The Draasin Lord rumbled again.
Tolan frowned, focusing on what he was able to determine. The Draasin Lord wanted him to try to blend things.
Pushing outward, using spirit, he held onto that image, merging what he was able to see and what the Draasin Lord was able to see.
Everything came together with a clarity.
There were elementals down there.
The elementals moved along the ground, but they were nothing like elementals he had ever encountered before. Tolan had spent countless hours within the Academy working to know the elementals. He had studied them, researching them, going page by page through some of the oldest books within the library, and in none of them were there elementals such as he saw below him. It was a blending. Many of them seemed to be comprised of other elements. Not just the four main elements, but he had another sense from them as well.
Tolan stared, looking down and trying to gain an understanding of what was taking place, but even though he was able to see a little bit more clearly, the blending of his and the Draasin Lord’s eyesight making it so he was able to make out some of the details, he still wasn’t entirely sure what he was seeing.
It was more about what he could feel.
What would happen if he pushed out with spirit?
He probed, letting that sense wash away from him. Spirit would allow him the ability to reach for the elements and the elementals, and through spirit, he thought he might be able to gain some understanding of what he was able to detect down there.
As he sent that sense of spirit probing out from him, he felt a reverberation. It was almost as if there was an answering call, an echoing in time with what he was probing.
He pushed again.
With each push of spirit, he felt another reverberation. Another echoing.
That sense continued to flow outward, filling him with an awareness.
He turned to Ferrah, wanting to explain to her what he was detecting and preparing to do just that, with something struck him.
He fell, falling off the Draasin Lord and plummeting toward the ground far below.
8
Tolan focused on the elementals but decided to ignore even that. Instead, he chose to focus on the elements. He needed to get control of his descent. The suddenness of it was jarring, and it made it so it was difficult for him to control things. He reached for wind, but he was still somewhat above the waste, so reaching for wind was far more difficult than it normally was. He pushed outward, drawing through himself, but he wasn’t able to do so.
Panic started to set in.
He hadn’t realized they were still out over the waste, given what they were able to see from the Draasin Lord’s back. It had seemed they were not. The Draasin Lord had been so high it had changed the angle and advantage.
Now he was plummeting toward the ground, toward the waste, he struggled to get control of the descent, but he wasn’t able to. There was no energy. No response.
He had that power within himself.
Tolan reached for wind, struggling to gain a sense of control over it. Reaching for it was challenging, but he had to attempt to do so. To know what was taking place, he was going to need to gain control over it. He was going to need to gain control over himself.
The power of the elementals was out there. If nothing else, Tolan thought he might be able to reach for that, but to do so effectively, he had to abandon any attempt at trying to reach for the elements within him.
The sense of the draasin loomed toward him.
It was high overhead, surging toward him, streaking after him, but even as fast as the Draasin Lord could be, Tolan had fallen far enough that it was going to be difficult for the Draasin Lord to reach him. Scrambling for a connection to the wind, Tolan strained, needing to find some way to slow his fall.
He didn’t have a connection.
He was cut off, almost as if he had first come to the waste. When he had first ventured out there, he had no sense of the elements. No sense of the elemental power that existed. It was only him.
Tolan remembered all too well how that emptiness had consumed him. He remembered all too well how that power had departed, and though he hadn’t been able to shape effectively at the time, he was aware of the separation and how he had felt.
It was the same now.
As much as he wanted to try to find a way to head it off, he could not.
The ground loomed in front of him. It was rocky and hot, and thankfully there was a connection to the elements as he fell.
He scrambled, reaching for something.
The draasin scrambled toward him.
He was close. Tolan could feel the wings beating at the air, and he could almost feel as if the Draasin Lord would be able to get to him, but he was still too far away.
That sense of power struck him, almost as if it were pushing him down toward the ground, trying to shove him to the earth.
Earth.
He breathed in the sense of hyza, focusing on that elemental. Hyza had a connection to the earth bond, along with the fire bond, and he could use that to find a way to at least soften the blow as he crashed into the ground.
At this point, it was all Tolan could hope for.
It was going to take a quick shaping.
What would he be able to do? Sand would be too harsh for him to fall into. Mud might still be too hard. What he needed was to create something spongier, yet solid enough that it would slow him. There would have to be a gradient to it. He focused his energy on the earth, on the descent, and he pushed outward with a shaping.
Tolan struck the ground. He braced for the impact, terrified of what was about to happen, but thankfully as he did, the ground absorbed most of the impact, allowing him to sink into it.
He continued to sink.
There was a sense of the earth as it swallowed him. He was crashing through the ground, and then his connection to the earth began to fade.
He was still moving quickly.
As the earth swallowed him, it squeezed around him.
The effort of it was intense, almost more than he could withstand. Tolan felt something tearing. Then there was a sense of breaking.
The ground seemed to swallow him.
He lay there for a long moment. The earth curved around him, and he fought against it, struggling to stay alert. He didn’t want to be buried by it. He focused, struggling with the connection, but didn’t know if he was going to be able to withstand what was coming next.
Using hyza, Tolan continued to push outward. There was power in the connection. It was faint, almost as if he was losing it, and he focused on earth, on fire, and tried to mix the two to find a way free.
The connection to the element bonds was weakened. It was difficult to reach.
He strained against it, struggling with what he could detect.
In doing so, he worried he wasn’t going to be strong enough.
The sense of fire exploded from him.
It pushed some of the ground above him up, but not so much he could get free.
Something thundered overhead.
It felt like a rumbling, almost as if the ground rippled.
Was there an elemental here with him?
There weren’t many elementals out in the waste. None, at least other than the Guardians. As far as he knew, the Guardians—and the Draasin Lord—were the only elementals able to withstand the emptiness that was the waste. What was he detecting, then?
There was something here. As he focused on earth and fire, mixing them together as he struggled to find a way to get to freedom, he felt that power slamming back into him. It thundered again, striking the ground above him.
He struggled, clinging to earth and fire, reaching for what he could of the other two elements, though reaching for wind and water here was far more difficult than he would’ve expected it to be. He scrambled for it, thinking there had to be some way to grasp at it, but he could find nothing.
Tolan started to black out.
The p
ressure of the earth overhead was more than he could bear. He strained as he faded, worried he wasn’t going to be able to withstand the pressure, but he had to find a way.
He had created this connection to earth. He had to be the one who would separate it.
There had to be some way to do it.
As he struggled with that, he couldn’t find anything. The pressure was far too much. He continued to fight, but each attempt was growing weaker.
If only he had one of the orb bondars.
If he did, he thought he might be able to find a way to blast to freedom. Ferrah had them, and had he believed he was in any danger, he would have brought one himself, but he had thought he was safe.
A mistake. He hadn’t made too many of them. He should have known it was going to be potentially dangerous for him, and by venturing here, risking himself, he had presumed he had enough control over the elements out in the waste to keep himself safe.
He should have known better.
Tolan tried again. He would only have a few more attempts.
He reached for hyza. That was the part he needed to find. If he could latch onto his connection to hyza, he might be able to use that to grasp the power he would need in order to get freedom.
He struggled again.
With a cry, he pushed outward once again. This time, he focused on what he was able to feel all around him. There was the sense of earth. It threatened to crush him, and he needed to use that sense to get out. All he needed was the power of the earth he could detect. All he needed was some way to grab for it, connect to it, and then…
It wasn’t going to be enough. He could feel himself fading again.
Tolan leaned back, straining.
The sense of earth crushed him, squeezing down on him.
Each breath was shorter now. Each attempt was harder than it had been before. Each time he felt the rumbling from above, he knew whatever elemental was up there, whatever creature was up there, would destroy him.
And there would be nothing he would be able to do.
With one more attempt, he struggled, but he could feel himself fading.
Then he lost it.
There was nothing. Darkness.
In that passing moment, he felt the sense of the waste. He had exerted so much energy trying to protect the waste, seeing if there was anything he might be able to do to offer it that protection, to keep it from his mother and whoever she was serving, but the power of the waste was more than he could withstand.
He cried out again. It was pointless. He struggled, straining.
The thundering continued. It seemed like it was pulsing in time with his heartbeat, almost as if the explosion were trying to strike him, but he wasn’t able to ignore it. It filled his mind. Each time he felt it, each explosion that struck, he felt it filling him.
He was supposed to feel it filling him.
That sense of power was thudding within him, connecting him to the sense of earth. It was almost as if that sense of power was trying to show him a way to connect to the power.
It was trying to connect to him.
Tolan forced his mind to focus. It was the only thing he could do. He wasn’t sure how long he would be able to hold on, but what he needed was one more moment. He focused, letting that sense fill him.
Then he exploded upward.
Earth and fire. He mixed both of them together as he did, using that sense to bring him upward.
It was almost not enough.
That sense overwhelmed him.
He had to focus on the pulsing within him, how the drumming seemed to mix with him, the way there was some sense of earth, some sense of what was out there. With his focus on all that, he thought he would be able to find his way free.
It required power.
Tolan didn’t have power, but he didn’t have to use only what he possessed. There was power all around him. He knew there was. It was energy. It was the sense of the waste. It was the sense of everything here.
That was what he needed.
Tolan called upon that power, letting it consume him.
He had to find some way to use that.
The pounding continued.
With it came the sense of the elements and the elementals within him. He had to draw upon that sense, and then he thought he might be able to get a sense of what was out there. He needed only a little bit more power.
The pounding in the waste continued.
Tolan realized there was no pounding. It came from him. What he detected was inside of him and may or may not even be real. That pounding was pulsing within his heart. It was the sense of energy he detected. It was him.
Could it be him pounding?
Was that all he had detected? He had been struggling against the waste, struggling to try to get free, but each time he tried, there was no way out. He struggled with the energy he detected, trying to blast to freedom, but there was no freedom.
Then he felt something above him.
It came slowly. For a moment, he thought it was imagined.
It was a different sort of pounding.
Earth mixed with water.
Tolan was blacking out, every last bit of effort and energy now trying to squeeze him down, to compress him and keep him from being able to know whether there was any way to get to safety, but he thought there was something he could do. He could mix fire. Help wasn’t going to come from any sense of earth. Only fire.
He had to latch onto hyza, but would that even be enough?
His attempt to reach hyza before had barely allowed him any sort of connection. He hadn’t been able to find freedom. That wasn’t going to be the case. He had to find something else.
What if he tried to latch onto the draasin?
He thought he might be able to grab that, but he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to. He strained, searching for the sense of the draasin, knowing he was out there, though where?
Somewhere. He was going to have to find a way to get to him.
Tolan knew the draasin wouldn’t have abandoned him, so he would have to find a way to connect to him. If he could do that, then he might be able to reach for enough energy he would find a true connection to the fire bond, which would allow him to escape.
It was there.
What had he done before when he had used the Draasin Lord in order to see? He had connected to the Draasin Lord, but he had used spirit along with fire.
That was what it was going to take.
Tolan focused on spirit. Time was running short. He didn’t have the energy he needed, but he certainly didn’t have much of a connection to fire remaining, either.
Using what little bit of energy he did have left, he latched onto fire, latching onto spirit and letting it flow from him. Gradually, he detected the sense of something out there.
The Draasin Lord. He was nearby.
There was movement within him, and he could feel how the Draasin Lord was trying to find him, but with Tolan being buried under the ground, there would be no way for the Draasin Lord to discover him. They were separated from each other.
Tolan held onto that sense of power, latching onto the Draasin Lord, and together with fire and spirit, he used the combination to connect.
Power filled him.
He held onto that sense, letting the awareness consume him, and with it, he blasted himself out.
Tolan took a deep breath, breathing in the air. Everything hurt where the weight of the stone had crushed him. He struggled against it, trying to fill himself with water to heal himself, but that wasn’t going to be enough. Fire could heal, something few understood, but with his connection to the elementals, he recognized all of the elements were life, fire as much as any of them.
He held onto the awareness of fire through the Draasin Lord, and with it, he drew that sense through him, trying to restore himself. Pain burned through him.
Gradually, it began to ease, burning off.
Tolan tried to get up, but he was hurt. Everything ached. There was pain w
ithin him.
He tried again, but failed.
A shadow loomed over him.
Tolan looked up, expecting to see the Draasin Lord, but there was something else.
Three figures stood over the opening in the earth.
There was something about them. They looked like men, but the sense of the elements came from them. Earth. Fire. Wind.
In one of them, two elements were mixed.
Before he had a chance to react, they grabbed him and shaped wind, lifting him. When he was thrown onto the ground next to them, he realized with a start that they weren’t entirely men at all.
They were elementals, only they looked human.
One of them squeezed, constricting around him, and Tolan didn’t have a chance to react before he blacked out. As he did, he tried to find evidence of the Draasin Lord, but there was no sign of him. Where had he gone? Where had Ferrah gone?
And then he faded.
9
Tolan came around to the sense of elemental energy. He focused on that sense, thinking about the elementals and the power he was able to detect, and he tried to comprehend the source of that power and whether there would be anything he could do to counter it. The last thing he remembered was being crushed by the sense of earth all around him, coming to with another sense, that of strange elementals were surrounding him, pushing out with a sense of power.
When he awoke, a part of him thought maybe all of it had been nothing more than a dream. Given everything he had encountered recently, it was a reasonable thought. He couldn’t help but question whether or not some of it had come from his attempt to try to help with the bondars for the Guardians. He remembered traveling with the Draasin Lord, traveling with that sense of power, and he remembered being aware of the nature of that power as it pressed down upon him. As much as he wanted to ignore what had happened, Tolan wasn’t sure he could—or if he should.
He tried to look around, but everything was darkened.
It wasn’t darkened because of a connection to the elementals. This was something else. A sense of shaping energy pushed upon him. As he focused on that sense of shaping, he tried to recognize whether there was anything within it he might be able to counter, but he couldn’t come up with anything.
The Elements Bond (Elemental Academy Book 7) Page 9