Chased by Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 1) Read online

  They hurried to Amia. She had stopped near the center of the frozen part of the lake and stared down, looking toward the ice, as if trying to peer through its thick surface. Her eyes closed and her face relaxed. Tan felt the building pressure behind his ears of a shaping. Long moments passed before the pressure finally eased.

  “There’s something beneath the ice,” she said. Her voice shook slightly and her eyes still had a bit of a faraway look to them.

  Roine frowned, looking down at the ice and closing his eyes. He opened them moments later and shook his head. “I sense nothing.”

  “You could not,” Amia agreed.

  “Then what is it?” Roine asked.

  “Some being. I don’t know.”

  “Nymid?” Roine asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what the nymid feel like,” she answered, casting a quick glance at Tan, “but this is too large to be nymid.”

  “Large? How can you tell?” Roine asked.

  “Whatever is down there is immense. Intelligent. They overpower any other sensing I try to do.”

  Roine froze. “They?”

  She nodded. “At least three.”

  “And you can no longer sense the artifact?”

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’ve been feeling distracted for a while. At first I didn’t know why.” She looked down at the ice. “Then I began feeling them.” She shook her head. “I can’t feel the trail of my shaping anymore. Not while they’re here.”

  “What are they?” Tan asked.

  Amia looked at him. “I can’t tell.” Anguish crossed her face. “There are some of my people skilled at speaking without words, but that’s not my gift. They’re in pain. And they suffer.” She looked from Tan to Roine. “We must release them.”

  “There’s no time to release them now,” Roine said. “The lisincend near. Much longer and they might reach the artifact first. After we find it, we can return. Then we can see what we can do to free them.”

  Amia shook her head. “You said convergences are difficult to find. You think we’ll find this place again?”

  “Amia—” Roine begged.

  Her eyes went wide and her breathing quickened. “I can’t feel anything else now. Whatever is down there keeps me from feeling anything else.” She looked at Tan. “Not even you.”

  Roine took a step back and ran his hand through his hair. “We don’t even know what these creatures are,” Roine said, trying to placate her. “And I can’t begin to imagine what would be required to release them from this ice.”

  “They suffer,” Amia said. “And they know they suffer.”

  While Amia and Roine continued to argue, Tan closed his eyes, setting his feet apart, and straightened his back. He gathered up an effort of will, focusing his attention and clearing his mind as much as possible.

  Nymid! He sent the thought as loudly as he could.

  They were far from where they had last seen the nymid, far from the warm waters, and he wasn’t sure this would even work. Tan staggered slightly under the energy of sending the thought, but ignored it as he strained for their answer.

  Instead of the soft voice of the nymid, something else entered his mind, immense and looming, and carried with it a sense of pain.

  Tan bit back a cry as he gained awareness of this other. In a panic, he tried pushing it away from him.

  Who disturbs?

  The thought was loud and grating and felt as if it tore open parts of his mind as he strained to listen. Nothing like the gentle nymid presence.

  Tan frowned. Who is this?

  You called the nymid.

  You are not the nymid. Of that, he was certain.

  Do you speak for the nymid?

  I do not. I seek the nymid to learn of the creatures frozen under the surface of their lake.

  There came a grating, almost a clawing, at his mind, as this other presence settled into Tan’s thoughts, digging in and holding firm.

  What do you know of the capture?

  I know nothing.

  Tan opened himself up enough so that the creature could sense his honesty. This had not been necessary with the nymid. They had projected only peace and there was no threat to them, but with this creature, Tan felt his mind in danger if he didn’t communicate correctly.

  What are you?

  I am draasin. We must be freed.

  “Draasin?” Tan said aloud, startled. The word rolled off his tongue strangely. The presence in his mind receded a little but was still there. Tan tried to create a barrier, a wall of sorts, to protect his mind, and was uncertain whether he was successful.

  Roine turned to him sharply, biting off whatever he had been about to say to Amia, and stared at Tan. “Where did you hear that word?”

  “What?”

  “You spoke of the draasin. Few know of them.” He watched Tan for a moment. “They were ancient elemental creatures and lived long ago. The last was hunted and killed well over a thousand years ago.”

  Tan looked down at the ice. He was certain the creature called itself a draasin. “They were killed?”

  “The draasin were wild, savage, and intelligent. Hunters, unafraid of anything. From what is known, there was nothing quite as fearsome as a draasin.” Roine stared at Tan with a deep intensity. “The university keeps the archive referencing draasin restricted. Only a few today even know of them.” He looked at Tan. “Your mother wouldn’t have known of them, and if she had, she certainly wouldn’t have said anything to you. So where did you hear it?”

  The hard presence lingered in his mind. Pain stabbed behind his eyes. The creature was aware of his thoughts and through the agony it let Tan feel from it, he sensed a cruel amusement as well. “These creatures are draasin.” He pressed a finger between his eyes to reduce the pain.

  “They suffer,” Amia repeated. Tan nodded, able to feel only a fragment of the draasin’s agony. “They must be freed.”

  “How do you know?”

  He hesitated answering. “I…I can speak to them. I tried reaching the nymid. They should know what lies imprisoned in their waters. The draasin answered.”

  “The ability to speak to even one of the elementals is a rare trait,” he began slowly. “The draasin are elementals, as well—fire elementals. And unlike the nymid, they are one of the four great elementals. Powerful. Dangerous. And thought lost. And you can speak to them.”

  29

  End to a Shaping

  Inside Tan’s head came a sudden hard laughter.

  Free us!

  He felt a flexing within his head. Pressure built and was followed by a sharp pain in his mind, like that of claws raking his brain. Tan grabbed his head and closed his eyes.

  I will try. But you must…release…my…mind!

  Tan sent a surge of pressure toward the sensation in his head and the draasin released its grip with sudden surprise. The pain in his head eased.

  There came the sense of laughter, not nearly as hard and tinged with the agony the draasin endured.

  Small. Yet you are fierce. A note of respect entered the thought as well. You must free us.

  There was less of a demand this time and the draasin allowed Tan to feel more of its pain, near-eternities of suffering, waiting, frozen in the lake, trapped.

  Tan dropped his hands from his head and opened his eyes, knowing what must be done. Their suffering must end. “We must release them.”

  Roine shook his head, rubbing his hand through his hair in annoyance. “You know we don’t have the time. And I don’t have the strength. Anything we do now lets the lisincend get closer.”

  “I can’t help if they continue to suffer. All I feel is their pain.”

  The draasin waited, hurting, yearning to be free once more. Tan didn’t know what would happen to him if they were unable to help them. Would they release his mind or destroy it?

  “Roine,” Tan said, turning to him. Honesty would be the only way to sway Roine. “This creature, the draasin, has a hold of my mind. If
we do nothing…”

  “Tan,” Roine whispered. “You don’t understand what you ask.” His face had taken on a pained expression, nervous. There was a hint of fear to his eyes, as well. “The records we have about the draasin are terrifying, even within the university. It is well they’ve been lost to time. Even one draasin would be fearsome. You tell me there are three?”

  Roine turned his back on them and took a step away.

  Amia looked at Tan, anxious, before staring into the ice again. Tan felt building pressure and knew Amia was preparing a shaping, though could not fathom what she would shape. The pressure built to a nearly unbearable level, sending pain through Tan’s skull, piercing through his ears until he felt they would burst.

  Then there was another voice in his head.

  Amia spoke, a command, and he heard her though she directed the words at the draasin. He suspected the link he shared with the draasin enabled him to hear her, to feel the power of her shaping—for it was a shaping.

  “You will bring harm to no human,” she commanded.

  The words, echoing in Tan’s mind, hummed with her energy. Tan didn’t know if the shaping would hold the draasin or not, but he felt the effort she used in the compulsion. There was great power being spent on this one shaping.

  “You will hunt no human. You will find your food elsewhere.”

  Then Amia staggered, falling forward, barely staying upright long enough for Tan to lunge under her and scoop her up before she fell upon the ice.

  She looked up at him weakly. “Will it work?”

  Tan stared, afraid to probe the connection he shared with the draasin, afraid to simply ask whether the shaping would hold, uncertain how to even phrase the question.

  I hear the question regardless, the draasin said.

  Tan would have jumped had he not been carrying Amia. He strained to keep a barrier, a wall of sorts, up in his mind, separating his thoughts from those of the draasin, and he failed. The draasin was both powerful and skilled at communicating with thought. Tan was neither.

  There was almost a chuckle in his mind. Perhaps you should see what I see, little warrior, the draasin said. Free us.

  There is one among us who fears what you would do if freed.

  As well he should, the draasin rumbled.

  Tan let the weak barrier in his mind drop and sent a probing thought toward the draasin, searching its intent. He found a creature that longed for the hunt, for the warmth of the sun upon its skin, and for the taste of hot flesh. There was no malice, yet no regard for where the meal came from. Still, Tan sensed something there, new and puzzling to the draasin, and he recognized it for what it was.

  Amia’s shaping.

  It had settled in and around the draasin’s mind, holding tight, and the draasin eyed it curiously, uncertain what the shaping was and how the shaping would affect it. Still there was no fear. Only curiosity.

  If released, you may not hunt man, Tan informed the draasin.

  We hunt what pleases us.

  As the draasin sent the thought, Tan sensed it running into Amia’s shaping. There was a sensation of pressure, as if the creature tried to force its way through the shaping, and it struggled wildly for a moment. Finally, a grudging acceptance of the shaping, not pleased or angry. There remained a promise to overcome the shaping hidden deep in the draasin’s mind.

  You may not hunt man.

  The draasin laughed then, and there was true amusement. You surprise me, little warrior. We will agree. For now.

  Tan sent an acknowledgement and turned to Amia to answer her. “I think it worked,” he said. “Though I suspect they’ll struggle against it. They’ll probably find a way around your shaping.”

  Roine turned, eyeing Tan with curiosity as he carried Amia. “What has she done?”

  “She has forbidden the draasin from hunting man.”

  Roine laughed bitterly. “You think that will work? How many spirit shapings have held against the lisincend? And the draasin are more powerful by far!”

  Tan shrugged. “I don’t know why the lisincend can resist her shapings, but I can tell you the draasin are compelled by this shaping. They will bring no harm to any human.”

  Roine closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before opening. “Tan…” He sighed. “You can be as stubborn as your mother.”

  Tan smiled. “I will say thanks to that.”

  Roine motioned to Tan to follow and he did, trailing Roine as he walked across the ice, back to the shore. Roine signaled him to set Amia down and Tan laid her along a dry patch of land to keep her as warm as possible. She still wore his cloak and he wrapped it around her. Amia smiled at him.

  “Be careful,” she warned.

  Tan didn’t need the warning. He felt the threat of the draasin in his mind. The creature didn’t mean him harm personally, but Tan would be attacked in an instant if the draasin thought it could. Yet they needed to be freed. He could not fully explain why. Such a creature shouldn’t be simply trapped like this, especially not one of the elementals.

  “I don’t think this is wise,” Roine admitted. “Had the nymid not helped, and had we not needed Amia to sense her shaping, I’m not certain I would have agreed. As it is, I do this for you. Not the draasin. Not the artifact. You, Tan.”

  He stared with intent eyes and Tan could not look away. “Thank you, Roine.”

  He snorted. “I make no guarantees about this shaping.”

  Tan turned and faced the aging warrior and saw wrinkles of fatigue lining his eyes. “You will do what you can.”

  “Those who shaped this lake were much more powerful than I,” Roine said. “And I am tired.” His shoulders sagged as he spoke and he lowered his head. “Tannen,” he continued, using his full name, “I am no longer Theondar. What we must do, our task—finding the artifact—is more important than freeing the draasin.”

  “Roine, you will always be Theondar.”

  The warrior smiled a sad smile. “There is more to Theondar than you know.”

  Tan looked over at his shoulder at Amia. She only shook her head, knowing the question needed to be asked. “If the draasin are elementals, they can’t be trapped like this. There is something wrong about it. They are not like the lisincend, they are not twisted.” He said the word, thinking of the nymid. “The draasin are elementals, a natural part of the world. And they suffer, Roine. Amia feels it. I feel it.” He met Roine’s hard eyes. “If you could feel what I feel, could feel the…enormity…of what’s settled into my mind, you’d understand.”

  “I’m not sure Theondar could have even done this, Tan,” he said softly. “But I’ll try.” Roine unsheathed his sword and set its point into the ice. “The only advantage we have is that we try to destroy this shaping, not replicate. This is easier.” He grunted. “Slightly.”

  Roine reached a hand to the sky and closed his eyes. A slow pressure of a shaping built. Tan’s ears popped as he watched Roine. Roine’s face was peaceful, his mouth slack, and his hair fluttered in wind that only he felt. His left hand held tightly to the hilt of his sword.

  Tan had never truly seen Roine’s sword. Carvings upon the blade curled up the flat edge of the sword and continued along the guard and up into the hilt. He recognized a few of the symbols from the golden box Roine had carried, though he did not know their meaning. Strange swirls linked with geometric shapes. Among it all were figures twisting into a flowing shape.

  The pressure in Tan’s head pulsed unbearably. His eyes lifted from Roine’s sword and looked at the old warrior. His face had a tight and pained expression now. Roine’s raised right hand formed a fist and energy coursed through him that Tan could almost see.

  The pain became unbearable.

  Then Roine stumbled. Tan started forward, reaching for him, and put an arm around his waist to prop him up while falling forward himself. Tan put his free hand out and grabbed on to the pommel of Roine’s sword, and was able to stop the fall and push himself upright again.

  Sound and color exploded in hi
s head. Tan’s vision blurred, swimming. Nausea incapacitated him. The wind whipped around him, a sudden blast of cold northern air, and the ice beneath his feet heaved. Still the pressure built.

  Tan screamed, no longer able to hold it back. A huge crack of lightning streaked from the sky and slammed into the ice at the center of the lake.

  Roine slipped again and Tan followed him down. Roine turned his head and looked at Tan, his expression unreadable. “That’s all I can do.” His set his head back and closed his eyes. “Now we must wait.”

  The frigid ice beneath them started to melt, turning his backside wet and cold. He felt exhausted, drained inexplicably, but still pushed up and stood, dragging Roine off the ice to lay over by Amia.

  Roine mouthed something wordlessly without opening his eyes.

  Tan dropped heavily next to Amia. She rolled onto her side and met his gaze. “Something has changed.”

  Tan let his focus wander, searching the draasin. A sense of excitement exuded from the creature. A sense of something enormous within his mind stretching, as if no longer confined. He broke the connection and opened his eyes, nodding to Amia.

  They waited.

  Long moments passed with only the steady cracking of ice. The sun shifted in the sky, dipping toward the horizon as it set, coloring the sky orange and blood red. Wind fluttered from the upper mountains. Roine didn’t move next to them, completely exhausted as he recovered from the energy of his shaping.

  Then the ice groaned loudly and split with a thunderous crack.

  A dark gash ran across the surface of the lake, splitting wide into an icy cavern. Slowly, steadily, Tan felt something crawling its way to the surface.

  He was unsure if he sensed the movement in his mind or if he felt it rumbling through the earth.

  The rumbling echoed louder, finally splitting the ice again. The surface exploded outward as an impossibly long, serpent-shaped creature crawled up from the water. Massive spikes steamed from his back. The creature turned and stared at Tan with eyes dancing with fire, before looking away, sliding over the ice and toward the far shore.