Unfinished, page 11
“There are times when I think they need to, but there are also times when I think that we need to be a part of helping to defend them. And besides, I do think it helps morale when they see me fighting alongside them.”
“Of course it does,” he said. “But we also know that we can’t risk anything happening to you.”
“Then you need to fight alongside me.”
He shook his head but dropped down next to Imogen.
She heard Eleanor shout, and then her renral enchantment streaked downward alongside them.
When Imogen landed, she did so surrounded by magic. The sense of it crackled along her skin, leaving her on edge. She had not felt magic quite this potent in quite a while. Even when she had last battled with the army of enchantments, it had felt different. This was deep. Raw.
This suggested that whoever had created these enchantments was either still here or had recently departed. Whoever it was had a considerable level of magical power, and it was enough that Imogen could scarcely withstand it.
“It feels like my skin is burning,” Jorend said.
“Because there was incredible power that came through here,” she said. She darted forward in Lightning Strikes in the Storm, her blade blasting into one of the enchantments and causing it to shatter. She spun, striking what looked to be a series of swirling vines, carving through them, and then shot into the air briefly before landing with her blade outstretched, driving it into the top of another stone enchantment. It shattered like the others did. “Probably Sul’toral, and probably recently.”
“Your brother?” Jorend asked.
Imogen hesitated for a moment. Then she shot up. She swirled, searching, focusing on what she could feel of magic. There had to be something up here that she could find. But she saw nothing. No sign of the Sul’toral. No sign of Timo.
If it had been her brother, he had evaded her again.
When she landed, the fighting had already started to dwindle. Her people were better prepared now for a fight like this, and though none wanted to deal with the kind of magic that they had been facing, they were all equipped to do so.
Jorend and Eleanor did not even need to be a part of the fight. Neither had Imogen needed to be.
Jorend looked over. “Anything?”
“I didn’t see anything,” she said.
“Then we keep moving.”
“How much longer?” Eleanor asked. She looked at Imogen, forcing her to meet her gaze. “That’s the question, isn’t it? You don’t know how much longer we need to do this, or how much farther we’re going to need to travel, but you are worried about what we might find, aren’t you?”
“I’m more concerned about what’s chasing us.”
“Then maybe it’s time we chase back,” Eleanor said.
Imogen wasn’t sure that was the answer, either. Her people could defend themselves, but to mount an assault? She wasn’t sure they were ready. She wasn’t sure she was ready.
But at the rate they were going, she wasn’t sure they would have any other choice.
Chapter Twelve
The gathered Leier were quiet. They had been walking for the better part of two days since Imogen and the other warriors had managed to secure access into the narrow valley. The rock walls stretched high up on either side. The slope of them reminded her of where they had faced the branox queen, enough so that she was uncomfortable traveling through here without taking different precautions.
Most of those precautions involved enchantments made by the Koral. The shield. She and her Leier swordsmen remained the sword, though in this case, the sword was not as necessary. They had not dealt with any more of the creatures other than a few of the shadowy forms that had managed to slip through but posed no great danger to them.
It was midday when they came across the ruins.
Imogen called a stop, and they made their way toward the strange-looking ruins of the city. The buildings were all made out of blue stone, and some of the buildings had already collapsed. The architecture was quite a bit different from most within the Leier lands, with tall, slender spires, sweeping buildings, and decorative cornices.
Imogen approached the outermost buildings of the ruins of the city, and she paused.
“Did you know this was here?” Jorend asked.
Imogen shook her head as she took a step forward. “I didn’t know that anything was here. I was looking for a way that we might block the enchanted army from coming at us and thought that we might be able to use this valley.” She glanced behind her and then down the length of the valley. “I remember the masters speaking of this valley. No one comes here.”
“It is impossible to pass through,” Jorend said. “Well, not for you, but you are the great Imogen Inaratha, First of the Blade.”
She snorted and looked behind her. “We should take a little time to examine these ruins. Then we can get moving again.”
“The scouts have told us that the army behind us has spread out. They’re not attempting to come over.”
“Eventually, they’ll find a way to get through,” she said. Or around. That was the other concern she had. It was unlikely they would overrun them now. Had they not gotten into the valley, and had they not managed to find a way to block access to it, the army would have pressed upon them too quickly. This way, they had bought themselves some time.
But how much?
Imogen didn’t know whether they would find a way to safety, or if that was even possible without defeating the person responsible for the army pressing upon them. They needed numbers. And she needed to train them.
“I can see that look in your eye,” Jorend said.
“And what look is that?”
“The one that tells me you are trying to decide what you will do.”
Imogen reached for the hilt of her new sword, her fingers twitching ever so slightly. “I have been trying to come up with what needs to happen, but anything that I can think of involves us fighting a battle that I doubt most of us are equipped for.”
“So equip us,” he said. He looked over at her. “You’ve been training the Leier. You’ve been helping those who can fight learn sacred patterns. Don’t you think you can work with the others?”
“Actually,” Imogen said, stepping into the ruins, “I was starting to think that perhaps I wasn’t going to be the one to teach the others. I was thinking that perhaps I had to rely upon those already instructed.” She looked over at Jorend. “We need numbers.” She picked her way through the ruins.
The blue stone used to create the buildings was actually quite lovely, especially with the way that the sun reflected off it. There were aspects of it that were almost translucent, that looked more like glass than stone, and as Imogen trailed her hand along the surface of it, she could feel a layer of dust, but there was also something to it that struck her as a hint of magic. Maybe there was power here. This part of the world had once been different. She wondered what it might have been like before her people had come through here, claiming the mountains. Structures like this seemed out of place here, especially out of place with as barren as the rock was, so devoid of any life. It seemed as if there should be something else here.
“How many creatures do you think are following us?” She glanced over at Jorend and found him focused straight ahead, not at all curious about the buildings, about the strange stone, or about the undercurrent of energy that Imogen could have sworn she felt. Maybe that was only her, though, and not anything that was real.
“I don’t know. Maybe thirty thousand. Perhaps more than that. More than we can withstand, obviously. But then, we have you.”
Such confidence in her ability. Imogen should appreciate that. And there was a part of her that did. She was thankful that her people believed so much in her and believed that she was so capable. There were tactics that she could deploy against an onslaught of creatures like that, but even she could be overrun. That was what whoever commanded that army of creatures counted on.
“Even if we assume it is half of that,” she said, glancing at Jorend, who nodded but said nothing, “we don’t have enough to withstand the fight.” And it was worse than that. She suspected it was more than thirty thousand. If it was double that, what could they do? Find the one responsible, certainly, but even if they managed to do that, there was no guarantee that they would be able to withstand the fighting, nor that they would be able to defeat the one responsible. And there was no guarantee that finding that person would ensure they survived.
“We need more help,” she said, looking over at Jorend. “And I need to do what Benji asked of me.”
“The shamans have been making their enchantments. Most of them have been working diligently ever since the very first attack, and they can offset our lack of numbers.”
The shaman enchantments might be able to help. They could even the odds somewhat, but even with enchantments, it was still not going to be enough.
“We need to save the rest of the Leier,” she said, pausing in the middle of the ruins. One of the pale stone buildings had crumbled, the top of a spire having split, fallen, and landed across the street, blocking her from going any farther. She could climb up and over it, but even that probably wasn’t necessary. She had other ways of getting beyond now that she had a full understanding of her sacred patterns.
“You want us to march through all the Leier homeland? That’s going to take some time, and I’m not exactly sure that we have that time with as many as we have here.”
Imogen smiled tightly. “No. You’re right. We don’t have the time here, which is why that’s not what I’m suggesting.”
“What are you suggesting, First?”
She looked up at the slopes of the mountainside on either side of her. “If I’m right, this will eventually lead us to the Heart of the Leier lands,” she said. “We need to follow this, find the Heart, and see what Master Liu wanted us to learn about it. But this isn’t going to be my journey. I’m going to go and find more help.”
“Outside the homeland?”
It was one possibility that she had considered, as there were other places they could go, but none were reachable easily—or quickly. Even if she were to go for that kind of help, she had no idea if anyone would answer her call. She had friends who would offer their aid were she to ask it, but she didn’t know if she could reach them in time.
And even if she had the man known as the Chain Breaker, she wasn’t sure that his magic would be enough. He was just one man. That would not even the odds. There were enchanters that she had met while in Yoran, and they would probably answer, especially if she managed to reach Gaspar. They had supplies of enchantments that could grant speed and strength and impermeable skin. All those enchantments would be beneficial, but it would probably help no more than if she were to have the shamans create something similar.
What she needed was numbers. What she needed was fighters. She needed Leier. She needed her people.
But would her people be enough?
More importantly, would they answer the call?
They had gathered as many of the Leier as possible, having visited all the villages they had come across, but even that might not be enough. She needed to find a different truth. She needed to follow the path Benji had suggested.
“I’m going to the main part of our homeland,” Imogen said.
“I thought that’s what we were doing.”
Imogen smiled slightly. “We’ve been skirting around the border, looking for answers, but unfortunately, there are no answers. Not here. There’s nothing but death for us if we don’t have the help that we need. We need to keep looking for other Leier, along with more of the Koral. Until we do, I don’t know that we will be as strong as we need to be. That is what I need to go and do.”
He didn’t flinch at her comment, and yet what she suggested meant that she would be going outside the valley, going beyond, searching for help while leaving the others here. And she knew that Jorend had already realized that.
“How long will you be gone?” he asked.
“Not long. This is something I need to do, as I suspect it may be key to getting through what we have to face.”
“I could come.”
His saying that suggested he already knew she intended to leave him behind. But she had to. Of all of those that she had trained, Jorend had developed the best. He was the most skilled and the most likely to be able to perform the sacred patterns in ways that could offer protection and a level of defense to their people if the enchantments broke through.
And he would be the most likely to be able to get word to her if that were to happen. The people needed a leader in her absence. Of all the Leier, she trusted Jorend the most.
“I know that you could. Our people are going to need you.” Imogen turned to him, hand on the hilt of her new sword. “They need somebody to lead them. I’ve been trying to understand what I am going to need to do, especially now that Master Liu has gone, and I think my role is different. I need to bring our people together, but you’re going to need to lead them once they come together.”
“I’m not the First,” he said.
“You’re more than I was when I left. You can do this.”
“You are the general.”
She smiled at him. “I don’t know that I can remain that person indefinitely.”
He watched her as if uncertain how to respond to that, which she understood. She had told him that she did not want to leave the Leier. She understood how he would see that, and how that would trouble him. But it was true. Imogen wasn’t sure that this was what she wanted to do.
She wasn’t sure what she did want to do, though. Perhaps training future generations the way that Master Liu had attempted. At least now Imogen understood what was involved, and she believed that she would have success were she to do so. But first they had to get through these attacks, and she felt an obligation to unify her people as much as possible.
“Do you intend to take one of the shamans with you? Perhaps Rebecca, so that she can make enchantments for you.”
Imogen shook her head. “No. I can’t travel by enchantments or with our people.”
“But—”
“I know what you are going to say, but I can’t do it. We can’t travel like that, as it won’t provide us with what we need to bring the people together.” It wasn’t only that Imogen didn’t want to rely upon the enchantments, though she wondered if she could even count on them. Eventually, enchantments faded. There was also the concern that if she were to appear with an enchantment, she would be viewed with suspicion and fear when what she really needed was to find a way to bring their people together.
“How do you intend to travel quickly enough?”
Imogen flicked her gaze to the sky. The dark shape of the renral circled, as it often did, and she watched it. It was so much less terrifying than when she had seen the renral originally. These didn’t attack. They would shriek from time to time, and they would dive, but always outside the range of the Leier and the Koral with her. None of them were in any danger.
“Are you sure that you can trust them?”
“Trust is a difficult question. How much can you trust something that is foreign to you? But I don’t think that I need to fear them as we did before. I think the renral want to work with us, especially these.” Imogen didn’t know if other renral would be so inclined, but the ones that she had preserved certainly seemed that way.
“It might be easier to take an enchantment.”
Imogen paused in the small clearing around her. She focused on Tree Stands in the Forest, letting her connection and understanding of everything around her flow downward, into the ground, and then even deeper. She hadn’t done it when she had first come here, and she was surprised to feel something. There was a hint of energy here. It reminded her somewhat of what Master Liu had done with the sacred temple when it had been attacked. It was as if there were other Trees, other parts of the Forest, and she had to try to understand them.
She withdrew. There wasn’t the time for her to take to understand this place. Later, perhaps. When everything was done. When her people were safe. When the battle was won. That was when she could try to ask questions she did not have answers to.
“I don’t know if I know enough to offer our people the protection they need,” Jorend said, his voice dropping into a whisper. It was strange seeing this flicker of uncertainty in him. He was quite different from the brash and confident man that she had met in the sacred temple all those years ago. He had changed.
So had she.
“Of course you do. You’ve been training with me.” She turned to him and smiled. “Besides, everyone here must continue to study the sacred patterns. We need to have as much mastery of them as we can. We need that more than anything else. I want you to focus on quickly working through the patterns so that our people are ready for any attack.”
She looked back, toward the Koral, toward the shamans, and could feel some energy there. It was almost a touch of sorcery, though she wondered how much of it was real and how much of it was their enchantments.
“We need to have the shamans working as well. They need to create as many enchantments as possible.” It would be difficult work, she knew. It would involve steady and regular use of magic, something that she wondered if the shamans were even prepared for. “And there’s one more thing.” When Jorend arched a brow at her, frowning, she smiled. “It will be strange, I suspect, but it’s one thing that whoever is leading this attack may not anticipate. We need whatever advantage we have.”
“Then we will do it. We will be ready. We will get the people trained in a way that will prevent any additional danger to us.”
“There’s no guarantee that this won’t lead to any additional danger,” she said. She glanced back up at the sky. “We need to train them. And we need to find more.”
Jorend followed the direction of her gaze before turning back to her. “You can’t be serious.”
“Completely. They have some innate defense against magic. We will need that to defend against whoever is leading this attack.”
