Read Cloud Warrior 05 - Forged in Fire for Free Online Page B

Honl.
    Tan. You are troubled.
    I am trying to understand the bond between elementals.
    What is to understand? The bond is there. We share. It is as the Great Mother intends.
    Tan wished it were so simple for him. The Great Mother might intend for the bonds to exist, but did she also intend for people to choose to abuse them? What purpose would that serve? How would that help the elementals?
    Was ashi here when the draasin last flew freely?
    Wind has always blown, Tan. Without wind, there is no breath, no life.
    And ashi?
    He already knew that the nymid had once been considered one of the lesser elementals, but Tan had disproven that. Would the same have been true of ashi? Ara was felt to be the greater elemental of wind, but ashi was equally strong, blowing with much the same force, especially once Tan coaxed it. Ara was more fickle but less fearful than ashi. And then there was ilaz, the strange wind elemental found in Par-shon. Here too, though he had never spoken to ilaz, and a part of him feared it.
    Ashi was young, then. We are not so bold as ara.
    And the others? What of the other wind elementals, wyln and ilaz?
    The others have always followed ara.
    Tan wondered why that should be, though it was much the same with the draasin and fire. The other elementals followed the draasin—at least, they did when not forcibly bound and required to attack. When saa had attacked, Asboel had grown angry. The draasin might not be able to be hurt by a fire shaping, but something during the attack with Par-shon had injured him. Could the fire elementals hurt the draasin, or had it been the other shapers?
    Why can’t the young elementals bond?
    Tan thought he understood now that was the reason that the nymid had taken so long to reach out to shapers. They were a younger elemental, perhaps—as ashi said—not as bold as the elder elementals. It might be that it took time for them to choose to bond, or time to gain the necessary experience to bond.
    They must learn wind before they can teach it.
    That’s why you bond? To teach?
    Ashi fluttered around him and settled near Tan’s face. The flame caught the wind elemental and made his translucency somewhat brighter, giving a sense of definition as they continued down the tunnel. The path leading up and into the dungeons of the palace veered off here, but Tan continued on. Up ahead were the doors he was drawn toward.
    Not only to teach, but to learn. When young, there is only the wind to learn. It takes time to master, but mastery comes. Then it is time to go beyond.
    Tan wondered if the same could be said about shapers. Would they reach mastery enough to be able to go beyond and learn? Would Tan ever feel such mastery that he would risk leaving everything he knew to bond to some unknown?
    He reached the massive arched doors hidden deep beneath the city. A single rune marked the center of the door, and Tan pushed a shaping of fire mixed with spirit into the rune. At least this shaping restricted who could open the door, though it kept the draasin in as much as it held others out. The door opened slowly, and Tan paused.
    If it takes mastery to learn, can the young draasin bond?
    Honl took a moment, making Tan wonder if the wind elemental even knew the answer.
    The draasin are different. Fire was not always so different.
    Tan’s sense of Honl faded. The elemental would still be there but wouldn’t impose upon the draasin hiding in the massive rooms beneath the city. Ashi worked with the draasin, but there was a sense of respect with a hint of fear mixed in as well.
    Tan pushed the flame forward, resuming control of the shaping from saa. He didn’t want to force the fire elemental to impose any more than he wanted to force Honl.
    The inside of the room had changed since Tan first discovered it. Then it had been bare, nothing but walls worked with golud-infused stone, the nymid lingering along the borders, seeping through the moisture crawling up from the depths beneath the city. Now, golud