He took a deep breath and tried to relax, letting his focus shift from the earth and lack of water to the air and the heat. The heat was easy. It was oppressive and all around him and swirled in a current unlike anything he’d ever experienced, almost as if there were layers to it. Considering the way the sun baked the land, it was possible there were.
The air was mostly still, but he focused on his breathing and how breaths came from deep within him, moving with each inhalation, filling his lungs, and with the air came his awareness of the wind. Jasn felt the touch of the breeze on his cheeks and the way it played around his hair, lightly tugging on the jacket too hot for the heat here in Rens. With that connection established, he reached through the wind, not to shape and control it but to simply listen.
Jasn mixed an awareness of the fire in with the wind and at first ignored the sense of earth and water but then added that as well, sensing with every element as he strained to see what Eldridge so easily picked up.
There was nothing.
Jasn sighed and nearly relaxed, letting the awareness fade before deciding to maintain the connection. He started after Eldridge, running across the rock, catching him after a dozen earth-shaping-assisted steps.
“Where’s Alena?” Jasn asked.
“Still don’t have her?”
Jasn started shaking his head as they ran toward a tower of rock but detected something different than before. There was a change to the way the wind blew, a heat to the air that shouldn’t be there and a fluttering of water like a throbbing pulse.
“I see you detect it now. Good.”
Eldridge streaked away, using wind alone to carry him.
Jasn jumped with a shaping of earth, landing each time with a hard thud, the earth cracking beneath him. The farther they went, the easier it became to detect the difference around him and realize that the tower of rock was something else.
A draasin. And one so massive that Jasn couldn’t believe its size.
He nearly stumbled with his next step, and his feet tangled. Before he could fall, Eldridge swooped back and hoisted him under his arms, lifting him into the air.
“That draasin—”
“He’s a big one, that’s for sure,” Eldridge said. There was no fear in his voice, nothing but the same edge of respect in his voice that he heard from Alena.
“What do they think they’re doing?” Jasn asked. He sensed Alena, or at least he thought it was Alena, but there was someone else. He suspected Calan, given that Thenas had returned, but how could the two of them alone think to contain one that size?
“Calan thinks he’s doing his job, as does Alena.”
“Aren’t they the same?”
Eldridge glanced over but didn’t answer and then hurried forward on a shaping of wind.
Jasn ran after, managing to keep pace, feeling a growing concern in the pit of his stomach the closer he came. What was he thinking, coming out here with Eldridge? He might be a warrior of the order, and he might have survived Rens for nearly a year, but he no longer needed convincing to believe that his skill was nothing compared to what hunters like Alena and Calan were capable of performing.
He started to slow and Eldridge glanced back. “What are you doing?” he demanded.
Jasn shook his head. “They don’t need me for this.”
“No, they don’t. But you’re here, and you will see what they’re doing.”
Wind pulled on him with incredible strength, forcing him forward, dragging him along the rock. Jasn could no more resist than he could stop a raging storm.
There were shapers who were said to possess such strength, shapers rumored to be able to control not only the elements but the fundamental energies that made up the world. Most of those stories came from people barely able to sense. Those who trained in Atenas knew the source of the powers in the world and knew the elements had limits that shapers couldn’t surpass. Some were stronger than others, and skill could be nurtured and developed, but there were always limits.
The way the wind tore at him, dragging him forward regardless of Jasn’s effort to push back, made it seem as if Eldridge simply ignored those limits.
“Are you scared?” Eldridge asked.
They were near enough that Jasn could smell the heat coming off the draasin, the way the massive creature heated the air. It towered over them like something impossible to believe, a creature so massive that Jasn struggled to comprehend what he saw. When it swung its barbed tail—three spikes, making it male, as Eldridge had said—the spikes along the tail were longer than his leg.
Alena stood on one side, holding a length of stone chain she hadn’t carried when she left the barracks. With her armor, she nearly glowed with light reflected from the sun, standing like an extension of the Creator and full of his power. A furious shaping radiated from her, layering atop the draasin. Across from her, Calan swung another chain, attempting to loop it around the wings. He released, and the chain curled up and over the spot the wing joined to the body.
“Why doesn’t it just fly away?” Jasn asked.
With that question, the draasin turned toward him, its enormous head twisting, its entire body dragging on the chain Calan had looped, and Jasn saw why the draasin didn’t fly away. Massive holes pierced his wing, each tearing bloody chunks free. The other wing curled into the body, but Jasn suspected he’d find the same damage on that side.
The draasin roared. Heat and fire billowed from its mouth, streaming toward him.
Before he could think of how to react, he pulled on earth and water, defaulting to those he was most comfortable with.
Fire pressed against his shaping, nearly overwhelming him, but as always happened, water healed him before any real damage could take place. Jasn pulled harder, drawing on more strength, forced to tap into that strange distant sense of water that always seemed to flow beneath the surface of his mind, and pushed.
The fire eased and the draasin’s roar stopped.
Alena stared at him, an unknowable expression in her eyes.
She flung her chain around the draasin, catching the other wing. She continued to shape, and Jasn noted that it was different than before, a mixing of each of the elements, almost the same as what he’d done when sensing his way toward the draasin.
The draasin took a step back and its tail swung again, this time toward Calan. The large man ducked, but the size of the spikes was enormous. He dropped, but the spike scraped over him as the tail flicked back the other way.
Jasn jumped, catching a shaping of earth and wind to propel him forward. He tumbled into Alena, and she lost control of the chain.
Where was Eldridge?
Alena pushed on him, forcing him away from her, and he untangled himself as quickly as he could, fully aware of how strong and soft she felt. How long had it been since he’d been this close to a woman?
She shoved with an earth-assisted shaping, sending him tumbling away. Any thought that might have been with him went tumbling as well.
Alena jumped to her feet, already building a shaping. She had her hands pressed out and the sunlight reflected off a dark metallic object in her fingers. The shaping she used was powerful and about to explode from her.
Calan jumped with a shaping of earth and hung in the air above the draasin. His sword was unsheathed, a long, wide-bladed weapon that Jasn would have struggled simply controlling. Calan swung it over his head and jabbed down.
Alena’s shaping struck.
The draasin lurched forward and Calan began to fall, his sword starting to miss the mark. With a scream, he drew upon a massive earth shaping and slammed the blade into the back of the draasin’s neck.
With a weak roar, the draasin fell, its head dropping to the ground. Calan hovered above it, steaming blood dripping from the blade, and waited.
Jasn watched as it took its last breath. He’d seen precious few draasin killed before, and usually that was luck rather than any skill of the shapers attacking it. What he’d seen from Calan had been exquisite skill
, and a strength with earth that Jasn had never witnessed. Would he have been able to use such earth strength if facing the draasin? Was that what he was destined to learn?
Watching the creature take slow breaths, he tried to find pity but failed. One of these monsters had killed Katya. These creatures had been attacking in Ter for years, destroying warriors and shapers, sometimes entire cities. These monsters had been attacking him, had nearly killed him countless times.
No, he felt no sorrow for the fallen.
Alena made her way to the draasin and rested a palm on its side. Jasn saw her whisper something too soft to hear, and then she stepped back. The creature took one more breath and then no more.
Calan dropped to the ground and glared at Alena. “That shot of yours nearly toppled me.”
A familiar flash of anger crossed Alena’s eyes. Jasn had seen it often enough since coming to the barracks to recognize it, but why would she direct it at Calan? “If you had controlled his wing, it wouldn’t have been necessary.”
“The beast is down. That’s what matters.”
“That isn’t all that matters,” Eldridge said. He landed on a soft flurry of wind and glanced at Alena. “Did you see which direction they were?”
She shook her head. “I was too busy trying to keep Calan alive.”
“There’s nothing I needed from you to keep alive.”
Alena jabbed him in the chest. For the first time, Jasn realized there was a hole in the cloth and blood stained it. “Right. And the spear that took you?”
His eyes narrowed. “I will have one for a trophy soon enough.”
“Did you see him?” Eldridge asked.
Calan leaned over the draasin and swung his sword, severing one of the long, curved talons. He took it and stuffed it into his pocket, a tight expression on his face. “Didn’t see him. Saw her.”
Eldridge glanced at Alena, and something passed between them.
“What is this about?” he asked. “Who are you looking for?”
Calan ignored the question. “Thenas?”
“Made it back,” Eldridge said.
Calan grunted. “A little one burned him pretty bad. We got separated. Hadn’t expected three. They usually only call one.”
“What if they weren’t called this time?” Alena asked.
“Then tell me, Alena, what you think happened?” Calan said. “You saw this one. Nothing worked with them, not as it should. Even the little one was wild, burning Thenas. Even if he made it back,” he said, glancing at Eldridge again, “there’s no healing from that. And the other… I thought I had a chance with her, but then the damn spear took me in the shoulder.”
“Thenas will live,” Eldridge said.
Some of Calan’s anger eased. “How? I saw how charred he was. It was all I could do to send him back.”
At least Jasn understood how Thenas had made it back. He’d thought the man somehow shaped himself back, burned as he was, but Calan had seen to it.
“He made it in time for healing,” Eldridge said. Jasn appreciated the fact that he didn’t make a point of telling what he had done.
“Fine. You two will handle this,” Calan said, waving his hand toward the dead draasin.
“We will,” Alena said.
Calan stepped away from them and, with a shaping of lightning, disappeared.
Alena stared at Eldridge for a moment. “Take him from here before—”
“No, Alena, he should know.”
“You know why he’s with us.”
Eldridge tipped his head. “Just as I know why you’re with us. Now,” he said, “finish this, and then we will see if we can’t find the bastard who forced the draasin to attack.”
25
Jasn
The war changed the focus of Atenas. Many who had been scholars became warriors. Even healers learned to kill.
—Lren Atunal, Cardinal of the College of Scholars
The air stank from the blood of the dead draasin. Jasn couldn’t take his eyes off the creature. Ever since learning of Katya’s fate, he’d wanted nothing more than to find revenge. Why, then, did a part of him feel like what happened here wasn’t retribution?
Alena rested with her hand on the long snout. Heat still radiated from the creature, but less than when it was alive. Sunlight glimmered along its scales, catching light in whorls of color. Even dead, the creature was impressive.
Eldridge danced around on a shaping of wind. The small man might not be able to shape each of the elements, but he exuded more confidence than most warriors Jasn had met. He let the wind carry him, landing near the tail, and glanced from Jasn to Alena. Every so often, he would pause and tip his head to the side, as if listening to something so soft, only he could hear it. As a wind shaper, and apparently a skilled one, it was possible that was true. At one point, it looked as if the draasin’s tail had moved, but why would Eldridge move it?
“What are we still doing here?” Jasn asked when neither spoke.
Eldridge glanced up and nodded to Alena. “Talk to her.”
“She doesn’t tell me much.”
“Maybe not yet, but when you learn to listen, she will have much she can teach,” Eldridge said.
Jasn looked at Alena and saw her running her hands along the draasin’s neck, working her way around the thick blood that had pooled out and trailed along the scales. As she did, her lips moved, but he couldn’t hear what she said. Maybe Eldridge was listening to something Alena was saying.
He focused on the wind, letting it billow against him, and strained to hear her. His connection to wind was slow, distant, as if Alena held it from him. He still didn’t know how she managed to obscure her shapings from him; if he could learn only one thing from her, it would be that technique. The connection to the wind came, but it was gradual and weak.
There was nothing to it. No sound, nothing that explained what Alena did and why she whispered to the dead draasin.
He backed away, moving onto the cracked, dry rock, debating returning to the barracks. Doing so might anger Alena, but she didn’t really want him here in the first place. He’d only come because he’d been dragged by Eldridge. The man might be a scholar, but Jasn didn’t even know how involved he was at the barracks, let alone whether he was involved enough to determine when to bring him to Alena.
The farther from the draasin he went, the more he began to see heat shimmering around it. For a moment, it seemed the draasin moved, but that must be a trick of the light. When he saw it again, the barest twitch of one of the draasin’s legs, he stumbled.
“Alena!” he shouted, running toward her, unsheathing his sword as he did.
She ignored him, focusing on whatever she was doing. The back leg moved again, and this time, there was no doubting that it did. Somehow, both Eldridge and Alena had missed the fact that the draasin wasn’t dead yet. If they weren’t careful, the damn thing might kick, and even weakened as it was, it would have enough strength to hurt them. Maybe enough to kill.
“Move!” he shouted again. He jumped with a shaping of earth, leaping to the air high enough that he could land atop the draasin. His sword was unsheathed, and he pressed the energy of shaping through it, filling it with the power of the elements. He might not care for the way Alena had treated him since his arrival at the barracks, but he wasn’t about to be the reason she was killed.
As he stabbed down with the sword, Eldridge stopped him with a flick of his slender staff.
Jasn tried again, and this time, Eldridge bound him in a shaping of wind.
“What are you doing? The thing is still alive!” Jasn said.
“Stars, I hope so,” Eldridge answered. “Otherwise Alena is wasting her time.”
Jasn lost control of the shaping holding him in the air and dropped to the draasin’s back, landing between two massive spikes. The draasin rolled and tossed him, sending him flying back onto the rock.
He crawled quickly to his feet, holding his sword out in front of him.
Heat surged, as if p
ulling open an oven. The draasin swung its tail and Jasn jumped, barely missing injury.
Alena patted the draasin on the side and then took a step back, holding her hands out in front of her. Now her shaping was apparent, as if whatever she’d been doing to hide it was no longer necessary. The creature lifted its head and turned toward her, blinking open deep orange eyes to stare at her.
Slowly, the draasin managed to stand, crawling to his feet. He tapped the ground with his long talons, almost as if testing out the one Calan had sliced off, and unfurled long, leathery wings. He stretched out his neck and flicked his tail again and then bowed his head toward Alena. If Jasn didn’t know better, he would almost think the draasin thanked her.
Then it lifted to the air with a powerful flap of his wings, sending a gust of hot wind swirling all around him. He circled once, twice, and then turned south, away from Ter.
Jasn stared, unable to think of anything to say.
A touch on his arm made him jump, and he turned to see Eldridge tapping on the ground with his slender staff. “She healed him, didn’t she?” Jasn asked.
“The draasin aren’t our enemy,” Eldridge said.
“No? They’ve killed enough to be considered the enemy. Why else does the commander want us to hunt them?”
At the mention of Lachen, Eldridge’s eyes hardened. “You think that is what the commander asks of you?”
“Isn’t that why he sent me to the barracks?”
Eldridge grunted. “Is it? They are creatures of fire, powerful in ways that we cannot understand. Do you think they care to involve themselves in our fight?”
“You make it sound like they’re intelligent enough to decide. They’re animals. They act out of instinct and training. And Rens has decided they should attack Ter.”
“If that’s what you believe, then Alena has been a poor instructor,” Eldridge said.
He turned to Alena, who made a circle around the area the draasin had lain. With a shaping of earth, she smoothed the ground clear, burying the dark blood that had dried atop the rock.
She glanced up when Eldridge approached. “You will return?”
Journey of Fire and Night (The Endless War Book 1) Page 21