Serpent of Fire Read online

  “I thought you would come and find me,” Amia said. She didn’t need to finish. Like Roine, she was insulted, if only slightly, by the fact that he’d gone to the draasin first.

  Tan smiled at her. “I needed…” He trailed off and shook his head. “I don’t know what I needed. Maybe to understand what happened with the draasin. Why Asboel continues to hide what happened.”

  “What happened today? I felt your fear, but before that… there was something else. Regret?” She took his hand and pulled him to sit next to her in front of her wagon. The soft breeze played at the ends of her hair, and sunlight made it practically glow.

  Tan sighed softly. “Probably all of that?” he said. “I went back to Nor. Mother was there.”

  “That would be the regret.”

  Tan nodded. “I haven’t been back there since… well, since you and I met. I’ve flown over Nor and been in the mountains near it, but something has always kept me from returning.”

  “What did you see?”

  “About what I expected to see,” Tan answered. “When I was there the last time, the attack had just happened. Everything was a smoldering ruin, leaving little more than a crater where the village had been. There was nothing left of my home.”

  She squeezed his hand. More than nearly anyone else, Amia understood what he’d gone through. Like him, she’d lost her entire family, taken from her by the lisincend. Unlike Tan, Amia had been witness to it. She had watched as her family was burned, as the lisincend tortured them in order to force the Aeta to reveal the fact that they had shapers among them. Could the lisincend not have known, especially since the First Mother had shaped Doma shapers for them, forcing them to serve Incendin?

  “And now,” Tan went on, his throat getting tight as he spoke, “now Nor is still nothing more than a crater, but life has returned. The forest presses inward, filling in the hole of what had once been my village. Grasses and flowers and…”

  Tan trailed off, unable to go on. He wanted to move past what had happened to him, but he still found it difficult at times. Trying to work with Incendin and her people was very different than the idea that he would need to work with the lisincend. The lisincend had hurt him, and had hurt those he loved, time and again.

  Yet, the rational part of him, the part that could separate the emotion and the hatred that he felt when thinking of the lisincend, recognized what the lisincend went through and how they suffered to serve their people. Fire consumed them, burning within them as it had once burned within Tan. There had been nothing but the thought of serving fire, of allowing fire to consume, when he had nearly transformed. It would be much the same for the lisincend.

  “What happened with Incendin?” Amia asked.

  “You sensed the attack, didn’t you?”

  She shook her head. “I was distracted. The People needed me. I was teaching one of the Mothers, working with her on her shaping.” When he frowned, she spoke in a rush. “I don’t intend to serve as First Mother indefinitely. I will see that another can take my place. I want us to be able—”

  Tan cut her off by giving her a gentle kiss. “I want the same.”

  They sat silently, not needing to say anything to enjoy the comfort of each other’s company. Eventually, Amia leaned back. One hand reached for the band around her neck, running her fingers over its surface until she reached the clasp around the back. She fingered it for a moment before dropping her hands into her lap. “What happened?”

  “Mother would claim the lisincend attacked,” Tan said.

  “You don’t think it was them?”

  “There was fire, but not twisted fire.”

  “And you know the difference?”

  Tan arched a brow at her. “The fire bond shows me the difference, but even without it, I know how fire consumes the lisincend. It changes something about them, turns fire differently. What I sensed there wasn’t the lisincend, but an elemental, and bound to a shaper strong enough to nearly overwhelm me.”

  Amia smiled at him. “There aren’t many shapers that strong.”

  “The Utu Tonah is.”

  “And do you think he’d risk himself along the border of Incendin? As far as we know, he’s only come for the draasin, and when he failed, he escaped so he didn’t risk himself any more than necessary. That’s not the sign of someone who would simply appear in the kingdoms.”

  Tan rubbed his chin and closed his eyes while he thought. “And he didn’t have an elemental like this when we faced him the last time. If he had, I don’t know that we would have been strong enough to stop him, even with three of us bound to draasin.”

  “What was it?”

  “Honl called it kaas. It was a powerful fire elemental.” Amia arched a brow at the comment. “It nearly overwhelmed me.”

  “But it didn’t.”

  Tan shook his head. “I got lucky. Or it didn’t want to risk attacking anymore. I don’t really know. But it’s gone for now. Only Asboel won’t answer when I ask what it is.”

  They sat in silence for a moment. “What’s next, then?”

  Tan still wasn’t certain. “I don’t know. I need answers. Not just about Chenir, or the draasin, or this elemental…”

  Amia squeezed his hand. “Where do you think to find the answers?”

  “I don’t know. I need… I need to find Asboel.” That would be a start. At least it would help him with the understanding, but then? “Everything seems to be happening too fast and there’s too much for me to do. Par-shon. The traps. The kingdoms fearing Incendin. And now this elemental. I don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

  “You’re strong enough, Tan. And you don’t have to do this alone. There are others who can help, who will have to help.”

  “The others all think that Incendin attacked.”

  “Then you have to prove to them it was not Incendin. Or you have to find a different type of help. You’re Athan now,” she said, twisting the ring on his finger. “That means you lead the other shapers. They might not always agree, but you speak with the voice of the king. You need to remember that.”

  “King regent,” Tan corrected. “And if my mother refuses to see me as anything more than her son, then how will the others?”

  Amia smiled and leaned in to him. “There will be those who choose not to follow, but you can’t let them force you from what you know to be right. You can explain, you can ask, but eventually you must convince them to follow. My mother taught me many lessons about leading the People, but that was the hardest for me to understand. Roine chose you for a reason. It’s up to you to show the others why.”

  They sat silently for a moment, listening to the crackling flames of the great fire, the soft breeze whistling around the wagons, and the happy voices throughout the Aeta caravan. Eventually, Amia smiled rested her head on his shoulder.

  “I can almost imagine staying here with you, staying in this wagon,” she said, tapping on the colorful wall for emphasis, “leading the People by your side. I can almost imagine the peace we would have.”

  Tan slipped his arm around her. “We can have that. We will know that peace.”

  Amia’s smile faded and she pulled away from him. “That’s a false promise, and we both know it. You… you serve the elementals as you’ve been called to do. You are a warrior. Their warrior. I don’t know if they’ve ever had a champion quite like you.” She peered through the space between the wagons, staring toward the gathered Aeta. “And I am needed here. I fought it for so long, but this was what I have been called to do. Maybe we will never—”

  Tan placed his hands on either side of her face and kissed her. “I am called to serve the elementals and you are called to serve the Aeta. For now. But there will come a time that we will be free of our obligations,” he said, thinking of his parents and how they settled into the mountains around Galen. Still able to serve but separated from the rest of the kingdoms, allowing others to take their place. If Althem’s true heir could be determined, then Roine could return to Athan and Tan co
uld be released. Then he and Amia could finally have what they wanted. “We will have the peace we want. Whatever else happens to me, I will not give up on that.”

  Tears welled in Amia’s eyes. “I’ve lost so much, Tan, but through it all, I’ve had you. Every time something worse has happened, I wonder if it will be the time that you don’t return. We are connected, and I feel everything that happens to you as if it happens to me.”

  “As do I,” Tan reminded her. “And I wouldn’t change anything.”

  Amia laid her hand on his chest and closed her eyes. “I can’t lose you, too.”

  Tan swallowed, wishing there was something he could say that would reassure her, wishing that he could tell her that he couldn’t lose her either, but knowing that no words were necessary. The shaped bond between them sealed them tighter than any vows or promises ever could.

  I will always return, he told her through the bond.

  Until you don’t.

  “There are others, Tan, who can do what you do.”

  “Others can’t do all that I do,” he said. “I won’t risk the elementals to those with no interest in seeing them saved, just as I won’t risk the kingdoms’ shapers if there is something I can do.”

  Amia sighed. “You try to do too much. Someday you’ll need help, and if you keep pushing it away, it won’t be there when you ask.”

  “And you?”

  Amia smiled up at him. “I’ll always be here. We’re bonded. But you need to create a different sort of bond with others or you’ll lose them.”

  Tan stared off at the walls of Ethea, wishing he knew how.

  17

  Fire and Earth

  Tan settled to the ground in the mountains where Par-shon had attacked the night before. In the daylight, the rocks had some remnants of the bloodshed, but it was difficult to see, blending into the stone and disappearing, looking like nothing more than shades of darkness among the rock. The ground was disturbed and the plants that had grown up throughout this part of Ethea were trampled but had already begun to press up from the ground again, a day in the sun giving them renewed life.

  Why had he chosen here to visit? This should have been the last place that he wanted to come. He felt drawn here although he didn’t quite know why.

  After leaving Amia, he needed a moment to think and determine what he needed to do first. Why, then, had he chosen here?

  There was little other evidence of the attack. The Par-shon woman had been buried, claimed by Cianna’s urging and Tan’s shaping. The draasin had devoured the others. He surveyed the small clearing, and a glint of metal caught Tan’s eye. Impaled into a massive boulder, Tan found the curved sword the Par-shon warrior had attacked with. He grabbed it and pulled it free with strength enhanced by earth shaping.

  The sword had a long, curved blade, the end much wider than the warrior sword he carried. It tapered toward the ornately carved hilt capped with a blood-red stone. Tan turned the sword from side to side and studied the runes worked along the surface.

  There was a sword much like this in the lower level of the archives. If the fallen Par-shon warrior had one, then maybe the swords weren’t as unique as he’d thought.

  What did it mean that there was another shaper able to divert his most powerful shaping? When he bound together each of the elements, it created a shaping strong enough to sever the bonds forcing shaping on the elemental. Whatever he had faced had managed to deflect that. What else would Par-shon be able to throw at them that he still didn’t know about?

  A great shadow circled overhead and Asboel settled to the ground next to him. He looked upon Tan with golden eyes and then blinked slowly. You return to the hunt?

  I don’t know why I returned, Tan admitted. How to explain that he felt compelled to come back here? How could he explain that a part of him felt the need to return, to understand why Par-shon had risked so much as they attacked?

  You have avoided me since the summons, Tan said. Asboel flicked his tail, and Tan pressed. Honl says they were bound to an elemental called kaas. It’s an elemental of fire, but one I’ve never heard of before.

  The draasin snarled suddenly and fire steamed from his nostrils.

  Tan stared, surprised. That was a more pronounced response than he’d expected.

  That would not be, Asboel said. He stood on his hind legs, his nostrils flaring as he sniffed at the air.

  Why? What is kaas?

  He hadn’t heard of another powerful fire elemental and Asboel had never offered to explain that there might be another, only that the draasin were strongest. Saa was strong, but not as strong as the draasin. Tan suspected that saldam and inferin were strong where they were found, much like ashi was strongest in Incendin. Only the draasin weren’t limited by which land they claimed.

  Asboel’s body tensed and his tail twitched. Tan knew him well enough to recognize the tension in the draasin. Asboel. What is kaas?

  Asboel swung his head around and stared at Tan. Kaas should not be here. These lands belong to the draasin.

  I don’t understand.

  Asboel snuffed loudly and steam billowed out and around Tan. Kaas is elemental of fire, but of earth and fire, much like draasin are of fire and wind.

  At the description, Tan sat upright. There had been both earth and fire in the shaping used against him. Tan thought it a bonded shaper, and maybe it was, but what if wasn’t? What if kaas had been the one who had shaped earth, much like the draasin could move through the wind?

  What does this mean? Tan asked.

  I don’t know. These lands are of the draasin. Kaas has others.

  I don’t understand.

  Because you cannot. You are not of elemental powers, Maelen. Asboel spread his wings wide around him.

  Explain it, then. Tell me what you fear.

  Asboel flicked his tail, nearly catching Tan. The draasin do not fear.

  All creatures know fear, Asboel. There is nothing wrong with it.

  If kaas has come to these lands, you must be ready. They were banished by the Mother.

  Banished? Was that Par-shon’s plan? To bring a dangerous elemental to the kingdoms? But why? What purpose would that serve?

  Not all elementals are harmless, Maelen.

  I think few would find the draasin harmless.

  Kaas is different. They are devourers.

  What do you mean by devourers? Of people?

  Of everything. Man. Beast. Elemental. If one has come, and a bond forced upon them, these lands are in danger. Asboel made a point of lowering his head and fixing Tan with his golden eyes. You fear this man, the one you call Utu Tonah.

  Yes.

  But you have faced him. You can see him.

  He is powerful, Asboel. More than I can face on my own.

  The draasin snorted. You are never alone, Maelen. After all that you have seen, you cannot see yourself as weak. You must be strong to survive him, and you are stronger with others.

  And kaas? Tan asked, ignoring how similar Asboel’s comment sounded to what Amia had said.

  Kaas is like draasin. Tan sensed the reluctance with which Asboel admitted that. They are powerful and can hide deep beneath the earth. It was difficult to rid this land of them.

  Something about the way Asboel said it told Tan that there was more to the elemental than he let on. You faced them before.

  Asboel snorted and the tips of his wings curled slightly. That was my task. We are hunters, Maelen. And kaas was dangerous.

  You know I will help, but what can I do?

  You must hunt, Maelen. We must hunt. If the hatchling remains in these lands, I must find her before she falls to kaas. If we do not, much will be lost.

  I don’t understand.

  Pray that you will not, Maelen. The draasin looked to the sky, his bright eyes flashing at the clouds, his tail swishing around him. I will need your help with this.

  Tan rested his hand on the draasin’s flank, wishing there was a way to comfort his friend but hating that even more was asked
of him. How would he manage all that had already been asked?

  What happened when you faced kaas the last time?

  Asboel twisted so that he could look at Tan. All were nearly lost.

  All of what?

  All the draasin. Ara. Udilm. Golud. All the elementals. All.

  Tan shivered. As he did, a fearsome thought came to him. How long ago was it? How long ago since kaas has been seen in these lands?

  What does it matter, Maelen?

  It matters. If what he was beginning to suspect might be true, then it definitely mattered.

  Asboel looked away and his tail twitched, slapping at the ground. We cleansed kaas from these lands so long ago that I no longer remember.

  With that, he took to the air, circling a few times before disappearing completely, only the connection between them letting Tan know where he’d gone.

  18

  Temptation of Power

  Tan sat in the lower level of the archives, the hard chair beneath him keeping him uncomfortable enough that he remained awake. Shapers lanterns scattered around the room gave off a scant amount of pale, white light. He could see the big elements in the room, but the letters written on the page had become a blur. Even with the gift of knowledge Amia had given him so that he could understand the ancient language of Ishthin, his tired mind would no longer allow him to focus.

  He’d returned to the archives after leaving Asboel with a renewed focus to understand what the draasin refused to share. Something told him that the draasin had known the other elemental, kaas, far more intimately than Asboel let on, but when? And why?

  The only thing that Tan could think of was the possibility that cleansing kaas from these lands had been tied to what had happened to the draasin. Scholars had wondered about the fading power of shapers and about the weakening connection to the elementals, but what if that connection had been weakened centuries ago? And what if the draasin had been part of the reason they were saved?