They pulled weapons of their own from their pockets and threw them into the air.
Rsiran shifted his attention and pushed against them. He hadn’t forged them, and his connection to them was not the same.
Lorcith pressed near him. He could feel the onslaught all around him.
Someone cried out behind him. Brusus? Haern?
He needed to gain control of his knives.
Haern had thought that he might have learned enough to keep them safe, but he hadn’t expected the Forgotten to have sided with Venass, and he hadn’t expected them to learn to control lorcith.
He pushed against the attack, but he was not strong enough.
If he Slid, there was no guarantee that he could Slide fast enough to escape the attack. And his friends would be forced to face those who now controlled lorcith.
No, he needed another solution, but what?
Through it all, he felt Evaelyn’s eyes on him and saw the dark smile on her face.
Lorcith was his! The connection was his, not borrowed, not stolen, and not faked.
He could hear the song, could feel the ore within Ilphaesn, and knew the weight of it within the mountain. Weight that he’d used before.
Rsiran inhaled, drawing on the distant sense of lorcith, that from Ilphaesn, and pushed. Pain shot through his head in a way that reminded him of when he’d first begun to detect heartstone.
As it receded, he pushed with the weight of all the lorcith that he could.
The knives and the strange weapons the other Forgotten tossed at him slowly shifted.
One of the Forgotten gasped. Rsiran reached deeper, drawing on the connection with even more strength, and pushed.
He did not push blindly. Rsiran focused his efforts, using the ties to Ilphaesn, and the sense of the lorcith, to guide his attack.
Weapons streaked from him, racing toward the Forgotten.
All but one struck true.
Inna escaped. He saw her Slide as a flash of color, but also sensed it, a prickly sensation along his skin. She emerged a step away from him.
“You should not have been able—” she started.
He didn’t let her finish. Using the connection to Ilphaesn, Rsiran pulled on the lorcith knives, pulled on the strange weapons the Forgotten had used, and sent them at Inna.
Her eyes widened, and she Slid, again avoiding attack.
Rsiran pulled on the lorcith and sent everything he sensed near him, even weapons Inna carried, slamming into the wall until they were buried in the heartstone.
At first, Inna was dragged with them, but then she flicked the lorcith free and Slid. She emerged near Evaelyn.
Rsiran wanted to turn. He wanted to see how his friends in the attack behind him fared, but he didn’t dare risk it. Not with Inna still standing, and not with Evaelyn watching him. The darkness in her eyes frightened him, as did the sense he had that she might somehow manage to crawl beyond the barriers created by the bracelets. He could fortify them with his own mental barriers, but he lost something when he did, there was a weakened connection to the metal then.
“How many more do you think you can stop, Rsiran Lareth? How many until you grow tired?” Evaelyn asked, her lips pulling into a tight smile. “I can see it now. You begin to grow fatigued, the effort of the fight wearing on you. You were never trained for this. Fighting does not come naturally for you, not as it does to the exiles.”
“The Forgotten,” Rsiran said. “Call yourselves exiles all you want, but you, Evaelyn, should be Forgotten.”
Rsiran realized that he could sense both lorcith and heartstone at the same time. Never before had he been able to detect both at once.
A flash of color from Inna told him that she began to Slide.
Rsiran pulled on the heartstone pin in Evaelyn’s hair, grasping onto it tightly as he pulled it to him. The sense of the metal was slippery, but he clung to it, drawing it to him.
The bar of heartstone reached him at the same time as Inna emerged from her Slide, holding an unsheathed steel sword.
She smiled and swung it toward Rsiran.
Drawing on the sense of heartstone all around him, he pushed. The bar streaked toward Inna. She attempted to Slide, but Rsiran had timed his attack, and she wasn’t fast enough.
It struck her in the chest, flying completely through her.
Once Rsiran would have felt remorse or horror or revulsion. He felt nothing for Inna. She had been willing to poison him for the information she wanted, and had attacked Jessa to get to him. A woman like that deserved no sympathy.
He stepped toward Evaelyn.
She eyed him with dark hatred. “You have made a mistake, Rsiran Lareth, if you think your barriers can withstand me. I’ve forgotten more about my abilities than you will ever learn. The Great Watcher smiled on us when Venass couldn’t contain you as they promised they would in Thyr. When I suggested that we could draw you here, and that we would share our knowledge if they shared theirs…” She glanced at Inna. “A costly trade, but you are the price for knowledge. With this, we will finally be able to return. The guilds will fall under our rule.”
Rsiran looked at the fallen Forgotten all around him. “I’m the price of what you learned? And you think learning how to control lorcith was worth it? How many did you sacrifice for this? How many will suffer for what you want?”
His bracelets began to cool. “As many as it takes for victory,” she said.
Cool turned cold, and the bracelets flashed a bright blue and burned painfully. It lasted only a moment, long enough for Rsiran to feel Evaelyn attempting to reach his mind, and then he slammed his barriers into place on top, augmenting the bracelets.
Evaelyn staggered and fell, a piercing scream echoing from her.
He glanced back, and saw Brusus and Haern still standing. Seven Forgotten lay on the ground around them. Sarah held her hand over a gash on her arm, but she managed to stand.
Satisfied that they were safe, Rsiran knelt in front of Evaelyn. “You are mistaken if you think I haven’t learned anything in our time since we met.”
She looked up at him and managed to smile. “You are weak. All of your kind is weak. And you were never meant to rule.”
He noted that she looked past him. Sarah stood behind him, watching Evaelyn with disgust. “What do we do with her?” Rsiran asked.
Sarah’s eyes widened suddenly, and she grabbed her head. She brought her sword up, swinging it toward Rsiran.
Without needing to stand, he pulled himself to the side in a Slide. “You should have known you were beaten,” Rsiran said to Evaelyn sadly.
“I’ll never be beaten. So long as I live—”
He pulled on the heartstone pin that had gone through Inna, and slammed it into Evaelyn. He looked away in disgust as it crushed her throat.
Sarah sagged. Brusus reached her and placed his hands on either side of her head. Within a moment, what Evaelyn had done to Compel her faded, and she blinked her eyes open again.
“Thank you,” she said to Rsiran.
“Why?”
“You could have simply killed me when she took hold of my mind.”
Rsiran glanced over at Brusus and then Haern. “That’s not how I do things. I help my friends.”
“We’re friends now?” she asked.
Rsiran stood. “When I first learned you chased me, I thought you were like them,” he said. His gaze swept around him, at all the dead. He sighed. So many had died because of Evaelyn’s thirst for power. He feared that many more would have to until the Forgotten were completely stopped, but this was a start. Without Evaelyn and Inna, they wouldn’t have their leader.
It was one less threat for him to worry about.
Now, he only needed to focus on Venass.
“You proved you weren’t, but you and Ephram have still kept things from me. Friends can’t keep secrets that put the others at risk.” He glanced over at Brusus, who flushed slightly. “I think it’s time that I have answers. Real answers.”
Sarah met his gaze and nodded.
Epilogue
Rsiran watched Jessa resting soundly. He had been relieved to learn that she was fine, and that Valn had kept his word. There had been a part of him that feared Valn would betray him, but he had proven reliable. And had proven that he knew of Della.
More questions for later.
“Your sister is returned?” Della asked.
Rsiran didn’t look up, content to watch Jessa sleep. After what they’d been through over the last few days, sleep was a comfort he wasn’t sure they would have. “She has returned to Lower Town. The alchemists… they told her the constables kept her for her safety. I haven’t gone back to see her.”
He still didn’t know what to make of the fact that the guilds ran the constables. Perhaps Ephram was right in telling him that the guilds truly protected Elaeavn. If they protected the crystals, and the city itself, what other explanation was there.
“You should. She is your sister. You have shown how important family is to you,” Della said.
Rsiran closed his eyes. “I’m sorry about Evaelyn.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Della said. She stood behind her counter and mixed a mug of tea. “It is my fault for not recognizing the extent of danger she posed before now. She… she has always been dangerous.”
“Still.”
Della nodded as she stirred. “And the smiths?”
He sighed, appreciating that Della simply changed the topic. “We found most within the Forgotten Palace. Valn and the others search for their families. We think we’ve found most of them.”
“And the guildlord?” Della asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
She pursed her lips. “They should not keep that from you, not after what you did to help.”
He wasn’t sure that they should share with him, not after how he was at least partly responsible for endangering them. “Did you know?” Rsiran asked. “About the guilds?”
Della nodded. “There are things that I cannot fully explain, especially as you didn’t want to get too deeply involved.”
“Like Evaelyn? Like the crystals?”
She met his eyes. “Yes.”
A knock at the door interrupted them. Brusus and Haern stirred from the chairs near the hearth and stood. Della opened the door, and saw Sarah and Ephram on the other side.
She stepped aside to let them in.
Brusus and Haern stayed by the hearth. Della moved behind the counter, again turning to her mug of tea. Sarah and Ephram both remained by the door. In some ways, it seemed everyone tried to gauge who would speak first.
Della cleared her throat and nodded to Ephram. “The boy deserves to know.” His eyes narrowed. “All of it,” she went on.
Ephram studied Della for a moment and then nodded slowly, shifting his gaze to Rsiran. “What have you told him?”
“It was not for me to share.”
“A dangerous plan, Della, even for you.”
“As I said, it was not for me to share.”
Ephram crossed his arms over his chest. “After how his father was used, you thought you should keep it from him?”
“I could not See how his father was used,” Della answered over her tea. “Much as I cannot See when it comes to Rsiran.”
“What is this?” Rsiran asked, looking from Della to Ephram.
Ephram sighed and his shoulders slumped. “We have been watching for you, Rsiran.”
“Watching?”
Ephram tipped his head in a nod. “The ability to travel is rare these days. Once it was not so, but much has happened.”
“Like the Elvraeth forbidding it.”
“Forbidden for reasons they claim protect the city. Travel, what you call Sliding, is rare enough, but for one with the blood of a smith to possess such an ability…” He turned to Rsiran, his face intense. “That has never happened.”
Rsiran fingered the knives in his pockets through his cloak. “And now here I am.”
“Here you are. As was Seen long ago.”
Brusus sucked in a breath. Rsiran looked over at him and then Della, but neither met his eyes.
“Seen?” he asked.
“There has long been dissention between the bloodlines. The blood of the Watcher and the blood of the elders. It has long been the source of much conflict, but an end was foreseen.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
Ephram sighed. “The greatest Seers have long expected one of the ancient bloodlines—in your case, smith blood—and the blood of the Watcher to join. And with that will come great power. That is why we wait, why we serve.”
“I might have the blood of the smiths,” Rsiran said, “but I don’t know anything about the blood of the Watcher.”
“You don’t know, and you could not. You were never privy to your birthright.”
He snorted. “My birthright? You mean the smithy that my father took away from me? You mean the fact that he made me believe what I can do is some sort of dark ability?”
Ephram looked over to Della, as if asking for help, but she only shook her head.
“What do you know of your parents?”
Rsiran looked to Della. She nodded. “I know that my father is a smith. From what you’ve told me, maybe a master smith.”
“As are you. You hear the song of lorcith. You are a smith,” Ephram said. “And your mother?”
Rsiran shrugged. “My mother. Other than the fact that she hides in Lower Town now? That she didn’t object when my father abandoned me? That she, like Brusus, is a child of exiles?”
Ephram nodded. “Exiled. Yes. And did she share with you who her father was?”
He shook his head. “She said it didn’t matter.”
Ephram looked to Della. “This should be you,” he said.
Della set the mug on the counter. She made her way around, leaning on a cane as she did. “Your grandfather,” she said, “was one of the Elvraeth.”
An amused smile came to Rsiran. “You’re saying that I’m descended from the Elvraeth?”
Ephram nodded. “The blood of the Watcher flows through you. That is how you were able to hold one of the Great Crystals.”
Rsiran laughed. “And just how do you know this?”
Della looked down a moment, and then seemed to force herself to meet his eyes. “I didn’t know. When you first came, I did not know. With your ability, I cannot See you as I can others. That protects you in some ways, but it prevented me from understanding sooner. With what you shared about your mother, I went to her to understand.”
“You went to her?” Rsiran asked.
Della didn’t looked away from him. “I Read her. She has some skill, but that can be weakened.” She eyed the herbs on her counter but didn’t explain. “That is when I learned.”
“What did you learn?” His heart fluttered in his chest. So much had happened to him because of how little he knew about his family, and now it turned out that there were even more secrets kept from him?
“Your mother is descended from one of the Elvraeth and born outside of the city.”
“And what proof is there of that?”
Della sighed and looked to Ephram as if for support, but he said nothing. When she looked back to Rsiran, tears had welled in her eyes. “Because he was my brother.”
* * *
Book 5 of The Dark Ability: The Shadowsteel Forge
Fresh off a victory against the Forgotten, and with unexpected allies, Rsiran knows that the war is far from over.
An attack on someone close to him in the city leads to a search for answers, and he once again must confront the secrets hidden by his family. When he discovers a part of his people’s history long forgotten, he realizes it might hold the key to what Venass really wants… and possibly the means to stopping them.
Rsiran must learn to use all of the abilities given to him and discover a way to stop a danger to his friends as well as the city that none other than him is capable of defeat
ing.
* * *
Also in the world of The Dark Ability: A Game of Tsatsun
Hired by the thief-master Orly to only capture a slaver rather than kill, the assassin Galen quickly learns his target is more than a simple slaver.
Orly has used him. Again.
The job takes him deeper into the Eban underworld as he tries to understand how he’s been used, and why his only friend in the city seems to know more than she should.
Part 1 of 3 in The Binders Game
About the Author
DK Holmberg currently lives in rural Minnesota where the winter cold and the summer mosquitoes keep him inside and writing.
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Also by D.K. Holmberg
The Dark Ability
The Dark Ability
The Heartstone Blade
The Tower of Venass
Blood of the Watcher
The Shadowsteel Forge
Also in the world of The Dark Ability
The Painted Girl
A Game of Tsatsun: The Binders Game, Part 1
The Watcher’s Eyes: The Binders Game, Part 2
Playing the Stone: The Binders Game, Part 3
The Durven: The Forgotten, Part 1
A Poisoned Deceit: The Forgotten, Part 2
A Forgotten Return: The Forgotten, Part 3
The Cloud Warrior Saga
Chased by Fire
Bound by Fire
Changed by Fire
Fortress of Fire
Forged in Fire
Serpent of Fire
Servant of Fire
Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4) Page 29