A City in Ruin (The Dark Sorcerer Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Magic.

  Surges of fire exploded, one after another, and metal clanged against metal as soldiers slammed into each other, swords battering off of mail, arrows streaking through the air, embedding into the flesh of men who then fell. Sorcerers used spells that blasted large swaths of the ground, leaving people scattered, bodies flying. Through it all came a strange fire that burned, snaking across the ground.

  She had seen that fire before. It was the same fire that had been used on her, the same fire that had been used within the market.

  “Where are we?” she asked Ceran.

  “You don’t think you are in the kingdom any longer?”

  Jayna shook her head. “It’s dark in the kingdom. Wherever you have brought me is not dark.”

  “I would argue this violence is quite dark,” he said.

  Jayna could only stare.

  Her attention was drawn to one of the sorcerers, a man who wore the flowing black robe of the Society. Sorcerers in all lands were part of the Society. She was taught that very early on during her time in the Academy, such that she believed that even the sorcerer, filled as he was with power, was part of the Academy—but why would he be using his power in this violent manner?

  She watched him as he held his hands out from him, as a spell built between his fingers—a massive flaming ball of fire—then he twisted, sending that ball of flame spiraling out and rolling away. It looked as if he had no concern for whom or what it struck, and the flames rolled forward, tossing through the bodies, ripping across the plains, leaving people dead and charred and injured.

  There were other sorcerers. She could feel their magic. It was a strange thing for her to be so deeply attuned to, but as she stood there, leaning on the rocky ledge, looking down upon what happened below her, she couldn’t help but feel that shifting energy and the powerful magic that existed.

  “How many sorcerers are here?”

  “A dozen,” he said. “And they fight on either side.”

  “They shouldn’t be fighting each other,” she said.

  “No,” he said. “It’s my understanding the Society would prefer to keep their people working together.”

  It had been her experience that the Society worked together to ensure fighting didn’t occur between members. A battle between sorcerers, especially a dozen of them, would be a violent and bloody affair. Jayna grasped that fully after seeing the energy and brutality down beneath her. She recognized that power and couldn’t stop herself from wanting to intervene.

  “Don’t,” he said.

  “I couldn’t do anything anyway.”

  “You would be surprised.”

  “Why did you show me this? Is it because of the fire down there?”

  “That is part of it.”

  “What other reason?”

  “What have I asked you to do, Jayna Aguelon?”

  “Well, other than continuing my search for Celebrants of Asymorn, looking for dark sorcerers, keeping my eyes open for dark creatures, I suppose not much?”

  Ceran watched her, and she sensed a feeling of amusement from him, but she wasn't sure if she had imagined it.

  “And what have you uncovered?”

  Jayna shook her head. “I only found a few of the Celebrants. Not nearly as many as I know are out there.”

  “That’s not surprising. They are masters at concealing their presence. And now that you know of their existence, they will be far more motivated to remain concealed.”

  “You’ve been teaching me to look for dark sorcerers.” It wasn’t what she had expected to be doing; she had believed she would be after dark creatures, not dark sorcerers—at least, not so soon.

  “It is part of the reason you are valuable. You did well.”

  “Against Asymorn’s followers.”

  “He is but one who wants to release the dark.” He smiled tightly, turning to her, but she still couldn’t see his face. “You have been working with me for the better part of the year, Jayna Aguelon, and in that time, I have taught you much.”

  Jayna started to laugh, shaking her head. “You’ve barely taught me anything. You’ve given me the ring, and you’ve assigned me tasks to gather creatures and stop those who have dark magic, but you’ve done nothing beyond that.”

  “Nothing? Perhaps it is time I change that.” He frowned at her. “What have you discovered of the ring?”

  “Only that it provides power.”

  “Does it only provide it?”

  She looked down at the smooth stone ring. “What are you going on about?”

  “The ring, Jayna.”

  “It can take power as well?”

  He looked out toward the fighting. “It is a defense against what you might face. You can summon that power away. Store it. Then release it.” He waved his hand and a cloud of dark energy swirled. “Try.”

  She focused before shaking her head. “I can’t.”

  “We don’t have time for these delays,” he muttered. He stretched out two long fingers and tapped her on the forehead. When he did, there came a surge of energy that ripped across her forehead, a flash of painful knowledge, and she cried out.

  For a moment, she wasn’t sure what happened. Jayna had no idea whether crying here, out in the open like this, risked her in any way. She had no idea whether this place actually existed or was simply a vision, but she knew the pain that flared deep within her was real. That energy exploded, more than what she could withstand.

  Something happened then.

  She could feel the energy within the dragon stone ring. It was almost as if that energy were trying to pulse within her finger, as if some part of it were throbbing against her. It was different from the feeling she had when Ceran summoned her, and different from the energy she felt when he had first instructed her, but it was still painful.

  The energy coming from the dragon stone ring flared, the Toral magic flowing through her, washing over her. With it came a burst of power, along with something that struck her as understanding, and she knew how to call off dark power.

  Why hadn't he shown her that before?

  Unless there was nothing she could have done until now.

  She had changed. When she had tapped into the power of the ring as fully as she had while facing Gabranth, she had acknowledged something different—power she had tried to avoid.

  Cold worked through her as she started to draw upon the power of the Toral ring. It began in her finger, working up her arm, into her chest, then suddenly filled her.

  That power eased. Ceran withdrew his hand and stepped away from her.

  “What was that about?” Jayna asked.

  “That was about me sharing with you something you needed to understand.”

  The pain continued to throb within her, and she looked around, still aware of the battle raging below her. It was a strange thing for her to be standing here on this rocky ledge, talking with Ceran, feeling the magic and energy as it stormed around her, while she was completely unharmed, completely separate from what took place nearby.

  “You didn’t teach me anything,” she said again.

  He turned away. “I have taught you what you need to know. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been the time I would have preferred for you to be ready.”

  “Ready for what?”

  “For the darkness that is to come. This is about more than Asymorn.” He nodded down into the clearing. “Do you see the man standing off to the side?”

  Jayna frowned, watching for a moment. There didn’t seem to be somebody standing near the edge of the battleground. She hadn’t noticed at first, but as she looked closer, she saw somebody dressed in deep maroon robes, seemingly a sorcerer, with a long, hooked staff clenched in his hand. The battle waged around him. Every so often, a streak of flame would come toward him, but he simply tipped the staff toward it, and the flame deflected, veering into one side of the battle or another. It appeared to her that he didn’t seem to care which way the flame went, nor did he seem to care who was injured a
s the battle continued.

  “I see him,” Jayna said.

  “What do you see?”

  It was difficult for her to see anything from across the distance. The haze in the air—the magic flowing, she thought—made it so she couldn’t see anything very easily, but there was more to it than that: The man had power swirling around him. As she focused, she could practically see it. It reminded her a bit of the smoke Eva used, but this power was not quite the same, despite swirling in a pattern similar to Eva’s. This was visible power.

  “Why can I see it?”

  “The better question is why the others cannot.”

  He nodded to the other sorcerers, and as Jayna swept her gaze around, she realized none of them were paying any mind to the sorcerer who stood off to the side, the battle raging near him.

  A burst of flame jumped from one sorcerer, streaking across the battlefield, where another sorcerer caught it and flipped it back out. It bounced around the battlefield, one sorcerer to another, as if they were playing some game with a massive ball of fire. Finally, it landed, striking in the middle of the battleground, exploding outward. The men who were caught by that burst of flame were tossed back and away. No one seemed to care who was caught in their game—all they cared about was tossing the power around.

  “You see it, don’t you?” he asked.

  “They don’t know he’s here.” Jayna stared at the magic swirling around him, and realized that the same sort of magic swirled around them. “He’s here like we are.”

  “Not quite like we are. I have masked our presence.”

  “He won’t know we’re here?”

  “He is a bit preoccupied instigating this.”

  “Who is he?”

  “One of the twelve. The others have started to move as well. I think our time grows short.”

  “Have all escaped?”

  “Not all. Not yet. Enough of them have. When they are all freed, the challenge in containing the one they serve grows greater.”

  “Whom do they serve?”

  They had stopped Asymorn, yet they had not—not really. He had escaped. Jayna had seen just how powerful he was, and she had seen just how difficult that power was for her to stop. She knew she would struggle if she were to have to face him again. The kind of power Asymorn possessed was greater than any dark sorcerer she had ever encountered before. He had very nearly killed her. It had taken everything within her—including accepting some darkness at the fringe of her awareness and reaching into something that terrified her—for her to have any chance of slowing him.

  “I had hoped to keep it from you longer than this, but unfortunately, that is not to be. It is a sign of the change in the world, power that continues to shift and evolve, energy that has grown.”

  “That is still not an answer,” she said. “You said you were preoccupied while I was dealing with Gabranth. Is this why?”

  He looked over, watching her for a long moment, as if debating whether to share anything more with her.

  “The one they serve is named Sarenoth. He is the darkness. He is the destroyer.”

  Jayna looked over to Ceran, watching him. “I’ve not heard of Sarenoth before.”

  “It’s a name long forgotten. There was a time when many in these lands knew the name Sarenoth, and all who did feared it. There were thirteen who served him, thirteen who vied for his attention, all of them wanting to be his favored one, but they were captured, one by one, and placed into an eternal prison.”

  Like Asymorn.

  That fit the stories Eva remembered, what little she could recall. “There are twelve, I thought.”

  “There were,” Ceran said. “Yet when they were captured, one managed to evade captivity. None know what happened to him. The Sul’toral searched for him throughout the ages, looking for any sign of his power, but have uncovered nothing.”

  “Now what?”

  “Now the twelve have begun to return.” Ceran shook his head, his cloak keeping his face covered. “We suspect he has always been active, always searching for the keys to unleash the twelve.”

  “Asymorn?”

  “He is one of the twelve, though I do not know if he managed to escape. I still don't know. I have been searching, but it remains opaque.” He nodded to the sorcerer in the distance. “The sorcerer you see there was once known as Inoash.”

  “Are we supposed to stop him, as well?”

  “Eventually,” he said softly. “But that is not for now. I don’t think even you are ready for this, Jayna Aguelon.”

  “If I’m not ready, then how are we to stop them?”

  “As far as I can tell, only three of the twelve have escaped from their eternal prisons. All were incredibly powerful sorcerers at the time of their imprisonment, and for them to have escaped and survived for as long as they have suggests some plan is nearing fruition.”

  “If I’m not able to stop them, then why show me this?”

  “To show you what I must do.”

  “Fine. That’s what you must do, but what must I do?”

  “I fear there will soon be another,” Ceran said. Power started to swirl around him again, faint streams of it that drifted around, a hazy sort of energy that made it difficult for Jayna to see much of anything around him. “Despite my best efforts, I have begun to suspect that something has changed. And the attack in Nelar is but another beginning.”

  “You think it’s another of these twelve?”

  “I don’t know, but the power is unusual, and there is darkness within it.”

  Jayna stared down at the battlefield. Blasts of power came from the sorcerers targeting soldiers and other sorcerers, though none of the sorcerers managed to harm each other. Men continued to fight and fall, thousands of soldiers crashing together, leaving the battlefield stained with blood and the ash of the fallen. She could feel the energy coming from the sorcerers—the power they were wielding and the way they tossed magic around as if it were nothing. In this place, would there be anything she could even do to stop it?

  “No,” Ceran said, as if knowing her thoughts.

  “I couldn’t intervene?”

  “I would not permit it,” he said.

  “Why not? If you can stop this—”

  “I could not stop him either,” he said, nodding to the distant form of the dark sorcerer. “Inoash is one of the most powerful, and his dark magic is more than I can withstand.”

  “Then we wait?”

  “We gather strength,” Ceran said. “Or rather, I gather strength. You, on the other hand, must ensure the others do not escape from their prisons.”

  “So you want me to stay in Nelar.”

  “There is something about the city you must uncover. I'm not sure what it is, but not only Asymorn was drawn there. There might be others. And you must be ready.”

  “To stop another?” she asked.

  “Perhaps.”

  Ceran took a step back and Jayna followed, but not before it looked as if the sorcerer turned in their direction, looking up to the ridgeline as if he could see them despite the haze of magic over him. Jayna shivered when his dark gaze lingered on her. She felt a buildup of power and a streak of energy that tore through the space between them, as if he were attempting a . . .

  She grabbed Ceran’s arm and threw him backward, reacting by holding up the dragon stone ring and creating the barrier.

  Ceran sprawled on the ground and Jayna rolled over, continuing to hold up the dragon stone ring, calling upon all the power she could, that energy that flowed within her, and she poured it out. The spell the dark sorcerer had tossed in her direction rolled over the barrier she’d created.

  Finally, it eased.

  She got to her feet slowly, backing away from the ridgeline.

  Ceran got to his knees, his hood still covering his face.

  “He saw us,” Jayna said. “And he tried a linking spell.”

  It was a simple spell, but his was incredibly powerful.

  She had used a linking spell
before, and she knew how to create them, but thankfully she also knew how to defend against them.

  “He should not have known we were here,” Ceran said, worry evident in his voice.

  “Maybe he shouldn’t have, but he did. And . . .” Jayna looked behind her. “I don’t know what he knew, but I know he is out there, and his power was pressing toward us.”

  “Then it’s time for us to go,” Ceran said. He got to his feet and held out his arm, waiting for Jayna.

  She took it, then they stepped away, moving free of the ridgeline, when the dragon stone ring began to constrict with tight energy once again. It started to squeeze, compressing her finger and leaving it throbbing. Jayna resisted the urge to fight against it the way she had before. At least this time she understood what was taking place. It was some sort of magical transportation, some sort of spell Ceran wrapped around her, yet as that power consumed her, she couldn’t help but feel as if she needed to fight against it, to battle what he was doing, but she could not.

  Finally, the throbbing eased, backing away, and they stepped once more into the darkened alley. The air was humid, heavy, and it took a moment for Jayna’s breathing to calm again, for her to adjust to the change. Ceran stayed in the shadows.

  “What will you do?” she asked him.

  “I must make other preparations.”

  “For what?”

  “In case you fail.”

  11

  Jayna slowly made her way back along the street, reaching the end of the alley and heading toward the market. Her heart still hammered after what she had seen, and she couldn’t shake the images of the battlefield that had spread out before her, nor could she forget the power she had observed. There were spells that stuck with her. The fireball was a unique one, and surprisingly, it looked to be something Jayna could re-create. She had seen fireballs like that before, and she thought that if she were to hold a particular pattern, twisting her hands just so, she could make one similar in size to the fireball she had observed from where she’d stood.