“It’s more than just dangerous,” Jayna said to him.
“Of course it is. War is dangerous.”
“You’re a thief, Matthew. There should be no reason to get involved in a war,” Jayna said.
“There is when you can get answers,” he whispered.
He jerked his head toward the door, jumping to his feet. “Just be safe, Jayna. Promise me you won’t get involved in all of this.”
“In all of what?”
“Don’t let the Society bring you into this.”
“And how are you into this?” Jayna asked, leaning toward him.
“Sometimes the jobs demand certain things,” he muttered and flicked his gaze around. “Don’t come back to this place. It’s too dangerous.”
“For you?”
“For you. You can have your ale, but don’t use any magic. If you do, just tell them you’re a dular. That will give you a pass.” He glanced toward the door again. “I need to get moving. I really wish I could talk to you again, and I’m sure I can find you in the city . . .”
He darted off, heading toward the door, leaving her sitting next to Eva, frowning.
“It might’ve been easier had you not used the enchantment on him,” Eva said. “He might have been more helpful.”
“Or he might have caused more trouble for me,” Jayna said. As she looked at where Matthew had disappeared, she couldn’t help but worry that might be the case now. “He thinks he can protect me.”
“What if he can? There’s something strange about him.”
Jayna nodded. She had wondered if Eva would have any way of detecting that. “Not strange. When I claimed his memories, I saw something. I don’t know what it means, but he is somehow tied to the El’aras.”
“He’s not El’aras,” Eva said.
“Are you sure?”
“He’s too short.”
Jayna snorted before looking around the tavern again. “You think it’s only about familiarity?” When Eva looked at her with a frown, Jayna realized she was not making a whole lot of sense. “This place. And bringing us here.”
“I don’t know. Maybe there’s something here.”
“Can you look into it?”
Eva frowned again for a moment before nodding. “You always give me the good assignments.”
“I never figured you for one to turn down investigating a tavern.” She looked around. “What exactly do you think he got himself pulled into?”
“I can’t even imagine,” Eva said.
“Something with the dular,” Jayna said.
“Do you think it's the dular, or do you think it’s something else?”
Jayna shook her head. “I don’t even know anymore.”
And because she didn’t know, she was left to worry about Matthew along with what was taking place in the city, and just how dangerous all of it was.
She leaned back, cupping the mug of ale, thinking about what Matthew had told her.
War.
That was what troubled her.
Here she thought the difficulty between the Sorcerers’ Society and the dular was more of a disagreement. From the way Matthew made it sound, that was not the case at all. It was far more formal and serious than that.
What if it was tied to the twelve followers of Sarenoth?
The communication with Ceran had been so infrequent that she didn’t know any longer. She couldn’t help but feel as if that might be part of the reason he had wanted her to stay here.
Jayna took a deep breath, letting it out. “I think we’re going to have to get involved.”
“I’ll do whatever you think,” Eva said.
That surprised her. Eva wasn’t usually so accommodating. “This is not going to be easy.”
“When you’re around, Jayna, it never is.”
7
There were dozens of antiquity shops within the city of Nelar, and all of them carried items that could be useful in their search, but not all of them were equal in their proprietors, nor in the type of enchantments found within. Jayna had explored many of the shops during her time in Nelar and had come to learn there were a variety of store owners, much like there were a variety of dular throughout the city.
She looked over to the small, squat, stone building with only a hint of moss growing along its surface, taking a deep breath and trying to ignore the humidity pressing in upon her. The simple closed door before her carried a few markings to indicate what it sold, but not much else otherwise. She hadn’t been here for a while, but the last time she had, she had found that Eva knew the store owner much better than Jayna would’ve expected.
“Why here first?” Jayna asked.
“Because Telluminder is the most likely to know what we’re looking for.”
Eva held her hands off to her side, squeezing them, though no blood dripped from her palms, as it often did. She took a few deep breaths, and though she bit her lower lip, no smoke breathed out from her either.
“You’re hesitating,” Jayna said.
“I’m getting myself in the necessary mindset for this.”
Jayna watched her, frowning for a moment. “Why do you need to be in the right mindset?”
Eva shrugged. “Telluminder can be particular. And this type of questioning requires a certain touch.”
Something was off with Eva, though Jayna couldn’t tell just what it was. For whatever reason, she could feel some aspect of Eva’s irritation, something that suggested she wasn’t quite herself.
“Why don’t we just get in there and get this over with?” Jayna asked.
“That is what I’ve been saying,” Eva snapped. Eva glared at her for a moment before shaking her head. “You think these people want to talk to us.”
“You don’t think they do?”
“I know they don’t. They only want us to leave the city. They feel like we’re interfering.”
“Well, I suppose, in some ways, we are interfering.”
“You might be interfering, but I’m not.”
Jayna just shook her head and nodded to the door. “Let’s go inside.”
The door to the shop remained closed, but Jayna could feel energy coming from inside. It wasn’t sorcery, not necessarily, and she wasn’t typically alerted to the power of the dular. Maybe it was some other kind of magic, though in her time in Nelar, Jayna hadn’t seen many other kinds, other than from the El’aras she had rescued.
When she looked over to Eva, the haze of her smoke magic radiated out and around her. “You look nervous,” Jayna said.
“I just understand what kind of man Telluminder is.”
Jayna smiled to herself. “I didn’t get the feeling he was a man. Not human, at least.”
Eva shot her a look. “You would be making a mistake, then.”
“I’m not trying to upset you,” Jayna said, looking over to her friend. “I’m just commenting that—”
“I know what you’re commenting on.” Eva turned her attention to the door, and squeezed her hands. The power that flowed within her burst outward and washed away, a hint of smoke that trailed out from her, flowing into the door, then stopping. “For all of the things I’ve forgotten, there are still plenty of times when I’m not nearly as ignorant as you are.”
She pulled the door open and stepped inside.
Jayna followed, but not before glancing in either direction behind her, looking along the street. This part of the city was generally quiet, and it was now as well. There wasn’t any movement, though every so often, Jayna noticed the Toral ring starting to squeeze, constricting slightly around her finger, as if some dark magic was being used nearby. She saw no other evidence for it, but she needed to be careful. She recognized that not everything within the city was the way she’d believed it to be when she had first arrived.
The inside of Telluminder’s shop was brightly lit, the same way it had been when she had been here before. Rows of shelves all containing various items of power lined the walls, and the small, gray-haired man sat behind the co
unter, watching them as they came in.
A serious-looking, dark-haired woman pushed past them, leaving the shop right as they entered. She said nothing, though she watched them for a moment, her gaze heavy as it lingered.
Jayna was tempted to test the woman for sorcery, but if she was a sorcerer, she probably wouldn’t have been in Telluminder’s shop. Maybe she could be El’aras, though Eva’s comment about Matthew not being tall enough to be El’aras made it unlikely this woman would be. She was even shorter than Matthew.
“Eva Rekayth. Why am I not surprised to see you again?” Telluminder swung his gaze upon Jayna, leaving it leveled there for just a moment, a weight in his eyes that hovered. “And Jayna Aguelon. Ruiner of cities.”
“I didn’t ruin any city,” Jayna said. She paused in front of a strangely carved jar. It was an odd shape, tall and cylindrical, with lines that looped around it. It looked almost to be writing, but she recognized that as an enchantment. And given the amount of writing along its surface, it had to be an enchantment created with particular skill.
She glanced over to Eva, holding her gaze for a moment before looking back down at the enchantment.
“Go ahead,” she said to Eva.
“I thought you would want to do the questioning,” Eva said.
“Far be it from me to fear what I don’t understand, the depths of power involved,” she said to Eva.
Eva headed down to Telluminder, and she began to chat with him, her voice low.
Jayna realized it made more sense for Eva to do the initial questioning. She had a relationship with Telluminder, but she also had something that gave her an air of credibility that Jayna didn’t have. Eva was not viewed the same way Jayna was within the city, and given her experiences in Nelar so far, she figured that perhaps it was better for Eva to be the one.
This gave her an opportunity to peruse the shelves anyway.
She found a small sculpture on one of the bottom shelves. It had wings, a serpent-like body, and a long tail that wrapped up and around. As she held her hand above it, she felt a bit of warmth radiating from it. A sculpture next to it looked like a small man with large fangs. He had pointy ears, thick, spiky hair, and unlike the other sculpture, this one was cold. Both of them had been done with such detail that Jayna could only stare. They had to be enchantments.
She glanced over to Telluminder. He continued chatting with Eva, but every so often, he glanced in her direction, as if he knew she was exploring and wanted to keep her from touching something she shouldn’t.
Jayna moved on. A circular shield made of a beaten metal rested on a metal shelf. Drawings along the surface of the shield caught her eye, and she suspected that most of those drawings were meant to provide enchantments into the shield itself. As far as she could tell, the shield carried multiple different enchantments, multiple different layers of power.
She took the shield and held it, tracing her fingers around it. She could feel the energy within it, though she wasn’t able to determine anything else about it.
“Be careful with that,” Telluminder said. He hopped off his stool and tottered around the counter. Telluminder was short, barely coming up to her waist, and had flowing gray hair, a wide head, and an impossibly small body. He reached for the shield, plucked it from Jayna’s hand, and slipped it back onto the shelf. “Unless you know what you’re doing with it, I would advise you to leave it well enough alone.”
“I was just having a look.”
“You can have a look without touching.” He glanced over to Eva. “Is she like this wherever she goes?”
“Most of the time,” Eva said. She leaned on the counter and just watched Jayna, not helping.
“What is it?” Jayna asked.
“As I’m sure even you can determine, it is an enchantment.”
Jayna crouched down, leaning forward and looking at the shield. “It’s a different kind of enchantment than I’ve seen before. I haven’t seen too many with multiple layers of enchantment upon them.”
She wasn’t even sure that such a thing could have been done, but the detail on the shield was not nearly as exquisite as she would’ve expected from a sorcerer, who would’ve been the only one she thought capable of placing an enchantment like that. That suggested this had stemmed from a dular, but what dular could place that kind of power on a shield?
“Obviously, you haven’t the necessary experience for such things,” he snapped at her.
Jayna chuckled. “Obviously.”
“Are you mocking me now?” He looked over to Eva. “Is she mocking me?”
“Probably,” Eva said.
Jayna just shook her head. “I’m not mocking. I’m trying to understand your shield. Don’t you want others to know just what you have available at your shop?”
“I want others to leave my items alone unless they have the proper understanding of how to handle them.”
“But I know how to handle an enchantment,” Jayna said.
“You think you do,” he said, shaking his head. “That would be your first mistake, now wouldn’t it?”
Jayna started to laugh. She didn’t remember Telluminder being quite like this the last time she had been here. A little stubborn, maybe, but now he was expressing a clear irritability with her.
“Have I done anything to upset you?”
“Oh, no. The great Jayna Aguelon has done nothing.”
Jayna straightened and looked down at Telluminder. “We just came here to talk. I didn’t come here to cause trouble. And I certainly haven’t come to the city to cause trouble.”
“But trouble seems to follow you regardless of what you intend, doesn’t it?”
Jayna couldn’t even refute that. “Maybe we got off on the wrong foot.”
He looked down at his feet. “My feet are fine.”
“Maybe I said something that upset you.”
She glanced over to Eva, who rested on the counter, eyes closed, a bit of faint smoke trailing around her face. It was almost as if the energy around her continued to flow, swirling, as if she were trying to call upon the power within her but not wanting to be seen drawing on that energy. Jayna thought the two of them would have worked better together when it came to getting information from Telluminder, but seeing Eva like this left her thinking that maybe she wasn’t going to be an ally in her search for information.
Telluminder hadn’t responded to her last statement, so Jayna pressed on. “I suppose you don’t need the money, then.”
Telluminder straightened and frowned at her. “Money?”
“I was in the market for some different enchantments.” She shrugged, glancing over to Eva for a moment before turning her attention back to Telluminder. “But there are other shops like yours I could get them from. I don’t need to waste my time here.” She started to turn, then Telluminder grabbed her arm, turning her back to face him.
“We don’t need to be too hasty,” he said.
“We don’t,” Jayna said.
“Perhaps I let the rumors about you influence my opinion a little bit more than I should have,” he said.
“What exactly were the rumors about me?”
“Why, the rumors say that Jayna Aguelon has decided to rule the city.”
Jayna started to smile, and she glanced over to Eva again, but she remained motionless. When she turned her attention back to Telluminder, she shook her head, trying to hide her concern. “I have no interest in ruling. All I’ve been trying to do is help the city.”
“By destroying things?”
“I didn’t destroy anything. If nothing else, I protected the city.”
“What makes you think that?” Telluminder asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact that I prevented a dangerous attack in the city.” Twice, she didn’t add, but didn’t think she needed to justify herself, and certainly not to a man like Telluminder. Perhaps she should have sent Eva looking for the information without her. It might’ve been easier.
Still, she remembered what Te
lluminder had known when she had been here before. He did have access to knowledge and information she couldn’t get anywhere else. She had to think that if anybody knew anything useful about the twelve followers along with Sarenoth, it would have to be him, but at the same time, he was also quirky, something Jayna had far too much experience with.
There were others who might be useful as well, but Jayna was less inclined to go to Master Raollet, though it might give her a chance to ask about whether he had hired other thugs to come after her.
“You stopped it?” Telluminder asked, cocking his head and glancing from her to Eva. “That’s not what everybody says.”
“Then everybody is wrong,” Jayna said. “We stopped it.”
He left the shield, hopped back around the counter, climbed up on his tall stool, and leaned forward. Now that he was at a height more equal to hers, she was forced to look in his eyes.
“What are you here for?” he asked.
“I was here to ask a few questions, but apparently I came to the wrong place.”
“You said you were here to spend money.”
“I can spend money,” Jayna said, “but I need to make sure that it’s money well spent.” She wasn’t above buying information, especially if it helped guide her. “How do I know you’re worth it?”
Telluminder leaned forward and flashed his yellowed teeth at her. “Who else would put up with you?” He shook his head. “It’s because of you that the dular are less inclined to work with me. They blame you for what happened in the city.”
Was that the reason for his irritation? “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “I didn’t tell anybody not to work with you.”
“You don’t have to tell them,” Telluminder said. “They make their own choices, much like I have made my own choice. When I offered you help before, I apparently chose sides.” He glanced over to Eva before turning his attention back to Jayna. “And in the eyes of those within the city, it has turned me into someone who cannot be trusted.”
Jayna turned away from him, and she found a sculpture with a long feather trailing out of its side resting up against the wall. She didn’t touch it, knowing how Telluminder might react, but she could see the pattern-work along its surface. Another enchantment.
Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer Book 3) Page 8