Cycle of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 11)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Certainly, Athan. Is there any particular message I should send?”

  Tan debated how much information to send in a message. “Tell them the convergence is at risk.”

  Norman hurried off, leaving Tan standing by himself in the doorway of the palace.

  He sighed and started up the stairs to the quarters Roine and his mother shared, trying to think when he’d last been here. Had it been their wedding? It couldn’t have been that long ago, could it?

  But it must have been. When he’d gone to Norilan, he’d summoned them and they had come. There hadn’t been the time needed to come to Ethea and chase after the shapers. They had recognized the danger and most had come willingly. He had not expected anything else.

  At the top of the stairs, he paused.

  The palace was so much more than what he had in Par. There was extravagance here, and he could imagine Althem spending to build it up, to make it into this place of opulence. It was quite different than the estate he called home in Par. That was much fancier than any home he’d ever possessed, but it didn’t have the same air to it that the palace possessed.

  As he stood there, Tan pressed through his summoning coin, giving Roine a warning that he was here.

  Then he waited.

  He didn’t have to wait long.

  A door opened and Roine stood with a jacket unbuttoned, his silver hair grown long and his face with the first hint of a beard. Perhaps Honl modeled himself after Roine. He was in the process of strapping his warrior sword around his waist when he saw Tan. His mouth twitched, almost starting to smile, before fading into a frown.

  “Tannen. It is good to see you, but you would not be here if all was well.”

  “I’m sorry to come at you like this.”

  “You are Athan; you are welcome in the palace anytime.”

  Tan resisted the urge to pull the ring from his pocket and return it. “I am not such a good Athan.”

  “As you’ve reminded me, I was not either.”

  Tan smiled. “You didn’t have another nation to rule.”

  “I thought you didn’t rule in Par.” He finished buckling on his sword and adjusted his jacket, buttoning it closed. As he did, something about him changed, and Tan saw what others must see when looking at him—King Theondar.

  “I try not to rule, but they keep demanding Maelen assist.”

  “Much like the elementals.”

  Tan nodded. “That’s why I’m here today.”

  “Not to help me with my headache? I think a shaping of water might cure me of the wine I drank at last night’s celebration.”

  “I’m sorry I missed it.”

  Roine grunted. “Don’t be. The Maureen Fest is certainly fun, but the next day is not.”

  Tan used a quick shaping of water touched with spirit and settled it over Roine. It was a subtle shaping, one where he called upon the elementals to guide him. Roine jerked, blinking softly, and pulled in a sharp breath.

  “That… was not necessary. You don’t need to shape away my foolishness.”

  “I need you thinking clearly. I need”—he looked past Roine and toward the bedroom—“my mother as well. Where is she?”

  “She is not suffering nearly as much as this old fool.”

  Tan turned and saw his mother striding up the stairs. She wore a simple gown of white, but somehow made it more formal than it should be. Her black hair, streaked with gray, was pulled back in an elegant bun, much less severe than she’d once worn it. Her eyes flashed a brief annoyance as she looked at Roine—an expression Tan had known well while growing up—before softening as she looked over at him.

  “Tannen. Why have you come?”

  Tan laughed and hugged his mother. “It’s good to see you as well.”

  She waved him off. “You know I enjoy your visits, but you’re not here to see us. If you were, you would have brought my granddaughter. Since you came alone, there is something amiss. What is it?”

  “Can we talk more privately?”

  Zephra looked over at Roine. “What is it you don’t want others to hear?”

  “Not others. Only those who won’t be able to understand what I need to share with you. Can we go to the throne room? I’ve summoned Ciara, Ferran, and Wallyn as well.”

  His mother’s eyes widened and he suspected she made the connection to the elements. She tipped her head to the side, likely listening to her bonded wind elemental, Aric. “Oh,” she whispered.

  “What is it?” Roine asked.

  “Tannen is right. Not here.”

  Roine frowned at both of them as they made their way down the hall and to a private stair leading into the throne room. Two shapers stood guard at the bottom of the stair. Tan didn’t recognize either, but from the shapings they maintained, could tell they had some talent. One seemed an earth shaper. The other had bright red hair much like Ciara, and he suspected the man shaped fire.

  They stepped aside for Roine and Zephra, glancing at Tan. The fire shaper blinked and grinned as Tan passed. He heard an excited whispering after they went by.

  “That was the Athan.”

  “Athan? He doesn’t come to Ethea,” said a deeper voice.

  “I’d recognize him anywhere. I remember seeing him when he visited Master Ferran one time. I bet he’s speaking to the elementals now…”

  Their voices faded away as the door into the throne room closed behind them. Had it reached that point? Was he now the person other shapers looked up to?

  “Now that we’re here, what aren’t you wanting to share?” Roine asked.

  “I’d rather wait so I only have to explain it once.”

  Roine shot him an annoyed expression. “You do realize I’m your king, right?”

  “Not king regent anymore?” Tan asked, grinning.

  Roine waved his hand. “You’re as stubborn as her, you know that?”

  Tan glanced at his mother. “When you put it that way, I’m not sure it’s a compliment.”

  Roine threw up his hands. “Not a compliment? I’ve never met two people so persistent! She keeps pushing on me to build the university, to keep teaching even though I have other pressures on my time. I think I’m the most accessible king the kingdoms has ever seen. And you’re about the same, always pushing me to serve the elementals first.”

  “Have we steered you wrong?” Zephra asked. There was a hint of an accusation in her voice, and it mixed with amusement. Tan might not feel Ethea was home anymore, but he’d known his mother long enough to recognize the way she needled Roine. It was the same as she’d often done to his father.

  Roine stared at her and shook his head. “You’re going to kill me is what you’re doing.”

  “And then I will rule. I think the kingdoms will win either way,” Zephra said.

  Tan coughed to hide his laughter.

  “You don’t want that. Then you’d have to teach the students.”

  “I do my share,” his mother said.

  “You do. And you spend almost as much time in Par with the students there.”

  “Because I’ve asked it of her,” Tan said.

  His mother turned her hard-eyed stare on him. “Asked? I think you gave me little choice, don’t you, Tannen? I would say coerced might be a better way of putting it.”

  This time, Roine laughed. “At least someone can get you to do what they want. I sure can’t.”

  Tan sensed the warmth between them with the banter. His mother had a vibrancy to her, as did Roine, that neither had when they’d been apart. “You’re teaching, then?” he asked Roine.

  His friend nodded. “They need warriors to instruct. There are at least two who will be warriors. Possibly another three more. All these years without warrior shapers, and now they’ve begun to return.”

  “We have several in Par as well,” Tan noted.

  “They should study together,” Roine said. “You could send them here, to the university—”

  “And we could send the students from the university to Par,” Tan r
eminded him.

  “You are both foolish,” his mother interrupted. “But both right. We need them to work together, much like the Order once worked together.”

  “Like when they hid in Norilan and became corrupted by the darkness?” Roine asked.

  “They were not all corrupted, and those who remain would have much to teach. They had shapings I suspect even Tan would be able to learn from.”

  He nodded. There had been shapings that he could have learned from them. They had been the most skilled shapers he had ever met, and he had understood how those ancient shapers had essentially created what appeared to be life out of nothing, but they had been misguided as well. All that knowledge hadn’t made them any better connected to the elementals.

  In that, his mother might be right. Maybe he should be getting the remnants of the Order to teach the students. They could do so under the guidance of the shapers of the kingdoms and those of Par, and they might learn much more than they would otherwise. Both nations needed shapers that were more skilled.

  “That’s a great idea, Mother. When I get through this, I will see what I can do.”

  “What is this?” Roine asked.

  Ciara entered the throne room, tight red leathers clinging to her body. Her bright hair was brushed neatly, and she wore two blue ribbons in it. She looked at Tan, a wide smile on her face. “You didn’t need to summon. The draasin told me you were here.”

  “I tried reaching you through the fire bond, but you ignored me,” Tan said.

  “We can’t all sit around waiting on the great Maelen to summon us,” she said. “Some of us have other responsibilities, and those we don’t ignore.”

  Tan shook his head and didn’t get a chance to retort. Ferran and Wallyn entered then, both fixing their gaze on him.

  “Even in my throne room I’m ignored,” Roine said.

  “You’re not ignored,” Zephra chided softly. “They just haven’t seen Tan in a while. Maybe if he’d come around Ethea a little more often, his visits wouldn’t be so eventful.”

  “It does seem that something terrible happens each time he visits,” Roine said.

  “Would you both stop?” he said.

  Ciara laughed. “They aren’t wrong. What terrible thing prompted your visit this time? What was this about the convergence?”

  “Convergence?” All amusement faded from Roine with the question. “What is this about the convergence?”

  Tan took a deep breath. Everyone other than Roine had a connection to the elementals, so they would know more about what he was about to share, but it was Roine who might understand it best. He had been the one to explain the places of convergence to Tan in the first place.

  “Convergences are places where the elementals are drawn, where there is great power, and a connection to spirit.”

  “We know this, Tan,” Roine reminded him.

  He nodded. “And we know that Ethea sits over a place of convergence. That’s why Althem chose to attack here.”

  “Why does this matter now?” Zephra asked.

  “Because this convergence grants strength to the temple. The temple is a binding, a way of securing the darkness that Marin thinks to release. And now she attempts to move it.”

  “Move it? She wouldn’t be able to move it,” Ciara said.

  “Because this wasn’t always the place of convergence. The land was changed over time by those ancient shapers. They moved things, drawing the elementals in ways they had not been drawn before, essentially creating the convergence. And now if she moves it, everything that powers the temple, that holds the binding in place, will fail.”

  His mother closed her eyes and listened to the wind. Tan could almost hear her within the wind bond and chose not to listen too closely. When she opened her eyes again, she shook her head. “Ara tells me nothing has changed.”

  “I detect nothing either,” Ciara said.

  Ferran and Wallyn both nodded agreement.

  “That’s good, because I didn’t either, but that doesn’t mean she won’t try again. I can stop her, but I don’t know that I can stop every attempt she makes. She has attacked in Xsa—”

  “Why Xsa?” Zephra asked.

  “Because I suspect it or Par is also a place a convergence.”

  “And Norilan?” Roine asked.

  “I don’t know. When we were there, the elementals had been forced in a different way. I hadn’t expected it to be one, but it would explain why there were so many and why they would have the strength they did to create that barrier.”

  “What do you intend to do, then?” Zephra asked.

  “I need you to pay attention to the elementals. If anything changes here, I need to know. I will check in Xsa and in Norilan.”

  “You should have help,” his mother said. She turned to Roine. “You should go with him.”

  “You want to get rid of me?” he asked. “You really do want to rule, don’t you?”

  “Only because I think I’ll do a better job of it.” When he smiled, she touched his arm gently. “You know all about the convergences. You were the one Althem sent searching in the first place. And you are a warrior. You should go and see what the two of you can learn.”

  “I could go to Xsa with him. That’s close enough for me to shape my way there and back, but I don’t know if Tannen wants an old warrior coming with him.”

  “Old warrior? I’d be happy to have my friend with me on another journey,” Tan said.

  “But you have to realize that this time, I lead.”

  Roine laughed. “I think you’ve always led, Tannen. You just didn’t recognize it until now.”

  8

  A Place of Convergence

  A shaping carried Tan and Roine to the Xsa Isles on a flurry of wind. Tan refrained from adding spirit to the shaping, needing to travel the same way that Roine would be able to travel, and felt the sensation of wind gusting, throwing him around. Traveling in this way was violent compared to the gentle shaping when spirit was added.

  Asgar and Wasina remained circling in the air. Tan could feel Wasina trailing through the currents, enjoying the way they pressed against her wings and scales. Asgar had a tension about him. He still feared the darkness, in spite of facing it more than once, and in spite of the fact that Tan had shifted the bonds to bring spirit into them so that they could no longer be affected.

  Watch over us, he asked the draasin.

  First we’re horses and now we’re watchdogs? Asgar asked.

  Even in that, Tan sensed his unease.

  You are my friend, and I will protect you as you protect me, he reminded the draasin.

  There was a moment of silence before Asgar answered. We will watch you, Maelen.

  Tan and Roine reached the island where Marin had attacked him. Life had returned, but there was something different about it. Tan focused on the bindings and noted they still held, but there was still something there that was different. Not quite wrong… but off.

  “What is it?” Roine asked.

  “Do you sense anything amiss here?”

  Roine used wind to carry him across the land, keeping just above the surface, his shaping holding him barely over the ground, high enough that he would not touch it until he had determined that it was safe.

  “I sense your shaping. I can’t tell exactly what the intent of the shaping is, only that it is powerful.” He glanced over at Tan. “That’s pretty common with you these days. Most of the time, I can tell what you’re shaping, but I have a hard time understanding how you do it.” He smiled. “I imagine it was once that way for you.”

  “We’ve been through a lot, haven’t we?” Tan asked.

  “More than I ever would have believed when I first came to your village. All I wanted then was to stop Incendin. I didn’t realize there was another entire world waiting for us to conquer.”

  Tan laughed. “I wish it were so simple.”

  “Will this be the end?” Roine asked. “When we stop this darkness, will there finally be peace, or w
ill there be another threat beyond the borders of what we’ve already discovered?”

  “I can’t answer that,” Tan said. “All I know is that this threat is greater than any we’ve faced, and everything that we’ve done has seemed to lead up to it, almost as if we’ve been guided to it.”

  “You think the Great Mother has trained you to be able to take on this darkness?”

  “Maybe not only me,” Tan said.

  Roine chuckled. “I have never been particularly religious, but seeing the way you’ve developed, you might be right. Had we faced this after defeating Althem, we would not have been prepared. Had you faced it before stopping the Utu Tonah, we would not have been prepared. Maybe the Great Mother had intended you to do this.”

  Tan lowered himself to the ground with a sigh. He hoped that was the case. If not, why would she torment him in this way? Why not let him have peace? He’d done enough for the elementals, hadn’t he?

  “I hope that’s what she intended,” he said. “Otherwise, all of this will have been nothing more than a way of hurting me.”

  Roine glanced over and chuckled. “I don’t detect anything here that seems like it was a place of convergence,” he said.

  Tan didn’t either, but when he was in Ethea, the only way he really knew there was a place of convergence was because of all the elementals bound there. There wasn’t anything else about it that he detected easily. It was much the same with the very first place of convergence that he’d known, the one in the mountains of Galen where he’d discovered the artifact. When he’d been there, all he’d known was that the elementals were strong in it.

  If they were strong, wouldn’t there be some connection he could detect? Wouldn’t there be something in the bonds that he could pick up on?

  Tan hadn’t tried before, but something had to summon the elementals to these places. If it wasn’t something within the bonds, then what would it be?

  Focusing on the different bonds, he reached through them. After all the time that he’d spent working with the bonds, accessing them was much easier now than it had been when he first discovered the connection. Fire remained the easiest, but wind came naturally to him as well. Earth and water came more slowly, but he was still able to reach through them, to draw from those connections and pull strength from them.