“Not like this. These are poisoned.” And even the poisoning was strange. He still wasn’t certain how the spheres were made, only that they seemed to be created out of a single hunk of lorcith. It would be far too time-consuming for someone to place the nails in individually. More likely, the nails were drawn out of the spheres, which meant that the poison had to be on the surface of it.
He glanced down at his hands. He’d been holding one of the spheres.
What if the poison wasn’t in the nails, but on the spheres?
Could that mean that there was poison on his hands?
He brought his hand up to his nose, sniffing. It didn’t smell like anything other than earth, but there were plenty of odorless and tasteless poisons.
He needed to test it. It was the sort of thing Galen would encourage.
As he licked the tip of his fingers, Elise gasped. “What are you doing?”
“A test.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
Haern smiled at her. “I’m more concerned I might be right.”
His lips began to feel numb. It worked onto his tongue, and then down his throat. Haern waited, worried that the poison might continue to set in, but the effect of it began to fade, retreating as if into nothing.
There was poison, no doubt about that, but it wasn’t nearly as significant when he took it by mouth. Then again, that didn’t surprise him. Galen had taught him that some poisons were far more dangerous when administered into the blood. When he had been pierced by the nails, the poison’s effect had been far worse.
Haern sighed, leaning back. “It is poison, and I think it’s on the surface of the sphere itself, not each of the nails.”
“What does that help you with?”
“Nothing more than a basic understanding of what’s taking place.”
And he didn’t have any idea what poison they used. What he did know was that he needed to be on the lookout for someone who knew both lorcith and poisons.
It was more than just the knowledge of lorcith. It was a knowledge of lorcith that was far greater than almost anyone he had encountered. If he could understand who that might have been, he thought that he might be able to track this down.
In the distance, the sounds of the ocean began to occasionally intrude. He pointed and Elise tipped her head to the side, listening. It was difficult over the creaking of the wagons and the occasional clump and whinny of the horses, but she nodded.
“I hear it.”
“It means we’re close to the water. We’re heading in the right direction.”
Haern was tempted to take to the air, to see if he could uncover anything more about where else they were heading, but he decided against it. There was a certain comfort in sitting next to Elise, riding atop the wagon, traveling with her, that was different than what he had while soaring through the air.
When doing that, he had another sort of comfort. That was one where he felt freedom, the power of the Great Watcher coursing through him, and a connection to his abilities—and his people. Sitting alongside her, traveling like this, he didn’t feel as free, but he felt useful.
There was value in that, value in knowing they needed him.
Every so often, Elise would glance over at him, and Haern would smile at her. When she took his hand, he held hers, enjoying the proximity, the comfort, and the sense of purpose.
40
Haern
Haern hovered. There was a distant sense of lorcith far below him, and he pushed that sense away, holding on to his position, while searching for evidence of lorcith elsewhere. So far, he hadn’t encountered anything.
To his left, the ocean slammed against the shoreline, the steady lapping of waves sending a cascade of white froth along the shore. The wagons were quite a way inland, avoiding the shoreline, careful to stay to the more easily traveled ground. They had been heading upward over the last few days, the ground sloping gradually higher and higher, and he worried they would eventually get to a point where the horses—and the wagons—wouldn’t be able to take them any further. Perhaps it wasn’t the right strategy to follow the water, and yet, it was the only way he could think of to go.
There were no other signs of lorcith spheres.
Haern twisted in the air, looking down at the ground below him. As he did, he took in the sight of the wagons, snaking their way slowly forward. There was something reassuring about the onward movement, and though they didn’t attempt to make rapid time, they were keeping a steady pace.
He had partly expected Galen and Rayen to return. They would’ve known where he was going, and with Lucy’s ability to Slide, she should have been able to track him and the others down more easily, but they either hadn’t tried to do so, or they were caught up with whatever it was they were doing.
Haern started to descend when movement in the north caught his attention.
Pushing his way forward, tracking along the coins, he put some distance between himself and the caravan of wagons. Even doing that left him a little uncomfortable. He didn’t see anything.
That hadn’t been his imagination. He was certain of that.
Haern frowned. He’d been through this before, and each time he’d nearly been surprised by an attack. Could there be someone up here again who might pose a danger to him? He didn’t want to be caught off guard once more. He looked around, focusing on the ground, thinking that if he could catch something shimmering, the telltale sign of a Slide, maybe he would be able to detect what was taking place.
But there was nothing.
The landscape changed, getting rockier as he went higher and higher, and not far from him, it began to descend once again.
It was going to be difficult traveling this way by wagon. As the trail descended, it switched back and forth, a dangerous pathway along the rock. Haern stared for a moment, trying to gauge whether the wagons would be able to pass before deciding he thought they could.
Even if they could, it still wouldn’t be an easy journey.
Maybe they would have to move inland and take a different pathway, but that would involve spending even more time. As much as he hated it, it was the safer option.
Haern turned back and felt the sudden draw of lorcith.
Without hesitating, he shot himself upward, streaking into the sky, holding on to his connection to the lorcith far down on the ground. It was a single coin, and he pushed, sending himself away, but at the same time, he pushed off on the surge of lorcith he detected.
The reaction saved him. He could feel lorcith streaking toward him, but as he pushed on it, it exploded far below him. He held the pressure as the explosion continued and waited until it passed.
When it was finished, Haern descended slowly at first, but then with increasing speed.
He dropped to the ground, looking around him.
There were fragments of lorcith scattered all over. Nails.
When he found the sphere, he made a slow circuit around it. The sphere had been flattened by the pressure of pushing on it. When the explosion had happened, Haern had shifted his focus from the coin to this sphere.
Why here?
As far as he could tell, there wasn’t any connection. This was simply another place along the road that they were traveling. It wasn’t busy, and it was unlikely that others with the ability to use lorcith would even come through here. Either they had chosen this spot on the chance that someone would—or they had known he was traveling through here.
Either way, he was troubled.
Haern took to the air, pushing off on the sphere and the remnants of the nails. He drew upon the nails, using them to help him travel. Once back in the air, Haern looked around, half expecting he would come across someone, prepared for an attack, but there was no sign of it.
Was he mistaken? He’d thought he’d seen movement, but maybe there hadn’t been any.
Haern made his way back to the wagons and dropped back into the seat next to Elise.
“You found another one, didn’t you?”
Haern nodded. “I don’t really understand.”
“It’s almost as if they know you’re there,” Elise said.
Haern nodded. “That’s my concern, too. How can anyone even know where we are?”
“What if they do know?” Elise paused, turning to look behind her. “What do you notice when you’re attacked?”
“There’s a sense of movement, but then I don’t see anyone. The device comes toward me, drawn by my pull on lorcith, and then I detonate it.”
Elise remained twisted so she could look at the caravan behind her. “I wonder if we’re overlooking the possibility that someone with us could be responsible.”
“No one coming with us from Dreshen would do this.” Haern had a hard time thinking anyone among them would have betrayed them like that. They had all traveled together, working to get to safety.
Elise pressed her lips together in a tight frown. “No. I don’t think they would be responsible, but what if the women in the wagons weren’t in danger?”
“We saw what happened to them.”
“We thought we saw what happened to them. At least, we thought we knew why they were captured. What if we were wrong?”
The idea had some merit, but if there was someone working with them, then it would have to be someone who had abilities.
“What would we be looking for?” Elise asked.
“Probably someone who can Slide. Like I said, every time this happens, I feel as if there’s someone there, but then they disappear.”
“What if we test this?”
“How?”
“We make it seem as if you were going off again, and then you sneak back. Either that, or myself and some of the others can keep track while you’re gone. We could keep an eye on the women in the other wagons.” She twisted back to him. “It’s not as though we know those women all that well. It’s possible one of them might be working against us.”
Elise signaled for a stop, and the wagons pulled up. It was late enough that it was reasonable to call it quits for the night. They made their camp, and the women fell into the pattern they had established of building a fire, preparing food, breaking out the casks of water. Haern decided to make his presence known. He walked through the camp, staying visible. If there was someone who was interested in harming him, he needed to draw her out.
Jayna appeared next to him as he slipped between a pair of wagons. “I understand we need to keep watch.”
“If you’re willing.”
“Do you have anyone you suspect?”
“Not particularly. I wasn’t even thinking it would be someone with us.”
“The first time you were attacked was near the wagons, wasn’t it?”
Haern had to think back to when he had first experienced the joy of outrunning the explosion from the lorcith spheres. It did seem like that was the first time. Since then, he had encountered others, and many of them were like this most recent one, no one there, nothing that would suggest there should be anyone around him, or anyone who would even know he was there.
“We need to understand why if it is someone here.”
“By that, you mean you don’t want to eliminate her,” Jayna said.
Haern shook his head. “I didn’t take you for that kind of violent type anyway.”
“If someone’s harming the people with me, I will do what is necessary.”
Haern studied Jayna for a moment. “Thanks.”
“You don’t think that I would protect you?”
“I guess I hadn’t considered it is much as I should have.”
“You’ve been working with us, Haern, working to keep us safe, but it goes both ways. We don’t have your abilities, but what we do have is strength in numbers. And you’re one of our numbers. If someone is trying to hurt one of our people, well, I have no interest in allowing that.”
Haern didn’t know what to say. He chose to stay quiet. There really wasn’t anything that he could say, anyway.
When they wandered by the wagons, Jayna glanced over at him. “Do you detect anything?”
He shook his head. “They’re not storing it here.”
“You think they’re using this ability to quickly go and grab one.”
“Maybe.”
“And it only targets you.”
“It does.”
“That’s interesting. It’s almost as if someone thinks you’re responsible for harming them.”
“Which is why I have to wonder if it’s someone on the wagon we rescued.”
He wandered along the line of wagons, searching for a sense of lorcith, but he came up with nothing. If there was any lorcith there, Haern couldn’t detect it.
When he was done, he rejoined Elise and the others at the campfire. He sat on the outer edge of the circle, Jayna on one side and Beatrice on the other. Both women had taken it upon themselves to keep an eye on him, which he found amusing but also reassuring. They were both quite capable, and every so often, Elise would glance in his direction, but it was the glance she shared with the other two women that made him understand.
They might be heading to Asador for protection, and to gain the help of the Binders, but what if that wasn’t even necessary? These women were behaving more and more like how he remembered Carth behaving, and protecting themselves much like Carth and her people had.
The night passed uneventfully. Every so often, Haern would detect a sense of lorcith, but when it came to him, it was from his own stores, or from the trapped sphere he had stored in the back of the wagon.
When he settled in for the night in the back of one of the wagons, Elise joined him. They pulled the door closed, blocking it from the inside, and he looked at her, smiling to himself. “You’re going to start tongues wagging.”
She waved her hand. “They already wag. Why are you staying in the wagon tonight?”
“Until I have a better sense of who is doing this—if it is someone with us—I felt it was best to stay inside.”
“You’re okay with some company?”
“As long as it’s you.”
She frowned at him. “Who else would you accept?”
Haern laughed softly as she curled into him. “No one else.”
They lay next to each other on the hard floor. He pulled a blanket over him and rested his head on his elbow. In the darkness within the wagon, he was able to make out Elise, but he doubted she would be able to see him very well. She rested her head on his chest, breathing in deeply.
“There was a boy I was fond of back in my village,” she said after a while.
“Are you trying to make me jealous?”
She chuckled, a throaty sort of sound. “No. I remember thinking when I was younger how pretty he was. I remember running around the village, telling my parents how he and I would end up saying our vows before the sacred tree, and that we would one day have a family of our own.” She fell silent, and as she did, she breathed heavily. It took Haern a moment to realize that she was weeping. “When everybody was lost, he was one of them. He and I weren’t close. I mourn what we lost. What everyone in my village lost. And yet…”
“And yet what?”
“When I’m here, with you, or out there with them, realizing they need my help, I can’t help but wonder whether this is what was meant for me.” She started to pull away, but Hearn held her close. “It’s awful, I know.”
“You think you’re awful because you’re thankful we had an opportunity to meet?”
“I’m awful because I recognize that what I went through has changed me in a way I likely wouldn’t have had I stayed in my village.”
Haern rested silently, gathering his thoughts. “My mother used to tell me that she was a thief, but it took a war for her to realize she could be a leader.” Haern smiled to himself. What he wouldn’t give to know what his parents had been like back then. His mother, so confident now, so important for the rest of Elaeavn, and yet, to hear her talk about it, she had been nothing more than a thief. In his mind, she was much more tha
n that, though he knew she didn’t see herself in the same way. What would have become of her had she not needed to learn to lead? He wasn’t sure if she would have grown into the same role, or if she had needed the prodding of the war in order to do so.
What of his father? If he hadn’t been foreced to face the Forgers, maybe he would have remained behind. Perhaps his parents might not have had the roles they had, but then again, Haern might have known his father better.
“I’m glad that we met,” Elise whispered.
He smiled at her. “I’m glad we met, too.” He leaned in, kissing her deeply on the lips.
She kissed back, and as he wrapped himself around her, he felt peace in a way he had not before.
41
Haern
An explosion awoke Haern, leaving the wagon rocking softly.
He slipped on his pants, hurriedly sliding into his jacket, and scooted down the wagon until he reached the locked door. When he opened it, he looked around.
What had happened?
There was the sense of the explosion, and the air had an earthy odor, debris thrown up. From where he stood, he was limited in what he could determine.
Dropping a coin, he pushed, sending himself streaking into the air.
From up here, he could see what had happened. One of the wagons had exploded.
Haern dropped, readying a pair of knives, worried about what had taken place and whether anyone was in danger. When he landed, he set the knives to circling around him, ready for the possibility that he might need to push on them and protect himself, but there was no need.
There was nothing here.
As he made his way around the wagon, he saw no signs of anyone around it. Either they were not in it and therefore unharmed, or the explosion had completely obliterated them.
“What happened?”
Haern spun, almost pushing on his lorcith knives, but saw Jayna nearby. Beatrice was with her, and she shifted her shirt, pulling it back down. Elise ran up behind them, her eyes wide when she saw the wagon. She frowned a moment but then spun and turned off. Most likely she was going to organize the others once again. It didn’t take long for her to realize what needed to be done, and to decide she had to be the one to do it.
The Coming Chaos Page 40