Born of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 8) (19 page)

T
an drew
through a connection of spirit and earth, straining for Marin.

He needed someone who understood spirit in Par-shon. From his connection to the other elementals, he’d learned the response to the elements was different in every land he’d visited, from the way the wind blew in Galen versus Incendin to the way he managed to find earth. Each place had its own rules and rhythms.

Par-shon would be no different than the others. And he wasn’t certain, but it was possible that this extended to the connection to spirit.

For Amia, he would find out if there was anything that would explain what had happened, and how to fix it. The only person he could think of in Par-shon to help was Marin.

Only, Tan didn’t know if she would be willing to give him assistance.

He returned to the place she’d taken him. As far as he could tell, it was something of a place of worship, where the Mistress of Souls guided the people she served, leading them through her connection to spirit.

It was empty.

The fading sun sent streamers of light into the plaza. No children moved within or along the street, almost as if they had been removed or brought somewhere else.

Using earth and spirit, he reached again for Marin but still couldn’t find her. Frustration bubbled within him. He needed to understand if there might be something to what Honl had suggested. What would it mean if there
was
an elemental of spirit, and if there was, had Marin known?

Tan could speak to the elementals and had used that connection to reach to the Great Mother, binding together his connection to them so that he could access even more strength, so that he could practically tap into the Great Mother herself, and
he
hadn’t known about an elemental of spirit.

Unless what Honl suspected was wrong.

That was what he wanted to learn from Marin.

He stopped at one of the pillars occupying the middle of the room. There was nearly a dozen, arranged in such a way that he was forced to weave through the empty room. When he’d been here before, he hadn’t known that the bonds had any additional piece to them. Knowing gave him better insight to the people, but he still didn’t know how to use that information.

And Amia depended on his learning. At least Honl watched over her. It gave the wind elemental a chance to study her as well. But he needed to find answers so that she could recover. If he didn’t… Tan didn’t want to think about what would happen.

The nearest pillar had none of the runes some of the buildings did. Tan circled around it, hoping for answers, but found nothing. He moved on to the next, but there was nothing more for him there, either.

Near the center of the room, he found the first marking on the pillar.

Tan crouched close and traced his fingers across it. It was different than some of the others he’d seen in the city, and as he shaped into it, he realized that it was connected to spirit.

Rather than shaping spirit alone, he used a combined shaping of each of the elements to probe it. This was the way that he had learned to shape spirit from the beginning, but that wasn’t the reason that he’d chosen to shape the rune in that way. Whatever had happened to Amia had come because she had shaped spirit alone. Tan would not risk the same until he knew what had happened, and how to avoid the same happening to him.

The shaping surged into the pattern. At first, he detected a resistance, but the more that he pushed—and, he realized, the more that he used pure spirit—the better he was able to stabilize the pattern that had been here.

This reacted differently than the other shapings that he’d done when the runes were involved. With those, like the one on the buildings or those upon the tower that he had helped repair using a shaping, the shaping seemed to take hold on its own, requiring little guidance from him. This rune for spirit demanded his input.

Tan wracked his mind for what he knew about spirit runes. They weren’t common, even in Ethea. Other than the uncomplicated runes that had been made by the archivists in the lower level of the archives, the only patterns that he could think of he had learned from the First Mother and Amia.

Fixing one of those runes in his mind, he focused on the shaping, and sent it into the pattern on the post, hoping that it worked. If it didn’t, and if it rebounded on him, he wasn’t sure if he would be injured like Amia had been.

His shaping met resistance.

Tan pressed through it, using an increasing draw of power.

The pressure against him continued and for a moment, he didn’t think that he would be able to overpower the resistance. Drawing on the strength of the elementals around him, something that he hadn’t had the need to do since defeating the Utu Tonah, he pulled on more strength than he could summon on his own.

The shaping built, swelling with power and force, and then it settled into the rune, taking hold.

Tan released the shaping with a sigh and stepped back to see what he’d done.

The rune was much like the one he’d visualized as he shaped, but there were subtle differences. He detected a drawing of spirit strength toward the rune, a strength that he had not felt in any other form before.

He wiped his hands on his pants and let out a shaky breath. Once, a shaping like that would have nearly overwhelmed him, or at the least would have left him fatigued and unable to stand, but now that he could draw from the strength of the elementals, he no longer had the same challenges. But he felt the strength required to perform the shaping and wondered if there had been any real purpose to what he’d done. Why would there have been such difficulty in placing this rune? It was almost as if everything here served to
prevent
him from repairing it.

You have created the mark of the Mother.

Tan turned to see Kota crouching in the shadows. He hadn’t sensed her approaching and wondered how she made her way through the city without causing some sort of chaotic scene.

Not the Mother,
Tan said. He studied the rune. It was different than his vision of the runes used for spirit.
This is spirit, but not spirit that I recognize.

That is the mark for the Mother,
Kota said again. She approached slowly, her stubby tail pointing behind her and her fur standing on edge.
Maelen, there is something else here.

What do you sense?

I do not know,
Kota said.

Tan didn’t detect anything, but the hound had a different sensitivity than he did and a different connection to the elemental.
The Daughter is injured. Honl tries to understand, but we don’t know how to draw her back.

That is why I’m here.

You sensed what happened?

I can tell the connection changed. A bond was drawn. You had asked me to search for the other, but I have not been able to find her.

Tan clenched his eyes closed, frustrated. If this were somehow tied to Elanne, then he would know. And he needed Marin to help, especially if she could shape spirit, to determine if there was anything else that he could do to help Amia.

And he’d been unable to find either of them.

Honl thinks there might be an elemental of spirit that bonded her.

Kota prowled around him, her hackles raised. What did she detect that had her on edge?

There is no elemental of the Mother, Maelen.

What if there are? What if we only haven’t seen them? There are elementals for each of the other elements; why wouldn’t there be one for spirit?

Maelen, the connection to the Mother comes from the shaper. You are the spirit elemental.

What did Kota mean by that?

The shaper connected to the Mother? Tan started to think about what that might mean. There had been the possibility that they hadn’t seen elementals of spirit simply because they could hide better than the other elementals, but the reason could also be that there were not any spirit elementals.

Then what bond are you talking about?

I do not know, but I’ve seen that there is much strength in these lands. More than I would have expected from what I knew before we came.

What kind of strength?
Tan asked, but he already knew that the people of Par had valued the elementals. A dichotomy existed in this place, that of Par-shon and that of Par. Those who still supported Par-shon sought power, and perhaps something else. But those who supported Par… Tan didn’t fully understand
what
they wanted. They protected the draasin and had done so for generations. They created bonds formed of runes older than what he’d ever found in the kingdoms and used these to speak to the elementals. Other than that… he didn’t know.

A connection to the elementals that is as great as what you had in your lands. That is why the hatchlings were here. And it must be why the Bonded One came to these lands. We must find a way to understand.

What can you tell about this pattern?

You repaired it. I can… feel it.
Surprise drifted through the connection to the hound.

How is it that you feel spirit?
Kota shouldn’t be able to detect the calling of a spirit bond. She was a hybrid elemental, one born of crossings made by the earliest kingdoms’ shapers, but a hybrid of earth and fire, not of spirit. If any of his bonded elementals should be aware of spirit, it would be Honl.

Not spirit, Maelen. As I said, this mark calls the Mother. There are others in this city, though they are damaged as well.

Others?

Why would there be other damaged spirit bonds in the city, and why would Marin have used this place as her place of worship? He found that nearly as surprising as the fact that she wasn’t here.

Unless something had happened to her.

What if Marin had been
protecting
the bond, preventing Elanne or those with her from damaging it? That might explain why Marin chose this place, and why she’d always seemed so secretive with him.

Can you show me the others?

There are only two. A fourth remains undamaged.

Four. Tan couldn’t help but notice that the number corresponded to the number of different elements. Which would the pillar here represent? Possibly wind, with the way it flowed on the tall pillar, or earth.

But the others?

Can you show them to me?
Tan asked again.

Do you think this is wise while the Daughter lies injured, Maelen?

Tan didn’t know
what
the right thing was. Leaving Amia seemed the worst, but damaged bonds of spirit runes, bonds that Kota suggested led to the Mother, had him worried that whatever happened here might be tied to what had happened to Amia, if only he could understand what, and how.

For that reason, he
had
to find the damaged bonds.

I think that is the only thing I can do to help her.

Kota rubbed up against him, understanding his concern.
I will show you, Maelen.

T
he hound led
Tan to a place on the outer edge of the city. Before leaving, Tan had paused and spoken to each of the elementals of Par and asked them to watch over the place and keep the repaired bond from harm. Until he found Marin and understood why it was important, he would keep it intact.

This place was much like the last in many regards. It was an older section of the city, practically ancient, and far enough away from the tower that Tan could see it rising overhead like an angry finger of rock. With a single shaping, he could return, but not until he understood. If a bond of the Mother were somehow involved, Amia would
want
him to understand before going to her.

The silence between them caused a pang to echo through his soul. As much as he hated losing Asboel—and that had pained him in ways that he still didn’t fully understand—losing Amia would be a thousand times worse. What would he be without her?

Yet he knew how she would feel about that suggestion. Amia would tell him that he would be fine without her, that he would know what to do in time, and that he would need to trust that the Great Mother had a plan for them.

You hear her still, Maelen,
Kota suggested.

I don’t hear her, but I know what she would tell me.

Then you are wise to listen.

Tan took a deep breath and surveyed the area around him.
Where is this place?
he asked.
Did you find it while searching for Elanne?

The damaged bond throbs, Maelen. I cannot describe it any differently.

Tan closed his eyes and listened for the bond. If it throbbed for Kota, would it do the same for him? Could he detect the remnants of the bond and trace it, repair it if possible? And if he did, would he be able to understand what had happened to Amia?

He used a combined shaping of spirit, drawing on each of the elements. It washed away from him, sweeping through the buildings until he found a place where it struck strangely. Almost throbbing against him.

With a shaping of fire and wind, he reached the building that housed it. The building was made of simple stone, and solid. Earth radiated from it, much like it did in many parts of Par. Tan had found that fire was strong, but that was through his connection to saa. Somewhat more surprising was the fact that that earth was as potent here as it was. Even wind, under the guide of wyln, had much strength here. And udilm, the great water elemental found in the surrounding sea, had not fully departed even after Tan had severed all of the forced bonds.

As Kota suggested, Par was a place very powerful with elementals. A place of convergence.

And the Utu Tonah had come here, but still hadn’t managed enough strength to be victorious.

Almost, though. He almost had managed.

Now was not the time to think what would have happened had he succeeded. All the elementals would have been forced to bond, to serve the Utu Tonah.

But Tan still didn’t know the reason
why
.

He shook away the thought and the questions that came with it. They were for another time. Pushing open the door, he entered the building.

In some ways, it was much like the last. A wide open space with a hard, dirt floor and pillars rising throughout it in some sort of pattern. The damaged rune came from the midst of that.

He made his way to the rune. The last one had been on the pillar itself. This was different, worked into the stone on the ground. That made it a mark for earth. If that were the case, then the last one would have been wind. Where would he find fire and water?

And what did it mean that there were these patterns set throughout the city like this? These were different than any of the others. Much stronger, and they served a different purpose.

Tan hurriedly shaped spirit into this one. Time was short, and he needed to discover the purpose of these patterns before Amia suffered any longer.

The rune was even more damaged than the last.

It pushed against him, like a knife slicing across his flesh, leaving it raw and exposed.

Once again, he drew upon each of the elementals of Par and poured that strength into a shaping, tying them together and adding his contribution of spirit. When he’d done it the last time, he had wondered at the purpose, but now he thought he knew. There
was
something to these bonds, and they needed to be whole. There was a reason the ancients of Par had placed them here. He might not know it yet, but he finally trusted that the people of Par had known the reason and that it was a good one.

The shaping required enormous strength, reminding him of what he had done when he hatched the draasin. With that, he was able to pull on the fire bond. That wouldn’t work this time, not for this shaping. He continued to draw on the elementals, requesting more and more strength. Almost as if understanding the reason for his request, they gave it willingly, sending it flooding through him.

Tan turned the shaping into the pure white burst of light that formed the bond of spirit. He felt the original threads of what the bond had done and repeated it, pushing more strength into the bond, reforming it not as it once had been, but as he sensed it needed to be.

With one last push, a demanding draw of energy from him, he completed the bond.

Then sagged to the ground.

Kota nudged him to sit.
The Mother no longer throbs against me here. This was necessary, Maelen.

I wish I knew why.
He inhaled slowly and managed to sit on his own, and looked around the room. Now that the bond had been repaired, others appeared on the walls. Dozens of them… hundreds upon hundreds. Not only bonds but runes with meaning that he didn’t have the knowledge yet to understand.

All had been hidden by the missing spirit bond.

Did you know this was here?
he asked Kota.

Earth sits strongly in this place, Maelen, but earth is strong throughout much of these lands. You must sense that.

I have sensed that,
Tan agreed. He might not know what that meant, other than the fact that this was a place of convergence, but he had sensed it.

He stood, drawing strength from Kota to replace some of what he’d lost in the shaping, and started a circle around the room. Each of the bonds was incomplete in some way. Some were obviously damaged, as if someone had taken a knife and simply drawn it across the runes. Others were more subtly damaged. Those he sensed more than he saw, detecting the way the energy that should flow freely from them no longer did. Whatever call would have come from the bonds had been lost.

These have meaning,
Tan said.
But I don’t know what most of them say.

They have meaning to these lands and this place, but the Mark of the Mother is what truly gives this power.

Tan studied the rune for spirit. It glowed brightly, almost as if retaining the energy that he’d used to repair it. Had the other bond done the same? Tan couldn’t remember, but then with that one, the lanterns lit around the room might have obscured it.

Had there been a similar collection of runes on the walls in that place? Tan would have to go back and see, but surely he would have noticed had there been runes like this throughout that place as well.

But maybe he wouldn’t have noticed. He’d been focused on trying to find Marin to save Amia, that the discovery of whatever these bonds represented hadn’t fully registered with him.

The other damaged rune. Where did you find it?
Tan wondered if it represented air or fire. And did that mean that the fourth bond was completely unblemished? That if he found it, there would be no damage to the Mark of the Mother?

I will take you to it.

Kota bounded outside the building. As she did, Tan felt something change.

The hound was attacked.

Kota did not take well to attack, and she roared, her angry voice thundering through the air, splitting the ground with her rage.

Tan raced toward the door, slowed slightly by the effort of his recent shaping. The elementals had mostly restored him, but depending on what he found outside, he might need more strength than what he had remaining.

Shapers waited for him outside the door. All of Par-shon.

They remained hidden, protected by the walls of the nearby buildings, but he detected the energy of their shapings. Enough shapers were here that Tan made a slow circle, fearing that he would be attacked. Fire wouldn’t harm him, but what if the earth opened and attempted to swallow him? He might be able to control the wind, but would the water here work with him? Udilm was the elemental in Par-shon, and udilm had always had a tenuous relationship with him.

He raised his hand. “Stop!” he shouted. “As Utu Tonah, I command you.”

A shaping built, one with massive strength and energy, enough that surprised Tan. He hadn’t expected that much control from the shapers remaining in Par-shon. Most of the shapers here had been bonded, and the severing of the bond
should
have injured them to the point that they wouldn’t be able to attack, but there was strength here.

Had he been wrong? Had the shapers of Par-shon not only required the elemental bonds? But if that were the case, why wouldn’t the Utu Tonah have used these shapers against Tan when attacking the kingdoms?

Had he known? But why had they remained here if that were the case?

Too many questions raged through his mind. And there wasn’t the time to find the answers.

Kota, be ready.

Always, Maelen.

The hound pressed into the hard rock and used the connection to earth as she did. The ground rumbled, and the elemental buried deep within the earth answered. She exuded a sense of power.

The shaping building from the hidden shapers faltered.

“You would attack your Utu Tonah?” Tan shouted. If they feared the title, he hoped that would be enough to convince them to back away. He had no interest in attacking more shapers of Par-shon, not after he finally thought the war won.

The shaping unleashed.

It was a combined shaping and coordinated.

Had he not had Kota with him, he might have struggled to fend off the attack. Kota caught the earth shaping and deflected it while Tan resisted the fire shaping. That left only wind and water, which he was able to draw away and send funneling into the ground.

Pulling on wind and water, he sent a swirling shaping, pushing against those who attempted to harm him. There was resistance, much like what he had met when trying to repair the spirit bond he’d found here, but he forced his way past that.

There came a distinct sense of separation.

Not of a forced bond being torn away, but something else.

Something worse, Tan realized.

This time, when he pushed, he recognized that a
natural
bond was there and that what he did attempted to separate that natural bond, as if he would steal it from whoever had formed it.

He swore to himself. He would
not
do the same as the previous Utu Tonah. Already he had made too many mistakes and had ventured closer to what the prior Utu Tonah had been willing to do. This was a boundary that he would not cross.

Releasing the shaping, Tan took a deep breath and stepped forward, sending a request to the elementals around him.
I do not want to harm these shapers. Help them to understand.

Another shaping built and Tan prepared to deflect it. He could return to the estate and check on Amia, but he still hadn’t discovered the purpose of the runes. Without knowing that, how would he save her? Whatever was happening to her was connected to spirit and the Mother.

Let these shapers know who I am.

The answer came on a breath of wind, so faint that Tan almost couldn’t hear it.
Maelen…

The shaping stopped.

Tan waited. Would they attack again, or would his connection to the other elementals be enough to convince whoever had bonded wyln that he could be trusted?

A flutter of wind caught his attention and Elanne dropped to the ground.

She held a long metal rod, so much like the one she had dropped when Tan had found her last. Was this what she used to damage the bonds, or did she truly attempt to repair them?

“Elanne,” Tan said.

She tipped her head. “You speak to wyln.”

“I speak to all the elementals.”

“You are bonded, you said so yourself. Ashi was your elemental of wind.”

Tan closed his eyes and sighed. “If you thought that I was only bonded to ashi, then you haven’t been listening. I have a bond to an elemental of ashi, but I speak to all the elementals.”

“They call you Maelen,” she said. “What does that mean?”

“It means you should believe me. And it means you need to stop destroying these bonds. If you have bonded to wyln, then you can learn how strongly I feel about forced bonds. I know that you’re still working for him, you’re still trying to destroy the work of Par—”

“Maelen,” she said, interrupting him. “If
you
think that I have been trying to destroy the bonds of Par, then
you
haven’t been paying attention.”

Tan frowned. “You truly have been trying to repair them?” he asked.

She nodded. She closed her eyes and whispered something softly. The wind blew through with a flutter of power before she opened her eyes again. “What did you do here?” she demanded.

“What do you mean?”

“To this place,” she said, motioning to the building where Tan had repaired the spirit bond. “That is why we are here. I am the Mistress of Bonds. They are
my
responsibility. When you damage them—”

“When
I
damage them?” Tan asked. “The bond was already damaged, like the other bond that you’d damaged.”

Elanne took a step toward him. A shaping built from her, one that sent the wind sweeping around her. “You think that I damaged these bonds? You know that I am named Mistress of Bonds. Before your predecessor, such a title was nearly the highest in all of Par. Why would I do anything to jeopardize the trust placed in me by my people?”

Her people. Par, not Par-shon.