Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  He readied a pair of knives and pulled himself to the hidden part of the warehouse where he’d detected Josun’s attempts at combining heartstone.

  As he emerged, Brusus swung a pair of knives toward him.

  Rsiran pushed on the knives, and kept them from hitting him.

  Brusus let out a relieved sigh. “Damn, Rsiran. You shouldn’t come sneaking up on me like that. You’re liable to get yourself killed.”

  Rsiran grabbed the knives and handed them over to Brusus. “If you wanted to kill me, you’d use something other than lorcith-forged knives, especially knives that I made.”

  Brusus pocketed the knives and shrugged. “Yours are the most finely made knives I own. Can’t say I want to use a different knife. Besides, if you come jumping out at me like that, you’re the only one who would be able to control them, so I don’t have to worry that I’ll hurt you.” He tapped the side of his head. “That’s a benefit, if you ask… Why are you wearing the bracelets you made Jessa?”

  Rsiran held out his hands. The soft blue light glowing from the bracelets persisted, brighter since they were in such a dark space, between the stacks of crates. “I wanted a physical form of protection so I didn’t have to constantly hold mental barriers in place.”

  “Listen, Rsiran, you know Thom only said that to get to you. He was trying to evoke a response.” He glanced back down to the bracelets and shook his head. “And seeing how you find a need to wear them, it worked.”

  “It’s not Thom.” Brusus frowned at him. “Well, it’s not entirely Thom. When I Slide, I lose the connection to lorcith and heartstone,” he explained. That had been the fear when Thom mentioned that Rsiran had been loud. Each time he emerged from a Slide, he reached for the connection to lorcith to strengthen the barriers, but if Thom or someone like him managed to Compel him in that moment, there was no telling what he would do. He wouldn’t always have Della nearby to answer whether he’d been Compelled, and he didn’t want to put his friends in danger with something that he did. Or might do, when forced. “This way, I don’t have to worry about losing the connection.”

  Brusus’s frown deepened. “Are you sure they work? I mean, you’re putting a lot of faith in them. It’s one thing if Jessa was Compelled. She has Sight, but you? If they don’t protect you as you hope, someone could Compel you to throw your knives or Slide us somewhere, or the Great Watcher only knows what else. Damn, Rsiran, it might be better if you just maintain that barrier.”

  “I’ll keep the barrier in place,” he said, “but I don’t want to need to rely on it.” Had he something like these bracelets when the Forgotten had captured him, he wouldn’t have needed to worry about them getting past his barriers, even when dosed with the slithca syrup. “Do they work?” he asked Brusus.

  Brusus pulled his eyes away from the bracelets and fixed his gaze on Rsiran. Pale green eyes darkened, revealing the full extent of his ability, visible even in the darkness. How much of that was because of the glow coming from Rsiran’s bracelets and how much was because of Rsiran’s improved Sight?

  The bracelets went cool and then, with a surge of blue light, went cold.

  Brusus staggered back and grabbed his head.

  “What happened?” Rsiran asked.

  Brusus leaned forward, resting his hands on his thighs. “Damn,” he breathed. “Was that a punishment for something?” he asked. “Not sure I care for it.” He took a few breaths and then shook himself, standing and rubbing at his temples. “You want to torment me, you can just go dancing around with Jessa like you do. But that?” he asked, pointing to the bracelets, “that’s something else.”

  Rsiran twisted them. Jessa said they went cold when Thom attempted to Read or Compel her, but his had done something more than simply going cold. There had been a flash of light, as if the bracelets defended him in some way.

  Della was right. What he created was dangerous. Not only if the bracelets let him know when someone tried to sneak past his barriers, but because they assaulted the person who tried.

  “I’m sorry, Brusus. I didn’t know…”

  Brusus shook his head. “That’ll keep me from trying to Read you. But it’s not exactly subtle, is it? Something like that, if it leads to… whatever just happened to me… makes it pretty clear that you have something powerful with you.”

  “But you couldn’t Compel me?”

  “Compel? Damn, Rsiran, I couldn’t Read you. Whatever those things are, they keep me completely blocked from your mind.”

  Jessa’s hadn’t reacted the same way. If they had, then Della would have told them. And Thom would have reacted more than he did. That meant the heartstone in them changed the intent. He added heartstone because the lorcith seemed to imply that he should, that they would be more effective for him, but now he wondered if that had been the only reason.

  Had he known that the heartstone would change the way the bracelets worked?

  He didn’t think that he had. Heartstone didn’t have an intent behind it, not like lorcith. He had only followed the direction and guidance of lorcith itself, not something within him. Hadn’t he?

  Brusus continued to rub his head, and Rsiran scanned the area, trying to push those thoughts out of his mind. The more he thought about it, the more he began to wonder if there might be something within him that generated darkness. If so, then he would either have to stop working with lorcith and Sliding… or embrace the fact that he had changed.

  “How did you get in here?” Rsiran asked.

  When he’d tried reaching this part of the warehouse without Sliding, there hadn’t been any opening. As far as Rsiran could tell, there still wasn’t one.

  Brusus motioned toward a crate three off the ground, staggering briefly as he started toward it. Rsiran Slid to him and put and arm around him for support, but Brusus shook him off. “I’m fine.” His voice still sounded somewhat shaky, and he took a deeper breath than normal, but he managed to stand in front of the crate without any outward sign of weakness. “Look up there,” he instructed.

  Rsiran followed the direction of where Brusus pointed, and realized that the crate had a small opening. “You climbed through that?”

  “Climbed doesn’t really describe it all that well,” Brusus said with a smile. “More like I squeezed through that. I tried prying it open more than it is, but I couldn’t really get it to move. The wood of these crates is different from the wood used in other parts of the warehouse. Older. Haern tells me it’s called ironwood, but I think he’s making it up.”

  Rsiran scrambled up the side of the crates until he reached the opening. The edges were rough, and the wood cooler than he expected. “What’s inside these?” he asked over his shoulder.

  “Nothing in that one, at least not anymore. Dust, as if whatever had been inside degraded a long time ago. These others have been too hard to open.”

  Rsiran jumped back to the ground and listened for lorcith, straining to hear if there might be any in these crates, but not expecting to find any. When he didn’t, he listened for heartstone, stretching out for the sense of the metal. He had discovered several crates with small amounts of heartstone, enough to keep him with supplies for his forgings, but that would run out much sooner than the lorcith.

  Not surprisingly, there was none here, either.

  Had heartstone been present, he suspected that he would have detected it sooner, unless this ironwood prevented him somehow.

  “So you crawled—squeezed through this crate?” he asked Brusus.

  “Don’t say it like you’re surprised,” Brusus said. “I’ve basically torn wood away in strips to get inside some of these crates.” He turned in place, scanning the wall of boxes all around them. “One of these days, we’ll learn what’s in each of these. Maybe there will be some we can move, or maybe it will be like that one with nothing but dust. Either way, the Elvraeth have left them here for too long. They belong to all of Elaeavn.”

  Rsiran smiled, wishing that he shared the same passion that Brusus felt about f
inding a way to get the contents of these crates dispersed throughout the city. For Brusus, there was probably more to his intent than simply wanting a sense of fairness. He would want to be paid for the effort, but Rsiran couldn’t deny that he hated the fact that the Elvraeth left such wealth trapped here, abandoned.

  When Brusus said nothing more, Rsiran asked, “Have you seen Haern since we returned?”

  Brusus stared up at the wall of boxes. “Haern doesn’t always want to be found, you know? He didn’t like the fact that we were risking a trip to Thyr. I think he knew it was important, especially with what he claims he saw of your sister, but…” He pulled his eyes away and shrugged. “With Haern, it’s not always easy to know what he’s about. The last thing he told me was that he was hoping to learn something about that map you drew. Hey,” Brusus said, frowning. “Whatever came of that other slip of metal you found? The one from Thyr?”

  Rsiran breathed out with a soft laugh. “Only that I nearly made the heartstone I used explode.”

  Brusus smiled. “So, not a map?”

  Rsiran shook his head. “Not a map. Not sure what it—”

  The sudden appearance of lorcith nearby cut him off.

  Rsiran frowned and raised a finger to his lips to silence Brusus.

  It wasn’t the first time he’d suddenly experienced lorcith in this place. Josun had been here before, and had used it to try and force him to create the alloy. But Josun wouldn’t return here, would he? After what he’d seen from Rsiran and how he’d been trapped in Ilphaesn for as long as he had, would he really risk returning here?

  He didn’t think that he would.

  Rsiran leaned to Brusus and whispered, “Stay here. Keep your knives with you.”

  Brusus studied his face a moment and nodded.

  At least he didn’t argue. With Jessa, she would have demanded to go with him, or been upset when he returned. Brusus recognized that there were times that Rsiran needed to Slide alone.

  He focused on a spot on the crates above, where he’d have a better vantage, and pulled himself to it.

  When he emerged, he looked down at the rest of the warehouse. Maybe he should have brought Brusus with him. Without the same skill with Sight, there might not be anything that he could see. The dark blue light from the bracelets only let him see so far, and the weakness of his Sight didn’t help.

  But, as he surveyed the warehouse, he realized that it didn’t matter.

  A bright light bloomed below where he’d left Brusus.

  At first, he thought it might be a lantern, but why would Brusus have lit a lantern? He wouldn’t. With his Sight, he didn’t need anything like that to see.

  Then he realized it wasn’t lantern light at all, but a softly glowing light from the lorcith that Brusus held.

  Did his knives glow the same way?

  He pulled one from his pocket and held it out from him. The knife glowed just like the others, and with a brighter light than the blue from the heartstone of the bracelets.

  Rsiran smiled to himself. If lorcith would glow like this for him, he wouldn’t ever have to be in the dark again.

  He stuffed the knife back into his pocket. That would be something to understand another time. Now he had to focus on the lorcith that he sensed down on the floor below him.

  Another light, one that wasn’t Brusus’s, moved on the ground below.

  It came from the clearing of crates, the place where Brusus had first brought him when showing him what the Elvraeth possessed here in the warehouse, a way of demonstrating the wealth of the Elvraeth.

  It was a place that Rsiran knew well.

  Focusing on that place, he pulled himself forward.

  When he emerged, he searched for the light that he’d seen, looking for the glow that came from whatever lorcith they carried with them. He found it barely a dozen paces from him.

  “Where is he?” a deep voice whispered.

  Rsiran tensed. Josun’s voice wasn’t that deep. This reminded him more of the man Valn. But how would he have known to find Rsiran here?

  “I can only track him so far,” a woman answered. “He has something that prevents me following. I only catch it in glimpses.”

  That would be Sarah, the woman who could follow his Sliding.

  Had he been careless? Since learning that pulling himself rather than stepping into a Slide would keep him from detection, he had made certain to Slide in that manner only.

  Hadn’t he?

  Rsiran wasn’t sure. Sometimes, he Slid without thinking, so accustomed to simply stepping into the Slide, that he didn’t pay enough attention. It was possible that when Brusus had nearly fallen that he’d Slid to him without pulling himself along.

  Damn. If they had detected that, and come so quickly, then he really had to be more careful.

  But he wanted to know who they were, and why they were tracking him. He suspected that they were either from the Forgotten—which he considered the most likely—or from Venass. And hadn’t he noticed a flash of lorcith on the rocks outside of Thyr?

  Maybe they had warned Thom.

  Rsiran thought that he could incapacitate one of them, but both? And someone who could Slide as well as he could?

  He doubted that he would be able to. Haern had shown him how ineffective he was at defending himself when it came down to it, especially against someone trained as well as they would have to be if they came from Venass.

  Could he follow them? If he could, he might finally find out what happened to his sister.

  “He’s not here,” Valn said.

  The woman sniffed. “I would have detected had he left. He might travel quickly,” she noted, but her tone made it sound as if she found that unlikely, “but everyone who travels leaves a signature.”

  “He knows we’re here. It’s possible he’s chosen to avoid traveling.”

  The woman sighed. “You might be right. And we should get back. Tonight is your turn to guard her.”

  “Guard her? She’s not going anywhere.”

  “Still. You know what they want. And until we have him, we have to guard her.”

  With a flash, the sense of lorcith vanished.

  Rsiran stood there, a trembling sense rolling through him.

  He’d gone to Thyr in search of Thom so that he could find his father, in the hope that he could find his sister, thinking that whoever had come for her wanted his father. But that didn’t seem to be the case at all. They wanted Rsiran.

  But now he knew how to search. With the connection to lorcith, he thought he could find Valn, especially if he remained near the city.

  There was no guarantee, but he would look. And he would get Alyse back.

  Chapter 28

  The night was cool and the distant cry of a cat echoed through the streets. Rsiran lost count of how many he heard. Enough that it didn’t matter what kind of luck they indicated, even if he believed in such things.

  He held onto the sense of lorcith that he had. It was close enough that he could pull himself to it, but that risked revealing himself sooner than what he wanted.

  Jessa had asked him to wait. For her, and for now, he would.

  But he wouldn’t for much longer.

  She pulled on his arm. “Come on,” she urged.

  “Why?”

  “Haern wanted to talk to you.”

  Since leaving the warehouse with Brusus—Sliding back to the Barth—he had wandered the streets, focusing on the sense of lorcith until he found the distinct sense of where Valn hid. Once he latched onto it, he didn’t have to fear losing the connection, even when it jumped—likely when he Slid. Now, Rsiran could follow him.

  If only he had the Elvraeth chains. Then he’d have a way to hold Valn and keep him from Sliding, but he’d given them to Firell as protection against Josun.

  “Where is he?” Rsiran asked.

  “Back at the Barth. He arrived a little after you left.”

  Rsiran knew that he needed to speak to Haern, to understand what he might have discov
ered, but the sense of Valn was out there… He only had to Slide to him, and now that he had detected the lorcith Valn carried, he knew where to find him.

  “What is it?”

  Rsiran sighed. “I sense him,” he said.

  “Who? Thom? If you sense him, then we should get Brusus before you do anything—”

  Rsiran shook his head. “Not Thom,” he answered. He hadn’t attempted to detect the heartstone within Thom since they’d returned to Elaeavn. There were other things that he’d been focused on, especially now that he knew Valn and Sarah had his sister.

  He needed to follow the sense of lorcith with Valn and reach Alyse, but he didn’t want to do it alone.

  Would Haern help?

  More than even Brusus, Haern would be able to help with someone who could Slide. Haern had already shown him how ineffective his attack would be, and that was with Rsiran’s ability to push knives. Valn had nothing like that ability.

  “When I was with Brusus in the warehouse,” he started.

  Jessa nodded. “You told me that they were there.”

  “But I haven’t told you that I can sense him now. He has one of my knives.”

  Jessa frowned. “Why would he have one of your knives?”

  Rsiran shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably from something with Brusus—”

  “That’s not what I mean,” she said. “You’re thinking that they’re with the Forgotten or with Venass?”

  Rsiran nodded.

  “But both now know about your ability with lorcith. They wouldn’t carry it with them, would they?”

  Rsiran hadn’t considered that before, but now that Jessa said it, he realized that she was right. What if they carried one of his knives with them expecting him to come after them? If he did, he’d only be doing what they wanted then.

  “Come on,” Jessa said. “I can see that you’re upset. Let’s go to Haern and see what he found out. Then you can decide if you want to go running after this guy.”

  Rsiran smiled as he slipped his arm around Jessa, and then pulled them to the Barth.