The Heartstone Blade (The Dark Ability Book 2)

by Holmberg, D. K.

  Outside, the wind had picked up, whipping through the streets and carrying the heavy scent of rain. Waves crashed along the shore. After what Della had told him about Sliding, he considered walking to the docks to find Brusus. If Della could pull him as he Slid, it stood to reason that someone else could as well. With the possibility of rain, he decided against it.

  “Rsiran!”

  He turned to see Jessa. Wrinkles pulled at the corners of narrowed eyes, and her lips tightened in a pained expression. A bright yellow flower was tucked into the charm he’d made her.

  “I need to see if there’s anything I can do.”

  “Haern says he just needs space.”

  Rsiran thought about how he had felt after his father banished him. He thought he’d wanted space then, that he wanted nothing more than to be left alone. But when Brusus welcomed him to the Barth, it had meant more than anything.

  More than that. Rsiran knew Brusus, knew what he might try to do. If there was any possibility someone had hurt Lianna, Brusus would not rest until he learned who. Rsiran would feel the same if Jessa were involved.

  “He might think he needs space, but I need to see if I can help.”

  Rather than arguing, Jessa just nodded. “I’m coming. Take us past the north dock. The rocks there.” She held out her hand and waited until Rsiran took it.

  They Slid, stepping from in front of the Barth to the rocks near the shore. The docks were shadows along the shore, moonlight unable to filter through the clouds rolling down from the north.

  “Do you see him?”

  Jessa pointed to a spot down the shore.

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “Just past the rocks. Before the point.”

  Rsiran Slid again, pulling Jessa with him.

  When they emerged from the Slide, the wind whistled around them. Massive waves crashed along the shore. Rsiran wondered what happened to ships in the bay during storms like this, but couldn’t see them as anything more than dark smears against the night. Firell’s ship loomed in his awareness at the pull of lorcith, though it felt far enough away that he wondered if he’d left the harbor.

  Over the sound of the wind, came a quiet sobbing. Two shapes huddled together on the ground about ten paces from them. Rsiran recognized Brusus’s heavy brown cloak as it fluttered in the wind. He leaned over the other figure—Lianna—cradling her head.

  “Brusus?” he asked, stepping toward him.

  Jessa stayed back. Brusus didn’t look up.

  Rsiran crouched next to Brusus and looked at the body lying on the rocks. The decorative lorcith fork she’d used to hold her hair up lay on the stones. He understood why Haern said Della couldn’t help.

  “Brusus?”

  “She’s gone,” he whispered.

  Sorrow filled his voice; pain that Rsiran recognized. This was how he would feel if anything happened to Jessa.

  “What happened?”

  Brusus shook his head and looked behind him at massive towers of rocks, slowly rising to the north as they climbed out of the city. Rsiran knew of no way to reach the top of those fingers of rock. No way other than Sliding there. Even that carried the same dangers he experienced while making his way along Ilphaesn.

  “She fell.”

  “How could she fall?”

  “She was meant for me to find. This is a message to me. I have been digging too deep, pushing too hard.” He swallowed and looked down at Lianna. “She should not have been here. But they knew I would understand.”

  “Would she have come here on her own?” he asked.

  Brusus shook his head. “I don’t think she did.”

  “Then how did you find her?” Without Sliding, Rsiran had no idea how they could reach this strip of shoreline easily. And knew of no reason to come here otherwise.

  “We were supposed to meet here,” Brusus said softly.

  Brusus did not need to explain any more than that. This was their spot. A place for Brusus and Lianna to be together. A place that should have been safe.

  “You think she was killed.”

  Brusus looked at him for a moment before turning back to run his hand through her hair. “I’m certain of it.”

  Rain started then. First soft, but quickly picking up strength until it sleeted down on them like sharp needles. Distant thunder rolled in over the harbor, washing across the water. Flashes of lightning streaked through the clouds.

  Rsiran shivered. “You can’t stay here, Brusus.”

  “I’m not leaving without her.”

  Rsiran would have felt the same were it Jessa. Now, more than ever, he knew he could not let her be a part of whatever happened. Regardless of what she said, how angry it made her, he would keep her safe. “At least let me help.”

  Brusus sucked in a big shivering breath as he nodded.

  Together, they scooped their arms underneath Lianna and lifted. “Where should we take her?”

  Brusus swallowed. “The Aisl. That is where she would want to go.”

  The Aisl was where all of their people were buried. A tradition that had not changed, though they had moved away from the trees and out to the edge of the water. But Servants of the Great Watcher would not let them just appear in the midst of the burial grounds. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

  The look Brusus gave him nearly broke his heart.

  “Where else is she to go? She needs to be returned to the forest. That is custom.”

  Jessa settled her hand on his arm. He hadn’t noticed her coming up behind him.

  “I don’t think Rsiran should Slide us there. We can walk her out. Take her to the Servants. They will see her properly buried.”

  Brusus shook his head. “And then they will ask questions. Constables will come.” He looked at Rsiran, eyes pleading. “I will not be allowed to be there as she is returned to the earth.”

  “There is a place I know,” Rsiran said. He’d been there before and often enough that he should be able to reach it again.

  Jessa pulled on his arm. “This is too much for you,” she whispered. “There are times when taking the two of us taxes you too much. Let’s find another way.”

  Rsiran had never tried Sliding this many at once. It would stretch him, and possibly he could not do it. But watching Brusus, seeing his devastated face, tears mixing with the rain, he knew he needed to try. For Brusus, he was willing to risk it.

  “I can do this.”

  Jessa gripped his arm. The way she squeezed told Rsiran, Be careful.

  “I can do this,” he told her again.

  Jessa didn’t say anything. The look in her eyes was a quiet warning that she feared for him. But she did not let go of his arm. She wouldn’t leave him alone for this. And he wouldn’t let her, even if it might be easier.

  Rsiran and Brusus both held onto Lianna as he Slid.

  The effort felt unlike anything he had ever tried. The closest he had to compare it to was the effort of Sliding into the palace. And that had felt as if something pushed against him, trying to keep him out of the palace.

  It felt as if a massive force pressed down upon him, like the weight of the ocean. And yet… Rsiran feared stopping, not knowing what would happen if he ended the Slide too soon.

  He forced himself forward, pulling them with him. Were he to linger too long, he feared he might get stuck in the space between Slides.

  Had he not been relatively rested, he would not have managed. Every ounce of strength he had went into completing the Slide.

  Slowly, they Slid forward, practically oozing.

  But it was not enough. Already he could tell that he didn’t have the strength he needed. They would be trapped, stuck someplace in the city or, if lucky, perhaps he would reach the outskirts of the Aisl. Or end up stuck in the space between. Rsiran did not know what would happen then.

  Fear coursed through him. More than for himself or Brusus, he would not condemn Jessa to that fate.

  Rsiran surged his effort, pulling them with him.

>   With a sudden pop, they emerged from the Slide. Rsiran crumpled to his knees.

  Brusus took Lianna and carried her to a small clearing just past the edge of massive trees towering over them. Rain pattered against leaves overhead, though didn’t reach the forest floor. Soft leaves and grasses grew underfoot. The air smelled different, the salt of the sea changed to one of earth and rotting leaves. Something howled distantly.

  The Aisl, at least as close as he could come. He hadn’t Slid as far as he’d intended. He’d meant to reach the clearing where Brusus carried Lianna, but the effort had been too much, and he hadn’t managed to reach it. What would have happened had he not even made it this far? Where would they have ended up?

  “How do you know of this place?” Jessa asked.

  He didn’t answer at first. He didn’t know if he could answer.

  “I used to come here.” His voice sounded weak and distant to him. Rsiran rested his head back on the ground and looked up at the canopy of trees above, rain gently filtering through. “When I was young. Before.” He shook his head, unable to explain how it had been before he learned to Slide, before his father had decided he had a dark ability, before his family condemned him to the Ilphaesn mines. Jessa didn’t need him to explain. “My sister and I used to love coming to the Aisl. Our mother,” he started, wondering what had happened to her after his father lost his smithy, “thought it was important for us to know where our people used to live. She brought us here often. I think she liked the quiet.”

  He took a deep breath and looked up into the trees, trying to envision a time when their people would have lived there. Hundreds of years before, when Elaeavn still did not exist, they lived in the heart of the Aisl. When they were children, Alyse used to play at living in the trees, climbing through the forest, pretending to build her home, while Rsiran romped through the forest floor, unable to reach Alyse in the treetops while their mother wandered alone. Even then, he had not been allowed in her home. Those were some of Rsiran’s happy memories, a time before Alyse manifested her gifts and he manifested his.

  “Never really understood how we once lived among the trees. But we used to play here, running along the river…” He sighed and closed his eyes. “Did I ever tell you about how I got lost here once? Cried and cried until Alyse found me. Then I cried more when she scolded me for not having the sense to stay near her. But she wouldn’t let me up into the trees with her.” He never knew where his mother had gone, and by the time she returned, Rsiran had stopped crying.

  “You should rest,” Jessa said, touching his head and smoothing back his hair.

  He looked up at her and smiled. His head felt full, almost as if he’d drunk too much ale or stayed awake all night, though it mostly reminded him of the way he felt as the poison from the mines set into his body. Della had almost lost him then.

  Another strange howl echoed deeper in the forest. When he had come as a child, he never heard those cries. Only once he learned to Slide here did he begin to hear them. They should frighten him—Jessa tensed every time she heard one—but he felt differently, knowing he could Slide to safety. At least, most times he could.

  Some of his strength had returned, and he pushed himself up. In the clearing, Brusus knelt before a heaping mound of dirt.

  “Would she have wanted more?” he wondered. “The Servants would offer a prayer…” Rsiran didn’t really know what else the Servants did. He’d never attended a burial. Few were allowed access, only those closest to the deceased.

  “I don’t think so. Other than Brusus, the Barth was the most important thing to her.”

  Brusus didn’t move as rain washed over him.

  “I… I never knew how close they were.”

  “Still just a babe.” Jessa leaned and kissed him on the cheek. “But some things don’t need Sight to see.”

  “I see you.”

  Jessa laughed softly. “Only because I make certain you do. Only because I know how little you see.”

  Rsiran debated whether to be offended but decided that it didn’t matter. “Della pulled me to her house tonight.”

  “What do you mean she ‘pulled’ you?”

  Jessa watched him, a worried frown on her face. “She said she can feel it when I Slide. I create… ripples, she called it. Somehow, she was able to use this and pull me to her.”

  “Has she done this before?”

  Rsiran shook his head. “I didn’t know it was possible. I’ve never been pulled someplace I didn’t intend to Slide.” At least, he didn’t think he had, but what if that was what had happened when he first Slid out of Ilphaesn? He didn’t think Della had a hand there, but she said others also could feel the ripples. How many could influence his Sliding?

  “What did she want from you?”

  “To warn me, I think.”

  “Warn you?” Jessa frowned. “Della doesn’t simply warn. There must have been another reason for her to pull you.”

  Rsiran shrugged. The rain lightened somewhat, slowing to a soft pattering in the branches overhead. “I think she meant for me to know that it is possible to influence Sliding.”

  “Everything has a weakness. That is how the Great Watcher intended.”

  Rsiran laughed, though it felt hollow. With everything that had been happening around him the last few days, he struggled appreciating value in weakness. Besides, being Sighted didn’t seem to have much weakness. He didn’t think Listeners had one, either. Readers could be blocked, but that didn’t seem the same.

  “Della said something similar.”

  “And that was it?”

  Rsiran thought about what Della told him. As far as he could tell, the most important message had been that she could detect him Sliding, could influence it. “Well, she also warned me that Josun Elvraeth might still live.”

  Jessa squeezed his hand. “She can’t know, Rsiran. If he lived, he would have come after us—”

  “I told her the same thing, but Della figures that if he had died, the Elvraeth would have come looking for me. Or the others with him. That they didn’t…” That wasn’t quite right, he realized. She said a “faction” of the Elvraeth would have come looking for him.

  His heart fluttered, and he very nearly didn’t hear the next thing she said.

  “What if he’s the Elvraeth I overheard on Firell’s ship? What if he’s the one smuggling lorcith out of the city?” And what if there was more to what Josun did than what Rsiran had known?

  “But if he’s alive, why would he go after Lianna? I’m not saying I agree, but he already knows of your abilities and knows you were the one who nearly killed him, so why not just attack you?”

  “Because he is smart.”

  Brusus stood near them. His eyes were still reddened, but an angry determination crossed his face. Vibrant forest-green eyes, the whites now streaked with red, stared at them. For once, Brusus didn’t mask his abilities.

  “And he almost died underestimating you once. He will not make that mistake again.”

  Chapter 20

  “You think Josun still lives?”

  Brusus reached out dirt-stained hands to help pull Rsiran to his feet. Brusus’s eyes flashed with more heat than Rsiran had ever seen from him. “I have wondered that for some time, yes.”

  “You told me not to worry about him. That Haern saw him dead. That the Elvraeth fight among themselves so often that he would not be missed, that—”

  “I did. When I thought him gone.”

  “But you don’t know.” Jessa ignored Brusus’s extended hand and scrambled to her feet.

  “No. I began to suspect shortly after I recovered. No rumors came from within the palace of a deceased Elvraeth. Nothing that indicated he had ever died. And no word of a rebellion,” he said, looking to Rsiran.

  “And you would hear from the palace?”

  Brusus hesitated, glancing at Jessa. “Why do you think I’ve asked you to make so many knives, Rsiran?”

  The question took him aback. “I thought you wanted
the money.”

  Brusus breathed out heavily. “That, but there is another reason.”

  Rsiran thought about what Jessa had told him about Brusus, how he had spent time in Upper Town. “You used the coin for bribes?”

  Brusus shook his head and Rsiran frowned. “I’ve used the knives for bribes,” he said. “The Elvraeth have enough money, but they don’t have knives like you make. A thing like that… well, a thing like that is worth information. After what happened with Josun, after what he showed me when he took me to the warehouse and used me, information was worth more than anything.”

  “And you haven’t heard that Josun died.”

  He shook his head and sighed. “We need to get back. Can you…”

  “Not for a while. Getting us all here took too much out of me.”

  “Then we walk.”

  Brusus started into the forest, heading west, back toward Elaeavn. Rsiran didn’t question how he knew which direction to go. Standing in the dense forest, for most, one direction looked much the same as the other. But Rsiran felt the lorcith in the city like a distant awareness in his mind, just enough that he knew which direction to go to. Either Brusus simply guessed right, or he knew a different way to determine how to reach the city.

  They walked a while in silence. Jessa kept near him, careful to ensure he had enough strength to keep going. Brusus stayed ahead of them, picking his way through the forest. At times, they had to climb over massive tree trunks or weave around thick thorn bushes. Once, they were forced to wade through a wide stream. From when he was a child, Rsiran knew the streams eventually all ran together, twisting into the Lneahr River that eventually dumped into the sea.

  “How long have you known?” Jessa asked Brusus when they stopped at one stream.

  Rsiran cupped water to his mouth to drink. Fatigue from the walk mixed with his exhaustion from Sliding to the Aisl, but he felt his strength returning, slowly building back to where he might be able to Slide himself if needed.

  “I didn’t know, not with any certainty.”

  Brusus stood near one of the massive sjihn trees common to the Aisl, one hand resting on the trunk. His face still had an anguished look to it, but he had taken the time to make his eyes a pale green. Rsiran hadn’t learned how he managed the trick of masking his true abilities. Some method of Pushing, though he hadn’t learned quite how.