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

by D. K. Holmberg

  Lucy touched the back of her head. “I fear that I’ve already been changed.”

  “And we must hope that Carth is able to protect us. Besides, if you have enough strength with Sliding us, you should be able to limit how long we’re in contact with the Elder Stone.”

  As he said it, she realized that he was completely confident in her abilities—much more so than she was. She wished she could share in that confidence. She was strong, and the augmentation granted by the implant had made her considerably stronger, but this was something else entirely.

  What would happen if she were to be touched by the Elder Stone? How much would she change?

  It was possible that she wouldn’t know at first. Carth hadn’t shared with her how much she had changed when holding the Wisdom Stone, though the longer she was around Carth, the more she suspected the other woman had changed from it.

  “How do we get inside?”

  “That has to be me,” Carth said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Even if you were able to Slide us in there—and I don’t think you can—I don’t know that you could handle the heat of this place.”

  “And how do you handle the heat of this place?”

  Carth smiled tightly. “I am born of the flames.”

  With that, Carth went running toward the volcano. Daniel started after her, and Lucy grabbed him, keeping him from chasing Carth down. “I don’t think you should do that,” she whispered.

  “What will happen to her?”

  “Probably nothing, but it’s possible that she won’t return to us.”

  Lucy stood watching until Carth disappeared. When she reached the first lava flow, she half expected something to happen to the other woman, but Carth glided across it, almost as if she were completely unbothered by the power of the flames. And Lucy realized it was likely she wasn’t bothered. With her control over flames and shadow, she had proven that she had a unique set of powers.

  All they could do was wait.

  “Did you know that there was danger with the C’than?” Daniel asked.

  “Carth has been concerned about that. After the attack in Asador, she worried that Alera had gathered others.”

  “And have there been others?”

  Lucy nodded. “Unfortunately.”

  Daniel turned to her. “How many?”

  Lucy closed her eyes, unable to take her thoughts off the faces that had poured through her mind when she had grabbed the engineer from Nyaesh. “Many.”

  “She has you trying to help her uncover them?”

  Lucy tapped her head. “I can Read. That allows us to try and uncover them.”

  Daniel turned back toward the volcano. “Here I’ve been worried about the Ai’thol. No, that’s not right. I’ve been focused on the Forgers, but even then, I wasn’t nearly as concerned as I probably should have been.”

  “I don’t think any of us have ever been nearly as concerned about what they might do as we should have been.”

  “Lareth has.”

  “I think Lareth and Carth are the only ones who have been working against them. Well, perhaps not the only ones. Even though it bothers Carth, the C’than have been doing it, too, in their own dangerous way.”

  “Should we support them rather than attack them?”

  Lucy frowned. For a moment, she wondered if perhaps they should support the V’lar. At least now, they knew the name by which they called themselves. That was something they hadn’t even managed to acquire when she’d come across the engineers. But if they had named themselves the way that Carth suspected, it meant they were after power, too.

  “They have been willing to use their knowledge to hurt others.”

  “Like the Ai’thol,” Daniel said.

  Lucy nodded. “And that willingness to harm others is the greatest reason we need to act.”

  The light in the distance increased, and she realized why.

  Carth returned.

  As she did, there was something different about her. It was a strange type of energy that seemed to swirl around her. Carth glowed, light and heat radiating from her, and as Lucy stared, she realized that Carth dragged something behind her.

  “What does she have?” Daniel whispered.

  “I suspect it’s the Elder Stone,” she said.

  “What do you think it looks like?”

  “I have no idea. If she’s able to mute it with the shadows as she intends, we might not even be able to determine what it is.”

  As she approached, it was difficult to tell what exactly Carth held. It was glowing brightly, and yet streaks of darkness continued to swirl around it, and it took a moment for Lucy to realize that Carth used bands of shadow to drag it. As she drew nearer, those bands of shadow began to solidify, forming a shell over the Elder Stone.

  Carth slowed.

  Each step seemed to be difficult, as if the effort of dragging the Elder Stone with her was sapping her strength.

  Lucy grabbed Daniel, and they Slid toward Carth.

  The ground was hot, immediately beginning to burn through her boots, and she grabbed Carth as she began to fall forward.

  “Where to?”

  An image flashed in her mind. It was Nyaesh, but it was beneath Nyaesh.

  “Hold on,” she said to Daniel.

  “How do you know where to go?”

  “Know that I do.”

  With that, she Slid.

  Ever since having her powers augmented, she had been able to Slide easily. Even when she had Slid back onto the ship, there had not been much difficulty. The only times she had struggled were when she had attempted to Slide many people at once, and even that hadn’t been nearly as difficult as it once had been.

  This was something else entirely. The effort of attempting to Slide felt as if she were being torn apart. It was pain. Heat flashed through her, but it was mixed with icy cold.

  Lucy cried out, and Daniel squeezed her hand. She didn’t dare look at him or Carth, and she prayed that Carth held on to the Elder Stone as they Slid.

  Instead, she focused on keeping the image Carth had shown her at the forefront of her mind. If she could do that, she might be able to draw them through the Slide, and then she might be able to reach Nyaesh—where they needed to bring the stone.

  As it felt as if she were starting to fail, they emerged from the Slide.

  Bright light swirled all around them, almost overwhelming. It was hot and dry and overpowering. Despite her enhanced eyesight, Lucy couldn’t See anything. Carth dragged them forward. It was a strange sensation, and the further they went, the more the brightness began to retreat.

  And then they stepped through a doorway.

  The light began to fade. It was subtle, and then it steadily disappeared, fading into nothingness.

  It took a long time for her eyesight to return. Even then, there was a strange afterimage, as if she had been staring at the sun too long.

  “Is it done?” Daniel whispered.

  “Did we bring it where we needed to?” Lucy asked Carth.

  “It’s done. You did well.”

  “What now?”

  “Now we need to return the A’ras. And then we need to remove the C’than from the city.”

  Lucy looked over at Carth. “Are you strong enough for that?”

  Carth stood, and shadows swirled around her. “I hope so.”

  38

  Haern

  A gently rolling hillside spread out in front of them, with a city sprawling in the distance. The design of the city was unlike anything he’d seen before. It was odd, unique, and the place seemed to possess a power unlike other places. He wasn’t even certain where they were. His father had Slid them, which meant he could take them anywhere.

  An enormous river flowed toward the city and then past it. Dozens of vessels sailed upon the river, most looking as if they headed toward the city itself. Some appeared to be heading away, back to sea. Haern couldn’t see the ocean from here, but those ships didn’t look to be the
kind that only sailed on rivers.

  “Why did we come here?” Haern asked.

  “Because of what you uncovered.” His father hadn’t questioned Haern when he had revealed what he’d learned from the Forger, simply making arrangements to leave. Haern didn’t even know how long they were going to be gone. “We need to keep looking for answers about what they plan.”

  “We know what they plan.”

  “We know that whatever it is has to do with the metal and the Elder Stones. We don’t know anything more than that.”

  The wrinkles around his father’s eyes told him all he needed to know. His father was troubled. This was about more than the Forgers, but Haern wasn’t sure what more his father worried about.

  “Do you think we’ll find them here?”

  His father shook his head, never taking his focus off the distant city. “They shouldn’t be here. This is a place of unique power.”

  “How unique?”

  “The kind that allows them to control fire.”

  “Like Carth?”

  His father nodded. “This is where Carth first began her training.”

  Haern studied the city with a renewed interest. If that were the case, it would make sense for them to be here, though his father couldn’t be the only one who knew that. “She told you that?”

  “Carth doesn’t tell me anything. What I’ve discovered about her over the years has come with great difficulty.”

  “Why do you need to know?”

  “In order to understand her and what sort of ally she might be, I need to know the person.”

  “Do you think she studied you the same way?”

  His father arched a brow, a smile quirking his lips. “I know that she has.”

  “What is this place?”

  “This place is called Nyaesh. The men and women who use fire are known as the A’ras, and they are incredibly gifted swordsmen.”

  “Have you faced them?”

  “I haven’t spent that much time here. Enough that I knew how to find it, and enough that I could return, but there hasn’t been much reason for me to come here before.”

  At the center of the city, it looked as if there was some sort of palace, though it stood out, massive towers rising into the sky. It was nothing like the Floating Palace, a place designed to be concealed from a distance. But then, all of Elaeavn was designed to be concealed from a distance. When it had been restored, great care had gone into rebuilding it in the same way, wanting to mask the design, making it so that the city itself would be invisible from the shore. It was the original design of the city, and the earliest architects had been incredibly skilled, so that parts of the city simply disappeared when viewed from various angles. The palace was different. Because of the design of the city, there were places within the city where the palace appeared to jut off the rock, practically floating, giving it its name. It was the only time the palace was really visible within the city, at least easily.

  This was quite a bit different.

  It was as if the palace were designed to be seen, to draw one’s attention.

  “Do you think an Elder Stone might be in Nyaesh?”

  “I think there are some ties to an Elder Stone here. It’s the only thing that makes sense, especially considering the type of power the people of Nyaesh possess. They control flames and fire, much like Carth, and that kind of magic can only come from an Elder Stone.”

  “Wouldn’t the Forgers know about it?”

  Haern couldn’t imagine the Forgers not knowing about an Elder Stone like that, and if they knew about it, they would have come after it.

  “Most Elder Stones are protected. From what I can gather, the people who possess them are typically able to offer a certain level of protection. It’s the reason the Wisdom Stone had been so difficult for them to acquire. They had felt the need to bargain for it. Often, it’s finding the stone that’s the most difficult.”

  “How so? If others know about the A’ras and their connection to fire, why wouldn’t they know about the Elder Stones here?”

  “It’s more than just knowing about them. Many people knew about the crystals within Elaeavn, but how can they reach them?”

  “People outside of Elaeavn know about the crystals?”

  “More than you would realize. And it’s the same with the A’ras. If they have an Elder Stone—and I’m not certain that they do—the real challenge would be protecting it. It would have to be in a place that would be fortified, and that fortification would need to prevent the Forgers—or anyone else who might think to reach it—from getting to it.”

  “You would try to find it, then?”

  “I would try to find information. Nothing more than that. The Forgers have gone silent, and other than the attack on Elaeavn, I’m not certain what they are after anymore.”

  “Then maybe we did stop them when we pushed them back in Asador.” That might be why the Ai’thol had taken to using what the C’than had discovered.

  His father shook his head. “The presence of our captive suggests otherwise. They are after something, and though he’s the only one who managed to cross the barrier, I suspect there will be others. We need to be ready for the possibility that they will reach us, and be prepared for whatever they might do, and stop them.”

  Haern watched his father. This was the kind of comment Brusus had worried about. He was concerned that Rsiran would be too focused, and seeing him like this, seeing the intensity on his father’s face, Haern thought that maybe Brusus had been right.

  Haern should have acknowledged that when his father had captured the Forger in the first place. There was a darkness to him, and he had been filled with anger, and it was more than simply trying to protect the people he cared about. It was about vengeance.

  “What do you want to do here?”

  “I want to search for evidence that the Forgers might be active and whether there is an Elder Stone here.”

  “How will we find them?”

  “They don’t hide themselves nearly as well as they would like to believe. And as we are so far from Elaeavn, there is not nearly as much lorcith. When we detect it, we can use that connection to search for the possible influence of Forgers.”

  “What if the Forgers use some other type of metal?”

  “All their metal has lorcith as the base. Regardless of what alloy they’re using, they all require the addition of lorcith. Even the smallest amount of lorcith, I can detect.”

  Haern strained to pick up on the sense of lorcith. If it was there, would he be able to sense it, too? He didn’t have his father’s sensitivity to it, but he had enough understanding and focus that he should be able to pick up on it.

  As he listened for lorcith, he felt that which he and his father carried, and then more distantly, there came several places within the city where lorcith resonated for him.

  He still didn’t hear it, not in a song the way his father had suggested he might one day be able to do, but that didn’t matter to him. He didn’t need to hear the song to know that lorcith was there.

  “I can feel it.”

  “Good. Then you can guide us where we need to go.”

  “You can’t feel it?”

  “I can, but let’s use this as an opportunity for you to gain some skill.”

  “Father—”

  His father glanced over at him. “You don’t want any training?”

  Haern hesitated answering. There was a time when he would’ve wanted nothing more than to work with his father, to try and understand the lessons his father might teach, to know the nature of the skills the man possessed, but was his father even able to teach those things? Haern could use lorcith in a similar way as his father, pushing and pulling on it, but he couldn’t Slide, which made it much more difficult to understand him. It was why Haern thought he had a better connection with Galen.

  “I want whatever training you are willing and able to offer,” he said.

  His father chuckled. “Willing and able? I suppose t
hat’s fair. I imagine you found Galen a very willing and able instructor.”

  “We have something in common.”

  “Your Sight?” When Haern nodded, his father shrugged. “And we have many things in common. You might not be able to Slide, but don’t forget that we share the same connection with lorcith. The two of us can both use metal similarly.”

  He didn’t have quite the same connection to lorcith as his father. And his father could use heartstone, a metal that Haern had no connection to whatsoever. Almost no one did.

  Rather than arguing, he only nodded.

  His father grabbed his arm and they Slid, emerging along a busy street. The river ran through here, and ships were pulled into the docks, with men moving on and off the ships and moving merchandise. There was a bustling that wasn’t present in Elaeavn. The activity was chaotic, and the city itself felt vibrant and alive.

  Galen had mentioned something about paying attention to the life within the city, to home in on it and try and harness it, to notice differences that were out of place. In Asador, he had begun to grasp how such differences could be used but hadn’t mastered it as well as Galen.

  Here, he thought he had a clear sense of the city. At least, this part of the city. The activity flowed, and most of it moved away from the docks, heading toward the center of the city—and the palace he’d seen from a distance.

  “I don’t see any of the A’ras,” Haern said, keeping his voice pitched low.

  “Not yet,” his father said.

  “What do they look like?”

  “You’ll know them. They are nothing if not proud of their swordsmanship.”

  “Why would that make it obvious?”

  His father pointed, and Haern watched as a pair of men marched along the street, coming down from a hill leading toward the docks. Both wore curved swords sheathed at their sides, and maroon sashes were wrapped around their arms. A bubble of people moved away from them, as if wanting nothing to do with the soldiers.

  The A’ras. They had to be.

  The soldiers made their way along the shoreline, never pausing, never slowing, and never needing to. Everyone simply moved out of the way, parting around them. Haern marveled at it.