The Gift of Madness (The Lost Prophecy Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The first daneamiin he came across was Chollin. Jakob had seen him the first time he’d arrived in the Unknown Lands, and he had welcomed him. “The forest grants your return, Jakob Nialsen,” Chollin said.

  Jakob tipped his head. For the first time, he thought he understood what the daneamiin meant when they said that. The trees did grant his return. “My return warms me,” he said.

  “You would find Anda?”

  “I would find her.”

  The daneamiin pointed toward the darker heart of the Old Forest. “She will be there with Aruhn.”

  “How is Jostephon?”

  Chollin smiled slightly. “He is as well as could be expected for someone who thinks we are nothing more than animals. To him, I suspect we are no different from the squirrels crawling across the tree branches.”

  “How many squirrels are there in the Old Forest?” Jakob asked. He didn’t have the sense that there were many other creatures in this part of the forest. There might be, but he never noted them, and there was no pressure on his ahmaean from them. In the daneamiin forest, where he had first met them, there had been other animals that intruded upon his sense of ahmaean.

  “The squirrels do not necessarily care for these trees, nor did they care for these nuts.”

  Jakob chuckled. “I think Jostephon would say that he doesn’t necessarily care for these trees.”

  The daneamiin smiled. “Perhaps that is true. He thinks that we should free him because he has asked.”

  “The trees continue to hold him?” That had been one of Jakob’s concerns, but bringing him here, and stripping him of power, had seemed a way to prevent him from causing harm to any others, and it would leave him alive were there a need to question him further.

  “The trees have not forgiven him,” Chollin said.

  “Good. And Dendril?”

  “The warrior continues to recover.”

  Jakob nodded. Following their capture of Jostephon, Dendril had been injured, and Jakob had brought him here to heal him as much as he could. Eventually, Jakob would have to return him to the Conclave.

  He bowed to the daneamiin and headed toward the deeper part of the forest, looking for Anda. He would recognize her ahmaean and thought he could use that to help him determine where she was. Around the daneamiin, there were hundreds of individuals with ahmaean, and many of them had significant power. It had been striking when he first had come to their lands and had first detected their connection not only to the trees but to each other. There was not a structure like the Cala maah in the Old Forest, nothing with that level of power, but even without that, there was still a sense of great power here within the trees.

  That power was what had intimidated the damahne. The oldest of the damahne had been reluctant to enter the forest, thinking the power here was almost sentient. Shoren had hesitated coming to these lands. Jakob had not found anything within the Old Forest that struck him as dangerous, there did seem to be some intent on the part of the forest. Like the pressure he felt when he shifted here. It was strange, but it didn’t evoke a sense danger.

  As he walked, he gazed up at the daneamiin moving along the trees, wandering the branches much like they once had back in their forest home. He smiled at the flickering way they moved, and he felt the familiar pull of Anda’s ahmaean. It practically called to him and reverberated against his own ahmaean.

  He found her standing on an upper branch of one particularly massive tree. Jakob shifted, joining her in the tree.

  She bowed her head. “The trees welcome your return, Jakob Nialsen.”

  “I am pleased to be back among the trees.”

  Anda looked at him, a smile on her face. She touched his hand, and warmth and relaxation washed through him. “You’ve been gone longer than I anticipated,” she said.

  “It’s been longer than I wanted,” he said.

  “You have not completed your task.”

  “Raime still lives. Groeliin attacked Chrysia and captured several of those I saved from the madness.”

  “They will use them,” she said.

  “I fear the same.”

  “And you chose not to attack?”

  “I don’t know that I can attack on my own. The larger groeliin seem to grow even more powerful. I’m trying to understand what I need to do, and have been searching for those who can help. If I can get my brother and the others recovering from the madness to have some control of their damahne abilities, I think we might be able to stop the groeliin.”

  “Only the groeliin?”

  “I would like to stop more than the groeliin, but I will start with them.”

  Strangely, stopping a dozen powerful groeliin seemed easier than stopping one man, but that one man had lived for centuries and had more knowledge than anyone alive. Jakob couldn’t begin to know the things Raime knew, or anticipate the way that Raime could. All he could hope was that he could find a way to surprise Raime. So far, that had been how he had managed to overcome him. Raime hadn’t expected Jakob. He hadn’t expected that another with abilities would appear and had not counted on the fact that Jakob might be able to counter him.

  Jakob doubted he would have such an element of surprise him many more times.

  “I don’t know that I can offer much help,” Anda said.

  Jakob didn’t expect her to. The daneamiin were not creatures of violence. They, more than any others, were a reflection of the Urmahne ideals. Perhaps even more than the damahne, though the ancient damahne had lived by the ideal of peace—at least, he thought they had. There were some who fought and argued, but that had not been the norm.

  “You are helping as much as you can.”

  “The Mage? The forest has done that. Neither my people nor I control him.”

  “It might be the forest, but it is also your people. I doubt the forest would assist without the presence of your people.”

  “What of the historian?”

  “He is with the Antrilii. I’ve asked him to learn what the Antrilii know of the groeliin.”

  Anda smiled, and another wave of relaxation washed through him. “You have made the connection.”

  “I think you intended for me to make that connection a while ago,” he said.

  Anda nodded slowly. “You began asking the questions in the western forest, but you never completed the connection. I knew you would make the connection eventually, but I also knew it would take some time.”

  “What do your people know about the groeliin?”

  Anda studied his face and motioned to him. “Come with me, Jakob Nialsen.”

  She flickered across the branches, somehow jumping from branch to branch before reaching the ground. Jakob followed by shifting, not using the same flickering movement of the daneamiin. He had tried to do the same in the past and had actually succeeded moderately when he and the nemerahl had been trying to escape from the massive groeliin up north, but it was simpler for him to shift.

  Once he was on the ground, Anda motioned for him to follow her, and they made their way to a tree at the center of a clearing. The tree was enormous, dozens of paces across, and had a central opening in it that reminded him somewhat of the Cala maah. Anda stepped into that opening and disappeared.

  Jakob followed her.

  Once inside, the smell of the forest changed, becoming one of wet dirt mixed with something else. Something about it reminded him of teralin, though he didn’t think there was any of the metal present here.

  The ground sloped downward before opening up into a massive chamber. It was much like the Cala maah.

  “How have you re-created this?”

  “The trees are powerful, and they recognize our needs,” Anda said.

  Jakob realized they weren’t alone. Aruhn waited in the center of the chamber. Had he known that Anda brought Jakob here?

  The older daneamiin tipped his head in a short nod. “Jakob Nialsen, the trees have welcomed your return.”

  “Aruhn. My return warms me.”

  “He has questio
ns of the groeliin,” Anda said, looking to Aruhn.

  “We knew that he would.”

  Jakob glanced from Anda to Aruhn. “What is it?”

  Aruhn held out his hand and looked to Anda. She took her father’s hand and waited for Jakob to join them. When he did, their ahmaean began to swirl, moving in a rhythm that reminded him of when he had been within the Cala maah.

  “When you walked back along my fibers, I thought you would have glimpsed the answer, but you did not.”

  Jakob shook his head. “I was focused on changing what had happened to you, and undoing the damage Raime had done.” He studied Aruhn for a moment and frowned. “What was it?”

  They continued to move in a steady rhythm he watched the ahmaean flicker from person to person, touching Anda, and then Aruhn, and then back to Jakob.

  “This is something you must see, and not something I can explain,” Aruhn said.

  The energy continued to pull on him, drawing inward.

  Jakob recognized what they were doing, and took control as they pulled him along the fibers.

  The energy drew him back. There had been a time when it would have been painful. Jakob still remembered the way that his mind had felt torn in two when he’d first experienced being drawn back along the fibers, the way it felt raw and exposed. He rarely felt that way now but wondered if it would change anything for him if he did. When he’d first been learning of his abilities, having that pain shoot through him had been a sign that things were changing for him. Without that shifting in his mind, did it mean he was no longer changing, or did it mean he had reached his full potential?

  It didn’t feel as if he’d reached everything that he should be able to do. He felt he should be capable of doing much more. Especially with the amount of ahmaean he possessed and could now manipulate.

  The fibers blurred past.

  The sensation reminded him of how he’d stepped outside of the fibers while within the cavern of teralin in the northern mountains, though between Aruhn and Anda, he didn’t feel connected to quite as much power as he somehow had managed there. Jakob didn’t think he could step beyond the fibers on his own, not without the help of teralin. What the daneamiin did guiding him didn’t force him outside the fibers in the same way. This pushed him back along the fibers, but beyond his own connection.

  Images flashed by, surging through his mind, and he thought he should understand what he was seeing but didn’t.

  The sense of movement increased, and Jakob tried to anchor himself and reach for the fibers, but there was nothing for him to reach for to slow himself.

  Were they pushing him back too fast?

  Was there no control?

  Aruhn had always used the Cala maah for this. What did it mean that he didn’t this time? Would Jakob be in more danger because they didn’t?

  There wasn’t time to consider.

  Pressure built in his head, a painful sense like his ears needing to pop. It increased quickly, going from an ache to an overwhelming pain. The feeling of movement continued.

  Had he been anywhere else, he thought he might scream, but there would be no words in this place.

  Images continued to flash past him, faster and faster.

  Some were images he thought he should recognize. Most were nothing more than a blur of color. As he tried to focus on them, he couldn’t, and his mind started spinning.

  Pain overcame him.

  His head shattered in a way that it hadn’t for a while.

  And then all movement stopped.

  Chapter Eighteen

  His eyes opened upon a wide meadow. Flowers in dozens of colors flowed around him, lending their fragrance to the air. The bright sun shone overhead but was not hot. A soft breeze tugged at him, enough that he felt it on his neck and arms, and caused the flowers to sway, as if dancing. He could follow that dance and seemed to know the rhythm.

  Where was he?

  Aruhn and Anda had pushed him back along the fibers, but then he’d taken control, pushing himself back with even more force. That might have been a mistake. Both of the daneamiin would have had some control over sending him back along the fibers. Had he been too aggressive? Would that mean he had come back too far?

  There had been something Aruhn wanted him to see. Whatever it was had been something the daneamiin had been hesitant to simply tell him about. What could trouble the daneamiin so much?

  A better question than where he might be was who he might be. He’d come back along the fibers in many different forms, but most often a damahne had been his host. They seemed to understand, even when he took control of them. He’d had visions in which he saw things through the eyes of the daneamiin, but not often enough to know how much his presence troubled them. The only time he had truly taken control had been when trying to find Shoren. Had he not, Raime would have succeeded in whatever plan he had to damage the fibers.

  He had taken other forms. Occasionally, he would come back as a man. When he’d been Niall, he had known the damahne, and had known his role, but what else had he known? There was the man from Polle Pal, though that vision was different. There hadn’t been any control, and Jakob had nearly lost himself in it. There were times when he thought of that vision, and the way the man had suffered, and wished he could have done something—anything—to have changed that pain for him, but the past was not something he should alter, even if he could. The more he walked back, the more he questioned whether it could be altered.

  And now?

  What was he this time?

  Jakob stretched his arms out. Long fingers. Pale skin. The clothes he wore had a distinctive flowing style that reminded him more of the daneamiin.

  Not man. Probably not damahne. Which meant daneamiin.

  That made sense, especially as Aruhn and Anda had been responsible for sending him back. Whatever they had wanted him to see would only be found along the daneamiin connection, not along a damahne.

  Why here?

  He was alone in the meadow, though he felt much strength here. The sense of ahmaean flowing through here was incredible. It surged through the ground, flowing beneath the soil, and beneath the flowers themselves, connecting both. As he attempted to pull on the ahmaean, it didn’t react to him as he expected. It resisted.

  That was odd.

  Even when he’d gone back in the form of the daneamiin, he had used his connection to ahmaean no differently. Was the ahmaean different, or was it him? It was possible that he was the one who was different, especially without knowing how far back he’d come. Would the earliest daneamiin have the same ability to touch the ahmaean as they had now? It was likely they would. Probably even more than they did now, especially as they were more tightly connected to the damahne, which would make it more likely that they were able to reach more power.

  Jakob took a step.

  There was a flowing quality to his movement that felt different from his visions of the daneamiin. It wasn’t the same flickering he’d seen when he had been in the vision while within the Cala maah, and it wasn’t the same as what he’d known when he’d gone back to try and save Aruhn.

  He looked down at himself again, searching for the ahmaean that would have to surround him. Within this form, he should still be able to see it. When he’d been Niall, he thought he had still seen it, but maybe he had not. What about the other man—Daniel?

  There hadn’t been ahmaean… had there?

  Maybe the host dictated what ability and connection to ahmaean he would have. It made sense for that to be the case, but if it was, why would he have learned how to flicker when he walked as the daneamiin did?

  Because he was descended from them. Maybe he had daneamiin ahmaean. Would that mean he had other connections within him, beyond what he’d thought was only damahne?

  His steps took him along the hillside. Birds chirped somewhere in the distance, and as he crested the hill, he heard a soft rushing sound of water. Sunlight glistened off a river in the distance, and a few figures played in the water, jumping
in and out.

  Jakob stood for a moment before he realized why that troubled him: he couldn’t make them out.

  Normally, his vision was good, and he would be able to see things from a distance. But these shapes had blurred edges, and he couldn’t see them clearly. For that matter, everything had a haze to it, as if the colors had shifted. There wasn’t the same vibrancy to them as there should be, and other than the sun off the water, nothing had a brightness to it.

  That was strange to him, but when he walked back along the fibers, there were often strange things that happened. What was it about his host that let him see the world in this way?

  Was there any way for Jakob to retreat from the host enough for him to know what the host knew? Could he do it without letting the host know that he was here? There could be danger otherwise, but then, there was danger for the host simply with Jakob walking back as strongly as he did.

  He reached for his connection to ahmaean and managed to grasp it faintly. It wasn’t like it should be, and he found himself searching for help, reaching toward the ahmaean within the meadow to help. The flowers continued to resist.

  That wasn’t quite right.

  They didn’t resist, they simply didn’t respond. The ahmaean was there within the meadow, but he couldn’t reach it as he thought he should be able to.

  Jakob focused on what he could reach.

  There was ahmaean within him, but the connection was weak and somewhat different from what he was accustomed to using. When he tugged on that power, it came, though it did so with a sense of reluctance, as if the ahmaean itself didn’t want to offer any help.

  Slowly, the power pulled within him, going inward.

  As it did, Jakob felt a surge of familiar ahmaean. The connection he’d forged allowed him to reach the ahmaean he normally could. His ahmaean.

  He retreated.

  It was only enough for him to draw away from his host’s mind, but doing so allowed Jakob to observe. He didn’t want to be the one controlling the host, especially if there was something he was meant to learn here. How could he learn if he was in control? He would have to see how the host interacted with everything around him.