Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The inside of the shop was in disarray. The dim enchanted lanterns provided enough light for Jayna to make out a pale-skinned man standing in the center, everything around him destroyed. He had dark hair, and eyes that seemed to reflect fire that wasn’t present. Something about him reminded her of Eva.

  The man focused on them, and he turned, holding his hands outward. Smoke streaked away from him. Jayna stepped forward, using the magic ball technique. She blocked the attack, holding steadily enough.

  Eva shouted at her. “Careful!”

  Jayna glanced back. “I need you to disarm him.”

  Jayna continued to brace herself, keeping the power wrapped around her, adding the energy of the Toral ring. It solidified in a barrier around her. Having seen Eva’s smoke, she worried it might somehow billow up underneath the barrier.

  Eva tried something, pushing her hand out and twisting her wrist, forming a pattern of smoke she sent streaking out from her.

  He deflected it, then stepped toward them.

  What enchantments did he have that let him deflect Eva’s power?

  He cocked his head to the side, watching. There was a strange energy within him.

  Jayna had a chance to look at him then. He was dressed in a deep-red jacket, almost black, and matching pants. He wore two rings on either hand, likely enchantments he was using against them.

  He raised his hand and the enchantment he used sent another streak of smoke at them. This one looked something like a snake, and it writhed around the barrier Jayna had erected, starting to constrict around it.

  Those enchantments were powerful.

  But Eva’s magic was incredibly powerful, even though it was instinctive and she didn’t always have the most control over it.

  Much like what she saw from this man.

  Jayna drew more power through the Toral ring, ignoring the pain in her arm as she used everything she could. The bloodstone continued to augment that power, giving her greater strength. Power surged, then she pushed outward.

  It blasted out in a ring that slammed into the man and sent him flying backward.

  Jayna glanced over to Eva. “Let me.”

  She started forward, approaching the fallen man.

  He lay there for a moment. Blood dripped from a wound on his cheek, and smoke drifted up from his hands, the enchantments flaring before power swirled outward.

  Jayna had only a moment to question if this man was not enchanted at all, and instead more like Eva, but then power exploded into her.

  It was a billowy cloud of energy that formed, sending Jayna staggering back. She braced herself, holding on to the power within the Toral ring, trying to use that to withstand his attack, but she didn’t know if she could prevent it from striking her completely. She had seen how Eva could get past even her strongest barriers. There was something in her magic, perhaps the smoke itself, that allowed her to slip past them.

  Jayna stumbled back again, trying to hold the shielding around herself, trying to prevent the man from striking her, but she didn’t know if it was going to be enough—if she was going to be enough.

  Eva was there, standing near the doorway and trying to pull the smoke away, but she had limited control over it. Was it because it wasn’t her smoke, or was there another reason?

  The man fought with a different sort of violence, then he exploded forward. He lunged, disappearing in a cloud of smoke. It streaked between Jayna and Eva, then out the door.

  Jayna shot Eva a look. “We have to find him.”

  “Why?”

  “If those aren’t enchantments, then we need to get you answers.”

  Eva stood motionless, smoke swirling around her, hands clenched tightly at her sides, and finally, she nodded.

  Jayna stumbled back out into the street, holding on to the power within her, ready to push it out through the Toral ring, but still worried it wasn’t going to be enough. She hadn’t seen any sign of Master Raollet in the shop, other than the shelves, the enchantments scattered all over, and the layer of smoke that had hung over everything.

  She darted along the street, trailing the smoke, using that to follow this strange man, to find wherever he had gone. He had moved quickly though. Faster than she had ever seen Eva move.

  “Come on!” Jayna shouted.

  They hurried forward, but Jayna needed another way of tracking him.

  At least with the smoke in front of her, she might be able to place a linking type of spell. The spell would be faint, but maybe she could hold on to it if it was bound to this man, bound to his blood the same way it was bound to Eva’s.

  She took a moment. The linking spell was a fairly straightforward one, and Jayna had used it many times before. She created a tight spiral, looping around a swirl of smoke, then forced power through it.

  It held, solidifying, then began to cause the smoke to shimmer with a pale-yellow light, but it bounced off the spiral of energy Jayna had created.

  “What did you do?” Eva asked.

  “I’m trying to follow him. I created a linking—”

  “You linked to him?”

  “Yes. It’ll be important to find him if we want to figure out who he is, why he attacked Master Raollet, and what he might know about who you are and where you came from.”

  She could feel the man. He hadn't gone nearly as far as she had thought. The smoke drifting along the street created something of an illusion.

  She pointed. “He just wants us to think he went away from here,” she said. “He hasn’t gone very far.”

  The buildings in this section of the city were close together, the street narrow, and a thick layer of moss covered everything. At nighttime, the moss would glow with a phosphorescent light and release additional humidity, making the air even denser than it would be otherwise. Jayna had long ago grown accustomed to the strangeness of the city.

  She followed the tracking spell. As far as she could tell, the man had only gone a few streets away. She motioned for Eva to follow, and they reached an intersection. The street itself was fairly empty, though smoke drifted in either direction, sweeping away as if to try to lead them astray.

  Jayna turned right, heading toward the outskirts of the city. Toward the forest.

  He hadn’t gone as far as the forest, at least as much as she could tell. He was still within the city, which left her thinking that maybe he still needed something from Master Raollet.

  Jayna hurried forward, slipping along the street, staying as prepared as she could. She kept power wrapped within her, holding on to the energy within the Toral ring and trying to ignore the pain that came from holding on to that power as long as she did.

  She glanced to Eva and found her holding her hands clenched at her sides. There wasn’t as much blood dripping from her palms as before, nor as much smoke swirling around her. She didn’t know Eva’s limits but suspected she had some.

  “Around the corner,” Jayna said, motioning.

  There was a small, old square here. She started to wonder how much of this was a remnant of El’aras life, especially given when Telluminder had said about the city and how all of this had been a celebration of the El’aras god king. Maybe this was where the twelve followers of Sarenoth had come, thinking that if they were to find some residual power here, they might be able to master it and use it against the city itself.

  Smoke drifted like a layer of fog that hung over the remains of a ruined building. Jayna approached carefully, then motioned to Eva.

  “We just want to talk,” Jayna shouted.

  She could feel the man nearby. He was just on the other side of a low wall that had crumbled and fallen. Moss covered it, thick and carrying the typical stench that reminded her of rotting fish—a stench that some of the nicer parts of the city didn’t have. The dular who owned and ran those nicer sections would scrub the buildings free of moss, keeping them from looking and smelling like this. “We just want to know more about you and your magic—”

  Jayna didn’t have a chance to finish. Th
ere came another burst of smoke. This one was thick, a cloud meant to obscure his escape.

  Jayna quickly traced a pattern, then poured energy through it again.

  The wind gusted. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as the last time she had performed the spell, but when it passed, the pale-skinned man stood in front of her, holding his hands clenched at his sides. He did have enchantments.

  So maybe he wasn’t like Eva.

  “Sorcerer,” he snarled.

  Jayna frowned. Could this be the person responsible for the attack on the dark sorcerer in the market that had left him dead?

  “We just want to talk,” Jayna said. She was pulling power through the Toral ring, trying to draw as much as she could without tapping into that dark periphery of energy. It was still there, an edge of power; all she had to do was reach for it and she could access it. She could almost feel it begging her to grasp it. Having the bloodstone augmentation made that power even more prominent, as if the ring now tapped into the dark energy more rapidly.

  “Sorcerer,” he said again, in a harsh, thick accent.

  Smoke drifted out from him, swirling around his feet and working upward.

  Jayna resisted the urge to look over to Eva, worried about how she was taking all of this. She needed Eva’s help, but at the same time, she also recognized that Eva needed answers. If this man might have answers for her—if he might be able to help her understand who she was and what happened to her and her memories—then far be it from Jayna to be the reason he could not do that.

  “Where are you from?” Jayna asked.

  The man glared at her, and the smoke continued to circle.

  Jayna was ready, prepared for the possibility that he might attack.

  She didn’t know if her own power would contain another blast of magic from him, but she had to think the Toral ring had enough power to withstand anything he might throw at her. She had never tested herself against Eva, and while Eva had always been helpful, what if others like her were not?

  I’m about to find out.

  “We just need to know who you are. Where you are from.”

  The man sent out a snake of power, the smoke circling around Jayna’s barrier, then it started to squeeze, constricting quickly. As it did, it pushed inward, fighting against the Toral ring and the power Jayna held on to. She wasn’t going to be able to hold it for too much longer. She had to draw even more power out of the Toral ring.

  Eva strode forward. “Enough.” Smoke circled around her, then she sent it snaking out, much like the man had.

  The man watched, but he still didn’t release his power, continuing to constrict it around Jayna, saying nothing else. It was almost as if he had turned the smoke into some sort of knife or blade that was sawing through the barrier she had placed around herself. If she didn’t do anything, he would carve through it.

  She looked over to Eva. “I can’t hold out for much longer.”

  Eva nodded.

  She squeezed her hands and blood poured out.

  The man frowned, watching her.

  As the blood pooled around Eva, it immediately turned to smoke, then she wrapped it around him. Somehow, he shifted it, drawing it away, sending it streaking off to either side.

  Eva was thrown back.

  And Jayna reacted.

  Ignoring the overwhelming pain she knew would come, she called on more of the Toral ring’s energy, letting its power fill her. The darkness she sensed when she drew on this much power served as a taunt to her. It was a temptation, a periphery of energy that was just there for her taking.

  She wrapped herself with the band of magic, then sent an explosion out from her. It struck the man.

  Jayna didn’t wait to storm forward.

  He had gone flying backward, stumbling over a section of fallen and collapsed stone, and she found him lying there, motionless.

  She approached carefully, ready for another attack. She started creating a blade of light spell with sorcery that she’d augment with the Toral power, preparing to blast him, but she didn’t want to. This wasn’t some dark magician, somebody with power that shouldn’t be theirs. This was somebody like Eva—somebody who might have answers for her.

  Jayna glanced over to Eva.

  She remained behind her, yet said nothing.

  Jayna sent a controlled blast to incapacitate the man.

  When she did, he looked up, squeezed his hands into a fist, and a cloud of smoke enveloped him. When it cleared, he was gone.

  Jayna focused on the linking spell, but found nothing.

  She sank to the ground, trying to let go of the power within her, but could still feel that darkness lingering on the outskirts of her awareness. As she attempted to push it away, she could feel it trying to intrude, as if that dark energy wanted her to claim it.

  “What was that?” she whispered.

  She looked up to Eva, who approached slowly, holding her hands in a more relaxed manner, though smoke still swirled around her. It quested outward, as if tentatively reaching toward the space where the man had been, before retreating again.

  Eva shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “Was he like you?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  If he was like Eva, maybe they could learn something. “Did he trigger any memories?”

  “Only one.” Jayna looked up again, holding Eve’s gaze for a moment. “Fear.”

  9

  They stumbled out into the street together as weakness washed through Jayna—a result of the pain she experienced from drawing upon that much power from the Toral ring, especially now that it had the bloodstone augmentation. But it was more than that too. When she tapped into that dark energy—always there at the edge of her awareness—she felt even more pain. In this case, it was also a bit of guilt. She hated tapping into that power, hated the way it made her feel. It was almost oily, a slick sort of feeling that left her ashamed of drawing upon it. Ceran would definitely have felt that.

  There was no other sign of smoke. There was only the persistent energy that filled her, giving her a distinct awareness of the power that still lingered. The man had gone, but his presence hadn’t faded altogether.

  She looked over to Eva, and found her staring out into the street, an unreadable expression on her face. She was distraught, which Jayna understood.

  “We’ll find him again,” she said. She twisted the Toral ring, spinning it on her finger, feeling the power flowing through it, still hating that she had felt forced to draw upon the dark energy.

  “That’s my concern,” Eva said.

  “What do you remember about him?”

  Eva shook her head again. “Nothing. Just emotion.” She looked over to Jayna. “Does that make any sense? I feel like I should know more, but there are holes in my memory—ones that seem like I could fill but can’t.”

  “I understand,” Jayna said.

  “You don’t understand.” She couldn’t get over the distraught look on Eve’s face, but she felt as if there was something she could offer her, even if she didn’t know what it was quite yet.

  “I’m not going to stop helping you.”

  Eva looked like she was going to argue, but she bit back anything else she might say. Finally, she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. A bit of smoke drifted out of her mouth, and Jayna realized just how nervous Eva had been. It wasn’t often that Eva used her power so directly like that, had left that power circling around her, but now she had done so continuously.

  “I thought for a long time about what it might be like when I finally found somebody who was like me,” Eva said, turning back and looking toward where they had left the man. A wisp of smoke swirled around her, and she held herself rigid, completely stiff, the tension building within her. “I never expected he would have attacked us.”

  “He didn’t know.”

  “He did.”

  Jayna shook her head. “He didn’t. I could see it on his face. When he realized you had a similar power to his, he
hesitated.” It was the only time during all of it that he had hesitated. Excepting that, he had been far more willing to attack, as if he didn’t care whether he harmed them.

  She didn’t want Eva to know that she suspected this man was responsible for the attack on Char, but she believed that likely. With the smoke that had been around the fallen sorcerer, she couldn’t help but feel as if he were responsible for that too.

  She didn’t know his motivation though.

  Sorcerer. That was what he had called her. He had recognized her as one.

  And had she not had the Toral ring, she might not have had enough power to stop him. Even with the Toral ring, she hadn’t really stopped him—only delayed him.

  For all the power the Toral ring afforded, it still hadn’t provided enough for her to overpower somebody with Eva’s magic.

  That told her just how powerful Eva was. Or could be. Jayna had known that Eva possessed an incredible amount of power, and had seen it herself, but seeing how easily this being had managed to overpower Jayna left her knowing just what he could do—and, perhaps, what Eva could do as well.

  She hesitated a moment, looking over to Eva.

  “We’ll keep finding information,” she said.

  “I’m afraid of what the answers might be,” Eva said.

  “Don’t be. We’ll find the information you need.” She had Char looking, or she could.

  Having seen the man, having faced that power, she knew it was necessary for them to keep looking, to find that understanding and knowledge. If they didn’t . . .

  Eva might never know who and what she was.

  Eva just nodded and started forward.

  “Where are you going?”

  “We need to speak with Master Raollet, don’t we?”

  “We don’t have to do that now.”

  “That’s why we came out. I’m not letting this deter us from what we need to do.”

  Jayna followed her, heading through the street. As they approached Master Raollet’s shop, she swept her gaze around the street, looking for any signs of smoke, anything that might suggest the attacker had returned. He obviously had some reason for heading out here in the first place, and whatever it was, whatever reason he had for targeting Master Raollet, Jayna needed to find out.