The Coming Chaos

by D. K. Holmberg

  When he pulled the door open, there was a part of him that worried he’d been mistaken and there wouldn’t be anything inside.

  Elise was there.

  When she saw him, she jumped toward him, wrapping her arms around him.

  “When you didn’t come—”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “What happened?”

  “We were attacked.”

  “I thought…” She shook her head, turning away.

  “You thought what?”

  Elise smiled at him, and Haern knew he would do whatever he could to ensure that nothing happened to her.

  “We were attacked around dawn. We’d been safe, thinking you and the others would return any moment, but when you didn’t, we started to get worried. And then we saw the wagons approaching.”

  “And you thought it was us.”

  “We did. We didn’t know who else it might have been.”

  The timing would have been right. “I’m sorry it wasn’t us.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  “It is, though. We knew there were four wagons missing when we approached the other caravan, but we didn’t think as much of it as we should have. We thought perhaps we could figure out where the wagons had gone, and once we did, we could deal with them later. We didn’t know they’d come for you.”

  “What happened to them?”

  Haern shook his head. “I took care of them.”

  He worried that Elise would be offended, but she just nodded. “Good. They hurt Marcy.”

  “How?”

  “They tossed her into one of the other wagons. They were unmindful of the fact that her leg was broken.”

  He should have left one of them alive, if only to question him.

  They needed to understand where these attackers had gotten hold of the lorcith spheres. They seemed like the kind of weapon the Forgers would use, but he didn’t think this was their work.

  “We need to move these wagons and bring them over to the others,” Haern said.

  “The others?”

  “We’re now in control of all twelve of the wagons. I’m not really sure what’s in them—”

  “Haern,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Let me show you.”

  They made their way over to one of the other wagons. When he reached it, he had to pull it open the same way he had the other ones, forcing his sword into it and prying off the padlock.

  Inside, he found the wagon filled with women. They were of all ages, reminding him of the others, the women he’d discovered when he had found Elise.

  “Again?” Anger rolled through him.

  “It seems so,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t really know. They grabbed us, but I don’t know if they knew we were here.”

  Looking at Elise, he knew what he had to ask next would be difficult for her. “Do you think you can help me gather up the people I took care of?”

  “Why?”

  “Because we need some answers.”

  “I think so,” she said.

  Elise jumped back into the wagon and whispered something to a couple of the other women. Together, they joined Haern and went wagon to wagon, pulling the fallen wagon drivers off and dragging them toward the front. Once they were all laid out, Haern realized one of them still lived.

  It was an older man, gray-haired, with pale eyes that were almost silver. He coughed, blood burbling to his lips. Haern had a hard time summoning any sympathy for the man.

  “Is this it?” he asked.

  Elise nodded. “This is all that we found.”

  “What about the other two wagons?”

  “We only knew about the one. They were let out as we were forced in, almost as if to show us what our fate was.”

  “We need to check the others,” Haern said. “Will you watch them?”

  “We will.”

  When he left Elise, he made his way toward the front two wagons. Stopping at the nearest, he pried the lock open. When he pulled it off, he hesitated, worried about what he would find. But if there were other women inside, he was determined to get to them, rescue them, free them from whatever fate might otherwise have befallen them.

  Much like the last two wagons, he found women inside. They were in various states of poor health, and he realized they needed the help of a healer. If he could find Della, maybe he could get them that help.

  If the remaining wagon was the same, he needed to free them.

  When he pulled the door open, a familiar sense drifted out, but it was too late.

  Lorcith.

  And it exploded.

  28

  Haern

  Haern pushed against the explosion as firmly as he could, worried he wasn’t fast enough. Shards of lorcith streaked toward him. Had he not been healed and well rested, he wasn’t sure he would have survived. Instead, when the explosion slammed into his barrier, he was able to repel it by pushing against it using his connection to lorcith.

  He was helped by the confines of the wagon. He didn’t have to encircle the spheres the same way as he had when it was outside. But if he could somehow trap the explosion, it was possible he could use one of these spheres.

  Haern pushed even harder, trying to force the explosion back around the spheres he detected, and there were several of them.

  He wasn’t sure if he was fast enough.

  The metal strained against him, exploding outward, and despite his every intention to hold it within the sphere, he didn’t think he’d be able to do so.

  Instead, Haern let the nails drop to the ground.

  When the pressure from the explosion eased, he took a step back, breathing heavily, and stared at the inside of the wagon.

  It had somehow been triggered.

  There was no one inside the wagon, at least no one that he could see, which meant that either someone nearby had triggered it, or it had been set off by the only remaining living wagon driver.

  Haern closed the door, slipping a knife into it to keep it shut until he had a chance to better examine it, and stormed over to where the old man lay coughing. Crouching down, he glared at the man.

  “What did you do?”

  The man rolled his head over to the side, looking up at Haern. When he saw him watching, he grinned. “You won’t be able to stop this.”

  “We already have stopped it.”

  “Have you? You are children playing at war.”

  Haern grabbed the man by the shirt, forcing him to look at him, and shook him briefly. “What did you do?”

  “Only what had to be done.”

  “You think your lorcith spheres will stop me?”

  The man coughed, blinking. For a moment, clarity returned to his eyes.

  “That’s right. I know exactly what you’re trying to do with those lorcith spheres. And let me tell you: I can stop it. I will stop you.”

  “Will you?”

  The man coughed again, bloody phlegm burbling from his lips, and then he took no more breaths.

  Haern let him go, and the man sagged to the ground, dead.

  Haern got to his feet, looking around at the others. So many were dead, killed because of him, but there was something he was missing.

  Had he not acted in such anger, maybe he would’ve figured it out. Instead, he’d slaughtered all of them, rage filling him, driving him to act in a way that would ultimately prevent them from acquiring the answers they needed.

  It was a mistake, and he knew it was a mistake, and yet he had done it.

  “It’s okay,” Elise said.

  Haern got to his feet, staring at the others. “It’s not.”

  This was the kind of thing his father wouldn’t have done. His father might have discovered what they were doing, and he would’ve figured out some way of stopping them, using his control over lorcith and Sliding in order to better understand what they were after. Haern had lost control.

  Maybe the old man was right. Maybe he was not
hing more than a child playing at war.

  “We should rejoin the others,” Haern said.

  Elise turned away. Haern didn’t have to worry. She would organize the rest, getting everybody together, prepared to depart. It didn’t take long for her to establish order. She was good at it, and in very short order, the wagons were reloaded, though none of them had their doors locked. Slats over windows were open, letting air flow into the backs of the wagons. Haern, Elise and the others who had traveled with him from the beginning took up seats on top of the wagons, leading them.

  Haern said nothing as they traveled. Every so often, Elise would glance over, and she patted him on the arm before taking his hand and squeezing it. It did little to comfort him and instead left him feeling as if he had let her—and the others—down. It was ridiculous, he knew it, but he couldn’t shake the sense that there was a greater plot afoot than he understood. By slaughtering the wagon riders, he’d lost the opportunity to uncover what that plot might be.

  When the other wagons came into view, tension rose up within him.

  They slowed as they neared, and for a moment, Haern had a sneaking fear the attackers had somehow escaped from Galen and Rayen. But when they approached, Jayna, Stacy, and the rest of the women who had left the camp with Haern all came slowly forward.

  Jayna looked up at him, and he shook his head.

  Haern pushed off, heading toward the center of the camp. When he dropped down, Galen joined him.

  “You look as if you have just made a bad kill,” Galen said.

  “Is any kill a good kill?”

  “You and I have talked about how there are some people who really shouldn’t live.”

  “I think I found them.”

  “What happened?”

  “There was another attack. I found them locked in the back of the wagon.”

  “And you rescued them.”

  “I did, but I’m not sure it was the right thing to do. In rescuing them, I killed the attackers. When I did that, we lost the opportunity to understand what they were after.”

  “What do you think they were after?”

  “They had a wagon filled with the lorcith spheres.”

  “And you want to know why?”

  “I think we need to. I’ve encountered enough of them during this journey, I think we have to understand why.”

  Galen looked around. “It looks like you have someone there waiting for you.”

  Haern glanced over to see Elise watching. He waved her over. “Galen, this is Elise. She is—”

  “Important to you. I see that.” Galen reached out his hand, taking Elise’s. “Sometimes you have to leave home to find something to care about.”

  Galen was looking at Elise, but it felt as if the words were meant for Haern.

  Haern smiled to himself, thinking that Galen had left Elaeavn and met Cael Elvraeth.

  “You’re the one who taught him.”

  Galen shrugged. “I’ve done what I can, but Haern has a mind of his own.”

  “He says you’re a Healer.”

  “There was a time I could claim that, but lately my talents have been used in a different way. Unfortunately, it’s not always for healing.”

  “I have you to thank for the fact that Haern knew enough to save us.”

  “I think you can thank Haern.”

  As he looked around the clearing, Haern couldn’t help but wonder about what the other man had said. There was something Haern was missing. Why would the man have seemed so smug?

  Elise glanced over at him, seemingly noticing his discomfort. “I’m going to check in with Jayna,” she said. Turning to Galen, she nodded politely. “It was wonderful to meet you.”

  When she was gone, Galen frowned at Haern. “What is it?”

  “It’s something a man said.”

  “I presume this is one of the men you killed.”

  “It is. What’s going on with these spheres?”

  “That, unfortunately, is a long story.”

  “Do you think we don’t have the necessary time to tell it?”

  “It’s not so much about having time.” Galen sighed, looking around. “You’ve been gone a while. There have been a few developments.”

  “In Elaeavn?”

  Galen nodded. “Daniel Elvraeth discovered why the C’than attacked the Elder Trees.”

  When Haern had been there last, the strange metal burrowed into the trunks of the trees had solidified, sinking even deeper into them. In that regard, it was similar to what had happened to the metal that had absorbed into his hands, changing not only him but the nature of his abilities. With the way it had worked on Lucy, he couldn’t help but worry that the metal would somehow change the nature of the Elder Trees, and yet, other than his father, there wasn’t anyone who could do anything about it. Even Rsiran hadn’t known whether anything could be done. Now that Haern had a greater connection to lorcith, he had to wonder if perhaps he could influence that lorcith.

  “What reason is that?”

  “They were drawing off the power of the sacred crystals, funneling it away. And they would have succeeded, but he uncovered what they were doing.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “I don’t really know why the Ai’thol do anything.”

  Only, it wasn’t the Ai’thol who’d attacked the trees. It wasn’t the Ai’thol who’d attacked Elaeavn. It had been scholars, presumably, the C’than, and they existed in order to protect power—at least, that was what they claimed.

  “If you uncovered it, were you able to stop it?”

  “We stopped part of it, but the power is still being funneled away.” Galen scanned the clearing for a moment before turning his attention back to Haern. “It really should be someone else speaking to you about this. Maybe your mother. But there’s something more taking place, something much greater.”

  “We have suspected the Forgers had a plan.”

  “This is more than just a plan.”

  Haern spun to see Rayen approaching. There was a hint of darkness swirling around her, the shadows she controlled. It had been a while since he’d seen anything like that, and now when he looked at her, he couldn’t help but think that the nature of the shadows seemed to be more tightly controlled than it had been. Was that because his connection to his Sight had changed, or was it because she was stronger with the shadows than she had been the last time he’d seen her?

  “I’m glad you found me,” Haern said.

  “You tried to kill yourself.”

  Haern focused on where the sphere had fallen in the center of the clearing. There were still nails staggered around here, regardless of how many he had pulled on and used in his attack on the remaining wagons. “I wasn’t trying to kill myself. I was trying to stop an attack. I’ve been escorting several dozen women, hopefully to Asador, where they could get shelter.”

  He held Rayen’s gaze, worried that perhaps she would decline his request. If she did, it was unlikely that Carth would agree. This was what he’d wanted. He’d hoped they would allow him to bring these women to Asador, to reach the Binders, but if they didn’t, then everything he attempted would be for nothing.

  Haern wasn’t going to leave them. He would find some other way to ensure their safety, but it would be more difficult. Then again, Haern had some experience with difficulty these days.

  “So I have come to understand.” Rayen glanced toward the wagons. “And now you have brought more.”

  “If that’s a problem, Rayen, I—”

  Rayen shook her head. “You really don’t understand the nature of the Binders, do you?”

  “Probably not as well as I should.”

  “When Carth started them, she did so in a similar way to what you’re doing. Perhaps not quite so messy or violent, though even I’m not sure I know the thruth about that. I haven’t heard all of the stories. It’s a way for us to offer an element of protection.”

  “That your way of telling me you’ll help?”

  Ra
yen smiled sadly. “Unfortunately, my task is not yet complete. I need to go with Galen and the others in order to end this, but you may continue your journey.”

  “I didn’t realize I was asking your permission.”

  “Is that not what you were doing?”

  Haern shook his head. “If the Binders weren’t able to offer any protection, then I was going to have to find some on my own.”

  Rayen stared at him for a moment before glancing to Galen. “He’s more like you than Rsiran.”

  “Is that such a bad thing?” Galen asked.

  “Your influence is clear.”

  “I have been working with him.”

  Rayen chuckled. “Obviously.” She spun, turning to Haern. “When you reach Asador, go to the Red Thistle. You will recognize it when you see it, and inside, there will be an older woman—heavyset, short, good with the spoon—who will offer you all the help you need.”

  It would’ve been easier had Rayen been willing to come with him, but then, he understood that she had another role.

  “What is it you and Carth are up to?” he asked them.

  “There is another Elder Stone.”

  “I thought there were quite a few Elder Stones.”

  “This one is different,” Rayen said. “This is one that we haven’t identified.”

  “Is that why you’re here?”

  Galen glanced to the wagons. “We caught word of items transported, and we thought to investigate.”

  Haern was thankful they had. If they hadn’t, it was likely he wouldn’t have survived. The fact that they had someone with them who could Slide them here made it so much easier. Given Lucy’s new powers, she could Slide all of them to Asador, couldn’t she?

  Even if she could, Haern wasn’t sure that was the right strategy. There might be a better way.

  The other women wouldn’t enjoy being transported by a Slide, and he couldn’t force them. Besides, with as many as there were, even with Lucy’s enhancements, it was possible she wouldn’t be able to Slide all of them at one time.

  Then again, he didn’t know the limits Lucy had. If her abilities were augmented the same way his had been, with her power becoming so much greater, it was entirely possible that she could Slide everyone at the same time.