The Last Conclave (The Lost Prophecy Book 6)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Jakob nodded. “Dendril will form another point on a triangle, and when we are in place, I am hopeful that we can force him toward me.”

  “Be careful,” Novan said.

  Jakob could tell how difficult it was for Novan to not attempt to tell him what to do. Their relationship had changed, especially of late. But Jakob had never had the sense that Novan didn’t care for him. Now it seemed even more pronounced, a true concern for his well-being, and a desire for him to be safe.

  “This is necessary,” Jakob said.

  He felt that with total certainty. And he was sure that if they managed to stop Jostephon, it was only the first of many steps yet to be taken, but he knew it was a dangerous one.

  He nodded to Dendril, and the old Denraen general clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”

  He shifted. Jakob carried them to another point on the mountain near enough that they were still able to detect the teralin deposit where he’d left Novan, but here, there was another deposit deep within the earth. He didn’t think that Jostephon was here, but he wasn’t too far away.

  As Jakob turned, readying to shift away, to form another point on the triangle as they attempted to contain Jostephon, Dendril grabbed Jakob’s arm.

  “Be careful. I don’t know Jostephon well—not anymore—but when I did, he had a bright mind.”

  “Raime has a bright mind, and we managed to stop him.”

  “This will be different. Raime works from a place of knowledge, but it’s been one he has had to work at. Jostephon was born to his abilities, and there is something quite different about having them from birth and taking them.”

  “I didn’t have any abilities at birth, either,” Jakob said.

  “Which is why I want you to be careful. You must be powerful. I imagine after Alyta gifting you with the ahmaean from generations of damahne that you would be, but having power and knowing how to use it are very different things. Jostephon knows how to use his power.”

  Jakob could only nod.

  He left Dendril, and he shifted.

  This one took him to the far side of the mountains. There was an enormous deposit of now positively charged teralin beneath him, and Jakob reached into it, connecting to it so that it augmented his ability to draw upon the ahmaean. The connection was strong, and he continued to pull upon it, feeling the way that it surged.

  A trail of blackness began filling the space between them, within their triangle.

  Groeliin.

  They hadn’t been here before, which meant they had either shifted here, or they appeared from somewhere beneath the ground. If it was beneath the ground, Jakob thought he would have detected them when he was probing with his ahmaean, and he’d sensed nothing.

  Now there was a very distinct sense of groeliin.

  It pressed against him and pressed against his ahmaean.

  Jakob reached toward the teralin and drew more strength. With that, he connected to the other deposits of teralin, using that connection to reach toward Novan and Dendril, and they created a barrier out of their ahmaean.

  Dark groeliin energy bulged against it.

  How long could he hold this?

  It would have to be long enough to not only contain the groeliin, but to find a way to capture Jostephon. Now, he was even more certain that Jostephon was here. The man wouldn’t have brought the groeliin here, either summoning them or finding a way to shift them here, were there not some reason.

  Jakob maintained his connection to the teralin and started forward.

  As he did, he constricted the barrier that he’d erected, much like he had done with the groeliin in the daneamiin forest. With that came an increased pressure upon him, and Jakob was forced to fight against it. Even with his strength augmented by the teralin, as well as the added ahmaean and connection with Dendril and Novan, he wasn’t sure how long he could he hold this. It would depend on how many groeliin were present, and he suspected it would depend on how much strength Jostephon was able to manage as he attempted to counter him.

  More darkness began to fill the mountain valley.

  He needed to act quickly. If he didn’t, and the groeliin increased in number, they might have more than they would be able to withstand. If any of the powerful groeliin appeared, Jakob worried that he might be prevented from shifting—much as he attempted to prevent Jostephon from shifting.

  Jakob continued forward. As he did, he drew upon the teralin, using it to help him solidify his connection to his ahmaean, and the energy that he saw around everything became a solid sheet.

  He would hold this as long as he had to.

  Another step, and at least it didn’t seem as if more groeliin were appearing. There remained a pressure upon him, and there remained the sense of pounding, but nothing else.

  Moving forward again, shapes began to appear ahead of him. At first, he saw three, then five, before seven shapes became clear to him.

  These groeliin were like the ones he’d encountered here before, and then again in the daneamiin lands after leaving the nemerahl in the fibers. Each of them carried a sword—and their swords were black as night, negatively charged teralin.

  The groeliin pressed their ahmaean through the swords, using it to augment their own abilities. Jakob didn’t need to search back through the memories that he could track along the fibers to know that was something different, and unusual, for the groeliin to do. He’d experienced it before.

  If he eased his connection to the teralin, he could lose the chance to trap Jostephon, if he was indeed here, and he wouldn’t be able to augment his speed and ability.

  He would only be able to fight the groeliin with his sword, using his knowledge of catahs and his natural speed and ability.

  The groeliin moved all at once.

  Jakob had faced massive groeliin before. They were the ones that had formed a cage around Alyta in the Tower and had held her in place. If these groeliin surrounded him, he suspected a similar outcome. Seven creatures would be too many for him to manage.

  Somehow, he would have to find a way.

  Jakob took a deep breath and unsheathed.

  Connected to the teralin as he was, his ahmaean augmented as it was, his sword blazed brightly.

  There was no darkness to Neamiin, not as there had been before. That worried him for a moment—but only a moment. He didn’t have time to focus and consider what else might have happened to his sword. It was forged by the daneamiin, a creation of brightness and darkness, and seemed to have traits of both positively and negatively charged teralin, yet it was neither.

  He attacked.

  His goal was to reduce the numbers of groeliin he faced, but three of the creatures reached him at once.

  Jakob flowed through his patterns, emptying his mind, drawing upon his connection to the ahmaean, his mind splitting, but with a soft sensation, none of the pain that he once had experienced.

  Time seemed to slow.

  The groeliin pushed against his shifting of time, but he was too fast, and he cut down two of them before they could react. Two more took their place, and Jakob continued to spin, dancing through his patterns, letting the catahs fill him.

  He wouldn’t be fast enough.

  The idea of causing the ground tremble and open, as he had in his first encounter with the groeliin, posed a different challenge this time. Even if he thought he could do so in a safe way, he wasn’t sure it would be effective in stopping these groeliin. More than that, he ran the risk of exposing them to the teralin and allowing them a chance to change the polarity. He needed to maintain this connection to it if he was to hold Jostephon.

  Jakob diverted a slightly larger amount of ahmaean his way, using it to help open his mind even further.

  There was a pinching feeling within him, a tugging that threatened to tear at his mind, and then once more, time slowed.

  Two more groeliin fell.

  Three remained.

  They fought together, attacking him in sequence, pushing him from one t
o the other, and fighting with an amazing level of skill. Jakob marveled at how the groeliin had mastered the sword so quickly.

  But then, had he not mastered the sword as quickly?

  Jakob had to defeat these groeliin, and pulled on his ahmaean again, drawing as much as he dared.

  His mind shattered.

  He forced himself to ignore the pain and felt as if the fibers of time stopped moving.

  He could see everything with an immediacy and could see the way the groeliin might attack, the movements they might make, and the likelihood that each attack would come.

  Was this a gift from the nemerahl?

  When he had rejoined the fibers, the nemerahl had gifted Jakob that connection to them, and granted him the ability to finally look forward and peer more easily into the future, to see the possibilities. Was this a result of that?

  He cut down the three groeliin.

  They fell, the swords released from their grip, and Jakob allowed time to surge forward once more.

  With a sigh, he reasserted his connection to the teralin deposit.

  He noted pressure, but it was on the far side of the triangle he’d formed.

  Novan and Dendril.

  How are they faring? Jakob had needed to slow time to defeat the groeliin, but neither man had a similar ability. Both had experience fighting groeliin, and both had enough skill to hold their own against the groeliin, but these weren’t ordinary groeliin.

  Jakob continued forward, squeezing the barrier that he directed in front of him.

  If nothing else, he could assist the other two by compressing the barrier. If he could do that, he could force the groeliin toward the center of the triangle, and toward where he suspected Jostephon would be found.

  Two more groeliin appeared, and Jakob drew upon his ahmaean enough to slightly slowing time, enough to defeat these two groeliin.

  He continued forward.

  With each step, he pressed outward, using the teralin deposit deep beneath the ground to augment his abilities.

  Jakob lost count of how many groeliin appeared. When they did, he redirected his connection to the ahmaean, using it to slow things enough for him to cut them down. So far, it seemed as if Novan and Dendril still stood, and still fought, drawing on the connection to the teralin.

  How much longer would they be able to withstand the groeliin attack?

  Jakob suspected that he drew the brunt of the attack, but if even three groeliin attacked Novan—or Dendril—they might be more than what either man was able to withstand.

  There was a faltering of the connection.

  One of the others was either injured—or nearly so.

  Jakob needed to hurry. If he didn’t, someone would fall. Jakob needed Novan and didn’t want to lose everything that Novan knew, everything that he had mastered from years spent studying a multitude of books during his travels, but he didn’t want to lose Dendril, either. He suspected there was much that the old Denraen general would be able to teach with his years of experience.

  Another pair of groeliin appeared, and Jakob rushed forward, cutting them down.

  Now he ran, dragging with him the barrier that he’d created, forcing it into place. It came slowly, and he felt resistance against it, but he ignored that resistance as he formed it.

  And then, he saw a Mage standing near the center of the triangle that Jakob formed.

  The man was tall—as most Magi were. He had close-cropped, gray hair and his skin was wrinkled, distorting the dark tattoos working along his arms and up onto his neck and even on his face. A cloud of dark ahmaean swirled around him. Three groeliin surrounded him, each bearing a sword, and each more massive than any of the others Jakob had faced while reaching this point.

  Jostephon looked away from Jakob, his attention directed toward Novan as the historian approached, his staff blazing through a series of movements that seemed impossibly fast. Dendril approached, his sword slicing with cruel efficiency as he cut down groeliin after groeliin.

  Jakob had worried about them, and perhaps he still should, but both men fared as well as he could hope. Novan had blood streaming down one arm, but it didn’t seem to affect his ability to use the staff. Dendril also had sustained injuries, and he continued forward, ignoring the effect of those wounds.

  They used ahmaean to seal off their injuries.

  They wouldn’t be able to do so for very long. At some point, the connection to the ahmaean would weaken—especially for Dendril who already had a lessened connection to it. Anything that Jakob did now would have to be quick. He would have to be the one to confront those groeliin surrounding Jostephon.

  Jakob dragged the barrier forward with him. He felt pressure from behind him now, as if groeliin were attempting to arrive and attack, but were unable to do so. He would have to deal with them next, but first, he needed to end this and stop Jostephon.

  The Eldest used his control of his dark ahmaean and pushed outward.

  That was the resistance Jakob detected.

  He attempted to squeeze his barrier forward but was limited by Jostephon’s resistance.

  This would be as far as he could go.

  Jakob took a deep breath, drawing upon his ahmaean, pulling it through the teralin as a way to augment it, and stepped forward.

  The first of the three groeliin faced him. The creature carried a great sword that he swung with two hands. The groeliin towered over Jakob and rippled with muscle, but it was the dark markings branded upon its flesh that drew his attention. Ahmaean flowed around the creature, and into the sword it carried.

  This would be a difficult fight against even a single groeliin. If the other two turned toward him, would he even have a chance?

  Jakob surged through his sword, using Neamiin as a way to focus his connection to his ahmaean. He needed more focus and needed to intensify it, but feared that he would not be able to hold the barrier if he pulled too much.

  It would have to work.

  He needed to slow time, but the way the groeliin used his ahmaean told Jakob that what he’d done before would likely not work now. This was a creature that could oppose him and was more dangerous than any save the twelve groeliin he’d seen in these mountains before.

  There was something he could try, but he wasn’t sure whether it would work.

  He needed control over the fibers. There was only one way he knew how to do that, one way that had worked for him in the past. He turned the ahmaean upon himself.

  Everything slowed.

  Jakob stepped into attack, and even as he did, the groeliin managed to counter.

  With his connection being what it was, he hadn’t expected the creature to resist.

  Already he could see the way that Jostephon’s ahmaean—the darkness that he controlled—bulged against the barrier. Jakob held it, but how much longer would he be able to maintain it? His mind already ached, threatening to shatter if he pushed too hard, and he doubted that he would be able to use his abilities if that happened. They would be trapped here then, no way to shift away, and no way for him to capture Jostephon.

  If he couldn’t capture Jostephon, what hope did he have of capturing and stopping Raime?

  Jakob focused on the catahs.

  If nothing else, that had to be the advantage he had over the groeliin. Jakob had trained with Endric, and with Brohmin, both swordmasters. Who could these groeliin have trained with that could rival that training?

  The groeliin moved quickly, but more slowly than they would have had Jakob not slowed time. He didn’t want to think of what it would have been like had he faced these groeliin without attempting to slow time.

  He heard a grunt nearby.

  The barrier trembled.

  Dark ahmaean pressed against it, and Jakob could feel his control weakening.

  He knew that he had to not only act quickly, he had to fight efficiently, and intelligently. Any loss of concentration would expose him to danger and cause him to make a mistake. Against a creature like this, a mistake would be d
eadly.

  Jakob continued to move through his patterns, using that as his way of having an advantage over the groeliin. He darted through the catahs, slicing with the efficiency that had been drilled into his mind during the practice sessions with Endric and then with Brohmin, and honed during his previous battles with the groeliin.

  He was more skilled than this creature.

  The massive groeliin might have size and strength on him, and clearly had a connection to the ahmaean that allowed it to use powers that were similar to Jacob’s, but he was not a swordmaster. Jakob was.

  The groeliin made a mistake. The massive blade faltering in its movement, and Jakob took advantage, cutting into the creature’s massive chest, before stabbing through its neck.

  The groeliin staggered to the side before falling.

  Novan and Dendril both fought the other two groeliin.

  Neither fared as well as Jakob had.

  Jostephon remained fixed in place, pushing out with his dark ahmaean. Jakob was surprised for a moment that he didn’t move, and didn’t attempt to attack, but realized the pressure Jakob used with his ahmaean—being augmented by the positively charged teralin—prevented Jostephon from moving.

  He had a moment—perhaps nothing more than that—to help both Novan and Dendril.

  Dendril staggered, slipping. A massive blade swung toward his head.

  Jakob screamed and jumped across the distance to Dendril, his sword gripped in both hands, and he stabbed the back of the groeliin.

  The creature fell forward, crushing Dendril.

  Jakob pulled his sword free and spun toward Novan.

  The historian was a blur with his staff, teralin along its length flaring with a bright, brilliant light, but he had been cut; blood streamed down his sides, and his normally bright eyes had lost some of their luster.

  The historian would not last much longer.

  Jakob slipped forward, dropping to the ground, and sliced across the back of the groeliin’s legs before launching up and swinging his blade around, cutting off the groeliin’s arm.