The Elements Bond (Elemental Academy Book 7) Read online

  The Elements Bond

  Elemental Academy Book 7

  D.K. Holmberg

  Copyright © 2019 by D.K. Holmberg

  All rights reserved.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  Tolan Ethar hurried through the halls, chasing after his beloved, Ferrah Changen. She wasn’t far in front of him, but far enough he had a difficult time keeping up. He could shape his way through the halls to keep pace with her, but it would be unusual, especially as they were both master shapers now and he was expected to display some semblance of calm.

  It was difficult to do that these days. With everything taking place, all the activity out on the waste, he felt as if he needed to be in more places than he could be all at one time.

  “Will you slow down?” Tolan snapped.

  There were no students around. He was thankful for that. It was still unusual to be thinking about them as students, rather than others of his age.

  “He asked us to meet with him. We can’t keep him waiting.”

  “We can keep them waiting.”

  Ferrah paused, shooting him a look. She hadn’t changed much since she’d been promoted to master shaper, but there was more confidence to her step than there’d been before. She was dressed differently as well, now wearing a cloak over her usual clothes, mostly because they’d been traveling outside the Academy frequently these days.

  “He’s not going to like it if we leave him waiting too long.”

  “We’re master shapers now.”

  “And he’s still the Grand Master.”

  Ferrah spun, continuing down the hallway, leaving Tolan to hurry after her. He chased along behind her, and when they stopped at the Grand Master’s room, she stared at the door almost as if she hesitated to even knock.

  “He probably knows we’re here,” Tolan said.

  “How could he know that?”

  “He is a spirit shaper.”

  It was the same way Tolan was aware of the Grand Master on the other side. His control over spirit shaping was increasing, but it still wasn’t where it needed to be. In time, he hoped he’d be able to shape spirit as well as the Grand Master, and perhaps as well as his mother. To be successful in what they needed to do, he would require that capacity.

  The door opened and the Grand Master stood framed within it. His wire-framed glasses hung low on his nose, and he pushed them up. He was dressed casually in a white button-up shirt and long pants. Lines around the corners of his eyes suggested he’d not slept much in quite some time.

  “Both of you? I suppose that is fitting.”

  “If you didn’t want both of us, I can leave,” Tolan said.

  The Grand Master shook his head. “It’s not necessary, Master Ethar. I summoned Master Changen only because she happened to come first. Both of you can follow me.”

  The Grand Master stepped out of his room, closing the door behind him. Tolan had a moment to glance inside, questions lingering within him.

  As they followed the Grand Master down the hall, heading toward the wide stair leading into the upper sections of the Academy, he stayed close to the Grand Master.

  “Has there been any sign of Irina?”

  The Grand Master stiffened for a moment. “None.”

  “I don’t think she’s gone.” Tolan had a hard time even uttering the word dead. He didn’t think his grandmother was dead either, but when it came to what his mother had been willing to do, he couldn’t be certain. For all he knew, his mother had killed her own mother. She’d needed to replace her in order to use Tolan the way she had, so killing her might have been a part of that. Everything she did had a plan and a purpose.

  “I don’t know if she’s gone or not, but she’s not been seen in weeks. For that matter, we don’t know when exactly your mother replaced her.”

  “It was shortly after the attack outside the hall of portraits,” Tolan said. They started up the stairs, moving quickly. Despite his age, the Grand Master was nimble, and he hurried along the stairs until he reached the upper level. He paused at one of the landings, his gaze sweeping along it before he continued up into another section Tolan hadn’t been to before. “We know we had her captured for little while, but after Ferrah and I were tested, she escaped and—”

  “I am familiar with the timing of circumstances, Master Ethar. It’s just that after that, we aren’t entirely certain when she displaced Irina.”

  Tolan had given it some thought. He’d been traveling, looking for his grandmother, using spirit to search. He’d thought it would allow him to find her, but he wasn’t as connected to her as to others. Spirit had limitations. More than that, they had other things he needed to be doing. With what had taken place out on the waste, and for them to try to understand what role they needed to have there, Tolan was going to be required.

  As much as he wanted to find Irina—and as she was part of his remaining limited family, he definitely did—he wasn’t sure how much time he could devote to it. Others searched, and he knew eventually they’d find her. They had to.

  “I’m sorry I haven’t been here,” he said. “I’ve been leading some of the work out on the waste—”

  The Grand Master turned to him, his mouth pressed into a tight line. “I’m also well aware of your role there, Master Ethar.”

  Tolan wasn’t sure if it was irritation in the Grand Master’s tone or if there was another emotion. He thought he was doing what he needed to be doing. The Grand Master had to accept that now they were able to explore the waste safely, using the orb bondars to allow others to summon shaped energy out on the waste, they needed some understanding of it.

  It was more than just exploring the waste and trying to understand it. It was a matter of repairing its bondars. Tolan had done what he could to help, and his father and the others from the village had continued to work, but so far, the Guardians and the bondars sealing them to that land were incomplete.

  “You understand the restoration of the waste is critical?” Tolan said.

  “Minden has shared with me all I need to know,” the Grand Master said.

  “You can detect it on your own,” Tolan said.

  “I can detect it, but unlike you and Master Minden, I’m not able to shape out there without the use of one of the bondars.”

  That was what troubled the Grand Master. It wasn’t so much that they were visiting the waste, it was more about his own inability to shape. He was angry about it.

  Tolan supposed he understood. The Grand Master was proud
, and he viewed himself as a powerful shaper. Not being able to shape on the waste meant he was unlike others who could. Tolan was able to. Master Minden. Master Jensen. Master Stole. Even a few of the other master librarians had demonstrated some ability out there.

  It was all tied to being able to shape with power he could draw internally. The Grand Master had a connection to the element bonds, and though he was able to shape each of the elements including spirit, he didn’t have a connection to the elements the same way Tolan did. It wasn’t just his connection to the elements and the element bonds; it was a connection to the elementals themselves. That was how he found out what needed to be done. That connection was what helped Tolan know the Guardians needed to have their bondars reformed.

  “Where are you guiding us?” Tolan asked.

  “Not much farther,” the Grand Master said. He took a deep breath, turning away. There was still something troubled in his expression, but Tolan wasn’t about to push and irritate the Grand Master any more than he already had. They headed up another set of stairs. They were well beyond the usual student sections within the Academy, heading into a part where Tolan had never spent any time.

  Then they stopped. They occupied a narrow hall lined with doors. The Grand Master guided them forward once more, only to stop at one of the doors near the end of the hall. He pushed on it with a shaping of earth, and it swung open.

  “Master Changen, this will be your new room.”

  It was enormous. Tolan hadn’t given much thought to changing quarters. After their testing, they had been so preoccupied with trying to go after his mother and learning about what she was after, he had barely spent any time at the Academy. Even after she had escaped and he had learned what he needed about the waste and the Guardians, he hadn’t been at the Academy very much.

  The room had two others leading off it. Ferrah hurried in, throwing open the doors, looking inside. “All this is mine?”

  “You are a master shaper now. You’re allotted one of the master suites.” He turned to Tolan. “As are you.” He stepped across the hall and opened the door there. It was similar to Ferrah’s room.

  Ever since coming to the Academy, Tolan had shared a room with Ferrah. When they were first-level students, they had all shared the same few rooms. As they progressed, they had stayed together, and now they were just across the hall from each other.

  Ferrah stepped out into the hall, looking over at him. “What is it?”

  Tolan took a deep breath, shaking his head. Ferrah didn’t need to know he was a little bit troubled by all of this. How could he not be? Settling into the Academy meant they were deciding to stay. Not he wasn’t going to stay within the Academy, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to settle in and get comfortable here. He needed to keep pushing.

  His mother wasn’t going to settle. More than anything else, Tolan understood that, and he needed to keep going so he could figure out just what his mother intended to do.

  “Will these be adequate for you?” the Grand Master asked.

  “These will be wonderful,” Ferrah said.

  “You are a little bit higher than some of the other master shapers, but over time, and as you serve the Academy, you are given the opportunity to move your rooms.” He glanced over at Tolan, shooting him a pointed look. “Of course, if you decide to serve the librarians, you will be quartered somewhere else.”

  Tolan nodded. Master Minden had expressed a desire to have him join them, but so far, he had resisted despite his temptation to join her. He found the library a peaceful and soothing place, but what he might be able to do within it was much less than what he might do if allowed to explore. He didn’t even want to remain at the Academy and teach. Partly, that was because Tolan didn’t know exactly what he would be able to offer anyone. He might be able to show others how to connect to elements, and the element bonds, but certainly not as well as someone like Ferrah. Even some of the lower-level students would have a better chance of being successful teachers. His lessons would have to be focused on the elementals and how they were connected. He had a sense from the Grand Master, even now, that it wasn’t anything the Grand Master wanted him to be teaching.

  “Does this mean you intend for us to stay?”

  “You have always been welcome at the Academy, Master Ethar. It is my hope you will choose to stay with us. There is a considerable amount you can offer to students.” It was almost as if the Grand Master knew his thoughts.

  “I could teach them about elementals.”

  The Grand Master offered a hint of a smile. “In time. I think we all will need lessons on the elementals.”

  “Do you intend to reveal the truth?”

  He still hadn’t had that conversation with the Grand Master and didn’t know whether others would be allowed to know the truth about the elementals. As far as he knew, the Grand Master was content to keep the elementals within the free elemental lands, wanting to keep them separated.

  “The truth is complicated, Master Ethar. The truth is often complicated. In this case, as much as I want to reveal to others what needs to happen, and the truth of what we have experienced, I’m not entirely certain what pace we will need in order for us to do so. It might take time, and though I am sure you will tell me we don’t necessarily have the time, certain things do require patience.”

  Tolan could only nod. He did feel as if they needed to act more quickly, and knowing his mother and whatever she was planning was not over and they had only slowed her, he didn’t feel as if they could linger too long. Worse, he had no idea who she was working with and what timeline they were working to. As far as they knew, his mother was going to attack again soon. With her recent aggression, she had indicated her timeline was escalating.

  “You’re a part of the Academy, Master Ethar. I hope you remember that.”

  The Grand Master turned, leaving them.

  Ferrah looked at her room before turning back to Tolan, a grin on her face. “Patience,” she said.

  “I don’t know how I can have patience when I know what’s happening.”

  “It’s not as if he told you to stay here.”

  “That is something of what he said.”

  “Not exactly,” she said.

  Tolan turned and looked at his room. This wasn’t an argument he wanted with Ferrah. She was content to stay within the Academy. Then again, like so many others, she was content to believe they could remain within the Academy and the waste would serve as a barricade.

  Many struggled with the idea the waste had been something helpful. It protected them, though Tolan wasn’t entirely sure what it protected them from. It was something he had been looking for, but in his time searching, he’d not found what was beyond it.

  “The rooms are quite nice,” she said.

  “They are. I don’t know if I want to be so close to you, though.”

  Ferrah glanced at him. “Already thinking about how to escape, are you?”

  “You know that’s not true.”

  “I don’t. Not really. You’ve always gone off on your own when it comes to things within the Academy. At first, it was because you thought yourself different. Over time, it’s because you have decided you are the only one who can do these things. With what we’ve seen, and with what your mother has proven, we need to work together. We all do. For us to be able to protect the Academy, and to discover just what she intends, we will need to work together.”

  If nothing else, his mother served as a reminder of the dangers of someone of power. She had feigned attacking as the Draasin Lord for so long she had essentially become the Draasin Lord they had always feared. Now, the Draasin Lord—the real Draasin Lord that was a draasin—didn’t make his presence known within Terndahl. But the way his mother had attacked had unified the people of Terndahl. Over the last few decades, the shapers had been fragmented, believing the Draasin Lord was no longer the same threat. If nothing else, by pretending to be him, she had changed that.

  “It’s still early today. What you want
to do?” Ferrah asked.

  “I need to do the same thing I’ve been doing every day.”

  “You could take a day away from it.”

  “I could, but I don’t know that I should.”

  She held his gaze before nodding.

  They headed down the stairs. It would be easier if they were on a lower level; they wouldn’t have quite as many stairs to get to their rooms. They were fantastic rooms, though. Nothing like the student quarters they had been given when they had first arrived. Even those were nice, though shared. Now he was a master shaper, he had been allotted far more than before. Each section of the master quarters was well appointed, offering him two rooms—one for sleep and another for study—and both far better appointed than he thought he deserved.

  When he reached the main level of the Academy, Tolan started toward the doors outside. A voice caught his attention.

  Tolan turned. Draln approached, looking from Tolan to Ferrah.

  “There you are,” he said.

  He almost managed to keep the derision out of his voice. It was interesting. For the first time since Tolan had been at the Academy, there was a clear division between himself and Draln. It allowed Tolan to be in a position of authority over the man, which chewed at Draln. Tolan could practically feel it seething off him.

  “Can we help you, Shaper Sar?” Tolan said.

  Draln glared at him. “I wanted to present myself to you. Both of you, really.”

  Ferrah shot Tolan a glance. He was as uncertain as she was. What was Draln getting at? “Present yourself?”

  “That is how it goes, isn’t it?” Draln straightened back, smiling at them. “I’ve been trying to understand what I need to do. I am certainly as skilled a shaper as either of you, so now I want to present myself.” He looked from one to the other, and with a sinking feeling, Tolan knew exactly what Draln was doing.