The Dark Ability: Books 1-4

by D. K. Holmberg

  Nearly one hundred, and each larger than any that had been found during his time in the mines. Enough to free all of the miners who had been sentenced to Ilphaesn.

  More than ever before, he wanted to know what was happening here.

  When he’d been in the mine before, he had known that there was lorcith all around. Most men went days without finding anything, and when they did, they came up with only small nuggets, never anything of much value. Rsiran had drawn several larger lumps out of the mountain while here, but had done so without knowing how much danger that placed him in.

  He remembered overhearing men speaking about the limited supply of lorcith, but never really knowing why. But he thought he did now. Someone had Compelled the miners not to find lorcith.

  And now the entire mountain had changed. He felt the energy within the mine differently. There was no sense from the lorcith whether the change was good or bad, only that it was different. But Rsiran worried. Why would so much lorcith be needed?

  He’d seen lorcith used in dangerous ways before. Not only the way that he could control it, and push his knives, but also the way the scholars used lorcith, nearly sealing him inside of Venass, or to modify themselves, piercing flesh with bars of the metal. The scholar he’d met had used it to gain control over lorcith.

  Even the things that he had made possessed power. There were the bracelets that he’d made for Jessa that prevented Reading and Compelling. The knives had a certain power to them, something like a life that he had given them, powered by his ability to push on them.

  What else could he make?

  Della had called him dangerous. With this much lorcith, not only might he be dangerous, but whoever intended to use it would be as well, especially if they had the ability to listen to the call of the metal.

  Rsiran shivered.

  He stopped next to the massive lump of lorcith. In some ways, it was already shaped something like a man, and twice as wide. Its song was not as strong as some—surprising, given its size—but there was a depth to it that he heard. As he rested his hand on the metal, he could imagine shapes it would take, possibilities of ways to manipulate it, if only he could find some way to heat it. This lump would let itself become many things…

  Rsiran pulled his hand away.

  Lorcith rarely had multiple shapes that it would take. The metal was often willing to let him shape it, to turn it into something different, but never had he known the lorcith to have many shapes it was willing to take.

  He knew suddenly that he could not leave this here.

  Taking it would reveal that he’d been here to whoever had pulled this lorcith free, but Rsiran didn’t want to leave it here, especially with its willingness to take on multiple shapes, as the metal here was. He needed to take it with him.

  But how?

  It was too large to carry. Even smaller lumps of lorcith were heavy, and this was simply massive.

  Could he Slide it?

  Something like that would ripple, he suspected, enough that anyone able to detect Sliding would know that he traveled, but they wouldn’t necessarily know anything more than when he Slid with Jessa and Brusus. Here was his chance to test the type of Slide, and confirm that no one could influence or detect it when he pulled, rather than stepped.

  He hoped that proved to be true.

  Where would he take it?

  The first thought was to his smithy, but for some reason, that didn’t feel right.

  There was another place, but he didn’t think he’d be able to keep it any more protected there than it was here. Yet, the more he thought about it, the more right it felt.

  Rsiran wrapped his arms around the lorcith. He couldn’t lift it, but had not really expected to be able to. If he could Slide without moving, he wouldn’t need to.

  Closing his eyes, he formed the image in his mind of where he intended to emerge. He’d been there enough that he wouldn’t need an anchor—a good thing, especially since he did not have one—and held tightly to the lorcith.

  Then he drew himself forward, albeit more slowly given the mass and weight of his traveling companion. Holding onto lorcith of this size, the movement was more like trying to Slide through the alloy, but not exactly the same. Going through the alloy was more of an oozing, a steady forceful push until he popped free. In some ways, he worried that there was a danger trying to Slide through the alloy. Not so much for him, but for those who traveled with him. He’d been torn from Jessa once, though that had been in the palace, and he suspected that there was more to what happened than what he knew.

  This was a steady drawing sensation. He felt the effort of the Slide, but not the weight of the lorcith that he brought with him. Whatever he held onto came with him, as if a part of him.

  Would he be able to bring something even larger if he wanted? It was hard to believe that he could bring anything larger than this lorcith, but if he could…

  He emerged.

  The air was damp and earthy, the scent of the Aisl Forest filling his nostrils, a sharp change from the mines of Ilphaesn. He stood deep in the forest, near a clearing where Lianna had been buried. This was a place that he had known well in his childhood, and returned to often when Sliding. It was a place like this that he had first hidden lorcith when escaping from the mine. It was far enough away from the hut on the edge of the forest that he didn’t think it would be discovered.

  Trees stretched high overhead, the enormous sjihn trees that were only found this deep in the Aisl Forest. The Aisl had once been home to his people, but they had long ago moved to the shores, with Ilphaesn towering in the background. There had always been a part of Rsiran that wondered what it would have been like to live in the Aisl. The trees gave him a sense of peace, and a sense of safety that he didn’t have, even in his smithy. It was why he had chosen to come here with his Slide.

  The massive lump of lorcith rested on the ground, as if it had always been there.

  Rsiran pushed on it but it didn’t move, and he found the metal surprisingly warm. How many men must it have taken to simply drag it up the mineshaft? If he couldn’t even move it, he imagined there must have been a half dozen, possibly even more.

  Here it would be safe. And then what?

  Rsiran didn’t know what he intended for the lorcith, only that he couldn’t have left it in the mines. It was too large to work in his forge. He remembered the massive lorcith doors in Venass. They must have been crafted in forges much larger than any that were found in Elaeavn.

  He stared at the lorcith, content that it would be safe for now, and realized that it was time that he return to Della. Jessa would be angry that he’d been gone as long as he had.

  With one lingering glance at the lorcith, he worried who mined in Ilphaesn, and why lorcith was suddenly allowed to be removed when it had been restricted for as long as he’d been alive.

  Chapter 26

  Rsiran returned to Della’s home, drawing himself in the Slide. This time, now that he was not carrying the weight of the lorcith with him, it took him quickly, with a familiar sense of movement. He tried to take a moment to watch the Slide, but he emerged before he had the chance.

  Not for the first time, Rsiran wondered what existed in that space between places. Always it had felt as if there was something else there. Before, he had seen nothing but colors, but with the gradual improvement in his Sight, he came to see shades and shapes that hadn’t been there before. The only time that he’d come close to knowing had been when he had resisted the influence on his Sliding.

  When he emerged, Jessa assaulted him. “Where have you been?”

  He grabbed her fists before she had the chance to hit him again, lowering them and pulling her into a soft hug. She stiffened before relaxing. Della sat by her hearth, rocking comfortably in her chair, a mug of steaming mint tea in her hand.

  How long had he been gone?

  “Were you able to influence my Sliding?” he asked Della.

  She glanced over, an amused smile quirking the corner
of her mouth, and her gaze flicked to Jessa. “I think you might want to answer her question first, don’t you?”

  “Ilphaesn,” he said. “I thought I should go someplace far enough away that if she could influence my Sliding, I would know.”

  “Why were you gone so long?” Jessa asked.

  He shook his head. “I’ll have to show you.”

  “Show?”

  Della stood, her smile fading into a frown. “What did you find?”

  “Could you influence my Slide?”

  She tipped her head to the side, studying him for a moment. Then she shook her head. “I could feel the ripple when you traveled from my home, and subtle shifts when you were away, but then nothing more.”

  Had he stepped into the Slide when he left? He couldn’t remember. But while in Ilphaesn, he thought that he could Slide without her noticing, but she had.

  But then she had detected nothing. With as much as he carried, how could that be?

  “You didn’t detect anything?” he asked. He sat down and took the mug of tea Della pulled off a tray and offered to him. It smelled different from the usual mint that she gave him, more potent in some ways. “Not even when I returned here?”

  She took a sip. “There were no ripples. It was as if you didn’t travel. This is heartstone?”

  He glanced at Jessa, feeling a growing excitement. If he could pull himself rather than stepping into a Slide, would he be able to mask his presence? Then he wouldn’t need to carry the heartstone sword with him, fearing that the Forgotten or that Venass might pull him toward them.

  “Not heartstone. You sensed me Sliding while carrying heartstone. Could you influence that?”

  Della pursed her lips. “No.”

  Rsiran smiled. Could he have found a way to move safely? To Slide without worrying about the others affecting him?

  That would be a way to safety. Then he wouldn’t have to fear Sliding, to fear how he traveled, or worry about what might happen, and where he would emerge.

  Jessa stood behind the counter and tapped her hand on it. Rsiran recognized her agitation. He should have returned sooner, but he got caught up in what he discovered in the mines.

  “I’m sorry that I didn’t come back sooner. When I went to Ilphaesn, I sensed something different with the lorcith. I wanted to look, to see if I could understand.”

  She smacked him on the chest. “You can’t see anything in the mines, Rsiran! You might be able to detect the metal there, but when it comes to actually seeing what’s going on, you’re—”

  “Not anymore,” he said.

  “You said your Sight had improved, but the mines are black. Even to me there is nothing but shades of color. You want me to believe that your Sight has gotten so good that you can now see in the dark?”

  Della watched him, her hands clasped together over her lap. Rsiran hadn’t shared with her the changes to his Sight, but she had told him that when she had once held the crystal, her ability had changed. What had she said? That she was able to see those that she was meant to help Heal?

  “It’s like the sword,” he started.

  “There was nothing about the sword,” Jessa said. “Neither Brusus nor I saw anything!”

  “But I did.”

  Della stood. “What about the sword?”

  “When we were in Thyr, we ended up in a small room. It was dark. Too dark to see clearly. But the sword,” he said, pulling his cloak away from the blade, “glowed, giving me enough light to see.” He pulled it from the leather loop on his belt and held it out. He could almost make out the faint shimmering along the blade, but it was faded, muted almost. He wondered if the room was too bright. “And then in Ilphaesn—”

  “This is your Sight?” Della asked.

  “I thought it was,” he started, but Jessa shook her head. “But if it’s not Sight, then it’s something about the metal for me that is different. Not only heartstone, but the lorcith in the walls of the mine was different.”

  “What do you mean that it was different?” Jessa asked.

  Della leaned forward.

  Rsiran slipped the sword back into the loop on his belt, thinking of how to explain. “When I held the crystal, I had what I thought was nothing more than a vision. It was like I was standing atop Krali, but even higher, as if looking down on the entire land below me. While I was there, I saw dots of light. Some where brighter than others.” He closed his eyes, and he could see those lights, almost like a map.

  “Where did you see them?” Della asked. She had stood and looked at him from across the counter. Her eyes were drawn, and the wrinkled lines on her face were deeper than usual.

  “The white light that I saw was lorcith,” he went on. “At least, I think it was. There was one brighter than the others that I think is Ilphaesn.” The others he had thought were forgings, but from such a height as he’d been looking from—if he had in fact really been that high above the ground—he wouldn’t have been able to see individual forgings, would he? That meant they were other collections of lorcith, unshaped, and possibly not yet mined.

  Why hadn’t he thought of that before?

  “You can still see them, can’t you?” Della asked.

  He nodded. “The vision is there.” It was the same as the map of the mineshafts within Ilphaesn. Were he to close his eyes, he could recreate them if needed, much like he could with the map formed out of heartstone.

  Jessa pushed on him and he looked over to her. “That doesn’t explain what happened in the mine. What are you talking about that you can suddenly see in the mine?”

  “That’s just it,” Rsiran answered. “I don’t know. When I was there, it was as if the lorcith all around me glowed. The light was bright enough that I could see. Even without the sense of the metal pressing on me, I think I would have been able to see.”

  Jessa glanced from Rsiran over to Della. “What happened to him? What did that crystal do to him?”

  Was she more worried than she let on? Jessa wouldn’t tell him if she was concerned, mostly because she thought to protect him, much like he thought to protect her.

  Della sighed and shook her head. “The Great Crystals are a way to power,” she said. “You knew that when you went there.”

  “I didn’t want to hold it,” he said.

  “No? But you were meant to, otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to reach it. That is how the Great Crystals work.” She made her way around the counter and pulled a jar off the shelf. She pulled out five smooth stones and set them on the counter, arranging them in a circle. “Had you not seen the crystals, I would never share this with you. Even among the Elvraeth, the crystals are closely guarded. Only those with the potential to lead are given the chance to view them, and even then, it is not guaranteed that they will be given the opportunity to hold them.”

  Rsiran frowned. “I thought any of the Elvraeth could reach the crystals.”

  “Only if they are Seen to have potential. In that way, the Elvraeth serve as another layer of defense for the crystals. As you have learned, they have much power, and in that way, they could be abused.”

  “But if not everyone can reach them—” Jessa started.

  “Yes, not everyone can reach them, and of those who do, not everyone can hold them. But there are some who fear that others could hold the crystals as well, and be given much the same power. From what I’ve seen, that is true.”

  Rsiran stared at the stones arranged on the counter. He could imagine them much like the crystals, the soft blue light emanating from them, with one of the crystals glowing slightly brighter than the others. That light had called to him, had drawn him to reach for it.

  What would have happened had he not?

  “You mean Rsiran, don’t you?” Jessa asked.

  Della sighed. “Rsiran making his way to the crystals only proved that concern for their safety is valid. I did not think that the Forgotten Elvraeth, or even the so-called scholars of Venass would have a way to reach the crystals, but Rsiran managed to make i
t past ancient barriers long felt secure. The fact that he did makes them vulnerable.”

  “But they’re not vulnerable,” Rsiran said. “Only because of my connection to heartstone was I able to reach them.”

  “Yes, and how long until others realize that is the key? The Forgotten now know of your ability. Worse, Evaelyn now knows. They will use that knowledge.”

  “Do you think there are others with the ability to Slide past the alloy?” Jessa asked.

  Della’s face remained neutral. “Others of the Forgotten?” she asked, and shook her head. “That is unlikely. While they may have never lost traveling, not as we have chosen to in Elaeavn, they would need a different set of skills to bypass the alloy. Their contempt for Rsiran tells me that it will be some time before they understand that they’re looking in the wrong place.”

  “Then what?” Jessa asked.

  The Forgotten weren’t the only ones interested in learning about the crystal. Thom’s attack had proven that. And Thom had thought that they had managed to find the crystal, or suspected that Rsiran would have been able to bring one away from the palace.

  The interest Venass showed in the crystals wasn’t what worried him, nor did he worry about their ability with lorcith. Even if they could Slide, there was no guarantee that they would be able to make it beyond the alloy-crafted barrier.

  There was something about Venass that worried him, especially as it related to his ability.

  “My father,” he said. Jessa turned to him, and Della nodded. “That’s what you mean, isn’t it?”

  “The Forgotten may not understand how the ancient bloodline of the smiths is important, but I will tell you that Venass are well aware. In that, they truly are scholars. Now that they have seen what Rsiran is capable of doing, they will think to find access to the crystals on their own.”

  “You think that’s why they wanted my father?” he asked.

  Della nodded. “Perhaps even your sister.”

  “But he doesn’t know how to access heartstone. And Alyse…” Alyse had never set foot in the smithy. She would have no more ability to use lorcith and heartstone than Jessa.