The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3

by Holmberg, D. K.

  He stumbled into the hall and made his way down to the main room of the Dragon. He stopped there.

  The sight of Anna stopped him in his tracks.

  She radiated a regal appearance, her deep green wool cloak draped over her shoulders making her seem even more impressive. She swept her gaze around the room before settling on Gavin. Thomas was with her, wearing a matching cloak, though his was shifted off to the side so that he had easy access to his sword. Ever the soldier, his eyes darted from side to side constantly, looking for threats that might appear at any moment.

  They sat across from Gaspar and Wrenlow, with Imogen standing and listening in the background. She was frowning, and when he stepped into the room, she gently shook her head at him. He didn’t know her nearly as well. He knew her to have a quick mind, which was the reason that Gaspar valued her as he did.

  “There he is.” Anna turned to him, smiling widely. The El’aras dagger started to glow, and he felt ridiculous as he held it out.

  “Gavin?” Wrenlow watched him and then jumped to his feet, coming over to stand next to him. “Is everything—”

  “Fine,” Gavin mumbled.

  He felt like his mind was in a fog, but he had to fight through it. He knew he could. His experience with that energy told him that he could reach for that core part of himself, but he was going to have to dive deep in order to do so. Maybe he’d extinguished all of his reserves, and what he really needed was more sleep than he was getting.

  Then again, if that’s what he needed, he would’ve expected his body to have simply slept. When he’d exhausted himself in the past, waking hadn’t been an option for him. This time, Gavin had continued to wake, but there was something wrong each time. Something off.

  Wrenlow guided him over to a chair, helping him to sit.

  “Are you ready to meet with your employer?” Anna asked.

  “Is it time for that?”

  She frowned at him. “We talked about two days. Have you not made preparations?”

  Two days? Could I really have slept that long?

  If so, he would’ve expected more core recovery than what he’d experienced.

  Something was terribly wrong.

  He looked over to Wrenlow, holding his gaze. “I’ve been trying to find answers,” he said carefully.

  “You look as if you’ve been sleeping,” Anna said.

  “No.” Gavin straightened, holding onto the El’aras dagger and trying to force his strength through him. For a moment, he had clarity and saw everything around him with a different light. It was brief, like a flash of energy. And when it faded, he was left with nothing.

  He struggled, trying to reach for it, but it wasn’t there. “I’ve been—”

  Anna reached across the table and grabbed him. The others started to reach for weapons, but Thomas held his El’aras sword out. Anna pulled Gavin by the hand, stretching him across the table.

  “What’re you doing?” he asked.

  “Quiet,” she whispered.

  The dagger glowed, and she made no attempt to take it from him. He realized that, in the time he’d known her, she’d never tried to retrieve the dagger from him. It was almost as if she didn’t care about it. Strange, especially considering how much he’d come to value the El’aras dagger.

  He’d possessed high-quality weapons before, but nothing quite like it. The El’aras sword was useful, but it wasn’t nearly as easy to hide as a dagger. The longer weapon was beneficial against someone like Thomas, but then again, Gavin didn’t often find himself in a sword fight with a sword master like the one sitting before him.

  A strange warmth washed through him. “What are you doing?” he asked Anna.

  “I am testing you.”

  “Testing me for what?”

  “Quiet,” she said again.

  She held onto his wrists, and the sense of power continued to wash over him. Gavin could do nothing other than stay still. He tried to pull away, but each time he did, she squeezed more tightly around his wrist and kept him from moving. Even if he were fully recovered, he wasn’t sure he’d have enough energy to withdraw from her grip. Anna had incredible strength—one of the many special traits the El’aras possessed.

  After a moment, she released his wrists and leaned back. She flicked her gaze over to Thomas. “I need sh’rasn.”

  Thomas frowned for a moment before nodding. With that, he sheathed his sword, spun, and darted out of the Dragon.

  Gavin turned and stared at the closed door. His mind felt like it was still in a fog, and he tried to work through what had just taken place. “Where did he go?”

  “Why don’t you tell me what you’ve been doing over the last few days?” she said.

  She knew. She must’ve followed him when he’d gone into her home, and she must’ve known that he’d found something there. Maybe Anna was responsible for this all happening to him.

  “What do you want to know?” he asked.

  “You haven’t been doing what you claimed.”

  “Maybe not.”

  “And you’ve been sleeping,” she said.

  “Maybe.” Gavin sat back and crossed his arms, trying to hold onto the El’aras dagger as he did. “I’ve been tired.”

  “I imagine.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “What have you been doing?” she asked.

  “Why don’t you tell me what you were hiding in that house?”

  She frowned. “Hiding?”

  Gavin nodded. Gaspar was watching him. “You went back, despite knowing there was a threat to you. And you went back with help, but there was another threat to you. Not me that time.” He’d been trying to work through what the Sumter attackers were about, and it was the only thing he could come up with. They had been there because of Anna, though not because they were working for her.

  They had been there to attack her.

  “You went back to the room where I found you,” he said.

  “Perhaps I did. It was sentimental.”

  “There wasn’t anything there that would be sentimental to you. Besides, I don’t know the El’aras to be a sentimental people.”

  “You might be surprised,” she whispered.

  “I can tell you what I found when I went back: some clothing and the rope we used to bind your wrists and ankles.” Her brow furrowed as he said this, her face darkening for a moment. “Nothing else, and certainly nothing that would warrant your return. If there was anything there you needed for sentimental purposes, you would’ve sent Thomas.”

  Even though his mind worked in a fog, that moment of clarity had been enough for him. Her presence had to be the key to why she went back.

  Gavin glanced over at Wrenlow. “When you get a chance, I want you to look into Thomas.”

  “You might find that to be difficult,” Anna said.

  “Probably.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to focus on pulling the threads together. “You went back because there was something there you needed. And you were there when I went back alone.”

  “What?” Wrenlow asked.

  “There was someone there,” Gavin said. “I didn’t see them, but I heard them coming up the stairs.”

  “Are you sure about that?” she asked.

  “Pretty sure. There was someone there. And then when I left, I saw a shadowed form in the window.”

  “What did you find?”

  “Nothing,” he lied.

  She watched him. “What did you find?” she asked again.

  There was a heat and an intensity to her voice, almost as if there was a command that he could not ignore. Gavin met her gaze, and there was a desire within him to ignore her request, but at the same time, he didn’t know if he could.

  “What was in the metal box?” he asked her.

  Gaspar turned to look at Gavin. “What box?”

  “There was a box within the wall.” Gavin held onto Anna’s gaze as he said it, waiting for her reaction, but there wasn’t any.
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br />   “How did you find it?”

  “It was hidden, but this helped.” Gavin held up the El’aras dagger.

  “The dagger?” Wrenlow asked.

  “Yes. Somehow, the dagger guided me in finding this strange box in the wall. And then I was able to carve the box out of the wall because of it.”

  “You should’ve left it there,” Anna said.

  “What is it?”

  “That is the Shard.”

  Gavin frowned, staring at her. “The what?”

  “That is the reason I’m here. It was to remain hidden. I was to remain hidden.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” he said.

  “You should not be. Your employer should be.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means we have gone to great lengths to mask my presence here,” said Anna.

  “There hasn’t been much masking as far as I could tell.”

  “Really? I have been in the city for five years, and this was the first time anyone has made any attempt to come after me. Something changed.”

  “What is the Shard?” Wrenlow asked.

  “It is an item of great power to my people.”

  “Why do you have it?”

  “Because I am the Risen Shard.”

  “I still don’t know what that means,” Gavin said.

  She smiled at him. “Good.”

  She leaned back, studying him. There was a moment of silence, and in that moment, a sense of power flowed from her and streaked toward Gavin. He could feel the energy she used, the power she pushed upon him that constricted around him.

  “Stop,” he said. “Whatever you’re doing, stop.”

  She frowned. “I’m not doing anything.” She got to her feet and glanced down at the dagger, her eyes widening. “We need to move.”

  Gavin looked up at her. “Why? Because you want to find this Shard? I don’t know what happened to it, but I don’t have it now. When I was coming back to the Dragon, I collapsed.”

  “It doesn’t matter. We need to move.”

  “Or what?”

  “Or we die.”

  Gaspar jumped to his feet, reaching for his knife. Wrenlow scrambled, and Imogen pulled a narrow blade from a sheath beneath her cloak, standing ready.

  Gavin held onto the El’aras dagger and stood still as he stared ahead. He couldn’t focus. Everything within him still seemed off, and as much as he tried to maintain a sense of focus on what was taking place around him, he couldn’t. He knew he needed to do something different, but his mind wasn’t working the way it needed to. He looked over at Wrenlow. “I’m going to need your help.”

  “With what?”

  “With everything. I…” He sagged, and Wrenlow caught him. He slipped an arm underneath Gavin and helped him to stand.

  Gaspar frowned. “What is wrong with you?”

  “I used too much of my core strength,” Gavin said. Either that or he’d been poisoned. If that were the case, then how had it happened—and when?

  “You used too much of your what?”

  “My core strength. It’s a training technique I learned. I can focus my reserves of energy, but it sometimes uses too much.”

  “How long will it take you to recover?” Gaspar asked.

  “Usually I do by now, so the fact I haven’t is a little bit surprising,” he said. Anna watched him, an unreadable expression in her eyes. Gavin frowned. “Why are you suddenly concerned?” he asked her.

  “What do you feel?”

  “I told you already.”

  “And now?”

  Gavin focused on the sense within him, but he didn’t notice anything. This was partly because his core reserves were gone, but also partly because the pressure of magic she’d been wrapping around him had eased.

  “You’re not holding power on me anymore,” he said.

  “I wasn’t doing that before either.”

  “If it wasn’t you, then who was it?” He turned in place. The El’aras dagger continued to glow, and when he looked over at Anna, she shook her head.

  It wasn’t her. And if it wasn’t her, there was another magic user here.

  Could it be the sorcerer?

  They still hadn’t seen anything from him, though Gavin hadn’t done much to accomplish his job. He’d been threatened, but the sorcerer had also given him a week to complete the task. It wasn’t even close to the deadline. This probably wasn’t the sorcerer then.

  What about the Apostle?

  Gavin couldn’t think through it. He started to sag again, his strength fading. “Something is definitely wrong,” he mumbled.

  “Stay with him,” Anna said. She headed toward the door, and the El’aras dagger glowed more brightly.

  “What are you doing?” Gavin asked.

  “I’m waiting for Thomas to return.”

  “If there’s someone else using magic here, I’m starting to think we need to move.”

  She nodded. “We definitely need to, which is what I said earlier, but you aren’t in any condition to leave. Not until Thomas arrives.”

  “I know he’s a skilled fighter, but I’m not without my own abilities.”

  “You are while you are restricted.”

  Gavin shook his head, smiling. He tried to take a step forward, but again his strength was fading. There wasn’t much he was going to be able to do.

  She was right. He was restricted, though it had to be more than just the depletion of his core reserves. Something else had happened, though he had no idea what that might be. All he could tell was that he was failing.

  He looked at Wrenlow and Gaspar, but neither were watching him. Both were paying attention to Anna, who leaned forward against the door. As she pressed her hands to its surface, her hair took on a faint sheen, almost as if it were glowing.

  Gavin’s eyes widened in surprise, and he wasn’t sure if what he was seeing was real. His mind certainly wasn’t in any place to determine that, and given how tired he was and how he could barely stand, it was possible that what he was seeing wasn’t accurate.

  If it was, then how was she glowing like that?

  The only things that glowed were magical enchantments—not people.

  “We need to go,” Gavin said, glancing at Gaspar. “I don’t know what’s going on, but if she’s concerned, then we need to be concerned.”

  “Don’t you think we should stay with her?” Wrenlow asked.

  “Do you want to stay with her?”

  “I don’t know. It depends on what’s coming.”

  “I think the boy’s right,” said Gaspar.

  “Thank you,” Wrenlow said.

  Gaspar grunted. “You’re the kid. He’s the boy,” he said, motioning to Gavin. “I don’t know if we can trust her. Not sure what she’s going to do or what she’s even doing now, but I don’t know that we want to be here to find out. I certainly don’t.”

  Gavin looked over at Anna. With whatever power she was holding onto, he couldn’t help but feel as if they were in danger because of it. He nodded to Gaspar, and the old thief guided them away from the door, away from Anna, and toward the kitchen.

  “Are you sure we should be doing this?” Wrenlow whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Gavin muttered. “All I know is that I don’t want to be too wrapped up in whatever the El’aras are doing. And with her,” he said, nodding toward Anna, “I really don’t know if I want to be a part of it.”

  “You could’ve fooled me,” Gaspar said.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I saw the way you were looking at her.”

  “She’s El’aras. How else am I supposed to look at her?” Gavin asked.

  “Not like a lost puppy chasing after his mama.”

  Inside the kitchen, the darkness was almost absolute. Gavin held out the El’aras dagger and used it to guide them. He stumbled, making too much noise, but Gaspar was there and propped him up.

  “Keep him on his feet,” Gaspar snapped at Wrenlow.

&n
bsp; “I’m doing what I can,” Wrenlow said. “He’s heavy.”

  “I’m not that heavy,” Gavin mumbled.

  “Maybe not. I’m just…” Wrenlow looked past him, exasperation in his eyes. “Can you help?”

  “What do you think I’m doing? It’s not like I’m doing this on purpose.”

  Together, they hurried through the kitchen, moving into open space. When they reached the far side of the kitchen, Gaspar hesitated near the door. He raised a hand for them to stop and motioned to his lips to indicate silence.

  Gavin could take only slow breaths. Something was terribly wrong. Every time he tried to tap into a greater strength, that core energy he knew he should have, something blocked him.

  Had I really been poisoned? When could that have happened, though?

  Maybe he’d been injured during one of the attacks. Everything had happened so quickly that he hadn’t really paid much attention to it. It was possible someone had cut his skin with a knife without him knowing.

  He looked over at Gaspar. The man was fuzzy, something about him difficult for Gavin to even make out.

  Gaspar looked back at him. “Stand straight,” he barked.

  “I’m trying.”

  “You need to try more. I don’t know what’s going to happen on the other side of the building, but I have a feeling we’re going to need that fighting ability of yours.”

  Gavin swallowed. He could do that. For Wrenlow, he would do that. Maybe even for Gaspar, who’d been working with him and trying to help.

  “Where’s Imogen?” he mumbled.

  “She went ahead,” Gaspar said.

  “Are you sure that’s safe?”

  “Imogen will be fine.”

  “With the El’aras, you don’t know—”

  “I know.”

  Gavin just nodded. There wasn’t anything else to say. He took a deep breath and began to focus on the energy deep within him. That was the key. That was what Gaspar wanted. What they needed. By holding onto that strength, he could find something deep within him. He had to find it.

  Unless it really was gone.

  Old lessons came to him about ignoring all distractions, including those of his own body. They were lessons Tristan had made sure he learned—and learned well. Tristan had wanted Gavin to know how to draw upon power, to be able to reach for strength, and to use it in a way that would allow him to dig deep within himself. Gavin could do that now.