Drowned by Water (The Cloud Warrior Saga) Read online

  The woman snorted. She held her hand out and flicked a streamer of fire from her palm to the tree nearest her. The lowest branches caught the flames and crackled softly as the fire licked up the leaves, tracing toward the topmost branches. Heat pressed out from it.

  “Foolish,” the man admonished. “You only draw attention to yourself.”

  The woman made a point of turning to face him. “Have you seen anyone strong enough to face us?”

  “We saw it.”

  Elle wondered what they might have seen. What would scare shapers from Incendin, come to attack Falsheim? If she managed to escape, she needed to find out when Incendin had learned such control with water. The woman shaping fire didn’t surprise her; Elle had seen too many fire shapers attack in her time. Her home had once nearly been destroyed by a fire shaping similar to what the woman sent along the branches of the tree. But this man’s water shaping was so finely skilled that she couldn’t even writhe free from the bands he’d placed on her wrists to hold her to the ground.

  Unless they had seen some evidence of the water elemental. The nymid had come through the sea; why wouldn’t the udilm? And if the elementals were here, if they had come to help, then maybe Falsheim wouldn’t fall.

  The woman waved a hand dismissively. “That was nothing. They are barely in these lands.”

  They must mean the elemental. Could there be another who spoke to the elementals that would help protect Doma? Considering how long it had been since they had the protections of the elementals, it seemed unlikely, but she had to hope. If the udilm failed them now, Incendin would destroy Falsheim. The capital had stood for centuries, staring out at the sea and standing strong against the threat posed by Incendin all these years.

  “What will you do with her?” the woman asked.

  “She can go with the other or we can throw her to the sea. They like that here.”

  “The sea,” Elle said. At least there she had the hope of the nymid saving her again. She didn’t know if they would respond as they had before, but if these shapers had their way, she might die from something else where the nymid wouldn’t be able to do anything.

  If only she’d learned to master her shaping. If only she’d had the time.

  Only, that wasn’t quite right. She’d had plenty of time. She’d been interested in learning about other aspects of shaping, taking the time to learn about fire and earth and wind when she should have focused only on water. Had she kept her focus narrow, she might have learned enough to protect herself against these shapers. Instead, she was as helpless as a fish dangling from a line.

  The man peered down at her. Something in his eyes flickered with an angry light. Could he have been from Doma once? So many had been taken over the years, what would have stopped Incendin from breeding them, creating a shaper army of their own? He might once have claimed Doma shores as his home, but there was nothing of that left in the hard stare that she saw looking at her.

  “You would like the sea, would you? A sea bride, I think they’re called?” He studied her, sending a shaping of water out toward her. Elle tensed before it reached her and the man smiled. He twisted to stare at the woman. “I think we’ll keep this one here. She could be tested.”

  The fire shaper crouched next to her and ran a hot finger around the sides of her head. Elle bit back a scream, afraid to make any other sound.

  “What did you see?” the fire shaper asked.

  “She knows. She senses water, I think.”

  The woman pinched Elle’s face between two strong fingers. Steam rose from them, twisting and swirling around her cheeks. Pain seared through her flesh. Elle screamed. She couldn’t help it.

  “Water,” the woman breathed. Even her breath was hotter than it should be. “If you’re bonded, we will know.”

  The man grabbed the fire shaper’s wrist and pulled it away. “You think you can determine this on your own? Rashon thought the same. You saw what happened to him.”

  “Rashon was ignorant.”

  “Any less ignorant than you? We need to wait for the others. Then we can test her. Anything else you do will only leave her scarred.”

  “You like scars. You can heal them fine.”

  The man looked over to Falsheim, uncertainty making his face falter. “We should move away from here. The last time was nearly too much for us. When the others return, we’ll be better protected.”

  The woman flicked a streamer of flame toward another tree, sending fire shooting up the bark, wrapping around it. “Let them come.”

  The man grabbed Elle by the ankle, releasing the shaping binding her wrists as he started to pull her along the ground. The fire shaper glanced over at Falsheim before turning her eyes toward the north and Incendin, and following.

  A shaping of thickened water kept Elle from saying anything more. They moved quickly away from the water, moving inland and veering slightly north. The water shaper kept her bound tightly, dragging her with strength that made Elle imagine he shaped earth as he pulled her away from the water and away from the hope—as unlikely as it might be—that the nymid or the udilm might be able to help rescue her.

  She still didn’t know if Ley lived. Between the likelihood that he’d drowned, the shapers who had captured her, and the lisincend she’d seen, Elle didn’t think it mattered. Perhaps it was best for the sea to claim him.

  And what of the rest of Doma? If Falsheim fell, how long before the rest of Doma fell, too? If Incendin found a way to destroy or capture the city, it couldn’t be long before they made their way across the rest of the country. Udilm had truly failed them.

  If only the kingdoms knew what happened. The shapers there might not help—they had enough difficulty, given the attack that Elle had seen in Ethea—but they needed to know that Incendin planned to keep pushing outward.

  The man stopped near a narrow stream running through the countryside. A few smaller trees grew along its shores. He plunged his hands into the water and took a quick drink.

  The fire shaper twisted to stare toward Falsheim. “This is where you would bring her?”

  The water shaper slurped a handful of water from the stream and let it run down his chin. “Were she able to shape water, she would have done so already. I didn’t make her bindings so tight that she couldn’t escape from them. Only tight enough for me to know if she can.”

  “And had she attacked us?”

  “You think one shaper is enough against even you?”

  The fire shaper glanced at Elle. Near the stream, the air was cool and humid, but steam practically rose from the woman’s skin. “She would be a fool to try.”

  The man pushed Elle toward the stream and she rolled nearly to the edge of the water. Her arms splashed into it and she pulled them back, taking a quick drink. If only the nymid were here. She might not be a shaper, but the elemental power could help. It had to help. The elementals had always kept Doma safe. Why would they abandon them now?

  “He should be here soon anyway. Then we can test this one,” the water shaper said.

  “When she fails?”

  The man snorted. “True enough. He knows there haven’t been any bonded found here in years, not outside—”

  “We’ve found the others.”

  The man nodded. “They can be dangerous too, but we need to search out the bonded. Once we trap the free ones, there’s nothing that will keep us from moving inland.”

  The woman gave Elle another harsh look before turning away and making her way toward the tree. Where she ran her finger along the trunk, it blackened, as if she carved something into the bark. At least she didn’t burn it down. Too much fire came out of Incendin already.

  “Why are you doing this?” Elle managed.

  The man leaned toward her. Flint gray eyes locked onto her, fixing her with an expression that bordered on hate. There was nothing of Doma in the way he looked at her. Not now, and probably not ever.

  “These lands were never meant to be yours,” he said.

  “Are y
ou going to take me to Incendin?” Elle asked.

  The man didn’t have a chance to answer. A shaping built. For a moment, Elle thought he might be shaping her, attacking in some fit of rage. But he stood and looked off to the north, recognizing the shaping at nearly the same time.

  “They’ve returned,” the woman said.

  A winged shape became clear in the distance and Elle’s heart sunk. The lisincend.

  8

  Elle dragged herself toward the water as the lisincend swooped toward them. She didn’t have much time before it landed. Once it did, would the shapers begin attacking Falsheim anew, or would they take her with them to Incendin? Maybe they’d force her to watch the attack, leaving her to witness the destruction, as if watching Falsheim burn wasn’t torment enough.

  What had she been thinking, coming here? She hadn’t any ability to stop the lisincend. Even were this the draasin, there would have been nothing she could do.

  The fire shaper shouted something, but Elle missed it. She plunged herself into the stream, dropping into icy water and letting it swirl around her. They might want a shaper, but they wouldn’t have her, even if it meant letting the sea claim her.

  After what she’d done—after how she’d led Ley to his death—she didn’t even deserve to become a sea bride.

  Fire burst around her. Heat pressed on her back, threatening to burn through the thin dress she wore. Elle crawled through the water, ever fearful that the water shaper might throw her from it, but he seemed disinterested in her.

  The stream was stronger than she expected and a current pulled her along, tearing her from the shore and dropping her into the water. Were she closer to the sea, she might have the hope of elemental help, but here, she would have escape on her own. She focused on the way water swirled around her arms and legs, the way it splashed up her nose, into her ears, making the blood in her veins turn cold. Water was life, but water could also be death. She sensed it around her, everywhere, and pushed.

  With a surge, she went shooting forward into the stream, carried by the current. Had she done that? Could that actually have been a shaping from her?

  The water drew her along. Elle let it, not mindful of where it would take her, so long as it was away from the Incendin shapers and the lisincend. She needed time to reach for the nymid, time to ask them to warn Tan. There was no other way she knew to reach him, and Doma needed help.

  The water continued to increase in speed, splashing around her in a violent spray. What she’d thought of as a stream must be something deeper than that, with force enough to carry her along with a vigorous current. Could she have happened upon the Ormt River? It would run through the heart of Falsheim, leading her out of Doma and into the sea, but the Ormt should have been wider than what she’d seen.

  Elle tried kicking to the surface to peer around, but the water dragged her down, determined to hold her in place. She let it drag her.

  Then it slowed. The current pulling her along eased. Loose rock floated around her and mixed with silt from the powerful current. She swam to the surface, suddenly aware that she hadn’t feared drowning while pulled along by the water, that water had kept her alive this time, not the elemental power.

  Elle poked her head above the surface. Falsheim was close, nearly upon her. Massive walls stretched around her. The flames she’d seen from the distance still burned, but with less power and intensity. The air stunk from fire and it took a moment for her to realize what she smelled. She dragged herself out of the water short of the city, not willing to let the river carry her all the way in.

  How had the current carried her so quickly? That couldn’t have been her shaping, not with the strength that had propelled her forward. Elle had shown so little shaping talent so far, but what other answer did she have?

  The ground had been burned, scarred, and left looking much like what she imagined Incendin might look. She’d been to Incendin once before, but she’d been barely alive then, carried by Tan to help heal whatever shaping the archivists had placed on her. There was nothing but the remains of grass and trees, as if the fire shaper had swept through here, intent on completing her destruction, but she wouldn’t have been able to do this alone. This would have taken the lisincend.

  Flames crawled along the walls of Falsheim. Stone had begun crumbling, dropping in massive chunks to the ground below. In so many ways, it reminded her of what had happened in Ethea when the draasin had attacked. Elle had never seen anything like this in Doma before. Had the lisincend become so powerful that they could rival the draasin?

  She left her hand in the water and considered what she had done when reaching for the nymid. Nearly died, but could there be another way of reaching them? Could they help?

  Nymid!

  Elle pressed everything that she could into sending her request, channeling what she remembered of how Tan spoke to her. It was different than when she was in the water, different than when she nearly drowned, but there was no answer, nothing that would indicate the nymid heard her.

  She sagged back onto the burned ground, resting her head and looking toward the north, following the direction of the river. The shapers would be there, the lisincend with them. Possibly even the draasin. So much of fire would be out there. There was no reason for the nymid to answer. What was Elle to the elemental?

  Thankfully, she saw no sign of the shapers. That didn’t mean they weren’t out there. She felt shaping building somewhere nearby but couldn’t pinpoint the location. Standing along the edge of the water, with nothing but burned ground around her, she was exposed. If the lisincend attacked, what could she do other than dive in?

  What if it wasn’t the lisincend? For all she knew, it could be the water shaper, coming on a stream of water much like she’d ridden on, intending to drag her away and somehow force her to shape for Incendin.

  The shaping came again. This time, she was certain it was closer. She sensed it near the water. The shaping wasn’t strong, not like what she’d sensed when the water shaper had been near. This was more like what she’d sensed in the boat before it capsized, the weak shaping coming from Ley…

  Elle hurried to the water. There, swimming against the current, she saw him. His face was bruised and swollen. One eye was nearly shut. A steady shaping came from him, more like a trickle as he swam up the stream.

  “Ley!”

  She reached toward the water and grabbed him. He kicked away from her before turning so his good eye could take her in. A tight smile crossed his mouth. With strong, sure strokes, he reached the shore.

  “Elle? What are you doing here?”

  “I thought you’d died!”

  “Nearly. When the storm came, the water pushed me down so deep that I nearly drowned, but I told you I had some shaping talent. I’ve had to use it when diving before. I shaped a bubble of air around me, pulling the air into it from the water, and swam toward the shore. When I couldn’t find you, I went looking.”

  “There are shapers here. Not Doman shapers. They took me and—”

  Ley nodded. He ran an arm across his face and pointed to his injured eye. “That’s how I got this. Chunk of earth came flying at me. I realized it was shaped too late to get out of the way. When I dove into the water, I hit my head and got disoriented. Current dragged me to Falsheim.”

  Elle considered the shaped fire consuming the city. Without water shaping—or even strong earth shaping—there was nothing that would save it. That bothered Elle more than she expected. After all her time away, and after everything that had been done to her in the village, she thought that she’d abandoned any sense of allegiance to Doma, but it was her home. And Falsheim was the capital, though she might never have visited. Now she would never get the chance.

  “There’s a lisincend here,” she said. “And at least two shapers. I think they were waiting for more. We need to get to safety.”

  Ley studied the burning city and looked out toward Incendin. “Where? The city was supposed to be our safety. Now? Now there’s nothing
for us anymore.”

  Elle hated that he was right. Doma was too small to stand up to the terrible fires of Incendin. The only thing that had saved them all these years had been the power of the udilm, but they wanted nothing to do with Doma. They had abandoned her, barely speaking to her since Tan had dropped her in the sea. The only elemental that had really answered had been the nymid, and they had never been Doma’s ally.

  And once Incendin took over Doma, what would happen? Would everything burn? Would the lush countryside turn to the barren land of Incendin? Would Falsheim forever burn like the fabled Fire Fortress?

  “We need to find help,” she said.

  Ley looked at her askance, likely thinking the same thing she was. What help would there be for Doma? The kingdoms had never openly offered help. They had willingly trained Doman shapers, had looked the other way when her shapers came to the university, but they had never aided when Incendin raided the villages, taking shapers from their homes and stealing them back into their own lands. Chenir was just as guilty. They refused to sail beyond Doma’s harbors, rarely stepping off their ships, as if in doing so, they would draw the attention of Incendin. None of the island chains ever offered anything, either, though few likely knew what Doma faced. When udilm answered the summons, it hadn’t mattered.

  A shaping built, sharp and painful. Ley felt it, too. Both turned to the north. The fire shaper shot toward them on a pulsing flame, somehow flying above the ground with as much skill as the draasin or the winged lisincend.

  Elle grabbed Ley’s hand and they dove into the water.

  Its icy touch took her breath away. Ley shaped a bubble of air around her first, then did himself. He flicked his eyes toward the surface and swam slowly, moving carefully so he didn’t create a wake or ripple.

  Ley motioned toward the surface. Elle shook her head, not understanding. He pushed through the bubble of air around her, his face nearly touching hers. “I need to see what’s out there.”