brusus looked from Haern to Rsiran. “You’re going to have to explain what this Venass is, Haern. Why was it a problem that Rsiran went there?”

  Haern breathed heavily but didn’t answer.

  “Venass. More commonly known as the Tower of Scholars,” Della said.

  Rsiran looked over at the door. The old Healer had slipped silently among them at some point. She stood behind her row of shelves that held medicines and spices, sprouts of her grey hair visible above the top of the shelf. She tottered toward them, leaning on a long cane. Rsiran had never seen her use a cane before. Her usually bright eyes had a rheumy look to them. She sighed softly.

  “And they are scholars, but of an arcane sort,” she continued. “They are men with some power who chase the abilities others were given by the Great Watcher.”

  “You know of this place too?” Brusus asked.

  The scholar had seemed surprised that anyone in Elaeavn would know it by the name Venass, but both Haern and Della knew. What did that mean?

  “Know of it? Yes, I know of Venass,” she said slowly. “But I hadn’t suspected them being behind the attack at the Barth, and by the time I learned, Rsiran was already gone.” She looked at Rsiran, her weary eyes briefly regaining a hint of their previous vigor. “Had you only asked… had you only said something about where it was you planned on going, what you planned to do.” Her voice held sadness. And disappointment. It was the disappointment that hurt Rsiran the most.

  “I had to do something,” he said softly. “Brusus was dying.”

  Della nodded. Both hands cupped over the top of the silvery cane. “Then it is my fault as much as yours.”

  He shook his head. “It was my choice.”

  Della smiled sadly. “As it was mine not to share with you what you needed to know. And for that, I’m sorry.”

  Brusus tried to stand and failed. “What is this, Della? What are you and Haern not sharing about this place?”

  Della watched Rsiran as she answered Brusus. “Venass is a place of study, but unlike the people of Asador, they care little for histories or the stars or philosophy.” She sighed. “They are men and women once of Elaeavn who study power. They use what they learn to twist the abilities the Great Watcher granted us. And Rsiran, I suspect, interested them greatly.”

  With Thom and what he’d seen of his ability, Rsiran should have known they had a connection
to Elaeavn. Which meant they must be Forgotten as well. “That was the price of the antidote.” He pointed toward the wooden bottle on the table.

  Della looked at it, frowning, and picked it up. She pulled the stopper from it and raised it to her nose, inhaling slowly. “An antidote,” she repeated.

  Rsiran nodded. “Thom told me I could find an antidote in Venass. Isn’t that what it is?” If they hadn’t given him a real antidote, would he really feel obligated to return for them to study him?

  But Della nodded. “It is. And it would have worked, I suspect.” She paused, looking to Brusus. “Strange they would know which antidote to provide for Brusus.”

  Brusus’s eyes narrowed, and then he flashed a look at Haern who only nodded. Brusus sighed. “Damn,” he whispered.

  “What?” Rsiran asked.

  “This wasn’t about me.”

  “How could it not be about you? You were poisoned!” And, he suspected, the one that Thom wanted in the end.

  Brusus laughed until it turned into a cough. When it cleared, he shook his head. “I remember. And I thought this was about what Rsiran did in Asador, revealing his ability to Slide as he chased Josun looking for Jessa.” He looked at Della. “It’s about that, but it’s more than that, isn’t it?”

  “It seems that way.”

  Jessa squeezed Rsiran’s shoulder. “Brusus…”

  “This was never about me. The poisoning, the attack in the Barth. None of it.” He leaned forward, and a pained look came to his face as he looked at Rsiran. “This was about you.”

  Della rested a hand on Rsiran as she moved past him. A wave of relaxation swept through him, and some of the fatigue faded. Then she tottered toward the cot, clearing the bloody sheets away so they piled on the floor before she sat.

  No one said anything until she was settled.

  “Why would they want me?” Rsiran asked. But even as he did, he understood. They wanted to learn how he could Slide. Possibly more than that now. He’d shown them he could escape their cells.

  Did they know he could use the heartstone alloy to Slide?

  “I don’t think they know the full extent of your secrets, Rsiran,” Della said.