The Dark Ability: Books 1-4

by D. K. Holmberg

  Rsiran stopped at the forge and went to his knees and traced a finger around the stone. The difference was subtle, barely anything at all, but he’d grown up in the smithy and recognized when it felt different.

  What he didn’t understand was what reason the stone would be different.

  “What do you see here?” he asked Jessa.

  She came next to him and peered at the floor. Her fingers traced the edge of the stone slowly, and she let out a soft breath. “You saw this from back there?”

  He nodded.

  “Maybe not a babe anymore after all.”

  He chuckled softly. “I think it has more to do with the fact that I grew up here. My father was pretty particular about everything, so I learned to notice if there was anything out of place. This is different.”

  Rsiran couldn’t explain it better than that, and wasn’t sure that it mattered.

  “You think this is an access to a level below?” Jessa asked.

  “That’s the problem. I don’t know if there’s anything to it.”

  “Well, there’s a tracing here, and something else…”

  She started crawling behind the forge. Rsiran had swept behind it, but had never placed his entire body behind it. He could imagine the reaction his father would have if he had. When he forgot to put out the coals, he got into enough trouble, nearly as much as when he thought to forge items on his own using lorcith. How would he have reacted to him searching for some hidden passage behind the forge?

  Jessa started to back out. “It’s nothing. A few strange marks is all. Nothing that would give us any way to get below.”

  Rsiran sighed and turned back to the office.

  When he’d grown up, it was the one place that he’d been forbidden to visit. Within the office, his father kept orders and forgings that were special to him, but nothing else. It was where he would spend most of his time…

  And if there were a secret access within the smithy, wouldn’t it be within his office?

  He hurried back there and looked around. When his father had cleared out the smithy, he had noted that something had changed, but Rsiran hadn’t spent enough time in here, not as he had in the rest of the smithy, to know what it might have been.

  “What is it?” Jessa asked.

  “Can you tell if anything is moved?”

  There was a bookshelf against one wall. When he’d caught glimpses inside the office, the shelves had contained the journeymen forgings, items that had been made to demonstrate skill before they moved onto another smithy. All were gone now.

  The long table that was pushed up against the wall had once been stacked with papers, and was now empty. Once a chair had been in here, but that had been taken away as well, like so much else.

  “Look at the floor there,” Jessa said, motioning toward the bookshelf.

  Rsiran let one of the knives float toward the floor, giving him enough light to see what Jessa saw without difficulty. On the ground where she indicated, faint lines scratched along the stone matching each end of the bookshelf.

  He pulled the knife back to him and grabbed the sides of the bookshelf, expecting it to move slowly, but it eased away from the wall, scratching softly at the ground.

  “Uh, Rsiran?” Jessa said.

  She had moved out of the way and stood beside the table, but her eyes were directed toward the wall, behind the bookshelf.

  He stepped around followed the direction of her gaze.

  Set into the wall was a small curved metal panel coming up to his waist. Streaks of green ran through it.

  “It looks like the metal I found in the forest,” Rsiran said, crouching as he ran his hands along the panel. The darker metal was iron, and the green he suspected was grindl, just like what he’d found in the hut. He leaned back on his heels, studying the wall. On the other side of the wall was the fenced-in area outside the smithy.

  How thick was the wall?

  He could imagine this as nothing more than a repair made to the smithy, but the pattern of the iron and grindl made that less likely.

  With certainty, he knew that whatever was behind this panel was connected to the map that he’d found, the one Haern thought was tied to the alchemists.

  Jessa reached around him and traced her fingers around the edge of the panel. A curious expression pinched her mouth, and she pushed on a part of the panel that he couldn’t see. Part of the metal popped out, leaving something like a handle.

  “How did you know?” he asked.

  “This isn’t the first time I’ve found strange doors,” she answered.

  He waited for her to say something more, but she didn’t. Instead, she grabbed the handle and pulled. It swung away with a puff of air that reminded him of the wind that blew through the mines. Darkness met them on the other side.

  Rsiran sent a knife forward, using it something like a lantern, illuminating a cramped opening with darkness stretching down and away. Stairs were set into the stone that led beneath the smithy.

  “Do you see that?” he asked.

  “Yeah, but I still don’t know how you see it.” Jessa leaned back and took a deep breath. “What now?”

  Rsiran wondered if he really wanted to risk Jessa going with him beneath the smithy, but there might be something she could see that he did not. Had it not been for her, he might not have found a way to open the panel. He might be able to Slide, but she had the experience sneaking into places like this, hidden places where trespassers weren’t meant to go.

  “Now I guess we have to see where it leads.”

  Jessa smiled and started into the space in the wall. He grabbed her arm and pulled, but she pulled back. “You think you should lead? I can see better than you. Besides, I’m quieter than you.”

  Rsiran let her go, and she moved down the stairs. He floated the knife alongside, watching as she descended, and then stopped.

  “It levels out here,” she said in a whisper.

  “I’ll be right there.”

  From inside the office, he closed the panel, sealing the wall shut again, and then pushed the shelf back into place. Then he focused on where he’d last seen Jessa, and started his Slide to her.

  Just as he started his Slide, the front door to the smithy rattled, the sound like a key going into a lock.

  Rsiran nearly lost his focus, but safely pulled himself down beneath the smithy.

  The air was cool and slightly damp, and it took his eyes a moment to adjust to the glow from the knife. As they did, he found Jessa waiting for him down a narrow hall. Rock walls lined both sides of the hall, with a low-hanging ceiling overhead. He had been lucky he hadn’t emerged with his head stuck in rock.

  “What happened?” Jessa asked.

  “We should hurry,” he said. “There was someone coming into the smithy when I Slid.”

  “Thought it was empty.”

  “And I thought there was no passage beneath it. Doesn’t change that we should hurry.”

  Jessa waved her hand. “Which way? This tunnel goes in both directions.”

  Rsiran listened for the sound of the lorcith that he recognized as coming from Valn. It was distant, but definitely coming from a specific direction. He pointed.

  “That leads to Upper Town,” Jessa said.

  Rsiran hadn’t made the connection, but now that she said something, he suspected that she was right. If he went the other way, the tunnel would lead down the slope, toward Lower Town. He couldn’t say with certainty, but the sense of the knife came from the direction toward Upper Town.

  Above them, he heard a faint scraping.

  Jessa froze.

  Rsiran pulled himself to her, and they hurried up the tunnel toward Upper Town.

  As they made their way, he expected the ground to follow the slope found outside, trailing up the hillside as it made its way into Upper Town, but that wasn’t case. The ground was flat and ran fairly straight.

  Jessa led the way, moving quickly. Her feet were silent, much more so than his, and she occasionally glanc
ed back his way and shook her head.

  After they’d gone barely a dozen steps, a side tunnel opened up. Rsiran listened, and the sense of lorcith seemed to come from that direction. He pointed, and Jessa nodded.

  They ducked into this tunnel. The walls were narrower here than in the other tunnel, and there was less a sense of wind moving, nothing like the Ilphaesn mines. Had he not had as much experience in the mines, this might have been a more terrifying experience, but no longer was he trapped in the dark. Now he had the strange light from the knives.

  He took to floating one of his knives next to him, holding it hovering in the air as if some sort of lantern. When he first did it, he caught Jessa’s puzzled look, but then she nodded.

  “Wish I could see what you do when that thing is floating here with me.” She spoke in a soft whisper, her voice barely carrying to him. At least it wouldn’t reach far down the tunnel.

  “And I wish I could see like you do without needing it,” he told her, pitching his voice as low as she did.

  They hadn’t walked far before Rsiran saw a door.

  This wasn’t like the metal plate that had been behind the bookshelf. This was a wooden doorway, much like any other he would find throughout the city. A strange mark, something almost like a letter, was etched on the surface. Jessa traced her fingers along it.

  “Where do you think this leads?” she asked.

  “Don’t know.” The sense of lorcith came from behind the door, and no longer moved as it had. Rsiran wondered what they were beneath now. They hadn’t gone that far, but far enough to have moved away from the smithy entirely. How could there be such an extensive network of tunnels down here?

  And, more importantly, why?

  He glanced back down the tunnel in the direction they’d come. Had they continued onward, they would have reached Upper Town, all without walking along the street above. This tunnel appeared old, the walls irregular in places that reminded him of the mines, but he detected no lorcith around him. In the mines, he sensed it all around, everywhere throughout the rock.

  Jessa looked past him and pressed a finger to his lips. She leaned into his ear and whispered. “We need to be careful. Voices carry in places like this. Even whispers. We need to be quiet until we know what we’re going to see.”

  He nodded. He had no doubt about what he’d heard before he Slid from the smithy. There was someone else coming this way, and given the fact that the smithy was otherwise empty, there shouldn’t be anyone else in the tunnels.

  The air in the tunnel changed.

  Jessa reached for the door and tried the handle. It didn’t open.

  She dropped to her knees and pulled out her lock pick. Within moments, she had the door open, and swung it carefully, only enough to peer inside.

  With the door open, she popped her head through.

  Rsiran sent the knife floating back down the tunnel behind them. As he did, a shadow flickered.

  He pulled on the knife, drawing it back to him quickly, and nudged Jessa through the door before whoever was in the tunnel with them could see them. It might already have been too late.

  The space on the other side of the door looked like a large storeroom.

  And they weren’t alone.

  Chapter 31

  A lantern flashed on, its bright orange light that would have weakened Jessa’s Sight, but did nothing to impact Rsiran. He had a pair of knives ready and leaned against the door to keep whoever might be on the other side from coming in.

  The woman he’d seen in the forest stood in the middle of the room, a dark cloak covering her shoulders, her dark eyes glittering at him. “Rsiran Lareth.” She said his name with a strange familiarity.

  Rsiran pulled another pair of knives from his pockets and held them ready. He hadn’t seen Valn, but he sensed the lorcith knife he carried and suspected that he hid somewhere, if only Rsiran could find him.

  “Far side of the room,” Jessa whispered.

  Rsiran flicked his gaze in that direction and noted a shadow there. It was the same place he sensed the knife.

  “And you’re Sarah,” Rsiran said. He stepped forward, putting himself between Sarah and Jessa, making certain to keep a connection to Jessa. If he had to Slide quickly, he would need to have contact with her.

  Sarah glanced toward Valn before turning her attention back to Rsiran. “I am. How, may I ask, do you know?”

  “You’ve been following me.”

  A smile pulled on the corners of her mouth. “Ah, so you were there. I started to question whether we were wrong about you, but he,” she said, tipping her head toward the far corner, “was convinced that we were not.”

  “Valn?” Rsiran asked.

  There was a flutter of color, and a swirling sense that Rsiran felt that faded quickly.

  “Rsiran,” Jessa whispered. “He just Slid.”

  “I know.”

  Valn appeared next to Sarah. The sense of the lorcith knife pulsed strongly from him, practically burning through the fabric of his pants.

  “How did he find us?” Valn asked Sarah.

  She studied Rsiran for a moment. “His father, I would guess.”

  “Only supposed to be guild members. That’s how we keep—”

  Sarah cut him off with a wave of her hand.

  “Why have you been following me?” Rsiran asked.

  Sarah hesitated. Darkness flickered across her eyes before fading. With the light from his knives, he saw the green of her eyes surge briefly brighter before fading, much like they did with Brusus when he Pushed.

  Rsiran considered raising his mental barriers. Since forging the bracelets, he’d allowed himself to leave them lowered. With them down, he was more attuned to the lorcith, and felt a stronger connection to it. Maybe it was the reason he was able to suddenly see the light from the metal.

  “We should go,” Jessa said softly.

  Rsiran could Slide them away, get them to safety, but he wanted answers. So far, Sarah and Valn didn’t seem as if they were going to attack. “Tell me,” Rsiran said. “Why are you after me?”

  He didn’t expect Sarah to answer. When he’d been abducted by Venass and then by the Forgotten, they had forced themselves on him. Venass had been willing to let him die if he failed to Slide from the cell, and the Forgotten had poisoned him, willing to do whatever it took to get the answers they wanted. Regardless of which side they worked for, they had shown the lengths they would go with him.

  He would not let Sarah and Valn take him and Jessa without a fight. This time, he’d trained enough, and had some experience fighting, that he was willing to do what was needed to keep her safe.

  “Because we need your help,” Sarah answered.

  Rsiran tensed. He didn’t like the connotation of the kind of help they wanted. When he’d been asked to help before, they hadn’t wanted his help so much as his ability. They had wanted to use him. “Who are you with?” Rsiran asked. “Venass? I refuse to answer the summons. I think I’ve shown Thom that I—”

  “Not Venass,” Sarah said, glancing over to Valn.

  Rsiran let out a sigh. That meant the Forgotten. “Then if it’s the other, I’ve already experienced how you ask for help. You can tell Evaelyn or Inna or whoever you’re with that I have no interest in helping. Just leave me alone.”

  Sarah and Valn looked at each other. Sarah’s eyes widened slightly. “See? He knows.”

  Valn considered Rsiran and shook his head. “He doesn’t know. Look at him, Sarah. He asked if we came from Venass.”

  “Can you blame him? After what he’s been through—”

  “Tell me what you’re talking about, or I leave. I think I’ve proven that you’ll have difficulty following me.”

  He was already preparing where to Slide. They might be able to reach him if he was too slow, but he could take them to Ilphaesn and leave them in the mines, trapped like Josun had been. Rsiran wouldn’t even feel any sympathy for them. It would be hard to find any sympathy after what he’d been through.<
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  “Come with us,” Sarah said.

  Rsiran glanced at Jessa. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me—”

  “You want to see your sister, right?”

  Alyse. “You have her?”

  Neither of them answered.

  Rsiran let out a sigh and looked to Jessa. He leaned toward her, making certain to keep his words as soft as possible. “You should go. Get word to the others. You don’t need to be pulled into this with me.”

  She pounded on his chest softly. “You aren’t leaving me here, you idiot.”

  “I could Slide you back and then return.”

  “Or you could Slide us both. We don’t need to do this for her.”

  Jessa still didn’t understand. “I do.”

  “Fine. If that’s what you intend, you’re not going without me. The two of us together have a better chance of keeping you safe than you do by yourself.”

  Sarah and Valn waited.

  When Rsiran nodded, they turned and started across the room. Rsiran had expected them to go through the door, but they didn’t. Then who was on the other side of the door? He had seen someone moving in the tunnels, if not Valn and Sarah, then who?

  Unless they had been there to make certain that Rsiran didn’t leave.

  “How did you know that I’d come after you?” Rsiran asked.

  Sarah paused and glanced over her shoulder. “We didn’t.”

  “Then why were you waiting for me… If not me, who then?”

  Sarah looked at Valn, then back to Rsiran. “It doesn’t matter, not now that you’ve come.”

  They stepped into the darkness of another tunnel, though this one was wider than the last. Jessa held tightly to Rsiran’s arm, clinging to him in case they needed to Slide quickly. With her behind him, at least he didn’t run the same risk of surprise like he’d experienced with the Forgotten when they’d come behind him and smacked him on the head.

  They passed other paths along the way, and Rsiran motioned to each.

  Sarah turned a few times, enough that Rsiran began to lose track of where they were. If he wasn’t able to Slide, he could be trapped down here. As it was, without knowing where they led him, there would be no way of getting back on foot.