The Guild Secret (The Dark Ability Book 6) Read Online Free Page A

I want something to happen to you,” Rsiran said. “That’s why we need to understand what Venass intends with the shadowsteel.”
    “It’s more than that.”
    Rsiran nodded. “The metal has strange properties much like lorcith and heartstone.”
    “Potential.”
    “Call it what you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that it does. We need to understand it, determine if there is anything else that it might be able to do, so that we can be ready to stop the next attack.”
    “I said that I’ll talk to him.”
    Rsiran watched Sarah for a moment. The corners of her deep green eyes wrinkled with her frown, her brow furrowing as she stared off distantly.
    He had to trust that she would do what they needed. Sarah was guildlord for the Thenar Guild, a guild with her as its only member. Rsiran might be developing some aspects of the thenar skills—the fact that he could see flickers of color when others Slid near him made it likely—but he didn’t possess the level of skills that Sarah did, specifically the way that she could influence Sliding.
    He glanced down to the bundle of cloth. There was a part of him—and he didn’t know if it came from his connection to lorcith and heartstone—that told him he should destroy the sword. Something about the metal grated on him. But they needed to understand it. Destroying the sword would prevent them from knowing what else Venass might attempt.
    Leaving Sarah, he Slid.
    Rsiran emerged on the street above. Since the attack, much of the rubble had been removed, leaving a massive wound within the city. The Elvraeth still seemed unconcerned about the attack, and had made no effort to assist in the cleanup. In the days following the attack, Rsiran and others who could Slide removed as much as possible. Rsiran moved the bodies first, sending them into the sea. Where stretches of magnificent homes once lined the street in this part of Upper Town, now there was nothing but destruction.
    Some construction had resumed, but it was slow. The guilds coordinated the effort, but they didn’t work well together. Had he not been guildlord, Rsiran would never have known how poorly the guilds cooperated. The miners refused to work with the Travel Guild. The alchemists tried to keep separate from all of the others, except for the Thenar Guild, and that was because Sarah had alchemist blood. Even some of the minor guilds, those not descended from the ancient clans and tied to the Elder Trees, had pitched in, offering to help, but there was only so much they could do when confronted with the resistance of the other guilds.
    Rsiran stood next to a jagged wall of one of the fallen buildings. Moonlight filtered through thick clouds that carried the scent of a coming rain, but not enough light to help him see. Rsiran pushed on a pair of knives—the only two that he had remaining after the attack—and used their light to see around him.
    The guilds had left the wall, supposedly thinking they might save it since it appeared sturdy, and build onto it rather than tearing it down, but no one had yet made an effort to rebuild. He didn’t know why it troubled him to see nothing had changed since the attack, but it did.
    “You look troubled.”
    Rsiran turned, startled. He hadn’t expected anyone to find him here, especially not at night standing in the ruins from the attack. “Della?”
    “You don’t need those knives floating around me, do you?”
    Rsiran pulled on the knives, drawing them back to him, but kept them hovering in the air. Without the knives, he couldn’t see anything. “What are you doing out here?”
    “I thought to ask the same of you. There I was, sitting at home with a nice cup of tea, when I Saw that I should come to Upper Town. I didn’t know why, but I’ve learned not to question.”
    Rsiran sighed. There were times when he wished that Della could See him. Then he might know what he was supposed to do.
    “I was in Thyr tonight.”
    “Not alone, I hope.”
    “Sarah