Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4) (20 page)

Trees stretched high overhead, the enormous sjihn trees that were only found this deep in the Aisl Forest. The Aisl had once been home to his people, but they had long ago moved to the shores, with Ilphaesn towering in the background. There had always been a part of Rsiran that wondered what it would have been like to live in the Aisl. The trees gave him a sense of peace, and a sense of safety that he didn’t have, even in his smithy. It was why he had chosen to come here with his Slide.

The massive lump of lorcith rested on the ground, as if it had always been there.

Rsiran pushed on it but it didn’t move, and he found the metal surprisingly warm. How many men must it have taken to simply drag it up the mineshaft? If he couldn’t even move it, he imagined there must have been a half dozen, possibly even more.

Here it would be safe. And then what?

Rsiran didn’t know what he intended for the lorcith, only that he couldn’t have left it in the mines. It was too large to work in his forge. He remembered the massive lorcith doors in Venass. They must have been crafted in forges much larger than any that were found in Elaeavn.

He stared at the lorcith, content that it would be safe for now, and realized that it was time that he return to Della. Jessa would be angry that he’d been gone as long as he had.

With one lingering glance at the lorcith, he worried who mined in Ilphaesn, and why lorcith was suddenly allowed to be removed when it had been restricted for as long as he’d been alive.

R
siran returned
to Della’s home, drawing himself in the Slide. This time, now that he was not carrying the weight of the lorcith with him, it took him quickly, with a familiar sense of movement. He tried to take a moment to watch the Slide, but he emerged before he had the chance.

Not for the first time, Rsiran wondered what existed in that space between places. Always it had felt as if there was something else there. Before, he had seen nothing but colors, but with the gradual improvement in his Sight, he came to see shades and shapes that hadn’t been there before. The only time that he’d come close to knowing had been when he had resisted the influence on his Sliding.

When he emerged, Jessa assaulted him. “Where have you been?”

He grabbed her fists before she had the chance to hit him again, lowering them and pulling her into a soft hug. She stiffened before relaxing. Della sat by her hearth, rocking comfortably in her chair, a mug of steaming mint tea in her hand.

How long had he been gone?

“Were you able to influence my Sliding?” he asked Della.

She glanced over, an amused smile quirking the corner of her mouth, and her gaze flicked to Jessa. “I think you might want to answer her question first, don’t you?”

“Ilphaesn,” he said. “I thought I should go someplace far enough away that if she could influence my Sliding, I would know.”

“Why were you gone so long?” Jessa asked.

He shook his head. “I’ll have to show you.”

“Show?”

Della stood, her smile fading into a frown. “What did you find?”

“Could you influence my Slide?”

She tipped her head to the side, studying him for a moment. Then she shook her head. “I could feel the ripple when you traveled from my home, and subtle shifts when you were away, but then nothing more.”

Had he stepped into the Slide when he left? He couldn’t remember. But while in Ilphaesn, he thought that he could Slide without her noticing, but she had.

But then she had detected nothing. With as much as he carried, how could that be?

“You didn’t detect anything?” he asked. He sat down and took the mug of tea Della pulled off a tray and offered to him. It smelled different from the usual mint that she gave him, more potent in some ways. “Not even when I returned here?”

She took a sip. “There were no ripples. It was as if you didn’t travel. This is heartstone?”

He glanced at Jessa, feeling a growing excitement. If he could
pull
himself rather than stepping into a Slide, would he be able to mask his presence? Then he wouldn’t need to carry the heartstone sword with him, fearing that the Forgotten or that Venass might
pull
him toward them.

“Not heartstone. You sensed me Sliding while carrying heartstone. Could you influence that?”

Della pursed her lips. “No.”

Rsiran smiled. Could he have found a way to move safely? To Slide without worrying about the others affecting him?

That would be a way to safety. Then he wouldn’t have to fear Sliding, to fear how he traveled, or worry about what might happen, and where he would emerge.

Jessa stood behind the counter and tapped her hand on it. Rsiran recognized her agitation. He should have returned sooner, but he got caught up in what he discovered in the mines.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t come back sooner. When I went to Ilphaesn, I sensed something different with the lorcith. I wanted to look, to see if I could understand.”

She smacked him on the chest. “You can’t
see
anything in the mines, Rsiran! You might be able to detect the metal there, but when it comes to actually seeing what’s going on, you’re—”

“Not anymore,” he said.

“You said your Sight had improved, but the mines are black. Even to me there is nothing but shades of color. You want me to believe that your Sight has gotten so good that you can now see in the dark?”

Della watched him, her hands clasped together over her lap. Rsiran hadn’t shared with her the changes to his Sight, but she had told him that when she had once held the crystal, her ability had changed. What had she said? That she was able to see those that she was meant to help Heal?

“It’s like the sword,” he started.

“There was nothing about the sword,” Jessa said. “Neither Brusus nor I saw anything!”

“But
I
did.”

Della stood. “What about the sword?”

“When we were in Thyr, we ended up in a small room. It was dark. Too dark to see clearly. But the sword,” he said, pulling his cloak away from the blade, “glowed, giving me enough light to see.” He pulled it from the leather loop on his belt and held it out. He could almost make out the faint shimmering along the blade, but it was faded, muted almost. He wondered if the room was too bright. “And then in Ilphaesn—”

“This is your Sight?” Della asked.

“I thought it was,” he started, but Jessa shook her head. “But if it’s not Sight, then it’s something about the metal for me that is different. Not only heartstone, but the lorcith in the walls of the mine was different.”

“What do you mean that it was different?” Jessa asked.

Della leaned forward.

Rsiran slipped the sword back into the loop on his belt, thinking of how to explain. “When I held the crystal, I had what I thought was nothing more than a vision. It was like I was standing atop Krali, but even higher, as if looking down on the entire land below me. While I was there, I saw dots of light. Some where brighter than others.” He closed his eyes, and he could
see
those lights, almost like a map.

“Where did you see them?” Della asked. She had stood and looked at him from across the counter. Her eyes were drawn, and the wrinkled lines on her face were deeper than usual.

“The white light that I saw was lorcith,” he went on. “At least, I think it was. There was one brighter than the others that I think is Ilphaesn.” The others he had thought were forgings, but from such a height as he’d been looking from—if he had in fact really been that high above the ground—he wouldn’t have been able to see individual forgings, would he? That meant they were other collections of lorcith, unshaped, and possibly not yet mined.

Why hadn’t he thought of that before?

“You can still see them, can’t you?” Della asked.

He nodded. “The vision is there.” It was the same as the map of the mineshafts within Ilphaesn. Were he to close his eyes, he could recreate them if needed, much like he could with the map formed out of heartstone.

Jessa pushed on him and he looked over to her. “That doesn’t explain what happened in the mine. What are you talking about that you can suddenly see in the mine?”

“That’s just it,” Rsiran answered. “I don’t know. When I was there, it was as if the lorcith all around me glowed. The light was bright enough that I could see. Even without the sense of the metal pressing on me, I think I would have been able to see.”

Jessa glanced from Rsiran over to Della. “What happened to him? What did that crystal do to him?”

Was she more worried than she let on? Jessa wouldn’t tell him if she
was
concerned, mostly because she thought to protect him, much like he thought to protect her.

Della sighed and shook her head. “The Great Crystals are a way to power,” she said. “You knew that when you went there.”

“I didn’t want to hold it,” he said.

“No? But you were meant to, otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to reach it. That is how the Great Crystals work.” She made her way around the counter and pulled a jar off the shelf. She pulled out five smooth stones and set them on the counter, arranging them in a circle. “Had you not seen the crystals, I would never share this with you. Even among the Elvraeth, the crystals are closely guarded. Only those with the potential to lead are given the chance to view them, and even then, it is not guaranteed that they will be given the opportunity to hold them.”

Rsiran frowned. “I thought any of the Elvraeth could reach the crystals.”

“Only if they are Seen to have potential. In that way, the Elvraeth serve as another layer of defense for the crystals. As you have learned, they have much power, and in that way, they could be abused.”

“But if not everyone can reach them—” Jessa started.

“Yes, not everyone can reach them, and of those who do, not everyone can hold them. But there are some who fear that others could hold the crystals as well, and be given much the same power. From what I’ve seen, that is true.”

Rsiran stared at the stones arranged on the counter. He could imagine them much like the crystals, the soft blue light emanating from them, with one of the crystals glowing slightly brighter than the others. That light had called to him, had drawn him to reach for it.

What would have happened had he not?

“You mean Rsiran, don’t you?” Jessa asked.

Della sighed. “Rsiran making his way to the crystals only proved that concern for their safety is valid. I did not think that the Forgotten Elvraeth, or even the so-called scholars of Venass would have a way to reach the crystals, but Rsiran managed to make it past ancient barriers long felt secure. The fact that he did makes them vulnerable.”

“But they’re not vulnerable,” Rsiran said. “Only because of my connection to heartstone was I able to reach them.”

“Yes, and how long until others realize that is the key? The Forgotten now know of your ability. Worse, Evaelyn now knows. They will use that knowledge.”

“Do you think there are others with the ability to Slide past the alloy?” Jessa asked.

Della’s face remained neutral. “Others of the Forgotten?” she asked, and shook her head. “That is unlikely. While they may have never lost traveling, not as we have chosen to in Elaeavn, they would need a different set of skills to bypass the alloy. Their contempt for Rsiran tells me that it will be some time before they understand that they’re looking in the wrong place.”

“Then what?” Jessa asked.

The Forgotten weren’t the only ones interested in learning about the crystal. Thom’s attack had proven that. And Thom had thought that they had managed to find the crystal, or suspected that Rsiran would have been able to bring one away from the palace.

The interest Venass showed in the crystals wasn’t what worried him, nor did he worry about their ability with lorcith. Even if they could Slide, there was no guarantee that they would be able to make it beyond the alloy-crafted barrier.

There
was
something about Venass that worried him, especially as it related to his ability.

“My father,” he said. Jessa turned to him, and Della nodded. “That’s what you mean, isn’t it?”

“The Forgotten may not understand how the ancient bloodline of the smiths is important, but I will tell you that Venass are well aware. In that, they truly are scholars. Now that they have seen what Rsiran is capable of doing, they will think to find access to the crystals on their own.”

“You think that’s why they wanted my father?” he asked.

Della nodded. “Perhaps even your sister.”

“But he doesn’t know how to access heartstone. And Alyse…” Alyse had never set foot in the smithy. She would have no more ability to use lorcith and heartstone than Jessa.

“Are you certain? Where do you think your ability comes from, if not from the ancient smith lines? Long ago, our people understood that power and did not take it for granted, but the Elvraeth have forgotten.”

Rsiran looked to Jessa, wondering what it was that Venass might be able to get from his father. Maybe nothing. If that was the case, then it wouldn’t matter, and the crystals would remain safe, but wasn’t it possible that they would use his father to learn how Rsiran managed to Slide past the alloy? Could it really be possible that his father could teach them?

“What ability of the smith bloodline?” Jessa asked. “Does that have anything to do with Thom and whether he Compelled you?”

“That’s the real reason we came here,” Rsiran said. “When we saw Thom, he mentioned that he could hear me. That I was loud. Brusus once said the same thing.”

And he had thought the barriers that he could create protected him.

Della reached across the counter and touched his arm. A cold chill worked up his arm and spread through his chest, before ending in his head. For a moment, the chill lingered before it faded. Della released his arm and stepped back.

“You were not Compelled just now,” she said with palpable relief.

Della might have been relieved, but Rsiran was not. If she had been unable to Compel him, it meant the darkness of the attack had come from him. It meant those men had died at his own hands, not those controlled by another. It meant the thrill that had come from the attack, and from hurting others had been his alone.

And maybe, it meant that his father was right.

Della studied him a moment, her lips tightening into a frown. “You do not seem relieved.”

Rsiran turned away rather than answering. Jessa grabbed at his arm, but he pulled away from her as well. If his ability truly did change him, if there was something about it that made him darker, then he didn’t want to cause her any harm.

Unless it was already too late. He’d brought her into everything that he’d done, subjected her to the risk that he’d chosen, only to see that so much had happened to her because of it. She would never have been abducted by Josun were it not for him. She would never have been trapped in a cell with the Forgotten were it not for him. And now? What fate would she suffer because of what he could do?

“He begins to wonder if his father wasn’t right about his ability,” Jessa said.

Della snorted. “Your father believed the myths that the Elvraeth placed out there, Rsiran.”

“It’s more than that. My father lived outside of Elaeavn. That’s where he met my mother. He would have known others who could Slide. The Forgotten—”

“There is nothing about what you do that is any different from what the Elvraeth once did themselves,” Della said.

“There is everything about my ability that’s different,” he said. “Did the Elvraeth have the ability to control metal? Did they have the ability to kill with a thought?”

Della leaned forward. “You remember what I told you about Evaelyn and why she was banished?” Rsiran nodded. “Then you will know that the Elvraeth certainly did know about how to kill with a thought. With the right Compelling, a person can be made to do many things. And trust me when I tell you that is a far darker art than anything that you could do.”