The Heartstone Blade (The Dark Ability Book 2) (19 page)

“I guess I’m not,” Rsiran admitted.

Jessa squeezed his hand under the table. “You asked Rsiran what he had done. What do you mean by that? What else did you find in Upper Town?” After rattling off these questions and getting only a worrisome gaze from Brusus, she added, “And why were you drunk?”

Brusus looked over to Rsiran. “Some things you don’t speak openly about. Especially in Upper Town. Things like the Elvraeth. Or the palace. And I wasn’t drunk.”

Rsiran tensed, suddenly fearing what Brusus had learned. “Did you find anything about Josun?”

“I tried, but the tchalit will not speak of individual Elvraeth. Getting one to speak at all takes great convincing.”

The tchalit.

Rsiran had heard that term only once before. After Sliding into the palace, Josun had claimed the tchalit were coming for Rsiran. Palace guards of some kind.

How would Brusus have managed to get one of the tchalit to speak, unless…

“You convinced them you were Elvraeth,” he realized.

“You say that as if it would be difficult for me to do so.”

Brusus’s eyes had flared a dark green, revealing the depths of his ability and his connection to the Great Watcher.

“Of course not, Brusus. I didn’t mean any offense—”

Brusus laughed softly. The edge of heat to his eyes faded slightly but did not disappear entirely. “I know you didn’t, Rsiran. Since Lianna, I’ve been…” He didn’t finish.

They all understood. Since Lianna passed, they’d all been on edge, Rsiran especially. Mostly, it was the idea that Josun could come for one of them next; that he could simply appear, Sliding into place and attacking, made him fear more for Jessa than himself. She was so stubbornly independent. But he didn’t know what he would do if anything happened to her.

“What did you learn from the tchalit?” Jessa asked. She touched Rsiran’s arm, as if Reading his fears. “Why did you ask what Rsiran did?”

Brusus sighed. “The tchalit do not like to speak to the Elvraeth. I had to be… persuasive.”

“So you had drinks with him?”

“Not drinks. They live in the palace. They think themselves more refined than that.”

Jessa’s eyes narrowed. “Then what?”

“Most of the tchalit prefer orphum vapor. Faster drunk than ale and wears off more quickly. And less likely to have other effects.”

Rsiran hadn’t heard of orphum vapor. “Do you need to see Della?”

Brusus glared at him. “Do you? Foolish thing you did.”

Jessa turned and looked at him.

“I… I needed to find answers. Haern came with me.”

Brusus slammed a fist down onto the table. The elderly men at the bar turned to look and watched them for a moment before turning away. “Haern went with you? One of you is foolish, but two is simply asking to get caught.”

Brusus was right. Rsiran should have gone alone, Sliding if needed. But had he done that, it was unlikely he would have gotten very far. The alloy would have blocked him from Sliding. If not for the anchor Haern brought, he wouldn’t have been able to get through.

Even then, it hadn’t been worth it. All they got was a few useless pages of parchment. Scrambled words. Numbers that meant nothing. And the guild learning of his presence and already sending word to the palace for Brusus to have heard about it. Not the secret of the alloy as he had hoped, a way to keep his friends—Jessa most of all—safe.

“I know they saw me. There wasn’t anything I could do at that point.”

Jessa squeezed his arm painfully. “What did you do, Rsiran? Where did you go?” Her voice hid the other accusation: that he’d gone without her. She didn’t need to say anything for him to know how much that hurt her.

Brusus answered for him. “The tchalit told me that someone broke into the palace. They found them walking through the courtyard in the center of the palace carrying a lorcith sword.”

“The palace and a sword?” Rsiran glanced from Brusus to Jessa, confusion surging through him. “I didn’t go into the palace tonight.”

Brusus frowned at him. “Rsiran—”

“You think I’d be foolish enough to return to the palace? I’m worried enough the Elvraeth will notice how much lorcith I’ve forged. I wouldn’t dare try breaking in again.”

Brusus studied him. “The sword would have been bad enough. From what I can tell, they are so rare that the tchalit had never seen one before. Even your knives are a rarity, though other lorcith knives exist in the city. That’s why they’re so valuable.” Brusus leaned forward, eyes growing more intense and flaring a darker green for a moment. “That wasn’t all the tchalit said. He said when they approached the person, he simply disappeared. They have the constables searching throughout the city for this person. With as close as you got to the Elvraeth, the constables will not rest until you’re caught.”

Rsiran didn’t know what to say. Someone—and Josun was the only person he could imagine doing something like that—had entered the palace carrying a lorcith sword. His sword. As attuned to it as he was, shouldn’t he have felt it moving?

Not with what he’d done tonight. He’d buried the sense of lorcith in order to find the guild house. And in doing so, he hadn’t even felt for the knives he’d brought with him.

But it was more than just lorcith. By Sliding from the palace with a lorcith sword, the Elvraeth would be looking. The alchemist guild too. Now he didn’t have to hide from only Josun; he had to hide from all the Elvraeth. And if he didn’t, everyone he cared about would be in danger.

“Wait… if you didn’t go to the palace,” Jessa started, “then where did you and Haern go?”

He met her eyes, knowing how hurt she would be that he would risk entering the alchemist guild without her. “I went looking for a way to keep us safe from Josun Elvraeth, a way to make the alloy.”

She frowned and her eyes narrowed. “Did you find anything?”

He’d gone to the alchemists, thinking to find a way to keep Josun from reaching him, but what if that wasn’t the answer? He wanted to keep Jessa safe—to keep all of his friends safe. From what he’d seen, Josun was after him, not the rest of them.

That meant he would have to do something drastic.

If Josun, the Elvraeth, and the alchemists were after him, what choice did he have left?

Brusus watched him as he finally answered. “Not the answer I wanted.”

R
siran let
the coals of the forge cool on their own. A stack of new lorcith blades rested on his table, different from the usual knives he’d made. Not only in the shape—these were smaller and more compact, better for concealing within a cloak or stuffing into his pockets—but also in how he’d made them. For the second time, he had asked the lorcith to help him create the knives, rather than listening to what the lorcith wanted to become. And the lorcith had complied.

Was this what his father had wanted him to learn to do? What he had done seemed different from how his father described demanding the lorcith take a certain shape. Rsiran felt more of a cooperation with the lorcith. When he felt it calling to him, pulling on him to make it into a certain shape, he had asked if it would help him make the knives. Rsiran still didn’t know how he did that.

Each knife had the same small mark on the end. His mark. And now his connection to them felt if anything stronger than it usually did.

Rsiran pushed on the top one. It slid along the table until he stopped it. Then he pulled, drawing the knife to him and caught it out of the air.

Collecting the other knives, he tucked two into his waistband. The rest went into pockets in his cloak. He grabbed the lantern, making certain to keep it covered, and looked around the smithy one more time. Possibly for the last time.

An ache pounded through his heart.

He looked over to where the sword he’d made months ago leaned against the table. When he’d returned after meeting Brusus in the Barth, he’d found it sitting atop the anvil. Somehow, Josun had snuck in after Rsiran had been here last, after returning from the guild house with Haern. A message or a threat from Josun. Either way, Rsiran no longer had a choice.

How much longer before Josun learned that Rsiran had entered the alchemist guild? Or did he already? He’d use that knowledge, along with the fact of his lorcith forging, to force his hand. Others would be harmed as Lianna had been. And he wouldn’t allow that.

The door to the smithy clicked, and he turned, expecting Jessa. She stood in the doorway, watching him with a deep frown, her Sight taking in everything in the smithy, before closing the door behind her and locking it.

“Were you going to leave without me again?” Anger hung in her voice over how he’d Slid into the alchemist guild without her.

He swallowed a lump in his throat. He didn’t dare tell her that he hoped he could have. “I don’t think it’s safe for you to come.”

She stormed across the shop, her eyes flashing angrily as she scanned the smithy. Today she wore simple black pants and a shirt without embroidery. The lorcith charm hanging around her neck blended into her clothes. Only the dark red flower stuffed inside contrasted with what she wore. “Why do you think you need to go?”

“You know why. Josun Elvraeth will not rest until everyone around me is hurt. I thought that if I could find a way to keep us safe…”

If only he understood the secret of the alloy. Then he could use it to… to what? Did he really think he’d be able to find a way to prevent Josun from reaching him? If the Elvraeth decided you did something, you did not argue. Even if it meant your life.

“And since you didn’t, you think leaving will change that? You think that if you leave, it changes anything about his plans?” She grabbed his hand and made certain to hold on tightly. He could not Slide without taking her with him.

Rsiran wasn’t certain that it would. “You’ve seen what’s already happened. And now he’s coming after me. I need to go where he can’t find me.”

She shook her head. “Only what Josun wants to happen. We got past him once before. We’ll do it again.”

“We were lucky then. We both know what nearly happened.”

He pulled her close, and she didn’t fight. Her warmth pressed against him. Any other time, it would have felt reassuring. Now it only made him anxious, knowing that he would be the reason something happened to her.

“Only Josun knows where we are,” Jessa said. She pressed her cheek up against his chest and wrapped her arms around him.

“For how much longer? The constables are on alert. Already they’ve begun patrolling Lower Town.”

“They’ve always had a presence—”

“Not like this. Not this late. When was the last time you saw a constable after dark? And now, suddenly, we’ve seen three?” That, as much as anything, told him that what Brusus had heard was true. More than that, he wondered how much influence the alchemists had? “And if the alchemists haven’t made the connection between what Brusus heard and what happened in their guild house, they soon will. And then I’ll never be safe here.” He squeezed her. “We’ll never be safe here.”

How was it that he would already lose what he’d only just gained?

“Brusus can fix this.”

Rsiran sighed. “Not this.” They couldn’t bribe their way past this. Not anymore. It had gotten too big for that. Too many pieces. And now, too many people knew about him. About his ability. Better just to leave. Exile himself as his father had once done to him. Only this time, it wouldn’t be safe for him to return to Elaeavn.

“Leaving will keep you safe,” he said. “That’s all I want. You shouldn’t suffer because of me. Haern will be fine, and Brusus…” Brusus apparently had enough connections that he would be fine as well.

“How would leaving me help anything?” The hurt hung heavy in her voice. “You’re an idiot sometimes. You won’t know anything if you go without me. You’ll be just as in the dark as you always are without me.” She punched his chest and her voice caught. “And besides, I seem to remember how much you needed me the last time you decided to do something on your own.”

That she was right did not make what he had to do any easier. But she needed to know everything. This time, he wouldn’t hide it from her. “I intend for him to come after me.”

She frowned. “Who? Josun?”

Rsiran nodded. He hadn’t fully worked out how he would manage to do it, but he needed to try. He still didn’t understand the connections, and how they worked into whatever Josun planned with his rebellion, but the parts were there. They had been from the beginning. Lorcith disappearing from the guild. His father’s shop closing. The lorcith on Firell’s ship. Maybe even what Shael asked him to forge. And now Josun had made it appear like Rsiran broke into the palace.

“Then you’re a fool. Dying won’t help any of us.”

“I don’t intend to die.”

“None of us intend to die. Sometimes the Great Watcher turns away just long enough…”

Rsiran sighed. Arguing with her did no good. “After what he did to Lianna—”

Her grip softened on his hand. “Is that what you think? That I’m some delicate girl who needs you to watch over me?”

“I know you’re not delicate.” He met her gaze and looked away, his eyes catching the flower hanging in the charm. “That doesn’t mean I want to be the cause of you getting hurt.”

“I did pretty well before I met you.” She sniffed at the flower and her eyes calmed slightly.

“I know.”

She hung onto him for a while, saying nothing. Rsiran kept his arms around her. They swayed in place. Just holding onto her felt comforting. Felt right. Maybe Jessa was right. He always had been stronger with her.

“Why do you think you have to draw Josun out anyway?”

“I think he means for me to come after him. He took the sword,” he started, pointing to where it rested, “and brought it back as a message for me.”

And he thought it hidden. Nothing was really hidden from someone who could Slide. He might be able to lock the door, but that wouldn’t keep Josun out. But once in the smithy, Rsiran hadn’t thought anyone would easily find the sword.

Jessa let go of his hand and picked up the sword. After twisting it carefully, she looked at him and frowned. “Why would he take this?”

“That’s the second time he’s taken it. The first time, I went to him and took it back. This time, he returned it here. Both times tie me to what happened in the palace.”

“And the third time?”

“I don’t mean there to be a third time.”

Jessa nodded slowly. “But he already knew about the sword since he’d taken it from you before. Others would have seen him wearing it.”

Rsiran took the sword out of Jessa’s hands. The jeweled hilt made it more valuable, but its real value came from the lorcith of the blade. And from the fact that such creations were forbidden by the council.

“I don’t know that he did. Brusus said the tchalit had never seen a lorcith-forged sword, but we know Josun had this sword in the palace. He wore it when we saw him in the warehouse, but maybe that was the only time.”

“Rsiran—we can’t win when we’re dealing with one of the Elvraeth. They don’t just rule over the city. The Elvraeth are revered in the other great cities as well. Places like Asador and Thyr where we still trade. They can make whatever decisions they want. And going after Josun is… well, it’s just dumb.”

“But I don’t intend to go after Josun. I just want to get him away from the city. Keep him from people I care about. Brusus. Haern. Della.” He pulled her toward him and hugged her tightly. “But mostly, from you. Then we need to prove his rebellion is real. That’s the only way we can get out of this. The only way to keep us safe.”

“Do you really think you can prove his guilt to the council? Think about what you’re saying!”

Rsiran sighed. “Even if we don’t prove his guilt, I need to get him away. Maybe that will be enough.”

“You think that by leaving, he’ll come after you for some reason. That you can keep the rest of us safe.” When he nodded, she pulled her hands out of his and rested her palms on his chest, pushing lightly against him. “You’re an idiot.”

“Why? Because I think I can do something to help? That I want to do whatever I can to keep everyone safe? How is that so different from what Brusus does?”

She laughed. “Have you considered that leaving is what he wants you to do
because
you know he plans something? What if all of this is a way to simply scare you into disappearing?”

“If that’s all he wanted, he could have just attacked me like he did with Lianna. But that’s not what he’s done.”

“But if Josun has decided to reveal you, why now?”

Rsiran shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“Like I said, you’re—”

“An idiot. I know. I just can’t shake the feeling that if I leave, he’ll come after me.” And, at least then, he wouldn’t have to fear the alchemists coming for him. There were so many reasons for him to leave. And really just one to stay.

“Or just keep doing whatever he wants you to do. Only now, he’s the only person in the city with the ability to Slide.”

Maybe Jessa was right. Maybe he was foolish to think that leaving would keep them any safer. But staying only kept them in danger. “What would you have me do?”

Jessa smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “Well, at least now you’re thinking straight. If Josun wants you to leave, make him think that you left. And we can keep working to figure out what he’s up to.”

“What if he learns what we’re doing?”

“How would that be any different from the situation we find ourselves in now?”

Rsiran didn’t want to tell her. If Josun learned what they were trying, he might do more than simply make it look like Rsiran Slid into the palace. Josun already knew how much Jessa meant to him. As Della said, Josun would consider that a weakness. But Rsiran would do anything to keep his friends safe.

“I see what you’re thinking.”

He laughed softly. “I would almost think that you can Read me.”

She pushed on his chest again. “Don’t need to Read you. I can see the way your eyes change. Or how the corner of your mouth twitches. You give yourself away when you do that. I know you’re thinking something you don’t want me to know.”

As much as he could fortify the barriers in his mind, he couldn’t prevent Jessa from knowing what he was thinking. And even if he could, would he want to?

“What about the alchemists?”

“Did they see you?”

Rsiran frowned. “They saw me Slide away. But if they learn of someone Sliding out of the palace, they’ll make the connection. Eventually it will come back to me.”

Jessa patted him on the chest. “Eventually. That means you don’t have to worry about it now, so let’s take care of one problem at a time. Maybe we can even tie them together, convince the alchemists that Josun was the one to enter their guild house.”

Rsiran took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She was right. The alchemists should be the least of his worries right now. Once they figured out what to do about Josun—if they managed to figure out what to do—then they could focus on the guild, maybe even do as Jessa suggested.

“Besides, if we fail, you don’t really have to worry about them,” Jessa said with a laugh. “So… where now?”

“We have to make it look like we’ve left. I’ve already cleaned up what I can from the smithy. I want to move a few of these other lorcith items so that it looks like I’ve really gone. And then…”

“Where do you want to take the lorcith?”

“Well, we want to play into his expectations, right? Wouldn’t he expect me to take it to Brusus?”

Jessa smiled and nodded. “Good. And since he’s still sleeping off the orphum, you have time.”

Rsiran bundled up the remaining lorcith-forged items scattered across the table, not bothering with anything made of iron or steel. Only the lorcith would be valuable if discovered, and Josun would expect him to take it. After stacking them, he looked at Jessa.

“Wait for me.”

She frowned. “You’re not leaving without me.”

“No. Just going to take this to Brusus. Then I’ll be back for you and we can decide what we need to do next.”

“Together.”

Jessa’s eyes flickered brighter as she studied his face. He wondered what she saw there. But he wouldn’t leave without her. More than anything, he needed her.

He nodded. “Together.”