“That's right.” Raollet glanced from Eva to Jayna. “This time of the year is sacred to them.”
Jayna turned back to Raollet.
“Where?” she asked him.
“I don’t know. You go and look for it.”
Jayna glanced to the staff. She could feel the enchantment within it. It summoned energy. “I’m going to borrow this.”
“You will not.”
She jabbed him on the chest with the staff, and he started coughing. “What does it do?” He glowered at her. “Don’t make me use it on you.”
His eyes went wide.
“There. I have your attention. It does something.”
“It’s a weapon. And it’s old. A sorcerer made it so long ago that the forming of it has been lost, as has the knowledge of what it does.”
Jayna eyed the staff. She hadn’t been willing to go back for the cane, though maybe she should. A staff like this, however . . .
Eva frowned. “I know where we need to go.”
“Where?” Jayna asked.
“The place the dular will gather. I think I know where to find it.”
They headed out of the shop with Raollet shouting after them. As soon as they were out, Eva glanced back at the closed door, then to the staff in Jayna’s hand, and shook her head. “This might be a mistake,” she said to her.
“Taking his staff?”
“Antagonizing him. We've already been targeted by his thugs.”
“And we've dealt with them just fine.”
“He has access to resources.”
“And we aren't going to be here much longer. Once this is over, I’m sure Ceran will send us somewhere else.”
Eva looked like she wanted to argue, but clamped her mouth shut.
They had been here for long enough now. There were other places they needed to travel, other places Ceran would likely have jobs for her, and other places that would draw her forward, likely posing a different sort of challenge for her.
“Are you sure about that?” Eva asked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that I know you have enjoyed the opportunity to visit with your old friend.”
“That bridge is already burned.”
Char might've helped her with Rendal, but that didn't mean he would forgive her. She had used magic against him, stealing a lock of his hair. And he believed she was calling upon dark magic. Regardless of what she claimed, he wasn't going to believe otherwise.
“If you say so,” Eva said.
“I do. Anyway, we need to get moving.”
“I think I know where to find the festival,” Eva said. “There is an ancient temple near the forest. If it’s sacred, it seems to me it might be as good a place as any for them to gather.”
Looking for the dular was something she should have thought about on her own. She shouldn’t have needed Master Raollet to have prompted her. Worse, she worried that she had made an enemy of him.
Now that she had attacked him twice and taken two of his enchantments, she wasn’t going to be able to remain in the city without watching for him—even more reason for her to get this over with, get to Ceran, and let him know the job was done so they could move on.
Eva guided them forward, saying nothing, though smoke trailed around her.
As they approached the temple, Jayna slowed.
Eva had called it a temple, but it was no different than some of the other stone debris that she had seen in other parts along the outskirts of the city. Perhaps a bit more extensive, with some walls still standing, moss coating everything, and a central clearing inside of an area that looked like it had once been walled off, but not what she would call a temple. Still, there was an energy here she could feel, as if she might be able to detect what had been here when it had been a temple.
She could feel something different in the air. It was a soft energy, faint but growing stronger, a sort of power.
As she motioned to Eva with the staff, she moved off to the side of the road, staying in the shadows. Much like the location of Master Raollet’s shop, the dular section of the city was an older one, and there were no people out, though at this time of night, she didn’t expect there would be. She thought there might be some though. Even in this section of the city, people would be heading home from taverns and travelers would be looking for a place to stay, giving the area a feeling of normalcy.
The only thing she felt was energy—power—and the only thing she noticed was that something was off. It persisted, and as it did, it grew increasingly potent, enough so that she could feel the strength of the magic building around her.
It wouldn’t be long now until the festival began in full.
She froze, looking all around her.
As they crept forward, reaching the edge of a wall, she saw a small clearing in the debris. There was a diffuse energy that permeated everything. And the clearing wasn't empty at all.
Eva stiffened next to her. The smoke that had been trailing around her seemed to intensify, swirling even more vibrantly.
In the center of the square were seven figures all arranged in a circle—including Topher. They were bound at their hands and ankles, tied together so they were forced to kneel. All of them faced inwardly, and a darkened figure stood in the center of them, hands outstretched.
Jayna couldn’t see any of the other Celebrants of Asymorn, but they had to be there.
This was the festival.
Jayna remained tense. She focused on the power she could summon, but feared she was too late.
“I really wish Ceran would answer,” Jayna whispered.
“I don't know that we can wait for him. We are going to have to do this.”
“You’ll help?”
Eva looked conflicted.
“We can stop this,” Jayna said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.
“I’m not sure about that,” Eva said.
Eva nodded, and as she did, Jayna realized that a strange dark shadow swirled around each of the men. She hadn’t seen it before, but now that she did, she could see nothing else. It was an energy that pulsed outward, pressing upon her. It was the energy of the dwaring.
They were there. They had fed, and they had matured.
Now they were powerful.
Soon they would be released.
And if the sorcerer standing in the middle of them had anything to do with that, they would use that power to tap into Asymorn, possibly freeing him and the dark power he summoned.
“It seems we don’t have much time,” Jayna said.
“I worry that it’s more than just time,” Eva said. “I worry they are already too powerful.”
23
This was going to be far more than she could stop on her own. As Jayna crouched in the alley near the edge of the street, feeling the familiar tightness to her skin from the energy coming off of the sorcerers, along with the unpleasant dark power radiating from the dwaring, she prepared for the attack while trying to send an urgent summons to Ceran through the ring. She had to be ready. The power would continue to build if she didn’t hurry.
“How much longer do you think we have until the new moon?”
“Considering the energy I feel already, I suspect we’re getting close,” Eva said. She had her back pressed up against one of the nearby buildings, and a thin wisp of smoke trailed around her, continuing to build in intensity.
Jayna clutched the staff. It might help, if she learned how to use it.
“Then we need to try to stop them. Somehow.”
The man at the center of the circle of captives seemed to be the heart of whatever was taking place. Gabranth. He looked even more regal than when he had attacked her in the street before. She could feel the power coming off of him, a mixture of magic that she could scarcely comprehend. This was a powerful sorcerer at the height of his powers, preparing for a festival that would make him even more powerful.
If he were to succeed, he would release Asymorn—and be gifted with so much more.
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Maybe she could draw off enough of the dwaring energy to conceal her presence here. She pulled one of the enchantments out of her pocket.
“You think I can summon the dwaring from here?” she asked, whispering to Eva.
“I don’t know. The last time it was challenging.”
“The last time we didn’t know what we were dealing with.”
Eva looked down at her, holding her gaze for a moment. “Do you know what you’re dealing with now?”
“I know it’s a dwaring.”
“And do you understand what that is?”
“What are you getting at?”
“I’m getting at the fact that this is nothing like you have faced before.”
“I understand, but—”
“But now there are seven of them. I know you want to prevent the attack, but I also don’t know if you’re going to be able to.”
“You don’t think I have enough power.” Jayna smiled to herself. All this time, Eva had always supported her, and though Eva had not always been the easiest to work with, she had never expected Eva would doubt her like this. She supposed she should not be terribly surprised by it.
In fact, Eva had drunk quite a bit of wine earlier in the day, and might even be influenced by that.
“We just have to start with one,” Jayna said.
“See if you can,” Eva responded.
“You’re afraid,” Jayna stated.
Eva watched her before tearing her gaze away and looking into the distance. “You should be too.”
Jayna held on to the enchantment, then rolled it across the stone. She added a hint of a spell to it, muting the sound of its travel until it got near enough to Topher. She nudged it just a little bit farther. When it reached him, she smiled to herself. All she needed was to get close enough to him so that she could use a spell; she could wrap the power around him and perhaps hold it close enough to him.
It was the proximity she needed.
Plus, she had the tracking enchantment Topher had given her.
That would help. She could link the two enchantments.
An idea came to her.
The El'aras enchantment had muted her magic when she’d tested it in her home.
Maybe it could do that now. It might be able to protect her from the sorcerers knowing what she was doing.
If only she could use power through it.
Jayna clutched the enchantment, feeling the strange vibration within it. A linking spell was easy enough. It was one of the first she’d seen in the Academy. Now she just had to add one to this stone . . .
When it was done, a sense of Topher came through the enchantment. It would work. It would have to.
She braced herself.
From a distance, it was going to be hard to pull the dwaring out of Topher, but she could detect it inside of him, having felt it before, and Jayna thought she should be able to peel it apart from Topher again.
She pressed outward.
She let a hint of energy flow. Just a hint, nothing more than that, and when she did, she unleashed it, letting power slide away from her.
It struck the enchantment, triggering it. It was a containment spell. Now she only had to peel the dwaring away from Topher.
As she stretched out magically, the distance was a challenge, but she tapped into the enchantment itself, pushing her connection from herself through it and up into Topher.
She could feel the dark energy within him. The dwaring surged, filling him with power, yet also consuming him. That was what she had to work against.
“You had better hurry,” Eva said.
“We have time,” she said.
“For now, but I have a feeling you don’t have nearly as much time as you think. There will be others.”
Jayna looked around the clearing, but she didn’t see any of the other sorcerers, only the single sorcerer in the center. Still, she knew the other Celebrants of Asymorn had to be here, as Eva suggested.
“Go make sure they don’t interfere,” she said to Eva.
“This is your spell. You should be the one to do that.”
“Can you just help me?” she hissed.
Eva shook her head. “Fine, but I don’t like it.”
“You never like it.”
Jayna turned her attention back to the enchantment, and to Topher, and to the power she was pushing out from him and into the dwaring trying to feed on him. She could practically feel the way it consumed him and the energy that flowed from it, trapping some part of him. Jayna reached for that and began to pull it back.
The dwaring fought.
She sent out a swirl of power from the dragon stone ring, twisting it around him and wrapping it in a tight spiral to contain the dark energy. In doing so, she could feel that energy continuing to surge, but thankfully, the Toral ring contained the power, and she managed to hold on to it. The next step was trying to pull it into the enchantment.
That was going to be the hardest part. When she had done it before, she had not been dealing with a mature dwaring, and she had also been closer. Proximity mattered, especially for this kind of magic.
She was going to have to focus.
She sent another cycle of power out, letting it spiral around Topher again. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be drawing anybody else’s attention. As she started to pull, the dark energy continued to fight against her.
Jayna drew it deeply into the enchantment.
She held her focus on the enchantment, linking its power with that of the dwaring, then pulling the dwaring inside the enchantment itself.
There was movement near her.
Sorcerers.
Jayna could feel the dwaring starting to pull into the enchantment, but it didn’t happen quickly enough—the enchantment wasn’t strong enough. As she pulled the power of the enchantment down, siphoning it in, she feared it wasn’t going to be enough. She had to draw even more of her own energy down.
It started to work.
She sent another surge of sorcery into the enchantment, triggering it in full.
Doing so risked exposing her presence here, but she had to get that dwaring inside.
The enchantment took on more power. It started to glow softly. Thankfully, it seemed as if Topher’s body blocked the glowing of the enchantment from the sorcerer at the center of the clearing, but she feared waiting too long.
Already she worried that the other sorcerers knew she was here and were heading in her direction. She couldn’t linger for much longer. She had to get this to work.
Now that the enchantment was active, she focused on the dragon stone, the Toral ring, and started to pull.
That offered a very different approach to magic. It was connected to dark energy, attracted to it, and, if she were honest with herself, could also use it. She pulled, and the dwaring fought, but she had already lashed herself and her energy around the dwaring, and she drew it down into the enchantment.
She could feel the dwaring slithering, the strange clawing of something that was actually alive starting to rise against her, as if it were working actively to escape. It was so different from when she had fought other dark energies before. This was something feeding on a sorcerer, on somebody who had power, and this was something that continued to call power outward.
Jayna had to try something else.
If she disrupted the sorcerer, she might be able to buy herself a little bit more time.
Which meant she would have to rely on Eva keeping the others safe.
And she would have to draw off the other Celebrants of Asymorn.
She focused on Topher.
Get the creature out of Topher, and then . . .
There.
The enchantment started to hold.
No longer did she have to pull quite as much power out on her own or focus as hard as she had before. Now she could let the enchantment do the work. The energy started to cycle quickly, and as it did, it pulled inward, drawing the dwaring off of the poor man. It cycled downward, flow
ing deeper and deeper into the enchantment until it sealed it.
Then Jayna jerked, using a bit of sorcery to pull the enchantment back to her. As it rolled across the cobblestones, it made too much noise.
There came a flicker of movement.
Jayna looked up just as the enchantment arrived.
She clasped the enchantment, using her painful Toral power to seal the dwaring inside, hoping that would work. Eva would need to use her own magic to complete the seal, but for now it seemed as if she had trapped the dwaring.
Another sorcerer approached.
She didn’t recognize this one, but he stalked toward her.
He reminded her a bit of Rendal and the dark energy he had inside of him. Jayna remembered just how difficult it had been to contain that dark energy within him.
She wouldn’t have much choice in how she handled this other sorcerer.
Pulling the dark energy off was going to be the key. If she tried to simply stop him, he would keep fighting.
She held out the dragon stone ring, and focused on the power deep within her.
It was her least favorite use of magic.
A cold feeling worked up her arm quickly. She tried not to draw upon the power of the ring too deeply, but ever since using it on Rendal, that cold seemed to creep into her even faster than it normally did. She had touched the darkness, and she had tainted herself.
She didn't have much choice in the matter, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to fight the darkness. She focused the power from the Toral ring tightly, wrapping it into an increasingly tighter spiral mixed with a blade of light spell, and sent it blasting out.
It streaked away from the dragon stone ring in a narrowing spiral until it came to a point. It twisted and shot the sorcerer in the chest. He collapsed.
Jayna looked up, knowing that the action, and his sudden fall, would draw the attention of the sorcerer at the center of the clearing.
She had to work quickly.
She hurried over to the fallen sorcerer, checking to see if he was going to get up, but he was no longer breathing. It didn’t take long before the dark magic consumed him, and then it would fade, disappearing back into the ether where it had come from.
As he faded, she shifted her focus.
Festival of Mourn (The Dark Sorcerer Book 1) Page 25
