Born of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 8)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Tan sent a call out to all the elementals that he could reach. Par-shon possessed much strength in many of the elementals, not only fire with saa, but also of earth, the silent but powerful elemental that he detected here, and wind, with wyln gusting through, and even water, with udilm connected to these lands nearly as much as it was to Doma.

  He could speak to them all, and did, sending his call for help.

  As he did, he asked them to recede, to leave the cavern, if only long enough for Maelen to enter.

  The response came slowly, but it did come. The elementals departed, pulling away, all but earth and a trace of fire. Saa made it clear that it needed to be there.

  If he hadn’t been interested before, Tan was definitely now. For saa to want to remain, even when earth was so prominent here, told him that there was something to this cavern that he really had to discover.

  Using a shaping of earth, Tan pushed earth to the side. With fire as prominent as it was here, he decided to add more of it to his shaping, ultimately mixing fire and earth in equal measures. An opening formed, slowly widening. The walls glowed from Tan’s shaping, enough for him to see that the tunnel led down—far down to the cavern below.

  Can you tell what it is? he asked Kota.

  That way is still blocked to me.

  When I go down, can you join me?

  I do not think I will be allowed.

  Tan had suspected as much, given the tight way that the earth elemental he detected here controlled the cavern, but descending below placed him at some risk, didn’t it?

  He looked up and saw Tolman lowering himself on a shaping of earth. He eyed the tunnel Tan had shaped into place. “I can see that I was right. Had I kept this from you, you would have discovered eventually.”

  “What is below?”

  “As I said, you must experience that yourself.”

  Had Tan not been so intrigued by the sense of fire he detected in the cavern, he might not have attempted to reach it, but he wanted to know. He practically needed to know.

  “You will come with me.”

  Tolman shook his head. “Not here. Earth is strong here, but not for me. There would be others if you do not wish to go alone.”

  Tan sighed. Others. And more questions about Par versus Par-shon. If only he had a clear answer, but then that was the reason that he came here, to gain a clearer understanding of what Par hid from Par-shon and the previous Utu Tonah.

  “She will watch you. Do not think to betray me.” Tan nodded to Kota, and his bonded flashed her fangs. Tolman turned and saw her and his eyes widened.

  Without waiting to see how Tolman would react, Tan jumped into the tunnel.

  Heat pressed against him, but he no longer feared heat. Fire was a part of him and would not burn him. In spite of his effort to maintain a uniform width to it, the tunnel narrowed as he descended. He dropped quickly, practically sliding through the earth.

  And then he stopped. Tan had reached the cavern. Curiosity filled him. All the elementals had worked together, much like they had at the place of convergence when Tan had rescued Asboel. That much collaboration between the elementals surprised him.

  Tan shaped fire, drawing on saa. A ball of light sparked into view, and he fed the flames with a shaping of fire, adding more and more until the flame took hold on its own, not needing him to add anything more to the shaping. He released control and saa fed it, filling the cavern with light.

  It was a massive space. Walls of smooth stone surrounded him, and he knew that they had been shaped. Power radiated from somewhere nearby, filled with the strength of fire.

  Tan made his way toward the sense of power. Earth sensing didn’t give him any insight as to what he might find, and neither did fire. Wind and water left him with no more answers.

  Could there be something of spirit here?

  Tan didn’t think that was the case, but what, then?

  He reached an array of stones, each nearly up to his waist, with ribbed sides layered in striations of color: black and deep blue and scarlet. They were almost perfectly oval but had a wider section on the bottom. All were about the same size, and they clustered in something like a circle, nearly two dozen in all.

  This was where Tan detected fire, but he didn’t understand why he would. There was noting about the rock that seemed like he should detect fire from it.

  He laid his hand on the first stone. The rough edge was hot, much hotter than he would have expected. The cavern stone seemed to draw away the heat, but why would it do that? The other elementals seemed to add to the effect, helping the stone pull away the heat.

  Tan frowned. With a powerful sensing of fire, he reached for the stone.

  And felt pushed back.

  It was the first time fire had repelled him.

  But he was connected to the fire bond. He didn’t have to rely on his ability to sense only.

  Focusing his mind as he had learned to do when connecting to the fire bond, he reached for it. Once there, he felt the connection, the drawing sense of fire, and pulled through that to determine what hid from him in these stones.

  A great stirring answered him, and he nearly lost his focus.

  “Draasin?” he whispered.

  The word reverberated through the cavern.

  He made his way around each of the stones and realized that each of them were not stones as he had thought, but draasin eggs.

  Great Mother. All of these were eggs. But how?

  Had Asboel known? Tan had never asked whether there was any way for the draasin to remain viable now that they had returned to the world, and Asboel had never spoken of it, but Tan had feared that with the passing of his friend, the draasin would eventually fade from the world as well. But what if Asboel had known that there was a collection of eggs like this?

  At least Tan understood the reason that Par felt strongly about protecting this place. With as much as the former Utu Tonah had sought the draasin, claiming the need for a bond that would bring him to Unity, having it so close to him, where he would have needed nothing more than to discover a way for the eggs to hatch… that would have made him incredibly powerful, especially if he managed to force bonds to all of these draasin here.

  Did you know?

  He sent the connection through the fire bond and on to Sashari. She remained in the kingdoms with Cianna, and he recognized that she was distracted hunting, but this was too important not to question.

  Maelen.

  She came from a long way away, and it seemed muted as if the shaping that protected this place also limited his ability to reach her.

  Tan pulled an image of the eggs into mind and sent that through the fire bond to Sashari. Did you know that so many remained?

  There was a delay before she responded. So many. We had hoped…

  You didn’t know?

  We didn’t know, Maelen. So much had been lost in the time that we were away.

  Away. Tan noted that she did not remind him how the draasin had been trapped and forced to be a part of the shaping that had hidden the artifact. Sashari didn’t hold any more anger about that than Asboel had near the end. The draasin could hold their anger deep, but they had come to understand the need for their service. The anger that drove Asboel at the end had been directed toward those who thought to use the draasin against the elementals, not against the ancient shapers who had used him to protect the artifact.

  You knew there would be eggs?

  That is how it has always been, Maelen. A clutch is buried, and some are lost. Fire would not let the draasin light extinguish.

  Will there be others?

  Sashari didn’t answer at first. It is possible that these will be the last.

  Tan ran his hand over one of the eggs. Deep within, he felt a subtle stirring that reverberated against his connection to the fire bond. With enough fire and enough coaxing, Tan suspected that he could convince the egg to hatch.

  Was that part of his purpose now? Honl spoke of how the Great Mother used him, at fir
st to free the draasin, and then to show that Incendin should not be feared, and finally to defeat the Utu Tonah. Maybe she was done with him yet. And he didn’t mind, especially when he was used like this.

  Now wasn’t the time to attempt to hatch the eggs. Before he did that, he would want Sashari, Enya, and Asgar nearby. The other hatchling still hadn’t taken her name, so Tan didn’t think that she would be of much use with the eggs. And the eggs would need to be moved from Par-shon.

  No, Maelen. They cannot hatch anywhere but the land they were laid. They will not be viable.

  There are nearly two dozen here. These are all of Par-shon? Or Par, since they were from the time before the Utu Tonah had come.

  Not all. The colors are wrong for that land. You must learn where they belong and return them to that land to hatch.

  There were so many! But for the draasin, especially given everything they had done to help him, and save the people of the kingdoms, Tan would make whatever sacrifice they demanded of him.

  How will I know?

  The fire bond will show you.

  Tan started toward one of the other eggs. It was lighter colored and streaked with black. In many ways, the egg itself was beautiful. As he made his way toward it, the walls of the cavern began to rumble.

  Maelen!

  It was Kota, and the urgency in her voice surprised him, as did the difficulty she had even reaching him. Tan glanced at the eggs, concern for them growing with the continued rumbling from the ground, and sent a shaping to the earth, asking the elemental within the rock to come up and protect the eggs. The floor shook and then, slowly, the rock began to form around the eggs, sealing them in place.

  Thank you, Tan sent to the earth elemental.

  There came a deep response, almost too difficult for him to understand, that reminded him of a drumming, much like what the shapers of Chenir used.

  Then the walls around him began to shake.

  Tan listened to the earth and felt the ongoing shaking. It would collapse in moments.

  He started into the tunnel, sending a surge of heat toward the rock that now covered the eggs, pulling saa into the protection. He drew on wyln and udilm as well, not certain they could do anything to help the eggs here, but they had provided some protection before Tan had asked them to withdraw.

  There wasn’t a chance for him to know if they answered.

  The tunnel began to collapse around him.

  17

  Born of Fire

  Tan shifted his focus to earth, forcing it back and to the sides to keep from getting buried in stone. He pushed heat and flame that he drew from saa at first, and then from the fire bond itself against the rock. With enough force, he pressed up and up, streaking ever higher through the tunnel.

  Walls began to collapse on him, but Tan continued to push, using shapings that he controlled, not calling on the elementals. When that failed, he added the strength of the elementals to his shaping, drawing from Kota, from fire, and from wind. All of it boosted him and sent him skyward.

  But he wasn’t fast enough.

  The rock collapsed, sending him backward.

  Tan dropped, pressed down by massive amounts of stone and wind, all pushing down on him, attempting to crush him. Only by the strength of his shaping did he manage to keep from getting crushed under the weight of the rock.

  At the bottom of the cavern, he rolled to the side as rock and debris crashed into the cavern with him. He shaped a barrier of earth and wind around him, buffering the impact of the stone. Even then, he barely held out against it.

  The rock stopped moving.

  Tan stood, pushing away the rock that had fallen around him. Little room remained in the cavern: rock filled it. He reached with fire sensing and detected that the draasin eggs were intact, and let out a relieved sigh. Whoever had attacked him had failed to damage them.

  At least there was that victory.

  But now he had to get free of the rock.

  He moved slowly, finding that each step was difficult. The rock piled all around him, and he had to crush it with a shaping of earth and wind, pulverizing it so that he could move freely.

  He glanced around. The tunnel should not have collapsed on him. He had shaped it with earth, using fire to augment his shaping, but something had failed. Was there something that he missed? A shaper stronger than he realized? Or had Tolman misled him?

  He would have answers.

  First, he had to get free.

  What had once been a massive expanse of a cavern was now full of loose rock. Tan shaped his way toward the draasin eggs, careful to shield his shaping as he went. If there were someone above ground who had attempted to harm him, he would not have them know they had failed. But what better way to rid Par-shon of the Utu Tonah than to crush him beneath the ground?

  Not Tolman, though. Tan didn’t think that the earth shaper would have betrayed him, not considering his connection to earth and the fact that he had revealed the draasin eggs. That meant that there was someone else here who intended to harm him. And perhaps not only him, but the eggs as well.

  He continued to crush rock, leaving it as little more than dust that he swept away on a shaping of wind as he made his way toward the draasin. Fire sensing told him that they were intact, but they had survived in this cavern for at least a thousand years. He would not have them damaged the moment that he discovered them.

  When he reached the eggs, he found the rock around them had practically melted. Saa had done its part to protect them, granting them the heat from the elemental. The earth elemental here had absorbed most of the impact, but there was one egg where the rock around it had failed and where the heat from saa had slipped through, heating it to a glowing red.

  Tan approached carefully, holding his hands out in front of him. What happens when saa heats the egg? he asked Sashari.

  Saa would not do something like that.

  Not intentionally.

  He sent an image of the collapsed tunnel and the way that the rock and saa had worked together to try to protect the eggs. Through the fire bond, he sensed Sashari’s agitation at that, and a few for the unborn draasin.

  That one must be fed, Maelen.

  I don’t understand.

  There was a delay as if Sashari had to push to get through the connection, making Tan wonder if whoever had attacked had somehow managed to impact the fire bond, but then she answered.

  Her answer came in images, much like what Tan had been sending to her.

  When she mentioned feeding the draasin, he imagined hunting for food, as Sashari had done for her hatchlings until they were old enough to hunt alone. But that wasn’t what she had meant at all. The draasin didn’t need food at first, but to be connected to fire and the fire bond. They were of fire, but the initial moments after birth were essential for tying them to fire.

  And this egg, heated as it was by saa, would hatch.

  Another draasin would join the world. It would be Tan’s responsibility to see that it lived.

  He grabbed the egg in both hands and sent a shaping of fire through it, reaching for a connection to the hatchling within. The sense of it was weak but grew stronger. Saa maintained a connection as well, understanding that now that the draasin egg had started to hatch, fire must remain in contact with it.

  Tan added his shaping to it, filling the egg with a shaping of fire that came from him but also from the elemental energy he sensed around him. The draasin hatchling began to stir. Slowly at first, but with increasing movement, striking at the shell. The heat softened the shell as well.

  Sashari pushed on him, guiding him how to feed the draasin, showing him how to send even more fire to it. The draasin became more active, pushing on the shell.

  And then Tan felt it within the fire bond.

  No longer was it some vague sense of fire. This was an elemental of fire, born into the bond. There was power here, and he needed to bring it to life.

  Tan continued to draw on fire, pulling more, borrowing first from his
own stores and then from saa around him. When that began to be depleted, Tan started pulling from the connection he sensed with the draasin, pulling from Asgar and Sashari and Enya, who each gave freely. Then he sensed that beginning to fail, and Tan pulled from the fire bond itself.

  He had never pulled on fire through the bond before. Had he not been wrapped as he was in the shaping, needing the strength of fire in order to help the draasin egg, he would not have tried. But he had the sense that the egg would not survive if he did nothing.

  The attack that had collapsed the tunnel had required the help of saa and the earth elemental, but this egg had been damaged and had started the process that would lead it to hatch.

  Wrapped in the fire bond, he felt the overwhelming greatness of fire. There was the memory of Asboel within it, and he imagined that his friend guided him, though he had only spoken to Asboel through the fire bond once since his friend had died.

  Power flooded him.

  But Tan was not the vessel and was not the target of the fire he summoned. He poured it into the egg, in massive amounts, and heat and flame flooded it.

  Even that began to fail.

  His strength was not enough to feed the draasin and save the elemental of fire. The egg, and the potential of the draasin, would die.

  Use the Mother.

  The suggestion came from somewhere. Perhaps saa, or Asgar, or Sashari. But it sounded like Asboel once again guiding him.

  Tan added a shaping of spirit.

  At first, he drew on a small shaping, but then he pulled on more and more, the fire bond telling him that he needed to use more spirit. He exhausted all the spirit that he could pull, and then reached through his bond with Amia and began pulling on that as well. She gave to him gladly, suddenly aware of what did and what he attempted.

  Spirit flooded from him, joining the shaping of fire, as it began to sink into the egg.

  The shaping failed.

  The egg cracked.

  Tan sagged and fell against the nearest egg.

  His body ached. His mind throbbed.