The days grew long as they traveled through the Koral lands, passing through empty settlements and cities. Throughout their journey, they saw no signs of more branox.
General Derashen looked over to her from time to time, worry in his eyes. He was well beyond the borders of the Leier lands, well beyond where he should have traveled. Well beyond where he was meant to serve.
They did encounter several more stone golems, which suggested they were heading in the right direction. The enchantments were meant to slow the army’s progress, and they did so successfully, far more than she would have liked. Each stone golem they encountered required them to stop, fight, regroup, and prepare. She did her best to carve through them as quickly as she could, and Jorend grew increasingly capable against them, but there were few others who were useful.
On the third day after she had returned with the body of the branox, they stopped near ruins that were different than those of the other towns and villages. The rubble consisted of broken stone, and it looked as if this city had fallen long ago. One section of stone had been built along the mountainside, a curved construct that reminded her of the sacred temple where she had studied, with a peak that had fallen forward.
Imogen caught a blurring movement as branox streamed out of the pile of debris. She darted out of the marching line and hurriedly flowed into a sacred pattern. As she did, she could feel something pushing against her. The air crackled suddenly, and she reacted by sweeping her blade. She twisted in Petals on the Wind before transitioning to Stream through the Trees, and finally she brought her blade up, carving through one of the creatures.
Imogen turned, and three more converged.
But not on her.
They were rushing toward the caravan—toward the captives.
Imogen raced forward, staying focused on the sacred patterns. The Koral were bait, or they would be if not for the fact that Imogen had no intention of allowing them to be used that way.
“I fear it will not be long now,” Benji said. “If they are coming at us this way, then we have to be ready.”
She looked at the other Leier. “I don’t know if they will be.”
She carved through the three branox, and Benji used his Porapeth magic to cause the ground to swallow the creatures.
Imogen looked along the line of soldiers, realizing that General Derashen stood on the opposite side of the gathered Koral with several creatures around him. He positioned himself among the stone ruins and managed to stay standing despite the treacherous footing.
As Imogen glanced around, she worried that there might be more branox hiding where they couldn’t see them. Had it only been the two of them fighting the branox?
“We’re going to need more who are capable,” she said.
Benji raised his eyebrows. “You don’t think more of your people are?”
“I don’t know.”
The general strode across the separation between them, watching Benji with lips pressed together. She wondered when he would ask what Benji was, but he didn’t.
“We have not seen them before now,” General Derashen said.
“I think we’re getting closer. I told you that they have a queen, and that’s what we have to stop. I don’t know where she will be, but she needs to feed on magic to reproduce.”
He frowned at her. “How did you see them as quickly as you did?” He seemed both curious and troubled.
“They have a particular way of moving. Once you’ve seen it a few times, you can recognize it.”
He stared at her, expressionless. “And you saw it?”
“I’ve been watching.”
They got the caravan moving again, though there was a general murmur around them that said the people within the caravan were nervous. It wasn’t just the Koral, who believed themselves to be the target, but the Leier were worried too. They were confident, skilled fighters, but that was against sorcery and involved using the traditional patterns to defeat a known enemy. Imogen had felt the same way when she had started facing magical creatures rather than sorcerers. And these were something else entirely.
Jorend found her. “I don’t know how many of our people will be willing to fight.”
She leveled her gaze on him. “They are Leier. They will fight when they have to.”
“I saw the creatures, but I don’t know if I can do anything against them.”
“You can. The key is in your sacred patterns. We have to get the rest of them ready.”
“Get them ready for what?” he asked. “Do you really think they can prepare for this in such a short period of time? Given what we have encountered so far, there is no way they will learn what they need.”
Imogen couldn’t argue. She had been struggling with the same issue, and she didn’t have a better answer.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said, “but we need them to be prepared.”
They continued onward and had not gone far when she spotted another blur. It seemed like the branox emerged from the rock, as if camouflaged by it somehow. She couldn’t help but marvel at how well the branox were able to hide, which made them nearly impossible to stop until it was too late.
Fighting took place all around her. Somewhere, Imogen could feel the gentle pull of magic through a tightness along her skin, a sensation that had begun to build. She wanted to look to see what the shamans and the rest of the Koral were doing, but she didn’t how many branox were near her.
The creatures rushed toward her, and Imogen used Tree Stands in the Forest to create a barrier around her, hesitating only a moment before she released it.
She flowed into Lightning Strikes in a Storm, then spun with Axe Falling before shifting again to Stream through the Trees. The branox pushed against every sacred pattern she used, and Imogen knew that she had to find and maintain perfect concentration. If she didn’t, she would not survive.
None of them would.
Her mind went blank. She was the patterns. She was magic.
That thought pressed through her, almost enough to unseat her concentration. Could that be what Benji had meant when he called himself magic?
She pushed that question away and returned to the sacred patterns, to the fight, and she felt the pressure building from the onslaught of branox.
Their army didn’t have the necessary numbers, but she wouldn’t stop. She stayed near the Koral, knowing that the creatures would be drawn there, and carved down a dozen before the attack ended. She found General Derashen and Jorend working together side by side as they cut through the branox. Two of the Firsts had fallen near them, though Imogen couldn’t tell if they were dead or incapacitated.
When they were done, Benji joined her, frowning deeply. “The attacks are getting more frequent.”
“We have to be getting closer to the queen.”
“The nest,” he said. “But…” He pressed his lips together in a tight frown. “It is not as I would’ve expected.”
“Why?”
“When we faced them before, I could see more clearly.”
She chuckled. “I understand. You are going at this blind, but so am I.”
“I don’t care for it.”
“What can you do to improve what you can see?” she asked.
“I’ve been trying for longer than you can know,” he muttered.
Imogen wished that she understood his Porapeth magic better, though perhaps it didn’t matter. He might be able to use what he could to draw the branox away, or maybe he could talk to the stone or the wind or any other life around them and try to coax it into helping.
Imogen looked over at him. “Then work with the Koral. Help them learn how to defend themselves. We’ve seen how Lilah has been able to do that.”
“They know enough,” Benji said, waving his hand.
“They aren’t sorcerers.” At least, nothing like the Society. If they were, they wouldn’t have remained captive as long as they had. “Teach them whatever patterns you can. See if there’s anything you can offer them.”
/> “I might be able to try, but the more they use magic, the more the branox will be attracted to them.”
“We might need that as well,” she said. “I’ve been worried about the queen. If she has a nest of branox, we can’t rush in there and destroy her. We’re going to have to draw some of them away.”
He nodded slowly. “You may be right.”
“General Derashen can fight them, and so can Jorend and some of the others probably. But I need the Koral to offer the Leier as much protection as possible. They may not want to, but I think we will have to find a way for both peoples to work together.”
Benji smiled. “Not the journey you thought you were going to be making, is it?”
She leveled her gaze on him. “None of this is.”
“Perhaps that makes it the right one, then.”
“Would you stop doing that to me?”
“Doing what?” He tried to sound innocent, but she couldn’t help but feel as though he had seen more than he acknowledged.
She shot him a glare. “Just help, or I’ll use you as bait.”
“You already have,” he said, before skipping away.
They headed onward, and every so often, Benji would crouch down to touch the stone. It would rumble, as if trying to answer him. He tilted his head back, smelling the air, and then he frowned at her.
“Something is up here,” he said, nodding toward the distance.
The mountain curved, and the narrow path they took looked like it had once been better traveled. The trail weaved between massive boulders, forcing them to pick their way carefully through but not giving much glimpse of what was ahead of them. The branox could easily hide anywhere out there.
Benji pointed. “It is just up ahead.”
Imogen took a deep breath, let it out, and unsheathed her blade.
They hadn’t gone far before they reached the first of the branox. There were nearly a dozen, and Benji created a ring around him using something that resembled Tree Stands in the Forest. Imogen darted around, using her techniques to cut the creatures down. Benji’s magic held them at bay, giving her a chance to do what was necessary. The branox fell under her blade and her sacred patterns, and the barrier Benji formed created a circle of fallen creatures around them.
Once it was done, they moved forward, and Imogen started to wonder if she was making a mistake. She didn’t want to say that to anyone, nor did she want to acknowledge that she might be leading them into danger, but it was how she felt. All of this felt like it was too much.
Could she have planned something differently?
She didn’t know if there was time. They had to stop the queen, or the branox would continue to spread. She had weapons she wouldn’t have any other time. She had the Koral, the Leier, Benji. Without them, Imogen didn’t know if she would be able to deflect the pending attack.
“Am I making a mistake?” she asked Benji.
“There’s only one way to know,” he said, chuckling.
“And what way is that?”
“To keep moving forward.”
“That’s into Koral lands.”
That shouldn’t bother Imogen, though she had begun to question what sort of magic their shamans possessed. It must be considerable for the branox to feed on them.
“It is. Normally, I would be able to see the possibilities, and I could tell you if you were going to get us all killed.” He laughed and clapped his hands. “But this time, I can’t. Maybe that is my path.” He frowned, though it seemed as if he were thinking more to himself than trying to have a discussion.
He swept his hands along the stone, creating a faint pattern that resembled an oblong figure eight. When he patted the ground, she felt a tremble and reverberation that reminded her of what she felt while using the sacred patterns.
“I hope it’s only the branox that are keeping you from seeing,” she said. “Otherwise somebody more powerful than you is up there.”
“You don’t think your brother could be more powerful than me?”
“He’s not. Yet.” Imogen worried about what would happen if Timo did gain that strength, though.
“He should not be,” Benji agreed, and he pounded his hand on the stone.
The stone trembled, and he skipped forward and stopped at a rocky outcropping.
And then he went still. The transition was unlike anything she had seen from him before. Benji was always animated. Whether it was the way he tapped on the stone, spoke with the wind, or patted trees when they had been in the forest, he was always filled with energy.
Now he was completely frozen.
She joined him, looking down. “What is it?”
A dark valley lay before them, with what looked to be an undulating fog that obscured everything else from sight. A faint breeze played at her cloak, carrying a hint of a foul odor that smelled like rotting flesh up from the valley.
At first, she thought this was another city, or perhaps the Koral, but she noticed something else: the familiar blurring movement and the crackle in the air.
“The branox,” she said. “Why down there?”
“Whatever they are after is below. We need to be ready.”
“They’re too far away for me to see,” she whispered.
“I can help.”
Benji swirled a hand in front of her in a way that reminded her of one of the sacred patterns, and the wind seemed to slow as the air thickened. As it did, everything became clear.
Branox crawled across the stone, their hideous nature even more obvious now. But that wasn’t what drew her attention.
At one end of the valley were people.
Thousands of them, with the branox swarming toward them in their attack.
“Gods,” she breathed out.
“That is what the stone was calling me to,” Benji said. “I had not known, but now I can see it. I can feel it. And…”
He’d been so somber over the last few days from being unable to detect what was down there, and even now, she wondered what he could detect, if anything.
“Is this their nest?” she asked.
“It’s enormous,” he whispered. He traced his hand as if touching the wind, then tapped on the rock in a strange rhythm. Finally, he frowned.
“Is it the nest?”
He looked over to her. “Yes. They never cared about isolation before, though perhaps this time it’s different. It has been centuries since the world has known the branox.” He glanced behind him at the line of soldiers and Koral making their way forward. His lips pressed in a frown.
Imogen stared down into the darkness. There were so many branox that it seemed as if they filled the entire valley. She had faced collections of these creatures, but never so many at one time.
She looked at Benji. “What if you talk to the stone and convince it to swallow them.”
“The stone will not listen to that command.”
“If the branox are as dark as you say, and if they were summoned here, then—”
“The stone will not listen in that way.”
She wished he could explain it better than that, but she’d come to grips with the fact that he didn’t always know how to, or maybe he didn’t care to explain things completely.
“Then what?” she asked.
“This will be on you, Imogen Inaratha. You must find the queen, destroy her, and then the rest of these things will fall more easily. The queen directs them. Stop her so they can no longer reproduce, and then we can cut them down.
“How would I even know where to find the queen?”
“You will know,” he said.
“You can’t see her presence, can you?”
He shook his head slowly. “No. Unfortunately I cannot, though I know she’s down there. I can feel her. It’s almost as if the stone and the wind want me to feel her, but both fear saying anything.” He inhaled deeply, then let it out as he turned back to her. “It is different than the last time I encountered them.”
“But you didn’t fight them before.”
He laughed. “Are you saying that I’m not able to do anything?”
“I think you’re the one who said you weren’t willing to.”
He let out another laugh as he nodded. “Perhaps that is true. Perhaps.”
“We can’t leave the Koral up here unprotected.”
She wasn’t sure what it was going to take, only that she grew increasingly certain that she had to offer some measure of help.
“You can’t get to the queen without taking a risk.” Benji held her gaze, the silver solidifying for a moment.
She knew. The answer was clear, though it was going to be difficult. Dangerous.
Imogen looked at the Koral and the Leier. Could they work together if it meant stopping these creatures? That was what she had to find out. They could distract the branox and draw some of them away so that Imogen could go after the queen.
As she stared, she felt tension along her arms. Power. Sorcery.
She frowned at Benji, but he didn’t seem to notice what she was feeling. Did that mean the Koral were working… or was there something else down below?
She made her way over to General Derashen. “I’m going to need—”
The power of the branox started to crackle, interrupting her thought.
The creatures swarmed, and Imogen ran toward the general, needing to get to him to tell him what she intended.
Immense power surged around her once again, the kind that suggested she was nothing, no one, and wouldn’t be able to do anything to stop this. She couldn’t help but feel it.
And as she did, Imogen knew in her heart, in her bones, the reason behind it.
Timo.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Imogen spun toward the sense of magic behind her, and as soon as she did, she knew she was right. A lone, powerful figure made their way down the rock toward the queen.
His source of power.
“I guess he doesn’t care about you anymore,” she said to Benji. “But we can’t wait any longer. If he succeeds…”
“He may have enough power at that point to ascend,” Benji said, his voice soft. He frowned, scratching his chin. “He should not have known.”
“What are you going on about?”
Unseen (First of the Blade Book 2) Page 25
