Cloud Warrior 05 - Forged in Fire (20 page)

“What do you mean? What kind of a shelf?”

Elle nodded to him. “Come. I’ll show you.”

The boy shook his head and stepped in front of Tan. “Elle, we don’t know anything about him.” A shaping built from him, weak, but water responded, sliding around Tan’s ankles.

He waved the shaping away with a quick draw on the elementals of water. The boy stepped back.

“Ley, you need to relax. This is the shaper I was telling you about. If he’s here, it means he’s brought shapers from the kingdoms to help. How else do you think they managed to scare away those others?”

Ley’s eyes narrowed to slits. “We don’t know they’re gone, Elle. They been gone before and come back. If they’re gone, then they’ll return with more, just like the last time—”

“The last time, we didn’t have the kingdoms’ shapers.” She turned to Tan. “Who came with you? Which Masters are here to help?” She glanced at Ley. “He’s friends with Theondar! Likely the warrior is somewhere here, too.”

What had they been through that she would come to expect the kingdoms to save them? How long had Par-shon been here? And how had they managed to stay hidden?

Above him, Asboel snorted fire.

Tan nodded toward the sky. Ley looked up, his eyes widening as he took in the draasin.

Elle let out a relieved sight. “You brought your draasin,” she said, working her jaw up and down. “I warned you. That’s what they’re after.”

“I know what they’re after. They’re from across the sea, from Par-shon. They try to separate shapers from their bonded elementals, using those bonds to form their own. They nearly separated me again,” he said. “And they have learned to trap elementals, force them to bond.”

Elle tipped her head as if listening to the steady sliding of the waves against the shore. Her lips moved silently. Tan realized she was speaking to one of the elementals.

As Tan stood in the sea, he felt them around him. Not only udilm, but the nymid mingled, sliding from the narrow stream and joining the sea. The nymid flowed back out of the sea, but for that brief time, the two elementals were joined. Then there was another elemental, the one he’d sensed on the mist but never known well enough to put a name to. As the waves caught the rock, the misty spray splashed up, catching Tan. There was power in the mist, different than anything he had ever known. It was this elemental that had blown in like a fog over the city when he attacked the Par-shon bonded.

That wasn’t you
, Tan sent to Asboel.

You think I would use water? Smoke would have served better.

Tan laughed and the boy shot him a glare.

“What elemental have you bonded?” Tan asked Elle. “It wasn’t the udilm, was it?”

The corners of her eyes were pinched and drawn. “At first I thought it was because they didn’t want me. I was stranded, Tan. The village that found me took me in, but they did not treat me like Doma should treat one of their own.” The boy’s face went ashen and Tan knew that he had been one of the villagers. “When the lisincend came, they thought I was wrong. Who had ever heard of a winged lisincend? But I’d seen the draasin, even if I barely remembered it.” Her brow wrinkled as she worked to make out Asboel soaring overhead.

Tan considered calling him down, but it would only scare her and the boy. And Asboel wasn’t simply flying to avoid Elle; he watched for the shapers’ return.

“You saw one of the twisted lisincend?” Tan asked.

Elle started walking, waving Tan onward with her toward the rocks beneath the city. Tan realized that with enough water, the rocks would be completely covered. Perhaps the udilm had served the city better than he’d realized.

“They attacked Falsheim. Or they
seemed
to attack Falsheim, but it wasn’t the city they attacked at all. They came after the others. At first, the lisincend was enough to scare them away. The city was scarred. Many had died, and those who remained went below to hide behind the storm walls. When the others returned, the city was mostly empty.”

She led him beneath an archway in the rock. Green mold grew along the black rocks, clinging to them, and water dripped softly onto his head as he ducked under the overhang. Once through, it was completely dark. Tan considered a shaping of fire, but decided against it. This was Elle’s home.

“What is this place?” he asked.

Elle chuckled. “When Falsheim was first built, they did so on top of these rocks.” When she turned back to him, her skin had a faint green sheen to it, much like Tan saw from the nymid. “Doma had many shapers then, not like today. Now, all of her shapers are stolen by Incendin.” She spat the last. “I didn’t know about this place when I first came, but water led me here, led us to safety.”

She stepped to the side. Spread out below was a massive series of tunnels. It reminded him of what was beneath the palace, down to the runes marked above the tunnel entrance. Tan paused and stretched out with a shaping of earth and spirit. Deep within the tunnels were thousands of people.

Doma lived.

“You saved them,” Tan said.

“It wasn’t me, the people knew—”

“No,” Tan said to her. Here he thought he would have to come to Doma and rescue the people, but that wasn’t needed at all. He might have pushed Par-shon out of the city, but Elle had already saved her people. “You hid them.” Tan smiled, thinking of the Elle he had known when they were both in Ethea. She had changed nearly as much as he had. “You found water and you saved your people.”

“Not me. They survived by knowing that we would reach help. I told them I could reach you like I reached water. This place makes it difficult and I hadn’t dared go out, but when I felt the shaping around me, I knew the kingdoms had finally sent their shapers.” Elle met his eyes, hope swelling there. “Where are the others, Tan?”

“There aren’t any others, Elle. The draasin. Me. There was help, but we ran into trouble near the border and they were stranded.”

“It was
you
?”

He nodded.

“How… how is it you scared them away?”

He didn’t fully understand what he’d done. The elementals had helped. Maybe freeing them from the forced bond had really been all that was needed. The elementals had given him strength when it seemed like everything was lost.

“I don’t know. They’re gone. That’s all that’s important.”

“That’s what I tried warning you.”

“What do you mean?”

“We got the city to safety. Most have stayed here, but a few we’ve rescued from above. They have overheard the shapers. They were readying for an attack, but they needed something they did not have. A bond they didn’t have.”

Tan nodded. “I know they were. That’s why I’m here. Par-shon has been fighting with Incendin for decades. They’ve managed to keep them off their shores, I think by using the lisincend and the shapers they’ve stolen from Doma, but now Par-shon has come for the draasin—”

“I don’t think it’s the draasin. I don’t know what they waited for, but it wasn’t that.”

Par-shon had been gaining elemental power here, forcing the bonds, but then they had waited, staying within Doma, not moving away from the city and attacking Incendin any more than he’d seen.

What had they been waiting for? From what Elle said, it was not for him.

The Utu Tonah wanted the draasin bond, but what had Tan missed? What else would he need to ensure it? And now two of the draasin were bonded. The hatchlings were safe, protected beneath Ethea. Only Enya remained free.

Why then, would Par-shon push fire away?

A
s he rode atop Asboel
, Tan considered what he actually knew. Sashari and Cianna would make their way to Falsheim where Elle would welcome and protect them while Sashari healed. Par-shon had invaded Doma to pull elementals and their power from the lands, enough to change the complexion of the land. Other Par-shon shapers might still be out there. Certainly the heavily bonded shaper remained. There had to be a reason for it. They had expected him in Doma, but they hadn’t attacked in the kingdoms, almost as if they’d intentionally drawn him away.

A chilling thought came to him, one that he hadn’t considered before. Par-shon shapers had managed to hide in Doma and in Incendin without notice. They could obscure themselves using shapings of earth, bound to the elementals. But if they could obscure themselves in Incendin and Doma, what prevented the same from happening elsewhere? Could they have already reached the kingdoms? Could they have used a similar shaping in the kingdoms? In Chenir?

Tan!
Amia surged suddenly through their connection, urgent and agitated.
The People are under attack. There’s only so much—

And then she fell silent.

Tan roared, leaping from Asboel’s back and pulling lightning and thunder toward him in a shaping.
Asboel, meet me in the kingdoms.

Hunt well, Maelen.

The shaping swept him toward Ethea, faster than a thought.

Tan landed near the circle of wagons forming the Aeta caravan. Some were tipped. Screams filled the air. Fire burned, pressing on him much as it had in Doma, attempting to force him away. Shapings had flung chunks of earth, scattering them all around. Wind gusted around him. Elemental power raged.

Amia?
Tan sent to her in a panic.

Here! Help us, Tan
, she pleaded.

Tan raised his sword, calling the free elementals.

There was a sense of hesitation, then power filled the sword much like it had in Doma. The blade blazed with a bright white light so powerful that he nearly had to close his eyes against it. He lifted to the air on a shaping and stretched out with earth, sensing the attack. Powered as he was by the elementals, he sensed the shapers around him. There were nearly a dozen, possibly more hidden by the earth.

He pressed out and away from him using a mixture of elemental power. Tan felt the elementals surging around him, not only ara and ashi, but saa and hints of the nymid. There was an earth elemental he didn’t know, but he felt it the same.

Power surged, colliding with the Par-shon shapers.

The elementals bound to the Par-shon shapers were strong, more than strong enough to resist what Tan could draw. His shaping pressed back to him and, like it had in Doma, power began to spiral around him, the shaping itself becoming the rune to separate him from his elementals.

It would not happen again. Not here, not in the kingdoms, and not with Amia nearby and in danger. He would do everything he could to stop Par-shon. And this time, he did not have to do it alone. With Amia, he was never really alone.

Amia.

He whispered her name through the shaping. She pushed through their bond, adding to his shaping, assuming control. The shaping built with strength and control, power cultivated with all the time she had spent learning from the First Mother. The shaping that built was one that only the First Mother of the Aeta could craft.

Then she released it, sending it out in a wide circle.

The Par-shon bonded had no chance, not against a shaping drawn from the combined strength of Tan and Amia. It overwhelmed them. Light exploded from a dozen places and over a dozen bonds were shattered.

But not all. There was one, too powerful for even Amia. Through the connection, Tan recognized the heavily bonded shaper he had seen in Doma. Not the Utu Tonah, but nearly as powerful. Bonded elemental energy raged around him. Tan fought, drawing as much as he could from the free elementals, pulling from Amia, resuming control of the shaping. There was another flash of white light, and then the resistance simply disappeared.

Tan sagged to his knees. Strength slowly seeped back into him, borrowed from the elementals.

Amia?

She crawled from beneath the nearest wagon. The ends of her golden hair were singed. Tan ran to her, stumbling as he did. She caught him, taking his face between her hands and kissing him.

“I thought I lost you. I couldn’t sense—”

Tan kissed her again. “Doma. There were too many shapers. They obscured themselves from me. I hadn’t expected so many. When I realized what they were doing…” He trailed off, knowing that Par-shon shapers could be anywhere. “What was this? Why would they attack here?”

Amia turned to the wagons, touching her hair and smoothing the burned edges down. Her breath came out raggedly. “The archivists. They wanted the archivists,” she said. “I tried to save them. Regardless of what they’ve done, they are of the People. I did what I could…”

Tan surveyed the remains of the wagons, searching for the archivists, and understanding now why the archivists had returned. Had they known? Had the archivists learned of what Par-shon planned for them…or were they a part of it? “Where are they now?”

Amia took his hand and they started around the wagon nearest them. It was toppled, fires smoldering over it. Tan shaped the fires out, smothering them with wind until the wood no longer burned. Inside the circle, he found the Aeta already working to clean up the remains of their caravans. Many of the wagons had been destroyed, fire leaving them charred and broken. The ground within the circle heaved. Tan pulled on the elementals of earth around him, easing it flat.

One of the Aeta—one of the Mothers Tan had rescued—glanced at him before turning back to direct the clean up.

Amia stopped at a wagon on the far side of the clearing. This one was not tipped like many of the others, but the top third of it had splintered away, almost as if grabbed by some massive shaping, leaving a gap in the wood.

“They were in here?” Tan asked. He barely needed to use earth sensing to know that the wagon was empty.

“They were. We had not decided what we would do with them,” she answered.

“Did you find out why they risked returning?”

“Not directly, but I sensed fear in them. They would not speak of it.”

Fear. Then maybe they
hadn’t
been a part of Par-shon’s plan.

Asboel circled high overhead like a massive eagle. “Was spirit still held from them?” Tan asked.

“I couldn’t remove that shaping alone,” she said. “What you did… well, it was more than simply spirit binding them.”

Tan rubbed a hand across his head, trying to understand what had happened. When he shaped the archivists, he had used each of the elementals, not simply spirit. It kept them more fully obstructed. Without the help of shapers able to reach the other elements, they would remain trapped.

But why would Par-shon want the archivists? It had to do with spirit shaping, but Tan doubted they intended to use the archivists the same way that Incendin had used them. Unless it was to ensure their runes couldn’t be overpowered by someone shaping spirit. Someone like him.

But why attack Doma at all?

“Go to Ethea,” Tan said to Amia. “Roine will protect the People. Tell him that he’ll need shapers to protect the city. Par-shon will hesitate to attack Ethea. The city is too well protected with shapers. Ferran will need to help now that he’s able to hear golud. Warn them that Par-shon can hide themselves.” Tan pulled her close. “Keep the tunnels safe,” he whispered. “Don’t let them learn of the hatchlings.”

“What do you intend?” Amia asked.

“Only something stupid,” Tan said. Could he really think to be going after the archivists? After all that they’d done, would he really rescue them?

For some reason, the idea of saving the archivists was harder than working with Incendin. That he could understand, but the archivists… they were more like Par-shon, wanting nothing but power. But to stop Par-shon, he needed to keep the archivists safe.

Amia hugged him for a moment, pulling him into a tight embrace.

“Spirit shaping was the only advantage we had,” Tan explained. “If that’s gone, then I’m not sure what to do.”

“Be safe,” she said. “And come back to me.”

“I will do everything that I can to return,” he said.

Amia touched his face, letting her fingers linger a moment. Then she turned away from him toward a trio of waiting Mothers, all needing her.

Tan shaped himself to Asboel. The draasin remained high overhead, keeping mostly out of sight. Tan landed atop his back and slumped between his spikes.

We must find the archivists,
Tan said.
We must find why Par-shon would want them. How could spirit be used with the elementals?

Asboel breathed out an angry blast of fire.
They have Enya, Maelen.

Tan tensed, gripping the spikes on Asboel’s back.
Are you certain?

The connection to the fire bond fails. I cannot sense her.

Where was she last?

Asboel snorted in his frustration.
She hunted and receded from the bond. I do not know.

Spirit shaping could hide her from you?

Possibly.

Can it force a bond that I could not simply sever?

Spirit is the reason our bond has changed
.

We will find her, Asboel,
Tan said.

Asboel’s wide circles now took them over Incendin. Tan reached out with earth sensing, pressing out with earth and spirit, reaching across Incendin, striving to find where Par-shon might have gone. The landscape below them changed, the ground turning harder and more barren. The visible plants were more stunted and twisted. Tan sensed the bleakness beneath him, a sense of emptiness.

Yet there was life. Distantly, a city pressed on his earth sensing. It was different than the one he’d helped before. This was smaller, no more than a village, and nestled along the border. People moved within, but he couldn’t tell anything more than that. He sensed another city farther along the border, lying along a shallow river. Tan had been mistaken thinking that Incendin had been completely arid. Many of their cities existed along the sea and along the streams leading away from the mountains.

Frustration seeped through him. He still saw nothing, sensed nothing that would explain where Par-shon might have gone. Asboel shared his frustration, and flew with increasing agitation.

Every so often, Tan sensed the pressure of fire. Shapings much like the one in Doma, and the one in Incendin, pushed against him.
Do you sense it?

I sense it, Maelen.

Is that how they trapped her? Did they force her where they wanted her to go?

Asboel snorted a streamer of flame from his nostril.
It should not work.

Perhaps not on you. You’re protected by the bond. As is Sashari. But Enya…

Asboel swooped higher into the air, circling. The vantage gave Tan a new perspective as he looked through Asboel’s eyes. Incendin flowed into the Gholund Mountains, which then dropped down into the kingdoms. From here, he could even see how Incendin slowly drifted into what would be Nara to the north, and to Doma in the east. Chenir would be far to the north and east, with the kingdoms off to the west.

Can you follow fire?
Tan asked.

Not this shaping. It does not burn through the bond. It is masked.

Tan recognized the frustration that Asboel felt. They would have to find her another way.

Circling as they did, Tan thought of the ancient maps he’d stared at in the archived books. Over time, the kingdoms had drawn Vatten from the sea, using shapings that had been long lost. Rens had once covered what was now Nara and Incendin, but Rens hadn’t been as dry as either was today. Doma had been larger, once a wider stretch of land, but water and time had worn it away. The Gholund Mountains had once been near the center of it all, separating each nation from the other with a natural boundary. With all the changes, it was no longer the center of the land.

Images of the maps floated through Tan’s mind as he struggled to make sense of it. There was something important that he was only grasping at, something that he could almost reach. Staring at the mountains wouldn’t give him the answers. Maybe there were no answers to be had.

Except, when he thought about it, the mountains weren’t the center of the land any longer. With as much as had been claimed from the sea, Ethea essentially marked the center, made more prominent with as much as Doma had shrunk, if the maps were true. Ethea, a place of convergence. There had been another place of convergence, though that had been within the mountains…

Such places were not marked on maps, but did they need to be? Knowing the elementals, they would understand how the place of convergence was found. They would understand the power found in such places.

Where would Par-shon have gone if they wanted to draw elementals, force spirit bonds upon them? Where could Par-shon hide so that Tan couldn’t find them? Where could they have taken Enya so that none would reach her?

Tan could think of only one answer: the same place the ancient scholars once thought to hide an ancient artifact of power.