Unbroken, page 10
There was a distinct sense to it. And it wasn’t from the north. It was from the west.
“I think that I would prefer to come with you,” she said. “I may have completed my bond quest, but I still have not experienced enough of the world. Maybe that will help me understand whether there is something more that can help my people.”
Chapter Eleven
Imogen awoke to a scream.
They had been back in the Heart for the last few days, and the city had been quiet and calm, giving her people a chance to prepare and recuperate. Imogen had tried to work with as many of her people as possible but did not feel nearly as organized or coordinated as she wanted to be. With the scream, she realized that it had only been a lull in the activity, and that lull was now over.
She darted out into the street, blade already unsheathed, mind racing through the possibilities of what might have happened. The likelihood was that Timo had attacked, along with the fragment of Aneadaz, but how could he have done so without drawing attention before now? The people of the Heart had placed protections and enchantments, and they had the renral, which were able to offer them a measure of safety. Imogen would have expected there to be some sort of alert warning them.
Imogen darted toward the scream, flowing on Stream through the Trees. She drifted along on that pattern, and then, when another source of energy began to build around her, Imogen shifted into Lightning Strikes in the Storm.
She blasted upward and floated, Petals on the Wind, to see if she could find anything around her. She detected nothing.
Imogen stayed in the air, floating and drifting as she searched for evidence of what had caught her attention. The higher she shot, using Lightning Strikes in the Storm, the easier it was to see.
Darkness swarmed at the base of the Heart.
It hadn’t managed to reach them, but Imogen could see it beginning to build. The longer she stayed in place, the more of the dark creatures she could feel, and the more Imogen knew that her people were under attack.
She lingered for a moment and then dropped.
She came to land near the rest of the Leier.
They were already organizing themselves. She was proud of the fact that her people were reacting the way she had anticipated, and had begun to make preparations, as if knowing that Imogen would not be willing to stand by and wait. Not only the Leier, though. Koral shamans were hurrying toward the plateau edge, and she could feel the buildup of power coming from enchantments that suddenly activated.
Imogen strode over to Rebecca, who was placing several different enchantments into the rock.
“We have enough security here, so if an attack is coming, we should have time,” Rebecca said. “Do you think they can even reach us?”
They should be safe. The only way that Imogen and her people had reached the Heart in the first place had been traveling by renral. That and using the sacred patterns. Timo and those with him might be able to use aspects of the sacred patterns, but would they be able to bring danger here to the Heart?
The kind of power capable of doing so would be greater than what Imogen thought he possessed. But then, that was who she had known her brother to be before. He had changed. His power had changed.
“Not easily,” Imogen said. “Continue your preparations.”
She found Jorend with the Leier, leading them to the plateau edge.
“Well?” Jorend asked.
“They’ve resumed their attack,” she said. “I don’t know how many of them, but there are hundreds, if not more, of the creatures flooding along the base of the Heart.”
“The Heart will protect us,” Jorend said.
“For how long?” Imogen looked around. “Not everybody here is a fighter. That’s part of the reason we brought the people here. And there are those who cannot reach us safely here. We need to find a way to support them as well.”
“We haven’t seen any others making their way toward the Heart in weeks.”
“I know, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t others out there, still needing our help.” And with Aneadaz, along with Timo, still active, Imogen did not know what ensuring the safety of their people would entail. More than what she had done, certainly. It was more than that, though. Not only did her people need her help, but they needed a measure of protection, and supplies, which they had not yet acquired.
“How many people are here?” Imogen asked Jorend.
“Thousands, First.”
“We need resources. And we need a plan. Whether it is to stay and fight, or…” Jorend looked at her, and she didn’t have a good answer as to what that “or” might be. Evacuation had to be considered, only where would they go? Furthermore, what would they do? “I need to get a better vantage so that I know what else we might be facing.”
A dark shape began to circle above, and Imogen glanced up briefly to see Zealar as he approached. Energy coursed along his wings, as it often did, as if he were bringing a storm cloud with him. She was thankful the renral offered protection—and could patrol for them.
As she watched, a surge of bright lines came to her. It was as if Benji spoke, without speaking. Within those lines, she saw the possibilities, and she saw…
Flashes of lightning.
And she knew what she needed to do.
It was what she should have done already. The renral had provided protection, not only during the recent attack, helping her detect—and stop—the dark creatures, but when she’d faced Aneadaz before. The renral had proven to be his weakness.
If the people of the Heart had more, they could continue to defend themselves, especially if Aneadaz decided to pose a greater danger once more.
“I’m going to find more renral.”
“Are you sure now is the time?”
“It is what the Porapeth wants me to do.”
“And what do you want to do?”
“I want to do whatever it will take to protect our people. And if Benji has seen something that permits that, then so be it.” She had gone through struggling against his influence, struggling against what he wanted to encourage in her path, for long enough. Now she had to do whatever was needed so that she could protect her people. And now Benji showed her that she needed to find more renral.
They were useful for many reasons. Fighting magic was just one of them. If it came to hunting, or escaping, the renral would be incredibly useful. Fully grown renral could typically carry three to four people atop them. That was still too slow. In order for the people to get away, they would need an incredibly long time. There were plenty of enchantments that Rebecca and others had made that would help, and Imogen had little doubt that Rebecca was still busy making them, but she would need to ask her to make more.
When Zealar landed, Imogen hurried over to him and climbed onto his back while Jorend watched.
“Get everybody ready. Protect the borders of the Heart. And…” She frowned, reaching into her pocket before handing something to Jorend. “If things aren’t going well, send word.”
“What is this?” He held out the item that she had handed him, and studied it. It was circular, like a piece of stone that had been carved with exquisite care, but it radiated a distinct sense of power. A pair of markings, one on either side of it, made it seem more like a coin than a carving.
“It’s an enchantment Rebecca made. It should allow us to communicate. I’ve tested it, but I’m afraid to test it too much, mostly because doing so will put us in danger of draining the power out of it.”
“Will it work?”
“I’ve been around other enchantments like this, and they do work.”
Jorend nodded slowly. “I will only use it if necessary. I don’t think that you should go alone, though.”
“I’ll be going with Zealar,” Imogen said.
“I understand you and this renral have a unique connection, but I don’t think that you should travel on your own. If something were to happen to you, you might benefit from somebody else being there to protect you.”
“You want to send another Leier with me?”
“Not a Leier,” he said, turning. “Sword and shield, Imogen. Isn’t that what you’ve told me?”
She smiled tightly. “You know, I almost liked it better when you weren’t listening.”
He started. “Well, I did. And in this case, I think that you will do well to have someone capable of providing you a shield. Now, I know that you’re fully capable and competent and do not need me or any of us to provide that for you, but there are certain things that you cannot anticipate, especially when you get distracted.”
“Rebecca will be needed here,” she said.
“Then take another,” he said.
It might be beneficial to have somebody with magical experience to offer her a measure of protection, though she did not want to diminish those already here. There were more shamans capable of helping her now than there once had been. Not only were they capable, but she trusted more of them than she once had.
Imogen had once not been able to trust many people, but in the time that she’d been traveling with the Leier and the Koral, she had come to rely upon so many others. The problem she had was that if she took somebody she relied upon and trusted, then she also ran the risk of weakening the protections here.
“I’ll see if Eleanor is willing to come with me,” she said.
She turned away and strode along the plateau edge while Jorend continued to call out orders and Zealar waited where she had climbed off his back. When she found Eleanor, working with one of the other shamans, the older Koral woman waved a hand at her.
“I am quite busy here, doing what you told Rebecca that she needed to do, while I am fully capable of helping.”
Imogen could easily hear the irritation in her voice.
“I meant no disrespect,” she said. “I simply made the suggestion because Rebecca is more capable with various enchantments than you.”
Eleanor crouched, clasping her hands together on her lap as she looked up at Imogen. Her eyes flared with irritation. “What are you going to do?”
“I need to find resources to help if we need to evacuate. Or fight.”
“Resources?”
“Renral,” Imogen said. She glanced up at the sky. “We know there are other flocks of renral, and we need to bring them into ours. It could help, but…”
“But you’re preparing to evacuate.”
“Exactly,” Imogen said.
“If that’s the case, then it might be better if I stay here, as I can help ensure that everybody is ready for whatever we might need to do.”
“I’m quite certain that you would be an incredible boon to evacuation if it came down to that,” Imogen said, “but I may need somebody with your particular talents as I go scouting.”
Eleanor took a deep breath, flicked her gaze past Imogen, and paused as she looked over to where Zealar was still waiting. “Do we travel together or separately?”
“For now, I think it makes the most sense if we travel together, as Zealar can fly faster than most of the other renral.” As far as Imogen knew, Zealar could travel faster than all the other renral, which was why she didn’t want to have to slow him down by waiting for any other renral that might come. More than that, taking another renral would diminish the protection the city had.
“Give me a few moments to make my own preparations, and then I will come with you.”
Imogen nodded, and Eleanor hurried off, speaking to several shamans as she went, before slipping into the crowd around the city.
Imogen took the opportunity to look down over the ledge.
“Can you tell me anything?” she asked, focusing on what she could feel of Benji. He had been willing to help her before, and had made his presence known, so she had to think that if he was still there, and if he was still active, he would be willing to tell her what he knew and share with her what else he had seen—that was, if he had seen anything at all.
There was no response.
“Come on, Benji. I know you’re there. All you have to do is return to your fragment, and you can use that to find a way of helping me so that I can help the others, and we can help these people. These are your people.”
He had shown her the renral, after all. He needed to help her now.
But no answer came.
Imogen had tried to force images, but it hadn’t worked quite as well as she had wanted. She didn’t have a sufficient measure of control. In this case, as she tried to force possibilities, she saw little more than surges. There was a flare of brightness in the back of her mind, and that brightness obscured everything else. It reminded her of what Benji had once claimed about her, how she was difficult for him to see and make anything out of, and at this point, Imogen thought that she could feel and see something similar, as if there was that other which might help her know what that brightness was.
Maybe there was a way for her to peel back some of the brightness. That was what she believed Benji had been trying to do when he had been working with her: find a way to peel back the brightness, see beyond, and find different possibilities.
The brightness obscured everything, though.
It seemed to be more focused in one direction. She had learned that darkness meant something dangerous to not only her but her people. Unfortunately, she still could not see what she needed, as she did not have the knowledge to control it.
She let out a heavy sigh. It seemed Zealar was trying to communicate to her, though she wasn’t sure what he was communicating. She opened her eyes, released her attempt to focus on different possibilities, and turned to him. He was near her, staying close, as if he was concerned for her well-being.
She smiled at Zealar and shook her head. “We’ll go soon. As soon as Eleanor returns, we can go, and we can search for more renral. I’m sorry I cannot discover anything more. If I could, I might be able to keep not only us safe but you as well.”
He looked at her, and there was a flare in his eyes, a brightness, and then another burst of connection came before it faded as well.
She had never really understood the connection to the renral, but increasingly, she felt that Zealar in particular was more intelligent than she had ever assumed. Or perhaps it was simply because she wanted him to be as she felt.
She waited, meditating briefly, focusing on the sacred patterns as she had once learned to so that she could continue to find a measure of peace, and then she released that connection as Eleanor strode over to her. She frowned at Imogen, who looked down and realized that silvery power flowed around her.
“Let’s go,” Imogen said, as there was no real explanation.
Eleanor just nodded.
Chapter Twelve
Zealar soared through the air, circling above the Heart, and his loud shriek echoed all around. As soon as he let out that enormous cry, the other renral of their flock began to converge upon the Heart.
Eleanor leaned forward, her breath warm on Imogen’s ear, a contrast to the cool wind that gusted around them.
“I find it interesting how they can speak to each other,” Eleanor said. “It would be amazing to be able to have a conversation with the renral. Can you imagine what that would be like? How much would we be able to do if we could speak to the renral, and if we could share with them what we need from them?”
“I speak to Zealar, and sometimes he seems to understand me, but not always. Most of the time, I suspect he just recognizes that I have a need.” That wasn’t entirely true, though, as Imogen felt that Zealar recognized what she said to him from time to time. It was as if the renral understood what she needed.
“What do you propose we do?” Eleanor asked.
Imogen stared off into the distance. More and more renral were coming. “We have the Heart defended, at least for now. But now we need to find more renral.” She leaned down, patting Zealar on the neck and running her fingers through his dark, inky feathers. She had once thought them oily, but it seemed to her, given her experience atop Zealar, that they were not oily normally, only when he intended that to be the case. “Do you know how to find another flock of renral?”
Zealar shrieked again, and Imogen felt a tug deep within her, some burst of a connection that formed, as if Zealar was trying to tell her something, though Imogen wasn’t sure what. They needed to find renral—at least, according to what Benji had tried to show her—but that wasn’t all they needed. There seemed to be more, only she didn’t have enough from her snippets of images to know what that more was.
She breathed out, looking around, and as she did, she turned her attention back to the renral. “Find them.”
A surge of power came through Zealar. She could feel it crackling along his wings and working its way through his feathers, and she knew that he was building up his power.
Eleanor let out a yelp, and she leaned forward again. “I imagine you can feel that, but it’s not pleasant.”
“He’s summoning his power,” Imogen said. “I don’t believe he intends to use it against you.”
“You don’t believe it? And what if he chooses to?”
Imogen shrugged. “Well, then you’d better be ready.”
She focused, feeling for the connection that she had with Zealar, and waited.
As she held on to him, she tried something that she didn’t try very often. Holding on to Zealar did not require any of the sacred patterns. There was the pattern that allowed her to connect to the renral, and Imogen had certainly learned to use that to draw enough power so that she might be able to find more answers, but in this case, what she was trying to do was a bit different.
Tree Stands in the Forest.
And while flying, it wasn’t going to be standing in any forest. It was going to be in the air, and it might allow her to test the areas around them, to detect whether there were any other renral nearby.
Imogen focused on her sacred pattern, but as soon as she attempted to, Zealar shrieked again.
Not that one.
Petals on the Wind.
It was not as easy for her to probe with that sacred pattern, so she tried another, moving from one to another, hoping to find something else.
