Light of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 10)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The egg changed. No longer did light simmer through cracks in it. Streaks of blue, and brown, and yellow ran along the shell as if the shell itself had changed.

  Light relaxed her grip from the egg and climbed back onto Tan’s shoulders.

  What now?

  Now we wait.

  Wait for what?

  For her to hatch, Maelen.

  Tan patted Light. How long will that take?

  That is up to the Mother. But you have helped. You have given this one a chance.

  I don’t know what I did.

  In time. You will know in time.

  Tan stood, watching the egg, waiting to see what might happen next, but nothing did. It was as if they had halted the hatching of the egg. And from what he could see of the change in the shell, it was possible that was exactly what they had done.

  Light licked his face and Tan wondered: What had just happened here?

  2

  Preparing For War

  The nursery was attached to the room that Tan and Amia shared, one that had once been the Utu Tonah’s. After so much time spent fearing him, afraid that he would destroy Tan and everything that he cared about, now he had claimed everything that had once been the Utu Tonah’s. Was that worse than what the Utu Tonah had done? Tan had taken everything from him, including his life, but then, the world was better for it.

  Alanna rested quietly, making soft cooing noises. Zephra stood next to her, as she had for much of the time since her granddaughter was born, staring at her with eyes that were much softer than the stern expression Tan had known grown up knowing.

  “You were gone when I came here before,” she murmured. She shaped wind, saying only enough that her words would carry to Tan, but still Alanna stirred. Zephra frowned, pressing her lips together a moment.

  “We went to the draasin cavern.”

  “And you took her?” Zephra asked, louder this time, the sharpness in her tone reserved for Tan. Alanna stirred again, rolling her head toward Zephra.

  “Amia and I will take her where we think it’s safe,” Tan said.

  “Do you really think that it’s safe to bring her around hungry draasin?”

  Tan suppressed a laugh. The draasin were the least of his fears when it came to Alanna. “I doubt she’d be enough of a treat for the draasin,” Tan answered.

  His mother gasped softly. “That is nothing to joke about, Tannen.”

  “When you know the draasin as I do, you would understand how foolish your comment was.”

  “I don’t think they will, only that you shouldn’t offer the temptation.”

  “The draasin are well fed,” he said, thinking of the butcher Balsun that he had tasked with providing enough meat for the draasin. Tan would have to go to him again and inform him that there would be more mouths to feed. Would he be able to source enough meat for two more draasin? His mother was right about one thing: the draasin were hungry.

  “Why did you go to the draasin cavern?” she asked.

  He touched her arm and guided her from the nursery. Stay with her for now? he asked Light.

  The lizard squeezed his neck and then jumped from his back before slithering over to Alanna and jumping into her crib more nimbly than Tan would have expected.

  His mother watched with a disapproving expression. “You will let that one stay with her?”

  “That one,” Tan started, “saved Amia’s and my life. I think that I will let her do whatever she chooses.”

  “Tannen, they are elementals. They have their own agenda, one that will be different than what you would choose.”

  His mother understood only the wind, not knowing the elementals the way he did. From what he’d seen, the elementals often shared the same interest that he did. That might be related to the Mother bringing him to the elementals, or it might be because he connected to them, and understood them, allowing them to understand him.

  “This is not the time for philosophy,” Tan said, closing the door to the nursery after taking one more look at Alanna. He loved watching her as she slept, the way that she gripped at her blanket, a surprising gift from Garza, and the beautiful way that her hair curled at the ends. She was so much like her mother. “And I will not have you questioning the loyalty of my bonded, no more than I would question the loyalty of Aric.”

  “Bonded?” she asked. “But that was a draasin only recently born. Didn’t you say that bonding them so young was dangerous?”

  “She was a draasin. She is no longer. I don’t know what she is. And I don’t know that she does either, but she’s tied to spirit, and to fire.” And possibly to the other elements, though Tan only had a suspicion about that right now. “I don’t know what she will become, but we have bonded.”

  His mother sighed and let herself be guided to the library, where they took a seat by the hearth. “So much has changed. So much continues to change.”

  “Change leads to growth.”

  “Change leads to change,” his mother said. “And there are times when change is dangerous. I don’t claim to know what happened here when I… when I attacked you,” she said.

  Tan knew how difficult that had been. Zephra was accustomed to being in control and whatever Marin had done to her had taken away her control.

  “But I recognized that the world is changing. I sometimes long for the times when all that I had to fear was Incendin. At least I knew how to fight Incendin shapers. I knew what I was up against when it came to the lisincend. And we had the barrier.”

  “But the barrier prevented the elementals from crossing,” Tan reminded her. “And the lisincend have been brought back to fire. Incendin is no longer our enemy.”

  She sighed. “As I said, sometimes I long for a simpler time. Now, what is the enemy? Some nebulous thing that I cannot even see? Shapers empowered by darkness, who can overcome the barriers that have served us for so long? Long-buried temples that hold back this ancient power? No, Tan, I do not know what I face anymore, and that scares me.”

  In some ways, Tan agreed. It was easier when all they had to fear was Incendin. The threat there was something that they could see. That they could know. And even after they had defeated and began to understand Incendin, the threat of the Utu Tonah was much the same. Something that they could see. That they could understand. This darkness… this was not something Tan could understand. He recognized the power within the darkness, and the fact that he had nearly died, but he also recognized that if he failed, if the bindings failed, others would suffer and they would not have the same capacity to fight back. In that way, he had an obligation to do what he could, to fight the darkness, to try and understand all he could about it. Even if it took him from his family and everything that he loved.

  “This is not your fight, then,” Tan told her.

  Tension flitted across Zephra’s face before fading, replaced by a shimmer of relief. “This is not your fight either.”

  “Who else, Mother? If not me, then who else can fight this?”

  She shook her head and stared at the fire. Flames danced in the hearth, fueled by saa and their connection to the land. Tan wondered why his mother continued to argue with him about this, but then, he recognized the fear she felt on his behalf. Wasn’t it the same that he felt toward Alanna?

  “How do you get past it?” he asked softly.

  Zephra pulled her gaze away from the fire. “Get past what?”

  “How do you ever stop worrying? All I want is for her to have a chance to live, to succeed. And if I do nothing, if I don’t do all I can, then she won’t have that chance, will she? This darkness, whatever it is, has already proven to be more powerful than anything else we’ve ever faced.” He paused and looked down at his hands. “I know I said I’m doing this for others, but most of all, I’ll do what is needed for her. Anything for her,” he finished softly.

  Within the bond, connected as he was to Amia, he felt her understanding and acceptance.

  “You never stop worrying,” Zephra said after a while. “You
r worries change; at least, mine did. I remember worrying about when you would walk, and talk, and then worrying about you not getting home when I asked, or not finishing the chores that I assigned. Now… now I worry that you won’t return.” She turned her attention back to the flames. “You’re so much like Grethan in that. So strong, and always determined to do what you know is right. But what is right is often not easy.”

  “It is not,” Tan agreed.

  “And maybe you’re right. This fight is not for me. Mine was against Incendin, trying to give you a chance at a better life, one of peace I never knew. Yours is this.” She closed her eyes. “I know you will do what you must. It won’t change the fact that I will always worry for you, much as you will always worry for her.”

  “Where do you intend to go?” Elanne asked as Tan stood atop the tower.

  There was no evidence of the rune that had been placed here by Marin, nothing but smooth stone now, as if when he had repaired the binding, the remnant of the rune had disappeared with it. The runes along the sides of the tower pressed against his awareness, one for each element, and thrummed through the element bond. Through those, the binding took hold, containing the darkness. For now. Tan worried about when it would fail, and whether he would have learned enough by then.

  Then there was the third binding. What would happen if it failed? Would what he had done here, and at the reburied temple in Vatten, be enough?

  But that couldn’t be his concern. What he really had to worry about, what he had to determine, was whether there would be some way to push the darkness back, to hold it within the binding once more, and maybe secure it better than it had been before.

  Only, the more he thought about it, finding a way to stop that darkness meant discovering more about it. That meant discovering what it was and whether there would be any way to restrain it, even destroy it if possible.

  “I—we—are working from a place of ignorance,” Tan said. “Anything we do, we continue to react. We need to know what this is and how we can stop it.” Not only that, but they needed to determine where the third binding would be found. The key, Tan suspected, was hidden within the journals the Utu Tonah had left behind. He had known more than Tan realized before coming to Par, enough to make Tan think that he had built his power, binding the elementals, with the intent of stopping this darkness. He didn’t know for certain, but if that was the case, then wherever the Utu Tonah had come from might know as much or more, and possibly be able to help them.

  “How do you intend to find what you need? I’ve seen you reading through his journals. Do you really think he knew something?”

  “He knew something,” Tan said. “Only I don’t know what it was.”

  “The Records have not shown anything either,” Elanne said.

  “I need you to continue to search them. If there’s anything in Par, I will need you to find it.”

  “Of course, Maelen.”

  Tan sighed. Maelen. The name, given to him by Asboel as nothing more than a joke, had become his title. What did it mean for him to claim a title, and to lead? When he had come to Par to do what was necessary and lead the people, he had expected to guide them away from the teachings of the Utu Tonah, thinking he would have to save them. Instead, he had discovered that much of old Par had never shared the philosophy of the elementals the Utu Tonah possessed.

  Returning the people to Par, to the ruling of the council, had proven more difficult than he would have expected, but it was necessary. Not only because Tan had no interest in ruling, but because Par had been a place of elemental understanding. The runes throughout the land told him that as much as the Records and the Great Seals hidden within them.

  “What will you do when you find what you need?” Elanne asked.

  “Then I need to learn if there’s any way to reverse what’s happened.” He turned to her, thankful that she had come. She was his staunchest ally in Par, the one person he trusted the most. Strange, given the fact he had worried about her loyalties at first, fearing she wanted nothing more than to return to the forced bondings the Utu Tonah had offered. “The students. They need instructors. I have asked others, but I would like you to work with them as well. Your connection to wyln gives you a unique insight.”

  “Maelen, I’m not sure I have the time—”

  “If we don’t take the time now, we will never have the next generation of shapers,” Tan said. He thought of the university in Ethea and wondered how all of Althem’s children did learning to shape, whether Ferran managed to find another warrior among them. He suspected that they would. Something had changed with shapers and connections to the elementals, and to shaping, had grown stronger again. Tan didn’t know what it was, or why it would change, but they knew they needed to teach those with potential.

  “I will do as you ask.”

  “Tolman and Garza will as well. As will Reyelle.” She had mostly recovered from Marin’s attack. Another wind shaper, much like Elanne. “From the kingdoms, I have asked Cianna to help, and am hopeful others will cross to share their knowledge.” Cora and Elle, and some even from Chenir, if he could reach them. “We must get the students ready, and must teach them to protect their minds.”

  “How? None of us know how to protect ourselves from the type of attack Marin used.”

  “Amia will help there,” Tan said. That would be her contribution to Par, one that might be the most important. She would help the budding shapers of Par learn to protect their minds, and, if needed, would place a shaping over their minds to shield them as well, much like Tan had done with his mother.

  “You have not said where you will be.”

  “Because I don’t know. That’s the other favor that I must ask of you.” Her brow furrowed as she waited. “The council will rule in my absence, but I need you to lead the council.”

  “Maelen—”

  “I trust no one else to do what must be needed, Elanne. You are the Mistress of Bonds, a title I think means even more now than it did under the Utu Tonah’s rule. All of Par once understood the bonds, but many have forgotten. We need to remember as much as we can.”

  Elanne nodded. “You sound as if you prepare for war. Many in Par went through this with the Utu Tonah.”

  Tan stared out around Par, wondering what exactly it was that he prepared for. Maybe he overreacted, and maybe there was nothing here that he needed to do other than continue to learn, to reach through the connections that he’d discovered, but he didn’t think that was the case. Hadn’t Light told him that he needed to grow, and change? He could not do that standing still and simply waiting.

  “Maybe it is war,” he said. “I wish that I knew. But what is coming is different than anything the Utu Tonah had ever known.”

  Only, Tan still didn’t understand what that might be.

  3

  Calling to the Wind

  When Elanne left him, he stood atop the Tower, alone, but not. Through his bond to Amia, he was never alone. Thankfully, that bond had strengthened again. The presence of her was a reassurance. Missing it had been like missing a part of himself.

  His bonded were there in his mind as well. Kota was less solid than Amia, but when he turned his attention to the great hound, he noted her prowling distantly in Par, hunting. The nymid, his connection to water, was there as well, only it was a diffuse sense. And his new bond, to Light, surged in his mind, a foreign awareness currently filled with contentedness as she curled with Alanna.

  It was the remaining bond, the one now missing, that he needed to reach now.

  Tan had given much thought about what he needed to do and realized what he needed was understanding. Light offered much, able to absorb from those around her, but she was limited by the knowledge they possessed. His other bond, that to Honl, had a different capability. And for him to understand what the Utu Tonah might have known, and to understand where he had come from, Tan needed Honl’s help.

  When attempting to reach him before, the connection had been present, but faded, and no
t enough to truly know where to find the wind elemental. And when Tan had tried summoning, he had not had a response, as if whatever Honl did now he kept himself apart, not wanting to return. Tan hated the idea of pulling him away, but months had passed since he’d seen him last, and a part of him worried that something might have happened to him.

  But Tan had not had the connection to the wind bond when trying to reach Honl before. Since learning of it, he hadn’t taken the time to try and reach him. There had always been something else to do.

  Reaching the wind bond no longer required the same level of focus. Now Tan had only to reach inside himself, to feel the way his breathing flowed through him and joined with the air all around him, and he was able to access the strength of the wind. Through the bond, he knew all the elementals around him. Hundreds upon hundreds swirled within the wind, reaching farther than he could see, filling the air. They were of all different types, not only wyln, or ashi, or ara, but others that he had not had names for before reading the Utu Tonah’s journal. Now he could place names to them, and he wondered how the Utu Tonah had known of them.

  Wrapped within the bond, he called for Honl, saying his name on a current that carried far from Par, stretching away from him in every direction. Tan waited, listening for a response.

  Still, he felt no answer, nothing that told him where he could find Honl.

  Tan reached deeper into wind and this time pulled on spirit. Learning that he could reach the spirit bond had given him access to more power, and there were times when he wasn’t certain that he should even attempt to use such strength. There was danger in it, and temptation. Finding Honl was a reason for him to try.

  The wind elemental had become a creature of wind and spirit. Using both, Tan stretched for him, but still found nothing.