Born of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 8)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Elanne sucked in a sharp breath and blinked. “My Utu Tonah. I don’t know—”

  “I do. And you weren’t in control. I don’t think they can do the same again.”

  “Who?”

  “The Mistress of Souls. Marin.”

  “But she does not even shape!”

  “She shapes just fine. She is a shaper of spirit.”

  “I don’t understand, Utu Tonah.”

  Tan grunted, lifting on a shaping of wind. “Neither do I. But at least I think I finally know who was destroying your bonds, if not why.”

  He surveyed the city around him, pulling on earth and spirit sensing. With spirit, he detected voids where spirit shapers would be. That was how he had managed to detect the archivists. They had wanted power, but Tan had no idea what Marin wanted. Maybe nothing more than to expel him from Par, but he would have answers.

  A trio of shapers formed sensory voids. Using a combination of elements, he forced a barrier over their minds, separating them from spirit as he had once separated the First Mother. Tan had known the way that being forced away from shaping felt and hated doing it, but until he understood what they did, he had no other choice.

  Reaching the first, he realized it was one of the men he’d seen with Marin. “Where is she?”

  The man glared at Tan, tilting his chin defiantly. He said nothing. Tan wrapped him in earth and secured him to the ground. The man struggled, but still said nothing.

  The second was no different, and Tan held him the same way.

  By the time he reached the third, he didn’t expect any answers, but this man was younger, and his eyes were wide when Tan landed. Tan circled him slowly. “Tell me where to find her.”

  He said nothing.

  Tan used earth and this time added fire, heating the ground. “Where is Marin?”

  “You will have nothing from me!”

  “Why? Why harm the people of Par?”

  Any composure the man had crumbled. “This is not about Par. This is about more! And like him who came before you, you cannot understand. She leads us to true power, and freedom—”

  The man’s eyes widened a moment, and then he simply stopped breathing.

  Tan searched for Marin, knowing that she had to be nearby for her to have an effect like that, but saw nothing.

  He leaned against a building and started to relax when a call from Honl came to him.

  Maelen. You must come. Something has changed.

  Tan looked toward the tower and the strange power that had affected Amia, and wondered what Marin might have to do with that, and what the Seals scattered throughout the city had to do with it.

  I am coming.

  25

  Darkness Emerges

  “Tell me what you sense,” Tan said to Kota. They had moved outside the city and were currently gazing at the tower, hoping for a new perspective. While he was in the city, he couldn’t get away from Amia and what had happened to her, but out here, the connection to her was faded. Distant, as if it had been severed—but not completely. Tan could still feel her although it was different than it should be.

  Kota sat on her haunches next to him, her hackles still raised. She sniffed once and bared her fangs. I do not know. There is a pull of earth, Maelen.

  You sense the runes on the tower.

  They are powerful.

  What do they do?

  He could tell without Kota answering that the hound didn’t know, only how they affected her, drawing on her, as if summoning her toward it.

  I do not know.

  To save Amia, he thought that he had to see if he could figure it out. Only, what if he couldn’t? The worry and doubt that had filled him after Amia had collapsed while working with the rune hit him again. He didn’t know what he’d do if something happened to her. They had been through so much already, that he didn’t—he couldn’t—think about what would happen if she didn’t recover.

  But he thought that he knew what he had to do to help her.

  You will watch me? Tan asked.

  You are of the pack, Maelen. You will be safe.

  Tan rested his hand on Kota’s neck and took a deep breath, wishing that there was a way for him to know what he needed to do. Even after defeating the Utu Tonah, he thought that he didn’t need to fear Par-shon, but unfortunately, there was still much for him to fear.

  He shaped himself to the tower and landed on top.

  When he did, he was met by Honl, who appeared on a swirl of wind.

  “I know what you intend, Maelen.”

  “I have to try. This…” he said, motioning to the rune fixed in the stone on the top of the tower, “was designed to damage a shaper.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “I know what I’ve discovered.” And the rune on top of the tower was different than those on the sides. How had they not noticed that before now?

  “What happens if it affects you the same way that it affected the Daughter?” Honl asked.

  “That’s a risk that I have to take.”

  “I’m not sure it’s a risk that you can take,” Honl said. “The Daughter is important to you, but you are important for so much more.”

  Tan sighed. “I will be no good to the elementals without the Daughter. She makes me stronger.”

  Honl swirled around Tan. He felt something to the connection, almost as if the elemental went through him, but rather than becoming more distinct again, he remained insubstantial and floated into Tan.

  He gasped. With the connection altered this way, he felt a surge of power and a rush of wind. It tore through him on a torrent, a powerful connection unlike anything that he’d ever experienced before.

  With the addition of the energy that Honl added, and connected as he was to fire and the fire bond, Tan pulled on the strength of the elementals. Connected to Kota as she watched from the grounds outside the city, he added the strength of earth to his shaping. And then water came to him, the distant sense of the nymid, so different than his connection to the other elementals but no less potent.

  He drew upon them all, filling himself with shaping energy.

  Then he shot above the tower.

  Tan began, starting with a simple shaping of each of the elements but making it increasingly complex the longer that he shaped. His momentum carried him around the tower, slowly at first, but with increasing speed, pouring the energy that he borrowed from the elementals into the runes on the side of the tower.

  The shaping carried him around and around, in increasingly rapid spirals. He focused his energy on shaping into the tower itself, pouring the strength that he could summon into the walls of the tower.

  As he did, he had awareness of the people within the tower, and those within the city. The connection was more profound than any he’d ever had of Par-shon. In that moment, he thought he understood the needs of the people, even if he didn’t have any idea how he would satisfy them. Even more than that, he was able to detect the drawing of the elemental forces of these lands. They raged deep and pure, and strong, so much stronger than he would have expected.

  This was the purpose of the runes, the reason the earliest shapers had placed them there. They connected the people of Par-shon to the land itself in a way that they would not have been otherwise. And the Utu Tonah had come searching for this connection.

  Had he known of it?

  Even as Tan summoned his shaping through it, he didn’t know. It was possible that the Utu Tonah had not known, but that meant that it had somehow been kept from him.

  This connection wasn’t the reason that he’d come to shape right now. He had come so that he might be able to help Amia. To do that, he needed to turn his shaping and combine the elements in such a way that he might be able to bind them and draw them down into spirit.

  He would not use spirit itself. Tan wasn’t sure what would happen, but he suspected that doing so would lead him to the same sort of outcome that Amia had suffered.

  What he needed was a way to counter that.
He could do that with the other elements, he thought, though he wasn’t entirely sure that it would work.

  Drawing on his elemental connection, he shifted the shaping and sent it into the rune on top of the tower.

  There was resistance, much like he’d detected when he had tried repairing the rune at the place of the Mistress of Souls, but like he had there, Tan pushed, overpowering it.

  He didn’t know its source. It was something potent, and though similar to what he’d done while in the temple, this was different, as well. The opposition was vaster than anything there, and he had to draw on increasing strength.

  The connection to Amia was there. Tan saw how it became twisted, and he drew that connection close and wrapped it within a shaping of pure spirit mixed with his combined spirit shaping.

  The shaping resisted him, almost as if it were something alive.

  This is the darkness. This is what I have searched for. You must be careful, Maelen! You must be the Light!

  Tan heard Honl’s voice in his head, surging into his awareness, somehow penetrating the focus that he managed to hold.

  The comment almost forced him to lose control of the shaping.

  What darkness? Tan asked.

  This… emptiness. That is what you oppose, Maelen. You are the Light.

  I don’t understand.

  Neither do I, Maelen, not fully, but that is your purpose. You must find a way to get past this. I fear for the Daughter, and for you, if you do not.

  Tan pulled on the connection that he sensed, pulling the forced bond away from Amia. As he did, he felt the connection between them return, if only faintly.

  Drawing on more energy from Honl and from Kota and, through her, to the hounds back in Incendin and Chenir, and from the nymid, and even directly through the fire bond, he pulled power. Nothing like he had used when defeating the Utu Tonah, but the strength required to pull on this bond was still enormous.

  It shifted, settling on him.

  Tan breathed out a relieved sigh.

  Amia surged through his awareness again, the connection returned, full and intact.

  Tan!

  Her voice cried out in his mind, devastating and full of terror.

  You cannot fight this. Return the bond to me—

  She didn’t get the chance to finish. Pain shot through Tan’s mind, unlike anything he had ever experienced. It was sharp and brutal, reminding him of what it had been like when the Utu Tonah had tried to separate him from his bonds, but this was different, as well. There was intent to this, a desire to overwhelm him.

  Who is this?

  A voice boomed in his mind, a thunderous devastation.

  Tan clapped his hands to his ears and squeezed, but couldn’t push the pain from the voice. In that way, it reminded him of the draasin the first time Asboel had latched onto his mind. This was even more powerful and full of an awful intent.

  I am Tan. What kind of elemental are you?

  Tan? The voice repeated his name, somehow filling it with contempt. How is it that a Tan separated my connection?

  What connection?

  But Tan knew. This voice had connected to Amia, seeking her bond to spirit, but why?

  You will not have the Daughter.

  The comment only angered the voice. There is nothing you can do now that I am free.

  Pain surged through his mind again, and he dropped. Had it not been for Honl watching over him, he would have fallen and might have landed away from the tower, but Honl swept him up. A shadow circled overhead, and Tan worried that this elemental had come to attack him directly, but rather than an attack, Asgar crashed to a landing on top of the tower.

  His bright eyes stared at Tan, piercing through the pain.

  You must fight this, Maelen. Sashari tells me that you must, or you will be lost. All will be lost.

  I. Am. Trying.

  Each word pained him.

  Through it all, the sense of this other elemental—this other being—pressed upon his mind.

  Tan realized then what it wanted. It wanted his connection to spirit.

  If he allowed that to happen, he might fall, the same as Amia had.

  He had to fight.

  Amia joined with him, her connection granting him strength. Kota offered even more of herself. The warm presence of Honl filled his mind, and Tan felt the sense of separation the wind elemental created, a buffer within his mind. Fire, and Asgar, aided as well.

  Tan screamed.

  The pain was lessened, and with it, he felt a clarity of thought. He could push back, but doing so would require intense effort, and he still didn’t know that it would work. The other elemental had forced itself into his mind—his, now that he’d assumed the connection from Amia—and attempted to press deeper into his mind to steal spirit.

  Tan could not allow it.

  Using a combination of each of the elements, drawing through the elementals, he added this combined spirit shaping to his ability to pull on spirit. It flooded from him.

  This was a fight for control of his mind. Tan felt certain of that. And he could not afford to lose.

  Bright white light spilled from him. The shaping was a familiar one and came every time he merged each of the elements in this way. He pulled on the warmth of the shaping, drawing strength from it, and turned it internally.

  The pain within him began to lessen.

  The other elemental redoubled his efforts, fighting against Tan, clinging to his mind. Tan could feel the way he attempted to hold on and slowly began to unravel the connection, pulling the forced bond from him.

  And then it was gone.

  Tan sealed it off, separating himself from the elemental.

  He sagged against the top of the tower, exhausted and unable to stand. Honl was there, drawn out from within him. Asgar watched him, eyeing him with a worried expression that reminded him so much of Asboel. With a bound more powerful than Tan thought her capable of managing, Kota leaped to the top of the tower, using earth to assist her. All ringed him, watching him carefully. Even the sense of the nymid was there, but reserved, as if concerned that he might not be the same.

  Tan stood on shaky legs and looked around at the elementals.

  Maelen?

  Tan couldn’t tell who spoke to him. Probably Kota from the way she watched him, her eyes shining brightly and her flank pushing against him. Warmth flooded from her, but Tan noted tension within her muscles as she crouched next to him.

  He rested a hand on her neck and ran it through her fur. “I think I’m alright,” he said. He needed to reach Amia and see if she had recovered, but he didn’t think that he could shape anything right now.

  “I will bring her to you,” Honl said softly.

  “Could you bring me to her?” Tan asked.

  The wind elemental looked at the others and shook his head. “Not yet, Maelen.”

  Tan frowned but didn’t argue.

  Honl disappeared, floating from the top of the tower. Tan laid his head back and simply stared at the sky. Answers would come, but right now, he wanted only to rest.

  What was that? he sent to Kota.

  That was an ancient power, Maelen.

  An elemental? I’ve never known an elemental to try to force a bond like that. Tan was certain that was what it had attempted, but that didn’t fit with what he knew of the elementals. There was aggression to the way it had tried to force itself upon him, the way it wanted his connection to spirit. Had that been the same for Amia?

  “That was no elemental.”

  Tan looked up to see Honl standing next to him. He’d brought Amia and lowered her to the ground next to him. Color had returned to her cheeks, and some of the luster had returned to her hair.

  She rolled her head toward him and smiled. “Tan.”

  He touched her face and pulled her toward him. After the terror that he’d known, the fear that he might not be able to save her, seeing her awake and able to speak to him again left him relieved.

  Still frightened. He h
ad never known an elemental that had been as aggressive. Even kaas, while dangerous, had been a different kind of danger. This…

  “Why do you say that this wasn’t an elemental?” he asked Honl. “I felt the way it tried to connect to me, and the way it spoke to me.”

  Amia shivered. Through their bond—now restored, and if anything, stronger—he knew that she had felt the same. “It will return,” she said. “Whatever it is, it wants to return. I think… I think that is why the Utu Tonah came to Par.”

  Tan sat up and looked at Honl. Of all of them, the wind elemental was the most likely to know what had happened. He had spent all of his free time studying, searching for answers. And had given Tan a warning.

  This couldn’t be what he had warned him about, could it?

  But he thought that it could. Hadn’t he felt the dark malevolence of the creature that attempted to settle inside him? Hadn’t he known how the elemental wanted his connection to spirit?

  “Not an elemental,” Honl said again. The others around him hadn’t moved, as if keeping watch… or holding him where he was, in case something had happened to him. “I did not understand before.”

  “And you do now?”

  “I understand the purpose of this tower and the one in your homeland. They serve the same purpose.”

  “What is that?” Tan asked.

  “A seal. A way to suppress the darkness.”

  Tan shivered at the thought, and Amia touched his arm, trying to reassure him. If what Honl said was true, there was nothing that he could say that would reassure him. “You’re saying the places of convergence are a way to seal out whatever this creature is?”

  Honl shook his head. “Not a creature.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “This is not a creature, not like you or these,” he said, sweeping his hand toward the elementals guarding him. Tan suddenly knew that they weren’t sure what he would do, of whether what he had done had worked to push back the darkness. “That is the darkness,” Honl said.