The Guild Secret (The Dark Ability Book 6) (13 page)

“How did they discover it?”

Without blinking, he held Rsiran’s gaze. “Secrets were taken from the Hall of Guilds that should have remained protected.”

Rsiran blinked, taking a step back.

Could it have been
his
fault that Venass discovered shadowsteel? Was it
his
fault that the Elder Tree died?

If so, the responsibility for stopping Venass from using it was his and his alone.

But how would he find the missing crystal and focus on stopping Venass at the same time?

“
A
dangerous thing
that you did.” Della stood near her fire, nursing a cup of her mint tea, an orange and blue-striped shawl hanging around her shoulder. A slender metal pin—grindl and iron, he noted—held her hair in place.

“It was necessary,” Rsiran said. “I should have done it when we first realized the Elder Tree was dead.”

He leaned on the counter, wiping his hand absently across the crushed powder of herbs that remained. The aroma of the mint tea reached his nose as he did, but there was a sharp note—either pine or something that reminded him of whistle dust—that mixed in as well.

She shook her head. “Not dead, I don’t think.”

“There’s no power to the tree like there is with the others.”

“Perhaps not the kind of power that you can see,” Della agreed, “but the tree itself still lives. That gives me hope that it can some day be salvaged.”

“How can Rsiran help the tree?” Jessa asked. She sat in a chair with her legs bent up, and her arms wrapped around them. Her eyes appeared tired, and her brow remained in a constant familiar crease of worry. She’d not found any sign of Haern. Rsiran hadn’t expected her to.

“Ah, you ask questions that are beyond me.”

“I thought you could See things like that,” Jessa said.

“I can see many things, girl, but you have witnessed the limits of my abilities.”

“No more secrets, then?” Rsiran asked. He pulled one of the canisters to him and opened the lid, inhaling a pungent odor before sealing it closed again.

“I think I still have a few things you could learn.” Rsiran arched a brow. Della couldn’t continue to withhold information from them, especially with what he had already learned. “Maybe not about the guilds or the Elvraeth—you seem to be getting plenty of firsthand instruction there.”

Rsiran tapped on one of the jars on her counter. Inside was a thick liquid, one that reminded him of the vial that Brusus carried with him. What had she made for Brusus?

“Why was what Rsiran did dangerous?” Jessa asked.

Della sighed and took another sip of her tea. “The crystals were our people’s first connection to the Great Watcher. Now that he’s held one of the crystals twice, Rsiran knows that. They are the reason our people have the abilities we do.”

“You mean the reason the Elvraeth continue to have the strongest abilities,” Jessa said.

Della nodded. “The crystals unlock potential within those who hold them. Rsiran has experienced that as well.”

Jessa shook her head and turned toward the fire, staring into it. When Rsiran had returned to his smithy from the crystal chamber, he’d found Jessa there. She had learned nothing about Haern’s whereabouts, almost as if he had simply Slid from Elaeavn. Either he didn’t want to be found, or something had happened to him. Rsiran knew that she worried about the woman who had come for Haern in the Barth and what she might have managed to do to him, regardless of Rsiran Sliding her from the city.

“The Elvraeth have more abilities to begin with. The rest of us without abilities never have that opportunity.”

Della chuckled and Jessa jerked her head around to her. “How do you think the rest of our people manage abilities? Your Sight is pretty powerful. I think Haern would agree that his ability as a Seer is potent. All within the city have some aspects of the Great Watcher’s abilities.”

“Not all,” Rsiran corrected.

Della frowned. “Perhaps not all. But most do.”

“How?” Jessa asked. She didn’t look up. “The Elvraeth don’t mix with those outside the palace unless they’re Forgotten, and then they’re banished from the city.”

“That wasn’t always the case,” Della said. “But doesn’t change the importance of the question.” She limped to the counter and gently pushed Rsiran to the side as she began mixing a few powders, humming softly under her breath as she did. “The crystals gave the first powers, and help maintain them. Without the connection to the crystals, it’s possible that our people will be cut off from their abilities over time, much like what happens to the Forgotten who live outside the city.” She tapped a thumbnail of powder into a cup. “That is the real punishment of banishment, regardless of what the council would have you believe.”

“Evaelyn and Danis remained plenty powerful,” Jessa said.

“They did, but what of Inna? What of the descendants of the Forgotten born outside the city? Those who lived here and were born here would not lose their abilities, but those too long away from the crystals find their abilities begin to fade. That is why your mother did not have the same ability as her father,” Della said to Rsiran. “Were she born in the city, it is possible that she would have been born with the same abilities as the rest of the Elvraeth.”

Rsiran hadn’t spent any time thinking about what it might have been like had his mother been born within the city, and to a father who was one of the Elvraeth. Doing so would only lead to frustration. In that, he suspected he had only a hint of what Brusus experienced. Had his mother never been exiled, he
would
have been raised in the palace. Brusus had the abilities of the Elvraeth, something Rsiran couldn’t claim, so his frustration had to be much greater than what Rsiran knew.

Thinking about what might have been got him nowhere. Better to realize that he was never meant to have lived in the palace, and better still to forget about his mother entirely.

Rsiran shook himself from those thoughts. “You’re afraid that sealing off the crystals will lead to the same thing happening that happens to the Forgotten?”

Della paused as she lifted a spoon of scarlet powder that smelled of ash and fire to her cup. “I think it’s possible.” She tipped the spoon into her cup and stirred it around. Smoke rose from it and she inhaled slowly. “Equally possible is that nothing will change. You might have done nothing more than protect the remaining crystals. I cannot See the answer.”

“Better than to risk losing another,” Rsiran said.

“I agree. I wonder if the council will feel the same.”

Rsiran sighed. The council hadn’t yet been told what he had done, and even when they found out, there likely wasn’t anything that they could do. Rsiran would have to be the one to remove the protection around the crystal room, and he wouldn’t do that until he was sure the others would be safe, and the missing crystal returned.

“I did what I thought needed to be done,” he said.

“That’s not all that bothers you.”

Rsiran shook his head. “I’m responsible for Venass acquiring shadowsteel.”

Della paused and watched him. “Ephram told you this?”

“When I was looking for a way to stop Josun and snuck into the alchemist guild house, I took some things. I didn’t know then what they were…”

Della’s eyes went distant. “I cannot See.” She sighed. “They would have discovered it, regardless. Danis is too crafty for them not to.”

“Della—”

She shook her head and handed the smoking cup to him. The smoke caught his nose, and Della smiled when he grimaced. “What do you smell?”

“Fire.”

“Too easy. What else do you smell?”

Rsiran took a cautious inhalation, drawing the smoke into his nose. Within the smoke, there were other odors, though they were faint. He detected a woody odor, and one that strangely smelled wet, like moss on a log, mixed with an earthy scent. Other than the smoke, the other odors all reminded him of the Aisl Forest.

The smoke helped clear his head in the same way that working at the forge often did.

“What is this?” he asked.

“You asked if there was anything that I still kept from you, and I told you there was. It’s time you begin to understand more than your abilities, more than Sliding and the metals that you manipulate. Especially as we must find a way to stop shadowsteel.”

“Why does that matter?” Jessa asked.

Della squeezed her eyes closed. “Because I See that Rsiran will go after the missing crystal, and he will find a way to destroy the source of shadowsteel. When he does, he must be prepared.”

Jessa stared at him, her gaze begging for answers that Rsiran didn’t have. He hadn’t told her that he would search for the crystal, but what choice did he have? He knew how powerful the crystals were, and if one of them reached Venass… Rsiran didn’t want to think of what they would manage to do with it.

“I think what Haern has been teaching me should be enough.”

“Perhaps for what you have faced, but not for what you will. I don’t know why, but I must teach you some of what I know of herbs and medicines.”

Jessa stood and made her way over to the counter. “Why do you think that? You’ve never offered to teach before.”

“I’ve taught before,” she said softly. “And for the same reason, I fear.”

“Do you See something about Rsiran?” Jessa asked.

The old Healer shook her head. “With his ability, I have never been able to See him well.”

“Then what is it? Why do you think you must show him this now?”

“Because I See it of myself. If I don’t, those you care about, and those I care about, will suffer. For this reason, I must show Rsiran what I know of medicines, and he must learn how those medicines can be used as poisons.”

“Poisons?” he asked. When Della nodded, an amused grin crossed his face. “Like what Haern did?”

Della sighed. “Not
quite
like Haern, I suspect, but close enough that it might not matter. Regardless, you must pay attention to what I will show you.”

“I don’t have time for this,” he said. “I need to be focused on shadowsteel.”

Della touched his arm. “Trust what I See, Rsiran.”

There was a pleading note to her voice that he’d never heard from her before.

What
else
had she Seen but not shared with him?

T
he council chamber
had an ominous air to it today. For the second time, Rsiran stood before the Elvraeth council, but this time, he actually worried about what they might say to him and how they might react to what he had done. And regardless of what they wanted, there was no way that he was willing to release the seal around the crystals.

He wiped his hands on his pants, smearing scarlet powder—idala root, he’d discovered—across the fabric. In the last two days, he had spent nearly every waking hour working with Della. She taught with a fervor and intensity, demonstrating powders to him, showing him whole plants, making him taste things both terrible and sweet, and drink concoction after concoction so that he knew the way they were supposed to taste. Last night, she had dragged him throughout the city, stopping in nearly a dozen different shops where she purchased her powders and herbs, so that he would know what to look for when he sought his own.

The only thing that Rsiran was certain of was that Della knew
far
more than he had ever suspected. Hours of teaching him likely barely scratched at the surface.

Then Ephram sent word of the council requesting a meeting with the guildlords.

His feet thudded across the tiles. His stomach roiled, though he didn’t know how much of that was from nerves about presenting before the Elvraeth council for a second time, and how much came from what Della had asked him to drink moments before he had left. It had been a thick liquid and had seemed to deaden his nerves. Now, he only wished that it had worked better.

Luthan sat in the same chair that he had when Rsiran had first come to the chamber. The old man’s eyes were cloudy, but it seemed as if they were less so than they had been that day. He glanced to Rsiran’s pants, and Rsiran followed the direction of his gaze, noting all the stains from his time working with Della, and wished he had taken the time to change.

Yongar stood behind his chair, his hands gripping the back. His eyes narrowed as Rsiran entered. Sasha and the other woman sat in quiet conversation, and both stopped and looked up when he appeared.

The other guildlords and Naelm were not here.

“I presume you Slid here?” Yongar said.

“To the palace,” Rsiran answered. He had walked from there. He enjoyed the fact that he no longer had to fear hiding his ability to Slide, and did so openly now. As a member of the guild, he enjoyed certain benefits, but both Sarah and Ephram told him that as the guildlord, he had nothing to fear from the Elvraeth. If anything, they had to worry about what he might do. “Does it bother you?”

He shouldn’t ask the question in that way, but Josun had told him how the Elvraeth had tried to tamp out the ability to Slide. At the time, Rsiran had believed it to be an ability granted by the Great Watcher, but now, he knew it to be a gift of the Elders, one that came from the ancient clans. For the Elvraeth to attempt to eliminate it meant that they tried eliminating one of the guilds as well.

“It is a dangerous gift. One that is meant for—”

“Careful with how you finish that statement.”

Rsiran glanced over to Tia and she nodded. She wore a heavy wool cloak pinned at the neck with a broach. Sweat dripped from her brow and mud stained her boots. Where had she been?

“I think the Elvraeth have done enough to stigmatize the guilds,” she went on. “Were it up to you, there would be no guilds, and then where would you be?”

“Probably the same place that we are now.” Naelm strode into the council chamber with Ephram at his side. The Alchemist Guild guildlord stopped next to Tia, twisting his hands together and making a point not to look over at Rsiran. What had they been talking about before they came in? Whatever it was appeared to bother Ephram.

“Where we are is because of Venass,” Rsiran said.

“Indeed? And how is it that Venass managed to find the Elder Trees?” Naelm asked. He took a seat and leaned forward, looking up at Rsiran with a dark frown. “The scholars have existed for decades, and never once have they managed to reach the heart of the Aisl. Before now.”

Rsiran resisted the urge to glance over to Ephram. Had he suggested that to Naelm?

His bracelets went cold and Rsiran scanned the Elvraeth, his gaze settling on a wincing Yongar. Rsiran took a step toward him, ignoring the way that Ephram reached for him. “Is this how you work with the guildlords?” He stopped across the table from Yongar. Why was it that every time he faced the council, he let his temper get the best of him? “You would Read me rather than ask? I warn you… if you attempt to Compel me, you will find a much more severe kind of pain than you experience now?”

Rsiran held Yongar with his gaze until the Elvraeth looked away.

He moved down the table, stopping in front of Sasha and the other woman. They both met his eyes briefly before turning away from him. Luthan nodded, and actually smiled. What did the old man See of him?

When he stopped at Naelm, the Elvraeth stood and leaned into Rsiran. “Do you think you can intimidate the Elvraeth council? You have barely been raised to guildlord. What gives you the right to threaten—”

“Threaten?” Rsiran asked. “I have not threatened the council. All I have done is show that you will not use your abilities against me, much as I don’t intend to use my abilities against you.”

He
pulled
on the lorcith sculptures near the back of the room, dragging them forward. They were exquisitely made, and there was a time when he would have wondered how the smiths had forged them.

“I might not have been guildlord for long, but I will not be intimidated by the council. And if I discover that you have attempted to Read or Compel any of the other guildlords, you
will
face my anger.”

Naelm stared at him before nodding.

“What do you intend to do about the crystal?” Naelm asked. “As guildlord, I’m sure you’re aware that the protection of the crystals is the domain of the guilds. Now that one is missing…”

Rsiran took a step back. Sarah and Gersh had arrived. Sarah watched him with widened eyes, but Gersh studied him the same way the Rsiran might study a lump of lorcith and try to determine what it could become.

“I intend to discover what happened,” he said. Della was right that he would, but not because he worried about the people of Elaeavn losing their abilities. He feared what would happen elsewhere if Venass possessed them. “And find any who might be involved with them.”

“The Elvraeth must be allowed access to the remaining crystals while you search,” Naelm said.

“You can try.”

Rsiran hadn’t tested what would happen to the Elvraeth if they attempted to reach the crystals, but he could no longer Slide to them, and suspected that the barrier he had placed was potent enough to restrict the Elvraeth as well.

Luthan coughed and the other Elvraeth turned to him. “You may as well tell him that we have tried, Naelm. Better yet, ask him what kind of barrier he placed.”

“We can’t hold a Saenr with the barrier in place,” Sasha said.

“Then we don’t hold the Saenr until this is sorted out,” Luthan said. “The only value to the ceremony is the potential to hold one of the crystals. If one is missing, how can we know if the Saenr succeeded? What if the missing crystal is the one required?” A concerned expression passed across his face, almost as if for show. “Would we retest those who fail?”

“That will anger the families,” Yongar said.

Luthan coughed. “More than when the celebrant doesn’t reach the crystal in the first place? How long has it been since anyone even reached them?”

Rsiran hadn’t realized how difficult it was for the Elvraeth to even reach the crystals. Given that, how had one of them disappeared?

“Someone reached the crystals recently,” he said.

The council looked over to him. Naelm spoke first. “I believe that
you
have reached them. The first of the guildlords to be able to do so.” He shot an accusatory look past Rsiran to Ephram. “And they had been safe until then. Why do you think that is, guildlord?” he asked.

Rsiran clenched his jaw to keep from retorting. Something about standing in front of the Elvraeth—men and women he had once feared and admired—brought out a surge of anger. Maybe it was because of what he’d seen, and how they were so willing to simply abandon their own family, banishing them from the city, or maybe it was the staggering display of wealth hidden in the warehouses down in Lower Town, kept from the people of Elaeavn who might have benefited from what the warehouse contained.

“I think years of Elvraeth exiles have finally caught up to you,” he finally said.

“You dare to blame the council for what is supposed to be the responsibility of the guilds?” Yongar said. “The guilds’ purpose is to protect the crystals!”

“I blame the council for the Forgotten. I blame the council for Venass. The crystals would have been safe had neither existed. And I will find what happened to the missing crystal, and I will return it.”

“And then you will restore access to them?” Sasha asked.

Rsiran shrugged. “I don’t know.”

He Slid from the council and emerged outside the walls of the palace.

Rsiran took a few breaths, trying to settle himself. Why had he allowed himself to get so upset by the Elvraeth? He should know better. As guildlord, they might not exile him, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t—or wouldn’t—go after his friends. What would he do if they brought Jessa before the council? What of Alyse? Was his position such that he could protect them if it came to that?

He doubted that he could.

From here, the palace jutted out from the wall of rock. The towers rose high over the city, granting the Elvraeth a view that few within the city would ever have. From below, where it appeared the palace floated, it looked as if the Elvraeth remained above the people of Elaeavn.

It didn’t have to be that way. It
shouldn’t
be that way. Since learning of the Forgotten and of Venass, he had wanted nothing more than to keep them from harming him or his friends. But now that he had a position within the guild, he had a different set of responsibilities, wanting to protect the city. Didn’t that mean he had to protect it from the dangers within the city as well as outside the city?

A flash of light told him someone Slid.

Rsiran waited, expecting Tia to emerge.

When Luthan did, Rsiran stood in shock. “You can Slide?”

The older man chuckled. He blinked, and his eyes cleared slightly, becoming a deeper shade of green. Did he Push, much like Brusus did to hide what he could do? “I understand you have already come across one among the family with this particular ability.” He looked over at the palace and a troubled look came to his face. “Much like those among the guild possess abilities of the Great Watcher, there are Elvraeth with guild abilities.” He sighed. “The council thinks that we must remain separate to maintain tradition, but separate has only gotten us to where we are and no further.”

“Why did you follow me here?”

“So direct,” Luthan said. “A trait that I admire, but one that puts you in direct conflict with the council, I think. You might have taken a different approach with the council, though I can’t say whether the outcome would be any different if you had. The crystal. You intend to search for it.” Rsiran nodded. “It is difficult to See anything when it comes to the crystal, though I suspect that has more to do with your presence than anything.”

“How can you See anything?”

Luthan chuckled. “My Sight is not as bad as it seems, Master Lareth.”

Rsiran shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. You can Slide, so how does that not affect what you can See?”

“It does. I cannot See much about myself. A weakness to most, but one that has given me a particular gift at Seeing what others ignore. Much like when I attempt to See with you, Master Lareth. When I focus on you, there is nothing but swirling colors and darkness, but when I look to the side—” He turned his head so that Rsiran would be barely more than at the edge of his vision. “Then I can See more. You are difficult, regardless. I suspect that comes from the combination of your abilities, but perhaps not.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you should know what you risk, just as you should know what is at stake.”

“I know what I risk if I don’t find the crystal, Luthan. I might not agree with the way the Elvraeth have ruled, but I understand the power of the crystals and the reason Venass can’t possess them.”

The elderly Elvraeth nodded slowly. “Venass. We overlooked them for too long, and then… then they developed the ability to obscure themselves from us. Now we See nothing when it comes to them. From what I can See, they do not possess the crystal.”

Rsiran took a deep breath. Knowing that Venass didn’t have the crystal provided some reassurance. “Can you See where it is?”

Luthan smiled. “The ability is not quite like that. I can’t force it to work on what I want to See. When I think about the crystal, there’s a brightness, an intensity that makes me wonder if we might be missing something. I will have to ponder what that means.” He touched a wrinkled hand to his forehead and massaged. “It is not in Thyr. The brightness… I do not See it there.”

“Where? If you can find it…”

“I can’t pinpoint the location like that. It is not a map so much as it is… colors, I suppose. Flashes of blue in a field of white. I don’t know what it means.”

Rsiran thought that he did, but why would Luthan see the crystal in a field of lorcith unless Venass had claimed it?

But knowing that they hadn’t acquired it yet gave them an advantage, but how much longer would they hold the advantage? At what point would Venass realize the crystal had disappeared? They had Seers whose abilities were augmented with lorcith and heartstone, men like Haern, who would likely know the crystal was now missing.

“I have to find it before Venass does,” Rsiran said.

“I think you are right that they must not be allowed to possess the crystals, but that is not the warning I would give, nor the risk I imply.”

“What is it then?”

“You should know what you risk by going.”