Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  There was something about the lizard that Jasn couldn’t quite put his finger on. The creature had power—Jasn could feel that about him—but there was something else there as well. Almost a familiarity that he sensed, as if he should know him, or should at least know of his power.

  Can you detect Tenebeth here? he asked of the water elemental.

  There is darkness here.

  Voidan. That’s what you call it.

  Voidan, the water elemental agreed.

  Can I heal this tower?

  There is no healing from Voidan.

  No healing. Then how were they supposed to find a way to stop Tenebeth? If they couldn’t heal from the effects caused by him, what could they do to stop it? Would there be others like Thenas who attacked? Without Ciara, he wouldn’t have been able to stop him, and that was only one shaper. If there were others… Jasn shivered.

  Ciara glanced back at him, and he forced a smile. He didn’t need her worrying about him. She had been through enough—and more than he had realized—that made it hard to imagine her willingness to keep pushing forward.

  The stairs opened into a wide foyer. A massive door was closed, and Ciara tapped her spear a few times, letting the light glow brighter, and touched it to the door.

  She had changed in her time trapped here.

  Ciara had never been weak. Jasn doubted that someone could grow up within Rens and actually be weak. But she had been tentative and had not known—or believed—the extent of her abilities. Now there was a confidence, something that made her almost seem fearless.

  The light that emanated from her spear carried with it an edge of warmth. Jasn sighed when that light washed over him.

  The door opened to a gray sky on the other side. A cool breeze gusted into the tower, and the steady drumbeats of thunder sounded closer than they had while deeper in the tower. When he looked at the sky, he saw nothing that told him there was anything coming, no sign of Tenebeth.

  “Are you sure that these Khalan are coming?” he asked Cheneth.

  “I’m sure. I can feel them. You could as well if you focused on them.”

  Jasn wondered if he could. The time that he’d spent in Hyaln had taught him a great many things and had brought him closer to his connection to the elements than he ever would have believed possible. Always before, though he had been connected to the elements, and connected even to the elemental of water, he had thought that he knew enough. Most of the Order thought that they knew about the elements and about shaping. Some might be more skilled than others, but none would have believed that there was power such as he had witnessed within Hyaln, power that he now could access as well.

  Can you help me know if Voidan approaches? he asked.

  Not Voidan. Those who would reach him come.

  Jasn swallowed. That would be the Khalan.

  “Can you do anything here?” Cheneth asked Ciara.

  The lizard made its way around the base of the tower, still licking the ground. Jasn had thought that strange when he did it within the tower, and it seemed no less unusual now that they were outside, but he couldn’t deny that he sensed a shift in the power as the lizard did it. There was less pressure on him, as if whatever the lizard did with the tower somehow sealed off the darkness.

  “I will do what I can. I will need time.”

  Cheneth glanced over at Jasn. “We will have to provide her with that time.”

  Jasn nodded. Drawing more shaping power through his sword, he began a steady summons, calling to water as he spoke to it through his elemental connection. Using them together in that way made the shaping more powerful. Hyaln had taught him that he could use water in ways that he had not realized were possible, and that he could do more than heal with it. Learning that made him more powerful in some ways.

  Thunder exploded nearby.

  Jasn took to the air. He didn’t use a shaping of wind or the warrior shaping that he once would have selected. Now he used water, allowing it to propel him forward, shooting him into the sky. Once airborne, he pulled on the water within the air, summoning it to him and creating something like a platform to stand upon.

  Cheneth shaped himself into the air, using wind and what seemed to be earth, holding himself aloft in a way that Jasn would never have considered, even after his time in Hyaln.

  “They’re nearly here,” he said to Cheneth.

  “Yes. And we must give Ciara and the nobelas time.”

  “Time for what?” He looked at the ground, but a fog seemed to have rolled in, and he couldn’t see Ciara or the base of the tower any longer. If she were to somehow seal off the tower—or destroy it, he had to admit—would she be strong enough alone?

  “Time for whatever nobelas guides her to do.”

  “What is that creature?” Jasn asked. Power pulsed against him, power that felt like what he remembered when Thenas had attacked. Jasn was better prepared and pushed back, using not only a shaping but adding what he could summon and what additional support the elemental offered to him.

  “There are elementals, and there are Elementals,” Cheneth answered.

  “So something like an elemental king?”

  “I doubt nobelas would ever consider that he ruled the others, but the comparison is apt.”

  And Ciara had bonded to it. “Does that make Tenebeth another king?”

  “I don’t know that you could ever consider Tenebeth kingly. More like an invading army.”

  Jasn started to laugh, but earth surged at him.

  Jasn caught the attack and turned, using the shaping of water to carry him to the side. He couldn’t see the attacker but connected as he was to water and to the elemental, he didn’t need to necessarily see the attacker. He could find them with water, and failing that, he had a growing suspicion that he could use spirt to help him track the Khalan, if only he knew how.

  Water revealed five attackers.

  “There are five!” he shouted to Cheneth.

  “That is what I count as well.”

  He looked over at the old man, watching the way that he shaped himself in the air, and couldn’t help but think of the first impression he’d had of Cheneth when he’d first come to the barracks. Could he really have ever believed Cheneth nothing more than a scholar? Now it seemed practically impossible to believe, especially knowing what he did of Hyaln and that Cheneth was one of the Enlightened. But Cheneth appeared weary. Whatever he had been doing in the time since Jasn had been in Hyaln had weakened him. Would he be strong enough to face the attack from the Khalan? If he survived this one, what of the next?

  He didn’t get the chance to think of the answer.

  Another attack came, this time from multiple directions, and used fire mixed with earth and wind. Not water. It was almost as if the Khalan knew that he could control water better than them.

  Could they know that?

  Jasn twisted the connection to water, drawing it toward him, and sent it in a flood toward the nearest pair of attackers. As he did, he widened the flow, much like a river as it flowed toward the sea. He could tell when his water shaping struck the first of the Khalan. Jasn pressed harder with the shaping, sending the attacker spinning toward the ground, where he pinned him with a shaping of earth.

  Something slammed into him.

  His vision flickered, but water coursed through him, the elemental restoring him as it often had during his days as the Wrecker of Rens. Jasn spun, searching for what had hit him, and found a wide woman—one nearly as large as Oliver—wearing a long, dark robe. Gray hair ran in two braids down either side of her head.

  Another attack came from her, this time with fire and earth. The combination was difficult for shapers because of the way the elements contrasted, even for the strongest of shapers, and this woman threw it at him as if there were nothing to it. Jasn resisted, using water to form a torrent around himself, protecting himself as he tried to gather his bearings.

  His head still buzzed where he’d been hit, and he struggled to keep his focus.
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br />   Earth and fire like that meant a summons. Only fire would be easily countered by water, and if the elemental that the woman used was strong enough, he might not even be able to do that.

  Jasn had to try.

  Shifting the summons, he sent a request to the elemental and formed the intent that he had within his mind, pressing out and against the Khalan attacker as he did. The shaping that attacked him parted, and he struck her with the full force of the water shaping.

  The pressure against him suddenly faded.

  Two attackers were downed or injured. Either way, Jasn shifted his focus to the three others that he’d detected when the attack began.

  But couldn’t find them.

  And there was no sense of Cheneth.

  Jasn pressed through water, and pressed through his connection to spirit, sending it washing out away from him. As he did, he didn’t detect anything. Not even Ciara down below. The connection to the water elemental seemed muted as well, and though he called to water, there came no answer.

  Had water abandoned him?

  Jasn hesitated. He’d sensed something like this before.

  He turned the water shaping inward, sending it washing over himself.

  As he did, the connection to the water elemental returned. The sense of Cheneth returned, along with the three… no, four… remaining attackers. Somewhere below, he also detected Ciara.

  How much trouble would she have, especially as he had this much difficulty? Would she have been able to create the barrier around the tower as she intended, or would the attackers have reached her?

  Cheneth cried out. Jasn noted his heart speeding, and he appeared to fall.

  Damn!

  Shifting his shaping, he streaked toward the ground, letting water and air part before him so that he could reach the old man before he struck the ground.

  The fog parted before him as well, and Jasn saw Cheneth. The old man’s eyes were closed, and Jasn wouldn’t be able to reach him before he hit the ground.

  Using wind, he created a buffer and scooped him from below.

  Cheneth dropped slowly to the ground.

  A hammer struck Jasn, and he went flying.

  Pain shot through his back and his legs went numb.

  In that moment, he was paralyzed, then water started working through him. A cold sensation—that of healing—washed up through him, beginning from his toes as feeling returned to his feet.

  Jasn spun, creating a shaping of earth and wind, mixing all the water that he could draw into it, and sent it splaying out toward his attacker.

  He didn’t expect the attack to hit and didn’t think that it would do anything if it did. All he wanted was to give himself time.

  Using water, he counted the attackers. There had been five, but he’d taken out two of them, hadn’t he? Why did he still detect five attackers?

  Water wasn’t going to be enough, not against the Khalan. They were powerful, but then, he knew that they would be. Even his combination of summoning and shaping was not enough. The elemental connection kept him alive, but it didn’t do anything more than that.

  Streamers of dark shadow swirled around him. That must have been what had reached him before and had nearly separated his connection to the elemental. Had Jasn not been aware of it, and had he not experienced something like it before, he wouldn’t have been able to counter it.

  Water wasn’t going to be enough. He needed something else.

  There had to be something. Having the ability to reach spirit had to account for something, didn’t it?

  Could he use spirit?

  Not to attack, he didn’t think.

  But he’d formed rune traps along his sword. Was there anything there that he could use? Power stored within the sword, elemental power, would have to be able to help.

  Jasn shaped each element through the sword.

  It had glowed in the past, but not quite as brightly as it did now. In some ways, it reminded him of the way that Ciara’s spear glowed when she summoned light and used it against Tenebeth.

  Jasn pressed more power through his sword.

  He swiped at the shadows, at the darkness. It retreated.

  Would this work?

  Hope surged in him.

  Three of the Khalan attackers were near him. He streaked toward them, drawing through the sword as he did. Darkness attempted to reach him, but he sliced at it, sending it drifting harmlessly away. The darkness grew thicker, and he wondered if he would be able to do anything other than delay, especially this near the tower, where they were able to reach Tenebeth more easily.

  Jasn struck the wide woman, and she fell. He spun and a thin man attacked, but Jasn was faster. He had been the Wrecker of Rens. He was a soldier of the Order. He was one of the Hyaln. The man fell.

  The third was a younger woman. Her face reminded him of Katya when they first met, her eyes dark and knowing, and her pouty lips curved in such a way that seemed meant for him. But fingers of shadows streamed from her, and Jasn knew that if he did nothing, she would reach him. Hating himself as he did, he struck her down.

  That left two more.

  Where were they? He could detect them, but they seemed muted as if they had discovered some way to disguise themselves. Could they use water somehow?

  They might disguise with water, but they would not with spirit.

  He found them. They were near the ground. Near Ciara.

  Jasn streaked toward them.

  Too late, he realized that they were on either side of her. She focused on the tower, her spear tapping rhythmically as she spun in something like a dance, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were there.

  Jasn stabbed at the nearest and missed. The other turned a short staff and pointed it at Ciara.

  He lunged but wasn’t quick enough. His shaping wasn’t quick enough.

  And a blast of darkness caught him in the chest.

  17

  Ciara

  Darkness counters the light. It is balance, much like night is to day.

  —Ghalen, First of the Khal

  Ciara made a steady circle around the base of the tower. Reghal followed her, his tongue slowly licking the ground. She felt how whatever Reghal did contained the shadows, that it somehow managed to suppress Tenebeth. If she had enough time, she thought that she would be able to help, to add to what he did, and that she could suppress Tenebeth here.

  But the battle overhead told her that she didn’t have the time she wanted.

  Jasn and Cheneth fought. She could feel the effect of their shaping, as if it worked through her bones, just as she could feel the pressure of the darkness as it swirled against them. There were five Khalan, and they pulled on the power of the darkness with incredible strength, strength that rivaled what Shade had managed. Ciara had the sense that if she did not act fast enough, they would prevent her from sealing off the tower. Even if she did act fast enough, she worried that they would be able to tear down the barrier that she and Reghal created.

  We must move quickly, she told him.

  Speed is not the solution, Little Light. We must be successful. Focus.

  I don’t know what it is that I am to do.

  You are to follow my path. Add your light to what I do.

  She tapped her j’na as she walked, leaving it glowing, thankful that it cast away some of the shadows and the gloom. Reghal moved steadily, his tongue drawing across the ground, power surging through him as well, leaving his body glowing almost a yellowish white. If she hadn’t known how powerful he was before, she certainly did now.

  As she completed her pattern, dancing along with her lizard companion, she lost track of the battle overhead. She became consumed by what she did, by the steps needed of the pattern, but the way that power surged from the draasin glass.

  How is it that I know this pattern?

  This was not one that Shade had taught. He would not have been able—or willing, she suspected—to teach her how to reach the light. But the pattern felt natural to her, one t
hat she should have known, one that she always had known. In some ways, it was one of the very first that she had ever done. This was the pattern that she had done when she was in Tsanth, when she had first encountered Talyn tainted by Tenebeth, as she and the others of Ter managed to rescue him.

  You are born of the light. You have always known this pattern.

  It wasn’t one that she would have been able to visualize, she didn’t think. The steps were too complicated, the movements too careful, yet when she held the j’na, and as she danced around the base of the tower, the pattern flowed from her easily.

  She completed one pass.

  The pressure of the darkness eased, and then strained, against the summons that she called. It attempted to press beyond what she had done as if it could burst free, but Ciara continued to move, and Reghal continued his steady pace around the tower, his tongue dragging along the ground.

  Thunder rumbled, and the wind picked up.

  Now she felt the shadows as they pressed against her. Tenebeth must know what she did. Shadows flickered at the edge of her vision, but so far had not coalesced into anything more.

  “Do you really think that you can defeat me?”

  Ciara paused. She didn’t need to turn to know that Tenebeth had appeared. She could feel him, though he stood on the other side of the barrier that she created as if he didn’t want to risk getting contained within it.

  Reghal nudged her, and she took the hint. She couldn’t let herself get distracted by Tenebeth and could not allow him to delay what she attempted.

  Ciara took another step. This one was harder than it had been as if Tenebeth’s appearance somehow delayed her.

  “You think to ignore me, but you can’t, Ciara.” He smiled. She didn’t have to look at him to know that he did, she could hear it in his voice, one that sounded like the soft seduction of the night, that of a mixture of shadows and death. “Yes, I know your name. I have always known your name. You might think to avoid me, but there is nothing that you can do. You will come to me. You have always come to me. All that I need is time.”