Broken of Fire (The Cloud Warrior Saga Book 9) Read Online Free

Great Mother intended, using the gifts given to him as an excuse?
    “Healing the draasin required spirit,” he said. “And now… now she is within the fire bond sooner than she should be.” He looked over to Amia, who sat with hands folded in her lap, saying nothing. “And there is more awareness than I would expect. The healing… it changed her.”
    Amia didn’t need him to compare it to Honl. And he sensed her concern through the bond, and shared it. The elementals were part of the oldest power of the land. When they changed—when he changed them—he impacted that power, using what the Great Mother had intended to be used in ways that he was not convinced were intended.
    Cianna didn’t see the problem with what he’d said. She only nodded, her eyes still focused on the draasin. “Well, you managed to heal her. That is enough, don’t you think? Another draasin! Not only one, but three!” She shook her head and looked up. “When will you return and share with Theondar?”
    Tan hadn’t considered when he would return to Ethea. Roine—the warrior once known as Theondar—understood that the draasin had helped, especially with everything that had happened with Incendin, but that didn’t mean that he trusted the draasin’s return. More than anything, Roine still held onto some of the ancient beliefs about the draasin, as if they might terrorize cities, attacking as if for sport. From Tan’s connection to them, he knew there was nothing about hunting man that the draasin would find enjoyable. The risks from attacking shapers simply weren’t worth it.
    “As I’ve said,” he started, but the hatchling squawked until he reached for her and took her back. He cradled her and caught Amia suppressing a smile. “There is much that I must do here before I can return.”
    Cianna crossed her arms and faced him. “Are the rumors true, then?”
    Tan blinked. “What rumors?”
    She looked around the library and swept her hand around the room in a wide gesture. “You. Par-shon. This place. There are rumors about you, and Theondar has done nothing to tamp them down.”
    “Cianna, I still don’t know what you mean.”
    “No? Then you haven’t decided to abandon the kingdoms? You haven’t ignored the peace that you have created? You haven’t decided that you are the Utu Tonah?”
    Tan opened his mouth to answer, but he didn’t need to. Maclin spoke from the back of the room, his voice a deep, accented tone.
    “Not the Utu Tonah. The Maelen rules in Par now. And he is needed to help us find the same peace you describe.”
    Cianna stared at Maclin a moment before turning her attention to Tan. Through Sashari, she knew the title the elementals had given Tan. “Be that as it may, the Athan has been summoned back to the kingdoms.”
    He looked at his hand, where the ring of the Athan remained. He still wore it, though no longer felt the same sense of responsibility, not when he had so much more that he was responsible for.
    “Why?”
    “Must you ask?”
    Tan glanced at Maclin. The old servant set down a pitcher of water and then bowed before departing.
    “Given everything that I’ve been through, I think I need to ask.”
    Cianna laughed. “Theondar thought that you’d want to be present for the ceremony.”
    “Ceremony? What ceremony?” As he asked, he remembered what Roine had told him when he’d seen him last, and suddenly understood. He glanced down at the draasin, wishing the timing were better, but how could he not return to the kingdoms to attend his mother’s—and his friend’s—wedding?

3
    The Return to Ethea
    “ W hat do you mean asking if we need to do this?” Amia asked, looking back over her shoulder at Tan. One hand gripped her long blond hair and the other pulled her cloak around her waist, protecting her stomach from the wind. “This was your idea!”
    Tan fought the grin threatening to spread across his face. Warm wind whipped past him, filled with the heated mist that spread around