Shaper of Water: The Cloud Warrior Saga Read online

  Shaper of Water

  The Cloud Warrior Saga

  D.K. Holmberg

  ASH Publishing

  Copyright © 2017 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover art by Rebecca Frank

  All rights reserved.

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  Contents

  I. Drowned by Water

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  II. Deceived by Water

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  III. Salvaged by Water

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  I

  Drowned by Water

  1

  Elle Vaywand stood at the edge of the water, salty waves lapping at her ankles and sand cupped beneath her toes as she listened for the great water elemental udilm. She’d spoken to udilm only once, and she’d had to nearly die for it to happen. With each attempt, it became decreasingly likely that she would ever reach the water again, at least not without help. Now, given the fires she saw on the horizon, she felt a renewed sense of need.

  “Any answer?”

  Elle sighed and turned away from the sea to face Kodan. The once-massive man now looked withered, with great folds of skin forming wrinkles along his forehead and neck. A long mustache twirled across his face. Elle suspected he wore it to hide the old fishing scar that split his lip, as if something like that required hiding rather than pride in what he’d survived.

  Behind her, the sea dragged at her ankles, calling her with each seductive wave, as if demanding that she swim out into the dark depths where she’d nearly drowned. She hadn’t had the opportunity to ask Tan how he knew she wouldn’t, how he knew it would work. She hadn’t really had the opportunity to ask him about the terrifying creature of fire that brought her here, a creature that had been long gone from this world.

  “Udilm remains silent,” she told him. “I will continue to try…”

  Kodan sighed as he often did these days. His eyes turned toward the hills to the west. Lush greenery flowed, dotted with bright flowers as the hills rose away from the sea along the Doma coast. Even further in the distance, the great Trelesh Forest began, massive secondan trees rising high into the sky that served as the border between Doma and Incendin. Usually, the trees served as a comforting reminder of the separation between Incendin and Doma. Now all they did was remind her of the fires burning somewhere along the border.

  Black smoke drifted on the wind, for now drawn away from Doma and into Incendin, but the winds would switch. They always did. Then the bitter stink of burning secondan trees would reach them. Smoke would rise over their lands. And, perhaps worst of all, they would come.

  “The Sea Father knows we need their protection,” Kodan said. “We have been safe for now, but how long until the lisincend come?”

  He spoke to himself, and Elle knew not to answer. As one of the council elders, he didn’t really expect an answer from her, regardless of her claim of the ability to speak to udilm, especially since Kodan was the only one in the village who believed her. The rest thought she’d washed ashore from a passing ship, as if Elle were that clumsy.

  “We have shapers,” Elle said instead.

  Kodan grunted and twisted the ends of his mustache as he stared to the west. The sea breeze tousled his thinning hair and sent it into his face. It was a measure of his focus that he ignored it. “Shapers, and skilled enough, but how long until they are taken from us? Too often, Incendin seems to know when shapers emerge.” His eyes closed. “Were only Lilya still here.”

  Elle had learned how the lisincend had taken his daughter nearly two years ago. A strong water shaper, Kodan claimed that Lilya had fought as long as she could, but even water shapers have limits.

  “We could ask the kingdoms—”

  Koban opened his blue eyes and looked at her sharply. “Always the kingdoms with you. The kingdoms abandoned us long ago. I don’t know why the elders of Ushil sent you there to learn.”

  “They didn’t have a choice. When our village was destroyed, there was no other place I could go to learn.”

  Koban dropped his hands and shook his head. “You do not need to tell me how it is, Elle Vaywand. You might have studied in their city, but you are not one of them. Perhaps in time, you will remember that for yourself. That the Sea Father chose you to speak to udilm speaks to it.” He took a deep breath. “And now the lisincend grow stronger. Each attack more violent. Those farthest from Falsheim struggle the most, but even this close to the capital, we must hope for help.” Koban took another breath and his features softened. He turned and started out of the sand and back toward the village. “Keep trying to reach them. We will need the grace of udilm if we are to survive.”

  Koban left her standing on the beach, staring after him.

  She turned back to the waves. Much of the day remained and the council gave her no other responsibilities. Others were tasked with fishing or fetching fresh water or even preparing the spears and hooks, were Incendin to attack. Not Elle. She was given nothing more to do than stand in the sand and reach for udilm. Only, the great elemental seemed unconcerned that Incendin might attack.

  Elle took a step toward the water, letting it splash and swirl around her legs. Another step, and it lapped at the bottom of her white cotton dress. With each step, she called out to udilm, but with each step, she heard no response.

  She let out another frustrated sigh.

  A harsh cry split the day, piercing her ears. Elle looked toward the sound and immediately dropped into the water. A black shadow passed high overhead, larger than any bird she’d ever seen. Had she not travelled with Tannen Minden by draasin, she might have thought it one of the ancient creatures now returned, but it looked nothing like the fire elemental.

  She couldn’t make out what she saw and stayed low until it passed, trailing along the shore as it flew to the west. As it began to disappear, a spout of flame roared from its mouth and then it dipped below the cresting hills.

  Elle shivered. Not draasin. But what?

  Had she not known better, she would have thought it one of the lisincend, but when had the lisincend ever grown wings? And even if it were lisincend, what would it be doing to the west? Other than the rolling hills, there was nothing to the west but open land. Most of Doma remained concentrated along the shores. The great city of Falsheim rose to the east. Had the creature come from there? Surely the shapers of Falsheim would have noticed if it had.

  She turned, looking back toward the village
. Koban had disappeared, back into his home or off visiting with the council to report on her failings. Either way, he’d left her alone. Had she not washed up on the shores of Ophan a month ago after speaking with udilm, she would have gone to Falsheim. As it was, the council had demanded she stay until they had a vow of protection from udilm the water elemental. Unfortunately for Elle, udilm no longer seemed to offer such vows.

  She started up the beach, moving slowly as she did, letting her feet trail through the sand, watching as the waves washed each step away. She lost track of the steps she took and realized as she moved from sand to the rocky shores, that she left the village far behind. Let them think she sought a new way to reach udilm. At least then she might have a measure of freedom.

  Elle climbed the rocks, staring distantly at the rising swell of the sea when she slipped.

  She caught herself, but as she did, her attention went west, seeking the spot she had last seen the creature. A soft orange glow worked across the horizon. Elle shivered, knowing she should turn back but unable to do so. Curiosity drove her on, the same curiosity that had sent her to the archives day after day in spite of the archivists refusing to allow her access.

  The rocks forced her to climb higher and higher until she stood at the top of the peak. Far below her now, the ocean slapped along the rock. Swirls of white-capped water slipped between the rocks and sprayed out in a green-tinted froth. Widows Ledge, the fishers called it, the place where the small fishing vessels refused to row. None ever made it all the way back out to sea.

  Here Elle stood, staring first out at the ocean, watching gulls swooping down from overhead, plummeting toward the water before soaring back into the sky, often with fish flopping from their long beaks. She looked toward the west, toward the distant smoke and the Trelash Forest, and when she did, she nearly fell from the rocks into Widows Ledge.

  Flames leapt from the grass, racing down the hill.

  The flames pressed upon her, surging through her with an aching sense, much like the only other time she’d seen the lisincend. Elle hadn’t the same sense when the draasin attacked Ethea. She didn’t know what it meant, but now she knew with certainty: the creature she’d seen had been one of the lisincend.

  2

  Elle scrambled back down from the rocks, hurrying toward the sand. She scuffed her hands and legs, leaving streaks of blood behind her as she went, a trail the rock crabs already crawling out to clean. Another time, she might pause and watch as they worked, but she needed to hurry. If it was shaped fire, it could reach the village in minutes.

  She jumped the last few feet into the sand, letting it squish between her toes. Water splashed higher now than it had when she first started up the rocks, the tide rolling steadily toward the village. Soon the sand would be completely covered, but only briefly, before washing back out toward the sea.

  Elle ran, her bare feet slapping against the water.

  “Koban!” she shouted as she neared the village.

  Most of the homes were empty. Most were gone, off weaving reeds near the Faln Stream, or out fishing or even working with spears. A few women sat near the small village square, working their wash over boards, scrubbing with a practiced rhythm, ignorant of what chased toward the village.

  One woman—Vina, Elle thought her name was—looked up as she sprinted into the village. She had silvery hair pulled up behind her ears. Like Koban, thick wrinkles covered her sun-darkened skin. Water splattered the thin robe she wore. “Did you reach them?” she asked, setting down her wash.

  Elle stopped long enough to look at the woman and frown. “Reach who?”

  Vina shook the wet clothes at her, splattering Elle as she did. “Who? Maybe you’re as foolish as they say. Koban believes, though Koban keeps telling us we need to go on and feed you. Most think we should send you back to the sea.”

  “Where is he?” Elle demanded.

  The woman motioned toward the hill. “Out with the council. They’re meeting, probably to discuss what to do with you.”

  “They could send me to Falsheim like I asked,” Elle snapped. “Or back to Ethea and the university.” That was what she really wanted. At least there, she’d been welcomed.

  Would Tan ever return for her? Had he cared what happened to her since leaving her with the water elemental?

  The woman snorted. “Falsheim, says you. Reaching Falsheim takes deep water boats. They don’t come through here often, but you know that now, don’t you? Probably how you ended up here, fall off one of those Falsheim cruisers. And none traveling through here ever reach the kingdoms.”

  Elle ignored her. She’d heard worse in her time in Ophan. Most thought her some abandoned fisherwife. “Look to the west,” she told Vina. “Lisincend.”

  Vina glanced at one of the other women—a younger woman with dark hair in a tight braid who’d been friendly to Elle—and wrinkled her nose. “Now she goes on about the lisincend. Maybe now Koban will believe. Send you back out to the sea. Maybe you can have another sea dream and see your precious elemental. Wouldn’t be the first time the sea got a second chance at a wife. Never heard of it giving her back twice.”

  Elle wondered if the udilm would save her again. She wasn’t a sea bride, not like Vina considered, but the sea had given her back, though not because she was unworthy. How could they not believe she spoke to the udilm? How else would she have ended up where she was?

  “If you could tell me where to find Koban,” Elle said again. “He really needs to see—”

  Vina returned to her wash and made a point of ignoring Elle, who looked to the other women, but they took Vina’s lead. She gathered her dress in her hands and ran up the hill and out of the village.

  Small dried bushes covered the hillside, now well trampled by horse and feet over the years, leading the twisted branches to stretch away from the path toward the village. Elle hurried up the hill, afraid of what she would see but knowing she had not been mistaken. That had been one of the lisincend. But why? And how had it come to look like that?

  As she crested the hill, she saw the flames in the distance. They spread across the hillside, slowly moving away from the village. For now. When the wind shifted, the flames would blow back in, leading toward them, and to Falsheim, too. She’d seen it happen before. It was what had happened to her home when Incendin had come, before she’d escaped and made her way to the university.

  There was nothing she could do. Nothing that would stop Incendin. She was not a shaper—not yet—though in time she might learn to reach to water. For now, she was untrained. That was the reason she needed to return to Ethea.

  Unless she could reach udilm. The council and the rest of the village might not believe she spoke to the great water elemental, but Elle knew she had. It had not been all a sea dream, as they claimed.

  She turned and half-stumbled and half-ran down the hill. The women glanced at her as she went past, but she didn’t pay them any mind. What would it matter if she failed? They might believe her that Incendin had attacked, but there still wasn’t anything they could do. Elle had a chance to save the village—if only she could reach the udilm.

  The water welcomed her back, swirling around her feet and ankles, drawing her forward with each crashing wave. Elle plunged forward, determined to make a connection.

  As she did, the wind shifted.

  It happened rapidly, as it often did. First it blew in from over the sea, and then it changed, drawn down from the forest running along the border with Incendin. The temperature changed with it, shifting from a comforting cool salt breeze to the dry Incendin air. Smoke gusted sharp and acrid, making Elle cough. Back near the village, someone started to shout as they recognized the fire roaring toward them. At least now they knew she hadn’t made up the lisincend.

  There were cries to fetch water, but what would buckets do against a shaped line of flames like that? Nothing more than delay the inevitable. Without shapers, there wasn’t anything that anyone could do. Even if Elle could reach the udilm, she wasn’t s
ure it would matter.

  A wave crested higher than the others and pulled her out with it. Elle fought, struggling against the weight of the ocean, straining to keep her footing as the water yanked at her feet. The current was strong here, and though she was a skilled swimmer—all who lived in Doma learned to swim well—she was pulled out toward the sea. Maybe Vina would have her wish and she would become a sea bride.

  Another wave crashed, this time pulling her down.

  Elle kicked and struggled, surging toward the surface, but the wave had her tangled and she swam the wrong way. Her hand touched sand and she knew her mistake. The current drew at her, pulling her out and away from the shore.

  Panic set in and she flailed, but the water was too strong. As always, the sea would win.

  Elle let out a breath, not daring to take another. She sank to the bottom of the sea, sand scraping across her backside. Clarity raced through her mind and she knew what she needed to do. With another powerful push, she tried reaching the surface, but she was too far out, the water too deep.

  Blackness swirled around her. Colors swished past. A hysterical panic went through her. She would die before she ever reach udilm again.

  You could have saved me.

  The thought went out as she had attempted time and again since washing ashore near the village. Now, dying, she could do nothing else.