Fortress Of Fire (Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

whether he was prepared for what was next. “Is he ready?”
    Amia squeezed his shoulder and stepped away. “Are you certain you should do this? Roine thinks it should be destroyed.”
    Tan shook his head. “What would have happened had you destroyed me when I’d changed?”
    “That’s not the same.”
    “Isn’t it? I did what I thought necessary to save you. To protect you. Can’t the same be said for him?”
    Amia gripped the gold band at her neck and stared at him. “You don’t know what it has done.”
    “He,” Tan corrected. He stood and replaced the book back on the shelf where it had sat alone. This area of the archives had managed to protect the book against the dampness that threatened to stretch in. Likely some shaping, though Tan couldn’t detect it. “And you’re wrong. He’s done no worse than I did. And perhaps there’s a reason he transformed.”
    “You…” Amia trailed off with a shake of her head. “Even when you changed, there was still a part that remained. I don’t know if I could have helped you were there not. I don’t know if the nymid would have helped otherwise. With the lisincend… they went to it willingly. They only wanted power while you wanted to help. That matters, I think. With them, nothing good remains of the shaper.”
    Tan knew what it felt like to be consumed by fire. He knew some of what the lisincend had experienced. And if there was anything he could do to help it like Amia had helped him, shouldn’t he try?
----
    A small crowd surrounded the lisincend in the broken palace courtyard. The shapers guarding him had brought him out of the archives so whatever Tan attempted could be better contained. Once, the courtyard had featured scenes from each area of the kingdoms, but since the last attack—since Althem had destroyed it—it looked little like it had. In time, they might be able to shape it back into some semblance of what it had been.
    The palace itself served a different purpose, as well. Since Althem had passed without leaving an heir, there was need for leadership. All had looked to Theondar—now known as Roine, the last remaining warrior. He had moved the remains of the university into the city and agreed to serve until a replacement could be found.
    That was the reason Tan thought saving the lisincend was especially important. They could use what the lisincend knew, discover some way to prevent another Incendin attack, maybe understand why the Incendin fire shapers risked death to become lisincend. It had to be about more than power.
    But it required first saving the creature.
    Chains of stone infused with golud bound the lisincend’s wrists and ankles in the center of the yard, anchoring him to the ground. His massive wings were furled in and held by another loop of chain. His leathery skin radiated with a surge of heat, as if fire struggled to escape from him. Narrow eyes watched as Tan approached.
    Tan remembered what that vision had been like, the way everything seemed to burn, the seductive ability to see clearly in the dark. He shook away the thought.
    Amia pulled away from him as he approached the lisincend. Tan stared after her but felt her irritation through the bond. After what she’d gone through with her people, first losing her family, then abducted and tortured by the Aeta, and finally to learn how the First Mother had been complicit the entire time, Tan didn’t blame her. He just hoped she could learn forgiveness.
    He shifted the sword hanging from his waist, still growing accustomed to wearing it. He no longer doubted he had the right to it; he was almost as much warrior as Roine, only without the same experience. The runes worked along the edge of the sword were similar to those he’d studied in the lower level of the archive. From what the First Mother explained, with those runes, Tan could augment his shapings.
    A gust of wind whipped at his hair and he turned to see his mother land next to him. The translucent face of ara worked