A soldier?
One of his ancestors had been here attacking the daneamiin?
In many ways, that was worse than the attitude that the damahne had about the daneamiin.
The tower rumbled. The ahmaean within the walls shimmered, and soon it would fade. When it did, Jakob had the sense that the tower itself would collapse.
If there were daneamiin still in it, they would be crushed under the weight of the tower.
There had to be something he could do.
The daneamiin eyed him, and he detected her suspicion, and her fear, but also noted the protective way that her ahmaean swirled from her to her children, trying to reassure them. There was amazing affection there. The daneamiin believed that he was here to slaughter them, and she wanted only to protect her children.
They wouldn’t fight. He knew they wouldn’t fight. Knowing that didn’t make what he did next any easier.
Jakob rushed forward and grabbed the mother, wrapping his arms around her, and scooping up the children, too.
He shifted.
When he appeared, they stood outside of the city deep within the forest. Jakob released them, and the daneamiin hurried back, scurrying away from him.
He let them leave. He turned his attention back to the city, feeling the ahmaean within it, the power within the tower that began to fade. How many more daneamiin remained within the city?
Was there anything he could do?
He shifted.
As he did, he wondered: how was shifting possible when he came back in time as man rather than as damahne or even daneamiin?
When he had met with Shoren in the form of daneamiin, he had managed to shift, but that had seemed less unlikely than him managing to do the same now. When he traveled back as someone without power over the ahmaean, it seemed more surprising to him that he would be able to use it.
And maybe in some other place, he would not be able to.
Here, in the heart of the daneamiin lands, he could draw upon the ahmaean of the forest, and of the city itself. Maybe he didn’t use any of his own ahmaean, but much like he had when facing the Deshmahne in the Great Forest, he was able to borrow from power around him.
Would others be able to learn the same?
He would have to ponder that another time.
For now, he felt an urge to help, though he didn’t know whether doing so would change too much of the past. By rescuing the daneamiin, did he change something about the fibers? Or had he always traveled back along the fibers?
If so, everything he did would be predetermined.
He couldn’t think about that, either.
Back in the tower, Jakob focused on awareness of ahmaean. When he felt it, he shifted, coming upon a pair of daneamiin. He didn’t wait, and said nothing, simply lunging toward them, and shifting them out of the tower and into the forest. He did it again and again, each time finding more daneamiin, all on upper levels of the tower. It was one structure within the city, but he would save all that he could.
The longer he worked, the more tired he became. Jakob hadn’t experienced that with shifting before, but maybe it was because he wasn’t using his own ahmaean, that he was borrowing from what he detected around him.
When he shifted back to the tower from the forest, he stood within the upper level, focusing on ahmaean. There was power around him that came from the walls but from nowhere else.
That wasn’t entirely true.
Jakob detected ahmaean, but it was beneath him, near the base of the tower.
Even without recognizing the darkness within the ahmaean, he knew what it was that he detected.
Raime.
If he could stop him here, would he be able to stop him in the future? Could Jakob destroy him now, and prevent everything else that Raime attempted?
He had to try. Wasn’t that the reason the city brought him back, forcing him along the fibers and into this vision? Why had he attempted to defeat Raime in his time rather than stepping back into the past?
In the past, Raime would not have the same power he had in the present. In the past, Jakob knew where he could find him.
It was something he hadn’t considered. Too many told him that the fibers couldn’t be changed, and maybe they couldn’t, but if they could, why wouldn’t Jakob attempt to correct it?
If he did, maybe he wouldn’t be the last of the damahne. Maybe there would be others who could work with him, who could teach him.
Maybe he wouldn’t even be damahne.
That was a sacrifice he was willing to make. It was one he had to be willing to make.
He unsheathed his sword, clutching it tightly. It was a plain steel blade that had little decoration to it, but it was functional. It seemed fitting that this blade would be the one that took down Raime.
Jakob shifted.
He appeared behind Raime.
He turned, and Jakob recognized the man’s younger face, the dark hair on his head, noting the dark cloak, the same as the man preferred in his time.
“What are you doing here?”
Did Raime recognize him?
“You should be destroying the rest of the city. Get moving.”
“I’m not going to let you destroy the rest of these people.”
“People?” Raime spat. Rage filled his voice. “They are little more than animals.”
“Animals don’t build towers like these,” Jakob said. His voice was coarse, and anger filled it, though that came from him rather than his host.
Raime considered him, and ahmaean pulsed from him, dark bands that radiated in something like a thick cloud.
Jakob resisted the urge to retreat. Instead, he drew upon the ahmaean within the tower, and pushed back, facing Raime with it. The attack on the city had already stolen much power from it, and there was little left for him to borrow from. He drew with increasing strength, pulling from the forest, and bolstered himself.
Raime smiled at him. “Not what you appear at all. Could it be that one of the damahne has decided to step back and actually fight?”
Jakob didn’t answer. He pushed, sending his ahmaean against the darkness that Raime managed.
Jakob was limited. It was this form, this person that limited him. He could fight, but there was only so much power that he could draw. It was different in his time when he had power of his own—and that which Alyta had gifted him.
Raime sensed his hesitation and pushed harder.
Jakob lunged toward him, swinging his sword.
The soldier’s body didn’t react quite as quickly as Jakob would have. Was that a result of the way the ahmaean had worked?
Raime blocked him with the sword he’d unsheathed in a single motion.
Jakob had never known Raime to use a sword but wasn’t surprised that the man was armed. He deflected Jakob's blow, and Jakob stepped into a catah that Endric had taught him. He sliced through the movements, and Raime blocked each one easily. Jakob was forced to shift his connection to the ahmaean, drawing upon it so that he could speed his own movements, but if he was successful, and if he was able to cut down Raime, shouldn’t he?
One of Raime’s attacks came close, and Jakob danced back, flowing with the ahmaean. He pulled more, distantly aware that he was draining the city of the power it possessed. The building nearest him trembled.
Raime stabbed his shoulder, and Jakob nearly screamed. He filled himself with ahmaean, healing the wound, and sliced, cutting deeply into Raime’s arm.
The pressure against him, that dark ahmaean that Raime possessed, faded. Jakob pulled on more power, drawing from the city even more deeply, and attacked again, carving into Raime’s shoulder.
The High Priest dropped his sword.
Jakob had him. All he had to do was swipe, cut into Raime one more time, and he thought that he could destroy the High Priest.
He felt pain pierce his back.
He spun and saw an archer standing across from him. Two more flanked him on either side, both arrows pointed at Jakob. He doubted they w
ould miss.
Could he react in time?
He started to spin, but pain struck his side as Raime stabbed him from behind.
Jakob scrambled, departing his host, crawling forward along the fibers, back into the present. As he did, he had a sense of the city and saw the buildings collapsing around him.
As he left the vision, he wondered: had he changed anything about the past or had he only done what had already happened?
Chapter Thirty-One
Jakob’s eyes opened slowly. The vision had been painfully real, and he could practically feel throbbing in his back and on his sides.
Anda rushed over to him, gasping. Her ahmaean swirled away from her, encoding him. “What happened, Jakob Nialsen?”
He looked up at her, a dreamy expression on his face. “I was pushed back into the past. I tried to stop Raime as he attacked the city.”
She put pressure on his back, and he felt an agonizing pain as she pulled on something that he was distantly aware was an arrow from his back. She pressed on his arm next and smoothed the skin closed, as she pressed her ahmaean into him, healing him.
He should have known better. Stepping back as fully as he had not only put the host at risk but himself as well. Injuries in that time were carried forward. It happened before when he had faced the groeliin and had a spear thrown through his arm. It would happen again if he weren't careful.
What had he been thinking?
“You must be careful when walking back along the fibers.”
“I didn’t intend to walk so completely back.”
“When you realized what had happened, you should have returned. There is no control when you’re dragged back like that.”
Jakob had been warned multiple times about his lack of control over the fibers, but each time, he thought he had learned. Yet each time, he discovered how much he still did not know. “I thought…”
“You thought that you could stop him, didn’t you?” Anda asked.
Jakob nodded, feeling embarrassed about what he had done, and how he had nearly gotten himself killed. And worse, had he alerted Raime to his presence now? Would he somehow be able to track him, to chase him through time?
“The Cala maah recognizes that it is not possible to change time.”
“The damahne feel that way, as well, but I’m not convinced. I can walk back more fully than any others can manage.”
“You think that you’re the first one to be able to walk back with such intensity? Others have attempted it. Those who have discover that they do not change anything in the past.”
“Does that mean I always meant to walk back along the fibers? Was I always meant to attack Raime in the past?”
Anda nodded. “It is possible that your actions have always been the same. That you were always meant to step back and do whatever it is that you did.”
“If I’ve always been meant to look back…”
That meant that he had somehow been there when the city was destroyed. It might mean that he was even responsible for part of the destruction of the city. Jakob had drawn upon the ahmaean, pulling from the tower. Could he be the reason the city had fallen?
Wouldn’t it have fallen anyway?
“What is it?” she asked.
“I…” His body ached, and he felt exhausted, as if he’d used more power and strength than he had ever before. “Anda, I was there. I fought Raime at the base of a tower. How much of the fall of the city was I responsible for?”
“You wouldn’t be responsible for any of it, Jakob Nialsen. You were there as someone else, walking back along the fibers and witnessing what happened before.”
Jakob wasn’t sure whether that was true. He was sure his host was one of Raime’s men. And surely the man would not have raised a sword against his commander. “I saved many daneamiin from the collapse of one of the towers.”
Her eyes elongated slightly, a movement that he recognized as surprise. “There were rumors of daneamiin who managed to escape from the city.”
“What happened to them?”
She shook her head. “They were never seen again. Some fear Raime managed to get them, and stole power from them. We have faced him many times over the years, and are far too familiar with what he was capable of doing.”
“No. There were children. Mothers. They had to have gotten away.”
“I cannot claim to know exactly what happened. My fibers don’t stretch back in that direction. My ancestors managed to escape before the attack on the city. But, I have heard rumors of those who were descended from them, able to walk back, and they saw their own people lost.”
Jakob stared up at the sky. Lying in the middle of the city as he was, feeling the ahmaean of the city pulsing around him, the sun shining down upon him, he felt uncertainty. Had he changed anything, or had he only done what would have happened anyway?
Had he more strength, he thought that he might want to walk back along the fibers, and see what he could discover, but he didn’t have the necessary strength, and he didn’t know if he had the necessary desire to do so, either. He was weakened in a way that he had not been before, certainly not since Alyta had augmented him with the gift of her ahmaean, and everything that she possessed within.
Anda continued to swirl her power around him. The ahmaean reached him, before returning, building with increased strength, pressing through him. Each time her power pressed through him, he felt a sense of relief wash over him.
They were healing waves, and with each one, Jakob began to feel more like himself. The pain in his back began to ease, and the place on his shoulder where he’d been stabbed no longer throbbed. He felt weakened still, but that was more a physical tiredness, since that came with what had happened to him.
“It is time to leave, Jakob Nialsen.”
He stood slowly, trying to reach for the strength of his ahmaean, trying to pull upon it, and realized that he drew from the fallen remains of the city. The forest didn’t lend strength to him, not as the Great Forest or even the daneamiin city deep within the forest had managed to in the past.
Jakob wondered if they would be able to shift. Had he drawn upon too much strength, and expended too much energy, for him to be able to safely shift them out of the fallen city, and on to… Where?
He had come here hoping to find answers and had hoped that he could gain a better understanding of what Raime intended, but he’d learned nothing other than the fact that Raime had caused the destruction of the city—much as he already had known. Worse, Jakob may have had some role in it and some twisted connection to the past.
Was Anda watching him strangely?
He couldn’t tell. She didn’t seem to be, and she pressed her ahmaean through him with the same warmth that she had before, but what if what he had done could not be undone?
He needed to look back along the fibers. He had to know.
“I need to rest a bit.”
Her ahmaean swirled out from her, before reaching Jakob and washing over him once more. She didn’t question him, and guided him toward the edge of the trees, away from the remains of the daneamiin city. As he walked, he had flashes of visions once again, images of the city that once had been. They streamed past him, dozens of images, from various times in the city’s history. He had memories come to him of when the city first was constructed, the stone drawn free of the ground, all the way through the time of destruction when Raime had toppled it.
How was it that power was so strong here?
There had to be an explanation. There had to be something about that power that he could understand, and that he could use.
“Has the ahmaean always been so strong here?” he asked.
Anda didn’t meet his eyes.
“What is it?”
“I should not have brought you to this place, Jakob Nialsen.”
“Because you fear that I might have changed something?”
“No. I don’t think it’s possible for you to have changed anything. That is not the way the fibers work. Once
they are woven, they are unchangeable. But I fear that bringing you here has revealed something else to you.”
“Anda, what is it? What are you trying to hide from me?”
She smiled, and it was a sad sort of expression. “I would not hide anything from you, Jakob Nialsen, but you ask about the ahmaean.”
“Yes. Why does that bother you?”
“There are places where the daneamiin pour much of themselves. The city was one such place. It was a reflection of the people from that time. Many of the daneamiin at that time had been direct descendants of damahne and had spent most of their lives in cities much like the one that was built here. Those who crafted the city did so with care and attention and…”
“They used their ahmaean, imbuing the walls of the city itself with it.”
“The damahne pass on their power, much as Alyta passed it on to you. The daneamiin have taken a different approach. We have always emptied ourselves, giving back what we were given, so that it can be given to another.”
“And using it on the city as was done here will do that?”
“I do not know. What I know is that the city, much like our own, stores the ahmaean of those who came before.”
A place that stored ahmaean would be powerful, and Jakob realized that he had detected something similar within the daneamiin forest city, hadn’t he?
“The pool. That’s what you’re talking about, isn’t it? “
She met his eyes and nodded slowly. “It is a place of rebirth. Those who built our home in the trees thought that it was necessary for us to rebuild. The water nourishes the trees, and nourishes the house of the Cala maah, which allows all to draw power.”
“And that’s why the ahmaean is strongest in your home city?”
“It is strongest there because that is where most of the daneamiin spend their lives, and when their lives are over, they give themselves over to the forest. That gift is what has allowed our people to thrive for many years.”
“How many outside of the daneamiin know about this?”
“You are the first.”
Jakob had been trying to determine what Raime might do next, and had struggled to this point, but why wouldn’t he go after the power of the pool? Why wouldn’t he seek strength that he could steal from not only a single daneamiin, but countless, all that had come before them?
The Lost City (The Lost Prophecy Book 5) Page 25