They moved on to the water traps. The stream here was the first, but neither Tan nor Vel had figured out how to find the trap. “I don’t know how to describe it. You’re from Doma. Haven’t you seen their water traps before?”
Vel grunted. “They use ships as their traps. Nothing about streams. Why would they bother? What good is the water elemental from something like…?”
With a draw upon the nymid, Tan sent a stream of water spraying at Vel. “What good are the nymid? Is that what you were going to ask?” He used a combination of earth sensing mixed with spirit and water as he combed the shore, searching for the trap. He still couldn’t find it.
Vel wiped his hand across his face and smiled at Tan, showing a mouthful of missing and damaged teeth. “You’re feisty. Much like your mother.”
Tan grunted in response and turned away. Why did everyone seem to find the need to compare him to someone else? His mother said he was like his father, or like Roine. Now Vel said he was like his mother. Rather than let the comment bother him, he decided to ignore it. “You’re a water shaper. Help me find where they placed these traps.”
Tan used a combination of sensing, pulling on water and spirit, straining for evidence. They had to be here. The memories from the dead Par-shon woman told him that they would be here.
Yet he couldn’t find them.
Tan kicked at the water, trailing his legs through the cool stream. It moved quickly through here, gliding against the rocks, flowing away from Ethea and out toward Vatten and the sea beyond. Tan walked in the middle of the stream, letting the water rise nearly to his waist. Using a shaping as he walked, he made his way through the stream.
There was nothing. Only the sense of the water.
Nymid, Tan sent. Standing in the water solidified the connection, but now that he’d bonded to them, it was easier than it had been. Once, reaching the nymid would have taken great strength. Now he could almost feel their slippery sense in the back of his mind, trailing there constantly, granting him access to water.
He Who is Tan.
Tan smiled tightly at the greeting. I need help. There are those who would trap elemental power. They would force the binding.
We have seen this.
Tan hesitated. You know where the traps could be found?
The water became turbulent around him, flowing past his feet, throwing up green-tinted spray that splashed against his face. He followed the turbulent flow, searching for what caused the water to be disturbed.
Along the shore, a series of stones created the shape of a rune for water. Etched into the stones were other runes, marking a binding of some sort. Tan grabbed the stones and threw them out of the water toward Vel.
He picked the first one up and turned it over in his hands. “This is the water trap?”
“I don’t know. It’s something,” Tan said.
Vel held the stone out. “The earth traps, those were clear. The runes they used had a distinct intent to them. The rods circled the city, Tannen.”
Tan stood up after tossing the last of the stones. “I was with you, Vel. I remember.”
“Yes. Yes.” He pulled the rock back toward his face and studied it, his eyes going wide as he did. “This is different, yes? You can see how the rune marks a binding, but it is not to force a bond.”
Tan stepped out of the water. With a gentle shaping of water and fire, he dried his pants. Behind him, the stream’s restless burbling grew quieter now that the stones had been removed. “What do you mean?” he asked.
He took the stone from Vel and studied it. Using the Par-shon woman’s memories had another advantage besides only letting him know where the traps were found. That was useful, but more useful was her knowledge of the runes, and the meaning behind them. She had known more about runes than even the First Mother.
As he stared at the stone, he understood what Vel said. “This wasn’t to bind water,” Tan said.
“No. No. No.”
Tan glanced up at Vel. The water shaper had the wild gleam to his eyes, much like when Tan had first met him. Maybe he’d been mistaken in bringing him with him. Vel had been a prisoner within Par-shon for years. Not long enough to lose his mind, not like Cora had nearly done, but long enough that he suffered from it. Tan had healed him as much as he could, and Amia had attempted a spirit shaping, but this wasn’t the first time Tan had seen the return of his crazy glint.
“Vel?”
He blinked and shook his head. Then he smiled. “You see what they do, don’t you?”
“I’m not sure that I do.” Even understanding the runes didn’t mean Tan knew what they would do. He recognized the shapes and some of the intent, but it was like learning another language without someone like Amia to gift him with knowledge as she had with Ishthin.
Vel dropped the stone onto the ground and knelt next to the stream. He trailed his hand through the water, letting it swirl around his fingers, over and across them. He scooped a handful and let it drip back in. “Nymid is here, yes?” Vel asked.
“Nymid. Possibly others,” Tan said. There were other water elementals, much like the one of mist that Elle had bonded. With udilm healing her, Tan had expected her to bond to it. If she had, though, would Par-shon have found her sooner? How many of the udilm were bonded by Par-shon now? Vel had once had such a bond, but they had stolen it from him. From what Cora described, Par-shon trawled through the sea with massive ships to trap the elementals.
“Why nymid? Why here?” Vel asked.
Tan snorted. “Better to ask why are any of the elementals found here.”
Vel’s eyes widened. “Yes. Much better to ask that. Why are the elementals found here?”
“Elementals are part of the world, Vel. They’re as natural as the water itself.”
He shook his head. “Not the same. You’ve see it, Tan. Doma has udilm. Incendin has saldam. But the kingdoms? They have each of the elementals. There is a reason the Great Mother provided such a gift. And do not say it is because you have the wisdom to keep them safe.”
From what he could tell, the kingdoms had never had that wisdom. “This is a place of convergence,” Tan said.
The water shaper shrugged. “Perhaps, or maybe there is something that holds them here.”
“Or draws them.”
Vel smiled darkly. “Are they not the same?”
“No. The elementals have choice. They have always had choice.”
Vel stood and wiped his hands on his pants to dry them. He kicked at the pile of stones near Tan. “Choice like this? These do not bind an elemental to a person, they bind the elemental to the land.”
Tan stared at the stones, frowning at them. Could it be as Vel said? Could the stones attempt to hold the nymid to the land? What Vel implied meant something different than trapping the elementals, and what Tan saw on these stones looked different than what he expected from a trap.
He stepped back into the stream, letting the water swirl around him. Is that what these do? he asked of the nymid.
The water swirled again, growing more agitated. He Who is Tan. You ask of things that have little meaning to the nymid.
Tan wondered if there might be another way to convey his meaning. Do they restrict you? Force you to flow in certain places?
They draw the nymid.
Draw, but for what purpose? Pulling the nymid here would be different than trapping them, and Tan would know if the nymid were trapped. Then what purpose did Par-shon have with these?
Can you tell me how long they have been here?
Time to the nymid is different than for you. We do not count the passage of time in the same way. Water rushes through rivers and streams and joins the ocean. There are cycles, but you would not understand.
Tan sighed, wishing he had a better way to communicate. Is there anything you can tell me about these?
Water is pleased to see them gone. We can flow freely now.
13
Return to Nor
Tan spent much of the afternoon sear
ching for additional traps. Other than the earth traps placed by Par-shon, he hadn’t found anything else that would have the same effect. They had found three more piles of stones buried in streams. Each time Tan removed them, the nymid gave a sense of relief.
The more that he found, the more concerned Tan became. He’d gone searching, thinking that he would find something that would tell him what Par-shon planned, but what if he’d found something different? Why would Par-shon place traps that bound the elementals to the kingdoms?
He left Vel at the gates of the city. Tan gathered together the earth trapping rods and the stones and paused, not sure of a place that would be safe to store them in. Even the lower level of the archives created some risk. If others knew they were there, there might be temptation to go after them. Roine might be able to resist such temptation, but would the other shapers, especially once they learned what the traps could do? Tan wanted no temptation to exist.
His shaping took him to a familiar place high up in the Gholund Mountains. He landed in a clearing, feeling a slight edge of tension racing through him as he did. Gusts of wind swirled through the trees, setting the branches swaying. Leaves had fallen, layering the ground with colorful detritus. A massive crater in the ground was the only sign that his home village of Nor had once been here.
It had been months since Tan had come here. The last time he’d come, Roine had been with him. And Cobin. Now there was nothing.
How long had it been since he’d even thought of Cobin? Were he and Bal still alive? When Tan had lived in Nor, he rarely went a day without seeing Cobin. And he couldn’t go a few hours without Bal trying to find him. Back then, all he’d worried about was trying to avoid Lins Alles and, sometimes, Bal. Now he worried about how to keep the kingdoms safe and how to keep the elementals from being used in ways they were never intended to be used.
Tan made his way around the ridge of the crater. Lisincend fire had created this, had destroyed the entire village. Nothing was left after their attack. Only his mother, and it had taken him months to learn what really happened to her.
What would she have done had he not returned to Ethea? Would she eventually have come searching for him, or was she content to know that he had no choice but to leave Nor? Maybe there was a part of Zephra that was pleased Nor was destroyed. She had not hidden the fact that she wanted him to leave the village and had encouraged him to travel to Ethea.
The trees around the village were much the same. There, near the edge of what had been the village, before the mountains started sloping up again, he saw Cobin’s old sheep hold. Grasses that once had been trampled by his sheep now thrived. Weeds grew through the grasses, vibrant and alive. Some flowers grew as well, bright yellow daisies and pale white cryals. None had been found in Nor before the village was destroyed.
Even the depths of the crater had begun to see life. Grasses spread downward across the once-charred earth. A few flowers attempted to grow there as well. A tree shoot started along the edge. Eventually, the forest would reclaim the village. Life would go on as it always did, not caring about those who had once called this place home.
A shaping caused wind to gust behind him. “Mother,” he said as Zephra settled.
Zephra surveyed the clearing a moment, taking in everything around her. “I didn’t know you still came here.”
Tan shook his head. “I don’t. I haven’t,” he corrected. “It’s hard, isn’t it, to see what Nor has become?”
His mother turned toward the crater. The ground dropped off nearly twenty feet into a wide, sloping base, as if a chunk of ground had simply been scooped away. “I came back after I found Aric. When ara allowed me to bond again, it was the first thing I wanted. It was different then. The air was still bitter with the stink of the fire shaping. Even the wind didn’t want to blow through here. Time changes all things, I suppose. The lisincend might have destroyed Nor, but they did not destroy the life of the forest.”
“Do you ever miss it?”
“Every day,” she whispered. She turned away from the crater and met his eyes. Tears welled there and she wiped them away. “I was happy here, Tannen. Even after Grethan… after your father died, I was content remaining here.” She turned distant and smiled. “I wanted nothing more than for you to go to the university. I never expected you to learn to shape. At your age, I thought it was no longer possible.” She laughed softly. “It shows how much I know. But I wanted you to learn that the world was more than Nor.”
“I never wanted more than Nor,” Tan said softly.
“You didn’t know more than Nor. How could you know what you wanted?”
Tan looked around, remembering the times he would go tracking with his father, searching through the mountains, usually for wolves or bears, marking trees so that Nor would be protected. He remembered the lessons from his father, the way that he would teach him how to stretch out his senses, strain against the forest itself, and use what he heard, what he felt, as he sensed. Tan hadn’t known that he could be a shaper then, but those lessons had provided the foundation for him learning to shape with any skill. Without learning to listen to things around him, he would never have managed to reach the nymid or the draasin.
He stopped along the edge of the trees. His mother stood behind him, lost in her own thoughts. He knew she had happy memories of Nor as well, memories of his father and of the peaceful times they’d shared before they were summoned away. And of after he had died, when she had gone to work for Lord Lind, leaving Tan stuck as nothing more than a servant, forcing him to sneak off into the mountains, disappearing up the slopes only to come down hours later. Only now did he wonder if that had been intentional, her way of encouraging him to search for more.
“What do you want now, Mother?” Tan asked.
He turned to see her not staring down at the crater, but up into the trees. Their home had been there, destroyed by the mudslide that had forced them down into the village. That was why she had finally accepted the offer from Lord Lins.
“I want what I’ve always wanted for you,” she answered.
“I’m beyond finding happiness,” he said. “Life is a little too complicated for that now, don’t you think?”
She took his hand in hers and squeezed. “We are never beyond happiness, Tannen. Even after all that we’ve been through, there is always the chance for happiness.”
“You don’t want me to be with Amia.”
She smiled at him sadly. “It’s not that I don’t like Amia.”
Tan took a steadying breath and balled his fists to keep from snapping. “You’ve never really given her a chance. Even when you say that you will, you never do. And now that she’s the First Mother and we’re forced apart for much of the time, I think you’re happy.”
“It’s not Amia. And I’m not happy seeing you suffer. But you never had a chance to find anyone else, Tannen. She shaped you before you ever had a chance to know what else might be out there for you.”
“That’s what it’s about for you?” he asked. “Do you know that our bond allows us to know each more completely than even your bond to ara? Do you know that I would have chosen her regardless of the bond?”
“Only because you never knew anything else.”
“Would you have me with someone like Cianna? She’s more your style, isn’t she? A good kingdoms shaper who serves the throne happily.”
Zephra crossed her arms over her chest. “At least with Cianna, you would share more in common. You both understand fire.”
“As father understood wind?”
Her mouth pulled in a tight line. “That was different. We shared an experience, both of us knowing what it was like to learn in the university.”
Tan stared at his mother, debating what to say before finally settling on not saying anything. There really wasn’t anything that could convince her. Instead of speaking, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her.
“Thank you,” he said.
She tensed for a moment before relaxing into the e
mbrace. “For what? No one likes hearing that their beloved is not approved by their parents.”
Tan laughed. “You sound like you have some experience with that.”
“My parents would have preferred someone like Velthan. You wouldn’t know it now, but he was once the pride of Doma. A shaper of much skill, but also blessed with the gift of the sea, able to speak to udilm, to allow the ships safe transit, and keep the storms calm. But Vel was never the one for me. When I came to the kingdoms and met your father… it was different. I was different then. Irritable and quick to action.”
Tan bit back laughter.
His mother shook him off. “You think I’m bad now? You should have seen me before I met your father. He helped me find peace that was missing. He complimented me in ways that someone like Vel never would.”
“Amia does the same for me,” Tan said.
His mother ignored him as she went on, “But I would not have known there was someone like Grethan had I not moved past Vel. I was infatuated with Vel—many were in those days—but your father… well, he was something else entirely. Powerful. Comforting. Supportive.” Tears streamed down her cheeks as she spoke, and she didn’t bother wiping them away.
Tan hugged her again. “I miss him too.”
She sobbed for a moment and they stood there, in the shadows of their missing home with the familiar winds of Galen blowing around them. “It is hard, Tannen. Were Grethan still living, there is much he would have been able to teach you. I feel… I feel so guilty at times.”
“There would only be so much that Father would have been able to teach me. He could have helped me reach earth shaping sooner, but he would not have helped me understand fire, or water, or wind. That has taken other shapers. You. Roine. And Amia.”
She sighed. “Theondar is a good man. So different than the one I remember, but I wonder how much of that was arrogance then and how much grief.”
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