A City in Ruin (The Dark Sorcerer Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I don’t know. If what Matthew said was right, then we have to find some way of destroying them.” There was a part of Jayna that was uncertain about whether destroying them was the right thing. They could be useful. Would they be losing something that might benefit them in the future? She sighed, shaking her head again. “I don’t even know if Matthew was right about—”

  “Matthew was right about what?”

  Jayna spun, seeing Matthew sitting at a table near her. “Dammit, Matthew. You really have to stop doing that.”

  Matthew grinned at her, and he got up, carrying his chair over and setting it down next to Jayna. He nodded to Topher, then to Eva. “I’m Matthew Varen. I’ve known Jayna for a long time. Practically since she was a child.”

  Topher started to smile. “Really? What was she like?”

  “Troublesome. She always wanted to follow me around. I think she had a crush on me when she was younger. Probably still does.”

  “I’m quite sure I never had a crush on you,” Jayna said.

  Matthew chuckled, then regarded Topher for a moment, his brow furrowing, but when he turned to Eva, he stared. His eyes seemed to shimmer for just a moment. What enchantment did he carry that would do that? If there was one thing she knew about her brother and Matthew, it was that they enjoyed their enchantments when it helped them complete their jobs more easily.

  “What is it?” Jayna asked.

  “I just thought I saw . . .” He shook his head. “Probably nothing. It’s an interesting group you have here, Jayna.”

  “It is,” she said.

  “You know, I know people throughout the city.”

  She turned to him. “Is that right?”

  “I even know somebody who’s an administrator at the outpost.”

  “So?”

  “So I sent word about a Char.”

  Jayna shrugged. “So?”

  “And so this Char is at the outpost, but I think he would be a bit disappointed to know you were using his name.”

  Jayna breathed out slowly, watching Matthew. “What are you getting on about?”

  “Nothing, I suppose. What are you doing in the city?” Matthew asked. “And why do you want me to believe you’re with the Society when you’re clearly not?”

  Jayna looked over to Eva, who had bit her lower lip softly. A bit of smoke streamed around her mouth. Topher sat back, obviously clueless.

  “It’s complicated,” she said.

  “Complicated. If you tell me you’re here because of your brother, that’s complicated. I can tell you Jonathan is not in the city. If anything, he’s probably in some coastal prison where you can’t reach him. But you being here and asking about some sorcerer and their involvement with your brother is more interesting than it is complicated. Strange, too.”

  “It’s not strange,” Jayna said.

  “Maybe you’d care to tell me what you’re really doing here. Maybe you’d care to tell me what is going on with these bloodstones.”

  There were two ways she could go about this: She could deny her true intention to Matthew, pushing him away, or she could try to bring him in. Matthew could be a valuable ally, despite her preference otherwise. He was smart. Clever. And with his history, he might be able to strategize in ways Jayna just wasn’t able to.

  “I’m here to stop a dangerous attack,” she said. “I work outside of the Academy, but still with them.”

  “Is that right?” A grin spread across Matthew’s face.

  “You can believe me or not. If you want to ask around, you can check into the seven men who were attacked in Nelar about three months ago. There was a strange ceremony that was nearly completed. I stopped it.”

  Matthew frowned. “That was you.”

  She grunted. He’d heard about it. “That was me.”

  “And you’re still in Nelar because . . .”

  “Because the threat to the city isn’t over.”

  “I see. And it has to do with bloodstones?”

  “Somehow,” she said.

  “I warned you about them. Something like that is bound to start a war.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, if the wrong person got a hold of them, it wouldn’t take much to unsettle the power structure in the city.”

  “I don’t see where you’re going with this,” Jayna said.

  Was he offering a possible answer? Or was he hinting at something he wanted her to know? What if Matthew were involved?

  She had no idea how long he’d been in the city, and he had managed to sneak up on her repeatedly, so she might not have been aware of him even if he had been here for a while.

  “Who would have the most to gain by eliminating the current structure in the city?” Matthew asked.

  “Why would anybody have anything to gain?” Topher asked.

  “Because this is a unique place. In most cities, the dular don’t have as much authority as they do here,” Matthew said.

  “The Society wouldn’t have done this,” Jayna said.

  “Are you so sure?”

  She leaned back, touching her pocket where the bloodstones were, and frowned.

  She wasn’t. And that was part of the problem.

  That theory didn’t account for everything though.

  It didn’t account for what Ceran had warned her about. He thought there was something more taking place, some aspect of it that was tied to the twelve followers of Sarenoth.

  But maybe the bloodstones were a part of both situations.

  Help the sorcerers. Create a war between the Society and the dular.

  And inside of that darkness, the twelve would sow the discord that would help free Sarenoth.

  18

  Jayna wasn't exactly sure where to begin. Rosal's father might be involved in bringing bloodstone to the city, and she would have to go to him to learn the truth from him. But there was something else that bothered her.

  Dark magic.

  She kept coming back to that.

  The man who had attacked her in the street had shifted her linking spell.

  No dular could do that.

  “Jayna?”

  She looked up and flashed a tight smile at Matthew. “You don’t have to stay here,” she said to him.

  “I know,” he agreed.

  “The rest of us have something we need to be working on.”

  Matthew continued to frown at her, and while she couldn’t read anything on his expression, she knew him well enough and long enough that she understood he was concerned for her.

  She forced another smile. “You don’t need to worry about me, Matthew.”

  “What if I need to worry about myself? My job in Nelar isn’t finished,” he explained, “and whatever is going on here might take precedent over that.” He shrugged again. “With what you’ve got going on, I can’t help but feel as if I need to be involved.”

  “You don’t need to be involved,” Jayna said.

  She could feel Eva watching her, a bit of smoke swirling out and around her mouth still, drifting from where she bit her lip and floating away.

  The rest of the tavern was almost muted, but not completely silent. Jayna didn’t know if the tavern was ever really silent, but it seemed that as her mind raced through everything she had to deal with, she couldn’t help but feel like everything pressed around her, quieting the entirety of the tavern.

  “What have you gotten yourself into?” Matthew asked.

  “Nothing you need to worry about,” she said.

  He forced a smile, grinning at her, then nodding to Eva and even to Topher. “So this is your team, then? The three of you intend to stop whatever is taking place in the city?”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time,” Jayna said.

  “Maybe not, but now you have to deal with bloodstones that might explode on you if they’re enchanted. They can explode even if they're not.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Bloodstones are unstable. I thought you knew that. They are da
ngerous. They don't need enchantments to be activated.” Jayna looked over to Eva, thinking about what she had said about the warehouse and the bloodstone she had found. “The explosion will use the power of the bloodstone,” Matthew went on. “All it takes is a trigger, not all that different from an enchantment.”

  Jayna squeezed her eyes shut. This was more complicated than she had intended it to be.

  “We could use the help,” Eva said.

  Jayna shot her a look. Eva was the last person she would’ve expected to have spoken up and agreed to accept additional help.

  “Are you sure? I know you don’t like trusting other people,” Jayna said.

  “He’s not just some ‘other people,’ is he?” Eva asked. She looked at Matthew, watching him, and the smoke that swirled out of her drifted away again, floating toward Matthew as if she were using some of her magic on him. “This is somebody you know.”

  Jayna nodded slowly. “I knew him. Once. I don’t know how much we can trust him with what we’ve got going on.”

  “Is he capable?” Eva asked.

  Jayna looked at Matthew, frowning at him. “Most of the time.”

  “Are you just going to keep talking about me as if I’m not sitting here?” Matthew asked, leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest.

  “I might need to,” Jayna said. “Besides, you are an unknown entity. At least when it comes to this.”

  “I may be an unknown entity when it comes to the kind of thing you’re going to do, but I’m not an unknown entity to you.”

  Part of the problem was that he was right, and so was Eva. They had too much going on for her to push aside any additional help. In order to find the bloodstones, figure out what was happening in the city, and ensure they finished the job before anything worse took place, they might need additional support.

  She just didn’t like the idea of including Matthew, somebody who knew her from before she had joined the Academy, and she didn’t like the idea that he would potentially report on her to her brother, whenever he revealed himself.

  In her mind, when Jonathan returned, things would get back to . . . What, then?

  She didn’t even know. Ceran would send her on another mission. Perhaps beyond the city. Jayna wouldn't mind. She was ready to leave the city. And she needed to track down more information about Gabranth to try to understand more about her brother's involvement with him.

  “Fine.” She scooted back and got to her feet.

  “That’s it?” Matthew asked, looking at the others. “It’s been decided?”

  “As decided as it can be,” Jayna said. “We need to find the bloodstones, but we need a way to track them.”

  “You think you have a way,” Eva said.

  Jayna nodded. “It’s not one I necessarily like, but the sorcerers might be able to help.”

  Matthew started to laugh. “Now you want sorcerers’ assistance?”

  “I’m never not wanted their help,” Jayna said. She glanced to Eva, then to Topher. “We’re going to the outpost.”

  “It’s late,” Eva said.

  “I realize it’s late, and I realize Char might not be eager for me to wake him again, but for this . . .”

  “How do you know this is something you even need to do now?” Matthew asked.

  Topher smiled at him.

  She really needed to figure out what was going on with Topher to get him the help he needed. There were times when he seemed completely normal—helpful, even—then there were other times when he was like this, little more than a simpleton who bobbed his head in agreement with everything.

  “I don’t know. Things are starting to come to a head, aren’t they? The merchant tax. The bloodstones in the city. Even my attack,” Jayna said.

  “It’s been my experience that if somebody intends to make any sort of move, they do so after they’ve sown chaos on a grand scale,” Matthew said.

  “Unless whatever move they intend to make has been delayed,” Jayna said.

  He frowned at her. “Delayed?”

  “If, such as in this case, the bloodstone was stolen, and whatever plan they intended all along was thwarted, things might have shifted.”

  She continued trying to piece together the puzzle, but some things didn’t quite fit. She’d seen the wagon, so she knew what Rosal had told her about it was true. She believed there were some people within the city who intended to attack, but what reason would they have?

  And maybe it really was nothing more than what Matthew had implied—nothing more than an attempt to unseat the dular. However, if that were the case, she still needed to go to the Society to warn them, though Jayna didn’t know what they might do in response.

  She got up and headed to the door of the tavern, glancing back when she reached it and nodding to Robert. Eva got to her feet, and Topher followed her.

  The only one who didn’t come with her was Matthew. He watched for a moment, taking a long drink of ale before shaking his head, muttering something to himself, and following.

  Once outside, in the street beyond the Wicked Pint, he caught up to her. “I just ask that you listen to my advice from time to time. This could get dangerous, Jayna, and I’m going to help you as best as I can. There are certain things you don’t know.”

  There was a time when Matthew’s warnings might have made a difference to her. That had been when her brother was around. Maybe even after she’d gone to the Academy. Now . . . she understood things differently—especially after what she’d seen the last few months.

  Jayna shared a look with Eva for a moment before nodding to him. “If things get strange, I’ll be sure to take your advice,” she said.

  “Why do I get the sense you’re mocking me?”

  “I’m not mocking. I really will take your advice.”

  “Good.”

  He glanced at the others before turning his attention back to Jayna.

  She ignored him as she marched through the street.

  She focused on what she could feel through the linking spell, the power that had bonded her and Char, using that energy to detect the presence of her friend. As far as she could tell, he was at the outpost.

  She didn’t expect anything otherwise, though. Char generally stayed at the outpost, but what she really worried about was what would happen if she suddenly appeared there and made a claim about the bloodstone. What she really worried about was where Char’s allegiance lies.

  The air was even more humid than usual, but there was a hint of smoke on it.

  “Are you sure you put the fire out?” she asked Eva.

  Eva shot her a look. “I am.”

  “I shouldn’t question you,” Jayna said. “It’s just that if those fires are so difficult to put out and—”

  “The fire is out,” Eva said. “Like the other I found.”

  Topher bobbed his head in a quick nod. “She put it out. It was pretty impressive. I tried getting help, but by the time I got back there, Eva had already extinguished the fires.”

  Another attack. Another fire. And for what?

  They had put them out so far, but what would happen if the people responsible for the using the bloodstone suddenly decided to shift their approach? What would happen if they suddenly decided to release a dozen different bloodstone attacks at one time?

  The city would be destroyed.

  She didn’t have any real obligation to Nelar—other than it being where she lived now—but she did have a concern about the intention behind the attack, a suspicion about the motivation. She didn’t know for sure, but she suspected it was tied to something with the twelve followers and their intention to free Sarenoth.

  Every so often, she reached into her pocket, grabbed one of the bloodstones, then squeezed it. She could feel the power within it, but didn’t know why.

  They had soon reached the sorcerers’ outpost, situated on the outskirts of the city, closer to the capital. It was almost as if the Society intended to stay distant enough so they wouldn’t draw any extra att
ention from within the city. The low wall surrounding the outpost served as a bit of a barrier to the city, as did the enchantments and power that pressed out from within it. Jayna hadn’t been here since they had stopped the Celebrants of Asymorn, but not much had changed.

  She looked at the others, and found Eva staring off into the distance. A bit of smoke still trailed around her, though it was faint, drifting away.

  “Wait here,” Jayna said to the others.

  “If you’re going to sneak in, I’ll go with you,” Matthew offered.

  He pulled the hood of his cloak up, and as soon as he did, he started to blend in with the night. She suspected he had an enchantment to facilitate that, and might even have other enchantments on him.

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “You’re not a thief,” he whispered, pulling her aside, away from the others. “I know Jonathan worked with you quite a bit and trained you to avoid detection and watch for somebody tailing you, but I’ve observed you in the city, Jayna. You aren’t a thief.” He flicked his gaze to the building. “You may have some power, but you’re talking about breaking into the sorcerers’ outpost. This is a place of tremendous power, a place even I wouldn’t normally dare to enter.”

  Jayna looked at him. He flashed with energy, and something more. She couldn’t quite place it. It seemed to be more than just the power she would’ve expected from an enchantment.

  “I’m not breaking into the Sorcerers’ Society outpost,” she said.

  Matthew crossed his arms over his chest, watching her. “You’re not.”

  “I’m not. I’m going to alert a friend of mine and ask him to come out to us.”

  “I see.”

  “Are you sure? Because if you want to prompt him to come out, then you certainly can, but I don’t know if that’s going to be a good use of your time. I mean, you are a skilled thief, after all.”

  “If you don’t want my help, you don’t have to take it,” Matthew muttered.

  She patted him on the shoulder. “I’m just teasing you, Matthew. I appreciate your help.”

  “Fine,” he said, turning back. When he reached Eva, he shook his head. “Is she always like that?”