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

by D. K. Holmberg

  If that was true, then his father would have wanted him to get more training, to continue to work with Galen, and to begin to fully master his abilities, if for no other reason than to defeat the Forgers.

  “Can you do anything about the trees?”

  “I’m going to see whether I can, but it’s possible that I cannot. I have an ability to Heal, but your father has an ability to work with lorcith, and in this case, I think his talent is more important than mine.”

  What would happen if his father and Della worked together? Would that be enough to save the trees? If not, perhaps nothing could be done for them.

  Which got back to what Haern had suggested in the beginning. It might be necessary for them to simply remove the Elder Trees. He didn’t like that idea, but if that was what was required in order to prevent the Forgers from using the power of the Elder Trees, then he had to be willing to do that.

  “What happens if we can’t save the trees?”

  “If we are unable to salvage them, we need to be prepared for the possibility that an alternative correction must be made.”

  “Are you saying that you would be willing to sacrifice the Elder Trees?”

  “I’m saying that I recognize the need to be prepared for that possibility.”

  She might be the only one other than him who was.

  “What would we do?”

  “If it comes down to it, we cannot allow the Forgers and their masters to gain the power of the Elder Trees.”

  “I think they have acquired other Elder Stones.”

  “That is what I’ve heard as well.”

  “We prevented them from reaching the Wisdom Stone in Asador.”

  Della frowned. “There’s a stone in Asador?”

  “There is. The C’than protect it.”

  Della frowned again before turning away. She sorted through several of the vials on the counter. “What are you feeling now?”

  Haern focused on the pain he had felt when he had begun to come around. It was still there, but it was different now. “I don’t know. I still feel the tingling.”

  “Hopefully the tingling means you will begin to regain sensation.”

  “What happens if I don’t?”

  “If you don’t, then you will need to find a way to compensate.”

  “Even if I can’t walk?”

  “You’re already convinced that you won’t be able to walk again?”

  “I’m not convinced of anything. I’m just trying to get a sense of what you feel is realistic. You’re the Healer.”

  “My skills have dwindled over time. There might’ve been a time when I could have saved you much more quickly than I did now, but it has been quite a while.”

  Maybe that was the reason she wasn’t able to help with the trees. Perhaps her skills had dwindled to the point where they were no longer enough for her to salvage and save the Elder Trees.

  “You haven’t said anything more about Galen.”

  “I’ve said all that needs to be said about Galen.”

  “He will live?”

  Della turned back to him. In one hand, she held a large metal spoon, and in the other was a bowl. She watched him for a moment before beginning to stir the spoon in the bowl. A brownish powder collected in the air. “Galen was the first student I ever accepted.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “He had a bright mind. He immediately understood the use of every medicinal I taught him. He took that knowledge and was able to expand upon it. Had he been able to stay in the city, he would have been incredibly talented.”

  “You regret what happened to him?”

  “How can I?”

  “Even though he became an assassin?”

  “Galen became what he was meant to become. It’s the same for all of us. We each have our own journey. Some are more difficult than others, but in Galen’s case, had he not been where he was, had he not gone through what he had, one of the crystals would’ve been lost. Cael Elvraeth might have died. The key to stopping the Hjan and your great-grandfather might have disappeared.”

  “You believe in fate?”

  “Fate. Destiny. Prophecy. Perhaps I believe in something along those lines, but that’s only because I can See that there are various possibilities.”

  “I was always taught that what has been Seen can change.”

  “And it can,” Della said. “But I do wonder if there remains some hand guiding over us. Whether that’s the Great Watcher or some other higher power, I have seen enough in my days to leave me questioning.”

  Haern didn’t like the idea that he didn’t have control over his destiny, but did it matter? If he didn’t know, would it change anything?

  “What would’ve happened had Galen not been exiled?”

  “I’ve told you.”

  “How do you know that would have happened? What if Galen had stayed, and somehow he had managed to prevent the crystal from disappearing in the first place? What if the crystal never would have disappeared had he been there?”

  “We’ll never know, will we?”

  Haern lay on his back, with movement slowly coming back to him. Every so often, he could hear Della stirring off to the side, and he glanced over to watch. She continued to work, leaving him wondering why she would have any need for traditional medicines when she had the ability to Heal.

  After a while, Della began to hum softly. She had a rough and raspy voice, stronger than he would’ve expected given her advanced age.

  When he was finally able to sit up, he looked over at her. She worked diligently, continuing to mix and stir her compounds, setting them off to the side.

  “Who are those for?”

  “For those who don’t have the ability to be Healed.”

  “Who are you planning on using those for?”

  “There are times when Darren isn’t able to be around. It’s the same reason I wanted to train Galen. There were going to be times when I couldn’t be around.”

  “Those aren’t for Darren, are they?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Who are they for?”

  “You, Haern Lareth.”

  28

  Haern

  Haern fingered the piece of metal. Sharp barbs protruded all around it, some of them still bloody, a reminder of how they had pierced his back, almost killing him. Was this what had happened to Lucy? Had they used a similar weapon against her? If so, it was a marvel that she had survived.

  “You’re up,” his father said.

  Haern looked over. Fatigue wrinkled his father’s eyes, and he breathed out heavily.

  “You went for Della.”

  “I wasn’t about to let you die.”

  “I’m sorry, Father.”

  “You don’t need to be sorry. I know why you did what you did, and I need to be better about accepting the fact that you’re an adult, and you need to make decisions on your own. I went through the same thing, but it’s easy to forget about that. It’s easy to forget how I felt when I was your age.” His father sank down onto a chair and leaned back. “I wasn’t sure I could find her in time.”

  “What about Darren?”

  “Darren was able to remove the metal, and you were growing weaker.”

  “It was poison,” Haern said.

  His father lifted his head up and cocked an eye at him. “Are you sure?”

  “Galen has tormented me often enough with poison for me to recognize how it feels. I’m not sure what they used on me, but it was definitely poison.”

  “That’s different.”

  “The Forgers don’t use poison?”

  “Generally? No. They prefer brutal weapons, but they haven’t taken the time to attempt to add poison to them. They might use various compounds designed to remove abilities, but nothing more than that.”

  Haern thought back to the attack. “The Forger was after me.”

  “I know.”

  “You know?”

  His father nodded. “I was waiting until yo
u were well enough, but…”

  “I’m well enough to get up. What is it?”

  “Come with me,” his father said.

  Haern slid off the chair, looking around Darren’s—and Della’s—home. He rested on a cot along the outer wall, with the window far from him. In this corner of the room, it was dark, and though the fire crackled in the hearth, there remained a chill in the air. The medicinal odor clung to his nostrils. Della had administered something she claimed would help revitalize him, but he hadn’t noticed that too much. For the most part, he was tired still. He suspected that had to do with the nature of the poisoning.

  When he stood, he wobbled slightly from weak legs as he followed his father out of the home.

  “Are you going to be okay?” his father asked.

  “I just might need to rest a little,” he said.

  “Rest as much as you need. I’ve been through injuries before, so I understand how much they can take out of you as you recover.”

  “What kind of injuries have you sustained?”

  “The kind that I never want to experience again,” he said.

  His father guided him out of the clearing and headed toward the city itself. They wound through the woods, following a well-worn path, and Haern watched his father’s back.

  “Why aren’t you Sliding us to wherever you’re taking me?”

  “There are times when you need to walk.”

  “That’s not the only reason.”

  “It’s not. I wanted to talk to you about what happened.”

  “The attack? I don’t know much more than what you do.”

  “You saw the Forger.”

  “I did. I was training with Galen when I did.”

  “It’s impressive that you managed to observe him.”

  “He was Sliding.”

  His father paused and glanced over his shoulder. “You can See when someone Slides?”

  “Not always, but there’s a certain movement that happens. It’s almost a shimmering. I’ve learned how to watch for it.”

  “How did you discover this?”

  “Growing up around you has made it easy.”

  His father snorted. “Your mother often said that. She claimed there was a certain shimmering when I Slid. I don’t have the same Sight as either of you, so I don’t view it in the same way.”

  “When you Slide, it’s a little different than when someone else like Lucy does.”

  “Your mother always said it was faster.”

  “I’m not so sure that it’s faster. The colors are a little different.” Even that didn’t feel quite right. The colors might be different, but it was a swirl of them, almost as if he could pull them apart. If he could slow it down, he might be able to tease apart the shades he witnessed. And when he observed someone like one of the Forgers Sliding, it didn’t really matter. All that mattered was that he was able to recognize them coming and avoid them.

  “I’m glad you were able to See them,” his father said. “After you were injured, how did you escape?”

  “The rods you placed around the trees,” Haern said. “I could detect the lorcith, and I used it to pull myself along.”

  “That would have taken considerable strength.”

  “I almost didn’t have enough strength.”

  “Interesting.”

  “Why is it interesting?”

  “I use lorcith and heartstone to anchor myself when I Slide. I can detect it, and much like you, I use it when I pull myself. I have always done that, and from talking to others who Slide, it seems as if the way that I Slide is different than theirs.”

  “Do you think I could eventually learn to Slide?” If he could, he might be even more dangerous to the Forgers.

  “Haern—”

  Haern shook his head. “I’m not saying that I want to be like you, or that I’m willing to do anything to gain those powers.”

  “I was able to Slide before I realized my connection to lorcith,” his father said. “With you, it’s different. I think you’ve grown up knowing about your connection to lorcith. The guild no longer hides that, and it shouldn’t. We want the smiths to know that a connection to lorcith isn’t something to fear. We want our people to use that connection and allow it to strengthen them, to do greater things than they would be able to do otherwise.”

  “Then why were you asking me about pulling myself using lorcith?”

  “There might be ways for you to use that ability. You might not be able to Slide, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use anchors in the same way that I do.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Well, you locked on to what you detected from the rods surrounding the trees. What’s the smallest amount of lorcith that you can anchor to and draw yourself toward?”

  Haern shrugged. “I haven’t really tried.”

  “Part of understanding the nature of your abilities is working with them.”

  “I thought you didn’t want me working with Galen.”

  His father sighed. “That was a mistake. Working with Galen is going to protect you. You need training that I can’t provide. I don’t have the same sort of abilities you do. Galen is closer to you in that way than I am.”

  Haern almost didn’t know what to say. “That’s why you’re bringing me here? Are you guiding me to the palace?”

  “Not the palace. I don’t think there’s anything more you can learn there.”

  “What about Galen?”

  “Galen still needs time to recover,” his father said.

  “Then what are you trying to get me to understand?”

  “I want you to consider working with your connection to lorcith. Place various items that you have forged around, and try to pull upon them.”

  “Why ones that I’ve forged?”

  “There’s something about modifying the metal yourself. It somehow binds you to it in a way that you wouldn’t be otherwise. It always seems to answer me differently, requiring less energy on my part.”

  “Would there be any way of anchoring in a way that wouldn’t come loose?”

  “I don’t know. I think that’s what you have to work on and discover. It’s possible that there is some way for you to anchor that will allow you to draw upon that connection. It’s something you have to find out for yourself. When you do, you might not need to share the ability to Slide.”

  The idea intrigued him. He only wished he had enough time to do this, but there were other things that needed to be done too. He would have said that he needed to get to Lucy in order to find out more about what the Forgers planned, to find Della to see if there was anything she could do to help the trees, but now it no longer felt as necessary.

  They approached a side pathway, and his father turned off onto it. Haern hadn’t taken this way to the woods before, though he had explored the forest extensively when he was a child. Every so often, he passed a lorcith rod buried deep within the ground. Without his ability to detect lorcith, he wouldn’t have known what he was passing. Anyone else making their way along here might not even be aware of it.

  “What are these for?” he asked.

  “You feel them?”

  Haern paused in front of one of them. He moved around some of the underbrush, and when he did, he could just make out the buried tip of the rod. It reflected some of the sunlight. It was narrow, not much larger than the end of one finger, and he stared at it, trying to determine what it was that his father had placed here—and it was his father who had placed it here, Haern was certain. No one else would have the necessary control over lorcith to do so.

  “These mask the pathway,” his father said.

  “Mask it? I can see it just fine.”

  “You can, but that’s because you have a connection to lorcith.”

  “The Forgers have a connection, too.”

  “They do, which is why I added a few particular tweaks to it.”

  “Such as?” He looked up to see his father staring at him.

  “Such as a twist to the des
ign. As I was telling you, when you work with lorcith long enough, you begin to hear its call. Sometimes you can make requests to the metal.”

  “What did it have you do with this one?”

  “In this case, I shared with the lorcith what I needed. It helped guide me toward the right shape.”

  Haern focused on the rod, and as he did, he could feel the spiraling shape as it twisted deeper into the ground. Strangely, it connected to another rod and then another; each one connected, but that wasn’t all. There was a pattern to them. As he focused, trailing from one to the next, he detected something like a star.

  “Why the pattern here?”

  “You See that?”

  “Now that I know it’s here, I can trace it.”

  “There aren’t many in the guild who have that ability.”

  “There aren’t?”

  His father shook his head. “You should be proud of yourself and of this ability, Haern.”

  “I never said I wasn’t proud of my ability.”

  “You don’t make the effort to master it.”

  “Just because I don’t want to hammer on the metal doesn’t mean that I don’t want to understand my connection to it.”

  His father watched him for a moment before nodding. “I suppose that’s true. The pattern is another part that the lorcith shared with me. It guided me toward the pattern, helping me understand that it would not only obfuscate the trail, but it would create a barrier.”

  “There’s a barrier out along the edge of the forest.”

  “That one was different.”

  “What does this one do?”

  “You’ll see.”

  Haern followed his father, and a tingling washed over his skin as they passed toward the inside of the star he detected. They continued moving through the forest, and he suspected that his father didn’t Slide here because of the way the lorcith was patterned. There was an enormous amount of the metal, and it was staggered heavily here, much more so than it was even around the barrier at the edge of the forest.

  There was an odd energy to what he detected here. Not only could he sense it, but he could feel the intent behind what he detected.

  It was designed to keep something inside the pattern—and to hold it there.