“Feed on shaping? What kind of a fool are you?” Calan’s aggressive posture had shifted, as if Volth shaping him had calmed him somewhat. Alena had expected it to do the opposite, especially with what she knew of Calan. The man was nothing if not prideful.
Jasn only shrugged. “The kind who survived a year on the front. The kind who knows when to listen.” Jasn shrugged again. “So what kind of fool are you?” he asked, his voice dropping.
Alena watched Jasn as much as she watched Calan, seeing a different side to him. Calan wouldn’t take well to such goading.
Calan looked from Volth to the egg and finally to Alena. “Take it to Cheneth. You will tell him that I deserve the same opportunity to study the egg as others.”
With that, Calan turned away and marched back toward his dorm.
Alena sighed when he had disappeared. “Had he touched the egg…”
“I don’t think I could have saved him,” Jasn said, letting out a deep breath. As he did, his shoulders sagged slightly, and she saw him as the student that he’d been. Less powerful, somehow. A part of her wished for that other—the Wrecker of Rens—to return. “Didn’t help to piss him off like that, but I’m not sure I had any other choice.”
“No. You did not.”
Alena looked back and saw Cheneth emerging from the trees. His gray hair was wild and a sheen of sweat coated him as if he had run a long distance. He slipped his spectacles from a pocket and placed them on his face, and it seemed as if he shrank when he did that, as if a part of him faded.
Where had he come from? He could shape, though from what Alena had seen, he was like most of the scholars and weakly gifted, even if he had potential. But it was his mind that mattered, not his ability to shape.
“Where have you been?” she asked.
“It no longer matters. Not with what you have brought us.”
Cheneth approached and held his hand above the draasin egg, careful not to touch it. He tilted his head and whispered something softly. “You managed to hold it,” he said softly.
Alena started to nod but caught herself. Cheneth hadn’t been surprised by the egg, she realized. “You’ve seen them before.”
Cheneth nodded once. “There have been others found, though never quite this lovely. Look at the way the scales catch the light. It will be a beautiful creature.”
“How can you tell?” Jasn asked.
Cheneth pointed toward the egg, still not touching it. “Do you see these lines?”
Alena leaned in and stared at the egg. She hadn’t noticed the lines before, but now that she did, she saw they split the draasin egg in half, as if a seam wound around the egg.
“These will be the wings. As far as we know, they form from the shell, you see. So this draasin will have this beautiful coloring.” Cheneth looked up from studying the egg and caught Alena’s eye. “How is it that you manage to hold it?”
Alena swallowed. There was no use lying to Cheneth, especially if he already knew about the draasin egg and how difficult it was to carry. “I nearly died, Cheneth,” she said softly.
Cheneth motioned for them to walk, leading them down one of the side streets through the barracks. Alena noted that it led to his dorm.
“That is what happened to the others who tried,” he said.
Alena almost stumbled. “You knew what could happen? Why not warn me?”
Cheneth took a deep breath and pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Warn you? Alena, I never expected you to discover one. These are frighteningly difficult to find, and rare. We know so little about how often the draasin mate, but the number of draasin we’ve found tells us it’s not often.”
“Why should elementals have to mate?” Jasn asked.
Cheneth glanced over his shoulder and met Volth’s eyes. “What is that?”
Jasn nodded toward the egg. “If the draasin are elementals, and the elementals are beings of power derived from the elements, why should they have to mate? Shouldn’t they simply, I don’t know, be?”
Cheneth smiled as they stopped in front of his door. He used a complex series of shapings, pressing into them. It wasn’t until the door opened that Alena realized just how complicated the shapings were. She wondered why he needed such complicated protections in the first place.
She watched as Cheneth made his way into his dorm, settling into a chair in front of the hearth. There was so much she didn’t know about the man. Like most of the scholars, he shrouded himself in mystery.
Volth closed the door and with a wave of his hand from the chair, Cheneth sealed the door. Not only the door, but the entire room.
Blast. Even knowing him all this time, had she underestimated him?
“The question is a reasonable one,” Cheneth finally said. “And one those who know about the elementals have struggled with for years. When draasin are destroyed, what happens to fire? Does it weaken? And if the draasin can be destroyed, can the others?” Cheneth leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.
Volth took a seat across from him, but Alena remained standing, still clutching the draasin egg. Until she knew it was safe, she didn’t want to set it down.
“That question can lead in other directions, as well,” Cheneth said. “If the draasin weren’t destroyed, would they continue to reproduce? Would fire become more powerful?”
Volth frowned, his brow furrowing as he considered the answer. Alena had noted that Volth had a quick mind, and she was not surprised that he followed Cheneth, but why hadn’t the same questions come to her? She was the one able to speak to the draasin.
“Fire has not become more or less powerful over the years,” Volth said. “I presume the elementals have always been there, but the draasin have not always been hunted. And the other elementals are not so… obvious. As you said, we don’t know if they can be destroyed.”
Cheneth smiled. “Where does that leave us?”
Jasn shrugged and leaned back in his chair. “Maybe there’s only so much power to be had. If draasin are destroyed, then the connection to fire goes elsewhere. Maybe to fire shapers?”
“That is one way of thinking of it,” Cheneth said.
“You don’t think that’s what happens?” Alena asked.
Cheneth shook his head. “To those who know of the elementals, we don’t think that elemental power shifts to man, but that doesn’t mean it can’t shift to other elementals.”
“How many fire elementals are there?” Jasn asked.
“Ah, now you ask the right questions.”
Jasn grunted. “Unless this darkness Lachen mentions can take elemental power. That might be another reason for power to shift.”
Cheneth sat up in his chair and pulled his glasses off his face. As he did, he seemed to become something more. Alena didn’t have words to describe it, only that he was greater than the elderly scholar she knew.
“Tell me, Jasn Volth, what does the commander know of the darkness?”
“I don’t know. He said there is darkness coming and that we must be ready. That’s why he sent me here.”
Cheneth let out a sigh and pressed his hands together over his chest, letting his eyes go closed. “Commander,” he said, speaking mostly to himself, “what secrets have you learned in your short time in power?”
Alena waited for Cheneth to say something more, but he didn’t. He sat with his fingers steepled together for so long that she began to wonder if he’d fallen asleep. “Cheneth?” she asked.
He shook himself and pushed his glasses back on, receding once more as he did. “Yes. Now, about that egg,” he started, as if there had never been a darker conversation taking place. “How is it that you survived?”
Alena glanced down at the egg. The warmth radiating from it was reassuring in some ways, but the fact that she was touching the draasin’s wings made her slightly uncomfortable. What would happen if the hatchling began unfolding those wings? She wasn’t able to speak to it yet, and she knew that even young draasin could be dangerous, so she didn’t want to have to
attack it or even subdue it with stone chains before it knew why.
“Jasn saved me,” she said. “Without him, I would have died.”
Cheneth looked over at Jasn, sitting with one leg crossed over the other. He watched them both with an unreadable expression, but she knew his mind was working through something. She could see it in the way his eyes darted from Cheneth and then back to her.
“Healing of some sort then?” Cheneth said. He pursed his lips together. “Tied to the elemental, I presume. You were able to use water elementals to heal her?”
Jasn shook his head. “I tried. It didn’t work.”
That was the first Alena had heard of that.
“Then what?”
Jasn met her eyes as if forced. “I used water mixed with earth to forge a connection between us. The water elemental healed me and helped me draw away some of the effect the draasin had on Alena.”
He had forced a connection to her. At the time, she hadn’t understood what it meant. Maybe still didn’t. Her mind was too foggy from the ordeal. She couldn’t even be mad. Had he not, she didn’t doubt she would have died. “Is that why I still feel so tired?”
Jasn seemed to hesitate before nodding. “I think the draasin continues to borrow fire shaping from you. I’m not sure why.”
“Neither am I,” she said.
“It seeks to hatch,” Cheneth answered. “Without fire, at least without enough fire, it cannot.”
“We need to find one of the draasin…” she started.
“Those that can help, hide.”
“Because they will be used,” Alena said. Cheneth frowned. “We saw it. Wyath and I. The draasin freed from the pen was drawn away from here, but not to safety. I followed it, and when we found it, there was a…” Alena paused, trying to think of the right word. “A shadow figure riding it.”
“Shadow?” Jasn asked. When she nodded, he said, “Not Rens?”
Cheneth closed his eyes again. “I thought we had more time, but it appears we do not. Could the student’s attack have weakened her enough for Tenebeth to make his move here?”
“Tenebeth?” Volth asked.
Cheneth’s eyes opened. “There are things that I have tried to understand. That is the reason that I came here in the first place, but the answers weren’t to be found here, even with the drive to hunt elementals. Who would have believed that a mythical threat could be real?”
“What are you saying, Cheneth?” she asked. “What is this Tenebeth?”
He sighed. “It is what none of us are ready for. The reason for this endless war, I think, though I do not yet know how. The elementals know something, but even they have not provided answers.”
“Cheneth?” Alena asked.
He sighed again, “Tenebeth is a name from the old tongue for the darkness. A creature that opposes the light.”
“Creature?” Jasn asked. “Like the draasin?”
“Not like the draasin. The draasin are elementals, drawn from the power of the elements. Tenebeth is different. Greater in some ways, but limited, too. There have always been those with access to the darkness, much like there are those who access the light.”
Alena wondered if that was what Cheneth thought those able to speak to the elementals were. She didn’t feel particularly connected, but what did she really know?
“Which are you?” Jasn asked Cheneth.
Cheneth frowned.
Jasn leaned forward, nodding at Cheneth. “I’ve seen the power you possess, old man. Tell me, which are you?”
Cheneth pulled his glasses from his face and changed. Alena suddenly understood what she saw. He appeared brighter, more real, if that were possible. “Tell me, Jasn Volth, Wrecker of Rens, voice of water, what do you think?”
Alena took a step toward Cheneth, not willing to let go of the egg. The warmth pulsing through it seemed to flow with the beating within her chest, and she felt its steady draw of fire from her. She should be more weakened from it—there were limits to shaping, after all—but the fact that she wasn’t told her that whatever connection Jasn had forged between them still held, giving her the strength she needed to keep going. What would happen if that connection failed? Would she be too weak to shape, or would she be able to find a way to continue?
And what would happen to the draasin egg? Would it draw all her strength and leave her dead? That was what it had felt like when she’d been in the cavern. The egg had pulled all the shaping from her, draining more than what she’d ever thought herself capable of pulling, to the point where it began drawing her heat. Jasn had saved her with the connection and the healing it brought.
“What are you, Cheneth?” she asked. She couldn’t take her eyes off him now that she saw it. He practically glowed. “You’re no scholar, are you? And not a warrior—”
“No, I am neither. Where I come from, I am considered one of the enlightened.”
27
Ciara
If the war persists, it will spill over into Tsanth. From there, Hyaln will have no choice but to get involved.
—Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars
Ciara had managed to find one hard surface on the outskirts of K’ral. It was located at the base of a collection of massive boulders, which were stacked to the north of the town as if placed there. She climbed to the top, feeling each stone shift as she did. It was not nearly as high or the view nearly as dizzying as what she’d experienced while in Rens, but she hoped to use the rock and see if she could find a way to call the draasin. All she needed was for it to answer, then maybe it would realize she needed to return to Rens.
The rock she stood upon was unstable and rocked softly each time she moved her feet, but none of the others were large enough to support her. She held her j’na carefully, not willing to release the shaft of the spear, and snapped the spear into the rock as she had seen her father do. The spear bounced off the stone, sending her rocking slightly, forcing her to steady herself before she could take the next step.
The next time, the same thing happened. Ciara snapped the spear, and then she felt the stone beneath her move, requiring that she position her feet in just such a way that she didn’t slip. Maintaining balance took most of her focus, and she doubted she would be able to continue with the regular pattern her father had demonstrated when they had called the draasin, but the ground all around the village was too soft for her to try summoning the draasin anywhere else.
“What are you doing?”
Nevan stood on the ground beneath the stack of rocks, watching her with a bemused expression. He had dark eyes that appeared even darker from the way the sun slanted overhead, and the curious smile slipped as she snapped the shaft of her spear into the stone once more.
Nothing happened. At least not as she needed it to happen. There was no sense of power and no rhythm, and that had seemed to be the key when she had summoned the draasin before. If she couldn’t replicate that, then the whole exercise was pointless.
“Apparently nothing.” Ciara carefully made her way down and stopped next to Nevan. As usual, he wore a dark robe similar to the one Olina had lent her, but Nevan’s fit him snugly, revealing his muscular frame. In some ways, he reminded her of Fas.
“Do you know what these are?” he asked.
Ciara shook her head. “Am I supposed to?”
Nevan pointed to the stack of rocks, waving his hand at them. “These have been here since… Well, since Tsanth has been here. There are some who claim that creator himself placed them here when darkness still covered everything.”
“Why leave them?” Ciara suddenly felt even more uncomfortable about climbing on the rock. She shouldn’t have used this spot, not that it had worked all that well anyway. “If the darkness is everything that Olina says, why not take them down?”
“They are a reminder to others across Tsanth of the power of the darkness and what the world would be like without the light.”
“You said they are a reminder of what it was like before?”
Nevan shrugged. “Olina teaches that Tenebeth once controlled everything, that darkness once was common. That changed, though no one really knows why. She teaches tell of a great change, a time where light came into being, pushing back the night. Tenebeth lost power, ceding it to light.” He smiled. “She claims that Tenebeth seeks to return to his previous glory.”
“What do you think?”
“I think there is much in the world that we don’t understand. I have seen the power that darkness has. In some ways, it’s more than the light.” He shrugged. “Olina says others of Hyaln can explain it better.”
“I would like to visit Hyaln,” Ciara decided. If they understood the shadow man and what he might want with her, then that was where she needed to go.
“Only those chosen by someone already of Hyaln may go.”
“Where is it?”
Nevan shifted slightly in place, so that he looked north. His movement was so subtle, Ciara wasn’t even certain she had seen it. Maybe he had been looking north this whole time? “I don’t know.” Nevan glanced up at the rocks and then back to Ciara. “You haven’t said what you were doing here.”
“I was trying to summon the draasin,” she answered.
Nevan took a step back, eyeing her j’na warily. “Did it work? Is one of the draasin coming?”
“I don’t think you have anything to fear. I’m not sure I know enough to summon one.”
“But you’re a rider!”
“Who was helped by my father. He knew how to summon them, but I do not. I thought by coming here, I might…” She stopped before telling him why she had come. She thought she understood why the draasin brought her here—to learn the real threat of the darkness and find help. Thanks to Olina’s teachings, she understood more than she had before, but now she could not return to her home. What did it matter that she’d learned?
“Why here? There are better places farther from K’ral that you could go. Why risk the people of the town as you summon? What happens if you succeed?”
Darkness Rising (The Endless War Book 2) Page 23