He had dark hair and deep brown eyes, and his plain face would have blended in anywhere other than Elaeavn. A scar ran from his jaw to behind his ear. He glared at Carth.
“It’s taken you long enough to wake up,” she said.
“You were dead.”
“Was I? Others have made that mistake before.”
“We saw it.”
“You saw what I wanted you to see. I’m not so unskilled at this game as to allow you to overpower me.”
What game did she refer to? This was something other than a game to Daniel. Sitting in the same room with Forgers left him terrified, and though they couldn’t do anything to him, bound as they were, he was still uncomfortable. What if they managed to get free? He glanced over his shoulder to the other room, where the remaining Forgers were. All of them were bound in chains made of the same metal, and he suspected Carth used her ability to ensure they remained captive as well. If so, was she able to hold them from here? Even that seemed a bit much. How skilled was she at holding her focus if she had to split it in so many ways?
“It’s too late, you know that. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have gone through the effort of trying to hold us,” the Forger said.
“It’s not too late. Otherwise, you’d already be dead,” she said. Daniel shivered at her matter-of-fact tone. “I have four of you. I need only one to speak. You can decide which of you lives. Seeing as how you’re the first one I’m questioning, it could be you. Or it could be any of the others.”
The Forger glanced over to Daniel. A slight smile spread across his face. “And you. You’ve come with her? You could be given so much, and instead you choose to suffer. It’s a shame, really. Those of your kind have been given gifts, but so many choose not to use them.”
“Where is she?” Daniel snapped.
Carth shot him a warning look.
The Forger smiled at him. “Have you lost someone you care about? A shame, really. Then again, most of this is a shame.” He turned almost lazily to look at Carth. “You’re wasting your time. If you think I will somehow break, you are mistaken.”
“I’ve been around your kind enough to know what you will and will not do.”
“Everything changed when he went missing.”
“Do you really believe that?”
“I do.”
Carth smiled. It was a dangerous sort of expression. “It’s interesting that you didn’t make your move until you believed he was missing.”
“Did you think you were the one we worried about?” The Forger turned toward Daniel. “She has always thought so much of herself. Even when there was proof that she wasn’t the reason behind the attacks, she continued to believe that she was responsible for much more than what she was.”
Carth stood and motioned to Daniel. “We don’t need him. We have three others.” She waved her hand, and the man gasped, his eyes going wide.
Daniel couldn’t take his eyes off him as he seemed to suffocate. “What are you doing to him?”
Carth reached the doorway and paused. “Nothing more than he would have done to anyone else.”
“You’re killing him?”
“Killing? No. Torturing. I’m allowing him a taste of what he and his kind have done to so many others over the years.” She waited at the doorway for Daniel, watching the Forger. The man couldn’t breathe.
Daniel was shocked at Carth’s brutality. He’d seen her using her abilities when confronted, but this was something else. This was not a confrontation. This was a choice. This was…
Torture.
Did the Forger deserve torture?
Everything he had done had led to this. It was because of these Forgers that Lucy had gone missing. It was because of their kind that Elaeavn had been attacked. It was because of these Forgers that he had nearly lost his abilities.
The poisoning had worn off, but it had taken a while. Daniel still wasn’t sure whether he suffered from any residual effects. He didn’t think so, but it was possible.
“Carth?”
“Leave him,” she said.
“Are you just going to let him die?”
“I told him I only needed one of them. If it’s not going to be him, then it will be one of the other three.” She stopped at the door, waiting for Daniel. He hesitated before following her.
The other room was much the same. Inside was one of the Forgers, bound on the floor, trapped by chains and by bands of Carth’s shadow magic, whatever it was that allowed her to hold them in such a way.
She crouched down in front of the Forger. “It’s taken you long enough to wake up,” she said, going through the same speech as she had with the first man. Much like him, he hadn’t even been the first. They had talked to the other two, though neither of them had shared much.
Carth seemed to believe that eventually one of them would say something useful, but what if they didn’t? Then again, she hadn’t suffocated any of the others like she had the last man.
“Why are you here?” the Forger asked.
Carth grinned at him. “Why am I in any place? Because I’m needed.”
“You have always had quite the high opinion of yourself.”
“Have I? Do we know each other?”
“I’ve known who you were ever since I joined.” The man looked a little different from the others. The other men all had scars on their faces, something Carth had explained came from their use of metals, fabricating abilities through them. This one had no such scar. He had flat eyes that were almost gray and a sharp jawline. He regarded Carth with something bordering on indifference.
“Then you know what I’m capable of doing.”
“I know what you claim to be capable of doing, but it has been many years since you have been any sort of threat.”
“So you fear Rsiran.”
“I don’t fear him any more than I fear any of you. None of you will have the necessary talent to acquire all of the stones.”
Carth glanced briefly at Daniel before turning her attention back to the man. “You don’t think that anyone can?”
“I don’t think it will be you.”
“What makes you think I haven’t already?”
“The fact that you are in this city tells me that you haven’t. The fact that you are with him,” he said, motioning to Daniel, “tells me that you have done nothing. You are weak.”
Daniel had seen Carth in a confrontation, and she was anything but weak. Considering what he had seen from Forgers, though, maybe their arrogance would let them believe that.
“I am less than what I was, but I’m still more than enough to take care of you.”
“Clearly. And yet, if you were any sort of threat, you would challenge us directly. Instead you continue to move in shadows, hiding like the coward you are.”
Carth stood and waved a hand at the man. Daniel wondered whether she was going to suffocate him the same as the other, and his eyes twitched, but they didn’t widen in the same way. Instead, a smile spread across his face.
“What are you doing?” Daniel asked.
“I’m giving him what he wants. They want to see the threat of Carthenne Rel. They want to know if I am the same person I once was.”
“How long have you been gone?” Daniel asked.
She glanced over at him. “Long enough to lose control over my network.”
“How long?”
“Two years.”
“Why? Where have you been?”
She glanced over to the man, waving her hand. A band of shadows swirled around him. “I don’t want him to overhear any of this,” she said.
“You can do that?”
“There’s much I can do, but in the years since I faced them—truly faced them—there’s much I cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because of what they are after.”
“And what are they after?”
“They seek power.”
“That’s what I’ve heard. Supposedly they want the sacred crystals.”
“The
sacred crystals of Elaeavn are just one Elder Stone. If it were up to the Forgers, they would acquire all of the Elder Stones.”
“How many are there?”
She shook her head. “I found five.”
“Five?”
She nodded. “Five, and those who possess them are given the chance to reach for power these men—and their masters—should not be allowed to reach. I have devoted much of my life to preventing them from obtaining what they seek.”
“How?”
“I’m not the only one who helps to prevent them from reaching what they want,” she said.
“Lareth.”
She nodded. “He is one. There are others.”
“Then what happened?”
“Why do you think anything has happened?”
“They attacked. Something must have happened for them to decide that now was the time to attack.”
“I don’t know what would have happened. There should have been nothing. Lareth alone has been enough to deter them.”
“But he’s missing.”
“I doubt that he’s really missing. If I know him—and I have more than enough experience with him to claim that I do—he is after something else.”
Daniel wasn’t so certain. Hadn’t the Forger claimed that Lareth was gone? And if he was, whatever protections Carth believed were in place also were missing.
“What do they think to use these Elder Stones for?”
“They want power. That’s all they’ve ever wanted. They would use that power to rule, but that is not the purpose of the Elder Stones. They have never been meant to rule.”
Daniel thought about the sacred crystals. If they were some sort of Elder Stone, then they had been used to rule. For so long, only the Elvraeth had been allowed to access them, and because of that, they had ruled within Elaeavn. That might have changed once all were given the opportunity to hold one of the crystals, but the Elvraeth still ruled within Elaeavn.
“Why torture them for information?” he asked. He’d not seen the tchalit use such tactics. There hadn’t been the need. They were imposing enough—or so he had thought before leaving the city. “It seems as if you already know quite a bit about them.”
“I know what they’re after, but not what they intend to do with the people of Elaeavn.” She turned and watched him for a moment. “That’s what they’re after. That’s why they wanted your friend. That’s why they want you. They would use you, though I’m not entirely certain how yet.”
Was that why Lareth had erected security measures throughout Elaeavn? Did he still fear the Forgers? Daniel had never believed there was any real danger. How could he? He’d spent so much of his time within the city, living within the palace, not worried about what might happen, and now, when he needed to know, he was too far removed from it to truly be able to do anything.
“I can see that you’re worried,” Carth said.
“How could I not be?”
She smiled. “They’ve been after this power for decades. So far, they have been unable to find it.”
“But they’ve started to move. Don’t you think that means they have something else in mind?”
“It’s possible,” she said, “which is why I have chosen to return.”
“Chosen? That means that you were gone for some reason?”
“I was gone because there was a need for my absence.”
“What sort of need would there be for you to be missing?”
“The need to understand.” She waved her hand, and the shadows disappeared from the man. “Have you reconsidered?”
He smiled at her. “There’s nothing you will say that will change my plan. It is far more extensive than you could know. It cannot be stopped.”
“Your plan? Interesting. I didn’t realize that we had captured someone quite so high-ranking within your cult.”
He glared at her. Carth simply smiled.
“You will remain here for as long as I choose to hold you. You will face whatever torment I should inflict upon you. And when it comes time, you will die when I choose to kill you. Know that I have that power. You can choose whether you participate, and you can choose what happens, but I will see that your kind is destroyed.”
“Ah, Rel, if only you really understood the true game. You’ve been working with misinformation, and after all this time, you still think you know how this will play out. But I can tell you that you are wrong. Lareth will be his own undoing.”
Carth looked over at Daniel and nodded. “Time for us to return. They will get to stay here for a little longer.”
“How much longer?”
“I haven’t decided.”
“What about the one you’re suffocating?”
“What about him? Like I’ve told each of them, we only need one, and now that we have this one, we have the one we need.”
“Why him?”
“Because he has knowledge.” She smiled at the Forger. “And he made a mistake in revealing that to me.”
Daniel didn’t know if she really would kill them or if it was all part of her act, and he wasn’t sure he cared, with what they had done to his people, but he found himself disliking the torture more than he had expected.
She watched him expectantly, and he took her arm, Sliding her back to the tavern.
When they emerged in his room, he looked around, thinking as he did every time that Lucy would be here. Each time she wasn’t, he felt a pang of sadness.
“We will find her,” Carth said.
“You’ve said that now for the last two days.”
“And it’s no less true.”
Daniel thought about what had happened to her the last time and realized that he hadn’t been fast enough even then. Something had taken place, something more than what Lucy wanted to talk about, and she had changed in the short time she had been gone. It was more than simply her abilities missing. That was certainly a part of it, but it wasn’t the entire story. Whatever it was had left her more somber.
Would something similar have taken place this time?
He needed to find her. It bothered him that he was reliant upon Carth and her network. It bothered him that he was reliant upon someone who had been separated from her people for so long. How much did she still know? How much could she still help?
“What’s your plan for finding her?”
“My plan is—”
Carth started toward the door, and it took Daniel a moment to realize why.
There was a commotion down below.
She hurried toward the stairs, racing down them. She glided on shadows as she went, something both graceful and deadly about it. This was someone whose abilities had diminished? What would she have been like before?
When she reached the door, she exploded through, pushing out on shadows.
Daniel followed, reaching for his sword, though he doubted he’d be able to use it effectively given the pain in his shoulder from the injury that hadn’t fully healed. The best he could hope for was being able to Slide wherever he needed to go.
Carth pressed shadows around the inside of the tavern. Without his Sight, he wouldn’t have been able to tell that there were only a few dozen people in the tavern. Several of them were women, members of the Binders, and none of them were Kasha. A lone figure stood in the center of the room, pressing out with power as she did. Carth glided toward the person on the shadows.
It took him a moment to realize who it was.
“No!”
He Slid, throwing himself between Carth and Lucy.
He didn’t know what she was doing here, why she had suddenly appeared, or even why she seemed to be fighting with such violence, but he wasn’t about to allow Carth to harm her.
“This is Lucy. This is my friend!”
“She has their ability,” Carth said, far more calmly than the situation demanded.
Daniel held his hands up, prepared to grab Lucy and Slide if it came to that. “She has their ability because she took a spike to the back of her head.”
He hazarded a glance over his shoulder. Lucy watched him, uncertainty building in her eyes, but there was something more there.
Rage.
“Lucy. It’s Daniel. You need to—”
Something slammed into him. He staggered back, thrown into Carth.
“Lucy?”
She ignored him, focusing more on Carth. She Slid, flickering for the briefest of moments and appearing on the other side of Daniel. She grabbed for Carth, but Carth threw her off. Shadows flickered out, wrapping around Lucy, and she Slid again.
When she appeared, she was behind Carth. Carth spun around, but not quickly enough. Lucy jabbed a knife into Carth’s back.
Carth sagged to the floor. The shadows filling the room eased but didn’t disappear completely.
“Lucy?”
Daniel moved forward, wanting to let her know that he was here, that he would try to help her, but she simply stared at Carth.
He grabbed for the sword, but she jerked back, pointing it at him.
Daniel took a step back. “Lucy. This isn’t you. I don’t know what’s happened, but you need to—”
She Slid, reaching for Carth when she emerged.
Somehow Carth managed to roll over, and shadows surged from her hand, wrapping around Lucy with a sudden force. They spiraled and rolled around her, and then they constricted.
Lucy Slid.
Carth moaned.
Daniel didn’t know what to do. Lucy was going to kill Carth, but it wasn’t Lucy—at least not the Lucy he knew. Whatever had happened had changed her, and it was up to him to do whatever he could to help her. But at the same time, he needed to help Carth, didn’t he?
He scooped Carth up and Slid.
As he did, there came a strange sense, almost as if the Slide shifted beneath him. Without meaning to, he emerged from the Slide.
They stood on a precipice of land, barely wide enough for them to stand side by side. Water crashed on stones below him. The wind whipped around, threatening to throw him off.
Daniel’s breath caught.
What had happened?
He’d never had anything like that happen before. It was as if where he had wanted to Slide had shifted, forcing him somewhere else.
The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3 Page 35