Festival of Mourn (The Dark Sorcerer Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

Some of the items looked to be miniature sculptures, as if they had been intricately carved, taking on features that looked like faces of the gods, or perhaps people Eva had known. Jayna had never learned the purpose behind those carvings. Eva didn’t know either, or didn’t remember. Others were simpler. Some were in geometric shapes. There was one that looked like a top she had played with when she was younger, back when her parents were still alive and her brother had been with her. They had spun the top, taking turns to see who could spin it the longest and keep it going. Jonathan had always been more skilled than her, though he seemed to take a delight in upsetting her top when it spun.

  Then there were the simpler items. Some looked like simple hunks of metal, nothing more than that, though carvings along their surface suggested a deeper meaning to Jayna. Others had small barbs that came off, hooks she could imagine sticking in skin and drawing blood.

  Eva picked up one of those. She gripped it in her hand and squeezed slightly. A drop of blood dripped out of her palm, landing on the man’s chest.

  “Eva?”

  “Just let me work,” she said.

  She wasn’t slurring her words the way she had before, but that didn’t mean she was any less intoxicated. It worried Jayna that she was using her magic after having so much wine, but maybe it was better for her. In the time Eva had come to stay with Jayna, she hadn’t practiced her magic that often. It was either that she feared doing so or she didn’t know how.

  A faint haze filled the air. It was similar to the haze Jayna had seen when running through the street, though this only swirled around the man, lifting off from where the droplet of blood had landed on his chest, and spinning in a pattern outward, rising up around him. It created a faint smoke, though it didn’t have the smell of smoke—more like a pungent sort of aroma. It reminded her of the stench in the city that she had often detected when slipping through the streets in the darkness.

  Eva muttered softly under her breath, whispering almost to herself, but the smoke didn’t do anything different. She dropped another droplet of blood onto the man’s chest, and the smoke rose again, the pattern shifting, becoming a bit more complex. Now it wasn’t just a spiral, but it began to take on the shape of a funnel, spinning in place above his chest, lifting off of it, but then drifting down, as if she were attempting to press it into him.

  The blood sizzled, as if it were getting hot on his chest.

  Jayna could detect an energy in the air. It left the hairs on her arms standing on end, and something like a shock coursing through her veins. It was the power of Eva, a power she never spoke of—one that was so different from the power of sorcery. It was an intrinsic kind of magic she had never understood. Magic Eva tried to hide from others, especially here in Nelar, where she feared someone detecting her use of that magic.

  As the blood sizzled on the man’s chest, the smoke drifted and flowed around him, but nothing else happened.

  Finally, the smoke started to dissipate, drifting back out of the room, fading into nothingness. The droplet of blood that had landed on his chest had disappeared. It was almost as if the blood itself had turned into the smoke.

  Eva trembled for a moment, opening her hand. A pool of blood inside her palm had dried, and the strange barbed piece of stone was stuck into the flesh of her palm. She plucked it free, wincing as she did, and set it down into the leather case.

  “I’m sorry. It didn’t work.”

  Eva rarely talked about her magic. “Does it hurt when you do it?”

  “Every time.”

  Jayna knew so little about the kind of power Eva used; she only knew that it came from something within her—blood, typically—but there were other ways she could access power as well. She had learned not to question, knowing that either Eva didn’t want to or didn’t remember enough to talk about it, and knowing also that Eva preferred to hide her magic, as if she were afraid of it being discovered. She had never seen anything like it before, and had questions, but in the time she’d been working with Eva, she had never received answers.

  “We still need to help him,” Jayna whispered.

  “Maybe he’s just drunk.” Eva staggered, nearly stumbling, but Jayna was there, catching her.

  It was more than just intoxication impacting the man.

  “It’s more than that,” she said, watching the man.

  She flicked her gaze over to Eva. Seeing how the wine and the magic mingled within Eva clarified that even more for her. The man suffered from some sort of magical impact.

  “I’m going to need help,” Jayna said. “I don’t remember enough sorcery to help him.”

  Maybe if she would’ve stayed at the Academy, she might have learned what she needed, but having left when she did, offered a different power so that she could find her brother, she had not gained that knowledge.

  “Ceran?” Eva asked, the word slurring.

  “Not him. I doubt he’d help right now.” She had no idea what he was working on, only that he’d made it clear he was preoccupied. But this man needed help—and he might know something about her brother. “Which means I need to ask a friend.”

  At least, Jayna hoped he was still a friend.

  4

  The cart rumbled through the streets, the sound loud against the cobblestones. It was nearly morning, though still dark out. The air had a pungent aroma to it, mixing with the oppressive humidity and making it difficult for Jayna to catch her breath. She thought the three of them—Eva, the man, and herself—were the only people out in the street at this time of the day, though she feared the volar might still be waiting for her. There had been no sign of them, not that she would’ve expected them to hide—at least, not from her. The volar had no reason to fear her. There had been no signs of sorcerers either.

  She glanced down at the man. They’d managed to lug him into the cart, though it hadn’t been easy. With every jostle, she looked down, hoping it might get some reaction out of him, but each time they hit another bump in the cobblestones, he remained completely still. It made her think he was growing increasingly weak.

  “How much farther do we have to go?” Eva asked.

  Jayna shook her head. “We have to cross the city. The eastern side.”

  She had avoided visiting this part of the city. Even when she had, she did so in the deepest darkness of night, under the cover of shadow, and never in the early morning like she did now. She certainly never visited while dragging a cart with an injured man on it.

  “Do you know if he’s going to help?” Eva asked.

  “I don’t,” Jayna whispered.

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  She sighed. “If he doesn’t, then we have to hope this is only intoxication.”

  “You still haven’t tried all of your abilities,” Eva said.

  Eva was right. She hadn’t attempted to use all of her abilities. Jayna had held back, though she had done so because she needed to. If she used too much power, she was going to draw attention to herself. There were other sorcerers in the city. Maybe not as many as in some places within the kingdom, but certainly enough to detect her use of magic.

  They reached an intersection, and she paused, raising her hand. Men marched along the street.

  “What do you think they’re doing?” Eva whispered.

  They were soldiers. She could hear it from the clump of their boots across the cobblestones, along with the sound of their mail jostling with each step. “Maybe heading back to Herenth.”

  The capital city was far enough away that the soldiers would not be able to walk the entire journey. They would go by horseback, though why would they be marching through the city at this time? This was a more sizable contingent than she had seen before. Thankfully, the soldiers barely paid any attention to them, not even looking in their direction.

  At least, most of them didn’t look in their direction. One of the soldiers did glance toward them. He had a hood covering his head, and there was something dark and dangerous that seemed to emanate from him, making J
ayna a bit uncomfortable.

  Not a soldier.

  She didn’t feel magic from him, but couldn’t be certain.

  She stayed in the shadows behind them, pushing the cart backward. She was limited in how far she could move away, but wanted to avoid his attention.

  “Who is he?” Eva whispered.

  “I don’t know.”

  She watched, tracing her finger along the dragon stone ring, until the contingent moved past, disappearing into the distance.

  She let out a relieved sigh.

  “Do you think it was a sorcerer?” Eva asked.

  “I couldn’t tell anything,” Jayna said. “Let’s keep moving. I don’t want to get caught out here if they decide to circle back around.”

  And she wanted to get this man help as quickly as she could to learn whatever answers he might have.

  “It’s early for soldiers to be out marching.”

  “When it comes to the king and his soldiers, maybe the time of day matters.”

  “It’s still early,” Eva muttered.

  Jayna bit back the comment she wanted to make. She almost snapped at Eva, telling her that she would have been up drinking wine all night were it not for the man’s arrival.

  The soldiers marched along the main road, and given the direction they were moving, it did look like they were heading out of the city itself. Strangely, they weren’t heading toward Herenth. They were marching off to the west, and there wasn’t anything there other than El’aras-controlled lands. Those were far enough away that they wouldn’t travel there and risking the danger of that kind of magic.

  Jayna tore her gaze away, dragging the cart along the main road. It was the only way she knew how to reach the Academy outpost on the outskirts of the city where she could find Char, an old classmate of hers, and someone she had once been incredibly close to. Now they were acquaintances, if that.

  As they neared the end of the road, passing by a series of darkened buildings with little more than faded streetlights illuminating their path, she motioned for Eva to help guide the wagon off to the side. The cart bounced once, and for the first time since leaving their home, the man moaned softly. Jayna took that as a reassuring sign, but then he fell silent again. The sweat coating his brow seemed even thicker than before. She really had to hurry.

  “How much farther is it?” Eva grumbled.

  Jayna shook her head. “Not much.”

  They dragged the cart along the street, dealing with the jostling of the cobblestones, and the streetlights began to brighten the farther they went. In this part of the city, they grew ever nearer to more wealth. The homes had larger lawns and open space between buildings, with towering walls surrounding them. Most of the walls were made of stone, though some were constructed out of wood as well—a simple barricade more than true protection.

  In the distance, she caught sight of the Academy outpost. It was a small building, and mostly darkened. She slowed as she approached.

  Eva looked over to her. “You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Eva said.

  “I know that I don’t have to,” she said. “But at the same time . . .” She looked down at the man. Char would have access to resources she simply didn’t. She didn’t like the idea of leaving someone to suffer, and until she knew what was wrong with the stranger, she didn’t feel as if she could simply abandon him. It was obvious that something was wrong with him, even if she weren’t able to detect it with her own use of magic.

  “You could use your own power,” Eva suggested.

  Jayna looked over, having noticed the slight accusation in her tone. It stemmed from what Eva had attempted. She had dared use her power, though there wasn’t the same risk in her doing so. As far as Jayna knew, there wasn’t any way of detecting the kind of power Eva had commanded. Hers was a strange sort of blood magic, something drastically different from sorcerers’ magic, and not the kind of thing that the Sorcerers’ Society would be able to detect. However, using sorcerers’ magic outside the Society was another matter—that, they could detect.

  “It’s about more than just what I can do,” Jayna said.

  “Is it?” Eva asked.

  “Yes,” Jayna said.

  She pulled the cart along with her, and ignored the pointed look Eva threw her. It surprised her that Eva managed to hold such accusation in her gaze, given how much she drank, but she’d always managed to cut down to the heart of the matter. It was almost as if she knew Jayna’s thoughts.

  As they neared the outpost, Jayna continued to drag the cart, along with Eva’s help, off to a shadowed section along the wall.

  “Wait here.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to see if Char will help.”

  “What if he’s not willing to? Or what if he’s not even there?”

  Jayna squeezed her eyes shut. “He’s there.”

  One of the very first things the two of them had done when learning their magic was test a linking spell. In doing so, she always knew how to find Char, much like he would probably always know how to find her. Despite that, he had never come looking for her. Maybe he had given her space, or maybe he had lost the ability to track the linking spell. Either way, she appreciated that he hadn’t searched for her, and that he hadn’t betrayed her to the Sorcerers’ Society. Not that she would’ve expected Char to do so.

  She slipped along the street, staying near the wall, and ducked through the opening in the gate before reaching the stone building. The stone was different than it was in the western part, not slick with moisture, but also not the same dark gray, almost black stone. This was a pale white, though seemed to have been scrubbed free of moss but still seemed to gleam in the darkness, enough that she could pick out the texture of the stone itself. It was the only building constructed like that in this part of the city.

  She traced her fingers along it, feeling for gaps between the stones, but there were none—sorcery, and the kind of power that was simply a demonstration of magic more than anything useful. It was designed to remind those who came here of the power of the Sorcerers’ Society.

  Jayna squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, focusing on the linking spell. It was a distant sense of energy buried within her. She could pick up on the texture of that spell, like a band that stretched through her mind and away. As she focused upon it, she used that to call it forth, drawing on that energy and that connection to Char so she could find him.

  He was here. He was nearby. She knew that.

  She continued to focus on that energy, letting it guide her around the outskirts of the building until she came to a small window near the back. This was where the tracking spell had led her. She paused, testing the linking spell again, and made sure that it had truly guided her here. When she was satisfied that it did, she stepped up on her toes, pulling herself up and peering through the window. A soft glowing light radiated from inside.

  She looked around the room. It was small, about the size of her own bedroom, though much neater. A narrow bed ran along one wall, and a desk rested opposite it. A lantern sat on top of the desk, the glowing light coming from it. The lantern was nothing like the kind she used. It didn’t require oil, and was little more than a glowing orb. More sorcery. A stack of books rested on the desk, and she could see the back of a man leaning over the desk, resting on his elbows.

  It had been a long time since she had seen Char. The better part of a year.

  The linking spell had bound them together, so that even when she had been apart from him, she had still been aware of him, a presence in her mind that told her where to find him. First in the Academy, then later when he’d come to Nelar. That had been part of her reluctance in coming to the city. Facing Char was harder than she’d expected.

  There were no others in the room with him.

  Now was her chance.

  She tapped on the window.

  Char jerked up, then he looked down at his book, starting to read again and ignoring the sudden sound on the win
dow.

  He was always the studious one of the two of them. Jayna had been more focused on power, drawing upon natural ability, never wanting to study quite as much as Char, though she had used his interest in studying to help her advance. He had used her raw power to progress as well. The combination of their talents had made both of them better, at least in the time she had been in the Academy.

  Jayna smiled to herself. She tapped on the window again.

  This time, the sound drew the desired attention. He jerked his head toward the window and stared, frowning, before carrying the glowing orb over to it. As he held it up, Jayna kept herself pulled upward so she could look in at him. His eyes widened.

  Char had shaggy dark hair, a strong chin, and normally wore a quick, lopsided smile. She’d always found him handsome, in his own unique way. None of that had changed in the year since she had last seen him.

  “Jayna?” he mouthed.

  The window was thick enough that she couldn’t hear anything.

  She nodded, holding herself on one hand, and motioned toward the front of the outpost. Char frowned for a moment before nodding. He headed to the door, which suggested he at least understood what she was getting at. Jayna released her grip on the windowsill, dropping back to the ground, and hurried around the front of the outpost. She reached it as Char pulled the door open and frowned at her.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I need your help.”

  He looked along the street and up to the sky before turning back to her. “Do you know what time it is?”

  “Not really. Do you?”

  “No. It’s either really late, or it’s really early. Either way, you shouldn’t be here.”

  “I need your help,” Jayna repeated.

  He looked around before turning his attention back to her. “Just like that? I haven’t seen you in the better part of a year, then you show up here and ask for my help?”

  “It’s not for me. There’s a man who needs help.”

  Char eyed her suspiciously. “What kind of man?”

  “Somebody who came to me for help.”