A City in Ruin (The Dark Sorcerer Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  The buildings had all shifted in appearance, becoming far nicer than they were on the outskirts. Even the moss glowing along the sides of the buildings had been scrubbed free, leaving a faint luminescence, but not enough for her to follow like she would be able to near her home. Most of the buildings were two stories, all made of stone, and spaced more widely apart than in the outer part of the city. Some had walls around what she suspected were gardens, and trees towered over her head. She had come through these sections before. When she had first come to Nelar, Jayna had scouted as much of the city as she could. It was part of her process in trying to understand the city itself, determining whether there was anything she needed to be especially cautious of, and preparing for where dark magic might be within the city. She had gone through all parts of the city, using her dragon stone ring, that connection to the Toral magic, to try to detect any dark magic that might be there, but had found nothing.

  That wasn’t surprising though. There were no dark magic users who would use it openly enough to draw attention to themselves.

  She remembered coming through here before, thinking these homes must have cost more than even her brother could steal.

  And this was where the linking spell had brought her?

  This couldn’t be the right place. That didn’t make any sense.

  Maybe it was off.

  She focused on it, leaning back against one of the narrow walls that looped around a massive home, staying in the shadows. A streetlight in the distance glowed brightly, and she heard the thudding of boots across cobblestones somewhere out there as well, near enough that she suspected soldiers patrolling could find her if she were to linger too long.

  As she focused on the linking spell, she detected the trailing of energy, and realized the spell wasn’t off—whatever was there came from up ahead.

  She moved forward, tracing her hand along the stone. Even the air in this part of the city seemed less humid than on the outskirts near the forest, though that might have been her imagination. Perhaps it was the fact that the moss had been scrubbed free of the stone, a luxury in the outer sections of the city. There it created a layer so thick that she couldn’t even imagine scraping it off, let alone getting the stone as clean as it looked out here. Perhaps they used enchantments, but that seemed a waste of magic to her. Yet in places like this, with buildings spaced as far apart as these were, towering over her the way they did, maybe wasting magic wasn’t their greatest concern. It was possible that all they were concerned about was keeping up appearances.

  She took a deep breath. The air had a floral fragrance to it—sweet, almost pleasing, and so different from the heavy, pungent aroma she had grown accustomed to within Nelar.

  Certainly better than the violence she had smelled when Ceran had carried her outside of the city using his strange magic.

  Jayna stepped more slowly, moving carefully along the road. When she neared one of the streetlights, she hurried into the dark shadows on the other side of the street, moving past the intersection. She caught a brief glimmer of soldiers at the far end of the street, but hoped she had moved quickly enough that they wouldn’t pick up on her presence.

  There were concealment spells she had studied at the Academy, but she had left before she had the opportunity to master them. Her knowledge of sorcery was not that much greater than what it had been when she'd been at the Academy. More specialized, perhaps. Ceran had made sure of that. It was too bad she hadn’t learned some of the more useful types of magic for the kinds of things she was doing, like masking her use of magic or greater healing techniques. Even more potent attack patterns would be beneficial.

  Her own magic through the dragon stone ring wouldn’t conceal her that easily. She might be able to twist it, and having seen what she had with Ceran, she suspected there was some way for her to do so, but that would take time and practice and perhaps a little bit of instruction—things Ceran seemed determined not to give her.

  She paused another moment, pressing her back up against the wall, and focused again on the linking spell. It seemed to glow more brightly in her mind, a surge of energy that suggested she was getting closer to where she had trailed Rosal—but why here?

  The only thing she could think of was that he had somehow been captured.

  Unless he hadn’t been completely honest with her.

  Maybe he was selling his enchantments to somebody here.

  The kind of enchantments he had started to make would have certainly drawn a different clientele. They weren’t all that functional. Instead, they were more decorative, and who else but people from these sections of the city could afford decorative enchantments like that?

  The sense of him still pressed nearby.

  She focused, aware of him distantly, near enough she could feel him drawing her, an awareness that pulled upon her. Jayna moved along the street, staying near the wall, then took a side street. She slipped along an alley, then emerged on a massive, wide courtyard leading up to a home larger than the others—three stories tall, with lights glowing in many of the windows, and ivy creeping along the surface of the stone. The wall surrounding the home itself had to be made of the same stone and was at least eight feet tall, completely scrubbed free of the moss so prevalent within Nelar. There wasn’t even any luminescence along the wall, not like there was on some of the others. That suggested to her that it hadn’t been just scraped, but rather, magic had been used to clean it.

  This was where the linking spell had guided her.

  Jayna studied the home. If Rosal was in there, then she could wait for him to come back out, figuring that he was only there to sell one of his enchantments. Why would he come here after what had happened?

  That fool. Of course, she didn’t know Rosal all that well, but she knew he had been so interested in modifying his enchantments that he had stolen from some unknown merchant.

  Some unknown and violent merchant.

  She wandered along the street, staying as much in the shadows as she could, and patrolled, watching for signs of soldiers. When she caught sight of a pair of soldiers making their way in the distance, she ducked around the corner, hiding until they were gone. She made certain to keep track of the home, watching for any sign that Rosal might come out, but he never did.

  When she’d been there for the better part of an hour, simply waiting, avoiding a total of three patrols, she shook her head.

  She had to go in and get him.

  She took a deep breath, letting it out as she approached the wall. There were too many patrols moving through here. Obviously, given the value of these homes, she suspected that whoever lived here probably paid for their own patrol, adding to and augmenting whatever the city might offer.

  She needed to figure out how to get to Rosal and get on with her research.

  She also was curious. Why was he spending so much time in here?

  When another patrol started to thud toward her in the distance, Jayna grabbed the top of the wall and climbed over.

  She landed on the inside of a magnificent garden. Even in the darkness, Jayna could tell there was something impressive about it. A few lights glowed along pathways that ran through the garden, leading past bells trees with their razor-sharp leaves, shrubs, and beds of flowers. The air smelled differently here. It wasn’t nearly as humid, and the fragrance of the flowers overwhelmed anything else, giving a magnificent aroma to everything.

  She looked over to the main building. Lights glowed in all the windows, and there was a significant presence near the main part of the home. Soldiers were patrolling around the house itself. Strangely, now that she was inside of the garden, the pull from the linking spell guided her in a different direction, away from the house itself.

  That was unexpected.

  Jayna crept along the wall, moving away, following the direction of the linking spell, using it to guide her. It led her to a smaller building that abutted the wall.

  Why hadn’t she felt that before? She backed away, studying the wall for a
moment before realizing there were enchantments within it. That had to be the key.

  Now that she was close to it, she could feel these enchantments. She had no idea of their purpose, but they pressed upon her, creating a vague sort of uneasiness that pushed her away from the wall itself. Whatever was happening meant the power of the enchantments was pushing her away, but it probably also pushed away her ability to detect the linking spell. It was a wonder she had felt it at all.

  But she had felt it.

  Now that she was here, Jayna was certain Rosal was nearby. She followed it, tracing her hand along the wall, then paused. Unlike the massive home, the smaller building had no glowing lights inside. It looked to be completely darkened.

  The building was a single structure. Small. Compact. It had a flat roof, and the same ivy that creeped along the side of the mansion grew up along its side, as well.

  A garden shed, but why would he be here?

  She smiled to herself. He was hiding.

  Rosal had found some place to stay grounded and conceal himself. Why should she be surprised?

  She glanced behind her, looking along the inside of the garden, but didn’t see any other evidence of anybody coming toward her, and she made her way to the simple, brown, wooden doorway with an iron lock.

  Iron would mitigate her magic just a little bit.

  But not the Toral magic. She pressed her hand up against the door before drawing it back, hesitating. The last time she’d blasted through a door like this, it had been unlocked. She wasn’t going to make the same mistake again.

  She tested the handle and found it was not locked.

  She chuckled to herself. Rosal would sneak in here, hide in the garden, then not even lock the door? What kind of foolish ploy was this?

  She pushed the door open.

  A hint of light streamed out—pale, faint, mixed with a bit of haze. Enchanted light.

  She slipped inside, closing the door behind her. She held on to the power through the dragon stone ring, wrapping that around her, prepared for anything.

  What she wasn’t prepared for was the inside of the shed.

  A carpet covered the floor, and a hearth crackled at one end, though she hadn’t seen any smoke drifting from it. Where was it venting? An enormous plush sofa faced the hearth, and there was a table and chairs off to the side, along with a nicer stove than what she had in her home.

  Rosal lounged on the sofa, leaning back, his head rolling off to the side. She hurried to him, checking his neck for a pulse, and he jerked awake, looking over to her.

  “Jayna,” he said, smiling at her. He didn’t even have the sense to be concerned about someone surprising him like this. “You came.”

  “What are you doing here?” she asked, looking around. “Are you hiding here?”

  A faint flush came over him. “I’m not hiding. This . . . this is my home.”

  “This is your home?” She glanced back to the door and frowned. “Are you the gardener?”

  “I’m sure he would be pleased if I were,” Rosal said, shaking his head before turning back to her. “But no. I’m not the gardener. I’m his son.”

  She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. “Whose son? The gardener’s?”

  “I’m sure you saw the house when you came in. Did you come through the gate or over the wall?”

  “Over the wall,” she said carefully.

  Not the gardener’s son.

  The wealthy merchant’s son, the one who owned the home.

  “That was probably for the best. They wouldn’t have let you in at this time of night anyway.”

  “Why don’t you start talking and tell me a little bit about what’s going on here.”

  “I haven’t been completely honest with you.” Rosal sat up and nodded to one of the chairs resting near the table. Jayna grabbed one, dragging it over so she could sit across from him, and she rested her elbows on her knees, staring at him. The chair was a solid oak, heavily lacquered, and more comfortable than it had any right to be. “First about the fact I’m a dular, and then . . .”

  “And then about who you are?”

  “Pretty much,” he said, shrugging. “I wasn’t sure how you’d deal with it. I needed help, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about getting it.”

  “What do you mean you needed help?”

  A sheepish look crossed his face. “Us meeting in the tavern wasn’t exactly chance. I’d gone looking for you. I’d heard you frequented the Wicked Pint, and though I could ask you for help, I didn’t know how you’d answer, so . . .”

  “So what?” Jayna asked.

  “When I saw you, then when you agreed to have a mug of ale with me, I couldn’t help but feel like my luck had finally turned.”

  “You think it was lucky?”

  “Maybe not lucky, but . . . Well, I told you what I had taken. There were some people after me, but I didn't know who. I suspected it was tied to what I had taken. I needed help. I heard someone in the market mention a woman who had helped the dular. It took a while, but I finally came up with your name. And it was even harder for me to find you.”

  “So you came to find me for protection.”

  “I wanted to be safe. They had already tried to target me one other time.” He looked down as he said it.

  “What happened?”

  “I was working my way along the merchant caravan, looking for more of the substrate, when one of the wagons exploded. It almost took me out, but I had an enchantment my father made.”

  Jayna sat back. All of this because of Rosal.

  She sighed. It wasn't that straightforward though. She knew it. He had been attacked, then her home, then the market. While all of that was because of him, the severity of the attacks suggested that whatever Rosal had uncovered was valuable.

  Not only that, but powerful.

  “You told me what you’d taken, and you said it was mostly because you needed enchantments to be more potent.”

  “I did,” he said. He turned his attention to the door. “I don’t have nearly his talent. He has never really understood, and has been frustrated by me. He tells me it’s a matter of just finding the right substrate. I’ve looked. How can I find the right substrate when he limits my access to it?”

  “By ‘his,’ I presume you mean your father?” He nodded. “And the massive mansion back there belongs to him?”

  “My parents. Well, it was my grandfather’s before it was theirs, and our family is sort of well-known for its enchantments. My family was one of the seven founding families within the city.”

  She frowned. “The city is older than the dular.”

  “Well, seven founding families of dular. After the El'aras abandoned the city.” He waved his hand. “They managed to establish a measure of control, and now the seven families run the city.” He said it without any measure of smugness.

  “And what about the outpost? The Society?”

  “My family doesn’t really care for the sorcerers. They tolerate them, but according to my father, there is nothing a sorcerer can do that a particularly skilled dular cannot. He believes that by working together, and exchanging enchantments, any dular could do the exact same thing a sorcerer could.”

  Jayna leaned back in the chair, staring at him. This was all unexpected. “So you were trying to make more potent enchantments in order to impress your father? I’m afraid I don’t fully understand.”

  “Something like that,” he said. “But I also wanted to see if I could do it. You see, my enchantments have never been that impressive. I could really do almost nothing with them.” He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small coin. He squeezed his hand around it, closing his eyes, clenching his jaw. When he opened his hand again, he held it out to her. “Try this.”

  “What is it?”

  “This would be my enchantment without the type of stone I found.”

  She took the enchantment. There was a hint of a pattern across the surface, though it wasn’t very deep, nor very complicate
d. It suggested to her that the enchantment itself wouldn’t be all that complicated or impressive to begin with. She traced her finger along its surface and felt the power within it. She closed her eyes and used a surge of power to trigger it.

  It sparked.

  She could feel it sparkling in her hand, reminding her a little bit of the sparkles she had seen in the sky when Rosal had used his enchantment at the market, but this was less potent.

  She looked over to him. “Your father doesn’t approve?”

  “My father wants me to master something useful. That’s what he always says.” His tone shifted, deepening as he mimicked what Jayna suspected his father must sound like to him. “‘Find something useful. Find something salable. If you can’t do that, then you are of no use to the family.’”

  “That seems harsh.”

  “Harsh or not, it’s what he believes. Which is why I started looking for different substrates. That’s been his lesson to me all along. When I first manifested my ability to create an enchantment when I was ten, it was a matter of trying to find the right substrate. He thought I needed to use something more expensive. I had piles of gold and silver he had me working through when I was much younger. No gold or silver makes any difference in making my enchantments any stronger. We even tried some gemstones, but none of them were all that different, either.”

  “Why would he be willing to risk using gold or silver with an enchantment?”

  “Well, if you place the right enchantment into gold or silver, you increase the value. What might be worth one gold unenchanted, suddenly becomes worth ten times that with the proper enchantment.” He shook his head. “That’s something my family learned early on. My grandfather was very skilled at placing enchantments onto valuable items. He turned value into even more value. He made something rare even rarer.” He sighed. “Others started to copy him over time, but that was how my family built its wealth. All on a trick.”

  Jayna leaned back. She couldn’t imagine placing enchantments on anything valuable. Within the Academy, they talked about needing the right construct for the enchantment, so she understood that finding the substrate, such as he called it, was important in placing the necessary enchantment.