“I know what they want,” he suddenly realized.
Roine frowned. “What who wants?”
Tan let out a shaky breath. Why would Twisted Fire want to reach the Mother?
Tan sent the question with needle sharp focus to Asboel.
The draasin stirred within his mind, speaking as softly as he’d ever heard. Twisted Fire cannot reach the Mother.
But if they did?
Tan sensed alarm from Asboel. For the great elemental to feel alarm was answer enough.
Move, but silently.
He hoped his shaping obscuring the draasin held.
“We need to hurry,” Tan said, speaking aloud to Roine.
“What is it, Tan? Why do we need to hurry?”
Tan looked at Roine, meeting his eyes. The attack on Ethea made sense now. They had not only attacked the city, they had created a diversion, drawing the kingdom’s shapers away and after the draasin.
But that hadn’t been the entire purpose of the attack. Tan felt it with certainty.
“Did they take the artifact?”
Roine frowned. “What? How would you know they were after the artifact in the attack?”
“Did Incendin reach the artifact?”
Roine shook his head. “No. The artifact remains secure. The king gave it to Jishun, one of the Athan…”
The archivists were compromised, regardless of what Roine believed. “Then we must assume Incendin has the artifact.”
“But why? What do they hope to do with it?”
Tan shook his head. “I don’t know, but they have the Aeta and they’re heading toward the mountain where we once found a pool of liquid spirit. Whatever Incendin plans, that must be the reason they came to this place.”
He still didn’t know why. What would Incendin gain by returning here? Why risk so much?
Roine looked up the slope. “I need to stop them. We may not have managed to learn the key to using the artifact, but I don’t know if Lacertin managed to learn. And with the archivists involved…”
Tan nodded. “Go. I will meet you.”
Roine set a hand on his arm and shook his head. “It’s not safe, and you’re not fully trained. Your mother would have killed me if I let you go.”
Tan smiled sadly. “But she is no longer here to stop me. And I don’t think you could, either.”
“Tan—I’m a fully trained warrior, able to shape the elements. I would have little trouble stopping you.”
Tan smiled and turned, finally letting his shaping disappear with a pop. As he did, Asboel appeared where a massive boulder had once stood. “And I have one of the draasin to help.”
CHAPTER 27
Spirit Shapings
Roine stared at Asboel, unable to take his eyes off the massive fire elemental. He stood as if frozen in place. Then, slowly, he turned to meet Tan’s eyes. “How did you obscure him from me?”
Tan shook his head. “I didn’t obscure him.”
Roine frowned. “There was a shaping. And for me not to notice… for Ferran not to notice—” He shook his head, rubbing his hand through his graying hair. “You will be dangerous one day, Tan.”
Tan looked over at Asboel. The draasin’s bright golden eyes watched them, an unreadable expression on his leathery face. Twisted Fire seeks the Mother. That is why they came here.
They brought the Daughter.
Tan nodded. Why is that important?
Asboel sniffed softly. His annoyance came through the connection. I am uncertain.
We can’t let them reach the Mother.
No.
I will do what I can to help the youngest, but this must be done first.
Asboel blinked, staring at him intently. Yes.
Tan sent out a quick sensing, listening to the forest. Deep within the forest, hidden by trees near the edge of the lake, the youngest draasin still lay unmoving. How much longer would she remain like that?
If he were closer to the water, he would ask the nymid for assistance, even if only to hold her there until he could reach her. Once he had Amia with him, he might be able to find a way to remove whatever effect Incendin had worked on her. Until then, he didn’t want her attacking again, especially not if Asboel would not fight back.
“We need to reach the mountains before the Incendin shaper,” Tan told Roine.
“What do you think they will do?”
“They have Amia. I can’t reach her, not like I should be able to.”
Tan could feel her presence and knew she still lived, but didn’t dare reach through the connection in case another spirit shaper was with her. What would happen to Amia if they knew he was here, if they knew the draasin had come?
Roine frowned and waited for Tan to explain.
“When I saved her from the lisincend near Velminth, she shaped me.” Roine’s eyes widened slightly. “I don’t think it was intentional. But since then, we’ve been connected. At first, I felt only the effect of her shaping urging me on. Over time, it has deepened, becoming a connection to her. If I focus, I can speak to her.”
“Like you speak to the draasin?” Roine eyed Asboel carefully.
Tan nodded. “Like that, but different. It is different with her than with the nymid or udilm too.”
Roine looked over. “You spoke to the udilm as well?”
Tan nodded again. “They weren’t easy, nothing like speaking to the nymid. And I nearly died trying to reach them.” He had died—if only for a while—speaking to the nymid the first time, though Roine didn’t need to know about that. “Had I not found them, I think Elle might have died. She had been shaped…” Not by him, not according to the draasin and udilm. Had it been a spirit shaping that made her ill?
But if that was the case, had the same happened to Amia?
Roine glanced at Asboel and nodded. “We have much to speak about when this is over.”
Tan only nodded.
“What do you have in mind?” Roine asked.
Tan walked over to Asboel. The draasin watched him, his long tail flicking to each side, and then he lowered his head, allowing Tan to climb on his back. The warmth of the spines along his back felt nice after the chill of the air. “We need to reach the Aeta. I need to rescue Amia.”
Roine looked from Tan to Asboel and nodded. “I can’t protect you from the others. I may be Athan, but they heard the king’s request directly. They know he wants the draasin gone. No offense,” he said, nodding to Asboel. “So if they attack, there’s not much I can do.”
Tan took a deep breath and nodded. “I’m not as worried about the kingdom’s shapers. It’s Incendin we need to fear.”
“I will do what I can.”
Let’s go, he told Asboel.
The great elemental peeled his massive wings from his body and took off with a jump.
As they cleared the trees, his wings struck the wind, pushing them higher and higher. A shaped gust of wind threatened to catch them, but Asboel roared through it. Lightning streaked toward the ground and thunder followed.
Roine—Theondar the warrior—took to the skies on a shaping of wind and fire.
Tan sensed Amia already moving around the lake. The last time they’d been here, it had taken days to make their way around it. In their wagons, the Aeta moved with a speed Tan wouldn’t have expected.
If they traveled much longer, they would reach the northern mountain. And then it was a short climb to the top of the rocks to reach the cave. Whatever Incendin planned would happen there.
We need to reach the cave first.
Asboel’s reluctance was evident, pushing through the connection. Tan understood. After a thousand years trapped beneath this lake, the draasin would not want to return.
The Mother…
You do not need to remind me of the Mother.
Asboel banked and they soared high above the lake, moving through wisps of clouds. Tan couldn’t make out anything below them other than the dense, deep green of the forest ending abruptly at the sharp edge of the water. The la
ke splayed out across the valley before ending in the rocky mountains to the north.
Can you see anything?
Asboel grunted. An image of the ground beneath them came into his mind with nearly as much detail as if he were walking along it. Tan was amazed at the level of detail. If this was how the draasin saw all the time, it was no wonder they were feared hunters.
Asboel grunted again, this time more amused than anything.
Tan used the image from Asboel to track along the lake’s edge. As he did, he pressed out with a sensing, straining from the distance to listen. He sensed them nearing the wide river at the end of the lake. Once they passed it, they would move easily into the mountains.
He felt something. Asboel felt it, too.
The draasin twitched, suddenly diving toward the ground.
What is it?
You felt it.
Yes.
Good. Fire burns below.
Twisted Fire?
Perhaps. I cannot tell.
Tan recognized frustration from Asboel. The youngest?
No. She still slumbers.
Tan saw her in his mind, lying flat against the ground near the lake. A tree cast shade over her, blocking her from the sun. She did not move.
Then what?
Even as he asked, he knew. He felt the shaping, hot and powerful.
And with it, he felt another sense, like a voice in his mind. This was soft and distant, but he’d heard it before.
The nymid.
And they were hurting.
They try to burn their way across the river.
Yes.
But the nymid…
The nymid suffer with what they do.
Tan sensed a strange satisfaction from Asboel. Whatever he claimed, the centuries of suffering left him with some anger.
This is where we must make our stand.
Tan couldn’t let the nymid be injured. They had protected him, saved him when the lisincend attacked. Now it was his turn to help.
This would be where he would try to stop the Incendin shaper. This is where he would rescue Amia. And then he would attempt to free the youngest.
Asboel dived and Tan hung to him tightly.
Wind whistled around his face, streaming translucently around him. As they descended, Tan thought he saw tiny faces, flitting about before disappearing altogether. Tan’s ears popped with the speed of the descent.
And then Asboel pulled up.
The change happened rapidly. Tan’s stomach felt like it dropped with the quick change. He was thrown against Asboel’s back.
Amia!
There was no use hiding their presence anymore. Once the fire shaper saw Asboel, she would know they came for her.
His sense of Amia stirred deep in his mind.
Amia!
He repeated her name, this time shaping a snap to her name.
Answer please!
Asboel roared. The shaper had attacked him, striking him on the stomach.
Twisted Fire hadn’t hurt Asboel, and this shaping didn’t either. But Tan felt something else, like a subtle calling in his mind that writhed toward Asboel. Without his connection to the great elemental, he might not have recognized what happened.
A spirit shaping.
They try to shape you, Tan warned. But who? Not Amia, but that meant another spirit shaper. One of the Aeta?
Then you must protect me, Little Warrior.
How?
You ask Fire how to use spirit?
I can’t use spirit.
Asboel laughed darkly. If you can’t use spirit, why does the youngest lie at the edge of the water?
Unlike with the other elements, nothing he had done made him think he could shape spirit. But Amia could, and through her shaping of him and their shared connection, was it possible that it seemed like he shaped spirit?
He would ask questions later. For now, he would do what he needed to protect the draasin.
Tan focused on Asboel’s mind, focused on everything he could sense from the great elemental. He felt the enormity of his mind, the age and wisdom gained from centuries of life. The sheer vastness nearly overwhelmed him.
Over everything, Amia’s shaping lingered, creating a barrier. Mixed with it was the sense of another sliding across the draasin’s mind, trying to influence Asboel.
Tan pressed through his connection to Asboel and wrapped himself around the draasin’s mind. He held that sense, tying it off to isolate the draasin. As he did, he wondered if he separated Asboel from Amia’s shaping, as well.
The other shaping slid over him, a foul sense, and then snapped away.
Asboel grunted and roared.
They dove toward the ground.
The draasin landed with his claws splayed, his mouth dripping flames, heat and steam blooming from his nostrils.
The Aeta wagons were near. Tan sensed Amia within.
Go. Find the Daughter, but hold what you do. I will watch for others.
Tan had no idea how to hold what he did; he had no idea what he did, but he nodded and sent a quiet affirmative as he jumped from Asboel’s back onto the ground.
Asboel took to the air in a flap of wings and another roar of flames, leaving Tan on the ground.
Where was Roine? Moving as only a warrior could, he should have been here by now. Instead, Tan saw no evidence Roine ever reached the Aeta. Could he have been spirit shaped?
Without Roine, saving Amia had become much more difficult.
The lake was on his left, lapping softly at the shore. The wide river that had once slowed the lisincend was in front of him, draining with a swirling rush into the lake. The Aeta wagons had slowed, too, stopped at that point, and the fire shaper stood at the river’s head. Another shaper—another fire shaper, Tan suspected—stood next to her. He was tall and broad-shouldered. His clean-shaven face sneered.
Tan did not look at either of them.
Instead, he stared at another man, older and stooped of back, but still with a sharp, surprised expression. Tan recognized the man, though the last time he saw him had been back in Ethea. The archivist.
Tan suddenly understood the spirit shaping that had attacked Asboel. She had thought him a spirit senser somehow able to ignore her shaping, but with new realization, he recognized he was more. He was a spirit shaper. That was how he had ignored her shaping.
Steam rising from the river from the fire shaping started to blur his vision.
The energy came as sharp pressure behind his ears. More than that, he felt the strange dry tingling of his skin. Now Asboel’s comment made sense: Tan sensed shaping itself.
The river suffered, more than when the lisincend had attacked. Then, even with Fur, the water had slowed the shapers. The nymid had helped, surging the river wider than the lisincend could handle, but something here was different than what the lisincend had done.
Soon, the river would burn away. The power funneled into the river boiled the water, drying it up and damaging the nymid.
The shapers watched him through the fog of the steam rising over the river but didn’t move.
The archivist pressed on him.
Tan felt his presence, thick like oil sliming over his mind, but soft and gentle with attempted subtlety. He clawed at it, uncertain what the archivist would do if he managed some shaping of him. As he did, he felt the shaping sinking into his mind, clinging to it. There was nothing he could do to fight; he was not a spirit shaper.
But Amia was.
He reached for the distant connection to her, feeling along it. Amia!
A faint stirring answered, barely enough for him to know if she was there.
He tried again, this time with an image, using what the draasin had shown him of how to send images. He pushed through an image of the archivist, sending it to her. If she were injured or unconscious, she might not be able to respond.
The thought only made him more anxious.
The stirring increased, drawing toward him.
Tan didn’t know if it w
as even Amia responding. If the archivist was a shaper, would it be possible he recognized what Tan tried to do?
He strained, reaching for the draasin but unable to hear him, as if straining against water. And he was too far from the nymid or udilm… unless he could reach the water.
Tan ran toward the lake.
When his feet touched the cold water, sudden tingling washed over him.
Nymid!
He stood in the water, waiting for the nymid to respond, needing the nymid to respond. The sense of the archivist crawled across his mind. With each passing moment, he felt his presence sink deeper. Another moment or two and Tan might not be able to make his own choice.
The nymid didn’t answer.
Tan couldn’t do this on his own. He needed help, but if not the nymid…
Draasin!
He feared using Asboel’s name, knowing from the draasin there was something important in naming, but there came no response.
Nothing happened.
Had Asboel been influenced by the archivist?
Panic set Tan’s heart racing. He plunged deeper into the cold water of the lake, letting it reach his waist. Nymid!
He sent the thought like a rolling wave, trying to remember how he’d spoken to the udilm. Maybe speaking to the nymid as the udilm would speak to them would trigger a faster answer.
Silence.
The crawling sensation in his mind stopped.
Tan felt suddenly afraid. He’d done nothing to stop the archivist, nothing that would keep him out of his mind.
It left only one answer.
The shaping had taken hold.
CHAPTER 28
Return to Water
The urge—the desire—to return to shore was nearly overwhelming. Every part of him wanted to climb back onto shore. The sense almost overwhelmed him.
Instead, Tan dove into the water.
Cold sucked the breath from his lungs. He didn’t fight, letting himself sink, drifting to the bottom of the lake.
Bound by Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 2) Page 21