Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9) (13 page)

She snorted and stuck her tongue out, running it across her lips. Her thin wings unfolded and then curled back against her body, as if she decided against using them.
Perhaps. Or perhaps I am as the Mother intended.

Tan patted her on the head, wondering if it had more to do with the Mother or what Tan had done. By healing her, by using spirit as he had with Honl, he had changed her. There would be consequences. With the elementals, there were always consequences when things were changed.

Why are you here, Maelen?

To clear my head.

You would have it emptied?

Tan frowned as a pressure built, and he felt something working through his mind. Spirit, he had no doubt, and coming from the draasin. As a spirit shaper himself, he should not be influenced by spirit, but then the draasin was nothing like she should be.

Unless she was everything that she was meant to be.

She licked his face again.

Tan wiped it away and shifted her so that she didn’t dig so deeply into his shoulder. He kept expecting to bleed where the draasin sat on him, but he never did.

I need to take care of
some
of these problems,
Tan said to the hatchling.
And I can do them only one at a time.

He thought about the different issues that he had to understand. There was finding Marin and learning whether she remained a threat. There was the buried temple in Vatten that made him uncomfortable. There was the darkness that had attacked Asgar and posed a risk to the elementals. And then there were the draasin eggs. On top of that, he had to figure out how to rule in Par while working through each of these issues, and find a way to reconnect with Amia. The pregnancy should have brought them closer together, but instead, it only seemed to push them slowly, and steadily, apart.

He needed guidance but no longer had anyone to guide him. Once it would have been Roine, and then, after their bond strengthened, it had been Asboel. Normally he would think to go to Amia, but she had worries of her own, worries that had grown stronger since Asgar’s attack. Tan didn’t need to have the spirit bond connection to know that she worried about their unborn child and what it meant to bring a child into such a dangerous world. After defeating the Utu Tonah, it was supposed to be easier. They were supposed to have peace. But now… now they had nothing of the sort, only more uncertainty.

The wind shifted, carrying a hint of the sea. Tan stood more upright, looking into the distance, but he saw nothing.

What do you expect to find?
the hatchling asked.

When would Honl return? Eventually, he suspected the wind elemental would need to come back to him, or at least, would
want
to come back, but he hadn’t been able to even reach Honl well enough to ask for his help.

A friend,
he answered, still hopeful that Honl would appear, but the wind shifted again, bringing only the scents of Par, and nothing more.

T
an stood
in the open room that had housed the Utu Tonah when Tan had first come to Par-shon. Unlike when he had first arrived, when there had been dozens of bonded shapers, each currying favor with the Utu Tonah, now the men and women before him had a different purpose. Tan intended for them to rule, but he wanted them to do so as they once would have in Par, not under his hand as Par-shon.

Tolman stood behind Tan, clutching a roll of paper. “They have all come as you requested.”

The assembled council was missing one person since the last time he had convened them, but then, when he had done that, he had made a point of destroying the bonds they possessed before he understood the purpose of them. At least that was one mistake he would not—and probably could not—make again.

Without Marin, there was a void, one that the others seemed to sense as well as Tan. Almost as if missing the Mistress of Souls left a gap. Given how she had served, Tan wasn’t sure that filling her post made sense. Did he dare risk another trying to claim the same level of authority? The Mistress of Souls had more weight with the people of Par than most, in some ways more than even Tan would manage. Did he risk another?

Elanne stepped forward and tipped her head in a deep bow. The others copied her, and one—Leon, the Master of Coin—bobbed his head so low that he almost fell over. Elanne stifled a smile.

“Please stand,” Tan said.

“Yes, Utu Tonah,” most of the assembled council said at once.

Not Elanne. She had said nothing, and watched him with a curious expression. She knew what he intended, but Elanne had made it clear that she wasn’t certain how well it would be received. She worried that the others might think him insincere, warning that there had been enough danger with the Utu Tonah playing his council and favored bonded off each other.

“I have asked the council to join me to discuss the rule of Par.”

He paused, letting the words sink in.

“Par-shon is yours to rule,” Helles, the Master of Trade, said. He was a thin man, with intelligent eyes that stared out from behind thick spectacles.

“Par-shon, perhaps,” Tan said. “But I would see Par returned.” A soft murmuring started between a few of the council representatives standing toward the back. “I have learned much of your people in my time in these lands. Par was not Par-shon. And I would see Par returned.”

Tan glanced at Tolman. He hadn’t shared the next part with him, but it was the part that made the most sense, especially after what he had learned.

“The council once guided Par,” Leon said.

Tan nodded. “The council did. And before the Utu Tonah came to these lands, they offered their guidance, leading the people wisely. Do you think that you can serve as your predecessors once did?”

“What of you?” Elanne asked. Tan suppressed a smile. She was always so blunt. That made her more valuable than she realized, and much like him in some ways.

“Me?”

The others of the council all nodded.

“You have right of Utu Tonah,” Leon said. “You have claimed his estate. You have ruled in Par-shon.”

“I have wanted nothing more than to guide the people of Par toward an understanding of the elementals and the power that we share with them when we shape.”

“That is the role of the Mistress of Bonds,” Ifrin said. She was a wide woman, and Tan had learned that she was the Mistress of Learning. In some ways, he wondered why she didn’t work with Tolman to help with the students in the tower.

“The Mistress of Bonds still serves in that role, but she is preoccupied these days now that she has recovered the Records of Par.”

That had the desired effect. Everyone began talking and turned to Elanne. She shot him an annoyed look, and he shrugged. At least the council had turned away from him.

“The Records?” someone said. Tan couldn’t hear who it was, but recognized the sense of awe in their voice.

“They have been found. They will require work to restore.”

“How?” Helles asked. “They have been lost for…” He frowned, almost as if trying to count the years. “Centuries. They have been gone for centuries.”

“And here the entire time,” Elanne said. “That is why there is no Mistress of Souls. Marin hid them and used something of the power of the Records to try to harm the Utu Tonah.”

The others on the council turned to Tan. He shook his head. “Not the Utu Tonah any longer,” he said. “As part of this, I would claim a different title. I do not yet know what it means. I will still lead the council, but would like regular meetings. I would ask your input. And, in time, the council will be allowed to rule as it once had.”

That was as much as he could offer for now. Not more than that because he didn’t know whether he could trust the councilors to rule wisely. Not yet. They were still tied to tightly to Par-shon and had not regained the understanding that they served the people of Par.

“What title?” Helles asked.

“Maelen,” Elanne said. “He would have us call him Maelen.”

The council turned to him at the announcement, but it was brief. They almost immediately resumed talking quickly and quietly.

Tan smiled and turned away, but not before seeing Elanne watching him, shaking her head as she did.

Leaving the room, he made his way through the tower. Tolman hurried to keep up with him, falling into stride when he did.

“You really intend to do this,” Tolman said.

Tan nodded. “More than that. I intend to name a new Master of Souls.”

Tolman nearly stumbled. “Master? No, Maelen,” he said, his tongue stumbling over the title almost as much as his feet stumbled on the tile, “there has only ever been a Mistress of Souls. The people expect to follow her. I understand that you have reservations after what Marin had done, but you would change too much.”

Tan wanted to allow Par to return to what it had been, but if Marin and those who had come before her were tied together, there was a risk that he would be forced to face her again. Using a Master of Souls would help circumvent that. He hoped.

“Besides, who would you choose?” Tolman asked.

Tan paused. At least Tolman was willing to give the idea a chance, even if he didn’t want to admit that was what he did. “Maclin.”

Tolman sucked in a sharp breath. “That… that might work,” he said softly, and mostly to himself. “He is known to most within the faith, and he is well respected. Enough so that others would not think he was forced upon them, at least not too much.”

That had been what Tan hoped. Maclin had provided Tan with guidance since arriving in Par, and he hoped that the man would be willing to serve, but then, he hadn’t asked. He had needed to work out what he would do with the council first.

One problem at a time. Now that he had asked the council to reconvene, he would need to approach Maclin as well.

At least, if this worked, he would have less to worry about with ruling in Par. He could focus on the other issues that he had at hand and begin to work through them one at a time. That was the only way that he would be able to find a solution. And some, like the darkness that had attacked Asgar, didn’t have a solution that he could find just yet.

“Where now?” Tolman asked.

They stopped on the students’ level and Tan hurried forward. “Now is back to teaching. The people of Par deserve to have their shapers learn.”

“You have time to teach?”

He didn’t, and wasn’t sure that his request would be answered, but he had to try. “Some. I’ve been working with Molly,” he said. And she had continued to show promise. Now she could spark easily, and with her connection to saa, the sparks quickly turned to flames. Dangerous, especially if he wasn’t there to assist, and though he didn’t think that saa would harm her, he didn’t know what she might do to others were she unleashed. So he had asked her to refrain from shaping without him present and had made a request to saa to avoid joining the fire when she called it. At least for now. The only problem was that Tan wasn’t sure that either would listen.

“You cannot provide such dedicated time to each student, Maelen. I have seen the way you work with the draasin, and I know that there are other issues that trouble you, though I do not know what they might be. There is only so much of you to go around.”

Tan took a deep breath and nodded. That was the same concern that Amia had, worrying that he would stretch himself too thin and worrying that he attempted to do too much, in spite of the fact that she had been the one who had pushed him to return to Par and who had wanted him to take on this challenge. Without her urging, he would have left Par-shon alone. And what would have happened if he had? What would Marin had done in his absence?

When he opened the door, he was surprised to hear a familiar voice.

Zephra glanced over at him when he entered. “Now you will practice,” she said to the gathered students.

They each nodded.

Zephra came over to him, her gaze lingering on Tolman before she turned her attention back to Tan. “You summoned and left
this
,” she said, pulling the summoning rune coin from a pocket and handing it back to him, “on the table there.”

“I thought that I might be able to get here before you,” he said.

“Before me,” she said and gazed at the students.

They were of varying ages, and from what Tan had determined, the students had varying levels of connection to the elements. None were quite as strong as what he’d detected with Molly, and he suddenly wondered if maybe she had the potential to become a warrior. Before Tan, there hadn’t been a warrior in many years. He had been the first since Roine, or maybe Cora. Tan still didn’t know when she had developed her abilities, only that she was younger than Roine.

But this group was what Par had to offer. Willing students, and those who Tan had worked to encourage to understand what could be learned when you didn’t force the elementals to bind.

“You intended for me to teach?” she asked.

“I had hoped that you would be willing,” Tan said. “I would like to have the others as well. I think these students could learn much from our shapers.”

His mother frowned, the corner of her mouth wrinkling with the motion. “But Tannen, you could send them to the university. They would learn all that they need there. That is how training shapers has always been done.”

Tan shook his head. That had been his plan at first, but then he realized that could not be. Not if he wanted to give Par a chance for a future free of him, and free of the kingdoms. Shaping was not something confined to the kingdoms. They were skilled, but no less so than the shapers of Chenir, or those he had discovered in Doma, and even the fire shapers of Incendin.

Besides, his mother should know better than most what happened when shapers were trained outside their homeland. Coming from Doma, she had no ties to the kingdoms when she had come to learn. But learning came with a requirement of service. Even if Roine waived it, and Tan suspected that he would, the Par student’s time in the kingdoms would change them. Living and learning in Ethea had changed him, and he had only come from the surrounding countryside. How much would these children, the hope of Par, be changed? And how many would choose not to return, simply to remain in the kingdoms?

“Par needs her shapers here,” Tan said.

“And what?” his mother asked. “You would have our shapers come here to teach?”

“Not only ours,” he said. When he had summoned his mother, he had sent out a request to Cora and to Elle, and in time, he intended to bring shapers from Chenir as well. He would make this a place of learning and understanding, a place where shapers understood and appreciated the elementals. A place where others would want to come.

But first, they had to learn to shape.

“Is that wise, Tannen?” She leaned in and her voice dropped to a whisper. It took a shaping of wind to carry the words to him clearly. “These people were our enemies all of a few months ago. You would teach them the power of shaping?” She caught his eye. “By coming to the kingdoms, they will learn to appreciate our shapers; they will come to know our skills. We can have Chenir come to the university as well. I know that Ferran would like the same. And if you really want it, we will have Elle or Vel come from Doma.”

“And Incendin?” Tan asked. “Will you welcome Incendin into the university to teach?”

His mother tensed. “You know what you ask. Much as you already know my answer.”

Tan nodded and glanced at Tolman who was attempting to make it seem like he didn’t listen, but Tan noted the attention that he gave to the wall. “I am trying to create something better here. These students, these
children
, have done nothing. Most of Par did nothing. It was the bonded shapers, those the Utu Tonah had forced and coerced into helping. And they are gone.”

She watched him for a moment and shook her head. “You have become a stubborn man, Tannen.”

Tan laughed. “I wonder where I got that from.”

“Yes. I wonder.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “I will do this. I cannot promise how Theondar will react, but perhaps I will not tell him right away.”

Tan smiled. “He should know.”

“Yes. He should know,” she agreed. “Now. When I am done with this, where will I find you?”

Tan pointed to one of the taller students, a boy by the name of Henrak. Asgar had given him a scare when Tan first decided to teach and work with the students of Par, and he had become much more obliging. “Henrak will show you to me.”

Zephra nodded and turned back to the class.

As Tan stepped from the room, he heard her lesson continue, and smiled. Maybe this would work. He could get the council more authority, and he would be able to find teachers for the students of Par. That left him with fewer tasks on his plate, and less to worry about.

“She speaks sharply to you, Maelen,” Tolman said as they walked through the tower. “Do all in the kingdoms speak to you in the same way?”

Tan laughed and shook his head. “Not all. Only my mother.”

Tolman gasped softly. “Mother. Then that would make her Zephra.”

He nodded.

“I thought… I thought that she did not survive the separation.”