The Stone Wolf (The Chain Breaker Book 4) by D.K. Holmberg (digital book reader TXT) 📕

in doing so. They seem to be invested in this for some reason.”

Gaspar grunted again. “For some reason? You don’t even know the reason? I can tell you why. It’s because of you, boy. They want you. They want your power. You just have to figure out what they want from you.”

Gavin didn’t have the sense that they wanted anything from him, but maybe Gaspar was right. Maybe that was the only reason Anna had been willing to work with him at all. Maybe it was all about something that she thought he could offer, and that was the reason she had been willing to talk and work with him.

But he didn’t know.

And maybe it didn’t even matter.

“People like that have an agenda, boy. They always do.”

“What about you?”

Gaspar leaned toward Gavin. “What agenda do you think I have?”

Gavin breathed out slowly. He knew better than to push Gaspar. “None, I imagine.”

“You’re damn right, it’s none. But that woman and her people were in Yoran for a reason. They left after you came. Don’t you find that interesting?”

Gaspar wasn’t wrong. Anna had been vague with him about what she had been doing and her reasons for leaving. She’d been hiding in Yoran for a while before he’d found her, at least as far as he knew, but what if it was about something more?

“I will push for more information when this is over. Will that work?”

“It’s going to have to, isn’t it?”

Gavin chuckled and eyed him. “Are you well enough to get going?”

“As well as I can.”

“Then we need to keep looking. I have to find Wrenlow and—”

“We are going back to Yoran,” Imogen said. “Nelar has its own unrest. While you were gone, I overheard the healer talking to someone.”

“The Toral?”

“I’m not sure. From what I have heard, several buildings have burned.”

“I saw that, but I think it was a while ago.” He suspected the Toral was even involved in some way, though he didn’t know the details.

“We’re leaving,” Gaspar said.

Gavin wanted to argue, but it didn’t make sense for him to. It was time for them to return. He didn’t have any way to pursue Wrenlow or to know where Tristan would’ve taken him. They needed to get back to the city and regroup, then they could figure out what needed to be done.

He sighed. “Fine. Do you think you can handle the journey back on your stone wolf?”

“I can handle it,” Gaspar said.

There was a flicker in his eyes, just a moment, but it was enough that Gavin wondered if perhaps Gaspar wasn’t nearly as confident as he wanted to portray.

And Gavin understood. He wasn’t looking forward to the ride either. Partly because he felt that returning to Yoran was nothing more than a setback, but partly because he simply didn’t want to ride on the stone wolf all the way back to the city.

“When do you want to leave?” Gavin asked Gaspar.

“Now,” Imogen said.

Gavin frowned, but he had the good sense not to argue with her. There was no point in doing so, not when he had no reason to believe that they could—or should—stay here.

So he nodded. “Let me pay the sorcerer, and then we can go.”

Chapter Eighteen

Gavin found the sorcerer sitting in an alcove in the entrance to the outpost. He was dressed in a crimson robe, with the half-moon crest of the Sorcerers’ Society embroidered on the left chest. His hair drooped into his face, but he looked up the moment Gavin appeared. His eyes flashed with irritation.

“Did you come to threaten me again?” he asked.

“No,” Gavin said, looking around the outpost and once again feeling like it was strangely empty. As he had before, he believed there should be other sorcerers working in the outpost, but there were none. He couldn’t help but feel that there was something he was missing.

The sorcerer folded a book closed, reminding him of Wrenlow.

“I came to pay you for your service,” Gavin said.

The sorcerer raised an eyebrow. “You’re actually going to pay?”

“I pay my debt.”

“I see. Well, for the service you were offered, the price is typically set at a standard rate of one silver per day. Along with supplies, and a flat rate of five gold—”

Gavin leaned forward and rested his hands on the desk, fixing the sorcerer with a hard gaze. “There is no flat rate. We both know that. Sorcerers get to determine their own fees. Even those within the society.” Gavin regarded him, trying to put as much intensity and darkness into his stare as he could. “I have experience around sorcerers, so I know what you can do, and I know what you can choose. In this case, you can choose whether you want to try to put one past me, or whether you would like to charge a fair rate.”

“I am only stating the fee for the outpost,” the sorcerer said.

“Then the outpost is overcharging.” Gavin leaned back. “Is that because you don’t care to heal dular?”

The sorcerer shook his head. “It has nothing to do with the dular. Why, when the attack came, I was there helping them…” He sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Pay what you think you should, and we’ll call it even. Is that what you want to hear?”

The attack had involved the dular and the Society together?

That was a story he’d love to hear.

Imogen was right. It was time for them to get moving.

“I’m not beyond the means of paying,” Gavin said. He fished into his pocket and glanced inside the pouch of coins. Do I really want to argue with the sorcerer about the value of his services?

Gavin certainly had no problem negotiating for his own fee, and when he had been hired by Davel Chan, he had earned far more coin than he had acquired in quite some time. It was enough that Gavin would’ve been able to travel anywhere, set up for a period of time, and not worry about finding payment.

“Here,” he said, dropping the pouch on the counter. “We will