The Earth Awakens (Elemental Academy Book 2) Read online

  There came the crunching of boots and Tolan looked up. The Grand Master approached and took a seat next to Tolan. He was an older man, thin but with dark eyes and a heavy gaze. There was an intensity to him, and normally when Tolan was around him, there came the sense that he shaped power at all times. That sense was absent. The realization left Tolan with the first understanding of how he’d been separated from the elements.

  “You have come farther than most choose to come when they first encounter the waste.”

  Tolan turned his attention back, staring out into the distance. “I didn’t know you’d come.”

  “I accompany the students each year. There’s something strangely peaceful about it. It’s a matter of testing yourself, allowing the separation and then reclaiming power once again.”

  “You didn’t travel with us.”

  “There was no need to travel alongside you,” the Grand Master said.

  “You shaped yourself here.”

  “Students can only travel so fast, but I have some experience with expediting my journey.”

  “Why do you come out here?”

  “For the most part, it allows me to understand.”

  “Understand what?”

  “The reason we train. We must be strong in order to handle what we do. We must recognize the purpose of our shaping and be ready for how Terndahl might need us.”

  Tolan could only nod. He wasn’t sure he would ever be needed by Terndahl. His ability wasn’t quite enough to truly be useful, though at the same time, he had been instrumental in preventing Jory from succeeding at raising a draasin.

  “Do you believe the Draasin Lord is beyond the waste?”

  “I believe people feel the need to claim the Draasin Lord has hidden somewhere, and where else could he have hidden but on the other side of the waste? Unfortunately, the Draasin Lord cannot be there. Not if what he aims to do is accurate.”

  “Release the elementals.”

  The Grand Master nodded. He pressed his fingers together, his mouth pinched in a tight line. He sat like that for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh. “Unfortunately, he must be hiding someplace we haven’t discovered, but it cannot be on the other side of the waste. Nothing exists in the waste. Nothing connected to the elements does, at least.”

  “That’s not entirely true though, is it?” Tolan said.

  The Grand Master arched a brow at him. “Why would you say that?”

  “Well, we’re sitting on earth, the rock and the sand and whatever else might be out here. I’ve felt the effect of a breeze, so wind is here. The sun shining overhead casts some heat, and if the vast expanse of the waste represents a desert, then there definitely is heat. With that being said, I still wouldn’t be surprised to find water. So, in that regard, there are aspects of the various elements here.”

  The Grand Master studied him for a moment before chuckling. “I suppose you’re right, but there is no connection to the power that birthed these things. Perhaps that’s a better way of phrasing it.”

  “None has ever been able to pull upon that power?”

  “Not here. It’s the reason I walked to follow you.”

  “What do you think formed the waste?”

  “Who can say? We know the waste has been here for hundreds of years. Perhaps thousands. It’s a place where the power of the element bonds has been separated, as if we weren’t meant to travel across here.”

  “At least, not with the power of the bonds,” Tolan said.

  “Perhaps that’s true. Perhaps that’s all this is, a way of separating us from the bonds and creating a different experience. If that’s the case, then one must ask why.”

  Tolan could only shrug. “I guess that’s why I’m at the Academy.”

  “Unfortunately, those answers won’t come at the Academy. We can theorize, and the longer you spend studying with us, you will come up with your own suggestions as to why it’s like that, but I don’t know you will find definitive ones. But then, as Master Wassa said, perhaps your class will be the first one to uncover truths about the waste.”

  Tolan and the Grand Master sat in silence. He rested his hands on either side of himself. Why had he ever been nervous about this place? This wasn’t anything to fear, though the longer he was here, the more he was aware of the absence. It was a void of what should be here, the sense of the elements he should be feeling but did not.

  “Do you intend to stay longer than the hour?” the Grand Master asked softly.

  “Has it been that long already?”

  “It has. Most are eager to return, though most don’t venture this far into the waste, either. In that, you surprise me, Shaper Ethar.”

  Tolan glanced over his shoulder and realized the line of students who had ventured over the border of the waste had retreated, returning back into Terndahl, as if they had gone at the first opportunity. Did they really fear it out here? Did they really think there would be such danger?

  And did he not?

  “Probably because most of them never lived so close to the waste growing up.”

  “Even living close to the waste doesn’t mean you would always be so fearless. There are plenty of master shapers who serve near the waste and don’t come so far out into it. What is it you have come to see, Shaper Ethar?”

  Tolan tore his attention away from the Grand Master. What was he here to see? He wanted to know who he was, but as much as that, he wanted to know what he was meant to do. Having lost his parents, having them disappear—or be killed, as difficult as that might be to acknowledge—had put him into a place where he hadn’t known just what he wanted for himself.

  And if he was honest with himself, he still didn’t really know what he wanted.

  An opportunity. A chance to do something valuable. A chance to prove he was more than he had believed himself to be.

  But he wouldn’t be able to do those things here. That required he returned to the Academy, and that he continued to pursue his training, gaining skill—if that were possible for him.

  Tolan got to his feet, dusting his hands on his pants. “We can return.”

  The Grand Master looked over at him. “Only if you want to.”

  “I think we should… What was that?”

  He stared into the distance, convinced he’d seen movement. There had been something more than the sand shifting on the far-off dunes. Whatever it was out there had moved more quickly.

  “I didn’t see anything.” The Grand Master climbed to his feet and peered into the distance.

  There came a flicker, barely more than that, and Tolan had a sense that the Grand Master either attempted to shape—or had managed to. If he had managed it, then somehow, he had done so despite the fact there were limitations here that should have prevented him doing so.

  “There was movement.”

  “There would be none out here, Shaper Ethar.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “We have many master shapers who spend time along the borders of the waste. All patrol, watching for signs of movement, and spend their time trying to ensure the waste doesn’t move, that the borders don’t change. In all that time, there has rarely been anything out on the waste. Our shapers, those who don’t fear it, will occasionally come out here, but even that is infrequent and rare.”

  Tolan continued to stare. He didn’t think it was his imagination and having seen the waste in his vision prior to his Selection, he wondered how much of that was real? In that vision, there had been others out on the waste. It had been more than shapers, but why should that be? Could it be the Academy and the Council of Terndahl didn’t know nearly as much about the waste as they thought?

  Or more likely, it was nothing more than a vision. While it had come to him during the Selection, nothing about it suggested it was any more real than anything else in his Selection. As far as he knew, everything had been imagined, nothing more than visions of his tired mind. He needed to treat them as nothing more than that.

  As he started to turn, h
e caught sight of movement once again.

  Tolan froze. This time, he was certain he’d seen it. It was more than a shadow. It had been movement deep into the waste, far enough away that he couldn’t see it clearly, but he had been sure it was real and had been there.

  Tolan glanced over at the Grand Master, not wanting to say something until he knew whether or not the other man had seen the same thing. He didn’t need anyone else questioning him; he’d had enough of that as it was.

  But the Grand Master seemed not to have noticed.

  “Are you ready, Shaper Ethar?”

  Tolan studied the Grand Master, watching him, debating how much he should say, before nodding. There wasn’t anything to say. The Grand Master hadn’t seen the same thing, and Tolan wasn’t about to cause trouble.

  They started back toward the distant line of students. As they neared, he could tell how Jonas and Ferrah watched him, the concern in their eyes. There were other students he was friendly with, people like his other roommate Wallace or even Sarah and Elizabeth, but for the most part, he spent his time with Ferrah and Jonas.

  As he approached, their gaze flickered from him to the Grand Master. Tolan already knew tongues would be wagging and questions coming about why he had spent time sitting out in the waste talking to the Grand Master, but he was used to things like that.

  When he stepped across the border between the waste and Terndahl, a surge of shaping power flooded through him.

  He gasped involuntarily. It was a sudden change, and as that power swept through him, he could tell it was building. But strangely, there came a sense of it from behind him as well.

  He spun around, looking out into the waste while everyone else continued to head back toward the heart of Terndahl, returning toward the access point for the Shapers Path. Tolan alone stood, lingering as he stared out into the waste. There wasn’t movement as he had seen before, but there was the strange sense of power.

  He couldn’t shake it. It was real, and if it was out there, where was it coming from?

  It couldn’t be imagined, could it?

  He glanced over at the others, turning his attention to the master shapers, but none seemed to be paying any attention to him or the direction of his interest.

  Maybe it was imagined.

  Power continued to build and Tolan maintained his focus outward, staring into the waste.

  The ground suddenly trembled and he was thrown, landing on his back, his breath knocked out of him. As he lay there, the power of a shaping surged.

  And then it exploded.

  2

  Tolan rolled to his feet, reaching for the furios. He struggled to gain control over himself, straining for a connection to his shaping. Something had thrown him backward, but as he spun around, trying to take stock of what had taken place, he couldn’t tell what it was.

  The other shapers had been knocked down as well. Most were students, though Master Barry lay motionless. Master Wassa leaned over him, and Tolan imagined a powerful water shaping building, checking to see what might have happened to Master Barry.

  Someone shouted, and Tolan turned his attention toward them. The ground surged, rolling violently near the edge of Terndahl.

  Not just the edge of Terndahl, but along the border of the waste.

  An elemental. He was certain of it.

  Why would there be an elemental out here?

  As far as he knew, the elementals were never found near the waste. There was no power out here for them, and they had remained deeper within Terndahl when they did appear. He started forward, stumbling as he neared the others, and grabbed for Jonas and Ferrah. Both were getting to their feet unsteadily, and Jonas in particular looked around, his eyes wide.

  “What was that?” Ferrah asked.

  “Is it some part of a test? Were they trying to scare us?”

  Tolan shook his head. “I don’t think this is a part of it. Look,” he said, pointing toward the surging ground. It was strange the way the ground seemed to undulate, moving. There was something there, deep beneath it, and as he stared, he realized he could feel it.

  He shouldn’t be able to feel anything moving beneath the ground, not from here, but there was no question that was what he detected.

  And if that was what he detected, then it was certainly an elemental. There was no shaping that would perform like that.

  All of a sudden, the ground erupted.

  Master Shorav raced forward, a shaping starting to build, and the ground collapsed. Master Sartan was there, adding a rising heat. Tolan could only stare. The power between the two was enormous. It seemed as if Master Shorav added a hint of fire to his earth shaping while Master Sartan used some earth, complementary elements when it came to overpowering the other.

  “Keep moving, students,” a voice said behind him.

  He glanced back to see Master Marcella, a young and lovely master shaper. She was only a few years removed from the Academy, and reportedly incredibly powerful. She had stayed on to continue her training with Master Shorav, and he was surprised she guided the students away rather than going to help her mentor.

  “What’s happening?” someone asked.

  “Keep moving,” Master Marcella said, guiding them away. “We can deal with this when it’s over.”

  “Is that an elemental?” someone screamed.

  Tolan glanced over to see that Matthew, a shaper nearly Tolan’s own age, and one who—like him—had really only connected to a single element bond, pointed toward Master Sartan and Master Shorav, who continued to hold their shaping. Despite that, there was ongoing surging, power that pulsed as if trying to rise from the ground.

  “If it is, does any of you want to be near it?” Master Marcella asked, her voice far calmer than Tolan would have expected.

  The students began running. He hesitated, his gaze lingering on where the master shapers were working. He felt someone pulling on his sleeve, only to realize it was Ferrah. She looked at him, trying to urge him with her gaze.

  “I’m just trying to see…”

  “I know what you’re trying to see, and you need to get moving.”

  Strangely, there was a sense of power within him. It was a pressure, yet more than just a pressure, it was like a reverberation. A calling.

  Why should he feel that?

  Stranger still, the sense of reverberation came through the bondar. There was no question that was what he felt.

  When he let go of the bondar, the sense faded but did not disappear completely. Either the fact that he held onto it connected him in some way, or the power was enough that he was able to feel it regardless of whether he was holding onto the bondar.

  “Tolan!”

  He glanced over at Ferrah. “I’m coming,” he said, backing up a step.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off Master Shorav and Master Sartan, whose shaping was incredibly powerful, the power rising from it and slamming into the ground, though despite that, the earth still trembled. Was that the nature of the earth elemental straining to escape or was there something else?

  The winds shifted. Whereas before it had been comfortable, warm and typical for Terndahl, now it was hot. It came out of the east, and as it did, it carried with it the heat of the waste, but there was more. Sand came with it, blasting against him, and it forced him to throw his arm up over his face to prevent the sand from slamming into him, from burning through his eyes and mouth.

  The wind was shaped. Tolan could feel it, and he worried why it would be shaped?

  Master Wassa, who had been still bent over Master Barry, stood and held his hands outward. The shaping that built from him was an enormous, powerful surge causing the skies to darken and clouds to form. Thunder rumbled.

  As rain began to fall, it struck the sand in the air and forced it down to the ground. Master Rorn pulled on a wind shaping, sweeping away from them. As he did, the pain from the sudden gusts waned, but it seemed as if the wind swirled around them, coming from behind them to slam into him with just as much for
ce from the back as it had from the other side. Sand seem to get everywhere, crawling down his cloak, along his spine, working down his shirt and mixing with his sweat.

  Screams reverberated as everyone panicked, sprinting away.

  Was this an elemental or a shaping?

  Tolan didn’t move, remaining transfixed. In the time he’d come to the edge of the waste, he had never imagined it would be so active.

  If this all was some sort of shaping, there would have to be shapers.

  More than that, they weren’t nearby—which meant they were in the waste, but the waste was devoid of the power of the element bonds.

  Perhaps it wasn’t as devoid of the elemental power, though.

  Ferrah grabbed him and pulled, and this time, Tolan didn’t resist. He staggered back and they chased the others as they retreated, racing backward, heading deeper into Terndahl. The master shapers, including Master Marcella, had all abandoned herding the students and now they focused on shaping, opposing whatever was taking place. They stood in a line, nearly a dozen master shapers, and the power surging outward from them was like nothing Tolan had ever seen. Even when they had been in the Convergence, connected to that deep power from which Jory was trying to raise an elemental power, he hadn’t felt anything quite like that.

  “What’s happening?” Jonas asked. His voice was high-pitched, his eyes were wide, and he jerked his head around with each movement near them.

  Wind continued to howl around them, and every so often, the ground rumbled, forcing Tolan to focus on his footsteps to ensure he wasn’t tossed to one side while rain continued to pelt down on them. The wind continued swirling around. He was no longer certain how much of it came from the master shapers attempting to resist whatever was taking place and how much of this came from the shaping or the elementals that were attacking.