Born of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 8) (9 page)

Tan held her hand and turned back to the fire, thinking through what he could do.

He might want to understand what had motivated the Utu Tonah, but that was in the past. The presence was a new challenge and one where shaping would not solve the problem. Shaping might actually have caused
more
problems for him.

Settling back in his chair, he began to think through how he could reach those on the council. What he intended might be difficult, but he had an advantage and the only one where shaping might help. With spirit, he could understand the moods and the attitudes of those he tried to reach. Tan wouldn’t force spirit on them; doing so felt too much like what Althem had done. But he
could
use it to help him understand the differences, and wasn’t
that
the lesson he had taken from Incendin?

Only, he didn’t know how he would get through to certain people. There were enough of the Par-shon leaders that he struggled to understand, but Elanne in particular worried him. How would he get through to her, when her entire role was to encourage the forced bonds?

T
he air had
a bitter hot scent to it, one that once would have put Tan on edge, a scent that reminded him of Incendin and the heat and dangers found in those lands, dangers he no longer felt the same about. Now, the scent only helped him realize that he needed to search more closely.

“You don’t sense anything, do you?” Amia asked.

She leaned back against a tree, watching him with amusement, her deep blue eyes catching the light of the sun almost as much as the wide circle of gold around her neck. She crossed her arms over her chest, covering the brightly striped jacket she wore, the only other sign of her Aeta heritage.

Tan tried using earth and spirit but came up empty.

“You still haven’t answered,” Amia said.

Tan rubbed his hands together in frustration. “Because I
can’t
. There’s something here. I know there is. But I can’t pick up on what it might be.”

Perhaps I was wrong about you.

Tan looked over to see Kota, the massive earth and fire elemental, come bounding to a stop. Asgar had brought her to Par-shon to help with the
other
reason that he’d come to Par-shon. He needed to understand what other elementals the Utu Tonah had created. When he’d discovered the journal, Tan had hoped that he would find answers, but there was nothing about the elementals.

What if that hadn’t been the Utu Tonah’s domain?

But there wasn’t any sign of someone who was Master of Elementals that Tan had discovered unless he had missed something. It was possible that he had; that was part of the reason that he remained, needing to learn if Par-shon would repeat the same behaviors now that the Utu Tonah was gone, or if they would attempt something else.

Yet, seeing Kota, he realized that not
all
crossings had the same negative outcome. Once, he had called her kind hounds, but that label didn’t fit. They were creatures created by the ancient shapers for reasons Tan still hadn’t discovered, but twisted by the creation, much like the great serpent of fire, kaas.

Using the fire bond, Tan had realigned the hounds with fire, and they had changed. Most had grown larger as if the twisted connection to fire had stunted them. But more than size, the keen intellect had changed. Kota might be the best example, but she was not the only one.

You are too insensitive,
she went on.

Amia laughed. Tan shot her a look, but she only shrugged. She could often hear the elemental as well as him. It wasn’t the same with each of the elementals, though she could hear Asgar when he allowed it. But Kota she always heard clearly.

What have you found?

Kota pointed with her nose.
To the south. If you were any real hunter, you wouldn’t need for me to guide you.

Tan touched his sword.
I can show you a hunter.

I have witnessed you with that weapon. I think I am still safe.

Amia laughed again, and this time, Tan could only shake his head. Even with the resistance that they’d faced so far in Par-shon, it was good to have her at peace, especially as being here delayed the celebration they both wanted.

More than Amia, Kota had changed. Since the Par-shon defeat, his bonded had become more self-assured. Considering how long the hounds had been twisted by fire, and the effort that it had required of Tan to pull them from that, he was pleased that they would be able to know anything other than suffering. Now, were he to let her, Kota would be his constant companion, closer to him in some ways than Asboel ever had been, though the draasin had always been merely a thought away.

“Do you sense anything now?” Amia asked.

Tan shifted his focus to the south, stretching with awareness of each of the elements, adding spirit as well. Spirit wasn’t necessary but usually felt right, and this time was no different.

But he still sensed nothing.

Are you certain?

Kota turned deep black eyes on him.
You should have learned that you do not need to question me.

Tan approached Kota and ran a hand along her rough fur.
Take me there?

Like the draasin says, I am no horse.

With that, Kota bounded off, leaving Tan with Amia, suppressing his laughter.

“What would you have done had she allowed you to ride?” Amia asked.

“I think I might fall over from shock,” he said and pulled her against him as if he needed her strength to keep from pitching onto the ground. Instead, he pulled them into the air until they drifted on a shaping of wind mixed with fire.

Tan tracked Kota as she raced across the countryside. The land had changed since he had defeated the former Utu Tonah. Life had returned to places where it had been lost, much like life had begun to return in Chenir after Par-shon had been defeated and the shapers of Chenir were allowed to return, drawing the elementals with them.

When he reached Kota, he found her sitting, staring at the horizon. Her body was completely still, but he recognized the tension within her.

Much as he once had been able to do with Asboel, Tan reached through the bond and watched through her sight. Something was out there that had her attention.

Do you see it, Maelen?

Not on my own.

Her ears flicked, the only part of her that moved.
In the distance. Earth and wind. I cannot tell more than that.

He knew of no elemental that was a combination of earth and wind. But now that Tan knew what he was looking for, he had a better chance of seeing what Kota saw. Other than Honl, none of the wind elementals had any form. Even before Tan had rescued Honl from kaas, the elementals had nothing more than a translucency to him. Tan had been able to make out some of his shape, but nothing like it was now.

Earth, on the other hand, was different. Kota and the hounds were elemental crossings, but of earth and fire. In that way, they were much like kaas, only kaas was predominantly of fire while the hounds were predominantly of earth.

Tan listened for earth, using his connection to Kota and strained to detect the elemental that she saw. There was
something,
but it was a faint sense and one that he couldn’t reliably detect.

What of wind?

Tan sensed the wind and drew through his connection to the wind elementals. Not only Honl, but the elemental wyln of these lands. He detected a fluttering of movement, but nothing more.

Could he use a combined sensing to detect the elemental?

Tan used wind and earth, sensing for it. Knowing that it was out there, knowing that there was
something
that he should be able to detect, made it easier, but the connection was still much more tenuous than what he possessed with any of the other elementals.

And then, like a rough whisper across his mind, he detected it.

It was raw, nothing like the refined connection that he possessed with ashi or the other elementals of wind, and nothing even like the connection that he managed with golud, or the other earth elementals. There was a sense that this elemental was young, almost infantile, which, as he considered, it might be. When he’d held the power of the combined shaping, he had the ability to repair all of the damaged elementals formed by the Utu Tonah. There were many, and Tan had made a point of trying to find those that he could, but this had been the first one they managed to track.

He debated whether to reach out to the elemental before deciding against it. The potential to actually cause harm to it was too great. Better to leave the elemental as it was than force something before the creature was ready.

Instead, Tan used a shaping of spirit, pulling through Amia and letting her guide him so that he could send a reassuring sense to the elemental.

There came a flurry of movement, and a winged creature took to the air and streaked toward the south.

Using Kota’s sight, Tan noted how small and compact the creature was, but there was strength to it. Mostly wind, but the connection to earth was there as well.

“What happened?” Amia asked. She took a deep breath, as if willing to move now that the elemental had been scared off.

“An elemental of wind and earth, one of the crossings.”

“Did you speak to it?”

Tan shook his head. “Not this one. It was too young to connect to. There was something wrong with attempting to force a connection, especially knowing how they were created. It was enough to know that it isn’t twisted as some of the others were.” Had the elemental remained twisted, or if it even had been, Tan wouldn’t have been able to heal it. That ability had only come when he was so deeply seated with the power of the Great Mother, when he had combined the shaping of each of the nations as they brought that power to him, to allow him to unify the people against the Utu Tonah. In that way,
he
had served as something like the artifact, bridging the shapings together.

You were wise to give it time. That one will need time, but I sensed great strength in him.

Earth strength?
Tan had detected strength with wind, and it must have had enough strength to be able to fly, but he hadn’t
really
known.

There is earth strength in that one,
Kota confirmed.

Tan took a deep breath.
You will hunt?

That is why you brought me to this place.

I didn’t bring you. You let the draasin carry you.

Kota bared her fangs at him, but Tan petted her. The dark brown and black speckled fur was rough beneath his hand, and he felt her great strength.
Careful, Maelen, or I will not hunt.

Tan chuckled and pulled Amia to him on a shaping of wind as he prepared to return to Par-shon. If nothing else, having Kota here gave him a sense of relief.

T
an shaped
himself above the city, trying to stay out of sight of the people making their way along the streets. He’d found that a shaping of wind obscured him while traveling above, much like a shaping of earth gave him the ability to hide while on the ground.

Distantly, he sensed Kota as she prowled along the shores of Par-shon. With her here, he had a different understanding of the landscape. She’d come across two more crossed elementals, and each time he reached them, Tan had realized that they were too young for him to risk connecting to.

What would have happened had the Utu Tonah forced them to bond?

Or had he already?

Those were questions that he wanted to pose to the Mistress of Bonds, but first he had to find her. So far, she had managed to elude him.

And now, rather than finding Elanne as Tan had hoped, he found Marin by accident.

The Mistress of Souls made her way down the street flanked by three younger men. They each carried a basket and had clean-shaven heads. Simple, dark brown robes matched her robe.

When Tan landed in front of her, she looked down at the ground. “My Utu Tonah,” she whispered.

The men with her lowered their baskets and bowed. “Utu Tonah,” they repeated as one.

Tan looked down the street. Hadn’t he sensed Elanne here? Spirit and earth had shown him the connection to her, but he didn’t see her anywhere. He needed answers about the bonds.

“Your ministry goes well?” he asked. He reached out with spirit and couldn’t find Elanne where he thought she had been. Tan added earth, but even that didn’t help. Either she was no longer here or, more likely, something had changed so that he couldn’t reach her.

Given all the bonds that he knew existed throughout Par-shon, he suspected that she hid somewhere he couldn’t reach her. There might even still be someplace like the tower had once been, a place where the tiles with runes meant to obstruct his ability hid her from him.

“We serve the people,” she said softly.

Wind swirled around his feet, and Tan glanced up, thinking of Honl and wondering where the elemental of wind had gone, but Honl wouldn’t have needed to find him. He could simply reach through their connection.

“You still haven’t shared with me what it is you do, exactly,” Tan said. “How long have you served in your role?”

She tipped her head. “My role, Utu Tonah?”

Tan nodded. “I’ve spoken with the others on your council, but you keep avoiding me,” he said, forcing a smile as he did. It wasn’t so much that she avoided him, but she certainly had not gone out of her way to try to help him. None of the councilors had, really, and Tan didn’t blame them, but he thought that their concern for his title and the fact that he had defeated the previous Utu Tonah would forge a certain level of respect.

With some, he had. Leon, the Master of Coin, had demonstrated immediate deferential respect, but then, Tan suspected he feared to lose that authority. The Master of Trade, a carpenter by the name of Aled Throns, had taken some time, but Tan thought he had a potential ally there. Garza had turned out to be the Mistress of Shaping, a position where Tan had some natural credibility. Only Elanne and Marin had proven to be difficult, and he thought he was making some headway with Elanne. Or had, when he could find her.

“I have not avoided you, my Utu Tonah,” Marin said, keeping her voice soft. “The people need stable guidance. That is my role.”

“Not the role of the Utu Tonah?” he asked.

He noticed her tensing and, with water sensing, noticed how her heart began to flutter. Tan attempted a spirit sensing with her, but couldn’t detect anything. Either she knew how to block him—something the warrior shapers had learned to do against the archivist spirit shapers—or she could shape spirit herself. Tan would have doubted that likely, especially knowing what he did of Par-shon and their ability with spirit.

“I would not presume to tell you your role, my Utu Tonah.”

“That’s not what you said when we last spoke. I would hear your thoughts,” Tan said.

Marin swallowed. “The Utu Tonah leads the people in this life,” she said carefully, “while the Mistress of Souls guides them toward the next.”

“You haven’t attempted to guide me.”

She looked up. “You would seek guidance?”

Tan sensed an undertone of something more to the question. “I always seek answers and understanding. That is how I was able to reach the elementals and how I understood that they were not to be forcibly bonded.”

He said the last to gauge her reaction. Would she be offended by the comment, or would her heart begin to speed? He might not be able to use spirit sensing with her, but that didn’t mean he had no way of detecting her mood.

But he detected nothing that suggested anxiety. Rather, there was a calm about her.

“You make bold statements, Utu Tonah,” she said, “but some do not believe.”

“What don’t they believe? That I would not force the bond onto the elementals, or that we should work with them?”

She managed to hold his gaze far longer than she had in the past. “Yes.”

“What do
you
believe?”

As she watched him, he felt a shaping building. With certainty, he knew that she could shape spirit. Likely others serving with her would as well.

That realization only opened more questions for him. How had she escaped the notice of the Utu Tonah all that time?

Or had she?

She shapes spirit,
he sent to Amia.

He sensed her, distant in the tower, and she responded by coming to the forefront of his mind, engaging their bond.
Are you certain?

There is a shaping here, but not one that I can fully detect.

That doesn’t mean spirit. You would be able to detect a spirit shaping.

Tan wasn’t sure that he would. He would detect a
shaping
, but knowing whether it was spirit or something else would be difficult. At least with the other elements, the connection to the elementals helped him know the details.

“I believe that you have come to our lands and have asked our people to consider a different path than the one they had expected. I believe that you intend to lead us but don’t yet know what motivates you.”

One of the men with her gasped, and Tan suppressed amusement. He’d been trying to convince the people around him to stop treating him as if he had to be feared, but they had no reference for that. To them, he was the Utu Tonah, possibly no better than the prior one, and powerful enough to have killed him.

Marin let out a controlled sigh. “I am sorry if I speak too freely, Utu Tonah, but you asked what I believe.”

Should he attempt a shaping of spirit on her? If he were strong enough, or even if he used a subtle enough sensing, he might be able to understand what she hid from him. There was no doubting that she did.

Worse, although it should not affect him as it did, someone able to shape spirit would be harder for him to trust. The experience with the archivists had taught him that. And if she attempted to shape him with spirit, he knew that he couldn’t trust her, not really.

But he needed to understand. To do that, he would have to find a way to bridge a level of trust.

“Would you show me how you guide the people?” Tan asked.

Marin watched him as if expecting his request to be something of a joke, but when Tan didn’t respond, she nodded. “I will show you the people, Utu Tonah, and you can see if you will still lead.”

She nodded to the men with the baskets, and a quick shaping built. With it came the realization that something passed wordlessly between them. Tan didn’t press, but he would find out whether she truly shaped spirit, and if she did, whether she had somehow influenced the Utu Tonah. If she did, it was possible that she had suggested he go after the Aeta, or even possible that she had suggested a way to defeat Tan.

The alternative was equally possible. She might have tried preventing him from learning about the connection to spirit. That would be powerful information if true.

They walked through the city, moving past shops and buildings, many of which were in various states of disrepair, before passing into a part of the city where there were larger buildings. Children ran through the street, many wearing nothing but a wrap around their waists and most without anything on their feet. In spite of that, they sounded happy, their shouts and cries as they chased each other the universal sound of children at play.

Marin watched him. What reaction did she expect of him?

He’d seen poor sections of Ethea, but there weren’t nearly as many as in Par-shon. Or maybe he chose
not
to see them in Ethea. When he was there, he had access to the university, the archives, and the palace, all places that the average citizen of Ethea would not be able to reach. Wasn’t it the same in Par-shon? As Utu Tonah, he spent most of his time in the tower, or the sprawling estate that had been the previous Utu Tonah’s, and rarely out among the people.

“There will be many who won’t want to see you,” she said to him carefully.

“Why?”

She shrugged. “They see you as the Utu Tonah. To them, you are no different than the one before.”

“I am very different than the one before,” Tan said. “They will have to see that.”

Marin studied him and then nodded. Tan hadn’t noticed a shaping building, and maybe she hadn’t built one. He doubted that she could shape him with spirit. Since learning of his own connection to spirit, and with the bond to Amia, he had been protected from a spirit attack. Even the First Mother hadn’t been able to shape him, as far as he knew.

“You must show them if that is what you would have them know.”

Marin led him to the door of the building, the three men with baskets following behind. Tan held onto a connection to earth, reaching out to try and understand how many were around him, and stopped counting when he reached the thirties. Dozens of people occupied the courtyard outside the building.

Many were young, much younger than those he worked with at the tower.

Tan noticed that as soon as he entered the wide courtyard, children screamed as they ran through, coming up to Marin so that she could pat them on the head and whisper a few words before they went running away. A few older kids stopped by as well and waited for her to speak to them softly. After she was done, he realized that the men with baskets handed them something before they disappeared.

“What are you saying to them?” Tan asked.

“That is between them and the Night.”

“The Night?”

Marin barely glanced in his direction. “You are not of Par, Utu Tonah. You do not understand our beliefs.”

“Help me, then.”

He didn’t think that she would answer, and maybe it would have been better had she not.

As a larger man with thick arms and broad shoulders approached, Marin spoke so softly that only his ability to shape the wind let him hear. “So that you can turn them against us?” Marin said.

The large man wrapped her in a hug and then bowed to her. She traced a finger along his forehead in a pattern that felt familiar. For a moment, Tan thought she might be forcing a bond, but there was no flash of power and no painful drawing from the elementals. He thought that he would manage to detect if there
was
any forced bond.

Then the man straightened, and his gaze turned to Tan. A flash of red raced through his cheeks and tension swelled within him. Tan barely had to possess any connection to spirit to know the anger within the man, if not the reason behind it.

“Mistress,” the man said in a hushed whisper, “you know that I would never question your judgment.”

“Isan, the Utu Tonah asked to understand my role.”

As she said his title, the sounds in the courtyard around them fell silent. A few others shuffled over toward Isan, and they lined up behind him. All had much of the same agitation that Tan detected from him, but he didn’t understand the reason.

He decided to use spirit. This was the reason that he’d come to Par-shon, wasn’t it? So that he could understand the people and prevent the same attack from recurring?

Starting with Isan, he started to layer a connection of spirit through the man.

And felt pushed back.

Tan frowned and glanced at Marin.

What was this? Had she provided some level of protection to these people? But protection from what?

“You didn’t need to bring him here, Mistress. After what he’s done—”

Tan was surprised at the way they spoke. It was nothing like the respectful way others within the city had spoken to him. In some ways, it was refreshing.

“What did I do?” Tan asked, stepping forward.

Marin shook her head at him in a silent warning.

Isan glanced from Marin to Tan and then bowed his head. The gesture was slow and deliberate as if he intended to make it clear that he was not
forced
to bow. “You are the Utu Tonah. You may do as you please.”

Tan stood in front of Isan. The man smelled of sweat and smoke, but mostly he reminded Tan of the way his father had smelled. A healthy scent, and one that carried the scent of hard work.

“Have I offended you in some way, Isan?” Tan asked. “You would rather have the other Utu Tonah, the one who forced bonds on the elementals?” Tan turned to Marin. “Is that what this is about? Your people miss the power they had when the Utu Tonah allowed them to bond?”

He felt his anger building and suppressed a shaping that threatened to spill out within him. Shaping unintentionally wouldn’t serve the purpose he had in coming here. But he couldn’t allow the people to think that the old ways could return. Somehow, he would have to convince them that there was another way for them to understand the elementals.

Maybe trying to talk them through it wouldn’t work and he would need to be more forceful. He hated the thought that it would be necessary, but seeing this man and sensing the agitation within these people, he began to wonder if there
was
another way.

“If the Mistress agrees that you can be here, then I cannot object,” Isan said.

Marin looked from Tan to Isan, and then to the others gathered in the courtyard. All seemed to block him from getting any closer, as if they intended to keep him from the building behind. “Perhaps, Utu Tonah, it would be best if you did not enter this place until you have proven yourself. If you are indeed interested in what you claim, then let the people have the peace they seek. Only then should you attempt to enter.”