Endless Night (8 page)

T
he air crackled
with the energy of her j’na striking the ground. Ciara stood in the mountains again, alone as she was so often these days, with nothing but the trees surrounding her. In the time since she’d last worked with Cheneth, she had managed to summon other elementals, but never had she repeated a summons. That was the task assigned to her.

Today was no different. She fixed in her mind the idea of summoning the draasin, of drawing one of the massive creatures to her, and focused on the steps she had used when summoning him while in Rens. Her feet followed those steps at first, but then she stopped. Not by choice, but because she began shuffling into another pattern, and her j’na began to leave her hand with a different angle or level of force or even the bounce, enough that it changed the sound as it struck the ground. Between that and the steps she took, the intent shifted.

She had thought Cheneth would teach her. Wasn’t that why she had come? So far, he had done nothing more than leave her alone in the mountains with the instructions to repeat a pattern. It mattered little to him which pattern she repeated, only that she perform one consistently. But if he never told her how to do it consistently, how did he expect her to repeat it?

She flicked her j’na in frustration.

The end of the spear cracked more loudly than it had for a while, and she let out a soft cry and dropped to the ground. The stream she’d seen when she first came to the mountains with Cheneth ran nearby, and she no longer struggled to sense it. The presence of the water filled her, as did the understanding of the depths of it. The second time she had come here, she had stood in front of the water, focusing on how far it stretched, letting awareness of it fill her. The stream rolled out of the mountains, joining another wider stream—or river, she suspected—before continuing onward. She lost track of it out there, but rivers continued flowing, and it would eventually reach the sea. So much water here, enough that her people would never want. How could the Stormbringer offer so much to these lands and so little to hers?

Maybe the Stormbringer did not exist. Maybe he was nothing more than superstition.

Ciara tapped herself on the chest, making the sign to ward off his anger. Those thoughts were dangerously close to what the shadow man had said to her, and she knew he was not to be trusted. Yet how was she
not
to believe there was something different when her people never knew such excess?

You cannot think that way.

The voice intruded into her mind with a suddenness that made her gasp.

Ciara jumped to her feet and looked around. Was it the shadow man? Tenebeth had always spoken aloud to her, but with the power he possessed, it seemed just as possible that he would be able to reach into her mind, much like the lizard.

Only it sounded nothing like the shadow man. It sounded more like…

More like the lizard.

She found it crouched along the streambed, lying atop one of the stones as if sunning itself. When she looked over at it, the lizard stuck out its long tongue and ran it across the rock. Ciara remembered all too well the sense of that tongue across her arms, and her legs, all over her, as the lizard healed her.

You’re nobelas.

The lizard flicked its stubby tail.
Nobelas. As reasonable a name as some.

Are you not nobelas?

I am one of the creatures men once called nobelas.

Why have you not come to me again? Why now?

There has been no need.

You came when I summoned before.

You called. We answered.

Not you?

The lizard climbed from the rock and jumped across the stream. Ciara was surprised at the agility the lizard displayed, especially as small as it was, but she suspected there was much more to the lizard than she knew. This creature had not only healed her but had healed the injured draasin. That meant it was much more powerful than she had ever suspected.

She hadn’t told Cheneth about that. She hadn’t told anyone, not even her father. Did it matter if she did? Olina and Cheneth seemed impressed that she spoke to nobelas, though she still didn’t understand why. There was something about the creature that they sought, but what? Why would they be impressed with this lizard?

The lizard bumped up against her, pushing her with his stout body. His tongue snaked out, and he ran it along her boots, leaving a thick paste that dried quickly into a solid crust.
Perhaps me. Would that displease you?

You were the same one who helped me on the waste.

You were thirsty.

That is the only reason?

There is a fire that burns within you. It was not time for it to be extinguished.

Fire. Her people were water seekers, and some could call it. But fire? That was the skill of the warriors of Ter, and she was not of Ter.

Not of Ter, but you call each of the elements,
the lizard said.

Just because I can call them doesn’t mean I can shape them.

No? I think they are related. You cannot summon without the ability to reach the element in the first place. You must be able to reach a deeper bond before you can understand the elementals.

What about you? What element do you represent?

The lizard flicked his tail and circled around her, pushing her so that she took a step back.
I am of all elements, and of none.

Ciara frowned. The comment was too much like what Cheneth had said about Hyaln and the enlightened.
I don’t think I can shape the elements I’ve summoned.
If she could, what did that make her? Was she meant to be like a shaper of Ter, able to ride lightning and thunder? Was she meant to destroy rather than build? If so, she didn’t want that power.

You can summon. For now, that is enough.

But I can’t summon consistently. Every time I try to draw the same elemental to me, I fail.

You see failure and I see growth. Each time you try, you find another that you hadn’t met before. How is that failure when you learn how to reach another?

That the lizard would try to reassure her surprised her.
How does that help? If I can’t reach the elementals in a timely fashion, how does it help that I can even summon them?

The lizard bumped against her leg again and pushed.
You will get stronger. Over time, you will learn how to control your power. Once you do, then you will learn how to summon with more speed. You ask how it matters, but know that it does. Know that if Voidan calls, there can be another who can call. That is why you must continue to learn.

Voidan.
Is that the same as Tenebeth?

It is emptiness. It is nothing. That is what the darkness seeks.

The lizard licked her boot again and started toward the trees with a strange sort of waddle, disappearing into the darkness.

Ciara chased him, but by the time she reached the trees, he had disappeared.

“
W
hat do
you plan to do?” Alena asked.

Jasn stood outside the barracks, the massive trees rising up all around him as he stared at the remains of the draasin pen. How had Wyath managed to survive long enough for Alena to stabilize him and get him to Atenas? Of all the things he’d seen since his return, that might be the most surprising. The water shaping she’d used on him had kept him alive, but not much more than that. Had she not… he had no doubt Wyath would have perished in the explosion.

“Cheneth left the barracks again, and I still want answers,” he said.

Alena stood near one of the trees, blue eyes taking in the destruction as she ran her fingers through her blond hair. She had found him as he made his way through the woods. Jasn wasn’t surprised she had managed to find him. He hadn’t attempted to shield himself, and with Alena, he wasn’t sure that it even mattered.

She brushed her hair back and tucked it under the neck of her jacket. “You still think to find Issa?”

“Katya,” Jasn corrected.

He looked over at her, but Alena did not meet his eyes. The bond that had formed between them when he had healed her was likely how she had found him so easily. The bond went both ways, not only allowing him to know what had happened to her but granting her the same insight with him. It was a greater sharing than he wanted, especially with Alena.

“She is lost, Jasn,” she said. The annoyance in her tone had softened since they had found the draasin egg. He still didn’t know how much of that was because of the connection between them and how much was because she had nearly died twice. Had it not been for him, she
would
have died.

“I refuse to believe that.” Having Alena talking like this was progress. At least she seemed to be feeling better, even if the connection between them told him otherwise.

“And if you search for her? Do you plan to take on Tenebeth yourself?” Alena stepped away from the tree, moving so that she was only about a pace away from him. He could smell the heat of her body, the way it mixed with the floral soap she must have used, something that seemed so out of place in the barracks. “You have seen what this darkness can do. When even Thenas is nearly too much for us… Issa was always more skilled than Thenas.” She stared into his eyes, unblinking.

Jasn swallowed. Katya had always been more skilled than him as well. And if she had been claimed by Tenebeth, she would be a powerful ally for the darkness. What did Jasn really think he could do if he were to encounter her? Did he think he could draw the darkness away? The elementals didn’t listen to him consistently as it was. How could he think he might be able to find her and then
heal
her?

And if she hadn’t been
taken by Tenebeth, where would she be? What else could have happened to her? He needed to know. And if he didn’t… if he refused to try, how much of a betrayal would that be?

He knew the answer, just as he knew what he had to do.

“I have to try,” he told her. “Eventually, I will have to try. Once you’re safe…”

Alena continued to stare at him. Jasn felt heat growing through him at the weight of her gaze, but he refused to look away. Alena was a lovely woman, and had he met her under different circumstances… and had Katya not still lived. But she did. And the circumstances were what they were.

“Tell me about her,” Alena said. She started away from the trees, toward the remains of the draasin pen.

Jasn followed. The closer he came to the rock, the more he felt the residual effect of the shaping used to hold the stone. How powerful must the explosion have been when it erupted? Calan was lucky to have been uninjured. For that matter, Ifrit was lucky to have lived.

“You knew her,” he said as he reached for the jagged edge of rock. He picked it up and examined the powerful runes used to hold the earth in place. The only time he had attempted runes like that had been when he needed to save his life. Strange that he would go to Rens and try
to live. “Why don’t you tell me?” Would Alena know more than what Cheneth had told him?

Alena glanced to the rock in his hand. “We knew her as Issa. She was a shaper of much power and brought to us by the scholar Listan.”

“Not Cheneth?”

Alena pulled her eyes away from the rock. “Cheneth had come to the barracks, but he had not assumed control. Not yet. That would come later. Listan sat high in the College of Scholars, and when he brought her to the barracks, I had only recently been raised to full hunter.”

“Did you know you could speak to the draasin then?”

“I have always known,” she said softly. “Growing up along the border, close enough where I could see the draasin… I heard their voices. I didn’t know what it was at the time. When I learned, I thought there was something wrong with me. That the creator found me damaged. When I went to Atenas, the voices faded until I no longer heard them.”

Jasn wondered what it must have been like for Alena to have known for as long as she did that she could hear the elementals. Probably no different than for him to know that he couldn’t die. There was the same reason for both, and though he didn’t know what caused his… affliction… he understood that something was wrong with him.

It must have been the same for Alena, only worse in some ways. She could
hear
the voices of the elementals. Jasn had only known he couldn’t die, not the reason for it.

“When Issa—Katya—came to the barracks, I was chosen to teach. She proved an adept student and learned quickly, but it was her affinity for fire that I noticed the most. She could use fire in ways I had never seen trained in Atenas.”

“She always had a connection to fire,” Jasn started. “It was the first element she managed to reach, and with fire, she was able to do so much more than I ever could. But Katya was more powerful than me with just about every shaping she did. The only element I exceeded her in was water.”

“I think you exceed everyone with water,” Alena said.

Jasn chuckled. That hadn’t always been the case, or at least he hadn’t always known that was the case. With Oliver, when he’d been learning from the guild, he hadn’t known anything other than the fact that he felt ignorant about so much. In hindsight, most of his ignorance stemmed from physical knowledge and inexperience, not a lack of ability with shaping. Even now, Oliver was much more knowledgeable about the body and the ways to repair it, but Jasn thought his connection to water gave him an advantage. He didn’t need to know the workings of the body to heal it. Water seemed to know what was needed.

“We met in Atenas,” he continued. “She had already mastered nearly every element. I came to Atenas barely able to sense, and that only with water. She guided me, showing me the way that she knew to reach water. She was patient, and kind, and…” Jasn swallowed again. Those early memories of Katya were some of the hardest for him and ones he had tried not to think about while in Rens. Why was it that they came back so easily now? Why was it that Alena managed to pull them from him?

He could still recall the first time he’d seen Katya. Small and petite, with short raven hair, her eyes had blazed brightly. She had an energy about her, almost an aura of her power, that he couldn’t resist. When she’d offered to work with him, he had not refused.

“You didn’t know she’d come to the barracks,” Alena said.

“No. She was raised to the order before me and was given an assignment she claimed she couldn’t share. At the time, I didn’t know anything about the workings of the order, only that assignments would come from the council. The Healers Guild had already staked their claim on me, so I knew what my assignment would be when I managed to reach each of the elements.” And even if he never had reached them. Jasn never feared what he would do. The guild had made it clear he had a place, even were he not of the order. Sitting among the order would grant him more opportunity, but it was not entirely necessary for him to succeed.

Alena stood in the middle of the rubble, an earth shaping building from her as she moved some of the rock. “How did you hear about what happened with her?”

Jasn debated answering. Doing so would only dredge up more of the painful memories he had of Katya, but maybe that wasn’t necessarily a bad one to revisit. How long had it been since he’d thought about that day? When he’d been in Rens, he’d relived it every single day, the same way that every single day, he had hoped he would be able to find the same death that had come to her, and each day he had failed.

“Someone of the order brought word to me,” Jasn said. He remembered the man’s face, his dark eyes and flat stare. When the man had come to him, he had known he was from the front, just as he had known he came bearing bad news.

Alena stood and turned. “The order? You didn’t receive word from one of the scholars?”

Jasn shook his head.

“Do you remember what this man looked like?”

“Remember? I don’t think I’ll ever get his face out of my mind. When he appeared on my doorstep, bearing her sword… I knew.”

“We never recovered her sword. We never recovered her body,” Alena said.

Jasn frowned. “This man, he had her sword. He gave details about what happened to her.”

“You saw what happened. I showed you where we lost her. But there was no body, and there was no sword.”

“What are you saying?”

Alena’s shaping completed and the remains of the pen slid to the center of the clearing, stacking into a neat circle, though nothing like the structure that had been there. “What I’m saying is that I don’t know who would have come to you, but whoever it was, he didn’t come from the barracks.”