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

by D. K. Holmberg

  Each time he Slid and emerged, she was there, ready.

  Every time he Slid, he felt his strength fading. How much longer would he be able to maintain it? With the next Slide, Carth was ready, and she kicked.

  The sword went flying, and she twisted, lunging toward him, a flurry of movement, and slammed him onto his back on the deck of the ship. She leaned close to him, the sword hovering above his neck. Only then did he realize that her blade wasn’t completely blunted the way his had been.

  “No abilities. You are of Elaeavn. No one will take your height from you. No one will take your speed. And no one can take your strength. With the right combination of compounds, someone can take your ability to Slide. They can take your Sight. They can take your ability to Read. They can take everything you attribute to the Great Watcher, but you can still be victorious if you are prepared. The question is, are you willing to be prepared? Are you willing to put in the effort that’s required in order to make yourself formidable even when those abilities fail?”

  Daniel breathed heavily, looking up at Carth. “Is that what you did?”

  “I’ve had my abilities stripped from me more often than you could know. Each time it happened, I realized that I needed to be prepared. I continued to train, and the more I did, the more I realized that I relied on my skill set far more than I should. And now? Now I still find myself needing to train. Especially as my particular talents have begun to fade.”

  She climbed off him and reached down, offering a hand.

  When Daniel got up, he shook his head. “Why are you pushing so hard?”

  “Because you need me to.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Because I’ve seen what happens to your kind when they lose their connection to their abilities. I’ve seen how you scramble, and the fear it instills within you. So many of your kind become reliant upon their powers, and they fail to work on other aspects of themselves that would grant them a different sort of strength. If the time comes when you lose your abilities, I would have you ready. We all need to be ready. The Ai’thol will continue their attack.”

  “And if I can’t be?”

  “Then you have to acknowledge that you might not survive.”

  “Is that why you trained your mind?”

  “That’s part of it. Knowing that I don’t have to be reliant upon all aspects of my abilities was part of it. Wanting to be able to overpower a superior opponent was another. And besides, the more I trained my mind, the more prepared I was able to be for all possibilities.”

  “Even me?”

  “Even you. I have experience with your kind.”

  “With Rsiran.”

  “Not just Rsiran. Rsiran is a part of it, and as talented as he is, I imagine he struggled when he found himself without his abilities.”

  “Who are you referring to, then? Galen?”

  Carth smiled. He didn’t see her smile often, but at the mention of Galen’s name, there was genuine warmth. It surprised him that she would have such a fondness for him. How well did the two of them know each other?

  And more than that, what sort of relationship did they have?

  “Nothing as salacious as what you would imagine,” Carth said.

  He blinked. This wasn’t the first time it seemed as if she Read him, but each time she did, he couldn’t help but feel surprised. “What was it, then?”

  “Galen was an ally. And he was the first of your people to show me how skilled you really could be. And he wasn’t one of the Elvraeth, so with his minimal abilities, what he was able to accomplish was extraordinary.”

  “Would you teach me this game?”

  Carth nodded. “I’m willing to play Tsatsun with anyone who is interested in learning. It takes only a little while for you to learn the basics, but it requires years to master.”

  “How long did it take you to master it?”

  “I’m a little bit unique. I was forced to play, and forced to learn, so that when I played it, I did so with much more at stake than the way you would.”

  “What was at stake?”

  “My life.”

  Daniel frowned. “Your life for a game?”

  “The man teaching me didn’t view it as a game. It was a training tool.”

  “That sounds horrible.”

  “There are many ways of training. I told you about my father and the games we played. That was perhaps the easiest way that I learned. When I began to learn about my connection to the Flame, it was much more brutal.”

  “And that’s where we’re going now?”

  “We’re going to see what we can uncover about the A’ras.”

  “You told me about them, and about Nyaesh, but is that where you began to learn about your connection to the S’al?”

  “It wasn’t called that there. The people from Nyaesh who learn to master what they call the Flame are known as the A’ras. They are incredible swordsmen, and when I joined them, I thought I was learning to use those skills for a noble purpose.”

  “You weren’t?”

  “Perhaps at first, but the A’ras were nothing more than an extension to an age-old war.”

  “Is that why they attack you now?”

  “No. I think they are coming for a very different reason, and that is what I want to know.”

  “Are we going to Nyaesh?” He looked over to Lucy, worry creeping in. If that was where they were heading, he wasn’t sure he wanted to risk putting Lucy into danger. But then, it was her choice, wasn’t it? He couldn’t decide on her behalf.

  “Not to Nyaesh.”

  “I thought that was where these A’ras would be found.”

  “The A’ras would be found there, but that’s not where we are heading.”

  “Why not?”

  “They have left Nyaesh for a reason, and I need to understand that reason.”

  “Going to Nyaesh wouldn’t help you understand?”

  “It might, but more than likely, it would open me to more questions. I haven’t spent much time there over the last few decades, and I don’t even know what welcome I might receive if I were to go back. There are others who would be safer, but…”

  She didn’t say it, but there was something left unresolved about her time with the A’ras. What could it be? What would leave Carth like that? Daniel wondered if he would ever know.

  “Carthenne?” Isabel said.

  Carth looked up. Isabel stood in the bow of the ship, staring ahead.

  “There are two ships in the distance.”

  Carth smiled slowly. “Good.”

  Daniel joined Carth at the bow, looking out over the sea. When he first looked, there was nothing but the great expanse of blue, just a stretch of ocean, occasional whitecaps surging, but the more he stared, the more it became clear that there was something out there. Dark specks marred the horizon. He stared, hoping his enhanced eyesight would allow him to see it more clearly, and marveled at the fact that Isabel had noticed.

  How had she noticed so quickly?

  Carth had said that she wasn’t enhanced, but that couldn’t be true. There had to be something, some way she was able to see over the ocean and identify those ships.

  “What is it?”

  “I’m not sure yet.” She nodded to Isabel, and the woman, along with some of the other Binders, leapt to work, quickly hoisting the sails and spinning around.

  “Could it be the A’ras?”

  Carth shrugged. “I can’t make out the detail on the ships that well yet, but as we get closer, I’ll know.”

  “There are two of them. Aren’t you worried about what we might encounter?”

  “I’ve been sailing for nearly my entire life. The seas are my home, and I don’t fear anything out here on them.”

  “Even if they’re A’ras?”

  “Especially if they are A’ras.”

  The ship continued to move forward, but it seemed to do so with increasing speed. It took him a moment to realize why. Rayen stood at the stern, and shadows s
treaked out from her. Daniel joined her.

  “This is how Carth travels?”

  “The shadows offer a certain amount of speed,” Rayen said.

  “Only the shadows?”

  “Carth will occasionally use her other abilities, but she is stronger with the shadows. And she has shown me how to do the same.”

  “What happens when we get to that ship?”

  “Ships,” Rayen corrected.

  “Fine, what happens when we get to those ships?”

  “An exchange of information.”

  “You mean a fight.”

  “Only if it comes to that. It doesn’t always, and it’s possible that we won’t need to actually combat them.”

  Daniel couldn’t see anything more than he had before, but the winds whipping past did so with more urgency. Salty spray splashed along his cheeks. It took an effort of will to ignore it.

  “You would put your people in danger?”

  “Heading after them doesn’t put us in danger. Ignoring the potential of the threat would put us in danger. The fact that we can see them is an advantage. By the time they realize we are coming upon them, they won’t be able to turn away very easily. That’s all part of Carth’s plan.”

  He continued to watch as the ships moved ever closer. The longer they went, the more obvious it became that they would reach them, and soon.

  The Binders all began to take up positions closer to the bow, other than the ones who were holding on to the lines, remaining ready.

  Even Lucy took part in it. She stood with her hands clasped together at the bow, looking off into the distance. What did she See? With her augmentation, perhaps she could observe even more than Carth and the other Binders. What would Lucy do if it came down to it? Though she had started to gain control over her enhanced abilities in the months they had spent with the Binders, she still hadn’t begun to fight. Not that he necessarily wanted her to. It didn’t suit Lucy, but if he was honest, he wanted to be the one to protect her if it came down to it.

  Against the A’ras, he didn’t know if there was any way for him to protect her.

  As they neared, black sails caught his attention. Wind snapped within them, and they chased down the other ships, moving swiftly across the sea.

  “What happens when you catch them?”

  “Then we have our conversation,” Rayen said.

  “What happens if the conversation doesn’t go your way?”

  She frowned. “It doesn’t ever not go our way.”

  He sighed. When he made his way to the bow to join Lucy and Carth, he grabbed the hilt of his sword, looking into the distance. “I could Slide us onto the ship,” he said.

  Carth smiled. “I don’t know if that will be necessary.”

  “But if it is.”

  “Then you may Slide us onto the ship. I’m just saying that I don’t think it will be necessary for you to take such a step.”

  “I’d rather do that than risk an open attack.”

  “The attack is not any real danger to us,” she said.

  “How can you tell?”

  “What do you fear, Daniel Elvraeth?”

  “I fear getting attacked. I fear not being quick enough. I fear that you’re making a mistake.”

  Carth smiled at him again. “Again, perhaps.”

  As they pulled even with the other ships, he realized that they began to slow, and he glanced over to see who—and what—might be on board the ships.

  Surprisingly, both ships were captained by women.

  Daniel blinked. “Binders?”

  “Binders,” Carth said.

  “Why did we chase them down?”

  “Because we need answers, and they might have them.”

  16

  Daniel

  Daniel remained near the stern of the ship as they approached. Carth steered them, guiding them quickly, and as she did, the shadows continued to swirl around her, practically stretching away from her. Daniel didn’t need enhanced eyesight to See it.

  Lucy joined him, the first time she’d stood next to him in a while.

  “What do you think they know?” she asked.

  “You can’t Read them?”

  “Not easily. I think Carth has some way of protecting them, the same way she protects herself.”

  “I don’t know what they have. Carth thinks she has some answer, but what is it and what does it have to do with the men we’ve faced?”

  “They trouble her,” Lucy said, turning her gaze to Carth.

  “I didn’t think you were able to Read her.”

  “I don’t need to Read her to recognize the concern on her face. It’s in the tension in her eyes. It’s in the way she holds herself. She doesn’t hide it nearly as well as I think she would like to. The others see it too. It drives them. When Carth is worried, they are worried.”

  Daniel grunted. It made good sense. If Carth was worried, he was worried. He didn’t like the idea that there might be something Carth wouldn’t be able to handle. It had nearly been too much when they had faced the Forgers and Asador, and even then, they had managed to survive.

  What could be worse?

  “I can understand why they’d be worried,” Daniel said. “These are supposed to be Carth’s people.”

  “They are, but from what I can tell, they are Carth’s people the same way that Rayen had been one of Carth’s people. She had been gone long enough that her pull over them has changed.”

  “And she’s worried about that? Rayen would set them straight.”

  “I don’t know what she’s worried about,” Lucy said.

  They reached the other two ships. Carth guided them directly between them. It was a position that would be dangerous if Carth were concerned, but maybe that was the point. If she was concerned, maybe she was using the placement in order to show how she felt. She had to exude power, and confidence.

  Lines were tossed from each ship to the other, and they were tied up.

  Daniel glanced to the ship on the left. There was nothing special about it that he could discern, nothing other than the fact it was captained by a brown-haired woman, tall and slender. Her height made her nearly the rival of anyone from Elaeavn, though he could See that she had deep blue eyes, not the green of those from Elaeavn. She was dressed in dark leathers, and she strode forward, standing at the railing for a moment before jumping on board the ship.

  “Carth?” the woman asked, her voice a sharp snap that split the air.

  “Alana,” Carth said. “It’s been too long.”

  “You were supposed to be dead.”

  “Are you disappointed?”

  Alana glared at Carth. “You know I’m not. It’s just that—”

  “I know what it’s just,” Carth said.

  “Why have you come looking for us?” Alana asked.

  “What makes you think I came looking for you?”

  “We detected the pull of shadows about a day ago,” Alana said. “At first, we weren’t sure what it was, and we wondered if it might be from the Reshian, but we haven’t encountered any in years.”

  “No, I think most of the Reshian are gone,” Carth said.

  “Keira suggested that it was Rayen,” Alana said, nodding to a shorter mousy-looking woman. She had flat gray eyes and a sharp nose, but she seemed to take everything in with one sweeping glance.

  “Rayen is with me,” Carth said.

  Alana’s breath caught. “She’s with you? Has she told you what she’s done?”

  “I’m well aware of what she’s done,” Carth said.

  “And you approve?”

  “It’s not a matter of approving or not. It’s a matter of unifying. The Binders need to remain stable.”

  “We’re stable, Carthenne.”

  “No. There’s a fracture, and it’s being used against us.”

  “How could it be used against us?”

  “The Ai’thol have begun to make their play.”

  Alana frowned. “The Ai’thol? Not the Forgers?”


  “The Forgers were nothing but an arm of the Ai’thol, the same way the Hjan were an arm of the Ai’thol. The same way the Calow were an arm of them. We can defeat the arms, or we can go after the body.”

  “Are you ready to attack them like that?”

  Carth breathed out in a heavy sigh. “I don’t know that I am, but again, I don’t know that I have much choice. When it comes to the Ai’thol, we simply have to protect ourselves.”

  “We have been. We’ve been patrolling the seas, and we haven’t uncovered anything that would suggest the Ai’thol have been active.”

  “And yet, the Forgers continue to spread throughout the southern continent.”

  Alana looked over the deck of Carth’s ship before her gaze settled on Rayen. “Where have you been?” she asked, turning her gaze onto Carth.

  “I have been preoccupied.”

  “You can’t simply return and claim you were preoccupied. We deserve answers from you, Carth.”

  “I’ve been trying to secure as many of the Elder Stones as I can,” Carth said.

  “By yourself?” The hurt in Alana’s tone was clear to Daniel, even from where he stood.

  “It was something only I could do.”

  “Was it? After everything we did together on Keyall and with the Collector and—”

  Carth settled her hand on Alana’s shoulder. “None of that is diminished. Some of these things have been tasks that only I could complete.”

  “Then why find us now?”

  “Because it appears that I failed.”

  Alana frowned, and Daniel felt himself stepping forward, curiosity compelling him to get closer. What was Carth revealing? She had been trying to secure the Elder Stones, but now she didn’t think she had been successful? Had something happened to the Wisdom Stone? That should have been safe, protected by the C’than within the university, but then, it was supposed to have been safe before, and somehow the C’than had decided to bargain with it, to use the stone as a way of gaining favor with the Ai’thol.

  “What happened?” Alana asked.

  “A’ras with far more power than they should have attacked in Asador.”

  Alana scanned the deck, her gaze briefly settling on Lucy and then Daniel before turning back to Carth. “You still have enough influence within the A’ras to ensure that any attack is blunted.”