Prelude to Fire: Parts 1 and 2 (10 page)

“
Y
ou
… you’re a shaper?” Lacertin stared at Ilianna, noting her striking jawline and her wide, hazel eyes. All these years that he’d known her, and during all that time, he hadn’t known. How long had she known?

“I can shape,” she admitted. “Not that it does any good.”

“What? How?” Lacertin had a hard time finding the words. “Does Theondar know?”

Before asking, he hadn’t realized that was the question he really cared about. He had expected to ask about Ilton, whether the king knew that she could shape.

“Only my father knows,” she said.

Lacertin realized that she had shaped water at nearly the same time that he realized that Ilton still breathed. Lying on the wide bed, nothing but the thin, white sheet covering him, his breaths came slow and ragged. His cheeks were pale, almost waxy in appearance. He might not have died, but he didn’t have much time remaining.

“Why announce that he died?” Lacertin asked.

Ilianna pushed a strand of blond hair behind her ears. “He believes as I did.”

Lacertin touched his king, felt the warmth still flowing through his veins, before meeting Ilianna’s eyes. There was defiance within them mixed with something else. Was it a plea for help? Relief?

“Ilton believed that he was poisoned?”

“Yes.”

“But why hide it?”

“Because he doesn’t know who poisoned him.”

“Why hide it from me?” Lacertin asked.

Ilianna didn’t answer.

Lacertin made his way toward the king. “Why would you hide your ability to shape?”

She lifted her hand. Tears streamed down her cheeks. The pained expression told him everything that he needed to know. She didn’t hide the ability to shape to protect herself, or to protect her father, though that might be a part of it now.

“Althem?” Lacertin asked. “You hid this for your brother?”

“You know the law. The throne passes to the next shaper first. Althem would never rule if any knew that I could shape.”

“And Ilton agreed with this?” He found it hard to believe that Ilton would want Ilianna to suppress her ability, especially knowing as he did how Ilton wanted nothing more than to have another shaper sit upon the kingdoms’ throne. With Ilianna, he could have that.

“My father saw how Althem wanted to rule.”

“That’s no answer.”

“Isn’t it?”

Lacertin glanced back at the door to Ilton’s chambers. “What if Althem could shape?”

When the prince had gone to the university, there had been a question about whether he had the ability, but so far, none had witnessed any sign that he could. Lacertin himself had attempted to teach him but found no sign that he could develop the ability. He couldn’t even find evidence that Althem had any capacity to sense. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t learn. There had been countless shapers who developed their abilities later in life.

“Then it wouldn’t have mattered. Besides,” she said, running her fingers across the sheet covering her father, “I never wanted to rule. Not like Althem. Trust me, Lacertin, it really is better this way.”

He wasn’t sure that it was. Now that he knew, could he really keep it a secret?

“Why show me now?” he asked.

Ilianna laughed bitterly. “Did I have a choice? You followed me. Eventually, you would realize that there were no other shapers here. And then?” She shook her head.

“That’s not the reason,” he said.

She closed her eyes, holding onto her father’s hand. “I need your help.”

Lacertin shaped water, borrowing from the shaping that he’d seen Wallyn using on Veran. He let it wash over Ilton, starting from his head and working his way down to his feet. All the way through the shaping, he noted the way the illness burned in his veins.

Like before, there wasn’t anything that he could do to heal him. He added fire, mixing it into the shaping of water, but it burned too hotly through Ilton. Lacertin shifted the shaping, drawing the fire out, pulling it from where it burned within him until the fevers that worked through him eased.

Ilton breathed easier with the shaping.

Why hadn’t he thought to try that before?

“What did you do?” Ilianna asked.

“I only pulled fire out of him,” he said.

“Fire? Why would you need fire to heal him?”

“It burns in him,” Lacertin answered. He couldn’t explain it any better than that.

The shaping that he’d used hadn’t healed him—Lacertin still wasn’t sure that there was anything that he could do that
would
heal him—but he rested more comfortably.

Ilianna added her shaping to what Lacertin had done. As she did, he noted her skill with water, but that it wasn’t only water she used. Earth and wind mixed with water. Ilianna was a warrior.

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to face him. “You’ve not only hidden that you’re a shaper.”

Ilianna let his hand remain on her wrist for a moment before pulling away. “As I said, it doesn’t matter.”

“It
does
matter. If you’re a warrior, the kingdoms need you more than before. You could help fight Incendin—”

“I did not want her fighting Incendin.”

Ilton spoke in a harsh whisper, his voice clipped and breathy. He looked up at Ilianna with pride in his eyes.

“My king,” Lacertin said, bowing his head.

“You have always served me well, Lacertin. You’ve done everything asked of you, even to the end.” Ilton was clearer than the last time Lacertin had come. Had the shaping helped that much? Had drawing away the fever that boiled his blood made such a difference that even his mind was clear? If this shaping worked, could he repeat it, keep Ilton ruling?

Wallyn and the other water shapers might be more skilled with healing than him, but Lacertin had skill with fire that came from living with it, growing up in the harsh lands of Nara. If drawing fire away was the secret to healing him, Lacertin could help. He
had
to help.

“I’ve failed,” he said. “I didn’t know that you were poisoned.”

Ilton coughed and Ilianna reached toward his mouth, covering it with her hand as she stared toward the door. There would be guards standing outside the door to ensure no one disturbed Ilton. Shapers, possibly even warriors.

The coughing eased and Ilianna removed her hand. Lacertin noted blood on it that she wiped on her dress.

“None knew that I was poisoned,” Ilton managed to say. “None of the healers has been able to help, and the archivists haven’t discovered a traditional way to heal me.”

“We could pull away fire as I did—”

“How long do you think that will work?” Ilton smiled sadly. “You have always been faithful, Lacertin, and more loyal than I deserve.”

Lacertin wished there was more that he could do. Would it have mattered if he had attempted to use fire with Ilton when he first learned of his illness? Even then, Ilton wanted only his healers and the archivists to help. Lacertin hadn’t been given the chance, but why would he have? He was no healer, and though he had spent much time in the archives, he was not one of the archivists, either.

“Do you know who did it?” Lacertin asked.

Ilton coughed again and Ilianna reached over him to cover him. “Had I known, there might have been something I could have done. No, whoever did this will win this battle, but Incendin must not learn that they succeeded. They must not see a weakness within the kingdoms.”

“You think it Incendin?” Lacertin asked.

“I don’t know,” Ilton said. He moved his thin arms and crossed them over his chest. Dark blue veins were prominent beneath his skin, spreading out like spider webs. Heat radiated from him, growing warmer by the moment. The shaping already began to fail. “Incendin is the only one with the motivation.”

“How would they have reached you?” Lacertin asked.

Ilton started to cough and again, Ilianna covered it. “That’s what you must learn, Lacertin. I’m sorry to ask this of you now, but you must keep my family safe.”

Lacertin stared at Ilton, words failing him at first. “You could have told me sooner.”

“In my own way, I already did,” Ilton said. “You’ve done more for me than you will ever know.”

Lacertin swallowed the lump that formed in his throat. “Does Althem know?”

Ilianna looked to her father with the question, and Lacertin realized that Ilton had only shared with his daughter.

“Does Theondar know?” he asked her.

“He can’t know. No one can know, Lacertin.”

“I’m sorry that I kept it from you until now,” Ilton whispered.

“The plates?” he asked.

Ilton let out a rattling breath. The color that had returned to his cheeks already began fading again, leaving them ruddy and waxy. How much longer would he remain lucid?

“It was Anna’s idea,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Something she found in one of the sacred texts.”

“What sacred texts?” Lacertin asked.

Ilianna met her father’s eyes and he nodded. “It’s Lacertin. Other than you, there is no one who I trust more,” he said.

Ilianna touched her father’s cheek. A trail of tears ran down her cheek and she nodded. “Rest, Father,” she said. “I will show him.”

Lacertin noted that the king had already fallen back asleep.

I
lianna led
him through the darkened passageway, this time taking the time to create a small shaping of fire to lead him. She stopped at a section of wall and a controlled shaping built. Lacertin realized that she wasn’t a strong shaper, but she had more control than many of the shapers that he’d met, even more control than many of the warrior shapers.

A line appeared along the wall, forming quickly from the ground and making a door in the wall as she shaped. With a quick push, the door swung open.

Ilianna stepped out into her room and glanced around. Another earth shaping built, this one washing over the room itself. Lacertin had used a similar shaping before—possibly the same one, he realized—to determine if anyone had been there before her.

“We’re alone,” he said. He’d done the same thing, but prior to stepping back into the room.

She glanced at the door, bunching her dress in her hands as she hurried to the shelf along the wall. There, she stopped and knelt, motioning to Lacertin to follow.

Ilianna pulled a single book from the shelf and tipped it open. Lacertin couldn’t read the writing. “What is it?” he asked.

“This,” she said, running her finger along the page, “is in
Ishthin
.”

Few still read the ancient language. The archivists could read it, but they studied years before they managed to master it. Shapers were taught some snippets, enough to make out certain words, but not enough to read an entire book written in it.

“I recognize the language” Lacertin said. “I can’t read it.”

“Only because you haven’t tried. There is much about the language that’s shared with ours. This,” she said, pointing to a section, “speaks of fire and the shaping the ancients did using fire.”

“Is this from the archives?”

“These have never been a part of the archives,” Ilianna said. “They remain in the palace, held by the ruling family.”

“Do the archivists know that you have them?” He could imagine the reaction Ilton’s archivists would have if they learned there were texts they would feel should be returned to the archives. Most of the archivists he’d met felt that only the archivists could manage and secure the ancient works.

“Only his closest advisor,” Ilianna said. She leaned over the book, running her finger down the page, slowly flipping through to another. “Traditionally, my family has never been able to even read these works. We might possess them, but they do us no good without a means of interpreting them. Nissa claims there is nothing within these works that isn’t found in the archives.”

From her tone, Lacertin suspected that Ilianna felt differently than her father’s chief archivist. “You disagree?”

“It has taken me years to learn to fully understand what’s written here. Althem always felt I was wasting my time, but Father understood. He pushed me to learn
Ishthin
so that I could understand, so that I wouldn’t have to rely on another to translate. Lacertin,” she said, pointing to the book, “why do you think my father sent you searching the last few months?”

He shook his head, thinking of what he’d gone through to obtain the parts to the box, how he’d suffered. “I often don’t know why your father asks the favors of me. Why send me to Doma for two months a year ago to observe their borders? Why attempt to send me to Chenir?” They had been less than welcoming of a warrior visiting, keeping him restricted to a few places within their capital. “Why send me to Norilan? I think your father has reasons for everything that he asks, but I’m not always privy to them.”

When Ilianna smiled at him, it reminded him of the times when he’d known her before she met Theondar. She had a warmth to her then, whereas now she was more guarded. “You’re privy to more than most.”

“Then why
did
he send me from the city? What are those plates?” Lacertin pointed toward the desk on the other side of the room.

Ilianna stiffened but didn’t look over. She turned a few more pages in the book until she found a single diagram. He had seen the diagram before, just like he’d seen what it depicted. A line of text beneath it was written in a tight hand. There was a rune within that Lacertin recognized, and that he’d stared at for the last few months. Fire.

“That’s the first piece I found,” he whispered.

Ilianna nodded. She turned a few more pages until she came to the next diagram. Like before, there was a line of text beneath, with another rune that he recognized. Wind. Lacertin had seen this diagram as well.

She continued to flip pages in the book, and Lacertin knew what he would find. There would be a panel for earth and another for water.

“This is where you learned about the plates,” he said.

Ilianna nodded. “This text describes the separation and how the pieces must be brought together.” She closed the book, letting it rest on her lap.

“There is a fifth side,” Lacertin said. That was the one he hadn’t managed to find, and the one rune he hadn’t known before beginning his search. He assumed it was for spirit, but then, there hadn’t been a spirit shaper in a very long time.

Ilianna set the book to the side and reached onto the shelf to grab another. This was a smaller tome than the last. It had a faded brown leather cover stamped with the rune he now knew was for spirit. She traced her fingers around it and smiled to herself.

“That was the key,” she said. “Anytime we’ve searched for information about this, there was always something missing. This talks about how to find the piece for spirit.”

“You’ve already found it, then.”

Ilianna looked up at him. “It was never missing.”

She held the cover of the book open carefully and slipped her hand inside a flap in the back, pulling out a rectangular piece of gold. The rune for spirit was etched into the surface. It was a match for the others.

“You had it the entire time,” Lacertin said softly. How long had he searched for that piece? Weeks? Nearly a month? Without any way to search for it, he’d been forced to come back to Ethea with an incomplete assignment. He had never disappointed Ilton before, and hated that he had come back without all the parts to what he’d been asked to bring. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

“He didn’t know,” Ilianna said. “When he sent you, he didn’t know where it was. You don’t understand, Lacertin. I’ve been searching through these books for years, trying to understand. Had it not been for dropping the book,” her face flushed briefly and he realized that she had done so unintentionally, “I might never have learned there was something else in here. Look.”

She handed him the book. The first thing that he noted was how heavy it was compared to what he expected. The front cover was weighted, and now that she’d slipped the gold out of the back of the cover, there wasn’t a matching weight. He opened to the back, where the missing piece of the box had hidden, and ran his finger along the leather. It had been cut open.

“Now what?” he asked. When she frowned, Lacertin went on. “I imagine that you’ve brought all the plates together. What do they do?”

After months spent searching for the individual parts, he wanted to know that the time had been useful; otherwise, he might as well have remained in Ethea. He had nearly died obtaining the water and wind pieces, and the other two had been nearly as difficult.

Ilianna stood and went to her desk. Lacertin glanced at the texts before standing and following her. “I thought it was something like a puzzle,” she said, lifting the plate for earth and touching it to the one that was hidden in the book. Nothing happened. Then she tried water, and the same. Wind and fire were no different. “But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Since you’ve returned, I’ve spent nearly every moment trying to understand what these plates do but haven’t found the secret.”

Lacertin took one of the gold plates off the desk. Wind, he noted from the rune. The way the runes were carved into the surface reminded him so much of the strange bowl that he long ago had found. “I’ve seen something like these before,” he said softly. Her eyes widened slightly. “Shortly after I became your father’s…” He swallowed, unable to finish.

“First?”

He nodded. What would he become when Ilton failed? Who was he meant to be then? Not the First Warrior. He would remain a warrior, but Althem and Theondar would not use him in the same ways. The mission to the border had already proven that. “We were beyond the border in Incendin,” he went on. “This was long before I ever suggested the barrier, when the borders were different. I came across a decorated obsidian bowl.”

“Obsidian?” she asked. When he nodded, Ilianna looked at him with a bright intensity. “The ancient shapers of Rens worked with obsidian. If you have something like this, it might have the same power as the plates. Maybe we could—”

“It is nothing but an old trinket from Incendin,” he said. “The carvings were decoration, nothing more. Not like these.” There was no question that the plates had a purpose, if only he could understand what that was. “Do you know what they do?” he asked.

She shook her head, clutching the book to her chest.

“You sent me searching for these without knowing what they were for?”

“The texts say—”

Lacertin looked over to the books resting on the ground. “The texts are in
Ishthin
, Ilianna. I don’t know everything about the language, but the translation is not always accurate. What if these are nothing more than ancient artwork, no different than the bowl?” The trouble he had finding them made that less likely, but seeing that Ilianna didn’t even know what they were for made him wonder if that might not be the case.

“Have you shaped into them?” she asked.

“Have I what?”

She met his eyes. Deep within her eyes, he saw the thread of hope she felt. “Have you shaped into the plates?”

“No. That wasn’t the task I was assigned.”

She laughed softly and started to reach toward him before lowering her hand. “Your task. Didn’t my father ask you to find something that could save him? Possibly save the kingdoms?”

“And you think these plates could do that?”

“If what’s written is accurate, and if my translation is accurate,” she admitted, “then this is something incredibly powerful.”

Lacertin sighed as he set the piece back down on the desk. “If it’s so powerful, why would it be hidden like that? Why disguise it by separating the parts?”

“I believe that whatever these are meant for is incredibly powerful,” she said. “The ancients intended for it to be difficult to find so that power could not be so easily used.”

“If that’s the case, Ilianna, then what makes you think
we
should use that power? Our shapers aren’t like them. We can’t use the elements the same way they once did.”

She turned to him, clutching one of the plates to her chest. “I can.”

Lacertin frowned. “I don’t understand. Are you saying…”

He looked to the plate she held, noting spirit marked on the plate.

She nodded. “I can shape like the ancients, Lacertin. I can reach spirit.”

For a moment, Lacertin didn’t know what to say. For her to claim to shape spirit seemed impossible, but then, he would have felt it was also impossible that she could shape at all. She’d hidden that fact from everyone, including those closest to her. How else would she have managed to hide it so easily, if not for the ability to shape spirit?

“How?” he asked.

Ilianna held the plate out from her and turned it in her hands. “Not well, at least, not yet. I think with more time and practice, I’ll manage to control it better.”

“But how are you able to shape spirit? There hasn’t been a shaper with that ability in…” Lacertin tried to remember what he could of the history of the shapers, but couldn’t come up with when the last spirit shaper had existed, “centuries. How did you manifest it?”

“It’s not like the others,” she said. “I can borrow from each of the other elements and bind them together.”

“Bind them?” He’d never considered attempting anything like that before. He used each of the elements in his shaping, and the warrior shaping that allowed for travel required him to use each, but he didn’t know what she meant about binding.

Even that didn’t make complete sense. There had been spirit shapers unable to shape other elements. Those shapers were gone, faded by time. What Ilianna described didn’t fit with what he knew.

“Pull the shaping together. Twist it,” she said, using her hands to demonstrate by joining her fingers together. “Then you have to pull it onto yourself.”

“Ilianna, that kind of shaping is dangerous. What you’re talking about involves shaping yourself.”

“Not myself, and not dangerous. At least, it’s no more dangerous than any other shaping I’ve attempted. It’s merely more complicated.” She led him away from the desk, setting the fifth plate on top of it, and went back to the stacked books. She pulled another from the shelf, this a slim volume bound in a strange, scaled leather. “This describes the process,” she said. “The ancient shapers used something much like this. It allowed them to reach spirit as well.”

Could that really be all there was to it? Had the ancient shapers simply known something about shaping that they did not?

Most felt that they had different abilities, that the gift of shaping spirit had been lost over time. From what Lacertin had learned, even the archivists felt the same way. What Ilianna described went against that belief.

“Can you show me?” he asked. How much more could he do if he were able to shape spirit? How much more could all of the warriors do if they could shape spirit?

Ilianna nodded. “When I described this to Father, he thought that you should know.”

“Not Theondar?”

She hesitated. “Theondar is a wonderful man,” she began, “but there is darkness within him. It… It frightens me.”

He had always considered Theondar to be a skilled warrior. Some of the feats he had accomplished spoke to that. But he’d thought that the fact he and Theondar didn’t get along was the reason there was a distance between them.

“Does spirit shaping tell you that?” he asked.

“I don’t need spirit to know,” she answered.

She pushed her hair behind her ear and met his eyes. How much would have been different had he not needed to leave the city when Ilton attempted to establish the arrangement? Would
he
have been with Ilianna now? He knew the question didn’t matter. Not anymore. Too much time had passed between them, and Lacertin had changed. He wasn’t the same person he had been when he first went to Ilton.