How many remain? she asked Nimala.
The water elemental floated away for a while. Elle drifted, letting herself sleep for a few moments. She should be horrified by the fact that she sat so close to someone who’d taken her own life, but she didn’t have the energy to care.
When Nimala returned, Elle didn’t know how long it had been. An image appeared in her mind, sent by the water elemental. Elle’s eyes opened slowly. Two waves, so two of these shapers remained.
Where are they? She needed rest and more time to recover. If she could take a few moments, even if it meant risking Doma, she would have to do so. She couldn’t function otherwise. Her mind felt slow, like a fog hanging over it.
They are near.
Elle sat up, suddenly more awake. Near?
As she asked, she sensed a change.
It wasn’t a shaping, but awareness of it came to her nonetheless. It was subtle, the slow drawing of power, and it came from outside the small building Elle was in.
She tried shaping a veil, but that required strength and focus, both of which she had in short supply. I need your help, Nimala.
The elemental shimmered into focus and then disappeared.
Elle stared after her, wondering how that exactly would help.
A soft wind touched her cheek. It hadn’t been there before. When the woman lived, the wind had blown through the room, but as soon as the knife plunged through her chest, it had died with her, as if released. This came as a gentle tug, no more than the softest of breezes. Had Elle not been sitting motionless, she doubted that she would have felt it.
She reached for the knife sticking out of the woman. At least she wouldn’t be unarmed.
Heat stirred with the soft touch of the breeze, and Elle knew with certainty that a shaping built around her. As a water shaper, she wasn’t accustomed to shapings that she couldn’t detect. These shapers were different, and their shaping was different.
Elle pushed to her feet and drew on water. The veil had failed her, but that took more energy than she had remaining. Was there another shaping that might work? Even something as simple as bonds of water…
Fog began to float through the open door. Much like when she’d gone to the shore and found the other shaper, Elle listened and could sense movement within the fog. Was the fog Nimala? Were the masyn helping her?
Focusing on the shape within the fog, she used a lashing of water and swirled it around. If they were a water shaper, the bond wouldn’t hold for long, but if they were wind and fire, she might get enough time to find a way to contain them.
The person grunted and Elle knew the shaping took hold.
She squeezed, pulling on the shaping, drawing it tight. If nothing else, she could constrict long enough that they wouldn’t be able to move. If they passed out, it would keep them from harming themselves like the other two.
But not the old man. She didn’t know how to reconcile that with what these others had done.
Elle crawled through the fog, pulling on the shaping with as much strength as she could muster. The figure collapsed, dropping with a thud, and Elle hurried toward them, not willing to release the water bonds. It was a shaping she’d learned from Voldan, and she was thankful that he’d demonstrated it for her. Already, it had proven useful several times.
She pulled away some of the fog to see the face of the attacker. This person was a young man, and tattoos crawled along one arm. Elle gasped and nearly lost her shaping. They were Xsa markings.
Did Merash know that some of his people helped their attackers? Was that what he feared? Maybe it was another reason he and the other captains had taken the women and children away from Xsa.
The Xsa shaper still breathed, but the water bonds clutched tightly, preventing him from moving. Elle crouched for a moment, debating what to do next.
The fog remained. Elle wondered about the reason but remembered what Nimala had said. They were near.
There was more than one.
Her heart lurched in her chest. The wind and the heat continued to build, but it was different than before, more focused. Wind pulled on the fallen Xsa shaper, and Elle had to hold him in place to keep it from dragging him away.
Dense fog revealed another person, and then wind began to pull the fog away. The elementals clung together, but the shaper pulled on fire and wind, burning away the mist and the fog, forcing the elemental to depart.
Soon, Elle would be left facing whoever approached with nothing more than the knife she clutched in her hand and whatever shaping ability remained after using so much trying to stop those other shapers. Worse, if she didn’t cling to the shaping, she might lose the Xsa shaper.
Before the mist disappeared, Elle sensed where the other shaper stood outside the door. She stumbled as she started forward but caught herself on the doorframe.
A shaping of fire blasted toward her. Elle raised her hand, deflecting the flame, and it burned away to the sides, bouncing off the wall of water that she managed to create.
That shaping took nearly the last of her strength. The fog disappeared, leaving her facing an unassuming-looking man. He wore a dark jacket and tight pants, and a short sword hung from his waist. Elle blinked, taking a moment to recognize the attire of a soldier in the Doman fleet.
“What?” she asked.
The temperature of the air increased sharply. Elle knew she wouldn’t be able to withstand whatever shaping this man threw at her, especially not if he added wind to it. She might have managed to find all the Par-shon shapers in Falsheim, but she wouldn’t be able to stop them all.
Falsheim would fall.
Elle sensed a shaping building and raised the knife, knowing that it wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop a shaper.
The man laughed. “Do you really think you ever had a chance at stopping us?” His voice held the edge of a hard accent, one that Elle didn’t recognize.
She waited for the shaping to release, but it continued to build. As it did, she frowned. Why would she be able to sense a shaping from a bonded shaper like this? She hadn’t been able to do so before, so why now? What had changed?
Maybe nothing had changed.
A shout came from down the street and the man turned to look.
Ley raced toward her, pushing his shaping in front of him. It was weak, but stronger than he would have managed even a month ago. The man waved it away with a flick of his finger, drawing on wind and fire to send Ley slamming into the nearby buildings.
Elle lunged toward the man while his back was turned.
The knife sunk into his left shoulder, sliding behind the shoulder blade. He sucked in a surprised gasp of air and turned toward her. Blood gurgled in his throat as he fell.
Ley reached her and dragged her away from the man. He lowered her to the ground, cradling her in his lap, and covered her eyes, keeping her from seeing the man’s life bleed into the uneven cobbles along the street. There was nothing he could do about the other man she had killed. That memory burned into her mind, almost as if shaped.
When fire and wind raced away, elementals suddenly released, Elle sighed.
27
Elle lagged behind as Ley dragged the Xsa traitor down the dark street. Buildings pressed in from both sides, hiding the moonlight. Dampness hung on the air, and the occasional thunder from the coming storm rattled her to the bones.
The shaping holding the man remained, though she wondered how much of that had been augmented by Nimala. It was growing difficult to tell. Now that she had time to think about it, she was surprised by how much easier shaping was coming to her. She might still need the extremes of emotion, but there had been no shortage of those lately.
The shaping wrapped around the man pulsed against her, and it took longer than it should have for her to realize that something about him felt wrong. Elle squeezed a water shaping through him, and he gasped. Wind whistled softly and there was a flash of heat.
Elle almost stumbled. Had she released his bonds? Always before, it had required the
shaper dying, so had she killed him? She’d done enough of that already and wasn’t interested in any more of it.
Another breath from the man told her he still lived. Maybe she had released the bond somehow.
“Elle?” Ley asked her, as they marched along the street.
“How did you find me?” she asked.
He glanced over. “I can sense your shaping.”
She nodded. While trying to handle the five who had bonded, she had been forced to shape frequently. If Ley had sense all of that, he would have known what she was going through. “What took you so long?”
He laughed and the Xsa nearly dropped from his grip. Elle tried to help, but he shot her a hard glare and shook his head. “The Lord Commander. He didn’t want to believe you. Maybe this will help.”
Elle sighed as they reached Fisher’s Road, the long street running through the heart of the city. The Lord Commander was along this street. “He’s from Xsa,” she said.
“I saw the tattoos,” Ley said. “Do you think Merash knew?”
“I don’t know. Merash knew something, more than he was telling us, but I don’t know what…”
She trailed off as they reached Brist. The door was closed, but light shone from the other side of the windows. Ley kicked at the door, grunting as he held onto the other shaper. The water bonds held him, restricting him from taking breaths that were too deep. Every so often, the man would let out a soft moan. When he did, Elle pulled on the shaping, restricting him again. She didn’t want him waking, at least not until they were ready for whatever he might try to do.
The door opened and the Lord Commander poked his head out. When he saw Ley, his eyes narrowed. Then he saw Elle and sighed.
“You were supposed to remain within the city,” he said.
“I am supposed to help Falsheim,” Elle said.
“By traveling on a Xsa ship and leaving Falsheim? Does that help Falsheim and Doma?”
“Are you going to let us in, or not?” Ley asked.
The Lord Commander frowned. “You should be careful that you don’t end up too much like her,” he warned.
“Like the most impressive shaper that I’ve ever seen?” Ley asked. “Or the shaper who managed to find and stop five of these shapers within the city.”
Elle didn’t bother to tell him there had been six. The man disguised as a Doman officer had been the last. Somehow, Nimala had missed him. There might be others, she realized, but she was too tired to do anything about them now.
“Five?” Brist asked. He filled his doorway, as if debating whether he would let them in.
Ley didn’t give him the chance to fully decide. He pushed past and threw the Xsa man onto the floor. Inside the room, someone gasped. Ley pulled Elle inside with him.
Brist closed the door behind him and turned to Elle. “Your friend tells me that you found a shaper along the coast.” He caught himself as he started, as if needing to remind himself that he was in control.
“Shapers,” Elle corrected. “And now six in the city. One disguised as Doman. We need to find a way to get the people to safety.”
Brist looked past her, and Elle followed the direction of his gaze. Others on his council sat around the table, including Dondal, the man had she met when she asked Brist for help. If he was anything like the others, he would be nearly useless. Thoras, a lean and older man, leaned against the wall and he stared at the map hanging there.
“There couldn’t be six shapers within the city,” Thoras said. “We would have known.”
“Would you?” Elle asked. “Are you able to shape, Thoras?”
He turned to her and his mouth twisted in a dark smile. “Yes, Shaper Vaywand, I can.”
Elle felt a shaping building from him. It was weak—much weaker than even what Ley could manage—but definitely there. As tired as she was, she couldn’t even bite back the laugh that came almost unbidden.
“That?” she asked Brist. “That is what you plan to use to protect Doma? I mean no disrespect, Thoras, but you couldn’t shape your way out of a puddle.”
Thoras pushed away from the wall and strode toward her. His shaping tried to bind her, but Elle had felt stronger shapings too many times tonight to be startled by him. She pulled on Nimala and sent Thoras’s shaping snapping back to him.
He grunted. “You don’t need strength in shaping to sense shaping. You would know that if you were as strong as you claim,” he said.
Elle waved a hand toward the Xsa man on the ground. She refused to release the bonds around him, but for a moment, she actually considered it. Too bad that she might have healed him. It would serve Thoras well to deal with a bonded shaper, one able to shape more than one element. Let him see then what Elle offered Doma.
But she wouldn’t do that. It would put too many in danger. More than that, it would put Ley in danger. She didn’t think she would be able to secure him again if he was freed. She’d spent herself too much today.
“That is a shaper of Par-shon,” she started. “They bond to the elementals. This one has bonded to fire and wind. Their bonds make them powerful, but also make it so that you can’t detect any shapings, because what they do is not shaping,” she said.
Brist crouched next to the shaper. “This man is of the Xsa Isles, not of Par-shon,” he said.
“Par-shon has invaded Xsa. That’s why there are so many from Xsa here. They’ve come seeking protection—which I’ve granted, by the way.”
Thoras’s face contorted. “You don’t have the authority to grant protection of the city.”
Elle turned to him. “Fine. Then I’ve granted them my protection.” She stared at Thoras, thankful that he looked away. She didn’t have the strength for an ongoing staredown.
“Lord Commander,” Elle said to Brist, “there are too many shapers in Doma for me to stop. I was lucky with these, but when they attack Falsheim—and they will attack—I won’t be strong enough alone to stop them.”
Brist stood and paced to the maps. His eyes settled on one that depicted the outer islands, places like Xsa and Par. She hadn’t realized how close they were. How had they never heard of these bonded before? How had they never attacked before?
And what changed? That might be the most important question of all.
“Par should not attack us,” Brist said softly. “When I was captain, we sailed along these shores,” he said, running his finger along the map and coming close to Par’s location. “We ran drills with the Xsa fleet,” he went on, pointing to Xsa. “Why would they attack us now?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “But if it’s anything like what happened to the Xsa Isles, we don’t want our people to suffer the same way. We need to find a way to get them to safety.”
Brist stared at the map, shaking his head. “There’s nothing,” he started. “There are too many in the city. How can we simply hide everyone?”
At the end of the table, Dondal put his spectacles back on and looked at Elle. “I might know a way,” he said.
28
Elle stood outside the city in the early morning. A cold wind blew in off the ocean and the waves crashed with a gentle rhythm that was almost hypnotic, sending a mixture of frothy foam and spray into the air. She stared at the rock around the city, uncertain what Dondal had in mind.
“It’s the docks, you see,” he said, waving a hand toward the long docks jutting into the water. “That’s what gave me the idea in the first place.”
The Lord Commander stood with his hands on his hips, looking in the direction that Dondal stared excitedly out at the water and back toward the city. The massive slope of rock leading up from the water obscured a series of jagged openings beneath the city, making it appear as if the city sat atop a rock pillar.
“What about the docks, Dondal?” Brist asked.
Thoras snorted and let out an annoyed sigh. “Why are we even listening to this fool, Lord Commander? I know you favor him because of his experience, but it’s much like you listening to this one,” he said, pointing
to Elle.
Dondal walked over to Thoras, pushed up his spectacles, and punched Thoras in the chest. The taller man went sprawling, as if Dondal had hit him with a hammer rather than just his fist.
Ley leaned into Elle and whispered into her ear, “What kind of shaping was that?”
She suppressed a laugh and felt a moment of relief. Seeing Dondal punch Thoras like that gave her hope that he might not be as useless as the others. “Earth. I didn’t know Dondal was a shaper, let alone an earth shaper.”
The older man turned to Elle and winked. “That’s the way your grandfather would have handled him, too.”
This time, she did laugh. Thoras stood slowly, rubbing his chest with the open part of his hand, and looked at Dondal in a new light.
“The docks,” Dondal began again, as if nothing had happened. “They reminded me of a story I heard when I was a child.”
“How many moons ago was that?” Thoras muttered.
Dondal smiled at him and pointed a long, crooked finger. “Long enough that I still remember what it was like to respect those who can shape more strongly than you. Time was, you would have been listening to everything this young lady says.”
Thoras narrowed his eyes. “I doubt that.”
Dondal jabbed a finger into his chest and Thoras stepped back, wincing. “From what I’ve seen, she’s at least as powerful as her grandfather. Perhaps even stronger. Did you ever hear stories of Elton Vaywand shaping himself along the coast in an hour?” He smiled at Elle and, for a moment, looked more grandfatherly than anything. “If you interrupt me again, we’ll find out how strong that water shaping is of yours. We’ll learn if you can heal yourself like the shapers of old.”
Dondal limped toward Brist, the catch in his gait painting a different man, one who Elle didn’t expect to use such a confident tone with Thoras. “Lord Commander, there are stories about spaces in the rocks beneath the city. This would have been long ago, but I can’t believe they are only stories.”
“Dondal, we’ve used those caverns to store the docks for years. No one has ever noticed anything else.”
Shaper of Water: The Cloud Warrior Saga Page 18