“This man that the Forger referenced.”
“Him. A man named Olandar Fahr.” His father shook his head. “Do you know how long it took for me to even learn his name? Carth knew, though she kept it from me, the way she keeps many things. All I knew was that he had been directing them, guiding them in whatever plan he has, and we have been little more than part of the game he’s playing.”
“Why would you call it a game?”
“Maybe game isn’t quite right. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but perhaps not a game.”
Haern watched his father. There was an intensity to his eyes that he hadn’t seen before. His mouth was pressed into a tight line, and he looked out into the distance, staring at the water.
He was planning something.
“What are you going to do?”
“What makes you think I’m going to do anything?” his father asked.
“I know you too well.”
His father glanced over. “I wish that were true, Haern. Really, I do. Unfortunately, I’ve made it so that you don’t know me as well as you should. If everything goes as I want, maybe when this is over, you will know me.”
“Father—”
“I think it’s time that I do what I can to end this.”
“What do you mean?”
“Since you rescued me, I’ve been trying to place whatever protections I can to ensure our safety, but maybe that was a mistake.”
“I don’t know how effective those protections were,” Haern said.
“No, I don’t know how effective they were, either, and now that we have this Forger, he could lead me to the person I’ve been chasing.”
What would happen if they found him? What would his father do? Now that Haern had learned how his father had been captured before, he wondered if it was safe for Rsiran to go after this Forger.
Then again, to his father, that probably didn’t matter. His father didn’t worry so much about his own safety. That much Haern had known about him. He was more concerned about doing what he thought was needed.
“Would you do this on your own, or would you take someone with you?”
“There’s no one I can take.”
He turned to his father. “There is. Me.”
“You?”
“You can keep training me.”
“I’m not sure I’m the right one to train you.”
“It can’t just be the two of us. Not if you’re going after this dangerous Forger. We need to get other help.”
“What sort of help?”
“The kind that you’re not going to like.”
His father clenched his jaw. “No.”
“Father—”
Rsiran shook his head. “No. I’m not going to ask Galen to travel with us. Even having you come along is dangerous.”
“It’s dangerous for you too. It’s not only dangerous for me or Galen. And we survived Forgers already.”
“Forgers, but this is about more than Forgers.”
“The Ai’thol.”
“Haern, you don’t understand what they are, or what they can do. You might think you do, and having heard from me and Carth and whoever else you’ve spoken to recently might have given you the impression that you can understand them, but trust me when I tell you that you cannot. The Ai’thol are powerful and clever, and they have been around a long time. The more I learn about them, the more I fear them.”
“I didn’t think you feared anything.”
“I’m not so foolish as to think I shouldn’t fear anything.”
“If you know them as well as you claim, then you would know that you can’t fight them on your own.”
He didn’t like the idea of his father leaving him again, and more than that, he truly wanted to be a part of this. If his father believed that he needed to be involved, then he wanted to be involved. And he had been involved. He had faced Forgers. He had come out victorious. Because of him and what he had done, they had rescued his father after his capture.
“Maybe you’re right.”
“Good.”
“If we uncover what they’re after, then we can decide.”
“I don’t know that we should wait until then.”
“There’s nowhere for us to go until then,” Rsiran said. “We still have to figure out how to save the Elder Trees.”
“Now that Della has returned, can the two of you work on them?”
“We tried, but it requires significant strength from the two of us. Even if we can save one—and I’m not sure that we could—we don’t have the strength to do more than that.”
“I thought you said your lorcith will work.”
“I thought it might, but I’ve been trying to use it against the metal they placed, and it’s been ineffective.”
“Sort of like what happened with Lucy.”
Rsiran nodded. “When Della managed to remove the lorcith from you, I thought we might find a way, but that’s not to be. It hadn’t been implanted all that long in you, and we stabilized you quickly enough to reverse most of the effect. With the trees, the attempts at healing only made it worse.”
That had been their experience with Lucy, too. Daniel had said that any attempt to Heal her had only forced the metal deeper into her head, making it harder for them to save her.
She had grown stronger with her abilities, but was that the result of the attempt to Heal her driving the metal deeper into her, or was it something else?
Could the same thing have been happening to the trees? Maybe that was why separating the metal from the trees now was impossible, or at least incredibly difficult.
“We don’t even know what they intend to use the trees for,” Haern said.
“I’ve tried to discover that, but he won’t answer.”
“You questioned him?”
“Eventually I’ll get the answers.”
“And if your torment won’t work?”
“Unfortunately, it might not. When I faced the Hjan, I had enough control over lorcith that I could remove the implants from them. They have adapted and no longer use straightforward lorcith implants to augment their abilities.”
Haern’s breath caught. He knew his father had control over lorcith, but that degree of control shocked him. The ability to simply remove the implants without having a Healer?
And doing so might harm the Forger, but Haern wasn’t certain that he cared. After what they’d done to him and the rest of the people of Elaeavn, he no longer felt any sort of remorse when it came to the Forgers.
But maybe his father’s approach was wrong.
“What if we treat him differently?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know that you can simply torture him for information.”
“We have to get it out of him somehow,” his father said.
“Probably, but it might not be the right way.”
“What would you suggest?”
“You’ve been looking for this person, and you haven’t been able to find him. You questioned the Forgers, and they haven’t answered. What if we follow him?”
“It’s difficult to track someone who can Slide,” his father said.
“I understand, but what if he couldn’t Slide?”
“I’ve already told you I can’t remove his ability.”
“You don’t have to remove the metal implant in order to make this work. All we need to do is keep him from Sliding, and then we can track him.”
“What do you propose?”
Haern considered for a moment. Would his father even attempt to listen? Haern felt much the same way as his father did about the Forgers, but perhaps without the same level of anger and agitation. He wanted to stop them, and he wanted to figure out a way to ensure that Elaeavn was safe, and if there was one person who was responsible for everything, his father might be right: finding him and capturing him could put an end to it.
But they had to be better than the Forgers.
And they had to be smarter than the Forgers
.
“We might need to let him go,” Haern said.
His father frowned. “Haern, he nearly killed you. He nearly killed Galen. And now you would simply let him go?”
“I wouldn’t simply let him go. I would use him.”
“How would you use him?”
Haern considered for a moment before sharing with his father his plan. As he spoke, his father regarded him intensely, but the longer Haern spoke, the more a dark smile spread across Rsiran’s face.
32
Haern
The forest was dark at this time of night. Haern approached it slowly, carefully, feeling for the presence of lorcith as he made his way forward. It filled him, an awareness of the metal that was both overpowering and somehow wrong. All of it was because of what his father had done to the metal here. Whatever he had done had changed it, leaving it unpleasant.
The longer he detected the sense of lorcith here, the more he wanted it away from him. He couldn’t imagine sitting within that cell, moment after moment, the pressure of lorcith pushing against him, the strangeness of it screaming at him.
It had to be agony.
His father hadn’t revealed to him whether or not he would even be able to access the cell, but he remained curious. This was a Forger, a man who was his enemy, and yet now he was captured, harmless, and could do nothing to Haern, confined as he was within the bars of the cell.
Haern pressed his hand on the outside of the building. The sense of lorcith filled him, flowing around him, and the longer he stood there, the more uncertain he was of what he detected.
Power filled the entirety of the structure.
He pushed.
He wasn’t sure it would even work. There was no reason for this lorcith to work for him; his father had made it clear that the lorcith was forged toward him and not toward anything else. Why would his father allow him to open the cell and risk releasing the prisoner? He wouldn’t, which left Haern surprised when the door opened.
He stepped inside, pulling it closed.
“You will find me in no better mood to speak at this hour… younger Lareth,” the Forger said.
He turned to look at Haern. Without enhanced Sight, Haern might not have been able to See him clearly in the thin moonlight that streamed in.
“Why have you come?”
“I thought you could provide answers,” Haern said.
The Forger laughed. “And what sort of answers do you think I’ll give you that I wasn’t willing to give your father?”
“Why are you here?”
“Ah, a basic question.”
“It’s only basic because I don’t know why the Forgers continue to attack us.”
“No? I find that interesting. Your father is the one who has instigated the ongoing attacks on my people.”
“Only because the Forgers have attacked here.”
“When was the last time you recall an attack on your home?” the Forger asked.
“A few months ago.”
Haern caught himself. The attack hadn’t been the Forgers at all, and though he knew it was the C’than who had instigated that attack, a part of him still blamed the Forgers.
The Forger turned his gaze on Haern. In the darkness, it was difficult to tell, but the man had deep green eyes, dark enough that he could almost be Elvraeth, though he had no other features that made Haern think he was from Elaeavn. He had olive skin and sandy hair, and he was shorter and stouter than most people from the city. If he was of Elaeavn—or of Elvraeth birth—it was a distant connection.
“There has been no attack from my kind over the last few months.” The Forger jerked on his chains, and Haern prepared for the possibility that he might need to jump out of the cell in order to confine the man, but the cuffs around his wrists and ankles held. The Forger chuckled. “So scared. Nothing like your father, are you?”
“We captured you.”
“By chance. Chance is not what you want to rely upon in order to defeat us. Already, plans are in place that you cannot begin to fathom.”
“I can fathom more than you realize. If it’s so difficult for me, why won’t you answer?”
“What is there to answer? You don’t believe what I’m saying, and I don’t believe what you’re saying.” He turned away from Haern.
Haern made a slow circuit of the inside of the cell. The awful pressure of the lorcith all around him continued to squeeze upon him. “Why did you attack this time?”
“What choice do we have? We have faced Lareth—your father—for years.”
“And he has attacked because of the Forgers.”
The man was silent for a few moments. “You know so little of what he’s done, don’t you?”
“Then tell me.”
“That is not my responsibility. You will see. All will see when the pieces fall into place.”
There was something about what he said that resonated with Haern. “What pieces? What does Olandar Fahr plan?”
The Forger met his gaze. “You do not get to speak the name of the Great One.”
Haern smiled. “Great One? That’s a little pretentious.”
“No more pretentious than your father believing he can understand the mind of the Great One. All of this is for a higher purpose.” The Forger looked up at him. “And you cannot begin to understand what he plans.”
Haern grunted. “I was there when you attacked us in Asador. You claim that you haven’t continued to attack, and yet all the evidence is to the contrary.”
The Forger shook his chains, and this time Haern didn’t jerk back. “You can learn. Interesting. Maybe you are more like your father. Then again, he’s getting old, and as we’ve seen, the skills from Elaeavn begin to fade with age.”
“We just want the fighting to be over. We want our people to be able to live peacefully.”
“And yet, despite your desires, you continue to press an attack. That is not the action of somebody who wants peace.”
“What choice do we have?”
“There is always a choice. And you must make yours, much like your father made his.”
“What about my father?”
“Your father thinks he understands the Ai’thol, but he doesn’t. He has made that mistake too often. Soon it won’t matter.”
“Why not?”
The Forger glanced up at Haern for a moment before looking away. “It would be better if you discovered in time. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.”
“Does it have to do with the trees?”
If he could convince the Forger to share what they intended to do with the Elder Trees, maybe they would finally have some way of preventing it, though he still wasn’t sure if anything they might do would work. It was possible that there was no healing for the Elder Trees. It was possible that they were forever lost.
“The trees are but a means to an end, Lareth. Much like those who caused the damage.”
“What end?”
“Yours.”
Haern stared for a moment. “The C’than? That’s what this is about?”
“They thought they could outmaneuver the Great One. They failed. And now we have their secrets.” The Forger grinned. “I was there for that particular piece of planning, and it played out exactly as the Great One intended. Now the C’than are no longer an issue, and with their knowledge, neither are the people of Elaeavn.” The last came out with an angry sneer.
Haern stared at him for a moment before turning away and heading back out.
Once back outside, Haern stared at the building before sealing the door closed. His father would likely know that he had been here, and it wasn’t that he intended to conceal that fact from him anyway. It was more that he felt a need to understand. If there was anything he could uncover from the Forgers, why wouldn’t he take the opportunity to do so?
He stood in place, focused on the lorcith from the building. There was no denying that his father’s ability with lorcith was impressive, and he marveled at the control it had taken to build this
cell in the first place. How had he brought this much lorcith from the mines?
How long had he been working on it?
It was concealed from the rest of Elaeavn, though would others of the smith guild be equally deterred by his father’s use of lorcith? Maybe they would, and maybe the only reason Haern was able to find it was because his father had shown it to him.
There was something about what the Forger had told him that was important—the metal, the C’than, and whatever plan Olandar Fahr had for it.
They were going to release the prisoner, but perhaps they couldn’t until they better understood what they planned. There was more here than he knew.
He still had questions and was determined to get answers, though he wasn’t sure how. What would it take for him to learn what he wanted to know from this man?
Probably more force than what he was willing to use. And it wasn’t that he needed to force him. He needed answers, but that was it. Couldn’t he get answers by trying to find understanding?
Haern paused before deciding to head back into the cell. When he did, he sealed the door closed, pushing on the lorcith. He took a seat, looking at the Forger.
“I told you everything I was going to say.”
“I know,” Haern said.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I still don’t understand,” Haern said.
“What is there to understand?”
“I don’t understand anything about the Forgers. When you mentioned that we’ve been fighting, you’re right. We have been fighting, and I don’t know anything about you or your people.”
The Forger sneered at him. “If you think that I’m going to somehow reveal something you can use against us, you’re mistaken.”
“That’s not at all what I think. I think you have a kind of abilities that I don’t really understand.”
“You could never understand them. You are not one of the Chosen.”
“What are the Chosen?”
The Forger looked down, staring at the chains binding his wrists to his ankles.
Shadows Within the Flame (The Elder Stones Saga Book 2) Page 36