“What do I have to do?”
“You have to prove yourself willing.”
“How?”
The Deshmahne’s grin widened. “That will be the next request made of you. When you receive the summons, you will come, and you will do as asked, and you will be granted power that you cannot even imagine.”
Within Scottan’s mind, Jakob felt the surge of excitement from his brother and wished he could tell him that he had that power within him anyway, and that all it would take was for that power to be awakened, but he sensed Scottan’s resistance to believe anything else. He sensed the anger within his brother.
Along with that, there was something else, something dark.
It pained him, but his brother had been twisted long before Raime had ever managed to tangle his strand. What had happened with Scottan had not been the result of Raime—at least not nearly as directly as Jakob had believed.
He retreated, and as he did, he pulled on his brother’s ahmaean, withdrawing it with him. If nothing else, he would restrict his brother from accessing that power and would prevent him from using the damahne abilities against those who would use them the way they were meant to be used.
When he stepped outside of the fibers, the nemerahl was waiting for him.
You cannot hold on to that, the nemerahl said.
I can try.
If you do, you’ll destroy him long before he’s destroyed by the other. Is that what you want?
Jakob shook his head. The nemerahl knew that wasn’t what he wanted, but how could Jakob leave Scottan connected to his damahne abilities if he intended to side with Raime? Raime might not have a way of transferring Scottan’s power to him, but if he could influence enough of the others, it might not matter. They might become Deshmahne, and more dangerous than the Eldest of the Magi had been.
I want my brother back.
You’ve walked back along his strand. What have you seen?
Jakob swallowed. What he’d seen was difficult, and it was painful for him to admit. He wasn’t the person that I remember.
Memory fails us. It fails even the damahne. Most would like to remember people as they believed them to be, not as they were. Your brother lived a life different from what you knew.
That’s why Raime was able to use him.
Raime was able to use him long before he twisted the fibers. Your brother was his servant long before he was ensnared in that.
And Jakob had thought Raime had attacked his brother only because it would hurt him, but that was not the case at all. His brother had been caught up in Raime’s play for power, and nothing else.
I still need to find him.
Then look.
Jakob studied the nemerahl and then turned his attention back to the fibers. They stretched before him, thousands upon thousands of strands, each representing someone, and often times, many someone’s. He traced his brother’s strand, ignoring the other niduses that he found. They would not help him at all. He’d already seen what he needed from his brother in the past. What he needed now was to understand where his brother was in the present, and what he might do in the future.
Searching along those strands was much easier than it would’ve been had it been someone other than Scottan.
Jakob touched upon his brother’s strand in the present. He peered inside, and what he saw surprised him.
It was little more than a glimpse, but it was all he needed to know where to find his brother.
Jakob withdrew and looked forward along the fibers, untangling them enough that he could make certain his brother wouldn’t leave, to get a sense for how much time he had.
The possibilities it opened up before him told Jakob that he had days at most and then his brother would travel somewhere else. If he did, it would place others in harm. At least where he was now, his brother couldn’t do anything, and couldn’t harm too many others. His influence would be limited.
Jakob would need help, and now that he was within the fibers, he thought he knew how he could find it. Did he have enough time? Was he strong enough?
Even if he thought otherwise, could he do anything different?
No, he couldn’t.
This had to end. The influence of Raime, and the impact he had on the world, had to end. Somehow, Scottan was part of the key.
Chapter Eighteen
Jakob appeared in the Old Forest. Trees towered around him. They were massive trees, the kind that were unrivaled anywhere else, even in the Great Forest. The air held their scent, that of moss and greenery and earth. It was comforting, but it was also foreign and strange and hinted at powers Jakob didn’t fully understand.
The sense of ahmaean pressed all around him. It was different from the Great Forest, different even from the daneamiin forest. As he often did when he came to the Old Forest, he felt how unique the power of this place was. It was only fitting that the daneamiin should watch over it.
“Jakob Nialsen.”
He turned to see Anda standing behind him. She looked at him with concern in her exotic eyes. Ahmaean flowed from her, touching on Jakob briefly before withdrawing. “Anda. How did you know I was coming?”
She smiled at him. “The forest alerted me of your presence.”
He sighed. If the forest alerted her, what else would it do? It might be needed for more than what it had been used for up to this point. The damahne had feared the forest, though he still had not yet learned why. Jakob felt no such fear of it. How could he, when he felt as if the trees welcomed his presence?
“I found my brother.”
“From the way you say that I have a feeling that it does not please you.”
Jakob sighed again. “Scottan has served the Deshmahne far longer than I realized. He has served Raime far longer than I realized. He has gone to the old daneamiin city.”
Sadness flashed across Anda’s face. “Raime seems preoccupied with such places.”
Jakob hadn’t made the connection before, but Raime had attempted to reach the daneamiin’s forest home as well as the old city more than once. Could there be some reason for it? Was it only about the ahmaean that they poured into it?
“I think I will need your help.”
“Mine?”
“Yours. Others of the daneamiin who are willing to participate. My brother is one of the damahne, and he will likely have developed his powers to the point where it will be difficult to hold him.”
“Jakob Nialsen, we aren’t able to act against the damahne.”
“I know you haven’t in the past, but I think it’s time that you begin. Think of everything you’ve been through. You need to be a part of this. You need to help prevent another attack. Your inaction has enabled Raime.”
It wasn’t only the inaction of the daneamiin that enabled Raime, but the inaction of many others, including the other damahne. Anda didn’t need that reminder.
“If we do this, it sets us on the path toward…”
“It does nothing to set you on the path toward the groeliin.” He understood her reluctance, especially now that he understood how the daneamiin and the groeliin were connected. “There are ways the daneamiin can refrain from violence but still participate. You have already participated.”
Anda considered him for a moment before letting out something like a sigh. “How many of my people do you need?”
“As many as are willing to help.”
She flickered away, leaving Jakob standing and watching after her. He stared at the forest, feeling the difference of the ahmaean here. In the Great Forest, the ahmaean seemed keyed toward the damahne. In the daneamiin forest, the ahmaean was tied to those people. The Old Forest was different. That had to be significant, though he didn’t yet understand why.
When Anda returned, she brought several daneamiin with her, all of whom Jakob recognized. He reached for her hand, and they shifted to where Jakob had left the new damahne waiting for him.
The daneamiin city had a familiar sense to it. Its residual power, though little more tha
n a memory, came from a time long ago, memories that Jakob should not possess but did. That sense of energy pulsed against him, a reminder of the power that had been stored here, deposited by the inhabitants of the city over hundreds of years. Despite the destruction inflicted upon it at the hands of Raime and his army, that power remained.
Was that why Raime had his people come here?
“I don’t see anything,” Malaya said.
“Do you feel it?” Anda asked.
Jakob glanced over. Anda had a connection to the ancient city, much like many of the daneamiin did. Few daneamiin had shown any willingness to fight during that time. Had they fought, would they have survived? Would the city have still stood?
“What should I feel?” Malaya asked. The green cloak she wore was a damahne design, and it blended into the forest. It matched the one Jakob wore, the style that all of the damahne wore.
“There was a city here once,” Jakob said. “It was… impressive. There was nothing like it anywhere else in the world. The daneamiin built it out of stone that they poured their ahmaean into, allowing the stone to flow like water.”
“Have you seen it?” Paden asked.
Jakob nodded. “I’ve had a vision of the city. When you get a better sense of the fibers, you can look back, and if you have connections to the daneamiin, you should take that opportunity to trace them to this place. There is incredible beauty here. I think it’s something that everyone should see.”
“Then why would Raime have come here if he already destroyed it?” Bethanne asked.
Jakob shook his head. “I don’t know that Raime is here, but my brother is, as are some of the other damahne they have captured.” Jakob glanced to Malaya, and a troubled expression had clouded her brow. She had spent days traveling from city to city and had rescued only a few dozen more damahne. In each city, someone had arrived before she did, and had captured as many of the potential damahne as possible. They hadn’t gone after everyone. Jakob wondered if there was an intention behind the selectivity, or if it was random. If there was some intention to it, what triggered the choice of people?
“But there’s no city still here,” Adam said.
No, but there was the memory of a city, and Jakob wondered if that was what Raime was interested in, or if it was something else. Could it be the power that had been here that he wanted? He had attempted to claim the ahmaean stored in the pool near the daneamiin forest, but had failed, thwarted by Jakob as he had forced that ahmaean back into the ground and away from Raime. In this place, there would be some residual ahmaean, but even that would not be much, and likely not enough to interest Raime, or would it?
Jakob wasn’t certain that he knew what Raime would be interested in. It was possible that Raime wanted all the potential power that still remained here, but it was also possible that he had some other intent. Would he need that which was stored here to help him awaken the damahne?
There were only a few ways for him to know, and one of them involved risking himself, going into the ancient city, and tracking down his brother and any who might be siding with him.
Jakob glanced at the damahne assembled around him. They were all that he had managed to awaken enough to be useful. There were others still in the Tower, but they were still far too new to their abilities, and didn’t understand everything that they could do, and likely would end up hurt rather than offering any way to help. As much as he wanted to work with them, and have more numbers, he simply couldn’t.
Then there were the daneamiin who had come, choosing to risk fighting, knowing that it might be an outcome, but also knowing that they would not be able to truly have peace unless they challenged Raime and the darkness he intended to bring.
Would it be enough?
Jakob had debated shifting Roelle and the warriors here, but this was not a battle for her. She had another responsibility, and he didn’t think it fair to demand that sacrifice from her after she and her people had given so much.
“I’m going to find my brother, and I want you to be ready to hold him,” he said to Malaya.
She nodded. This was part of the plan they had agreed to. If Scottan had learned to shift, they needed to find a way to hold him, using their ahmaean if necessary. If he didn’t know how to shift, the damahne would not have to work quite as hard. Jakob suspected that since Scottan served Raime as deeply as he did that he had learned to shift.
He took one long look at the others with him, and shifted.
He appeared in the midst of the fallen city.
The rubble around him was familiar, though Jakob could remember what it had been like before it had fallen. It was a combination of what he’d seen in the past and what he could see now in the present. The ahmaean that was here pulsed against him, a vague sort of sense that he didn’t dare dip into. It was not his ahmaean but that of the daneamiin.
That wasn’t quite right. He had ancestors who were daneamiin, so did that mean he had a right to the ahmaean that was here?
If he had a right to it, that meant Scottan did, as well.
What if the others Raime had brought here shared the same connection? What if that was the reason Raime had wanted them to come here? Did Raime intend for Scottan and the other damahne to access the ahmaean from the daneamiin?
Where were the others?
He could feel ahmaean around him that was not from this city. It came from everywhere and pushed on him.
Jakob pushed back. This was the reason he had come here. He had chosen to risk himself in order to find his brother.
“Scottan!”
He kept his ahmaean tightly around him, using it as a protective barrier that prevented the captured damahne from attempting to injure him. Without knowing how powerful they had become, he didn’t know how effective it might be.
“Scottan!” He stood in the middle of the city, atop a pile of rubble that had once been a tower in the city. It was from this tower that Jakob had attempted to rescue daneamiin during Raime’s attack. It was this tower from which he had thought to attack Raime and had failed. Jakob hadn’t been in the right form in that time, and he likely had done nothing more than alert Raime to the fact that Jakob could move along the fibers easily.
There came no answer.
Jakob pulled upon the ahmaean within the remains of the city.
It came slowly, gradually, but it responded to him.
He knew that it would as he had used that ahmaean before.
Jakob pushed out with the ahmaean that remained within the city, the memory of what had once been here. As he did, he found the pockets around him that belonged to other damahne. There were a few that he recognized, men and women he had rescued from Chrysia, only to have lost them when they had escaped the Tower along with Scottan. There were others that he didn’t recognize, though he picked up on the connection to their ahmaean and knew that they had been awoken, much as Scottan had been.
None of them were those he had come for.
Where was his brother?
Jakob unsheathed his sword and pushed his ahmaean through Neamiin. Though it was not teralin, the sword augmented his connection to ahmaean. It acted in much the same way as teralin did for the Magi, or for him when he was within the Tower.
He stretched out with that connection to his ahmaean, and as he did, there was a presence that he recognized.
Jakob shifted to Scottan.
He found him underground, in a cave with negatively charged teralin all around. His brother no longer looked quite as haggard and thin, though his eyes were still sunken. A heavy cloak that reminded Jakob of visions he’d had of Raime hung on his brother’s shoulders.
With a surge through his sword, Jakob changed the polarity of the cave.
“You’re finally here. It took longer than I expected,” Scottan said.
“Did you think that would hold me?” he asked his brother.
Scottan glared at him. “I didn’t intend for anything to hold you. It was only to weaken you. The Highest would like me to bring
you to him.”
Jakob studied his brother. “I know why you do this.” He ignored the appearance of five more damahne working with Scottan. They had flickered here, shifting within the cavern deep below the ground. Had this been a place of the daneamiin, as well, or was this someplace that Raime had created?
“You don’t know anything,” Scottan said. “If you did, you wouldn’t have made the mistake of coming here.”
“What mistake?”
“You came by yourself, thinking that you alone would be able to overpower all of us. The Highest has seen your arrogance, and he recognizes the way you believe yourself even stronger than he.”
Ahmaean began to press upon Jakob, pushing off the walls of the cave. He realized he had missed some of the negatively charged teralin, and the damahne aligned with Scottan were using it against him.
Jakob pushed back against it, resisting the ahmaean, before changing tactics. He didn’t want to push against it as much as he wanted to protect himself from it. He created a barrier around himself, holding it tightly so that even when attacked, they would not tear his connection to ahmaean away from him. He had the advantage of using his sword as a focus and drew through it in a way that helped him continue to augment his abilities.
“Is that what you think, or what your master has told you?” Jakob asked.
Scottan sneered at him. “Your first mistake was healing me.”
Jakob nodded. “I see that now. I didn’t realize that you were lost from the moment Mother died.”
Scottan’s eyes narrowed.
Jakob ignored Scottan’s damahne approaching from around him. He needed to focus on Scottan. He was the reason Jakob had come. The others needed to either be helped or neutralized. He had not yet decided which it needed to be.
“I walked back along the fibers,” Jakob said. “I saw your reaction to her death. I saw the way you lashed out, accepting the Deshmahne and the power they offered. How could you betray the Ur in that way?”
“Betray the Ur? The Urmahne betrayed me! They betrayed us! They took Mother from us. And then, when I suffered with the madness, they took Father. Despite that, you still think to serve them?”
The Great Betrayal (The Lost Prophecy Book 8) Page 18