“What do you know about them?” Gavin asked.
“Not much. They haven’t spoken ever since coming here.”
“Not at all?”
“Not that any has heard,” Davel said.
Gavin couldn’t help but find that impressive. “So why did you bring us here?”
“You wanted to see the Keeper,” Davel said.
“But if they aren’t speaking, then there’s no point in us coming to them,” Gavin said.
“I figured somebody might be able to coax them into talking.”
Gavin chuckled. “What makes you think that anybody here would be any more effective at that than you have been?”
“I do not. Why don’t you ask her?” Davel said, nodding to Zella.
Gavin looked over at her, and she stared into the room, saying nothing. She looked through the bars of the cell, and she barely took a breath. Zella knew this Keeper.
“Who is this person?” Gavin asked.
“It’s… my mother,” Zella whispered. She looked from Gavin to Davel, her brow darkening. Her hands clenched at her sides, and her jaw worked as if she wanted to scream. “I didn’t know she even lived.”
“How could you not know?”
“She served the sorcerers. At that time, so many served them. They didn’t have much choice. When the war came, she tried to escape.”
“She didn’t try to,” Davel said.
“No, I heard word that she did.”
“I was there when she was captured.” Zella turned and glared at him. “You can blame me all you want, or you can blame your mother for her service to the sorcerers. Either way, I’m not the one at fault here,” Davel said.
Zella stared for a moment, and there was a look in her eyes, a question that burned there, and Gavin wished that he could help her. He’d lost his parents, and he understood the pain. And seeing that Davel didn’t seem to have any remorse for what had happened left Gavin angry with the constable.
“You captured her?”
“We had to drag her away from the others.”
“What others?” Gavin asked.
“There were others with the sorcerers. They all worked together to protect the Triad.”
“What if that wasn’t what they were doing?” Zella asked.
“I was there. They were doing whatever they could to protect the Triad.”
“My mother wouldn’t have done that,” she said.
“You may not want to believe that, but as I keep telling you, I was—”
“There,” Gavin said, watching Zella and noting the way she squeezed the bars of the cell. “You’ve made your point.”
“I’m not sure I have,” Davel said. “She doesn’t want to listen.”
“Because it’s her mother.” Gavin joined Zella at the bars of the cell. “How old were you when she was lost?”
“Fifteen,” Zella said. “Old enough that I never thought I’d see her again.”
“See if you can say anything to her,” Gavin said.
“What am I supposed to say?” She looked over at him. “What do you think I can say to my mother that I haven’t said in my head all these years?”
“You have questions. Now is your opportunity to get the answers you want.”
Zella squeezed the bars, but she didn’t say anything more.
“Let her in,” Gavin said to Davel.
“I’m not opening the door,” Davel said.
“Let her in. The Keeper is old. What do you think she’s going to do?”
“If she’s the Keeper, then there are many things she could do.”
Gavin could only shake his head. “She’s been here for twenty years. If she were going to do something, don’t you think she would have tried?”
“She has tried,” Davel whispered.
“What has she done?”
“We have lost many constables.”
A slight smile curved Zella’s lips.
“Let her in,” Gavin said again.
Davel hesitated, his hand resting on the bars to the cell. He squeezed for a moment, his knuckles going white. Then he reached down, sweeping his hand across the ground and pushing. An enchantment.
A door opened. There was a small release, and he triggered it from the outside, sliding the bars of the cell open ever so slightly.
The Keeper, Zella’s mother, leaped from the back of the cell, lunging toward them. She moved far faster than Gavin would’ve expected, given how old and infirm she appeared.
Gavin darted forward, putting himself between the bars of the cell and Zella. He swept the sword out and held it in front of him. The blade glowed bright white.
The Keeper looked at the sword, staring at it. “You,” she said, her voice a raspy whisper. It was the sound of paper tearing.
“Me?” Gavin asked.
“The Guardian should not be here.”
She lunged toward him, and Gavin twisted and dropped to the ground. He reached for her arm, twisting it up and locking it behind her back. Despite how she appeared, she was still strong. She writhed in his grip and very nearly came free.
Gavin continued to hold on to her wrist, trapping her arm behind her. He shoved her toward the wall. Zella cried out, but he ignored it. He had no choice.
“Your daughter is here,” Gavin whispered in her ear. “If you want a chance to speak with her, you need to calm yourself.”
She stunk. It was a mixture of urine and feces, along with a foul stench of body odor. Gavin would have gagged, but the urgency of the moment overrode even that instinct.
“Zella?” she whispered.
Gavin twisted the Keeper around, turning her so that she could see the dark-haired woman standing before her. “She’s there,” he said. “Now, if you want to have a chance to speak with her, then settle down. Otherwise, I’m going to force you back into the cell, and you will stay here for the remainder of your days.”
It was somewhat of an empty threat. Gavin wasn’t responsible for keeping her here, though she wouldn’t know that.
Slowly, the tension within her started to ease. When he was convinced that she wasn’t going to attempt to escape again, he released her arm and moved back toward the entrance to the cell, holding the sword in front of him.
She had recognized the blade. Regardless of what other answer they got, Gavin needed to find out what she knew about the sword.
“You’ve gotten so big,” the Keeper said.
“And you’ve gotten old,” Zella said.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“I didn’t know it was you.”
“They held me.” The Keeper coughed, clearing her throat. Given that she had been trapped here as long as she had, and given that, from what the constables said, she hadn’t spoken in all this time, she probably wasn’t accustomed to using her voice.
“We need to know about the creatures made of smoke,” Gavin said to her.
The Keeper turned toward him, and as before, her gaze kept darting to his sword. When she looked up at his face, she finally registered a look of surprise. “You shouldn’t have that,” she said. “You are not them.”
Them? A sorcerer?
The blade was El’aras—wasn’t it?
Am I wrong? Could the sword be what the Fate was after?
“What do you know about the smoke creatures?” he asked again.
The Keeper stared at him for another moment, and a strange expression lingered in her eyes. It was one of concern. “What happened? Where are the others?”
“What others?” Zella asked.
“The Triad. Where are they? When Howarth died, another would have been in line to replace him. The Triad would rule.”
“They abandoned Yoran,” Gavin said.
She shook her head. “They would not have abandoned Yoran.”
“After they were defeated,” Gavin said, glancing over to Davel, “they disappeared. For all we know, they’re dead. The Fates have come.”
Her eyes widened. “If the Fates are here, th
en they learned what the Triad planned.”
“What they planned?” Gavin asked.
The Keeper’s glare deepened. “The Triad will rise. You cannot stop power. We have something even the Fates could not understand.”
The egg. It had to be.
Could the Triad have been planning a coup?
Davel claimed sorcerers fought for power. This could have been another play for power. And significant power.
“You would still serve the sorcerers?” Zella asked.
“As should you. That is our purpose. We have always been meant to serve.”
Something changed in Zella’s face. “We aren’t meant to serve.”
“You’re wrong. That is our role. We don’t have their power.”
“We have our own power,” Zella said. She took a step back, toward the cell.
Davel looked over to her, though Gavin couldn’t tell why he watched her the way he did.
“What are they?” Gavin asked. “I need to know what these smoke creatures are.”
The Keeper shook her head. “They will destroy you. They will destroy all of you. You cannot control it. Only the Triad could.”
Gavin frowned. “How?”
She eyed him, then the others with him, but didn’t answer.
He wasn’t sure he needed her to answer.
They would feed on those with magic.
He’d seen it.
“What are they?”
She stared at his blade again before looking up at his face. A horrifying smile appeared on her lips. “They are your penance.”
She lunged again, lightning quick.
Had he not been prepared for the possibility, Gavin might not have been able to react nearly as quickly. But he was ready for anything she might do. He rolled to the side, using the power of the enchantment to grant him a hint of speed. Then he grabbed her wrist, twisted it again behind her, and slammed her to the ground.
Here he’d thought her fragile, but she was not only fast but strong. She struggled against him, and he reached into his pocket, grabbing one of the enchantments.
He pressed one of the magical traps against her. She sucked in a sharp breath, and then she stopped fighting. Gavin climbed off. He left the enchantment on her, placed against her wrinkled skin.
“What did you do?” Zella asked.
“I used an enchantment that keeps her from calling upon her magic.”
“But she’s just an enchanter.”
Gavin backed away. “Maybe, but if so, she’s far more potent than any enchanter I’ve ever encountered. She might even be a sorcerer. And, given that she served the Triad, she could be fairly powerful.” Gavin turned to Davel. “You need to have your constables come question her. We need to find out more about these smoke creatures. If we can, then we will know what we have to deal with. There was some way to control the smoke creatures. The Triad knew of it. Now we have to learn.”
Davel nodded and waited near the bars of the prison cell. Gavin backed toward the cell door and pulled Zella with him. Once on the other side, Davel closed the bars, sealing it again.
The enchantment stayed pressed against the Keeper’s back. Gavin didn’t know how long it would work or whether she could find some way to overpower the magic within the enchantment.
“She’s gone,” Gavin said to Zella.
“I…”
“I understand.” He took Zella by the elbow, and he urged her to come with them.
Gaspar and Wrenlow watched him.
“I lost my parents when I was young,” Gavin said. He ignored the others looking, listening. “I don’t remember much about them. You’re lucky that you remember your mother. I never had a chance to visit with my parents after they were gone.”
Zella looked up at him. “What happened to you?”
“I was taken in by a man who trained me. He turned me into the person I am today.”
“An assassin?”
“I don’t know if he intended me to be an assassin. I sort of fell into that by necessity. He taught me to fight. To kill when necessary. He taught me to use various fighting techniques and to be prepared.”
“Prepared for what?” she asked.
Gavin shook his head, taking the stairs carefully. “I never found out.”
“Why not?”
“Because others got tired of his training and rebelled.”
They reached the top of the stairs, heading into the main part of the constables’ barracks. Davel stayed with them.
“I’m sorry,” Davel said.
Were it not such a tense situation, Gavin would’ve smiled. He could see how difficult it was for Davel to admit that much.
“You are sorry?”
“About your mother. I am sorry.”
“I can’t believe what she did,” Zella said, her voice soft. “I can’t believe that she still wants to serve. After all of that.”
“We could let her out. She has been held long enough, and we have secured the city now, so there is no reason to hold her any longer.”
Zella looked at him. Her expression shifted, the tightness in her face fading, and her shoulders sagging just a little. “I don’t think you can. Not until we know more.” She glanced toward the stairs. “If she still serves the Triad, then we need to know what she knows.”
Davel nodded. “I would welcome your assistance in questioning her.”
“You would permit that?”
“I think that we must. We haven’t got much information from her in twenty years. Maybe you can change that.”
She swallowed tightly before nodding.
Gavin didn’t know much about the enchanters. He hadn’t the opportunity to get to know them very well. At least, not all of them very well. He knew that so much of their identity was tied up in the war two decades previously. It had changed them, essentially cursing them as their parents had poured power into the egg.
It had to be incredibly difficult for Zella to finally find her mother alive after all this time.
What would he think if he were to find his parents alive?
Probably the same as when he had learned Tristan still lived.
“What next?” Zella asked.
“I have the constables sweeping through the city, searching for any sign of magic,” Davel said. “We will find the Fate and stop him.”
“There might be more than one Fate, if what Zella said is true.”
She nodded. “They wouldn’t want another to rise to prominence.” She looked to Davel. “Is it safe sending your people into the city? If the smoke creatures are out there and somehow feeding on the enchantments.”
“I don’t know,” Davel said. “They’re trained and prepared. We’ve given them as many enchantments as they need to withstand anything they might come across.”
That might work, though Gavin couldn’t help but wonder if it was the wrong approach. “We might not have time to get the answers we’re after.” They couldn’t wait around while the creatures continued to attack the enchanters. “We may have to draw them out.”
“Draw them out how?” Gaspar asked.
Gavin reached into his pocket and pulled out the jade egg. “This.”
“Let’s say that it’s what they’re after,” Davel said. “Even if we do draw them out, what will we be able to do with them?”
“Either we give the Fate the egg and he leaves, taking the smoke creatures with him, or we have to fight them,” Gavin said.
Davel shook his head. “I’m not certain that either of those strategies is the right plan.”
“No, they’re both stupid,” Gaspar said. “You’ve seen just how powerful the Fate is.”
“Short of a sorcerer…” Gavin frowned. Having fought the Fates, at least those who were here, he couldn’t help but think they wouldn’t be able to do anything. “There might be something else we can do.”
Gaspar looked over at him. “What is it?”
“You’re both right. We might not be powerful enough to stop a Fate. But what i
f we can call someone who is?”
Gaspar groaned.
“I’m missing something, aren’t I?” Davel asked.
“He intends to call a special friend,” Gaspar said. “And the last time they were here, they nearly destroyed part of the city.”
Davel looked over at Gavin, his brow furrowing. “What are you going to do?”
“I think it’s time I call the El’aras.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Gavin waited in the forest. He wasn’t far in, though he’d gone far enough that any threat to the city would be mitigated. This part of the forest was familiar to Gavin. Not only was there a large clearing here, but it was where they had dealt with Cyran and the other sorcerer. There was a certain irony in using this place to summon Anna and the other El’aras. Magic would come to the forest once again.
The trees towered around him. As he headed deeper into the forest, it didn’t take long for the trees to begin to rise ever taller around him, soon blocking out the light above. They served as his sentries, watching over him, though they did not seem to care whether he succeeded or not.
He wasn’t alone, or at least he didn’t think he was. As far as he knew, Davel had left several of the constables to watch him, as if he were concerned that Gavin might bolt.
Davel claimed it was for Gavin’s own safety, though the longer Gavin was here, the more he questioned whether that safety was truly for him or for something else. It didn’t matter. Not really. All that mattered was that he would contact the El’aras.
It had been a long time since he had spoken to Anna or any others with her.
He thought she’d understand the need behind the summons. That by calling to her and asking for her assistance with this fight, they could use the power of the El’aras. But he didn’t know if that was truly the case or not.
His call might go unanswered.
He sat there and held the enchantment Anna had given him, waiting for a response. Every so often, he reached into his pocket and touched the jade egg. The egg was smooth, and when he touched it, he felt warmth flushing through it. He could not lose it. He dared not.
“What’s happening there?” Wrenlow asked, his voice coming loudly through the earpiece.
“Nothing,” Gavin said.
“Nothing?”
“So far, nothing. I’ll let you know if anything happens.”
The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3 Page 77