Imogen swept her gaze around. From the courtyard, it was difficult to make out much of anything. Mountains stretched beyond, and there was a distant glimpse of the rising peak that shimmered in the sunlight, snow glistening off it. Other than that, she could only see the haze of clouds that hung in the air.
She had never given much thought to leaving the Leier lands. Few of their people ever did. They were trained to protect their lands, to defend them from sorcery. Leaving them went against everything they believed they needed to do.
“Where have you traveled to?” she asked.
“When I accepted my bond quest, I ventured far beyond the borders.” He smiled tightly. “The quest itself was what took me away, but it also brought me back. Eventually, I recognized that it was the bond quest that was designed to help me see who and what I was supposed to be and how I was destined to serve the Leier.”
Destined.
There it was again—a speech about destiny, a greater understanding, and seeing beyond the borders. Imogen didn’t know if there was such a thing as true destiny. She had been taught that one made their own destiny. That by working and training and bettering themselves, a person could become even more skilled, then use that skill for the betterment of their people.
“I’ve not yet chosen my bond quest,” she said.
“It is a difficult choice to make. In time, you must decide if you will make that journey. You must decide how you will serve your people. Have you given that any thought?”
Imogen didn’t know how to answer. The question seemed to reflect her own fears, as if he knew what she was thinking.
This was the general. The idea that he would understand her…
Imogen locked eyes with him, and her response came without thought. “Of course.”
“Perhaps the time will come when you have to decide.”
“Decide?”
He nodded. “Decide what you value. Decide what you must be willing to become.” He looked over to the two men still sparring. “Will you be like them, always training, practicing, and focusing on technique, or will you be like someone who has ventured into the world, embraced reality, and realized that their destiny lies beyond?”
Imogen focused her attention back to the men. She had come here to improve herself, hadn’t she? Perhaps she did need to take a bond quest. Maybe that was what the general was suggesting.
She had not given that any thought, but it was time that she did.
If she continued to fail here, then taking on a bond quest—one in which she could serve her people in a different and challenging way—could help her find purpose again. She had to continue to study and to ready her mind. Imogen had no idea what she was going to need to do, but at this point, it was a matter of training. She would mix the lessons Master Liu intended to teach her, adding in what she already knew. And she was not going to become something else—she was going to master her ability and become the most skilled sword fighter she could. Maybe that should be her bond quest.
Only…
That wouldn’t serve the Leier. She needed to find the right bond quest, one that would serve her people.
“Thank you for your suggestions,” she said to the general, bowing politely before straightening and turning away.
Once she was back in her chambers, she sat on the bed, closed her eyes, and wished she could find her own answers—but what would they be?
Chapter Fifteen
The cold air stunk as the wind gusted out of the north, carrying with it the promise of snow. There’d been a time when Imogen had known the cold and the snow, when she had known all of this and had welcomed it. When she had not feared it.
The Leier were down there, and the branox were heading toward them.
And Imogen would have to do something.
If she didn’t intercept the branox, they might swarm over the Leier before they were ready. Imogen didn’t even know if they could be ready. It depended on how many soldiers they had and their level of training. She had to believe there would be at least one notched fighter, perhaps more. If so, then maybe she didn’t need to do anything.
Or perhaps the help she felt she needed was already here.
But if she waited…
Waiting meant the branox might have an opportunity to attack.
She scrambled over the rock and descended until she reached a small ravine. Imogen crawled as quickly as she could, darting along the rock and coming to a path that guided her forward.
She used that to navigate, but as she did, she hesitated just a moment.
She wasn’t sure if she would once again be able to find the place where the patterns simply were—what her people called the unity. But if she fought the branox, she might need it. It might be the only way to defeat them.
The last time had nearly been too much for her.
Flowing through the mountains was difficult. In order for her to find the sacred patterns, she needed that flow. That was one lesson that had stayed with her. And she couldn’t be sloppy.
She continued to follow the trail until she found the branox. They scrambled forward, a hazy gray energy that moved toward her. Imogen braced herself, briefly using a moment of meditation to get her mind in the right space so that she could confront them.
She tried to focus, to find the unity. It didn’t come to her.
This time, she didn’t need it. While there were branox before her, there were not nearly as many. She carved through them, leaving their bodies behind.
She couldn’t see her people or hear anything. Imogen feared her people dead and dying because she could do nothing. More branox started to clamber down the rock as if they were coming toward her. She stayed in place, focused for another moment, then darted forward again.
She flowed like a stream through the mountains, then twisted, the wind whipping at her. A torrent carried her, turning her from one side to another, then to the next. Each time she turned, she could feel the branox around her. And it was that pressure from the branox around her that alerted her to some aspect of something more: the power of the creatures, and the fear of sorcery here.
She faltered for a moment. Benji and his Porapeth magic could call to the branox. Lilah and her sorcery could as well. What would draw the branox to her people?
At one point, Imogen paused on a rocky ledge, looking down. Something had attracted the branox here, which meant sorcery or another kind of magic.
She moved carefully and slowly. As she carved through branox that appeared in front of her, she maintained her focus. Another blurring movement caught her attention upslope. Imogen rushed forward and stabbed the creature.
She spun, twisting in Petals on the Wind, and then the branox converged. She had to be careful on the rocky ledge, where she was more unbalanced.
She flowed using the traditional patterns at first, then quickly realized that was a mistake. She shifted, switching to the sacred patterns.
And then her mind went blank as she found the unity.
Imogen didn’t even move, just her blade. It was almost as if she could transition from her traditional patterns to the sacred patterns in a heartbeat. Petals on the Wind. Axe Falling. Lightning Strikes in a Storm. Occasionally, she mixed in traditional patterns, using the precision to help her move from one position to the next.
The branox swarmed her by the dozens. She couldn’t see any of them until they fell. Could using the sacred patterns be calling them to her? If so, that would be useful. She wouldn’t need to wait for others with magic. She could be the magic.
She stayed focused in the unity, her blade a blur.
There has to be sorcery here. That thought intruded, nearly disrupting her connection to the unity. But then it was gone in an instant.
The branox around her were down.
She continued to dance, jumping from one rock to the next, carving through the branox. Her steps were light, as if touched by power, though not any kind of power she had ever felt before.
In a flash of movement, a
figure appeared along the rocks, scrambling past her. For a moment, Imogen thought it was one of the Leier and wondered if perhaps they might have sorcerers among them now. Too much would’ve changed for the Leier to have suddenly embraced sorcery.
It couldn’t be one of her people, which meant that it was Koral.
The power that came from the Koral shaman was significant. She simply held her hands out and flicked her wrists, causing power to bloom. Then she disappeared behind the rocks.
Imogen glanced around at the dozens of fallen branox, all of them dead among the rocks. They’d been chasing the shaman, but where were the other Koral?
A soft chuckle caught her attention as Benji crawled toward her. He tapped on the rock, and the ground trembled and swallowed the dead branox.
“I saw a Koral shaman,” she said as he caught up to her. “I don’t know where she went, or if the branox got to—”
There was a blur of movement, and Imogen flowed instinctively. Branox converged on her once more, but she wasn’t alone. She could feel the use of magic. There was a distinct sense to it when it was used near her, and this was a considerable energy.
Imogen carved through the creatures around her until none remained.
But she wasn’t fast enough.
The shaman lay unmoving in the distance. The branox had her surrounded, one with its horrible mouth on her arm, feeding and using the shaman magic.
“I never knew they had such power,” Imogen said softly.
Benji watched her for a long moment. “Perhaps if nothing else, this journey will teach you something about what you’ve long feared.”
“I didn’t realize that the journey was supposed to teach me anything.”
“Why go on a journey if you don’t learn?”
“I’m doing this because of the danger the branox pose.”
“That’s what you tell yourself,” he said.
“That’s the truth.”
“Again, the one you tell yourself.”
“What other truth is there?”
“There’s the question of how your people have feared sorcery, and now I think you’re starting to see another question.” He chuckled as if he were laughing at some great joke only he knew, but in this case, Imogen couldn’t help but feel as if he was right. Perhaps there was more, certainly more than she had ever known. More than her people ever acknowledged.
She shook her head, looking into the distance where the Koral shaman lay.
“I have questions for Lilah,” Imogen said.
Benji cocked his head. “What kinds of questions are those?”
“The ones that make me wonder if perhaps she is not Leier.”
He barked out a laugh. “Really? Now you want to question this poor girl?”
The Leier had never had sorcery, had they? The Koral were the ones with a kind of magic.
Imogen ignored those thoughts for now. She had to hurry. The branox were still moving, and she suspected she knew where they were headed.
“Can you tell where they are going?”
“I am trying,” he said.
“You still can’t see anything?”
“It’s not as easy as that, Imogen Inaratha. It is a matter of trying to see the web of possibilities in front of me. Lately it has become opaque where it had been translucent before. It’s like looking through a deep pool of water and trying to find something swimming at the murky bottom. I still don’t know exactly what’s causing it, though I hope we can discover the key soon enough.”
Chapter Sixteen
They made their way carefully along the narrow stone path. Lilah stayed behind Benji, who trailed Imogen, none of them speaking. Imogen tried to focus, wanting to meditate, to find some clarity.
More than that, she wanted to find the unity again.
“How much farther do we have to go?” Lilah asked.
Benji had stopped teaching her, yet as Imogen looked back, she noticed Lilah moving her hands like she was tracing a pattern and trying to work out the magic on her own.
“The Leier are up ahead,” Imogen said. “I saw them.” And she had scared away the branox, or at least destroyed what she could. She didn’t know how long they would be gone or whether they would return, but for now she felt as if they had a chance.
Benji worked through patterns on the ground, then stood and tilted his head in a strange fashion as he sniffed the air. Every so often, he would swirl his hands, almost like he intended to trace a pattern in the air itself, but he never spoke of what he detected. Perhaps it was nothing. If he couldn’t see, then Imogen had to hope that the stone and the wind spoke to him.
If he could navigate so quickly over the rocks, that had to be because of his Porapeth magic, but he also had to know something. He looked as though he had been here before. Benji had secrets she was determined to find out.
“We don’t have to go much farther.” He paused, resting one hand on a rock, and he traced his fingers in a soft pattern.
Lilah also continued to work through her patterns. Imogen didn’t know if there was a danger in it, but as they neared the Leier homeland, she worried about Lilah drawing attention to herself.
“I would caution you against using sorcery here,” Imogen said.
“I…”
She smiled tightly. “I’m not saying it to upset you. I’m saying it to protect you. We’re nearing other Leier. If they detect sorcery…”
Benji watched her as she spoke. Imogen waited for an outburst, some sort of swear or any of his typical type of banter, but he said nothing. Instead, he made a motion toward the ground before tilting his head back and breathing in deeply, looking like he was trying to consume some part of their surroundings.
He continued onward but quickly paused. He touched the rock again, and this time he caressed it softly, tracing his fingers in a pattern.
He glanced back at Imogen. “We must be careful here,” he murmured.
“Branox?” Lilah asked.
Benji shook his head. “Not branox, but—”
A shadowy figure crept along the rock. The person moved slowly and carefully but not unnaturally, and certainly not with any magical power. Their shape was clear, and she knew what she needed to do.
Imogen stepped forward and unsheathed her blade, holding it before her.
It was both a greeting and a warning.
The other Leier unsheathed their sword and stepped out of the shadows. He was a Third of the Blade, not as high-ranked as she was, which meant he would defer to her—but only if he recognized her weapon.
“I am Imogen Inaratha, First of the Blade,” she said, bowing slightly.
He flicked his gaze past her, to Benji and then to Lilah, before finally settling back on her. He bowed more deeply than she did, the point of his blade bending with him. “I am Rargen Bangel, Third of the Blade.”
“There’s a Leier camp nearby,” she said.
He frowned, nodding. “There is.”
“We saw the Koral as we were making our way through here.”
“Where are those bastards?”
“Dead,” she said.
“Good.”
Imogen swallowed the first thought that came to her. She had seen what had happened to the Koral, and she couldn’t begin to imagine how they had suffered.
The Leier soldier knew none of that.
“May we pass?” she asked. It was a traditional request, one made for Rargen’s honor but not one she expected him to deny.
He hesitated for a moment. “Of course, Imogen Inaratha. You have my blessing.” He remained bowed.
Imogen nodded to Benji and Lilah, motioning for them to come forward. She wanted to get to the rest of the Leier, but she needed to proceed with caution now.
They started across the rocks, and Imogen glanced over to Rargen for just a moment, but he didn’t pay any attention to her. She reached a small trail, and she realized that this was where Rargen had been patrolling. She made her way along it toward the Leier. The others said nothing.
“There will be other scouts,” she said, glancing over to Benji.
“I can feel them,” he said. “The stone likes to talk.”
“And what does the stone tell you?”
“That the scouts have camped just ahead of us. We don’t have much farther to go.”
The army had been moving, but perhaps she shouldn’t be surprised that they had camped for the evening. With the scouts watching their surroundings, that meant they had to be getting close.
They followed a narrow path until they reached a jagged drop-off, where the ground formed a shallow depression of a valley. Within the valley was a flattened section of land, rare in this part of the mountains. The army must’ve known such a thing was here, as an enormous, sprawling camp had been set up, filling the entire area. Tents were arranged in neat lines, topped with colorful flags that billowed and signaled the direction of the wind. Each flag’s design also proclaimed which family the tent belonged to.
Imogen stared at the Leier camp for a long time. She hadn’t seen one like this in ages.
Maybe this was a mistake. She didn’t belong here, and hadn’t belonged here in quite some time. She was still just as much of an outcast as she had been. She was still unbonded.
Benji shoved her forward and grunted. “You don’t need to stand there.”
“It has been a long time since I have come before my people.”
“It doesn’t get any easier by waiting.”
“I know.”
“Then get moving,” he said, giving her another push in the back.
Imogen began to descend the small rocky valley. She hadn’t gone far when she encountered another scout. This one bore the blade of the Seconds, which was not as ornate as the sword that had been gifted to her when she had reached the level of First. She was surprised to see a Second on patrol.
“Greetings,” she said. “I am Imogen Inaratha, First of the Blade.” She bowed with her weapon unsheathed.
Unseen (First of the Blade Book 2) Page 16