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

chin as she asked. You are too young to bond. And I am bonded to fire.
    You reach the fire bond. You are not bonded to it. They are different.
    Molly moved forward and watched him with the draasin. “The others wouldn’t let me do that,” she said.
    “No. The big one would probably try to eat your fingers. And the other would probably crawl away if you tried.”
    Molly smiled. “The big one doesn’t scare me nearly as much as he wants to.”
    Tan grinned. “In time, he’ll get much larger, especially if the other draasin are right about him.” He paused. “Molly… I still need your help, if you’d be willing.”
    She looked over his shoulder at Tolman. “What about them?”
    “Don’t worry about them. Tolman knows how you help me now. But I’m not sure that staying here is the best place for you with your connection to the elementals. Tolman can teach you shaping, but he and the other instructors can’t guide you on the connection to the elementals.”
    Molly tore her gaze off the draasin. “You’d… you’d send me away? Where will I go?”
    Tan smiled and reached for her. “You’d stay with me, and I’d teach you.”
    The draasin lifted her head and snorted a trail of steam before lowering her head again as if the answer was decided. And maybe, to her, it was.

8
    The Second Attack
    T he plains of Par had changed in the time that Tan had come here. Tall, flowering grasses grew across the plains, spilling their perfumes into the air. Strange silver trees sprouted in clumps that followed a narrow stream running all the way toward the sea. Far below, he spied the rocky cliff where he would find the cavern housing the draasin eggs. The other two draasin were there and well fed, at least for now. He sensed no real stress from them, nor a need for him to bring them back out. With Molly now working with the newest hatchling, she was distracted anyway.
    You are distracted as well, Maelen.
    Tan pulled his attention away from the rocks and the distant sense through the fire bond of the draasin in the cavern, and looked at his bonded hound. Kota stood nearly to his shoulder, large enough for him to ride was there the need, and surveyed the land with a keen intelligence, much like Asboel had when he still lived.
    Distracted?
    You jump from task to task. That is unlike you.
    He took a deep breath, letting the scent of the flowers around him fill his senses. I don’t know what I need to be doing, he admitted.
    Finding Marin and learning what she had been after was on his list, but so too was understanding the draasin eggs hidden in the cavern. Now there was the question of the dormant elementals, and try as he might, he couldn’t leave that for the kingdoms to sort out. On top of that, he had given himself the challenge of trying to rule Par on top of everything else. Maybe he should have handed the rule of Par back to the council as he had suggested to Tolman, but he wasn’t convinced that Par was ready.
    Kota loosed a low howl that sounded nothing like the Incendin hounds once did. This was a low, steady rumbling sound, like that of a mudslide, or the earth settling beneath a great weight, and one that he felt deep within his bones. Her ears swiveled as she looked around. Tan considered reaching through her sight—much like Asboel, Kota never seemed to mind—but what was there for him to learn looking through her eyes?
    You can always learn by looking at another perspective, Kota said. But none of that is what bothers you, Maelen. This is about your woman.
    Amia?
    Kota’s ears twitched and the hair on her back stood a little taller. Since you learned of your cub, you have been different.
    The bond is different.
    Are you so certain? What if the bond is the same, but the bonded are different? Your roles have changed, and now you will be a father. There is responsibility in that.
    Tan grinned at the comment. I don’t think I’ve ever run from responsibility.
    You have embraced the role the Mother has called