Changed by Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 3) Read online

  Tan remembered how the shaping had felt as it settled on him. He had run to the water, hoping the nymid would somehow help protect him from the shaping, but they had not answered. Not until he managed to free himself from the shaping had he been able to reach the nymid.

  “What was it like?” Tan asked.

  Roine’s eyes took on a pained expression and he bit his top lip. “Like your mind was no longer your own. The things I did—the shapings I worked—they weren’t mine.”

  Tan wondered how difficult it had been to convince Roine to attack Lacertin. They already practically hated each other for things that happened decades ago; would it really have taken much effort to convince Roine to attack him?

  Roine took a deep breath and considered the other shapers.

  Other than Master Ferran, Tan recognized Alan, the wind shaper who had known his mother. What would Alan say now that they knew his mother lived? Would he care?

  A fire shaper, Seanan, crouched away from most of the others. He fidgeted with his hands and didn’t look at anyone. Tan remembered him eagerly attacking the draasin, sending lances of flames at the fire elemental. The other kingdom fire shaper, a wisp of a woman with deep brown eyes and bright red hair named Cianna, sat close to Seanan. Neither said anything.

  A tall water shaper, Nel, watched the fire shapers, studying them suspiciously. The others glanced over at them as well, eyes narrowing each time they did.

  “Is it always like that?”

  Roine followed the direction of Tan’s gaze and saw him staring at the fire shapers. “Since the last Incendin war,” Roine said. “Fire shapers have always been different. Most fire shapers come from Nara, which is different than the rest of the kingdoms. Hot and arid. More like Incendin in that way. Fire shapers haven’t always been set apart, only screened differently than others. There has always been the fear that Incendin would send a shaper to join the university.”

  “And have they?”

  Roine shook his head. “Not in all the time I’ve been there.”

  “Why do you think that is?” Amia asked.

  Roine shrugged. “Probably because they learn more from their own shapers than they ever could learn from the university. After seeing some of the fire shapings Lacertin managed, I can’t imagine what else he’s learned during his time in Incendin.”

  “Was Lacertin a fire shaper first?” Tan asked. Roine admitted he was a wind shaper first. It was how he knew Tan’s mother.

  Roine tilted his head. “Is that what he told you?” When Tan shook his head, Roine nodded slowly. “Not something he used to be proud of. Even then, fire shapers had a certain stigma. Coming from Nara will do that.”

  “But shapers come from all over the kingdoms,” Tan said.

  Roine nodded. “For most shapers, that is true enough. You’ll find water shapers from Ter or wind shapers from Vatten.” He looked at Tan. “Or earth sensers from Galen.”

  “I’m more than only an earth senser,” Tan said.

  “We know that now. But your sensing ability is not so rare that I was surprised to find you in Galen. Had you been a fire senser, it would have been different.”

  Tan watched Seanan, who glanced up at times, long enough to catch others watching him, and glared at them. As he did, a shaping built and the air flashed slightly warmer, almost as if he struggled to keep control of his shaping. The other shaper near him did not look up. Instead, she ran the edge of her finger along a piece of bark. Smoke trailed where she touched.

  “Why are fire shapers different?” Tan asked.

  “They weren’t always that way. Fire is different than shaping other elementals. It was the hardest for me to master, and I still can only manage shapings on a large scale, nothing requiring a delicate touch, and certainly nothing like Cianna does so easily.” He nodded toward the woman. “You would have to ask them about why fire is different.”

  “Why do the others treat them differently?” Tan asked.

  Amia answered. “Fear. The others fear another Incendin shaper. If they could be manipulated by archivists, they fear what would happen if Incendin were to send one of their shapers to them.”

  Roine sighed. “Worse than that is the fear they have about what happened to the king.”

  * * *

  They rode mostly silently for the next few days, stopping only to eat and sleep. Between Tan and Master Ferran, they managed to catch enough to eat. Ferran found fruits and edible roots along the way to season the food. The fire shapers cooked what they caught, but did so in silence. Even Amia had fallen quiet.

  As they neared Ethea, a growing awareness of the city pressed on Tan through his earth sensing. He had left the city to help Elle and instead was pulled into something greater. He returned intending to help the king, hoping to free him from the archivist shaping. Only then would Tan feel free to search for the Incendin shapers before they harmed the draasin.

  The small fire shaper, Cianna, nudged her horse toward him. Her red hair hung in a braid down her back that bobbed with each of the horse’s steps. She watched him for a few moments, almost as if waiting for him to say something.

  Amia rode alongside Tan and kept close, keeping a watchful eye on Cianna.

  “You speak to them, don’t you?” she finally asked. She had a soft voice that lilted in a strange accent.

  Tan looked over. “Who?”

  She snorted. Scorn twisted her deep brown eyes. “You ask who. I thought Theondar would teach you better than to feign ignorance.”

  “Theondar doesn’t teach,” Tan said. Neither had Ferran, in spite of his offer.

  “So you are ignorant?” she asked. Her arms crossed over her chest, guiding the horse with her knees.

  Tan didn’t know how to take the comment. Amia laughed. She covered her mouth with her hand. Amusement flowed through the shaped connection.

  Tan studied Amia. At least she found humor in this. Since leaving the place of convergence, she had been so quiet. It worsened the closer they got to Ethea. He turned back to Cianna. “Consider me ignorant.”

  Cianna shifted her horse so she rode closer to Tan. She watched Amia as she did. “I haven’t thanked you for what you did. Probably none of these others have, either. Most are too proud to admit they needed help. Or maybe stupid.”

  Tan blinked in surprise. “Stupid?”

  “See?” Cianna said. “Stupid. Can’t even realize what I’m saying. Does he need your help finding your mouth or can he at least manage that much on his own?”

  Amia flushed slightly and shrugged.

  Cianna laughed again, her voice a husky rasp. Her horse practically touched Tan’s now.

  Tan shifted in his saddle, uncomfortable with how close Cianna was. Heat radiated from her, but not unpleasantly like with the lisincend. “What do you want to know about the draasin?”

  Cianna tilted her head, looking over at Amia. “Maybe not quite as stupid as I thought.” Her accent made the words come out in a singsong. She turned to Tan. “How do you do it?”

  If this was how all the fire shapers spoke, it was no wonder other shapers treated them differently. Not her accent—Tan found that more intriguing than anything else—but the direct and blunt way she spoke to him. “I don’t really know how I do it. I was trying to speak to the nymid when it sort of happened.”

  Cianna leaned toward him, practically tipping out of her saddle. Her face was close enough now that he could feel the warmth of her breath. “Wait. You speak to nymid, too?”

  “I can speak to all of the elementals,” he admitted. With Cianna, being direct seemed best.

  “Great Mother,” she swore. She leaned back in her saddle and looked up toward Roine, who rode alongside Master Ferran. Since leaving the place of convergence, they had ridden together more often. “Theondar knows, then?”

  Tan nodded.

  Cianna grunted. “Figures he’d keep you for himself. Probably thinks he can learn to speak to the elementals.”

  “He didn’t think freeing the draasin wa
s a good idea.”

  Cianna shot Tan a look of amusement. “Of course not.”

  “You’re a fire shaper. You don’t think it was a good idea to free the draasin?”

  “That’s not what I said.” She leaned even closer.

  Amia watched Cianna, eyes fixed on how close she rode to Tan. Amusement changed into a flash of irritation surging through their connection.

  “I said Theondar wouldn’t want the draasin free. Too much unknown. Most fear fire when they should embrace it. Fire is as much a part of the world as water and wind and dirt.” Smoke trailed from her hands where they gripped the reins. “Tell me. What’s it like?”

  Tan thought of the first time he spoke to the draasin, the way his mind had practically exploded. Only through a force of will had he managed to push Asboel back in his mind. “Like your mind is being consumed.”

  Tan regretted the answer as soon as he said it. Like the other shapers, the archivist had shaped Cianna.

  Instead of anger, she nodded. “Or course. That’s how it is with fire. You have to know your limits or it will consume you. Might be why so few fire sensers attempt a shaping, even when they have the potential.” She practically touched him now. “So. Where did they go?”

  The sense of Asboel was distant within his mind. Wherever he was, Asboel wanted to be left alone. Tan would honor that for now, but soon—when Tan had a better sense of shaping and after the king had been healed—he would need the draasin to hunt lisincend.

  “Not going to say?” Cianna said. “That’s fine. Probably best anyway. Safer that way.”

  “For who?” Tan asked. He couldn’t decide if he liked Cianna or not.

  She brought one leg up so now she leaned way out of the saddle. Her eyes drifted toward the front of the line of horses. “For them.”

  She glanced again at Amia with a grin and then dropped back into her saddle.

  As she started forward, Tan said, “Wait.”

  Cianna turned and looked at him. Near her, Seanan glanced back. Tan realized he had been listening the entire time.

  “Why did you go?” Tan asked. If Cianna was blunt with him, he would ask the question that troubled him. “Why were you willing to attack the draasin?”

  Seanan blinked and turned away, trying again to look like he hadn’t listened.

  Cianna let her horse drift back to him. She bit her top lip before answering. “Nara is a hard place. Not like your Galen.”

  Tan frowned. “What kind of answer is that?”

  Cianna spurred her horse forward. “The only one you need.”

  4

  Ride through Ethea

  Roine had elected to rest outside the city another night, wanting to reach Ethea during the daylight. The master shapers all seemed to understand, though Tan did not until they actually reached the outskirts of the capital. As they reached Ethea in the early morning, the stink hanging over it became nearly cloying from the lingering scent of burning bodies and buildings destroyed in the attack.

  A shimmering fog draped over the city. Strange, considering the cool breeze blowing through. It took Tan a while to realize that it wasn’t fog but the smoke from still-smoldering fires in spite of the weeks since the attack.

  “How is it they still burn?” he asked as they crossed through the city’s outer wall.

  All around him were signs of the destruction worked by the Incendin shapers. Places where fires had burned, leaving charred wooden buildings or crumbling stone. Ash and soot stained everything. A few people milled about in the street, but not nearly as many as Tan would have expected. Most moved hurriedly, carrying damaged clothes or other stacks of goods through the street, still attempting to recover from what had happened.

  Cianna and Amia rode on either side of him, leaving Tan feeling uncomfortably flanked by the two smaller women, both such skilled shapers. It was almost as if they formed a sort of protection around him.

  The other shapers left as soon as they reached the city. Only Cianna stayed with them. Tan hadn’t figured out why, but the small fire shaper seemed to have taken an interest in him. Or maybe her interest was more in the draasin.

  “Incendin shapings,” Cianna said. She pulled on the black leather overcoat she wore, shifting it to drape over her legs. “Or maybe draasin. Difficult to extinguish either way.”

  “I thought the shapers took care of the fires before they left.”

  Tan hadn’t stuck around the city to observe what happened. His focus had been on doing what he needed to help Elle. Hopefully the udilm had returned her to her people. Hopefully she was still safe.

  “Controlled them. Kept them from spreading. That is all that can be done. You know fire,” she admonished him. “Sense what they did.”

  Tan focused on the smoke drifting from just inside the wall. As he did, he became aware of the warmth. It pulled on him, drawing him, almost as if asking him to shape the fire larger again. He had to fight the urge as he pushed through the shaping, reaching for the embers he sensed still smoldered. Then he understood: The shaping was powerful. Too much energy would be needed to put the fire out completely, but in time it would disappear, burning itself out.

  Earth and water shapings surrounded the fire. Even the air around the fire had been shaped still, keeping it from feeding the coals. Contained but not extinguished.

  Tan focused on the fire. With an effort, he asked earth to soften, pull the remaining coals deep underground before closing atop them. At the same time, he pulled on his connection to the draasin to draw away the remaining energy from the fire, pulling it through him.

  Weakness washed over him and he sagged in the saddle.

  Cianna laughed. “See? Powerful shapings. You probably weren’t even able to modify the shaping.”

  He didn’t bother to correct her. He hadn’t actually shaped anything. What he did involved the elementals, not any shaping of his own. Even when he thought he’d managed shaping when attacking Incendin, it had been the elementals helping. Learning to shape on his own was part of the reason he had returned to Ethea.

  She continued to laugh as they worked through the streets. Patches of the city were unharmed, as if the shapings had missed them. Other parts of the city were entirely destroyed.

  Tan hadn’t realized the damage was so widespread. Could all of this have been from Enya—the youngest of the draasin—or had the Incendin fire shapers been a part? If this had been only one of the draasin—and the youngest and smallest of them—what would happen if all the draasin attacked?

  For the first time, he had to wonder if maybe Roine was right. How dangerous had the world become now that the draasin had returned?

  “Think of what it would be like without them,” Amia said, leaning toward him.

  She spoke softly, pitching her words for his ears only, but Cianna smiled tightly and turned to study him. She pursed her lips but didn’t say anything.

  “They needed to be free,” Tan agreed. They were elementals trapped against their will at the bottom of the lake. Even had they gone willingly, one thousand years frozen within the lake had been long enough. “But what if they come again? What if this happens somewhere else, someplace where there aren’t any shapers to protect them?”

  “Do you think they would?” Amia asked.

  Tan thought of Asboel, of the pride he took in hunting, but the creature Tan knew wouldn’t do this, not without reason. And when the youngest had attacked, the archivists had used Amia’s shaping, twisting it to coerce the youngest draasin into attacking the city.

  “Some think the draasin were always deadly,” Cianna said. She had released her reins and once again guided the horse with her knees. “But only the ancients know what it was like when draasin filled the skies. Even then, cities grew and flourished. The other elementals are different but not necessarily harmless. Udilm has claimed ships traveling the seas. Golud has sucked entire buildings underground. And ara…” She snorted. “Who is to know with ara? They say she is too fickle to care.”

 
; He hadn’t thought the wind elemental fickle, but certainly difficult to connect to. There was a playfulness to ara that wasn’t there with the other elementals.

  “To them, we are nothing particularly special,” Roine said. His gaze settled on Cianna.

  “Theondar,” she said, tipping her head. “You claim to know the mind of the elementals?”

  He glanced at Tan. “Few enough speak to the elementals, let alone claim to know how they think. But how can we grasp the mind of the elemental? It would be like an ant trying to understand us.”

  Cianna barked out a laugh. Roine stared at her. “Is that really what you think, Theondar?” she asked. “That we’re ants?”

  Roine shrugged.

  “Have you ever gone out of your way to help an ant?” Amia asked.

  Roine turned to her. “You think the elementals help if it doesn’t serve them?”

  “Yes,” she answered simply.

  Roine sat taller in his saddle. “I wish I believed that to be true.”

  Cianna frowned at him. “I liked you better when you played as Roine.”

  He shook his head. “We’ll reach the palace soon.” Roine made a point of not looking at Cianna. “And I’ll need you to begin freeing the king’s mind.”

  “And if he hasn’t been shaped?” she asked.

  “Why would the archivists shape us but not the king?” Roine asked.

  Amia met his eyes. “How can you be so certain he didn’t know what they did?”

  “Then you will learn that as well.” Roine directed his attention to Tan. “You should stay away from the palace until this is done.”

  Sunlight sliced through the smoke and played across Amia’s golden hair. One hand touched her neck, running around the silver band there.

  “You will keep her safe?” Tan asked.

  Amia fixed Roine with a hard expression. “He will not have to.”

  Roine stared at her. “Careful…”

  “No, Roine. I will help, but if there is any sign of danger, I will not hesitate to do what I need.”