“You’ve taken them on before,” Gaspar said.
“We don’t know how many there are. It’s better to get away.”
“I didn’t take you for the kind to be afraid.”
“Then you didn’t take me for a sensible man.”
Gavin hurried to the window and jammed the dagger underneath the frame, popping the window open. Once open, a hint of a breeze gusted in. It carried with it the fragrance of the garden; a mixture of flowers along with the bells trees. There was a slightly spicy, almost pungent smell to them. He crawled out onto the window ledge and stood for a moment.
Gaspar joined him and looked down. “It’s a bit of a jump,” the old thief said.
“I wasn’t suggesting we jump.”
“No? You’d have us climb down?”
“I thought that might be a little bit more practical.”
“Nothing about this is practical,” Gaspar said.
Gavin started to work his way down and was hanging by his fingertips when the door to the room they’d been in creaked open. He hesitated a moment, then dropped.
The drop was just down to the main level, but when he struck the ground, he felt a jolt up his leg. He rolled off to the side as pain shot through him, and he ignored it as he had been trained to do.
Gaspar came crashing down alongside him, landing nearby. Gavin glanced over to see him getting up and looking no worse for wear. They backed up against the house. Gavin unsheathed the dagger once again to check it, and it continued to glow the way it had before. Whatever was inside was the source of the magic.
And they needed answers.
He glanced at the door and slipped along the wall, hesitating barely a moment before he went back inside the house.
“What are you doing?” Gaspar asked. “I thought you were the sensible one.”
“Head back to the Dragon. I’m going to do something not so sensible.”
Chapter Thirteen
Gavin ducked back into the house. Everything was quiet, and having come into the house as many times as he had, he felt a strange comfort here he knew he shouldn’t. This place was dangerous to him.
I had nearly died once, been caught a second time, and now I was coming back on my own?
This was a mistake.
The air was stale and still, and he crept slowly through the house, his feet moving silently on the carpet running along the hallway. The glowing dagger guided him. At least he didn’t have to worry about his failing eyesight.
“Gavin?”
Wrenlow’s voice drifted in through the earpiece, and Gavin hesitated. Now wasn’t a good time for him to be distracted. He tapped on the earpiece, silencing Wrenlow. He hated doing that. There weren’t too many jobs where he silenced his friend, but with the unknown ahead of him, he had to.
Whoever was in the house was on the second level. Gavin moved quickly up the hall and toward the stairs, then padded as quietly as he could to the second level. The whole time, the dagger continued to glow, the indication of magic pressing out from it.
His heart hammered, and he forced himself to slow it down. It required him to focus on that core energy, that part of him where he could focus his strength. Tristan would be annoyed with him. This technique was only supposed to be for times when he needed to fight well, not when he needed to sneak through a house after some sort of magic user.
Gavin almost smiled at the thought. Anything that would annoy Tristan was something he was certainly going to do. It had been that way ever since he’d trained with his mentor.
When he reached the second level, he hesitated. He held the dagger out, using the glowing light coming off of it. He started forward, and when he reached the door at the end of the hall, he paused with his hand on it.
This time, he felt something. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was he felt, only that he could tell there was something on the other side of the door. A creak behind him caught his attention. The person inside wasn’t alone.
He had to act quickly. Gavin pushed open the door, rolled inside, and popped up.
The room was empty.
How? It couldn’t be.
He swept the glowing dagger around and still came up with nothing. Another sound came from outside. Gavin hurried to the window and looked down. There was movement out in the yard.
He felt something behind him and spun. The door was still closed, and the surge of light coming off the dagger suggested there was considerable magic.
But where was it?
It seemed to be getting brighter.
Gavin stayed in place, turning in a steady circle. There was no further creaking out in the hallway. He tried to control his breathing, knowing that was the key to slowing his heart. He embraced the power of his core, ready for anything. This was the job.
He swept his gaze around, looking at everything with as much focus as he could. There was a faint shimmer in the air, different than what he’d seen only moments before. He started toward it, holding the El’aras dagger out until he reached it. Tentatively, he pressed the dagger forward.
The shimmer faded.
And he was thrown back.
Gavin rolled, reacting quickly by swinging the dagger up and around. There was nothing there. He jumped to his feet, flipping into the air and preparing to kick, but he didn’t see anything as he spun in place.
Something was here. He’d felt it. Whatever was here was concealed magically.
The door to the room opened and Gavin lunged, slamming his shoulder into it. The only thing that mattered was keeping whatever was in the room with him. He turned in place.
There. The shimmer again.
He hurried toward it; this time prepared for what he might face. When he swiped at it, he could feel something changing. The shimmer shifted for a moment, and then power exploded at him again.
Gavin was tossed back the same way as he had been before, but he was more prepared for it this time. He rolled with the energy and scrambled back to his feet. They were attacking him, but they weren’t harming him. Somehow, whatever was taking place was blasting him back, but it wasn’t hurting him. He didn’t think they wanted to—or they couldn’t. Either answer left him with more questions.
Immediately, he looked for that shimmer again. There was little doubt in his mind that there would be other ones as well. As Gavin started toward the one he could see, he felt something shifting in the room and something changing in the distance. He held onto that sense of energy and hurried toward the shimmer. He sliced at it again, twisting when he did. When the explosion came, it blasted where he’d been, not where he was. By moving out of the way, he was able to keep himself from getting thrown back by the violence of it.
But then, Gavin wasn’t even sure he was the real target. He turned again and found the shimmer once more. This time, he sliced through it, dropping low and springing back up. When the explosion happened, he swiped the dagger through it. Everything faded.
The woman he’d seen leaving the Captain’s fortress appeared in front of him.
Gavin darted forward, jamming the dagger against her neck. “You. What are you doing here?”
She eyed him; her expression completely calm. She didn’t seem to mind that she was trapped there with him, which suggested there was someone else here. Gavin positioned himself so his back was to the wall, the woman in front of him. He kept the dagger pressed underneath her chin.
“This is my home,” she said.
He blinked.
Her home? So she had been the target.
He could end this now, finish what Hamish wanted, and deal with only the sorcerer. But something made him pause. Maybe it was that he’d seen her in the street and saw how beautiful she was. Or that she was tied to the El’aras—the same El’aras who had almost killed Jessica.
“Sorry,” he said as he started to move the dagger forward.
Everything seemed to stop.
It wasn’t that Gavin hesitated, it was more the dagger that hesitated. As he tried to shove it forwa
rd, to stab it into her neck and end this, he couldn’t. Something pushed against him, resisting him.
The dagger took on a blazing white light. The power that pulsed out of it felt enormous. Magic. That was what was holding him back.
He needed one of his other knives. As he reached for it, magic wrapped around him and immobilized him.
Here he’d thought she didn’t have power like the sorcerer. She stepped away from Gavin and turned to face him. The same cool, composed expression crossed her eyes. He strained against the power holding him, everything within him trembling.
Either she was El’aras or she was a sorcerer. Maybe she was both Hamish’s target and the Apostle.
“I would ask why you came after me, but I suspect it’s in your nature,” she said, her voice calm.
There was something about her that he should’ve noticed before, something that confirmed one of his theories. It explained her beauty. The calm expression in her eyes. Her magic. “El’aras,” he whispered.
She tipped her head to the side gently, and it gave her an even more beautiful expression.
What had Hamish been thinking, giving me a job like this? He must’ve known.
It explained why Hamish wanted him, but why would Hamish want one of the El’aras dead?
“You have come here twice,” she said softly.
“It’s just a job,” he said.
“Who hired you?”
“I don’t know. I know only an intermediary.”
“Interesting.”
She stayed a pace away from him, close enough that if he were free, he could lunge at her, drive the dagger into her chest, and then be on with it. Only he doubted that it would be an easy thing for him to free himself from here.
“Who are you?” Gavin asked. “Are you the Apostle?”
If so, maybe he could take care of more than one job, though that was counting on him somehow finding a way free of the magical bands that were holding him. There was nothing in her gaze that suggested she recognized the name. Not the Apostle then.
He tensed, focusing on the energy within him to see if he might be able to break free. Something trembled. Gavin struggled to push through the magic holding him.
The dagger was magic as well, so in his mind, it seemed that if anything would be able to carve through this magic holding onto him, it would be the dagger. As he held onto the dagger, trying to cut through what he was feeling, he didn’t detect anything changing. There was the pressure against him, the resistance making it difficult for him to move, but nothing more than that.
She watched him. “You won’t be able to break free of this. Only another El’aras would be able to cut through this, and only if they were in control of their power.” She smiled, and rather than making her look beautiful, there was something terrible and deadly about it. “Tell me who hired you.”
“All I know is a name. Hamish.”
“Hamish?”
Gavin nodded. “You know him? He likes to dress a bit ostentatiously, but I don’t get the sense that he’s the one you want to know about. His employer hired me. I don’t really know what they’re after, only that—”
The bands started to constrict even more, and he couldn’t breathe. He focused on the core energy within him to withstand what she was doing to him.
“You will find that I don’t take well to people coming into my home.”
“You’re not even supposed to be within the city,” he said, the words difficult to get out as the constriction around his chest made everything painful.
She leaned toward him, breathing in. When she did, he could almost feel her, even though she stayed a few steps away from him. “Neither are you,” she said.
He had to concentrate his strength. He might have only one opportunity.
“How do I find this Hamish?” she asked.
“I don’t really know. Hamish usually finds me.”
“Is that how you do things here?”
“How would I do them anywhere?”
She leaned in more, and the power continued to constrict around him.
Gavin could no longer take a breath. He didn’t have long now. She was suffocating him, but she was doing it with magic. Even the sorcerer hadn’t attacked him quite so viciously.
To die here in Yoran, killed by an El’aras who seemed to be relatively high-ranking… after everything I’d been through?
He seethed at the thought.
The emotion surprised him.
He’d always known there was a possibility that he might die. The kind of work he did only raised that risk. It was one thing Tristan had always taught him.
Be prepared for the possibility of your own death.
Gavin had always been ready. It wasn’t that he wanted to embrace death, but as someone trained to bring death even though he might not always need to do it, he’d been ready for it to come for him as well. With his training and skill, he figured that it was unlikely to catch up with him so soon.
His vision started to fade. He focused on that core energy within him, which fed him a little bit of strength but not much. He sagged as the door opened, trying to turn toward it, but he could barely move. Then the bands relaxed around him.
Someone lifted him. “Get up,” a gruff voice said.
Gavin looked over. “Gaspar?”
“Never thought a woman would be the reason you got knocked out.”
“She’s El’aras.” And dangerous, he didn’t get the chance to say.
The woman lay unconscious on the ground. Gaspar seemed unfazed by everything else that was taking place around him.
“We need to grab her,” Gavin said.
“Now you want to take her with us? I thought you said she was El’aras.”
“She is. She’s also my initial target.”
“You don’t want to finish her?”
“I don’t think I had all the information,” Gavin said. “I’ve never known the El’aras to be slavers. They’re many things: dangerous, deadly, magic users. But slavers?”
He got to his feet, taking in a harsh breath. With each moment, the pain that had been constricting around him started to fade, and he could breathe more easily. He tried to take in one more deep breath but struggled.
Gaspar looked over at him. “Are you sure this is smart?”
“Not at all. It’s probably a terrible idea, but if Hamish wanted her dead, I need to know why before I finish the job.”
“Is that how you do all of your jobs?”
“Enough of them.”
Gaspar studied him for a long moment, and there was a question within his eyes. Finally, he headed toward a chest near the wall.
“What are you doing?” Gavin asked.
“I saw some rope when I was here before.” He reached into the chest and pulled out a long length of rope, then quickly started to wrap it around the woman’s wrists and ankles. “Are you going to stand there, or are you going to help me?”
Gavin didn’t think he’d be much help. Her wrists and ankles were tied before he could do anything. The type of knot used would pull more tightly the more she struggled.
Gavin lifted her, carried her toward the window, and looked out. “There were others out in the yard.”
“That’s what I came to tell you. There were five, all moving quickly. I noticed two with daggers like yours.”
“Which means the others are probably El’aras too,” Gavin said.
“Makes you wonder.”
“What will make me wonder?”
“Who she is to be so well protected here,” Gaspar replied.
“I’m less concerned about why she’s so well protected and more concerned about why she’s even in the city.”
“See?”
“See what?”
“I told you it would make you wonder.”
Gavin shook his head. “I don’t think we can jump down from the window. Not with her.”
“Not if you want to keep her alive anyway.”
“For now.”
“What happens when you find out that she’s just as awful as you were concerned about in the beginning?”
Gavin looked down at her just as she started to stir.
Gaspar slammed the hilt of his knife against her temple. She stopped moving. “Figured we better keep her quiet,” he said.
“Not only that, but we need to keep her from using her magic. I don’t know if you felt anything when you came in here, but she had me pretty tightly controlled.”
“What?”
“There were bands of power around me,” Gavin said. “I couldn’t move.”
“You were crawling toward her when I came in.”
“I was?”
“She was facing you, trying to…” Gaspar shook his head. “It doesn’t really matter. At this point, all that matters is that we see if we can’t get out of here. As far as I can tell, we’re going to have to go down. What do you think?”
“Down means fighting our way out.”
“Here,” Gaspar said, reaching for the woman. “You’re more a fighter than me.”
Gavin worried about whether the old man would be able to support her weight. Surprisingly, Gaspar flipped her over his shoulder and stood waiting.
Gavin took hold of the El’aras dagger that had fallen to the ground and started toward the door. The blade glowed with a weak light.
There was still magic here, but it was at least far enough away he couldn’t feel the full influence of it. Gavin entered the hall, pausing and listening. He focused on the energy within him, concentrating the reserves of strength he had, holding onto his core as he’d been taught to do. He could feel that energy building within him, trying to give him the strength he was going to need. When he started down the hall, he did so on light feet.
The dagger glowed a little bit more brightly. He didn’t know how many El’aras there’d be, but he had to be ready. If they could hide themselves the way this woman had, he’d have to be careful. He had to be prepared.
Gavin moved quickly and glanced back to make sure Gaspar was still with him. The old thief kept pace and didn’t seem to struggle with carrying the woman.
“We don’t have all night, boy,” Gaspar said.
Gavin grunted and turned at the landing before hurrying down. Gaspar stayed with him. At the bottom of the stairs, he found the first guard and darted forward, stabbing the man with his dagger. The man crashed down to the floor, and Gavin rolled him over. He didn’t appear to be El’aras. The markings along his face suggested that he was from Sumter.
The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3 Page 14