“I thought you could use an opportunity to see that not all volcanoes are destructive.”
Her heart hammered, and her mouth was dry. “I know.”
He turned to her. “Do you? In the days and weeks and months since I found you, you continue to think back to that night when you lost your home.”
“I’m sorry. I know it’s a failing of mine.”
He smiled, the warmth radiating from him mixing with the warmth of the air. “It is no failing. But you suffered, and now it’s time for you to move on.”
“To what?”
“Whatever you decide.”
She had dreaded this day, when he would tell her that she could no longer travel with him. “I would stay with you if you would have me.”
“I will ask much from you.”
“I understand.”
He watched her for a moment. “I don’t know that you do, not yet, but you will.” He turned away, wandering through the chamber. “There was a time when this was used for great power. With fire, there comes destruction, violence, pain, but there also comes life. Without the heat and lava that flows through here, there would be no mountain. Places like this change the world. Once, those who lived here recognized that, and they sought to understand the power.”
“Is that what you do?”
“I seek a different sort of power,” he said.
“What sort of power is that?”
“Much like fire, there is other power here that binds the world. There is an energy, a gift left by those greater than us. I seek to understand that gift, to harness the powers they left for us, and in so doing to be more like them.”
“The gods?” She paused within the cave, though it didn’t feel like a cave here. She ran her hand along the surface of the tile. It was slick, slightly wet, and far warmer than she would’ve expected. The pattern on this particular sequence of tiles was impressive, and it seemed to her that it was designed to depict something, though she wasn’t clear what it was. “There were some in Vuahlu who worshipped different gods. It was before…”
She caught herself. Olandar Fahr didn’t need to know it was different before she had moved to the village. There were no gods that they worshipped. There was nothing, but then, there had been a sense of happiness, of family, a feeling of welcome that had disappeared when she’d lost them.
“Some perhaps call them gods; others have different names for them. In some places, they even named themselves, though to me, that is less interesting.”
“What is more interesting?”
“They left something of themselves in this world. There are many places where you can find it, though often it’s little more than a remnant. I have visited countless places over the years, trying to understand the powers left behind, to see if there was any way to harness them, to use them to help others, much like these Great Ones once used them.”
“You want to become like these Great Ones?”
She smiled as she said it, and as he turned to her, it seemed as if the glowing in the distance increased. It almost surrounded Olandar Fahr, a swirl of power, illuminating him against the backdrop of darkness. She wondered if perhaps he had already become like the Great Ones. If he had been chasing power like that for a long time, it made sense that he would be. She had seen many great things from him, not the least of which was his ability to travel. There was also his kindness and compassion, and the way that he had helped her.
“You think that is so difficult?”
“Not for you, but certainly for me.”
“You would be surprised.”
“I don’t have any of your abilities.” Ryn wasn’t even certain of the extent of his abilities, only that what he did possess was far more than she could ever imagine. Her mother had made it sound like if she had only stayed in the land of her birth, she would have had greater abilities, but even in that, Ryn couldn’t believe that such a thing would be possible. It was difficult for her to fathom.
“Perhaps not now, but you could. You come from a people of great power.”
“I might come from them, but I don’t have any of that power.”
“I can see it reflected in your eyes. There is power there, though you must be willing to embrace it.”
“I…”
She turned back toward the wall, looking at the images worked into the tile. That was what she wanted, though it was hard for her to admit. When she had gone with Olandar Fahr, she had done so with a desire for vengeance, a desire to get back at the man who had harmed her family, destroyed her village, killed everyone she had known. She couldn’t do that as herself. There was nothing powerful about Ryn. But if she could find power like the Great Ones, something similar to what Olandar Fahr possessed, then perhaps she would be able to get the vengeance she desired.
“You fear it.”
She shook her head, not turning back to him. “I don’t fear it, I just know that it doesn’t fit me.”
“Perhaps not, but if you were to return to that land, to draw upon the power of a Great One they called the Great Watcher, you would find that you had more strength than you could ever imagine.”
“The Great Watcher? That was one of the Great Ones?”
“One of them, but separate from the rest. There were those that lent power to the land—those Great Ones that are often referred to as Elders—and then there is the Great Watcher. Different, much like his power is different, though some conflate the two.” He smiled, staring at the wall. It was almost as if he could read it. And, Ryn pondered, perhaps he could. If he could read what was written, then maybe that was how he understood so much about this Great Watcher. “The people of your homeland believed that the Great Watcher was one of the Elders and that his power was one of his stones, but I know differently.”
“Is that what this place tells you?”
“This place, and others like it. They are remnants of a time when those who lived understood a different sort of power. Much can be learned in places like these, though you have to be able to open your mind.” He turned his attention away from the walls, meeting Ryn’s gaze. “Are you willing to open your mind?”
“I am,” she said without hesitating.
“I know that you are. There are times for soldiers, and there are times for believers. Which are you?”
It was a strange question, not only because she didn’t feel as if she were anything like a soldier. Then again, was she a believer? Olandar Fahr might talk about Great Ones and gods and things like that, but she wasn’t sure if she knew enough about them to even believe.
“You don’t have to answer now. Perhaps you don’t know the answer yet.”
“I—”
He took a step toward her and, taking her hands, he squeezed gently. There was something in his smile that made her want to believe, that made her want to please him. “For now, you can watch. Observe. When you decide, then we will discuss the next step you can take.”
“Is that why you brought me here?”
“Not entirely,” he said. He continued to make a circuit of this small room, and after a while, he stopped in front of one section of the wall and reached out, taking one of the tiles off the wall. It left a blank section, but the surrounding pieces were difficult for her to interpret. There had to be something about the tile that he had wanted, though from the others alongside it, she wasn’t able to determine what that might have been.
“Now we can go.”
“We have to climb back down?”
With a smile, he nodded. “As I said, sometimes it’s the journey that matters more than the destination.”
She worried about the journey back down, but she had made it this far—couldn’t she make it a little farther? And besides, she had survived something that should have killed her already. She would survive again. Eventually, she would learn what she needed. Eventually, she would get the revenge she sought.
7
Lucy
Movement in the distance caught Lucy’s attention. She stared, struggl
ing to make out the source of the movement, straining against the distant darkness, but despite the augmentation granted to her by the implant in the back of her head, she couldn’t tell much of anything. It reminded her of the tower at the stronghold of the C’than.
“What’s out there?” she asked Carth.
They had been traveling, Sliding from place to place, searching for more and more evidence of the C’than. There was a time when Lucy would have been tired from the number of jumps she had made, but Sliding no longer fatigued her as it once would have. Now it was a matter of exploring places she hadn’t been before. Once she had traveled to these places, Sliding back became much easier. As it was, for now she had to Slide more slowly, taking her time as she transported herself.
“I don’t see anything,” Carth said.
Carth didn’t have her enhanced eyesight, and without that, there was very little she could do to keep up with what was taking place in the distance. Carth’s knowledge made her powerful, but she was limited in what she could do and see. That wasn’t Carth’s strong suit anyway. Her strength was more to do with her mind and the way she could plan. It wasn’t all about her abilities, though they were considerable.
“There’s something like a haze out there. It’s fuzzy, difficult for me to make out, but…” Lucy wanted to Slide out there, if only to determine what it was.
“We need to be cautious here,” Carth said.
Lucy looked around. They were in a vast expanse of land, little more than jungle around them, and somewhere far to the east, the ocean crashed onto sandy shores. It was warm here, the heat and humidity sweltering, and yet Lucy kept her heavy cloak on.
“What are you concerned about?”
“I don’t know much about these lands.”
“I thought this was a place of the C’than?”
“This is a place where we don’t have much influence. As much as I’ve tried over the years, we haven’t been able to infiltrate it as well as I would’ve liked.”
“Why not?”
“There’s an innate power to this place.”
“You think it’s an Elder Stone?”
“I always did, but now I don’t know. There are other places where the Elder Stones exist that don’t have a similar power. In this case, it could simply be natural protections that prevent me from understanding what’s here.”
Lucy stared, considering the jungle. The haze seemed to rise up from the center of it, and it obscured the trees and everything within it. She couldn’t tell if the haze was artificial, and the longer she stared, the more she questioned. Perhaps it wasn’t enhanced in any way, but even if it was natural, it still made it difficult for her to See anything clearly.
“What now?” Lucy asked.
“Now we head in there.”
“Just like that?”
Carth glanced over to her. “There’s a reason I haven’t explored this place before. With a jungle like this, it’s dangerous for us to try to break in. If something goes wrong, we would be trapped.”
“You needed someone who could Slide.”
“We needed someone like you.”
“I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not.”
“With what Olandar Fahr is after, we have to push ourselves as much as he’s pushing. If he’s trying to uncover the key to the Elder Stones, then we need to be prepared for what he might unveil. At this point, he knows more than we do, and that puts us in a precarious situation.”
There was something to the Elder Stones that Lucy hadn’t yet determined, and the more she studied and learned, the more she questioned. That had to be the point of what Carth was trying to show her. There was so much more to the world than what she had experienced in Elaeavn.
And wasn’t that what she had wanted? When she had been in Elaeavn, working as a caretaker in the vast library within the Elvraeth palace, hadn’t she wanted to discover more of the world, to understand it, to experience it? That had been her goal, and Haern’s. Together, they had wanted to see more of the world, to experience the things his father had experienced, and now she was doing it.
The one thing Lucy hadn’t counted on was how difficult it was going to be. She had grown up around those who knew about the Forgers and the dangers they posed, but they had been something distant and almost unreal. After seeing them firsthand—experiencing the torture they inflicted—she could no longer view them the same way.
And she no longer viewed the journey outside of the city with the same lightheartedness. The world was hard, and it had forced her to become hard. There was torture and torment and pain and suffering, but she had seen goodness. The Binders were a testament to that.
“Hold on,” Lucy said, taking Carth’s arm, and the two of them started to Slide. She reached the edge of the jungle, but as she attempted to Slide into it, she hesitated. She needed to be able to See clearly during a Slide, and the haze made that difficult.
“I can’t Slide us safely through here,” she said. “I can Slide us out once we’re inside, but I need to be able to see where we’re going.”
Carth looked around, seeming frustrated. Carth rarely let her emotions show, and yet this time, it was less that she showed her emotions and more that it seemed Lucy could detect them.
Perhaps it was only her imagination. She shouldn’t be able to Read anything. She had tried to Read Carth many times since meeting the woman, and she had never succeeded. In all that time, Carth had managed to conceal her mind from Lucy, keeping her thoughts suppressed, and she was far too skilled for Lucy to uncover anything.
“I don’t know that we have the time to waste wandering through the forest.”
Lucy smiled to herself. “Would it be squandering if we did that?”
“We’re attempting multiple moves at the same time,” Carth said, keeping her gaze locked on the forest. “In each of them, we need to get a handle on what the Ai’thol are doing, the role of the C’than in all of it, and whether there are other pieces moving around.”
The forest pressed on Lucy, and she tried to determine whether the effect was artificial or simply a naturally occurring haze rising up from the forest. If the latter was the case, then she would have no reason to fear wandering through the trees, yet part of her didn’t want to do so. Ever since gaining the ability to Slide, she’d grown accustomed to the freedom and safety that granted, to the ease with which she could travel from place to place, never having to worry about anything happening that might cause harm to her. In a place like this, that safety wasn’t there.
“What would you have us do?”
“There are other strongholds we need to visit.”
“How many?”
“Dozens upon dozens. It took me a long time to come to grips with how many places the C’than have gained power over.”
“I didn’t think the C’than acted out of a desire to gain power.”
“They don’t, and perhaps I misspoke. The C’than operate out of a desire to establish peace.”
“How long have you been a part of the C’than?”
“Ever since I defeated the first attempt of the Ai’thol to gain power.”
“How?”
“I outmaneuvered them. At the time, I didn’t know about Olandar Fahr and how powerful he was, but I have come to appreciate his ability. The C’than, along with the Binders, have managed to restrict his movement, but he continues to gain strength and influence. Eventually, I suspect he will overpower any protection that we can place. When that happens, he will have access to as much power as he wants.”
“And that’s not a good thing.”
“You don’t know him like I do. Even those he lets close to him see only what he wants them to see. Everything is an act for him, a maneuver. I don’t think we have even experienced the man in full.” Carth held her arm out. “How do you feel about traveling south?”
“Will it be as hot as this?”
“Probably.”
Lucy stripped her cloak off her shoulders. She had a jacket and
pants, and a short dagger strapped to her waist in a sheath that the Binders had given her, but no other weapons. Her abilities were her weapons. That might be dangerous. If she ever lost those abilities, she would be defenseless against an attack.
She had her ability to Slide, and though the Forgers had shown they had some way of influencing her mind, they had rarely inhibited her ability to Slide.
Taking Carth’s arm, she Slid them, emerging near the shore, and then made a dozen quick short Slides, each time bringing them further along the shoreline. This entire stretch of shoreline was sandy beaches. The water was crystal-blue, clear and beautiful, and some other time, Lucy would be tempted to wade out into the water, splash in the ocean, and enjoy the warmth of the waves as they swirled around her ankles.
This place was similar to where she had been brought by the Architect, and it served as a reminder of what she had gone through—far more than she had ever imagined she could withstand. Even now, Lucy wasn’t sure she could endure through a similar experience and come out of it again. Part of it had been luck, and part of it had been the fact that they had underestimated her abilities, even though they were partly responsible for them. Not completely, though. Those abilities had been granted by the C’than—or an arm of the C’than who should have known better.
“You ever worry that I’m still controlled by them?” Lucy asked as they stopped. Scrub brush rose to her knees all around, and small crabs scurried along the shoreline. There was no other movement. She looked out to the water, half expecting there to be ships navigating out there, but there were none. This seemed like an ideal place to fish, but she had seen no sign of a city here. As beautiful as it was, that surprised her.
“The fact that you worry tells me there is a possibility,” Carth said.
“I never would’ve thought there was, but they forced me to act on their behalf,” Lucy said.
“That is, unfortunately, one of their talents.” Carth pulled her boots off, wading out into the water. Lucy followed, stripping her boots off, hiking up her pants, and standing in the warm water. “For as long as I have known about the Ai’thol, they have possessed the ability to control others. There are some from Elaeavn who refer to it as Pushing, and I suppose that is as apt a description as any.”
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