On each of them, he faced Raime.
That much would happen.
In how many of those possible scenarios did he succeed?
Before seeing the answer, he wondered if that would impact decisions that he made. Would knowing the possibilities change the way he approached the future?
More questions for later. He would need to walk back along the fibers and would need to visit with Shoren to know whether other damahne had faced a similar problem.
Anda took his hand, and once more she washed her ahmaean over him, giving him a calming sensation.
“I have to stop him,” Jakob said.
“You do,” she said.
“Convince your people to resist. I know they don’t want to, and I know it goes against what they have done for years, but I fear that if they don’t, all of the daneamiin will suffer even more.”
Anda looked around at the rest of the daneamiin standing atop the house of the Cala maah. “I will do what I can, Jakob Nialsen.”
That was enough. It would have to be enough.
Standing atop the house of the Cala maah, Jakob pushed out through his ahmaean, connecting to that of the forest. Power surged within him. He felt a disturbance and found where Raime attacked.
It should not have been a surprise.
“He’s at the pool,” Jakob said.
Anda’s eyes widened. “If he takes all the power there, he will take all of what is daneamiin.”
Jakob looked around. “I’ll find a way to prevent him from reaching the power the daneamiin have stored there. If he succeeds in accessing that, I don’t know what else he might do.”
“It is one thing to destroy our city. I suspect the others will see that it is quite another to take from our ancestors,” Anda said. She released his hand and hurried to her father and the other daneamiin.
Jakob shifted, appearing on the edge of the pool.
Raime stood in the middle, dark ahmaean swirling out from him, connecting to the power stored within the pool. When Jakob appeared, he looked over, an angry smile upon his face. He was older than he had been in the vision and dressed in dark robes.
“You can’t stop this. There is no damahne here to transfer this power to you.”
He was right. When Jakob had faced Raime before, when he had tried to prevent him from stealing Alyta’s power, she had been able to transfer it to him. That was not possible here. There was no one to gift him that ability and awaken something within him.
The longer he stood here, the stronger Raime became.
Jakob stepped into the pool.
Water swirled around him, tingling along his skin. He pushed out with his ahmaean, and then drew it back to him, hoping to hold power within him.
It came, but the power returned to him slowly.
This was not his source of ahmaean. He couldn’t use it, not the same way the daneamiin could.
Why could Raime?
The answer was as disturbing as everything else that Raime did. The man had stolen from other daneamiin, and as such had much of their power—and could use that power. That would be the only way he could draw upon the energy stored within the pool.
Raime watched him. “You can’t stop this. I have seen that I succeed.”
“I excluded you from the fibers.”
“You might have excluded me, but you haven’t excluded all who serve me.”
He hadn’t considered that possibility. Were there Deshmahne that had the ability to look forward? Were there Deshmahne who possessed the ability of prophecy?
If there were, it was possible that Raime did know what was going to happen. Maybe Jakob should have taken the time to look along the fibers and determine whether there was anything that he could do, whether there was anything that he did manage to do.
He couldn’t pull on this power, and couldn’t hold it away from Raime, but was there something else he could do?
His sword.
Unsheathing Neamiin, Jakob trailed it through the water, before slamming it down deep into the muddy bottom.
He held the hilt and drew the ahmaean around him into it.
As he did, the sword grew warm as ahmaean surged into the blade.
Jakob might not be daneamiin, but the sword was gifted to him and had been created through the sacrifice of several daneamiin. It was a powerful blade that had no rival.
Raime realized what Jakob was doing almost too late.
He surged across the pool toward Jakob, removing a pair of daggers from beneath his robes. Raime shifted his focus and now sent his dark ahmaean toward Jakob.
Jakob attempted to push the other man back, but Raime had grown strong. Whether it was from his time spent in the pool, or whether it was power that he stole from the groeliin in the north, Jakob couldn’t overpower him as he had before.
Raime sneered at him. “You are not the only one who has grown more powerful. I made a mistake before of not anticipating another damahne, but that is not a mistake I will make again. And you made a mistake of entering this pool.”
Jakob was aware of movement around him. He hazarded a glance up and realized that groeliin now stood along the edge of the pool. As one, they forced teralin rods into the earth.
Jakob felt a tearing deep within his mind, the kind of tearing that he’d known before. This time, it didn’t seem to come from any attempt to shift, this came from a separation.
They were trying to tear his ahmaean from him.
Jakob resisted the only way he knew how. He forced his energy deep within his sword, which required that he push out from the pool, releasing the ahmaean he had been drawing in.
“I have made no mistake. You have,” Raime sneered.
Jakob had not anticipated that Raime would be able to steal his ahmaean. He’d had hidden the ancient artifact that Raime had attempted to use on Alyta, now stored away in the depths of the Great Forest so that he’d never be able to use it against anyone else.
But Raime must’ve had it long enough to have uncovered something about it, unlocking some secret to it.
Raime approached, pulling on the ahmaean as he did. With each step, he became more powerful.
“As you will soon see, I will withdraw the power from this pool, and then I will take every last bit of energy from you, energy you have stolen from me. There is no one else to help you. In these lands, there is no one willing to fight.”
Jakob attempted to shift. It was better to run, to escape Raime’s plan and possibly attack from shore, but he was unable to shift.
The teralin—and the groeliin—held him in place.
His heart hammered wildly in his chest. Would he lose everything that he’d only just gained?
He had never wanted power and hadn’t wanted to be able to do all the things that he could, but they had been given to him.
And now they would be lost.
The tearing split his mind. Jakob screamed.
In a panic, he tried shifting again, but again he failed.
He thought about trying to pull himself into the fibers themselves, but any attempt to move his ahmaean failed. The groeliin pulled away from him, and it leached out. He could see it as it swirled away from him, and was acutely aware of how quickly his power was fading.
It had taken much longer to steal from Alyta. Why was it so easy to steal from him?
He had to fight.
Doing so required that he know why he fought. Was it only because that was what was expected of him? Was it only because he had been given his abilities, and was told how to use them? Or was there something more?
Jakob wanted to help. He had wanted to serve Endric first and had willingly headed north to Avaneam. He had wanted to save Alyta. He willingly had risked himself in the Tower, wanting to save her, but wasn’t that so that he could have answers about what he was?
What had he done since then?
He had secured the fibers, but even that was selfish. He had done that to help his brother, wanting to find healing for him. He had rescued Aruhn,
but was that selfish, as well?
Was that what he had become? Did he use his power for his own purposes?
Perhaps the nemerahl was right. He hadn’t deserved what he had been given.
But neither did Raime.
If nothing else, Raime needed to be defeated. He needed to be stopped so that no others could be hurt. Jakob had seen that time and again in his visions, through what he had glimpsed along the fibers.
If Raime succeeded now in stealing Jacob’s ahmaean, how many others would be harmed?
The number would be enormous. Raime would be unstoppable. Even the Conclave would no longer be able to oppose him.
Jakob fought, resisting the agony within his mind, trying to pull back on his ahmaean, but it did not work, not as he needed it to.
Soon, he would have no more ahmaean remaining. Soon, he would be nothing more than a man.
But he was more than a man.
He might have been born to a man and woman, but he was something else. Those abilities had manifested long before Alyta had ever given hers to him. It was those abilities that made him into the swordsman that he was.
And that was what he would use.
Jakob pulled his sword free from the muddy bottom of the pool. He lunged at Raime.
The High Priest wasn’t prepared for that.
He caught Jakob’s sword between his daggers, and Jakob flicked, moving through a catah that he’d seen from either Brohmin or Endric, slashing down. He managed to slice Raime along his arm, and the High Priest dropped one of his daggers.
He attempted to push his dark ahmaean at Jakob, but the sword managed to absorb it, and Jakob cut through it as if it were a physical thing.
The water slowed his movements, but they slowed Raime’s, as well.
Jakob still had enough speed, and enough strength, to attack. He pushed forward, kicking underwater as he brought his sword around. Raime had to duck, distracting him enough that he lost his connection to the ahmaean, and Jakob cut through that band of power that he’d been drawing upon.
If he could fight well enough, and strongly enough, he might be able to stop the groeliin from stealing his ahmaean.
But first, he had to stop Raime.
He kicked again, and Raime staggered.
The High Priest swung with his remaining dagger, and he caught Jakob in the shoulder.
Jakob switched hands, refusing to allow that to slow him. He held his sword with one good hand and attacked with all the fury that he could. He screamed, a roar that echoed through the forest.
Something changed.
The agony splitting his mind calmed.
The power drifting away from him returned, and he pulled upon his ahmaean, filling himself with it.
He looked around the pool and saw daneamiin—dozens of them—standing with their hands linked, and their ahmaean intertwined. Vines had risen out of the ground, and roped around the groeliin, pulling them down. The teralin rods that had been set into the ground were pulled free and lay harmlessly.
The daneamiin had intervened.
Raime roared.
Jakob turned his attention back to him and sent a surge of ahmaean away from him, pushing Raime back. Raime drew upon the ahmaean within the pool, but it failed him. The daneamiin did something, their steady movements, and the power they controlled, forced the ahmaean from the pool into the ground, deeper and deeper until it faded.
And then Jakob stood in front of Raime, water not slowing him, his abilities returned in full.
“You underestimated them,” Jakob said. “You might have changed, but so have they. And so have the Magi. You will find that your attacks are no longer as effective as they once were.”
Raime glared at him. “Do you really think your threats mean anything to me?”
“You have lost.”
Jakob lunged toward Raime, striking at him with his blade.
For a moment, Jakob thought he would connect, and that he would destroy Raime, but then—in a swirl of dark ahmaean—he disappeared.
Jakob looked up, and the daneamiin all watched him. Aruhn wore sadness in his eyes, but there was resignation there and a determination.
Anda stepped away from the other daneamiin. Jakob had wondered whether the ahmaean would return when Raime was gone, but it did not. She reached and took his hand.
“I’m sorry that your people had to do that,” Jakob said.
“We will be defenseless now.”
Jakob closed his eyes and felt a distant pulling. That was the answer. It would have to be. When he opened his eyes again, he looked at the daneamiin. Would they agree?
“Not defenseless. There is a place you can go.”
Chapter Forty-One
Jakob stood in the heart of the Old Forest, feeling the power of ahmaean. A soft mist hung over the ground, but it was fainter than it had been before. The daneamiin flickered around the Old Forest, the trees allowing their presence, though there was none of the warmth and acceptance that had been present in the daneamiin city.
Anda stood next to him, clutching his hand, her ahmaean swirling around his. “I fear for my people,” she said.
“Your people will thrive. In time, they will be stronger than they were before.”
“We lost much with what was done. Much of our past is no longer.”
“Your past lives on. Your people pressed their ahmaean into the pool, merging with it. That will live on with the trees in the forest. There will always be a daneamiin city.”
“It is different.”
Jakob nodded. He had removed the remaining groeliin that attacked the barrier, but little of that barrier remained. The pool had been at the heart of it, creating enough ahmaean to force out any attackers. Raime had managed to overwhelm it and discovered a way that he could bypass the protections the daneamiin placed. Would he be able to do the same here?
Jakob doubted that he would. This forest was more ancient than the other, and this forest was different in many ways from what the daneamiin had built. There was an old power here, possibly the oldest.
“This is necessary. At least for now. Hopefully, when we manage to defeat Raime, you will be able to return.”
“It is not the same,” she said.
Jakob sighed. It was not the same. He was as aware of that as she was. This forest tolerated them, and it would likely even protect them, but it did not warmly welcome them as their home had.
But it was a sense he understood. The home he once had was no longer. The world was changing, and they had to change with it. The daneamiin were part of that world, though they had hidden for generations. Perhaps it was time for them to return, and be a greater part once again. The Magi accepted that change, though they did so reluctantly.
“What now?” she asked him.
“Whatever Raime is planning requires the groeliin. His attack on the fibers required their assistance. His attack on the daneamiin required them. I don’t know what he plans, but I do know that I need to understand it, and stop it if I can.”
“You can’t take on the groeliin by yourself.”
Jakob didn’t think that he could, but perhaps he didn’t have to. Already, there were Antrilii fighting the groeliin. The Magi could help, though they might serve better in the south with the Deshmahne. And there was Brohmin, though the old man had changed, and had grown weaker over time. Change was inevitable for all of them, and he was not surprised that Brohmin had changed as well.
“I will do what I must to end this. Peace must be established. That much I have seen when I look forward along the fibers.”
That was the other reason for his coming back to the Old Forest. What more could he learn by looking forward and seeing the possibilities that existed? Would he be able to counter what Raime might attempt next?
And he needed to walk back along the fibers to speak with Shoren about whether knowing the possibilities impacted how he behaved, and whether that would cause him to take a different approach than what was needed.
“My peo
ple need me here,” Anda said.
“I understand. And I don’t think that you should come north with me to the groeliin.”
“I don’t want to be apart from you, Jakob Nialsen. Your presence is important to me.”
Jakob smiled. “Your presence is important to me, too, but I’m only a quick shift away.”
“I fear the groeliin will have some way of preventing that,” she said.
Jakob didn’t want to admit it to her, but he feared the same. If Raime had demonstrated a way to hold him and to steal his ahmaean, he would have to be careful.
“I’ll be careful.”
“Does that mean you’re leaving now?”
Jakob didn’t think he was strong enough to leave just yet. He still needed to recover from the attack, and still needed to rest. More than that, he needed information.
Before any of that, there was another place needed to visit. It had been too long.
“I need to check on Scottan. I don’t know what he’s been doing since I returned him to Chrysia. There was something that I thought I saw along the fibers…” Jakob hadn’t known what it meant, but it was important, somehow. Scottan was there, surprisingly blazing brightly.
What did that mean?
She turned toward him and took his other hand, pressing her palms against his. Her ahmaean swirled through him, a warmth that filled him. She pressed her lips against his briefly and then stepped back.
As she left him, Jakob smiled. She returned to the forest, disappearing quickly into the ahmaean fog, moving with the flickering grace of the daneamiin. He watched her for a moment, before turning away.
How long were you going to watch me?
The nemerahl stepped out of the darkness. It was the same massive creature that he had spoken to before. Alyta’s bonded circled around him before taking a seat on its haunches. You continue to surprise me.
It’s not my intent to surprise.
Have you discovered what it means to be damahne?
I’ve discovered that I’ve been acting selfishly. Is that what you mean?
Sometimes, selfish actions are done for the right reason. Do you think that you have not acted for the right reason?
The Lost City (The Lost Prophecy Book 5) Page 33