The Dark Ability: Books 1-4

by D. K. Holmberg

  Or it had, until their father lost the smithy. Then she had suffered a fate similar to Rsiran. She had been forced to find work, something that Alyse was particularly ill prepared for.

  “When you learned that she was in Lower Town,” Jessa started, “Brusus asked me to keep an eye on her.”

  “Like you did with my father?”

  “It’s not like that, Rsiran,” Brusus said.

  He turned to Brusus. “No? It seems to me that when my father lost the smithy, you knew long before I did. How long ago did you learn about Alyse?”

  “Only today. Jessa has been watching for her, helping if she can—”

  “You’ve been helping my sister?” he asked her.

  “Not so that she would notice,” Jessa answered. “But I’ve been doing what I can.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s your sister,” Jessa answered. She reached toward him, and he let her take his hands. “I know how you feel about her. You never wanted to see her hurt, even though they hurt you. And I know that you still care what happens to her.”

  Rsiran didn’t know what to say. He hadn’t seen his sister in months, and had even made a threat to his father that he would allow Alyse to be harmed, but Rsiran would never have really done anything to her. Regardless of what Alyse had done to him, she was his sister. It was the same reason he struggled with his father’s disappearance. “And my mother?” he asked. He’d thought so little about her since he’d been sentenced to the mines. She had never stood up to his father and had never been willing to argue when his father drank too much, or said too much, or any of the dozens of other things that his father had done over the years. Like Alyse, she had never intervened on his behalf, almost as if she didn’t care what happened to him.

  “She remains in Lower Town,” Jessa said. “She’s safe, if dirtier than you remember.”

  “What happened?” he asked. “Where is Alyse?”

  Jessa looked over to Brusus and let him answer. “When Jessa sent word that she’d gone missing, I began my search,” Brusus said. “Lower Town can be dangerous, especially to someone who’s not prepared for it. Like you, she lived her entire life above us, sitting closer to Upper Town than the docks.”

  “I’ve been safe enough,” Rsiran said.

  Brusus smiled sadly. “You’ve had help. You have people who care about you, and who want you to do well. Do you think that your sister has the same? You came to Lower Town because you wanted to. Your sister came here because she had to. There is a difference, and it is not insignificant.”

  “How do you know that she’s gone?” he asked.

  He presumed that she was still working for whomever she’d been working for when he’d run into her, hidden in some part of Lower Town where they would never find her. What if Jessa had simply overlooked her?

  That didn’t change the fact that, something had happened to her, Rsiran wanted to know. She was his sister, even if she never managed to get past the fact that he could Slide. There was a connection there. One that she might not understand, but one that if Rsiran were honest with himself, he still felt.

  “Because the man she was working for hasn’t seen her in the last week,” Brusus said. “And the others working for him don’t know where she might have gone.”

  “You don’t know what that means,” Rsiran said. “We should go talk to the man she’s been working for together… find out what he knows—”

  “There’s no need to do that,” Brusus said.

  “But if he knows something about Alyse—”

  “He doesn’t. I’ve asked.”

  Rsiran pushed back from the table. “How do you know he’s telling the truth? What if he’s trying to keep something from you?”

  “I can be persuasive,” Brusus said simply.

  Rsiran stared at Brusus, realizing that Brusus could have Compelled or simply Read the person Alyse worked for. Brusus would know, even if someone didn’t want to talk. There weren’t many with his ability to augment their minds with heartstone, or even lorcith, to keep from allowing a Reader access. Some man along Lower Town would certainly not be able to protect himself if Brusus wanted answers.

  “What do you know?” Rsiran asked.

  Brusus leaned forward and rested his hands on the table. “She hasn’t been there in days. She’s considered reliable, a good worker, and has never not shown up for her work. The fact that she didn’t tells him that something either happened—not all that uncommon in Lower Town—or that she simply decided not to come to work for reasons known only to her.”

  “She needed the work,” Rsiran said.

  Brusus nodded. “That’s the way it appeared.”

  Rsiran looked to Jessa. “What do you think happened? Was it Josun?”

  But even as he asked, he wondered if maybe it might not be. What reason would Josun have to reappear in the city after Firell freed him? Rsiran doubted that Josun would risk coming after him so quickly, but what did he really know? And if it was Sarah and Valn…

  Jessa might not want to answer, but she would. For him, he knew that she would.

  Jessa sighed. “I don’t know. I thought maybe she’d moved on, gone to another job,” she started, looking over at Brusus. “From what I can tell, it wouldn’t have been the first time she’s changed jobs since moving to Lower Town, but the last time was for a much better position. The man she had worked for before this one… well, he wasn’t very nice.”

  Rsiran didn’t like the idea of someone hurting his sister. Even after what he’d been through, he didn’t want her to suffer. It was bad enough that his father had lost the smithy, but for Alyse to suffer because of it—and possibly for something that he had done—that bothered him.

  “But I can’t find any evidence that she’s moved on to another job. All the other businesses with openings in this part of the city haven’t seen her.”

  “What if she took a job in Upper Town?” Rsiran asked.

  He could imagine his sister trying to move up from Lower Town. It was a better fit for her, anyway, with better opportunities than she’d find in Lower Town, but then he didn’t know what kind of work she had done. When he’d seen her before, she had been returning from the market, carrying a basket of fish toward some house near the docks. She had still had the same strength that he’d always seen in her, but some of the arrogance had been shaken. Losing their father had affected her and had forced her into a role she never had thought that she would have to play.

  “I don’t think that’s likely,” Haern said. His eyes had gone distant like they did when he used his ability. The green to them took on a faint film, and the scar along his cheek twitched. “I don’t See much of her, but were she in Upper Town, I suspect the visions would be clearer. That they are not…”

  Rsiran swallowed a lump in his throat. “Then what?”

  “I think,” Brusus began with a sigh, “that whoever is trying to reach you thinks to use her to get to you.”

  He couldn’t shake the memory of Sarah and Valn, and the way they had appeared in the forest. They would have been able to find Alyse if they wanted to.

  He would have to find them to get answers. Or find Alyse. Either way, he already knew he had to do something.

  Jessa watched him, the corners of her eyes pulled in a frown, but she said nothing.

  Chapter 8

  Rsiran stood on a darkened street of Lower Town, listening to the sounds of waves crashing along the shore. Down here, he could practically feel the power of the ocean as it slammed against the rocks, much like he had when he’d been on Firell’s ship. At least here, he didn’t fear falling from the ship into the water. Always before, he’d been afraid that if he ended up someplace where he couldn’t move, he wouldn’t be able to Slide himself to safety, but now he knew how to Slide without stepping into it. It still didn’t make him feel safer.

  Gulls circled overhead, casting moon shadows across the ground. Rsiran ignored them, and ignored their harsh cawing as they hovered, occasiona
lly diving, before flying off with whatever they caught. In some ways, he felt more like the fish, waiting for the gull to dive and snatch him away from everything he knew, much like what had happened to Alyse.

  Jessa stood along the rock, dipping her boot into the water and tracing a pattern in the foam. She had been silent since they left the Barth, knowing that he needed a chance to process what he’d learned.

  And what did he know? If Alyse was gone, and abducted because of him, what could he do about it? Haern had suggested that he needed to pick a side, but how could he when he had no idea which side wanted him and which side wanted only to use him?

  Worse, as easy as it was to believe that Alyse had been abducted because of him, there was the possibility that she hadn’t. What if it wasn’t tied to him at all, but to his father?

  Rsiran thought that Venass had wanted his father because they wanted some leverage over him, but maybe there was more to it than that. What if his father was more valuable than he had realized?

  That would give Venass a reason to abduct Alyse. His father would do anything for her.

  Still, he didn’t know, and that left a worried knot that grew with every passing moment.

  “You’re silent,” Jessa said.

  “So are you.”

  “I know what you’re thinking, and I don’t think I like it,” she said. Jessa lifted her foot from the water, and a long strand of seaweed clung to it. She shook it off and left it lying across the rock. A gull nearby hopped to the rock and grabbed it, taking to the air and flying off.

  “What exactly am I thinking?”

  “You want to do something.” She jumped from the rock and touched his arm. “I’ve seen you like this before, Rsiran. It was the same way that you looked when Brusus was hurt. The same as when you decided we needed to find the Forgotten. Damn, Rsiran, it’s the same as when you decided to Slide into the palace.” She looked over his shoulder, and he didn’t have to follow the direction of her gaze to know that she looked at the Floating Palace. From here, it would stand out starkly from the rock, and appear as if it hovered, as if the Great Watcher held the palace in his hand, holding the Elvraeth above them.

  “I…” He hesitated. Jessa was right. He not only wanted to do something, but he needed to do something. “If they’re willing to take Alyse—”

  “You worry what will happen if they come for one of us.”

  “They already have,” he said. “Both the Forgotten and Venass.”

  “Josun wasn’t with the Forgotten. From what Inna told you, they didn’t sanction what he did.”

  “You’re making excuses for them. They were plenty willing to attack me—”

  “Evaelyn didn’t seem too pleased about that, either.”

  Rsiran sighed. “What would happen if I hadn’t been able to find you when Josun took you?”

  Jessa squeezed his arm and smiled. “I always knew that you would,” she said.

  He remembered his terror all too well. Finding her hadn’t been guaranteed. “And the next time?” he asked. “Now that Inna knows how I feel about you, what happens the next time? Or the time after that? We always have to be on watch.”

  “There’s no way to avoid that. And it’s no different from what we’ve done in Lower Town for as long as I’ve been here. You find a way, Rsiran. That’s how it is. There are those with power, and then there’s us.” She shrugged. “With Brusus, we’ve always managed to stay safe, or safe enough.” She kicked at the foam, sending it splashing. “And now we’ve got you. You’re added safety.”

  There had to be a way to find real safety. There had to be a way for him to find a home where he didn’t always feel like he was in danger of losing it. The smithy was safe enough now, but it wouldn’t always be that way.

  With what he’d seen in the forest, he knew it couldn’t. Having his Slides influenced was bad enough, but he thought that heartstone could keep them protected. Having someone able to follow his Sliding, even with heartstone, meant that they would never have real peace. There would always be the concern that he’d have to watch behind him, fearful that someone would be tracking him. With the Forgotten, and the gifts that the Elvraeth possessed, he would never be able to learn enough to counter them, regardless of what Haern thought to teach him.

  “They need to fear us,” he said softly.

  Jessa glanced over at him, and laughed. “Fear us? What are we but a few to their many? They have nothing to fear from us. No, Rsiran, I think we make all the preparations that we can, and settle in.”

  “Settle in for what? For this war that is coming? What does that get us, but chased? Constantly harassed by others where we don’t even know what they intend. How many more of us will need to be in danger before we stop settling?” he asked.

  Jessa cupped a hand around her charm and made her way across the rocks, jumping from rock to rock until she reached a small point that stretched away from the shore. Rsiran Slid to join her.

  “What happens if we go after them?” she asked. “What then? I worried about you when we went for the Forgotten, but what you intend to do here is different. We can’t stop them, Rsiran. We’re not enough. Not strong enough, not many enough, not… just not enough. I didn’t agree with how we hunkered down in the smithy before, but I do now. I understand the value in having a place like that to keep safe, where we don’t have to worry about what might be coming after us.”

  “But it’s not safe,” he said. “If there’s someone able to—”

  He cut off, detecting the sudden appearance of lorcith. The sense of it came from down the street, nearer the rest of Lower Town and away from the docks. The suddenness of it made it almost certain that someone had Slid to them.

  “What is it?” Jessa asked.

  He focused on lorcith, shifting his attention to the knives that he carried. If needed, he could push them from him, but he didn’t want to have to attack if he didn’t need to, not until he knew if there was anything to be worried about. Maybe this was nothing but lorcith that had been there all along, and he’d not detected it before, but Rsiran didn’t think that likely. Had there been lorcith before, he would have noticed.

  Strangely enough, this was not one of his forgings.

  Still, he could pull on the sense of lorcith, could draw on it if needed. Lorcith that he forged always answered him better, but all lorcith was attuned to him in some ways.

  “Lorcith,” he whispered. He dropped to the rock, pulling Jessa with him. He didn’t want to Slide, not until he knew whether this was the person able to track his Sliding.

  Jessa rolled on the rock to get a better view, and tilted her head toward him. “Where would lorcith have come from?”

  Rsiran shrugged. “Same place it did when I was in the Aisl.”

  Jessa pieced what he said together quickly. “If it’s them, can you Slide us to safety without them following?”

  “I don’t know.” There seemed to be something that he’d done that she hadn’t been able to track, but Rsiran wasn’t sure what that was. When he’d Slid from the Aisl, he’d made a few different jumps, each time emerging only long enough to get his bearings and then take off again. It would be different were he to try the same with Jessa with him. Not slower, but he suspected that whatever ripples he formed would be louder, and easier for the other woman to follow.

  “Then we sneak,” Jessa whispered.

  She slid off the rock, moving silently. Rsiran followed her, keeping low, suspecting that if whoever was after them was Sighted, they’d easily be able to see them, but Jessa slipped across the street and stopped in a pool of shadows left by a small tree. She held a hand up to silence him, not that Rsiran needed the warning here.

  Rsiran knew that Jessa was incredibly skilled as a sneak, but he’d never had need for her to prove it before. Always before, he had been able to Slide them to safety. And he could Slide them now, but he didn’t want to risk it.

  He needed to know if it was the same two people that he’d seen in the Aisl earlier. If
it was, the next step was learning why they had come for him, and then if they were responsible for what happened to Alyse. Maybe if he could get close enough, he could find out whose side they were on. Or, as he’d feared earlier, if he had a new enemy altogether. That would be valuable to know. And if they had taken Alyse, could he capture them and force them to tell him where they’d taken her?

  Jessa pulled on his sleeve, urging him onward. She raised a finger to her lips, keeping him quiet. “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

  “I’m…” He stared down the street, trying and failing to get a clear view of who might be down there. The sense of lorcith remained, but didn’t move any closer. At first, that reassured him, but what if they knew of his ability with lorcith? Josun did, which meant that the Forgotten could by now. They could use it to distract him, and lull him into a sense of safety, before coming after him. “I need to know who it is,” he said, careful to pitch his voice low like Jessa did. “After what happened with Alyse, and what I saw in the forest…”

  Jessa stared at him for a moment and then nodded. “Let me sneak down there,” she whispered. “You’re too noisy.”

  She crouched as she darted down the street, somehow finding a way to remain hidden in the shadows along the rocks. At this time of night, there were many places for her to fade into the shadows, and Jessa managed to find them all. Rsiran remembered how she had once described her Sight, and the way that it gave her the ability to see gradations of shadows in the dark. Did she search for the darkest shadow or was there some other trick that she used?

  Jessa moved silently as well. Whereas Rsiran was too noisy, each step practically scraping across the stone, Jessa padded softly, the soles of her boots designed for her to sneak with as much silence as she did.

  Nerves caused his heart to flutter as he watched Jessa fade to little more than a dark figure outlined in the night. As she walked, he focused on the lorcith she carried with her. The charm pulled on him easily now. Rsiran made a point of keeping his connection to it and allowed the lorcith to guide him. Were he to ignore the lorcith, and focus on the heartstone in her chain, he had another way to keep track of her.