Chased By Fire (Book 1) by D.K. Holmberg Page A

“Who?”
    “Roine. You sounded as if you knew each other.”
    She blinked slowly. A debate worked across her face for a moment and then was gone, blown away by the gusting wind. “I knew him once.” She shook her head. “It was a long time ago. We were different people then.”
    “Why’d he call you that name?”
    She frowned.  
    “I overheard you after I left. He called you Zephra. That’s the name the Aeta Mother said, too.”
    “That is a conversation for another time, Tannen.”
    “Why? You want me to serve the king by leading him to the passes, why shouldn’t I know?”
    She held his gaze and something changed in her eyes. “Zephra was my name once. That was how he knew me.”
    Something dawned on Tan then, a thought so surprising that he wasn’t certain it could be real, but what other explanation fit? “You’re the wind shaper he sought.” He always knew she could sense the wind, but there wasn’t much use to that skill. Not like his father’s earth sensing. But shaping? That was different.  
    How could she be a shaper? How could he not have known?
    She looked as if she wouldn’t answer. Then she sighed and nodded. “When I was known as Zephra, I served the king as a shaper. That was a long time ago.”
    “But he said you were powerful. One of the most powerful shapers he’s ever known. How could that change?” Other questions raced through his head but he didn’t ask them, questions like how she could be a shaper and not tell him, or what it was like to shape the wind, or what could she do? Could she call up a tornado? Could she push away a storm? Some wind shapers were even said to practically fly on the wind; could she do that?
    She only shook her head. “Everything changed after the war.”
    “You were in the war?”
    She nodded. “Your father too. We only settled after the war. Nor was your father’s home, and with the winds of Galen it always felt comforting to me.”
    How could he not have known that she was a shaper? First learning that she knew the dead princess and now this? It was like he was learning a whole knew side to his mother, a side she wanted to keep from him. “Why haven’t you told me before?”
    “Because it didn’t matter. That’s not who I am now. Now I’m just Ephra.”
    “You’re a shaper! Why would you want to hide that?”
    A sad smile twisted her lips. “For the longest time, all I wanted was to be a shaper. I struggled even catching the wind. And when called by the king, I served willingly in the war. But it changed. I couldn’t do that anymore. Nor was my reward.”
    Tan couldn’t think of anything that would make him not want to be a shaper. His sensing was too weak to ever become anything more. He’d never know the power shapers possessed. But his mother…she was a shaper and chose to abandon it. “What could change that would make you want to give up shaping?”
    She squeezed his hand. “We had you.”
    He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Is that why you want me to go to the university? Do you think I could be a shaper?” In spite of how he felt about leaving Nor, the idea still gave him a slight thrill. Could he eventually learn to hone his weak earth sensing, turn it into something stronger? Could he become a shaper?
    “I always knew I could shape. The wind called me when I was barely seven. It took years before I learned to control it. Some learn later in life. Rarely at your age.”
    It was a long way of telling him no. Tan wondered why he felt a hint of disappointment.
    “There is more to the university than simply learning how to become a shaper. The Great Mother gifted you as a senser. Your father did what he could to teach you to use that gift, but there are others even more skilled than he who could teach you much more about earth sensing.” She sighed again. “But it’s more than that. Had he not died, we still would have wanted you to go to Ethea. You’ve lived your entire life in Nor. There is more to this