Fortress Of Fire (Book 4) (11 page)

Fine. If ara wouldn’t answer, then he would shift his focus. He had already discovered that he needed to learn more about the other elementals. If he could speak with them—if he could use their energy—he would be even more powerful.

This time, he asked of ashi. Ashi answered, blowing around him with a warm gust out of the south, swirling around his head.

His mother’s eyes widened slightly.

“You won’t keep me from him, Mother,” Tan said.

The wind lifted him. Adding a hint of fire drawn from saa, they shot into the sky on a cloud of shaped air. They streaked south and east. Asboel was out there, though Tan didn’t quite know where. The pain tearing through his mind kept him from knowing.

Amia tensed. “Are you certain this is what you should be doing? You know what Asboel warned. If what Enya did withdraws fire from you—”

“Asboel needs me. He might not ask for it, but the pain was his way of calling for help.”

She gripped his arm tightly as they soared toward the draasin. Tan hoped they would be in time.

T
an held
the shaping of wind for as long as he could. From what he could tell, Ashi fueled the shaping, giving him the strength he needed to pass over Ethea, and across Ter, but he wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer. Tan sensed the strength in the elemental, but he wasn’t attuned to it well enough to use it with any skill or precision. Instead, he asked the wind elemental to carry them.

With ashi, the farther they went to the east, toward the warmer air, the stronger the elemental seemed to become. Tan needed to use less and less focus to guide them.

As they crossed into Nara, he steered toward a small rocky area and back down to the ground. They touched down on dusty, brown rock. The air held the shimmer of heat, but not quite the oppressive heat he remembered of Incendin. The outcropping had shadows coalescing and a small pool of water beneath it. Had he been drawn to this?

Maybe, but it was more than that. He’d seen it before. Asboel had been here.

Tan looked up at the wind and tipped his head. It blew around him in warm, steady gusts.
Thanks,
Tan sent to ashi.

Something like streaks of color swirled around him. There was a quiet sense of a voice, so distant he almost wasn’t sure what he heard. Had he not pushed the sense of Asboel away, he might not have heard it. As it was, the sense was distant and faded, barely more than a quiet humming.

Tan reached for it, straining toward the connection. He wasn’t certain it would work, that he
could
pull the sound toward him. Part of him feared what would happen if he did. Would it be like what he’d experienced with ilaz? But if he could reach for ashi, if he could speak to the air elemental as he spoke to ara, how much more effective would his shapings become, especially now that they were away from a place of convergence?

The sense of words and the voice came closer. Tan realized that he somehow shaped spirit as he pulled it toward him, not weaving together each of the elementals to do so. The First Mother would be pleased. It had only taken him to lose the connection he shared with Asboel to find it.

A voice boomed in his head, reminding him of how he spoke to Asboel.

This land is dangerous.

Tan pressed the voice to a manageable level as he’d learned to do with Asboel. The voice wasn’t ara. There was nothing of the great wind elemental to the way it spoke.
Ashi?

Ashi, he says. I am of the ashi, but I am more. I am Honl.

Tan hesitated. Other than Asboel, none of the elementals had ever named themselves. Honl was one of the ashi elementals.
I am Tan.

I know you, Tan.

There was a welcoming sense of warm wind power from the elemental, a power that Tan had felt before without really knowing what it was. Honl had given him the strength to float above the city when he first learned of ashi. But it was more than that. The swirls of color reminded him of what he’d seen coming off Asboel as he flew. Had it not been ara as he always suspected?

Has it been you, not ara?

Honl seemed to laugh.
Ara helps when it wishes, but they prefer to serve Zephra.

How long have you…

Tan trailed off, uncertain how to ask the question. How long had Honl been with him? Ever since he’d learned to speak to the other elementals?

Since you summoned,
Honl said.

Tan tried to think back to when he might have summoned the wind. Since learning of his connection to the elementals, there had been many instances when he had.
When did I summon?

Honl swirled around him.
The device was too powerful. Ara helped Zephra. You summoned.

How had Tan not known he summoned a different elemental? With wind, the sense was different. And ara
was
more interested in serving his mother. That was how she had managed to restrict his shaping the wind at first. Without Honl, she would have kept him in Ethea.

“What is it?” Amia asked. “I can almost hear you, but it’s different.”

After what happened with Asboel, this almost made up for the terror he felt for the draasin. “What do you know of the wind elementals?”

She turned to let the warm air gusting out of the north blow against her face, swirling in her golden hair. “Ara? Less than you, I imagine.”

“Apparently I know less than I thought,” Tan said. “Not only ara, but the other elementals.”

“I know little of the elementals, Tan.” She studied the ground around them, shifting the pack she carried.

“This wasn’t ara who brought us here.”

“You shaped us yourself?” Amia asked. “I thought you struggled shaping wind.”

It sounded like what his mother would say to him. “I’ve improved, but I still don’t have the strength to shape us this far. We would’ve ended up somewhere in Ter, and that’s
if
I managed to reach the wind in the first place. Zephra enjoyed making it difficult for me to reach for wind. She considered it a training technique.”

Amia bit back a smile. “Then how?”

“Another wind elemental. Ashi. I thought ashi a lesser elemental, but I’m not sure. A lesser elemental shouldn’t have been able to bring us this far so easily.”

“Lesser like the nymid?”

That had been his thought, too. “Apparently what I know of the elementals is wrong,” he said, wishing he’d had the time to better understand the elementals. “At least, that’s what it seems like from talking with Honl.”

Amia turned toward the breeze blowing toward them, studying it as if to understand.

How many elementals are like you?
Tan asked Honl.

The wind elemental swirled around his head.
Like me? I am me. There is no other Honl.

Tan surveyed the hot land around him.
Why did you say this is a dangerous land?

Wind kicked up dust and sent it swirling around Tan. He coughed and covered his mouth.

Can you not taste it? There was pain here. Great pain.

Tan removed his arm from his mouth and let the dust settle in his nose and mouth. As it did, he
could
taste the pain. It was hot and angry… and familiar. The draasin had suffered here.

This was where the hatchlings died?

Honl swirled around him, reaching the ground before flipping back and righting himself. As Tan watched, he had a sense of direction from the elemental, a head and foot. There was a definite sense of a mouth and, if Tan twisted his head just right, almost a face.

Not dead. Broken. Taken.

Tan frowned. Hadn’t Asboel told him the hatchlings were killed by the lisincend?
They were dead.

Not dead,
Honl repeated.

Where were they taken?

Honl swirled toward the sky for long moments before returning to the ground.
Toward Fire.

Fire. Tan had an unsettled feeling.
Did Twisted Fire take the draasin?

Honl slipped around him again, sliding in a flickering sort of movement.
Twisted Fire? Like Fire when you summoned?

Tan created an image of the winged lisincend in his mind and pushed it to Honl.

Not Twisted Fire. Fire like this.

A different image came and Tan gasped. “Fur?” In his surprise, he spoke the name aloud.

Amia jerked her head toward him. “What about Fur?” It was because of Fur that Amia had lost everything. The lisincend had destroyed her family, all under the direction of Fur.

“Asboel thought the hatchlings dead, but Honl says they were taken by Fur.”

“But Asboel hunted him.”

“He did, but Fur escaped. When Alisz gained power, I assumed she’d taken care of Fur. From what Lacertin said, there was no love lost between them.”

She looked to the east, toward Incendin. “What does it mean that Fur has the hatchlings at the same time the Fire Fortress burns more brightly?”

“And at the same time as the draasin attacked the lisincend and Asboel now suffers,” Tan added.

He crawled under the overhang and stood, letting his earth sensing stretch out. For too long, he’d been dependent on fire. For too long, he’d been dependent on fire. He was startled again to realize how his tie to Asboel had created that dependence.

He sensed where the hatchlings had been. Shards of their thick shells mixed with the sand. Droplets of blood from the attack burned deep into the earth. The tiny insects that crawled along the sand did not dare reach into the outcropping of rock, as if the presence of the draasin kept them away.

Tan paused and took a drink of water pooling beneath the rock. It was stale and had a thin film over it, but tasted cool and refreshing. Even the water held the memory of the draasin.

Could
they have lived?

And if they did, what would Asboel have done to get them back? Tan didn’t really have to ask; he remembered well the anger Asboel had when he thought the hatchlings gone. If he had learned from the lisincend that they lived, it would explain an attack on the Fire Fortress. It might even explain why Tan couldn’t reach him.

But what if Asboel didn’t know? What if Asboel’s silence had to do with what Enya did, withdrawing fire? Nara showed no signs of anything, but what would it be like when they crossed into Incendin? Would the draasin have changed the land in such a way that the lisincend—and fire—were weakened?

Do you know where the Eldest has gone?

Honl flickered around him again, twisting in a spiral from the ground up to Tan’s face. As he settled, features of what seemed a fluid face emerged. It wore a grim expression but didn’t answer.

The draasin?
He sent an image to Honl of Asboel.

Honl swirled around him with an agitated flash of colors.
Dangerous. Do not follow.

For a moment, Tan had an image of the Fire Fortress, and then it was gone. He tried to focus on Honl, but couldn’t. The wind elemental moved around him too quickly to follow. Tan crawled out from under the outcropping of rock, back into the heat. Amia waited, her brow furrowed in a worried frown.

“What did you learn?” she asked.

“Nothing I didn’t know already.”

She met his eyes and started shaking her head. “I still don’t think you can go into Incendin after the draasin by yourself, Tan.”

Considering the pain he’d felt, Tan didn’t know if he had any other choice. He
needed
to go after Asboel, if only to ensure that the pain went away. “If I don’t do this, who would help? Who else would risk themselves for the draasin? Roine has already said he needs to remain in Ethea to ensure stability of the kingdoms. And my mother? She disapproves of me even leaving the city. The other shapers? After the draasin attack on Ethea, how many would risk themselves like this?”

“They did before.”

“Roine shared with me the need to find allies. For the kingdoms to find help. Asboel
is
our ally. They’ve proven it over and again. And if he’s injured because he’s attacking the lisincend, the kingdoms need to help.”

Amia grabbed his arm and forced him to face her. “What if he’s not there? You don’t know that he is. For all you know, he’s somewhere far to the north of here.”

“I’d know if he was.”

“The same way you know what happened to you when you started having pain in your head?”

“It’s connected,” he said. “I don’t know how, but it is. Incendin attacked the hatchlings and now I find out they might not have died. The draasin attacked the lisincend. If Asboel learned of the hatchlings, I
know
where he would have gone. It’s the only place that would pose a risk to him. Even if he didn’t, then whatever Enya has done has injured him. I can’t leave him like that, Amia.” He held her eyes. “He’s a creature of great power, but he’s more than that. You know that; you feel the connection as well.”

“You continue to view everything as fixable. Maybe this is something you can’t fix.”

“This is different than what happened with the lisincend. This is
Asboel.
”

Something more troubled her. He sensed it as mixture of emotions surging through their shaped bond.

Tan shaped wind and earth and fire and water, combining them into spirit. This he layered over Amia as she had taught him. A sigh washed over her.

“I’m a fool,” he said, understanding coming to him through the shaping. “I shouldn’t have brought you.”

“You would have left me behind in Ethea? Now you think to treat me as your mother treats you.”

“That’s not it. It’s Incendin. I understand, Amia, and you don’t have to come with me,” he said gently. “I know how you fear facing Incendin again. After what you’ve been through, I can’t blame you, but I need to do this. He’s not just an elemental. The draasin are different than the others. At least, Asboel is different for
me
.”

Amia stared at him for a long time. “You’re not going without me. I’m bonded to you as much as you’ve bonded Asboel.”

He brushed his hand across her cheek. “I know you’ve struggled with your place since learning of the First Mother. But
he’s
our family.”

She laughed softly. “Not quite the family I envisioned, but you’re right.” She rested her head on his hand, taking slow breaths. “We don’t know enough about Incendin. After all this time, they are still such a mystery. Had we only the chance to ask Lacertin.”

It no longer felt strange to think the same thing. Lacertin had sacrificed everything on behalf of the kingdoms and now they were without his wisdom. “He’s the only one who’s been in the Fire Fortress and returned to talk about it.”

Fire is dark in that place.

Tan jerked his attention to Honl, who flickered around him.
You know the Fire Fortress?

I have blown through there. Wind blows everywhere, Tan, even through Fire. Without wind, Fire does not burn.

Can you guide me once we’re there?

Honl took a moment to consider.
You will help Fire?

Tan had a fleeting image of the lisincend. Of Fur. He shook his head emphatically.
No. I will help True Fire.

Honl flittered with a little more agitation before settling next to Tan.
Then I must try.