The Darkest Revenge

by D. K. Holmberg

Haern swore under his breath. Jammed into the branches like this, the fabric of the body’s clothing was clear. Dappled green and brown, colors he didn’t see too often in Elaeavn. The water had bloated the flesh, leaving it to already start decomposing and he couldn’t make out whether it was male or female. Nothing more than hollow eyes stared at him, haunted in their death.

  Could he use the branch and pull the person to shore?

  It was better than anything else he could come up with. Haern wasn’t interested in wading out into the water, getting soaked while trying to handle some bloated dead body. This way, he could pull them up onto shore and examine them.

  Haern looked around. If only Lucy were here.

  Maybe she’d Slid back to the Aisl for more supplies. But if she had done that, she should have notified Haern of her plan. He doubted she would simply disappear like this.

  As he pulled on the branch, the body came with it. He tried not to consider what injuries he was inflicting, not wanting to even think about the person as some living being. It was easier to think of them as nothing more than just a body.

  As he reached the shore, the body started to slip off his branch.

  Haern grabbed for the body, gripping the clothing and pulling that and the branch back. The fabric was slimy and everything stank. He wrinkled his nose, trying not to think about what he was handling.

  Carefully, he pried the branch away from the body and looked at the person. Long hair and a generally slender build made him suspect it was female, but her skin was spongy and bloated. The clothing had a soft texture, and he ran it through his fingers. Though it was slick from the water and muck, he could tell it was of higher quality than the fabrics found in Elaeavn.

  Maybe the person had something on them that would explain who it was.

  Haern searched through the person’s pockets. Most of them were empty, but one pocket on the inside of the jacket had something inside. He reached within the pocket, careful not to grab too eagerly as he wasn’t certain what he’d find, and withdrew a small metallic item.

  It was long and slender, and there was something familiar about it. It wasn’t made of lorcith as far as he could tell, though could it be an alloy? He had worked with the metal enough that he thought he would have recognized an alloy, though, and had enough experience with detecting the way the metal pressed upon him that he thought he should be able to identify it.

  Not an alloy, then, but then why did it seem familiar?

  After a moment, he realized why. It looked much like the items his father collected over the years… items that came from the Forgers.

  Haern backed up, staring at the fallen person.

  If she was one of the Forgers, he needed to get back to the heart of the Aisl and tell his mother. If the Forgers were involved, and if they had reached the city, others needed to know.

  He dragged the body back into the trees. If nothing else, the forest would help hide it until he could get others here. It might not be enough, especially if some of the animals prowling in the woods managed to find it, but he would conceal it as best he could. Using the branches he’d cut, he covered the body.

  Then he looked into the distance, toward the heart of the forest, where he would have to travel by foot. Once again, he wished he had some faster way of traveling. It didn’t even have to be Sliding, though that would have been nice. Instead, he had to trudge through the forest. Alone.

  4

  Haern

  When he reached the outer edge of the Aisl Forest, Haern felt something amiss.

  It was unusual for him to sense something being off, but then it was unusual for there to be such silence in this part of the forest. This close to the heart of the Aisl, where the rest of their people lived, there should be activity.

  There was no sound, none of the usual hammering from his grandfather in the forge. No occasional shouting, voices calling out to others. There was no sense of movement at all. It was as if everyone was gone.

  Haern approached slowly, cautiously, listening for anything that might tell him that he was wrong, but there was still nothing here.

  It had taken him the better part of the afternoon to return, long enough that he continued to expect to come across Lucy at any point. She shouldn’t have been gone this long. If nothing else, that put Haern on edge. His friend wouldn’t disappear like that, especially not after she was the one who had come and summoned him. Lucy would have wanted answers.

  The sun was difficult to track deep within the forest, not angling well through the trees. Could they be in prayer? Most of the people who lived in this part of the forest were quite devout. They didn’t worship the Great Watcher like those in the rest of the city but were instead devoted to the power within the trees, and to mysterious beings his father referred to as the Elders. Most of the people within the Aisl took his father’s word for it that the Elders existed at all. His father claimed to have seen evidence of them, and as he was one of the few people to have ever handled all of the sacred crystals, most found it difficult to argue with him.

  Haern didn’t have such difficulty. There was no reason for him to believe his father. The only thing he believed was that his father had had some experience, like so many who had handled one of the sacred crystals. Even his aunt had come away changed when she’d held one, but that didn’t mean she had seen some greater power. When his opportunity to handle one had come, he had detected nothing.

  “Haern. Where have you been?”

  He jumped at the sound of the voice and spun around to see Nevrah approaching. She was shorter than him by a hand and had deep green eyes, her abilities no different than any of the Elvraeth. She had left the palace at only a few years old and come to live within the Aisl, her parents preferring the Elders to the Great Watcher. Her long auburn hair stood out within the forest. Most here had darker hair that blended in with the muted browns and greens of the trees. She had a quick smile, and she flashed one at him now.

  “You’re jumpy, too.”

  “I can’t help it. I…” He debated how much to tell Nevrah. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust her, but would he upset her by describing what he’d seen? She was young and persistent, and he had enough experience with her to know she would likely attempt to Read him until he told her something. She scarcely cared that his mental barriers were fortified by his ability to use lorcith, making it so that he could not be Read. “I found something out in the forest.”

  “What were you doing out there?” she asked.

  “Fine. I didn’t find something, but Lucy did.”

  “Lucy?” She looked around as if she might see her. Nevrah had long seemed annoyed by the girl, as if her remaining in the palace was a fault of hers. “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know. I thought she came back here.”

  “I haven’t seen her.”

  Haern looked around the edges of the clearing. “Is everything okay here?”

  Nevrah shot him an amused look. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just that…” Even thinking about his concerns sounded ridiculous to him. There was no reason for him to worry, except that he had discovered something that reminded him of the Founders, something he needed to share with his mother. If he didn’t, and if he went looking for the items of the Founders on his own, she would be even more angry. “I’m looking for my mother,” he said.

  “She’s overhead. Visiting with Brusus.”

  “Brusus is here?” he asked, smiling. His uncle often stayed within the city proper, and Haern didn’t get to see him nearly as frequently as he wanted. He was a busy man, so tied up with his business dealings that he was often distracted. “How long has he been here?”

  “He arrived shortly after your father came through.”

  Haern pushed away those thoughts. Brusus was close to his father, though they couldn’t be any more different. Brusus was easygoing, warm and welcoming, almost always eager to visit. He was nothing like Haern’s father.

  “Thanks,
Nevrah.”

  He started to turn, looking up at the treetops, where most in the Aisl resided. He needed to find help before he did anything more. He needed to alert someone about the body, and then he could figure out where his friend had disappeared to. It wasn’t like Lucy to vanish like that, but while her absence bothered him, the body bothered him just as much.

  Nevrah followed him. “Have you heard?”

  “Heard what?”

  “About my guild assignment.”

  Haern frowned, looking back at her. “No, I haven’t. Where were you assigned?”

  “The weavers took me in,” she said, making a small circle as she danced in place. “Can you believe it?”

  Haern laughed. “Yes. I can very much believe it.”

  Her smile faded, and she glared at him, stomping one foot. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that you’re deserving of your place with the weavers. Why would you think anything else?”

  Her smile returned. The Great Watcher knew it was difficult to have any sort of normal conversation with Nevrah. She could jump from emotion to emotion and was far too fickle for Haern’s taste.

  “Why, that might be the nicest thing you’ve said to me.”

  “I’ve said lots of nice things to you, Nevrah.”

  “Have you? When was the last time?”

  Haern sighed. This wasn’t going to end well at all for him. Nevrah had a way of pestering even those who had no interest in getting caught up in her machinations. “Your eyes look quite lovely today. They’re nearly as dark as the leaves.”

  Nevrah took a step back and planted a hand on her hip, shooting him an annoyed expression. “I can’t tell whether you’re mocking me or not.”

  “Not. Most decidedly not.” Haern knew better than to mock her for anything. She would make his life miserable if he made that mistake, and he had no intention of risking that.

  “I’m going to go check on my mother,” he said.

  “I’m going to meet with the guild.”

  As he wandered, he stopped before one of the massive Elder Trees. This one represented Sliding, and he looked up into the branches. There were no ladders leading up into this tree as there were with others. The Sliding Guild believed that went against everything their guild was meant to represent. He continued onward to the tree he wanted, his guild’s tree. The Smith Guild was well respected, not least because of their ability to use the lorcith and to form it into amazing creations. According to all the stories, his father was responsible for that reputation, too.

  Just once, he’d like to find something around the city that his father didn’t influence.

  He scrambled up the ladder, thankful that it was an easy climb. There were others within the guild like himself, men and women with the ability to detect lorcith and to use it—really, to control it—but no other Elder gifts. His father was unique in his abilities, unique in how he was connected to so very much, and that uniqueness made him well suited to protecting their city. Sometimes Haern wished his father had spent even a fraction of the time with him that he spent on ensuring the safety of the city. Maybe his childhood would have been different. Maybe he would have actually known his father rather than having to understand him through legends, most of which were nearly impossible to believe.

  He found his mother near the base of the Smith tree. A massive structure was built on the upper branches, seeming to grow out of the trunk itself. Supposedly, someone well connected to the guild could actually access the interior of the tree, though Haern had a hard time understanding how such a thing was possible.

  “Where have you been?” she demanded. She had changed clothing since she’d last been here and was now dressed in pale blue pants and a red-and-yellow striped shirt, a matching flower tucked into the lapel. Every so often, she leaned down and breathed in the aroma from the flower, a nervous habit of hers. She seemed to do it more often when his father was gone, and Haern had long wondered whether she was even aware of what she did.

  “Mother, I—”

  “You’ve been gone for the better part of the day. You said nothing about where you were going. Did you want your mother to worry?”

  “Of course not. It’s just that Lucy—”

  “Lucy again. Is she leading you off into trouble?”

  His mother didn’t love the fact that Lucy lived in the palace but came to the Aisl as often as she did. There was a suspicion about what she might share. If only she would take the time to get to know Lucy, she wouldn’t have those questions.

  Movement along the branch caught his attention and he spun, thinking that maybe he’d see Brusus, but he didn’t. It was one of the older Smith Guild members, Charndel, who had often worked with his father and had spent some time training Haern.

  “We found something.”

  “What did you find?”

  He looked around the tree again, wondering where Brusus might have disappeared to. Nevrah had seen him, so he had to be around, but where was he?

  His mother cleared her throat, forcing his attention back to her. He tapped on his pocket where he had the small metallic item. It would be easier to share with Brusus there. He pulled out the item and handed it to his mother.

  Her breath caught, and she turned it over in her hand, examining it. “Where did you find this?” she asked without looking up at him.

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you. Lucy found something out in the forest.”

  She looked up at him, her gaze hard. “Lucy found this?”

  “She did.”

  “Just this?”

  Haern shook his head. “Not just this. She found a body in the river. She took me to it.”

  His mother slipped the item into her pocket. “What was she thinking, taking you to a body?”

  “That’s your question? You don’t want to know what happened or who it might be or how they died or any of the other questions that might normally come?”

  “Of course I do. More than that, I want to know where your friend has gone.”

  “I want to know the same thing,” Haern said.

  She frowned, glancing down to the ground. “You didn’t return with her?”

  “She disappeared. I went up into one of the trees to cut down branches so that we could keep the body from moving through the river, and when I got back…”

  Where had Lucy gone?

  Maybe it was just that the body had moved farther down the river than Lucy could account for, and when she had attempted to return, she hadn’t known how to find Haern. But then, there had been that strange sense of something else in the forest. Whatever was out there had made enough noise for him to detect it but hadn’t made its presence known.

  “Come with me.” She started off down the trunk.

  Haern hesitated only a moment. If he didn’t go with her, he would be in for more than just a stern talking-to.

  At the base of the tree, she started toward the blacksmith building. Why was she leading him there? No smoke drifted from the chimney, leading Haern to believe that his grandfather wasn’t there. Even if he was, his mother and his grandfather didn’t get along all that well. It had always seemed to Haern that his grandfather wanted his mother to do more to keep his father from racing away from the city, but what could his mother do? His father was stubborn, and he believed that what he was doing was essential and that no one else could do it in his place.

  Inside the blacksmith shop, his gaze went to the forge. The coals had cooled, though heat still radiated from them. The massive anvil took up most of the center of the room, and an equally large bucket of water—a quenching bucket—rested next to it. The forge here could handle lorcith of enormous size, much larger than in many other parts of the city, and they took advantage of that fact, often hammering out massive pieces of lorcith.

  She guided him into the back of the building. It was little more than a walk-through, a space between one side and the other. It was an office, and when his grandfather wasn’t here, his fa
ther was, making it essentially off-limits to Haern.

  The carpet on the floor was the only nod to any sort of formality, and his mother quickly began rolling it away.

  “Mother?”

  “Are you going to help me?”

  “Help with what?”

  She glanced up at him, and Haern hurried, helping to roll the carpet out of the way. Beneath it, a trapdoor was carved into the floor.

  “What is this?”

  “Pull it open.”

  The handle was intricately made, and partly of lorcith, but done in such a way—and with a specific type of alloy—that he hadn’t even been aware of it. Nothing about the handle pulled on his senses.

  When he climbed down the ladder, it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. They were probably twenty feet below ground, below the forest floor. This space shouldn’t even exist, and yet somehow, they were here. A distant blue light glowed, and his mother motioned for him to head toward it. He didn’t need any prompting for that, as it had already drawn his attention.

  When he reached its source, a single ornate lantern resting on a table, he saw the interior of what appeared to be a storeroom, its walls of smooth stone.

  Not stone. Metal, but not any that he recognized, though there was an element of lorcith within it.

  “What is this place?” he asked.

  “This is your father’s place.”

  “Why am I only seeing it now?”

  “There’s been no reason for you to see it.”

  “And there is now?”

  “Haern…”

  Haern rounded on his mother. “Why show me this now?”

  “Because you brought something your father searches for.”

  She guided him to a drawer along one of the walls and pulled it out. Inside were other items, all of the same strange metal and all the same cylindrical shape as the object he had recovered from the dead woman.

  “What is this?” Looking up at his mother, he frowned, “Forgers?”

  She placed the item he had discovered into the drawer. “Over the years, this collection has grown. He needed a safe place to store it, so he built this.”