Siege of Shadows: The Keeper Chronicles Book 3 Page 2

  Will looked at Sini sharply. “That one?”

  Sini searched the glade, but everything looked calm. “There’ve been several. That was the strongest.”

  Rass scrambled forward and spread her fingers out on the ground. “This is a waking field!”

  “A what?” Will asked.

  “On the Sweep we have waking fields—where the new elves wake.”

  Evangeline’s eyes widened. “Yes! The Elder Grove is where elves wake up.”

  Alaric’s attention snapped to her. “Are you sure?”

  Evangeline nodded.

  “Wake?” Douglon asked sharply.

  “Where they’re born,” Evangeline explained, her brow drawn in concentration. “The elves come here and put…something into the ground, and new elves are born.” She looked at Alaric. “I’m sorry, I can’t quite figure out what.”

  “Will burying Ayda here create new elves?” Will asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Rass said. “On the Sweep we give the waking field part of ourselves, and care for it until the new elves become more than grass. This grove needs something from a living elf to begin with, and then elves to care for it.” She peered at the trees above her. “This grove is…distant. Closed off. It’s alive, but purposeless.”

  Sini sank down to her knees and spread her own hands into the grass. The grove pulled at her, drawing little licks of vitalle out of her palms before it stopped. Energy rushed past her hands, flitting back and forth beneath the surface.

  “If it needs something from a living tree elf, it’s going to be hungry for a long time.” Alaric said.

  The energy below her hand felt frantic.

  “I have part of a living elf,” Douglon said, so quietly Sini almost missed it.

  The dwarf still stood at the head of the grave, his face stony, watching Will. “Whatever she gave me when she saved my life, you said you could feel it inside me. Can you take it out?”

  Will started to shake his head, but Douglon blew out an impatient breath. “It needs something from an elf. I have that.”

  Alaric began to object, but Evangeline touched his arm. “So do I.”

  Will studied both the dwarf and Evangeline with a troubled expression. A ripple rolled through the grove again, but Sini couldn’t quite pinpoint whether it was in the ground or the air. The sunlight still rained down on her. But it couldn’t just be the sun. Maybe the very air of the grove was alive somehow. A vibrant flower flung its petals wide on the nearest tree. Sini stood and moved over to it. The bloom wasn’t just bright red. Thin lines of energy trickled across the surface. She stretched up and brushed her fingertip across it. A rivulet of crimson fire rolled down her finger like water. She pulled her hand back and the red light dissolved into the air.

  “It will work, won’t it?” Douglon continued, his voice low. “What we have is what Ayda had.”

  Will toyed with a small silver bead braided into his beard. “What is in each of you is a single thing. I can’t take part of it.” He hesitated. “And if I take it all, I think you’ll both be back to…” He shrugged apologetically. “Normal.”

  Douglon’s hand tightened on his axe. “We won’t hear the trees any longer?”

  “I’ll lose the things I know about the elves?” Evangeline asked.

  “Most likely.”

  Evangeline’s gaze ran along the trees. “But you think it will help?”

  Will glanced at Alaric and gave another helpless shrug. “I don’t know. What you have feels like what the grove could be missing.”

  “Feels like?” Douglon repeated. “Could be?”

  “Yes. That’s how certain I am. And even if it is exactly what the forest needs, I don’t know whether what you two have will be enough. There’s a chance I would take it from you and still the grove wouldn’t wake.”

  “Even if it works,” Alaric broke in, “there are no elves to care for the grove.”

  “There are no silvii, no tree elves,” Rass pointed out. “There are plenty of other elves.”

  Will looked at her sharply. “You could do…whatever needs to be done?”

  “I think so, but I’d need to stay here.” Rass gave him a grin. “I’ve never met a silvii.”

  Will knelt down next to her. “I can’t stay with you.”

  Her little shoulders straightened. “I don’t need you to—”

  “I could stay,” Douglon raised a hand to ward off Rass’s objection. “Not because you need me to, snip. Just because I’d like to…help. However I can.”

  Her irritation faded. “I’d like it if you stayed, uncle.”

  Alaric looked at Douglon, Evangeline, and Rass. “Are you sure about this?”

  “For a chance to have new elves?” Evangeline said. “We have to try.”

  “Why are we still wasting time talking about this?” Douglon asked.

  Will motioned for Douglon and Evangeline to come closer and glanced at Alaric. “There isn’t any vitalle here.”

  A shocked laugh burst out of Sini before she could stop it.

  “I mean,” Will clarified, “I can’t take energy from the grove when I’m trying to help the grove.”

  Alaric nodded and Sini pressed her lips closed against another laugh. Why could no one else ever see it? “We can use the sunfire.” At their blank stares, she stepped up to Will and set her hand on his forearm where she could touch his skin. “You start. I promise there’ll be enough fire—vitalle—for anything you want to do.”

  The two Keepers considered her for a moment. Alaric looked as though he might question her, but Will nodded. “I believe you.”

  With Evangeline and Douglon standing before him, Will closed his eyes. He stretched his fingers toward Evangeline and she held still, her body stiff. Will twitched his hand and Evangeline let out a shuddering breath.

  Douglon’s hands were curled into fists at his side, his jaw clenched, as Will turned toward him. The dwarf fixed his gaze toward the nearest tree. Will glanced up at him once, then with an expression caught between determination and regret the Keeper made a small pulling gesture. A spasm flashed across Douglon’s face.

  Sini felt an ache of sympathy for them both. Will shuddered beneath her hand. He looked down and his hair hid his expression, but she could feel the tightness in his arm.

  He could feel their emotions. She clenched her hand on his arm at the thought, suddenly terribly glad she couldn’t. Will knelt and Sini sank to her knees.

  She closed her eyes and lifted her face toward the sunlight, letting the warmth tingle across her cheeks. A trickle of energy flowed out of her hand into Will. He opened up a path for it to flow into the ground.

  A wave of sunfire crashed down onto her. It poured into her like a drenching rain, flowing through her into Will.

  It swelled and her hand grew hot against Will’s arm. She dropped her other hand to the ground, letting the vitalle pour directly into it. The vitalle streamed down from the sky, pouring through her into the eager ground. More sunfire than she’d ever moved, more than she’d ever imagined.

  The gems on her ring began to glow. This was too much for them—too much energy rushing through her hands. She tried to rein it in, but the sunfire ignored her. With two small snaps the gems in her rings split, burst from too much energy. A jab of loss shot through her as their light drained away.

  The earth pulled at her, desperate. She braced for pain at the sheer amount of fire flowing through her. But there was only a buzzing tingle across her skin.

  Will let out a grunt of pain and shifted his arm under her grasp, clearly feeling more than a tingle. Sini turned the energy away from him, funneling most of it into the earth.

  More and more fire rushed through her, growing to a raging river. The vastness of the power threatened to overwhelm her. She tried to pull back, to cut it off, but it raced through her unchecked. She was part of the grove, part of the sky and the sunlight and the trees.

  Will shoved something from himself into the earth, and the ground below her
rang with a new power. The avak pit, not far from Sini’s hand, shot out a burst of energy that flared through the ground. The grove drank it all in, stirring, stretching.

  A wild glory sang out, blazing through the grove. The fire from her hands filled the ground, surged up the trees around them and spread out through the vast Greenwood. The forest wrapped around her, a living thing, unified, drawing her into itself. The voices of the trees rang through her mind. The earth flexed. She was exhilaratingly, terrifyingly, part of this fierce, swirling life.

  “It’s working.” Rass’s awestruck whisper came through the tumult.

  Will groaned and pulled his arm away, sinking back.

  The path he’d made broke off and the flow of fire disappeared so abruptly that Sini toppled forward onto both hands. The sunlight winked back into sunlight, pressing on her head with nothing more than summer warmth.

  The grove was just a grove again. She was utterly cut off from it. Beneath her hands she could feel the energy, calm and purposeful, moving heedless of her presence. She had provided what it needed, and it had drawn back into itself. The memory of that vibrant life echoed hollowly inside her, leaving her alone and insignificant. The grove had no more use for her. She was shut out.

  She opened her eyes to see Rass kneeling in the grass with her hands splayed into the dirt. Her face beamed with joy. “It’s waking up.”

  Sini pressed her own hand into the ground, desperate to feel it again, but there was nothing. She turned to Will. “Where did—?” The question died on her lips.

  Will and Alaric stared at her.

  “How…?” Alaric started

  “She’s not even burned,” Will said

  “Channeling that much…” Alaric shook his head slowly. “You should be dead.”

  Sini’s skin tingled in memory of the fire. “I’ve never done that much before. It was the grove. It was so hungry. And the sunlight was so…eager.” She rubbed her arms to drive away the feeling.

  A part of her was amazed at how much she’d channeled, but she couldn’t focus on it past the emptiness left by the grove. “Couldn’t you feel it?”

  Will looked at the red patch on his arm where she’d held it. “The only thing I felt was an unbelievable amount of power from you.” He flexed his hand. “Thank you for not sending all of it through me.”

  Alaric studied her like she was the most interesting person he’d ever seen. “I’ve never heard of a Keeper this powerful.”

  Sini shifted, feeling self-conscious under their attention. Her gaze caught on the dull, cracked gems in her rings. Her heart sank. Lukas had made those for her to help her channel magic.

  Will leaned forward and looked at the rings. “Don’t worry, we’ll teach you to move energy without needing burning stones.”

  The thrill of the idea pushed away the loss of both the light and the gems. She’d never been able to move energy on her own.

  “Whatever you did,” Rass said, her eyes bright, “it was enough. The grove has what it wants.”

  Sini focused on the trees. The longing was gone. She placed her hand on the ground. It felt like normal earth, and paid her no heed at all. She blew out a pained breath.

  Silence fell until Douglon cleared his throat, his expression ragged. “Does anyone know how long it takes for trees to give birth to elves?”

  Chapter One

  Sini stretched under the thick blankets until her feet slipped past the bottom and the early morning chill nipped at her toes. She shrank back in, curling into a ball. Stretching her mind out the window, she found the gentle power of the sunlight. Not much had managed to dribble down into the narrow valley of the Keepers’ Stronghold yet, but she drew in what sunfire she could through the shutters and wrapped it around her feet, warming them. She left her eyes shut, thinking of nothing, listening to the sounds of birds and the distant stream.

  It had been more than four years since she’d escaped the Sweep with Will and Alaric, and the fact that she could lie in bed as long as she wanted still felt as indulgent as it had on her first morning here.

  A niggling irritation left over from the night before prodded her. Her paper on Naponese linen. She groaned. It must be almost dawn. She should have slid the paper under Keeper Mikal’s door before she’d gone to sleep, but it had all been too frustrating.

  A wave of something rolled through her like a ripple through water.

  Her own vitalle lit up like a fire. A small plant by her window glowed dimly with its own energy. There was no sign of life next to her in Rett’s room. The room on the other side of her was empty as it always was. She shouldn’t be surprised by that after all this time, but she never could quite break the habit of checking. Couldn’t quite give up the hope her younger self had held. Dim echoes of life came back from farther away in the Stronghold: Gerone below in the kitchen. The Shield puttering about his books. The twins upstairs, probably already seated at their desk.

  A second wave came quickly, followed by a pause, and two more waves.

  “It’s so early, Rett,” she mumbled into her pillow.

  He’d made up the code himself. That pattern meant come. Seeing as he used it daily to get her attention, Sini had tried to convince him that a simpler pattern might be better, but he had grown flustered by the idea of changing it and she’d relented.

  One of Rett’s few skills was the ability to cast out, a process that was mostly effortless and involved flinging out a wave of curiosity, a kind of searching. To anyone sensitive to vitalle, the wave would light up anything living around them. Almost every other form of magic was beyond him, and after four years of valiant effort here at the Stronghold he still read only at a rudimentary level, but he could cast out.

  It had been one of the first things she’d learned on the Sweep and Rett had used it daily to call her. Lukas could feel the waves as well, and had suffered it as an irritating disruption, until the day he’d wrenched his hip outside the city. It had been Rett who’d felt Lukas’s call and found him.

  Here at the Stronghold, all the other Keepers would have felt the waves as well, but if Rett’s favorite way of calling Sini bothered any of them, they were too kind to mention it.

  The waves Rett had sent were from below her and fairly weak. He must be outside. Probably wanted to show her something about that baby lamb that wasn’t growing fast enough.

  She sent out two of her own waves without even opening her eyes. Where?

  Wave, pause, wave, wave, wave. Library.

  She opened her eyes to the gloom. That was more interesting than the growth rate of a lamb.

  The darkness had relented somewhat, although it would be hours before the sun was visible over the cliffs surrounding the narrow valley. Books, papers, ink, and quills were merely dark shapes on the desk near her bed. A fat candle sat on the corner waiting with a superior sort of air, but she ignored it.

  Bracing against the chill, Sini pushed off her blanket and hurried to her small wardrobe. This was the third morning in a row that the air had held the crisp chill of fall. She tossed off her nightgown and pulled out the light purple tunic Will had brought back last summer. Her thick leggings were such a dark blue they looked like a black puddle in the gloom, but nothing was black in her closet except the Keeper’s robe hanging off to the side. There was nothing drab, and definitely nothing grey.

  Just a shadowed grey, Lukas had called the black Keeper robes. The symbol of a slavery as real as ours.

  But her foster brother had been wrong. The robes were soft and sturdy. They symbolized something lasting and meaningful. She ran her hand over the fabric, then grabbed her wine-red cloak, instead. She pulled the wool over her head and found her boots. Unsure where her comb was in the dark, she ran her fingers through her hair. A year ago she’d cut off most of her blond locks, realizing that short hair needed less maintenance. The snipped ends tended to splay out wildly from behind her ears, but no one here was likely to care about that. She wove the pieces near her face into something as braid-like as
she could manage across the crown of her head to keep any stray pieces out of her way.

  Sini almost walked past the candle again on her way out, but it was so defiantly unlit that it demanded her attention. She squared her shoulders and set her fingertip next to the wick. Gently, she pushed some vitalle toward it. A light pink glow left her finger and clung to the wick for just a breath before dribbling down. It filled the top well of the candle and spilled over the edge the way clouds sometimes poured over the cliffs.

  The wick stayed perfectly cold.

  Sini hissed out an irritated breath and poured more energy into it. The pink grew brighter, but there was no path for it to follow into the wick. Enough energy to incinerate a tree slid uselessly down the candle and faded.

  Rett’s waves rolled through her again. Come.

  She snapped off the flow of vitalle and glared at the pink mist dissolving into the air.

  Irritated, she stalked out her door, into the center of the open tower.

  White walls stretched up three stories to a tiled ceiling, and down two more to the dark wood floor. A ramp curled along the wall, spiraling past other arched doorways like her own. Windows dotted the far wall and the pale stones reflected the little light that trickled in, making the whole tower glow with a milky whiteness.

  The tower filled her with a sense of rightness and, just as she did every morning, she breathed in the scent of freedom and safety.

  At the bottom she crossed the wide floor. The library wing was a smaller building attached to the back of the Stronghold on the ground floor. She passed quickly through a short hall into the library, moving out of the white rocks of the Stronghold into warm brown stone. The hall spilled out onto an aisle running between the round walls lined with bookshelves and the wide-open center of the library. Like in the main tower, a ramp spiraled around the open center, connecting the floor she stood on to the others.

  Three stories above her, a glass roof showed the pale blue of the morning sky. Four more levels lay below her. A few circles of golden light lit stretches of bookshelves, but this early the library was mostly silence and shadows. The colorfully-tiled floor at the bottom was faded to swirls of grey or black in the early light.