A Fading Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  “How many other bondars do you have?” he asked.

  Ferrah grabbed them from her pocket, handing them to him. Tolan reached for the power stored within them, but even as he did, he recognized that something felt off.

  They were already spent.

  How, though?

  The bondars should not have been expended already.

  They drifted toward the ground. He fought, holding onto as much power as he could, but as he struggled against it, he could no longer fight. Tolan looked over at Ferrah, locking eyes with her, and then they plunged toward the ground.

  23

  It took everything in Tolan’s power to keep them from crashing to the ground even as they dropped precipitously. He scrambled for power, trying to call upon his connection to the elements, but even as he did, he could feel it slipping through his grasp. Every time he tried to draw upon that energy, he noticed that it disappeared. He would have to find a different solution before they slammed into the ground.

  The only way that he could save them would be borrowing from Rory.

  He swore under his breath and began to pull upon the power of the wind elemental through the orb bondar. At first, there was resistance. Rory fought him, seeming to recognize what Tolan did.

  Gradually, that resistance began to fade.

  He hated that it did, hating that it seemed as if Rory gave up, but he used only enough power to buffer their descent, slowing them enough that he kept them from crashing to the ground.

  They slowed.

  Ferrah held tightly to him, wrapping her arms around him. He held Kerry in a buffer of wind that sent her dark hair swirling around her. The dark stone loomed closer.

  Tolan braced for the impact. With another surge of power, he managed to force them up and they came to a soft landing, skittering to a stop. He let out a sigh of relief. Ferrah held onto his hand, sweeping her gaze around. Tolan followed the direction of her gaze.

  The rock was black, almost as if all energy had been sucked out of it. There was a smattering of power within it, but Tolan suspected that was more imagined than real. There was an emptiness all around him, and though he strained to try to understand that emptiness, he wasn’t entirely sure what he detected.

  Kerry could barely hold her eyes open.

  He should have prepared her better for this, but now she faded. She wouldn’t be able to stay here much longer.

  “How far are we from where you can shape?” Ferrah asked.

  “Quite a ways,” he said.

  “Do you think you can recover?”

  That was the real question. If he could recover his connection to shaping into the elements, then he could use the warrior shaping to get them free of here. Until that time, they were trapped.

  “I don’t know.”

  She looked over at Kerry, and though there was a hint of sadness in Ferrah’s eyes, she took his hand, squeezing it. “This reminds me of when we traveled across the waste.”

  “At least when we went across the waste, we’d prepared for a journey.”

  “We can walk.” She pointed to the south.

  Back toward the untainted land.

  “I can keep going,” Kerry said, rubbing her eyes.

  “You don’t have to do that,” Ferrah said. “You’re barely able to stand.”

  “I will be fine.” She took a deep breath, summoning power through her, and managed to stay upright.

  The energy of this place was strange and twisted, and it pulled upon him in a way that left him unsettled. “I think we need to keep going forward. Something is happening, and we need to know what it is. If Roland has somehow changed this land—”

  “What do you think that you can do about it?” Ferrah locked eyes with him. “If he’s powerful enough to change this land, there may not be anything that you can do.”

  Tolan frowned. She was right. If Roland had been responsible for this, then there was a real danger to them. They could regroup. Plan.

  Then he would return.

  “We should head back, then.”

  Ferrah watched him as they started off, as if concerned that he might change his mind. The climb was little different than it had been when they were in the waste. At least within the waste, there was a flat expanse before them. It might’ve been hot and unpleasant, but they were equipped with water skins and a few rations. Out here, they hadn’t brought any supplies. Already Tolan was beginning to feel thirsty, but it was the nervousness that worked through him about what was taking place and what might happen to him that was even more unsettling. This was more than just about the element bonds. Roland was doing something here, changing something, and with whatever it was that he did, it put the elements—and possibly the elementals—in danger.

  A sense of pressure built upon him. It was almost as if there was something trying to drag him back.

  “You can feel it,” Ferrah said.

  “The drawing.”

  She nodded. “I’m aware of how it’s trying to pull on me. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, but the farther we go, the more that sense seems to be trying to force its way upon me.”

  “I think Roland did the same to the other elements—and possibly the elementals.”

  “How could he have done this?” Kerry asked.

  Tolan shook his head. “I don’t really know, but I can feel it. It’s tied to whatever that strange Convergence is.” And it might not even be a true Convergence. Even though it felt like one, it also felt different, twisted.

  If it wasn’t a Convergence, then what was it?

  Only… Tolan thought he did know.

  Roland had told him that he’d gained the knowledge from Tolan.

  It was runes. Bondars. The element bonds. The elementals. All of it was required.

  “It’s my fault,” he said softly. When Ferrah looked up at him, he shook his head. “He wouldn’t have known how to do any of this were it not for me. It’s my fault.”

  “Tolan…”

  He just stared before finally tearing his gaze away and starting off. The landscape was all black and bleak, a terrible sense that left him feeling empty, almost as if this place was dying.

  As he looked around, he realized that was exactly what it was. There was that power here, but it seemed to be tied to the changing of the elementals. To the changing of the elements. It was tied to how everything had begun to fade.

  Tolan looked over at Ferrah, about to say as much, when he noticed something else.

  The power in the orb bondar seemed to pulsate.

  The rock led upward, though he realized he was traveling in the right direction. He could feel where he needed to go, almost as if there was a signature he could follow and trail along.

  “The elemental is not pleased in here,” Tolan said. “He seems to be fighting. I don’t know if it’s fighting me or fighting the sense around us. Either way, he seems to be unhappy.” He feared that if he were to release Rory, the elemental would be drawn the same way that Tolan and Ferrah were drawn.

  They continued forward. All around him was the sense of emptiness and nothing else. Tolan began to grow tired. He glanced over at Kerry, who was still struggling.

  “We should rest,” Ferrah said.

  Kerry shook her head. “If we rest, nothing changes. I want to get out of here so that I no longer feel it.”

  “If we rest a little bit, I might be able to use my shaping again.”

  “If you think it will…”

  Tolan breathed out in a heavy sigh, frustration filling him.

  He took a seat on the black rock, resting his elbows on his knees, looking around. There wasn’t any wind here. There wasn’t any warmth. There wasn’t any sense of anything. He struggled with the emptiness so similar to what he had experienced in the waste, but it was different, as well. At least within the waste there was warmth shining down from overhead, and there was the sense of the occasional warm breeze, along with a promise of something else.

  In this case, there was nothing.
r />   Whatever Roland did was incredibly powerful.

  Tolan stared into the distance, holding the orb bondar in hand. Within it, Rory struggled, straining against the way the bondar held him in place.

  How long would we be able to last here?

  They would have to figure this out soon. If they didn’t, there was a real possibility that Roland would succeed simply because they were unable to do anything more.

  They started off, following the trail.

  Tolan patted the orb bondar, focusing on Rory within it. He could feel the elemental beginning to slow. At first, the elemental had been agitated and swirled around inside the bondar, but for the last hour or so, even that had begun to settle down. It was almost as if the elemental had given up on escaping.

  They reached a flat section of land. From here, Tolan looked out, noticing the way the ground sloped downward. There in the distance was a massive pit.

  That was the sense he detected. The farther that he went, the more certain he was of that. Power continued to drain from him.

  “What is that place?” Kerry whispered.

  A waste—but unlike their waste.

  “We need to keep moving,” Tolan said.

  “Tolan, I don’t really care for this. I don’t know what’s going on down there, but the sense of power I detect is…” She squeezed her eyes shut and Ferrah leaned slightly forward.

  “I know,” he said softly.

  He started down the rock. As he moved carefully, he glanced over at Ferrah, worried about how much she would be able to withstand. She seemed to be tolerating it reasonably well, but the tension in her cheeks and the way that she would occasionally squeeze his hand with a bit more firmness than she needed told Tolan she was far more unsettled than he had realized.

  In the distance, he caught sight of movement along the ground. Tolan couldn’t tell what exactly was down there, but darkness moved, swirling all around. That darkness troubled him. He pointed to it, and Ferrah frowned as she looked down toward it.

  “I have the sense that you intend to go down there to see what’s taking place,” she said.

  “Why would you go down there? I can feel something.” Kerry attempted to shape but then tried to withdraw it, struggling with it. “We should retreat and call for others.”

  Tolan focused on the darkness. It seemed almost impossibly black, almost as if the ground attempted to swallow everything. “I think that I need to. It might be Roland—”

  “Even if it means that something will happen to you?”

  “I don’t know what will happen to me, but I feel…”

  Tolan wasn’t entirely sure what he felt. It was frustration. Perhaps that was what drove him most of all. He was frustrated by a lack of understanding, frustrated by a sense of ignorance that came from staring down at the pit far below, and frustrated by the possibility that Roland would succeed. Almost as much as he feared what the other man might do, it was his frustration at what he had done that continued to tear at him.

  “I think you need to go,” he said softly to Ferrah.

  “You don’t want me to come with you.”

  He looked over at her, a pained expression in his eyes. “I don’t think that you can. I can barely hold onto power here. If he continues drawing power away, whatever he’s doing might begin to impact you.”

  “And you don’t think I can handle it.”

  “That’s not it. I know you can. It’s more that I don’t want you to sacrifice yourself.”

  Ferrah took his hand. “And you can?”

  He let out a soft breath, staring at her. “I can stop Roland. I don’t know what it’s going to take, but I believe that I can. He’s doing this for some reason. I don’t know if it’s simply all about him gaining spirit, or about gaining power, but I think I can find the answer. We just have to keep looking.”

  “You said we, but you don’t intend it to be us.”

  “I do,” Tolan said, realizing that it was true. He was going to look here, but Ferrah was going to have to look somewhere else. This wasn’t going to be something that he could do entirely on his own. “I need you both to go back to the elementals.” Kerry’s connection to spirit meant she could reach them in a way Ferrah couldn’t.

  “What do you think the elementals can do?” Kerry asked.

  Tolan didn’t fully know, but an idea began to form.

  Something about this land mattered. There was something about what Roland intended here, something tied to the elementals. Only… Roland wouldn’t have known what Tolan had done. The other man wouldn’t have known that he had given them a strength they didn’t have before. They might have an advantage. It would involve reaching the elementals, getting their help, and perhaps using that power.

  “You know how to use the orb bondars better than I do,” Tolan said.

  “What does this have to do with the orb bondars?”

  He pulled the orb bondar with Rory out of his pocket, focusing on the sense of power within it. There was what he could detect of Rory within it. Tolan could hold onto that, and he could feel it flowing from the bondar, from Rory.

  “If I’m right about what these bondars can help us with, then we might be able to do something that Roland hadn’t anticipated.”

  He smiled to himself, the idea solidifying in his mind.

  Ferrah frowned, cocking her head to the side as she watched him, and waited. Tolan told them what he intended, and as they looked at each other, whatever irritation was shared between them settled for now, and they started nodding.

  24

  Tolan approached the darkness carefully, the power coming from it almost more than he thought he might be able to withstand. It overwhelmed him. As he neared, he didn’t know if he would be able to survive this. Even though he’d given Ferrah an idea of a plan, and though he had faith that what he had suggested was possible, there was a part of him that remained skeptical. There was too much that remained dangerous.

  A dark shape moved near him and Tolan spun toward it, trying to draw upon the elements. The power was there, but as he strained for it, it felt the same as when he had gone to the waste for the first time. The sense of emptiness, that darkness that seemed to fill him.

  He found nothing.

  He continued forward.

  The darkness moved again. Tolan was certain that he hadn’t imagined it. If it were Roland…

  He reached for the warrior sword.

  Ferrah had teased him about his inability to use the sword as a weapon, but he didn’t think he had much of a choice right now. He unsheathed it, holding it out, and briefly attempted to draw power through it.

  He felt a stirring that gave him a moment of hope, letting him believe he might be able to draw upon the power. Then that stirring sense faded.

  Tolan swung the blade. The darkness persisted around him, leaving him unsettled. He continued toward the pit. Night started to fall, though it seemed too soon. Movement flashed near him. Tolan spun, sweeping the sword around.

  Panic began to build within him.

  A thought drifted into the back of his mind.

  Roland controls spirit.

  Spirit was the key.

  Something within him stirred, a connection to power.

  The lizard.

  Awareness of the lizard was there deep within him. The lizard had bonded to him, connecting to him. Power surged through the sword. Light blazed within it.

  The strange darkness began to fade.

  Tolan felt movement near him, and he spun again. The glowing light of the blade carved through something. It rippled through the darkness.

  Deep within him, he felt a scream. Tolan took a step toward the pit. That was the reason he’d come here.

  He took a few more steps. The ground seemed to grab at him. Darkness moved along the rock. The blade continued to glow. He held onto the power flowing through him, connecting him to the elemental.

  If he could connect to spirit, and if he could connect to that strange lizard that gave him
a better connection to spirit, he could connect to the other elements.

  Tolan took another step toward the strange Convergence.

  The darkness continued to swirl around him. He stumbled forward.

  He barely caught himself and landed on his sword.

  Distantly, he could feel the lizard in the back of his mind. There was still a sense of spirit flowing toward him. He could use it. The power was there, just at the edge of his mind. He stumbled forward again.

  The pit was nearby. Tolan could feel the energy of the Convergence calling to him. It drew on him, that sense of power. Shapings stirred around him, though it was difficult to tell the source.

  Something pulled on him. It called to him. Power compelled him forward.

  Spirit power.

  Roland.

  He thought he was near to Roland now. Tolan staggered forward…

  Then fell.

  Darkness surrounded him. Tolan felt it as something absolute all around him. It felt as if he were falling endlessly. That couldn’t be real. The pit couldn’t be so impossibly deep that he would fall indefinitely like that, but it seemed to him that he continued to fall.

  He looked around to figure out whether there was anything he might be able to latch onto, but there was nothing. Nothing other than the ongoing sense of falling deeper and deeper into the earth.

  Tolan focused on the elements. If he could latch onto them, he might be able to reach for enough power to shape his way free. A warrior shaping would save him.

  He couldn’t be falling this long.

  It gave him time to think about those in his life.

  He thought of Ferrah, hopefully near the elementals, attempting to reach him. He thought of Master Minden. He hoped she recovered and could carry on her studies. Then there was his father. He wouldn’t see him again. His father would never know what happened to him.

  He had failed.

  Darkness pressed all around him.

  When they had been working with his mother, there had been Chaos. Since learning of Roland, he had come to believe that it was only spirit the other man had used, but what if that wasn’t the case at all.