Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Talyn took to the air and circled around over her head. Other draasin flew through the city—the Wise, she suspected—and attacked the shadows, but the tower was the focus of the dark energy. She didn’t know why—and didn’t care to know why. She needed to stop the release of Tenebeth.

  Eldridge shuffled the others off the tower, taking them on a shaping of wind that carried them away and leaving her alone. Ciara tapped her foot, forming the intent within her mind that she needed for this summons to be successful. Was it the same as what she had done at the other tower?

  Reghal, I could use your help.

  You do not need my help, Little Light. You know what must be done. Then you must return.

  He sounded as if his voice came from a great distance, and there was a strain in it from whatever it took for him to withstand the attack on the Khalan island. How much longer would he be able to hold out against the darkness on the island?

  She needed to hurry, and then she would bring help from here to face the full threat of the Khalan. And somehow, they would have to contain the remnants of Tenebeth that had escaped.

  She began moving. Each step was precise and unlike any that she’d done before. The summons would be too complex to form in her mind, at least for the scope that she needed. What she needed to do here was less about sending power around the tower and more about sending it through the tower.

  Ciara brought her hands together.

  Light flashed. She pressed it down, slapping her palms on the top of the tower.

  Thunder rumbled.

  Ciara did the same, and this time, the tower began to tremble.

  She didn’t want to topple the tower but needed to force the shadows out from within.

  Another circle made around the top of the tower and then she brought her hands together, the summons making her hands practically glow. She slapped them against the stone. The tower reverberated with the energy that she summoned.

  Shadows began to ease away.

  Another circle, and when she brought her hands down, she felt resistance.

  An idea came to her, one that she should have considered before. Talyn. Can the draasin assist with this?

  We will try.

  Ciara continued her circle around the tower, each time bringing forth the light, and each time slamming against stone. No longer did the shadows recede. Now it was more about holding steady, resisting whatever effort there was to push up against her.

  She felt it as the draasin began to circle the tower. Flames licked the sides, pressing heat and fire through it.

  Ciara continued her summons. Each time she brought her hands down, she pressed back the resistance a little more, again and again.

  The draasin roared. The sound echoed through the night, their flames so bright that they pushed back the darkness, making it almost appear to be daylight.

  Ciara used that opportunity to attempt more of her summons. Again and again.

  Then it failed.

  With another massive calling to light, she pressed the darkness out of the tower.

  Now she had to seal it. How would she manage to seal off the tower and prevent it from being used against them again? What had she done with the other tower?

  That had been Reghal, not her, hadn’t it?

  Yet, she’d used her j’na. Without that, what could she do that would be similar?

  Ciara took a step. As she dragged her foot, she pressed into the stone. With the intent held in mind, the stone parted, creating the pattern that she imagined. Another step. This time, she dragged again, and the stone parted. Slowly she made a complete pattern.

  Then she slammed her palms against the top of the tower.

  When she did, the pattern burst into light.

  The stone held. The pattern held, maintaining the summons. They had stopped it here.

  Ciara stumbled back to the edge of the wall, fatigue nearly overwhelming her. Her foot reached the edge, and she slipped, tumbling over the wall.

  Her breath caught. Talyn!

  The draasin roared, and she felt it as she streaked toward her, but she wouldn’t be fast enough. The ground raced toward her. A summons formed in her mind, one for wind and earth, but it was stolen from her. The Khalan would take even that.

  Ciara offered a silent prayer—one last time to the Stormbringer—for peace.

  At that moment, regret flooded her. If only she had time to see her father once more. She would have liked to have seen her village again. And she would have liked to speak to Jasn Volth. The surprised her most of all. Though she might be angry at what he had done, that didn’t change who he was now, and that person was not a warrior. He was gentle, caring, both a healer and a seeker of knowledge. And she would never get the chance to apologize to him.

  The ground reached her.

  And she stopped.

  Ciara let out a surprised gasp. She spun, twisted so that she could stand.

  Across from her, holding his blazing sword, was Jasn Volth.

  All the fear that she’d had, all the anger at learning what he’d done to the people of Rens, disappeared. She raced over to him and threw herself into his arms.

  Jasn welcomed her, his warm lips welcoming hers. In spite of the darkness that they suffered through, she felt a flash of warmth—and a moment of peace.

  41

  Jayna

  It is time to make a choice. I am uncertain I am ready.

  —Ghalen, First of the Khal

  “This doesn’t seem like the right way to go,” Calan told her.

  Jayna shook her head, staring at the sea stretching beneath them, riding atop Olina’s draasin. The creature had snarled as Shade stepped onto his back, but they held him bound and he could not influence the draasin in his current state. They soared over the water in the direction of Valahs that she had determined using spirit on Shade.

  “This is the way that he knows.”

  “I fear that we should not travel alone,” Calan said. “Risking ourselves going to this island with no other support.”

  “There will be others,” Olina said.

  “What others?” Jayna asked. She hadn’t realized that Olina knew of others able—and willing—to help.

  “The Wise have agreed to answer this summons. The riders will come.”

  That would help, but would it be enough? The Wise had talent—they had trained in Hyaln, so there was much knowledge that they possessed—but they didn’t have near the skill that the Enlightened, or the summoners, possessed. If only they had rune masters...

  Shadows began to circle around them. The massive draasin loosed streamers of flame, and the shadows dispersed.

  Perhaps she had been wrong about the benefit of having the draasin with them. If it could press back the shadows like that, then maybe he could be of more use. They risked the Khalan managing a summons, though, and losing the connection to the fire elemental. If the Khalan gained control of the draasin, then any advantage of the Wise would fail.

  “There are others here.”

  Calan pointed to the shore and Jayna was surprised to note that there were others on the ground. The draasin swooped cautiously over them before dropping them to the ground. Olina remained atop the draasin and went back into the air.

  The island had minimal growth. A few spindly trees rose from rock and dry grasses peeked up in tufts, but this was not a vibrant or alive island. Power pulsed against her, and she knew that it must be impressive for her to note it so easily. She saw no structures and no signs of life. Using a shaping of spirit, and then of earth and water, she detected none either.

  What place had the Khalan claimed as home?

  The others here were of Hyaln. Nearly a dozen in all: those who were Enlightened, summoners, and even a few rune masters. One person stood out, a man she had not seen in over a year, but she knew it was because of him that Hyaln had come together once more.

  “Cheneth,” she said.

  He had seemed an older man when she saw him last, and he appeared more youthf
ul now. His skin had a glow about it, one that made him appear a decade younger than she suspected he actually was. All except his eyes. Lines remained around them, and their deep gray carried a wisdom that could not be concealed without shaping.

  “Issa. Or is it Katya?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “It’s Jayna.”

  Cheneth tilted his head and a spirit shaping built from him. She didn’t resist when he layered it upon her. As she noted the strength that he used, she wondered if she would even have been able to resist.

  “I see that it is. A beautiful name, and one that is fitting of a woman of Yala.”

  Jayna took a deep breath. Saying it aloud the first time had been more difficult than she expected.

  “And Calan. I see that she found you.”

  Calan gripped his sword and held tightly to a shaping. Jayna wondered if he might attack. She hadn’t expected that reaction from him, especially after what she’d convinced him of as they had subdued Shade, but would he revolt? Would he want revenge?

  “Cheneth,” Calan spoke through a clenched jaw.

  Jayna used a shaping of spirit and sent it through him. It was only enough to help him relax, and the tension in his shoulders eased, and he took a deep breath.

  “Where are the others of your camp, Cheneth?” Calan asked. “This one,” he said, jerking Shade around and thrusting him in front of Cheneth, “has shown how his kind uses shadows to attack. That was what happened with Thenas, is it not?”

  “Thenas was similar,” Cheneth said. “What the Khalan do is a reflection of that power, but in using it, they release it into the world where it cannot be contained.”

  “You’re a fool,” Shade spat.

  They had relaxed the shaping around his mouth after realizing that he couldn’t breathe when they held it too tightly. So far, he had elected not to speak. Jayna liked it better when he did not.

  “You fear power that we have always been meant to control,” Shade went on.

  Cheneth stepped forward and leaned into Shade, unconcerned that one of the Khalan might attack. When she’d been in the barracks, there had been no sign that Cheneth had significant abilities. Enlightened, but there were many shapers who managed to reach spirit and claimed that they were Enlightened. When she brought her report back to Hyaln, she had done so claiming that Cheneth was not a concern and that all he did was teach shaping to Atenas warriors. Now that she understood it was much more than that, she wondered what else she might have misread about him.

  “You’re right. I fear power, but I have seen the way that power controls when it is free. Perhaps you have managed to maintain control so far, but for how much longer? What happens when the darkness consumes you and you no longer have the control that you believe?”

  “There will never come such a time for one prepared and trained.”

  “The creator knows I hope you’re right,” Cheneth said.

  He turned his back to Shade, looking at Jayna. “You have him bound?”

  She nodded. “He cannot escape.”

  “Good. I fear he might be useful before all of this is done.”

  “Why?”

  “A hunch,” he said.

  Jayna waited for him to explain more, but he didn’t. “What now?”

  “Now we wait for the others to arrive.”

  “What others do you expect other than the Wise?”

  Jayna still marveled at the fact that the Hyaln had not only managed to trap the draasin but that they had managed to control them. She couldn’t imagine the summons that was necessary to control them.

  And then to free them from that summons… If she had any questions about how powerful Ciara could be, that should answer it. A woman like that… it was no wonder that Jasn found himself attracted to her.

  “The Wise should be here any—”

  Thunder rumbled, interrupting Cheneth. It was followed by a series of bright flashes of lightning.

  Jayna waited, thinking that Atenas warriors had arrived—that was a particular favorite way for them to travel—but the lightning continued, followed by more of the rolling thunder.

  Cheneth looked at the sky. “We might not have as much time as I had hoped,” he said in a whisper.

  Shade laughed. “You are all fools risking coming here. The Khal rule Valahs, and the Khalan are more skilled than any of Hyaln—”

  Cheneth waved a hand at him, sealing his mouth with a shaping of wind.

  “We’ve tried that,” Jayna said. “He stops breathing.”

  “He can stop talking for a little bit. If that involves him not breathing, then so be it.”

  “I thought you said that we needed him.”

  Cheneth sighed and waved his hand again. Shade breathed out in a whistle, but not enough to speak.

  The control that Cheneth demonstrated was impressive. Even in Hyaln, he would be considered a skilled shaper. Now she understood how he had managed to teach the Atenas shapers as much as he had. What more could he do?

  Another longer peal of thunder rumbled, almost shaking her to her bones.

  “Cheneth?” she asked.

  “It is time we move.”

  “What of your others?”

  “We have to trust that they will come.”

  Jayna glanced at Calan. “Are you ready to fight?” She still didn’t know if he would fight when it came to it or whether he would wilt under the threat of the Khalan, but he claimed that he wanted to help fight those who had triggered the war between Rens and Ter. She might not be able to give him the exact people responsible, but she could let him have a chance with those who had started the war.

  As if to answer, he unsheathed his great curved sword, one that was different than most in Atenas, and a shaping built from him. He nodded.

  Jayna turned toward the center of the island and noted the way that shadows built there. That was the source of the power. Somehow, they would have to suppress all of what the Khalan could throw at them; she wasn’t sure that they would be able to do it.

  Another rumble of thunder, and this time darkness followed. Shadows, much like what Shade and the others had controlled. They flowed toward them, out from somewhere in the center of the island.

  Drawing on spirit, she raced forward in her attack.

  42

  Ciara

  Fire is warmth. Water is healing. Wind is breath. Earth is renewal. All are life.

  —Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars

  Talyn carried them over the ocean, this time accompanied by a dozen other draasin. Upon each of the draasin rode one of the Wise and others from the city, warriors who had remained and were able to fight.

  Jasn sat behind her. For the first time, he pressed against her, his arms wrapped around her waist. Ciara would have smiled were the circumstances different, but there was nothing to smile about as they raced toward the Khalan fortress—and their possible death.

  Atenas had been secured. Ciara found it strange that it pleased her to have saved Atenas, the heart of the nation that had attacked her people, but then, as much as Jasn Volth had told her that he had changed, she had as well. She had come from Rens, but she was not nya’shin or even ala’shin. Ciara didn’t know what she was. Perhaps Khalan, but not tainted by Tenebeth. If they survived, she would discover what role she would play, but only then.

  “How did you escape the last time?” she asked Jasn.

  “Water carried me,” he said. “A wave pushed me back to the shore, and when I was there, I could sense that Alena needed my help.”

  Ciara looked over at Alena, who rode the hatchling. No longer was the draasin the small creature that Ciara had seen when it first emerged from its shell, the tiny and helpless creature that had required Alena—and Ciara—to survive. Now he had grown to a nearly adult size and somehow seemed to continue growing, even as they flew, almost as if he fed on something that helped increase his size dramatically. Did Alena even recognize that the draasin was larger now than when they had left Atenas?
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br />   Hers was the only draasin that didn’t carry another with him, but that had initially been because he had been too small to support the weight. Now he wouldn’t be. He was nearly the size of Tayln. How large would he be when they reached the island? Large enough that he would actually be of use against Tenebeth. Bonded—and she suspected that he had bonded—he would be less likely to be corrupted by the Khalan summons.

  “Will this be enough?” Jasn asked.

  Ciara didn’t know. They had shapers and draasin and riders, but that might not be enough to defeat the Khalan. They were powerful—almost too powerful.

  “Cheneth planned to call help from Hyaln and those of the barracks,” she said.

  Jasn pressed his lips together and squeezed her waist. “I hope we have enough.”

  They reached the outskirts of shadows surrounding the island. The draasin began to circle, some veering off and to the north while others curled south. The draasin intended to circle the island and use their flames to press the summons inward.

  I don’t know if that will work, Ciara told Talyn.

  That is what Reghal requests.

  Ciara breathed out a relieved sigh. She hadn’t been able to reach him since they left Atenas. The lizard remained on the island, but he would have been in danger the entire time. Once she reached him, she would feel better.

  “You worry for him?” Jasn asked.

  Had he known her thoughts? He’d admitted that he was now Enlightened, so would be able to shape spirit, yet she hadn’t expected him to use the shaping on her.

  “I worry for the elemental,” she said.

  “Cheneth tells me that nobelas is one of the most powerful elementals.”

  “Even nobelas can suffer if Tenebeth is strong enough.”

  Jasn squeezed her again.

  They reached the land. Talyn began breathing flames, pressing against the shadows that crawled here. She didn’t try to disperse them, not as they had tried before. Ciara wanted the shadows and the power of Tenebeth as contained as possible. That would give them their only chance to trap Tenebeth.