Seal of Light
The Endless War
D.K. Holmberg
ASH Publishing
Contents
1. Shade
2. Ciara
3. Jasn
4. Jasn
5. Eldridge
6. Shade
7. Katya
8. Shade
9. Jasn
10. Katya
11. Alena
12. Katya
13. Ciara
14. Ciara
15. Shade
16. Jasn
17. Ciara
18. Alena
19. Eldridge
20. Shade
21. Ciara
22. Alena
23. Katya
24. Ciara
25. Jasn
26. Alena
27. Jayna
28. Alena
29. Jasn
30. Alena
31. Ciara
32. Alena
33. Eldridge
34. Jayna
35. Jasn
36. Alena
37. Jayna
38. Alena
39. Jasn
40. Ciara
41. Jayna
42. Ciara
43. Jasn
44. Ciara
45. Jasn
46. Shade
47. Ciara
48. Ciara
49. Alena
50. Jasn
51. Ciara
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by D.K. Holmberg
Copyright © 2016 by D.K. Holmberg
Cover art by Damonza
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1
Shade
Those within Hyaln fear this reservoir of power, though they should not. How much do they lose not reaching for it?
—Ghalen, First of the Khal
A chill practically coated the inside of the tower. Shade ignored it, holding instead onto the sense of the summons, trying to prepare as best as he could for what he knew came. Sevn marched slightly ahead of him, his shoulders drawn back and with an arrogant tilt to his head.
Damn that man for interfering!
Shade had failed. That much he understood, but how? The girl had been wiped, yet somehow she had recovered. That shouldn’t have been possible, not with the summons that he’d used and the darkness that he’d charged as it swept through her. But she had recovered.
Not only had she recovered, but she now possessed all the knowledge that he’d instilled in her. The training with the summons, guiding her as only one of the Khalan would have trained, left her uniquely equipped to face him. How had he missed that she could shape as well? Shouldn’t the darkness have shown him that? Yet it had not, and now she was gone.
Worse, so were the draasin.
Damn!
Sevn turned to face him, a dark smile on his thin lips, almost as if the blasted man could read his mind, but he was no Enlightened to be able to manage that. Even if he were, Shade had long ago mastered the method of disguising his thoughts, protecting his mind from the Enlightened. All of the Khalan had; otherwise, they would have been discovered long ago.
And it wasn’t that what they did was wrong. The Khalan chased power, true, but for the sake of understanding. Who better to rule than those with the knowledge and understanding of the power that flowed through the world? Not the fools who remained in Hyaln. They believed that there were certain powers that should not be touched, powers like the darkness that most didn’t understand, but powers that were meant to be accessed, to tap them no differently than they summoned and accessed fire or earth.
Sevn stopped in front of a wide, ornate doorway. He glanced back at Shade once more, the smile still framing his mouth. “They are displeased with your plans.”
Shade bit back the angry retort that came to mind. They might be displeased now, but had he succeeded, they would have been the opposite. Unfortunately for him, failure meant weakness, and weakness meant he was not fit to wield the power. Somehow, he had to convince them otherwise.
“You know nothing of my plans,” he said to Sevn.
Sevn tilted his head to the side, and the smile faded. At least Shade managed that much. There had been a time when Sevn would never have challenged him, a time when he recognized his place within the Khalan, but with Shade’s failings, it had opened up an opportunity for Sevn to wrest control from him.
“It will be interesting to watch you suffer, I think. Perhaps I will ask to participate.”
Sevn stepped through the door, not worried about whether Shade would follow. Why should he worry? What else could Shade do but follow him in? If he did not, there would be no place for him. Certainly not back in Hyaln. That was a bridge that he’d crossed long ago when he’d made it clear how far he was willing to go to understand the darkness and gain control over it. Yet that control had slipped from him, faded in some ways. Now he could still summon it, but he had no grasp on it as he had before.
Shade gathered himself together and stepped into the room.
After the darkness and shadows of the tower halls, the sudden brilliant light nearly overwhelmed him. Suspended from the ceiling, a massive crystal reflected glow from five different lanterns stationed around the room, giving light that was nearly as bright as the sun. Shade had to squint to protect his eyes.
An oval table occupied much of the room. Situated around the table and seated at chairs so ornately made that they reflected some of the lantern light as well, were the Khal. There were five, each incredibly gifted summoners who had separated from Hyaln to create this place for true power to be understood. None turned as he entered, not as they once would have. Shade understood then how far he had fallen.
Sevn stood at the far end of the table, his slightly bent back demonstrating his deference. He spoke softly so that Shade couldn’t hear—not without summoning the wind, and were he to do that here, he would be overwhelmed by the others. The rest of the Khal watched him intently. Sevn spoke for a few long moments before nodding in his direction.
Shade straightened his back as he took a deep breath. He would not let them see him intimidated, even as he fought to control the fear fluttering in his stomach.
Damn that woman!
Had she only remained committed to him, and had he only been able to keep her bent to his will, she would have been a powerful ally. She had already demonstrated incredible strength, even without proper training. With his training, he had managed to guide her in ways that others would not have believed possible for one not initially trained in Hyaln.
“Approach.”
Shade shook himself to clear his mind and took two measured steps forward. He calculated the distance as he did, tapping his foot slightly as he dragged the other. A summons and one that would do little other than shield him with earth were it needed, but he refused to remain unprepared.
“I present myself before the Khal,” he said, bowing his head respectfully.
With the light from the crystal hanging overhead, he still couldn’t fully see their expressions, almost as if the light overwhelmed his ability to make out their faces clearly. Of the Khal, he once had consi
dered himself the equal of two, nearly the equal of two more, but far below Ghalen, who led the Khal. Did he still feel the same way after he’d been effectively demoted?
Why question his ability now? It wasn’t that his skills had somehow become lessened. He had failed, but he had failed because he had attempted to do what the others refused to try. There was value in that, and a lesson that he could take from it. Were it not for him attempting to train the woman, he would not have known there was some way to escape the shrouding used. That was valuable. The others wouldn’t know of it, and that was valuable. Shade had no doubt that he had been successful with her, but something had changed. If only he could understand what and find a way to use that to his benefit.
“You present yourself because you were brought before the Khal. There is a difference.”
This came from Shellay. She sat near the end of the table, her long, curly brown hair hanging below her shoulders. She was a harsh woman, and though he couldn’t see her face, he imagined her frowning. Shade had nearly the ability she possessed. She might be a skilled summoner, but it was the fact that she could shape as well that gave her authority within the Khal.
“There is no difference to me. The Khal knows that I used my time to study.”
“Study?” This came from Broyn, a wide-set man with a thick brow and dull eyes that hid the keenness of his mind. Shade had mistakenly underestimated him when they first met, leaving Broyn no supporter of his. “You have attempted to train those of Hyaln and beyond.”
“I have succeeded in training those of Hyaln and beyond,” Shade said. He was careful not to come across too boastful, but he would not let them diminish the work that he had done, work that they had benefited from.
“You are not here to discuss your successes. It is the failings that interest the Khal,” Broyn continued.
Was the Khal to be led by him now? If that were the case, then Shade would have miscalculated by appearing before them with some confidence. Broyn might respond better to a show of deference, a feigning of complete weakness, though the others would not.
“I think Shade is completely aware of his failings,” Ghalen said. He leaned forward so that the light didn’t catch his face with quite the same intensity, somehow leaving shadows lingering around the corners of his eyes. Shade almost took a step back as Ghalen’s gaze swept over him. Of all the Khal, he feared Ghalen the most. There were not many with the ability to summon without using movements, and Ghalen could generate multiple summons at the same time, almost as if he were a shaper. “Which is why he has come before us today.”
Failings? The plural caught him off guard. Did they mean the fact that he had lost not only the ala’shin, but the others as well, or was there something else that he wasn’t yet aware of?
“I miscalculated with the girl,” Shade started carefully. Best to portray honesty with Ghalen, even if he didn’t feel the same toward the rest of the Khal. “She managed to resist my shrouding of her past. It is a mistake that I will not make again.”
“You will not make it again because you won’t be given the same latitude—”
Ghalen cut Broyn off with a wave of his hand. “How did she resist?”
Leave it to Ghalen to cut to the heart of the issue. The others of the Khal didn’t seem to share the same concern for the fact that the girl had overcome one of his most potent summonings. “I am uncertain.”
Ghalen leaned ever so slightly forward. Now the light from the crystal caught his eyes, making them nearly burn. “You have used this summoning many other times successfully.”
“I have. There was the shaper of Atenas—”
“Who has been lost,” Kayla said. She sat near him and had been quiet since his arrival. He glanced at her, hiding the desire to sneer. She might be the weakest of the Khal, raised simply because of her past ties within Hyaln. Shade could out-summon her without much struggle, and she knew it, which was why she didn’t meet his eyes, even now.
“What do you mean that she has been lost?”
Using her had been his greatest accomplishment prior to the ala’shin. He had managed to keep most of her memories intact and had trained her enough that she served the Khalan, though she would appear to serve the fools in Atenas. If she had been lost, then he understood why Ghalen would reference failings.
“Atenas has—”
Ghalen raised his hand again, cutting Kayla off. “He does not need to know what Atenas has, only that he has not served his Khal as he should. Tell me what happened with your last attempt.”
Shade carefully looked at those around the table before turning to study Sevn. The light didn’t reach him in quite the same way, leaving him less washed out as he stood back from the table. Did Sevn notice the discord within the Khal? Probably not. The fool had always desired power and had chased it too openly. Now that he had it, would he know to keep his eyes open and learn from what happened around him? Sometimes the greatest lessons came when he managed to observe while others did not.
“The woman had been turned. I would not have advanced in her training had she not.”
Broyn coughed, and Ghalen slowly turned to him, cutting him off.
Interesting. What else might he learn here? If he were careful, he might be able to pick his way back to power, perhaps even to a better position than he’d had before. But he would have to pick his way carefully. If he misstepped—even a little—he ran the risk of lowering himself to a place even worse than he was now.
Shade bowed his head slightly. A bit more deference might give him a chance to present himself in the way that Ghalen expected. Not too much—the damned man wouldn’t want him to beg; how could you respect a man like that?—but enough that he didn’t appear a challenge, not that Shade could challenge Ghalen. Yet. In time, that was what he hoped, but that day was far from now.
“She had turned, to the point where I began to demonstrate how to summon the darkness. She had some talent in it,” Shade said, careful to direct his words to Ghalen.
“A risky move, one that appears even more risky given what we now know about her.”
“What do we know?” Shade asked. “She managed to counter the shrouding. None have managed that before. That she could… that tells me that she had help of some kind.”
“Now you claim that another helped her?” Broyn demanded. “Did Hyaln help her?”
“I do not think so,” Shade answered.
“Then another. Is it not bad enough that you risked our position, but you’ve lost the draasin as well.”
Shade hadn’t known that. It made his failure worse if true, but not something that he couldn’t recover from. He had to play it right, but he thought that he could find a way to work this to his advantage, even now.
“There is another answer,” Ghalen said.
Shade frowned, not expecting his help to come from him, but thankful for it nonetheless. Had Ghalen reached the same conclusion that he had reached, one that made little sense, but what else could it be?
“I can see you have already considered the alternative answer,” Ghalen noted.
Shade tipped his head in a slight nod. “I have contemplated what else could have happened, yes.”
“And what have you come up with?” Ghalen asked.
“For her to have help, it had to be external… or internal.”
Sevn jerked his head up and glared at Shade across the table. Likely the bastard wondered how he had managed to twist this to his advantage. He had come to the Khal fearing punishment. Now all he had to do was complete the task, and he would be back on the pathway to his redemption.
“Internal?” Kayla said. “That makes no sense!”
“Many here have neglected the teachings gleaned within Hyaln.”
“For good reason,” Shellay said. “They feared what they could control.”
“They did, but that doesn’t mean that they know nothing about the power of the elements. There are other ways of reaching the elemental energies, ways that are even more direct than w
hat we can summon.”
Broyn slapped his hand onto the table. “Do you think that we should believe that Hyaln has managed to reach the elementals directly? We would have heard about it were it true!”
“The elementals have been accessed before,” Ghalen said, “but they would not have managed to offset the summons to the darkness. I doubt that is what Shade is suggesting.”
Shade shook his head. “That is not.”
“Then what is he suggesting?” Broyn asked.
Shade suppressed his smile, making a point of avoiding Sevn’s eyes. He would not gloat in front of the Khal. That would come later, when he exacted his revenge for what the blasted man managed to put him through. Now would be for explaining, and for bringing the rest of the Khal around to his side.
“There must be an elemental that disperses the shadows, one that calls to the light. And for that woman to have escaped me, she must have connected to it.”
As he stood thinking himself triumphant, he couldn’t help but note the worried frown curling the corner’s of Ghalen’s mouth.
2
Ciara
The Khalan study the darkness, thinking that summoning of it grants control. They fail to understand control is only an illusion, and that dark begets the dark. Only through the light can there be true understanding.
—Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars
The draasin crouched on the edge of the rock overlooking the sea. Waves crashed below, far enough that she could only see them as spray slapping against the rock, but not so far that she couldn’t detect the salt in the air. Talyn stared out over the water, the connection between the two of them stronger with each passing day, allowing Ciara to practically know what the draasin thought. Much like with the lizard Reghal, the draasin had a keen intelligence. Unlike with Reghal, the draasin sought a different approach to the conflict with Tenebeth, wanting nothing more than to destroy the threat they faced.
Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5) Page 1