The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5) (22 page)

Thom nodded. “To us as well, but it means little. Our efforts to fragment them have worked. Even better, Rhan said the spheres worked as planned. Each was laced with heartstone and lorcith, and coated with a layer of shadowsteel. We’ve proven its efficacy. You saw the effect on the tree.”

The older man’s eyes narrowed. “I saw. The others remain.”

Thom shrugged. “We had only managed to make that much before he found the forge. A good thing Rhan neutralized him or—”

“You have
not
neutralized him. He lives.”

“And he knows that we can stop him. What does it matter? He believes he understands the threat, and thinks that he understands the reason, but he has no idea that this is about much more than exiles and scholars.”

“If he has been to the heart, then he might know that this is about more than exiles. He might know of the clans, and of the others. We can’t risk that he might succeed in finally uniting the people.”

Rsiran still struggled with what he heard. It was possible that his mother sided with the Forgotten, but now it turned out that it was much more than that. Could she work with Venass?

“You must escalate the production of shadowsteel, and it must be taken to the others in the heart. Once there, even if he understands what we plan, there will be little that he can do. I would see this finished in my lifetime.”

Thom laughed. “And how many more years do you think you can claim?”

His grandfather scowled at Thom. “Careful, or I will see that plate torn from your skull. Do you think your gifts will work the same without it there to augment them? I will ensure that the scholars do not return it to you, either.”

Thom raised his hands. As he did, his gaze swept around the room again.

“What is it?” his grandfather asked.

“I am not certain. This damn thing,” he said, tapping at the plate beneath the scar, “is buzzing. It’s never done that before.”

His grandfather became very still. His eyes flashed a deeper green than anything that Rsiran had ever seen, very nearly black, and then widened. “He is here.”

Rsiran’s mother spun. “Here? Where? How?”

“He has discovered Traveling,” he said.

B
ack into his body
, Rsiran’s heart hammered wildly. Fatigue threatened to knock him over, but he fought against it. He needed to remain awake. He needed answers. And he needed to warn the others.

“What is it?” Jessa said, surging into motion as soon as his eyes opened. “Did it work?”

He grabbed her hand and
pulled
a dozen knives to him. They streaked toward him faster than intended. In his tiredness, he didn’t control them as well as he should. Switching to a soft
push,
he slowed the knives and caught them before they injured him or Jessa.

“It worked. And now we need to move.”

He focused on the Barth. First, he would tell Jessa what he learned. Then, he would find Brusus to warn Haern, and then, they needed to go to Della. Rsiran focused on his lorcith pieces at the Barth to anchor the Slide and
pulled
. In his weakened condition, he didn’t want to get stranded as he Slid. When they emerged on the second floor of the Barth, in Lianna’s room, he glanced around to confirm they were alone, then turned to Jessa.

“I saw my mother. And my grandfather.”

“Your grandfather? So he does live.”

“Alyse had thought both of our grandparents still lived, and with what Della said, I knew that it was possible, but now I know for sure. At least my grandfather lives.”

“Where did you see him?”

“When I Traveled, I first went back to the forest, and then to Seval’s smithy, before going to see my mother. When I was there, I saw her with him. Even had she not referred to him as
Father
, the resemblance to Della and Evaelyn was undeniable. And then Thom came—”

“Thom came? Your mother knows Thom?”

Rsiran shook his head. “I don’t know if she knows him, but he knew my grandfather. Thom came to meet him. And then they seemed to know that I was there.”

“Traveling can be detected?”

“I don’t know. Sliding can be detected, so why wouldn’t it be possible to detect Traveling as well? They’re related somewhat.”

“Yes, but so are Reading and Compelling. They’re related abilities, but so different that they might as well be something else entirely. How do you know that they sensed your presence and that you could Travel?”

“Because I heard it,” Rsiran said. “I heard what my grandfather said.”

“Grandfather?”

Rsiran spun and saw Alyse standing in the door. She carried a pitcher of water that tipped forward as she watched him.

“You saw grandfather?” she asked.

Rsiran glanced over to Jessa. What was the right answer for Alyse? Should he explain that he hadn’t actually seen their grandfather in person, but by Traveling to their mother’s home? Would she even understand what it meant that he’d Traveled?

“I saw him… at Mother’s,” Rsiran said.

“What… what did he say?”

“Alyse…”

“No. What did our grandfather say when he saw you?”

“He didn’t see me. And neither did Mother.”

Alyse stalked into the room and set the pitcher down with more force than was needed. “You think you’re protecting me from something. I may not know you as well as some,” she said, and her gaze drifted to Jessa, “but I can tell that there’s something you don’t want to share. Which means that you think to protect me. You’ve already gotten me free of that darkness. There’s not much more for you to protect me from.”

Rsiran closed his eyes and wished that he could forget the memory of what their grandfather had said, and what their mother had said. “There are things that you are better off not knowing,” Rsiran said.

“Such as your ability to jump from one place to another? The dark ability that Father warned you from using?” Alyse took a step toward him and took a deep breath, drawing her shoulders back. She was not a short woman, and though not nearly as tall as Rsiran, she still somehow managed to make herself appear imposing. “You don’t have to worry about me with that. I’ve seen the good that you’ve done with your ability. Father was wrong about it.”

“Father was wrong about many things,” Rsiran said with a sigh.

“What does that mean?” Alyse asked.

He turned away, but Jessa stopped him. “You need to tell her. This affects her now. She’s a part of it, no different from you. And remember how you felt when Brusus withheld information from you?”

Alyse’s expression changed with the mention of Brusus’s name, and Rsiran remembered what he had observed when he Traveled to the Barth.

He sighed. “What I saw,” Rsiran said. “It’s… it’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous like what happened to you?” She reached for him before pulling her hand back. “I’m glad that you’re better. When I saw how you were… and that you nearly died… I sent word to Mother that you weren’t going to make it. I haven’t told her that you survived.”

At least that answered how she had seemed to know that he was injured.

“Well, my injury had another effect. You have always known about my ability,” Rsiran began. Alyse’s mouth puckered at the mention, and she appeared to force herself to relax. “I still don’t know how or why, but it changed. I discovered something else about what I can do, something that the ancient clans were able to do, but something that had been forgotten with time.”

Was that the reason that Sliding had been ostracized over the years? Had that been the reason that the Elvraeth had seemed to work to eliminate the ability? Could it be that they feared something more than Sliding, that they feared Traveling?

But that wouldn’t explain all of the heartstone around the palace. Unless heartstone somehow normally blocked Traveling, but it didn’t with Rsiran. Then again, it didn’t block him from Sliding, either.

Alyse watched him, waiting for him to say more. Rsiran debated how much to share with her. She might be his sister, but she had never really been on his side. She might appreciate the support that he’d offered, but that wasn’t the same as siding with him.

But how could he explain what he’d seen without describing Traveling? How could he get her to understand that their mother had been the one to deceive them?

And could he even get Alyse to understand?

If she had been Compelled, it was possible that there was nothing he could say that would convince her of the type of person their mother had become—or always had been.

“I can Travel,” Rsiran said. “My body remains, but my mind leaves so that I can go other places and observe.”

Alyse stared at him before turning to Jessa. “You believe he can do this?”

“I have no reason to ever doubt Rsiran.”

Alyse took a deep breath and then nodded. “Then what you saw disturbed you enough that you fear sharing. Tell me what it was, Rsiran.”

“Grandfather and Mother. They have been working together and trying to find—” He debated whether he should share how they sought the Elder Trees, but decided that was something that he would not reveal to Alyse. “—something in the Aisl Forest. From what he said to her, it sounded like he’d assigned her a task… many years ago… She was to use Father… to find something out from him.”

Alyse blinked and then she laughed. “You expect me to believe that
Mother
used our father? After everything that you saw growing up, you think Mother was even capable of something like that?”

Rsiran hadn’t, and had he not observed her himself, he wasn’t sure he would have believed it if someone had come to him with the same story. But he
had
seen it. “She played a part,” Rsiran said. “She did what
her
father wanted of her. She used him. She used
all
of us.” He said the last softly and had to swallow back the lump that formed in his throat.

Jessa squeezed his hand, but he didn’t trust himself to look over to her. Even after everything his parents had done to him, they were still his parents. There had always been a part of him that had hoped that he would be able to connect with his family again, that he would be able to find some way of reaching them, but with what he had seen, that time was gone. There was no way he could ever forgive his mother for siding with Venass. When he’d thought that she and his father were Forgotten, he’d almost felt sympathy for them. But he had been attacked by the Forgotten, by a woman he was actually related to, and now… and now…

“Rsiran,” Jessa said.

He shook away the hurt and realized that he had been
pushing
on the lorcith knives. They floated away from him, sending Alyse back a few steps, as if he might use them against her.

Rsiran called the knives back to him and placed them in his pockets.

“You’re wrong,” Alyse said. “When I went to her the last time, Mother told me what happened with Father. She told me everything that she shared with you. She assured me there were no more family secrets.”

“Did she tell you how she tried to Compel him? Did she say that because of his smith blood, she could not?” His voice started to rise. “Did she share how when that failed, she encouraged him to drink, thinking to control him that way?” The door opened, and Brusus stood watching. Rsiran realized that he had been yelling. But his father turning to ale had been when his apprenticeship had changed. Could it have been because of more than just his father discovering that Rsiran could Slide. Could it all have been about his mother wanting to find out about the Elder Trees?

And his father had managed to hide that knowledge from her despite everything she tried. Rsiran had been the one who failed. He had been the one who caused the Elder Trees to fall. Venass and his grandfather had finally found them because of Rsiran, not anything that his father had done.

His father had been a true member of the guild. He had protected the Elder Trees, as he had been tasked to do. What had Rsiran done but expose them to possible destruction?

“That can’t be true,” Alyse said, her soft voice a sharp contrast to the anger and volume of Rsiran’s.

“It
is
true. And Father never was the person I thought him to be. Neither was Mother.”

Alyse stared at him before turning and running from the room.

Brusus reached for her, but she shook him off, and Rsiran heard her steps as they raced down the stairs. “Well, that was unexpected,” Brusus said.

“Why, because you weren’t—” Rsiran caught himself before saying something that he might regret. He’d already said too much to Alyse, and he didn’t want to send Brusus away as well. “I’m sorry, Brusus. I should have handled that more tactfully. I know how you feel about her. I’ll make sure I apologize when I see her next.”

Brusus flushed and his eyes widened.

“Wait… how
does
Brusus feel about her?” Jessa asked.

Rsiran shrugged. “It’s fine, Brusus. I see the looks you give her, and I’ve seen the way she looks at you. I’m… I’m happy for you.”

Jessa coughed. “You… and
Alyse
?”

“I haven’t said anything to her,” Brusus said softly. “With her being… well, who she is, I haven’t wanted to say anything. I was going to leave it well enough alone. Safer that way for all of us. Besides, I’m not all that certain that she’d be receptive to me, anyway.”

“You won’t know until you say something,” Rsiran said.

“And now
you’re
giving him romantic advice?” Jessa asked. “What happened to you while you were sick?”

Rsiran laughed. It felt good for him to be able to do so. “I told you. I held the crystal again.”

Jessa shook her head.

Brusus glanced toward the door before turning his attention back to Rsiran. “What happened with Alyse? I gather that you saw something, but I’m not sure why that would have affected her so much.”

Rsiran told Brusus about what he’d seen at his mother’s house.

Brusus became increasingly tense the longer that Rsiran shared. At least Brusus recognized the danger with what Rsiran had seen.

“And you’re certain that he knew you were there?” Brusus said.

“He knew. It was Thom,” Rsiran said. “The heartstone plate in his head reacted to me. He didn’t know what it was doing, but when he said it ‘buzzed,’ my grandfather knew someone had Traveled. And somehow, he managed to pick up that I was there.”

Brusus turned toward the door. “We need to find her.”

“Who? My mother? I know where she is, and I’m not sure that finding her now would be the right thing, especially considering that my grandfather might still be with her. There’s no telling what abilities he might possess.” They needed Della. She should know what her brother was capable of doing.

“Not your mother,” Brusus said, “though I think we will have to find her too. But Alyse. Your mother knows that she’s been with you. And now that they know how you’ve discovered them—”

Brusus didn’t have the chance to finish. A harsh scream rose from the tavern below.