The Fates of Yoran (The Chain Breaker Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “If it has to be in contact with it, it’s not going to work.”

  “It will—”

  Davel stumbled.

  Gavin jerked his head around, looking to see what had happened. Davel seemed to have been attacked by something, though Gavin couldn’t see what it was. He darted forward, sweeping the blade.

  His own enchantment allowed him to move quickly, and he forced the smoke back.

  He forced the smoke creature toward the trap. When he neared the enchantment, Gavin thought about reaching for it, but he hesitated. Its purpose was to trap something magical, and he might possess magic. There was a possibility that the enchantment might hold him. He had to be careful and not touch it.

  He had no idea what Davel was doing. He didn’t dare look over to the constable, instead keeping his focus on this smoke to overwhelm it. He swept the sword through another series of movements. Then he brought it down.

  The smoke streaked away, this time heading toward the ground. Gavin completed the arc, and though the smoke tried to escape, it touched the enchantment. The smoke swirled around the top of it, creating a pattern as it spiraled down closer and closer to the enchantment. Finally, the smoke stopped moving. The enchantment held it.

  He nudged the enchantment with his toe. “Davel?”

  Gavin glanced over at the constable, who was getting to his feet.

  Davel held a different enchantment, which had another smoke ring inside of it.

  “That was interesting,” Gavin said.

  “What are these things?” Davel asked.

  “Near as I can tell, they’re magical smoke creatures. Though, to be honest, I don’t even know what to make of them. I’m not sure why the Fate wouldn’t have used this from the beginning.”

  Davel shook his head. “How are there magical smoke creatures?”

  Gavin could only shrug. “I don’t really know. They’re probably something the Fate sent after me.”

  Davel reached down and picked up the other enchantment, and he set them both on the table.

  “You might need something more to contain them,” Gavin said.

  “I have an idea.” Davel carried the enchantments to the back of the room and placed them in a cabinet.

  There was a strange surge of power, a hiss that reminded Gavin of when he brought the dagger up to the door, then it faded.

  “What was that?”

  “A seal. It’s an enchantment, though one made by multiple enchanters. It should hold.”

  Gavin raised an eyebrow. “Should?”

  “Seeing as how I don’t have any idea what we’re dealing with.”

  They would have to find a way to destroy them. Gavin didn’t want to leave anything lying around that might pose a danger to anyone.

  He looked toward the door. “I don’t know if that’s all of them.”

  “Were there more than two?”

  “Well, when I was at the edge of the city, I saw two of these strange wisps of smoke. I didn’t know what they were.”

  Gavin started toward the door and hesitated, looking down at the sword. The blade had stopped glowing. The smoke must’ve been the source of the magic he had detected.

  Now he had to better understand the smoke creatures and what they meant. Only, Gavin wasn’t at all sure how he was going to figure that out.

  “Do you have any sort of magical archive?”

  “What?” Davel asked.

  “A place you go to research. You have to have something.”

  “We have a storeroom,” Davel said. “After the Triad was destroyed and the other sorcerers were expelled, there wasn’t the need to keep anything.”

  “Did you go through their lairs to see what they might have?”

  “We didn’t find them,” Davel said.

  Even more reason for Gavin to believe that what he’d found were the Triad’s lairs. But if the constable had never found them, then why was it that he had?

  Perhaps a better question would be how Cyran had found them.

  “Whatever they might have would be dangerous.”

  “The Triad likely had time to empty their lairs before leaving.”

  There had been little within those spaces that Gavin thought would be valuable. The sword. The table with enchantments. The body of the sorcerer.

  Up the stairs, two constables lay immobile. Davel rushed over toward them, quickly checking for a pulse.

  “This is like when the smoke attacked before,” Gavin said. “Are they alive?”

  “Seem to be. Help me move them,” Davel said.

  Gavin grunted, and he grabbed one of the men. He dragged him along the hallway. “Where do you want me to take him?”

  Davel nodded toward a door. “There’s a place up here.”

  He opened the door, and Gavin looked inside the room, which appeared to be a comfortable lounge. There was a hearth with a fire crackling in it, several chairs, and book-lined shelves along one wall. Gavin’s stomach rumbled at the sight of a table with food stacked on it.

  “This is… unexpected,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t know the constables knew how to read.”

  Gavin dragged the man inside. He settled the constable into one of the chairs, propping him back so that he wouldn’t end up any more stiff and sore than necessary when he came around. He grabbed a piece of jerky, some grapes, and a hunk of bread off the table. Though he ate quickly, it did little to settle his stomach. He was hungrier than he had expected to be.

  “Help yourself,” Davel said.

  “Considering I helped defend the barracks, I think I’ve earned it.”

  “You defended the barracks from creatures you brought here.”

  “I didn’t bring them here. I only brought them close by. They came in.” Davel shook his head. “Besides, don’t you want to make sure that you can protect the city from all things, magical or not?”

  Gavin smiled in between bites, and he set the hunk of bread back down on the table. It was a little crunchy but not terrible. He expected that the constables would have decent food.

  “There might be others,” Davel said.

  “There might be,” Gavin answered.

  “Aren’t you going to help?”

  “Help with what? If they’re not dead, then there is nothing to be concerned about.”

  Davel ignored him and left the room.

  Gavin took another bite, chewing slowly. Gradually, his strength started to return. He looked around, surprised by this room and how comfortable it was.

  He headed over to the shelf, examining the books. The titles were mostly about the history of Yoran. He pulled one of the books off the shelf and started to flip through it. The book, which was an older one, had maps of the city. It suggested that Yoran was at least a thousand years old, and from the narrow streets and the structure of the buildings, Gavin suspected that was true. He put the book back on the shelf, and he pulled another one out. Like the other, this one was also about the city.

  Were all of them?

  One of the constables behind him started to stir, and Gavin glanced back at him.

  The man sat up, rubbing his eyes. “What happened?”

  “Near as we can tell, a smoke attack,” Gavin said, turning to face him. He took another bite of bread, chewing it slowly.

  The constable jerked his head around, eyes widening as he looked over at Gavin. “Who are you? What are you doing in here?”

  “Don’t worry about it. Davel knows I’m here.”

  “What are you—”

  The door opened, and Davel dragged another constable inside. This constable’s face was ashen, and she looked to be in worse shape than the others. How badly had she been hurt? Gavin hurried over, helping Davel.

  “Now you want to help?” Davel muttered.

  “What happened to her?”

  “The same as the others.”

  “This isn’t the same,” Gavin said.

  Davel stretched the man out, resting her on the
floor. Gavin checked for a pulse. When he had trained with Tristan, he’d learned about injuries. Hurting. Killing. Also healing. It was necessary for him to know how to identify his injuries and know what could and should be done to restore himself.

  He couldn’t tell what had happened to the woman, only that something seemed to be amiss. Gavin leaned forward. Something smelled off about her.

  It reminded him of the strange smell in the sorcerer’s lair.

  “Do you detect that?” he asked.

  “Detect what?”

  “The smell.”

  “Now you’re going to be criticizing my people about how they smell?” Davel asked.

  “If they deserve it, but that’s not what I’m getting at.”

  He took a deep breath, inhaling the strange odor coming off the woman. It was foul, though he wasn’t at all sure what it was. Darkness seemed to swirl around her. Strangely, it seemed the shadows were feeding on the woman. Almost as if it were trying to consume her. Something diminished within her the longer that it remained near her.

  If he did nothing, she’d die.

  It had to be the same as what happened to the sorcerer in the lair.

  Gavin jumped back. “One of your enchantments. Now!”

  Davel frowned at him. “What are you getting on about?”

  “Get one of your enchantments!”

  Davel shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re doing, but…” He reached into his pocket and pulled one of them out.

  Gavin nodded to the fallen constable. “Put it on her chest.”

  Davel sighed and placed the enchantment onto the constable’s chest.

  There came a swirl of energy. Had Gavin not been expecting it, he might’ve been startled, but the darkness and the shadow started to leach out of the constable, flowing toward the enchantment.

  Davel grunted. “How did you know?”

  “It didn’t feel right,” Gavin said. If the Fate used this kind of attack, then they might be in even more trouble than Gavin realized. “We need to see how many others have been influenced like this.”

  “I thought you said you only saw the two.”

  “I thought that’s all it was,” Gavin admitted.

  Now he no longer knew.

  If there were more than just the two, how many were out in the city? More importantly, what were they?

  The Fates had sent something new—and dangerous—into the city.

  And Gavin would have to be prepared. At least he had the enchantments that repelled magic, but he had no idea how long they would work and whether they would keep him safe indefinitely. If what Davel said about the enchantments was true—and Gavin had no reason to believe it wasn’t—then eventually the effect of the enchantments would fade. When it happened, he had no idea what would befall him, but he needed to be ready for anything.

  “I think we’re going to need to make more enchantments,” he said softly.

  Davel nodded once.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Gavin waited in the Dragon, which was empty other than Wrenlow sitting alone near the hearth and trying to hide the annoyance on his face. Gavin had not been able to placate him about his ongoing silence through the enchantments, though what was he going to be able to say to Wrenlow anyway? At this point, he no longer knew why the enchantment only worked intermittently. As soon as Gavin had left the constable barracks, he’d begun to hear Wrenlow chirping at him through the earpiece. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Either the barracks somehow shielded him, or there was some other answer.

  There were other times when the enchantment hadn’t worked quite right lately. It hadn’t worked near the smoke creatures, and it hadn’t even worked in the sorcerer’s lair. Something had to be shielding it.

  “He’s going to come,” Jessica said, sweeping out of the kitchen and handing him a mug.

  Gavin looked over to her. “I’m sure he’s going to come, but it’s just…” He stared at the entrance, one hand resting on the hilt of the El’aras dagger.

  Gaspar had others who needed his protection now. Gavin understood that.

  He paced and glanced over at Wrenlow, who sat quietly, still not looking up at him. Gavin took a deep breath, headed over toward the hearth, and sat next to him.

  “I don’t like this,” Wrenlow said without looking over to him.

  “I don’t either.”

  “Not the attack. What I’m feeling.”

  “And how is that?” Gavin looked to the door. How long would Gaspar take?

  “Do you know what it was like before we came to Yoran?” Wrenlow asked.

  Gavin shrugged. “I remember. We traveled quite a bit, and we never were completely safe.”

  “Not completely, but safe enough. And I was useful. At least, I felt like I was. I don’t know whether or not I really was useful to you.”

  “Is that what this is about? You’re questioning whether I find value in what you offer?”

  “Well, ever since coming here, I don’t know if I am useful,” Wrenlow said. “Most of the time when I think that I can help, you disappear, or you go silent or you ask somebody else to come along with you. You have been training me, but even that isn’t going to be enough. I’m trying to improve. Really, I am. I’ve been taking the lessons that you have been giving me as seriously as I can. It’s just… I’m not you, Gavin.”

  Gavin breathed out slowly. He knew that, and he had been pushing Wrenlow, wanting to get him to improve, knowing that he needed to learn to fight, especially if he would stay around Gavin with everything that Gavin dealt with. But Wrenlow was right. He wasn’t Gavin. He could not be.

  “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “Nothing is going to happen to me. It certainly won’t if you continue to feel like you need to protect me,” Wrenlow said.

  “Is that a bad thing?” Gavin asked.

  “I can be of more assistance than you think.”

  “I know you can.”

  Wrenlow smiled at Gavin and then shook his head. “No, I don’t know that you do. I shouldn’t even be upset. And I guess I’m not. Not really. It’s just that I want to be valuable to you. I want what I do to matter.”

  “You do matter. And not just to Olivia.” Gavin flashed a grin, which Wrenlow ignored.

  When they had traveled before, Wrenlow’s role was much more important, especially as they tried to get established in different locations. He had a way with finding sources and acquiring information, and he could use that to help them build the network they needed rapidly. Ever since coming to Yoran, with Gavin operating out of the Dragon, Wrenlow hadn’t needed to do that.

  He’d trained, trying to understand different fighting techniques, working with Gavin, but there was only so much that he could learn at this point in his life. Gavin had trained from near infancy to acquire his skill. There was a limit to what Wrenlow could accomplish.

  “Maybe we need to find another position for you,” Gavin said.

  “What else do you think I can do? You’ve got other people who have better connections than I do throughout the city.”

  “I don’t know,” Gavin admitted. “But I’m willing to work on it.”

  Wrenlow leaned forward. “Maybe that’s what I need.”

  Gavin watched his friend. And he was a friend. “I will do everything I can to help make sure you have something rewarding.”

  Wrenlow watched him and then glanced toward the door. “He’s here.”

  Gavin got to his feet, looking over to the door. Gaspar came in. The old thief was dressed better than the last time Gavin had seen him. It felt like ages ago, rather than only a few days. His eyes darted around, almost as if he were looking for a trap. Could Gaspar really think that Gavin would try to trap him? Of course, given the way things had ended between them the last time, it was possible Gaspar would.

  “You needed to pull me away for this?” Gaspar asked, sweeping his gaze around the Dragon.

  “We need information,” Gavin said. “We’
ve been dealing with the Fates, and I’m concerned about what they are doing now.” He filled Gaspar in about everything that had happened since he’d last seen him, including about the smoke creatures and how the constables were attacked. “Somehow, it’s related, but…”

  “But you don’t know why?” Gaspar asked.

  “I don’t know why. I thought they were after something, but after killing the Captain, he went to the lair, so now I’m beginning to suspect it’s tied to the Triad. Even with that, I don’t know why the Fates would’ve waited until now.”

  That was the part of all this that troubled Gavin. He simply did not have the answer. And there had to be an answer.

  Why now?

  Could it be tied to something Gavin had done? Maybe attacking the Mistress of Vines had drawn the Fates’ attention. Maybe it was Cyran, and his use of magic, or whoever he had apprenticed to. Or perhaps it was even one of the jobs he had forced Gavin to take under false pretenses.

  Gaspar sighed. “I’ve been trying to settle the enchanters.”

  “That’s where you’ve been?” Jessica asked.

  He frowned at her. “Now I have you asking me for accountability?”

  “I was just worried.”

  Gaspar grunted. “So are Desarra and Olivia. As soon as they heard the Fates might have come to the city, they started to be concerned. I tried to talk them into leaving, but—”

  “There isn’t any place they can go that they could avoid the Fates,” Gavin said.

  “That is what they said, as well. Which is why… I suppose that doesn’t matter right now. We figure out what they’re after, then we can get them to leave.”

  “I don’t know if it’s going to work like that. This is a city that has rejected sorcery. If the Fates have decided to pay attention to the city again, I don’t know if we will be able to prevent that. If they do, the enchanters will…” Gavin realized he didn’t even know what would happen.

  “They know what it will be like,” Gaspar said, his voice soft.

  They faced each other a moment. “I learned all about the Triad,” Gavin said. “And I think the Fates are here because of what happened in the past.” Gavin didn’t have the answers, but he felt as if he was on the right track with it. Somehow, there was something the Fate—or worse, the Fates—was after, and he had to figure that out before others were hurt. “Regardless of what we think, the Fate is here, and is attacking. And we need to do whatever we can to protect the city.”