The Shadowsteel Forge (The Dark Ability Book 5) Read Online Free Page B

attacked?”
    Rsiran shook his head. “She claims that she suffered regular attacks before you captured her.”
    Sarah crossed her arms over her chest and tossed her dark hair over her shoulder. “Your sister was never held prisoner. She was a guest—”
    “Who wasn’t allowed to leave.”
    “—while we searched for you. After everything that you have learned, you have to understand that.”
    Rsiran sniffed. “I understand that your father was willing to take my sister hostage to get me to do what he wanted. I know that he shared only what he needed to share to coax me into doing what he thought was necessary. That’s not so different from what Venass attempted.”
    Her eyes widened. “Careful using that name around here,” she warned. “There are some who know what it means, probably working for them, and if they overhear…”
    “If there are any Listeners around, they wouldn’t have to strain too hard to hear someone talking about that place.” Not with the way the guilds searched for information. He once had thought them subtle, but now, they seemed anything but subtle. “Anyway, do you really think there’s anything to worry about here? They haven’t attacked Elaeavn.”
    “Yet.” Sarah stepped toward him, and her eyes darted up and down the street before returning to him. “There is movement, but we don’t know what it means. And since the attack on the Forgotten, the guilds haven’t exactly been getting along.”
    “Why is that?”
    “Father thinks to lead, but with what happened to the smiths… and almost happened to the miners…”
    Rsiran waited, expecting her to say more, but she didn’t. “What kind of movement?”
    Sarah shook her head. “This isn’t the best place to be having this conversation. Father intended to call you to the,” she lowered her voice even more, “to the Guild Hall, but wanted to have more information before he did.”
    “Why would he be calling me?”
    Sarah stepped away and sniffed. “Because you can help. Don’t you want to help? Elaeavn needs your abilities. I think you’ve proven that already.”
    Elaeavn might want and need his abilities, but Rsiran wasn’t entirely certain that he wanted to help Elaeavn. What had he ever received from the city?
    “Lareth, you might be the key to understanding what they want. Do you really intend to refuse to help the guild?”
    “I’m not refusing,” he said. “I’ve shown that I’ll do what’s needed to keep my friends safe.”
    Sarah shook her head. “But you won’t help the guilds.”
    “I don’t know that there’s anything I can do that would help the guilds, not if Venass is involved.”
    “I hadn’t thought that you were a fool. But maybe I was wrong. If you think that you can hide from what’s coming, and that you won’t have a role to play in it even if you don’t want to.... The Great Watcher has called you into this whether you like it or not.”
    She turned away, leaving him on the street without giving him the opportunity to respond.
    Rsiran stared after her before returning his attention to the trail of blood. As he followed it, making his way up the street, he wondered if she was right. What if the Great Watcher had pulled him into this fight? He’d been granted access to the crystals, so hadn’t that called him? And if so, could he refuse then?
    He pushed the question to the back of his mind, deciding to think on it later.
    For now, he wanted to know about the more immediate threat. Not to him, but to his sister. And maybe to him. Regardless of what she claimed, there was something off about the man who attacked her, something that seemed to be about more than … whatever it was that Alyse had been doing. Rsiran didn’t want to think about what that might have been, what had changed Alyse and stolen her confidence.
    The blood trail veered off the street, leaving the city as it went into a grassy area that stretched into the forest.
    Rsiran had worried that Alyse’s attacker