The Earth Awakens (Elemental Academy Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Straining with his earth sensing ability, he grabbed the furios, running his fingers along the runes but not finding any reassurance from them.

  “Ferrah!”

  It probably wasn’t a good idea to call out in the darkness and reveal his location or the fact they were here, but at the same time, it wasn’t a good idea to have come out here in the first place. He wasn’t going to be the reason something happened to Ferrah.

  Maybe it was nothing more than that she had headed back to Amitan and the Academy, but why would she have done so without letting him know?

  Could she have been so afraid of the draasin?

  That might be all it was. It could be she worried about unleashing a draasin and might have gone to one of the masters for help. Even then, he still didn’t know if that was what he had done.

  The draasin hadn’t attempted to escape from the center of the park. None of the elementals had. He had no control over them outside of the park and away from the sculpture, suggesting perhaps whatever effect he had while there was limited.

  There was no denying he had been able to understand wind more effectively after having experienced the shaping near the sculpture. He hadn’t tried the other element bonds in class, but earth should be easier for him.

  Tolan strained for earth. He imagined the elemental, using that to reach for the power of earth, to connect with it. As he did, there was only a faint sense.

  He was aware of earth around him but reaching for it and somehow summoning the power of it felt as if it were beyond him.

  If only he had a bondar.

  Ferrah claimed it was a crutch and he depended upon it far too much, but there was no shame in using his connection with whatever was required to shape.

  He paused again to see if he could reach for earth, but there still was nothing.

  Had he used too much energy while trying to both summon and then suppress the draasin?

  Continuing into the trees, he made a steady circle of the park. When he reached the path that led toward the park, he raced along it, heading back toward the city. He plunged out of the darkness of the trees and stood on the hillside overlooking Amitan. As he stared, he searched for any sign of movement.

  He should’ve done this from the beginning. If Ferrah had gone this way, she would have been easy to find. As he stood in place, he could not find sign of any movement.

  It was late enough that he should have been able to see anyone heading through the streets, especially someone racing toward the Academy, but there was no sign. More than that, there was no sense of shaping, nothing more than what he would have expected.

  Without any sensations, he had to believe she was still within the trees.

  And if that were the case, then had something happened to her?

  Tolan turned back, moving more carefully. He ran his hand along the furios again, tracing his fingers on the runes. If he was right about them and they were a marker of some sort for the various elementals, then would he be able to summon one of the elementals by focusing on that particular rune? Most of the time, he thought of hyza, but there were other elementals he’d summoned, though with varying degrees of success. As he walked, swinging his head around, he tried to think of which elemental might allow him better vision in the darkness.

  If there were others in the forest, then he needed to exercise some caution. Could there be some way of using the elementals to reveal others around him?

  Pulling the furios from his pocket, he thought there might be one elemental that might work, but it would be difficult.

  The elemental ashla would create sparks, and he had demonstrated that once before, so he knew he could use it, but would it be enough to be able to generate the kind of light needed to reveal Ferrah?

  Squeezing the furios, he focused on the elemental, and with a faint pull of power, he sent it into the furios and out into the night. Sparks began to shoot out from the end of it, streaking off into the forest.

  In a panic, Tolan suppressed his connection to the elemental. That wasn’t what he had wanted at all. It would do nothing more than reveal his presence here and would make it easier for him to be found rather than easier for him to find her.

  He raced back toward the park, straining to think of whether there were other elementals that might be more effective. If ashla wasn’t going to work, that didn’t mean there weren’t other elementals that might be more effective. Tolan wasn’t able to come up with what they might be.

  He skidded to a stop, looking around. The forest and the trees were nothing more than patches of darkness, streamers of moonlight parting between them.

  When he neared the park, he discovered other shapes.

  He stopped near one of the trees, staying as much in the shadows as he could, afraid he had made a huge mistake.

  Voices drifted out into the darkness. “Are you sure this is it?” someone said.

  “This is it. Can’t you feel it?”

  “I can’t feel anything. Why would it be so close to Amitan?”

  “They built the city near this. They thought to conceal it, and it was concealed until that fool decided to attack.”

  This place had been concealed? That at least explained why Tolan had never seen it before, and might explain why there hadn’t been any of the master shapers around it. He expected someone would have been here, but there had been nothing and no one.

  “How do we get in?”

  “Ask her.”

  Tolan realized there was a figure lying on the ground, motionless.

  His breath caught. Ferrah.

  How had they captured her? What did they intend to use her for?

  “She won’t know anything. Look at her. She can’t be anything more than a student, and considering how young she is, probably not a very advanced one, either.”

  “She was here, wasn’t she?”

  The other man grunted and one lifted Ferrah, jerking her to her feet. She gasped but didn’t say anything as they forced her closer to the wall.

  “How do we enter?” one of the men asked.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I think you do. I saw you coming from here. You discovered something about this place.”

  “I didn’t discover anything. I—”

  Something jabbed Tolan in the back. He tried to glance over his shoulder, but a firm grip on his other shoulder kept him from looking behind him.

  “Move,” a deep voice rumbled. There was anger within the voice, and he felt compelled, though not in such a way he suspected he had been shaped. This was more of a command, a man who was used to others obeying him. This was the kind of man who was not to be trifled with.

  Tolan took a step forward, his feet squishing along the soft ground. It took a moment before the other two realized Tolan was there along with his captor.

  “What is this?” the man holding Ferrah asked.

  “This is the key to understanding.”

  “This boy?”

  “He’s a little older than a boy,” his captor said.

  “What makes you think these students know anything about reaching beyond the wall?”

  “Because I knew his parents. And I know what he is capable of.”

  His captor shoved him forward and Tolan staggered, rolling off to the side to look up. In the thin shafts of moonlight, he caught a glimpse of a face that didn’t fit with the voice he heard.

  Master Daniels.

  21

  Tolan tried to tear his gaze away from Master Daniels, but he couldn’t. All he could do was stare. He looked so different than when he had seen him the last time. The heavy beard on his round face was thicker than it had been, and more gray-peppered than before. He remained a muscular man, like most who favored earth, the tattered cloak he wore barely covering him. There seemed to be something almost menacing about him that Tolan didn’t remember. Dark eyes pierced the blackness of night, staring at him.

  Ferrah remained motionless, lying on the ground where they ha
d thrown her, and if she was still awake and alert, there was no sign of it.

  “Tolan Ethar. I would ask what you’re doing here. But seeing as how you’re wearing what you are, and are with her,” Master Daniels said, nodding to Ferrah, “I assume that means you were selected?”

  Tolan could only nod. He wanted to yell. Cry out. Anything, but there was nothing for him to do. Even if he could summon a shaping, Master Daniels was a skilled enough earth shaper that he would be able to counter anything Tolan might try.

  “Why are you here?” Tolan asked.

  Master Daniels fixed him with a hard-eyed stare. Gone was the warmth he had once displayed when looking upon Tolan. After his parents’ disappearance, Master Daniels had been one of the few willing to take him in and claim him. Tolan owed him so much, but right now, it was difficult to remember anything he might owe him. Right now, all he could think of was the way Master Daniels looked at him, the heat within his gaze almost making him unrecognizable.

  “How were you selected?”

  “I don’t know. I just was.”

  “You should never have gone to the Selection. Your parents made sure of that.”

  Tolan stared. “My parents did what?”

  Master Daniels turned away from Tolan, looking at the others. “What did you do with her?”

  “She tried to escape us, but we subdued her. She’s quite skilled,” one of the men said.

  Master Daniels glanced over at Tolan before turning his attention to the others. “This is it. We’ve been looking for this.”

  “We have, but we can’t enter. They placed some sort of protective shaping around it that prevents us from crossing.”

  “There is no protective shaping. All you need is the right influence,” Master Daniel said. He walked up to the wall and pressed his hands on the stone.

  At first, there was nothing, but then a steady rumbling grew louder. As it did, Tolan realized he had felt nothing. There was no sense of shaping taking place, only the incessant noise and trembling.

  How was Master Daniels making the earth shake in that way without shaping?

  Elemental magic.

  He gasped, and one of the men glanced down at him before turning his attention back to Master Daniels. As the wall continued to rumble, it parted, a door appearing. Slowly, the door opened, each side pulling outward before stopping altogether.

  “We wouldn’t have been able to enter without you?” one of the others asked.

  “Me, or someone who can speak to them,” Master Daniels said. He strode forward, and once he was inside, the rumbling began again, the wall surging back into place. Master Daniels turned to it and whispered something softly, something Tolan couldn’t even be certain he heard, and the wall stopped moving. “Grab them and bring them with us.”

  “We don’t need them in here,” one of the others said.

  “We also don’t need them running away. If we leave them, who is to say the protections on this place wouldn’t relax, allowing them to escape?”

  He stared at the others for a moment before turning on his heel and heading deeper into the park.

  The other two grabbed Tolan and Ferrah, hoisting them. As Ferrah was lifted, Tolan was relieved to see she was awake, though he didn’t know if she was somehow bound by a shaping to prevent her doing anything. From the blank stare in her eyes, it seemed something had happened to her.

  “Ferrah?” he whispered.

  The man guiding him jerked on his arm and shot him a glare. “Quiet.”

  “What did you do to her?” Tolan asked.

  “The same thing that will be done to you if you’re not careful.”

  Tolan quietened down but focused on a shaping. All he needed was the opportunity to get free—and to get Ferrah free. Tolan didn’t have any interest in trying to stop Daniels. He had no idea what Master Daniels was after. All he wanted was for his friend to get free and get to safety.

  In the distance, the large bondar loomed into view. It was near enough that Tolan could feel its presence.

  Master Daniels approached the bondar and kept a respectable distance, nearly a yard, as he paced around it. He held his hands out in front of him, and it almost seemed to Tolan that he was whispering something. A steady shaping sense began to build, different than what he had detected from the wall around the park.

  The others stood off to the side, letting Master Daniels work. He pushed out with power, and it flowed toward the bondar before dissipating. Trying again, another shaping built, this one even more potent the last. As it built, Master Daniels continued to focus on the bondar. He paused in front of one section—the earth section, Tolan noted—and this was where he focused his effort.

  He was trying to use it.

  The ground rumbled for a moment, but then ceased.

  Master Daniels tried again. With each attempt, Tolan noted it as a surge of connection to his shaping sense. Power flowed out of Master Daniels and into the bondar.

  While he watched, Tolan wondered if this was the way it seemed when he attempted to shape at the bondar or whether this was something else? His shaping worked differently. It came from his mind, connecting him to the bondar, and from the stirring from somewhere deep within him. Was that what Master Daniels did?

  Master Daniels looked at the others. “Unfortunately, the key to this lock has been lost.”

  “Are you sure?” the man holding Ferrah said. He jerked on her arm and forced her forward. She stood, swaying in place, her eyes still glazed. “This one seems to think otherwise.”

  Master Daniels made his way over to Ferrah and brought his finger up underneath her chin, forcing her to look up at him. A shaping built, but it was subtle. Different than what Tolan had detected from him before. Ferrah gasped and looked around.

  “Tolan?” she asked when she met his gaze.

  Tolan’s heart skipped a beat. “I’m here, Ferrah. I don’t know what—”

  Pain suddenly wrapped around him.

  It felt as if narrow bands of fire swirled around him, confining him, and all he could focus on was getting rid of that pain. It burned within him, coursing through his entire body. He cried out, collapsing to the ground.

  The pain eased slowly. As it did, the other shaper stood over him, staring at him with eyes that seemed almost black.

  “You will talk when we ask you to talk,” the man said.

  Tolan took shallow breaths, trying to keep his mind clear. If it came down to it, he might need to shape, and in his experience, he wouldn’t be able to without having a clear head. First, he wanted to understand what these people—including Master Daniels—were after. Once he understood, then he could figure out what he might need to do.

  “Don’t worry about Tolan,” Master Daniels said. There was an energy in the way he spoke that came with the sense of shaping he’d detected before.

  Spirit.

  He was a spirit shaper?

  Why would he have remained in Ephra all that time if he was a spirit shaper? Why wouldn’t he have used that to join the Inquisitors?

  Unless he had.

  Could Master Daniels have been an Inquisitor all along?

  Tolan had never really understood why Master Daniels had been sent back to Amitan and the Academy for additional training. He’d never heard of that happening before, and ever since coming to the Academy, there had been no others Tolan had heard of who had been forced to do the same. Maybe Master Daniels had been an Inquisitor but had somehow neglected his responsibilities? That might explain why the Grand Inquisitor had been there in the first place.

  “You know the secret of this place?” Master Daniels asked.

  For a moment, Tolan hoped Ferrah would resist. She was a strong shaper, and with her control over each of the elements, she should be able to withstand it.

  She blinked and turned her gaze to Tolan. “I don’t, but Tolan does.”

  Master Daniels kept his hand lingering on Ferrah for a long moment before slowly turning to Tolan. A shaping built, starting s
lowly, steadily, and it directed at Tolan.

  Nothing happened.

  “What do you know of this place?” Master Daniels asked.

  “I don’t know anything,” Tolan said.

  Master Daniels cocked his head to the side, frowning. The thick beard on his face gave him a more intimidating appearance than he’d had before. When Tolan had been apprenticed to him, Master Daniels had always been welcoming, warm, not terrifying and intimidating, the way he looked now. While he had some shaping skill, Tolan had never known him to be what would have been considered a powerful shaper. Everything he was feeling now, everything he’d learned since coming to the Academy, suggested his understanding of Master Daniels and his shaping ability had been wrong.

  “You know something, Tolan. You need to share that with me.”

  “I don’t know anything. And I don’t need to share anything with you, either.”

  The man nearest Tolan began to shape, but he was prepared for it this time. Bands formed around Tolan, but Tolan had his hand in his pocket, holding onto the furios, and began a shaping, focusing on hyza. All he needed was enough of a burst of flame to startle the shaper.

  Power burst from him, and it slammed into the shaper nearest him.

  Tolan jerked his arm free and dove.

  The other shaper who had been holding onto Ferrah rolled out of the way and shaping built all around him.

  Tolan reached Ferrah, grabbing her and tossing her to the ground, and leapt to his feet, pulling the furios from his pocket and pointing it at Master Daniels.

  “Release your shaping of her.”

  “Release what shaping?”

  “I can feel the effect of your shaping. Release it.” Master Daniels took a step toward Tolan, and Tolan pointed his furios at him. “No closer. I know you’re spirit-shaping her. You need to stop.”

  Master Daniels grinned at Tolan. “You know nothing, Tolan Ethar. You know only what the Academy has allowed you to know. Unfortunately, none of that is what you should know, not someone with your background.”

  “And what background is that?”

  “I can help you. It doesn’t have to be this way,” Master Daniels said.