“I don’t think so, but it’s possible.”
Raollet tipped his head the side and stared at one of the walls. “If he is freed, I wonder how many of the others are.”
“At least one,” she admitted.
“Norej?”
Jayna shook her head. “As far as I know, the Order of Norej hadn’t succeeded in freeing him. There is another named Inoash who I know is freed.”
His eyes widened. “He should not be.”
“You know of him.”
“He revels in darkness. He enjoys chaos and violence. He is the Instigator.”
He certainly matched that description based on the battle she’d seen. He had stood off to the sideline, watching, enjoying the fighting. And he had been aware of them, despite Ceran thinking he should not be. If he were aware of her, then there was not much that would keep him from coming after them.
“What of the others?”
Jayna shook her head. “I don’t know the others.”
“Then perhaps there is time,” he said.
“How much do you know of Sarenoth?” Jayna asked.
“I’ve told you that his is a dark power. He granted a connection to his power to those earliest of the twelve, the power needed in order for them to overthrow the El’aras, along with anyone else that opposed the initial twelve.”
“It’s because of Sarenoth that the Society succeeded?”
“Succeeded? No. It’s because of him that the Society thrived.”
If that were the case, then the connection to the Society was deeper than Jayna had believed. The Celebrants of Asymorn had been sorcerers. They had been willing to serve Sarenoth. The same with the Order of Norej. They had been burrowed within the Society. Revered. And there had been sorcerers out on the battlefield as well.
How extensive was it?
The real challenge was finding sorcerers who were not involved.
Jayna turned her attention to the book when an explosion thundered from above.
She darted forward.
“They have tracked you,” Raollet said. “You should stay down here. If the same man has returned—”
“If he’s returned, I’m not going to get caught down here where I can’t use my power effectively,” Jayna said.
She reached the outer edge of the room, feeling the washing of energy swirling over her, then stepped beyond the door. As soon as she did, there came another surge of power that struck her.
It was almost as if the energy from the room filled her, rushing through her, and she raged with it, a buildup of power that had been suppressed the whole time she had been down in the room. Now that she was out, now that she could feel that power flowing through her, she wanted nothing more than to unleash it.
She hesitated.
It was more than just the energy from the room that she felt; it was the strange energy from the Toral ring that bubbled up within her. Jayna needed to resist that too. It seemed as if that power pushed on her, trying to get her to pay more attention to it, to unleash it. Jayna struggled against it, knowing she could not let it out; she needed to hold on to it within herself and maintain that power.
Another explosion thundered over her.
She glanced behind her to see Raollet lingering in the room, the book clutched up against his chest. She shook her head. He wasn’t going to be much help.
Here she had spent months fearing that he would send people after her given what she had done to his shop, but he was terrified.
And if he had told her the truth, then as a scholar, it made sense that he would be terrified. He wasn’t a fighter. He wasn’t the kind of person to go chasing down somebody else with magic. He wasn’t the kind of person to deal with the sort of power she felt thundering up in the shop overhead.
But she was.
She started up the stairs, already pulling upon power through the dragon stone ring. While the ring connected her to the energy she had within herself, it also connected her to something different, something grander, something that seemed far more expansive. As she held on to that power, feeling the way it flowed out from her, she began to build it up, pushing it in front of her.
Then she reached the top of the stairs.
There was no movement, just a strange energy here.
Smoke covered everything. She saw the haze hanging over the interior of the shop hallway, the back area that she had blasted free to release the El’aras, and worried that perhaps it was the El’aras who had come back, but there was something about it that struck her as unusual.
It was the way the haze persisted.
The smoke man— one of the Ashara?—had returned.
Rather than going any farther, Jayna waited. She traced out the pattern needed to create the wind, added a burst of energy through that spell, and the wind carried the smoke away, lifting it entirely.
It left the hallway empty.
There was no sign of the man.
She held on to a surge of power, wrapping it around her.
It wouldn’t take much more than that. She had to be ready for another blast. When she had faced the man before, she had felt the way he had wrapped his smoke around her protective layer, and though she had managed to overwhelm him, it had involved her tapping into the darkness. She didn’t want to have to do that again so soon. She was still weak from the last attack, and she feared what might happen if she had to tap into that strength again. It might diminish her capacity to resist the dark energy.
She strode forward, but the hallway remained empty.
Strangely, a tingling sort of energy pushed against her.
That’s new. It hadn’t been here when she’d come through before. Jayna held on to the power through the dragon stone ring as she moved forward, using that to hold off whatever energy tried to constrict around her, and preparing for the possibility that there might be an attack.
Nothing came.
She moved carefully, slowly, then stopped.
That tingling pressure began to build.
It wasn’t her imagination. It was real, and it was near her.
Not the smoke magic of the man who’d attacked, but something else. As she continued to move carefully, she looked for anything that might have triggered that feeling. She found nothing—just the energy that was present, something within the room that continued to build.
The hallway was narrow, empty, but she didn’t think she was imagining that power.
There was one way to tell.
Not through her dragon stone ring. That might work, but there was a better way.
The spell she needed was fairly complicated, but it would help her reveal any magic that existed, whether or not it was something she recognized.
Jayna crouched down as she looked along the hall. She began to work the pattern with her left hand, tracing out a series of triangles, then the circles and stars that surrounded them. She then touched it with a bit of the painful power coming from the Toral ring, but not much. There was no point in pouring too much power out of her and into it. All she needed was a bit, something different than that of sorcery.
As she pushed that energy through the spell, it flowed along the hallway.
And then something pushed back.
Power slammed into her.
Jayna was tossed onto her backside. She dusted herself off as she got up, bracing for another attack. She pulled several of the concussive blasts out of her pocket. Those might be effective.
The girl had been working on them, hopefully perfecting them, and even if she hadn’t, Jayna had used them effectively before. Having that kind of power available to her would limit her need to throw up an offensive spell. She could focus on defense.
She stepped forward.
“Is it safe to come up?” Raollet’s voice called from below.
“I don’t know,” Jayna shouted back.
“I figured you would have destroyed everything by now.”
He sounded as if he were closer. Could the fool truly have been climbing the stairs?
He had been cowering down in his room, only emerging now that she had begun to make her way along the hallway, fighting her way through whatever spells had been placed there.
Raollet poked his head around the corner, through the open doorway.
“I’m not keeping you safe,” she said.
“I will wait here until you tell me it’s clear,” he said.
Jayna sighed then crouched down, tracing out the pattern for spell detection once again. The last one had ricocheted backward, sending her across the hall, and she feared the same thing would happen this time. At least she would be prepared for it.
When she touched the Toral ring to it, adding a hint of different power, she heard a soft gasp from behind her. Jayna ignored him and pressed power out from her that flowed into the pattern.
It streaked outward, washing in a wave of white light.
She braced herself. Unlike the last time, Jayna created a barrier around herself with the magic ball spell. Thankfully, when the spell tracked through something again this time, it merely triggered it without releasing a blast of violent power. Jayna stood and waited until the energy dissipated, leaving her. Finally, she breathed out.
“An enchantment,” Master Raollet said.
“That was just an enchantment?”
“Well, it was my enchantment. It was meant to be triggered if there was an attack.” He frowned at her. “I never would’ve expected that you would have . . .” He shook his head. “No matter. You have released the enchantments in the hallway.”
“You could’ve warned me about them.”
“I didn’t think they would have been activated.”
He pushed past her, but Jayna grabbed him and shoved him back.
She moved forward, holding on to power through the dragon stone ring and readying another spell with her free hand, tracing a flare of fire. It would be brutal and potentially violent, but it would also keep her from danger.
“Is that really necessary?” Raollet asked, looking past her.
“It’s necessary if I want to live.”
“If they wanted to attack you, they would’ve done that by now.”
“Unless they’re after you.”
He harrumphed and she ignored it, slipping along the hallway, moving carefully, quietly, until she had a chance to see the open shop.
Once she did, she frowned. A haze of smoke hung over it. It was the same sort of haze that had been in the hallway when she’d first emerged from the stairs.
“Another enchanted attack,” he whispered. Raollet pointed. “See how the smoke drifts? They wanted to look like the Ashara, even if these lands are not conducive to them.”
Jayna started forward before glancing back and frowning. “What do you mean, they aren’t conducive to them?”
“Well, if the stories are to be believed, they need dry heat, not the humidity we have here. That humidity should be protective.”
Jayna shook away the thoughts that came to her about Eva’s desire for overwhelming heat.
If she was one of the Ashara—and Jayna increasingly began to question if that was the case—he didn’t mean that she was some shape-shifting creature. Those were stories. That was it.
Jayna crept forward, then she traced a spell with a bit more restraint and tapped on just a little bit of energy from the ring. The wind gusted, heading through an open door at the end of the shop, carrying the smoke out.
The shop was empty, but there were shelves tipped over and items scattered all around. Raollet darted forward before she had a chance to grab him, keeping him from heading through the mess.
“I’m not able to protect you if they attack.”
“They have already attacked,” he said.
“Could they have been after anything in here?”
Raollet shook his head, sweeping his gaze around the damaged shop. “What is there to take? All of these are enchantments.”
Enchantments that were old and powerful.
She thought about what Matthew had said.
“Something’s going on with the dular,” Jayna said.
It didn’t quite add up for her though.
They wanted enchantments, and they were using some sort of smoke enchantment to attack and make it seem as if the Ashara were involved. She didn’t really understand that, but perhaps it didn’t matter. She just had to figure out who was doing this and stop them.
He continued to pick through the remains. “So much of this is rare.”
“You can just go ask the seven ruling dular for more of your items.”
“The seven?” He paused as he picked up what looked to be a wand similar to the one she had made out in the forest. “No. The seven have provided some items, but they are not willing to offer many. They feel anything you get from them must be earned then purchased.”
“That doesn’t sound like my experience with them. I know one of the seven’s sons. He made it quite clear that they were mostly interested in what they could sell.”
“Perhaps these days, but I’m talking about the original seven.” He shook his head. “Those were powerful enchantments, but they were helpful to others in the city.”
“Then what are you concerned about?”
“I’m concerned about enchantments from those who try to keep ancient magic active in the city.”
“And they are?”
“They are the Sheer.”
She started to smile. “What exactly is that?”
“Dular of incredible skill, who try to keep the old magic alive.”
“It seems to me that if a dular wants to keep old magic alive, they only need to go to the market.”
“Many do, but they also recognize that not everything can be sold there. Too much is dangerous or would be viewed as a threat to their authority—and too much would be claimed by the seven.”
“Which is why shops like yours thrive.”
He stood, wiping his hands on his pants. “Many cannot sell their items openly, Jayna Aguelon. Doing so only draws attention to them. It’s easier if people believe they are ancient relics.”
She smirked. “How many of your items are actually ancient relics?”
“More than you know.”
“And how many of them aren’t?”
She paused at a small oblong object laying in the middle of the floor. It was different from many of the others. Most of the enchantments around the room had intricate details on them, signifying the power they could hold, but not this one. Jayna leaned down, cautiously reaching for it. She could feel something radiating from it, a bit of warmth.
“Is this one of yours?” she asked, tentatively touching the enchantment.
Raollet leaned over, studying it. “Where did you find that?”
“It was laying here in the center of the floor.”
She lifted it, turning it from side to side.
Unlike the other enchantments, this one had been used.
She frowned, skimming her gaze around the room before coming to see another one laying on the far side of the room.
She hurried over to it.
As she picked it up, she saw it was oblong, like the other enchantment, and the patterns on the surface of it had faded, as the patterns on the one she had grabbed before.
An enchantment, but one that had been spent.
Why would there be spent enchantments in here?
Jayna didn’t think she had triggered these, not with her spell. If she had, then all the other enchantments within the shop would have been triggered.
But it was only these two.
She looked for more and found one near the counter. She must’ve stepped over it when she had come out of the backroom.
As she approached, she knew she would find it spent just like the others.
“What are you thinking?” Raollet asked.
Jayna set the enchantments on the counter. “We have these enchantments, so we know what it looks like when they try to make it look like the Ashara have attacked. Now we just have to u
nderstand why.”
Raollet frowned. “I suppose you want me to find out.”
“It wouldn’t hurt. Especially seeing as how they targeted your shop.”
But who would be responsible, and why would they attack here?
12
After leaving Master Raollet’s shop, Jayna took her time heading back home. She wandered through the streets, making her way gradually through the merchant section, looking at the distant sight of the dular with their merchant stands, trying to see if there was anything that suggested a similar type of enchantment as what she had seen in Master Raollet’s shop. There was nothing.
She continued through, occasionally pausing, though never for very long or with any clear direction. She just wanted to know who might be responsible—and, of course, what reason they would have for suddenly targeting Master Raollet.
That seemed to matter. Why would he have been targeted when he had served the dular up until that point? As far as she could tell, the dular should have no reason to attack him, especially as he sold their enchantments. It should have offered him protection.
That it hadn’t meant something had changed.
Unless it was only about the fact that she had been there. Perhaps Jayna was the reason they had targeted Raollet. Then she needed to be careful—then she would be worried about further revealing her presence.
She didn’t see anything in the marketplace that would tell her who or what might be responsible.
She headed back to the streets, making her way toward the central courtyard, and paused when she neared the fountain. She looked up at the homes, sweeping her gaze along them. Maybe it was one of the dular from there? But what reason would they have for attacking Raollet?
This didn’t make any sense to her.
She needed answers.
And everything she had learned from Raollet still troubled her.
She focused on the dragon stone ring, attempting to call power through it. If she could summon Ceran, she might be able to get some answers to her questions. She might learn what he had been doing, as well as the truth behind the different attacks that had occurred. She would press him on the bit of information she had uncovered, and wondered if he would even answer. Ceran needed to provide her with answers.
Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer Book 3) Page 13
