Free Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9) by D.K. Holmberg

it’s something that even water shaping doesn’t heal. But he seemed quite lucid the last time that I spoke with him.”
    “What did he want?”
    “He spoke of a delivery, and his supplies. It was all very strange, Maelen.”
    Tan made a vow to himself that he would go to Balsun and find out what the man needed. Having a butcher like him who could help with the draasin had been valuable. He didn’t want to lose that access.
    But something else about what Tolman mentioned troubled him. “What problem do you have in Par?”
    “Ahh, that is nothing you will need to fear, Maelen. It is something that afflicts only those born to Par, never outsiders.”
    “What is it?”
    Tolman shrugged. “Few understand it. Men and women will be perfectly well one day, and then the next, they are unable to speak clearly, or wander aimlessly, sometimes to the point of wandering from town. Most think their mind has strayed, but none of our healers have found a way to cure it.”
    That was another thing he would have to look into. As a water shaper, Garza would know about such things, but that involved Tan finding the time to reach her.
    “I did not mention it to upset you, Maelen,” Tolman said.
    “You didn’t upset me. It’s that I realize how little I know about Par. If I am to remain here, I should learn as much as I can. If we can find time, would you share with me what you can of your history?”
    “I… I would like that, Maelen.”
    Tan nodded and pushed on the draasin to keep her from wriggling too much. “Now. I need to find Molly.”
    “Molly? Why is that?”
    “There is something that she’s been helping me with.”
    “Ahh, that explains much.”
    “Explains?”
    Tolman nodded down the hall and waited for Tan to go with him. “She has been very preoccupied, but I haven’t been able to get anything out of her. Neither have any of the other students. Some feared…”
    “What did they fear?”
    “They feared that she had attempted to bind fire. She would not have been the first since you defeated the Utu Tonah, but with the Mistress of Bonds now tasked with preventing such attempts, we have stopped most.”
    Tan found that interesting. And surprising. He hadn’t realized that Elanne had stopped bonds to the elementals, but was pleased to hear it. Tan had thought her a potential adversary in Par-shon, but she had proven to be his staunchest ally, even if it had taken time for that to develop.
    “I doubt that she would have forced a bond without me knowing,” Tan said, but maybe that wasn’t true. Would he know if any of the elementals were forced into a bond, or would the bond prevent him from discovering?
    Tolman took the stairs carefully, guiding them up a level. “That is good to know, Maelen.” Surprisingly, his voice didn’t sound as if it fit what he said. “Especially with Molly. She can be precocious, and when rumors started to spread…”
    “What did you do, Tolman?”
    “I had to know whether they were true, Maelen. You have made your feeling on harnessing elementals quite well known. I would not have her endanger herself unnecessarily.”
    They stopped at a narrow door. A wide bar of metal blocked it closed. The edges of the door were singed, as if the person inside had attempted to burn their way out—or shape. Which, if it were Molly, she very well could have.
    “You locked her in here?” Tan asked.
    Tolman paled before straightening his spine. “I would not have Molly harm herself.”
    Tan suppressed a groan. Here he had thought that by asking her to help him with the draasin, he had been giving her a position where she could learn more about fire, but maybe he’d only caused her more trouble. Saa viewed her as having potential with fire, and coming from saa, especially in these lands, that was high praise. That had been the reason that Tan had thought he could ask her to help with the draasin.
    “Neither would I,” Tan said. With a shaping of earth and wind, he tore the bar from the