Serpent of Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  All around him, he had the sense of golud infused in the stone. The earth elemental was massive and powerful, but since learning to speak to the elementals, he’d never managed to hear golud speaking back to him. He’d learned how to reach for golud, how to ask the elemental for assistance, but he’d never managed to hear golud’s answer, not like Ferran would be able to do.

  After speaking to the nymid, Tan felt an urgent desire to reach golud. If he could understand what the elemental knew, maybe he might be able to understand better what they faced.

  Tan set his hand on damp stone. The nymid were there, but mingled deeply, water and stone, the complement granting both increased strength. Nothing like fire and earth. Earth was meant to confine fire, and fire was meant to burn through the earth. How could kaas survive such a connection?

  The answer was likely the key to stopping the elemental.

  Tan didn’t know how.

  He reached for golud. This time, as he sent the low rumbling connection to reach for the earth elemental, Tan focused on what he’d heard from the Chenir drumming. The key to reach the earth elemental was buried in that, if only he could find it. His foot tapped steadily, mimicking the rhythm that he’d heard.

  Golud.

  He continued tapping and moved his body in time with the beating of the imaginary Chenir drum. Tan listened, his body swaying steadily.

  Thump. Thump. Thump.

  Golud.

  He sent it again and continued tapping, moving from side to side, letting the memory of the drumming guide him.

  Thump. Thump. Thump.

  Maelen.

  The voice that came was deeper than anything he’d ever heard, a rumbling sound that was something like a rockslide, that of the earth itself moving. It rolled through him, making his body quiver with it.

  His heart hammered. He’d finally heard golud.

  Golud. What do you know of kaas?

  Tan waited, still tapping as he did. The steady drumming seemed to help, though Tan didn’t know why it would. The connection to golud remained, seemingly coming from all around him.

  You would reach for this, Maelen?

  There was a deep sense of sadness at the idea that Tan would willingly reach for kaas. Tan sensed a great hurt from golud. The elemental had known pain from kaas, though Tan didn’t understand how.

  I would stop it. Elementals have suffered because of it.

  We have suffered.

  Tan wished there was something that he could do to help ease the golud, but he couldn’t think of anything. The Mother would have me protect the elementals. It is why I have bonded.

  You bring stability. Strength. There is much of earth in you, Maelen.

  Tan smiled at the compliment. Earth sensing had been the first, but fire the easiest. The connection to Asboel was the likely reason, but a part of Tan wanted nothing more than to be able to reach earth. It was the element his father had shaped, the first that Tan had learned to reach for, except he’d never felt as if he had much talent, much like Roine claimed he had little talent with fire. It had always bothered Tan that he’d been able to reach the other elements, but struggled so much with earth.

  What is kaas? he asked. The nymid claim it is not a creation of the Mother.

  Golud seemed to sigh. It came like a soft shuddering of the earth beneath him. Fire forced upon earth. A dark pairing. Draasin to golud. They thought they could control, but they were wrong.

  Who thought they could control?

  But even as he asked, Tan suspected the answer.

  He looked down the tunnel toward the archives. For so long, he’d wondered why the ancient shapers had made a device like the artifact. It had seemed too powerful, the intent more than any shaper should have. And then, once they had created it, they had hidden it away, locked in the place of convergence, held behind protections formed by each of the elementals, but they were protections that those shapers would have been able to get past. Tan had never really understood, had never really known why those shapers would want power like that, or why they had felt that power too great to sustain.

  The artifact?

  Tan asked golud and Asboel at the same time. Could that be the reason for its creation? Had those ancient shapers thought to experiment on elementals? Had they created kaas with its power, only to later need help banishing their creation from the land?

  Tan shivered, praying it was not possible, that those shapers would not have been so careless, so stupid, to do something like that. Only, he’d seen the arrogance described by their records. He had seen the way that they considered the elementals nothing more than creatures meant to be harnessed. Why wouldn’t they think they could experiment with them?

  Golud rumbled beneath him again, as if acknowledging Tan’s fears.

  Asboel remained silent.

  Asboel?

  When he answered, it seemed to come reluctantly. You possess this device now, Maelen, and it is good that you cannot use it. Even to rid these lands of kaas. Doing so would risk more than you are aware.

  Did you know? Tan asked. Did you know that was what the artifact had been used for?

  He sensed Asboel’s frustration. My memories of that time are faded. The longer we share a bond, the more that our minds mingle, the less I can remember. The Mother protects me in that way, I think. It is another benefit of the bond.

  Had you known, would you have served willingly? Tan asked, thinking of the way the draasin were forced into the protection in the place of convergence.

  That protection had kept the artifact safe for a thousand years, until long after those ancient shapers were gone, when even their knowledge had faded. With the artifact, the lisincend had thought to ascend to elementals, Althem had thought to remake the kingdoms in a dark vision that only he had known, and far too many had suffered.

  I told you from the beginning that the device should be destroyed, Asboel said.

  Golud rumbled beneath him. Tan tapped, swaying with the rhythm, listening for the elemental. Destroyed, golud echoed.

  Do not repeat the mistakes of the past, Maelen, Asboel said. We must stop kaas, but we must do it differently than before.

  Stopping kaas is not the only task assigned to me, Tan told him.

  It is the only one that matters. Other than finding the hatchling, nothing else is as important as finding a way to stop kaas.

  Tan wished it were as easy as that. He wished that he could think of some way that he would be able to do all that had been asked of him. If he did what Asboel wanted, he would disappoint Roine and the kingdoms. If he did what Roine wanted, elementals would suffer and die.

  Thinking of it that way brought him a measure of peace, for the answer was easy.

  27

  Search for Draasin

  The following morning, Tan stood on the road leading away from Ethea, watching a caravan of Aeta as they wound their way from the city. Amia stood next to him, holding his hand, recognizing the troubled sense that Tan felt. She had spoken little since he’d arrived early in the morning and told her what he’d learned of kaas.

  “They are not of the People,” Amia said.

  “Are you certain?” Tan asked. He suspected they weren’t, that they were somehow tied to Chenir, but he didn’t know how.

  “You’re questioning the First Mother now?”

  He laughed. “I know better than to question you. I just want to make sure before I do anything.”

  She shook her head. “You should do nothing. It wouldn’t be the first time the People have been used for safe passage and easy trade.”

  “That doesn’t make it right,” Tan said.

  “No.”

  “And it doesn’t explain why they traveled with Chenir.”

  “You’re certain?”

  He hadn’t been, but then what had he overheard last night? Why had the elemental draw come from within the false Aeta caravan?

  Tan cursed himself for not pushing forward and learning what they were after and why they were there. H
ad he only taken the opportunity to force himself into the caravan, he might have learned what Chenir intended by coming to Ethea.

  Or he might have risked upsetting a potential ally.

  He held onto Amia’s hand and pulled her toward him. “Roine wants to seal off the borders. He thinks we should leave this elemental for others to deal with.”

  “Why do I sense that you have no intention of doing that?”

  “It’s because of the kingdoms kaas exists in the first place. Had those ancient shapers not attempted some experiment with the elementals, we would never have had this to deal with. We can’t leave it for the other nations—and their elementals—to deal with.”

  “Do you know how to stop it?”

  “I don’t even have an idea of why Chenir came here,” he said, watching the caravan as it departed. “It makes knowing how to stop a rogue elemental even more difficult. The only thing I do know is that Asboel fears it. The other elementals have known its destruction. And both times I encountered it, I nearly failed.”

  “You’ve nearly died, Tan. Not just failed.”

  “If I do nothing, it will continue to spread. Not only the kingdoms, but other lands will suffer because of it.”

  “Can Asboel tell you how it was banished last time?’

  “All that Asboel will tell me is that it was some kind of sacrifice.” Since leaving the tunnels the night before, he’d started to formulate an idea. He didn’t know if it would work. Had he not come across the Rune Master and taken from her the knowledge that she had, it would not. “If I believe that Par-shon is the reason kaas is here, then there must be some way to capture it. They would have been able to control it, or how else would they have brought the elemental to the kingdoms in the first place?”

  “By capture, you mean trap?”

  Tan sighed. He hated the idea, but what else could he do? “If we create a fire trap strong enough, I think I can pull kaas to it.”

  “Then what will you do? Banish it again? If we don’t know what happened the last time, or even where the creature had been banished to, how do you hope to do it?”

  “I’m not sure I’ll be able to banish it.”

  “You don’t think to bond it—”

  Tan shook his head. “Not bond it either.”

  Amia held his gaze and he sensed through their shared connection her understanding of what he thought he needed to do. “Are you sure that you can do that, Tan? Do you really think that you can destroy an elemental?”

  It went against everything that he come to believe about himself, everything that he felt the Great Mother had given him, but if he didn’t destroy kaas, other elementals remained in danger, and Tan was unwilling to do that. And he couldn’t do anything else that needed doing until he dealt with kaas.

  “That’s not the only thing that bothers you,” Amia said.

  “For a trap like I’ll need, I think there will need to be significant power. I won’t be able to do it on my own.”

  “Cora would help,” Amia said.

  Tan nodded. “I’m counting on Cora to help. And Cianna.”

  Her mouth twitched when he mentioned Cianna. “You think you will need more than three fire shapers?”

  “It’s not the fire shaping that I think is needed. There’s a need for the elementals to help as well. I think the bond is important in forming the trap, at least for something this large.”

  “He’s too young to bond, Tan…”

  “And I don’t know of any I’d trust to bond. Seanan was too… eager,” Tan said, but after seeing Seanan in the university yard, he had the hope that the shaper might come around. “We still haven’t found the other hatchling. Until we do, I’m not sure that Asboel and Sashari will risk themselves in something like this. I need to find her, Amia. Only then will the draasin be free of distraction and able to help.”

  Then Asboel would be free to help him. Maybe then Tan would be able to finally get answers from him.

  Amia’s brow knitted together. “Then use me.”

  “You can’t shape fire,” he said.

  “No, but I can help you search. I’ve been so busy with the People that I’ve not thought that I would be able to help, but I think you need me. With your connection to fire, you’ll have to be the focus, but I think together, we can reach farther.”

  “Asboel hasn’t been able to find her, and he’s connected to the fire bond,” Tan reminded her.

  “There are other ways of searching,” Amia said.

  Tan waited, but she didn’t explain any further.

  * * *

  They stood atop a steep incline of rock overlooking Ethea. From there, Tan could see all the way into Galen, where the Gholund Mountains rose with their white-capped peaks far in the distance. To the south, the draw of Nara pulled at him. North would be Vatten. All around were the rolling plains of Ter.

  Amia and Tan were silent, neither knowing quite what to say. Tan listened to the wind, letting it blow over his skin and pull at his loose shirt. Ara blew against him, the elemental pulling with more strength than he’d sensed since kaas had attacked.

  Distantly, he sensed Honl. The elemental remained distant, either healing or still trying to understand his change. The idea that he might lose Honl pained him, but it was the possibility that Tan might be the reason he transformed into something else that hurt nearly as much.

  “Are you ready?” Amia asked.

  Tan unsheathed the sword and set the tip into the ground. “I’m ready. I… I still don’t know if this will work.”

  “Me neither. But you said you don’t have any other ideas.”

  Tan took a deep breath. Amia thought he would need to use both the fire bond and the connection to spirit. Tan started with the fire bond. That was still the most difficult for him to reach. Fire pulled within him, the sense of the element burning. Tan reached for that, using fire sensing to reach for all the elemental power around him.

  He sensed the vagueness of saa, able to be drawn to Tan. There was the distant awareness of Asboel and Sashari, and then nearer, the sense of Asgar. He sensed another elemental, this layered over the rock and the trees around him. Inferin? It reminded him of what he had seen from the Chenir shapers, though Tan had not yet spoken to inferin. It layered over him and Amia as well. The sense of it was greater than he’d expected, a deep, burning entity.

  Tan pulled on spirit. As he did, he reached through the sword, using it to help him make the connection. Amia was there, always the strongest when he sensed spirit. Asboel was there as well, the connection renewed by Tan’s need to pull back from Par-shon. And then Honl.

  Tan held that connection for a moment. There was always awareness of Honl. When he first met him, there had been a hesitance, almost something like fear, especially when Tan had first formed the connection, but now it was more distinct. He sensed Honl, but he sensed him with a sharpness that had not been there before.

  Honl.

  At first, Honl didn’t answer. Tan wasn’t sure that he would. Or maybe he couldn’t. Then he felt the steady and familiar warm gusting of air, different than before. The connection was the same, the sense of awareness of Honl was still there. Only, as Honl approached, Tan could see him.

  He came as a distinct shape, a dark and wispy shadow form that coalesced near them. Amia jerked back, but Tan sent a soothing shaping thorough their connection.

  Honl. What have you learned of the change?

  Changed, but still the same, Honl said. Are you unhappy?

  You know that my only fear was that you had lost your connection to the wind.

  Ashi is different. It is there, but the connection has changed. I am different, Honl said.

  Can you explain how?

  Honl shook his head. There were almost features on his face, and eyes that looked upon Tan with a pained expression. I still don’t know. When you pulled me back, tearing me away from where kaas thought to devour me, spirit and fire came with me.

  Does it hurt?

  There is
no pain, Tan. This is different. Wind draws me differently now, but I feel fire differently as well.

  Tan couldn’t help but note that Honl even spoke to him in a different way than he had before. How much had he changed?

  I’m sorry that this happened to you.

  The alternative would have been destruction. This is better, Tan. I am still wind, only I’m more, I think. Honl swirled to stand next to Tan. It was somewhat disconcerting to have him right there, no longer the vague and nearly invisible wind elemental. Now there would be no disguising him.

  We must find the hatchling. I will need the assistance of the Eldest if we are to trap kaas, and I don’t think he can help until she is found. No others should suffer as you nearly did.

  Then I will help, Honl said.

  With a sudden gust, Honl departed on the wind, the wispy dark smoke pulled apart, tearing him away. Tan still sensed him, but far away, caught on the winds of ashi, drawing away, as if reaching for fire.

  “Honl is stronger, I think. More connected to this place than he was before.”

  “You can sense him?”

  “Not the way that you do, but there is spirit in the connection. He is more than wind now, Tan. Was that what you intended when you saved him?”

  “I intended nothing. I tore him away from kaas. He tells me that fire came with him.”

  Amia nodded and stared after Honl. She took a deep breath, then touched Tan’s arm. “Are you ready?”

  “I will be.”

  Tan resumed shaping, reaching first inwardly and toward the fire bond. He stretched through the connection, drawing on the strength of fire. As he did, he sensed the other fire elementals all around him, that of the draasin, saa nearby, even inferin, though he didn’t know how to speak to it yet. He drew on these connections, pulling through the fire bond, drawing strength from the elementals. Then he began to shape spirit.

  Tan wrapping the shaping around his mind and reached through the connection he shared with Amia. Together, they shaped spirit. Amia assumed control of it, weaving a complex pattern that Tan could barely follow. She drew from her spirit stores and then, when hers were nearly depleted, she borrowed from Tan. The shaping was like nothing he had ever experienced, full of power and strength that he could barely comprehend.