The Coming Chaos Read online

  The Coming Chaos

  The Elder Stones Saga Book 4

  D.K. Holmberg

  Copyright © 2019 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover by Damonza.com

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  Contents

  1. Haern

  2. Haern

  3. Haern

  4. Lucy

  5. Lucy

  6. Lucy

  7. Daniel

  8. Daniel

  9. Ryn

  10. Ryn

  11. Ryn

  12. Haern

  13. Haern

  14. Haern

  15. Lucy

  16. Lucy

  17. Lucy

  18. Daniel

  19. Daniel

  20. Daniel

  21. Daniel

  22. Ryn

  23. Ryn

  24. Ryn

  25. Ryn

  26. Haern

  27. Haern

  28. Haern

  29. Ryn

  30. Ryn

  31. Ryn

  32. Daniel

  33. Daniel

  34. Daniel

  35. Daniel

  36. Lucy

  37. Lucy

  38. Haern

  39. Haern

  40. Haern

  41. Haern

  42. Ryn

  43. Ryn

  44. Ryn

  45. Ryn

  46. Daniel

  47. Daniel

  48. Lucy

  49. Lucy

  50. Daniel

  51. Lucy

  52. Daniel

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  Haern

  As Haern struggled to make out where he was, he couldn’t help but stare into the distance, his eyes losing focus, straining to enhance his eyesight. Every so often, he thought he caught sight of movement, but he wasn’t entirely certain what he was seeing. It was difficult to determine whether there actually was anything out on the road with them, especially with the darkness and the shadows swirling everywhere.

  “What is it?” Elise asked.

  Haern glanced over at the younger woman. In the days since they had escaped the temple, he and Elise had grown closer. She had come with him because he offered an element of protection, and because he had vowed to ensure their safety as they headed north to Asador, but in that time, something more seemed to be developing between the two of them.

  Partly it was because she was like no one he had ever met. She was strong—she had to be strong considering everything she’d been through—but there was something very caring about her as well. Her eyes were deep blue, nothing like the green eyes of people from Elaeavn. Her brown hair hung in a braid, but each night, she paused to comb it out before braiding it once more. He turned away, flushing at the thought.

  “I don’t know what’s out there. I think I See something, but…”

  She took his hand. Hers was smooth and small whereas his was callused and the place where the metal had punctured his hand still rough. The skin had healed, absorbing whatever the Forgers had done to him, trapping their metal beneath his skin the same way Lucy had metal trapped beneath hers. When Elise squeezed his hand, he felt that metal there and couldn’t help but wonder whether he would find a way to remove it, or if he would always suffer from the effect.

  “If there’s something out there, you can go investigate.”

  “I don’t like leaving all of you,” he said, glancing back to the rest of the women. They weren’t all women. Some of them were girls, and many of them were incredibly young. None had wanted to return home, which had surprised Haern. Shouldn’t they want to return to their families? After everything they had suffered through, he was surprised they had chosen instead to travel with him.

  “You’re not leaving us.” She paused, biting her lip. “Are you?”

  Haern shook his head, smiling at her. “You know that I won’t.”

  “Most of the time,” she said.

  Haern glanced back at the collection of women. There was a small fire crackling, giving off light against the darkness, bright enough that he worried others might be drawn to it. Maybe that was why there was movement out in the night.

  They needed the comfort of the fire, though. Without it, he had recognized the growing uncertainty from all the women, and he sensed their desire for normalcy, whatever that might be.

  “You should go,” she said. “If there is something out there, we’re going to want to know, and seeing as how you might be the only one who can do anything about it, we need you to go.”

  “You’re getting more skilled with the sword,” he said, glancing down at her waist and the sword she now carried. It was a short weapon, barely longer than his forearm, but it was easier for her to manipulate. It was the right length of blade for someone like Elise, and though it wasn’t made of lorcith—they were too far from Elaeavn for him to have access to that metal—it was quality steel. The the design of the blade wasn’t nearly as efficient as it would be had his father been the one to forge it, but it was still a nice blade. Sharp, too.

  “I’m not as talented as Jayna,” she said.

  Haern glanced over to where Jayna sat near the fire. She was tall, nearly as tall as him, and had dark skin and dark hair. There was something about Jayna he suspected made her faster. Maybe it was a gift similar to his Great Watcher–given abilities, though she never spoke of it. It wasn’t necessary for him to push when it came to it, either, so he didn’t.

  “I don’t know how much longer I will be as talented as Jayna,” Haern said, chuckling. “She picks things up incredibly quickly.”

  “She has a good mind for it,” Elise agreed.

  “It’s more than that.”

  “Probably, but you won’t ever have to worry about someone like her.”

  Haern turned to Elise, frowning.

  Elise smiled at him. There was something disarming about the way she smiled, and he found himself smiling back. “You don’t need to worry about someone like her because you can fly.”

  “I’m pretty sure I’ve shown you that it’s not flying.”

  “It might as well be.”

  He turned and looked out into the distance, staring into the darkness. Every so often there came some swirling of movement, enough that he knew he needed to investigate, even if it meant leaving Elise and the others here.

  “I won’t be gone long.”

  She nodded, backing toward the fire, leaving him.

  As he often did, he wished he could bring Elise with him. If he were stronger, maybe he could. Then again, it wasn’t so much that he lacked strength with lorcith—not anymore. It was more a matter of worrying for her safety if he encountered something.

  Ever since the Forgers had pierced his hands with their strange metal bars designed to confine him, his connection to the metal—and others like it—had intensified. It had changed him, much the way the metal that had been implanted in Lucy had changed her.

  Eventually he would need to return to Elaeavn, if only so he could begin to better understand the nature of the change. For now, he was an escort, providing whatever protection he could. With his newfound connection to the metal, he was able to offer far more protection than he ever
had been able to before. Now he actually felt useful.

  Haern reached into his pocket, pulling out a handful of lorcith coins. He pushed one forward and used that to help him shoot into the night, disappearing into the air and the darkness. Wind whistled around him, and he hung suspended, looking around as he often did, searching for signs of any movement. He could hold himself in a position like this for nearly an hour, and the more he did it, the easier it became. Eventually, he suspected he would be able to remain suspended in the air for as long as he wanted. That was the goal, anyway. The more he worked with it, the more he practiced, the better equipped he was to use this ability if it became necessary.

  He saw nothing.

  That wasn’t true. In the distance, the campfire glowed with a soft light. A dozen or so women sat around it, all of them huddled close. It wasn’t so much for warmth—the night wasn’t all that cool—but more for the comfort of being near the others. Most of the women he’d rescued had experienced something terrible, and had Haern not come along, they would have been used in far worse ways than he could imagine.

  Thankfully there were some like Elise and Jayna, women who were coming out of their shells, finding some confidence—and leadership.

  They would need that, as eventually Haern would have to leave them and return to Elaeavn. His search wasn’t over. He might have found where his father had been held captive, but he still wasn’t done with the Forgers. He didn’t know what it would take for him to be done—only that he was determined to see them finished.

  There was nothing else moving against the night.

  He dropped the coin, sending it across the ground, and then pushed off on it, using that connection to allow him to travel farther away from the campsite. Each time he pushed, he traveled farther, moving from place to place, pushing and pulling on the lorcith coins in order to fly. And he didn’t know what else to call it other than flying. In that regard, Elise was probably right. It didn’t feel like anything else.

  The farther he got, the more he worried he wouldn’t be able to find them again, and yet there remained the steady connection to lorcith, the calling of the metal that seemed to beckon him. Part of that stemmed from the fact he had left a knife with the women, something of his own he had forged for him to track.

  He followed the strange sense. The longer he followed, the more certain he became that there was something out there, but what was it?

  Nothing moved that he could track easily.

  Haern decided to make a circle, spiraling outward from where the women were camped. If he could focus on that, he thought he could trace his way around, eventually coming back toward where he had seen something.

  It took a combination of pushing and pulling, something that had become almost second nature to him. It no longer required as much focus as it once had, and the longer he did it, the easier it became for him to add additional coins to the mixture. The more coins he used, the easier it was for him to sail faster. He had to split his focus, to divert his attention between each item of lorcith, but doing so had become easier the longer he attempted it.

  At times like this, he had begun to think he might actually learn how his father had managed to use the power he had all these years. Perhaps he too could be effective with metal.

  As he was pushing, he felt lorcith.

  It was coming at him.

  Great Watcher!

  Haern pushed, flipping in the air as he shot higher and higher, and redirected himself, using a combination of coins in order to do so, twisting as he went, focusing on where the lorcith had come from.

  He pulled on that connection, drawing whatever it was toward him, before realizing his mistake.

  It was a weapon.

  It was nothing like he’d ever experienced before. A solid sphere with spikes of lorcith came streaking toward him.

  How was he able to determine that?

  Was it only his eyesight, or was it his attention to lorcith? These days, Haern was unable to tell which of his senses he used. They tended to mingle, his connection to lorcith mixing with his Great Watcher–given ability of Sight. The combination made it so that lorcith not only had a pull on him, an attachment he was able to draw upon, but it also practically seemed to glow.

  Haern pushed off.

  As he did, the sphere began to change.

  It was exploding.

  Small points were shooting outward, something like nails.

  He pushed against those nails, keeping them from hitting him as he focused on the lorcith coin on the ground. Without the practice he’d had over the last few weeks, one of those spikes might have pierced him.

  As it was, they missed.

  That still didn’t explain who had sent the sphere toward him.

  Whoever it was knew he was here.

  Did they know about the women?

  Haern used a combination of the coins, pushing and pulling as he traveled, streaking toward the camp. He wasn’t about to leave them. He was determined to reach them ready for a fight. He unsheathed his sword in the air, holding on to his connection to it, and when he dropped to the ground in the middle of the clearing where they’d camped for the night, he held out the sword, turning in place.

  Elise saw him and reached for her sword. Three others jumped to their feet, including Jayna. Of the women who’d been working with him, training with the sword, only Jayna and Elise might be safe in a fight. The others had good intentions, but he didn’t know if they’d be useful against a skilled swordsman.

  “What was it?” Elise asked.

  “A weapon,” Haern said. He stared out into the darkness, looking for signs of movement. It couldn’t have been chance that he had detected the sense of movement and then the strange lorcith sphere had been shot at him. The timing was far too suspect to be chance.

  “What sort of weapon?”

  “One that I’ve never seen before.”

  “Where was it?”

  “In the sky. Coming at me.”

  “It was what?”

  He flicked his gaze over to her. “Someone shot a lorcith sphere at me. There was metal implanted within it meant to explode, but I managed to escape.”

  “And you’ve never seen anything like it before?”

  Haern shook his head, turning his attention back out to the night. His father had made hundreds of things out of lorcith, and Haern had been a part of many of them, but he had never encountered anything like what had been shot at him.

  Were it not made entirely of lorcith, he would’ve thought it was a Forger weapon, but they used different metals.

  He squeezed his hand, feeling the creak of the strange metal beneath the skin. It throbbed softly, a dull sort of ache he was always aware of, and more so when he squeezed his hand like this.

  No. It couldn’t have been the Forgers. This was someone else, but who?

  Haern pushed off on a coin, hovering in the air, staying above the campfire, but not so high that he couldn’t land quickly. He spun in place, looking out for any signs of movement.

  What would his father have done?

  He knew the answer to that. He was doing what his father would have done. Rsiran would have wanted to protect others, as he had done all these years, leaving Elaeavn, his home and his people, chasing down the Forgers in order to ensure their safety. And he had ensured their safety all this time. Without Rsiran, the Forgers would have posed much more of a threat long ago. As it was, they’d had decades of peace.

  Despite everything his father had done and everything his father was, Haern had to be more. That might be the hardest thing for him to fully grasp.

  How could he be more than his father?

  He didn’t have any of his father’s unique abilities. He had a common talent. Enhanced eyesight was far too ordinary a gift from the Great Watcher, nothing like Sliding in its usefulness. The only thing Haern had that he considered useful was his connection to lorcith, and he’d never viewed it as all that helpful until he had started training with Galen. That tra
ining had helped him find a benefit to it that hadn’t realized before. Now that he had the Forger implants, his connection to the metal was even different than it had been during his training.

  What he needed was daylight.

  Even with his enhanced eyesight, he couldn’t see all that well out into the darkness. There could be dozens of people out there hiding, and if there were, he wouldn’t be able to find them easily.

  It was going to be a long night. He wasn’t about to move or do anything until he knew the women were safe. With that kind of weapon out there, the possibility of a strange attack, he wasn’t going to rest.

  A voice called out of the darkness.

  Haern lowered himself, dropping down next to Elise. She looked over at him, worry etching the corners of her eyes, and he smiled, trying to appear as reassuring as he could.

  “I’ll make sure they can’t harm anyone here,” Haern said.

  “That’s not what I’m concerned about,” she said.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s you,” she said.

  Haern smiled at her. “You don’t have to be concerned about me. I’m fine.”

  “Are you fine? You seem somewhat obsessed with this.”

  Haern smiled to himself. Wasn’t that what his mother had always said about his father? Could he have come so far that he had become the man he had barely known?