The Tower of Venass (The Dark Ability Book 3)

by Holmberg, D. K.

  And how could he get back out? He might have Slid here, but he didn’t know if he could find his way back out. And Jessa was nowhere to be seen.

  His heart hammered. When first learning to Slide with her, he’d worried about what would happen if he lost her during the Slide. Where would she end up? Would she carry onward to where they traveled or would she emerge along the way?

  He listened for the lorcith in her charm and knives, but with lorcith all around him, he couldn’t focus well enough.

  Rsiran tried to steady his breathing, but failed. He couldn’t clear his head enough to listen for her. She might be stuck, trapped somewhere in the palace. Or worse, caught in that place between Slides.

  The glowing orbs surged brighter with one still pulsing slightly, beckoning him toward it.

  The pedestal seemed made of twisted wood, almost like vines… or roots of some great trees… weaving together to hold the orb almost at eye level. The blue light came from deep within it, vibrant and pure. If he stared too long, Rsiran felt as if he might be drawn into it.

  He started to turn away, but paused.

  Isn’t this what he came for? Didn’t he want to know what the Elvraeth protected?

  Nothing about this was like anything he’d ever encountered. And he knew with a deep certainty, the Forgotten and Venass could not be allowed to reach here. Had he not had the ability to sense lorcith—and the heartstone—he doubted he would have been able to find it. Which meant that they wouldn’t be able to find it.

  No longer did he want to remain. He wanted to return, find Della and ask about the orbs. And after that, he hoped Venass wouldn’t reach him. All he wanted was to live in peace, Jessa at his side.

  First, he had to find her.

  But how? While he felt lorcith all around him, he had no way of sensing her.

  He tried to Slide a step away from the glowing blue lights and failed.

  Sweat slicked his hands, and he wiped them on his pants. He was trapped.

  Chapter 37

  Rsiran looked around the room, searching for some other way to go back. If this room was in the palace, then it made sense there would be some way to access it other than Sliding, especially given the way the Elvraeth had protected the palace against Sliding.

  He moved away from the softly glowing orbs. The nearest one still pulsed slowly. If Rsiran stared too long, he felt he would be drawn to pick it up and slip it into his pocket. After everything he’d been through over the last few months, the last thing he wanted to do was take something like that from the Elvraeth.

  A high wall rose overhead in the pool of shadows at the edge of the light. The air felt different, stirring with a soft breeze that touched his cheeks and cooled him. Rsiran touched the wall and found it warm like the rest of the room. Shapes were etched into the wall, but he couldn’t see through the shadows to discern what they were, whether writing or simply decorative. He traced his way around, following the wall, trailing his hand along as he went.

  Rather than running straight, the wall circled the room. He didn’t find any other access. No doors interrupted the wall. Nothing that would provide a way out.

  He looked up. The distant lights that twinkled in the darkness above could be open sky, but he had no way of reaching it. And without being able to Slide, he couldn’t escape.

  Panic sent his heart racing. The Elvraeth would find him. And then what? Would they force him to tell them why he’d come? If he couldn’t Slide from here, they must have some method of restricting abilities, more than what the Elvraeth chains had managed.

  Or did they?

  Rsiran looked back at the lights. He’d managed to Slide here. Had the Elvraeth blocked his ability, they would have prevented him from reaching this room. But they hadn’t.

  He slowly looped around the ring that surrounded the pedestals. Each glowing orb looked the same, resting on a similar pedestal made of the same twisted wood. But when he stared at them, actually studied them, subtle differences slowly emerged.

  At first, he saw a difference to the light in them. He’d thought the blue glow coming from them the same, but the more he studied them, the more he realized there was a texture to the light.

  Rsiran frowned, trying and failing to understand what he saw.

  Could the shape of the orbs be different as well? Without touching one, it was hard to tell—the light glowed too brightly for him to know—but he suspected the shape had something to do with the light.

  He continued in the circuit around the orbs, finally stopping before the one that pulsed. The light from this one was definitely different from the others. But why? What about this orb made it different?

  Rsiran circled the pedestal. The twisting wood looked no different from the others, so it was not a measure of the pedestal that made the orb different. In the moments when the light pulsed lower, he almost saw the shape of it.

  As he studied it, it pulled on him.

  Before knowing what he was doing, his face was barely a hand’s width from it.

  This close, he felt warmth radiating from it and knew the orbs were the reason the room felt so warm. It even had a distinct odor, a little like lorcith, but sweeter. Something about it reminded him of Jessa.

  Rsiran needed to get out of here and get to Jessa.

  But there was nothing that would help him escape.

  Nothing but these orbs.

  He steadied his breathing, hoping to slow his pounding heart, and wiped sweaty hands on his pants. Then, without thinking too much about what he did next, he grabbed the orb he’d been studying in both hands and lifted it from its pedestal.

  And then he held his breath.

  The blue light within the orb faded, leaving only a white, almost colorless pulsing light. It began pulsing more rapidly, faster than he could blink. Rsiran felt himself drawn forward—pulled—almost as if Sliding.

  But he had no other sense of movement. No flashes of color as he was accustomed to seeing as he Slid. No scent of lorcith. Just a feeling of movement.

  And then blackness all around.

  The orbs had all gone dark. The air turned cold. He realized he still held his breath and forced himself to suck in a breath. It was cold and tasteless.

  Then white light flashed below him, distantly. He no longer saw the floor, the ring, the orbs.

  For a moment, Rsiran had no idea what he saw, but as he became aware that the sense of the lorcith all around him had faded, he realized what he saw below him was the ore itself, not just sensing it as he always had before but seeing it, in its raw, almost brilliant form but from high above.

  Some of the lights he saw were massive. One in particular seemed incredibly vast, and he wondered if it was Ilphaesn. But how was he seeing this?

  There were other lights below him, some nearly as large. Above what he suspected was Ilphaesn—to the north, he supposed, though direction had little meaning where he was—there was another bright light. He frowned. Could that be Asador? To the east was another, as bright as the last. That would be Thyr. Dozens of other lights flashed. Some he had no idea of what they would represent, and others were separated by great distances, as if separated by the sea.

  How was he seeing this?

  And did it really represent what he thought it did or was this simply some vision of the orb?

  “What is this?” he asked aloud.

  He didn’t expect an answer, and none came.

  The lights shifted, dimming until he couldn’t see them anymore. Slowly, new lights appeared below him, a deep blue that both resembled the light from the orbs and could not compare. As before, some of the lights burned brighter. One in particular, not near where any of the others had been, glowed with a steady, deep blue, nearly the match of the light of the orb he still held in his hands. Within the darkness, Rsiran couldn’t tell where this would be—or even what the lights represented. There were others, though most were smaller, only a pale blue, with the vaguest similarity to the orb. There weren’t as many as the white lig
hts he’d seen before, and he had no sense of location as he had with the other light.

  Then they faded.

  The light of the orb he held faded with it.

  Rsiran was cast into darkness so profound, he felt it in his bones.

  He shivered.

  Because of the time spent in the mines, he hated being in the dark. It left him with a crawling sensation at the back of his mind, like someone crept up behind him. This time was no exception, but the sense came from all around.

  Rsiran turned, looking for who might be near him.

  There was nothing.

  He held out the orb, wishing for light to spring from it again, but it remained dim and grew cool in his hand.

  The presence neared. Rsiran didn’t know what he felt, only that he knew he was no longer alone. And whatever approached was enormous.

  Then it stopped.

  Rsiran held his breath again.

  Moments passed. Time had no meaning. There was only the sense of the other nearby.

  The air warmed suddenly. The orb sprang back to light.

  For a fleeting moment, he thought he saw someone standing next to him. Pain shot through his head, blinding him. When it cleared, whatever he’d seen was gone.

  Rsiran blinked tears from his eyes. He stood in the middle of the circle made by the pedestals, and blue light glowed brightly from them once again. He’d been holding one in his hand, but somehow it had returned to its pedestal and no longer pulsed with different light from the others. He had no way of telling which one he’d held.

  The orb had given him a strange vision, but nothing else had changed. He was still trapped in the room, separated from Jessa.

  Rsiran sank to the ground.

  There was nothing else to do but wait for the Elvraeth to find him.

  Chapter 38

  Rsiran sat on the stone, warmth radiating through him. The sense of lorcith surrounded him again, nearly oppressive. Within the ring of orbs, the light glowed so brightly, he couldn’t see anything else.

  As he sat, he steadied his breathing, focusing on the lorcith.

  While he felt it everywhere around him, he began to wonder if he could listen for lorcith he’d forged. Always before, it pulled on him differently than the mined ore. Could he distinguish it from what he felt around him?

  Time passed as he listened. Rsiran had no idea how much.

  He breathed, listening, hoping that he could find Jessa. She could be trapped anywhere. He still didn’t know if she’d been lost in the space between the Slide or if she’d been captured by the Elvraeth.

  But, if he couldn’t escape from this room, he would never find her. His priority was finding a way out. Once out, he would track her using the lorcith knives she carried.

  Then, slowly, like a tickle at the back of his mind, he had the vague, familiar sense of forged lorcith. Something about this particular lorcith called to him strongly.

  Rsiran grabbed onto this distant sense and held it. At first, he did nothing else.

  It became more distinct the longer he held onto it. Something about it changed. Not just the sense of lorcith, but there came a sense of warmth and light that reminded him of the vision he’d had while holding the orb.

  Rsiran almost lost his connection.

  He steadied his breathing again and listened.

  This time, as he reestablished the connection to the lorcith, he pulled rather than using it to anchor. It was the same as what he’d done when trapped in Venass. This time, he had the same sense of movement. There came a flash of blue and the sweetly bitter scent he smelled while holding the orb, and then he emerged.

  Rsiran sat in a darkened room without windows or lanterns to give him any light. Lorcith burned nearby, the sense more acute than anything he remembered having before. He didn’t move for a long moment, listening for other lorcith.

  It was all around him, but this time it seemed to come from distinct locations. The knives in the leather he wore around his waist. Another knife, somewhere close. And then the charm.

  “Jessa?” he whispered.

  It had to be her. He’d made the charm for her, made certain she wore it, hoping he could use it to anchor and find her if she went missing. This time, he had been the one who’d gone missing.

  A hand touched his face and ran through his hair. He smelled the flower she wore and when lips touched his, he kissed her back, pulling her down onto his lap. She tasted sweet, like mint. He didn’t stop until someone cleared his throat nearby.

  “Have you had enough?”

  It was Haern.

  “Haern?”

  He grunted.

  “Where are we?”

  “Better question is where have you been?”

  Rsiran shook his head, but had no way of knowing whether they could see the motion. “I tried to Slide into the palace…”

  Jessa tensed atop him, and he put his arms around her, holding her close.

  “What happened when we were separated in the Slide?” he asked. At least she hadn’t been trapped in the place between the Slides. Rsiran wasn’t sure he would have been able to find her again.

  “You were holding my hand when you Slid, but I slipped away.”

  It had felt like they were torn apart to him. At least she was safe. Whatever else happened, he could get them to safety.

  “How did you find Haern?”

  Haern grunted again, softer this time. “Not too hard. She was standing just inside the door.”

  “Where are we?”

  “You don’t know?” Jessa asked.

  “I can’t see anything.”

  “Still a babe,” she whispered in his ear.

  “We’re in the palace. Too many guards coming by for us to move safely. Jessa said to find a place to hide and that you’d find us. Didn’t know if I should believe her.”

  “How long have you been here?”

  No one answered.

  “How long?”

  “It’s been the better part of a day, Rsiran. When I lost you… I didn’t know what to do. I knew it wasn’t safe for me in the palace. I traced my way back and reached the door when Haern pushed it open. We heard voices and knew we needed to hide. This was the first door we found.”

  “A day?” he repeated. “How have I been gone a day?”

  “That’s what I keep asking Jessa.”

  Rsiran looked toward Haern’s voice. The darkness had faded somewhat, and he thought he could make out a shadowed outline crouching nearby. “Why did you stay here?”

  “Where else would we go?” Jessa asked. “If we returned to the palace yard, we would have to make it up the wall before the guards found us. I wasn’t sure we could manage without getting caught.” She squeezed him and seemed reluctant to let him go. “So we waited.”

  From the edge of tension in her voice, he could tell how difficult it had been for her to wait. Jessa prided herself on her ability as a sneak, and waiting meant she didn’t think she could manage to escape on her own.

  But what would have happened had he not been able to escape from the room with the orbs? Would they have tried to get out on their own eventually?

  Rsiran didn’t want to think about that. He had escaped, though he still didn’t know what the vision meant that he had while holding the orb. And what did it mean that he’d twice managed to Slide without taking a step?

  “What’s in here?” With the darkness, Rsiran couldn’t see anything and again wished he had some of Jessa’s Sight.

  “Boxes.”

  The darkness around him continued to fade, but not enough for him to make out anything but lines, gradients of shadows. “Boxes? Like the crates in the warehouse?”

  “Pretty much. These are smaller. I can’t really tell what’s in them. This is even too dark for me, and I don’t dare step out to find a lantern.”

  “How haven’t you been discovered?”

  Haern grunted. “Damn lucky.” His voice sounded closer. “Did you find what you were looking for?”


  Rsiran took a shaky breath. “I think so.”

  What he’d seen in that room could be nothing else. Lorcith all around, the blinding blue glow, the strange pedestals made of a twisted wood, and the massive room with starlight for a ceiling. What else would it have been?

  “I found what they want.” This time, he said it with more conviction. “I don’t know what they think to do, but I’ve seen it. Hopefully Della can provide answers.” He had the sudden memory of the sharp pain stabbing through his head. When he managed to clear his vision, the orb had been back atop the pedestal. “I’m not sure they can even take what’s there.”

  “Could you reach it again?” Haern asked.

  He tried to remember the sense he’d felt when he cleared his mind, the sense he’d focused on as he Slid to where the orbs were kept. This time, he managed to clear the sense of lorcith away quickly. He felt the heartstone chain around Jessa’s neck. If he listened, he could hear the alloy of the bars within the palace, the heartstone all around him.

  Rsiran pushed this away as well.

  He was left with emptiness. It reminded him of the blackness that had surrounded him after touching the orb.

  Then he felt… something. Warm and powerful and calling to him…

  Rsiran let it go before it pulled him back. He didn’t know if he’d have the strength to return to Jessa.

  “What is it, Rsiran? You almost Slid again.”

  “You felt it?”

  She shook her head. The shadows around her had cleared enough that he could now make out the outline of her face. “I saw it. The swirl of colors that usually surround you when you Slide. But you stopped. At least, I think you did.”

  “I stopped.” He took a deep breath. “I found what the Elvraeth protect.”

  “What? What did you find?” Jessa asked.

  “Some kind of orbs of power,” he said. “I felt connected to the Great Watcher himself when I was there. I think I could reach them again if I tried. When I was there, one of them pulsed softly. I couldn’t find a way out of the room. I couldn’t Slide, and there was the sense of lorcith all around me, like this building in the palace. So I touched it.”