The Elements Bond (Elemental Academy Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Even if I do this, you will still do what you intend.”

  “Perhaps,” the man said, turning to Tolan. “Or perhaps not.” He stepped across the distance, looking at Tolan’s mother. “She has failed me over and again. Her assignment was simple. Find someone who could help her understand and reach the elements, the elementals, and the element bonds. Bring that knowledge here.” He touched the side of her cheek, running his finger along it. His mother sucked in a slow breath, gasping. “Even as she did it, she failed me. All I needed was you.” He turned to Tolan. “Such a magnificent plan. And she ruined it. Her penance, such as it was, was for her to uncover an alternative. She was close. I could feel how close she was. And then the one reason she had been sent came back to haunt her. You.” The man laughed softly. “At the same time, by preventing her from succeeding, you revealed everything I needed to know. You proved everything I wanted to know. You demonstrated you were exactly what I believed possible. Now…”

  He tapped on his mother’s forehead. There was a shaping that built, a powerful sense of spirit that surged out from him, slamming into his mother’s forehead. It exploded within her mind. As Tolan lingered there, holding onto his sense of spirit, trying to understand what was happening, he felt it just as acutely as his mother. He was thrown out of her mind, but not before he felt the way it fragmented.

  In the moment her mind fragmented, there was a blast. A sense of spirit exploded from her and slammed into Tolan. It was unlike any other spirit sense he had from her. Sometimes when she’d used spirit on him, there was no awareness of it, almost as if she tried to mask what she was doing, making it so he had no idea about the nature of the shaping she used.

  In this case, the blast of spirit was such he could detect what happened. He could feel the energy as it struck him. He was fully aware of how it hit.

  With that knowledge, he tried to grasp why his mother would use it in such a way, but he didn’t have time. She fell backward, her eyes rolling back in her head. Then she stopped breathing.

  Tolan stared.

  So many emotions rolled through him. He didn’t know how to react; he had no idea how he should feel. The only thing he knew with any certainty was that his mother was gone. This time, he believed she was truly gone.

  He’d been chasing her, searching for her, for so long that Tolan hadn’t known if he was ever going to find out what she was doing and why she was doing it. Now he had found her, a part of him had wanted to find answers.

  Which he had found.

  The man turned toward Tolan.

  “So, you see. You recognize just what I will do if you defy me.” A hint of a smile crossed his face. “I know that you felt nothing for her, but there will be someone that you do feel something for. Perhaps this one,” he said, motioning to Ferrah, “or perhaps another. I will keep working until I find what I need. Even if I don’t find what I need, trust me when I tell you that I can make you do anything.”

  Pain flared within Tolan again.

  He was immediately focused on the sense of pain despite his desire to focus on trying to ignore it. The only thing he was aware of was the pain.

  Strangely, the pain began to ease, though it didn’t disappear altogether. It seemed to fade, dissipating, drifting along some pathway deep within his mind.

  The bond.

  The fire and the earth bond, the connection he shared with hyza, absorbed some of that pain, making it tolerable.

  He focused on that sense of spirit, focusing on everything he could detect. He had a connection to spirit as well. There might not be the same sense of knowledge about how to use spirit, but…

  Maybe there was something he could use.

  Maybe there was something he could use. Maybe something in the sense of spirit his mother had struck him with right before she died?

  He turned his shaping inward. He wasn’t going to be able to move, but it was possible he would be able to hold onto his control of spirit, he might be able to shape in such a way he could get some answers.

  It was similar to what he had done with the villagers.

  Using it in that way, Tolan could feel the shaping as it had struck him.

  She hadn’t tried to change him. Tolan didn’t know if she even could at that point. Rather than trying to change him, she instead had instilled something within him.

  Knowledge.

  She had implanted knowledge of spirit shaping into him.

  Tolan could use spirit shaping. That was one of the things he had developed, though he had never had the lessons he needed to fully understand the intricacies of it, not as he would have were there to have been true spirit instruction within the Academy. Because of his mother, and because of the Inquisitors, he had never had that opportunity.

  His mother had changed that with a single shaping.

  It was strange she was able to unleash that much knowledge into his mind, but he could feel it there.

  He understood how to use spirit.

  He understood not only how to use it, but how to free himself from it.

  He could hold onto that sense. He recognized just what the man had done, the way he was using spirit to hold onto Tolan. He recognized the illusion the man had used on him. He recognized everything he had experienced when it came to spirit.

  Knowledge filled him.

  He pulled free of the spirit shaping.

  The other man turned toward him.

  Not just the other man.

  His name filled Tolan’s mind.

  Roland Far.

  Memories of his mother’s interactions with him were there. They were all pleasant memories. She cared for him. Possibly loved him. Or at least, she believed she had cared for him and had loved him. It was possible that the emotion she had toward this man was all shaped.

  Everything about him had been shaped.

  It was no different than what she had done to Tolan. Still, even though she had harmed him, she had also helped him. He had to keep that in mind as he considered what she had done to him.

  Tolan held onto his sense of the elements. He held onto the elementals.

  As he did, he focused, thinking about the nature of them, the power he could detect within the elementals out around him.

  The knowledge he had from his mother granted him the understanding of how to reach the elementals in a way he hadn’t considered before. In doing so, Tolan could press outward, and he thought he understood what had been taking place.

  All of that knowledge was there.

  First, he had to stop Roland.

  It was going to take a shaping, but this was a man so skilled at spirit shaping he had known more than Tolan’s mother had known.

  Tolan wasn’t going to be able to beat him with spirit. This man would know more about using the nature of spirit, the way it could be twisted, than Tolan would know.

  However, there was something he had that the other man did not.

  Tolan had access to the other elements.

  He had access to the elementals.

  And he had access to the element bonds, though not all of the bonds. Not here.

  Tolan wrapped a shaping around himself. It was similar to a warrior shaping. He hadn’t considered using it in that way before, but as he wrapped it around himself, as he drew that power around him, holding onto it rather than adding spirit to carry him away, he added spirit as a way to protect himself.

  The surge of energy was such he felt it blasting out from him.

  He protected himself.

  He could do more than that.

  He could protect Ferrah as well.

  Using his shaping, he gave her enough protection so that Roland couldn’t do anything to harm her.

  Ferrah gasped.

  Then she turned and ran from the top of the tower, a shaping building.

  What was she doing?

  Roland stood across from him. He watched Tolan, almost as if he understood what Tolan was doing, but as the man probed him, trying to reach with spirit, Tolan decided
to give him what he wanted.

  He wanted to believe Tolan was captured. He wanted to believe Tolan was submissive. He wanted to believe Tolan was changed because of him.

  Some of that might be true. Tolan didn’t know whether or not the man had used his shaping in a way he wouldn’t be able to withstand. The effect of a spirit shaping could be so subtle that Tolan might not even know.

  But he didn’t think so.

  If it had been the case, he thought he would have recognized it. He thought he would have been able to feel it, and as he turned spirit inward, he believed he would have noticed whether or not there was something that had been done to him. There was no sense of it.

  He continued to hold onto the elements, wrapping them around his mind, around Ferrah’s mind, and the combination protected them.

  “I have been shaping longer that you have been alive. I have been shaping longer than your mother has been alive.”

  “Who taught you?”

  Roland smiled at him. “I’m sure you would like to know. As someone who has the knowledge that you do, let me tell you that there are those with far more knowledge than even me.”

  “Is that why you wanted the power of the elementals? Do you fear these others?”

  Roland sneered at him. “I no longer fear anything.”

  “You haven’t done anything. It wasn’t until my mother returned that you even began to try to collect the elementals.” That knowledge was within him. They had tormented the elementals prior to that, but they had never attacked them. Roland had been working, trying to grasp whether there was anything he might be able to do to capture the elementals, but there had been no action.

  Despite every attempt he had made, he hadn’t been able to uncover any way to use the elementals to his advantage.

  Until Tolan’s mother had come.

  That was significant.

  He might not know anything else, but he recognized that Roland had hidden.

  His servants had hidden.

  “You fear something. You used my mother. You’re using these other shapers. You’re even using this place as a way to hide.” That was the purpose of the earth bondar rolling through it. Tolan understood that. It masked their presence.

  Had Tolan not followed the sense of the elementals, he doubted he would have even known about it.

  “What would you do if I destroyed that bondar?”

  “You would not. You could not.”

  “I destroyed the bondars holding your elementals. I think you would be surprised that what I’m capable of doing. Don’t forget: My mother taught me how to do so.”

  Roland started toward him. Tolan prepared for the possibility of an assault, shaping around his mind, trying to prepare for whatever Roland might do, ready for the nature of his assault. Nothing struck him, though Tolan thought he had to be prepared for something.

  “You will not.”

  The shaping was soft. Soothing. It was almost seductive. There was a part of Tolan that wanted nothing more than to do what Roland wanted him to do. As he focused on that shaping, he recognized what the man wanted from him. There was pain mixed in, and despite that, Tolan felt none of it. Even though Roland was trying to force that sense of pain upon him, the warrior shaping wrapped around his mind protected him and he felt nothing.

  Roland knew something had changed.

  Tolan breathed in, holding onto the sense of the warrior shaping so it continued to protect his mind.

  No spirit shaper could reach him.

  The warrior shaping was incredibly powerful.

  “I see,” Roland said.

  “Do you?”

  “If you won’t do this, then another will. Do you think I haven’t planned beyond using only you?”

  “Perhaps you have, or perhaps you haven’t. Either way, I don’t know that it matters. You killed my mother. You’ve proven you have intentions of attacking in Terndahl, and I can only suspect that from the nature of the way you intended to use these elementals, trying to force them into a bondar—or into a bond—you would continue your attack. My people would be forced to react.”

  “Your people. I understood that you didn’t have a people.”

  For a moment, his shaping slipped beneath the protections Tolan had placed. It happened briefly, and it lingered for barely more than a second, not much more than that, but it was long enough for Tolan to have a sense of doubt. Roland was powerful in the way he used the shaping. Leaving Tolan questioning was incredibly skillful.

  Tolan tried to fight it, struggled against the nature of that shaping, wanting to try to ignore it, but as he did, there didn’t seem to be anything he could truly ignore.

  Then the moment was gone.

  The warrior shaping reasserted itself and Tolan’s control over his mind returned.

  He blocked Roland out.

  Now it was his turn to keep Roland from moving.

  The other man had some way of transporting himself. He must have; otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to descend from the sky, making it appear as if he was a draasin.

  Using that illusion, trying to use that power…

  Tolan smiled. “That’s why you want to control them.”

  “What is?”

  “They believed you were a draasin. Then they learned otherwise. They attacked you.”

  “You know nothing.”

  “I think I know more than you want me to know. I think I know exactly what happened.” He focused on his mother’s memories, thinking through what she had granted him, and in those memories was a sense of understanding. Knowledge bloomed within him.

  It was snippets of knowledge, nothing more than that. Even she hadn’t known all of it. She had been apart from this land for a long time, and in the time she had been in Terndahl working on behalf of Roland, she hadn’t had any connection to him.

  He had hidden.

  Her attempt to find information had been on his behalf.

  All of this because he had lost control.

  Tolan started to laugh.

  “You would dare laugh at me?”

  “I would dare laugh at someone foolish enough to think they can control the elementals.”

  “I dare do what I must. I understand the nature of them even if you don’t.”

  Tolan took a step toward him. He began to hold onto earth, fire, and he even added a mix of wind and water, though they were weaker. Surprisingly, those senses began to fill him in a way they hadn’t before. Could he be reaching for those bonds? He didn’t think it likely, not in this land, but the sense of them seemed to come to him in a way they hadn’t ever since he had reached this land.

  “If you understood the nature of the elementals, then you would never have done what you did. The people in Terndahl didn’t understand the nature of the elementals. They seek to continue to control them, to hold them into the bonds. They seek to abuse them.” He grunted, everything making sense to him now. Rory hadn’t been able to explain. Something had been twisted, altered, and he suspected it came from the connection to spirit, which left Tolan wondering if there might be something he could do to help.

  “You thought to use them. They rebelled. You still think to use them.”

  “They are to be used. They are the power of the world. They are subjected to that of spirit. You should know that as well as anyone. You who controls spirit should understand it!”

  Tolan laughed. He couldn’t help it. As he looked at Roland, chuckling, he couldn’t help but feel as if there was something about him that was ridiculous. He was ridiculous.

  His mother had feared him, and given the nature of his power, he thought he understood why, but Roland was to be pitied.

  Roland had wanted him here to use him. Now that Tolan was here, he understood what he really wanted. Roland feared him.

  Tolan felt as if he should be feared. He was powerful enough he thought Roland had no choice but to fear him.

  He held on to his shaping.

  Roland tried to take to the sky. Tolan pre
vented him from taking off, holding onto as much power as he could. When he attempted to launch, Tolan squeezed him, and he fell back.

  “You failed,” Tolan said.

  Something struck Roland and Tolan spun to see Ferrah and Irina shaping at him. Somehow, Ferrah had found an orb bondar. He should have questioned that sooner. Irina reached spirit and directed it at Roland.

  She could barely stand, but the power within her was incredible.

  Roland glared at her, darkness and hatred in his eyes. “You would dare use spirit on me? Do you know what I can do?”

  “I know what you did.” Rage burst from Irina. She stepped toward Tolan’s mother’s body, looking at her briefly, sadness and anger in her face. When she looked up, power blazed in her.

  Tolan thought they would succeed.

  Roland held onto power. It was immense, coming from each of the elements, and it blasted past Tolan, into Irina. Flames consumed her with more power than Tolan could react to.

  There was nothing he could do.

  Irina was gone.

  One more of his family now lost. All because of Roland.

  Ferrah rolled off to the side, eyes wide.

  Tolan wouldn’t let her be taken from him, too.

  He had to figure out how was he shaping like that.

  He could use spirit, but knowing what he did of what Roland wanted, Tolan knew it wasn’t shaping. A bondar.

  The other man was holding onto an elemental bondar.

  At the realization, Roland swung it toward Tolan, but he was ready. He sent a surge of shaping energy toward the bondar. It exploded in a crack.

  Roland was thrown backward.

  Tolan grabbed for him, reaching and trying to grasp him, but he wasn’t fast enough.

  The other man fell from the top of the tower, tumbling down toward the elementals gathered far below. Tolan scrambled, trying to reach for wind, or even a hint of fire, something that would capture him, but he could not.

  Roland fell, drifting between the falling elementals. There was a terrible cry and eruption of noise as he was consumed by the elementals.

  Tolan staggered back, focusing on the power he felt all around him.

  With his mother’s knowledge of spirit, he knew what he needed to do, though he didn’t know quite how. Somehow, he was going to have to find a way to reach through spirit, and he was going to have to find a way to help these elementals.