Would something happen to the others?
If the missing crystal was tied to one of the trees, then it made sense that with the one damaged tree they would lose one crystal, but what if Ephram was right, and there was no association? If the crystals could move, could others be taken?
This entire area had to be protected.
That meant closing access to the chamber entirely. If no one other than Rsiran could Slide into the chamber, then sealing the doors might be enough, but doing so would require more strength than he possessed.
Could he use the power of the Elder Trees?
He’d only done so once, when Della had been injured.
This was a greater need, and one that he should have considered sooner, especially knowing that Venass had already breached the Elder Trees, and they had shown far too much capability with shadowsteel, which made it all the more likely they would reach the crystal chamber.
Rsiran stepped into a Slide and paused. Sliding from this room had once been difficult, but his connection to lorcith and heartstone made it so that he barely struggled. When he emerged, he was in the place between Slides and in the heart of the Aisl.
The other time he’d done this, he had emerged within one of the trees, but this time he didn’t want to use the energy of only a single tree. He needed to draw upon what he could from all four of the remaining Elder Trees.
Unlike when Traveling, when he was in this place—in his physical body, the air smelled of a mixture of the bitterness of lorcith and the sweetness of heartstone. The blinding light that he observed while Traveling was now muted, but in his body, he felt it pressing on him with energy and warmth.
What had he done when he’d tried to heal Della?
Somehow he had used that energy. He used it now, but unintentionally, restoring strength he hadn’t known he needed, letting it fill him. Could he draw upon more, and do so intentionally?
Rsiran pulled on the power that he felt around him.
As he did, the sense of it began to fill him. In some ways, it was much like what he did when pushing or pulling on lorcith, or even heartstone, but in other ways, it was entirely different. With the power he pulled on in this place, he had the sense that he could do anything, only he suspected that it had to be done in this place.
Could it impact the world outside?
Rsiran wanted to return to the crystal chamber where he could attempt to use this power in a way that would protect the crystals, but he couldn’t Slide while holding this power.
An option existed, one that seemed impossible, but then so was what he was doing now.
If he could Travel from here, could he return to the crystal chamber while his body remained in this space between the Slides? If so, he could pull on this power and attempt to use it within the chamber.
Rsiran took a breath, continuing to pull on the power all around him, and attempted to Travel.
The sensation came as a shearing, almost painful as he separated from his body while imaging the crystal chamber. Did anything even happen? Darkness surrounded him, with none of the brilliant white light of this place, and none of the blue glow from the crystals telling him he had returned to the chamber.
But he still felt the power of the Elder Trees coursing through him.
Where was he?
Rsiran focused again on the crystal chamber, but detected no sense of movement.
Nothing but darkness remained around him.
Had he reached the crystal chamber?
He attempted to move, and felt a presence near him.
Not a single presence, but several.
As he did, he realized that he hadn’t left the space between Slides. He might have Traveled, but he had not left that place. Had he come to where he intended?
If he had, where were the crystals?
Unless they didn’t exist in the same fashion in this place. The Elder Trees were different here, more powerful, as if this was the place that fed all of their strength. Could it be that the crystals had no power here?
If so, would he be able to influence the physical world where he was?
He had to try.
The only thing he could think of doing was using a method similar to forging lorcith when he didn’t know how he needed to accomplish something, letting the lorcith guide him. Listening to its song. Rsiran envisioned a ball of power sealing the crystals, and pushed the power that he held out. Slowly, that power eased from him, taking on the shape that he intended. A soft and steady hum emanated as he worked, and as the humming changed, he realized he had pushed the power as far as he needed and stopped, knowing he was finished just as he knew with the lorcith. The chamber was now sealed.
The darkness around him changed, taking on a faint shimmery color, a faint greenish hue that he wondered if it was imagined or real.
The energy that he had pulled into himself was spent, and he returned to his body.
Stepping out of the space between Slides, Rsiran noted the power from the trees. Did he damage the trees using their power? Would there come a time when the trees had nothing more to offer?
Those were questions for another time. Now, he needed to return to the crystal chamber and determine if anything he’d done even mattered.
The Slide pushed against him, much like heartstone alloy once pushed against him. Rsiran breathed a sigh of relief and shifted the Slide, emerging near the other guildlords.
“Where did you go?” Ephram demanded.
“I did something I should have done before. I sealed the crystals into the chamber. Now no one can reach them. Not even me.”
Sarah gasped, the blood draining from her face. The other guildlords all stared blankly at him.
Only Ephram could speak. “But the Elvraeth…”
Rsiran turned to him. “Even the Elvraeth won’t be able to reach the crystals.”
At least, that was his hope. Until he found a way to keep them safe, he would maintain the protection. Only then could it be removed.
Rsiran tapped on Ephram’s arm and guided him away. The alchemist guildlord followed hesitantly. “I need to know what the alchemists know about shadowsteel. It’s more than you’ve shared.”
“Lareth—”
“I know. It’s a secret of the guild. But if Venass has managed to take one of the crystals… Shadowsteel is what threatens us the most. They have used it to attack me, to destroy the city, and the Great Watcher only knows what else they intend to do with it. We need to know how they make it so we can come up with some way to counter it.”
Ephram squeezed his eyes shut. “There is no counter,” he said softly. “We discovered it as a way to understand lorcith and heartstone, but when the earliest alchemists learned what it could do and how it could be used… the recipe was hidden. Locked away. Most within the guild forgot about it, but the guildlord could not.” He met Rsiran’s eyes, and there was almost an accusation there. “They should not be able to make it in such quantities. Even the earliest alchemists never discovered how.”
“How did they discover it?”
Without blinking, he held Rsiran’s gaze. “Secrets were taken from the Hall of Guilds that should have remained protected.”
Rsiran blinked, taking a step back.
Could it have been his fault that Venass discovered shadowsteel? Was it his fault that the Elder Tree died?
If so, the responsibility for stopping Venass from using it was his and his alone.
But how would he find the missing crystal and focus on stopping Venass at the same time?
Chapter 21
“A dangerous thing that you did.” Della stood near her fire, nursing a cup of her mint tea, an orange and blue-striped shawl hanging around her shoulder. A slender metal pin—grindl and iron, he noted—held her hair in place.
“It was necessary,” Rsiran said. “I should have done it when we first realized the Elder Tree was dead.”
He leaned on the counter, wiping his hand absently across the crushed powder of herbs that remained.
The aroma of the mint tea reached his nose as he did, but there was a sharp note—either pine or something that reminded him of whistle dust—that mixed in as well.
She shook her head. “Not dead, I don’t think.”
“There’s no power to the tree like there is with the others.”
“Perhaps not the kind of power that you can see,” Della agreed, “but the tree itself still lives. That gives me hope that it can some day be salvaged.”
“How can Rsiran help the tree?” Jessa asked. She sat in a chair with her legs bent up, and her arms wrapped around them. Her eyes appeared tired, and her brow remained in a constant familiar crease of worry. She’d not found any sign of Haern. Rsiran hadn’t expected her to.
“Ah, you ask questions that are beyond me.”
“I thought you could See things like that,” Jessa said.
“I can see many things, girl, but you have witnessed the limits of my abilities.”
“No more secrets, then?” Rsiran asked. He pulled one of the canisters to him and opened the lid, inhaling a pungent odor before sealing it closed again.
“I think I still have a few things you could learn.” Rsiran arched a brow. Della couldn’t continue to withhold information from them, especially with what he had already learned. “Maybe not about the guilds or the Elvraeth—you seem to be getting plenty of firsthand instruction there.”
Rsiran tapped on one of the jars on her counter. Inside was a thick liquid, one that reminded him of the vial that Brusus carried with him. What had she made for Brusus?
“Why was what Rsiran did dangerous?” Jessa asked.
Della sighed and took another sip of her tea. “The crystals were our people’s first connection to the Great Watcher. Now that he’s held one of the crystals twice, Rsiran knows that. They are the reason our people have the abilities we do.”
“You mean the reason the Elvraeth continue to have the strongest abilities,” Jessa said.
Della nodded. “The crystals unlock potential within those who hold them. Rsiran has experienced that as well.”
Jessa shook her head and turned toward the fire, staring into it. When Rsiran had returned to his smithy from the crystal chamber, he’d found Jessa there. She had learned nothing about Haern’s whereabouts, almost as if he had simply Slid from Elaeavn. Either he didn’t want to be found, or something had happened to him. Rsiran knew that she worried about the woman who had come for Haern in the Barth and what she might have managed to do to him, regardless of Rsiran Sliding her from the city.
“The Elvraeth have more abilities to begin with. The rest of us without abilities never have that opportunity.”
Della chuckled and Jessa jerked her head around to her. “How do you think the rest of our people manage abilities? Your Sight is pretty powerful. I think Haern would agree that his ability as a Seer is potent. All within the city have some aspects of the Great Watcher’s abilities.”
“Not all,” Rsiran corrected.
Della frowned. “Perhaps not all. But most do.”
“How?” Jessa asked. She didn’t look up. “The Elvraeth don’t mix with those outside the palace unless they’re Forgotten, and then they’re banished from the city.”
“That wasn’t always the case,” Della said. “But doesn’t change the importance of the question.” She limped to the counter and gently pushed Rsiran to the side as she began mixing a few powders, humming softly under her breath as she did. “The crystals gave the first powers, and help maintain them. Without the connection to the crystals, it’s possible that our people will be cut off from their abilities over time, much like what happens to the Forgotten who live outside the city.” She tapped a thumbnail of powder into a cup. “That is the real punishment of banishment, regardless of what the council would have you believe.”
“Evaelyn and Danis remained plenty powerful,” Jessa said.
“They did, but what of Inna? What of the descendants of the Forgotten born outside the city? Those who lived here and were born here would not lose their abilities, but those too long away from the crystals find their abilities begin to fade. That is why your mother did not have the same ability as her father,” Della said to Rsiran. “Were she born in the city, it is possible that she would have been born with the same abilities as the rest of the Elvraeth.”
Rsiran hadn’t spent any time thinking about what it might have been like had his mother been born within the city, and to a father who was one of the Elvraeth. Doing so would only lead to frustration. In that, he suspected he had only a hint of what Brusus experienced. Had his mother never been exiled, he would have been raised in the palace. Brusus had the abilities of the Elvraeth, something Rsiran couldn’t claim, so his frustration had to be much greater than what Rsiran knew.
Thinking about what might have been got him nowhere. Better to realize that he was never meant to have lived in the palace, and better still to forget about his mother entirely.
Rsiran shook himself from those thoughts. “You’re afraid that sealing off the crystals will lead to the same thing happening that happens to the Forgotten?”
Della paused as she lifted a spoon of scarlet powder that smelled of ash and fire to her cup. “I think it’s possible.” She tipped the spoon into her cup and stirred it around. Smoke rose from it and she inhaled slowly. “Equally possible is that nothing will change. You might have done nothing more than protect the remaining crystals. I cannot See the answer.”
“Better than to risk losing another,” Rsiran said.
“I agree. I wonder if the council will feel the same.”
Rsiran sighed. The council hadn’t yet been told what he had done, and even when they found out, there likely wasn’t anything that they could do. Rsiran would have to be the one to remove the protection around the crystal room, and he wouldn’t do that until he was sure the others would be safe, and the missing crystal returned.
“I did what I thought needed to be done,” he said.
“That’s not all that bothers you.”
Rsiran shook his head. “I’m responsible for Venass acquiring shadowsteel.”
Della paused and watched him. “Ephram told you this?”
“When I was looking for a way to stop Josun and snuck into the alchemist guild house, I took some things. I didn’t know then what they were…”
Della’s eyes went distant. “I cannot See.” She sighed. “They would have discovered it, regardless. Danis is too crafty for them not to.”
“Della—”
She shook her head and handed the smoking cup to him. The smoke caught his nose, and Della smiled when he grimaced. “What do you smell?”
“Fire.”
“Too easy. What else do you smell?”
Rsiran took a cautious inhalation, drawing the smoke into his nose. Within the smoke, there were other odors, though they were faint. He detected a woody odor, and one that strangely smelled wet, like moss on a log, mixed with an earthy scent. Other than the smoke, the other odors all reminded him of the Aisl Forest.
The smoke helped clear his head in the same way that working at the forge often did.
“What is this?” he asked.
“You asked if there was anything that I still kept from you, and I told you there was. It’s time you begin to understand more than your abilities, more than Sliding and the metals that you manipulate. Especially as we must find a way to stop shadowsteel.”
“Why does that matter?” Jessa asked.
Della squeezed her eyes closed. “Because I See that Rsiran will go after the missing crystal, and he will find a way to destroy the source of shadowsteel. When he does, he must be prepared.”
Jessa stared at him, her gaze begging for answers that Rsiran didn’t have. He hadn’t told her that he would search for the crystal, but what choice did he have? He knew how powerful the crystals were, and if one of them reached Venass… Rsiran didn’t want to think of what they would manage to do with it.
“I think what Haern has been teaching
me should be enough.”
“Perhaps for what you have faced, but not for what you will. I don’t know why, but I must teach you some of what I know of herbs and medicines.”
Jessa stood and made her way over to the counter. “Why do you think that? You’ve never offered to teach before.”
“I’ve taught before,” she said softly. “And for the same reason, I fear.”
“Do you See something about Rsiran?” Jessa asked.
The old Healer shook her head. “With his ability, I have never been able to See him well.”
“Then what is it? Why do you think you must show him this now?”
“Because I See it of myself. If I don’t, those you care about, and those I care about, will suffer. For this reason, I must show Rsiran what I know of medicines, and he must learn how those medicines can be used as poisons.”
“Poisons?” he asked. When Della nodded, an amused grin crossed his face. “Like what Haern did?”
Della sighed. “Not quite like Haern, I suspect, but close enough that it might not matter. Regardless, you must pay attention to what I will show you.”
“I don’t have time for this,” he said. “I need to be focused on shadowsteel.”
Della touched his arm. “Trust what I See, Rsiran.”
There was a pleading note to her voice that he’d never heard from her before.
What else had she Seen but not shared with him?
Chapter 22
The council chamber had an ominous air to it today. For the second time, Rsiran stood before the Elvraeth council, but this time, he actually worried about what they might say to him and how they might react to what he had done. And regardless of what they wanted, there was no way that he was willing to release the seal around the crystals.
He wiped his hands on his pants, smearing scarlet powder—idala root, he’d discovered—across the fabric. In the last two days, he had spent nearly every waking hour working with Della. She taught with a fervor and intensity, demonstrating powders to him, showing him whole plants, making him taste things both terrible and sweet, and drink concoction after concoction so that he knew the way they were supposed to taste. Last night, she had dragged him throughout the city, stopping in nearly a dozen different shops where she purchased her powders and herbs, so that he would know what to look for when he sought his own.
The Guild Secret (The Dark Ability Book 6) Page 15