Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  But what she was looking for was a different kind of knowledge—it was an understanding—and perhaps finding out about history and politics would help her understand the founding of the Society. Maybe this would lead her to the answers she was looking for.

  She had worked about halfway down one of the shelves when she turned to the door. Char had been gone for a long time.

  He wouldn’t have left her here that long.

  And the linking spell didn’t reveal anything.

  That wasn’t surprising, but what had happened?

  He would have known she wouldn’t have wanted to stay here, not by herself, not within the Society, and certainly not when there was a potential for a greater danger.

  Something had happened to him.

  16

  Jayna stood in the doorway, hesitating. She wanted to go after Char, but she didn’t dare venture too deep into the outpost or she might risk running into one of the other sorcerers. The sorcery behind her continued to glow, putting off enough light to see out into the hallway, though shadows lay beyond its illumination.

  Her mind raced.

  The linking spell between them wasn’t as strong as it normally was. She knew he was here somewhere, but couldn’t track him with that old spell.

  She could use sorcery. Within the Society outpost, she wouldn’t have any reason not to, and she could attempt a tracking spell to try to find Char, but she wasn’t sure if using that kind of spell would even work here.

  That left the Toral ring.

  Drawing upon that kind of power had its disadvantages; she ran the risk of somebody within the outpost recognizing her use of the Toral power, and that was dangerous.

  She had to go find Char.

  She looked out into the hallway and saw no one there. She listened for a moment, tipping her head to the side, and didn’t hear anything either.

  “Char?” She kept her voice pitched low, little more than a hiss, carrying it on just a bit of power that she sent down the hallway.

  There was no response.

  Where would he have gone?

  She tiptoed across the hall, heading down the healing section and looking into each of the rooms. Since most of the doors were open, she could see that each room was very similar. It looked like a hospital ward, cots resting along each wall, tables with stacks of different medicinals, and a cabinet that she couldn’t see inside. Each room was a mirror of the others. The outpost was fairly boring that way, but then again, it was designed to help with healing, to help the people of Nelar, and that was the reason Char had come here in the first place. He had wanted boring. He had wanted to learn and study and practice healing, and he had wanted to be around the power of Master Agnew, to learn what he could teach.

  And now Jayna had brought him into something else, something more dangerous, something that forced him into risks he didn’t want to take.

  It was selfish of her.

  A scraping sound caught her attention and she spun.

  Jayna had reached the door at the end of the hall where Char had brought her and the others one time—the room that was meant to contain dark magic.

  The sound came from the other end, closer to the library.

  Could that be Char?

  She hurried back along the hall, and when she reached the other end of it, she found the door to the library still open. With the light inside, Jayna would’ve expected to see shadows moving, something to suggest Char’s presence, but there was nothing.

  “Char?”

  She didn’t like calling out his name, but she also didn’t like being here alone, not knowing what was taking place, feeling the energy that was around her, and questioning whether she was in any sort of danger.

  She turned, looking toward the back of the outpost.

  Her breath caught.

  Smoke.

  It shimmered across the ground, looking like layers of fog hovering there.

  Another of the Ashara enchantments.

  There were protections all around the outpost, but somehow someone had overpowered them.

  If she could figure out who was responsible, she might be able to figure out why they were using enchantments designed to look like the Ashara. Like Eva’s magic.

  It was the kind of magic she was going to need to understand, if only so she could learn how to defeat it—that was, if she couldn’t get them to work with her.

  Jayna traced a quick pattern using sorcery. In the outpost, there was no need to restrict her access to sorcery. It wouldn’t be traced back to her. A hint of wind picked up, carrying the smoke away.

  A body lay motionless in the center of the hallway.

  Char.

  Jayna darted forward, quickly wrapping Toral power around her, creating a barrier. She didn’t care whether any of the sorcerers were aware of her, didn’t care if the person who had to be some sort of Ashara dular recognized her presence; all she cared about was getting to Char.

  “Char?” She shook him, but he didn’t come around. “I need you to get up.”

  He still didn’t rouse, though she continued shaking him. She looked for breathing, terrified he was gone.

  “Come on,” she said. “I need you to get up. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m going to need your help.”

  Char moaned.

  Whatever the Ashara dular had done to him had incapacitated him.

  Jayna had seen the Ashara dular kill sorcerers before; it was a wonder Char wasn’t killed by that power.

  She scooped him up, struggling under his weight, and used a bit of the dragon stone power to fortify herself. She staggered down the hall until she reached the healing wing, then headed into the first room. She lowered him onto the cot and touched his cheek, trying to get him to come around.

  “Char. I need your help.”

  He moaned again.

  The color had drained out of his face, leaving him pale. She pulled back his Sorcerers’ Society robes, revealing his jacket and pants beneath. No wonder he was sweating so much in the library.

  “Come on,” she said. “I need you to come around.”

  He wasn’t moving, and he wasn’t making any sound.

  Jayna had to try something else.

  She traced a symbol along his chest then pushed. There was something stirring within him. It was unusual, and it seemed to float.

  Gods. Could it be smoke from the enchantment?

  What if it was more than that?

  Enchantments shouldn’t be this powerful.

  Dular enchantments, especially, shouldn’t be powerful enough to overwhelm a sorcerer.

  What if this wasn’t just an enchantment and there truly was another Ashara?

  She quickly traced out a star at his feet, then added a circle with a triangle inside at his head. The two patterns would help her focus her power. It was basic healing magic, but it was the only thing she had. If Char had been awake, he would’ve used a much more complicated pattern, and probably wouldn’t even have needed to create the anchoring in the same way she did. But she didn’t have the same affinity for healing as Char did; she only had minimal knowledge of how to heal.

  Jayna summoned the energy up from deep within her, then she focused on the pattern she had traced on his chest.

  She pushed outward.

  It was a struggle to draw her power out, mostly because there was something within Char that she could feel fighting her. It was an energy that seemed to slither away from her as if it was trying to escape, but Jayna continue to push, letting her energy flow into Char, trying to force more and more into him.

  The patterns on either end of him helped concentrate her power, and what she had placed on his chest helped her create enough of a focus to augment her power, but it wasn’t nearly enough to help Char.

  She had to use the Toral ring.

  She had only a little bit of experience using that to help her heal. Most of the time, she had used the energy of the Toral ring for fighting, destruction, and battling dark sorcerers, tho
ugh she could link its power to her sorcery.

  For Char, she needed to.

  It shouldn’t change anything. Magic didn’t have any lasting effects on anyone when used for healing. It took strength from both the healer and from those healed, and it left both weakened over time, but it didn’t change anything in the long run.

  She focused on power and drew it through the dragon stone ring, letting it flow into her, back out into the ring, then into the pattern she had placed upon Char. It was that pattern that created a surge of energy to send through Char.

  She pushed downward.

  There was nothing healing about what she did. It was merely a blast of energy she sent out, siphoning off the strange energy within Char.

  That’s what I feel. Smoke.

  It was trying to choke off his life, the same way the Ashara dular had spun smoke around her barrier, squeezing it.

  Jayna had thought that before. She knew how to overwhelm it, but it was going to take even more than what she was pushing into Char.

  “I’m going to need you to push,” she said.

  Char moaned again, but he didn’t open his eyes.

  That seemed a bad sign to her. The longer she waited, the more this magic would take hold. Jayna pushed again, trying to squeeze power down through Char, trying to force her way beyond that smoke, and she could feel it fighting against her.

  The more she pushed, the more energy squeezed up against her. Jayna pushed again, and again she squeezed, bearing down, pushing power against Char and letting it pour into him.

  She could feel the smoke writhe, like something alive. Jayna knew that if she let up, the smoke would constrict again.

  She felt the smoke starting to unravel.

  It worked slowly, gradually. The more she poured into him, drawing from the power of the dragon stone, the more she could feel the smoke starting to ease.

  It seemed that the bloodstone energy was most effective in dissipating it.

  Could she pull it into the ring?

  She pressed her ring up to his chest, then focused through it.

  Rather than trying to press power out, she attempted to pull it back.

  It was a different use, a different focus, yet it worked.

  Gradually, the smoke started to fade even more, drawing off of him and into the ring. The energy started to flow up into her hand, wrapping around the ring, then was gone. She released her hand with the dragon stone from his chest and switched to the other hand, pressing down and washing sorcery through him.

  There was no resistance, no power in him.

  Char took a deep, gasping breath, and opened his eyes for a moment. “Jayna?” he whispered weakly.

  “I’m here.”

  “What . . .”

  He collapsed back onto the cot before he could finish.

  She panicked. Jayna sent another surge of power through him, borrowing from sorcery, then used the patterns she had placed at his head and feet to test whether there was anything within him that had been altered or injured, but she didn’t find anything.

  He was simply weakened by the battle.

  She released her hand and stepped back.

  He needed time.

  And she needed to face the Ashara dular.

  If she could pull off the smoke from around her, it might give her an opportunity to attack the Ashara in a different way than she had before. She stopped at the door leading out into the hallway, listening before pulling it open. Smoke covered the entirety of the floor.

  She traced her quick pattern for the wind spell, then blasted it out.

  It took a moment, but gradually, the smoke began to clear.

  It drifted down the hall, toward the library.

  Jayna tried to direct it.

  She had proven that she could direct the smoke, that she could call it toward her, and as she pulled on it, she could feel it moving again.

  What if I called the smoke into the ring here, too, like I did with the smoke inside of Char?

  She didn’t know if it would even work, but she wanted to try. She summoned energy up through her, and sent it streaking out and down the hallway.

  She pulled.

  It was a strange sensation, a strange way of using power, but the smoke came drifting back toward her as she pulled upon it. She sucked it toward the ring and power began to flow into it, filling it.

  Jayna called more and more into it.

  It seemed as if it went into the bloodstone itself, its crystalline appearance now cloudy.

  She was holding that power, sucking it in . . . then what?

  She didn’t know if she could hold on to it indefinitely, or if it would affect her own magic.

  Maybe she could use it though?

  She reached the end of the hall near the library and turned.

  The Ashara dular stood there.

  This one was different from the one she’d faced in the street. He had dark, almost black hair and an angular face, and there was something else about him that struck her as powerful, though she wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was only her imagination, but she needed to be careful with this one.

  “You need to leave,” she said.

  He spun to her.

  She looked for signs of an enchantment, but didn’t see any of the oblong ones like those in Raollet’s shop.

  He sent a streamer of smoke out, and it started to snake around her, but she held her dragon stone ring and pulled. She could feel the energy sweeping up into the ring, and it began to bulge.

  How much power can the ring hold? There had to be a limit, and she feared if she pulled too much, she would overwhelm the ring’s ability to hold that power, which might cause the ring to explode.

  Jayna didn’t want to do that. She needed the ring and its power. And when she was facing the dular, she was going to need the energy of the bloodstone.

  She might have to pull the smoke and shift it somewhere else if it started to seem as if it was overwhelming the ring, though she had no idea where she would send it, or how.

  Power built in the hallway.

  Jayna spun, and she realized that they were no longer alone here. It wasn't Char. He was still back in the room where she’d left him. It was another sorcerer.

  She turned briefly and saw one of the sorcerers coming toward her, his maroon cloak flowing across the ground, power continuing to build.

  Across from her, the Ashara dular stood, power rising within him too.

  She was going to get pinched between the two.

  She braced for the impact of their power.

  The only thing she could do was call upon the dragon stone ring. She let its power flow into her, filling her, and as it did, she pushed it out and swept it away from her in a spiraling ring. More and more power began to spill away from her; she tried to control it, but couldn’t find any way to do so.

  She created a barrier.

  Something fell off, and it took her a moment to realize what it was.

  As she called power through the dragon stone ring, the smoke that she had filled the bloodstone with altered something. She could feel the way it was shifting the power within the ring, and she recognized that if she weren’t able to hold on to the smoke carefully, she would lose control over it.

  It continued to tremble beneath her, a shifting sort of power that struggled against her.

  She held the Toral ring away from her.

  As she did, an explosion thundered along the hallway.

  It slammed into her, sending her careening to the side of the hall, but she was protected with the dragon stone barrier around her; she wasn’t injured, though she had fallen over.

  She blasted outward, pushing with the energy of the Toral ring, creating a magic ball of power that started to spiral outward. She traced a pattern with it, using sorcery and mixing it with the power of the Toral ring, and slid her own barrier away from her, trying to stretch it out and toward the attackers. She could feel an energy squeezing upon her, could feel something in the air, some power
snaking through.

  It was racing toward her and pushed against her. The power of the Ashara dular.

  Or an actual Ashara.

  Another explosion thundered and was followed by a scream, but the smoke around her made it difficult to see anything.

  Jayna focused on the Toral ring. She could feel the connection to the bloodstone within it, and she pushed power out. Strangely, the smoke compressed within the ring and the bloodstone cleared, no longer clouded. The ring itself began to grow warmer, though not hot.

  Jayna continued to focus, pulling on the smoke that swirled around her.

  She drew it into the bloodstone, dragging it off.

  When she did, she heard another scream from down the hallway.

  As the smoke around her cleared, she found a fallen form. Jayna raced over and checked the sorcerer. He wasn’t moving. She looked back, but saw nothing.

  She did what she had done with Char, pulling the smoke off of him. She didn’t know if it was going to be enough for him to recover, but it was the only thing she could think of. She started to press sorcery down into him when she heard another shout.

  She darted down the hallway, nearly stumbling over another fallen sorcerer.

  Much like the last, she pulled the smoke off of him and held it within the ring. She focused on it, compressing it, and readied for the power that was out there, but didn’t know if she was going to be strong enough to withstand the attack.

  A blast struck her, sending her skittering across the stones.

  The Ashara dular was heading toward the back of the outpost.

  She had seen several other sorcerers now, along with Char, but there was one she hadn’t seen.

  The head of the outpost.

  Agnew.

  17

  Jayna darted forward, continuing to call smoke off from around her. The use of magic caused a faint shimmering in the hallway.

  The power of the dragon stone combined with that of the smoke seemed to complement each other. They balanced each other enough so that she could hold the smoke within the ring. She had no idea if she were damaging it. She could use the power of the dragon stone without the bloodstone. The bloodstone offered a little bit more control and power, but it didn’t change anything for her beyond that.