The Coming Chaos

by D. K. Holmberg

  Now that he had found the weapon and the nails it had shot, were there others like it?

  Haern pushed off, hovering high in the sky as he looked for the sense of lorcith in other places. He stretched beyond where he had been, beyond the campsite, and swept outward in a ring much like he had the night before. In the daylight, he could make out much more detail. A rolling hillside made it difficult to see beyond from the ground, and he headed that direction, worried some hidden attacker might think about harming the women when they made their way past.

  He found nothing. No signs of movement. Nothing at all.

  According to Erica, there were no villages nearby, so there shouldn’t have been anyone sneaking about like this.

  And yet, he had seen movement, hadn’t he?

  Perhaps whoever had been out here could Slide.

  That would be a useful ability right about now. If Haern could Slide, he could transport all of them to Asador, avoiding the dangers inherent in going by ground.

  As he made steady circles of the ground below, he didn’t come across anything more that was suspicious. If there was another attacker down there, he didn’t see them.

  Floating in place, Haern focused on the lorcith from the women and started toward it. On a whim, he pushed higher and higher. From this vantage, he couldn’t see much other than the changing landscape far below. Colors blurred together, greens and browns and occasionally strips of blue representing streams or rivers. From this high, he was unable to see any sign of a city, though he wondered if he might be able to if he pushed higher.

  Haern tried pushing off, but there seemed to be a limit to how high he could suspend himself above the ground, as if something pushed against him, keeping him from going too high.

  Then again, the more he worked with his connection, the better able he was to do this. With each day, each passing attempt, he was able to go higher. Eventually, Haern wondered if he might be able to shoot straight up and then arc down great distances all in a single jump.

  At last, Haern descended.

  As he did, he realized something was wrong.

  Lorcith, and lots of it.

  It wasn’t near the caravan, which he found reassuring, but at the same time, there was a sudden appearance of a half dozen different items of lorcith.

  How many of them would be like the sphere?

  Haern had to know.

  He unsheathed his sword, knowing it was foolish to go alone. He didn’t think it was Forgers. Forgers would have a different metal.

  Haern dropped down into a small copse of trees. It was near enough to where he’d detected the lorcith that he thought he’d be able to determine where he was picking up on it, but he didn’t see anyone.

  This was the right spot. He was certain of it. The longer he stood here, the more certain he was, and the more he could feel the sense of lorcith around him.

  Why should that be?

  There wasn’t any place to hide.

  Unless they were lying flat and hiding within the grasses. Even if they did that, he thought that he should be able to find them.

  Lorcith. That was what he had to focus on.

  It was located no more than a dozen paces from him, close enough he should be able to see something from it. Could he pick up on the shape of the lorcith from here?

  With his newfound attachment to the metal, he should be able to do so.

  He didn’t pull on it. He didn’t want whoever might be out here to be aware of him, but he held on to a connection to it, trying to wrap his awareness around the metal. It was a strange thing, almost as if he caressed it, holding on to it in a way that would allow him to better understand who and what was out there and how they were using their connection to the metal. As he stayed in place, he couldn’t tell what it was.

  Until he knew, he remained motionless. He was hesitant to go anywhere else, but he also didn’t want to risk someone realizing he was here. They were far enough away from the rest of his people that he wasn’t worried they would come across them easily. Haern remained hidden in the trees, his sword near enough that he could grab it and be prepared for an attack if it came down to it.

  Strangely, there was no sign of movement.

  As he sat there, he focused, wondering if perhaps he was making a mistake. Had the lorcith been there before? He thought it hadn’t, but maybe in his search he’d missed something.

  No—if it was here, it was because the lorcith had suddenly appeared, not because it had been here before.

  Finally, Haern moved forward. If there was someone here, he had to figure out why.

  Making his way forward, he gripped the sword tightly.

  There was nothing.

  He pushed softly on the lorcith, barely more than a gentle touch, intending nothing more than to try to alert anyone who might be out there that he had a connection to the metal. There had to be others who had a similar connection. If they were here, he would find them.

  Nothing.

  This was odd. Not only did he not see anyone, but there was the fact this was pure lorcith.

  Haern stepped out of the trees into the open, hating how vulnerable it made him.

  Nothing.

  He pushed on the lorcith.

  As he did, it exploded.

  Almost too late, Haern pushed.

  He did so with more strength than he had used before, forcing it away from him, trying to create a barrier all around him to defend against whatever he’d just triggered.

  Unless he hadn’t triggered it at all. It was possible the lorcith was waiting for him to approach.

  Shards of metal came streaking toward him, reminding him of the sphere and the nails he had managed to avoid the night before.

  He wanted to shoot himself into the sky, but it took every bit of his connection to lorcith to ensure he wasn’t hit by one of these nails.

  The strange assault continued.

  Haern used every ounce of focus to resist the attack, pushing outward with everything he had. The sense of lorcith curved away from him, and he managed to bottle up the explosion.

  He held on to the sense of lorcith and waited for another onslaught.

  It never came.

  As he stood there, leaning forward and panting to catch his breath, a sound echoed toward him.

  A scream.

  3

  Haern

  Haern launched himself into the air, focusing on the sound, but more than that, focusing on his connection to lorcith. He was tired after barely managing to hold off the explosion, but the women needed him.

  He wasn’t able to push off nearly as fast as usual. When it came down to using lorcith, he had to hope there wasn’t another similar attack. If there was, he’d probably be useless.

  As he made his way there, another scream echoed.

  He swore softly to himself, hoping he wasn’t too late. He wasn’t going to let something happen to Elise. He wasn’t going to let something happen to any of them.

  When he dropped to the ground, there was nothing.

  Elise turned toward him. “What happened?” Haern asked, looking around.

  “Marcy tripped. She hurt her leg.”

  Haern breathed out a sigh. That was it? And here he had envisioned something far deadlier than someone tripping along the road.

  Then again, a fall could be just as dangerous. Someone stumbling might mean the others would have to carry them, and already they were slower than he liked.

  “How is she?”

  “She’ll probably be fine.”

  Haern slipped the sword back into his sheath, feeling foolish for having unsheathed in the first place. He looked around for signs of anything he should have been focused on before, but there was nothing.

  The women had reached a narrow stream, and Marcy had slipped while stepping across. When she landed on the other side, she twisted her leg.

  The bone had buckled, and she wouldn’t be walking on it for a while. Two of the other women were already splinting the wound. What he wou
ldn’t give for Darren right now. The Healer would take care of this and get Marcy back on her feet.

  Haern would end up carrying her. It wasn’t that he minded, but it would prevent him from scouting.

  “What happened?” Elise asked.

  Haern shook his head. “I don’t really know.”

  She glanced at his sword. “You came back here, sweat dripping from your brow as if you had been in a fight.”

  “It felt as if I’d been in a fight, but…”

  He pulled the sphere out of his pocket, handing it over to her.

  “What is this?”

  “This is what attacked me last night. And then again today.”

  “Today?” She looked up from her study of the sphere, her brow wrinkled in a deep frown. “You found someone?”

  “That’s just it. There wasn’t anyone out there. I was attacked, but I don’t know how or why.”

  He told her about what he had detected before taking the sphere back from her, stuffing it into his pocket. It was something that would warrant more investigation, but now wasn’t the time.

  Besides, what was there for him to investigate? He could tell it was made entirely of lorcith, even the nails. Someone must have triggered it, but when he’d been attacked today, it didn’t seem as if anything had. It was as if the spheres had attacked on their own, without anyone setting them off.

  “Do you think you somehow drew the lorcith to you?”

  Haern shook his head. “I don’t think I could have. I wasn’t really drawing on a connection to lorcith.”

  “From what I understand, you push and pull on it. Wouldn’t that pull on something?”

  Haern paused. It was possible. That didn’t explain the speres sudden appearance, though.

  “I want to keep moving as quickly as we can,” Haern said.

  “We’re going to have to take our time with Marcy.”

  “I could carry her. I could get her to the next village—”

  “I don’t think anyone would like it if you abandoned us like that,” Elise said.

  “I wouldn’t be abandoning anyone. I would just be carrying her as quickly as I could on to the next village.” Haern wasn’t sure where the next village would be found. When he’d been hovering high in the sky, there had been no sense of another village, no sense of anyone else out there. How long would they have to travel to find it? Erica seemed to think there would be a city in a couple days, but Haern would have expected to have come across evidence of that by now.

  He didn’t want to leave them, and they needed his protection.

  If there were more weapons like that out there, he might be the only defense they had. Swords wouldn’t do any good against them.

  Haern moved off to the side, staring into the distance. He focused on lorcith, straining to detect other hints of metal like the last, but there were none.

  Breathing out heavily, he waited for the women to be ready. Some of them made a litter out of branches and a blanket, and they used that to drag Marcy.

  Elise joined him. “I’m not so sure how that will go for her,” Haern said.

  “It’s better than trying to carry her.”

  Haern glanced over to Elise. “I could carry her.”

  “And how much does that take out of you?” She smiled. “We can do this, Haern. Besides, this gives some of them a sense of pride. Think about all they had to do to put this together. The fact that they were able to do it by themselves is impressive. Let them have it.”

  Haern shrugged. “I wasn’t going to take it from them.”

  “It’s going to slow us down, isn’t it?” Elise asked.

  “It will.”

  “How much?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I know you wanted us to move quickly.”

  “I wanted to move quickly mostly so we could get you and everyone else to safety as soon as possible,” he said.

  “We’re doing our best,” she said.

  “I know.”

  “You aren’t going to leave us?”

  Haern looked over at her. “I’ve already told you I’m not going to,” he said.

  “It’s just that when we get to Asador, I know what you intend to do.”

  “Do you?” Haern smiled as he looked at Elise. “Seeing as how I don’t even know what I’m going to do when I get Asador, I’m not sure you can know, either.”

  “You feel like you need to get back to your home.”

  “There’s quite a bit going on.”

  “And this all has to do with the Forgers?”

  Haern had told her as much about the Forgers as he could, but it was one thing for her to hear of his experiences and another for her to experience things herself. Her contact with the Forgers was limited to the city.

  “They’re after a dangerous sort of power, and somehow I’m caught up in trying to stop it.”

  “What if I wanted to help?”

  Haern looked back at the line of women. “They’re going to need your help.”

  “They will, but eventually we’re going to reach the Binders. When we do…”

  It all came back to that. When they reached the Binders, and Carth and her people, Haern wasn’t sure what was going to happen. He thrilled at the idea that Elise would come with him, that she would be able to travel with them and help him, and yet, what he had done and what he needed to do was dangerous.

  “When we do, we’ll figure it out,” Haern said.

  Elise watched him with an expression that suggested she didn’t believe him. Haern wasn’t sure he believed himself.

  The day went slowly. They made very poor time, having to stop periodically to give Marcy a chance to rest. Her leg throbbed, and Haern tried to think of the various compounds he’d learned of from Galen. Poisoning might be Galen’s expertise, but he had been a healer first.

  As they walked, Haern searched for something that could be used to help alleviate Marcy’s pain. When he found it, it was in a thicket of reeds near another stream.

  He plucked a few needles from the narvel plants, a strange thorny bush he’d seen when working with Galen. Galen had used it to incapacitate, but in lower doses, it made for an effective mild sedative.

  He bent off one of the barbs, dipping his finger in the thick syrup that appeared before rubbing it on Marcy’s lips.

  As he watched, Marcy’s breathing started to ease. She stopped writhing, and Haern nodded with a certain satisfaction. It had worked.

  Now, he just had to be certain he didn’t overdo it. He wasn’t sure he had any way to reverse it if she suddenly stopped breathing.

  Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

  Haern plucked a few more branches, wrapping them in cloth before attaching them to the makeshift litter.

  After resting for little longer, they began to make their way. They were able to go a little faster now that Marcy wasn’t suffering with every bump, and while he wasn’t the one to pick up the pace, the others hurried more than before.

  “How did you learn to do that?” Erica asked.

  “Someone who worked with me knew about various herbal treatments.”

  “You were a healer?” She glanced over to Marcy.

  Haern shook his head. “He was, but not me.”

  How much better would it be if he were a healer? At least then, he wouldn’t feel so helpless when it came to injuries like Marcy’s. He didn’t like being helpless, and Haern certainly didn’t like to watch people who were counting on him suffer.

  As they went, Haern searched for the strange sense of lorcith. His strength began to return, and he started to think that perhaps he might be able to withstand another similar attack. Though if one came, would he be able to protect everyone here?

  He had to figure out who had been responsible for the attack, and why. Once he understood that, he could ensure another didn’t come.

  Unfortunately, he couldn’t leave these women alone.

  And so they walked.

  “What are you looking for?�
� Erica asked at one point in the middle of the day.

  Haern glanced over to Elise, wondering how much he should share with the others. If he revealed that he was worried about an attack, would it alarm the others?

  “Haern saw something,” Elise said.

  “Something dangerous?”

  “Something.”

  He didn’t like keeping the details of the attack to himself any more than he suspected Elise did, but at the same time, there was no point in worrying the others when there was little they could do anyway. It was probably better for them to think they were hurrying because they were short on food.

  “I saw evidence of someone having come through here,” Haern said. That was near enough the truth that he wasn’t really lying to the other woman.

  “What kind of someone?” Erica asked.

  Haern glanced to Elise. How much was he supposed to share? He looked to her for guidance, figuring she was better connected in that regard to the other women. If anyone should get to choose how much he revealed about the possible attack, it should be her.

  “Are either of you going to share?” Erica asked.

  Haern breathed out in a heavy sigh, looking around. “Someone who seems to know what kind of potential I have.”

  Erica’s jaw clenched for a moment. “Are we under attack?”

  “Not that we can tell,” Haern said.

  “But it’s possible.”

  He nodded. There was no sense in lying to her about that.

  “Whatever is out there is something I can’t determine,” Haern said. “When we were camped last night, I went and looked, and came across this.” He pulled the sphere from his pocket, handing it over to her. She looked at it, twisting it in her hand for a moment before handing it back to him.

  She glanced over at Elise. “Do you recognize it?”

  Elise shook her head.

  There was something about the way Erica asked the question that left him wondering if perhaps he was missing something.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s probably nothing, but…”

  Haern paused, glancing over at her. Erica wasn’t the person he would’ve expected to have known anything about the sphere, but then, he hadn’t expected any of the women to have seen it.