Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  He sighed as he stared at the buildings, his eyes going distant, almost as if he expected to see something that was not there. Nothing moved. Alena had no signs of life from the forest other than the trees. Even the vines didn’t press upon her any sense of life.

  It took her a moment to realize why. They had been shaped. Most of the buildings had been shaped as well. There was incredible power here, possibly as much as what she detected within the tower in Atenas.

  “Where are your students?”

  “Gone,” he whispered.

  “Where did they go…” She caught herself and gasped softly. “Gone?”

  Lachen nodded. “Discovered. I thought that they would be protected here and that the isolation would allow them to study without fear of discovery. My mistake was thinking that I was powerful enough to disguise what I did.”

  “How?” she asked. Knowing that the shapers who were supposed to be here were gone made it harder, especially when she detected nothing within the buildings. As she reached with earth, she realized that it wasn’t that there was nothing. She found evidence of bodies, dozens of them. “Not only gone,” she whispered. “Killed.”

  “The Khalan fights openly now,” he said.

  “I don’t understand.”

  Lachen took a deep breath. “When I demonstrated shaping skill, a man by the name of Ylin brought me away from Atenas, where I learned much more than I ever could have within it.”

  “Hyaln.”

  Lachen nodded. “Hyaln. They would call me Enlightened in Hyaln.”

  “But you can summon as well.” When he glanced over at her, she shrugged. “I’ve seen you do it.”

  “In Hyaln, you are trained in each of the areas. I have shaping strength, which made it likely that I would be Enlightened, but I recognize the rhythms needed for summoning as well. A faction of the summoners within Hyaln sought to claim me.”

  “That’s what Cheneth feared, isn’t it?”

  Lachen nodded. “Hyaln never knew what game he played. I didn’t either. Still don’t, I suppose, but he recognized long before others that a split had formed within Hyaln, one that the Varden didn’t or wouldn’t act on.”

  “That’s why you became commander?”

  “I became commander because I was suited for the title,” he said. There was no arrogance in the statement as there might be with another man, which almost made it more irritating. “And because I discovered that the previous commander had been influenced.”

  “That’s why the war started?” she asked. Lachen nodded. “But you never ended it!”

  “No. There wasn’t a need to end the war. The need was unification. Ter needed the resources of Rens to withstand the Khalan threat.”

  Alena looked around Alast, taking in the small buildings, the vines creeping over them, and the lack of any life. “Did you know about Tenebeth?”

  “I knew the Khalan were willing to summon darkness. There was danger in that. I didn’t know why until it was too late.”

  “When?” she asked.

  Lachen shook his head. “Does it matter?”

  “It matters.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we have been facing Tenebeth without support. We have suffered, nearly died, because we didn’t know what was coming. Cheneth wouldn’t share—”

  “Because you wouldn’t believe,” Lachen said. “Much like I didn’t believe. How can you believe that darkness is something that can be controlled?”

  “But it can’t be controlled!” she said.

  Lachen closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. “No. I have discovered that it cannot.”

  It took a moment for his comment to sink in. “You tried, didn’t you?”

  Lachen took a deep breath. “I tried. I failed.”

  Alena swept her gaze around the camp. This was Lachen’s barracks, the place where he had brought shapers to learn, much like Cheneth had brought them to his barracks to learn under the guise of hunting the draasin. Cheneth had selected based on affinity for the elementals, but that hadn’t always been how he selected, had it?

  “What happened here?” she asked Lachen again.

  “This is my fault.”

  “How?”

  “Arrogance,” he said.

  “What did you do?” she asked.

  “I thought a few were ready to learn the basics of summoning.”

  “Why would that matter? I’ve seen you summoning.” And Ciara had summoned as well.

  “The Khalan are the most gifted summoners.”

  “That’s who attacked Atenas?”

  “They did. Some can shape as well, which is how they managed to disguise themselves, but they are all exceptional summoners. They splintered off from Hyaln because Hyaln thought to restrict what could be summoned. I suspect they detected the summons here.”

  Alena closed her eyes. That made sense for the barracks as well. They had not been attacked by the Khalan until after Ciara began to summon. She had thought that Tenebeth sent them to attack, but that hadn’t been it at all, had it? They had come because they noted Ciara and her summoning of the different elementals.

  “What did they do to them?” Alena asked.

  Lachen sighed again. “Most were killed. A few they took. The Khalan have ways to convince others to work with them. I have seen it happen.”

  Was that why they had taken Ciara? Had she been turned so that she would work with the Khalan, and work against them? She had no real ties to Ter and Atenas, especially since Ter had been fighting Rens for so long, but Alena didn’t like the idea that she might have to face Ciara at some point. The girl had almost become a friend.

  “Why show this to me?” she asked Lachen.

  “It is important for you to know what has happened,” he said. “You need to understand what we are up against. This is more than simply shadow shapers. These are summoners more skilled than any in Hyaln, men and women with abilities that can exceed what I am capable of doing. And they think they can control the darkness.”

  “There is no control with Tenebeth.”

  “There is not, but they do not see it that way. For all of their knowledge, they don’t understand that Tenebeth is something more than simply darkness, that it is different than summoning any of the elementals. Working with the darkness releases it into the world where it can grow stronger.”

  “You have told me that.”

  “I have, but you must understand that we have reached a point where it may no longer be possible to force that darkness back.”

  Alena let her sense of earth drift back into the buildings, searching for anything that might be here. “What can we do, then? You told me I should prepare our shapers, but the students won’t be able to withstand something like what you’re describing. They’ll be lucky to survive another attack on the city.”

  “They will have to protect the city, Alena. That is why they must be ready.”

  “Not me?”

  “You will be needed elsewhere. All shapers of any real power will be needed.”

  With a growing certainty, Alena understood what Lachen intended, and thought that she understood why he’d pressed the border with Rens as hard as he had recently. “You know where to find the Khalan, don’t you?”

  “They tried recruiting me.”

  “That’s not an answer.”

  “No. It is not. But it is the answer that you will get.”

  “Then what? You think that shapers of the Order can take on the Khalan? Commander—if I hadn’t trained with Cheneth in the barracks, I don’t think that I would have been able to withstand what we faced in the city. I barely survived the way that it was. Do you really think that our warriors will be able to face them?”

  “I hadn’t,” Lachen said. “This was my plan.” He swept his arm toward the empty camp. “Now this will not help. The Khalan cannot remain unopposed, not if they are willing to summon the darkness, not as Tenebeth gains strength. We must fight.”

  “The warriors of the Order can
’t do anything against this.”

  “I didn’t think so either, not until I saw you in the city with that sword of yours. But if we can create others, and if we can teach them to use the power of the sword, I think that we might have a way to counter the Khalan.”

  “And then what?” Alena asked. “That’s not the end of it. Defeating the Khalan might be the start, but once we do that—if we can do that—how do you intend for us to defeat Tenebeth?”

  “There is no defeating Tenebeth.”

  “Then what? We lose?”

  “We must contain it as it once had been.”

  “Do you know how?”

  What he said next set her heart hammering. “Not yet.”

  23

  Katya

  We must control the great elementals. We cannot risk facing them. If the draasin, or golud, or any of the great elementals to oppose us, we would not succeed.

  —Ghalen, First of the Khal

  Are you there?

  Katya laid awake, nothing but stars burning overhead. They were no longer in the forest of the Gholund Mountains. She didn’t smell the constant pine, and the winds settled, but she didn’t know where they had traveled. The damned Khalan made certain that she was knocked out each time they traveled. At first, she thought it because they were cruel, but she began to wonder if there wasn’t a different reason. Could it be that they weren’t able to maintain the summons severing her connection to the elements while they traveled?

  The voice in her head had eased. Katya didn’t know whether that meant it had been her all along, whether the Khalan stopped using some summons of spirit against her, or whether something had happened if it really was one of the elementals.

  Too much time had passed since she last had been with Jasn and Ciara. She needed to find Calan and then discover what else the Khalan might be after so that she could help the others. That much she remained convinced of, but not much else.

  In the time that she’d been trapped, she struggled with self-doubt. Had she made a mistake with Jasn? She could have remained with him, could have stayed with Atenas. Even if she never revealed herself, there would have been ways that she could have still served Hyaln. She told herself that she needed to return, that she needed to help Hyaln know that Cheneth remained loyal, even as he had plans of his own, but she had thought herself too important to Hyaln to remain.

  Pride. Conceit. They were her real enemies. And she had lost the chance at something real because of it.

  You only now see that?

  Katya sighed when the voice returned. She shouldn’t miss it, but having it there, in the back of her mind, left her with a sense of peace. Even if it was nothing more than her own self-doubts, she needed to have it there. Maybe especially if it was only her self-doubts. If it really was an elemental, then she had other questions, ones that she might have no answers for.

  I see that I have made mistakes. Who can’t say the same?

  You have denied your mistakes before now. It is progress that you acknowledge them.

  Is that why you’re there? Do you feel the need to harangue me for the things that I have done?

  The voice laughed. What have you done? You have mastered shaping. You have connected to the elements, but what have you really done?

  The comment stung, but what had she done? She had served Hyaln by studying. Hyaln claimed superiority, and claimed that they were worldly experts on all things relating to the elements, but how was that knowledge used?

  It wasn’t, which was just the point the voice in her mind forced her to acknowledge.

  Cheneth had left Hyaln. He had taken what he’d learned and brought it outside the hidden walls, only to be chased and harassed by those inside, by the Varden, by even the Enlightened. None understood how he had been able and willing to abandon the connection to the Hyaln, and why he would leave to serve other places.

  Katya now thought that she did.

  What had she done?

  That was the question that now plagued her, and maybe that was the real reason that she’d been hearing the doubting voice in her head. Since Jasn returned, she had been faced with the fact that she hadn’t done anything. She had returned to Hyaln, she had continued her studies as Enlightened, but nothing else. Jasn had nearly sacrificed himself, only surviving because the elementals would not let him perish, because of her. And because of that, he had helped understand a greater threat, one that Hyaln was responsible for creating.

  Would she continue to do nothing?

  But the answer to that was easy. She had chosen to come here. She had chosen to do something, to face the darkness.

  You came because of the threat to Hyaln.

  Was that it? Was that the reason?

  Unless you came for him. It is possible it’s both.

  Katya stared up, not able to think of anything else.

  Would you stop? I want to do what I can.

  Then stop fighting what you must do.

  What must I do?

  You know what must happen.

  But she didn’t. Katya didn’t think that she understood, didn’t think that she could understand, not yet, and maybe not without understanding what the Khalan intended. The Hyaln needed her to understand that much.

  Why must it be only the Hyaln?

  You would have me work with others?

  Is that not what would make you Enlightened?

  Katya breathed out, her breath misting in the air. Enlightened. Why must spirit shapers use such a term? It had been the term used for generations within Hyaln, one that promised few had the same skill to reach spirit. But why must that be the case? She had seen shapers with much power during her time in Atenas. Wasn’t it possible that there were spirit shapers among them?

  Hyaln claimed them all, though. Those who showed such potential were brought to Hyaln and taught to do what was necessary to protect them.

  “You remain awake, shaper.”

  This was the woman with the Khalan. She hadn’t caught her name, but in some ways, she seemed the worst of them.

  “How can I sleep when I’ve been out for most of the day?”

  The woman took a seat next to Katya. She was tall and kept her hair twisted back into a tight bun. Even in the dark, it was easy to see that she was a striking woman, one who reminded her of Alena.

  “You would be troublesome otherwise.”

  “Why do you hold me?” Katya asked.

  The woman crossed her arms under her breasts and stared into the night. They rested atop a rise, with the ground flowing out and down, long grasses and the occasional copse of trees sprouting in places. “We seek another. You might be able to help.”

  “How can I help? As I said, I’m from—”

  “Atenas. Yes. You have said that repeatedly, but you haven’t shared your name.”

  Katya blinked. Did she give them the name that Jasn had known, the one that she’d claimed the longest? That person was supposed to be dead, but would the Khalan know that? Or did she give them the name that she’d used in the barracks, switch to Issa, the name that had carried with it more confidence than Katya, but less regard for others. There was a reason she had been in the barracks, a mission that Hyaln had asked of her. Issa had been willing to do what was necessary to return to Hyaln. Would Katya have?

  “My name is Katya,” she answered.

  The voice in her mind felt as if it leaned forward to listen. Had she intrigued herself? Or did the voice really represent one of the elementals?

  “You took your time answering. Were you unsure what name you used?”

  “I didn’t want to share my name.”

  The woman looked over at her. “Names have power,” she said, watching Katya, “but I suspect that you know that. Tell me, Katya, what kind of power does your name give you?”

  She met the woman’s eyes before turning away. “Regret.”

  The woman laughed. “All men must live with regret or they have not lived at all.”

  “What do you regret, then?”
Katya asked.

  The laughter faded, and the woman looked over at her, her dark eyes unreadable. “Many things, Katya of Atenas, but I have learned I must move onward and that I can’t spend too much time focusing on what cannot be changed.”

  “Why are you telling me this?”

  “There are things that are inevitable, and that you must learn to accept. You find yourself in such a position now. You must find a way to accept what has happened to you if you are to manage what is to come.”

  The woman stood, leaving Katya alone.

  I will not accept what is happening to me.

  You should not.

  Katya closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. If only she were able to reach the elements, she would be able to find a way to get free. Then she could help Olina, and even the draasin, if it weren’t too late.

  If.

  That was one of the things she couldn’t accept. She needed to find a way to reach shaping. She would not accept that she could not access the ability to shape.

  Can you help me reach the shaping?

  The voice in her head laughed. You would ask for what I cannot offer.

  What can you do?

  Many things, but not that.

  Did the voice admit that it was an elemental?

  Jasn had mentioned how the elementals assisted him, not only in his shaping but as he attempted to summon. She might not have the summoning ability of the Khalan, but she had trained in Hyaln, and she knew the basics of summoning. If she could reach for a part of summoning, if she could only disrupt the Khalan somewhat, she might be able to access her ability to shape.

  If.

  Katya would not accept that she had lost her ability to shape. She could not.

  But that didn’t mean that she would be helpless.

  What can you do to help?

  Katya waited, hoping that the voice was an elemental, and hoping that there would be something it could do to assist her.

  Wind whistled against her, a sudden gust that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once.

  Katya let the wind caress her skin and flutter against her hair. Like all shapers, there was an element that she had known the best, and first. With Jasn, it was water. With her, she knew the wind first, and still knew the wind the best when she attempted to shape it. Lately, she had used spirit the most, studying it as the Enlightened were expected to do. In some ways, she had abandoned the wind.