Ciara waited, but Alena didn’t offer to explain any more. “The draasin can be saved,” Ciara said. “Think of Sashi. Had we done nothing, she would have been gone.”
Alena turned her attention back to the draasin hatchling. “Perhaps.”
“That doesn’t trouble you? You speak to them!”
Alena jerked her head around, her eyes blazing with anger. Power built from her before she tamped it down. “I know that I speak to them.” She sighed. “It should be a blessing, you know that? The ability to understand the elementals. That is something so few ever experience, so for me to reach them, to be able to speak and understand the draasin, that should be a blessing. Only, what has it brought me? I nearly died connected to the draasin. The egg attempted to claim me. And the draasin that I speak the easiest with allows another to ride with her when it should be me.”
“Is that what this is about? You’re jealous of the draasin? I will summon another—”
Alena shook her head. “It’s not jealousy. It’s… I don’t know what it is. Maybe fear. I’ve seen the darkness we face and realize I’m not prepared to deal with it. The one person who can is not even from Ter. And the man who intends to lead us does so through secrecy.”
Ciara took a step toward Alena. “I feel much the same. I want to help the draasin. I can’t speak to them, not as you can. They need to understand what I intend.”
“And what is that?”
“I want to heal as many of the draasin as I can. Bayan told me that there is an army of shapers, all riders. I would restore those draasin, and see if there is anything that we can do to bring them back to us.”
Alena glanced again to the hatchling. “I… I think I can—”
She never got the chance to finish.
An explosion echoed outside.
Alena jumped, sliding toward her.
Ciara began tapping her spear, already trying to summon one of the elementals. Reghal…
The nobelas lizard didn’t respond at first, and Ciara tapped her spear again. The draasin glass on the end flared with white light, enough that it cast away the shadows within Alena’s small dorm. The draasin sat up, ears perked as it sniffed at the air. Its stubby tail smacked at the stone wall of the dorm and he attempted to flap his wings until Alena whispered something to him.
“What are you doing?” she demanded of Ciara. “You’re pulling on him.”
“I…” That wasn’t what she wanted, but she didn’t know how to direct her summons. There was no real direction to it, only the summons, but now that Alena had pointed it out, Ciara realized that she had been calling to the draasin.
Little Light. This is not Tenebeth.
Ciara released a sigh. What then?
Something else. You must come.
She reached the door at the same time as Alena. The other woman shot her a glare. “What do you know about this attack?”
“It’s not Tenebeth,” she said. “The elemental tells me that it’s something else.”
Alena nodded. “Sashi as well.”
“We should still hurry,” Ciara said.
With a press of energy on one of the patterns on the door, it opened with one of Alena’s shapings. Ciara rushed out first, uncertain what to expect. She held onto her spear while at the same time mentally preparing a pattern, thinking of how she could summon one of the elementals but uncertain which she would begin with. Did she attempt earth, thinking that there might be something that the earth elementals might be able to buffer? Or did she try wind? She hesitated with fire, not certain that she wouldn’t just end up calling to the draasin again. That wasn’t what she wanted to do, partly because she worried about how Alena would react if she accidentally called to the small draasin.
Another muffled explosion came, this one in the forest.
Alena grabbed her hand and lifted them in the air.
Ciara stifled a scream. She hadn’t traveled on a shaping like this before. Wind tore at her hair, threatening to shred her cloak, her dress, and tear the boots off her feet. Alena flew her deep into the forest, toward the sound of the explosion.
Reghal… will you be there for me?
Little Light, this is not Voidan. They use its power somehow, but not Voidan.
Perhaps, but it is something else. I don’t know what it is, but I worry about what we might face when we land.
I will be there.
The last was said with some reluctance, though she wasn’t clear why that would be. There was something that Reghal wasn’t sharing with her, but what was it?
Alena brought them back toward the ground, trees rushing past, the sharp bite of the pine filling her nostrils, before they landed once more on the ground. Power swept away from Alena, drifting into the trees.
Ciara tapped her j’na on the ground. Once. Twice. By the third time, light bloomed from the end of the spear, the draasin glass glowing a brilliant white light that cast away the darkness. This same light had been necessary to defeat Tenebeth the last time that she had faced him, though Reghal claimed that they were not going to face Tenebeth.
What then?
Another blast exploded, this time closer.
Ciara felt the power in the blast, felt the way that it swept over her, and began making a steady circle. Step, snap, step. The sound of her j’na striking the ground thundered in the air. Power shimmered with it, and the light coming from the end of the j’na disrupted all the shadows.
She swept the spear around her, using the light to swing toward the trees.
“What is it?” she asked Alena.
The other woman stood fixed in place, either unwilling to move or using her shaping ability in ways that Ciara couldn’t detect, not that she expected to be able to detect anything with shaping.
“This is—”
Another explosion thundered.
Had Alena not been there, had she not pressed away from her with whatever shaping she held, the blast would have thrown Ciara off her feet. As it was, the glowing from her j’na faltered for a moment before surging more brightly again.
Ciara brought the spear down, but before she could hit the ground with it, something struck her hand, sending the spear flying. She dove for it, but it rolled out of reach.
The sense of power built around her again, a pressure that raised the hairs on her arm and pressed within her ears, as if she climbed too high. She looked up and gasped.
Three men approached, but that wasn’t the reason for her surprise.
It was the spears they held in their hands, the ends glowing a brilliant green, leveling them at Ciara and Alena as if to unleash some torture. They were j’na, but who were these men?
9
Alena
The barracks was created as a means to destroy the elementals. When Cheneth coopted it, I did not know whether he served Nolan or if he knew the danger to the elementals. I have never managed to place someone within the barracks successfully. Cheneth has always managed to detect my intentions. As we are both Enlightened, that does not surprise me.
—Lachen Rastan, Commander of the Order of Warriors
Alena watched as Ciara rolled to the ground, diving for her spear. That girl had such impressive abilities, something she had never seen, even in the time she’d visited Rens. How did she make the end of the spear glow? And more than that, how did she manage to use it to attack Tenebeth?
This attack wasn’t Tenebeth. That much Alena felt certain of, but what exactly?
The power that built had the edge of shaped energy but was concealed. Not concealed completely, or she wouldn’t have detected anything, but enough that she wasn’t able to determine what shaping was used.
If only Bayan were here. That blasted woman could pick out the intent of any shaping, a skill that was more impressive than anything that Alena had ever experienced with shaping, with or without the elemental assistance.
Where did it come from?
She built a shaping of wind, mixing fire, and sent it sweeping away from her, but she met s
ome sort of barrier that sent her shaping back to her, as if it rebounded.
Damn!
What was this attack?
She began a shaping, pulling on each of the elements as she did. Is there anything that you can do to help? she asked Sashi.
The draasin might not want to face Tenebeth, but if this wasn’t Tenebeth, would she be willing to aid in whatever was coming?
I smell them. They are foul.
Shapers, though. This is not Tenebeth.
Not Voidan, but these are his servants.
As Sashi sent that, Alena saw the shadowed form of three shapers appear at the edge of the woods. She held onto the shaping, readying for an attack, but waited, not willing to release her shaping quite yet. She didn’t know what she faced.
But Sashi claimed these were Tenebeth’s servants.
How do you know these are his servants?
Watch the elements they command.
The three appeared from the edge of the trees. All three held long staffs outstretched, the ends lowered toward them as if aiming a bow. The ends of the staffs glowed, much like Ciara’s did, only they also had glowing runes along the sides of theirs.
She glanced over at Ciara. She inched closer to her spear, but one of the men pointed his and released a blast of green light. When it struck her spear, the damn thing nearly exploded, sending it sliding across the ground, far out of reach.
Without the spear, there wasn’t anything Ciara could do. She had power, but only what she could summon through the spear.
We could really use your help here, she sent to Sashi.
Even were Sashi to respond, what would she do? Would she be able to fight these men in any way? What Alena needed was a distraction, and not much else. With that, she hoped she would be able to fend them off.
“You will find we understand your little tricks, ala’shin.” The lead man spoke with a thick accent. Not Rens, but not Ter either. Where were these men from?
Ciara crawled to her hands and knees, staring back at the men defiantly. A dangerous light glowed in her eyes, and Alena worried she might jump at them. They needed to give Sashi a chance to make her way to them. If the draasin could appear, they would level this attack, even it out somewhat.
“What do you want with us?” Alena demanded. She put the strength of a wind shaping behind her words, letting them crackle in the air.
The leader, a younger man with dark eyes and short black hair, turned to her. His sharp nose tipped back as he sniffed at the air. “You have a connection to the draasin. You will be useful as well.”
Alena shivered at the calculating way that he simply stared at her. There was no emotion in his eyes, only an emptiness, a darkness, and more control than what she had seen when Thenas had attacked. This man might serve Tenebeth, but he did so in a way that was unlike Thenas.
She reached for her sword. One of the staffs leveled on her, and the man holding it shook his head.
I could use your help!
There was no answer. If Sashi heard, she would have answered.
Was it possible that this man somehow blocked her connection to the draasin?
The idea of that terrified her. The ability to speak to the draasin had been with her for nearly as long as her ability to shape. If they were able to cut off her ability to reach the draasin, what if they were able to cut off…
As she reached for her shaping, it failed.
They were able to cut off her shaping.
What kind of men would be able to separate her so cleanly from her ability to shape?
The only answer was that there was someone like Cheneth. Hyaln. But they were scholars, perhaps purer scholars than what existed in Atenas. If they were willing to attack, then what Cheneth feared, a division of those who had trained him, had truly come to fruition.
She glanced at Ciara. The woman glared at the others, but she didn’t move. Instead, she rocked slightly in place, her fingers tracing a soft pattern on her leg.
The lead man stepped toward her.
Ciara raised her hand.
Light exploded from it, striking the man in the chest.
The others pulled on their staffs. Whatever Ciara had done released Alena to shape once more. She grabbed for fire and sent a blast at both of the other men, aiming for their staffs, and sending them tumbling away.
Alena unsheathed her sword and dove toward the leader as he swung his staff toward Ciara, rage filling his face.
She caught the staff with her sword and twisted.
Her blade flexed.
Alena funneled earth and fire through the blade, reinforcing it, and jerked her arms around, strengthening herself with another shaping of earth. Sashi!
She cried the name that she had given the draasin, uncertain whether she would answer.
Ciara leaped to her feet and reached for her spear. With three sharp cracks against the ground, the end of her spear began to glow, pushing back the night.
Where were the other two men?
The lead man spun his staff, catching Alena’s sword and twisting it from her grip. The sword went flying, disappearing into the night.
Alena braced herself for the next attack, drawing on shaped earth to protect her as much as possible and crossing her arms in front of her head. The man swung, his staff coming toward her head with such speed that there was nothing she could do to fend it off.
10
Ciara
I think my failings come from the fact that he remained within Hyaln to study, whereas I was trained with purpose.
—Lachen Rastan, Commander of the Order of Warriors
Ciara watched in awe at the way that Alena swung her sword. The blade appeared as if it might break, but then with a pressure of power through the blade itself, she managed to deflect the j’na attacking her.
She scrambled toward her j’na. If she could use it, she might be able to help them. The Stormbringer must have been helping her when she managed to use a small pattern to distract the man in the first place. Thankfully, she’d paid attention to Cheneth when she sat with him last. Had she not, she might not have known how to make such a pattern.
Reghal, I could use your help!
The nobelas lizard responded slowly, softly, and Ciara wondered if something had changed to her ability to reach him. Little Light…
She heard nothing more.
Her j’na rested at the edge of the trees. The length of wood was blackened, but as her hand brushed along it, she scraped off the char, revealing the smooth staff beneath. Her hand squeezed around it, feeling the reassuring patterns that her father had placed there for her use, and raced back toward Alena.
Follow the pattern. That was what she needed to do.
Step. Crack. Step.
Three sharp smacks of her j’na into the ground, light bloomed from the end.
She glanced over and saw the other man swinging his spear toward Alena. Her sword was missing, but when had she lost it?
The j’na arced toward Alena.
Ciara angled her spear and jabbed it into the ground, praying this summons worked.
Wind erupted all around her, bending the branches of the pine trees, filling the air with the sharp scent of the trees and their needles. The distraction was enough for the man to glance at her, enough for Alena to shift her weight, and Ciara raced to help her.
She caught the first attack along the length of her j’na.
The force of it jolted through her, and she nearly dropped her spear again. She shifted her grip and swung, bringing it toward the man. He caught this easily and smacked her j’na once, twice, and the third time was so quick that she barely saw it. Only luck allowed her to block it.
But she recognized what he did. There was a pattern to it, though one she wouldn’t have expected to find here. This was the pattern of the nya’shin.
Ciara shifted her feet, bringing her j’na back and down. With this, she managed to turn the attack from defending to offense, driving the man back.
She steppe
d and swung, flinging the j’na in a wide arc, ducking her head to avoid his counter. Another step, and this time when she swung, she connected with his j’na. A loud crack erupted in the night.
The sound reminded her of the time she stepped through the summoning pattern.
She almost dropped her j’na. Could she summon while fighting?
There should be no reason that she couldn’t. She could follow the same steps and, rather than striking at the earth, she could use the next connection with his staff.
The steps came more easily then.
Step, spin, crack. The man blocked them, but he had a more determined look on his face. Step, spin, crack. Light surged in her j’na, bright as it had been when she faced Thenas. The growing darkness faded, replaced by the light from her j’na.
But not only the light from her j’na. The other man carried light with him as well, the sickly green light that she had come to associate with Tenebeth. With each step, with each crack against her spear, the light from his staff glowed brighter as well.
Ciara jumped back, suddenly concerned.
If she could summon the elementals, what did he summon with each step he took?
The man stood across from her, watching with a dark smile. “You are stronger than expected. You will be useful.”
Ciara didn’t see the other two men come toward her until it was too late.
Something struck the back of her head.
She tried to spin, to raise her j’na, but she was a step delayed. When she did, she faced one of the other men. His staff caught her on the side of the leg, dropping her to the ground. The next attack caught her on the back. And then her j’na, the connection to the elementals, was torn from her grip.
Light surrounded her.
It was the same awful green light that she had seen the first time Tenebeth sought to claim her, the same light that Reghal had saved her from, pushing her back with the strength and weight of his compact body. But there was no Reghal this time. Her elemental had abandoned her, either leaving her behind or somehow torn from her.
Summoner's Bond (The Endless War Book 4) Page 5