Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “They don’t share plans like that with me,” he said.

  Rsiran flicked the knives toward Usal, but they missed. Usal Slid, emerging nearly in front of Rsiran.

  The streaks of color around Usal as he Slid revealed him. Rsiran Slid to the side, sending a pair of knives flying as he did.

  Usal unsheathed a sword and, in one smooth motion, sent the knives flying off to the side. “They warned me that you’d be skilled. They tried drawing you to them like they did me, but there’s something different about you. That’s why they sent me.” He lunged with his sword, and Rsiran Slid back a step. Usal grinned. “Thought I might have a chance to grab you earlier, but this will do.”

  Rsiran focused on lorcith, Sliding back as he did, making a point of staying away from Usal, checking on his friends outside. He detected Brusus and Jessa, but where was Haern?

  He would have to figure that out later. For now, he focused on Usal.

  With another Slide, this time emerging behind Usal, he sent a knife streaking toward his back. Usal turned, starting to Slide. He wasn’t sure how he managed to see the Slide, or what it even meant that he did, but when Usal Slid, the colors around him shifted.

  Rsiran anticipated where Usal would be.

  With a flash of lorcith knives, he caught the man in the chest.

  Usal grunted and started to fall toward him. Rsiran darted back a step, getting away from his sword. Then Usal Slid away.

  Rsiran tracked him. The lorcith knife was still in his chest. He could follow him, maybe use him to learn where the other Forgotten had taken the smiths, but not without checking on Jessa and the others first.

  Focusing on the street, he emerged to chaos.

  Haern battled another scarred man, his knives sweeping quickly. Brusus used his lorcith sword and fought a shorter man. Even Valn and Sarah fought, Valn Sliding from place to place, knives flashing each time he emerged. Sarah used a slender sword—surprising since she came from Elaeavn.

  Where was Jessa?

  Another half-dozen men closed in from down the street.

  Rsiran jumped, sending knives flying, sweeping toward the approaching men.

  Three fell quickly.

  He pulled his knives back and sent another pair of knives at two more men. One ducked, but one wasn’t quick enough, and the knife caught him in the face, slicing through his eye. Rsiran forced himself to watch.

  Rsiran hesitated.

  “Damn, Rsiran! Don’t stop!”

  This was Brusus.

  “Where’s Jessa?”

  “Some dark-haired woman appeared and grabbed her,” Brusus said.

  Dark-haired and Sliding meant Inna.

  Rage surged through him. He pulled on the lorcith he sensed from the knives he’d already used, and Slid, appearing briefly above the street, and pushed on the knives. Then he Slid again, focusing on the street behind the remaining approaching men, and sent the knives flying toward them.

  The three men fell, knives slicing completely through them.

  Rsiran Slid again, appearing behind the man fighting with Haern. With a sweep of his knives, the man fell. He did the same with Brusus, finishing that man.

  Valn and Sarah didn’t need his help.

  The street fell silent.

  “What happened?” he demanded. “Did you know that Usal worked with the Forgotten?”

  Sarah shook her head. “Do you think we would have fought with you had we known?”

  “Rsiran…”

  He glanced up the street. More men approached, some carrying lorcith, but the nearest had crossbows. He could avoid swords and knives, but he’d already seen how crossbows could catch him even if he Slid quickly.

  Focusing quickly on the charm Jessa wore—and feeling a relief that he could still sense it—he grabbed onto Brusus and Haern and locked eyes with Sarah. “Follow us.”

  Chapter 35

  The Slide was a slow, drawing sensation and seemed to move more slowly than it should. Within the Slide, he was aware of colors and the oozing sense of movement, and he caught the odor of lorcith.

  Had he not needed for Sarah and Valn to follow him, he would have pulled himself in the Slide, but he needed their help. In that moment, he prayed to the Great Watcher that they would help.

  Then they emerged.

  There was nothing but darkness all around. Rsiran noted the stink of blood, and something else, a sickly odor that he’d smelled before. Haern sucked in a quick breath.

  Rsiran pushed one of his knives away from him to better see. The light was bright enough for him to make out a figure lying unmoving on the ground.

  Jessa.

  He started toward her, but Haern raised his hand, holding him back.

  “Hold on,” he whispered.

  The air whistled. Had Haern not warned him, he doubted that he would have realized the danger. Lorcith flared with it.

  Rsiran jerked back in a quick Slide, pulling Brusus and Haern with him.

  A crossbow bolt streaked through the air, just missing where he’d been standing. Rsiran sent a knife streaking after it. He pulled on it as it flew, changing the direction of the knife and sending it sweeping around the room. From the light off the blade, he saw that there was no one else in the room.

  The lorcith that he’d sensed disappeared, fading as if it hadn’t been there.

  Rsiran rushed to Jessa’s side. Her skin was cool and blood trickled out from a spot on the back of her head. Glassy eyes looked up at him.

  He choked back an anguished sob.

  In that moment, he thought her dead.

  Then she took a single breath, barely more than the tiniest movement of air, but enough that he knew she still lived. She blinked once, but then her eyes fell closed. Rsiran held his breath, waiting, until she took another breath on her own.

  He needed to get her to Della.

  He looked up at Haern and Brusus, already preparing to Slide, when Sarah and Valn emerged. They glanced down and saw Jessa lying motionless.

  “I’m sorry,” Sarah said.

  “Don’t,” Rsiran warned.

  Haern crouched next to her and touched her forehead, sweeping her hair back with a more gentle touch than Rsiran would have expected from the man. He checked her neck and leaned to her, listening to her chest, placing a hand over her nose. “She breathes. I can help her—”

  “I can get her back to the city,” Rsiran said. “We’re in the same prison where the Forgotten held me before. I won’t have her stay here and die.”

  Haern nodded. “You can take her back to the city, but you don’t need to yet. The head wound bleeds a lot and looks worse than it is. The rest,” he said, motioning to her, “is more about herbs and medicines than anything Della can do.”

  “Haern—”

  “This is what I did, boy. Trust me on this.”

  “I… I want to, but it’s Jessa,” he whispered.

  Haern glared at him. “You think I don’t care for her too?”

  “No. I know you do—”

  “Then finish this, Rsiran. I told you that you can’t let your feelings for her disrupt what must be done. Brusus can stand watch while I do what I need to with her.”

  Rsiran stared at Jessa. He couldn’t leave her, could he?

  “We need to find the other smiths. If Usal told the Forgotten we were coming…” Sarah started. The urgency in her voice was clear.

  “Can you See anything?” he asked Haern.

  “Not when it comes to you. You know that. Now go!” Haern urged. “I can keep her alive. Find them.”

  “I need your help,” Rsiran said to Haern. If he was hunting for someone like Inna, he needed more than simply himself and the skills that he’d picked up over the last few weeks. Without Jessa… He couldn’t let himself think that way.

  Haern crouched on the ground and reached into his pockets, pulling out a few powders and setting them next to Jessa. “Not from what I saw back there. You’ve been practicing, haven’t you?”

  Rsiran n
odded. “Not much good it did me.”

  “It did us good,” Haern said. “Now go.”

  Rsiran looked over at Sarah and found her watching him. He nodded. “I’ll be back. How long can she hold out?”

  “As long as I’m left alone,” Haern said.

  Rsiran turned to Brusus.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure he’s got the time he needs,” Brusus said. “Besides, we all care about her.”

  Rsiran touched Jessa again, praying that it wasn’t for the last time, and stood to face Sarah. “Come on.”

  He Slid forward, reaching the door, and then sent a knife floating down the hall. Nothing moved.

  “Where is this place?” Sarah whispered.

  A flash of lorcith appeared before Rsiran could answer.

  Rsiran Slid toward it, pushing with his knife as he did, angling toward the sense of lorcith. The last time he’d been here, he’d been weakened, poisoned with slithca syrup. This time would be different.

  A soft grunt sounded nearby, and he knew that his knife had struck. Rsiran pulled it back to him, not bothering to check on the man that he’d injured.

  Sarah and Valn reached him. “This is a place of the Forgotten. This was where they poisoned me and tried to Read what was in my mind,” he said.

  There was a whisper, nothing more. By the light coming off his knife, he noted a shifting of shadows. Without thinking too much of it, he grabbed Sarah and Valn, and pulled himself toward the shadows, sending a knife flying from him as he did.

  It sank into a man’s back, and he fell to his knees. The crossbow in his hands dropped to the stone with a soft clatter.

  “You’re more dangerous than we knew,” Valn noted.

  Sarah shook her head, and Valn fell silent. She took the crossbow from the fallen man. “He won’t need this,” she said as she stood. “Where next?”

  If Inna was here, she would know that he’d follow, but why grab Jessa? What would she have hoped to gain separating him? Based on what happened the last time he’d been here, she would have known how Rsiran would respond to Jessa’s capture, and she would know that he would have come for her…

  “Damn,” he whispered.

  “What is it?”

  “They wanted to pull me away,” he said.

  Sarah frowned. “How do you know?”

  Rsiran grabbed Sarah and Valn and Slid them back to Jessa. As they emerged, he realized that Brusus was under attack, fending off a man Sliding in his attack, while Haern tried to minister to Jessa. But each time he did, a man appeared, swiping at him with a short sword.

  Rsiran split two knives and sent them at the two attackers. They both fell before they would even have known he appeared.

  He considered his options. Jessa needed to get back to Elaeavn to keep her safe. Inna was using this time to move the smiths; he was certain that was why she had drawn him here. And he couldn’t do what he needed alone.

  He looked to Valn. “Can you return her to Elaeavn?”

  Brusus shook his head. “No, Rsiran—”

  “They want me to stay here, Brusus,” he said. “That’s the reason they took her. I need to find out what Inna is after, and I can’t do it while worrying about Jessa. Haern was right when he told me that.”

  Haern shook his head. “I think Haern was wrong. Worry for this one made you stronger. I have never seen anything like what you did on that street up there, Rsiran.”

  “We’re not in Asador anymore. This is part of the Forgotten Palace. I need to see her to safety.” He fixed his gaze on Sarah. “If I know that she’ll be safe, I can do this.” Then he turned to Valn. “Will you take her to Elaeavn? There’s a place near Lower Town, a Healer by the name of—”

  “I know the place,” Valn said. There was a hint of surprise in his voice. "If I do this, what will you do?”

  “I’m going to go find the smiths,” Rsiran answered.

  Valn looked over at Sarah, and she nodded. “Return when you can.”

  “I won’t know where to find you.”

  “Same place we just came from,” Rsiran said, kneeling next to Jessa. She breathed, but the color had faded from her cheeks.

  Whatever Haern had done had eased some of the injury, and she rolled her head toward him. “Are you sure this is the right thing to do?”

  “I can’t do this if I’m worrying about you.”

  “Not that. Trusting them.”

  Rsiran looked over his shoulder at Sarah. She whispered softly to Valn, something Rsiran couldn’t hear. “We have to trust someone, Jessa. It might as well be the people fighting along side us.”

  She coughed and reached for his hand. “You had better come back to me.”

  “You had better not leave me.”

  She smiled. “That will never happen.”

  He scooped her up and held her out to Valn who stood waiting. “Please,” was all he could say.

  Valn took Jessa, and nodded to Rsiran. Then he Slid.

  Rsiran looked at the faces of the others with him. Sarah held one hand on the hilt of her sheathed sword. Brusus stood back, watching Sarah carefully, and Haern packaged up the powders that he’d withdrawn, placing them back into a pouch before slipping them into his pocket.

  “What now?” he asked.

  Haern grunted. “It’s your show, Rsiran.”

  “You don’t See anything we need to worry about?”

  Haern smiled at him. “That wasn’t what you asked, now was it?”

  Rsiran glanced at the others and held out his arms. When the others grabbed onto him, he pulled himself back to Asador.

  Chapter 36

  When they emerged, nothing moved on the street.

  The bodies of the men Rsiran had slain were gone. The only thing that remained of the attack was blood splatters on the hard-packed earth.

  “Do you sense anything?” Brusus asked.

  Rsiran listened for lorcith. Without another way to reach the smiths, he needed to search for something, but didn’t find the lorcith he expected. What had been here was now gone.

  “Not like I should,” he said.

  “What do you mean?” Sarah asked.

  He scanned the street. The absence of anyone here was almost as worrisome as when there had been the steady movement toward the attack. “I can sense the presence of lorcith,” he started explaining.

  Sarah nodded. “Of course. You have the blood of the smiths.”

  That she should accept the statement without questioning was so very different from what Rsiran was accustomed to with his ability. “And you’ve seen how I can… control it,” he said, not certain what better word to use.

  “Father said your abilities have not been seen in generations,” she said.

  Rsiran glanced at Haern, and then Brusus. “Strange that Venass would know how to replicate it if it hasn’t been seen in generations.”

  Haern shook his head. “Venass has many experiments, but what you’ve witnessed is nothing like what I knew them capable of doing when I was there.”

  Sarah spun. “You were in Venass?”

  “Venass once claimed me,” Haern answered. “They no longer do.”

  Sarah studied Haern and then turned to Rsiran. “Not only are you dangerous, but you keep dangerous friends. I have told my father that he made a mistake in thinking that you could help, but he was adamant that you would be able to.”

  “I’ve said that I will,” Rsiran said. “But I need to be able to detect the lorcith. There was lorcith in the city when I was here last.” And he had detected lorcith when they first Slid to the city this time, but now there was none. Either they had been expecting him, or they managed to mask it from him.

  He didn’t know which answer was right.

  “Come,” he said. He grabbed the three others and pulled himself to the smithy that he’d discovered when he had been in Asador the last time.

  They emerged in darkness and Rsiran sent a knife spinning into the room.

  Nothing moved.

  H
e pulled the knife back to him, and realized that wasn’t exactly true. Shadows moved.

  Throwing four knives into the air, he pushed them into each direction, filling the smithy with light, at least for him. He held the knives in the air, suspended but not moving.

  The shadows faded.

  “What is it?” Brusus whispered.

  “Do you see anything?” he asked.

  Brusus sniffed. “Other than you throwing your damn knives all over the place?” He shook his head. “No. And when we get through this, you’re going to have to explain why you keep doing that.”

  Sarah eyed him strangely before speaking. “You see it, don’t you?”

  “See what?” Brusus asked.

  She didn’t take her eyes off Rsiran. “The metal. Each metal has its own properties. Some, like lorcith, can be accessed. The power held inside is potent, almost too potent. Others are inert. Iron, for example, can take many shapes, but it has none of the retained power that something like lorcith—”

  “Or heartstone,” Rsiran said.

  “Heartstone does not have that kind of potential,” she said.

  Rsiran drew the sword from his sheath and held it out. To his eyes, the sword glowed with an almost angry deep blue light. “It does for me.”

  She ran her fingers along the surface of the blade. “It should not. Heartstone is… unusual. The potential cannot be accessed. That is why it is mixed. Even then, the potential of heartstone cannot be accessed.”

  “As I said, it does for me.” He pulled on the alloy, holding it in the air with his connection to the metal. “That’s part of the reason why Venass wants to reach me.”

  Sarah took a step back, eyes fixed on the sword. “You see the potential with heartstone? And you have a connection to heartstone the same as your connection to lorcith?”

  “Not the same, but a connection. That’s why I can Slide into the palace.”

  Sarah shook her head. “There should not be. Which means that Elvraeth chains wouldn’t hold you, either, would they?”

  Rsiran shook his head, remembering the helpless feeling he had the first time that the chains were placed on him. Until he had learned how to reach the alloy, to press and control it the same way that he did with lorcith, he had felt isolated.