The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3

by Holmberg, D. K.

  Gavin backed to the opposite side of the street, and he stood for a moment, looking around. He didn’t see anyone nor any sign of movement. Certainly nothing that would make him think he had emerged someplace dangerous.

  “Gavin?”

  Gavin breathed out. He felt a little embarrassed about how relieved he was to hear Wrenlow’s voice. “I’m here.”

  “Something has—”

  Wrenlow fell silent.

  “Wrenlow? If you can hear me, I’ll be right there.”

  Chapter Ten

  He approached the Dragon slowly. There wasn’t anything about it that screamed that he would find a problem, only the fact that Wrenlow had fallen silent. He’d tried using the enchantment, but there had been no answer.

  Gavin reached the alley leading toward the Dragon. He walked by, keeping the hood of his cloak over his head, moving past the tavern as if it hadn’t been his destination. In doing so, he chanced a look around, sweeping his gaze everywhere. Then he finally turned the corner.

  He thought he saw something behind him, though that flutter of movement may only have been his imagination. Gavin could no longer tell. Given what he’d gone through so far today, he felt as if he were overreacting to everything. He looped all the way back around, heading toward the Dragon from a different direction.

  He could still make out the tavern in the distance, but as he watched, he realized there was something strange about it.

  Constables.

  Gavin frowned. The constables left them alone. Ever since the last attack, they’d ignored the tavern, making a point of completely avoiding this area.

  Was that why Wrenlow had fallen silent?

  He approached the Dragon from the back street. He didn’t want anything happening to the Dragon. Not only because he cared about Jessica, but the tavern had grown on him.

  When he reached it, he paused for a moment and looked around, but he didn’t see anything. The constables had to be patrolling and waiting for him to come through. He reached an alleyway and headed to the end of it. He kicked his legs out to the side and scrambled up the walls, using the narrow buildings to give him enough of a grip as he climbed to the top.

  Once on the rooftop, he crawled forward, moving carefully. What drew his attention was not on the street as he’d expected. This was on the roof level with him. On the opposite roof, the constable looked below, probably watching for him. Gavin scrambled back down and reached the alley, keeping the hood of his cloak up as he crossed the street. He then scaled up to the rooftop from another alley. He crawled along, heading toward the constable.

  Gavin slipped as quietly as he could. He approached the constable from behind and smiled. “This is an interesting place for you to get some sleep.”

  The constable turned around and started to back away, but Gavin jerked the El’aras dagger free and shoved it toward him. It glowed slightly. Enchantments? “You and I are going to have a conversation.”

  The constable’s gaze darted past Gavin.

  He wasn’t alone.

  Gavin spun and kicked the second constable’s legs out from under him. This one wore a gray cloak that blended into the rooftop. He had a long dagger, though not El’aras as far as Gavin could tell. He stayed on his hands and knees, the dagger gripped in one hand, watching Gavin.

  “Two of you?” Gavin said. “Doesn’t Davel know I don’t enjoy being observed like that?”

  “Davel is well aware of what you like. And he’s also well aware that it makes little difference when it impacts his responsibility to the city.”

  Gavin turned slowly at the familiar voice. “Davel Chan.”

  Davel Chan was short and stout, with dark hair, thin wrinkles along the corners of his eyes, and a tight-lipped smile. His wide cheekbones carried just a hint of a beard, as if he had simply neglected to shave for the last few days rather than intentionally grown it. He had on a thin cloak over the gray jacket and pants worn by the constables, along with a small pouch strapped to his waist. He carried no weapon, but given that he would have enchantments on him, Gavin wasn’t surprised by that.

  “Gavin Lorren. I shouldn’t be surprised you observed us, but I must admit to feeling a little impressed,” Davel Chan said.

  “Your men aren’t the best at concealing their presence.”

  “I think we’re better than you give us credit for.”

  Gavin shrugged. “If you think so, but I still found you.”

  “And I found you.”

  “I presume that one or more of you are in the Dragon?”

  Davel cocked his head to the side, frowning. “What?”

  “It’s nothing,” Gavin said. Perhaps the constable didn’t know Wrenlow had observed him. “What do you need?”

  “What makes you think I need anything? Perhaps I’m only checking in on you.”

  “I think we’re both aware of how that went for you the last time,” Gavin said.

  He was tempted to reach into his pocket for the enchantment for speed and strength. Facing the constables, he often felt as if he needed to have more of an advantage than he did. Not that he feared that Davel Chan would attack. They had an uneasy alliance, at least for now. Chan needed him for access to the jade egg to make enchantments.

  “Careful,” Davel said, his gaze flicking from one constable to the other.

  “You don’t want them to know?”

  “There’s no purpose in them knowing anything more than they need to,” Davel said.

  Gavin glanced over to the constables. They watched him, both now armed, as if ready to attack. Two constables weren’t enough to eliminate Gavin. Davel would know that as well. Which suggested that they were enchanted.

  “Are you here because of what happened to the Captain?” he asked. He shouldn’t be surprised that Davel would learn so quickly.

  Davel frowned. “What happened?”

  He didn’t know.

  Between that, and the strange attack he’d seen, he would have expected Davel to have known. “Why are you here?”

  “For what we agreed on. That you would provide access to the egg when requested.”

  Gavin shook his head. It wasn’t about the Fates. “I didn’t agree to that. It was your request, but I never made any claim I would honor it.”

  Davel watched him, a dangerous glint in his eyes. “You understand the repercussions if you choose not to permit access.”

  “Maybe I don’t. Perhaps you should remind me.”

  Davel slipped closer to him, the enchantments making him move more rapidly than Gavin could. He didn’t like the idea of battling Davel on the rooftop, even though he didn’t think he would be at too much of a disadvantage. Davel was skilled, but Gavin had already proven his ability in countering him despite his enchantments.

  “You know what will happen,” Davel said.

  Movement near the street caught Gavin’s attention, and he hazarded a brief glance. It was a mistake.

  Davel pressed a knife up to Gavin’s belly. “The egg.”

  Gavin didn’t move, though he wasn’t sure that he really needed to move. Even though he had a knife to his belly, he doubted that Davel intended to use it. Besides, it wouldn’t be the first time that he had a knife jabbed into his belly.

  “There has been magical movement in the city,” Davel said. “Sorcery. I know you don’t care too much about that, but we have had stability within Yoran for decades.”

  “Only because you betrayed those who align themselves with you,” Gavin reminded.

  “You weren’t here,” Davel said.

  Gavin smiled. “I wasn’t, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know what happened.”

  There was another slight movement along the street, and Gavin glanced down, trying to gauge what it was that he saw. At this point, with Davel holding the knife up to his belly, it didn’t really matter whether Gavin turned his attention to anything down below. If Davel wanted to attack him, he would do so.

  Gavin knew better than to ignore things that caught his
attention. He knew he’d seen some sort of movement. He stared for a moment before finally pulling his gaze away, and he looked over at the two constables.

  They weren’t here because of the Fates. Not directly.

  Which meant Wrenlow had reached out to him for another reason.

  He turned his attention back to Davel. “I can get you access to the egg but not right now.”

  “That also wasn’t the agreement.”

  “The agreement wasn’t that you would get unlimited access,” Gavin said. “The agreement was that you would have access. I get to decide when and where, and I get to decide how it happens.” He started to stand.

  Davel followed him, continuing to hold the knife up against Gavin’s stomach.

  Gavin shot him a look. “Unless you intend to use that knife against me, I would place that back in your sheath.”

  “The same way you haven’t replaced your dagger in your sheath?”

  Gavin glanced down, smiling. “You mean this one?” He shoved it slightly forward, driving it toward Davel’s side. The El’aras dagger pressed up against his side enough for the point to bite into the flesh.

  Davel winced, jerking away.

  Gavin backed away, sliding the El’aras dagger into its sheath, grinning briefly at Davel. “Send word of when and where you want to meet.”

  “You know where I want to meet.”

  “I’m not coming to your barracks.”

  “Do you really think I will do something to you there?”

  Gavin shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

  “You have been granted safe passage in the city. Isn’t that reassurance enough?”

  Gavin glanced toward the other two constables. “No. Send word where you want to meet, and you’d better keep the number of constables down. Otherwise, you might find that the egg isn’t nearly as accessible as you hoped.”

  Gavin slipped back, holding on to the dagger. The blade glowed softly.

  How long had it been doing that?

  Long enough.

  The Fate.

  Davel glared at him, but Gavin ignored it, reaching the edge of the rooftop and dropping down. He lingered for a moment on the street and looked for any sign of movement. Something was not quite right.

  He glanced overhead. The constables—other than Davel—had moved toward the edge of the rooftop and watched him.

  Let them.

  There didn’t seem to be anything near the Dragon, though he had to be careful. Circling around, he reached the alley and slipped the El’aras dagger out of the sheath to see if it was still glowing. Unfortunately, it was.

  It wouldn’t be because of the constables. They might have enchantments, but they weren’t enchanters. As far as Gavin knew, there shouldn’t be anyone here who used that kind of power.

  Maybe he’d made a mistake not encouraging Davel to follow him in.

  An idea started to come to him. Gavin darted forward, and he walked through the door leading into the kitchen of the Dragon. He paused a moment. The kitchen was empty and smelled of bread, though he saw no loaves anywhere. A single lantern glowed softly in the center of the kitchen, resting on one of the counters. The air was cool, evidence that the ovens had not been lit recently. He smelled no roasted meats, no vegetables, and no ale. All of it reminded him just how little the Dragon had been working as a tavern recently.

  When he reached the door leading out into the tavern, he waited another moment, looking out. The Dragon was quiet. He didn’t see any sign of Wrenlow or Jessica or anyone else. The dagger still glowed.

  He opened the door and slipped along the back wall. He didn’t see anything, but experience had shown him there were times when he might not see what was there. He crept toward the back staircase.

  When he reached the door leading up to the rooms, he pressed his hand on it, then continued moving around the tavern. Reaching the fireplace, Gavin hesitated.

  He tapped on the enchantment.

  “If you’re there, give me some sort of alert,” he whispered.

  He didn’t hear anything.

  Could something have happened to Wrenlow?

  The Dragon had been attacked too many times because of Gavin, and he knew he needed to be cautious and move carefully, but at this point, he had no idea whether there was anything to be concerned about. It might only be him overreacting.

  He continued around the wall. “Wrenlow?” he whispered.

  Gavin slipped the El’aras dagger into its sheath and switched over to the sword. When he unsheathed it, the blade blazed with a bright white light.

  He turned slowly in place, looking all around. He hesitated a moment, then he took a step forward. Pressure built around him.

  There it is.

  He’d been waiting for a sign of magic. There was a faint shimmer at the corner of his vision, something that suggested the sorcerers had somehow shrouded the entire inside of the tavern in a way that prevented him from seeing what else was here.

  Tricky.

  Gavin took another step forward, shifting the sword so that it gradually cut through the power holding him. He didn’t want to use it too abruptly and play his hand too quickly, but he needed to use it in a way that allowed him to step forward so that the sorcerer couldn’t hold on to him.

  Gavin dragged the sword with him.

  Then he felt tension. The pressure around him was different, though he remembered that feeling. It came from the floor, wrapping around his feet, working its way up his legs, reminding him of what he had experienced the night that he’d been attacked by the Fates.

  Which meant the Fate was here.

  Chapter Eleven

  Gavin took a moment to focus his breathing. He needed to gather himself to ensure the Fate didn’t use his power against him and prevent him from breaking free. He reached for that deep part of him. These days, he found himself reaching for the core reserves far more often than he ever had before. It was like a pool buried deep within him.

  When he had trained while younger, learning how to access that power, it had been some distant part of him that he had understood to be there but only accessed when he needed it. Emergencies, essentially. These days, Gavin found that everything became an emergency.

  What had happened to Wrenlow and Jessica?

  There might have been others in the tavern that had been impacted by the Fate as well, and he would have to offer them protection. Gavin didn’t see anything here. The only thing he was aware of was a persistent sense of pressure slowly snaking around him.

  The more he felt it, the clearer he was that the sensation twisting around his legs continued to build, working up around his chest, slowly easing into position, making it so he could barely move.

  It started to constrict.

  As he pushed against it, he could feel a strange barricade as it bulged, though didn’t break. He was the Chain Breaker, and that was the strength he needed to get free of the Fates. Invisible power continued to constrict, and a shadow separated from the rest.

  Gavin gripped the sword as the shadow came toward him.

  “Where is it?” a voice asked.

  Gavin couldn’t make out the source of the voice. Everything was shadowed around him. They were using some sort of concealment upon him, making it so that he couldn’t find what they were doing or where they were.

  “Where is what?” Gavin found getting the words out to be more difficult than he would have expected.

  The shadow came closer and stepped into his field of vision. It was the same bearded Fate he had seen the night before. “You made a mistake attacking me. I will have it.”

  He had a strange voice and a deep, booming quality to it. Gavin almost smiled to himself. It had to be magically enhanced; something like an enchantment.

  It made him wonder how this sorcerer’s voice would sound without the enchantment. Probably weak. A man who needed to enchant his voice would be afraid.

  Gavin knew how to handle someone like that.

  If only he c
ould break free.

  The strange sword was powerful enough that Gavin thought that it should carve through the magic. Only, as he attempted to push against whatever the Fates did to him, Gavin found the resistance more than what he could withstand.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re the one who took it from the Captain.” Gavin grew increasingly annoyed with the Fate. He still couldn’t make out much detail of the sorcerer, but he could feel him as he pressed against Gavin. There was a strange odor to him as well. “How much longer do you think you can hold me?”

  “I have much experience holding others. You are no more challenge than anyone else.”

  “I am Gavin Lorren, the Chain Breaker.”

  The sorcerer chuckled as he stepped closer. “You have believed yourself to be the Chain Breaker, but this is no chain.” The power continued to constrict around him, feeling almost as if it were something alive. It slithered along his skin.

  Gavin could no longer hold the sword out from him, rendering it useless. Any attempt to free himself from what he detected was pointless. There was nothing that he could do.

  The sorcerer held him. “You will find that it hurts less when you stop struggling.”

  “I’m not going to stop.”

  “Then you will suffer. As your friends suffer.”

  Much like the sorcerer had said, when Gavin stopped struggling, the constriction around him began to ease. He could still feel it writhing, almost as if it were trying to work its way around him and gain a better position, but it no longer hurt.

  “What did you do to them?” Gavin said.

  They must be here somewhere.

  How had he found us?

  It hadn’t taken him that long to get here when Wrenlow had called for him.

  “They thought to fight. They made a mistake, and they will pay for it.”

  “If you do anything to them—”

  “What do you think you can do with these threats of yours, Gavin Lorren?” The sorcerer took a step toward him, and the energy coming from him persisted, building even more. “What do you think you are capable of doing? Anything you can do, I have already prepared for. Now. Where is it?”