The Earth Awakens (Elemental Academy Book 2) Read online

  “We’ve only been here a few months, Tolan. The Selection usually happens once a year.”

  “That’s what we’ve been led to believe, but partly because those who don’t pass are spirit-shaped so they don’t remember the Selection process. What happens if it’s more often than that?”

  “We know there are classes of students at the Academy, Tolan. The Selection is only once a year. Don’t worry; you still have time to master more shapings before the testing.”

  He hoped so. Fire had become not necessarily easy, but certainly easier. It had only been fire, though. Eventually, he would need to do the same with another element, and if he couldn’t, he might be sent away from the Academy.

  “What do you think is involved in the testing?”

  “To hear the second-year students talk about it, it’s something horrible, but I’m not sure what to believe.”

  “Why?”

  “I suspect most of them have been shaped to forget it, similar to the Selection.”

  “What would the purpose in that be? Why even make the Selection so mysterious?”

  Ferrah’s face darkened. They stepped out onto a street, and a carriage shaped to move on its own rolled past them, the three people inside looking around. Their eyes widened when they saw Tolan and Ferrah, pointing at them and murmuring something about Academy students.

  “I thought about that for a while, but more so since we’ve been here. Things don’t completely add up.”

  “What sort of things?”

  “It feels as if I’m missing something, and I’ve been nothing if not meticulous in how I approach my studies.”

  “I’ve seen that.”

  “And yet, I can’t shake the sense there are gaps. It makes me wonder if the spirit shapers are using various shapings on us from time to time.”

  A cold sweat beaded his forehead. “Why would the Inquisitors do something like that?”

  “I’m not saying they would but think about the Selection. Knowledge of that is secretive, hidden from others within the shaper schools, as if they’re afraid that knowing what might come would somehow allow the shaper to pass. Having been through it, I don’t see how that’s even possible. Without knowing the key to getting through it, I don’t know that it would be any easier. And it’s the same thing with passing from year to year. There’s no point in hiding what’s involved, unless there’s some other ulterior motive.”

  “What sort of motive?” Tolan asked. They were heading toward the center of the city where a massive market existed, though he’d never visited. There hadn’t been time, and he hadn’t had the inclination to go alone.

  “Finding Inquisitors,” she said.

  “Why do you say that?”

  “The more you get to know about your shaping ability, the more you’ll be able to protect your mind from spirit shapers. Eventually, I suspect they will reveal the trick to us, though there are some like Draln who might already know, especially as his parents came through here. But spirit shapers have a natural protection. They don’t have to learn how to protect their mind, and all they need to do is simply be. They can push back against that shaping, regardless of what’s used on them.”

  He wanted to say something to Ferrah. In that moment, he thought he needed to say something to her, to tell her about what he’d experienced and to reveal the presence of the Convergence, but more than that, to reassure her she had only been shaped one time—but what if that wasn’t true?

  Did he have gaps? He hadn’t put much consideration into it, not knowing whether he was missing memories. It was entirely possible spirit shapers had worked on him before.

  It wasn’t as if he hadn’t succumbed to a spirit shaping before. The Selection was all about a spirit shaping, so there had to be some way of using that on those who did have the potential to spirit-shape.

  “How about we don’t worry about it for today?” Tolan asked.

  “That’s not how my mind works,” she said.

  “I know that’s not how your mind works, but sometimes it’s nice to just to get away, to ignore the presence of shaping, and to—”

  Tolan didn’t get a chance to finish. A sudden buildup of pressure struck him, overflowing him. It came from the far western edge of the city. It was a shaping, and an enormous one.

  He and Ferrah shared a glance, and without saying a word, they each shaped, streaking into the sky to the Shapers Path.

  5

  While the Shapers Path was usually a method for fast travel across Terndahl, Tolan had a sudden and different understanding of how he could use it. Within Amitan, the path was one of accessibility, and it was designed for all within the city to be able to use, to navigate above the city; it was still primarily used by those with some shaping ability, though.

  The Path was mostly empty, and he and Ferrah raced along it, following the road as it wound above the city. It was easier to travel this way, and though he might be able to shape himself into the air, he didn’t yet have the strength necessary to do so for very long or for much distance, not the same as some shapers. Master shapers would be able to hold themselves in the air for long periods of time, and there were stories of incredibly powerful shapers who didn’t need the Shapers Path to travel by. Eventually, Tolan hoped he would reach that point, something that seemed impossible to consider even a year ago.

  “What do you think it was?” Ferrah asked as they ran.

  “I felt the pressure, and—”

  “Felt?”

  He nodded. “Why? Didn’t you feel it?”

  “I heard it, Tolan. There wasn’t anything I could feel.”

  “What did you hear?”

  “An explosion. It was thunderous, the sound something like a building crumbling or a tree falling in the forest.”

  He hadn’t heard anything, but then, the sudden buildup of shaped power had drawn his attention, making it difficult to hear anything. When he felt shaped power in such a way, it was the only thing he was able to focus on, and so with that, he had paid attention only to the building power.

  “When the masters find out we came this way…”

  “I’ll take the blame,” Tolan said.

  “Right. Because they’ll believe you forced me to come with you.”

  “I think they blame me enough the way it is,” he said. “I’ve asked enough questions about the elementals to drive most of them mad, and those who still bother to answer are annoyed by the fact they have to.”

  “They’re only annoyed because they don’t have the answers.”

  They veered off the main Shapers Path and took a narrower side route that led in the direction from which he’d felt the explosion of power. Power built again and he skidded to a stop, raising his hand as he glanced over at Ferrah.

  “Do you feel that?”

  “Like I said, I don’t feel anything. If you’re feeling something, it’s different from my ability, Tolan.”

  He closed his eyes, letting his awareness of the shaping roll through him. It was a mixture of element bonds, that much he could tell, but not the intent.

  Something was different.

  He snapped his eyes open and pointed to the south. “They’ve moved.”

  He reversed direction, hurrying along the Shapers Path. When he reached a different side pathway, he made his way along it, pausing long enough to glance back and see whether Ferrah was keeping pace with him. She could probably shape herself along the Path, something Tolan couldn’t do. He required the Shapers Path even in the city.

  An explosion of power thundered, the elements’ magic washing over him. He paused, waiting to see if he would detect anything else, but there wasn’t anything.

  It would come again, he was certain of it, but from what direction? If it came from the east and the south already, would there be another similar attack from the other directions?

  “You head north and I’ll go west,” he said.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “We need to figure out what’s g
oing on, and so far, we’ve had two directions, so what if they attack from the others?”

  “We don’t even need to be the ones who solve this, Tolan. There are master shapers who will be up here, and they will likely reach this before we get to do anything.”

  “But what if they don’t?”

  “Tolan…”

  Another buildup of power began, and he was certain it was coming from the north. Rather than wait, he grabbed Ferrah by the wrist and dragged her with him. “I need you to shape us.”

  “Shape us where?”

  “To the north. Get us across the city before this next attack strikes.”

  “And what if there’s not another attack?”

  “Trust me.”

  Ferrah met his eyes and nodded. A shaping built, a tingling sensation causing his skin to feel tight and pressure to build behind his ears, and wind whipped around them, mixed with heat from a fire shaping. They exploded, launching across the city, streaking with a controlled arc he would never have been able to accomplish. They crossed the distance, landing on another Shapers Path on the far side of the city.

  “I’m not sure what this was about, and I don’t even know if we should be—”

  He squeezed her hand as power accrued, rising quickly.

  Where was it coming from?

  It was near, that much he could tell now they were close to it. They had managed to find it, but now they had, what could be done about it?

  As he scanned the ground, he realized he might be looking in the wrong direction.

  He turned his attention upward.

  Three people stood high over the city on another Shapers Path. One held a shaping of considerable power. Tolan pointed up and Ferrah followed the direction of his gaze and frowned.

  “What are they doing?”

  “I don’t know, but whatever they’re doing is building.”

  He focused on a shaping, thinking of the hyza elemental and drawing strength from it as he often did, but he wasn’t going to be fast enough. The shaping building above them was far more powerful than he could compensate for, and the shaper far faster than him.

  “Ferrah—”

  She grabbed his arm and quickly shaped them up.

  Power washed over him as they streaked into the air, and Tolan tried not to think about what it meant. He focused on hyza, the elemental giving him both strength from the earth component as well as the heat and power from fire, and when they landed, he pushed outward, sending a sheet of heat and flames rolling away.

  The flame was incompletely controlled, more a nature of his connection to the elemental component, and within that flame, hyza raced away, leaving the flames as it streaked toward the three shapers.

  Another shaping built, but this time directed at his flames, and surprisingly, the shaping failed, washing past his flames, unable to stop them.

  Power exploded near him and it took a sudden wind shaping from Ferrah to keep them on the Shapers Path.

  “This was stupid,” Ferrah muttered.

  “They’re attacking us,” he said.

  “Because you attacked them,” she said.

  “Because they’re attacking Amitan.”

  Ferrah swirled wind and sent it streaking away, but her shaping disappeared. Her mouth tightened into a frown as she started shaping again, but another buildup of power was coming from the three shapers opposite them.

  Tolan realized he couldn’t see them easily, and he wondered how they were able to disguise themselves. It must be some other shaping. Knowing something like that would be incredibly useful.

  Their shaping continued to build, likely targeted at him and Ferrah. Tolan needed something with which to defend them, but the fire elemental hadn’t been enough. It had been incompletely directed, and he wished he had used the furios in order to summon it, but he had done it without the help.

  Reaching into his pocket, running his finger along the runes, Tolan quickly attempted to summon another fire shaping, focusing once again on the form of hyza. He’d seen firsthand the destruction caused by the elemental, and using his furios, he thought he should be able to call upon that kind of power for an attack of his own. He held it out, squeezing it as the nearest figure approached.

  They wore a hood, masking their features, and power crackled from them, continuing to rise with more shaping strength than he had felt anywhere other than the Convergence.

  Could they be drawing from the Convergence?

  The elemental sprang out of the end of the furios, growing larger and larger, taking on the size of a massive fox. Rather than an uncontrolled flame, it was a focused form, a figure that looked just like the elemental he had seen. Tolan continued to hold onto that image, continuing to focus on the elemental, and it powered through the figure, knocking them back.

  Two others came close, their cloaked forms the only part of them visible, and he whispered softly within his mind a silent command. Keep us safe.

  Would the elemental—or whatever this form was—know what he wanted?

  He still wasn’t convinced he had actually summoned a real elemental, or whether this represented his mind’s manifestation of an elemental as he shaped power, but the more often he did it, the more he questioned whether he was somehow separating an elemental from the element bond, however briefly.

  The elemental turned, heading toward the nearest figure, and slammed into them, knocking them off the Shapers Path. The third figure turned toward the elemental, as if finally realizing there was a real threat to it.

  Flames burst, but it wasn’t enough. The figure held their hands out, compressing power, and the elemental started to shrink, collapsing downward. Tolan had seen something similar before, when the masters had confined the elementals he had summoned while in the Convergence and realized the same sort of magic had to have been used.

  Wind gusted, swirling around the figure, and power radiated from Ferrah, though he wondered how long she’d be able to hold onto it.

  The figure turned to her, and with the flick of his wrist, the wind suddenly died, collapsing into nothingness.

  If she wasn’t able to hold onto the shaping, there might not be any way of stopping this figure. Tolan strained against it, trying to come up with some sort of shaping that would allow him to push back. The shaper turned toward him, power beginning to rise again, enough that he felt as if he would be overwhelmed.

  He held out the furios, pointing it at the figure, trying to summon another elemental, but either he was unable to do so or the shaper standing before him had some way of overpowering him and his ability.

  “They send untrained shapers to war?”

  The voice was rough and dangerous and Tolan trembled, trying to ignore it. There was something frightening about the sound, and as much as he wanted to ignore it, he felt compelled to move forward, as if he was being shaped.

  Could that be why this man had such an easy time dismissing the elemental? Was he a spirit shaper? Tolan was convinced he had some connection to spirit, and even if that connection was faint, it had to be real. That was how he had his memories.

  The shaper took another step toward him. Where was Ferrah?

  He wanted to look behind him, to see if something had happened to her, but didn’t dare risk that until he knew for sure that this man had been slowed.

  It was a mistake coming here. He should have waited, remaining back at the Academy, avoiding coming here and having to face someone who had significantly more power, but he’d let his pride draw him here. Pride, and a belief he was somehow more capable than he truly was.

  He focused, thinking of the fire elemental, but there was no sense of it.

  What about another elemental?

  Earth. He had to be able to call on an earth elemental. It might not be nearly as powerful as anything he could summon through the furios, but he had an affinity to earth through his sensing. It was why he had apprenticed to a woodsmith in the first place.

  There was one elemental he thought could be helpful, bu
t up here, far above the city itself, far above a place where an elemental might appear, it would be unlikely to work.

  Which was why he had to try it.

  Jinnar’s appearance was something like a man and Tolan focused on it, thinking about what he remembered when the elemental had attacked, both in his vision and in the clearing near the Academy. If he could somehow call upon that power, and could use it, maybe he would be able to stop this attack, if only for a moment or two.

  The Shapers Path trembled.

  Tolan took a step back, trying to maintain his focus, trying to hold onto that connection to earth and his vision of jinnar. As the path continued to tremble, the other shaper stood, hands apart, focusing on the Shapers Path. The trembling started to ease, but Tolan pushed, forcing more energy into his connection, praying to the Great Mother he could somehow summon the earth elemental.

  As the path trembled, the shaper looked past Tolan. With a swirl of wind, he leapt into the air and, on a crack of lightning, disappeared.

  The path continued to tremble and with the shaper gone, Tolan turned, looking for Ferrah. She was there and she stared, eyes wide.

  “Ferrah?”

  “I. Can’t. Move.” She spoke through gritted teeth.

  He hurried toward her, reaching for her arm.

  The trembling continued and Tolan hesitated, focusing on the shaping he had started to create, thinking that if nothing else, he needed to ease it back. They couldn’t have the earth elemental bursting forth from the Shapers Path, but at the same time, he didn’t know if he had enough control to suppress it.

  He had to try. This was his shaping.

  And it was a shaping, not a summons.

  I don’t need you.

  The trembling continued and Tolan tried to focus on stabilizing the sense that he felt, but couldn’t. He glanced over at Ferrah. She was looking past him, and he spun around to see the Shapers Path bulging upward.

  The earth elemental.

  He swallowed, backing up, sliding his feet along the Shapers Path as he retreated away from the earth elemental. Maybe this was only a shaping, but it reminded him far too much of an actual elemental.