Serpent of Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Eventually, I have to face him. I think I’m the only one who can,” Tan said, putting words to the fear that he’d felt since they last faced the Utu Tonah. It had taken the strength of the draasin, and the help of many shapers, and still they hadn’t stopped him. He’d turned away of his own accord.

  Amia rested her head on his chest. “I’m afraid for you.”

  Tan felt a hint of her fear through the bond but suspected she held some back from him. “I don’t know enough to survive. I’ve bonded three elementals, but he’s bonded dozens. Even if I were to manage to bond as many elementals as the Utu Tonah, I’m not sure it would make a difference.”

  “What if the key isn’t bonding to each of the elementals?”

  “How will I compete with his power?”

  Amia glanced around her, motioning toward the rock and the water. “You sense the elementals here, don’t you? You could speak to them?”

  “You know that I can.”

  “And you’ve shown that you can summon the strength of the elementals without needing to bond to them. That was how you called the other shapers to you in the place of convergence. That calling… it was incredibly powerful. It gives you an advantage that he does not have. You can use it, and I think he knows it and fears you for it. Without his bonds, what is he? Without yours, you still speak to the elementals.”

  Tan suspected that the Utu Tonah was able to shape, but did he rely on the bonding to give him most of his power, or was he a powerful shaper as well? If he could somehow separate the Utu Tonah from the bonds, he would learn, but that would take more strength—and time—than Tan dared. He didn’t have any other ideas about how to stop him.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted.

  They embraced for another moment, the soft sounds of the water swirling around them, and then Tan lifted them on a shaping of wind, carrying them toward the shaded cavern entrance. It was narrow here, and he’d wondered how the draasin—especially Asboel and Sashari—managed to squeeze through it and out into the open. He’d never seen the draasin use the passage, so maybe Asboel wasn’t completely honest with him and there was another way out that the larger draasin used.

  The tunnel turned sharply, darkening as it did, the light from the canyon unable to penetrate this deep into the cavern. Tan shaped a ball of flame, drawing saa toward it and then releasing control of the fire to the elemental. The flame remained steady in spite of the gusting wind.

  Tan shaped them along on the wind. This part of the cavern was natural, formed long ago, before the river had cut deeply into the rock. Probably the cavern had been here before the land had been reclaimed from the sea. Once, all of this part of the kingdoms had been underwater, the land nothing more than the seabed. The ancient warriors had shaped the land, drawing it away from the sea to expand the kingdoms. Doing so had shifted the center of the land, pulling it away from the place of convergence high up in the mountains of Galen, moving it toward Ethea itself. He still didn’t fully understand how that shifted the elemental focus of the land, but he knew that somehow, it had.

  A wide opening branched off from the natural cavern, and they floated along that. Now they were nearer Ethea, the walls were shaped. They were smooth, almost perfectly so, and set periodically with shaper lanterns. Tan did not light them, preferring the light from saa. Other tunnels branched off, one of them, he’d learned, leading directly into the draasin den. Tan stuck to the main tunnel.

  Now that he’d discovered the fire bond, he could feel the way saa pulled on it, the way that saa was drawn by it. He’d never spoken to saa, but had seen the strength the fire elemental managed in Par-shon. For some reason, different lands had elementals of differing strength. He had yet to understand why. In the kingdoms, saa was weakened compared to what he had known while in Par-shon. Not weak, though. He had a growing appreciation for the hidden strength of the elemental.

  The fire bond drew him toward Sashari, and toward Asgar, now restored and returned to the den where he recuperated with Sashari watching over him. Tan had not seen him since the healing. The draasin had been determined to move their young by themselves.

  At the massive door, he shaped spirit and fire, opening it. A pile of pale white bones was scattered in the corner. A wide hole in the back wall, made with the assistance of golud, gave the draasin the exit to the outside world, merging at some point with the tunnel and the cavern before emptying out by the river. Now Sashari filled the den, her head nearly brushing the ceiling, spikes scraping across the rock. Had golud not invested the stone, she would have destroyed the room.

  Asgar curled along the wall. His long tail wrapped around him. Papery wings were rolled and tucked under him as well. He breathed steadily, hot breath coming out in steady hisses of steam.

  Sashari eyed him as he entered. Tan tentatively reached through the fire bond to her.

  Asboel hunts, Maelen, she said.

  I sense Asboel. I came to see how the hatchling heals.

  You may use his name, Maelen. You were the one who gifted it to him.

  Tan pulled the door closed behind him. Amia stayed near, remaining close at his side. She did not fear the draasin, but neither of them had spent much time around any draasin other than Asboel.

  You have not shared your feelings about the name, he said.

  It is… fitting. It is early for one of the draasin to be named. He had barely made his first hunt, and none yet solo. She let out a slow breath. Without the name, he would have returned to the Mother, so I must accept that this was her choosing. Sashari flicked her tail slightly. Asgar. The word… It has strength in the old tongue. You chose well, Maelen.

  Tan stopped near the hatchling. The light from Asgar’s flame reflected off his scales, making them bluish-silver rather than solid blue. Tan reached with the fire bond, touching briefly and lightly on Asgar’s mind, hesitant even to do that much.

  Awareness of the hatchling surged into him. The draasin was weak, but growing stronger. Lying near Sashari, he was content. But another emotion simmered within him, that of concern for his sister. That had been what had driven him, nearly leading him to lose his life.

  I would like to know how he escaped, Tan said to Sashari.

  Asgar’s eyes fluttered open and he stretched, letting his thin wings unfurl. He reached out with his forelegs, his claws scraping harmlessly across the stone. He twisted his neck, turning his head to face Tan.

  Their eyes met and Asgar did not look away. Maelen.

  Asgar’s voice sounded thin and soft and carried none of the ferocious roar that Asboel so easily managed. He tilted his head as he spoke, as if considering what to say to Tan.

  What happened to you? Tan asked.

  He knew much from the memories he’d borrowed to help determine Asgar’s name, but there were parts that remained unclear. Where had the draasin been when they were captured? It mattered for Tan to know how far into the kingdoms they had risked coming. They knew that Par-shon shapers had learned to hide themselves using shapings of earth, but that didn’t explain how far Par-shon had already reached. How many of the Par-shon shapers had it taken to capture them?

  Asgar glanced at Sashari. Mother will be angry to know.

  Tan almost laughed at the response. Mothers only want their children to be safe. Now that she knows you’re alive—

  She will never let me hunt.

  That brought a true surge of laughter. He imagined Sashari much like his own mother in some ways, the way that she sought to protect her young. Tan’s mother was a shaper of amazing skill, and in spite of everything that Tan had become, she still sought to protect him. At times, she even worked against him, trying to keep him where she thought he would be safe. Now that he’d been named Athan, and in some ways led the kingdom’s shapers, there might not be a way for her to do that.

  You chose the Name.

  Tan crouched next to Asgar, getting down so that he could be at his eye level. I did what was needed for you to live.

  The hatchling draa
sin shuffled toward the wall, moving away from Sashari and keeping his tail tucked around him. His wings unfurled and then rolled back toward his body. He stretched again before setting down to the ground.

  Would you have chosen differently?

  Asgar. Mother shared what it means.

  It’s a strong name. Wear it with pride.

  The draasin yawned. Like you wear Maelen?

  Your father gifted me with the name. I have no choice but to wear it proudly.

  He sensed amusement from Asgar as he relaxed against the den wall. Even sitting up and speaking to Tan wore him out. It would take time before he fully recovered. Tan would see that he had the time needed and the necessary safety. Ethea would keep the draasin safe. The place of convergence around the city would keep them safe.

  You will find her? Asgar asked as he set his head back to the ground. His words became distant and thick with his fatigue.

  I will do what I can to find her, Tan promised. To do that, I need to know where you were taken.

  We traveled north. Toward the mountains. It was where Mother taught us to hunt. We thought we could go alone, that we would be safe.

  You weren’t drawn out of the den?

  Asgar turned away from him and Tan knew the truth.

  You should have been safe in those lands.

  The wind was taken from us. I think Mother and Father might have known some way of escaping, but we didn’t. When they came for us, there was nothing I could do. I struggled. Two fell because of me! Asgar said the last with a sense of tired pride. But as much as I wanted, I could not get her free.

  You’re safe now, Tan said.

  Because of you, Maelen. The Mother blessed us with you.

  Tan reached for the draasin and touched his warm scales, thankful that he’d managed to save him. Rest, Asgar. I will visit again. Sashari will keep you safe.

  The draasin made a soft rumbling deep in his throat. Soon I will be larger than her. Then I will hunt with Father. We will find vengeance.

  Asgar let his eyes drift closed and didn’t open them again. Tan turned away and faced Sashari briefly. She curled herself around Asgar, protecting him.

  Did you get what you needed, Maelen?

  He is well. I will do all that I can to find his sister.

  Hunt well, Maelen, Sashari said.

  Tan shaped the door open, leading Amia to the other side. A cool elemental breeze gusted into the den through the open door, and Tan paused. With a whisper to ara and golud, he asked the other elementals to keep the draasin safe. But he was no longer certain whether it would make a difference. The draasin should have been safe in the den. They should have been safe in Ethea. But still, Par-shon reached them.

  Tan was left wondering how far into Ethea Par-shon had reached.

  4

  A Mother’s Worry

  Once back in the tunnels outside the draasin den, Tan stopped and leaned on the door. Asgar might not have told him much, but there was something to be used in what he’d learned. If two shapers had fallen while facing the young draasin, Tan needed to find them. He might be able to learn something that would lead him to the other hatchling.

  Unless it was already too late. Finding Asgar had been a surprise. Likely the Par-shon shapers had left the hatchling because they thought him dead.

  “What did he tell you?” Amia asked.

  “The connection didn’t let you hear?”

  “Not with him. That connection is different. I don’t know how else to explain it, but it is not the same as what you share with Asboel.”

  “With Asboel, the connection is shaped. In some ways, it’s like with you.” It hadn’t always been that way. “When Par-shon separated our bond, I used spirit to reform it before I even knew what I was doing. Had I not, he would have been stolen from me. The Utu Tonah doesn’t know spirit, or at least he doesn’t know what it can do.” The abduction of the archivists proved that was changing, but for now, they had a bit of an advantage, and they needed every advantage they could get. “It’s different with the other draasin. I can’t reach through the shaped connection.”

  “I wonder if the bond is some sort of shaping,” Amia asked.

  Tan thought of the bonds he’d formed. They required no shaping on his part, but that didn’t mean shaping wasn’t involved. And when Cora had bonded, he’d seen the flash of white, a sign of spirit shaping.

  Tan made his way through the tunnel toward the archives. He’d been away from Ethea for a week, long enough that Roine would have questions for his Athan. Long enough that the other shapers would wonder about Roine’s choice of Athan, maybe enough to begin questioning their leader.

  “You’re troubled. What is it?” Amia asked.

  “I need to help Asboel, but I also need to do whatever I can to keep Par-shon from the kingdoms. And now that we’re back here, it feels as if another weight is on my shoulders because I committed to serving as Athan.” He twisted his fingers together and sighed. “It feels like I’m being pulled in too many different directions.”

  “When hasn’t that been the case?”

  “And you?” he asked. “The Aeta—”

  “Don’t worry about the People,” Amia said. “Those who selected me understand that my connection to you requires some of my time. Those who did not… well, they are being dealt with.”

  “Have you found other archivists?”

  When she didn’t answer, he stopped and turned her to face him.

  “Amia?”

  “Those abducted by the Utu Tonah are cared for. Any others are dealt with.” She touched his cheek. “You don’t need to worry about the archivists along with everything else on your plate. Know that we’re dealing with them as we discover them.”

  That meant that the Aeta were finding more of them. How many archivists could there be? What would happen if they attacked Amia?

  Tan had to trust that she could protect herself. She was the First Mother, trained by her predecessor, making her the most skilled spirit shaper alive. If there was anyone able to deal with the remaining archivists, it would be Amia.

  “There are others?” he asked.

  Amia sighed. “A few families haven’t returned. In time, they will.”

  He reached the bottom of the stairs and paused at the door. On the other side were the palace dungeons. The last time he’d been there, he hadn’t the control of his shaping that he had now. The stairs alone had nearly killed him. Then, he’d come searching for Amia and had learned about Althem’s betrayal.

  Tan pressed a shaping of pure spirit into the rune on the door, unlocking it. “I need to find the shapers who attacked Asgar.”

  Amia pulled on his arm, keeping him from crossing the threshold. “When do you intend to go?”

  He forced a smile. She read him too well. It wasn’t that he wanted to keep things from her, but there were times when he didn’t want her to worry about what he needed to do. This was one of them. “It’s more than Asgar, Amia.”

  She reached a hand and brushed his cheek. “Why do you think I ask?”

  “We need Incendin. Cora has offered to help, but I’ll need to go to the Fire Fortress.”

  “You still intend to go there, knowing as you do what they did?”

  Tan sighed. “I think I have to go there, knowing what they were able to do. Amia, they’re the reason we’re only now learning of Par-shon. Had Incendin not managed to hold them back, we would have learned long ago what happens when bonded shapers attack the kingdoms. And we might not have been prepared to face them.”

  Then again, had Par-shon attacked even two decades ago, there would have been more shapers, more warriors. Wouldn’t the kingdoms have been better off?

  “At least meet someplace where you won’t put yourself in unnecessary danger,” she suggested.

  “I’m a shaper of elemental powers. I can speak to all of the elementals. Didn’t you say that I can summon the elementals to help?”

  She ran a finger along the gold band at her neck. Conce
rn furrowed her brow. “That’s part of the reason why I worry.”

  “I’ll be safe,” he promised.

  She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something before clamping it shut again. Then she nodded.

  With Amia, he hadn’t the need to explain to her further, just as she didn’t have any need to share her concern for him. The bond conveyed everything. It had formed in a time when both had lost so much, but neither of them would change it now.

  He pulled Amia through the door on a shaping of wind, and closed it behind them, leaving them in darkness. Tan shaped a ball of light into being and let it float in front of him, again relinquishing control of the shaping to saa. The fire elemental claimed the flame and held it.

  This time, Tan could see what the elemental did, the faint streamers of flame leaving saa as it held onto the fire. It seemed to know what Tan wanted of it without being asked.

  Tan paused at the next stair and reached inward, stretching for the connection to fire. As he found it, he pressed through the bond, letting it stretch out as he strained to touch saa, to understand the fire elemental. There was a familiarity, and the hint of something more, like a whisper or maybe the crackling of flames, but then it was gone. Saa flashed away from him, releasing the fire and disappearing with a soft pop.

  At the top of the stair, Amia pulled him back around. “Who else is going with you?”

  “It will be only me.”

  Amia squeezed her eyes shut a moment. “Take Cianna. She’s bound to fire like you are. And she lived in Nara, so she knows what Incendin is capable of doing. She might be helpful.”

  Tan knew how hard that was for Amia to admit. Since meeting the fire shaper, Amia always felt a touch of irritation with her. It was something that Tan never really understood, but the bond between them laid him bare to her. She knew his feelings toward her, and knew that he harbored nothing but friendship with Cianna.