The barracks are no longer safe. Perhaps they never were.
—Rolan al’Sand, Enlightened of Hyaln
“This is ridiculous. You expect me to take the word of a scholar on something like this?” Calan roared.
Night had begun to fall, the sun piercing through the trees with orange and red, sending shadows stretching across the ground. After what she’d experienced, Alena didn’t care to see the shadows, preferring the bright sunlight to the shade.
“It has been bad enough that the commander allows the scholars to lead here, but this?” he went on.
“Look for yourself,” Jasn said. “You’re too skilled a shaper to remain this ignorant. You can convince yourself that Cheneth is nothing more than a scholar, but if you would open your eyes, you would see the truth.”
Calan glared at Jasn for a moment and then turned to face Cheneth. “Tell me, Cheneth. What is this about?”
Cheneth started away from the center of the barracks, ignoring Calan.
Calan grabbed at him, a shaping building as he did, but Cheneth swept it away. “Damn you, scholar, why won’t you answer me?”
Alena ran to keep up with Cheneth. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to let him get worked up like this?”
Cheneth paused and glanced over at her. “He returned, didn’t he?”
“Tenebeth attacked,” she said.
Cheneth frowned. “Attack in the barracks. This should have been a place of safety.” He looked around. “Where is she?”
“Who?”
“Ciara. I would see her.”
“She has stayed outside the barracks for the most part. After the attack, the others haven’t been willing to let her stay here. Jasn thought it safer—”
“And Jasn Volth decides these things now?” Cheneth asked.
Alena frowned. “Of course not, but when he makes sense, I’m not going to argue with him. Besides, why are you so eager to find her? What is this?”
Cheneth didn’t answer, simply crafted a shaping that carried him out of the barracks.
Alena glanced over at Jasn. “Stay here and make sure Calan doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to change his natural state.”
“Don’t sell yourself short. Use the rumors about you if you need to, but stay here.”
As she prepared a shaping that would carry her away, Jasn rested a hand on her arm. “Alena. It’s good that you’ve returned.”
She nodded and followed Cheneth on a shaping of wind.
She knew where he traveled. Reaching the clearing took only a moment, and she found him standing at the edge of the shielding, head tipped to the side as he sniffed at the air. When she landed, he spoke to her without looking over.
“There was much power used here, wasn’t there?”
“There was,” she agreed.
“I take it that since you can follow me, you’ve been restored?”
“The egg hatched, if that’s what you mean.”
Cheneth rounded on her. “Hatched. What of the female? That’s why Thenas returned. The connection to the elementals matters, you know.”
“No, I don’t know, Cheneth.”
“They are opposites, Alena. The darkness and that which lights our world. And they battle for power. That is why Tenebeth has come.”
“That’s where you went?”
“I went to find answers.”
“And did you?”
“Not the answers that I wanted.”
He started through the shielding without saying anything more, leaving Alena standing there. Damn that man! Had he shared even a little of what he knew about Tenebeth sooner, they likely wouldn’t have been in the same situation. She doubted anyone would have gone running after him, searching for that dark power.
Would they?
She went through the shielding, ignoring the way it tingled over her skin.
Ciara stood in front of the female draasin, that spear of hers set into the ground as if she intended to block Cheneth from getting too close. He was saying something to her, but she couldn’t make it out.
Alena took a step forward, drawing on a shaping of wind so that she could hear better.
“You trained my father,” Ciara said.
Cheneth didn’t move, but his shoulders tensed. “How is it that you know this?”
“Because I went back to Rens. When you were gone, when you were supposed to be teaching me, I went back. And I found him. All of them, really. They had been attacked.”
“What did you do?”
“What did I do?” Ciara’s voice climbed. “I couldn’t leave them like that, could I?”
“Were you able to expel Tenebeth?”
“I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t,” she said.
Cheneth sighed. “Impressive,” he said softly, his voice barely a whisper. Without the ability to call on the wind, Alena would not have heard him. “You are untrained, and still you managed to expel him. It explains much.”
“What does?” Alena asked.
Cheneth turned to her. “This is not for you, Alena. I need to speak to Ciara—”
“She can stay,” Ciara said. “Your people don’t even know what you do. I think they deserve to know what this is about.”
Cheneth sighed and turned back to Ciara. “Yes. I went to Pa’shu years ago. I found those with the ability to summon the elementals. Such a gift is rare, but less so in Rens. My gift is not the summoning but the finding of those who can. I offered what advice I could, and when the attacks intensified, I sent them deeper into Rens.”
“Were you a rider?” Ciara asked.
“That was never my gift,” Cheneth said.
“Your gift. You taught my people of the j’na and then you departed, letting us wander in the waste without water, without—”
“I provided an opportunity for your people to survive, much as I offer now.”
“You have offered nothing,” Ciara said.
“No? Show me how you summon the draasin, ala’shin.”
The words had a snap to them. Even Alena felt it.
Ciara slammed her spear into the ground. She took a step toward Cheneth, and in that moment, Alena was afraid she might use the spear against him, but she slammed the spear again. Light started to surge from the end of her spear, from the strange black tip on the spear.
The draasin stirred, sitting up as the sound increased, a steady and rhythmic beat.
Alena could feel the pull within her. In some ways it called to her, called on that connection she shared with the draasin, as if demanding she take note.
Is that what you feel? she asked the female draasin.
The draasin ignored her as the steady, rhythmic sound continued.
Ciara made a small circle, slammed her spear into the ground, and stepped, almost something of a dance. Alena found herself drawn to repeat it, following the steps, only she had no spear to use. She didn’t need to. The dance pulled on something deep within her, that sense of the draasin and of fire and of something even more primal than that.
And then the dance stopped.
The draasin stood, poised as if for flight. Summoned.
Alena shook off the effects of the calling but couldn’t get rid of them completely. The steady drumming, the movements, all of it had pulled on her, as if seducing her with the rhythm.
“Good,” Cheneth said. “Now. Show me how you call golud, ala’shin.”
Again his voice snapped, a command of sorts.
“I don’t know—”
“Show me.” Cheneth said the words with such force that Alena wished she could show him what he wanted.
Ciara blinked and started another step, this one in a wider circle. When her spear struck the ground, it created a deeper sound, one that echoed within her bones. Each smack of the spear left her feeling jarred and shaken.
A deep and steady rumbling built.
Earth. This girl could summon earth. And fire. Was that Cheneth’s interest in her? Could she summon each
of the elementals?
Suddenly she understood Tenebeth’s interest in her. She understood Cheneth’s interest. Such power!
The rumbling continued, practically shaking her to the ground, until Ciara stopped with one final crack from her spear against the stone.
“Now. Ara, ala’shin.”
Ciara didn’t object. She took a step, slamming the spear in the ground with a different technique. The steps were lighter, softer, and wind began to gust all around. Did Ciara know what she did? Alena thought she had no control over her summoning, but what she displayed now was more than control—it was power.
As before, Alena found herself following the movements, drawn by what Ciara did. There was a certain languid grace to her dance, and the rhythmic movements practically called to her. She stepped behind Alena and mimicked the movements, ignoring Cheneth as he grabbed at her.
Ciara glanced back but continued, not missing one step.
Alena fell into the rhythm with her. Step. Snap. Step.
The wind gusted around her, swirling with power.
And then she stopped.
Alena staggered away, falling to the ground.
“Nobelas, ala’shin,” Cheneth said.
Alena looked up at Ciara. The girl pushed her hair back behind her ears and pulled on the cloak she wore. With a tap on the ground with her spear, she said, “I won’t. I can’t.”
“You already have.”
“When I have tried… that is when… that is when Tenebeth comes.”
Cheneth watched Ciara, and the lines on his face softened. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his glasses, pushing them onto his nose with a sigh. “They are different, ala’shin. When you understand the difference, you will be powerful indeed.”
Cheneth paused near Alena, glancing at her lying on the ground before making his way from the clearing.
Alena stood slowly, shakily, staring after Cheneth. Blasted man. It was one thing to treat her in such a way, but she didn’t care for the fact that he’d done the same with Ciara.
“What was that?” she asked Ciara.
The girl tapped her spear, and the air briefly hummed with power. It was more than shaped energy, but she didn’t know quite what else.
“The summons,” Ciara said.
“You can summon other elementals?”
Ciara nodded.
“And this nobelas? What is that?”
Ciara’s face looked troubled. “I don’t know. Different.”
“Why can’t you summon it for him?”
Ciara turned away, facing the draasin. The great elemental stared at her, golden eyes focused solely on Ciara, ignoring Alena. Tension in the draasin’s legs and wings made it seem like she was ready to jump into the air. She never reacted that way for Alena, but Alena couldn’t call to the draasin, not in a way that was irresistible like Ciara could.
“When I’ve tried, or when he has appeared, that’s when Tenebeth comes.”
Alena paused before Sashi, attempting to reach her, but the draasin ignored her. She might, but the draasin in the other pen did not. And the hatchling. She still had his attention, though she didn’t know what that meant.
“And you’re afraid that this is your fault,” Alena realized, looking up to Ciara.
“I’m afraid that something I’ve done has drawn Tenebeth.”
“Cheneth said that he has existed for as long as the world has.”
“Then why would he suddenly come into power?”
“That’s an answer he says he doesn’t know,” Alena said. But it was one that they needed. She looked toward the edge of the clearing. “But you had nothing to do with it. If anything, this nobelas might be a way to survive it. I’ve seen what you can do, Ciara. I think you scare Tenebeth for some reason. Maybe it’s because of this nobelas. Figure out how to summon it.”
Alena had started to turn away when Ciara stopped her. “I hear nobelas.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can speak to him. In my head. There’s a voice there.”
“Like I can with the draasin,” Alena said.
“Like that, but different. I have only spoken to one of the nobelas. He doesn’t answer me when I call to him. And the summons… the summons only brings darkness and cold.” She shivered and looked at the sky.
Alena glanced at the draasin. Even though Ciara had summoned her, she could still hear the draasin in her mind, but it was as if whatever Ciara had done had called Sashi away from her, reducing the connection.
“Maybe someone else has summoned the nobelas,” she suggested.
Ciara wore a troubled expression and said nothing else.
33
Jasn
When I was in Hyaln, there were rumors of a fracture, but it was between the wise and the rest of Hyaln. The wise went their own way and continued their studies. When the daraasin first attacked in Rens, I wondered if they had anything to do with it. I know now that they did not, but was that the intent of the attack?
—Rolan al’Sand, Enlightened of Hyaln
Jasn waited at the edge of the stream, crouched on his heels as he trailed his fingers through the cool water. Since turning the healing of water upon himself intentionally, rather than letting the elementals simply heal him as they would, his connection to water remained strong and vibrant within his mind. When he focused, when he bothered to listen, he could hear them. Each day that passed, the realization of what he could do bothered him less. And after facing the darkness itself, he understood that he could help, even if he still wasn’t sure how.
“What do you detect?” Wyath asked.
The old warrior leaned casually against a nearby oak, one leg crossed over the other as he chewed on the end of a long blade of grass. His eyes were sharper than when Jasn had first met him, and when he walked, he carried himself easier than when Jasn had first come to the barracks. The healing that Wyath had required to survive the draasin escape had restored him to more than he had been.
“Did you find her?” Bayan had been with him the only time that he had truly almost died. He didn’t think the water elementals would be able to restore him if he were crushed. There were limits. There had to be.
“Found something. Maybe it’ll be Bayan. Eldridge stayed after it, sent me back to report,” he said with a chuckle.
“You find it funny?” Jasn asked.
“I find the fact that I’m taking orders from a scholar amusing, yes. When I was first raised to the order, I thought I knew all there was to know about shaping. My first assignment was to lead a squad of shapers in the attacks on Pa’shu. We still hadn’t secured the city. Blast, we still hadn’t secured much of the border at that time. The council sent me and about a dozen other new warriors, each with a dozen shapers under them.”
“What happened?” Jasn asked. He hadn’t heard much about the early days of the war, only that Pa’shu had been the hardest of the cities to claim. In the years since, Pa’shu had become just another city Ter occupied, but the battle for it had been bloody and lasted a long time.
“We took the city,” Wyath said.
Jasn snorted. “I think I heard that somewhere.”
“The rest don’t matter, now does it?” His eyes narrowed, and Jasn could tell that something about that battle still troubled him.
“It matters if it still bothers you,” Jasn said.
“Don’t know that I can say it bothers me. It’s over. The war, at least the worst part of it, is over. And we’ve won. Pushed back the Rens attack. Kept our people safe.”
“Only it wasn’t Rens who attacked us.”
That troubled expression returned. “No, doesn’t look like it was. So many gone, and for what? We think we’re attacked by Rens and so invade, pushing back their people from homes they’d had for centuries, forcing the rest of Rens back into the desert. And now?”
“Tenebeth,” Jasn said.
Wyath closed his eyes. “Maybe.”
“What else would it be?”
Wya
th sighed. “Don’t think that I know. I’m not the scholar, but Cheneth thinks there’s something else, that it’s whatever released Tenebeth.”
“And that is?”
“That’s what we have to find out.” He forced a smile and leaned into the stream and took a long drink. “That’s why I’m following Eldridge now. And Cheneth.”
“That’s not the only reason.”
“Not the only reason. Still didn’t answer what I asked. What do you detect here?”
“Here? Nothing more than water,” Jasn said. He splashed his hand across the stream and stood, wiping his hand on his jacket. “They speak to me when they choose, not always when I ask.” That was the way it had been ever since he had managed to heal himself. He’d managed to reach the elementals, but not much more than that. He didn’t have an ongoing connection to them, not the way that Alena seemed to have with the draasin. And water hadn’t helped when he faced Thenas the last time. When he had needed their help, water hadn’t been there.
Wyath smiled around the grass he chewed. “Much like any creature can choose, it seems to me.”
Jasn grunted and turned his attention to the south. Through the trees, he couldn’t see the barracks, but he knew they were there. So much had changed for him in the time since he’d come here. Once, he’d wanted nothing more than to die, but had failed. Now he wanted to understand what was happening. That meant living. A part of him still longed for release, for the simplicity of destruction, but another part rebelled against that. Jasn didn’t know which side would win.
And now that Alena seemed finally to have found some peace from the draasin egg, he had something else he needed to be doing. If Katya still lived, he had to find her.
What would he do if he did? It was possible she had been tainted by Tenebeth. As much as he hated to admit that to himself, what other answer made sense? And if she had, would his connection to the elementals allow him to heal her, or had she been tainted by Tenebeth for so long that she was no longer the woman he once had known?
Maybe Ciara could help. Jasn had seen the way she had nearly expelled Tenebeth from Thenas. And if she could do that with Thenas, then she might be able to do the same with Katya.
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