Fortress of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 4) Read online

  Amia needed him now more than before.

  He focused on saa and created a shaping of fire. It bubbled before fizzling out, drifting away harmlessly. The sense of saa filled him, but he couldn’t use it. Tan tried wind, but the same thing happened.

  The man tipped his head and flashed his jagged teeth. “No shaping. You will understand.”

  Tan stared at the door. How long did he have? How long did Amia have before they tried to separate him from her? And what would they do to her when they did?

  22

  Working with Water

  Tan didn’t move for hours. Shadows began to creep over the courtyard, leaving it in long shadows. So far, the only person to come had thrown open a hidden hatch to toss food into the courtyard. The others had scrambled over to it, greedily snatching whatever scraps they could find. Tan hadn’t moved.

  Each time he attempted a shaping, the same thing happened. Worse, pain began in the back of his head, at first slowly, but now building to the point where it couldn’t be ignored. The Utu Tonah tried to take his bonds.

  Not just his elemental bonds would be severed, but the connection he shared with Amia.

  His breathing became erratic and he did not fight it. Not this time. Anger simmered in him. Tan felt it as a hot, physical thing. Maybe his mother had been right. Maybe fire had changed something about him, leaving him more like the lisincend. But if it would help him keep Amia safe from Par-shon, he would use that anger and let it fill him.

  He stared at the runes. Through the rage, they seemed to shimmer and writhe, almost as if alive. They were the reason he was cut off from Amia. It was because of them that he couldn’t reach Honl and Asboel. It was because of them that Amia would suffer.

  Tan reached within himself and found the well of spirit. This time, he plunged into it, wrapping himself in the sense of it. He pulled each of the elements to him, and rather than binding them together, he used them to increase what he could draw of spirit. Pain flashed through his mind briefly but then was gone, burned away by the spirit shaping.

  The runes taunted him.

  With a burst of shaping, he sent spirit mixed with each of the elements at the runes. They pushed against his shaping, as if made to hold him back. Tan focused, drawing on saa and wyln and reaching toward the earth and the water in the air all around him. Powered by spirit, the elementals answered, almost as if drawn to him, like saa drawn to fire. With the shaping, he pushed through the runes.

  There came a loud crack and the runes stopped glowing.

  Tan released his shaping. Weakness flooded him, but the elementals refilled him, granting him their strength. He turned toward the door. Amia!

  The sending went out like a booming shout. He expected pain, but there was none. Only silence. Had the bond already been lost?

  The anger surged through him anew. Tan pulled on spirit, drawing on the power of the elementals, filling himself much as he had once filled the artifact. He pressed this shaping through him, through Amia, forging the bond between them and solidifying it. No one would sever his connection to her.

  She sighed. He felt or heard it, no longer certain of which.

  Be ready. I am coming.

  Tan shifted his focus to Honl. He had asked the wind elemental to help but didn’t know if he had answered. Maybe he had been unable, severed from his connection to Tan. The sense of him was fading. There was no pain, not as there had been with Asboel when the shapers tried to separate the bond.

  As he had with Amia, he sent a surge of spirit through the connection. It was thready, weak, but Tan pulled from stores deep inside of him, augmenting them with power lent by the elementals of this place. Part of him wondered why they would help, but the bond the Utu Tonah forced upon them was not of their choosing. He suspected the elementals suffered with what was done to them.

  The connection to Honl strengthened, then surged in his mind. Help Amia, Tan said.

  The wind elemental gusted away, suddenly freed.

  Tan focused a shaping on the obsidian walls around him, meaning to create a way to freedom. In spite of the strength coursing through him, the shaping failed. The only way to freedom would be through the doors.

  And now the Utu Tonah would know that Tan was not confined as expected.

  The Doman man stood watching Tan with wide eyes. “How did you…” He tipped his head. “A warrior? Could it be? None for decades, and none with such power. No no no. Not like that. Not with spirit.” He spoke mostly to himself, twisting around as he did, practically dancing.

  The man knew of warriors and somehow knew that Tan could shape spirit. What else might he know? Could he help Tan find Amia? Could he help him get free from Par-shon?

  “Can you shape?” Tan asked.

  The man closed his eyes. A sickly smile crossed his face. Then he nodded. “Water returns. Not as strong as before the separation, but it is there.”

  “Good. We’re getting out of here.”

  The man looked at the walls and waved a crooked hand. “Out? Out? Where do you think we can go? These walls confine. There is no out.”

  Tan tipped his head toward the doors. “We go out the way we came in.”

  “And face the Utu Tonah? You might be a warrior, but you’re a fool.”

  “I’m a fool,” Tan agreed. “But no longer a trapped fool.”

  Tan started toward the door. As he did, it opened a crack and then smashed open with a shaping of wind. Wes floated in on a gust of wind. He spied Tan and turned to him, an angry expression on his face. The last Tan had seen of him had been when separated from his body during the testing. Wes had been going toward Amia then.

  “He is displeased with what you’ve done here.”

  A spiral of wind caught Tan. Tan pushed out with a shaping of fire, mixing it with water and the wind grew heavier, lowering him to the ground. Tan drew on saa, forming a ball of fire, a shaping he copied from Cianna, and flipped it at Wes.

  His eyes grew wide as Tan pushed it with increasing speed augmented by a wind shaping. Wes lifted to the air, flying above the fireball that crashed harmlessly into the door in an explosion of sparks.

  “Not just fire,” Wes whispered.

  Tan breathed in, unable to tell if it was ashi or wyln. Both responded to him. Tan pulled on the power lent by the elementals, mixing it with his own shaping, and lifted to the air to hover before Wes. “Not just fire,” he agreed. “And for me, it’s not stolen.”

  With a silent request, he called to both ashi and wyln, using what he’d learned of speaking to them to ask for their help. He might have only spoken directly to Honl, but the others of the elementals were there, drawn to him by his shaping.

  Had he only been a shaper—had he been unable to reach the elementals—he would not have been able to free himself. Wes might even have been strong enough to stop him. But with their help, the elementals swirled around Wes, separating him from his wind connection.

  His wind shaping faltered and Tan attacked, wrapping him in swirls of fire that pulled him down to the ground. With a tap beside the man’s now-prone shoulder, he sent a shaping through the earth. It separated, pulling Wes inside, wrapping him with bonds that he couldn’t escape.

  Wes glared at him. “He is more powerful than you. He will soon have the bond he desires, and there will be none who can stop him. Then we will destroy Incendin and keep them from ever attacking again.”

  That meant the draasin, Tan was certain.

  “We want the same thing!” Tan shouted.

  Wes didn’t have the chance to answer.

  A powerful water shaping surged from the Doman man and poured into Wes’s mouth, flooding him. Wes’s eyes went wide as he struggled to breathe and failed. He flopped on the ground, confined by the shaping of earth.

  A buzzing drifted past him, swirling through the air, before disappearing.

  Tan looked away from Wes. “Why? There was nothing he could do to us!”

  The man stared proudly at Wes, eyes glaring at the once-bonde
d shaper. “Now there is nothing he could do.” He looked over at Tan. “You think you would have reformed him? You think he would have willingly abandoned his bond? Even if it were possible. Better to let the Great Mother decide his fate.”

  Tan turned away from him in disgust.

  Flames crackled along the edge of the door from his shaping. Others would be coming. He needed to hurry. He glanced over his shoulder at the three who had been trapped with him. Only the Doman seemed to have returned in any meaningful way.

  “Come on,” Tan said. “Grab the others.”

  “There’s nothing left of them. They should stay.”

  Tan thought of how he’d nearly lost his bond to Asboel. To Honl. To Amia. How would he have felt? Would he have survived as long as they had?

  How had his mother survived the loss of her bond before?

  “No,” he decided. “They come.”

  The Doman took another look at Wes before touching both the woman and the other man on the shoulder. They looked at him with blank expressions but followed him through the doorway.

  Lanterns glowed with orange light. Inside this building, Tan’s sense of the elementals faded, suppressed by runes placed along the walls. Was that how the Utu Tonah maintained his power? Others might not be able to shape, but with enough bonds, even the suppression wouldn’t matter.

  Tan found the stairs and hurried down. Amia would be this way, but first, he had to wait near the bottom. They moved slowly, the halting way they walked telling Tan that they were unaccustomed to much activity.

  Power surged somewhere overhead. Was it the Utu Tonah or one of the others? There were too many bound shapers for him to take on by himself. Once he reached Amia and knew that she was safe, he could figure out what they needed to do next. He would have Honl bring her to safety, even if it meant that he remained behind.

  The woman stumbled and slid past him on the stairs.

  Tan lifted her back to her feet. She was light and smelled of stale urine. When she looked at him, there was barely a flash of humanity in her eyes. With more time, he would see what he could learn about her, determine if there was anything he could do to help bring her back. He’d try with the other man as well. The Doman had recovered quickly enough.

  “Warrior!”

  Tan spun. The Doman was lifted in the air on a shaping of combined fire and air. He writhed, kicking at the air, trying and failing to shape. Whatever protections had been placed around the building by the Utu Tonah prevented the Doman from shaping.

  A pair of bonded shapers stood on the top of the steps, looking down at them. Power flowed around them. How many bonds did they have?

  Here in this place, Tan wasn’t sure he would be able to do anything to help, either. He reached for fire and saa, the easiest of the elementals for Tan to reach in this place. Power flowed through him, the fire elemental adding to what Tan could draw. He tried a shaping but like it had in the courtyard, it faltered. He pressed out with even more, drawing from spirit. This solidified his connection to fire.

  Tan drew the flames away from the Doman, pulling them toward himself, but not into himself. He’d made that mistake before, learned what happened when he attempted to draw elemental power into himself. Fire practically begged for him to draw it in, but Tan ignored it and diverted it so that it crashed in a barrage of sparks and sputtering flames along the walls.

  With a quick shot of spirit mixed with fire and air, Tan knocked the shaper to the ground against the nearest rune, shattering it. The man remained unmoving.

  The wind shaper was powerful. More powerful than Wes. Drawing spirit as he did, he could almost see the runes of power glowing through his shirt, as if tattooed on his chest and forming the bond with the elementals. There were two, one for wind and one for…

  Earth surged beneath him, throwing him off his feet.

  Tan landed atop the woman and rolled to the side, afraid that he had crushed her. She blinked and stared up at him with an unchanged glazed expression.

  The steps heaved in another earth shaping. This one was even more focused, drawing more power than the last. Wind mixed with it.

  The runes worked along the walls were designed to keep him from shaping, but spirit allowed him to override them. Could he do the same to the bond marks on the shaper?

  With a shaping of spirit and wind, Tan sent a flicker of power at the rune for wind on the shaper. As it struck the rune, an explosion of air shot came from it, knocking him back. The shaper staggered. Tan didn’t wait for him to attempt another shaping. Wrapping earth and spirit, he sent this toward the other rune. The ground shook and split, knocking the man off his feet.

  The Doman started toward the fallen Par-shon, a shaping already building, the shattered rune freeing him to shape.

  “No!” Tan shouted. He pointed at the fallen shaper. “Can’t you see?”

  “See? I’ve seen far more than you what they will do for power,” the Doman said.

  “The bonds are broken. Without them, he can’t shape anything.”

  The Doman looked at Tan with a haunted expression. “You don’t know what it’s like, warrior. You haven’t seen what they’ve done…”

  Before Tan could react, the Doman sent a shaping of water at the man, drowning him as quickly as he had Wes. The man kicked once and then fell still.

  Tan turned away, sickened, and knelt next to the woman, making a point of ignoring the Doman shaper. “Are you okay?”

  She blinked, nothing more.

  Tan glanced back at the Doman. He helped the other man to his feet and slipped an arm around his waist, helping him down the reminder of the stairs. At the bottom, the man looked at Tan, defiance in his eyes.

  “Where now, warrior?”

  Tan focused on the connection to Amia. She was out there, not far from him. He pointed and started toward the door he indicated. How many more shapers would he have to face before they managed to escape? Once he reached Amia, he would have to get them to safety, if such a thing was possible here. And then?

  They needed to get away. This land was dangerous for shapers. Had Roine known? Had his mother? More than any of the other shapers, Zephra would be in danger.

  Zephra…

  Honl called her name in the back of his mind.

  What is it about Zephra?

  Ara is here. She is here.

  At the door, Tan froze, unable to move. His mother was here? Why would she have come here? What would drive her to this place?

  The same thing that had driven him. Help with Incendin. What had she found when she went to Doma?

  Amia. Is she safe?

  For now.

  And Zephra?

  Honl didn’t answer. Tan thought he might have disappeared, leaving him alone again.

  Honl? What of Zephra?

  Ara will be taken from her.

  23

  A Shaper’s Death

  The Doman stared defiantly at Tan, as if waiting to be chastised for what he’d done. Now that Tan knew his mother was here, he didn’t know what else to do. Was there anything that he could do? He had wanted to get Amia to safety, but now that wouldn’t be enough.

  He shaped the door open and hurried out. Once out in the open, power flooded through him, no longer limited by the runes in the walls. He sensed where Amia hid and ran to her, weaving through the streets. The few out and about gave him a wide berth. Tan doubted he would have long before the Utu Tonah sent shapers with real power after him.

  He pushed the woman he’d brought from the holding area along with him. She didn’t resist, but her steps were stiff and slower than Tan would have liked. He pulled on Honl and lifted her on a shaping of wind, scooting her down the street. He looked over and realized the Doman used water shaping to help the other addled man they’d rescued from the courtyard.

  “What are you looking for?” the Doman asked.

  Tan barely paused to look over at him. “A friend.”

  “Another shaper?” Tan nodded. “They’re probably gone, then
.”

  “She’s not gone,” Tan said. He sensed her, the bond between them vibrant and strong in his mind. How much longer before she wasn’t safe?

  “Are you certain? He prefers to test all shapers. Those with any connection to the elementals are culled, separated. Those who can only shape are killed.”

  That must have been why most failed the testing. What did it do? And how had he known what Tan could do, unless the Utu Tonah was somehow connected to the runes used in the testing.

  “I’m certain,” Tan said.

  They turned a corner that led down a street darkened by the flat roofs stretching over it. He paused at the door he sensed Amia behind and shaped it open. The other side was dark, but his sense of her blazed brightly inside.

  “Amia?” He stormed in, readying a shaping of fire and wind were they needed. Spirit lingered just out of reach, but Tan wouldn’t have to strain to add it if that’s what it took to keep her safe.

  She stepped out of the shadows and looked past him to the others. “Tan? What is this?”

  “There’s no time to fully explain. Are you safe?”

  “I am now. There was violent wind and… that was you, wasn’t it?”

  “It was the elemental. I sent him for you.”

  She stepped up to him, pitching her voice so that only he could hear. “How did you know I was in danger?”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t do more than I did.”

  She bit her lip. “I was forced to shape. I sensed what they intended for me. What they wanted for you.”

  He knew how much that had cost her. After everything she’d been through, the one thing she didn’t want to do was use her shaping against others. And now she’d been forced to do it. He could feel her struggle with her actions, the way they tore at her. Tan wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in a tight embrace.

  As she relaxed, he turned to the Doman. “What’s your name?”

  The man eyed him a moment before answering. “I am Vel. Velthan.”

  He tipped his head toward Amia, who met his eyes. “Can you take Vel and these two? You won’t have to shape anyone again. The wind elemental will keep you safe and take you from here.” Tan glanced around the darkened room. “Where’s the sword?” He thought of what he’d managed with it when facing the shapers the last time. As much as he hated it, he might need it again.