Rise of the Elder

by D. K. Holmberg

  She strode past them, across the clearing between the Elder Trees, and reached her hut. Once there, she set the bundle of wood on the ground, but kept the berries. She opened the door and waited for Rsiran and Jessa to follow.

  The heavy scent of the mint tea filled the air, mixing with the wood smoke. Della placed the berries in a bowl on a small table and began mashing them. Rsiran had seen her working before, and had even learned some of the herbs and leaves that she worked with, but there was something natural about seeing her in this place, using the berries she’d collected outside the Elder Trees, that felt right.

  “What did you want us to see?” Jessa asked.

  “Not what. Who.”

  Rsiran looked to the hearth and realized that someone sat in one of the chairs. All he could make out was the top of the person’s head. An uneasy sense worked through him.

  “Della?”

  “Don’t worry, Rsiran. You know I wouldn’t do anything that placed you in danger.”

  He glanced to Jessa, who shrugged.

  Making his way toward the hearth, he stopped next to the chair.

  A man looked up at him, an anxious expression on his youthful face. He had moderate green eyes, and his hair was shorn close to his scalp, but it was the long scar along the side of his face that drew Rsiran’s attention.

  “Amin?” he asked. Had he not seen the scar, he wouldn’t have been certain it was the same person.

  Rsiran pulled on a pair of knives, already preparing for the possibility of an attack, but Amin sat in the chair, his hands clenched in his lap. Rsiran realized Amin was the one who was nervous.

  “Della—you left him here alone while you went harvesting?” Jessa asked.

  Della nodded. “Don’t think I can’t determine when it’s safe to leave someone in my home. I think I’ve earned that right.”

  “How do you know he won’t do anything?” Jessa unsheathed a long heartstone knife that Rsiran had made for her and held it ready. “Did you See something?”

  Della touched Jessa’s hand, pressing the knife down so she was forced to sheath it again. “I don’t need to See anything to know he’s not going to harm us. You seem to forget I have other talents.”

  “You’ve Read him,” Rsiran said. “I thought he sealed himself off from you.”

  Della smiled at that. “I admit I thought the same. There aren’t many who have that ability,” she said, tapping Rsiran on the shoulder. “At least, not without assistance.” Her gaze dropped to the bracelets he wore, but they didn’t go cold. “In the time since we healed him, there has been another effect, and one I didn’t expect.”

  “What was that?” Jessa asked. “What would make you think that you can trust him enough to leave him free in the camp while you go off in the woods? This man was an assassin!”

  “I know what kind of man he is—or was,” Della said. “Just as I know what kind of man my brother is. As I have said, he wants to enslave as many as he can, much as he attempted to enslave Amin’s mind.”

  With the comment, Rsiran tore his gaze away from the Hjan and to Della. “What are you saying?”

  Della sighed. “I’m saying that you were right, Rsiran. We can’t destroy all of Venass, not without identifying those who could be saved. At least some of the Hjan were Compelled.”

  Chapter 16

  Rsiran waited in the hall outside the heartstone room of the Forgotten Palace. The guilds protected the palace now, mostly those with the ability to Slide, but also miners and a few alchemists. The protections here were not only to secure the palace, but also to secure the prisoners Rsiran had started to bring here.

  “Decided to come back?” Valn asked. He wore a heavy jacket that concealed a short sword, something that would have been unthinkable only a few months ago.

  “I wanted to see your pretty face,” Rsiran said.

  Jessa elbowed him.

  “She’s jealous,” Rsiran said when Valn arched a brow.

  “Can’t say I can blame her. With looks like these, you’ll be fighting him for me.”

  Jessa rolled her eyes. “Between the two of you, I’m not sure how we survived when Venass attacked. Both of you were probably too busy looking at your swords.”

  Valn reached for his sword. “Well, Rsiran made mine, so he knows plenty about it.” When Jessa shook her head, Valn turned serious. “I’m sorry to hear about Haern. He was a good fighter. He’ll be missed.”

  Rsiran appreciated the fact that Valn directed the comment to Jessa. In many ways, Haern had acted as something of a father figure to her. He had certainly been as protective as most fathers.

  “He’s at peace now,” Jessa said.

  “Hope he’s sitting next to the Great Watcher and guiding his hand,” Valn said. “That way, we might have a chance. So damn many Venass, and all of them more powerful than us.”

  “That’s why I’m here,” Rsiran said.

  Valn frowned. “You’re going to start cutting them down? I don’t really think that suits you, Rsiran, but if that’s what you think is best.”

  “Not cutting them down, but Della thinks they’ve been Compelled.”

  “That’s a lot of men to Compel. Do you think he could hold that control for all those years?”

  Rsiran didn’t know. Della hadn’t been able to answer, either, other than to say that Danis was a more powerful Reader than anyone she’d met, which meant he could draw on that power when he Compelled.

  “I don’t know if he held them, or if he changed them,” Rsiran said. The first sounded awful, but if Danis changed something about them permanently, that was worse.

  “Why’d you come here?”

  “To test whether it’s true.”

  Valn cocked his head to the side and watched Rsiran for a moment before shrugging. “Whatever you want. You’re the guildlord.”

  “He thinks he’s more than that, too,” Jessa said.

  “Lareth? He’s never even wanted to be guildlord.”

  “He thinks he can sit on the Elvraeth council.”

  “I don’t want to sit on the council, but it might be the best way to ensure that the guilds and the council work together again.”

  Valn grinned. “Technically, he is Elvraeth, isn’t he? Descended from Danis himself!”

  “We’re all technically Elvraeth,” Jessa said.

  Valn’s smiled faded. “Not the guilds. We’re descended from the ancient clans. That’s where we get our abilities. Most of us, that is,” he said, nodding to Rsiran.

  Rsiran wondered whether it mattered that he didn’t have any other abilities. Everything he possessed stemmed from the clans, and in that, he had aspects of all of the clans, while possessing none of those from the Elvraeth. If Naelm knew that, he might exclude him from the council for that reason alone, and Rsiran wouldn’t have much of an argument.

  They reached the heartstone chamber. Since the Forgotten had abandoned the palace, Rsiran had foraged and taken as much of the heartstone as he could, removing a piece at a time. The walls were now a patchwork of stone and the blue glowing light from the heartstone. The furniture Evaelyn once kept here had all been removed, carried into other rooms, mostly so that Rsiran could get to the heartstone more easily. The metal was rare enough he wanted to be able to use as much of what existed here as possible.

  Passing through the heartstone room to get to the tunnels where the cells were located, Valn shivered. “Don’t care for that room.”

  Jessa nodded. “Me neither. Evaelyn nearly forced me to attack Rsiran in this room.”

  “That’s not why I don’t care for it. Can’t Slide.”

  “You can’t Slide in here, either,” Rsiran said, walking along halls lined with a strangely patterned lorcith. “That’s why they created this place. It protected them from Thenar Guild.”

  “It didn’t protect them from the Thenars,” Valn said. “It was Venass and the way they intended to pull people with talent away from here that put them in danger. Building a place like this kept them sa
fe from Venass.”

  “It’s like they created a prison for themselves,” Jessa said.

  “When Evaelyn lived, I don’t think they had to fear Venass,” Rsiran said. “Danis was her brother.”

  “If that was true, why would she need a room coated in heartstone?” Jessa asked as they reached the line of cells.

  Rsiran didn’t have the answer. He had assumed Evaelyn didn’t fear her brother, but maybe that wasn’t true. Why else would she have built a room surrounded by heartstone, the one metal that Sliders struggle to get past? She had been surprised—alarmed—when he’d appeared, realizing he could get past heartstone. Only after that did she side with Venass. Rsiran thought it had been because she wanted to stop him and find the crystals, but maybe it was about more than that.

  The row of cells had a strange quality to them. The forging had been done so the lorcith pressed on him, making it hard for him to focus. Memories of his own imprisonment in one of these cells flashed into his mind. Without his ability to Slide by pulling himself, he wouldn’t have managed to get free. Danis had nearly trapped them together as it was.

  Two men armed with steel swords stood in front of the first cell. They nodded to Valn and glanced to Rsiran briefly. He knew one of the men’s names, but not the other.

  “Steel,” Valn said. “Saw you eyeing the sword,” he told Jessa. “They don’t carry lorcith, even though Lareth’s blades are the best, because they don’t want to risk Venass using them against them.”

  “It probably wouldn’t matter,” Jessa said. “Venass has other weapons that they use.”

  “Not here,” Valn said. He pulled a pair of orbs from his pocket and held them up.

  Jessa jerked back, eyeing the spheres. “What do you think you’re doing carrying those around here! One of those damned near killed Rsiran!”

  “They killed plenty, not only almost Rsiran. We need to understand them if we’re going to defeat them.” He brought the spheres together in a quick motion.

  Rsiran readied to Slide, hoping he could do it in a quick movement, and afraid he wouldn’t be able to get Jessa away as quickly as he would need. In this place, his connection to the metal was different—faded—such that he would have to push with power energy more than he would otherwise.

  Nothing happened.

  “See? The orbs don’t work here. The walls suppress it. I think their ability is suppressed with lorcith, too, but we haven’t risked testing it yet. Thought maybe you might be willing to try.”

  Rsiran pulled on his knives, sending a pair spinning in the air. “It’s harder, but not impossible. And if I can do it, then Danis can.”

  “You’re more powerful than Danis, especially when it comes to the metals.”

  Rsiran once would have thought the same, but seeing how easily Danis had stopped his knives before he’d killed Haern, he wasn’t sure he was anymore. “They’ve come up with some way to overwhelm even my strength.”

  Valn’s eyes widened. “If they can do that, how in the name of the Great Watcher do we think we’ll stop him?”

  Rsiran didn’t have an answer. He wasn’t willing to use the lorcith the same way Venass did, implanting it so it twisted the abilities they were given by the Great Watcher, but they would have to come up with something to stop Danis. Rsiran didn’t even know if a cell like this would hold him anymore. The only thing that had even the hope of containing him recently had been using the power of the Elder Trees, and Rsiran wasn’t sure he would have enough of a connection—even if he used it through the sword—for him to stop Danis.

  “We have to find a way to neutralize Venass first,” Rsiran said. “Then we’ll go after Danis.”

  Valn watched him and shook his head. “Might as well figure out what he’s done and copy it. That way, we might have a chance.”

  “We can’t become like them or worse in order to stop them.”

  “We have to stop them if we want to survive. What’s it matter how we do it?”

  “It matters,” Rsiran said.

  The logic was the same as what Firell had used when justifying the way he’d betrayed Brusus. It was the same as what Shael had done when betraying all of them. If they abandoned what they believed in, and if they betrayed who they were, would it matter if they won?

  “Lareth, you can’t keep thinking that you’ll—”

  Rsiran ignored him as he pulled across the door into the cell.

  On the other side, he found the small Hjan that he’d brought from the palace. The man glanced over from where he sat on a small stone pallet, almost as if expecting him. A dark sneer spread across his face.

  “Lareth. You’ve finally come to taunt me?”

  “Not taunt. Offer you a chance.”

  “What kind of chance? You chose not to kill me, so I don’t think your threats will work as you might intend.”

  “No threats,” Rsiran said.

  The Hjan sniffed. “Then there’s nothing you will do to convince me.”

  “Convince you of what?”

  The Hjan tensed. “Isn’t that why you’ve come? Don’t you intend to convince me I need to share with you what Venass plans? Our scholars will find a way to release me, and even if they don’t, it doesn’t matter. He knows where I am.”

  Was there some connection shared between the Hjan? If there were, then it was possible Danis did know where he was, and maybe where Amin was, even after they had removed the implant from his head.

  Did that matter?

  It did, he knew. Danis might know where to find the Forgotten Palace, but he didn’t know how to reach the heart of the Aisl Forest. The remaining Elder Trees protected it.

  “Do you think I fear Danis?”

  The Hjan looked over. “You should be careful saying his name.”

  “I don’t fear him.”

  “Ah, that’s not true, Lareth. I can see it in the way you frown when you look at me. You fear him, as you should.”

  “I can protect you from him. I can see to it that you’re healed and the effect of his Compel is removed.”

  The Hjan touched the side of his face, running his finger along the scar. “Doing so would force me to give up the connection I fought so hard to gain. I think I would rather die, Lareth.”

  “You don’t have to die for him.”

  The Hjan tipped his head. “For him? He promised me strength and power. Everything he said he would give, he has. What would you promise, Lareth? What do you think would convince me to abandon my lord?”

  “Safety.”

  “There is no safety in this world. There is power, and the strength you can demonstrate. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool.”

  “I refuse to believe there can be no peace.”

  “Because you’re strong, but not the strongest. He’s learned your secrets, and now you will suffer.” He pointed toward the door. “All of your friends will suffer as well. You would be better to support him than to fight. It would be less painful.”

  Rsiran wondered if this Hjan had even been Compelled. It was possible there were those with Danis who followed willingly.

  He focused on the lorcith plate in the Hjan’s head. It was fused there, but could he pull on it and remove it? Now that he’d done it once, he wondered if he could again, and this time without the incision.

  It would take control, and it might require healing after he was done, regardless, but he needed to know.

  Holding the connection to lorcith in his mind, he started to push. At first, it was slow, the resistance within the cell made it difficult, but the more that he did it, the softer the metal became, and the more attuned to it he became.

  “What are you doing?” the man said.

  He tried to stand, but Rsiran pushed slightly, enough to hold him in place.

  He continued to work with the metal, pushing and pulling on it.

  As he did, he realized he didn’t need to remove it. All he had to do was modify it. Then the lorcith would be used differently.

  The Hjan start
ed to scream as Rsiran worked with the lorcith. The metal shifted, the soft hum from the song of it coming to his mind, and he knew what he needed to do.

  With the implants, Venass forced the metal against the minds of the Hjan. This somehow connected them to it, and bound them to the potential of the metal. Teasing it away would require that he ease it back, away from the Hjan’s mind. Without Della’s help, it risked harming him, but he had done the same with Amin, and if he didn’t do this, there would be no way of determining if the Hjan could ever be released.

  The Hjan tried to Slide.

  Rsiran felt it as a flicker against his mind, but it faded.

  He held onto the lorcith, and the Hjan lunged, trying to reach him.

  Again, Rsiran pushed, holding him back.

  The work was almost done. Another few moments, and the lorcith would be separated from him. There would remain a defect in the bone, a place where Venass had carved at his mind in order to place the implant, but he could shift the metal so it replaced the bone that had been lost, and so he wouldn’t have to peel it completely away.

  The Hjan screamed as Rsiran finished, drawing away the last of the metal from his mind.

  The connection was deeper than he remembered with Amin, but then when he had removed the plate from Amin’s head, he hadn’t focused as much on how deeply he tore lorcith away. With Della along that time, he hadn’t feared healing him. This time, any damage that occurred, he would have to repair, and Rsiran didn’t think he could.

  The last of the lorcith came away from deep within the Hjan’s mind.

  The Hjan slumped forward.

  Rsiran watched him. Part of him wanted to check if he’d killed the man. If he had, it would be nothing more than cold-blooded murder. But he wouldn’t risk the Hjan playing some sort of trick on him, and faking injury.

  The Hjan breathed.

  Rsiran waited. Moments passed before the Hjan opened his eyes and looked over to him.

  “What did you do to me?”

  “The implant remains.”

  The Hjan touched his face. What went through his head as he tried to use abilities that would no longer work?

  “You shouldn’t have been able to remove it!”