Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Above them, he heard a faint scraping.

  Jessa froze.

  Rsiran pulled himself to her, and they hurried up the tunnel toward Upper Town.

  As they made their way, he expected the ground to follow the slope found outside, trailing up the hillside as it made its way into Upper Town, but that wasn’t case. The ground was flat and ran fairly straight.

  Jessa led the way, moving quickly. Her feet were silent, much more so than his, and she occasionally glanced back his way and shook her head.

  After they’d gone barely a dozen steps, a side tunnel opened up. Rsiran listened, and the sense of lorcith seemed to come from that direction. He pointed, and Jessa nodded.

  They ducked into this tunnel. The walls were narrower here than in the other tunnel, and there was less a sense of wind moving, nothing like the Ilphaesn mines. Had he not had as much experience in the mines, this might have been a more terrifying experience, but no longer was he trapped in the dark. Now he had the strange light from the knives.

  He took to floating one of his knives next to him, holding it hovering in the air as if some sort of lantern. When he first did it, he caught Jessa’s puzzled look, but then she nodded.

  “Wish I could see what you do when that thing is floating here with me.” She spoke in a soft whisper, her voice barely carrying to him. At least it wouldn’t reach far down the tunnel.

  “And I wish I could see like you do without needing it,” he told her, pitching his voice as low as she did.

  They hadn’t walked far before Rsiran saw a door.

  This wasn’t like the metal plate that had been behind the bookshelf. This was a wooden doorway, much like any other he would find throughout the city. A strange mark, something almost like a letter, was etched on the surface. Jessa traced her fingers along it.

  “Where do you think this leads?” she asked.

  “Don’t know.” The sense of lorcith came from behind the door, and no longer moved as it had. Rsiran wondered what they were beneath now. They hadn’t gone that far, but far enough to have moved away from the smithy entirely. How could there be such an extensive network of tunnels down here?

  And, more importantly, why?

  He glanced back down the tunnel in the direction they’d come. Had they continued onward, they would have reached Upper Town, all without walking along the street above. This tunnel appeared old, the walls irregular in places that reminded him of the mines, but he detected no lorcith around him. In the mines, he sensed it all around, everywhere throughout the rock.

  Jessa looked past him and pressed a finger to his lips. She leaned into his ear and whispered. “We need to be careful. Voices carry in places like this. Even whispers. We need to be quiet until we know what we’re going to see.”

  He nodded. He had no doubt about what he’d heard before he Slid from the smithy. There was someone else coming this way, and given the fact that the smithy was otherwise empty, there shouldn’t be anyone else in the tunnels.

  The air in the tunnel changed.

  Jessa reached for the door and tried the handle. It didn’t open.

  She dropped to her knees and pulled out her lock pick. Within moments, she had the door open, and swung it carefully, only enough to peer inside.

  With the door open, she popped her head through.

  Rsiran sent the knife floating back down the tunnel behind them. As he did, a shadow flickered.

  He pulled on the knife, drawing it back to him quickly, and nudged Jessa through the door before whoever was in the tunnel with them could see them. It might already have been too late.

  The space on the other side of the door looked like a large storeroom.

  And they weren’t alone.

  Chapter 31

  A lantern flashed on, its bright orange light that would have weakened Jessa’s Sight, but did nothing to impact Rsiran. He had a pair of knives ready and leaned against the door to keep whoever might be on the other side from coming in.

  The woman he’d seen in the forest stood in the middle of the room, a dark cloak covering her shoulders, her dark eyes glittering at him. “Rsiran Lareth.” She said his name with a strange familiarity.

  Rsiran pulled another pair of knives from his pockets and held them ready. He hadn’t seen Valn, but he sensed the lorcith knife he carried and suspected that he hid somewhere, if only Rsiran could find him.

  “Far side of the room,” Jessa whispered.

  Rsiran flicked his gaze in that direction and noted a shadow there. It was the same place he sensed the knife.

  “And you’re Sarah,” Rsiran said. He stepped forward, putting himself between Sarah and Jessa, making certain to keep a connection to Jessa. If he had to Slide quickly, he would need to have contact with her.

  Sarah glanced toward Valn before turning her attention back to Rsiran. “I am. How, may I ask, do you know?”

  “You’ve been following me.”

  A smile pulled on the corners of her mouth. “Ah, so you were there. I started to question whether we were wrong about you, but he,” she said, tipping her head toward the far corner, “was convinced that we were not.”

  “Valn?” Rsiran asked.

  There was a flutter of color, and a swirling sense that Rsiran felt that faded quickly.

  “Rsiran,” Jessa whispered. “He just Slid.”

  “I know.”

  Valn appeared next to Sarah. The sense of the lorcith knife pulsed strongly from him, practically burning through the fabric of his pants.

  “How did he find us?” Valn asked Sarah.

  She studied Rsiran for a moment. “His father, I would guess.”

  “Only supposed to be guild members. That’s how we keep—”

  Sarah cut him off with a wave of her hand.

  “Why have you been following me?” Rsiran asked.

  Sarah hesitated. Darkness flickered across her eyes before fading. With the light from his knives, he saw the green of her eyes surge briefly brighter before fading, much like they did with Brusus when he Pushed.

  Rsiran considered raising his mental barriers. Since forging the bracelets, he’d allowed himself to leave them lowered. With them down, he was more attuned to the lorcith, and felt a stronger connection to it. Maybe it was the reason he was able to suddenly see the light from the metal.

  “We should go,” Jessa said softly.

  Rsiran could Slide them away, get them to safety, but he wanted answers. So far, Sarah and Valn didn’t seem as if they were going to attack. “Tell me,” Rsiran said. “Why are you after me?”

  He didn’t expect Sarah to answer. When he’d been abducted by Venass and then by the Forgotten, they had forced themselves on him. Venass had been willing to let him die if he failed to Slide from the cell, and the Forgotten had poisoned him, willing to do whatever it took to get the answers they wanted. Regardless of which side they worked for, they had shown the lengths they would go with him.

  He would not let Sarah and Valn take him and Jessa without a fight. This time, he’d trained enough, and had some experience fighting, that he was willing to do what was needed to keep her safe.

  “Because we need your help,” Sarah answered.

  Rsiran tensed. He didn’t like the connotation of the kind of help they wanted. When he’d been asked to help before, they hadn’t wanted his help so much as his ability. They had wanted to use him. “Who are you with?” Rsiran asked. “Venass? I refuse to answer the summons. I think I’ve shown Thom that I—”

  “Not Venass,” Sarah said, glancing over to Valn.

  Rsiran let out a sigh. That meant the Forgotten. “Then if it’s the other, I’ve already experienced how you ask for help. You can tell Evaelyn or Inna or whoever you’re with that I have no interest in helping. Just leave me alone.”

  Sarah and Valn looked at each other. Sarah’s eyes widened slightly. “See? He knows.”

  Valn considered Rsiran and shook his head. “He doesn’t know. Look at him, Sarah. He asked if we came from Venass.�
�

  “Can you blame him? After what he’s been through—”

  “Tell me what you’re talking about, or I leave. I think I’ve proven that you’ll have difficulty following me.”

  He was already preparing where to Slide. They might be able to reach him if he was too slow, but he could take them to Ilphaesn and leave them in the mines, trapped like Josun had been. Rsiran wouldn’t even feel any sympathy for them. It would be hard to find any sympathy after what he’d been through.

  “Come with us,” Sarah said.

  Rsiran glanced at Jessa. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me—”

  “You want to see your sister, right?”

  Alyse. “You have her?”

  Neither of them answered.

  Rsiran let out a sigh and looked to Jessa. He leaned toward her, making certain to keep his words as soft as possible. “You should go. Get word to the others. You don’t need to be pulled into this with me.”

  She pounded on his chest softly. “You aren’t leaving me here, you idiot.”

  “I could Slide you back and then return.”

  “Or you could Slide us both. We don’t need to do this for her.”

  Jessa still didn’t understand. “I do.”

  “Fine. If that’s what you intend, you’re not going without me. The two of us together have a better chance of keeping you safe than you do by yourself.”

  Sarah and Valn waited.

  When Rsiran nodded, they turned and started across the room. Rsiran had expected them to go through the door, but they didn’t. Then who was on the other side of the door? He had seen someone moving in the tunnels, if not Valn and Sarah, then who?

  Unless they had been there to make certain that Rsiran didn’t leave.

  “How did you know that I’d come after you?” Rsiran asked.

  Sarah paused and glanced over her shoulder. “We didn’t.”

  “Then why were you waiting for me… If not me, who then?”

  Sarah looked at Valn, then back to Rsiran. “It doesn’t matter, not now that you’ve come.”

  They stepped into the darkness of another tunnel, though this one was wider than the last. Jessa held tightly to Rsiran’s arm, clinging to him in case they needed to Slide quickly. With her behind him, at least he didn’t run the same risk of surprise like he’d experienced with the Forgotten when they’d come behind him and smacked him on the head.

  They passed other paths along the way, and Rsiran motioned to each.

  Sarah turned a few times, enough that Rsiran began to lose track of where they were. If he wasn’t able to Slide, he could be trapped down here. As it was, without knowing where they led him, there would be no way of getting back on foot.

  He could leave anchors, though.

  Rsiran considered dropping one of his knives, but decided to save it for later, for when he might have a greater need.

  The tunnel began to widen, and as it did, a faint color came to the walls.

  Lorcith.

  It glowed all around, slowly building with each step. Rsiran put the knife he carried away, no longer needing the light from it to guide him.

  Jessa frowned. “What is it?”

  He leaned into her. Sarah or Valn could be Listeners, but she needed to know what he detected. “Lorcith all around.”

  “Wouldn’t you have known if there was this much lorcith within the city?”

  He should have. That meant that wherever they were was either in some place where he couldn’t detect the lorcith—unlikely as that might be—or it was in a place where there already was a significant amount of lorcith.

  Either answer led to the same place: the palace.

  Rsiran strained his awareness all around him, searching through the lorcith in the walls, seeking the connection to it. If they were in the palace, or more accurately beneath the palace, then there would also be the heartstone that he detected when here. As he focused on it, he realized that it was above him as well.

  If they were with the Forgotten, had they managed to somehow burrow into the palace?

  If that was the case, why did they need him?

  Rsiran stopped and took Jessa’s hand. “I’m not helping you break into the palace.”

  Sarah paused and looked back to him. “Break in? What are you talking about?”

  Rsiran waved at the walls. “That’s where we are. Beneath the palace. Don’t pretend you don’t know.”

  “Of course we know,” Valn said with a grunt. “Can’t reach where we’re going without going through here. Not this way, at least.”

  Valn motioned for Sarah to follow and keep moving. Rsiran stood for a moment, debating whether he should follow, or whether he should Slide Jessa to safety. The longer he went, the less comfortable he felt.

  But nothing he did by Sliding to safety would help him find what happened to Alyse.

  That drove him in a way that surprised him.

  They continued onward, making their way through the tunnels with the light from the lorcith all around. How was it that he’d broken into the palace now twice, but the third time, he was led inside?

  And what would happen to him this time? The first time he’d gone to the palace, he’d been forced to nearly poison the council. The second time had been to discover what the Elvraeth protected, and to see if there was anything that he would need to do to keep it from Venass and the Forgotten. The third time… What would he be asked to do this time?

  Jessa patted his hand in an attempt to reassure him. He was thankful for it. Without her, he didn’t think that he’d be able to keep going.

  Or maybe it was worse than that. Without her, would he go rushing in, unmindful of the risk to himself?

  He sighed. Either way, she kept him safe.

  How long, he wondered, would he be able to keep her safe?

  Chapter 32

  Sarah stopped at an intersection in the tunnel.

  Rsiran realized that wasn’t quite right. The wall changed, no longer stone, and no longer glowing with the same white light. There was a subtle shift to the hue, almost a bluish light.

  He didn’t have to push away the sense of lorcith to know that this was alloy. And if they were beneath the palace, then this would be the strange structure outside the palace that they’d broken into in order to reach the palace. Instead of breaking in, now he was simply standing beneath it.

  Sarah pressed something into the wall—a slender length of alloy, he noted—and a section of the wall slid away. Valn stepped inside, disappearing.

  “You wanted to see your sister, didn’t you?” Sarah asked.

  “Not like this, Rsiran,” Jessa said. “You don’t know what’s on the other side.”

  But he did know what was on the other side. They had been in the palace before. He had Slid them away, using the sword as an anchor, even before he knew how he managed to do it. At least now, he knew that the alloy wouldn’t be able to prevent him from Sliding. If Sarah and Valn were Forgotten, or even if they were with Venass, regardless of what they might claim, they would know that the alloy didn’t obstruct him as it did others with the ability to Slide.

  “Come,” Sarah urged.

  She stepped inside. Jessa pulled on his hand, but Rsiran shook his head. “This is something I have to do. I can get us to safety. You’ll have to trust that I can.”

  “I do trust you. I don’t trust them.” Jessa sniffed at the pale white flower tucked into the charm.

  Rsiran kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll keep you safe,” he whispered.

  “I’m not sure that you can.”

  Rsiran swallowed, and then they stepped through the door.

  It slid closed behind them. Soft blue light glowed all around. Rsiran’s eyes took a moment to adjust but when they did, he nearly fell over. He’d been here before.

  The Alchemist Guild house.

  When Haern had mentioned that the map he’d found seemed to be directions to the Alchemist Guild, he wasn’t sure what to make of it. But it made sense.<
br />
  Rsiran thought about the contours within the map, the way the heartstone flowed. All of it had been familiar when he first held the brick after it came from the mold. He hadn’t understood why it would have been familiar, but now he thought that he did.

  It was a map for how to find the Alchemist Guild.

  Not only that, but the map—the contours that he detected in the grindl and had been recreated for him in heartstone—was the way to reach the guild through the tunnels beneath his father’s smithy. He could practically see it in his mind.

  But how would his father have followed it?

  Even for that, Rsiran thought he had the answer. Like Jessa, his father was Sighted. Had Jessa known what she was looking for, she might have been able to follow the map without him needing to make the form.

  Then what about the other scrap of metal that he’d found in Thyr? That hadn’t been a map, at least not one like the one that he’d discovered in the hut.

  Rsiran stared at the line of drawers. The last time he’d been here, he’d stolen from the Alchemist Guild and had nearly lost Haern. “I’d thought that they had forgotten,” he said.

  Where had Sarah and Valn gone?

  “The Forgotten?” Jessa asked.

  Rsiran could Slide from here. He’d done it before, so he didn’t fear that he wouldn’t be able, but why would they have brought him here? Did they intend to prove a point to him, to show him that they knew he had been the one to break in that night?

  “Not the Forgotten,” he said. He had been wrong about Sarah and Valn. They were neither Venass or the Forgotten. But they might be worse. “I thought they had forgotten, but apparently they didn’t.”

  “What are you talking about? Where are we?”

  The light began to increase in intensity, and he shielded his eyes. Jessa didn’t. Either the light didn’t bother her, or… it was heartstone alloy.

  A door opened. The light made it difficult for him to see clearly, but he sensed the change in the lorcith. Heartstone came with it. Not alloy, but pure heartstone.

  How was he able to sense both at the same time?