Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

Olina wagged a finger at her admonishingly. “Don’t play the fool, Ilyana. It does not suit you, and it insults me.”

  Katya turned away. In these lands, she would be Katya. “The hardest thing that I have ever done,” she admitted.

  “Why did you not return for him? That man has potential. You could have used him.”

  Potential. There was more than potential to Jasn Volth, but she had been too foolish at the time to see it. It had taken Cheneth to discover the connection to the elementals, and Cheneth to send him to Hyaln. Would things have been different for her had she brought him with her to Hyaln? Would they still have the connection that they had shared while in Atenas? For as much as she tried to deny those feelings, they had been real. The emotions that she shared with Jasn had been real.

  You could have stayed with him.

  Ah, but she couldn’t. As much as she wanted to tell herself that it would have been possible, she wouldn’t have been able to stay with him, not as Katya, and not without sharing with him what she really was. Doing anything else would have been denying herself.

  “He has more than potential. The Varden permitted him to remain.”

  Olina snorted. “Then even more reason for you to have brought him with you.”

  “I don’t think that he would have learned what he needed had he come with me. I believe that he needed to go through what he did for him to gain the insight that he did.”

  “Is that what the Varden wishes you to believe, or what you have chosen to believe?”

  “He became the Wrecker of Rens.”

  “An unfortunate title, don’t you think?” Olina said.

  It was. And it was one that he had assumed because of what happened between them. Had she never “died,” Jasn would never have subjected himself to such torment. He would never have been tested by Rens, and perhaps he never would have been chosen by Cheneth to study at the barracks, where he learned how his healing affected others.

  But not you.

  Not her, at least, not that she knew. Jasn had healed her and had claimed that there was some resistance within her for him to heal, but as far as she could tell, nothing had changed for her. Not that she expected it anyway. She did not think that it was her destiny to speak to the elementals. She doubted that she even could. Had she not known Jasn as she once had, she wouldn’t have believed that he spoke to the elementals, but then, there was no denying the strength of his shapings.

  That’s not the only strength of his that you deny.

  If she could hide that part of her that continued to plague her, she would, but instead, it continued to berate her, a constant harassment that had only grown worse the longer that she was around him. That was another reason that she’d been willing to let him go to Atenas without her. She had hoped that hit would quench the constant doubt from her own voice inside her mind.

  That’s not your reason, and you know it.

  No, she snapped at herself. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let Jasn know that it bothers me to see him with that girl! She had to be ten years younger than him!

  Did the age matter to you when you seduced him?

  Damn it!

  Katya had to stop engaging with the voice. It was hers, and she knew that what the voice said was right because it spoke from the doubt that gnawed at her in the quiet moments, like when she tried to sleep, or when she focused on sensing, or when she looked upon Jasn…

  Olina watched her. It wouldn’t surprise her if the woman knew about the thoughts troubling her. There was something about Olina that was more than most of the Wise that Katya had met.

  “Why are you smiling?” Katya asked.

  “You have been silent. I find that amusing is all.”

  “I am Enlightened. We are often silent.”

  Olina’s smile deepened. “I knew Cheneth well when he was still in Hyaln. There are few of the Enlightened who are quiet. What is it that troubles you? Is it your affection for Jasn Volth, or is it the irritation that you feel at the fact that he seems to have moved on?”

  “I want him to be happy.”

  “And you don’t think that girl will make him happy? She is young and quite lovely. I think that he would be quite happy were he only to allow himself. Or is it something else? Did you not want to see him happy so soon?”

  “This is not soon. Not for him,” Katya said.

  “No. He was the Wrecker of Rens. I would say he mourned you well, would you not? Few can claim such grief.”

  “Enough, Olina. Tell me why you torment me?”

  “Torment one of the Enlightened? I wouldn’t dream of it. I only thought to demonstrate that we are not entirely equipped to face the darkness yet.”

  “Which is why we search.”

  “If we find this man? What will you be able to do to convince him?”

  Katya thought that she could convince Calan of the necessity if she could reach him. She didn’t know him well—not as a fully trained hunter would have known him—but he would recognize her as Issa. If she could demonstrate her abilities to him, she thought that she might be able to coax him away from whatever he planned.

  “I am Enlightened,” Katya said.

  Olina tapped her cane on the ground. “There is more to the Enlightened than the title.” She nodded once, then started into the forest, leaving Katya staring after her.

  8

  Shade

  If the Khalan can summon the dark, that implies the darkness is elemental. There can only be one counter to elemental darkness.

  —Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars

  The forest settled around Shade, and he stifled the smile that came to his face as he detected the change on the wind with his summons. They had found her.

  “You should approach with more caution,” Restain said as they traveled on the wind.

  Shade held the summons for the darkness, letting it conceal them as they approached, all while still holding onto his summons of wind that carried him here. As it often did when they traveled between lands, the wind had shifted, now carrying with a different swell of cool air, gusting as they traveled. He could taste the earthy scent of the damp ground, the same stench that he’d noted when they first captured the woman. Mixed with that were undercurrents of pine and a hint of iron mined deeper into the forest and higher along the mountains.

  “I approach as I need,” Shade said.

  He had grown tired of Restain attempting to counsel him with each stop along their travels. She had abandoned any effort to make it appear that she supported him, now simply offering a contrary view as they made their way from Rens and into Ter. Shade had been happier when it had only been Sevn annoying him; now there were two and for different reasons.

  “I am not convinced this is the one you seek,” she said.

  Shade used the summons of wind, adding a hint of earth as he focused his intent and tapped along his leg and felt certain that he detected the woman. If not her, then there was another with an ability much like her. Either way, they needed to approach her and discover if she knew where the other woman had gone.

  “That may be,” Shade said, hedging for the possibility of failure. He didn’t want them to think he didn’t plan for it this time, even if he had no intent to fail. He would be like a hound after a scent, trailing the element magic that she summoned, taught by his own hand so that he could regain his standing within the Khal. “That doesn’t change the fact that there are others here who pose us danger.”

  Sevn looked over at him. He had grown sullen and quiet. “You detect Hyaln?”

  Shade sneered at him, detesting him more with each day. He considered using his summoning of the dark against Sevn but wondered what Restain might do if he did. The longer that he spent around her, the more uncertain he felt about where her loyalties might lie. “I detect a summoner. Perhaps shaping. Can you not?” He said the last with as much derision as he could muster.

  “I am more interested in the number of people we detect,” Sevn said.

&nb
sp; Shade frowned, shifting his focus so that he could listen for how many might be within the forest. He had only detected one at first, but there was a flicker, one that recurred, like a beacon or a pattern of some sort, that told him there must be another nearby as well.

  Sevn had managed to detect that before him. How had he grown so careless?

  He knew the answer. Damn Restain kept him on edge, disturbing his focus so that he couldn’t keep his mind where it needed to be, and now Sevn managed to almost get past him. He could not tolerate that happening again.

  “There are two,” Shade said.

  “That is what I detect as well,” Restain noted.

  She landed in between the trees, forcing Shade to join her, regardless of the fact that he would have preferred to remain aloft. In the air, he could focus on what else might be within the forest, but once he landed, he lost the connection to the wind somewhat and felt an increased annoyance at the way earth pressed on him.

  As he touched down, he felt a sudden presence against him.

  “Shapers,” he hissed.

  Restain frowned but seemed not to notice, as if what he detected didn’t bother her in the same way that it troubled him. “Can you tell where?”

  He tipped his head toward the trees, sending his summons drifting into the trees, searching for what he detected.

  Not a shaper. This was something unexpected.

  “Careful,” he whispered.

  Sevn glanced at him. “You would caution us now after the way that you have failed so far?”

  “I would caution you before you’re attacked by one of the draasin.”

  His eyes opened slightly, giving Shade a moment of satisfaction. At least he could still be impressed with the elementals. Perhaps he feared them as well. That would be helpful to know. “I sense nothing that would tell me the draasin are here.”

  “No,” Restain noted softly. “You would not. This… this, I think, is something we have not seen in many years.”

  Damn. Restain was proving more capable than he would have expected. “One of the Wise,” he said. “A rider.”

  9

  Jasn

  The Khalan understand the need to remove the barriers to power. Once released, reaching this power will be easier, and then we can study it in full.

  —Ghalen, First of the Khal

  Jasn looked to the sky as Katya and the other Wise of Hyaln disappeared. Ciara stood next to him, and he was all too aware of the warmth coming off her, and how close she stood next to him. Conflicted emotions still warred within him. He had spent so much time trying to mourn Katya, and when he realized she still lived, to find her, and when he finally did, there was a disconnect between them, one that hadn’t been there the last time he’d seen her. She was not the same person that she had been when she was in Atenas, but then, neither was he. The year he’d spent in Rens fighting, attacking, and nearly dying had changed him, but coming to the barracks and learning what else he had from Cheneth and discovering more to shaping had changed him almost as much.

  “What now?” Ciara asked. Even in the shade of the trees, she practically glowed, as if her sun-darkened skin managed to radiate light. How much of that came from the spear she used to summon the elementals and how much was simply from Ciara?

  She brushed strands of brown hair off her rounded cheeks and watched him as if knowing his thoughts, considering him with an unreadable expression. The strange veil that she wore bunched around her neck. That was one of the first things that she had asked for when she found them in Hyaln. She still wore Ter boots, though, and he smiled at the contrast.

  “Now we head to Atenas,” he said.

  He closed his eyes and focused on Alena. The connection remained between them, weaker than it had been but stronger than when he had been in Hyaln. The distance seemed to make a difference, though he didn’t fully understand why. Now that he was back in Ter, and now that he was closer to her, he could feel her in his mind, a connection that was something like an itch within his head, one that he couldn’t scratch.

  Could he find her?

  They needed to find her, and needed to tell her what had happened with Hyaln and warn Atenas. They could go, but he wanted to find Alena first, to know if she might have traveled somewhere else, gone on another mission for Cheneth.

  “She has not.”

  Jasn spun and saw Cheneth appear from between the trees at the edge of the camp. His face was gaunter than Jasn remembered, the lines around his eyes deeper than they had been, and a shadow of a gray beard had grown. He no longer wore his thin spectacles as he had when Jasn first came to camp, but then, Cheneth no longer had anything to hide, he suspected.

  “Cheneth?”

  “You wondered if Alena has gone on another mission for me. She remains in Atenas as she is needed.”

  Jasn shook his head. Even Enlightened, Cheneth shouldn’t be able to access his mind so easily. Jasn had discovered the source of spirit within himself as well, and that should be able to protect him.

  “Did you know we returned and come for us, or have you been here?” Jasn asked.

  “I sensed your return.”

  “Did you know?” Jasn asked. He took a step toward Cheneth. Since he’d arrived in Hyaln, Jasn had wondered whether Cheneth had known that he would be able to learn to use rune traps or to summon elementals in much the same way that Ciara could, or whether Cheneth had known that he would be able to reach spirit.

  “Know? I suspected that you would be more than a shaper. I had hoped that you would help heal Hyaln, but it doesn’t seem that you did.”

  “Heal? Hyaln is scattered. Those who support the Khalan remain, while only a small number—those like Katya and Rhegan and Fornal remain.”

  Cheneth’s brow furrowed. “Scattered. That explains too much.” He turned to Ciara with a smile. “He rescued you. How?”

  “I didn’t rescue her.”

  “No?” Cheneth closed his eyes, and Jasn became aware of a shaping building from him. He doubted that he would have detected it even a few weeks ago, but his time in Hyaln had strengthened his connection to the elements, and to his elemental. “You did not,” he whispered. “The Khalan had you, and still you managed to escape?”

  “Nobelas,” Ciara said. Cheneth nodded as if that made sense, but Jasn had no idea why it should.

  “Ah, thankful that you were protected. What happened there?”

  “They tried to force me into reaching the shadows.”

  “Force?” Jasn asked. She hadn’t shared that with him. “Is that possible? I thought you said we were protected here.”

  Cheneth sighed. “You were protected. Others here as well. But not all were. They should not have been able to influence Ciara.”

  “But they did,” she said softly.

  Cheneth said nothing for a moment. Jasn watched him, wondering what secrets Cheneth still hid. He had thought to protect them from Tenebeth, but by holding back information about what was out in the world, he had placed them in more danger.

  “Why are you here?” he asked Cheneth. “What happened to everyone else?”

  “I’ve sent those I could to safer places.”

  “Safer?”

  Cheneth nodded, rubbing his eyes. “Attacks have grown more frequent. Atenas was attacked, and all of the border cities as well. I had not expected the Khalan to be so organized.”

  “What’s happened? Did we lose the border cities?”

  “Not yet. I’ve sent as many of our shapers there as I could. It appears that we no longer have to play at hunting the draasin.”

  “You’re all that remains of the barracks?” Jasn asked.

  “For now.”

  “Then why did you return?”

  Cheneth nodded to Ciara, and then to Jasn. “For you. Both of you. Hyaln has scattered, but that doesn’t mean they are no longer needed.”

  “The Wise have gathered together once more,” Ciara said.

  “Good. They will be needed if they’re willing to fight.”


  Ciara pressed her lips together in a tight line. She lifted her spear a moment and brought it back down, just the lightest of taps. Light surged briefly from the end before fading.

  “Where did you learn that?” Cheneth asked.

  “When the Khalan captured me, they thought to turn me.” Ciara almost made it a point to avoid meeting his eyes. “And they did. For a time, I didn’t know who I was. I believed that I was sent by my father to train and that they would teach me what I needed to be nya’shin.”

  “Did they know you were nya’shin?”

  Ciara shivered as she spoke, shaking her head. “I don’t know what they knew. I believed that they were nya’shin and that they would teach, which they did. From them I learned how to summon the elementals, reaching them with more strength than I had ever managed before. But I had dreams, visions of a time that shouldn’t have been.”

  “Nobelas,” Cheneth said.

  She nodded. “Nobelas showed me visions of who I was supposed to be, not the person the Khalan intended for me. Eventually, I managed to get free.”

  “Your summoning,” Cheneth said. “It is different now.”

  She swallowed. “I don’t understand it, but I remember everything that they taught me, even if I don’t want to. That knowledge burns within me.”

  “You escaped from the Khalan, using what they taught?” Cheneth asked.

  She nodded.

  “And you can summon nobelas.”

  “Summon. Bond. I think they are different.”

  Cheneth smiled, and some of the weariness faded from his eyes. “They are. Oh, they are.”

  “There’s more,” Ciara said. Light exploded from the end of her spear, though she hadn’t moved it.

  Cheneth’s smile deepened. “I can see that there is.”

  Jasn frowned, not completely understanding. “Did Ciara just shape?”

  “No,” Cheneth answered. “Something better. She can summon without moving. She can call to the elementals in ways that the Khalan cannot even match.”