Cloud Warrior 05 - Forged in Fire (18 page)

Roine studied him. “You think Incendin unable to handle Par-shon?”

“They have already been attacked,” Tan said, then told Roine about what happened in Incendin. “Incendin might not be strong enough to stop Par-shon directly, not without help. Which is why,” Tan started, taking a deep breath and promising himself it would be okay, “I allowed one of their warriors to return.”

Roine’s eyes flashed with anger, before he suppressed it. “You should have spoken to me first,” he said softly.

“You would only have told me no.”

“Tannen, I am the king regent. There are ways things are done!”

“Roine, I’m the reason she was here. She should never have been our prisoner. She wasn’t captured attacking the kingdoms; she was
rescued
from Par-shon. Whatever you might think of Incendin, she wasn’t the one to fear.”

Roine let out a frustrated grunt. “Who else?” he demanded.

“What?”

“Who else will you take with you?” Roine turned away and started pacing across the courtyard. “With the work along the barrier, I can’t risk too many going. It is nearly in place. Once it is—”

“I won’t take anyone unwilling to go. Cianna will likely come, but only because her bond-pair will be coming.”

Roine jerked his head around to stare at Tan. “Cianna has bonded?”

“I wasn’t sure it would work, but I knew the draasin would be safer were they bonded. Cianna was the right fit, but I had to convince the draasin of that as well.”

Roine squeezed his chin in thought. “There were three draasin. Who could bond to the third, do you think? Seanan might be too hot-headed. Visn is older, but might have a steadying hand. Inasha might work, she’s quite skilled, but—”

“I don’t think the third will take a bond, Roine. She’s the one the archivists twisted. She fears us still. I haven’t actually seen her since that attack.”

Roine grunted. “Now you go and dash my hopes of a draasin army, using them to push back Incendin—”

“The elementals are not to be used. They are not to be harnessed or forcibly bound,” Tan said with more heat than Roine deserved.

“That’s not what I was saying.”

“No, but I know where you were going. Do you know that the ancient shapers, the scholars we hold in such high esteem, forced the elementals to bond much like Par-shon? They called it
harnessing
, a word I suspect the draasin would find as offensive as any.”

Roine’s face fell. “I… I didn’t know.”

“The bond comes from a place of respect. Ask Ferran. He hears golud now. In time, I suspect he could bond to them.”

“Ferran hears golud?” Roine asked, his voice growing soft. “How?”

“I don’t know. And he’s not bonded, not yet, but speaking to them is the first step. From there, the bond is only a matter of finding the right connection.”

“But you haven’t bound to earth and you speak to them. And the nymid—”

“In time, I suspect I could bind to the nymid, possibly even one of the earth elementals. It might not be golud. I thought ara the only wind elemental, but I have bound to ashi. The udilm were once thought to be the great water elemental, but now we know the strength of the nymid. What else don’t we know? What other elementals of earth might there be?”

Roine scrubbed his hands across his face. “I’ve always thought the ancient scholars were what I aspired toward.”

“As did I, but learning how they abused the elementals, I think there was much they didn’t know. At least, there was much some of them didn’t know.” It seemed unlikely that none of the ancient shapers understood the nature of the elementals. Or maybe the elementals didn’t understand how some were used at the time. Maybe that was why the Great Mother had gifted him with the ability to speak to each of the elementals.

“As the king regent, I must ask that you remain behind to help protect the kingdoms.”

Tan had expected nothing less. Roine had an obligation to do what was needed to protect the people of the kingdoms, and Tan was a warrior shaper. He would be needed to help protect the kingdoms.

“But as a shaper, and a warrior shaper who has now seen all that the elementals can do, all that they have done to help, I feel you must do what you can to help Doma. Save them if you can.” His tone told Tan how unlikely he thought that would be. “And prevent Par-shon from abusing the elementals. Even in that, you protect the kingdoms.”

Roine took a step forward and grabbed Tan’s shoulders in an intense grip. “Do what you can, Tannen. Help Doma. We will keep the kingdoms safe.”

A
sboel flew
with furious strength as they streaked across the kingdoms. With dawn approaching, the sun barely creeping over the horizon as a bright streak of orange, Tan relied upon the draasin sight to see. Everything below him flashed in hues of red, yellow, and orange, all shades of fire. Life moved throughout the kingdoms, and Tan sensed elemental power mixed within, the elementals that he was meant to protect.

Sashari raced alongside, Cianna sitting atop her back. It had not taken much to convince the fire shaper to assist. Tan had not expected it to.

“The two of us?” she had asked when he approached her.

“Theondar cannot send any others to help Doma,” Tan said. “He rebuilds the barrier.”

“I should be there,” Cianna began. “You disagree, but the barrier kept the kingdoms safe for many years.”

Tan didn’t know what to think about the barrier yet. He remained unconvinced that it would do anything to stop the Par-shon bonded, much like it had done little to stop Incendin at the end.

“Do you really think the two of us will be enough to push back Par-shon?” Cianna went on.

“As I told Cora, it won’t be the two of us. We will have all of the free elementals to aid us.”

Cianna had grinned and slapped her hands together. “You think the elementals and two shapers enough? You might be as stupid as I once thought, Tan.”

“You understand the risk?” he asked. He couldn’t have her come otherwise. There was a real possibility that they might not return.

“I understand the bond,” Cianna said toward the sky. “And I understand what you must do. I will help.”

Vel had come to him as he reached the university and the shaper’s circle. “You will take me with you,” he said.

Tan hadn’t seen him since returning to Ethea. The water shaper had been traveling with Zephra, helping her scout through Incendin. In the time that he’d been returned from Par-shon, he had changed. Not only his clothing, though he was now better dressed, but the wild and agitated expression in his eyes was gone and he carried himself with confidence.

“Are you certain you would do this? I don’t have the support of Theondar,” Tan said.

“Theondar is not my king. Doma is my home. I heard what you saw when you were there. If there is anything I can do, I will go with you.”

“Vel, even with the help of the elementals, we might not survive this.”

Vel smiled and that slightly insane twinkle briefly returned to his eyes. “Tan, I was dead once already. Your coming to Par-shon gave me renewed life.”

Cianna had looked at Tan and shrugged, so Vel came with them, now sitting behind Cianna. Her orange hair swirled around her, giving her a wild appearance. She had chosen a tight maroon shirt and leggings to match, both similar in color to Sashari.

Where is Enya?
Tan asked. The continued absence of the young draasin worried him, especially with Par-shon attacking in Doma and now Incendin. They set traps for the elementals, and if they could reach her, they could force her to bond.

She remains safe.

The draasin were connected by the fire bond, similar to what Tan and Asboel shared, but different in some ways, as well. This was how Asboel knew where Enya would be found.
Are you certain? If Par-shon manages to obtain one of the draasin to bond—

They will not have Enya,
Asboel said. Nearby, Sashari snarled and flames leaped from her mouth, matching Asboel’s intensity.

They soared high over the Galen mountains as the sun began to rise over the horizon. Tan stared down at the mountains, wondering when he would next see the place of his birth. How long ago had it been when he thought he would never see anyplace beyond Galen? How long ago had it been when he thought he would never leave the mountains? Now he couldn’t imagine any other life. He might never have learned of the elementals or his ability to shape had he not left.

Can you help?
Tan asked.
If we need to reach the other elementals, will there be anything that you can do?

You are the one chosen by the Mother,
Asboel said.
There is some connection between the others, but it is not the same. For this to work, you must be the one to do it.

They were three shapers, two elemental draasin, aided by wind and the free elementals, but it still seemed insignificant, barely enough for a much of an attack, but Tan only intended to drive Par-shon away from Doma. Hopefully they hadn’t the time to build any real presence yet. And once Doma was freed, they would find a way to work together with Incendin. They would have to.

Asboel skirted the edge of Incendin, keeping them over the mountains. Tan pressed through the draasin sight and saw the ground below in shades of orange and red, flashes of color that reminded him of what he had seen when nearly transformed into one of the lisincend.

Asboel saw signs of activity, of Incendin cities Tan had no names for. Amia might have known, but he could not have asked her to come, not on this journey. She understood what he needed to do, and that was enough, her last request to him ringing through his mind like a shaping:
Return to me.

Asboel began to descend toward the ground as the mountains sloped away. Water glistened in the distance as the Doma peninsula stretched away from Incendin, dipping out toward the sea. White capped surges were visible through Asboel’s eyes as lighter colors of red.

Do you see anything?
Tan asked.

Nothing but land,
Asboel said.

That made Tan nervous.

Tan stood on Asboel’s back, unsheathed his warrior sword, and formed a traveling shaping as if he was going to jump to the ground. Instead of pulling it to himself, he directed the shaping down, letting it strike near the base of the mountains where they stretched out into the plains of Doma.

A single shaper attacked where Tan would have landed.

Tan pulled a shaping through the sword, using earth and spirit, and targeted the earth shaper. His history with the bow gave him the ability to aim and he wasted no time sending the shaping streaking toward the shaper.

It struck in a burst of white light. The shaper collapsed to the ground.

Asboel roared his pleasure and breathed a streak of fire.

They continued inland and Tan used the shaping again, sending it streaking toward the ground. It struck with a burst of lightning. In that moment, Tan saw two earth shapers.

This time he was ready, at least for one. He shaped earth and spirit, and a sense of relief came from the freed earth elemental.

The other shaper used that moment to attack. He shot into the air, somehow using his earth elemental to travel. Tan aimed an earth and spirit shaping at him, but missed.

The shaper smiled and sped toward Tan, who still stood atop the draasin.

Tan jumped, using a shaping of air and drawing on Honl to keep him from falling. The shaper passed below him, bouncing off Asboel. The draasin snapped at the shaper, catching him with a flash of fangs and releasing him to fall.

Asboel snorted, and Tan landed on his back. As he did, he realized that the earth shapers weren’t the only Par-shon bonded shapers hiding. Cianna and Vel battled a pair near them. One, a fire shaper likely bonded to saa, battled Vel. The other seemed to be a wind shaper.

Tan hadn’t been certain how Vel would handle a fight. He worked with tight control using a water shaping against a bonded fire shaper who ultimately had more strength. Fire pressed ever closer to him.

Cianna managed better. Connected as she now was to Sashari, she used the bond with the elemental, clinging to her spikes, and sent shaping after shaping after the Par-shon wind shaper. Much longer and she would overwhelm him.

As the fire shaping reached Vel, Tan sent a lancing shot of fire mixed with spirit. It struck the fire shaper and he dropped to the ground. Tan wrapped him in wind, not wanting to be the reason another had to die.

Cianna had no such compunction. Sashari twisted and snapped, catching the wind shaper with her jaws and shaking him.

Sashari banked toward Asboel. “How many others do you think there will be?” Cianna asked across the distance.

Vel sat behind her, water shaped into a buffer that protected him from the heat of the draasin spikes. His face was drawn and the eager expression in his eyes had faded.

“We’re only along the border,” Tan said. “I suspect we’ll find quite a few more as we near Falsheim.”

“You think for us to continue to battle them this way?”

“Not if we want to survive,” Tan answered. “We need to draw them away from Falsheim.” If they could pull Par-shon toward Incendin, they might be able to trap them, to use Incendin to help.

“And you think the Incendin shapers will be ready to help?” Cianna asked.

Tan hoped they would. It would depend on what Cora had managed to do.

“What of your cousin?” Cianna asked. “You have not found her yet?”

“I don’t even know if she’s still alive,” Tan admitted. “She’s been silent since for the last few days. When we were here before, I couldn’t reach her.”

Sashari roared as if understanding what that meant. Cianna stood and stared to the east, toward Falsheim. “Then we will avenge her,” she said.

T
hey were further inland
, near the village that Tan had covered with sand, when he used the traveling shaping again. The landscape seemed different, bleaker in some ways. The once vibrant colors he’d seen growing from the fields surrounding the sea had faded, almost as if the rock itself faded.

What had Par-shon done here?

As he sent his shaping to the ground, this time there was only a single earth shaper, and Tan managed to separate him from his bond quickly. Once he was gone, other hidden shapers appeared and took to the air to attack.

This land has changed,
Asboel said.
They claim too many of the elementals.

What does it do?

They withdraw too much. It changes the land,
Asboel said.

A half-dozen shapers attacked at once. They split, three coming after Tan and Asboel, the other three going after Cianna, Vel, and Sashari. As they attacked, Tan realized that these shapers had more than one bond.

Warn Sashari,
he said.

He started a shaping of earth and spirit to strike the nearest shaper, but it would not be fast enough. Asboel was forced to bank, exposing his underbelly to the shapers. He felt the shaping explode from them, more quickly than Asboel would be able to react.

Tan jumped on lightning and air and caught the shaping before it could strike Asboel. He turned it to the ground. Another shaper attacked, and the other. The three of them would be too much to simply incapacitate.

You must hunt
, Asboel snarled.

Tan wouldn’t be able to separate the bonds, not if he wanted to survive.

Distantly, he saw a shaping strike Sashari. Asboel roared.

The Par-shon shapers shifted their shaping to Asboel again. They feared the draasin, not Tan.

It was time they feared him.

Pulling on all the elements and adding spirit, he shaped through the sword until white light streaked toward the shapers. They each dropped. He readied another shaping, hitting the three shapers attacking Sashari at the same time.

Tan jumped back onto Asboel and they caught up to Sashari. He looked over at Cianna and Vel… but Vel was gone.

“What happened?” he yelled.

“We twisted to avoid the shaping,” Cianna explained. “He couldn’t hold on.”

Tan reached through Asboel’s sight and looked for any evidence of Vel. He saw the bodies of the shapers but not Vel.

After everything that he’d been through, it seemed a cruel twist of fate for Vel to return home only to die.

Tan signaled for Asboel to land. Sashari followed him to the rocks overlooking the sea. This too, was different than the last time he’d been here, almost as if udilm rebelled against what the Par-shon had done to Doma.

Do they know?
Tan asked Asboel.

Some have been captured, forced to bond. That is all I can tell.

Udilm once bonded regularly to Doman shapers. Was it because of Par-shon that they stopped?

He sensed Asboel’s hesitation.
When the bond is taken, they are forced to act in ways that go against the Mother. The udilm can be violent and angry, but they are peaceful as well. I sense they are not offered peace when forced to bond, only violence.

Asboel looked toward Falsheim. Through his eyes, Tan could see it in the distance. It glowed with bright light, fire coming from the elementals raging along the walls.

Why do they use fire?

It attempts to push away fire. I cannot tell why
, Asboel said.

What had Cora told him about how Par-shon trapped the elementals? They required a series of runes, each binding to the other, designed to hold the elementals. Perhaps the flames racing along the wall in Falsheim could be one shaping. What if the shaping he’d found in Incendin was another?

We need to go,
he warned Asboel.

You were going to cleanse this place of the those who would force the bond
, Asboel said.

And I will. But there is something else at work here.

Yet Tan couldn’t leave Vel. They hadn’t found his body, which meant he might still be alive.

Tan crept to the edge of the rocky overlook and stared down at the water. Could he have made it there? He was a water shaper, so it was possible that he used a shaping of water to reach the sea before crashing into it, but if that were the case, where had he gone?

To find him, Tan would have to speak to the udilm. The last time he’d attempted it, he’d nearly drowned. He prayed it would not take a similar experience to reach them this time.

I will return
, Tan said to Asboel.

Then he leapt to the air on a shaping of wind and shot himself into the water.