The Guild Secret (The Dark Ability Book 6) Read online

  A warning.

  Rsiran continued to focus on the metal, listening.

  The lorcith grew warmer, taking on an orange glow. It flared suddenly in his mind.

  The warning was clearer.

  Something was happening to the shadowsteel that the lorcith would not be able to contain.

  Rsiran grabbed Jessa and Slid to the other side of the wall.

  As he did, a flash followed him.

  Instinctively, he paused his Slide in the space between, that place in between Slides where he had discovered he could draw upon the strength of the Elder Trees.

  From here, he watched as the flash passed through, as if unable to fully reach this place. Darkness streaked around him, exploding in a bubble of compressive power that thundered in his ears. Jessa gripped his hand tightly, as if unwilling to let go.

  The explosion passed, and in this place, they were safe, untouched by whatever the shadowsteel would have done had they not paused in their Slide.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “That was the sphere,” he said.

  “How did it follow you as you Slid?”

  He wasn’t sure that was what had happened. It seemed that way to him, but hearing it from Jessa, knowing that she would have seen something that he could not, made it clear that it had.

  “Like I said, I think they somehow managed to link the shadowsteel to me.” Rsiran didn’t understand it, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that Venass had definitely found a new and deadly way to track him. What would happen if there were other spheres that he hadn’t seen? Would they follow him through his Sliding?

  If they could, he might not be safe anywhere. Anyone who came with him might not be safe, either.

  He Slid again and emerged back in the room where the sphere had been.

  Jessa gasped.

  It took Rsiran a moment to catch what had happened here. The walls were coated with darkness. Not a pure darkness, but flecks of it, and he realized that when the sphere exploded, it had coated everything with shadowsteel.

  “What would this do to you?” she asked him.

  “I don’t know. They have already used it to weaken my connection to lorcith and heartstone.” If it coated him? Would something change in him?

  What if they managed to prevent him from Sliding? Or somehow cut him off completely from his connection to the metals? He would be as defenseless as he’d been when the Forgotten used slithca on him.

  Rsiran shivered and made his way to the forge. Nothing of the lorcith that had wrapped around the sphere remained. Whatever had happened with the explosion had incinerated it. Had he not had the warning… what would have happened to him?

  What would have happened had he done this in his smithy?

  “This was stupid,” he said.

  “I’m glad you see that now,” she said.

  He held out his hand for Jessa. As she took it, he couldn’t help but think of what Della had said about how he needed to find help. But where would he find it? Who could withstand violence like this?

  Chapter 5

  Rsiran waited outside the Hall of Guilds, listening to the voices on the other side of the door. He could Travel and observe them more easily, but he had resisted the urge to Travel too often. Not only did doing so weaken him nearly as much as when he had first learned to Slide, but it also felt like something of a violation of trust to eavesdrop like that. He didn’t want to lose the trust of Ephram, though he wasn’t sure the man would even know if he listened in on their conversation.

  The voices stopped and the door opened. Ephram stepped through and paused as he noted Rsiran. “I have been trying to reach you for the last few days,” Ephram noted, touching his hand to his temple, scratching at his gray hair. Ephram was a tall man like most within Elaeavn, and willowy thin. His deep green eyes watched Rsiran with an unreadable expression.

  “You’ve been looking for me? Is it about what Sarah—”

  His quick shake of the head cut Rsiran off. “Not Sarah. This is about you and your responsibilities.” Ephram watched as those who’d been meeting in the Hall departed, then motioned for Rsiran to enter and take a seat at the table. “You are the smith guildlord now,” he said as he pulled out the bench and took a seat. “There are certain duties that you must abide by.”

  “I’ve been meeting with the master smiths.”

  “That’s not what I mean. The guildlords used to get together to discuss the issues of the guilds. We have not done so as often these days. Now that you’re guildlord… I had hoped your connection to the other guilds could change that.”

  “Why haven’t they gotten along?”

  Ephram took a deep breath. “The guilds… there are certain trust issues that you might have picked up on. The smiths resented the Miner Guild for restricting access to lorcith.”

  “They do not anymore.”

  Ephram shook his head. “They do not. That, I think, is because of you, Lareth. Your ability to detect the lorcith and teach the smiths how to listen for it has changed the way they approach it. The smiths now know the ample supply allows them to practice without fearing waste. They can truly master their skills with the ore, listening to it, learning how best to work each piece. There world has changed forever.”

  Rsiran hadn’t considered that before. For some reason, the Miner Guild had restricted access to lorcith, limiting it in such a way that the smiths were barely able to use it. When they ignored the call of the lorcith, that hadn’t been a problem, but now, the smiths listened. More and more of them had regained the ability to hear the call of the lorcith. And then there were those like Rsiran—and now Luca—who had never ignored the call of lorcith. There was no way to hide the lorcith from him when he could hear it so easily.

  “What do you think I can do?” he asked.

  Ephram took a deep breath. “The guilds need to be unified. Now that one of the Elder Trees is dead—”

  “Not dead,” Rsiran said.

  Ephram frowned. “I thought you said that it did not glow as it had.”

  “It doesn’t, but that is not the same as the tree dying.”

  Ephram waved his hand. “There might be leaves on the tree, but that doesn’t mean that it lives. If the power of the tree is gone, it is no different from any of the other sjihn in the forest.” He sighed. “And we must be vigilant. We must protect the crystals. That is the role of the guilds, the way that we serve.”

  “Serve the Elvraeth, you mean.”

  Ephram tilted his chin. “Serve the people of Elaeavn.”

  “The people of Elaeavn do not have access to the crystals, do they? It’s only the Elvraeth who enjoy that honor.”

  “Rsiran—”

  He held up his hand. “I agree that we must keep the crystals safe. If Venass managed to acquire one, I fear what they might do. But don’t pretend that we do so for the good of all our people.”

  Ephram watched him a moment. “You will have to be careful with that tone of yours when you meet with them.”

  “I don’t intend to meet with them.”

  “It is customary for the guildlords to meet with the Elvraeth council. In particular, the new guildlords meet with the council.”

  “Do they have to approve me?” The master smiths hadn’t warned him about that. Rsiran wasn’t sure that he would be able to act the way he needed to if he had to be approved by the Elvraeth. Everything that had happened to him his whole life had been tied to the Elvraeth in one way or another.

  “They have no approval authority,” Ephram said. “That does not change the fact that we must still treat them respectfully.”

  “Respectfully? The Elvraeth did nothing when Venass attacked.”

  “What would you have had them do?”

  “Care about the fate of the city, for starters.”

  “They care, but in their own way.”

  Rsiran met Ephram’s eyes, waiting for him to explain more, but he didn’t. “Why do you defend them? You know what they have
done as well as anyone. What have they done to deserve your loyalty?”

  “Not loyalty, but there is tradition that must be respected.”

  “Tradition also said the Smith Guild should ignore the call of lorcith. Do you think we’ve been well served by tradition?”

  A troubled expression crossed his face.

  “Tradition has said that those who can Slide should remain hidden. The Elvraeth were responsible for declaring that talent a dark one. An entire guild, forbidden! Tradition has said that our people should not carry weapons and have no way of protecting ourselves. I know the constables are guild members, but how many suffered because of that tradition?”

  Ephram leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest as he took a few breaths. “What would you have me do?”

  “I would have us approach the Elvraeth from a position of strength, not weakness.”

  “The guilds have never come to the Elvraeth in a position of weakness.”

  “No? It seems that you defer too much to them.”

  “Only because you do not understand.”

  “Perhaps not,” Rsiran said. “But I’ve seen the way that Venass continues to progress. They don’t stick to tradition. They’ve found a way to target me, to connect shadowsteel to me, and in doing so, they would separate me from my abilities.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  “I wouldn’t have thought so, either, but I found something when we were in Thyr. Hasn’t Sarah told you about it?”

  “I’ve not seen Sarah, so no.”

  Rsiran frowned. She had intended to show the shadowsteel sword to Ephram, and see what answers he might have about the blade and the metal. Why wouldn’t she have done that?

  “What have you found?”

  “Shadowsteel,” he said.

  “You already knew about shadowsteel.”

  Rsiran nodded. “We did, but this is different. They have done something with it, modified it in some way. Now when it touches lorcith or heartstone, my connection to the metals changes.”

  “Does this happen gradually or immediately?”

  “Immediately.”

  Ephram touched a finger to his lips, as he seemed to contemplate. “That should not be possible.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Your connection to the metals has intrigued me, and I’ve come up with only one way to explain why you have the ability to use lorcith and heartstone as you do. I think that it’s tied to the potential of the metal, that you are somehow able to access it, and through your connection to it, you can draw on that potential. I have not heard of anyone with quite the same ability, but it is the only thing that makes sense.”

  “Then how would Venass manage to prevent me from using it?”

  “They must somehow drain the potential trapped within the lorcith and heartstone. Shadowsteel has been known to have dark and dangerous properties, but never have we known it to sap the potential of other metals.”

  Was that what it had done? Could that be all there was to what Venass had devised? The answer made as much sense as any, though he had a hard time imagining the power stored in lorcith could be removed that easily. “Do I drain the potential from lorcith as I use it?”

  “I don’t know enough about what you do to know how to answer that,” Ephram said. “It’s possible that you do, and that over time, the metal would become less responsive to you, but it’s just as possible that you have a way of connecting to that potential that does nothing to it, a neutral effect if you will.”

  “Is there any way to determine if that’s what happens?” If he drained lorcith as he used it, he would have to think about what that meant. The lorcith had never resisted him when he attempted to use it, almost as if it understood that he had a need, but part of what made him successful with it was the fact that he listened to it, worked with it, rather than forcing it to comply with his needs.

  “I suppose, with the right focus, we should be able to determine if that is possible. Does it matter? We know that lorcith is plentiful. What does it matter if you use up the potential stored in any given piece?”

  “It matters,” he said. There was no way to really explain to someone else why it mattered to him, only that it did. Had he not listened to lorcith from the beginning, he would never have learned what he was capable of doing. He would never have learned to forge and shape metal. He would never have learned to control it as he had. Much of what he had become, he owed to his connection to lorcith. He could not betray that connection by misusing it. Doing so felt wrong.

  “I need you to tell me about shadowsteel.”

  “That is a secret of the Alchemist Guild,” Ephram said.

  “Am I not close enough to the guild? Do I not see the potential stored within metals?”

  “That doesn’t make you an alchemist.”

  Rsiran sighed, wishing he didn’t have to argue this with Ephram. “With what we have to face, you need to share with me what you know. We are dealing with Venass, and they do not hesitate to learn, to push themselves as they strain to understand what it is that we can do. They study and learn. They share. What happens when they discover a way to replicate all of our abilities? We won’t have any way of protecting ourselves then.”

  Rsiran wasn’t sure that they had any way of protecting themselves now. Not with what he’d seen from Venass, and the new ways that they used shadowsteel, but they could continue to learn, and if they could work together…

  “As I said, that is a secret of the Alchemist Guild.”

  “If you want us to work together, you will have to work with me.”

  Ephram clapped him on the arm. “I have worked with you, Lareth. I have shared more than I have with anyone outside the guild. Be patient. There are times when tradition matters.”

  Ephram stood, pushing back the bench as he did. Rsiran sat there, wishing he could convince Ephram that there might be times when tradition mattered, but there were others when it did nothing more than slow their progress.

  “I will summon you when the council desires to meet.”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “You will be there. You are one of the guildlords now. You have an obligation to your guild.”

  Rsiran watched him leave, frustration bubbling within him about what he would do next. They needed to stop Venass, but he needed to find a way to prevent them from creating and using shadowsteel. If he didn’t… He didn’t want to think about what would happen if he didn’t.

  Chapter 6

  The knife streaked through the trees of the Aisl Forest toward him, but with no real force. Rsiran batted it away, slicing at it with his sword, not bothering to even Slide away. It was almost as if Haern didn’t even want to try.

  Elms and oaks rose around him as they sparred on the edge of the forest, not getting any deeper or closer to the sjihn trees. Haern hadn’t wanted to get that deep into the forest, and Rsiran hadn’t though it necessary.

  But Haern’s attack had been much weaker than Rsiran would have expected. In the past, Haern had pushed him, testing him, forcing him not to use his abilities as they sparred so that Rsiran could develop other skills. But now, even without using his abilities, he had no trouble with Haern, and he didn’t think it was because he had improved that much.

  Haern held back, but Rsiran didn’t know why.

  He Slid forward, catching Haern from behind, and swung the sword. Haern turned, but did so almost lazily, managing to catch Rsiran’s sword, but in the moment before he would have struck him.

  Rsiran jumped back, sliding his sword back into his sheath. “What is it, Haern?”

  “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  “You’re not even trying.”

  “You’ve gotten skilled enough that I don’t need to worry about you.”

  “You’ve seen what Venass is willing to do in the city, the way they are willing to attack. I think we need to continue to improve, to grow our abilities.”

  Haern’s jaw clenched. “I k
now more than most what Venass is willing to do.”

  Rsiran watched him. Something bothered him today, though he wasn’t sure what it was. “Tell me about Venass. What do you know that you haven’t shared with us?”

  “Rsiran—”

  “Haern, they continue to attack. The last group that we encountered had a new weapon, one that they had trained on me. I’m not sure I know enough about how to stop them. So I need to know everything you know that might help us.”

  “I was never a part of the deeper conversations with Venass. I was almost one of the Hjan, but even then, I was a lower level.”

  “How did they bring you into the Hjan?”

  Haern looked away, shaking his head. “That’s not important.”

  Rsiran couldn’t help but think that it might be important, but he wouldn’t push Haern on it. “We need to know what they might do next. Where they might attack.”

  “You want to know what they intend to do with your father. And you want to know about where to find Danis.”

  Rsiran nodded. He wouldn’t deny that, and certainly not to Haern. “Is there anything that you can See?”

  “Not when it comes to you. And with Venass… it’s as if they managed to blanket themselves in some way. There was a time when I could See them, but that was before…” He touched the plate in his face and let out a slow breath. “I don’t know if there’s anything that I can do that will be helpful.”

  Rsiran hadn’t expected Haern to be able to See anything about Venass, but it was helpful have it confirmed. “I need to understand shadowsteel,” he told Haern.

  “You’re asking the wrong person.”

  “Is there anything that you learned while you were there that could help?”

  “I knew Venass had something that gave the Hjan different abilities than I had been given, but only the senior members of the Hjan were granted it.”

  That was something that he hadn’t known. “What did it take to be a senior member of the Hjan?”