Rise of the Elder Read online

  “You weren’t to return to Elaeavn. I believe that you are one of the Forgotten?” Saying it that way disgusted him, but it was the kind of thing an assassin would say.

  Galen shifted, and Rsiran Slid, careful to stay out of reach and avoid becoming an easy target for him. The one dart that had hit him had nearly killed him. Were it not for the connection to the place between and the Elder Trees, he might already be dead. He needed to be careful.

  “Where did you take her?” Galen asked.

  She was gone and Galen looked for her. That was unexpected.

  “Your Elvraeth?” he asked. “You’ve lost her already?”

  “Not lost. Taken by a Slider.”

  Galen knew about Sliding then. And someone else had grabbed his girl.

  It must be Hjan and Venass, especially after what he’d detected. But if they had grabbed her and had already left the city, she might be impossible to track. There would be nothing he could do.

  He Slid, emerging in front of Galen, pulling the knives back quickly and holding his palms out in front of him to demonstrate they were empty. As he did, he prepared for the possibility that he would need to Slide. He could reach the place between Slides and heal himself, but he could just as easily Slide away and reach the smithy if needed. That was where he should be anyway, staying there so that he could find out what the lorcith intended him to make, and whether there would be any way that he could use it to help him stop Venass.

  But Cael was missing. What of the crystal?

  Galen held a long, slender dart.

  “Did you see them?” Rsiran asked, trying to placate him. He might need to disarm him, or even fully disable him.

  “It was dark,” Galen answered.

  Rsiran grunted, studying Galen. The man had deep green eyes, and the way he watched as Rsiran shifted around the room told him his ability, even if the skill of using his darts did not. “Dark. And I thought you Sighted.”

  “And I thought you an assassin,” Galen said.

  What did he say to that? To Galen, Lorst was an assassin. “Only when I must.”

  His face contorted in confusion, and Rsiran nearly smiled. “Why are you here, Lorst?”

  “I could ask the same of you.”

  He didn’t know of Rsiran’s connection to Della. If he shared—if he told him how he knew Della, and how she worked with him—would it make a difference to Galen?

  Probably not.

  What did Rsiran know of him? Della had shared some, and shared with him the sadness she felt about her former student’s fate, and Haern had known more, and must have encountered him at other times. There might even have been some other sort of assassins’ guild that had introduced him.

  “Where’s the girl?” Rsiran asked. He Slid over to a stool and sat, trying to appear less threatening. It was the answer that he needed the most. Would Galen share? If he didn’t, would there be any way that Rsiran could force him?

  Galen watched him and slipped the dart into a hidden pouch. “You never really wanted her, did you?”

  “This has never been about her,” Rsiran said.

  Galen frowned. “Me? That’s what this has been about? Damn, but Orly is a fool. He knew I would not simply take the job. That has never been how I operate.”

  Rsiran shrugged. What would Lorst say?

  “I know,” he said, thinking that might be the easiest answer.

  Galen’s hand reached into a pocket, and Rsiran prepared to Slide. If Galen attacked, the darts moved nearly as fast as crossbow bolts, and were nearly as hard to avoid. Worse, they were poisoned, leaving him more at risk.

  “Why did you want her if not for the reward?” Galen asked.

  His face twisted, and Rsiran couldn’t decide if that meant he was angry or irritated. “I can see from your face that you already know why,” Rsiran said.

  “The crystal?”

  Rsiran grunted. Did he have to play it this way?

  Maybe Galen would react better to threats.

  Rsiran pulled a knife to him, and flipped it in his hand much like Haern used to do. It had the added benefit that it cast a soft white glow on the room, giving him more light. Galen might be Sighted, but Rsiran didn’t have that advantage.

  What game was Galen playing? Did he have the information Rsiran wanted? He’d been gone from the city for a long time, and might not even know about what had happened. Exiled from the city, and not aligned with the Forgotten, it was possible he shared Rsiran’s resentment toward the Elvraeth. Could he use that?

  “You know that for so long I hated my ability? My father claimed it was a dark ability.” He smiled, trying to foster a connection between them, but Galen ignored it. “Dark. I have seen those of the Elvraeth use their abilities for purposes far darker than anything I have ever done.” He looked up, meeting Galen’s eyes. “The crystals have been kept from our people for too long, Galen.”

  “The Elvraeth protect the crystals for our people.”

  Had he made a mistake about Galen? Rsiran should have expected it, especially since Galen was with one of the Elvraeth, and had protected her, but he’d hoped that his anger over exile might override that. “Is that what you think? Is that what she told you?”

  “She spoke little of the crystal. Only that she needed to return it.” From the light off the knife, Rsiran could see that his hand tensed. Did he ready his dart? “Where is she, Lorst? Where have you taken her?”

  Rsiran shook his head. Galen didn’t know. He probably didn’t even know about the damned Hjan and Venass. He had remained in Eban, killing for money.

  Maybe Della was wrong about him. Carth too. This wasn’t a man with a conscious.

  “Not me this time, Galen. You think we’re the only ones after the crystal?”

  “I will get her back,” Galen said.

  “What do you want with the crystal?” Rsiran asked. “Do you think to use it?”

  Rsiran watched Galen’s face and noted the slight way that his eyes widened at the comment. Could he really want nothing more than to recover Cael and not have interest in the crystal?

  “No. I see that you do not. Will you sell it?”

  He shook my head. “I don’t care about the crystal! I just want Cael back. And Cael wanted the crystal returned to the palace.”

  Rsiran sighed. If the same thing happened to Jessa, he knew what he would do, the lengths he would go to in order to bring her back. He’d already proven that, not only to himself, but to those who wanted to take her from him. It was what he feared the most.

  “Then I will help.”

  Chapter 19

  Rsiran sat in front of the Della’s hearth, now with a fire blazing within, debating whether he should return to the smithy for Jessa or even to the Barth for Brusus. He’d agreed to help Galen, which meant finding Cael, but how would he begin to do so without any way of knowing where the Hjan would have taken her?

  It was easy to understand why the Hjan would have taken her. As the daughter of Naelm, she would have value to Venass; maybe they would use her against the council. But if she had the crystal, as well, that was all the reason Venass needed to take her.

  The problem was, Rsiran didn’t even know where to begin. He had sensed the flickering of heartstone before Galen had appeared, which only told him that the Hjan took her, but nothing else. Not where they might have taken her. Other than possibly Thyr and the tower, Rsiran didn’t know where Venass might have taken her.

  “I found this,” Galen said, breaking the silence as he reached into his pouch.

  He held out a small bit of lorcith, barely more than a sliver. It pulled on Rsiran’s senses, a throbbing that called to him. How had Galen gotten hold of unshaped lorcith, and how had he managed to find a piece so small?

  Rsiran took the piece and held it out in front of him, studying it. Some of the firelight caught off the metal, and it glowed softly with the potential of the metal. “How did you find this?”

  “I am Sighted, Lorst.”

  He turned a
nd studied Galen. Did the man really think that he couldn’t tell he was Sighted? “You found this where the Elvraeth woman was taken?”

  He listened to the song from the sliver of lorcith, trying to determine where it had come from. As he listened, a familiar song came from it, one that he hadn’t heard in quite some time.

  This was from Ilphaesn.

  Not only Ilphaesn, but a particular mine, one that he’d visited often enough to know it well, but one that few others should have been able to reach.

  Galen’s mouth twisted in distaste. Did he not care for lorcith? “Yes,” he said.

  If he’d found it there, that meant Josun.

  The last place he’d found any evidence of Josun had been in Thyr, but Firell and Shael had known he lived, and had known he sided with Venass. If he’d returned to Elaeavn… they were all in more danger than he realized.

  Was that who had come through his smithy when they were gone?

  Rsiran hadn’t discovered what had happened there, and seen no sign since their return to the city. If it had been Josun, that meant he could now Slide past the heartstone barriers he held in place. Which meant Jessa was in danger.

  Galen seemed to wait for him to say something more. Rsiran clutched the piece of lorcith in his hand. “That is unfortunate.”

  Galen tensed, watching him with eyes that looked at him much the way that Jessa did—almost too knowingly. How powerful was his Sight?

  “Why?” he asked.

  Rsiran pulled himself up and opened his hand to show the piece of lorcith. “This comes from deep within Ilphaesn.”

  “Most of the ore does.”

  “No, it does not. Most comes from the mines the council has dug over the years through their forced labor. This,” he said, holding it up, “comes from elsewhere in the mountain. They are similar but not the same.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Just trust that I do.”

  “I have no reason to trust you, Lorst.” He reached for something in his pocket—likely another dart.

  Rsiran had thought they had moved past that. “As I have no reason to help you, Galen.”

  He blinked and pulled his hand back from his pocket with a sigh. “You know who might have her?”

  Rsiran considered the best way to answer. What Galen needed was an explanation for Sliding, and one that wouldn’t confuse him. If he didn’t know about the Hjan, and if he didn’t know anything about Venass, how would he believe that lorcith and heartstone would grant them abilities?

  “There are not many who Slide. At least not openly. I have already told you that it was considered a dark ability. A useful one, though, especially when you want to sneak around the city. Most with the ability never learn to use it.”

  “Why?”

  “One of the Elvraeth once told me that the council has done all that they can to eradicate the ability, but still it appears.” Did he share what he knew about the guilds—or even the Hjan—or would that confuse him more? Rsiran decided against it. When they had the crystal safely back, he would bring Galen to Della and let her decide what to share. “As I said, there were not many who openly Slide.”

  “You do.”

  “I do.”

  “Who else?”

  “With the lorcith you found?” he asked. Galen nodded. Rsiran stared at the piece of lorcith, wishing that he would have ended Josun when he had the chance. He might not be an assassin, but Josun Elvraeth had caused him more trouble than anyone else ever had. If anyone deserved to die for his actions, it would be Josun. “It could only be one other. A dangerous man. One I once believed gone. If he wants the crystal for himself, then your friend truly is in danger.”

  “Where would he have taken her?” he asked.

  Rsiran closed his fist around the tiny piece of lorcith, listening to the sound of the metal as it hummed. If only the lorcith could explain where Josun had gone, and why he would have this piece with him. “I don’t know for certain.”

  He needed to know the answer. Finding the crystal depended on it.

  The song shifted and did something he hadn’t known lorcith to do before: It created an image for him, one that he recognized.

  Why would lorcith show him the warehouse?

  How long had it been since he’d been there? It was the place where he’d first met Josun, and where he had nearly died more than once. Within the warehouse, there were countless treasures, items that the Elvraeth had been given but simply stored there, not willing to share with others. In hindsight, that might have saved them. Had they taken the cylinders into the palace, they might have damaged the Elder Trees sooner.

  Rsiran stood and grabbed Galen and pulled them into a Slide.

  They emerged within the musty warehouse. Motes of dust hung in the air, glowing from the light of his lorcith.

  Rsiran pushed a pair of knives away from him, sending them sailing to create enough light to see. Stacks of boxes towered overhead, most he had examined at one time or another, but none recently. He released Galen and raised a finger to his lips.

  Rsiran started forward when Galen grabbed his sleeve and nodded toward the top of the boxes. Rsiran shook his head, then tilted it toward another direction.

  He started forward, not waiting for Galen to follow.

  At the end of the column of boxes where it intersected with another row, Rsiran paused and focused on heartstone, peering around the corner. There had to be something here, especially if this was what the lorcith had shown him, but why would Josun have brought her here?

  It was the lorcith that Galen had found that led Rsiran here. But had Josun actually just intended for Galen to come?

  Rsiran Slid, leaving Galen below, emerging on top of one of the boxes in a crouch. The dark shirt Carth had given him would protect him, and keep even Galen from seeing him easily.

  As he crouched there, he noted another flickering, this time down in the clearing between boxes. Rsiran crept closer to see who was down there.

  When someone spoke, he recognized the voice and tensed. Josun. “You should have left her, Galen, and returned to Eban. You will not find Elaeavn any more welcoming than when you last were here.”

  “You are mistaken,” Galen said. “Elaeavn was never welcoming to me.”

  Rsiran saw Josun then. He had the same bright eyes and sharp jawline, but a long scar now ran along the side of his face with heartstone pulsing beneath the surface. His hair was longer now, and hung to his shoulders. His clothing, once so formal, was now a simple jacket and pants.

  Josun smiled, and Rsiran readied a pair of knives. From where he hid, he suspected he could reach him quickly and be gone before Josun had a chance to react. Josun moved slightly, the briefest Slides as he did, emerging long enough to move again. Catching him with one of his knives would be difficult and would risk Galen and the woman chained down near him. “No. I suppose for one like you, it would not be,” Josun went on.

  Galen stepped closer to him, edging slightly in front to block the woman. “She is one of your family. Her father will be angered to learn what you have done to her.”

  Rsiran saw that Josun held a knife to the woman’s neck. He’d seen Josun do the same with Jessa, and felt a surge of anger at Josun for repeating the same things that he’d done to those Rsiran cared about.

  A small trickle of blood ran down the woman’s neck. If something didn’t happen now, she’d be killed, and with a knife across her throat, there wouldn’t be anything that Rsiran could do that would bring her back.

  Readying to Slide, he paused when Josun spoke again.

  “You think I don’t know who she is?” He laughed softly. In the warehouse, sounds were muted, heavy with the weight of all the stored riches that the Elvraeth held here. “Ironic that she would be the one to lose the crystal. Yet fitting. A shame you chose to kill her, Galen.”

  Damn it. He was going to kill her.

  Rsiran started to Slide and realized that Galen attacked at the same time. A dart flew toward Josun, but missed
as Josun Slid, taking Cael with him and emerging only a few paces away from where they had been.

  Josun laughed, the knife pressing more firmly against Cael’s neck.

  Rsiran sent a pair of knives flickering across the distance, stationing them behind Josun so that he could pull them back toward Josun, to attack him unaware. All it would take was one knife, striking before Josun could Slide. One opportunity to end him so that Rsiran could move on to Danis. One strike, and he could return the crystal.

  “How many darts do you have left, Galen? I know that you prepared only a few. I can keep this up far longer than you.”

  “Who are you?” Galen asked.

  Josun laughed again, and Rsiran started pulling his knives toward him. “Someone who is ready to take the next step. Who is ready to do what others would not.” He pressed the knife harder into Cael’s neck. Rsiran could wait no longer, or Josun would do to her what he had intended to do to Jessa. “Who is willing to—”

  Rsiran pulled himself in a Slide as quickly as he could, emerging long enough to grab Cael and move her to the other side of the small clearing. Then he returned, Sliding so that he stood across from Josun. The knives remained behind him, ready to attack.

  “One who enjoys talking too much,” Rsiran said, as if finishing his sentence for him. “Always too much, Josun.”

  Josun flickered his eyes to Galen then back to Rsiran. The bracelets on his wrist went cold for a moment. “Lorst.” He said the name with amusement. How much did the Hjan know about the reason that he’d taken the name? Had it ever been useful, or had they been ready for him all along? “You have returned.”

  “I would say the same to you, only I think you wish you could really return. It’s a shame that the council no longer thinks you should.”

  Rsiran Slid as he spoke, moving quickly, keeping himself away from Josun. Taunting him in order to distract him, readying him for when Rsiran would send a pair of knives at him, but he needed to position him first.

  Josun Slid with him. Each time he did, the heartstone now implanted beneath the skin of his face flickered, appearing briefly before Josun Slid. With the next Slide, Rsiran flung a pair of knives.