“Not our gods,” Della said. “We know of the Elder Stones—fire, night, wisdom, healing, and the fifth.”
“What’s the fifth stone?” Daniel glanced from Carth to Della. “If it’s not here, what is it?” When neither answered, realization dawned on him. “You don’t know.”
Carth shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. And it’s possible that the Healer doesn’t know, either.”
Della settled her hands on the table. “None of my visions have revealed that to me. I have searched, knowing that will be the key for us understanding exactly what it is that they intend, but unfortunately there is no clear answer.”
“Does Rsiran know?”
“It’s possible he saw something when he held the crystals. Rsiran was given the gift of the Great Watcher, the ability to sit above the world, to know the world, to know the way that power lives within it. If any were able to understand what the fifth stone would be, it would be Rsiran.”
“Why are you convinced that there are only five stones?” Brusus asked.
“There are five trees. There are five crystals.”
“There aren’t any more than that?”
“Five,” she said again.
“Then what’s the purpose of the crystals and the trees?”
“They hold the power of the elders. That is the purpose of the Great Watcher. Oversight.”
“Then why would they want to attack the trees?” Daniel couldn’t quite understand what the connections were, only that he seemed caught up in something that was beyond him. They were talking about gods!
“What has your experience been with the crystals?” Della asked him.
Daniel shrugged. “I wasn’t able to hold one, so I don’t really have an experience.”
“Exactly.”
He frowned. His mind churned, thinking about the various possibilities and moves, already beginning to put it into terms of a Tsatsun game. He wasn’t sure if that was the best way of organizing his thoughts, but after training with Carth for as long as he had, it was the way his mind had begun to work.
He had not been able to hold one of the crystals, and it seemed as if the crystals themselves had always made a choice. Rayen had been able to hold one. And then there was the sense he’d had when visiting Ih. The shadows had engulfed him, claiming him, surrounding him with power.
His breath caught.
He glanced at Della and then to Carth. He could see the same look of understanding on Carth’s face as had to be on his.
“What is it?” Brusus asked.
“Are they using the trees to remove the restrictions on who can handle the stones?” Daniel watched Della for confirmation. “The attack on the trees was never meant to destroy them, was it?”
“I have wondered if the man who leads the Ai’thol—”
“Olandar Fahr,” Carth said. When Della frowned, Carth leaned forward. “His name is Olandar Fahr.”
“I have wondered if Olandar Fahr does not yet know if destroying the trees will destroy his intention. So he found another way for him and his people to reach for the stones. They can take the power from the stones, and they can use it, no longer dependent upon the restrictions that the Great Watcher has long placed.”
Daniel tried to understand, but this was far more than what he thought he could make sense of.
“We must find the fifth stone,” Della said.
“I’ve been looking,” Carth said. “There are no rumors of a fifth stone. In all of my travels, there has been nothing.”
“You knew that there were five stones?”
“Not quite the way that the Healer is saying, but I recognized there was a finite amount. Her argument does make sense.”
“And you think Rsiran knows where the fifth stone is?” Brusus asked.
“Think of what Rsiran told us after his experience holding the crystals. He sat at the hand of the Great Watcher. He may not recall everything that he saw and everything that he knew, but it’s in him.”
“And if there is anyone who can draw it out, it would be Olandar Fahr,” Carth said. “I’ve met him. I have seen how brutal he can be. And I know that regardless of what we might plan, he will already have a counter for it. He is nothing if not prepared.”
“Then we need to find something unexpected,” Rayen said.
“While it may be unexpected to us, it’s unlikely to be unexpected to him,” Carth continued. “As I said, he is nothing if not prepared.”
Somehow they had to find a way to overwhelm this man, but what would it be? How would they ever figure out some way of doing so?
If they didn’t, what would happen if this Olandar Fahr managed to acquire the power of the Elder Stones?
“What of this Council of Elders?” Daniel asked.
“The Council is comprised of those the Great Watcher has deemed worthy,” Della said.
“Worthy?”
“Ages ago, there were those who held each of the Elder Stones. They were given the ability to use that power, but only at the approval of the Great Watcher.”
“Let me guess, there were five of them,” Daniel said.
Della smiled. “There were five. One for each Elder Stone.”
“What was the purpose of the Council of Elders?” Brusus asked.
“Guidance.”
“Not guidance,” Carth said. “With power like that, there would be more than guidance. There would be ruling.”
“Perhaps,” Della said. “And yet, if the right person was selected, they would prove to be a wise ruler. It was a time of peace, at least from what I can See from my visions. It was a time when those with power understood that they needed to use it judiciously. It was a time when those with power understood that though they may have it, they should not necessarily wield it.”
“But if Olandar Fahr is trying to rebuild the Council of Elders, there will be others with the same power as him.”
“He doesn’t want to sit on the Council of Elders,” Carth said.
“I thought you said he wanted power.” Brusus frowned as he glanced from Carth to Della.
The various moves played out within Daniel’s mind. He thought about Tsatsun, the way the game was played, the way that it was won. How would Olandar Fahr intend to move the Stone?
There would be only one way.
“He doesn’t want to be on the Council of Elders. He wants to lead it. He wants to rule over it.”
“You said there were five members on this Council,” Brusus said.
“Five members on the Council,” Daniel said. “But it’s the Great Watcher who decides who is granted that power.” He turned to Della, fixing her with a stare. “That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”
“I suspect that it is.”
When Brusus shook his head, Daniel met his eyes. “Don’t you see? He doesn’t want to sit upon the Council of Elders because that’s not where the power is. The power is in deciding who has it. He wants to be the Great Watcher.”
Lucy shifted slightly, looking uncomfortable. Not for the first time, he wished he had the ability to Read her as well as she Read him. “What is it?”
The others turned toward her and she shook her head. “It’s about Olandar Fahr.”
Carth frowned at her.
“He’s after power, but I think there’s a reason he’s after power,” Lucy said.
“What reason is that?” Della asked.
“He’s not the only one chasing power. I think there’s another.”
Carth paled, and Daniel realized Lucy hadn’t shared that with her. What was going on between the two women? “If there’s another, then he’s playing a different game than we knew.” Carth got to her feet and started pacing.
“What do you fear?” Rayen asked.
“I worry that those we’ve thought are a different kind of Ai’thol aren’t that at all. What if they’re all tied to this other Olandar Fahr is facing?”
Daniel’s breath caught. “Does that mean we’re the Stone?”
Cart
h met his eyes but said nothing. She didn’t need to. The worry on her face was clear.
Epilogue
Rsiran could barely move. His entire body hurt, pain that he had come to know far better than he ever wanted. It was the kind of pain that filled him, staying with him, and it was the kind of pain that carried with it a promise of more.
Every so often, he managed to roll over, but when he did, everything hurt anew.
He lost track of how long he’d been here. Each day was the same. Occasionally, someone would come, abuse him the same way as Olandar Fahr had, demanding information about the sacred crystals, the Elder Trees, and various other items that they thought he might be able to provide.
He refused to answer.
The longer he’d been here, the more he had come to understand the reasoning.
There was something Olandar Fahr needed from him, but so far, he hadn’t managed to get it. Rsiran wasn’t going to be the reason he acquired knowledge that had been forbidden to him, and he wasn’t going to be the reason the Elder Stones fell into his control.
When the door opened, Rsiran barely looked up. He sat in the middle of the floor, staring at it. He had taken to making marks on the floor, using his body to conceal them, trying to keep track of how long he’d been captive here, but he had lost track.
“Do you still believe that you will one day escape?” The deep bass notes of Olandar Fahr’s voice shook him.
Every time he had come to visit, there had been new pain, new wounds inflicted upon him, and yet, Rsiran welcomed them. Either the man would eventually choose to destroy him, or he would not. As far as Rsiran could tell, Olandar Fahr needed him for something.
If he could keep him from getting what he needed, he would consider that a victory.
“It doesn’t matter,” Rsiran said.
“Your people believe that you will return and lead them.”
Rsiran looked up at Olandar Fahr. The pain made it difficult for him to focus, but he’d grown accustomed to pain. There were times when he felt as if he had known pain his entire life, and there were times when he wondered if perhaps it wouldn’t be better for him just to lie back, relax, and let the pain overwhelm him. Maybe he could finally rest and be at peace.
Yet, if he did that, what would happen to Jessa?
She was the reason he kept going. She was the reason he had always kept going, wanting to be there for her, to protect her, and to protect those they cared about. As much as he had fought, he thought that he had managed to succeed. Because of his fighting, he had delayed the Forger attack. He had prevented them from gaining a foothold, and it was because of him that they had managed to keep the Ai’thol from becoming even more powerful.
“My people are more than just me.”
“If your people were more than just you, they would have attacked. You see, one thing we have come to understand is the role you play. You have always thought you served as a layer of protection to your people, but you have diminished them. If only you would have allowed them to learn, to fight, to prove themselves, perhaps they would have been strong enough.”
The words sat within him, and he let them fill his mind. There was nothing untrue about that. “Did you come to torment me with that?”
“I came to offer you an opportunity.”
“What opportunity is that?”
“An opportunity to make a choice.”
Rsiran looked back down to the ground. His gaze skimmed along the tile that he had scratched, digging his nail into it over and over again with each passing day. He had come to learn that there was one direction that allowed him to scratch most easily, to make his mark upon the tile, so that he could keep a tally of his days. Dozens upon dozens of days had been spent in captivity. All of them had been passed in torment, waiting for the moment his captors would choose to end it.
He worried that his people would decide to trade for him. If they did, they might give up something that they could and should not. He wasn’t that valuable.
“What choice would you have me make?”
“I think that I would rather show you.”
Olandar Fahr grabbed him, lifting him easily. Rsiran tried to fight, but there wasn’t any strength left within him. When he was dragged out of the room, he attempted to Slide but found that he still could not.
Either Olandar Fahr had some way of preventing him from Sliding, or they had been dosing him with slithca—or something like it. In all the time that he’d been captive, he had never detected what they did to prevent him from reaching his abilities, but there was no questioning that he had been separated from them. Every time he thought they were close to returning, they would fade once more, the torture renewed.
He focused on lorcith, on any metal, and while he had a sense of it, he wasn’t able to do anything with it. Every time he tried to push or pull on the metal, he failed. Maybe that was the effect of whatever they had been administering to him too.
Worse, what choice had he but to take the offered food and water? The alternative was death, and while there were times he wanted nothing more than to die, he also wasn’t willing to actively participate in his own death.
Perhaps that was a mistake.
They headed down a long hallway. The walls were smooth, made of a dark stone, and there was a sense of lorcith within them. It was everywhere here, though it was not plain lorcith. There was something else with it, as if they had added something, an alloy most likely, but it was one that he wasn’t able to identify.
At the end of the hall, heat pressed upon him.
“Where are you bringing me?”
Olandar Fahr chuckled. “I told you. A choice.”
“Why do I get the sense that this isn’t a choice at all?”
“Ah, Lareth, have you no faith?”
“I didn’t take you for someone who had faith.”
“Then you haven’t been paying attention.”
Rsiran tried to think of his previous conversations with Olandar Fahr, of which there had been many, but they all blended together. Most of them dealt with his interest in the crystals. He spoke of the Great Watcher often, but there seemed to Rsiran a distinct lack of understanding about what the Great Watcher meant to Rsiran and his people.
That was to his benefit. If Olandar Fahr knew more about the Great Watcher, if he knew that Rsiran himself had stood alongside him, the knowledge of all creation flowing through him, he would want that for himself. This was a man who chased power, but worse, he was a man who knew how to use—and abuse—the power that he acquired.
In the distance, a reddish glow caught his attention. Rsiran found himself staring off into the distance, trying to make out what he saw but failing.
It probably didn’t matter anyway. When this was done, whenever Olandar Fahr had shown him what he intended to show him, he would most likely return him to the cell. More days would pass. At least he was seeing something other than the same familiar walls. It bothered him that should be excitement for him, but even more than that, it bothered him that he feared losing the record he’d kept of the number of days he’d been here.
They Slid.
It was a strange sensation, Sliding again. It had been months since he had, and even longer since he was the one in control of the Slide, and he felt the familiar sense of movement, the shimmering of colors, and the sense that he could step off the Slide, away from it, and remain in between. Very few people understood that there was someplace in between, but as they emerged from the Slide, Rsiran couldn’t help but think that Olandar Fahr knew there was.
Heat pushed on his back. There was movement all around him, and the sense of flickering, that of dozens of people Sliding, all of them flickering in and out, and he realized that Olandar Fahr had paused in the middle of the Slide.
“This is what you wanted to show me?”
“Ah, but Lareth, you failed to understand what you’re seeing.”
“I see just fine. You think to impress me with your control over Sliding.”
/> “I prefer the older term for it.”
“If you prefer to call it Traveling, then go ahead. I will call it what I know.”
“And I will ask you to watch.”
There were more and more people flickering around him. Dozens of them. They all appeared, concentrated in this space.
“What is it that you want to show me?”
“Just a moment, Lareth.”
They Slid again, completing the rest of the Slide, and emerged with a bright red glowing behind him. It was the source of the heat, and with it, he suddenly knew where they were. All this time, and he hadn’t discovered that?
“Look,” Olandar Fahr said.
Rsiran stared in the direction the man pointed, and as he did, his breath caught, his heart hammering.
“Haern?”
Olandar Fahr chuckled. “Yes. Your son has tried to come for you on his own. And now this is your choice.”
“What choice?”
“Provide the information that I seek, or watch me cut down your son.”
“No.”
“You would prefer to see him die? I assure you that I would have no qualms in doing so.”
Rsiran continued to stare, watching, and as he did, he tried to call out, to reach for Haern, but Olandar Fahr pulled him into a Slide, stepping off the Slide and into the place in between.
“That is your choice, Lareth. Choose, but I will only give you a few more moments to do so.”
“You will call your people off?”
Olandar Fahr stared at him. “I promise only that I won’t attack him.”
“That’s not enough.”
Haern wasn’t strong enough of a fighter to hold off the Ai’thol like that. He might have gained some skill, and if he had continued his training with Galen, then it was possible he would be able to fight, to hold off some of the Ai’thol, but with the dozens Rsiran had seen, there would be no way for Haern to survive.
“That is all I can offer.”
The choice was easy—disturbingly so. He wanted nothing to happen to Haern, and everything he’d done over the years had been to protect his son from the possibility of this.
The Elder Stones Saga Boxset: Books 1-3 Page 154