Cloud Warrior 05 - Forged in Fire (8 page)

Spirit flowed from him.

It washed over the kingdoms and beyond. The shaping moved past the borders, giving Tan awareness of the scar left behind by the barrier’s fall. It weakened as it moved through Incendin, leaving him with a sense of the people there, but nothing more. Like the people within the kingdoms, they were frightened. The shaping passed out of Incendin and into Doma.

There, distantly, he heard someone calling his name.

Elle,
he answered.

He sent her name on the shaping, letting it move beyond through the distance, travel beyond what he would normally be able to send to her.

If she was in Doma, he would reach her even if Zephra could not.

Tan.
There was a sense of relief in her voice.
I thought it was you but you disappeared. Be careful if you come to help… danger.

He missed part of what she said. The connection was thready now, and growing weaker as his shaping failed.
Par-shon?

They have come to Doma.

The sense of Elle faded for a moment. Tan pulled harder on the shaping, using the strength he had remaining.

It burns, Tan. Falsheim…

The runes glowing on the sword blinked out. Tan stumbled to the stone, but Asboel was there, catching him with a curl of his tail and lowering him to the ground.

Rest, Maelen.

His voice seemed to come from far away.

She’s in danger,
he managed to say.

The hunt will come when you recover. You were the one who taught me that.

Tan took a slow breath and felt himself beginning to relax. His strength began to return, more slowly than usual. He realized that he had drawn too much upon the elementals. A shaping like that risked weakening them and he needed to be careful with these shapings or he would endanger them more than even Par-shon could.

W
hen Tan awoke
, Amia was crouching next to him. He sat up with a jolt and realized that he still rested in the darkened draasin den. His head throbbed and his body ached, muscles twitching almost as if he had finished running a great distance. He looked over to see Asboel blocking the door.

“How are you here?” he asked Amia.

The door should not have opened to anyone other than a shaper of fire and spirit. It was part of the reason Tan thought the room safe for Asboel, but if Amia could enter with nothing more than spirit shaping, he might have been wrong.

She touched his head and a shaping passed through him. “You’re unharmed.”

“It was my shaping,” he said. “There wasn’t anyone attacking me.”

“That was dangerous, Tan,” she admonished.

He sat up and crossed his legs. The sword rested on the ground, runes once more glowing softly. Since claiming the sword from the lower level of the archives, he had passed out twice using it. Maybe he’d chosen poorly.

It is the shaper, not the tool
.

Asboel made the soft chuckling sound deep in his throat. Amia turned and smiled.

You sent for her?

At least he knew that the den remained safe.

I sensed her concern.

Through the bond?

Asboel snorted.
It has changed since the attack. It is stronger.

Because we chose the bond?

We must always choose the bond. I think there must be another reason.

Tan shifted his focus to Amia. “I had to know about Elle. And I found her.”

Amia nodded. “I heard.”

“Then you know she’s in Doma. You know that Par-shon has attacked.”

Amia hesitated, the hand on his arm tensing for a moment. “I know that she said it was dangerous in Doma, Tan, but I’m not sure she was talking about Par-shon.”

He looked to Asboel but the draasin could not help, not in this. “What do you think she was talking about, then? You don’t think she’s in danger?”

Amia shook her head. “That’s not it at all. I know what we were able to hear. She said that it was dangerous in Doma, but then she said Falsheim burns. That doesn’t sound like what Par-shon has done. They stole your bonds. The burning of cities is what Incendin does.”

“Why would Incendin attack Doma? They have too much to worry about with Par-shon—”

“We know what Incendin wants with Doma. They want Doman shapers. They want to have the strength they’ll need when they’re attacked.”

He couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t Incendin, but rather that it was Par-shon, and if Par-shon had crossed the sea and began to attack Doma, they were closer to attacking the kingdoms than anyone knew, but he wasn’t confident in his belief. He had to understand.

“It doesn’t change the fact that she needs help,” he said.

“All of Doma needs help if Incendin has attacked, not just Elle,” Amia said.

“And we’ll get them the help they need,” Tan said. “But I need to reach her first.”

He stood and started toward the door. Asboel eyed him for a moment, steam easing from his nostrils in a slow hiss. Tan felt the draasin moving within his mind, as if trying to determine his thoughts.
This hunt could be dangerous. If it is Par-shon, you cannot be there. If it is Incendin, then I will call for your help.

I will leave the hunt to you for now, Maelen.

Asboel moved away from the door and Tan stepped through, back into the tunnels. Amia followed, trailing slightly behind him, staying silent.

“What happened with Cora?” Tan asked.

“When Asboel sent word for help, I asked another to stand guard for me.”

“Roine?”

Amia shook her head but didn’t answer.

They sealed the door leading to the lower level archives closed before Tan led them out, back to the house holding Cora. If Incendin attacked Doma, she might be able to provide an explanation as to why.

When they reached the house, the chairs near the hearth were empty, as were the chairs by the table. For a moment, he thought Cora had left, then he found her crouching in the corner, eyes focused on the fallen form of the First Mother.

“That’s who you asked to stand guard?” Tan asked.

“She would not allow her to leave,” Amia said.

“Then what’s happening here?” he asked Cora.

The Incendin shaper looked up from the First Mother and met his eyes. “She is gone.”

“Gone?” Amia said, rushing past Tan and touching the First Mother’s neck. A shaping built, washing over her. Tan didn’t need to be the one shaping it to know that the First Mother was dead.

“What happened to her?” he asked Cora.

She stared down at the First Mother. “I don’t know. We were speaking of shaping. I had thanked her for what she did to heal me. And then her eyes went wide and she collapsed.”

“I can’t tell,” Amia said.

Tan studied Cora. He didn’t think that she would have attacked the First Mother, but what did they really know about her? She was an Incendin shaper, and a warrior shaper, able to shape each of the elements. Had she tried overpowering the First Mother to escape?

But if that were the case, why had she remained when the First Mother was gone?

Tan knelt next to the First Mother’s body and pulled on a soft shaping of water and spirit. This washed over her, and he sensed the weakness within her, the same weakness he’d seen in her eyes and the slow way she had moved toward the end. It had been her time.

Tan thought of all that the First Mother had taught him since imprisoned. Not only runes, but parts of history, of shaping. Her knowledge was vast and great, more than he fully understood. “I’m sorry,” Tan said to Amia.

Tears glistened in her eyes. She had lost so much of her people. First her family, then what she knew of the Aeta. Now, when she was finally learning from the First Mother, to have that taken from her seemed a cruel twist of fate.

“Who will lead?” she whispered. “There was a part of me that always thought we would eventually release her and allow her to lead the People. Now that she’s gone, who will that be?”

Tan didn’t know how to answer. Maybe there wasn’t an answer. “Another will come forward,” he said. “The People have survived for hundreds of years. They will survive this.”

“She knew this was coming,” Amia whispered.

It made a certain sort of sense. It would explain why the First Mother had called for a Gathering. Had she not been failing, she would have expected to eventually be freed, allowed to lead the People. Now she would not be there to choose her successor.

Amia stared at the First Mother. “She deserves to be mourned by the People. They deserve to know she is gone.”

“Are you certain they don’t already?” he asked.

“It depends on her last sending. She shielded me from them.”

“Because you are no longer Aeta?” he asked. It sounded harsh, even to him, but it was the choice that she had made.

Amia nodded. “I am not,” she agreed, “but I will ensure the People have her to mourn.”

“And I need to go to Elle,” Tan said. He should be here for Amia, but he couldn’t leave Elle, not if she needed help. He wasn’t sure he would be able to reach Falsheim safely, but for Elle, he had to try.

“You need to go,” Amia urged. “But you need to be safe. You will take him?” she asked, implying Asboel.

“It’s too dangerous. If Par-shon has attacked—”

“It was not Par-shon.”

“And you heard what Elle said,” Tan reminded.

Cora stood and cleared her throat. Cora looked from Tan to Amia, waiting for one of them to speak. “Where has Par-shon attacked?”

“Doma,” Tan said.

Cora sniffed. “Doma means nothing to Par-shon. There are few shapers there, and those who remain can no longer speak to water.”

“There is one who can,” Tan said.

Cora studied Amia, tapping her lips as she did. “She doesn’t believe it was Par-shon.”

“No. She thinks Incendin attacked, as they have attacked many times before. Many shapers have been dragged away from Doma, forced to serve Incendin.”

Cora tipped her head as she considered Tan. “Is that what you believe, warrior?”

“I have seen Doma attacked by Incendin. I know what I’ve been told by those who lived it. And I know what the First Mother did to provide safety for the Aeta.”

“The Sunlands needed protection,” she said, as if that was enough to explain what Incendin had done in the name of providing its protection.

Tan pressed his lips together to fight the urge to say something about the type of protection that Incendin had used, the way they had stolen from Doma the ability to keep their people safe.

Amia touched his arm, soothing him with a spirit shaping. “She said Falsheim burns, Tan.
Burns
. That is the work of Incendin.”

“I will go to see. That’s all,” he said. “Then I will return and get help.”

“Your mother said the crossing was too dangerous,” Amia reminded him.

“For a wind shaper, but I do not intend to travel by wind,” he said.

She stepped toward him and slipped her arms around him. “Please…” she started, then shook her head, and pressed her lips together. “Just be safe,” she said.

“Can you watch her?” Tan asked Amia, motioning toward Cora. “I will send a summons to Roine. He can have another take over, but I don’t want to be here when they come, especially if it’s my mother.”

Amia stared at the body of the First Mother. “I will stay until another comes.”

“You could take me with you,” Cora suggested.

“Not if Incendin has attacked,” Amia snapped.

Cora looked at her with a quizzical expression. “What you describe is not the Sunlands I know. Let me come. Perhaps I can help broker peace.”

“Or harm Tan and escape.”

“I owe him a life debt. He has little to fear from me. But you may bind me, if you will. You are strong enough in spirit to see it done. And I’ve felt his strength with shaping. He will be safe.”

Taking Cora would avoid the need to explain to Roine what he did. If he was only gone for a little while—long enough to determine what was happening in Doma and to see if he could find Elle—there would be no reason Roine would need to know.

He hated that he was beginning to keep secrets. First the draasin beneath the city, and now this. Where would it end?

Amia watched Tan. “Are you certain you should do this?” she asked.

“Not at all,” he answered. “But I don’t know what else to do.”

She turned to Cora and performed a massive shaping of spirit. Tan sensed the way she wrapped Cora’s mind, binding it so that she was restricted from shaping. When she was done, she pressed the connection to the shaping through their bond, giving control to him.

Be safe,
she said.

He leaned toward her and kissed her on the cheek.
I will not be gone long.

Bring Elle back with you if you can.

That is my intent.

Promise me that if Incendin attacks, you will not hesitate to do what is needed.

Tan considered this request the longest.
I will do what is needed,
he answered.

Somehow, he would find a way to use Incendin. If only he could figure out how.

I
n the university courtyard
, darkness surrounded Tan and matched his heavy heart. The sudden loss of the First Mother left him feeling uneasy about leaving the kingdoms without knowing what happened, but the memory of Elle and the fear he’d heard in her voice drew him away. He needed to help her. With his abilities, he should be able to reach her quickly and then return.

Cora stood next to him. “What happened here?”

“First, the draasin. The archivists were spirit shapers who twisted a shaping placed on the draasin, preventing them from hunting man, and forced one to attack the city. The second attack was when King Althem—also a spirit shaper—allowed the lisincend to enter the city.”

“That,” Cora began, staring at the university again, moved back a step slightly, “is a lot to take in.”

Tan nodded. “Imagine living through it.”

“The draasin are shaped to not hunt man?”

“Were. The shaping has been lifted. It placed them at risk.”

“You weren’t worried about those living in the kingdoms?”

He frowned, surprised by her line of questioning. “They are elementals. They’re not meant to be controlled.”

“What of the bond?”

“You were bonded. Do you really think the bond was meant to control the elementals? It’s a path to understanding, to knowledge. Which is why what Par-shon does bastardizes the connection the Great Mother gives. No one deserves that, not even Incendin.”

Cora rubbed a hand along her jaw. “You have seen what the lisincend will do to your city and still you would say this?”

Tan sighed. “I’ve been consumed by fire, very nearly transformed, so I understand the power burning through the lisincend, the primal urge to release fire. They are dangerous, but it’s because they have no control. They allow fire to rule. I understand what happened to them, but do not have to agree with it.”

Cora stared at him for a moment. “You are a surprising man, Tan.”

They stopped in the shaper circle and he readied his travel shapings as he considered where to go. He didn’t really know where to find Elle, only that from what she said, she was somewhere in Doma. Traveling with a warrior shaping and adding spirit would not work, but he could leave spirit out of the shaping, use Roine’s shaping to travel.

He pulled the elements together, leaving spirit out. As he drew the shaping toward him, he grabbed Cora’s arm and held her.

They lifted from the ground, the wind whistling around them. His ears felt hot from the power behind it. There was a sense of earth and water mixed in, making him much more aware of the shaping than when he added spirit. This felt as if he fought the lightning, as if the storm raging around him might overpower him if he weren’t careful.

Tan pushed toward Doma. It didn’t take long to travel, but not having spirit involved slowed their progress. He felt it as they crossed the mountains of Galen, crossing the remnants of the barrier, before streaking across Incendin. Tan tensed as they passed over Incendin, fearing what Cora might try, only relaxing as they moved into Doma.

Doma here was different. The mountains separating it from Incendin rose up behind him, the dark green of the pines growing along the slopes and making the mountain almost black in the night. Somewhere to the south, the sea crashed with steady waves. Udilm would be there, and somewhere, Elle. Tan lowered them to the ground overlooking the sea.

Cora stepped away from him. “You do not shape that with confidence,” she observed.

“I’ve never made that shaping before.”

She shot him a sharp expression. “You risked yourself traveling with a shaping you have never used?”

“Normally I add spirit. It’s more precise. But I don’t know where I’m going.”

“Foolish, still,” she said. She shook her head, frowning as she looked around. “I have been to Doma once before. It is… different than the Sunlands. There is so much water all around.”

“Yes, and with the water the udilm prevented the lisincend from attacking for as long as they were able,” Tan said. “Doma thought udilm abandoned them, that their shapers could no longer speak to the great water elemental, but that was never the case. Par-shon
took
those who could speak to udilm, stole them away for their bond. It made Doma more vulnerable to both Incendin and Par-shon. So when Incendin came for Doma shapers, there was nothing left to stop them.”

Cora ran a hand through her hair, and tipped her chin forward. “You understand that this was done and why this was done. I do not hear anger in your voice.”

“Anger would not serve anything. Would anger return the Doman shapers Incendin took? Would it bring back those who can speak to the water elementals?”

Tan stretched out with his earth sensing, questing for signs of where they were and looking for anything that would help him reach Elle. The sea was to the south, not far from where they were now, and he heard the steady sound of waves crashing along the shores. Tall grasses grew in wide fields, spreading out all around them. Some seemed intentionally grown, almost as if they were crops placed by farmers. A few trees scattered across the field. Animals scurried along the grasses, and through earth sensing, Tan noted mostly mice, squirrels, and a few small deer. He sensed no people nearby.

He pressed farther out, using earth to reach as far as he could. To this, he added a touch of spirit, enough to give his sensing even more strength. Immediately, he wished he had not.

“Come on,” he said.

“Where are we going?” Cora asked.

“There’s a village nearby.”

Tan started forward on a shaping of air, pulling Cora up onto it with him. He was silent as they traveled, fearing what they would see but knowing what he had sensed. Could Amia have been right? Could this have been Incendin’s work?

They crested a small rise with the ground disappearing on the other side. Down below him, he sensed the village. Once, it had been a vibrant village along the seashore, but now it was something else, empty and abandoned. Some of the old inhabitants were still there, but fire had claimed them, charring flesh and stealing life.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Fire destroyed this village,” he said.

Cora shook her head. “There would be no purpose in destroying a village like that. Fire would not—”

“My village was destroyed by the lisincend. Did you know that?” he asked. His voice had gone hushed, soft, and carried a dangerous edge. “The lisincend trailed the Aeta, wanting them to aid in the transformation. When they couldn’t find the Aeta, they destroyed everything within my village. Nothing remained.”

Cora stiffened. “How is it that you survived?”

“I wasn’t there at the time. Theondar had taken me from the city while searching for something, otherwise I would have been there and would have died as surely as everyone else.” Tan took a deep breath. “So you cannot tell me that fire would not do that to a village. I’ve seen the destruction the lisincend cause.”

Cora pushed past him and started down what looked like it had been the main street. Some of the homes remained intact here, and those near the center had been burned, though the flames didn’t reach all the way to the rooftops, as if they had been quenched rapidly. Patches of ground heaved, leaving jagged rock flung through the village.

A battle had taken place here. Had Elle been here during the attack? Had she learned to speak to her elemental well enough to get those she cared about to safety? If she had, what had happened to her in the time since then?

Cora went into one of the homes and ducked back out quickly, one hand over her mouth. Her eyes told him everything that he needed to know.

“Are there any survivors?” she asked.

He stretched out with an earth sensing mixed with spirit. Through the connection, Tan could tell that none lived. “None that I can tell.”

“The dead deserve their final resting. Do you know if Doma buries their dead?” he asked.

“Some bury, some send them out to sea,” Cora said.

He looked toward the water’s edge. The distance was probably too far for him to ask the sea to move inland to do the work, but he might be able to shape earth. Sand and wind would cover the village more than he ever could.

Tan made his way to the rise overlooking the village. He reached out through the earth, starting with sensing, using the knowledge that his father had long ago taught him. There was a stirring there, deep beneath him. It was like golud, only different. Tan knew little about any of the earth elementals but could recognize when one was present. With a rolling request, he sent word to the earth, asking for the sand to swallow what remained of the village, to do what eventually would be done in time with more urgency. To the earth shaping, he added wind, letting ashi swirl around, sending sand toward the village in an unrelenting sheet. Between the two, the village was hidden, disappearing beneath a massive dune of sand.

No fire was used. With what had happened here, Tan would not use fire against them even though it was the easiest elemental for him to reach.

“You waste your energy on such a shaping?” Cora asked.

Tan stared at the dune. Lumps of sand revealed the peaks of houses beneath, but the dead within would have their peace. “I waste nothing,” he said.

“Your energy is finite. All shapers have limits.”

“I draw on the power of the elementals around me,” he said. “They aid nearly all of my shapings.”

“That was golud?”

“Probably not golud, but earth nonetheless. And ashi helped as well. So don’t worry. I will not weaken myself too much before we can reach safety.” Tan stared at the remains of the village. “Besides, giving those people the peace they have earned is not wasteful. The only thing that would be wasteful would be had they died for no reason. I will see to it that is not the case.”

He stepped away from Cora and sent a shaping into his sword, using it to call to Elle.

Elle. I have come to help.

Then he waited. She would be here, somewhere, if only he could find her. Now that he was in Doma, he should not have to reach quite as hard to speak to her. Distance mattered with a shaping like this, especially when it was to someone he did not share a bond with. Amia was there, deep within his mind, but he would have to strain to speak to her. It was the same with Asboel, though the fire elemental had more strength speaking through the bond, and Tan had practiced reaching him even from great distances. But Elle and he were not bonded. They shared the ability to speak to elementals, and they were family, but there was nothing quite like the connection he shared with even Honl.

When she didn’t answer, he tried again.
Elle!

Tan waited for an answer, but there was none.

M
uch of the
night passed with him sitting atop the rocky shoreline, staring out at the sea as he continued to attempt reaching Elle. Cora rested nearby, keeping quiet for the most part. Now she slept soundly, her steady and rhythmic breathing mixing with the crashing waves along the rocks beneath him.

He didn’t know what to make of the fact that Elle hadn’t answered. Maybe it was nothing. She could be sleeping or simply unable to hear him, but he had the feeling that something blocked their communication. Par-shon knew some secret of using runes to prevent shaping and communicating with bonds, so if she
had
been abducted by Par-shon, then it was possible that she couldn’t reach him. But why now? Earlier, she had spoken to him, why had Par-shon only now blocked her reaching him?

The other possibility was equally dire for her. What if Amia was right and that she spoke of Incendin shapers? If Incendin attacked—if Incendin were the reason for Falsheim burning—then Elle might have been caught up in it. If so, and if Falsheim burned, he had to prepare for the possibility that she had died with it.

Morning came slowly as he continued to toss through the possibilities of what had happened, never coming up with anything more likely. The sun rose in streaks of orange and red skimming across blue water. Swells peaked with white crested before slamming down on the rocks below, the steady rhythmic washing of the waves rolling over him.

He sat up and breathed out heavily. Cora was already up and letting her legs dangle from the rock as she stared out at the sea. A cool breeze blew in off the water, a mixture of ara and wyln. He recognized the wyln now that he felt it. Honl was there with him, swirling around him, flowing through each breath, but ashi did not blow here.

Cora cleared her throat and looked at him with a pained gaze. “Did you reach her?”

“No.”

“Will you return to Ethea now?”

The hard edge that she had worn since awakening from healing had softened the longer they were away from Ethea. Tan thought it possible that had nothing to do with it, that she had struggled with what had happened to her, but couldn’t know. Her bond was gone, possibly never to return. When he’d sealed off the injured end of it, there had seemed no way to do it without opening her to other injury. For all he knew, she would never be able to bond to elementals again.

“Not yet,” he decided. “She said Falsheim burned. If that’s true, then I need to see it.”

“And then you’ll return.”

Tan nodded.

They sat together in general silence, only the sound of the breaking waves between them.

“Tell me about your bond,” Tan said. The sun touched the top of the water in the distance, making it appear that even the vast expanse of water burned. It was times like these that he wondered if Asboel were right when he claimed that without fire, there would be no life.

“What is to tell? You know that it is no more.”

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t do more to save it,” he said.

Cora sat straighter, and tipped her head as she studied him. “You actually mean that.”

“Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”

“You know that I’m from the Sunlands, and I’ve heard the horrors you blame upon my people, horrors that I cannot deny, yet you still claim that you feel sorry for the fact that my bond is gone.”

Tan sighed. “It’s my fault that you can’t reach your bond anymore. You were injured, and had I not sealed it off, I think you would have died, but that doesn’t change the fact that I couldn’t fix it.”