Shadows Within the Flame (The Elder Stones Saga Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  She shook her head. “I haven’t seen many limitations from Rsiran. At least, I hadn’t. Now that he has been captured, maybe there are more than we realize.”

  “Everyone has weaknesses. The key is finding them and exploiting them. With Lareth, it’s disappointing that they used Carth’s assessments of him in order to do so.”

  Lucy frowned. “They did what?”

  “The C’than knew what Carth knows about Lareth. It was surprising they would work with the Ai’thol. It isn’t surprising that they had an idea of his weaknesses. Carth has studied him, no different than she has studied Olandar Fahr.”

  That explained why Carth had been so upset about the betrayal. “What if I don’t want to exploit someone’s weakness?”

  “Then that becomes your own weakness, and others will take an opportunity to exploit it.”

  Rayen sent shadows streaking away from her, and Lucy had the sense that her control over the shadows rivaled Carth’s own. She had traveled with Carth enough now to know that both women were quite powerful with them. Carth liked to make it seem as if she were weaker now than she had been, and perhaps that was true. Having never known the woman when she was younger, Lucy had no idea, but it was difficult to believe she had ever had more control than she seemed to have now.

  As the shadows stretched away from her, Rayen clenched her jaw, tension around the corners of her eyes. She took a few deep breaths before letting them out, and the shadows dissipated.

  “I don’t detect anything.”

  “With this sort of power, you think that you would have?”

  “When it comes to the power of my people, that of my ancestors, there is an affinity to the type of power that you experience. They are complements, and because of that, they contrast somewhat, and with that contrast, I would know if someone with that ability was nearby.”

  “Such as Carth.”

  “Carth is little different. With her own connection to the shadows, she can hide herself. But these men, at least the ones that Daniel and I encountered on board the ship, did not share the connection to the shadows. They would not have been able to mask themselves from me.”

  Lucy looked around the broken landscape. It seemed almost as if she could remember what it had been like before the tower of Venass had fallen, though she never had seen it. Could it have been glimpses of memories from someone she’d Read? If so, who had she been around who had known the tower?

  “It was impressive, wasn’t it?” Lucy asked.

  Rayen took a deep breath, turning her attention back to her. “I never saw it. From the descriptions, I imagine so. The Ai’thol used it as a place to consolidate power, and because of that, they built it up, presenting it as an example of the knowledge and understanding they possessed. Since it was destroyed, they have refrained from building such towers.”

  “They don’t build towers like that?”

  “It would make them far too easy to find, and their reliance upon it as a position of power would make them susceptible to an attack. Now they use places like temples and others of influence to gain power. Unfortunately, it is equally effective.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “Considering the power that’s now involved, there’s only one thing we can do.”

  “You intend to go there.”

  “I suspect that Carthenne would want the same thing.”

  “I could Slide us there.”

  “I think that in this, Carth would have us do something different.”

  “What?”

  “Knowing her, and knowing Nyaesh as I do, I suspect she’ll want us to sail there.”

  11

  Haern

  The walk back to the Aisl had taken far longer than Haern had anticipated. The longer he was gone, the more he began to worry about what he’d seen. There was no doubt that they were Forgers, and worse than that, they had been stalking along the border of the city.

  What had they been after?

  When he reached the heart of the Aisl, he found Brusus first.

  His uncle had a quick smile and twinkling bright green eyes, and Haern had always enjoyed his company. There was something easygoing about him, and a brightness to his smile, along with his easy and affable laugh.

  “What is it?” Brusus asked.

  “I saw Forgers.”

  Brusus immediately froze. “Where?”

  “At the edge of the city.”

  “What were you doing out there?”

  “I was…” How would he explain what he’d been doing? It wasn’t that he wasn’t allowed outside of the city, but the fact that he’d been out there wandering on his own would raise questions, and he wasn’t sure he had answers.

  Brusus smiled at him. Did he Read him? His uncle had a talent with it, more than what Haern really knew, one that was apparently among the strongest within the Aisl, though some of the Elvraeth were said to be even more talented than Brusus.

  “Why don’t you show me?”

  “I need to get my father first.”

  “Your father is preoccupied at the moment,” Brusus said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “He was called to the palace.”

  “How often is he called to the palace?”

  “Not often, which was why he felt the need to go.”

  “Why would he have been called there?”

  Brusus shrugged. “Who’s to know the mind of the Elvraeth and their council? Not me, but mostly because they tried to banish my family.”

  “It was a long time ago,” Haern said. He didn’t know all the details about what had happened to Brusus’s mother, only that she had been exiled the same way Galen had been. His father and Brusus had gone looking for her, but as far as Haern knew, they had never found her. “Besides, Lucy said they don’t really do anything. Ever since the war, the Elvraeth have wanted to stay protected within the palace.”

  Brusus grunted. “They’ve never wanted anything other than to stay protected in the palace.”

  He still wondered why they might have called his father. They had to be after something, and without Lucy there, Haern had no way of knowing what that might be. Lucy had been his point of contact who had given him some access to the palace, and without that, he wasn’t as connected as he wanted to be.

  “You didn’t consider going and observing?”

  “Why, Haern, it would almost seem as if you’re suggesting I spy on the Elvraeth.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.”

  Brusus chuckled. “I gave it some thought but decided against it.”

  “Why?”

  “Partly because your father would be irritated if he knew that I followed him.”

  “When did you ever do what my father wanted you to do?”

  “Recently? Most of the time.”

  “Only recently?”

  “Well, when your father first came to me, he wasn’t that skilled.”

  “He could Slide.”

  “He could Slide, but like most people of that time, he hid that ability. He didn’t think he should be willing to use it.”

  “I’d like to hear some of those stories sometime.”

  “You might, but I bet your father wouldn’t be all that thrilled with me sharing.”

  “You always do what my father wants?”

  Brusus chuckled again. “Are you going to show me what you discovered?”

  “I really think we should wait for my father.”

  “And we would, but like I told you, he’s gone for now, though he should return soon. If you want to wait…”

  His father respected Brusus, and if anyone would be able to help Haern understand what he’d seen, it would be Brusus. He didn’t spend that much time with his uncle anymore, but when he’d been younger, his uncle had been one of the people he had looked up to the most.

  “All right, I’ll take you out to where I saw them. You should have weapons with you.”

  Brusus reached into his pockets and flourished a pair of kni
ves before slipping them back. “What makes you think that I don’t carry weapons with me at all times?”

  “What would a tavern owner need with so many weapons?”

  “I wasn’t always a tavern owner,” Brusus said with a wink.

  Haern started out of the Aisl, glancing back at the Elder Trees, his eyes taking in the glint of reflection off the metal that now surrounded the trees, the same as he always did. Eventually, they would need to understand just what the C’than had done to the trees, but his father hadn’t been able to discover anything. Several metallic spikes now circled the bases of the trees, and the sense of lorcith radiated from them.

  “What are those?” he asked Brusus as they paused before leaving the central clearing.

  Brusus followed the direction of his gaze. “Your father trying something else.”

  “Does he think they will somehow remove the metal from the trees?”

  Brusus breathed out heavily. “He doesn’t seem to think so. From what I can tell, he isn’t sure what he’s going to do to remove that metal, but he’s trying to mask them so that the Forgers aren’t able to simply Slide into the Aisl using whatever they placed around the trees and find us again. We should be better hidden with that.”

  Haern listened to the call of the lorcith, but there was nothing within it that he recognized. Whatever his father had done was beyond him. That wasn’t uncommon. His father often did things with the metal that were beyond his ability to understand.

  He tore his gaze away from the trees, and they hurried out into the forest. Despite his age, Brusus kept up with him easily.

  “You didn’t think an old man could keep up with you?”

  “I never said that.”

  “You didn’t need to,” Brusus said.

  “Would you stop Reading me?”

  “I can’t Read you all the time,” he said.

  “I’m not sure if that should make me feel better or worse.”

  “I can’t Read anyone all the time. It’s exhausting trying to maintain my focus like that.”

  Haern thought of Lucy and what she experienced now that she had the strange metal implant in the back of her head. Was it exhausting for her? It had been months since he had seen Daniel and Lucy; he had expected they would have returned to Elaeavn by now, even if only to visit, but they hadn’t.

  What must they be experiencing?

  Maybe Daniel had come up with some answers about how to help Lucy control her abilities. Hopefully they were training and trying to understand what the Forgers might be after, using the connection that Carth provided, but maybe even that was beyond them.

  “But you don’t struggle to Read anyone,” Haern said.

  “There are some that I can’t Read, though they tend to be those who are strongly connected to their own ability.”

  “You know, I’m not sure whether to be scared of you or not.”

  “Why would you be scared?” Brusus asked. “There’s nothing frightening about me.”

  “Maybe not about you, but what you can do.”

  “And there’s nothing frightening about that, either. My ability just happens to be different, not dangerous.”

  “Not dangerous to you because you’re the one with the ability, but for anyone who wants to keep their thoughts to themselves, what you can do is dangerous.”

  Brusus grinned. “What sort of secrets do you think you need to keep, anyway?”

  “I’d like to keep you out of my head.”

  “Why? Just so I won’t hear you thinking about…” Brusus frowned, watching Haern for a moment. “Who is Rayen?”

  Haern slapped at Brusus. “Like I said, stay out of my head.”

  “Does your father know about her?”

  “I don’t know about her, so stay out!”

  Brusus raised his hand, grinning. “Far be it from me to—”

  Brusus grabbed Haern, and he pulled him off to the side, twisting behind the trunk of a tree.

  “What is it?” Haern whispered.

  “Movement, and not an animal.”

  “There shouldn’t be anyone else out here.”

  “No. There’s not, at least not that I can detect.”

  That would be useful. Haern had become much more comfortable with his limitations, but being surprised by someone sneaking up on him was something Brusus didn’t have to worry about. With his connection to his abilities, no one could sneak up on him. They would be detected long before they had a chance to do so.

  “What if they have some way of hiding themselves from you?”

  “It’s possible,” Brusus said.

  “Possible?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “What can we do?”

  “We can be careful,” Brusus said.

  They continued to move forward, slowly now, going from tree to tree, and Brusus seemed concerned about moving openly. Every time they paused, he looked around with an intense expression on his face, his brow furrowing.

  Had Haern not seen Forgers on the edge of the forest, he might think Brusus was overreacting, but he had seen what was out there and knew there was a possibility that one of the Forgers had figured out a way to cross over the barrier. When he had been here before, it had seemed as if they were deflected away from the city, his father’s plan working, but what if that had failed?

  Brusus gripped a knife in either hand, and as he made his way from tree to tree, he motioned for Haern to follow. Haern wished he had something more than his lorcith knives. If it was Forgers, they might be aware of him making his way toward them. If they could somehow detect and control lorcith the same way he could, any advantage his connection to the metal gave him was mitigated.

  Brusus motioned for him to circle around one of the nearby trees. As he did, Haern glimpsed a man coming in their direction. He was shorter than Haern, though many men were shorter than him, and he carried the slender metal rods they had seen from the Forgers as he approached, one in each hand.

  Haern tried to get his uncle’s attention.

  Brusus remained focused on the distance, staring out toward the other man. Did he realize that he carried the strange Forger wands? Brusus started to make his way around the trunk. If the Forger saw him and attacked…

  Haern had to intervene.

  He pushed on his knives, sending them streaking toward the Forger.

  The knives stopped in midair.

  Great Watcher!

  This was what Galen had wanted him to be prepared for. This was the reason Galen worked with him, trying to ready him for the possibility that he might need to deal with someone who could overcome his knives.

  Brusus lunged out from behind the tree, sweeping toward the man, and the Forger Slid, appearing in front of Brusus.

  Brusus brought the sword around, but the Forger was quick, swinging the blade faster than Brusus could accommodate, and he jabbed Brusus in the stomach.

  “No!”

  The Forger turned toward Haern, a dark smile on his face. He withdrew his sword from Brusus and brought it back, as if to sweep it across Brusus’s neck, and Haern pushed on the knives, sending them toward the Forger.

  The Forger was distracted enough that he was unable to finish off Brusus.

  Haern lunged toward the man, screaming as he threw himself forward, staggering at the Forger.

  When he neared, the other man Slid, and Haern spun, diving for Brusus’s sword and then lunging to his feet. He followed the shimmering light that came along with each Slide. When the man emerged, Haern was there, jabbing out with Brusus’s sword. There was no technique to it, nothing but an attempt to stop the other man, and he cringed as the blade clanged off the other man’s sword.

  “You’re the one that I want.”

  “What?”

  He tried to push on his knives, sending them toward the Forger, but again they were stopped in midair, sent streaking away. Haern held on to his connection to the knives, pulling on them and bringing them back toward the Forger. He needed to overpower th
e man, but more than that, he needed to get Brusus to a healer.

  The Forger continued toward him.

  His father had been right. Galen had been right. He relied too much on his connection to lorcith, and that was to his detriment. What he needed was to find a way to fight without using his connection to the metal.

  The Forger grinned.

  Haern reached into his pocket, fumbling for something—anything.

  What he found was a dart.

  He could use a dart. He might not be able to throw them with the same force that Galen could, but what if he added a hint of lorcith to it?

  It was how he had used the dart when he had faced the Forgers before.

  Haern continued to focus on the Forger, keeping the man in front of him. He reached into his other pocket, pinched off a fleck of lorcith, barely more than a sliver, and stuffed it onto the dart.

  The Forger Slid, and Haern twisted, following his direction.

  When he emerged, Haern pushed on the dart.

  Even with the tiny amount of lorcith in it, the dart went flying, sailing true, and it struck the Forger in the chest.

  “There’s poison in that dart,” Haern said. “You won’t accomplish whatever you were after.”

  The Forger looked down at his chest, realizing the dart was there, and withdrew it, tossing it off to the side. A debate seemed to war across his face, but then he flickered, Sliding away, disappearing. He didn’t emerge back in the forest.

  Haern remained ready, prepared for the possibility that the Forger might attack again, or that there might be another, but nothing came.

  Instead, he scooped Brusus up off the forest floor.

  “What poison did you use?” Brusus asked, clutching his belly and grimacing.

  “There wasn’t any poison.”

  Brusus chuckled, and it turned into a cough. “Clever.”

  “We need to get you back to the heart of the forest. I can’t let you die. I don’t think Aunt Alyse would be thrilled with me if I did.”

  “No. If I died, she’d find a way to hurt me more.” Brusus tried to smile, but Haern could see the pain on his face. He needed to move quickly. He didn’t know whether there was poison on the blade the Forger had used. If there was, he might not be able to move quickly enough to get him to Darren. Even if he did, what could Darren do?