Fortress Of Fire (Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

of those things.
    But then he didn’t have to explain any of that to Amia. With the shaped connection between them, she felt it, as surely as he felt the affection she had for him. She leaned over him, eyes taking in the map, and pointed to the page. “That’s not quite right,” she said, motioning toward the edge of the map.
    “Why?” He knew little of geography outside of the kingdoms, a failing his mother had admitted to facilitating, but what he did know of Doma was that it jutted off from Incendin as depicted in the map.
    “Doma isn’t as large as what you see here. And these islands,” she said, pointing along the edge, “are smaller. Par might be larger, but I’m not sure.”
    Tan shifted her finger over to point at the kingdoms. “And the kingdoms were different. Ethea had to be claimed from the sea. That’s why the nymid infuse the rocks nearly as much as golud.” That was part of the mystery he hoped to better understand by searching through these forgotten texts. “The book on the draasin mentioned it. I think it was better known then. But this,” Tan said, pointing to the map. “I don’t think this is a map of the kingdoms as we know it. I think it maps it as those scholars planned it.”
    Amia bit her lip as she studied the page. A strand of hair slipped free and Tan reached up to push it back and away from her face, brushing her cheek as he did. She pressed against him and sighed. “What do you hope to find?”
    “I don’t know. Explanations. Maybe answers. Why did the ancient scholars even make the artifact?” It was the question that troubled him the most. There seemed no reason for that much power to be used by one person. “That much power is not meant for anyone, not even the elementals. Holding that power, I could have done anything, shaped the world anyway I chose.” He shivered. “I felt as if I could have returned my father. Your family. Everything.” He hadn’t admitted that to Amia before. Admitting that he’d considered and then rejected that much power made him worry how she’d react. He suspected she would have agreed with him, but what if she didn’t? What if Amia would have wanted him to change things?
    “What would have happened if you had?”
    Tan thought about what could have been. Flashes of it, little more than hints of memories, remained. Nothing he could act on, just enough to make him aware of what he missed. “You would be Daughter, I suppose. In time, you would become Mother. And then, with enough experience, you would become First Mother.”
    “And you?”
    That had been the hardest, and the first question he’d thought to ask. What would have happened to him?
    When he’d stepped into the pool of liquid spirit, he’d known answers to anything. But he’d also held power unlike any that he had ever imagined. With it, he’d saved Amia and the youngest of the draasin, Enya. Tan recognized the power was not for him, just as the power of the artifact was not for him. That didn’t mean it didn’t make him wonder.
    And while holding the artifact, he had known what would be if only a few things were changed. Were his father not to have died, would he have been driven to face Incendin? Had Amia not lost her family, would she have gone with Tan and rescued the draasin? Had Tan not wanted to save Elle, would he ever had secured the bond with Asboel?
    Only the Great Mother knew for certain. And in that moment, Tan had held a piece of her power. No man was meant to experience that much power. Why, then, had the ancient scholars created the artifact?
    There must be an answer here. Everything in his being told him there was. Those ancient scholars commanded so much more strength and skill and knowledge that it seemed impossible to him that they had no reason other than a search for power. Even the First Mother thought they sought understanding, not only power.
    Tan closed the book. Answers would come in time, but not today.
    He looked over to Amia, not certain