Unbonded (First of the Blade Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Interesting,” he said, his fingers trailing along a pattern she couldn’t see. He patted a section of the ground, and he looked up at her. “Can you feel this?”

  “What am I supposed feel?” she asked.

  He grunted. “Get down here.”

  Imogen joined Benji and crouched on the ground, tracing her fingers along the stone where he had. She could feel a sorcery pattern there.

  “This is the enchantment?” she asked.

  “It is. Can you determine what kind of enchantment this is?”

  She looked over at him and then shook her head. “I cannot.”

  He leaned forward, sniffing deeply. “I can’t either. I figured maybe a First of the Blade might be able to find the answer, but perhaps it isn’t as obvious as that.”

  “I can only tell when there is sorcery around me,” she said.

  “A damn shame, if you ask me.”

  “That I can’t determine the pattern?”

  “That you continue to ignore it.” He flicked his gaze to her sword, then traced his finger along the pattern again. “One of these is responsible for enhancing its skin. That’s why your sword won’t cut through its flesh. It’s a wonder you were able to bring down the one out in the forest.”

  “There were no enchantments around it.”

  He smirked at her. “Are you so sure?” He looked down and tapped his fingers in the center of the enchantment. The ground rumbled briefly before the stone cracked, disrupting the enchantment.

  The creature shrieked behind them.

  “Not so tough now, are you?” he whispered.

  Benji crawled farther into the cave. Everything was dark behind them, enough that Imogen couldn’t see much of anything. She moved as quickly and carefully after him as she could, keeping herself on edge, prepared for another attack. She didn’t know if there would be another adlet in the cave.

  “Do you feel it?” he asked.

  “What am I supposed to feel?”

  “Damn, woman. Do you feel the pattern? Do you feel the magic? Sorcery?”

  With each word, he became more and more agitated.

  Imogen regarded Benji for a moment. She had been worried about how his wound might be affecting him and if it would be similar to what had happened to her brother. She grew increasingly certain that, regardless of what Benji claimed, the magic that had attacked him affected him in the same sort of way.

  They needed to find the source of it, as well as some way to remove it.

  “Why don’t you show me,” Imogen said carefully.

  Benji grunted. “Everybody wants me to show them. Can’t find it on your own, can you. That would be too easy. It’s like looking for a nut in a tree.”

  He slapped his hand on the stone, and where he touched the rock, a flicker of silver light appeared that quickly faded. Imogen crouched next to him, and she traced her fingers along the pattern.

  “This one is similar to the last, but not the same,” she said.

  He nodded. “Not the same. Good. It’s about time you recognize that.”

  “It’s not a matter of trying to recognize anything.”

  “That’s good, because you can’t recognize a damn thing, woman.”

  “Careful,” Timo said.

  Imogen glanced back at him, frowning. It seemed the longer they were in the cave, the worse the two of them became. She wasn’t going to be able to stay here for too much longer. Not with the two of them acting this way, or if she wanted to get them out of here and have them find some measure of peace. She had no idea what it was going to take for them to relax.

  She held out her hand to Benji. “I can help you remove the enchantment.”

  “You didn’t want to help with the last one, so why would you care this time?” He smacked his hand down again. The stone rippled, moving almost as if it were liquid, and then the enchantment blurred and faded altogether. When he was done, he looked over to her. “See? Nothing to it.”

  The adlet howled once more as Benji’s magic held it, and Imogen glanced back at the creature. Just how much did they need to be concerned about it? Maybe not at all. As soon as the last enchantment was removed, what would the creature do? Already, she could feel it attacking, trying to strike at the stone where Benji had used his Porapeth magic to hold it. But eventually, that magic would fail, and the creature would get free.

  Or not.

  It occurred to Imogen that she didn’t really know the extent of Porapeth magic. With enchantments, they would eventually fail. There was only so much power that could be poured into one, and only so long something like that would even hold. With Porapeth magic, though, it struck her as something more natural, similar to that of the El’aras. Her experience had shown that their magic did not fade nearly as rapidly.

  “Let’s find the others,” Imogen said.

  “Oh, should we?”

  “I can help,” she said softly.

  “Fat lot of good you’ve been.”

  He continued crawling along the ground, and he slapped his hand down. The stone rippled once again, though it cracked where he had touched it. Suddenly, the adlet thrashed. It did so with even more agitation than it had before, and it snarled and swept its arms toward them, though it could not move otherwise.

  Benji got to his feet, and he wiped his hands on his pants. “There. See? Can’t get very far like that, can you?”

  “Is that the last of them?”

  “Yes. At least for now,” he muttered. “Can’t be sure there won’t be more. In a place like this, it’s far too likely that there will be.”

  “A place like this?” Imogen asked.

  “Right. An adlet den. Are you so dense that you can’t even see that?”

  Timo growled. “My sister is not—”

  Imogen turned and shook her head, cutting him off. “Let’s assume that I am that dense,” she said, turning to Benji. “What do you mean?”

  “This den. It’s a place where sorcerers have been. And one particular sorcerer is my concern.”

  “Is that right?” she said.

  “You’re damn right it is. Dheleus. A powerful little bastard.”

  “How many Toral would he have with him?”

  She glanced over to her brother, thinking about the Toral that Timo had cut down. She didn’t know how many would serve a single Sul’toral, though she suspected it would be more than just one.

  “It depends,” Benji said. “Dheleus has been around for… well, a long time. He has acquired considerable power. Most of them have. They serve something like a funnel, you know. Power comes through them to the Toral, but it doesn’t come in from them. Comes from someplace else. Someplace greater.”

  “Where?” Timo asked.

  Benji shrugged. “Can’t say. I’m not a Sul’toral. Some people think they hitch themselves to another power, and that’s how they reach for it. Others think they already have potential, and given that all of the thirteen are sorcerers, that’s probably true. But they have all tied themselves to Sarenoth in one way or another, so most think that the power comes straight from that.”

  Timo looked at the adlet before unsheathing his blade in a fluid movement and driving it through the creature’s chest. It sank to the ground, clutching the wound. There was no cry. Nothing. Like the adlet Imogen had killed in the forest, this one seemed almost thankful for the relief offered to it.

  Another oddity.

  Benji snorted. “See? I told you it would be easy to remove that thing now that we took care of those damn enchantments.” He stormed off down the end of the tunnel and left them.

  Imogen looked at the adlet’s body. “I don’t understand these creatures.”

  “They make me uncomfortable,” Timo said.

  He studied the adlet, and there was a strange look on his face, one that Imogen didn’t recognize. These days, she found that there were quite a few expressions on her brother’s face she couldn’t read.

  “You don’t have to try to protect me,” he said, turning aw
ay from her. “I see how you are looking at me.”

  “I think I do.”

  She motioned for him to follow, and they continued on, making their way after Benji. When they reached the mouth of the cave, the air shifted, and there was a bit of a cool bite to it. The sun had started to set.

  They hadn’t been gone all that long. This day had been strange, and everything she had encountered so far had been equally strange. She was left questioning whether she would ever have answers for what they’d faced and her purpose in this.

  Her bond quest was not to cut down creatures like these adlet, though it wouldn’t be a bad bond quest. After all, these creatures certainly were twisted, forced into a dangerous form of magic that suggested that they needed relief from it. But this was not why she had come with her brother. She didn’t know the reason, not really, though she became increasingly certain that she needed to better understand what she wanted.

  Imogen took a deep breath and made her way down the gentle slope until she caught sight of Benji. He had reached the bottom of the valley, and he touched his hand to the stone, whispering to it. He didn’t look up as they approached, though she could practically feel something off within him. Perhaps it was the magical attack that had struck him, or perhaps there was something else that bothered him. Maybe having a sorcerer with them would have been helpful.

  She reached Benji and watched him for a moment.

  “I know where we must go,” he said.

  “We?” she asked.

  He looked up at her. “On this quest.”

  “And what have you seen? You haven’t been helpful when it comes to the Sul’toral, so I’m wondering what you know, if anything. You claim you know something about my quest, but what is it?”

  “I know this quest, First. You must follow.”

  “Follow what?”

  “Me.”

  Imogen glanced behind her to Timo, who picked his way down the stone. She could practically see the darkness swirling around him, the troubled expression on his face, and the concern that remained etched in his eyes.

  She turned back to face Benji. “Follow you where?”

  “Along the path, First. To wherever it leads. And from there, we have to hope that we can stop Dheleus. Otherwise…” He frowned at Timo, but he didn’t say anything else—only watched with a look of worry on his face.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The fire crackled with a warmth that Imogen didn’t fully feel. Not that she couldn’t feel the heat that radiated from it, the logs Benji had somehow found burning brightly and putting off plenty of warmth. Rather, it was a chill that she felt someplace deep inside her.

  Benji sat across the fire from her, hands resting on the ground, lips moving soundlessly. She couldn’t tell what he was saying or why he was murmuring, but she suspected he was trying to speak to the stone.

  She watched Timo. He continued to mumble to himself too, whispering something she could not fully make out. He fidgeted, every so often reaching toward his pack, as if there was something there he might find. Then he would turn and stare at the fire again.

  Timo looked down at his hands for a while, and for a moment, she thought he might be sleeping. But his eyes were open, and his breathing was slightly irregular, leaving her to think that he was, in fact, awake.

  “What is it?” she asked, leaning close to her brother.

  “It’s nothing,” he said.

  “Something is bothering you, Timo. I don’t know you as well as I once did, but I know that much.”

  He continued staring at his hands, as if he would find some answers hidden between his fingers. “I’m not sure you can understand anymore. When I came across you in Yoran, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to speak with you.”

  “That’s what’s bothering you?” she asked.

  “I didn’t know why you were there. I thought maybe you had abandoned our people.”

  “Perhaps in some way I had,” Imogen admitted.

  “I thought you would want to return to us,” Timo said. “Either that, or you would want another quest.” There was a hopeful note in his voice, much like there had been when she had first seen him.

  She nodded slowly. “I spent so long searching for the hyadan that I haven’t given much thought to what else I must do.”

  “You are to serve the people.”

  She nodded again. That was their belief. Complete the bond quest, return to the Leier homeland, and serve the people. Very few, if any, ever took on another bond quest. She had never even given thought to what she might have to do.

  “What about you?” Imogen asked him. “Is that how you intend to serve the people?”

  Another flicker of darkness flashed across Timo’s eyes, but then it was gone. It looked almost as if it were nothing more than shadows, but Imogen didn’t believe she had imagined it.

  “I have always wanted to serve the people,” he said. “Whether through this bond quest or another, I will continue to do so.”

  “By hunting another sorcerer?”

  Timo didn’t say anything.

  Imogen smiled tightly. “When it comes to sorcery, there will always be another.”

  “There will always be more,” Benji said, getting to his feet and stomping. “That is the nature of sorcery.”

  “Is it?”

  “The two of you know it is. Now, before we do anything else, you are going to come with me.”

  “Which of us?” Imogen said.

  “I don’t care. I need somebody to stand guard while I do this.”

  “I’d like to know what you’re asking of us before we agree,” she said.

  “Just come with me,” he insisted.

  She looked over to her brother. He seemed to be in no mood to go with the Porapeth, and even if he was, she didn’t like the idea of Timo and Benji alone together. She had no idea what would happen, only that the two seemed to be at odds more often than not, and she worried what would happen if they were forced to interact.

  She got to her feet, looking down at Timo. She didn’t want to patronize him, but she needed more from him. “Be alert.”

  He took a deep breath and glanced up at her, before finally nodding. He got to his knees and winced, even though he tried to hide it. He was in more pain than he wanted to let on.

  She followed Benji. “Show me what you must.”

  “It is not a matter of showing you anything. It’s a matter of doing.”

  He scrambled up the rock, heading back toward the cave, she realized. At least they wouldn’t be so far away that she couldn’t hear if something were to happen near Timo. She trailed Benji, climbing up the rock valley, until she got to the small opening of the cave.

  He stood in front of it, his hands pressed outward, as if pushing against the invisible barrier that had been there when they had first come.

  “What is this about?” she asked.

  “I was told I must close this.”

  She cocked a brow. “You were told? May I ask who told you?”

  “You can ask, but I’m not going to tell you.”

  Imogen looked behind her, back down the stone valley. Had they been in the forest, where he had been whispering to the trees, she would’ve believed that maybe one had suggested to him that he close the cave. But there was no life around them, only the rock. She waited for him to go on, to say something more, but he did not. Instead, he held his hands out in front of him, pressing them toward the cave.

  “You will watch,” he said.

  “What do you think might happen?”

  He shot her a hard look. There was an edge of anger within it, and she was concerned about the Porapeth getting infected more and more by this darkness.

  “You saw the markings,” she said. “There was sorcery at work here.”

  “And if Dheleus was involved, then we need to ensure that he does not have an opportunity to react again.”

  “Will he know what we did?”

  Benji shrugged. “It depends on how deeply he is involv
ed. If he merely granted the power to the Toral who did this, then he may not have any idea. But if, for some reason, he was the one who was responsible for granting that adlet its protections, then…”

  “Dheleus is the reason we’re here,” Imogen said. “We need to draw him out.”

  “And we will. Or he will call you to him. I cannot see which it is. Either way, you must face him.”

  He fell silent.

  She pulled her sword from its sheath and stood so that she could keep an eye out around them. “Do you think there could be other adlet in the cave?” she asked.

  “If there were more, we would’ve seen them,” he said. “If this is their den, another might return.”

  “We’ve seen two.”

  “Good. You can count.”

  “My point being, how many do you think you will find in a den?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never found an adlet den before. I imagine it’d be as many as they want.”

  Imogen turned and looked back at him, and she was surprised to see that the rock had started to shift. The tunnel itself was collapsing, but in a controlled sort of way, as if he were guiding the stone. It oozed in a manner like a thick liquid, like honey or molasses dripping from the top of the cave, then solidifying again on the ground. It was a strange thing to witness.

  “Keep your eyes open,” Benji snapped.

  Imogen turned away. “They would just make another place,” she said. “I want to get this journey over with. I want to make sure that Timo finishes his quest.”

  “And then what?” he asked. She couldn’t tell what Benji was getting at, but he watched her with a strange expression in his eyes. “What will you do next, First?”

  “He needs to return home.”

  “Why?”

  “Because…” She frowned. “I think it will help him find himself.”

  “That shit lost himself long ago.”

  Imogen didn’t know what to say, so she simply stared at Benji for a long moment, regarding him until she shook her head.

  “Are all Porapeth as irritable as you are?” she finally asked.

  “When you’ve lived as long as I have, you earn the right to be a little bit irritable.”

  “This is a little bit?”