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

by D. K. Holmberg

What reason would he have for not sharing?

  Haern made his way toward the forge, and his mother frowned at him. “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to see what father can tell me about the trees.”

  “Father isn’t the expert when it comes to them.”

  “Who is?”

  “The Keeper of the Trees.”

  “Is that someone I should know?”

  “No. You were too young when she went away.”

  “Where did she go?”

  “Searching for understanding.”

  “Who was she?”

  “A powerful woman. Someone your father in particular was close to.”

  “Who?”

  “Della.”

  “The Healer?” He glanced over to Darren’s home. It had once been Della’s home, the place where she had trained him, and Haern had little more than faint memories of the woman. She had been old when he was born, and from the stories he had heard, she had been old even when she had moved into the forest. She was related to him, somehow, though he didn’t know the extent of it.

  More than that, Della had trained Galen.

  “Della was named the Keeper of the Trees after the war. She has protected them, and she is a keeper of knowledge as much as anything. If you want to know something about the trees that your father doesn’t know, you may have to go to her.”

  “What if we can’t find her?”

  “Then we may have to do as you suggest. We may have to sacrifice the trees.”

  He listened to the steady clang of his father’s hammer for a little longer before finally tearing his gaze away and looking at the trees that circled the clearing. With the bars of lorcith—and heartstone, he realized—there was a strange energy to them, and he no longer felt the awful pull from the metal implants the Forgers had used on the trees. If nothing else, his father had been successful in mitigating that effect, but there had to be something more. As much as they wanted to prevent the Forgers from reaching the power within the Trees, they might not be able to. And if they couldn’t, he had to be an advocate for doing the right thing, especially as he didn’t know that his father would.

  “I don’t want to have to do that,” Haern said.

  “And I don’t want it for you, but we may not have much of a choice.”

  “What would Father say?”

  “Your father might oppose you.”

  Haern swallowed. He didn’t like the idea of going against his father, certainly not when it came to the Elder Trees, but if they were the reason the Forgers were finding them, and if the metal that now surrounded the trees was leaving his people in danger, what choice did they have?

  He kept his gaze on the forge for a little while longer before turning away. There might not be a choice. And worse, he worried that if there wasn’t, his father would disagree with him. If that happened, how would others react? How safe would the Aisl be? How safe would Elaeavn be?

  If the Forgers kept finding them, they wouldn’t be safe at all.

  13

  Daniel

  The ship rocked from side to side, and Daniel gripped the railing, trying not to fall overboard. He didn’t have the same comfort as others did aboard the ship, but then that wasn’t all that surprising. What surprised him was just how comfortable Lucy appeared standing on the ship. She swayed, almost unmindful of the way the ship rocked, sending them from side to side. Every so often she glanced over at him, smiling reassuringly, and Daniel did his best to smile back at her, though he didn’t feel as confident as he tried to seem.

  “You don’t need to be here,” she said.

  “Where else would I be?”

  “This isn’t your fight,” Lucy whispered.

  He didn’t know what his fight would be, not anymore. Maybe spending time here wasn’t for him, but at the same time, he hadn’t decided if it made sense for him to return to Elaeavn. For now, he was in Asador, and he was helping the Binders, whatever that entailed.

  Daniel made a point of keeping his thoughts open, not concealing them, wanting Lucy to know exactly what he was thinking. It was better if she knew that he had no intention to hide himself from her, especially when it came to thinking through things like this. He wanted her to know that he intended to participate in whatever she planned, and even if he didn’t know all that the Binders were after, he would do everything he could to be a part of it.

  She smiled, and she took his hand. “You don’t have to worry about me,” she whispered.

  “Who said I was worried about you?”

  “I don’t need to Read you to know that you’re concerned about me.”

  How could he be anything other than concerned? Especially with this?

  Five other Binders were on board the ship, and he only knew one of them—Rayen. Shadows swirled around her as if she controlled them without thinking, which he suspected she did. Her power and control amazed him, and he still marveled at it even after having been around her as often as he had. And it was nothing compared to what Carth could do, though he didn’t spend much time with her these days.

  “Is she really the right one to do this?” Daniel asked.

  “Would you have someone else do it?” Lucy said.

  “I’ve seen what these men can do, the way they use their magic. Rayen doesn’t have enough of a connection to stop them.”

  “Rayen doesn’t need to control the shadows to stop someone like that,” she said, stalking toward him. She had a dangerous sway to her hips, and one hand gripped the hilt of her sword. Did she think having a sword with her this time would make her more formidable than before? “Rayen only needs to be prepared for what she might face.”

  “I wasn’t saying anything about your ability.”

  “That was exactly what you’re saying,” Rayen said. “And I don’t blame you. You have only seen me face these men once, and you saw me fail.” The way her nose wrinkled suggested how disgusted she was at the idea of failure. “Preparations have been made. Now that I know what these men are, I can be better prepared to combat them.”

  “You have some way of counteracting their connection to this S’al magic?”

  “Counteracting. Negating. Ensuring they don’t harm any of us.” She swept her hand, motioning toward the gathered Binders. “We will be fine, Daniel Elvraeth.”

  “Did Carth teach you this?”

  “Do you think she would want us to be defeated by the same magic she possesses?”

  “I don’t know. I find it hard to believe that she would teach you some way of overpowering her.”

  Rayen chuckled. “Knowing the key to combating S’al magic is not the same as knowing how to overpower Carth. You were with her for a time. You must have seen how powerful she can be. It would take an awful lot to triumph over someone like Carthenne Rel, even if you knew the secret to countering her magic.”

  “I thought she was growing weaker,” Daniel asked, lowering his voice so that the other Binders didn’t overhear. He didn’t know what he was permitted to share or how much the others were aware of, only that there seemed to be some secret.

  “Carth is getting older. With age comes a decline, but it doesn’t mean that she isn’t still quite capable. Think of your friend’s father. Would you claim that Lareth is any less capable than he once was?”

  Daniel wouldn’t necessarily call Lareth a friend, but that wasn’t the point.

  He glanced over to Lucy, who watched him, a knowing expression on her face. Maybe he needed to hold his barriers in place sometimes. There were certain things that he didn’t necessarily want Lucy to know he was thinking about.

  “I don’t understand the need for the ship,” Daniel said.

  “Because your friend can simply Slide us?” Rayen asked.

  Daniel nodded.

  “There are places we need to go where Sliding, while it might provide access, doesn’t necessarily take us where we need to be. In this case, I would rather have the familiar transportation, and a way of escaping if it comes to it.
”

  “You think it’s going to come to that?”

  “One thing I’ve learned from Carthenne is the need to be prepared.”

  Daniel nodded. “I don’t really understand.”

  “Think of it as a strategy, Daniel Elvraeth.”

  Daniel jerked and spun to see Carth standing near him. How had he completely overlooked her presence?

  It was difficult to determine how old she was. There was an ageless quality about her. She had dark hair, and eyes that matched, and her skin almost seemed to glow in the moonlight, reminding him of the swords the men had carried when they were attacked. She was dressed in a jacket and matching pants that seemed to blend into the shadows swirling around her, but it was her cloak that really drew his attention away, as if it had been designed to conceal her. The more he stared at the cloak, the more he questioned whether or not it was even real. It was possible that it was not.

  Rayen grinned when she saw Carth. “I thought that you were here.”

  “Thought?” Daniel looked from Rayen to Carth. Could even Rayen not have known that Carth was on the ship? That idea seemed impossible to believe; if Carth was able to conceal herself from Rayen, maybe he needed to be more careful with everything that Carth could do.

  Rayen shrugged. “Did you think I would have known?”

  “You were able to determine how many men were on the ship when we were attacked before.”

  “That was a little different.”

  “How so?”

  “That was not Carthenne.”

  Daniel turned around and realized that Lucy was staring at Carth. He recognized the slight tilt to her jaw and suspected she attempted to Read Carth. What did she encounter when she did? Was she able to discover anything about her, or was it nothing more than emptiness?

  Carth looked back, watching Lucy with a smile on her face.

  “Are you coming with us?” Daniel asked.

  “For a time,” she said.

  “Just part of the journey?” he asked.

  Carth shrugged. “There is value in seeing what you encountered. Besides, I thought it might be good to see if any of my old friends might have been involved.”

  “What sort of friends are we talking about?”

  “The kind who trained me,” she said. She turned and headed toward the bow of the ship, making a motion with her hand. The other Binders all lurched into activity, quickly pulling on lines and getting the sails ready. Someone yanked on an anchor, cranking it back aboard the ship. Everything had a practiced look to it, and Carth leaned on the wheel, guiding them out of the bay.

  “Carth sails?” Daniel asked, but there was no one around him other than Lucy.

  “She is the captain, Daniel,” Lucy said.

  “They knew she was coming? Wait… you knew she was coming?”

  Lucy nodded slowly, watching Carth the entire time.

  “There are many things about that woman that surprise me.”

  “I think that’s part of the point.” Lucy smiled up at him. “The more mystery she has, the harder it can be for anyone to truly account for her.”

  “You respect her,” Daniel said.

  “Why shouldn’t I? Not only has she coordinated these women, she’s created a certain stability in the world. And that stability comes from the strength of women.” Lucy smiled. “We like to think that we are open-minded in Elaeavn, especially as Cael Elvraeth and many of the guildlords are women, but even there, we don’t rule the same way that Carthenne rules.”

  “I didn’t get the sense that she did rule.”

  “Just because she doesn’t have any place she calls her home doesn’t mean that she doesn’t rule. It seems to me that the entire Binder network is her domain, and within it, there is power.”

  Daniel watched Carth as she held on to the wheel, steering them as they went. The wind picked up, carrying them away from Asador, deeper and deeper out onto the water. That they headed in this direction was part of the reason he wasn’t able to Slide them, even if Rayen and Carth would have allowed it.

  Lucy left him, joining two of the other Binders as they worked on lines, pulling them and coordinating them as they set the sails, leaving Daniel standing by himself. He found himself drawn toward Carth, and when he joined her at the helm, she glanced over.

  “You’re troubled, Daniel Elvraeth. I’ve been around enough men to know that expression when I see it.”

  The idea of Carth working in one of her taverns the way the women he’d seen there did left him bothered. “Have you?”

  Carth laughed softly. “I was never as skilled as some of the network, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  A flush worked through him, though it was what he had been questioning. He knew only what he had seen for himself, and while she didn’t seem like the type to work in that manner in the taverns, what did he really know about her?

  “Where are we heading?”

  “North, for now.”

  “Why?”

  “The men you met with Rayen are the sort that require our attention in the north,” Carth said.

  “They share the same ability as you,” he said.

  “Perhaps,” she said.

  “Just perhaps? Does this have to do with one of the Elder Stones?”

  Carth was silent for a few moments. “When I was young, I knew very little about myself. My parents wandered from city to city, and at the time, I thought it was nothing but their preference. It was only later—much later—that I learned the truth.”

  “And what truth was that?”

  “That they were hiding me.”

  “Why would they have had to hide you?”

  “At the time, they didn’t know what I was or what I could be, but I think they suspected. Even then, my father was training me in the ways of ancient Ih, guiding me through games that were designed to hone my mind and allow me to reach for my abilities.”

  “Which of your abilities? The shadows or the S’al?”

  “I only knew about the shadows at first. They helped me when I was an orphan on the streets of Nyaesh, allowing me to make my way for a time.”

  “I thought you said your parents were alive.”

  “Were alive. They were taken from me when I was very young. I had to learn to make my own way, thieving to find enough to eat, stealing scraps for myself and those I cared about.”

  Daniel regarded Carth with a renewed interest. With her abilities, he could easily imagine how successful she could have been as a thief. She would have been able to sneak up on people, grab whatever she wanted, and disappear before they had any idea she was there.

  “I don’t know anything about Nyaesh. Is that where we’re going?”

  “Only if we have to.”

  “Why not? If this is where you learned your abilities, why wouldn’t you have us go there?”

  “Nyaesh was my home, as much as any place was, for a long time. It was there that I learned of my connection to the shadows. It was there that I learned how to control the power of the Flame. It was there that I began to understand the greater powers, those of Ih and Lashasn, powers that have lived in this world for as long as any.”

  “Are those other Elder Stones?” He didn’t know why she was telling him all this but was thankful for it. The more he heard, the more he could understand and the better he felt. While he didn’t believe his people were the only ones with abilities—growing up fearing the Forgers had made that difficult—he had grown up thinking his people were the only ones with any significant ability. Meeting Carth and realizing just how much power she possessed—along with someone like Rayen—helped him understand that there were others in the world with as much—or more—power as his people.

  “Those are places.”

  “Did those places have Elder Stones?”

  She regarded him for a moment. “You have a quick mind. Have you ever played Tsatsun?”

  Daniel smiled. “A game?” He wondered if it would be anything like the games his father had alwa
ys enjoyed.

  Carth nodded. “It’s a game of strategy, a way of thinking. I found that there are very few people who possess the necessary skill set to play with any ability.”

  “I didn’t take you for the kind of person who played games.”

  “Much can be learned from Tsatsun. The more you play, the better you begin to think through strategy, especially when it comes to facing opponents. I’ve found that the key to defeating most opponents lies in understanding how they think.”

  “And if you were to face me, how would you do that?”

  Carth cocked her head to the side, studying him. “You are Elvraeth, so you would pose some challenge.”

  “Only some?”

  “I haven’t been around you long enough to know how much of a challenge you would present. And so, I think I’m giving you a little credit by saying that you would pose some challenge. You have friends you care about, so they would be targets.”

  Daniel glanced back at Lucy, who remained busy with the other Binders. “You would use people against those who care about them?”

  “The question wasn’t whether I would do this. The question was how it could be done. I’m only explaining to you the various strategies involved. Don’t get caught up in taking any of this personally.”

  “It’s hard not to take it personally, especially when you’re talking about attacking people I know and care about.”

  “Do you think caring is a weakness?” Carth asked.

  “I didn’t, but the way you say it, I don’t know.”

  “Do you think I care about the people within my network?”

  Daniel frowned, his gaze sweeping around the ship. He had seen just what Carth was willing to do for her people, and so he knew that she had affection for them. Was it feigned or was it real? If it wasn’t real affection, then she did a good job of pretending.

  “I think you care about them.”

  “Caring is not a weakness. Caring is a way to connect yourself to others, and it’s been my experience that those who care the most and who have others who care about them are the strongest.” She smiled tightly. “Rsiran Lareth is an example of that. The man he confronted, his grandfather, had no real ties. He was willing to use anyone and everyone against the place he once called home. Rsiran was stronger because of the connections he had made, because of the family he had created. It’s much the same for me.”