Light of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 10)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Tan wondered if he would have the patience, or the skill, to perform the shaping he had seen from Cora. Perhaps the skill. With fire, he could use it with as much control as anyone, but the patience was a different matter. As always, there seemed too much for him to do. The Great Mother knew that taking two months on anything was more than he could dedicate.

  “I have questions for Cora about Lacertin.”

  “Ah, Lacertin Alaseth,” the San said. “He is an interesting man, is he not?”

  “Is? Lacertin died in the attack on the kingdoms.”

  The San frowned and his head tilted slightly as if he listened to something before he nodded. “We thought that Lacertin Alaseth would be able to learn as a Servant, but he chose his own path, as most who serve Issa must.”

  If the San knew Lacertin, was it possible that he knew about the barrier, and had learned what Lacertin knew about it? If so, maybe he didn’t have to wait for Cora to finish her shaping, the Calling of Issa.

  “There is a place to the north of our lands that I must reach,” Tan said. “Lacertin is known to have studied it to learn about the barrier that he created.”

  At the mention of the barrier, the San’s mouth pinched into an annoyed expression. “The barrier. A distasteful creation, even when it first started. Lacertin regretted his role in its creation.”

  Tan hadn’t had the chance to speak to Lacertin about the barrier, or how he felt about what he had created, but wasn’t surprised that he would have regretted creating it. From what Tan had learned about Lacertin, he cared more for the kingdoms than even Roine suspected. Tan didn’t know if Lacertin had ever learned to appreciate the elementals the same way that Tan had, but he had loved Cora, and Cora had bonded to saldam before Par-shon had captured her. It was possible that Lacertin had known.

  “What did he say about the barrier?”

  The San stood and walked to a shelf behind him and plucked a book before returning to the table. He folded the book open, and within it, there was a map.

  Tan leaned forward, staring at the map and realizing that it depicted the lands much like the map in the temple had, from a time long before Vatten had been pulled from the sea, from when Doma claimed more land. There on the map was a mark for a place called Volan. What did it mean that Incendin used the same term as Par, rather than the name given to it by the kingdoms?

  “Long ago, the lands looked different,” the San said. “Before your kingdoms’ shapers became greedy, and before they claimed land from the sea, pulling islands together that wanted nothing more than to remain apart, the nations of our land were different.” He tapped on a southern section of the main continent. “All of this was Rens,” he said. “Our lands stretched from shore to shore, lands that should still be unified. One people. One Rens.”

  He sighed, motioning toward the kingdoms, but on the map, it was not marked as the kingdoms but as something else. “This was known as Ter,” he said, pointing to where Ter still existed. “All of it was Terran before your kingdoms united, and before anything more was claimed from the sea. Ter and Rens fought over this section.” He motioned toward the middle section of the map, where Ter and Rens came together. “Even then, war between our peoples existed. Many lives have been lost fighting about who should claim which land. Eventually, Rens split. The kingdoms claimed a section they renamed Nara, while the remnants of Rens lived on, eventually changing the name to the Sunlands.”

  “What does this have to do with Norilan?”

  The San smiled and pointed to the shelves. “We might not have the extensive archive that can be found in Ethea, but Rens possessed many proud scholars. There were those who wanted to understand and search for peace. Within these volumes, most written in old Rens, you can find an understanding of that time. As to why I share this with you, Maelen, it is because you seek understanding. What became the kingdoms could not claim the land they sought without help. They fought, but Rens fought as well. Much of that time is unknown, but there are references to Volan helping Ter, though claiming to remain independent.” The San flipped a few pages that were filled with writing that Tan couldn’t read. Old Rens, he suspected. “As to why this is important, that is a different matter. There are no other references to Volan. It is as if they receded from the world, choosing to abandon the rest of the world at that time.”

  He closed the book and smiled sadly. “Sailors often speak of an impenetrable land, one where the wind forces ships away, and the ice grows so thick that nothing can get through. Warriors have attempted to reach those lands—yes, we have known warriors over the years, Maelen—without succeeding. Even shapers are rebuffed. They are a land we are not meant to reach.”

  Tan stared at the book the San held. The man was not only a priest, a Servant of Issa, but served as something similar to the archivists. How much might he know that could help?

  If there were anything, Tan would need to share what he had learned. He would need to explain the bindings.

  “Norilan, what you call Volan, is where a rune called a binding is found. There are two others. One is in Par, and the third was buried in Vatten, a place called the Temple of Alast. These bindings suppressed a darkness that seeks to return to the world.”

  The priest’s eyes widened. “Alast?” When Tan nodded, the San stood and made his way to a shelf, where he searched for a few moments before returning to Tan. He held out a plain covered book, one with a thick leather cover.

  Tan took it and opened it slowly. Experience with such aged books in the archives had taught him that he needed to be careful, that pages would often decay quickly, and he didn’t want to damage the San’s book. But he needn’t have worried. The pages inside this book were each waxed. More than that, a small rune on each page marked a shaping, one that was meant to hold power within the book.

  “What is this?” Tan asked.

  “This is the Book of Alast,” the priest said. “We serve Issa here, but there were other gods served as well. Alast was goddess over the sea.”

  Tan held the book, wishing more than ever that he had Honl with him and his ability to use spirit to read books and understand. What would he learn in this book of Alast?

  But more than that, it meant the temples were tied to the elements. The Fire Fortress to Issa and fire. Alast would then be to water. That meant earth, and wind still remained. Did that matter?

  It had to. If Alast were part of the binding and one of the element temples, then there had to be something more to it. Only, he didn’t think that the Fire Fortress was part of the binding.

  “Are there other similar books?” Tan asked.

  “There must, but they have been lost to time, Maelen. Maintaining records from that time is difficult. We are talking about a time over one thousand years ago, before your kingdoms ever formed, when the world and the connections within it were different. I do not know what darkness that you describe, but if it comes from that time, and if there were bindings in place to restrain it, then I can only fathom that it must have been powerful. Much from that time was powerful, Maelen.”

  Tan sighed. And if they were more powerful, and Norilan had been sealed with a shaping that kept others away, it was likely that there wasn’t a way past the barrier. “Did Lacertin tell you anything that would help?” he asked the San.

  “Lacertin shared some with me, Maelen, but mostly it was regret. He did not want the barrier to be in place, not if it separated us rather than allowed us to grow stronger together. In that way, he was much like the king that he served.”

  “But Ilton wanted the barrier,” Tan said.

  “Your King Ilton wanted peace. The barrier that formed between our peoples was not a way to peace, at least not one that he agreed with.”

  Tan wondered if that meant that Althem had something to do with the barrier. And maybe it no longer mattered, not now that the barrier had been removed.

  But he still needed to know if there were some way he would be able to get past it. Some way that he might be able to get into
Norilan, especially now that he could not reach Honl.

  “I can help you.”

  Tan turned and saw Cora standing in the doorway. She wore a robe over her shoulders, and softly burning flames still seemed to work over her flesh.

  That wasn’t quite right, Tan realized. The burning seemed to work under her flesh as if writhing within her, consuming her. But it was different than the way that he had been consumed by fire, different even than the way that the lisincend appeared. This was controlled in a way that fire rarely could be controlled.

  He leaped to his feet and approached her. “Cora?”

  “Corasha,” she said. “And I can help you, Maelen. Lacertin shared what he knew of the barrier with me. We… once had to cross over, before the barrier fell. I do not know if that will help, but Issa tells me that there is a great need in helping you reach Volan.”

  “We can’t shape our ways there,” Tan said.

  “No. That way is difficult,” she said.

  Fire seemed to surge from her, that strange writhing beneath her skin making her glow more brightly. In a way, it reminded him of what Light did when she glowed, though Tan thought that was from spirit burning through her.

  He touched on the fire bond, searching for whether she now reached it. When she first appeared, he should have done that, wondering whether the Call to Issa placed her in the fire bond much as he suspected the San reached it. Unsurprisingly, Tan found another presence, one that burned with incredible strength, drawing from Fire itself.

  Do you feel this connection, Enya? he asked the draasin.

  The draasin drifted into his mind carefully and hesitantly. She has reached the bond, Maelen. I do not know that she still needs our bond.

  He looked at Cora and realized that she would have heard that. “You need to tell her,” he said. “You’ve been silent for too long. You should have shared with her what you intended from the beginning.”

  “Much like you have always shared, Maelen?” Cora asked.

  Tan chuckled softly. Cora had changed—again. When he first met her, she had been nearly destroyed by the loss of her bond in Par-shon. They had healed her, and she had returned, her abilities as a warrior becoming clear. But then she bonded to Enya, and she changed once more. This new attachment, the fact that she now reached the fire bond, would change her again.

  “Not always shared, but always with the intent to do what was needed. And always with the desire to help the elementals.”

  “Fair enough,” Cora said. “I will speak to her. And then we will we go to Volan.”

  16

  Search for a Friend

  Tan stood outside the Fire Fortress, well outside the limits of the city, with the presence and shaping of the Fire Fortress pressing against him. The shaping built steadily before releasing in a wave that spread in every direction. The enormity of the shaping impressed him. When Incendin had used this shaping before, there had never been the same strength to it. Now, as it built and grew, the shaping struck Tan with much more intensity than he had experienced before. Was it because of his connection to the fire bond that he noticed it with such power?

  Tan doubted that was all that it was. He had been connected to the fire bond since healing Asgar. If not that, then it meant it was because the shaping coming off the fortress had grown much stronger than it ever had been before.

  Near him was a collection of small plants, none poisonous. That surprised him. In his time in Incendin, he’d learned that most of the plants were poisoned. Some managed to attack if you came too close, shooting long thorns or barbs that would pierce flesh. These were small shrubs, twisted, but with long slender green needles that grew from them. Using earth sensing, he could tell that none of them were poisoned. A small pond nearby held brackish water, but still it held water, something that Tan thought unusual in Incendin.

  He waited for Cora to return. She had asked him to wait outside the city as she went to Enya before they were to make their way toward Norilan. She would ride the draasin, and Tan would shape himself there, using the connection to the element bonds for strength.

  Light licked his cheek and scrambled down his shoulder to land near one of the plants. She chewed on the needles and then went to the water to drink. You should have help, much as the Servant has help, Light told him when she was finished with the water. She sat near the edge of the pond, the black and silver of her scaled hide shimmering in the sunlight.

  Asgar remains in Par with the hatchlings.

  Not only Asgar, but Cianna was with him, helping Molly in her training and helping with the hatchlings so that they would maintain their connection to fire. Through the fire bond, it was clear that Sashari wanted to remain in Par, with both Asgar and the hatchlings.

  There would be another.

  Tan frowned. What other can carry me?

  As if in answer, a shadow swooped in from the east, from out over the sea, of a massive draasin. Orange and gold scales caught the light as she soared toward him.

  The hatchling, Asgar’s sister.

  Tan had almost forgotten that Sashari told him that she had claimed a name. She had grown much in the time since Tan had seen her and now rivaled Sashari in size. Still smaller than Asgar, she was much larger than Enya.

  The draasin landed near him and lowered her head. She had eyes that were almost greenish and looked from Tan to Light before flicking her tail.

  Maelen, she said through the fire bond.

  Tan had never spoken to her before. The hatchlings didn’t exist in the fire bond the same way that fully grown draasin did. Asgar had been somewhat precocious and had attempted to speak to Tan even before reaching the bond, but she had not.

  You have grown bold, Tan noted. Your colors vibrant.

  You have been away for too long.

  Away, but still serving fire.

  Asgar tells me how you serve. As does Sashari.

  She tells me that you have claimed a name.

  I have.

  An image came through to Tan of the draasin den, and then of a stream, but mostly of the ocean spreading out below her. She dove and pulled up with a massive fish flopping in her jaws before she swallowed it. She was a hunter but preferred the hunt over the sea. In that way, Tan thought of what Asgar had demonstrated, the way that he had shown Tan his hunt in the ocean, diving deep below the water.

  But to her, this was more than a single hunt. This was a way of living. With it came her sense of peace as she soared above the water. Even when she settled in the water, rocking in the waves, floating in between hunts.

  With the image came an understanding, and Tan knew then her name. It drifted to him through the fire bond, not forging a bond with him, but an understanding and a connection.

  Wasina, Tan said. The name had roots in Ishthin but not entirely. But Tan recognized the tie to her personality and the intent behind her name.

  As he said it, she flapped her wings, sending dust and dirt flying around him.

  Does it suit me?

  He sensed her interest in his approval and smiled. It suits you well. Asboel would be proud.

  The Elder is missed, Maelen.

  Missed, but not forgotten. Sometimes, Fire lets me speak to him still.

  He wasn’t sure whether that was real or imagined, or whether it was simply the form that Fire took when it spoke to Tan, but either way, having that connection, memory or not, meant much to him.

  Then you truly are connected to Fire, Maelen. Sashari can speak to him, but Asgar and I… It is difficult for us. There is the memory of his warmth, and I still hear the way that he guided me on the hunt, but it grows distant.

  I will share with you what I remember. Tan sent images to Wasina of the memories that he had of Asboel, from the first moment that they met and the way that Asboel had forced himself into Tan’s mind, forming a connection that had remained through the rest of his life, to when Asboel had helped Tan with the archivists, and with Incendin. There were quiet moments spent as they spoke, time when there seeme
d to be a measure of peace, and he made certain to include those as well. Then Tan sent the fierce protection that he had sensed from Asboel and the pride that he’d felt with the hatchlings and their hunt. Finally, he sent memories of Tan’s flights, and the hunts that he had shared with Asboel, letting Wasina know the simple joy that they had once shared.

  Tears streamed down Tan’s face, and he wiped them away. Not of sadness, but of the happiness that he’d had with Asboel. There had been difficult times with the draasin, but he had changed Tan in a way that he could never repay and had given him insight he never would have obtained otherwise.

  Wasina sat immobile for a moment after the images faded.

  Then he felt a flood of power through the fire bond. Not only from Wasina but from Asgar and Sashari, even from Enya. Each shared their memories of Asboel, surging through the bond, coming not only to Wasina, but to Tan as well, and he realized that he had sent his memories through the fire bond, which allowed the other draasin to share.

  The Elder was a powerful creature. This came from Light, who curled around Tan. He cared much for this world, and for you, Maelen. Your memories are a fitting memorial.

  With the connection through the fire bond, Tan now had memories from the other draasin, some from Sashari and Enya, that seemed to come from the time before they had been trapped in ice, frozen as they served the intent of those ancient shapers, held so that they could assist in the protection of the artifact. But there were others, more recent, and all full of emotions that were distinctly draasin. Serving fire, of the hunt, and then the sorrow as he lay dying. All of those memories now mingled in the fire bond, drawn from those who had known Asboel the best.

  Thank you, Maelen, Sashari sent distantly. You have once more served the draasin in ways that you cannot understand.

  How?

  The hatchlings, she said. They can learn from the great one and can use those memories to guide them.

  Tan sensed that even Asgar had gained… something from the memories, some that he had even contributed to.