Serpent of Fire Read Free

nothing—”
    “No. There is a chance.”
    Maelen. The fire bond is gone. You may not sense this, but I do. You cannot do anything. He is with the Mother.
    I sense the thread of life within him. The Mother would want me to try. It is the reason for my gifts.
    Asboel watched him, his golden eyes reflecting the fading light of the sun, and then stepped back. Tan wondered briefly if Asboel shared with Sashari, for she turned and lowered her head so that her eyes met his. He nodded to her, hoping that she understood what he would attempt, and then turned his attention back to the hatchling.
    Tan had healed before, but that had always been guided by the elementals. Water existed in Chenir, but not with the same strength as it was found in the kingdoms. To do this, he would need strength and wisdom, and possibly borrow from the connection to the elementals.
    The shaping told him how tenuously the draasin clung to life. Anything he did might extinguish that connection, but doing nothing would accomplish the same. Tan might not be able to save him, but how could he not try?
    He readied his shaping, starting with fire because the draasin were fire. To this, he added wind, drawing on Honl, pulling strength from the elementals around him. Earth here was solid. Elemental power surged through the earth, pressing through its bones. He might not know what elemental of earth existed here, but he could reach it. And then water. Tan strained, reaching for the nymid, knowing they would be the key to whatever he did. The recent bond to the nymid gave him a way to reach water that he wouldn’t otherwise possess.
    Last, he added spirit. If nothing else, spirit would guide him. With the shapings readied, he pulled through the sword piercing the rock. Brilliant white light spilled out. Power surged through him, fed by his elemental bonds, augmented by the strength of the sword.
    Carefully, Tan layered the shaping onto the hatchling. It settled slowly, gently, onto the fallen draasin. As it did, the thread of life grew even more distant.
    He grasped for it and wrapped it in a shaping of spirit. It was the shaping performed by the First Mother as she had worked with Amia to heal Cora. Tan had never attempted it himself and felt as uncertain as he had when first learning to shape, but to save the hatchling, he had no choice but to try. To this, he added water and fire, an odd combination of shaping, but one that his connection to spirit told him was needed. He pushed more and more elemental power into the draasin, straining to fill an emptiness that reminded him of what had been required to heal Cora.
    He didn’t have enough strength.
    Tan pushed spirit into the void along with water and fire. Earth was not needed, but his connection to it strengthened him. Wind fluttered through the draasin, moving in and out of his lungs, as if breathing for him.
    Still nothing happened.
    The flicker of life faded even more, held in place by the shaping of spirit. Tan clutched it in his shaping, a sudden surge aided by Amia coming to him. He sensed her with him, mingling in his mind, guiding the spirit shaping. Trained as she was by the First Mother before her death, she had more skill than he could ever hope to accomplish. Tan might have observed, but they had quickly moved beyond anything that he had the capacity to understand.
    Amia helped him hold the thread of life in place, but she wouldn’t be able to grant him any additional strength to aid the rest of his shaping.
    Drawing through the sword wasn’t enough.
    How would he keep the hatchling alive? How would he call him back to life?
    Tan stared at the hatchling, an idea coming to him. Asboel would be angry, but to save the hatchling, there didn’t seem to be any other choice. For that, Asboel would have to understand.
    He needed more strength, something that the draasin, would respond to.
    A name.
    It would have to be fitting, but how could Tan assign a fitting name to an elemental? They had always come