Servant of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I’ll keep us safe,” he promised her.

  She let out a pent-up breath and nodded.

  Tan followed Fur, and Cianna held onto his shoulder as they went.

  They continued downward. The stairs were even narrower here than they had been on the upper levels, and the heavy stone pressing up against him made Tan all too aware of the weight of the fortress overhead. Now Cianna gripped both his shoulders as she followed him down, and she pressed close enough that he felt the warmth of her minty breath on the back of his neck.

  Fur waited for them at the bottom of the stairs. “You would help?” He pointed to a series of doors carved out of stone and marked with iron in the shapes of runes for earth. “Then help us here.”

  “What is this?” Cianna asked. It was the first time she’d spoken aloud to Fur.

  Tan reached out with a sensing of earth and recognized that elementals were woven into the stone. Mixing spirit with it, he listened through the stone and sensed what Fur wanted him to do.

  Behind each of the doors was a lisincend. Most were like Fur, lisincend made before the secret to the winged lisincend had been learned, though there were a few winged lisincend held behind the doors. All raged against their capture. Their fury beat on the walls but was subdued by earth, the cells bolstered by a surprising source: kaas.

  “You want them all healed,” Tan said slowly.

  Fur touched the nearest door, tracing a glowing pattern over the stone, and then withdrew his hand. “The lisincend have been powerful since the first of us embraced fire, but you are right, Warrior, that we have no control. It has long been our shapers who keep the flames atop the fortress burning. The lisincend could not focus on the shaping long enough. It is why our greatest shapers were exalted but trapped within the fortress, required to hold the shaping. Now, with what you have done, the lisincend are able join the shaping and bind fire in ways that have withstood Par-shon.”

  “How many are there?” Tan asked.

  Fur touched the next cell, tracing a long nail around the iron. His mouth tightened as he did. “More than your kingdoms would believe,” he said. “Once, I would never have thought to hold my lisincend behind stone. But they remain different than those you have altered. Controlled by fire as they are, they are weaker than those healed and brought back to fire. Weaker, but they have numbers. When they attacked, I realized they needed confinement.” Fur faced Tan, long fingers clenching and unclenching as he did. “You will fix this, Warrior.”

  Cianna made her way around the dozens of doors. “Each of these holds one of the lisincend?” she asked.

  Fur growled softly, making a sound that reminded Tan of the draasin. “There should be more, but many have died.”

  “Good,” Cianna said. Anger seethed from her as she studied each of the cells. Tan wondered if she might find a way to attack the lisincend, even buried behind the stone as they were.

  Fur started toward her, but Tan stepped between him, blocking him. “You called us here, Fur,” Tan said. “And you want our help.”

  Fur breathed out a low grunt.

  “If I am to do this, will you work with us?” Tan asked.

  Fur focused on the nearest cell. “You will do this so that we can attack Par-shon.”

  That was almost reason enough for Tan. He wasn’t certain that he could help this many of the lisincend. When he’d done it before, it had taken the help of the elementals, the power of Asboel, and the drawing of enormous amounts of spirit. What Fur asked of him amounted to weakening him, possibly leaving him helpless. At the least, he would need to bind each of the elements together to make the shaping work. At worst, he wouldn’t have the strength needed to save even one. Tan wasn’t even certain that he could do it here, buried beneath Incendin like this, without other elementals for assistance.

  In spite of that, he had to try. The lisincend had been powerful fire shapers before they transformed. Now that they had embraced fire—and survived the transformation—they were even more powerful. This was exactly the kind of strength Tan would need for them to face Par-shon.

  Once, he had sought allies to face Incendin. It was then that he’d learned of Par-shon. He didn’t miss the irony that he now went to Incendin seeking allies against Par-shon.

  Cianna stopped at his shoulder and leaned toward him. “Think about this, Tan. How many lisincend are here?” she whispered. “How many will attack the kingdoms if they’re released?”

  Tan couldn’t take his eyes off the runes that locked the doors closed. Earth holding fire. He would not have believed that the lisincend— particularly Fur—would confine the lisincend. There had been no remorse when the lisincend attacked before, no sorrow when his home had been destroyed. If Fur was willing to confine dangerous lisincend, wasn’t this exactly the change that he’d intended?

  If only Cora could be here to help him understand what Fur intended. What purpose did he have for the nearly three dozen lisincend, fire shapers with enough strength to overpower the kingdoms?

  “Where is Corasha Saladan?” Tan asked.

  Fur let out a low rumble. “She has alternative commitments.”

  “What does that mean?” Tan asked.

  “The Sunlands are a place of fire. It is drawn here, to the fortress. That is why we are able to withstand Par-shon when others fail. Warriors serve a different role.”

  “I will not help you until I know where she is.”

  “You will do this, Warrior.”

  Tan pulled on a shaping, wrapping Fur in air and earth, squeezing tightly enough for the lisincend to feel the effects. Ashi blew through even this lower level, augmenting Tan’s shaping.

  At the back of Tan’s mind, Asboel roared a soft warning.

  Then Tan released Fur. “You do not command me. I am Athan to King Regent Theondar.”

  Fur faced Tan, drawing himself to his full height so that his head brushed the stone overhead. He loomed over Tan and stepped forward. “And I am Fur, First of the lisincend.”

  Tan didn’t move, but neither did he pull on a shaping. He refused to let Fur see him scared or nervous, but he would not antagonize him. “Where is Corasha Saladan?” Tan asked again.

  Fur chuckled. “Yes, you have grown fierce, Warrior. I remember how you cowered before me the first time we met. Heal them, then you will see the Saladan.”

  There was something Fur was keeping from him, something more than needing the lisincend healed. Maybe he knew how Tan needed to see Cora, how Tan intended to bring the warriors together as they once had been. Or maybe it was nothing like that, and Fur simply wanted the lisincend healed for the reason he claimed, hoping to use them in the shaping of fire that kept Par-shon from their shores.

  Tan made his way down the hall, letting his hand trail over the stone. Fur walked next to him, keeping pace and sniffing at the air, leaving a haze of heat around him. There was elemental strength here, but different than in the kingdoms. How much of it was because of what kaas did, and how much from the rune? He couldn’t tell. There was no sense other than the wild rage from the lisincend on the other side, more than Tan had ever suspected.

  “How many risk fire?” he asked Fur.

  “Any may choose to embrace fire.”

  “How many shapers have you lost to this?”

  “The Sunlands once were home to the most powerful shapers of fire. Like your kingdoms, our shapers have grown weak. We reclaimed some of that lost power by embracing fire, but there was a price. With any shaping, there is always a price.”

  A different concern occurred to Tan. “You will not use spirit shapers to create more lisincend.”

  “You do not command Fur.”

  “If these are healed, there will be no others.”

  Fur’s thin eyes pulled into narrow slits. “And if they come willingly?”

  Tan couldn’t imagine what it would take for a spirit shaper to willingly offer themselves for the creation of the lisincend. The transformation that he’d witnessed had been horrible. It seemed unl
ikely that any would sacrifice themselves for such a purpose. “There will be no others,” Tan said again.

  Fur tipped his head. Then he nodded. “No others, unless they choose willingly.”

  That would have to do. “If I do this, it will not be done here. I will need access to elementals not found beneath the earth.”

  “Tell me, Warrior, what do you require?”

  Tan thought for a moment. “What I need is a place—”

  “You will not remove the lisincend from the Sunlands.”

  Tan shook his head, thinking of what he knew of Incendin. With Asboel, he had traveled extensively over the land. He had seen much, but what he needed required the right place.

  Asboel helped, pushing an image into Tan’s mind, reminding him of a place they had seen together. Tan opened his eyes and pulled his back straight. “There is a place within the Sunlands that should work well.”

  4

  Restored

  “This is ridiculous, Tan.”

  Tan grimaced at Cianna, resisting the urge to shield his face from the wind and sand blowing around him. It whipped through the stilted trees with long, slender needles that grew along the side of the stream. One of the trees actually flowered, producing a simple bloom of milky white that sent its fragrance into the air, only to be assaulted by the sand and dust, almost as if Incendin did not want anything of beauty to survive.

  “What’s ridiculous?” he asked. “That I had Fur bring the lisincend here, or that I’ve offered to help?”

  Cianna laughed and immediately covered her mouth to keep the sand from blowing in. “Both, actually.” She cupped her hand over her brow and frowned, her face going slack. “Sashari says they’re coming.”

  Tan gripped his sword and unsheathed it, readying for what he’d agreed to do for Fur. Here, in this part of Incendin, standing near the border between the kingdoms, but still far enough into the dangerous waste that no rescue could reach them, he could draw upon each of the elementals. That connection would let him draw on more power than he could shape alone, and the warrior sword would help him augment it, binding the elements as he required to craft the shaping needed to heal the lisincend. If only he could remember what it was he’d done the last time. Then, it had been about trying to stay alive. With kaas attacking, Tan had used the only shaping he could think of to survive, and that shaping had demanded that he pull the lisincend back toward the fire bond. It was the same shaping that he’d needed to use on kaas.

  Of all the elements, fire would be easy—not only because he could draw from the draasin, but because there were other elementals of fire within Incendin. Saa and saldam were found here. Inferin was here, but rare. There might even be other elementals of fire that he had no name for, elementals that could be called to his aid. More than anything else, the ability to borrow from the elementals might be the greatest gift the Great Mother had given him.

  Beyond fire, Tan’s connection to ashi and the wind allowed for a strong connection. Other elementals of wind blew through Incendin, though none quite as strong as ashi. Ara preferred the cool and damp of the kingdoms. Wyln seemed more common in Doma, searching for the sea spray as it blew in from the ocean. The only wind elemental that he rarely saw in the kingdoms was ilaz, but even ilaz could be found in Ethea, drawn by the place of convergence.

  The heavy sense of earth pushed against his senses as well. Nothing like golud, the elemental that preferred the heaving mountains or the deep underground far beneath Ethea, but there was elemental power here nonetheless. Tan didn’t know if it was nodn or another elemental of earth, one that he had yet to learn its name. In Incendin, his sense of earth was different, and it pulled on him like sand blowing through the wind and the hot rock teetering, just on the verge of falling, or even the massive cracks that split the land. Much like water had been different in Doma, earth in Incendin was very different.

  The challenge within the Sunlands was water.

  Water was rare in Incendin. Tan might have bonded the nymid, but he needed to be able to reach a source of water to use the bond. Incendin had no real rivers to speak of. The border with the sea was like much of the rest of the land, brutal and harsh. Only a few small streams snaked through the Sunlands, providing meager access to water. This was what he’d sought before leading Fur here. Without a source of water, Tan wasn’t certain that he’d be of much help to the lisincend. Even with water, he wasn’t certain that he could do what he needed to do.

  With a shaping of lightning, Cora crashed to the ground, carrying Fur with her. She wore the dark red leathers of Incendin, and her chestnut hair was cut shorter than the last time he’d seen her, more angular and giving her face an even more youthful appearance. A slender warrior’s sword hung from her waist—another change to her—and one hand gripped the hilt. Her sharp jaw clenched as her gaze landed on Tan. A question lingered in her eyes, though she remained silent, stepping back and behind Fur, deferring to the lisincend.

  Tan wondered again what it must have been like for her before Fur’s healing. The mindless lisincend held much power in Incendin, and yet they chased objectives that perhaps only Fur really understood. Fur ruled the others, at least until Asboel had hunted him, leaving him injured and creating a void within the lisincend that Alisz had attempted to fill. That had been the extent of Tan’s understanding of the lisincend.

  Fur carried another of the lisincend, now bound within fire, wrapped with tight ropes of flame looping around wrists and ankles and spiraling around the lisincend’s stomach and neck, pulling tightly so that the creature could not escape. The lisincend looked much like Fur, with a sloped forehead and narrow, slanted eyes that took in everything as they landed. Heat steamed from both, but only Fur appeared at ease. The other lisincend surged against the bindings, straining to get free.

  Tan studied the bonds, wondering if he could shape something that required the same level of tight control, and thought that he could. The shaping reminded him in some ways of the tight shaping Lacertin had used the first time Tan had seen him. Had Lacertin learned from Fur, or had it been the other way around?

  “This was your doing, then?” Cora asked, stepping toward Tan once the other lisincend was settled.

  Tan glanced at Fur. “He didn’t tell you?”

  Cora’s brow furrowed and her expression darkened. “The First thinks he must no longer answer to any. Once, he was accountable to the king, but now even that has changed. I blame you, Tan.”

  “I blame him for many things, but it does me little good,” Cianna said.

  Cora’s mouth twitched, as if she almost smiled. “The First claims we were needed here. He would not explain why.”

  “Fur wouldn’t tell me where you were. The bond didn’t either,” Tan explained. He needed time alone with Cora before he spoke to her about the other part of his plan.

  “Did you fear that I’d disappeared, Tan?” Cora asked. “You know that there are other ways of reaching me.”

  “There are other ways,” Tan agreed, “but I didn’t want to impose upon the draasin.” And he hadn’t known whether Enya would respond the same way that Sashari did. She still had a certain reservation about the bond, in spite of the fact that she had willingly accepted it, though her options had been to bond or risk the Utu Tonah forcing a bond.

  Cora’s eyes narrowed at the same time that Cianna laughed.

  At the sound, the bound lisincend surged against the shapings wrapped around him. A loud, hissing bellow that mixed with a shaping erupted from him. In response, a series of low, steady howls rolled toward them, slowly echoing closer.

  Tan turned toward the sound. His reaction to the hounds changed each time he heard them. This time, with Fur and Cora with him, would it matter if hounds approached?

  “The hounds will answer the call,” Cianna said. “You might heal these lisincend, but can you heal the hounds?”

  “I don’t know if it will be necessary,” Tan said, looking at Cora.

  “I don’t control the hounds,�
� Cora said. “They are ancient animals, older than the lisincend. The First earned their trust and can lead them.”

  Tan hadn’t known that. He knew they were different, though not quite why. Could they be healed the way the lisincend had been healed? The fire bond told him the hounds were twisted by fire, much like the lisincend. If they were, couldn’t he find some way to help them as well? Only, he didn’t know what would happen to him if he healed the hounds.

  He had experience with the lisincend. The shaping required to pull them back to the fire bond was difficult, but Tan had managed it with both the winged lisincend and with Fur. He could repeat it. But the hounds? A part of him wondered if he would have to destroy them. Whoever created them might be too twisted to save.

  “Let’s get moving,” Tan said. “Fur, will you keep the hounds from disturbing me?”

  Fur grunted softly, making a point of avoiding the bound lisincend as he answered, “The hounds no longer respond to my command.”

  Tan blinked.

  Cora jerked her head around. “You no longer command them?”

  Fur flared his nostrils and started to answer, but Tan waved him off. There wasn’t time for discussion, not if the hounds approached. “Cianna, you will need to keep the hounds at bay while we heal the lisincend. Try not to harm them.” She arched a brow at the comment. “But destroy them if you need to.” Cianna nodded once. Tan turned to Fur. “What do you intend when they’re healed?”

  “There is a period of disorientation,” Fur said. “It takes time to understand the change.”

  “Maybe it would have been better to remain in the Fire Fortress,” Cianna said as she lifted to the air with a shaping of fire. She’d learned how to twist fire to hold herself aloft, a trick that Sashari had taught her.