“Be safe,” she said. “And come back to me.”
“I will do everything that I can to return,” he said.
Amia touched his face, letting her fingers linger a moment. Then she turned away from him toward a trio of waiting Mothers, all needing her.
Tan shaped himself to Asboel. The draasin remained high overhead, keeping mostly out of sight. Tan landed atop his back and slumped between his spikes.
We must find the archivists, Tan said. We must find why Par-shon would want them. How could spirit be used with the elementals?
Asboel breathed out an angry blast of fire. They have Enya, Maelen.
Tan tensed, gripping the spikes on Asboel’s back. Are you certain?
The connection to the fire bond fails. I cannot sense her.
Where was she last?
Asboel snorted in his frustration. She hunted and receded from the bond. I do not know.
Spirit shaping could hide her from you?
Possibly.
Can it force a bond that I could not simply sever?
Spirit is the reason our bond has changed.
We will find her, Asboel, Tan said.
Asboel’s wide circles now took them over Incendin. Tan reached out with earth sensing, pressing out with earth and spirit, reaching across Incendin, striving to find where Par-shon might have gone. The landscape below them changed, the ground turning harder and more barren. The visible plants were more stunted and twisted. Tan sensed the bleakness beneath him, a sense of emptiness.
Yet there was life. Distantly, a city pressed on his earth sensing. It was different than the one he’d helped before. This was smaller, no more than a village, and nestled along the border. People moved within, but he couldn’t tell anything more than that. He sensed another city farther along the border, lying along a shallow river. Tan had been mistaken thinking that Incendin had been completely arid. Many of their cities existed along the sea and along the streams leading away from the mountains.
Frustration seeped through him. He still saw nothing, sensed nothing that would explain where Par-shon might have gone. Asboel shared his frustration, and flew with increasing agitation.
Every so often, Tan sensed the pressure of fire. Shapings much like the one in Doma, and the one in Incendin, pushed against him. Do you sense it?
I sense it, Maelen.
Is that how they trapped her? Did they force her where they wanted her to go?
Asboel snorted a streamer of flame from his nostril. It should not work.
Perhaps not on you. You’re protected by the bond. As is Sashari. But Enya…
Asboel swooped higher into the air, circling. The vantage gave Tan a new perspective as he looked through Asboel’s eyes. Incendin flowed into the Gholund Mountains, which then dropped down into the kingdoms. From here, he could even see how Incendin slowly drifted into what would be Nara to the north, and to Doma in the east. Chenir would be far to the north and east, with the kingdoms off to the west.
Can you follow fire? Tan asked.
Not this shaping. It does not burn through the bond. It is masked.
Tan recognized the frustration that Asboel felt. They would have to find her another way.
Circling as they did, Tan thought of the ancient maps he’d stared at in the archived books. Over time, the kingdoms had drawn Vatten from the sea, using shapings that had been long lost. Rens had once covered what was now Nara and Incendin, but Rens hadn’t been as dry as either was today. Doma had been larger, once a wider stretch of land, but water and time had worn it away. The Gholund Mountains had once been near the center of it all, separating each nation from the other with a natural boundary. With all the changes, it was no longer the center of the land.
Images of the maps floated through Tan’s mind as he struggled to make sense of it. There was something important that he was only grasping at, something that he could almost reach. Staring at the mountains wouldn’t give him the answers. Maybe there were no answers to be had.
Except, when he thought about it, the mountains weren’t the center of the land any longer. With as much as had been claimed from the sea, Ethea essentially marked the center, made more prominent with as much as Doma had shrunk, if the maps were true. Ethea, a place of convergence. There had been another place of convergence, though that had been within the mountains…
Such places were not marked on maps, but did they need to be? Knowing the elementals, they would understand how the place of convergence was found. They would understand the power found in such places.
Where would Par-shon have gone if they wanted to draw elementals, force spirit bonds upon them? Where could Par-shon hide so that Tan couldn’t find them? Where could they have taken Enya so that none would reach her?
Tan could think of only one answer: the same place the ancient scholars once thought to hide an ancient artifact of power.
26
The Last Bond
The Mother would not allow her place to be used, Asboel said when Tan told him.
The ancient shapers once used it to hide the artifact.
The draasin snorted in frustration but followed Tan’s direction. Tan had considered a traveling shaping, but for this, he wanted Asboel with him. And Tan wasn’t certain he could find the place of convergence on his own. Such places were protected. Without the elementals, he might not ever find it.
They flew quickly. Mist sprayed him as they streaked through the air. Tan felt the presence of other elementals and drew strength from them.
Tall pine trees cleared as they approached the broad swath of blue water of the lake at the center of the valley. The broken remains of the mountain stood at the end of the valley. As Asboel circled, searching for signs of Par-shon. Part of him didn’t really expect to find anything.
He used a shaping, but all it did was crash to the shores and wash away.
Can you detect anything through the fire bond? he asked.
Asboel breathed a streak of fire around the valley, but nothing appeared.
Was he wrong? If he was, had Par-shon gone? Was Enya?
He didn’t think that was likely. They had claimed the archivists for a reason. This was the logical place to bring them.
Maybe he could search another way, using the elemental connection that he shared. They would know this place better than anything.
Nymid!
He sent the calling with as much strength as he could draw. Once, it would have been difficult to reach for the nymid even from the shore, but now he sat atop Asboel and reached for them, much as he reached for Asboel through the bond.
There was no answer at first. Then, distantly, he sensed a stirring. The nymid was there, faint and struggling to reach him. Tan grasped at the connection.
He Who is Tan. They have come. They will harness the nymid. They will harness all the elementals, even the Youngest.
That meant Enya was here. Where? he asked.
Water surged briefly from the lake in a massive wave. As it did, dozens of figures became visible. Enya was suspended near the water, a masked shaping preventing her from moving. One shaper stood near her head, his bonds glowing all over his body. Tan didn’t need to see him clearly to know that it was the one bonded nearly as much as the Utu Tonah.
Asboel roared, shooting flames violently.
We will save her, Asboel, Tan sent.
Then the nymid failed, and everything disappeared.
There were too many of the Par-shon shapers for him to take on by himself. If he had any doubt that they had used Doma to draw him away, he no longer did. With all the shapers here, Tan would not have succeeded in freeing Doma.
More than anything, he needed to stop Par-shon from forcing the bond with Enya.
But why did they wait? Why hadn’t they already forced it?
There could only be one reason: they waited for the Utu Tonah to come and claim the bond himself.
There would be more than the thirty or more Par-shon bonded to face, more than the terrifying sha
per who rivaled the power of the Utu Tonah. They would be facing the threat of someone bonded to more elementals than Tan even had names for. A shaper whose power would far outstrip anything he could summon.
The shaping created by Par-shon was incredible. There was a pulling sense to it, a writhing quality…and he detected spirit mixed within. Tan could not see the archivists, but he sensed the effect they had on the shaping. It called to the elementals, drawing them here toward the place of convergence with more intensity than he’d ever sensed.
They used spirit not only to trap Enya, but they intended to trap the elementals of these lands as well.
Tan couldn’t wait for the Utu Tonah to appear. If it took him attacking alone, he would do what he needed to save Enya. If that was the sacrifice the Great Mother required of him, he would make it.
First, he would call for help.
Tan drew on all the elemental power he could. Asboel. Honl. The nymid. Earth elementals surging in the mountain near him, not golud but one nearly as strong. He wrapped his sense of the elementals together, shaping through them, and added spirit.
He touched the sword sheathed at his side. It would provide focus, if not power, much like the artifact had once provided focus. A part of him wished he had the artifact, but there was no time.
Shapings raged through him. Spirit bubbled through him, forcing awareness on him, depths of spirit greater than any he’d ever possessed, short of standing in the silvery pool of liquid spirit.
Tan drew upon Amia’s knowledge of shaping, twisted and bound it toward his will. The shaping came slowly, dragged through the bond he shared with her, but distantly he sensed as she allowed it, provided it willingly.
Assist me!
The request thundered from him toward all the elemental powers he could reach.
The shaping swept down through the lake, touching on the nymid trapped within, surging through the mountains, calling to the earth elementals, whistling along the trees as it called to the wind, and demanding heat from fire. The shaping came from him with more force than anything he had ever worked, nearly rivaling the power he had known when holding the artifact.
The power of the shaping swept away the concealment the Par-shon shapers maintained.
Tan took a breath, drawing in as much power as he could, and unsheathed his sword. It was time to do everything that he could to stop Par-shon.
Hunt well, Asboel.
Hunt well, Maelen.
Then Tan jumped.
Lightning streaked from him as he shot from the sky. Tan twisted with his shaping, spinning in the air, drawing on the elemental power around him. It flooded toward him, filling both him and the sword.
Tan shaped through the sword. There would only be time to stop Par-shon. There would not be time to sever the bonds.
The shaping split, directed at the shapers he could see. Three fell quickly into the water. Tan spun, shaping again, and again he managed to reach three of the Par-shon shapers.
Asboel attacked. Fire raged from his mouth, streaming toward the lake. The shapers were ready for it and pushed against the draasin. Unlike before, the shapers did not attack Asboel, choosing to hold him back. The attacks that came were directed at Tan.
Power built around him the same way it had in Doma, swirling faster than he could react and forming a shaped rune. The bonded shaper controlled it as he hovered high overhead.
Tan pulled on the elemental power, drawing through Asboel, through Honl swirling around him, through the elementals around him as he resisted the shaped rune.
And failed.
Tan shaped again, again straining against the rune shaped around him. The power coming from it intensified. Much longer and he wouldn’t be able to overcome it.
The rune held.
Asboel raged, roaring loudly. Tan suspected Asboel tried to reach him but failed.
He focused on what he could do. Power still filled him, filled the sword, from the elementals drawn to him. If he could use that power, he might be able to disable enough of the shapers to give him a chance getting free.
Wind pushed him down, cold and buzzing painfully in his ears. Honl!
The wind elemental did not respond.
His feet touched cool water that wrapped around his legs, attempting to pull him under.
Nymid!
There was no answer.
The shaping of the rune swirled around him, now oppressive.
Water pulled on him with real force. Tan kicked at it, shaping it away, but doing so wasted the remaining power he had access to.
He sent a streak of white shaped light toward the nearest Par-shon. He fell, but it was not enough. Tan aimed at the shaper who controlled the rune, but missed. Water dragged him down, wind pressing hard.
Tan screamed.
As he did, the air exploded around him. Fire streaked from Asboel. Wind whistled, pulling him up. A hand reached toward him and he grabbed it, freeing him from the water.
Cora stood on a shaping of water and air. “You summoned. I’ve never felt anything like it,” she said breathlessly.
He looked to see Zephra battling a pair of Par-shon shapers. Theondar appeared with a streak of lightning and thunder. The ground rumbled, and Ferran leapt from the rocks in the distance.
How?
He would ask questions later. They were outnumbered, but the elementals had brought help. “They’re shaping a rune around me,” Tan said more calmly than he felt. “If you can free me from it, I can help. We need to hurry before the Utu Tonah arrives.”
Cora leapt to the air. Par-shon shapers chased her, but she was a warrior shaper, trained by Lacertin. She knocked two shapers to the water with a flicker of wind and fire. Another shaper fell as she fought.
Tan had little strength remaining. He used what he had and pressed it at the nearest shaper. She collapsed to the ground. Another shaping he attempted failed.
The shaper still worked on Tan overhead, shaping with more intensity than he had while in Doma. There, Tan had managed to draw on the elementals to save himself. This time, the rune built with more power than he could resist.
He sagged again, his feet touching the water. Bonded nymid reached for him and pulled on him, dragging him into the lake. Tan resisted, pushing against it with a shaping of water and fire, knowing that if these bonded nymid managed to get him under, even with his connection to the nymid, he would drown.
Energy drained from him, the last of his reserves depleted. The elementals could not respond. Tan saw Theondar surrounded by four shapers, each essentially a warrior. His mother was pressed back against the rock, wind aiding her but quickly failing. Cora managed to stay in the air, but each attack she attempted was deflected. Asboel fought, but they kept him held harmlessly at bay.
Par-shon would win.
Water reached his neck, only his head remaining above the water, and then he was dragged beneath the surface.
Green swirled around him. The last time he’d been in this lake, the nymid had saved him from the lisincend. Now, the nymid would be the reason he died.
Help me, Tan cried out to the nymid. They were the first elemental he had ever reached, even before Asboel. Help He Who is Tan.
He continued to sink. The last of his breath left him.
Darkness came over him. He would fall, but at least this way he would not have to see his friends fall.
Lights flashed at the edge of his vision, the coming of his death.
He Who is Tan.
The voice came softly, but it was there. Tan reached for it.
Nymid. Help me. Help me save the others.
You would save Fire?
I would save all, Tan said. The Mother demands it of me.
Nymid swirled closer, the tint of green racing around him. Faces appeared, swirling nearby. One that looked familiar, the face of the nymid who had first helped him when he’d nearly died. Nymid will help He Who is Tan.
Light surged. Awareness of all the nymid flooded into Tan. They were different than
the draasin, different than ashi. The nymid were vast and powerful, but interconnected in a way that the other elementals were not. They were more than an individual. They were nymid.
The forced bonds used by Par-shon would never grasp the significance.
Tan pulled on the nymid, wrapping them around him. The nymid armor, once so powerful, the only way that he’d survived the lisincend, surrounded him. Bonds forced upon the nymid failed Tan’s bond to the nymid cemented.
Power and strength flooded back into him.
He surged to the surface of the water with the nymid’s help. When freed, he let water roll over the shapers around Enya. Tan focused on the heavily bonded shaper overhead, drawing the elementals to him and breaking their forced bonds as they obeyed Tan’s call.
The rune faltered.
More power filled him. Asboel and Honl returned. Amia, a distant worried sense, was there. The sense of the other elementals was different than before. It was not simply understanding that they were there, but awareness of where.
Other shaping surged all around the lake. Tan saw shapers he didn’t recognize attacking Par-shon. There were other kingdoms’ shapers there as well, a dozen in all. And Elle, somehow here.
The place of convergence welcomed them. Par-shon was pressed back. The heavily bonded shaper disappeared in a flash of white light, escaping once more.
Spirit shaping continued, but Tan could not determine the source. Where were the archivists?
The elementals around the place of convergence remained unsettled. Tan had no better word for it. Whatever Par-shon intended was not over. Enya remained captured, held near the edge of the lake.
He needed to free her, get to her before—
Asboel roared.
Power descended from the sky. There was no other way for him to describe it. The elemental power he sensed cowered away from it. The figure practically glowed.
The Utu Tonah. And he came for Enya.
He will force a bond onto her. That is why he sought the archivists! Tan sent to Asboel.
Asboel roared, flames shooting from his nostrils toward the Utu Tonah, who knocked them away, as if they were nothing more than a wisp of smoke.
Cloud Warrior 05 - Forged in Fire Page 23
