But there wasn’t the time to reach for another elemental. Tan would use what strength that he could summon. The Great Mother would have to ensure that it would be enough.
“I will bind the shapings,” he said. “Fire, water, earth, and wind. Binding them together—”
Amia nodded slowly. “Spirit. You intend a massive shaping of spirit.”
“It’s what the artifact did,” Tan said. “I’m not sure how, but it gathered the elementals together and bound them with spirit. I think if we can do something similar, we might be able to create enough spirit to stop Par-shon, but strength that can be controlled. With it, we might have enough to stop the Utu Tonah.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” Amia asked, squeezing his hand.
Tan glanced at the sky, wishing that he was able to reach the Great Mother, wishing that he could find some way of knowing whether the shaping would work, but he couldn’t reach her, not without summoning the pool of spirit, and not without the artifact.
“If it doesn’t work, then we will have tried,” Tan said. “We will have worked together and attempted something that has never been done, not even when the ancient shapers created the first archive.” He smiled. “There is value in that, I think.”
“I will be here with you, regardless of what else happens,” Amia said.
“My shaping started with you. My first bond was to you. It is only fitting that we should be together to attempt the most important shaping I’ve ever considered.”
28
The Lost Bond
The air thrummed with power. Tan pulled on the shaping of fire and water, mixing within it the shaping of earth that thundered toward him. He added a shaping of wind, using all the strength that he could summon, calling upon Honl, on ara, and all of ashi that blew through Incendin. They added to the shaping but were overpowered by the strength of the others, leaving the shaping with an unbalanced sense. Without the addition of the kingdoms’ shaping, Tan wasn’t sure that it would work.
He drew the strands of the shaping toward him, using his sword as a focus, and twisted them together, forging it into something of spirit. Amia reached through their connection and helped, pulling on the connection to fuse true spirit to the bond. For the moment, the shaping held, but it was precarious. Tan could sense how it might fail.
Wrapped as he was in the shaping, he had a sense of everything around him. It was a sense that reminded him of the times he’d known true spirit directly. He’d experienced something similar when standing in the pool of liquid spirit, and even more so when shaping through the artifact. An understanding of everything flooded through him. He used this and pushed beyond the barrier to send a call for help from the kingdoms.
After everything that he’d done to protect the kingdoms, everything that he’d done in service to the kingdoms, why should they be the last to come?
A sense of other shapers pressed upon him. Par-shon recognized the change in the shaping but didn’t understand the purpose. For now, Tan hoped that was enough.
He shaped for hours, the power of the different shapings enormous and more than anything that he’d ever experienced, but Tan was connected to the elementals, and they granted him strength and the ability to maintain control. Without that, he would have been overwhelmed, possibly destroyed.
As he shaped, he became aware of a steady sense that became more and more prominent the longer he worked. Tan focused on what he sensed, not certain what it was. Amia tensed, squeezing his hand more tightly than before.
“Tan,” she said. It was the first word that either of them had spoken since starting the shaping. “Par-shon.”
It had been inevitable that Par-shon would reach him. The shapings coming from Incendin, Doma, and Chenir pushed Par-shon in this direction. If the kingdoms ever joined, they would have a similar push.
Kota, Tan started, focusing his attention on the hound, will you keep her safe?
The hound rumbled in response.
Tan took to the air, streaking high into the sky. He’d been shaping the combination for so long that he no longer knew how much of what he’d done was from him, how much was from the elementals, and how much was from the shaping sent toward him.
Shapers approached. Tan sensed them coming in a flood. Hundreds of Par-shon shapers, more than he could handle without help. Tan pressed with the shaping of spirit, through the bonds linking the shapers to the elementals. There was resistance, much like what he’d encountered when he found his mother in Chenir. Tan pushed, drawing on more strength, and the bonds failed. Dozens of shapers fell.
More followed.
They swarmed, too many for Tan to keep track of.
He had expected this as well. Hopefully, his friends would answer the summons one more time. If this worked, it would be the last time that he would call for help when facing Par-shon. If it worked, they might finally be rid of Par-shon. All he knew was that the call would come, and the timing depended upon Tan’s need.
Using his connection to spirit, Tan made his plea.
The connection touched on Elle and Vel in Doma. He reached for Cora in Incendin, and skimmed past Fur, not wanting to distract the lisincend from his steady shaping. He reached for the water shaper and the Supreme Leader in Chenir. And then in the kingdoms, Tan reached for all the shapers he knew. The kingdoms had so many more that he could call upon. Cianna and Wallyn, Ferran and Roine. He left the wind shapers, praying that they would take the time to shape wind.
Then he released the spirit shaping that connected him to them and focused on the Par-shon shapers around him. Shaping through his sword, Tan pushed spirit at one bonded shaper after another. They fell, but not quickly enough. Too many remained. Their numbers began to force Tan to the ground. If only he had the extra assistance from the kingdoms. He fought as well as he could, only needing to hold out a little while longer . . .
Lightning exploded. Tan expected it to be Cora, but Theondar appeared.
As he did, the barrier dropped.
Wind surged toward Tan, and he grabbed at the shaping, pulling it into the others, binding it into the spirit bond.
Theondar attacked with a fury that Tan hadn’t seen from him before. He held his warrior sword, pulling on shapings of each of the elements, drawing them together and binding them, before sending a combined shaping through his sword. The shapers were forced to focus on Roine as well, and they gave Tan space.
Cora appeared as well, coming on lightning, but Enya attacked, swooping through the Par-shon shapers, tearing at them with her massive jaws and sharp talons. Cora held a warrior sword with a long, curved blade and used it as both a weapon and a way to focus her shapings, drawing spirit through the sword with as much fury as Tan saw from Roine.
Then Cianna appeared. Sashari came with her, streaking through the sky, moving in coordinated strikes to attack at the Par-shon shapers. Another winged shape appeared, and Tan realized that it was Asgar, flying with a certain reckless abandon, tearing and biting at Par-shon shapers. Through the fire bond, Tan sensed the excited way that he attacked.
Other shapers appeared. Ferran with earth. The Supreme Leader and a dozen of his shapers. Vel and Elle answered the summons. Dozens of lisincend, winged and not, appeared. All of them working together.
Still, it would not be enough. There were simply too many Par-shon shapers. For every one that fell, two more followed, and more appeared every moment. They could cause damage to Par-shon, but would they be able to stop them?
Tan strained for more strength, drawing on the shapings coming toward him from each direction. They had power, and he could be the focus. He reached through the connection with Amia, borrowing her ability with spirit. Together, they bonded the elements together, turning the combined shaping into spirit that Tan turned against Par-shon.
Still, it wouldn’t be enough.
Assist me.
Tan sent the request to all the elementals and to everything that he sensed all around him. He drew on their strength, but he needed to do
more than that. He needed the elementals to fight.
For a moment, nothing changed.
Then Tan felt everything shift.
Wind whipped out of the south, the hot gusts of ashi joining in. Thunder rumbled from the north as the hounds raced to help. Water surged from the river, joining the attack, either nymid, masyn, or udilm. The draasin already fought, but saa and saldam joined.
Par-shon pressed with a fury. They had the numbers, and Tan could tell that they knew it. He used shapings of spirit against all of Par-shon, but he didn’t have the strength needed to stop them all.
He pulled on more spirit, binding the elementals that he sensed around him, pulling them together as he surged spirit. This was what he’d wanted: the chance to stop Par-shon. Now that they were here, the end was close.
For a moment, Tan thought that he might have the strength needed to make it work. For that moment, the shapings all around him seemed to slow. Everything seemed to slow.
Then the air exploded with white light.
The attack changed in a heartbeat as the Utu Tonah appeared.
With him came Par-shon shapers bonded to elementals that Tan had no name for. They were the crossings, creatures like kaas or the hounds before he had healed them. They had power, but they were unstable. If freed from their bonds, they would be like kaas, and they would not stop fighting for Par-shon.
The others seemed to notice the change. The attack shifted. Shapers were pressed back. Tan saw one of the Chenir shapers had fallen, their back twisted in an impossible direction, and realized that it was the water shaper, the first shaper who had agreed to help. Another shaper, this one Jisan, an earth shaper of the kingdoms, fell. The others were pushed back.
The Utu Tonah streaked toward Tan on his shaping. Tan had thought the other Par-shon bonded shaper had glowed, but it was nothing like the Utu Tonah. His bonds consumed him, and still he somehow controlled them. He drifted with unnatural grace, practically an elemental himself with the way that he was bonded.
“You think that drawing me here would frighten me?” he asked.
Tan pulled on the shapings, wrapping himself with spirit. “I think to stop you from stealing elementals. They are not to be forced to bond.”
He smiled, and it was almost sad. “You think that I am some kind of monster, but how am I any different than you? I have seen the way that you call to them. They listen. Imagine how powerful that you could be if you bonded.”
“I have bonded,” Tan said. “The bonds were chosen by both, not forced upon them.”
“You are foolish to think that it’s any different.” The Utu Tonah swept his hand around, motioning toward the Par-shon shapers.
All around him, shapers were pressed back toward Tan. Even the elementals struggled. Tan saw twisted elementals, creatures that should not exist, combinations that were not meant to exist. There was a feral quality to them and an anger, much like what he’d sensed when chasing kaas. It had been the same with the hounds.
“You cannot hope to win. My shapers will destroy your people. These lands will then be mine. I will reclaim the homeland of my ancestors.”
Tan almost lost control of his shaping at the comment.
“You didn’t know?” the Utu Tonah asked. “We are the same, Warrior. Only my people have not forgotten the lessons of the past. Soon I will have the last bond.”
With that, the Utu Tonah jumped.
Tan tensed, thinking that he readied to attack, but he didn’t. Instead, he streaked into the sky, moving faster than Tan could follow. When he stopped, he landed atop a great winged shape.
Asgar.
With a sharp motion, the Utu Tonah jabbed toward Asgar. There was a surge of light that mixed with a strange shaping of fire.
Asgar had bonded.
Tan felt the bond through the fire bond. The draasin attempted to rebel, but the Utu Tonah had known too many bonds, and he knew how to control them. Within moments, Asgar was controlled, tamed as if he were nothing more than a horse.
Sashari and Enya roared.
Fire burned through Tan. Anger and rage at what the Utu Tonah had done to Asgar. Were Asboel alive, he would have hunted the Utu Tonah until he was destroyed. Tan owed it to his memory to do the same.
The Utu Tonah turned Asgar toward him. A triumphant smile twisted his face. The runes marking the bonds glowed across his skin so brightly that he lit the waning day like water reflecting sunlight. Tan refused to look away. He refused to turn away.
This was his fight, and this had been his plan. No one else could stop the Utu Tonah, so if he did nothing, they would fail. Everyone would fall. For Asboel, and for all the elementals, he could not fail.
Asgar shot flames at him. Tan faced the draasin, unafraid. He had a combination of the nymid armor and his connection to fire to keep him safe. The flames parted around him.
The Utu Tonah roared. Asgar echoed the sound.
The draasin snapped his jaws toward Tan, who raised his hands to defend himself. He would not harm the draasin, but he would not turn away in fear, either. Asgar was not his enemy.
No, Asgar.
Tan sent the words through the fire bond. Names were powerful to the elementals, especially those that were freely given. Asgar’s name had been given to him by Tan, and had even more power when Tan used it.
The draasin shook, slowly at first, but then with more and more force. The Utu Tonah went flying off, but he quickly regained his composure. Asgar tumbled toward the ground, convulsing as he did.
Honl!
He didn’t have the chance to see if the wind elemental could help. The Utu Tonah raged at him, his fist raised as a shaping built all around Tan with more strength than anything Tan could counter. The Utu Tonah pulled through all of his elementals, drawing strength from dozens of elementals, most of which Tan had no name for. He wondered how many were the result of crossing, and how many were naturally occurring.
The shaping pressed down on him.
The Utu Tonah smiled. “You will not surprise me again. I will reclaim that bond when you are gone.” The shaping squeezed. “That will not be long now.”
His connection to the shapings coming from each nation began to fade. The Utu Tonah was separating him more completely than even the room of separation had managed. He could not fight, not like this.
In that moment, Tan relaxed.
He was separated from shaping, but he was never separated from his bonds, not truly. And Tan had bonded in ways that the Utu Tonah could never understand.
Tan understood now what he had to do. Not simply to gather all of the elementals. That was part of it, but he needed the connection to them, the freely given bond, that which made him unique and the reason the Great Mother had chosen him for this task.
He reached for wind and found Honl. He reached toward earth, and Kota granted him strength. The nymid were there, wrapped around him in their armor. He thought he had lost his connection to fire with Asboel’s passing, but as he connected to his elementals, he realized that he hadn’t. Fire was different to him now. Even without his bond to Asboel, he could reach the fire bond, reach into Fire. He didn’t need an elemental for that.
Tan bound each of the elementals, and added to the strength they lent him that which he could pull from the shapings all around him.
Amia pressed through him, granting her ability with spirit. In that way, she was something like an elemental as well.
Power flooded him. He was joined to the elementals, joined to all of them, not only his bonded. The connection was deeper than anything he had ever experienced.
Light exploded and time seemed to stop.
Understanding washed through him, much as it had when he had held the shaping through the artifact. For a moment, Tan held strength enough to do anything. Stabilized by his connection to Amia, the temptation was not there as it had been before. The only thing that he would change would be to return Asboel.
He considered bringing his friend back.
But Asboel w
ould not have wanted that. He had returned to the Mother.
With the thought, he sensed warmth and closeness to the Great Mother, and he sensed Asboel still present in the fire bond.
Tan smiled. He hadn’t lost his friend. As Asboel had often said, the draasin were fire, and he had simply returned to it.
I miss you, friend.
You will never hunt alone, Maelen.
Tears came to his eyes and Tan blinked them away.
He stopped in front of the Utu Tonah, who was caught in Tan’s shaping, no differently than all the other Par-shon shapers. With a swipe of his hand, all the bonds upon the Utu Tonah were gone. He was not harmless even then. Tan had learned that he was a warrior shaper, even without his bonds. This was a man who could not live.
Using spirit, he shaped the Utu Tonah until his heart stopped beating.
Tan turned to the other shapers of Par-shon. Connected as he was to the source of all things, all it took was a thought and their bonds failed. He reached across the sea, recognizing the remaining Par-shon bonded, and severed those connections as well. There would be no further attacks.
Then he turned his attention to the elementals that Par-shon had brought with them. He had thought that the dangerous crossings would be the hardest to repair, but as he used his understanding of fire, earth, wind, and water to bring those elementals back into line with where they should be, he felt guidance from beyond him, as if the Great Mother herself sought to ensure they were saved.
With another surge of light, Tan knew that it had worked.
Servant of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 7) Page 23