Serpent of Fire (21 page)

“How quickly can you reach the hatchling?” Amia asked.

Tan understood what she meant: would he have time to help her before going to kaas?

“I need to trap it and not allow it to reach the fortress,” he said “If it does, there might not be any way for me to stop it. All of Incendin would be in danger. The real barrier between us and Par-shon could be lost.”

“But if you don’t help the hatchling, you might not have the help you need to stop him, either.”

Amia was right. He needed to help Asboel or he wouldn’t have enough fire strength to stop kaas when he did reach him.

Swearing under his breath, Tan grabbed Amia and formed a warrior shaping, pulling it down to him. In a flash of lightning, they traveled toward the hatchling.

T
an should not have been surprised to find the wagons of the false Aeta when they arrived. They were circled around a small lake, camped along the shores. But there were more wagons here than he’d seen in Ethea. A small flame crackled at the center. There were sounds of voices and laughter, but none of the music that would usually accompany the Aeta. Nothing of the life and the vibrancy that followed the People. Or that had, until Incendin attacked them.

As they landed near a copse of trees, Tan reached for the fire bond, still connected to spirit by Amia’s shaping, and sensed the hatchling. She was there amidst the wagons.

“How did I miss it before?” he wondered.

“And how would they have captured her?” Amia asked.

Tan shook his head. “We’ll have to free her before Asboel arrives or he’ll destroy everything.”

“You don’t want to destroy everything?”

“I want to know the reason she would have been taken. I can’t know that if everything is destroyed. You’ll need to shape,” Tan urged.

“Tan—”

“Listen, I know you only want to use your ability the way that the Great Mother intended, but I know that she intended me to help the elementals. I can’t do that without you.”

She smiled grimly. “No. I was going to say that I’m already shaping. I’m trying something subtle. A soothing pattern. It should buy you time to find where they have her.”

Tan made certain that Amia was safe behind the trees, blocked from discovery by the false Aeta. From what he’d seen of them when they were in Ethea, there probably weren’t any spirit sensers with them, but he didn’t want to take any chances and risk her getting hurt.

Then, with another bolt of lightning, he launched into the center of wagon circle.

He landed with an explosion of light, his sword already unsheathed as he prepared a shaping binding each of the elements together. Power assaulted him almost as soon as he landed.

He should have expected the attack. Hadn’t he felt the drawing of the elements coming from the wagons while in Ethea? Shapers traveled with this caravan, and with strength enough to slow him.

Tan sensed direction to the shaping and caught it with the sword, directing it away from him. The shaping was powerful, nearly what he’d sensed from Par-shon bound to the elementals. As he directed it away from him, he summoned through the ring to Roine.

Another attack came, this of wind. There was a faint whistling, a soft summoning whisper. Tan recognized it. He’d heard it before, when watching shapers as they stood in the courtyard of the university.

Tan avoided a shaping of earth that threatened to lift him into the air, leaping on a shaping of wind. He targeted the wagons with his sword, sweeping it in an arc around him, binding fire and wind to tear the wagons apart. He would see his attackers.

The ground thudded, rumbling with golud. Tan recognized it now, recognized the way the Chenir shapers used the earth elemental, and pressed his own shaping against it.
Golud!
Tan demanded.
Maelen needs your help!

The earth shaking eased, rebuffing the attempt of the Chenir shapers to use the elemental. Tan pulled on fire, turning it into a bolt of lightning, striking at the wagons with a precise blow. The wagons splintered and fell open. Most held cowering people. A few were dressed in the robes of the Chenir shapers, each of their shapers attempting to work with the rhythm of the elementals.

Tan frowned. There was something off about the way they worked. It wasn’t so much about the rhythm, but more about the way the elementals were drawn along with it. They went willingly.

“Stop!” Tan shouted.

The fury of the attacks around him persisted. Fire and earth and wind and water continued attempting to batter him. He sensed Asboel approaching, drawn to the location by Tan’s summons. Soon Roine would be here as well, and with him would come other kingdoms’ shapers. Then the attack would change. Any hope of using Chenir as an ally would be gone.

At least now, Tan had the hope of containing it, of stopping it, before shapers were harmed. If only he
could
stop it.

Tan pulled through his sword, drawing strength through the blade, summoning each of the elements that he commanded, pulling on the elementals around him,
dragging
them away from the rhythm that the Chenir shapers used.

He was Maelen. The Great Mother gifted him with the ability to speak to all the elementals. They came slowly, but they came.

Chenir shapers increased their attempt to pull the elementals back. They recognized what Tan did and fought against it.

Asboel was nearly upon them.

Tan sensed his fury. Likely Sashari came as well. If she did, then Cianna would be with her.

Tan bound the elements together and added spirit, surging it through his sword.

Rather than aiming this at any one shaper, as he had done with Par-shon, he aimed the shaping into the sky, using it like a summoning beacon, drawing more and more elemental strength to him. Power exploded from his sword.

Then Tan released it outward. The shaping was not meant to destroy, only to subdue.

Those in the wagons who were not shapers fell first. They dropped, some grabbing their heads. Others simply stopped moving. Then the shapers collapsed, falling to the ground.

Tan stood in the midst of the wagons, holding the raging power of the elementals within him. Asboel landed next to him, streaming smoke and fire from his nostrils, anger surging from him. Tan turned to the draasin and set his hand upon his side, soothing him with spirit before he attacked.

What is this, Maelen?

I don’t yet know. But we will find out.

You did not destroy them.

I don’t think I was meant to.

Asboel was confused, but Tan didn’t explain. Unlike with Par-shon, Tan had no sense that the elementals were forced. Nothing told him that they feared the Chenir shapers. Tan didn’t want to destroy these shapers until he understood.

Tan turned and surveyed the wagons.
Be ready, Asboel
.

Where is she? Where is the hatchling?

Tan pointed to the wagon that remained intact. Runes were marked on the outside. Tan understood now how the hatchling had been hidden from them, if not why. Asboel jumped to it, and with one terrible rip with his claws, he tore the top of the wagon off.

Inside was the hatchling, resting comfortably, curled with her tail around her. She snorted when she saw Asboel.

Asboel roared, lifting her free. She crawled on his back and then they rubbed noses together.

Return her to the den,
Tan advised.
I will find you soon.

For once, Asboel didn’t argue with Tan’s command. With a quick flip of his wings, the two draasin leapt into the air and quickly faded into the sky.

Tan turned back to the remains of the wagons. A shadowy figure landed next to him and Tan turned to Honl.
You will help?

There is no darkness at work here.

If not darkness, there is something else at work. I will learn why Chenir calls on our elementals,
Tan said.

Within one of the wagons was a face that he recognized. The water shaper who had followed him through Ethea sat up slowly, holding her head as she did. “Is this why you came?” he asked. “You wanted the draasin?”

She rubbed her head, looking around the remaining wagons. Most had been destroyed, torn apart by Tan and then by Asboel. “Why would you do this?” she asked.

Tan was surprised by the comment. “Why would I? You
abducted
an elemental!”

She shook her head. “We steal nothing. We call to the elementals. If they answer, that is their choice. It is a request, not a demand.”

“Is this why you came here?” he asked. “Is this the reason you visited Ethea?”

Her mouth tightened into a thin line and she refused to answer. Tan leapt toward her on a shaping of wind and landed in front of her. He held his sword out, brandishing it with more agitation than she deserved. The problem was, Tan didn’t know what she deserved.

“Did you come to steal the elementals like Par-shon? Will you force them to bond? Do you work with them?”

Her eyes widened. Tan wondered if she would again refuse to answer, but then she fixed him with a mournful gaze. “You know nothing of Chenir.”

“Then explain it to me.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Why do you care? Do you think you can help?”

Help. One more request upon him. “There won’t be any help if you don’t explain why you’re here.”

“Why? Why would you help? You care only about protecting the kingdoms, protection that is guaranteed with the draw you have for the elemental powers. You force the rest of us to have nothing but scraps.”

“We don’t force anything,” Tan said.

She tipped her head. “No? Then why keep your shaped wall in place if not to hold the elementals inside? Is that not the purpose?” She jabbed at Tan angrily. “We thought that we might finally be able to reach for the lost elementals when the barrier fell, but now you rebuild, continue to divide the lands. Once your barrier is complete, they will be separated from us again. We will lose access to the elementals. We had to come now, before it is finished, before you remove access.”

Tan hadn’t realized that the elementals couldn’t cross the barrier. Had Roine? Had Lacertin when he’d help designed and created the barrier?

“Why did you come here?” Tan asked.

The water shaper looked away, glancing down at the rest of the people in the wagon. There were four, three of them children. The remaining was a younger man. Tan took a moment to look at the other wagons, each of them with many children as well. Some had the men that he’d seen as the false Aeta, but there were mostly shapers and children.

“What is this?” he asked more gently.

“This is all who remain of our shapers,” she said in a whisper.

“And you came to call the elementals?”

“We came so they could learn the rhythm. And if the elementals choose to come with us, then we would allow that as well.”

“Why did you need to come here to learn the rhythm?”

“You don’t know?”

Tan shook his head but began to suspect the reason. It was likely the same reason Falsheim had burned, and the same reason the Fire Fortress glowed brightly. “Par-shon?” he asked.

She nodded once. “Our elementals are lost, trapped by their shapers. We don’t understand how they have done it, only that they managed to rid our once-powerful land of the protection we enjoyed. And now the land itself suffers, our people failing, because of Par-shon. Now we can no longer call to the elementals. We had to come here for our shapers to learn.”

“Why not ask for help? Why do it this way?”

“Would you have helped had you known that our elementals were lost? Would you have come to us, willingly allowing us to call to the elementals, knowing that some might choose to join us?”

“The elementals were never meant to be confined to the land. They are a part of everything and should be free.”

“Yet you have chosen for them. You have come here and separated us from those that we called.”

“Because you took a draasin too young to answer a summons.”

“We did not take the draasin.”

Tan turned and saw the Supreme Leader of Chenir standing behind him. He was dressed in the long, flowing robes of his office. A strange tall hat sat atop his head, marked with a few runes of power.

“You had the draasin in your wagon,” Tan said.

“Because it was drawn toward fire. Had we not found the creature, it would have been caught in the trap.”

“You expect me to believe that you were trying to help the draasin?”

The Supreme Leader crossed his arms over his chest. “You will believe what you wish, Athan.”

“Why not simply summon the draasin?” Tan asked. “If you knew that the hatchling was too young, why not return her to her family?”

“You cannot know what we know.” He sniffed. “I understand now why you are Athan. You are a powerful shaper, but you do not understand the elementals the way that we do in Chenir.”

Tan glared at him. “I suspect that I understand them better. Can you speak to them? Can you hear the elementals answer when you call, or do you simply draw them with the rhythm? I have seen the way that you use the elementals. They do not oppose it, not like they do the forced bond of Par-shon, but it is not the same as speaking to them.”

“You,” he began, his voice taking on a hushed tone, “speak to the elementals?”

“I am more than Athan. I am bonded to the draasin, bonded to ashi, and bonded to nymid. All bonds made by choice. I will see that Par-shon no longer forces any bond, that the elementals are given the choice to bond. And I will protect the elementals of all lands from attack.”

“Then you know of the fire that destroys.”

“Kaas,” Tan said.

The Supreme Leader frowned. “There is no elemental by that name.”

“There should not be,” Tan agreed. “Which is why I must capture it, and if necessary, destroy it.”

The Supreme Leader took a step toward Tan. As he did, Tan reached for spirit, using a sensing to try and understand the man. He sensed a deep concern for his people, a concern Tan had sensed from Roine the last time he’d bothered to attempt such a thing. Most of the time, Roine blocked spirit, using water and air to keep his mind protected. Occasionally, he’d let his guard down, just enough that Tan could reach past his barriers and see what drove him, and then he was aware of the concern that Roine felt for the people of the kingdoms. It’s what made him such a skilled leader.

Tan’s concern was less about the people and more about the elementals. He didn’t want anything to happen to the people, but the choices he’d made had come from a desire to help the elementals that had time and again helped him. Tan suspected that would make him a poor leader.

Mixed with the Supreme Leader’s concern for his people was an emotion that Tan had not expected. There was respect there for the elementals. He recognized their importance and wanted nothing to happen to them. And when they had been lost from Chenir, the Supreme Leader had known a sense of loss.