The Dark Ability: Books 1-4

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Read. Me.”

  She didn’t move. And then she gasped. “They poisoned you so they could Read you?”

  He tried to nod but didn’t think his head worked.

  “What do they want?”

  Rsiran worked his tongue over the inside of his mouth again. “Same. Venass.”

  She leaned closer. He imagined she hugged him but couldn’t tell. There seemed to be a little pressure this time, as if she pressed against him. Rsiran let out a slow breath, wanting nothing more than to put his arms around her and Slide her to safety.

  But he couldn’t.

  They were trapped because his ability failed him.

  “How. You.” He didn’t know if she would understand but at least his words came out more clearly than they had before.

  “How did I escape?”

  He tried to nod again. “Yes.”

  He didn’t think she’d been Compelled but still didn’t know for sure. If they poisoned him to Read him, there was no reason they wouldn’t do the same to Jessa to Compel her.

  “After they attacked us, I woke up, locked up, the same as you. They didn’t think I was as much of a threat. I’ve not been poisoned, at least that I know. It took a while, but I managed to pick the lock on my door. Once I figured out how, I waited until I knew I’d be alone for a while. The guards come by on a schedule. Then I came looking for you.”

  “How?”

  She laughed and pushed closer to him. This time he definitely felt it.

  “The necklace,” she said. She laughed again. “They took everything I had on me. My knives. The lock-pick set.” She said that with more than a hint of anger. “But they left the necklace. They didn’t think anything of it, I guess. But the shape worked well for a lock pick. Did you know that when you made it?”

  Rsiran licked his lips. His tongue didn’t feel as thick as it had. “Yes.”

  Jessa moved so that her face was directly in front of him. Now he could see the contours of her cheeks, the set of her jaw, and the way her hair swept back from her forehead. A blurry bruise discolored one cheek, severe enough that he could see it in spite of the poisoning.

  “Liar,” she whispered. She kissed him.

  Rsiran kissed back, thankful he could feel her lips.

  “How long will the poisoning last?” she asked.

  “Don’t. Know.” He swallowed, feeling stronger by the moment. “Think it’s… wearing off.”

  “How much longer until you can Slide us out of here? I’m a good sneak, but I don’t know if I can get us out of the building on my own, especially not if I’m carrying you.”

  “Don’t. Know,” he said again. “I’ll. Try.”

  He listened for lorcith to anchor. It would be easier than trying to Slide without an anchor. But he didn’t want to Slide a great distance in the shape he was in. Shorter distances were easier, and he wasn’t even certain he would be able to reach Elaeavn until the poison completely cleared his system.

  While he sensed lorcith around him, he didn’t have anything he felt safe using as an anchor. Most of it was likely with the Forgotten. Any that was not, he didn’t know if he dared use in his current state.

  But if they were in Asador, there was another place he could try. It was a place familiar to him only because he’d been there before when tracking down his sword. He’d found lorcith there, both his sword and unshaped lorcith. Could he anchor to that?

  He listened for unshaped lorcith. At the edge of his senses, he heard it, as if calling to him. Rsiran held to it and tried to Slide.

  But failed.

  “Can’t Slide. Yet.”

  “Keep trying,” she said. “I’ll keep us safe while we wait.”

  There came a soft sound of metal against metal. The door opened again.

  “Not sure how you be doing that.”

  “Shael,” Rsiran said weakly.

  Jessa leaned over him, blocking him from Shael. “Leave him alone, Shael. Why are you doing this? I thought you were our friend!”

  “Friend? I do be telling Rsiran before it’s about coin, not friendship. When Brusus do be having the coin, then I be your friend.”

  He stepped closer. Rsiran smelled the sweet scent of the poison he carried with him. The knives he’d taken from Rsiran were tucked into his pockets.

  “Now these folk do be having the coin. An’ you be the reason I keep workin’.”

  Rsiran had seen how Shael had some talent, the way that he had once prevented him from Sliding. Rsiran had finally managed to surprise Shael when he’d used heartstone as his anchor.

  “Now, you be going back to your room. I be tellin’ Inna it time to use slithca syrup on you too. You be more compliant then.”

  He started forward. Rsiran felt it in the knives more than heard it.

  “Stop.”

  Shael laughed. “You caught me askance once, Rsiran, but you be doin’ nothin’ to stop me in the shape you be in now. Don’ be movin’, you see.” He laughed again.

  Jessa lowered him back down. Then she lunged at Shael.

  She moved in a blur, kicking off from next to him.

  Rsiran felt the lorcith knife in her hand that she’d taken from his calf.

  Shael grunted and then Jessa cried out before thudding loudly against the wall.

  Rsiran turned his head to try to see if she was okay, but only saw her legs. They didn’t move.

  Shael crouched next to him. A hard hand pressed down on his chest. That Rsiran could feel it at all told him the poison was wearing off.

  “You be restin’ again, Rsiran. Almost got what they need.”

  “Stop.” He said the word again with more force. He still could barely move his head and couldn’t do anything against Shael without his abilities.

  Shael laughed. “You’re not gonna talk me out of this now. I’m not your friend.”

  Rsiran looked over and saw Jessa’s legs. They moved, but not much. “I. Know.”

  He focused on the sense of the one lorcith knife still strapped to his calf.

  “Don’t make me do this,” Rsiran said.

  Shael chuckled. “Slithca lingers, Rsiran. Not much you able to do.” He hesitated. “Besides, what you be thinkin’ to do?”

  Rsiran pushed on the lorcith knife. He used every bit of energy he possessed, pressing on it as if physically doing it.

  At first, he didn’t think it would matter. The knife wouldn’t move.

  Rsiran pushed harder. Nothing happened.

  For Jessa’s sake, he reached deeper, drawing from the memory of where the knife was mined, the lump of lorcith it once had been, the song it had sung to him before he’d forged it. They came to him in a flash, the connection strong as any.

  Rsiran imagined the weight of Ilphaesn around him as he pushed.

  Then it moved.

  He felt the movement at the same time as Shael did. The smuggler grunted and reached for the knife, but was too late.

  It tore through Shael. Rsiran had no way of knowing where, only that it did.

  Shael coughed and started toward Rsiran again. He reached for the other blades Shael carried and pushed them with the same force, that of the memory of Ilphaesn. The knives sliced through him and sank into the wall with a loud crack.

  Shael collapsed next to him.

  Wetness pooled around Rsiran. He couldn’t move away from it and lay next to Shael as his blood seeped out.

  Chapter 29

  “Jessa?”

  She groaned. At least she still lived.

  “Jessa!”

  He said her name more urgently. They needed to move or the Forgotten would come next.

  Rsiran felt his arms regaining strength and pushed to sit. He blinked and his vision cleared. How much time did they have?

  Shael lay next to him. The knives had torn through his gut. Blood streaked across the floor, dripping a trail from where the knives had flown through the air after going through him. His chest rose slowly but still moved. Rsiran wondered if he should care whether
Shael lived or not.

  He dragged himself away from where Shael lay and toward Jessa. He found her resting at an odd angle, her back bent and twisted with her legs flopped over a box. For a moment, he thought Shael had broken her spine. Then she rolled, moving her legs with her as she did.

  “Jessa. Can you move?”

  She pulled her legs in and moved into a crouch. Her hair hung in front of her face. One hand clutched her side. “Probably still better than you.” She tried to laugh, but it turned into a cough. Jessa got to her knees and looked past Rsiran. Her eyes narrowed as she saw what he’d done. “What happened with Shael?”

  “I didn’t want to,” Rsiran said.

  “Better than the bastard deserves. He was supposed to be our friend. And then he does this to us?”

  It wasn’t the first time Shael had hurt them, but Jessa hadn’t been there when he’d put Rsiran in chains.

  She stood, still holding her side, and limped past Rsiran. Rsiran watched as she knelt over Shael and looked at his injury. Then she picked up a long vial with a needle attached. Thick yellow liquid oozed inside. She made as if to plunge it into his arm.

  “Wait—”

  She looked over. “I don’t want to risk him coming after us.”

  Rsiran pulled himself toward her, trying to stay away from the growing pool of blood around Shael. “Not sure he can. Might need that.”

  She frowned, looking at the needle, but nodded. “Can you Slide yet?”

  Rsiran focused on the far part of the room to test whether he could Slide. Usually, he had to step into the Slide to make it work, though he had Slid without moving while in Venass. If he could drag himself forward in the Slide, he might be able to do it.

  It felt as if he started to Slide, but failed again.

  He looked at Jessa and shook his head. “Not yet.”

  Rsiran managed to move his legs. Relief spread through him as sensation began to return. Pain mixed in, the sense of thousands of needles stabbing into his flesh all at once, but he welcomed that sensation. Anything was better than the absence of feeling.

  Jessa hurried over to him and leaned down.

  He moved one arm, resting on the other, and pulled her toward him. He still didn’t have much strength, but years of working at the forge had made him strong enough to pull Jessa down to him. Holding her against him, he inhaled her scent. They sat like that for a moment.

  “Thank you for coming for me,” he told her.

  She shook her head. “You still had to save me.”

  “You’re doing the work. I’m just tagging along. You might have to sneak us out of here until I can Slide again.”

  Jessa flicked her eyes toward the door. Her jaw jutted forward and she nodded slowly. “If I don’t have to carry you, we might be able to sneak out.” She pointed to her side. “Think I broke a rib when Shael threw me. Gonna hurt for a while.”

  Rsiran snorted. “We make a perfect pair then.”

  “We always did.” She smiled and took his hand. “If they catch us…”

  She didn’t need to finish. Rsiran knew as well as Jessa what would happen. There would be no hesitation to keep them fully sedated from now on. This would be their only chance.

  “Then you’ll have to be really good.”

  She punched him lightly in the shoulder. “I am really good.”

  He smiled and took a deep breath. “I need my knives.”

  “Can you just… you know… pull them?”

  He tried, focusing on the three that were sunk into the wall. He was too weak to move them. Rsiran shook his head.

  Jessa limped toward the wall and grunted before returning to Rsiran. “They’re too deep.”

  “How deep.”

  “Buried into the stone.”

  Rsiran swallowed. He’d not had much strength to push as Shael nearly injected him with the slithca syrup so he’d focused on Ilphaesn. How had that given him such strength? He doubted that he’d be able to use the same to pull the knives back to him. “Guess I’m not getting them back.”

  Jessa laughed.

  “I need something to use.”

  She nodded and started around the room. When she came back, she had the broken knife Firell had in his cell, as well as the one she’d thrown at Shael. “These are all I can find that’s lorcith.”

  “You keep the good one,” he said. Better for Jessa to have the whole knife. Rsiran took the broken one. It would work as well as anything. And if he could push with enough force, even the broken tang could do damage. “Help me stand?”

  “Are you sure you’re going to be able to?”

  He shook his head. “Not sure about anything anymore.”

  Jessa studied him a moment and then slipped an arm around him and pulled. She grunted again as she did, the strain likely pulling on her injured ribs, but she pulled him up.

  Rsiran nearly toppled over before gaining his balance. He wobbled for a moment and then tried taking a step. His legs felt weak, but they held. Jessa made certain to stay next to him, keeping her arm around him as they moved.

  “We aren’t going to move very fast… this way,” he said, still working his tongue in his mouth. “Maybe you need… to go on without me. Get help.”

  She looked over at him and frowned. “If I leave you, you’re as good as dead. And it’s unlikely we’d ever find you again.”

  “But you’d be safe.”

  She shook her head. “You can be so stupid sometimes, Rsiran. What makes you think I want to be safe if you’re not?”

  He leaned and kissed her on the cheek. “Time to show me… how skilled you are.”

  She kissed him back, this time on the lips. She still tasted of mint. “I think I’ve already shown you.”

  They made their way toward the door. With each step, Rsiran felt his strength returning. By the time they reached the door, he felt strong enough to stand on his own.

  “There’s a long hall running outside the door. One end leads to steps. Upper level is where we were before. Other way is toward Firell’s cell.”

  “I think we have to go up.”

  Jessa nodded. “Won’t be easy. If there’s anyone in the dining hall, then we’ll be stuck. And we don’t know anything about what’s on the other side of that door. We could get through only to find another dozen guards on the other side. We can’t sneak through there.”

  Rsiran frowned. The odds weren’t in their favor if they went that way, not with only the two of them, and not with him as weakened as he was. “What if we had help?”

  “Who’s going to help us down here?”

  “Firell.”

  She shot him a look. “That bastard is nearly as bad as Shael. He could have warned us about what the Forgotten planned.”

  “They’ve got his daughter.”

  “Josun has his daughter.”

  Rsiran nodded. “And I have Josun.”

  Jessa took a deep breath and then sighed. “I don’t like it, Rsiran.”

  “Do we have another choice? Besides, if he looks like he’s going to betray us again, then we just sink the needle with the syrup into his neck. Let him sleep for a while.”

  Jessa looked back to where Shael lay on the ground before glancing toward the door. “Are you strong enough to stop him if he tries anything?”

  Rsiran didn’t feel particularly strong yet, but each moment his strength improved. “I can subdue him if needed.” He held out the broken lorcith blade and pushed on it. It hovered briefly in the air before dropping back into his hand. He’d need to push much harder than he was accustomed to if Firell tried betraying them, but he could stop him if it was needed.

  Jessa shook her head. “I still don’t like it.”

  Then she pulled open the door and slipped into the hall, heading toward Firell’s cell. Rsiran followed after. Jessa moved silently with the practiced steps of a sneak. Rsiran tried to mimic her but didn’t have the same ability to move quietly. He hoped he wasn’t the reason they were discovered.

  Lan
terns staggered on the walls cast a soft glow. Rsiran had to duck as he moved along. The low-lying ceiling brushed the top of his head. Jessa stopped at the next door and looked back at him. When he nodded, she slipped the charm off her neck and used it to turn the lock on Firell’s cell door before placing it back around her neck.

  The door opened silently and they slipped inside. Rsiran closed the door behind them.

  A single lantern glowed inside. Next to it, Firell rested.

  Firell looked up. “You already got what you need from me—” He cut off and frowned. “Shael send you?”

  Jessa shook her head. “Shael’s dead.”

  A dark emotion flashed across his eyes. Disappointment? Anger? Then it was gone.

  “How?”

  “He poisoned me,” Rsiran said, stepping past Jessa. “Gave me something that suppresses my abilities.”

  Firell sniffed. “Explains why you’re here.”

  “Does it?” Jessa asked.

  Firell looked at her. Rsiran thought he was Sighted, but what if Firell had another ability as well?

  “I don’t know another way out of here,” he said. “They covered my head before they brought me down. And if the poison is the same as they give me, I don’t know how long it will last.”

  “You can move.”

  Firell frowned. “You couldn’t?”

  Rsiran shook his head.

  “Maybe they give me a weaker dose. Just enough my Sight don’t work. Leaves me blind here in the dark.” He shivered. “Nothing but the rats to keep me company. That and other things.”

  “We need your help,” Rsiran said. “We don’t know how many are out there.”

  Firell snorted. “Too many to slip past, that’s for damn sure.” He looked at Jessa. “I know Brusus thinks you’re a skilled sneak, but this is beyond what even you can safely do.” He shook his head. “Best hide until Rsiran can Slide again. Then you can get out.”

  “We don’t know how long that will be. And we aren’t waiting until we’re caught again.”

  Firell shrugged again. “Why you think I’d help you?”

  “Because I can get you to Josun.”

  Firell tensed and looked up at him. “Why would I want to see him again?”