She caught up to Ley. He opened the door to one of the nearest homes and stepped inside. “Faldon?” he called. “Joni?”
There was no answer. The smell that came to Elle’s nose was answer enough.
“Ley,” she whispered, pulling on his hand.
He shook her off and searched through the home. The homes within Ophan were small, each only a single room. Pallets along the wall served as beds, and there were few other items, mostly cookware and some dried goods. The stink of char coated the air.
Ley moved out of the home and onto the next. When he pulled open the door, he jerked his head away and took a quick breath before plunging inside. Elle inhaled deeply before following him. There was more than the stink of char and the lingering smoke. A body lay grasping toward something, burned completely. Ley circled wide around the body, as if afraid to touch it, and stopped, looking past the burned person and toward Elle.
“What happened here? Was this Incendin?”
She shook her head. “This is different than what I’ve seen from Incendin,” she said, remembering what had happened to her village when Incendin attacked. “There, they come for people, sending fire, but not this kind of fire.”
“Is it them?” he asked.
Elle didn’t know. Could the shapers who had attacked Falsheim have returned? If they had, why would they have come here? Why Ophan? The village was barely a part of Doma, separated from it in so many ways, not the least the sprawling bay that kept them apart. What purpose would there be in attacking here?
The stench inside the house became overwhelming and she backed out, unwilling to stand there any longer. Waves of nausea washed over her, and once she was back outside, she was thankful for the hint of the breeze and the mist that still hung on the air. Elle rested with her hands on her thighs, breathing steadily.
Ley came out from the house. His face was ashen and his eyes wide in what Elle suspected was shock. He lingered next to her for a moment before moving on. Elle followed him as he made his way through the village, stopping at each home. They found no sign of anyone else.
“Where is everyone?” he asked in a whisper.
“Maybe they knew enough to escape. Maybe they were able to find a way across the bay,” she went on but didn’t really think that either was likely. Had they escaped, why wouldn’t they have seen a ship coming from this side of the bay? All that there had been was the Xsa ships, and nothing more.
Ley turned to her. “Had they escaped, there would have been some sign of them. This is… I don’t know what this is.”
“We need to let Brist know,” she said. “The Lord Commander can send ships.”
“And do what? Everyone is gone, Elle. Everything is gone. What will the fleet do to help?”
They had stopped at the outer edge of the village. At least here, the air cleared, leaving less of the stink of burning homes and bodies mixed together. Some of the stench remained, but it was nothing like the cloying stink that they’d suffered through in the middle of the village. Elle’s eyes tracked upward, toward the rolling plains leading away from the village and toward Incendin, the towering mountains creating the barrier between the two. White-capped peaks rose from between the clouds, but there was nothing else.
She stretched out with her water sensing, uncertain if it would help her here. Shaping had worked while on the Xsa ship, but that had mostly been because she had been terrified about what might happen to her. It was the emotional swings that helped her shaping.
She twirled a finger through her hair, wondering if she might ever be able to shape without the stress of some impending tragedy motivating her. Maybe that wasn’t how shaping would work for her. Hadn’t her connection to the elementals only come because she’d nearly drowned? Why should shaping be any different?
Now she felt nothing but a deep sense of sorrow. She might not have always liked the people within Ophan, but they were of Doma. They had helped her, if only in their own twisted way.
Through water, Elle could sense shaping. She listened, wondering if anything might come that would tell her what had happened here, or if there might be residual shapers left behind. Ley stopped next to her, his face a glaze of shock.
Then she felt a distant push on her senses. It was similar to what she sensed when Ley shaped, but different. Subtler, but unmistakable nonetheless.
“There,” she said, motioning away from the village.
Ley said nothing.
“Come on,” she urged. She grabbed his hand and that seemed to wake him, if only slightly. He followed her, letting her guide him as they made their way up the gentle grassy slope leading away from Ophan. Small pensal trees grew along the road, their thick waxy leaves glistening with the rain that had washed through from Elle’s shaping. A few dark berries remained, though usually the gulls plucked them free long before now. What did it say that some remained?
She pulled him through the long grasses, off the road. Stretches of farmed land grew in all directions, the soil recently tilled following the fall harvest. The second crop would have gone in soon, but now there would be none. Now the fall wheat would be the last crop that Ophan would ever bring in.
Ley ran his fingers along the grasses as he stared blankly at everything around him. Elle needed him to help but wasn’t sure that he would be able to do so. She didn’t know what had happened here, or what they might find when she reached the source of the shaping, but she doubted that she could do anything alone.
As they neared the top of the hill, she sensed the shaping again. This time, it came as a sharp jolt on her senses, a clear drawing of shaped power. More than that, Elle sensed water shaping mixed in and could make out part of the shaping, at least enough to recognize the intent. Whatever was being done was intended to conceal.
She grabbed Ley’s arm and pulled him down, crouching behind a stack of rock that they neared. He followed and didn’t say anything. For that, she was thankful, but she needed him to be alert. She needed his help, whatever that might entail.
“Ley!” she hissed.
He stared straight ahead, ignoring her.
She considered shaping him, but if she could sense another shaping beyond the rocks, they would likely be able to sense her as well. Any shaping would only expose her.
So she pinched him.
Ley blinked and turned to face her, mouth going open as if to yell. Elle clamped a hand over his mouth and prevented him from shouting. She tilted her head, motioning beyond the rocks.
“Do you sense it?” she whispered.
Ley blinked again as if thought was finally returning to him. “Sense wh—” He cut off and crawled forward, resting his head against the rocks. He crouched like that for a moment, thankfully not shaping but using what he could to sense for the shapers that were out there. “How many do you detect?” he asked, as he crawled back next to her.
“I can’t tell that. I’m not exactly the most skilled shaper.”
“You have the elementals, don’t you?” he asked. “You don’t need to shape to speak to them or to ask of them what they might see.”
Nimala had helped on the ship and had brought the rain, but would the elemental recognize how many shapers were there, or would she give her some bizarre answer like ten waves?
But Ley was right. She needed to ask what Nimala might know.
Nimala, she began, summoning the connection to the elemental as she reached deep within her mind to pull on it. How many shapers are nearby?
Nimala came to her slowly, as if drawn from some deep part of her mind. Elle grasped for the connection and pulled it toward her, straining to strengthen it. When would speaking to the elemental become easy?
There is another like you, and not like you.
That was no kind of answer, at least not one that would help. How many? Elle asked.
There is one like you and one unlike you.
Can this other shape? she asked. That was all she needed to know. If there was only a single shaper, they might be able to snea
k up on them, but if there was anything more than that, then Elle would be too outnumbered to do anything.
They are unlike you, Nimala repeated.
Elle sat back, wondering what exactly the elemental meant. From what she’d sensed, there was at least a single shaper, and of water. She could detect the way that water was used to obscure, as if to hide how many were on the other side of the boulders.
“What did they tell you?” Ley asked.
Elle shook her head. “I’ve been told that there is one like me, and one who is unlike me, whatever that might mean.”
“Unlike you? So not shapers?”
Elle shrugged. “That’s what I suspect.”
“But you know there’s at least one shaper.”
“At least one. Can you detect any other shapings?”
Ley leaned forward and closed his eyes for a moment. “I’m not that skilled at detecting things like that. I can sense when there’s a strong shaping nearby, but anything less than that?” He opened his eyes and turned toward her. “I can’t tell. There’s the one shaping, but I don’t even know what it’s trying to do.”
Elle considered what they needed. There were shapers, but they needed to know who they were. It was even possible that they were shapers of Doma, though if they were, why wouldn’t Brist have said something about having shapers here? No, they had to be something else.
Maybe these were shapers like they had encountered before, the ones who had battled Incendin. And if they fought Incendin, couldn’t they find a way to work together? They could face the threat of Incendin, maybe stop the lisincend for good. Except those shapers had attacked Falsheim rather than helped.
She would need to trust that Nimala was able to guide her.
Elle started forward. Her heart fluttered, racing with each step. Sweat dripped from her brow in spite of the cool breeze. She made it past the edge of the rocks and wondered if she could use the same obscuring shaping that she sensed to help hide her as she approached.
With fear coursing through her, the shaping came more easily than others. Without sensing the other shaping, she wouldn’t have been able to accomplish it. It was more complex than anything she had ever attempted on her own. She wrapped herself in a cover of water, using the shaping to blend her into the surroundings, and suddenly everything blurred around her.
Elle breathed out, holding tightly to the shaping. Help me with this, Nimala.
The water elemental swirled around her, creating a misty veil of protection that added to her shaping. Elle hoped that it worked, and that she would be able to learn whose shapers were here. If she couldn’t, then she would need to find a way back to Falsheim. Even if she could, she needed to find a way back to Falsheim.
The ground changed as she moved forward. The grass covering faded, leaving a hard, rocky surface. A few trees stretched overhead, but other than that, there was nothing. From here, Elle could look toward Falsheim, could see it rising in the distance.
The shaping that she’d copied dropped. The sudden absence was jarring.
That wasn’t what caught her attention. Rather, it was the pair of people talking near one of the trees that she noted. And one of them she recognized, but why would Voldan be here?
17
Elle nearly dropped the shaping as she stood among the rocks. She felt exposed, standing openly, trusting the shaping would keep her protected. Far below, where the rock dropped off into the cliff leading to the sea, waves crashed. The wind whipped around her, but she didn’t feel it quite as strongly because she was wrapped in the shaping. She thought about moving back to Ley, but if Voldan was here, she wanted to know why.
She held her breath as she crept forward. She didn’t know how the shaping worked or why it had been lowered, but there had to be a reason someone had hidden themselves nearby.
The woman across from Voldan was dressed in strange dark leathers. She stood casually, but her head swiveled from side to side. Elle tensed as the woman’s eyes drifted over her, wondering if she would sense that she was hiding there. She pulled the shaping more tightly around herself, praying that she would be safe.
Still, she took another step forward. As she did, she was able to catch part of the conversation, barely enough to understand what she heard.
“The others are nearly settled,” the woman said. She had a harsh accent and barely fixed her eyes on Voldan as she spoke to him.
“That’s why I’m here. I don’t want the same thing to happen as the last time,” he said.
“The last time was a mistake,” the woman said. She tilted her chin in Elle’s direction and her eyes narrowed. She sniffed at the air and Elle felt the steady buildup of a shaping that released with a soft exhale of air. The wind gusted suddenly. “We thought your shores were less protected.”
Voldan frowned. He touched a hand to his waist as he did and made a point of looking away from the woman. “They were supposed to be.”
She snorted. “Supposed to be. You do not control them?”
“I do now. Isn’t that what matters?”
“What matters is that we do not have the same interference. For his plan to succeed, we need to use these lands.”
“I’ve given you what I can.”
The woman focused on Voldan, staring at him. “What you can has not been enough. Do not think that we don’t know about the other?”
Voldan frowned. “What other?”
The woman waved a hand and pointed toward Falsheim. “The shaper. Strong enough to remove two of ours. You said that the city was open.”
Voldan looked toward Falsheim. “It was open. None of the other shapers were strong enough to stop you.”
“This one was.”
“Yes. I hadn’t realized that there was another shaper like that in Doma.”
Elle took a step back, suppressing the shock she felt. Voldan had betrayed Doma? If what she heard was correct, he had been the reason the city was attacked. But he was one of the most gifted water shapers Doma had produced in years. Why would he work against his country?
Maybe Elle was wrong. She prayed to the Great Mother and the Sea Father that she misunderstood.
Although tempted, she decided not to take a step closer. If that was the case, she would need to know.
She’d missed part of the conversation. When she’d begun listening, she’d felt lost for a moment, but then a new fear started her heart racing again.
“You can separate her from this bond?” Voldan was asking.
The woman tapped her chest. “From that, or from any.”
“And the bond will be given to me?”
The woman glanced around again, her gaze finally settling on Voldan. “If you succeed, that will be your reward.”
“What do I need to do?” Voldan asked.
“Haven’t we made ourselves clear?”
Voldan’s gaze drifted toward Ophan, hidden behind the rocks. “This display? I think that more a mistake than anything else. If it’s discovered that the borders aren’t as well protected as most believe—”
“That was necessary. There was one there who learned of us. They would have passed on word to your fleet.”
“You don’t need to fear the fleet.”
“No? You think that arrows cannot harm you?” the woman asked Voldan. “We can be overwhelmed the same as others.”
“But you control the udilm!”
The woman sniffed. “Not all. Not nearly enough for what must be done. But we will. In time, we will. And once Xsa is under our rule, no fleet will threaten us.”
Elle took a step back. Her foot scuffed across the rock and she froze, afraid that Voldan or this woman had heard her, but neither seemed to have noticed. Could the shaping manage to obscure her so entirely that even sound was blended out? A shaping like that could be useful.
And could mean that there were shapers hiding elsewhere. Possible even with Falsheim itself.
The woman mentioned Xsa. She had thought Xsa had come to Falsheim for trade, but what if th
ere was another reason?
Everything began to fit together. Brist’s concern about too many people in the city. The women and children she’d seen heading toward Falsheim. Even Calah’s concern when Elle reported that Falsheim had been attacked.
Xsa were immigrating to Doma, thinking they would be safe.
But they weren’t any safer in Doma than they had been in Xsa.
What had Voldan done?
Elle turned her attention back to Voldan and the woman, but they had finished whatever they were planning on saying. With a sudden gust of air, the woman took flight and streaked toward the clouds, disappearing from view.
She was a wind shaper. Did that mean that the shaping Elle followed had been Voldan? If so, why had he hidden himself?
Elle waited to see what Voldan would do. How had he even crossed the bay? Would there be some way that she could copy whatever he’d done to get her and Ley back to Falsheim?
Rather than making his way toward the water, he stood in place for a few moments. A darkness spread across his face and he started toward the rocks hiding Ley. He shaped, and something like strands of water stretched away from him. He used these to pull Ley from his hiding place behind the rocks.
“Are you alone?” Voldan asked. He turned and looked all around, and his eyes passed over Elle, who stood openly. “Where is she?”
“I—I’m alone,” Ley said. “I wanted to return to my home.”
“How did you get back? Don’t think I’ll believe that you shaped yourself here.” Ley’s eyes widened slightly. He was nearly face to face with Voldan now, and close enough to Elle that she could almost reach over and touch him. She stood, afraid to even move for fear that she would make too much noise. “Ah, yes, I know that you have some shaping talent. Too bad that it’s been wasted. Even meager talent like you’ve shown can be developed. Few understand that.”
Ley seemed as if he made a point of staring straight ahead, as if refusing to look over at Elle.
“I recognized your work. I didn’t think you were strong enough to produce the rain, but maybe you’ve lived in these lands long enough that you’ve learned a few useful tricks.” He said the last with a tone dripping with disdain. “Tell me how you managed that shaping and I will release you.”
Shaper of Water: The Cloud Warrior Saga Page 12