The Water Ruptures Read online

  “Let’s go then,” Ferrah said.

  “You’re not finished with what you’re working on.”

  She shook her head. “I’m not sure I’m going to find anything.”

  There was more to her frustration than what she revealed, and he figured he could wait until after they left the library.

  She got to her feet, grabbing her stack of books and tucking them under her arm, and Tolan followed. He trailed after her out of the library, and when he reached the doors, feeling the strange tingling that was meant to be a seal around the library itself, a way of preventing anyone else from shaping, he glanced back at Master Minden.

  He knew it wasn’t imagined, and yet he couldn’t help but feel as if she were something different.

  The woman never looked up at him.

  Ferrah grabbed his arm, dragging him through the halls.

  “What was that about?” he asked.

  She glanced at the books. “When I was back in Par, I spent some time in our archives. There’s so much there I want to understand.”

  “And you think these books will help you understand.”

  “I don’t know if they will or not, but they’re a start. Master Jensen found some things for me, and I thought… I don’t really know what I thought. I want to be able to understand the Par archives.”

  “Do you have people there you can ask?”

  “That’s just it. There isn’t anyone at the archives who can help with this. They’ve translated parts of it, but not all of it.”

  Other voices caught his attention, the call of the new first-level students along with that of the older students. One of the voices stuck in his head, and Tolan glanced behind him to see Velthan walking with a group.

  “Let’s get moving,” he said.

  “Why?”

  He shook his head and hurried through the halls, reaching the main door and then back outside. Once there, he started toward the nearby park, but every so often glanced behind him to see Velthan and the others were still following. He had no interest in dealing with him here. Even though he was a second-level student, and even though he had demonstrated the ability to shape and no longer had to worry about Velthan’s insults, he couldn’t shake that agitation.

  What would happen if Velthan and Draln ever got together? Tolan prayed that didn’t happen, and worried about the time it would. The two men would discuss his shaping ability, such as it was. There were enough rumors about him here that he didn’t need Velthan to reveal his ties to the Draasin Lord, however false they might be.

  “We could just go back to our rooms,” Ferrah said, looking behind her every so often.

  “I don’t really want to.”

  “Where would you have us go?”

  Tolan had reached the edge of the city without even thinking about where he was going, and he started into the forest.

  Ferrah grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

  “Are you sure we should go there?”

  He shrugged. “It’s perfectly safe. They moved the Keystone.”

  “They might’ve moved it, but I’m not sure the Grand Master would want us to keep heading out to it. How would that look with what Draln told you?”

  “I don’t know that I care how it would look.”

  “Tolan!”

  He paused, turning back to her. He needed to be more careful. He should be concerned about how things looked.

  “We shouldn’t be spending too much time beyond the borders of the city.”

  “You believe Draln?”

  She looked around before settling her green-eyed gaze on him. “I think what he told you has some merit. When I was heading to Par, there was conversation about the movement of the disciples. You know they’ve been more active. It’s at the point where we don’t even have enough defenses within Amitan for their usual diligence. And then with the attacks on the Selections.”

  “Those were elementals. They weren’t attacks.”

  She frowned at him. “You know as well as I do that the elementals are tied to the disciples. And if the Grand Master believes there’s someone inside the Academy who is responsible…”

  He held her gaze, debating how much to argue with her. The problem was that he didn’t know, and he wasn’t convinced, either. More than ever, he wasn’t sure there was anything to be concerned about with the elementals, and yet, everything he’d learned about the disciples of the Draasin Lord suggested they wanted to use the power of the elementals, combine it with the power of the element bonds, and rule.

  He wanted nothing to do with that, either.

  “I didn’t get the sense there was anyone trying to instigate that attack,” Tolan said.

  “How can you even say that?”

  “I can say it because it’s true,” he said. “Besides, I think Draln was just trying to impress the others. I have a hard time thinking there’s a traitor here.”

  “I’m surprised to hear you say that,” she said.

  They had paused in the middle of the forest. The trees all around them rose high overhead, creating a canopy that shaded them. A soft breeze blew through, barely more than a whisper that brushed across his cheeks, a promise of power he thought he might be able to reach for. In the time since he’d been asked to leave the Keystone alone, his experience with wind and water had not been nearly what it had been before, and yet Tolan still believed he could reach them if given the proper motivation. Fire and earth remained potent for him, and yet of them, it was fire that was the most potent.

  “Why are you surprised to hear me say that?”

  “I might not have the same memories of everything”—Ferrah still held a hint of irritation in her voice as she spoke of the time they had gone down to the Convergence, and he wondered if there would ever be any way for her to regain those memories—“but I was there with you when you dealt with the Keystone and the attack. I understand what’s been taking place and the fact none of this has been all that common. You know the last attack on Amitan had been nearly a decade previously?”

  He frowned, shaking his head. “I didn’t know that.”

  “And did you know the last time the Draasin Lord was this active was years ago?”

  He remained silent. The last time he remembered the Draasin Lord being active was when his disciples had come to Ephra and claimed his parents. Now he understood the way his parents might have been responsible for making bondars, he thought he had a better understanding as to why they might have been claimed, only, where would they have been brought?

  “And think about what we experienced on the edge of the waste. As far as I’ve been able to find, that hasn’t ever happened.”

  “Ever?”

  Ferrah shook her head. She held his gaze. “That attack is unusual. Even more unusual for the fact the master shapers were unable to figure out who was responsible or do anything about it.”

  Tolan let out a heavy sigh. Perhaps she was right. There had been quite a bit taking place, and the only thing he could think of was that the Draasin Lord was becoming more active, which meant another attack was imminent. He hadn’t been alive during the last attack, but the stories of the Draasin Lord, the violence that had racked Terndahl, changing the landscape of everything, was something everyone knew.

  “It’s quite a leap to go from believing the attacks are signs of the Draasin Lord becoming more active to believing there’s a traitor somewhere within the Academy.”

  “If what Draln said was true…”

  Tolan sighed, leaning his head back on the trunk of one of the trees. The bark was rough, and standing where he was, he felt connected to earth the way he did any time he was within the forest. It was tempting to try shaping, but out here away from the city, with the rumors being what they were, he didn’t know it was safe to do that.

  “It’s Draln, Ferrah. And you know how he can be.”

  “I know how he can be, but that isn’t the kind of thing to start rumors about. Even he isn’t stupid enough to do that.” Tolan arched a bro
w. “Fine. Maybe he is.”

  “I’m less concerned with Draln’s rumor than I am about why there were so many more Selected.”

  “It’s probably nothing more than the fact they were ready,” Ferrah said.

  “It has to be more than that.”

  “I don’t know that it is. I know you want to tie this to some grand mystery and want to believe the Grand Inquisitor is somehow involved, but I’m not sure we can make that connection.”

  “What if she’s the traitor?”

  “Tolan—”

  He shook his head, looking all around him. The energy of the forest filled him, the sense of heat and earth and wind all around. He suspected he could reach for water if he tried, or at least had some connection to it that he didn’t normally have.

  “What better way to hide her actions?”

  “I’m quite sure the Grand Inquisitor isn’t involved. You do know she was one of the three who helped defeat the Draasin Lord?”

  “I guess I didn’t.”

  “She was part of the push to exile him from Terndahl.”

  “Nobody even knows who he is,” he said.

  “They know enough to know they defeated him. It wasn’t just the Grand Inquisitor, but the Grand Master was there too.”

  Tolan knew that. It was part of the mystique of the Grand Master. He was one of the shapers responsible for exiling the Draasin Lord, ensuring power was removed from Terndahl, and yet as far as Tolan knew, there were none who actually knew anything about the Draasin Lord. No one knew where he went. No one knew if he lived or died. The only thing they knew was that the attacks stopped.

  Or, they had seemed to stop.

  There were places like Ephra where there was always the threat of attack. Rogue elementals would crop up infrequently, and because of that, there would be danger at the edge of the waste. Most believed it was because they were closer to where the Draasin Lord had disappeared, and yet as Tolan thought about what he had seen of the waste and the power that existed there, he couldn’t help but feel as if no shaper would have been able to escape across it. How could they when there was an absence of shaping ability?

  But then, the Draasin Lord was connected not only to his ability to shape, but to the elementals, tying them to him, forcing them to serve. After having seen the elementals at the Keystone, Tolan could easily imagine someone like that would be able to use that power and force the elementals to escort him across the waste and to safety.

  “If there’s a traitor, then we should help find them,” he said. At least that would allow him to keep digging about why there were so many Selected.

  “Now you’re going to get us in trouble again.”

  “How is that going to get us in trouble?”

  “Well, seeing as how you were after Jory—”

  “Another traitor.”

  “Another traitor, but not the same. From what you said, he wanted the power for himself, and Draln says this traitor suggests they’re in the service of the Draasin Lord, not trying to replace him.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I asked.”

  “You did what?’

  She shrugged. “I wanted to know for myself. Whoever is working inside the Academy, working against us, is doing so in order to help expedite the return of the Draasin Lord. But after what happened with Jory, and then with the Keystone, we’ve been far too involved. Maybe it’s best if we sit this one out.”

  “I didn’t say we would get actively involved and that we needed to try to interrogate people within the Academy, but I think we can stay aware. If we find something that’s useful, then we can…” Tolan wasn’t entirely sure what they could do with that information. Where would they bring it? It wasn’t something he could easily bring to the Grand Master, and yet, he thought he would need to.

  “If we find anything, then we can bring it to the Grand Inquisitor.”

  “Maybe you can do that,” he said.

  “You know her better than anyone in our level.”

  “That’s not something I’m proud of.”

  “It’s useful.”

  “I’m not entirely sure how that’s useful, either.”

  “How many others can say they were Selected by the Grand Inquisitor?”

  “This year? Quite a few. Previous years?”

  Ferrah watched him, saying nothing.

  “See? You recognize there’s something strange going on.”

  “I recognize there’s something off, but I still think you’re reading too much into it.”

  “And I think you’re not reading enough into it.”

  She sighed, throwing her hands up. “Are we going to involve Jonas in this?”

  They hadn’t involved Jonas when they went to the Keystone, and yet Jonas was one of his closest friends at the Academy. How could he not include him?

  “I can check and see how much he might be interested in participating, but I don’t know if Jonas is all that excited about getting involved with the Grand Inquisitor. There’s something about her that makes him uncomfortable.”

  “There’s something about the Inquisitors that makes everyone uncomfortable, Tolan. You might not have seen the Inquisitors all that often around the periphery of Terndahl, but stories of Inquisitions are legendary.”

  “How so?”

  “They pull shapers aside, take them for Inquisition, torment them until they get the answers they want. If they think someone is tied to the Draasin Lord, they will do anything to get that information from them.”

  Tolan shivered involuntarily. He was thankful that hadn’t occurred in Ephra. At the edge of the waste, there had been very little exposure to the Inquisitors. The only experience he really had was when they had come through, but for the most part, the master shapers had been responsible for ensuring the city was safe.

  “We should go back. We can study in the second-level rooms. Besides, we won’t be able to find anything here.”

  “You go back. I just want to check on the park.”

  “Tolan…”

  He flashed a smile. “I’m not going to do anything foolish. I’m just going to head out there, see how much is changed since the last time I was there, and I’ll return. We can continue to try to figure out what’s been going on afterward.”

  She watched him, and he worried she would want to come with him. As much as he enjoyed Ferrah’s company—and he did—he also wanted to go to the park, to see whether that power would still be there, and whether there was anything he might be able to do.

  “Don’t be too long.”

  He nodded and hurried off into the woods, leaving Ferrah. They hadn’t gone all that deep into the forest, which meant he had a bit of a walk before reaching the park. He was careful as he went, using his connection to earth to sense whether there was anything moving around him.

  Ever since his time in the Keystone, his connection to sensing had increased, giving him a much easier time recognizing that energy, and he was able to feel the way it connected to him, the way his boots sank ever so softly into the ground with each step, the way he thudded, the reverberations of his footsteps echoing toward others who might be nearby, and the nature of how his presence within the forest influenced the creatures here.

  The longer he was here, the more he knew his presence mattered. It was tied to everything. Within the forest, he was aware of the elements in ways he wasn’t in other places. It was similar to the park near the Academy, and yet this was less controlled, and because of that, Tolan couldn’t help but feel as if his connection were greater.

  The clearing for the park opened in front of him, and he paused at the edge of the forest. He looked around, using his connection to earth to see if there was anything to worry about, but the more he searched, the more certain he was there was nothing.

  It was possible the disciples of the Draasin Lord were here, and yet with the Keystone missing, there would be no reason for them to come. This park was not otherwise special, at least according to the G
rand Master.

  Tolan studied the low stone wall surrounding the park. The symbols were still marked on it, symbols depicting the element bonds. Those runes meant that regardless of whether the Keystone was here, there would still be power present.

  Could he use them?

  He didn’t know. He hadn’t spent nearly enough time back here, and yet now he was here, he thought he needed to better understand the park.

  He approached the stone wall slowly, feeling his way toward it, worried there would be some presence approaching, and yet found nothing.

  If the disciples were out here, they had left this place alone.

  Touching the wall, he felt nothing strange about it. When the disciples—and Master Daniels—had come before, there had been resistance, some sort of barrier preventing them from getting too close, and he couldn’t help but think there was something about it he should better understand. Could it be tied to the runes? It was the only thing he knew was here, though it was possible it was tied to the Keystone itself. Then again, when Tolan had been here, using the Keystone, the power had seemed inactive until he had begun to use it.

  He climbed up, taking a seat on top of the wall. When he did, he looked over the grassy square. It was large, set in the middle of the forest, surrounded by the stone wall, a field where shaping energy had been trapped. The elementals had been trapped. And as he sat here, he couldn’t help but think some of that power remained, even though he wasn’t able to access it.

  There was something peaceful about coming here. That much hadn’t changed. After his experience on the way to the Selection, Tolan thought he needed to better understand the elementals—and learn if there was some way of speaking to them.

  If he could, he thought any rogue elemental would provide less of a challenge than it had. Could he summon anything from here?