Davel peeled the enchantment off the egg, and then he squeezed. As before, there was another surge of light. The enchantment constricted, forming a bracelet. Davel held it out.
“Will this repel magic?” Gavin asked.
“Probably. It won’t contain it, though, so if that’s what you want, I would have to form something else.”
“Is that how that one would work?” Gavin pointed to one of the enchantments that had been set on the table, one that probably allowed Davel to confine magic.
“That’s how it should work,” Davel said.
“Interesting.”
Davel ignored him, and Gavin stood back, watching him work. He had a practiced hand. Gavin could imagine Davel down here, creating enchantments, working one after another.
“If you had all of these enchantments, then what happened to them?” Gavin asked.
“I’ve told you what happened to them.”
“No, you said that they were destroyed.”
“The enchantments don’t last indefinitely. Over time, the power within them fades. They have to be recharged—or remade. We found that remaking them seems to be more effective for holding on to power longer.”
Gavin glanced down at the enchantment he wore on his wrist. “How quickly do they fade?” He knew enchantments faded over time. The stronger the magic user, the longer they would last, but it was a general rule and not anything predictable.
“If they lasted indefinitely, people would carry enchantments forever.”
Gavin reached up, touching his ear. The enchantment had been made by the El’aras. In the time that he’d had it, he hadn’t noticed any fading, but maybe that was why it wasn’t working quite as effectively. Only, the enchantment that he initially had, the one that he and Wrenlow had worked with for all those years, never seemed to fade.
“I would imagine the egg would allow you to create incredibly powerful enchantments.”
“Oh, now it’s the egg again, not me?” Davel asked, pausing as he wrapped more metal around the egg.
“Only because you said so,” Gavin said, smiling.
“The egg has power, but again it’s only enchanter power.”
“I would think the enchanters would have much more capability of adding power to things.”
“It’s still not the same as a sorcerer placing it. A sorcerer might be able to place power that will remain with an item for years. Decades. Sometimes even longer.” Davel looked down at the metal, pulling it off the egg. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a sorcerer to place enchantments like that. Which means we have had to rely upon the egg to continue placing them.”
Gavin grinned, yet he still didn’t say anything to him about how, even though they didn’t have a sorcerer, they did have an enchanter—Davel.
Gavin could see that Davel had magic every time he surged power through himself, creating each enchantment. He didn’t even need the egg to do it. When he squeezed the end of the metal together, it created an additional enchantment to it. Gavin started watching the sword and noting how it glowed periodically, but each time it did, a hint of power surged from it—but nothing more than that.
Finally, Davel was done with the spool of metal, and he grabbed another one. As he started to unwind it, Gavin noticed his blade glowing more brightly.
“What are you doing?” Gavin asked him.
“I’m not doing anything. I’m preparing.”
Davel wasn’t doing anything with the enchantment.
Gavin turned his attention to the door behind him and groaned. “I thought you said the barracks have protections around them.”
“They do.”
Gavin could feel something, but it was not only that, but it was also the way the blade continued to glow brightly. Davel said it wasn’t him, which meant something else. Something worse.
“Then I think we have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“A sorcery problem.”
Chapter Sixteen
The blade continued to steadily glow as Gavin gripped the sword. He focused on his core reserves, trying to reach for that power, but didn’t want to draw on too much and risk wasting that power before he needed to use it. He had no idea what was going to come. If the Fate was willing to attack the constables’ barracks, then the sorcerer truly was fearless.
Gavin hurried over to the table and grabbed the jade egg. Then, on a whim, he grabbed a spool of metal and stuffed it into his pocket. Surprisingly, the spool wasn’t very heavy. It was efficient that the small, narrow bands of thin metal wrapped around the spool could simply be unwound to create each enchantment. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was another way to create enchantments that might be more effective.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Davel asked.
“Well, I figure if we’re going to be attacked, we might as well keep the jade egg away from the sorcerers. And if we need to make another enchantment, why not have your supplies?”
Davel frowned, then hurried over to a cabinet, pulled out two more spools, and stuffed them into his pocket before joining Gavin. They both stood in front of the door.
“What do you think?” Davel asked.
“I think it’s time for us to test whether or not your enchantment repels magic.”
Gavin pulled open the door. A wisp of smoke slammed into him but then bounced away. He smiled. “Seems like it works.”
He whipped the sword around, drawing on his core reserves of power. If the smoke wasn’t coming from one of the sorcerers, then it was still something that served them.
“The sword isn’t doing anything,” Davel said. He had a similar repelling enchantment, and the smoke wasn’t getting any closer to him—but it also didn’t allow him to do anything else.
If they couldn’t carve through the smoke, they needed another option.
“We need to trap it,” Gavin said.
“It’s a good thing I made another enchantment.” Davel pulled out an enchantment and threw it onto the ground. It was shaped something like a silver bowl, with spiraling patterns worked around the surface.
Gavin wasn’t sure what to make of that. Typically, an enchantment had to be close to a person, in contact with skin, to use the power within it. He didn’t know what purpose Davel would have by tossing it on the ground. There wouldn’t be any way for him to use that power, to summon the energy within it.
And without that…
The smoke slammed into Gavin’s enchantment again, which repelled it. He continued swinging his sword, but it was as if he were trying to cut through the wind. He could do nothing to the smoke to harm it, but maybe he didn’t have to.
If the enchantment on the ground worked by needing to have contact with the smoke, then maybe all Gavin had to do was to find a way to force the smoke closer to the enchantment. He swept the blade around, trying to move the smoke toward the trap.
“You need another one,” Gavin said.
“That one will work,” Davel said.
“If it has to be in contact with it, it’s not going to work.”
“It will—”
Davel stumbled.
Gavin jerked his head around, looking to see what had happened. Davel seemed to have been attacked by something, though Gavin couldn’t see what it was. He darted forward, sweeping the blade.
His own enchantment allowed him to move quickly, and he forced the smoke back.
He forced the smoke creature toward the trap. When he neared the enchantment, Gavin thought about reaching for it, but he hesitated. Its purpose was to trap something magical, and he might possess magic. There was a possibility that the enchantment might hold him. He had to be careful and not touch it.
He had no idea what Davel was doing. He didn’t dare look over to the constable, instead keeping his focus on this smoke to overwhelm it. He swept the sword through another series of movements. Then he brought it down.
The smoke streaked away, this time heading toward the ground. Gavin completed the arc, and t
hough the smoke tried to escape, it touched the enchantment. The smoke swirled around the top of it, creating a pattern as it spiraled down closer and closer to the enchantment. Finally, the smoke stopped moving. The enchantment held it.
He nudged the enchantment with his toe. “Davel?”
Gavin glanced over at the constable, who was getting to his feet.
Davel held a different enchantment, which had another smoke ring inside of it.
“That was interesting,” Gavin said.
“What are these things?” Davel asked.
“Near as I can tell, they’re magical smoke creatures. Though, to be honest, I don’t even know what to make of them. I’m not sure why the Fate wouldn’t have used this from the beginning.”
Davel shook his head. “How are there magical smoke creatures?”
Gavin could only shrug. “I don’t really know. They’re probably something the Fate sent after me.”
Davel reached down and picked up the other enchantment, and he set them both on the table.
“You might need something more to contain them,” Gavin said.
“I have an idea.” Davel carried the enchantments to the back of the room and placed them in a cabinet.
There was a strange surge of power, a hiss that reminded Gavin of when he brought the dagger up to the door, then it faded.
“What was that?”
“A seal. It’s an enchantment, though one made by multiple enchanters. It should hold.”
Gavin raised an eyebrow. “Should?”
“Seeing as how I don’t have any idea what we’re dealing with.”
They would have to find a way to destroy them. Gavin didn’t want to leave anything lying around that might pose a danger to anyone.
He looked toward the door. “I don’t know if that’s all of them.”
“Were there more than two?”
“Well, when I was at the edge of the city, I saw two of these strange wisps of smoke. I didn’t know what they were.”
Gavin started toward the door and hesitated, looking down at the sword. The blade had stopped glowing. The smoke must’ve been the source of the magic he had detected.
Now he had to better understand the smoke creatures and what they meant. Only, Gavin wasn’t at all sure how he was going to figure that out.
“Do you have any sort of magical archive?”
“What?” Davel asked.
“A place you go to research. You have to have something.”
“We have a storeroom,” Davel said. “After the Triad was destroyed and the other sorcerers were expelled, there wasn’t the need to keep anything.”
“Did you go through their lairs to see what they might have?”
“We didn’t find them,” Davel said.
Even more reason for Gavin to believe that what he’d found were the Triad’s lairs. But if the constable had never found them, then why was it that he had?
Perhaps a better question would be how Cyran had found them.
“Whatever they might have would be dangerous.”
“The Triad likely had time to empty their lairs before leaving.”
There had been little within those spaces that Gavin thought would be valuable. The sword. The table with enchantments. The body of the sorcerer.
Up the stairs, two constables lay immobile. Davel rushed over toward them, quickly checking for a pulse.
“This is like when the smoke attacked before,” Gavin said. “Are they alive?”
“Seem to be. Help me move them,” Davel said.
Gavin grunted, and he grabbed one of the men. He dragged him along the hallway. “Where do you want me to take him?”
Davel nodded toward a door. “There’s a place up here.”
He opened the door, and Gavin looked inside the room, which appeared to be a comfortable lounge. There was a hearth with a fire crackling in it, several chairs, and book-lined shelves along one wall. Gavin’s stomach rumbled at the sight of a table with food stacked on it.
“This is… unexpected,” he said.
“Why?”
“I didn’t know the constables knew how to read.”
Gavin dragged the man inside. He settled the constable into one of the chairs, propping him back so that he wouldn’t end up any more stiff and sore than necessary when he came around. He grabbed a piece of jerky, some grapes, and a hunk of bread off the table. Though he ate quickly, it did little to settle his stomach. He was hungrier than he had expected to be.
“Help yourself,” Davel said.
“Considering I helped defend the barracks, I think I’ve earned it.”
“You defended the barracks from creatures you brought here.”
“I didn’t bring them here. I only brought them close by. They came in.” Davel shook his head. “Besides, don’t you want to make sure that you can protect the city from all things, magical or not?”
Gavin smiled in between bites, and he set the hunk of bread back down on the table. It was a little crunchy but not terrible. He expected that the constables would have decent food.
“There might be others,” Davel said.
“There might be,” Gavin answered.
“Aren’t you going to help?”
“Help with what? If they’re not dead, then there is nothing to be concerned about.”
Davel ignored him and left the room.
Gavin took another bite, chewing slowly. Gradually, his strength started to return. He looked around, surprised by this room and how comfortable it was.
He headed over to the shelf, examining the books. The titles were mostly about the history of Yoran. He pulled one of the books off the shelf and started to flip through it. The book, which was an older one, had maps of the city. It suggested that Yoran was at least a thousand years old, and from the narrow streets and the structure of the buildings, Gavin suspected that was true. He put the book back on the shelf, and he pulled another one out. Like the other, this one was also about the city.
Were all of them?
One of the constables behind him started to stir, and Gavin glanced back at him.
The man sat up, rubbing his eyes. “What happened?”
“Near as we can tell, a smoke attack,” Gavin said, turning to face him. He took another bite of bread, chewing it slowly.
The constable jerked his head around, eyes widening as he looked over at Gavin. “Who are you? What are you doing in here?”
“Don’t worry about it. Davel knows I’m here.”
“What are you—”
The door opened, and Davel dragged another constable inside. This constable’s face was ashen, and she looked to be in worse shape than the others. How badly had she been hurt? Gavin hurried over, helping Davel.
“Now you want to help?” Davel muttered.
“What happened to her?”
“The same as the others.”
“This isn’t the same,” Gavin said.
Davel stretched the woman out, resting her on the floor. Gavin checked for a pulse. When he had trained with Tristan, he’d learned about injuries. Hurting. Killing. Also healing. It was necessary for him to know how to identify his injuries and know what could and should be done to restore himself.
He couldn’t tell what had happened to the woman, only that something seemed to be amiss. Gavin leaned forward. Something smelled off about her.
It reminded him of the strange smell in the sorcerer’s lair.
“Do you detect that?” he asked.
“Detect what?”
“The smell.”
“Now you’re going to be criticizing my people about how they smell?” Davel asked.
“If they deserve it, but that’s not what I’m getting at.”
He took a deep breath, inhaling the strange odor coming off the woman. It was foul, though he wasn’t at all sure what it was. Darkness seemed to swirl around her. Strangely, it seemed the shadows were feeding on the woman. Almost as if they were trying to consume her. Something diminished within he
r the longer that it remained near her.
If he did nothing, she’d die.
It had to be the same as what happened to the sorcerer in the lair.
Gavin jumped back. “One of your enchantments. Now!”
Davel frowned at him. “What are you getting on about?”
“Get one of your enchantments!”
Davel shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but…” He reached into his pocket and pulled one of them out.
Gavin nodded to the fallen constable. “Put it on her chest.”
Davel sighed and placed the enchantment onto the constable’s chest.
There came a swirl of energy. Had Gavin not been expecting it, he might’ve been startled, but the darkness and the shadow started to leach out of the constable, flowing toward the enchantment.
Davel grunted. “How did you know?”
“It didn’t feel right,” Gavin said. If the Fate used this kind of attack, then they might be in even more trouble than Gavin realized. “We need to see how many others have been influenced like this.”
“I thought you said you only saw the two.”
“I thought that’s all it was,” Gavin admitted.
Now he no longer knew.
If there were more than just the two, how many were out in the city? More importantly, what were they?
The Fates had sent something new—and dangerous—into the city.
And Gavin would have to be prepared. At least he had the enchantments that repelled magic, but he had no idea how long they would work and whether they would keep him safe indefinitely. If what Davel said about the enchantments was true—and Gavin had no reason to believe it wasn’t—then eventually the effect of the enchantments would fade. When it happened, he had no idea what would befall him, but he needed to be ready for anything.
“I think we’re going to need to make more enchantments,” he said softly.
Davel nodded once.
Chapter Seventeen
Gavin waited in the Dragon, which was empty other than Wrenlow sitting alone near the hearth and trying to hide the annoyance on his face. Gavin had not been able to placate him about his ongoing silence through the enchantments, though what was he going to be able to say to Wrenlow anyway? At this point, he no longer knew why the enchantment only worked intermittently. As soon as Gavin had left the constable barracks, he’d begun to hear Wrenlow chirping at him through the earpiece. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Either the barracks somehow shielded him, or there was some other answer.
The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3 Page 72