Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9) (12 page)

Her breath caught. “Temple?” When he nodded, she said, “I might be able to help with that. Come with me, Maelen.”

They landed near the Seal in the middle of the city, where Tan had first discovered Marin hiding. Sunlight streamed through gaps in the buildings and burned down on his neck. He shifted his loose cloak, feeling too warm for it. Elanne, dressed in a thin wrap that she draped around her neck, didn’t seem bothered by the heat of the day.

Voices from the city called around them. Many came from children running through the streets, and Tan heard the sound of dogs barking, and even a few cats. Other, more exotic animals moved along the streets as well, often carrying people as they went, but they were silent. Tan realized that he would need to spend more time in Par to understand the people, especially if he remained committed to leading here.

“When you mentioned that,” Elanne said, grabbing his arm and pulling him along, as if she forgot that he was the Utu Tonah and that she should fear him, “there is something here. It is faded, barely more than a reference.” She paused at the runes marked along the walls and then tapped on one. “Here. This is what I remembered seeing. The rune here, you see this?” she asked.

Tan leaned forward, studying the mark as well as he could but saw nothing but a series of faded lines that made little sense to him. His knowledge of runes was a combination of knowledge gained working with the First Mother and knowledge that he’d taken when using a spirit shaping on a rune master when they thought to attack in the kingdoms. But that knowledge was not enough to help him decipher what had been lost to time. Elanne, though, seemed to be able to work through it.

“What does it say?”

She tapped the runes and traced her fingers along them. “You mentioned a temple by name.”

“Alast,” Tan said. He still couldn’t shake the uneasy sense that he had from the temple itself, the way that the bright white stone seemed to push back shapings, as if refusing to acknowledge the elemental power that surged around it.

Elanne frowned and leaned forward. “This does not say anything about a particular name,” she said. “This speaks of temples of power. Light and dark. But…” She sighed. “I thought that perhaps I might have something of use to you.”

Tan studied the runes that she had pointed to. “Light and dark?”

She nodded. “It is… vague. The language of that time is different than what we use. Their terms for light and dark are not the same as ours. It could mean many things.”

Tan couldn’t help but notice the connection to what Honl had told him. There had been comments about how he would have to be the light. That, combined with what he’d seen attacking Asgar, left him wondering if they were all tied together. But if that was the case, what did it mean?

He stepped back and surveyed the runes arrayed around him. “You have this place protected now?” he asked.

“I am the Mistress of Bonds. These are the most sacred bonds that our people possess.” Tan glanced at her. “Yes, Maelen, I have these bonds protected. The Wardens see to it that none enter here. These will not fall into any further disarray. If I can, I will restore them to what they were before.”

With as faded as most of these were, Tan wondered if that would be possible. Some of the runes were cracked, and whatever intent had been behind them had been lost to time. Others he thought might be able to be restored, but they would take enormous amounts of time. And if there was something more taking place, if there really was darkness coming, Tan didn’t know if he had the time to wait.

It was even more reason that he wanted Honl to arrive. The elemental could sweep through here and would likely be able to interpret everything within the records within moments. With him gone… without his connection to the evolved wind elemental, Tan would somehow have to find the answers on his own.

“Search the Records,” Tan said. “See what you can find that might help.”

“I will do what I can, Maelen.”

T
an sat
in a small room within the tower, legs crossed in front of him and Molly opposite him. The hearth next to them was dark and cold. He tried to keep his mind on the task in front of him, but his mind wandered.

The third hatchling crawled along the wall behind them both, sniffing along the cracks, and occasionally would lick the wall, running her tongue along the stone. Where she did, the stone was left blackened and, with what he could tell from earth sensing, changed.

What do you do to the stone?

This girl will be reckless until she learns control,
the stunted hatchling said.

Tan noted again how mature the draasin seemed, much more than she should be given that she was barely more than a few weeks old. That had to be from the spirit shaping that had been required to keep her alive, but he still marveled at the difference between her and the other two hatchlings. Whereas they wanted nothing more than to eat and remain in the den, content to grow and chew on bones and stay with the eggs, this hatchling preferred company and sampling the world around her.

How will what you do prevent her from being reckless?

The draasin snorted at him, producing more flame that she had before.
Not prevent. Protect.
With that, she continued to make her way along the wall, running her tongue as she did. Power radiated from the small draasin, surging into the stone and blackening the walls.

Tan also noted that she hadn’t changed size in the last week, not as the other hatchlings had. She had fed, but her appetite was different.

How unlike the other draasin would she be? What effect would his adding spirit to her be? And in doing that, how was what he had done that much different than what the darkness had intended for Asgar?

He pulled his attention back to Molly, needing to work with her. That was what he had promised by bringing her here. But he couldn’t shake the concern that he felt, or the dark thoughts that rolled through his mind.

That sought to change him so that he could be used. Your intention is to help. The Mother sees the difference, even if you do not.

Tan glanced back at the hatchling. She sat on her back legs, watching him. Her tiny eyes practically glowed.
You know what happened?

I do not know more than you. Asgar hides from the fire bond. He fears reconnecting.

Tan hadn’t shared the draasin’s name with her before, he was certain of that. And he didn’t think that the draasin shared their names in the bond with the hatchlings, at least not until they were ready.

What can you tell me?
Tan asked. He hadn’t considered this draasin as a resource, but she was bonded with spirit, and in that way would be more like Honl than the others. She might be able to help him understand what had happened.

I do not know. I have not been aware for long.

Tan laughed and Molly glanced over at him. “Keep trying to reach fire,” he said. “Feel it burning and call to it.”

She smiled and nodded.

Tan returned his attention to the hatchling.
Were you aware when Asgar was attacked?

Aware, but not. I don’t know how to explain it better than that. When the attack came, Asgar pulled away from the bond.

That would explain why Tan lost the connection to him.
Why would he pull away from the bond?

He thought to protect it.

Tan wondered if the attack on Asgar could even have reached into the fire bond. Would the darkness have managed to penetrate it? And if it had, what could have happened?

I need to understand the darkness,
Tan said.

Yes, Maelen, you do.

I have asked others for help, but there is only so much that they know. The others, the Mistress of Bonds and the archivist, do not have the same appreciation for the elementals.

The draasin snorted.
There are few with your understanding, Maelen. The Mother chose well when she laid her hand upon you.

Can you help?

It felt strange asking a hatchling draasin for help, but she was more than a hatchling. Tan could see that already. In some ways, she appeared little more than a hatchling, but it others… in others, she seemed wise beyond what she should, as if the bond with spirit granted her an understanding. And maybe it did. Honl had gained understanding through the connection with spirit, enough that he became even more aware than the typical elemental, if such a thing were even possible.

That is why I am here,
she answered.

The comment seemed to carry a great implication than her answer, but Tan didn’t have the chance to question more.

Molly drew his attention by laughing as a smolder of flame began in the hearth.

As it took hold, saa leapt toward it, joining with the smoldering beginning and building it quickly into something more. Once burning brightly, the flames leaned toward Molly, as if they wanted to touch her.

Tan pushed back on them, tamping them somewhat. Molly might have potential, and would be able to speak to the elemental, but he wasn’t sure that she would be immune to flame yet. In time, much as Tan had become immune to fire, he suspected she would gain that ability. But not now.

“Excellent,” he said. “What did you do differently?”

He tried thinking of how he had learned to shape fire, but his connection to it had always been different. First through the draasin, and then through the fire bond. Would he even know how to reach fire as a mere shaper?

Molly lowered her eyes and turned away from him. “You don’t want to know.”

“I asked, didn’t I?”

“I… I got mad at it. When it didn’t work, I got mad.”

Tan laughed. “Fire can be different than other elements,” he said. “It responds to emotion, and induces emotion, where the other elements might not.” He thought of Cianna and the way she oozed something like seduction. And he thought of the anger that had burned in him when he had nearly turned into one of the lisincend. There had been nothing
but
emotion then.

“It’s okay that I got mad at it?” she asked.

Tan smiled. “I think you have to reach fire whatever way you can. Once you make the connection, and once you can reach it easily, every time that you want to, then you’ll be able to figure out which way is the best for you.”

“How do you do it? Do you get mad at it?”

Tan studied the fire and pulled on it with a shaping. As he did, he focused on how
he
shaped fire. It came through him, burning within him, but he also pulled on the elementals around him, often without even realizing that was what he was doing. Even now, he drew upon saa and the hatchling, surprisingly enough.

“Not mad,” he said. “But I have a bond to fire that is different than what you will reach. You will either speak to the elementals or you will master fire. I spoke to fire first and learned to shape second.”

“But you bonded the draasin.” She fixed the hatchling with a longing expression.

“I did, and it’s possible that you will too. Or maybe you will bond with saa. Here, in Par, saa is a very powerful elemental.” He thought saa more likely for Molly, especially with the way the elemental had commented on her potential.

“It is?”

Tan nodded. “Think of how quickly the fire took hold, with nothing more than a spark. In the kingdoms, saa might be there, but saa wouldn’t be drawn quite the same.”

“I… I only managed to spark it a little,” Molly said.

“And from a tiny spark can come a great flame.” He pulled fire away, directing it down and into the stone. As he did, he realized that the hatchling pulled on the connection to fire and drew it from the stone and into her. Tan sent a flicker, barely more than that, into the hearth, and held it there. “See how the spark glows? Watch it. And know that this can become much more.”

He released the spark and saa raced to the flame, filling the hearth with the glow from the fire.

“When you begin to accept the control, you’ll be able to accomplish much more. You can start with this,” he said, reducing flame to almost nothing, “and make it into this,” he said, pushing power and shaping into the fire, leading to the heat surging and the flames leaping bright.

Molly gasped and laughed. The flames bent again, this time faster than Tan could react.

They touched her, wrapping around her. She screamed.

Tan pulled on the fire and drew away the flames, afraid that she had been burned.

The draasin leapt onto her lap and ran her tongue across the girl.

But Molly had been unharmed.

She looked up at Tan, a question in her eyes. Her clothes were signed, but not as much as they should have been with the way that fire had just burned her. None of her skin had been harmed, leaving her no more injured than she had been before the shaping.

“I’m sorry, Molly,” Tan said. “That shouldn’t have happened. It was my fault.”

His—but then, Molly had influenced the flames as well. Her joyful clapping had caused the flames to fold toward her, and thankfully she hadn’t been harmed. Maybe she really
was
better connected to fire than he realized.

Saa protected her,
the hatchling said.

Saa?

Saa wanted to show its strength. That’s why the fire changed as it did. But saa can be overly eager. This one will be potent in these lands, Maelen, but she will need guidance or fire will pull her too strongly.

Tan had wondered whether Molly would be able to bond the draasin, or whether her connection tied her to saa, and this answered the question.

Molly watched him, waiting for him to say something more. He forced a smile, not certain what it meant that she would be so potently connected to saa but determined to understand. What did it matter if it was one more thing for him to worry about?

“Let’s try again,” he said.

* * *

S
tanding
atop the tower gave Tan a clear vista of all of surrounding Par. The city spread outward around the tower, with all roads leading toward it. In that way, Tan knew that the tower had preceded even the Utu Tonah and represented the oldest of Par.

Runes worked onto the sides of the tower had been left by those ancient people. Those runes—or bonds, as the Par people called them—were tied to the Records. Tan was certain of that, only he didn’t know quite
how
they were tied. More questions.

Wind whistled around his head, sending his hair flying wildly. It needed cut, having grown too long with a beard to match, but the length as well as the beard fit in here in Par. Not in the kingdoms. There, clean-shaven was the norm.

It felt strange not to have Asgar sitting next to him atop the tower. The draasin had claimed this space as a way to watch over Par for Tan, and the bones resting in the corner were proof. With a shaping of fire and pressing earth, he pulverized the bones, leaving them as nothing more than dust to float into the air.

Tan’s connection to the fire bond told him that Asgar was awake and moved more than he had in days. Sashari remained with him, though he sensed a growing unease from her about remaining in these lands too long. She was more like Asboel in preferring her home. Asgar didn’t mind the change and welcomed the challenge within Par.

The hatchlings in the cavern touched on the fire bond as well. They were fed and full, nestling around the eggs. Surprisingly, Tan recognized a hint of
something
from the eggs as well. Should they touch on the fire bond already? He had expected them to need to hatch first, but there was the lightest touch, barely anything. Had he not been so attuned to the fire bond, he doubted that he would even detect it.

Maybe he’d have to work with the other eggs sooner than he realized. The idea of hatching too many too soon worried him. Each hatchling had to feed on the fire bond, and he worried that it would weaken the bond. With so many eggs remaining, what would happen to the bond if they all fed at the same time?

Probably nothing. The fire bond represented the purest connection to Fire, and it would not allow the draasin to consume Fire, but Tan still worried.

Then there was the third hatchling. She rested on his shoulder today, her claws digging into his shoulders and her tail pressed down his shirt and along his spine. Since the end of their work with Molly the previous day, the hatchling had refused to leave his side. Had it been either of the other two hatchlings, he might have simply left her in the cavern and been done with it. That was how Asboel and Sashari had raised Asgar and his sister. But this hatchling was different.

She looked at him and ran her tongue along his face. Where it touched, a thick, sticky saliva clung to him and dried quickly.

“Thanks,” he said.

Her tail twitched.

She remained tightly entwined in the fire bond, but had not changed in size. At first, he thought that imagined, but the longer the draasin remained with him, the more certain of it that he was. She ate, but not with the same eagerness that the other draasin possessed.

Do not worry for me, Maelen.

You should be larger by now.