It went into the bondar.
There was resistance against Tolan. Something was fighting him, struggling to grab onto the shaping he used, but Tolan held tightly to it. He remained latched onto spirit, to fire, and because he was bound to the draasin, he thought he could use that connection in order to help the Draasin Lord into the bondar.
Fire continued to swirl, and Tolan realized that it wasn’t going to be enough. However the Draasin Lord had been forced into the bondar before, had required more energy than Tolan could draw upon.
He didn’t have to do this alone.
Could he ask for hyza to help?
What he needed was some way to reach the element bond. He could call upon the elements, and he could use the elementals, but reaching beyond both of those was going to be the key.
Tolan focused on hyza, straining for the element bond. It had to be there. He knew that hyza remained connected to the element bond, and because of that, Tolan could reach through it and use that power. Even though there was no connection to it here, there had to be something for him to find.
Tolan grabbed for that power.
It was there within him.
It was subtle, almost imagined, a thread and no more.
It was all he needed.
If he could use that thread, if he could pull upon the energy of the element bond, he could draw it toward him. Hyza created the connection from the other side of the waste, and he could use that.
He connected it, lashing that strength and power from himself to the draasin.
Fire moved through the bond, heading slowly, but it strengthened the Draasin Lord. As it did, the heat and flame continued to spiral around the Draasin Lord, and he turned it toward the bondar.
Tolan didn’t even have to do anything other than allow that power to flow. He didn’t have to direct anything. The energy was there, filling the bondar.
Gradually, the flames filled it. Tolan held onto the bondar, feeling the heat rise within it, but even that was not nearly as much as he would’ve expected. He could feel that energy, and he could feel the heat and power of the bondar, and he could feel the Draasin Lord heading into it. By holding onto a connection to spirit, there was something of him within the bondar as well.
The Draasin Lord rumbled in his mind. There was agitation. Anger. Resignation.
That last left him feeling sad. The Draasin Lord didn’t deserve to be tormented like this, but to be able to escape, Tolan thought it necessary.
Power streaked toward him.
He turned, holding onto the fire connection, now he recognized the sense of the element bond within him, and pushed against it.
Heat erupted in the sky.
Power bloomed from him and he turned away any possible attacker.
Tolan turned his attention back to the incoming attack.
There was another coming toward him.
Could he reach for earth the same way?
He might have to. To escape this, he needed to find a way to connect to that element bond, but Tolan wasn’t sure if it would be as reachable through hyza. What he needed was another elemental to borrow from. If only he had taken the time to try to reach for other elementals. By freeing them and communicating with them, he hadn’t taken the time to get to know them.
That was a mistake he didn’t have time to correct now, but when he survived this—not if—he would make the time to work with the other elementals and see if there was a way to create a bond like he had with hyza and the Draasin Lord.
Taking a deep breath and letting it out, he focused on the sense of earth within hyza. It was there as well. Because of that sense, he recognized the faint connection that was needed.
He held onto that energy, focusing on it, and he could feel the connection.
It was just as thready as what he had detected in the fire bond.
In this case, there was nothing to attach the sense of earth to—other than himself.
Ever since his time working with the Keystone, Tolan had been able to reach the element bonds. Working with the elementals and the bondars had helped him learn how to connect to the element bonds.
This was different. By holding onto the sense of the element bonds, but turning the sense of earth toward him, Tolan latched onto it in a way he hadn’t before.
Earth flowed through him, strengthening him.
It happened slowly, but as it came to him, an increased sense of strength filled him. He embraced that sense of strength, letting it flow into him.
An attack struck, and this time when he pushed out with earth, he did so with an augmentation of strength he didn’t have before. He let that sense of energy roll away from him, striking the shaper that attempted to hit him. Tolan used more power, letting it erupt. Another attack came, and much like the last, Tolan burst out with more force.
He held onto that sense of earth as it flowed through him, embracing the energy of it. He pushed outward, holding on to as much as he could as the sense of earth continued to explode.
Bondar energy struck him. It came again and again. Each time that it struck, Tolan did his best to try to withstand it, but each time it struck, he became increasingly overwhelmed by it. There was enough power here he was having a hard time.
He needed to depart.
He could still use a warrior shaping.
Tolan began to wrap power around himself. He started with earth, only because he was connected to the earth bond at this point. He added to it fire, borrowing through hyza and the element bond as well. Then he added wind, which circled all around him. Finally, water.
As he began to focus on adding spirit, something trembled.
His hold on the shaping began to fade.
He tried to maintain, but he struggled with it. Something caught him, and despite everything he did to get free and hold his shaping, he failed.
He couldn’t add spirit.
And if he couldn’t add spirit, then the warrior shaping couldn’t take hold.
He looked down at the top of the tower. He hadn’t realized how close he was drifting toward it. There was power around it, and the sense of elementals attacking. More than that, there was a sense of shapers within the tower, all of them working in one way or another. Attacking. Some of them were targeting the elementals, but others were targeting him.
Tolan pushed against that energy, focusing on what he could, and he strained to ignore it. It wasn’t going to be enough.
He pushed again, focusing on wind, adding fire. The combination normally would allow him to blast himself into the sky, but in this case, it didn’t do enough.
What if he added each of the elements?
It normally wouldn’t make a difference. Normally when he had each of the elements without spirit, it didn’t carry him away, but in this case, Tolan had to try. If he wasn’t able to reach for spirit…
Why couldn’t he reach for spirit?
His mother.
Tolan looked down at the top of the tower. He used a shaping of wind, trying to magnify everything below. When he did, he saw her. She stood there, three shapers near her, all looking up at him. All three of them held orb bondars. They were targeting him.
She was targeting him.
He resisted the desire to head down and attack her. It would serve no purpose—and it was what she wanted. If he did what she wanted, then he would fail at what he wanted. And what he wanted was to rescue the Draasin Lord.
He held onto the bondar, squeezing the energy within it. There had to be something he could do to stop her.
Not yet. Not now. Now he was here, in this land where he saw that the elementals were battling with shapers, he wondered if it was even necessary. This was not his fight. He wanted nothing to do with it. His mother had brought this fight here.
Having barely survived elementals himself, Tolan didn’t even know if it mattered. The elementals were complicit as well.
Tolan focused on earth and fire. He balanced himself, reaching through the bond, getting that sense together
. When he did, he felt for something more.
He could feel energy out there, and he thought he might be able to use it.
All it would take would be for him to soar into the sky. Get high enough away from his mother’s influence that she wouldn’t be able to impact his ability to use spirit. All it would take would be for him to reach for that sense of power. And then he could return to Terndahl.
Tolan held onto that sense and focused, pushing himself upward. There was a gradual sense of resistance, and as he fought, struggling against it, he could feel the energy as it was trying to hold him back. Tolan ignored it, choosing instead to focus on what he could pull on through the element bond. He needed to reach for that power. He needed to draw upon it.
Slowly, the sense began to fade. The resistance against him began to ease.
Tolan moved higher into the sky. With each passing moment, that resistance loosened. He ignored it. There was no choice but to do so, and as he ignored it, he could feel its draw upon him, and he recognized he would be able to separate.
That was all he wanted to do. Get away from the attack. Get far enough up into the sky he could save the Draasin Lord.
He moved higher into the sky. There was a sense of the power still trying to get to him, but he was able to ignore it. The higher he got, the easier it became for him to do so. He could feel that power continuing its attempt to pull upon him, but he stayed above it, ignoring it.
Another sense began to come to him. While he was in the air, focusing on what he was able to detect, he realized there was something else that drifted toward him.
It was subtle, but Tolan knew the source of it.
Spirit.
It was a spirit shaping, and it came from his mother, who made no effort to hide its source. The only thing he was able to determine was that it came from some place far below, targeting him and filled with power.
Was she using something to augment her connection to spirit? He couldn’t tell. Given her connection to the bondar, he suspected it would be possible for her to use it like that, but he didn’t know with any certainty.
Tolan hesitated. She had wanted him to know she was attempting to shape spirit. Within the spirit shaping, there was a message.
He could feel it, but he had to open himself up and embrace the idea she would send him a message. To hear the message, he would have to allow her to send it to him.
It was something he hesitated to do, but it was unusual enough for her to try to reach out to him he felt compelled to pause.
The sense of his mother down below came to him.
It was like a voice in his mind, almost as if she were standing in front of him.
“You should not have come.”
“You shape spirit so I could hear that from you?”
“You know so little, Tolan. All this time, you thought you understood the elements and elementals, and all this time, you have been misguided.”
The spirit shaping drifted toward him with enough strength within it that Tolan was able to hear as if she stood only a dozen paces away from him. She made no effort to scream, to yell, though Tolan didn’t need her to do that. He could hear her quite well the way it was. With her shaping, the sense of her drifted toward him with enough power he could feel it.
He shivered.
“You still fear me,” she said.
“I recognize what you’re trying to do,” he said.
“You have no idea what I’m trying to do,” she said.
“You used the villagers to help you learn how to make those bondars.”
“Did I? Or did the villagers already know how to make those bondars and I took that knowledge from them?”
Tolan frowned, thinking about what he had detected from the villagers. He had used their knowledge, mixing it together, mingling it in a way helped him know what they had known.
This was another example of his mother trying to confuse him. She had confounded him for so much of his life he questioned everything when it came to her.
“No. You wanted something from them.”
“Perhaps I can’t completely fool you anymore.”
Tolan was aware of the way she was trying to reach him, and her shapers were attacking him even as he hovered in the sky. He prepared a shaping, getting ready for the possibility he might need to use the warrior shaping to escape. While he was there, the sense of power they were using was far below him.
He held onto it, uncertain whether there was going to be anything in it he would need to be worried about.
There was nothing from her. No sense of power. No sense of anything.
The only thing he did detect was that she continued to try to attack him.
Her sense of spirit assaulted him. It was one after another, a continuous blast of power that was an onslaught of energy. He tried to ignore it, but she was powerful, and he had a sense she was pulling upon a bondar that granted her even more strength.
Could she be able to reach through a spirit bond?
He didn’t know if there even was a spirit bond. As far as he knew, spirit was unique, though it didn’t have to be. Everything he had experienced had a bond.
“I’m leaving and I don’t intend to return. You can have your battle with the elementals all you want.”
He started to shape, pulling upon the sense of the warrior shaping. Now he was high enough, she was unable to influence him the same way she had been otherwise. He prepared to depart but he detected a sense from her that suggested he pause.
“You may want to remain,” she said.
“This isn’t my fight. Now that I’ve rescued the Draasin Lord, I’m taking him back to Terndahl.”
“You’re mistaken if you think that this isn’t your fight.”
“How am I mistaken?”
Tolan drifted higher into the air, letting the power of the shaping carry him up and up. The longer he held on to it, the weaker he began to grow. This might be nothing more than her attempt to try to delay him, to force him to use more strength than he wanted to, but he wanted to find out just what she was trying to use to waylay him. There had to be some reason behind it. When it came to his mother, she had reasons, and then reasons behind her reasons.
Spirit shaped toward him again.
This time, there wasn’t a message within it. There was only an image.
Tolan’s breath caught.
Ferrah.
20
Tolan hovered for a moment, but the message was clear.
Somehow, his mother had Ferrah.
He didn’t know how that was even possible, but he could sense from her message that she did have her. She intended to use Ferrah against him.
Tolan couldn’t simply do nothing, but as he headed to the ground, he opened himself up to his mother and put himself at risk. That was exactly what his mother wanted from him.
He hesitated.
His mother likely had planned something. Tolan had to be thoughtful about what he did. He had to be careful with how he approached his mother.
He looked down at the ground, focusing on what he could see. There was a sense of the elementals down below, but there was also the sense of the shapers. As he stared at the ground, looking at the movement on the top of the tower, he saw no sign of Ferrah. What if his mother was only using that image to try to draw him toward her?
It was the kind of thing she would do. He believed that she would try to use him, to try to use his concern for Ferrah against him. “You don’t even have her,” Tolan said, pushing it through spirit.
“Don’t I?”
“No.”
“Yet you wonder. You let her leave, heading out over the waste. It’s a dangerous place for someone like us.”
“I’m nothing like you.”
“No. You are so much more than me. I told you that you were going to be needed, Tolan. Now he will prove it.”
He?
The one she served.
He shivered and focused on Ferrah, thinking about his sense of her. He had used
spirit with her before, and because of that, he thought he might be able to connect to her, to see if he could identify where she was and if she truly had been captured by his mother.
As he did, he didn’t detect anything. If there was a sense of spirit out there that would reveal Ferrah’s presence, he didn’t have it.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t still here.
If she was on the other side of the waste, he wouldn’t detect her. If she were here, knowing what he did of his mother, and knowing the power she possessed over spirit, it was possible she was able to shield Ferrah from detection.
He had only a few options.
Tolan knew what Ferrah would tell him to do. She would tell him to leave her behind, to return if it meant he was heading back the Academy and abandoning the situation out here. She would want him to go back and serve Terndahl.
In that way, she was like the Draasin Lord.
But she also would know he could not. She had to know he couldn’t abandon her.
He held out the Draasin Lord’s bondar. As he did, he focused on the warrior shaping. If nothing else, she could have him, but she wasn’t going to have the Draasin Lord.
He used each of the elements, binding them together, adding spirit, and he targeted the orb bondar. When it struck, the lightning bolt slammed into his hand and the orb was carried away.
He carried it to the Convergence within the free elemental village. He hoped the Draasin Lord would be safe there. If he reached the Convergence, it was possible he could recover. The Draasin Lord could gain strength. He might even able to escape the bondar.
Tolan looked down at the ground, focusing on spirit. His mother was still down there, waiting for him. Did she know he’d summoned a warrior shaping?
It didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that he could get to Ferrah.
Tolan descended.
He held onto his shaping, focusing on the sense of the elements and the elementals, and even that of the bond. It was there within him, though it was faint. He dropped toward the tower, the barrage of shapers attacking him, holding onto him, pulling him down.
Tolan didn’t struggle.
This was for Ferrah.
She wouldn’t want him to do this, but that was exactly the reason he had to. He needed to do whatever he could to help her. When he landed on the top of the tower, the three shapers grabbed him.
The Elements Bond (Elemental Academy Book 7) Page 22
