A City in Ruin (The Dark Sorcerer Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  Matthew shrugged. “I might have a few enchantments of my own.”

  She started to smile, shaking her head. He sounded so earnest, so confident. “I don’t know if any enchantment is going to protect you against a sorcerer, especially somebody that powerful.” And dark, she didn’t add, though she wondered if she even needed to. Matthew was smart, and he probably understood by now that they were dealing with dark sorcery.

  “What about you?” Matthew asked.

  “What about me?”

  “Have you really gone to dark magic?”

  She twisted the dragon stone ring. “Sometimes it feels that way,” she said softly.

  Matthew held her gaze. For a moment, she could almost swear she felt power from him, though she doubted he was using any sort of enchantment against her. Even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to harm her. Matthew was a skilled thief, like her brother, and probably had more enchantments than Jayna was aware of, but that didn’t mean he would use them against her.

  “I heard rumors about what happened in the city a few months ago,” Matthew said. “When I take a job in a city like this, I start to look around, try to see if there’s anything I need to be careful of. Sometimes there are different thieving crews, you know.”

  “I’m all too aware,” Jayna said.

  He chuckled, then looked over to where Eva was tending to the fire. She’d already grabbed a bottle of wine, maybe one hidden by the hearth, and poured a glass. She sat in front of the fire, breathing in deeply and staring at the flames, as if trying to find some secret hidden within them.

  “I heard about the festival.” He looked over to her. “I don’t always hear those sorts of rumors, and never anything to make me think those festivals are real.”

  “They are real enough,” she said.

  “I gathered that. And they grant power?”

  “Apparently,” she said.

  “How did you get mixed up in it?”

  Jayna took a long, deep breath, and looked over to where Topher was in the kitchen, arranging some bread and fruit on a tray to pass around to them. She smiled to herself.

  “At first, because I had to, then because I wanted to.”

  “You want to talk about it?”

  “I’m not a dark sorcerer, if that’s what you’re getting at,” she said.

  He watched her for a few moments. As before, she had a sinking suspicion he was calling upon some sort of magic, though she had no idea how he would be doing that. He wasn’t a sorcerer.

  “I wasn’t sure. When I first came across you in the city, I thought you were still with the Society. Then I started digging.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have to apologize. You’re your own woman now.” Matthew shook his head. “Your brother would be proud.”

  “Stop,” she said.

  “You don’t want him to be proud?”

  “I don’t want to think about what Jonathan would or wouldn’t be. He’s gone. And until I find him . . .”

  Jayna wasn’t sure how to finish. Until she found Jonathan, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do.

  Matthew nodded slowly. “So you’re not a dark sorcerer. You got involved in a different kind of power. And now you somehow hunt dark sorcerers?”

  “That’s the long and the short of it,” she said.

  “That’s not really the long of it. Mostly the short.”

  “Well, I don’t only hunt dark sorcerers.”

  “Dark creatures,” Matthew said, breathing out slowly. “What have you fought?”

  “More than I care to talk about.”

  “You’re going to need help.”

  “I know.”

  “And if they really do have bloodstone, it’s dangerous.”

  “I’m aware.”

  Jayna went to the kitchen and grabbed a glass for herself, then looked over to Matthew, who shook his head. She carried her glass over to the hearth and poured some wine, then sat down next to Eva. Topher joined them, sitting cross-legged with his back resting against the stones of the hearth. Matthew just stood over them.

  “You don’t have to stand there like that,” Jayna said.

  “I’m trying to decide what I’m going to do.”

  “You can leave,” Eva said, swirling her wine but not looking up from the fire.

  “I don’t know if I can. Now that I’m here, and I’m involved in this, I feel like I need to stay so that I can be an active part of it. Besides, I want to protect my good friend Jayna.”

  “Which you don’t have to do,” Jayna said.

  Matthew chuckled. “Of course I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”

  Jayna shook her head again and looked over to Eva. “So we know the Order is involved.”

  “You think it is,” Eva said.

  “The symbol—the crescent moon, the three dots, the circle. I saw that on the wagon, then saw it tattooed on the sorcerer who attacked me. He had to have been with the Order as well.”

  Eva looked over to her then. The smoke still swirled around her, though mostly around her lips. It gave her something of a sultry appearance. “And you took out a sorcerer that easily?”

  “I guess I did,” Jayna said.

  “I’m not sure how to feel about that.”

  Jayna knew how she felt. “If we have to take on this Order of Norej, I don’t want to be underpowered like I was when we fought the Celebrants of Asymorn.”

  “I didn’t realize we were so underpowered then,” Eva said.

  “You didn’t have me,” Topher said.

  Jayna smiled at him. “I’m not exactly sure this is something you should be involved in,” she said to him. “I know you want to help. And there are ways you could.” At the moment, Jayna had a hard time thinking of what those ways were, but she recognized Topher’s need to feel important. “But fighting dark sorcerers isn’t how you can best be used.”

  “As long as you know I can help,” he said, nodding.

  “Could you do something for me now?” Jayna asked.

  Topher nodded quickly.

  “There’s a box in my room. Could you grab it?”

  He shrugged, getting to his feet, and scurried off.

  “He can be more than an errand boy,” Eva said.

  “I know,” Jayna said. It surprised her that Eva would feel that way, but then again, she had been spending more time with Topher lately. She doubted Eva was sweet on him, though Topher was pretty enough, but she might feel protective of him. That could be good and bad. Jayna wasn’t exactly sure why.

  Matthew looked up at the two of them. “What’s your plan?”

  “Jayna doesn’t necessarily work in plans,” Eva muttered.

  “I sort of go by feel,” Jayna admitted. “Not that it’s always the best strategy, but sometimes it’s the only strategy—if you know what I mean.”

  “I do know what you mean,” Matthew said. “But your brother would be disappointed. He always thought you were the smart one of the two of you.”

  “That doesn’t say much for Jonathan,” Eva said.

  Jayna chuckled. “I think Jonathan saw me as more clever than smart.”

  “I think he saw you as both,” Matthew said. He took a seat, though he didn’t sit cross-legged. Somehow, he made it look almost as if he were holding court with them. It had to be some trick of thieves to make it appear that way. He looked over to Jayna. “Your brother had a good eye for talent. It was how he put his teams together.”

  “Some talent,” Jayna said.

  But if he had put together teams, could it mean Jonathan was working with Gabranth, or did it mean Jonathan was working for Gabranth?

  More questions Jayna didn’t have answers to.

  But when would she have time to learn? When would she be able to find somebody who worked with Jonathan and question them? Gabranth had died, and she had lost her chance to learn more from him.

  “Let me tell you what I think would be best,” Matthew said, “since the t
wo of you don’t seem to have a plan. You know these bloodstones exist in the city. If you can figure out some way to track them down, we can remove them before they explode,” he added, “and then you can decide what you want to do with them and the rest of the Society.”

  “We still don’t have any way of stopping the Order,” Jayna said.

  “Do you really need to?”

  “Eventually.” She tried again to trigger the dragon stone ring, trying to send power through it. If she could figure out some way to signal to Ceran, then she wouldn’t have to do this on her own. She didn’t like the idea of fighting another powerful sorcerer without additional training. She felt helpless. She hated feeling helpless.

  “Well, I can see if there are any enchantments the dular have that might allow us to . . . Where did you get that?” Matthew asked.

  Jayna turned to see what he was looking at.

  Topher returned, caring the lacquered box she had taken from Rosal’s father.

  “Why?” Jayna asked.

  Matthew got to his feet and grabbed the box, pulling open the lid. The bloodstone was still nestled inside.

  “You have this?” Matthew whispered.

  Jayna frowned, setting her wine glass down and getting to her feet. She glanced from Matthew to Topher before grabbing the bloodstone out of the lacquered box.

  “I found this inside of a merchant’s home. His son had one, though he claims he bought it off of a merchant.”

  Matthew frowned. “The box had a bloodstone?”

  “Apparently, some of them have more than one. Someone had used an enchantment to keep the box closed. It took quite a bit of power for me to open.” And she hadn’t been able to do it with sorcery; rather, she had to use her Toral ring ability to open the box. Not that she was going to tell Matthew that right now. His expression looked more troubled than she expected. “Why?”

  Matthew just shook his head. “Gods,” he muttered. “I came to the city on a job, but it wasn’t ready yet. There was another opportunity for me, so I took it. It was a fairly straightforward job, one I hadn’t thought much of. Break into a few different places. Leave behind—”

  “You didn’t,” Jayna said, suddenly knowing where this was going.

  Matthew shook his head. “I didn’t know.”

  “What is it?” Eva asked, her voice faint as she stared at the fire. Smoke still swirled off of her, though she seemed stronger somehow than she had before, almost as if sitting in front of the fire helped her feel better.

  “I think our good friend Matthew here is the reason the bloodstone was in Rosal’s father’s home,” Jayna said.

  “Not just his,” Matthew said softly. “There were seven of them around this central courtyard.”

  Jayna squeezed her eyes shut. “I know the place,” she said.

  Which meant there had been bloodstones delivered to each of them.

  “How many?” Jayna asked.

  “We had to place several in each of the homes,” Matthew said. “I thought it was strange, but I’ve taken stranger jobs.”

  “Several?”

  “Well, we were given three per home. Twenty-one of the boxes in total.”

  And she had only taken one from Rosal’s father’s home.

  “Is the bloodstone as unstable as the others?”

  “Very,” Matthew said. “It doesn’t have to be enchanted to explode. With the right trigger . . .”

  Jayna looked over to Eva. “Well, at least we know what the Order intends. Now if only we could figure out when they intend to do it.”

  “Probably soon,” Matthew said.

  Jayna frowned at him. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because I was given a deadline. All of the boxes had to be placed by last night. Why do you think I didn’t find you until tonight?”

  “Why last night?”

  Matthew glanced over to the bottle of wine, lifting it and taking a long draw off of the bottle. He wiped his sleeve over his mouth, shaking his head. “I didn’t even give any thought to it. The job paid well.”

  “I’m sure it did,” she said.

  “I didn’t look into it, but I tried to open one of the boxes.”

  “It was enchanted to stay closed,” she said.

  “The box itself was enchanted?” Matthew asked, looking over to the lacquered box.

  Jayna closed it again, and tried a tracing spell on it, but she couldn’t detect anything within the box. She must have separated the magic quickly enough when she had opened it before.

  “Enchanted, but powerful enough already. I don’t really know. Why?” Jayna said.

  “Well, because if it was enchanted, then now we know the trigger. The box.” He looked at it. “If that thing triggers the bloodstone inside, then the entire thing can explode.” He looked up at her, holding her gaze. “All of those homes will explode.”

  “And the Order will sow discord between the dular and the Society,” Eva said.

  “Why do you say that?” Jayna asked.

  “Each side will blame the other,” Eva said. “I feel like I’ve seen something like that before.” She frowned, though there was nothing else in her eyes that suggested she remembered anything more. Finally, she swirled her wine again, taking a long drink of it.

  Jayna had seen discord like that. It was what Ceran had made a point of showing her. He had wanted her to know about the twelve followers of Sarenoth, who would do something like that.

  Could Daratha be one of them?

  She was leading the Order within the city, but Jayna wouldn’t have expected her to have that kind of power.

  And why Nelar? Why now?

  Gabranth and the Celebrants of Asymorn had just attempted a festival. They had failed, but they had attempted one.

  What was going on?

  She stared at the lacquered box, running her hand along the surface of the bloodstone before stuffing it into her pocket.

  She wasn’t going to leave it in the box, certainly not if it was some sort of trigger.

  “Topher?” Jayna said, looking over to him. He nodded to her. “Why don’t you dispose of that box, then I think I’m going to need you to reach your dular contacts. We might need them.”

  “Need them for what?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. To stop the Order from whatever they’re planning. I fear the dular are going to need to get involved.”

  Jayna went over to the door, pulling it open and looking out into the city. She let her awareness drift, focusing on the presence of magic in the city. She couldn’t detect anything. She probed through the Toral ring, wanting to send the signal to Ceran, but so far, he had remained quiet. Absent.

  She needed him—more than ever. She wasn’t going to take on another powerful sorcerer on her own and run the risk of dying before they got answers.

  She lost track of how long she stood there. She breathed in the humid night air, ignoring its heaviness, ignoring the voice of Topher speaking to Eva behind her, making his plans while she drank wine, and ignoring the weight of Matthew’s gaze on her back. She could practically feel his unasked questions.

  She stared out into the night. She was going to have to do something, yet she felt woefully unprepared to do it.

  21

  A sudden explosion of fire in the city caught her attention as she stood in the doorway. Jayna still had no idea how long she’d been standing there, but now she couldn’t wait any longer to take action.

  “I think we have to go,” she said without turning.

  “Where?” Topher asked.

  Eva joined her, still holding on to her glass of wine, though she just swirled it rather than drinking it. There was a trail of smoke around her, and her lips were bright red, either from wine or blood.

  “It’s started,” Eva said.

  “I wonder if Char alerted the Order,” Jayna said.

  That fool.

  He likely thought he was protecting the Society, but all he did was alert the Order that Jayna was on to them.
r />   Which would prompt them to take greater action.

  The Celebrants of Asymorn had known she was in the city, and she suspected that the news of what she had done would’ve spread among the dark sorcerers.

  She started jogging before she knew what she was doing, then turned back, racing to her room to grab a few enchantments and stuff them into her pockets. She hurried back out and Matthew grabbed for her, but she shook him off.

  “I don’t have time,” she snapped. “I can’t wait around while this attack takes place.”

  “You can plan for it,” he said to her.

  She bit back the first comment she had about how she wasn’t a planner the way her brother was, despite how Matthew looked at her. “We can plan on the way.” She looked over to Topher. “I guess you need to come with us. We can talk about what you can do as we go.” She looked over to Eva. “Are you coming?”

  “If they’re using bloodstone and fire, I’m afraid I have to be there.”

  They took off, running to the streets.

  Flames billowed in the sky, and Jayna didn’t need to question where they were—the dular manor homes at the center of the city.

  “You know where you’re going?” Matthew asked.

  “I do,” Jayna said.

  “Then let’s talk about the plan,” Matthew said, having no difficulty keeping up with her. Eva practically floated, as if she were riding on streamers of smoke. Topher was jogging, but he was a strong, robust young man, and she didn’t have any worry that he would struggle to keep up with them.

  “What do you intend?” Matthew asked.

  She had to put out the flames. She had to stop the Order.

  The only problem was that she didn’t know how to do that—she didn’t know how to prevent additional attacks, or do anything else to deter the Order. Worse, Matthew had been hired, but . . .

  “How many others?”

  “What?” Matthew asked.

  “How many others were hired like you?”

  “I don’t know all of them. That wasn’t how this job worked. I delivered nine of the boxes.”

  Jayna turned a corner, noticed several soldiers marching—though in the wrong direction—and veered along a different street, where the moss glowed more brightly and helped them navigate their way more easily.