The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3

by Holmberg, D. K.

  “If it’s from the Fate, then it is.”

  “Then we have time. Not sure how much time if it’s one of the Fates, but the barracks are protected. You have the egg?”

  It was a simple question, but one that posed challenges.

  The enchanters had waited twenty years to get the egg away from the constables. Now Gavin would be the one to bring it back?

  The Fate and the smoke attack lent this a greater urgency.

  He had to do this. Not just for himself. For the city. Which he would protect.

  “I do.”

  “Good. Then follow me.”

  Gavin headed down the stairs, descending into the barracks and feeling as if he were descending into danger.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The room where Davel brought him was enormous. It was cold, with stone walls rising around everything and metal tables situated throughout. Gavin had little doubt that this was the constables’ version of a sorcerer’s lair.

  Gavin looked around the room. Unlike in the sorcerer’s lairs where he’d been, this one was sparse. There were no shelves along the walls, only the stone. The metal tables, which had nothing on them, took up much of the room. Gavin suspected the tables were used when the constables created the enchantments.

  “If you want me to help you with the smoke,” Davel said, and there was a hint of irritation in his voice at Gavin—likely because he hadn’t come to Davel sooner—“you need to do what you agreed to as well. I will have the egg.”

  Gavin let out a frustrated sigh. “I never agreed to do it here.”

  He had come here looking for the constables’ help.

  Maybe if he learned how to use the jade egg to create enchantments, he might be able to use it for himself. Except that Gavin wasn’t sure he wanted to. He’d seen too many enchantments used over the years in dangerous ways.

  “What do you intend to do with it?” Gavin asked.

  “I told you what I intend to do with it.”

  “I’m not letting you keep it.”

  Davel cocked a brow at him. “You aren’t letting me?”

  “You can push back if you want, but if it comes down to it, I’m going to fight my way out of here.” Through constables. Then through the Fate.

  Not good odds.

  “You came here on your own,” Davel said, his voice low and dangerous.

  “I did, but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to let you simply abuse this.”

  “You seem to forget that we’ve had the egg for—”

  “For decades,” Gavin said. “I didn’t forget that at all.”

  Davel glared at him.

  Gavin debated what else he might be able to do or say, but he simply stared back, holding his gaze.

  Finally, Davel turned away. “Pull out the egg, and let’s get this over with.”

  “What sort of enchantment are you going to make?”

  “It seems as if I need to see if there’s anything else magical around us.”

  “Don’t you already have enchantments for that?” Gavin asked.

  “We did.”

  “I didn’t do anything to them.”

  “You didn’t. Others did,” Davel said.

  Had the enchanters been active? Gavin hadn’t noticed that, but it would make sense.

  Davel made his way over to the far side of the room, and he grabbed something from a section Gavin couldn’t see quite as easily. He came back with a small spool of metal.

  Gavin glanced at it. “Is that what you use?”

  “Haven’t you tried to use the egg?”

  Gavin shook his head. “There hasn’t been any reason.”

  “You really aren’t interested in creating enchantments.”

  “I can see the value in them, but I haven’t had any reason to do so.”

  “You are an interesting man,” Davel said.

  “I think that’s a compliment.”

  Davel shrugged. He started to unwind the length of metal, and then he rolled it over the table, winding it from one end to the other. “The egg.”

  Gavin frowned at him. “What are you going to do with it?”

  “I’m going to use it. Isn’t that the entire purpose of this?” Davel snapped.

  Gavin pulled the egg out of his pocket and set it on the table.

  Davel stared at it for a moment before turning his attention back to Gavin. “The egg allows those with the right knowledge to push power through it. In doing so, not only can we layer that power upon the construct we want enchanted, but those with the right knowledge can force the type of enchantment we want.”

  “Force it?”

  “There is an element of force involved.”

  “Why?” Gavin asked.

  “I’m not entirely sure.”

  Davel turned his attention back to the metal. He ran his hands along the surface of it, and then he lifted it up, setting it into a different pattern. “We had to experiment with this. When they provided us with the egg, they didn’t provide us with knowledge about how to use it, or anything else.”

  “They being the enchanters.”

  “They being they,” Davel said.

  Gavin shook his head. “You don’t even want to acknowledge what you did to them?”

  “Acknowledge what?” Davel paused and turned toward him. “You assume you know so much about the city, yet you’ve only been here for the better part of a year. I don’t think that amount of time has provided you with any greater insight as to the workings of the city than anyone else.”

  “I know that the constables worked with enchanters to expel sorcerers from the city. I know the constables ultimately betrayed the enchanters.”

  “Do you know that the enchanters decided they wanted to rule?” Davel fixed him with a hard stare. “After the sorcerers were gone, the enchanters thought that might be their opportunity to take power. There are many cities where enchanters are allowed to take power, and in their mind, they thought they would use that opportunity to assume control.”

  Gavin hadn’t heard that. He would have to check with Zella if that were true or not. “You betrayed them because they tried to overpower you?”

  “You call it betrayal, but I call it protection.”

  “Protection?” Gavin looked around the room. “Is that what this is?”

  “Do you really think we want to do anything that would harm those in the city?” Davel asked.

  Gavin grunted. “I don’t really know. The only thing I know about you is that you continue to use the kind of power you railed against.”

  “We railed against the sorcerers’ power. Not enchanted power.”

  “Except you don’t want others in the city to know you still embrace magic.”

  “The people feel better knowing they are protected from magic. Think about it. Most of the people who lived in the city during the war twenty years ago remember what it was like when the sorcerers were fighting for control. There were factions of them, all trying to overthrow the Triad.”

  “The what?”

  “Three sorcerers who had ganged up and taken power over the city. I’m sure that with your extensive experience in the world, you have seen how sorcerers fight for power.”

  “I have seen something similar.”

  “They encouraged it here. They even had a connection to the Academy that trained them. The students worked just as hard as their masters to fight for power.”

  Gavin knew there were outposts in many cities. He had seen them enough times to know. Most of the time, the outpost served as a place for the society members to reside, but there were other places where the outpost was used to consolidate power.

  And then there was what he had uncovered in Yoran.

  Three sorcerers. The Triad.

  That couldn’t be a coincidence. Gavin had found three sorcerer’s lairs. All three of them were connected, which suggested that, if nothing else, whatever he had encountered had been intentionally created. There had been the El’aras symbols on the doors, symbols
that had suggested a different sort of connection and a different sort of power.

  Could those lairs have been part of the Triad? Was that why the Fate had come?

  “Yes, three,” Davel replied. “There were others in the city, though they served the Triad. After a while, they decided they didn’t want to serve the Triad anymore and that it was time to overthrow them. Thus began the Sorcerers War. It was a brutal time. Those without magic—and within Yoran, that was almost everyone—were at the mercy of the sorcerers. The Triad claimed they were trying to hold their position, wanting to fight to ensure the safety of the others, but…”

  “Go on,” Gavin said.

  “Does it even matter?”

  “A little bit.”

  Davel sighed. “The sorcerers who served the Triad found themselves fighting a losing war. They began to brutally attack others in the city. They thought that doing so would call the Triad out into the open, but even when they did, there was nothing they could do.”

  “That’s why the enchanters and the constables began to work together,” Gavin said.

  “That’s part of the reason. We wanted to protect those without magic. Considering how few people had it, we thought we needed to offer some element of safety.”

  “Why you?”

  “Because we’d always served.”

  Gavin shook his head. “You had always served… You were serving the Triad.”

  Davel glared at him for a moment, and then his expression softened. “We were, though we didn’t do so happily.”

  Gavin started to smile.

  “What?” Davel said.

  “This is all about you paying penance.”

  “This is not about penance.”

  “It’s certainly not about a desire to protect,” Gavin said.

  “You don’t know anything about what happened then.”

  “No, but I can imagine. And seeing the way you reacted, I have a pretty good idea.” Gavin stared down at the metal. “So the constables and the enchanters began working together, and then the constables decided they wanted to take over—”

  “After the enchanters decided they were going to betray us.”

  Gavin looked at the jade egg. Every time he thought he understood what had happened in Yoran, he found out something new. Some new piece of history; some new information that changed everything for him.

  Gaspar had never spoken of any of that.

  What role did Gaspar have in all of this?

  Gavin didn’t fully understand the politics of Yoran these days. The sorcerers had led in the city up until twenty years ago, and the enchanters and the constables had worked together to push their influence out. When it was over, the constables had turned on the enchanters.

  Now the constables, and Davel Chan, essentially ruled in the city, though there had to be more to it.

  “Who do you serve now?”

  Davel watched him. “There’s a council that leads the city.”

  “And what’s your responsibility with that?” The constables had a significant role in the city, but it was one Gavin hadn’t taken the time to fully understand.

  At first, Gavin wasn’t sure if he was even going to answer, but his mouth tightened into a thin line, his frown deepening. “I sit on the council.”

  At least that answered part of the question for Gavin.

  But it didn’t explain everything.

  They had the Triad, and they had the Fates.

  What if the Fates wanted revenge?

  “If the Triad ruled in the city, I have to believe they were subservient to the Fates,” Gavin said.

  “Possibly,” Davel said.

  “You already considered that.”

  “I would have imagined you had as well.”

  “Given how little I know about the history of Yoran, I don’t know that I could have,” he said, staring at Davel.

  The two men held each other’s gaze, and then Davel looked away, turning his attention back to the egg.

  “The enchantments have allowed us to keep the influence of the sorcerers at bay. Over the last two decades, we’ve been safe, protected from anything the sorcerers think to do. Even the Fates.” Davel lifted the egg, then took one end of the metal and wrapped it around the egg. He started from the bottom and worked quickly to wrap the metal around its entirety.

  Curiosity overwhelmed Gavin. He wanted to know more about the enchantments. Not only how the egg worked with them, but how Davel managed to use it to create them. If he understood that, maybe he could use it himself.

  “What do you have to do with it?” Gavin asked.

  “We have to bind the metal to the egg. There’s a transference of power.”

  “How?” Despite himself, Gavin couldn’t help but feel curious about what Davel was doing.

  “There is a certain intention to it,” Davel said.

  It likely involved a use of magic.

  Gavin glanced down at the sword. The blade had stopped glowing, so whatever smoke and energy he had detected above seemed to be gone.

  Davel continued wrapping the metal around the egg, and then he stopped. He pressed his hands on either side of it, squeezing for a moment. Gavin watched him out of curiosity, but he also watched the sword because of a suspicion he had. There came a flare of power along the sword. It was brief, and when it was done, Gavin knew that the enchantment had taken hold.

  “Did you do it?” he asked softly.

  Davel set the egg down, and he carefully began to remove the metal that he’d wound around it. “It’s done,” he said.

  “What enchantment did you make?”

  “I wanted something that would allow me to know whether there is magic used around me.”

  “Interesting,” Gavin said.

  Davel looked over. “Not all of us have an El’aras dagger—or sword.” He held out the metal, and then with another squeeze, he pressed the metal together and formed a bracelet.

  Gavin was reminded of the bracelet he now wore. Olivia had done something different when making enchantments. She had used her own power, through her connection to her magic. This was something else, though if Gavin was right, there was more of an element of magic to it than what he suspected Davel understood—or probably believed.

  Davel began to wrap another band of metal around the egg. He worked quickly and then pressed his hands on either side of it. As before, the sword surged with a bright white glow. This time, it was also met by a surge of white light from the new enchantment that Davel had made. When it was done, Davel began to peel the metal off the egg again.

  “How long have you known?” Gavin asked.

  “How long have I known what?”

  “That you had magic.”

  Davel paused, and he looked up at Gavin. “What was that?” He asked it slowly, dangerously.

  “With what you’re doing. Obviously, you have to have some magic for this to work.” Gavin tapped on the table, pointing to the egg. “I suspect much of it comes from the egg, but for there to be a purpose behind it and for the egg to know just what you want to do, there has to be magic within you.” He held Davel’s gaze. “How long have you known?”

  “I don’t have magic. The magic comes from the egg.”

  Gavin smiled and shrugged. “If that’s what you prefer to believe, but I don’t think that’s quite right.”

  “And you are some expert on magic?”

  “Not an expert at all. I am, however, familiar with magic, and I have felt it used around me enough times that I can recognize when it’s used near me now.”

  And he was certain of what he detected. He was certain Davel had been using magic, even though he claimed he hadn’t been. As far as Gavin knew, the power Davel had been using was enough to pulse outward, pushing with considerable force and energy. It didn’t surprise him that Davel would have a connection to magic, only that he didn’t acknowledge it.

  Davel began to wrap another band of metal around the egg. He pulled it from the spool, and he pressed his hands
on either side of it. As it surged with white light, all the other enchantments began to glow softly.

  “That’s the egg,” Davel said.

  “If you say so,” Gavin responded. He’d once doubted his own magical ability, so he understood how difficult it could be to learn you had magic.

  Davel continued making enchantments, working quickly. After a while, he shifted techniques, winding the metal around the egg in a different fashion. Gavin frowned as he did, trying to make sense of what Davel was doing.

  “Is this a different enchantment?” Gavin asked.

  “A little different.”

  “You aren’t still trying to make one to detect magic?”

  “No. I’m trying to contain it,” Davel said.

  “How?”

  “There are certain enchantments allowed to hold magic. There is something about the enchantment that repels magic used against it.”

  That would be useful, if true. Gavin could easily imagine having an enchantment that would repel an attack. He could use that if sorcerers were to come at him.

  “I would like an enchantment like that,” he said.

  “I didn’t have the sense you wanted enchantments.”

  “Generally, no. But if you have something that can repel magic…”

  “It’s not so much repelling magic. It’s a matter of containing it.”

  “It sounds like it’s all about intent,” Gavin said.

  Davel looked down. “I suppose that’s true.”

  “All I want is something that can keep magic from hitting me. Do you think you can make anything like that?”

  Davel opened his mouth as if he were going to object, but then he closed it and began to wrap some of the metal around the egg again. He worked slowly this time, deliberately, and he turned the egg from side to side as he did, focusing on it.

  There came a hint of a soft light glowing from Gavin’s sword, though he didn’t see nearly the same glow from the enchantments now resting on the table. Either the sword was better attuned to the use of magic, or Davel somehow prevented his use of magic from being revealed. After a moment, he pressed again, and the sword surged with a white light.

  Davel glanced over at him, shaking his head.

  “I didn’t say anything,” Gavin said.

  “You didn’t have to.”