Endless Night

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Why are you trying to soothe the draasin?”

  “Cheneth asked me to see if there was anything I could do. Thought I might be able to heal her.”

  “She’s an elemental.”

  “I know that. And I have healed the draasin before. But this time, what he’s asked of me is different.”

  “Why?” Ciara had stepped closer than she realized and now stood next to Jasn Volth. He smelled of heat, something that reminded her in some ways of Rens, but there was another note that mixed with what she sensed from the way his heart beat steadily in his chest, both more anxious than he outwardly appeared and less anxious than she would have been had she attempted to soothe the draasin.

  “There’s something about the draasin,” he said. “Not sure what it is, but Cheneth claims this one can’t move past what happened to her in Tsanth.”

  “Tenebeth,” she said in a harsh whisper. “He’s tried to… tried to claim me.”

  “Yeah? Well, he tried to claim me too. Didn’t even know it. That’s why I’ve been asked to see if there’s anything I can do for her. If Tenebeth still has some hold…”

  Ciara doubted that even a water shaper would be able to draw Tenebeth away if he still had any hooks in the creature. The only thing that had worked for her had been choosing to refuse, but even that might not be enough. He had nearly claimed her this time. Had she not managed to… to what? Not die? She didn’t really know what she had done. Probably nothing. Had Tenebeth not departed, she didn’t know what would have happened to her.

  The draasin suddenly lunged. Massive jaws snapped, and her tail swung toward her. Ciara brought her j’na around to block, and the draasin’s eyes locked on it briefly, almost as if recognizing it.

  Jasn Volth grabbed her and jumped back, driving them behind the illusion.

  Within the illusion, the draasin roared. Flames burst from it, but Jasn Volth did something to tamp them down.

  “Maybe we’d best get you back to the barracks. I have to talk to Cheneth anyway.”

  He didn’t have to tell her, but she knew the shaping he’d intended had failed. Either the draasin had nothing wrong and he’d angered her, or worse: Tenebeth still influenced the draasin.

  16

  Jasn

  We must ally with the elementals. We must reach them with all the strength that we possess.

  —Rolan al’Sand, Enlightened of Hyaln

  The air sizzled with the shaping that brought Cheneth’s return. Jasn wondered why he should be able to detect it, but was glad he could. After finding Ciara in the woods, and injured at that from a wound she refused to speak about, he needed to find the scholar. And the damn man had been gone long enough.

  He didn’t even have to knock on Cheneth’s door. The scholar threw it open and welcomed Jasn and Ciara inside. Jasn let her go first, watching her as he did. He’d healed her, much like he had healed others in the camp. Had he used water elementals on her? He no longer knew the answer to that, only that if he had, something would change with her. Something always changed.

  When they were inside, Cheneth closed the door and sealed it shut once more. The shaping he used was more complex than any that Jasn would ever have used for something as simple as attempting to seal out listeners, but as he focused on the shaping, he realized that it also created a sort of barrier around the dorm.

  What did Cheneth fear?

  “You faced him, didn’t you?” he said to Ciara.

  She looked at Cheneth guiltily and nodded.

  Jasn took a step forward. “Wait. Faced who?”

  Cheneth frowned. “You weren’t there?”

  Jasn shook his head. “No. After the storm, I went to check on the draasin. Felt your return as well,” he added. “I found her in the forest with a badly broken arm.”

  “You faced him alone?” Cheneth repeated, this time with less anger in his voice.

  “It wasn’t the first time that I have,” she said.

  Cheneth started pacing, making a slow circuit around his desk. He took his glasses off and set them on top of one of the books and rubbed his eyes. “Too fast. He is moving too fast.”

  “Who?” Jasn asked again.

  Cheneth paused in his circuit. “Tenebeth.”

  “You faced Tenebeth?” he asked Ciara.

  As she nodded, she kept her eyes fixed on Cheneth. “How did you know?”

  “The wind shifted,” he said, as if that answered the question.

  “He’s come for me before,” Ciara said. “When I was in Rens, he came. Then in Tsanth. Now here. Why does he follow me?”

  Now he understood why she hadn’t shared where she’d been when she’d fallen, but he had the same question as Ciara. Why would Tenebeth come for her?

  Cheneth sighed. “I thought we would have more time. And if you’re alive, then perhaps we still do,” he said. “You need to gain control of your summons, Ciara S’shala.”

  She slammed her spear to the ground. A loud crack erupted through the dorm. “Isn’t that why Olina sent me here? But you’ve done nothing to teach me!”

  “Nothing. What have you learned since you came here?”

  “Nothing.”

  Cheneth smiled and glanced to Jasn. “She says nothing, but nothing is what saves her when Tenebeth comes. The others—you, Alena, and the rest like you—must harden your mind in order to be safe, but this one… this one manages to do so without ever having learned anything. She questions me as she tries to call the draasin when the draasin are here for her to call. All that she has to do is go to it.”

  Jasn glanced at Ciara and saw her staring at Cheneth with heat. Angry like that, she appeared much older, and in some ways, more striking.

  He shook the thought away.

  “I thought you said the barracks were safe,” Jasn said to Cheneth.

  “The barracks are as safe as I can make them. I thought we had more time. Something has changed.”

  “He said others come to him.”

  Cheneth squeezed his eyes shut. “That is what I fear as well. When I return, I hope to have more answers.”

  “Return?” Ciara said. “You will leave again?”

  Jasn felt sorry for her. She had come—or been sent here—to learn whatever Cheneth alone could teach her, but so far, he had been gone for much of the time that she’d been here, leaving her trapped in his dorm with few visitors.

  Had he known… He would have what? Come and spent time with her? Played games with her to distract her from the fact that she was alone and so far from her home?

  None of that mattered to him. It couldn’t.

  Then why hadn’t he left?

  He told himself it was because Alena needed him, and he believed she did. Weakened and connected to the egg, he still didn’t know what would happen to her if the female draasin didn’t help hatch it. Or what would happen to him. They were connected now, so whatever happened to one would happen to the other, wouldn’t it?

  The connection needed to be severed, but he didn’t know how.

  “I haven’t found any way to sever the bond between myself and Alena,” Jasn said.

  “If she can’t get the egg to hatch…”

  “I have warned Alena what must happen. She is reluctant to act.”

  Jasn nodded. Destroying the egg. That had been his suggestion as well, but Alena wanted nothing to do with it.

  “But the bond—”

  Cheneth looked up from the book he stared at on his desk. “The bond is of water, Jasn. There is nothing that I can do to sever it. You must use your connection to water to fix this.”

  “And if I can’t?” he asked, careful not to explain too much in front of Ciara. He didn’t necessarily think she might take advantage of his weakness, or of Alena’s, but the knowledge of the draasin egg wasn’t something he wanted too many to know. It was bad enough that Calan knew, and likely Ifrit.

  “You will have to take care of the problem if Alena will not.”

  Jasn sighed. Could he do that? After all th
at he had done in Rens, and all that he was willing to do, would he be able to destroy the egg now?

  If it meant saving Alena, he would have to.

  “What of Bayan?”

  “What of her?”

  “You said others searched for her. Has anyone managed to find her yet?”

  “There is a trail, but it is faint. Eldridge thinks he might be able to find her.”

  Eldridge had strength. With the man’s connection to the wind, Jasn suspected that he might be able to reach her from anywhere. But Eldridge was a scholar. Perhaps one who had studied in the barracks, but still a scholar. “Are you certain that Eldridge is the right person for this?”

  Cheneth looked up at him and his expression darkened. “I am certain.”

  Frustration surged in him. “Fine.”

  “Focus on what you must do here, Jasn Volth.”

  “And what is that?”

  “The same thing that brought you to the barracks in the first place.”

  He frowned, wondering what Cheneth meant by that. He had come ostensibly to learn, but Lachen had sent him, searching for information. He had wanted him to watch, observe, and report, but he had made no report to Lachen in weeks.

  Was that what Cheneth wanted of him? Did he want him to go to Lachen and share what he’d seen in the barracks? Should he tell Lachen what he’d learned of Tenebeth and the elementals?

  All Jasn wanted was to learn what happened to Katya, but he couldn’t do that until he knew that Alena would be safe. Even then he wasn’t sure he wanted to know if she had been claimed by Tenebeth, and whether that had anything to do with the fact that he’d been tainted by the darkness. If she was, there was nothing he could do to help her.

  As he watched Cheneth behind his desk, pulling a book in front of him to read, he waited for an answer but realized that none would come. Whatever happened would be up to him.

  17

  Alena

  It has been over twenty years since I last walked the halls of Hyaln. I doubt I will be welcomed.

  —Rolan al’Sand, Enlightened of Hyaln

  The night was a blanket of darkness. No stars peeked through the thick clouds, and the air was otherwise still. The scent of rain hung heavy on the air, but Alena couldn’t determine when it might fall. Some water shapers had grown particularly attuned to the clouds and were able to predict the rain. Some could even summon the rain. She could do neither.

  What she needed tonight was not the rain but the darkness.

  She led Sashi through the barracks, the stone chain wrapped around her wings more for show than anything else. Few people knew the second draasin was even in the camp, but of those who did, she didn’t want to risk them discovering her sneaking the draasin away. And of those who didn’t, she didn’t want them to see her at all.

  Sashi pressed through her mind with an edge of curiosity. She didn’t know what Alena had planned, only that she brought her from the barracks and away from the egg.

  Moving between the buildings left her heart racing. Were there potent water shapers in the camp, they would likely detect her heartbeat. And there were potent water shapers here. Jasn Volth likely knew the moment she moved, but then that connection was more than about water.

  She sensed him and knew he remained in his dorm. He was not alone. Another was with him… female, from what she sensed through their connection.

  That shouldn’t bother her, but for some reason, it did.

  She pulled on the chains, drawing Sashi after her with more force than was necessary. The draasin didn’t deserve to have her pull so strongly, but Sashi didn’t speak to her as she needed, either.

  At the edge of the trees, she allowed herself to relax. At least here, within the tall oaks and the elms that grew in this part of the forest, the shadows drifting off them protected her more and gave her enough cover that she didn’t have to fear someone coming upon her by chance.

  She crafted earth and used it in a veil overtop herself. Sashi could hide herself only so well, though she wasn’t worried about the draasin were they to encounter someone else. Alena would simply release the chains and let the draasin fly free if it came to that.

  Do you finally think to abandon your plan? Sashi asked the farther they went from the barracks.

  Not abandon, Alena sent.

  They stopped near the remains of the pen. They had been repaired, but the work was incomplete. Without a strong earth shaper and someone to set the runes, the repair could never fully be finished. Jasn had done what he could with them, but it was not enough. Someone like Wyath, with his skill with earth, would be better equipped to handle the task.

  Alena wasn’t convinced she wanted that. If not for the need to have someplace easier to work with the draasin, she would never have returned her here. The egg… it would be safe in the barracks, at least until Alena could convince Sashi to hatch it. But she needed to convince her to do more than that. She needed to convince her to help separate the connection. If she didn’t, she might really have to destroy the egg. Given the dreams she had been having, dreams where she sensed the life from it, knowing that the draasin developed and was ready for life if it only had the necessary spark, she didn’t think she could tolerate allowing the draasin egg to be destroyed. Better that she die than the draasin.

  This is where you would bring me? Sashi asked. After what happened here the last time?

  There is no other place where you can be safe.

  Release me then. I will be safe in the skies with the sun on my back.

  With the connection she shared with Sashi, she sensed the hint of darkness the other draasin had mentioned. It was there, faint, at the back of her mind. What would happen were she to release the draasin? Would she simply fly back toward Rens? Would Tenebeth seek to claim her again? Or something else?

  Alena didn’t know, and that made her fearful of simply releasing her.

  You will be safe here, she repeated.

  Sashi snorted. There is no safety, Lren. Not anymore.

  We healed you, didn’t we? We brought you back.

  You brought me back, the draasin agreed, but for what? Voidan will return. I felt the power he possesses. It rivals the Mother.

  Then you will be safe.

  Sashi snorted again and flicked her tail. She swung her massive head to face Alena. In the darkness, with no moonlight overhead and the stars obscured by clouds, her eyes seemed almost to glow. This draasin was powerful, if only she could see that.

  If she couldn’t, and if Alena couldn’t find a way to help her, would it matter that they had managed to rescue her from the connection to the darkness? Would it matter if Tenebeth had been stricken from her mind if Sashi never recovered? And if Alena couldn’t find a way to help her, what would happen were they to find other draasin? Would they remain trapped with their fear?

  Alena attempted to press a shaping of earth into the stone of the pen, wanting to seal the individual rocks together. Doing so taxed her more than it would have before she’d bonded to the egg, but it held. Thankfully, it held.

  Using a focused shaping of fire, she added the rune for earth to the pen and sealed it in place. That was nearly more than she could tolerate.

  As the rune took hold, she staggered and fell to her knees. Sashi only watched her, making no attempt to shake free of the stone chains. Alena wouldn’t have been strong enough to stop her if she did.

  Why do you fight this, Lren?

  Alena looked up, weary, and made a point of meeting Sashi’s eyes. Because you won’t.

  Alena returned to the draasin pen deep in the woods the following day. Sashi remained beneath the stone, the walls barely held together by her shaping. But they did hold.

  Rain had come today, a heavy sleeting rain that filled the streets of the barracks with mud. Rather than leaving in the midst of it, she had remained within her dorm, sitting in front of the crackling fire, waiting for the downpour to stop. Once, such a rain wouldn’t have slowed her, but then she’d had the ability to s
hape. Now, shaping was a struggle. Each attempt drained her, making any attempt precious.

  Finally, the rain eased. Alena waited until it stopped completely before pulling on her boots and trudging through the streets, making her way toward the trees. She passed Ifrit, who only gave her a cursory frown, saying nothing before moving on.

  Alena sighed as she reached the rise leading away from the barracks. It would have been easier to shape her way into the forest, but then she wouldn’t have had any strength remaining to work with the draasin. As it was, she’d slept fitfully outside the stone pen after forming the earth seal, lying on the hard ground with the draasin barely confined by anything more than loose chains, probably watching her the entire time she slept. Had someone else come across the draasin then, what would they have thought?

  No one had. Alena didn’t expect it, either. Calan thought the pen destroyed, and part of the rune she’d placed upon it had been a masking rune, designed to obfuscate the pen’s presence. Someone like Wyath, with his connection to the earth elementals and his sheer strength with earth shaping, would be able to look past the rune and would likely know that the pen existed, but others would have to know to look for it. Had she the strength, she would have preferred finding a safer and more secure place for the draasin, but there was none, and so she didn’t.

  When she finally reached Sashi, she found her sitting outside the pen. The chain lay in a heap near the edge of the pen, but Sashi hadn’t attempted to depart.

  You’re still here.

  Where would I have gone? the draasin asked. Where is safe?

  I thought you might fly toward Rens. Perhaps farther south.

  South. Is that where you think we’ll find safety? As I have told you, there is no safety from Voidan.

  Alena lifted the stone chain and pulled it away from the pen. What did it mean that Sashi hadn’t left? Could she recognize that Alena wanted only to help? Or had she simply given up? The way the draasin folded her wings over herself made the latter more likely.