Serpent of Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  There was a soft fluttering of the breeze, and then it eased.

  Tan shifted his focus, now listening to golud. The earth elemental only told him that there was something here, but not where. He had learned that the Par-shon bonded could hide themselves using shapings of earth, but could they hide themselves while in the kingdoms, with golud—and shapers able to speak to them—present?

  It had to be possible. He had seen how they had obscured themselves. “Can golud tell where they are?” he asked Ferran.

  Ferran let out a rumbling request. Tan could almost hear it, but it wasn’t directed at him. Even were he to hear it, he wasn’t confident he’d be able to understand.

  After long moments spent waiting, he looked up at Tan. “They are silent.”

  “They can’t detect Par-shon shapers?”

  Ferran’s eyes tightened. “I no longer hear golud, Athan.”

  Tan frowned, focusing on the ground. As he did, he realized that he didn’t, either.

  “Are we too late?” he asked aloud.

  8

  Earth Trap

  As Ferran formed a massive shaping, one that reached deep into the earth, Tan sensed the strength and the urgency with which he worked, and appreciated the way the earth shaper strained for the elementals, working to help them. As he did, he was struck by the understanding that this was part of the reason for the bond, the benefit the elementals received by bonding to the kingdoms’ shapers.

  “I will see what I can learn. You stay safe,” Tan said.

  Ferran nodded and Tan took to the air on a shaping of wind. It carried him high overhead, and he hovered, focusing on the ground below. He needed to find the Par-shon shapers and some way to keep them from capturing golud. In Doma, he had used a combination of elements, binding them together and adding spirit to the shaping to reveal the earth shapers, but maybe there was another way that wouldn’t depend on his ability to detect Par-shon.

  He needed to keep them from succeeding now. That meant doing whatever it took to stop Par-shon.

  Tan worked a shaping, binding it with spirit. He pulled this shaping to the ground, slamming it into the earth, where it struck and spread widely.

  To the east, he sensed an emptiness where the shaping should have held.

  Ferran’s head snapped up and his brow furrowed. He lifted on a shaping of earth and raced alongside Tan.

  Rather than a shaper, they found a deep hole shaped into the ground, almost perfectly round. A long, slender rod of black metal plunged into the hole. Runes etched along the surface of the rod caught and reflected the moonlight.

  “We must remove this,” Tan said.

  “This is meant to force a bond?”

  “I think so. These runes,” Tan said, pointing to the ones he could see. From what he could tell, the runes extended all along the rod, “they mark earth, but there is something to it I don’t understand. A binding of sorts.”

  Ferran studied the rod and started shaping.

  Tan grabbed him, and without thinking, pulled the earth shaping away and sent it into the ground. “Careful!”

  Ferran eyed him. “What would it have done?”

  “You’re bound to golud?” Tan asked. “When I was in Par-shon, there was a room there. Runes like these covered the walls. Really, runes like these covered the walls everywhere throughout the obsidian palace. They prevent shaping, but they’re for more than that, I think. At least the ones in the testing room seemed to be for more than that. They separate the bonded from the elementals.”

  Ferran pulled away from him and crouched in front of the rod. He touched it carefully, running his hand along the metal. Tan doubted that simply touching it would do anything. From what he could tell, the runes only responded to shaping.

  “These are what they use to separate the elementals from the bonded?” Ferran asked.

  “These are what they use to force the bond,” Tan said.

  He didn’t tell Ferran that the same runes were found in the lower level of the archives, in books and texts from over a thousand years ago, when the kingdoms’ shapers had used similar techniques to bind elementals. It no longer mattered that the ancients had done what Par-shon now did. What mattered was that Tan was determined to stop it.

  “This must be destroyed,” Ferran said.

  “Yes.”

  Augmented by earth shaping, Ferran pulled the rod out of the earth. The rod was nearly twenty feet long, and runes continued all along it. Once free of the hole, Ferran set it on the ground.

  Tan studied it. As far as he knew, it was still active. The only thing he knew to do with items of power like this was to use spirit, but he’d never attempted to do it on things meant to steal the elemental power. He’d broken bonds and he’d destroyed the runes in the Par-shon palace, but this seemed different. If he was wrong, would he be somehow bound?

  He had to try. The longer he waited, the more likely it would be that Par-shon would manage to steal a bond to golud.

  Tan took a steadying breath. As he did, he sent out a warning to those bonded to him, to Asboel, Honl, the nymid, and Amia. Be ready.

  With a shaping of spirit, he probed the rod. It struck the metal and vanished. Tan could all but hear a slurping sound as it was sucked in. Tan attempted a different shaping, avoiding earth, choosing fire—the counter to earth—and mixing spirit. Again, he sensed the runes simply absorbing his shaping. He added water and air, fusing them together, but nothing changed.

  Tan released the shaping. The silence from golud left him anxious, knowing that he needed to hurry. “It will not work. Not without attempting to use earth.”

  “You fear what will happen if you do?” Ferran asked.

  “I have bonded three elementals, Ferran.” He said nothing of Amia, but that was the bond he worried most about. “I can’t risk them without knowing what will happen.”

  “What will you do?”

  “I need to find where the Par-shon shaper has gone. If we can find them…” But even that wasn’t guaranteed to work. It was possible that placing the traps allowed the Par-shon shaper to force the bond from anywhere.

  Another thought crossed his mind: Were there other traps set around the kingdoms that he hadn’t discovered?

  The idea terrified him. The only reason they had been warned of this trap was because golud had signaled danger. What of the elementals unable to reach him? What of elementals without a bond, or who didn’t know to worry?

  Tan somehow had to protect them as well.

  But first, he had to stop this bonding. He had to defeat the runes.

  “Let me try,” Ferran said.

  Tan shook his head. “You are bonded as well. It’s too dangerous.”

  “Rather me than our warrior and Athan.” Ferran smiled at him tightly. “I think we have seen that you have more value to the kingdoms than I, but I can provide this service.” He leaned toward the rod and placed his hands on it. “Besides, I have no intention of allowing Par-shon to steal my connection. I have spent my life wondering what it would be like to speak to the elementals. Now that I know… I will do all that I can to stop them.”

  Tan created a soft ball of light to illuminate the rod as he studied it. The runes caught the light, reflecting off it. Tan found one for earth and one that he had seen within the room of separation. He didn’t know what it meant, but if they were similar, or if they could even be used in a similar way, then he needed to try to focus on them.

  “Try this one,” he said, pointing to earth. “And this. Shape earth into both. I will help.”

  Ferran glanced at him and then nodded. His shaping built and as he began to shape earth into the rod, Tan added spirit. Always before, the combination of spirit mixed with the element had worked. This time, he allowed Ferran to control the earth shaping and he controlled spirit. Mingling as they did, Tan sensed Ferran’s shaping strength and the overwhelming desire within him to free golud.

  The rod began glowing. Then Ferran screamed.

  Tan shifted his
shaping, sending spirit through Ferran, recognizing immediately how the runes worked to take the bond from him. Tan had sensed something similar before, though that had been with Zephra and only after she’d lost the bond. This was early, but already he sensed the bond tearing free of Ferran. If he didn’t stop it, Ferran would lose his connection to golud.

  Wrapping the shaping tightly around Ferran, he created a protection around his mind, anchoring the bond to golud with a shaping of spirit. It was how Tan had preserved his connection to Asboel and Honl, but it changed the bond, bringing them closer together. In some ways, he couldn’t help but realize that this forced a different connection between the elemental and Ferran, but there seemed no other way to preserve the bond.

  “Push against it,” Tan commanded.

  Ferran grunted and pressed out with his shaping of earth. Tan kept spirit mingled within it and added layers of fire and water, needing only the barest hint of wind. Then he pulled through his warrior sword.

  Light flared from it.

  Working with Ferran, they pressed the shaping through the rod. The runes pulled the light from the sword, becoming a deep, inky black. Ferran grunted in pain and nearly staggered. His eyes were drawn tight and sweat beaded across his brow, but he continued to shape.

  Then there came an echoing crack.

  The runes on the rod failed. Ferran fell backward and sprawled on the ground. Tan released his shaping, feeling weak and shaking from the effort, pulling on the elementals around him for strength.

  “Did it work?” Ferran asked.

  Tan listened for golud. At first, he heard nothing, but then the angry rumbling that had awoken him came again, slowly building, rolling toward the north like a thunderous bell tolling. “You should hear it, too,” Tan said.

  Ferran laid back against the ground. “I hear nothing.”

  “That shouldn’t be,” he started. “The elemental should be bound more tightly to you if anything. I used spirit…”

  Ferran rolled onto his side. “I felt what you did, but I think it was not soon enough. The separation came first. The connection is gone.”

  Frustration built within Tan, but anger with it as well. For Par-shon to come to the kingdoms and steal the bond from one of their shapers… He would not tolerate that. “Stay here.”

  Without waiting for Ferran to respond, Tan took to the air on an angry shaping of wind and fire. Asboel. You are needed. Honl. Come to me. Nymid.

  Asboel stirred from wherever he rested, registered Tan’s need, and took to the sky. Honl was upon him in moments, fluttering around him. Even the nymid coalesced from water droplets in the air, coating Tan with a greenish film.

  Maelen, you should not hunt when angry, Asboel warned.

  Par-shon will learn that they cannot simply steal our bonds. They cannot come to these lands and harm the elementals.

  Tan’s anger was about more than that. If he couldn’t protect Ferran—a shaper bound to the elemental—what hope did he have of protecting the kingdoms? Worse, if he couldn’t protect golud, how could he save the hatchling?

  Within moments, Asboel circled overhead. Tan lifted on the wind, rising to the draasin. We will find them. All of them.

  Maelen—

  They will force bonds to other elementals, Asboel. Ethea is a place of convergence. Think of what will happen if they manage to reach and take bonds throughout the city? How many elementals will be affected? How many will be forced to bond?

  The draasin snorted. You do this not out of anger but out of concern.

  Tan looked up at Asboel. I am angry, Asboel. I am very angry.

  9

  A Warrior’s Anger

  Wind billowed around Tan, pulling at his hair and jacket. Heat radiated from him as he allowed fire to fill him, letting it burn with his rage. This was different than when fire controlled him; this time, Tan controlled his anger, using it to power the shaping he would need.

  Tan unsheathed the warrior sword and pulled a shaping of each of the elements through it, merging spirit with them. He drew upon his bonded elementals for strength but reached deeper, to the land around him, toward ara blowing in the wind, toward golud, still tenuously free, toward the nymid in the stream, and through the fire bond, reaching for all the fire elementals that he could detect. Power filled him.

  He pointed the sword at the ground and unleashed the shaping.

  It washed over the earth, spreading out from the point of contact with the ground.

  The shaping allowed not only Tan, but all the elementals to be attuned to it. As it struck, Tan sensed a distant awareness of power and turned toward it. Asboel noted it as well, and flames spilled angrily from his nostrils.

  They streaked toward the sense, moving west and slightly north. The shapers he sensed moved quickly, but Tan was a warrior shaper, fueled by elemental energy and moving on a storm of power.

  Remain with the draasin, Tan sent to the nymid and Honl. He didn’t want them to risk capture if something were to happen to him. He needed their strength, the connection he had to them, but he would keep them safe.

  Summoning a bolt of lightning, Tan landed amidst a mountainous area, likely on the edge of the Gholund Mountains as they began to create the border with Chenir and Incendin. Rocks and tall pines grew around him.

  The air sizzled with shaped energy. Par-shon had expected him.

  Tan was assaulted as soon as he appeared. Shapings of wind and fire and earth all reached toward him, coming from every direction. Tan had to use every bit of his skill simply to fend off the attack, barely managing to hold back one when another struck.

  He kept his focus on fire, holding onto that bond. As he did, he sensed fire shaped among him. With a mixing of spirit and fire, he attacked the bonded shaper, freeing the elemental. Tan gained awareness as he did.

  Help me, he asked of the elemental, not even knowing which it was.

  Strength surged within him.

  The attack on him intensified, becoming frenzied. Tan stood in the middle of it, holding shapings of each element, using his warrior sword to pull on the shapings, redirecting them so that they moved harmlessly away. He remained wrapped in fire, pulling on the fire bond, shaping as he did, heat glowing from him.

  Spirit surged, but not from him.

  Tan almost lost his focus. Had Par-shon learned how to bind the elements, or did they have a spirit shaper among them? Had they managed to use one of the archivists?

  He didn’t dare try to understand. Not until he managed to get free from this attack.

  He should have waited for Roine. Or for Zephra. Coming raging in like this had only put him in danger. And Ferran had been right: the kingdoms couldn’t lose a warrior shaper, not one bound to the elemental powers.

  Tan thought of how they had stolen the bond from Ferran, how they had attempted to force other bonds, using their traps to force the bonds upon the elemental. Renewed anger surged through him.

  He swept his sword around him in a wide arc, loosing a shaping of all the elements bound together. Light spilled from the sword, turning night into day. Tan controlled the shaping, twisting it so that it didn’t kill.

  Instead, bonds shattered.

  Tan felt elementals being freed, but doing so took too much from him.

  His strength faded and he sunk to his knees, barely able to stand. His shaping faltered and the light from his sword dimmed.

  The bonds might have shattered, but those holding them still stood.

  Par-shon shapers converged on him. Through his fading earth sense, Tan detected seven. There wasn’t much that he could do. The effort of breaking the bonds had weakened him too much. With as much strength as he could muster, he raised his sword, holding it out in front of him. The tip of the sword wavered.

  Someone laughed.

  Help me.

  Tan sent the request to the elementals around him, including those he had just freed. Elemental power could restore him, but not if he had used up their energy as well. The shaping that he had done w
as likely to have used nearly all the elemental energy that he’d summoned. It would leave the elementals weakened, nearly as much as him.

  But not those that he’d freed.

  Power eased back into him, but it came slowly. He wouldn’t be strong enough to stop the Par-shon attackers.

  A loud cry suddenly split the night.

  The Par-shon attack paused. A loud buffeting of wind was followed by another cry. Someone screamed.

  The fire bond told Tan what he sensed: Sashari came.

  Maelen, she said, feeding power to him as she did, pushing it toward him. It came in a torrent, fed as if through the fire bond.

  Tan welcomed it, drawing it to him, and stood on a shaping of fire and wind.

  As he did, someone lunged toward him.

  Tan reacted, swinging his sword. The warrior sword wasn’t really meant for traditional combat. It was made of well-forged steel—possibly even from Nor—but Tan had never spent any real time learning swordplay.

  From the way he stood in a practiced stance and the easy way he held his sword, the Par-shon warrior clearly had.

  The man that appeared out of the dark had a clean-shaven head and was heavily muscled. He was dressed in black and carried a wickedly curved sword. Runes glowed on the surface.

  Tan sucked in a breath. For the runes to glow, that meant they were shaped. And if this man still shaped…

  Asboel!

  The man attacked, swinging the sword. Tan reacted, but was slow. The Par-shon caught Tan’s blade and twisted it, driving it back. Tan reached for an earth shaping to strengthen him, but he was still too weakened. Instead, he lashed out with fire.

  The Par-shon man caught the shaping with his sword and turned it toward the ground, where it fizzled out harmlessly. “You are powerful, warrior. But you will see the Utu Tonah has many skilled warriors.”

  A shaping built, raging through his sword, making the runes glow brightly.

  Tan didn’t yet have enough strength to counter such a shaping. With the recognition, he wondered how powerful must this man have been when bound to elementals?