Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Him. The council. Others.”

  “The commander?”

  Jasn asked that hesitantly, and she could tell that he feared the answer.

  “Not the commander. He helped us stop the first attack.”

  Jasn stood and stretched. As he did, she detected the shaping he used briefly, and then it faded. Either he masked it, or he released it. Had he used spirit? She would have known, she thought, if he had, but what if he found a way to use spirit where the spirit stick—her sword—wouldn’t help?

  When he reached the window, he leaned forward. “They want to claim the tower. That’s what they tried to do where Ciara was held.”

  “I don’t understand why,” Alena answered.

  “They summon Tenebeth and contain the power within the tower. I don’t understand how it works, but the more of Tenebeth that is summoned, the harder it will be to contain him.”

  “Not destroy?”

  “I don’t think that we can destroy Tenebeth,” Jasn said. “If we can seal off their attempts to store Tenebeth’s power, we still need to collect what has been released, or we risk others like Thenas.”

  “And Bayan,” Alena said.

  Jasn’s eyes widened. “Cheneth didn’t know how to collect what had been released. Even if we can defeat them here, and in their fortress, we still have to collect the residual power. It cannot be destroyed.”

  Eldridge stepped forward, pushing the woman he’d brought with him in front of him. “I think that we might be able to help with that.”

  39

  Jasn

  What do they record within Atenas? What did they record of Hyaln? We have always viewed the college as bystanders, but what if that was a mistake?

  —Ghalen, First of the Khal

  The top of the tower reminded him all too much of what they had experienced when they were at the tower where Ciara had been trapped. Jasn studied the night, feeling the waves of darkness slamming against the tower, working their way up. Soon he would have to leave even this point.

  They had departed Oliver’s rooms when the shadows began creeping along the window. As much spirit as he shaped, it still hadn’t been enough to press back the shadows. The Khalan would claim the tower, and in doing so, they would claim the city.

  As much as he hated admitting it, he had no idea how they could win. The long war with Rens had sapped them of the potential shapers that they might have used, leaving shapers who were inexperienced and unable to do anything against the darkness. Worse, it had given the Khalan the ability to infiltrate Atenas.

  Jasn gazed at Alena as she crouched next to the draasin. It was a small creature, but larger than when he’d last seen it. Power and heat radiated from him, perhaps not quite so much as it did from Ciara’s draasin, but this one was still small and growing. How large would it get if given the chance?

  Would they be able to give them the chance?

  “You have returned more skilled than you were when you left.” Eldridge stood next to him, casually staring out at the night. He appeared comfortable, but then, Jasn had always found Eldridge to be more capable than most scholars. That came from his connection to the wind, but what if there were something more?

  “I trained in Hyaln for a time.”

  “Trained. They accepted you?”

  “Not at first,” he said. “It took some convincing.”

  “Your connection to water, I presume?”

  Jasn nodded. “Katya was there, Eldridge. She lives. I thought that maybe Tenebeth had claimed her, but she served Hyaln all along.”

  Eldridge turned to him, his face solemn. “I am truly sorry, Volth.”

  Jasn swallowed, surprised that Eldridge understood. “And now I’ve lost Ciara. She learned that I am—or was—the Wrecker of Rens. I don’t know how I ever expected her to be able to see past what I had done, but for some reason I did.”

  “All men change, Jasn. If you are not changing, then you are not trying. I think your year—was it?—spent fighting in Rens left you unchanged. It wasn’t until you left, and until you came to the barracks, that you began to become someone else.”

  He knew that was true, much as he knew that he was no longer the man that he’d been, even when he’d trained in Atenas. That man was a healer, while the man who had gone into Rens for vengeance was a warrior. He didn’t know who—or what—he was to be now, much as he didn’t know where he would fit into Hyaln’s structure.

  “I am not from these lands, but it pains me that we would abandon Atenas,” Eldridge said.

  “I don’t think that we can. If we do, we allow the Khalan to gain strength.”

  “You would suggest we fight? How many would die if we were to do that?” Eldridge clutched a book to his chest. He’d grabbed it while they had tried to come up with a plan about what they would do against the Khalan. Jasn hadn’t seen what was inside the book, but the way that Eldridge continued to glance inside, he suspected it carried some secret important to the College of Scholars.

  Jasn pointed to the city below him. “How many will die, or at least suffer, if we leave them to the Khalan? Look at this city, Eldridge. These people don’t deserve what the Khalan might do to them.”

  Eldridge smiled. “You have changed more than you realize, Jasn Volth.”

  “Ah, I know that I have changed. It’s what others see of me that hasn’t.”

  “You can only control your actions, not those of others.”

  Jasn laughed. Standing on the tower, with the darkness rolling along the walls, it felt good to laugh, even if he knew what was coming.

  “If you fight, and if you die, what then?” Eldridge asked. “Who will stand up to Tenebeth during the next attack. Or the next?”

  “You don’t think that we should fight?”

  Eldridge flipped the book open and studied a page. Jasn saw runes marked on the page but didn’t recognize them. Had the Scholars mastered more of the rune traps than others realized?

  “I think that we have to find a way to draw Tenebeth away.”

  “If they use this tower, Eldridge, we won’t be able to withstand another attack.” He felt that deeply, a conviction that he could feel within his bones, though he didn’t know why. Was that something that the connection to the elementals shared with him? Did the connection to water grant him that knowledge? “We have to make a stand now, and then we have to have enough helping us to go to the Khalan fortress.”

  “With what help?” Eldridge asked.

  Jasn shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  He gripped his sword, sending a shaping through it. While standing on top of the tower, he had maintained a constant shaping, holding spirit within his sword, needing to find some way to press back the shadows.

  Strange that he should be here, fighting for Atenas, after everything.

  “Help comes,” Alena said.

  “It does?” he asked.

  “The draasin tells me that others fly to the city.”

  “Are you certain they haven’t been summoned?” Eldridge asked. “I’ve seen what happens when the draasin are called, and I’ve seen how they lose control.”

  “The draasin aren’t summoned. They come with riders,” Alena said, looking at Jasn.

  A smile came to his face. “The Wise,” he whispered. “Damn, but Cheneth thought to call them to help against the Khalan at the fortress, but if they’re coming here…”

  As he said it, there came the sound of a dozen draasin shrieking against the night. Flames erupted from them, and they swooped into the city, unleashing their fury.

  Jasn nodded to Eldridge. “We won’t abandon this city. We won’t have to. Not with the draasin.”

  He jumped from the wall and dropped into the city, light blazing from his sword.

  As he did, he wrapped himself in water. It was something that he should have done before and hadn’t realized the way that the Khalan were able to manipulate the darkness to poison him. The woman who’d nearly taken his head off had been right: the Wrecker o
f Rens could be killed. But Jasn didn’t want to die, not with so much left to do.

  Alena came with him. He felt her through the connection they shared, and she swooped down from the top of the tower, riding on a streamer of flame. He should not have been surprised at how strong she was in fire, but she practically glowed, looking in so many ways like Ciara as she summoned.

  “We need to keep the shadows off the tower,” he told her.

  “And then what?”

  Jasn shook his head. “I don’t know. Ciara created something around the tower before. Without her…”

  “We’ll simply have to push back the Khalan.”

  Jasn nodded. When he hit the street, he met two of the Khalan. One wore clothes that reminded him of Hyaln, a long pale red wrap that wound around him, tied with a rope belt. The other wore the heavy wool uniform of a Ter warrior of the Order. Both summoned the darkness.

  He had no sympathy for them. Using spirit, he lashed out, striking them with a furious shaping. The first fell and convulsed, leaving the Ter warrior. Jasn jumped toward the man, but he caught his sword and turned it. If he was a warrior of the Order, he would have trained in swordsmanship, much like Jasn had trained. Only, Jasn had fought without fearing that he would die. That lent him a certain recklessness that he still possessed.

  He spun, less concerned about getting struck by the sword and more interested in inflicting damage on the man. His sword struck the other man’s arm, then his leg, and he fell.

  Jasn found Alena holding off another pair of Khalan and joined her, quickly dispatching them. “We still haven’t stopped the attack on the tower,” he said. Shadows had nearly reached the top, and in spite of the Khalan that they killed, and the shadows the draasin circling overhead managed to disperse, they didn’t seem to be making any headway on stopping them.

  “There must be others we don’t know about.”

  The ground trembled, and he nearly fell. Jasn used water and wind and took to the sky, pulling Alena with him. Together, they circled the tower, but couldn’t find anyone to focus on.

  “If it’s not coming from outside the tower—”

  “It must be from within,” Alena finished.

  He pulled her down to the shaper circle and the door leading into the tower. With a quick burst of shaping, he tossed it open, and they entered. The inside looked no different than it had when he’d been here before; in some ways, it felt smaller now, somewhat lessened compared to what it had been. Once, the tower had represented everything that he hoped he could learn, the abilities with elements that he couldn’t fathom. Jasn still remembered coming here as a young man all those years ago. Even then, Lachen hadn’t been nearly as intimidated by what it represented. He wanted to learn power, but he had an expectation that he deserved to learn it. Not Jasn. It had taken him time to feel that he deserved to work with shaping.

  Now the entrance to the tower felt less intimidating but no less foreign. This was not his home, not as it had been for all those years.

  “What is it?” Alena asked.

  “Just… memories.”

  “Remember them later. We need to figure out where the Khalan are within the tower.”

  Jasn pulled on spirit, using his sword to augment what he could shape. With the connection, he felt the way that shadows and darkness pulsed against his sword. Surprisingly, it came from below them.

  “Is there a lower level to the tower?” he asked.

  “I didn’t think so, but you and I have both been gone from Atenas for a long time.”

  Help me find a way down.

  You do not need water’s help to find your way down, Child of Water.

  How then?

  Follow the wind. Follow earth. Follow your sense of water.

  Jasn focused on his connection to water, and then on the connection to earth, letting them draw him. As he did, he detected a section of the wall that was different than the others. With a shaping, he pressed against it. It slid open, revealing a stair that led down, and from his connection to the elements, he could tell it went deep below the earth.

  They took the stairs, mostly shaping their way down, and reached a landing far below the ground floor. He glanced over at Alena. “Probably should have told others where we went.”

  She smiled. “Too late now. The draasin will know.”

  He hoped that would be enough.

  The darkness surged against him, and he knew they were getting closer.

  The hall opened into a wide chamber. Inside, shadows swirled. Other than the light blazing from his sword, there was no one.

  Someone moved.

  Jasn shaped, pulling on his shaping, sending spirit through his sword. Light bloomed and revealed a dark figure standing in front of a pillar of stone.

  Alena gasped. “Commander Nolan?”

  Nolan? He’d been the commander before Lachen. Most believed that he had died in the war, but none had found his body. Could he really be here?

  The man looked over at him. He had deep-set eyes and a gaunt face that reminded him of Cheneth before the healing had left him looking more vibrant again. A thick white beard had been combed to a point.

  “Nolan. I haven’t been called that name in many years.” In spite of his haggard appearance, he had a strong voice. “You look familiar.”

  “Alena Lagaro.”

  “Ah… you are familiar. A bold woman, aren’t you? All assumed that you would join the Seat.”

  “I did.”

  Jasn glanced at her. When had she risen to the Seat of the Order? How much had he missed in his time away?

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “Finishing what I started.”

  He pointed at her, and shadows streaked from his fingers.

  Jasn jumped forward, sending spirit through his sword, and swiped the shadows away. Alena shaped through her sword as well and somehow managed to reach spirit. The two of them pressed back the shadows he controlled.

  “Interesting. I have long claimed that the Atenas shapers were more competent than they’ve been given credit for. So many have tried to suppress the capabilities, but there are times when that can no longer happen.”

  He stepped away from the pillar and unsheathed a pair of swords. Both had dark blades that reminded Jasn of the one the woman had carried. Darkness oozed from them, flowing into the room and coming toward them.

  Jasn sent spirit through the sword and blocked the first attack, but the second slipped past and struck him.

  Alena screamed.

  Had she been hit?

  Water flushed through him in a healing wave, and he was thankful that he’d wrapped himself in a shaping of it.

  He spun and saw Alena convulsing on the ground. Shadows swirled through her. Jasn aimed a spirit shaping at her, layering it atop her. As it did, the convulsing eased and her eyes opened.

  “Interesting. A new threat. Hyaln, I presume?” Nolan said.

  “Hyaln trained me.” He sliced at the bands of shadow that Nolan sent toward him. As he did, he realized that they weren’t summoned, not as the Khalan’s were. These were shaped. He’d faced something similar with Thenas, but then he’d had Ciara to help. Without her ability to summon, would he be able to suppress this attack?

  “Hyaln is full of fools. I thought to learn from them, but there was little they would teach.”

  “Why do you do this?”

  “Do? I do nothing more than release power into the world that only a select are capable of using. How is that different than what Hyaln advocates for? How is that different than what Atenas claims?”

  “You understand that you release Tenebeth into the world.”

  “I understand far more than you will ever know. This power has been suppressed from us. The elementals have tried to hide the secret to controlling them. So much will change.”

  “No,” Alena said, stabbing him through the back. “It will not.”

  Nolan grunted and stepped into the sword, then twisted. Alena’s eyes widened. �
��You cannot stop what has been in place for nearly a decade,” he said. “I will show you—”

  Jasn jumped forward, and swung, putting all the strength of his ability to shape behind his attack, using earth and wind and fire and water as he sliced.

  Nolan pressed him back.

  With a flicker of shadows, he disappeared.

  Jasn took a shaky breath. “Time for us to go.”

  Alena nodded, and they turned to the stairs. As they did, Jasn felt shadows surge through the tower in a funnel of power. Were they already too late?

  40

  Ciara

  Sacrifice will be required for the seals to hold.

  —Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars

  Ciara left Cheneth near Hyaln, which was a logical place to begin a gathering of its scattered members. If they could find them all, those who had recently left and those who had been gone for years, he thought that they might have enough strength to counter Khalan.

  She thought it was a fine idea, but there was somewhere that she needed to go first. She wouldn’t have known were it not for Talyn. Ciara had suspected that the draasin communicated, but it became completely clear when Talyn claimed the Wise traveled to Atenas to help others, just as she understood that Jasn Volth must be there as well.

  When she reached Atenas, she felt the presence of the Khalan.

  Talyn took her to a tower, and at first, she thought that she needed to do what she’d done before and create a barrier, but that would prevent entry, and she wasn’t convinced that was the right technique.

  As she landed, a familiar face appeared. “You return,” Eldridge said.

  “I have not been gone.”

  “I hear you might have some way of helping with this attack.”

  Shadows worked through the city, pressing against her. She didn’t need her j’na to detect the way the Khalan attacked, but why would it be pressing up through the tower?

  “There is something that I might be able to do. You’ll need to clear off the tower.”