Holmberg d k elemental.., p.1
Holmberg, D K - Elemental Warrior 04 - A Surge of Fire, page 1
A Surge of Fire
The Elemental Warrior Book 4
D.K. Holmberg
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Author’s Note
Series by D.K. Holmberg
1
Tolan Ethar borrowed from a shaping, using it to carry him through the halls of the Academy within Amitan. The halls were wide, empty, and the black stone seemed far more imposing than usual. Mostly that had to do with his mood, though perhaps the lanterns didn’t glow quite as brightly as before. There didn’t seem to be quite as much shaped fire in them as usual.
He was connected to earth and wind as he navigated through the halls, and each of those elements suffused everything within the hallways, along with the warmth radiating through the halls, though not so much the lanterns. There was moisture here, as well, water that tickled against his distant awareness, and he tried to ignore it much like he tried to ignore all the elements around him. These days, Tolan found it much more difficult to ignore the elements.
He attempted to walk, wanting to put pressure on his legs, but they throbbed. They always throbbed these days.
By using the shaping, he could ignore that throbbing, if only for a little while. He could let the power of the shaping carry him farther, letting it do most of the work so he didn’t have to.
The halls were empty. The sound of his breathing filled his ears; the ongoing pressure of a shaping filling his mind.
There was no other sound around him.
That silence came from his shaping. He floated, drifting above the ground. If he were to walk through here, his feet would drag on the ground, across the stone, making an awful sound.
Instead, Tolan focused on holding onto the shaping.
These days, it was increasingly easy to do. He could maintain that shaping, holding onto the power of it within him. These days, Tolan held onto that shaping constantly. It wasn’t something he had much choice in. Were he to relax his grip on the shaping, he would find that some part of him would struggle.
He’d had enough trouble with everything else that he didn’t want to lose this shaping. Were he to lose control over the shaping that allowed him to essentially walk, he would fall over, likely collapse, and be dependent upon somebody else to carry him through the halls of the Academy. He did not want to be seen as some invalid, though there were times when he felt like one. Times when he felt like he belonged in the hospital ward of the water tower, waiting for somebody to come to him and figure out how to restore him. Considering there had been no restoration, and there probably would not be one, Tolan had long ago given up waiting.
Heading down the stairs, he used a combination of wind and earth, holding himself above the ground. That combination allowed him to float, carrying him down the stairs in a way he found strangely frustrating. There was a time not all that long ago when he would have longed for the ability to shape and carry himself in such a way. These days, he wanted nothing more than to find the ability to navigate the stairs on his own.
At the bottom of the stairs, Ferrah waited. Her bright red hair cascaded down past her shoulders and she had on a flowing green dress with a loop of silver hanging around her neck, the color of the fabric matching her eyes. Her arms crossed over her chest and she tapped one foot, glaring up at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m shaping my way through the halls.”
She pressed her lips together in a tight frown, glaring at him even more deeply than before. “I know that. What I’m asking is what do you think you’re doing by coming here?”
Tolan forced a smile. “Where else should I be going?” He looked along the hallway. Portraits lined this hallway, all of them painted by forgotten shapers from long ago, imbued with the power of their shaping and turned into something greater. All of them depicted scenes of elementals; places Tolan could enter with the right shaping.
“Not here.”
“You don’t have to worry that I’m going to do something foolish.”
She glared at him again. “Don’t I? I’ve gotten accustomed to you doing things that are ridiculous, Tolan. Don’t think I don’t know you might plan on—”
“I don’t plan on doing anything.”
She let out a frustrated sigh, holding out her arm and linking it into his. “You don’t have to do this.”
Tolan turned to one of the paintings. It was the one that scared him the most. Within that painting—what seemed to be nothing more than a pleasant field of green dotted by some trees, with a hint of an earth elemental in the background—there was a promise. Tolan couldn’t see that promise, not without staring deeply into it, but he knew it was there.
Rory made sure he knew it was there. Despite what Tolan had done to stop him, he knew that Rory had continued to hold onto power and made a point of flashing more power into it, ensuring Tolan was fully aware of his presence. All it would take would be for Tolan to pull on a shaping, to wrap that power around himself, and he would be able to step into the portrait.
“Eventually I have to go back,” he said.
“If you have to go back, you have to be strong enough to be able to oppose him.”
“I am strong enough.”
“Physically strong enough,” she said.
Tolan let out a frustrated grunt.
That was the challenge. He was strong enough. He could feel that strength, but it was a shaping strength, not strength that came from anything he did. All it would take would be for him to hold onto these elements, for the power that flowed through him from all throughout Amitan to feed him the energy he needed.
Only he couldn’t use all of it.
Not in The Lands Beyond. That was what mattered. That other place separated him from the element bonds. The only way he’d defeated Rory before had been through his connection to the elementals, and Tolan had freed them. He would have no such support were he to go back.
Returning would be dangerous. Returning would be dangerous for any of them. Tolan suspected that any who would go with him would be lost. He feared that, and he feared what might happen were they to do so.
Ferrah knew all of that. Some of it came from a connection they shared with spirit. Tolan had formed that connection, linking them in a way that allowed her to know him in ways that no one else did, but part of it came from her simply knowing him.
“I hate not being strong enough.” He looked down at his legs. As far as he could tell, he still had the physical strength he should, but there was some part of him that had failed. It was some connection within him, some aspect that had been severed and that made it difficult to use his limbs the way he wanted to. The way he feared he would need to when he faced Rory.
Had he his physical strength, there would be no question about what he would need to do. There would be no doubt in his mind that he would need to head beyond the waste, to find a way toward that sense of power, and to use that power to try to target Rory.
The other elemental had to be removed. There was no doubt in Tolan’s mind that Rory had to be separated from all of the things that he intended to do; from the torment that he intended to inflict upon the others of that land. It was something that Tolan needed to do.
Others needed him.
For the first time since he had come to the Academy, he was focused on people and not the elementals. It was a strange irony that it was people he didn’t know, not at all like the people within Amitan and all of Terndahl.
“Jonas is trying, and you know—”
“I know Jonas is trying, much like I know he doesn’t think there’s anything that can be done for me beyond what he has already done.”
“He has other things he has yet to try. He’s told us that.”
Tolan shot her a look. “Has he told us that?”
Ferrah ignored the irritation in his voice. These days, there was always some sense of irritation within him. “He told us that,” she said again.
Tolan looked at the painting. Subtle aspects of it had shifted ever since he had come out of it. As far as he knew, Rory hadn’t attempted to step through it, though there was some part of Tolan that worried he wouldn’t even know if the elemental did. He might. Despite having placed a seal around the painting, a barrier that would hopefully prevent Rory from passing through, he thought there should be some way to prevent the elemental from stepping through without his knowing.
The only problem was that Rory was powerful, powered by the energy of elementals. He was a warrior elemental and connected to each of the elements. He was something Tolan had not seen before.
Not that he wasn’t powerful as well. Tolan had gifts of his own, and in his time at the Academy, he’d continued to hone those gifts, gaining skill and power with them, getting to the point where he could use those abilities in ways so many others could not. Which was why Tolan
“There’s something else you can try,” she said.
“I doubt it’s going to work.”
“You haven’t asked.”
“I haven’t asked.”
She watched him, opening her mouth as if to say something else before shaking her head. “If you go through there, know I’m coming after you.”
“You don’t know how to come after me,” he said softly.
She took his arm, holding onto it. “I don’t, but others do. Think about the promise you made.”
Tolan looked up at her. There was pain in her pale green eyes; pain he had caused. He hated that he was the one to inflict that agony on her—and hated he couldn’t do anything to take it away.
That wasn’t quite true. The one way he could take it away from her would be for him to finally face his fears and go after Rory, recognizing the elemental was something he needed to stop. If he did, then he would finally be able to move on.
Even when he did that, Tolan wondered if he would ever truly be able to move on. The barrier in that land served to separate him from power, and without it he worried his lack of physical strength would always hold him back. As Tolan looked over at Ferrah, something crossed her face, an expression of sadness and understanding—an expression of knowledge.
“There you are,” she whispered.
“I haven’t gone anywhere,” he said.
“Every once a while, I can see something changing within you. It’s strange. I recognize it, and I can feel it.”
“I should never have shared spirit with you.”
She squeezed his arm. “If you make comments like that, know I’m going to shape other things around you.”
He grinned. This time, it wasn’t forced. He wanted to have her help him.
That was the promise, anyway. With everything else that had happened, he had agreed she would be able to help, and he had agreed that her power—the ability she had—would be beneficial with everything they might have to do.
“You want to come with me?” he asked.
“Are you going to go?”
“It’s time for me to try.”
“Then I will go.”
She linked her hand into his, holding her fingers around his, and guided him along the hall. Tolan looked down the hall, sweeping his gaze along the paintings, taking one last look as he did. There was something in those paintings he thought he might be able to find, but he had to tear his gaze away. He worried about lingering here for too long.
Ferrah watched him, then pulled on his arm, tearing him away.
As she did, he followed her down the stairs. He used a shaping to guide him, though as he often did, he wished he didn’t need to. He maintained that power, holding onto it within him. They headed into the library, which he found unoccupied other than a few master librarians. Even the students weren’t out at this time of day. Not that he would’ve expected otherwise. It was late and Ferrah must’ve known he’d slipped away. He nodded politely to Master Jensen and to Master Stole before heading behind the dais.
Once there, Tolan and Ferrah started down the stairs. It didn’t take long to reach the chamber where the Convergence was located. There was a time when he would have been able to float down there, back when he had been separated from his body. He thought about that more often than he cared to admit. It was so much easier in that form, and so much easier to travel in a way that allowed him to maneuver between spaces. In that form, he was much more equipped to follow where he was going and what he was doing.
In that form, the only limitation he had was that he wasn’t human.
Looking over at Ferrah, he knew his choice had been the right one, but he couldn’t help feel as if there were aspects of it that he had lost. Taking a deep breath, Tolan headed into the chamber holding the Convergence.
They weren’t alone here.
A soft glow radiated from the far side of the Convergence.
Warmth filtered all around the draasin, filling the room. He was small, much smaller than the Draasin Lord, but based on his appearance, it was easy to see how he would one day grow and evolve, becoming similar in size and scale to the Draasin Lord. He certainly had a power that suggested that he would one day rival him. Perhaps not rival, but at least he had energy and a connection to the elements that filled him and reminded Tolan of the Draasin Lord.
His small leathery wings were folded in, curled around his body as they often were. Tolan had never seen him stretch out his wings, as if he feared doing so. Either that or he was simply not prepared to fly yet. His stubby forelegs gripped the stone. His hind legs were thicker, more massive, and Tolan could imagine him standing on them, as if to use only two legs like a person. Thick scales covered the entirety of his body, and the heat radiating off him made his entire body glow softly.
Tolan should have known that the draasin was here. He had a connection to the draasin, a connection that allowed him to feel power from the creature. Their connection allowed the two of them to borrow energy from each other, washing from one to the other, and there was an understanding between them as well.
The draasin looked up as they entered, swinging his head toward Tolan. “You seem troubled,” the draasin said.
“I’m not any more troubled than I normally am.”
Ferrah laughed softly. “That’s not true, and he knows it.”
Tolan looked over at her. “How do you know what he knows?”
“You forget that by bonding to me, you’ve bonded me to everyone within you.”
He turned and looked over at the draasin. “Is that true?”
“That is why she’s able to understand me.”
Strange. It was something Tolan should’ve figured out before now. He hadn’t given it much thought, but now that Ferrah had said something, it did make sense. He wondered if there was anything she could tell from the other elementals that Tolan had some connection to. He had bonded to hyza as well, though his connection to hyza had been different lately; not nearly as potent as it once had been. That seemed to come from the fact that Tolan had bonded—or at least connected in some more profound way than he had to other elementals—to the draasin. The connection he shared with the draasin was nothing like what he shared with hyza. With hyza, the elemental could lend him power, but it was a one-way sharing, not like what he had with the draasin, which was that he and the elemental could call power back and forth between them.
Because of that shared nature of power, something within the elemental had started to change. Tolan could feel it. He could feel the very elemental nature of the draasin, and he could feel the way he shifted, some aspect of him changing. It wasn’t only fire. It was because Tolan had access to water and wind along with earth.
Not that the draasin struggled with any of those elements. When it came to the draasin, it was fire and wind; elements that were both potent for a creature able to fly.
“She wants me to try to reach her,” Tolan said, thinking about the bonds and what power happens when one cycles back into the bond.
“I think that’s wise.”
“You’re too young to think anything is wise.”
“I’m older than you.”
“That’s what you want me to believe.”
Tolan circled around the outside of the Convergence. The silver liquid had a strange rippling to it, as it always did. There was a sense of thickness to that liquid, a sense of power that rolled through it. He wondered what might happen if he were to just dip his hand into it and scoop it through him.
In the time since his injury, he had come to the Convergence often, and had even submerged himself in it once. When he had done so, there still had been no change within him. It was because of the lack of change from the Convergence that Tolan believed nothing would change for him. If there would be a change, he would have detected it by now. He no longer thought that it was even possible.
