Cycle of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 11)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Amia let out a breath and nodded. “You’re right. She is stronger than us. That’s why they want her. Why they think they’ll be able to use her.”

  “I don’t think there’s anything Marin can do that will use Alanna, but I am concerned about what she intends for her. There has to be a reason, especially if she knows she can’t use Alanna.”

  In the distance, Tan noted a gentle rise where a slow peak of black rock began to slope upward. With each step, it became harder to send a shaping through his boots, and harder to set the binding, as if the rock began to oppose him. As they neared, he understood why that was: they reached the source of the darkness itself.

  Voidan was here.

  When he was no longer able to take a step and set the binding, he shaped himself into the air. Glancing back, he noted a trail of bindings, the rim of protection growing smaller and smaller with each step, until those closest to him were barely larger than his footprint.

  As they neared the top of the darkness, pressure built against him and he pushed back, drawing on spirit.

  Shadows swirled around him.

  They spilled upward from the ground, moving slowly but increasing in both speed and with how much thickness they possessed. There was power to them and he resisted, but there was only so much resistance he could manage. They pushed him back, upward, and away from the island.

  If they succeeded in pushing him away, he would lose the chance to find his daughter.

  That thought drove him.

  Tan pressed, drawing on spirit, drawing on the element bonds, and drawing on the elementals still around him.

  It wasn’t enough.

  He was pushed back, away from the island, and away from Alanna. What he knew wasn’t enough to reach her.

  26

  Shapers of Spirit

  As they hovered, Tan discovered a battle taking place.

  He hadn’t heard anything and had seen no sign of it from below. It involved those who had come with him, and they fought disciples—but not only disciples.

  Figures of blackness—those that could not be real—had taken shape and opposed the shapers. Had he missed other pools of the Mother? That had been the only place he’d seen them.

  Those who had come with Tan pushed back, and they managed to fight with strength, but most were mere shapers, whereas these seemed to be creatures created out of the darkness itself. They were more tangible than the dark shapers he had faced near the pool of spirit, and in that way, they were both lessened—and something worse.

  They need spirit, Tan said to Amia.

  There are not that many who shape spirit, she reminded him.

  There hadn’t been, but was it something he could unlock? Could he change the shapers—change the warrior at least—so that they would be able to reach for spirit and so that they could oppose the darkness?

  Even if he could, there wouldn’t be time.

  What he needed were spirit shapers, those who had knowledge and training… the kind that Tan had refused to work with.

  Not the shapers of the Aeta. There were spirit sensers and there were the mothers among the Aeta, leading their people, who might be able to help, but there were others Tan had rejected.

  And in that way, had he rejected someone able to help?

  It was possible that he had.

  Aeta. You are needed. Archivists. Serve the Mother.

  Tan sent it as a shout through the spirit bond and called to the elementals remaining in the kingdoms for assistance. They could help, and they could bring the shapers to him, if they were willing to come. He didn’t know if it was too late. Had he upset them too much by rejecting them? They had offered to help, had offered their knowledge, and he had continued to refuse. Had his arrogance created this?

  Give them a chance, Amia suggested.

  But she did more than that. He could tell that she sent something through the bond as well, a request, one that came from the First Mother, a call to those who could use spirit and would understand what she needed. It was possible that they would respond better to Amia than to him, and he would understand.

  Tan unsheathed his sword and drew upon spirit. It flowed through him, through the sword, making the blade glow brightly. With a breath, he unleashed the shaping of spirit, sending it streaking toward the nearest shadow form. Where spirit struck, the shadows evaporated.

  The shadows disappeared and he turned his attention to the next shadow form. This one joined with another, and the two of them took on the shape of a draasin, though a dark draasin, one that looked to be completely of blackness, like a draasin of night.

  The creature opened its mouth and streamers of black came from it, writhing toward him. Tan withdrew and shaped spirit, barely managing to push it away. Where his shaping struck, the shadow folded but then returned. It was unfazed by his shaping.

  Like this, Amia suggested.

  She reached through the connection between them and took control.

  Tan allowed her to handle the shaping, letting her direct what they did. Her shaping created a funnel of spirit, one that circled around the draasin. As it did, Amia began placing the binding.

  The creature pressed out, using strength he suspected came from the source of Voidan, and almost overwhelmed her shaping. Tan added each of the other elements to it and began adding them to the binding before thinking otherwise.

  Hold it a moment, he suggested to Amia.

  She managed to maintain the shaping and he pressed, using the power of each of the element bonds to constrict the shadows, drawing it into a tight ball. It was much like what he’d done when he faced the strange black shadows near Xsa, when he and Elanne had faced Voidan there. As he did, the draasin deformed, taking on a smaller and smaller space until he placed the full effect of the seal, binding it tightly.

  Shadows constricted down into near nothingness.

  With a pop, the darkness disappeared.

  Fatigue washed over him before fading, power pressing into him from the elementals, as if they knew he needed them to lend their strength so that they could succeed. They needed to succeed. Even the elementals understood—particularly the elementals.

  There were other forms, and as Tan turned his attention to them, he realized spirit was shaped near him.

  Cora, shaping spirit, fought one. Roine, suddenly able to use spirit, fought another. There were two students, both whom he had trained in Par, who battled the shadowy forms using spirit.

  Tan and Amia added their strength. They began to push back.

  Wind whipped around him and Tan turned to see the translucent form of ara sweeping nearly a dozen people toward him.

  They came.

  Of course they came, Tan. They recognize the same threat as you. They will suffer the same as the rest of us if Voidan is freed.

  The archivists nodded to him but said nothing. They began their shaping, not working alone but working together, connected by spirit and sweeping it toward the shadows. As they did, it pushed back the nearest of the forms and Tan added his binding atop it, forcing it to constrict like the others had.

  One by one they fought, each time constricting the darkness, and each time another appeared. They would continue to appear, he suspected, until they did something to force a binding.

  Can you help them? Place the bindings with them as they go?

  What do you intend to do? Amia asked.

  I need to see if we can keep them from escaping. If nothing else, we need to slow them.

  She nodded and he shaped himself off, dropping toward the ground. He was joined by three draasin—Asgar, Wasina, and the oldest of the hatchlings he’d helped. They circled around him, breathing fire. At first he thought it more as a threat to keep others away, but he realized that their fire pressed back the encroaching blackness, giving him a chance to do what else he might need to do.

  Tan began pulling on his shapings, drawing from the bonds, and formed a massive draw of power. He pressed it around the entire island, slowly making a circuit of
the island as he went, using his shaping to seal in the darkness, creating something like a binding in the air. He’d seen something like this in one of the memories the Mother had shown him. It had worked, if only for a while. All he needed right now was to slow the darkness, not destroy it. If they could slow these creations, then his shapers could continue to fight.

  As Tan neared the far side of the island, very nearly completing a circuit, pressure built from inside it.

  A trio of disciples appeared.

  Tan detected that he couldn’t stop the shaping he had started. Doing so would disrupt it and force him to start again, if he even could.

  Draasin, he asked.

  The three draasin turned toward the disciples. Power built from them and flames erupted.

  The disciples were able to wrap the flames in a shaping of darkness.

  The draasin attacked again, this time together. They formed three points of a triangle. Tan thought that the shapers would fight the draasin one on one, but they didn’t. Much like the spirit shapers, they fought together, drawing massive amounts of energy as they did.

  Try this, Tan suggested, sending an image to the draasin.

  Asgar roared.

  Power built through the fire bond as Tan continued his shaping. It was nearly complete. Only a little more and he would be successful in sealing the island, at least temporarily.

  When another surge of fire appeared, he glanced back.

  Flames burst from each of the draasin, joining together over the disciples. When joined, it took on a shape of a funnel of flame, one that arched toward the dark disciples.

  Something compelled Tan to help, like adding his shaping of fire to that within Incendin. He sent a shaping of fire to join, but then had to turn his attention back to his work.

  Asgar roared, a victory.

  He was nearly done.

  A disciple appeared in front of him.

  Not a disciple, he realized. Marin.

  She was suddenly flanked by another trio of disciples.

  Tan quickly finished what he was shaping, tying it in such a way that it would hold, and turned to Marin. Fatigue nearly overwhelmed him.

  How much had he been shaping? How much energy had he expended? More than he ever had before. Without the elementals lending strength, he would have died.

  He turned to Marin and pulled on spirit, drawing it through the sword. When he pointed the shaping at her, directing the bright, powerful shaping, she waved it away, dissipating his shaping as if it were nothing.

  “You have learned so little, Maelen, while I have studied, and I have learned. I know what I am to do. Can you say the same?”

  She sent thick bands of Voidan at him, and he had to mix the element bonds and spirit to deflect it. The power she controlled was even more than the last time he had faced her. “I know that you must be stopped.”

  “Must I? Is that what your connection to spirit has shown you? Because my connection has shown me a different truth.”

  “What do you mean your connection?”

  Marin streaked toward him, moving in the shadows. “You so foolishly believe that you are the only one who is connected to spirit. What makes you think that you know the will of the Mother?”

  As she said it, he noted that she wove a shaping of spirit into her shaping of Voidan.

  He had thought her drawing on the pool of spirit, and it seemed that she had, but not in the way that he knew. She pulled on spirit, shaping it, and mixed her connection to the darkness that she also controlled.

  Why would the Mother allow her to use it in that way?

  It was wrong, but worse than that, it revealed a different truth to him.

  He had though that Alanna would be able to resist the shaping of the darkness, but would she be able to resist a spirit shaping? She was powerfully connected to spirit—but so was Marin.

  “I see that you recognize a greater truth now, don’t you?” She twisted darkness toward him, and this time, Tan noted very clearly the way spirit weaved through it. “The others who attempted to control Tenebeth failed because they lacked the proper control.”

  “You can’t control the darkness, Marin,” Tan said, pulling on spirit. Was that her within the spirit bond as well?

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Maelen. You can control it, you just have to be a strong enough shaper in order to do so. And I am quite a strong shaper, as your daughter can attest.”

  Anger surged in him and Tan took a steadying breath. That was what she wanted. She wanted him to become angry and to lash out at her. Doing that would only prove that she had greater control than him.

  But she didn’t have access to the element bonds.

  “Don’t I, Maelen? You gave access to everyone connected to you. Did you think that didn’t extend to me? And because of that, you gave me the key I needed to destroy you.”

  She smiled, and he suddenly understood the strength that he’d seen from her and why it had suddenly changed, increased so dramatically.

  Marin could reach the bonds. And it was his fault.

  27

  Shaper of Bonds

  As the realization struck him, Tan reached into the bonds, trying to determine whether she was really connected as she claimed. If so, was there any way he could sever the connection? While he reached through the bonds, she moved around him, more powerful than he remembered her being. Had she been a warrior shaper before?

  He knew that she had a connection to spirit, but connecting to each of the elements wouldn’t develop late like that… would it? What he had done with the bond couldn’t have changed that… could it?

  She was there, in the bonds.

  But, so were all the other shapers he had brought into the bond.

  She grinned at him, seemingly knowing that he’d learned she was there, and that there wouldn’t be anything that he could do to keep her from it.

  It was possible that he couldn’t. The element bonds were not his. Everyone was connected to them, as were all the elementals. That was what gave power, and probably gave life.

  Yet, he didn’t think she could use the elementals the way that he could. That had to give him an advantage. She could reach the bonds, and so could he, but he could also reach each of the elementals who also resided within those bonds.

  Power pressed upon him.

  It was the power of each of the elements, and Tan could feel it drawn through the bonds. He resisted, pushing back against her shaping, but she added a shaping from Voidan to it and started pushing back on him.

  “You see, I learned early on how to overcome shapers. Once I discovered the way that Tenebeth could be used, it was very easy to add it to these shapings. It takes barely anything more than a touch, and with that, I can…” Tan was blasted backward and barely managed to control himself, slowing and then turning back to her. “Yes. You see now.”

  Marin blasted him backward again, and this time, Tan wasn’t fast enough. The shaping sent him spiraling away, spinning freely.

  Tan noted that he had been thrown toward the island. Spinning as he was—or maybe because Marin had infiltrated the bonds—he couldn’t slow himself. He couldn’t even shape. Had she somehow shielded him?

  It shouldn’t be possible for her to shield him. Not since the previous First Mother had he been shielded, and even that he had managed to break free from once he discovered how to reach spirit.

  Help me, he sent to the elementals.

  The rocky ground came up quickly.

  Tan braced to hit. If he crashed into the rock, he didn’t think he would survive, not without buffering himself, somehow slowing the descent.

  As it loomed toward him, he felt someone grab him by the wrist.

  He looked up. Honl floated in front of him, his black cloak flapping in the wind.

  “Honl?”

  “Maelen. You should really maintain your connection to the elements better.”

  Tan tried smiling, but concern thrummed through him. He didn’t know what he was going to do.
How would he stop Marin? She had grown powerful… possibly more powerful than he could stop. If she could use the element bonds and she had the power of Voidan, what would he be able to do to stop her?

  “You have always underestimated yourself,” Honl said, seemingly knowing his thoughts.

  “I think arrogance of my abilities has been a bigger issue, don’t you?”

  Honl laughed, and in spite of the fact that they were so close to the island, and the source of Tenebeth, the sound carried. “I have never considered you arrogant, Maelen. Confident. Sometimes misinformed. Always well-meaning. Never arrogant.”

  “She reaches the bonds, Honl. Because of me. Had I not—”

  “Had you not brought these shapers into the bonds, they would not have managed to help you as they have. Can you not see that, Maelen?”

  He looked around, noting the way the shapers attacked. Many were coordinated, fighting in ways they would not have been able were they not empowered to communicate wordlessly and through the bonds. There were dozens of disciples facing off against twice as many shapers. The creations of shadow were confined by the archivists and by Amia, slowly but surely being trapped by the binding. Much longer and they would be stopped.

  That left only Marin.

  Were had she gone?

  He found her attacking his shapers.

  Where she attacked, shapers fell, unable to withstand her force. In that way, it reminded him of when they had faced the Utu Tonah and how he had so easily overpowered all of the shapers that Tan could throw at him.

  If he didn’t intervene, she would destroy everyone who came to help him.

  And then she would truly attack.

  “Fight with me, Honl?” Tan asked.

  The wind elemental nodded. “Always, Maelen.”

  He had come a long way from the tentative wind elemental Tan had first bonded. Tan could remember the fear Honl once had when confronted with the Utu Tonah. Then he’d been indecisive, unwilling to fully assist, afraid that he’d be torn from Tan and forcibly bonded to the Utu Tonah. This Honl, the one who had joined with spirit, had none of that fear. He was inquisitive, intelligent, and faithful. He had become Tan’s friend.