“It doesn’t really matter anymore, does it? All of that is in the past.”
“Except it isn’t,” Amia said. “It separates you both, keeps you from seeing him as willing to help. If you really serve the kingdoms, you need to move past that history.”
Roine grunted. “Like I said, it doesn’t matter. What matters is what we must do now.” He turned to Amia. “Jishun shaped me, twisting my mind until I was willing to act in ways I would not have. I don’t know how long he worked on me, shaping me, but I fear he has done the same to Althem.”
Tan had not forgotten about the possibility that the king had been shaped. What would the archivists have asked of him? What darkness now twisted the king’s mind?
“That’s why I came to you. I need you, Amia. I need you to return to Ethea and remove the shaping,” Roine said.
Amia shifted her weight uncomfortably. “Will he allow it?”
Roine grimaced. “That’s part of the problem. The palace is protected. Few can enter, and those who can are limited in using their shaping. It is a trick of the ancients, something few understand.”
Tan touched the pocket where the dark ring of silver rested, the twin of the one on Roine’s index finger. It was much like the silver necklace Amia wore. The ring granted access to the palace, but would it also let him shape while there?
“If I can’t shape to remove the work of the archivist, how do you expect me to help him?” Amia asked.
“Jishun must have worked his shaping over many months. Years, possibly. It makes me fear what decisions were Althem’s and what was Jishun’s influence. I will need you to peel away the shaping slowly so as not to destroy him, giving him time to decide which decisions were his.”
Amia bit her lip and glanced at Tan. Uncertainty drifted through the bond. “What you ask… I don’t know if I can do it.”
“Why can’t she simply remove the shaping as she did with you?” Tan asked.
“Because I don’t know what the shaping intended. The archivists had a purpose. Until we know what it was, we need caution. Short of convincing the archivists to share—” he looked at Amia, and she shook her head. The archivists could not be shaped with spirit, not like others. Tan and Amia had already seen how the archivists were immune to her shaping. “This is the only way I know of to learn their plan.”
Tan closed his eyes, thinking about what Roine asked. “You don’t think their plan included Incendin?”
“We have lived with the threat from Incendin for decades. We are only now learning of the threat from the archivists. If they are connected, I need to know.”
“The archivists have moved in the shadows. It is what Incendin plans openly that we should fear.”
Tan turned and saw Lacertin behind them.
Again, he had snuck up on Tan, bypassing his ability to sense Lacertin. There wasn’t anything else that managed to surprise him so easily. Could Roine be right—should he still fear Lacertin?
Roine glared at the old warrior. His hand went to his sword.
Lacertin smiled widely and raised his hands in front of him. “Easy, Theondar. Or would you prefer I call you Roine?”
Roine made as if to move past Tan and Amia, but Tan stepped between them, keeping the two warriors apart.
“What have you been telling them, Lacertin? That you have been working in Incendin, helping the kingdoms all this time?”
Lacertin smiled. “Yes.”
“I won’t make the mistake of trusting you again. I pray Tan will not either.”
“As you said, that is for him to decide.”
Roine’s eyes narrowed.
How long had Lacertin been there, listening?
From what Roine had told him, even the warriors were stronger in some areas than others. Roine had been a wind shaper first and still claimed the strongest connection to wind. Could Lacertin be an earth shaper? Was that how he managed to conceal himself from Tan?
“You saw what she became, Theondar. If she creates others like her—”
“And I felt what the archivists were able to accomplish with only two of them. What happens if a half dozen work a shaping? Perhaps they already have and we don’t know.”
Roine did not meet Amia’s eyes. Tan felt a surge of irritation from her at the accusation. Somehow, she stayed silent.
“And perhaps you are weak enough to let them shape you.”
“You believe you haven’t been shaped?”
Lacertin sniffed again. “Live among the lisincend long enough and you will learn there are tricks needed to survive. If I couldn’t protect my mind, I wouldn’t have survived a year.”
A wide smile split Roine’s face. “Now you claim to be a spirit shaper?”
Lacertin shook his head. “You don’t need to be a spirit shaper to protect yourself from one.”
“Water and air,” Tan said softly.
The comment caught the two warriors off guard. Lacertin grinned. Roine only frowned at him.
“It’s a buffer. When the archivist tried shaping As—the draasin.” He caught himself before revealing Asboel’s name. That wasn’t his to share. “I used a shaping of air and water to protect it. I’m not really sure what I did.”
Lacertin studied Tan intently.
Roine continued to frown. “You shouldn’t have been able to protect yourself from spirit with those two elements,” he said.
Lacertin chuckled softly. “You are dangerous, Tan.” He shifted his attention to Roine. “Wind to buffer the shaping, water to heal. It is quite simple, actually, and takes very little strength to maintain.”
A soft shaping built. Roine’s eyes widened slightly as he regarded Tan and Lacertin.
“I’m not who you think I am, Theondar,” Lacertin said.
Roine’s frown returned. “And I’m not Theondar anymore. I tried, but even in that, I failed, letting an archivist of all people shape me.”
Lacertin laughed again, this time bitterly. “You think I should pity you for what you’ve been through? You think your life the last twenty years has been so terrible? Try living in Incendin for the same time, not leaving the Fire Fortress for nearly two years, all the time assailed by lisincend trying to determine what other motive you might have for coming to them. And the lisincend were not even the worst. They are blunt and powerful, but power is not the only thing to fear. There are shapers, subtle and skilled, working quiet shapings on you in a constant torture.” He fixed Roine with an amused expression. “So pardon me if I do not accept whatever torment you’ve placed upon yourself.”
Roine took a deep breath to compose himself. “You chose your fate. You entered Ilton’s quarters after he passed. You went to Ilianna and stole from her. In whatever happened to you, you were complicit.”
Lacertin sniffed softly. “I will not discuss the past with you, Theondar. Not when you are incapable of understanding my motive. But know this—what Incendin has planned for the last hundred years nears completion. And as a servant of the kingdoms, that should frighten you very much.”
Roine met Lacertin’s gaze. He took a few slow breaths and addressed Tan. “I don’t deny that Incendin remains a threat, but there is a more immediate threat. And that is what I care about.”
“The archivists and Althem? Even if Amia removes the shaping, the month or years the archivists have spent shaping him is nothing compared to the time Incendin has spent planning—”
“Enough!” Tan said.
Lacertin and Roine studied him, the expression on their faces similar.
Frustration bubbled up within Tan. Someone built a shaping nearby. “You both want the same thing. Can’t you see that? Roine, you want the kingdoms safe and you’ll do anything to ensure their safety. And Lacertin, you’ve spent the last two-dozen years living a lie to learn what Incendin planned, all because you served your king. It is time you work together again.”
Lacertin’s jaw clenched.
Roine frowned, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Amia. “Do not shape me.” He spoke in a low growl, anger
building behind his words.
Amia shook her head. “I did not…”
Lacertin considered Tan for a moment and laughed. “Spirit? Of course you can shape spirit, how else would you have managed to tolerate the pool of spirit?” He said the last mostly to himself.
Roine glanced from Lacertin to Tan. “Tan? That was you?”
“I didn’t… I don’t know—”
Roine squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his fists against them. “I should have wondered. When you were able to speak to the nymid and draasin, it should have raised the question. And now that I know you’ve spoken to udilm…”
Tan held back sharing how he spoke to ara and possibly golud, though the earth elemental was trickier to know.
“Whatever either of us wants,” Roine went on, watching Lacertin carefully, “you need to control your shapings. And spirit most of all. Accidents with any shaping are dangerous, but spirit can be devastating.” Roine turned to Amia. “You will teach him?”
Amia bit her lip as she considered the question. “I have never taught another how to use this gift.”
“But you know how you do it?” Roine asked.
Lacertin frowned. “We don’t have time to spend on him learning to control spirit. The boy speaks to elementals. That will be enough.”
Roine stepped past Tan, shaking the younger man off as Tan tried to grab his arm. “No. I promised his mother I would keep him safe.”
“And a fine job of it you did.”
“Don’t press me on this, Lacertin.”
Lacertin leaned forward, glaring at Roine. “And you will do what, Theondar?”
Tan watched the two warriors, not sure what to think. If he could shape spirit—and he must; otherwise he wouldn’t have survived stepping into the pool of spirit—then he needed to understand it. And who better to teach than Amia?
“If you want me to help with the king, I may not have time to teach,” Amia said, separating the two older men. She turned to Tan. “Roine is right. You need to understand what you’re doing or a shaping like I placed on you could happen again. Or worse.”
“Tan—” Lacertin started. “Every day we hesitate, we risk Incendin using the artifact.”
He felt pulled in too many directions. In every way, he felt he was needed. How to argue with the fact that the king had been shaped by the archivists? Or the danger Incendin posed, not only to the kingdoms, but also to the draasin? But what if he was a danger to those around him, simply by virtue of abilities he possessed but had not yet learned to control?
Tan glanced at Amia. The decision tore at him. If he went with Lacertin, he could learn what had happened to his mother. He might eventually find her and understand why she hadn’t revealed herself to him before now. Why leave him thinking she died?
But before he could be helpful against Incendin—before he could do anything more than rely on his connection to the elementals—he had to learn to control his shapings and understand what it meant that he could shape spirit. Amia might not think she could help, but she knew about spirit shaping. If anyone could help, it had to be her.
“Amia is right,” he said. He made a point of not agreeing with Roine or Lacertin. “If I can’t control even a part of my shaping, I put others at risk. I won’t do that.”
Lacertin closed his eyes and sucked in a quick breath. “It is your choice. I cannot help but think I will need the elementals to stop Incendin.”
Roine shot Lacertin an angry look. “At least recognize what he needs to do for himself.”
Lacertin glared at Roine a moment longer, and then turned to leave. As he started up the slope, he looked over his shoulder. “When you’re ready, Tan. You know what’s at stake. And if you don’t, ask your draasin friend.”
A shaping built with enormous pressure, culminating in a strike of lightning crashing to the ground. The air sizzled with it. When it cleared, Lacertin was gone.
Roine stared after him. “Do you really believe he still thinks to serve the kingdoms?”
Tan nodded. “With what Incendin plans, I do.”
Roine sighed. “The Great Mother help us if we have to rely on him for salvation.” He turned and headed down the slope, walking slowly. There was a slight stoop to his back and his shoulders slumped. He took another deep breath, straightening himself, and then disappeared around a bend in the trail.
3
The Road Back
The return to Ethea took the better part of a week.
Most of the other kingdom shapers traveled with them, keeping to themselves. That was fine by Tan and Amia, who rode mares rescued from the Aeta wagons. Roine, who could have shaped his return to Ethea, chose to walk along with them. Tan could feel his concern for the king roiling off him.
“The shapers worry about what they did,” Amia said as they stopped near a stream.
Tan climbed down from the saddle and regarded the shapers. “They were shaped. What they did couldn’t be helped.”
“They haven’t lived knowing spirit shapers. They struggle with what it means.”
Tan took a drink from a narrow stream that reminded him of the streams he found in the forests around his home village of Nor. His horse gulped at the water as well before nibbling on the long grasses.
Tan considered the wide expanse of Ter. Master Ferran was leading them over a different path than the one Tan had last used when he went this way. It was a faster route, and Tan noted Roine let the Master shaper guide them. Tan stretched out with his sensing, reaching all around. There was a city nearby, but Master Ferran avoided it, choosing a straight path that led away from the city. Nothing else moved, nothing like within the forest, where wolves and squirrels and birds all competed for his attention.
“I think we all struggle to understand what it means now that the archivists are known,” Tan said.
Amia started to say something but cut off as Master Ferran made his way toward them. He pushed the hood of his cloak back from his head and looked from Amia, his eyes lingering on the silver band around her neck, to Tan, blinking slowly as he did. “I never thanked you for what you did.” He spoke slowly and with a deep voice. “Had you not come, Aeta, I fear what I would have done.”
“You only did what he made you do,” Tan said.
Master Ferran squeezed his hands into tight fists. “I’m not certain that is entirely accurate. I might not have attacked, but it felt like the shaping only encouraged action I would have taken on my own.”
Tan glanced over at Amia, thinking of the shaping that had forged the bond between them, the one demanding that he protect her. He would have done it anyway, but the shaping certainly augmented the desire.
“Much has been lost,” Master Ferran continued. “And much more remains to be understood. I cannot claim expertise in any of this. The Great Mother knows I didn’t know Theondar still lived until he revealed himself during the attack. But I serve the king and will do what I can to oppose Incendin.” He turned to Tan and hesitated before continuing. “You have much strength shaping earth. Your father would have been proud.”
“I wish he would have lived long enough to teach me how to shape.”
Master Ferran furrowed his brow. “And still you shielded the draasin from me? Perhaps he taught you more than you realize.”
“I didn’t…” Tan started, but stopped. He had shielded Asboel from the kingdom shapers, not willing to reveal the draasin before he was ready. Had he not, would they have harmed him? As one of the great fire elementals, Asboel was more powerful than any single shaper, but together, they might have overwhelmed him. Tan still didn’t understand the draasin well, but they were different than the other elementals in some ways.
Master Ferran shook his head. “You did what was needed. You did what fully trained shapers could not when you recognized the risk Incendin posed. We came to hunt the draasin, thinking them the enemy. I am still not certain what it means to have draasin free once again, but after seeing how the creature helped, I no longer believe they are to bl
ame.”
“It was Incendin,” Tan started. “Or at least the archivists working with Incendin. They wanted it to look like the draasin attacked Ethea so you would hunt them. Incendin thinks to challenge the elemental power of the draasin.”
Master Ferran studied the ground and the grasses growing up around them. “All my life I wanted nothing more than to serve the kingdoms. I always knew I was an earth senser, but Master Digush found me and convinced me to visit the university, convinced I could learn to shape. And there, I met your father. Grethan was a skilled earth shaper. I can’t help but think even he would have struggled against the challenges we face today.”
“He won’t have the chance. Incendin already took his life.”
Ferran nodded, almost more to himself. “A great loss.” He met Tan’s eyes. “If you wish it, I am willing to teach what I know of earth shaping. As a warrior candidate, Theondar may wish you to learn from him, but there is much you can learn from me Theondar can’t teach.”
He nodded at Amia and took his leave.
Tan watched him leave, confused. “He had no interest in teaching when I was in Ethea before. He seemed to want nothing more than to find out where everyone came from. When he learned I came from the Galen region, he seemed disinterested.”
Amia frowned at Master Ferran. “He regrets something he has done.”
“They all regret letting the archivists shape them.”
“It is more than that.” She inhaled slowly. “Whatever he regrets is buried deeply. Without shaping him directly, I doubt I can learn.”
“Probably best not to shape him.”
Roine crouched near the stream, somehow having slipped past Tan’s attention. He cupped his hands to his face, taking a long drink. Then he splashed water across his face. “After what we’ve been through, probably best not to shape any of us, Amia.”
“You can’t blame me for what happened.”
He stood, wiping his hands on his pants. “Not you. You had nothing to do with what happened to us. But the others feel guilty about it. There is a certain awareness of the shaping but a helplessness to stop yourself. If they feel it happen again, I fear how they would react.”
Changed by Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 3) Page 3
