The Heartstone Blade (The Dark Ability Book 2) (25 page)

“Who rules be the most important, now don’t it?”

Rsiran frowned at Shael. “Why?”

But Shael just shrugged.

“You should focus on what you can do, rather than what you cannot. You don’t know where she is. And we can’t help you.” Saying that seemed to pain Firell.

Rsiran swallowed. What did Firell know? “Is she dead?”

Emotion crossed Firell’s face. Anger? Sadness? A mixture of both? “I doubt that he’d take her from you like that. No way to motivate you otherwise. And trust me when I tell you that he wants to use you.”

Shael had said the same thing. Had mentioned Rsiran forging. “Taking Jessa is the way to motivate me?” Rsiran Slid a step closer. “I’ve seen what happens when Josun tries to use people. It nearly killed Jessa the last time. Lianna wasn’t as lucky.”

“Lianna?” Firell asked.

Rsiran nodded. “Didn’t know about her? Josun killed her. Let her go above the rocks. It was Brusus who found her.”

Firell frowned. “Lianna is gone? But it makes no sense to harm her. Doing so only aggravates Brusus and would…” He looked up at Rsiran, eyes going wide. “Listen to me, Rsiran. You must keep Brusus from getting more involved. Doing so only serves their purpose!”

“I can’t keep Brusus from his plans any more than he can keep me from mine.”

Firell swallowed. “Not Josun. Don’t you see, Rsiran? It’s never been about you or me or Brusus or Jessa or even Josun. It’s about the Elvraeth and the Forgotten. And they will use us however they choose all in the name of acquiring power.”

Rsiran felt the lapping of waves as they pushed against the ship. “Just tell me when he’s meeting you.”

“Would now work?”

Rsiran turned. Josun Elvraeth stood leaning against the railing. A wide smile crossed his face.

“
I
thought
you said you had him controlled?” Josun said, his deep blue shirt open wide across the chest, with slashes of crimson ribbon lacing it together. Black pants fit tight over his boots. Rather than anger, amusement crossed his face. If he worried that Rsiran was not chained, he did not show it.

“We do be having him chained. He escaped,” Shael said. He nodded to the chain wrapped around Rsiran’s arm.

Josun Slid past him as another smaller wave made the ship shudder. Now he stood next to Firell and knelt. “You told me those chains were genuine.”

Firell shook his head. “They are genuine. You said you tested them yourself!”

Josun laughed and stood, turning to face Rsiran for the first time. “I suppose that I did. Interesting that he should escape. He continues to surprise me.”

Rsiran shifted the chains as he listened for lorcith, curious if Josun kept any forged lorcith on him, but there wasn’t anything.

Josun smiled and looked at Rsiran. “The blacksmith. You look different than when last I saw you.”

“I do be saying that the last time I saw him,” Shael said. He stood and leaned against the railing of the deck just as leisurely as Josun managed. “You do be knowin’ of his knives?”

Josun tilted his head and sniffed. “I do be knowing. I just have not worked out how.”

“And you no be concerned?”

Josun turned to Shael. “And why should I be concerned about Rsiran? Were he to want to harm me, he would have attempted it by now. And besides,” he went on, a dark smile deepening on his face, “if I am gone, how would he find his… friend?”

Rsiran bit back the rage he felt, pushing it away. Hurting Josun would do nothing to return Jessa to him. “Where is she?” he asked.

Josun looked over and shrugged. “That is not how such negotiations should go. You see, you bargain from a position of weakness. I have what you want. And she is somewhere even you will never find her.”

With a thought, Rsiran pushed one of the knives hidden in his pocket toward Josun.

It whistled past. Somehow, he’d managed to Slide just as a wave pushed on the ship and the knife went splashing down into the water.

“Careful, Lareth, or one could think you don’t truly care what happened to your friend.”

“What did you do with her?” Rsiran asked. He readied another knife. If Josun wanted to taunt him, he wouldn’t hesitate to use the knives to incapacitate him. The last time, the knife he’d used had been poisoned. This time, they were not. That didn’t mean he couldn’t still be deadly.

Josun shook his head. “First, we will begin with what you can do for me. And then, if you complete what I ask, we will speak about what I can do for you.”

“What is it you think I can do for you?”

Josun leaned away from the railing. Wind ruffled his shirt and sent his chestnut hair fluttering. “I wouldn’t ask you to do anything you do not do already. A simple forging, is all.”

“What kind of forging? You’re the Elvraeth. Why do you need me?”

He shrugged. “There are some things even one of the Elvraeth cannot get made. And then there’s your unique ability,” he said, glancing at the knife Rsiran held. “A smith like you has uses. So first, I need a demonstration.”

“I’ve already seen what kind of demonstration you want.”

Josun smiled. “Nothing like that, and nothing that you would not do anyway.”

“What is it?”

“Just a sword. I believe you already know how to make one?” His smile twisted his mouth. “Something similar to that. Only, I would require a personal flourish. You know of heartstone?” He watched Rsiran as he asked and then nodded. “I see that you do. And as you have no doubt learned, heartstone can be worked into your lorcith. The combination is really quite beautiful. This is what I would like my sword made from. This will be your demonstration.”

If Rsiran needed any more proof that Josun was after the alloy, this request confirmed it. “Why do you need a sword like that?”

His eyes hardened. “I want it so that your Jessa can be returned to you intact.” Then he shrugged. “Is that not a good enough reason?”

Firell watched Rsiran and shook his head.

“Not for the lorcith,” he said. Already he had the feeling that he couldn’t make such a sword. Mixing the alloy might be difficult enough. Even with the ability to listen to it, the knowledge he gained there, he didn’t know if what Josun asked was even possible, at least for him.

“You want me to believe the metal cares what shape it takes?” He laughed, his head shaking. “You Lower Towners are so much alike. So quick to believe in such things. It really does make ruling much easier.” His laughter died, and he fixed Rsiran with a dark expression. “Now. As I have said. What I require is the sword. I believe Shael provided you plans for a way to mix the two metals?” He smiled. “Yes, you know what I mean. Once you demonstrate your ability, you will have her back.”

Rsiran hadn’t realized that was what the plans were for, and now that he was more tightly connected to the alloy, he doubted that he would need them. “And if I can’t?”

“Then I will take one of your lovely lorcith knives and drag it across her throat. Her last thought will be of how you failed her. And how you killed her.”

Rsiran tensed but realized that Josun wanted him angry. “How long do I have?”

Josun fixed Rsiran with a dark smile. “You ask the wrong question. How long does she have?”

“How long?” he repeated.

Josun shrugged. “Perhaps a day. Perhaps longer.”

“And then?”

“And then I move on. I am sure I can find other ways to motivate you. Do you think you can complete this task in time?”

Doing so meant forcing lorcith into forgings it would not want. That felt too much like what his father did when working with lorcith, and nothing like the collaboration he had when he worked with the ore. But what choice did he have? To save Jessa, wouldn’t he do anything?

“You will bring Jessa with you when we next meet,” he said.

Josun frowned. “And risk you attacking like the last time? I think you will leave the sword for me, and then I will decide if your work is satisfactory. If it is not, then I might have another task for you.” Josun Slid just as the ship rocked in the waves, moving only a step. “I will find you tomorrow night, Rsiran. And you know what will happen if you are not there.”

With that, Josun Slid.

O
nce more
, Rsiran stood in the smithy. The blue lantern rested atop the table, now devoid of anything he’d forged, spilling cold light around it and pushing back the shadows of the night. Night was for forging. Since claiming the smithy, his best work had been done at night and in the darkness, the thick stone trapping the sound of his hammer. And now, he’d have to do his best work yet, even if he didn’t understand why.

Coals flared hot and angry, heat raising a shimmer of sweat on his arms and face. The orange glow reflected off the gleaming anvil. A massive lump of lorcith sat atop it, waiting for him to place it into the coals, but he had not. Not yet.

Heartstone sat on one of the back shelves. Rsiran could not bring himself to set it any closer. Now that he understood what it did, how it changed the lorcith—and more than any simple alloy—he didn’t want to look at it.

But he had the night. Long enough to create the sword Josun wanted. And if he could do it, then maybe Jessa had a chance.

The schematic Shael had left for him lay folded open on the table. Rsiran still didn’t know how to make what the plans indicated—some way of forcing lorcith and heartstone, he now knew—but did that even matter when he could hear from the lorcith what it would require?

Rsiran sighed. Even if he did this thing, there was no guarantee that Josun would return Jessa to him. Like Firell, he would continue to serve him, praying for the chance that he could see her again as he made more and more of the alloy for Josun.

“You are right to doubt his intentions.”

Rsiran spun. He should not have been surprised to see Della standing behind him, but he hadn’t heard her enter. For a moment, he wondered if she had Slid to the smithy, but she had denied that ability. And he’d never known Della to lie to him. “You knew I had returned.”

She glanced at the fire as she made her way over to him. One hand touched his arm and her eyes closed. She left it there for a long moment. “Something has changed,” she said softly.

He shook her arm off. “Nothing has changed. Only what I must do to reach Jessa.”

“You saw Josun Elvraeth.”

He nodded. “He wanted me to Slide to Firell’s ship. Or expected me to.” Either way, the end result had been the same. It was the only way he could explain how Shael knew to trap him. And he’d thought Firell didn’t know of his ability, but Josun likely told him.

“You have been gone for many days.”

He’d thought as much. Days during which Jessa suffered, wondering if he would come for her. Days spent hanging from the chains in Firell’s ship, cut off from his ability to Slide. From the ability to sense lorcith.

Della gasped.

“You know of them? The chains?” He did not question how she Read him. His barriers were nothing to her, even reinforced with lorcith. Perhaps if he added heartstone to the mix…

“Don’t,” Della said sharply. “Such a thing is dangerous.”

He lifted the chains from the ground where he’d set them upon returning. Rsiran hadn’t wanted to have them touch him any longer. For some reason, they had not prevented him from returning. Only when they pierced his flesh did they seem to work that way. “I’m not sure that it does,” he said softly. The alloy might change the lorcith, but it was not dangerous, not by itself. “What are they?”

“Those chains are an ancient creation, born out of fear and one that never should have been.”

Rsiran felt the pull of the metal on him. Whatever had changed while he stood chained in the darkness let him feel the alloy just the same as he did the lorcith. Only… it gave understanding with it.

“That should not be possible,” Della whispered.

“Nothing I do should be possible,” Rsiran muttered. “So what are these chains?”

“There once was a time when the Elvraeth needed a way to protect themselves. To keep safe from those who could travel. Those”—she waved toward the ground—“were created. And even then, they were rare. Only the greatest of the master smiths could make them. I had thought them long destroyed.”

Rsiran looked down at the chains. “Not destroyed,” he said. “And they work.”

Della nodded. “Many Elvraeth felt their bite. But how did Josun get them?”

“Shael found them for him. I didn’t ask where,” he said bitterly.

“And you? How did you escape?”

Rsiran laughed, the anger and frustration he felt bubbling to the surface. “I’m not sure I did.”

Della watched him, her eyes unreadable. “What does he ask of you, Rsiran?”

“He asks me to make something for him. He says that if I do, he will release Jessa back to me. And if I don’t…” Rsiran shivered, thinking of how Josun described what he’d do to Jessa.

“And you think he will hold true to what he says? That he will release Jessa once you demonstrate your ability to make the alloy?”

From her tone, he knew there was something else. “If I do this thing for him, he says he will release her.”

“Once you do that for him, will it stop there?”

Rsiran hadn’t noticed Della nearing him. Now she stood almost alongside him. She smelled of the mint tea she preferred and looked small and frail. Different from the healer he’d met only a few months ago. That time had changed her, twisted her back, and taken some of the vibrancy from her eyes.

“I don’t know.”

“Can you even do it?”

Rsiran sighed, pointing to the schematic on the table. “That shows how to create the proper forge, only I can’t follow it.” Relief surged behind her eyes. “Doesn’t matter. I think I can ask the lorcith to mix.”

She looked at him strangely. “Is that how it works for you? You must ask the lorcith?”

“For something like this. I could not force it into the alloy, not easily.”

Della frowned, eyes flickering a darker green. “No. I don’t think that you should.”

“Even if it means Jessa’s release?”

Della looked at him. “Once you prove that you can make what has not been seen in centuries, do you truly believe he will release her?”

From the look Firell had given him when talking about Jessa, Rsiran didn’t think it likely. What else could he do?

“I need to get her back.”

“Is this the only way?”

When he looked at her, he saw the fatigue lining her face. The way her eyes wrinkled more than they once had. The tightness to her lips. Even her posture looked more stilted and bent. She waited for his answer, not saying anything. And he knew she was right. This was what Josun wanted.

“I don’t know.”

Della nodded. “Then find another.”