Servant of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “They are healed. Brought back into the fire bond. There were lisincend who did not want to be healed, who preferred the mindless draw of fire. Issan—Fur’s brother—was one of them. The rest felt much the same.” Tan shaped water to study the lisincend again. They had begun to move away from the border, but Tan couldn’t tell which direction they headed. “They don’t know what their purpose is anymore. They resent Fur for what he’s done, but they also miss the draw of fire.”

  Tan thought of when he’d been consumed by fire and the way that it had called to him. He understood how the lisincend felt, the way they desired the return to the connection. Tan had been able to reach the other elementals and had Amia to help him, but these lisincend would have been twisted by fire for a long time, some possibly longer than Tan had been alive. That most had tolerated the healing was actually surprising.

  “Your willingness to accept what they had been is troubling, Tannen.”

  “As is your inability to recognize that people change. You were not always so stubborn.”

  “I’ve always been stubborn,” Zephra snapped.

  “Then it’s not Aric’s influence,” Tan said. “Good. Now that you know it’s you, you can work on fixing it.” He took his mother’s hands and squeezed. “I saved you so that you could help, but also because I love you, Mother. In spite of your unwillingness to recognize that I’ve become . . . ” He trailed off, not certain what to call himself. Cloud Warrior didn’t quite fit, because Tan felt that he was something different than the Cloud Warriors. He was not like the Utu Tonah, the Bonded One, though in some ways he was more like him than anything else. “Capable,” he finished. “And in spite of your inability to forgive. Not only Incendin, but you’ve struggled with Amia and the Aeta. They are not the reason that Father is gone. They are not the reason that you lost your first bond.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Incendin is the reason that Grethan and Alyia are gone. Had Incendin not attacked, both would still be with me.”

  “And without all of this happening, you would never have reconnected with Theondar. I’ve seen it, and I’ve seen the connection between you both. I don’t resent the fact that you can find comfort in Theondar. He is a good man, even if he’s nearly as stubborn as you. But like you, he struggles to forgive. We’ve all made mistakes, and we all have the potential to change. For us to survive, we all must change.”

  His mother pulled her hands away from him and Tan dropped his, letting her go.

  “I’m not sure that I can ever move past what Incendin has done over the years. Theondar has the same struggles.”

  “Mother—” Tan started.

  She shook her head. “Tannen, you will do what you must.” She smiled, and her eyes softened, warmth coming to them. “You have always been something of a mixture of myself and Grethan in that way. And you share much of your stubbornness with me. I see that you have made up your mind. I suspect that it has something to do with what you said to the lisincend. I didn’t hear all of it, but Aric brought enough snippets for me to know that you intend to return to Chenir. That way lies defeat and death. I would do anything to keep you from that fate, but you are a man.” She crossed her arms and grabbed at each shoulder. “Seeing you these last few months, watching you become this shaper, and then this warrior, and then so much more . . . it has filled me with pride and sadness. I know there is only one way this can end.”

  “You don’t know that, Mother.”

  “I know that you are determined to do what you must to protect the elementals from harm. Tell me that I’m wrong.”

  “You’re not wrong in that. But you are wrong that there is only one way that this will end. I may not have the bonds that the Utu Tonah possesses, but I have something that he doesn’t. I have the support of the Great Mother. Whatever else happens, I feel that much is true.” And he’d heard the same from Asboel, and from Honl. “Promise me something,” Tan said.

  His mother tipped her head and waited.

  “When you sense my call, promise that you will work the wind. Ara will guide you and will know what to do. Listen to Aric. And convince Alan and any other wind shaper to help. I don’t know why I feel so strongly that it will work, but it has to. That has to be the answer to cleansing Par-shon from our lands.”

  His mother inhaled deeply and her arms relaxed, dropping to her sides. She tipped her head toward him, her lips pursed. “I will listen,” she agreed.

  Tan thought that was all that he could hope for at this point.

  With a shaping binding each of the elements, he traveled away from Nara and into Chenir.

  26

  An Elemental Plan

  The landscape around Chenir had drastically changed. The grasses that grew across the rocky plains had a faded appearance, sagging into the earth. Not so much like grasses that had dried from the change in season, these looked as if they had somehow lessened, as if more than simply the life had been drawn from them. The tall oak tree Tan appeared next to was much the same, the branches sagging, making it droop, the leaves curled and faded, slowly dropping to the ground. Even the bark of the tree had a different appearance, as if the color had been blanched from it.

  The steady, rhythmic sounds of the Chenir drumming rolled over him, a call from their distant shapers. With each beat, Tan felt the elementals recede further, and with each beat, he felt the life leave these lands even more quickly.

  They had nearly reached the border with the kingdoms. Another day, and they would be there, and then what? Would Chenir stop withdrawing the elementals or would they continue, pulling them deeper into the kingdoms, leaving those lands altered as well?

  In the east, he sensed the distant pull of Par-shon. Their shapers pushed against Chenir. Tan felt the force of their thousand bonded shapers, something like a weight upon him. In time, they would overwhelm Chenir. Then there would be nothing to oppose Par-shon. Chenir would be abandoned and lost.

  Tan inhaled and lifted to the air on a shaping of fire and wind, inspired by how Asboel had flown. Tan wished he had the draasin’s insight about what he needed to do, but then, didn’t he carry much of it with him? Asboel had shared with him everything that Tan needed to be able to stop Par-shon. Now Tan had to do it.

  The shaping carried him higher and higher. Tan soared above the earth, above the clouds, high enough that he felt as if he could see all the land spread out beneath him. From this vantage point, he saw the kingdoms, Incendin, Doma, and Chenir. Everything appeared so small. He saw beyond the sea, where islands dotted the blue expanse, places like the Xsa Isles and then Par-shon. From here, Par-shon was larger than he remembered. Perhaps that was what the Utu Tonah intended. Did he intend to do the same as the kingdoms’ shapers long ago and draw land from the sea?

  Shapers filled Chenir to the east. There were hundreds, so many that he couldn’t count them all. His connection to the hounds, and through them, to earth, gave him insight. Chenir’s remaining shapers seemed so few in comparison.

  This high up, Tan felt only the sun as it burned on his face. Even the winds left him alone. He enjoyed the warmth of the sun and drew strength from it. In that way, he felt close to Asboel as well.

  Waiting did nothing more than delay what he needed.

  Pulling on the strength of the elementals, Tan streaked toward the ground. As he did, he called to Kota and to the other hounds, not certain if the pack would respond to him.

  He landed in the midst of the Chenir camp with a thunderous explosion. For a moment, the rhythmic drumming stopped, the steady pull on water and wind eased, and even the call to fire lessened. Tan felt the return of elementals and called to them. Assist me.

  The new Supreme Leader came to him, followed by shapers that Tan had seen before. The Supreme Leader wore the coat of office but did not have the same stature the last had possessed. He had a youthful face, and as Tan used a shaping of spirit to understand him, he recognized that he was only an earth shaper, not a warrior, as the last had been. The man was powerful—that much he
could easily tell—but would he have the same concern for the elementals that Tolstan Vreth had possessed?

  The water shaper was with him, her face neutral but her hands tightly clenched. A muscular earth shaper approached, carrying one of the long drumsticks their shapers used in the summoning of earth. His face was hard and pinched with an edge of anger. The fire shapers remained on the outside edge, as if unwilling to meet his eyes.

  “Theondar granted us safe passage,” the Supreme Leader said. He chose his words carefully and fixed his eyes straight ahead, as if forcing himself not to look at the shapers on either side of him. Tan wondered how tenuous a position he held. Could he fear losing his authority to the others? “That was the agreement. You would deny us that?”

  “I won’t deny your people safe passage, but you cannot remove the elementals. Your predecessor understood that.”

  The Supreme Leader took a step toward Tan. “He made the mistake of answering your call. With his passing, Chenir has lost the greatest weapon that we have. If we don’t withdraw the elementals, they will be captured and used against us. This is the only way.”

  “Have you seen what you do to Chenir?” Tan asked. “Have you gone beyond the border of your camp? If you had, you would see that what you do is more than simply withdrawing the elementals. You withdraw life.”

  One of the earth shapers stepped forward. “If it will stop Par-shon, then so be it.”

  Around Tan, the drumming and the rhythmic calling to the elementals had resumed. It came steadily, with a drive that the elementals could not ignore. “How is what you are doing so different than what Par-shon does?”

  The Supreme Leader’s eyes narrowed. “Careful with your words. You are still within Chenir. These are our lands—”

  “From what I can tell, I am not. This seems more like a part of Par-shon.”

  “You will watch your tone,” rumbled the earth shaper. He tapped his drumstick on his leg as he approached. The ground beneath him quivered and shook.

  Tan stepped toward the earth shaper, glancing from him to the Supreme Leader. He needed them to help, but more than that, he needed them to stop pulling on the elementals. Tan couldn’t battle both Chenir and Par-shon. “You have abandoned Chenir, but I have not. I will not abandon any of these lands to Par-shon. Leave if you must, but the elementals will remain.”

  The earth shaper took a step toward Tan and leaned into him, his jaw clenched. Tan sensed the tension within him, and the shaping that he built.

  The Supreme Leader studied Tan before nodding to the earth shaper. “Dolan,” he said to the man, trying to ease him. The previous Supreme Leader might have had more authority, but this one was too new. He would need time to establish his rule. Still, the earth shaper stepped back but kept his gaze fixed on Tan. “Chenir is more than simply these lands. We are more than a place. When we depart, we do so to preserve Chenir, not abandon it. And we will not abandon the elementals.”

  “They will not be pulled beyond the barrier.” The concern that Tan had been feeling solidified. He couldn’t allow Chenir to bring their elementals past the barrier, much like he couldn’t allow the kingdoms to ignore Par-shon. Were not all the elementals his responsibility? If they were, then he needed to ensure they were safe. Pulling them away from these lands was not the way to accomplish that. Tan wasn’t sure that he knew how he was going to stop Par-shon, but he knew that he couldn’t do it without the elementals.

  “You intend to stop this?” the Supreme Leader asked.

  Tan called to Kota. The massive hound was nearby, and with a few enormous leaps, she appeared at his side. Except for Dolan, the Chenir shapers all stepped away from her as one. The earth shaper tapped his drumstick along his leg in a steady fashion. The drumming was meant to call to earth, but Kota was a creature of earth and fire, and the drumming didn’t call to them as it did to the other elementals.

  She pawed at the ground, sending it trembling. The earth shaper stumbled and dropped his stick. He scrambled to grab it, but Kota was there, grabbing it in her long jaw and snapping it.

  “She doesn’t care for your drumming,” Tan said. “None of them do.”

  The hounds began to appear around the camp. The drumming didn’t call to them as it did to the other elementals. As one, they tipped their head toward the sky and howled, loosing a thunderous cry. The ground rumbled with it, and the elementals summoned away from Chenir were loosed.

  When the last echoes of the call eased, Tan fixed his gaze on the Supreme Leader. “If you won’t fight, all that I ask is that you allow the elementals to return.”

  “How can we fight?” the Supreme Leader asked. “You saw how many shapers they have. How can we hope to survive?”

  “How can Doma? Yet they fight on, using the unique strength they possess. You may not have the same experience with Incendin that the kingdoms and Doma have, but they fight Par-shon as well, using a shaping of fire to keep them from their shores.” Tan softened his tone. “Chenir is stronger than this. Tolstan Vreth saw this and came willingly to help. Use your shaping and push back. The elementals of these lands are strong, and your shapings are strong. If you do that, you can drive Par-shon away.”

  “We have tried.” This came from the small water shaper. “When they first landed on our shores, we tried, but they use our elementals against us.”

  “Not all of them. And you won’t be alone this time. You will have help. There are new elementals of earth, and a shaping you did not know before.”

  Dolan’s face contorted. “We have asked the kingdoms for help, and there has been none. We are permitted to retreat, to cross your border, but are not offered any assistance.”

  “I have come. Zephra came.”

  “That is two shapers.”

  “It is two more than you had,” Tan said. “And more than two answered my call. You had a shaper from Doma, and one from Incendin. You do not have to suppress Par-shon alone, but you must do what you can. If we do nothing, Par-shon wins. Chenir loses. The elementals lose.” Tan turned and met the eyes of each shaper. “I can teach you a shaping that will push Par-shon away. It is a powerful shaping, and one that has worked for others. But you cannot continue to call the elementals in as you do.”

  Kota circled the shapers and then sat, fixing her eyes on the earth shaper first, and then turning her attention to the Supreme Leader. Neither looked her way.

  Moments of silence passed, but then the water shaper stepped forward. “I will help,” she said softly. As she did, the movements that she made, tapping on her leg and rubbing her fingers together, movements that Tan had barely been aware that she did, changed. Tan sensed the effect immediately. It was subtle, but focused as he was on these shapers, he sensed how the water elementals pushed out and away from her shaping.

  One of the fire shapers stepped forward—a man with a bald head and a deep, sloping forehead—and nodded deeply to Tan. “I will help,” he said.

  Tan couldn’t see what he did, or determine how he summoned fire, but something shifted. He felt it most strongly through the fire bond and the way that the elementals that had been pulling on him, retreating away from Chenir, began to push out.

  Other shapers stepped forward, more than Tan had realized had circled him. One by one, they each offered to help, and one by one, the rhythmic pulling on the elementals changed, slowly pushing back out and into Chenir.

  It left only the Supreme Leader and the earth shaper. The Supreme Leader made a point of turning to each of the shapers around him. Tan’s connection to Kota told him that there were nearly fifty shapers. That would rival the shapers that the kingdoms possessed, though it was fewer than the number of lisincend. Finally, the Supreme Leader nodded. “Chenir will help.”

  A knot loosened in Tan’s chest. “Combine your shapings. Work together like this.” Tan demonstrated a shaping that combined each of the elements, pushing earth to the forefront of the shaping. For what he had planned to work, earth would need to be strongest.

  Each shaper
began to shift their shaping, water and fire combining first, then air, and finally earth. The Supreme Leader controlled the shaping, drumming softly on his thigh as he did.

  The hounds howled.

  As Tan turned to leave, Dolan stepped forward again, clutching the broken remains of his drumstick. “You will leave us? After all of that, all of your claims, now you leave? What if this doesn’t work?”

  Tan had no answer. If the shaping didn’t work, there would be nothing else they could do that would stop Par-shon. “It will work,” he said.

  He wished he felt more confident.

  * * *

  Tan reached Doma on a bolt of lightning. Kota managed to arrive only moments after him. He appreciated her presence. For so long, he’d had an elemental with him. First Asboel, then Honl, but now they were both gone. Tan hadn’t heard from Honl since he’d returned to the kingdoms, but he sensed him still floating in the back of his mind. Having Kota with him gave a reassuring sense that maybe he still did right by the elementals.

  The intensity of Doma’s shaping struck him as soon as he landed. There was immense power in the way that water swept out from Doma, the shaping even more powerful than what he’d sensed when he was here the last time. There was a complexity to it that he hadn’t noted either. Now, the shaping wrapped around Doma in a powerful sweep, eventually reaching Incendin’s shaping. Tan couldn’t tell what happened when the shapings joined.

  Elle. This close, he could reach her through the spirit connection. Tan hadn’t worked out why he could reach Elle when he couldn’t speak to anyone other than Amia, but there was value in being able to reach her this way.

  I sense you, Tan.

  He waited outside the walls of Falsheim, standing along the wide river that flowed beneath the city. The blackened walls still hadn’t been scrubbed clean, but Tan wondered if they ever would be. Doma wore the markers as something akin to a badge of pride, a marker of their survival. The water shapers were more powerful than Tan had expected, and each time he visited, there was a new surprise.