The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5) (13 page)

T
he tavern was busier
than it had been in months. Dozens of people sat around the tables and a bandolist and flutist played an up tempo song, leading a few people to even dance near the back of the tavern. Rsiran stood in the doorway, shocked.

“Close the door!” Brusus yelled and then saw Rsiran. “Damn, Rsiran, you’ve been gone a while. Jessa’s been looking for you. Can’t say whether she’s going to be happy to see you or whether you’ll be too happy to see her.”

“Where is she?” An older couple, both dressed in slightly tattered robes, occupied the table he and his friends usually sat at.

“She’s in the kitchen.”

“Jessa?”

Brusus shrugged. “Not cooking if that’s what you’re asking. I wouldn’t risk all these people coming here for that.”

“They’re here for the food?”

Brusus grinned. “Good food will do that. Can make or break a tavern, you know? Word is finally getting out that the cooking is better than when Gillian was here.”

“This is all because of Alyse?” Rsiran asked as his sister pushed open the door to the kitchen and made her way out, carrying trays laden with food. She moved with a purpose that he hadn’t seen from her since before he’d been sent to Ilphaesn. When Alyse saw Brusus, she nodded sharply to him.

“Ah, damn. She wants me to get moving. Sorry, Rsiran, but we’re pretty busy, so I’ve got to go help.”

As Brusus disappeared, Rsiran couldn’t help but laugh. In the time that Rsiran had known him, Brusus had gone from a thief with many secrets to an honest, respectable tavern owner, now somewhat cowed by his bossy new cook. Rsiran watched as Brusus stopped at each table, chatting for a few moments before moving on to the next.

Rsiran made his way to the kitchen. Heat from the ovens nearly overwhelmed him, but the scents of bread and roasted meat and vegetables sent his mouth watering. He searched the kitchen for Jessa and found her sitting near the back. At first, he thought she was eating, but then, he realized that she was busy scooping food onto plates and arranging it neatly.

She glanced up as he approached, and her eyes narrowed slightly, but she didn’t say anything. From that, Rsiran knew how angry she was.

“Jessa,” he said.

“Don’t.”

She slopped a few more scoops of food onto a plate and set it to the side. Alyse came into the kitchen. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again. She was probably going to warn Jessa not to let the anger of her fiery stare burn the plated food, but thought better of it.

Alyse quietly lifted the plates that Jessa had filled and placed them on her tray. She offered Rsiran an expression much like the one she had worn when their father had wanted to speak to him, one that was a mixture of pity and relief that it wasn’t her.

When Alyse left, Jessa set down the spoon and turned toward him. “Do you even know why I’m upset?”

“Because I didn’t have you come with me?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Because you snuck off without me. You don’t think I know you went back to the smithy? What happens when the guild decides that you’re more of an inconvenience than anything else? Do you think that Brusus will be able to help you when you’re brought before the Elvraeth council?”

“Jessa, the guild knows about me. I was with one of the guild members. What does it matter if I—”

“Just because they know about you doesn’t mean that you go throwing your presence in their faces. They’ve left you alone. For now. But how much longer will that last? And when you don’t help the alchemists this time, do you think they’ll simply leave you alone? They have power, Rsiran,
real
power. Regardless of what Della tells you that you might become, the alchemists and the other guilds hold a different kind of power. The kind that can see
you
exiled. Or worse.”

He had known that Jessa worried about him, but hadn’t really understood the reason that she didn’t want him going to the guilds. Now he thought he might. “You’re not going to lose me,” he said. “Whatever they do, I can Slide us to safety—”

“What about when you can’t? You’ve said so yourself that they keep trying to find newer and better traps for you. What happens when you can’t escape their trap? Some punishments there’s no coming back from.”

She turned away from him and looked back at the pot and lifted the spoon to begin scooping stew onto plates. She said nothing.

Rsiran moved closer, smelling the sharp scent of the flower she wore today, a spicier deep red flower that she wove into the charm. “Seval wants to learn how to listen to the lorcith again,” he said. “That has to be a start of something important, don’t you think? He was like my father, trained to ignore the smith blood side of himself, but if he wants to hear it again, maybe the other smiths will also.”

“Or maybe he only wants to learn your secrets so he can better help them trap you.”

“I don’t think that’s what he is after,” Rsiran said. He touched her shoulder. “We found the boy.”

“The boy?”

“The one I told you about. The boy I couldn’t find when I searched before. I found him.”

“Where was he?”

“In an area deeper in the mines than I knew even existed, and injured.”

Jessa sucked in a sharp breath. “Did you leave him there?”

“He’s with Della. She thinks he was Compelled.”

“I can tell by the way you say it that you don’t. You think you know more than Della? When have you been Compelled to know how it might feel?”

“That’s just it. When
have
I ever been Compelled?”

Jessa lifted the spoon and swung it toward him, sending a splatter of stew at him. “You think you can’t be Compelled? You’re special, Rsiran, but now you’re starting to think that you’re more than special.”

“That’s not it. I think there’s something in the smith blood that protects me. It’s the reason the Forgotten weren’t able to Compel the smiths to make whatever they wanted, they had to find a way to manipulate, to force them.”

Jessa frowned and set the spoon down again. “I don’t know. Look at how Brusus can Push you. Look at how Thom Pushed us both.”

“I think that’s different.
He
thinks that’s different.”

“So now you believe that you’re immune to someone trying to Compel you? What, are you just going to leave
those
off?” She jabbed at his heartstone bracelets.

“They keep me from getting Read too. But that’s not what I’m trying to get at. This boy was crazy. He didn’t want to leave the mine, as if he couldn’t. I remember that he was strange when I knew him before, but this is different from even that. I think—”

“You think whoever is trying to Compel him has made him crazy.” Rsiran nodded, not surprised at how quickly Jessa would have worked it out. “And Della? What does she think?”

“She thinks he’s not right in his mind, that there was something done to him that made him sick. But she’s trying to Heal him too. And she thinks that she can.”

Jessa grunted. “Knowing Della, she can.” She stood up and turned to him, arms crossed over her chest as she confronted him. “I suppose you’re only telling me all of this because you intend to return.”

“Della wants me to go back. If there’s something there that will help us understand what happened to him—”

“That’s not why you want to go back,” Jessa countered. “You think this has to do with the Forgotten.”

“Or with Venass,” Rsiran agreed.

Jessa shook her head. “You’re an idiot, you know that? Why risk ourselves? There are others who have a greater stake in this now. Let the guilds handle it. Great Watcher, let the Elvraeth handle it. It’s their palace they want.”

“You know this is about more than the palace,” Rsiran said.

Jessa shook her head, and her straight brown hair swished as she did. “I’m not sure what I know. This… whatever we’ve been drawn into… this is bigger than us, but that doesn’t mean that we need to worry about it.”

Rsiran watched her, knowing that her anger and frustration was just because she worried about him as much as he worried about her. He would do what was necessary to keep her safe, and if that meant finding the remaining Forgotten and dealing with the threat of Venass, so be it. Once they were taken care of, they could finally have peace of mind. Rsiran could choose to hide in his smithy, or maybe even find one outside the city. But it would be his choice. Jessa could be with him, and they would no longer have to fear anyone coming after him. That was all he wanted.

“I know,” Jessa finally said. “I just don’t like it.”

“I don’t think we
can
like it.”

Jessa sighed. “And when do you want to return to Ilphaesn? I know you’re not planning to wait too long. That’s not the Rsiran that I know.”

“With the boy out of the mine, we can’t wait too long, or whoever might be Compelling him will find out. I don’t want them to know. Not yet.”

“And when they know that we know?”

Rsiran smiled and pulled Jessa to him. “I promise I won’t be alone.”

She nodded and let him hug her and pressed her head against his chest. Rsiran breathed in the clean scent of her hair that mixed with the fragrance from the flower, and prayed they would be able to stop fighting soon.

W
hen they returned to Ilphaesn
, the sun had already climbed above the peak, reflecting off the snow on the top of the mountain and almost blinding him. The air had the same cool bite to it, but this time, Rsiran had worn a thicker cloak. He had a dozen knives with him, half of them strapped to his waist. The rest were tucked into pockets where he could easily
push
on them. The long heartstone sword hung sheathed at his side.

Seval wore a thinner cloak, but had it cinched tightly around him. When they emerged from the Slide, he had released Rsiran’s arm and stepped toward the mountain, tipping his head to the side as if he would hear the call of lorcith already. Rsiran did, but then Rsiran could hear it from Elaeavn.

Jessa refused to release his hand. She had shot him a look when they emerged outside of Seval’s smithy, but had remained silent. Even now, she still didn’t say anything.

“Why here?” Seval asked. “Why not take us into the mine directly?”

Rsiran had considered doing that, but emerging outside of Ilphaesn allowed him to reorient before going into the mines. “Safer this way.”

Jessa pulled on his arm and whispered in his ear when he leaned down to her. “We should have someone else with us besides him.”

“Like Brusus?” Rsiran answered. “He’s too busy with the tavern now. And I can never find Haern when I want to.” Rsiran wasn’t sure that Haern would be much help, anyway, though Seval wouldn’t be, either. He was Sighted, but not nearly as strongly as Jessa. Until he managed to hear the lorcith, that deep in the mines, his Sight—and probably Jessa’s—wouldn’t help much.

“Still.”

“We’re only searching for answers. Nothing more.”

She punched his arm softly. “Now you’ve done it. Haven’t we had our biggest challenges when we go searching for answers?”

“Not this time. If anything happens, we’ll Slide back to Elaeavn.”

“And if you can’t?”

“At least having you with me gives me additional motivation.”

She punched him again, but held tightly to his hand.

“Are you ready?” Rsiran asked Seval.

The master smith nodded, and then pulled back his cloak to reveal a slender sword sheathed at his waist. Rsiran couldn’t hide his shock. Even Jessa sucked in a quick breath.

“You told me a sword would be better. I… I have never made a sword before, but this gave me an opportunity.”

“Not even for the constables?” Jessa asked.

Seval shook his head. “Constables contract with smiths outside of the city for their swords.” He pulled it from the sheath and held it out. The sword was made of steel rather than lorcith or heartstone like those that Rsiran had made, but there was no denying the craftsmanship. Seval had even managed to place a series of decorative etchings into the blade. “I envisioned a knife, only longer.”

“May I?” Rsiran asked.

Seval handed the sword to him, and Rsiran swung it as Haern had shown him, moving through a few quick attack patterns. The steel had a nice heft and balance, though the overall sword was more slender than either of the two that Rsiran had made.

“It’s wonderful work, Seval.”

He nodded and took the offered sword back, slipping it into his sheath. “I must admit that it was harder to make than I expected. Not the actual forging, but fending off the tradition that Elaeavn smiths would not make weapons.”

That had been the same challenge that Rsiran’s father had when he caught him making a sword before he sentenced him to the mines. Rsiran barely had to close his eyes to remember the anger his father had when he’d walked into the smithy and found him forging a sword. Were it not for that moment, Rsiran might never have been sentenced to the mines, and might never have discovered what else he was capable of doing.

“As a friend once told me, anything a smith can forge could be a weapon.”

“Very true. Now. Do you intend for us to walk into the mines, or will you carry us with your ability again?”

Rsiran laughed and grabbed his arm, and then
pulled
them in a Slide, emerging deep within the mines.

Light spilled out from the lorcith in the walls. Rsiran immediately forced the connection back in his mind to dull the brightness. Jessa held tightly to him, but Seval pulled away, drawing a small object from inside his pocket. When he twisted a knob on the object, faint bluish light radiated from it.

“Figured we’d better have something to help augment our Sight,” he said to Jessa.

She nodded, but didn’t release Rsiran. “That’s like the lanterns in the palace.”

“You’ve seen them?” Seval asked. “Not many get close enough to them to recognize. The guild sent this one to me to study when they raised me to the guild. I’ve never figured out the secret to making it, but found it useful enough. And it’s small enough that I can slip it into my pocket.”

Jessa gazed up at Rsiran. “You should have thought of something like that.”

He
pulled
on one of his knives and floated it in front of her. “I don’t need that kind of light anymore.”

“We’re not all like you, Rsiran. Some of us can’t see the magic light coming off the metal.” With the light from Seval’s small lantern, she stepped away from Rsiran and peered around the cavern. “Where did you find him?”

Rsiran found the small piece of lorcith that the boy had mined and picked it up off the ground. As with all lorcith, he heard a soft calling from it, but this had a certain urgency to it that he didn’t detect with other lumps of lorcith. There was something almost like a throbbing, and as he carried it, he recognized how it pulsed in time with a piece of lorcith still in the wall. Rsiran took the boy’s lump over to the wall, and as he did, the light glowing from them both burst more brightly. He nearly dropped it.

“Great Watcher,” he swore.

“What is it?” Jessa asked.

He held out the lorcith. “This. I wish you could see this. When I bring this piece of lorcith together with this one,” he said, motioning to the other nugget in the wall, “the potential increases. Like it’s magnified. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Jessa took the lorcith from him and turned it over in her hands, before reaching it toward the wall much like Rsiran had done. As she did, not only did the light coming from the metal increase, but the song coming from the lorcith came louder. Of course, neither she nor Seval could see or hear what he did.

It couldn’t be an accident that the boy had mined
this
piece of lorcith. Could Venass have used him to find lorcith with the right potential? If so, had the boy been the one to find all of the paired lorcith that they had discovered since learning of Venass?

“I think,” Seval said, stepping between him and Jessa and taking the lump of lorcith from her hands, “I can hear it.”

More than any of the lorcith in the mine, these two pieces together sounded the loudest. When brought together, Rsiran
knew
they had much potential, even if he didn’t know quite what that meant. Venass might choose to use that potential to augment their people so that they were able to use the power of lorcith, but what would happen were Rsiran to forge them?

“What do you hear?” he asked Seval.

“The song. It comes in waves, almost as if there are words. It’s louder when they’re together.”

“I need to remove this piece,” he said to Jessa. “Do you see the boy’s pick? I know it was here somewhere when I pulled it from him.”

“There’s nothing else here,” she said. “And don’t you have a bunch of knives? Even a sword could help. But why do you need a tool at all? Can’t you just
pull
the lorcith from the wall?”

“I don’t think it works like that.”

She sniffed. “Only because you haven’t tried.”

Doubting that it would work, Rsiran turned toward the second lump of lorcith still buried in the wall. Part of the lorcith jutted out, enough that he could grasp it. Had he a pick or hammer, he could chip it from the wall. Rsiran could try his knives, or try chiseling at it using the sword, but what if Jessa was right and that he could
pull
it from the wall.

He focused on the particular piece of lorcith and
pulled
.

Normally when he
pushed
and
pulled
, he did so against something small, and much lighter than him. This time, he
pulled
against the weight of the stone holding the metal buried in the wall. If he could leverage more weight, he might be able to
pull
…

But hadn’t he done that before? Rsiran had used the image of the weight of all of Ilphaesn to
push
on one of the knives before. That was how he had escaped Shael.

Holding the image of Ilphaesn in his mind, he
pulled
on the metal buried in the wall. Rock groaned and then started to crumble. The wall where the lorcith was embedded began to shake, and then, with a burst, the lorcith sprang free.

Rsiran had to shift his focus from
pulling
to
pushing
so that it didn’t knock him out. The lorcith fell harmlessly to the ground.

“Great Watcher,” Seval said softly. “How did you do that?”

“Smith blood,” he answered, but wasn’t sure if that was all it was. There seemed more to what he could do than his smith blood explained.

Rsiran lifted the lorcith and held the two pieces together. And as before, the steady call from the metal sang more loudly. They were smaller lumps than he usually mined, and smaller than what he knew the boy would have been able to find, which made him wonder how the boy had found
this
piece. Unless he had been draw to them because they were paired and had simply not released the second piece before Rsiran found him.

He slipped them into his pocket for later.

“How far into the mountain are we?” Jessa asked.

Rsiran shook his head. It was hard to describe just how far down they were. Jessa and Seval had no sense of the distance because he had Slid them here, not the same way that Rsiran did through his connection to lorcith.

He turned to the wall and pointed to a spot high overhead, out of reach. “If that is the peak of Ilphaesn,” he started, and then brought his hand down about a foot, “and this is the entrance to the mines, we are somewhere here.” He tapped on the wall at a place near his waist. That seemed about right to him, though they might be even deeper underground than that.

“How would he have gotten here?” she asked.

“He’s Sighted. And he can hear the lorcith. I think he followed it.”

“But what would he have eaten?”

“I don’t know. That’s why we’re here. There has to be a reason that he came this deep underground. Why here?”

Seval had wandered away from them and now stared up at one of the walls of the cavern. His eyes went a little distant, and he turned his head from side to side. “I hear it again,” he said softly. “Here. And here.” He pointed to two spots on the wall.

Rsiran Slid over to him and listened to the lorcith. As he did, he realized that Seval was right. There were two pieces of lorcith that resonated together, much like the one that the boy had mined. Like the others, they were close to the surface. He
pulled
on them, drawing with the strength of the mountain itself, and slowly they eased from the rock.

Seval grabbed them and held them together. “Ah,” he said with a sigh. “Now I definitely hear them. It has been so long since I knew… so long since this song came to me.”

The pieces flashed brightly as they were brought together, much like the others. “What do they tell you?”

“Tell me? They sing to me, but they do not speak.”

“Keep listening,” Rsiran suggested. “That will change.”

What did it mean that there were two paired pieces of lorcith? He’d never found anything like that before, but in this single cavern, there were several. As he made his way through, he realized that those were not the last of them. Dozens of these paired pieces of lorcith were here, each calling out as if searching for its missing half.

“This is why the boy was here,” he said as Jessa approached. “He knew about these.”

“Okay, but what does it mean?”

Rsiran hadn’t been certain what he’d find when he returned to the mine. There was the question of why the guild stopped mining, and he didn’t have the answer to that, but knew where he could go to learn. Then there was the question about why the boy would have come this deep into the mines, especially with other lorcith so readily available higher in the mountain. But if he sought paired lorcith, or had been convinced that he needed to find it, that would explain why he would risk coming so deep.

Only Venass really understood the pairing of lorcith, and how to use it to create a bond of sorts to the metal. If they had discovered this place, and if they had learned that a source for plentiful lorcith existed, wouldn’t they have mined it?

And for them to continue to mine it, even with the guilds present, meant that it was more important than he understood.

He continued down the mine. The ground leveled out and opened into a wider area. The ground had more scratches in it here than in other places, and he suspected the boy had used this place to sleep. Rsiran walked a small circle around the perimeter and found another opening, disappearing into the darkness. He
pushed
a knife away from him, and it disappeared into the depths of the tunnel, but he couldn’t see anything more.

“Why would Venass risk coming so close to the city for the lorcith here?” He detected the heartstone as Jessa approached and she slipped her arm around his waist.

“I don’t know.”

“That goes somewhere.” He pointed down the tunnel. It descended deeper and to the west, leading away from the mine. Rsiran thought that it might be a way to sneak into the city, but the angle was all wrong. Heading that direction would take it more toward the Aisl than any place else.

Seval reached them, and Rsiran thought about Sliding with all of them deeper into the tunnel, but noted the expression on Seval’s face, one of a growing discomfort at remaining in the mines. He’d accomplished what he had wanted, and managed to hear the lorcith. It was time for him to return.