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

  “Obviously,” Gavin said, nodding to the cobblestone that he had pried up and buried the hyadan stone fragments beneath. “If you have creatures like that there, it must be terrible. What are you running from?”

  Gaspar shot him a look, and Gavin simply shrugged. “She’s running from something,” he said to Gaspar. “That’s why she’s here, especially if she’s originally from Loruv. It’s far enough away that anybody looking for her would never come here.”

  At least, he didn’t think they would. It would be difficult for someone to reach easily. As far as he knew, there wasn’t any way to magically travel, though if he was wrong, he would love to discover it. “I understand running. Gods, I did the same thing when I first left Tristan.”

  “This is not the same,” Gaspar said.

  “Maybe not, but whatever it is, and whatever she’s running from, we can help.” Gavin turned to him. “We did agree to be a team, didn’t we?”

  Gaspar nodded.

  “Let me know when you plan on going,” Gavin said. “I need to make a few other arrangements, and while I’m gone, I have to make sure the city will still be protected.”

  “I’m sure Davel will be thrilled,” Gaspar said.

  “Thrilled might be an understatement. I think he’ll be excited when I tell him we’re leaving, but less excited when I tell him we plan on returning.” He started back toward the city, and he glanced at Imogen. “You don’t have to do this alone. Whatever is happening, and whatever reason they sent something after you, we’ll help.”

  More than that, Gavin thought he had to.

  She held his gaze for a moment and then turned away.

  Gavin headed back into the city. When he passed beneath the strange enchantment that separated magic, a cool tingling washed over him and flooded across his skin. He was already tired from calling on his core reserves, though probably not as tired as he should have been. Given everything he’d drawn on to defeat the creatures, he would’ve expected it to take even more power from him than it had. Somehow, he had managed to stay on his feet.

  He hadn’t gone far when he noticed shadows trailing after him.

  Gavin spun. “You can come out, Davel,” he said.

  Davel stepped out of the darkness. Gavin glanced down to his hand, noting the rings on each finger, the bracelets around each wrist, and even a necklace that reflected a nearby streetlight. All of them were enchantments. He had no idea how well those enchantments would work now that the city had been protected from magic, but he suspected that Davel had some way of remaining connected to his power.

  Gavin couldn’t help but wonder if he himself would have some way of being able to tap into his own core reserves, bypassing the enchantments. If he could find the enchantments, he might be able to figure out how to still use his core reserves within the city.

  The enchanters would certainly be willing to help him, wouldn’t they?

  “How did you know I was here?” Davel asked.

  “You’re not nearly as quiet as you would like to be,” Gavin replied.

  Davel turned and looked back before turning his attention to Gavin again. “Do you care to tell me more about what happened there? What exactly was that?”

  “The hyadan?”

  The constable frowned. “Yes. How was it that she knew how to defeat them?”

  Gavin shrugged. “She has her ways.”

  “How can she move like that?”

  Gavin started to smile. “It’s unfortunate you’ve spent this much time in the city around her and haven’t seen her fighting skill before now. She’s quite impressive.”

  “She is,” Davel agreed.

  Gavin shrugged again. “To be honest, she keeps to herself. I think she prefers it that way because she doesn’t want anyone to know some secret of her past.”

  “And what secret is she trying to keep?”

  “I have no idea.”

  Davel watched him, saying nothing for a long moment before turning his attention to the streets. “The enchantments seem to work quite well,” he said.

  “Did you doubt they would?”

  Davel chuckled, and then shook his head. “We didn’t know what to expect from them. Given the lack of experience we have in neutralizing magic, we didn’t know whether it would even be effective.”

  “And now…”

  “Now, at least, we feel as if we have some understanding.” Davel nodded to the edge of the city. They were just inside the border, near enough that Gavin could make out the outline of where the buildings stopped and where the emptiness began. “From here, you can practically feel it, I suspect.”

  Gavin grunted. “I can definitely feel it. I recognized it when you started to implement that magic.”

  “Did you think it would make a difference?”

  “I can feel the way it’s pressing on me. I don’t care much for it.”

  Davel chuckled. “Of course you don’t. The great Gavin Lorren, the Chain Breaker, helpless.”

  Gavin arched a brow at him. “I’m not exactly helpless, you know.”

  “Perhaps not helpless,” Davel said with a shrug. “I should be careful with describing you in such terms. I wouldn’t want to disparage you.”

  “No, you would not.”

  Davel chuckled again. “You look as if you have something on your mind. What is it?”

  “I have to leave.”

  “After an attack like that, now you leave?”

  “I thought you wanted me out of the city.”

  “Undoubtedly,” Davel said. “But I recognize the value you bring with situations like that.”

  “You blame me for those situations.”

  “It might be you, it might be something else, or it might be chance.” The tone of Davel’s voice suggested that he doubted the last one. “But everything that has taken place over the last year or so has led to a confluence of dangers. Even you have to have seen that.”

  “I don’t even know,” Gavin said. “I, along with others, am just trying to understand what’s going on within the city.”

  “And what, exactly, do you think is going on here?”

  “I’m not exactly sure. There’s enough trouble here. I’m not sure what to make of it.”

  Davel grunted. In that moment, he reminded Gavin of Gaspar. “Trouble is an understatement. This is more than just trouble.”

  “Perhaps,” Gavin said. “But less than what else you might face. Now that you’ve proven that your little enchantment works, what do you intend to do next?”

  “We intend to fine-tune it. We figure we can keep anyone who has the ability to use power out of the city.”

  Gavin had no idea whether it would work on sorcery. At the same time, it had seemed to make a difference with the creatures. If there was some way for them to continue to repel magic like that, then shouldn’t they do it?

  Gavin thought they needed to. And in order for them to defeat that kind of dangerous power, they had to ensure they had complete control over it.

  “When we leave, I think there’s something more that needs to be done to help protect Yoran.”

  “Of course there does. But it doesn’t have to fall on you. If you’re finally going to go, then we’ll take care of it ourselves. The way we used to do it.” Davel crossed his arms over his chest.

  “And if you can’t?”

  Davel shrugged. “Then we send word to you.” He nodded to Gavin and then marched away along the street.

  Gavin wondered if that was nearly as safe of an answer. He didn’t think he was the only one capable of protecting the city, but Davel wasn’t wrong. Strange things had happened ever since Gavin had come, and unless he did something to change that, the strangeness may persist. All he needed at this point was to better understand what that was and what he might be able to do to prevent it.

  The longer Gavin was here, the more he questioned how much of this had to do with him and how much of this had to do with something else here. He no longer knew, only that there had to be so
mething more, some aspect of the city that was valuable.

  It was just that understanding what it was seemed beyond him.

  In the time he had been here, he’d discovered the hidden sorcerers’ lairs. Why would there be places like this buried beneath the city? He had found a locked-away sword and a secret ring, which suggested that Yoran was bound to something else.

  It wasn’t about him.

  But he seemed to have started it all.

  Why him? Why this city?

  It was a question Gavin hadn’t given enough thought to. At the time, he had thought it was because Cyran was here, but the more he had come to learn about Cyran and what he had been doing, the less Gavin suspected that was the key. And if that were the case, then there had to be some other reason.

  He knew the sword and the ring were important, and he knew the enchantments stored within the city had value. Those enchantments had brought Tristan out into the open. He had gone after the dark egg, wanting to release the semarrl, but Gavin still didn’t fully understand why. Was it about power, or was it about something else?

  Gavin had known Tristan well enough that he thought he should be able to recognize what Tristan was after. He didn’t think his old mentor would be after power. That had never seemed to be his agenda.

  But what if it was and Gavin hadn’t known?

  He traced his finger around the ring. This was something that had been found in the city. Gavin suspect Tristan was after this. It was an El’aras item, an artifact that had been hidden here, and the only way it had been freed was because of Gavin. It would make sense that this was what Tristan was after, if anything.

  Why would the ring and the sword have been here in the first place, though? He hadn’t gotten those answers from Anna yet.

  The night wore on. He needed rest, and he doubted he’d be able to find Anna in the darkness. He would have to wait for the next day, when they were already scheduled to meet.

  But he could do something else in the meantime.

  Gavin hurried to Cyran’s home, a simple wooden building at the end of a block, with the forest on the other side of the street. It seemed that there had been fewer and fewer people near the home the longer Gavin had been visiting it, almost as if there was something that repelled anyone from getting too close. A haze hung around everything, and as he neared, he realized it was the effect of an enchantment that the enchanters, possibly even Zella herself, had placed.

  He rushed down to the lower level. Even though it wasn’t Cyran’s home any longer, Gavin still felt like that was how he could best describe it. It certainly wasn’t his home.

  He made his way along the underground tunnel and reached the hidden chamber he kept sealed with his own power. By pushing his magic into the door, he prevented anyone else from reaching the lair, but it also meant that he wouldn’t be able to get to it if he couldn’t call on his core reserves.

  Gavin summoned that power and pushed energy into the door. Once it unlocked, the door opened with a soft hiss.

  He had taken to sleeping inside this room most nights, though there were times when he would stay at the Dragon. He hadn’t spent much time trying to understand this place since he had taken it over. There wasn’t anything more he thought he could find.

  But still, he believed there was something here, some power or some answers to be uncovered.

  He no longer had to worry about the dark egg. He had secured it inside a heavily enchanted case and had placed the keys in locations only he knew, with additional enchantments around them. It had taken him time to acquire all of the necessary enchantments—time, and questions, he had been careful to avoid revealing the answers to. Hopefully, even if somebody were to come for the dark egg, the enchantments would contain it. If they didn’t, then they would destroy it. At least, that was Gavin’s hope.

  The alternative was sending it with Anna, but Gavin suspected he needed it in the city as a deterrent for the Fates. If the dark egg left Yoran…

  He feared the Fates might return.

  As much as he wanted to go with Imogen to offer additional protection, a part of Gavin remained conflicted. He felt as if he needed to stay, or else he would be leaving everyone else in danger.

  But for now? Now that the enchanters and the constables were working together, things were as safe as they had ever been. And Imogen needed help.

  If there was something important about the city, something that Tristan wanted, then Gavin needed to still have some way of looking for whatever it was.

  A possibility came to him, but he didn’t know if Anna would agree to it. She had no reason to help with anything other than teaching Gavin how to control his connection to the ring and better understand what his El’aras power meant for him.

  He turned to the case where he had first found the El’aras sword and looked around it. Gavin had never tried to return the sword to the case since he’d taken it out. There had been an enchantment that had held the blade in place, keeping him from withdrawing it.

  He set the sword on the table, then picked up the enchantment that had surrounded it and began to study it. There wasn’t anything obvious to it. Gavin held the sword up and turned in place, trying to trigger whatever enchantment had locked it away, but could not.

  He slid the sword back into his sheath and trailed his thumb around the space where he’d removed the ring. The hilt was insignificant now, though it had always been simple. Had he not felt the outline of the ring, he might not have realized anything was even there. Whoever had owned this blade had been the ring bearer before him.

  And they likely would’ve known how to take the ring off.

  Gavin tugged on the ring but couldn’t peel it off his finger. He clenched his jaw, working at it, and finally gave up.

  He took a seat on the cot he had in the small chamber, and stared at the table. This was his refuge, as much as any place could be. Strangely, it felt like he belonged here. It reminded him of so many of the places he’d lived in when he’d been working with Tristan, so many where he’d bunked alone, struggling on one assignment or another.

  Gavin sighed, and then lay down. As he drifted to sleep, troubled dreams claimed him. They were filled with memories of his earliest training, of Cyran. In those dreams, Cyran taunted him, reminding him of how Gavin had always served Tristan—and regardless of what Gavin might believe now, he still did. No matter what he tried, he felt as if he were doing Tristan’s bidding, despite wanting nothing less.

  When he finally awoke, he felt no more rested, still plagued by the dreams.

  Chapter Seven

  Gavin walked along the edge of the city, feeling the barrier that the enchanters had created. He’d wondered what the enchantments might be like, but had not made any effort to find them. Perhaps that was a mistake.

  He hadn’t seen anybody in the streets he recognized. There had been a few constables, though Gavin didn’t know them and hadn’t bothered to try to interact with them. Doing so would only lead to questions, and they were questions he didn’t necessarily want to answer.

  So far, he hadn’t seen any of the enchanters he knew, though there would be some on patrol with the constables. He watched the constables for a little while, curious whether they would treat the enchanters with a measure of respect, and was pleasantly surprised to see them laughing, joking, and chatting together as if they were actually equals.

  So much had changed.

  Gavin smiled, knowing that he had a hand in it—something he once would never have considered important to him, but now he believed it was crucial.

  He continued to feel the barrier as he walked. Was it fully intact around the city? If there was some gap in the magic, he wanted to know so he could inform Davel before they departed.

  As he probed, he checked the power he could summon from his core reserves, but he avoided drawing anything through the ring. He didn’t want to lose control. There was no doubt there was a barrier and that it was designed to prevent magic.

  “Are you up
?” Wrenlow’s voice crackled in his ear.

  Gavin chuckled, tapping on the volume control that Anna had worked into the enchantment. It was skillfully made, and it gave him the ability to adjust not only the volume of his voice but also what he transmitted.

  “I’m awake,” Gavin said. “I’m out trying to see how effective this barrier enchantment is.”

  There was a hesitation, and he imagined Wrenlow sitting in his room, working with his book propped open on his lap, making notes. Either that, or he could be with Olivia.

  “I hear it worked,” Wrenlow said. “The enchanters were excited to hear that.” There was a pause. “Olivia wasn’t involved in creating it, if that’s your concern.”

  Gavin shook his head before catching himself. “That’s not my concern. I think they did the right thing. Having some sort of enchantment around the city to prevent magic makes a lot of sense. If they can protect the city, then they should.”

  There had to be some reason that Yoran was at a crossroads for magical attacks. It was more than just him and his presence. Cyran had come here for a purpose, as had Tristan. And the Fates had viewed this city as important to whatever plan they had, though Gavin didn’t know if it was because the Fates saw the city as critical or if it had more to do with them not liking to lose power any place they had already influenced. Either way, there was much within Yoran that had proven crucial, and much that Gavin felt he still didn’t know. Eventually, before he left the city for good, he needed to solve that mystery so he could understand why the city kept being targeted, and whether there was anything he could do to prevent further attack.

  “How well does the barrier work against you?” Wrenlow asked.

  “Well enough that I have to focus while trying to draw on that power,” Gavin said.

  He could still draw some, which left him wondering just how effective that magic would be if he needed to fight.

  “The enchanters can’t use magic either. They created an area inside the city that allows them to do so, though,” Wrenlow said. “Existing enchantments work for now, but I don’t know if they’ll keep working.”