Light of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 10)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Tan focused on the wind bond, and to his connection to Honl. That was the first thing that he needed to accomplish. If he could reach Honl and understand what the elemental had learned during his time here, then he could focus on what he needed to do next.

  Through the wind bond, he noted the elementals were unlike those on the other side of the barrier except for one that brushed against him with familiarity.

  Ilaz? he asked. The elemental had always been an irritant before, buzzing strangely when Tan tried speaking to it, but here, within the bond, there was a gentleness to it.

  The wind gusted softly, nothing like ara or ashi would blow against him, more a gentle tugging at his hair and his cloak.

  Wind was here, though, and he could connect through the wind bond. Knowing that, and knowing that he needed to reach Honl, Tan pressed through his connection to his elemental, through the wind bond, and even added spirit as needed to reach for him.

  The distant sense of Honl drifted toward the forefront of Tan’s mind.

  Honl. Tan called out his name on something like a breath of air, sending the connection through the wind, reaching for the elemental bond.

  Moments passed where Tan didn’t think that Honl would respond. The last time that he had spoken to Honl, he had been connected through the spirit bond, and then Honl had pushed him away. Without the spirit bond, would Tan be able to reach him?

  He sensed him distantly within his mind.

  Why distant?

  Reaching for the connection, he noted that the connection felt off, but wasn’t sure why that should be. With Honl, the bond had formed initially before Tan had even known that he would or could bond to any of the elementals, but at a time when he knew that he could speak to all of them. Ashi had come to him in the form of Honl, and they had bonded. During that time, the connection had changed, partly as Tan had changed, but mostly because of what had happened with Honl. Always there was the connection deep in his mind, one that allowed Tan to recognize the elemental and to speak to him, even draw upon the wind through him.

  Now, it was as if the wind had left Honl, leaving only the residual spirit connection.

  And he had feared that reaching through the barrier would have changed the spirt portion of the bond, the part of Honl that had changed as Tan healed him and protected him from kaas, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

  Using wind, and the wind bond, Tan pushed through the connection that should be there with the elemental. The hint of him remained, that part that told Tan that Honl was still there, but Tan only had to reach for him.

  Honl didn’t respond.

  Tan pressed again, this time trying to surge power through the wind bond, pulling on the energy stored within the bond itself, in some ways pulling upon Wind, true wind rather than his ability to shape, drawing from the purest source that he could. As he did, he pressed this connection through the bond that he shared with Honl. It still wasn’t enough.

  Drawing more, this time calling on the spirit portion of his bond, asking the Great Mother to allow the connection to form so that he could reach his bonded—his friend—Tan felt the stirrings of spirit within him.

  This came gradually, nothing like the burst of power that he called upon when trying to help Light, or the same spirit connection that he’d used when he was trying to reach for Honl in the first place. Using this, Tan sent spirit through him, through the bond between himself and Honl, mixing with wind.

  A surge of power flooded him as he met resistance.

  Tan continued to push, pressing against it. For Honl, he needed to bypass whatever resistance he encountered.

  More power flooded him. Tan sensed the change, the brightness of the light that filled him, and had a sense of the enormity of the power. Through this, he felt the barrier as well, a physical presence against his mind, a powerful creation that combined all aspects of shaping together, binding the elementals within it. Tan could see the structure required by the shaping and could detect the way to unravel it, if only he chose to reach.

  But that wasn’t why he had reached for spirit, no matter how tempting that might be.

  Shifting to the bond between them, Tan surged again, sending everything that he had through the bond.

  Much like the barrier that Tan had passed through, this resistance faded, and he knifed through it, reaching Honl. Awareness flooded him, and the power that Tan drew upon flooded the elemental.

  There was a sense of pain, and a voice cried out in his mind. Maelen!

  Then it was silenced.

  Tan reached for Honl, but the bond felt severed, drawn from him. Even spirit didn’t help, regardless of how much power Tan accessed.

  He released the power, slowly letting it ease away from him, not wanting that energy to simply snap back upon the world.

  Light licked at his face and Tan wiped it away in frustration. He hadn’t been able to help Honl. Tan had barely been able to reach him, even as strong as he might be. The bond hadn’t been enough. Tan hadn’t been enough. Not nearly enough to help his friend.

  Tan didn’t even know with certainty whether Honl even remained here. If he didn’t, he wondered where he might have gone. He doubted that he would have reached through the barrier a second time. Likely passing through the first time had been what weakened him, much as it had nearly been too much for Tan.

  What happened to him? he asked Light.

  The connection is unusual, Maelen. You helped him, but as soon as you did, the connection changed again. Whatever restricts your ability to reach him knows that you can reach through the wind bond, and likely spirit.

  Why would they prevent me from reaching Honl?

  I do not know, Maelen.

  Tan looked around Norilan. The land as far as he could see was shaped into existence. Fields and trees, perhaps even the bright sun shining down on him, all of it appeared shaped into existence. Such a shaping required skill and finesse that Tan didn’t have and couldn’t imagine others possessing, but the ancient shapers, those who had been present at the place of convergence and had hidden the artifact there, had known about such shapings, if not on such a scale.

  He needed to reach Honl. More than ever, Tan realized that he needed to find his bonded. The way that Honl had cried out for him would have told him that much, even if there was the question of what had happened to Honl, and whether he was someplace voluntarily or if he had been captured and contained. The idea of capturing one of the wind elements, especially one with the connection that Tan shared with him, seemed impossible. Could Tan have captured ara? Would he have managed to capture Honl if he was unable to bond with him?

  If that had happened to Honl, if he had been captured, it reminded Tan of how the Utu Tonah had forced bonds on each of the elementals, not only those most easily visible.

  Was there some similarity to that?

  Taking to the air on a shaping, he hovered in place, looking around and trying to decide how he would find the elemental. Regardless of what else he did, that had to be the next step that he took. The elemental needed him, and needed his connection, regardless of whether Honl was aware that he did.

  But how to find him? Connecting through the bond had not worked, and connecting through the wind bond didn’t lead to the elemental. What he needed was help.

  Ilaz sent a soft fluttering breeze around him.

  Tan should be able to reach all elementals. Never had he been restricted by the types of elementals that he could access, but for some reason, in these lands, the connection changed, muting his ability. Not his ability to shape, and not his connection to the element bonds themselves, but to the elementals that resided here.

  Ilaz. I must find one called Honl of ashi. He tried to frame up a memory of what he had with Honl, much like he had with Wasina and Asboel, but the memories that Tan had of Honl were not the same as he possessed of the draasin. Would ilaz even care that Tan had a bond with Honl? Would it matter that they had shared the experiences that they had? With Asboel, the draasin shared
the connection but did so because of their respect for Asboel. Would that be the same with wind?

  The breeze shifted, sliding around him.

  Ilaz. I need your help.

  A blade of grass from the spot Tan and Light had stood in when they appeared in Norilan caught the breeze and swirled for a moment in front of him. Then, as if catching a current much like the draasin had done, the blade began to undulate, circling first higher and then away from him.

  You should follow, Light suggested.

  The grass moved to the north, away from them, rising higher and higher on the wind.

  Ilaz might not speak to him—and Tan wondered if something here in these lands prevented ilaz from speaking to him—but maybe Light was right and that the wind guided him onward.

  Drawing on the wind and adding fire, Tan shaped himself after the blade of grass, hoping that ilaz led him where he needed to go and that he would be able to find Honl.

  19

  A Shaped City

  The wind carried the blade of grass toward rolling hills, and beyond. Tan followed, trailing after the breeze, after the blade of grass, feeling the way that the wind beckoned him onward with something like a caress. There was none of the cold of ara and none of the dry heat of ashi. Even the powerful gusts he knew of wyln in Par were absent. This wind was nothing like the others that he had experienced, but at the same time, there was a sense of familiarity to the way the wind blew, a comfort in the presence on his cheek and the way it slid past his skin, catching the hem of his cloak and sending it flapping.

  The ground below was all shaped. The farther that they went, the more certain that Tan felt that everything here was shaped. Perhaps even the contours of the hills and the distant mountain peak. The more he detected it, the more he decided that the power and control required to produce this shaping surprised him.

  Above the presence of the shaping, Tan detected the barrier and the energy that was within it. That barrier, the shaping that had been required to create it, had a signature that he started to recognize. Something about the barrier was familiar, and much like when he had been within the spirit bond and nearly able to detect the patterns required for the shaping, the longer that Tan focused on this barrier, the more familiar that he became with it. Almost as if he could understand it.

  The blade of grass caught another current and rose over a hill before descending again.

  Tan followed and then brought himself to a stop, losing track of the grass but realizing that it was no longer necessary to follow it.

  Beyond the hillside, a wide city spread before him. Buildings with ornate towers and delicate patterns rose from the base of a valley, taller than even the tower in Par, or the Fire Fortress within Incendin. Everything had soft curves and gentle sweeps, delicate shapes that appeared to have been crafted by shapers drawing on the elementals themselves. Even the outer buildings, those that were single-story and likely homes rather than palaces, had much of the same grace as those found deeper in the city. All seemed drawn from a stone so white that it glowed. One, Tan decided, that reminded him of the Alast Temple.

  Was this where Honl was?

  Possibly more importantly, was this where he would find the third binding?

  The shape was wrong for a binding, but that didn’t necessarily mean much. The shape within Par was wrong for the binding, at least when considering the city, but the binding involved only a part of the city. Not like the temple, where the binding was clearly in the shape of the outer structures. But in both Par and in the temple, there was an underground shape to the binding, a buried portion, as if holding it within the earth were somehow important.

  Tan dropped to the ground and focused on each of the elements. From here, he couldn’t detect any shapings used, nothing that pressed upon him as he had detected in Ethea, or Par, or even like he had detected in Doma, where there were few shapers. What he detected was the shaped presence of everything around him, from the buildings to the grass to the cool breeze and hint of warmth in the air.

  What is this place? Tan asked Light.

  The lizard licked at his face. This is the place you seek.

  The binding?

  I cannot tell. Everything is distorted here, Maelen. The binding might be here, but then, there might be nothing here.

  Distorted. That seemed as good a way to describe it as any. The sense of the elements was here, but not in the way that Tan expected. Yet, he could shape, and he could reach the element bonds, neither of which he would be able to do if there was some true distortion. The barrier had attempted to prevent his passing, but once he was here, it had not done much more than that.

  Tan started down the hillside, choosing to walk. Shaping would make him too obvious, and until he knew what he might encounter, he didn’t really want to risk exposing himself. Walking afforded another benefit, in that Tan could reach through the connection to the elements and try to understand what he saw around him.

  Reaching a paved road leading into the city, he stopped when he realized that each stone under his feet had a rune pressed into it that held the power of earth elementals. Tan couldn’t tell whether the elementals remained within the stone by choice much like they did within the rebuilt university in Ethea, or whether they had been forced. With these runes, the stones remained sturdy and stout, and though they appeared freshly placed, could be hundreds—or even thousands—of years old.

  Light jumped from his shoulder and sniffed at the stones before sticking her tongue out and tentatively licking at them. She began licking with more vigor, and Tan realized that the runes she licked were removed from the stone.

  Do you think that wise? he asked her.

  They are trapped here, Maelen. You have seen this before.

  Tan frowned. Before?

  They do not choose this service, Maelen.

  Tan let his gaze trail along the massive roadway. How many elementals were bound within the stone to create it? And were all forced into place and held by the rune rather than by choice?

  When Light removed the runes, the elementals escaped from the stone with a faint rumble and faded into the earth. Reaching to the earth bond, Tan sensed elementals where he had not before. There was relief from the elementals that were freed.

  Once the runes were removed, the stones cracked, crumbling quickly into dust. Light continued to work at the stones, thinning the road as she went, releasing elementals and letting the stones crumble into nothing.

  How many do you think you can free? Tan asked.

  All must be freed, Maelen. You must know that.

  Tan studied the stones, and the field around him, and even the buildings down below. A growing dread settled within him. If all of this were shaped if all of this were artificial, did they draw from the elementals, binding them so that they would form the shapings?

  Was that what had happened within the cavern where they had found the artifact?

  Tan hadn’t thought that the case, but then, he knew next to nothing about shaping at that time, and less about the elementals. Roine wouldn’t have recognized elemental bindings like this back then. He hadn’t understood them until Tan began to understand; the knowledge of the elementals and the bindings that held them in place had been lost for centuries, fading much like the strength of the warriors who once had bonded to the elementals for understanding.

  And if the elementals were bound, holding them in place to serve whatever purpose that they served, was that where Honl had gone? Had someone managed to capture him and force him to serve those who created this city?

  They reached the outskirts of the city. Surprisingly, they had not encountered anyone else as they walked. Tan tried reaching through earth, but though the elementals had been freed and were returned to the earth bond, the distortion around him made it difficult for him to detect anyone. With such an expansive city, and with all this shaped energy around him, there had to be people here. But they hadn’t come across them.

  Light continued to lick the stones as they walk
ed. She pulled on spirit, her body glowing softly now, and it took only a single pass of her tongue to destroy the bonds. The road behind them had crumbled and faded, and as it did, the sense of earth began to grow around Tan.

  At the first building, he stopped. Built with flowing lines, and sculpted in a way that reminded him strangely of the sculptures that had attacked him outside Xsa, a fine layer of dirt covered the sloping roof. Windows were thrown open, but no light spilled out, and no sounds came from within, and there were no smells that he would expect from within a home. It was as if it had been deserted.

  The next building was much the same. Tan paused to push on the door and found it unlocked. Pulling on a shaping, readying fire and earth, he stepped inside, not certain what he might encounter. Like the last, nothing moved.

  He released a trickle of fire, letting it dance in his hand so that he could light his way. A tidy room opened before him, furnished with much the same smooth lines that were found on the outside of the home. A plush bench rested along one wall, with curved wooden legs heavily lacquered so that they appeared to disappear into the shadows. A wooden table and chairs shared many of the same curves, as well as the same stain that appeared on the bench. A counter jutted out from near the fire, separating into another space, with legs supporting it that were equally impressive.

  And all were shaped. The longer that Tan stood here, the more certain that he was that everything here had been shaped, perhaps directly from the trees, or from the ground, but he had a growing suspicion that they had simply been shaped into existence. The rapid crumbling of the stone walkway into nothingness left him uncertain.

  Is that even possible? Tan asked Light.

  She licked her tongue over one of the benches. There came a pop, and then two elementals were freed, released back into the wild, and the bench quickly disintegrated, as if Light wanted to answer his question in the quickest way possible.

  With the power of the Mother, much is possible. You can touch the source directly. Do you not feel the possibilities?