Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9) (14 page)

Tan stopped and caught Tolman by the arm. “You were there?”

Tolman hesitated before nodding.

“You probably should not ever tell her that,” Tan said. “I would not want to be there when she learned.”

Tolman’s eyes widened. “Of course, Maelen. But if I may ask, how was it that she survived?”

“I healed her.”

As Tan said it, Tolman stumbled again and had to hurry to keep up.

T
an settled
into his seat near the fire in the library. Amia sat across from him, flipping through the pages of one of the books she’d pulled from the shelves, attempting to appear as if she really had interest in anything that she saw on the page. Tan simply stared at the flames, occasionally shaping them, but for the most part letting the fire flicker as it chose.

The draasin settled on his lap. She shifted, lifting her head before moving in a tight circle to find a comfortable spot, and then set her head down on his legs. Tan patted her on the top of the head, noting the softness of her spikes. They had softened in the time since she’d been born. What else would change with her? How much change could she handle before she became something other than a draasin?

She unfolded her wings—wings that were so small and stunted for her body—and flicked them at him. Not so much to attempt to fly, but more out of something like annoyance as she tried to smack him.

Tan chuckled and patted her again.

Amia looked up, folding the book down in her lap. “When did you intend to tell me that you’d summoned them?”

Tan sighed and rested his hands on the draasin. She pressed through his steepled hands, thrusting her snout so that she could see. “I should have.”

Amia nodded. “You think to unburden yourself.”

Tan nodded. “That, and more.”

Amia flicked her eyes to the draasin and frowned. She stared at the hatchling for a moment and then turned her attention back to Tan. “She is more… aware… than I would have expected.”

Tan glanced at the hatchling. She licked her lips and then started running her tongue over him as well, leaving a sticky residue that he’d discovered didn’t come off easily. Most of the time, he wiped it on his cloak, but he’d taken that off when coming into the library, so he wiped it on his pants and his shirt.

“She is,” Tan agreed. “And each day she grows even more so.”

“Was it like that with Honl?”

“Honl made a point of disappearing for a while,” Tan said. Really, he’d made a point of disappearing all the time, but Tan couldn’t blame him for that. Honl had needed to understand what he was meant to be, and that required that he learn what spirit had in store for him. How much longer would he remain away? And how much would he have changed by the time he eventually made it back? Tan had little doubt that his bonded wind elemental would eventually make his way back, but when? What would it take for him to decide to return?

“This one… I can sense something about her.”

“Spirit,” Tan said. “She connects to it. Or shapes it. I’m not sure which it is, only that I’m aware of when she does.”

Does it matter which, Maelen? Is the end result not the same?

I can shape, and I can connect to the elementals to access their strength. I think that is different, at least when it comes to the power of the Mother.

You reach the fire bond. That is no different than the draasin.

Are you saying that there is a bond for the other elements?
None of the elementals had ever implied that there was such a bond, but then, Tan had never been as tightly bound to the other elementals as he was to fire. Maybe that was the difference.

“I can almost hear her,” Amia said.

“I think,” Tan said, patting the draasin’s head, “that she would not let you if she did not intend for you to hear her.”

“You can’t really believe that she’s already so powerful as to
choose
who she connects to.”

As if to answer, the hatching pressed her head forward toward Amia and breathed out a streamer of smoke and the slightest hint of flame. Then she licked Tan’s hand.

He shook his head and wiped his hand on his clothes again.
You have to stop doing that.

You should thank me.

For trying to eat me?

You don’t taste nearly so good as you think that you do, Maelen.

Tan looked over to Amia and shrugged. “I think she understands exactly what she’s doing. Maybe not so much the why, but she’s certainly aware enough to choose.”

Amia studied the hatchling. Shaping built from her, but Tan sensed it differently, muted in some ways. When it eased, Amia only frowned. “I… I don’t sense anything like I did.”

Tan leaned forward, ignoring the quiet protests from the draasin as he did, and reached for Amia’s hand. “Was it like that for other shapers? Have you asked any others of the People?”

“Who could I ask? There hasn’t been anyone else with a bond like we share, Tan. What happened between us… I think it’s a reflection of your ability with spirit, but the bond that formed, that is nothing like any of the People have ever experienced.”

Tan wished that she had more answers than that. Losing the connection between them was bad enough, but he would like to know whether it was temporary or whether the pregnancy had forever altered something between them. And if it had, was there anything that they could do to restore it?

“When will she visit us?” Amia asked.

“Probably soon. She was working with the students, and I left her there. I don’t know how long she will stay.” Thinking of his mother teaching left conflicting emotions within him. She had only taught him after he had demonstrated that he would be able to shape each of the elements, and even then, she had not been a willing instructor. But at the same time, he wanted her to have the opportunity to work with the students. They could learn much from a shaper like her.

Amia nodded and turned her attention to the book on her lap.

There had been a time—not that long ago—when he would have known immediately what she was reading and why. Now he didn’t have that knowledge and had to rely on reading her body language. At least he had known her for long enough that he could do that, but it was not the same as knowing her mood and sharing in it.

He sighed and petted the draasin as he stared at the fire. There was so much that he needed to be doing, but he couldn’t get himself motivated to start. Other than checking on Asgar and the other two hatchlings, everything else required that he travel away from Par, and Tan didn’t want to do that while his mother was here, at least until he had the chance to speak with her. He could imagine all too well how Zephra would react if he did.

But sitting here, staring at the flames, helped him feel connected in some way. Tan couldn’t explain what it was, but over the last few weeks, he had felt a growing disconnect to each of the elementals, not only to Honl. Kota ranged throughout Par, searching for the hybrid elementals and studying them on his behalf. His connection to the nymid was different here. Muted, much like his connection to Amia. And then fire. With everything that had been happening, he had been working within the fire bond, but he had not taken the time to simply
be
in it.

There was a peace to staying within fire. And Tan needed that peace right now. He needed the centering. Were he honest with himself, what he really needed was a way to reach Asboel, if only the memory of Asboel. The one time that he had, Tan had been given something like understanding. Not enlightenment, but a sort of knowledge about what Fire really meant. And that had given him peace.

When the knock on the door came, it pulled him from his reverie. Fire seemed to bend toward him briefly, almost as if in a bow, and then crackled freely in the hearth once more.

Tan stood and answered the door. Maclin stood on the other side, barricading an agitated Zephra from entering.

“Maelen, this one demands to see you. I have tried to tell her that the Maelen does not take all visitors, but she was
most
adamant. And rude, if you ask me. For a visitor to your home, I would expect better behavior.”

Behind him, Zephra flushed. Tan didn’t give her the chance to say anything, fearing what she might do to Maclin. “I will see her.”

“Are you certain? Even with her wind, I think I could ensure that she doesn’t get past you.” He stood even taller, and if possible, more imposing. Tan had the vaguest sense of shaping, but didn’t think he detected anything other than what came from his mother.

The comment made him wonder again at what connection Maclin shared with the elements, and likely with the elementals. There was some, though Tan had not managed to do so much as determine exactly what Maclin possessed. Since his arrival, Maclin had been a willing servant, and Tan had learned that he was knowledgeable as well, at least when it came to old Par. But knowledge did not equate to shaping ability, and Tan was certain that he had no forced bonds on him. At least he had not, when Tan first returned to Par.

“I think my mother would give you a handful,” Tan said.

Maclin actually smiled. “Indeed. I hear the famous Zephra would truly be a threat to someone who didn’t expect her.” He stepped to the side, nothing more, and Zephra surged forward so that Tan had to catch her.

She looked over to him, eyes calculating, before she laughed as well. “Interesting servants that you have here, Tannen,” she said, shaking him off and standing on her own.

“Maclin is something more than a servant,” Tan said.

Maclin frowned, but didn’t say anything.

“Really? I would be interested in learning what more he might be other than a servant.”

“That is business of Par, Mother.” Tan winked at Maclin, who only nodded and closed the door as he backed away.

She stared at the closed door for a moment before turning on him. “This is what you have your mother do? First you summon me to this place with a demand that I teach, and then you treat me with discourtesy?”

“From the sounds of it,
you
were the one treating
me
with discourtesy, at least if I am to believe Maclin.” Which he most certainly was. His mother had a temper, and was known to have a temper. Even her time with Roine had not softened that one bit.

“Fine. Let’s say that I
might
have tried pushing my way into the estate after Henrak brought me here. He has no small bit of potential, by the way. I think that with the right training”—it was clear from the way that she said
right
that she meant training at the university—“he would be able to be quite strong with wind.”

“There are instructors here who can continue to work with him if you will not,” Tan assured her.

“Me? You think that I would stay and work with your students? Tannen, think about what you have already asked! Theondar does not know that I’m gone. When he discovers that I am, and the reason why, don’t you think he’ll at least make a visit here himself?”

Tan had considered that before planning the summons. “I hope that he does. There is much that Theondar could teach.”

His mother threw her hands up and shook her head. “If you really think that Theondar will teach in Par-shon, then you do not know him as well as you think you do.”

“I think Roine will teach in Par,” Tan said, emphasizing both differences. “He will remember who was responsible for the defeat of the Utu Tonah, and he will appreciate that the request came from me.”

His mother let out a long sigh. “You… you have changed much, Tannen.”

“I have had to.”

“I suppose that you have,” she said. She swept her eyes around the room, taking in the opulent library, the fire burning in the hearth, and even the hatchling draasin before her gaze stopped on Amia. “And how is my grandchild?” she asked. “After the ceremony, I expected you to at least tell me a little bit more, but you flew off on something that was much more important than sharing such news with your mother.”

“I rushed off because Roine hid the fact that you have the archivists working for the kingdoms again.”

“They work under the guidance of the First Mother,” she said, “and we know what they are capable of doing.”

“And do you know that Roine has assisted a delegation from Xsa in excavating in Vatten?” Tan should have returned to share that with Roine before now, but there had been so much else that had been going on that he simply had not taken the necessary time.

“Vatten?” she asked. “And Xsa? Why would Xsa have any interest in Vatten? They’re farther south than even Par-shon!”

“Par,” he corrected. “But the isles were not always their home. From what I discovered—and from the archivist that you claim is working
with
you—they are descended from ancient Vathansa. There was a temple buried within Vatten, in what had once been the heart of Vathansa. That was what they were looking for.”

Maybe his mother could take on the responsibility for understanding the temple. What did it matter that there was an ancient temple buried in part of the kingdoms? And what did it really matter if that temple had a strange resistance to the elements?

“No. They sought dormant elementals,” she said. “Like the draasin that you have discovered, I suspect, though we won’t know for certain until they find them.” She pulled her attention away from the draasin and to Tan. “Wait, you said that there was a temple? You know this with certainty?”

“I helped them dig it out,” he said.

She tucked a loose strand of gray hair behind her ear and rubbed the back of her neck. “You helped? I thought that you would not be able to…”

“To what? To look past the fact that the archivists nearly destroyed the kingdoms? That they nearly killed the woman that I would eventually marry? And that they would help to twist the lisincend even further away from fire?”

“Well, yes.”

“I’m not sure that I can,” he said. “But Amia can.”

It was the reverse for them with Incendin. Tan had been able to see the reason behind why Incendin fire shapers had embraced fire, and why they had attempted to become something more. They had wanted to help their people and were willing to do whatever it took in order to do it, even if that meant become something so deadly that the people of Incendin feared them. Without the lisincend, would Incendin have managed to withstand Par-shon all the years that they had? Would they have kept Par-shon from the shores for as long as they had?

“We should not have kept that from you, then.” She clasped her hands behind her back and looked over at Amia. “Will she talk to me about this?” she asked with a whisper sent on a shaping of air.