Light of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 10)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “But he is the Shaper of Light,” Nator said. “Look at him! He glows with the power of the Creator. If anyone can place the final binding, it will be him.”

  Tan wondered if he would be able to place the last binding. He knew how they were created, and he knew enough that he thought that he could repair the binding, but placing it in the first place was a different matter altogether, and one that he wasn’t entirely certain that he’d be able to do.

  Nator started away at Tan’s silence, but Dennon lingered, watching him for a moment more. As he departed, he cast an occasional glance back at Tan, almost as if the man understood Tan’s uncertainty and knew the worry that Tan had about whether he could do what needed done.

  The shaped city hadn’t crumbled by the time Tan returned, but it no longer had the look that it had before.

  He rode atop Wasina, leaving Asgar watching over the city in the valley. Amia rode with him with her arms wrapped around his waist.

  “You should have seen it before,” he told her. “Fields of shaped grasses flowed into the city. Buildings shaped into place, held by the power of the elementals.” What must it have been like to live in the city? Even the idea of being surrounded by that much shaped power overwhelmed him.

  “I can feel it,” Amia said.

  “You can feel it?”

  She squeezed her arms around him. “You changed something with spirit. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel the connection to the other elements. It’s faint, like a memory that I know is there, only I don’t know how to reach it. Because of it, I can feel what had been here.”

  I thought I destroyed the bonds holding the elementals.

  The elementals remained by choice, Maelen.

  Tan stretched through the different element bonds and connected to the elementals. As he did, he realized that they remained where they did by choice, staying within the buildings and the streets, the bonds no longer holding them as they had, but calling them, much like the bonds in Par called to the elementals.

  As they soared, Tan detected something else that he hadn’t noticed when he’d been here before. Though the elementals remained in place, and they continued to hold the barrier in place that sealed off the darkness, pressure built against them. The shapings that Tan had removed from them, those that had held most of the elementals in place, took away some of the strength that the elementals possessed, and the barrier weakened as a result.

  “There is something about them that I detect,” Amia said.

  “I know.”

  “They strain. I can’t hear them like you do, but I can now feel them, at least somewhat, through the spirit connection. They strain.”

  Tan sighed. “That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t know how much longer they can hold.”

  “And if they don’t?”

  “If they don’t, the barrier here will fall. Then the only thing that will prevent the darkness from spreading beyond Norilan is the barrier that circles it.”

  And he didn’t have to tell her how unlikely that would be to hold. The shapers maintained the barrier, but if the darkness escaped, how likely would it be that they could continue to hold it in place, especially when they would have to fight against the darkness simply for control of their minds?

  Tan had come to Norilan hoping to find Honl and to find answers about the third binding, but now he had to do something more. Now he had to somehow prevent the malevolent power from escaping and spreading to the rest of the world.

  Only, he didn’t know if he could.

  29

  The Barrier Falls

  Tan waited in the city at the base of the valley, surrounded by the shapers that he’d brought with him, as well as those of the Order. They all stared at him as if searching for answers, but he had none.

  “We have to place the binding,” he said, pacing as he spoke.

  “The binding is not possible,” Dennon said. “Even the first of the Order were unable to see it completed. We must repair the bonds. The elementals of this land are strong enough to hold Tenebeth in place.”

  “We will not replace the bonds,” Tan said softly.

  The warriors of the Order began murmuring softly, but Nator raised his hand, and most of them fell silent. “I think this Maelen is right. I sense the unease from the wind when we discuss repairing the bonds. The elementals have sacrificed, but they must choose to sacrifice. Not all do.”

  That had been what Tan detected as well. The elementals that agreed to join the bonds, to go to the bonds, had done so by choice, but there were countless others that hadn’t and remained free within Norilan. Would the Order have Tan restore the bonds that he had broken?

  “There has to be another way. We will need to find a way to hold this darkness,” he said. “Working together, we can place the binding.”

  Nator glanced at him, frowning. Dennon shook his head, his mouth pressed into a disapproving line, but said nothing.

  Those who had come with Tan stood silently. He had explained to each of them separately what he thought needed to be done. Some, like Roine, Ferran, and Zephra, had been through enough battles with him now that they had said nothing. Tan didn’t know whether they disagreed, or if they simply no longer knew what to think. He had the growing sense that his mother had struggled transitioning from battling Incendin, to Par-shon, and now this was so much different than anything that she had faced. To her credit, she remained, and, perhaps most surprisingly, hadn’t argued with him.

  Fur radiated heat. His gaze often drifted past Tan to the draasin, and he nodded slowly, almost as if he listened to something that only he could hear. Could he reach kaas from here? The bond shouldn’t prevent him, and Fur was more tightly bound to fire than most shapers, but Tan had thought that the barrier would restrict the connection somewhat. When he looked at Tan, he only nodded.

  Cora’s eyes had a faraway expression, as they had since the group’s arrival here. Of all of them, she was most tightly connected to the element bond. What had she experienced when Tan had shifted the bonds closer to spirit? Had it changed her ability to reach Issa? Would that have changed her belief somehow?

  And then there were the others. Elle, staying close to Zephra, seemed nonplussed about what must happen. Through spirit, Tan knew that she had resolved to do what was needed. Vel, remaining close to Elle, slid his gaze to Zephra and then to Roine before looking at the ground. And Elanne. The lone representative of Par, and the person who might understand the bonds in the city above better than anyone else. Perhaps Tan should have brought others with him, but how many could the draasin have carried?

  “None of them think that the binding will work,” Amia whispered. She could have said it through their connection, but they stood apart, and there was not the need.

  “The Order? They have faced Tenebeth longer than anyone, and they only know one way to confine him.”

  Amia shook her head, a slight frown now furrowing the corners of her mouth. “Not only the Order, Tan. The rest do as well. They can feel him here. You’re protected, I think. I am as well. But the darkness swirls around them. It might not touch them fully, but it is there, like something at the corner of their vision. Watch them, and you’ll see.”

  Tan did and realized what Amia meant. What he’d taken to be comfortable or resolute silence was not that at all. Instead, it was an uncomfortable silence. As he watched, he noticed how Roine turned at times, looking into the shadows. His mother did as well. Was that the reason that Fur flicked his gaze around, and not the draasin? If so, was there anything that he could do to comfort them?

  He tried a shaping of spirit, but Amia pulled on his arm, shaking her head as she did. “Don’t. They need to feel this. They need the uncertainty. If you comfort them, it will only placate them, and they may not have the edge they need when the time comes for us to fight.”

  Tan wished that they didn’t have to fight, but what other choice was there?

  And he didn’t know when it would come, but they couldn’t wait, standi
ng here, remaining while the elementals strained against the shadows.

  He started toward the others when he felt a surge of power.

  The elementals pushed back, but they were not enough.

  Almost as one, each person looked up.

  “It’s time,” Tan said.

  They circled the city, creating a ring of shapers each riding atop the draasin to conserve their shaping energy. Unlike Tan, most with him couldn’t draw strength from the elementals. They would fatigue the longer that they shaped. Riding the draasin would help preserve them longer. At least, Tan hoped that would be the case.

  Most members of the Order remained near their city, holding the barrier around Norilan. Amia had remained with them, adding spirit to the barrier to strengthen it in case Tan failed. If he did, he doubted that it would matter. Those in the valley would be overpowered by the darkness, and the barrier would fall, and then Tenebeth would return to the world.

  Only three of the Order had come with Tan, adding their experience, such as it was, to what Tan intended. Doubt crept in as he realized what he needed to attempt, and he was not at all certain that he would succeed.

  Under Tan’s guidance, he suggested that they attempt to recreate the barrier that held around Norilan and use that to confine the darkness. But it would require them to work quickly, and together, in ways that the shapers from outside Norilan did not know how.

  Only, that wasn’t true. There were two with the needed experience, two who had shaped something similar, combining their shapings to create something even more powerful.

  “We have to give control of the shaping to Fur and Cora,” Tan said to Elanne.

  “If you think that is necessary.”

  He did, but how would those of the kingdoms take the need? How would Elle and Vel? Doma had suffered as much as the kingdoms at the hands of Incendin. More, in some ways. Would they agree to allow Incendin to control their shaping?

  Could they not?

  Through the fire bond, he shared with Cora what he intended.

  Her response drifted through the fire bond, not through Enya. It was the first confirmation that he had from her that she had truly reached Fire.

  You must guide the shaping.

  Tan. Maelen. You have changed Fire.

  Not fire, only the bond. They are connected, but not the same.

  Issa does not listen the same way.

  Tan focused on Fire, not only the bond but the power of the element itself. He should not have changed Fire as he had adjusted the bonds, but what if he had? What if his shaping had modified things in such a way that Fire no longer answered the way that the draasin or the shapers expected? What if he had done the same with the other elementals?

  Only, Tan didn’t think that he had.

  You must speak to her with your heart, he told Cora. Issa remains unchanged.

  Cora didn’t respond at first. If she does not listen, then your plan will fail. What of you? You could control this shaping. The others, they will listen to you. You are the Maelen.

  They would listen, but that would force Tan to lose himself in some ways to the shaping. When he had been a part of the shaping in Incendin, he had lost himself in it. There was joy in that, in the simple act of the shaping, but there was danger.

  I have more that I must do, he answered.

  Then I will try, Cora said.

  Tan reached through the bonds, sharing with the elementals what he intended. There was likely a way for him to do the same using spirit, but he wasn’t sure that he would be able to reach them as consistently as he needed. Each of the shapers with him had bonded the elementals, and he used that connection to reach them.

  As expected, there was a chorus of refusal, but more anger than he had expected.

  The darkness pressed against them, flowing from the heart of the city. The elementals had retreated, moving back to contain it as well as they could, the element bonds protected by the new fusing to spirit, but for how much longer? Tan doubted that they had the time for the shapers of the kingdoms to oppose him.

  Tan surged through the element bonds. He had never attempted to surge through them all at the same time, but now that they connected to spirit, he found it easier. As he did, he shaped himself, his presence, into the bond.

  We must work together! Cora and Fur have experience with this shaping. If it fails, then what I must do will fail as well!

  Tan withdrew from the bonds, realizing that he had used more of spirit than he intended. Fatigue washed over him but was thankfully short-lived.

  “That was… loud,” Elanne said.

  He glanced back at her, riding atop of Wasina. “At least you heard it.”

  She nodded. “I do not know what the others will do, but I will help, Maelen.”

  Far from him, on the other side of the city, Tan felt the shaping begin. Cora and Fur started it, with Fur holding fire and Cora adding parts of each of the other elements. Elanne joined the shaping without hesitation. Surprisingly, Ferran did as well, the earth shaping coming from him mixing with the others. Elle came next. As she did, a shimmering power of a barrier coming into place pressed against Tan.

  There was little to it but the beginnings of what it would and could be, but they continued shaping, the barrier growing stronger, fed by the elementals that they bonded and drawing other elementals to it from the land, those that had not chosen to respond to the call of the bonds.

  The Supreme Leader of Chenir joined his shaping tentative at first but quickly growing stronger. There was a rhythmic quality to his shaping, and he drew even more elementals to the barrier.

  Warriors of the Order joined, and it built even more.

  Tan waited, wondering when his mother, Roine, and even Vel would add their strength.

  Zephra came next. Wind surged, building into the barrier, and then Roine and Vel joined.

  Tan allowed himself a moment to hope. As the barrier built, Tan joined briefly, urging the shaping to constrict. Cora and Fur realized what he intended, and the shaping changed, their guidance drawing it toward the heart of the city.

  They continued the shaping, squeezing, drawing back toward the heart of the city.

  When they reached far enough, Tan hoped that he would begin to build the binding. Had the ancient members of the Order managed to at least construct the binding? If they hadn’t, Tan wasn’t sure whether he would be able to secure it.

  They reached the inner wall.

  The darkness pressed against the barrier, but the elementals had joined with the shaping, and together it managed to squeeze even more tightly, pressing the darkness back.

  Tan began to think that they might succeed.

  Tan!

  The connection came from Amia, and there was a sense of terror in her tone.

  Something crossed the barrier.

  Crossed? How would it cross?

  I don’t know. Those with me don’t either. But something crossed. And I sense it coming toward you.

  Tan changed the focus of his attention, moving it away from the shaping. As he did, he reached for spirit and detected a void.

  Spirit shapers.

  He pressed through the connection. The ability to reach the spirit bond should help, shouldn’t it?

  As he did, he suddenly realized that he was too late.

  Someone screamed and fell. The shaping shifted, easing.

  Tan reached for the draasin and realized that it was Vel.

  There came another scream, and the shaping again shifted. The Supreme Leader.

  The attack came fully then, forcing the shapers to lose their connection to the shaping they held so that they could fight.

  And the barrier that had been formed fell apart.

  Darkness surged outward.

  30

  Shapers of Darkness

  Tan ignored the attack for a moment and sent a furious request to the elementals, begging for their aid. Maelen needs your help. All of us need your help.

  The request went out through his a
bility to reach the elementals but also through the element bonds. The elementals that had been surging toward the barrier, that had been aiding in the strength of it, responded first, pushing back against the darkness.

  Others came next. Those that were reluctant, and those that had refused before. The darkness pressed against them. In spite of the way that the elementals worked together, they strained the protective ring that they formed around the darkness bulging.

  Draasin. You must help.

  Shapers. You must let the draasin help.

  The draasin understood. Almost as one, they turned their attention to the shaping and added the strength of fire to it. The darkness was contained for now.

  Now Tan was able to respond to the attack.

  He jumped on a combined shaping of each element, erupting near the heart of the city, still outside the ring of darkness. As he did, he understood the source of the attack. Marin had come.

  Not only Marin, but Marin tainted by the darkness.

  She was strong, more powerful than she had been before, and had brought dozens of shapers with her. Each had something like the ability with the elements but twisted in a way. Tainted as well.

  The shapers with Tan would not be enough.

  His mother fell, but Roine caught her and used earth and wind to knock the attacker to the ground. Elle slid through the air on her shaping of green mist, wrapping it around those she attacked. Suffocating them, Tan realized. Cora and Fur used fire to horrible effects.

  But still, it would not be enough.

  We need the Order, Tan sent to Amia.

  The barrier—

  Will not matter if we fall here.

  I will try. They may not listen to me.