That was troubling, and not only because they weren’t aware how the C’than learned how to place augmentations like that, but because the one person who should know remained in the dark about it.
“What’s being done about it?”
Ras regarded her, seeming to glow a little brighter. Was he attempting to Read her? Or did he have some other way of understanding her? Perhaps he was analyzing her, the same way Carth analyzed people she encountered, preparing for how she would have to confront them in a game.
“Are you questioning whether we are pursuing others?”
“I think it’s a fair question. When Carth and I went looking, it didn’t seem as if the C’than were invested in finding out those answers.”
“Perhaps not, and that was a mistake.”
“Mistake or not, it’s what happened. I think it’s reasonable for me to question.”
“It is. We have been looking for answers, and yet, we haven’t come across anything that would explain things. If the answers are out there, they aren’t any place that the C’than can easily reach.”
“What about places they can’t easily reach?”
“Such as?”
“Seeing as how I don’t know how extensive the C’than reach is, I’m not sure.”
“The C’than exist all throughout the known lands.”
“Are there unknown lands where they haven’t extended?”
Ras clasped his hands together, watching her for a moment. “We are not in all places, Lucy Elvraeth. As much as we might try to be, we still have not visited every land in the world. Perhaps you can change that.”
“Is that why you wanted me to be here?”
“I believe we have established that you sought us out.”
“I did, but I have a feeling you would have sought me out otherwise.”
“Perhaps,” he said.
Ras turned away from her and continued along the shoreline. Lucy followed Ras, not sure where he was going. There wasn’t much on the island other than the tower, and in the time she’d been here, she hadn’t really explored much else. The tower was impressive, with multiple levels, and though she had spent considerable time here, she still hadn’t uncovered everything about it. The library itself was the most impressive aspect of the entire tower, something she suspected Ras knew would appeal to her.
“If you would begin to understand your studies, you must have a better grasp of what it means to be one of the C’than,” Ras said.
“I have been working on my studies,” she said.
“You have, but you have also limited yourself,” Ras said. “You keep yourself reserved, and you disappear, traveling back to the mainland. If you keep doing that, you will never learn what you need to learn here.”
Lucy offered a wry smile. “I think I can manage.”
“I understand that your powers are considerable. Carth speaks quite highly of you, and she speaks of your connection to them, along with the control you have over your abilities. There aren’t many who have your capacity to Travel, and some would say that only Lareth rivals you.”
Rivaled. At least she understood she still wasn’t Rsiran’s equal. Not that she would have thought she was. She acknowledged Rsiran was something beyond what she could be. Regardless of how much she had learned and how far along she had come, she still had quite a ways before she reached his level. And he had no augmentation. What he did was all his own power.
It was possible she would never reach Rsiran’s level. Though she had discovered how to anchor her Slides, the same sort of thing Rsiran had done, she still didn’t think she was as powerful as him. With his control over the metal, his way of Sliding was far different than hers, and yet, perhaps that didn’t matter. Having a different technique only allowed her to understand there were many ways in which to Slide.
“I will stay as much as I can,” she said. “There are others who depend upon me.”
“What about the C’than?”
“Would you have welcomed me to the C’than if I weren’t helping the other women?”
Ras studied her, and a hint of a smile crossed his face. “Do you want the answer?”
“I think it’s fair.”
“It is fair, and yet, I’m not sure you want the answer.”
Lucy shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. You have me as part of the C’than now, and because of that, you have to deal with me.”
“Deal with you? You make it sound as if this is some sort of torment for us.”
“Isn’t it?”
“Lucy Elvraeth, we are pleased to have you with us. You have abilities we can benefit from, much like we have abilities you can benefit from.”
“You have knowledge I can benefit from. That’s what I’m hoping to gather.”
“Perhaps,” Ras said.
She smiled. She found him interesting, partly because of his way of addressing her, and partly because she never quite knew where she stood when it came to Ras.
Some of that had to do with the fact that he was powerful in his own way, and perhaps it was in a way similar to what Carth possessed, and part of it was because she knew Carth respected him, almost as much as she respected anyone.
In Lucy’s mind, that mattered. Carth was particular about whom she spent her time with, and having Carth decide to respect someone meant something to Lucy, enough that she thought she should trust Ras.
“You haven’t begun to teach me,” she said.
“Haven’t I?”
He continued along the shoreline, picking his way among the rocks. Ras moved easily, and yet, with his back stooped as it was, with his silver hair, she couldn’t help but wonder how old he was. He had an air of incredible age about him, and Lucy had been around people like that before who left her uncertain. Carth had an agelessness about her, and though she knew the other woman was probably at least twenty years her senior, possibly more than that, she didn’t look it.
“Is this part of your teaching?”
“We can take lessons from everything, Lucy Elvraeth.”
When she had first come to the island, arriving at the tower with the opportunity to learn, Lucy wasn’t sure what she had expected, but it certainly wasn’t this. She had known that Ras had taught Carth, and in doing so had used the game of Tsatsun as a way to hone Carth’s mind. Lucy had never played much, but she didn’t feel as if she had much of a mind for the game, and for the most part, it didn’t matter. She didn’t really want to play. It was a game of strategy, a game where she would develop skills, a way she might be able to overpower Olandar Fahr, but the longer she spent trying to learn it, the less she felt compelled.
Whatever else she did, Tsatsun wasn’t going to be in her future, and it wasn’t something she thought was critical for her understanding of how to conquer Olandar Fahr. There were others who were far more skilled with Tsatsun, not just Carth. Even Daniel had proven to have a certain competence, and she thought he could become more skilled than Lucy ever would be. Daniel had trained his entire life, working with his father, learning about strategy and various things like that. Because of it, she had to believe that Daniel would be a better fit for learning those lessons.
“I guess I expected you to try to teach me games.”
“Games?”
“Tsatsun. The way you taught Carth.”
“Carth is a unique case, as I imagine you know. And though she is now a master of Tsatsun, that wasn’t always the case, and she has benefited from time.”
“I think she said she benefited from working with you.”
“Perhaps,” he said again, smiling and turning toward the water. “How will you benefit, Lucy Elvraeth?”
“Like I said, I’m not much of one for games.”
“Do you believe Tsatsun is only a game?”
“Isn’t it?”
“Some would say that it is, but others would say it’s a way of seeing the world.”
“Which others would say that?”
“Those who truly understand it.”
“I see.”
“But, I won’t force you to try to grasp the intricacies of Tsatsun, not if you have no interest in it. Perhaps there’s another way we can work together, and in doing so, I might be able to help you find your way of learning, your way of serving the C’than.”
“Is it only about serving the C’than?”
“We all must find our way to serve,” he said.
Lucy watched him disappear, moving easily along the shoreline. Something occurred to her. It didn’t seem as if he climbed over the rocks so much as glided above them.
How powerful was Ras?
Not knowing much about the man, she couldn’t help but wonder if he was far more powerful than she had believed. She had known he was skilled, but this was something more—something that suggested a certain type of power.
How did she want to serve?
That was a question she didn’t have the answer to. She wasn’t sure whether she even wanted to serve. She wanted to learn, and she wanted to be a part of something greater, but what if it wasn’t the C’than?
Carth seemed to think it was, and that was part of the reason Carth had brought her here, setting her up with Ras, allowing her the opportunity to learn from him, thinking the two of them would be able to work together in the same way that Carth had once worked with Ras. Lucy wasn’t sure if that was a good fit for her. She didn’t know if Ras was going to help her the way she needed to be helped.
And perhaps service wasn’t what she wanted. At least, not this kind of service. What she wanted was to better understand what happened to the women who had been abducted and tormented, to see if there was any way to help them understand their abilities.
At the same time, she also wanted to better understand the C’than, to see if there was anything she might do to ensure they didn’t continue to harm others.
Without the opportunity to spend time with the C’than, to know their intricacies, it was possible she wouldn’t be able to learn those things.
And it was her way of serving.
More than anything, she thought Ras knew that.
As she hurried to catch up to him, he glanced over, a knowing look in his eyes. She smiled, ignoring it. She would continue to work with him, and she would learn what she could from him, but she wouldn’t be beholden to the C’than as she served.
Ras smiled at her, and once again, she couldn’t help but feel as if he were somehow Reading her.
4
Ryn
Ryn Valeron twisted the figurine in her fingers. She had spent the last few weeks looking at these figurines, trying to understand if there was something she might be able to learn from them, and in all that time, she hadn’t come up with anything. Olandar Fahr viewed these as something important, but she didn’t know why or what they were. For whatever reason, he used these figurines, playing a game with them, searching for this mysterious opponent.
She slid one of the pieces along the surface of the game board, looking up at Olandar Fahr. They sat in a small windowless room, the stone walls pressing in around them. The hearth was unlit, a fire unnecessary in the warm room. The wooden chairs were far more decorative than she would’ve expected for a place like this.
“Is that what you want me to do?”
He offered a hint of a smile. Ever since she had agreed to come with him, leaving the safety and solitude of the temple, some part of him had changed. He treated her differently, and though she was no longer certain why, she doubted it mattered. All that mattered was that she worked as he asked, doing what he wanted of her, and eventually, he promised to show her power.
In order to do the things she wanted, to gain the vengeance she sought, she needed power. Having spent as much time with Olandar Fahr as she had, she believed he could do what he promised, and that there was some way to reach for far more strength than she had managed on her own.
“I have been trying to instruct you on the nature of this game, but…” He moved another piece, and Ryn had a sinking suspicion that her position in the game was far more tenuous than she had believed. She’d thought she had been playing well, but it seemed she had not.
“Why this game?” There were plenty of other games she could work on with him. Growing up in Vuahlu, she had known several different games. Many of the old fishermen liked to play a game they called sticks, dropping small rods of varying lengths onto a game board. It was one she had understood, even if she had never played it well. Even in these lands, Ryn had seen dice thrown at taverns they had visited and knew that though the rules might be a little different in various parts of the world, it was a game played all over. “It seems as if this one takes so long to learn.”
“Which is why it is more exciting.”
Ryn stared at the pieces. Exciting didn’t necessarily describe her experience with it. Exciting would make more sense if there was anything she could fully grasp about this game. The longer she played, the less certain she was that she knew the rules, let alone the overall goal. Somehow, he wanted her to learn how to play so that she would be prepared for another threat, some mysterious opponent he claimed he was playing against.
“I still don’t understand why you think I need to know how to play this.”
He cocked his head, glancing at her before making another move. “Perhaps you don’t need to know how to play, but you can continue to observe.”
“How does that help?”
“Do you see how I’m moving this piece?” He took one of the strange animal-like figurines and slid along the side of the board. It wasn’t his turn, but Ryn knew better than to argue with him and to challenge him on fairness. “Do you see how it’s moving out here?”
She nodded, uncertain what else to say.
“And this one?” This time, he moved a piece along the other side of the board, and once again did so out of turn.
“What’s the point?”
“You don’t need to know the rules to recognize the move.”
“Why would I care?”
He fixed her with a hard-eyed stare. There was always something about the way he looked at her, some expression in his dark eyes that made it difficult to know how to read him. Some of the time, she believed it was anger that caused him to look at her in such a way, and other times, she saw compassion in his eyes.
“Because I care.”
She really needed to be more careful with him. It didn’t make any sense for her to challenge him on something as silly as a game like this. She knew how important this game was to him and how much he believed it determined everything, even if she didn’t necessarily agree.
“And so you want me to notice whether there are other moves made?”
“I think that you can.”
“Why me?” She turned her attention back to the board, thinking through how she would move now that he had taken three turns in a row. It disrupted the flow of the game, though she wasn’t certain that she cared or that it mattered. If she moved one of the central pieces, she would get closer to what he had told her was the goal, yet she had never been very good at playing. In all the time he had been working with her, she hadn’t managed to get to the point where she could even disrupt any of his moves.
“I believe in you, Ryn Valeron.”
“Why me?” She forced herself to look up and meet his gaze as she repeated the question. She needed to hear the answer, even though it would be difficult for her to understand. She thought she needed him to admit to her why he had chosen her, and why he continued to work with her.
She had been offered the opportunity for a different sort of safety, but she had chosen otherwise. By agreeing to come with him, by agreeing to serve, she had allowed herself to be a part of this—whatever this was.
Ryn hadn’t thought he would continue to work with her, trying to demonstrate how to play a game, but when it came to Olandar Fahr, he often did strange things she didn’t fully understand.
“There is much you can see that I cannot.”
“I’m not so sure about th
at.”
He smiled at her, sliding another piece along the board. She still hadn’t taken another turn. “In time, I believe you will be able to do far more than you know.”
Ryn looked back down to the game board. As far as she could tell, there was no other move she could make that would be effective. It was probably what he had wanted anyway, and yet why had he given her a turn? It was unlikely she would have been able to challenge him in the time it had taken him to take those three turns, but it would have been fair, at least.
“Come,” he said as he stood from the board. “It’s time for us to go.”
Ryn looked around the inside of the room. It was a strange place, once again within one of the temples that Olandar Fahr liked to visit, and this one he had simply traveled to, not bothering to visit with the priests like he normally did.
“Where are we going?”
“It’s time for you to observe,” he said.
One of the things he had asked of her was to observe. As she did, she wasn’t sure she had managed to see anything that would be of any use to him. The longer she looked, the more she tried to find answers on his behalf, the less certain she was that she could do so.
“What if I don’t find anything?”
“All I ask is that you tell me what you do see.” He took her arm, and they traveled.
It was a strange sensation each time they did. There was a sense of movement, but as it passed, she felt a hint of nausea deep in the pit of her stomach. They stepped free under a bright sun. It was warm, but not quite hot. The wind gusted out of the south, carrying with it a strange odor that forced her to wrinkle her nose.
“What is that?”
Olandar Fahr hurried forward, unmindful of the question, and stomped over the hard-packed earth. There were dried grasses all around, and something that made her believe this place had been destroyed by fire. Maybe that was what she smelled.
The landscape was flat, and in the distance it ended abruptly, a large swath of blue stretching beyond.
The ocean.
Why would he have brought her here?
The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3 Page 109