The Heartstone Blade (The Dark Ability Book 2) (22 page)

Rsiran looked over at Della. He had often wondered if Della was Brusus’s mother, but Rsiran had never asked her pointedly whether she was. There was no doubting that Della had gifts like the other Elvraeth. Sight. Reading. Healing. A Seer. Perhaps more.

But she shook her head. “I have already answered that question once.”

Brusus followed Rsiran’s eyes and laughed softly. “Were it as simple as that, Rsiran. Then perhaps none of this would have happened.” He looked at Della standing by the desk and his eyes danced past the block of metal atop it. “Like so much in Elaeavn, everything comes back to the Elvraeth. Not just for me. Even if I didn’t share their blood, the decisions they make impact us all.”

“What are you saying?” Rsiran stood and turned to face Brusus who remained seated on the trunk.

Brusus sighed and motioned to the trunk. “Sit, please.”

Rsiran shook his head. “I don’t have time to sit. I need to find Jessa.”

“Unfortunately, there isn’t anything I know that will help with that.”

“Then what are you hiding? What do you think to protect us from?”

Brusus chuckled. It sounded dark, with none of the mirth he usually had. “The Elvraeth,” he started. “Always back to the Elvraeth. I have shared how five families, each claiming descent from the first Elvraeth, live within the palace.”

“And each family sits one person on the council.”

Brusus nodded. “That is right. Each family. All separate, yet each claims they are descended from the earliest Elvraeth, those first five who left the Aisl with the gift from the Great Watcher. And since I was attacked, I have been trying to understand what Josun wanted. Why did he ask you to poison the council?”

“He claimed it was a demonstration, but there was more to it.”

Brusus nodded. “Perhaps a demonstration. And maybe that is all it was to him, nothing more than quiet rebellion from one who would never sit among them. Each member of the council serves as the head of their family. Each is powerful, but that does not mean they are irreplaceable. I told you that the Elvraeth fight amongst themselves? That even were Josun dead, the Elvraeth likely would not search outside their walls for the killer. And even searching within their walls would be unlikely. You see, the Elvraeth fight for position within each family, all striving to sit on the council. It is there the real power exists.”

Rsiran didn’t fully understand even the simple answer. “And if it was more than a ‘quiet rebellion’?”

Brusus sighed and looked up at him standing in the middle of the room. His eyes flared a deep green. The only other time he’d revealed his abilities had been when sick. “That is a different matter and for a different time.”

“Are you so certain?” Della asked.

Brusus’s eyes narrowed. “I find it unlikely.”

“Just as you thought it unlikely that Josun Elvraeth lived. And because of that, Lianna died,” Della said.

“I know what happened to Lianna.”

“Do you? Just as you knew his mind when he led you to the warehouse? Did you intend Rsiran get drawn into it?”

Brusus looked away. “You know I didn’t.”

“Then tell him,” Della whispered. “You may not have wanted him drawn into this, but it doesn’t change that he is.” Della made her way to stand in front of Brusus and grabbed his chin. “You cannot do this alone, Brusus t’Elvraeth.” When she said his name, the air practically snapped. She held his gaze before releasing his chin and turning away.

Brusus looked after her before turning to Rsiran. “I thought to stay out of this, but learning of the warehouse, learning what it stores, well… I couldn’t.”

“What are you talking about?” Rsiran asked.

“My mother was not the first of the Elvraeth banished. Since the founding of Elaeavn, there have been others. Many others. Many scatter, settling in quiet villages or finding a place of seclusion in the great cities. Thyr. Cort. Asador.”

Rsiran stiffened with the last, thinking of the smithy and his sword he’d found there, and the man he’d brought back to Elaeavn. Did Brusus imply the man was one of the Forgotten Elvraeth?

“As you can imagine, banishment does not set well with them. They were Elvraeth, used to power. Used to ruling. While some faded into obscurity, others took a different tact and banded together.”

“Banded together? What do they think to do?”

Brusus shrugged. “Who is to know exactly? You think me well connected, but there are places my connections fail.”

Della turned. “And times when you fear to speak, it seems. Avoiding does not change the truth, does it?” she asked Brusus. Looking over at Rsiran, she frowned. “What Brusus fears telling you is there are some who think to return.”

“Return? But the Forgotten cannot return.”

An edge came to Brusus’s face. “Only because the Elvraeth make it so. We wonder what Josun wanted, what he had planned? For the longest time, I struggled to understand what he hoped to accomplish with his poisoning.”

A chill worked up Rsiran’s spine. “What do you think he wanted?”

“These others will do whatever they can to return. Even if it means poisoning the council. That was the beginning, but I didn’t know it at the time. Now… now with what I’ve learned, I realize that the real fight is only starting, only I don’t know why now.”

“What does that,” he said motioning to the desk, “have to do with it? What is this metal?” Rsiran grabbed the block of metal off the desk. He didn’t say anything about the other he’d found, but it weighed against his pocket.

Della took it from him. Her eyes softened as she looked it over, twisting it in her hand. One long, crooked finger ran along the smooth surface. Her voice shifted, coming more distant. “Before tonight, I had not seen it in that form in many years.”

“It is called heartstone,” Brusus said, taking the metal from Della.

Rsiran turned and looked at him. “But it’s metal.”

Brusus nodded. “It is. And rare. Rarer than lorcith. For years, most thought the last of it had been seen.”

Brusus glanced at Della before pinching off a small piece and held it in the palm of his hand. His eyes flared a brilliant green for a moment and then the small piece of metal began glowing with a soft blue light.

“The warehouse brought me into all of this, but not only me. I think Josun didn’t even know what all was stored there. When he discovered…” Brusus sighed. “Heartstone is valuable, and I don’t think even the Elvraeth knew they had this any longer.”

“But if it’s so valuable, why would it have been stored?”

Della smiled sadly. “So much of our past has been lost, Rsiran. Much that once mattered, not just to us, but the rest of the world. Elaeavn is just one place in the world. There are other places, massive cities—”

“Like Asador?” he interrupted. “You know that’s where I found the sword. That’s where Josun took it when he took Jessa.” But not her. Jessa wasn’t there. She might not be anywhere, anymore. That didn’t change the fact that he would search until he knew.

Della sighed. “Yes Asador. And others. Most would need to travel for weeks to reach the great cities, but you can simply step there.” She looked into his eyes. The color seemed to swirl, almost as if alive. “There are not many with you gift, not many who can Slide. Ahh… how I wish you could have lived in a time when someone could have taught you. You do not believe, but it’s a great gift you’ve been given, one that you never should have been ashamed of.”

She looked over his shoulder, her eyes going distant. He wondered if she Read him or was attempted to See something.

“Once the ability to travel was not like now. Not common, but not rare as it is today. And never quite like Sight. Most of our kind have some small ability there. But what you do—Sliding”—she said the word as if she disagreed with the term—“would be like Seers now. A useful skill. And those who could travel went all over the world, as if the Great Watcher had gifted them with the ability to see all that had been made. A time when our people had influence and knew peace. Those with your gift who went outside our boundaries were known as Travelers. And they were respected for what the Great Watcher had given them.” She shook her head, focus returning to her eyes, the distance fading. “But that was a long time ago. Before we left the trees. Before we felt the need to live along the water, looking out toward the distance. Before.” Della sighed, and it seemed as if she remembered those times.

Rsiran wondered what it must have been like to live when Sliding was common. What must it have been like not to fear Sliding openly? To be respected for it? Or what it had been like living in the Aisl, knowing the protection of the trees, feeling comfort rather than the anxiety he felt when he’d been among the ancient sjihn stretching high overhead, blocking out the sky?

Brusus looked from Della to Rsiran. “You wonder why the warehouse is full of treasure?”

“You said they were sent for the Elvraeth.”

“And they were. From the great cities. You have seen what the crates contain. Ceramics from Valen. Textiles from Bris. Strange crates from places even Firell hasn’t seen. But it was not the treasure the Elvraeth care about.”

“I still don’t understand. What is this heartstone?”

“Something the earliest of the Elvraeth knew to respect. A temper to the power hidden within lorcith. Only later was it twisted.” Della ran her finger across the block of metal and shook her head.

Comments Della had made over time left him with a question. The Elvraeth moved their people out of the Aisl. The Ilphaesn Mountain rose as a backdrop, full of lorcith that when combined with the metal, created an alloy that could prevent Sliding. And the palace used this alloy throughout.

What reason would the Elvraeth have to create a barrier from Sliders? Unless they feared those they’d banished.

He looked at Brusus. “The palace. They use that,” he said, pointing to the heartstone, “to keep out the Forgotten?”

Brusus glanced to Della before nodding. “Now you begin to understand.” Brusus took the heartstone and set it back atop his desk. “There are enough Elvraeth within the palace that the barriers built can’t protect them from each other. They fight. Some are exiled, sent from the city to be Forgotten. Others die.” Brusus laughed, a soft, dark sound. His hot breath smelled of ale and tea. “In that, they are little different from the rest of us. And now the Forgotten seek to return.”

“How long have you known?” Rsiran asked.

Brusus glanced at Della. “Not at first. And after what Josun had you do, and your suspicion of a rebellion… it made me question whether rumors of the Forgotten are more than I had believed.”

“And that’s why you wanted the knives. You’re trading for information about the Forgotten, about this rebellion, not only about Josun.”

Brusus made his way to the trunk and tapped on it. “They had been quiet before. I’ve never been able to learn. But now there is activity. I needed to know why. Josun brought me in. I don’t think he intended me to play this part, but now that I know what I do, how can I not?”

“Why Jessa? When I went to Asador, there was a smithy, and lorcith there.” He looked over to Della. “And the alloy. That was where I found him.”

“I still don’t know. But if Josun is after lorcith, and now we’ve found heartstone…”

“You think this is all about the alloy?”

Brusus slammed his fist on the trunk. “That’s just the problem. I don’t know what this is about. And Josun is the only connection that I can find.”

With a dawning understanding, Rsiran realized what Brusus really wanted. “You
want
to find the Forgotten?”

Brusus didn’t back down at the accusation. “Yes. My mother would be among them, Rsiran. What would you have done?”

Rsiran didn’t know. “I’d have been honest with my friends.”

“I have been as honest as I could be.”

“Really? And now Jessa is gone because you have been honest with us.”

“As I said, neither of you was ever to be a part of this. It was supposed to be me.”

Rsiran turned to the door, anger surging through him. Brusus had kept them in the dark about his true plan, and in doing so, had endangered them even more. “Had you told us from the beginning, we would have helped. Now… Now I have to find where he’s taken Jessa, if there’s still time.”

The only thing he could think of to find her now was learning where Firell went.

But that meant Sliding to his ship. And even with an anchor, supposing Firell still had some of Rsiran’s forgings aboard, he wouldn’t be able to reach him if he had already sailed out of the harbor.

“What you plan is dangerous,” Della said.

Rsiran hadn’t even felt Della Reading him. He looked at her, releasing his useless barrier as he did, pushing his thoughts at her. If he could hide nothing from her, then he would hide nothing.

Della winced but didn’t look away.

“What else can I do?” he asked.

“You should rest. Think before you act. You will be better able to help her if you get some sleep first.”

He glared at Brusus who only watched him. “No,” he decided, “I don’t think I can wait any longer. There is nothing more to learn here.”

Brusus looked from Rsiran, to Della. “You mean to Slide to his ship?” When Rsiran nodded, he shook his head. “No. I can’t let you do that. If you miss, you risk ending up in the water. Disappearing. Let me figure out what to do next. We’ll get her back, Rsiran.”

“I’m not asking permission, Brusus.”

“Think about what you’re saying!”

Brusus took a step and only stopped when Rsiran raised his hand. The knife that had fallen to the ground when Rsiran’s anger flared now floated up, hovering in the air and not moving. Brusus’s eyes went to the knife. “Listen. Della is right. You’re in this now. No more secrets. After where you’ve been, I don’t think I can protect you anyway.”

Rsiran shook his head. He had decided. He needed to reach Firell. Get answers to what he knew about the Forgotten. And then he would find Josun.

“I’ll tell you everything that I know. Then we can find Josun. Give me a chance—”

“Like how he gave Lianna a chance?” He regretted it as soon as he said it.

Brusus’s face twisted. Anguish returned to his eyes. But he swallowed and pushed it back. “Please…”