Light of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 10) Read online

  Could he use spirit on the bond?

  The connection to Honl remained, even if he could barely detect his elemental.

  Tan pushed the wind bond through that connection and then added spirit, sending that through the bond to Honl as well.

  Sudden awareness of Honl surged.

  Maelen. How is it that you reach me?

  Where are you, Honl?

  You should not be here, Maelen. Dangerous, even for me.

  I have found the wind bond. And the spirit bond.

  Honl didn’t answer at first. You should not be here, Maelen.

  I need your help. The darkness attacked again. Two bindings have failed, and only a third remains.

  You have discovered the bindings. That is good.

  Where is the third?

  I am with the third.

  We need to make certain that it does not fail. We need to keep the binding safe, or the darkness will return.

  The binding is safe, Maelen.

  Are you certain?

  The binding is safe, Honl repeated.

  There was something about the way that Honl said it that left Tan feeling less than comfortable. Partly it was the way that he was submerged in their connection, tied with spirit and wind so that he could even reach Honl, but partly it was the comment.

  If you knew of the bindings, why did you not return?

  Maelen, I do not know how long this connection will remain. Learn what you can about the ancient gods. That is the key to knowing what must be done.

  What do you mean by the ancient gods? What’s wrong, Honl?

  This connection leaves me exposed. Please. Do not maintain it any longer.

  Exposed? Are you in danger?

  No more than I have ever been. Please, Maelen.

  I can help.

  You are helping. Be the Shaper of Light. That is how you can help.

  It was the same term that Light used, the same that the darkness had used for him, but Tan didn’t know what it meant. I don’t understand what that is. How can I be this shaper when I don’t know what I am to do?

  Don’t fear, Maelen. The third binding is secure. I will remain to ensure it stays that way.

  Tan had a sense of cold, and a flash of white, something like snow or ice, that faded as Honl attempted to sever the connection.

  He debated resisting, holding onto it, but what if doing so put Honl in more danger? Harming his bonded was not what he wanted, but he feared for his bond, for his friend.

  Reluctantly, Tan released the connection.

  As he did, there was another surge, this of immense power that attempted to reach through the bond, unable to reach him before fading.

  Where was Honl?

  Someplace cold. The sense of snow or ice told Tan that. A mountain top? What mountain range would Honl have gone where Tan wouldn’t be able to reach him? Not the Gholund, or even anyplace within the continent. Had he been there, Tan would have found him.

  Then where?

  Tan hadn’t taken the time to explore and search other lands, though Asgar had once suggested there were others. And it would be someplace far enough away that Tan couldn’t detect him, but also someplace where he might be in danger.

  He considered reconnecting to Honl but didn’t want to risk his friend.

  No, he would do as Honl suggested. Search for understanding about the ancient gods. See if he could learn what he needed to become the Shaper of Light.

  And then?

  Tan didn’t know. Maybe then he would try to reach Honl again.

  Yet he had a nagging worry that Honl needed his help more than the elemental let on. As a wind elemental, before spirit had been added, Honl had been attacked by kaas and nearly destroyed. But in his current form, bonded to spirit as well as to wind, he had changed, and that change allowed him to speak, and to take a more solid shape. Had Honl made a mistake while in his current form? Had he exposed himself in some way to danger that he hadn’t expected?

  Tan wished answers were easy. He would continue to search, not only through the journals the Utu Tonah had left, but now he had something else to look into. He would find what he needed about the ancient gods. That might be easier than anything else he had done. The Aeta kept records through their travels, and that might be something that Amia could help with.

  And then what?

  Then Honl wanted him to learn how to be the Shaper of Light.

  He would need help. Light would need to provide guidance if she managed to learn enough. And maybe he could find something in the Records that might help.

  Turning away from the tower, awareness of Honl flitted through the bond, and then disappeared again, almost as if Honl wanted him to know that he was still there and that he was still safe. But if he were really safe, then Tan should be able to reach him all the time, and he shouldn’t have to reach through the spirit bond, and wind bond, to reach him.

  If Honl knew the location of the third binding, how much longer before the darkness attacked there? How much longer before the darkness managed to free itself completely from the bindings? How much danger was his friend in?

  4

  The Ancient Gods

  “I don’t know much about the ancient gods,” Amia had said when he sat next to her in the library. She held Alanna, clutched to her chest, cradling her carefully. “The People learned there were deities other places worshiped, much like the kingdoms and their focus on the Great Mother, but I don’t know about ancient gods.”

  Tan took a sip of spiced wine, trying to relax his mind. Since speaking to Honl, he continued to feel he needed to do more than he was, and had to resist the urge to go after him. “He said ancient gods. He was specific about that.”

  She patted Alanna, shifting her so that she could cradle her better. Their daughter looked around, her bright blue eyes seeming to take in everything around her. “There is the Great Mother. Some would call her a god. Incendin worships the goddess Issa. They’re probably the most spiritual of all places, though others have their own versions of their gods. In Doma, they view the Stormfather as a deity. Chenir calls on Grotha. To the Aeta, they all are part of the same.”

  Tan hadn’t heard of these other deities. “Incendin is spiritual?” That might be the most surprising of anything that he’d learned.

  Amia smiled. “Very much so.”

  “Would those gods be considered ancient gods?” Tan asked.

  Amia shrugged. “I don’t know if they’re ancient. I know that Incendin has worshiped Issa many years.”

  And so he traveled to Incendin, riding a lightning shaping, carrying Light on his shoulders. She was determined to come with him, unwilling to remain behind. In some ways, Tan thought it would be helpful to have Light with him. She might absorb knowledge from those in Incendin, and they might learn from her. But there was a risk in having her come with him as well. Risk that came from her uniqueness, something some in Incendin might be interested in taking advantage of.

  When he arrived, he stopped outside the Fire Fortress, staring up at the black stone. Heat from the massive shaped flames coming off the uppermost towers radiated around him, filling the air. This was a place of much shaping power, a place that had once terrified him. Now he did not fear it as he once would have, but then, he still knew to be cautious here.

  Fire burns brightly in these lands, Light said.

  This is Incendin. They claim fire the most.

  Light licked his cheek, and he wiped it away with a chuckle.

  Tan stood outside the entrance to the Fire Fortress and waited. Before making his way to Incendin, he had sent a shaping through the summoning rune to Cora, but there was no way to shape intent. That he sent through the fire bond to Enya, hoping that the draasin would share with her bonded what Tan needed. But Enya and Cora had a strained bond, one that was different than what Cianna shared with Sashari, and what Tan had once shared with Asboel.

  A wide door opened, moving slowly on a shaping of fire. Flames surged from within, and heat rad
iated outward. Tan had been inside the Fire Fortress before but forgot how almost unbearably hot it could be inside.

  Tan expected Cora to emerge through the door, but instead he was greeted by Fur. The massive lisincend practically filled the doorway, his body alone nearly enough to block the heat and prevent it from escaping. His reddish gaze turned from Tan to Light, before he nodded.

  “You summoned Corasha Saladan, warrior of the kingdoms.”

  Tan frowned. Had something happened to Cora? If something had, wouldn’t he have heard through the fire bond? “I summoned Cora. Is she no longer within the Fire Fortress?”

  Fur loosed a deep rumble, a throaty call that built with a shaping of fire as well. “She is of the Sunlands.”

  “She is. But she is a warrior.”

  Fur grunted. “The kingdoms and the Sunlands have completed their time working together. We have served as you asked, and there is no reason for ongoing conversations.”

  Tan smiled at that. “I thought you would be interested in maintaining conversations with the kingdoms, Fur. The barrier is gone. Par-shon is defeated. What do you want other than peace?”

  He blinked and nodded to Light. “Peace. What do you know of peace?”

  “I would understand more about the Sunlands. That is why I called to Cora.”

  Fur tipped his head as if listening to something. “Kaas tells me that others have joined the bond. I do not feel them the way kaas does, but I detect something.”

  “Draasin.” When Fur’s eyes widened, Tan went on. “I found a clutch of draasin eggs.”

  “And the draasin agreed to hatch them?”

  “Not the draasin. I hatched them.”

  Fur sniffed. “You are but a man. A powerful shaper, to be sure, but a man cannot bring draasin hatchlings into this world. Many have tried, and failed.”

  The comment surprised Tan, and the dismissal made something clear to him that he hadn’t expected. They have draasin eggs, don’t they? he asked Light.

  The elemental slipped her tongue out and then ran it across his cheek. They have seen other eggs, Maelen.

  Tan smiled inwardly. If there were more eggs, other than only those in Par, then Tan would have to find a way to help hatch them as well. “I am a powerful shaper,” Tan agreed, “and connected to the fire bond. That is why I was able to hatch the draasin.”

  “And this? What is this creature?”

  Tan patted Light. “She was once draasin, but no longer.”

  “That is no draasin,” Fur said.

  “As I said, she was draasin, but no longer.”

  The massive lisincend stared at Tan for a moment. “You may enter the Fire Fortress.”

  Fur led him up a narrow stair that wound through the fortress, climbing high in the tower. He didn’t stop at any of the landings, moving quickly enough that Tan didn’t have the opportunity to stop and see what else might be within the fortress. When he’d come here before, he had seen dungeons where Fur kept other twisted lisincend confined, and he’d seen the top of the tower, where the massive shaping built. Now that the lisincend were no longer twisted in fire, Tan could feel the flows of the shaping they used and could make out the intricate shape of the powerful fire shaping.

  “Where are you taking me?” he asked.

  “You asked to learn about the Sunlands,” Fur said.

  “And this is how you will show me?”

  Fur stopped and guided him off the stairs, onto a level high in the fortress. “Were anyone else to ask, I would not. That it is you…” Fur didn’t finish. He stopped in front of a simple door made of a dark metal that glowed softly from shaped heat.

  Everything around him glowed with shaped energy, some more strongly than others. Through the fire bond, Tan felt the way the shapings traced through the metal, through the door itself, and marveled at the power. This was a shaping done entirely for decoration. The shaping seemed designed to demonstrate the control and the power of the shaper, and Tan noted that whoever controlled the shaping had incredible strength.

  “Is this yours?” he asked Fur of the shaping. He could imagine Fur with such power, but Fur had always preferred shear strength over some of the delicate flows that Tan noted here.

  “This is not mine, warrior. This is the San.”

  The door opened, and an elderly man wearing a simple white robe stood in the doorway. Wire-framed glasses hung on his nose, and he peered through them, noting first Fur, and then Tan. He held a book clutched in his hands.

  “My San,” Fur said and then bowed.

  Tan felt a moment of shock. Fur never deferred to anyone, and certainly not another shaper, but here he seemed to, waiting for this man to speak, keeping his eyes lowered to the ground.

  “Fur,” the man said warmly. “You do not have to fear coming to me.”

  Fur flicked his gaze up before returning to look back at the ground. “This one has questions about the Sunlands, my San. He is the one—”

  “He is the one who helped you. I know him, Fur.”

  Tan looked at the man. The man knew him, but Tan didn’t know this man.

  “He seeks Corasha Saladan,” Fur went on.

  The man’s eyes narrowed slightly, the warmth fading as his expression hardened, but then that disappeared as if it had never been. “You may leave him with me,” the man said. “May Issa light your way.”

  Fur nodded and glanced at Tan before striding down the hall. As he did, his back slowly straightened, as if getting farther from this man helped.

  “Corasha is unavailable,” the San said, pulling Tan’s attention to him.

  “Why does Fur fear you?” Tan asked.

  The San pushed his glasses up on his nose and motioned for Tan to enter his room. “Fear might be a strong term for that one, don’t you think?”

  Tan entered the room and was surprised to find that it was comfortably appointed. A plush rug spread across the ground. A few paintings hung on the walls. A basin rested near the corner, and a pitcher of water sat alongside it. Through water sensing, Tan knew that it was surprisingly cool.

  The San motioned Tan to take a seat in one of the plain wooden chairs facing the hearth. In some ways, it reminded Tan of the library in the estate, only on a smaller scale.

  “Perhaps fear is a strong term for Fur,” Tan agreed. He had never known the lisincend to fear anything, even when he probably should have. “Deference, then.”

  The San poured a glass of water and handed it to Tan before taking a seat next to him. “You seem to know him well.”

  “I don’t know that anyone can know the lisincend well,” Tan said.

  The San pressed his hands together, keeping the thin book clasped between them. “Issa grants us a great connection to her in the Sunlands, but some have needed a greater connection than what she offers easily. Those who embraced fire once were set apart. And Fur sat over them all. They are blessed by Issa in the way that they serve, but they were never able to serve easily. You changed that, Maelen.”

  Tan nodded, thinking about how hard it had been for him to draw the lisincend back to fire. The shaping had weakened him and had taken every bit of his ability, but that had been shaping both lisincend and the hounds. He had always thought that they were tied together, that the lisincend had somehow created the hounds, but that wasn’t the case at all. Tan hadn’t discovered whether the hounds were the creation of the ancient shapers or not, but had learned that they were elementals, tied to both fire and earth, and powerful in a way that he would never have known.

  The San studied him, waiting.

  And Tan only now realized that he had referred to him as Maelen. “You speak to the elementals,” he said. Tan reached for the fire bond, searching for which elemental that this man might have bonded, but didn’t detect anything.

  The San tipped his head. “I serve Issa,” he said simply.

  Tan leaned back. Wasn’t this the reason that he had come? He wanted to find out about Issa, and about the ancient gods that Incendin might still serve
. He thought that Cora would be the one to help teach him, but perhaps Fur had brought him to a better person, some sort of priest.

  “The Sunlands suffered for many years before you healed them,” the San said.

  “They did what was necessary,” Tan answered. He understood why fire shapers of Incendin had embraced fire, even if he didn’t agree with what had come of it. They had done what they thought necessary in order to protect Incendin from Par-shon. As hard as it might be to admit, Tan knew that without the lisincend, Par-shon might have overpowered Incendin long ago, and the kingdoms wouldn’t have been strong enough to withstand the attack. In that way, Incendin had stood as a barrier against the Utu Tonah.

  The San leaned back and rested his book on his lap. “There are not many outside of the Sunlands who feel the same.”

  “Cora helped me understand,” Tan said. “And I know what it’s like to be pulled into fire, to embrace it so closely that you can feel the way that it burns, that you know the way that it courses through you.” There were times when Tan still saw as he had when he’d nearly become one of the lisincend, looking at the world through orange and red, as he saw everything in shades of fire. The draasin sight had been much like that, but then the draasin were pure fire, not twisted.

  “You embraced fire?” the San asked.

  “Not intentionally. I tried to pull fire away to help those I cared about. In doing so, I drew it into myself.”

  The San touched his temple with two fingers of one hand. “You were healed. None who embrace fire have ever been healed.”

  “I don’t think I embraced it the same way as your lisincend,” Tan answered. Fire had twisted him, and now he knew that had he remained in that form, he likely would have become one of the lisincend, unable to control the passions of fire. But Amia had been there for him, and she had helped guide him to water, where the nymid granted him their protection.

  “You are an interesting man, Maelen.”

  “For you to use that title means that you speak to one of the elementals.”

  “I speak to Issa,” the San said.

  “Tell me about Issa.”

  The San tapped his fingers on the book he held. “I do not think that you need me to share the secrets of Issa, Maelen. You speak to her, though you may not know her the same way.”