Endless Night

by D. K. Holmberg

  She sensed movement against the shielding. Alena looked up and saw a shadow slinking along the inner edge.

  She couldn’t make out what it was, but her heart started hammering, betraying her. Draasin, there is another here.

  This cannot stop, Lren, or two of us will perish.

  Alena took a deep breath and kept her focus on the shadow. With the light coming off the draasin, she couldn’t see anything more than that, but she feared what it meant. Thenas had already come for the draasin once. What stopped him from returning now that she had returned? And what better time than when she attempted to help a hatchling?

  Unsheathing her sword, she focused on the runes etched into the steel. Most had been placed by the College of Scholars, a way of marking and naming the sword, but she had placed two herself back when she still had her ability to shape.

  The darkness separated from the edge of the barrier.

  “Thenas,” Alena said.

  He moved more quickly than she would have expected, attempting to dart around her, bringing his hands together so that his palms were cupped outward. Darkness seemed to coalesce there, as if he drew in all the night around him, pulling it into his hands. A shaping surged from him as well, a powerful one if she could sense it. In her weakened state, she hadn’t managed to detect any shapings lately.

  She had one shot. Somehow, she had to stop him before he reached the draasin—or the egg. Alena focused on the energy she could draw, pulling on everything she could muster—which wasn’t much—and sent it through the sword.

  Using the sword could be dangerous. The steel was designed to withstand shapings, and most swords carried by those of the order had been particularly hardened so that they could be used in that manner, but Alena had added a few additional symbols to her sword, and with them, she could pull even more strength than she could otherwise manage without it.

  The sword surged with light.

  Thenas paused long enough to glance back.

  Alena used that hesitation to her advantage. She stabbed forward, striking at Thenas.

  Somehow he simply caught the sword between his hands. And then he threw it back toward her.

  That had been her one chance, and she had failed. Worse, using a shaping like that had drained her, leaving her too weak to stand. She sank to the ground, knowing she had doomed two draasin—and herself—to death.

  28

  Jasn

  Those few who can speak to the elementals show greater strength than Hyaln has ever understood. I don’t think the wise could speak to them, but what if that was the secret to their power? What if that is the reason they disappeared?

  —Rolan al’Sand, Enlightened of Hyaln

  Jasn awoke to a pressure pulsing against the inside of his ears followed by a loud snap.

  He swore and sat up with a jolt. What was that?

  Shaping. And powerful.

  Climbing off the pallet in his dorm, he pulled open the door to glance outside. How early was it?

  Not early at all. Still dark. Still night. But the pressure continued to build.

  As he turned back to bed, deciding that whatever—and whoever—shaped was none of his concern, he felt a surge of pain through the strange connection he now shared with Alena.

  Blast her. What was she doing at this time of night?

  Likely something to do with the draasin. Maybe the egg. When Ciara had returned with the draasin, Alena hadn’t believed what had happened. Jasn could detect the change, even if he didn’t know what it meant. Water called to him, telling him that the draasin had returned, finally recovered from whatever Tenebeth had done to it. Ciara had everything to do with that, he knew, but not how she had managed to help the elemental.

  And that didn’t matter. Not if the draasin had really returned. If the female could help Alena with the egg, that was all that mattered. Nothing else.

  Helping Alena would help him. The constant drain through her weakened him.

  Jasn pulled on his cloak and boots and, on impulse, grabbed his sword and strapped it on. The weight of the sword pulled on him, but there was a familiarity to it that he prized.

  Outside in the night, he sensed others moving. He wasn’t the only one to have recognized what happened. Not surprising, given the power used.

  Light bloomed up the mountainside, a massive orange glow that looked as if the forest itself burned.

  That was new. And frightening.

  Using a swift shaping, drawing on wind and earth, he leapt forward and after the fire, holding on to the connection he felt to Alena. She was out there.

  Something was off. Was she even more injured than what he’d detected before?

  Thunder exploded. Someone traveled near him. Another crack of thunder followed. And another. Enough that he wondered how many shapers he would encounter.

  When he landed at the edge of the clearing, brightness surged through the illusion that Alena had put in place—and that he had helped fortify. Whatever happened on the other side was more powerful than the shielding.

  He wasn’t alone. Calan had come, and Ifrit with him. Three others from the barracks as well, one a hunter named James and his students Heln and Gemma. They were all advanced shapers, more so than even him.

  “Leave this to us,” Calan said.

  “I think this requires more than one hunter, don’t you?” James said.

  Calan grunted and whispered something to Ifrit. “You,” he said, looking over to Jasn. “You’re not needed here.”

  “Alena is here,” Jasn told him. The hierarchy of the barracks made it so that Alena’s presence gave Jasn a perfect reason for being here, but Jasn feared for her. Whatever had brought her here had also placed her in danger.

  Through the strange connection they shared, he felt her pain.

  Jasn jumped forward, unsheathing his sword and ignoring the stares from Calan and James. Ifrit seemed more intrigued than anything, but he suspected she still didn’t know what else to do with her new talents.

  Through the shielding, Jasn saw the reason for the bright orange light. The draasin glowed with such heat and power that he had to stop and marvel for a moment. The egg was tucked between her forelegs, and she had her tail wrapped around her body as if to protect it.

  Alena lay on the ground, a glow from her sword fading.

  She saw him and her eyes widened. “Thenas,” she whispered.

  Jasn pulled on a shaping, readying for anything. “Where?” he hissed.

  She pointed to the draasin.

  There, near the draasin, was a shadow he had overlooked. The figure appeared as if darkness swallowed him, and it approached the draasin, pressing that darkness away.

  Jasn pulled on earth.

  The shaping sent the figure tumbling, but only for a moment before he managed to right himself. The shadow swung his attention to Jasn, and in that moment, he knew that it was Thenas. Somehow, he had survived the attack. And Jasn had thought he couldn’t die.

  Using wind and fire, he attempted to lash Thenas, to confine him.

  The shaping failed. Thenas simply swiped it away using the same darkness that swirled around him.

  Jasn pulled again, this time combining each of the elements. That was what had been required when they faced him the last time. He had brought water, Wyath earth, Eldridge had brought wind, and Ciara… she had brought fire.

  Alone, he wasn’t sure that he was strong enough to face him, not with Thenas empowered the way he was, granted more strength by Tenebeth.

  If he did nothing… Alena lay on the ground, willing to sacrifice herself for the draasin. Cheneth had made it clear that the draasin were to be treated with respect. And the water elemental—when he could reach it—helped him understand what he needed to do.

  He used the shaping to assault Thenas. Jasn drew upon everything he could, praying to the creator that he could reach for more than he normally would be able to, straining through the connection for water, for the elemental, for something that would help him face Thenas
.

  Thenas merely caught his shaping and sent it toward the sky.

  Jasn started again, but it was clear that he wasn’t going to be strong enough to suppress Thenas. Whatever connection he had to Tenebeth had made him too powerful. Even before he had been tainted by Tenebeth, Thenas had been a powerful shaper, possibly enough that Jasn wouldn’t have been able to defeat him. The only thing he had was his ability with water, and the elementals’ desire to keep him alive.

  Thenas sent a bubble of the blackest night at him.

  Jasn jumped to the side to avoid it, rolling to his feet with his hands outstretched. Another attack, and this time he rolled forward, coming up with his sword stabbing forward.

  The blade nicked Thenas.

  The end sizzled and disappeared.

  Thenas moved forward, his attack building with a furious speed. Jasn could only jump out of the way. Were it not for Alena—and the draasin, he had to admit to himself—he would have run. This was a fight he could not win.

  Fire exploded on Thenas.

  Earth reached for his legs.

  Wind swirled around him.

  Jasn hazarded a glance up and saw that the others had passed through the shielding. Calan strode forward, his sword glowing with a bright white light, sending earth streaming as he attacked Thenas. Ifrit, so powerful with the wind, used that in a tight funnel around him. The others joined as well, and soon there was attack after attack using the power of the elements.

  None of it mattered.

  Thenas caught each of the attacks.

  “What is this, Alena?” Calan roared.

  Alena had managed to get to her feet and held her sword with an unsteady hand. “Don’t let him reach the draasin.”

  “Why does it matter?” This from James. He kept his attack focused on Thenas, but his eyes kept drifting to the draasin. Had Cheneth managed to reach him as well? What of his students? Did they side with Cheneth?

  “Trust that it does.”

  “Trust. I think we’re beyond trust, don’t you?” Calan said.

  The comment seemed to strengthen Alena. “Look at him, Calan. That is your student. That is what Cheneth trains us to face!”

  Calan used another shaping of earth, this one so complex Jasn could barely follow it, and the ground surged around Thenas’s feet. Using a pulse of the same darkness, the ground smoothed out once more.

  “You forget that I know your tricks,” Thenas said to Calan.

  “What have you done? What dark power is this?” Calan roared, racing toward Thenas.

  A shaping built from Thenas that would strike Calan in the chest. Either it would kill him or turn him, and Jasn couldn’t risk either.

  He jumped toward Calan and knocked him down, driving him to the ground.

  The shaping missed.

  Jasn’s arm bent strangely and tingled. He would have to worry about that later, if they survived. Water elementals would heal him if they made it through this.

  Calan shoved him off and stood.

  Thenas ignored them, stalking toward the draasin. If he reached the elemental, or the egg, Jasn feared what would come next.

  “He can’t reach either the draasin or the egg!” Jasn shouted.

  James and his two students came to stand next to him. “What happens if he does?”

  “Look at him,” Jasn urged. “There is nothing natural about the power he now wields. If he uses that on the draasin, and if he manages to twist her as well, think of what we would have to face.” What they already had faced, Jasn didn’t add. Not for James.

  James motioned to his students, and they moved forward as one.

  Jasn reached for James, but he wasn’t fast enough. The man used a shaping of wind and water to slide forward and reach Thenas.

  Thenas spun as James brought his sword around. With his bare hand, he caught the sword on the sharp edge of the blade. James cried out with a triumphant grunt, but then he saw that Thenas pushed the sword back, using not his hand, but the darkness he controlled.

  Gemma sent fire and wind in spurts toward Thenas. Heln used a similar attack.

  With his attention diverted, Jasn raced around Thenas and put himself between him and the egg. If nothing else, he couldn’t have Thenas tainting the egg. He didn’t know what effect that might have on Alena, but doubted it would be anything good.

  Calan and James reached Thenas, and then Ifrit joined.

  Each of the five of them shaped, but there was no coordination to the shaping, just disparate attacks.

  “You have to work together,” Alena urged.

  The heat coming off the draasin was almost more than he could bear.

  Jasn used a shaping of wind to buffer himself from the heat. It might hold it off long enough for the others to stop Thenas. If they could stop Thenas.

  Shapings exploded in the night. Thenas managed to stop each one.

  The draasin pulsed with fire, growing so hot that even his shaped buffer of air wasn’t enough to protect him. If that didn’t work, he would have to move.

  Thenas turned, wrapped in a blanket of darkness that absorbed every attack thrown at him. He looked at Jasn with contempt. “You are not strong enough to withstand what comes. Even the Wrecker of Rens will not be able to survive.”

  Jasn swung his sword at Thenas, but the blade didn’t connect as he needed, passing through nothing more than shadows. “That’s no longer who I am.”

  “No? Then how do you think you will stop me?”

  Jasn hadn’t any idea. Shapings didn’t work. Nothing worked. Nothing other than Ciara.

  As he thought of her, the sound of thunder exploded in the night, followed by a crack so loud that he wondered if trees in the forest fell.

  Thenas jerked his head around.

  Jasn followed the direction of his gaze. Another glowing light appeared in the darkness, this one nearly as bright as the draasin. He had seen it before… and so had Thenas.

  The man made a feint as if to get past Jasn, but with a sweep of his sword, Jasn held him in place, preventing his movement.

  There came another crack so loud that he wanted to cover his ears. Light filled the night, so bright that it seemed to be daylight. The draasin roared and shot flames from her nostrils.

  With sudden understanding, Jasn knew: the rider had appeared.

  “I don’t have to stop you,” Jasn said. “She will.”

  Ciara strode forward. She was small, petite, and beautiful in the fury of power that swirled around her, casting a glow to her bronze skin. Her pale blue eyes flickered from the draasin to Jasn and then to Thenas. With each step, she slammed her spear into the ground, and with each step, light surged.

  Thenas reached for Jasn, but he swung his sword around to parry.

  Ciara stopped. All the shapers turned to her, staring.

  And she pointed her spear at Thenas.

  29

  Ciara

  Many think fire the strongest element, but that is only because we can see fire, and we can experience the draasin. I suspect the elementals are evenly matched, and that there is not one that is stronger than another. Were I able to summon with the same strength as those within Hyaln, I could prove it.

  —Rolan al’Sand, Enlightened of Hyaln

  Ciara stood in front of the dark shaper once more. She felt the others around her, but she forced herself to ignore them, even Jasn Volth and the way he looked at her, giving her the same heat that she once had felt when Fas had looked at her.

  She stepped and sent the j’na into the earth. Crack. The sound was louder than any other time she’d worked through a pattern. Ciara didn’t know what it was that she did differently, only that when she intended to help the draasin, whatever she did worked more effectively. And this time it was not only the draasin, but another.

  Alena had hidden from her that they had an egg in the camp. Now she understood why she feared what Ciara had done with the draasin, especially her taking the draasin away. Doing so put the egg in danger.

 
And when she had seen the brightness exploding in the night, she had known it as a sign. Then thunder had followed, and she’d had no choice but to find out what happened.

  Even the shapers of Ter struggled against the darkness.

  How was it that she managed to fend him off?

  Step. Crack. Step.

  The light glowing off the draasin glass radiated bright as the sun, and she felt it as what she summoned was somehow drawn to the draasin. And the egg.

  Ciara took another step. Crack.

  She stood in front of the dark shaper and aimed her j’na at him. His eyes were pools of night, and shadows wrapped around his shoulders. “Go,” she told him.

  “You think you are the only one who has learned?” he asked.

  Then he reached for her j’na.

  Ciara jerked it back, but his hand grabbed the shaft of the spear and pulled.

  He was strong, and the darkness surged through her spear. The blinding light began to pale.

  Terror coursed through her. If she didn’t have the j’na, and if she couldn’t use it to focus her power, she would be at the mercy of whatever he attempted. He would be able to attack and possibly taint her the same way her village had been tainted, leaving her as twisted as her father and as weak as Fas.

  “No!” She roared with anger and slammed her j’na down. The end of the spear struck the dark shaper’s foot, and still a thunderous crack echoed through the night. Light exploded from the j’na.

  Not only from the draasin glass, but for the first time, light filled the lines formed on the staff itself, those made for her by her father, the gift when he had named her nya’shin.