A Champion Falls Read online

  A CHAMPION FALLS

  THE CHAIN BREAKER BOOK 8

  D.K. HOLMBERG

  Copyright © 2022 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover by Damonza.com

  All rights reserved.

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  CONTENTS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Author’s Note

  Series by D.K. Holmberg

  CHAPTER ONE

  The El’aras ring constricted on his finger slightly, and Gavin twisted it to try to get the ring into a comfortable position. He could feel a surge of power coming through the object, but it was faint. He didn’t have any idea what he felt, only that there was something to it.

  “What’s wrong?” Wrenlow asked. He had his hand up against the wall, tracing his fingers against the writing on it. The book that Tristan had left Gavin was flopped open in front of him. Wrenlow compared the two, working from one to the other, as if searching for answers to a puzzle that only he could figure out.

  And it was likely that only he could. Wrenlow was the person who had solved some of the issues that had plagued Tristan’s ability to find the third temple. It was because of Wrenlow that he had succeeded.

  Gavin looked at the walls along the length of the El’aras hall. They glowed with faint blue light, the result of him pouring power out of himself and into them. He turned his attention back to Wrenlow. “It’s just the ring.”

  “Is it still bothering you?”

  Gavin nodded. “Still.”

  Wrenlow paused, lowered his hands from the wall, and glanced down at the book. The writing in the hall made it so that enough light illuminated everything, giving him plenty to see by, though it was possible that he didn’t even need the light. Gavin didn’t know for sure, but he suspected that Wrenlow had an enchantment on him that would allow him to see even without any light in the tunnel.

  “The book doesn’t really say anything about what happened,” Wrenlow said.

  “I doubted it would.”

  “I thought that maybe…” Wrenlow shook his head and scrubbed a hand through his shaggy brown hair, then shrugged at Gavin. “Well, I thought that maybe I would figure something out. I had hoped I’d find an answer here.”

  “I still think you will.”

  “I know it’s likely.” There was no evidence of arrogance in the way Wrenlow said it, especially given that what was written on the walls wasn’t in his natural language, and that he had to piece together details from what he claimed were three different languages used in the book.

  Gavin might be good at patterns, but this was on another level beyond what he could manage. And it required a level of patience that he simply didn’t have.

  “It’s just that I was hoping I would find something to help you understand the ring and what happened with the nihilar,” Wrenlow said.

  Gavin twisted the ring again. He could still feel the strange influence it had taken on when he had drawn the power of the nihilar into the ring. From what he’d been able to tell, it hadn’t destroyed the ring, though it had altered it, along with the power Gavin could call upon. He was just beginning to try to understand that kind of power, but it had changed and was now so different than what he had hoped to use and understand before.

  “You don’t need to be down here with me,” Wrenlow said. He turned his attention back to the wall, tracing his finger along its surface again. “I am perfectly content to stay down here myself.”

  “I know you are. I’m just—”

  “You’re bored. That’s what you are.” Wrenlow smirked at him. “I’ve seen that side of you before, Gavin. And when you get bored, you tend to cause trouble.”

  “Are you saying it’s time for me to leave?”

  “I don’t want you to leave,” Wrenlow said.

  Gavin smiled to himself, realizing that Wrenlow made a point of not actually answering the question. When Gavin had left Yoran the last time, he had done so thinking that he was going to be gone for quite a bit longer and that he would try to learn about his El’aras abilities, mostly so he wouldn’t be a detriment if something were to happen. He had known that there was more to his ability than he had mastered so far. Gavin thought he would have time to come to terms with what those abilities meant, but it seemed as if events continued to conspire against him, preventing him from doing all that he thought he needed to.

  For his part, Wrenlow continued working.

  “I’m going to look at the inside of the temple again,” Gavin said.

  “Are we sure that it’s a temple? I know you and the others think it has to be, given the way it was situated, but the markings aren’t the same as other temples I visited over the years. It’s unusual.”

  “Which is why I think it probably is a temple,” Gavin said.

  Wrenlow shrugged. He glanced from the book up to the writing on the walls from time to time.

  Gavin took a deep breath, and the stale air filled his lungs. He worked his way down to the larger chamber that was situated somewhat beneath Yoran but also outside of it. It was connected through a series of tunnels that he believed were all tied to the El’aras, though he increasingly started to question whether that was the case.

  The walls were irregular, and they weren’t etched with the same markings that were in the other halls leading up to it. There were remnants of sculptures that once had been here, though time had caused them to crumble. Some paint lingered on the walls, though even that wasn’t easy for him to decipher. Wrenlow had attempted to piece together whether there was anything useful written on the walls but had not found anything.

  A white light glowed in the distance, and Gavin immediately focused on his core reserves to call on the power within himself. He anticipated that there would be a greater danger, but he released it when he realized who was inside the chamber.

  “Tristan,” Gavin said, shaking his head as he stopped in the doorway leading into the chamber.

  Tristan turned back and looked at him, his fingers working in a pattern at his side. “Am I not permitted here?”

  “I haven’t decided.”

  Tristan snorted, then turned his attention back to a section of the wall that had more writing on it than others. “I’m convinced there’s something here,” he said, as if that was an explanation.

  “Wrenlow has been through here, and he hasn’t found anything,” Gavin said, approaching him and looking at the wall.

  Tristan turned to Gavin, a faint smile curling his lips. His eyes were a flat blue, somewhat paler than Gavin’s own eyes. “And I should trust him?”

  Gavin shrugged. “Well, seeing as how he was able to analyze something that you weren’t able to, I would think you’d rely on Wrenlow’s interpretation.”

  Tristan said nothing for a bit as he continued to stare at the wall. “I have spent far more time studying this than you,” he finally said.

  “I’m certain of it.”

  Gavin remained on edge and called on his core reserves again, feeling the power that existed within him. It was buried deeply, a part of him that had been locked inside until he’d learned the key to how to release it. It had taken Gavin a long time to understand how to do that, and even now he didn’t use his abilities to their fullest potential. The other El’aras he had interacted with always used their core reserves—or their magic—in a continuous fashion, something that Gavin had tried but found far too exhausting. There were benefits to the way the El’aras used their magic, though. Benefits that Gavin did not have. If he were able to use his in a similar manner, he would be able to keep himself augmented at all times, enhancing his eyesight, hearing, speed, and strength—all improvements that Gavin had to intentionally focus on.

  But there were other advantages for him in the way he used them.

  He could avoid drawing on his core reserves and suppress that power, something that had been critical when he’d faced the nihilar. Without that ability, Gavin might have been overwhelmed.

  “Are you just going to stand there,” Tristan said, “or are you going to have the conversation with me you’ve been aching to have?” He didn’t turn back to Gavin and instead simply stared at the wall.

  Gavin took a step toward him. He wasn’t going to stand behind Tristan any longer.

  “I haven’t been aching to ask you anything.”

  Tristan snorted. “We both know that’s not true.”

  “What we know is that you have continued to try to manipulate me. And to be honest, I’ve allowed it.”

  “Is this your
way of telling me that you don’t plan on letting me manipulate you any longer?” Tristan chuckled again. “Because I’m not trying to coerce you into taking action you don’t want.”

  “Not openly,” Gavin said.

  “Not at all.” Tristan finally looked over to him. His eyes narrowed for a moment, taking on some of the hardness that Gavin remembered from when he’d worked with Tristan as a child.

  It was a look that Gavin had feared until he’d gained enough skill to understand that it was Tristan’s way of encouraging Gavin to find strength within himself. Even now, Gavin tried to do that, but he didn’t know how he could, and he didn’t know whether he had what he needed.

  From time to time, he still felt as if he were that child all those years ago, a child who had been taught to fight, when he could have learned how to control the power within himself. Or maybe he couldn’t have. He just didn’t know.

  “What are you looking for here?” Gavin asked. He knew he wasn’t going to get anywhere trying to argue with Tristan.

  “This is ancient,” Tristan said, ignoring the question as if moving on was the very thing that he had wanted all along. “Old enough that it predates the El’aras.”

  Gavin had started to suspect that, but then Wrenlow’s comment about it had confirmed it. “How much earlier than the El’aras?”

  Tristan frowned. “I had archives that I once had access to, but unfortunately, I’ve been separated from them.”

  Gavin laughed. “You had archives?”

  “Do you think that all I know how to do is fight?”

  “You made sure that was all I knew how to do.”

  “How long do you think I trained?”

  The sudden change in topic jarred Gavin a little bit, though he knew that it shouldn’t. “Considering what I’ve heard about you, I would imagine hundreds of years.”

  Tristan glowered at him. “Exactly. You will live equally long, or at least you have the opportunity to. Once you have mastery of one aspect of yourself, then you can begin to work on others.”

  “So you were wanting to make sure that I had mastery of the physical aspect of myself,” Gavin said, shaking his head. “I see.”

  “You don’t, but that’s just because you don’t have the opportunity to truly understand. Maybe in time you will, but even if you don’t, it doesn’t matter. Those of us who have lived longer, seen more—we understand the dangers that exist, and we understand everything that needs to be done.”

  “Is that right?”

  Tristan shrugged. “Right as rain.”

  Gavin decided not to push. “Did you know the nihilar would be here?”

  Tristan shook his head. “I told you. I knew of two of the temples, and even those two were challenging. Really, I only knew of one, and the second I only came up with recently.”

  “So you knew about Hester, and you learned about Arashil recently, but you didn’t understand that Yoran was somehow tied to all of it?”

  That seemed far-fetched, especially given everything that Gavin had seen within Yoran while he’d been working here.

  “I knew it was important,” Tristan said. “There are enough records that reference this place. Maybe not Yoran in particular, but what it was before.”

  “And what was it before?”

  “The El’aras called it Val’athan.”

  Gavin had talked to Anna about many things during her time in the city, but she’d never mentioned that. “And before that?” he asked.

  Tristan turned his attention back to the wall in front of him, and he frowned for a long moment. “That, I’ve been trying to work out.”

  “You don’t know.”

  “And neither do you. Or your friend, for that matter. He’s using the archives I’ve found to come up with answers, and he won’t be any more likely to do that than I will be.”

  “Only that it’s Wrenlow,” Gavin said.

  “There you go again, thinking that somebody who’s barely into their twenties can understand things that have taken me centuries to learn.”

  “And there you go again with the arrogance that your age somehow matters when it comes to this.”

  Tristan glanced over to him, but he said nothing.

  Gavin left him and made a small circuit of the inside of the temple.

  This was where he had fought Chauvan and barely survived, and also where he had started to have a greater understanding of the nihilar. The silver metal staff that Chauvan had brought here to summon the nihilar remained propped up against one of the stone walls, looking almost as if it were left behind. Gavin had studied it, but he hadn’t found anything from the staff that would help him better understand Chauvan or what he had been after. Wrenlow hadn’t understood anything either.

  Gavin was left either trusting Tristan or reaching out to others who might be able to help. When he’d tried to contact Anna using his enchantment designed to communicate with her, there had been nothing but silence on the other end. This was despite the fact that he had somehow connected to the enchantment in a way that should have allowed him to communicate more effectively to her, but there was nothing. Just emptiness.

  “Take a look at this,” Tristan called.

  Gavin grabbed the metal staff and made his way over.

  Tristan regarded the staff for a moment before turning his attention back to the wall. He pointed to a section that Gavin couldn’t quite make out. “Do you see these markings here?”

  Gavin wouldn’t call that writing, though there were grooves in the stone. He focused on his core reserves, drawing on his awareness of them to try to augment his eyesight. The technique was one that Anna had taught him how to use and master, and though he was not nearly as skilled at doing so as many of the El’aras were, Gavin could improve his eyesight well enough to be useful for something like this.

  “I see something here,” he said.

  “Something,” Tristan replied, shaking his head. “There’s something all right, but it is the pattern that matters.” He looked up at Gavin expectantly. “I suppose you can’t see anything from that?”

  Gavin shrugged. “I can see the pattern, but I can’t really make out anything within it otherwise.”

  “That’s too bad.”

  Gavin stared. “And you think I should?”

  “I think there should be something there that you, of all people, should be able to come up with, but maybe that was my mistake.”

  “Maybe it was.”

  “You know, I did train you better than this,” Tristan said.

  “Oh, I know that you want me to believe you were responsible for all things,” Gavin muttered. Irritation flared within him, as it often did these days around Tristan. It wasn’t anger, which he had felt for a long time, so much as it was frustration.

  “Now you are acting like a spoiled child.”

  “Is that right?”

  “It is,” Tristan said, but he laughed slightly as he did. “And you act as if I have somehow wronged you.”

  “I’m not so sure you haven’t in some way,” Gavin said.

  “You’re not sure, which means that you were not wronged. Otherwise, you would know.”

  Gavin snorted. “You can tell yourself whatever you need to keep yourself content.” He leaned forward, tracing his finger over the markings, and he hated that he did start to see a regularity to the pattern. As much as he wanted to deny that Tristan had taught him well, he had.

  Gavin had become the fighter he had because of Tristan’s instructions. He’d become the assassin he had because of what Tristan had demanded of him. And he’d come to understand the patterns that existed around him because of Tristan’s training.

  As he studied them, he started to piece together a pattern in the scratches in the stone. At first, it was subtle, but the more he stared, the more certain he was of that pattern.

  “You see something,” Tristan said.

  Gavin smiled. “I would’ve expected you to pick up on something as well.”