Bound by Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Yet you have already done more than most of the Masters at the university,” Amia suggested.

  Tan snorted. “What? Survive a lisincend attack?”

  “So a few things more than most Masters.” Amia smiled. “You spoke with the nymid. You saved the draasin. How many people can claim the ability to speak to even one of the great elementals, and here you’ve spoken to two.”

  “It still hasn’t helped me learn to shape any faster. I’m an earth senser but haven’t managed to speak to the earth elemental. Even when I knew golud was in the cavern, I couldn’t speak to it.”

  Amia smiled. “There are many shapers who never speak to the elementals. Why do you think you need to before you perform a shaping?”

  Tan shrugged. Did it have to do with his age? He hadn’t considered himself old—he’d not even left home before the lisincend destroyed it—but here at the university where everyone was so much younger than him, he couldn’t help but feel like he didn’t belong. Speaking to the earth elemental would make it easier for him. It might even help him understand what he could do with shaping—if anything.

  Amia touched his hand. His ears popped as she shaped him and with it came a sense of relaxation. There was no command, nothing other than a slight surge in the bond between them. Through it, an understanding of her washed through him, a connection like he’d never shared with anyone before, closer than he’d even felt with his parents.

  And through the bond, he could tell Amia felt the same.

  “I never knew there was a spirit elemental until we reached the cavern,” she said. “I’m still not sure whether that was an elemental or a part of the Great Mother herself. Either way, I’ve only ever spoken to her, never heard her speak back to me. But if you are determined to understand golud, then study until you can read on your own. Until then, I will read to you.”

  She shifted so that she could lean close to him and started reading.

  In spite of the closeness, or perhaps because of the shaped bond between them, Tan felt a sense of uncertainty from her. He didn’t know what, but something bothered Amia.

  CHAPTER 4

  Shapings

  Roine knocked early the next morning.

  Tan pulled the door open, eyes still thick with sleep. He rubbed them as he pulled on a shirt, wishing the room had a window. How long had he been sleeping? It felt like barely an hour, but the fire had faded to nothing and the room was cold. He and Amia had stayed up late into the night as she read the book to him. The book was written in a strange style, making it seem like actual conversations with golud. From what he remembered of golud in the cave as they secured the artifact, the elemental was a slow and heavy thing.

  Now Amia had left. He wasn’t surprised; she needed less sleep than him. He remembered her nudging him as she left and kissing him gently on the cheek. But how long ago had that been?

  And then there had been the dreams. Tan had visions of the ground far below and tinted in orange and reds, as if seeing them through a colored lens. Waking had felt as if he were tearing himself away from something deep and primal.

  Roine eyed him strangely as he opened the door, looking over Tan’s shoulder and into the room. He wore a loose-fitting jacket of dark green with black pants. His graying hair stood wildly on his head. “Ah… Tan? Am I interrupting?”

  Tan shook his head. “Only my sleep.”

  “I didn’t think you’d be here but when I couldn’t find you at the university…”

  Tan rubbed his eyes again, pressing against them and hoping to push back the pain in his head. “What time is it?”

  Roine laughed and pushed past Tan and into the room. He took a seat in one of the chairs and looked around, his eyes finally settling on the borrowed book resting on the table. “Noon,” he said softly. He leaned forward and picked up the book, setting it on his lap as he flipped through the first few pages, shaking his head as he did. “Where did you get this?”

  Tan closed the door. How had he slept so long?

  Roine watched him as he rubbed the back of his neck.

  He wished Amia were still here. He always felt the nagging ache of the draasin more acutely when she was gone. Or maybe the sense of the bond helped him forget about the draasin while she was nearby. With her gone, he felt as if he could track along the connection to the draasin and practically see them hunting, only he was too scared to actually do it. The last time he spoke to the draasin, the connection had nearly destroyed him.

  “The girl you met. Elle.”

  Roine frowned. “Where did she get this book?”

  Tan shrugged. “She said she got it from the archives. She had a couple of books. This one was about golud.”

  “I see that. But how would she have known? And why would the archivists allow her to take it?”

  Tan shrugged again. “She said her grandfather taught her,” he said to the first question. “And I don’t know about the archivists. Maybe they knew her?”

  Roine’s face looked troubled. “The archivists can be touchy about such things. I’m surprised she has this. And Elton?” He shook his head, frowning. “Elton was never much of a scholar when he was here…”

  Tan rubbed his neck again. The aching seemed worse today. He tried pushing away the sense of the draasin, keeping it in the back of his mind, but the effort wore on him. And now he’d slept too late and probably missed Master Nass speaking about fire shaping.

  Roine watched him.

  “You still feel it, don’t you?”

  Tan looked away. “I have headaches. Probably slept wrong.”

  Roine set the book down and stood. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I warned you what might happen if we released them.”

  Tan laughed bitterly. “You don’t know what would have happened if we hadn’t.”

  Roine made his way around the chairs and stood next to him. Pressure built behind his ears; Tan wondered what Roine shaped. As a warrior, he could shape all of the elements—all except spirit, though Roine claimed the ancient shapers once could even shape spirit. Tan had seen him work with water, earth, and wind. Never with fire.

  “I haven’t shared what we did with the king. After the Incendin attack on Galen, he has other things to worry about. But I’ve been tracking them.”

  Tan turned and looked at Roine.

  “The draasin. Once they were freed, someone needed to follow them. And the king…” He shook his head. “He doesn’t—or didn’t—need this on his plate, too. With Incendin attacking, there’s already too much for him to worry about. He doesn’t need to fear ancient elementals long thought dead.”

  “They won’t hunt man. Amia made it—”

  “How long do you really think her shaping will hold?” Roine interrupted. “Do you really think her so powerful as to influence an elemental? She couldn’t even shape Fur. Why should the draasin be any different?”

  Tan swallowed. Why hadn’t he considered that before?

  He’d been there when Amia tried shaping the lisincend. When she’d tried—and failed—to save her mother and the remainders of her people. The shaping had seemed to work at first, but the lisincend recognized what she did and ignored it.

  Why should the draasin be any different?

  Except—they weren’t twisted, not like the lisincend. The draasin were a natural part of the world, however dangerous they might be. And they suffered. Tan had felt their suffering. Worse, had they not released the draasin, Tan might not have survived.

  “I felt the shaping take,” he said. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”

  Roine snorted. “Then you know where they are?”

  Tan shook his head. It was something he feared. If he traced along the connection, what would he find? Would the draasin surge through and overwhelm him again? Without Amia to protect him, he didn’t know if he would be able to survive. The draasin had practically torn his mind. “I don’t know where they are.”

  “That should worry you. It does me.” He sighed. “I k
now they’ve left Galen. I told you about the charred cattle. Other livestock lost.”

  “Any people?”

  Roine sniffed. “No. So far, there are not.”

  “Then they still obey the shaping.”

  Roine laughed. “You speak of the shaping as if it is something that can contain them. These are wild creatures, one of the most powerful that ever lived. They will find a way around anything that restrains them.”

  Tan shook his head. The draasin hadn’t been able to escape the lake. The nymid held them, trapped within the place of convergence, a place of much power. And they had suffered. Regardless of what Roine said, releasing them had been right.

  “Is this why you came? To harass me about them again? There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

  Roine glanced back toward the hearth, his eyes again lingering on the borrowed book. “No—I didn’t come here to talk to you about the draasin, but we’re going to have to do something about them sooner or later. If they mate—”

  “Mate?” He hadn’t considered that.

  Roine nodded. “We released three draasin. I think the little one might have been a female. Perhaps even two of them.” Roine watched him, frowning. “You don’t know?”

  “I only spoke to one.”

  Roine’s brow furrowed. “And the nymid? How many of them did you speak to?”

  Tan shrugged. “There didn’t seem to be any particular nymid. Maybe at first.” He remembered the face the nymid made in the water as it swam around him. “But when they helped me rescue Amia from the lisincend, it was different nymid.”

  “And with the river?”

  Tan nodded. “Different.”

  Roine tapped his chin. “Why would you speak to only one of the draasin, then?”

  Tan laughed. “You’re asking me about the elementals? You’re the Master shaper and you’re the one who’s studied at the university.”

  Roine snorted. “I think you mistake me for an archivist. My expertise is in shaping. And other things.” He trailed off as he said the last.

  Tan sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know what happened that let me speak to the nymid, let alone the draasin. And I didn’t really try to speak to the others. The one I talked to practically ripped my mind apart.”

  “Hmm.” Roine took a deep breath and rubbed a hand through his hair. “Regardless, they are dangerous. But we have more immediate dangers to attend to now.”

  “Incendin?”

  Roine nodded. “After the convergence, the lisincend were pushed back. Two were killed. But not Fur?”

  “I don’t know. The draasin chased him, hunting him.”

  Roine closed his eyes and let out a soft breath. “I wish we knew if they caught him.”

  “Why?”

  “Because there is a secret to the shaping—to the creation of lisincend. I think Fur alone knows that secret. After what happened, I think he will move quickly to create more lisincend.”

  Tan shivered at the idea. Three lisincend had destroyed his home, had captured Velminth, and wiped out all of Amia’s family. How much destruction would even more lisincend cause?

  “Can the barrier keep them back?”

  Roine took a deep breath. “Once I would have said yes. That was before I knew about Lacertin. Now… now, I don’t know. Our shapers have weakened over the years. Without enough shapers, the barrier will eventually fall. We need to be ready.”

  It was the reason Roine had searched for the artifact in the first place. He thought the device would help with shapers. Ancient scholars anticipated such a need, but Roine had been unable to use it.

  “And that’s why the king has sent you to Incendin?”

  “Not entirely. I need to know how many shapers Incendin has. Even in the war, we never had an accurate count of their shapers. We knew roughly how many lisincend there were, especially as they were so blasted hard to kill. But fire shapers?” He shook his head. “We never learned if the lisincend represented most of their shapers or if there were more.”

  “What have you learned?”

  Roine stuffed his hands into his pockets and sniffed. “There are more. At least a dozen fire shapers near the border. That says nothing about how many are deeper in Incendin. And then the hounds. Too many to count. If they can cross the barrier, it won’t matter how many lisincend they send. The hounds alone are deadly.” Roine looked at him. “That’s why I’m here. Why I need you.”

  Tan swallowed, wishing he knew nothing about Incendin or their attacks or how deadly the lisincend could be. All he’d wanted was to live in Nor and wander the mountains around his home. Now he’d been pulled into something he could barely understand and felt powerless to stop. He might be a senser, but he hadn’t learned to shape, if he ever could.

  “What do you need from me?” he asked.

  “It’s not what I need from you,” Roine answered.

  Tan frowned, already dreading what Roine would say next.

  “The king. You helped find the artifact. Without you, we might not have succeeded. For all that and more, he would like to meet you.”

  They walked toward the palace in silence. The sun was out and shone brightly overhead. In spite of the bright day, a pall pressed on him. Roine glanced at him occasionally but stayed silent as they made their way toward the heart of the city.

  They passed dozens of people in varying dress, and Tan tried not to gape. People outside the university were even more diverse than within the stone walls. The closer to the palace they got, the more uniform the clothing became, as if the city itself had a style. For the most part, Roine’s dress fit in. The men wore heavy jackets and loose-fitting pants while the women wore long dresses. Some carried umbrellas to block the sun. Thick, gold jewelry adorned necks of women while many of the men wore bold rings with bright stones on them.

  And then they reached a wall surrounding the palace.

  The wall stretched high overhead, circling the palace grounds. Guards were stationed periodically, each carrying heavy crossbows they pointed away from the palace. Gleaming helms were marked by the now-familiar symbols of the elementals. Another pair of guards was stationed at the gate to the palace. Neither was armed. Shapers.

  Roine nodded to them.

  The guards ignored Roine but stared at Tan.

  The nearest man wore simple leather armor dyed a rich black. Shapes branded into the leather were hard to make out. The man was thickly muscled and wore a heavy beard. Long, black hair hung to his shoulders. Dark, untrusting eyes stared at Tan.

  Tan suspected the man was an earth shaper.

  The other man was stick thin and short. He bobbed from foot to foot, sending dust swirling. His shirt and pants were both tight, but his head and face were kept clean-shaven. A smirk spread across his face as he studied Tan.

  A wind shaper.

  The wind shaper stretched out his hand. Pressure built in Tan’s ears and then something pushed against him, holding him back.

  Roine glared at the thin man. “He’s with me, Alan.”

  Alan’s smirk widened. “You know the rules, Roine.” He spoke with a soft voice, but it carried easily, as if shaped on the wind. “Everyone must be checked.”

  Tan was amazed by the man’s ability. Had his mother been so skilled?

  And if she had, why had she stopped?

  Roine faced the man. More pressure built behind Tan’s ears and he wondered at the strength of Roine’s shaping and what he would do. But then Roine let it out like a soft breath and the pressure eased.

  “Check him, then. See if Zephra’s son plans to harm the king. I think you’ll find him empty-handed.”

  Alan’s head jerked toward Roine at the remark. “Zephra’s son?” He looked at Tan and eyed him carefully. “But she’s been gone—”

  “In Galen since the war. And where do you think I found him?”

  The smirk faded from Alan’s face. “And is he—”

  Roine’s eyes tightened. “He is Zephra’s son. What do you think?” />
  The large man next to Alan grunted. The sound rumbled out of him. “Let him pass, Alan,” the man said. “I never knew Zephra, but I studied with Grethan. Last I saw him, he spoke highly of his son.”

  Alan’s shaping dissipated, fading to nothingness. “Does Zephra plan to return?”

  Tan forced himself to swallow the emotions that came to him as they spoke of his mother. All his life, he’d known her as Ephra. All his life, she’d been nothing more than his mother. But to these men—to Roine—she was something more. A powerful wind shaper.

  Tan wished he would have known her as they knew her.

  He looked at the large man, wondering when he might have seen Tan’s father. Had this man seen him when he went off to fight Incendin? Would he know more about what had happened? Tan had heard little about the fight other than his father would not return.

  “Zephra is gone,” Roine said.

  Alan blinked. Wind whipped across the ground briefly and then faded. Tan almost heard a soft lament within the wind, but that must have been his imagination.

  “Then she has rejoined the Grethan in the afterlife,” the large man said. He grabbed Alan and pulled him to the side.

  When Tan hurried after Roine, the large man nodded to him.

  Past the gate, the palace gardens opened before him, a lush expanse of grass and trees and flowers. The scents mingled together. Roine took them down a path beneath arching oak trees that filtered the light. Birds chirped from high branches. Squirrels scurried and chipped. Finally, he let out a breath. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine he was back in Galen.

  Roine chuckled. “I figured you’d appreciate this path.”

  Tan blinked and looked at him. “Why this route?”

  “The courtyard is divided into quarters, each representative of one of the kingdoms. This, as you’ve likely gathered, is Galen.”