Changed By Fire (Book 3) (8 page)

W
ithout saying another word
, his mother led them into the house, pulling the door closed behind them on a shaping of wind before sealing it closed. They made their way down a long hall with slatted walls. She did not look at them as she hurried through the hall. The soft staccato of her feet over the wood felt strangely familiar.

A single tapestry hung on one of the walls, faded beyond any recognition. Tan could see no other decorations. She turned through a doorway, disappearing from view.

Worry creased Roine’s brow as he regarded Tan. “Tan?”

Tan shook his head, making a point of not looking over at the warrior. “I’m fine.”

Roine started to say something more but cut it off. He followed Tan’s mother into the room.

Tan took a deep breath. How could Sarah have been his mother? If she were alive, why had she not revealed herself, especially as she had been in Ethea? Why had she not helped him more?

Answers would come. He would demand them.

His mother led them to a room where a single lantern glowed atop a well-worn table with four chairs circling it. Roine sat at one end of the table. His mother stood behind another. Curtains were drawn closed over a window on the far wall. Books stacked atop a narrow shelf across from the table.

“Sit, Tannen,” she said.

Tan flattened his mouth, the corners pressing down mercilessly. His hands clenched into fists. “I’ll stand.”

Her mouth tightened and she shifted her hands where they gripped the top of the chair. “You’re angry.”

“That’s the first thing you say to me?” he yelled. “You were
dead
!”

“It will take more than the lisincend to kill me,” she said, quickly dismissing the idea of her death. “Though I admit I had not expected them to come so quickly. Had you not warned of the hounds, I may not have known.”

“You knew they were coming?”

“Not at first. I had been… disconnected… from the wind for many years. When I sent you with Theondar, I knew it was time to reconnect.”

“You could have saved them.”

She frowned. “Who?”

He closed his eyes, remembering the crater where the town had been. Everyone gone. Everything he knew, gone. Only Cobin and Bal remained, and he had not seen them since leaving Velminth. And Lins, except Tan wouldn’t mind if Incendin took Lins Alles. “Everyone.”

“Tannen—”

“Don’t,” he snapped, opening his eyes. “If you wouldn’t save them, why else had you been in Galen? Why would the king have sent you there?”

“I told you why I was in Galen. Before you left.”

“No. You told me you fought in the Incendin war and that your reward was coming to Nor. You said nothing about Father. Nothing about what
you
were doing in Nor.”

His mother cocked her head in Roine’s direction. “You didn’t tell him?”

“That wasn’t my place, Zephra.”

“Tell me what?”

His mother sighed. “Your father was sent to Galen. He chose to settle in Nor.”

She met his eyes, and the warmth he remembered from his childhood was there, but also the strength he remembered from watching her serve Lord Alles.

“Nor is close to the border, close enough for what the king needed.”

“And what did the king need? For him to fortify the barrier?” Tan asked.

She glanced at Roine.

Tan snorted. “I know. Roine told me.”

“So you know your father was a powerful earth shaper?”

Tan nodded. Talking about it brought back the hurt he felt at never having the opportunity to know his father as a shaper, to learn from him. “I know that he kept his ability from me.”

“Did he?” she asked. “How many times did you go out with your father? How much did he teach you about earth sensing?” She shook her head. “Your father taught you as much as he could. Until you showed signs of shaping, there wasn’t anything more he
could
teach you.”

“That’s why you pushed me to come to Ethea after he died?”

She closed her eyes and nodded. “You needed to be around others like you.”

“There are no others like me,” Tan said. He hated how he sounded, the sullenness he knew that had crept into his voice. Seeing his mother made him feel like a child again, searching for her approval.

But he didn’t need her approval. Not anymore.

“Tannen—”

“Why did you go to Lacertin?” he asked.

“You asked why I didn’t save them. You deserve that answer first.” She pulled a chair out and sat. “The attack came suddenly. I had barely touched the wind. Wind shaping is delicate. Difficult at times. Part of me wasn’t certain it would respond as it once had. But it all came back quickly. As soon as I shaped the wind, I sensed something off.” Her eyes were reddened; tears welled in them. “I tried, Tannen. I did what I could, but I was not strong enough.”

A hollowness settled through him. Of course his mother would have tried. Nor was her home as much as it was his. “How did you…” He swallowed, needing to get the question out. “How did you get out?”

“A wind shaping. I took to the sky to search for the lisincend. I warned you about them.”

“You didn’t tell me what they were,” Tan said.

“Would you have believed?”

Tan didn’t know. Short of seeing the lisincend, he had no way of really understanding how terrible they were. Only after seeing what they did to the Aeta had he really understood. “You saw it, didn’t you?”

He took a step toward his mother. Roine moved over by the window to give Tan a measure of privacy with his mother.

She nodded, her eyes going distant. “I saw the attack. An explosion of fire unlike anything I had ever seen. There was no reason for the lisincend to risk crossing the barrier. No reason to attack with such brutality.”

“Why didn’t you come find me?”

She glanced at Roine and nodded. “You were as safe as you could be with Theondar. And you were needed.”

Had she come for him, he might not have attempted to free Amia. He might not have encountered the nymid. They might not have freed the draasin. Tan had learned he could speak to the elementals
because
she never found him.

He closed his eyes, eager to share this experience with Amia through their shaped connection.
I found my mother
.

Sending the message to her took less energy than it did with the draasin. He didn’t expect a response from her. If she remained with the king, she might still be occupied.

“And Lacertin?” he asked softly.

His mother swallowed. She glanced over at Roine. “They were close once. Did you know that?”

Tan nodded. Roine admitted that much to him.

“Back when I first came to Ethea. They were powerful shapers, both of them. When Lacertin left, it… changed something with Theondar. More than Ilianna’s death would explain.”

“Mother?”

“I never believed the rumors about Lacertin. He had always served Ilton loyally. For him to violate the death chamber, there had to be a reason. Lacertin had been away from the palace for months before the king fell ill, gone on an errand of the king.” She smiled but didn’t turn away from Roine. “Lacertin always had been his favored warrior. Much like Theondar is to Althem. For Ilton to send him from Ethea for so long must have been important. It has troubled me, all these years. I never learned the answer.”

“You knew where to find him?”

She finally turned back to him and snorted. “Lacertin has never really hidden himself, not to those willing to listen. I suspect if you ask, Theondar knew where he was. Maybe he was unwilling to admit it.”

“You knew he was in Incendin?”

“I knew he went to Incendin. Lacertin was a fire shaper first. It made the most sense.”

Tan’s eyes widened. “You went after him?”

She nodded once. “When the lisincend attacked in a way that made no sense, I needed to know. I sought out Lacertin. I learned the lisincend discovered what Theondar sought. And I asked that he intervene.”

“Intervene? Lacertin attacked Roine! The lisincend nearly killed Amia and I!”

She nodded. “And he recognized his mistake. He thought Theondar had the artifact and sought to claim it.” She turned to Roine. “Lacertin still did not trust him. Or Althem. And it seems for good reason.”

Roine looked back at her. “It was not my fault the artifact was stolen.”

“No. It’s only your fault Incendin found the artifact.”

Roine turned to face her. “Is this why you summoned me here, Zephra? To admonish me? Maybe I should leave so you and Tan have time to reconnect.”

She stood and faced Roine. “I summoned you here to discuss the king. You brought Tannen into this.”

Roine glanced at Tan, an amused smile parting his lips. “I think Tan brought himself into this. You haven’t asked what happened since you last saw him.”

“I have no need. I know he speaks to the elementals. The last time I saw him, he was to have healed Elle Vaywand.”

“You’re the reason he left Ethea?” Roine asked.

“Not the reason. That would be the archivists. I am the
way
he left Ethea.” She looked over at Tan. “Elle needed the help of water elementals, and he knew the nymid. I thought he could help her and Amia at the same time.”

“I didn’t reach the nymid at first.”

“What happened with Elle?”

“She…” He trailed off and frowned. “Wait. How did you know her?”

“I knew her grandfather. We were friends a long time ago. He motivated me to come to the university to learn.” Her voice caught. “You didn’t reach healing in time, did you?”

Tan took a deep breath. “Your shaping took me to Incendin,” he began. He should have questioned how Sarah would have been able to shape him so that they could reach the place of convergence. A shaping like that would have been more than Roine could do. But his mother was Zephra, the most powerful wind shaper seen in generations.

“Then you lost focus.”

“I was drawn there,” Tan said.

Her eyes widened slightly. “The draasin you freed. You have bonded it.”

Bonded. How would she have known? “How did you know of the draasin?” Had he spoken of the draasin with Elle? “And how did you perform that shaping?”

She ignored the question. “What of Elle? You left her in Incendin?”

“No. A—” He caught himself before revealing Asboel’s name. “The draasin drew me to them. He brought Elle to where she could be healed.”

“Where?” his mother asked.

“Doma, I think. Or beyond Doma. I’m not certain.”

“How can you not be certain? Where did you leave her?” she demanded.

“Why do you care so much about her? You didn’t seem to care that I was under attack from the lisincend, that I nearly died fighting with Incendin. Why Elle?”

She tossed her head and let out a soft sigh. “She is family.”

“Family?”

“Our fathers. They were brothers.” She took a deep breath. “So, Tannen, what happened to my cousin?”

Cousin. Elle was family. After losing his father—and then thinking he’d lost his mother—he thought he had no family left. Now, his mother still lived. And Elle was a cousin.

“With the udilm. They healed her before I left. She remained with them.”

His mother let out a shaky breath. “She speaks to udilm?”

“She does.”

His mother did something then that surprised him. She smiled. “All these years Doma has sought to find another able to speak to udilm. All these years fearing Incendin and it is Elle who manages to do it.”

“Why was Elle so important?”

His mother paced across the room, her feet drumming on the wooden floor. Tan remembered how she would pace when discussing things with his father, or, after he was gone, how she paced when working through problems for Lord Alles.

“One area your father and I failed you was in geography. Sarah and Elle told you how Incendin attacked Doma, taking shapers from them and leaving them unprotected.”

He nodded. He suspected Doma shapers were the reason Incendin had weakened the barrier.

“It is more than that. Only a small swath of Doma borders Incendin. Not like the kingdoms, where Galen and Nara run along its border. But Doma has never had the same protections as the kingdoms. Those who can shape had always come to the university to learn. Enough would return to keep Doma safe. Such a small border didn’t require much shaping. But that wasn’t the only reason Doma survived as long as it had against the constant pressure from Incendin.”

“Udilm,” Tan said.

His mother nodded. “Most of Doma juts out into the sea. Waves crash along almost all her borders. Udilm had always been a friend to Doma.”

“Had been?” he asked.

“There has been little contact with Doma and udilm over the last hundred years. At first, the continued threat of udilm kept Incendin back, but over time, that failed. And when the number of shapers dwindled, Incendin no longer feared invading. Those with any shaping potential were taken, torn from families and dragged into Incendin.”

“I don’t understand what Elle has to do with any of that.”

“Elle Vaywand is the granddaughter of the last great water shaper from Doma. And he was the son of the last person with the ability to speak to udilm. Elle came to learn water shaping, but she came for another reason, one she wouldn’t have completed if not for you.”

Tan thought of what it felt like when swimming with udilm. He had the sense of massive power, the depth of the elemental, but also a sort of indifference. Not like the nymid. “I’m not sure udilm will help.”

“You spoke with them too.” She nodded to herself. “Of course, you have Thea’s blood in you as well.” She looked over at Roine. “But why would this suddenly manifest again? Why after all this time would the ability to speak to the elementals reappear?”

Roine shook his head. “I don’t know, Zephra. I am no scholar. I am only a simple Athan.”

She shot Roine a look. “Only an Athan? You spent years studying in the archives. You’re the closest the kingdoms has to a scholar anymore.”

“That was a long time ago.”

She frowned. “That’s right. You’re Roine now, not Theondar. So I suppose Roine managed to find the lost artifact after all the years he spent searching when few believed it existed?”

“Lacertin believed.”