Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Rsiran shook his head. He wouldn’t be able to carry all of them back to Elaeavn, not without risking them in the Slide. “Can’t do that.”

  “We can’t stay here,” Brusus said. “Too many men, especially for a place like… Damn,” he finished in a whisper.

  “What?” Jessa asked.

  “Why would Thom need so many men here?” Brusus asked. “Look at this. It’s nothing more than an inn. He has some of his belongings here, and a place to stay, but he wasn’t even here when we appeared.”

  “He knew we were coming,” Rsiran said. “He sensed us.”

  “Did he? Seems to me, if he was able to Read that you were here, he would have been able to Compel you as well.” Brusus shook his head. “No, I think there was another reason all these men were here.”

  Brusus stepped around them and made his way down the hall. Rsiran looked at Jessa, who only shrugged.

  They followed Brusus, waiting as he stopped at the end of the hall. The hall ended at a staircase that led both down and up.

  “Which way?” Brusus asked.

  Rsiran shook his head. “Does it matter? Thom isn’t here to tell us what he might have been hiding here.”

  “Which is why we need to search,” Brusus said. “That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? You wanted to see if there might be some way you could reach your father and find out what happened to your sister. Well, now we have Thom out of the way, so you have the chance to find out what he might have been hiding here.”

  “I came for my father, not for what Thom might be hiding.”

  “We’ll take what we can find, Rsiran. Then we grab Thom and find your father.”

  Rsiran closed his eyes and focused, listening for lorcith. If Thom hadn’t used his ability to detect him, then there would have to be some other way that he masked his presence. Only, Rsiran hadn’t noticed him even when he had returned.

  But then, he’d been focused on lorcith, hadn’t he?

  With his attention on lorcith, he lost the connection to heartstone. It was possible that Thom had been there the entire time. Somehow, he needed to sense both lorcith and heartstone at the same time. Trying to split his focus like that put him in danger, and he risked missing things—sometimes important things.

  But he didn’t detect anything.

  “I don’t know,” Rsiran answered.

  “Down,” Jessa suggested. When they turned to her, she shrugged. “Which way would you go if you wanted to hide something. Besides, look at the floor down there, Brusus. It’s hard-packed dirt, not wood. Down is below ground.”

  “Damn,” Brusus said. “Didn’t even pay any attention to that.”

  “Yeah, well you’re Sight isn’t as good as mine.”

  Brusus laughed. “Keep telling yourself that.”

  “Just as you keep telling yourself that you can sneak as well as I can.”

  Brusus shot her a glare and then started down the stairs. He moved more silently than Rsiran could manage and reached the bottom of the stairs where he paused. “Careful here,” he warned.

  “What do you see?” Jessa asked.

  “Nothing. That’s what worries me.”

  Rsiran reached the bottom of the stairs and paused, too, listening again. For a moment, he thought he sensed a flash of lorcith, but then it was gone. Nothing more than a flicker, it might have been imagined rather than real.

  Jessa grabbed his elbow. “I’ll keep you safe here. You might have gotten some Sight, but you’re still a babe in the dark.”

  He bit back the laugh, and followed as she led him through the hall. Brusus stopped every few feet and tipped his head. With his Elvraeth blood, he might have been Listening.

  When they stopped, Rsiran took the opportunity to focus for lorcith. He didn’t get another sense of it, not as he had when he reached the bottom of the stairs. The darkness reminded him of the Ilphaesn mines, only in the mines, he had the sense of lorcith all around him. Here, there was nothing but blackness. At least he could tell where Brusus and Jessa were from the connection to the lorcith they carried. Had it not been for that connection, Rsiran might have Slid away.

  “The hall narrows,” Brusus whispered.

  “Narrows?” Rsiran asked. “It’s pretty narrow already.”

  “Yeah, and then it stops.” Brusus pulled up and slapped his hand against something solid. “Damn. This goes nowhere.”

  “Then why is it here?” Jessa asked. “Doesn’t make any sense for the hall to be here, to lead us into the dark.”

  “Unless it’s some sort of trap,” Rsiran said. Thom studied in Venass. Could they have placed something here thinking to draw Rsiran to it? “You said it, Brusus. There were too many men here if it’s just an inn where Thom resides when in Thyr. What if they thought to draw us to him and then trap us here?”

  “Can you Slide?” Brusus asked.

  Rsiran attempted a short Slide, moving back two steps. Nothing restricted him, and he emerged where he intended.

  “Yes.”

  “Then not a trap,” Brusus said. “If it were a trap, they would find some way to prevent you from Sliding. They’re not worried about the rest of us.”

  “Then why would they have so many men?” Rsiran asked.

  Brusus slapped his hand on something again. Rsiran suspected it was the wall, but couldn’t see anything clearly enough to know.

  “They’re protecting something here,” Brusus said. Jessa squeezed Rsiran’s arm, though he didn’t think that they would have been holding his father here. The scholars had him, so there would be no reason for him to be out in the city. “Have to be,” Brusus went on. “Only, how are we going to find what it is?”

  Chapter 21

  Rsiran stood before the wall, running his hands across its surface, feeling for anything that might indicate a door. The hall led somewhere, so there had to be a door, only he found nothing.

  Jessa stood near him, staring at the wall. He sensed her from the charm and the knives she carried. She breathed softly, and every so often would walk up to the wall and tap on it again, before stepping away.

  “There’s nothing here,” she said softly. “We should go. We can go up the other stairs and see if we find anything. But staying here only puts us at risk.”

  “Why risk?” Rsiran asked.

  “There were too many men up there,” she said. “And we made too much noise in the attack. How long before someone else comes?”

  “Then we handle it,” Brusus said.

  Jessa sniffed. “You might be able and willing to handle it, but what if we don’t want to fight again? Haern may have trained Rsiran, but he didn’t help me, and if there are too many—”

  “I’m not going to put you in danger,” Brusus said. “We’re going to find out if this leads anywhere, and then we’ll go.”

  “The longer we remain, the more likely Thom will wake up and escape before we get back there,” Jessa said.

  “Rsiran said he was out.”

  “He is,” Rsiran said. “But not bound.”

  Brusus grunted. “Can’t go anywhere up there, anyway. He’d have to walk, which gives us the advantage. Let’s find out what’s here, and then we can go.”

  Could they have hidden Alyse here? That might be the reason for so many men, especially if they worried about Rsiran coming for her. But where would she be?

  He turned to the wall and ran his hand along it once more, not really expecting to find anything. As far as he could tell, it was a solid wall. “Maybe this was something they were digging out,” he suggested.

  “Still doesn’t explain why there were so many men,” Brusus said. “Think about what you know of Venass. They would hide something like this. We need to figure out what they would have used.”

  Not lorcith. He had sensed nothing of lorcith to tell him that it might be here, but what of heartstone? Thom had proven that Venass were skilled with heartstone and that they would use it in ways that Rsiran might not have thought of.

  He pushed away the sens
e of lorcith, that of the charm hanging from Jessa’s necklace, the bracelets she now wore, and the knives all around him. Then he pushed away the sense of the alloy, that of the sword and the chain holding Jessa’s charm. He was left with nothing, an emptiness.

  He listened for heartstone.

  Pure heartstone was different from both the alloy and lorcith. It called to him in a subtler way. There was a quiet intensity about it, a draw, and a demand for his attention.

  It was here.

  There was not much, barely more than a fingernail’s worth, but Rsiran was certain that was what he detected.

  And it was on the other side of the wall.

  He considered where Jessa stood. If he told her what he needed to do, she would grab on and Slide with him. This he would do alone.

  It would be risky. Sliding to unknown locations often was, but he’d done it once today when he’d appeared in Thom’s room. Now he would risk himself a second time, but only himself. He would not put Jessa or Brusus in danger for this.

  And he couldn’t step into the Slide, not without knowing what was on the other side. Pulling himself would be much safer for him, and might even allow him the chance to escape if something went wrong with the Slide.

  “I’ll be right back,” he whispered.

  Then he anchored to the heartstone on the other side of the wall and pulled himself to it.

  Rsiran rarely used heartstone to anchor. Lorcith was stout and gave him strength and a reassuring sense when he Slid. This Slide was difficult, but no more so than pulling himself through alloy.

  When he emerged, he sensed the small lump of heartstone, but couldn’t see it. Everything around him was dark. For a moment, he panicked, fearing that he might have trapped himself somewhere, but he could move freely.

  He needed light, something to give him a way to see.

  The heartstone sword. It had glowed before, would it still be glowing?

  He unsheathed it. The blade glowed with the same dark blue light that it had before. The light pushed back some of the darkness, enough for Rsiran to see around him. He was in a small room, barely more than a dozen paces across, and all stone. Other than the sense of heartstone, he detected no lorcith. Nothing else moved in the room.

  Rsiran turned, preparing to leave, when the light from the sword reflected off something in an alcove along the wall. He leaned toward it and touched the reflection.

  Metal, and cool to the touch.

  He frowned, pulling the metal to him, and nearly dropped it. It was a square sheet of metal—probably steel mixed with streaks of silver leaving it with an undulating pattern.

  Without touching it, and without making a mold as he had with the sheet of metal he’d found in the hut, he wondered if this would be another map.

  If it was, it meant his father had been here.

  Rsiran pocketed the piece of metal and Slid back to the other side of the wall, returning to Jessa.

  As soon as he emerged, she punched him. “You can’t go off like that!” she hissed.

  “There was something on the other side of the wall,” he told her.

  “What did you find?” Brusus asked.

  “A map. My father was here, I think.”

  “Another map?” Brusus asked. “Like the first?”

  Rsiran nodded, not certain whether they could see it in the darkness. “Like the other, but different. This is steel and silver, I think.”

  “Anything else?”

  Rsiran shook his head. “Nothing other than a small piece of heartstone.”

  “Show us,” Brusus said.

  Rsiran grabbed them and pulled them through the wall, Sliding with more confidence now that he knew what was on the other side of the wall.

  Brusus grunted as they emerged. “How did you see anything in here, Rsiran? Thought you barely had any Sight.”

  “I don’t,” he said. He pulled his sword from under his cloak and held it out. The blue light again pushed back some of the shadows in the small room, making it easier to see everything around them.

  “Rsiran?” Jessa said.

  “Yeah?”

  “Why do you have your sword out?”

  “You don’t see it?” he asked. He twisted the sword, letting the blue light play off her cheeks, catching the charm she wore. Brusus appeared as little more than a shadow.

  “See what? All I see is you holding a sword out toward the two of us.”

  Brusus stepped back. “Damn, Rsiran. Put that thing away! We’re in a tight enough space as it is.”

  He slipped the sword back into the loop on his belt. “You wanted to know how I saw anything in this darkness. You don’t see the light coming off the sword?” He kept his cloak pulled back so that the light of the sword still managed to spread around him. The longer he was here, the more his eyes adjusted to it, and the easier it became for him to see.

  Brusus frowned and shook his head.

  Jessa touched him on the shoulder. “I don’t see anything, Rsiran. Are you sure that’s what you’re seeing?”

  He looked down at the sword, wondering if he was imagining the dark blue glow from the blade. It was there, and it let him see the concern on Jessa’s face, and the way that Brusus paced from side to side, though he didn’t really need the sword to see that. He had a sense of that from the knives Brusus carried, and how they moved with his steps.

  “Look,” he said, pulling the sheet of metal from his pocket and handing it to Jessa. “This is what I found.”

  She took it and held it up to her face. “I don’t know how you managed to see this in here. I can barely make it out. All I can see are slivers of shadows,” Jessa said.

  Rsiran took it back and pocketed it. He would have to make another mold like he’d done with the first one so that he could understand what the map was designed to show. “If it was here, that means that my father was,” Rsiran said.

  “Or they want you to think that he was,” Brusus countered. “Think about it. Why would your father leave another map for you? This is the man who wanted nothing from you for years, and now he’s suddenly leaving things for you to find?”

  Rsiran had to agree that it didn’t make sense. “Then why is this here?” He didn’t have an answer, only more questions, and he was no closer to finding his sister.

  Rsiran went and picked up the small piece of heartstone that he had sensed originally. Had he not known where to find it, he could have stepped on it. Other than someone like himself able to sense heartstone, he doubted that anyone else would have been able to find it.

  But if it wasn’t left for him to find, then who? As far as he knew, he had a unique ability to detect heartstone.

  “We should go,” Brusus said. “If we wait too long…”

  He didn’t need to finish. Thom waited outside the city and Rsiran was determined to get answers from him, anything that might help him reach his father, find out what he was involved in, so that he could find his sister.

  And then… Then it would be time for Rsiran to find a way to keep his friends protected.

  Taking Jessa’s hand, and grabbing Brusus’s arm, he Slid.

  They emerged outside the city, standing on the rock overlooking Thyr, with the Tower of Venass in the background.

  Rsiran readied a pair of knives, half-expecting Thom to leap at them.

  “Where did you leave him?” Brusus asked.

  Rsiran thought that Thom would have been here, but there was nothing. Not even a drop of blood that would make it seem like anyone had been here.

  Nothing. How was that possible? He was sure he’d knocked him out enough such that he’d be here when Rsiran returned.

  He focused on heartstone, pushing away all the sense of lorcith and the alloy as quickly as he could, and listened for heartstone. There was nothing.

  Since Thom seemed to have some way to avoid Rsiran’s ability to sense him, Rsiran hadn’t expected to find anything to explain where Thom might have gone. Likely as not, he’d disappeared into Venass. Rsiran wasn
’t willing to chase him there.

  And now there was no way to find what happened to his father, or to learn what happened to Alyse.

  Because he hadn’t taken the time to bind Thom, she might be gone for good.

  Rsiran was surprised at how much that thought hurt.

  Chapter 22

  After searching the area for Thom, they Slid from Thyr, returning to Elaeavn and his smithy. Brusus had expected to find something that would reveal where Thom had gone, but Rsiran didn’t. The fact that Thom was disappeared should not have surprised him at all.

  Could Venass have been monitoring somehow?

  Rsiran knew so little about what they were capable of doing, only that they trained deadly assassins. If they were able to control lorcith and direct his Sliding in spite of his best abilities to protect himself, why couldn’t they monitor one of their own and rescue him?

  And now that he’d lost Thom and was unable to detect the heartstone implant any longer, he had nothing. Whatever Thom did to shield himself was effective.

  As always when he returned to the smithy since placing the bars of alloy all around it, there was a steady drawing sensation, as if Sliding through the narrow slats of the alloy that he’d arranged around the smithy threatened to pull him apart. Each time returning got easier for him. In that way, Sliding with the alloy, and through the alloy, was much like with lorcith: the more he practiced, the stronger he became.

  Brusus glanced around as they emerged and shook his head, a hint of a smile on his mouth. “Still not used to that.”

  “Do it enough times, and it’s not so bad,” Jessa said.

  “Easy enough for you to say. You want to be around him.” Jessa shot Brusus a glare and he smiled, spreading his hands apart in a shrug. “You know I’m kidding.” He watched Rsiran, concern wrinkling his brow as he fixed him with a nod. “You going to be okay? I know you wanted to find out what Thom might have known, but chances are good that he didn’t know anything.”

  Rsiran nodded. But if that was true, he couldn’t shake the sense that he’d missed an opportunity. Whatever had been held in that room had been meant for someone with the ability to sense heartstone. Like him.