Ciara looked around, wondering what could be done to contain Tenebeth, and knew that it couldn’t be done here. Within the tower, they would only segment the power that existed, but if they could somehow find a way to contain it outside of the tower.
“We need to go,” she said.
Cheneth shook his head. “We must contain this, Ciara. You were right that we needed to come here. Now that we are, we have to find a way to contain the darkness so that it doesn’t escape, and so the Khalan cannot use it.”
“We can’t leave,” Ciara agreed, “but we can’t remain inside the tower. We’ll have to leave if we are to contain it.”
She watched as the darkness flexed against the barrier that Reghal had created. The barrier held, but as she held onto her j’na, and as she sensed the power flowing through it, she became aware of darkness now swirling around it, as if it went through the stone of the tower, somehow finding its way around the protections that they had in place.
Thunder rumbled distantly. Cheneth looked up, his eyes narrowing as he tapped on his cane. “They’re coming,” he whispered.
“Who?” Jasn asked.
Cheneth closed his eyes. “The Khalan.”
15
Shade
She summons the light. I must learn this as well. If I could summon both darkness and light, there would be no reason to fear either.
—Ghalen, First of the Khal
“Hold her!” Shade demanded.
They were in the midst of the forest, dappled moonlight filtering through the trees. Restain looked over at him with a look that dripped with annoyance, but Shade ignored her. The old woman had already proven troublesome to them. When they came across her in the forest, she had used her cane as a way to summon the elementals, as if one of the Wise could summon with more skill than the Khalan.
“Do you really think that she can do anything to us now?” Sevn asked. He held the woman with a summons of earth and wind, and from the grim look on his face, it appeared that he struggled to maintain it. That strain gave Shade some insight as to Sevn’s strength, insight that he would use against him when this was all over.
Shade looked toward the forest and the trees rising around them. The old woman had managed to get past them for nearly a day, and in that time, they had discovered nothing about the woman they’d captured. Shade suspected that she was of Hyaln, but he didn’t know for certain.
“I think that she eluded us long enough,” he countered.
“Do you not think it interesting that we caught her now?” Restain asked.
“Why would that be interesting?” Sevn asked.
“Only because we have searched these woods for the last day and come across nothing. Maybe there is nothing, but I wonder if perhaps we have overlooked her companion.”
Shade glanced at the dark-haired woman lying in a heap on the ground. He held her with his summons to the dark, letting it swirl around her. So far, she had managed to resist even as she lay unmoving. He did not expect that to last much longer.
“Her companion says nothing.”
“That is not the one that I fear,” Restain noted.
“There are no draasin in the forest,” Shade said. “If there were, we would have encountered them by now.”
Restain pressed her lips together in such a way that he could tell she remained unconvinced.
“Do you intend to use them both?” Sevn asked.
“I intend for us to have answers. If this one is Wise, then Restain is right. We do need to find the draasin. It’s possible that we can use her to recapture the others.”
“There will be no recapturing of the draasin,” the woman said.
She spoke calmly, and her gray eyes stared at Shade with an intensity that almost forced him to look away. In some ways, she reminded him of Ghalen, and the quiet confidence that he exuded. There would come a time when others would see Shade in the same way.
“You speak boldly for a woman trapped as you are.”
The woman sniffed. “Trapped? Is that what you believe?”
Shade shot a look at Sevn, but the fool still seemed to hold her. Whatever the woman wanted them to believe was nothing but a wish. “Hold her,” he snapped.
Sevn glared at him, but the summons on earth and on wind increased, holding onto the woman more securely. She said nothing and continued to make no expression that would show she struggled against the summons.
Few of the wise were able to shape. For most, their ability came from the connection they shared with the draasin. There were others able to ride other elementals, but there had not been that kind of wise within Hyaln for many years.
Shade ignored the woman and turned his focus back to the dark-haired one on the ground. Using a summons to earth and water, while still holding onto the darkness, he forced her to awaken. He would get answers from her, and then he would sway her.
Pulling on the summons for this required an increased focus and a hardening of his intent. This involved him forcing the elementals to behave in ways that they would not choose, but then, they were meant for men to use. That was the reason the Creator had granted the ability to perform summons. Shapers might think themselves superior to the Khalan, but the Khalan accessed the power of the elements in such a way that the others could not understand. They could force power from multiple elementals, drawing much more strength than a single shaper would ever manage.
With his summoning, the woman sucked in a sharp breath and gasped, opening her eyes.
Shade leaned over her and smiled when she attempted to kick him. “You will find that you are quite well restrained.”
The woman’s eyes quickly scanned the forest around them and hesitated the longest as she stared at Restain. Did the woman recognize her? Shade hadn’t met Restain before Ghalen had demanded that he take her with him as he left Kalahs. There were many within the Khalan that he didn’t know, especially as his focus had been on using the dark summons to twist others. Once he mastered that, he understood that he had a different way that he would serve, at least for now. In time, he would take his eventual seat upon the Khal, and eventually he would rule.
“There’s nothing that I have that you want,” the woman said.
Shade thought he recognized her, if not her face then her voice, but couldn’t be certain. “I think that you might have something that I want.” He reached for her, and she attempted to kick again. Shade smiled. “Don’t worry. Soon you won’t want to fight.”
The woman writhed in place another moment before giving up again. “I’ll always want to fight.”
Shade grinned. “Good.”
He tapped his fingers together, bringing the summons for the shadows forth. With the darkness and the shadows, the intent was much more important for him to hold within his mind, especially as he attempted this portion of the summoning. No longer could he allow himself the distraction of holding the summons of earth and wind at the same time, not if he wanted to instigate the summons that he would use now. Once started, he could maintain it without much difficulty, but initializing it was the first—and hardest—step.
The woman seemed to realized what he was doing and started to kick again. Now that she was free from the effect of his other summons, she moved more freely.
Shade struck.
With his summons, he wrapped the shadows around her, sending them spiraling first around her arms and then her legs before writhing into her chest and down, before pulling the summons and the shadows toward her head.
Her eyes widened.
“You feel this now,” he said.
She opened her mouth as if to yell, but no sound came out. That was good. If she could still speak, it meant his control faded.
Shade forced the intent even more firmly into his mind. As he did, he tapped more vigorously, sending the intent that he had coursing through her.
The woman tried to resist. He felt a shaping building—now there could be no doubt that she shaped—but he pressed on, slamming his intent through her, let
ting the darkness run through.
Then he started to seal it.
As he did, a cry echoed from deep within the forest.
Shade looked up. This was a critical time for the summons. For this part to work, he could not have any distractions, nothing that would take him away from what he attempted.
“That is a draasin cry,” Restain said. She sounded calmer than he would have expected and watched him with a curious expression as if waiting to see what he might do with the draasin coming.
Shade focused on the woman, trying to seal in the darkness that he’d summoned to her, but his focus had faltered, leaving it harder than it should be.
The cry came again, this time closer.
Shade looked over at the old woman. An amused smile pulled at the corner of her mouth. Had the damned woman wanted to get captured?
Blast her!
Another cry, and this time he could feel the change in the air as the draasin approached. It would not be some mindless creature, not like those that he had manipulated. This would be a mighty force, one tied to the Wise woman, and one that he would struggle to control. He could not manage to summon both the darkness and control a fire elemental at the same time.
Shade released the summons. He would have to try it again once they got free of the draasin. For now, he needed to get them free.
“Take her,” he told Sevn, motioning to the old woman.
Sevn hesitated, the strain on his face showed he still felt the effects of trying to hold his summons while containing her. The fool wouldn’t even make this easy on them!
Shade stormed over and took the cane from the woman. She watched him with the same hint of amusement on her face, even when he struck her with it. Her eyes drifted closed, knocked out.
The draasin roared nearby.
“I am not certain that it is wise to strike one of the Wise,” Restain noted.
“Gather her,” he said to her, motioning to the woman. “Bind her if you can. Do the same as I did with the other if not. Then we go.”
Restain hesitated, long enough that Shade could see that she wouldn’t necessarily follow what he wanted, before moving to the dark-skinned woman and whispering softly into her ear, saying only a few words to her before the woman tipped her head back and stopped moving.
Had she summoned darkness for that? Shade hadn’t seen it used in such a way, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be. There were many ways to use the elementals, and he knew that he’d only scratched the surface with the darkness. In time, he suspected that he would be able to do much more with it, perhaps enough that he would discover a way to take his place among the Khal. Few of the Khal knew enough about the darkness, and certainly none of them had been clever enough to attempt the summonings that he had tried.
The draasin neared. He could feel the damned creature, like a painful grating sensation within his mind.
He shifted his summons, moving to wind and earth, avoiding fire especially with one of the draasin so near. Sevn did the same, only he had the Wise woman to carry with him. Restain prepared a summons of water, strangely enough, creating something like a disk that she floated on top of as she raised into the air, holding the shaper with her.
As soon as they reached the sky, the draasin appeared.
It was a massive creature, full of black scales and hard spikes, much larger than those they had tamed before. This would be a powerful creature to have under his control.
Shade started pulling on the darkness.
“You fool!” Restain snapped. “Now is not the time—”
“If we get this creature under our control, we will not have to worry about the Wise woman waking. Then we can use the draasin to help us hunt for the other.”
The draasin snapped toward them, long teeth coming dangerously close, avoided only by the fact that he could shift the summons of wind to create a buffer. As he did, he lost control of the summons somewhat and dropped toward the ground.
Damn!
Bolstering the connection to his summons, and forming it more firmly within his mind, Shade took to the air again, now righted and soaring up behind the draasin as it chased Restain and Sevn.
Not both.
The damned draasin targeted Sevn. A part of Shade wanted to let the creature take him. That would serve Sevn for the fact that he’d opposed him as long as he had, but Sevn carried the Wise, which was probably the reason that the draasin targeted him.
Changing the direction of his summons, he attacked the draasin, wrapping it with bonds of wind. He added earth summons to it, pulling on the elementals within the mountains. They were powerful here, and plentiful enough that Shade thought that he would be able to hold the draasin long enough to finish the summons of the darkness.
With a furious roar, the draasin broke free of the wind, shaking it off with a massive and violent shake of its wings. Then the draasin turned its attention to Shade.
Using a controlled summons of the wind, he dropped to the ground, careful to keep the draasin in view, but more importantly, wanting the draasin to keep him in view. He needed the creature to follow him and not the others. On the ground, he would have a different advantage, one that would allow him to gather the effort of the earth elementals here.
The draasin seemed to understand the risk. It tucked its wings against its body and streaked toward him, shooting like an arrow.
Shade swore to himself. What foolish thing was he doing, letting the draasin chase him? If this went awry, he would be killed. No. He would not give Sevn—or even Restain—that satisfaction.
A slight change in his summons pulled him to the north, where he landed with a hard drop. Shade immediately began work on summoning the earth, drawing it like a shield around him. As the draasin approached, Shade used a change in the summons, curving it over the creature.
The draasin seemed to anticipate it, slamming through the earth barrier with a spiked tail.
There were other ways that he could summon the earth, but he would have to abandon his intent with the wind. Doing so would put him in danger if he needed to escape.
His gaze flickered to the sky. Surprisingly, Sevn and Restain remained, both circling. Maybe it was not as surprising as he thought. They would be just as pleased to see him devoured as he would be seeing either of them suffer the same fate.
Releasing the wind completely, Shade focused on earth.
This time, he summoned it in such a way that it arced up and around the draasin before hooking back down, latching on to either of the draasin’s legs. All he needed was to secure one of them. Then he would be able to reach the others.
The summoning held.
Shade almost roared in celebration. He forced the intent within his mind and shifted the earth, wrapping the other leg. The draasin couldn’t move.
It could still breathe fire.
Shade used another summons, this time to protect himself. Earth countered fire better than anything other than fire itself. The draasin fire bounced harmlessly off him, leaving him untouched.
He stalked forward, pulling on the earth, drawing the damned draasin deeper into the earth. The creature tried flicking its tail, but Shade had bound that as well.
“You can go nowhere,” he said.
The draasin prepared to roar, but Shade was ready and shielded himself with earth.
He took another step toward the draasin, readying his shaping of darkness. To secure the creature, he would need to hold onto the earth summons while summoning the darkness at the same time. It would be difficult, but not impossible. Holding a summons was orders of magnitude easier than forming it in the first place.
As he shifted his focus, the draasin unfurled its wings.
Shade hadn’t planned on that.
The draasin flapped them once, twice, and with the third, it managed to pull free of the earth.
This was an impressive creature. A summons such as he held should have been enough to secure it, and would have been enough to secure any number of lesser creatures. This
draasin shrugged it off as if he were nothing.
Shade turned his attention back to the draasin, but he would be too slow.
Already he saw the spiked tail coming toward him.
He shifted his summons, but it wouldn’t be enough.
Turning away, he didn’t want to watch his own end.
The blow never came.
Shade turned back and saw a muscular man dressed in long furs standing atop the draasin, a massive chain that appeared crafted from earth and stone now wrapped around the creature’s neck. The draasin attempted to fight, trying to shake the man off, but he pulled the chain tight. As he did, color flashed along the chain, reminding him of the rune traps used in Hyaln, but this was no rune trap like he’d ever seen. This man was nothing like he’d ever seen, casually standing atop the draasin, holding onto the chains, as he forced the creature down to the ground.
He stared, dumbfounded for the first time in his adult life, not certain what to say for a long moment. When he finally managed to speak, the only words that came out were, “Who are you?”
16
Jasn
The Hyaln believe they understand the elements and the elementals. They have demonstrated their knowledge but have held it suppressed, preventing others from learning from them. Some believe they speak to the elementals, only those who were able to listen were few.
—Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars
Jasn held his sword, pulling shapings of each of the elements through it, augmenting with his connection to water as well as the summons to water, so that it surged with increased light. The tower pressed around him with malevolence, and he could practically feel the way it wanted to press against him like it was alive.
From what Cheneth and Ciara described of the Khalan and the way that they summoned the darkness and the power of Tenebeth, perhaps it was.
Ciara led them through the tower, guiding them down the stairs. The strange lizard waddled along next to her. Every so often, he paused and licked at the ground, or licked at Ciara. She didn’t seem to mind the attention.
Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5) Page 9