Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4) (21 page)

Rsiran turned back to them and looked to Della. “What if…” He paused, uncertain how to phrase his question. “What if it’s something about the combination of my abilities?”

Della tottered toward him, resting a hand on the counter as she went. “The Great Watcher alone knows why you were given the gifts that you were, but I know that you have no darkness within you. Anger, certainly. After all that you’ve been through, it is only natural to have anger. But darkness? That implies that there is a part of you that revels in killing.”

Rsiran thought about how he’d felt after sending his knife through the man in Thyr. Hadn’t that part of him felt a slight thrill as it happened? What did that make him?

As he looked at Jessa and saw the concern written on her face, he knew that he would do anything to keep her safe, even if it was of his own doing. Maybe, especially if it was his own doing.

T
he bluish light
from the bracelets burned against the darkness of the night. Rsiran twisted them, feeling the way the end of the metal pressed against the sensitive inside of his arm, and wondered if he would ever feel confident that he could rely on them.

The lump of metal claimed from Ilphaesn had responded when he attempted to forge a similar set of bracelets to what he’d made for Jessa, seeking assurance that he would not be Compelled. The bracelets that formed for him were different from the ones he’d made for Jessa, not only in the shape that they’d taken—a flatter, twisting shape that rotated in a tight circle—but in the fact that he’d needed to add heartstone to the lorcith. For some reason, the shaping had practically demanded it.

Heartstone layered along the top of the bracelets, running in a thin line throughout their entirety. It was this heartstone that glowed for him, but the lorcith had called to him, lorcith that he’d taken from Ilphaesn when he’d returned to clear out the rest of the lorcith that he discovered there. Now, much of it filled his smithy, but a few of the larger lumps he’d taken to the Aisl.

Now he would need to test them. That was why he’d sneaked here, leaving his barriers lowered. Without them around his mind, he felt naked, exposed somehow, but if this worked, and he didn’t have to remember to maintain the protections that he had long ago learned to erect in his mind, then he might be able to divert some of that focus to other tasks. And he might not need to fear what would happen if they were lowered, or that he “shouted” as Thom suggested.

He stopped at the door to listen. To sense. Darkness and shadows stretched all around him, less than they once had in this part of Lower Town, especially at night. He sensed lorcith, but it was either on him, or within the warehouse, carried by Brusus.

Would Brusus detect him coming?

Focusing on the inside of the warehouse, toward the clearing he knew was within, he
pulled
himself forward.

Lights flashed around him, and he emerged to darkness.

Not pure darkness, though. The bracelets created a soft light, much like the Elvraeth lantern and the blue glow that came from it. The shadows around him receded, leaving him with shifting layers of gray.

The crates towered over his head, the same as the last time he’d been here. After what had happened with Josun, Brusus had mostly abandoned his plans for the items stored in the warehouse, but when Rsiran detected him here, mostly from the knife that he carried, he decided to test the bracelets.

Jessa waited for him in the Barth. And Haern… Rsiran still hadn’t seen Haern since returning from Thyr.

That should bother him, especially since Haern knew what they were going through, and that they had risked themselves traveling to Thyr. But Haern could often be strange, and was known to often be silent for days at a time. Jessa didn’t seem concerned. More than anything, that reassured him. Were there something for him to worry about, especially when it came to Haern, Jessa would know.

The sense of lorcith came distantly within the warehouse. Rsiran focused on it, noting that it was toward one end of the warehouse. As he thought about it, he realized that he detected lorcith where he would not expect to. Not unless…

He readied a pair of knives and
pulled
himself to the hidden part of the warehouse where he’d detected Josun’s attempts at combining heartstone.

As he emerged, Brusus swung a pair of knives toward him.

Rsiran
pushed
on the knives, and kept them from hitting him.

Brusus let out a relieved sigh. “Damn, Rsiran. You shouldn’t come sneaking up on me like that. You’re liable to get yourself killed.”

Rsiran grabbed the knives and handed them over to Brusus. “If you wanted to kill me, you’d use something other than lorcith-forged knives, especially knives that
I
made.”

Brusus pocketed the knives and shrugged. “Yours are the most finely made knives I own. Can’t say I want to use a different knife. Besides, if you come jumping out at me like that, you’re the only one who would be able to control them, so I don’t have to worry that I’ll hurt you.” He tapped the side of his head. “That’s a benefit, if you ask… Why are you wearing the bracelets you made Jessa?”

Rsiran held out his hands. The soft blue light glowing from the bracelets persisted, brighter since they were in such a dark space, between the stacks of crates. “I wanted a physical form of protection so I didn’t have to constantly hold mental barriers in place.”

“Listen, Rsiran, you know Thom only said that to get to you. He was trying to evoke a response.” He glanced back down to the bracelets and shook his head. “And seeing how you find a need to wear them, it worked.”

“It’s not Thom.” Brusus frowned at him. “Well, it’s not
entirely
Thom. When I Slide, I lose the connection to lorcith and heartstone,” he explained. That had been the fear when Thom mentioned that Rsiran had been loud. Each time he emerged from a Slide, he reached for the connection to lorcith to strengthen the barriers, but if Thom or someone like him managed to Compel him in that moment, there was no telling what he would do. He wouldn’t always have Della nearby to answer whether he’d been Compelled, and he didn’t want to put his friends in danger with something that he did. Or might do, when forced. “This way, I don’t have to worry about losing the connection.”

Brusus’s frown deepened. “Are you sure they work? I mean, you’re putting a lot of faith in them. It’s one thing if Jessa was Compelled. She has Sight, but you? If they don’t protect you as you hope, someone could Compel you to throw your knives or Slide us somewhere, or the Great Watcher only knows what else. Damn, Rsiran, it might be better if you just maintain that barrier.”

“I’ll keep the barrier in place,” he said, “but I don’t want to need to rely on it.” Had he something like these bracelets when the Forgotten had captured him, he wouldn’t have needed to worry about them getting past his barriers, even when dosed with the slithca syrup. “Do they work?” he asked Brusus.

Brusus pulled his eyes away from the bracelets and fixed his gaze on Rsiran. Pale green eyes darkened, revealing the full extent of his ability, visible even in the darkness. How much of that was because of the glow coming from Rsiran’s bracelets and how much was because of Rsiran’s improved Sight?

The bracelets went cool and then, with a surge of blue light, went cold.

Brusus staggered back and grabbed his head.

“What happened?” Rsiran asked.

Brusus leaned forward, resting his hands on his thighs. “Damn,” he breathed. “Was that a punishment for something?” he asked. “Not sure I care for it.” He took a few breaths and then shook himself, standing and rubbing at his temples. “You want to torment me, you can just go dancing around with Jessa like you do. But that?” he asked, pointing to the bracelets, “that’s something else.”

Rsiran twisted them. Jessa said they went cold when Thom attempted to Read or Compel her, but his had done something more than simply going cold. There had been a flash of light, as if the bracelets defended him in some way.

Della was right. What he created
was
dangerous. Not only if the bracelets let him know when someone tried to sneak past his barriers, but because they assaulted the person who tried.

“I’m sorry, Brusus. I didn’t know…”

Brusus shook his head. “That’ll keep me from trying to Read you. But it’s not exactly subtle, is it? Something like that, if it leads to… whatever just happened to me… makes it pretty clear that you have something powerful with you.”

“But you couldn’t Compel me?”

“Compel? Damn, Rsiran, I couldn’t
Read
you. Whatever those things are, they keep me completely blocked from your mind.”

Jessa’s hadn’t reacted the same way. If they had, then Della would have told them. And Thom would have reacted more than he did. That meant the heartstone in them changed the intent. He added heartstone because the lorcith seemed to imply that he should, that they would be more effective for
him
, but now he wondered if that had been the only reason.

Had he known that the heartstone would change the way the bracelets worked?

He didn’t think that he had. Heartstone didn’t have an intent behind it, not like lorcith. He had only followed the direction and guidance of lorcith itself, not something within him. Hadn’t he?

Brusus continued to rub his head, and Rsiran scanned the area, trying to push those thoughts out of his mind. The more he thought about it, the more he began to wonder if there
might
be something within him that generated darkness. If so, then he would either have to stop working with lorcith and Sliding… or embrace the fact that he had changed.

“How did you get in here?” Rsiran asked.

When he’d tried reaching this part of the warehouse without Sliding, there hadn’t been any opening. As far as Rsiran could tell, there still wasn’t one.

Brusus motioned toward a crate three off the ground, staggering briefly as he started toward it. Rsiran Slid to him and put and arm around him for support, but Brusus shook him off. “I’m fine.” His voice still sounded somewhat shaky, and he took a deeper breath than normal, but he managed to stand in front of the crate without any outward sign of weakness. “Look up there,” he instructed.

Rsiran followed the direction of where Brusus pointed, and realized that the crate had a small opening. “You climbed through that?”

“Climbed doesn’t really describe it all that well,” Brusus said with a smile. “More like I
squeezed
through that. I tried prying it open more than it is, but I couldn’t really get it to move. The wood of these crates is different from the wood used in other parts of the warehouse. Older. Haern tells me it’s called ironwood, but I think he’s making it up.”

Rsiran scrambled up the side of the crates until he reached the opening. The edges were rough, and the wood cooler than he expected. “What’s inside these?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Nothing in that one, at least not anymore. Dust, as if whatever had been inside degraded a long time ago. These others have been too hard to open.”

Rsiran jumped back to the ground and listened for lorcith, straining to hear if there might be any in these crates, but not expecting to find any. When he didn’t, he listened for heartstone, stretching out for the sense of the metal. He had discovered several crates with small amounts of heartstone, enough to keep him with supplies for his forgings, but that would run out much sooner than the lorcith.

Not surprisingly, there was none here, either.

Had heartstone been present, he suspected that he would have detected it sooner, unless this ironwood prevented him somehow.

“So you crawled—squeezed through this crate?” he asked Brusus.

“Don’t say it like you’re surprised,” Brusus said. “I’ve basically torn wood away in strips to get inside some of these crates.” He turned in place, scanning the wall of boxes all around them. “One of these days, we’ll learn what’s in each of these. Maybe there will be some we can move, or maybe it will be like that one with nothing but dust. Either way, the Elvraeth have left them here for too long. They belong to all of Elaeavn.”

Rsiran smiled, wishing that he shared the same passion that Brusus felt about finding a way to get the contents of these crates dispersed throughout the city. For Brusus, there was probably more to his intent than simply wanting a sense of fairness. He would want to be paid for the effort, but Rsiran couldn’t deny that he hated the fact that the Elvraeth left such wealth trapped here, abandoned.

When Brusus said nothing more, Rsiran asked, “Have you seen Haern since we returned?”

Brusus stared up at the wall of boxes. “Haern doesn’t always want to be found, you know? He didn’t like the fact that we were risking a trip to Thyr. I think he knew it was important, especially with what he claims he saw of your sister, but…” He pulled his eyes away and shrugged. “With Haern, it’s not always easy to know what he’s about. The last thing he told me was that he was hoping to learn something about that map you drew. Hey,” Brusus said, frowning. “Whatever came of that other slip of metal you found? The one from Thyr?”

Rsiran breathed out with a soft laugh. “Only that I nearly made the heartstone I used explode.”

Brusus smiled. “So, not a map?”

Rsiran shook his head. “Not a map. Not sure what it—”

The sudden appearance of lorcith nearby cut him off.

Rsiran frowned and raised a finger to his lips to silence Brusus.

It wasn’t the first time he’d suddenly experienced lorcith in this place. Josun had been here before, and had used it to try and force him to create the alloy. But Josun wouldn’t return here, would he? After what he’d seen from Rsiran and how he’d been trapped in Ilphaesn for as long as he had, would he really risk returning here?

He didn’t think that he would.

Rsiran leaned to Brusus and whispered, “Stay here. Keep your knives with you.”

Brusus studied his face a moment and nodded.

At least he didn’t argue. With Jessa, she would have demanded to go with him, or been upset when he returned. Brusus recognized that there were times that Rsiran needed to Slide alone.

He focused on a spot on the crates above, where he’d have a better vantage, and
pulled
himself to it.

When he emerged, he looked down at the rest of the warehouse. Maybe he should have brought Brusus with him. Without the same skill with Sight, there might not be anything that he could see. The dark blue light from the bracelets only let him see so far, and the weakness of his Sight didn’t help.

But, as he surveyed the warehouse, he realized that it didn’t matter.

A bright light bloomed below where he’d left Brusus.

At first, he thought it might be a lantern, but why would Brusus have lit a lantern? He wouldn’t. With his Sight, he didn’t need anything like that to see.

Then he realized it wasn’t lantern light at all, but a softly glowing light from the lorcith that Brusus held.

Did his knives glow the same way?