More than that, now that she understood the features of bloodstone, she wondered if she might be able to seal another ring of it around her dragon stone if she needed to.
Those were thoughts for another time. Right now, she had to focus on getting to Master Agnew and stopping whatever attack the Ashara dular intended.
Yet another sorcerer lay unmoving near her.
Jayna crouched down, checking him. Unlike the others, when she tried to pull smoke out of him, there was nothing.
She checked for his pulse, but he was already gone.
Jayna got up and focused on pulling more smoke off from around her. There was a muted sort of quality to the air, a silence that was almost chilling. She struggled to move forward, worried about what she might encounter, but as she headed through the smoke, calling it into the ring, she continued looking everywhere around her, watching for the Ashara dular.
He was still attacking sorcerers.
Why had one died, but the other two had not?
Three.
She couldn’t ignore Char.
Maybe she’d gotten to them in time, or maybe there was something else to it. Could it be that the Ashara dular had targeted specific sorcerers?
She didn’t know. She couldn’t know.
Not without capturing the Ashara dular, trying to understand what he was after and what he intended.
She slipped along the hallway a little farther then stopped.
The hall widened here.
She had never been in this part of the outpost before, and though she could feel the power around her, an energy that suggested significant sorcery had been used, something else was strange about it. There were enchantments here, but it was more than that.
She pushed out with the Toral ring, using a bit of power from it to try to detect what else was here.
Surprisingly, there came a soft reverberation of energy.
Dark power.
Could it be that the Order of Norej had changed the outpost more than she had realized? Jayna had known something had happened, that there was more taking place than she knew about, but now she had to wonder if perhaps they had left some sort of permanent, persistent residual energy.
Why would they have done that? There had to be something to it that mattered to them, some aspect of it that would grant them more power.
Jayna didn’t have time to figure it out now. She heard a shout, an angry tone, and felt a buildup of magic coming from the end of the hall, near enough that she could practically follow it. She traced it forward, tracking through the hallway, when a double door seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Jayna had been continuing to draw smoke off from around her, even though more and more smoke formed in its place, drifting near her. How much force did this Ashara dular need to use in their attempt to do whatever it was they were intending?
Jayna drew upon the dragon stone augmented by the bloodstone and pushed power out from her, using a bit of wind along the hallway to try to clear it out. She continued pushing, drawing power away, and feeling that energy flowing around her.
She stopped at the double door. This had to be where she would find Master Agnew, though why would the Ashara dular have come here?
She stormed forward.
Power surrounded her. She used her power and created a barrier, holding it as solidly as she could, then called the smoke into the ring.
It came slowly, but it gradually began to dissipate, revealing the room around her.
It was a massive chamber with a tall ceiling and a large, circular table situated in the center. A crackling hearth near one end put off a glowing heat, and it seemed to build. The Ashara dular stood near the fire, seemingly growing stronger.
He used the heat.
She’d been thinking this was nothing more than a dular. After the attack on Raollet’s shop, that was what she’d believed, but after seeing him standing in front of the fire—and seemingly growing more potent—she was left with only one real possibility.
This wasn’t a dular.
It was one of the Ashara.
Like Eva.
It made a certain sort of sense. Eva had always sat by the fire after she had used considerable power. Jayna had thought it was only to push back the humidity, but she realized now that Eva had used that heat and energy to restore herself, filling herself back up with the fire of the Ashara.
Master Agnew had put the table in between him and the Ashara. He had on a long, flowing, maroon robe, and he held his hands out, twisting many complicated patterns to form power that he pushed toward the Ashara, keeping the smoke at bay.
“You don’t need to do this,” Jayna said, keeping her attention on the Ashara.
Master Agnew swept a quick flick of the wrist toward her, but wrapped as she was in the energy of the dragon stone ring, it bounced harmlessly off the barrier.
Well, not quite harmlessly.
Jayna was forced back a step, and she gritted her teeth, glaring at Master Agnew. Didn’t he know she was helping?
It wasn’t as if Master Agnew didn’t know her. He had seen her in the city working with Char, and he knew she was only trying to help. Gods, she had helped save the city, even.
“Sorcerer,” the Ashara snapped.
“Yes. He is a sorcerer. I am not.”
The Ashara didn’t turn toward her.
Jayna needed to do something different, but she had no idea if she had enough strength to stop the Ashara. Seeing him standing in front of the fire, pulling the energy off of it as the smoke billowed behind her, she began to worry that she might not be able to pull enough smoke out of the air.
She had to call Ceran.
Maybe he would answer, maybe not, but she needed to try. She focused on the dragon stone and pushed through it, trying to create a pulsing of energy.
Master Agnew looked in her direction, frowning.
Another whipcrack of power streaked toward her from Agnew.
Jayna braced, holding on to the energy within her, and prevented his power from striking, solidifying the barrier just in time to keep him from harming her.
“I’m trying to help you,” she snapped at him. Turning back to the Ashara, she focused on the smoke, trying to draw some of that into her ring. “You don’t need to do this. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, and I don’t know why you’re attacking, but he’s not your enemy.”
“Sorcerer,” the Ashara repeated.
Jayna took a deep breath, and using the dragon stone augmented by the bloodstone, she called power to her. She summoned as much as she could, siphoning off the smoke, and squeezed it down into the ring.
It cleared the room just a moment, but long enough for her to turn her attention to the Ashara and ignore Master Agnew. He was there, she could feel his power, but she needed to avoid him focusing on her. She had to solidify the barrier, and there might be one way for her to do it.
She pushed outward, expanding the energy she held, squeezing it out between her and Master Agnew, and settling it in between them and the Ashara.
The Ashara turned and sent smoke streaking toward her. Jayna absorbed it, pulling it into her.
“No,” she said. “Whatever you’re doing isn’t going to work. I’m not trying to harm you. I just need to know. My name is Jayna Aguelon. Who are you?”
She needed to work with him.
Especially if he was like Eva.
He could provide answers she didn’t have.
The Ashara turned to her, looking at her for the first time, and there was a moment of uncertainty in his eyes. She recognized that uncertainty, as she had seen the same look in Eva’s eyes.
“Asaran Rasolth.”
She nodded to him. “We can work together.”
Power began to build again, and it came from Master Agnew.
Asaran turned his attention to him now, his dark brow furrowing, and smoke streaked outward. The smoke continued to build, swirling toward her with the same sort of violence he had used on her before. Each ti
me he attempted to assault her with that smoke, Jayna reached for it, using the bloodstone to pull it off and tamp it down. He continued to call upon more and more power as he stood at the fire, using its heat and energy to his advantage. She had to find something to overwhelm the Ashara, though she didn’t know if there was anything more she could pull upon to do so.
“I’m not trying to hurt you.”
He looked past her and started toward Agnew. Jayna attempted to use power through the Toral ring, but a burst of energy struck her and she was thrown back.
Asaran glanced in her direction, his gaze lingering on her briefly, before he turned again toward Agnew.
He was going to harm the sorcerer.
Jayna didn’t know Agnew very well, only what Char had told her. She’d had just a few interactions with him in the time she’d been in Nelar, but it was enough for her to know he had helped. Without him, the fires in the homes of the seven dular would have caused total destruction and burned the houses to the ground.
She needed to help him now. Whether or not he would react poorly because she was no longer a sorcerer, she didn’t know, but she knew she had to call upon more energy. The dragon stone could help.
Jayna tried calling on that power, but it came slowly.
She looked down at her ring. The smoke she’d been calling into the bloodstone had filled it, giving it a murky appearance again, but the most recent attempt at drawing off the smoke had changed something. Jayna could feel that smoke had flowed into the bloodstone.
She grabbed her pouch and found the one that the girl from the market had given her. She focused on it, triggering it, then tossed it toward Asaran.
When the enchantment struck, it blasted, striking him and tossing him back toward the fire, but it also struck Agnew. The shock of the waves of energy slammed into both of them.
Agnew had erected some sort of barrier around himself, though Jayna suspected it wouldn’t be enough to withstand Asaran coming toward him. Still, it wasn’t even that which troubled her. Power radiated toward the fire, toward the heat that fueled him.
As he landed in a crumpled heap near the fire, Jayna reached into her pouch to grab another enchantment. If she could focus on Asaran, if she could use that blast and get him away from the fire . . .
She triggered the enchantment, then tossed it, sending it near Asaran’s feet.
She waited, but this time, the blast didn’t strike the way she had expected.
That was odd.
Jayna took a step forward, heading toward Asaran to see if he was going to get up, then the blast struck, tossing her back and slamming her into a wall.
She got up slowly. Her head was ringing. She shook herself off.
When she looked over to the fire, Asaran was gone.
The blast should have tossed him away from the flames and the hearth, but she found nothing as she swept her gaze around the inside of the room, looking for him.
She did notice a little bit of smoke, a tracing of energy to suggest he might have disappeared, but nothing else.
Sorcery built, and Jayna turned to see Agnew standing, hands twisting in a complicated pattern.
“You don’t need to do that,” she said. “I was just trying to—”
The blast of wind started to strike.
Jayna reached for power, calling it through the dragon stone. The energy flowed out and around her, creating a buffer against the wind. It was barely enough for her to withstand the force of Agnew’s blow.
“You dular would dare come in here and attack me?” Agnew had a thin, creaky voice.
She knew he was old. Even in the Academy, there were stories about Agnew and his age, mostly said in jest, but not always. He had been situated in Nelar for decades, his post one where he had felt he could offer the most help to the people and serve the Society. It was part of the reason Char had been so eager to work with Agnew, wanting the opportunity to spend that time with somebody who had such experience and knowledge. And now this ancient sorcerer was angry with Jayna.
“I’m not a dular,” she said.
She had to focus on the power within her, holding on to the barrier. Through the dragon stone augmented by the bloodstone, she thought she could hold out, that she could withstand any attack he might make, but using the bloodstone to draw the smoke off had weakened the ring enough that she wasn’t sure if she could. She felt a strange resistance through the ring that limited her ability to call upon its power.
“Dular,” he sneered. “I saw what you were both trying to use on me.”
“Both?”
She frowned, cocking her head to the side, and regarded Agnew for a long moment. Did he really think she had been using enchantments, and that Asaran had been using an enchantment? Could he really not have known that he was an Ashara?
He might not. Knowing what she did of the sorcerers, along with his fear of the dular . . .
A blast of power struck her.
This was a lance of light, pale white and streaking toward her. Jayna reacted as quickly as she could, creating a spiral of power around her and pushing downward with as much energy as she could through the dragon stone, but she couldn’t draw as much as she needed, forcing her to use a hint of sorcery. The combination created a bit more of a barrier and had thankfully secured it around her, holding steady.
When his lance of light struck, it sizzled, then began to creep around the barrier, reminding her so much of the way Asaran had constricted around her barrier earlier.
She pulled on power, borrowing from the dragon stone and the bloodstone. She needed that additional strength. She continued to constrict that power, sending it through the ring, forcing as much out of her as she could. The light that Agnew had forced upon her started to squeeze, twisting up and around her barrier, snaking around it no differently than Asaran had snaked around it. The energy he used was forceful and violent, and she had to find some place deep within her in order to withstand it.
She had to fight, but she didn’t know if she had enough power. She knew she could still push though, and she had to tamp down the smoke within the bloodstone to draw more energy through the dragon stone. That would hopefully be enough to give her access to greater power once again.
It was difficult to do so while holding on to the protection around her, but Jayna forced her attention to split, and she focused on the smoke within the bloodstone, compressing it. As she felt it starting to shift, she jammed power all the way through it.
The combination of power finally freed her.
Power filled her, flowing more intensely through the dragon stone once again, and barely in time.
Agnew strode toward her, and another one of his lances of light that snaked out and around her barrier had erupted, starting at her feet, and now the two beams of light were working around her, twisting and trying to squeeze against the power she held. Agnew then sent a beam of yellow light streaking across the floor, once again starting to twist around her barrier.
“The dular have gotten away with far too much in this city for far too long,” he said.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. The dular haven’t—”
Agnew didn’t give Jayna a chance to finish. Yet another beam streaked out from him.
He was powerful, and he used blasts that were designed to overwhelm, limiting her ability to react. Jayna tried to thrash at him, struggling to fight against the energy he poured at her, but she couldn’t.
The only thing she could do was attempt to hold out and try to increase her resistance, but even that became more of a struggle.
He continued to force power upon her.
She reached into her pouch. She didn’t want to fight Agnew, but at the same time, she wasn’t about to let him hurt her. She slipped out one of the concussive enchantments, activating it while she did, and it exploded.
Agnew wrapped a shell of power around it, somehow absorbing the enchantment.
That’s impressive.
She’d seen sorcerers using
considerable power before, but having that kind of control, being able to wrap that energy so quickly around the enchantment, especially one like that, impressed her.
Here she thought Agnew had only been a healer. This kind of magic was far more potent than what she had expected from him.
She had to be careful. She figured she could get past him, but doing so would involve her using the kind of power she wasn’t interested in using. She didn’t want to blast him and risk harming him. All she wanted was to keep him from further attacking her.
And now that Asaran was gone, Jayna really had no reason to even stay here.
Another blast streamed out from him.
It was followed by another, then another.
Agnew used a quick series of powerful blasts, and each one began to swirl around her feet. Jayna forced them down, holding on to the dragon stone, using the power of the bloodstone through it, and tried to penetrate the restriction that he used around her, but the energy within it was far too much. As it constricted around her, Jayna tried to force her way back, attempting to push him down, but she could not.
He came toward her. “You will see what we do to the dular,” he sneered at her.
Jayna looked back. She needed to get out of here.
The doorway wasn’t very far from her, and was close enough that she thought all she had to do was back away from Agnew. She tried reaching into her pouch, but suddenly couldn’t move. She cried out.
There had to be something she could do.
The power that filled her wasn’t going to be enough. She struggled with it, trying to call upon the energy of the dragon stone ring, using her Toral magic, but Agnew was right there. He pressed up toward her, then he began to make a pattern around her.
He worked quickly, especially for a man of his age, but then, this was a powerful sorcerer.
Jayna strained against his attack. Nothing she could use was enough, not even her connection to the dragon stone.
Agnew was there, right in front of her, and he continued to circle around her. As he did, he poured power out from him, letting it slip toward Jayna, sliding up and around her, somehow cutting her off from sorcery.
Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer Book 3) Page 20