Imogen pushed down her thoughts and stared into the darkness. “How much farther do we travel?”
“We need to pursue the branox until we find the extent of the threat,” Benji said.
“How many are there in a hive?”
He shook his head slowly. “Many.”
“Would they stay in one place?”
“They did not stay still before.”
Imogen had never heard stories about the branox in their travels. There had been plenty of other horrible things they’d faced and heard stories about, but never anything like the branox. The only rumors that had spread had been those that suggested sorcery, rumors that had ultimately amounted to the truth. Lumbering enchantments made of earth and stone. Fog that could kill. The Shadows of the Dead coming back alive, and Sul’toral using power to try to summon a dark god.
But there had been no stories of branox.
If there had been, she was sure they would’ve heard of them, especially in the village they had been through most recently. Which meant that either they stayed in one place, or they had only recently begun to move.
If Timo was involved—something Imogen no longer knew—it would not have been too long ago that they had been freed.
“What did they do before?” Imogen asked, although she thought she already knew. If the branox needed to feed, they would have to go someplace to do so.
“You don’t need the answer to that question,” Benji said.
“I think I do.”
“They have a thirst for magic, and all that entails. It is how they expand the hive.” He looked around. “We have encountered only a few of them, which suggests that they have not been freed for long. They are pests that spread quickly and reproduce quickly, especially if they have access to magic. And then—”
The air crackled again, and there was another blur of movement.
Imogen darted forward, flowing through her patterns, carving down the branox that suddenly appeared. There were only five this time, and she was quick enough that she managed to chop them down before they got to Benji or Lilah.
Benji used the earth to swallow them the way he had before. When he was done, he ran his fingers through the dirt as if tracing a pattern to detect something within the earth itself. Finally, he stood and looked over to Imogen.
“You said they will procreate,” she said.
Benji nodded.
“So they will be going after magic.”
“Yes.”
“Why do I get the sense that something is bothering you about all of this?”
He glanced over to Lilah and frowned. “Because they are moving to the east.”
Imogen’s breath caught. There was a form of magic in the east.
Koral.
Their shamans didn’t have the same training as those in the Sorcerers’ Society, but they had their own form of magic nonetheless.
Could that be what this was about? And if the branox headed there, would there even be anything she could do to stop them?
Chapter Nine
Though the forest was dark, none of them had been willing to stop and rest, too afraid that more branox might be around. As they continued through the trees, Imogen did not detect any more crackling energy.
The forest had been relatively quiet, which Imogen was thankful for. Still, the silence left her on edge, as it could mean many things. Their presence and journey through the trees could be inhibiting other activity, or perhaps Benji’s unique brand of magic was doing so, but that hadn’t been her experience when she had traveled through other forests with him. It could also be the presence of branox and the threat they posed.
Benji remained silent as he continued his strange patterns on the trees. He touched everything as he traveled, sniffed the air, or looked around as if trying to uncover answers.
“There’s something strange about him,” Lilah said to Imogen.
“There is.”
Imogen considered what to tell her. She would have heard of the Porapeth and would know what Benji could do, if Imogen shared that with her.
Lilah’s face fell, and she nodded. “It’s because I escaped and came with you, isn’t it?”
Imogen looked across the forest, noting how Benji knelt in front of a narrow stream. It wasn’t the same stream they had seen before, and it didn’t intersect with the direction they’d been heading, so she didn’t think he was going to redirect the water as he’d done before. She wasn’t entirely sure, though.
“It’s not that,” she said. “It’s…”
Imogen was not sure what it was. At this point, she still didn’t feel as if she could trust Lilah, but was that the girl’s fault? Lilah had followed them, but only to get away from the Society and return to her homeland. Could Imogen blame her? Perhaps it was her natural distrust that made her feel this way, but that was her choice, so any irritation she felt for the girl was misplaced.
“We just have to move carefully,” Imogen said. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with entirely.”
She glanced at Benji, who had stopped and clasped his hands together tightly, locked in a rigid posture. A treelike one. What had he detected?
Imogen hurried forward and caught up to him, moving as carefully as she could within one of the sacred patterns. “What is it? Have you seen something?”
“Something is wrong,” he said, peering into the distance.
Imogen knew she wasn’t going to be able to see anything—at least not with her eyes. “Do you think I could help?”
Benji turned his gaze toward her and nodded once. “I suspect you could.”
She slowed her movements and stopped, standing fixed in place using Tree Stands in the Forest, letting that connection to herself press downward. It was more imagined than anything real, but the more she did it, the easier it became for Imogen to realize what she needed to do.
She used her connection, the imagined power she could hold, and let her roots extend deep beneath the ground. As the power flowed beyond her, she could feel that energy stretch down and outward.
And it came upon a faint resistance.
“I feel something pushing against me,” she said softly, though it was dangerous to move even her lips. She knew that a part of the pattern might be disrupted, but she needed to speak to Benji. At least, she thought she did. Benji had some way of whispering to the trees—of talking to them and listening to them and hearing them respond—that Imogen certainly didn’t have.
“Keep pushing,” he said.
Imogen focused on being the tree. She remained motionless, feeling nothing more than the power within her and the energy that poured out from her, and then it flowed down into the ground and beyond. There was nothing more in the forest around them to tell her why she would feel energy there.
“I can’t tell what it is.”
As she started to withdraw, another crackle of energy came nearby.
Imogen was using Tree Stands in the Forest, but the pattern was not the one she would need in order to attack. As she attempted to shift into a different one, some part of her stuttered, disrupting not only this pattern but any attempt to use another. She stumbled as she twisted to the side.
Lilah stood behind Imogen and Benji, holding her necklace, swarmed by a dozen branox who were being repelled by her barrier. Her eyes were wide, panicked, but Imogen wasn’t sure what she could do.
“Just hold on to the magic,” Imogen said.
“I need help!”
“I know you do.” Imogen hurried toward her and found the flow within herself. Strangely enough, after she’d been in the Tree Stands in the Forest pattern, some part of her had shifted. It was almost as if she stuttered, her movements slower, and she couldn’t reach for the sacred patterns the way she wanted to.
“Something’s wrong,” she said, looking over to Benji.
“You have been pushing too hard,” he said.
“I don’t understand.”
“Did you think there would be no consequences?”
A branox blurred toward her before she could finish. Imogen had been using the sacred patterns, but perhaps that was a mistake. She wasn’t a master of them; she was a master of the traditional patterns. Speed and precision were what she needed now.
She concentrated for barely more than a heartbeat, which was long enough for her to grasp the patterns she had learned all those years ago, to bring them back into her mind.
Imogen focused on the nearest branox, darting toward it. As she did, she swept her blade down, carving toward the creature. She bent backward, dodging another attack, and she swung her sword overhead. Then she rotated, spun her hips, and rolled, jabbing her blade up.
Three of the branox were down, but she still wasn’t fast enough.
She had to try something different.
Something struck her. Through instinct, she let the force of the impact carry her forward, righting herself as much as she could. She brought her blade around, darting in one pattern, then the next, and then the next. Each time she did, she could feel something forcing her, almost as if a hand was guiding her forward.
Lilah cried out. She wasn’t going to be able to hold out for much longer.
Neither was Imogen.
The creatures would swarm past Lilah’s defenses, and once they did…
If they fed on magical energy, and if Lilah had the potential to be a powerful sorcerer, there was little doubt they would come for her. She raced toward Lilah, sweeping her blade through the blurring movements, and carved down two more.
How many was that? Maybe five, maybe more. Imogen had started to lose count.
In the fog of battle, she could no longer keep her mind straight. She reached Lilah and could not get through the barrier the girl held.
“Keep holding it,” Imogen urged.
“I can wrap it around you,” Lilah said.
Imogen swept her blade, barely missing a blur. “If you do that, you will be sacrificing yourself.”
Even the briefest moment of hesitation in Lilah’s barrier would allow a branox to get through, and Imogen had little doubt the rest of the creatures would quickly find a way in.
Which meant she was going to have to try something different.
Imogen twisted and flowed, bringing her blade around in a sharp arc, and then she jabbed up to catch the next branox.
She had to use the sacred patterns. She had to find that flow.
Imogen took a moment to focus, and she became the tree standing in the forest. The petals on the wind.
The combination forced the branox back, creating a ring around her. Imogen nearly sank to her knees as fatigue washed over her, but she had to keep moving. She spun her blade around using Stream through the Trees, and she slashed through one branox after another. Each time she did, she could feel the resistance, an energy starting to fade and seep out of her. She was determined to keep moving, determined to keep fighting, determined to overpower these damn creatures.
She brought her blade around again, and there were no more branox.
Imogen finally dropped to the ground, panting. She could not focus, her mind still in a fog. Benji touched her on the forehead with icy fingers.
“Breathe,” he told her.
“I don’t feel well.”
“It is this place,” he said, gesturing around them. “It is trying to feed on us as well.”
She had no magic, so why would the branox be drawn to her?
The sacred patterns. That was the only thing she—with her tired and exhausted mind—could come up with.
“How is that even possible?” she asked.
“It should not be.”
He pulled her up, guided her to Lilah, and forced her to take a seat. Benji crouched down, and this time he waved his hand in a spiraling pattern that was different than what Imogen had seen before. As he did, the dead branox started to rise from the ground. Then a whisper of heat whipped through the forest, something warm, almost comfortable. When it was gone, so were the branox.
Benji sunk to his knees and shook. “That was almost too difficult for me.”
“What do we need to do?”
“Rest.”
“If there are more of these creatures, we can’t rest here for long,” Imogen said. “The longer we’re here, the more likely it is we’re going to find—”
“Rest,” Benji insisted.
Imogen set her elbows on her knees and looked over to him as he walked over to Lilah and squatted in front of her.
“We are going to need you to have some control if we are going to make it through here,” he said.
“What do you mean, control?” Lilah replied.
Benji smiled, then shook his head. “You know exactly what I mean. It is a matter of finding control within yourself. You have strength. I have seen it. And that kind of strength—the power you are able to summon on your own, even without any training—suggests you will be powerful. But you need to find some way to control that. When you do, when you can, then you can be even more powerful.”
She took a deep breath. “I don’t—”
“I know you are concerned about this. Anyone who comes from that place”—he glanced over to Imogen before turning his attention back to Lilah—“would be uncomfortable. Especially with this. We’re talking about the power within the world, and we are talking about trying to touch it, manipulate it… and doing so intentionally. In the past, when you’ve used it, I suspect you have done so accidentally.”
Through her fatigued and heavy lids, Imogen saw Lilah nod slowly.
“It is as I suspected,” Benji said. “And a shame, if you ask me. Too many people fear what they should not. Too many people find danger in what is natural.” He tilted his head toward Imogen and chuckled. “Even those who know better.”
“Her?” Lilah asked, looking at Imogen.
“She is better than most. But even she sees danger where there is none. Even she starts to question, when the answers are part of her.”
Imogen no longer knew if the lesson was meant for Lilah or if it was meant for her. Through her travels with Benji, he tried to help her find a way to practice the sacred patterns. But each time she did so, she found that they did not flow for her the way they did when she was in danger, almost as if some part of her resisted. Benji had been trying to help her find her way through those patterns, to flow in a way that would guide her, but Imogen felt some effort working against her.
Lilah shook her head. “I didn’t know.”
“You knew,” Benji said.
He sank to the ground and pressed both hands to the forest floor, and the ground began to tremble around him. Walls of earth—what looked like a mixture of mud, grass, and leaves—rose and separated them from the rest of the forest. The temperature increased, and Benji breathed out slowly.
“That is better.”
“What did you do?” Lilah asked.
“I gave us reprieve from the pressure of the forest,” he said. “We have been suffering, and I haven’t paid as much attention to that as I should have. Now that I know, I think I can offer us layers of protection, but it will be difficult.” He scanned the forest, tipping his head back and inhaling deeply, then turned to Imogen. “Do you think you can help?”
“With what?”
“You have a pattern that can be effective. It’s the one you must return to. The one that is at the heart of all others.”
She knew exactly what he was going for. Tree Stands in the Forest. The same pattern Master Liu had demonstrated for her all those years ago, when he’d wanted her to grasp both the simplicity and the complexity of it.
“I can do that.”
“I know you can.” Benji clucked, and he turned back to Lilah. “What I would like for you to do is to begin by focusing and pressing your hands together. Can you feel what happens when you do that?”
Lilah sat with her legs crossed—not the pose Imogen would’ve chosen when meditating, but Benji did not correct her. Lilah pressed her fingers
together, and she looked across at him.
Imogen returned her attention to her own task. Though she was exhausted, she had meditated countless times over the last few years, and it was easy for her to start that process. Tree Stands in the Forest was a very different pattern than many of the other sacred ones. It was the heart of them, at least according to Master Liu, but it also helped her to focus.
She stretched out with the roots, feeling some part of the forest itself pushing against her. And then she started to feel something else: what Benji was doing and how he was placing his own fortifications.
Gradually, the weakness began to fade from her body.
Imogen looked over to watch Benji and Lilah.
“What do you feel when you press your fingers together?” Benji was asking.
“I feel… my fingers?”
He laughed. “Such a simple answer.”
Lilah glared at him, however briefly, though Imogen wondered if Benji even noticed it. He was a Porapeth, so perhaps he did. Still, it amused her that Lilah would take offense to a comment like that.
“Feel not only your fingers but what is between them. There is an energy there. That is what I want you to focus on. If you can feel that energy—the way it presses between your fingertips, comes from deep within you, and burns within your entire being—then you can start to understand what you can do, how you can use power, and the way that power builds within you.”
He sat back, crossing his arms over his chest and tucking his heels underneath his buttocks. Lilah held her hands together and said nothing. Imogen found herself imitating Lilah, pressing her fingertips together, and she didn’t feel anything either.
By staying in Tree Stands in the Forest and pushing that energy outward, Imogen thought that might connect her to what Lilah was doing, but perhaps not. Maybe that was for the best. Imogen still wasn’t sure how she felt about Lilah and what she could do.
“What do you feel now?” Benji asked the girl.
His words carried to Imogen with an air of certainty, and Imogen realized they were intended to reach her, as she had suspected. Whatever else Benji was trying to do, he seemed to think he could instruct her, as if she could somehow learn to call on magic like Lilah could.
Unseen (First of the Blade Book 2) Page 9
