Cloud Warrior 05 - Forged in Fire

by Holmberg, D. K.

  Can you tell me if there are those who would steal my bonds?

  Honl hesitated. Tan waited for him to tell him how dangerous it would be, but Honl did not. He simply made a gesture something like a nod and drifted off, blowing toward the city.

  “Do you think the wind will be able to tell us whether it is safe to enter?” Cora asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t sense anything around us to fear.”

  “That doesn’t mean there’s nothing there. There are ways of masking yourself from earth sensing,” Cora said.

  Tan had done that once before when attempting to hide the draasin from the kingdoms’ shapers, using golud for assistance. Obscuring someone from him would require an earth elemental, but then Par-shon bonded earth elementals. If there were shapers here that he missed, they were in more danger than he realized.

  Without waiting another moment, Tan shaped a travel shaping, slamming spirit into it. He grabbed Cora and pulled her toward him as he drew it down upon him. The blinding flash of light from his shaping struck with a thunderous explosion, fast enough and strong enough to disturb the earth shaping hiding three shapers along the wall around Falsheim.

  As the shaping lifted them, Tan unsheathed his sword and pressed out through a new shaping of fire and spirit through the sword, sending a lancing of white light that split and struck the three shapers atop the wall.

  Then Tan and Cora were carried away.

  The shaping lowered them to the ground near the village they had buried.

  “What was that?” Cora asked.

  Tan jerked his head around. He still clutched his sword and held a fire shaping ready to unleash through it if needed. “That was a traveling shaping. Sorry we couldn’t do it that way before.”

  “That was smoother,” Cora agreed, “but that’s not what I’m asking. Your sword. What did you do to those shapers on the wall?”

  “You saw them?”

  “Only after you unleashed your lightning. It unsettled whatever obscured them. What did you do to them?”

  “I released the bound elementals.”

  She looked at him strangely. “I would not have expected that from you.”

  “Why? I’ve made my feelings about the way the elementals should be treated quite clear.”

  “Not that. But you killed those shapers.”

  Tan grunted. It would have been easy to kill them, but he had not. It wouldn’t have taken anything more than spirit with enough force and he could simply convince their hearts to stop beating. The shaping would be easy and similar to one that the First Mother had been demonstrating.

  “We need to return to Ethea,” he said.

  “You’re not going to rescue your friend?”

  “I will rescue her, but I can’t do it alone. I came to find out if it was Incendin or Par-shon attacking in Doma. It is clear now that it’s Par-shon.”

  “And you’ve killed their shapers.”

  Tan shook his head, waving the sword as he spoke. “I didn’t kill them. I released the bond to fire they held.”

  “You can do that?”

  “They aren’t shapers, Cora. What they use is stolen power. It was not freely given.”

  Tan studied the water, listening to the way the waves came rolling in. Udilm. You will tell Tan if Elle remains safe. Tell her that I will return.

  He sent the request on the waves, not expecting an answer. The udilm were difficult for him to reach and the only time he’d spoken to them had been when he had nearly drowned. But he could hope they would listen. That the udilm would get word to him if Elle was not safe. And since he couldn’t reach her with spirit, he hoped they would let her know that he was coming back for her.

  After taking another look around Doma, Tan pulled Cora to him and shaped a return to the kingdoms.

  12

  Choices and Changes

  The sense of his bonds flooded back to him as he arrived in Ethea. Honl was there, weak, but returning after being with him in Doma. Asboel hunted, flying somewhere over the northern part of the kingdoms, remaining out of view as much as possible. And Amia. She would know that he had returned. He sensed that she was frustrated, but could not tell why.

  Ferran jumped from the top of the university, and landed with a solid thud, the earth cushioning his landing. Tan realized that he still needed to figure out what Par-shon had done that allowed their earth shapers to fly. It was a trick that might be useful. As powerful as Ferran was with earth, he might be able to use it.

  “Theondar searches for you,” he said, nodding deeply to Tan. It came across as something like a bow. He glanced at Cora, and tipped his head toward her as well.

  “Do you know where I can find him?” Tan asked.

  “He went with Amia to the palace. The First Mother of the Aeta passed last night.”

  “Thank you,” Tan said to Ferran.

  Ferran bowed again and turned back to the university. Tan started toward the street, but hesitated. Golud. Can you assist with the building here?

  With golud, Tan never knew if the elemental answered, but the ground rumbled slightly, so he took that as assent.

  “Why did you not share with him what you knew?” Cora asked.

  “In time,” Tan said.

  They turned onto the street and hurried along it, forced to push through the throng of people making their way through the city. A few horses pulled carts, a sight that hadn’t been seen in Ethea in months. Now that the streets were again passable, life began to return to normal. In time, people would forget what had happened here. They might remember the aftermath, the fallen buildings and the vague recollection of the work involved in the cleanup, but they wouldn’t remember the terror they felt when the draasin had attacked, the same terror they had felt when the lisincend prowled the streets. To Tan, that was a good thing. No one needed to remember those events. Maybe by then, the draasin wouldn’t need to hide.

  The palace rose up from the center of the city. Walls of white stone contrasted with his memory of the obsidian tower in Par-shon. A wall had once circled the palace, but it had fallen in the attack and Roine had elected not to rebuild it. He said that he would let the next ruler decide if they wanted it in place. The wide courtyard that once had been shaped into existence, marking the four different kingdoms surrounding Ethea, was razed, replaced by freshly planted trees and a wide patch of terraced grass. It was not quite as impressive as what Tan had seen when first visiting, but it felt more a part of the city now.

  A large plaque on the lawn marked where Lacertin had died. The five-pointed star, the symbol of the Order of Warriors, marked the top. That was a new addition, and fitting. He pointed it out to Cora, who stood with a bowed head in front of it until Tan was forced to drag her along.

  Tan paused at the door to the palace. This was his first visit as Athan. The title hadn’t weighed on him before, but then, he hadn’t really given much thought to what Roine would expect of him when bestowing the title. Already Tan had violated one of Roine’s commands when he brought Cora out of the city. What else would he do?

  They found him in the hall, staring at a painting, a deep frown pinching the corners of his mouth. “You are already becoming more like me than I care for,” he said and indicated Cora. “You were to keep her within the city.”

  “Amia placed a shaping on her, restricting her.”

  “She forced a shaping like that? I thought Amia would not—”

  “I requested the barrier,” Cora said, interrupting. “If it was the only way your Athan would allow me to accompany him, I accepted it willingly.”

  Roine studied her with dark eyes, frowning as if working through a puzzle. “You are still restricted?”

  “I have no need of shaping,” Cora said.

  “Then it will remain. When you decide it should be removed, I will ask that Amia remove it. So long as it remains in place, you are free to move about the city.”

  Tan hadn’t expected that reaction. Since assuming the title of king regent, he ha
d changed, harder in some ways, and more decisive in others.

  “And you,” he said to Tan. “You went after Elle?”

  “I didn’t find her.”

  “What did you find? Amia said you sensed her with a powerful shaping, though I didn’t need for her to tell me about it.”

  “You felt it?”

  “I think all of the kingdoms felt that shaping. I’ve never known anything like it. So much power, but warmth. I recognized your touch within it, Tannen.”

  Cora turned sharply to look at him. “I felt that as well but didn’t know what it was. That was you?”

  “It was how I attempted to reach Elle.”

  “It was after that shaping touched me that the First Mother died,” Cora said.

  Roine glanced at Tan.

  “It had no purpose other than sensing,” Tan protested. He didn’t mention the light touch he’d placed on the city, the one that reminded him of the way the First Mother shaped her people. “That wasn’t what took the First Mother’s life. I think she knew her time was coming to an end. She was old, probably older than any of us realize. I think she held out as long as she could, hoping that she could pass on what she knew to someone. That it ended up being Amia… well, that was what she wanted all along, I think.”

  “There wasn’t any way to heal her?” Roine asked.

  “I think she wanted it,” Tan repeated. He thought about the way she’d looked at him from the hall the last time he’d seen her. There had been a sense of contentment about her.

  “You think she simply ended her own life?” Roine asked.

  “I think she chose her moment,” Tan said. “She had summoned the Aeta to gather. She had built a renewed relationship with Amia. And she had the opportunity to pass on what she knew.”

  “There wouldn’t have been time for her to pass on everything,” Roine said.

  “You don’t know the shapings they were layering on Cora. I think most of them simply meant to teach. I became lost within an hour, and it went on for days. By the end, Amia was working alone as much as she was working with the First Mother.”

  “Now that she’s gone, we have no way of knowing what the archivists intend,” Roine said.

  “Not without someone to lead the Aeta,” Tan suggested.

  “You think Amia would lead them?”

  Tan didn’t know, not with any certainty. Amia didn’t want to lead, but she also didn’t want the People to be directionless. Most of the families had no idea what the First Mother had done, just as most of the families had no idea about the archivists. They wanted only to protect a secret they thought the Aeta must protect, but now it was known that the Aeta had spirit shapers among them. There was no secret to keep.

  He felt Amia coming toward the palace. “I don’t know if she will lead them,” he answered. “But she would be the right person to do so.”

  When she reached Tan, she wrapped him in a tight embrace. “Where is Elle?”

  “Doma, I think. I still don’t know.”

  “And Falsheim?”

  “It burns, as she said.”

  Roine frowned. “So Incendin has taken to attacking Falsheim? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Cora snorted. “It is what I said.”

  “Not Incendin,” Tan answered. “Par-shon.”

  Amia released him and stepped back. “You saw them?”

  “Not at first. We made it to Falsheim and saw a line of fire along the wall. It wasn’t until Cora suggested they might be obscuring themselves from us that I noticed their bonded shapers atop the wall. I freed three elementals from their bonds.”

  “They will only form new ones,” Cora said. “That is the way of Par-shon. They aren’t limited the same way that we are. They don’t have to wait for their shapers to develop from sensers, to learn control. They have only to force a bond on the shaper and the elemental can be used. It takes time to learn to control it, but they are powerful even when newly bonded.”

  “Finding the bond will take time,” Tan said.

  Cora laughed bitterly. When Tan shot her a look, she only shrugged. “You have not fought Par-shon long enough to understand. They have ways of finding the elementals. They can trap them. When that power is trapped, they only need to stamp their bond upon it.”

  Tan had seen one of the Par-shon traps, or at least something that he suspected was their trap. It had been how they had nearly captured Asboel. Had it not been for Tan’s bond to the draasin, he wouldn’t have known what they intended. Had Tan not discovered how to shape spirit, Asboel would still be trapped.

  “You have seen one.”

  “Yes, but it was… massive,” he said. “It stretched for miles. That kind of trap would be too elaborate to easily replicate.”

  Cora cocked her head. “Miles? That would not be for any… ahh, they used it for the draasin, didn’t they? It would take much strength to confine one of the great elementals. You should see the ships they use and how they filter the water for udilm. It is much the same.”

  Tan was horrified by the idea of Par-shon sweeping through the sea, as if simply attempting to fish for the udilm. “And what of golud or ara?”

  “For golud and earth, they bore into the ground. When they bore deep enough, they insert these long, slender rods bound with their runes. This contains the earth. I have not seen how they confine the wind, but they have enough wind shapers that they have a way.”

  “If they can simply farm the elementals, why bother separating shapers bound to the elementals? Why risk that?”

  “Because they can,” Cora said. “And because the risk of leaving even one shaper bound to one of the elementals is too great.”

  Tan wondered if Roine would argue with what he said next. “Par-shon has claimed Doma. They need our help.”

  “Tan, that is a discussion for another time.”

  He shook his head. “You think Cora should not hear this?”

  Roine pulled Tan down the hall, leaving Cora standing with Amia. “I think you should be careful who you’re sharing with, Tan.”

  Tan glanced back at Cora. With her dark hair and dressed as she was, she could come from anywhere in the kingdoms. “She’s no threat. Maybe she was once, if Cianna’s reaction to her means anything, but she’s certainly not now.”

  “Only because Amia’s bond restrains her.”

  It was more than that. Tan didn’t think that Cora would harm him were the bond removed. There was a part of him that thought she might actually be helpful. What might she know that he could learn? The kingdoms and Incendin had battled for so long, it was easy to forget how similar their people actually were. And she was a warrior. In that, they were more alike than they were different.

  “She is from Incendin,” Roine said. “I’ve battled Incendin my entire life, Tan. My entire life. Do you really think we’ve done that over a misunderstanding?” Roine clenched his hands into fists. “There are fundamental differences between us that can’t simply be overlooked. A common enemy will not change that.”

  “You would have us continue to battle Incendin? You would have more shapers lost?”

  “I would have no shapers lost!” Roine’s voice began to rise with his irritation, and his jaw clenched as he worked to lower it. “I allowed you an attempt to save the lisincend. I think you needed to see for yourself that it would fail. But what you’re suggesting is entirely different. How many lisincend remain within Incendin? How many hounds? Do you think they would abandon the hunt because they want our help facing Par-shon?”

  “Someone leads them—”

  “Yes. Their king leads them, but he has offered nothing but broken promises.” Farther down the hall, they were nearly to the massive chamber where Tan had once met King Althem. The portraits along the wall were of the more recent kings, and Roine stopped in front of Ilton. “Let me provide you with some context. You were too young to remember, but there was a peace accord once. Ilton managed to convince their king to agree. For nearly one month, it survived. In that mo
nth, the shapers along the border tried to overlook the steady attack from Incendin hounds or the regular appearances of their shapers, almost as if testing our responses. Had we not managed to secure the border with the barrier, we might never have had peace. But we did. For nearly twenty years, because Incendin could not enter our lands. That is what Incendin responds to: power and threats. And if we risk our shapers for Doma, we will lose power and we may have fewer threats remaining.”

  Maybe Roine was right and he didn’t know Incendin nearly as well as the king regent did, but he had come to know Cora, if only a little. She had not been lying to him when she spoke of the loss her people had suffered. She had not faked the emotion he’d seen from her when she learned of Lacertin.

  “Look at her, Roine. Does she look like one of the lisincend?”

  Roine raised his hand before catching himself. “Alisz did not either, but you saw the monster she became.”

  “The same monster I nearly became,” Tan reminded him. “Cora is not unlike you. She’s a warrior. She lost her bond. And she knows what it’s like to face Par-shon. There are many things we can learn from her.”

  “Tan, we have enough problems protecting the kingdoms to risk it—”

  “She knew Lacertin,” Tan said. Once, that would have turned Roine even more against Cora, but his attitude about Lacertin had changed near the end. Even Roine could not argue with the sacrifices that Lacertin had made.

  “How?” Roine asked.

  That he would ask was the start. “She studied with him. They were more than that, I think, but I didn’t think it was my place to ask.”

  “Does she know what happened to him?”

  “I’ve told her.”

  “Tan, you have proven yourself to me time and again, so I know better than to fully discount what you have to say, but we face the real risk of dealing with both Incendin and Par-shon. We will need everything we can to face them.”

  Maybe there wasn’t a way to get through to Roine, not without showing him what Par-shon could do, but Roine had seen that. He had been there the day Par-shon had attacked; it had been with Roine’s assistance that they had survived. Had he not come to help, Par-shon might have won.