Changed By Fire (Book 3) by D.K. Holmberg Read Free Book Online

spite of the weeks since the attack.
    “How is it they still burn?” he asked as they crossed through the city’s outer wall.
    All around him were signs of the destruction worked by the Incendin shapers. Places where fires had burned, leaving charred wooden buildings or crumbling stone. Ash and soot stained everything. A few people milled about in the street, but not nearly as many as Tan would have expected. Most moved hurriedly, carrying damaged clothes or other stacks of goods through the street, still attempting to recover from what had happened.
    Cianna and Amia rode on either side of him, leaving Tan feeling uncomfortably flanked by the two smaller women, both such skilled shapers. It was almost as if they formed a sort of protection around him.
    The other shapers left as soon as they reached the city. Only Cianna stayed with them. Tan hadn’t figured out why, but the small fire shaper seemed to have taken an interest in him. Or maybe her interest was more in the draasin.
    “Incendin shapings,” Cianna said. She pulled on the black leather overcoat she wore, shifting it to drape over her legs. “Or maybe draasin. Difficult to extinguish either way.”
    “I thought the shapers took care of the fires before they left.”
    Tan hadn’t stuck around the city to observe what happened. His focus had been on doing what he needed to help Elle. Hopefully the udilm had returned her to her people. Hopefully she was still safe.
    “Controlled them. Kept them from spreading. That is all that can be done. You know fire,” she admonished him. “Sense what they did.”
    Tan focused on the smoke drifting from just inside the wall. As he did, he became aware of the warmth. It pulled on him, drawing him, almost as if asking him to shape the fire larger again. He had to fight the urge as he pushed through the shaping, reaching for the embers he sensed still smoldered. Then he understood: The shaping was powerful. Too much energy would be needed to put the fire out completely, but in time it would disappear, burning itself out.
    Earth and water shapings surrounded the fire. Even the air around the fire had been shaped still, keeping it from feeding the coals. Contained but not extinguished.
    Tan focused on the fire. With an effort, he asked earth to soften, pull the remaining coals deep underground before closing atop them. At the same time, he pulled on his connection to the draasin to draw away the remaining energy from the fire, pulling it through him.
    Weakness washed over him and he sagged in the saddle.
    Cianna laughed. “See? Powerful shapings. You probably weren’t even able to modify the shaping.”
    He didn’t bother to correct her. He hadn’t actually shaped anything. What he did involved the elementals, not any shaping of his own. Even when he thought he’d managed shaping when attacking Incendin, it had been the elementals helping. Learning to shape on his own was part of the reason he had returned to Ethea.
    She continued to laugh as they worked through the streets. Patches of the city were unharmed, as if the shapings had missed them. Other parts of the city were entirely destroyed.
    Tan hadn’t realized the damage was so widespread. Could all of this have been from Enya—the youngest of the draasin—or had the Incendin fire shapers been a part? If this had been only one of the draasin—and the youngest and smallest of them—what would happen if all the draasin attacked?
    For the first time, he had to wonder if maybe Roine was right. How dangerous had the world become now that the draasin had returned?
    “Think of what it would be like without them,” Amia said, leaning toward him.
    She spoke softly, pitching her words for his ears only, but Cianna smiled tightly and turned to study him. She pursed her lips but didn’t say anything.
    “They needed to be free,” Tan agreed. They were elementals trapped against their will at the bottom of the lake. Even had they gone willingly, one thousand years frozen