Festival of Mourn (The Dark Sorcerer Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

“How do you think we got you over to the outpost?” Jayna asked.

  “I didn’t think you needed to bring me to the outpost,” he said.

  “Well, unfortunately I wasn’t able to heal you on my own.”

  She ignored the way Eva looked over at her. She had actually been the one to heal him on her own, and perhaps by going to the Academy outpost, she had used magic in a place where it wouldn’t be nearly as noticeable as it would have been otherwise. It was easy enough to deny that it came from her when she had been with Char. More than that, typically the Academy rooms were shielded so that anyone using magic wouldn’t be detected by others using magic within the same building. If they were, it could cause a disruption in the magic.

  It was something she would have to ask Eva about at some point. Jayna had so many questions when it came to her, and Eva had been so reluctant to share anything with her. Or unable. Jayna didn’t know which it was. Both, maybe.

  “Just sit down,” Jayna said, giving him a hard shove. He toppled back into the cart and scooted back, looking from her to Eva.

  Jayna then looked over to Eva. Her friend had a pained gaze and twisted the fabric of her dress, but she made a point of ignoring Jayna.

  “We need to get away from anywhere that has a lot of people,” Jayna said.

  Eva shook her head. “There aren’t many places open this early in the morning.”

  “If you’re looking for a tavern to go to, I know a place,” Topher said. He sat up, leaning over the edge of the cart, wobbling a little. Given what he’d gone through, Jayna worried he might topple out of the wagon altogether. She was getting tired of carrying him, and didn’t know if she would be able to lift him if he were to fall out again.

  “I’m sure you do,” Eva snapped at him.

  Jayna studied Eva. Every so often, Eva would bite her lip as she looked at him, and her gaze would flicker over to the enchantment resting on the back of the wagon, but she never spent too much time staring at it before turning her attention away again.

  At least Eva was ready for whatever might come at them. Jayna had to be, too.

  “What is it?” Jayna whispered.

  Eva shook her head. “Nothing.”

  Jayna recognized that it was, in fact, something, but if Eva didn’t want to share, then she didn’t think she should push her. At this point, she just wanted to get someplace where they could sit down, talk about what had happened to Topher, and from there she could decide what she needed to do. With everything she had been through so far, she figured that having a glass of wine with Eva might even benefit her.

  “Where is this place?” Jayna asked Topher.

  He grinned. “It’s not far. You just have to go across the river, then wind along Anderson Road, and it’s near a small stream leading into the river.”

  Eva groaned. Jayna looked over to her.

  “I know the place.”

  “What’s wrong with it?”

  “It figures a guy like him would favor it. But it’ll be out of the way, so you’ll probably love it.” She looked over to Topher. “We might as well have him drag us there after everywhere else he’s dragged us tonight.”

  Topher hopped out of the wagon.

  “You don’t have to drag me,” he said, smiling slightly.

  He wobbled for a moment, unsteady on his feet, and he glanced over to Eva, grin widening slightly, but she just glared at him. They were probably about the same age, and Topher would be pretty enough when cleaned up, but she’d never seen Eva interested in anyone. Or anything, for that matter. Mostly wine.

  “Can you walk?” Jayna asked.

  “Of course I can walk,” he said. “What do you take me for?”

  “I take you for somebody who had a dwaring taken out of him today. So, I just want to make sure you can walk.”

  He took a step, stumbled, then caught himself. Jayna resisted the urge to help him, not wanting to offer him much more support, but perhaps he might need it, given what had happened to him.

  “I can handle this,” he said, mostly to himself. He shook his head, clenching his jaw and balling his fists, then took a deep breath. He staggered forward. Each step seemed lumbering, but by the time he had taken a dozen, he did seem to have his balance. He made his way along the road.

  The thudding of boots behind them caught Jayna’s attention. They moved to the side of the street, Jayna twisting the ring on her finger until the sound faded. Whatever guards were out patrolling seemed to take a different direction.

  Jayna shared a glance with Eva, who seemed to make a point of ignoring her.

  She caught up to Eva. “What is it that you aren’t telling me?”

  Eva shook her head. “It’s nothing,” she whispered.

  “There’s something going on.”

  Eva glanced over. She picked up the enchantment, gripping it in a white-knuckled fist. Jayna feared she might crush it, but during her studies at the Academy, she had learned that enchantments weren’t easily damaged. It would take more than somebody squeezing it hard for it to shatter.

  “Something’s off here,” she said, looking at Topher’s back. “I’m not exactly sure what it is, but it worries me.”

  “This has to be more than just a Festival of Mourn. The dwaring are dark creatures and filled with the dark power.” Eva said and looked over to Jayna. “If they’re used in this festival, then the kind of power they will be drawing by feeding could be considerable.”

  “I don't think this should surprise either of us. We've known there has been increasing activity moving this way. That's why Ceran sent me here.”

  Eva was quiet, staring at Topher's back for a long moment. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

  Jayna took a deep breath, letting out a long sigh. “No. Not at all.” She squeezed her fist, feeling the pain of the dragon stone ring. “Which is why I have been trying to summon Ceran ever since we pulled that dwaring out.”

  “What if he doesn't answer?”

  “Then we have to destroy it ourselves.”

  “I'm not sure we can,” Eva said.

  They hurried through the streets, heading past a series of increasingly rundown buildings. They were all made of the same slick stone, with a hint of glowing moss running along the surface. Topher traced his hand along the moss, then pulled it back and stared at it. Was he looking at the bioluminescence from the moss? He stumbled toward the center of the street again, and Jayna feared he might collapse, but he caught himself, and jogged forward until he caught his footing again.

  “I don’t know if more ale makes sense for him,” she said to Eva. “And if we have an enchantment holding a dangerous creature. . .”

  That elicited soft laughter from the dark-haired woman. She paused under one of the streetlights, the pale light reflecting off her milky white skin. “The enchantment is going to be dangerous regardless of where it is. And him”—she nodded to Topher—“I don’t know how much of that is from what it took to remove the dwaring . . . or how much is just him.”

  “Maybe it’s a combination of both,” Jayna said.

  He paused at another building—a blacksmith’s shop, from the look of the sign hanging above it—and ran his hand along the thick greenish moss that glowed with a pale yellow light.

  Jayna suppressed a sigh. She had been up a long time, and at this point, wanted nothing more than to get some rest. It had been a while since she’d used as much magic as she had tonight, especially considering how much she had forced into the enchantment. That typically would have drained her significantly, but while she did feel the effect, there was a part of her that wasn’t quite as tapped out as she would have been before. It was almost as if that dark energy she had caught a glimpse of at the periphery of her awareness had gifted her with greater strength.

  She twisted the dragon stone ring.

  In the year she’d served as a Toral, she had never once truly felt the Toral power was dark. Since Ceran had granted her a connection to his power, she’d looked into what
it meant, but had only found a few details—mostly rumors, but enough that she worried how much of them were true. Though she’d never met any others, some of those rumors spoke of dark energy among those who served as Torals. Those rumors often accused the Torals of serving dark magic—though Jayna hadn’t felt that draw. Up until now, she had never observed it within herself.

  It made it easier for her to serve Ceran when he demanded she move, chasing rumors of a new dark power. Certainly, it kept her from fearing the consequences. It was the darkness that people like Char feared, but Jayna had always assumed that darkness came from ignorance of the truth of that power, rather than anything more. While she’d been at the Academy, she had seen far too many people using as much or more power as she could call through the dragon stone ring, and had a hard time thinking that the kind of power she called upon truly was dark. It was unearned magic, but nothing more than that. What had happened today, while she was trying to help Topher, had left her with a very different feel for it.

  “Can I see it?” she asked Eva, nodding to the enchantment she clutched.

  They were nearing the western edge of the city. Daylight had started to break, and she figured it wouldn’t be too much longer before one of them crashed.

  Eva held it out. “Be careful with it. I warned you that it’s not completely stable.”

  “I think I know how to handle enchantments.”

  “This is something more than an enchantment now,” Eva said. “We’ll have to find a way to make it more stable somehow.”

  As Jayna took it, she noticed its weight, like a heavy river rock, and the smooth, slightly warm feel of the container. The markings along the side were evidence of the spellcraft Char had put into it, and she ran her thumb along the surface, feeling those markings buried beneath her thumb. Swirls of color, mostly dark grays and a hint of maroon that she couldn’t help but feel came from Eva’s blood, worked into the surface of the enchantment—unusual colors for any spell made with sorcery. A part of the enchantment flared within her, heat blooming for a moment, as if it recognized her holding it, and she realized what Eva meant.

  It was something more than just an enchantment.

  There was a combination of powers within it. Not only was there Char’s power, but the power Eva had put into it—magic she only reluctantly revealed, but Jayna could still feel it. Then there was Jayna’s contribution. Her own power was different, though similar to that of a sorcerer. It was the power of the Toral. The power of the dragon stone ring. Power that was borrowed, not earned.

  “I don’t feel anything inside of it,” Jayna said.

  “It’s still there,” Eva said.

  “Are you sure?” She looked up from the enchantment. “If this thing were to escape . . .”

  “If this were to escape, you would know it. There would be no question the enchantment failed.”

  “Do you think it will?”

  Eva stared down at the enchantment, then slowly shook her head. “I hope not. For all of our sakes, I hope not.”

  8

  They reached the tavern on the far western side of the city. Here there was little more than small homes mixed in with other shops, and jumbles of crumbling rock, most of them with a heavy coating of the glowing moss clinging to them. The air was far more humid in this part of the city, and Jayna took forceful breaths, trying to overpower the heaviness within her chest. She could feel the weight within her with each breath she took, and she struggled against it.

  The spellbook in her pocket also felt heavier than it should, though that might only be her guilt in having taken it from the outpost. If Char had found out . . .

  Jayna was determined to keep him from learning that she’d taken one.

  “Here we are,” Topher said, stumbling to a stop and spreading his hands wide on either side of him. He grinned at Eva, as if he had accomplished some great feat by bringing them both here. “You wanted a tavern that would still serve ale. This one does. And it’s quiet here.”

  “Actually, it was wine,” Eva said, pushing past him and toward the door. She tested it quickly before forcing it open, standing in the doorway a moment before disappearing inside it.

  Topher wobbled. “What did I do to her?” he muttered.

  “Probably nothing,” Jayna said, tapping him on the shoulder. “She has her own issues.”

  “I’m not used to beautiful women looking at me the way she does.”

  Jayna chuckled. She wondered what Eva would think of being called a beautiful woman. Maybe she’d consider it a compliment, but then again, when it came to Eva, she rarely took compliments that well. “You have to get to know her better.”

  “Have the two of you been friends for a long time?”

  Topher reached the doorway. It was a narrow door, like so many of the buildings in this part of the city, and low enough that he would have to duck his head. He gripped the faded gray wood frame and looked back at Jayna.

  “Long enough.”

  Topher nodded then stepped forward, hitting the top of his head and wincing before ducking down and heading into the tavern.

  Jayna looked along the street, feeling a bit more activity around her than before. Since it was early, there weren’t many people out, so it was strange she could feel it—a definite sense she had. It was almost as if there were something in the action along the street that came to her, whether through her sorcery or through the dragon stone ring, she didn’t know.

  Sorcery was the magic of life. It was a powerful sort of magic, and intrinsic to the user, but once a sorcerer knew how to tap into the magic within them, they were able to use it to influence the world around them.

  Topher poked his head out of the door, grinning at her. “Are you coming?”

  Jayna took a deep breath and headed inside of the tavern. It was empty, just the three of them. She saw no sign of any waitstaff or proprietor, and nothing to suggest that they should even be there.

  The tavern itself was small—unsurprising, given the building it occupied—and the floor was made of damp stone, similar to the stone outside. The green moss had followed the walls inside, and there were patches of it on the interior stone. The air wasn’t nearly as humid as it was outside, though that was partially because of the now faintly crackling hearth in the back of the tavern. There were only a handful of tables—all a solid, dark wood with a heavy grain—with simple chairs situated around them.

  “I’m not so sure we should be here,” Jayna said, glancing over to Eva, who sat in the corner.

  “Nonsense,” Topher said. “No one’s going to care if we’re here.”

  He stumbled off to the back of the room, heading through a doorway and disappearing. The door flopped back into place, leaving her alone with Eva.

  Jayna swept her gaze around the inside of the tavern as she made her way over to Eva’s spot at one of the tables near the wall. She positioned herself so that she could look in either direction, toward the front door and toward the hearth. There was a gap between her and the wall though, almost as if she were afraid to get too close to the damp stone.

  “Why do I get the sense he’s not telling us something?” Jayna asked, pulling out the chair and sitting. There was a layer of moisture on it, and she wished she had a towel to wipe it down. Most of the nicer taverns throughout the city had towels for such a purpose, though she had a feeling this would never pass as a nicer tavern.

  “Probably because he came to us with a dwaring inside of him,” Eva said. “If he has wine, I suppose him not telling us everything he knows doesn’t matter.”

  “Do you think a place like this has wine?” Jayna asked, looking around. The stone on the wall opposite her had large chips in it, sections of it that had cracked and started to crumble, leaving the wall pockmarked. Hunks of the cracked stone littered the ground.

  Finally, Topher came out of the kitchen, surprisingly carrying a bottle of wine, along with two thin-stemmed glasses, and a mug of ale, presumably for himself. He stumbled, but caught himsel
f before dropping any of it. Only a little bit of ale sloshed onto the ground, and he stared down at it, a pouty look on his face.

  “Thank the gods,” Eva said, as he handed her the bottle of wine and the two glasses. She made quick work of uncorking it, then poured herself a glass before pouring another and offering it to Jayna.

  She wasn’t in much of a mood to drink, but she also didn’t want Eva to drink the entire bottle of wine herself. At least Jayna knew tricks to burn off the effects of the wine.

  Topher pulled out a chair and sat on it backward, leaning toward the table and resting his mug of ale on it. “See?”

  “Do you care to tell us about how you know of this place?” Jayna asked, swirling the wine in her glass. It was a deep crimson, and it had a strangely oaken scent, but there was something else mixed within it that she couldn’t quite place. Perhaps a note of chamomile, though that wouldn’t be typical for wine. In her time within the Academy, she had learned to identify various substances by smell, not only by taste. There were advantages to that. If she could identify the odors, she had a much better chance of using what she uncovered to keep herself safe if she, or anyone with her, were attacked with anything poisonous. As sorcerers were often involved in various dangerous courses of action, it was necessary for her, and anyone who might be with her, to have such an ability.

  “I know about it because it’s owned by a friend of mine. At least, he was a friend of mine.” He tipped back his mug of ale, taking a long drink before setting it down. “He disappeared about a week and a half ago. I’ve been staying here ever since. Sort of watching over it, if you know what I mean. I’d only known Robert for about a month, ever since I got to the city. I met him when I found this place.” Topher shrugged and took another drink of ale. “Robert was a good guy. Didn’t mind sharing his ale, easygoing with the people who frequented his tavern.” He grinned, looking over to Eva. “You know the kind, I’m sure.” Eva glared at him, and Topher took another quick drink. “Anyway. He opened up his tavern to me, and I was here quite a bit. Spent quite a few nights here, as I’m sure you could imagine.”