The Paper Dragon (The Chain Breaker Book 5)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Are you sure about this?” Gaspar whispered.

  Imogen nodded. “It must be done.”

  No one said anything. Everyone around Gavin seemed to have gone silent, as if a great weight had fallen upon the gathered Leier here. One by one, the Twelve began to unsheathe their swords, and they set them point-down on the ground as they bowed to Imogen.

  “I again pledge my blade,” they each said in turn.

  Finally, Matrin was the only one remaining who had not yet committed. When he turned to the others, he looked at Imogen and unsheathed his sword, then bowed his head to her. “I again pledge my blade.”

  Imogen regarded him and tipped her head ever so slightly, but kept her eyes on him. She unsheathed her blade in a flourish, and with the flat of it, she placed it on each person’s shoulders. Matrin’s head bowed even further.

  Gavin could only watch. There seemed to be something important in the way she reacted. What would she expect of them?

  What would she expect of him?

  “What now?” Imogen asked.

  Gavin chuckled. “I have a plan. It’s going to be dangerous, probably difficult. And to be honest, I don’t know if it will even work.”

  Gaspar grunted. “You know how to win over a crowd.”

  “Let us begin,” Imogen said, sweeping her gaze over the others.

  Gavin looked around him. There were not nearly enough people for what he knew needed to be done. He had fought against the El’aras, and he knew their speed and the threat they posed. He had also faced the hyadan, knowing the dangers of those dark creatures as well. It would be more than what he thought they could withstand.

  Imogen didn’t seem bothered by that.

  “It involves doing something that I think you are going to find distasteful,” Gavin said.

  “Why would I find it distasteful?” she asked.

  “Because it involves protecting the sorcerers.”

  She frowned at him, then looked at the others with her. “It’s not me you have to worry about.”

  “I already warned them about what we might need to do,” Gavin said. “At least, I warned Matrin.” He turned to the man, and he still had his sword unsheathed, waiting. He must’ve taken the pledging of his blade quite literally.

  “What exactly do you intend?” Imogen asked.

  Gavin shared his plan with her. “I’m going to need my team,” he said.

  He looked at Gaspar, then Imogen, and wished he had Wrenlow. Coming without Wrenlow left him feeling uneasy in a way he hadn’t expected. There were limits to the enchantment that limited speaking to him.

  On their journey, Gavin had thought he could bring somebody else and incorporate them into his team, and had allowed himself to get caught up in the idea that Theren might be more like himself than any of the others. But he had neglected the fact that he didn’t necessarily know Theren. The rest of his team was comprised of those he had come to know, connections that had formed naturally over time, where trust had been built. It was a mistake to trust anybody but those he’d worked with before.

  “You have your team,” Imogen said.

  Gaspar nodded. “Of course you have it, boy.”

  “Good,” Gavin said. “Now, I’m going to need you to lead me to where I can find most of the sorcerers.”

  “It doesn’t sound much like a plan as it does a suicide mission.”

  “You’ve worked with me before,” Gavin said. “You do recognize that my plans tend to be something like that.”

  Gaspar grunted. “I suppose they do. That doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.”

  “No, you don’t have to like it, but at least come with me. You are my team, after all.”

  Gaspar shot him a look he couldn’t read. “Maybe after this we won’t be.”

  Gavin just chuckled. “I think you’d miss it.”

  “I think it’s time for you to stop talking. The more you say, the more I question my judgment in letting you come with me.”

  Gavin snorted. “I didn’t come with you. I came for Imogen. And now…”

  He knew what he was going to have to do. He didn’t know if he had the necessary control, and as he twisted his ring, trying to focus on that power, he couldn’t feel enough within him to do so.

  “I know, boy.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The central part of the city the sorcerers occupied, where Gavin now found himself, was far nicer than the slums he’d visited before. Some of the towering structures were built of gleaming pale stone, while others looked to be made out of wood painted in light blues that reflected off the glowing lanterns. Moonlight shone down, casting a hint of light over the street, giving off something that seemed almost supernatural. Gavin couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe here.

  He knew it was artificial, and that it was exactly the way the sorcerers wanted someone to feel when coming through their section of Loruv. Over the years, he had traveled through enough places controlled by sorcerers to know that they had power over things like that, which they could use to influence others. That was what he saw now.

  Distantly, he could almost believe that he felt sorcery blooming. It could be in any one of the massive homes lining the street, several over from the one he walked along. Those buildings looked larger than any in Yoran, even larger than the Captain’s fortress that Gavin had always felt was so impressive. His El’aras dagger glowed softly, though he didn’t know if that came from the sorcery in the city or from him.

  He hadn’t felt any sign of Theren.

  Gavin held on to the enchantment he had taken from the girl in Yoran, squeezing his fist around it, hoping to feel something. It was as if the enchantment were inhibited in some way. He supposed that were possible, though. If the Toral knew they were chasing the enchantment’s trail, they could have some way of suppressing his ability to track with it.

  He had to find Theren—before he started slaughtering the sorcerers here.

  Gavin glanced at the structures in front of him. From what Imogen had said, these buildings had once been the home of the Muvarth. When the Society had begun to take over, the people were forced to seek refuge in the old temple.

  “Are you in position?” Gaspar whispered through his enchantment.

  Gavin looked along the street and found a darkened shadow leaning against one of the buildings. He could barely make out Gaspar there, but he recognized the old thief in his posture. There was nobody else out in the city, leaving the street empty.

  “I’m making my way there,” Gavin said. “I don’t feel anything, though.”

  “What do you think you should feel?” Gaspar asked.

  “I’m not exactly sure. When I faced the hyadan before, I felt something.”

  As he looked, he couldn’t see anything but shadows, which seemed to be more imagined than real.

  “You have to have some way of connecting to power,” Gaspar said.

  “I can connect to mine.”

  Gavin made his way along the street, not hiding that he was doing so. He thought that staying out in the open might draw Theren to him.

  “It’s not just a matter of accessing that power, though,” he said. “I’m worried about encountering others who have the same connection, but who understand it better than I do. I can’t use it as effectively as they can.”

  “Why don’t you think you can use it?” Gaspar asked.

  “Well…” Gavin shook his head. “To begin with, I don’t understand my power that well yet. And I think Theren knows it.”

  “Of course he knows it,” Gaspar said. “You didn’t make any secret of your abilities around him.”

  “As I’m El’aras, like you keep trying to remind me, he’s not going to have any trouble with my incompletely understood power,” Gavin said.

  “You’re forgetting one thing.”

  “What is it?”

  “That ring. I know you’re still trying to figure out what it means for you, and how to control that power, but the ring matters. Especially
seeing as how he doesn’t have access to something similar. The ring makes it so that you have the potential to do something he does not.”

  Gavin chuckled. “Look at you starting to use your mind.”

  “I’m always using my mind,” Gaspar said.

  “Even though it’s getting old?”

  “Careful, boy. I might be old, but I can still handle you.”

  “We both know how a fight between the two of us would go.”

  “Maybe, but you think I would have to fight you in order to bring you down?”

  Gavin found himself smiling. He was thankful he had Gaspar along with him. For all his grumbling, and for all the issues he’d had with Gaspar over the time they’d been working together, Gavin couldn’t deny that having the old thief, and his cleverness, along made his job easier.

  “What exactly do you think you would be able to do to me?” Gavin said with a smirk.

  “I wouldn’t even have to get close to you. You and I both know I wouldn’t be able to bring you down on my own, but I wouldn’t have to, would I? I’d be able to manipulate you into doing just what I wanted, and maybe what I want to do is to simply get you out of Yoran.” Gaspar grunted, shaking his head.

  Gavin suspected that he was joking at this point, but he didn’t really know.

  “You already got me out of the city, but you keep coming with me,” Gavin said.

  “Right. And I’m starting to think that’s a mistake.”

  “I think the mistake is that you keep talking.”

  “And who keeps talking back to me?” Gaspar scoffed.

  Gavin shook his head, and he turned his attention to the darkness along the street. “I’ve been trying to use my power to figure out if I can feel anything, but I don’t detect anything. Theren might be here, or—”

  “Or he might’ve gone to attack somewhere else,” Gaspar said.

  “I know.”

  Every so often, Gavin could feel the surge of power through the enchantment. It was just a faint fluttering, one that reminded him of how Anna would call him through her marker, but it was enough to suggest that Theren was still here. He hadn’t left the city, despite the way it felt. Maybe Theren was trying to mislead him, though. He had done that already. He was far too skilled at deceiving Gavin.

  “The Twelve have positioned themselves around the city to ensure he can’t get away, but…”

  Even if they were stationed throughout Loruv, Gavin didn’t know if it would make a difference. He’d seen Imogen and the Twelve fight, and knew that they were trained, but enough to stop Theren and whatever El’aras might be with him?

  As Gavin stared into the distance, occasional flickers of color came from the buildings.

  Sorcery.

  “I don’t think he’s done it yet,” Gavin said. “He’s after the destruction of the Society, and he won’t be able to do that by leaving. This would be a test for him. It’s too good an opportunity to make sure the keystone works before he targets the Society in full.”

  “I don’t know anything about the time before the El’aras were pushed away,” Gaspar said, “but I can imagine. Having now dealt with them a few times, I can’t help but question whether or not we should be concerned about their return.”

  “That’s not what we need to be worried about,” Gavin said.

  “You say that because you are one. If you were not, would you feel the same way?”

  Gavin hadn’t given that much thought.

  When he had trained with Tristan, he’d learned about the El’aras and the unique danger they posed to him, but mostly because of their innate magical abilities. Before that, he had never considered the possibility that he might be El’aras, until he had met Anna.

  Gavin fell silent, carefully creeping along the street. The city was set into a hillside, with terracing leading upward. Stairs separated certain sections from others. He could practically feel how the underlayer of the city had been constructed, and thought he understood why the Muvarth had managed to find their place beneath Loruv.

  “It’s amazing how there’s such a separation in this city,” Gavin said.

  “You visited other places,” Gaspar said. “Not everybody has the same opportunities.”

  “This is more than that. This is…”

  He didn’t know what it was. A division, but there was something strange about it. The slums here were new. People wouldn’t come to a city unless there was something that drew them there. And if the Society had increased its presence…

  What if the people were here because of the Society?

  If they wanted the sorcerers’ protection, then what were they facing outside of this city?

  Gavin passed rows of houses and shops, all of them built of the same dark stone that he’d seen everywhere else in the city. Every so often, he encountered somebody hurrying along the road, but they had the look of belonging here. Something about the city itself didn’t feel quite right, not the way he would’ve expected, given how things had been described by those who had been here.

  He frowned, turning his attention back to the slums.

  “There’s something else going on,” Gavin said. “When Theren and I were looking for signs of Ruhid, we came across three boys looking for help. They hadn’t been concerned about the sorcerers.”

  That had to be significant. The children had been injured, and they had expected that the sorcerer would come to help. There hadn’t been fear. Those boys had gone to them for aid.

  That wasn’t the kind of thing that would happen if somebody were afraid of sorcery.

  When Gavin had watched them, he had believed that the sorcerer hadn’t helped, but what if he had? And if that were the case, why would the people be afraid of the sorcerers?

  Maybe they weren’t scared. Maybe they welcomed them.

  What did that mean for the others?

  “Something else is not quite right here,” Gavin said, shaking his head. “It’s the slums.”

  He paused between a pair of buildings and looked out, focusing on everything he could, feeling the energy around him. He could distinguish it, recognize that there was a certain measure of power around him. It struck him as being connected to the sorcerers, but maybe it was tied to Loruv as well.

  He didn’t know if it was the city itself or the Society, but something was pulling these people in.

  “They want to be here,” Gavin said. “They want the safety of the city and the Society.”

  “I haven’t heard of anything dangerous around here,” Gaspar replied.

  “And I doubt Imogen has, either. But maybe when this is over, we’ll have to look into it.”

  “That’s not your responsibility.”

  Gavin breathed out a sigh. Gaspar wasn’t wrong.

  The old thief’s shadowy form moved along the street, making his way closer to him.

  Gavin focused on the tracking enchantment and squeezed his hand around it. It had been vibrating before, but now he couldn’t pick up on anything. One vibration, one sense to tell him that there was something within the enchantment, some way for him to find Theren. That’s all he needed.

  But he didn’t know where he was.

  Gavin continued to push power through himself. He needed to draw that power to him, to ensure there was a way to summon energy. Even as he focused on it, there was no sense of the hyadan.

  He would follow Theren, wherever it would take him. Imogen would search for the El’aras warrior too, and the keystone. But they would have to do it together. If the Toral were involved, Gavin was willing to do what he needed to.

  He felt something through the enchantment. A steady vibration, no longer hidden from him.

  “Be ready,” Gavin said to Gaspar, sweeping his gaze around the street and looking for any sign of magic or power that would suggest where Theren had gone.

  He knew that there was sorcery in the city. He had known that since Imogen’s people had admitted to it, and he could even feel it distantly when he focused enough.

>   The people outside this section of the city, the ones in the slums, had come because of sorcery—which seemed to be the key to all of this. He was increasingly certain of that. And if they had come because of it, then they had wanted to be here.

  Gaspar was silent, and Gavin knew that he wouldn’t want to share anything he felt was not his responsibility to share. Gaspar was nothing if not loyal to Imogen, which Gavin felt was a wonderful trait of his. In this case, though, he needed him to divulge what he knew.

  Gavin hurried through the streets, and every so often, he glanced up to see if Gaspar was following him. He didn’t see any sign of him, but they could keep track of each other through the communication enchantment, and together they could stay ahead of Theren. And when they reached him, maybe Gaspar would be able to help.

  Gavin was not completely convinced that he could take down Theren on his own. He was a powerful El’aras, and if he was working with a Toral, it was entirely possible he had enchantments that would give him the ability to overpower anything Gavin might do.

  But with Gaspar and his enchantments…

  He glanced back, but he didn’t see the thief.

  “Gaspar?”

  There was no sign of him.

  “Gaspar, if you’re there, give me a signal,” he said through the enchantment.

  Nothing.

  Gavin swore under his breath.

  Things had already started to go wrong.

  It hadn’t taken long at all for things to shift unfavorably, which worried him. He had pushed ahead, not thinking through things well enough, and now he didn’t even know what had happened to Gaspar. Worse, he began to think they had made a mistake not staying together to track Theren.

  He reached the section of the street where he’d last seen Gaspar. There was no trace of him. The old thief was gone.

  Gavin let out a growl and clenched his fists.

  Shadows separated from the buildings and converged upon him.

  El’aras. They were moving too fast to be anything else.

  He focused on his core reserves, letting them fill him the way Anna had suggested. His vision cleared, and everything slowed just enough for him to see the El’aras around him.