Servant of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  He used a shaping of earth to stand and took a moment to steady himself. The large hound still sat in place, watching him. The others circled around them. It took Tan a moment, but he realized that he’d seen the enormous hound before. She was the same one that had followed him out of Incendin and then tracked him toward Ethea.

  You’ve gotten bigger, Tan said to her.

  Her lip curled and she flashed a mouthful of sharp teeth. This form changes.

  She sounded like a deep rumbling, like that of an earthquake rolling downhill, mixed with a steady hiss of steam. It was a unique sound, a voice unlike anything Tan had ever heard before.

  You have formed a pack. When he’d last seen her, she had been alone, but the hounds had always been found in packs. Tan wondered if that much had stayed the same, connected to whatever crossing had created the hounds.

  We have formed a family.

  A family?

  Is that not what your female called her grouping?

  Tan tensed. Next to him, he sensed Vel doing the same. The shaping he held continued to build. Tan rested a hand on his arm. “Easy, Vel. I will take care of this.”

  “I saw how you were nearly taken care of, Tan. Come. This was not what I wanted to show you.”

  Tan frowned. If not the hounds, then what had Vel intended for him to see?

  What else could there have been that Vel needed him to see? The hounds would have caught his attention, unless there was something else that Vel feared. Whatever it was would have to wait.

  You followed us? Tan asked her.

  You are an interesting creature.

  Tan almost laughed, but doing so would probably upset Vel. The water shaper already seemed to struggle with what he was seeing. How would he react to Tan laughing about the hounds?

  Why have you come here? Tan asked.

  For one of the Lost. The hound turned toward the one that Tan had healed.

  You came to claim him?

  The Lost are not to blame for what happened.

  Did you know that I would come?

  The hound growled, the sound deeper than any animal that Tan had ever heard. The Mother knew that you would come.

  Tan wondered how much the Great Mother really influenced what happened, and how much was chance. What will you do now?

  We hunt.

  The hound held Tan’s gaze for another moment, and then she loped off, the others following behind her. She moved quickly, disappearing into the swamp. Tan watched for a moment, uncertain what to do, and then finally faced Vel.

  “What was that?” Vel asked. His voice took on a high-pitched quality, leaving him sounding slightly panicked. “You said the hounds were elementals, but that is no hound—”

  Tan squeezed the hilt of his sword, briefly drawing a shaping of earth, letting it quest out from him so that he could sense the pack. They had moved away, but one remained nearby, just beyond a circle where Tan could easily detect her. Without his connection to earth and fire, he might not have been able to. She waited, as if lingering to see what Tan and the others would do.

  “The hounds are different now. The return to fire has changed them.”

  “Changed?” Vel asked. His voice settled, but the panicked expression in his eyes, one that reminded Tan of how he’d appeared when he’d been rescued from Par-shon, remained. “How did they get so big?”

  “Earth, I think,” Elle said, lowering to the ground on a shaping augmented by a shimmery spray. “I feel something deep and vast to them. I’ve never known anything quite like it.”

  “Like I said, they are earth and fire.”

  “How? The hounds aren’t new creations. They’ve been around for as long as Doma!”

  Tan closed his eyes and sighed. “Blame the kingdoms. The shapers from long ago thought they could experiment on the elementals. These experiments led to creatures like kaas, and to the hounds, creatures that have not managed to reach fire.”

  “I’ve been chased by hounds, Tan. I know how the hounds use fire,” Vel said.

  “Not true fire. What they did was twisted, like the lisincend. And like the lisincend, they’ve been restored to the fire bond. I hadn’t expected the hounds to be elementals. It makes a certain sort of sense, though.” He turned to Elle. “This wasn’t what you wanted me to see?”

  She glanced past him to Vel. “Not this. I don’t think that Vel knew about the hounds,” she said.

  “Vel didn’t, but did you?” Tan asked.

  Elle wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I knew there was something different to them. They’ve never moved beyond the borders of Incendin without the lisincend before. Over the last few days, I’ve detected them moving, mostly to the north. Some have remained in Incendin, but . . . ”

  Tan wondered what it meant that the hounds had been moving toward Chenir. Were they answering the summons that the Chenir shapers were sending to the elementals, or was it something else?

  “If it wasn’t the hounds, then what is it, Vel?” Tan asked. “You wanted to bring me here.”

  Vel shook his head and smoothed his hands down his jacket. One corner of his eye twitched slightly and he sucked in a quick breath, his attention turned in the direction the hounds had gone. “You traveled too far, Tan. This was not what I needed to show you. The hounds . . . well, I didn’t know they were there. Elle is more skilled with things like that, you know. My talents are different.”

  Vel shaped himself aloft again and started toward the swamp.

  Elle’s brow creased as she watched him disappear. “He still struggles with this bond. I think udilm claimed him again, but something about it is different.”

  “It’s the same for Cora,” Tan said. “She had bonded to saldam, but when the draasin needed bonding, she claimed it. I don’t think it’s the same.”

  Elle tipped her head, shaping herself after Vel. Tan followed, moving quickly on a shaping of wind and air. He added a hint of earth to it and felt a slight connection through the earth shaping to the hound still watching him. How long would she stay there after him?

  “Zephra had bonded before,” Elle noted.

  “But she had my entire life between one bond and the next. That might be a difference. Even that is challenging for her, I think. Wind reacts differently to her. She is different.”

  Elle nodded to herself. “Maybe that’s all it is. The bond changes the shaper, so maybe that’s all I’m seeing.”

  “You’re worried about him.”

  Elle glanced over. Wind pulled on her dress, letting it flap as she made her way after Vel. It was a cool breeze, one that had more dampness than any found in the kingdoms, almost as if the air itself was filled with water. Tan recognized the wind then, understanding that it was a different elemental, that wyln blew through Doma.

  “I’m worried how he’s handling the change,” Elle admitted. “You’ve told me about Cora, and Amia shared how difficult the healing had been, but I don’t remember you telling me anything about Vel.”

  Tan considered sharing with Elle how Vel had reacted when released from Par-shon. He had attacked the Par-shon shapers with a sort of unrestrained joy, and had a dangerous glee to him as he had done so. But without his help, Tan wasn’t sure that he would have escaped.

  “Vel didn’t need the same type of healing as Cora,” he said. “At least we were able to help her. Our healers have barely been able to do much for Theran.” The third bonded shaper that he’d rescued from Par-shon had been entirely silent since the rescue, only answering when asked his name. None recognized it so far.

  “You never asked for my help,” she said. There was an edge of hurt in her words.

  “You’ve been busy with helping Doma. And the kingdoms have water shapers, Elle. They might not have the same connection to the elementals—”

  “You do.”

  Tan shrugged and went on, “But they are skilled healers. Besides, I think it’s more like what happened with Cora. The healing needed is something more than simply of the body, but of the mind.”
>
  “And Amia?”

  “She’s tried, but with her new responsibilities, there is only so much time that she has to help. I don’t think she trusts anyone else to do it, either.”

  They caught up to Vel, who had stopped near what Tan suspected was the center of the swamp. All around, large reeds protruded from the water. A thin film of green and brown coated the surface. Patches of land were visible in places, but it was otherwise a murky mess. Without shaping, Tan wouldn’t have been able to cross the swamp.

  In the midst of it was a simple wooden building propped up on long wooden legs. It was this that Vel hovered above, one arm extended as he pointed.

  “What is this place?” Tan asked.

  Vel shrugged. “Don’t know. None had ever seen it before. If not for this new talent,” he said, waving his hands in the air as if trying to mimic flying, “we might never have seen it.”

  Tan studied the hut. Other than its location, there was nothing particularly impressive about it. “Any of your people live here?”

  “None from Doma,” Elle said. “The swamp has long been thought to be impassable.”

  Vel nodded. “Some try. You get a few crazy enough to think to bring one of the shallow-keeled fishing boats through here, but none have ever been able to make it across. That’s why it’s been an effective barrier between us and Chenir.”

  Tan saw and sensed nothing about it that made him think that Par-shon had anything to do with the hut. The swamp would be a good place to hide, otherwise. As he sensed, listening to water around him, he realized that someone else was there.

  Not someone, but definitely something.

  He dropped to the small wooden porch in front of the hut door. Vel shouted something after him, but Tan ignored it. He pushed the door open, not sure what to expect. The other side was dimly lit and smelled of damp air. Heat pressed on him and he sensed a heaviness, much like he’d detected with the hounds.

  This was a place of elemental power.

  Tan quickly shaped the door closed, not wanting Elle or Vel to risk entering. As he did, he shaped a hint of fire, only enough for him to see and not enough to do any damage to the hut, not until he knew what he might find.

  Spread out around the hut were signs of elemental power, but nothing like anything that he’d ever seen before. A large, smooth stone of deep black rested on the wooden floor. Tan sensed fire and earth from it, a combination that should not exist, but then again, neither should kaas or the hounds. A small crack in the floor let some of the light trickle out. Through this, Tan noticed a thick, greenish-tinted mist that swirled around it. Wind and air. The combination was not as surprising as fire and earth, but still uncommon.

  Other combinations were present here as well. In a corner was an obsidian bowl, much like the one that he’d seen the archivists possess. Water slicked its surface, leaving it steaming. Water and fire, Tan suspected. A simple iron pot contained a slurry of water and mud. A few similar pots were empty.

  This was something like elemental power, but not elementals.

  A layer of dust coated everything. How long had it been since someone had been in this hut? And who had been here?

  He made his way around the room, searching for anything else that would explain what he found, but there was nothing but a thick book angled against the wall. Tan grabbed this and glanced at the cover. His breath caught. Runes for each of the elementals were marked on the surface, much like the books that he’d found at the university.

  He flipped through the book. Written in a tight script were notes. Whatever this was, it was similar to those left at the university archives.

  As he read through a few of the pages, he felt as if a weight were lifting from his chest. Written here in Ishthin were the writings of an ancient shaper. That wasn’t what gave him relief. It was the concern he saw for the elementals, the recognition that what the other shapers had done was wrong. And this, everything around him, was an attempt to correct it.

  Even better, there must have been others like this scholar. The book was written for someone else, telling Tan that there had once been others like him, others with the same concern for the elementals, and others who had wanted to do what was needed to protect them.

  Since learning about the ancient shapers and the steps they’d taken to damage the elementals, he’d been troubled. How could shapers as connected to the elementals as they had been think that harnessing them was acceptable? Worse, how could they have thought it acceptable to force the crossings between elementals?

  He had hoped that there had been those who’d thought differently, but now he knew. And maybe there would be answers within this book about how they had stopped the harnessing at that time.

  Tan pocketed the book and glanced around the hut. There was power here that he didn’t fully understand. Finding it, learning of that power, left him feeling more hopeful than he had in some time. Maybe he would find the answers he needed to stop the Utu Tonah. Maybe he could even find something that would help him repair the artifact.

  As he stepped back out of the hut and lifted to the air on a shaping, Elle studied him with a worried look creasing her brow. “How did you get through?” she asked.

  Tan frowned. “What do you mean?”

  She pointed to the hut. “We couldn’t get through. There’s something here that prevents us.”

  Tan didn’t detect anything, but then again, he was a shaper more like the one who had built the hut and placed it here. Maybe he was meant to find it.

  “What did you find?” she asked.

  Tan thought of the book and the messages within. Not all the ancient shapers had wanted to harness the elementals. Not all wanted to cross them. Maybe there had been some like him. Could that be why the artifact had been made?

  “Tan?” Elle said. “What was in there?”

  He smiled. “Hope.”

  19

  The Bond Forms

  The border between Doma and Chenir quickly sloped from lush grasslands scattered with towering trees down to the hard, barren rock of Chenir. A wide, cracked valley blocked foot travelers; it was the reason that travel from the kingdoms to Chenir had typically been done by ship.

  Elle stood next to him and stared into Chenir with a quiet intensity. Vel had returned to Falsheim, determined to continue to patrol the borders around the city, using udilm to ensure the safety of the people within. “They’re moving the wrong way,” she said.

  Tan looked at her. “What do you mean?”

  Elle shrugged and tucked a loose strand of hair back behind her ears. “You’re the one who suggested it to me. Incendin pushes out with fire. Doma does the same with water. Look at Chenir. They have strength in earth, much like our strength in water, but they sacrifice it as they draw back. Retreating to the kingdoms isn’t the answer.”

  Tan couldn’t believe that he hadn’t seen it before. The first thing he’d noticed about Chenir had been the powerful drumming that they used to draw on the earth elementals. Their other shapers were strong, but there was something about the rhythmic drumming that called on earth the best. Would they be able to alter their shaping, use the strength of the earth to push Par-shon back?

  If they did, it left only one place left for Par-shon to attack. The kingdoms wouldn’t be ready. They didn’t have enough strength to be ready.

  Not without Zephra. Tan needed to free his mother. Seeing what Elle pointed out, he thought he understood a way that Par-shon could be kept from the shores—not just of the kingdoms, but of all the Kingdoms. Fire. Water. Earth. That left wind for the kingdoms.

  Would it work?

  “What is it?” Elle asked him.

  The hope that Tan had felt when he had first found the hut and understood what it was began to spread through him. It was different than what he had thought would be necessary to defeat Par-shon, but at the same time, it was exactly what he had thought. The nations, each working together, each with the same risk. Fighting individually had not worked, but together? Could
they make it work?

  Only if others would believe him. It would have to start with Chenir.

  Even more than that, it would have to start with Zephra. He would need not only her, but her wind shaping and her connection to the elementals to be able to create a shaping that rivaled what he’d seen in Incendin and now in Doma.

  And if he could save Zephra, he might even be able to convince Chenir.

  “There has to be a way to rescue my mother,” he said.

  Elle shook her head. “Tan, I don’t think you understand what you’re saying. Masyn tells me that Par-shon has her in the middle of—”

  “I know where you’ve seen her, but I think I know how to exclude Par-shon,” he said. More than that, it might even be enough to stop the Utu Tonah. Tan almost didn’t dare let himself hope that something could be done. The possibility seemed unlikely, but then, so too would it once have seemed unlikely that he could work with the lisincend, or that the hounds were elementals.

  “Tan—”

  “It’s going to be dangerous. I know that, but what Chenir does is dangerous, too. Pulling away the elementals doesn’t stop Par-shon, it only weakens them. We need to find a way to strengthen these lands, and then use that to push back Par-shon. It starts with reaching Zephra.”

  “No, that’s not what I was getting at,” Elle said. “Look.”

  She pointed into the distance. Tan had to squint, but he could see what she indicated. Streaks of darkness moved in the distance, crawling across the rough Chenir rock. These were lands where the elementals had been withdrawn, but elementals were returning—except they weren’t elementals native to Chenir.

  “What are they doing?” Elle asked.

  “You’d said they were moving north. I thought that Chenir . . . ” He’d thought that they were drawn by Chenir, but that didn’t seem to be the case. The hounds moved toward lands where the elementals had been withdrawn, as if to fill the void. “This is where they are going,” Tan said. If they could do that, then maybe Tan would be able to borrow from their strength.