Lacertin managed to reach fire and formed the shapings that had been used on him, those that he now understood had been demonstrations, ways to control the lisincend, and sent as powerful a shaping as he could manage at the lisincend. Not to attack, but to soothe, using fire to calm.
The hand squeezing his neck relaxed. Lacertin took a gasping breath of air as he dropped to his knees, holding onto the shaping.
There was something familiar to the lisincend.
At first, he had thought it the heat, that he had grown accustomed to the shaping because of what he’d experienced while in Incendin, but this was a different sort of familiarity. This wasn’t about the shaping, but the shaper.
Somehow, Lacertin recognized the lisincend.
“Servant,” the lisincend hissed.
Lacertin opened his eyes. With the lisincend holding onto him, he hadn’t seen anything happening around him, but now he became aware of the chaos of surging elements. He would have to work out later why the lisincend seemed familiar.
Cora had the most restraint, not trying to kill, only to defend. The fire shaper threw shaping after shaping at her, but she deflected each one. The water shapings—presumably from Jayna—were powerful, but so was Cora, and she managed to deflect those as well. Earth was focused on him, and Lacertin found himself buried and shook it off with a rumble that echoed through the land around them.
The lisincend waited, standing silent next to him.
“We need to get across the barrier,” Lacertin said to Cora. He pulled on earth, drawing it back into a wall that separated them from the Incendin shapers.
“There is no way,” the lisincend said.
Lacertin frowned. “That’s why you were here?”
“This shaping prevents crossing,” he answered.
Lacertin swore under his breath. If not for the barrier, the lisincend would have been able to return to Incendin and the kingdoms would not have needed to attack.
Earth, water, and fire assaulted the wall he had constructed. If they managed to get past, he would have to make a choice. Lacertin did not want to make a choice.
There had to be a way. He had crossed over because of the defect created by Veran when he first left, but that had disappeared as he crossed. Would there be a way to weaken it again?
Not from this side.
But from the other side… if he could somehow reach the Servants, he might be able to find a shaping that would let them pass, especially if they could attack together.
But what to do here?
He would have to stay and hold the shaping.
“You need to go to the Servants,” he told Cora. “Have them work together on the barrier. They need to hit it at the same spot. After they do, you should be able to cross.”
“Only me, Lacertin Alaseth?”
The lisincend seethed suddenly.
“I have to hold this or they will see and follow.”
“We can all go,” she said, taking his hand.
The attack on his shaping strengthened. Lacertin pushed back, but earth resisted. This time, the shaping used against him had more skill. Whoever used earth knew what they were doing.
Wind surged, gusting against them as a wind shaper appeared. How much longer could he hold? When would a warrior appear?
Lacertin glanced over to the lisincend. With the shaping they’d used, the lisincend appeared calm, but heat still seethed from him. The creature watched him, as if waiting for him to direct what they did.
He couldn’t leave the lisincend here. Not because he wanted to help the creature, but because it meant that some of the kingdoms’ shapers would be in danger.
“Damn,” he breathed out. Even when he didn’t want to make a choice, he had to make one. “You’ll have to help,” he told Cora.
And they could only use wind. Anything else, and he would lose control of the shaping. He couldn’t use a warrior shaping to travel toward the Servants, not with both Cora and the lisincend.
“I will help you,” she said softly.
She took his hand.
Lacertin looked to the lisincend. “Are you ready to return to the Sunlands?”
The creature tipped its head. “Servant,” it hissed.
Lacertin shaped wind, augmented by Cora’s help. With a powerful gust, they were swept into the air and whisked toward the south.
Cold wind seemed to pull on them, slowing him.
Lacertin swore, shifting his focus, trying to shape the wind, but found that he couldn’t, not with the same ability that he was accustomed to having, almost as if the wind itself fought him.
“I’m not strong enough,” he said.
“You must add fire,” Cora said, shifting the focus of the shaping as she assumed control of it. Heat swirled, sifting through the barrier, and gave the shaping renewed strength.
The cool wind fought, but wasn’t able to stop their shaping.
With brutal force, they slammed to the ground across the barrier from the Servants. Trees rose up behind him and a shaping came on the wind, pulling with more force than he thought possible. A powerful wind shaper neared.
Lacertin shivered. If it was who he feared, he did not want to risk remaining.
“Shape fire at the barrier!” he called to Alisz.
When she hesitated, Cora begged, “Please, sister!”
They didn’t hesitate any longer. The Servants shaped fire, twisting it with more control than he would ever have imagined, sending a focus of flame at the barrier. Lacertin tensed as it struck, partly afraid that it would pierce the barrier and hit them. He didn’t have enough strength to withstand it if it did, but the shaping hit the barrier and faded as if it were nothing.
The Servants released their shaping.
Lacertin probed the barrier where they had struck, and found it weakened.
“Go,” he urged Cora.
“Let him go first,” she said, motioning to the lisincend.
The creature studied Lacertin. “You are a Servant, but not as well.”
Lacertin swallowed. “Issa chose me,” he said.
The lisincend hissed out a breath. A shaping built from him and layered over Lacertin, and for a moment, he knew the brutality of the torment the Servants had used on him when he first came to Incendin, but then it faded, changing over to something else.
There was familiarity to the shaping, a deep resonance that he hadn’t known for years, but one that he recognized.
“Chasn?” he whispered.
The lisincend hissed.
Wind slammed into them.
Cora did all that she could to push against it, straining, but she could only fight so long. “Hurry, Lacertin Alaseth.”
Lacertin swallowed. Could his brother be the lisincend standing across from him? Could that have been possible?
Wind gusted with increased force, trying to pull him away from the barrier. “Go,” he urged.
The lisincend—his brother—stared at him a moment and then turned to the barrier and surged through, emerging on the other side.
“Now us,” he told Cora.
He turned to the barrier and probed his way along. The weakness that had been there had disappeared as the lisincend passed through. “Shape the barrier again,” he said to the Servants.
On the other side, Alisz stared at him. For long moments, he wasn’t sure that she would do what he needed, that she might leave the barrier intact, stranding he and Cora on this side.
Then the Servants shaped once more.
A shaping of fire and wind built behind him, sharp and powerful.
“Lacertin!”
He turned in time to see Cora as she jumped in front of him as a shaping of fire streaked toward him with strength that he wouldn’t be able to withstand.
“No… Cora!”
Somehow, she pulled on earth. A wall of rock surged, drawn forth by her shaping, but coming from beneath the barrier, from Incendin.
The rock blocked the attack and she fell.
Lacertin re
ached her on a shaping of wind and grabbed her. She felt so light in his arms, and the heat radiating off her mingled with his fire shaping, almost as if without thought. Even knowing that he shouldn’t, he leaned in and kissed her.
He held her for long moments, ignoring the shaping building behind him, savoring the closeness. Then he sighed.
When he released her, she smiled up at him. “Come, Lacertin Alaseth. Let us go home.”
CHAPTER 19
Lacertin stood at the edge of the rock overlooking the sea, waves crashing far below him. In the distance, a seagull cawed, but otherwise, there was nothing but the sea. The power of the waves sent a thrill through him each time it collided with the rocks. For the first time, Lacertin realized that water seemed stronger for him in Incendin.
Not only water, but the way the hot wind fluttered around him, pulling on the thin shirt he wore, swirling around his hair, was different as well. Stronger in some ways. He had yet to determine if earth was the same.
“You knew,” he said without turning. He hadn’t needed to turn to recognize the priest coming up to him. The man approached softly, but he had a distinct signature that pulled on Lacertin’s awareness, a mixture of fire and, strangely, something that reminded him of earth.
“I knew what, Lacertin Alaseth?”
A particularly large wave hit the shore, sending a mist of salty spray up the face of the cliff. Lacertin wiped it off his lips, but didn’t move. The rising sunlight demanded his attention, and he savored its warmth. Reflected colors from the sunset streaked across the water, orange and pink and reds, all mixing, shifting with the waves.
“You knew about Chasn.”
He still couldn’t believe that his brother was one of the lisincend, that he had embraced fire. Since returning to Incendin, he hadn’t seen Chasn again. He’d disappeared, gone wherever the lisincend went, but Lacertin had a feeling that he would see him again. If his time here had proven anything, it was that there was a purpose to everything.
“Issa called you for a reason, Lacertin Alaseth.”
He sighed. “Issa? Is that what you tell yourself?”
“You think there’s another answer?”
Lacertin faced him, pulling strength from the waves and the sunlight and pushing away the irritation that he’d felt. “You used me.”
“Issa called to you, and you answered.”
“How is it that I wasn’t freed before? You claim I wasn’t a prisoner.”
“You were not.”
“I find it interesting that you released me near the time my brother was trapped in the kingdoms.”
The priest smiled at him. “As I said—”
“Do not say Issa,” Lacertin warned.
The priest crossed his hands in front of him, gripping the Book of Issa. “How long do you think you have been in the Sunlands, Lacertin Alaseth?” he asked.
He shook his head. He’d lost track of the time during his initial imprisonment. It could have been weeks or even months. “I don’t know.”
“When you came to us, you cried out for answers. You were angry, and raged with each of the elements. It was all we could do to subdue you so that you could be tested.”
Lacertin swallowed. He hadn’t known how he reacted, only that he had come for answers. He had thought that he was subtler than that.
“Many thought you would fail, that we should return you to your kingdoms, but I saw promise in you.”
“Promise, or someone you could use?” He tried to hide the bitterness in his voice but knew that he failed.
“Not use,” the priest said. “Have I done anything to use you? Search within yourself, Lacertin Alaseth, and you will see that you already know the answer.”
The priest had done nothing but welcome him, and more warmly than he deserved. Had the reverse happened, had a shaper from Incendin come to the kingdoms, the welcome would have been much different. Did it matter if he’d been used?
And could he really claim that the priest had used him? Everything that he’d done had been his choice. Even saving the lisincend had been his choice.
No, the priest didn’t deserve the way Lacertin spoke to him. “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve my anger.”
“Your anger is understandable. You are not of the Sunlands. The testing would have been foreign to you. But if you understood the testing, you would understand that I could not have used you. The choice was Issa.”
“How long was I tested?” he asked.
The priest sighed. “You spent nearly two years.”
Lacertin’s breath caught. Two years. No wonder Jayna had appeared different when he saw her, and no wonder he knew none of the other shapers. He had been gone too long.
“What will happen with Chasn?” he asked the priest.
“Your brother embraced fire long ago. Those who do, they are changed.” The priest rested his hand on his arm. “The brother you knew is gone, Lacertin Alaseth.”
He turned and stared out over the ocean. “The brother he knew is gone, too,” he said softly. Lacertin didn’t even know who he was anymore, but it wasn’t a shaper of the kingdoms. He stood in silence for long moments, nothing but the water slamming into the rock. “What now?”
“The choice is yours, as it always has been.”
He couldn’t return to the kingdoms, not now, and not if he wanted to, which he no longer knew if he did. Strangely, he felt welcomed here in a way that he had never felt before. These were hard lands and a hard people, but their faith softened them. He had not expected that.
Then there was Cora. She was another surprise, and a pleasant one.
He looked up, sensing her approach. She smiled at him and slid toward him on a shaping of each of the elements. She’d grown stronger in the time that they’d returned.
Cora nodded to the priest as she took his hand.
“If I stay, does it matter that I don’t know whether I believe Issa chose me?” he asked the priest.
He smiled. “It is not for you to know. That is for you to discover over time.”
“Over time?”
“As I said, it is your choice whether you will serve. It is Issa’s choice to name you as a Servant.”
With that, the priest left him standing with Cora on the rocks overlooking the ocean.
She kissed him, and then they stood hand in hand, both of them listening to the waves, with the rising sunlight growing warmer on his skin.
Lacertin could almost believe that he had been chosen. Even if he weren’t, he’d found something unexpected, much like the priest had claimed he would. Nothing that he wanted, but everything that he needed.
He had found peace.
The Cloud Warrior Saga will continue! Subscribe to my newsletter to be the first to hear about the next release.
If you enjoyed the Cloud Warrior Saga, check out the first novel set in a new series: The Dark Ability.
Exiled by his family. Claimed by thieves. Could his dark ability be the key to his salvation?
Rsiran is a disappointment to his family, gifted with the ability to Slide. It is a dark magic, one where he can transport himself wherever he wants, but using it will only turn him into the thief his father fears.
Forbidden from Sliding, he’s apprenticed under his father as a blacksmith where lorcith, a rare, precious metal with arcane properties, calls to him, seducing him into forming forbidden blades. When discovered, he’s banished, sentenced indefinitely to the mines of Ilphaesn Mountain.
Though Rsiran tries to serve obediently, to learn to control the call of lorcith as his father demands, when his life is threatened in the darkness of the mines, he finds himself Sliding back to Elaeavn where he finds a black market for his blades - and a new family of thieves.
There someone far more powerful than him discovers what he can do and intends to use him. He doesn’t want to be a pawn in anyone’s ambitions; all he ever wanted was a family. But the darkness inside him cannot be ignored - and he’s already embroiled in an ancient struggle that only he m
ay be able to end.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DK Holmberg currently lives in rural Minnesota where the winter cold and the summer mosquitoes keep him inside and writing.
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ALSO BY D.K. HOLMBERG
The Cloud Warrior Saga
Chased by Fire
Bound by Fire
Changed by Fire
Fortress of Fire
Forged in Fire
Serpent of Fire
Servant of Fire
Born of Fire
Others in the Cloud Warrior Series
Prelude to Fire
Chasing the Wind
Drowned by Water
Deceived by Water
Salvaged by Water
The Dark Ability
The Dark Ability
The Heartstone Blade
The Tower of Venass
Blood of the Watcher
The Shadowsteel Forge
Also in the world of The Dark Ability
The Painted Girl
A Game of Tsatsun: The Binders Game, Part 1
The Watcher’s Eyes: The Binders Game, Part 2
Playing the Stone: The Binders Game, Part 3
The Durven: The Forgotten, Part 1
A Poisoned Deceit: The Forgotten, Part 2
A Forgotten Return: The Forgotten, Part 3
The Lost Garden
Keeper of the Forest
The Desolate Bond
Keeper of Light
The Painter Mage
Shifted Agony
Arcane Mark
Painter For Hire
Stolen Compass
Table of Contents
Copyright
Part 1: First Warrior
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Prelude to Fire: Parts 1 and 2 Page 29