The Darkest Revenge

by D. K. Holmberg

  “And he mixed this medication,” Haern said, holding up a vial of thick-looking liquid. “I’m not sure how he concocted it, only that he mixed a few things we were able to acquire on the street and used that to sedate these two men. Apparently, what he used will prevent them from accessing their Forger abilities.”

  “Slithca,” he said in a whisper.

  Haern tilted his head, studying him. “That’s right. How is it that you know about it?”

  “It’s the same thing that was used on Lucy.”

  Daniel approached the table, feeling as if he needed to better understand what Galen might know, and be prepared for whatever they might be asked to do. “Can I see one of the darts?”

  Haern reached into his pocket and pulled one of the darts out, handing it to him. It was smooth, the surface slick, and he rolled it between his fingers. There was a strange weight to it. One end of it was pointed and sharp, while the other had slicked feathers, and he was tempted to throw it to see whether it would fly true but decided against it. He handed it back to Haern, who pocketed it.

  “I don’t know about the way Galen mixes it, but when it was used on Lucy, it lingered a long time. And she lost her abilities for much longer than Carth thought she would.”

  But then, was that true? That was what Rayen had told him, but if Rayen had used Lucy to bargain with the Forgers, then perhaps whatever Lucy had been given wasn’t really so potent. It could be that they had continued to dose her to make it appear that she’d lost her abilities.

  “Galen has been right about everything he’s told me so far,” Haern said. “He’s used the various concoctions to try to get answers out of the Forgers.”

  Daniel stared at him. “By that, you mean torture. Galen has tortured the Forgers for information?”

  “Well… yes.”

  He understood why Carth and Galen got along. They had similar views about gathering information. “Whatever you plan involves these Forgers, but I’m still not sure I’m clear on it.”

  “It’s what you told me,” Haern said, crouching in front of one of the Forgers, staring at him. There was a hot intensity in his eyes, and anger flashed behind them. “You said Lucy was changed by the metal, and that it allows her to Read much better than before.”

  “She doesn’t have any control over it. At least, she didn’t when she was still with me.” He hated to admit it, but if the Forgers were responsible for what had happened to her, it was possible that they had taught her some measure of control over her abilities. Then again, the Forgers also now controlled her.

  The mere idea of it disgusted him. It made him want to stab both of these Forgers, cut through them so that he could get to Lucy, and…

  He shook the thought away. Letting his anger at his own inadequacy get the best of him wouldn’t serve her at all. He needed to have a calm mind, and he needed to be prepared for the possibility that he could find her, however remote that might be.

  “It’s her lack of control that I’m counting on,” he said.

  “I don’t really understand,” Daniel said.

  “You said she has no control over it, and if the Forgers have claimed her, bringing her around others, she would be able to Read them.”

  Daniel looked down at the Forger. “And you intend to make it known where we are?”

  “She seemed interested in finding you the last time, so I have to think that she would be interested in that now.”

  “Even if we find her,” Daniel said, thinking it exceedingly unlikely, “she can simply Slide away. Now that she’s able to Slide so easily, nothing we could do would restrict her from going where she wanted.”

  Haern held up the vial of thick liquid. “We have this.”

  “You intend to attack her?”

  “No. I intend for you to do it.”

  Daniel shook his head. “I don’t think so. She’s your friend. You do it, Haern.”

  “She might be my friend, but she came for you.”

  The idea of attacking Lucy, of poisoning her, troubled him, but it made a certain sort of sense. Worse, he should have been the one to come up with it. He knew about slithca, and he should have been able to think of a way to use the poison to help Lucy.

  “Listen, I know what she’s gone through in the short time we’ve been gone, and I can’t do that to her.”

  “We need her—and we need to know what she knows.”

  “What happens if she doesn’t know anything?” Haern frowned at him, and Daniel looked down at the Forgers. “It’s possible that she won’t know anything. She might not have been brought around anyone who can be of any use to us.”

  Haern nudged one of the Forgers. “This one knows where my father is. I could see it on his face when Galen was questioning him, but he refused to answer the questions.”

  Daniel cocked his head to the side, trying to work through what Haern had plotted. “Let me get this straight. You intend to release one of them to alert Lucy to our presence. You want to keep the other man confined. When Lucy comes and finds us, you intend to attack her—your friend—and administer a known poison that will prevent her from using her abilities, and then you intend to allow her to recover those abilities so that she can Read this other Forger.”

  Haern flushed a little bit. “When you put it that way, it doesn’t sound like the best plan.”

  At least he didn’t need to feel quite so bad about not coming up with the plan. It was a terrible idea. “It’s not a plan at all. Something could go wrong at any point along the way.” He shook his head. “I’m all for doing what we can to get your father back, but I’m just not sure Lucy is the key to it. I think we need to rescue Lucy for the sake of rescuing Lucy.”

  Haern leaned back and let out a deep sigh. “I was just trying to do what I thought Galen might do.”

  “But you’re not Galen. You’re not even your father. You’re Haern Lareth.”

  Haern glared at him, holding the dart out from his body as if he wanted to toss it at Daniel. “No, if I were my father, I would’ve been able to take care of all this.”

  “Even that’s not true. You can’t compare yourself to him like that. Your father was captured. Even he was overpowered by the Ai’thol.” When Haern frowned, Daniel shrugged. “That’s what Carth called them. They’re a people she’s known for a long time. She claims the Ai’thol have created the Forgers, much like they created the Hjan.”

  “For what purpose?”

  Daniel shrugged again. “I don’t know. I don’t know about any of this. Everything we’ve uncovered so far leads me to realize how very much out of our depths we are.” He breathed out, staring at the Forger and wondering if there was any way he could get the needed information from the man.

  “I guess I am too,” Haern said. “I thought I had a plan that would work, but you’re right. It wouldn’t. And without Carth or Galen or my father, we have no way of helping the people we need to help.”

  Haern turned and started away from him, and Daniel grabbed him before he was able to leave the room. What was he thinking? Was he about to try and cheer up one of the Trelvraeth? “Think about what you’ve done so far. You found the person you came looking for.”

  “By chance.”

  “Still. You found her. That’s the first step in finding your father.”

  “Carth didn’t know how to find him.”

  “Not yet, but I’ve spent a little time around her, and I suspect that, with enough time, she can figure out where he is and how to get to him.”

  “Oh,” he whispered.

  Haern frowned at him. “What is it?”

  “I think I’ve been looking at this the wrong way.”

  “How so?”

  Daniel looked up. “We’ve been looking at it as a rescue mission. You’ve been planning to figure out how to save your father, and I’ve been wanting to help Lucy. But what if that’s the wrong approach?”

  “You don’t think we should save my father and Lucy?”

  “No, that’s not it a
t all. What if the Forgers wanted to lure us out of the city?”

  “But most of the guild remains in the city.”

  “I don’t know her well, but can you imagine your mother sitting back and doing nothing while your father is missing?”

  “I suspect she would have been doing everything under her power to try to figure out a way to go after him.”

  “That’s my point. If she did that, if she was organizing all the resources she could in order to find him, it’s time that wasn’t spent trying to figure out what to do for the Elder Trees.”

  “I thought you said nothing could be done.”

  “Maybe not—not without your father.”

  “I still don’t see your point.”

  “My point is that Lareth is the only person who might be able to save the Elder Trees, but he’s also the only person who can go in and grab each of the sacred crystals, since he’s the only one who’s ever handled each of them.”

  “Isn’t that what they did the last time?”

  “They did, but they failed. And if what Carth has said about them is true, they don’t take failure very well. They would have been spending the last twenty years trying to figure out a way to succeed.”

  “I fail to see how this has anything to do with getting my father or Lucy back.”

  “What if it’s not about getting them back? What if it’s about stopping them from breaking in?”

  “My father wouldn’t do that.”

  “And neither would Lucy. Yet, if the Forgers have figured out a way to control them—including your father—what else could they have done?”

  Haern looked down at the Forgers. “I think I know a way of finding out. They’re going to answer.”

  “I thought you said they didn’t answer Galen.”

  “But I’m not Galen.”

  “Which means you don’t know how to control the levels of poisons you use.”

  Haern smiled. “Exactly.”

  He pulled a couple of the darts out of his pocket, rolling them between his fingers. “Galen told me about several of the poisons he used. I don’t know that I have any way of mastering what he used, but maybe that’s the point.”

  Haern reached underneath the filthy bed, pulling a small box out. He sorted through it, looking at the various vials before returning them. Each time, he shook his head, as if disappointed with what he was finding.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Something that might work.”

  “How much time did the two of you spend talking about poisons?”

  Haern shook his head. “Not nearly enough.”

  After filling darts with whatever poison he’d selected, Haern leaned back, crouching as he rolled the dart between his fingers. Every so often, he spun around. The intensity on his face was unlike anything Daniel had seen from him before.

  After a while, one of the Forgers stirred. Haern leaned forward, crouching over him. There was almost an eagerness to him.

  “Haern?”

  “Not yet,” he said.

  “I just wanted to make sure that you knew what you were doing.”

  Haern glanced over his shoulder. “If we get Lucy back, does it really matter?”

  As the Forger came around, he glanced from Haern to Daniel, a grin spreading on his face. “Where is Galen?”

  “You get to deal with us.”

  “Should that alarm me?”

  “Considering I don’t have the same knowledge of what concentration to use, I’d think it would at least give you pause.”

  The Forger glanced at the dart Haern held in his fingers.

  Haern nodded. “I’ve learned enough from Galen to know what hurts, but not enough to know how to counter it.”

  “You don’t have it in you. Galen is another matter. He has a ruthlessness to him. It was why Carth found him so valuable. You are nothing but a child.”

  “I’m a child who doesn’t know anything about how to administer poison. You will talk, or you will suffer. It doesn’t matter to me which choice you make, not after what you’ve done.”

  The Forger smiled. “And what have I done?”

  “You have attacked the Elder Trees.”

  “Did we?”

  “You can’t deny it.”

  “I don’t deny that we have tried, but there has always been a barrier preventing that. Now…”

  “Where is Rsiran Lareth?” Daniel asked.

  “Lareth will pay for what he has done.”

  “What he has done? He has protected his people.”

  “Lareth hunted my people. He is responsible for destroying lives. It’s because of Lareth that others have suffered. Countless others.” He said the last with a dangerous smile that left Daniel shivering.

  “It’s because of Lareth that the people of Elaeavn still live,” Haern said.

  Daniel stared at this Forger. Even the ones Carth had captured hadn’t seemed to have this man’s hatred burning within them. He disliked Lareth with a passion.

  “You intend to use them to capture the crystals,” Haern said.

  “You figured that out all by yourself?”

  “When?”

  The Forger chuckled. “You might already be too late. And it will be sweet revenge for the one who has prevented us from reaching them all these years to be the reason they are returned to my people.”

  “The Forgers or the Ai’thol?” Daniel asked.

  The Forger’s eyes narrowed. “Do not speak of what you cannot understand.”

  “And why can I not understand the Ai’thol? You’re the reason others suffered. The Ai’thol have created the Forgers, much like they created the Hjan.”

  “Is that what Rel told you? Rel likes to believe that she understands the game, but she has only seen a small part of the board. Without seeing the rest, there’s no way for her to understand the extent of the machinations we’ve done. She cannot even grasp the depths of our planning.”

  Another reference to a game. What was it with them?

  It was a question he would have to ask Carth when he next saw her.

  “You still fear her,” Haern said.

  “We would be fools not to respect Rel.”

  “But not my father?”

  “Your father…ah. That is why you search for Lareth. I have wondered about your interest in him, but it begins to make a certain sort of sense.”

  “Haern—” Daniel started, but Haern shook him off.

  Daniel didn’t like the way this was going. Haern was agitated, and this intensity wasn’t normal for him. And it seemed almost as if he intended to attack regardless of what the Forger said.

  “What is your plan?” Haern said.

  “If only you could understand the depths of our planning,” the Forger said. “Unfortunately, the Elvraeth have proven to be too simple-minded. You have remained so focused on closing yourselves off that you have not seen the greater possibilities. Rel saw them, but then, she’s always been somewhat skilled, even if limited.”

  Haern leaned forward and jabbed the dart into the Forger. “I will have answers.”

  The Forger’s eyes widened slightly.

  When sleep claimed him, Haern leaned back, letting out a shaky breath.

  “What did you give him? Did you kill him?”

  “He’s not dead. Galen didn’t leave anything useful. The only thing I have is the slithca, and that’s because he was worried we wouldn’t have anything to use on the Forgers if they woke up and he wasn’t here.”

  “I thought that you were going to…”

  Haern looked up at him. “Do you really think I could torture someone like that?”

  “I saw the look on your face. I didn’t know what you could do.”

  Haern got to his feet. “If you’re right, we need to return to Elaeavn and see if there’s anything we can do to protect the sacred crystals.”

  “What about these two?” Daniel asked.

  “If I know Galen, he will return here when he’s done with…” Haer
n jerked to his feet and looked around. “Come with me.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I think I know how to find Galen.”

  “He’s disappeared.”

  “Only because he must have noticed that Rayen was approaching. Come with me.”

  They exited the building, and Daniel tried not to feel disgust at every place they passed. When they reached the main part of the tavern, heading down the stairs, he looked around. Even the dingy tavern in Eban was nicer than this, and that was filthy.

  “Why did Galen choose this place?” Daniel asked.

  “It was someplace he was comfortable.” Haern shrugged. “I learned not to question him too much. You know, because of the poisons.”

  Daniel smiled despite himself. He shouldn’t be amused by Haern, but he couldn’t help himself. After the tension of trying to stay alive—and find Lucy—there was a strange comfort with him. “I imagine he knows quite a bit.”

  “He studied with Della.”

  “He what?”

  They exited the tavern, pushing the door closed behind them. The street outside smelled only a little better than the tavern, carrying the stench of rotting fish and the sea gusting up to them. Haern glanced over before his gaze went up to the rooftop.

  “Apparently, before he was exiled, he studied with Della.”

  “You think he would use that knowledge in the city?”

  “Why would he need to? He’s Cael Elvraeth’s consort. Besides, I get the sense that he’s not terribly proud of his past.”

  “I don’t understand why he wouldn’t be.”

  “He was an assassin, though I suspect he wasn’t necessarily the kind of assassin you’d expect.”

  “You mean he wasn’t the kind who killed people?”

  Haern frowned. “No, that’s not it. From everything I’ve seen of Galen, I suspect he was incredibly skilled at killing people. It’s just that… I’m not really sure how to explain it. Whatever else Galen was, he did things with a purpose. I don’t know if that makes sense or not.”

  Daniel nodded slowly. “Carth thinks highly of him, so it does make some sort of sense.”