He nodded. He suspected Doma shapers were the reason Incendin had weakened the barrier.
“It is more than that. Only a small swath of Doma borders Incendin. Not like the kingdoms, where Galen and Nara run along its border. But Doma has never had the same protections as the kingdoms. Those who can shape had always come to the university to learn. Enough would return to keep Doma safe. Such a small border didn’t require much shaping. But that wasn’t the only reason Doma survived as long as it had against the constant pressure from Incendin.”
“Udilm,” Tan said.
His mother nodded. “Most of Doma juts out into the sea. Waves crash along almost all her borders. Udilm had always been a friend to Doma.”
“Had been?” he asked.
“There has been little contact with Doma and udilm over the last hundred years. At first, the continued threat of udilm kept Incendin back, but over time, that failed. And when the number of shapers dwindled, Incendin no longer feared invading. Those with any shaping potential were taken, torn from families and dragged into Incendin.”
“I don’t understand what Elle has to do with any of that.”
“Elle Vaywand is the granddaughter of the last great water shaper from Doma. And he was the son of the last person with the ability to speak to udilm. Elle came to learn water shaping, but she came for another reason, one she wouldn’t have completed if not for you.”
Tan thought of what it felt like when swimming with udilm. He had the sense of massive power, the depth of the elemental, but also a sort of indifference. Not like the nymid. “I’m not sure udilm will help.”
“You spoke with them too.” She nodded to herself. “Of course, you have Thea’s blood in you as well.” She looked over at Roine. “But why would this suddenly manifest again? Why after all this time would the ability to speak to the elementals reappear?”
Roine shook his head. “I don’t know, Zephra. I am no scholar. I am only a simple Athan.”
She shot Roine a look. “Only an Athan? You spent years studying in the archives. You’re the closest the kingdoms has to a scholar anymore.”
“That was a long time ago.”
She frowned. “That’s right. You’re Roine now, not Theondar. So I suppose Roine managed to find the lost artifact after all the years he spent searching when few believed it existed?”
“Lacertin believed.”
“Only because he found the key.”
Roine glanced over at Tan and shook his head slightly.
Tan’s mother followed the direction of Roine’s gaze. “He doesn’t know?”
Roine turned back to the curtain. “I never told him.”
His mother faced Roine. “Theondar, he deserves to know. You involved him in all of this.”
Pain pulled at the corner of Roine’s eyes. “I didn’t mean to pull him into this. That was never my intent.”
His mother snorted. “Never? You came into Galen searching for the artifact. I would say that was exactly your intent.”
“Not your son, Zephra.”
She smiled, her eyes settling on Tan. “When you came to Nor, I knew what you sought, just as I knew what the hounds likely meant. Why else do you think I suggested Tan go with you? He would have been your best option for getting through the upper passes, but I also wanted him to be safe.”
Roine grunted. “By sending him into the middle of everything?”
“I didn’t expect you to let the lisincend get so close. I thought you better than that, Theondar.”
Roine tipped his head toward Tan. “Not my choice to get so close to the lisincend. Tan wouldn’t help otherwise. He was the reason we went after the Aeta.”
“And if we hadn’t, you never would have found the artifact,” Tan interrupted. He began to get a sense of how others viewed Theondar: there was a certain antagonism to him. He fixed Roine with his eyes. “What did she mean about the key?”
Roine inhaled deeply, staring at the curtains as if they could provide an answer. He answered slowly. “The key we used to find the artifact.”
“The one damaged as we ran from the lisincend?”
“I told you how I have been looking for the artifact for many years. There is more to it than that. I wasn’t the first to search for it.”
Tan frowned. “Lacertin?”
Roine closed his eyes and nodded. “The scholars convinced King Ilton the artifact must be found. He trusted no one other than Lacertin to go and find it. It is what he brought back when he returned to Ethea before Ilton’s death.”
“You took it from him, didn’t you?”
Roine shifted his attention from Tan to Zephra, eyes narrowing and his mouth tight. “After he violated Ilton’s death chamber, Althem requested I learn where Lacertin had gone. You think Lacertin and I don’t get along? Well, it was worse between Althem and Lacertin. They entered the university at the same time, only Lacertin quickly demonstrated his ability.”
“You said Althem didn’t care about shaping.” Tan wasn’t sure that was quite right but couldn’t remember everything Roine had told him about the king’s view on shaping.
“Althem doesn’t choose to reveal if he can shape. There is a difference.”
“Can he shape?”
“Only Althem can answer that.”
He hid something more, but Tan couldn’t tell what it might be.
Roine breathed. “Tell me, Zephra. Why did you summon me here? If not for Tan, then why?”
“I summoned you to understand why you returned.”
Roine snorted. “Why? The archivists have shaped the king. If you knew what happened, then you understand the significance of his shaping.”
“You don’t know he’s been shaped.”
Roine tipped his head. “No? I have an Aeta shaper that says differently.”
“And you trust her?”
“I trust her,” Tan said.
His mother didn’t look over at him. “Theondar. Do you trust her?”
Roine’s eyes narrowed. “She helped recover the artifact. Had she not revealed her shaping, we would never have found it in time.”
“Had she never revealed herself, the lisincend would never have found it, either,” his mother said.
“What are you suggesting, Zephra?”
“Only that there is much we don’t know about the Aeta.”
Tan turned on her. “You traveled with them. You’re the one who chastised Lord Alles for not treating them well!”
“You think the Aeta a threat?” Roine asked.
“I think there is more to the Aeta than we know.” She finally acknowledged Tan’s involvement. “And you know it, too. It is one thing to treat them well. It is quite another to entrust the safety of the kingdoms to them.”
The Aeta were responsible for the archivists. They were the reason the shapers attempted to attack the draasin. They were the reason the king might have been shaped.
But Tan trusted Amia. The bond between them revealed far more than his mother could ever understand. “Amia is no threat,” he insisted.
“Perhaps not, but we don’t know about the rest of the Aeta. Especially after what happened with the archivists.”
A mixture of emotions surged through the shaped bond between him and Amia. She was close. He turned and saw her standing in the doorway, eyes hiding the hurt she felt.
10
FAILURE AND OPTIONS
It took a few moments for the others to realize Amia had come.
Tan hurried over to her and took her hand. “You heard,” he whispered.
She fixed his mother with tired eyes and nodded.
His mother stared at Amia as she entered, touching her head as a shaping built. Tan realized that she performed a shaping to protect her mind. Could wind alone shield her from a spirit shaping?
“Amia,” she began. “I was sorry to hear about your loss.”
“Zephra. The Great Mother truly blesses us that you survived,” she spoke stiffly.
“You left Althem?” Roine
asked.
His mother’s eyes narrowed into a tight line.
Amia sighed. “There is little more I can do. The shaping was wrapped tightly around his mind and burrowed deep. I unraveled what I could, but there is much damage. I came to tell you I did all I could.”
Roine crossed his arms over his chest and tapped his hand anxiously. “How much damage?”
“I cannot say. More than I can safely remove.”
“So that’s it? Althem cannot be saved?” Roine asked.
She looked over at Tan’s mother. “I’m no longer sure you will believe me.”
“Ignore Zephra,” Roine said, making his way toward her.
“Are you certain?” she asked.
“Do you need me to prove it?”
Amia shook her head. “I didn’t think I did.”
Roine laughed softly, standing now next to her. He lowered his arms and his hands were outstretched along his sides. “Go ahead.”
She tilted her head, watching him. “You aren’t shielded.”
“As I said, I trust you.” A quick shaping built, surging out from her and washing over Roine. As it did, he sucked in a sharp breath. “Satisfied?” Roine asked.
“For now,” Amia said, eyeing Zephra.
“Good. Now tell me about Althem.”
“I’ve told you what I can. There is a shaping, but it’s complex. Nothing like I’ve ever seen before. What they did to you and the other shapers was simple. Like giving directions, leaving you primed for further instructions. With the king, the shaping is different. It influences him in ways I can’t predict. I unraveled parts of it, but there is much of it that remains. If I tried to remove more than what I did, it’s likely I’ll damage him. I assume you don’t want him damaged?”
“I already answered that.”
“You should know the shaping I can trace is old. Some of it goes back many years, impacting all of his memories.”
“Since I learned of the archivists, since learning they shaped me, I have wondered how long Althem might have been influenced,” Roine began. “More than that, I started thinking back to the past, beyond Althem.”
His mother frowned. “Ilton?”
Roine nodded slowly. “I’m hesitant to say because I don’t know with any certainty, but you know the circumstances under which he died.”
A troubled expression crossed his mother’s face. Tan had seen it often growing up. When his father injured his leg falling while working along the upper ridges. Or when Tan fell sick. The worst had been when his father left with his summons. The expression had stuck to her face for weeks, finally returning when the message of his death reached them.
“I remember. The king hadn’t been sick before Lacertin left. The illness came on suddenly, one the healers couldn’t shape,” Zephra said.
Roine nodded. “And the scholars had no answers.”
“Scholars? The archivists were with Ilton then?”
“Even then. They stayed with him constantly at first. When his health began to truly fail, they left him to water shapers, though by that time, most of our skilled shapers were deployed to support the creation of the barrier.”
“Grethan and I were there.”
“As was I, though I returned regularly then.”
“There was no suspicion around his death,” his mother said. “Only around…” She trailed off, brow furrowing as it did when she focused on something. “Did Lacertin know?”
“I don’t know,” Roine said. “If he did, why wouldn’t he have said anything? Why run from Ethea if he knew the archivists had killed his king?”
“I don’t think he knew anything about the archivists,” Tan said. “Not at first. The Lacertin I met wouldn’t have abandoned the kingdoms. I don’t think he ever abandoned the kingdoms.”
Roine met Tan’s eyes. “I know you want to believe him. I know you think that because he seemed to help, he is trustworthy, but this is Lacertin. I have known him for nearly as long as I’ve been alive.”
“And you haven’t changed in that time?” Tan’s mother asked. “You’re still the same person you were when Lacertin left Ethea?”
“You know I’m not, Zephra.”
A satisfied look crossed her face. “Likely you refuse even speaking to Lacertin.” She raised a hand as Roine started to interrupt. “Don’t deny it. I’ve known you a long time as well, Theondar. Your pride gets in the way. You refuse to accept others might have another way of reaching the same goal. That has always been your problem.”
Roine laughed bitterly. “In that, we are much the same.”
She cocked her head as she thought about what he said. “Perhaps. But I have spoken to Lacertin. When I sought him out to understand why the lisincend crossed the barrier.”
“And what did he tell you?” Roine asked.
“Not everything. I don’t think he trusted me fully. Lacertin has never trusted anyone other than Ilton fully. But enough for me to understand the danger of what Incendin planned. That if they acquired the artifact, more than simply the kingdoms were in danger.”
“You can’t believe what he says about the elementals,” Roine said.
She shrugged. “I don’t know what I can believe. We have not known a great elemental of fire since the draasin disappeared. I cannot begin to understand how the elemental power works. Perhaps holding them in ice preserved their influence, preventing the others from making a claim. Or perhaps the lesser elementals were never strong enough to make a claim of becoming the greater. Either way, if Lacertin is right, then much of the world is in danger.”
“They have the artifact,” Tan said. “The shaper who transformed into one of the lisincend, she took the artifact.”
“There is more to the creation of the lisincend than simply the artifact,” Zephra said. “Long ago, before I ever learned to catch the wind, I witnessed a transformation. It was a terrifying experience, one that drove much of my work when I still served the university.”
Tan noted how she said she served the university, not the king.
Roine looked at Amia. “Whatever threat Incendin poses pales in comparison to what might happen with Althem compromised.”
“There is nothing more I can do,” Amia said.
His mother regarded her. “Perhaps not you,” she agreed.
Amia frowned at her. “I thought you do not trust the Aeta.”
“I don’t know who I should trust. If Theondar and my son trust you, then I must, too.”
Amia studied Zephra. A sense of uncertainty flickered through the shaped connection.
“There is another,” his mother said. “And if I remember what I learned traveling with the Aeta, now would be the time.”
Nervousness surged through Amia. “I can’t…”
“No? And if you don’t, what will happen?”
Tan turned to Amia and took her hands. “What is she talking about?”
She let out a slow breath and met his eyes. “I told you there was another blessed by the Great Mother? The one who taught me?”
Tan nodded.
“She wants me to ask her to heal the king.”
“Can she?”
Amia sighed. “I don’t know. If there is any who would be able to unravel the shaping, it would be her.”
“Where is she?”
“A place sacred to the Aeta. A place no outsider has ever gone.” Amia said. “And she wants me to bring him there.”
11
LEAVETAKINGS
They stood in the broken remains of the university, which had been ravaged by the fires that had worked through the city. Tan wondered if the university had been the ultimate target. Much of the walls crumbled, layering what had once been a grassy area with dust and broken debris. Little of the university remained, only the barest outline of its form. Unnatural smoke shimmered in the air. What few shapers remained in the city didn’t have time to work on rebuilding the university. Most were deployed to defend the barrier.
The sun broke through the clouds but s
till didn’t warm them. The hazy smoke lingering in the city drifted along the streets, almost as if it were alive. Everything stunk of ash and decay. Crews of men worked diligently, attempting to clear the streets before rebuilding could take place, but there was only so much they could do.
Tan grasped Amia’s hand, holding onto her tightly.
His mother stood across from him, watching him with a hint of amusement in her eyes. For reasons Tan didn’t understand, she hadn’t fully warmed to Amia. “He does not need to go with you.”
Tan frowned. “I’m not letting Amia leave without me.”
Zephra looked over at him. “You will not be welcome. Not at the Gathering.”
“Perhaps not at first, but there is another reason for Tan to go.”
“You think he can shape spirit,” Zephra said.
“I know he can shape spirit. And the Gathering is the best place for him to learn to control his shaping.”
“And you’re certain he doesn’t simply pull through you?” his mother asked.
“What you suggest isn’t possible.”
Zephra smiled. “There are many who think the ability to speak to all the great elementals is not possible, but Tan claims to do so.”
Roine, wearing a heavy cloak, made his way toward them. Cianna trailed after him. Her bright red hair hung loose, flowing over her shoulders. She radiated a shimmering heat through her tight orange shirt and leather pants. She glanced at Tan and smiled.
With the smile, he remembered the heat of her body pressing near his as she tried teaching him to shape. A flush worked through him. Amia’s sharp look told him their shared connection was betraying his feelings.
“She taught me fire,” he said.
“Hmm. I’m sure she did,” Amia said.
“What is this?” Tan asked when Roine and Cianna arrived.
Roine looked at Tan’s mother. “Zephra is right. I need to stop living in the past. If Lacertin is right, then I can’t stand by and wait for an attack. If Althem won’t order the remaining shapers to move, then I will.”
“You think that wise, to leave the kingdoms unguarded?” Amia asked.
Changed By Fire (Book 3) Page 9