What can you tell about this pattern?
You repaired it. I can… feel it. Surprise drifted through the connection to the hound.
How is it that you feel spirit? Kota shouldn’t be able to detect the calling of a spirit bond. She was a hybrid elemental, one born of crossings made by the earliest kingdoms’ shapers, but a hybrid of earth and fire, not of spirit. If any of his bonded elementals should be aware of spirit, it would be Honl.
Not spirit, Maelen. As I said, this mark calls the Mother. There are others in this city, though they are damaged as well.
Others?
Why would there be other damaged spirit bonds in the city, and why would Marin have used this place as her place of worship? He found that nearly as surprising as the fact that she wasn’t here.
Unless something had happened to her.
What if Marin had been protecting the bond, preventing Elanne or those with her from damaging it? That might explain why Marin chose this place, and why she’d always seemed so secretive with him.
Can you show me the others?
There are only two. A fourth remains undamaged.
Four. Tan couldn’t help but notice that the number corresponded to the number of different elements. Which would the pillar here represent? Possibly wind, with the way it flowed on the tall pillar, or earth.
But the others?
Can you show them to me? Tan asked again.
Do you think this is wise while the Daughter lies injured, Maelen?
Tan didn’t know what the right thing was. Leaving Amia seemed the worst, but damaged bonds of spirit runes, bonds that Kota suggested led to the Mother, had him worried that whatever happened here might be tied to what had happened to Amia, if only he could understand what, and how.
For that reason, he had to find the damaged bonds.
I think that is the only thing I can do to help her.
Kota rubbed up against him, understanding his concern. I will show you, Maelen.
23
Mark of the Mother
The hound led Tan to a place on the outer edge of the city. Before leaving, Tan had paused and spoken to each of the elementals of Par and asked them to watch over the place and keep the repaired bond from harm. Until he found Marin and understood why it was important, he would keep it intact.
This place was much like the last in many regards. It was an older section of the city, practically ancient, and far enough away from the tower that Tan could see it rising overhead like an angry finger of rock. With a single shaping, he could return, but not until he understood. If a bond of the Mother were somehow involved, Amia would want him to understand before going to her.
The silence between them caused a pang to echo through his soul. As much as he hated losing Asboel—and that had pained him in ways that he still didn’t fully understand—losing Amia would be a thousand times worse. What would he be without her?
Yet he knew how she would feel about that suggestion. Amia would tell him that he would be fine without her, that he would know what to do in time, and that he would need to trust that the Great Mother had a plan for them.
You hear her still, Maelen, Kota suggested.
I don’t hear her, but I know what she would tell me.
Then you are wise to listen.
Tan took a deep breath and surveyed the area around him. Where is this place? he asked. Did you find it while searching for Elanne?
The damaged bond throbs, Maelen. I cannot describe it any differently.
Tan closed his eyes and listened for the bond. If it throbbed for Kota, would it do the same for him? Could he detect the remnants of the bond and trace it, repair it if possible? And if he did, would he be able to understand what had happened to Amia?
He used a combined shaping of spirit, drawing on each of the elements. It washed away from him, sweeping through the buildings until he found a place where it struck strangely. Almost throbbing against him.
With a shaping of fire and wind, he reached the building that housed it. The building was made of simple stone, and solid. Earth radiated from it, much like it did in many parts of Par. Tan had found that fire was strong, but that was through his connection to saa. Somewhat more surprising was the fact that that earth was as potent here as it was. Even wind, under the guide of wyln, had much strength here. And udilm, the great water elemental found in the surrounding sea, had not fully departed even after Tan had severed all of the forced bonds.
As Kota suggested, Par was a place very powerful with elementals. A place of convergence.
And the Utu Tonah had come here, but still hadn’t managed enough strength to be victorious.
Almost, though. He almost had managed.
Now was not the time to think what would have happened had he succeeded. All the elementals would have been forced to bond, to serve the Utu Tonah.
But Tan still didn’t know the reason why.
He shook away the thought and the questions that came with it. They were for another time. Pushing open the door, he entered the building.
In some ways, it was much like the last. A wide open space with a hard, dirt floor and pillars rising throughout it in some sort of pattern. The damaged rune came from the midst of that.
He made his way to the rune. The last one had been on the pillar itself. This was different, worked into the stone on the ground. That made it a mark for earth. If that were the case, then the last one would have been wind. Where would he find fire and water?
And what did it mean that there were these patterns set throughout the city like this? These were different than any of the others. Much stronger, and they served a different purpose.
Tan hurriedly shaped spirit into this one. Time was short, and he needed to discover the purpose of these patterns before Amia suffered any longer.
The rune was even more damaged than the last.
It pushed against him, like a knife slicing across his flesh, leaving it raw and exposed.
Once again, he drew upon each of the elementals of Par and poured that strength into a shaping, tying them together and adding his contribution of spirit. When he’d done it the last time, he had wondered at the purpose, but now he thought he knew. There was something to these bonds, and they needed to be whole. There was a reason the ancients of Par had placed them here. He might not know it yet, but he finally trusted that the people of Par had known the reason and that it was a good one.
The shaping required enormous strength, reminding him of what he had done when he hatched the draasin. With that, he was able to pull on the fire bond. That wouldn’t work this time, not for this shaping. He continued to draw on the elementals, requesting more and more strength. Almost as if understanding the reason for his request, they gave it willingly, sending it flooding through him.
Tan turned the shaping into the pure white burst of light that formed the bond of spirit. He felt the original threads of what the bond had done and repeated it, pushing more strength into the bond, reforming it not as it once had been, but as he sensed it needed to be.
With one last push, a demanding draw of energy from him, he completed the bond.
Then sagged to the ground.
Kota nudged him to sit. The Mother no longer throbs against me here. This was necessary, Maelen.
I wish I knew why. He inhaled slowly and managed to sit on his own, and looked around the room. Now that the bond had been repaired, others appeared on the walls. Dozens of them… hundreds upon hundreds. Not only bonds but runes with meaning that he didn’t have the knowledge yet to understand.
All had been hidden by the missing spirit bond.
Did you know this was here? he asked Kota.
Earth sits strongly in this place, Maelen, but earth is strong throughout much of these lands. You must sense that.
I have sensed that, Tan agreed. He might not know what that meant, other than the fact that this was a place of convergence, but he had sensed it.
He stood, drawing strength from Kota to replace s
ome of what he’d lost in the shaping, and started a circle around the room. Each of the bonds was incomplete in some way. Some were obviously damaged, as if someone had taken a knife and simply drawn it across the runes. Others were more subtly damaged. Those he sensed more than he saw, detecting the way the energy that should flow freely from them no longer did. Whatever call would have come from the bonds had been lost.
These have meaning, Tan said. But I don’t know what most of them say.
They have meaning to these lands and this place, but the Mark of the Mother is what truly gives this power.
Tan studied the rune for spirit. It glowed brightly, almost as if retaining the energy that he’d used to repair it. Had the other bond done the same? Tan couldn’t remember, but then with that one, the lanterns lit around the room might have obscured it.
Had there been a similar collection of runes on the walls in that place? Tan would have to go back and see, but surely he would have noticed had there been runes like this throughout that place as well.
But maybe he wouldn’t have noticed. He’d been focused on trying to find Marin to save Amia, that the discovery of whatever these bonds represented hadn’t fully registered with him.
The other damaged rune. Where did you find it? Tan wondered if it represented air or fire. And did that mean that the fourth bond was completely unblemished? That if he found it, there would be no damage to the Mark of the Mother?
I will take you to it.
Kota bounded outside the building. As she did, Tan felt something change.
The hound was attacked.
Kota did not take well to attack, and she roared, her angry voice thundering through the air, splitting the ground with her rage.
Tan raced toward the door, slowed slightly by the effort of his recent shaping. The elementals had mostly restored him, but depending on what he found outside, he might need more strength than what he had remaining.
Shapers waited for him outside the door. All of Par-shon.
They remained hidden, protected by the walls of the nearby buildings, but he detected the energy of their shapings. Enough shapers were here that Tan made a slow circle, fearing that he would be attacked. Fire wouldn’t harm him, but what if the earth opened and attempted to swallow him? He might be able to control the wind, but would the water here work with him? Udilm was the elemental in Par-shon, and udilm had always had a tenuous relationship with him.
He raised his hand. “Stop!” he shouted. “As Utu Tonah, I command you.”
A shaping built, one with massive strength and energy, enough that surprised Tan. He hadn’t expected that much control from the shapers remaining in Par-shon. Most of the shapers here had been bonded, and the severing of the bond should have injured them to the point that they wouldn’t be able to attack, but there was strength here.
Had he been wrong? Had the shapers of Par-shon not only required the elemental bonds? But if that were the case, why wouldn’t the Utu Tonah have used these shapers against Tan when attacking the kingdoms?
Had he known? But why had they remained here if that were the case?
Too many questions raged through his mind. And there wasn’t the time to find the answers.
Kota, be ready.
Always, Maelen.
The hound pressed into the hard rock and used the connection to earth as she did. The ground rumbled, and the elemental buried deep within the earth answered. She exuded a sense of power.
The shaping building from the hidden shapers faltered.
“You would attack your Utu Tonah?” Tan shouted. If they feared the title, he hoped that would be enough to convince them to back away. He had no interest in attacking more shapers of Par-shon, not after he finally thought the war won.
The shaping unleashed.
It was a combined shaping and coordinated.
Had he not had Kota with him, he might have struggled to fend off the attack. Kota caught the earth shaping and deflected it while Tan resisted the fire shaping. That left only wind and water, which he was able to draw away and send funneling into the ground.
Pulling on wind and water, he sent a swirling shaping, pushing against those who attempted to harm him. There was resistance, much like what he had met when trying to repair the spirit bond he’d found here, but he forced his way past that.
There came a distinct sense of separation.
Not of a forced bond being torn away, but something else.
Something worse, Tan realized.
This time, when he pushed, he recognized that a natural bond was there and that what he did attempted to separate that natural bond, as if he would steal it from whoever had formed it.
He swore to himself. He would not do the same as the previous Utu Tonah. Already he had made too many mistakes and had ventured closer to what the prior Utu Tonah had been willing to do. This was a boundary that he would not cross.
Releasing the shaping, Tan took a deep breath and stepped forward, sending a request to the elementals around him. I do not want to harm these shapers. Help them to understand.
Another shaping built and Tan prepared to deflect it. He could return to the estate and check on Amia, but he still hadn’t discovered the purpose of the runes. Without knowing that, how would he save her? Whatever was happening to her was connected to spirit and the Mother.
Let these shapers know who I am.
The answer came on a breath of wind, so faint that Tan almost couldn’t hear it. Maelen…
The shaping stopped.
Tan waited. Would they attack again, or would his connection to the other elementals be enough to convince whoever had bonded wyln that he could be trusted?
A flutter of wind caught his attention and Elanne dropped to the ground.
She held a long metal rod, so much like the one she had dropped when Tan had found her last. Was this what she used to damage the bonds, or did she truly attempt to repair them?
“Elanne,” Tan said.
She tipped her head. “You speak to wyln.”
“I speak to all the elementals.”
“You are bonded, you said so yourself. Ashi was your elemental of wind.”
Tan closed his eyes and sighed. “If you thought that I was only bonded to ashi, then you haven’t been listening. I have a bond to an elemental of ashi, but I speak to all the elementals.”
“They call you Maelen,” she said. “What does that mean?”
“It means you should believe me. And it means you need to stop destroying these bonds. If you have bonded to wyln, then you can learn how strongly I feel about forced bonds. I know that you’re still working for him, you’re still trying to destroy the work of Par—”
“Maelen,” she said, interrupting him. “If you think that I have been trying to destroy the bonds of Par, then you haven’t been paying attention.”
Tan frowned. “You truly have been trying to repair them?” he asked.
She nodded. She closed her eyes and whispered something softly. The wind blew through with a flutter of power before she opened her eyes again. “What did you do here?” she demanded.
“What do you mean?”
“To this place,” she said, motioning to the building where Tan had repaired the spirit bond. “That is why we are here. I am the Mistress of Bonds. They are my responsibility. When you damage them—”
“When I damage them?” Tan asked. “The bond was already damaged, like the other bond that you’d damaged.”
Elanne took a step toward him. A shaping built from her, one that sent the wind sweeping around her. “You think that I damaged these bonds? You know that I am named Mistress of Bonds. Before your predecessor, such a title was nearly the highest in all of Par. Why would I do anything to jeopardize the trust placed in me by my people?”
Her people. Par, not Par-shon.
“You didn’t damage these bonds?” Tan asked. Calling to Kota, he said, There is something I have missed. If she didn’t damage the bonds that we’ve discovered, then I don’t know
who is responsible. And if we can’t get the last bond repaired, there might not be any way that I can help Amia.
You will find a way to save the Daughter, Maelen.
“As I have said, Utu Tonah, the bonds were not damaged by me. If you had paid attention to the work that I was doing, you would have seen how I had only attempted to repair the bonds. So many have been damaged in the days since the Utu Tonah was stopped that it has kept me busier than I can manage.”
Tan released the last of the pent-up shaping that he’d been holding, realizing only now that he had been holding onto a shaping. “I don’t understand. I thought you were the one damaging the shapings. I came here to repair a Mark of the Mother before you attacked me.”
At the comment, Elanne jerked her head toward the building, her eyes narrowing. A soft shaping built and wind whistled through before departing. “You came to repair? The Great Seals cannot be repaired once damaged. We have tried—all of the Master of Bonds have tried—but none has succeeded.”
Tan started into the building, deciding that he needed to settle this once and for all. Whatever else, he needed to understand what Elanne had been doing. And if it involved repairing the bonds, then he needed to understand, mostly so that he could help. If it didn’t, and if there was something she kept from him, maybe it was time that he stopped worrying so much about how Par-shon saw him and do what he needed to return the Par that he could tell had once existed.
With a shaping of air, Elanne jumped in front of him. Tied to the elemental, her control was impressive. Not quite on the level of his mother, but then, Zephra had been working with the wind for as long as he suspected that Elanne had been alive.
“You may not enter this place.”
“Why? Because you don’t want me to?”
She shook her head and held her palm facing out toward him. As she did, her wind shaping continued to build. Other shapings began as well, all surrounding him. Tan had done nothing to find what those surrounding him had been doing, other than to note with spirit and earth sensing where to find them. Now he was acutely aware of them nearby. He recognized none but detected the way they used the elements. The only one able to speak to the elemental was Elanne. Shapers, and more powerful than he would have expected here, but not bonded.
Born of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 8) Page 20