The Tower of Venass (The Dark Ability Book 3)

by Holmberg, D. K.

  She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

  Wind whistled past his face. Lorcith suddenly bloomed nearby. A knife, and one he’d made.

  The outline of a shadow appeared near the corner. It flickered briefly. Another Slider, maybe the same one from the dining hall.

  He pulled on the knife and then pushed it at the shadow. It missed, sinking into the wall before it could hit. Jessa coughed and he spun. The shadow had her gripped around the neck, pulling her back.

  If they Slid, he might have no way to find her.

  He pushed on the knife she held and sent it twisting around her. It caught the Slider on the arm and he released her, crying out as he did.

  The broken knife came next, whistling toward the Slider’s head. But he missed, the person Sliding too quickly for him to catch.

  Rsiran pulled both weapons back to him.

  “We can’t stay here,” he said, pulling Jessa toward him. “I can’t hit him, and I don’t think it’s the same person as before.”

  “How many can Slide?”

  Rsiran wished he knew.

  “Rsiran!”

  The Slider had reappeared.

  Rsiran slipped the knife back into Jessa’s hands. The Slider might be Sighted, leaving him at a disadvantage in the dark. At least Jessa could throw the knife. Rsiran could always retrieve it.

  She sent it flying over his shoulder.

  He looked back to see the Slider disappear. Rsiran pulled the knife back to him.

  He wouldn’t be able to keep them safe like this. Anywhere he could Slide, the person could follow.

  But… not everywhere.

  With a force of will, he pushed away all sense of lorcith and listened for heartstone alloy. He could anchor and draw them to safety.

  “Rsiran?”

  The Slider had returned.

  Rsiran felt alloy and reached for it. He didn’t know where this was—not the palace—but it didn’t matter as long as it wasn’t here.

  The connection was weak at first, but grew stronger the longer he held onto it.

  Jessa jerked him down. Something whistled over his head. With lorcith pushed away, he couldn’t tell if that’s what the attacker used. Rsiran held onto the sense of the heartstone alloy and pulled as he Slid.

  At first, nothing happened.

  He felt a moment of fear. If a single Slider had them nearly incapacitated, what would happen if another arrived? Could they follow him along a Slide? What if the alloy didn’t stop them either?

  Rsiran threw everything he had into the Slide.

  Hot air whispered past his face carrying the strange sweetly bitter scent of the alloy. A wash of colors oozed past. And then they emerged, stumbling forward.

  Jessa crouched as she spun around. When satisfied they were alone, she stood slowly and helped Rsiran to his feet.

  He took a deep breath and stood, unsteady as he did. They were in a wide room. Faint blue light gave enough for him to see by. Twin tables rested against each other in the center of the room. Walls were lined with shelves that had books stuffed onto them. The blue light came from a dimmed lantern hanging from a hook near the center of the room. A woman sat underneath the lantern in a plush chair, a book propped in her lap.

  Rsiran blinked. “Della?”

  Chapter 31

  The woman turned and looked at him. Her eyes had the same bright green intensity and her face wore wrinkles from age, but her face had none of the soft affection Della always wore.

  She set the book down and looked at him. “How did you get here?”

  Rsiran glanced around before his eyes settled on the woman again. He couldn’t shake how much she looked like Della, but wasn’t.

  “Where are we?”

  She frowned and looked from Rsiran to Jessa. “You don’t know where you are.”

  Rsiran shook his head. He felt the heartstone alloy that had pulled him here, but couldn’t see it.

  “Then how did you…” Her eyes narrowed. “You traveled here.”

  It was a phrase he’d heard before, but Rsiran couldn’t place where.

  “We were being attacked.”

  The woman pushed off the chair and stood, then started toward them. She moved slowly but with a grace to her steps. She weaved around the tables until she stood before them, looking up at Rsiran and over to Jessa. “You should not be able to travel here.”

  Rsiran frowned and then listened for lorcith. There was none around. He pushed the sense of the knife Jessa carried and the charm she wore to the back of his mind, clearing lorcith from it. Then he listened.

  The sense of heartstone alloy came from all around. It practically infused the walls, reminding him of the way the walls in Venass were infused with lorcith. Something else hummed against him more strongly than the rest, but he couldn’t see what it was.

  “I’m sorry we came,” he said.

  Rsiran shifted, pushing Jessa behind him. The Slide had taken much energy from him, but already he began to feel better. All he needed was to focus on lorcith, and he could anchor well enough to Slide them to safety, but with all the heartstone around him, would he be able to find an anchor?

  The woman took a step toward him. She had a curious expression on her face. The set of her jaw made her appear almost angry. Silver hair twisted behind her head into a tight bun pinned with a long metal rod.

  Rsiran frowned again. Even that was heartstone.

  “Tell me again how you managed to reach me here.”

  He shook his head and stepped back. Something told him that he didn’t dare turn his back on this woman. “A mistake. I’m sorry. We’ll be going.”

  “A mistake? The Great Watcher makes no mistakes. If you were meant to come here, so be it. I should only like to know how it is you managed to reach me.”

  He swallowed, and the words came out in a tumble. “You’re right. I Slid. Traveled. Whatever you want to call it. It was a mistake. I anchored to the first thing I could sense…”

  Rsiran cut off his words, recognizing what happened. The woman Pushed him.

  He pushed his barriers into place, infusing them not only with lorcith but with the heartstone. Always before, it had seemed that he pulled on the sense of heartstone from somewhere, but this energy seemed to come from all around him. This woman had been subtle. As had been the case with Thom, Rsiran hadn’t even known she was Pushing on his mind. Much longer and he might have said anything to her. Already he’d probably said too much.

  Her mouth twisted in a hard smile. “Who taught you that trick?”

  He shook his head, unwilling to answer.

  Jessa moved behind him until they backed against one of the long tables. Rsiran looked down at it before turning his attention back to the woman. She hadn’t moved any closer. As small as she appeared, she exuded strength and control. This was a woman accustomed to getting what she wanted.

  “You will tell me what I ask.”

  “Who are you?”

  Her eyes narrowed, flashing a bright green. “Rsiran Lareth?” A smile parted her mouth. “The smith who can Slide. I have heard of you.”

  She hadn’t Read him. With the barrier in place, he didn’t think she could. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t Read Jessa.

  “And you are Jessa Ntalen.” Her face darkened. “You should not have left your parents.”

  Rsiran looked over at Jessa. Her face had gone white.

  “I see you have not told him everything. Interesting.”

  He touched Jessa’s arm. She jumped but didn’t pull away. He hoped he could reassure her but wasn’t sure he could without revealing too much to this woman.

  “If you can Read her, you know how I feel about her. Be careful what you say to me.”

  The woman laughed. “He has teeth. I had heard you were one to watch.”

  Rsiran steeled himself. He released his connection to the heartstone and listened for lorcith. He felt a moment of surprise when he couldn’t.

  The woman watched him. “Very interes
ting. From what she shows me, you access the lorcith fully.” Her lips pressed into a thin line. “Not just a smith then.”

  Rsiran checked to ensure his barrier was still in place. As far as he could tell it was, but how would this woman know what he had done? “How do you know that?”

  She turned and waved her hands around the room. “You think all this a curiosity?” She laughed. “You aren’t the first to be able to access the ore, only the first I’ve met in many years.”

  The woman fixed her gaze on him. As she studied him for a long moment, something changed about her face. “Not just the lorcith. That is how you managed to squeeze your way in here.” She laughed and shook her head. “I did not see that. And not only here, but other places as well. Useful.”

  The way she said it made Rsiran realize she meant it the same way Haern spoke of Seeing. This woman was Elvraeth. Or had been, once.

  “When were you banished?” he asked.

  The dark expression slipped over her eyes again and then was gone. “You speak of exile as if you know of such things.”

  “You speak of me as if you know of me.”

  She frowned at him before laughing again and turning away. “See? Teeth. I will find you interesting to observe.” She took a seat in her chair.

  Rsiran considered grabbing Jessa and Sliding from the woman. His strength had mostly returned, the effects of the slithca syrup finally worn off, and he would be able to get them safely away. But this was one of the Forgotten, and different from those who’d attacked him.

  He could get answers.

  “Why did Inna Elvraeth attack me? Why were we attacked in Elaeavn?”

  The woman looked up sharply. “You should not have been attacked. That is early—” She stopped herself and smiled.

  “Tell that to Inna. She dosed me with slithca syrup.”

  A cloud passed over the woman’s face. “Foolish girl. Thinking the only way to get what she wants is by force.”

  “And how do you think to get what you want?” Rsiran asked.

  “Persuasion.”

  “You won’t be able to Compel me.”

  “No. I do not think I will.”

  Jessa moved around him. The lorcith knife they’d taken from the Forgotten pointed at Rsiran’s chest. Her eyes were wide and her jaw worked as if she tried saying something.

  Rsiran backed up a step. “Release her,” he said to the woman.

  A feral smile twisted her mouth. “Tell me about your other ability. You can manipulate heartstone?”

  Jessa took a step toward him. The knife came close to his chest. Rsiran didn’t want to move too far from her and risk not being able to Slide them to safety, but if she kept the knife where it was, he might not be able to reach her. Della might be able to clear what this woman did… at least, he hoped she could. But what if she couldn’t? What if the Compelling held even when they were away from her?

  “Release her, and I’ll answer your questions. As long as you’ll answer mine.”

  The woman grinned in a wolfish flash of teeth. “Fair enough.”

  Jessa blinked and lowered the knife. “I’m sorry, Rsiran. I couldn’t control what I was doing. It was like there was another mind inside me, making me…”

  He pulled her to him and wrapped an arm around her. “I know. And we’ll make sure she didn’t do anything permanent,” he whispered.

  The woman pointed to a chair. “Sit while we talk. That way, I’ll know you won’t travel from here.”

  Rsiran checked to ensure his barriers were in place and fortified with heartstone. She didn’t know he could Slide without moving. Perhaps she hadn’t stolen that knowledge from Jessa. Or maybe Jessa didn’t know.

  Rsiran pushed a heavy, wooden chair toward the woman and sat in front of her. He cleared his mind of lorcith as he did, focusing on the heartstone all around him. If he needed to Slide, he wouldn’t be able to anchor to lorcith here, not if he couldn’t even sense lorcith outside the walls. Heartstone might work and allow him to slip past it.

  Jessa stood beside him. She clutched the knife in her hand, holding it against her chest. One hand rested on his shoulder, gripping the fabric of his shirt tightly. If they needed to quickly Slide, the connection made certain she came with him.

  “Where are we?” Rsiran asked.

  “My question first.”

  Rsiran took a deep breath before answering. She might know if he didn’t tell the truth. If she could freely access Jessa—if she could Read her as well as she Compelled her—then he risked angering her if he didn’t speak the truth. But he didn’t want to share everything with her, either.

  “I can hear heartstone.”

  The woman frowned. “Hear?”

  He nodded. “Lorcith has a… a call. A voice of sorts.”

  “Some who hear it call it a song.”

  Rsiran nodded. The boy from the mines had called it that. “It calls to me.”

  “The original smiths all heard lorcith. They were chosen by the Great Watcher to work the metal. It is not surprising that you can hear it.”

  Della had once said the same, but had never shared more than that with him.

  “Yet you claim you can hear heartstone. I have never known anyone with such a gift.”

  Rsiran again debated how much to share. She already knew he could hear heartstone if he listened. It didn’t matter what else he told her of it. “Mostly the alloy. I think it’s the connection to lorcith I sense.”

  The woman leaned forward and placed her hands on her knees. Long fingers bore wrinkles from age. Her pale skin had blotches of brown in places. “But there is none of the alloy here.”

  Rsiran frowned and listened, trying to ignore the wild thumping of his heart. Hadn’t he sensed the heartstone alloy? He’d never sensed pure heartstone before, though had never really tried.

  What he sensed in the walls did feel different from the alloy. And the pin holding her hair up was not really the alloy.

  Could he be sensing pure heartstone?

  “You didn’t know.”

  He shook his head. “Always before it was the alloy. That was how I managed to forge it.”

  “It is said that only a rare smith can work an alloy of lorcith, even when the smiths were revered. In your city, those who can are no longer smiths.”

  It took a moment to realize what she was telling him. The alchemists.

  That meant they could hear lorcith as well.

  “Who are you?” Rsiran asked.

  The woman leaned back in her chair and crossed her hands over her chest. “Which of my titles would you like?” she asked. “For I have many. I am the Eldest. The Mother. The Watcher. The Leader. The Exile. Forgotten.”

  “What is your name?”

  “Ah. That is a different question. Mine first. You hide something of your ability with lorcith from me. What is it?”

  It didn’t matter if he answered. The Forgotten had already seen what he could do with lorcith, if Shael hadn’t told them already. Likely, it was the reason Inna waited until they were seated and practically disarmed before attacking.

  “I suspect you already know the answer.”

  She waited.

  “I can push on lorcith. It listens to me.”

  She frowned. “And obeys?”

  Rsiran had never really tried to explain how he pushed lorcith, only that it worked. The metal followed his commands, but only lorcith. He could pull on the alloy, but wasn’t that the lorcith in it that responded to him? He’d never really tried with heartstone.

  He took the broken knife they’d taken from Firell and pushed on it. With barely any effort, it hovered in the air, spinning end over end before he let it drop.

  The woman watched the lorcith until it fell back into Rsiran’s hands. “I am Evaelyn. Can you do the same with heartstone?”

  Rsiran shook his head.

  Her eyes flickered to Jessa’s necklace. The chain of heartstone alloy. “Try.”

  He listened for the heartstone. With it al
l around him, infusing the walls of the room, it was easy to do. Rather than focusing on Jessa’s necklace, which was made of the alloy, he pulled on the pin holding the woman’s hair.

  The response was different from that of the lorcith. Lorcith moved immediately or not at all. This felt slippery, as if he couldn’t fully grip the heartstone.

  And then it moved.

  It slid from her hair and across the distance to him. Rsiran caught it.

  The pin was a dull grey and harder than the heartstone he used to make the alloy. That was soft enough he could imprint it with his thumb. This felt firmer, but still less solid than lorcith. Lines twirled around the length of the pin, spiraling in a pattern that blurred his eyes.

  “I will have that back now.”

  He looked up at Evaelyn. Her face was an unreadable mask, but emotion split it enough for him to see the concern she wore. The corners of her eyes wrinkled slightly.

  Rsiran pushed on the strange pin. Again it felt slippery, as if he couldn’t get a good grip. He had the distinct sense that he wouldn’t have the same control with it as he had with lorcith, that if he squeezed too hard, the heartstone would slip away from him in a direction he didn’t intend.

  With a cautious push, it crossed to Evaelyn. She pinched it carefully and rolled it in her hands, running her eyes along the length of it before slipping it back into her hair.

  “It seems you can control heartstone as well. It makes you dangerous. Others will wish to know how you manage.” She looked to Jessa and her eyes narrowed. “And it seems they already know of your ability.”

  Venass.

  “The scholars wish to learn as well,” he admitted.

  She sniffed. “Scholars? Is that what you think of them? Perhaps you should live outside Elaeavn for a time, see if you still think of them as ‘scholars’.”

  “What are they, then?”

  She shook her head. “You called me a name when you first saw me. What was it?”

  Rsiran hesitated. She’d already heard him say it, so why would she ask? “You looked like someone else I know. A woman in Elaeavn.”

  She tilted her head, waiting.

  Rsiran took a breath. “I thought you were a woman I know as Della.”