Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Rsiran?” Jessa hissed.

  “Wait for me,” he said, stepping forward. The long cloak he wore to cover the sheathed heartstone sword caught the wind and flapped behind him. With each step, he pushed the knives before him, holding them floating in the air in an arc around him. He strained for the sense of lorcith, but didn’t pick up anything more.

  Experience had taught him that didn’t mean there wasn’t anything more there. Especially here, in the shadows of Thyr. Moments passed, and he detected nothing else. No sense of lorcith that flashed before fading. Nothing.

  What of heartstone?

  Drawing the knives back to him, he caught them in his palm and held them ready.

  Detecting the alloy took a different sort of attention. He had to ignore the call of lorcith in order to hear heartstone, and when he did, it left him with no sense of the metal. Pushing away lorcith had become easier over time, and now he did it in a heartbeat.

  The sword called to him, demanding he unsheathe it. The time he’d spent with Haern had made him passable with the sword, but he would need even more time to give him real competence. There was an almost angry sort of energy from the sword, as if it were something alive rather than forged from metal at his forge. Rsiran ignored it, pushing the sense of the sword away from him.

  Then he sensed the alloy in Jessa’s necklace and noted that she approached, ignoring the dangers of whatever he had sensed. “What do you sense?” she asked.

  There was no other alloy nearby.

  Reaching beyond him, he strained to reach a distant sense of the alloy and felt a moment of relief that there was something within Thyr made of the heartstone. It didn’t move, and he worried that it wasn’t what he had detected from Krali Rock. The heartstone—and Thom—was the reason they had come.

  “I don’t know,” Rsiran said. “Probably nothing.”

  Brusus scraped along the rocks as he came out from hiding. His brow creased into a deep frown, and he stood on the ledge of rock overlooking the Thyrass River rushing with a white froth far below. “I’ve learned that when you’re involved, it is always something,” Brusus said.

  “I sensed lorcith, then I didn’t.”

  Brusus glanced over at him, drawing one of the small knives he kept with him from a hidden sheath beneath his cloak. He held it out to the bright moonlight, letting it spill across the blade. “Like you did in the forest? You think you were followed?”

  Jessa watched him, biting at her lower lip as she did.

  “It’s possible,” he admitted.

  Brusus nodded. “Possible. You told me about the time in the forest, and Jessa told me about the time near the docks. You really think they would have followed you here?”

  Rsiran shook his head, uncertain. The Forgotten Sliders had been afraid to venture too far from their hiding place. That had been one thing that he’d counted on, knowing that they would be protected in some ways from them by his willingness to Slide. And carrying the sword, he’d not noticed any influence on his Slide, but that didn’t mean that the others weren’t out there, attempting to follow. And Sliding three people would create enough ripples, noise of a sort, that someone like Sarah would be able to follow it.

  “We should get to Thyr and get this over with,” Rsiran said. “Find Thom, get to my father, and then…” Then he still had to figure out where to find Alyse. Only they couldn’t do that without risk. Was he ready to expose Jessa to that risk?

  “It’s okay if we wait,” Jessa said. “If we’ve already been detected, this might not be the right time.”

  Rsiran stared toward the city, one hand going to the hilt of the heartstone sword. It had a certain reassuring weight to it, and he pressed his palm into the simple leather wrappings he’d placed around the hilt. “You heard what Haern said. If we do nothing, she’ll die. I can’t wait, not knowing that I would be responsible for that.”

  “You won’t be responsible, Rsiran,” Brusus said. “Whoever did this to her, they are the ones responsible. And if it has something to do with your father, then he is the one who is ultimately responsible. Don’t take blame when you have none.”

  “You know, after Jessa and I escaped from the palace, I thought the Forgotten would come after me first,” he said. “And then we were attacked by Thom. Both want me afraid of them. And I am.”

  “You don’t have to be ashamed for fearing. Damn, Rsiran, you’ve gone through more than any of us would ever want for you, and you’ve handled it better than I would have ever dreamed. And now? Now you intend to go into Thyr, after a man who attacked you. That’s not fear anymore, that’s bravery.”

  Rsiran sighed and turned away, focusing his attention on the distant city. From where they stood, Thyr in some ways looked no different from Elaeavn, just another city sprawling across the flat ground. The massive pale Tower of Scholars looked to be a part of the city, but he knew that they were separate. Other than the Tower, he had not been to Thyr, and couldn’t risk Sliding them directly into the city. That was why he had stopped on the rocks overlooking the river, unwilling to take them any farther.

  “He studied in the Tower,” Rsiran said. After barely surviving Thom, and learning of the metal implanted in him, he knew that to be true. “Like Haern. I’m not sure going after him is bravery, or if it’s stupidity.”

  “You’ve brought help. And we’re as protected as you can make us,” Jessa said.

  Brusus smiled. “You’ve never told me what part of Thom had a piercing of lorcith. How you can find him.”

  “Not lorcith,” Rsiran said, but tapped his head. Like Haern, Thom had a vicious scar along his face from what the scholars had done.

  Brusus turned, frowning. “Then how do you sense him?”

  Rsiran still didn’t understand why Thom would have heartstone implanted beneath his skin, and what ability he hoped to gain. There was a part of Rsiran that was curious. Would he be able to gain similar abilities using the knowledge found within Venass? If he went to the scholars, could he learn to become a Reader? To Compel like Thom? Even if he could, what price would he pay for those abilities?

  “Heartstone,” he said. “He has a heartstone implant.”

  Brusus let out a sharp breath. “Did you talk to Della about that?”

  “Why would it matter?”

  “Because it’s heartstone. The damn metal is strange, Rsiran. There’s a reason you don’t find it very often. I thought it gone completely until we found the samples in the warehouse.” He cupped his hands together and squeezed. “You think lorcith has strange qualities, well heartstone has just as many.”

  “I know.”

  Brusus took a step back and looked over at him, a hard gleam in his eyes. “Yes. You do. You’ve seen what lengths others will go to hide it.”

  Rsiran nodded. He’d seen the way the Forgotten had hidden the heartstone in the Forgotten Palace, and the way that Evaelyn had protected herself with heartstone, practically walling herself into the palace with the metal so that none could Slide past. It was a metal that offered qualities different from, and sometimes more powerful than lorcith.

  That was the reason the Forgotten wanted to find out how Rsiran managed to Slide past their barriers. More than that, and still not known to those who pursued him, was the fact that Rsiran could Slide with heartstone. He was just learning the breadth of what he could do with heartstone, and hoped it would help him now.

  He needed to Slide, free of any fear of being influenced. With heartstone, Rsiran didn’t think he could be influenced the same way, but then, he wasn’t entirely certain, either.

  It made coming this far north a risk. It made Sliding anywhere a risk. But he had no choice if he was going to find Alyse.

  Brusus sighed. “Tell me again what you intend after you find Thom?”

  “Find my father. And figure out why he was hiding the map in the hut and where it might lead.”

  “Let’s play this out. What if he’s not willing to share what the map is for? You said your mother told you
that he worked with the Forgotten willingly. What if he protects them?”

  “He’ll do what he can to protect Alyse,” Rsiran said. That was what he counted on. His father might want to protect the Forgotten that he worked with, but he would do anything to help his own daughter. He’d shown that over and again. Rsiran struggled with believing what his mother said about how he’d wanted to keep Rsiran safe as well. How would sending him to the mines keep him safe? How would letting him nearly die keep him safe? If he knew something about his abilities, why hide it from him?

  “Are you ready to do what is needed?” Brusus asked. “If Thom comes at you, will you be ready?”

  He nodded slowly. “I’ve been working with Haern.”

  “I know that you have, but there’s a difference between learning how to defend yourself and actually doing what might be needed when the time comes. Had Haern been so unwilling to come even close to this place? He should be here instead of Jessa.” Brusus tipped his head and shrugged. “No offense, Jessa, but he’s the more capable one when it comes to stuff like this.”

  “I know he is,” Jessa said.

  “From here on out,” Brusus began, watching as Jessa hugged her arms around her body and dipped her head toward the small flower tucked into her lorcith charm, “everything is dangerous in a way that we haven’t experienced before.” He pointed to Rsiran. “Even for me. You start with Thom, and you show Venass that we’re willing to go on the offensive. We need to be ready. All of us need to be ready. You, Rsiran. You’ve a kind heart, and I’ll be honest and tell you that’s something that worries me. When it comes down to it, can you find the darkness you need?”

  Rsiran watched Jessa. Brusus asked much the same as Haern. Could he? Would he really be able to attack—and kill—if it came to it? But he’d already shown what he would do for her when he killed Shael, so he knew that for her, he would do whatever was needed. “This is what we need to do, Brusus.”

  Brusus grunted. “Didn’t say it wasn’t the right move, only that it was dangerous.”

  There was a time when Brusus would have told him the next steps to take, but that was before Rsiran had shown them that the growing battles were about more than simply the Forgotten and the Elvraeth in Elaeavn. Even with that, there were questions they didn’t have answers for. How could Venass use lorcith to recreate his ability? And if they could do that with lorcith, what else could they replicate? Or would it be like Della feared, that if they learned of how he could work with lorcith, and could use that connection to create items that would defend against Elvraeth abilities, would they seek to use that as well?

  Now that he’d been to the heart of the palace…and maybe not even the palace—Rsiran wasn’t completely convinced that he had still been in the palace when he’d Slid to the circle of crystals—he understood that there was something more to what Venass and the Forgotten wanted.

  “Hopefully Haern helped me to be dangerous too,” Rsiran said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

  Brusus clapped him on his shoulder and smiled. “You could be dangerous, Rsiran, but you’ve got to know when compassion gets you killed. You showed that with Josun—”

  “And your father,” Jessa added.

  “Maybe him as well,” Brusus agreed. “With what’s coming, if what we think is really coming, I think you’re going to have to harden your heart.”

  Rsiran looked to Thyr, detecting the call of the heartstone within the city that he suspected came from Thom. After what the man had done to Haern, and almost had done to Jessa, he didn’t think he would have any trouble hardening his heart.

  But Brusus was right. He’d been captured too many times, mostly because he had hesitated. What would have happened had he been willing to finish Josun when he first captured him? What would have happened had he been willing to take a harder stance when they found the Forgotten? Or Evaelyn? Even in Venass?

  There was no guarantee that it would have worked, or that he would have survived, but so far, that was all that he had done. Survival was no longer his only goal.

  He glanced at Jessa watching him with narrowed eyes, and knew she was doing that thing she did… somehow reading him. She knew him so well, how he thought, when he was troubled, or when he simply needed someone to listen to.

  More than anything, he would do what it took to keep her safe.

  He readied three knives, pulling on the lorcith in them. “Ready?” he asked, looking to Brusus and Jessa.

  She took his hand, and Brusus hesitated, his pale green eyes flaring brighter for the briefest moment. Did Brusus think to Read him? With the lorcith-infused barriers that Rsiran kept in his mind, Brusus would have difficulty. Even more so when Rsiran strengthened them with the heartstone. That was what he counted on when it came to Thom. It was the only thing that would keep him safe. He didn’t have the lorcith bracelets like Jessa did to keep him safe, and didn’t have the natural ability to Compel that kept Brusus safe.

  But what he wanted was no secret. The fact that he wanted to keep his friends safe was no secret. That he wanted to protect Jessa was no kind of secret.

  Then Brusus grabbed his arm. “Careful,” he said softly.

  Rsiran focused on the distant edge of Thyr and, using the modified way that he’d learned to Slide, pulled them to the city.

  Chapter 18

  They emerged at the edge of the city. Thyr was one of the great cities, and a place where traders from all over came to convene. It was an open city, but still a massive wall that was a mixture of stone and iron enclosed it. He had made a point of emerging in the shadows of a clump of trees, and was glad that he had. Guards patrolled along the top of the wall, though Rsiran’s Sight was still too weak to count more than a pair of guards. Each of the guards wore a short sword, and both carried crossbows held ready as they patrolled.

  He shivered. Much like Asador, Thyr felt foreign to him. There were parts of Elaeavn where he felt equally out of place, such as the times he wandered through Upper Town, or when he had risked entering the Floating Palace, or even the Alchemist Guild.

  Jessa squeezed his hand, as if she understood what he was thinking. Even though he could Slide, and even though his ability allowed him to travel wherever he could imagine, there was a part of him that did not feel at home anywhere, not anymore.

  He glanced at Jessa, “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “As much as I can be. You able to return us if needed?” she whispered.

  There was the distant sense of Venass that pulled on him, though Rsiran didn’t really know what it was that he detected. Was it the lorcith they used, or was there something else entirely? Not the alloy, though he suspected they were familiar with that as well. Whatever drew him was something else.

  “You don’t want to Slide us all the way to wherever Thom is?” Brusus asked Rsiran, motioning for them to start toward the massive gates allowing access to the city.

  “I thought about it,” Rsiran said, “but what happens if we emerge to find him with others? What happens if they’re all armed like them?” he asked, motioning to the guards atop the wall. Closer up, he caught the way the moonlight traced silver streaks along their armor. Their chests and necks were covered, keeping them as safe as possible. His knives wouldn’t do much good, at least, not short of killing, and that was something Rsiran wasn’t ready to do. And there was a limit to what he might be able to do if surrounded by assassins. Haern had shown him that his ability to Slide and push knives could be countered by someone with incredible skill. “Besides, Sliding all the way to him is unreliable.”

  “I thought you had control of your gift?” Brusus said. He nodded to a guard stationed at the entrance to the city, keeping his head bowed and his eyes focused on the ground.

  Rsiran copied the movement, and Jessa did the same. They would stand out here, not only for the green of their eyes—well, not Brusus Pushing with a subtle influence that masked the color of his eyes—but also for their height. Rsiran had noted the same when he’d been thr
ough Asador. The people he’d seen had all been shorter than he was, some significantly so.

  “I’ve got control, but with heartstone…” He shrugged.

  How to explain to Brusus what it was about the metal that made it so unique? There was less control with heartstone than with lorcith, and he didn’t really know why that should be. It had a slippery quality to it, especially in the pure form. In an alloy—or what he called an alloy, since it never truly mixed with the lorcith—the heartstone gave him a bit more control, but nothing like the exquisite sense he had with lorcith.

  That sense was even stronger than it had been, as were most of his abilities since he’d held the crystal. Even his sense of heartstone was improved, so it was possible that the control that he sought and feared he didn’t have was actually much better than he believed, but he hadn’t the time to truly test it in any meaningful way yet.

  “Say no more,” Brusus said with a wave of his hand.

  Within the city itself, there was a cacophony of sound, even at this time of night. Occasional shouts split the night, some screams, and every so often, he heard the barking of dogs. No cats. Not like in Elaeavn. Music drifted toward him, though muted, and with unfamiliar instruments.

  Smells assaulted him as well, that of sweat, and filth, and, surprisingly, blood. His boots rang off the hard stone, but side streets were nothing more than hard-packed earth. Piles of refuse littered these alleys, much worse than he’d ever seen in Elaeavn, even in Lower Town.

  This was the place his father had been sent to avoid the call of lorcith. That meant there were smiths here, men his father had learned from. Could Rsiran find a master smith to learn from outside of Elaeavn? There was only so much that he could learn listening to lorcith.