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

  “My training helped me endure things I should not ever have to,” Gavin said softly.

  “No,” she agreed. “Even our most dedicated warriors do not suffer the way you did, but at the same time, you have demonstrated skill that rivals our greatest champions.”

  He flicked his gaze over to the door where the two El’aras were standing guard, and one of them twitched just a little bit. Enough that he knew they were listening.

  He shook his head again. “You’re going to upset them by making comments like that.”

  “They understand what you are capable of. They have seen the Chain Breaker.”

  “That’s not the reason they stayed, though,” Gavin said.

  He’d been trying to figure it out. In the weeks Anna had remained within Yoran, she had tried to instruct him, but it was a slow process, far slower than anything Gavin had ever done before. She continued teaching him, helping him master a way to not only hold on to the magic but to use it in a controlled fashion. In the time he’d been working with her, he’d found that he could call his core reserves more easily, though even that had not been all that difficult for him before. He’d been reliant on it lately, especially since learning that it was some magical store of power, and had begun to use it far more often than he thought was probably safe.

  That was part of the problem. Tristan had trained him to reach for that store of power only when he was in a desperate situation, and not to rely on it. Tristan had wanted him to learn how to fight his way out of any circumstance, and use his core reserves only when he would otherwise fail. It was why Gavin had hesitated when he had learned that it was magic.

  But that was the mistake. Gavin had this magic as a part of him, and it was for him to call upon, to use, to draw on so that he could compete. And as Anna had told him, it was no different than training in his fighting skills. Why shouldn’t he use something that was a part of him?

  “My guards came because they chose to protect me. I stayed for my own reasons,” Anna said. She regarded his hands, then glanced back to his eyes. “The moment you placed the ring on, you demonstrated something else.”

  Gavin looked down at the stone ring encircling his middle finger. He had tried to take it off multiple times, but there was something about the ring that had solidified to him. It didn’t hurt, but he simply could not remove it. He was tempted to try twisting it off and tearing it free again, but he’d already been unsuccessful. He doubted he would have any more luck now.

  Even so, he could feel the energy within the ring, as if he were meant to be aware of it. The feeling suggested there was some other power that flowed through him, more than just his own core reserves. This was something greater, a deeper source of energy he could access.

  “Toral power,” Gavin said.

  She smiled slightly. “When you come to understand what that means, perhaps you won’t think it quite the same, but yes, something similar to that. And it is because of that power that you needed greater help. It is because of that power that I could not leave you.”

  Gavin appreciated that she was willing to stay. Having Anna with him made it so that he felt as if he might actually learn to control magic. When he dealt with Tristan in the future, he would need every edge he had, especially because Tristan knew Gavin’s weaknesses.

  “I understand that it’s not Toral power, that it’s something different. It means something to the El’aras.” He tapped the hilt of the El’aras blade and looked up at her. “And so does this sword.”

  She hesitated, once again looking as if she wanted to say something.

  The longer he worked with her, the more he saw this hesitation and started to grow concerned about it. It had to do with him, he was certain. Maybe it was the ring, or perhaps it was his questionable El’aras heritage. Whatever it was, he needed her to expand on it. If they were going to continue working together, they couldn’t keep secrets from each other.

  She sighed. “We have not spoken much on the blade.”

  “I figured you didn’t want to.”

  “It is named. Did you know that?”

  Gavin shrugged. “Most old swords have names.”

  “Most do, but this one in particular has a name, though it’s difficult to say in your tongue. Tho’dostun’feith. Generally it would be translated as the light that comes before.”

  Gavin tried to repeat the name, though he found it difficult to say. “I might just call it Light. Why haven’t you told me before?”

  “Because I hadn’t decided what you needed to know,” Anna said. “To be honest, I am still uncertain. Were it not for the ring and…” She held his gaze for a long moment before shaking her head. “Perhaps that is enough. Were it not for that, I would not have so willingly stayed behind. There’s no doubt you need to learn more control over your power, but there are better places for you to master it, and better instructors for you to learn from.”

  “I don’t want a different instructor,” Gavin said.

  “You might say otherwise if you knew them,” she said. “I can offer you some education, but I cannot teach as well as those masters.”

  He unsheathed the blade. As soon as he did, the two warriors started toward him. Gavin turned, but he need not have. Anna held her hands up, and she tapped her fingers together lightly. He suspected it was an enchantment she used, some hidden way of communicating with them, something similar to the way Gaspar and Imogen communicated. The men immediately relaxed—as much as the two warriors would relax, anyway. They stepped back to the door.

  Gavin chuckled. “Are the two of them enough, if you were to need help?”

  “There are seven more outside,” Anna said.

  Gavin had known about three, but seven? It meant that there were far more El’aras within the city than he had realized.

  “I’m going to have to warn Davel,” he said.

  “The lead constable?”

  Gavin nodded.

  “They are not a threat to him. Besides, he will not even know they are there.”

  “I think you might be surprised. With all the enchantments he’s started placing around Yoran and his connection to magic, he likely does know.” And Gavin would want to make sure he didn’t try and attack the El’aras.

  She frowned. “Perhaps we should be more careful, then.”

  Gavin wasn’t sure that caution was going to make a difference. It was more a matter of the magic that existed, of the power that was there and how the constables were able to detect it. With enough enchantments, they would uncover the El’aras and maybe even have the ability to fight them. The constables were proud, especially Davel, and they believed they had the capacity to protect the city.

  “Don’t start any conflict within Yoran,” Gavin said. “I promised the constables I’d offer my protection to them.”

  She smiled. “I would like to see what would happen with that.”

  “You want to see me fight your people?”

  “Perhaps not mine,” she said.

  “Other families?”

  Anna went quiet.

  Gavin leaned toward her, noticing her floral scent. “What’s happening with the other families?”

  “I should not have said anything. It is not of your concern.”

  “If you’re here, then it is of my concern. Has something happened?”

  “There has not been any conflict within the families for many years,” she said. “Not since… well, not for many years.”

  Gavin remembered something—what Wrenlow had discovered of the El’aras when they’d first dealt with Anna. There were separate factions of El’aras. Families. Anna hadn’t shared anything about them, though Gavin hadn’t really asked, either.

  “That doesn’t mean it couldn’t come again,” he said. “We’ve already seen it.”

  She shook her head. “There have been some tensions among the various families, but nothing that I can’t soothe.”

  From her tone, Gavin wondered if that were true or not.

  “Why wo
uld there be tension?” He’d never really understood that, and Wrenlow hadn’t learned the key either.

  “There are some who believe that we should not have left these lands.”

  “They would’ve stayed and fought,” he said.

  That would have pitted the El’aras against the sorcerers, leaving those without power in the middle of the conflict. It would have been like what had happened in Yoran, only on a grander scale.

  Anna nodded. “They would’ve stayed. They would’ve fought. They would’ve enjoyed the conflict. Others believed it was not wise for us to do that, though. They believed we must take our leave from these lands, especially as sorcery began to take hold and the power rivaled what we could create.”

  “Do you think any of your people might be working with Tristan?”

  She smiled tightly. “I don’t know.”

  “What about with Cyran, when he was alive?”

  Cyran’s rapid increase in power, and the control he had demonstrated, left Gavin thinking there was something more to his training than what Tristan would’ve been able to accomplish. Gavin didn’t know what it was or what else to make of it, only that he believed that Cyran had another influence, perhaps another mentor, that led him to become the Apostle.

  “We questioned him when he was with us, but he did not reveal anything,” Anna said.

  “I get the feeling that bothers you.”

  She nodded. “He had training I did not expect.” She took a deep breath and turned her attention away from the warrior standing guard at the door, then looked back to Gavin. “You have delayed long enough, Gavin Lorren.”

  “I didn’t realize I was delaying,” he said.

  “You have been. I can tell that you’re trying to avoid what I’ve asked of you.”

  Gavin laughed. “If this is how I avoid work, then you’ll hate to see it when I actively try.”

  “It’s not so much that you are deliberately doing it, it’s that you have begun to question whether what I am asking of you must be done.”

  “You want me to hold on to my core reserves and pull all that power through me, then let it sit within me so I can become one with the energy.”

  “That is what I’m asking,” Anna said. “Once you do that, then you can begin to understand the more complex uses of it.”

  “Such as how you use patterns and spells and—”

  “We are not sorcerers,” she said.

  “You don’t use patterns and spells?”

  “Patterns are part of the natural world. We use aspects of the natural world to enhance our connection to it and the power we possess, but spells are the work of sorcerers. They must use incantations, with plants and potions and other ways to augment their power.”

  Gavin wondered if all El’aras felt the way she did about sorcery or if it was something particular to Anna, given what she’d gone through with Cyran.

  “So once I learn to hold on to that power and become one with it, I can use it to…”

  “To create the necessary patterns of power that will allow you to use your connection however you choose. Perhaps you will choose to use it to fight. Or use it more defensively. Or use it to heal.” She smiled tightly. “All things are possible. It depends on the intent, and what you decide to do with it.”

  Gavin took a deep breath. “I will do as you ask.”

  “Until you gain control over this, it’s not safe for you to wear that ring.”

  Gavin looked down at the ring. “Somebody else could have it if they can take it from me.”

  “The ring is an artifact of power. It has chosen, much like you had chosen by using it. It bonds the two of you.” Anna nodded, and there was a solemn expression on her face this time. “We have not spoken much about the ring, but as you continue to understand your power, you will need to understand the power within the ring as well.”

  It was a matter of opening himself up to his core reserves of power, and as he focused on that energy, he could feel it bubbling deep within him. That energy was there, as it had been ever since he had learned to access it.

  It was some hidden part of himself. When Gavin had first learned of that magic, he had thought it was some reserve of strength, some part of him that he held back when he was fighting. Now that he understood that it was magic, it made more sense as to why it would be hidden there, almost as if some part of his mind was being shielded from him. In order to access it, Gavin had to push through that shield to dive into that power and pull it up from some place deep inside him. As he did, he felt it sliding through him. A slow warmth began to build, working through his belly, and then began to flow.

  Control was more difficult these days, especially since he had put on the ring.

  As soon as he reached for it this time, Gavin realized that there was something wrong. He couldn’t always use the ring’s power. Most of the time, he failed completely.

  This time, he hadn’t.

  “I’ve gone too quickly,” he said, looking up at Anna.

  “Just relax,” she said.

  “I don’t know if I can.”

  He tried to fix the power within him, but even as he did, he could feel the energy starting to overwhelm him. It bubbled up, uncontrolled.

  He had felt that before, but not since he had started working with Anna. It was almost as if she had helped him contain that power, to prevent him from losing control of it. For whatever reason, now he could feel it building.

  Gavin tried to relax. When that didn’t work, he shifted to another approach.

  If he could push back that power, he wouldn’t have to fear it. He tried to tamp it down, but he could tell that it would not be feasible.

  “I have to use it,” he said.

  “You cannot,” she told him.

  “I have to. It’s coming out of me.”

  Anna tapped her fingers quickly, and the two warriors raced over toward him.

  Gavin shook his head. “You need to go.”

  “They are here to protect you—”

  “I don’t need their protection. I need them to protect you.”

  Gavin looked over to them, locking eyes with the nearest one. He had crystal-blue eyes, close-cropped blond hair, and a strong chin. He was tall—slightly taller than Gavin, and with an athletic build. Something in the way he moved suggested that he was incredibly comfortable with the sword sheathed at his side, and that he would be able to use it quite effectively.

  “Take Anna from here,” Gavin ordered.

  She started to object, but the two El’aras guided her away.

  Gavin had to focus on his power, trying to push it down, but he couldn’t. He felt it build, and it was coming with more force and energy than he intended.

  He had to figure out some way to control it.

  Unfortunately, now that he was connected to the ring and the power within him, he didn’t know if there would be any way for him to control it.

  He kept trying, though. He tried to hold on to it, to tamp that energy down and use whatever he could to mitigate this power, but that power continued to bubble and boil.

  Gavin looked over toward the door. Anna and the other El’aras were gone.

  Maybe if he let a bit of that power leach out from him…

  He tried, but it burst out from him in an uncontrolled force. As soon as it started to erupt, he knew he’d made a mistake.

  The power exploded in a circle around him as he screamed.

  And then it was gone, the energy released.

  Gavin looked around him.

  He’d destroyed the warehouse.

  Chapter Three

  Gavin made a circuit of the remnants of the building. It wasn’t just the warehouse that he had destroyed. It was a wonder he hadn’t been crushed under its weight, by the rock and the debris that had collapsed. The stone overhead had almost seemed to dissolve with the force of his blast.

  He found Anna outside on the street, arguing with three of the El’aras, including Thomas. Thomas was an older-looking man
, with a hint of wrinkles in the corners of his eyes. They gave him the appearance of age that some of the El’aras didn’t show, which left Gavin thinking that he had to be impossibly old. His hair had streaks of gray in it, and his crystal-blue eyes looked at everything with suspicion.

  Gavin headed over to them, and he shook his head. “This is my fault.”

  Thomas turned away from Anna and stepped in between her and Gavin, jaw clenched. He stood with his shoulders stiff, the fading sunlight catching the deep-blue fabric of his jacket and pants, which made them seem almost regal.

  “This is your fault.”

  “I told her to leave,” Gavin said. “I knew I didn’t have control over it.”

  Thomas opened his mouth as if to say something but turned back to Anna, shaking his head. “I warned you that you should not be working with him, that he was dangerous, especially given what we know about him and what is to come. I warned you that—”

  “I understand that you did,” Anna said. She pushed past Thomas, and she watched Gavin. “And given what we have seen here, he needs my help more than I had believed before.”

  “You should not be here,” Thomas said to her. “You know what happened the last time you were here.”

  “I understand quite well what happened then.” She frowned at Thomas with a hardness in her gaze that was enough to make him take a step back. “Much like I know that Gavin Lorren was the one to have ensured my safety at that time. He also made sure the Shard did not fall into the hands of the Sorcerer’s Society. I shudder to think what they would’ve done had they gained control of that ancient power.”

  When she turned back to Gavin, he could practically feel Thomas’s gaze lingering on him. Not only was there a weight within it, but there was an anger that seethed there as well.

  “I sent her away,” Gavin said again. “I recognized what was happening, and I—”

  “You had no control. If you had any control, this would not have happened.” Thomas’s glare softened only a little.

  “It is because of his lack of control that I’m here,” Anna said.