The Elements Bond (Elemental Academy Book 7) Read online

  “It feels as if there is something here,” Ferrah said.

  “Feels?”

  She glanced over as she crouched near a section of the ground. She ran her hands over it, and a hint of dust smeared away. “Feels. I can’t shape, if that’s what you’re questioning, but I can’t shake the feeling there’s something else I can almost detect.” She wiped the dust away and traced her finger along the stone.

  “It does make you wonder why they chose this place,” Tolan said.

  “If it’s in the waste, then it’s only because it separates the shapers from shaping.”

  “But it also separates the elementals.”

  “For little while,” she said.

  “The elementals suffer here.”

  “What if they don’t?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What if they have some way of tying themselves to a Convergence?” When Tolan frowned, she looked up at him. “Hear me out. We know what you did with reforming the bondar for the Guardians. We already know that there’s a way of tying power from a Convergence to a distant site. What if they have something similar?”

  “If they had something similar, I would’ve expected they would have used it during the attack.”

  “The elemental was trying to help you.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “He brought us away from the attack.”

  “What if the attackers were actually coming to help us?”

  “You can’t believe that. This is your mother we’re talking about. Don’t let her suck you back into whatever she’s trying to do to you.”

  Tolan shook his head. “I’m not going to get drawn back into her plans, but I still question whether or not we know everything we think we know.”

  She continued to wipe the dust off the stone, moving out of the way, and Tolan watched.

  He didn’t have any explanation as to what she was doing, or why, but an idea came to him.

  He had a little bit of strength remaining, and he took to the air.

  Having spent time in the elemental village, he recognized how a change in vantage could make a difference. By getting some elevation, he wondered if perhaps he might be able to see something he couldn’t see otherwise. He couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps he might be able to find something to the prison that might explain why this place had been important to the elementals.

  Tolan looked down, holding onto his shaped energy, but saw nothing. The mountains didn’t perform any sort of shaping, not as he had suspected. There was no rune formed, not the way that the buildings within the free elemental village were formed. There wasn’t even any sense from the streets around the buildings. There was nothing.

  That wasn’t quite true.

  Where Ferrah was dusting, the ground had cracked.

  Tolan frowned at the cracks, looking at them, searching for anything that might make sense. The cracks formed a series of lines, and all of them intersected. At first blush, they were all random in appearance, but as he stared at them, he began to question whether that was random at all. Maybe it wasn’t.

  Tolan frowned.

  He needed more altitude.

  Shaping wind out here was tiring, and he could feel himself fading already, but he had to wonder if perhaps the answer might be there. As he took to the air, using the wind to carry him, he looked down and focused.

  The cracks formed a network that took on shapes.

  Runes.

  They weren’t just arbitrary shapes, and he had to question whether or not the cracks were even cracks at all. Could it be that someone had made a rune here?

  Something like this, something on this scale, could only be a rune, or it could be something more.

  He focused, using spirit, and probed.

  If this was anything like the place within the heart of the waste, then maybe they were concealing the presence of a Convergence.

  If there was a Convergence, then why would they have brought prisoners to it?

  He didn’t detect anything. There was no sense of a Convergence.

  Why the runes?

  He focused. What if it was power augmentation?

  Even as he focused, he didn’t detect anything here that suggested there was any real augmentation to any power.

  He could feel that, and he searched for another possibility.

  It was there, buried within his mind. A nugget of knowledge, borrowed information he had taken from dozens of villagers within the free elemental village.

  A bondar.

  That was an explanation that fit everything he saw.

  How could this be a bondar?

  He stared, focusing on what he could make out, and he tried to see if there was anything within it that would explain the shapes, but he didn’t detect anything.

  The elementals hadn’t been trapped here. If it was some sort of bondar that would trap power, it had done nothing to the elementals.

  What if the bondar wasn’t meant for the elementals?

  He pushed outward, drawing power toward the ground, focusing on what he was able to detect.

  There was a sense below him.

  It was that of the bondar.

  How?

  Better yet, why?

  He dropped to the ground.

  As he looked around, he traced the runes he had seen when he was high above. From this level, he couldn’t see them the same way, but he could feel them.

  “What are you doing?” Ferrah asked.

  “I can tell there’s something here,” he said.

  “What is it?”

  “A sense of power,” he said.

  “If there’s power here, then why don’t we detect it?”

  “It’s not that kind of power.” He held out the orb, showing it to Ferrah. “It’s different. I don’t really know what to make of it.”

  “You think this is a bondar?”

  “It has to be. Look at it,” he said.

  Ferrah looked at the ground, staring at it. In doing so, she shook her head. “I don’t see anything here, Tolan.”

  “You need to get perspective. Imagine yourself high overhead, studying the ground from above.”

  She started tracing the lines, tracking them with her foot, dragging it across the ground as she did. “Are you saying that these are runes?”

  “They are, or they were. I don’t know if it’s even intact anymore. It’s hard for me to tell. The only thing I can tell is that this once was a place of power. That’s what we’re detecting. It’s not active power any longer. It’s residual power.”

  “Sort of like what you detected in the heart of the waste with the bondars for the Guardians.”

  Tolan nodded. “It’s exactly like that. I was trying to understand why I could detect something here at all, and I think that’s it. That’s the only time I’ve felt something like that out on the waste.”

  If that was the case, then he had to try to understand what it was and what he was detecting. The only problem was he couldn’t tell. There might be a way if he were to rebuild the bondar, but that would involve trusting that the bondar needed to be rebuilt. That would involve trusting that whatever was here, whatever purpose there was for this bondar, was one he should restore.

  He didn’t know.

  He held onto the shaped energy, the sense of power, and he tried to detect the sense within the ground. He was certain that it was there, but even as he focused on it, he couldn’t find anything within it that answered those questions.

  The elemental might know, but that involved releasing him from the orb.

  He had placed the elemental within the orb thinking to protect him, but maybe there was no need to protect the elemental. As he looked around here, seeing the prison that had been built, he had to question whether or not there was any need for that.

  Maybe there wasn’t anything he needed to do to protect the elemental. Maybe there was no purpose in that whatsoever. Maybe the elemental had never been in any real danger. Tolan thought he had one
thing he had yet to try: he could use the knowledge of the bondars.

  “Stay by me,” he said.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “The villagers gave me something.”

  Tolan closed his eyes, focusing on the sense of power within him. He held onto that, using it. Within it was energy he thought he could grasp. All he needed was to find that sense and draw it through him. If he could find it, then he could use it.

  That idea stayed in his mind. He held onto that knowledge and focused, thinking it through, thinking about the nature of the power.

  Tolan started shaping. He used that sense of spirit, sending it through him as he continued to shape, searching for answers. The answers had to be there, but where?

  As he struggled, he thought he could find those answers, but it was going to involve digging into his mind. It was going to involve a spirit shaping he didn’t fully understand.

  Tolan reached for it.

  Holding onto that spirit shaping, he continued to focus. The challenge was shaping within himself, using spirit to reach that answer, but he thought he could find it.

  Understanding blossomed within him. He focused on that understanding and power, and he embraced it. In doing so, he found he could use the knowledge he had, and he could add the knowledge of what he had seen and merge them together.

  There was something there.

  Tolan pushed that knowledge together, squeezing in a way helped him find the answers he needed.

  It was an understanding of all of this. Of the bondar. Of the power that existed here. It was an understanding of this place’s purpose.

  That was what he needed.

  Slowly, the knowledge of it began to form in his mind, resolving within him.

  Tolan focused on that hint of energy within himself, recognizing the nature of power buried within him. It was knowledge, but because of that knowledge, there was a sense of understanding. Power.

  Tolan could grasp that and use it.

  As he held onto that sense, he waited, focusing on what he could of the merged knowledge, using it as it flowed into him.

  He waited for something else.

  There had to be a greater sense of knowledge within him, but where was it?

  Tolan didn’t know.

  The only thing he was certain of was he needed to find a way to meld what he could determine of the bondar along with what he was able to see.

  That knowledge mixed, mingling within him.

  Tolan continued to look around, searching for anything he might be able to uncover, but there was nothing obvious within his mind.

  He thought about everything he had seen, everything he had known, and a sense of understanding came back to him. Within it, he thought he could see what he needed. He could feel what was there. He thought he could reach for it.

  Holding onto that knowledge, Tolan surged spirit through himself, mixing the understandings together. He recognized the power there.

  Releasing the shaping, Tolan focused instead on everything around him. He started to pace, looking everywhere, and Ferrah followed, an expression of concern on her face.

  “What is it?”

  “I think I know the purpose of this bondar.”

  “What is it?”

  “I was wrong,” he said.

  “You are wrong about that this being a prison?”

  Tolan shook his head. “It’s a prison. Or, it was before the bondar was broken.”

  “What sort of prison was it?”

  “It held the elementals.”

  “I thought you said this wouldn’t be able to hold the elementals.”

  “I didn’t think that it would, but sensing what I do, and feeling the energy that’s here now, I can feel how it would separate the elementals from the element bonds.”

  “What would happen, then?”

  “I don’t really know. All I can tell is that by doing that, by separating the elementals from the element bonds, it would change them.”

  As far as he knew, the elementals were bound to the bond, but the knowledge he had of the bondars, and from what he could detect of the nature of the rune, he could feel the way they would be separated.

  And he could feel the energy there.

  What would they do with that?

  How long had they been here?

  He couldn’t tell, but he remembered what the elemental had shown him, the nature of the power that existed here, and he remembered the vision the elemental had tried to describe so they could understand just what he had experienced.

  All of it was powerful.

  Tolan swept his gaze around, and he realized that to better understand this, he was going to have to free the elemental from the bondar. Doing so would keep him weakened, but perhaps it wouldn’t have to be that way.

  Tolan could add a hint of strength.

  He could shape just enough of the element, drawing wind and spirit, adding the two to feed the elemental.

  Better yet, he could do it while the elemental was stored within the bondar.

  Tolan focused on it, holding it in his hand, squeezing the bondar as he pushed power out. He sent wind and spirit through it.

  As he did, he realized something else. He didn’t have to use just wind and spirit. The bondar held all of the elements, and it didn’t require he hold only a single power. He used everything he could.

  Holding onto that, Tolan pushed it, letting it flow from him.

  It filled the bondar.

  He used as much as he dared, even though the moment he freed the elemental, he would run the risk of it escaping on them, taking away his chance to learn more. He wouldn’t be able to chase the elemental, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything if the elemental tried to attack them, though Tolan didn’t think that it really would. Then again, he didn’t know for sure. The elemental had proven unpredictable.

  He pulled on the power, letting it flow through him, and decided to add one other bit of information into the bondar.

  It was a sense of knowledge. It was understanding.

  He hoped that the elemental could latch onto that, he could find a hint of knowledge that would grant Tolan what he needed. By pushing spirit and wind into the bondar, by feeding the bondar, he hoped he could prove to the elemental he wanted to help.

  He took a step back, setting the bondar on the ground.

  “What are you doing?” Ferrah asked.

  “We need answers,” he said.

  “Are you sure it’s safe?”

  Tolan shook his head. “I’m not, but if this place and this bondar held these elementals, I want to get a better sense of what happened and why.”

  “You said he fought.”

  “He did fight. He didn’t want to be trapped there.”

  Tolan thought about the image and the knowledge he had. As he did, he pressed through the bondar, releasing the elemental. It was like releasing power stored within it, and he had learned from the villagers how to do that.

  As the elemental exploded outward, he looked over at Ferrah. “I realized something about these bondars,” he said.

  “What?”

  “The villagers didn’t know how to make them before my mother came.”

  “So?”

  “What if she learned to do them here?”

  15

  Tolan gave space to the elemental. He tried reaching for the power of the other elements, but there was not enough connection to them to do so. He focused on the elemental, straining to reach its power, wanting to protect himself if nothing else, but didn’t think he would be able to. He had to count on the elemental not wanting to harm him.

  “I’m sorry I placed you in the bondar,” he said. The wind elemental swirled around him, not taking any form. Tolan didn’t think that the lack of form was because the elemental couldn’t. He had a sense of power coming off the elemental and suspected he would be able to hold onto a shape if he chose to do so. “I did it because I thought you were fading.”

  The elemental struggle
d against him, but Tolan ignored it, focusing on spirit. He didn’t have much strength left, but it was possible he didn’t necessarily need it. All he needed was to reach the elemental, to bridge that distance, not to do anything more.

  There was a hint of power. It blasted into him, and Tolan ignored it.

  “You were held here, weren’t you?”

  The elemental shimmered. For a moment, Tolan thought he might take shape again, and once he did, then they could speak. Instead, wind slammed into Tolan, making it so he could barely even stand.

  “That was the purpose of this. You were held here.”

  “You do same,” the elemental said. His voice came on a wisp of wind, not anything all that loud, but enough that Tolan could feel the anger within it. There was a sense of rage building within the elemental, and Tolan tried to push a sense of reassurance through spirit, but with his weakness, with the way that the energy had shifted, he wasn’t sure he would be able to send any sort of real reassurance to the elemental. The only thing he could do was try to share with the elemental he meant no harm.

  Would the elemental even believe it?

  Tolan had imprisoned him. If he was right, then he had done the very thing others had done.

  “You were fading. I didn’t know that you had suffered like this before.”

  “Same shaping.”

  “I don’t use the same shaping. I used a different one.”

  He wasn’t even sure if that was true. It was possible the shaping he had used was identical to the shaping that had been used upon the elementals. He glanced over at Ferrah, but she remained quiet, watching. He didn’t blame her for saying nothing. There really wasn’t anything to say.

  “What happened here? Why did you choose this place to hold me?”

  The elemental shivered again and finally took form. He stayed away from Tolan, with the wind swirling around him.

  “Can’t hurt here.”

  “But it keeps you from power as well.”

  “Separate.”

  “Separate them from what?”

  “Hurting.”

  “How long have they been hurting you?”

  “Long time.”

  There was another surge through Tolan, one that suggested time. It was years rather than centuries.

  Tolan glanced down at the orb. “Have they started using these?”