The Dark Ability: Books 1-4

by D. K. Holmberg

  Rsiran backed up a step. “Release her,” he said to the woman.

  A feral smile twisted her mouth. “Tell me about your other ability. You can manipulate heartstone?”

  Jessa took a step toward him. The knife came close to his chest. Rsiran didn’t want to move too far from her and risk not being able to Slide them to safety, but if she kept the knife where it was, he might not be able to reach her. Della might be able to clear what this woman did… at least, he hoped she could. But what if she couldn’t? What if the Compelling held even when they were away from her?

  “Release her, and I’ll answer your questions. As long as you’ll answer mine.”

  The woman grinned in a wolfish flash of teeth. “Fair enough.”

  Jessa blinked and lowered the knife. “I’m sorry, Rsiran. I couldn’t control what I was doing. It was like there was another mind inside me, making me…”

  He pulled her to him and wrapped an arm around her. “I know. And we’ll make sure she didn’t do anything permanent,” he whispered.

  The woman pointed to a chair. “Sit while we talk. That way, I’ll know you won’t travel from here.”

  Rsiran checked to ensure his barriers were in place and fortified with heartstone. She didn’t know he could Slide without moving. Perhaps she hadn’t stolen that knowledge from Jessa. Or maybe Jessa didn’t know.

  Rsiran pushed a heavy, wooden chair toward the woman and sat in front of her. He cleared his mind of lorcith as he did, focusing on the heartstone all around him. If he needed to Slide, he wouldn’t be able to anchor to lorcith here, not if he couldn’t even sense lorcith outside the walls. Heartstone might work and allow him to slip past it.

  Jessa stood beside him. She clutched the knife in her hand, holding it against her chest. One hand rested on his shoulder, gripping the fabric of his shirt tightly. If they needed to quickly Slide, the connection made certain she came with him.

  “Where are we?” Rsiran asked.

  “My question first.”

  Rsiran took a deep breath before answering. She might know if he didn’t tell the truth. If she could freely access Jessa—if she could Read her as well as she Compelled her—then he risked angering her if he didn’t speak the truth. But he didn’t want to share everything with her, either.

  “I can hear heartstone.”

  The woman frowned. “Hear?”

  He nodded. “Lorcith has a… a call. A voice of sorts.”

  “Some who hear it call it a song.”

  Rsiran nodded. The boy from the mines had called it that. “It calls to me.”

  “The original smiths all heard lorcith. They were chosen by the Great Watcher to work the metal. It is not surprising that you can hear it.”

  Della had once said the same, but had never shared more than that with him.

  “Yet you claim you can hear heartstone. I have never known anyone with such a gift.”

  Rsiran again debated how much to share. She already knew he could hear heartstone if he listened. It didn’t matter what else he told her of it. “Mostly the alloy. I think it’s the connection to lorcith I sense.”

  The woman leaned forward and placed her hands on her knees. Long fingers bore wrinkles from age. Her pale skin had blotches of brown in places. “But there is none of the alloy here.”

  Rsiran frowned and listened, trying to ignore the wild thumping of his heart. Hadn’t he sensed the heartstone alloy? He’d never sensed pure heartstone before, though had never really tried.

  What he sensed in the walls did feel different from the alloy. And the pin holding her hair up was not really the alloy.

  Could he be sensing pure heartstone?

  “You didn’t know.”

  He shook his head. “Always before it was the alloy. That was how I managed to forge it.”

  “It is said that only a rare smith can work an alloy of lorcith, even when the smiths were revered. In your city, those who can are no longer smiths.”

  It took a moment to realize what she was telling him. The alchemists.

  That meant they could hear lorcith as well.

  “Who are you?” Rsiran asked.

  The woman leaned back in her chair and crossed her hands over her chest. “Which of my titles would you like?” she asked. “For I have many. I am the Eldest. The Mother. The Watcher. The Leader. The Exile. Forgotten.”

  “What is your name?”

  “Ah. That is a different question. Mine first. You hide something of your ability with lorcith from me. What is it?”

  It didn’t matter if he answered. The Forgotten had already seen what he could do with lorcith, if Shael hadn’t told them already. Likely, it was the reason Inna waited until they were seated and practically disarmed before attacking.

  “I suspect you already know the answer.”

  She waited.

  “I can push on lorcith. It listens to me.”

  She frowned. “And obeys?”

  Rsiran had never really tried to explain how he pushed lorcith, only that it worked. The metal followed his commands, but only lorcith. He could pull on the alloy, but wasn’t that the lorcith in it that responded to him? He’d never really tried with heartstone.

  He took the broken knife they’d taken from Firell and pushed on it. With barely any effort, it hovered in the air, spinning end over end before he let it drop.

  The woman watched the lorcith until it fell back into Rsiran’s hands. “I am Evaelyn. Can you do the same with heartstone?”

  Rsiran shook his head.

  Her eyes flickered to Jessa’s necklace. The chain of heartstone alloy. “Try.”

  He listened for the heartstone. With it all around him, infusing the walls of the room, it was easy to do. Rather than focusing on Jessa’s necklace, which was made of the alloy, he pulled on the pin holding the woman’s hair.

  The response was different from that of the lorcith. Lorcith moved immediately or not at all. This felt slippery, as if he couldn’t fully grip the heartstone.

  And then it moved.

  It slid from her hair and across the distance to him. Rsiran caught it.

  The pin was a dull grey and harder than the heartstone he used to make the alloy. That was soft enough he could imprint it with his thumb. This felt firmer, but still less solid than lorcith. Lines twirled around the length of the pin, spiraling in a pattern that blurred his eyes.

  “I will have that back now.”

  He looked up at Evaelyn. Her face was an unreadable mask, but emotion split it enough for him to see the concern she wore. The corners of her eyes wrinkled slightly.

  Rsiran pushed on the strange pin. Again it felt slippery, as if he couldn’t get a good grip. He had the distinct sense that he wouldn’t have the same control with it as he had with lorcith, that if he squeezed too hard, the heartstone would slip away from him in a direction he didn’t intend.

  With a cautious push, it crossed to Evaelyn. She pinched it carefully and rolled it in her hands, running her eyes along the length of it before slipping it back into her hair.

  “It seems you can control heartstone as well. It makes you dangerous. Others will wish to know how you manage.” She looked to Jessa and her eyes narrowed. “And it seems they already know of your ability.”

  Venass.

  “The scholars wish to learn as well,” he admitted.

  She sniffed. “Scholars? Is that what you think of them? Perhaps you should live outside Elaeavn for a time, see if you still think of them as ‘scholars’.”

  “What are they, then?”

  She shook her head. “You called me a name when you first saw me. What was it?”

  Rsiran hesitated. She’d already heard him say it, so why would she ask? “You looked like someone else I know. A woman in Elaeavn.”

  She tilted her head, waiting.

  Rsiran took a breath. “I thought you were a woman I know as Della.”

  Evaelyn nodded slowly. “Could she really think she’s found the blood of the smith?” she said to
herself. She fixed Rsiran with an appraising eye. He felt a momentary assault on the barriers in his mind, but they held. With heartstone, he made certain that they held. “That is what I thought I heard. It is a name I haven’t heard for many years.”

  “You know her?”

  “That is your question?”

  Rsiran had dozens of questions, but it was the one he suddenly wanted the answer to. “Yes.”

  “Very well. I knew her. I no longer claim that I do.”

  “How?”

  She shook her head. “Why did you come here?”

  “I came looking for Shael.”

  “Shael?” She frowned. “He is the smuggler? Why would you risk coming here for the smuggler?”

  “That is my business, but I wanted answers.”

  “Then you will get no more answers from me.”

  Rsiran glanced over at Jessa. She shrugged.

  “Shael asked something of me once. I wanted to know why.” And he had thought that the exiled Elvraeth and Venass were connected, but he saw that wasn’t the case. The exiles would not prevent Venass from summoning him again.

  “That is all?”

  He ignored her follow up question. “What did Inna want?” Rsiran asked.

  Evaelyn laughed. “You’re learning,” she said, touching her hair where the heartstone pin rested. “She wants the same as most. To return. What did Shael ask of you?”

  “That’s not what Inna wants,” Rsiran said. “She wants into the palace. Why?”

  “What did Shael ask of you?” she said again.

  Rsiran considered pushing, but he wanted to know why Inna wanted into the palace. “He wanted me to forge something for him. What is within the palace?”

  “Memories,” she said. “What did this Shael ask you to forge?”

  “Some kind of device. What are the memories that Inna wants?”

  Evaelyn hesitated. “I think we are finished with our questions.”

  Rsiran shook his head. “No. I don’t think we are. What is it that she wants?”

  “It is time for you to leave. If you traveled here, you may travel away again. Do not return.”

  “Wait—why won’t you answer?”

  She looked at him. “Ask Della.”

  “Della? Why would she know the answer?”

  “Because she’s the reason I am here.”

  Evaelyn pushed up from the chair and started away from him. She reached the far wall and pushed open a hidden door, disappearing from the room without saying anything else.

  Chapter 32

  Rsiran looked at Jessa. “We should leave.”

  “Can you get us back out?”

  Rsiran listened for lorcith but couldn’t hear anything to anchor to. Even heartstone alloy was blocked, only the walls of heartstone surrounding him pressing on his awareness. With enough time, he might be able to push past it, but he didn’t want to remain here any longer than was needed. Not after what Inna had tried.

  “Not this way.”

  “Then we go through the door.”

  “Once we’re past the heartstone, I can try Sliding.” For the first time since they became close, he hesitated explaining more and telling her how the heartstone interfered with his abilities. He’d probably told her before, but if Evaelyn could use her against him—could Compel her as easily as she’d seemed—then she could Read her. It put them both at risk.

  Jessa frowned at him a moment before nodding.

  Rsiran almost explained more but did not.

  Jessa started toward the door where Evaelyn had just left. As they reached the wall, he looked back and considered the wall of shelves all around them. A library, but one unlike he’d ever seen before, one that exuded formality and wealth. Could the Forgotten have a palace the same as the Elvraeth? If that was the case, were the cells where Firell had been held in the same building or different? And why would they want to return to Elaeavn?

  “Rsiran?” Jessa held one hand on the door. Once they were through the door, he would try Sliding them again.

  He shook off the questions and stepped into the hall.

  Massive walls stretched on either side of them. Pale white marble reached high overhead, arching with a smooth grace unlike anything he’d ever seen before. Deep etchings worked into the stone in various carvings. Light spilled through colored glass overhead, leaving the carvings on the wall awash with color. A few lanterns hung from high overhead, glowing with a steady blue light.

  Rsiran had never seen anything so beautiful.

  Jessa pulled on his arm. “Can you Slide?”

  He blinked and released his connection to the heartstone. The sense faded, but not before he felt where Evaelyn had gone, how she made her way far down the hall. He considered pulling on the heartstone pin and dragging it back to him, but doing so would likely anger her. What would she do to him—to Jessa—if he tried?

  Then he listened for lorcith. It called all around him, practically a chorus of sound. After being separated from it within the Forgotten library, the suddenness of it nearly overwhelmed him. Most was unshaped, massive amounts that reminded him of Ilphaesn. Others had distinct shapes. If he listened long enough, the lorcith promised to tell him all about what it could become.

  “Rsiran?”

  “It’s everywhere,” he whispered.

  She frowned. “What is?”

  “Lorcith. It’s in the walls, in the windows, in everything here.”

  Jessa shook her head. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. But I think Evaelyn does.”

  Jessa gave him a dangerous look. “You can’t go after her. You saw what she did to me. I had no control over myself. If she’d wanted, I would have stabbed you with that knife.”

  “You would never have stabbed me.”

  Jessa sighed. “I don’t know that I could have stopped her.”

  “I would have pushed the knife out of your hands,” Rsiran added.

  Jessa turned to face him and punched him on the shoulder.

  He shrugged. “Then I would have dragged you from here and back to Della to fix your mind. I have a few other suggestions for fixes she could make while she’s working.”

  She looked as if she might punch him again. “Can we go?”

  Rsiran nodded. “It will be easier if we can get outside these walls. The lorcith interferes with my connection to the smithy.”

  It didn’t, not entirely, but he wanted to see more of the Forgotten palace before they left. Now that he sensed lorcith, he had no fear of Sliding. It would be as easy as anchoring to… well, to anything.

  Jessa took his hand.

  He Slid them down the hall, emerging at the far end, thankful that his ability had returned. The walls towered over them, still the same white gleaming stone. The carvings in the wall were different here, and the colored glass overhead made of a pale blue rather than orange. The hall ended in a steep stairway leading both up and down.

  “Which way?” he asked.

  She looked back. “I don’t know. Should we go down?”

  He held her hand and Slid. They emerged on a massive stair landing. Polished stone gleamed under his feet. The stairs continued down. Rsiran Slid again.

  Each Slide took them farther and farther down. The light streaming through the colored glass high overhead began to fade, leaving them with only the glowing blue Elvraeth lanterns hanging over their heads. And then they emerged onto a wide landing.

  A massive arched metal door—pure lorcith, he noted, just like in Venass—was closed in front of them. Shadowed halls led away from the stairs in both directions. The lanterns down those halls were dim, the blue light barely visible.

  “Have you noticed?” Jessa asked.

  “Noticed what?”

  “There’s no one here.”

  Rsiran had been thankful they hadn’t encountered anyone else. Had they come across more of the Forgotten, he didn’t think he was skilled enough to get them to safety. Not after what happened when they were trying to escape after
being held captive.

  “We didn’t find out where we are. Where the Forgotten are hiding.”

  “That’s what you wanted to know? Is that why you don’t just Slide us out of here?”

  “Part of it,” he admitted.

  Jessa turned to him and pulled him close to her, wrapping her arms around his neck. “You’re keeping things from me.”

  He swallowed. This close, her breasts pressed against his chest and he felt her heart beating. He could no more lie to her than he could Slide from the library upstairs. “What if they use what you know against us?”

  She laughed softly and kissed his cheek. “I have faith in you, Rsiran. Even if they know what we know, they can’t do what you can do. It’s why they want to capture you. Why Venass wants to study you. The Great Watcher has given you a great gift.”

  He hugged her tightly and nodded.

  “Can we go home?”

  Rsiran sighed. “We need to talk to Della. She needs to know what happened here. And I have a question for her.”

  Jessa pulled away, letting her arms slip apart as she ran her hands down his arms. “I don’t trust anything that woman said to us.”

  “I don’t, either. But she knew Della, and we need to know why.”

  Jessa frowned. “Why would you believe what Evaelyn said? Della has only wanted to help us. That’s all she’s ever done.”

  “The Forgotten want into the palace. Venass wants to know how I can Slide past the alloy. That’s the only connection, isn’t it? They want something there.”

  “Does it matter?” she asked.

  “Knowing can keep us safe. It’s the not knowing that’s dangerous. Right now, it feels like we’re always getting chased, always a step behind and always in danger. If we know what they’re after, maybe there will be something we can do to keep ourselves safe.”

  Jessa kissed his cheek. “That’s what I love about you. Always thinking you’ll find safety.”

  “You don’t?”

  Jessa shrugged. “I’ve seen enough of the world to know safety is fleeting.” As she said it, steps echoed toward them, the first sound they’d heard since leaving the library. Jessa looked up at him and smiled. “See?”