Endless Night (18 page)

J
asn awoke
to a pressure pulsing against the inside of his ears followed by a loud
snap.

He swore and sat up with a jolt. What
was
that?

Shaping. And powerful.

Climbing off the pallet in his dorm, he pulled open the door to glance outside. How early was it?

Not early at all. Still dark. Still night. But the pressure continued to build.

As he turned back to bed, deciding that whatever—and whoever—shaped was none of his concern, he felt a surge of pain through the strange connection he now shared with Alena.

Blast her. What was she doing at this time of night?

Likely something to do with the draasin. Maybe the egg. When Ciara had returned with the draasin, Alena hadn’t believed what had happened. Jasn could detect the change, even if he didn’t know what it meant. Water called to him, telling him that the draasin had returned, finally recovered from whatever Tenebeth had done to it. Ciara had everything to do with that, he knew, but not
how
she had managed to help the elemental.

And that didn’t matter. Not if the draasin had really returned. If the female could help Alena with the egg, that was all that mattered. Nothing else.

Helping Alena would help him. The constant drain through her weakened him.

Jasn pulled on his cloak and boots and, on impulse, grabbed his sword and strapped it on. The weight of the sword pulled on him, but there was a familiarity to it that he prized.

Outside in the night, he sensed others moving. He wasn’t the only one to have recognized what happened. Not surprising, given the power used.

Light bloomed up the mountainside, a massive orange glow that looked as if the forest itself burned.

That was new. And frightening.

Using a swift shaping, drawing on wind and earth, he leapt forward and after the fire, holding on to the connection he felt to Alena. She was out there.

Something was off. Was she even more injured than what he’d detected before?

Thunder exploded. Someone traveled near him. Another crack of thunder followed. And another. Enough that he wondered how many shapers he would encounter.

When he landed at the edge of the clearing, brightness surged through the illusion that Alena had put in place—and that he had helped fortify. Whatever happened on the other side was more powerful than the shielding.

He wasn’t alone. Calan had come, and Ifrit with him. Three others from the barracks as well, one a hunter named James and his students Heln and Gemma. They were all advanced shapers, more so than even him.

“Leave this to us,” Calan said.

“I think this requires more than one hunter, don’t you?” James said.

Calan grunted and whispered something to Ifrit. “You,” he said, looking over to Jasn. “You’re not needed here.”

“Alena is here,” Jasn told him. The hierarchy of the barracks made it so that Alena’s presence gave Jasn a perfect reason for being here, but Jasn feared for her. Whatever had brought her here had also placed her in danger.

Through the strange connection they shared, he felt her pain.

Jasn jumped forward, unsheathing his sword and ignoring the stares from Calan and James. Ifrit seemed more intrigued than anything, but he suspected she still didn’t know what else to do with her new talents.

Through the shielding, Jasn saw the reason for the bright orange light. The draasin glowed with such heat and power that he had to stop and marvel for a moment. The egg was tucked between her forelegs, and she had her tail wrapped around her body as if to protect it.

Alena lay on the ground, a glow from her sword fading.

She saw him and her eyes widened. “Thenas,” she whispered.

Jasn pulled on a shaping, readying for anything. “Where?” he hissed.

She pointed to the draasin.

There, near the draasin, was a shadow he had overlooked. The figure appeared as if darkness swallowed him, and it approached the draasin, pressing that darkness away.

Jasn pulled on earth.

The shaping sent the figure tumbling, but only for a moment before he managed to right himself. The shadow swung his attention to Jasn, and in that moment, he knew that it
was
Thenas. Somehow, he had survived the attack. And Jasn had thought
he
couldn’t die.

Using wind and fire, he attempted to lash Thenas, to confine him.

The shaping failed. Thenas simply swiped it away using the same darkness that swirled around him.

Jasn pulled again, this time combining each of the elements. That was what had been required when they faced him the last time. He had brought water, Wyath earth, Eldridge had brought wind, and Ciara… she had brought fire.

Alone, he wasn’t sure that he was strong enough to face him, not with Thenas empowered the way he was, granted more strength by Tenebeth.

If he did nothing… Alena lay on the ground, willing to sacrifice herself for the draasin. Cheneth had made it clear that the draasin were to be treated with respect. And the water elemental—when he could reach it—helped him understand what he needed to do.

He used the shaping to assault Thenas. Jasn drew upon everything he could, praying to the creator that he could reach for more than he normally would be able to, straining through the connection for water, for the elemental, for
something
that would help him face Thenas.

Thenas merely caught his shaping and sent it toward the sky.

Jasn started again, but it was clear that he wasn’t going to be strong enough to suppress Thenas. Whatever connection he had to Tenebeth had made him too powerful. Even before he had been tainted by Tenebeth, Thenas had been a powerful shaper, possibly enough that Jasn wouldn’t have been able to defeat him. The only thing he had was his ability with water, and the elementals’ desire to keep him alive.

Thenas sent a bubble of the blackest night at him.

Jasn jumped to the side to avoid it, rolling to his feet with his hands outstretched. Another attack, and this time he rolled forward, coming up with his sword stabbing forward.

The blade nicked Thenas.

The end sizzled and disappeared.

Thenas moved forward, his attack building with a furious speed. Jasn could only jump out of the way. Were it not for Alena—and the draasin, he had to admit to himself—he would have run. This was a fight he could not win.

Fire exploded on Thenas.

Earth reached for his legs.

Wind swirled around him.

Jasn hazarded a glance up and saw that the others had passed through the shielding. Calan strode forward, his sword glowing with a bright white light, sending earth streaming as he attacked Thenas. Ifrit, so powerful with the wind, used that in a tight funnel around him. The others joined as well, and soon there was attack after attack using the power of the elements.

None of it mattered.

Thenas caught each of the attacks.

“What is this, Alena?” Calan roared.

Alena had managed to get to her feet and held her sword with an unsteady hand. “Don’t let him reach the draasin.”

“Why does it matter?” This from James. He kept his attack focused on Thenas, but his eyes kept drifting to the draasin. Had Cheneth managed to reach him as well? What of his students? Did they side with Cheneth?

“Trust that it does.”

“Trust. I think we’re beyond trust, don’t you?” Calan said.

The comment seemed to strengthen Alena. “Look at him, Calan.
That
is your student. That is what Cheneth trains us to face!”

Calan used another shaping of earth, this one so complex Jasn could barely follow it, and the ground surged around Thenas’s feet. Using a pulse of the same darkness, the ground smoothed out once more.

“You forget that I know your tricks,” Thenas said to Calan.

“What have you done? What dark power is this?” Calan roared, racing toward Thenas.

A shaping built from Thenas that would strike Calan in the chest. Either it would kill him or turn him, and Jasn couldn’t risk either.

He jumped toward Calan and knocked him down, driving him to the ground.

The shaping missed.

Jasn’s arm bent strangely and tingled. He would have to worry about that later, if they survived. Water elementals would heal him if they made it through this.

Calan shoved him off and stood.

Thenas ignored them, stalking toward the draasin. If he reached the elemental, or the egg, Jasn feared what would come next.

“He can’t reach either the draasin
or
the egg!” Jasn shouted.

James and his two students came to stand next to him. “What happens if he does?”

“Look at him,” Jasn urged. “There is nothing natural about the power he now wields. If he uses that on the draasin, and if he manages to twist her as well, think of what we would have to face.” What they already
had
faced, Jasn didn’t add. Not for James.

James motioned to his students, and they moved forward as one.

Jasn reached for James, but he wasn’t fast enough. The man used a shaping of wind and water to slide forward and reach Thenas.

Thenas spun as James brought his sword around. With his bare hand, he caught the sword on the sharp edge of the blade. James cried out with a triumphant grunt, but then he saw that Thenas pushed the sword back, using not his hand, but the darkness he controlled.

Gemma sent fire and wind in spurts toward Thenas. Heln used a similar attack.

With his attention diverted, Jasn raced around Thenas and put himself between him and the egg. If nothing else, he couldn’t have Thenas tainting the egg. He didn’t know what effect that might have on Alena, but doubted it would be anything good.

Calan and James reached Thenas, and then Ifrit joined.

Each of the five of them shaped, but there was no coordination to the shaping, just disparate attacks.

“You have to work together,” Alena urged.

The heat coming off the draasin was almost more than he could bear.

Jasn used a shaping of wind to buffer himself from the heat. It might hold it off long enough for the others to stop Thenas.
If
they could stop Thenas.

Shapings exploded in the night. Thenas managed to stop each one.

The draasin pulsed with fire, growing so hot that even his shaped buffer of air wasn’t enough to protect him. If that didn’t work, he would have to move.

Thenas turned, wrapped in a blanket of darkness that absorbed every attack thrown at him. He looked at Jasn with contempt. “You are not strong enough to withstand what comes. Even the Wrecker of Rens will not be able to survive.”

Jasn swung his sword at Thenas, but the blade didn’t connect as he needed, passing through nothing more than shadows. “That’s no longer who I am.”

“No? Then how do you think you will stop me?”

Jasn hadn’t any idea. Shapings didn’t work. Nothing worked. Nothing other than Ciara.

As he thought of her, the sound of thunder exploded in the night, followed by a
crack
so loud that he wondered if trees in the forest fell.

Thenas jerked his head around.

Jasn followed the direction of his gaze. Another glowing light appeared in the darkness, this one nearly as bright as the draasin. He had seen it before… and so had Thenas.

The man made a feint as if to get past Jasn, but with a sweep of his sword, Jasn held him in place, preventing his movement.

There came another
crack
so loud that he wanted to cover his ears. Light filled the night, so bright that it seemed to be daylight. The draasin roared and shot flames from her nostrils.

With sudden understanding, Jasn knew: the rider had appeared.

“I don’t have to stop you,” Jasn said. “
She
will.”

Ciara strode forward. She was small, petite, and beautiful in the fury of power that swirled around her, casting a glow to her bronze skin. Her pale blue eyes flickered from the draasin to Jasn and then to Thenas. With each step, she slammed her spear into the ground, and with each step, light surged.

Thenas reached for Jasn, but he swung his sword around to parry.

Ciara stopped. All the shapers turned to her, staring.

And she pointed her spear at Thenas.

C
iara stood
in front of the dark shaper once more. She felt the others around her, but she forced herself to ignore them, even Jasn Volth and the way he looked at her, giving her the same heat that she once had felt when Fas had looked at her.

She stepped and sent the j’na into the earth.
Crack.
The sound was louder than any other time she’d worked through a pattern. Ciara didn’t know what it was that she did differently, only that when she intended to help the draasin, whatever she did worked more effectively. And this time it was not only the draasin, but another.

Alena had hidden from her that they had an egg in the camp. Now she understood why she feared what Ciara had done with the draasin, especially her taking the draasin away. Doing so put the egg in danger.

And when she had seen the brightness exploding in the night, she had known it as a sign. Then thunder had followed, and she’d had no choice but to find out what happened.

Even the shapers of Ter struggled against the darkness.

How was it that she managed to fend him off?

Step.
Crack
. Step.

The light glowing off the draasin glass radiated bright as the sun, and she felt it as what she summoned was somehow drawn to the draasin. And the egg.

Ciara took another step.
Crack.

She stood in front of the dark shaper and aimed her j’na at him. His eyes were pools of night, and shadows wrapped around his shoulders. “Go,” she told him.

“You think you are the only one who has learned?” he asked.

Then he reached for her j’na.

Ciara jerked it back, but his hand grabbed the shaft of the spear and pulled.

He was strong, and the darkness surged through her spear. The blinding light began to pale.

Terror coursed through her. If she didn’t have the j’na, and if she couldn’t use it to focus her power, she would be at the mercy of whatever he attempted. He would be able to attack and possibly taint her the same way her village had been tainted, leaving her as twisted as her father and as weak as Fas.

“No!” She roared with anger and slammed her j’na down. The end of the spear struck the dark shaper’s foot, and still a thunderous
crack
echoed through the night. Light exploded from the j’na.

Not only from the draasin glass, but for the first time, light filled the lines formed on the staff itself, those made for her by her father, the gift when he had named her nya’shin.

The dark shaper screamed and jerked his hand away.

Ciara took a step toward him and slammed the j’na into the ground again.

Then she swung the glowing end of her staff at him. The spear caught him on the arm. Where it touched, the darkness disappeared and, for a moment, pale flesh remained.

Ciara stepped back. Was it possible to redeem him as well?

With the draasin, she understood the desire not to destroy them. They were elementals of power, creatures connected to the earth in ways that others were not. And with her village, she had done what she could to dispel Tenebeth’s touch. She knew how to use a pattern and had trusted that the pattern she did use would be the one she needed. Now, with this dark warrior, she had done the same, but she had expected that she would have to destroy him.

Maybe not.

Ciara slammed the j’na to the ground again. Light surged from it, spilling past his darkness and pushing him back.

She swung once more, slapping his arm with the flat of the draasin glass. Not trying to harm, only to determine if she really could find a way to help him.

Where her spear touched, he screamed, but the darkness disappeared.

She swung again and again, each time managing to connect.

His power faded with every touch of her j’na. Color returned to him as Tenebeth’s dark touch was removed. Could she do enough that the others of the barracks could reclaim him?

If she could, Jasn Volth had shown enough prowess with healing that he might be able to help. And what could they learn from him if he returned? Would they begin to understand Tenebeth’s plan, or would he be like Fas and be angry about what she did?

The end of the draasin glass had dimmed as she had attacked, as if it had absorbed the energy from Tenebeth.

Ciara slammed the j’na into the ground once more, and light burst again.

As she brought her spear around to strike the shaper once more, he disappeared on thunder and a flash of lightning, leaving her standing with the j’na swinging around her head, glowing brightly.

The others watched her.

Jasn Volth came over to her, his hands held up in a gesture of peace. “Easy, Ciara. He’s gone now. You struck him enough.”

Enough? Was that what they thought she had done? She looked around at the other faces and suspected that it
was
what they thought. They figured her for some sort of savage. The kind of person who would enjoy attacking another.

“I was pushing Tenebeth out of him. Didn’t you see?” she asked Jasn.

A troubled expression flashed across his eyes. “I saw… I saw the way you continued to strike him. Not that I blame you, Ciara. I tried stopping him and couldn’t, myself. Damn, all of us tried and couldn’t. Only after you appeared… Well, it’s a good thing that you came. I’m not sure we would have survived had you not.”

“He can be redeemed,” she said.

“Redeemed?” A large, muscular man strode forward, his massive sword held casually in his hand. Power radiated from him. He had a shorn head and a length of chain around his neck. Hanging from the chain were draasin talons.

Ciara had seen this man before. In Rens, when she had been with the lizard. She was certain of it.

She swung her j’na around, tapping it on the ground in front of her. Light burst briefly before the draasin pulled it away from her. The draasin—and the egg—still needed her help. Ciara didn’t know how she knew that, but the way that the egg pulsed, an irregular and sickly pulsing, made it clear it needed more than what the draasin offered.

“Redeemed,” Ciara said. “Where my j’na touched his skin, the darkness departed.”

The large man laughed and looked around at the others standing nearby. “This is ridiculous. You’re here because of Cheneth, but you are not of Ter. You cannot even shape.”

“Not like you, Calan, but were you not paying attention?” Jasn said.

“Careful,” another man said. He was thin and had deep-set eyes and a bush of brown hair on his head. “This is—”

Jasn turned to him, swinging his sword in an arc. “I
know
who he is, James. Just as I know that none of us managed to hold off Thenas until Ciara came. She might not have the same shaping ability as you or I, but she shapes. Whatever she does pulls on the power of the elements. I can
feel
it.”

Ciara flushed with the heat of Jasn’s argument on her behalf.

The others continued talking heatedly, but she turned away, focused on the draasin.

The heat coming off the elemental was immense, as was the heat coming off the egg. She approached slowly, carefully, and stood tall.

The draasin looked up and met her eyes.

An image came to Ciara. The egg struggled. There was something about the hatching that had gone awry. Ciara didn’t understand—as one not draasin, she wasn’t sure that she
could
understand—but she recognized the helplessness the draasin felt.

Another image came to her. That of Alena, lying unmoving, sword in hand glowing.

The message was clear. The egg and Alena were tied together somehow. If she did nothing, Alena would die.

She glanced back to the arguing shapers, ignoring the heat of their comments. That was not the heat she cared about. Not now, not while the draasin—and the egg—needed
something
from her. Not only the draasin, though. Alena needed her help.

Alena knelt on the ground, sword jabbed into the earth. The blade glowed slightly, pulsing with a sickly light similar to that of the egg.

“You’re tied to it, aren’t you?” Ciara said.

Alena tried to lift her head but couldn’t. “Tied. Foolishly. But tied.”

“What happened?”

Alena breathed out a sigh. “Don’t let them destroy the egg. You might be the only one who can stop them.”

“The hatching. There is a problem,” Ciara said.

At that, Alena managed to lift her head. Her gaze parted the shapers in the middle of the clearing and reached the draasin. “Blast that bastard for coming when he did,” she swore.

“Who? Jasn?”

“Not Volth. If not for him, I’d have been dead weeks ago. Thenas. He came for the draasin egg. He must have known we had it. Waited until I brought it here. I think he intended to twist both the draasin and the egg. A double prize for his master.” Alena sighed and lowered her head again, trying to stand but unable to do so. She let out a frustrated grunt. “You can sense the egg?”

“Not the egg. The draasin tells me of the problem.”

She turned her head to look at her with one eye. “You speak to her now?”

Ciara considered how the draasin communicated with her. There was no doubting that was what it was even though the draasin chose to speak to her through images, not like she could actually speak to the lizard. “Not speak. She shows me things. I don’t know how to explain it better than that.”

Alena sighed again. “Then you know the egg will die when I die.”

“Why?”

“Because it has taken all my shaping power. I have nothing more to give.”

Alena slumped forward, her hand drifting off the sword.

The glowing from the blade faded to nothing. Ciara frowned at it. Marks much like those on the shaft of her j’na were etched on the blade. Could Alena have attempted to augment her shaping with the sword?

And if she had, was there anything Ciara could do to help her?

“Will it work?” she asked the draasin. She did not speak loud, hoping her words would carry to the elemental.

Slowly, an image formed in her mind of the j’na and of Alena, and Ciara knew what she must do. Even the draasin didn’t seem to know whether it would work.

The first step. That was what she needed.

When she’d appeared and seen that the draasin was in danger, she had
known
what to do, almost as if the j’na or something greater than her had directed her steps. Alena was in danger now, but nothing seemed to guide Ciara.

That wasn’t quite right though. Not only was Alena in danger, but so was the draasin egg.

She looked at the egg and took a step. Her j’na came down, a soft
snap
as it did.

Another step, smaller than usual, and a softer flick of the j’na.
Snap.

Ciara continued—step, flick, step.

Light started glowing through the draasin glass, through the entire length of the spear. The other shapers stopped arguing. She sensed one of them approaching, but she didn’t dare divert her attention. Doing so would make her lose focus, and something told her she could not afford to do that.

“Ciara?”

It was Jasn Volth.

Step.
Snap
. Step.

“What are you doing to Alena?”

Ciara took a breath as she stepped. “Trying to save her.”

Snap.
Step.

“You’re circling her. This… this doesn’t look good.”

Step.
Snap
. Step.

“The egg is dying. She is dying.”

He sucked in a breath. “I will hold them back.”

She didn’t understand what he meant, but didn’t need to.

Step.
Snap.
Step.

Shaping built around her. Wind and earth rumbling, mixed with a flare of fire and the wetness of water filling the air. With each flick of the j’na, the shapings eased, disappearing for a moment, only to build again as she stepped.

Her j’na continued to glow, growing steadily brighter. This was nothing like the harsh, painful light she had summoned when she faced the dark shaper. This was a soft, almost comforting light. Hopefully, she prayed to the Stormbringer, a
healing
light.

Thunder rumbled somewhere distantly. A cold wind gusted, cutting through her cloak.

Ciara took another step, refusing to acknowledge the fear that raced through her. A storm and cold meant Tenebeth, didn’t it?

Step.
Snap.

And then she was done.

She stepped inside the circle she’d made. Her j’na glowed brightly all along the length. Ciara realized that Jasn used shaping to hold back the other shapers, giving her space. He glanced back at her, a worried expression on his face.

Ciara leaned down to Alena and took her hands. They were cold, but not the cold of Tenebeth. This was the cold of death, the same way Eshan had been cold when the draasin had destroyed him. The same way her mother had been cold when Ciara had discovered her body.

She wrapped Alena’s hands around the j’na. “Use this.
Shape
this,” she urged.

It might be too late. Alena might already be gone, and if she was, she didn’t think that the egg would have much time left, either. And then both Alena and the draasin would suffer. What of the older draasin? Was the heat coming from her at risk as well?

“Alena!” Jasn shouted.

Power surged from him. Ciara
felt
it and knew it was intense.

Alena gasped. Her eyes opened and she seemed to realize what she held. “What is this?”

“Shape,” Ciara urged.

“I can’t. It’s gone. Power is gone.”

“You must
shape
,” Ciara snapped. Her voice
cracked
with the last word, shouting it louder than she intended. The light of the j’na pulsed brightly for a moment.

Alena took another breath.

Ciara waited. Would it work?

Then light erupted from the j’na.

It washed over Alena, sending her body through convulsions that passed quickly. Alena managed to stand and continued to hold on to the j’na and to her sword. The power summoned through the j’na seemed to build again, filling Alena with light, and then, strangely, it arced across the clearing to the draasin egg.