Read Fortress Of Fire (Book 4) for Free Online

don’t think he said much even while there, did he?”
    Cianna shrugged. “I already told you that I refused to go. Theondar is right, you know. He should be destroyed. What you offer is more than he deserves.”
    What did any of them deserve anymore? Weren’t they all twisted in some way? “He suffers,” Tan said. The thin barrier of spirit surrounding the lisincend shielded the creature from accessing fire. That didn’t take away the call, the draw of fire. Tan remembered all too well how fire seemed to demand his attention when he’d been shaped. There had been only so much he could resist.
    Cianna grunted. “You think it should not suffer after what it has done?”
    “I am not sure anything should suffer.” He turned to the other shapers. “Are they ready?”
    Cianna gave Tan a half-smile and shifted her focus to the other shapers. “They are ready.”
    “Theondar has given me only this one chance,” Tan said. He didn’t think he could ask for another opportunity. If this failed, Tan would have to trust Roine and let the lisincend be destroyed.
    Cianna touched his hand. Fire streaked with an uncomfortable familiarity beneath her fingers. Annoyance surged through Amia behind him. “I don’t think it will work,” she said.
    “If it doesn’t work, then we can destroy him.” Better that than releasing the lisincend to attack once more.
    “You keep calling it a him.”
    Tan nodded tightly. “And you keep calling him an it.”
    He stepped away from Cianna, steeling himself for what was to come. He had learned to control his access to spirit, but that didn’t mean he had the same level of skill as the First Mother, or even Amia. Tan would have to be ready for whatever it might try to do to him once the spirit barrier was lifted. Had he trusted the First Mother, she should have been the one to lead this attempt.
    He faced the lisincend and stood with arms crossed over his chest. The lisincend’s eyes drifted to the sword at Tan’s waist. Tan shook his head. “I don’t intend to harm you.”
    A long, thick tongue slipped out of its slit of a mouth. Scaly lids blinked. “You should finish me and be done, warrior.”
    “It might come to that,” Tan admitted. Better to be honest than to lie about what might be to come.
    “Whatever you think you will accomplish will fail. You think Alisz was the only one of power from the Sunlands?”
    Tan hesitated. He’d not heard Incendin referred to that way before. “Fur is gone. I defeated him.”
    The lisincend laughed. “You? You think highly of yourself, little warrior.”
    Tan jerked back at the comment, so similar to what Asboel had once called him.
    The lisincend worked its long, thick tongue over its lips again, thin eyes flicking around before stopping on Tan. “You will fail. These kingdoms will fall. Fire will burn once more, as it must.”
    Tan leaned toward the lisincend. “Fire tried to consume me once. It failed,” he whispered. “And I can free you as I was freed, only I can’t promise it won’t hurt.”
    “By freeing me, you only place yourself in greater danger.”
    Tan twisted to see the other shapers watching him. All of them doubted he would be able to do anything, that he would even manage to save the lisincend, but how could Tan not try? “Freeing you puts the kingdoms in less danger.”
    The lisincend wheezed out a dry laugh. “You are a fool if you believe that, little warrior. When the lisincend are gone and the fires fail, you will see how little you know.”
    Roine watched him impatiently. Tan closed his eyes. Heat radiated off the lisincend in a way that left his skin feeling tight. Tan ignored the sensation, focusing on what he needed to do. With a whispered summons, he called nymid, golud, ara, and draasin, binding the elementals together as he had learned to do. It was possible that he shaped them without needing the elementals, though Tan no longer knew the difference. The power of spirit formed within him, different than