When he was down, Gavin dragged him away.
Gaspar looked over. “What did you do to him?”
“He should be out for a little while,” Gavin whispered.
It was a brutally effective technique—and one he hadn’t used in quite some time—but in close quarters, it was the right move to use. That left two constables.
“Check him. See what you can find,” Gavin said.
Gaspar nodded. It was a wonder he didn’t argue.
Gavin sprinted forward, and he found the other two constables searching a back room. He snuck up behind the nearest one, quickly wrapped his arms around to silence him, and dropped him with the same technique he’d used on the first.
He spun to avoid detection, but the remaining constable noticed him.
Gavin lunged. He tried to keep his head down and twisted as he lunged, wanting to get to the constable without him noticing what Gavin was doing. He wrapped his arms around the constable’s throat and held tightly. The constable struggled, thrashing for a moment, but Gavin used his strength and brought him down.
He waited and held on until the constable was completely immobilized. Gavin dragged one of the constables back to the room. When he returned, he reached for the other constable.
The blade of the El’aras dagger started to glow.
Balls.
The constables must have detected something.
Was it a sorcerer, or was it an enchanter?
Either way, Gavin didn’t want to get caught. It would be better for him and Gaspar to grab the enchanter and get back out into the street, but first they had to find the enchantment. It could be anything.
Gavin had experience with enchantments, and had seen how they could be utilized to devastating effect. Practically anything could be enchanted, but the type of enchantment depended upon the particular skill of the enchanter. Each enchanter had an ability to perform very specific enchantments, though Gavin didn’t know if that ability depended upon what they placed the enchantment upon. Sorcerers could use enchantments as well, and were often even more skilled, but sometimes the strangeness of an enchanters ability made their kind of power unique.
Gavin hurried across the room, dragging the other constable. “See what you can find,” he whispered.
“What are you going to do?”
He held out the dagger. “Look.”
Gaspar frowned at it. “Then we need to go.”
“Just because there’s magic here doesn’t mean there’s anything we need to be concerned about,” Gavin said. “Hell, if the constables had broken in because there was something dangerous here, maybe this is exactly the place we need to be.”
Gaspar turned his attention to the constable.
Gavin stayed low and moved back into the other room. Maybe there was a trapdoor. If so, that meant a sorcerer was here.
He examined the inside of the small room. It looked to be a bedroom, though other than the bed and a table, there was no clothing and no signs that anybody spent much time here. He backed out, and he looked around. An outline on the wall caught his attention, indicating a section that was a little off. Without the glow of the El’aras dagger, he likely wouldn’t have even seen it. He probed at it, pressing the dagger into the wall, searching along the corners.
The wall popped open.
Power exploded toward him.
Gavin braced himself, and he brought the El’aras dagger up, which deflected the explosion and caused the energy to split off to either side. He darted forward, holding onto the dagger. It continued to glow, though it was fainter than it had been before.
He stepped into a massive room, larger than he would’ve expected from the other side. It opened into a large chamber with a low ceiling. Pillars of stone held up the ceiling, and Gavin had a difficult time seeing to the far side of the room. Shadows loomed in the distance, and though a lantern hung on one of the nearest pillars, there was no light emanating from it.
The room extended through the neighboring buildings. Whoever occupied this place had most of the block.
Something slammed into him again. The impact reminded him of the beating he’d sustained when Alex had attacked him while trying to escape from the Captain. He spun in place with the dagger, but he didn’t see anything there. There was nothing other than the darkness.
There had to be someone here.
Gavin moved forward carefully. He held out the dagger, trying to illuminate the room. There were shelves along the walls, and the items on the shelves reminded him of what he’d seen in Cyran’s sublevel.
He turned quickly and realized what it was. A sorcerer’s lair.
Enchanters didn’t have anything quite like it. They didn’t need to. Sorcerers required the space and the solitude to carry out their spells and incantations to create power.
He almost chuckled, but the power slammed into him again, knocking him back. It wasn’t painful, not the way even Alex’s attack had been. Whoever used their magic at him wasn’t nearly powerful enough to do any real damage.
“If you don’t stop what you’re doing now, I’m going to bring the constables in here,” Gavin said.
Power surged against him again.
“I said, if you don’t stop…” Gavin held out the dagger. He didn’t see any movement, nothing that would give him any sense of what he’d detected, but he couldn’t shake the irritation within him. They were continuing their assault.
“Fine. If this is what you want to do, then don’t blame me when the constables drag you off to…” Gavin had no idea where they took magic users. Perhaps he should ask Gaspar about that.
The assault faded.
“Good. I knocked out the three constables that came to your home. I don’t know who you are or where you are, but step forward so I can see you.”
Gavin waited for a moment. A small figure stepped out of the shadows, and his breath caught.
A child.
Chapter Eighteen
Gavin stared at the child. He looked to be no more than
