The Elements Bond (Elemental Academy Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Very few people out here would have had the ability to shape. Tolan did, but only because Tolan had the ability to shape naturally.

  His mother might even have the ability to shape spirit.

  He thought about everything he knew about her but wondered just what that was. Something had influenced her, much like something seemed to have influenced him.

  He closed his eyes, focusing on spirit. He drew upon his power, letting it fill him, letting spirit flow through him. It came through him slowly, building gradually, and there was a rising sense of it. The longer he held onto spirit, the easier it was to detect the nature of that power.

  He pushed it through himself.

  Rather than searching for knowledge as he had before, he searched for something else. An influence.

  That was what he needed to be concerned about. He thought he would have been aware of it before now, but as he probed, using what he knew of spirit, he felt for any sort of influence.

  For a moment, he questioned whether there was anything.

  Then he began to feel it. That sense was there, rising within him.

  Tolan held onto it, pushing with it, letting that sense fill him.

  That energy was within him and he braced himself, worried there might be some sort of darkness, some sort of infiltration the same way his mother had been infiltrated.

  That wasn’t the key, though.

  He detected some pressure upon him. Now he was aware of it, he was able to push through it and ignore it. He’d already been doing that; his awareness of the fact that these elementals should not have been suppressed had been proof of that.

  The elementals had touched his mind.

  Rory had touched his mind.

  And here he thought he’d been trying to help.

  Perhaps his forcing Rory into the bondar had angered Rory. In doing so, Rory had chosen an opportunity to attack him, lashing out with a sense of power that had twisted Tolan’s mind.

  He breathed out, focusing on that sense of spirit within his mind, thinking about what else was there. He could still feel the energy blasting in front of him. As he did, he realized that what Ferrah had said was right.

  This wasn’t his fight.

  His mother was involved, and he wanted to be a part of that, but he had been. What he had done had already neutralized her influence. By showing the elementals how to break through the bondar, Tolan had done all he needed to neutralize what his mother had done.

  None of it explained why she had been at the heart of the waste, though.

  That was the piece that still troubled him.

  There had been a purpose to her going there. There had been something she was after, and so far, Tolan still didn’t know it.

  When she had escaped him, she’d used power, summoning something.

  He had thought she had summoned the person she served, but perhaps there was no one she served, just chaos, or whatever darkness there was.

  When Tolan had been at the heart of the waste, he hadn’t sensed that chaos, but that didn’t mean some source of it wasn’t there. Could she have brought that power here?

  He waited a little longer, feeling the sense of power all around him. It continued to build, that overwhelming sense that rose up, straining against him. It was a sense that told him he had to do something different.

  He couldn’t be a part of this. He had thought he needed to help rescue the elementals, and he needed to do whatever he could to save them, but there was no need.

  The elementals were fighting, and the shapers were fighting. Tolan had no idea which side was right, though perhaps it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that there was the ongoing nature of their war.

  All of this because he had come thinking he needed to find his mother.

  There was one thing he had to do before leaving—rescue the Draasin Lord.

  When he did that, then he could return. He had no idea what he would do from there, only that perhaps leaving the waste intact was for the best.

  He closed his eyes, focusing on what he knew of the Draasin Lord. Perhaps he could detect the Draasin Lord through the connection they still shared. If he were able to do that, then maybe he could reach for him.

  He focused on spirit, and then focused on fire. The connection was what he needed. The sense of the Draasin Lord had to be there.

  It was faint, but there.

  He held onto it, searching for that connection to see if there was something he might be able to come up with, some way he might be able to reach for the Draasin Lord, but even as he struggled to do so, there was an emptiness.

  He had to find the way to connect to the Draasin Lord. If nothing else, finding him would give him a reason to leave, would give him an excuse to go.

  If he could exert enough control over spirit, then he could blast through all of the bondars. It would provide an advantage to the elementals. They wouldn’t be confined the way they currently were.

  He pushed out with spirit.

  There was a risk in doing so, and by pushing out, he ran the danger of the elementals realizing he was here—along with whoever they were fighting. They might be able to detect his use of spirit. Given what he had already detected from the elementals, the way they had influenced him—at least, attempted to influence him—he was concerned they might try something similar. He needed to use that hint of power, if only to try to probe across the distance and see if there was anything he might be able to learn about the Draasin Lord. If he could uncover the key, he might be able to find enough of an answer.

  He pushed on spirit. Each moment he pushed on spirit, he felt a reverberation, an echoing calling to him. The sense of spirit was easy for him here and he could feel the way the elementals were reacting to his use of it.

  He had to be careful mostly because if they were to detect he was here, he was strong with spirit, he had to worry about what they might do to him. At the same time, it seemed as if they were preoccupied. They had enough going on with whatever battle they were taking part in that would prevent them from making him suffer.

  He held onto the sense of spirit, sweeping it away from him. He added a hint within it, nothing more, of fire.

  He did to see if there was some way to connect to the Draasin Lord. He added that hint of fire, could feel the faint echoing of the Draasin Lord.

  He was here.

  He pressed on that.

  Using that energy, he focused on what he was able to uncover, letting that sense of the draasin fill him. He was aware of the Draasin Lord, and he was aware of how he could reach him. All it would take would be to push outward a little bit more, and he was convinced he should be able to reach for him.

  The Draasin Lord needed his help.

  That much Tolan knew. The draasin was trapped, likely pushed within the bondar.

  He had to believe that his mother was responsible for that. Which meant that if he found the Draasin Lord, maybe he would find his mother.

  Was he ready for that?

  He wasn’t nearly as powerful here as he would be in Terndahl. He wasn’t even as powerful here as he would be in waste. At least in the waste, there was the sense of energy that limited just what she could reach. She would be able to shape spirit here as well as he would. She would have the advantage.

  Somehow, Tolan would have to turn her advantage to his.

  What would it take?

  She was powerful with spirit, and if she had a bondar, trapping the Draasin Lord, she would be even more so. Tolan had the ability to use each of the other elements, and he could use spirit as well, so in that case, they were somewhat equalized.

  Not entirely, though. In this land, he had no idea what she could do.

  He tracked the sense of the Draasin Lord and could feel how he raged within his mind.

  The Draasin Lord was trapped within the bondar, but a part of Tolan was with him. It was a strange thing to think, stranger still to know it was true. As he focused on the sense of power he could detect from him, he
realized that was what it was. He held onto that sense and reached across the distance.

  Awareness of him filled Tolan’s mind. For the first time, Tolan was aware of how the Draasin Lord was connected to spirit. He was always powerful, but Tolan had never really known just how much power he commanded. Feeling his energy and the nature of that power, Tolan recognized just how extraordinary he was.

  He closed his eyes, reaching again across the distance, and he focused on spirit. Always before, he had used the sense of fire along with it, but in this case, he focused only on spirit. There was no point in using fire, not when all he wanted to do was to communicate with the elemental—and possibly free him.

  The idea he might be able to reach across some great distance, pressing power out through the bondar and rescuing the elemental left him questioning whether it was possible or not, but if so, then other elementals wouldn’t have to suffer.

  Even though the elementals were attacking, he had to believe that there would need to be another way to stop his mother and her people. The sense of the Draasin Lord stirred with his mind.

  There was an agitation.

  It was the same sort of agitation he’d detected from the elementals.

  The Draasin Lord didn’t like been confined.

  Not that it surprised Tolan. Having known what he did about the Draasin Lord, knowing how proud—and powerful—the Draasin Lord was, he wasn’t surprised he would object to being confined. The Draasin Lord viewed himself one of the great elementals, a creature of power who deserved to fly free.

  In all the time that Tolan had been alive, the Draasin Lord had not been free.

  That was something Tolan wished he could offer the Draasin Lord. If nothing else, at least for his remaining time.

  I can help.

  There was no sense of response from the Draasin Lord, but Tolan continued to push, using the connection to spirit.

  I don’t know if this will work. He sent knowledge of how to break the bondar to the Draasin Lord.

  There came an increase in the sense of agitation. Spirit surged through that connection and Tolan waited, holding onto it. He pushed on a greater sense through that connection, struggling for whether there was anything else he might be able to determine, and found that there was a sense of the bondar. The Draasin Lord pressed against it, used power to do so.

  It didn’t change anything.

  Tolan could feel what the draasin was doing, the way he was searching against the bondar, but he didn’t detect anything else.

  The bondar held.

  Was there anything Tolan could do?

  He didn’t even know if he could do it from a distance, but if there was something, then he needed to offer it to the elemental.

  He thought about the key to destroying the bondar. Tolan focused the energy that was needed, and he focused on what he was able to detect across this distance. He had no idea how far away the Draasin Lord was, only that he was far enough away that the sense of him was faint. It was almost faded. Tolan thought about the nature of the spirit shaping and he pushed outward, letting that strike the bondar.

  There was resistance.

  The sense of the Draasin Lord surged with him, a connection to spirit that added to what he was doing. The combination of the two of them using spirit together merged in a way that reminded him of how he felt when he had bonded to hyza.

  There came an explosion of power. With it came a roar. Flames shot up from somewhere near the tower in the distance. The Draasin Lord streaked into the sky.

  Tolan stared into the distance, watching as the Draasin Lord took to the air. He had done it.

  Something hit the Draasin Lord.

  It was a shaping.

  A bondar.

  19

  The draasin roared, the sound of it thundering across the valley. The position of the mountains made it so that the sound echoed loudly, reverberating off them before rolling back toward him. Tolan braced for the sound, the anger, and he could feel the effort of the bondars that attempted to hold the Draasin Lord in place.

  He had to do something.

  From where he was situated, Tolan wasn’t sure he would be able to do anything. He could fight on behalf of the Draasin Lord, but was there anything that the Draasin Lord needed from him that would be any different than he could do on his own?

  Tolan stared at the draasin, debating.

  He’d freed the Draasin Lord, which meant he was responsible for helping him. He’d been confined within a bondar, and in that time, his strength had been stolen from him.

  Tolan had to help.

  Taking a deep breath, focusing on each of the elements, he bound them together, and with an addition of spirit, he summoned the warrior shaping. It exploded through him, a lightning bolt that emerged from the sky and carried him toward the draasin.

  Tolan climbed the lightning carefully, emerging from the shaping overhead. He wasn’t about to make the same mistake he had made the last time. When he started to fall, he shifted his shaping, adding wind to it. He focused on the draasin far below him.

  As he angled toward him, he sent a surge of spirit.

  The draasin roared again, looking up.

  He attempted to slide, but the attempt failed.

  Power was holding onto them. Tolan struggled to resist, straining against what was holding the draasin, but he wasn’t entirely sure what it was or how he was going to be able to use that power.

  He strained again.

  Plummeting toward the ground, Tolan held onto his focus, prepared for the possibility that the draasin wouldn’t catch him. If it didn’t, he would have to find another way to slow himself. He had the ability to shape earth, and with that, he thought he might be able to hold on to enough strength to keep himself from crashing into the ground. He shifted his shaping, holding onto that energy.

  The wind continued to whip around him. Tolan braced himself, and then he crashed into the draasin.

  He grabbed onto the draasin’s back, scrambling for someplace to hold onto. Heat radiated off the Draasin Lord. Tolan squeezed the spikes, thankful he hadn’t impaled himself. He connected to the Draasin Lord, fire and spirit merging, mingling together so he could reach the draasin. As he did, he focused on hyza.

  The other elemental was there, distant in the back of his mind. The draasin needed his help, and he needed Tolan to help find a way to connect to a greater sense of power.

  He thought it would be possible, but it was going to take reaching for a sense of power he strained against.

  Tolan pushed through the draasin.

  He roared again.

  “You have to fight this shaping,” he said.

  “I am doing all I can,” the draasin rumbled.

  “Then we need to leave.”

  “I don’t know that I can do that, either.”

  There might not be any other alternative. As Tolan thought about what had happened to the draasin, the way he was being summoned, forced into one of the orb bondars, he had no idea if there was anything he might be able to do to save him.

  Here he thought he had freed him from the bondar, but in doing so, he had only exposed the draasin to another attack.

  There was one thing Tolan hadn’t tried, but he wasn’t sure if it would work.

  “Let me place you into a bondar.”

  The Draasin Lord rumbled, twisting his head to look at Tolan.

  “I know how that sounds, but I can protect you.”

  More than just protecting the draasin, Tolan thought that by placing him into the bondar, he would be able to use the warrior shaping.

  Something like that would give him the strength he needed in order to hold out. He wouldn’t have to carry the draasin with him through a shaping like that. He sent that message across the sense of spirit, using that shaping to try to get the draasin to understand just what he intended to do.

  The draasin rumbled again.

  Tolan battled, pushing out with fire and earth, striking against the attackers around them.
Some of them were elementals, and so the extent of the power was considerable. He could feel that energy as it struck the Draasin Lord. Some of it was from somewhere else. Shapers. There was the sense of an attempt to push the Draasin Lord back into the bondar. With each attack, the Draasin Lord fought, struggling against the nature of it. He pushed against it, using everything within him to resist, and Tolan added what he could.

  The Draasin Lord was growing weaker.

  Tolan could feel the weakness, and whether there was a connection to him through spirit or whether that was something that Draasin Lord wanted him to know, he realized it didn’t matter. All that mattered was he could feel weakness growing.

  Within weakness was a need for him to do something more.

  He had to help the Draasin Lord.

  He held onto an image of what he had done with Rory, the way he had forced the elemental into the bondar. In the case of the draasin, he had no intention of doing so by force. He needed to do it with the draasin agreeing to it.

  “I refused the bond.”

  “I know you refused the bond, but in this case, I think you need to accept the bondar.”

  The Draasin Lord rumbled.

  Within that rumble was acceptance.

  Tolan pulled the remaining orb from his pocket. He was going to have to work quickly, but perhaps with the Draasin Lord helping, it wouldn’t matter. He used a shaping of wind, carrying him off the Draasin Lord’s back, and hurriedly started shaping.

  By adding fire and spirit, he was able to start to pull the Draasin Lord into the bondar. The Draasin Lord worked with him, adding what he could. The combination of the two merged. The power flowed, fire swirling around. The Draasin Lord started to shift.

  Tolan had always believed he was something solid, and he had no idea how the draasin could even be forced into the bond, but there came a shimmering. It was no different than he experienced when looking at Rory or the other elementals. In this case, that shimmering left the Draasin Lord no longer as solid as he had been before. That shimmering turned, and within it, there was a sense of energy that began to fade.