Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4) (29 page)
Read Blood of the Watcher (The Dark Ability Book 4) Online
Authors: D.K. Holmberg
R
siran watched Jessa resting soundly
. He had been relieved to learn that she was fine, and that Valn had kept his word. There had been a part of him that feared Valn would betray him, but he had proven reliable. And had proven that he knew of Della.
More questions for later.
“Your sister is returned?” Della asked.
Rsiran didn’t look up, content to watch Jessa sleep. After what they’d been through over the last few days, sleep was a comfort he wasn’t sure they would have. “She has returned to Lower Town. The alchemists… they told her the constables kept her for her safety. I haven’t gone back to see her.”
He still didn’t know what to make of the fact that the guilds ran the constables. Perhaps Ephram was right in telling him that the guilds truly protected Elaeavn. If they protected the crystals, and the city itself, what other explanation was there.
“You should. She is your sister. You have shown how important family is to you,” Della said.
Rsiran closed his eyes. “I’m sorry about Evaelyn.”
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Della said. She stood behind her counter and mixed a mug of tea. “It is my fault for not recognizing the extent of danger she posed before now. She… she has always been dangerous.”
“Still.”
Della nodded as she stirred. “And the smiths?”
He sighed, appreciating that Della simply changed the topic. “We found most within the Forgotten Palace. Valn and the others search for their families. We think we’ve found most of them.”
“And the guildlord?” Della asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
She pursed her lips. “They should not keep that from you, not after what you did to help.”
He wasn’t sure that they should share with him, not after how he was at least partly responsible for endangering them. “Did you know?” Rsiran asked. “About the guilds?”
Della nodded. “There are things that I cannot fully explain, especially as you didn’t want to get too deeply involved.”
“Like Evaelyn? Like the crystals?”
She met his eyes. “Yes.”
A knock at the door interrupted them. Brusus and Haern stirred from the chairs near the hearth and stood. Della opened the door, and saw Sarah and Ephram on the other side.
She stepped aside to let them in.
Brusus and Haern stayed by the hearth. Della moved behind the counter, again turning to her mug of tea. Sarah and Ephram both remained by the door. In some ways, it seemed everyone tried to gauge who would speak first.
Della cleared her throat and nodded to Ephram. “The boy deserves to know.” His eyes narrowed. “All of it,” she went on.
Ephram studied Della for a moment and then nodded slowly, shifting his gaze to Rsiran. “What have you told him?”
“It was not for me to share.”
“A dangerous plan, Della, even for you.”
“As I said, it was not for me to share.”
Ephram crossed his arms over his chest. “After how his father was used, you thought you should keep it from him?”
“I could not See how his father was used,” Della answered over her tea. “Much as I cannot See when it comes to Rsiran.”
“What is this?” Rsiran asked, looking from Della to Ephram.
Ephram sighed and his shoulders slumped. “We have been watching for you, Rsiran.”
“Watching?”
Ephram tipped his head in a nod. “The ability to travel is rare these days. Once it was not so, but much has happened.”
“Like the Elvraeth forbidding it.”
“Forbidden for reasons they claim protect the city. Travel, what you call Sliding, is rare enough, but for one with the blood of a smith to possess such an ability…” He turned to Rsiran, his face intense. “That has never happened.”
Rsiran fingered the knives in his pockets through his cloak. “And now here I am.”
“Here you are. As was Seen long ago.”
Brusus sucked in a breath. Rsiran looked over at him and then Della, but neither met his eyes.
“Seen?” he asked.
“There has long been dissention between the bloodlines. The blood of the Watcher and the blood of the elders. It has long been the source of much conflict, but an end was foreseen.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
Ephram sighed. “The greatest Seers have long expected one of the ancient bloodlines—in your case, smith blood—and the blood of the Watcher to join. And with that will come great power. That is why we wait, why we serve.”
“I might have the blood of the smiths,” Rsiran said, “but I don’t know anything about the blood of the Watcher.”
“You don’t know, and you could not. You were never privy to your birthright.”
He snorted. “My birthright? You mean the smithy that my father took away from me? You mean the fact that he made me believe what I can do is some sort of dark ability?”
Ephram looked over to Della, as if asking for help, but she only shook her head.
“What do you know of your parents?”
Rsiran looked to Della. She nodded. “I know that my father is a smith. From what you’ve told me, maybe a master smith.”
“As are you. You hear the song of lorcith. You are a smith,” Ephram said. “And your mother?”
Rsiran shrugged. “My mother. Other than the fact that she hides in Lower Town now? That she didn’t object when my father abandoned me? That she, like Brusus, is a child of exiles?”
Ephram nodded. “Exiled. Yes. And did she share with you who her father was?”
He shook his head. “She said it didn’t matter.”
Ephram looked to Della. “This should be you,” he said.
Della set the mug on the counter. She made her way around, leaning on a cane as she did. “Your grandfather,” she said, “was one of the Elvraeth.”
An amused smile came to Rsiran. “You’re saying that I’m descended from the Elvraeth?”
Ephram nodded. “The blood of the Watcher flows through you. That is how you were able to hold one of the Great Crystals.”
Rsiran laughed. “And just how do you know this?”
Della looked down a moment, and then seemed to force herself to meet his eyes. “I didn’t know. When you first came, I did not know. With your ability, I cannot See you as I can others. That protects you in some ways, but it prevented me from understanding sooner. With what you shared about your mother, I went to her to understand.”
“You went to her?” Rsiran asked.
Della didn’t looked away from him. “I Read her. She has some skill, but that can be weakened.” She eyed the herbs on her counter but didn’t explain. “That is when I learned.”
“What did you learn?” His heart fluttered in his chest. So much had happened to him because of how little he knew about his family, and now it turned out that there were even
more
secrets kept from him?
“Your mother is descended from one of the Elvraeth and born outside of the city.”
“And what proof is there of that?”
Della sighed and looked to Ephram as if for support, but he said nothing. When she looked back to Rsiran, tears had welled in her eyes. “Because he was my brother.”
B
ook
5 of The Dark Ability:
The Shadowsteel Forge
Fresh off a victory against the Forgotten, and with unexpected allies, Rsiran knows that the war is far from over.
An attack on someone close to him in the city leads to a search for answers, and he once again must confront the secrets hidden by his family. When he discovers a part of his people’s history long forgotten, he realizes it might hold the key to what Venass really wants… and possibly the means to stopping them.
Rsiran must learn to use all of the abilities given to him and discover a way to stop a danger to his friends as well as the city that none other than him is capable of defeating.
A
lso in the
world of The Dark Ability:
A Game of Tsatsun
Hired by the thief-master Orly to only capture a slaver rather than kill, the assassin Galen quickly learns his target is more than a simple slaver.
Orly has used him. Again.
The job takes him deeper into the Eban underworld as he tries to understand how he’s been used, and why his only friend in the city seems to know more than she should.
Part 1 of 3 in The Binders Game
D
K Holmberg
currently lives in rural Minnesota where the winter cold and the summer mosquitoes keep him inside and writing.
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T
he Dark Ability
A
lso in the
world of The Dark Ability
A Game of Tsatsun
: The Binders Game, Part 1
The Watcher’s Eyes
: The Binders Game, Part 2
Playing the Stone
: The Binders Game, Part 3
The Durven
: The Forgotten, Part 1
A Poisoned Deceit
: The Forgotten, Part 2
A Forgotten Return
: The Forgotten, Part 3
T
he Cloud Warrior Saga
O
thers
in the Cloud Warrior Series
T
he Lost Garden
T
he Painter Mage