Cycle of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 11)

by D. K. Holmberg

Memories of the Eldest are here, Maelen. I would see what he knew.

  He knew nothing but cold. A darkness for nearly a thousand years.

  And I can experience it for a few moments.

  They made their way along the shore, and Tan sighed. Such strange memories had been formed here. This was where he had sacrificed himself for Amia, and where he began to learn his connections to the elementals, but this was a place where many lives had been lost.

  As the Mother directed, Alanna told him. Change sometimes requires pain.

  The change that has been here has required destruction.

  Not destruction. Lives might have been lost, but they were returned to the Mother. In that way, they served.

  How is that different than what Marin intends?

  You know that it is different, Maelen. There is nothingness to what she would have. That is not the same as change.

  It was hard to feel like there was that much difference. Both were destruction, even though he knew that the destruction that Marin sought was somewhat different than what he suspected Asboel—or even his father—had experienced.

  With what Alanna said, he had to wonder—did it mean that his father had returned to the Mother? Would he, like Asboel, live on within the bonds?

  And more than that, would Tan be able to reach him if he were to connect deeply to the earth bond?

  There was something both reassuring in that… and dangerous. He could continue to strive for the missing relationship he once had with his father, or he could continue to focus on those around him now.

  And what would his mother think if she knew she could reach her long-gone husband? What did that mean for her relationship with Roine? Would it change the way she felt?

  Perhaps it was better to leave those who had gone to rest within the bond and not attempt to dredge them up.

  They are with us anyway, Alanna said. They might seem like memories, but they are the spark that gives us life. I know the way that your father has driven you, Maelen. It is in everything you are.

  How can you know that?

  I know you, Maelen. I know what you have done for those you care about.

  Tan fell silent, looking around, consumed by memories.

  Amia took his hand and squeezed. “It’s almost like we were never here,” she said.

  Tan scanned the shores and saw no sign of the fires that had burned through here once upon a time, but then, there was no sign of the power of the nymid or the sense of the draasin that had once been trapped in the water.

  A powerful shaping built, and a shaper exploded to the ground next to them.

  Tan wasn’t surprised to see Cora appear first. She frowned when she saw Tan holding Alanna.

  “What is this, Maelen?”

  “A calling to those who might be able to help,” he said.

  “Including your child?”

  “She can help. Ask the draasin. Or Fire.”

  Cora’s frown deepened and her eyes took on a faraway expression. When it cleared, she looked at Alanna with an interested glint in her eyes. “She is connected to Issa. Did you do this?”

  “Do you think I would force my daughter into the bond?”

  “No, but I think she would be nudged into those connections without your choosing. You are powerful, Maelen, and your offspring would be powerful as well.”

  “You have no idea,” he said.

  Other shapings built, and shapers began to appear. First there was Roine and Zephra, who hurried to Alanna and lifted her, spinning her around as she hugged her closely. Tan wondered what Zephra would think were she to know that her granddaughter was much more mature than she ever imagined. Would she clutch her tightly like she now did? Would it even be possible for Zephra to connect to Alanna and understand what had changed with her?

  Probably not. She knew about the wind bond, but she was not able to reach it.

  That was what Tan needed to change.

  He would start with those he was connected to, those he had fought alongside, those who already had some sort of connection to the bond, though many didn’t know it.

  “What are we doing here?” Roine asked, leaving his mother as she held Alanna.

  “This is a follow up to what happened in Norilan,” Tan said.

  Roine grunted. “I was afraid of that. What do you intend to do?”

  “You will have to wait and see like everyone else.”

  “Great. Why do I have the sense that most of us don’t really want to know what you intend?”

  Amia squeezed his hand once again.

  One by one, other shapers appeared.

  There were shapers from all over the kingdoms, at first only those like Ciara and Ferran and Wallyn, those he had worked with before and who knew him well, but over time, others came as well, some Tan had not yet met. They came from Chenir, the Supreme Leader bringing other shapers with them, their strange way of calling to the elementals announcing their arrival. Some tapped on their legs, others move their fingers, and others made movements that Tan didn’t yet understand, but they came. Shapers came from Incendin. Not only Cora, but fire shapers who had never been twisted, and then those like Fur, and others of Incendin. They came from Doman, Elle and Val and a dozen other shapers of varying strength. And they came from Par. There was Elanne, Maclin, even Tolman and his wife Reyelle. Students came with them, and they waited, not surprised by the strange summons Tan had used. He was not surprised by that. The shapers of Par had been quick to adjust to the new strangeness that he had created.

  He had hoped there would be shapers from Norilan as well. The call had gone out to all shapers he had once been connected to, which included those of Norilan. None answered.

  Tan took a deep breath as he looked at the congregated shapers. There were so many. This would be his legacy, if nothing else. He would see that they worked together for a common purpose, and he would help them find a greater understanding of their abilities than they would have without him.

  Thank you for coming, he started, sending it through the sprit bond.

  Most blinked, seemingly surprised by the wordless connection. Few were bonded to elementals, so would not have the same understanding of how to communicate without words. Those who were bonded to elementals watched him with a firm sort of interest in their eyes.

  We all face a threat unlike anything we have faced before. Many of you have fought by my side before, he went on, sending images of both battling Althem and the Utu Tonah, and some of you have only gained your abilities recently. All of you will be essential to facing the threat we now face. Many have suffered as we have fought, and many more will suffer if we do not oppose this new threat. I understand that much of the world as we know it has changed, and I come before you promising more change.

  He paused. A few murmured softly, and Tan did not attempt to stop them. They needed to have a chance to understand what he would ask of them, even if he could not explain it fully yet. There was no real way to explain it. They would have to experience it.

  If you are willing to stand with me, and with those who share the concern for the elementals and for all that the Mother created, I can promise you that you will not fight alone. Many of you have bonded to the elementals, and you in particular know the importance of what we do.

  He felt a surge and a building of shaping.

  Tan paused and looked around at the faces of the shapers spread around him.

  Lighting exploded nearby.

  Three shapers appeared.

  Tan smiled.

  They were of Norilan. He saw Tobin, Jast, and a woman named Erica.

  They watched him, and Tobin nodded.

  So many places were now represented. That would be the key to survival, and they would all have to learn to work together, much as Tan had learned that he had to work with Incendin, and Doma, and Chenir, and now Par. Norilan was one more place that needed to work with him.

  What I must ask of you now will be different. In the past, most of you experienced change as it ha
ppened, the same way as I did, forced to respond when we were attacked, or when we escaped a different threat. This will be something else. This will be a change I will place upon you. I will not do so without your willingness. You answered the call, so most of you have chosen to be here in the first place, but for the next part, you will need to agree. I do not know how it will work.

  A soft murmuring began again, quietly at first, and one that he wasn’t certain he recognized. As it built, he realized that the shapers who had come to him, who had answered the summons, all spoke one word: Maelen.

  That was all the agreement he needed, and perhaps it was all that he would get.

  Tan closed his eyes, focusing on the connection to spirit, and pulled on that connection, drawing strength from it. From there, he reached toward each of the other bonds, pulling from them as well.

  Alanna, please help me.

  You do not need my help.

  I think that I might. Amia as well.

  His family. They would have to help him succeed. They would have to help him forge a different bond, one that had never existed, but one he thought might be crucial moving forward.

  Tan started pressing out with spirit first.

  To this, he added the laced connection of the other element bonds. They stretched from him, moving away in a smoothing that was like thin tendrils that were pulled toward the shapers, almost as if on their own. Maybe they were. It was possible the element bonds knew where they needed to go and where they should be drawn, and went to the shaper. Some were touched by more than one, and they stayed there.

  Reaching these people with the bonds was only a part of what he wanted to do. He needed to solidify that connection so that they could reach it on their own.

  Could he do that?

  Can you help? he asked Alanna.

  You don’t need our help, only our connection.

  He sent more spirit through the bond, but that was not what it would take. Forcing the element upon the shapers wouldn’t work. He might be able to push enormous amounts of spirit, but that wasn’t the way that he’d reach them.

  It would take something else, only what? How had he reached the bonds?

  Looking to Cora—one of the few others he knew with the ability to reach one of the element bonds—he wondered what it had taken for her to reach it.

  Neither had been given the connection. Tan doubted he would have been able to reach the bonds other than the fact that he knew they were there… and had reached for them himself.

  That had to be the key. He could drive the change, but he could not force someone to do it. They had to ask for it. They had to want it, much as he had wanted the change that had come to him, change that had given him the strength he had needed.

  The only way to do that would involve showing them that the bonds exist, so that the shapers could decide for themselves whether they wanted to reach for it.

  Tan drew upon more spirit, this time tapping into it not only through the spirit bond but drawing also through his connection to Alanna and Amia.

  With this, he sent a message to the shapers around him.

  Power flashed.

  And Tan’s connection to spirit crumbled.

  He sank, hoping he had been strong enough, that he had managed to send enough to those with him that they could make a choice, but he didn’t know whether he had. Now he had to wait.

  As he did, he felt something else, and something unexpected.

  Darkness.

  16

  The Voice of the Mother

  The darkness was near Tan, too close to be anywhere but here.

  And he had just expended all that strength to attempt to form a bond.

  Had he made a mistake?

  The shapers collected near the shore of the lake didn’t look at him. None spoke. He was drained and couldn’t tell if they even attempted to speak in the bonds, or if they were simply dazed from having so much spirit thrown at them. Even Amia seemed stunned, and he wouldn’t have expected that considering how they were connected and what she knew of the spirit bond through him.

  The only one who didn’t seem quite dazed was Cora, but she stood with her eyes closed and rocked in place.

  Wasina flew overhead, as did Enya and Sashari, and even Asgar.

  Still, Tan detected the darkness.

  He staggered forward. Reaching the water, he stepped into it, letting it lap around his ankles. Another step, and he fell forward.

  Water swirled around him.

  Tan closed his eyes, his breath held, letting the power of water surround him. He knew without straining for it that there was great power here. The nymid occupied these waters, and he was connected to them.

  Translucent shapes appeared, tinged with green. How long had it been since he had seen the nymid? Too long.

  Come, Maelen, you are needed.

  I am weakened, nymid. I need to rest.

  There is no rest, Maelen. You must rise. You have the strength. You have always had the strength.

  It’s not my physical strength, nymid.

  You have the strength. You have always had the strength, the nymid repeated.

  Something grabbed his hand and Tan looked to see Alanna clutching it. Stand, Father. You are needed.

  Daughter. What did I do?

  What you were asked to do.

  Tan stood and took a breath. As he did, he felt a shiver work through him. That shiver was the darkness, he was certain of that. Whatever was near would happen soon.

  How had Marin planned this? She would not have known where he was going to be, and she should not have been able to respond this quickly.

  Slowly, too slowly, it seemed as if strength returned.

  Tan hoped the shapers would begin to come around, but they didn’t. They stood as if in some sort of daze, unable or unwilling to move. Had he more strength, he might use a shaping of spirit to check on them, but that would have to wait. For now, he had to protect them.

  A flash of fabric along the edge of the trees caught his attention.

  Draasin, he sent, look for disciples. We must defend the shapers until they come around.

  If they would come around. Had he done something permanent to them? If he changed them in some way that had left them prone to injury, he needed to be there so that they could be kept safe.

  We will watch, Maelen.

  The answer came from all around him, not only from the draasin but from the nymid and from hounds that now prowled the woods, and even breathed in the wind, from ara. The elementals answered for him, as they so often did. They would be his support.

  Tan shaped to the air and surveyed the land around him. There were disciples here, but where? As he hovered, he found a pair of them in the trees.

  Tan landed, unsheathing his sword as he did.

  He had destroyed the connection to the darkness in others who had been tainted by it. He could do the same again. One of the disciples sent a stream of black toward him, as if the night itself intended to swallow him.

  Tan repelled it using a shaping of spirit through his sword, drawing on his own power. When that was not enough, he dipped into the spirit bond again, afraid that by doing so, he would be weakened even more. The shaping deflected the darkness.

  He darted toward the man and caught him in the shoulder with his sword, surging spirit though it, much as he had done before. As before, the connection to spirit sent the darkness exploding out of him. Tan shifted the direction of the shaping, turning away from cleansing the man of spirit and instead checking for a spirit shaping that might have been layered atop his mind. When he found it, he peeled it away, working quickly—and, surprisingly, assisted by Alanna.

  “You have already failed,” the man said as the shaping disappeared.

  Another who supported Marin, then. Why the need for the shaping? What did it do… other than ensure they didn’t change after she’d granted them power? Marin couldn’t have them opposing her, especially when they had power and potential to do so.

&nb
sp; “I have already succeeded in freeing you,” Tan said.

  He spun, jabbing at the woman wearing a heavy black robe who came from between a pair of trees. She carried a long staff and slammed it into the ground. A sickly green light radiated from it as she did.

  Tan caught the staff with his sword and she twisted, driving it around.

  She was skilled with the staff, where he was only proficient with his sword. He had taken the time to understand how to fight with a sword and had trained with men who had real skill, but he was a shaper first and a swordsman second. The way this woman spun her staff, the controlled way she swung it at him, told him that she had training with it.

  She slammed it into the ground again.

  As she did, the sickly light trickled out from the staff, filling the air around her.

  Tan shaped, sending spirit flowing through his sword. Where it struck the greenish light, there was a flash of brightness before it faded.

  The woman prepared to bring her staff back down again.

  Tan sensed that she was summoning the darkness the same way that the shapers of Chenir summoned the elementals. If he let her continue to do this, she would remain strong—possibly too strong for him to defeat.

  When she raised her staff, he threw his sword.

  It was a gamble, but it paid off.

  The blade streaked toward her, catching her in the arm. Tan leapt toward her, pushing forward with a shaping of wind, and grabbed the hilt, sending spirit through the blade. Power burst through her and darkness dissipated.

  Tan quickly shaped spirit, reaching into her mind and searching for a shaping, but there was none.

  Either she wasn’t shaped or it had been done more carefully than he could detect.

  Rather than risking her coming at him with an attack, he struck her on her neck with the hilt of his sword, pushing enough earth through it to bring her down. She crumpled.

  He felt a moment of regret at needing to hit her like that, but it was better to keep her confined while they faced the disciples. Using earth, he wrapped her wrists in tight bindings, drawing strength from the roots of the trees around him so that they held her down.

  Keep them here, he said to the hounds prowling in the woods.