Prelude to Fire: Parts 1 and 2

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Who’s up there?” Jayna asked.

  “Ilianna.”

  “The princess?” she asked. Lacertin nodded. “Why do you need to see the princess?”

  “She can help,” Lacertin answered.

  Jayna paused as they climbed the steps. “And if she doesn’t?”

  If Ilianna wouldn’t help, then he had to be prepared to descend the stairs and find Theondar. The idea pained him, but what other choice did he have?

  The stair led to a wide hall on the second level. This end was comprised entirely of Ilianna’s rooms, while the other end would be all Althem. Lacertin glanced down the hall, not interested in seeing the prince, but not really expecting to, either. With Althem focused on ruling in his father’s stead, he wouldn’t be here. The lack of any guards present also made it clear that he wasn’t. As far as Lacertin knew, Althem couldn’t shape.

  One of the doors at the end of the hall was open, but there weren’t any guards standing watch for Ilianna’s rooms either, so maybe she was gone. If that was the case, then he’d wasted his time coming here, time that he could have spent seeing if there was anything that he could do to help Veran.

  Lacertin stopped in the open door. The decorations inside were ornate. A massive tapestry hung on the wall. It depicted the Great Mother and the great elementals. Beneath it was an intricate ceramic pot with swirls of color, making it likely Doma made. Two oversized chairs angled toward the door, and a hearth lined the wall. The room was empty.

  A basin of water steamed along the wall. If she was gone, at least she had recently been here.

  “How many rooms does she have?” Jayna asked.

  Lacertin turned to her and smiled. “She’s the princess.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means she’ll have as many rooms as she wants.”

  Jayna laughed and loosened her grip enough so that she could step toward the tapestry. She studied it, reaching a hand toward the depiction of the water elemental udilm as a face in a wave along the bottom left.

  “Once we spoke to the elementals so easily,” Jayna said softly.

  “There are some who still claim to speak to them,” Lacertin said.

  She looked back at him. “They do? You’ve seen this?” Her accent thickened with the question, and Lacertin realized that he still hadn’t discovered where she was from. Not from Vatten, though she was a water shaper. She sounded nothing like Veran, and most considered his accent mild.

  Lacertin shrugged. “I can’t say that I’ve seen it, only that I’ve heard of it happening. Who is to say that they don’t?”

  “Only the fact that it’s been centuries since any have spoken to the elementals.”

  “Openly,” Lacertin said.

  As a younger shaper, it was a discussion he’d had many times before. The elementals once spoke to shapers, and once guided their earliest shapings. It was the reason most felt that shaping quality had diminished over time.

  There was no question that the shapers of today were much weaker than those of the past. Not only weaker, but also lacking in creativity. He would never be able to create some of the shaped items found within the university. The way lighting ran through it was only one example. The kingdoms shapers now could manage strength and skill, but they lacked finesse.

  “If there are those who speak to the elementals, why wouldn’t they share that with others? Think of how much could be learned if they were only willing—”

  Lacertin’s pained laugh cut her off. “And you make my point for me. Were I able to speak to the elementals, I would keep that fact to myself rather than deal with all the questions.”

  This time, Jayna laughed. “Only because you’re a grumpy old warrior.”

  “Can’t argue with that,” he said.

  He wobbled over to the door on the other side of the room, not expecting the princess to be there. Were she in the room, he would have expected her to have come to learn who was visiting, but she didn’t.

  “Lacertin, we should go,” Jayna said. “I don’t think she’s here.”

  He nodded but knocked on the door anyway, pausing to listen while reaching through the door with an earth sensing. He didn’t pick up anyone on the other side.

  Before turning away, he tried the handle, twisting it and pushing.

  Jayna ran over to him. “Lacertin!” she hissed.

  He was too quick for her. The door swung open, revealing the massive sleeping quarters on the other side. A wide bed took up most of one wall, a mesh canopy hanging over the top more for decoration than need. In places like Nara, such nets were helpful to keep from getting eaten by the insects that feasted at night, but in Ethea, such creatures were uncommon. He was actually surprised to see the decoration here, but then again, Ilianna had always had peculiar taste.

  A trunk rested at the end of the bed, a piece of parchment unfolded over the top. He couldn’t tell from where he stood, but it looked familiar. A low shelf nestled beneath a shuttered window was crammed with books. When Jayna stepped forward, Lacertin saw a narrow desk to the left of the door. More books stacked atop the desk, along with stacks of paper and a jar of ink. A flash of gold on the desk caught his eye and his breath caught.

  The plates. Why would Ilianna have them?

  She’d been at the university, but wouldn’t Jayna have said something if Ilianna had visited?

  He made his way over to the desk and stopped in front of it, making a show of looking down at the stack of pages. Most were written in a tight scrawl, and Lacertin couldn’t read much of them. One had a diagram of something that resembled a map, but there were no labels on it, nothing that would indicate what it was. Another page had a series of numbers running along the side. This one drew his attention, mostly because the word Incendin appeared partway down the page.

  Jayna made her way over to him. Before she could reach him, he shifted the pages to hide the box from view.

  “What is it?” Jayna asked as she stood next to him.

  He shook his head. “Nothing that I can understand.” Ilianna had always been involved in ruling, assisting Ilton with the day-to-day runnings of the kingdoms, so it was likely they were nothing more than that. But why would she have taken the box?

  Unless Ilton had asked the archivists to give it to her.

  As he did so often, Lacertin felt like nothing more than a glorified hound. Ilton would send him to retrieve items of importance, things like the box, or treaties with other rulers, and he’d never before complained, but there was something about not knowing the reason that he’d been sent that bothered him.

  He glanced at the desk again, letting his hand fall to his side where, for months, he’d carried the parts of the plates, unable to assemble them and bring them to Ilton. In all that time, he hadn’t understood the purpose of what he’d been sent to retrieve. He might never really understand, and now that Ilianna had it, and with Ilton soon to die and Althem to take the throne, Lacertin might never again be a part of such decisions.

  With a last glance at the desk, Lacertin turned away.

  CHAPTER 10

  The walk back down the stairs took longer than going up. Lacertin felt a heaviness weighing in him that mixed with a sense of sadness. Ever since coming to the kingdoms, he had been a part of something. First, it had been training at the university, struggling to learn what it meant that he could shape. Then it was mastering his shaping, first fire and then the other elements. After that, he had taught for a time in between fighting in the never-ending Incendin war, but it had never suited him. That was when Ilton claimed him, placing ever increasingly difficult tasks before him. With each one Lacertin managed to complete, his ties to Ilton grew.

  “Where now?” Jayna asked.

  “Down,” he said.

  He leaned on her less with each step, strength slowly returning. With each step, his ability to shape returned even more. As it did, he pulled on a slight shaping of earth to steady him, nothing more than a trickle of strength, but enough that he d
idn’t need to lean on Jayna as he had.

  When they reached the main floor of the palace, she started as if to head toward the main doors. Lacertin stopped and glanced around. Once Ilton died, he would have little reason to return to the palace. There wasn’t much remaining in his rooms, but now was the time to remove anything that he valued.

  “Go on,” he said.

  “Where are you going?”

  “There’s another thing I need to do,” he said.

  “You’re still not in any shape to travel on your own,” Jayna said.

  Lacertin tried to straighten his back, but winced as he did. A sharp pain shot through him with the motion. “I’m well enough. I’ll return to the university so you can inspect me when I’m all done. Will that be acceptable?”

  Jayna frowned before nodding. “I should return anyway. Master Wallyn will need help with Master Veran.”

  “I would like to see Veran when I return.”

  “Only if he’s well enough.”

  It felt odd that a student would deflect the demand of a warrior shaper, but Lacertin didn’t argue. With Jayna, he doubted that he’d win anyway. She had proven to be stubborn and capable, a combination that allowed her to get away with it. “Fine. Only if he’s well enough,” Lacertin agreed.

  Jayna nodded and headed out of the palace. Lacertin watched her until she was gone, then turned toward the stairs leading down. The wide stair narrowed as it led into the lower levels. He held onto the railing, careful to keep from falling. Now that Jayna was gone, he didn’t want to risk tumbling and injuring himself again.

  When he stepped onto the landing, he made a point of lighting the shapers lanterns hanging along the hall. Lacertin used only enough shaping to give them a soft glow, barely more than that. The marble walls were bare, though statues in the shape of elementals were placed along the hall, as if a reminder of the origin of shapers’ strength.

  He paused at the largest statue, as he always did. It was in the shape of a draasin, a winged creature, with massive spikes protruding from its back. A long, barbed tail curled around it, and the mouth was twisted in a tight snarl. More than any of the other statues, this one drew him the most, partly because the draasin had been hunted to extinction centuries ago.

  Lacertin touched the top of the statue, resting his hand on the hard spikes and letting out a soft sigh.

  “What would it have been like to see them flying?”

  Lacertin turned to see Theondar studying him. He wore a long robe in a dark green, and his eyes flashed with light reflected from the lanterns. The sword hanging from his waist made Lacertin all too aware of the fact that his was missing.

  “Most would say that it would have been terrifying,” Lacertin said.

  Theondar stopped in front of the draasin statue and tilted his head. “If they were this size? Probably not.”

  Lacertin allowed himself to laugh. Arguing with Theondar served no purpose, and really, what troubled him wasn’t the warrior shaper, but what would happen once Ilton passed. He would have to put away the foolish feelings he had toward Theondar.

  “I seem to remember learning that they were much larger,” Lacertin said.

  “History always manages to inflate the importance of things.”

  The comment seemed strange to him, especially considering how little the shapers of today seemed to know compared to those who preceded them even a hundred years ago. With each generation, the knowledge faded. He couldn’t help but believe that it was tied to losing the connection to the elementals.

  Lacertin motioned to the nearest lantern. “Yes, because our shapers have done such a good job recreating things like that,” he said.

  Theondar only shrugged. “Lanterns and gardens do not mean they were any more skilled than us.”

  Lacertin bit back the retort that came to mind. “I would thank you for helping me reach Ilton,” he said instead.

  “I hear you found him unwell.”

  Lacertin frowned. “From who?”

  A dark smile pulled at Theondar’s mouth. “Ilianna was there.”

  Lacertin struggled to think of where the princess might have been hiding but couldn’t think of how he wouldn’t have seen her. If she had, at least he understood how the box had ended up in her room. “I didn’t see her,” he said.

  “There are other ways to reach the king’s rooms.”

  “Is that how you visit her?” he asked.

  Theondar’s smile widened. “My courtship of Ilianna is no secret.”

  “I seem to recall it being a secret when I left.”

  “That was before.”

  The word hung in the air, and didn’t need any additional explanation. Before. Before Lacertin had left. Before the king had grown so ill that he was barely awake. Before Althem began his rule, even informally.

  “Althem approves, then,” Lacertin said.

  “Why does it bother you?” Theondar asked.

  That Theondar courted Ilianna shouldn’t bother him, but it did. There had been a time before Theondar displayed a warrior’s talent that Lacertin thought he might court Ilianna. She was younger than him, but he had the king’s favor. Ilton thought such an arrangement would bring warrior blood back into the royal bloodline which, over generations, had faded. There hadn’t been a ruling shaper in over a century.

  Theondar would serve the same purpose, though. Ilton would have approved, if only because it had seemed to be Ilianna’s choice.

  “It does not bother me,” Lacertin said. Whatever feelings he’d had for her had been buried deeply over the years, so that he no longer had to convince himself. At least, he didn’t think that he did.

  Theondar chuckled and then tapped the statue. “Tell me, Lacertin. What is it that brings you down into this level of the palace again? Weren’t you the one who claimed that you had no home?”

  “There’s something I needed from here,” he said. He had intended to speak to Theondar about the barrier, but after seeing him… Lacertin wasn’t certain that he wanted to any longer.

  “Truly?” Theondar asked, arching his brow. “You actually have something here?”

  There wasn’t much that he possessed, but there were items from his home, things that had reminded him of his family—mostly his mother—now long gone. She had been a shaper as well, though in a time before the kingdoms requested that all who could shape come to Ethea. Like many within Nara, she had taught herself, learning what she needed to keep from destroying herself but never gaining the same level of skill that the shapers trained in the kingdoms managed.

  There was a part of Lacertin that wondered if she had trained in Incendin. Within Nara, it wasn’t uncommon for shapers to make the crossing. Some returned, though it was rare. When he’d asked, she had refused to answer, so Lacertin learned not to ask.

  “Ilton provided me quarters here,” Lacertin said.

  Theondar shrugged. “I’m not debating that.”

  “Then what are you debating, Theondar? Because you continue to try me when you know that it will be only a matter of days or weeks before you supplant me.”

  Theondar smiled then. “Is that what you think? Do you think that I care so much about being the First Warrior?”

  “I think that you’ve proven to be jealous of how Ilton has used me. I think that Althem has shown his eagerness to assume the throne. I’ve done nothing more than serve my king, and I will continue to do so when Ilton is gone.”

  Theondar considered Lacertin for a moment, his hand still resting on the draasin statue, almost as if he were petting a hound. “Ilton believes you to be the greatest warrior the kingdoms have produced in nearly a hundred years.”

  “I don’t make that claim.”

  “No? You have done nothing to suggest otherwise.”

  Lacertin sighed. “You have plenty of time to prove your worth. You’re young and have years ahead of you as you serve Althem.”

  “What will you do when he dies? Will you leave the kingdoms, maybe return to Nara? After everyt
hing that you’ve seen, and everything that you’ve been a part of, do you really think that you can resume that life?”

  Lacertin had struggled with that question since learning of Ilton’s illness. Could he resume such a life? All that he’d known the last ten years was serving Ilton, going where the king demanded, and fighting on behalf of the kingdoms.

  Even under Althem, that wouldn’t change. There was no reason for it to change. He was a Cloud Warrior, and he would do what his king asked of him, even if it meant serving as Theondar demanded.

  “As I said, I will continue to serve as I have always served.”

  Theondar raised his hand from the statue and smiled widely. “Althem will be pleased to hear that you will.”

  Lacertin turned away from Theondar and continued down the hall. He didn’t need to turn to know that Theondar watched him, or that a shaping built behind him. When he reached the room that had once been his, he hesitated only a moment before stepping inside and closing the door, shutting Theondar out.

  CHAPTER 11

  The room of healing in the university had a distinctly bitter aroma to it. Lacertin took shallow breaths to keep it from filling his nose and twisted in the hard chair, staring at the shapers lantern, resisting the urge to shape it on and then off while he waited for Wallyn to finish.

  Lacertin couldn’t see exactly what he did, but he picked up the thread of the water shaping and noted the way that the master shaper sent waves of healing washing through Veran. It wasn’t so much the skill, though the design of the shaping was enough to tell him that Wallyn was a skilled water shaper, so much as it was the repetition, and the way that the shaping built. Using a shaping as he did took stamina with water, much more than Lacertin could manage.

  He sat, rubbing his hands together. He’d remained in his room long enough to wait for Theondar to leave, hating that he hid. He should have taken the opportunity to share with Theondar what he’d learned about the weakness of the barrier… but he had not, letting old rivalries place the kingdoms in even more danger.

  Worse, he knew Theondar served the kingdoms as well as he did. The man might do it differently, but there was no question that he served, risking himself the same as any other warrior did. Could he blame Theondar for gaining Althem’s favor? No more than others should blame him for gaining Ilton’s.