The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3

by Holmberg, D. K.

  She regarded him. “I came to the city to hide. Isn’t that why so many people come to Yoran?”

  “Yes,” Gaspar said softly.

  “I thought I’d be safe. I should’ve been safe. That I wasn’t suggests I was betrayed.”

  “Betrayed? Why would anyone betray you?”

  “Because I am the Risen Shard.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “What do you know about the El’aras?” she asked. She leaned back and watched him. He’d thought she’d been cool, almost far too calm, but that wasn’t what he saw from her at all. The more he looked, the easier it was for Gavin to recognize there was something else in her eyes that he hadn’t seen before. Maybe it was a hint of fear, but he wasn’t sure about that. No, what he saw was uncertainty. She was powerful, yes, but she was also helpless. It was a strange dichotomy.

  “I’ve had some dealings with them,” Gavin said.

  “I suppose you have. You don’t fear facing one like so many would.”

  “I don’t fear.”

  “All men fear.”

  Gavin nodded. “I guess. I’ve trained not to fear. Is that better?”

  “Does it make you better?” she asked.

  “It makes it so I’m more efficient.”

  “Is that all you’re after? Efficiency?”

  “You were telling us about the El’aras,” Gavin said.

  “We were talking about fear,” she said.

  “You were talking about fear.” He shifted in his chair. He could feel Gaspar looking at him, almost as if there was a question in the old thief’s eyes—one Gavin was determined to ignore.

  “I am of the Yassir El’aras. We live beyond the forest that surrounds Yoran. In the old growth and a place of much power.”

  “How can anyone live there?” Wrenlow asked, leaning forward in his chair. “I’ve heard it’s so dark that no light gets in. The trees are so tall the sun never strikes the ground.”

  “You can see the sun when you climb to the top of the trees,” Anna said.

  “You can climb to the top of the trees?”

  “Hundreds of feet above the ground,” she said, her voice taking on an airy, wispy quality. “That’s where my home is. The city buried within the forest. It’s a place of incredible beauty.”

  “I’m aware of the Yassir El’aras,” Gavin said as he thought of what Cyran had told him of the different types of El’aras, along with which of them had a treaty with Yoran.

  “I suspected you were. Within the forest, the city of Asaindar can be found. It’s nothing like your cities. It’s beautiful and blends into the trees. Life in a way that we were meant to be.”

  He leaned toward her. “You still haven’t explained anything. You need to give me a reason to keep you alive.”

  “You asked me what being the Risen Shard means.” She smiled, and he couldn’t help but feel a pang within him, almost as if there was something pulling upon him. “If you give me a moment, I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

  Gavin sighed. There was no point continuing to push her, not like this. And he had asked her.

  If she was willing to share more about who she was, how could I not wait to see what I could uncover?

  He’d never had the opportunity to speak to one of the El’aras quite like this. He’d experienced them before and had suffered because of them, but never had he the opportunity to sit with one and ask questions. Perhaps that was what he needed to do now. They could all have their curiosity sated.

  “What’s it like in the forest?” Wrenlow asked.

  “It is beautiful, unlike anything you could even imagine,” she said.

  “I’ve seen incredible beauty. Sometimes what you think is beautiful is actually deadly,” Gaspar said.

  “You could be describing Asaindar,” Anna replied. “It is beautiful, but it can be deadly as well.”

  “Why deadly?” Wrenlow asked, his gaze flicking to the far side of the room.

  Gavin followed the direction of his gaze to Imogen, who was leaning against the wall, silent as ever. There was something in her posture that made him think that she’d be capable in a fight. Perhaps it was the slight tension within her, though it might be something more.

  “Because not all view the city in the same way. Some see us as a threat,” she said.

  “Because of what you’ve done over the years,” Gavin said.

  “What we have done?”

  “I’ve seen the lands in the south. I’ve seen the destruction the El’aras have caused.”

  “Not the Yassir El’aras.”

  “Are you different than other El’aras?” asked Wrenlow.

  She glared at them. “Others are more violent.”

  “Don’t get her started,” Gavin said.

  Wrenlow looked at him. “We want the opportunity to know more about her, don’t we? Isn’t that why you brought her here? Because you didn’t know whether or not you should complete the job? Until you know, then we should learn as much as we can about her.”

  “The kid’s right,” Gaspar said.

  “I’m not saying he’s not right,” Gavin muttered.

  Anna shook her head. “The Yassir El’aras have never attacked your people.”

  Gavin grunted. “You attacked me.”

  “Did we?”

  “I was here.”

  She leaned toward Gavin, and there was a darkness as she smiled. “What do you think you saw?” she whispered.

  “I saw one of your El’aras with this dagger,” he said, holding it up. “I saw them come after my people.”

  “Can you blame them, if it were true?” she asked. “If you came after me, how can I be blamed for coming after you?”

  Gaspar started laughing. Gavin swung his gaze over and looked at the other man, who shrugged. “She’s not wrong,” he said. “I mean, you did go after her to kill her.”

  “Because I was told she was a slaver.”

  “You were told?” Anna said.

  Gavin glanced over to Wrenlow, who had paled. “My sources suggested you were a slaver. Does that make you feel better?” Gavin asked.

  Anna watched him. “Regardless of what you believe, it wasn’t my El’aras who came after you.” She twitched her wrists, and the rope around both her wrists and ankles suddenly disappeared.

  Gavin scrambled to his feet, holding the El’aras dagger out. He didn’t know if it would even make a difference at this point. If she had enough control over her magic to free herself, even the dagger might not make a difference for him.

  She stared at him as Gaspar got slowly to his feet, reaching toward his knife.

  What was a knife going to do against somebody with magic? For that matter, what did I even have that could fight against her magic?

  It was a wonder that he had the dagger, but even with it, he wasn’t going to be able to do much to slow her. She’d already proved that she was fully capable of overwhelming him even when he had the dagger.

  Gavin glanced over at Gaspar. “I thought you had her bound.”

  “The binding would’ve worked on anyone else,” he said.

  “Anybody but someone like her,” Gavin said. Not that he could’ve done any better than Gaspar did. With her ability, and seeing how easy it was for her to break free, he didn’t know if there was anything he would’ve been able to do. It was a wonder they’d managed to incapacitate her as they had.

  She stood, looking at them with a serene expression on her face. With a wave of her hand, Gaspar’s hand darted down toward the ground, dropping the knife harmlessly. Wrenlow cried out, and Gavin looked over to see him standing rigidly, his own knife clattering to the ground.

  The only weapon she wasn’t dropping was the El’aras dagger. Gavin didn’t know if that had more to do with the fact that it was an El’aras blade or whether it was because she was taking her time, turning her attention to him last. Regardless, as she looked at him, he could feel something within her gaze, some weight that lingered there.

&n
bsp; “You are going to do something for me,” she said.

  “What exactly do you think I’m going to do for you? I think we both know what the situation is.”

  She smiled, and there was a darkness within her smile. Despite that, there was still something almost beautiful in it. Gavin shook those thoughts away. He couldn’t think of her in that way. He needed to think about her as the dangerous woman she was, not the beautiful El’aras who stood before him.

  The hand holding the El’aras dagger started to lower. It was an invisible pressure pushing on him, and as much as he tried to resist and keep the blade pointed at her, it dropped slowly. He was tired from everything that had happened throughout the night. He didn’t even have his residual stores of energy to access. The only thing he had was what little strength he had left.

  The El’aras dagger continued to glow, and there was something about the blade that took on the energy around him. Gavin fought against what she was doing, trying to hold onto the dagger, wanting to keep it pointed outward. There was a struggle, but it wasn’t much of one. She was strong—stronger than him.

  As he held onto the blade, she watched him. Amusement glittered on her face, and she waited as he held the dagger out, still resisting her. It took him a moment to realize what she was doing. She was waiting for him to grow weaker by exerting himself. She wanted him to overdo it. Rather than fighting, Gavin dropped his arm to the side, clutching the El’aras dagger as tightly as he could.

  She smiled at him. “Good. This will go much easier for you if you don’t fight.”

  “What will?”

  The door to the Dragon thundered open, and Gavin looked up. A familiar face stepped into the tavern: the El’aras he’d left unconscious within the manor house.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Gavin tried to step forward, but Anna maintained a squeezing grip of magic around him. Whatever power she held onto kept him from doing anything, so he stopped struggling and instead prepared to try a different tactic. He just didn’t know what it would be.

  “Did they harm you?” the El’aras asked, striding over toward her. He kept one hand on his El’aras sword, the blade glowing softly. He held the other outward, almost as if he were holding onto a shield Gavin couldn’t see.

  “Do you really think they are capable of harming me, Thomas?”

  Thomas flicked his gaze from Wrenlow to Gaspar, then finally settled it on Gavin. It lingered there the longest, something almost knowing in his eyes. “It’s possible. You know what has nearly happened since we’ve been in this city.”

  “I know what’s happened, not what’s nearly happened. And what’s happened has involved a betrayal.”

  Thomas turned toward her and ignored the others. He slammed his free hand up to his chest, bowing at the waist. “You have my blade, my—”

  Anna tapped him on the shoulder, shaking her head slightly.

  Gavin frowned as he looked at her. Something didn’t quite make sense here. He was surprised to realize that he could move again though. He quickly shifted with the dagger and held it up.

  Anna glanced over at him. She attempted to squeeze him with a magical band again, but he swung the dagger once and danced back near Gaspar.

  “What do you think you’re doing, boy?” Gaspar asked.

  “I’m going to resist whatever she intends to do to us.”

  “If she wanted to hurt us, she would’ve done that by now. She wants something from you.”

  Gavin hesitated. The man was right. Given how much power she’d already displayed, if she’d wanted to harm him, it wouldn’t have taken much for her to do so—just her power to constrict him. She might’ve even been able to suffocate him. That she hadn’t suggested that either she needed for them to live or she had no interest in actually hurting them. He relaxed and backed away. He continued to grip the dagger, looking at Thomas, then letting his gaze drift to her.

  “Is he right?” Gavin asked. “Do you want something from us?”

  “I want to know who hired you,” Anna replied.

  “I’m afraid I’m at just as much of a loss as you are.”

  “You have some way of getting to your employer, don’t you?”

  “Only when the job is done,” Gavin said.

  “Fine.”

  “Fine?”

  “You will complete the job. When it’s done, then you will have your employer come.”

  Gavin frowned, glancing over at Gaspar and then Wrenlow. “I’m afraid you don’t quite understand what the nature of the job entailed.”

  “Don’t I? You were hired to eliminate me.” She stood with her arms crossed in front of her. “You aren’t the first, but you did get closer than most.” Thomas paled slightly, and he shot Gavin a look filled with anger. “I think that says something about you, but it also says something about the one who employed you.”

  “What does that say about them?” he asked.

  “It suggests they believed you’d be able to get to me.”

  “I have a reputation.”

  “I’m sure you do, Gavin Lorren.”

  She said his name with a strange familiarity, and his last name in particular rolled off her tongue, the accent even correct. Few said that part right. Not even the sorcerer had.

  How had she learned it?

  Gavin tensed. “What do you want from me?”

  “Nothing from you,” she said.

  He smiled. “You want something from me. Not just from whoever employed me.”

  “I think I will take your employer.”

  “In order to get to them, I have to prove you died.”

  “You don’t think you can?”

  “I think it’ll be a little bit difficult to prove in this situation.”

  “Perhaps.” She looked at Thomas and nodded to him. His jaw clenched for a moment, and then he slipped his sword into his sheath. She turned back to Gavin and said, “You will find your employer.”

  “What do I get out of it?”

  She cocked her head, studying him. “Why, you get to live.”

  Gavin started to laugh.

  “I fail to see why that amuses you.”

  “It’s only that you’re the second person in as many days who’s promised to let me live if I complete their assignment. You’ll forgive me if I’m feeling a little bit less than enthused about such offers.” Gavin held onto the El’aras dagger but kept it pointed at the floor. He still had the other sword he’d taken off Thomas, though somewhere the El’aras soldier had come up with another. “With the kind of work I do, I usually get paid.”

  “You don’t think your life is a worthy payment?” Anna asked.

  “Mine is,” Gaspar said.

  “Quiet,” Gavin said. He turned back to Anna. “Maybe it is, but I think there’s something else you might be able to offer me.”

  “What is that?”

  “I need your help finding someone in the city.”

  “That isn’t the kind of thing I’m well equipped for,” she said.

  “I’m not asking you to do anything unpleasant.” Though, if she were willing to do it, then perhaps it would be easier on him. “All I need is a location. With your contacts, you’d be able to find this for me.”

  “What contacts do you think I have?”

  “I saw you coming out of the Captain’s home.”

  She stared at him.

  “Which makes me think you’re at least somewhat well-connected within the city. Perhaps you don’t want to use those connections, but I’m going to need you to.”

  “And if I refuse?”

  “I don’t think you’re going to refuse,” Gavin said.

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Because you want to know who my employer is.” Silence hung between them. Gavin stared at her, trying to gauge her reaction.

  Finally, Anna offered a hint of a smile. “I might be able to uncover something for you.”

  “Good. I’m looking for a sorcerer who goes by the name of the Apostle.”
Neither she nor Thomas reacted in recognition of the name, the title, or anything. “Do you know anything about the Apostle?”

  She shook her head. “I do not. Why?”

  “Another job I was offered.”

  “The same job that had terms similar to what I offered you?”

  Gavin smiled tightly. “Possibly. And I know that they’re powerful, and rumor tells me they haven’t been in the city all that long. Since you’re cozy with the Captain—”

  “He provides certain protections within the city I have benefited from,” she said.

  “Good. Then you’ll help me with this job.”

  She studied him a moment. “And am I to take it that you negotiated for similar terms as you did with me?”

  He smiled again. “You may assume all you want.”

  She shook her head. “You are playing a dangerous game, Gavin Lorren.”

  “It’s the only game I know,” he said.

  Anna held his gaze for a long moment before turning and nodding to Thomas. They strode across the Dragon to the doorway. She turned back to him, watching him. “I will find what I can of this Apostle. I will meet with you in two days, at which point you will confirm my demise with your employer.”

  With that, she strode out of the Dragon, leaving Gavin to exhale slowly.

  “What was that about?” Gaspar asked.

  “That was about me trying to see if we can’t find a way to get more information about this Apostle.”

  “You’re going to pit one job against another? You really are a fool, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t know any other way to go about this. We have two employers with magic who are trying to corral us to work on their behalf.”

  “There isn’t any ‘we’ here,” Gaspar said.

  “You got involved.”

  “Not by choice.” Gaspar limped toward the back of the tavern and disappeared up the stairs.

  Gavin sat there for a long moment before getting to his feet. He headed to the kitchen and poured himself a mug of ale. He walked back out into the main room, took a seat, and propped his feet up.

  It just wasn’t the same without Jessica and the music and the activity that he was used to in the Dragon. Tipping back the mug, he sipped it slowly, savoring the flavor. It wasn’t the best ale he’d ever had, though it was far from the worst. There was one thing Jessica had prided herself on, and that was the quality of her food and her drink.