A City in Ruin (The Dark Sorcerer Book 2)
Page 24
Jayna slipped through the courtyard, then around the back of the building. Now that she knew where Char’s room was within the outpost, it was easy for her to loop around and find it. She located the windowsill and pulled herself up, peering inside. The room was darkened, though given the late hour, that wasn’t altogether surprising. Why did everything like this seem to happen at night, in the darkness?
She focused on the linking spell. Before tapping on the window, she wanted to ensure Char still used this room. The last thing she wanted was to awaken some angry sorcerer and have him come chasing her outside. The linking spell trailed in through the window, and it guided her to Char. He was there.
She breathed out and continued to focus on the linking spell between them, then connected to it. There was a hint of power, a deep-seated energy, and she used it the way she had before, tugging on the energy just a little bit.
She tapped on the window.
Jayna dropped down and jogged around the front of the outpost, then waited in the shadows until Char pulled the door open.
He was dressed in long, flowing black robes, and he stared out while rubbing one eye. “Jayna?” he whispered.
“It’s me.”
He stepped out, closing the door behind him and waving a hand over it. He sealed it closed. Did he think she was going to send somebody inside behind her? Or was he concerned about somebody else coming out to see her?
“What are you doing here? Is somebody else injured?” He looked into the darkness, sweeping his head from side to side. “I don’t know how many more people I can help you heal. If this keeps up, the Society has to know what’s happening.”
“Nobody else is injured. At least, not yet,” she said. “I need your help.”
“I gathered that. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.”
He frowned and looked past her out toward the street.
“How many people do you have with you tonight?”
“The same as before,” she said.
“The same?” Char asked. “And by that, you mean the woman who has some strange control over smoke. You know, I’ve been looking into that kind of magic, and I haven’t found anything quite like it before. There are references to smoke magic, but everything is old, and when I tracked through those books, all I could find were references to other works we don’t have at the outpost. I think if I can get back to the Academy, I might be able to find something more useful, and perhaps I could—”
Jayna touched him on the arm, silencing him.
She glanced over her shoulder, wondering just how much of that Eva had heard.
“You don’t want to know about her?” Char asked.
“Eva is my friend,” Jayna said carefully and deliberately. “Whatever secret she intends to keep is hers.”
Why did both Topher and Char want to dig into Eva's secret? They both had different reasons: Topher wanted to because he cared about Eva, and Char wanted to because . . . he might care about Jayna.
“What if it might harm you?”
Jayna looked up at Char. “She’s not going to harm me.”
“Are you sure? I saw that—”
“She is not going to harm me,” Jayna said again. She tapped on his elbow. “Besides, that’s not the reason I’m here. There’s something else I need your help with.”
“And not somebody to be healed?”
“Not exactly.”
Char looked back to the outpost and frowned before turning back to her. “I don’t like this, Jayna. We’ve been dealing with enough as it is, especially with the dular. They’ve been particularly challenging lately, and we’ve even had help sent from the Society to mitigate the danger.”
“You had what?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s more Society business, and you’ve made it clear you have no interest in dealing with Society business.”
“The dular aren’t any trouble in the city,” she said.
“I don’t know how long you’ve been in Nelar.” Char said, arching a brow as he watched her. She didn’t need the linking spell between them to know he was fishing for more information about her time in Nelar. She’d been here for the better part of a few months, not nearly as long as he had. As far as she knew, he had come here shortly after graduating from the Academy, continuing his training and honing his ability to heal. From what Char said, Master Agnew was one of the most skilled healers, and it was a benefit to Char to be assigned to Nelar to continue his education. “I’ve seen it firsthand. The dular have pushed the Society aside.”
“You forget that doesn’t really worry me too much.”
“I know it doesn’t bother you, but it does disrupt the functionality of the Society, and the king—”
“What about the king?” she asked.
“I’m sure the king wants the Society to be strong. He needs us to be strong.”
Jayna frowned. She’d been trying to figure out what was going on, and trying to understand the relationship between things, but maybe it was something as simple as sorcerers being upset with the dular.
But why use bloodstone, then?
“Would you just come over here and talk with me?” Jayna asked.
“I’ll talk, but I don’t know what else I’m going to do.”
They moved to the street, and she looked up at the outpost. Was there a light on that wasn’t there before?
“What are you doing?” Char asked.
“Nothing,” Jayna said, and she headed to the street where they joined the others.
“Char, this is my brother’s friend, Matthew Veran.”
Char studied Matthew, and Matthew did the same to Char. “Your brother? Did you find him?” Char asked.
“Matthew is looking for him, aren’t you, Matthew?” Matthew shot Jayna a look of annoyance, which she ignored. She shrugged. “Anyway, you know Eva and Topher.”
“We’ve met,” he said. He turned his attention to Jayna, crossing his arms over his chest. “For the first time since you found me in the city, you haven’t brought me somebody I need to heal, so what is this about?”
Jayna looked at the others before reaching into her pocket and pulling out one of the smaller bloodstones. “It’s about this.”
She handed it over to Char, and he took it, frowning for a moment before his eyes widened. “Where did you get this?”
“You recognize it.” Could it be that simple?
Maybe she should have gone to Char sooner.
Char turned the stone from side to side, his gaze sweeping over it. “I recognize it.” He looked up at Jayna. “Where did you get it?”
“I found it in the city. I’m curious how you know about it.”
“I told you about the reinforcements sent to the outpost,” he said. Jayna nodded. “The Order of Norej came with something like this. I’m not really sure what it is, but the Order said that sorcerers at the Academy created it. It’s supposed to make enchantments work better.”
Jayna knew the Order tended to use destructive magic. She grunted softly and replied. “Is that right?”
“Why? Doesn’t it?”
“Oh, it does,” she said.
He looked at the others, his gaze lingering on Topher for a long moment before he turned back to Jayna. “You can’t blame me for this. I’m not involved in the politics of the city, as I’m still technically a student.”
“Not really,” Jayna said. “You’re a part of the Society now.”
“A junior part of the Society,” Char said. “And not enough of one to attribute any malice to.”
“Get on with it,” Matthew said.
Char swallowed. “Anyway, with as much as the dular have been challenging the Society, the Order brought in something to make their enchantments more powerful.”
“By ‘their enchantments,’ you mean the sorcerers’, not the dulars’.”
He nodded quickly. “They wouldn’t want to help the dular.”
“Why would these end up in the hands of the dular?”
“What?” Char asked.
“All sorcery is dangerous,” Char said.
“Not all. At least, not like this,” she said.
“Jayna—”
“You knew about this,” she said.
Irritation bubbled up into anger, which faded into disappointment. All this time, and he could have helped.
“I knew we had help from the Academy, and I thought it surprising, but the Order aren’t doing anything with the stones.”
“I beg to differ. And if you give me a chance, I can show you,” Jayna said.
“How do you want me to give you a chance?” Char asked.
Jayna reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the bloodstones that Rosal had placed an enchantment upon.
“I could show you.”
Char looked at the others, then glanced back at the outpost, before turning his attention back to Jayna. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”
“Just let me have a few more minutes of your time. Let me at least show you what I know about what’s going on, then you can decide what you want to do.”
Char shook his head. “Why is it that every time you come around here, I feel like I’m getting pulled further and further away from the Society?”
“I’m not trying to pull you from the Society,” Jayna said.
“You may not be trying to, but you manage to do it anyway.” He looked over to the outpost, shaking his head slowly. “Come on. I can sneak you in this time, but it’s going to be the last time.”
19
They all followed Char up the path leading to the outpost. Jayna stayed closest to him, with Eva next to her, leaning slightly forward, her hands clenched at her sides. Jayna didn’t need to look down to see the trail of blood flowing from Eva’s hands, and she could practically feel the energy radiating off of her. There was something drifting out from her, some hint of power, but she saw no smoke.
Even Matthew seemed on edge. He had his hand under his cloak, and Jayna worried he might pull out a blade, looking to attack or do something foolish. He was the one person she thought was the least trustworthy here.
It was strange to think that way. In all the time she had known Matthew—and of the people who were with her now, he was the one she’d known the longest—she’d always thought he was trustworthy. He had worked with her brother for all her life, but at the same time, if Matthew had abandoned his search for Jonathan, then how could he truly be her brother’s friend?
Then there was Topher. He stayed close to Eva, following behind her. Jayna didn’t know which Topher this was. Was this the man who had found himself, found a bit of spine and worked through what had happened with the dwaring, or was this the boy, at least in mentality, who still struggled with what had happened?
Jayna didn’t know. And worse, she started to wonder how much time they really had to find the answers before it was too late. The society was responsible for creating the bloodstone, which she would not have considered a possibility.
She didn’t have as much experience as some to know all the ins and outs of sorcery, but the idea that sorcerers would have created the bloodstone seemed a bit off. If that were the case, she would’ve expected to detect some more magic within the stone.
She squeezed her hand around the bloodstone, pushing a bit of power through it. She drew upon sorcery, only sorcery, and used that to detect whether she might feel anything specific inside it: a hint of sorcery, a hint of something that called to her, a hint of something that would tell her this was a construct created by the Society and not some dangerous artifact that had been brought to the city to instigate a battle.
She didn’t have any answer.
When they reached the main door, Char looked back at all of them, shaking his head again. He turned and waved his hand, pressing it up against the door, then glanced to Jayna. “I don’t like this.”
“I know you don’t.”
“You keep putting me in this position.”
“You will understand my concern in a moment.”
“Like I understood the last time,” Char said.
Jayna flicked her gaze to Topher. “Was I wrong?”
Char hesitated before shaking his head. “You weren’t wrong.”
He pushed open the door, then snapped his fingers, tracing a quick circular pattern, and a flush of power washed away from him. He looked up at her. “I just wanted to mute your passing into the outpost.”
“That was an impressive use of magic,” she said.
“Not so much. Maybe for somebody who doesn’t use her sorcery quite as much as she once had, but . . .”
She sighed. Maybe, had she stayed at the Academy, she would’ve learned how to use it in the same sort of way, but at the same time, what she was doing these days was more useful.
Char led them into the entrance to the outpost. Two enchanted lanterns glowed softly just inside the door, dimly, and it seemed almost as if shadows swirled around them. He guided them quickly down the hall to one of the first rooms along the hallway.
Jayna hesitated.
She didn’t think the bloodstone, or the additions Rosal had made to the bloodstone, had turned into anything with dark magic, but she wasn’t entirely sure. If it were dark magic, then they needed to go to the room at the end of the hall—the one where she had gone with one of the dark sorcerers, a Celebrant of Asymorn. It was a place where sorcery would trap dark magic, then she might be able to use the knowledge Ceran had given her to draw that power off.
“Are you sure this is the right place to use it?” Jayna asked.
“Well, considering I no longer have access to the other room, it’s the only choice we have.”
That room was unusual. Even for the Sorcerers' Society. A place like that, with power like that, should not exist here at the edge of Society-controlled lands, especially in an outpost as small as this one.
“Why don’t you have access to the other one anymore?”
“After what happened with the dark sorcerer you brought me, Master Agnew began to question my involvement.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, wishing she wouldn’t have harmed his place in the Society.
“No you’re not,” Char said. “You feel like you did everything you needed to do.”
“I do feel that way,” Jayna said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I’m sorry.”
“Fine. Let’s get this over with.”
They stepped inside, and Char turned to the lanterns in the room, adding a bit of magic to them, so that, now enchanted, they glowed with a bright and vibrant light.
He looked at the others and motioned for Topher to close the door. When he did, Char nodded to Jayna. “It’s your turn.”
Jayna pulled the enchanted bloodstone Rosal had made out of her pocket, and showed it to Char. “This is an enchantment made with your construct.”
“Okay.”
“And this is an enchantment made by the same dular, but did not use the construct created by the society.” She showed him one of the others and looked at everyone else before turning her attention back to Char. “I’m going to need you to place me inside of a protective shielding,” she said to him.
“Jayna—”
“Just do it. If I’m wrong, then you will have wasted nothing.” She looked around the inside of the room. “Anyway, the Society won’t be able to tell if you use magic in here.”
“They can’t tell, and I’m uncomfortable with it,” Char said.
“Fine. You know. But I’m asking you as a friend to do this for me.”
“I’ll do it, but I’m getting a bit frustrated, Jayna. I know you’ve been doing some useful things, and I know you feel that the kind of magic you’re still using is beneficial, but—”
“It is beneficial,” she said.
“I know you feel that way,” Char said softly.
“Just do this for me,” she said.
He then pulled upon his own power.
She could feel it, but strangely, standing this close to Char, it was a different feeling from what she was expecting.
Its difference rested in how he called upon the magic within him, in the energy that flowed, but it was also in the linking spell between them. She could feel how the power drifted through him, through the linking spell, then surrounded her.
She had never been aware of his use of magic through the link before, and it was something she was going to have to give more thought to. What would it mean for her to feel his use of magic? It might be beneficial, but it also might be a problem.
If she could detect all of his magic, then maybe she could use what she sensed to learn how to perform more complicated sorcery. That would be one advantage of having a connection to him and how he pulled upon magic. There was a problem with that though. If it somehow conflicted with her use of magic, or if he were to somehow detect how she pulled upon power through the dragon stone ring, then . . .
And maybe it would be even more than that. What if he noticed how she had that dark power at the edge of her reach when she tapped into the true power of the Toral ring? What if he somehow knew she could call upon some dark energy?
She pushed that thought away.
“It’s done,” he said.
She looked at the others with her, then held out Rosal’s initial enchantment. “This one won’t be very impressive.”
She pushed power out through it.
When she triggered it, she could feel the faint sparks, a stirring of lights that crackled just above her palm.
“That’s what you needed me to protect you from?” Char asked.
“No.” She held out the bloodstone enchantment. “The same dular made this one, only he used the construct, such as you call it, that your sorcerers brought from the Academy.” Jayna braced herself. She had no idea what would happen now, but she could guess. She had seen Rosal’s enchantment working before, and she had felt the power that had erupted from it.
She added a bit of power from the Toral ring, creating a barrier around herself.
Even that might not be enough.