Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9) (20 page)

Great Mother.

This
was the binding.

“What is it?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I had not known. But you recognize the rune?”

He hadn’t, but had seen enough to tell him that this was what he’d sought.

“
Jhabing,
” she said, speaking a word from ancient
Ishthin
.

Tan recognized the word, though doubted it had been spoken aloud in a long time. The language was still written, but only by scholars. “Binding,” he said. “This is it.”

“Yes, but
what
is it?”

Tan shook his head. It was clear that it
was
a binding, but for what? A rune this size, and on this scale, tied to a Mark of the Mother? That retained enormous power and would have required immense skill to create. And at the heart of the rune, at its center, was the tower, tying together each of the elements.

It was no coincidence that the Utu Tonah had claimed the tower, but he had not stayed there. He had gone to the estate, which, now that Tan studied the rune, was part of the pattern, or at least
covered
part of the rune.

And knowing what he did of the Utu Tonah, there had to have been a reason.

Now Tan only had to find out what it might be.

T
he estate had
no additional floors, at least none that he could find.

When he realized that the estate was part of the rune, he knew that the Utu Tonah must have hidden something, especially if he knew of the rune. Given everything else, how could he
not
have discovered it?

Elanne followed him into the estate, likely with many of the same questions that he had before she brought him to the aerial view. “What do you think to find, Maelen?”

Tan shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe nothing.”

“But you saw something here that you think is part of this… this binding?”

Tan stopped at the end of a hall. From here, he would find the rooms he claimed, along with the hidden workspace that he knew the Utu Tonah had used. Could there be something else there?

“There has to be. The Utu Tonah chose the estate to stay in, not the tower.”

Her soft gasp told him that she understood. “This is an old home, Maelen, one of the oldest and largest in Par. Most thought he simply wanted to be near the tower.”

Tan nodded. “He probably did, but what if there is more to it?”

He considered searching the other end of the home, but instead stopped and focused on earth. He could use earth sensing to help him know if there might be something more hidden here. Considering that he had chosen to remain here, to sleep in the estate, he should have done this at the very beginning.

As soon as he reached through earth, he realized that there was more. An emptiness, a void of sorts, buried beneath the estate.

But not buried. Using his connection to earth, he recognized that it came off the library, not the workspace, as he had assumed.

Tan hurried down the hall and into the library. Amia looked up as he entered, frowning. “What is it?” she asked, looking from him to Elanne.

“The Maelen thinks that he has discovered something,” Elanne answered.

“I think the answer has been here all along,” Tan said.

He started feeling his way along the walls, sensing for a hidden access, but there was nothing. Tan closed his eyes, reaching through his connection to earth as he sensed for the hidden area that he detected. Within the room, he could tell that the other level was near, but something made it difficult for him to reach, for him to access.

Kota,
he sent, surging through his connection to the earth elemental. He’d been so focused on everything else that he had left her to prowl and hunt.
I have need of your connection to earth.

There came a soft rumble in response.
I will come, Maelen.

While waiting for her, he continued to make his way around the room, questing.
Do you sense anything?
he asked the draasin.

She lay near the hearth, resting with her head partly on the stones and partly on the wood planks. Where she rested, the planks had blackened, but a clear crust from her licking coated them as well.
This is earth. I am not of earth.

Amia came to him and slipped her hand into his. “What is this about?”

“It’s about the binding,” Tan said, nodding to the draasin. “As she suggested. Not a place of binding, but a rune binding.” He went to the hearth and pulled one of the logs from the fire, not minding the flames still racing along it. Elanne gasped as he did. “Fire doesn’t burn me,” he said absently. Or it hadn’t, until the darkness that he’d detected had attacked Asgar. “This is what I saw.”

He used the charred end of the log to make the pattern on the stone near the hearth, drawing it as best as he could remember. The image seemed etched into his mind. He made a point of carefully noting the location of the Records as he went, and drew the spiraling arms as they came off the tower.

“
Jhabing
,” Amia said.

Tan nodded. “A rune of binding.”

“I… I have seen this before,” Amia said, tapping the pattern. “This is a powerful rune, Tan.”

“Where have you seen it?” The draasin had said there were other places of binding. Could it be that Amia had seen it during her travels with the Aeta?

She hurried from the room, leaving Tan staring at Elanne with a mixture of confusion and worry. Amia wasn’t gone long and when she returned, she had a silver band that Tan had seen before. This was wide, and thick, and named her as the First Mother. Amia preferred to wear the narrower gold band that Roine had given her as a token of thanks for serving the kingdoms.

“I didn’t know that you kept that with you,” he said.

“If I don’t, and another thinks to claim it and wear it…” She didn’t need to finish. Amia was the First Mother, a title and position within the Aeta that she had only reluctantly agreed to take, but when she handed over the title to another, she wanted to be certain they were the right person for the position. She would not simply hand over the title without that knowledge.

She stood next to Tan and held out the silver band, turning it over.

Tan had never studied the necklace before. It had either been on her neck, or not. The surface that was visible was simple. Plain silver with no signs of any markings on it. The other side, when she turned it over, had a rune much like what he had drawn.

It was slightly different, with the pattern at the center more oblong than the circular tower, and the arms spreading away in a slightly wider spread, but otherwise, it was the same pattern.
Jhabing
.

“This is the mark of the First Mother,” Amia explained. Elanne had nudged closer and leaned over, peering at the necklace. Her eyes widened. “A reminder for the First Mother to bind the people together. The Aeta, we… we are wanderers. That is the role of the First Mother, the responsibility that had been granted to me. And this is a reminder of that. I am to be
Jhabing
.”

Was it simply a coincidence that the Aeta First Mother used the same pattern for binding? Possibly. “Are there other runes for binding?” he asked.

“Maelen, there are many patterns that mean much the same,” Elanne answered. “That is the power of the ancient runes. They are tied to the ancient language in that way, which also has many words that mean much the same.”

That much, Tan had seen himself.
Ishthin
was a complex language, one that he probably would not have managed to learn if not for the gift of understanding that Amia had granted him.

“Then why
this
pattern?” he asked.

The same pattern that was used to create a place of binding. The same pattern that Marin—another spirit shaper—intended to destroy. Could that be a coincidence?

A rumbling told him that Kota neared.

The door slammed open and the hound stalked in. She had shifted her form again, shrinking so that she could more easily fit through the halls of the estate, looking no different than any other dog that would be seen in Par. In that way, she reminded Tan more of the hound she once had been, before he had restored them to the fire bond, before he had known that the hounds were elementals.

I prefer the other form,
he said.

She shook and quickly grew larger.
As do I. What did you need from me, Maelen?

Before searching for the other level, he wondered if Kota might know anything about the binding.
Have you seen this pattern before?
He pointed to the drawing that he’d made on the hearth.

The draasin nipped at Kota, who absently swiped a paw at the draasin. The little draasin somehow managed to jump quickly enough that Kota wasn’t able to connect.

This mark is within this city,
Kota said.
You have seen it.

I have?

Where the Mark of the Mother is found.

Tan didn’t remember seeing the binding rune there, but didn’t doubt that Kota was right.

What is it?

That’s what I need your help to determine. There is a place beneath this building but I cannot reach it. Something blocks me.

Kota pawed at the ground, and a low rumble echoed up as she did. Tan listened, searching for what she did, trying to understand what obstructed his ability to sense whatever was hidden beneath the estate, but could not.

The hound growled and then pawed at the ground again.

This time, there was a deeper rumble, one that shook the estate.

Elanne gasped and shaped the wind. Amia grabbed his arm. The draasin licked at the floor.

When the rumbling stopped, the obstruction was gone.

What did you do?

There was a… bond of sorts. It prevented access to earth in a way. Not completely, but enough that it
pushed
against me. I have never seen anything like it before.

Pushed?

Kota pawed at the ground more softly this time, and it shook slightly in response.
Pushed. There was emptiness, but not emptiness. As I said, I have not seen anything like it before.

An emptiness. That reminded Tan of the buried temple in a way, but also of the barrier that used to exist between the kingdoms and Incendin.
Even with the barrier?

The barrier that your people created was different in some ways. I do not know how else to explain.

Can you help me find what might be below here?

It is already done, Maelen.

Kota nudged him toward the hearth, and he realized that the stone around it had sunk. The hatchling—he would have to think of some other way to consider her, now that she was both no longer a hatchling and may not even be draasin—curled along the wooden planks at the edge of the sunken hearth.

“This has been here?” Amia asked.

“Apparently the whole time,” Tan said. He couldn’t believe that it had been here, or that he hadn’t sensed it before, but then, he had never taken the time to focus on what might be beneath the estate.

They stopped at the edge, and he looked down. The flames in the hearth remained, still crackling and casting a dancing light on what appeared to be steps leading down and away.

“What are you going to do?” Elanne asked.

“I need to understand why he chose here,” Tan said. “The answer has to be beneath us.”

Why a place of binding, and why had the Utu Tonah chosen Par to invade when others would have been easier?

The more that he learned, the more that he knew that he hadn’t understood enough about the Utu Tonah. Not nearly enough.

“Amia…”

She smiled and patted his arm. “I will stay above ground, I think.”

“I will work with the Maelen, if you will permit it,” Elanne said to Amia.

Amia smiled. “I would appreciate that.” Kota growled, and Amia petted her. “Of course you will go with him.”

The Daughter is wise, Maelen.

Tan chuckled.
She is wise.
He looked at the draasin and wondered if he should bring her with him or whether she should remain above ground.

The draasin didn’t give him a chance to answer. She hopped to his shoulder in a single leap and curled around his neck.

I guess that means that you will be coming with me.

I think that I must, Maelen.

Did you know this was here?
he asked, looking at the wood she had licked, and how her tongue had left something like a charred surface behind. Thankfully, she didn’t do the same with his cheek.

There was something here. I was not certain what it was.

And licking? Does that help you understand?

There are different ways of experiencing the world, Maelen. Not all of them are yours.

He patted her on the head, hugged Amia, and then jumped down next to the hearth. Heat from the flames pressed on him and he pushed them back, not wanting to burn Elanne. The others with him all shared his immunity to fire.

Once there, he stared at the steps that led down beneath the estate. They were widely cut, and smooth, and appeared to have been well maintained. Either they were shaped into place… or they had elemental infusion within them. Tan started down, with Elanne at his side.

Earth is strong here,
Kota agreed.
That is why I should not have been excluded.

He sensed how much that troubled her.
Has earth changed for you recently?

Earth is no different.
She hesitated again, and Tan wondered why.

And the elementals?
he asked.

Kota looked up to him, pawing the ground as she did.
Most are unchanged.

Most?

I should have shared with you, Maelen. There has been a change. The elder draasin sensed it as well, but we have not managed to determine what it is.

Now he understood why they hunted together. Cianna had been upset that she had been excluded, but there had been a reason for it.
What of water?

I am not connected to water, Maelen.

Or wind, but Sashari was. And Tan could now reach the wind bond. Had
he
noticed anything? Had Elanne?

What did you find?

Nothing. The elder draasin thinks that it is because the elementals of this place were forced to bond. They are trying to establish themselves again.

But you aren’t as certain.

I do not know, Maelen. And with earth… refusing me. Now I do not know.

As they reached the bottom of the stair, a worried chill worked up his back. What else might he be missing?