Rise of the Elder Read online

  Rsiran sighed. It was the sort of thing Haern would say.

  “After this, I think I can remove Venass from Elaeavn. The council no longer supports them, and Danis won’t risk that confrontation. We could return to the city.”

  She squeezed his hand. “Do you want to?”

  He kept his eyes focused on the treetops. “I want all of this over. I don’t want to worry about my friends anymore. I want to get back to…”

  He didn’t know what he wanted to get back to. Did he want to return to when he couldn’t Slide? Or when he feared capture by the Elvraeth, or the guilds, or the Forgotten? He didn’t want to get back to anything, he realized, but to get to a point where he could be the person he’d become, and still not worry about his friends. To get there would take more fighting, and might make him do things he didn’t want to do, but there was a chance he’d come out of it in a better place than he’d been.

  There was hope.

  “I’m sorry about Haern,” he said.

  “Haern knew what he did. Of all of us, he was the most prepared for what we faced. I know he never said it, but you impressed him. He enjoyed working with you, trying to find ways to test you and challenge you. That was something he valued.”

  “I wouldn’t have learned nearly half of what I did were it not for Haern. Not how to fight, not the sword, maybe not even the extent of my connection over lorcith. Without him…”

  He sighed, and shook his head.

  Jessa patted his hand. “I know. What now?”

  “Now we have to reach Galen and Cael. They had better have the crystal so I can force Naelm to let me participate on the council. And then we’ll need to take the fight to Venass.”

  “It sounds...”

  “Impossible. I know.”

  She smiled, her free hand reaching to grab the charm she wore. “I was going to say it sounded easy when you said it, but if you think it’s impossible then you’ll have to work a little harder, and I think we both know how much I like watching you work.”

  He held her hand and guided her toward the base of one of the trees. It was the Traveling tree, which suited him well, since that was what he intended now. “Good, then you can watch over me now.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Travel.”

  “That’s not much fun to do. Let’s just Slide. Then you can at least take me with you.”

  “Not for what I need to do. Traveling is safer.”

  Jessa frowned. “What do you need to do? Where would you Travel?”

  “I need to know if it’s safe to return. And if it’s not, I need to know where others of Venass might be in the city. I can seize them and take them to a cell I prepared—”

  “You prepared a cell?”

  “Valn watches over it.”

  “Why would you need to have someone watch over it? Wait… You’ve captured Hjan?”

  “I can’t keep bringing them here for Della to heal. I don’t know how many I’ll be able to remove the plate from, and this way, they can be held until I have a way to ensure they won’t cause a problem.”

  “Do you intend to capture all of the Hjan?”

  “I don’t know what I intend, only that I can’t kill them all. What would that make me?”

  “Alive? You know what they will do to you if they get the chance.”

  “I’ll fight, but I won’t slaughter them.” The more he thought about what he’d do with all the Hjan he would have to face, the more the idea disturbed him.

  “Rsiran—”

  “Haern would have been pleased to note your objections. He felt the same.”

  “Of course he did. Haern was always practical. He wouldn’t have wanted you to risk anything unless you knew it was worth it. Do you think saving the Hjan is worth it? Will they suddenly stop wanting to hurt you, and wanting to gain power?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Rsiran—”

  “Watch over me, would you?”

  Jessa clenched her jaw and tipped her head toward her empty charm as if she intended to smell the flowers that she normally kept there. “I’ll watch you. Don’t make me come after you.”

  He sat cross-legged near her and closed his eyes. As he did, the sense of the forest faded as he Traveled, returning to the city. He went to Naelm first, wanting to know if the man had done anything that Rsiran should worry about, but found him sitting in his room making a few notes in a small book. Rsiran glanced at the page, but couldn’t make sense of what he wrote, as if he used some sort of code.

  Moving on, he paused in the small closet where he’d found the first Hjan he’d encountered that night. The one being held at the Forgotten Palace. Seeing Naelm writing in a notebook had reminded him of the one the Hjan had been writing in. It was still there, but he would have to come back for it when he finished.

  Rsiran moved from room to room through the palace and found nothing to make him think the Hjan remained.

  Would Danis have recalled them? How would he know?

  Lorcith and heartstone. As usual, they would have to provide the answer.

  Rsiran Traveled beyond the palace, taking himself above the city. For a moment, he hovered there, holding himself in place, but Traveling took energy Sliding no longer did. Holding himself here in this way fatigued him, and he would grow weak if he attempted to remain in this place for too long. If he went to Krali Rock, he could search more easily.

  Atop the rock, he waited, holding himself in place.

  The city spread out below him, glowing with orange and yellow lanterns that mixed with the white glow of lorcith and the blue of heartstone in numerous locations. First, Rsiran focused on the lorcith, drawing it toward him. With the connection, he could focus on the metal and watch for movement. Any movement he detected, he could track and determine if there were any Hjan still in the city.

  Immediately, he detected two separate flashes.

  Rsiran Traveled to them. One moved along the docks, an older man who Rsiran could tell carried one of his knives. Moving on, he Traveled to the other sense of lorcith that he’d detected. This was a woman carrying a stack of decorative bowls.

  He paused near the woman. The bowls were not those he’d made, but given the cut of her dress, and the dirt on her hands, he doubted they were hers. With the guilds out of the city, that made it likely she’d stolen them.

  The idea actually made him smile. Lorcith was not as rare as he’d once believed. Why shouldn’t the people of the city have access to it, and own bowls or other finery the same as the Elvraeth? Now that the smiths had begun listening to lorcith again, even the creation of different items wasn’t as difficult as it once had been. What would have taken planning and preparation in the past, now was a simple matter of listening to the lorcith, and a willingness to follow where it guided.

  Rsiran returned to Krali. He focused on the sense of lorcith again, and found three other items that moved. Each time, it came from knives or decorative items carried by people who were clearly not of Venass.

  Nothing else moved. He waited, holding onto his connection to the metals, and found nothing more.

  What of heartstone?

  Rsiran shifted his focus to it. Heartstone was less common than lorcith, and he didn’t expect to find much moving. There were a few different collections in the city, but none that moved. He waited, holding that focus, and was about ready to abandon his search when he picked up the sense of heartstone flickering.

  That meant Sliding.

  Rsiran Traveled, following the heartstone that he detected, and emerged in a quiet section of the city, one that he hadn’t visited often. High above, the Floating Palace gleamed in the moonlight. There came a sound of cats, at least three separate yowls, and a distant cawing of gulls.

  Where was the heartstone? He could still feel it even though he Traveled. It was nearby… Traveling again, he followed the trail of heartstone into a small house. The hearth and the cozy nature to the place made him think of Della’s home, but hers was
simpler. This had ornate decorations, and lorcith stacked along the wall, stone sculptures along another, and a few portraits leaning near the back. All of it was likely stolen.

  The heartstone was probably stolen, as well, and most likely didn’t really belong here, either. Whoever brought it here would be a thief, and not someone that he had to be concerned about.

  Only, there was the fact the heartstone had seemed to flicker. It wouldn’t do that unless whoever had it Slid.

  Rsiran waited, holding onto the sense of heartstone. When it moved again, he Traveled, this time following it outside the city to a rocky shore near Ilphaesn.

  Now he had no doubt that whoever had the heartstone could Slide.

  The sense moved again, this time to the north. Rsiran Traveled again, drawn even farther away from Elaeavn. Each time he appeared, the sense shifted, and each time, it carried him north.

  Toward Thyr, he realized.

  One of the Hjan thought to draw him away. Danis had proven that they could detect him when he Traveled. He didn’t know if they would be able to capture him, as well, but he wouldn’t put it past them to have figured out some way, and if they could separate him from his body, he didn’t know what might happen.

  Rsiran Traveled back to the Aisl, and back to his body.

  When he opened his eyes, Jessa was watching him. “Did you find anything?”

  He considered sharing that he did, but it would only make her nervous. “The Hjan are gone from Elaeavn,” he said.

  Rsiran hoped that remained true.

  Chapter 15

  The coals burned in his smithy once more. It had been too long since Rsiran had felt comfortable in front of the forge. Jessa rested on the bed near the hearth, flipping through the pages of the notebook Rsiran had taken from the palace. He’d returned to the small room where he’d captured the first Hjan, and taken the journal with him, but couldn’t decipher what was written. Without Haern, he wondered if they would be able to.

  “You should probably have Luca help you,” she said. “He is supposed to be your apprentice.”

  “Luca wanted to remain in the forest. He said the song was easier to hear in the forest.”

  Jessa looked up from the book and shook her head. “How many do you think returned?”

  Rsiran rested on the anvil. “Maybe half the smiths. They wanted to get back to their smithies. Seval tried to get my father to return, but I don’t think he did. Most of the miners returned to Ilphaesn. Ephram led the alchemists back to the Guild Hall, but there’s not much left. The rest…”

  “They’re waiting for you to tell them it’s safe to return.”

  Rsiran nodded. When word spread that he would join the council, the rest of the guild members were pleased, but they feared returning until Rsiran proved it was safe to do so. For now, they intended to remain in the Aisl, using the protections of the forest they had created over the last few months.

  “Brusus plans to reopen the Barth tonight,” Jessa said.

  “I know. I still don’t know if that’s wise.”

  “You said there weren’t any more Hjan in the city.”

  “Not that I can tell.” Rsiran had Traveled through the city several more times since he tracked the heartstone from Elaeavn and hadn’t found anything. After they returned to the city, he’d Slid to Krali Rock and attempted to track both lorcith and heartstone in person. So far, he’d not encountered anything. At least Haern’s sacrifice had been worth something. “But we’re still not wanting to draw the attention of Venass, not until I know how we’re going to respond.”

  “You already know how you’re going to respond. You just want to make sure that I don’t have a problem with it.”

  “I’ll need your help.”

  Jessa sat up and set the book down next to her, brushing her hair out of her face. “Will you? You’ve made a point of keeping me out of what you’ve been doing ever since you became this famous assassin in Eban.”

  “Only because I don’t want you to get hurt.” Rsiran Slid to her and sat next to her on the mattress, taking her hand. “I can’t let anything happen to you. What I’ve done is what I could to keep you safe.”

  “You have to stop thinking that you can keep those you care about safe. We get to make our own choices, the same as you.”

  “The same way Haern did?”

  “Haern knew what he risked, Rsiran. He would have been angry had you tried doing to him what you’re doing to me.”

  Rsiran squeezed her hand, not wanting to tell her that Haern knew how to protect himself, and even that hadn’t been enough. Jessa didn’t need him to remind her. Doing so would only upset her more.

  “There are other ways you can help,” Rsiran said.

  “Like I did in Aisl? I don’t think there was a whole lot I did there, other than spend time with your sister. I still don’t think she likes me.”

  Rsiran laughed. “I once would have said I didn’t think it likely that Alyse liked anyone before she met Brusus.”

  “I still think she’ll hit him with a pot one of these days. You going to protect him from that?”

  “Knowing him, he’ll probably have deserved it,” Rsiran said.

  Jessa grinned. “Probably.”

  They sat in silence, enjoying the calm for a few moments. He picked up the notebook and tapped the plain leather cover. “Did you learn anything from the writings?”

  “Other than that Venass uses some sort of code? Not a thing.”

  “It’s something Haern would have been able to help us decipher,” he said.

  “Probably. Now we’ll have to find some other way.” She jabbed a finger at him. “And don’t think you’re going to your cell to see what you can find from the Hjan you have trapped there.”

  Rsiran stood. “Not the cell, but there might be another I could go to who won’t be a danger to me.”

  He should have thought of Amin as soon as they recovered the journal, but the Hjan just hadn’t come to mind. Rsiran didn’t know if he would even help, but maybe Della could Compel him to. If she couldn’t do that, at least she could Read him, and maybe find out some of what he knew so they could decipher it themselves.

  “You’re going back to the Aisl?” Jessa stood and took his hand.

  “You don’t have to return with me.”

  “And miss the excitement?” She shook her head and smelled the flower in her charm. Grabbing a new flower had been one of the first things she had done once she returned to Elaeavn.

  Rsiran smiled again as he took her hand. They Slid, emerging in the Aisl.

  As usual, the change came jarringly, jolting him with the difference between the hint of bitterness from lorcith in his smithy mixed with the sweetness of heartstone to the heady fragrance of the sjihn trees and the ripe scent of their leaves. They stood at the edge of the circle of the Elder Trees, the massive trunk of the miner tree rising near him. He took a few breaths, enjoying the change from the smithy to the forest and the heaviness in the air, the stillness that surrounded him, almost weighing on him.

  “You’re more at ease here,” Jessa said.

  Rsiran shook his head. “It’s not that I’m uneasy in the city, but here… I can feel the power of the trees.”

  Jessa squeezed his hand. “It’s fine if you admit that you’re more comfortable here. Think of how many feel the same way.”

  She pointed toward the huts along the edge of the circle of trees. None were willing to build the small huts too close to the center of the clearing, as if they didn’t want to risk angering the trees, or felt the need to leave that space for gathering. In the upper branches, there were different structures, built where branches were bent together, creating canopies that allowed coverage from the occasional storm or the winds that gusted through, more noticeable in those higher branches. Ropes and the earliest attempt at creating bridges stretched between branches, giving those without the ability to Slide the opportunity to move through the uppermost sections of the trees.

  “I’m no
t more comfortable here.”

  “No? When you return, you have this air of relaxation. The lines around your eyes fade. And most of all, you smile more.” She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. “I feel it, too. There’s something different about when we’re here.”

  Rsiran took another deep breath, scanning the trees and everything that was around them. “Maybe it has to do with the fact that our people came from here long ago.”

  Jessa watched him. “Maybe.”

  Rsiran wondered if there might be something more to it, especially for him. The connection to the forest was a part of their people, and it was one that he felt as deeply as the rest of them, but for him it might be more. Since learning he could reach the power of the Elder Trees, he had felt more strongly about that connection. Not so much here, when he was physically in the forest, but when he stood in the place in between. That was when the feeling was strongest. He could use the power and didn’t fear how Venass might find a way to overwhelm him. What he needed was some way to face Danis in that space, but doing that required that he catch him, otherwise Danis wouldn’t know how to reach that place.

  “What is it?” Jessa asked.

  “Thinking about the future.”

  She leaned on his arm. “I’m always happy when you think about the future.” When he didn’t answer, she sighed. “But that’s not the future that you’re thinking about, is it?”

  “We can’t think about it yet. There’s nothing in that future until we manage to stop Venass and my grandfather.”

  “You have to stop thinking about him as family. He’s Danis Ta’Elvraeth, leader of Venass, and he wants to see you dead.”

  “He wants to see all of us enslaved.”

  Rsiran turned to see Della emerging from the depths of the forest. She held a small bundle of wood and some berries. A smudge of black dirt smeared across her dress, and the brightly colored shawl she wore over her shoulders stood out against the darkness.

  “Danis would control us. All of us.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jessa asked.

  Della met Rsiran’s eyes. “Follow me.”