The Dark Ability: Books 1-4

by D. K. Holmberg

  No heartstone mixed into the sword, not for Josun. He had the sense that the lorcith would have mixed with heartstone, if only he had asked, but he didn’t risk it, not now when he had a plan to get Jessa back.

  Coals heated the forge. An orange lantern taken from Della’s house cast harsh light, nothing like the clean blue light of the heartstone lanterns. He hammered noisily but without any real intent. Waiting.

  A soft tremble almost sent a shiver down his spine. A boot scuffed the stone floor. Rsiran turned.

  Josun watched him. Deep green eyes flared as he looked through the orange lantern.

  Rsiran made certain to fortify his mental barriers. He couldn’t have Josun Reading him. He stepped partially in front of the sword.

  “Is it ready?” Josun asked.

  “Only if I know she’s safe.”

  Josun Slid to the table. To Rsiran, it felt as if a breeze fluttered through the smithy. Josun looked at the different items spread out across the table. None were lorcith made. Those had all been given to Brusus. Only Shael’s crate of unshaped lorcith remained.

  “As I believe I said, that isn’t how this works.”

  Rsiran turned, holding the sword in both hands. He could do nothing other than swing it, but it felt right holding it as he stared down Josun. “And I will not give you anything without knowing she lives.”

  Josun Slid a step. “She lives. That’s all you need to know. If you wish to see her again, you will do what I say.”

  For a moment, Rsiran wondered if what he planned would work. Josun moved too quickly. Each step a Slide. Rsiran had no way of knowing when Josun would Slide, or where he would emerge when he did. He considered pushing one of the lorcith knives at Josun, but didn’t think he’d fall for that again.

  “The sword, Lareth. Then we will talk about what you need to do to get your girl back.”

  “You said that if I made the sword, I could get her back.”

  Josun’s smile widened. “I said we would talk.” He looked at Rsiran’s pockets. “And don’t think to send your knives at me. I will see it if you do. Know that if I don’t return by morning, she is dead.”

  At least he knew how Josun intended to escape the knife. “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want her back.”

  “You can’t hurt me, Lareth. You couldn’t even kill me. Don’t you know that it takes more than a smith to kill one of the Elvraeth?”

  “You only want the alloy,” Rsiran said.

  Josun smiled. “Now you begin to understand.”

  “Why? What is it about the alloy that you care about?”

  Josun shook his head. “Someone like you cannot begin to understand,” he said.

  Rsiran bristled at the contempt that Josun demonstrated, but he had to play along, if only long enough for him to find Jessa. “And once you have the sword?”

  He shrugged. “There might be other tasks asked of you.” His gaze swept around the smithy. “It seems you enjoy your work. I would only convince you to continue. How is that wrong?”

  Rsiran feared what Josun asked, the tasks that he would be forced to complete. It might start with the sword, but there would be other requests. And then others. All while he was pulled deeper into the demands of the Elvraeth, both Forgotten and not.

  If he left Josun to his plans, they could never be safe. His friends—his family—could never be safe.

  “The sword, Lareth.”

  He nodded, then leaned to hand him the sword. Josun reached for the blade, and as he did, Rsiran pulled the chains from where they rested beneath the table. The cuffs snapped around Josun’s wrist. He tried to Slide—Rsiran felt him trying—but couldn’t.

  Rsiran pushed a pair of knives toward Josun’s throat and snapped the chain around his other wrist.

  Josun’s face twisted in a mask of rage. “She’s dead now. Whatever you think you will achieve. She is dead.”

  Rsiran dropped the half-made sword into the coals. It would heat and deform, turning into a useless lump of lorcith. A change it had agreed to for him. He Slid to Josun and grabbed the chain. Josun tried to kick, but Rsiran grabbed the hammer resting next to the anvil slammed it down onto his leg, ignoring Josun’s scream.

  “It is time we talk.”

  And then he Slid.

  They emerged near Ilphaesn. A steady sea wind whipped around him, violent and angry. Rsiran held Josun by the chain, standing along the path leading to the peak of Ilphaesn. The sense of lorcith all around him pulled on him.

  “Where is she?” he whispered.

  Wind threatened to steal his words, but he leaned in, making certain Josun heard him.

  “You won’t find her. Your only chance is to release me and hope that I—”

  Rsiran gripped the chain and Slid.

  He wasn’t entirely certain what he planned would work. When he stood on the path, he sensed the alloy barrier blocking access to the upper mine. Since chained and trapped on Firell’s ship, he felt the alloy differently than before. He still didn’t know if he could Slide past it without an anchor.

  He felt the barrier, but it had changed. Or he had changed. He didn’t care.

  Rsiran pulled Josun through the barrier.

  They emerged into the darkness of the hidden mine that he and Jessa had discovered. Lorcith pressed all around him, giving him a different kind of sight. He pushed Josun away from him and heard him stagger, his injured leg giving out as he fell to the ground. The chains told Rsiran where he lay.

  “Where is she?” Rsiran asked again.

  Josun laughed darkly. “To feel truly threatened, I need to believe that you’ll carry through with it. You’re just not believable, Lareth. You may think you sound dangerous, but you have already shown me that you’ll do anything to get her back. And to see her alive, you will not harm me.”

  Rsiran stepped toward him. The darkness of this mine didn’t frighten him as it once had. With lorcith all around, it practically glowed in his mind. “You assume I don’t already know where she is.”

  Josun didn’t answer at first. When he did, he laughed again. “Were that true, you would have gone to her first. No. You know that you need me. She is already dead, as sure as if you made the kill yourself.”

  Rsiran Slid to Josun and kicked. He didn’t care where he hit him, only that he did. Josun grunted as Rsiran’s boot connected. “And you will stay here, trapped as she has been.”

  Rsiran walked deeper into the mine, leaving Josun lying on the ground.

  As he did, he listened to the lorcith, letting it guide him.

  When Della told him to find another way to reach Josun, it had gotten him thinking. Everything had revolved around the lorcith. First the access—the extra mine he’d discovered, the lorcith on Firell’s ship, even the lorcith scattered around the other great cities. Where else would Josun have taken Jessa that Rsiran wouldn’t be able to find her?

  He made his way quickly. At one point, a soft wind began gusting through the mine, blowing at him with the bitter odor of lorcith. And then he felt it as he expected. Jagged edges to the mine where lorcith had been taken from the walls. Voids where the ore once had been.

  He paused and listened. Did he hear the soft pulling of forged lorcith or was that his imagination?

  As he walked, he felt a growing certainty. Forged lorcith. Done by his hand.

  He Slid with each step, hurrying toward it.

  And then he reached her.

  She jerked back when he touched the charm tucked into her shirt and tried to kick out toward him.

  “Jessa,” he said.

  She stopped moving. Her body tensed. “Rsiran?”

  He lifted her, scooping her up and cradling her in his arms. She did not fight. “It’s me. I found you.”

  Jessa coughed. “Took you long enough.”

  Then he Slid her from the mine.

  Epilogue

  Rsiran sat in Della’s house drinking a mug of the mint tea. Jessa leaned back in the chair, warming herself in front of the fire. She
hadn’t said much since he’d brought her from the mines.

  “Where did you leave him?” Della asked. She pressed her hand onto Jessa’s forehead, feeling for a long moment.

  “The mine. I left the chains attached so that he couldn’t Slide.”

  “You didn’t kill him,” Della asked.

  “No. Not that he didn’t deserve it. Only… I didn’t need to.” Rsiran discovered that he had been willing to kill Josun if that was what it would have taken to free Jessa. He hadn’t known that darkness—that anger—was in him before.

  Della nodded slowly and turned away.

  Jessa looked up and blinked slowly, as if finally understanding. “What chains?”

  “The alloy. Another Elvraeth gift,” he answered.

  Jessa looked back to the fire. Her eyes had a flat expression. Rsiran hoped it was only fatigue that made her look as she did.

  “Someone will free him.”

  “Why do you say that?” Rsiran asked.

  She took a deep breath. “I overheard them while they had me. Josun was just a part of a bigger plan with the Forgotten.”

  “I know.”

  “You know?”

  He glanced to Della who pretended she wasn’t listening. “Brusus has been looking for signs of the Forgotten. For his mother, I think.”

  Jessa sighed. “And instead they found us.”

  “They found us,” he agreed.

  “They wanted you for some reason.”

  “To make the alloy,” he said. He still didn’t know how it fit into Josun’s—and the Forgotten—plans. But now that he had Jessa back, did it matter? All he wanted was to fade into obscurity, only… only he wasn’t sure that he would be given the chance.

  “Did you?” Jessa asked.

  He shook his head, clearing the worry from it. “No. And I won’t.”

  Jessa breathed out slowly. “Maybe that was it. I don’t know. And it doesn’t matter. There are others they’ve pulled into it. That was part of their plan. The Forgotten Elvraeth were rounding up smiths, forcing them to work in other cities. Asador. Cort. Thyr.” She shook her head. “They’re everywhere.”

  “What do you mean they’re rounding up smiths?” Rsiran asked.

  Della looked at him. “That was what I hadn’t told you yet. That man you found in Asador?” Rsiran nodded, already dreading what she would say. “That was your father.”

  The Tower of Venass

  Chapter 1

  Rsiran Lareth stood before the sloped roof of the freshly painted wooden building. It was new construction, and unlike most buildings in Elaeavn, made of wide rough sawn timbers rather than block or stone. A building like this was meant to be temporary.

  “You don’t need to do this.”

  Rsiran turned to Jessa. Her face still hadn’t lost that haunted expression, the aftermath of what she’d gone through when Josun had abducted her, and her normally flushed cheeks looked pale. Brown hair hung longer than it had since he first met her, passing her shoulder. A length of ribbon tied it back. She pulled on it, bringing it around her shoulder and twisting it between her fingers. Another nervous tick she’d acquired. A yellow flower was woven into her lorcith charm, the first day she’d worn one in many weeks.

  “I haven’t come here since I learned.”

  “It’s not like you haven’t been busy,” she said.

  Rsiran sighed. Since returning from rescuing Jessa from Ilphaesn, he’d spent his time fortifying the smithy he’d taken over. Bars of the heartstone alloy now lined the inside of the walls, worked together as a barrier. He’d not risk Jessa’s safety again and let someone like Josun reach her. Now, no other Sliders would be able to enter the smithy, keeping them safe from the threat from the Forgotten for now. As far as Rsiran knew, only he could Slide past the alloy.

  “I still should’ve come before now,” Rsiran said.

  She grabbed his hand and turned him toward her. Her green eyes seemed especially bright under the full moonlight. Were he Sighted, like Jessa, he might see the tight lines of worry around her eyes that had been present since he’d rescued her from Josun. Instead, his ability was different. Once thought to be a dark ability, he’d finally come to accept his gifts from the Great Watcher.

  A hard-packed path led away from the building, winding back toward the rest of Elaeavn. This was separate, almost on the edge of the Aisl Forest, and surrounded by enough trees that you had to know where to look to find it. In spite of that, the steady sound of crashing waves carried even here, bringing the scent of salt air to mingle with the earthy odor of decay.

  “Why? What has he done to deserve that?”

  Instead of answering, Rsiran checked the knives stuffed into his pockets. He didn’t need to touch them to know where they were. The lorcith pulled on him, connecting to him in a way he still didn’t fully understand. Like his father, he had lorcith in his blood. That was part of the reason he’d come tonight.

  “I need answers. Della only has so many.” He thought about what Della had told him of his ability and of the Elvraeth, remembering her hesitation. “And some she won’t share.”

  “You think she’s trying to hide something from you?” Jessa didn’t chide him as she once would have. Neither of them felt completely comfortable with what had happened to them. Risks taken that had kept them in the dark and pulled them into a fight that was greater than either of them.

  The lorcith charm he’d made her hung openly from a small chain of the heartstone alloy around her neck. That had been the first thing he’d made after rescuing her. Delicate work that he’d asked the lorcith allow. After losing her once, Rsiran would do anything to keep Jessa safe.

  “I’m not so certain of that anymore.”

  “Rsiran—”

  “How much did Brusus keep from us? He knew what he had me doing… he knew the risk he asked of me and did it anyway.”

  “Would we have done anything differently?”

  He sighed again and shook his head. Brusus was family to him.

  “We shouldn’t do this. Let’s return to the city. By the time we get back, maybe Haern will be at the Barth. We can dice and have some ale—”

  He shook his head. Since Lianna had died, the Wretched Barth hadn’t felt the same. Maybe that wasn’t right; since learning that Josun hadn’t died as he thought, nothing about the city felt the same. The Elaeavn he’d known was different now. Darker. The only place he felt comfortable was the smithy. Even there, he jumped every time he heard a strange sound.

  “I need to see him. He deserves that much.”

  “Does he? After what he did to you?”

  Rsiran squeezed her hand. “If he hadn’t, I never would have met you.” He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Meeting Jessa was one of the few good things that had come from what his father had done to him.

  “I think I would have found you eventually. The Great Watcher would have seen to that.”

  Rsiran didn’t argue. Only the Servants claimed to know what the Great Watcher intended. After everything that had happened to him, how could the Great Watcher have a plan with him? “Ready?”

  She squeezed his hand, signaling that she was.

  Rsiran Slid past the door.

  There came the familiar rush of stale air, reminiscent of the bitter scent of lorcith. Flashes of color streaked past him as he felt movement, though took only a single step.

  Such a brief Slide took little energy. Since facing Josun again, he’d taken to Sliding everywhere, building up his stamina so that Sliding great distances wouldn’t challenge him. When alone, he practiced Sliding rather than walking. In the weeks since he’d left Josun trapped inside Ilphaesn, he Slid everywhere.

  Bringing Jessa with him took only a little more effort. From the beginning, he’d Slid with her. First, throughout Elaeavn as they made their way through the city. Later to Ilphaesn and back or out to Firell’s ship. Usually, having her along comforted him. Today felt different. Today, she would meet his father.

  Rsi
ran emerged from the Slide to see a shadowed room around him. Hard-packed dirt formed the floor, more evidence of the temporary nature of the building. A lantern with weak orange light streaming from it rested on the floor near the far wall. A small raised platform for a bed tucked into the corner. A low counter served as a makeshift kitchen. The place stank of a mixture of smoke and sweat.

  Everything seemed more welcoming than the man living here deserved.

  A small fire pit set away from the wall. Three logs that had burned down to glowing coals sent smoke drifting toward a hole cut in the roof. A stump rested near the fire pit and a lean man sat atop it, staring into the coals.

  “Are you sure about this?” Jessa whispered.

  “There’s nothing more he can do to me,” Rsiran answered.

  He took a step forward, Sliding without thinking about what he was doing. Jessa held his hand as they Slid, but said nothing. She had grown accustomed to him Sliding everywhere. Often, she preferred it.

  “They said you would come.”

  The voice came from behind him and Rsiran spun. He should have realized there was someone else in here with them. Brusus wouldn’t leave him unguarded, not until he fully understood why his father had been in Asador. The Forgotten had taken him there, but they still didn’t understand why.

  He didn’t recognize the man near the door. Brown eyes looked back at him. Not of Elaeavn.

  Dressed in thick leathers, he carried a short sword—forbidden in Elaeavn except for the constables—made of steel. Rsiran frowned at it, thinking it might be one of his forgings, though it was difficult to tell. Working with steel gave him a way to practice the skills lorcith taught him, to see if he could carry it over to other metals.

  “What else did they say?” Rsiran asked.

  The man grunted. He wore hair shorn close to his scalp, revealing the end of a long scar. He shrugged. “That I wasn’t to interfere with you.”

  Rsiran narrowed his eyes. Did Brusus actually think this man could interfere with him? “And that’s it?”

  A smile split the man’s face and reached his eyes. “Also said I should run if I saw one of your blades. Figured that was a joke.” He shrugged again as he studied Rsiran.