Unfinished, page 14
The renral remained perched, as if waiting for her to provide another command.
There had been some power here, though Imogen wasn’t sure what it was. The renral had broken through it, overpowering the magical connection that was here. She waited while trying to figure out what she had sensed.
She didn’t have to wait that long. There came another strange pressure building, and Imogen started toward it. She flowed, Petals on the Wind taking her toward that sense, and she used the sacred pattern to feel that power and try to figure out what it was that she detected. As she made her way toward that sense, she detected something else.
She saw a pond reflecting the moonlight. Stars also reflected off the water, and Imogen approached it, hesitating. There was some energy coming from here, though she wasn’t sure what it was. Perhaps it was only her imagination.
She took another step forward and then paused. As she did, and though she could feel the power that was within her, she started to question whether there was some other source of it. She didn’t know what it was or why she should feel it, only that she could.
She looked at the renral. He had not moved.
Maybe he would wait for her until she called to him again. Now that she understood the pattern that connected her to him, hopefully the renral would answer if needed. She had started back toward him when the wind began to whisper in her ear.
She had no idea what it was, nor why she would be so acutely aware of it, but as that soft whispering came to her, she spun, her slender blade suddenly unsheathed and whipping around.
There was a wisp of smoke.
Little more than that, certainly nothing that she could determine, but smoke nonetheless.
Imogen brought her blade up in a quick slice, carving through a bit of pressure, twisting on Petals on the Wind. There was some hint of magic against her, but she wasn’t sure what it was.
Another bit of pressure began to build upon her, and Imogen spun again, whipping her blade once more. As before, there was that wisp of smoke. It was nothing more than that. It was almost as if this were some magical entity toying with her.
Imogen raised her blade and drove it down, power exploding from her in some mixture of Tree Stands in the Forest and Lightning Strikes in the Storm. She was not even sure what it was that she did, only that the combined patterns seemed to be powerful enough that they blasted outward, striking the strange wisp of smoke, sending it flying away from her.
Imogen turned, and then she faced the pond, focusing on Tree Stands in the Forest. If there was going to be some sort of strange attack here, she was going to be ready for it. She was going to harness every bit of power within herself, and she was going to prepare for what might be here.
Could this be the source of the enchantments and the monster army?
It didn’t seem likely. She was too far away from the attack. Why would the source be here? She’d seen no sign of anything on the journey here, though as the sky had darkened, she may not have been aware of much.
Tree Stands in the Forest allowed her to push downward, with an understanding of what existed around her. Distantly she detected the renral still waiting for her. She had a distinct sense that the renral was unconcerned, though maybe there was no reason for the renral to fear. He could withstand any sorcery.
Tree Stands in the Forest.
She wasn’t a tree, though. This wasn’t the forest.
This was a stream. This was a pond.
And she had seen from the renral that different patterns seemed to matter with different circumstances. Perhaps that was the problem. She had been defaulting to Tree Stands in the Forest too often. While it was useful, there were also limitations to it. It was protective, and she had managed to defend herself with that pattern many times, but in this case, for her to truly understand what she was dealing with and what was going on around her, perhaps she needed to try a different approach.
Stream through the Trees.
Only there were no trees.
If she could find the flow of this place and find some understanding of it, perhaps it would guide her. Imogen focused on that, letting a swirling energy continue to course through her. She modified one of the sacred patterns to let flow a Stream through the Grassland, or perhaps it was a new sacred pattern.
She flowed and became aware of something else.
The pressure she felt eased as she modified this sacred pattern, gliding and sliding through it. She held her blade at the ready, uncertain of what she might find as she approached the water’s edge. She saw nothing. She flowed around the pond, sweeping her blade around until she reached a small building.
She hadn’t even known that it was there. It was little more than a hut set into a hillside, and there were no lights inside, no smoke coming from the chimney, and nothing to suggest anybody was there, but she could feel something.
Imogen flowed. Now she moved from Stream through the Grassland into Petals on the Wind. It felt right to do that. The renral remained connected to her as a distant sense in the back of her mind, and with a sudden awareness, she wondered if he impeded her ability to detect anything more. Perhaps his natural magical resistance made it so that Imogen could not feel what she would otherwise.
She flowed toward the doorway, and she looked at the building. This was the source of what she was detecting. And there was something here. She knew it, even if she couldn’t tell who was inside—or perhaps what. A Sul’toral?
It would be odd for there to be a Sul’toral here.
Unless it was Timo.
That would explain who was responsible for the attack. Timo hadn’t had a monster army before, but perhaps he had learned how to create enchantments and now used them against his people.
Then again, would Timo view them as his people any longer? Given what she’d seen of him, she wasn’t convinced that he would. It was possible—and likely—he did not think of the Leier as his people any longer.
She was slipping closer to the building, using the sacred patterns to overwhelm the sorcery, when creatures sprang forth from the grass around her.
Imogen knew how to fight them. She focused on Tree Stands in the Forest briefly, giving her a chance to gather herself, and then she arced out Lightning Strikes in the Storm. It cut across the grasses and cleaved them down. With a burst of more power, another surge of Tree Stands in the Forest, Imogen once again began to push outward. She could feel that energy all around her, and she could feel that there was something there for her, even if she wasn’t exactly sure what it was.
She made her way toward the building. Whoever was controlling this attack had to be inside, and Imogen had to get to them. She had to know who it was.
More of the grass creatures came toward her.
They were denser than they had been when she had faced them before, and they stretched, as if they were elongating, the attack growing more powerful the closer that she got to the hut.
Imogen focused on Tree Stands in the Forest, letting that power fill her, and then she focused outward and carved with a sharp arc, sweeping out with Lightning Strikes in the Storm. It erupted from the end of her blade as if it were an actual lightning bolt, and it carved through the grasses. Imogen spun carefully, turning, looking around her and trying to see what else might be there.
There was nothing.
She shot forward. Then she reached the door.
She paused. Behind her, she could feel the power building, energy starting to bloom, and she hesitated just a moment. Only a moment. She didn’t dare wait any longer. And then Imogen jammed the door open.
Power exploded toward her, but she had already shifted into Tree Stands in the Forest. The sorcerer that stood across from her was not completely unexpected.
“Lilah,” Imogen said.
Chapter Sixteen
Imogen didn’t dare move. She held on to Tree Stands in the Forest, pushing downward so that she could anchor and be prepared for any attack Lilah might make. She hadn’t seen Lilah since she had overpowered her. They had dealt with her attacks, all on behalf of Abigail, but she had not seen Lilah.
She looked different. Older. When Imogen had been around Lilah before, she’d had a youthful appearance that had suited her. In the months since then, she had taken on an air and appearance of someone who had seen darkness, and Imogen suspected she had. Her dark hair was a mirror of Imogen’s own, as were her eyes. She was slightly taller than Imogen, and more slender, as she had never learned to fight as so many of the Leier had. She would have been a shaman within the Koral, but now she was something else.
Lilah stood with her hands stretched out to either side, and she crackled with a pale blue energy. Her feet were set in a strange and awkward angle, her knees buckled inward. She didn’t move. Her dark hair hung down to her shoulders, and her eyes were wide, lines drawn around them. And there was a bruise on one cheek.
Imogen stared at her, half expecting Lilah to blast toward her, bringing her power outward, but as she waited, there was no further attack.
“Well?” Imogen asked. “If you’re going to draw me out here, then you might as well show me what you intend to do.”
“Oh, I will.”
The voice came from behind her.
Imogen had been braced with Tree Stands in the Forest, but she had not fully expected somebody to come from behind her. She had been prepared for Lilah to attack, but in the last moment, Imogen noticed a faint twitch of Lilah’s eyes, a faint glimmer that suggested that she was concerned about something.
Imogen resisted the urge to turn. In this case, with power like this, she knew better than to turn. She focused on Tree Stands in the Forest instead.
“Aren’t you going to greet me?”
Imogen didn’t recognize the voice. She had been concerned it might be Timo, but it wasn’t Timo’s voice.
Imogen readied for an attack.
A strange power burst against her back like a boulder slamming upon her.
She twisted, trying to come up with power more quickly than she ever had before. She focused on Tree Stands in the Forest. And then she had to shift to Lightning Strikes in the Storm.
The shift was the hardest part of it. Imogen focused, and then she began to build, began to let Lightning Strikes in the Storm flow from her.
It was much like when she had faced a Sul’toral the very first time. There came a thunderous explosion. Imogen had used Lightning Strikes in the Storm enough times now that she had control over it in a way that she had control over so few of her sacred patterns. She could use that, Petals on the Wind, and Tree Stands in the Forest far better than any of the others. So when she struck, she spun, Petals on the Wind, and then immediately focused on Tree Stands in the Forest.
The darkened shape on the other side was unfamiliar to her, and definitely not Timo, as he carried a blade. The person held a long staff. It reminded her of the metal swords that had been marching with the stone creatures and the shadow blobs.
“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage,” Imogen said. She was distinctly aware that Lilah was behind her, and there was the possibility that Lilah might still be a part of this, but Imogen questioned whether Lilah could even move. And if she couldn’t, then there might not be anything that Imogen could do for her until she had dealt with the sorcerer.
“You should not have come here. I was not trying to target you.”
“Whom were you trying to target?”
The sorcerer took a step toward her and then stopped. Her Tree Stands in the Forest blocked him, but how long would it hold? Imogen felt the power that had been battering at her, the power the sorcerer had at his disposal. Incredible power slammed into her, despite her holding on to Tree Stands in the Forest.
“Who are you?” he asked.
He didn’t know who she was. That was for the best.
Did he think she was working with Lilah? Imogen needed to get a better understanding of what was going on here, but she had to do it quickly. Right now, Imogen wasn’t exactly sure what she was going to be able to do, nor was she sure what it was going to take. She felt there were answers that were missing for her.
“Somebody passing through,” she said.
The sorcerer flicked his gaze up to the sky. “There are none passing through here. The only ones who are have the ability to make the journey through this valley. And I would say that you don’t strike me as someone who has that ability.”
Imogen frowned at him. “And why don’t I?”
“You do not have the smell of them.”
Imogen focused on her own sacred pattern, trying to concentrate energy. What smell was he referring to?
“Whom were you hoping to find here?”
“You have their ability, though,” he said.
“Do I?”
The sorcerer took another step toward her, and power radiated outward far more potently than Imogen had ever felt from a sorcerer.
“I can feel it.”
Imogen was aware of something that he was doing, even if she didn’t know how to understand it. There came a flickering, fluttering, and then that sensation passed.
She wasn’t sure what she had detected, only that there had been a moment, little more than that, when Imogen had felt a stirring. There was incredible power here.
Worse, she knew what kind of power it was.
This was a Sul’toral. She was certain of it, but which Sul’toral was this?
“I’m afraid you have a disadvantage. I don’t know who you are, so I don’t know whether I should cut you down or whether I should keep you alive to talk,” Imogen said.
The sorcerer laughed, a rich, hearty sound. “So confident. It is unusual for your kind.”
“And what kind is that?”
“Why, the Porapeth.”
Could he know? Even Imogen wasn’t exactly sure what it meant for her to have been given the gift by Benji, but she could feel that power, and though she did, she could not see any possibilities. This sorcerer had a way of obscuring them. And yet Imogen didn’t necessarily need those possibilities to know what she needed to do.
She focused, using Tree Stands in the Forest, and as he took another step toward her, she exploded forward.
Lightning Strikes in the Storm, shifting to Petals on the Wind, to Axe Falling. The combination was a flurry of movement. With each sacred pattern, the sorcerer raised his staff, twisted it in one direction, then the next, and managed to block each of her blows. With every attack, it seemed almost as if he used the sacred patterns himself, but no sorcerer knew the sacred patterns. This was just a potent sorcerer—a Sul’toral.
There came a whisper in the back of her mind, and a different thought came to her. She had another sacred pattern that she hadn’t tried, but one that was new to her. It was something like Petals on the Wind, but it was the one that had bonded her to the renral and given her insight about his connection, and about what she might need to do.
That power surged.
As she flowed through the pattern, the sorcerer was forced back.
Power surged within Imogen.
Imogen spun, using the pattern that the renral had shown her, and brought her blade around. It was a whistling, and a crack. For a moment, she thought that she had struck the sorcerer, catching his staff, but then he was gone. The pressure that she’d been feeling, the strange energy that she had detected around her, was now gone.
Imogen spun, only to see Lilah surging forward, stumbling out of the hut. Her eyes blazed, irritation flashing within them, and she looked upon Imogen with anger.
“What did you do?”
“I suppose you aren’t going to thank me,” Imogen said, glancing back toward the hut.
The strange sense that she had detected before was no longer there.
“I had him where we needed him,” Lilah said.
“I don’t think you did,” Imogen said. She frowned, glancing around the clearing, toward the pond, and then back toward Lilah.
Lilah tried to take a step toward Imogen, who had been holding on to Tree Stands in the Forest, which formed a barricade to keep Lilah from getting too close.
Imogen turned her attention outward and could still feel some strange energy in the air, and she wondered how much of it was from that Sul’toral and how much of it was from Lilah. “What happened here?”
“We have been trying to draw them out,” Lilah snapped. “Not that you care.”
“Trying to draw whom out? Sorcerers like that?”
“You know they’re not sorcerers,” Lilah said, striding past Imogen. She brushed up against Imogen’s Tree Stands in the Forest, but not completely. The pattern pushed her back. “Sul’toral. But you know that, don’t you?”
“I know, but I don’t know why Abigail would care.”
“Because they want to undo everything that Abigail has done over the years,” she said.
Lilah stopped at the pond, looking down at the water. There was a soft burbling, and the light reflected off the surface, leaving it looking like hundreds of stars were sparkling in it. She couldn’t make anything out, but she had a feeling that there was a soft energy there, enough that Imogen could imagine that Benji was looking down upon her, guiding her. Perhaps he was.
“I never realized that she cared about what happened.” Imogen hesitated for a moment before moving closer to Lilah. While she was standing on the edge of the pond, looking out into the water, a deep frown creased her brow.
“Because you can’t see what she can see,” Lilah said.
“Perhaps not what she can, but I can still see.”
Lilah glowered at her for a long moment until her expression softened. “What is it like?”
Imogen suspected Lilah wanted the very gift that Benji had given her. Abigail had wanted it as well, but for a different reason. “It’s not what you think it is.”
“So you don’t see the possibilities?”
Imogen debated how best to respond. She was still irritated with Lilah, but perhaps that wasn’t the best way to handle her. “Tell me what Abigail intends, and I can tell you what I have seen.”
