Elle glanced down at her dress. Since surviving the shaping attack, she hadn’t given it much thought. There wasn’t much she could have done about her clothes anyway. “I told you. I speak to water.”
Ley glanced over to the sea. “But if you speak to water, why did you wait for so long to save yourself? You would have been able to escape before they captured you!”
The masyn hadn’t been bonded to her. They might have helped, but now there was a connection. She only had to reach for it. “Well, it’s not always easy.”
Ley waited for her to say something more. When it became clear that she wouldn’t, he laughed. “It’s not always easy for me, either.” He turned and looked back at Falsheim, as if realizing that the flames that had burned along the outer wall had only now stopped. His eyes widened and he glanced from Elle to the city. Then he shook his head. “What now?”
Elle stepped to the edge of the water. She had given that quite a bit of thought on the walk down to the shore. For so long, she had wanted nothing more than to return to the kingdoms, to find Tan—to find the answers to questions that he posed, but now she wasn’t certain. Could it really have taken nearly losing her homeland for her to realize that it was her homeland? Doma, not the kingdoms. She could learn to shape at the university, but there were things she lost by going there, connections that were absent. Now she understood why the greatest Doman shapers never stayed in the kingdoms. They were the ones who returned, who did what they could to protect their land.
And there was much she could learn here. The masyn needed to teach her. The connection was there, easier every time she used it. She knew nothing about this elemental, one that seemed found in the spray off the sea, or the turbulent swells of water, and in the storms that blew in from the sea. Tan had shared a connection with the draasin—he must have, or why else would the draasin have helped him bring her to Doma?—but she didn’t know if it had been anything like this. There was knowledge and comfort in the connection she shared with Nimala, only Elle didn’t know if the connection would remain when she left the water of the Ormt River. Would her new power fade then?
Such a simple question, but given what she’d seen, not a simple answer.
“I’ll need your help, Ley. Doma will need your help,” she said, stepping toward the water. The udilm had once protected Doma, keeping her safe. They were still there, just beyond the shores, but she couldn’t reach them. Maybe no one could anymore. But masyn had answered. The strange water elemental had helped. The water shaper said others would come. Elle would have to be ready, help the others get ready.
“Not the kingdoms?” he asked.
Elle traced her fingers through the turbulent water. A hint of green-tinted froth followed her finger. “The kingdoms are not home. Doma is home.”
* * *
Look for the next volume in Elle’s story later this summer.
About the Author
DK Holmberg currently lives in rural Minnesota where the winter cold and the summer mosquitoes keep him inside and writing.
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Also by D.K. Holmberg
The Cloud Warrior Saga
Chased by Fire
Bound by Fire
Changed by Fire
Fortress of Fire
Forged in Fire
Drowned by Water
The Painter Mage
Shifted Agony
Arcane Mark
Painter For Hire
The Forgotten/The Sighted Assassin
The Painted Girl
The Durven (Part 1)
A Poisoned Deceit (Part 2)
A Forgotten Return (Part 3)
The Lost Garden
Keeper of the Forest
The Desolate Bond
Keeper of Light