His heart began to hammer.
This was a trap, but one that he never could have imagined. They would trap him in the same type of stone that created the Alast Temple. And if they managed to do that, his ability to shape, his connection to the elementals, and his newly discovered ability to reach the element bonds, would mean nothing. He would be stuck and would waste away while the rest of the binding failed.
28
SHAPER OF LIGHT
Tan composed himself, forcing himself to try to think up a solution to his freedom. The longer he watched, the more that he became mesmerized by the movement of the Xsa men and the strange way that they stepped. The barrier that they created shimmered in the air now, and the dark cloud grew even closer.
The draasin unfurled herself from his neck and jumped to the ground. You have not yet mastered what you need to succeed here, Maelen. I will help.
What do I need to succeed?
I do not know, only that you have not yet mastered it.
And you can help? Tan attempted again and again to send shapings at the circle formed around him, but nothing happened. Each time, the shaping bounced back, as if striking an invisible wall, and one capable of containing one of the most impressive shapings that Tan had ever attempted. Had the Utu Tonah managed something like this, Tan doubted that he would have defeated him. Even tied to the bonds, he had no way of escaping. Shaping would not help him.
Not in this form.
Tan almost lost control of his shaping. What form?
The draasin didn’t answer, simply curled up on the ground at his feet and began licking herself, running her tongue over her wings, her tail, and her legs. A thick, clear crust appeared where she did.
The energy coming from the Xsa men began to hum.
Tan made his way toward them. They were moving in such a way that they were practically a blur. He again attempted a shaping, but it failed. Hating the need, he swept his sword in an arc over his head, the technique learned when training with actual swordsmen, and swung at the inner circle. He hated the idea of killing, of harming someone this way, but this pattern that they made intended to close around him. Already, white stone rose to knee height and started pressing even more against him.
The sword bounced off the barrier.
Tan stepped back, staring helplessly. The draasin lay on the ground, now not moving. The dark cloud hung in the sky, hovering over the heart of the kingdoms. Amia was gone. His unborn child was gone.
And there was nothing that he could do.
How could the Mother have wanted this fate for him? How could she have wanted it for Amia? Hadn’t she wanted to see him to safety? Hadn’t she given him everything that he needed to succeed to this point?
You still think that you can win.
The dark voice thundered in his head, louder and stronger than he had heard before.
Your Mother has failed you, Shaper of Light. You will fail. And soon I will have the vessel that I need in order to return.
Tan didn’t trust himself to answer.
An image of Amia, her belly full and swollen, came into his mind. This creature didn’t want Amia. It wanted their child.
Dark laughter filled the air.
Tan reached for shapings, going back to the only thing that he knew. Earth, wind, water, and fire. Shaping each of them first at the men circling him, and then at the stone that had risen above his head. Now it began to curl in. Soon the stone would encase him, trapping him.
His shapings bounced harmlessly off the stone. Each one failed. His shaping failed.
Tan tried again, knowing in his heart that it didn’t matter, that nothing that he would do mattered, as he reached for the connection to the bonds. The elements were there, strong as ever, and within his reach, but twisting them together did nothing. He could reach spirit, and he could reach the other elements, but he was not able to free himself with it.
The draasin didn’t move.
Tan sat, full of hopelessness.
As he did, he reached deep into the well of spirit within him. If he would fall, if he would die here, let him at least do so connected to Amia. She was his bond, and he was hers. In that way, they served each other, strengthened each other. And he didn’t want her to suffer alone.
Within the pool of spirit, Tan shifted the shaping that he created from the four separate bonds, tying them to give him the strength that he needed to reach into spirit. Using this, he drew it deeper toward him, delving into that well of spirit.
A hint of the connection to Amia remained.
Tan grasped for this, pulling on his forged shaping of spirit, and pulled.
All he wanted was Amia.
He felt a sense falling, as if he were losing himself within that pool of spirit within himself. And maybe that was what needed to happen. If he were to pass, maybe he could join one of the bonds much like Asboel had, and he could reach the Mother in that way.
It is not your time, Maelen.
The voice, like an echo of Asboel, came to him. Tan felt a deep sense of loss and sadness for his friend.
It is fine, Asboel. I will see you soon. But I need to give strength to Amia.
He pulled on the bonds, this time drawing them upon him, forcing himself into the sense of spirit.
Distantly he was aware of the white walls of the stone creating a casing around him.
Tan fell into the spirit.
There was nothing. And then there was everything.
Spirit, true Spirit, flooded him. It was nothing like the combination of his shapings, nothing like when he pulled each of the bonds together. This was like stepping into the pool of liquid spirit when he’d been at the place of convergence, but then swallowing it, having it erupt from him.
Amia was there, and he surged toward her.
The bond between them changed, and she was pulled into this pool, into this sense of power.
How is this possible? she asked him.
The Mother. It was the only answer that he had. And Tan didn’t know whether this was a dream, and whether he would awaken, but if he was with Amia, then he would be happy in this moment.
Not a dream, Tan. She wants our child. It wants our child. They’re here. I can’t move. Tan!
If he could reach this power, was there anything he could do to save her and their child? Could he use this connection to stop Marin and the darkness? How, when his other connections couldn’t free him?
I will come for you!
Tan pulled himself from the pool. As he did, he pulled the pool of spirit, that connection to true spirit, with him. Power surged through him unlike anything he’d ever held. Tan had thought that reaching through the element bonds had brought him strength and power, but they were nothing compared to this.
He released the power onto the stone that had closed around him.
The stone bulged, resisting for a moment, and then exploded.
The Xsa continued to circle around him, and Tan released the energy on them as well. As one, they fell, dropping to the ground where they had circled.
The force—shaping, or whatever it was that they had done which contained him—immediately dissipated.
Tan readied a shaping of the spirit, the stream of power flowing through him so strongly that he wanted nothing more than to turn it on the darkness and restore the binding.
But he couldn’t leave here while the draasin remained immobile.
He tried reaching through spirit for the draasin, but he could not. Either she had separated from spirit and fire, or whatever transformation she claimed would take place happened in a way that he could not reach her.
When he tried lifting her, he found that she was sealed to the ground.
Tan unleashed a shaping of each of the elements, using them to create a barrier around her until her could return. With this, he added the barest hint of spirit, drawing from this enormous store that he could detect, and sealed her in place.
Then he burst into the air.
Powered as he was b
y spirit, he moved more easily than he ever had before. He reached the darkened entrance of the Alast Temple and strode inside. A wash of power surged over him, and he felt it as it threatened to seal around him, but he was tied to spirit, and to the other element bonds. He would not—could not—be pulled from his connection.
Light burst around him from everywhere at once, and it took a moment for Tan to realize that it came from him, pouring from his skin, from his very pores, almost as it had from the draasin when she had led them into the space beneath Par.
Tan stepped forward, holding onto the connection with Amia. Within steps, he reached her. Distance seemed to have flown by, but he was not aware of the travel.
She lay atop a stone pillar, arms and legs bound in dark metal chains, her abdomen bared. Marin stood next to her, a curved knife in hand. A dozen others stood arrayed around her. So far, they were not aware of Tan’s presence.
Tan hadn’t seen Marin in months. She appeared thinner, her cheeks more drawn, and there were lines on her face that had not been there before. Power practically surged from her, and through the connection he had with spirit, he saw it as something like a dark cloud.
That cloud swirled and hovered over Amia’s stomach.
But Amia didn’t move. Her eyes were closed and he didn’t know if she could move.
The knife arced toward her.
Tan unleashed the power he held.
Spirit struck those around Marin, and they fell.
Her gaze flickered toward the opening in the temple before starting her knife forward again.
Using his connection to spirit, he unleashed it on the knife itself.
It dissolved in her hand.
Tan moved his focus, sending it to Amia, and freed her from the chains with a thought before lifting her, pulling her to him, faster than Marin could react.
“You think that you can defeat him now? He has grown powerful. Two bindings were released, and now he is nearly free.”
“The other binding is restored,” Tan said.
“Restored, but too late!” She smiled at him. “And your child was to be the form that he takes when he returns. But now…”
She tipped her head back and opened her mouth.
Like a swarm of insects, the darkness flooded inside her.
Tan unleashed spirit, reaching for the darkness to pull at it, to drag it away from Marin, but even connected as he was to spirit and the other bonds, he could not stop what she did.
Marin closed her mouth. Dark power circled around her. And she smiled.
“It was not to have been me. I was to shepherd this back into our world, but it was not to be me. You have chosen, Utu Tonah.”
“I am not the Utu Tonah. I am the Maelen,” he said.
Tan strained for spirit, for each of the other elements deep within himself, and pulled them around him in a shaping of power. Light erupted from him but met the darkness coming from Marin.
She stepped toward him, the smile spreading across her face. “You are not prepared, Shaper of Light.” Her voice had changed, going deeper, more charged. She pressed that darkness outward, forcing it at him.
Tan resisted, pushing back with all the strength that he could draw. He unleashed this on her, on the darkness. The two met in the middle. Light and dark, colliding.
And light fell back.
Under the strength of whatever control Marin possessed, she forced Tan back.
He reached for more power, straining for a greater connection, but it did not come. Everything that he could access he already had.
And it wasn’t enough.
He glanced at Amia. Her eyes had opened and she pushed through his connection with spirit, adding what she could, but even with her connection to spirit, even as the Daughter, she was not able to add to what he already could draw.
Darkness pushed forward again.
Tan took Amia’s hand. Power surged as he did, but it was brief.
The darkness moved forward.
Now it was nearly upon them. Beyond the rim of light barely a pace away, he saw nothing, but could feel the power of this dark energy as it came at him. Try as he might, powered as much as he might be, he still didn’t have enough strength.
How had this darkness ever been defeated before?
It pressed in on him and he practically collapsed.
Tan looked at Amia and kissed her, and mouthed words to her that were unneeded, not with the bond between them, but that he wanted to say regardless.
As he felt the darkness approach, Tan had an awareness of something else.
Light streaked into the temple, brighter than the sun, and surged past Tan and into the darkness. There was a sound of a scream, and then light exploded, leaving the darkness faded.
In the afterimage of what happened, Tan blinked, trying to clear his vision, and saw a long, stout lizard with four legs sitting alone where Marin had been.
Maelen.
Tan blinked again. Hatchling?
Not a hatchling, not any longer. I am Light.
Light? Tan asked, confused.
Power surged as a bond formed between them.
EPILOGUE
Much like when in the draasin form, Light had jumped onto Tan’s shoulders before they made their way out of the temple. Once back outside, Tan searched the sky for evidence of the dark cloud that had spread there, like some sort of coming storm. But he saw nothing other than a clear sky.
“How did you find me?” Amia asked. She hadn’t released his hand, and Tan was loathe to allow her to, anyway. Now that he’d managed to get her back, he would not have her away from him.
“Roine. After the attack in Par,” he started. “My mother. She was one of the attacked. Roine came to find her. He had seen the binding pattern before.” Tan took her other hand and turned her to face him. “They took you from me.”
“They didn’t want me. They wanted…” She rubbed her stomach.
He touched her stomach, sliding his hand across it, and was rewarded by a kick against his hand. Turning to the temple, he focused on the stone, and the doorway. Pulling on the connection to spirit, he shaped the door closed once more.
It doesn’t matter, does it? Tan asked Light.
The lizard looked up at him and ran a tongue across his face. At least that hadn’t changed. It matters. The binding failed, but it matters.
Tan pulled himself and Amia away from the temple and pulled through the earth bond, smoothing the ground back over the temple. It would remain hidden for now. If he had the need, he could recover it again, but for now… now he would prefer to leave it buried.
“Where is Assan? And Sani?”
Amia looked around and closed her eyes. “I cannot tell where Assan went, if he still lives.”
“Was he a part of this?”
“I… I think spirit protects from whatever that is,” Amia said. “That’s why Marin could use it, and why she couldn’t force me against you like they did with the others. I saw what she did, how she used some of that power to augment her spirit shaping. I don’t think your mother or the others had a chance.”
“I separated it from them,” Tan said.
Amia tipped her head, waiting. When Tan didn’t say anything, she laughed. “Aren’t you going to tell me how you reached me? How you glowed?”
“I don’t really know. I think I found the spirit bond.”
As much as he wanted her to, Light didn’t answer.
Tan had no idea what kind of creature she even was now. Not draasin, but she looked nothing like any other elemental that he had ever seen. She had bluish scaled skin, a blunted nose and a long tongue, but her golden eyes still remained, a remnant of the draasin that she had been.
Did you stop it? Tan asked Light.
For now. The bonds failed. Marin spoke truly. Enough escaped that he has a presence in the world again. He will try once more. If the third bond fails before you are ready…
How can I ever be ready?
Because you are the Shaper of Ligh
t.
That’s what he called me, but what does that mean?
You will learn. You have already reached more than I think they thought possible. I sensed that from Marin before.
Before what?
Before she was disappeared.
Did you destroy her?
In that form, I could not. She called too much inside.
But I wasn’t strong enough to stop them. Why would she leave? Why would it leave?
Because the darkness has a memory of the light and fears my coming.
Why?
Light licked his cheek. I don’t know.
Tan sighed. “How much of that were you able to hear?” he asked Amia.
“All of it.”
“All?”
“When you reached me while I was trapped, you changed our bond.”
Did it harm her? he asked Light.
No more than when you bond to other elementals.
She is not an elemental.
Light licked his face again. She is the Daughter.
And I am the Shaper of Light?
Now you understand.
Tan shook his head, but he didn’t think that he was going to get any answers from Light. And right now, what he wanted, was to simply hold Amia. They would rest, recover, and then he would need to start his search for the third binding. Finding it was important, and he thought that he knew where to start.
Somehow, the Utu Tonah had known about the bindings. And, if Tan’s suspicions were right, he had thought to protect the world from the same darkness that had nearly appeared.
Had Tan destroying him allowed the darkness to break free of the bindings? Was it his fault?
The Bonded One would never have been strong enough, Maelen.
Why me? Why was I chosen?
Because you chose to serve. You grow. You change. You cannot Shape the Light without change, Maelen.
Tan waited for Light to explain more, but she didn’t.
Amia squeezed his hand, and he squeezed back. When he didn’t turn toward her, she squeezed again.
“What is it?”
She smiled. “It’s time.”
“Time?”
She patted her stomach and smiled again. “Time.”
Tan touched her stomach and felt a kick. It was time. The baby would come. But not here, not in this place so near the binding where they both had nearly died. And not where the darkness had almost been freed.
Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9) Page 23