“She had to bargain with the sorcerers,” Theren said.
Gavin scowled. “She wouldn’t have.”
He didn’t know enough about Anna, but Gavin suspected she would not have done that. There were many things she might have done, but releasing Cyran to the sorcerers didn’t strike Gavin as one of them. She had feared what Cyran might do, feared what he might have been involved in. And for good reason. She had been subjected to the plot he had devised to capture her. When Cyran had attacked Anna, he had almost succeeded in killing her. If he had, Gavin wondered what might have happened. He still didn’t fully understand the intricacies of the title of the Risen Shard, only that it had some meaning.
Could he have triggered the El’aras to attack once again?
It was possible. Probable, even.
Theren scoffed. “You can ask her for yourself. Or maybe not.” He surged forward and swung his sword toward Gavin. It was almost too quick to follow.
“All of this is about destroying the sorcerers?”
“This outpost is one of the strongest in the Society.” Theren chuckled. “Consider this a test. If the keystone works as I believe it does, then the test can expand.”
“You won’t be able to control it. It takes a dark sorcerer to do that.”
He sneered at Gavin. “Do you think I’m so unprepared?”
“You would use a sorcerer to destroy them?”
“I will use whatever it takes to accomplish my goals.”
Theren wasn’t working alone, and if he was after the hyadan, Gavin knew exactly who he had been working with.
The Toral.
That was who Theren counted on to control the hyadan.
“You can’t trust any Toral,” Gavin said.
“Says the man who has worked with them.” Theren flashed another dark smile. “Do not worry. All of this will be over soon. Then I will unite my families.”
Just how much danger was Anna in? The El’aras who guarded her were with her because she had wanted to stay in Yoran and teach Gavin. All of this was tied to him.
The only one that Gavin doubted was involved in it was Thomas.
The others…
He didn’t know enough about them. Anna had said they were all volunteers, that they had needed to be with her as she was leaving the El’aras forest to go to lands they’d forsaken years ago.
“What do you think to accomplish?” Gavin said.
He needed to buy time to prepare his attack. He figured he had a few shots—not many, but the moment he took it, he had to be ready to stop Theren. And that might involve stopping him definitively. He hoped Anna would understand if it came down to that.
“We will reclaim our lands,” Theren said.
“You abandoned your lands,” Gavin said.
“We abandoned them because of sorcerers. And we did not choose it. We will not choose to go now either.”
With that, he whipped his blade in a series of sharp movements. It was a pattern Gavin didn’t know, and it was one that seemed to be borrowed from several different fighting styles.
He really was a master sword fighter. Of course, given how old Gavin started to suspect he was, he would’ve known what it was like to live in El’aras lands before the sorcerers had pushed them out. Which meant he was possibly hundreds of years old. He would have trained an impossibly long time.
Gavin could only react. It had been a long time since he’d fought somebody with as much skill as Theren demonstrated.
He called on his core reserves and pushed out, fighting through one motion after another, twisting through the forms and trying to dance off to the side. If he could get ahold of Theren’s arm, he might be able to switch to a different fighting style where he had the advantage.
He didn’t need to overpower him with sword-fighting skills. Gavin wasn’t entirely sure if that would even be possible. He wasn’t as adept with a sword, so he doubted his skill would be enough for that. Where he could handle him would be through grappling, but only if he could take Theren’s sword away.
Gavin’s core reserves were an element that Theren would not know much about. He had another advantage too: the ring.
He didn’t have a weapon. But he didn’t need a weapon.
Gavin was the Chain Breaker.
Theren twisted, flicking the blade quickly. Each time he stabbed with the sword, Gavin managed to stay away by ducking away, but he had to find different ways to react each time. Theren was too skilled.
Finally, the El’aras warrior paused.
Gavin tried to push ahead, but a magical barrier seemed to prevent him from getting too close. He darted forward, attempting to break through the barrier Theren had placed around himself.
Theren smiled at him. “You could have been a real challenger.”
With that, he brought his sword up, then down with a quick slice. A surge of blue light exploded out from the blade, and it slammed into Gavin, tossing him back into one of the bins of hyadan stones.
Theren started toward him, but Gavin held out his hand, cupping the ring and forming power around him. It was the only thing he thought he could do, even though he didn’t have any control over it. Theren brought his sword down, and sparks crackled where he slammed into the barrier Gavin had formed—a skill Anna had taught him.
“Interesting. Maybe you learned more than I realized. She’d called you a failure.”
“I doubt it,” Gavin said, getting to his feet.
He moved toward Theren, but the other man flicked the blade again, and a blue power exploded from it once more, throwing Gavin back.
Gavin scrambled to his feet and turned back toward the doorway, but Theren was gone.
Chapter Eighteen
Gavin stormed back out to the main cavern. He made a point of closing each of the doors, but he had no idea whether it would even matter. How many of the hyadan stones had Theren taken?
Too many.
With the keystone, he could use them. And with a Toral working with him, he might even have the necessary strength to control them and direct them. If he guided them through the city, not only could he destroy the sorcerers, but he might even get the people of Loruv to side with him.
But it would be the wrong side.
He found Gaspar in the hall. He couldn’t do this alone.
“We need to get out into the city,” Gavin said.
Gaspar looked up at him. “What happened?”
“Theren stole the hyadan stones, and he has the keystone.”
Matrin jumped to his feet and looked toward the door. “You should not have been able to get back there.”
“Theren is El’aras,” Gavin said. “And I don’t know if you know this or not, but they have their own sort of magic.”
“You mean we have our own sort of magic,” Gaspar said.
“Fine. I have my own sort of magic along with Theren, and I followed him back into the hall and saw him grabbing the stones. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“I want you to acknowledge who and what you are,” Gaspar said. “I know you have been struggling to reach your power the way you want, and I’m just trying to get you to accept who you are so that you can do this. We’re going to need that person in order for us to succeed.”
“And what about you?” There wasn’t the time for this argument, but Gaspar needled him and Gavin snapped.
“What about me?” Gaspar asked.
“What about you accepting why you left Yoran in the first place?”
“Now’s not the time, boy.”
“There’s never time. Just say it.”
Gaspar’s irritation faded. “I had come here because of Desiree.” He said it softly. “The enchanters had to hide. They couldn’t be a part of the city, and if I’d stayed… the constables knew me. They would have found her. Others. At the time, I was sure of it.”
Gavin knew so little about Gaspar. And this was someone who had increasingly become a friend. “I didn’t know,” he said.
“None of that
matters, boy,” he whispered.
Gavin wasn’t going to argue with Gaspar about this, and certainly not at this time. If Gaspar wanted to share, Gavin would wait for him to be ready. “You chased the woman you loved, and then you found—"
Gaspar glared at him. “I would be careful with what you say, boy.”
“All I was going to say was that you left, then found Imogen. And now the reason she left the city is loose.”
Gaspar glowered. “We need to get that damn keystone and stop him from freeing the hyadan.”
“I think it’s more than just that. He’s got a Toral working with him. With that kind of power, it’s entirely possible he might be able to make more of these stones.”
Gaspar groaned. “No.”
“I’m afraid so. And he might be targeting this city now, but he has made his feelings on magic quite clear. He will continue to use the hyadan, and the keystone, to replicate the stones and that power, and eventually—”
“He will come for the enchanters,” Gaspar said.
Gavin nodded.
“We can secure the rest,” Matrin said. “He won’t get any of the other stones.”
“He already has enough, and he has the keystone,” Gavin said. It might not even matter at this point if he had other hyadan stones. The simple facts that he had the keystone and was working with the Toral might be enough for him to do everything he planned to do.
“We need to stop him before he slaughters the entire city. I’m going after him,” Gavin said.
Matrin shook his head. “You can’t just go out there and face the hyadan.”
Gavin cocked his eyebrow. “I can’t?”
“They are nearly impossible to kill.”
“Nearly impossible, but I know they can be killed.” He flicked his gaze to the door in the back. “Much like I know you should have destroyed the stones.”
“We should have,” he agreed. “We have been trying to protect our people. There were some of us who thought maybe we needed the hyadan to do that, but…” He sighed. “Maybe you are right. All this is a mistake. We should have destroyed them long ago.”
“Now we don’t have much of a choice,” Gavin said, turning to Gaspar. “I’m going after Theren. And if they’re attracted to magic, I at least know how to call the hyadan.”
“You intend to call the hyadan to you?” Matrin asked.
“It’s more that I intend to chase Theren. He’s afraid of me. That’s the reason he didn’t take action sooner.”
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself, boy,” Gaspar said.
“Think about it. I have this ring, and he’s been watching me, trying to gauge what I can do.”
“What can you do?” Gaspar asked. “You have said it yourself. You haven’t gained the control you need to use your own powers, let alone that ring.”
“I know, but if I can—”
“Then find a way,” Gaspar said.
“We have to get the keystone, and then we have to get to somebody who can destroy it before he has a chance to take it back from us.”
And there was another problem. Not only did he need to draw the hyadan to him, but he had to protect whatever he could of the sorcerers who might be targeted.
Knowing what he did of Theren now, and how he felt about the sorcerers, he suspected that Theren would use all of his power to go after the sorcerers, and likely unleash the hyadan quickly.
“Imogen still needs help. She hasn’t come around, and I don’t know that we should leave her here,” Gaspar said.
“You can stay with her,” Gavin said.
“I am not leaving you to do this on your own. I have enchantments, and I can help you.”
“We can help too,” Matrin said.
Maybe that was what Gavin needed. Imogen had trained them, and they had already fought the hyadan before.
“Will the rest of the Twelve help?” Gavin asked.
“We faced the hyadan for years. That is what we trained to do. That, along with stopping dark sorcery.”
“Then you can do this now.”
“The last time we went against them, we had somebody to lead us,” Matrin said. “We had the First of the Blade.”
For them to do this, they were going to need Imogen to reclaim her place. They were going to need her to come back around. And they were going to need to reclaim the keystone.
“Gather your people,” he said to Matrin.
“I have done so, but I don’t know if they will answer the summons.”
“They will answer,” Imogen said, striding down the hallway toward him. She was unsteady, and walked with a bit of limp. Gavin suspected she would still be deadly.
She had on her black cloak with the hood down, and her black hair pooled past her shoulders. Irritation surged in her eyes, and Gavin couldn’t tell whether she was angry with him or thankful he was here.
Figures moved behind Gavin, and he noticed that others were coming toward them. He didn’t know if they were really the Twelve, but he suspected they were. All of them were dressed in the black cloaks of the Twelve of the Leier, and all of them were armed with the thin blades he had come to associate with Imogen.
She took a deep breath and turned to Gavin. “What about you?”
“I came because I wanted to help,” he said. “These days, I sort of take the jobs I think need to be taken.”
“And this one?”
Gavin held Imogen’s gaze. “This is another job that needs to be done. Even if I understand the reason he felt like he needed to act.” Gavin could understand what motivated Matrin. Fear. Which was why he’d kept the stones. He said as much.
“We weren’t afraid,” Matrin said.
“I understand fear, thinking that you can’t do anything. And I understand making a mistake by following the wrong person. That is what you did. It is time for you to make amends, to follow Imogen once again.” He turned back to her, waiting to see how she might react. “They need a leader. They need the First of the Blade.”
“I thought I gave up that title long ago,” Imogen said.
“You gave it up because the job was done,” Gavin said, thinking he was finally starting to understand Imogen in a way he had wanted to ever since meeting her. “You gave it up because you thought you were not needed anymore. And for a long time, you were not.”
She stiffened. “I was not.”
“Now you are. They need the First of the Blade. They need you again,” he said with a nod.
She turned in place. “If we do this, then we destroy them. We destroy the keystone. I cannot do it myself, though.”
“I agree,” Gavin said. “If I can’t do it, then I think I have someone who will. Your quest will be complete.”
Imogen took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and turned to look at the others.
“I, Imogen Inaratha, First of the Blade, Bonded of the Leier, call the Twelve to action.”
As she said it, he realized that some part of Imogen had changed with the words. It wasn’t anything like magical power. It was her posture. She had never been fearful by any means, but there was a confidence to her, in the way her back straightened, in the hardness in her eyes that she had not had before.
The others seem to recognize it as well. He could feel the way they came toward her, the way they regarded her expression, as if she dared them to challenge her.
She had taught them, trained them, and then some of them had let her down.
Now Imogen was going to act.
The true Imogen.
Gavin had seen her fight, but he wondered if some part of her had been held back all this time.
Stopping Theren wouldn’t be enough. They were going to have to destroy the hyadan, to complete Imogen’s bond quest from all those years ago. It was one she had taken herself, had left her homeland to do. She had come to Loruv and established herself, and that had allowed her to grow and become the fearsome fighter she had. It was a quest she had believed was completed, and there was some part of her that had
changed when she learned it was not.
But now…
Now he saw something different. Determination. And he was going to be a part of helping stop this for her.
“Let’s get moving,” Gavin said.
He reached for his dagger, and his hand brushed his pocket.
Gavin felt the strange enchantment he had taken off the girl he had caught in Yoran. He’d forgotten about this. Had it always been vibrating? He hadn’t been aware of it before.
“What is this thing doing?” he asked.
Imogen eyed the enchantment. “Where did you get that?”
“There was a girl in Yoran.”
Gavin described what happened in the city. He had thought he had already shared his encounter with the girl with Imogen and Gaspar, but perhaps he had not. They’d been so busy making preparations to leave that he hadn’t realized that he had forgotten to share it with them.
Imogen continued to study him, frowning at him. “She should not have been there,” she whispered. “Had they sent her for me—or the keystone?”
“You know her?”
“There aren’t many I would have come back for. She’s one.” She squeezed her eyes shut tightly. “Her parents were lost shortly after I came to Loruv. We took her in. I trained her some.” She breathed out slowly. “She was the one I most hated leaving.”
“More than Ruhid?”
“That was never going to work,” she said. “My people would never permit it.”
There was more to her reason for leaving him, Gavin could tell, but decided not to push it with her. “She had enchantments.” Gavin watched her as he said it.
“I told you that I tried to help,” Matrin said. “I gave you a warning.”
“What do you mean?” Imogen demanded.
“Amitha was to find you,” he explained. “She was to find the keystone, or failing that, give you a way of tracking it. I thought you would want it.”
“I never lost mine,” she said. She pulled out her own enchantment, squeezing it. “And now I will find him. And we will destroy it.”
The Paper Dragon (The Chain Breaker Book 5) Page 21