A City in Ruin (The Dark Sorcerer Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  As she neared the mouth of the alley, looking out on the narrow street running in front of her home, she froze.

  There was another enchantment. This one wasn’t charred.

  She crouched down before grabbing it. It was small, little more than the size of her palm, and shaped strangely, like a twisting sort of sculpture, with lines running through it. It was made out of a pale, pinkish-gold material. It wasn’t what she would’ve expected for a dark enchantment, though its appearance was not what mattered; rather, it was the creation of it, and the power utilized to form it. Dark enchantments involved pain and violence in their making.

  Something like this wouldn’t have looked out of place in some collector’s home.

  She held her hand above it, hesitating for a moment. Jayna didn’t want to trigger it. She knew better than to risk that, but she was curious as to what kind of power was in it. She probed, using sorcery first.

  Much like the other enchantment, there wasn’t much in the way of reaction from this one. She shifted, holding the dragon stone ring above it, and began to push downward with another surge of power.

  “Don’t.”

  Jayna looked back to see Eva standing behind her. She had a glass of wine in hand—early for her—and she wobbled in place. Her dark hair hung around her in waves, and in the morning light, even in the darkness of the alley, there was a hint of a reddish hue to it that she had started to notice recently. “Don’t what?”

  “You already know what that’s going to do. Why do you need to play with it?”

  “I’m not playing with it,” Jayna said.

  Eva pushed past her and nearly crashed to the ground as she reached for the enchantment. She held it up, twisting it in place as she looked along the street before turning her attention back to Jayna. “Something like this is dangerous. You know that.”

  “You recognize it.”

  “Not exactly,” she said.

  Jayna frowned, glancing back toward the opening in the stone. From this side of the alley, she could see where the flames had started to etch into the stone. It would take a fair amount of sorcery to rebuild it all, to seal it off and ensure that the building itself wouldn’t crumble under the effect of the fire. She didn’t want to leave the hole in her wall open for too long. She had a desire for some privacy, but there were limits to what any of the spells she knew how to create could offer her when it came to a measure of privacy.

  “You knew something about it,” Jayna said.

  “I’ve seen flames like that before, but not out of this.”

  “Is it dark magic?”

  Eva turned her gaze on Jayna, frowning. The redness within her eyes looked more prominent than it had before, but there was a hint of a golden glow there as well. “Why is everything dark magic when it comes to you?”

  Jayna held up her hand, pointing to the dragon stone ring. “Toral. Or don’t you remember.”

  “I remember.”

  “Then what are you going on about?” Jayna asked.

  “I’m not going on about anything,” Eva said. She nearly fell over. “Anyway. You shouldn’t trigger it. Not unless you have some way of turning it off again.”

  “Like you do?”

  “Like I do,” Eva said, starting down the alley and stopping in front of the opening. She stepped over the debris and nearly tripped, but managed to keep on her feet as she skipped inside.

  Jayna sighed. She didn’t like arguing with Eva, but since dealing with the threat of Asymorn, Jayna had struggled more with Eva than she ever had before. Jayna enjoyed a glass of wine now and again, but not nearly as much as Eva did. Jayna was left wondering whether Eva drank simply for the feeling of intoxication or for some other reason.

  She wandered along the length of the alley a little longer, searching for any other enchantments. She found other debris, and she brought it over to the wall, piling it on the inside. She would need as much stone as she could get in order to secure the wall in place.

  There were no other enchantments. The first one she had come across was charred and burned, probably damaged, and only one that was undamaged. Perhaps the volar—or whoever had attacked her—had taken the remainder of their enchantments with them.

  Jayna headed back into her room, stepping over the debris. She wasn’t nearly as graceful as Eva, even though Eva was intoxicated, and she stumbled, falling forward and catching herself. She pushed out a hint of power through the dragon stone ring without meaning to, and used that power to help catch herself.

  Pain surged through her hand as the power of the ring blasted through the rock, creating another opening. Jayna cursed under her breath.

  She had to finish repairing the wall, but first she needed to learn more about Eva’s knowledge of the enchantment. Then she could turn her attention back to the wall.

  She headed down the hallway, still clutching the enchantment Topher had uncovered, and found Eva sitting in her typical seat near the fire, resting her head back along the chair, swirling a glass of wine as she relaxed.

  “What is that enchantment?”

  The enchantment sat near the fire, and surprisingly, a bit of smoke swirled around it. That smoke meant Eva had used some of her magic on it.

  “You saw what it was,” Eva replied.

  “I saw the effect of the power, but I didn’t see what it was. You seem to know something about it.”

  “The only thing I know about it is that it created a dangerous sort of power,” Eva said, turning her attention back to the hearth. “And that’s all that matters, isn’t it?”

  Jayna frowned. “Is it?”

  “If these attackers are using power like this, you need to find out how they learned it. This kind of power has its roots in something natural, but twisted.”

  “You think this might be something else. Not the Celebrants of Asymorn.”

  “Not them,” Eva said, holding her gaze. “Though perhaps it is related.”

  “If it’s not dark magic, then I’m not supposed to chase after it,” Jayna stated.

  “Do you fear Ceran so much?”

  Eva turned to the fire and took a long drink of her wine.

  She didn’t mention Ceran by name all that often, but when she did, there was something almost dismissive about the way she said it, almost a sneer, yet Jayna didn’t understand why. As far as she knew, Eva had never even seen Ceran, but then again, Jayna had talked about him often enough, and with enough frustration, that she wouldn’t be terribly surprised if Eva were frustrated on her behalf.

  “Ceran hasn’t said anything. He’s been gone.”

  Eva fell silent and took another drink, yet Jayna had a feeling she was still frustrated with her.

  Jayna shook her head, moving around to sit across from Eva. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  “I tell you everything I remember.”

  Jayna coughed, laughing as she did. “You tell me only a little. Not everything. Certainly not everything about you.”

  “I tell you everything you need to know,” Eva said.

  “There is quite a bit more about you that I need to know. You keep concealing things from me.” Jayna wanted nothing more than to help Eva. It was the reason she had brought her with her when she had found her along the road. She had needed help then, and as far as Jayna could tell, she still needed it.

  But there were times when Eva was difficult to help. Especially lately. Jayna didn’t know what had changed, but perhaps it had something to do with staying in one place for an extended period of time.

  “I’m not concealing it, and what I remember is dangerous,” Eva said.

  “As dangerous as the kind of dark magic that I chase?” Jayna shook her head. “I don’t think so. It’s not the same.”

  Eva said nothing, just took a drink. When she finished, she looked over to Jayna. “This kind of power is unusual in your land.”

  “Are we talking about Asymorn here, or are we talking about this enchantment?” she asked, nodding to the pink-gold enchantm
ent resting near the fire. Whatever Eva had done continued to cause smoke to swirl around it, growing with a sort of heaviness, pressing in upon it. It was a strange thing to see, but stranger still was that Jayna had seen that use of smoke before. When they had been fighting Asymorn, Eva had used her smoke in a similar way. It had permeated around Jayna, pressing up and into her, filling her with that same strange, smoky energy. She didn’t know what it meant, only that it had been incredible and powerful and warm.

  Eva had used the heat of her smoke magic to alter the cold fire that had eaten through the stone wall.

  “You’re modifying the enchantment,” Jayna stated.

  “I’m trying to remove one aspect of it so it doesn’t damage other people.”

  “Can you modify other enchantments?”

  “Can you?” Eva asked.

  Jayna had attempted to modify enchantments before, but her knowledge of sorcery was limited by the time she’d spent at the Academy and the number of spellbooks she had with her. Ever since leaving the Academy, she had not had enough in the way of spellbooks, and though she had wanted to keep learning, there had been a limit to how much she had uncovered because of her reduced access to them.

  “You and I both know the answer to that.”

  “I can do a little,” Eva said, turning back to the fire. “It depends upon the power within them though.”

  As more smoke poured into the enchantment, drifting from the blood dripping down from Eva’s hands as they rested on either side of her, Jayna had to wonder what it was that Eva feared.

  “I’m going to repair my wall. When I’m done, you and I are going to go searching for whoever created this enchantment.”

  Eva just nodded.

  “And you need to stop drinking.”

  “My drinking wine has never impeded our search.”

  “There’s always a first time.”

  Eva looked over, locking red-rimmed eyes with Jayna. “There is always a first time.”

  4

  The wall was mostly repaired. Jayna stared at the stacked stone, feeling more than a hint of pride at how she had puzzled it together in order to recreate the wall. Topher had provided her far more help than she had expected during the process. There were still some gaps, but they would be easy for her to fill. She could use sorcery, she suspected, and either pack sorcery down into the openings in the wall, or seal it off without ever completely closing it. Either way, she had to hope she would be able to make it stronger than it had been before.

  “At least I don’t have the same damn humidity drifting in,” she muttered, looking at the repaired wall.

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t find all of the fragments,” Topher said. “We did a pretty good job though.” He smiled, running his hand along the surface of the wall.

  “We?” Jayna asked.

  “I helped.”

  Jayna chuckled. “You did help. I don’t mean to give you a hard time. I’m just . . .” She was tired, but she didn’t want to tell Topher that she was exhausted from a poor night of sleep, mixed with a battle with magic—plus, her strength was tapped even further from needing to fix the wall. “Do you think your enchantment could help with this?”

  “My enchantments aren’t quite along the same lines as this. I’m sorry, Jayna.”

  “That’s fine.” She should have known better anyway.

  “There are some things I can do. My primary enchantment is to create items that can be used to find someone. Me, usually. Well, not when you were trying to find me, but . . .”

  He’d given her a coin already, though it hadn’t been that helpful in finding him when the Celebrants of Asymorn had captured him. “That still might be useful sometime,” Jayna said.

  Topher looked like a puppy who had just been given a treat. “Now that this is done, what are you going to do?”

  Jayna glanced toward the other room. She’d only heard Eva a little bit. She’d been moving around. Probably digging through the cabinets, looking for more bottles of wine, or heading back to the other room where she had her own store of wine. Either way, Jayna didn’t like the probability of Eva’s sobriety. Her intoxication wouldn’t last long though—Eva had a way of burning through it when needed. The problem was that Eva often enjoyed the intoxication.

  “I need to search for who’s responsible for these enchantments.”

  There were several possibilities. One possibility was still that followers of Gabranth, maybe even other Celebrants of Asymorn, had discovered her. Then there was a more mundane possibility: Raollet had sent his goons after her while she was searching for the Celebrants and the festival. What if he had finally found her? She had managed to avoid his attention since the festival, but staying in Nelar meant she was likely to run across him again.

  “I could help.”

  “I might need you to stay here and keep a watch on the home.” She flashed a smile, trying to head off his objection. “I need to get Eva out of the house, anyway. And I don’t want to leave this place unguarded. When we go, can you watch over it?”

  “You know I can,” he said. He held out a hand, and she took the small, square-shaped item with ridges along the surface. “If you need me, just push a bit of power into it. Or squeeze it. Either way should work.”

  “This is a new design.” It was different from the last one he’d given her. That had been more like a typical coin.

  “I’ve been working on something that would help me be more unique. I think if I can figure out how to pass a message through the enchantment, it would be far more useful than it is in its current state.”

  If he could come up with something like that, it would be more helpful than anything she had read about in the many spellbooks she had access to when she’d been at the Academy.

  “And if you need us . . .”

  “If I need you, I can send the same sort of trigger through it.” He reached into his pocket, pulling another one out, and he pressed his two palms together, looking as if he were praying to one of the gods. Suddenly, the enchantment in her palm started to vibrate, and she looked down, noting that it had taken on a faint, greenish glow, similar to the luminescent moss she saw at night.

  “That’s impressive.”

  And she meant it. It was a strange use of power, but she had seen stranger. The dular often had unique uses of magic when it came to the way they could turn their enchantments. Oftentimes, they were ways sorcerers never even considered. It was part of the reason she’d found the dular useful since leaving the Academy. Many of the enchantments made by them would have taken a powerful sorcerer to create. The dular were regulated here, though, which limited the availability of some of the enchantments she might be interested in, but the longer she spent in the city, the more likely it was that she could find some of the more unique enchantments she might need.

  “Then I’ve got another task for you. Don't let anybody into the house. Keep an eye on Eva's wine. And keep working on your enchantments.” She flashed a smile at him.

  Like before, he grinned like a puppy.

  “I just want to help,” he said.

  She nodded to him. “I know you do.”

  He was so earnest that it was difficult for her sometimes. He did just want to help, and in the time since they had saved him from the Celebrants of Asymorn, she had found that he had been helpful. Most of his helpfulness involved him moving and carrying things, and occasionally helping take care of Eva, but this would be something different.

  She wanted him to feel confident that he could move on, that he would no longer have to fear the Celebrants of Asymorn, but that would have to come in time. Eventually, he would realize he wasn’t in any danger any longer. Then he could take his place within the city, the way he had originally intended to, but for now . . .

  She glanced at the wall. “And maybe if you can come up with some ideas on how to fill in the gaps.”

  There weren’t many gaps, but there were enough. Her spells had sealed the rock in place, but the rock was irregular
, and the wall looked as if it were going to bow in at any moment. She had a spell placed on either side, squeezing the wall together, trapping the rock there, and she could almost imagine putting even more pressure on the rock and sealing it back down. Jayna wondered if she might be able to compress the rock into something it hadn’t been before, something even more potent and solid. With enough enchantments and enough sorcery, anything was possible.

  She headed out into the main part of the home, where Eva sat near the fire, tracing her hand through her hair. The wine glass sat full, resting near the hearth with the rose gold enchantment in front of it, yet she didn’t touch it.

  “Are you ready?” she asked, looking over to Eva.

  Eva glanced over. Her eyes were still ringed with red, but not as much as before. Could it be that Eva had actually taken her words about not drinking so much to heart?

  There was a first time for everything, Jayna supposed.

  “I told you I would go.”

  “Be careful out there. I don't want you to run across anything dangerous,” Topher said.

  Jayna glanced back at Topher. He was looking at Eva, concern in his eyes.

  “Everything we chase has the potential of danger. You don't need to do the same.” Jayna doubted he would even understand what she implied.

  Jayna would need to warn him eventually. She had seen that look before. Not for her. She had never fallen into the same sort of relationship that others did, mostly because her studies within the Academy had kept her from chasing romance herself. Having a brief fling like she had with Rosal was unique, and provided her with a bit of distraction, but that was all it was. Distraction.

  Topher looked at Eva with a different expression altogether.

  She crouched down, grabbing the rose gold enchantment, stuffing it into her pocket. There was something about the enchantment that had changed since Eva had been working with it. It was somehow warmer.

  Jayna wondered what might happen if she were to trigger the enchantment now. Maybe it would suddenly flare with heat, or perhaps nothing would take place.