Shaper of Water: The Cloud Warrior Saga

by D. K. Holmberg

  “The swamp is quiet,” Voldan said. “As it usually is.”

  Thoras made a sour face. “The Atran Swamp? Do you really think that we should worry about the swamp?”

  Voldan crossed his arms over his chest as he built another shaping. Elle wondered if Thoras even knew Voldan washed a shaping over him. “Do you think that you can protect the Atran were it invaded? Do you think that our ships can navigate its waters?” A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Perhaps the Lord Commander should send Doma’s finest captain to patrol the Atran. I beg your forgiveness, captain, and will accede to your wisdom.”

  Thoras’s mouth puckered even more and Elle suppressed a laugh. She knew little of Voldan, other than that he had been shaping for Falsheim long before she’d even been born. Had it not been for him, the city might have fallen during the attack. With his shaping, and with the help of the few weak shapers that he’d managed to bring together into something resembling a squad, Doma had managed to remain safe. Voldan was one of the few to believe Elle when she told of what she’d seen. Had it not been for him, the Lord Commander might not have believed the attack or about the strange winged lisincend.

  “Enough, Voldan. What did you learn?”

  Voldan glanced at Thoras for another moment, his gaze lingering as he answered, “Incendin remains no different than before. Whatever attacked our shores leaves the kingdom of fire untouched, though there is something different about the Fire Fortress. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, whether all of this,” he said, sweeping his hand around him, “isn’t some ploy on behalf of Incendin.”

  The Lord Commander frowned, rubbing a hand over his mouth. “And the north?” he asked.

  Voldan’s brow furrowed and Elle sensed another shaping from him, this one without any sense of direction, almost as if he were shaping for the sake of shaping. It dissipated quietly, washing away from him and sweeping out and through the stones of the building. As it did, Elle realized that it wasn’t a shaping at all. What Voldan performed was some kind of enhanced sensing.

  “Within Doma, the north is untouched.”

  The Lord Commander turned back to the map. Elle noted that he made a point of studying the map with Chenir filling most of it. “They have shapers in Chenir,” the Lord Commander said, mostly to himself. “They should be able to remain protected.”

  Voldan’s troubled smile faded and his playful expression returned. “Perhaps. Either way, our borders are safe.”

  “What about what Shaper Vaywand shared?” Brist asked.

  Voldan glanced at her. “Perhaps we should listen to the shaper. She has studied at the university and she speaks to the elementals, or so she tells us.” He considered Elle for a moment before turning back to Brist. “As you know, Lord Commander, I have not, and I do not, so my shaping is likely much less effective than it would be otherwise. I’m sure there is much that she learned in the university that she can teach even one so lowly as myself.”

  The others all turned to her, waiting. Elle met their eyes before lowering her gaze. She heard Voldan chuckle softly.

  “Trust in a shaper of Doma, Lord Commander, not one fresh from the university, whose loyalties remain in question. And I tell you, the borders are safe. Whatever attacked our shores is gone. Our people are safe,” Voldan said.

  Safe. After Falsheim had been attacked and their people terrified of the shaping, could they be safe?

  Not until they understood what had happened. Regardless of what Voldan claimed, it was hard to ignore what she’d seen and what the people of Falsheim had gone through.

  Elle left her arms crossed over her chest and finally turned away, pushing open the door with more irritation than she should, the annoyance she felt driving her out of the building.

  12

  Elle made a point of moving away from the crowded streets, wandering through the narrow side streets of Falsheim. The cobblestones were slick here, damp with the rain from last night, and coated with a thin film. Part of her dared the water to trip her.

  “Elle!” Ley yelled at her.

  Elle was nearly to the wall surrounding the city before Ley caught up. She paused as he reached her. “What is it, Ley? Are you going to tell me to listen to Brist, too? Or are you going to tell me to trust Voldan, the water shaper who saved all of Doma?”

  Ley leaned forward, resting his hands on his thighs. A bead of sweat dripped from his brow and he wiped a sleeve across his face, smearing dirt as he cleared the sweat. “Voldan didn’t save all of Doma.”

  “To hear him tell of it, he did,” Elle huffed.

  Ley took a deep breath and stood. “Maybe in his mind, but I was there and saw what you did. If not for you, the Lord Commander would have us attacking Incendin. They’ll come around, but you need to give them time.”

  She still wasn’t convinced that would happen. Incendin deserved all the doubt they received. They had abducted too many over the years to be trusted, but the attack on the city had been something else. With Incendin, there was the hope that they would leave Doma, withdrawing back into Incendin once they had the shapers they desired. Whoever had attacked had no such intent. They had wanted to destroy Doma, but there was something else, and worse.

  “Well, I can’t tell what they intend. They won’t share. But I don’t agree with Voldan that our borders are safe. When have they ever been safe?”

  Ley shrugged. “The last time Doma was really safe was when we were protected by the elementals.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But, Elle, you speak to the elementals.”

  “Apparently not well enough,” she said.

  She continued down the street, making her way to the wall and stopping in a narrow square that faced the wall. Two soldiers, both wearing swords and leathers stamped with the shield of Doma—that of a cresting wave—stood on either side of a narrow door. Once, such doors had been shaped closed, sealed so that only another shaper could use them to access the city, but since the city had so few shapers, these doors were normally left open, allowing any to cross through, so long as the soldiers guarding the wall allowed them access. Surprisingly, she found the door closed.

  Elle faced the guards. She had been through here often enough that she recognized many of them, but neither of these were men she’d seen before. They stared at her, hands on the hilt of their swords, their faces otherwise neutral.

  “Are you going to move aside so that I can get through?” she finally asked.

  “The door stays closed. Lord Commander’s orders.”

  Elle crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. “The Lord Commander has granted me permission to cross through here.” That wasn’t entirely true, but then again, it wasn’t that it was untrue. Brist had given her permission to move freely throughout the city and had allowed her to climb the walls surrounding the city—and given the recent attack, he’d felt he’d made a concession even allowing that—but he didn’t necessarily want her outside the walls of the city, not after what had happened.

  “Do you have his writ?” the nearest guard asked. He had a soft voice and was nearly two hands taller than Elle. In spite of that, she leaned toward him—and he took a slight, shuffling step back.

  “Does everyone who comes through here have Brist’s writ?” she demanded. The guards who had let her through only a few days ago hadn’t demanded any writ, but then again, Elle had taken the time to get to know them, and it had helped that Ley knew them somewhat. Not that she’d ever admit that to Ley.

  “Yes,” the guard said.

  “Elle…” Ley said, touching her sleeve.

  She ignored him and focused on the door. All she wanted was to get to the other side of the door. What harm could that do? If Voldan was right, then it wouldn’t even matter if she did. From what he’d said, there was no threat on the other side of the wall.

  The humming in her mind that was the sense of Nimala became clearer. Elle pulled on that sense, summoning the masyn elemental toward her. Can you help with this? she ask
ed.

  You would shape these men? Nimala asked.

  Not the men. The door.

  Nimala seemed confused, but then Elle had come to realize that the elemental had never bonded before, so there had been much confusion as they had tried their initial conversations. There was none of the sense that she’d had with udilm, the great overpowering sense of the depths of the sea, the massive swells that threatened to crush her. With masyn, it was a subtle sense, the barest kiss of the connection. Elle still didn’t know all the uses to their bond, but there was no doubt that she needed to understand it. With the elemental, she would be able to shape much more than she could on her own, which right now was very little.

  All I want is to open the door, Elle said.

  There came a delay, and then the water that lingered on the stones formed a shimmery fog that lifted into the air and slipped into the cracks around the door. With a loud click, it drifted open. The guards jumped and turned toward it, swords coming unsheathed as they did.

  Elle smiled and stepped toward it, ignoring the guards as she pushed past them and made her way outside the walls. The nearest guard glared at her and pushed the door closed behind her, effectively sealing her out of the city.

  “Great. Now we’re stuck out here,” Ley said.

  “You don’t think I can shape us back into the city?” Elle asked.

  Ley glanced over at her, the doubt on his face unmistakable. “Listen, Elle, I’m not going to doubt your ability to shape, especially after what I’ve seen you do to those other shapers, but it’s not like you’ve been exactly… consistent with your shaping since we’ve been in Falsheim.”

  Elle ignored the comment as she made her way along the Ormt River. Small copses of trees grew along the twisting shores and Elle trailed along the river’s edge, keeping just outside the slow current, as she listened to the drawing sense of the water. Times like these, it seemed that water spoke to her, if only she could learn enough to listen. Nimala’s voice was distant in the back of her mind, barely more than a buzzing she could hear above the sound of the water.

  She followed the river until it met the sea, where she paused. This was where she had first discovered her connection to Nimala. This was where she had first learned of the other shapers.

  Voldan might not believe that there was anything else to fear in Doma, but Elle didn’t doubt that the shapers would return, whoever they were. They were strong enough to fight the lisincend, especially the strange new winged lisincend that had appeared. Elle didn’t understand how Incendin had managed to find a new way to make the lisincend even more terrifying, but somehow they had. If the lisincend found the shapers who attacked Falsheim worthy to attack, then shouldn’t Doma fear their return?

  “What do you intend to do?” Ley asked.

  Elle shook her head. “I don’t know. I can’t stay in Falsheim, especially with Voldan doubting that there is anything to fear.”

  “He could teach you.”

  She turned away from the Ormt and fixed Ley with her gaze. “Could he? I haven’t seen that Voldan is all that interested in teaching me, and that’s with him knowing that I can speak to the elementals. It would seem to me that a shaper of Doma would be motivated to help me learn, but he’s not been particularly helpful.”

  Ley stopped along the edge of the river and leaned down to pick up a flat rock, which he skipped across the surface. Elle sensed him shaping as he did and picked up the strands that he used to float the rock above the water. From what she could tell, Ley had grown stronger with his shaping in the time since they’d left Ophan. Was it because he used his shaping more, or was there a different reason?

  “It’s because you went to the university,” Ley said. “Some don’t think that Doma should rely on the kingdoms to teach our shapers.”

  “Because we’ve done such a good job teaching them?”

  Ley looked up at her. “How many have abandoned Doma and remained, Elle?”

  Elle thought of the shapers that she knew who had left Doma, shapers who had not returned to their homes. Zephra, a wind shaper and her cousin, had left when she was young. There had been others, too many to remember them all, and all with a similar story.

  And then there were notorious shapers like Velthan. A powerful water shaper, he had been the last great shaper able to speak to udilm and he had trained in Ethea, learning from the water masters there. Through his connection to the udilm, he had protected Doma for years before he had finally disappeared. Most thought that Incendin had finally captured him. If so, Elle wondered what had become of him.

  “I didn’t abandon Doma,” Elle said softly.

  “No, but you would have rather returned to the kingdoms than remain in Doma.”

  Elle jerked her arm free and turned away from him. “Doma isn’t always so good to their shapers, either. How many in Ophan were willing to toss me back to the sea? How many simply thought that I was a sea bride, meant to be returned? So don’t you tell me that Doma has always been friendly and welcoming, Leyand. Your people wanted nothing more than to toss me back.”

  Ley set his hand on her shoulder and turned her back around to face him. He was a few years older than her and quite a bit taller, but he looked at her hesitantly. “Elle, not all felt the same as Vina. Had the village truly wanted to send you away, you wouldn’t have been fed, you wouldn’t have been given clothes to wear, and you wouldn’t have been given a place to sleep. It might not have been the hospitality that you received at the university, but it’s what Ophan was able to offer.”

  “You clearly haven’t been to the university if you think they offer hospitality.”

  Ley frowned. “You weren’t pampered and put up in a palace? I thought the shapers of the kingdoms were given the freedom to do whatever they wanted.”

  Elle laughed softly. “Then perhaps you should go to the kingdoms. They could teach you to control your shaping and guide you. Maybe you’ll learn to be a stronger shaper than you are now, Ley.” His eyes widened and her laugh deepened. “No, there was no palace. The Great Mother knows I was lucky to get a place to sleep, and the clothes they had for me were all two or three sizes too big.”

  Ley’s eyes traveled from her head to her feet. For some reason, a hot flush worked through Elle as he did and she stepped back. A playful smile crossed his face.

  “I like you better with what you’re wearing, if that matters to you.”

  “It most certainly does not,” Elle said and turned away from him again.

  He laughed and she continued along the shore of the Ormt, putting distance between her and Falsheim. She would have to return soon—she didn’t really want to risk the night outside the walls of the city—but for now, she enjoyed being away from the sounds and the clutter of people. Falsheim might not be a massive city, but there were many people, all thinking that the sea wall could keep them safe, especially were Incendin to attack again. Most of the time, that had worked.

  Elle crested a rise. From here, she had a clear view of the city. The slate roofs really did undulate like swells within the sea. The sight brought a smile to her face. Domans might be a practical people, but there was artistry to them as well. The water had served as inspiration for years, helping guide the design of everything from ships to the homes. The only thing that was made without such artistry was the huge, towering wall surrounding the city, and that only because it had to serve a different purpose: to keep the angry storms from destroying Falsheim.

  Many had wondered why the city sat where it did on the peninsula, but there was power to being so close to the water. The elementals had provided that strength for years. But when it departed, the advantage of sitting along the edge of the sea changed, becoming more of a risk than anything else.

  Elle regarded the bay. Sunlight trailed through the clouds and reflected off the water and the steady waves. White-capped swells formed where the river dumped into the sea, where water trailing out of the mountains mixed with the salt water pushed in by the ocean, making a frothy gr
een spray. The nymid would be found there, mixing with the udilm and probably masyn. That had been where Elle had learned that she could speak to more than just udilm, and where she had begun to wonder if she would bond to the nymid.

  Beyond the bay stretched the far shore. There, over rock towering above the water, would be Ophan. Ley’s home village had taken her in, and they had given her a place to stay and food, but they had also treated her much like Voldan, sharing the same disdain that he felt about the kingdoms and the university, never minding the fact that few shapers in Doma were willing to teach water. Most thought it was something you had to learn on your own. What did it say that Elle had learned it mostly on her own, but only after learning that she could bond to masyn? Perhaps that meant that Voldan was right.

  “Elle, we should return,” Ley said.

  She didn’t miss the wistful tone to his voice. “You could return, you know,” she said.

  “And do what?” Ley asked. “Continue to fish with my father, using my shaping to propel his boat and guide the catch?”

  “Yes,” she answered.

  “Is that what you want of me?” he asked.

  Elle took a deep breath. “I don’t know what I want, Ley. I thought I wanted to return to the kingdoms, that I would have to in order to learn to shape, but then I discovered that I could speak to the elementals.”

  “Now you can shape.”

  “It’s not consistent, but I know that it will come,” Elle admitted.

  “Then what do you want?” Ley asked.

  “I want to feel like I’m a part of something,” she answered softly. “After the attack, that’s what I expected, but Brist seems to think that he’s the only one who can decide what happens to Doma.”

  “Well, he is the Lord Commander.”

  “That he is,” Elle agreed. “But does that mean he understands the elementals? That he understands the sea?”