Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  She followed the energy.

  There was nothing in it that she could use to guide her way through the city, though the farther she went, the more she felt as if she could uncover something here. There was a key nearby. She didn’t know what it was, nor who was responsible, but there was power here.

  Jayna no longer felt the same chaos around her as she had earlier. Even the strange agitation she’d felt in the crowd had faded, as if it had never been there. For that, she was thankful. There was always the risk that the protest and the attack on Char could’ve gotten bloody. It had very nearly gotten to that point anyway, and it was only through chance, more than anything else, that they had managed to keep from fighting their way free. Char wouldn’t have been willing to take the same action that Jayna would have. She was glad she had been there for him, and worried about what might’ve happened had she not been.

  The pressure guided her away from her home.

  She considered returning to the home to see whether Topher was okay since he had sent out the summons, but there had been no recurrence of that vibration since she had sent Eva away to check on him. Either Topher didn’t need her help, or Eva’s arrival had been enough.

  She found herself drawn toward the courtyard outside of the homes of the seven leaders of the city. All of them were dular, and all of them were incredibly wealthy, rising up to lead through the years and their accrued power.

  She watched Rosal’s father’s house, thumbing her finger over the bloodstone on her ring, thinking about Rosal’s role in everything that had happened in the city. He had some responsibility for it and was too stupid to know that he’d been used.

  The home was a towering manor home of gleaming white stone surrounded by an enormous wall, and saw a pair of guards standing watch outside of it along with some activity on the other side of the wrought-iron gate, but nothing she could easily make out. The homes on either side of his had burned. Though the one to the left had been destroyed much more than the one to the right, both were beyond salvage. Demolition crews had already gotten to work, tearing down the structures, and if what Eva had said was true, it wouldn’t be long before the homes were rebuilt—though which family would try to claim a part of the ruling dular?

  That was the part of all of it that Jayna didn’t know. It was possible that a new family would try to gain power, attempting to join the seven, and if so, then it would cause even more disruption within the city. Already there had been enough, chaos that had stemmed from the dular who had been attacked by the sorcerers. She didn’t know what other impact the rest of the city would suffer.

  As she stopped in front of the fountain, leaning back on the rim, feeling the spray of water while focusing on the constriction of the dragon stone ring, the gate to Rosal’s father’s home opened. A black wagon came out, guided by a pair of jet-black stallions.

  Jayna watched. She tried to look inside the wagon, but didn’t see anything there.

  No movement. Nothing obvious.

  Distantly, she could still feel the linking spell she had placed on Rosal, and knew he was on the other side of the gate. After using the bloodstone to create his own enchantments, he had secured his place with his family, so she suspected he was in the mansion itself.

  Ever since the night when the ruling dular had been attacked by the Order of Norej, Jayna had not seen Rosal, though she still worried about him. He had acted out of a desire to please his father, and a desire to be something he wasn’t. The bloodstone had given him that ability, but there had to be a price. There was always a price. Her experience with Rosal, however, suggested he wouldn’t even be aware of that.

  Jayna lingered for a bit longer than she had intended. The dragon stone ring continued to stay constricted, calling to her.

  She couldn’t wait here any longer.

  She followed the energy within it, and as she did, she found it guiding her. There was a bit more energy within the ring now, and this time, as it continued to squeeze, it seemed to shuffle her beyond the courtyard, and from there, she followed the street. A line of merchant wagons stood on the outskirts of the city.

  She soon found herself heading toward a traditional dular market. Not the midnight market where dular had to hide their enchantments, but one where they sold or traded what they made openly. She slowed as she neared it. It was midday, early enough that she wouldn’t have expected it to be quite as vibrant as this.

  Jayna moved through the periphery of the market. She passed Molly, the dular who liked to claim she had more powerful enchantments than she actually did. It surprised her that she sold her enchantments in the daytime as well. The heavyset woman shot her a look. She recognized Jayna.

  Jayna grinned at her. She headed over to her and leaned down, resting her hands on her booth.

  “The last time you were here, the entire market burned. They blame you.”

  Jayna just chuckled. “I’m surprised you chose a wooden booth. Considering your enchantments are as powerful as they are, I would’ve expected you to want something that wouldn’t burn. Maybe stone,” she said sarcastically.

  Molly leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. “If you aren’t going to purchase anything, you might as well move on.”

  “Who said I wasn’t going to purchase anything?”

  “You don’t need to make fun of my enchantments.”

  “I didn’t mean to offend you,” Jayna said and meant it. It wasn’t about upsetting this woman. What did she care if the woman deceived her way to higher profits? It wasn’t her responsibility to supervise the dular market.

  She stepped back, twisting the dragon stone ring. The constriction had eased, but there was still a little bit of pressure within the ring. Not as much, though—certainly not enough to make her feel the same urgency as it had before.

  “You’re taunting me,” Molly said.

  “Do you sell much?”

  “I sell enough.”

  “Have you tried changing the substrate?”

  “What?”

  “The substrate of what you place your enchantments on. Have you tried changing it?”

  “Now you think you know better than I do?”

  Jayna shrugged. “I don’t know more than you do, but I do understand placing enchantments.”

  “You aren’t dular.”

  “Nope.”

  “Then leave.”

  Jayna merely shrugged, stepping back. She didn’t know why she was pushing Molly. It wasn’t that she disliked the woman, though Molly had been nasty to her when Jayna had been here before. Maybe it was only about that, but maybe it was more than that. She did feel Molly took advantage of others who might not have much money to spend and didn’t feel comfortable heading into the market itself.

  “Good luck,” Jayna said.

  “I don’t need luck,” Molly said. “I sell well enough. At least, I did before you destroyed the market.”

  Jayna considered saying something to her before thinking better of it. She headed onward and passed by another booth before she heard a voice call out. Jayna paused and turned back. A young girl with mousy brown hair sat on a chair behind the booth. She was happy to see her again, having last seen the girl when the market had been attacked.

  Jayna smiled at her. “You.”

  The girl grinned. “You came back.”

  “I did. I have to tell you that your enchantments are quite impressive.”

  “They are?”

  Jayna nodded quickly. “And very useful. I hope you have been doing well here.”

  “Not as well as I wanted. My parents are letting me keep selling, but they don’t like it.”

  “Because they don’t think your enchantments are safe?”

  “It’s not so much they don’t think they’re safe,” she said. “It’s just . . . Well, we’re taught to create, not destroy. At least, my family would rather see me create and not destroy. The kind of power I put into an enchantment isn’t meant for creation.”

  “It’s not entirely me
ant for destruction either,” Jayna said. “Have your parents ever seen the effect of one of your enchantments?”

  “All they see is the violence.”

  “Do they see anything else?” Jayna looked along the inside of the marketplace. The ring constricted briefly, but not long enough for her to get a sense of which way she needed to go. It was possible that whatever dark power was out there had already moved on. “Have they seen how your enchantments don’t actually destroy anything?”

  Having experienced the effect of her enchantment firsthand, Jayna understood there was a benefit to it: Those who might otherwise be destroyed while using magic were only knocked back.

  The enchantments may be violent, but they were nonlethal. There was an advantage to using that kind of magic, though perhaps only to people like herself, and people who cared about such things.

  “I’m trying to come up with another way to use my enchantments,” the girl said. “I’m supposed to find a way that won’t destroy.”

  “That’s why you’re out here in the daytime market,” Jayna said.

  “Not many want to sell at night. Too dangerous. Most fear the Society will attack.”

  Jayna frowned at that suggestion. How bad had it gotten? “You don’t have to worry anyway. Your kind of magic is wonderful. And incredibly useful.”

  She smiled at Jayna. “Thank you.”

  Jayna shrugged. “You don’t have to thank me. Just keep making what you’re making.”

  More than that, Jayna believed that the girl’s kind of magic was going to be necessary in the days and weeks to come. If they were dealing with some sort of violent force, some sort of darkness, then having her power, such as it was, would be valuable.

  Jayna reached into her pocket and flipped through some of her coins before settling on a silver. “Here. I would take more.”

  The girl’s eyes widened. “That’s too much!” She pocketed the coins and Jayna chuckled. “I have something for you.” She reached under the counter, then pulled out a black lacquered box and opened it. She sorted through it, grabbing several different enchantments before handing them to Jayna.

  They were all intricately detailed, a measure of the strength the girl had pushed into them. With enchantments like this, the dular responsible could often demonstrate their strength simply by the definition within the patterns they used. The patterns on these were intricate enough, and complicated enough, that Jayna couldn’t help but be impressed by them.

  “I made a few new ones.”

  Jayna ran her finger over the largest of the enchantments. They were all shaped like round marbles and most had a crystalline appearance, reminding her a bit of bloodstone. If she had gotten a hold of bloodstone . . .

  They didn’t feel quite like that though.

  “I see that. And it looks like you made a few that are quite a bit more powerful than the ones I got last time.”

  She grinned at Jayna. “A little bit.”

  “A little bit?”

  “Well, they’re a bit more potent than anything I’ve made before.” The girl grinned. “I was hoping I might run into you again.”

  “You made these for me?”

  The girl shrugged. “Well, after what happened at the market the last time, I saw what you did.” She leaned forward, lowering her voice. “And I heard about what happened in the city later.”

  “I don’t know if I would put too much value into that,” Jayna said.

  “You might not, but others of us do.” She shrugged. “We appreciate everything you did.” She grabbed another fistful of enchantments from her box and handed them to Jayna. “If these come in handy, then you can come back and get more.”

  “If these come in handy, I might just put you on the payroll.”

  The girl frowned. “What does that mean?”

  Jayna waved her hand. “Probably nothing. Anyway. Thank you.”

  “If they’re useful, just make sure others know.”

  “You might need to be careful. You might have to get a bigger booth.”

  The girl grinned.

  Jayna stuffed the enchantments into her pocket, then headed along the market.

  Most of the faces there were familiar to her. They had all been here before, and as she meandered through, she nodded to some of them before moving on to others. As she neared the edge of the market, the ring started constricting; this time, she paused and focused on her connection to the ring.

  Normally, it was easy enough for her to latch on to that connection and feel the power flowing into it, but it felt almost as if something was trying to hide from her with the constriction. There was something out there, though Jayna couldn’t latch on to it the way she wanted to—needed to.

  That energy flowed out and nearby, near enough that she knew she could call on it, but she worried it wasn’t going to be potent enough to counter it. Jayna pushed outward with even more energy from the ring, letting it slide out and then beyond. As she focused on the ring, she could feel something else.

  In the distance, she caught sight of something moving.

  Not just moving—she could see it gliding.

  Jayna hurried toward it.

  The Toral ring had connected to it, almost as if the ring were guiding her as well. There was some energy within it, some power, and she could feel the connection, the way that power attempted to pull on her.

  The sound of the market became more muted. Jayna slipped along the street. She was in a residential area, and the street narrowed here. There was a bit of energy here. Something unsettling.

  It took her a moment to realize why.

  Sorcery.

  Jayna slowed and traced a quick pattern, a tracing spell, which she could use to follow the energy in the air. She hesitated for a moment, moving along the street, using the energy she could now track to guide her.

  A swirl of smoke in the distance caught her attention, moving in an unusual manner.

  Most of the buildings had chimneys that spewed smoke, though rarely in the daytime. The city was humid enough, and often hot enough, that such fires were not typically needed. At nighttime, the fire burned some of the humidity off, and the heat allowed people to sleep a little more comfortably, even though they might be warmer than they would prefer.

  In the daytime, however, Jayna was not accustomed to seeing smoke or fire or anything quite like this. She slowed, moving along the street more carefully. The tracking spell guided her forward and Jayna followed it.

  Worry crept in.

  What was the smoke?

  The farther she went, the more obscured the street became, the layer of smoke covering everything. Having spent time around Eva, Jayna recognized this kind of smoke, but it didn’t strike her as something Eva had done.

  Every so often, her ring would pulse, though the pulsing had grown increasingly diminished, which left her wondering what had accounted for the change.

  She caught a fleeting image of a woman with bright-red hair who disappeared down the street. Jayna considered pursuing her, but changed her mind when she noticed a body dressed in dark robes. As she approached, she noticed they didn’t move.

  As she neared, the constriction around the Toral ring intensified. It was dark magic she’d been feeling—and not just dark magic, but a sorcerer.

  Someone had killed a dark sorcerer.

  She looked down at them to see if she recognized anything, but other than a plain jacket and pants under the robe, she saw nothing. Then she turned the body and noticed a necklace.

  A marker hung around his neck.

  A crescent moon. Stars. She knew this marker. It was the Order of Norej.

  Who killed him?

  Smoke spilled around her, then the body ignited in flame, burning faster than Jayna could react to put it out.

  There would be no evidence of the dark sorcerer—or the Order.

  The smoke wasn’t Eva’s. She had gone to see what Topher needed. But if it wasn’t Eva, who had attacked this sorcerer?

  5


  After leaving the location where the sorcerer had been, Jayna made her way back home, slowing as she neared it and looking along the street, checking for any signs of movement but not finding any. The street itself was empty. It was one of the benefits of this home. It was on a narrow street, and at night, it was reasonably well-lit. In the time she’d been here, Jayna had never detected any magic along the street, which she considered an advantage. More than that, the neighbors kept to themselves.

  Jayna paused for a moment. Before going inside, there was something she wanted to do, and she preferred to do it outside, though it probably didn’t matter.

  She needed to try to reach Ceran.

  She should have done that as soon as she had found the fallen sorcerer. He might already know what was taking place, but if there was a downed dark sorcerer, and it wasn’t because of her, then she needed to know who else might be out in the city targeting them.

  Despite the smoke, she still didn’t think it was Eva.

  Which meant she didn’t have an answer. Someone had to be there, and someone had to be instigating things. Maybe it wasn’t all tied together the way she wanted it to be. Things weren’t always so neat and tidy.

  She pushed power out through the Toral ring and waited, though she thought the frequency with which she’d been using power today should have already sent a strong enough signal that something had happened. She didn’t call to Ceran that much, but when she did, he too often ignored her, or simply couldn’t answer when she needed him.

  She waited awhile, but there was still no answer. Nothing other than the pulsing that she put into the ring. She soon gave up—at least for now. She would have to go digging again. Eventually, she needed to get a hold of Ceran.

  She held her hand up against the door, pressing a bit of power out into it, and felt a hint of resistance. There were protections built into the door now, solidified by her own magic, and designed to ensure that no one else could open it. She had keyed it to respond to specific people: herself, Eva, and Topher since he refused to leave. That was it.

  Jayna pushed the door open and took a deep breath. The air was hot, the flame crackling brightly, and Eva sat next to the hearth, facing the fire. Jayna’s eyes darted toward the bottle resting at Eva’s feet, but she didn’t have a glass in hand. Either the bottle was empty—and given what she knew of Eva and her predilections, that was entirely possible—or she hadn’t started. That would be even more surprising.