He couldn’t shake the feeling that it had been important. If only he could determine what it was, he might figure out how to stop them.
Staying here gave no answers. Where else could he Travel?
He thought of the Barth. What better place to Travel than a place that he knew as well as his smithy?
His awareness reached the Barth, and he settled inside the tavern. Unlike in the forest, where there was nothing but the light from the Elder Trees, in the Barth, he heard the music as if he were there, and saw the tavern filled with people. Some sat at the tables and diced or ate, and laughed, but others danced.
Alyse appeared, and Rsiran attempted to reach for her, but he had no way of doing so. In this form, he had no body, and no way to even speak to her. He was limited to observing only.
She moved from table to table with that new sense of purpose that she had. Rsiran was pleased to know that she had found something, but wondered if she would ever find happiness.
She reached a table where Brusus sat with Haern. Rsiran saw how Alyse paused, and how her eyes lingered on Brusus, and then on how Brusus’s eyes lingered on her.
The shock at that was nearly enough to jolt him back to his body. Alyse and Brusus?
He shook away the surprise, and then shifted his attention and his focus, imagining another smithy, this one much like his father’s, the forge much like the one where Rsiran had first learned to swing a hammer, and first learned to work the coals, getting the temperature to just the right level.
Inside Seval’s smithy, he saw the master smith. He stood before his anvil, instructing a thin boy with short brown hair on where to strike. It wasn’t all that long ago that the boy had been Rsiran. As he watched, he realized that he recognized the boy. Luca.
“I hear it,” Luca said. “It wants us to hit it here.” This time, it was Luca who pointed to the lorcith. What Rsiran had presumed was Seval instructing Luca appeared to be something different. A type a teamwork that had not been seen in an Elaeavn smithy in many years.
“Where now?” Seval asked.
Rsiran found himself smiling. Seval wanted so badly to regain his connection to lorcith that he had been willing to work with Luca—a mere boy. And Luca had finally found a way to listen to the lorcith in a way that was useful. Perhaps some good might actually come from that.
Floating as he was, he turned to survey the smithy. He expected damage to it from the explosion, but saw nothing. No sign of anything that would indicate that the smithy had suffered any permanent harm.
He should return to Jessa and his smithy. Traveling appeared to work. So far, he had managed to see the forest and the Barth and even his new friends in their smithy. What more was there for him to see?
For a moment, he thought about going to the guilds, but that was something he needed to do in person, especially if he intended to engage the guilds in helping him with Venass. Or with helping them with Venass. Rsiran wasn’t even sure which it was anymore. They might know more than he did.
Just when he was about to return to his smithy, he decided there was another connection that he had that he should check on. It had been a while since he’d gone to her, and the last time had not gone well. But she was still his mother. As much as a part of him wanted nothing more than to forget about her and to leave her to whatever might happen, he couldn’t. If nothing else, Alyse would want to know.
Imagining his mother’s home was only slightly different from the other destinations. With the others, he had a connection to either the place or the people that made it easier. For some reason, that seemed to help him. With his mother, the connection might be biological, but not one that he had chosen.
Yet he reached her home, and settled inside.
A lantern glowed with a soft blue light. Elvraeth light. She should not have Elvraeth light.
That wasn’t the only surprise.
A voice came from the other end of the house, one that he hadn’t heard before.
“You should be more careful summoning me here.”
“There is nothing for us to fear in this place any longer. Now that he is gone…” Rsiran recognized that voice as his mother’s, but not the tone. There was no edge to it, not like there had been when was a child.
“Are you sure?” a man asked.
Rsiran focused on the voices and traveled toward them, floating through walls and doors until he managed to reach the tiny kitchen where he saw them sitting at the table. His mother sat with her arms crossed over her chest, a long bar of lorcith with patterns printed on it gripped tightly in one hand. Her hair was twisted into a braid that hung past her shoulder, making her look more severe than the last time that he’d seen her.
The man sitting across from her was older and wrinkled, with silver hair, and eyes that flashed as deep a green as Della’s. “The guilds were warned,” the man said. “Which means that he lives. And it is because of her. She should not involve herself in this. She will regret that she did so.” He set his hands on the table, palms down, as he took a few steadying breaths. “Do you remain committed to this task?”
His mother tipped her head. “Of course, Father. I have always been committed to this task.”
Father. The familiarity suddenly made sense. Rsiran had seen those features before. Not only with Della, but also with Evaelyn.
Could this really be his grandfather?
Rsiran knew that his grandfather was one of the Forgotten, banished for supporting Evaelyn. Della claimed that he was too soft-hearted. But why was he here, and what task did he refer to?
“You have not always been committed, my daughter. They have softened you.”
She bowed her head and closed her eyes. Rsiran wondered who his grandfather meant.
“You have seen to it that the connection to my children is gone.” When he got no response, he continued. “You understand what we’re after. And now, we are so very close.”
She looked up and glared at her father. “It’s because of them that you’re close.”
“It’s because of them that we were forced to act. Had he not shown himself…”
Rsiran’s mother turned her gaze to the ground and shook her head. “I have done all that you have asked of me. It is because of me that you’ve found the heart—”
“And how long has it taken you to find it? You said that Neran would lead you there years ago.”
“He wouldn’t. You know that I tried, but I was not strong enough with him.”
Rsiran frowned. What did his mother mean? Not strong enough for his father?
“Yet you manage to influence others.”
“There is something to Neran. And Rsiran. I have never been able to guide them as I could with Alyse, but even that has failed me the last few years.”
Rsiran started to draw away in shock. By guiding, his mother meant Compelling. He was certain of that. And because his father was smith born, and Rsiran as well, they had been immune to the effects of her Compelling.
But not Alyse.
His mother went on. “The drink helped. At least when he was drunk, I could direct his temper somewhat. But he never shared the location. He called it a guild secret and became angry whenever I would speak of it.”
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Did his mother imply that she had been trying to discover the location of the Elder Trees?
But of course she would have. That had been what she’d wanted his entire life, hadn’t it? She had always had a strange fascination with the Aisl Forest, one that no others in the city shared. All those times when she’d leave them alone and go off to the forest for hours… They made sense now.
Yet he couldn’t believe that had been the reason that she was with his father. That couldn’t be the reason that his father had taken to drinking. Could it?
“Where you failed with Neran, you succeeded with the son. Such irony, isn’t it?” his grandfather said.
“You asked me to follow him, so I did.”
“A good thing that you did. Interest
ing that it would be he who would lead us there. All these years, we’ve wondered, and all these years, the guilds have maintained the secret the ancient clans once kept. And now, we might finally see to their downfall.”
A knock at the door delayed Rsiran from returning to his smithy. He needed to return. There was too much that he had to think through, and had to understand, but he couldn’t, not without seeing who else might appear.
When the door opened, Rsiran nearly lost control.
The last time that Rsiran had seen Thom, he had left him above Thyr with the intent to return to him for answers. But the man had disappeared, somehow escaping from him.
This time, Thom had returned to Elaeavn, and was at his mother’s house.
“Master.”
His grandfather welcomed Thom into the house with a sweep of his arm.
As Thom came in, his eyes narrowed, and he swept his gaze around the small space. He passed over Rsiran, so far missing that he was here, but Rsiran didn’t want to risk remaining too long.
“He lives,” his grandfather said.
“He can’t. Rhan was there. And now Rhan is in Thyr. I am sure.”
Rsiran wondered if he would manage to remain so calm were he in his body. Hearing Rhan’s name, knowing where to find him if not how, would leave him angry. Because of Rhan, he had nearly died. Had Seval been in his smithy, it would have been likely that Seval would have been killed. Rsiran had almost been unable to do anything to save himself. Trying to help Seval would have proven impossible as well.
“But the guilds have become dark,” his mother said.
Thom nodded. “To us as well, but it means little. Our efforts to fragment them have worked. Even better, Rhan said the spheres worked as planned. Each was laced with heartstone and lorcith, and coated with a layer of shadowsteel. We’ve proven its efficacy. You saw the effect on the tree.”
The older man’s eyes narrowed. “I saw. The others remain.”
Thom shrugged. “We had only managed to make that much before he found the forge. A good thing Rhan neutralized him or—”
“You have not neutralized him. He lives.”
“And he knows that we can stop him. What does it matter? He believes he understands the threat, and thinks that he understands the reason, but he has no idea that this is about much more than exiles and scholars.”
“If he has been to the heart, then he might know that this is about more than exiles. He might know of the clans, and of the others. We can’t risk that he might succeed in finally uniting the people.”
Rsiran still struggled with what he heard. It was possible that his mother sided with the Forgotten, but now it turned out that it was much more than that. Could she work with Venass?
“You must escalate the production of shadowsteel, and it must be taken to the others in the heart. Once there, even if he understands what we plan, there will be little that he can do. I would see this finished in my lifetime.”
Thom laughed. “And how many more years do you think you can claim?”
His grandfather scowled at Thom. “Careful, or I will see that plate torn from your skull. Do you think your gifts will work the same without it there to augment them? I will ensure that the scholars do not return it to you, either.”
Thom raised his hands. As he did, his gaze swept around the room again.
“What is it?” his grandfather asked.
“I am not certain. This damn thing,” he said, tapping at the plate beneath the scar, “is buzzing. It’s never done that before.”
His grandfather became very still. His eyes flashed a deeper green than anything that Rsiran had ever seen, very nearly black, and then widened. “He is here.”
Rsiran’s mother spun. “Here? Where? How?”
“He has discovered Traveling,” he said.
Chapter 30
Back into his body, Rsiran’s heart hammered wildly. Fatigue threatened to knock him over, but he fought against it. He needed to remain awake. He needed answers. And he needed to warn the others.
“What is it?” Jessa said, surging into motion as soon as his eyes opened. “Did it work?”
He grabbed her hand and pulled a dozen knives to him. They streaked toward him faster than intended. In his tiredness, he didn’t control them as well as he should. Switching to a soft push, he slowed the knives and caught them before they injured him or Jessa.
“It worked. And now we need to move.”
He focused on the Barth. First, he would tell Jessa what he learned. Then, he would find Brusus to warn Haern, and then, they needed to go to Della. Rsiran focused on his lorcith pieces at the Barth to anchor the Slide and pulled. In his weakened condition, he didn’t want to get stranded as he Slid. When they emerged on the second floor of the Barth, in Lianna’s room, he glanced around to confirm they were alone, then turned to Jessa.
“I saw my mother. And my grandfather.”
“Your grandfather? So he does live.”
“Alyse had thought both of our grandparents still lived, and with what Della said, I knew that it was possible, but now I know for sure. At least my grandfather lives.”
“Where did you see him?”
“When I Traveled, I first went back to the forest, and then to Seval’s smithy, before going to see my mother. When I was there, I saw her with him. Even had she not referred to him as Father, the resemblance to Della and Evaelyn was undeniable. And then Thom came—”
“Thom came? Your mother knows Thom?”
Rsiran shook his head. “I don’t know if she knows him, but he knew my grandfather. Thom came to meet him. And then they seemed to know that I was there.”
“Traveling can be detected?”
“I don’t know. Sliding can be detected, so why wouldn’t it be possible to detect Traveling as well? They’re related somewhat.”
“Yes, but so are Reading and Compelling. They’re related abilities, but so different that they might as well be something else entirely. How do you know that they sensed your presence and that you could Travel?”
“Because I heard it,” Rsiran said. “I heard what my grandfather said.”
“Grandfather?”
Rsiran spun and saw Alyse standing in the door. She carried a pitcher of water that tipped forward as she watched him.
“You saw grandfather?” she asked.
Rsiran glanced over to Jessa. What was the right answer for Alyse? Should he explain that he hadn’t actually seen their grandfather in person, but by Traveling to their mother’s home? Would she even understand what it meant that he’d Traveled?
“I saw him… at Mother’s,” Rsiran said.
“What… what did he say?”
“Alyse…”
“No. What did our grandfather say when he saw you?”
“He didn’t see me. And neither did Mother.”
Alyse stalked into the room and set the pitcher down with more force than was needed. “You think you’re protecting me from something. I may not know you as well as some,” she said, and her gaze drifted to Jessa, “but I can tell that there’s something you don’t want to share. Which means that you think to protect me. You’ve already gotten me free of that darkness. There’s not much more for you to protect me from.”
Rsiran closed his eyes and wished that he could forget the memory of what their grandfather had said, and what their mother had said. “There are things that you are better off not knowing,” Rsiran said.
“Such as your ability to jump from one place to another? The dark ability that Father warned you from using?” Alyse took a step toward him and took a deep breath, drawing her shoulders back. She was not a short woman, and though not nearly as tall as Rsiran, she still somehow managed to make herself appear imposing. “You don’t have to worry about me with that. I’ve seen the good that you’ve done with your ability. Father was wrong about it.”
“Father was wrong about many things,” Rsiran said with a sigh.
“What does that mean?” Alyse asked.
> He turned away, but Jessa stopped him. “You need to tell her. This affects her now. She’s a part of it, no different from you. And remember how you felt when Brusus withheld information from you?”
Alyse’s expression changed with the mention of Brusus’s name, and Rsiran remembered what he had observed when he Traveled to the Barth.
He sighed. “What I saw,” Rsiran said. “It’s… it’s dangerous.”
“Dangerous like what happened to you?” She reached for him before pulling her hand back. “I’m glad that you’re better. When I saw how you were… and that you nearly died… I sent word to Mother that you weren’t going to make it. I haven’t told her that you survived.”
At least that answered how she had seemed to know that he was injured.
“Well, my injury had another effect. You have always known about my ability,” Rsiran began. Alyse’s mouth puckered at the mention, and she appeared to force herself to relax. “I still don’t know how or why, but it changed. I discovered something else about what I can do, something that the ancient clans were able to do, but something that had been forgotten with time.”
Was that the reason that Sliding had been ostracized over the years? Had that been the reason that the Elvraeth had seemed to work to eliminate the ability? Could it be that they feared something more than Sliding, that they feared Traveling?
But that wouldn’t explain all of the heartstone around the palace. Unless heartstone somehow normally blocked Traveling, but it didn’t with Rsiran. Then again, it didn’t block him from Sliding, either.
Alyse watched him, waiting for him to say more. Rsiran debated how much to share with her. She might be his sister, but she had never really been on his side. She might appreciate the support that he’d offered, but that wasn’t the same as siding with him.
But how could he explain what he’d seen without describing Traveling? How could he get her to understand that their mother had been the one to deceive them?
The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5) Page 22