Jessa sighed and looked back at the scrap of wood. “I remember how excited I was when we first found those cylinders. The different metals, some gold, some silver, all with the same shape and designed to fit together. Now…”
“I know. Now you wish we never would have found them.”
“At least they’ve been kept from the Elvraeth. At least Brusus didn’t sell them.”
Rsiran still didn’t know why.
The door to the smithy clicked open, and they both turned. Rsiran readied a pair of knives to push if needed, but Brusus came through the door, closing it quickly behind him. A sheen of sweat coated his face, and a smudge of dirt or oil worked along his chin. He carried a couple of small boxes, similar to the one Rsiran had recently helped Jessa steal.
“You could help, you know?” he said. “Maybe could even Slide these here, rather than making me carry them. Some get heavy. Don’t know why. They’re all the same shape.”
Rsiran pushed to his feet and laughed. “I’ve told you how different metals have different weights.” He looked at the boxes. “Which ones did you bring?”
Brusus frowned. “What do you mean by that? I told you I’d bring all of them.”
Rsiran shook his head as he glanced at Jessa. “That’s not all of them. There were dozens of different cylinders in that crate.”
“I already told you. I sold some. I kept some.”
He grabbed the nearest box and carried it toward his table before setting it down. He didn’t feel the pull of lorcith or the alloy from within the box and wondered what metals these would be made from. Rsiran worked one of his knives under the edge of the box, prying it open. A cylinder of dull iron rested inside. He opened the next. This was grindl, a semi-valuable metal. Rsiran looked up at Brusus.
“You sold the gold one?”
He nodded. “I got nearly fifty guildens for it.”
“And the silver?”
Brusus shrugged. “Only ten.”
“Who bought them?”
Brusus turned to look around the smithy. His eyes hesitated when he caught on the bars of the alloy pressing through the floor and stretching toward the patched ceiling overhead. “Shael bought a few of them. I thought your plan was to find him anyway?”
Shael again. How tightly tied to all of this was he? “I think I need to. We need to know what he wanted. What this device can do.”
“Now you think you’re going to recover all the parts too?”
“I don’t know. One thing at a time.”
“Better blame Della for what we don’t have,” Brusus said.
“Della?”
He shrugged. “She wanted me to get rid of the Elvraeth property. Thought it dangerous I had it lying around or something.” He grinned and shook his head. “She knows me better than that. I don’t keep things just lying around.”
Brusus started toward the hearth and stumbled, staggering to one knee. Rsiran Slid to him quickly and put his arm around Brusus’s waist, catching him before he could fall. Another Slide took them to the hearth where he lowered Brusus to the ground.
“Are you…”
Brusus nodded. “I’m fine. Still get weak from time to time. Della helped, but the poison they used…” He shook his head and forced a smile. “Nothing to worry about. I need more rest, is all.”
Rsiran glanced back at Jessa. He read the worry on her face. It matched what he felt. “You won’t be able to come with us for this, Brusus.”
“You’re not keeping me out of this, Rsiran. If you find the Forgotten—”
“Then I come and bring you to them. Until then, you can stay in Elaeavn and rest.”
Brusus looked past him to Jessa. “Tell him I’m fine.”
Jessa knelt alongside Brusus and looked from Rsiran to Brusus. “I’m with Rsiran on this, Brusus.”
“Figures.”
She went on as if he said nothing. “It’s safer if you stay here.”
Brusus sighed. “At least take Haern. With what he knows, you might need him.”
Rsiran had considered Haern but shook his head. “It’s easiest with two,” he started. It was easiest with him going by himself, but he didn’t tell Jessa that. She wouldn’t let him go without her anyway. And he might need her Sight. “And when I find Shael, I’ll need to be able to bring him with me. Can’t do that when I’m Sliding more than Jessa. Just be ready for us to return. We’ll need your particular gifts to know what he might be hiding.” Even three stretched his abilities farther than he felt comfortable. When they’d gone to Venass, it had taken nearly all of his strength to reach it. Returning would have been difficult if they’d still had his father with them. He wouldn’t risk that again, not with someone he cared about.
“You know I could help.” Brusus didn’t speak with the same force as he usually did.
“You know you can’t,” Rsiran countered. “I will find Shael. Then we’ll find the Forgotten.”
Brusus nodded toward the collection of cylinders on the table. “And that? What do you plan to do with that?”
“One thing at a time. First we’ll find out what Shael knows.” And then the Forgotten. Along the way, somehow, he’d have to find a way to avoid returning to Venass. Rsiran doubted that he would find it as easy to escape the next time.
Rsiran held Jessa’s hand as they emerged from the Slide atop Krali Rock. She looked at him, a question in her eyes. Wind whipped around them, carrying the expected scents of the docks and the sea, but other scents as well, that of smoke and wood and the distant fragrance of the Aisl. The moon stood out full and fat as it hung over the bay, silver light streaming toward the shore. Dark shadows swooped overhead, gulls circling and landing. Occasionally, one cawed, splitting the silence of the night. Other sounds, most coming from the Aisl, were too low to hear well. Rsiran wasn’t certain he wanted to know what made those sounds anyway.
He always liked using Krali Rock as a starting point for his Slides, especially when he didn’t really know where he was going. There was something about the height, the way he could see and feel everything around him as if he sat with the Great Watcher, that he found connected him to the world. Closer to the ground, he had no sense of the same. There, he felt confined by the city, trapped in his own smithy, though by his choice. Anywhere else didn’t offer the same promise of safety.
“How do you think you’ll find him?” Della held tightly to his hand. She wore a long jacket, woven of thick wool Brusus had procured for them, dyed a deep brown meant to blend in anywhere they might go. Rsiran wore a similar jacket.
“He was with Firell the last time I saw him.”
“That was weeks ago.”
Rsiran couldn’t believe it had been that long. Weeks since Jessa had been taken from him. Weeks since he determined to do what was needed to rescue her. And weeks since Josun had been captured, left in chains in the hidden mines of Ilphaesn.
“Firell will know where he went. Probably took him there by ship.”
“And if he doesn’t? Or if we find the Forgotten? Are you ready for that?”
They would have to find the Forgotten eventually, but he wasn’t sure what would happen if they found the Forgotten but not Shael. What he wanted was answers, not another attack.
Standing here, looking out over Aylianne Bay, he wondered if he could find Firell’s ship and then Slide to it. When he’d been able to see the ship, it had been a risky Slide. The last time he’d Slid there, he’d known Firell carried some of his forgings and used those to anchor him. What if those forgings weren’t there? What if Firell had moved them off his ship?
Rsiran didn’t think he had.
It was a risk, but one he needed to take. If he was wrong, he had faith in his ability to get them to safety again. They wouldn’t get trapped like they had with the scholars again.
Rsiran cleared his head, pushing away the sense of lorcith pressing on him from the city all around him. This was more difficult than usual. The swords in his smithy sounded most loudly against his sensing, one
asking him to take it with him while the other—the one he’d made of the heartstone alloy—practically demanded Rsiran return and take the sword with him. He would worry later why it felt so insistent.
When the sense of those forgings moved to the back of his mind, he pushed away the other forgings of his in Elaeavn. After all the time he’d spent working at the smithy, many items he’d made were in use throughout the city. Easiest to ignore was the unforged lorcith, most of which he kept in his smithy. There were a few other collections, one he suspected in the alchemist guild house, that he pushed to the back of his mind. Then he felt Ilphaesn.
The massive mountain worked with lorcith suddenly blazed against his senses. Rsiran could practically see it, as if the ore glowed with his awareness. Tunnels wove through the wide mountain, mineshafts worked throughout where lorcith had been taken out of the mountain for centuries. And still there remained massive amounts of the ore.
All of this Rsiran pushed to the back of his mind as well.
And then he sensed less lorcith.
There were other collections around him, some distantly that seemed to have nearly as much as Ilphaesn. Rsiran nearly lost his focus with the realization. Wasn’t Ilphaesn the only source of lorcith? If there was another source, wouldn’t the Elvraeth want to control that as well?
“What’s wrong?” Jessa squeezed his arm as she asked. She didn’t like standing too long atop Krali with the wind blowing, threatening to toss them from the top of the rock.
He shook his head, straining to keep his focus. He would have to think about the other lorcith he sensed later.
Rsiran pushed away the sense of the other lorcith. All unshaped lorcith disappeared, pushed into the back of his mind. All that was left were pinpricks of his forgings.
Which one would be Firell?
He listened. He didn’t know how long he stood atop Krali, focused on the lorcith. It could have been moment or hours. Eventually, he felt one of the forgings that seemed more familiar than the rest, one he’d held more than once.
Reaching for it, he held it as an anchor, hoping it was one Firell carried. If it wasn’t, Rsiran had no idea where he Slid. He could Slide alone, leaving Jessa here, but she would be angry if he even suggested it.
After squeezing her hand, he Slid.
Chapter 25
The Slide felt no different from any other. Colors swirled past him, almost creating a pattern. The swirling colors had a contour to them, a depth. Rsiran suspected this implied the distance they traveled. The air tasted stale and bitter, in a way, reminding him of mined lorcith. Jessa trailed along with him, a silent shadow he couldn’t see well while Sliding. He felt her presence and held tightly to her. He did not want to learn what would happen if they lost the connection while Sliding. Rsiran held onto the faint sense of his forging, anchoring to it as it drew ever closer, the sense of lorcith growing stronger.
Then they emerged. Movement stopped. They were here.
Darkness surrounded him. He welcomed back his sense of lorcith and felt a few items nearby, only one he’d forged himself. Others were shaped, not mined ore, but not his work. The air was musty and damp, though he didn’t sense any of the salt from the sea. Had he missed his mark? Was this not Firell’s ship?
“What do you see?” he whispered.
Jessa held onto his hand. “Not much. Walls. Part of a knife on a table, probably yours. A small box…”
She let go of his hand as she trailed off.
Rsiran latched onto his sense of the charm as she did. If something happened, he wouldn’t lose her as he had the last time. There came the sound of nails squealing and Jessa grunted.
“What is it?”
She started back toward him. “Nothing. Box was empty—”
Light bloomed around them, a bright orange light. The suddenness burned into the back of Rsiran’s eyes, but he knew the color made it even harder for Jessa to see, nothing like the blue heartstone lanterns.
“Thought you might return.”
Rsiran spun to the sound of the voice. He readied a pair of knives, prepared to push them if needed, but at what? He couldn’t see anything until his eyes adjusted.
“Firell?”
The light dimmed slightly as the lantern was set down. A figure stepped forward, past the light. Firell looked different than he had the last time he’d seen him. Haggard and worn. A bandage wrapped around one arm.
“Aye.”
“Where are we? Your ship?”
Firell grunted and shook his head. “My ship? You been on my ship, Rsiran. You think this anything like it?”
Jessa stood next to Rsiran and took his hand. Not for reassurance. She knew to be close in case they needed to Slide to safety. “If not your ship, then where?”
“You don’t know?” He turned and dimmed the lantern before facing them again. “Thought that was how you found me.”
Rsiran shook his head. “I followed my forging.”
Firell looked to the knife resting on the table. “That? I don’t know much about that ability of yours, but you must have been pretty close to notice that.”
Rsiran didn’t argue with him. It didn’t do any good for Firell to know how far he could sense his forgings. “Where, then?”
“They took my ship. Got into port, and the Forgotten put one of your knives to my throat as they walked me off. Claimed I did something to Josun.” He spat the name bitterly. “Not that I wouldn’t have. Just that I didn’t. Don’t know what happened to the Elvraeth. Haven’t seen him since you came on my ship.”
Rsiran felt himself relaxing and forced himself to be more vigilant. Firell had turned on them once already. How did he know he wouldn’t do it again? Could he trust anything Firell said?
“You the one who managed to take him?” Firell asked.
“He doesn’t even know how to reach the exiled Elvraeth.”
Firell laughed until he coughed. “He tell you that?” Rsiran nodded. “And you believed it?”
Rsiran glanced to Jessa. “Who took your ship? Where’s Shael?”
“Shael?” Firell shook his head. “Don’t know about Shael. They walked him off, too, but not the same way. He didn’t have to worry about a new smile like I did.”
They’d found Firell, but not Shael. But maybe whoever had taken Firell would know where to find Shael.
Rsiran’s eyes had finally adjusted to the orange light. The soft glow reminded him so much of his time spent in the mines. He didn’t know it at the time, but the orange light made it hard for Sighted to see well, putting everyone on equal footing. He wondered if Jessa saw nothing more than he did.
They stood in a small room. She had been right. There wasn’t anything other than a table with the knife resting on it and the box, now with its top peeled away. How had Firell hidden from Jessa’s Sight?
Something about the knife wasn’t quite right. Rsiran moved toward it and pulled it to him. It flipped through the air awkwardly, and he caught it.
Not a full knife. Most of the blade was gone, leaving only the tang where it entered the handle. From the mark and the way the metal folded together, Rsiran knew it was one of his earliest forgings, made shortly after Brusus had found him the smithy.
“What happened to the blade?” Lorcith was strong, but with enough force became brittle. This had broken, leaving only the handle.
Firell frowned at him. “You happened to the blade. When you came to my ship and did… whatever it is you can do.”
Rsiran didn’t remember any knives breaking as he’d Slid through the ship, but once Shael captured him in the Elvraeth chains, everything after that had been a blur. “This is all that’s left?” Firell nodded. “Why keep it?”
“Thought that…” He shook his head and took a deep breath. When he looked at Rsiran again, his eyes looked hollow. The bright, playfulness he’d always had before was gone. “They didn’t see it as a threat and let me keep it.”
“And you thought I might come looking again.”
Fir
ell shrugged. “I thought there was a chance.”
Jessa pulled on his arm. “We should go, Rsiran. Something about this place makes me uncomfortable.”
Rsiran nodded. He wouldn’t make her stay here. It was too much like what Josun had done to her. “Where did they take Shael?”
Firell shook his head. “Didn’t see where they took him. Too busy trying not to bleed.”
“Why would the Forgotten imprison you?”
“Still haven’t learned much, have you, Rsiran? You think I did what that Elvraeth wanted by choice? You think I would have betrayed Brusus had I any other options?”
“There’s always a choice.”
“Not when he’s got your daughter.” Firell’s voice caught. “Don’t know how he found out about her. In my line of work, need to keep certain things secret. Safer that way.”
“He Read you, Firell,” Rsiran said softly. He remembered how Josun had practically crawled through his mind trying to Read him. Only by using lorcith to fortify his thoughts had he managed to block Josun from Reading him.
But Firell? He might be able to create a mental barrier, but would it be stout enough to block a powerful Reader?
“Why are they keeping you here?”
“Waiting for him to return. Thought he’d have come by now. Usually doesn’t stay away from Asador too long.”
Asador. At least now Rsiran knew where he and Jessa were. But why Asador again? It was where he’d found the sword Josun had stolen from him. And where he’d recovered his father.
“He’s not coming,” Rsiran said.
Firell leaned forward. “You killed him?”
There was more than surprise to the question. Fear and worry mixed in as well. Firell didn’t care about what happened to Josun, but he might not be able to find his daughter again if Josun were truly dead.
“I did the same thing to him that he did to Jessa.”
Firell looked over. Relief swept across his eyes. “Where is he?”
“Someplace he won’t be found.”
“How? He’s like you, Rsiran. And we weren’t able to trap you for long.”
The Dark Ability: Books 1-4 Page 72