Servant of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Similar, but different. They come in such numbers, Tan. The shaping of the Fire Fortress holds them back, but I can see the winds shifting. In time, even that shaping will fall.”

  “And then what?” Tan asked.

  Honl appeared to take a breath. Tan almost laughed at that, considering he was an elemental and one of wind. “Then the Mother’s task for you will come to fruition.”

  Tan shook his head. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  The wind elemental stepped forward, crossing the border. For a moment, he shimmered, as if some lingering effect of the barrier weakened him. “You have been chosen for a purpose, Tan. The Mother asks much of you, but has given much in return. Soon it will be time for you to complete your task.”

  “How is it that you know so much about my task? I don’t even know what I’m meant to do.”

  “You have always known, Tan. From the very beginning, you have known.”

  Honl stood in place for a moment and then shifted into a cloud of dark smoke, blowing away from Tan, who stared after the elemental, uncertainty swirling within him. He pulled a shaping of lightning toward him and traveled into Chenir.

  * * *

  The shaping took him into the heart of the country. He let it bring him to where the people of Chenir had camped when he last saw them, and he landed amidst the rock. The landscape around him was barren and dry, with nothing but cracked ground spreading out. Had he not known where he’d traveled, Tan might have assumed that he’d ended up in the wrong place. Devoid of life as it was, it appeared more like Incendin than Chenir.

  Tan immediately prepared another shaping. In the time since he’d been here—barely more than a day—so much had changed.

  He reached out with earth sensing, straining to determine if there were any Par-shon shapers nearby. His senses gave no sign of anyone around him. Nothing moved. Even the plants that had grown here seemed desolate and dying.

  Did Chenir know what it did when they withdrew the elementals? Tan couldn’t see how they did not, not with the way that everything changed, but why would they have forsaken the land, abandoning it to Par-shon? Pulling the elementals away from here would not starve Par-shon; it would only weaken those connected to the elementals—people like Tan.

  Where had Chenir gone?

  Tan shaped earth in an attempt to sense as far out as he could, straining with the effort of it. As he did, he found the first signs of life far to the south, much closer to the kingdoms than he would have expected.

  With a traveling shaping, he brought himself there.

  The camp that had been orderly and neat was now chaotic. Tents were thrown up in places, but not in the familiar lines he expected. A massive fire burned in one part of the camp, with shapers of fire circling around it, stoking the flames. Earth shapers worked to lift an enormous berm into place, creating a protective rim around the camp. Shouts rang out and mixed with the cries of injured people. Above all was the steady and rhythmic sound of the call to the elementals.

  Chenir retreated, and what would happen when they reached the borders? Would they continue to withdraw? Would they think to retreat all the way beyond Chenir and into the kingdoms? As Athan, Tan couldn’t allow them to do so, but as one intended to serve the elementals, could he do anything less, especially if it meant that the elementals were safe?

  A shaping nearby caused Tan to turn. The tiny water shaper that he’d seen in Ethea stared at him, watching him with an intense gaze. She held a shaping prepared and nearly unleashed it. Tan waited, thinking that the nymid armor would protect him much as his connection to the draasin protected him from fire. Would that change when Asboel passed on? Would Tan find another bond to replace Asboel?

  He didn’t think that any elemental would be able to replace the connection that he shared with the draasin. And Tan didn’t want any to even try. He’d shared so much with Asboel, they had been through so much, that Tan didn’t think he could ever have another connection as meaningful as the one that he shared with Asboel. Except, was it the same for his draasin? He had lived much longer than Tan could even fathom. He’d been alive when the ancient shapers still hunted and harnessed the elementals. He’d survived a thousand years frozen beneath the ice. Perhaps the bond wasn’t as important to Asboel as it had been to Tan.

  “Why are you here, warrior?” she asked.

  “You’re calling the elementals away from Chenir,” he said. “Do you even know what it is that you’re doing to your lands?”

  She touched a finger to her chin, tapping lightly as she did. The tapping summoned water, much like the heavy drumming called to earth. The fire stoked and blazing would likely be calling fire. He had no sense of the wind. Had Honl been there, Tan might have been able to understand what Chenir did that called to wind.

  “You think we don’t know? You think that we haven’t seen what happens to the elementals if we leave them? The Supreme Leader will not abandon the elementals that way. He would see that we drag them away if needed, but that we see the elementals to safety.”

  Tan briefly stretched out with an earth sensing. He was able to detect countless elementals around him, with enormous power stored up. This much power would have allowed him to keep his mother safe. It would have let him stop Par-shon and prevent them from taking her from him. And Chenir forced them away.

  “Do you really think they are safe this way? If you fall, what happens to the elementals that you’ve summoned? Leaving them free would give them a chance. Now?” Tan wondered how what Chenir did with the elementals was different than what Par-shon attempted. “Now you have forced them away from safety and away from their lands.”

  The water shaper ran a finger through her black hair. Her other hand adjusted the heavy wool jacket she wore. Both hands continued to tap, giving her a constant sense of movement. “Have you ever had to sit by, watching as the great strength of your home is torn away, forced to bond and fight against you? Have you ever experienced that, Warrior?”

  “I’ve felt the pain of my bonds separated from me when Par-shon tried stealing the draasin bond.”

  Her eyes widened for a moment, and then she turned toward the fire blazing to the side of the camp. “You are outside the kingdoms, Warrior. Why is it that you’ve come?”

  “Zephra was captured. And the elementals of these lands suffer.”

  She frowned. “When Zephra didn’t return, we suspected that something had happened. Then the wind no longer gusted as it had with her presence.” She turned back toward Tan. “We don’t command the wind with the same strength as Zephra. She was able to help and gave us a chance to escape.”

  “Zephra was aiding your retreat?” Why hadn’t his mother told him what she’d been doing?

  “Zephra was helping. She said the borders were open.”

  Tan wondered if Roine knew what his mother had promised. For Chenir to retreat all the way back to the kingdoms would put everyone at risk, unless the retreat was part of his plan. Had Roine asked Zephra to help? Was that the real reason that the barrier had been lowered? If so, when did Roine intend to raise it again? Would it even matter to Par-shon? They had already attacked within the borders of the kingdoms, but the barrier had been weak, barely anything. If Roine could raise the barrier with Chenir and her elementals on the other side, could the kingdoms mount a defense?

  Was that what Roine had wanted him to see when he sent Tan to help Zephra?

  He didn’t know. But Roine didn’t know what happened to Chenir as the elementals were withdrawn. He would not have seen the way the lands changed, much like Roine had not seen what had nearly happened in Doma when the elementals had been trapped. Tan began to suspect that it would be like that anywhere Par-shon visited, tearing away that which was meant to be a part of the land.

  “Par-shon attacked when she showed me,” Tan said softly. “I wasn’t able to stop the attack.” The memory of what she had whispered to him was burned into his mind.

  “Why have you returned?”

  T
an reached for his sword and felt the solid and reassuring grip of the hilt. He squeezed it briefly, thinking of what he intended. Would Chenir try to stop him? He didn’t understand enough about their plans for him to really resist, but what if rescuing his mother put what they intended in danger? What if Chenir thought to prevent Tan from trying to reach Zephra? He didn’t dare risk delaying any longer, but he also couldn’t risk fighting his way free.

  “I’ve come to restore your elementals,” he started, feeling the power of the rhythmic calling that Chenir’s shapers used. Would he be able to counter that? “And I’ve come to rescue Zephra.”

  The woman laughed, a soft and fluid sound. “You think that one shaper can survive against Par-shon?”

  Tan didn’t know, but he’d done it before. Maybe not against the might that Par-shon now had on the shores of Chenir, but he’d faced Par-shon enough times that he wasn’t going in unprepared.

  The only problem was that he needed the elementals to help. Always before, Tan had been able to call to the other elementals, to draw on the strength that they could lend him, granting him enough strength that he was able to oppose Par-shon, but the way that Chenir had withdrawn the elementals from the land, leaving it barren, Tan wasn’t as certain that he had the strength that he needed. He might be able to shape, but how was that any different than what any of the bonded Par-shon shapers could do? Without his connection to the elementals, Tan’s ability wouldn’t be enough to survive.

  “You need to release the elementals,” he said to her. “Let them return to the land. I will do what I can to oppose Par-shon.”

  She laughed again, this time pointing out and into Chenir. “You might be powerful, warrior, and the Great Mother knows that I saw how you attacked the elemental, but even you cannot stare down the might of Par-shon alone.”

  “Not alone. I will work with the elementals.”

  “The elementals will not be released.”

  Tan turned to see Tolstan Vreth, the Supreme Leader of Chenir, standing behind him. He wore a long wool jacket embroidered with the crest of Chenir, and loose-fitting pants that did nothing to hide his muscular frame. The shaping he held pressed upon Tan’s ears, leaving pressure in his head. One hand tapped his thigh while the other hand drummed across his abdomen. Tan hadn’t learned whether the movements and the rhythm would also allow them to use the strength of the elementals, or if they could simply summon them.

  He bowed his head slightly, keeping his eyes on the Supreme Leader. “You understand what you’re doing here?” Tan asked. “You see what happens to Chenir when you draw away the elementals?”

  “I will not allow Par-shon to harm them, Athan. More than anyone else, you should understand how important it is to protect them.”

  Tan considered what he’d sensed in Chenir when he’d stood on the empty expanse of land. “What you’re doing doesn’t protect them,” he said.

  The Supreme Leader’s eyes narrowed. “You are not of Chenir, Athan. You cannot understand.”

  “And you don’t speak to the elementals.”

  The Supreme Leader stared at him and said nothing. His shaping built, continuing to call to the elementals.

  “You won’t help?” Tan asked.

  He shook his head. “Theondar has promised safety were we to need it.”

  “You’re withdrawing into the kingdoms?” Tan didn’t know what would happen to the elementals of the kingdoms once those of Chenir appeared. Would it even matter to them? But he knew that it did. The elementals migrated over time, but doing so changed them. Would those of the kingdoms change as well? Would Chenir’s elementals change?

  “We do what is necessary to keep our people and the lands safe.”

  “You could fight Par-shon—”

  The Supreme Leader cut him off with a wave of his hand, gesturing to the camp around them. “Do you hear these sounds, Athan? Can you hear the cries of my people? We are a hardy folk, but there are limits. To keep my people safe, I am willing to retreat. I am willing to give up our homeland, if it means my people will survive.”

  Tan wanted to ask what would happen when Par-shon crossed over into the kingdoms. He wanted to know whether Chenir would fight then. But he didn’t. The pain on the Supreme Leader’s face was too much.

  “How many have you lost?” Tan asked.

  “Chenir is not a large nation, not by the standards of the kingdoms, and now we are a tenth of what we had been.”

  Tan surveyed the camp, trying to take a count of how many people were there. Through his earth sensing, he detected nearly five thousand camped along the rocks, but if what the Supreme Leader said was true, far more had been lost.

  With so many gone, wouldn’t he do the same in the Supreme Leader’s position? Wouldn’t he fall back and try to find a way to safety?

  And with so many dead, how did Tan expect to reach his mother? Why could he succeed when so many had failed?

  Tan didn’t think that he could. Not against the might of Par-shon, and not with the lands as barren as they were, devoid of elementals that could help. He could try to overpower the Chenir summons and try to force the elementals to ignore Chenir, but doing so would weaken these people even more. Already they had lost so much.

  But if he couldn’t reach the elementals, then his mother was truly gone. Worse than that, though, all of Chenir would be lost.

  Had Par-shon already won?

  17

  A Plan for Rescue

  With a shaping that was more wind and fire than anything else, Tan traveled away from Chenir as he tried to think about what he should do. The shaping brought him to the south, floating above Galen, and then even farther. As he traveled, he had the sense that he was drawn on his shaping, pulled along in a way that he had not been since he’d first encountered the nymid.

  Tan let the shaping be guided, wondering where it would pull him. As he veered farther east, he wasn’t surprised to realize that he made his way toward Doma.

  Taking control of the shaping, Tan focused on guiding himself beyond the mountains, along the border with Incendin. Once within Doma, a distant voice began calling in the back of his mind, and he added earth and water to the shaping already carrying him and traveled with a burst toward Falsheim.

  Tan landed outside the city. Massive walls surrounded Falsheim, with only the slate-covered roofs visible above them. Dark scorch marks stained parts of them, a reminder of the Par-shon attack. Tan wondered if those marks would ever be removed or if they should remain, a reminder of what had happened to Doma.

  Soldiers patrolled atop the wall, several along each section. Tan felt them shaping, most pulling on water. He used earth to mask himself to them, not wanting to risk an attack.

  Falsheim was not accustomed to warrior shapers and had no traveling circle for him to use, so he didn’t want to simply appear in the midst of the city and risk further damaging already fragile buildings. The Par-shon attack had left Falsheim in nearly as bad a shape as Ethea had been in when attacked by the lisincend. Tan’s arrival the last time had leveled other parts of the city, leaving entire buildings destroyed. He would not repeat that if he could help it.

  Three stunted trees rose along a wide river leading into the city. Near the trees, Tan found his cousin. She wore a plain white cotton dress and had her long brown hair pinned behind her ears. One hand tapped on her arm and reminded him of the Chenir shapers summoning water.

  “It took you long enough,” she said, stepping toward him. She moved fluidly, sliding across the ground. A shimmery mist sprayed up from the river and followed her.

  Tan suppressed a laugh and released the earth shaping that obscured him. “It’s good to see you, too.”

  “You don’t listen anymore, do you, Tan?” she asked.

  “I listen just fine.”

  Elle started toward the city, waving for him to follow. “Zephra tells me that your draasin is injured.”

  “You’ve spoken to my mother?”

  Elle looked over her shoulder, a fro
wn pursing her lips. “Zephra is of Doma. She has not forgotten that.”

  Tan wondered what that meant. She might have grown up within Doma, but she’d learned at the university and had spent her entire life serving the kingdoms. By that measure, it made her more of the kingdoms than of Doma.

  “You didn’t think that you could ask for healing?” Elle asked.

  She paused, both of them looking out to sea, and Tan realized what she wanted to show him. The sea arced around Doma as it jutted into the ocean, surrounding the entire nation with water. From the maps Tan had seen, Doma had once been much larger, but had changed over time. Whether that was something the kingdoms had done as they claimed land from the sea, or whether it was due to natural erosion, Doma was much smaller now.

  Their shapers were still powerful. Tan had never realized quite how powerful they were, and he wondered how much of it was because the elementals had been freed from the Par-shon bonds. Tan sensed the shaping, but he didn’t need to be a water shaper to know what they did and why Par-shon had left Doma alone since Tan had freed them. Much like what the lisincend did with their shaping of fire, Doma and their water shapers now did with water, creating massive waves that washed away from the city. The effect of the shaping created a driving sense out and away from Falsheim.

  “Did they learn that from Incendin?” he asked.

  Elle’s eyes narrowed slightly. As a child, she’d lost her home to Incendin. In that, she and Tan shared much. “Incendin can be a harsh instructor, but our people learn,” she said.

  Tan wondered what the shaping did. Incendin had changed in some ways as their shapers pressed out and away from their shores with their shaping of fire; would it be the same with Doma? And now Chenir, pulling their elementals back. It had definitely changed the lands.