The Spirit Binds

by D. K. Holmberg

  “What did you do?” Tolan asked.

  “What makes you think I did anything? You’re the one who detected the rogue elemental.”

  Tolan shook his head. “Detected it and released it from whatever it was you did to it. Why?”

  Tanner stared at him. “I think your assignment was clear, Tolan.”

  “What?”

  “Didn’t the Grand Inquisitor instruct that you were supposed to bring us to the Academy? You wouldn’t want to fail in that assignment.”

  Tolan took a deep breath, approaching Tanner. “What is this? Are you working with them?” The idea seemed laughable, but what other explanation was there? There didn’t seem to be anything fitting other than the possibility Tanner was somehow working with the Inquisitors.

  If he was, then they had spread their influence far beyond what he’d expected. If that were the case, they might already have been too late. And here he and the Grand Inquisitor thought they had released the shapers at the Academy from the touch of the Inquisitors.

  “Working with them? What would give you that idea?”

  Tolan ignored him, holding on to the bondar and pushing into Tanner’s mind, using a shaping that swirled through him. He didn’t have anything like the Grand Inquisitor’s connection or touch with spirit, but in this case, he wasn’t sure it was needed. All he wanted to do was find out if there was a shaping there he had overlooked. They had believed their thoughts were a jumble, but what if that was wrong?

  Tanner merely stared at him. “If you think you’re going to find a shaping, you won’t.”

  Tolan continued to push through him, searching for any evidence of what had happened to him, but came up with nothing. “Why?”

  “Why would I have done what?”

  Tolan waved his hands around, pointing toward where he’d dealt with the wind elemental. “Why were you responsible for that? How were you responsible for that?”

  “You don’t think I’m skilled enough?” Tanner struggled against the shaping Tolan had used to hold him in place, adding wind it to it, but Tolan had used elements he didn’t think his friend had a counter to. In doing so, he had bound him to the Shapers Path, holding him in place in a way that should prevent him from going anywhere. “That’s rich, coming from you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You know quite well what that’s supposed to mean. When you left Ephra, you had no shaping ability. You were brought to the Academy, Selected, when others who could shape were not. The Academy was supposed to be held up as the ideal, the place where if you trained hard enough, you would eventually be granted an opportunity to go and learn, to serve Terndahl.”

  “It doesn’t work like that,” Tolan said.

  “Obviously.”

  “How long have you remembered?”

  That had to be the key, didn’t it? It wasn’t so much that there was a shaping on him—from what Tolan could tell, there was no spirit shaping placed on Tanner. It was more a matter of having the shaping removed. In that, he was acting much like the Grand Inquisitor had warned. There was a danger in those who weren’t Selected. Tolan hadn’t believed that at the time, thinking perhaps there had to be another way, but it seemed the Grand Inquisitor was right.

  “Since I was shown the truth.”

  “What exactly do you think is the truth?”

  “That the Academy is not what we were led to believe. You are the perfect example of that.”

  “I’m the perfect example of how the Academy finds those who can shape even if they don’t show that potential early on,” he said. It was easier to phrase it like that than to reveal the truth, that his parents had prevented him from knowing about his ability to shape. Had there not been that spirit shaping in place, had his mother not placed some barrier to him remembering, would Tolan have recalled what he needed to know even sooner? Would he have developed an ability to shape before leaving Ephra?

  He had to think he was already starting to show those abilities, and that was why his parents had used a shaping on him, trying to conceal from him what he could be.

  “You’re the perfect example of how the Academy is nothing but a falsehood. We have been shown the truth.”

  “By who?”

  “You probably would blame the Draasin Lord and would accuse us of serving like your parents served.”

  Tolan tensed. It was one thing to hear others within Ephra accusing his parents of serving the Draasin Lord—regardless of knowing the truth—and it was quite another for him to hear someone who had long been his friend, someone who had defended him over the years from those accusations, who had helped him find a way of remaining calm despite the fact others within Ephra continued to accuse him of being a secretive operative for the Draasin Lord.

  “I wouldn’t accuse you of serving the Draasin Lord,” he said.

  “You probably think we’re somehow betraying Terndahl, but we have been shown the truth. The Academy has become the oppressor. And now we know, now we have been shown that, we will ensure it doesn’t continue.”

  “Who?” All he wanted was for Tanner to admit it came from the Inquisitors. The moment he did, then Tolan could find the Grand Inquisitor and warn her.

  There was another reason he delayed. It was possible there was more to this, and maybe he might even find out who they served. If they uncovered that, they could begin to unravel what was taking place, why the Inquisitors had managed to work so long in the shadows.

  “If you think I’m going to reveal the name to you, you’re mistaken. Unfortunately, you will have to find out on your own. And now, I think it’s time for you to continue with your assignment, Tolan.”

  Tolan laughed bitterly. “If you think I’m going to bring you to the Academy, you’re mistaken.” He frowned, looking at Tanner. There had to be some way he’d managed to release the elemental, but what was it? What was the secret to what Tanner had done to cause the elemental to attack?

  Another thing occurred to him.

  Tanner was delaying him.

  With a quick surge of wind and fire, Tolan took to the air. As he did, he glanced down. He was looking for Bryn, but there was no sign of her on the ground. Either she had been taken or, more likely, she was in on this, and Tanner had been waiting for her to come back around.

  He focused on locating any shaping around him. There had to be some evidence of it, and if he could uncover it, then he might be able to know where she had gone. There was no sense of shaping other than from Tanner. His was a surge of wind, a powerful funnel of wind, and it was surprising he was not attempting to shape himself free. The shaping was focused on something near him.

  Tolan darted back, landing on the Shapers Path near Tanner, and he sent a powerful shaping at the other man, wrapping him in a barrier, sealing him inside. As he held it, he approached carefully.

  “What do you have?”

  Tanner stared at him.

  “Your shaping. What were you doing?”

  “You will never understand,” Tanner said.

  “You’re right. I thought you were my friend. I won’t understand what changed and why you became a part of this. You don’t have to be. You should know I’ve been serving the Academy, and I want nothing more than to ensure the integrity of the Academy. You can help with that.”

  “Help? Why would I want to help with the integrity of the Academy when they have proven exactly what they will do? Why would we want to be a part of anything that’s proven it’s nothing more than a farce?”

  Tolan grabbed for Tanner, peeling his arms back, and reached inside his jacket. There was something there, the source of whatever it was he was shaping upon. As he pulled it out, his eyes widened. It looked something like a withering, but the shapes were wrong. It was a bondar, but it was like a twisted bondar that seemed as if it called to the elementals and twisted them, tormenting them.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “Would you like one for yourself? I’m sure we could arrange that. With your ne
wfound shaping ability, you might be useful.”

  There was something not quite right here. This wasn’t Tanner. Tanner wasn’t the kind to torment and taunt someone, was he? He didn’t remember Tanner ever acting like this. He had always been the one who had protected Tolan, defending him when others had threatened him. This was nothing like the kind of person Tanner was.

  And yet… What other explanation was there?

  He wasn’t sure there was one.

  He shoved the strange bondar into his pocket, grabbed for Tanner, released the shaping around him, and felt the surge of a shaping near him.

  As he did, he frowned. Where was it coming from?

  Better yet, what was it targeting? The sense of the shaping continued to build and Tolan prepared for the possibility of an attack, but it never came. He hesitated, remaining where he was, looking around.

  “What’s the matter?” Tanner asked. “Did you think I was alone?”

  With a sudden understanding, power began to build all around him.

  Shapers. Many of them.

  And Tolan had expended considerable energy trying to withstand the elemental.

  12

  The power continued to build around him, the steady sense of shaping energy, the kind Tolan could feel swirling all about him. He wasn’t able to detect what type of shaping was used, or whether there was anything within the shaping he needed to be concerned about. He couldn’t even detect the intention of the shaping.

  Many times, when he was at the Academy, there were aspects to a shaping that he could uncover, but it was almost as if this were hidden from him, twisted in such a way so he wouldn’t be able to determine what caused it. And if that was the case, then whoever was there preparing to attack must have had some idea Tolan had an awareness of shaping.

  They had either come for him specifically, or they were prepared for the possibility they would encounter someone like him.

  Tolan focused on the wind all around him, focusing on the heat in the air, the earth and everything coming from within the landscape. He tried to draw on that energy, prepared for the need to shape, wanting to connect to everything here in order to do so. The moment he relaxed, the moment he wasn’t prepared, would be the moment the attack would strike in a way he wouldn’t be able to counter.

  There was something off about the air, though he wasn’t sure what it was. It was probably whatever Tanner had wanted him to experience, as if he could somehow use that against Tolan.

  And perhaps he could.

  “Why are you doing this?” he asked.

  Tanner only shook his head. “I’m not doing anything, Tolan. This has been the Academy’s doing.”

  The strange thing about a comment like that was how Tolan actually agreed with parts of it, though he doubted it was the same part Tanner agreed with. While he understood there were things the Academy had done, and ways they had addressed the elementals over the years, thinking them something to fear, he also recognized there was more to it. He didn’t fear what the Academy might do. They might be misguided, especially when it came to the elementals, but the Academy itself was not the enemy. There were those within the Academy who might be, but the more he learned, especially from people like Master Minden, the more Tolan felt as if there was a desire for greater understanding.

  Only, that desire was mixed with the anger and hatred targeted at the Draasin Lord. They blamed him for whatever had happened, almost as if he was the one responsible for the events transpiring, but that was not the case.

  “Who’s coming?”

  “I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise.”

  “I already know you view the Draasin Lord as something to fear.”

  “Fear? You should fear the Draasin Lord,” Tanner said.

  “Why?”

  “With everything you went through, everything your parents did, you would question that?”

  “Do you know anything about what my parents did?”

  “It’s what everybody said, Tolan. I know you like to believe they were innocent. And for the longest time, I went along with you, trying to agree with the idea maybe they weren’t guilty of what everyone else claimed, but when you hear the same story over and over again, you begin to realize there’s truth to it.”

  “Maybe,” Tolan said. There was no arguing in that. His parents had gone to serve the Draasin Lord, and yet, the truth was far more complicated than just that. The truth often was more complicated.

  “I’m not staying here while you continue to delay me. You can warn Bryn she can go wherever she intends to go.” And Tolan had no idea what she might be up to or whether she was the one who might be attacking. “And then I think I might bring you to the Academy. There’s someone there who I’m sure would love to hear what you have to say.”

  “Great.”

  “I don’t think you’ll be saying that when you get to the Academy.”

  “How do you know what I want? You’ve been so focused on what you wanted, on all of the stories about you, on poor Tolan, the boy who lost his parents to the Draasin Lord, that you never paid much attention to what your friend wanted.”

  “You know that’s not true,” he said. Everything Tolan had been through had been because of his devotion to his friend. The very fact he was now a shaper was because of that same devotion.

  And where had it gotten him?

  What did it mean that Tanner had betrayed him? Would it mean Tanner no longer believed him? The one person he’d always counted on, the one person who he’d always believed had his back, apparently had not.

  Shaping continued to build, and as it did, Tolan realized he needed to do something.

  The direction of the shaping came from the south, almost as if they wanted to force him away from the Academy. If they wanted to force him away, then either he needed to go there or he needed to find another plan.

  The other plan would be relatively straightforward. He’d go after the Grand Inquisitor and find her, heading to Par if needed, and once he was there, then he could see whether there was anything he might be able to uncover.

  He might be weakened from shaping for as long as he had, but he was not completely spent. He still had the spirit bondar, and he had the strange withering. It was possible he could use that strange withering, somehow add to it, drawing power from it. If he could, maybe he could use it in order to draw the wind elemental. It was possible Tolan could use that energy in a way resulting in freeing the elemental rather than angering it.

  He wasn’t sure if he had the necessary strength or not, but it was something he thought he very much needed to try.

  Grabbing Tanner, he kept him bound in earth and water, using the combination to trap him. He’d seen Tanner using fire, so though it was an element Tolan was stronger in, it wasn’t one he felt comfortable using on Tanner, especially not when it came to using it for something like a prison, although he hated the idea he’d have to place his friend in a prison. Regardless of what Tanner had done, he was still his friend, wasn’t he?

  He raced along the Shapers Path. Rather than running away from the Academy, he ran toward it.

  He was forced to push strength, drawing from earth. In doing so, he found he was using more and more energy than he intended. The longer he went, the weaker he’d become. He needed to reach his destination as quickly as possible, otherwise he would find he wouldn’t have the necessary strength to go on. And more than that, he feared if he were attacked, if whoever was coming toward him managed to reach him, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to withstand it.

  Thankfully, Tanner remained quiet, though he didn’t know if that was because he wanted Tolan to head this direction or if there was another reason for it. If it was that he wanted Tolan to go in this direction, maybe he needed to veer off.

  They had traveled for the better part of the day, so they were close to the Academy.

  A shaping built near him. Tolan pushed against it, forcing through the power of the shaping, ignoring what he was detecting. Another one s
truck, and then another. With each shaping, Tolan realized there was a concerted effort to prevent him from reaching the Academy. They came from behind him, almost as if the shapings were trying to chase him down, and yet, he still thought he could outrun it.

  “How much longer do you think you can go on?” Tanner asked.

  “Long enough,” Tolan said.

  “I’m not sure you can. Look at how you have already begun to sag, your strength fading as you go.”

  “I’m not going to fail,” Tolan said.

  “You certainly aren’t going to succeed.”

  Tolan grunted, holding on to Tanner and dragging him.

  Tanner began to laugh, his voice carrying into the air, a shrill sort of sound. He attempted to shape, using wind, and there came a hint of drag, trying to slow them down. Tolan pushed against it, breaking through the shaping Tanner used. It was strange to realize, but Tanner wasn’t a particularly strong shaper. Somehow, he’d made it through the Selection, which suggested either he did have some strength or some way of cheating the testing. More likely it was the last.

  “What were you trying to do?”

  “As I said, you wouldn’t understand.”

  “Who are you serving?”

  “You’re running from them.”

  “Am I? Seeing as how he hasn’t revealed himself so far, I have a hard time thinking he would reveal himself for you.”

  “No. I doubt they would have revealed themselves for me. I think more likely they came for you.”

  Tolan slowed for a moment. In that brief spell, he contemplated the possibilities. What if he didn’t continue to run? What if he chose to do something else? To turn back? He could risk himself, find out who was chasing him, and if he did, what might he learn?

  If he were to do that, he’d need to have the necessary strength to withstand what would come, and he didn’t know that he did. Not after everything he’d gone through so far. Now wasn’t the time to slow and uncover this.

  Still, as he went, he could feel his strength waning. The Academy was not that far off. He could tell it was nearby, if only because he could feel the energy from it. What he needed now was to find some way of drawing off that energy, some way he could drag himself toward it.