Fortress of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 4)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Amia performed a shaping that built with a sharp pop. She turned to Tan. “And you healed her.” She frowned, tilting her head. “But you didn’t heal only her. I sense what you did. There was spirit—”

  Zephra stepped in between them. “If you’re done shaping me?” she snapped. She glanced at Tan and her tone softened. “Amia, I have not treated you as you deserve. I can tell what you mean to Tannen. When this is over, I would like to make right the way I’ve treated you.”

  Amia glanced at Tan. “I would like that, Zephra.”

  His mother nodded. “Now. We need to return and warn the kingdoms. Theondar will need to understand the threat Par-shon poses. We’ve focused so long on Incendin that we haven’t considered the possibility that there might be other power that could threaten us.”

  “You return,” Tan said. “I need to help the draasin.”

  His mother opened her mouth as if she would argue, but she studied him a moment, nodding slowly. “You think you can reach the draasin in time?”

  “I have to. The Par-shon shapers bound to elementals can work together. This allows them to separate the shaper from spirit, from the bond. They nearly managed this once with the draasin.”

  “I’ve witnessed this,” his mother said.

  Amia pulled on his hand. “Will there be anything I can help with in this?” she asked.

  Tan knew many ways her spirit shaping might help, but all that came to mind was images of what might happen to her when confronted by a dozen shapers. When they had freed Asboel from the shaping, she had helped him know where to find the shapers. That could be invaluable. But going with him now put her at risk of needing to shape those from Par-shon, and she was determined to avoid that. He would do what he could to protect her from needing to go.

  “There is always something you can do to help,” he said.

  Amia motioned to the two they had rescued. The woman had a little more life in her eyes. The man still stared blankly. “I’ve done what I could with them so far, but I didn’t want to push too hard, not if there might have been a need for me to help you.” She paused and caught her breath. “Since learning of the First Mother and what she did with the Great Mother’s blessing, I’ve wondered if there was any way to use spirit to help the people. Once, I would have thought it an easy answer. These people are lost. I can sense that much about them.”

  “Roine said the Aeta were making their way to the kingdoms,” Tan reminded her. “They will be safe.”

  Amia touched her neck, where the band of silver marking her as Daughter of the Aeta had once been. “I keep trying to refuse my place, but this is why the Great Mother gave me my gift. I can help these two as much as I can. Maybe lead the others. I don’t know if I can, but I need to try.” She looked to Zephra, strength coming to her eyes. “I will go to Theondar and warn him. You are the fighter, Zephra. Tan will need you.”

  His mother smiled and shook her head. “You’re more a fighter than you realize, Amia. But I will fight with Tannen.”

  Vel stepped forward. All of the madness had faded from his eyes. He tugged at his beard, but with less force as he twisted the ends together. “You’ll help them?” he asked Amia. When she nodded, relief washed over him.

  “How will you get her to Ethea?” Zephra asked.

  Honl.

  The wind elemental swirled around him. What you ask is difficult for me here.

  Then let me help. Tan shaped fire, drawing from the strength of saa in these lands, and added more warmth to it. Honl grew stronger, swirling with more force and intensity. Take them to Ethea. See them safe. And then I will need your help. The draasin will need your help.

  To the elemental, Tan pushed an image of the broken university and the stone circle where shapers had landed over the centuries.

  And you? Honl asked.

  I will save Fire.

  He hugged Amia tightly. “Tell Theondar that we will need him. Not the leader of the kingdoms, but the warrior. If they send more than a few shapers, we will need all the help we can gather.”

  “Come back to me,” she said.

  He smiled and pulled her in another tight embrace, afraid to say anything more, then closed his eyes and sent the confirmation to Honl. The wind elemental lifted Amia and the others in a powerful gust and they soared toward Ethea.

  Zephra took a deep breath as Amia faded from view. “Bringing both of you with me,” she told Tan and Vel, “will take most of my strength. When we arrive, it will take time for me to recover.”

  “I’ll take Vel,” Tan said.

  “Without the elemental to help?”

  Tan gripped Vel’s arm and started his shaping. Each time, it became easier. “It’s as you said, Mother. I’m a warrior.”

  He pulled on the necessary shapings of wind and fire, mixing water for stability and earth for strength. Through this, he added spirit as he had before. Then he drew it toward him, focusing on the distant sense of Asboel.

  Lightning flashed from the sky, erupting near his feet and lifting them into the air.

  Like before, the shaping took them quickly, with no sense of movement, only great power. Then he stood on the edge of the bleak Incendin waste.

  Incendin was a hot, angry place, but some plants managed to grow. Shoots of small, stubby brown plants with thick, rubbery-looking fingers grew out of cracks in the rock. Tan sensed a darkness within them, enough that he knew to stay clear. Even if he hadn’t been able to sense their malevolence, the sharp barbs, like needles or tiny spears, that poked out of them would have been a warning. Short scrub brushes, twisted and scalded-looking, were scattered about, almost as if they were the last survivors of the heat coming from the Fire Fortress. He sensed no other life around. For that, he knew to be thankful. Incendin hounds lived in these lands. Beyond that, he didn’t know what else could survive.

  The Fire Fortress burned with a bright light. Streaks of black worked within the red turrets and towers that he couldn’t imagine holding life. Nothing about the Fire Fortress looked like it could support life.

  Only, that wasn’t quite right. The flames flickering around the Fire Fortress danced with an angry life of their own, and less than when Tan had seen it last, too. The flames shifted and moved, pulled on the hot Incendin wind, but they looked weakened. Could the Fire Fortress be part of the reason that Par-shon had never attacked the kingdoms?

  Tan released Vel’s arm as Zephra caught up to them. She hovered over the Incendin waste, unwilling to even touch down.

  Tan pulled the summoning coin from his pocket and held it in his palm. He nodded to his mother. “There are others who can help. Theondar sent shapers.”

  Zephra pulled her summoning coin from her pocket and shaped it. “It will be better if we both summon them.”

  Tan performed a similar shaping but mixed spirit to add a sense of urgency, uncertain if it would work. Would the kingdoms’ shapers even be able to reach them in time?

  The sense of Asboel bloomed within him, suddenly hot and bright and everywhere.

  Asboel!

  Maelen. I will hunt with you.

  Not hunt. The hatchlings are in danger. There are those who would seek to force a bond.

  Asboel roared in his mind. Not in danger. They live!

  Tan looked toward the Fire Fortress. Asboel had somehow managed to reach the fortress, had found the hatchlings. What did that mean for the defenses Incendin provided against Par-shon?

  How did you reach them?

  Twisted Fire. They were foolish enough to bring them toward your kingdoms.

  Tan stared at the Fire Fortress. Why would Incendin have brought the hatchlings away from the Fire Fortress and return them to the kingdoms? After everything Incendin had done to destroy the hatchlings, now they would return them?

  He could think of only one reason. Incendin wanted the kingdoms to have the hatchlings. They knew what Tan and the kingdoms’ shapers would do to see them safe. It would shift Par-shon’s focus to the kingdoms.

  “Clev
er,” he said.

  “What is it?” Zephra asked.

  “Incendin. They’ve returned the hatchlings to the draasin. The lisincend were weakened by the draasin attack,” he said. “They must know that Par-shon seeks the draasin as they did. They saw what happened with the draasin already.”

  “But where are they?” Zephra asked.

  “Nara.”

  “The kingdoms will suffer,” she said softly. “If we thought Incendin dangerous, they are nothing compared to what I saw in Par.”

  “I don’t think you saw the worst of it,” Tan said. “When he comes, there’s no one who can stop him.”

  Tan turned his focus to Asboel. Are they safe?

  Sashari has brought them to safety.

  Where?

  Tan didn’t expect anything different than the image Asboel sent to him. It was of Nara, the place where they had been before. Heat swirled around it, protected by the shaping made by the great fire elemental.

  But Tan knew that wasn’t safe. Par-shon knew of the draasin den, knew where to find them. And now they knew how to reach the hatchlings. They would have been safer in Incendin than they were in Nara.

  We must get there. Now.

  A massive shadow swirled over them and Asboel landed in a heavy beating of wings and hot wind. Vel gasped and took a dozen steps back and away from the draasin. Tan ignored him, focusing on Asboel.

  The draasin lowered his head and fixed Tan with his golden eyes. You have been right about much, Maelen, but trust the draasin to keep the hatchlings safe.

  I have shown you that there are others—dangerous others—who seek the hatchlings.

  Twisted Fire. Let them come. They have provided little challenge to me.

  Not Twisted Fire. The others who captured you.

  I was weakened keeping Enya from withdrawing fire. I am not so weak any longer.

  They have bound elementals.

  As have you.

  They steal the bonds. That was what they were attempting when they subdued you. There are dozens like that. There is one among them who has bonded every elemental except the draasin.

  Asboel roared.

  You understand why they cannot have the hatchlings?

  It is not the first time the bonded have come for the draasin. Come, Maelen. You will hunt with me now. Sashari will not allow the others near.

  I have seen them. She may not be able to stop them.

  Asboel snorted. Steam and spurts of flame came from his nose, leaving Tan unharmed.

  When it abated, Tan looked to his mother. “I will go with him. Follow carefully. The other draasin might not take kindly to your presence.”

  He climbed atop Asboel’s back. The warm spikes welcomed him, a comforting fit. Tan had ridden this way many times now, and each time felt right. This time, he wondered if he might be able to travel faster on a shaping than what Asboel could do, but he would let the draasin lead him. This was a fight they needed to do together.

  They took to the air on the draasin’s massive wings.

  Asboel streaked toward Nara, moving more quickly than Tan had ever flown with him. All around the draasin’s wings, Tan was aware of the connection to the wind elemental, ashi helping push Asboel along. There was a connection between the two elementals. Was it the same way with others?

  But why wouldn’t it be? Deep within Ethea, golud and the nymid mingled. Tan didn’t know if they supported each other, but the connection seemed little different than what he saw from ashi helping the draasin.

  What will happen if all of the elementals are bound? Tan asked.

  Power.

  He already has power.

  Asboel twisted to look at him. You have seen how elemental power is different in places.

  Tan nodded. The wind and fire elementals were different in Par-shon than in the kingdoms. Probably the other elementals as well, though Tan hadn’t the time to fully investigate.

  You asked once about greater and lesser power. To the Mother, there is a different distinction. There is older and younger. The draasin are among the oldest, but the others have strength. Over time, the younger can become the older.

  That’s why the nymid have gained strength?

  Nymid have always had strength. They lacked connection.

  What kind of connection?

  Asboel dipped his head, already starting to dive toward the ground. The kind we share.

  Asboel landed solidly on the ground, sharp talons gripping for purchase in the hard Nara rock. He tipped his head back and twisted his head, sniffing. His tail switched from side to side, revealing more of his agitation than anything through the bond between them.

  What is it?

  Something is amiss.

  Sashari? The hatchlings?

  Asboel twisted, his golden eyes practically glowing. They are here. They are protected. Sashari will keep them safe.

  What of Enya?

  Asboel faded briefly from the bond between them. Tan suspected he reached for Enya through the fire bond, that shared connection that allowed the draasin to communicate.

  She remains with the others.

  Then what?

  The answer came in a sudden surge of shaping power exploding from above.

  26

  Elemental Anger

  The power that erupted around them contained wind and earth and water and fire: all the elements working together. They had even more strength than Tan had seen yet, or thought to anticipate. They worked in concert, the attack building rapidly.

  Asboel absorbed as much fire as he could, pulling it from the fire shaper. He roared as he did, anger and rage fueling a horrible sound.

  Saa! Asboel shouted at the other fire elemental. You dare attack the draasin!

  Saa is not in control, Tan said. It’s as I told you. The elementals were forcibly bound. Free the shaper and you free saa.

  Asboel lifted into the air. Fire spouted from his mouth as he created a ring of fire around Tan, Vel, and Zephra.

  The shaping that built around them hesitated. Tan took that moment to take to the air on a bolt of lightning. He hovered above the ground, searching for the shapers. Amia would have been helpful here. She might have been able to give them enough of a warning to avoid the attack.

  Tan saw nothing below him.

  With growing fear, he looked up. In Par, he’d noticed that even the earth shapers had managed flight, somehow pulling that ability from the earth elemental. Could they manage the same in Nara?

  Above him were shapers. They circled, and Tan counted thirteen—more than Tan and Asboel could face alone. Probably more than they could face when Zephra arrived.

  Tan drew through spirit, searching for the rune bonding the attackers to the elementals. His heart sunk. Each shaper had at least two marks. Even were he to separate them from one, they would have another bond to draw power from, strength that rivaled what the best kingdoms’ shaper could attempt.

  Asboel lashed out. Fire spiraled from his mouth, but there were fire shapers among those attacking. They pulled the fire off, sending it harmlessly back to the ground.

  Honl!

  Tan sent an urgent call to the wind elemental. Would he have already reached Ethea with Amia? Could he reach Tan in time?

  Hot wind swirled around him. Tan released his shaping and let the wind elemental hold him aloft. It was not Honl—not at first—but ashi.

  Asboel roared through the shapers. He snapped at one—a thick, balding man with close-shorn hair—and ripped him from the sky. The shaper dropped in a heap, falling lifeless to the ground. Tan thought he should feel remorse but didn’t. Instead, he was thankful Amia’s shaping no longer held the draasin.

  Asboel lunged toward another shaper, but they had seen what happened and created a buffer using wind thickened with water. It prevented the draasin from getting too close. He bounced off it, snapping with a frustrated snarl.

  They attacked him with steady violence. Shapings of earth and water lashed at him. The strength of the shapings w
as more than Tan could fathom, more than he could summon. Two shapers came at him. Without ashi helping, he would have been overpowered. As it was, he managed to avoid the shapings but wasn’t able to do anything else.

  He had to help Asboel. If Tan could get through the barrier, he could reach the shapers, but there wasn’t anything he could do while trying not to be shaped himself.

  Tan readied a shaping, forming it over himself. As he did, he recognized Honl. The wind elemental had returned and swirled around him, ready to be called on. Would he be strong enough? Would he risk himself to help Asboel? Help Fire, Honl. Please.

  The wind elemental hesitated, then raced toward Asboel as Tan shaped himself into the air. He pulled on elemental power. Not Honl or Asboel, but on ashi and saa, drawing strength from the elementals around him.

  With Honl’s help, Asboel pierced the barrier. Another shaper fell.

  The Par-shon shapers shifted their focus entirely to the draasin.

  Tan pulled on a shaping of spirit, mixing it with air and water, and struck the runes on the woman shaping those two elements near him. When she fell from the sky, her short brown hair caught fire. She screamed as she fell.

  He should feel sympathy or remorse, or something, but all he felt was pleased that she was no longer a threat.

  A tall, muscular man waved his hand and three shapers split off from the others, turning to face Tan now he’d revealed himself. He studied his new opponents and blanched: most of the others had two runes binding them to the elementals. These three had four.

  Tan pulled on the sense of spirit within him, drawing the shaping as strongly as he could. Spirit would weaken him the quickest, but it was the one elemental they couldn’t shape.

  He drew on each of the elements, pulling fire, earth, wind, and air together, binding them. To this, he added spirit. As before, the elementals of this land were drawn to the shaping, granting him power, and he added this to his shaping. Had he the warrior’s sword, he might be able to aim. Instead, he focused on pushing the shaping away from him in a burst.

  Blinding white light arced out from him.