Servant of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Enya and Cora still struggled with the bond between them. How much came from the fact that Enya had once had a shaping twisted onto her, and how much came from the fact that Cora still mourned the loss of her bond? Those were answers his connection to fire couldn’t provide.

  Four men stood on either side of the gate leading into the city and into the fortress within. They wore thick leather helms twisted into the shape of a wide jaw lined with jagged teeth. Each held a long sword, which was planted into the hard earth, and wore a shield strapped to his back. They watched Tan and Cianna but said nothing.

  Tan couldn’t tell if they were shapers. If they were fire shapers, he had no way of knowing, not without reaching for spirit and pushing that shaping down onto them, something he was unwilling to do unless it was necessary. For all he knew, they might be able to withstand a spirit shaping.

  When he stepped forward, the men moved aside, almost as one, parting and revealing an open doorway inside the arch that led through the tower and into the city. Cianna eyed it and glanced up at Tan, mouth pursed into a thin line.

  Tan held onto a shaping of each of the elements, ready to unleash it to explode away from Incendin if needed, but he sensed nothing that made him fear that he’d need to use the shaping.

  “Are we to wait?” Tan asked.

  None of the soldiers answered.

  Through his prepared shaping, he felt the drawing of kaas and the strange connection to Fur through the fire bond, and felt pulled. Once inside the Fortress, Tan had no idea whether he would ever manage to escape.

  This was the reason he’d come. Finding a way to work with Incendin was worth risking an entry to the Fire Fortress.

  As he stepped beneath the arch, the air shimmered slightly, reminding him somewhat of how Honl once had shimmered when taking his translucent form. Tan took reassurance in that. “If Lacertin could do this,” he said to himself, softly enough that only Cianna could hear.

  Her back straightened slightly, and he heard her take a soft breath.

  They stepped into the fortress. All around him, the air was hot and blew across his skin with a familiar caress. Ashi blew through here, not afraid of the fortress or those living within it. It eased Tan’s mind to recognize that a familiar elemental was found here.

  The door led into a wide entryway. Smooth tile of flat black echoed beneath his feet. Tan paused long enough to look around him, stretching out with a sensing of earth and fire, probing to learn what his eyes might miss. Next to him, Cianna’s eyes were wide as she peered at everything.

  The fortress held hundreds of people. Awareness of them pressed in on Tan through earth and spirit. He could almost point out every single person, from servants making their way through hidden halls to the lisincend stationed around Fur on a level far above him.

  The walls glowed with an intrinsic light. The air within the fortress smelled of the bitter scent of char. There was something about it that was soothing, yet it set him on edge. He found it a strange dichotomy.

  “Up,” Tan said quietly.

  The stairs were much like the floor, made of a dark slate that felt slick and warm beneath his booted feet. The stair was wide near the main floor and curved around to the next level. Once there, it narrowed the higher they climbed. There were no windows and no other light. Still, they were not in complete darkness. The walls of the Fire Fortress glowed all the way up.

  There was a part of Tan that wanted to shape himself through the Fire Fortress, but he recognized the opportunity he and Cianna had to see something that few outside of Incendin had ever seen. Other than Cora and Lacertin, Tan had never spoken to anyone who had been to the Fire Fortress and returned.

  Their feet echoed off the walls as they walked, the sound carrying away from them. The air had a strange heated odor, almost bitter, that filled his nostrils as they climbed. The pull on the fire bond drew him ever higher. Strangely, no one stopped them as they made their way up. If not for his sensing ability, Tan might have thought that the Fire Fortress was empty.

  They reached a wide landing. There were no more stairs up, and the sense of Fur or kaas drawing him came from along the hall. Tan inhaled deeply, steeling himself before stepping forward. Cianna stayed a step behind him, her quick breaths the only sign of her anxiety.

  “I can get us free from here if needed.” Tan said it more to reassure Cianna, but some of the tension left his shoulders, almost as if the reminder had given him permission to shape if he might need to get them free.

  “You’ve said the Fire Fortress reminds you of Par-shon,” Cianna said quietly.

  “Maybe once it did,” Tan agreed. They reached a tall, arching door, rising nearly twice Tan’s height, made of a deeply lacquered wood. Like the rest of the Fire Fortress, it appeared to glow softly, as if imbued with heat and fire of its own.

  “What’s different?” Cianna asked, stepping forward to run her hand just over the surface of the door.

  “In Par-shon, I wasn’t scared, but I should have been,” he answered. Had Tan known then what he’d learned of Par-shon, he would have been too terrified to act when it was needed. Maybe he wouldn’t have found a way free from the room of separation and had his bonds stolen like Vel and Cora. “I didn’t know that I should fear the Utu Tonah, or that I couldn’t break the runes holding me within the room of separation. Had I thought it impossible, I might have failed. Sometimes ignorance is helpful,” he continued.

  She sniffed. “And sometimes, knowledge is dangerous.”

  Tan touched the door. “All knowledge is dangerous when used the wrong way,” he said.

  As if waiting for him, the door pulled open on a shaping of fire.

  Another shaping built as soon as the door opened. Not from Tan or Cianna, though they both held shapings ready, but from the three lisincend standing along a wall of blackened windows that overlooked the city. They were each winged lisincend, of the kind that had required a sacrifice of Aeta in order to complete the transformation, making them appear like some grotesque blend of man and draasin. The shaping stretched up and out of the tower and, Tan noted, also through the fortress itself, leaving the walls glowing and warm. This was the reason the Fire Fortress seemed to burn.

  “You understand the purpose of their shaping?”

  Tan’s breath caught at Fur’s voice. It was gravely and powerful, much like the lisincend towering to Tan’s left. He made a point of turning slowly, knowing that if Fur attacked, the other lisincend would likely follow. He and Cianna would be able to hold it off, but only for a while. Bolstered by kaas, Fur would be able to draw more fire through him than Cianna could, and perhaps more shaping power than even Tan. That had been the gamble Tan had taken when he shifted the bond to Fur.

  “I understand how fire washes over the city. I feel the way it burns through the fortress,” Tan answered.

  Fur chuckled. One of the winged lisincend flicked her gaze toward Fur and ran a long tongue over leathery lips before returning her focus outward, toward the city.

  Tan blinked. Not only to the city, but beyond, to the sea as it roiled toward them on dark and angry swells. The shaping didn’t simply let fire wash over the people of the city. This was the shaping that held back Par-shon.

  Fur’s thick laugh came again. When he approached, heat practically sizzled off him. The veil that once obscured the lisincend to Tan was no more, another gift of the draasin, or perhaps simply the fire bond.

  “You understand now. You sense the power of the shaping, yes?” he asked.

  “I sense Par-shon,” Tan answered.

  Fur leaned toward him, his flat nostrils flaring slightly as he sniffed. “Yes? Well, I smell them.” He leaned back. “Much as I once smelled you.” A dark smile split his mouth, drawing his lips tight. “You think that I would forget our chase? Or how you sent the draasin after me?”

  Cianna tensed. A shaping built within her.

  Tan considered soothing her with spirit. He couldn’t risk Cianna acting and risking what needed to happ
en. They would find a way to forge an alliance, however uneasy.

  “And do you think I will forget how the lisincend destroyed my village?” Tan asked softly.

  Fur’s eyes narrowed a moment, and then he laughed again. “You have changed much since that time. I think you would be a fitting challenge now. Perhaps you would not even require the draasin to aid you.”

  “I didn’t answer your summons to fight, Fur.”

  Fur slithered toward the window, placing his hands against the glass. “And I did not summon you to fight.” His head leaned forward so that his smooth, sloped forehead touched the glass. In the reflection, Tan saw how his nostrils flared, leaving a hint of steam. “I have been warned that might not go well for me, servant of fire. I cannot help but wonder, though.” Fur admitted.

  The other lisincend continued their shaping. Great waves of it swept from them, building with incredible strength. Through the fire bond, Tan was able to detect what they did. The skill with shaping was more than Tan possessed. Perhaps not the strength, not now that he was bolstered by the elementals, able to draw not only from Asboel, but from all of the fire elementals around him, but the control impressed him and reminded of watching Amia learn spirit shaping with the First Mother. There was a drawing sense from the shaping, an appeal to fire. Tan had to resist the urge to join in.

  Cianna continued to hold her shaping, wrapping herself in it so tightly that heat shimmered from her, layering over her like a blanket.

  Fur pushed away from the window and sniffed, the thin smile parting his lips. “You should have made the crossing, little one. You would have learned much in the Sunlands.”

  Tan stepped forward before Cianna could react. He’d seen Cianna’s sensitivities to Incendin thinking that shapers from Nara—shapers like herself—should have crossed Incendin to learn. “This is why you called me here?” he asked. Kaas had summoned, but the elemental had done so on Fur’s behalf.

  “You did not wish to see the fortress?”

  Tan watched the lisincend, felt their shaping as it pulled on him. Fur didn’t call him here to exchange barbs, but why had he called to Tan? “You would like me to help,” Tan realized.

  Fur’s neck creaked as he shifted his attention to Tan. “And if I did? Would you help, Warrior?”

  Tan crossed his arms over his chest. Fur tested him, but why? Through kaas, Fur would know what Tan had done for the elementals. Through the fire bond, Tan could sense Fur, even if he could not communicate with him quite like he could with the elementals. There was a hesitancy within the bond which contrasted with his confident posturing and comments.

  “I will help,” Tan said. “As I did with the other lisincend.”

  Fur glanced at the winged lisincend, who were shaping. “Yes. The transformation. It is different now. That was you.”

  It was less of a question than a statement, though Tan sensed a curiosity within Fur. The lisincend would understand how Tan had managed to keep them from being twisted by fire when he hadn’t managed to. “I have been changed by fire, Fur. I know how it burns, how it can control.”

  Fur blinked and his lips twitched. Heat radiated off him, more powerfully than what Cianna shaped, probably more powerfully than what Tan could draw. “You were transformed and returned?”

  Tan wondered if there was a part of Fur that longed to be restored. “By water. The elementals restored me.”

  “If you have known the strength of fire and lived, why help the lisincend? Why help me?”

  Could this be why Fur had used kaas to summon? Did he only want answers?

  Even in that, the summons was valuable. If Tan could convince Fur that he was needed, that all of Incendin and the lisincend were needed, then they might have a chance of surviving Par-shon.

  “You destroyed my village. You killed an entire family of Aeta, people who did nothing but travel through your lands,” Tan began slowly. The winged lisincends’ shaping faltered slightly, as if they listened. Tan suspected that they could shift the focus of the shaping to him. He might be able to withstand fire, but would it matter with the power they drew? He might live, but would Cianna? “In spite of all that, I know the power that surges within the lisincend. Corasha Saladan shared with me the reasons your shapers embraced fire,” he continued, making a point of using the same descriptions that Cora had used when they had once spoken of it. “If we are to find a way to work together to stop Par-shon, the lisincend will be needed. Your shapings might hold Par-shon at bay for now, but for how much longer? They have shown how they can reach Doma, how they can attack the Sunlands, and how they are willing to trap the elementals.”

  Fur’s mouth twisted as Tan said the last. “What they do is an abomination,” he spat.

  Tan took a slight step back. Had the bond with kaas made Fur feel that way, or did all of Incendin feel the same about the elementals? The lisincend had not hesitated to attack the draasin, but had that been them, or was that because of the way that fire twisted them?

  “You would see the elementals protected?” Tan asked carefully.

  Fur breathed heavily as he stared out the window, eyes locked on the dark clouds swirling in the distance. The Par-shon storm was held back, but for how much longer? The Utu Tonah could force the elementals to bond. With enough numbers, Par-shon would be able to overpower even the strength of the Fire Fortress.

  “They should exalt power that they abuse.”

  “The lisincend did not always feel that way,” Tan reminded him.

  Fur pulled his back straight. “No. Trust that I now understand the mistake.”

  Tan didn’t have to simply trust Fur. Through the fire bond, the strength of his conviction flowed, an overpowering respect for fire that burned within him. “Kaas has taught you much.” This time, Tan hesitated, needing to ask the question that had plagued him since the attack. “Does he mind the bond?”

  Fur flashed teeth at Tan, his long tongue sliding out and running across his lips. “It was not of his choosing at the time.”

  “And now?”

  Fur sniffed. “Now it is different.”

  Tan waited for Fur to explain further, but he did not. Kaas didn’t share anything more through the fire bond, other than to share that he no longer resented it. Since Tan had healed the elemental, drawing on the strength of the other elementals to do so, kaas had been able to rejoin the fire bond. That healing was the reason Tan held out hope that he could see Asboel healed.

  Asboel crawled toward the front of Tan’s mind, reminding him that he had always been there. It is different, Maelen.

  It doesn’t have to be, Tan said.

  You do not have the power of the Mother. It was a gentle admonishment.

  Tan pulled his attention back to Fur. “You haven’t answered me, Fur. I admit that I was curious to see the Fire Fortress for myself, but why have you summoned me here?”

  “No. This is not why I have asked you to come. There is something else that I need.” Fur strode past him and reached the tall, arching doorway that led into the room. He paused at the door. “Come.”

  3

  Beneath the Fortress

  Tan followed Fur through a long hall and then to a narrow stair that they took to the bottom of the Fire Fortress. The lisincend was so tall that his head brushed the ceiling as he walked, forcing him to bend slightly at the neck. Heat radiated from his thick skin, and a shimmery cloud swirled around him as they made their way down the stairs. All around, the walls glowed with a soft, orange light, making the lanterns stationed every dozen steps unnecessary.

  Cianna remained behind Tan, but she placed a hand on his shoulder as they trailed after Fur. At each landing they passed, Cianna’s hand gripped more tightly for a moment before easing. Her breathing came in short gasps behind him and caught at times, particularly when a stronger shaping surged through the fortress walls.

  Tan felt much of the same anxiety. Fur hadn’t said anything since they left the room overlooking Incendin, but he still felt the shaping that the lisi
ncend worked. It filled the fire fortress, flowing through it and then out and away. There was a part of Tan that was drawn to the shaping, a part that wanted to join in what the lisincend did and add his ability to it. The shaping itself was complex. There was a pattern to it, but it hadn’t repeated for as long as Tan had been in the Fortress. So far, he hadn’t worked out how it kept Par-shon away, or even how to replicate it. In many ways, it reminded him of the shaping the First Mother had used to heal Cora.

  When they reached another landing, Fur paused at a wide door made of blackened metal that seemed impervious to the heat glowing all around. He twisted a long nail into the lock and pried it open, using a shaping as he did so. He cast a glance over his shoulder before stepping into the darkness on the other side.

  “Tan,” Cianna whispered. “He’s leading us below the city.”

  Tan peered into the darkness, but Fur had already disappeared. The walls glowed along the stairs, but without the same intensity as those higher up. The deeper they went, the more difficult a time Tan would have in getting them free if Fur were to do something to trap them. At least near the top of the tower, he had the promise that he might be able to shape them free. They could explode through the glass and depart on a shaping of lightning. Down beneath the city, escape would be much more difficult.

  Still, Tan wanted to know where Fur was taking them. Kaas wouldn’t have called to him if Fur intended him harm, would he? No, the fire bond would have warned him. Asboel would have warned him, and he sensed nothing but interest from the draasin. “I don’t think he intends to harm us,” he said.

  “This is Fur you’re talking about.”

  “Yes. And he’s different. Ask the draasin if you don’t believe.”

  Sashari would be able to tell Cianna how much had changed within Fur. The draasin could reach the fire bond and could share with Cianna how Twisted Fire no longer burned in him. Asboel had remarked on it, though Tan knew the draasin still held a grudge against the lisincend for what he had done, and how he’d stolen the hatchlings. At least the painful sense against the fire bond was no longer there.