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

wall and pulled the door open.
    Inside the room, Molly sat curled against the corner of the wall, a frightened expression on her face, much like it had been when he first met her. At least then, she hadn’t known what happened to her and didn’t know what it meant that she could call to saa. Since that time, and since Tan had taken a special interest, she knew fire better than anyone else in Par other than himself.
    “Maelen,” she whispered, starting to stand, but then seeing Tolman, she cowered back against the wall. The corners of Tolman’s eyes sagged in a distraught expression.
    “It’s okay, Molly,” Tan said.
    “He… they think that I’m hurting them, Maelen.”
    “I know. And I’ll fix this.”
    She shook her head and tried to crawl even farther against the wall.
    This was Tan’s fault. He had left her here, in the tower, but had assigned her a task that would draw attention. He had to make it right, even if it meant revealing to Tolman more than he intended.
    “Molly,” Tan said, settling to the ground across from her. “I still need your help. Fire still needs your help.”
    “They won’t let me, Maelen.”
    “I’ll fix that too,” Tan said. “But look.” He pulled open his cloak and the hatchling uncurled herself from him and stretched. Behind him, Tolman gasped softly. Tan ignored him, keeping his attention on Molly. Will you help me with her? he asked the draasin.
    She seeks fire?
    Seeks, but has not bonded. Saa sees much potential in her.
    The draasin crawled forward a few steps and then sniffed. The spikes on her neck appeared to flex, something Tan had never seen one of the draasin do before. Something like a shaping built, and then faded. Tan realized that it wasn’t a shaping—not really—but instead came from the draasin’s connection to fire. And maybe spirit.
    She reaches fire now.
    Tan frowned. Was Molly shaping, and he didn’t know? She speaks to the elementals?
    Not elementals. She uses fire. Shapes. Like you, but different.
    Tan scooted forward, more interested. How would Molly be shaping but he didn’t know? With shaping, there was a sense from the shaper, a recognizable pressure that he felt within his head, when someone shaped near him. He sensed none of that with her.
    “Do you see her?” he asked Molly.
    She hadn’t taken her eyes off the draasin from the moment the hatchling crawled out from beneath Tan’s cloak. She reached a hand out. The draasin sniffed at it and then lunged forward as if to bite. When Molly didn’t draw her hand away, the hatchling twisted her long neck and glanced back at him, amusement glittering in her golden eyes.
    “She’s beautiful,” Molly said, “but she’s different than the others.”
    “Others?” Tolman asked.
    Tan ignored him. “She’s different. I’m not sure how, just yet, but you’re right. When she hatched, she was sick. I had to heal her to allow her to survive.”
    “You healed one of the elementals?” Tolman asked.
    Tan looked back at him and nodded tightly before turning his attention back to Molly and the draasin. The hatchling looked from Tan to Molly before crawling back to Tan and settling onto his lap. She nipped at his hand, but did so with a half-hearted sort of effort.
    You don’t scare me, he told her.
    And I can’t eat you if you really did save me.
    You don’t think I did?
    The hatchling snorted fire at him and then dropped her head onto his lap. I think I would have been fine.
    Tan touched her spines. They were softer than they had been, and bent back, almost like Kota’s stiff fur. He stroked them, petting the draasin. If only Asboel could see him now. What would his friend think of one of the draasin allowing him to pet them?
    He would think you need to rub her chin.
    Tan suppressed a laugh before realizing that the hatchling had known what he’d been thinking without him trying to speak to her through the fire bond. Only his bonds should be able to do that.
    He scratched at the draasin’s