Prelude to Fire: Parts 1 and 2 (23 page)

“But she is a shaper, and one who could learn to shape each of the elements. Does she shape more than wind and fire now?”

The priest hesitated and then shook his head. “Issa spoke to her and called her to fire. Only after she mastered this did she learn to listen to the wind.”

“Can she sense water and earth?” For him, fire had come first, then wind, then earth, with water last. The order was not important.

“We do not know.”

“Why? Isn’t she tested for the others? Think of how you could use a shaper like that.” And if she could shape each of the elements, perhaps the kingdoms could learn they had more in common with Incendin than they realized.

“Issa has called her, as she has called you.”

Lacertin sat back, finally understanding what the priest wanted of him. They had not treated him well simply because he had been “called by Issa,” at least, not solely because of that. The priest wanted him to teach.

“Then Issa is mistaken.”

The priest met his eyes and pushed his glasses back on his face before grabbing the book between his hands again. “Issa does not make mistakes, Lacertin Alaseth.”

Lacertin looked away. “I do not teach.”

“You are from the kingdoms. I thought that all of your warriors had an obligation to teach at your university.”

“All are asked to teach. Not all have the capability to teach.”

The priest chuckled. “You may not think you have the capability to teach, much like you may not think that Issa brought you to us for a reason. But Issa
has
chosen you, Lacertin Alaseth, and Issa will provide you with the understanding you need.”

With that, the priest stood and left Lacertin alone.

T
he evening sun
hung in the western sky, streaks of orange and red swirling around it. A few clouds, more than Lacertin had seen while in Incendin, scattered through the sky. For the first time, he wondered if Incendin ever got rain. This close to the water, rain was not impossible, and actually likely, but the hard, cracked rock he sat upon appeared as if it never saw anything more than the sun.

He stood alone, but not alone.

The priest had sent him away from the fortress, ostensibly to learn from the fire shapers, and made a point of sending him with the fire and wind shaper. She seemed no more willing than Lacertin to go with him and now stood a dozen paces to his left, staring down at the water crashing on the rocks below.

The spray struck his face, and he tasted it. The view was different in the sunlight, and he could make out the jagged points of the rocks stretching down the face of the cliff and dropping to the sea far below. The entire coast of Incendin was like this, the cliffs only descending to sea level nearer to Doma.

Lacertin stretched his arms out from his sides, letting the wind play against him. Hot and cold battled here, and Lacertin could almost imagine dueling elementals. Such an idea was ridiculous, as the scholars all agreed that there was a great elemental of wind, and perhaps only a few lesser elementals, certainly not enough to duel with the great ara.

“Step away from the edge,” the shaper said behind him.

He ignored her, letting his focus reach beyond him, feeling for the water far below, tracing his earth sensing along the rocks. Here he was able to use each of the elements, as if they converged in this place, granting him a different level of power. Had he been a person of faith, he would have claimed that this was a place of the Great Mother, but faith had never been a strength of his.

With earth sensing, he detected her approaching. She pressed on his awareness like a strange combination of heat and shimmering wind, this time more clearly shaping it. He smiled, calling to the wind and letting it gust through him, catching the thin fabric of the Incendin shirt he wore.

Hot wind pushed against him. Her shaping, he realized.

Lacertin didn’t try to fight, letting the trail wash over him. She pushed harder and he felt the wind ease him from the rock.

Then he fell.

The cliff raced past him, a blur of stone. Lacertin rolled, pulling on the wind, but found that it didn’t answer as it should, almost as if the woman’s shaping countered his. If he didn’t act quickly, he’d hit the rocks below.

He used a shaping of lightning and streaked to the clouds above.

There, briefly, he stood among the clouds, a warrior looking down upon Incendin.

Always before, he had thought of Incendin as an ugly and brutal place. The harsh, cracked landscape stretching out from him hadn’t changed the brutality that he felt from this land, but there was also a sense of beauty to it that he had never known.

The Fire Fortress glowed with the flames of the intense shaping leaping from the highest turret. The city spread around and away from the fortress, like arms sweeping toward the rocky shore. Outside the city, the strange spikey plants grew, but some trees as well, more than Lacertin had remembered. Rows of vegetation were visible from here, and he wondered if these were the potatoes or carrots or any of the other strange plants they’d fed him.

Incendin was not ugly at all. Harsh and hard, yes, but not ugly.

The people were different than those of the kingdoms, but were they so different that they couldn’t find a way to reach peace?

With a change to his shaping, he streaked back to the ground and landed with an explosion of light and thunder.

The woman staggered back, away from the cliff’s edge. He should have been more careful. It could be dangerous using the traveling shaping, especially when others weren’t aware that he would be coming. It was the reason there was a shaper circle in the university: so that none would be injured.

“Are you hurt?” Lacertin asked, sliding toward her on a shaping of wind.

She covered her face with her arm and the hot Incendin breeze swirled around her, pushing out at him. Dust and debris from his shaping slapped at him, but he ignored it.

When it cleared, she stood, glaring at him. “Why do you stay, Lacertin Alaseth? You command the wind and the skies. Why do you not leave the Sunlands?”

He stared at her. “I haven’t found what I’m looking for.”

She crossed her arms, and the intensity of her eyes burned darker. “The San claims you search for Issa. Is that true?”

A part of him wanted to admit why he was here, and he struggled with why he should feel compelled that way. Admitting the reason would be dangerous, especially seeing how skilled the Incendin fire shapers were. He had known, but knowing was different than experiencing.

“I don’t know what I’m searching for,” he said.

Her eyes narrowed slightly. “You know more than you admit, Lacertin Alaseth.”

“And you know my name, yet I still don’t know yours.”

She wiped her arm across her mouth. “You will not.”

Not for the first time, Lacertin wondered why Incendin would refuse to share their names. Did they fear that sharing would give him some sort of power over them? That wasn’t how shaping worked, at least not the way that he knew to shape.

“How long have you known you can shape wind?” he asked.

She stared at him a moment before pulling her eyes away.

“Your San told me that Issa called you first, and that only later you felt the drawing of wind.”

She shifted on her feet and still didn’t look up at him.

“For me, fire came first,” Lacertin said. “Then wind. After wind came earth. Water last.” He focused on earth and water, using his sensing to listen, but couldn’t detect whether she had any draw on either of the other elements. Maybe this was too early for her, that she hadn’t yet felt the draw of any of the other elements. “Which of the others do you sense?”

She remained silent.

He pulled on earth, and it rumbled softly beneath her feet. Lacertin held the shaping and directed it toward her, but felt nothing pushing against him. He shifted, reaching for water far below him. The sea splashed against the shore, sending spray that made it all the way up to him. Lacertin drew upon it, spiraling water up toward them, and pressed it against the woman.

At first, he thought that she had no connection to water, but as he began to release the shaping, he felt a soft tug on his shaping.

Lacertin smiled. “Water then.”

She looked up at him. “No water.”

“You’re mistaken. There is a certain signal that you give off with my shaping. As your San knows, once you can shape another element, you are able to shape the others. The only question is when.”

“I can’t touch any of the other elements.”

“Perhaps not intentionally, but you are able to touch water. Eventually earth shaping will follow.”

“I… I didn’t know.”

Lacertin nodded. “There are places you could go to learn to control these shapings,” he said.

She laughed and stepped away from him. “You think that I would go to the kingdoms to learn? Is that what Issa would have me do?”

“I don’t know
what
Issa would have you do, but you can learn.”

“And if I were to go to your kingdoms, what would happen once I learned? How would I be any different than those of Doma?”

The fact that she asked told Lacertin that she knew more about shaping than she might have let on. Shapers of Doma often came to the kingdoms to learn, and often when they did, they never returned to their homeland. Those who did were usually shapers without the same level of potential.

“There is a price to learn,” Lacertin said.

“And I will pay it, but I will dedicate what I learn to Issa.”

Lacertin thought of the priest and the fact that he claimed that Lacertin came to Incendin so that he could teach, but there was nothing that he would be able to teach her. Teaching had never been his strength, and coming to Incendin hadn’t changed that. If anything, it made it clearer to him that he could
not
teach. After seeing what the Incendin fire shapers were capable of doing, he didn’t think there was anything that he could show her.

“You will experience water next,” Lacertin told her. “It is an element I am least experienced with, but know that water can be overwhelming unless you learn to focus.”

“Issa will provide…”

Lacertin considered saying nothing more, but if he didn’t, there was a risk that something dangerous would happen to her. Learning shaping was difficult, even with skilled instructors. Learning on your own could be deadly. With wind, it was lucky that she hadn’t been carried off, destroyed by the ignorance of her shaping.

He shook his head and swallowed. He couldn’t simply say nothing. If he did, he would essentially be killing her. “I don’t know whether Issa will or not, but you will be in danger if you do not learn to control it. That means that earth will come last. Earth is not as… angry as the others, but there will be requirements to what you learn there, as well. With water, you need to maintain control, but you should expect the power of water to wash over you. Try to fight too hard and you will be overwhelmed. Allow yourself to flow with it and you will learn to control it, and over time, you will be able to use it.” He sighed, thinking of earth. “Earth is different. You must understand that it is greater than you, and that you must find a way to stand strong, place yourself as part of it, and draw upon the strength that you detect. Feel it within you, all around you, as you learn to command it.”

The woman stared at him for long moments. She squeezed her hands together and then touched a hand to her forehead. “Why is it that you tell me this?” she asked after the pause.

“Because if I don’t, you could kill yourself.”

“Issa would keep me safe.”

Lacertin shrugged. “Maybe Issa will keep you safe. Maybe that is why you were able to learn wind without having someone able to demonstrate it for you. But will Issa guide you when water draws you toward it? Will Issa guide you when earth calls?”

“I will not come to worship your Great Mother.”

Lacertin smiled tightly. “I would not expect you to worship the Great Mother.”

“Is that not required to use all the elements?”

“I use all the elements and I do not worship the Great Mother.” He had always felt a certain connection to the Great Mother, but nothing like the clear worship of Issa he had found within Incendin. He had never expected to find this a place of such faith. That might be the greatest surprise for him. When he used each of the elements, it was difficult
not
to feel some sort of connection to something greater.

And what if Incendin and the priest were right? What if it wasn’t the Great Mother who called him to shaping, who granted him with the ability to touch and use each of the elements, but another god, even Issa, as the priest claimed?

“Do what you will, but think of what I suggested if you begin to feel the pull of water. If you don’t, there is a real chance that it will overwhelm you.”

“Why would you care whether it does?”

He shrugged. “Maybe I don’t care, but I don’t want someone to die trying to learn.”

That struck him as too much like what happened to Ilianna. Her ignorance and inability to shape as she needed to control the strange bowl had rebounded against her. Had she known more, or had she been willing to ask for help, she might have learned what she needed.

Lacertin turned away from her and started back toward the city, making his way through the street. Behind him, he sensed her standing at the edge of the rock, using a combination of wind and fire shaping. Even as he sensed, he felt a hint of water touching against his senses, as she began to use water, if only slightly.

“
Y
ou will come with me
.”

Lacertin stood when the priest entered the archives. A book, written in
Ishthin
and describing the founding of Rens, was open on the table in front of him. He had struggled to translate the language, working through what he knew of it to piece the history together. The process was slow, but what did he have other than time?

“Where are we going?” he asked. He considered grabbing the book and bringing it with him, but it didn’t matter if he did since he would be returning here later anyway.

“You will come,” the priest said with renewed urgency.

Lacertin followed, and the priest led him down through the Fire Fortress, taking steps two and three at a time, moving more rapidly than Lacertin had yet seen. The man had a certain agitated energy to him that was contagious, and Lacertin found himself hurrying along.

“What is it?” he asked as they reached the lowest level of the Fire Fortress. Black tiles matched the walls, making the entire area appear as if a scorching fire had burned through here.

The priest shook his head. “Come.”

Then he led Lacertin from the fortress, hurrying him away from the city, toward the circle of fire.

They passed beyond it, cresting a small rise, and below, Lacertin saw twisted trees surrounding a greenish pool of water. A figure lay angled on the ground, half in the water, unmoving.

Lacertin knew suddenly why the priest had come for him.

He leapt to the air, calling on wind and fire to carry him to her. When he reached the woman, he checked first to see that she had a pulse, and noted that her heart still beat. Resting his head on her chest, something he doubted she would have allowed under other circumstances, he listened. Each breath came slowly, and raggedly, but it came. Then he readied a shaping of water, and sent it plunging through her.

The shaping revealed no injury, nothing that would explain why she didn’t move. In that way, she reminded him of what had happened to Ilianna. That had been spirit, and this, he suspected, was water. Water he understood, if only somewhat.

“Can you help her?” the priest asked, finally reaching them. He stood away from the edge of the water, as if disinclined to even touch it. He leaned on the nearest tree, unmindful of the sharp barbs pressing out from the bark and leaves, barbs that Lacertin knew were sharp and painful.

“I don’t know. For her to be effected this way means that she’ll have much strength with water, if she survives.”

“Issa will guide you.”

Lacertin looked up and met the man’s eyes. “Issa might try, but this is a shaping I do not know if I can perform.”

He searched around, taking in the trees and the water and the hard rock. There was not enough here that would help her reach water. When water had first come for him, he had been guided by one of the master shapers, helping him understand the way that it pulsed within him, flowing in time with his blood. He had been able to use it then, finally grasping the way that it coursed differently than the other elements. Each had a unique signature, and water was no different.

He considered the water here, but something told him it wouldn’t have the strength to help. Water required a certain capacity to detect the flows, to tie that together. If he only had something with enough power to wash over her…

But he did. All of Incendin did. Lacertin shouldn’t be surprised that she would have strength, not considering how much water flowed along the border. Could he use the strength of the Incendin sea and help her?

Normally he would say that he could not, and he should not even try. That was not the reason that he had come to Incendin, and the attempt would not only weaken him, it might be enough to kill him. Even reaching the sea would take more strength than he was certain that he had. He might have carried Veran across the kingdoms, but there had been no other choice.

Just as there was no other choice for this shaper.

He couldn’t let her die.

Lacertin scooped her in his arms and began his shaping.

The priest ran toward him, his eyes going wide. “What are you doing?”

“Taking her where I can heal her.”

The priest shook his head, the glasses sliding down his nose as he did, and reached for Lacertin. If he grabbed hold, Lacertin wouldn’t be able to carry the woman as well as the priest. There were limits to what he would attempt.

With an explosion of lightning, he lifted himself with her to the sky.

As when he had attempted to travel with Veran, the shaping strained him, requiring more energy than Lacertin thought that he possessed. At least with Veran, there was a sense that the warrior assisted his shaping, giving him a boost. With this woman, there would be no such assistance.

He pulled them toward the edge of the city, drawing as much strength as he could. Somewhere behind him, fire bloomed like an explosion, He didn’t dare pause and look, but wondered if the priest attempted to follow. As far as he knew, there wasn’t a way for fire shapers to travel, but if anyone had worked out a way, it would be Incendin.

The rocks loomed in front of them. He relaxed the shaping and they were carried down, descending toward the water.

Lacertin used a last burst of energy to hold them above the water a moment, and then shifted his shaping—and all of his strength—into water.

They dropped into the sea.

The water was surprisingly cold when it slammed into him. Lacertin floated, adding a hint of air for buoyancy as he did, but pulling mostly on water. The strength of the sea slammed over them again and again, each time nearly forcing him under.

This was a mistake. He’d come to the sea thinking that he needed the strength of the ocean to help her, and that might be true, but
he
wasn’t strong enough with water to withstand it.

He fought a moment before remembering the lesson he had tried to instill in her. With water, you had to find the current and discover a way to float within it.

Lacertin took a deep breath. The shaper lay limp in his arms. Lying as she was, with the cloth of her Incendin shirt nearly transparent, her head splayed back so that her dark hair trailed in the water, he couldn’t think of anything that he could do that would help her. His ability with water was too weak and he was not experienced enough. Much like with Ilianna, he would fail.

His heart pounded loudly in his chest and he let out a frustrated breath. As he did, he realized that the pull of the water matched his heartbeat. Lacertin focused on water, listening to it, hoping to draw power from it.

Fire exploded near him.

He glanced up and saw three fire shapers standing along the rocks. Their shapings built, and powerful surges of fire slammed into the water, turning it to steam around him. So far, they missed, but Lacertin did not expect that to be the case for much longer.

Another, more powerful, shaping built, one that reminded him of the circle of fire that he’d nearly been a part of.

They worked together, he realized.

He glanced up and saw that Alisz was among the shapers. A malevolent gaze stared down at him, attempting to burn through the space between them, as if she intended to burn away the water.

The sense of water increased, beating in time with his pulse.

Could he use that to help her?

Maybe if he could help coordinate
her
pulse with the water, she might be able to come out of whatever had happened to her, but not if she didn’t have time, and not if the attack hit them before he had a chance to find a way through water and to her.

Lacertin took a deep breath, leaned down to the shaper, and blew into her mouth. If he succeeded, he wouldn’t have her drowning because he hadn’t been prepared.

Then he pulled her under.

The shaping of fire struck as he dropped beneath the surface. He hoped that they were protected by the sea, and that the massive amount of water would keep them safe, but he didn’t know. With the fire shapers, it was possible that they were potent enough to burn away even the ocean, something he never would have considered.

When burning pain did not come, he focused on the shaping of water. It swirled around them, pulling in and out as the waves washed over them. He moved with the waves, felt his heart beating in time with it, and then pushed a shaping into the woman.

As he did, he timed it so that it sank into her blood, filling her with the power of water and his shaping.

Lacertin pulled on the liquid sense around him, aware that he was drawing on more strength than he had ever managed before, almost as if the sea itself augmented his shaping.

It built, filling him much like the waves crashing into him, and then receded, pulling away like the water. A swirling energy mixed in, much like the turbulent flow all around him.

For painfully long moments, he didn’t think that what he did made a difference. The water continued to pull on him. Shapings of fire built and slammed into the sea, a relentless attack done by fire shapers thinking that he did something to harm her. And Lacertin felt his strength waning with each passing moment.

Then, as he began to fear that what he did made no difference, he felt a surge of power push against him. Not from the sea, though he wouldn’t have been surprised to have the ocean itself push on him, but from within the woman.

The shaping built, this a swirling torrent of water power that spilled out of her.

She writhed against him and Lacertin suddenly realized that his lips were still pressed against hers after he’d given her the breath.

Her eyes snapped open.

She pulled in a breath, drawing from his lungs.

Her shaping of water swirled around them. Her eyes widened even more.

Lacertin expected her to pull away, but she did not. Instead, the shaping of water surged in time with him, washing over him and mixing together with his shaping. She had power, more than he would ever possess with water, and she pressed that power through him.

He pulled one arm away from her and pointed up.

She nodded.

Lacertin waited for the next fire attack to pass, and then he pulled on the remaining energy that he possessed, pulling on fire and wind, adding water and even earth to send them shooting from the water.

His strength began to fail.

The woman took over. Her shaping was wind with fire, and nothing else, nothing but the distinct sense of her attempting to draw on water as it pulled on him, syncing with his heartbeat, and she carried them to the rocks before her newfound strength failed and they dropped to the ground.

Lacertin sprawled out, thrown from her.

She knelt on the rock, water dripping off her, clinging to her clothing. She made no effort to hide herself in spite of the fact that the water left her clothing nearly transparent. Lacertin stared at her, wondering if it had been worth it to help her, and wondering if the three fire shapers approaching him would throw him back into his cell and use this as an excuse to torment him again.

The woman glanced over at the three approaching and then looked at Lacertin. “Cora,” she said.

When Lacertin frowned, she turned away.

“My name. Cora.”

Then the fire shapers reached them.