Cloud Warrior 05 - Forged in Fire

by Holmberg, D. K.

  “You?”

  “You think I would not?”

  “You have described how the Sunlands have hurt your people. I did not think that—”

  “And I have seen what happens when Par-shon is left to attack unchecked. I can’t say that I agree with how Incendin has striven for power, or how they’ve used that power once they achieved it,” he took a deep breath before going on, “but I don’t blame their people for wanting anything more than peace.”

  It was the only thing he wanted, and now he might not have a chance at it until Par-shon was stopped. Even then, what would peace be like? Would he be able to settle with Amia, to have the home that both of them wanted? Or would there always be a new threat, new archivists or Incendin or Par-shon, always wanting to tear them apart?

  Cora placed her hands flat on her lap. “What would you have me do? You claimed there was an opportunity.”

  “I would ask for your help,” Tan said. “You’re a shaper, trained by Lacertin. I don’t expect much help from the kingdoms, but Incendin needs help. Doma must be freed. We must stop Par-shon.”

  “You would free me and release me to the Sunlands?”

  “Par-shon bonded aren’t the only ones who take shapers and try to use them against their will. There are others, nearly as bad, and they call themselves archivists. You would have been gone when they attacked, or maybe you were a part of their plan.” Tan didn’t want to know if that was true. It would make him asking Cora for her help even more difficult. “But they are spirit shapers controlled by our king. They thought to use our shapers in plans of their own. They have returned, and now they attempt to use Incendin shapers. Amia has freed those we’ve found, and we left them in Incendin.”

  “You healed them?” Tan nodded. Cora leaned toward him. “That is not the response I would expect from the kingdoms. Perhaps one of these days, I will understand.”

  It wasn’t the reaction he expected, though Tan didn’t know what he expected from her. “You haven’t answered me yet. Will you help?”

  “A chance to return to the Sunlands. To help my people and avenge what Par-shon has done?” She stood and crossed her arms over her chest. “Of course I will help.”

  Tan allowed himself a moment of relief. He had expected that Cora would help, but hadn’t been entirely certain. He needed her for any hope for his plan to work. If she was the shaper Cianna claimed, then she could go to Incendin and convince them to stop attacking the kingdoms. Maybe then they could begin to work together.

  “When do we do this?” Cora asked.

  “How about now? Are you ready to return home?”

  “Ready? I was prisoner in Par-shon and now the kingdoms. Each time I’ve been held by shapers with more power than anyone I’ve ever faced.” She fixed him with a curious glance. “What would you ask of me?”

  “Ask?”

  “Demands. What is the price of my freedom?”

  “Only that you do what you can to oppose Par-shon.”

  “And you? What is it that you intend?”

  “I will go to Doma. I intend to push Par-shon from Falsheim and find my cousin if she lives. It needs to stop now, before they move further inland. I think the first attack was only to determine the defenses within the border cities. When this comes, your shapers must be ready. If I fail, you will be needed. The Sunlands must be ready.”

  Cora actually smiled. “You don’t even know how many Par-shon are in Doma,” she said.

  “No.”

  “And you think you can do this thing on your own?”

  Thinking that he had to be the only one to help had been his mistake in the past. When he went to Doma, he did so on behalf of the elementals and the people of this land. Tan did not expect to be alone. Asboel would be with him. Sashari with Cianna. Honl. And there would be other elementals, not bonded, who Par-shon had not yet been able to force into their service. The Great Mother had given him the ability to speak to the elementals for a reason. This was part of that reason.

  “What makes you think I’ll be alone?” he asked. He went to the door and waved her forward. “Come, Cora, it’s time you return to your homeland.”

  * * *

  Cora trailed behind, her eyes scanning all around as if half-expecting her sudden freedom to be a trap. When they stopped in the middle of the university courtyard, Tan saw hope filling her eyes. Tan remembered the first time he’d seen her, when nothing had been there. It was good that she had been healed, just as it was good that Amia had healed the Incendin shapers twisted by the archivists.

  Without waiting, Tan reached toward the shaping surrounding her mind and quickly unraveled it. Cora gasped. Wind and fire shaped softly from her, and the earth rumbled faintly.

  “If this fails and Par-shon attacks from more than only Doma,” Tan started, not certain how to continue. That was a real possibility, but he counted on the strength of the Fire Fortress to still serve as some sort of deterrent. It had to be the reason Doma had been targeted. It was the reason he feared for a place like Chenir, mostly hidden from the kingdoms. Either would be ideal launching points for an attack without worrying about the Fire Fortress and the strength found there.

  Cora raised a hand. “You have done more than any would ever have expected, Tan.”

  With that, she pulled a traveling shaping and disappeared in a flash of light.

  As Tan stared after her, he sensed Ferran approach. “Will you report me to Roine?” he asked the earth shaper.

  Ferran removed the shaping that partially obscured him. “You released her to return to Incendin?” He sat on one of the remaining piles of rock, his lean face hidden in shadows. He wore loose breeches and a plain shirt. His face was unshaven, making him appear older than when Tan had first met him.

  “Cora is not our enemy,” Tan said.

  Ferran stood, and stepped out of the shadows. “Perhaps she is not, but Incendin remains our enemy. One shaper does not change that.”

  “It’s more than one shaper,” Tan said, mostly to himself. He hoped that were true. Would releasing the spirit shaped Incendin make a difference? “It’s late for you to be here,” Tan said.

  Ferran nodded toward the university building. “The stone calls to me.”

  “You’re an earth shaper,” Tan answered. “Of course it would call to you.”

  Ferran met his eyes. “That is not it. This is different.”

  Tan went to the pile of fallen rock, noting the progress that had been made with the university in such a short time, and understood. “You hear them, don’t you?” he asked.

  “I have lived my life knowing the earth elementals exist, but never expected to hear them. No one hears them, not for many years. And then I met you. You are able to speak to golud. The first since the ancient scholars. And now?” His voice grew more incredulous. “How is it this is possible? How is it that I now hear them?”

  It was more than Tan had managed with golud, but it seemed fitting that it should be Ferran who would reach golud. He was a Master earth shaper, as skilled as any Tan had ever seen, and able to use earth in ways that Tan could not, not yet, and not without asking it of the elementals.

  “Has one named itself?” Tan asked. He didn’t want to know the name, only whether a bond had formed.

  “I… I am too frightened to answer. The voices are there, like the steady rolling of thunder after a storm. I feel them within me.”

  “Ferran,” Tan said, “you must answer them.”

  “Why is this, Tan? Why should I suddenly gain this?”

  Tan didn’t know. Maybe it was the same reason Sashari chose the bond. Maybe something was changing, the elementals choosing sides, knowing that it would be needed as the fight with Par-shon became inevitable. Or maybe it was none of that. Why wouldn’t Ferran be worthy?

  “There are many reasons you would have been chosen,” Tan answered. “Any one of them a valid reason for golud to wish to speak to you. The thing is,” he went on, trying to make Ferran understood how important what he s
aid next would be, “is that the elementals need the connection to shapers, whether they know it or not. When the draasin and I first bonded, he didn’t think there was anything for him to gain from the bond. Maybe that was true at first, but it isn’t now. With what is coming, all of us are in danger, including the elementals. So please listen to golud. Answer if you can. The kingdoms will need your connection to the golud, and the elemental will benefit as well.”

  Ferran focused on the ground. “I trust that you’ve made the decision necessary, Athan. May the Great Mother watch over you.”

  Ferran returned to the stone pile and took a seat in the shadows. Tan hoped he opened himself to golud.

  For the first time in a long time, when thinking about what they might face, he felt hope. If the kingdoms’ shapers could regain a connection to the elementals, then they might be able to withstand an attack even if Tan failed. They might be able to protect the elementals in his absence. And there was a real possibility that the shaping he intended, where he needed to go, would fail.

  You understand what I must do, he sent to Amia.

  Her answer came slowly, as if reluctantly. I understand. I could come with you.

  You have a different task now.

  I do, but I will have you return to me, she said.

  The elementals will see that I return.

  Before departing, there was one more place he needed to go, one more friend he needed to warn. This might be the hardest of all.

  Honl, Tan said, we must go to the palace.

  As Tan shaped himself toward the palace, he pressed a shaping through the summoning rune, calling to Roine. When he arrived, a lone figure stood in the courtyard.

  “Theondar,” he said, using Roine’s given name. Now that he served as king regent, in some ways, Theondar was more fitting. In Tan’s mind, he would always be Roine, a man hiding that he was a warrior shaper, that he had abilities that very few elsewhere in the world possessed.

  “When you summoned, I thought it might be a mistake. Tannen has been missing for days, without word of where he traveled.” Roine was dressed in a simple ornate robe, each day looking more like a king and less like the warrior he had been.

  “The archivists attacked again,” Tan said.

  “Where?”

  “Incendin,” Tan said, starting to explain, but Roine waved him off.

  “Zephra thinks we should let Incendin and Par-shon battle each other,” Roine said. “I take it you do not.”

  “The archivists weren’t attacking Incendin, only attacking in Incendin. They attacked the Aeta, who you have granted your protection.”

  A sly smile spread across Roine’s face. “Indeed. Am I to understand that my protection extends into Incendin, then?”

  “It does,” Tan said.

  “What of the Aeta you found?”

  “They have joined the others in the Gathering. They have selected a new First Mother.”

  “Since you are here alone, I presume Amia accepted.”

  How was it that everyone else seemed unsurprised that Amia would be asked? “She remains with the Aeta,” Tan said.

  “Will she ask them to wander, or will they remain within the kingdoms?” Roine asked.

  Tan hadn’t asked. “For now, I suspect they will remain. Traveling has become unsafe.”

  “You will tell her that she has my support?”

  Tan was thankful that Roine would continue to support Amia. Assuming the role of First Mother made her Roine’s equal in some ways. The Aeta might be landless, but they were not entirely powerless. And some would begin to fear them once they learned that they could shape spirit.

  “I will tell her.”

  “This is not why you’ve come to me tonight.”

  “It’s not.”

  Roine crossed his arms over his chest. “Get on with it then. What are you going to do?” Tan stiffened, his breath catching, and Roine laughed at the reaction. “I was Athan for many years, Tan, and you are more like me than you might want to admit. I know what it’s like to think you know what needs to be done when the throne wishes something else. So, tell me what you plan to do and I’ll do my best to talk you out of it, knowing that it won’t matter since you’re a much stronger shaper than me anyway.” He grinned. “Don’t look at me like that. You became more powerful than me when you learned to bind spirit. I’ve been trying and think I might have some of the trick of it, but I won’t ever have the same type of shaping as you.”

  The relief at knowing that Roine would know what he planned made everything easier. Not easy, but still better. “I’m returning to Doma. I intend to drive Par-shon out of Doma. The people there must be freed.” He paused and considered his king regent, his friend. “I’ve seen what it’s like when Par-shon attacks. I know what it’s like. If that’s why Elle summoned, I need to do something, even if it fails. More than that, Incendin suffers as well, and they will do what they can to oppose Par-shon.”

  Roine studied him. “You think Incendin unable to handle Par-shon?”

  “They have already been attacked,” Tan said, then told Roine about what happened in Incendin. “Incendin might not be strong enough to stop Par-shon directly, not without help. Which is why,” Tan started, taking a deep breath and promising himself it would be okay, “I allowed one of their warriors to return.”

  Roine’s eyes flashed with anger, before he suppressed it. “You should have spoken to me first,” he said softly.

  “You would only have told me no.”

  “Tannen, I am the king regent. There are ways things are done!”

  “Roine, I’m the reason she was here. She should never have been our prisoner. She wasn’t captured attacking the kingdoms; she was rescued from Par-shon. Whatever you might think of Incendin, she wasn’t the one to fear.”

  Roine let out a frustrated grunt. “Who else?” he demanded.

  “What?”

  “Who else will you take with you?” Roine turned away and started pacing across the courtyard. “With the work along the barrier, I can’t risk too many going. It is nearly in place. Once it is—”

  “I won’t take anyone unwilling to go. Cianna will likely come, but only because her bond-pair will be coming.”

  Roine jerked his head around to stare at Tan. “Cianna has bonded?”

  “I wasn’t sure it would work, but I knew the draasin would be safer were they bonded. Cianna was the right fit, but I had to convince the draasin of that as well.”

  Roine squeezed his chin in thought. “There were three draasin. Who could bond to the third, do you think? Seanan might be too hot-headed. Visn is older, but might have a steadying hand. Inasha might work, she’s quite skilled, but—”

  “I don’t think the third will take a bond, Roine. She’s the one the archivists twisted. She fears us still. I haven’t actually seen her since that attack.”

  Roine grunted. “Now you go and dash my hopes of a draasin army, using them to push back Incendin—”

  “The elementals are not to be used. They are not to be harnessed or forcibly bound,” Tan said with more heat than Roine deserved.

  “That’s not what I was saying.”

  “No, but I know where you were going. Do you know that the ancient shapers, the scholars we hold in such high esteem, forced the elementals to bond much like Par-shon? They called it harnessing, a word I suspect the draasin would find as offensive as any.”

  Roine’s face fell. “I… I didn’t know.”

  “The bond comes from a place of respect. Ask Ferran. He hears golud now. In time, I suspect he could bond to them.”

  “Ferran hears golud?” Roine asked, his voice growing soft. “How?”

  “I don’t know. And he’s not bonded, not yet, but speaking to them is the first step. From there, the bond is only a matter of finding the right connection.”

  “But you haven’t bound to earth and you speak to them. And the nymid—”

  “In time, I suspect I could bind to the nymid, possibly even one of the e
arth elementals. It might not be golud. I thought ara the only wind elemental, but I have bound to ashi. The udilm were once thought to be the great water elemental, but now we know the strength of the nymid. What else don’t we know? What other elementals of earth might there be?”

  Roine scrubbed his hands across his face. “I’ve always thought the ancient scholars were what I aspired toward.”

  “As did I, but learning how they abused the elementals, I think there was much they didn’t know. At least, there was much some of them didn’t know.” It seemed unlikely that none of the ancient shapers understood the nature of the elementals. Or maybe the elementals didn’t understand how some were used at the time. Maybe that was why the Great Mother had gifted him with the ability to speak to each of the elementals.

  “As the king regent, I must ask that you remain behind to help protect the kingdoms.”

  Tan had expected nothing less. Roine had an obligation to do what was needed to protect the people of the kingdoms, and Tan was a warrior shaper. He would be needed to help protect the kingdoms.

  “But as a shaper, and a warrior shaper who has now seen all that the elementals can do, all that they have done to help, I feel you must do what you can to help Doma. Save them if you can.” His tone told Tan how unlikely he thought that would be. “And prevent Par-shon from abusing the elementals. Even in that, you protect the kingdoms.”

  Roine took a step forward and grabbed Tan’s shoulders in an intense grip. “Do what you can, Tannen. Help Doma. We will keep the kingdoms safe.”

  22

  Return to Doma

  Asboel flew with furious strength as they streaked across the kingdoms. With dawn approaching, the sun barely creeping over the horizon as a bright streak of orange, Tan relied upon the draasin sight to see. Everything below him flashed in hues of red, yellow, and orange, all shades of fire. Life moved throughout the kingdoms, and Tan sensed elemental power mixed within, the elementals that he was meant to protect.