Summoner's Bond (The Endless War Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

But not yet. Shade’s anger kept her from wanting to go to him. She would, but she would rest as he suggested first.

  Only, as she rested her head against the mattress, every time her eyes drifted closed, she began to have visions flashing across them, things that couldn’t be real, that she didn’t want to be real. Because if they were real, it meant that everything she did with Shade was wrong.

  38

  Ciara

  I cannot find the Rens summoner. Cheneth searches, but I fear she has fallen to the Khalan. They will turn her and use her against us. Jasn might be the only one able to destroy her, but does any of the warrior remain, or has the healer returned?

  —Lachen Rastan, Commander of the Order of Warriors

  Ciara made her way through the tower, staying against the walls, hiding in the shadows. As she walked, she tapped softly on her leg, demanding that earth protect her, that it shield her. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest as she snuck along, but there was nothing she could do about that. Using water would only put her in danger, especially if she lost control of the summons. Hopefully, the shielding with earth was potent enough that someone else wouldn’t be able to tell she was here.

  She still wasn’t quite sure what she intended, but after another night of dreams, this time with images that had been so real—a man attacking her with shadows and the lizard helping her—she needed to know if she was the only one having such visions. If she was, then she might go to Shade with questions, though she still didn’t know what he might say to her. He’d probably placate her, suggest she rest, or eat, or have more wine, and then he’d stop working with her. That was the worst outcome she could imagine, especially after her setback reaching for the night.

  Instead, she wanted to find Sinsa. The other woman had always been quiet around Ciara, and it had been a few weeks since she’d really seen her, but she needed to know if she was alone in her experiences. If not, then she wanted to know if there were shared visions.

  Creeping her way up the stairs, she paused on the next level. Another level—maybe two—and she’d find Shade’s rooms. And beyond was the place where he held the draasin. Ciara hadn’t seen the massive creature in several weeks but had seen shadows overhead and knew other draasin had been summoned to this place.

  She’d never dared attempt summoning the draasin. Not that she didn’t think she could, but Shade had made it clear that was not allowed while she was here.

  The hall on this level was empty. Most of the tower was empty, really. She rarely saw anyone else. There were a few others when she sat to eat, and still others who changed the basin of water in her room, but they were rarely seen. But then, the tower was massive, and it was possible to hide many places in its enormity.

  When she heard a muffled voice, she paused and leaned against the wall. Ciara tapped on her leg more firmly, holding tight to the intent she demanded of the elemental. If she made a mistake and was seen, she could explain it away by saying that she intended to practice summoning. That was rarely forbidden to her.

  A door opened, and Shade strode down the hall. He passed her and didn’t seem to notice, his attention fixed straight ahead, his j’na absent today. As he walked, he continued to rub his fingers together. Ciara still hadn’t learned whether that was some sort of nervous trick that he did, or whether it was a summons, but if it were a summons, it was one that he performed constantly. What purpose would there be in constantly holding a summons?

  Ciara hurried forward and reached the door before it closed. Sinsa stood on the other side, eyes streaming with tears and bruising along her cheek. A small gash opened under her chin that she held her hand against, but blood still streamed around her fingers.

  What had happened here?

  She could imagine a summoning gone wrong. There were many times when she’d attempted summoning but had the elemental resist. That was the risk if the summoner didn’t hold the intent firmly enough in mind. But Ciara hadn’t any real problems with that in weeks.

  Sinsa sniffed and started to the door to close it.

  Ciara debated remaining hidden, but that would only scare the girl more. Releasing the summons, she felt it ease back into the stone around her.

  Sinsa gasped as Ciara suddenly appeared. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m sorry to come like this, I had a few questions for—”

  Sinsa looked into the hall and shut the door quickly. She squeezed her eyes closed and attempted a summoning to earth, directing it at the door, but the summoning wasn’t strong enough. Ciara could tell that it wouldn’t do anything, so she added a small summons of her own, tapping softly on her leg and holding the intent of sealing off the door firmly in mind. Why would Sinsa want to seal off the door?

  “You shouldn’t have come,” Sinsa said, frowning as she ran her fingers along the door.

  “What happened to you?”

  “Nothing.” When Sinsa reached a hand to her head and winced, Ciara took a step toward her, but the other woman shook her head. “Don’t.”

  She blinked. It had been a mistake coming here. She didn’t know what she expected to find—probably nothing. Certainly not Sinsa injured.

  “Why did you come?” Sinsa asked again.

  “I…” She hesitated. Did she share she’d been having dreams of a past that couldn’t be? But if she didn’t, and she shared with Shade, she worried what he might say. How much would he delay her training? “I wanted to know if you have dreams of before you came here.”

  It sounded foolish even as she said it. Why would Sinsa have dreams? She would remember, much like Ciara should remember.

  But Sinsa’s eyes widened, if only slightly. And with her faint water sensing, Ciara could detect the slight increase in Sinsa’s pulse.

  “You have, haven’t you?” she asked.

  Sinsa glanced at the door before nodding. “That’s why Shade is angry,” she said.

  “Angry?” The bruising on Sinsa’s face took on a different meaning. Was Shade the reason that she’d been hurt and not a summoning that hadn’t worked as intended? Shade wouldn’t do that to Sinsa, though, would he?

  “I thought to ask him about it. There have been flashes of things, of a place, that I don’t think I’ve ever been, but the images are so real.” Her voice took on a hushed tone, and she touched her fingers to her cheek, rubbing them softly. “Vast seas and the sun…” Sinsa went on, “I wanted to ask when I would return, but Shade, he…” she swallowed and didn’t finish.

  Ciara’s breath caught. “What do you remember of your time before the tower?”

  “That’s the problem, I don’t remember anything from before the tower. Faces of my parents, the desire to help them, but other than that, there’s nothing. Shade tells me that I’m just tired and that I need to—”

  “Rest,” Ciara finished.

  Sinsa nodded.

  Ciara stared at the door. Could Shade be keeping something from them? Some secret about where they came from? But why? They were here to learn. And Ciara, at least, had been sent by her father with the intent to help her people.

  “What are you seeing?” Sinsa asked.

  Ciara sighed. “My home. Or at least, I think it’s my home. I can’t remember. Desert and sun and the heat…” She didn’t say anything about the lizard or the fear she had of the darkness. That seemed too strange. “I left the tower one day, trying to see the sun, just to have it on my face again.”

  “You did?”

  “There was nothing but more clouds and darkness. Shade made me promise I wouldn’t attempt to leave before I was ready, and if I did, I wouldn’t be allowed to continue my studies.”

  “At least you continue to progress,” Sinsa said bitterly. “My fingers barely move half the time, and they’re number now that I mentioned to Shade the visions that I’ve been having.”

  “Shade told me that comes from exerting yourself too much with the summoning.”

  Sinsa sniffed. “That’s not my problem. He hasn’t been working with me that much the
se days. I did something that upset him, and now…”

  Ciara frowned. “What of Doln?”

  “I haven’t seen him in almost as long as I haven’t seen you. Shade says he returned home and that he’d learned all that he could.”

  Ciara sighed. What had she really hoped to learn by coming here? That she wasn’t alone with her visions? Finding Sinsa had revealed that she wasn’t, but Sinsa had different dreams than Ciara’s. Both had memories of home, but Ciara had something more than that. Hers were not only of her home but of something else that she knew to fear.

  “You should go,” Sinsa said. “If he discovers that you spoke to me, he might get angry with you as well.”

  Ciara started for the door. It wasn’t Shade’s anger that she feared, it was his unwillingness to work with her. But it troubled her that Sinsa couldn’t remember her home either. It troubled her they both had dreams, though they were different. And it troubled her that when she questioned Shade, her ability to summon was restricted.

  With certainty, she knew she couldn’t say anything to him.

  If she did, not only might he refuse to continue teaching, but what would happen to her ability to summon? Would that fade as well?

  “I’m sorry,” she said at the door.

  Sinsa sobbed softly. “All I want is to go home.”

  She turned back to Sinsa. “Then tell him. He’ll let you return if you don’t want to be here anymore.”

  Sinsa shook her head. “I tried. That’s when he did this,” she said, pointing to her face. “He told me that the tower was my home.”

  Ciara stared at Sinsa, uncertain what to say. There was nothing that she could say. She had never asked Shade to leave, but she remembered his repressed anger when he’d discovered how she had left the tower. What would he do if he learned she wanted to leave? How angry would he get with her then?

  Ciara shivered and removed the summoning that concealed the door. Even if she wanted to go home, would she be allowed to, or was the tower now her home too?

  39

  Alena

  There is a land where darkness and shadows linger. It is a place I will not go. I suspect this is under the rule of the Khalan.

  —Lachen Rastan, Commander of the Order of Warriors

  The inside of the tower had a heaviness to it, a chill that Alena didn’t remember from her previous visits. Muted voices drifted down the halls, none all that distinct, but she paused at each new sound, turning her attention to see if she might be able to determine who moved through the tower around her.

  Bayan rested quietly in the small rooms they occupied. Alena had used the spirit stick on her again, settling a soothing sort of shaping until she found a more restful sleep.

  How would they keep her from attempting to rejoin the darkness each time she felt it? If the darkness existed in Atenas—and she had seen that it did—how would they manage to keep Bayan from getting drawn toward it?

  That was the challenge she had for Oliver. Let the healer guild see if there was anything that they could do to finally heal Bayan.

  Alena had another challenge. Hers was about finding a way to combat the darkness. The spirit stick worked, but it wasn’t strong enough. There might not be another shaper in all of Ter who would be strong enough to use it to press back the shadows, but she had to find something. Otherwise, it was going to continue to attack.

  She stopped at the base of the tower and exited into the sunlight.

  In the light of the day, there was no evidence of the darkness she’d experienced the night before. But when she stood at a distance, such as when she was in the toss yard, working with the students, she had seen the way that the darkness existed around the tower, growing along the sides like vines steadily creeping up. What would happen when the vines reached the top? Would the spirit stick make any difference with it?

  That was what Alena intended to find out.

  She stopped along the side of the tower, keeping the spirit stick tucked into her pocket. The shaping needed to use the spirit stick required she combine the elements, and here on the street she did so quickly, unwilling to remain for too long, risking exposure.

  As she held onto the shaping, she jerked the spirit stick from her pocket when it became too warm. Under the sunlight, there was no way of seeing whether the rod glowed as it had the night before. She tapped it against the side of the tower.

  Alena wasn’t really certain what she expected to happen. Would the spirit stick dissipate the shadows? Would she even be able to see anything now?

  When she tapped it, the stone rang with a sharp note, like a bell tolling. This sound rolled through her before settling into the ground.

  Had it worked?

  The heat from the spirit stick had faded, so whatever she had done had released the shaping that she held.

  Pulling on more energy, she drew the shaping once more. Alena stepped to another point along the wall and paused before striking the rod on the stone.

  It rang again. This time, the note sounded higher.

  The spirit stick shook in her hand, vibrating violently.

  She squeezed it tightly, afraid to drop it. The blasted thing might be made of metal, but she didn’t know what would happen if it were damaged. If they lost that, they would have no weapon against the shadows. As weak as it was, at least there was something.

  The vibrating of the spirit stick eased and then stopped altogether.

  She moved forward, readying another shaping, when she caught sight of movement.

  Alena spun, debating whether she should have shrouded herself. Doing so would have required that she withhold some of her shaping energy, diverting it so she could remain hidden. With the spirit stick, especially to make it glow as it had the night before, Alena decided it required all of her focus.

  “Alena Lagaro. Is there anything that I can help you with?”

  Wansa stood across from her, her eyes set in a tight line. She eyed Alena, glancing at the tower, at her face, and then back. Did Wansa know what she was doing?

  Alena waited for the spirit stick to grow cold, a sign Wansa might attempt to shape her, but it didn’t. She needed to say something to deflect Wansa’s curiosity and said the only thing that came to mind. “I’m curious about the shapings that helped build the tower.”

  Some of the tension left Wansa’s eyes. “This tower has stood for over three hundred years. Some of our earliest shapers were responsible for raising it from the ground.”

  “Earth shapers, though.”

  Wansa nodded. “Earth. Not warriors,” she agreed.

  Alena had always found it interesting that the tower for the Order had been built by simple shapers rather than by warriors. Now that she knew about the elementals, she wondered if they had had a hand in constructing the tower. It was a question she would have to ask Wyath the next time she saw him.

  “Why the sudden interest in stone?” Wansa asked.

  “The same reason I’ve been away from Atenas.”

  Wansa’s eyes narrowed. “The Commander’s camp. There are some of us who remain unconvinced of the benefit of the project. Few enough of the draasin have been destroyed because of it.”

  Alena resisted the urge to smile. The draasin that had been destroyed had been killed against her wishes. “Have you visited the camp, councilor?”

  “I have not.”

  “Then perhaps you shouldn’t be so quick to judge the efficacy of the camp.”

  Wansa watched her for a moment through slitted eyes. “How does the instruction with the students progress?”

  “Jef is a proficient instructor if that’s what you seek to determine. I was a little surprised to learn the intent of his instruction is to draw out the other abilities as quickly as possible.”

  “The Commander seeks troops along the front in Rens.”

  “The war goes so poorly they are needed?”

  “You have been removed from the war. The people there have become more violent.”

  “We attack thei
r homeland. Would you expect them to sit by and accept it?”

  Wansa straightened her back, a shaping building softly. As she did, the spirit stick went cold. For a moment, Alena thought that maybe Wansa might be responsible for the shaping, but she didn’t think that was the case.

  She looked around, glancing along the street, but there was no one else here.

  Was there anything that she could do?

  She started a shaping, masking it at first, but the more that she drew on the shaping, the more that she needed to remove the masking to draw power. Wansa’s eyes widened as she shaped, and Alena could tell she suspected what she did.

  Alena glanced up the street again.

  There was no one there.

  If she were going to do something, it would have to be now.

  She withdrew the spirit stick and pointed it at Wansa.

  The other woman started away from her, a shaping carrying her into the air.

  “Can’t allow you to leave quite yet,” Alena said, wrapping air and earth around Wansa to prevent her from escaping. Then she released the spirit shaping, letting it settle upon the other woman, quickly sliding through her mind.

  Alena had flashes of memories. The daily struggles of running the Order, a deep concern for the warriors, even a grudging respect for the Commander, one that was mixed with a hint of fear.

  Beneath that, she felt some sort of invisible barrier.

  Alena pried at the barrier, pulling on it. Using spirit wasn’t enough, but she knew she had to remove it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a part of Wansa and should not be there.

  Could she use fire and somehow hone the shaping to a sharp knife, much like what Oliver had demonstrated with water?

  Alena switched her focus to fire, pressing through Wansa’s mind, shaping a tight line of fire through that invisible barrier. Slowly, she peeled it away, like a film that had formed on water. As she did, she forced more spirit through the spirit stick.