Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Calan looked up, a frown pinching the corners of his mouth. He occasionally squinted as he considered her, almost like he struggled to remember what she had been like when she’d been in the barracks. If she were honest, she often forgot what she’d been like when she’d been there. This person—Jayna, not Katya as she had been playing, or even Issa or Ilyana—had been forgotten by her for so long that she struggled to remember who she was meant to be.

  “There are others?”

  Jayna shook her head, noting how Olina remained with the draasin, tapping him on the head in a sort of rhythmic fashion. Did she use a summoning to soothe him, or was it that she just petted him like some massive dog?

  “What did Cheneth tell you of his homeland?”

  “The scholar?” Calan asked. “That man shared little with us until he decided he would no longer hunt the draasin.”

  “He protected you,” Jayna said.

  “I need no protection.”

  “Not in Atenas, but the world is more than your lands.”

  “Ter is more than Atenas,” Calan said.

  “It is, but the shapers of Atenas often forget that they are a part of something else. I saw it often in my time within the city.”

  Calan’s face soured. “Yes. Your time. You are not of Atenas, yet you pretended that you were. I suppose that you are one of the scholars?”

  “In a way. There are those who study outside of Atenas, and outside of the College of Scholars. They search for understanding and mastery of the different powers of the elements.”

  Calan fell silent and looked from Jayna to Shade and then to Olina. “I once would have said there was nothing other than shaping. Even that I didn’t know nearly as well as I once had thought. I… I have seen things that tell me that I know less than I realized. My student was claimed by shadows, as were others.”

  “There is nothing that can be done for them,” Jayna said.

  “I would have said the same,” Calan said, “but I have seen the power that girl calls with her spear. The light is so bright that it can destroy the night.”

  Who could Calan mean? If Cheneth had someone able to call on light like that, they might be able to defeat the Khalan. Only… that wasn’t what Cheneth had in mind. He believed there was a different threat, something greater than simply a splintering of the greatest summoners of Hyaln, but she still couldn’t fathom how that would be possible.

  “If you know of all of that, then you should understand that Cheneth was not a part of the College of Scholars, regardless of what you believed. He was a part of something different.”

  “Hyaln.” Calan said it softly and stared at Shade as he did.

  “Yes. Hyaln.”

  Calan turned his attention to her. “What are they? You are a part of it, I assume?”

  “I am a part of it.”

  “How? You summon the draasin as well? Or do you have the same kind of ability as Cheneth?”

  Jayna wasn’t particularly sure what abilities Cheneth possessed. He was Enlightened, but it seemed that he was more than that, much like it seemed the Olina was more than what she appeared.

  “I am what is called Enlightened.”

  Calan started to laugh. “Enlightened? What kind of pompous ass calls themselves that?”

  Jayna could only smile. “The pompous asses from Hyaln. It marks an ability with spirit, one that few shapers possess.”

  Calan fell silent, and there was only the crackling of the flames for noise. “My mother used to claim that there were men and woman born more sensitive than others, that they were gifted by the creator with a touch of his finger, a blessing of sorts, so that they could understand the needs of others better.”

  Jayna smiled. That seemed a wonderful way to look at the ability with spirit.

  “Then I learned about shaping, and of all the destruction that could be done with these powers. Seems to me that the creator wouldn’t grant any of us the ability to destroy others in such a way, and certainly not with a touch of his finger or his blessing.”

  She closed her eyes and reached for spirit. As it always did, it felt as if she were reaching into a deep part of her mind, a pool of sort, that was buried deep within her. Slowly she drew that sense out and layered it atop Calan. Through the shaping, she felt the anger he still felt toward the draasin, the hatred he had toward Rens. She pressed deeper, now more curious than anything, and found a memory. With spirit, she could tell which memories were guarded. They were the ones that seemed the darkest, and were often the ones that most wanted her to find them, as if they needed to get free.

  She didn’t push, at least not so hard that he would recognize what she did. That risked him resisting, and she suspected that this was a memory that she needed to free from him.

  Deep within his mind, she found what she sought.

  There were memories buried there of Calan, and a family, and as she delved deeper into his mind, she discovered that he’d been hurt, that there were those that he’d loved that he had lost.

  She withdrew with a gasp.

  “Who were they?” she asked.

  Calan frowned. “Who are you talking about, Issa?”

  She wouldn’t correct him now. Let him think that she was the Issa he remembered. “There are memories buried within you. Children, I think.”

  Calan drew his hand back as if to strike her before lowering it again. “Do not… do not speak of them.” His voice was hushed and carried with it a hidden menace.

  As much as she might want to leave him alone, she didn’t think that she could. What Calan held within him needed to be released. “They were yours, weren’t they?”

  Calan turned his back to her and fell silent.

  Jayna stepped up to him and said nothing. There was nothing that she could say, not to help with the pain that he must feel. The only pain that she’d known during her life, the only loss that she could compare to what Calan must feel, was abandoning her relationship with Jasn, but that had been her choice. What she detected from Calan was something traumatic.

  She layered a gentle spirit shaping over his mind, one that was the barest of touches, enough to coax him into sharing something. She didn’t need to compel him, only to suggest that he was safe in sharing with her. Shapings such as this rarely worked in Hyaln. Most had grown accustomed to protecting themselves, but outside of Hyaln, few understood how easy it was to defend against—or that there was even a need for it. Warrior shapers, like those of the Order, would have an especially easy time defending against it, if they understood the technique.

  “We—they—lived in a small village near the Tardin Sea,” he began softly as the shaping settled around him. “Near enough to Rens that I worried for them while I was gone, and far enough from Atenas that the order could not offer the same protections.”

  “You were married?”

  He nodded slowly. “It was not common for those of the Order to wed outside of the Order, and less common still to leave a family outside of the city, but Marisa…” He closed his eyes as he shook his head slowly. “The attack came during the night. I was there but could do nothing. It came for me. That was during the time when Rens pressed the attack across the border, when they were organized.”

  Jayna wanted to tell him that it hadn’t been Rens, that he hadn’t lost his family to the war as he believed, but what would that change? She understood his hatred for the draasin. That must have been how Jasn had felt, thinking her gone. He had been willing to become someone he was not, a man seeking vengeance for an attack that he believed caused by Rens. Because of her, he had become the Wrecker of Rens. Because of her, the tide of war had swung.

  “I am sorry,” she said.

  “Sorry cannot bring them back. I have spent years learning what I can about how to attack the draasin, searching for the bastard that killed my family.”

  “Do you really think that you would know?”

  Calan looked at her with tears moistening his eyes. “I was not as skilled then as I am now, but I
managed to catch it with my sword. The creature lost one of his talons. When I find that draasin…”

  The one thing that she remembered well from her time in the barracks was Calan’s collection of trophies. Others hunted, but few with as much success as Calan, and none brought home trophies the same way that he did.

  “The draasin are not our enemies,” Jayna said. “They have been used the same way that Rens has been used, the same way that the Order has been used.”

  “Used? How can you expect me to believe that they’ve been used? Rens instigated the war! They brought the draasin in, they began the attacks. The Order was content to leave them alone.”

  Jayna smiled at the idea that the Order would simply leave something alone. Even in her brief time in Atenas, she had sensed the motivation for power within the council. The war might have been instigated by someone else—likely the Khalan—but they only started what would have come anyway.

  “Tell me, Calan, have you ever thought about your connection to the element magic?”

  He blinked and frowned at her. “I am a shaper of Atenas. I think about my connection all the time.”

  “Do you actually spend time considering the connection that you share, or do you use the power that you’ve been given?” When he hesitated, she pressed onward. “There are other ways to access that same element power.” She pointed to Shade, bound and sitting near the fire. “The Khalan, they use summoning to reach the elementals, to direct them.”

  Forcing them, she didn’t say. For most of the elementals, what the Khalan did was force them into actions they wouldn’t otherwise take. Through her new connection to Serain, she recognized that the wind elemental willingly worked with her, and when she summoned, even though her ability was weak compared to the Khalan, she did not force the elementals to respond. What she did was more of a request.

  “In Hyaln, we have others with different abilities. There are the summoners. Shapers. Those whose specialty is in making rune traps.”

  “Traps?”

  She nodded toward his sword. “The shapes that you have crafted onto your sword. There is element power trapped within. Those who understand that power and can reach it are able to use it in ways that others of the Hyaln cannot. Each ability compliments the others.”

  “What of her?” Calan asked, nodding toward Olina.

  She remained separated from them, sitting near the small ring of trees with the draasin. She had not moved, but neither had the draasin. Was Olina somehow finding a way to rescue it from the forced connection that Shade used on it? The summoning should have been withdrawn, but it was possible that part of it remained, and that the draasin remained somewhat under the influence of the darkness.

  “She is what Hyaln calls Wise.”

  Calan snorted. “Another pompous title.”

  “Perhaps. But the Wise had a connection to the elementals. They could speak to them, and guide them. The most potent of the Wise were connected to the draasin.”

  His eyes narrowed. “The riders. Rens had riders. The draasin were terrible enough. Their attacks deadly. But a few carried riders. The destruction they caused—”

  “The Wise were not the riders you think of. They worked with the draasin, with all of the elementals, and could speak to them.”

  “That’s what Cheneth wanted, isn’t it? He wanted those in the barracks able to speak to the elementals.”

  “I don’t know what Cheneth wanted.”

  “I thought he came from the same place as you?”

  “Cheneth is from Hyaln, but he left many years before.”

  Calan snorted again. “And now you think to bring him back into the fold? I think you have missed your opportunity. That man is stubborn, but he’s no fool.”

  Jayna shook her head. “No, he’s no fool. I think he would say he’s been trying to convince Hyaln of our foolishness for some time.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Jayna sighed. “It means that Cheneth has waged a different war than the one that Ter and Rens have fought, and for far longer than any have realized. And he needs help.” She had come searching for Calan, but now that she found him, she realized there was something else she needed to do, something that might be even more important than anything else that she had done so far.

  “What kind of help?” Calan asked.

  “The kind that puts you at risk,” she said, “but it’s the kind that might give you a chance to get revenge on those responsible for what happened with your family.”

  “The draasin are responsible for what happened with my family. I will hunt and destroy them, one by one if I must, and none of your Wise will get in my way.”

  Jayna pushed a surge of spirit shaping over Calan. Not to force his mind, but to soothe it. “The draasin are not responsible for what happened to Marisa. But the Khalan, and men like Shade, they are.”

  Calan stared at Shade, his eyes narrowed. “What is your plan, Issa?”

  She studied Olina, knowing that the draasin and the Wise would be critical to what she planned. She would need more than that, though. Perhaps someone like Jasn. Other shapers of Ter. Even Ciara, if she could work with her without jealousy. For what she planned, she would have to. Not for Hyaln, but because it was right.

  “We must destroy the Khalan.”

  Olina looked up as she said it, and the old Wise woman nodded.

  38

  Alena

  The Commander of the Order of Warriors has returned to Atenas and has revealed himself, but he does not lead this fight.

  —Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars

  Alena went to the window again. Outside, she could see the way that darkness slithered across the street and could feel the way that it worked along the tower. During the last attack, the Khalan had attempted the same. Why? What did it matter if they managed to infiltrate the tower? That seemed the focus, though. The Khalan hadn’t done anything else while in the streets but surround the tower.

  What was important about the tower itself?

  “Alena.”

  Jasn’s voice was weak, and she turned back to see him sitting up. Color rapidly returned to his face, and the wounds on his chest had sealed off. Water healed him once more.

  “You?” he asked.

  Oliver and Yanda spoke softly off to the side of him, and both seemed willing to give him space. Eldridge watched her, the woman he’d brought with him remaining silent as well. The only other person in the room watched her with his eyes bulging, but he couldn’t do anything, not with the draasin sitting near him, one sharp taloned arm resting on his chest.

  “I saw you fighting the Khalan,” she said, turning away from the window.

  “How? They summon Tenebeth.” His eyes searched until he found his sword and he scooted across the floor to grab it.

  “Not Tenebeth, I don’t think.”

  “No. It’s a reflection, but they summon his power. The more they summon, the stronger they become.”

  Jasn already appeared stronger than he had even a moment before. The water elemental healing him amazed her. How powerful must they be to heal him as easily as they did?

  “How do you know this?”

  “I’ve seen it.”

  Alena took a seat next to him. She needed to understand. The threat of the Khalan to the tower could wait for now. She didn’t know how much longer it could wait, but they had some time.

  There was something that she didn’t want to have to tell him. She’d seen the connection forming between him and Ciara. A part of her wished that she could find a connection like that, but a part of her understood that Jasn needed someone more stable, especially after what happened with Issa—his Katya.

  And had he found her? Cheneth thought that she might have been claimed by Tenebeth. Seeing the way that Bayan had been turned, she knew that it was possible that Tenebeth could have claimed her. How would that affect him?

  As strange as it was, she cared for Jasn. For so long, she had fought the idea of having a s
tudent, afraid of how it would impact her and her connection to the elementals, but Jasn had been different. She had opened herself up to him, and he had accepted her, had saved her. They were friends. Alena had so few friends.

  She took a deep breath. “They took Ciara, Jasn. I… I tried to stop them, but I couldn’t. Cheneth sent others looking for her, but we didn’t find her.”

  Rather than hurt, Jasn smiled. “I know.”

  “You know. I’m sorry.”

  “She escaped. The Khalan took her to a tower and trained her to summon. They thought that they could turn her, but her connection to that lizard—nobelas—protected her. Now because of what they taught her, we might actually have a way to stop them.”

  Alena struggled to process what he’d told her. Ciara lived? She had been claimed by the Khalan and nearly turned, but escaped and become even more powerful? “And you? You can shape spirit, can’t you?”

  Jasn nodded. “When I went to Hyaln, I learned to summon, and I learned rune traps.”

  “That doesn’t explain how you can shape spirit.”

  “I don’t know how I shape spirit. There was an attack on Hyaln. Somehow I found spirit within me.”

  Could she find the same? Was that what Cheneth hoped for them to learn by bringing them to the barracks, or had he really only wanted to protect them from Tenebeth?

  “Where is she?” Alena asked.

  “We… we got separated. We tried finding the Khalan. Cheneth wanted to know how many we would face. The darkness started to come around us, and I thought that I could stop it, but I was separated from them.”

  “Then why are you here?” She thought that she knew, but she wanted him to tell her.

  “Because I sensed your need.”

  Alena sighed. What did they do now? Even with Jasn, they didn’t have enough strength to defeat the Khalan. “There are too many. We barely survived the first attack. I thought that we had tested the others, but they infiltrated the order. So many of our shapers were not our shapers.”

  Jasn motioned to Jef lying on the stone, the draasin resting on him. “Like him?”