Free Serpent of Fire by D. K. Holmberg Page B

want.”
    Ferran tipped his head as if understanding. “Come, then. We will learn together.”
    Ferran lifted into the air, using a shaping of earth like Tan had seen in Par-shon. He only now understood it. It wasn’t even a difficult shaping, only one that took great strength. Tan followed, but used wind and fire to draw him airward. They traveled over the city, out beyond the northern borders, before settling down onto the wide, rolling hills.
    This was the edge of Vatten where it rolled into Ter, the plains covered by tall grasses. Tan reached out with an earth sensing and recognized water and trees and small animals moving silently through the night. A low howl of a wolf called and Tan paused to listen, reminded of the mountain wolves that prowled through Galen. The nearly full moon filtered through thick clouds overhead, leaving a shimmery silver light spilling over the fields.
    Tan listened for golud as they stopped. Ferran was bound to the earth elemental, so Tan suspected that he would understand first. As he listened, he felt the steady rumbling, an irritated sense. Angry.
    His heart hammered. “Par-shon,” he whispered.
    “You are certain?”
    Tan swept his arms around him. “That is why golud is upset. There is earth shaping here, but it is bound to an elemental. Forced onto an elemental.”
    “They would not try to harvest elementals here,” Ferran said.
    “It’s possible they would. The elementals are strong in the kingdoms. Cora once told me how Par-shon had techniques for pulling on the elementals, forcing them to bond.” Could Par-shon have risked sending shapers this deep into the kingdoms?
    If they had come for the hatchlings—and he knew that they had—then there was no reason to think that they would not.
    “We must find them,” Tan said.
    “Theondar should know,” Ferran said.
    Ferran was right, but Tan had left his summoning rune coin back in Ethea. Without that, he had no real way of reaching Roine.
    “Do you have your summoning coin?”
    Ferran shook his head. “We’re in the kingdoms! We should be safe.”
    “We were in the kingdoms when Par-shon last attacked.”
    There was another way to reach Roine, but it wouldn’t be as direct and he would have to rely upon convincing ara to do what he needed. What other choice did he have?
    Tan focused, letting the cool breeze play around him. Ara. Send word to Aric and Zephra. Tan has need.
    There was a soft fluttering of the breeze, and then it eased.
    Tan shifted his focus, now listening to golud. The earth elemental only told him that there was something here, but not where. He had learned that the Par-shon bonded could hide themselves using shapings of earth, but could they hide themselves while in the kingdoms, with golud—and shapers able to speak to them—present?
    It had to be possible. He had seen how they had obscured themselves. “Can golud tell where they are?” he asked Ferran.
    Ferran let out a rumbling request. Tan could almost hear it, but it wasn’t directed at him. Even were he to hear it, he wasn’t confident he’d be able to understand.
    After long moments spent waiting, he looked up at Tan. “They are silent.”
    “They can’t detect Par-shon shapers?”
    Ferran’s eyes tightened. “I no longer hear golud, Athan.”
    Tan frowned, focusing on the ground. As he did, he realized that he didn’t, either.
    “Are we too late?” he asked aloud.

8
    Earth Trap
    A s Ferran formed a massive shaping, one that reached deep into the earth, Tan sensed the strength and the urgency with which he worked, and appreciated the way the earth shaper strained for the elementals, working to help them. As he did, he was struck by the understanding that thiswas part of the reason for the bond, the benefit the elementals received by bonding to the kingdoms’ shapers.
    “I will see what I can learn. You stay safe,” Tan said.
    Ferran nodded and Tan took to the air on a shaping of wind. It carried him high overhead, and he