The Paper Dragon (The Chain Breaker Book 5) Read online

  As she spun with her blade, carving it around in a sharp arc, Ruhid couldn’t keep up with her. He tried to block and defend himself, but every time he did, Imogen continued to press the attack.

  Ruhid fumbled. Imogen brought the hilt of her sword up and slammed it into his forehead, and he crumpled to the ground. She sheathed her sword quickly and turned, looking for the others around them.

  “What was that?” Gaspar asked.

  “He has made bargains with outsiders,” a dark-haired man said. He had delicate features, but a scar lingered on one cheek. “We objected, but he had more power than us. We could not stop him. When he wanted to find the keystone, he claimed he had a way of controlling it.”

  Imogen bowed to him slightly. “Matrin,” she said.

  “Imogen. He demanded that we find it,” Matrin said. “We did not want to, but it was how we had to protect ourselves. We didn’t have any choice.”

  “There is always a choice.”

  “Not when it came to him. With whatever power he allied with, he demanded we follow.”

  The fallen man lay motionless. Imogen’s gaze lingered on him, and Gavin couldn’t help but wonder what thoughts were going through her mind. She had returned here, but Gavin didn’t have the sense that she had expected to find anything like this. Rather, she likely had anticipated coming and finding only an answer to what had taken place with the hyadan. Instead, it seemed she had more questions.

  “One of the stones was used on me,” Imogen said.

  “I tried to intervene. I wanted to give you a warning,” Matrin said. “You should have heard of that by now. She was there…”

  Gavin frowned. The girl he’d followed. “That was a warning?”

  “It was his way of testing whether it worked.” Matrin shook his head. “I tried but failed. I wasn’t strong enough. I am sorry, First.”

  Imogen breathed out and turned to him. “Show me the stones.”

  “Do you care to tell me what is going on here?” Gavin asked her, but she ignored him.

  “Come,” Matrin said, motioning for them to go with him. “This is something you should see.”

  Gavin followed and held on to his sword.

  Matrin guided them toward a back wall. From there, he pressed on what looked to be a door, which came open slowly. A hall stretched in front of them.

  “What is this place?” Gavin asked.

  “I told you that this was all part of an old temple. And now they have brought darkness into a sacred place and tainted it. They should not have,” Imogen said.

  This section of the tunnel was narrower, and they had to walk in a single file line. The ceiling was low as well, forcing Gavin to duck. At least they wouldn’t be surprised here, he thought, and he marveled at the fact that all of this existed in the first place. An entire underground community, all of it interconnected.

  Imogen remained tense as they went.

  They reached another door. Matrin pulled out a key and unlocked it, which opened up into a larger room. Rows of bins and shelves lined the walls, and a single lantern glowed in the middle of the room, crackling with a faint light. Everything was cast in pale orange, but above the lantern, shadows moved and swirled. It was unsettling.

  As soon as the door had come open, Gavin felt a dark energy pressing on him, as if there was some sort of power that tried to squeeze him. He focused on his core reserves, wanting to ignore that power that attempted to constrict him, but the feeling was overwhelming.

  And familiar.

  It reminded him of the dark energy that had attacked them before.

  Imogen ran forward and stood in the center of the room, sweeping her gaze all around her. She squeezed the hilt of her sword and looked as though she wanted to unsheathe the weapon, but she didn’t.

  Instead, she turned, eyes darting around until she settled on Matrin, anger flashing in her expression. Gavin thought he understood. He could feel it here too, the cold presence that seemed to press all around him, answering the question he had. He knew what was contained in this place.

  “What is it?” Gaspar asked.

  Gavin stepped into the room, trying to ignore the dark energy around them, trying to ignore everything he could feel, only focusing on the power here. Pressure continued to build around him and constrict. He had to try something else, something more.

  “This was—is—the hyadan,” Imogen answered.

  Chapter Fourteen

  They looked at the strange bins filled with the power. Gavin unsheathed the El’aras dagger. He could feel the energy around him.

  “Why is it so potent if they’re contained?” Gavin asked.

  She looked over to Matrin, who nodded. “Long ago, the keystone was used to duplicate and create more hyadan stones. But it required someone with the right power, as well as possession of the keystone, to activate this ability. Without it, the stones were inactive. It was how we managed to gather as many as we did, and remove them as a threat.”

  “How are there so many here?”

  “When I chased the keystone, there was one who thought to turn them against me. They replicated the stones, but I had trained enough of the Muvarth to work with me. They had not counted on that.”

  Gavin watched her, realizing that she made several admissions in that statement: One was that her people didn’t fear sorcery. The other was that these creatures, which seemed to target those with magic, would have been attracted to her people.

  Unless they were just a threat to all people. He didn’t really know.

  “We could not destroy them.” She looked over to Gavin, holding his gaze. “Much like I could not destroy the keystone. But without that keystone, these were useless. Until now.”

  “So you stored them?”

  He stopped in front of one of the bins, and he looked down into it. He couldn’t see much, so he pushed a bit of power out through him and let it flow out from the El’aras dagger. A soft blue light glowed from the blade, enough that Gavin could see through the darkness.

  The bin nearest him held three black stones. They reminded him of what he had seen when he had faced the hyadan in the city, and they had the same dark energy. As he held the El’aras dagger up to it, he considered crushing that power through the stone.

  Imogen grabbed his wrist, shaking her head. “It’s not necessary.”

  “These can be used by the wrong person,” he said. “You said all of this was dangerous.”

  She nodded. “It is. All of it is. And to be honest, I hadn’t expected these people to be responsible for this. We had defeated the hyadan.” She looked over to Matrin, who frowned. “Had I known that they would have turned the hyadan stones against me and used them again, I would’ve taken all of them with me. Regardless of how difficult it was. I could not destroy them, but I was determined to find one who could.”

  Gavin could do that, but it took a great deal of effort.

  “What about the Society?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I will not go to them.”

  His brows furrowed. He swept the El’aras dagger around the room, pressing power out from within him. As he did, the glowing continued to intensify, allowing him to see everything clearly. Gavin could make out the details and how many stones there were. Dozens upon dozens of them. And all of them were simply stored here.

  It was almost too much for him to believe.

  Matrin looked over to Imogen. “They cannot be destroyed.”

  “They cannot be defeated that easily,” Imogen said to him. “There are too many here to efficiently destroy.”

  Gavin turned his attention to one of the nearest bins. “I would be happy to give it a try,” he said.

  With as many were here, it would take days to do it. Maybe weeks.

  “If this place exists, then it’s dangerous for others,” Gavin said.

  “Only if they get to it,” Imogen said.

  “If you knew about this, then why did you leave?”

  He would have thought that Imogen wo
uld want to stay to protect whatever was here, to ensure that their power wouldn’t be used to cause more destruction.

  She stared at the bins with a different expression than Gavin did. Hers was more of curiosity, whereas Gavin felt disgusted by what he saw.

  “Come,” Matrin said. “We can talk, but not here.”

  He cast a glance around the room before turning away, and he motioned for them to follow. They walked with Matrin out of the room, and as Gavin hurried behind, he glanced back.

  Theren stood motionless, with a dark, unreadable expression on his face. On the journey to the city, Gavin would have called him jovial—perhaps amused most of the time—but ever since reaching Loruv, some aspect of him had changed, as if he were worried about what he had experienced.

  Maybe that was all it was.

  It was difficult to know what he was thinking, but there was something different about him now. Theren lingered for a moment, sweeping his gaze around, and a deep frown creased his brow.

  “What is it?” Gavin asked him.

  “I had heard of the hyadan before. Stories only.” He stared at the bins of stones. “What I know of them is limited. They are darkness, and within that darkness is a challenge for our people, and all those who have power. They were once known near my homeland.” He sighed. “But they were destroyed before any had a chance to study them.”

  Gavin looked around the room one last time before motioning for Theren to follow. They exited the room and Matrin pulled the door closed, and he used his strange key to lock it again.

  Gavin thought they would go back to the main hall, but they didn’t. Matrin led them down a side tunnel, which they headed along until it began to widen. By the time they reached the end of it, Gavin expected them to walk back up above ground. They reached another doorway and stepped through.

  They reentered the room where they had first come upon Ruhid, and Gavin noticed a feeling of energy there. He took a seat at the table and looked across at where Imogen had sat. Her hands rested on the table, though her fingers twitched, as if she didn’t like sitting there without a weapon in hand. Her eyes had more shadows in them than they usually did.

  “You know what we have dealt with.” Matrin leaned forward, and he locked eyes with Imogen. “You promised to help us find a way to keep ourselves safe.”

  Imogen breathed out a frustrated sigh. “Safe from the sorcerers. Safe from the Society. I taught you to defend yourselves against the hyadan and dark sorcery. And then the Twelve committed themselves to helping expunge the hyadan.”

  “The Twelve?” Gavin asked softly.

  She sighed, glancing toward him, the irritation in her face softening slightly. “A dozen of the finest swordsmen I could train. All more capable than any others in the city. Muvarth who had learned the lessons my earliest instructors had taught…”

  “And you were the First,” he said, starting to understand.

  She slammed a fist on the table. “Now nothing I did matters.”

  Gavin watched her. He didn’t understand everything Imogen had been through, but he suspected this had to do with her bond quest. She was angry, and from what Gavin could tell, she had good reason to be. The people she had been working with, people she believed should have defended her, had abandoned her teachings, and they had betrayed her trust.

  And they had preserved the hyadan.

  “I told you who was responsible,” Matrin told her. “Ruhid thought he could save them. He thought we could use them as a line of defense if it came down to protecting ourselves from the Society.”

  “The Society was never the threat,” Imogen said, her voice pained and quiet. “And it was never the reason I trained you.”

  “But you spoke about sorcery—”

  “I spoke about sorcery with regards to my experience, not yours. Sorcerers never harmed your people.”

  Matrin stared at her, holding her gaze. “I thought my people were your people.”

  “As did I.” Imogen didn’t look away but pressed her lips together in a tight frown. “We need to find the keystone and destroy it. Then the rest of the stones cannot work.” She got to her feet. “I will speak with Ruhid when he comes around.”

  Imogen headed to the corner where Ruhid lay motionless. He was breathing, and Gavin could tell that he was more alert than he was letting on.

  “Careful,” he cautioned.

  Imogen nodded. She nudged Ruhid with one foot, and he sat up quickly. Her blade was unsheathed in a second, and at his throat a moment later. He looked up at her, eyes narrowed.

  “It is still here,” she said.

  Gavin frowned. “He said he gave it to someone else.”

  Imogen reached into her pocket, and she pulled out a small rectangular object made of a dark metal. “I can feel it. It’s close.” She stared at Ruhid. “You tried to conceal it, but you failed. You have it on you.”

  He glowered at her. “I will reclaim it. Regardless of what you try, I will reclaim—”

  She punched him in the face, and he hit the ground again. Imogen searched him and then pulled out a jet-black spherical stone he’d hidden in one of his pockets.

  Gavin could practically feel the malevolence within it.

  “I knew it was in Yoran but could never find it,” she said when Gavin approached.

  There was a reason, Gavin suspected, and one that he had a hand in removing from the city.

  “The Captain?” he asked.

  She nodded. “That’s what Gaspar long believed. The Captain’s connection to the enchantments made it difficult to find. I never learned who attacked me, but when the stone ended up in Yoran…”

  Had Tristan been involved with that as well? It would have been too recent for the Triad.

  “What now?” Gavin asked.

  “We must destroy it. You had the strength to destroy one of the minor stones. Do you think you could do it now?”

  Gavin took the keystone from her, though he did so reluctantly. “I don’t know. I can try, but if this is dark sorcery, I don’t know if I have enough control over my power.”

  He could feel Theren hovering behind him, and Gavin shot him a look. Theren grinned before backing away.

  Gavin set the stone on the ground. He focused on his core reserves, trying to call upon that power and push it through the ring. Much like every time he tried to reach for it, he found it there, but then it flickered—as if there was some attempt to block him.

  The barrier had to come from inside himself, but he couldn’t let that power fill him the way it needed to. He breathed in again and focused on his core reserves. Maybe that power would be enough, even without the ring.

  He took out his El’aras dagger and brought it up to the stone. He tried to press down on it with the blade, but the keystone pushed against him, crackling with a black energy. Gavin strained and reached for the ring again, but it didn’t come.

  He sighed, looking up at Imogen. “I’m sorry.”

  She grabbed the keystone off the ground. “It would’ve been too easy. We must go. I need to complete my bond quest, and that involves destroying the stone.”

  “Where?” Matrin asked. “You are the First of the Blade. You can’t leave us.”

  “I was the First of the Blade,” she said, getting to her feet and shooting him a look.

  “We could ask Anna,” Gavin said, leaning close to Imogen.

  She held his gaze. “Do you think she’s powerful enough?”

  “You saw her with the Shard. If anyone can do it, it would be her.”

  “That is worthwhile to try. For now, I will keep it safe until we decide what to do.” She turned to the door and paused there for a moment, holding her hand above it. “We will go in the morning,” she said to Gaspar, who simply nodded.

  They sat in silence after Imogen left, and Matrin stared at his hands, which rested on the table.

  “I’m sorry about what happened,” he said.

  “She feels used,” Gaspar said.

  Matrin sighed. �
�She has always felt used. We did not treat her well before her departure. Not all of us, at least. Especially given everything she did for us.”

  “What did you do to her?” Gavin asked.

  “We tried to keep her from leaving. It was a mistake. We wanted her here, to work with us, to help ensure that we remained safe from the Society, but she had her reasons.”

  Gavin glanced over to Gaspar. “Because she had to finish her quest?”

  Gaspar nodded.

  “We needed her,” Matrin said. “She was the First, and we had seen the Society becoming active here. They were bringing more and more of their sorcerers. We wanted to protect our people, and she was the only way that we knew to do that.”

  “Then you never understood her,” Gaspar said.

  He stood and left, and Matrin watched him go.

  “We need a place to stay for the night,” Gavin said. “It sounds like we will be leaving in the morning.”

  He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to leave yet, not until he better understood what was going on, but he had come here for Imogen and would do what she needed.

  Matrin guided Gavin to a door and pushed it open. “You can stay here for the evening,” he said. “If you need anything, anyone here will be willing to help you.”

  Gavin stepped inside and closed the door behind him. The windowless room reminded him of the dorm he’d stayed in when he’d been living with Tristan. A single cot ran along one wall, and there was an empty washbasin next to it. The whole space was sparse, but there was something cozy about it as well.

  Gavin lay down, resting his head, and drifted off to sleep.

  Dreams came to him—simple dreams that tied him to his past, to things he’d done before he’d joined up with his team. But they were dreams of memories, of where he’d been and who he’d been. They were dreams that served no purpose.

  As he started to come back around, he heard a voice in the back of his mind, one that almost seemed to be triggering him to wake up. It was a strange voice, and stranger still that Gavin could sense that voice and could feel its warning. As he opened his eyes, there was darkness around him, and it took him a moment to realize what he was seeing. That darkness swirled around him, filling everything in the space near him and overwhelming him.