The Fates of Yoran (The Chain Breaker Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

Gavin had gone another two blocks before the enchantment crackled for a moment, and then Wrenlow’s voice came through.

  “What is it?”

  “We need to meet. Something’s going on, and I’m going to need your help.”

  “What is it? What happened?”

  He could practically hear the urgency in Wrenlow’s voice. Gavin didn’t want to take him away from his time with Olivia, but in this case, Gavin thought that he needed him.

  “I’m going to need your help, too, Gaspar.”

  He had no idea if the thief kept the enchantment in his ear when he was away. Gavin didn’t think so, though. Most of the time, Gaspar left the enchantment out, not wanting to be distracted by Gavin and Wrenlow and their conversation. It was almost enough for Gavin to want to reclaim the enchantment from him.

  “I haven’t heard anything from him recently,” Wrenlow said.

  Gavin paused. He had reached a large market. A few trees grew along the border, stretching taller than the nearby buildings, as if serving as sentries overseeing the market. A throng of people was here, with more coming and going. A man shoved past him with a cart laded with smoked meats, his round-faced child chasing behind him. It was a wonder the dog Gavin had seen near the woman’s house hadn’t been drawn here.

  Other vendors with carts lined the market, filled with the growing crowd. He passed a few singing minstrels and a troupe of puppetry actors performing a scene with a rapt audience. The air held the mix of smells, from the food vendors to the spice merchants to the florists selling fresh cut flowers.

  The crowd made it difficult for him to shoulder his way through. It was times like these when he realized just how much he preferred navigating the city in the dark. At least, doing so at night.

  “The Captain has been moving his enchantments.”

  “Is that why Gaspar has been chasing down different caches of enchantments?”

  “Has he?” It meant that there was more than what Gaspar had let on.

  “That’s what Olivia has told me. Don’t tell Gaspar I told you that. Not unless he brings it up first. I don’t want him to think that I am betraying his trust, or that Olivia is betraying his trust or that—”

  Gavin shook his head, and a short, heavyset man walking next to him shot him a look. Gavin flashed a smile, and the man scurried off.

  He realized how he must look walking to the street, talking to himself. A part of him was amused by it, at least as amused as he could be with the irritation within him.

  “Just meet me back at the Dragon.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m heading back to the Dragon. I have to prepare before I go visit with the Captain.”

  He had no idea how things would change in the city of the Captain manage to acquire more wealth than he already had. Gavin had shifted the power balance in the city once before, keeping the jade egg for himself, leaving it stored in the underground sorcerer’s lair where no one else would know to find it.

  If the Captain decided to chase down a different avenue for power, what else would happen?

  Gavin would be responsible for it.

  Not directly, but even indirectly, he had no interest in disrupting the power balance within the city. He complained of sorcerers doing the same thing too often and had no interest in doing the same.

  And if the Captain had already started to move enchantments, it was possible that the old woman’s necklace would have been moved out of the Captain’s fortress by now.

  It’s even possible Gaspar had destroyed it during the last attack.

  He tapped on the enchantment again. “Gaspar.”

  There was no response.

  He waited, listening, looking around at the crowd in the square, before calling out Gaspar’s name again.

  He was silent.

  That wasn’t entirely uncommon. Gaspar and Imogen often went off on their own jobs, the same as Gavin had gone off on his own jobs when he had first come to Yoran. Lately, though, they had been more of a team, working together. Maybe Gaspar didn’t want that.

  Gavin wasn’t sure that he wanted it, either.

  He didn’t know what he wanted. At one point, it had been to leave the city, but now, Gavin wasn’t sure he could leave the city until he knew it was safe. Davel Chan’s comment to Gavin came back to him, as it often did when he thought about his time in Yoran.

  How could the city truly be safe if Gavin were here?

  Chapter Four

  Gavin wiped the bead of sweat off his forehead and grabbed for his shirt, slipping it on as he looked over to Wrenlow. His friend dripped with sweat and took one of the towels that Jessica had stacked on the table next to the cleared out portion of the tavern's main room and used it to dry off his forehead before dabbing his chest.

  “I keep waiting for it to get easier,” Wrenlow muttered.

  Gavin shrugged. “Eventually, I think it will. We just have to keep working.”

  Or maybe it would be easier if Wrenlow wanted to stop practicing. Not that he was going to say that to Wrenlow, but Gavin hadn’t managed to make him anything more than a passing fighter. If Wrenlow came across a run-of-the-mill streetfighter, he might be able to withstand that, but Gavin doubted that Wrenlow would be able to hold up under the kind of threats that Gavin typically found himself facing.

  “I’ve told you I’m willing to practice more often.”

  “You have to be present to practice.” Gavin glanced across the tavern to where Olivia sat in one of the booths, whispering to Jessica. They were the only other two within the tavern.

  Olivia was lovely. She had dark raven hair and a youthful face that belied her age because of what had happened when her parents had poured power into the jade egg. Olivia sat with her back stiff, her hands moving, though the enchantments she was busy making were invisible to Gavin from his angle.

  She was a skilled enchantress and had already proven her worth several times. She had made him enchantments for speed and strength, and he suspected that she could do other things, if only she had enough time.

  Even with enchantments, Wrenlow had not been able to pose much of a challenge for Gavin.

  He allowed Wrenlow to use enchantments only at the end of their sparring session and only as a way for Gavin to be tested, if only a little. He wanted Wrenlow to understand that he couldn’t become reliant upon enchantments. Enchantments could fail. A fighter should not.

  “I’ve been present,” he said. “Quite a bit more than Gaspar, at least.”

  Gavin grunted, and he looked around the inside of the tavern. There had been a time when Gaspar had seemed overly present, but lately, he had been missing. Probably looking into the enchantments.

  “I’m sure he’s working on the same thing that we are.”

  “We could wait for him,” Wrenlow said.

  Gavin sniffed. “I’m not waiting on Gaspar to go and confront the Captain. This is a straightforward job. I need to go to the Captain, figure out what he’s doing with the enchantments, and then find the necklace.”

  “Only the necklace?”

  Gavin hadn’t given enough thought. Not yet. Wrenlow was right, though.

  If the Captain were moving enchantments out of the city, there might be a need for them to prevent him, or to keep them for themselves. He didn’t want to run the risk of him moving something else of value before the other enchanters had a chance to go through it.

  If it was just a matter of the enchantments that the constables and Davel Chan had asked him to make, then Gavin doubted he would be all that concerned. If others like this necklace that Gavin was asked to find, he thought the enchanters deserved the opportunity to find it.

  They had lost enough already.

  He pulled his gaze away from Olivia. He had to stop thinking like that.

  The enchanters were not his responsibility. He might’ve helped them, at least to a certain extent, but they could track down the Captain and demand whatever enchantments that he had of theirs back. Gavin didn�
�t have to do that for them.

  “Why don’t I start with the necklace, and I will see what else is going on?” Gavin grabbed his cloak, buckled on his sword and dagger, and glanced around the tavern.

  “You’re going now?” Wrenlow asked.

  Gavin shrugged. “I waited until it was dark, but I don’t need to wait any longer.”

  “You could keep trying to reach Gaspar.”

  Gavin arched a brow at him. “Or you could come with me.”

  Wrenlow looked over to where Olivia sat. “If you think that you need me, otherwise…”

  “I see.”

  “I said I’d come. I only wanted you to know I could stay here and help.”

  Gavin chuckled. “Go ahead and stay here. Like I said. I don’t expect much out of this.” After stopping at the table, he leaned down and kissed Jessica on the cheek. “I won’t be long.”

  “Just be safe.”

  Gavin headed out of the tavern, closing the door behind him, and looking back to see Wrenlow sliding into the seat next to Olivia. A wide smile crossed his face.

  Gavin shook his head. Jessica’s words stuck in his mind. Be safe.

  He didn’t need somebody worrying about him.

  He also didn’t need to fear that he would let somebody down if he weren’t safe.

  Gavin certainly couldn’t guarantee that he would be safe. With the kind of things that he did, the kind of work he ended up involved in, there was a genuine possibility he would throw himself into danger.

  Only Gavin doubted he would find much danger tonight.

  The Captain was once somebody he would have been more concerned about. He certainly had been concerned enough when he had broken the Captain’s fortress, but this was different. Gavin wasn’t looking for a fight.

  He strode through the streets. Proper darkness surrounded him, and there was no crowd out in the city like there had been earlier in the day. He slipped the enchantment back into his ear, feeling the cold metal chain that connected the earpiece to the badge that he wore on his cloak begin to warm. Wrenlow wouldn’t have the enchantment on now. Not while sitting at the table with Olivia.

  Which allowed Gavin to try to reach Gaspar again. He didn’t know if Gaspar would even answer, but he hoped that he would.

  “Gaspar.”

  There was no response.

  He was probably visiting with Desarra. Or off on some job with Imogen.

  The least he could have done was warn Gavin he wasn’t going to be available, though.

  There was no response.

  Gavin reached the Captain’s fortress, having tried to communicate with Gaspar a few more times, but had gotten nowhere. There had been no response, nothing coming from Gaspar, which meant that Gavin was off on this job alone.

  He paused at the wall surrounding the Captain’s fortress, his gaze sweeping along it. It was a tall, fortified stone building with a massive wall surrounding it. An actual fortress and secured well enough there weren’t many other buildings around it. The manor homes lining the street in either direction gave the fortress spaces, as if afraid of getting too close to the Captain.

  Gavin didn’t need to scout here since he had been on the other side of the wall a few times now. He watched for the patrol that he knew to be present but saw no sign of it.

  That was odd.

  He circled the Captain’s fortress, his gaze sweeping along for a moment, but even as he did, he didn’t see anything suspicious.

  Maybe he was so busy moving the enchantments that he’d sent his guards away.

  That seemed unlikely as well.

  Gavin reached the main gate. The rectangular iron gate was closed, and as Gavin reached for it, he found that it was also locked.

  Maybe the Captain decided that he didn’t need anybody standing guard over his fortress. If so, that had been a change for him, as he certainly had kept a watch previously.

  Gavin traced his hand along the metal and looked up to the Captain’s fortress.

  “Gaspar. Wrenlow.” He said both of their names into the enchantment, though he wasn’t sure that either of them would answer. Gaspar hadn’t throughout the day, and Wrenlow was busy with Olivia.

  “If you’re listening, I’m heading into the Captain’s fortress. Something isn’t right here.”

  He focused on his core reserves, feeling that power just below the surface deep within him, as if he were pulling upon some part of his belly where that power was stored. He pushed it out from him and jumped. The jump carried him to the top of the wall. There was a time when Gavin would’ve thought that he was just a gifted jumper before he understood his magic, what the core reserves meant to him and for him, but now he understood better. He was drawing upon something else and funneling that power out of him in using that power now. Gavin was using magic.

  He didn’t have any control over it the way that he suspected he would need to. For now, all that mattered was that Gavin could call upon that power, and he could use it when he needed, but he wasn’t sure how else he might be able to utilize that magic. If it were El’aras magic the way he increasingly suspected, then there should be a way for him to utilize his magic in the same manner as the El’aras used theirs.

  One more thing to learn.

  Later, though.

  So many things were delayed for him now. All the time he spent in Yoran forced him to put these off.

  He looked along the wall but didn’t see any shadows moving on the lawn. It was possible that whoever the Captain had patrolling in the yard had enchantments which concealed them, though Gavin didn’t see any indications to suggest that anything here was enchanted. Still, he waited a moment. Then another. Then another. If anyone were enchanted in the yard, he wanted to give himself every opportunity to find them and make sure that he knew where they were so that he wouldn’t be surprised.

  Nothing.

  Gavin jumped down, moving silently.

  His heart quickened. Just a little, this time with a thrill of excitement that he hadn’t expected on this job.

  It wasn’t that Gavin wanted danger, but he didn’t fear it either. He had come anticipating that this would be reasonably straightforward. Ask the Captain what was going on. Maybe he would lie, and Gavin might have to force him to share why he moved the enchantments out of the city, but he hadn’t expected that he would find any real danger.

  He swept along the wall, keeping his gaze toward the fortress. He didn’t see anything there.

  It was dark.

  That, more than anything, alerted him that something was off more than what he had suspected before.

  Gavin crept forward, pausing every so often to look around and see if he would find any evidence of the patrols that had been here before.

  As he neared the main door leading into the Captain’s fortress, he saw a leg.

  He slipped over to the fallen guard. He had a muscular build, dressed in leathers, and still had a sword sheathed. The several enchantments on his wrist told Gavin he would have been formidable. The man wasn’t moving.

  He checked for a pulse. There was nothing.

  He saw no sign of injury, though.

  There were plenty of ways that he could imagine something like that occurring. Gavin knew dozens of different lethal techniques that he could use on somebody without leaving any apparent wound, but it was the nonphysical technique he was more concerned about.

  If this was magic…

  He focused on his core reserves again.

  He had to make sure that he had access to that power.

  Gavin unsheathed the dagger. He swept it in front of him, but there was no sign of glowing from the blade to indicate any magic nearby.

  That only told him that there was no magic nearby. Not that there was no magic used at all.

  Gavin crept forward, and when he reached the door to the home, he pressed, but it was locked.

  This was not a time for noise. If there was an attacker inside the fortress, he didn’t want them to be alerted of his presence to
o soon.

  Gavin used the El’aras dagger, shoving it into the lock and twisting. He managed to pry the door open. There were probably enchantments set into the door that would keep it locked. Still, the power that existed naturally within the El’aras blade offered a means of carving through those enchantments. They allowed Gavin to slip in more quietly.

  And that was what he needed now.

  Quiet.

  Gavin pulled the door open, looking into the darkened fortress.

  He slipped inside, closing the door behind him, careful not to make any more noise than necessary. If somebody had used magic on the door, they might be aware that he had pulled it open. If only the enchanted seals that the Captain had placed, it wouldn’t be an issue.

  When he had gone only a short distance into the entryway, he found another fallen guard, dressed the same as the last and equally muscular. Gavin checked him for a pulse, but there was none.

  He found two bracelets, a ring, and a necklace adorning the man—all enchantments.

  Whoever had attacked here had a way of fighting through these enchantments.

  The dagger still hadn’t started to glow.

  No magic, which worried him.

  What if I’m too late?

  He crept forward.

  He had a general understanding of the fortress's layout, though not nearly well enough for him to know where the Captain might be found. When he reached the stairs leading up, he still hadn’t found any others, and Gavin crept up the staircase. He moved carefully, quietly, still holding onto the dagger while reaching for his core reserves and prepared himself in case he might need to utilize it.

  When he rounded the landing, he paused again, peering up the stairs.

  No shadowed forms moved.

  He tapped on his enchantment and left it active. If nothing else, he wanted Gaspar and Wrenlow to be aware of what he was doing. That was if they were even listening.

  Gavin had gotten too excited about taking a job on his own. That was a mistake.

  I’ve become too reliant on others.

  Maybe that was a mistake as well.

  Gavin crept up the stairs. When he reached the top of the stairs, he still hadn’t seen anyone. He paused at the heavy wooden doors lining the hallway here.