Darkness Rising (The Endless War Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Issa—your Katya—didn’t die that way.”

  Jasn sighed. “I know. And she might not even have died, but that would be worse, wouldn’t it?”

  “Why is that worse?”

  Alena frowned as he reached toward the wall of the pen. He used a shaping of earth in a subtle crafting and the stone began to part.

  Jasn nodded toward the darkness inside the pen. “I’ve struggled with the fact that she might not have died. But if she didn’t, why hasn’t she returned?”

  He sealed the pen closed again, plunging them into darkness. Heat filled the room and the draasin snorted a small trail of flame.

  “After hearing Cheneth, I can only think of one reason, and that’s because she was corrupted by Tenebeth. And if she’s gone, what if she’s now the one using the draasin and attacking along the border?”

  Alena shook her head until she realized Jasn wouldn’t be able to see it. “Cheneth also said that Tenebeth seeks those with the ability to speak to the elementals. When Issa was here, she couldn’t.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  Alena thought of what she remembered of Issa. Dark skinned, tall, and lovely. She had powerful shaping from the beginning and needed guidance. Cheneth had seen potential within her, but Alena hadn’t been certain. Still, she took her as a student, determined not to share too much with her. Issa never discovered that Alena could speak to the elementals, and she’d never displayed any ability to speak to them herself.

  “Why do you ask?” Alena focused on the lanterns she knew were in the pen. Shaping light into them wouldn’t take much, even weakened as she was. The lanterns came to a soft glow, and she saw Jasn staring at her as if he knew exactly where to find her.

  “Because of Ifrit. And Wyath. Probably Thenas. Each person I healed developed the ability to hear the elementals. Why not Katya?”

  Alena opened her mouth, but there was nothing to say. She didn’t know what had happened to Issa after she disappeared. Dead, or so she had thought, but what if not? What if there was a different—and far darker—explanation?

  Nothing she could say would put his mind at ease.

  The draasin snorted, drawing her attention. She was thankful for the distraction.

  Lren. You have brought one of the young with you, but it is too soon for that one.

  The voice was distant and she had to focus on it, but it was there. That distance was likely the reason she hadn’t heard him before.

  “What did he say?” Jasn asked.

  Alena looked to see him staring at the draasin, his eyes narrowed. “He says that it is too soon for this egg.”

  She took a cautious step toward the draasin. Can you help the egg hatch?

  The draasin snorted. You ask for something that cannot be.

  Why?

  The draasin took a few small steps along the wall and turned toward her. He flicked his tail and it slammed into the stone wall, sending a small trail of rock crumbling down toward the floor of the pen. You have known to count the spikes, have you not?

  Alena nodded. That meant that Cheneth was right and that only the female draasin could help hatch the egg. It has attacked me.

  Not attacked, Lren. You have drawn him, and he is already powerful. The one you hold could be great one day.

  How do you know?

  Look at his wings and the coloring. They are vivid, even here. That one must be given a chance to survive, the chance that many of my kind have lost, but the egg is fragile and weak. He does not have much time.

  Alena swallowed. She didn’t need the added pressure from the draasin. I must find a female.

  If you would see this one survive, yes.

  Alena looked over at Jasn and saw that he still stared at the draasin. A puzzled look pinched his face. He took another step, moving closer to the draasin than she had ever seen him.

  How much time do we have?

  The draasin snorted. I am young and have not seen many hatch. You ask what I cannot answer.

  But you have an idea.

  As I have said, the shell is fragile. There is not much time. You must find a mother to feed the egg.

  Feed?

  Fire. He requires fire or he will perish.

  At least now Alena understood why the draasin pulled fire from her, though she had understood, or thought that she’d understood when it—he—had latched on to her shaping. And you cannot provide this fire?

  The connection does not work in such a way.

  Alena wanted to ask what that meant but had the sense that the draasin wasn’t even certain. What do you know of Tenebeth? she asked instead.

  The draasin snorted and flicked his tail again. I do not know this word.

  The darkness that you fear.

  The draasin do not fear, the draasin said, lowering his head and snorting steam at her.

  You have allowed yourself to come here and be confined. There is something you fear. I need to know if I am to help. Alena hesitated, thinking of the draasin that had been taken, drawn by the shadows. There was a draasin here, a female, that has been taken. I would save her if I can.

  There is nothing you can do to save her.

  I can bring her back to the light.

  The draasin twitched his tail and paced along the wall. The Mother.

  Alena frowned and spoke aloud. “The Mother?”

  Jasn glanced at her but still said nothing. He stood close to the draasin, hands lowered to his sides, much more relaxed than she had ever seen him.

  What you call the light, we call the Mother.

  And the darkness? Tenebeth? You have a name for him as well, don’t you?

  The draasin hesitated but then answered. Darkness. Yes, we know the darkness. To the draasin, he is known as Voidan.

  Alena sensed the draasin’s hesitation in telling her even that much. The draasin feared him, feared what this creature they called Voidan would do to them. What is he?

  The Mother is everything. The source of all. The draasin seemed to struggle for what to say. When speaking as they did, the words didn’t always matter. She could understand the draasin, and they could understand her. But there were times when the words did matter, and the draasin struggled with concepts that she easily understood, and just as often, she struggled with what the draasin had knowledge of. Voidan is opposite of the Mother. Emptiness.

  Alena shivered. If Voidan is opposite, then he is powerful?

  Very.

  Why haven’t we seen him before?

  Voidan has always existed, but something has changed. His power grows. The draasin do not understand, but we know that he cannot continue to grow stronger. All will fail then, not only draasin.

  Was there anything she could even do to help the draasin against such a power? Alena didn’t know, but she couldn’t simply wait and do nothing.

  She stepped forward, stretching the egg out in front of her, and set it on the ground in front of the draasin. Heat radiated from it, and for a moment, Alena thought she heard a voice in the back of her mind, tiny and small, but then it was gone. You will need to protect this egg while I am gone.

  Confined as I am?

  Alena noted bitterness from the draasin. The elementals had always claimed the benefit to their “capture” outweighed the torment they felt from their confinement, but she didn’t get that sense from him now.

  You would be free within these walls. You can keep the egg safe until I return.

  And if you do not return, Lren? What happens then?

  Then you will be freed.

  There is no freedom in these lands, not while Voidan wanders.

  How can we confine him?

  The draasin snorted. You must ask the Mother.

  Alena waited for more, but he said nothing.

  She freed him from the chains around his wings and he stretched them, raking his claws across the ground. He breathed out a cloud of steam that filled the air, and then he circled the egg, wrapping his entire body around it.

  “We should go,�
� she said to Jasn.

  He nodded and started back toward the stone wall, pressing a shaping into it that opened the door. Bright daylight spilled inside, and Alena remembered to extinguish the shaping she’d used to light the lanterns, leaving the draasin once more in the dark.

  Hunt well, Lren, the draasin said.

  Alena nodded her thanks and followed Jasn outside. As he sealed the pen door, using a shaping of stone more intricate than she’d realized him capable of, she heard Calan’s voice.

  “Where is it, Alena?” He stepped from the side of the pen, his massive body casting a long shadow.

  “Cheneth asked it to be safe,” she said. “So it is. I have placed the egg with the draasin.”

  Calan’s face clouded. “Cheneth has returned?” She nodded, and Calan’s jaw clenched. “I would see the egg. Even Cheneth cannot deprive me of that right.”

  “Talk to Cheneth. It was his order that I followed.”

  “And what of you?” Calan asked Jasn.

  There seemed a deeper implication to the question, but Jasn only smiled. “Cheneth leads the barracks, does he not?”

  Calan grunted. “For now.”

  She sensed Jasn adding an additional shaping to the pen, but one that she wouldn’t expect from him. Fire, but he mixed it with water in a strange way. The effect was slight, but enough that it would make opening the pen difficult. Calan didn’t even notice what Jasn did. She might not have either if not for the connection they shared.

  He tapped her arm, ignoring Calan. “You will show me the Sanash as you promised.”

  “A waste of time,” Calan said as they walked away. “You will not find the second trial quite so easy with me.”

  Jasn ignored him and led Alena toward the clearing at the edge of the barracks where the shaper circle would be found. It was a measure of how much she had changed that she simply followed him.

  How did she intend to help the draasin when she could barely stand up for herself?

  31

  Jasn

  As I return to the college, I am witness to another event and have observed the turning of one of the draasin. The Khalan still believe they are in control.

  —Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars

  Jasn let the shaping guide him. The connection to Alena helped, but he still wasn’t sure they were going in the right direction. Air whistled past him, but the shaping moved him along, if slower than it should. Bringing Alena with him added to the difficulty, though her efforts assisted their travel.

  “Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?” he asked.

  Alena held on to his hand, squeezing more tightly than was necessary. When he’d suggested they would need to work together, he hadn’t expected her to do so with such anger. The woman hated him, likely because of what he had done before coming to the barracks. Jasn didn’t blame her, either. The man he had been had done terrible things in the name of Ter.

  “I follow Wyath,” she said.

  Jasn didn’t ask how she tracked Wyath. It was probably the same as how she had managed to find him. And had she not… He didn’t want to think about what would have happened. The stone had nearly crushed him, and would have, had she not arrived.

  They moved north. Jasn had traveled much of the lands around Ter but had rarely gone north. Beyond the Gholund Mountains were other small nations he no longer remembered. The scholars in Atenas would be disappointed to know how little he remembered of his geography, but why did it matter when most of his time had been spent along the border with Rens?

  They passed over the mountains. Jasn wasn’t surprised to see that they moved beyond the dark green slopes to flat plains that reminded him of Ter along the northern coast. Land blurred past beneath them, a steady undulating field of green and brown. In the distance, thick storm clouds were visible and thunder rumbled, mixing with the thunder of their shaping.

  Alena began to descend, and Jasn provided more shaping strength to aid as she did. They dropped to soft ground covered by long grasses. Water dampened the blades of grass, soaking through his clothing. Damn, but he wished he would have grabbed a different cloak before making this journey. With the rips in his, the cold wind gusting from the north drifted through the cloth and water managed to get past it, trickling down his legs.

  “Why here?” he asked.

  Alena looked around, her brow furrowing. “This is where I thought I would find Wyath.”

  “Sort of how you found me?”

  “I did find you, didn’t I?”

  Jasn nodded and stepped away from her. The ground was soft beneath his boots, and with the damp grass, he knew there had been a recent rain. To the east, he sensed the vastness of the ocean, the massive swells of water pulling on his senses. He could almost taste the salt in the air but suspected that was only his imagination. The distance to the ocean was too far to truly detect anything out there.

  “What are we looking for?” he asked.

  “The draasin.”

  “And you think that we can simply find the draasin and that will be it? I’ve barely been trained, and you’re weakened.” When she shot him a look, he raised his hands to placate her. “You can refuse to acknowledge that, but it doesn’t change that it’s true. The egg leaches strength from you. I can feel it as it does.” Jasn looked at the sky and shook his head. “Even if we find one of the draasin, or this draasin that you expect us to find, we probably won’t be able to do anything, especially if it has been twisted. You’re going to have to accept help, Alena.”

  “I have. I brought you, but I’m not sure it’s we.”

  “Then you’re not strong enough to help the draasin.”

  Alena shook her head. “I don’t think I am, but you can use the elementals. If you can reach for water, you can use that to help the draasin.”

  Jasn didn’t know what to say at first. The idea of him somehow healing a draasin was impossible to consider. Even if he was able to reach for water, even if he somehow convinced the water elementals to help—and that wasn’t a guarantee—how was he supposed to heal one of the draasin? Blighted stars, but he had a hard enough time healing people at times! When Alena had been injured, there hadn’t been anything he’d been able to do short of nearly sacrificing himself, and Jasn didn’t think that would be the key to helping the draasin.

  “I don’t think—”

  He felt an enormous shaping building, stronger than almost anything he’d ever felt before. The earth rumbled beneath his feet and threatened to throw him to the ground. The last time he’d felt something similar, he had nearly died.

  “Careful!” he urged Alena.

  Lightning split the sky, though the storm seemed far to the south, and struck the ground with a massive explosion of light and fire.

  Jasn readied a shaping, half expecting to need to defend himself. When his vision cleared, Wyath stood only a dozen paces from them, a bemused expression on his face. He had changed since Jasn last saw him. Not only because he was now healed, but it was more than that. Hair that had always been graying had more color to it. Wrinkles had faded. But it was his entire demeanor that had changed as well. He walked without a limp, and vibrancy twinkled in his eyes.

  “You’ve finally come,” he said to Alena. “And you still live. Can’t say that I’m surprised.”

  “What is this, Wyath?” Alena asked.

  “I told you I would find us help,” he said. “I thought you were going for more help than only him.”

  “It’s what I could find. Bayan is gone, and I haven’t found Eldridge.” Alena hesitated. “There is something else, Wyath. We found an egg.”

  He whistled softly to himself. “Cheneth knows?”

  “He knows. But we need to find a female to help it hatch. And the only female I can find quickly enough is the one we followed.”

  Wyath nodded. “She’s in danger, you said.”

  “More than I even realized.”

  Wyath tilted his head, studying her. “So Cheneth shared with
you as well. Good. If half of what he says is true, then we need help.”

  “Did you know about him?”

  “I don’t think he wanted me to know, but I’ve been around the barracks a long time and spent much of that with him. He masks himself well, but not as well as he would like. Finally got him to talk to me, and all he does is tell me about his former teacher.” Wyath shook his head and turned to Jasn. “Commander was right about you, though.”

  “Does Lachen serve Tenebeth?” Jasn asked.

  Wyath tapped one foot on the ground, moving with a restless energy. “I don’t know that I can say with certainty what the commander serves. He has never advocated for peace, but then again, this war was not his choosing, was it?”

  Jasn hadn’t really thought of that. The war with Rens had been going on for years, long before Lachen ever assumed power, back when the commander was a man named Nolan. It was possible Lachen didn’t know anything about the greater war that was coming, but from his comments, Jasn doubted that was true. Lachen knew, only Jasn wasn’t completely sure what he knew. But the attack on the heart of Rens, that was Lachen’s doing.

  When they finished this business with the egg and whatever it took to help the draasin—if they even could—then he would need to go to Lachen again. This time he would have answers. Real answers.

  “We need to find her soon,” Alena said. “If we don’t, the egg will die.”

  That was the first that Jasn had heard of that. “How do you know?”

  Alena shook her head. “The other draasin, the male, warned me that the egg was weak and needs a female.”

  “There are others,” Jasn suggested.

  “How many more? How many will fail until we manage to stop the darkness from using the draasin? How many more will Ter need to destroy?” Heat had entered her voice, and her face flushed with the power of her words. “If what Cheneth tells us is true, then we need to find a way to help the draasin, not harm them.”

  “Do you know where she has gone?” Wyath asked softly.

  Alena closed her eyes and breathed slowly for long moments. “I don’t sense her any longer.”