The Great Betrayal (The Lost Prophecy Book 8) Read online

  The idea that one of the damahne would work against the others troubled Jakob, but he’d seen enough when he had walked backward along the fibers to make him think that it was possible. What was it that would have divided the damahne in such a way?

  That was what he wanted to learn, but searching along the fibers for such a connection would be difficult—and would take considerable time, especially if he wasn’t certain what exactly he was looking for. It would force him to look at each strand as he went back. Jakob didn’t think he had time to do that. Nor did he think that he had the energy needed to continue wandering back. It might provide him with insight regarding Raime, but how much time would it take? What would be required of him to discover the secrets he thought he needed?

  Yet that wasn’t the reason he had come here this time. This time, it was for Scottan. Jakob still thought he could help his brother, but first, he needed to find him.

  But there were other things he needed to be doing. Perhaps this wasn’t a good use of his time, not when so much remained unsettled and so many preparations remained to be completed. The other new damahne needed training, and he could have a role in that.

  Jakob started to withdraw when he felt pulled.

  In the fibers, he had never been pulled like this. Since he’d begun to walk the fibers more frequently, he had gained a sense of control. When he had first begun having his visions, he’d had no control, but he had no control over his connection to ahmaean, either.

  He resisted, but the pull upon him was powerful.

  Panic worked through him, but only for a moment. He considered resisting, but doing so might trap him here.

  The fibers were a place where he should be safe. They were a place only the nemerahl and the damahne could reach, now, especially after Jakob had forced Raime away from the fibers, and locked him out of them.

  Could another damahne pull on him?

  Could he find who Raime worked with?

  He felt drawn backward, torn away from his time, and toward another time. This would not have been the effect of one of the damahne he had helped. None of them had quite the same control over the fibers as Jakob did. They had some control, but it was weak, and they had not connected to it intentionally so far.

  He drifted, holding onto his connection to the ahmaean.

  He was pulled farther and farther back.

  Jakob resisted, pouring out his own ahmaean as he attempted to secure himself to the fibers, trying to find some way to keep from being dragged further along the fibers. There were ways in which he could be trapped. He could imagine someone forcing him into another’s life, forcing him to live those moments, trapped in someone else’s experience.

  That would be dangerous for him, and he could possibly fall victim to the same madness his brother on the other new damahne had suffered.

  He continued to move backward.

  Jakob drew upon more ahmaean, taking it from the Tower, but even that wasn’t enough. Whatever—and whoever—pulled him backward along the fibers did so with incredible strength, far more than Jakob had access to.

  Farther and farther back he went, beyond any time Jakob had ever visited. The fibers blurred around him as streaks of light.

  And then he was flung free of the fibers.

  He blinked his eyes, quickly retreating to the back of his host’s mind. If he stayed in the forefront, he would be forced to share himself, and without knowing where he was, that was not a risk he felt safe in taking.

  What if he had been pulled back with the purpose of someone discovering what he knew? If that were the intent, his host would want him to remain in the forefront of his mind, so that he would be able to see what Jakob saw, and could know what Jakob knew. If this person was responsible, he was powerful, and Jakob would have to be careful.

  He was moving. At least, the host was moving. Jakob moved along with the host, letting himself be taken. This was an unusual experience. He’d never felt a host forcing him into his mind, though he still didn’t know if that was what had happened or if something else had taken place.

  Landscape blurred past him. He caught snippets of green, massive trees that towered overhead, and thick flowering shrubbery. In the distance, there was a sense of mountains, though Jakob couldn’t see them clearly, and didn’t know how far away they might be. He moved quickly—more quickly than what he would expect. This was not someone running, and it wasn’t someone mounted on horseback, but then it also wasn’t the movement of the daneamiin.

  Where was he?

  Everything continued to blur past him, streaking much more quickly than it should.

  He was tempted to assert control, anything so that he would know where he was—and when he was—but that was the danger. If he asserted control, he would be revealing himself—all of himself.

  No, it was better for him to remain in the background, a passenger rather than an active participant.

  Could he free himself?

  It was possible, but it would require that he pull on ahmaean, and do so in a way that would allow him to separate from his host. Any time he had done so before, he had drawn upon the ahmaean around him from the time to which he had traveled back.

  Doing that now ran the same risk as asserting control. Without knowing what had happened, he didn’t want to risk it.

  He would continue to be a passenger.

  Everything continued to streak past him. There was a meadow, vibrant flowers all around him, and he caught a brief scent from them, and then it was gone. Moving onward, he noted water, a massive lake that they circled around, the scent of fish and damp earth and something else briefly clogging his nostrils. They passed across a rolling plain, and massive grasses grew, brushing up against his host’s arms and legs. The air was crisp and clean here. They reached a rocky peninsula and jumped.

  Jakob soared with his host.

  He noted water flowing beneath him great white-capped swells surging all around, and they landed.

  They continued moving, and the air was more bitter. There was sand, and heat slapped at his host’s face. They continued moving, streaking across, a dizzying sense of speed all around him.

  It was almost too much. Jakob was tempted to slow the host, wanting nothing more than to understand where he was—and when he was. Without knowing who the host might be, he wasn’t certain he should attempt to slow them.

  Every vision he’d had before had a sense of something familiar to it, but this… this was unlike anything he had ever experienced. There was no shifting as he had experienced when coming back as damahne. There was no flickering movement as he experienced with the daneamiin. There wasn’t even a sense of ahmaean around him. There was only speed.

  Perhaps something else. Jakob looked out through his host’s eyes, searching for something familiar he could hold on to, and as he did, he noted flashes of brightness all around him. That brightness reminded him of ahmaean, though he wasn't certain why it should. When he had seen ahmaean in other visions, there was a translucent—almost milky—quality to it. Never before had he seen it as flashes of bright light, not as he did now.

  Was it nothing more than his imagination?

  Maybe it was the way he was trying to interpret what he saw. Everything continued to flow past, whatever his host was doing, and wherever his host was going, raced past him.

  He suspected they had been on the northern continents at first, and that this must represent the southern continent.

  The host jumped again.

  Once more, there was a sense of the ocean beneath them, swells of water splashing far below him, massive whitecaps that surged, giving him a sense of power deep below.

  Where was the host going?

  When he landed, there was a massive mountain, a single isolated peak that rose up in front of him. Despite the blurring sensation of everything moving past him, Jakob still could see this single peak. Smoke drifted from the top of the peak and obscured the sky, blocking out much of the sunlight.

  They continued to run,
streaking past barren landscape until they reached the base of this peak. His host continued around it, circling in a wide spiral that gradually carried him up the side of the mountain. As they went, Jakob became aware of an acrid scent in the air from the smoke, and it burned his host’s nose, something the host ignored. His host barely seemed affected by how quickly he was moving, racing higher and higher, until they reached the peak of this strange mountain. Smoke billowed up all around him, filled with heat that threatened to scald his host.

  Where were they? What was this?

  The host stood there, letting the heat that rose from the mountain swirl around him. With the smoke, Jakob was aware of nothing else. His host inhaled, taking a deep breath of the smoke, seemingly unfazed by the bitterness in the air.

  Balance.

  The word was meant for Jakob, though how did the host know that he was here? He had hidden himself, staying in the back of his host’s mind, but somehow, the host had been aware that he was here.

  There must be balance.

  I don’t understand.

  Jakob hesitated speaking to his host, as doing so forced him to step forward, to move into the forefront of his mind, but what choice did he have, especially as the host continued to speak to him, seemingly aware of his presence?

  You must find the balance.

  What kind of balance?

  The kind that prevents unmaking. Do not destroy everything I have created. Do not let others destroy the balance. This is your task.

  With that, the host jumped, dropping into the pit that spewed smoke and steam.

  Jakob exploded in pain as heat washed over him.

  He was thrown free of his host and sent forward along the fibers, surging once more toward his time and his body.

  When he opened his eyes, he did so in a panic, breathing deeply. What had he seen? What had he just experienced? Was it even real?

  He had to believe that it was, and if it was, it meant that his host had called him back in time, and had shown him those sights for some unknown reason, and had demanded that he find the balance.

  Jakob panted, terrified of what he had experienced. The host had said that he had created it. Could he have had a vision of the Maker?

  If so, Jakob couldn’t help but do what was asked, but what kind of balance was he asked to achieve? How would he find balance when he didn’t even feel it within himself?

  Chapter Two

  Jakob Nialsen stood on top of the Tower of the Gods, staring at the city of Thealon as it spread out below him. From here, a chilly wind buffeted him, attempting to throw him free from the top of the Tower. Jakob pulled his cloak tighter around him secured around his sword.

  He’d been standing here for hours, trying to understand the meaning of what he had seen, using the time to push out his ahmaean, attempting to reach beyond himself, wanting to see if he could somehow detect where his brother had gone—and through him, find Raime. So far, there had been no sign of either.

  “Do you intend to come back inside anytime soon?”

  Jakob sighed and glanced back at the other damahne, noting the ahmaean swirling off of her. She had improved her skill in the last few weeks, growing increasingly confident with borrowed knowledge from Jakob and his connection to the ahmaean.

  “I’d like to find where he went.”

  “When you do, do you intend to attack immediately, or do you intend to plan your response?”

  “I don’t intend to attack.” At least, he didn’t intend to attack Scottan, but if he came across Raime, he would stop him as quickly as he could. If that meant that he would rush in to slaughter him, he would do that. After everything that Raime had done, and all those Raime had hurt, Jakob was determined to see his influence on the world ended. Too many had been harmed because of him. Too much had been destroyed. And if the Maker had given him a vision requiring balance, Jakob would do what he could to help. “Get on with it. I can tell that you have something on your mind.”

  “It’s not something that’s on my mind as much as it is a concern the rest of us have.”

  “The rest of you? I’ve helped as many as I could. Anyone else who has potential will need you or Adam or any of the others to help awaken their abilities.” He’d spent weeks working with the other damahne, time that he had used helping them reach potential they could not otherwise reach. It had required opening himself up to them, but they also had been opened up to him. Jakob now had an understanding of what many of them had gone through, and the suffering they had known as the madness had influenced them. There was nothing that he could do to remove that pain, so he held it in, and suffered with them.

  It helped him knowing that they had been healed, but it still pained him to think of what they had gone through. The more damahne he helped, the more he realized exactly what Scottan had gone through, and how much he had likely suffered as well. If there was some way he could save his brother, didn’t he have to try?

  And there were others who’d been afflicted with the madness whom he hadn’t gone after. There had to be. But when would he have the time to help them?

  “You’ve awoken us, and we are learning what it is to be damahne, how to use our abilities, but you still lead us, Jakob. We don’t have your experience—”

  Jakob cut her off with a laugh. “My experience? I’ve not understood my damahne abilities for much longer than you.”

  “And yet your abilities still outstripped mine.”

  “Only because I’ve walked back along the fibers.”

  “You keep calling it that, but anytime I’ve tried what you have done, I catch only glimpses. It’s better than what it was when I was sick—at least now I recognize that it’s not real—but it’s still not enough for me to gain the kind of knowledge that I have from you.”

  Jakob only grunted. They had gained the knowledge because Jakob had walked along the fibers to reach her and the others. Had he not, it was doubtful they would have been able to connect as deeply as they had. That connection allowed them a level of understanding not otherwise possible. That was part of Jakob’s gift, and it was one that he wasn’t entirely certain how to demonstrate to others. If he could, it was possible they would be able to reach for the same connection that he had.

  “I don’t intend to go anywhere anytime soon.”

  “Eventually, you will.”

  He considered Malaya a moment. She was a little older than he was and slightly shorter, but in the time since he had helped her reach her damahne abilities, she had begun to grow taller. Her voice had changed, taking on a more lilting quality. They were changes Jakob suspected he had gone through, though he wasn’t quite as aware of them in him as he was when they happened to someone else.

  “Eventually, I will have to do something.” He only wished that he knew what it was. He forced a smile and nodded to Malaya. “I will return in a short while. I’d like to stay here longer, to see if I can detect where else my brother might have gone.”

  “It would be better if you were willing to let someone else be here with you,” she said.

  Jakob smiled again. “I will consider your recommendation.”

  Malaya nodded, and then she shifted.

  He detected the movement as a faint fluttering of her ahmaean, and it was pulled inward, similar to how he traced back along the fibers. He doubted that was a coincidence, or that he was not meant to detect it. As she shifted, he once again recognized how strong she had grown. In time, she would continue to develop into a powerful damahne. It was something they needed.

  He stepped over to the edge of the Tower again and peered out into the fading daylight. No clouds drifted across the sky, and the sun wasn’t bright enough to grant much heat to the day. Every once in a while, a gust of wind would try to throw him backward, but he resisted, remaining held in place, as if he forced himself to become one of the stones.

  Jakob pulled the ahmaean from the Tower itself, using that to help stretch away from him. He’d hoped that the connection to the Tower would have gra
nted him a greater reach, but so far, that hadn’t seemed the case.

  I agree with the other damahne.

  Jakob looked around, expecting to see the nemerahl, but she remained hidden. He still hadn’t worked out how the nemerahl hid, but there was something about their connection to the fibers that allowed it.

  You agree that I should stop looking, or you agree with their concern for what might happen if I find my brother?

  Possibly both. There was a shimmering of ahmaean, though it was nothing like Jakob’s ahmaean, and the nemerahl appeared. Her fur was mostly black, though she had some brown dappling her coat. She was smaller in stature than the nemerahl that had once bonded to Alyta, but despite that, she was still quite powerful. There was a tight connection to the fibers, one that Jakob had not determined how much was due to him and his connection, and how much was due to the fact that not that many nemerahl remained.

  I need to look. Isn’t that why I’m here?

  I thought you were here because you wanted to help the other damahne reach their potential.

  That’s a part of it, but there’s more to it for me, there has to be. He debated a moment about whether to tell the nemerahl about his vision before deciding to do so. I was pulled along the fibers.

  I saw part of this.

  You saw?

  You were within the fibers. I saw.

  Is there anything within the fibers that you cannot see?

  There was a hesitation.

  Is there?

  Only when it involves another nemerahl.

  Was it the Maker?

  You traveled beyond my limits. I am not certain what experience you had.

  But it could have been the Maker.

  Possibly.

  Jakob sighed. If so, he needed to find the balance, but how? Did that mean finding a way to help his brother? Would the Maker be upset if he went after Raime?

  What will you do when you find him?

  When? You have seen this?

  The nemerahl growled within his mind, a sound that was something like laughter. She had a strange connection to him, and he was still learning her mannerisms.