“Sorcerers use spells and other natural items to accentuate power they draw from themselves.” That was how Tristan had explained it for him, at least. “Their power is different than enchanters who have a similar power.”
“The magic not quite the same. They have to place power into something.”
Gavin touched the enchantment he wore. “Either way, it’s more than I understand.”
Wrenlow watched him, saying nothing, though the brightness in his gaze said more than enough. If Gavin were part El’aras, what kind of magic might he have? Their power was different than that of sorcerers and enchanters.
“So the boy?” Wrenlow asked.
“I know what I felt.”
“How? I mean, how?” Wrenlow leaned back, rubbing his eyes again. It was late, and they were all tired, but probably Wrenlow most of all. He wasn’t accustomed to staying up as late as the rest of them. Gavin didn’t need much sleep, so staying awake like this wasn’t all that difficult for him. He suspected Gaspar had an easy time as well. The old thief struck him as a consummate professional, and they never really needed much sleep. He didn’t know about Imogen though. Gavin looked over toward her and the deep frown on her face.
He returned his gaze to Wrenlow. “I don’t know how. When I was in the room with them, I was under attack. I could feel the blows striking me.” Gaspar turned and watched him. “I thought there was a sorcerer in the room with me. I ignored the pain.”
“If he was responsible, there couldn’t have been all that much pain,” Gaspar said.
“You’d be surprised,” Gavin said. “It’s not the size of the sorcerer but the source of their power that’s the key to their strength. I’ve faced sorcerers who were massive men who were not nearly as powerful as some much smaller. Think about Cyran. When we faced him, he wasn’t the largest of men, but he was incredibly skilled.”
Gaspar’s mouth twisted into a sour expression at the mention of Cyran’s name. “If he was so powerful, then how were you able to ignore the blows?”
“My training has taught me to ignore that sort of thing,” Gavin said.
“That’s right. Your fabled training. Your master. Ever since she left, you’ve been looking into him.”
“I haven’t been looking into him since Anna left.”
Gaspar stood from the table and hesitated. “Don’t think I’m not aware of what you’ve been doing, boy. I know what you had him”—he nodded to Wrenlow—“looking for. You think he has resources in Yoran I don’t have access to? What you’re looking into is dangerous.” He looked around the Dragon.
Gavin flicked his gaze over to Wrenlow, who shrugged. “If he’s alive, I’d like to know more about him.”
“If he’s alive, then you’re not likely to find anything in Yoran.”
A creak at the stairs behind him caught his attention, and Gavin swiveled to see Jessica coming down. She smiled, but her expression soon shifted. The tension in the room was palpable. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” Gavin said.
“Right. Nothing. When it’s the two of you trying to figure out who is bigger than who, there always seems to be something,” she said. Wrenlow laughed. Jessica shot him a withering look, and he fell silent.
“How’s the boy?” Gaspar said.
“He seems to be fine. He’s sleeping. We need to get word to Erica that we have him.”
“I don’t think it’s safe for us to leave him upstairs,” Gavin said. He still didn’t know if Erica knew her son was a sorcerer, but feared she did—and why she’d kept it from them.
“Because he’s a sorcerer,” Gaspar said.
Gavin turned to him, nodding once. “Yes. That’s exactly the reason. What happens when he awakens and starts to draw upon his power?”
“Well, then I suppose that you go and do whatever it was that you did to incapacitate him the last time,” Gaspar said.
“Enough,” Jessica said.
She was the only one who had the ability to silence them all. There was something in her tone—a command and a sense of urgency—that none of them wanted to trifle with.
Gaspar nodded, then he headed toward the kitchen and disappeared. Imogen took a seat on the far wall, leaning back and appearing bored.
Jessica came and joined Gavin at the table, perching on the edge of a chair. She had a stack of towels and laid them out on the table. “You’re sure about him?” She lifted one of the towels and started folding it.
“As sure as I can be,” Gavin said.
“I don’t need any more trouble at the Dragon. The last time was more than I could handle.”
“It wasn’t more than you could handle. You survived.”
“Survived. Barely recovered.” There was a haunted expression in her eyes. “I don’t need that back here again, Gavin. Promise me you’ll do everything in your power to ensure that doesn’t come back here.”
There was a pleading note in her voice, and Gavin wanted to do anything he could to make that promise, but he didn’t know. She’d been the reason he’d taken the job. He could see in her eyes that Jessica knew she was at fault.
Still, she was asking for his help.
“I’ll do what I can,” he said. He took one of the white towels and folded it the same way she did. Jessica watched him, as if doubting he could do it without making a mess of things.
“I know you will.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then turned to Wrenlow. “Why don’t you go and see if Gaspar needs any help in the kitchen?”
Wrenlow opened his mouth as if to object, but Jessica shot him a hard look. He shook his head and darted off.
“Did you really need to scare him away like that?” Gavin asked.
“We need to talk,” she said. “If this boy is a sorcerer, we need to talk about what that means.”
“I don’t know if you want to get involved in that,” he said.
“He’s sitting in one of my rooms in my tavern. I think I very much want to know what that means. He’s too young, Gavin.”
Gavin sighed. “What do you know about sorcery?”
“More than most here.”
“That wouldn’t be all that difficult.”
“You view Yoran as this place where magic is impossible, but it’s only because most people are afraid of it. We have our experience with magic, and we recognize the dangers of it.”
“Most places in the North are like that,” he said.
“Yes, but out of necessity. Haven’t you seen that?”
“I haven’t stayed in any place long enough to look into it.” It was more than that though—he hadn’t really cared to look. Magic was a part of the world, and when there were enchantments or other aspects of the world that involved magic, Gavin didn’t run from it. He’d been trained to deal with it. “He’s too young to be a sorcerer, but somehow, he is. I don’t know what it means.”
“Were there others?”
“What do you mean?”
“Others like him.”
“He was the one Erica hired me to find.” Gavin set the next folded towel down, and grabbed another.
Jessica didn’t look up as she took another towel. “I know, but what if there are others within the fortress?” she asked.
It was something Gavin had considered, though he’d discarded the idea. “I don’t think so. The Captain was there too quickly.”
“Maybe he placed an enchantment to know whether somebody was coming to rescue him.”
“It’s possible,” he said.
“Gavin, there’s something you should know.”
“What is it? You’re hiring another terrible singer?”
She ignored the jab. “I have an enchantment around the Dragon.”
Gavin looked around the tavern, though he wouldn’t have known if she had.
“I have for quite some time,” she admitted.
“I haven’t noticed anything.”
“It’s subtle. It cost me a considerable amount of money to have it placed, and for a long time, it wasn�
��t necessary.”
“What sort of enchantment is it?” he asked.
“One designed to ward off those with magical energy.”
“I would say you were scammed.”
“Why is that?”
“Considering what we recently went through and the way the El’aras marched in, I don’t think it really works. That’s not even getting into what Cyran did.”
“The enchantment needs to be activated.”
“Why wouldn’t you have activated it?”
An embarrassed flush washed through her face. “I didn’t say I was smart about enchantments, only that I knew I should have something placed. It was to protect me. Protect my people. I was young. It was early on in my time owning the tavern, and I was barely twelve when I took it over. Not long after the last sorcerer had been expelled from Yoran.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Twenty years,” she said.
“Considering everything I’ve experienced here, I would’ve expected that the city hated magic for much longer than that.”
Twenty years wasn’t long enough for people to forget about the power. It wasn’t long enough for people to have abandoned magic. Of course there would still be people who embraced that power. It would explain many things.
“Anyway, I had paid for an enchantment to be placed on the tavern. It was a time of great difficulty in the city. We were all trying to do what we could to remove any magical influence.”
“So you reacted by having magic placed on your tavern.”
“I reacted by trying to protect the tavern and preparing for the possibility that the people who had magic wouldn’t leave.” She smiled slightly. “I didn’t say it was the best plan.”
“Considering how you didn’t enable the enchantments, I don’t know if it was.”
“I didn’t leave them completely inactive either,” she said.
“What happened to them?”
“It’s a complicated story,” she said.
Gavin glanced back toward the staircase. It was quiet. He hadn’t heard the child move, though he didn’t know if he even would. Hopefully, the child would sleep for a long time. Gaspar, Wrenlow and Imogen remained in the kitchen.
“I think we have time,” Gavin said.
“There was a time when magic in the city was dangerous. The last sorcerer in Yoran was a violent man, Gavin. You can’t imagine what that was like.”
“I’ve been in plenty of places where sorcerers have operated openly.”
“Dark sorcerers?”
“It’s been my experience that all sorcerers have the potential for darkness,” he said.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. We saw what Cyran was willing to do. I think the power corrupts them.”
Gavin had never met a sorcerer he could trust. Even the one who’d come for Cyran had been untrustworthy. Gavin still waited for him to return for revenge, though he suspected that he and his companions were too insignificant to him. The man had no reason to do so.
“We were scared,” Jessica said. “It was the reason I was willing to hire an enchantress, and I paid considerable money to have those wards placed on the Dragon.”
Enchantress. That reminded him of what Davel Chan was looking for.
“If you were willing to do that then, why not activate them when the Dragon was under attack by the El’aras?”
“I didn’t know anything about the El’aras at the time,” she said. “If I had, then maybe I would have, though…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe I wouldn’t have. It wasn’t the first thing that came to mind.”
“I think you should activate them.”
“I have.”
“And?”
“I’m don’t detect anything,” she said.
“What makes you think that you would?”
“That’s part of what the enchantment is. It’s bound to me in a way that’s supposed to give me the ability to detect the magic user.” She glanced toward the stairs. “And it’s supposed to separate magical users from their power. All I wanted was…”
“Safety,” Gavin said.
“I suppose,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I don’t detect anything, which makes me wonder whether this boy is what you claim.”
Gavin looked toward the stairs. “He is, Jessica. I felt it.”
“I know you felt a sorcerer attack,” she said. At least she didn’t deny it the same way that Gaspar did. “But what if it isn’t exactly the way you thought it was?”
“What other way would it be?”
“I don’t know. All I’m saying is that maybe there was somebody else there. Sorcerers have a way of concealing themselves. It’s possible that a sorcerer might’ve been able to hide from you.”
Gavin shook his head. He didn’t think so. But then, at the time, he had been so fixed on trying to get out of that room and away from the blows raining down on him that he hadn’t been as focused on whether there was anybody else in the room.
Could there have been another sorcerer in there?
“There might be a way for me to tell,” he said.
“How?”
“We ask him.”
“He’s a child,” she said.
“Even a child would understand what he was doing.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
“What do you think I’m going to do?” he asked.
Jessica frowned at him, setting down the last of the folded towels. She’d managed to fold about twice as many as him. “I can see that look in your eye, Gavin Lorren. I know you well enough to recognize that expression. You intend to torture him.”
“He’s a child. I don’t have to torture him. Before we give him back to Erica, we should know. We need to know.”
“I hope you don’t do anything to him,” she whispered.
She followed Gavin up the stairs to a room on the second landing. He paused at the door, resting his hand on it. There was nothing from the other side, but he waited for a moment. When he was convinced that there was truly nothing, he pushed open the door.
The boy was resting. Then again, Gavin had thought that the boy had been resting when he found him in the fortress. He unsheathed the El’aras dagger and glanced down at the darkened blade. There was no magic here.
Jessica looked over at him, a troubled expression on her face.
“I’m not going to use it on him,” he whispered. “It’s my way of determining whether there’s any magic.”
Gavin headed over to the bed, sat in a nearby chair, and examined the child. Erica had said he was ten, and the boy’s thin face reflected his youth. He had long wispy hair and a sharp nose. Freckles on his cheeks made him look even younger. When Gavin had first scooped him up, he had thought that the boy was underfed, but maybe that was just his body. He was sleeping soundly—or seemingly so.
“You can open your eyes,” Gavin said.
“He’s sleeping,” Jessica said.
“He’s not sleeping. He wants us to think he is. Look at the breathing pattern. It’s too irregular. When someone’s asleep, they breathe regularly.”
He watched the boy, holding the dagger out.
“I’m sleeping,” came a murmured reply.
Gavin smiled. “People don’t often answer questions in their sleep either.”
There came a soft curse. The boy opened his eyes and looked at him. Dark pupils stared up, reflecting the faint lantern light in the hallway. “Are you going to stab me?”
There was less fear in the boy’s voice than what Gavin had expected.
“I didn’t plan on it, but you never know. It depends on what you do. If you give me a reason to, perhaps I will.”
“Why would I give you a reason to stab me?”
“I don’t know. Why would you?”
“Gavin—” Jessica started.
He glanced over at her and shook his head.
“Who are you?” Gavin asked, leaning forward and holding the dagger pointed at the b
oy. He tried to look casual with it, not wanting to appear overly threatening, but at the same time he wanted it to appear somewhat so. He needed the boy to know that he was someone not to be trifled with. He realized he hadn’t asked Erica the boy’s name. That might have been a mistake. How would they know they had the right person?
“My name is Alex.”
“Alex?” Gavin leaned back, frowning. “How did you end up at the fortress?”
“What?”
“The Captain’s home. How did you end up there?”
Gavin was convinced the Captain wasn’t related to Alex, but he wanted confirmation. He wanted to hear it from Alex that the Captain wasn’t his father.
Only then would he be willing to send word to Erica.
“I was taken when training.”
“Training?” Jessica asked, stepping forward. “What sort of training?”
“Training,” Alex said.
Gavin smiled. It was almost an admission of sorcery, but the boy seemed to recognize that admitting such a thing was dangerous.
“How did you learn to attack me?” Gavin asked.
The control and skill used to pummel him when he was leaving the Captain’s fortress had been considerable. If Alex had that level of control, then Gavin wanted to know more about that type of sorcery to make sure he was prepared for it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the boy said.
“See, I think you do.” Gavin leaned forward again with the dagger. Gavin tried to keep from looking too terrifying but wasn’t sure if he managed. At the same time, given how dark it was in the room, it was possible that Alex wasn’t able to see anything.
He sat back, still holding the El’aras dagger in place. Alex’s gaze lingered on it, staring at it almost as if he recognized it.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alex said again.
Gavin needed him to know his mother had sent them after him, but he still didn’t know for sure. Something felt off. Gavin trusted that instinct.
Now wasn’t the time to tell Alex that his mother had sent them.
Not until he knew more about Alex and his magic.
“If that’s the way you want to play this out, then that’s fine. But you’re here, and I’m the one who broke you out.” Gavin waited to see if there was going to be another attack, but he didn’t feel anything. “And if you try to use magic on me, I’ll know. And you should also know that I was able to withstand the last attack.”
The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3 Page 38