Cycle of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 11)

by D. K. Holmberg

  How? The only times he had really reached that kind of power had been when he’d stepped in the pool of spirit, held the artifact and dared use it, and defeated the Utu Tonah, drawing upon the power of everyone around him. Otherwise, he had pulled on spirit, but not with the same strength, nor the same depth to that power, that he had otherwise. To defeat the darkness, he would need something like that.

  Was that why the artifact had been created?

  Tan paced, letting the awareness of the island fill him. The Undoing wasn’t gone from this place, not completely, and he sent a quick request to the wind elementals to summon Elanne. He would need his Bond Wardens now.

  The artifact had been held in a place of incredible power. A place of convergence, where each of the elementals would congregate, where power bubbled to the surface. Tan had thought the shapers of that time had abused their relationship to the elementals and forced them to serve, to create the protections that went into the making of the artifact, but that hadn’t been entirely true. The nymid had been there voluntarily. Golud and ara as well. At a time when he had thought that those were the only great elementals, Tan hadn’t known why they would have remained bonded there, held in the place of convergence.

  What if it had to do with binding the darkness?

  Even if it didn’t, it was possible that they protected an item that could be used against the darkness. Those ancient shapers did know more than he did about shaping. They might not have been as tightly bound to the elementals, and they might not have been able to reach the bonds, but they could shape, and many could speak to the elementals.

  They must have known.

  And a device like that… it was powerful enough to counter the darkness.

  If he could create something like that, it wouldn’t have to be only him facing the darkness. The others could help, much more directly than they were able to help now. As much as they wanted to assist him, they were not able to, not fully, and not when facing the full might of Marin and those she had trained to reach the darkness.

  Maelen?

  Tan looked over and saw Asgar watching him.

  Your thoughts are moving too quickly to follow, but I catch flickers. Within them, I see the Elder, and see him bound. Is this something you would recreate?

  Trapping the draasin had been terrible. They had been forced into service, and Tan suspected—especially knowing the draasin—that they would have served willingly had they been asked, especially if they knew what they were asked to do. Defeating the darkness was something that all of the elementals understood.

  There is something from a long time ago, Tan began, sending images of the artifact to Asgar. This was what had confined Asboel. At least the reason that he was confined. This device contained power and allowed those with the ability to shape to reach into the source of the Mother.

  You would allow others to reach that source? If the Elder were confined to protect it, then those who came before you saw the danger in possessing it.

  There was danger, Tan agreed. Enough danger that many had died trying to reach it. The archivists and Althem had wanted nothing more than to reach that power, and had been willing to sacrifice many—and doing much more horrible things—all in the sake of possessing that power. I don’t know how we can defeat her without having some way of reaching the Mother. I can reach her, but the others cannot.

  There is another.

  Who?

  The Child.

  Tan blinked. Alanna could reach the Mother? That shouldn’t surprise him, but it did. His daughter was only two. Even if she were able to reach the Mother, the source of creation, she shouldn’t—and couldn’t—be called on to face someone as deadly as Marin. This was not her fight.

  I can’t let her face Voidan. She’s not old enough to be able to fight.

  Perhaps not in your years, but the elementals know that she is powerful. She continues to grow. You must feel it as well.

  I know that she has strength. She would not have bonded already if there wasn’t strength there, but what you’re suggesting is letting a child, one who can barely even walk, face something that fully grown adults cannot face.

  You think of age, rather than in connection to the Mother.

  Tan frowned, turning to the draasin. Could Asgar really be telling him that he should allow his daughter to face Marin and the disciples?

  I think of understanding. The draasin do not have full understanding when they are born.

  Are you certain? Many are fire returned to a body.

  Tan hesitated. What do you mean?

  Fire does not end, Maelen. It returns to the bond but then it returns. Fire is life. You have said so yourself.

  All elements were life, but getting one of the elementals, especially the draasin, to see that was not something that Tan had ever managed. Now wasn’t the time to attempt to convince Asgar. Other questions came to him from what Asgar had said.

  Does that mean the Elder—

  Could Asboel be returned?

  All return eventually, Maelen. If the Elder returned, he would not be the same as you knew. He would be changed. The memories that he possessed would be gone, nothing more than a reflection, like flickers in the flame.

  Tan had not considered the possibility that Asboel could ever return, even in a different form. He had felt lucky to have been able to speak to him through the Fire bond, but would that ability disappear if Asboel returned?

  There were plenty of draasin eggs remaining… but Tan had a sense that those already were life, that they had begun the moment the eggs were lain. Which meant that it was possible that Asboel, if he were to return, was not an egg.

  They were thoughts for another time. Now he had to focus on what Asgar told him about the knowledge of those born of fire. How many of the new hatchlings possess memories of their times before?

  Asgar snorted. As I said, it is faded. There are memories, but they are flickers, and nothing more. Fire burns, and what was is changed.

  Tan detected the struggle that Asgar had in describing it, and realized that he had gone through something similar. What’s it like?

  Asgar huffed out. There are hints of what I had been, but that is all. Things I see… there are certain things that trouble me because I know that I have experienced them in some way before. You describing this device. I have seen this sometime, though I cannot tell you when. It troubles me.

  But we could use that power to stop the darkness.

  At what cost, Maelen? If the wrong person controls it—if the Mistress of Darkness comes into possession of it—what will happen to the Mother? Will she be able to harm the Mother?

  It shouldn’t be able to be used to destroy.

  The Mistress has proven that she can twist power. If she does it to a device like you describe, the danger is great.

  Tan felt a stirring on the wind and looked up. Elanne appeared on a shaping of wind, carried by the elementals and her own shaped power. Two other bond wardens came with her, both men Tan had met before and tested with spirit. He had taken to testing everyone with a hint of spirit, needing to know if they could be trusted. The work that they did now depended on it.

  We will continue this conversation later, friend, he said to Asgar.

  “Maelen. The wind tells me that you requested my presence.”

  Tan sighed. “Thanks for coming. Do you know this place?”

  Elanne looked around, a frown on her lips as she did. When she turned back to him, she nodded. “This is one of the Xsa Isles, Maelen. There should be a temple here, but I do not see it and the wind tells me that it has been destroyed.”

  That must have been the pile of debris that Tan had seen before. What kind of temple would there have been here, and why would it have been destroyed? He knew little about the people of Xsa, not enough to know whether they had a god they worshipped, or whether they were tied to the elements and the belief in the Great Mother.

  “What happened here? There is… something not quite right here.”


  “The Mistress of Darkness was here,” Tan said. “She used something the elementals called Undoing to change the land. That’s why I need your help.”

  All of the bond wardens tipped their heads, as if to listen. Tan suspected they waited for the elementals to share with them their understanding of the Undoing. All were bonded to elementals, and each of them were powerful shapers. That was another reason that Tan trusted them. He would know from the elementals if there was something off about them, and if they had become tainted by the darkness.

  One by one, their faces turned ashen.

  “You understand what happened here?” Tan asked.

  Rogan, a man with an easy smile and thin frame, nodded. He was a fire shaper, and bound to saa. Unlike with other fire shapers, those like Ciara, heat didn’t radiate from him. He didn’t have the same temper that other fire shapers often possessed, men like Seanan. Instead, he seemed to radiate his warmth in a different way, almost a friendly way.

  “Saa tells me there could be nothing here. They are impressed that you have managed to return what you have.”

  “I will return all of this island,” Tan said. “That’s why I need you here. We need to place bonds throughout the island until everything is fully restored.”

  “That will take…” Elanne started and saw Tan’s face before nodding. “Of course, Maelen. We will do this. You do not need to remain. I suspect you have other things that must be done.”

  Asgar nudged him with his nose, and Tan sighed. There were other things that he could be doing, but this was important. Besides, in doing this, he would discover how difficult it might be to stop Marin if she attempted this again, and he had little doubt that she would.

  “I will help. The work will go faster.”

  Rogan and the other man, Teln, both nodded. Elanne watched Tan with an expression of worry, one that pinched her brow into a wrinkled line.

  They started away and stopped at the edge of Tan’s binding, starting to create another without waiting.

  Elanne watched him and then approached. “Maelen—”

  “I know you’re worried about me,” he said to her.

  She nodded. “It’s more than that.”

  “What is it, Elanne? I’ve been trying to do what I can to protect us. That means finding out what Marin intends.” And he still didn’t know. The Undoing gave him a hint, especially if there was as much destruction tied to it as he had seen. If they were able to prevent him from using his connection to the elements, and to the elementals, then the Undoing might be the most dangerous plan they had come up with.

  All around him, he felt the surge of bindings as they took hold. Teln and Rogan made their way around the island, slowly circling out, placing the bindings into ground they had already recovered and widening the preserved land. As they did, Tan could detect the return of life, the surge of the elementals back into the ground.

  “You have changed, Maelen. That is what this is about.”

  “We’ve all changed.”

  “But you no longer teach the children. You no longer spend time in Par. You come, you visit with Amia and your daughter, and you depart again. Even the elementals worry about you.”

  Tan kept his attention away from Asgar but could feel the draasin as he fixed his gaze on him. Had the elementals instructed Elanne to tell him this? He wouldn’t put it past them to work together to see that he did what they needed of him.

  “The masters lead Par. I’ve seen to it that there are leaders.”

  Elanne smiled and shook her head. “Do you know that when the Utu Tonah came, he forced himself on the people of Par? He forced the people to serve him, and then began forcing the bonds. The longer that he was there, the more he forced. Over time, there were those who sought more power, who wanted nothing more than to reach power, and they began to serve him.”

  “I know this, Elanne. That is why I forced him out.”

  “You know this, but you don’t know how much the council rebelled against his presence. I wasn’t always the bond master. There were others before me.”

  The others had all been killed by Tan during his cleansing of the Utu Tonah’s attack. It was because of Tan that she had come into her role. “Do you wish you would never have been given your title?”

  “You miss the point, Maelen. The council wanted no other. They did not want the Utu Tonah to lead, and then when you came, they did not want you to lead.”

  “And now I’ve given them a chance to take on leadership. I’ve stepped away, letting those who want to guide the people of Par to do so.”

  “They only thought they wanted to lead. Now that you’ve been gone, they feel that loss more than they realized.” Elanne stepped toward him. Tan felt bindings continue to flash all around him. “I know you think the elementals need you and there are other responsibilities you have placed upon yourself, but the people of Par need you, Maelen.”

  She waited and then nodded, hurrying off on a shaping of wind to join the others in creating the bindings.

  Tan stood there a moment before leaping to the air on wind and fire. Asgar leaped into the sky on his massive wings and circled around him but didn’t reach through the fire bond to him.

  He placed a few more bindings, but it became clear that the bond wardens didn’t need his help as much as he thought. They were skilled, trained by Elanne, who had been partially trained by him—and by the Utu Tonah—and didn’t require him to help.

  We can return, he sent to Asgar.

  As you wish, Maelen.

  Tan shaped himself to Asgar’s back, watched the cleansing of the island a moment longer, and then rode with the draasin as they made their way back toward Par.

  4

  Child of the Mother

  The inside of the estate glowed with a soft warmth. Seasons had changed, and the usual heat of Par had begun to clear, leaving a cool bite to the air that drifted with the heavy northern wind. Tan imagined the wind coming from Norilan and from the ice that he’d once seen surrounding the island, though now that he’d been there, he knew the ice little more than a mirage. He shifted the heavy wool cloak on his shoulders as he strode through the estate. The sense of both Amia and Alanna pulled him with an urgency. Amia, at least, needed to know what he had faced.

  A tall man with a thin face and a serious expression joined him as they made their way through the hall. Maclin was now the Master of Souls, a title Tan had essentially bestowed on him, and one that made him a leader within Par. He had provided a type of guidance from the first moment that Tan had come to Par, and Tan normally valued his opinion. Today, he only hoped the man wouldn’t make a point of telling him the same things that Elanne and the elementals had.

  “You appear well, Maelen,” Maclin noted.

  “The elementals don’t tell you when I’m well?” Tan had discovered Maclin had a connection to earth, to the elemental ghosh that was not native to Par. The bond had formed sometime after Tan had freed Par-shon and after he had released all of the bonds.

  “They tell me were I to ask.”

  “If you don’t ask, then you must be the only one who doesn’t,” Tan said. “It seems the elementals and your council worries about my commitment.”

  “It’s not your commitment that has people—and elementals—talking. I would say there are those who fear your passion. They have seen it before.”

  Tan hesitated. The door into his quarters was just down the hall, close enough now that he could hear Alanna laughing inside, the sound tugging on his heart. “I am nothing like him, Maclin. You of all people should know that.”

  Maclin nodded. “I know, as much as I also know how you share the passion he possessed. His was directed at collecting elementals, and through them, reaching for power. Yours is a more singular passion, but carries with it the same risk of overwhelming the ability to see others around you.”

  Tan squeezed his eyes shut. He tried not to let the responsibilities he now possessed weigh on him, but there were times when they were almost imposs
ible to ignore. Most of the time, he kept his focus on the elementals and serving the Mother. That had been the one constant through everything, and the reason he thought he’d managed to succeed so far. Were he to allow himself to think about personal gain, he wondered if he would have managed the same success.

  “I hear what you’re saying, Maclin.”

  “Do you, Maelen? All I ask is that you consider the others who would share in your burden. If the Mistress of Darkness succeeds, we all will fall. You do not have to be the only one responsible for stopping her.”

  Tan started forward again. “Ask ghosh about the Undoing, Maclin, and then tell me if there are others who can help.”

  He continued on, leaving Maclin alone in the hall, his head tipped to the side as he seemed to listen to the elemental. Tan could almost hear part of the conversation through the earth bond, but he ignored it. It was not meant for him. Were he to want to, he suspected he could listen to all the conversations between elementals, but that was a violation of the gift that he’d been given, and one he didn’t feel was at all appropriate.

  Pushing the door open, he hurried inside. Alanna met him at the door, as if waiting for him. Likely she had been. He sensed her connection to spirit, one that was at least as deep as his and likely as connected as her mother’s. Tan lifted her, spinning her around as he hugged her tightly. She giggled and power surged against him.

  “You sent her back with the draasin?” Amia asked. “She hasn’t said her first words yet, and you let her travel alone?”

  It had troubled them that Alanna hadn’t spoken, though there was nothing for them to do about it but wait.

  She stood with her arm resting on the back of a chair, her long, golden hair flowing around her shoulders. A band of silver around her neck marked her as the First Mother of the Aeta, a title that she reluctantly still possessed. Eventually, he knew, she wanted to pass that on to someone else, but among other things, he doubted there had been time to find the right person. She barely spent any time in the kingdoms anymore, and that even with the draasin willing to fly her there anytime that Tan wouldn’t be available.