The Tower of Venass (The Dark Ability Book 3)

by Holmberg, D. K.

  Rsiran Slid, emerging atop the roof of his smithy.

  Moonlight shimmered around him, filtering through thick clouds. The air felt heavy and damp, smelling of rain. Waves crashed against the shore, the sound carrying well. Gulls cawed as they circled. A cat yowled somewhere nearby, a single cry.

  Rsiran shivered.

  He crept forward, using the slope of his roof as cover. The thick tiles were damp, and he had to move carefully so he didn’t tumble off. Rsiran didn’t dare Slide to the edge, not certain whether he would emerge safely.

  When he reached a point where he could look down, the alley below was empty.

  Rsiran frowned. There had been tapping on the door.

  He looked up the alley. Most of the buildings were abandoned, no one but squatters living in them anymore. That was the reason the smithy remained hidden. Nobody would report the sounds of his work to the constables for fear of being discovered themselves.

  The moonlight didn’t reach far enough for him to see well. Water pooled along the alley where the cobbles were pulled up. Shadows stretched outward, growing thicker the farther away from the smithy they went. Something moved below, small and slipping between the shadows. Likely the cat he’d heard.

  But he saw no sign of whoever tapped on the door.

  He should have brought Jessa. At least her Sight would have penetrated the darkness.

  Crawling back up the slope roof, he Slid back into the smithy.

  But emerged in Della’s house.

  He blinked. Fire crackled warmly in the hearth. Mint tea steeped in a steaming pot. Della sat in her chair facing the fire, a striped scarf wrapped around her shoulders and a cup of tea held between both hands.

  She looked up, unsurprised at his appearance.

  “Sit, Rsiran. I’ve got tea for you.”

  Rsiran shook his head. “Why did you pull me here?”

  She smiled. “Brusus has already gone to fetch Jessa so you needn’t worry for her. You and I need a few moments to speak.”

  “You knew I’d returned?”

  She tipped her head toward her cup and inhaled deeply. “I knew you’d returned. I knew when you left. I felt it each time you Slid while you were away.”

  “You can feel me Sliding from a distance?”

  She nodded toward the empty chair.

  Rsiran sighed and sat. With Della, he always felt like a child. How many times had he now sat before her fire, either injured or getting advice?

  “Can you feel lorcith from a distance?” Della asked. She handed him a pale white mug. It had a slight crack along the side, but it still held.

  “Usually. Unless something blocks me.”

  “Such as heartstone.”

  He frowned. “Heartstone doesn’t block me, not anymore, but sometimes, I need to have something to anchor. When I was in Venass, the walls were infused with lorcith. This is what made it difficult to sense other lorcith.”

  “Infused?”

  He shook his head, trying to come up with a better word. He hadn’t explained to Della what he’d experienced while in Venass. “It was like lorcith was worked into the rock itself, but that isn’t how lorcith is found in the mines. There, it’s only in lump form.”

  Della took another sip of her tea.

  “Could you tell where we were?”

  She shook her head. “That’s not how it works. I can sense the changes from your Sliding, but not where it takes you.”

  “Then how do you influence it? How did you pull me here?”

  She set her tea down. “It is imprecise, at least for me. I can draw you to me, but beyond that, my control is limited.” She shifted the shawl around her shoulders. “Did you find what you sought?”

  “We found Shael. We found the Forgotten.”

  Her brow furrowed. “Dangerous times if they’ve chosen to reveal themselves. What happened to you?”

  “I didn’t want to hurt him. He was poisoning me. Using slithca syrup on me.”

  Della turned slowly to face him. “Are you certain that’s what he called it?”

  He nodded. “The Forgotten were trying to incapacitate me, to break down my defenses so they could Read me. They wanted to learn how I was able to reach the palace.”

  “How you could Slide past the barrier?”

  “Yes.”

  “And did you tell them?”

  Rsiran wrung his hands together and looked over to the fire. “I don’t know what I told them while the slithca syrup worked through my system. There was one woman—a Reader—who might have learned everything in my mind while I was incapacitated.”

  Della shook her head. “A foul thing to do, especially to one like us. Few know how to make slithca syrup. And a good thing. Low doses pull you away from your connection to the Great Watcher. Higher doses…”

  “I couldn’t talk or move. I couldn’t Slide.” He shivered, thinking of how helpless he’d been. Had Jessa not come for him, he didn’t know what would have happened.

  “As I said, a foul thing. And to use it to Read you while under its effects?” She shook her head.

  “I’m not sure how well they were able to Read me. I could still sense lorcith.”

  “Your were able to shroud your thoughts?”

  Rsiran noted she used the same term as Brusus for blocking his mind. “I don’t know. I infuse my barrier with lorcith to strengthen it.”

  The twitch of a smile told him she knew he also used heartstone. “There’s that word again. Do you know how you do it?”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t feel any different than when I pull on lorcith to move it.”

  Della watched him for a moment and then took another sip of her tea.

  “Shael injected me with the syrup. I think… I think he waited too long between injections. I was able to use my lorcith knives.”

  Della closed her eyes and sighed. “You had no other choice, Rsiran. Shael chose a dark path, one that carried with it many risks. Perhaps darker than you even realize.”

  “I still regret what I did.”

  She opened her eyes and looked into the fire. “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”

  Rsiran took a sip of the mint tea. A wave of warmth washed through him. “There was another person we met.”

  She sighed and turned, meeting his eyes. “That is why I called you here.”

  Rsiran gripped the cup tightly. Had Della Read him, even with his barriers in place? “You know Evaelyn?”

  Della nodded. “I knew her many years ago.”

  “Who is she?”

  Della turned back to the fire. “I don’t know what she considers herself these days. She always had an inflated view of what the Great Watcher had in mind for her, but always wanted to put herself before others. That is why she was exiled.”

  “How did you know her?”

  “She didn’t tell you?”

  Rsiran shook his head. “She said you were the reason she was exiled.”

  “That is partly true.”

  “Then who—”

  He didn’t get the chance to finish. The door to Della’s home opened and Jessa rushed in, hurrying over to him. Brusus followed after and closed the door behind her.

  “Are you—”

  “I’m fine. Della wanted to remind me that my Sliding wasn’t always safe.”

  “We already knew that from what happened when we Slid from the palace.”

  Della frowned at him. “You returned to the palace?”

  Brusus leaned against the wall. Since his poisoning, he hadn’t seemed entirely the same. A weariness worked across his face as if he still hadn’t shaken the effects of what happened. One hand fingered the cloth of his pants, twisting it around the ring he wore. “I thought you went to find Shael.”

  Rsiran looked up at Brusus and nodded. “We did. And we found the Forgotten.”

  Brusus’s hand stopped moving. “You found them. Where are they?”

  “Asador probably. But more than that, I don’t know.” And Rsiran wasn’t
about to go searching for them again. They had been lucky to escape this time.

  Brusus looked from Jessa to Rsiran. “How did you find them if you don’t know where they are?”

  “When we were escaping from where I was poisoned—”

  “Excuse me?”

  Rsiran glanced at Jessa. “You didn’t tell him?”

  She shrugged. “Thought we’d tell him together.”

  Rsiran laughed softly. “When we were escaping, I grabbed onto the one thing I could sense. It took us to this… palace. Like the Floating Palace, only different.”

  Della sighed. “And that is where you met Evaelyn.”

  He nodded. “You said you knew her, but how? Who is she?”

  Della took a sip of her tea. “Evaelyn is my sister.”

  Rsiran nearly dropped his tea. “Your sister?” But he reminded himself that the resemblance between them had been enough that he’d confused Evaelyn with Della when he first saw her.

  “She said you were responsible for her exile!” Jessa said.

  “As I said, partly true.”

  “How?” Rsiran didn’t ask about how it meant Della was Elvraeth or why she no longer lived in the palace. Those were questions for another time.

  “As I imagine you learned, she is not without abilities of her own.”

  Rsiran nodded, remembering how she Compelled Jessa to nearly attack him. Jessa touched his shoulder and looked straight ahead. “I was able to block her from Compelling me,” Rsiran said.

  Della smiled. “I wonder how she handled that?”

  Jessa’s face darkened. “She twisted my mind so that I nearly attacked him.”

  Della nodded toward Rsiran. “If you are able to keep her from Reading and Compelling you, your friends become your weakness.”

  Rsiran swallowed. That was what he’d feared, the reason he hadn’t wanted to share with Jessa his plan. But it left him feeling empty.

  “But your friends are also your strength. That is something I am not certain she understands.”

  He looked up to Jessa and took her hand.

  “It felt like someone else was in my head,” Jessa said.

  “For that type of influence, you need to exert more direct control. It is never subtle,” Brusus said.

  “Is that what you do?” Rsiran asked.

  Brusus’s eyes flashed a bright green. “I have never Compelled you. I have only made suggestions.”

  “How is that different?”

  “Trust that it is.”

  Jessa nodded. “What Brusus does is nothing like what she did to my mind.”

  “Would Jessa know if she were being Compelled again?” Rsiran asked.

  Della shook her head. “It depends on how strongly Evaelyn chooses to influence. If it is only a subtle influence, you might never know.”

  “That’s why she was exiled?” Jessa knelt next to Rsiran’s chair, keeping close to him.

  Della nodded. “She used her abilities to Compel another of the family, a young man she desired.”

  The family. Della had practically admitted she was Elvraeth before, but this was a more direct admission. “What happened?”

  “She is not the only one with skill,” Della said. She sighed. “When I tore her from his mind, it was nearly too late. Little could be done to help.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Pray to the Great Watcher that you never have to understand, Rsiran. When I knew Evaelyn, she did not have the control I suspect she now does over her abilities. She delved deeply—too deeply—into his mind, forcing him into an action that was anathema to who he was. With such force, she destroyed his mind.”

  Rsiran shivered thinking of what could have happened to Jessa. Had Evaelyn tried forcing her to attack him, would that have been enough to tear apart her mind? Would she have tried to fight, only to end up changed?

  “She said you know what they’re trying to find.”

  Della frowned. “And you believed her?”

  Rsiran thought about how angry Evaelyn had become when he asked. It was when the questions had stopped. “I had no reason not to believe her.”

  Della looked at him and took another sip of her tea.

  “Della?” Brusus pushed off the wall and took a step toward her. “What do they want?”

  Rsiran answered for her. “Both the Forgotten and Venass are interested in knowing how I can Slide past heartstone alloy.” They hadn’t asked him the same way, but that had been the purpose. Other than the barrier Rsiran created around his smithy, there was only one place with enough alloy to make Sliding difficult. “What do they want in the palace?”

  Della glanced at Brusus before turning to regard Rsiran with a weary gaze. “There are many things the Elvraeth hide, Rsiran. But there is only one thing both Venass and the Forgotten would both seek. And it is something they cannot be allowed to have.”

  “Della?” Brusus asked.

  “No, Brusus. This is not my secret to share. There are things in this world greater than me. I’ve never hidden the fact that I don’t trust those in the palace, but they serve a purpose.”

  “What purpose?”

  “Knowing will only draw you deeper,” she said to Rsiran. “That is my fear. As one with the blood of the Watcher, you are at greatest risk.”

  Brusus frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  “And you should not.”

  “And not knowing?” Brusus asked. “What does that do to us?”

  She didn’t answer, instead, she turned away from them, and sipped at her tea.

  Rsiran couldn’t shake the frustration he felt at Della not sharing with them. After everything they had been through, everything that it seemed the Forgotten and the scholars had gone through to bring him to this point, he felt as if her not sharing placed them at increased risk.

  What was he to do, though?

  Chapter 34

  Rsiran stood by the rocks overlooking the shore. Jessa stood next to him, staring at the sunrise. For long moments, neither spoke. He had been thinking about what to do ever since leaving Della, and kept coming back to the same answer. It was the only thing that would bring them any sense of closure, any sense of understanding, but it was something that could be avoided if only Della were willing to share.

  “I need to go into the palace again,” he finally said.

  Jessa shook her head. “No. That’s not the answer. You heard what Della said.”

  “Della said that the Elvraeth hold secrets. We already knew that. But she won’t share what those secrets might be.”

  “Rsiran, if you go there, if you do that—”

  “But I’m the only one who can. Della won’t tell us what they want, and we can’t be safe without knowing.” As much as he tried, he hadn’t been able to convince Della to share what might be hidden in the palace or learn why she might hide it from them. If there was something there that could help them, why wouldn’t she share with them?

  “And then what?” Jessa asked. “What do you think you can do?”

  “They won’t stop. Not until they find out how to enter the palace.” And here he had thought the key had been the warehouse and what had been stored within it. Instead, he had been the reason the Forgotten began moving. The reason Venass wanted him. And they all wanted a way into the palace.

  Even mentioning it made him anxious, but more than that, he had the urge to get moving. To begin. Once he knew what everyone wanted, he might finally be in a position to stay ahead of them. Maybe then they could be safe.

  Could he really Slide into the palace? The alloy didn’t stop him as it once had, and he wouldn’t need an anchor to get in and back out. With all the time he’d spent Sliding, he didn’t think such short Slides would even require much energy. Then there was the added benefit that he’d already sensed some of his forgings within the palace. He could use them, anchor to them, and reach any place in the palace as easily as Sliding into his smithy.

  The only problem he had was that once he was there, he had
no idea what he was looking for. He suspected that whatever the Elvraeth kept would be hidden deep within the palace. Getting there meant risking exposing himself. Doing so would put him in more danger, but wasn’t he already in danger? Simply being in Elaeavn put him in danger.

  For too long, he’d blamed Brusus for what had happened to him. The more he thought about everything, the more he realized his choices had led him here. It had been his choice to leave the mines. He likely would have died had he stayed, but leaving set off this chain of events. It had been his choice to go searching through the warehouse when he learned of the heartstone. That led him to Firell’s ship and to the alchemists. And it had been his choice to go after Jessa.

  Knowing what he did now, he would not change any of them.

  He could do nothing and wait, but already he’d been sought out. First by Venass. And the Forgotten knew about him now too. Who would search for him next? The palace Elvraeth? The alchemists? Or someone else?

  At least in making a decision, he still had a choice.

  Jessa had been watching him, and she took his hand, squeezing gently. “You don’t have to do this, Rsiran.”

  “And if I don’t, who do I have to fear next? Where can we hide?” Once he would have thought that leaving the city would keep them safe, but it seemed that only put them in more danger. At least here they had friends. They knew the city. Outside… outside there were the exiled Elvraeth and Venass. How could he keep them safe from both?

  “There’s always something that will happen. Fearing what will come does nothing to change it. You just need to trust the Great Watcher knows what he’s doing.”

  “And if not?”

  Jessa shook her head. “You can’t think like that.”

  “When have I ever had reason to think otherwise?”

  “You think you suffer such hardship? That others don’t know what it’s like to suffer?”

  “I’m sorry. I know that you’ve been through a lot—”

  “No more than you. Mine is different. Had Haern not brought me back to Elaeavn… I don’t know what would have happened. I’ve heard the stories, though. I know how they use women outside of Elaeavn. For that, I thank him.”

  “What does this have to do with the Forgotten? With Venass?”