“I feel the same way,” she whispered against his chest.
He smiled sadly. Here he had thought their connection weakened, but it wasn’t. They might be separated and the bond more distant, but they would never lose the connection that they shared.
Tan brushed her hair back from her cheeks and tucked it behind her ears before kissing her. They stood like that for a moment, holding each other, neither wanting to move.
They had come to Par because she thought that he needed to, and with Marin here and whatever she had planned, it seemed that had been true—much like the Utu Tonah had come to Par. Though whether the Utu Tonah had done it because he thought he needed to or because he simply wanted power, Tan didn’t know.
“Why Par?” he asked.
Amia shrugged.
“No. Why here? Why these lands rather than some other?” Tan asked. “If he intended to conquer by claiming elementals, why had he come here, when there were other shapers that he would need to defeat? There have to be lands where there aren’t shapers who would have opposed him.”
And then there were the words that the Utu Tonah had said to him before Tan managed to defeat him. He claimed that he returned to the lands of his ancestors. If that were the case, had the Utu Tonah come from the kingdoms? Or had he meant Incendin? Given the way that he attacked Incendin, that seemed unlikely. As did the way that he treated Doma and Chenir.
But had he come from the kingdoms, especially with the shaping power that he possessed—a warrior in his own right—wouldn’t he have been a known warrior?
He sent a summons through the rune coin in his pocket. Perhaps his mother knew who the Utu Tonah might have been. “There are two questions I need to understand. Who was the Utu Tonah, and why did he choose Par?”
This is a place of power, the draasin said, sitting up and swishing her tail slightly. Unlike her wings, which seemed even more stunted than before, her tail had grown thicker, and perhaps longer.
A place of convergence. I know that.
Not only a place of convergence, Maelen. Perhaps now, with what has been done here, but this land is a place of binding.
“Binding?”
“What do you mean about binding?” Amia asked.
Tan shook his head. “The draasin tells me that Par is a place of binding.”
“How can she know that?”
He shrugged and looked down at the draasin. “How can she know half of what she does?”
There are other such places, the draasin said.
Why are you only telling me this now?
I did not know before.
And how do you know now?
Much changes for me, the draasin said. Each passing day, I am able to discover more.
Discover? Who around you would have known about a place of binding?
You think I can only learn from man?
Tan thought her ability was confined to connecting to others with spirit. If she could also connect to the elementals, especially knowing how long some elementals survived, it was possible that she would be able to learn even more than Honl would manage.
How many places are there?
Three that I have discovered. Two were lost.
Were?
The draasin didn’t respond. And maybe she didn’t know the answer.
Why did Par remain, then?
It has been protected. Always protected.
How had it been protected?
Maelen, you should not play at ignorance. It suits you better than you realize.
Amia laughed.
“You heard that?” he asked.
“I’ve heard most of it. I think she wants me to hear. And I think she’s talking about those Seals. The Mark of the Mother.”
The draasin swished her tail as if in agreement.
If that were the case, if this place of binding was protected by the Great Seals, and he knew that Marin had intended to destroy the Seals, what would happen if the Seals failed? What would happen if they weren’t able to protect the place of binding?
I do not know, Maelen, but the bindings contain great power. You must learn why, and what you can do.
Tan found Elanne in the middle of the city, working to repair the runes that had been lost. She glanced up as he appeared on a shaping of wind and quickly turned her attention back to her work.
“You will have to give me a chance to finish this, Maelen. These Records have been damaged, and I thought that maybe I could find something about that temple you were looking for.”
Tan left her, not wanting to interrupt, knowing how delicate the work could be. He looked around the room, stopping first at the Seal along the post. This one had been wind, and the first that he had repaired. When he had been here then, he hadn’t noted the detail of the runes around him, or the way that they glowed now that the Seal was repaired. Elanne, and the other Bond Wardens, had worked diligently to repair them and had managed to get much more accomplished than he would have expected.
She set the long, slender rod down and sighed. “I haven’t found what you seek, if that’s why you came.”
He shook his head. “How many Bond Wardens do you have working with you?”
She followed the direction of his gaze, sweeping it around the room. “A dozen here, and a dozen more at each of the other sites.” She shrugged. “I told you, it will take much time for us to fully repair these bonds.”
“Do you need others to help?”
She stood and dusted her hands on the thin wrap that she wore. “Do you need my help in ruling Par?”
Tan smiled. “Yes.”
Elanne sniffed. “Be that as it may, we can manage, Maelen. I will take your help if we find a particularly difficult stretch. Perhaps your ability to simply… shape… these bonds would be useful then. Otherwise, this is the way that these bonds have been maintained for all of Par, and we will continue to maintain them.”
She picked up her rod and slipped it into her pocket. “But that can’t be why you’ve come here. You wouldn’t have made a trip here simply to ask how you can help.”
“Actually, I would have.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.” His eyes swept over the runes once more. So many were still difficult for him to read, and so many were difficult for him to translate, even knowing what he did of the ancient runes. Were he able, he might take the time to study here himself, to find what he could from the runes and see what secrets that Par had hidden. But he didn’t have the luxury of time. He never had. “You’ve spent time looking for signs of a temple, but now I need to ask you another favor.”
She frowned. “In addition to the temple? Maelen, searching these runes is tedious, and I’m not sure that we will even find anything. Given enough time, and enough support, I will eventually be able to tell you everything that is stored in the Records.” She said that last with an edge of pride and glanced at a stack of paper that Tan hadn’t seen before, but understood. She was recording the runes as she worked, probably translating them. At least that way, it would be less likely that the Records would be lost again.
“Have you seen anything about a place of binding?” he asked carefully. The draasin seemed convinced, but it was a phrase that Tan had never heard before.
She frowned. “Binding?”
“Apparently, all of this,” he said, sweeping his hand around the room and motioning toward the runes, “these Seals, are part of the place of binding.”
Elanne stopped in front of the Seal and crouched, tracing her finger across the rune that Tan had repaired. “Binding,” she repeated.
Tan nodded.
“You came to me with this?”
He laughed. “Who else knows as much about the Records?”
“I would answer that you might, Maelen.” She stood and walked away from the Seal, leaving the room. Her eyes drifted to the sky, and a shaping of wind lifted her.
Connected to the wind bond as he now was, he saw the streamer of elemental power working with her, the almost
translucent energy that came from it, and wondered whether it would grant him knowledge of the elemental’s names, much like the fire bond did. Not all elementals had claimed a name, though, and maybe the fire bond was different in that way.
Tan leapt to the wind, following on a shaping of his own that carried him quickly after her. Once in the air, he caught up to her. “Where are we going?”
“You said binding, Maelen.”
“I did.”
“That term. It can’t be a coincidence.”
She continued higher, and Tan wondered if she was leading him to one of the other Seals, or somewhere else. Maybe even the tower. She didn’t stop, only continued higher.
“Elanne?” he called, adding a shaping of wind to his words.
“A little higher, Maelen.”
They floated high above the ground on a cloudless day. This high, the currents of air contained dozens, maybe hundreds, of elementals of wind. Some streamed within the currents, as if creating them, while others drifted lazily, different but no less than the others. Tan had never appreciated—truly appreciated—the variations in the wind. In that way, it was much like the variations within fire, or within water.
She stopped and pointed to the ground below.
“What are you trying to show me?” Tan asked, studying the city. It sprawled away from the tower, with the tower somewhat to the middle of the city, though not entirely. Tan had been this high above the city before, both shaping and while riding with Asgar, but had never taken the time to study the ground below, at least, not with much detail.
“Tell me what you see.”
“Is this a test?”
“No test, but tell me what you see.”
He sighed. There were so many more things that he needed to be doing right now, most more important than floating above the city and staring down at it. But he had come to Elanne looking for her help, and if placating her by doing what she asked was the way that he would convince her to help, then he would.
“I see the tower,” he said. “And the city. Beyond that, wide swaths of green land.” That had changed in the time since the Utu Tonah had been defeated. Drawing the elementals from the land changed it in some ways. It hadn’t destroyed it, not if Par-shon had survived for fifty years under the rule of the Utu Tonah, but it did alter it in some ways. Much like Incendin and what they had done.
“Focus on the tower, and around it.”
Tan did what she asked. From here, the top of the tower appeared like little more than a circle, almost like a point in one of the runes…
He glanced over, but she still stared down.
Was that what had prompted her to bring him here? Had she wanted him to see how the top of the tower looked like one of the runes? Even the older parts of the city, those made out of the darker stone that he knew to carry the bonds that the Bond Wardens protected, arced away from the tower, almost as if parts of the same pattern.
His breath caught.
That had to be what she wanted him to see.
He followed the pattern and noted that it spiraled away from the tower. Four separate arms, each stretching toward what he knew to be the location of the Seals. Not symmetrical in any way, but the older stone mostly flowed together, with some gaps present that were likely obscured under newer construction, as if flowing away from the tower… or toward it. And he knew that runes were set into the side of the tower that marked each of the elements, runes that he now realized matched the Seals.
Great Mother.
This was the binding.
“What is it?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I had not known. But you recognize the rune?”
He hadn’t, but had seen enough to tell him that this was what he’d sought.
“Jhabing,” she said, speaking a word from ancient Ishthin.
Tan recognized the word, though doubted it had been spoken aloud in a long time. The language was still written, but only by scholars. “Binding,” he said. “This is it.”
“Yes, but what is it?”
Tan shook his head. It was clear that it was a binding, but for what? A rune this size, and on this scale, tied to a Mark of the Mother? That retained enormous power and would have required immense skill to create. And at the heart of the rune, at its center, was the tower, tying together each of the elements.
It was no coincidence that the Utu Tonah had claimed the tower, but he had not stayed there. He had gone to the estate, which, now that Tan studied the rune, was part of the pattern, or at least covered part of the rune.
And knowing what he did of the Utu Tonah, there had to have been a reason.
Now Tan only had to find out what it might be.
22
WHAT THE UTU TONAH HID
The estate had no additional floors, at least none that he could find.
When he realized that the estate was part of the rune, he knew that the Utu Tonah must have hidden something, especially if he knew of the rune. Given everything else, how could he not have discovered it?
Elanne followed him into the estate, likely with many of the same questions that he had before she brought him to the aerial view. “What do you think to find, Maelen?”
Tan shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”
“But you saw something here that you think is part of this… this binding?”
Tan stopped at the end of a hall. From here, he would find the rooms he claimed, along with the hidden workspace that he knew the Utu Tonah had used. Could there be something else there?
“There has to be. The Utu Tonah chose the estate to stay in, not the tower.”
Her soft gasp told him that she understood. “This is an old home, Maelen, one of the oldest and largest in Par. Most thought he simply wanted to be near the tower.”
Tan nodded. “He probably did, but what if there is more to it?”
He considered searching the other end of the home, but instead stopped and focused on earth. He could use earth sensing to help him know if there might be something more hidden here. Considering that he had chosen to remain here, to sleep in the estate, he should have done this at the very beginning.
As soon as he reached through earth, he realized that there was more. An emptiness, a void of sorts, buried beneath the estate.
But not buried. Using his connection to earth, he recognized that it came off the library, not the workspace, as he had assumed.
Tan hurried down the hall and into the library. Amia looked up as he entered, frowning. “What is it?” she asked, looking from him to Elanne.
“The Maelen thinks that he has discovered something,” Elanne answered.
“I think the answer has been here all along,” Tan said.
He started feeling his way along the walls, sensing for a hidden access, but there was nothing. Tan closed his eyes, reaching through his connection to earth as he sensed for the hidden area that he detected. Within the room, he could tell that the other level was near, but something made it difficult for him to reach, for him to access.
Kota, he sent, surging through his connection to the earth elemental. He’d been so focused on everything else that he had left her to prowl and hunt. I have need of your connection to earth.
There came a soft rumble in response. I will come, Maelen.
While waiting for her, he continued to make his way around the room, questing. Do you sense anything? he asked the draasin.
She lay near the hearth, resting with her head partly on the stones and partly on the wood planks. Where she rested, the planks had blackened, but a clear crust from her licking coated them as well. This is earth. I am not of earth.
Amia came to him and slipped her hand into his. “What is this about?”
“It’s about the binding,” Tan said, nodding to the draasin. “As she suggested. Not a place of binding, but a rune binding.” He went to the hearth and pulled one of the logs from the fire, not minding the flames still racing along it. Elanne gasped as he did. “Fire doesn’t burn m
e,” he said absently. Or it hadn’t, until the darkness that he’d detected had attacked Asgar. “This is what I saw.”
He used the charred end of the log to make the pattern on the stone near the hearth, drawing it as best as he could remember. The image seemed etched into his mind. He made a point of carefully noting the location of the Records as he went, and drew the spiraling arms as they came off the tower.
“Jhabing,” Amia said.
Tan nodded. “A rune of binding.”
“I… I have seen this before,” Amia said, tapping the pattern. “This is a powerful rune, Tan.”
“Where have you seen it?” The draasin had said there were other places of binding. Could it be that Amia had seen it during her travels with the Aeta?
She hurried from the room, leaving Tan staring at Elanne with a mixture of confusion and worry. Amia wasn’t gone long and when she returned, she had a silver band that Tan had seen before. This was wide, and thick, and named her as the First Mother. Amia preferred to wear the narrower gold band that Roine had given her as a token of thanks for serving the kingdoms.
“I didn’t know that you kept that with you,” he said.
“If I don’t, and another thinks to claim it and wear it…” She didn’t need to finish. Amia was the First Mother, a title and position within the Aeta that she had only reluctantly agreed to take, but when she handed over the title to another, she wanted to be certain they were the right person for the position. She would not simply hand over the title without that knowledge.
She stood next to Tan and held out the silver band, turning it over.
Tan had never studied the necklace before. It had either been on her neck, or not. The surface that was visible was simple. Plain silver with no signs of any markings on it. The other side, when she turned it over, had a rune much like what he had drawn.
It was slightly different, with the pattern at the center more oblong than the circular tower, and the arms spreading away in a slightly wider spread, but otherwise, it was the same pattern. Jhabing.
“This is the mark of the First Mother,” Amia explained. Elanne had nudged closer and leaned over, peering at the necklace. Her eyes widened. “A reminder for the First Mother to bind the people together. The Aeta, we… we are wanderers. That is the role of the First Mother, the responsibility that had been granted to me. And this is a reminder of that. I am to be Jhabing.”
Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9) Page 18
