Unbonded (First of the Blade Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The barrier collapsed.

  There was still a haze that hung over everything, but now she could see more. The Sul’toral stood before her, but there was also a darkened figure behind him. The room itself was more ornate than some of the others in the tower had been, decorated with sculptures she suspected were enchantments, along with golden lamps that ringed the entirety of the room. A domed ceiling overhead seemed built with some arcane purpose.

  Imogen rolled and then spun, and she pointed the tip of her sword at the sorcerer, driving the blade toward him. She glided, feeling the energy within the movement coming through her. As she used Lightning Strikes in a Storm, the magic filled her.

  She faced the Sul’toral. He stood with his hands spread on either side of him again, watching her.

  He chuckled, tapping his hand for a moment. “Very good. You are everything I hoped you could be.”

  “I’m not going to be anything for you,” she spat.

  “No? What about for him?”

  Imogen backed up, sweeping the blade and flowing slightly in Petals on the Wind. Using that gentle pattern, she moved her arms to create a barrier that would make it difficult for anyone to get to her. It also had the advantage of keeping her ready as her arms swung from side to side, prepared for the need to dart forward and attack.

  “Imogen,” a voice said.

  The dark haze still covered everything, but she twirled the blade through a faint pattern, and the wind whispered around her. Though it was a difficult pattern, it didn’t have much purpose in fighting, at least not that she had ever thought before. But now that she had started to understand what Master Liu had been trying to teach her and the way Benji had moved, Imogen thought she could see some usefulness to that pattern. A soft, gusting breeze formed at the tip of her blade, mostly from the way her hands moved. The technique pushed back the darkness.

  Another figure stood across from her but did not make any attempt to come toward her. The Sul’toral still remained at a distance, and he hadn’t come toward her either.

  Neither of them tried to attack.

  They didn’t need to. She was frozen in place.

  “Timo,” she said.

  He moved toward her, and though his hands were empty, she saw something on his finger. A Toral ring. Could he have been foolish enough to try to use the ring he’d taken from the sorcerer he’d killed?

  “What are you doing?” she murmured.

  There was a sense of movement from behind her, and she spun, bringing her blade in a quick arc. She flowed through Petals on the Wind, mixing with Stream through the Trees.

  Imogen forced the Sul’toral back. Dark anger flashed in his eyes, the only part of him that really seemed unsettled. She severed the pattern he had begun to create, and she made a point of keeping him at a distance.

  “You don’t have to do this,” her brother said.

  This was Timo. What was he doing?

  He was Leier. He wanted nothing more than to destroy sorcerers. He wanted the same thing that all the people of her homeland wanted, but now he was here, doing this?

  She couldn’t fathom it.

  But then she remembered what Benji had said about the Scourge.

  Was this Timo’s path?

  It couldn’t be only about the Toral ring. That wasn’t enough to explain what was going on with Timo.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “You came with me.”

  “You knew I would. I told you I was going to come with you on your bond quest to help you as much as I could.”

  Timo glanced over to the Sul’toral. “See?”

  Her brother looked at her and held his hands out. For a moment, a faint glow appeared around his fingertips, something purple.

  She had thought him injured, but this was not from an injury. He’d been corrupted. Turned.

  And now he was a Toral.

  But… it had to have been going on longer than she had realized.

  As she looked over at Timo, at the ring on his hand and the way his fingers crackled with the dark energy, she realized it wasn’t her and Timo against Dheleus.

  It was just her.

  “What happened?” she whispered again.

  She held the sword up, keeping it pointed toward the Sul’toral. He was the true threat. Timo might come after her, and if he had truly become a Toral, she was going to have to deal with him eventually. For now, she would focus on Dheleus.

  “You interfered,” Timo said.

  She swept her blade, holding it in the Petals on the Wind pattern, using that in a mixture of Wind Whispering to keep them at bay. The Sul’toral watched her movements, frowning as she flowed through the sacred patterns, as if he was more afraid of those than anything else.

  “I didn’t interfere,” she said to her brother. “I came with you, Timo. I was willing to help. I understood that we needed to stop the Sul’toral. That’s what we came to do. That’s how I was willing to serve our people. For you. I wanted you to serve our people.”

  It was more complicated than that, but she had to get through to him. She had to find a way to reach her brother. The Scourge.

  “You came with me, but you interfered. I needed the Porapeth. He was my assignment.” He looked down at the Toral ring, his eyes showing a longing expression within them. “I thought I had him when we first reached the forest, but you had to interfere with the servants.”

  Servants? Did Timo mean the adlet?

  Which meant he had been controlling them. On their journey, she had never seen the sorcerer who was manipulating the creatures. Benji hadn’t known either.

  Because it was Timo.

  Imogen frowned at her brother. “You wanted to be a Toral?”

  He glanced up at her before he twisted the ring on his finger. “You don’t understand yet, but you will. I convinced him that you could. I’ve been trying to tell you. We never really had the opportunity. You kept following that damn Porapeth. Each time I thought I had a chance to try to explain, he was listening. Always listening. I think he knew.”

  With Benji, it was possible that he had.

  “Because you are not ready,” the Sul’toral said. Imogen looked over and frowned at him.

  “I am now,” Timo replied. “You gave this to me.”

  “Because you brought the Porapeth here.”

  Timo nodded. “You see?” he said, turning to Imogen. “All it takes is for you to complete an impossible task. You do that, and then you are granted something more.”

  Imogen shook her head. Something more? That sounded like it was beyond just the Toral ring.

  “Why did you need Benji?” she asked.

  “Do not speak his name!” Dheleus cried.

  Imogen swept her blade around, staying within the sacred patterns. Though it was difficult for her to keep her focus, she recognized the need to do so. If she didn’t hold on to a purpose, there was a real possibility that the Sul’toral would push past her barrier. But there was something within those sacred patterns that protected her. She could see it now, see the way the Sul’toral eyed her patterns, and she recognized that what she’d been taught all that time ago had prepared her for this.

  If only Master Liu knew.

  But then, she suspected he had known that she had not been ready at the time.

  “Benji the Elder,” she said again.

  Dheleus raged, and he spread his hands apart, power crackling between his fingers with a dark, glistening power.

  “You don’t need to do this,” Timo said to her. “You can be a Toral.”

  “Like you?”

  “Not like me. Not for much longer.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “We were taught to fear magic,” Timo said. “We were taught to fear what is natural, and a part of the world.”

  He took a step toward her, and Imogen brought her sword around, sweeping it in an arc. He eyed it, but not with nearly the same questioning suspicion in his gaze as the Sul’toral did. Timo wasn’t as s
cared of her blade as Dheleus was.

  It was because of Timo’s familiarity with it. Not only that, it was his own expertise in the techniques.

  But in the traditional patterns. Not the sacred ones.

  Timo didn’t believe there was anything to the sacred patterns, unlike Imogen, who had come to feel that there was something more to them. In drawing upon the sacred patterns, she could use something beyond, something that opened her up to a power she wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.

  “Don’t fight this,” he said. “We can do this together. That is why I had him bring you here.”

  “Bring me here?”

  “Once we captured the Porapeth, it was all about bringing you along. I didn’t want to lose you again, Imogen. Once was enough. The Toral I killed told me everything I needed to know. That’s how I was able to come here.”

  “Timo, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

  He took another step toward her, and she tried to back away, but the stone behind her had sealed her in and forced her forward, as if it moved and pushed her closer to Timo. Ever closer to Dheleus.

  Power was pressing in all around her. Not only sorcery, but Sul’toral power that was squeezing her, trying to crush her in a way she could scarcely even react to. Her sacred patterns weren’t going to save her now. She had no idea what would.

  Benji could, but only if he could reach her.

  And she no longer counted on that.

  Somehow, she was going to have to delay Dheleus. She didn’t know what it was going to take, and she wouldn’t have the necessary room to move the way she needed to. There were only a few sacred patterns that didn’t require much space, and Imogen had never mastered the one that would provide the most power. How could she, when she didn’t understand it?

  Tree Stands in the Forest.

  It was almost as if Master Liu had tried to taunt her with that, a promise of something within that pattern, but it was a promise she had not been able to understand, one she had never been able to master.

  Master Liu had known that. Still, he had tried to teach it to her.

  Imogen brought her blade around, her hands flowing, keeping Timo back. “What did you need with Benji?”

  “I told you. It was an impossible task. When I completed it, I would be granted something else. Something more.”

  “What did you need?” she asked again.

  “Magic.”

  The wall behind her continue to push forward, and Imogen slid across the ground unwillingly, knowing she didn’t have much time. She could feel something pressing down on her, as well as the energy that was trying to force her forward.

  “Why did you need Benji for magic?” She glanced over to Dheleus and felt the power emanating from him, but she started to question if he was only giving them a chance to talk or if he was delaying her.

  At some point, he would attack.

  “I thought you would’ve understood by now,” Timo said, looking at her. “You can still serve.”

  “I’m not going to serve him,” she said, nodding to Dheleus, who still stood there with his arms crossed as power built from him.

  Timo shook his head and smiled. “Not him. Me. I need the Porapeth magic so I can become a Sul’toral.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Under other circumstances, Imogen would’ve thought her brother was joking. But the excitement in how he looked at her and the energy in his eyes told her that this was his true desire. Could the power of the Toral ring have corrupted him this much? The glimmer in his eyes and the burning anticipation said all she needed to know about how he felt about this. He was excited. He longed for it.

  Now she had to somehow stop her brother.

  The sacred patterns had taught her that she did not need to destroy. She had done so outside of the Shadows of the Dead, and had done so in a way that had connected her to the sacred patterns. When it came to her brother, Imogen was determined to ensure his safety.

  “Will you do it?” Timo asked. There was a plea in his voice, yet there was a hard, cold edge to it as well.

  The Scourge. That was what he had become. Benji had known about that. But had he known about this?

  Maybe not. There were certain things the Porapeth said he wasn’t able to see, and this might have been one of them. Had Benji been blocked from knowing about this? From being able to do anything?

  “You know I can’t do this,” she said. “If I don’t, what do you intend to do to me? Will you attack me, Timo?”

  “If you don’t come with me, then you’ve already made your decision.” He held his hands out and began to twist them, a strange, flowing energy working between his fingertips. He had grown far more skilled than she had expected.

  “You don’t have to do this,” she said. “You don’t have to side with him.”

  “If I do this, I can help our people. We can thrive. We can lead.”

  She shook her head. “You mean you can lead.”

  “Is that so wrong? You were the First of the Blade in Loruv. You know what it’s like to lead people.”

  “I didn’t lead our people,” she said. “I never wanted that.”

  “You never wanted it, but you were handed it.”

  Imogen turned, keeping herself angled so that she could ensure that the Sul’toral didn’t get close to her, but she realized something as she stood there, sweeping the blade around. There was an aspect to the way he was watching that suggested that not only was he not going to interfere, but he was also giving Timo the chance to prove himself.

  The hard edge in her brother’s eyes told her that, whatever else happened, she would lose him. Or had already.

  She thought about what she had seen on the journey here. She had attributed the darkness around him to his injury, but perhaps it had been there all along. He might have had that within him when he had first found her in Yoran.

  She had wanted to believe him. He was her brother, after all. Why would she want anything else? But this was not the man she remembered. This was not something she could support.

  “Well?” Timo asked.

  Imogen took a deep breath, keeping her gaze on Dheleus. Regardless of anything else, Timo was not the real threat. He was a Toral, and Imogen had handled a Toral before. In fact, she’d handled three at once.

  But she had not dealt with a Sul’toral on her own.

  She smiled at her brother, sadness filling her. “You know I cannot.”

  “You are unbonded. You don’t have a quest. This can be your quest.”

  “I am unbonded,” she said, nodding to him. “But that doesn’t mean I have abandoned our people.”

  There was a sharp edge to the words, and she knew they would sting. She had not abandoned their people, but he had.

  How many of the others with him had been turned? They had died, or at least that was what he had claimed. Given the nature of his bond quest and what he was willing to sacrifice, such loss was not impossible to believe. It was surprising that he had survived.

  Unless it wasn’t.

  What if what he had told her was not the truth?

  “You’ve chosen, then,” Timo said.

  With that, he spread his hands.

  Imogen didn’t wait. She could feel the power building from him, and she had seen other Toral use their magic often enough that she recognized what she needed to do to disrupt the pattern. She darted forward, sweeping her blade down in the Axe Falling technique, and carved through his spell.

  The sudden disruption startled him. He moved his hands apart, and power exploded from him. Imogen immediately shifted to Petals on the Wind, blocking his technique.

  Timo’s power rebounded and slammed into him. He went flying back, landing in a heap on the stone behind her.

  She turned to Dheleus.

  The Sul’toral smiled tightly. “A shame he failed so quickly. I thought he had potential. Now he will suffer for his mistake.”

  Anger bubbled up within her. Timo had made mistakes, but still, she b
elieved she could save him. In order to do so, she had to stop the Sul’toral.

  “No,” she said.

  “No? You think you can redeem him? I’m afraid he has already gone down the path of his studies. If you would simply take the time to understand the power that exists, then you might begin to recognize that what he did was necessary.”

  “How was it necessary?” Imogen asked. She continued to move in Petals on the Wind and glided from side to side, sweeping her arms around her. She needed to keep moving in that pattern, steadying herself, ready for whatever might come.

  “Have you not seen the other dangers in the world?”

  “Dangers you have unleashed?”

  Dheleus smirked. “I have not unleashed them.”

  “Maybe not,” she said. “But you thought to use them.”

  Imogen regarded him for a long moment, her gaze lingering on the spell he was starting to build. She didn’t recognize the pattern, but she could tell it was a pattern. And as she continued to flow through the motions, preparing herself for whatever he might be doing, she could feel energy building from him. If nothing else, she could stop him.

  “You have been around them,” he said, his voice dark and twisted. “I can smell it on you.”

  She snorted. “Benji?”

  “Do not say his name,” he snapped.

  “You fear him,” she said. “That’s why my brother wanted him brought here. Whatever this place is, it somehow allows you control over the Porapeth.”

  “Perhaps it does,” he said, his voice a harsh and horrible whisper. “And the Toral thought to take his next step, but unfortunately, he failed.” He looked over at Timo.

  Imogen lunged, using that moment to sweep her blade toward him. Dheleus flicked his wrist, little more than a brief movement, and a barrier bounced her back, sending her slamming into the stone behind her.

  He glanced at Timo again. “He intended to bring the Porapeth here, and had he succeeded in doing so, he would’ve been granted the gift. But as he has failed with the other aspect of his requirement, the gift will be taken from him.” He turned back to Imogen. “I will take that gift.”

  The way he said it suggested to Imogen that this was Dheleus’s plan all along. “Why do you need Benji?”