Seal of Light (The Endless War Book 5)
Page 29
With a man like Shade in the world, would they ever be free of the danger from Tenebeth? Would peace mean destroying those like Shade who sought power like this? That wasn’t the kind of peace that Jasn wanted.
Darkness thickened, and through the shaped connection, he sensed that Shade had drawn as much as he could. It pained him trying to summon any more, and it pained Jasn trying to hold the darkness out of him.
“Direct it into the stone,” he said to Shade.
The Khalan shook his head. “It is all I can do to hold it!”
Jasn looked up, his heart racing. “Ciara?”
She stepped toward him. Her body glowed, her dark skin now a beautiful white light. She waved her arms around, and it took him a moment to realize that she swept the shadows forward with the motion, pushing them toward the stone. She continued her circle, moving it more and more tightly around them, until she took his hand.
Light and warmth surged through him.
Jasn had never experienced anything like that before. Was that what it was like for her all the time with her summons? Did she know this light, this warmth? And now that she had lost the connection to the lizard, is this what she feared?
Shade gasped, and Jasn realized that she had taken his hand as well. They linked, forming a circle, and light flowed through them. It was warmth, it was power, it was life.
Ciara took a deep breath, and when she breathed out, she stomped on the stone now in the center of the circle. As she did, the darkness pressed down and into the stone. It fought—through the strange connection they now shared with her, he felt the struggle and the way that the darkness fought—but Ciara held firm, using an intent within her mind. Connected by light or spirit or whatever it was that connected the three of them now, he recognized that she used memories, images of people that she cared about, the life that she cared about.
Not only people but the draasin and the lizard flashed in her mind.
The images held firm in spite of the fact that the darkness, that Tenebeth, struggled against her. Jasn could tell that had she chosen a different focus, had it not been something she could hold so tightly in her mind, Tenebeth would have overpowered her.
One more image flashed in her mind, and through her, into his. It was the memory of their first embrace, the kiss that they’d shared, the hope that there might be something for them if they succeeded.
Jasn smiled, pressing his shaping of spirit through her.
As he did, light flashed, surging toward the ground.
And the darkness disappeared.
51
Ciara
What have we done? The elemental of light is real! It means the elemental of dark is as well.
—Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars
For the first time in months, Rens felt something like home to Ciara. When she’d been here last, there had been no sense of home, no sense of welcome. Only the fear of what had happened to her father and the rest of her people. She might not choose to live in this land, but that didn’t change the fact that this was where she had come from.
That wasn’t why it felt like home. That came from the hand she held, and the man riding the draasin along with her as they soared above the waste. Jasn said nothing. He didn’t need to. Since they had first sealed the scattered remnants of Tenebeth into the stone on the Island of Valahs, a bond of sorts had formed between them, forged by the spirit that he’d used. Did Jasn even know that his spirit had formed the seal?
Other seals were completed, and Ciara expected there to be more. Cheneth searched for them, traveling with Shade as he did. It still surprised her that the men had once been friends. More surprising was learning that Shade had been the reason that Cheneth had left Hyaln.
Something had changed within Shade during that initial seal. He could still summon the darkness, but the compulsion and the appeal had faded. Would it remain gone, or would he always be vulnerable to another attempt at summoning the darkness? She suspected that the reason Cheneth traveled with him.
Talyn basked in the warmth of the sun, letting it fuel her, a direct connection to fire that the draasin valued. A hole remained within Ciara where Reghal and the connection to him should be, and she doubted that it would ever be filled. There was an absence within her, a longing for his reassurance, that even her connection to Jasn Volth could not replace.
But without Reghal, they would not have succeeded. It was a reminder that she had to tell herself each time that she thought of him, knowing that he had sacrificed himself for a purpose.
“Are you certain that you want to do this?” she asked Jasn.
He wore a light shirt today, one that wouldn’t be nearly as uncomfortable as the thick wool preferred in Atenas, while she wore something reminiscent of an elouf. No veil this time. She would not worry about the veil.
“You would rather I stay in Atenas?”
Ciara squeezed his hand. “Alena might need your help.”
“Alena leads the Seat just fine without my help. There will be time to rebuild the Order later, especially once the remnants of Hyaln join us.”
That had been somewhat surprising, but then, combining the two made sense. Together, they would be able to watch for evidence that Tenebeth might escape again, and would be better equipped to remain vigilant.
“You won’t miss the barracks?”
“The barracks were a necessity of the war. They have served their purpose.”
Talyn slowed as familiar rock came into view. In spite of everything that she had been through, her heart still quickened as they neared the village.
“Thank you,” she said.
He kissed her on the cheek, his lips warm. “For what?”
As Talyn landed, she took a deep breath. “For everything.”
They climbed down from the draasin and started toward the village. A few villagers emerged from within caves, and they all looked at her as if they didn’t recognize her anymore. It was possible that they didn’t. She had changed. No longer was she nya’shin. Ciara didn’t know if she still could claim Rens. She didn’t know what she was, but she would take the time to discover and to monitor for the darkness.
But first, it was time her people returned.
A familiar face emerged from the shadows and Ciara smiled. He looked thinner than the last time she’d seen him, and his eyes more haunted, but that faded as he saw her.
“Father,” she said.
Her father smiled, glancing at Jasn and then the draasin, before looking back at her. “Daughter? Why have you returned?”
Ciara listened for water. There wasn’t enough, not nearly enough for the village. That would change. “It is time.”
“For what?” he asked.
“For Rens to return.”
Epilogue
The seals will fall again. Another must come who can restore them. These records will be for them. Perhaps they will find a way to suppress the darkness permanently. If not, the darkness will escape and destroy creation.
—Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars
Eldridge stood inside the empty room, holding a shaper lantern for light and sweeping it around. The room was different than the last time that he’d been here, but that had been years ago when he had still served the college as Bishop. He no longer claimed that title, though others still claimed it for him.
The castle felt cold, the air damp this close to the sea. Now that most of the Hyaln traveled to Atenas, he suspected that it would remain empty as well. That was best. The scholars would have an easier time monitoring in Atenas than they did in Hyaln.
Yet, he had to hurry. Jayna intended to return to Hyaln, as did the Wise, though he didn’t know if they planned to open the knowledge for all, or to protect it. Either way, he needed to act quickly.
He reached the vast library within Hyaln. Countless books were here, volumes that would have to be studied and archived, joined with the rest of the College’s collection. That was not why he had come here.
/> Something had troubled him from the very beginning. Why would the college of scholars have records of Tenebeth? The college was nearly a thousand years old, far older than most even knew, and had records from places and from ages most had forgotten, but learning that the college had known of Tenebeth… that they must have known, sent a chill through him.
He paused at one of the tables. Scorch marks lined the table, burned into shapes that looked like runes. Eldridge traced his fingers over the table, letting out a soft breath as he used his connection to wind to attempt to understand, but it didn’t come.
A sound in the hall caught his attention.
Eldridge swept from the library and into the hall and froze. “You. This was all because of you?”
The older woman shook her head, pulling her deep maroon robe of office around her shoulders. It had been years since Eldridge had stood before one of the cardinals of the College of Scholars, and hadn’t expected to meet one here.
“This? This is Hyaln, Bishop Eldridge.”
Eldridge snorted. “I think we can abandon the pretense of that title, don’t you?”
“What would you be called?”
“I haven’t decided. Not Bishop. I intervene too much to serve as Bishop.” Even more than the Hyaln, the College of Scholars were meant to observe, to study and learn, but not interfere. That last had been the part that Eldridge struggled with the most.
“Others have intervened.”
“Like this? The Cardinals are responsible for Hyaln gaining the knowledge that they did?”
The cardinal clasped her hands together in front of her. She had a long, thin face and her hair was twisted into a bun atop her head. Steely gray eyes stared at him. “A cardinal. A mistake that has been rectified.”
Eldridge frowned. “You didn’t know?”
“The College is not all knowing, Bishop Eldridge. When power began to surge, it was studied. It wasn’t until the Khalan demonstrated their prowess that the depth of the deception was identified.”
Eldridge pulled the book from his pocket. Lauren had found it and shown it to him, but it was one that he had never seen before, with runes for the elementals that he hadn’t realized the college knew. With it, Lauren had managed to trap elementals. Because of it, they had managed to restore the balance, suppressing Tenebeth once more.
“How did you learn?”
The cardinal smiled. “You should know by now that the college has stationed itself everywhere.”
Something about the way she said it gave him pause. “You? One of the Cardinals left the College?”
“We needed to understand the Khalan.”
“And what did you learn?”
“What we needed to know. And you were given what you needed to know.”
Eldridge glanced down at the book. He had thought it coincidence that Lauren had known how to trap elementals and how to find the book in Atenas.
“Lauren?” he asked.
The cardinal’s face changed, briefly taking on the younger appearance of Lauren before fading. Had he been tricked?
“When I discovered the deception, I had already been involved. I played some role in bringing the Enlightened Jayna into contact with the Khalan Shade.”
“You could have stopped this sooner!”
“My interference was already enough, Bishop Eldridge.”
“I don’t understand. Why?”
“Why? You sit high within the College, and you have to ask why?”
Eldridge slapped the book closed. How much of the destruction could have been avoided had the Cardinals acted sooner? Worse, how much would have been avoided had the Cardinals never allowed the knowledge to get free in the first place?
“Who was it?” Eldridge asked.
The woman—Lauren or whatever her real name was—only pressed her lips together and shook her head. “Does it matter?”
“It matters.”
“No. All that matters is that balance has been restored.”
“It should never have been disrupted in the first place!”
“Perhaps, but we have learned much because of the disruption.”
“This… this was about learning?”
The cardinal tilted her head. “Is not everything about learning, Bishop?”
Eldridge breathed out, frustration coursing through him. It was things like this that had pushed him away from the College in the first place. He might still be a scholar, but he wasn’t the man that he once had been. He was no longer the bishop.
“What now?” he asked. “Why are you here?”
She crossed her arms in front of her. “I suspect for many of the same reasons that you are here.”
“The Hyaln had some record, didn’t they?” he asked.
She nodded. “The College would prefer to control such knowledge again. I think that it should remain guarded, don’t you?”
“It doesn’t seem like it matters what I think. I don’t think that the knowledge should have been given to the Hyaln in the first place!”
“In that, we agree.”
She started to turn, and a thought came to him. “How did the College acquire the knowledge? How long has the College known about Tenebeth?”
The cardinal turned to him, her lips pressed into a tight line. “How long?” she repeated. “The college has known since its founding, Bishop. Voidan is the reason that the College even exists. We monitor and prepare.”
“But do nothing to prevent,” he said.
“Didn’t we?” she asked. “I trust that you will keep this knowledge to yourself, Bishop? You are always welcome to return. Your intellect makes a fine addition to the College.”
She studied him a moment more and then turned, striding from the hall, leaving Eldridge standing alone.
He stood motionless until the sound of her footsteps disappeared, and then he shaped himself back out of the castle, where he found Cheneth waiting, Shade accompanying him.
“Did you find anything? Records that we must secure?”
Eldridge thought about the Cardinal and the fact that she would have secured any records long before he would have arrived. She had come to find him, to reveal herself. There was more than he understood, but then, that had always been the case.
He forced a smile for Cheneth and shook his head. “Nothing that I can find,” he said. “I suspect all records are secured behind the barriers that Ciara placed.”
Cheneth nodded. “Good. Then we don’t have to fear Tenebeth returning, especially while Atenas remains vigilant.”
Eldridge kept the smile fixed on his face, wondering when the next time the College would think to study what would happen were Tenebeth released. Would Atenas still be vigilant? Would there be anyone who was?
That, he decided, would be his task. He would ensure that the Order remained and that warriors were ready. Eldridge would ensure the balance remained intact.
I’m excited to share with you book 1 of a new series, The Lost Prophecy: The Threat of Madness, available for preorder now!
The arrival of the mysterious Magi, along with their near invincible guardians, signals a change. For Jakob, apprentice historian and son of a priest longing for adventure, it begins an opportunity.
When his home is attacked, Jakob ventures out with the his master, traveling alongside the Magi, beginning a journey that will take him far from home and everything he has ever known. As he travels, he gains surprising skill with the sword but begins to develop strange abilities, along with a growing fear that the madness which has claimed so many has come for him.
With a strange darkness rising in the north, and powers long thought lost beginning to return, the key to survival is discovering the answer to a lost prophecy. Only a few remain with the ability to find it, and they begin to suspect that Jakob has a pivotal role to play.
About the Author
DK Holmberg currently lives in rural Minnesota where the winter cold and the summer mosquitoes keep him inside and writing. He has two active children who insp
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Also by D.K. Holmberg
The Cloud Warrior Saga
Chased by Fire
Bound by Fire
Changed by Fire
Fortress of Fire
Forged in Fire
Serpent of Fire
Servant of Fire
Born of Fire
Broken of Fire
Light of Fire
Others in the Cloud Warrior Series
Prelude to Fire
Chasing the Wind
Drowned by Water
Deceived by Water
Salvaged by Water
The Endless War
Journey of Fire and Night
Darkness Rising
Endless Night
Summoner’s Bond
Seal of Light
The Shadow Accords
Shadow Blessed
Shadow Cursed
Shadow Born
The Dark Ability
The Dark Ability
The Heartstone Blade
The Tower of Venass