Enya followed. Tan reached for the fire bond and sensed as she followed. Through the fire bond, he noted Asgar and also the two hatchlings. They were more present in the fire bond now than they had been before.
When Wasina stopped, he jumped from her back and turned to Asgar. The other draasin remained near the back wall, his tail curled around him. The two hatchlings rested by his feet. Tan smiled, thinking how much he looked like Asboel as he guarded his hatchlings while in the den.
Wasina snorted and rubbed her snout against Asgar before turning her attention to the eggs. She sniffed at then and then curled up along the wall next to Asgar.
Can you come to the cavern? he sent to Amia.
Zephra is here. She will bring me.
“What is this place?” Cora asked. “What are these?”
“Draasin eggs. Par had dozens,” he said. Tan’s eyes drifted to the egg that hadn’t hatched, the one with the shell of the egg that had changed, hardening. He still didn’t know quite what to make of it.
“I knew that you had found eggs and had hatched them,” her tone made it clear that she had once considered that unlikely, “but so many? How is it that they stored so many here?”
“I don’t know. How is it that the Sunlands have as many eggs as they have?”
She turned to him, and her eyes went wide. “You know about them?”
He hadn’t, at least not well. There was the suspicion, and he had asked the San about the draasin eggs, but he had not shared anything other than the connection to fire. “I know that there are secrets kept in the Sunlands, Cora. Is that why the lisincend were angry with you?”
She seemed to notice the Great Seal and crouched in front of it, tracing her finger across the stone. Fire drifted from the tip of her finger and surged into the Seal. “There is much that should be preserved by the Servants,” she said. “And those who embraced fire feared that I might have shared what should not have been shared.” She stood and turned back to Tan. “Only, I was not the one to share with you. The San?” When he nodded, she sighed and shook her head. “Even Fur will not oppose him. Perhaps it is good that you have met the San.”
“What of your eggs?”
“They have been there since the founding of the Sunlands,” she said. “Back when Rens still existed. That is all that I know. Fire asks that we watch over them, and so we do. For many years, it was thought that their hatching would be a sign, but they have not. Now… now they are a relic of a time long past.”
Tan looked at the eggs that remained unhatched, and then at the hatchlings that he had helped bring into the world. He felt a connection to them, if only because were it not for him, they would not have returned. Through his connection to fire and the fire bond, he was able to provide them the initial feedings that the draasin required when they hatched.
Could Cora?
“Not a relic,” Tan said. “And I wonder if maybe you would be able to hatch the draasin eggs that the Sunlands possess.”
“Tan, many have tried over the years. All have failed. Even some of the earliest who embraced fire have attempted it, but they have failed as well.”
“They wouldn’t be able to help the draasin,” Tan said. “Not twisted by fire. They need a connection to the fire bond, and the lisincend might have one now, but that was not always the case.”
Could Fur now? He had been brought back into the fire bond and was able to reach kaas. But Tan suspected that the connection to kaas would prevent a shared connection to the draasin. Something about the draasin required understanding them.
Cora eyed the eggs and Tan felt a shaping building from her as if she would attempt it now.
He touched her arm, and she stopped. “These are of Par, Corasha.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “Since the Calling to Issa, I have a different connection to fire. I hear it now.”
Tan wasn’t surprised. If he could help her foster the connection to the fire bond, if he could help her reach to fire in a way that was more like he did, she would be more capable. Possibly capable enough that she would be able to help the draasin and hatch the eggs, feed them as they required when they were first born.
“That is the fire bond,” Tan said. “You were always present within the bond. I think that all shapers exist somehow in the bond; that it is what connects us to fire in the first place. Through the fire bond, we are able to reach the elementals and have a greater understanding of that which brings life.”
Cora smiled. “You think fire brings life? You begin to sound like the San.”
“Then the San is correct in much,” he said. “Fire brings life, but so too does water, and air, and earth. Each are required, and spirit binds it together.” That was the sense that he had when he held onto the spirit bond, and that was the power that he was able to control, but what did it mean? How would that help him defeat the darkness? If what he had seen in Norilan escaped, Tan doubted that there would be anything that he would be able to do that would stop it. Perhaps there was nothing that anyone could do that would stop it.
Except, people had stopped it. Wasn’t that the lesson that he should take? The temple and Par, both of which were bindings. Even Norilan, whatever those shapers might have been, had understood the darkness. That was why it had been held in place, using shapings that Tan didn’t understand and would not be able to easily recreate. Those ancient shapers had seemed to understand something about how to confine and control the darkness.
If only he knew what the ancients had known.
If only he hadn’t lost Honl.
But Honl wasn’t lost, not entirely. He might have been trapped or injured, and Tan’s initial attempt to rescue him had not worked, but he didn’t think that Honl was dead. The connection to him remained, even if he couldn’t speak to the elemental.
“You have become philosophical,” Cora said.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You remind me of Lacertin in that way.” She sighed and clasped her hands together in front of her for a moment before reaching one hand to her neck. “When he first came to the Sunlands, he often struggled with his purpose. For many months, he had none. There was devotion to his dead king, and I know that there was something he sought—probably your king Althem,” she said, “but in addition, he struggled with what else that he would do. His shaping ability set him apart, but so too did his connection to fire. He was the first outsider allowed to remain in the temple.”
What must it have been like for Lacertin? He thought his king dead and was chased by Roine, only to learn that Althem had been the reason that Ilton had died. Tan wondered how much Lacertin had changed in his time in Incendin, how much he had hardened. But seeing Cora, getting to know her as he had, Tan wondered if maybe Lacertin hadn’t hardened from the experience. Maybe he had softened.
“What happened when you were taken?” Tan asked. He realized that he had never heard how Cora had ended up in Par-shon, trapped by the Utu Tonah and separated from her bond to saldam.
“A mistake,” she said slowly. “Lacertin had trained me, teaching me how to shape everything other than fire. The Sunlands have not known what you would call a warrior shaper before and did not know how to help me harness my abilities. When Lacertin came, the San thought he was sent by Issa. Not only to learn fire but to teach and to help me in my growth.”
“Then how did you end up in Par-shon?”
“There is a test each Servant must take if we are to truly serve Issa. I was tasked with discovering how the fire shaping used on the temple affected Par-shon. That required me to travel across the ocean, to the edges of the shaping. That was where they found me.”
She shivered at the memory. Tan could only imagine the horrors of how long she had been confined and how hard that had been on her. “Why wasn’t Lacertin with you?”
“The San trusted Lacertin, but not all did,” she answered. “He was not allowed a part of the shaping, and he was not shown the reason that we maintained it.”
Tan
hadn’t been sure whether Lacertin had known of Par-shon or not. He doubted that he had, especially since he had not said anything when Tan met him. Had he said anything, would Lacertin still have focused on reaching Althem?
Probably, he decided. Lacertin had a focus and had been fixated on finding Althem for the twenty years that he had been within Incendin. Nothing, not even the presence of Par-shon, would have changed that.
“The people of Par are not the ones who confined you,” he said to her softly.
She nodded. “I know that. Don’t you think that I understand that the true threat had been the Utu Tonah? You have taught me compassion, Tan, and forgiveness. Those are lessons even the draasin have learned from you. But it is not easy returning to this place. Even the smells remind me of how long I was confined, and the pain, the torment, when all that I wanted was to return to my homeland. And to Lacertin.”
Only, when she did, Lacertin was already dead.
“What now, Tan? You haven’t said anything since we left, but the way that you repaired the barrier tells me that you saw something when you were there.”
Tan turned away and sighed. “I saw something.”
The wind stirred in the cavern, gusting with a cool and familiar breeze. Tan turned to see his mother and Amia arriving. Surprisingly, Cianna followed with Sashari, as well as Roine with Elanne in tow.
How would they all have known that he had returned?
Each shares a connection to you, Maelen, Light told him. Do you not feel that connection?
What sort of connection?
You told Corasha the connection, Maelen. Spirit binds us all, but with you, you are bound more strongly than others. You have control over the flows of spirit, much like the Daughter, in ways that few others ever possessed.
“How did you know I was here?” he asked Roine. Sashari and the fire bond would have told Cianna, but he didn’t understand Roine and Elanne. It was good that they had come, and good that he wouldn’t have to repeat what he needed to say.
Roine nodded to Elanne. “This one claims she speaks to the wind like Zephra. Considering her strength with wind, I think I believe it. You’ve returned from Norilan?”
His mother turned to him. “Norilan? What’s this?”
“This is—was—about finding the third binding.”
“And did you find it?” Roine asked. “Was it in Norilan as you expected?”
Tan sighed. “I think the barrier around Norilan is part of the binding.”
Cora sucked in a sharp breath. “That is why you repaired it.”
He glanced over at her. “I don’t know that I had much of a choice.”
“You actually reached it?” Roine asked. “You actually found Norilan?”
“The draasin carried me there, and then I shaped my way through the barrier.”
Spirit, he sent to Amia. She nodded, holding Alanna tightly against her. Their daughter squirmed until Amia handed her to Tan. He breathed in the soft, sweet scent of her, missing the way that she grabbed at his face. Light didn’t move as she pulled at her head and grabbed onto her tail. A surge of shaping—spirit, Tan noted—came from her.
Could she already have learned how to shape spirit?
If so, he suspected that she would be a potent shaper. For her to reach it already, when Tan had taken years before he had first learned to shape, likely meant that she would be powerful.
Light licked his face. Do you think that strength is all that matters? Are you not a strong shaper?
With shaping? I am strong because of my connections to the elementals, and now to the element bonds. I do not consider myself a particularly strong shaper.
Light licked him again.
“What did you find?” Roine asked.
Tan thought about the shaped fields and the empty city that had been shaped into existence. Now he suspected all of it a part of the binding, those ancient shapers who had created all of that using those shapings to hold back the darkness. And he had been the reason that the darkness nearly escaped. This time, he did not need Marin for that.
“Emptiness,” Tan answered. “There was an emptiness there. A beautiful landscape. A massive city. But nothing else.”
He described the wall and how he had gone through it. “The other side was decayed. No life. Shapings struggled. I could feel the touch of darkness, and understood how it would taint our world if it were allowed to escape.”
“Did it hold?” Elanne asked. “You describe using a binding to hold back the darkness. Did it hold?”
“I think so. But that’s why I repaired the barrier.”
Elanne glanced at the Great Seal and then turned back to Tan. “That’s the problem, Maelen. Don’t you see? You told me how these bindings connect. How spirit surges between them. And if the spirit connection has failed, or the connection severed, it is only a matter of time before the darkness fully escapes. Already we have seen that it can seep out into the world. We have done nothing more than delay it.”
Tan nodded. That was his fear as well, and the reason that he needed to find Honl. Light might be able to help him gain understanding from those around him, but Honl could gain the understanding of the past. He needed Honl.
“That’s why I have to go back.”
Amia watched him, a troubled expression on her face. Through the bond, he knew that she could tell what he had gone through, and she more than anyone else understood exactly what he had experienced.
“You intend to go back?” Elanne asked.
He nodded, uncertain whether they would understand but knowing that he would need their help to be successful. If he failed… he could not think about what would happen were he to fail.
“The key to understanding what we face remains in Norilan. An elemental, one of my bonded, is trapped there. With him, we might understand what happened in the past, and how the ancient shapers managed to stop the darkness. Without him…”
He couldn’t finish. There was only so much that the scholars would be able to teach. Only so much that they would be able to understand. He needed to reach Honl. But it was more than that. He couldn’t leave his bonded—a friend—when there might be something that he could do. Especially if there might be something that he could do.
“You will do this alone?” Cora asked.
“I don’t think that I can. I will need help just to prevent the darkness from escaping while I attempt this rescue. And even then, I am not sure that we will be able to stop it. But I have to try.”
“I will help,” Cora said.
“And I,” Elanne said.
One by one, they all offered their help. He would need them, and others, he suspected, but it was a start. Even if he failed, he had to try. He had to do what he could to attempt to reach Honl. If he did not, then Honl would suffer. And the darkness might escape before they learned how to defeat it.
Alanna gabbed at his face and giggled.
22
All the Bonds
Tan rode on Wasina’s back again. This time, they were surrounded by four other draasin. The largest of the hatchlings that Tan had brought into the world had refused to let them leave him behind. He had grown large and was nearly the same size as Enya. Tan heard him loudly within the fire bond, almost as if he made a point of screaming.
They approached Norilan. Tan was flanked by more help than he would have expected. Nearly twenty shapers from all the known lands came with him, answering a summons that he had not known that he made.
All converged together, and the draasin carried each of them.
Tan couldn’t help but feel a surge of hope, but it was mixed with fear as well. If this didn’t work, how many shapers would die because of him? How many would fall, never to rejoin the fight? Friends and family were with him.
Even Amia.
She wouldn’t let him leave her behind, claiming that he might need her connection to spirit. And Tan couldn’t even argue with that. He might need her connection to spirit, especially if something happened to him and the b
arrier around Norilan had to be sealed once more.
Neither of them had been willing to bring Alanna with them.
For now, she was nestled in the cavern in Par with Kota, the other hatchling, and Molly with her. Tan had left instructions for Kota to bring Tolman or Maclin to her if she lost the connection to him. At least that way, Alanna would be unharmed.
Leaving her had been painful for both he and Amia, but this was something that he had to do. Amia too. The bond allowed them to share the importance of what he needed to do. And she recognized that he had to help Honl and the reason that he needed to do so.
Stopping in front of the barrier, Roine and Zephra, sitting on Asgar’s back, leaned over to him. The draasin hadn’t made any of his usual comments about being treated like a horse. Through the fire bond, Tan sensed his understanding after what had happened to him when Nightfall had attacked. And now the draasin recognized the need to find Honl.
“The barrier is not the same as what we used in the kingdoms,” Roine said.
Tan looked up from his focus on the barrier. He had managed to get past it, but it had taken a surge of spirit that he hoped he would be able to replicate. Perhaps with Amia with him, it wouldn’t be nearly as difficult.
“I think this is the barrier that Lacertin used as a model for the one in the kingdoms,” Tan said. “But he didn’t know everything about it. Spirit was used, and the kingdoms didn’t know how to access spirit.”
“And you can get us past?” Roine asked.
Tan looked around him at the others sitting on the draasin. On Wasina, he and Amia flew with Elanne carefully clutching the spikes, using a shaping of wind to protect her hands. Asgar carried Roine and Zephra, but also Ferran. The earth shaper had met them near Chenir, determined to come along. Earth had signaled to him, he claimed.
Cianna rode atop Sashari with Elle and Vel, both connected to water. And then Cora, flying with Enya, carrying the Supreme Leader of Chenir. That had surprised Tan the most.
Until the last came.
Fur riding on some sort of finger of flame, holding near the other draasin, had appeared. He said fire demanded he come.
Light of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 10) Page 16