The Darkest Revenge

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Just know that your father is doing what he believes necessary.”

  “He believes it’s necessary, but what about you?”

  “I go along with your father, at least in this. I trust him, as should you.”

  She stuffed her hand into her pocket and started away from him. Haern stared after her. Just once, he wished his parents would include him. Just once, he wished they believed him capable enough to participate in his father’s search. Haern could be useful, couldn’t he? He might not be able to Slide, but he shared his father’s gift with lorcith, a gift that should grant him some connection to the man—only it didn’t.

  His gaze drifted over to the blacksmith shop. Maybe it was best that he returned to work. At least his grandfather welcomed him, wanting his company, something he couldn’t say about his parents.

  And yet, he didn’t really want to return to work. He wanted to know what his father was doing, and what he had brought back to the city. He wanted to know if he would ever have an opportunity to be a part of what they did, even if he couldn’t fight the same way they did.

  Only he wouldn’t have that opportunity. They kept it from him.

  When he reached the edge of the forest, a sudden shimmering caught his attention and he turned, waiting to see which of the Sliders would return. Surprisingly, it was Lucy.

  “Haern. You’re still here,” she said, her gaze flickering around the clearing before settling once more on him. Her cheeks were flushed, and her hand rested on the hilt of her sword.

  “What is it?”

  “I need you to come with me.”

  “Why?”

  “When I left, I decided I didn’t want to go back to the city just yet.” Haern started to smile—it wasn’t so much the city that she resisted returning to, but the palace. But there was something in the way she looked at him that forced the expression back down. “I found something.”

  “What did you find?”

  “I’m not sure, but I think it’s a body.”

  3

  Haern

  The Slide pulled on him, a swirl of color streaking around him. Haern had the sense that if he were able to slow it down, he might be able to make out the distinct colors present within the Slide. But it happened so quickly that he wasn’t able to see anything other than the swirl that slipped past.

  When they emerged from the dizzying Slide, they stood at the edge of a river. It was the outer boundary of the Elaeavn lands. It was deeper in the forest than Haern preferred to travel, but by Sliding, it wasn’t difficult, at least not for him.

  Lucy looked tired. Sweat streamed down her brow from the effort of carrying Haern with her, leaving him wondering whether Lucy would be able to return them to the Aisl when this was done. There was a limit to how far and how much she could carry with each Slide, and since she had already brought him from the top of Krali Rock and back to the Aisl, carrying him a second time was beginning to stretch her capabilities.

  “You’re going to make me walk back, aren’t you?” Haern asked.

  She wiped an arm across her brow but smiled at him, her eyes practically sparkling with the expression. “It would serve you right. You were foolish enough to climb Krali. I wouldn’t have had to Slide you from there otherwise.”

  “You didn’t have to Slide me from there.”

  She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear while surveying the forest. “You wanted to get back quickly to see why you detected lorcith.”

  “Admit it. You didn’t mind.”

  Lucy shook her head. “You’re ridiculous, and I have no intention of admitting anything to you.”

  He flashed a smile at her.

  Taking a few steps into the forest, her cloak swirling around her, she paused to turn back to him. “Did you tell them?”

  Haern breathed out heavily. “No.”

  “Why not? I thought that was why you were doing it.”

  “I was doing it to prove to myself that I could.”

  “That’s the only reason? You didn’t want your father to know?”

  “Why would it matter? My father’s barely present most of the time. I doubt he cares all that much about whether or not I make it to the top of Krali Rock.”

  Lucy studied him for a moment, but she didn’t say anything. They’d been close for long enough that she understood Haern’s sentiment on such things.

  “Didn’t you have something to show me? Or was this your way of getting me alone?”

  She glared at him. Haern couldn’t deny that he wanted something more, but he was careful about revealing his interest in Lucy—their friendship was too important to him. She might spend time with him in the Aisl, presumably because she wanted to better understand her ability to Slide, but she was still one of the Elvraeth.

  “There’s something you need to see.” She motioned for Haern to follow, and they headed over toward the river. The shore was rocky, with smooth boulders running along it, as if the shoreline had evolved over time, shifted into place by whoever had formed it. It seemed almost as if they had wanted the river to run through this particular place. The rocks seemed out of place, different from those found even within Elaeavn, and from those along the shore.

  “Where are you taking me?” he asked as Lucy guided him along the river’s edge. Water burbled through here, the current not terribly fast, but the river was wide enough that it would be challenging to cross without getting entirely soaked. He had no interest in plunging into the icy cold river.

  “I told you—”

  “You told me that you found a body.”

  She glanced back at Haern, nodding slowly. “I told you I think I found a body.”

  Haern chuckled. “Think? If I were to find a body, I would know it.”

  “Just come with me,” she said.

  Haern laughed to himself again, tagging along with his friend. They meandered along the shores of the river, and the longer they went, the more amused Haern was. “What were you doing out here anyway?”

  “I didn’t want to go back yet.”

  He cursed himself. He should have known better. Lucy often wandered away from the palace, trying to stay as far from it as possible, for as long as possible. “Why didn’t you just Slide us here?”

  “You’ll see,” she said.

  “You could have Slid us anywhere along here.”

  Lucy stopped and looked back at him. “Would you stop questioning? You’re sounding like—”

  “My father.”

  She flashed a smile. “You said it.”

  They continued onward. The rock along the shore was slippery, and Lucy made a point of keeping them away from the edge of the water, but even where they walked was a little dangerous, and the stones beneath Haern’s feet trembled with each step. The forest around them was dense, thicker even than what most considered to be the heart of the Aisl. The trees growing weren’t nearly as tall as those found more centrally, but the underbrush was much thicker. It had a strange aroma, a mixture of fresh green leaves and decay, an undercurrent of rot that carried through everything. An occasional bird chirped from high up in the trees, and every so often he noticed a scratching sound, one that he thought came from movement within the forest, but not from anything they were able to see. It left him uncomfortable.

  He had spent most of his life within the forest, but there were still parts of it that he didn’t visit. If he had the ability to Slide, maybe it would be different. But if he were stuck, or attacked—and there were creatures that lived within the Aisl that weren’t entirely friendly, though few claimed to have seen them—he would be forced to fight his way out rather than simply travel in the blink of an eye the way Lucy could.

  Lucy stopped along the shore and stared out toward the middle of the river. “You wondered why I didn’t just Slide us here. Well, this is the reason.”

  Haern followed the direction of his friend’s gaze, looking toward the water. In the middle of the river, something was being dragged along with the current, moving sl
owly, tumbling over the rocks, though it was difficult to make out exactly what it was.

  “That’s the body?”

  “That’s something,” Lucy said. “And with the current pulling it along, I wasn’t entirely sure where it would appear, so I brought us back to where I first emerged and figured that following the course of the river would bring us to it.”

  “It could be anything,” Haern said.

  “It could be,” Lucy said.

  “Why do you think it’s a body?”

  “Because I could swear I saw a face.”

  Haern started to laugh before realizing that Lucy wasn’t joking. “Let’s get it out of the water and take a look.”

  “How? I don’t have that kind of control over my Sliding. I’ve been getting better, but…”

  Haern frowned. His father would have simply Slid to the middle of the river, grabbed whatever was there, and then returned. Then again, his father was far more capable than most with the ability. He’d seen his father transport several people, something that was difficult for any other Slider to accomplish. There were rumors of even greater feats performed by his father, most of which involved him transporting dozens of people at one time, but Haern had never seen it and didn’t know if they were simply exaggerations. The stories of his father were often little more than legend. It was difficult to know how much of it was real and how much was made up.

  “You’re going to make me swim out there, aren’t you?”

  “I didn’t really want either of us to swim out there.”

  “What do you suggest?”

  “I figured you’d come up with something. You usually do. There has to be some other way.”

  The current continued to pull the form along the river. Haern wasn’t about to call it a body, not without more proof, but as it tumbled, rolling through the water, he had to admit that he shared some of Lucy’s concern. If it was a body, whose was it?

  The Aisl Forest was home to some of the people of Elaeavn, those who had chosen to move away from the city—and from the heavy hand of Elvraeth rule—to get closer to what they considered their ancestors. Since the attack on the city, the Elvraeth had shared their rule with the guilds, but it was an uneasy thing. The city—and the forest—were difficult to reach for anyone not of Elaeavn. It should be safe for them, it should be home, so if someone else had reached it who should not…

  They needed to know.

  More than that, there was supposed to be a certain level of protection placed upon the forest. During each return to the forest, his father continued to ensure his wards were in place. Haern knew they involved lorcith and the alloys, but not much more than that. His father preferred to keep the secret of the city’s protection to full guild members.

  “Let’s see if we can’t find something that can at least pop it out of the water.”

  “It? That’s someone, Haern.”

  Haern glanced over to his friend. “I’m not so sure. What if it’s nothing more than rocks moving along with the current?”

  Lucy grabbed one of the boulders lining the river and heaved it into the water. It splashed down and sank, moving nowhere. “Boulder. Notice how it doesn’t move with the current? Think about how far we walked. That’s where I first saw it. No boulder does that.”

  “Fine. Then maybe it’s a wolf or—”

  “A wolf? Come on, Haern. That’s a body. Just go along with me on this.”

  Haern looked over at his friend. Lucy was slender, and her long wavy hair hung loose today. She tucked it behind her ears, leaving her deep green eyes flashing, practically begging Haern to believe her.

  “Why don’t we grab a branch and see if we can dam up the river somehow?”

  “That’s a good idea. What do you propose?”

  Haern glanced back at the trees. All he had was his knives, and while the lorcith blades might be sharp enough to cut through the wood, it would be a slow process, and he would end up hacking at them, likely taking far longer than Lucy wanted, especially if this was a body and the current was pulling it along. They wouldn’t have much time.

  “You know, we could wait until the current reaches the rest of the city,” Haern said.

  “And then what? Watch as it spills out into the sea? At that point, the force of it would crush anything that’s in there.”

  “You already said you think it’s a body. What more could be crushed?”

  “Our ability to determine who it is. If they’re crushed by the rocks, we might not be able to tell.”

  “The only way we’d recognize the person is if they came from Elaeavn.” And even that wouldn’t be guaranteed. It wasn’t as if they knew everybody in the city.

  It might be better for them to go and get help. It was what his mother would have wanted, but then, wasn’t that reason for him to try to do this on his own? His mother never wanted him to get too involved, fearing he would end up like his father. But that was completely baseless, especially as the only way he could Slide was by traveling along with someone like Lucy.

  “Hand me your sword,” Haern said. When Lucy frowned, he flicked his gaze to the trees. “I’m going to see if I can’t cut some branches down. I think the sword will be a whole lot more useful than my knives.”

  “I could help.”

  “You could, and I think you’re going to need to, but stay with the body for now.”

  Lucy nodded, relief sweeping across her eyes.

  He scrambled back onto the shore, away from the rocks, and when he reached the first tree, he wrapped his arms around it, shimmying up the trunk. Having grown up in the heart of the forest, he had plenty of experience climbing trees, but the trunk was slippery, making the climb difficult.

  He reached the lowest branch, and his arms trembled. They probably wouldn’t be that tired if he hadn’t just scaled Krali Rock. A scratching sound came from within the trees, and he jerked his head around, realizing that he wasn’t alone.

  He didn’t see anything, so he tried to ignore the sound, heading toward branches higher up. If he could reach them, he could cut them down, but he’d have to brace himself if he intended to hack at the branches.

  None of this was all that smart. They really should have gone back for help. They could have grabbed one of the other Sliders, someone who could Slide to the middle of the river and back before getting pulled under. Maybe even his father, if he had remained in the city.

  Haern pushed his back up against the trunk and swung the sword at a branch at chest height. His foot slipped, and he spun around, gripping the tree.

  He glanced back down to the forest floor, praying that Lucy hadn’t seen him nearly fall, but she was nowhere to be seen. She must have moved farther along the shore.

  Haern continued to chop at the branch. The strong lorcith sword was one he had forged for Lucy, and it cut through the wood with only a few chops.

  The branch dropped to the ground far below.

  That wouldn’t be enough to dam up the river, and he figured they needed a couple more. With even two more, they should be able to block the flow of water and get in there to see what Lucy had discovered.

  He climbed a little higher and found his footing even more tenuous. Maybe he should have sent Lucy. If something went wrong for Lucy, at least she’d have the ability to Slide to safety. All he could do was crash his way to the bottom.

  After cutting off another branch, Haern hesitated. There came a rustling sound that faded when he paused. Two would have to be enough. He’d been gone a while, and if the two that he’d cut down weren’t all they needed, then Lucy would just have to Slide up into the tree to get more.

  Getting back down was easier. He slipped along the trunk, sliding back to the ground. After gathering up the branches, he dragged them through the forest. They were long, and he wasn’t completely sure how he was going to push them out across the water. He and Lucy would need to work together, and even then they might not accomplish what they wanted.

  “Lucy!” He waited for his friend
to holler back, but there was nothing.

  Where had Lucy gone? He hurried along the shore, staying away from the rocks, and managed to keep the branches out of the water.

  There was no sign of Lucy.

  He hurried forward, the branches dragging across the ground making the same sound he’d heard up in the trees.

  That troubled him.

  “Lucy?”

  Still no answer came.

  Haern raced forward. Lucy wouldn’t have abandoned him like this, but if something had happened, would she have Slid somewhere?

  Maybe if she was worried about her safety.

  He slowed, making his way along the shore, and paused when he still saw no sign of Lucy. There wasn’t any sign of the body either.

  Haern glanced back. He wasn’t too familiar with this part of the forest, but he didn’t think it likely that he had gone in the wrong direction. The water flowed only one way, and he had been trailing after it.

  Dropping the branches to the ground, he froze, looking around.

  Haern had Lucy’s sword, which would have left his friend defenseless. She could Slide, but then she wasn’t much of a fighter with the sword anyway.

  He turned his attention back to the water, and a face bubbled up.

  Haern nearly screamed.

  That was the body Lucy had seen. It was real.

  The face watched him, tilted in the current, dragged along the river.

  Haern grabbed one of the branches and shoved it out into the water, blocking the flow.

  The body got tangled up in the branch and stopped moving with the flow of the river. Now the face looked away from him, as if searching behind him, almost more unsettling than it had been before.

  He dragged the other branch and shoved it behind the first, keeping the body from moving any more. Could he somehow lever the body closer to him?

  Using Lucy’s sword, he carved off a section of the branch and pushed it out into the water, trying to grab on to some part of the body. It did nothing more than get it further tangled in the branches.