Free The Guild Secret (The Dark Ability Book 6) by D.K. Holmberg Page B

about him. He didn’t fear capture from them, and now that he knew that they weren’t working with Josun, he didn’t have any reason to remain hidden.
    He pulled himself in a Slide.
    When he emerged, he pushed a dozen knives away from him, ringing Shael, Firell, and Jonas. He readied to Slide again, but there wasn’t anyone else there.
    “You be leadin’ him here?” Shael snapped at Firell.
    “I followed him,” Rsiran said. “And now that I know the way the chains sound, I can find you wherever they are, so don’t think that it would challenge me to reach them.” He nodded to Shael. “You think you can use me? Who are you working for this time? It didn’t sound like Venass, but then, the last time I saw you, I thought you were dead. You look pretty good for a man whose skull should have been caved in.”
    Shael raised his hand to his forehead, touching a deep indentation. Rsiran felt no remorse for the injury that should have killed him. In his mind, he’d already mourned what he’d done to Shael. The man should be dead. After betraying them twice, Rsiran expected nothing different now.
    “I be harder to kill than I look.”
    “I see that.”
    “What you be doin’ here, Rsiran? Where that girl of yours? You know I always liked her.”
    Jonas had started to move. Not just move, but colors started to swirl around him.
    Sliding.
    Rsiran pushed on the knives nearest Jonas. Two of them pierced his skin, drawing a small line of blood. “Don’t think you can be Sliding away just yet. Trust that I’ll know if you try again.”
    Jonas stared at him. “You shouldn’t be able to see that.”
    “There are a lot of things I shouldn’t be able to do,” Rsiran said.
    “Like those knives,” Shael said. “That be smith blood, isn’t it? But you do be a traveler, too.”
    Rsiran didn’t think that Shael meant it in the same way that he knew about Traveling. “I can Slide.”
    Shael grunted.
    “Why are you in Asador?” he asked Shael.
    “Smugglers, Rsiran. Don’ you know that we do be businessmen?”
    “I seem to recall the last time Firell did business with you, he lost his daughter.” He glanced at Firell. “I assume this time, you don’t think anything will happen to her?”
    “There are protections in place.”
    “And you have some way to prevent Shael from betraying you like he did the last time?”
    “This do be nothin’ like the last time,” Shael said.
    “No. Now the Forgotten are mostly destroyed.”
    “You thinkin’ so?”
    Rsiran shrugged. “Their palace is empty. Their leader dead. Most of the others within their chain of command are dead. I think that’s pretty well destroyed.”
    Shael and Firell glanced at each other. Jonas tried to Slide again—a faint trail of color that disappeared as soon as Rsiran pushed on his knives.
    And Rsiran began to understand Jonas. There was a reason that he tried to Slide away from Rsiran, and why Firell seemed so inclined to fear him, letting the other man lead when they left the tavern.
    “You’re one of the Forgotten, aren’t you? I thought you might be Venass, but I don’t detect any lorcith or heartstone on you. And for you to Slide so openly… I’ve only seen that with the Forgotten.” It was different in Elaeavn now, but none of these men knew that.
    “They be done?” Shael asked Rsiran.
    “Evaelyn is dead. Inna gone. A few others. I didn’t bother getting their names.”
    Shael actually laughed again, ignoring the knives hovering in front of him. “You be really believing that you stopped the Forgotten?”
    Rsiran watched Shael. The large man had a strange tension to him, one that he couldn’t put a finger on. He feared the Forgotten, and he clearly feared what they might do to him if he didn’t do what they asked. Shael was a strong and powerful man. What could the Forgotten possibly have over him that terrified him so?
    “As I said, I’ve been to the Forgotten Palace. I was there when Evaelyn died. I was there when Inna