What had already been lost with the damage to the other tree?
“I do not know,” Della said. “I will… I will try. You will need to give me space.”
Rsiran nodded, and pulled Jessa with him. As they backed away from Della, Rsiran had the sense of something else near him. Not lorcith, and not heartstone, but something that he’d sensed before.
He followed the trail of what he detected.
“Where are you going?” Jessa asked in a hushed whisper.
He kept his attention fixed on it. As he approached, the sense grew stronger and stronger. And then he found it.
A darkness, blacker than night, plunged into the ground.
Shadowsteel.
“This is what harms the tree,” he said.
“What is it?”
He reached for the shadowsteel and Jessa grabbed his hand.
“Should you touch it? What if something happens to you when you make contact?” she asked. “Let me do it.”
“If you don’t think that I should touch it, I’m not about to let you be the one.”
“I can’t Slide. I can’t control lorcith and heartstone. I’m not attuned to them the same way that you are. Besides, when Venass attacked, they were able to carry it safely.”
She grabbed the black metal and pulled, grunting as she did, but the shadowsteel didn’t budge.
“I’m going to have to try,” he said.
Jessa shook her head. “I still don’t think that you should touch it, not without knowing what it might do to you.”
Rsiran unsheathed his heartstone alloy sword, and used the edge of the blade to try to pry the shadowsteel free, but it didn’t come.
What he needed was some way to pull on it.
Rsiran crouched before the shadowsteel, his sword held out. As he did, something about the shadowsteel drew the sword toward it.
Not the shadowsteel, Rsiran realized. The tree seemed to push the sword toward it.
He took the blade and set it alongside the shadowsteel bar. When they touched, there came a brief flash of orange light, and then the shadowsteel started to glow, but so did the heartstone sword.
“What did you do?” Jessa asked.
“I… I don’t know. The tree seemed to push these together,” he said.
He watched and realized that the metals were heating, and softening as they did. In that way, it reminded him of how he worked with heartstone. Could he fold the shadowsteel into the heartstone, and use that to pull it free from the ground?
Rsiran pushed on the heartstone blade. The sword sagged, and softened even more, and then he pushed, wrapping the metal around the shadowsteel. With another flash of orange, the heartstone enveloped the shadowsteel, and then both began to cool, losing the color quickly.
He listened for lorcith, and for heartstone. They were still there, muted, but present. There was another sense along with it, one that Rsiran wasn’t sure he really detected.
When he pulled, he felt the effect of lorcith, of heartstone, and of this other.
Slowly, the blended metal came free from the ground.
Rsiran held onto the connection, and then Slid.
He paused long enough to step into the place between and then emerged in his smithy. He stood long enough to inhale the familiarity of the bitter lorcith, the sweetness that was heartstone, and then pushed the now changed sword under his worktable. Later, he would try to understand what he had done, but now he had to return.
Stepping back into the Slide, again pausing and drawing strength and healing from this place, he returned to the inside of the tree.
Jessa waited for him. “What did you do with it?”
“The smithy. For now.”
“Do you really think that’s safe?”
“I need to understand it. And we need to know how Venass was able to use the shadowsteel to poison the tree.”
“Did it work? Did removing it help?”
The pulsing and flickering light that he’d seen had stopped. For a moment, Rsiran thought the tree was fading into darkness, much like the other, but then, slowly, he saw color begin to return. At first it was faint and weak, but gradually it came back more strongly.
“It worked,” Rsiran said.
He turned, looking for Della, and found her kneeling in the middle of the cavernous space with her head bowed. As he approached, he realized that Della shook slightly. Her eyes turned up in her head, and her body was rigid.
“Della?” Jessa cried.
She didn’t answer. Rsiran didn’t expect her to answer in her current condition.
“Can you do anything?” Jessa asked him.
Rsiran touched Della’s arm. It was hot and the muscles stiff. The strain of attempting to Heal the tree had taken too much of a toll on her.
“I…” He almost said that he couldn’t, but was there something that he could do? When he stopped in the place between Slides, he felt a Healing energy. Could Della be Healed the same way?
He took her arm, and grabbed Jessa, and Slid.
Stopping this time in the place between, there was no scent of decay. Only the brilliant white light that mixed with bright blue. Lorcith and heartstone, at least to him. Rsiran breathed in, and felt invigorated, strengthened by his connection to this place.
When they had been here last, Della had glowed. That light had faded, turned almost to nothingness. Whatever happened to her as she Healed the tree had left her diminished.
“Do you see it?” he asked.
“See what? All I see is darkness here.”
Why could he see it and not Jessa?
Was there a way for him to connect to the power that was here and help Della?
Rsiran breathed in the connection to the light and power all around him. As he did, it seeped from his hands, from his skin, even escaped with his breath.
Could he use that to help Della?
He took Della’s hands. They were frail and crooked, and for the first time, he realized just how old she must be. Older than she admitted. Old enough that she had lived through what others could only try to remember.
She couldn’t die now.
Rsiran pulled on the energy around him. He didn’t know exactly what he did, only that here, in this place, he felt connected to power in ways that he couldn’t understand. The light surged, blindingly bright.
If he could pull on it, could he push?
He tried.
Light flowed from him, directed into Della.
Nothing happened. Nothing changed about her, and the glow that he had seen in her before faded even more.
Rsiran pulled on more of the power around him, and then pushed again, sending that strength into Della. Light flooded into her once more.
She gasped.
He pushed power and light into her mouth, into her lungs, forcing her to breathe it in.
Della gasped again.
Light poured back out of her, and the stiffness in her arms, and the trembling through her body subsided.
“Della?” he asked.
She didn’t answer at first. Her eyes opened slowly, and she took a deep breath, this time drawing in the energy on her own. Light suffused her skin, leaving her glowing once more.
“I… I will be fine,” she said.
Rsiran let out a relieved sigh. “What happened?”
“Healing. The Elder Trees pulled too much from me. I should have known.” She started to stand, and leaned on him for support. “How? You should not have been able to pull me back.”
Rsiran motioned around him. “There is power in this place.”
Della looked around, and then nodded. “There is power in this place,” she agreed. “But how is it that you can access it?”
Rsiran shook his head. He wasn’t entirely certain how he accessed the power, and what it meant that he could pull it to him, but he had managed to save Della. And, maybe, he would be able to save the last Elder Tree.
Della sighed. “There is nothing that can be done for that one,” she said.
She must have Read him. “If it’s gone—”
“The Elder Trees are tied to the Great Crystals. If the tree is gone, the guilds will need to be even more vigilant in guarding them.” She took another breath, and light poured from her skin, making her appear ethereal. “Venass has weakened us, but they have failed in their plan for now. We will find a way to protect the power that has been entrusted to us.”
A shiver of fear coursed through him. What if they weren’t able to protect the power? What if now that one of the Elder Trees had died, Venass—or someone else—would figure out a way to take one of the crystals?
Della rested a hand on him, and a relaxing wave of warmth filled him. “Worry for another time, Rsiran. You have done well. That is enough for today. Let us go, and join the others.”
He swallowed and looked to Jessa. Taking her arm, and Della’s, he Slid them from the place between and back to the clearing with the Elder Trees.
Epilogue
Dozens of people now stood in the clearing inside the circle of Elder Trees. Most were members of the guilds, all with representatives, but others had come with them. Brusus and Haern—now Healed by Della—stood to the side, neither speaking much. Brusus gazed up toward the tops of the trees, as if his eyes were drawn there.
Alyse had come with the others and made her way over to him, gripping her dress tightly in her fists. She occasionally glanced up to the treetops, but she kept her eyes on Rsiran. “What is this place?” she asked in a whisper.
“This is the place mother searched for when we were younger.”
At the mention of her, the image of her falling to the ground with his knives plunged into her filled his mind again. There had been a strange mixture of emotions on her face, like that of both sadness and relief. Rsiran hadn’t noticed it at the time, but now that he thought about it, he could see it clearly. Why should he be able to?
“I have been wrong about so much for so long,” Alyse said.
“You couldn’t help it.”
Alyse touched the necklace that their father had made for her. “But I should have been able to. Especially if he made this to protect me.”
Rsiran sighed. “This place is as old as our people. This is where our people once lived, before they moved to Elaeavn. Mother searched for it because her father wanted to find it, and destroy it.”
“Why?”
“Because there is power here.”
Alyse inhaled deeply, and her hands unclutched her dress. “I can feel it,” she said with a sigh.
Rsiran studied her. What did it mean that Alyse could detect the power within the Elder Trees? But then again, why should he be able to and she shouldn’t? She shared the same heritage as him, both the Blood of the Elders and the Blood of the Watcher. And hadn’t his grandfather said that he thought Alyse would have been the one he searched for? Maybe there was more to her as well.
“Rsiran,” she said hesitantly. “I’m… I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“And thank you. For everything. You could have abandoned me. You could have left me, but you didn’t. You… you saved me.”
“You’re my sister.”
She sighed deeply. “I haven’t been the best sister to you.”
“No,” Rsiran said, laughing softly, “you haven’t, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change.”
Alyse started to say something, but then clamped her mouth shut and nodded instead. She pulled him into a hasty hug and then made her way back to Brusus. As he watched her, he knew the next thing he had to do would be finding his father. If Danis told the truth, he would need to find him. He couldn’t leave him with Venass.
“Well. That was unexpected,” Jessa said.
“I thought she’d be angrier that I killed our mother.”
“Wait… you killed your mother?”
“When we returned to the Barth. The necklace my father made. It protects her from my mother, keeping her from getting Compelled. Either he knew, or he suspected. We went back for it and saw my grandfather, and my mother. In the attack, my knives…”
“Oh, Rsiran,” Jessa said.
“You know what’s funny about all of this?” he asked. “For years, I thought my mother lived in fear of my father and the way that he treated the rest of us. But that wasn’t it at all. She did to him the same thing that had been done to Luca. What if her constant attempts to Compel him changed something in his mind?”
It still seemed strange to think that maybe his father wasn’t the one that he needed to fear. That maybe his father had been trying to protect them in his own twisted way. And it made him realize that he shouldn’t have abandoned his father to Venass.
Jessa squeezed his hand, as if knowing his thoughts. “What now?” she asked.
“Now we’ll have to discover how Venass managed to reach the tree and determine how we can prevent this from happening again. And I have to deal with my grandfather.”
Jessa said nothing, but squeezed his hand reassuringly.
Della stepped out of the crowd of people and made her way toward Rsiran. The stiffness and the limp he’d seen before they Slid into the tree were gone. In many ways, she appeared refreshed, and younger than her true years. “They are here because of you, Rsiran. They do not know it, and might not know how they can work together again. You will have to lead them.”
“Lead? I’m no leader, Della. I’ve only done what I needed in order to keep my friends safe.”
Della smiled. “And you have succeeded. Pray that you continue to succeed.”
Rsiran looked around at the people gathered. The guilds—all of the guilds—were here. Ephram stood with a few other men and women, all with serious expressions. The Alchemist Guild. There was Sarah, standing alone, and Rsiran realized that she might be the only one of her guild. Muscular, mostly dark-haired men stood off to another side. Miners, he decided. Then there were the smiths.
Seval stood among a few others that Rsiran recognized. Many he had saved from Asador. Seval looked over and nodded to him.
“He wants you to go over to him,” Jessa said.
“I don’t think so. He’s with the rest of the guild.”
She poked him under the ribs. “And he wants you to go over to him.”
Rsiran started toward Seval and he nodded. When Rsiran reached him, Seval stepped back to let Rsiran join the others.
“Lareth,” Seval said. “We finally have a chance to gather with you.”
The others of the guild glanced at him, but said nothing.
“This is unconventional, but I have asked the others of the guild to recognize you and grant you membership.”
Rsiran looked up. “What?”
“Each new member to the guild requires sponsorship. I will be your sponsor,” Seval said.
“I do not know that I agree with this,” Master Kevan said. Rsiran knew him to be stern with the journeymen, often to the point of being harsh.
Seval met Kevan’s eyes. “Why do you not agree?”
“Several reasons. We do not have our guildlord,” he said, “and he has not trained an apprentice. That is a requirement for joining the guild.”
“Not trained?” Seval asked. “You have met Luca?”
Kevan nodded. “I have met the boy in your smithy. He is… an odd one.”
Seval shrugged. “Odd or not, he is Lareth’s apprentice. You have seen the work he’s produced?”
Rsiran hadn’t seen anything from Luca, at least not since the attack, but prior to that, he’d been working with Luca, helping him find a way to use what he heard from the lorcith with a purpose. Could Seval have continued those lessons during Rsiran’s recovery?
“I have seen the boy’s work,” Kevan said.
“He may have an apprentice,” Master Marten started. He was an older man, with silver streaks along his temples. Even with his age, he still had the look of a man who could swing a hammer and work the forge. “But he doesn’t have a smithy.”
“No? The Lareth family
claims no smithy?” Seval asked.
“Lareth lost his smithy,” Kevan said.
“No. Lareth did not lose his smithy. The Elvraeth may have made that suggestion, but all claims are approved by the guild. Which did not vote.”
Marten glanced at Rsiran. “I’m sorry, Lareth. I know that you were apprenticed to your father, but you were never raised to journeyman. To go from early apprentice, to full guild… that has never been done.”
Rsiran nodded. It had been too much for him to think that he could gain recognition. And, he realized, it didn’t matter. He had a smithy, and it didn’t change who he was, and what he would do.
Rsiran started to turn, but Seval grabbed his arm. “Would you make a true master serve as an apprentice simply because of tradition?” he asked the others.
“Master?” Kevan asked. “Seval, I know that you think the boy has talent, and you don’t want the guild to lose him, but master?”
Seval reached into the pockets of his robe and pulled out a forging of lorcith. It was one that Rsiran had helped him make, pushing and pulling on the lorcith as he had crafted it, turning it into the decorative sculpture that he’d help make for the Servants.
Seval held out the lorcith sculpture. The others stared at it.
Rsiran could feel the way the lorcith flowed within the sculpture, and could remember the effort that he’d put into its creation. Much like the sjihn sculpture, this was a work that he was proud of. Not a weapon, and nothing that was otherwise useful, nevertheless, the sculpture was something he felt that only he could have made.
“This was your commission,” Master Kevan said.
“It was mine. Lareth joined me in the creation of it.”
Kevan flicked his gaze to Rsiran. “You helped with this?”
Rsiran nodded.
Master Marten took the sculpture and then passed it around to the three others, all who had remained silent. “This is… impressive,” Marten said.
Seval laughed. “Impressive? Damn, Marten, I would challenge you to manage half the detail on this. If you can do even half of it, then I will withdraw my support.”
Marten frowned, a sour expression. “I still do not think that we should ignore tradition.”
The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5) Page 28