—Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars
“Tell me again what it is that you want me to do,” Jasn said, crouching between a pair of particularly tall oak trees, searching for prints in the ground and finding none. Damn Alena and this task she’d assigned him. This close to the barracks, he wouldn’t find the creatures she expected.
The first few days in the camp had been mostly repetition and almost blessedly calm compared to what he had been accustomed to while in Rens. Alena made a point of trying to determine the depth and breadth of his shaping skill, giving him increasingly complex shapings to complete, but his time spent the past year had honed his shaping ability, so he passed most of her challenges with relative ease. None of it gave him any better idea of why he’d been sent here by Lachen. What was he meant to learn? What was the purpose for all the power-infused buildings hidden in the middle of the forest? Why draw him away from Rens where he at least had the potential to be useful?
There were others like him in the barracks. Wyath referred to them as students, though from what Jasn saw, most were fully raised members of the order. There were other instructors like Alena, usually paired with one or two students, and he’d learned Alena had another student named Bayan, though he rarely saw her. Most of his time had been wasted, much like this.
Muted sounds of voices drifted through the trees, and Jasn could still smell the smoke from the barracks but couldn’t see it from where they were—not that it mattered. They were close, but far enough that none of the others in the camp would see him fail. After his time in Rens, failure was a constant companion anyway.
Alena stood with her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at him. Since he’d met her, he wasn’t sure when she didn’t glare at him. “I want you to focus,” she snapped. “You know how to focus, don’t you?”
Jasn suppressed his irritation. Alena had been instructed to train him but had done little more than constantly test him as if he were newly trained.
“Focus on what?” he demanded. “Each day, you tell me the same thing. Each day, you want me to focus, to demonstrate sensing and shaping like I’m some sort of novice in Atenas. I’ve spent the past year facing death in Rens and now you want me to track deer? There are none here!”
Ever since she learned that Lachen had sent him to the barracks, she’d been in an even more foul mood. Jasn did nothing to deny it, though Cheneth continued the charade that he was the one who wanted Jasn to study with Alena.
Alena uncrossed her arms, her hand dipping close to the slender blade sheathed at her waist, a sword Jasn had discovered she knew how to wield as well as any warrior he’d met, before turning away from him. He didn’t miss the flash of disgust that crossed her face.
She disappeared into the trees, and Jasn scrambled to his feet to follow. Now where did she think to lead him?
He caught up to her as she stopped near a ridge that dropped into a shallow valley. A wide river ran through it, spilling over rocks with a white froth and twisting through the valley before disappearing. She knelt on the ground, one hand touching the rock at the edge of the ridge, the other lightly gripping the hilt of her sword.
She didn’t look up as he approached. “Can you sense it here?”
He glanced around and let out an annoyed sigh. “Sense what?”
Alena’s piercing blue eyes stared at him and mirrored the irritation he knew she felt toward him. Hair that seemed more brown than blond spilled over her shoulders, catching the light filtering through the trees. A braid held part of her hair back, but the rest hung loose. Even with her anger, he couldn’t deny her beauty. But after Katya, he could no more attempt flirtation than he’d managed to die while in Rens.
Alena wiped her hands on her pants. Her eyes flicked past him, staring into the trees as if seeing something there that he could not. He’d learned that she was skilled. Wyath had claimed she was the most skilled in the barracks, and he’d seen nothing that would disprove that, but then again, he’d seen nothing that proved it, either. So far, he’d only been dragged into the woods and asked to follow the tracks of deer making their way through the trees near camp.
“You’ve been trained in Atenas and you might have had some success in Rens, but what you’ve learned is too blunt,” Alena said. “Out here, and with what you will be asked to do, you need to learn how to listen. You will need to learn subtlety.”
“Subtlety is useless when you’re trying to fend off draasin and Rens attackers,” Jasn said.
Her eyes narrowed. “Perhaps. But if you could listen—”
“I can sense, if that’s what you’re implying.”
Her eyes hardened even more, if that were possible. “Can you? Because from what I can tell, you’ve only learned the minimum to be useful.”
Jasn felt a surge of irritation that matched the tone in her voice. “How long has it been since you’ve fought in Rens? My experience there was nothing academic.”
“If that were the case, then you should have no problem doing as I’ve asked. You should be able to tell me where to find the herd but so far haven’t shown me that you can.”
Jasn nearly threw his hands up in frustration. “Because there isn’t one!”
As he said it, he felt the shifting of a shaping. It was subtle, so subtle that he hadn’t detected it before, or if he had, he’d thought it came from shaping near the barracks. Now that he sensed it, he realized the source of the shaping and how Alena held on to it, using a lighter touch than any he’d ever encountered.
The trees around him shimmered and, like a fog easing, seven speckled deer stood barely twenty paces away, chewing at grasses on the ground. As the shaping dropped, they looked up, almost as one, and seemed to see him and Alena. They turned and darted deeper into the trees, disappearing so quickly that Jasn would almost swear that they hadn’t been there at all.
“What was that you were saying?” Alena asked.
She didn’t give him the chance to answer and moved past him, fading into the trees like one of the deer.
Damn. Was that what Lachen wanted him to learn?
Jasn hurried after her, but Alena moved quickly and he struggled to keep pace. He tracked her up the slope of the mountain, winding through what must once have been a path but was now little more than trampled undergrowth. Dirt and rock trickled down from Alena’s passing, the only sign that he was still heading in the right direction. Earth sensing helped little. He couldn’t detect her and assumed she’d used some shaping to mask herself, probably one much like what she’d used with the deer.
A crack across the slope caused him to turn, and he ducked beneath branches, racing toward where he’d heard her. He wanted to catch her, not only to prove that he could keep pace, but also because he wanted to know how she had managed a shaping that obscured the herd of deer. He hadn’t even been aware that they were there. Earth sensing should have given him some clue, but even without that, water sensing should have granted him awareness of the blood pumping through their veins, much like it should with…
Jasn almost stumbled to a stop. How could she mask that as well?
It was one thing to obscure with an earth shaping. That was a shaping he’d learned, and he could use earth to blend objects into the background. It was useful, and it was how the entire barracks were hidden. But he’d never known water to be used the same way, especially not against him.
Blighted stars, but he should’ve realized that before running after her.
And if he couldn’t rely on shaping to find her, how would he reach her?
But hadn’t he already found a way? He’d run through the trees, using the sounds of disturbance through the forest to chase her. Not only the soft trail of rock cascading from footsteps, the sort of passing that was difficult to hide, but also the sway of branches and the prints made as she stepped through the underbrush. Jasn had grown up in mountains such as these and had hunted with Lachen, the two of them chasing each other as they competed to learn who could find the largest squirre
l, or hare, or even occasionally a wolf.
He ignored shaping earth and water, pushing that aside for something else as he reached for wind. Not water. Jasn refused to acknowledge water as often as he could. Wind had always been easy enough for him, perhaps not as easy as earth, but easier than fire, and he listened now, focusing on the way it swirled around him. He didn’t need to use wind sensing to find Alena, only to find evidence of her passing. They were different, and it was possible she hadn’t masked herself fully.
Wind played against his skin and he breathed it out, focusing as he’d long ago been taught to focus, letting himself first master the wind within him before reaching to what surrounded him, taking more time than he usually did with sensing. If he wanted to succeed with Alena’s trials, maybe he needed to focus on the basics, on those things he had first learned back before he joined the order. And if she wanted him to sense deeply, he would do what he could.
As he listened, he noted the way the wind lifted around the branches. He could feel the way it brushed across the tops of the grasses, swirling through the upper boughs of the trees, sending hints of pine into the air. Wind revealed other creatures by their breathing and the way they disturbed the eddying currents, and Jasn listened for these, knowing that for him to reach Alena, he would need to find her through this connection.
Countless small animals moved through the forest, and Jasn was amazed at how earth shaping had failed to reveal these to him. Had Alena hidden them in an attempt to prove how little he knew, or was there another reason he’d failed at finding them? Was there something else about this place that he had yet to discover?
When he detected where she had to be, he smiled. The wind pulled differently around her in countless ways, not the least of which was the way the branches swayed from her passing, the change in the air from her breath, or even the absence of the other creatures around her.
Jasn moved quickly toward where he sensed her and discovered her near a large pond fed by a narrow stream. The water of the pond was a faint green and swirled as if the current of the stream flowed more rapidly than it otherwise appeared. Alena dipped a finger in the pond and swirled it around, controlling it with her shaping.
She didn’t look up as he approached. “What shaping did you use to find me?”
There was almost a pattern to the way she traced her finger through the water, but one that Jasn didn’t recognize. “Wind,” he said.
She nodded. “Good. Earth and water were obscured. I needed to know how strong you are with wind and fire.”
Jasn blinked. He’d thought she overlooked the way that he could use wind, but she hadn’t at all. She’d wanted him to reach wind.
What game was she playing?
Alena stood and rubbed her finger across her pants absently, still staring down at the water, her head tipped to the side as if listening to something that only she could hear. Jasn reached out with water sensing and earth sensing but still detected nothing. Even wind was difficult now. All he could detect was the heat from her body, the flush of her skin, and…
Jasn forced those thoughts away. Whatever else Alena was to him, she was supposed to train him. She’d not wanted to work with him even though Lachen had demanded it of her, and her irritation had been a constant presence with him.
Until now, he realized. She studied him with a different expression, as if he’d surprised her. Had she not expected him to find her?
“You have some potential,” Alena said. “You still rely too much on shaping, but that can be corrected.”
“What else is there to rely on if not shaping?”
She walked past him without answering, disappearing once more into the woods.
5
Jasn
The draasin presence forced Commander Nolan to devote even more warrior presence along the border, but such force came at a cost. The once thriving order now faltered, energy that had been put toward study and understanding the elements now went toward survival.
—Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars
“I hear you managed to find her today,” Wyath said to Jasn as he sat by the small fire, working a slender knife down a long length of wood, drawing the bark slowly from it. Every so often, he’d run his thumb across the area he’d just completed and perform a gentle shaping of earth, smoothing the surface.
Jasn wondered what he carved. So far, all he could tell was that the old warrior cleared the wood of bark. “Is that the test then?” If that was all there was to this place, then Lachen had misjudged. Having him here would be a waste of his time.
But Rens could wait. The border, including Rens and the draasin, would be there when he returned.
Wyath looked up and smiled. “One of them. Sometimes the hardest one.”
“I never found her in a month.”
Jasn looked over to see Bayan scooting closer to the fire. The dark-haired woman had sharp features and wore a heavy jacket even in the warmth of the day. From what Jasn had determined, Bayan was a skilled shaper and studied under Alena as well, though he rarely saw them working together.
“See? You’re doing better than Bay here, and look how well she’s been doing,” Wyath said.
Jasn rested his elbows on his legs and stared at the fire. Flames danced and moved with the wind, sending smoke billowing up into the air. Wind and fire, so intertwined. Was there a reason Alena hadn’t blocked either of those from him?
He still hadn’t learned how she managed to block him in the first place. Even in Atenas, he didn’t know of anyone able to do shapings quite like that. Maybe there was more to this place than he’d realized. Perhaps that was the lesson Lachen wanted him to learn. It would be useful when he returned. Shapings that could mask the warrior would allow them to get closer to the draasin. Maybe they would finally manage to push them back.
“Still can’t find her every time,” Bayan said. “Damn woman is subtle. Do you know she hid in one of the trees near the barracks for the entire day yesterday? Had me wandering the forest searching for her the whole day, and never once did I make it back here to find her. Night fell and I came back, and there she was, still sitting up there. Had the gall to whistle at me like I’m some sort of dog.”
Wyath grinned and slipped the knife down the shaft of wood, curling off a particularly long piece. “Learned that one from me, she did.”
“Do you still teach?” Jasn asked.
Wyath shook his head. “Not me, and not anymore.” He palmed the knife and patted his hip. “Too slow to be of much use. Better working here.”
Jasn still wished that he knew where here was and what they were doing. Alena was showing him how little he knew about shaping. There was no doubt now that she was incredibly skilled, more so than many of the instructors in Atenas, but why was she hiding here when Lachen would have so much more use for her in Rens? If they could clear those lands, they might finally manage to stop the damn war, and wasn’t that the goal?
Unless there was something more about what they did here. If so, why hadn’t Lachen told him?
“You wouldn’t want me to teach anyway,” Wyath went on. “I could be too hard.”
“Harder than Alena?” Bayan asked. “How many make it through her trials?”
Wyath shrugged. “Those who wash out weren’t meant to be here.”
Jasn leaned forward. “I could wash out? What happens then?”
“Doubt that’ll happen, so don’t worry about it,” Wyath said.
“Commander’s choice? He’s about as likely to wash out as Bayan is to make it through.” A muscular warrior with a dark shock of hair and a wicked scar running down his chin appeared on the other side of the fire and stood with shadows dancing around him, a dark sneer spreading across his face. “Sorry to break it to you, but you know that’s the truth.”
Bayan glared at him.
Wyath stopped carving and set his knife on his lap. Whatever he’d been working on slipped forward. A shaping built from him, and he held it with a steady power.
“Back a bit late tonight, don’t you think, Thenas?”
Thenas opened his mouth, then clamped it shut again. “Didn’t see you there, Wyath. Don’t mind me.” With that, Thenas continued into the darkness, disappearing between a pair of squat buildings.
“That damn man,” Bayan muttered.
“Do as he said,” Wyath suggested. “Don’t mind him.”
“Can’t believe he studies with Calan anyway,” Bayan said. “He’s said to be the best—”
She cut herself off at a shake of Wyath’s head.
Jasn leaned forward, looking from Bayan to Wyath before turning his gaze back into the barracks, in the direction that Thenas had gone. “Best what? Instructor here, because I thought that was Alena. Or is there something else?”
Bayan gave Wyath a beseeching look, and he only shook his head.
Jasn grunted. “Fine. Don’t tell me why I’m here or what the commander wants me to learn. What good will that do me anyway?” He stood and stalked away from the fire, leaving Bayan and Wyath to their quiet conversation.
He found himself walking through the camp, wandering aimlessly. Were he to make it to the south end, he would reach the small dorm he’d been granted. At least it was private. That was more than could be said about most of the space granted recruits in Atenas. He’d found some success today. Even Wyath and Bayan agreed with that, so then why did he still not know the reason he’d been brought here? Was that what Lachen had wanted?
He stopped outside the strange circular building and ran his fingers along the stone. The last time he’d been this close, Alena had jerked his hand away, but this time, she wasn’t here to stop him. The stone tingled beneath his fingers, but otherwise he sensed nothing particularly special about it.
Well, he realized, that wasn’t quite true. He didn’t sense anything about it at all. Like many of the buildings within the camp, they were masked from earth sensing, shielding them from him. This ward was particularly potent, as if whatever it masked was even more important to hide.
Journey of Fire and Night (The Endless War Book 1) Page 4