The Last Conclave (The Lost Prophecy Book 6)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The Lashiin priest watched her, an unreadable expression on his face. There seemed to be a satisfied smirk residing there that she suspected meant that he wouldn’t tell her. He surprised her by answering.

  “The High Priest of the Urmahne discovered a text in Thealon. There were messages there that have not been seen in generations. From that, we have learned that the gods did not all view the days of the past the same way. The gods were divided, and despite that division, they have sought to create stability, and to reverse the mistake of those earliest gods.”

  “Where is this text now?”

  “One like you would never be allowed to see it.”

  “And why not?”

  “Because you are the result of the tainting. And the Magi think that they can influence the world when, in fact, they are part of the problem.”

  Roelle stared at him, wondering what else he might share, but he fell silent.

  She sighed. There might be nothing for her to learn from him. In which case, it was time for her to return to the city. She could go to Brohmin and ask him what he might know and if there was some way for him to reach Jakob.

  “What now?” Selton asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “What do we do with them?”

  She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking of what they should do with them. “We’ll let the Deshmahne deal with them.” She made a point of pitching her voice loud enough for the Lashiin priest to hear. She was pleased when the priest’s eyes narrowed into a glare.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  When Isandra woke, she half expected the fire to remain. There was a part of her that feared that Jostephon had captured her, and that she would be his prisoner, tormented as he had promised. She was pleasantly surprised to find that she was lying on a comfortable bed, sunlight streaming through the window, the sound of birds chirping drifting through, and the scent of incense burning somewhere near her.

  Her body ached, but it was not the same fire, the same torment that she had experienced when Jostephon was attacking her.

  She took a shaky breath and sat up.

  Jassan was sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the small room. As she sat up, he hurried over and sat on the side of the bed, watching her intently.

  “He escaped,” she said in almost a whisper. “It’s my fault, I thought the teralin would hold him, but—”

  “It is not your fault. He is powerful. I think even Endric was surprised by how powerful that one has become.”

  Endric. The last she remembered of him he had been thrown back against the wall of the cave, slammed into the stone. Had he been tormented with the same fire she had?

  “How is Endric?”

  “Bruised.”

  “Bruises will heal,” she said. At least that was all it was. With the violence that Jostephon had shown, it was possible that he could have been more severely injured. She was thankful that he had not.

  “They will. Even the kind that he sustained.”

  “What kind did he sustain?”

  Jassan chuckled. “I suspect it has been many years since Endric has been bested, and then for him to have been bested by a Mage, no less.”

  “I’m a Mage.”

  Jassan snorted. “You are something, Isandra.”

  She looked up at him, meeting his dark eyes, and saw the concern etched within them despite his laughter.

  “You should not have gone there alone.”

  “We weren’t alone. The merahl came with us.”

  “And then you sent him away.”

  “Endric sent him away.” The room spun for a moment, and she decided to lie back. She kept her eyes closed until it passed. “How much damage did he do as he escaped?”

  “No damage.”

  “But he would have had to fight his way free,” she said.

  “He did not.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “Endric suspects he has gained a similar ability as the High Priest of the Deshmahne.”

  She opened her eyes. “What does that have to do with his ability to escape? Either he had to fight his way free or he did not.”

  “The High Priest has another way of moving. He has been observed in one place and then another, distances that should not be possible for him to travel, yet somehow he manages.”

  If that was how Jostephon managed to escape, they might not have any way of capturing him. If he could travel distances that were impossible for any others, how would they stop him?

  For that matter, how would they find him at all?

  “I thought the teralin would contain him indefinitely, and that we would be able to find out what he was planning.”

  “We thought the same thing. This is not on you,” Jassan said.

  Isandra sighed. She couldn’t help but think that it was partly her fault. She had believed that the neutral teralin would hold him, but clearly it had not been enough.

  “There is something else,” Jassan said.

  “What?”

  “When he escaped, he appeared in the House of the Yahinv.”

  “Why would he have done that?”

  As she asked, she suspected the reason. He had gone after the complete copy of the mahne. Had he been playing her?

  But why? It couldn’t have been that important, otherwise the Antrilii would have stored it more safely. Was there something in it that she had overlooked?

  “I need to go and see what else he might have taken.”

  “The Yahinv have said there is nothing else missing.”

  She found it difficult to believe. If he had risked entering the House of the Yahinv, there had to have been something else he wanted. It couldn’t have only been the mahne.

  She sat up again, this time ignoring the way her head swam. Jassan watched her, concern in his eyes.

  “Help me,” she said.

  He held out his hand, and she took it. It was the first time that she had taken his hand, and it was strange that it required her demanding it of him. He gently pulled her from the bed, and she stood, unsteady for a moment until that passed. She noted her sword resting against a wall, and she nodded to it. Jassan picked it up and helped her as she secured the sheath around her waist.

  “Where am I?” She hadn’t given much thought to where they had taken her following her injury. Was she in the House of the Yahinv? Or somewhere else, someplace where she could recover closer to the Antrilii healers?

  “You are in my home,” Jassan said.

  “Yours? I didn’t know that you had your home in Farsea.”

  And if it was his home, that meant that it was possibly his bed that she had lain in while recovering. For some reason, knowing that made his holding of her hand even more intimate.

  “The Yahinv were willing to house you, but I suggested that you remain with me. I could keep an eye on you better that way.”

  She stood at the doorway and took in the simple yet warm and comfortable-looking room on the other side. She was not surprised to see that Jassan had a sparsely decorated home, though she was surprised to note the paintings that hung on the walls. They were all done with skill. She wondered how many of the Antrilii were artists, and which one Jassan favored.

  “You felt the need to keep an eye on me?”

  “I have encountered men like him before. You escaped him. Not only that, you are the reason he was captured in the first place. Such men seek revenge.”

  “What of the others? The Magi that came with Endric?”

  “They are unharmed. He did not make an attempt on them.”

  Did that mean that he dismissed them as being any sort of threat or that he feared them more than he had feared her?

  Knowing her weakness, knowing that she had been branded and had lost most of her abilities, she suspected the latter.

  Not that she could blame him. Endric hadn’t even been much of a threat to him.

  But the merahl were.

  “I need to find the merahl.”

  “They hun
t for him. It is unlikely they will be successful. If he has the ability to travel great distances as suspected, he could be far from here.”

  He could be, but something told her that he wouldn’t be. There was something Jostephon was after, some reason that he had tried to breed the groeliin. There was something more the High Priest needed than only an army of groeliin.

  If only she had been able to discover what it was.

  It frustrated her that she had not. The opportunity had been there, and all she’d needed was more time with him, and she could have discovered what he was doing with the groeliin. Instead, he had outmaneuvered her.

  “If not the merahl, I need to speak to the other Magi and Endric.”

  “I will take you.”

  They left Jassan’s home and emerged on a street near the edge of the city. A tree grew nearby, branches heavy with the strange leaves that rattled with the breeze. The air carried the fragrance from the tree that was pleasant and soothing. The sun was not particularly warm today, but her cloak kept her more than comfortable.

  Jassan guided her along the street, and she watched the children running, playing happily. They passed a few Antrilii men, all of them armed, but none nearly as fearsome as they were when outside the city and on their patrols. There were a few women, and most of them nodded politely as they passed.

  Jassan took her toward the center of the city, where a two-story building stood near the edge of a central clearing. Inside was a large room, with tables running along the center. She thought maybe it was a meeting hall of sorts, though right now it was empty except for three Magi sitting at one table with Endric across from them.

  She hadn’t spent any time talking to her sister—or Alriyn and Haerlin for that matter—since they had arrived. The only person she’d spoken to had been Endric.

  “I can go with you, if you prefer.”

  She looked over to Jassan and smiled. “I think this is something I must do on my own.”

  “I will remain nearby in case you change your mind.”

  Isandra smiled at him, and wanted to say something more, but what was there for her to say? She appreciated his support and the fact that he was willing to be there for her.

  She crossed the room and took a seat next to Endric. The general studied her a moment, his inquisitive eyes taking in everything before he nodded.

  “It’s good to see you up again,” Endric said.

  “I would say the same.”

  He grunted. “It takes a little more than that to slow me down.”

  “You lost Jostephon,” Alriyn said.

  Isandra turned to face him. He had changed in the time that she’d been away. There was a hardness to him that had never been there before. “I lost nothing. Neither did Endric.” She suspected that Endric had taken the brunt of Alriyn’s accusation before now. “Jostephon managed to escape you also, if I understand correctly.”

  Alriyn’s jaw clenched.

  Isandra noted Karrin watching her, the corners of her eyes twitching. What must her sister be thinking?

  Then there was Haerlin. The man had the gift of prophecy, and though it was weak, he was one of few Magi ever to have been born with such an ability. That gift had all but guaranteed that Haerlin would claim a position on the Council of Elders. What did Haerlin see when he looked at her? Was there anything? Isandra wasn’t completely sure how his ability worked. She knew he caught glimpses, but not much more than that.

  “We have to find him. We have to find what he plans with the groeliin before he manages to cause even more harm,” Isandra said.

  “We?” Alriyn asked.

  She shot him a hard glare. “If you think to exclude me from this, Alriyn, you are mistaken. I was here when he was captured.”

  “And you were gone from Vasha when the Deshmahne attacked us. When we learned of Jostephon’s conversion. We know what he’s willing to do. We know what he’s capable of doing.”

  Isandra glanced at her sister before shifting her gaze to Haerlin and then finally to Alriyn. She didn’t look over at Endric. She had the sense that the general waited for her to say something else, but she wasn’t certain what that was. Endric had come to her, hadn’t he?

  “I was here when Jostephon brought the Deshmahne to the northern mountains. I was here when he attempted to breed dangerous groeliin. I survived the attack on the breeding grounds. I think I have a very distinct understanding of what Jostephon is capable of these days. Perhaps even more than you.”

  “Isandra—” Karrin counseled.

  She looked to her sister. “Would you have me sit silently?”

  “I don’t know what you’ve been through, but you need to recognize that much has changed for us, as well.”

  “So I have heard,” she said, glancing to Endric. It troubled her that Jostephon would wait until now to make his escape. If he’d had the ability to escape this whole time, why wouldn’t he have done so before now? Why wait until the Magi were in Farsea?

  Had he escaped before, he would have drawn more notice. The Antrilii hadn’t anything else to focus on other than Jostephon… and the captured groeliin.

  Which Jostephon didn’t know about.

  As far as she recalled, she hadn’t said anything to him about the groeliin. He wouldn’t have known that she was trying to feed it on the positively charged teralin.

  Did that matter?

  Better yet, could they use it?

  “Why didn’t you return to Vasha?” Karrin asked.

  “Because there was much for me to learn about here.”

  “You knew that Roelle had come north and that she was studying the Antrilii.”

  “I didn’t come north to study the Antrilii. They found me after I’d escaped the Rondalin prison where I’d been held after the Deshmahne branded me. Jassan and his men saved me and honored me with their trust, bringing me to their lands. Had I wanted to study the Antrilii, I could have gone with Roelle.”

  She doubted that she would have been able to join Roelle then anyway. She didn’t have the necessary strength—or the necessary ability with the sword. Before coming to Farsea, she would have resisted learning the sword. Had she gone with Roelle, she likely would have died, destroyed by the very groeliin she now sought to understand.

  “But you stayed here. Why else would you have been here if not for the Antrilii?”

  “I am here to study the groeliin. Nothing more.”

  Endric watched her, and she saw a hint of a smirk on his face that seemed to challenge her assertion that she was here for nothing more. She resisted the urge to look back to Jassan standing near the door. He did not need to know that he was part of the reason she had wanted to remain in the Antrilii lands. Isandra hadn’t even known that he was at first.

  “The Antrilii don’t study the groeliin. They hunt them,” Alriyn said.

  “From what I’ve seen, the women of the House of Yahinv study them, and what they have learned over the years could be of value to the Magi,” she said. “Would the Council disagree with that?”

  No one answered her for long moments.

  “What now?” Karrin asked. “Will you return and rejoin the Council?”

  Isandra took a deep breath. She had given it much thought, and each time she did, she came up with the same answer each time. How could she rejoin the Council? How could she leave these lands and abandon all that she had seen, especially now that she knew what she did?

  How could she hope to rejoin the Magi now that she had no abilities?

  She could use the sword, and she had some capacity to use the manehlin, but nothing like what the other Magi possessed.

  Perhaps she should have taken Jostephon up on his offer. If she had, would she have regained her connection to her abilities, or would he have betrayed her?

  Probably betrayed her.

  Which left her in no different a place than she was now.

  “The Antrilii might not realize it, but I’m needed here,” Isandra said. She felt that with certainty. She needed
to help them find a way to capture Jostephon and discover what he had been up to.

  And an idea had begun to come to her. One she didn’t think Jostephon would even expect, and one she wasn’t certain would work, but all the time that she had spent with the captured groeliin had to have been worth something, didn’t it?

  She noticed Endric watching her. Did he know what she was contemplating? It was unlikely. He didn’t know what she had done with the groeliin. She wasn’t sure that it would even work. But it was worth trying.

  “Isandra?” Karrin asked.

  She blinked, clearing those thoughts from her mind, focusing her attention back on her sister. They had once been so close, but that was before, a time when Isandra had wanted to sit on the Council of Elders, a time when such things seemed important. It no longer did, not as it once had. Now, she saw other things as important, though she wasn’t sure that she was strong enough to do what needed to be done. She was strong enough to try, and she would. The gods knew that she would.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “If this works, you will feel a soft burning on your skin.”

  Isandra looked up at the petite head of the university. She held a length of metal—and Isandra had not been surprised to see that it was teralin. It seemed that teralin was used in many more things—and in many more ways—than she had ever imagined. What surprised her was the fact that this woman—the chancellor at the university—knew how to manipulate teralin.

  Alriyn stood behind Alison in the small room. There were no windows. Other than the cot, and a table near the door that contained a few of Alison’s items as well as Isandra’s belongings, the room was empty. Alriyn allowed Alison to be the one to use the teralin rod. He watched her carefully, and Isandra was aware of the swirl of manehlin around him. It was subtle, but visible enough that she noticed it. She didn’t recall seeing manehlin around the Mage before. And when she had been in the meeting hall with the others, she didn’t think that she had seen it, either, but now that there were fewer people, she was aware of it.