Endless Night (13 page)

C
iara snuck into the woods
, making her way carefully toward the spot she remembered finding the draasin pen. She had waited a day, but something she’d overheard Cheneth say had stuck with her. Was it possible she could learn to summon the draasin while it was there with her?

After what had happened the last time she attempted a summons, she wasn’t sure she wanted to try, but she had to. How else would she learn what she needed? And she suspected the comment had been intended for her.

Finding the clearing proved more difficult than she expected, almost as if there was something that prevented her from reaching it. The illusion had prevented her from even seeing the draasin the last time. She wouldn’t be too surprised if there was something else that kept her from it.

With a frustrated sigh, she stopped between a pair of trees and leaned on her j’na. In Ter, she had used the spear as more of a walking stick than any sort of weapon. The only time she had needed her spear—really needed it—had been when Tenebeth had attacked, and then she had fallen where she couldn’t reach it, leaving it essentially useless.

How could she find the draasin if the way was obscured? Jasn Volth had managed to find her, but then he had skill with water that she had never witnessed before. Could she use something similar?

Ciara knew the way the draasin felt to her water sensing. There was heat to draasin blood, a powerful pulsing within their veins. Could she listen for that?

She closed her eyes and focused. Keeping her eyes closed did nothing to increase her sensitivity to water, but it did help keep her mind off distractions. Water pressed all around, overwhelming her in some ways. When in Rens, she had to search throughout deserts and rock to find any sign of moisture. Here, it was everywhere.

First, she focused on her own heartbeat. That was the easiest to detect.

It pulsed steadily, slower than it had while in Rens—probably related to the fact that she drank as often as she did. From there, Ciara reached for the other source of water that she knew well, the stream that cut through the mountains before spilling out into a small pond near the camp, where many of the Ter shapers bathed. And then drank from the same water. Learning that, she always made a point of going upstream to collect water. With the stream, she
thought
she knew where she had gone with Jasn Volth but wasn’t certain. She traced along, using the trees and the moisture that flowed through them, enough water to sustain her village for days. She tracked that, searching first for the edge of the clearing.

She found it.

Ciara raced forward, holding the image of the clearing in her mind, letting her ability with water guide her as she went. Even so, something attempted to distract her and push her away, but she held on, forcing herself to stay focused.

Then she reached the edge of the trees.

The clearing seemed different than before. There remained the stink of heat mixed with the fresh scent of earth and grass, but there was something else here as well that reminded her of one of the lizards in Rens, too stupid to crawl off the rocks in the daytime, left rotting in the sun.

Ciara paused and raised her j’na as she entered the clearing.

When she stepped past the illusion, the cold sense washed over her again.

She tensed, readying for whatever she might find.

But there was only the draasin, still curled along the stone building. She looked up as Ciara approached, and her tail flicked slightly, but then she rested her head on the ground once more.

Standing in the presence of the draasin, she wondered what she was doing. Did she
really
intend to reach the creature? If the summons worked, how would she even know?

Maybe all she needed to do was attempt the summoning.

Ciara took a deep breath. The first step. That was what she needed to take. Then the pattern would take over, and each step would follow almost on its own.

But would she be able to summon the draasin while it lay here? And if it went wrong, would
she
be the reason that Tenebeth attacked again? He already had claimed the draasin once; if she brought his attention back to the draasin, or even to herself, there would be nothing she could do to oppose him.

Ciara pushed the doubt away.

She took a step and jabbed her j’na to the ground.

Even as soft as the ground was, there still came a sharp
crack
.

The draasin lifted her head.

Ciara took another step.
Crack
. Step.

The pattern fell into place in her mind. The steps began to come, one after another, each one easier than the last. The j’na hit the ground, the sound muted but still loud.

As she moved, she watched the draasin. If the elemental attacked, there might be little that Ciara could do to avoid it, but she had to try the summoning.

The draasin shifted. First, she drew in her legs and then pulled her tail around her.

Ciara paused.

The draasin turned her eyes toward her and Ciara felt for a moment as if she knew what the draasin was thinking. The moment passed.

She took another step.
Crack.
And another.

The j’na seemed to jump from her hand, and the draasin glass on the end caught the light, sending it out around her in a brilliant display.

It hadn’t done that with other summons she’d completed, had it?

Ciara couldn’t remember, and she didn’t want to risk stopping, not now when the pattern was so fresh in her mind.

Step.
Crack.
Step.

Light burst from the draasin glass.

As it did, she felt something behind her.

Ciara feared turning and disrupting the pattern, but the draasin snorted fire.

Spinning, she saw a man dressed all in black near the edge of the illusion. Not only his clothing but his skin, as if it had been burned. Even his eyes were black.

Ciara recognized him. The rider.

He’d died… hadn’t he?

“You will not have her!” Ciara said.

The man took a step forward. Power built from him. Dark power. That of Tenebeth.

Fear formed in her belly and worked like a cold vise around her insides.

The draasin snorted again and the man smiled.

Tenebeth
had
come to reclaim the draasin.

The man walked past her, ignoring Ciara completely, and reached a hand toward the draasin. The great fire elemental tried moving back, but her eyes clouded. If Ciara did nothing, Tenebeth would have this draasin.

Ciara couldn’t let him. She
wouldn’t
let him.

She snapped the j’na to the ground. Light surged again from the draasin-glass tip of her spear.

The man glanced over. His eyes widened as they took in the sight of the spear, then settled on the draasin glass.

Ciara lunged toward him. Pressure built around her as if some sort of resistance attempted to restrain her, but she fought against it, slicing through it with her j’na. The spear reached the man, and he pressed his hands together, forcing what looked to be a cloud of darkness from his palms.

Ciara pressed, but the darkness gradually began to overwhelm the light coming from her j’na. Without having a way to bring it back, she would fail.

The man smiled. “You could be impressive. I understand why he wants you too.”

Ciara clenched her jaw. “I will never go to Tenebeth.”

“That’s between you and him. I’m here for
her
.”

Ciara did the only thing she could think of. She slashed with the j’na, freeing it from the dark cloud erupting from his hands, and spun. She brought the end of the spear around, connecting with the man’s back and sending him staggering forward.

She slammed the end of the j’na into the ground.
Crack.
Light exploded from the end once more. She stabbed toward him, and again he brought his hands together, cupping darkness.

The smile faded from his face and he pushed with more intensity. “Fine. I will deal with you first. This will not be pleasant for you, but once you’re his, very little will be pleasant for you.”

The power he pushed overwhelmed the brief brightening of the j’na.

Ciara stepped back. Her shoulder butted against something sharp and hot. The draasin.

She didn’t dare turn, but if Tenebeth claimed the draasin again, if he managed to twist her once more, there might not be anything Ciara could do. She was no shaper. She was only nya’shin.

Not only nya’shin.

The lizard’s voice burst into her mind.

Where have you been?

You must fight. You must push back the darkness.

It was similar to what the lizard had said to her when she first met it. Now that she understood exactly what darkness the lizard meant, she wasn’t sure there was anything she
could
do.

You are stronger than you know. The power comes from you, not the staff. Focus, ala’shin.

Ala’shin. That was a title her father claimed, but she was not ala’shin. The Stormbringer knew she was barely nya’shin.

The draasin snorted again. Flames moved dangerously close to her.

The man continued to press. Darkness flowed from him, swirling out and around him.

Ciara had only her j’na against a man who could channel the darkness of Tenebeth. Doubt crept through her. What had she been thinking in coming here? What did she think she could do to summon the draasin? Now that Tenebeth had come for the draasin, what did Ciara really think she could do to oppose him?

You must fight, ala’shin
.

The lizard’s voice came more distantly, as if it struggled to reach her through the shroud created by Tenebeth’s servant.

Was that the reason the lizard hadn’t reached her before? Had Tenebeth done something to obstruct it?

Ciara strained for the sense of the lizard, but it was gone.

All that remained was the overwhelming darkness flowing from this man.

Her j’na was useless. Her arms grew heavy, and a voice inside her—her father’s? her mother’s?—told her she should lower them.

Doing so meant that Tenebeth won.

He had never won with her. He
would
not win with her.

Stabbing forward, she struck with the spear, slicing at the man.

The darkness parted around the draasin glass of the j’na.

Could that be the key?

Other nya’shin made their j’na with osidan, but she had not managed to find the stone and had affixed a draasin-glass tip to hers. The draasin glass had served her well, but it was not a traditional j’na. Did that matter?

The draasin snorted fire; this time, Ciara felt it burning along her back and sides.

She spun again, dropping the tip of the j’na. The man grunted as if in triumph. She touched the draasin glass to the draasin’s flames. It began to glow. First a faint red, then brighter orange, and then even brighter still.

Ciara jabbed the end into the ground and slid forward a step.
Crack.

The light from the end burst even brighter.

Step.
Crack.

The draasin glass glowed almost blue now.

The shadows around the man parted.

Step.
Crack.
Jab.

This time, she sliced toward him as she weaved around the man in her pattern. The shadows slipped past her, as if the light burning from the tip of the draasin glass scorched them away.

Step.
Crack.
Jab.

The darkness faded. Now the man was visible again.

Step.
Crack.
Jab.

The spear came close to his face, forcing him to duck. He pressed his hands together, bringing darkness between them again, but Ciara had moved forward again, continuing the pattern around him.

Step.
Crack.

She sliced, swinging the j’na in a sharp arc upward.

The man caught it with the darkness.

Ciara stepped.
Crack.
Then she swung the j’na again, bringing it toward his face.

Again, he caught the end, but it had gotten closer to him.

Step.

As she brought the end of the j’na down, he lunged, toppling onto her and driving her to the ground.

His weight pressed upon her. His body was cold, too cold for anything alive. One hand pressed on her neck, and the inky black, darker than night, crept from the fingertips of the other.

Ciara tried breathing but couldn’t. She tried throwing him off, but he outweighed her. Her hand found the shaft of her spear, but she couldn’t move it. One of the man’s legs pinned her arm down.

“I will claim you for him,” he breathed. His breath stank, reminding her of what she’d noted when she first came to the clearing. “And
then
I will reclaim the draasin.”

The darkness surged from him.

Ciara could do nothing more than watch as tendrils of it crept from his fingers, coalescing in his palm. She fought, kicking and trying to free the arm holding the j’na, but she couldn’t move it.

Her vision began to cloud from lack of air.

Ciara brought a leg up, trying to pry the man off her, but it did nothing.

Nobelas, please…

Could the lizard hear her? Would it even answer?

Her vision began to fade completely. Another moment and she would be unconscious, and then this man—and Tenebeth—would win.

Nobelas…

There was a gasp, and the weight on her released.

Ciara took a harsh breath and rolled to her side, ready to swing her j’na. Had the lizard finally come to help her? Stormbringer, but would it really have let her nearly die before intervening?

The lizard was nowhere to be seen. The dark man lay in a heap a dozen paces from her, still breathing but not moving. The draasin stood over her, the elemental’s long tail touching the ground.

The draasin lowered her head to Ciara and waited.