The Earth Awakens (Elemental Academy Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “What way is that?” Tolan asked.

  He realized almost too late that Master Daniels was attempting to distract him.

  He spun, pointing the furios at the other shaper, and focused on an image of hyza.

  Power burst from him, surging out of the end of the furios, and now with the bondar out of his pocket, the furios was able to unleash the full light of the formed elemental that Tolan imagined.

  An enormous elemental—at least, what appeared to be one—surged outward, and slammed into the other shaper. The man was tossed to the ground and Tolan focused his shaping, guiding it toward Master Daniels. The elemental shape went toward him.

  Spinning back to Daniels, he kept the bondar pointed at him.

  A dark smile crossed Master Daniels’ face. “Had I known you were so useful, I might not have left Ephra.”

  “I’m not going to be useful to you all.”

  “Oh, I think you’re mistaken.” Master Daniels took a step forward and held his hands outward, a shaping building.

  It was nothing like what Tolan had experienced from the disciples of the Draasin Lord. This shaping seemed to soothe the elemental, and the flames relaxed and suddenly dissipated, disappearing into nothingness.

  “Had you more control over what you summoned, you might actually have some potential. In time, I suspect you could be taught how to handle this. For now…”

  The ground rumbled again, and this time, it surged up on either side of Tolan as if the earth itself intended to hold him. It was a shaping that reminded him of ones he’d been taught in the earth classes, but Tolan hadn’t detected anything. No sense of shaping had come with it.

  That meant elemental power.

  Master Daniels was able to control the elementals.

  “There aren’t supposed to be any elementals freed,” Tolan said, trying to jerk his feet free but failing.

  “I wouldn’t have expected that amount of cleverness from you when you were working with me. You were useful, but no one would ever have accused you of any particular intelligence.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because this lock holds the elementals from our world.”

  “What lock?”

  “We’ve been searching for it. There’s been quite a cost, but those of us who understand recognized the benefit.”

  “The Draasin Lord,” Tolan said.

  “Do they let you speak of him now? When I was here, they feared speaking of the Draasin Lord, almost as if saying his name would summon him. While he is powerful, I doubt even he could come on a summons like that.”

  “I thought you served Terndahl,” Tolan said.

  “I serve what needs to be served. And I have done so long enough to recognize the mistakes Terndahl has made. They seek to control and subjugate when they should seek understanding. Unfortunately, they would conceal this from young shapers like your friend.”

  “Not from me?”

  “Are you a young shaper, Tolan Ethar?”

  “I’m at the Academy, aren’t I? I was selected, wasn’t I?”

  Master Daniels grinned. “You were selected, and I’ll be honest, I am surprised you managed to make it to this point.” He stopped just in front of Tolan, unmindful of the furios Tolan gripped, though his gaze occasionally drifted down toward it, a smile spreading more widely across his face. “What is the key?”

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

  “I don’t need to be a spirit shaper to tell you’re lying, so I will ask you again. What is the secret to unlocking the key? Don’t mistake our past experiences for an opportunity for compassion. When it comes to what must be done, compassion is irrelevant.” He grabbed Ferrah, lifting her with the force of an earth shaping. He held her outward and twisted her so she was brought in front of Tolan. “This is your last opportunity to share with me what you know.”

  Tolan looked over at Ferrah, attempting to will her to alertness. If she could wake up, she could shape herself free, and with her strength, maybe she would be able to free him as well, but there was no inkling she could come around.

  “What do you intend to do with it?”

  “Do? I intend to control them.”

  “Why?”

  “You haven’t been at the Academy long enough to understand, but eventually you will learn that there are those who deserve power, and those who are born to it. I intend to bring power to those meant to control it.”

  “The elementals aren’t supposed to be controlled,” Tolan said.

  “Is that right? You would find compassion for the elementals?”

  “I would find compassion for creatures that have been trapped for thousands of years.”

  “Interesting. I would have thought the teachings of the Academy would have managed to convince you there is no torment within the bond.”

  “I’ve seen the elementals that are freed. They don’t want to return.”

  “I would suggest you are reading far too much into their motivations. Now. Tell me what I need to know or your friend will suffer.”

  Ferrah moaned. It started softly, but it built, pain causing her back to arch. Her eyes shot open and she screamed, her cry splitting the night.

  Tolan couldn’t look at her like this. She was here because of him, because of what he had discovered, and he hadn’t realized that was the very thing the disciples had been searching for ever since coming to the city. And if he did nothing, if he continued to refuse Master Daniels, she would continue to suffer.

  “I don’t know how to do it,” he said.

  “But you do,” Master Daniel said.

  “It’s something about connecting to the elementals. I imagine them, and that somehow connects to something and draws them out.”

  He released his hold on Ferrah. She sagged, her head rolling off to the side. The glazed look on her face faded and tears streamed down her face. “Tolan…”

  He shook his head, looking away from her. If he didn’t say anything, he knew what Master Daniels would do to her. He wasn’t able to free himself from the shaping of earth—or the elementals that were here—and without any help, they would be trapped.

  He was determined to ensure nothing happened to Ferrah because of him.

  Another shaping began to build, this one increasingly powerful.

  Tolan looked over his shoulder. The shaping came from outside the park.

  “You have very little time remaining,” Master Daniels said.

  Could it be the master shapers were coming?

  The shaping continued, but there was something in it that Tolan recognized. It wasn’t shaping from the master shapers. This was more similar to what he had experienced from the disciples of the Draasin Lord.

  As he stared, dark shapes dropped from the sky. All were dressed in black, the cloaks reminiscent of what he’d seen from the disciples before. Each carried a sword unsheathed, and when they landed, their shaping built, converging on the park.

  There would be no rescue.

  “Like I said, you have only a little time remaining,” Master Daniel said.

  What would happen if he did nothing?

  He had seen the way the disciples had attacked the city before, and with as many as were here now, he had little doubt they would be tormented, and perhaps worse.

  There was a possibility, but it was dangerous. Considering how difficult it had been the last time he had connected to the draasin, he wasn’t sure he was willing to risk it, but if nothing else, he might be able to distract them long enough to get himself to safety.

  “I’ll show you,” Tolan said.

  “Show me?”

  Tolan nodded. “I’m… not a very strong shaper.” He glanced down at the furios. “I need to use a bondar for shaping all the element bonds. I managed to figure this part, but I can only show you with a weak elemental.”

  The shaping power continued to build behind him. Somehow, the park managed to hold them back, but Tolan didn’t doubt they would find some way to get inside
. The disciples were all powerful shapers, and maybe they were more like Master Daniels, able to somehow connect to the elementals, to use that power to get inside.

  His only hope was eyeing a dangerous approach that might deter them, or might free a deadly elemental upon the world.

  The ground retreated, and Tolan was able to move.

  “Hurry.”

  Tolan raced toward the bondar, practically feeling Ferrah’s eyes on his back.

  He ignored the question in her gaze, ignoring everything else around him, focusing on the draasin. All he needed to do was imagine the draasin, to use that power to call it forth, and when he did, he could take that distraction and run.

  Once outside, separated from the park and the power that could find it, he would be able to suppress the draasin again. He had to be able to.

  “I focus on the elemental I intend to summon and then I do,” Tolan said.

  “And what elemental do you intend to summon?”

  “I’m most connected to saa,” he said. If Master Daniels knew the elementals well, he would recognize Tolan was connected to a different elemental, but he had to hope that either he was not paying close attention or maybe the fact Tolan had no shaping ability would make it difficult to pull on the connection to anything else.

  “Saa will be a good example,” Master Daniels said, looking around. He kept his gaze darting all around him and a shaping built, but it mixed with a rumbling within the ground. That rumbling rolled outward, heading toward the wall.

  He was freeing the disciples, allowing them inside.

  Tolan didn’t have much longer. Once the disciples were here, any chance they had at escape would disappear.

  What he needed was the distraction the draasin would create.

  Tolan imagined a moderate-sized draasin, using that image, holding it within his mind, sending a sense of urgency deep within himself.

  As he did, there came the fluttering. The stirring.

  He wasn’t sure whether it would respond or not, and relief swept through him as he felt it. He pressed his hand onto the bondar, focusing on the draasin. As he did, he sent a silent plea through the bondar to the draasin.

  Help me.

  There was no reason that should work, no reason other than the fact he had connected to the draasin—at least what he imagined of the draasin—before.

  Heat built up.

  “What are you doing?” Master Daniels asked.

  “I’m using what I can imagine of saa and connecting to the elemental,” Tolan said.

  “Saa is nothing but flame. This is something more.”

  “It’s not. This is just—”

  Master Daniels slammed his hand into Tolan, throwing him back. He landed on the ground next to Ferrah and held tightly onto the furios, rolling toward her.

  “What did you do?” she whispered.

  “The disciples are coming. We need to get out of here.”

  “Tolan—”

  Tolan shook his head. “There’s no time. If this works, I will have bought us some time. But I don’t want to be here when the disciples appear. We need to go warn the master shapers.”

  He started to crawl, and as he did, the ground rumbled, reminding him of the elemental attack that had converged around them before.

  No!

  The thought came as a silent explosion. With his hands pressed on the ground, his mind imagining the various earth elementals, the rumbling within the earth eased.

  Tolan grabbed Ferrah and started toward the far wall. All they needed to do was reach it, throw themselves over it, and run. Once they were free, he hoped Ferrah would be able to find some way to shape them more rapidly than they were able to so far.

  Heat continued to swirl around them, flowing from behind them.

  Ferrah gasped. “What did you do?”

  “What I had to do.”

  He glanced over his shoulder as the draasin faded into sight. It started slowly, little more than a faint glowing, but that glowing intensified rapidly, quickly taking on form. As it did, additional heat built, radiating.

  Master Daniels focused on the draasin, his eyes wide, and he held his hands outward. There was no attempt to shape, not at first, but slowly, a shaping developed.

  Tolan stared at the draasin for a moment. Help us.

  For some reason, he had the belief that speaking to the draasin—and really, all of the elementals—had somehow helped. When he had spoken to the draasin before, there’d had been a sense it had understood and been willing to cooperate.

  The draasin began to flap its enormous wings. It made its way around the bondar, swirling around the enormous structure, going higher and higher. Heat surged outward from the draasin, and as flames came to form around the bondar, Master Daniels was forced back, pushed away.

  He changed his focus. Rather than holding his hands outward as if pleading to the draasin, he raised his hands into the air and earth began to rumble, forcing its way up, curling around the enormous bondar.

  No!

  Tolan smacked the earth as he said it, and with a sudden surge, everything went quiet.

  The draasin continued to swirl, rising ever higher into the air, and then it dove.

  As it did, it headed straight toward Master Daniels.

  He scrambled back and Tolan raced toward the far wall, away from Master Daniels and the disciples, eager to get anywhere but where he was.

  Ferrah stayed with him, and when he reached the wall, pressing his back against it, he surveyed the inside of the park.

  This was a different place than where they had entered before, but all parts of the park looked similar. He’d never noticed it before, but there were runes on the walls. They were enormous and made of a slightly darker stone, enough so that he had not paid any attention to them before. But then, when he’d come to the park previously, he had been mostly focused on the bondar, trying to understand its purpose and what it might mean.

  The rune nearest him looked to be one of earth, and he wasn’t surprised to see fire on the opposite side, but was taken aback to see fire glowed softly from the peak of the bondar, the top of the sculpture finally glowing brightly enough to make out the shape.

  Was there some significance in that?

  It would be something he’d have to come back to later—if there was a later.

  Scrambling up the wall, he helped Ferrah, and they jumped across.

  “What about the disciples?”

  Tolan hadn’t given them any thought, focusing mostly on escape. “Can you shield us?”

  “Against powerful shapers like that?”

  “We have to try,” Tolan said.

  Ferrah nodded, and her shaping began to build, leaving him wondering what exactly she was doing. Not for the first time, he wished he had the same talent and could shape with the same skill.

  “Let’s get moving,” she said.

  “Is it done?” he asked.

  “As well as I can, but I don’t know if—”

  The roar of the draasin split the air, the sound thundering and exploding near them.

  Tolan looked up to see the draasin continuing to race higher and higher into the sky. From the ground, Master Daniels was shaping, focusing his effort on the draasin, power continuing to build.

  “He’s trying to shape the draasin,” Ferrah said.

  “What?”

  “I can feel the direction of it,” she said.

  As Tolan focused, he was aware of what she was sensing. Master Daniels was trying to shape the draasin, but why?

  “Great Mother!” Ferrah whispered.

  Tolan turned to see one of the disciples approaching the wall. He remained motionless, terrified, but commenced building a shaping, holding on to the furios, prepared to release hyza if it came down to it. In this place, where the elementals seemed to be more freely released, he wasn’t sure if it would be easier or harder. Either way, he was determined to do it if it came down to it.

  The disciple moved past him and reached the wall
. From what Tolan had seen before, the wall had prevented the others entering. The disciple rested his hand on the wall and held it there a moment before climbing quickly over and landing on the other side.

  Tolan’s heart skipped.

  What would happen to this place with the disciples here?

  “We can’t let them take over this place,” he said.

  “Tolan, we don’t have any way to stop them. These are powerful shapers, the kind even the master shapers struggled against.”

  He breathed out. “Can you, I don’t know, signal to the master shapers in some way?”

  “I can try, but I’m not sure that shaping out here would be noticed.”

  “Perhaps not but see if there’s anything you can do.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to see if there’s any way I can keep them from abusing the bondar.”

  “Tolan—”

  He ignored her as he started off, reaching the wall and hurrying over. Once inside, he crouched, resting his back against the wall—and the rune, he realized.

  With his back against the rune, feeling it pressing up against him, he wondered if there were any way to connect to shaping the same way as he would near the bondar. If so, then maybe he wouldn’t need to approach the bondar. Maybe he could shape from here.

  Tolan focused on earth, especially as this was an earth rune, and sent a summons to jinnar. It was the most powerful earth elemental he could find, one he had dealt with before, and in this place, he hoped it would create a distraction.

  A steady rumbling built and suddenly, the earth elemental appeared.

  It turned its manlike face toward him. Help me. Stop them.

  The ground rumbled and the elemental turned away, racing toward the center of the park.

  Had that actually worked?

  It made no sense. There was no reason for the elemental to have listened, and yet… it seemed as if it had.

  Tolan sat back and had begun to relax when Master Daniels suddenly appeared in front of him.

  It was almost as if he shook free from a shaping, the masking he’d used to hide himself dissipating. “There you are. I must say, that is quite impressive.”

  “Leave me alone!”

  Help me!

  Master Daniels stalked toward him. “It’s time for us to go before they decide to intervene.”