The fire within elementa.., p.2
The Fire Within (Elemental Academy Book 1), page 2
Velthan glared at Tolan for a moment before turning his attention toward the forest edge again. “Did you come here to ensure the elemental got freed?” he asked Tolan.
Tolan ignored the barb. It was not uncommon to suffer an insult like that, especially since most believed his parents had left him in Ephra to run off to serve the Draasin Lord. The Draasin Lord was a powerful shaper, a master of each of the element bonds, and longed to unleash the dangerous elementals upon the world, wanting to free them from the bonds so he could control them. He’d been exiled from Terndahl nearly twenty years ago, but some people still went off, seduced by his promise of power.
“We’re here for the same reason as you,” Tanner snapped. He took a step forward and wind swirled around him.
Had it only been Tolan, Velthan probably wouldn’t have been quite so confrontational. He had a natural ability to reach the elemental bonds, and Tolan counted down the days until a Selection came and dragged Velthan away to the Academy to train, though Tanner probably didn’t. While it might give Tolan a measure of freedom from harassment, it wouldn’t save Tanner from ongoing trouble at the Academy. With Velthan gone, Tolan thought he could handle Barton and Percy.
“Is that right? And do you think a wind shaper like yourself would be able to handle an elemental?”
“Just because you can work water and earth doesn’t mean—”
The ground rumbled as Velthan stepped forward. “Are you sure, Venan?”
Wind whipped around Velthan, pushing him back. Knowing Tanner, it was probably the extent of his shaping ability, at least without honing it at the Academy, but he didn’t back down from any fight, sometimes pushing more aggressively than he should.
“Listen. We’re here for the same reason as you. Master Daniels heard the rumor about a rogue elemental and came to investigate with Master Salman.”
Velthan shot Tolan a pointed look, a sneer twisting on his face. “That doesn’t explain why you came. Maybe you’re the reason the elemental escaped.” He turned his attention, shifting so he could step toward the forest. As he did, Tolan felt the buildup of energy around Velthan, so similar to what he detected when Tanner shaped.
“Do you sense anything?” Percy asked. His voice was raspy and had been ever since he’d been burned as a child by a rogue fire elemental. He had been saved by Tolan’s father, something Percy seemed to conveniently forget all these years later.
“I don’t detect anything. Maybe it’s nothing more than rumors,” Velthan said.
“Maybe you don’t detect anything because you aren’t very skilled,” Tanner said.
“Or maybe there’s no rogue elemental,” Tolan suggested, trying to prevent a confrontation between Velthan and Tanner. Tanner was considerably smaller—and though he didn’t want to admit it, he was the weaker shaper.
“I’m sure you’d like us to believe that to be the case, wouldn’t you? Especially as you probably freed the elemental.”
“How do you expect him to free an elemental? Tolan struggles to sense each of the element bonds,” Tanner said, giving Tolan an apologetic look.
Velthan glared at them once more before starting toward the forest with Barton and Percy on his heels. They followed a step behind, careful not to approach too closely, almost as if instructed exactly how to follow him. They reached the forest edge, disappearing within.
“We need to go after them,” Tanner said.
“No. We should go back. What point is there in chasing after them?”
“What point? If they get to the elemental before we do—”
“If they get there before we do, then they would likely end up in danger. The same as us. Let the master shapers take care of it. That’s what they’re trained and equipped to do.”
“Don’t you want to see if it is an elemental?”
Tolan was conflicted. A part of him did want to see if there was an elemental, but even if there was, there wouldn’t be anything he could do other than end up injured. Over the years, enough people had died trying to confront rogue elementals, and most of them were far better trained than Tolan.
“I really need to return. I still have work to do in the shop, and though Master Daniels has been patient with me, there are limits to his patience.” He’d accepted Tolan in apprenticeship despite Tolan’s lack of elemental ability that would have made such an apprenticeship easier.
Tanner looked longingly at the forest, but thankfully he turned away, willing to go with Tolan rather than pursue Velthan.
As they did, a scream echoed from within the trees.
Tolan froze, but only a moment before spinning and racing forward.
“What are you doing?” Tanner hollered after him.
“You heard that scream.”
“I heard it, but there’s nothing you can do.”
Another scream came, though this one was more muted. It was unmistakable, and came from deep within the forest.
Tanner caught up to him and grabbed his arm. “You know if the situation were reversed, none of those three would come after you.”
Tolan pulled his arm free. They wouldn’t, but it just wasn’t in Tolan to sit back if they needed help. They reached the edge of the forest, and as he did, he felt a hot gust of air, almost an unpleasant breath racing out of the trees.
He paused at the edge of the copse. That was an unusual sensation. Normally, the forest was cool, almost damp, but this was a dry heat that blew out from within the trees. Could that be from a fire shaping?
Tolan had been around fire shapings before. He’d felt how master fire shapers could use their connections to the element bond to create incredible power, but nothing had ever felt quite like this.
Maybe there really was a rogue elemental.
He’d seen no sign of Master Daniels or Master Salman since coming to watch the edge of the forest, but that scream didn’t sound anything like Master Daniels.
“Where did they go?” Tanner asked.
Tolan didn’t see them at the edge of the forest, and as he took a step forward, the air grew warmer. Maybe one of the bond shapers had been forced to use their magic to control the elemental? That might explain the sudden change in the temperature.
“Velthan? Percy? Barton?” Tolan hollered, but none of the others answered.
They made their way deeper into the forest, stepping along the soft ground, their feet squishing into the forest floor with each step. Tanner stayed a step behind him and Tolan wished he would take the lead, especially as his shaping might be necessary, but for all of his bluster, he was still younger than Tolan and still preferred for Tolan to lead when it came down to it.
“I don’t like this,” Tanner said, pressing up against him.
“It’s probably nothing more than Velthan playing a trick on us,” Tolan said.
With the heat coming from the heart of the forest, Tolan doubted this was entirely related to a trick Velthan played on them. He should know better than to risk heading into the forest, especially if there was anything to be concerned about, but the scream drew him.
Tanner kept his hand resting on Tolan’s back as they made their way through the forest. There was no sound other than the soft squish of their footsteps. He saw no sign of Velthan and his two lackeys. There was nothing.
“Maybe we just imagined—”
Another scream cut Tanner off.
This time, the scream came from their left and Tolan hurried after it, racing forward, knowing he should be more cautious than he was, but driven by curiosity.
“That was Percy, I’m sure of it,” Tolan said as Tanner caught up to him.
“Velthan would be with him. He’s enough of a shaper—”
A rumble of earth surged, and the sense of it pushed against Tolan, letting him know it was a shaping.
It came from Velthan. There wasn’t enough strength in the shaping to have been from Master Daniels, though if he were out here, he would also potentially be shaping.
The sense of the shaping was close and Tolan slowed, not wanting to approach too rapidly. There hadn’t been any other sound following the scream, so it was possible whatever had happened to Percy was already over.
A surge of heat built. It was different from the breath of hot air he’d felt when entering the forest. It burned against his skin and mixed with a sense of pressure.
“Get down!” he said, grabbing Tanner and throwing them to the forest floor.
Heat exploded over them and slammed into a tree, leaving the trunk smoldering.
Tolan looked up but saw no evidence of Master Salman. It would have to be Master Salman with the fire shaping like that, but where was he?
Tolan scrambled to his feet and hurried forward. As he did, the sound of excited voices came from nearby and he stepped beyond the tree to see Velthan and Barton standing over Percy.
“What happened?” Tolan asked, approaching.
Velthan jerked his head around, his eyes wide. “Did you do this?” he snapped at Tanner.
Tanner stepped back, putting Tolan between himself and Velthan.
Tolan glanced over at his friend. Tanner had been quiet since they’d entered the forest, and the surge of fire that had exploded behind them had shaken him.
“It wasn’t Tanner. We came into the forest after you when we heard the scream. What happened?”
“It was nothing,” Velthan said.
“It didn’t sound like nothing.” Tolan started toward Percy and ignored Velthan glaring at him. He crouched before him, checking his pulse. He didn’t have much ability with water sensing, otherwise he would have used it. Percy lived, though his pulse was faint. “What happened to him?”
“We didn’t see it. There was a buildup of heat and then he collapsed.”
“Was it a shaping?” Tolan asked.
“What else would it be?” Barton snapped.
Tolan looked up, fixing them with a hard gaze. “It could be the rogue elemental that we all came out of the city to see.”
“We didn’t see any sign of an elemental,” Velthan said.
“Are you sure you would know if you saw it?” Tolan asked.
“Not as sure as you, but then again, there probably aren’t too many who have your ability to detect elementals.”
Tolan stood, confronting Velthan. “If you think I am responsible for what happened—”
The ground rumbled and Velthan took another step toward him. “All I’m saying is that with your parents running off to serve the Draasin Lord, it wouldn’t be too surprising for you to have the same leanings.”
Tolan glowered at him. Velthan stood a few inches taller than him, and was more muscular. He should know better than to risk antagonizing him, but he also wasn’t going to sit back while Velthan continued to insult his parents. “They didn’t run off with the Draasin Lord. They were captured.”
Velthan snorted. “You don’t know—”
The sense of heat began to build again and Tolan spun.
It was a shaping, but where was it coming from?
“Do you feel that?” he asked.
“Fire, and it’s somewhere nearby,” Tanner said, his voice pitched in a whisper. “Come on, Tolan. We need to get out of here before anything else happens.” He glanced down at Percy, almost as if unable to take his gaze off the fallen boy.
There came the sound of a pained grunt and Tolan frowned. “That was Master Daniels.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” Tanner said.
Tolan focused on the ground beneath them and reached through the earth bond, straining to connect to it. All he wanted was to search for sign of Master Daniels, but he wasn’t strong enough. It was almost as if something pushed against him.
He looked over at Velthan.
“Stop impeding me.”
Velthan sneered at him. “Seeing as how you don’t have much of an ability with shaping, you don’t get to tell me what to do.”
Tolan glared at him but turned away, starting into the forest again after the sound. As he did, he swore he felt pressure through the earth but wasn’t certain what it meant. Maybe nothing.
Tanner followed, and a gentle breeze tugged on his clothing. There wasn’t much that Tanner and his weak connection to the wind bond would be able to do against a rogue elemental, something Tolan increasingly began to suspect they would find.
As he approached, heat built again.
Tolan hesitated.
“What is it?” Tanner asked.
Tolan shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s the same thing I felt when the shaping exploded before.”
“How is it you picked up that so quickly?”
“What do you mean?”
Tanner studied him a moment. “Only that I didn’t detect any shaping. Had you not said something, I’m not sure I would have known there was a shaping.”
“You would have picked up on it,” Tolan said.
The sense of the shaping built. Heat sizzled along the surface of his skin, heat that seemed to call to him, almost seductively.
“Great Mother!”
He dragged Tanner behind a nearby tree. A blast of heat struck the space where they’d been standing, incinerating the ground. Another one followed, striking a tree near them, setting it burning. Another struck, and then another, power building greater than any fire shaping Tolan had ever felt, leaving his lungs burning as he struggled to take a breath.
The tree protecting them exploded and he was thrown back, dragging Tanner with him. They collapsed in a heap and he struggled to scramble to his feet, wanting to get up, to get away, to move anywhere but here.
“What’s happening?” Tanner screamed. Panic edged his voice.
“It’s the rogue elemental,” Tolan said. It had to be. There was nothing else that would be quite that powerful.
“Who would be foolish enough to summon a fire elemental from the bond?”
“What if it wasn’t summoned? What if it simply broke free?”
Tanner scrambled backward and Tolan followed him. “It doesn’t work like that. The elementals have to be released from the bond.”
Heat again began to build, searing along his skin. Tolan felt drawn to turn around and he looked in the center of the trees, shocked at the destruction. A massive swathe of forest had been destroyed, leaving a pathway back out of it. In the middle of the charred pathway was a flash of fire that seemed to move in ripples, almost as if taking physical form.
The elemental.
The earth shook and he looked around to see Master Daniels striding forward, pressing toward the flash of fire with an earth shaping. He rode along the surface of the earth, practically gliding. The sky suddenly darkened and thunder rumbled. Rain sluiced down, powered by a water shaping.
A fire shaping built, though now that Tolan had felt the effect of the fire elemental, he recognized the difference between the fire shaping and what the elemental had done. This was clearly a shaping, and he could feel its effects far more weakly. He would have to think about that later.
Master Salman appeared at the end of the swathe of burned forest. Heat swirled around him, practically making him glow. It continued to build and build, and it seemed as if there was pressure pushing against the shaping. The movement of the flames—that which Tolan thought came from the elemental—struggled against the shaping.
And then it was gone.
Master Daniels and Master Salman continued forward. They were joined by two others, though from this distance, Tolan couldn’t see who they were. Given the rain, a water shaper had been involved. It was possible Salman had created that shaping, but the suddenness of the rain seemed far greater than what Salman would be capable of. That meant it was likely Master Goral. Maybe there was a wind shaper with them, possibly Master Vera?
“Come on,” Tanner said, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him.
Tolan stared for a moment before letting Tanner drag him away. He didn’t want to be caught out in the open.
“Did you see that?” he asked as they ran.
“I saw the shaping.”
“No. Did you see the fire in the middle of the shaping? It was moving.”
“Are you telling me you saw the elemental?”
“I can’t be sure, but… I think so.”
Tanner glanced over as they ran, reaching where Percy had fallen. Velthan and Barton had left him, and Percy lay motionless on the ground. “What were they thinking, leaving him?” Tanner asked.
“Help me with him.”
Together, they grabbed Percy and swung one of his arms around each of their shoulders, dragging him from the forest. As they did, Percy moaned softly.
As they raced toward the city, Tanner glanced over his shoulder before looking at Tolan. “You know what this means?”
“It means I risked my apprenticeship,” he said. They would need to get Percy help, and because of that, they weren’t going to be able to hide the fact they’d gone into the forest after the elemental. Master Daniels would learn what he had done, and Tolan would have to face whatever consequences came from it. Hopefully, the fact they had been forced to battle an elemental would make him forget about the assignment.
Tanner shook his head. “Not that. The elemental.”
“What does it mean?”
“If it was a fire elemental like you said, it has to be the work of the Draasin Lord, doesn’t it?”
Tolan hoped that wasn’t the case, but he was already fearing the questions that would come. Anytime the Draasin Lord came up, people talked about his parents and their disappearance five years ago. Tolan had been young enough at the time that no one suspected him of sympathizing with the Draasin Lord, but if this was his work, or that of one of his followers, he doubted he could avoid those questions again.
“Maybe it was nothing more than a rogue elemental,” he said.
Tanner watched him. “Maybe that’s it.”
It was clear from his tone that he didn’t believe that, and neither did Tolan. How could he, when he’d seen the fire elemental? With an elemental like that having been unleashed, what else could it be other than the Draasin Lord?
