Could he dare not?
“You wanted to speak to the elementals,” he began. If he focused, he could just begin to sense the draasin at the edge of his mind. Even when they didn’t speak to him, they were there, hovering at the edge of his awareness. If he closed his eyes, he could almost see them, could almost feel what the draasin felt. He would use the connection to find them.
And then what?
Then he would have to find proof, somehow, the draasin had not attacked Ethea, proof enough even Roine would believe.
Tan had no idea what that might be.
CHAPTER 20
Search for Healing
A sense of quiet hung over the city, something heavy and palpable. Smoke drifted leisurely, in some places creating a dense fog in the air that obscured what should be a rising sun. Fires still burned throughout the city, though with less urgency, leaving a fading orange glow that reflected off the smoke and fog. Few people wandered the streets. Those who did made a point of not looking at him.
He had nowhere to go. He’d tried returning to his room, but fire had destroyed the building. Much of the floor he lived on had burned. Had he any possessions, they would have been lost. It was the second time fire had claimed the place he called home.
Tan stood on the street overlooking the palace, debating.
Roine wanted him to go to the palace and wait for his return. Waiting meant until after Roine hunted the draasin, after the last of the great elementals were destroyed.
Could the draasin really be responsible for the attack on the city? Shouldn’t he have some warning if that were the case, some sign from the draasin through the connection they shared?
But the draasin had not answered again. And Tan couldn’t deny what he saw circling in the sky.
Besides, what could he do? He could shape—he no longer doubted his ability there—but had no control, certainly not enough to chase after the draasin. Even were he to find them, what could he say?
Tan took a seat on a stone bench and stared at the palace. Within its walls was the king, the one person who might be able to persuade Roine to refrain from attacking the draasin, to go with him and search for more information. But the king would not, not with the threat of Incendin still hanging over the kingdoms. The worst part was that he understood. The threat of Incendin was that significant.
What he needed were answers, but no one alive understood the draasin.
Tan reached into his pocket for the leather bound book on the draasin. He traced the symbol on the cover, working his finger around the embossing before finally flipping the book open. He still marveled at the fact that he could read the ancient language—that Amia’s shaping allowed him to read.
And missed her.
He skimmed over the sections recounting conversations with the draasin. Names were mentioned without reference, likely those who had spoken to the great elementals, shapers—warriors—from a different and more powerful time. A time when speaking to the elementals was less rare. A time when shapers were more common.
A section caught his eye and he slowed to read it carefully. It was different than the earlier section and written in a different hand, this a tight script.
There are scholars who feel the draasin should be hunted to extinction. Their explanation takes less of a philosophical explanation than a practical one. We have seen the progression of elementals over time; their power is not static.
Master Phelan predicts similar changes for fire. Who can argue with his logic? He references geologic changes to make his point, reminding the Scholars how the oceans have receded over time, shaped and changed to draw this land from their depths. As they do, so too does the udilm influence. Such change is not without another. Inland waterways have grown more common, lakes and rivers rushing through where only salt water flowed before. The nymid have flourished and grown more powerful, seemingly at udilm’s expense.
Could not the same, it is suggested, happen with Fire? Would the lesser be more compliant than the greater?
Tan hesitated. The archivist had made a similar comment as he led them into the archives. Had he known?
Could Roine? Would they actually want the draasin destroyed so another elemental could replace them? Was that why the draasin wanted him to come?
“What is that?”
Tan looked up. Elle stood, watching him, arms crossed and pulling the baggy dress tight over her chest. Her eyes flicked from the book to him and she bit her lower lip.
“It’s a book I borrowed from the archives.”
Elle grunted. “Borrowed. Wish I could have borrowed a few books from the lower archives, but the Athan wouldn’t let me back in, not after the archivist was found dead.”
Tan slipped the book into his pocket and stood. “The archives weren’t safe. You don’t understand what happened there—”
“You said an Incendin shaper chased you.”
He nodded.
“But you haven’t seen her again.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean—”
“Doesn’t matter. The archivists have reclaimed the archives. None of the old archivists. I think they sent the younger archivists to clean up the mess after the city was attacked by the draasin.”
Tan started to argue but closed his mouth. Arguing wouldn’t change what happened and he couldn’t deny the draasin weren’t involved. Only he wanted to know why. Did the draasin know the elemental powers could be replaced? Would the lesser elementals gain power if they were hunted to extinction? He knew little about the other elementals—saa and inferin—but they were nothing like the draasin.
“Where are the older archivists?” Tan asked. He thought of the younger archivist, now twisted and dead at the bottom of the stairs. Of the archivists, he had been the friendliest, nothing like Master Yulan or the man who locked them into the archives.
Elle shrugged. “I don’t know. They’re a secretive group.”
Tan waited for her to say more. When she didn’t, he laughed. “Secretive? Like you have any room to comment.”
“I’m not…” She trailed off, her face going pale. Her eyes flicked up and she swooned in place.
Tan reached for her, but she steadied herself before needing any help. “We should find Sarah,” he said.
Elle took a deep breath and drew herself up. She studied him with an annoyed expression, biting her lower lip as she pushed her hair up over her ears. She still trembled, though it was less than before. “Why do you want to find Sarah?”
“I don’t know what she did before, but she helped when you were sick. She can help again.”
How much of it was his fault? How much had trying to force the connection between them caused her illness? If Sarah could do anything to help, he needed to find her.
He pulled Elle through the street. They weren’t far from the basement, and he could think of no place else to find her. That Elle didn’t resist told him how unwell she was.
When they reached the steps leading to the basement, he found the door open.
Tan led them down, stretching forward with sensing. A soft breeze fluttered behind them and into the room, swirling cool air around. Shaped—the pressure behind Tan’s ears told him shapings took place around him nearly constantly, and certainly more than he’d ever felt before while in Ethea—the breeze provided welcome relief from the heat.
Did Elle feel the same shaping? Was that how he managed to communicate with her? Or was there another reason? Had he actually shaped her as she thought?
“I’ll be fine,” Elle said.
A soft snort came from behind them. Sarah stepped forward and with a quick shaping, pressed down on Elle’s forehead. She was dressed differently than before. A long green cloak hung from her shoulders with the hood thrown back. A long satchel hung over her shoulder. Her eyes flashed a pale blue as she looked from Tan to Elle. “It’s worse than before.”
Elle shook her head. “Not worse.”
“You nearly collapsed,” Tan reminded her.
She
shrugged. “The heat. I needed water.”
Sarah shook her head. “It’s more than that. If we had a water shaper…” She looked toward the open door. “Many of the Masters leave Ethea. They search for something, but I can’t tell what. Only a few remain, and none I would trust.”
Tan frowned. “Trust? For what?”
Sarah looked at him blankly. “To remove the shaping.”
Elle stood. Her long dress hung around her, draped over the floor. “Really. I’m fine. Can we get back to—”
She didn’t finish and slumped to the ground.
Sarah grabbed her, scooping her up. She pressed her hand against Elle’s head again, letting it linger longer this time. “She grows weaker. It’s as if her mind fights the shaping. Do you know what happened to her?”
He swallowed and forced himself to meet Sarah’s eyes. “Only me.”
“Can you fix it? Remove whatever happened?”
“I don’t know what happened. I wouldn’t know how to begin.”
Sarah sighed and leaned Elle back to the ground. “Great Mother bind us,” she whispered harshly.
Tan had only ever heard his mother say something like that.
Sarah stood and faced Tan. Her eyes flashed brightly. “Were there water shapers remaining in Ethea I trusted, I would take her to them, but I’ve been away too long…” She said the last to herself. “You spoke to the nymid?” she asked Tan.
He nodded. “I can’t reach them from Ethea.”
“Can you find them?”
“There’s a place… but I don’t know where it is. I’m not sure I could find it.”
Sarah grunted and turned toward the door, annoyance sweeping through her. “Time is not on our side. The girl needs help.” She spun and met Tan’s eyes. “Will you help her, Tannen?”
He looked down at Elle. What he needed was to understand why the draasin had attacked. Find a way to slow Roine. But Elle was his friend. He had so few in Ethea. “I will.”
“Good. Then you will go to the nymid. Though not as powerful as udilm, they should suffice for healing. As she is a water senser, they will bond to her easily.”
Tan didn’t bother correcting her about the nymid’s strength. “I only know of one place to reach the nymid, and it’s far from here.”
Sarah looked up at him. “I will see you reach them.”
Tan looked over, thinking of only one way she could manage to get him to the place of convergence. He’d traveled on a wind shaping before and nearly died. What Sarah suggested would require even greater distance.
“Are you…” He hesitated, not sure how to ask. “Are you strong enough for what you’re suggesting?”
Sarah sniffed. “Strength and control are not the same things.”
Tan stared at her for a moment. “Do you have the necessary control for what you’re suggesting?”
How could he even be considering this? A shaping like what she suggested would be difficult for a shaper as powerful as Roine. How could a wind shaper claim the ability to send him as she suggested?
Elle shook again.
Sarah’s mouth tightened into a thin line. She pressed another shaping against her friend.
If Tan had caused this illness by unintentionally shaping Elle, how could he not?
“You will need to hold a focus in your mind. I can lash the shaping to it.” Sarah looked up at him. “I won’t be able to summon you back. You will be on your own to return.”
Watching Elle, the color again drained from her face, he knew what he had to do.
“When do we go?”
Sarah lifted Elle from the floor and nodded toward the door. “Now.”
They stood in the courtyard of the university. Elle supported herself but leaned against one of the damaged walls, eyes looking around blankly. As before, no one else was around. Sunlight strained to push through the haze still hanging over the city, but especially here, where the destruction seemed the worst.
A single tree still stood in the courtyard though its branches were blackened and all the leaves had scorched off it. Either Sarah or another shaper kept a steady breeze blowing, cooling them; otherwise, the heat still burning within the stone would be overwhelming.
“We need to hurry,” Sarah said, watching Elle. “When you’re gone…”
Tan looked over the Elle. “What happens when we’re gone?”
Sarah shook her head. “My shaping might not hold. So you will move quickly.”
Tan turned and looked at Sarah. She watched him, eyes intense.
“You will hold the nymid in your mind. Focus on them. They will help heal her.”
Tan took a deep breath and nodded. If he could find the nymid. There was no guarantee he could find the place of convergence. The last time had been an accident, the nymid drawing him to them.
Sarah nodded curtly. “You must hold onto her.”
Tan turned and grabbed onto Elle. He remembered the terror he felt traveling this way the only other time he had, and that had been with Amia.
Elle grabbed his arm. Her hand felt so small, but she squeezed tightly. Even ill, she nodded.
A sudden gust of air swirled around and then lifted them.
“Hold the nymid in your mind!” Sarah called.
A tingling chill settled upon him, washing over his head.
As it did, Tan focused on how he’d called to the nymid, trying to visualize the place of convergence in his mind. He didn’t know how Sarah’s shaping worked, but he would do what she asked to help Elle.
At first, they went slowly, but the wind built steadily, rising like a cloud beneath them. Sarah nodded and they went soaring out of Ethea.
The view was like nothing Tan had ever experienced. Roine’s shaping had carried them urgently, done out of necessity or else the lisincend would have attacked them. The control to this shaping amazed him.
There came a sensation of speed and movement as wind whipped past. Strangely, he felt safe, nothing like what he’d experienced before, almost as if the wind itself knew where it was taking him, blowing him like it would a leaf on a breeze.
Elle clung to him, gripping his arm in panic. With the wind swirling around him, he couldn’t see her clearly, almost as if the wind funneled up and around him to prevent him from seeing her. Occasionally, she would grunt and grip his arm more tightly.
Tan listened for the connection to the nymid.
Nymid!
He quested for them, holding the image of the lake where he last saw them in his mind, but he couldn’t reach them.
Instead, another image crept in, tints of orange and red, mixed with a throbbing in the back of his head.
He pushed the sense of the draasin away.
Elle shook in his arms, the tremor lasting painfully long moments.
Tan reached for the nymid again. He felt something in his mind and held onto it, latching tightly.
They whipped through the air, reaching a peak before starting back down.
Now they moved more quickly, picking up terrifying speed. Tan tensed, uncertain if Sarah’s shaping had enough control to slow their landing or if they would crash into the ground. Had it not been for the nymid, the last time he’d traveled this way, he would have crashed.
As they dropped, a brief tingling washed over him and then was gone.
Tan didn’t have time to wonder what it was, only enough for the brief worry over whether something went awry with Sarah’s shaping, when smears of brown appeared below him, growing rapidly closer.
Elle roused and must have seen the same. She tensed, holding onto him tightly.
“Tan!” The wind swallowed her shout.
The ground loomed closer and closer. They did not slow.
Now they were close enough for Tan to see huge boulders and rocks rising up to meet them.
They were moving too fast to slow.
The ground became distinct.
If he did nothing, they would crash. Was this what Sarah had intended? And where was the lake, the valley, anyt
hing from the place of convergence?
Could he even do anything? Were he to summon some sort of shaping, they still might crash.
A panicked thought raced through his mind—what had he done in the archives?
He strained to remember the sensation, forcing it the way he would force the conversation with the draasin. But that had been using fire. Tan didn’t know what he needed, but a fire shaping wouldn’t save them.
He shifted his focus, thinking of how he’d called the nymid. Water would cushion their fall, though might not keep them from shattering bones throughout their bodies.
In his mind, he envisioned the stone shifting, dissolving into liquid that would catch them but not leave them maimed.
Another gust of air came at them, whistling up from below.
Tan kicked his feet, trying to keep from hitting the ground too fast.
When his feet struck, they sunk into the stone.
He slipped into a sense of warmth up to his chest. Then he took a breath and let it out. The sense of warmth pressed against him, making it difficult to take another.
Elle was shouting.
She still held his arm, gripping it tightly. Dust settled from the wind and he saw only the top of her head. Her shouting became muffled before dying off.
He pulled on her, but she didn’t move. Whatever they sunk into was thick, like mud.
And, he realized, it probably was mud if his shaping worked.
He continued to sink, slowly dropping lower into the ground, as if being swallowed.
Let us OUT!
Tan sent it no differently than he would speak to the draasin.
Pressure burst in his ears.
And then he was squeezed.
It came as if the earth itself squeezed him, pushing him up and out of the muck.
When his arm came free, he pulled on Elle, trying to draw her up and out. She came slowly, drifting from the mud, but she came.
His chest freed and he leaned toward Elle and grabbed her, lifting her as much as he could. Her eyes were closed and her chest didn’t move.
Tan jerked his legs free at the same time the ground pushed him all the way free. He fell to the side.
Bound by Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 2) Page 16