Servant of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “You visited the Fire Fortress?” Cora asked.

  “Kaas summoned on behalf of Fur.”

  “And you came? After everything that happened, you answered the summons of kaas?” Cora’s eyes widened with the question.

  “I’ve told you that we’ll need to work together,” Tan answered.

  “You know what that creature did,” Cora said.

  Tan hadn’t expected Cora to object to his working with kaas, but then, she’d seen what happened to Asboel and how kaas had attacked other elementals. “And I know how kaas has been changed. Ask the draasin if you need, Cora, but don’t doubt that change can be real. All of us will need to change if we’re to survive what Par-shon intends.”

  Cora breathed out slowly. “You know the last man of the kingdoms to visit the Fire Fortress?”

  “Lacertin,” Tan said. “I know.”

  Cora’s shoulders sagged slightly with the mention of Lacertin. They had been close, though Tan still didn’t know or understand the depths of the relationship between them. It was close enough that Cora mourned his passing, but not close enough that she knew he had worked on behalf of the kingdoms the entire time he’d been in Incendin. And not enough for Incendin to have asked for his help with Par-shon.

  Tan stepped over to the bound lisincend. It surged against the bindings of fire wrapped around it. Tan reached over the fire, unmindful of the heat radiating from it. The lisincend hissed, sending steam and a sputtering flame from its mouth which did not harm Tan. Tan wasn’t certain what shapings of fire would harm him. Not the draasin’s. And not lisincend. Would something like kaas harm him, or had the fact that he’d begun to fully understand fire, had embraced his connection to the fire bond, given him the ability to withstand shapings like that?

  Would he ever be able to manage something similar with the other elements? Would Tan find himself immune to shapings of water, air, and earth? His connection to fire was deeper than the others, but Tan still didn’t understand why.

  “Your fire will not hurt me,” Tan began, intentionally leaning into the draasin. “And it will not twist you any longer,” he said.

  Tan reached for the connection to fire, using spirit to help him join the fire bond more fully. Awareness of it burned all around him. Fur practically glowed. Cianna was out there, connected indirectly by Sashari. Tan could reach the draasin, were he to try. Cora, tied through Enya, pulled on the fire bond as well.

  The connection showed him more than just those around him, but it was what was outside the fire bond that he reached for. The lisincend was there, just beyond the bond, twisted by the shaping that had turned him into the lisincend. That shaping had given him much power, but had taken away the control required to truly serve fire. Without that control, what was left was nothing more than anger and rage that burned, augmented by fire.

  Could he repeat what he’d done with Fur and the other lisincend? There were so many that needed to be restored that Tan didn’t know if he could do it alone. Amia had helped when he had brought the lisincend back into the bond, but his sense of her was distant this time, her focus elsewhere. Vaguely, he sensed her shaping and knew that he couldn’t risk distracting her, not as she worked with spirit with strength enough for him to recognize the shaping.

  Could he do this without her help? He didn’t necessarily want to; Amia had always provided the support and guidance that Tan needed. She had the experience with shaping spirit, but didn’t Tan now have the knowledge that he needed to nudge the lisincend, to undo the damage the twisting had done to them?

  Fur waited. The bound lisincend surged again, straining to attack Tan. Heat began to build within him.

  Tan had failed when he tried to heal one of the lisincend on his own before, but then he’d thought to heal the lisincend back to the shaper it was before. What he planned now was different. He couldn’t afford to fail this time, not if they were to work together with Incendin as they faced Par-shon.

  He pulled on power through his sword, the runes along the blade glowing with a soft light. The lisincend’s attention was drawn to it, as if the sword was what he should fear.

  “You will allow this shaper to destroy me, Fur?” he hissed.

  Fur said nothing. For that, Tan was thankful.

  Tan pulled on more power, reaching for all of the elemental energy around him. Once, he would have thought that Incendin had a dearth of elementals, but he’d learned that wasn’t the case. The elementals were found everywhere, both within the kingdoms and outside. The elementals might be different, and the ways to reach them might be different, but they were there.

  Elemental powers answered Tan’s silent summons, as if they understood what he prepared to attempt.

  The fire bond told Tan what needed to be done. With a twisting of fire and spirit, he found the way fire worked through the lisincend, the way it twisted outside of the bond, the shaping that had transformed the fire shaper and turned him into something both more and less than what he had been. This shaping had stolen his control, had taken away his ability to suppress the fire raging through him.

  A shaping of spirit mixed with fire helped pull the lisincend back toward the bond. Tan drew strength through the warrior sword. Without it, Tan didn’t think that he would be able to complete the shaping. He felt resistance, more than he remembered from shaping the other lisincend, and then fire unraveled, drawn back toward the fire bond and the source of Fire.

  There was a surge of spirit as the shaping took hold.

  The lisincend gasped and his head sagged forward. Tan waited, but he felt nothing else. With a sigh, he released the shaping and realized with a start that he felt nothing from the lisincend.

  5

  The Depth of the Bond

  “Is it done?” Fur asked.

  “It’s done,” Tan said, drawing as much strength back to himself as he could, using the nameless elementals all around him, as well as those he knew. Ashi restored him, the nymid flowing through the stream helped, and even Asboel distantly helped from within Ethea. With each breath, he pulled his back straighter, letting the power of the elementals fill him. Tan took a step toward the lisincend, his boots crunching on the hard earth of Incendin, and the hot sun, barely at midday, burning in his eyes. “Can’t you sense it?”

  Fur tipped his chin to the side and sniffed at the air. He remained like that for a moment, then dropped the bands of fire, slowly easing the lisincend to the ground.

  The lisincend recovered slowly, but when it did, it lunged, diving toward Fur with a powerful jump. “You would do this to me, Fur?” he hissed. Flames shot from the lisincend, lancing and twisting together, attempting to bind Fur with the same shaping that had been used to hold him in place.

  Fur pushed back, and the other lisincend tumbled to the hard rock and struck at Fur’s head. Fur caught it and bent his arm away.

  Tan readied a shaping and stepped toward them, but Cora caught him with a hand on his shoulder and drew him back. “This is for them to settle, Tan,” she said.

  “What if Fur is hurt?” He needed Fur to lead the lisincend, but more than that, he needed Fur to hold the bond with kaas, at least until they knew whether the serpent of fire would attempt to destroy elementals again. Kaas might have been returned to fire, but Tan didn’t trust it as a free elemental, not without knowing what might happen. Because of that, he needed Fur.

  Cora’s mouth parted in a tight smile. “The First has battled for his position for many years. I do not think even his brother can wrest it from him.”

  “Brother?”

  Tan considered the other elemental as Fur battled him. There were similarities to the shape of the jaw and the smooth, leathery features of their faces, but with the lisincend, it was difficult to tell. They had much the same build, both powerful and muscular, and Tan would have once been terrified to see either.

  “You didn’t know?” Cora asked.

  “I agreed to heal the lisincend. He didn’t share who they were.”

  The in
tensity of their fight sagged, and Fur simply held him off, not attempting to hurt him. The other lisincend circled around Fur, steam rising as he worked to create a heat veil. Ashi blew through, sending sand and dirt to distort the veil, blowing away the effects of the lisincend’s shaping.

  “There are many powerful shapers who embraced fire,” Cora said softly. Sadness and longing mixed together in her voice. “Many think of Fur as the first, but our shapers have embraced fire for centuries. Fur serves as the First, but there were others before him, as there will be after. His brother has always been envious of Fur. Many were, wishing to lead the lisincend and to control the pack.”

  “I’m sorry Alisz couldn’t be here.”

  “My sister would not have been so easy for you to pull back into fire,” Cora said. “She was always interested in power, in whatever form that would take. In that, she rivaled Fur. I think he saw in her many of his own traits. That might be why he resisted allowing her the transformation for so long.”

  The lisincend had stopped fighting, and Fur stood over his brother, tightly gripping his neck. Fur’s breaths came heavily and he lifted his brother, throwing him toward Tan. “You said he was returned.”

  Tan felt for the fire bond, pulling on spirit to help guide him. The lisincend was no longer twisted, not as he had been. “He is healed, Fur.”

  “Then why does Issan attack?”

  Issan growled softly and jumped to his feet, pushing up with a shaping. He didn’t attempt to attack, but he held a shaping. “You defer to the kingdoms now? Have you fallen so far, Fur?”

  Fur leapt and landed in front of Issan. Tan noted that one cheek was bloodied and his left eye had already started to swell. “I am the First of the lisincend. You will not speak to me with such contempt!”

  Issan tilted his chin forward. “No? You do not deserve anything but my contempt. Under your rule, you allowed others to distort the shaping. And now this.” Issan surged with heat, creating a veil around him that cleared with a gust of ashi. Issan snorted again and shifted his attention to Cora. “And you,” he said. “I know you. You should serve the throne better than this.”

  Cora stared at him defiantly, one hand clenching the hilt of her sword, before looking away. The lisincend smiled.

  Tan debated shaping spirit over the lisincend, soothing him the way he’d seen the First Mother of the Aeta soothe her people, but would that only encourage Issan to think that Fur served him? Something had to be said, but Tan didn’t know what it should be.

  “How long have you abandoned your people, Fur?” Issan went on. “Was it the defeat that changed you? You allowed the others to challenge you? After your defeat, you should have stayed hidden. The Sunlands would have been better for it. Stronger.”

  Fur’s back stiffened. A shaping built, one of power that he drew through the elemental he was now bonded to, with strength enough to incinerate a city. Not for the first time, Tan wondered if he’d made a mistake in pushing kaas’s bond onto Fur. If he attacked, if he chose to fight the kingdoms rather than Par-shon, it would take considerable strength to stop him. That was strength they didn’t have to spare, not with as few shapers as the kingdoms now had, and not with how easily Par-shon managed to force bonds upon the elementals.

  “There was no defeat,” Fur said.

  “No? Then this scar was of your choosing?” Issan pointed toward the long scar running down Fur’s cheek. There was a matching scar along his back, equally deep and ugly.

  Asboel crawled to the forefront of Tan’s mind, intrigued by the lisincend fight, watching through Tan’s eyes much like Tan had once used his. No, Maelen, they were of my choosing.

  Then you let him escape, Tan teased.

  Careful, Maelen, or you will see how sharp my teeth and talons remain.

  Tan suppressed a grin.

  “Enough, Issan. Do you no longer feel the urgency of fire? Can’t you feel the control return?” Fur asked. He circled around his brother. “How long has it been since you controlled fire, rather than having it burn within you, demanding your anger and rage? How long has it been since you were able to push away those urges?”

  Tan was pulled forward as Fur spoke. Cora tried holding him back, but he shook her hand off his shoulder. He had known the urgency that Fur described. Fire had consumed him once before. Had Amia not been there, he would have completed the transformation, letting fire twist him completely. Once changed like that, there was no control. Only fire.

  “What makes you think I wanted control?” Issan asked softly.

  Fur raised his arm as if to strike and then caught himself, lowering it again. “Had I no control, you would already be dead,” Fur said.

  “Had you still listened to fire, you would have killed this shaper long ago,” Issan answered.

  Fur growled.

  Tan stopped in front of Issan, looking up at the lisincend. Fur stood next to him, and Tan made an effort to ignore him. He couldn’t let Fur see the remaining nerves he felt standing next to him—not if he intended to partner with Fur—or the hint of anger that remained whenever he thought of what the lisincend had done to his home, and to Amia. Issan could see his anger, though.

  “Try,” Tan said to Issan.

  The lisincend tilted his head. “Without Fur standing by your side, a shaper of the kingdoms would not be quite so arrogant.”

  Tan glared at Issan. Let the lisincend see that Fur did not work with him for no reason. If he had to prove the same to each of the lisincend, then he would. “Do not interfere,” Tan said to Fur, sheathing his sword. Let Issan see that he would not need to use his weapon.

  “You think to order me?” Fur asked.

  “Let him attack. Let him see why we must work together.”

  “You are strong, Warrior, but Issan is powerful in ways you cannot—”

  Issan lunged toward Tan.

  “Tan!” Cora yelled.

  He had been ready, earth’s shaping telling him to expect it. Tan jumped, drawing on air and sliding only a few steps to the side. Issan spun, sending a shaping toward Tan that missed as Tan jumped over his head and landed behind him. Tan didn’t shape anything—he waited.

  Issan slithered toward him with a dark gleam to his eyes. Heat built within him, swirling in a shimmery veil. Tan could see through it, could see Issan as he burned with fire, almost as if looking with Asboel’s eyes.

  Drawing on ashi, he pulled away the veil. “Try,” Tan said, urging the lisincend.

  Issan lunged again, this time swinging his fist as he jumped, mixing a fire shaping with it.

  Tan stood fixed in place. With a shaping of earth to strengthen him, he caught Issan’s fist and threw him back. The lisincend spun, but as he did, he lashed out with thin streamers of flame that he wrapped around Tan, binding his arms and neck. Tan chose not to move.

  Issan came to his feet, a dark smile on his face. “Is there anything you would say to him before I destroy him?” he asked Fur.

  A fleeting eagerness crossed Fur’s face. “Release him,” Fur commanded.

  “You would enable a shaper of the kingdoms after how Lacertin betrayed us?” Issan pulled on the flames, drawing Tan toward him.

  “Release him!” Fur said again.

  Issan roared, and heat surged off him as he pulled on Tan.

  Tan allowed himself to be pulled forward. When he reached Issan, he waved away the shaping and stepped free.

  Issan bellowed.

  “Do you think Fur so weak that he would work with just any shaper?” Tan asked. “Do you think me so stupid that I would come to the Sunlands if I couldn’t defend myself?”

  A flash of darkness caught Tan’s attention.

  Almost too late, he realized that Issan had called hounds to him. Where was Cianna? She should have been watching for the hounds, keeping track of them so that he didn’t need to fear a surprise attack like this.

  Tan called on the wind and hovered above the ground, just out of reach of the three hounds converging toward Issan. The lisincend
sneered at Tan, a shaping of fire streaming from him. Not toward Tan, but at Cora.

  Tan jumped to block it, but he would be too late. The shaping would hit her.

  Pulling on earth, he sent her tumbling as a chunk of rock flung her to the left. Tan landed where she’d been standing, and the fire shaping struck him. It didn’t harm him, melting away.

  Tan smoothed the earth again.

  The hounds snarled. They were nearly as tall as the mountain wolves of his homeland. Long fangs hung down from their jaws, curling toward their lower lips. They had short, black fur that jutted from thick hides. Stubby tails pointed up as they attacked.

  They were creatures of fire, though Tan had never really understood them. Much like the lisincend, they could draw on fire itself, but they were twisted. And from what Cora had said, they had existed before the lisincend.

  The three hounds converged as one. Issan roared triumphantly, leaping toward Tan on a shaping of fire. Tan might be able to shape his way free, but he risked injuring not only the hounds, but also Issan. If he was to convince them to work together, he would need them unified.

  With a calming breath, he reached through his sword, pulling on each of the elements. Tired from his previous shaping, he didn’t take the time to slowly craft the shaping, combining it with the strength he could summon from the elementals around him, borrowing even from Amia and using her connection to spirit. There was a flash of power, and then everything stopped.

  In that moment, Tan reached for the hounds, sensing where they were within the fire bond. It was a nebulous sort of thing, and he didn’t detect them within it—he hadn’t expected to—but they were even further outside it than the lisincend, possibly even further than kaas had been. He expected them to be mindless creatures that would need nudging back into the bond, but there was something about them that was familiar.

  Using a shaping of spirit mixed with fire, he pulled the hounds back toward true fire. Unlike with the lisincend, that wasn’t enough. The lisincend were shapers of fire, twisted by the way they had embraced it too closely. Restoring them to fire required Tan to use only the combination of fire and spirit.