Endless Night (17 page)

T
he male draasin
was watching over the egg when Alena returned, and looked up.

You have found her.

She was never missing. She answered a summons.

The draasin snorted.
Summons. So they return.

Who?

The riders. Too much time has passed since they were last seen.

You knew of this?

Not me, but others.

Alena grabbed the egg. Heat pressed on her, and without any real ability to shape, she couldn’t protect herself, not as she needed to against the egg. But maybe she wouldn’t have to for much longer. If this worked… Now that the draasin had returned, Alena had a sense of hope that it
might
work.

She still couldn’t believe it. The girl had done something Alena had begun to think was not possible. She had reached the draasin. Not by shaping, or speaking, but by her summons. More than that, the draasin felt that the Rens girl protected her. It took Alena awhile to realize it, but the draasin saw safety in her.

How?

When Cheneth returned, she would have to find out, but the blasted man had been gone for too long. First, he had claimed he would remain in the barracks, that he couldn’t risk traveling, and now he had gone, leaving them without his guidance at a time when they needed it. And if Thenas had returned, if he had attacked, it was possible that he would again.

Do you think she will help?
the draasin asked.

Alena sighed. She still didn’t know. The female had not answered, and maybe she
wouldn’t
answer Alena, not anymore. There seemed a bond formed between the draasin and Ciara, something Alena had never seen from the draasin before. Another thing Cheneth might know more about, if only they could find him.

It’s time that I try,
she said.

She had grown weak. She felt the way her shaping ability leached out of her. Even Volth seemed to notice, and though he attempted to maintain a strong front, she sensed through their connection the toll it took on him, too. He fought the effect of the draw from the egg every bit as much as she did.

Outside the pen, darkness swallowed her.

Alena moved silently, thankful for the moonless night. Clouds drifted across the sky, thick with the coming rain. The last one had been more heavy than most, and if another like it came, she didn’t want to be out in the open. At the least, she wanted to reach the pen deeper in the forest.

Shadows moved around her, and she paused. Alena didn’t dare pull on earth to shroud her. Doing even that much shaping would weaken her more than she could tolerate.

She waited. Nothing more stirred.

Moving more carefully, she continued into the forest.

Every so often, she stopped, convinced she saw something else moving, but each time all was still. Her imagination, nothing more.

She
should
have warned Volth what she intended. He might have helped. Maybe that was the reason she hadn’t said anything to him. She needed to prove to herself that she didn’t need help, and certainly not from him. Knowing herself a capable and skilled shaper was all that she had. With that gone, Alena didn’t know what else she was meant to be. That was why she was determined to separate the connection to the egg.

And then… then she would work with Cheneth to see what more she could do to help defeat Tenebeth. She could return to her hunts with Calan. She could resume teaching. All were things that she could
not
do while the egg pulled on her.

At the edge of the clearing, she stopped again. Was that movement, or was that only the wind? She felt vulnerable in a way she hadn’t since before she first learned to shape, and exposed in a way that made her jump at every sound. If she only dared shape even a trickle of fire, she wouldn’t have to worry about the darkness, but that would not only be more than she could risk, but it was more than she could tolerate.

She waited, watching the see if the shadows would move again, but they didn’t.

You come late, Lren.

This is the only time it would be safe.

Behind the shielding she’d placed—and Jasn had fortified, she had not failed to note—she heard Sashi snort softly.
The night is never safe, Lren, not as you are.

It was progress that the draasin seemed concerned about her. In the time since Sashi had returned from Tenebeth, she hadn’t shown any real worry, nothing like Alena knew the draasin to feel normally.

It is safest to move the egg. You must help with this.

Sashi hesitated. Alena feared what might happen if the draasin continued to refuse. Would she be able to survive another day? Another week? Longer?

And if she wouldn’t help, was there any way she could use Ciara’s ability? If she could call to the draasin, to summon them to her, would it be possible to summon with a purpose?

Another must not be called,
Sashi said.
Leave them where they are.

You mean your homeland.

I mean where they are. The ala’shin may summon, but she has been chosen for this purpose.

Ciara?

The ala’shin. She may summon,
the draasin repeated.

Why? What is it about her that you respond to?

The Mother has chosen her. She has much light burning within her, as well as the potential for darkness. It is the balance that the Mother seeks.

Is that why Tenebeth wants her?

Voidan wants all who can speak to the elementals.

She said she summons, that she does
not
speak.

Summons the draasin, but she speaks to another.

Did Cheneth know of this? Alena decided he probably did. That was probably the reason he was so willing to work with the girl. And then what? If she spoke to another elemental, and it wasn’t the draasin, why did Alena detect a distinct connection between Ciara and the draasin?

You do not know what it was like, Lren. You cannot understand the fear, the loss of control, no longer being able to access the power of fire and of the Mother.

Alena stepped forward, passing through the shielding. Sashi stood on the other side, her bright eyes blazing like candles in the night. Her tail twitched with the agitation that she felt speaking about what she’d experienced. Alena knew she had suffered, but she didn’t understand the extent of what the draasin had gone through.

You’re wrong. I know what it’s like losing the power you once had. No longer able to control fire, or earth, or wind, or water. That’s what has happened to me with the egg. It has bonded to me, pulling the strength of fire from me. That destroys me. In time, it will destroy another if it doesn’t destroy me first.

This one is destined to be powerful.

That is what I’ve heard. But he can’t be powerful if he does not hatch.

Lren, you don’t know what you ask of me.

I do know what I ask.

Do you? Do you understand what is required with the hatchlings? They must feed.

Then provide the food for the hatchling.

Such feedings will draw him. He seeks the youngest, those unable to protect themselves. Voidan will claim any that hatch.

Alena took a deep breath, finally understanding what Sashi feared.
I will do what I can to prevent it. And you have seen what Ciara is capable of doing.

She still didn’t know how Ciara managed to use that strange spear of hers to fend off Thenas. Even without the touch of Tenebeth, Thenas had proven to be a powerful shaper. Stopping him when he had a dark power added to his strength… that impressed her more than she wanted to admit. In her current state, there was nothing she would have been able to do to stop Thenas. That a girl, and one of Rens, had managed to hold him off with nothing more than a spear…

But she hadn’t held him off with only a spear. She used something like shaping, though she reached the elements in another way. Could she be taught to shape?

The ala’shin is talented, but raw.

Then we will work with her,
Alena promised.
We will do what we can to guide her and give her the skills she needs to keep you and the other draasin safe. And she will help protect the hatchling, but she won’t have to do it alone. I will be there.

Sashi withdrew from her mind for a while. Alena had the sense that she considered the suggestion before she slipped forward once more, coming to the forefront of her mind.

If we do this, I do not know what repercussions you might face,
Sashi said.

I need to separate from the draw on me.

It’s possible that there is no separation.

Alena swallowed. If that was the case, then forcing the egg to hatch would only hasten whatever was happening to her. She didn’t like the idea of that, but then, she also didn’t like the idea of Volth getting dragged into her stupidity.

I understand.

Sashi snorted.

Alena carried the egg over and set it in front of the draasin. Sashi curled her tail around the egg as if attempting to protect it. Heat built steadily from her, burning like a forge fire, hot enough that Alena had to take a step back. The draasin continued to get hotter and hotter, and the egg began to glow.

This may take some time,
Sashi said.

What is it that you’re doing?

Feeding the hatchling.

Feeding?

The young must feed on fire first, and then they must eat.

The heat continued to emanate from Sashi, and her body took on an orange glow that pushed back the darkness of the night. Without the shielding around the pen, the flames would be visible from a great distance. Even with it in place, Alena feared the glow might be seen from the barracks. If not seen, then certainly another sensitive to fire might be able to detect it.

If she still had the strength of her connection to fire, she might try to modify the shielding to hold the flames within it, but she could barely shape anything at this point. Even if this didn’t work, Alena knew her time with the egg wasn’t much longer. She
needed
to be separated from it.

Heat built. Now the draasin appeared to have flames leaping from her sides. The scales on her hide glowed with orange and red and greens.

The egg began to take on the heat from the draasin, as if absorbing what the draasin did.

In that moment, she felt a relaxation on the pull from the egg. For the briefest moment, she thought she might regain the ability to shape. And then it was gone.

Alena continued to watch, praying that this worked. If it didn’t, she would perish. That didn’t bother her as much as she thought it should. She had come to the barracks knowing that what she would learn would be dangerous. She didn’t want to die, not like she’d heard that Volth had wanted to when he’d gone to Rens, but that had been the reality when facing the draasin. Even with her ability to speak to them, there was no guarantee she would be successful, especially when she had to make it appear that she helped in the hunt. So far, she had been lucky. Perhaps finding the egg had been the end of her luck.

She sensed movement against the shielding. Alena looked up and saw a shadow slinking along the inner edge.

She couldn’t make out what it was, but her heart started hammering, betraying her.
Draasin, there is another here.

This cannot stop, Lren, or two of us will perish.

Alena took a deep breath and kept her focus on the shadow. With the light coming off the draasin, she couldn’t see anything more than that, but she feared what it meant. Thenas had already come for the draasin once. What stopped him from returning now that she had returned? And what better time than when she attempted to help a hatchling?

Unsheathing her sword, she focused on the runes etched into the steel. Most had been placed by the College of Scholars, a way of marking and naming the sword, but she had placed two herself back when she still had her ability to shape.

The darkness separated from the edge of the barrier.

“Thenas,” Alena said.

He moved more quickly than she would have expected, attempting to dart around her, bringing his hands together so that his palms were cupped outward. Darkness seemed to coalesce there, as if he drew in all the night around him, pulling it into his hands. A shaping surged from him as well, a powerful one if she could sense it. In her weakened state, she hadn’t managed to detect any shapings lately.

She had one shot. Somehow, she had to stop him before he reached the draasin—or the egg. Alena focused on the energy she could draw, pulling on everything she could muster—which wasn’t much—and sent it through the sword.

Using the sword could be dangerous. The steel was designed to withstand shapings, and most swords carried by those of the order had been particularly hardened so that they could be used in that manner, but Alena had added a few additional symbols to her sword, and with them, she could pull even more strength than she could otherwise manage without it.

The sword surged with light.

Thenas paused long enough to glance back.

Alena used that hesitation to her advantage. She stabbed forward, striking at Thenas.

Somehow he simply
caught
the sword between his hands. And then he threw it back toward her.

That had been her one chance, and she had failed. Worse, using a shaping like that had drained her, leaving her too weak to stand. She sank to the ground, knowing she had doomed two draasin—and herself—to death.