“Why?”
Tristan smiled. “Had you only done what you were hired for, none of this would’ve been necessary.”
Gavin shook his head. “You haven’t hired me.”
“You have always been under my control.”
There was something in the way he said it that made Gavin pause.
He’d been looking for a connection. Cyran in the city. The Mistress of Vines. Now the Fates and the semarrl. The connection was Tristan.
Could he have coordinated all of this?
Gavin couldn’t even put it past him. Tristan was a skilled manipulator. He had always been that way.
“What are you going to do, Chain Breaker?” Tristan asked, his voice soft.
The pressure behind Gavin persisted. He was going to have to do something soon. His gaze darted toward the dark egg. He had to get that to control the semarrl and remove them.
Taking a deep breath, Gavin focused on the core reserve power within him and on the enchantments that he had. One for speed and strength. One for magical repelling. That was all.
And that was all he needed.
He slipped the El’aras sword into its sheath, and he unsheathed the dagger. As useful as the sword was, the dagger served a very different purpose, and it suited him far better than the sword.
“Interesting choice,” Tristan said.
“You have no idea.”
“Oh, I have quite the idea.”
Gavin darted toward Tristan, using his enchantments. He twisted the blade, driving it toward Tristan, who countered and blocked him. Gavin twisted his wrist several times, jerking his hand from side to side, trying to find a way through Tristan’s defenses. Tristan pushed him back.
His old mentor laughed, backing up. “And to think I wondered how much you might have learned in the time since I trained you. Not enough.”
Gavin grunted. “More than you taught.”
“I think not. Everything you’ve learned from me you’re bringing to bear upon me. You don’t need to fight against me. You could fight beside me.”
“If you wanted that, you would have been honest with me from the beginning.”
“Perhaps,” Tristan said.
Gavin summoned a hint of strength, and he jumped. While in the air, he twisted, kicking. Tristan flipped and blocked one kick, and he spun around so that he could avoid another. He was still quick, though Gavin noticed he had a faint limp.
If Tristan were El’aras—and Gavin thought he was, given everything Gavin had learned from him and how Tristan hadn’t seemed to age at all—then he would have power of his own. Hopefully, he didn’t have access to the powder that Gavin did. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be able to use the same power that Gavin could use.
Hopefully…
Gavin twisted again, jerking the dagger around. Each time that he turned with the weapon, he wasn’t fast enough.
Gavin had been drawing on his core reserves for much longer than he had ever attempted before. He was tired. It was a different sort of exhaustion than he had experienced in quite some time. He staggered, sweeping forward, but he couldn’t be fast enough. He tried, but there was no speed. No strength.
Tristan drove his blade forward and cut into Gavin’s arm.
Heat flowed through Gavin, but he pushed core energy out. It was almost too much. He needed to be cautious with the power that he drew, as Anna had warned him. If he called that power too quickly, he would find himself weakened in a way that would become unusable for him. Gavin had to find something else that he could do.
He drove toward Tristan, but Tristan was too fast. Gavin backed up, twisting his blade to block anything that Tristan might do to him.
What would he need to do? Tristan would know his fighting style. He would know everything Gavin had learned over the years. But he wouldn’t know that Gavin had begun to understand the core power within him. Tristan might have his own version of strength, but what if he couldn’t use it?
Tristan had tried to train Gavin. Others. He had wanted to use them so that they could do what he could not. Tristan had the skill—and he probably had enchantments.
But Gavin had something more than enchantments.
He focused on his core reserves. Doing so meant he would draw upon all the strength he had remaining.
Gavin surged, darting forward. He used everything he could, pouring it through the enchantment but also calling upon that strength to help guide him. He could feel that power filling him, and he slammed himself forward.
There wasn’t nearly as much technique to what he was doing now. It was more about getting to Tristan and overwhelming him. He twisted the blade, thrusting it forward.
Tristan fell back. Gavin jerked his hand around, driving the blade at Tristan a second time, who blocked again. Gavin turned, and each time he did, he shoved the dagger forward, trying to carve into Tristan. Each attempt was blocked.
Tristan’s face wrinkled in concentration.
Gavin continued battling. He forced his way forward, using everything in his power to find whatever it would take to overwhelm Tristan. This was a fight different than any sparring match he’d ever had with Tristan. This was not just for himself but for others. People he cared about. For Yoran.
He needed to get that dark egg. Only then could he stop what Tristan intended.
He pulled upon that core energy again, and he jumped. When he flipped, he twisted and dragged the dagger down. It sliced along Tristan’s back, cutting into it.
Tristan spun quickly and brought his dagger out. Gavin blocked, then parried Tristan’s attack. Gavin jerked his blade around and cut Tristan again, and then he twisted once more.
He slammed his fist forward. Tristan blocked him, but Gavin hooked his leg, knocking Tristan to the ground. Gavin dropped down and grappled with him.
Tristan was still strong, and he knew fighting styles and techniques Gavin had yet to learn. But Gavin had something that Tristan did not. He had a connection to some deep part of himself that Tristan could not access.
Gavin called upon that. “You wanted me to be the Chain Breaker.”
“And you have been,” Tristan said.
“No.”
“What do you think you’ve done?”
“I’ve done what I needed to do,” Gavin said.
“You’ve done what I wanted you to do.”
Tristan started to laugh, and Gavin pressed down on him. He twisted, pinning Tristan’s arms beneath him, and he grabbed the dark egg. It was cold, slick, unpleasant.
Gavin stuffed it into his pocket. “How do you control them?”
Tristan glared at him. “If you want it so badly, you will have to figure it out. Trust me when I tell you that they don’t like to be used any more than you do.”
“How do I use it?”
Tristan laughed again. Gavin thrust his knee down on Tristan’s side, and Tristan grunted.
He’d beaten him.
Over the years, Gavin had wanted nothing more than to defeat Tristan when he had been training. He had wanted nothing more than to crush him, overthrow him, and prove to him that he was enough, but had never succeeded. Gavin had landed a punch, had even bloodied Tristan a time or two, but he had never defeated him.
How had I done so now?
“Are you going to hold me, or are you going to control them?” Tristan said.
“I think I’ll do both. Why are you targeting the Fates?”
“If you had paid attention, you would know.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Even as Gavin said it, he could feel the shadows starting to swirl around him. The creatures were getting closer, near enough that he would have to try to find a way to overpower them.
“I don’t think so,” Tristan said. “You see, they will not react well unless you determine the key to their control.”
Gavin pressed his knee down on Tristan’s chest again and forced Tristan to look at him. “How do I control them?”
“I’ve already told you that
I am not going to provide the answers to you. If you want to know, you’re going to have to come up with them on your own. Much like you have come up with everything else on your own, Gavin Lorren.”
Gavin slammed his fist into Tristan’s head. A smile came to Tristan’s face as his eyes rolled up, and he went limp.
Gavin jumped to his feet, turning to face the creatures. He held on to the dark egg. The enchantment still repelled the smoke creatures, though he wondered how much longer that would be effective.
He trembled and tipped the last of the powder down his throat, knowing that he needed the rest of the power. Gavin looked down at the dark egg. There was something within it that he needed to do, to find some way to overpower what had been done in the way the smoke creatures were controlled.
What if he pushed his core power into it much like he had with the jade egg and the enchantments? If he did that, he would be connecting to it, and he worried that it would somehow change him.
Gavin had to try. He summoned that strength, which required that he abandon the power he pushed through the magical barrier. Instead, he pushed it into the dark egg. It started to glow, taking on a deep purple hue.
Something shifted.
The semarrl were called to the dark egg.
He held it up, letting power flow from him into it.
A smoke creature flowed into the dark egg, and Gavin shuddered. The sensation was disturbing, almost a slithering feeling of a snake gliding past him. The creature filled the dark egg with its strange power.
Then another and then another and then another. One by one, the semarrl flowed into the dark egg.
Gavin held on to the power, letting that connection form between him and the egg, between him and the creatures. The energy from him flowed outward, reaching the power of the egg. He tried not to think about what was happening.
As the egg glowed with that purplish power, the shadows were drawn into it. Finally, everything around him cleared. There were no more semarrl.
His core reserve faded. He sagged, dropping to his knees. He held the dark egg and then slipped it into his pocket. “You won’t win this time. I’ve stopped them. I’ve stopped…”
Gavin glanced over, but Tristan was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Gavin climbed down from the rooftop and stood in the square. His fatigue came with a throbbing headache that left him needing to rub his eyes, his neck, everything to ease that sensation. But nothing could take away much of that pain.
What if this was nothing more than a test? Tristan shouldn’t be so easy to defeat. Not that he had been easy, per se, but he had not been nearly as difficult as Gavin remembered him to be.
If this was more testing…
Gavin shook those thoughts away. He needed to reach Anna.
He touched the marker, and he pulsed some of his core reserves, all that he thought he had remaining, into it.
There was no response.
When he reached the center of the square, something started to crawl around his ankles. A familiar power.
The Fates.
Gavin looked around. He was exhausted and didn’t think that he could handle the Fates as well. He reached into his pocket, touching one hand to the dark egg. He didn’t like the idea that he might have to use it, but if the Fates came to him and attacked, then what choice would he have but to defend himself?
If he were right, then it was how the Triad had intended to use the dark egg, only Gavin didn’t intend to use it to gain more power. Just to keep the city safe from a dangerous power.
He couldn’t fight. Everything within him was overwhelmed. Gavin stood in place and looked around, waiting for them to reveal themselves. The air took on a shimmering quality, and it started to glow.
It was as if everything tilted around him, and where there had been nothing, suddenly there was something. Someone.
Several of them.
Not just one Fate.
The Fates.
The Fates were older-looking sorcerers, though they seemed almost ageless. One of them strode ahead of the others, a dark-bearded bald man he had fought before. The others were an older woman with pale eyes and graying hair and a thin man with a severe smile. Their crimson robes flowed down to the ground as they watched Gavin.
Gavin had only faced one of the Fates before. He had not seen the others. Much like Zella had suspected, three were here. That might be all there were.
And they wanted the egg.
Given his weakened state, he doubted that he would be able to face them, and he certainly didn’t think that he would win.
The lead Fate was dressed in a flowing crimson robe, and he was not the man Gavin had fought before. The robe reminded Gavin of what he had seen when he had headed into the sorcerer’s lair. The only advantage Gavin had was that he had to believe the Fates could be divided. If they wanted the same item, maybe he could leverage it against them.
“You have been most difficult here, Gavin Lorren,” the nearest one said.
Gavin grunted. “And you have been most annoying coming into the city.”
“You have created quite a dilemma for us.”
“Really? And what is that?”
“The question of what to do with you.”
“I don’t think you get to do anything with me,” Gavin said.
“That would be unfortunate. You could be of much use.”
Gavin tried not to think about how he could be of much use or why. It was the same way that he had tried not to think about why Tristan had trained him to use his magic. Eventually, he was going to have to face those questions and find those answers.
“I don’t want to be of use to the Fates.”
“Then you would prefer an alternative arrangement?” the leader asked.
The three Fates took up positions around him. The strange magical energy he had detected when they’d attacked continued to sneak up and around his ankles. He could feel it sliding up along his legs, working around his chest.
“Release me, or you’d better be prepared to face me,” Gavin said.
The Fate smiled at him. “You have already seen how little you can do to us. Even one of us.”
“I have,” Gavin agreed.
“What makes you think this will be any different?”
“Because I have something you do not.”
The bearded Fate smiled and walked toward him. “And that something is what we will take from you.”
The female Fate flashed irritation as the bearded Fate came toward him.
“I’m not talking about the jade egg,” Gavin said.
The Fate paused, watching him. “What is it, then?”
“Something else.”
Gavin squeezed the dark egg. He didn’t have much power left within him. The only thing he thought he had left was the chance of releasing the semarrl upon the Fates.
“You’re going to leave the city,” Gavin said.
The Fates shared a look. “This city has been without the proper guidance for long enough,” the leader said. “There are many such places, though perhaps not so difficult as this. The others thought to extend their power beyond what we would have permitted. It required a firm correction.”
Could the Fates have known what the Triad had planned and how they would have used the egg?
“This city already decided that it had enough of sorcerer influence. Or don’t you remember what happened?”
“Oh, we know quite well what happened. Those who were involved were punished most severely.”
Gavin suspected what happened to the rest of the Triad, not that it mattered to him. “You would come in here and offer your guidance, then?”
“Perhaps,” the Fate said.
“No,” Gavin said again.
The woman started to chuckle, her voice slightly pinched and a hint of shadow swirling around her. Not smoke. Maybe there had been more of the Fates here than he’d realized. “What makes you think you can defy us?”
“Because I can.”<
br />
“Unfortunately for you, you have already proven incapable of countering our strength. You are formidable, but you lack focus, and you lack training,” the lead Fate said.
Gavin smirked at him. “I lack training?”
“The kind of training that would make you dangerous.”
Gavin grunted. “Interesting.”
“Why is that interesting?”
“Because it is,” Gavin said with a shrug. “Anyway, I grow weary of this conversation.” He looked at the Fates. He could feel the energy they were using around him, and it started to constrict, making it so that he wouldn’t have much longer.
“We will take the jade egg back. It belongs to us.” This came from the angry-looking female Fate.
“It didn’t always,” Gavin said.
“Correct,” he replied.
“What will you do when the El’aras come for it?”
The Fate laughed derisively. “The El’aras pose no challenge to us.”
“Are you so certain of that?” Gavin asked.
The Fates watched him. “Yes,” the Fate Gavin had stabbed said. There was an irritation in his tone that matched the way he’d seemed when Gavin had faced him in the Dragon.
The energy flowing around him started to constrict.
“We will have the jade egg,” the first said.
Gavin didn’t know if any of them was their leader—or if they were all here to make certain the others didn’t succeed. Maybe he could use that against them. “I don’t have it.”
The power constricted.
Gavin focused, staring at them. “If you keep at this, I will release the semarrl.”
The pressure on him eased for a second. He could see tension within their faces.
“You recognize that term,” Gavin said.
“He’s bluffing,” the woman said. “Somebody like him could not control the creatures. He would not have the necessary power.”
“I’m not bluffing, but if you’d like to take that chance, that doesn’t trouble me one bit. I can only imagine what would happen if the semarrl were released near the Fates. How hungry do you think they would be?”
The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3 Page 81