Darkness Rising (The Endless War Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Only Atenas?” she asked.

  Cheneth looked at her over his glasses, his dark eyes taking on a harder expression, one she’d learned not to challenge. “Yes.”

  “The draasin will not tolerate this for much longer,” she said, bringing the conversation back around to where they had started.

  Cheneth’s eyes changed, shifting from a steel blue to a flint gray so quickly that Alena thought she’d imagined it, but she’d seen it happen before, even if she didn’t know how he managed to do it. “No. They will not. There is too much at stake, too many that can be harmed. We can no longer sit back, training without focus.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Only that I can see the shifting winds and the currents flowing through the earth. A change is afoot, Alena Lagaro, one that threatens to disrupt us all.”

  “The riders?” That was what Alena suspected, though in all the time she’d studied in the barracks, she hadn’t discovered the answer.

  Cheneth opened his book and turned a few pages before plucking his pen from the jar and dipping it into his inkwell. “They are a part of it, as are you, as is your student. The flows swirl strongly around him, Alena. You must see him trained.”

  Alena balled the cloth of her tunic. Teaching had never been a strong suit for her, and she struggled even more after losing her last student. It was part of the reason she left Atenas in the first place. Her refusal had created the first wedge, and now… now she didn’t think she could ever return. She could still serve the order, but she would do it in her way.

  “I’ve done what is needed to test him so far,” she said.

  “Yes, but I fear it isn’t enough. His loyalties are fickle, and something deeper and dark motivates him. You must find a way to bring him around.”

  “And if I can’t?” she asked, wondering if she would have to search for him and find a way to bring him back to the barracks.

  When Cheneth paused, ink dripped on the page. He made no effort to move or to stop it. “That is not an option.”

  2

  Alena

  The college strives for neutrality, but some question this strategy, fearing the repercussions. They would have action rather than observation. I admit to uncertainty, as I wonder if Atenas discovered the power building to the south.

  —Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars

  Water pulled on Alena, coming from the stream tumbling through the wide valley. She had the sense that it had been wider at one point and rolled through with more intensity, but it had faded to little more than a trickle here. Farther downstream, it widened and joined with the Feran River as it flowed toward Atenas and out into the sea. She’d been so long away from Atenas that she barely remembered the city, but she remembered the way the water burbled to the north of it, the earthiness of the air, and the overwhelming sense of power that came from the Tower of Atenas.

  She washed her hands in the stream, rinsing the film of dirt from them. The draasin pressed into her awareness, a constant sense that she tried to ignore but managed only to suppress to a low buzzing in the back of her mind. The three trapped draasin were agitated, more so than usual, and she hadn’t discovered why.

  “Has he returned?”

  Alena glanced over her shoulder to see Bayan leaning against the tree. Her hair was dark with a reddish hint, and with her rich, deeply tanned skin, Bayan could have come from Rens. She’d tried using that as an excuse not to teach, but Cheneth saw through her ploy.

  “No.” She stood and wiped her hands on her jacket, shifting it so that it kept the hilt of her sword exposed. That was habit more than anything, but she didn’t want to risk getting caught off guard again.

  “What if he doesn’t return? You’re willing to let him wash out?”

  She ignored the accusation. Alena knew her reputation, but there was simply no way around that, not with what she needed to do. And if what Cheneth told her was true, she couldn’t simply allow Volth to wash out. Only, she wasn’t sure how to find him. Each day that passed, she expected him to return, but each day, he did not. “We continue as we have. You study and learn.”

  “He was sent here by the commander. You don’t think that puts you in danger of—”

  “That puts me in no more danger than any other time.” That was true, as far as Bayan knew.

  “But the commander—”

  “Knows the rates of washout as well as any. I don’t owe it to the commander to ensure his favorite passes through.”

  There was a flicker of hurt and anger that crossed Bayan’s eyes. A part of Alena considered sharing her secret, but it was one that Cheneth hadn’t cleared, and Eldridge still hadn’t given her a read on Bayan. Bad enough that she had to trust Volth, especially with as little as she knew about him, no matter how strong his jawline or how well he filled out his jacket and breeches.

  “Now, if you’re done asking about someone not even here, can you tell me why we’re so far away from the barracks?” Alena asked.

  “We’re closer to Masul than anyplace else. Other than that…” Bayan’s eyes drifted closed as she reached out with a shaping. It was subtler than she’d once managed, but still far too noticeable.

  “Good. What can you tell me about Masul?”

  “It’s a mining and lumber town that sits along the border of Ter and Hennah. The mountains provide some protection. The people—”

  “I know that you studied in Atenas,” Alena said. “You don’t need to impress me with your knowledge of geography. But is there any reason you should be cautious here?”

  “Masul?” Alena nodded. “Not here. This place is well protected. Mostly quiet.”

  Alena snorted. This was the hardest lesson for some to master. Threats could come from anywhere. A warrior of the order, and especially one trained to be a hunter, must always be aware. “So you don’t think Masul has anyone we need to be concerned with?”

  Volth had surprised her in Masul. Cheneth might have thought he had potential, but Alena hadn’t been convinced. Until then. He’d managed to detect an attack that she had missed, but how? The small town should have been safe, protected in some ways by the barracks, but somehow Rens had reached there.

  Unless it wasn’t Rens. Cheneth didn’t have answers, though Alena hadn’t expected him to. The report of the attach had only worried him more.

  “I suppose it’s possible…” Bayan said, but she didn’t sound convinced.

  Alena suppressed rising frustration. Working with Bayan did that to her more often than it should. It wasn’t that the woman wasn’t capable—she was—but that she developed more slowly than Alena liked. If Alena would have to trust her, like Cheneth claimed they should trust Volth, Bayan would have to master something. Some days, she wasn’t sure that would happen.

  “Possible. It’s possible that you could have two draasin hiding in the woods here and not know,” Alena said.

  Bayan jerked her head around, as if expecting the elementals to suddenly emerge and attack.

  “Just as it’s possible that you’ve missed a pack of wolves.” Alena removed the shaping shielding them from the woods. Three massive mountain wolves lounged not far from them, startled as they suddenly appeared.

  Bayan let out a sigh. “I didn’t notice.”

  “No. Just as you didn’t notice the two men who have been watching us.”

  Alena pointed, motioning through the trees to the two men from Masul. Loggers, she suspected, and it disappointed her that Bayan still hadn’t noticed them.

  “Two?” the apprentice asked.

  As she did, a powerful shaping built not far from them, with no attempt to hide it. In the barracks, that was unusual. Most preferred to mask their shapings. Doing so helped hide the barracks as much as it allowed the shaper to practice obscuring what they might do.

  Bayan looked up, eyes narrowed. “That’s Ifrit.”

  Alena didn’t need to question Bayan to know that she was right. That was one of Bayan’s gifts. Though she might lack i
n some areas, she could not only detect a shaping but also know who and what they did. All shapers had something of that ability in various forms, but Bayan had it down to an exact answer, far more advanced than anyone Alena had met before.

  “What’s she doing?” Alena asked.

  Bayan’s eyes clouded and she shook her head. “Can’t tell. Earth shaping of some sort, and near the pen.”

  “Which pen?”

  Even as she asked, she knew. The hidden pen, the one outside the barracks that only a few of the instructors knew how to access. Cheneth claimed the reason was for the students’ safety, but the real reason had more to do with what Alena used the pen for and the need to keep that from as many as possible. Of those who didn’t fully know Cheneth’s intent for the barracks, only Calan could access the pen, and that because he was simply too skilled to keep out.

  “Come on,” Alena said.

  She started into the woods at a slow jog, but as the shaping increased in intensity, so too did her speed. Shaping earth and water, she slid across the ground, letting it draw her forward as she ran. Bayan floated on a shaping of air. Had Alena the same level of control with the wind, she might attempt something similar, but keeping connected to the earth had the added benefit that it helped mask their coming.

  They reached the area outside the circular stone pen and realized that more than Ifrit had come. She was a petite woman with long brown hair she always kept tied with a thick leather band, and she was a powerful shaper. She’d been trained by Calan, and like most of his students, she had a violent power, nothing like the subtle shaping that Alena preferred. Calan stood next to her, his bulky form radiating the power of a shaping he attempted to mask. He didn’t do it nearly so well as he thought. Then there was Wyath, the oldest instructor in the barracks, and he stood leaning on his sword as if it were a cane.

  “You can show yourself, Alena,” Wyath said.

  She glanced at Bayan and tried to warn her to silence with her gaze as she released the shaping of earth and water. “What’s going on?”

  Bayan stayed behind her, using a subtle weave of wind and water that Alena suspected few would detect.

  “You don’t sense it?” Ifrit asked. She didn’t look over, holding on to her shaping of earth. The ground rumbled softly with the shaping, like thunder beneath her feet.

  “This creature,” Calan said. “It’s become violent.”

  Alena suppressed her irritation. Studying the pen, the stone seemed unharmed, the solid dark rock that had been shaped into place rising nearly above her head. Whatever shaping Ifrit used focused on the pen, pulsing through it. There was a certain frenzy to the draasin, as if they struggled against the connection she shared with them. She had been aware of the agitation, but this was something more. This strained against the stone, against the chains, rumbling through the earth.

  Alena looked to Wyath, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  Blasted man. What was happening here?

  “The others do as well,” Calan went on. “They’re easier to contain. Wyath claims the pens don’t need reinforcement, and he might be right about the ones in the barracks, but I can feel the way the stone shakes.”

  There was something about the way he said it that gave her pause. Could Calan hear the elementals as well? Might he be an ally they hadn’t realized they had?

  He shaped earth, pulling it together with an angry force, slamming it into the stone of the pen, the shaping a punishment to the draasin. It roared, and Alena felt its pain within her mind.

  No, he couldn’t be an ally. Had he the ability to speak to the elementals, he wouldn’t harm the draasin so blindly.

  “Let me help with the shaping,” Alena suggested.

  Calan looked at her with an unreadable expression. “Ifrit and I can manage. Wyath thought he would observe, but I think the old man will only get himself hurt again.”

  Wyath ignored the jab as Calan turned back to the shaping, joining his with Ifrit’s. Together, great power with earth and water built, pressing toward the pen, pushing slowly and steadily forward. Alena listened with earth sensing, straining to see what they might be doing with their shaping. At first, it seemed they attempted to confine the draasin, shrink the space within the pen. That would be bad enough for the massive creature inside. Then she realized what they were really doing.

  They intended to crush the draasin.

  Through her connection, she could feel the rising concern from Sashi. There was the wild agitation, but mixed with it was a new fear and anger directed at her.

  You must stop this.

  The words screamed in her mind in spite of every attempt she made to keep the draasin pushed to the back of her consciousness. She could no more ignore the way it thundered in her mind than she could ignore the power of the oceans of her homeland.

  She looked to Bayan, but the woman simply stared at Calan and Ifrit, her eyes wide. Given her sensitivity to shaping, she knew what they attempted, likely had known as soon as they arrived at the pen.

  Wyath still wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  Damn him. Somehow she would have to do this on her own.

  But how? She might be able to mask her shaping, but could she really manage to do it against shapers as skilled as Calan and Ifrit? Did she dare try?

  Lren! You must help!

  The name the draasin used for her thundered in her mind.

  She had to try, but doing so might expose her and ruin everything she hoped to accomplish.

  If she did nothing, Sashi would be crushed.

  “If you don’t need me, then I have more training for my student.” She motioned to Bayan to follow.

  Bayan glanced at the pen and then at Alena. Alena ignored her and strode away from the pen. What she needed to try couldn’t be done so close to Calan, if it would work at all.

  Once back in the ring of trees, she stopped. “Shield me,” she instructed Bayan. Alena would need all her focus and all her strength if she were to do this.

  “For what?”

  “Just do it,” she snapped. It would have been better had she managed to get Wyath to follow her away from the pen. At least he knew Cheneth’s plan and there wouldn’t be the same questions as there would be with Bayan, but there was no helping that now.

  “What do you want shielded?”

  Could she do this in such a way that Bayan still didn’t know? Doubtful, but she could minimize the questions. “I want you to demonstrate how you would shield another shaper. This is critical when working with another. One can provide the shielding while the other does the shaping. See if you can manage.”

  “How will we know if it works?”

  Alena suppressed the frustration she felt. “You’ll know.”

  Bayan’s shaping built with quick precision. There was no doubt that she was a skilled shaper, but there was none of the elegance to the shielding that someone with more experience would be able to achieve. Hopefully that wouldn’t make it any less effective.

  Once the shielding was in place, Alena began working with earth. She allowed herself to feel the angry pain Sashi felt, the way it called to her, demanding that Lren help. The other draasin called to her as well, but theirs were weaker demands. The larger—and older—creatures were somehow better able to reach out to her, but all the draasin she’d encountered had some capacity to speak to her.

  Lren! I cannot hold much longer…

  I’m trying, she sent, shaping through the earth as she did. Shaping this way, forced to mask it as she did, was more difficult, a more complex working. Using earth was a matter of reaching through the connection she sensed all around her, to the trees, the soil, and the rock deep below. It connected her to life. Masking the shaping required her to pull on earth in a way that went against the training she’d received in Atenas, forced her to twist the shaping, but doing so weakened it as well. Would she even be strong enough to stop not only Calan but also Ifrit?

  She felt what they were doing, the way they pushed earth and stone into t
he pen, filling it as they pressed against the draasin. They had refused another way of soothing Sashi, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with how Calan had been injured during the last attack or how his student had been harmed by this particular draasin.

  Rather than pushing on earth, she tried to pull against their shaping, working to slow what they did. Bayan’s shaping slipped, and Alena knew she’d detected what Alena had done.

  “Hold it!” she snapped.

  There was nothing to do but continue. She would have to come up with an explanation for Bayan at some point when this was done, if she managed to stop what Ifrit and Calan did.

  Their shaping reached Sashi. The elemental roared. She heard it and felt it. It came with a cry for help, fear and anger mingling within her mind. The draasin had allowed themselves to come to the barracks under the assumption that Alena would keep them safe.

  She couldn’t stop Calan or Ifrit, not with a masked shaping. And she wasn’t about to reveal herself to them. Even more would be risked then.

  Maybe she didn’t have to. Could she loosen the chains around the draasin? If she allowed it to escape, it might have a chance.

  Alena turned her attention and began unraveling the dense shaping that had crafted the chains in the first place. Their making had required skilled earth shapers to add strength and flexibility to the stone but also trap the power of the shaping within, using the binding symbols Cheneth had demonstrated. None in Atenas knew how to create such symbols, and she hadn’t seen then before coming to the barracks. Freeing the chains, weakening the earth trapped within them, was almost as difficult as pulling on earth.

  “Try shaping the mark,” Bayan suggested.

  Alena glanced at her and saw the way Bayan studied her, the curious expression she wore. There would be questions, and she wasn’t sure she would be able to answer them. She might need to involve Eldridge, if he would ever return, or even Cheneth, though she didn’t want to think of his anger at learning she had been the one to reveal the secrets.