Endless Night by D.K. Holmberg Read Free Book Online Page B

need.”
    He studied her with a renewed interest. “That’s why you’re so tired.”
    She nodded. “It’s like I’ve been shaping for two weeks straight. Whatever Jasn did helps delay it. It takes away some of the strain, but I can feel that isn’t even enough. Over time…”
    “Then the egg will have to be destroyed.”
    “No.” The heat in her voice made Cheneth take a step back. “There are so few draasin already, Cheneth. We destroy even one… and we will lose. Isn’t that what you fear? There has to be a reason that Tenebeth has claimed the draasin first. Find the answer to that. ”
    “They’re some of the oldest of the elementals,” he answered softly. “An ancient part of the world that dates back to a time long before man ever set foot on this earth. And I suspect that it’s not only the draasin that he targets. Each of the ancient elementals will be marked. We have only seen the draasin, but that’s because we can see them. Others have been just as active.”
    “We’ve heard nothing—”
    “ You’ve heard nothing. But that doesn’t mean there’s been no word of other attacks.”
    “Why now? What’s changed that Tenebeth would suddenly attack now?”
    Cheneth pushed his glasses back up on his face and shook his head. “I don’t know. There is a place I can go for answers, but doing so will take me away from the barracks for longer than I care to be gone.”
    “If you can find answers, don’t you think it’s worth the risk? We will be fine without you for a while.”
    Cheneth smiled. “Will you? Haven’t you just told me that your shaping ability is drained by the draasin? And we have a nya’shin from Rens here with abilities far beyond what I’ve seen in decades. One of our own is missing, and her with abilities that Tenebeth would value. And unrest within the barracks. It seems to me that this is not the time to be leaving.”
    He was right. That didn’t mean that it was right. Stars, but losing Cheneth at a time when they knew so little about the elementals and the attack that Cheneth feared, it left her with fear gnawing in her belly. She had seen what happened with this Tenebeth. She had witnessed the way he had occupied Thenas and had twisted him and given him more power than he should be able to reach. But didn’t they need to know what was happening as much as anything?
    “Then what do you intend?”
    Cheneth’s brow furrowed. “I intend the same as I always have. Continue to learn, to be ready. The next attack will come, but I have more confidence now than I have in a very long time that we will be equipped to withstand it. Which is why I need you, Alena. And need you whole.”
    Alena listened for the draasin held in the pen in the barracks. The male draasin was there at the edge of her awareness, a presence that wanted to push forward were she to ask, but the female remained distant. How could she engage her? What could she do to convince her to help with the egg?
    “I’ll figure this out,” she said.
    Cheneth nodded. “I know you will. If you don’t, we will have no choice.”
    Alena wondered. With the connection that had formed between her and the egg, would she have a choice? If they had to destroy the egg, what would happen to her? She assumed she would survive, but what if destroying the egg only destroyed her as well?

9
    Eldridge
    The elementals know more than they reveal. The draasin fear Tenebeth, even as they refer to him as Voidan. If the draasin fear him, it stands to reason that the others do as well. We have so few able to speak to the elementals, but we need to learn what they know. It is possible that they hold the key to stopping Tenebeth.
    —Rolan al’Sand, Enlightened of Hyaln

    E ldridge stood outside the door leading into the great hall in Jornas, the soft sound of voices drifting through the massive oak doors. With a shaping of wind, he drew the voices toward him, listening for the one he needed to hear, but there was no sign of Lachen.