Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  She pulled one of them out. It had been enchanted. There was a faint tracing, a swirl of a pattern along its surface. Jayna couldn’t tell the intention behind the enchantment, but as she ran her finger around the stone, she could feel the energy within it.

  “Who were you meeting with?”

  “Now you’re asking too much.”

  Jayna shook her head. “No, Matthew. I’m not. I need to know who you were meeting with. Who had you looking for these?”

  “You’re not going to be able to find them.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they don’t like to be found.” Jayna started to smile, but she noticed a hard intensity in Matthew’s gaze. He shrugged. “You can laugh if you want, but this person is part of some sort of resistance. I have a feeling they don’t like the dular or the sorcerers.”

  “So you’ve been helping instigate the war?”

  “I haven’t been helping anything,” he said. “I took a job.”

  “Where, exactly, did you meet them?” When he stayed silent, she glared at him. “I need to know this, Matthew.”

  “I had an enchantment that helped guide me to them.”

  He pulled out a necklace he was wearing.

  Jayna just shook her head.

  “These aren’t the kind of people you need to get involved with, Jayna. You have no idea how dangerous they are. You have no idea how dangerous any of this is. I didn’t know this was going to instigate a war, but . . .” He shook his head. “They’re creating a battle between the Society and the dular. You, especially, shouldn’t be here.”

  “I told you I’m not with the Society,” Jayna said softly.

  She grabbed the necklace off his neck, jerking it free, and Matthew grabbed for her wrist. Jayna used a hint of power through the dragon stone and began to press it into him.

  He took a step back.

  “Jayna?”

  “I really had hoped it would’ve been over when we did the last job, but unfortunately . . .”

  “The last job?” Matthew asked, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

  She had studied the memory bowl, trying to grasp the knowledge of its making, and thought she had a pretty good idea. More than that, she had access to spellbooks that she had studied. There were answers within them, a way for her to better understand more, and now . . .

  Now she had to use the memory bowl herself.

  This was some kind of dangerous magic. Jayna knew that—and she knew it had consequences.

  She reached for power—sorcery—and traced a quick pattern.

  It was a simple pattern, one that involved her making little more than a small circle with a pinch at the end, but that pinch that was the key. She twisted, and in doing so, solidified the power.

  Matthew tried stepping away from her, but she had used enough magic within her to add the enchantment to him, sealing it upon his mind.

  His eyes went blank for a moment.

  “I wish it were different,” Jayna whispered.

  She motioned for Eva to follow, and they headed down the street.

  “Why?” Eva asked as they headed away from Matthew.

  The spell would linger for a while, long enough that it would give her a chance to find this resistance using the enchantment he had.

  “Why did I take his memories?”

  “Yes.”

  “He needs to be out of this,” she said. “And I gave him a little incentive to leave as I placed the spell.”

  “That’s dangerous magic,” Eva said.

  “I know,” Jayna said.

  Not just dangerous, but it was the kind of magic she didn’t really enjoy placing, the kind of magic she feared using, worried it might imply she’d turned toward dark magic. When she’d used it, though, she didn’t have sinister intentions. She had done it simply to try to prevent Matthew from getting more deeply involved in something he shouldn’t. She had done it as a way of protecting him.

  “I know what it’s like to lose memories,” Eva said.

  “This is different,” Jayna said.

  “Is it?”

  “I did it to protect him.”

  “What if somebody did it to me to protect me?”

  Jayna didn’t have an answer for that, though she wondered if that were really the case. She looked down at the enchantment that Matthew had and squeezed her hand around it.

  She recognized it. A linking spell.

  She could follow that power.

  She used the linking spell to guide her into the distance, and she felt energy flowing, a surge of it that continued to roll through her. It was near—and she wasn’t surprised that the spell led her to the tavern where she had first met Matthew.

  Why had he brought them there in the first place?

  Eva frowned, smoke drifting around her slightly. “Something’s off,” she repeated.

  “You mean other than the ongoing explosions around us?”

  Eva looked in her direction. “Other than that.”

  “You’re right,” Jayna said. “It’s this city. Something is very much off here.”

  Unfortunately, she still didn’t know what it was or what it would take for them to deal with it, but the power occurring all around her in the city was prominent.

  She stared at the tavern, watching it for a moment, when she realized something else. There was another trail of smoke coming from it. The Ashara was here.

  She grabbed Eva’s wrist, motioning for her to step off to the side, and Jayna held her hand out, clutching the dragon stone, readying the bloodstone within the ring to call that smoke off.

  “Look at the smoke,” Jayna said.

  She could see the heaviness of it and feel the energy drifting toward her, but she didn’t know why it was so pronounced.

  The linking spell had guided her though. This was where they needed to go.

  This was where Matthew had intended to go.

  Jayna looked around again and pushed open the door to the tavern.

  Eva came with her, moving carefully, slowly, and as they looked around, Jayna searched for any sign of movement, anything to suggest they were going to be under attack, but the tavern appeared empty. The last time they been here, the booths had all been filled with people, though the city had changed since that time.

  She stopped in the middle of the tavern, continuing to search, her gaze drifting everywhere. She still focused on the smoke that fluttered along the ground and the energy she could feel within the linking spell, the enchantment that drew her to whatever was going on here.

  “They’re here,” she whispered, looking around her.

  “Who?”

  Jayna shook her head. “Whatever it is that Matthew was a part of.”

  As before, the tavern was arranged as a series of booths with large wooden partitions dividing them, providing absolute privacy for those within each booth. Jayna wouldn’t even be surprised if there were enchantments placed into the partitions to mute sound. It made for a good place to have quiet conversations—dangerous conversations.

  She still didn’t see any sign of anyone else. The tavern was empty.

  She motioned for Eva to follow her.

  They headed through the tavern as Jayna held on to the enchantment, using that power to guide her, but the linking spell had limits. She worried that if she wasn’t careful, she would reach one of its limits and be caught unawares.

  Eva stopped, closing her eyes and squeezing her hands into tight fists. Droplets of blood trickled below. As they did, smoke began to swirl, then she sent it sweeping out.

  She opened her eyes and pointed. “There. An opening.”

  “What kind of opening?”

  “A familiar one.”

  They headed toward the opening, toward the back of the tavern, and there was a staircase leading to a door—and as Eva had suggested, it looked familiar, like what she had seen at Raollet’s shop and at the outpost.

  “Why another one of these?” she whispered, not expecting Eva to
respond. They started down the stairs, and Jayna began to pull the smoke into the ring, leading Eva to glance in her direction. “It’s not going to go well if they try to sever my connection to magic.”

  “You reveal your presence by doing that.”

  “I don’t think it matters anymore,” Jayna said as she hurried down the stairs.

  The bottom of the staircase was no different from the one in Raollet’s shop or the one in the outpost. Another door.

  Jayna held her hand up against it then pushed power through it.

  The door came open with a crack.

  Smoke billowed out at her.

  Jayna reacted, calling on the smoke, pulling it into the dragon stone and the bloodstone, siphoning it off. Then she immediately squeezed it out, against the enchantments she knew would be there. She sent smoke streaking away, collapsing against the walls, then she charged forward.

  Only to freeze.

  The room was filled. A dozen people, maybe more. They all looked at her, watching her, all of them holding on to enchantments.

  But none of that was what caught her attention in full.

  It was the man standing across from her.

  He had dark hair, pale skin, and smoke swirled around his feet.

  “Asaran,” she whispered.

  Jayna pulled the smoke off of him, sucking it into the bloodstone.

  There were no fires here. No hearth. Nothing to regenerate him. She would call the smoke off, and she would prevent him from targeting her again. She was determined to keep him from striking her with his strange power.

  Asaran called upon his magic and pushed out more smoke.

  Jayna had to fight. She pulled on the smoke, drawing it back to her. There was considerable energy fighting against her, more power than she thought she could withstand, but she continued in her struggle to draw it off.

  The energy continued to build, and she continued to fight.

  Had she not pushed some of the smoke out against the walls to mute the enchantments, she might not have had enough strength to resist him, but despite that, she could still feel pressure against her, the way the magic attempted to constrict her access to her own sorcery and to the power within the dragon stone.

  “Why are you here?” Jayna asked, striding forward.

  She didn’t have a chance to get the answer.

  Eva moved out into the open. Smoke pooled out from her, and she sent it toward Asaran, sweeping it around him.

  Asaran attempted to shift his smoke, turning it toward Eva, but she focused on him, pulling the power of her own smoke connection around her, and it looped outward, forming a barrier around him. Somebody else in the room, an older man with graying hair, lunged forward, but Eva blocked him with solidified smoke—a technique Jayna hadn’t seen her use before—holding out her hand and preventing any additional movement.

  “Why are you here?” It was Eva who demanded an answer this time.

  Asaran stared at her, power swirling out from him, but he said nothing.

  Eva tried again. She used another looping of smoke, a burst of power that flowed from her, swirling around, and she glared at him. “Why are you here?”

  “You don’t even know,” he said. His voice had a strange, harsh quality, but for the first time, there wasn’t the same edge to it.

  Did he recognize Eva—or only her power?

  Eva continued to squeeze her power in, constricting it around him, but he just accepted it, ignoring the pressure tightening around him.

  “He can provide answers,” Jayna said softly. That mattered as much as anything, especially for her friend. Jayna continued pushing out with the smoke she had summoned off of Asaran, using that to maintain her hold. “Not just for you, but for both of us. He knows something.”

  Eva looked back at her. “He’s been killing sorcerers.”

  “He has,” another voice said.

  Jayna turned and found a dark-haired woman approaching.

  She had seen her before. It took a moment for Jayna to remember where.

  “You were at Telluminder’s shop.”

  The woman nodded. “I was.”

  Jayna knew she was missing something. There was something here she didn’t fully understand.

  “Are you trying to instigate the fight between the Sorcerers’ Society and the dular?” Jayna asked.

  The woman cocked her head to the side, frowning at Jayna. “Instigate it? Why, we are the ones trying to stop it.”

  23

  Jayna stood in place for a moment, trying to figure out how to react. They were here for information. Answers and nothing more.

  “Explain yourself,” she said, holding on to additional power and trying to remain prepared for another outburst. It wasn’t just the Ashara she had to be concerned about. She recognized that was only a part of it. She also needed to be wary of the others around her. She had no idea if they were dular but given that they all had various enchantments pointed at her, Jayna suspected that was exactly what they were.

  “We have been trying to settle the conflict,” the woman said. She glanced from Jayna to Eva, and she frowned as she watched the smoke swirling from Eva.

  “Someone has been attempting to instigate it though,” Jayna said.

  “Instigate?”

  “They have been using dular and their enchantments—ones that are similar to Ashara magic. What I don’t understand is why.” She turned to Asaran. “You attacked at the outpost.”

  “He attacked because it was necessary,” the woman said.

  Jayna flicked her gaze over to the woman before turning it back to Asaran. “Why was it necessary?” When the woman started to speak, she shook her head. “I want him to answer.” Jayna glared at him. “And don’t pretend like you can’t. I’ve heard you talk. I know you can. And I know you are keeping something from me. You attacked us in the street, you attacked us when we went to Raollet’s shop, and you—”

  “You should not have been there,” Asaran said. “He's been selling secrets.”

  Jayna cocked her head to the side. “Has he, now? What secrets are they? Secrets about the Ashara? Or could it be about the El’aras who founded the city? Or maybe it’s secrets about these places.” She swept her gaze around the room, continuing to call smoke off and pushing outward. She had to pull the smoke through the bloodstone first, but at that point, she had managed to push enough of it back out that it surrounded the room and created a protective buffer.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Why do you even care?” Jayna asked.

  The woman stepped up next to Asaran. “As you must have surmised, we are the Guild of the Insurn.”

  Jayna grinned at her. “Why might I have surmised that?”

  The woman frowned and stared at Jayna. “You didn’t know?”

  Her reaction made it difficult for Jayna to decide if she had hired Matthew.

  What if she hadn’t?

  “Then you didn’t have anything to do with the bloodstone?” Jayna asked, glancing behind her shoulder briefly before turning back.

  “That is what they used,” the woman said, breathing out.

  “What who used?” Jayna asked.

  “The Society. Or the one manipulating them. They used the bloodstone to make it look as if the Ashara had attacked.”

  Jayna wasn’t sure if that quite made sense. Bloodstone certainly could be enchanted. She had seen it more than she cared to, and given what Eva had claimed about the bloodstone, and how she thought it had something to do with her own power, there was a very real possibility that it was similar to Ashara magic. It would certainly make it easy enough to look that way.

  But the enchantments she had seen inside of Raollet’s shop had looked different.

  Unless they were nothing more than a canister housing the bloodstone.

  “Why would the Ashara have come?” Jayna looked to Asaran.

  “Your question leads to a dangerous answer,” the woman said.

  “I’m a dangerous person,” Jayna s
aid.

  The woman regarded her for a moment, and a hint of a smile played on her lips. “Perhaps. But I wonder if you could truly understand. There have been attacks in the city. We have attempted to intervene, but we have not been fast enough. I fear that if we do not intervene this time, the Society will find themselves in a very dangerous situation.”

  Jayna glanced over to Eva. “You mean they’ll find themselves having to deal with the Celebrants of Asymorn and the Order of Norej.”

  The woman frowned at her. “How is it that you know this?”

  “I sort of stopped both attacks.”

  “But you have neglected the greater attack. One that is more insidious.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “The reason we have requested the assistance of the Ashara.”

  “And what is that?” She looked over to Asaran. “From what I’ve seen, he’s attacked at least one sorcerer in the city and infiltrated the outpost, where he decided to try to slaughter all of the sorcerers before I intervened.”

  “Not all,” Asaran said. “Only those who served him.”

  Jayna just blinked. “This is because of Sarenoth?” A murmuring came from around her. Jayna looked at the others. The smoke in the room made it difficult to see them. “Don’t tell me. You’re afraid of his name.”

  “Speaking it gives him power,” the woman said.

  “I doubt it.” That wasn’t how any sort of magic worked. None that she’d learned, anyway. It was superstition, nothing more. “Anyway, why attack the sorcerers?”

  “Because the one who leads them serves him,” the woman said.

  “You mean Agnew? The old healer isn’t dangerous.” Not that dangerous, she didn’t think.

  The woman cocked her head, frowning at Jayna. “The one who leads is an ancient sorcerer by the name of Dorian Hale, a powerful servant of chaos.”

  Jayna started to smile, but Eva stiffened. “You recognize that name?” Jayna asked.

  “I remember something . . .” Eva shook her head. “I don’t even know why.”

  “Char told me he hasn’t been in Nelar long. He only got assigned here . . .” Jayna realized she didn’t know when. “Anyway, he’s a healer,” Jayna said, turning back to the woman.