Flames crackled on either side of Rosal’s father’s home. The heat and energy continued to build, though it almost seemed like one of the fires had started to diminish.
What had happened to Rosal?
She still had the linking spell to him.
She pulled that energy through, calling it toward her, warning him to get out. She didn’t know if it was even going to work, but she had to try to signal to him.
She continued to draw upon dark power.
Daratha watched her.
All of it happened in a moment. In that flash of time, that brief flicker, Jayna could feel that dark energy building and a surge of magic.
She looked past Daratha.
She had to attack.
Thankfully, this was the kind of magic Ceran had taught her to use.
She focused on two blade of light spells, trying to trace them as quickly as she could with both hands, and pushed power out through them as she activated the spells.
They were powerful, and more controlled than she would've expected.
The sudden, painful cold in her finger told Jayna what she had done. She had activated them with her Toral ring.
Daratha braced herself, but the power flowed past her and struck the two sorcerers behind her. They were tossed back.
Daratha cocked her head to the side as if amused, her dark hair tilting. “Are you more concerned about them or me?”
Jayna started to twist her hands—the starburst pattern. As she activated it, once again, she used the Toral ring and its painful, cold power.
Daratha had begun her preparations to finish whatever she intended.
“Eva?” She was close enough still to hear Jayna’s cry for help.
“I need time,” Eva said.
Jayna breathed out heavily. She didn’t know if she had the time.
The remaining sorcerer behind Daratha darted away. That probably meant they would try to trigger the other bloodstone.
“You’re going to have to go after him,” Jayna said to Eva.
“I can’t put out the fires and go after him.”
“Fine,” Jayna said.
She had to release the rest of her power. She shifted, twisting her feet in a tight spiral, and used sorcery and the Toral magic. She threw every offensive spell she knew, even trying to add the fireball she had seen on the battlefield, but it never struck Daratha. A sudden, heavy tension in her skin told her Daratha had attacked. Jayna created the pattern for the magic ball, which would offer her a layer of protection, and activated it with her Toral ring.
It would buy her time, though Jayna didn’t know how much. Maybe only a few moments at best. Given what she suspected about Daratha, she was very likely able to destroy the protection Jayna had just placed.
“You won’t hold us,” Daratha said.
“Are you so sure?”
Daratha chuckled. She swept her hand in a quick movement, a flick of the wrist, and a burst of energy slammed into the magic ball barrier Jayna had erected.
For a moment, Jayna thought her barrier would hold, but then it failed.
Maybe she was wrong about Daratha. Maybe Daratha was just as powerful as Asymorn had been. Which meant that maybe Daratha was one of the twelve.
She tried to reach for that dark power again, and though it was there, already Jayna could feel it constricting around her, the border of energy squeezing inward. She had felt that when she had fought with Asymorn. There was a limit to how much power she could hold, how much she could extract.
“Are you doing the math? Have you come to realize you don’t have enough control to defeat me? I’ve been working with this power for far longer than you’ve even been alive. I have mastered my Toral ring, I have mastered sorcery, and I have—”
Jayna attacked again.
Fireball. Starburst. Blade of light.
One after another she pushed those spells away from her, activating each one with the Toral ring’s dark power that she had fully embraced. She had to throw as much power as she could at Daratha.
“Eva?”
The flames of one house had started to flicker, diminishing.
“I am nearly ready,” Eva said.
“I don’t know how much longer I can hold out,” she said.
Daratha started laughing. “There it is. Honesty.” She took a step toward Jayna. The flames crackling around the courtyard gave everything a horrible illumination, lighting everything in a way that filled Daratha with the heat and energy that surrounded them. There was something awful and wrong about it.
Her loops of strange, ropey magic began to strike at Eva—something similar to the snake spell Gabranth had used—which forced Jayna to react.
She used sorcery laced with a hint of her dragon stone connection. Her starburst spell, then the blade of light, then she tried the snake spell, but Daratha blocked each one.
Smoke trailed off of Eva. There were limits to how much power Eva had, and Jayna worried she would reach those limits.
She held out a barrier around her to try to protect herself from what Daratha might do and to give herself a little bit of time. She couldn’t see Matthew clearly, though she spied movement in the shadows. He was racing along a roofline. It was dangerous, but she hoped that she gave him enough time—and that he removed the bloodstone.
That would interrupt at least one of the Order of Norej’s intentions.
Facing Daratha was different though. Gabranth was a powerful sorcerer, but he was still only a sorcerer. Daratha was more. She was like Jayna, only with experience—Toral power, mastery of sorcery, and in complete control.
She glanced over to Eva.
Smoke swirled around her. It was faint, little more than a stirring.
She needed to buy time for Eva to fill herself with the heat and flames of the building, to tear off the fire of the bloodstone.
Daratha made a small movement of her fingers, and a dark, purplish energy streaked away from her—pure dark magic.
Jayna had faced dark creatures. She had faced sorcerers embracing dark magic. Seeing pure dark magic coming from a Toral was something else altogether.
She reacted.
Thankfully, Ceran had recently used the ring to demonstrate an effective technique, and she had to hope it would work. Jayna started to pull on that dark power. The ring could hold it. It had to.
The technique was useful, but also dangerous. She held out her hand, and the burst of power coming off of Daratha began to flow into the dragon stone.
But it was painful and Jayna cried out as Daratha took a step toward her.
“Did you really think you could use it against me?”
The darkness continued to flow into the dragon stone, and she fought, straining, trying to call more and more power into her, but even as she did, she worried it wasn’t going to be enough. She summoned as much power into her as she could, but the last of the dark magic would overwhelm her.
Could it destroy the Toral ring?
Jayna wouldn’t have thought so before, but having felt this kind of power, and feeling it again now, she no longer knew. If it was possible, it might shatter the ring, and then she wouldn’t have enough strength. It would depend on what Eva could do.
Smoke started to flow around Jayna, swirling up and around her, easing some of the pain.
It reminded her of what Eva had done when Jayna had faced Asymorn. The smoke had drifted into her, seeming to stabilize things for her, as if Eva had given her a bit of ability to withstand the attack.
Jayna looked over to Eva. “Not on me. Use it on her.”
Eva's jaw was clenched, and she squeezed her hands tightly, as if trying to push all of the blood out of her. “I don't have enough.”
“Then why are you using it on me?” Jayna asked.
Eva turned her attention to Jayna, hands dripping with blood, smoke flowing from her. “Because you might be enough.”
Jayna had to open herself up to the darkness again. With Eva helping, maybe it would be enough for he
r to withstand the pain—and the strange longing for power that came with it.
She focused on the Toral ring, on the darkness at the edge of her vision. It was collapsing in, the energy beginning to fade, but Jayna continued to draw off Daratha’s burst of power.
As it finally absorbed, the pain easing out of Jayna’s hand, she turned back to Daratha.
“Perhaps you have learned a little more than I expected,” Daratha said.
She spun, and another burst erupted, streaking toward Eva.
“No!” Jayna shouted.
Eva stood in place, then smoke streamed up from the ground, absorbing the blast before the smoke dissipated.
The flames she was pulling on inside one of the houses began to fade again.
Daratha laughed. “She is quite intriguing. I have not seen anything quite like her before.” She then directly addressed Eva. “When this is over, I will need to study you. You will find it most unpleasant.”
Eva stood with her fists clenched at her sides, an occasional drop of blood dripping to the stones. As she did, the heat was drawn off of the house. The fire was nearly out, but not completely.
Eva shook her head. She was nearing her limit.
They weren’t going to be able to stop Daratha.
“Oh, now look. The Society has decided to join.”
Jayna glanced over her shoulder and saw Char walking with an older sorcerer dressed in heavy, flowing maroon gowns. That had to be Master Agnew. He had thick glasses, a long, shaggy beard, and he carried a staff in one hand.
Char watched her.
“When he learns what you can do, they’ll destroy you. I know what they do to dark sorcerers like you,” Jayna said.
“He will never learn what I can do,” Daratha said.
Jayna readied another attack. She opened herself to the depths of the dark power that came from the ring. Gradually, the energy began to drift to her.
Jayna looked over to Char. Master Agnew was striding across the courtyard, heading toward Daratha.
“Keep him back,” she shouted to Char.
“Jayna?”
“Keep him back. The Order is dark—”
Daratha attacked.
She sent a surge of power out, but this one went toward Jayna.
She could feel the darkness within it, but she couldn’t see it, and she decided to use the Toral ring to absorb the power.
Hopefully, Ceran would realize what was happening and come for her, but if he hadn't so far, maybe he couldn't.
She had to mix both sorcery and her Toral magic together.
She threw spell after spell after her, but Daratha blocked it each time.
Then Jayna saw a familiar form starting toward her, shooting sparks at Daratha.
“Rosal, you idiot—”
Jayna had to protect him now?
She created a magic ball, surrounding Rosal, then pushed out with as much Toral power as she could. He went tumbling away.
Daratha turned toward her, grinning. “Such a waste. And unfortunately, you are not nearly strong enough or trained enough. I must admit my surprise that you defeated Gabranth, but he only wanted the power I have.”
Jayna gritted her teeth.
“You didn't know, did you?”
Why was Daratha chatting with her?
Delay.
The sudden thought filled Jayna's mind.
For all of Daratha's taunting, Jayna's Toral ring helped neutralize her to a certain extent.
But only her.
There were others.
Sorcerers strode toward them, dressed like the man she had attacked in the street. She wouldn't be surprised if they had the crescent moon pattern tattooed on them as well.
Behind them came two others, though they were wearing the crimson robes of the Society—Char, whom she felt coming toward her, and the other had to be Master Agnew.
And they would target Jayna.
Of course they would side with the Order.
Daratha sent a snake pattern toward Jayna, more focused and controlled than the one Gabranth had managed to use. She deflected, knowing she had to be stronger than her. But the pattern constricted. It squeezed around Jayna, and it caused her Toral ring to constrict, as if signifying the dark magic within it.
Jayna forced it up and away from her, a spiraling power of blackened magic that radiated upward.
But there was a way to try something else.
Daratha and the Order of Norej had given her that way.
She reached into her pocket for a bloodstone. Jayna focused on it, using sorcery and only sorcery. She traced a quick pattern for the starburst spell. She sealed the enchantment to the bloodstone.
As it took hold, Jayna tossed the enchantment toward Daratha, who caught it as it exploded.
Jayna had pushed everything she could into the enchantment. She had used all of the knowledge she had of sorcery and anticipated it would destroy Daratha.
Instead, a dark ring of power surrounded Daratha before fading.
Daratha strode forward. “Interesting. You have—”
A blast of fire streaked toward Daratha from Master Agnew, spiraling around her feet and working upward. Daratha looked down, then pressed her hands downward as dark energy flowed from them, which she used to suppress the fire.
His wrinkled face twisted in only a slight surprise.
She shook her head. “Unfortunately, Agnew, you have made a mistake.”
Jayna could feel the Toral ring constricting on her hand, warning her.
She scrambled forward.
The last of dark magic streaked away from Daratha, but Jayna pulled on it, drawing it into the Toral ring and absorbing it.
Jayna was thrown backward, landing on her backside, and looked up. “Char, take Master Agnew and work on the fires on the other house. I’ll take care of Daratha.” She had to hope he could handle the fires, but it might be only Eva who would be strong enough to do that.
“You don’t command me, child,” Master Agnew said in a whiny voice.
“Unless you have some particular affinity toward dark magic, you’re not going to be able to stop her.” Jayna got to her feet and held out her other hand, summoning the dark power through the Toral ring. “In case you weren’t paying attention, that was dark magic Daratha pulled upon. The others of the Order of Norej did as well.” She glanced over to Char. “And I’m probably the only one who can stop her.”
“Who are you?” Agnew asked, studying her.
She glanced briefly at Char, shaking her head. If only he had believed her. “Apparently, I’m no one,” Jayna said.
Jayna traced out the blade of light, using the Toral ring to activate it. Her arms were going cold, as was her chest. She had been calling on that power too much and too often. She looked over to Eva, but the smoke that streamed from her was still minimal.
Not nearly enough to battle Daratha.
Jayna started forward.
Daratha laughed. “You’ve done better than I expected. You could be useful. I’m sure Norej would be more than pleased to bring you along, regardless of who your Sul’toral is. They likely haven’t explained the truth of the world to you—how all of us tap into the same source.” She grinned. “Only some people view it as a weakness.”
“Not a weakness. Dark magic,” Jayna said.
“Is it, though? What makes this particularly dark and others not?” She smiled at Jayna. “Once Norej is freed, we will finally be able to—”
“Serve Sarenoth?” Jayna took a step forward. “Or do you not know that? Norej isn’t your ultimate master. He serves somebody else. You’re still a Toral, regardless of how much power and experience you have.”
Daratha frowned at her. “So little you know.”
Daratha made a sharp movement with her hand, and a whipcrack of power came streaking toward Jayna, lashing around her legs, and looping toward Daratha. Jayna was knocked back, and the power started pulling Jayna forward, dragging her along the cobblestones.
She
scrambled, trying to find a way to grab on to the cobblestones, on to anything, but Daratha was too powerful. She pulled Jayna all the way over to her.
Smoke began to stream along Jayna’s body, working its way from her feet up to her head. It was a layer of protection coming off of Eva, but how long would such a protection last? She knew it wouldn’t be long enough. With the kind of power Daratha had already demonstrated, it wouldn’t be enough to withstand her next attack.
She blasted at Daratha, drawing upon all the power within her and using the Toral magic, but each time she attempted to do so, the power struck emptiness.
Daratha just laughed.
Worse, Jayna didn’t know where the other sorcerers from the Order had gone. They were out there somewhere, destroying the homes. Jayna had to stop them before they did. It would be war. Dular versus sorcerers.
Jayna mixed a quick sorcery pattern she had seen in the spellbook. It was a new spell for her, a complicated star with a circle around it that would give her a burst of strength. It was risky using it now, but what choice did she have?
She summoned power through the Toral ring as she solidified the power within the spell, then targeted it toward Daratha.
The spell bounced off of Daratha.
Still, she was freed from Daratha’s magical bindings around her feet, and she scooted back. The smoke that Eva had drifted outward swirled up, working its way along Jayna’s legs, up toward her head. She breathed it in.
Strangely, it gave her a sense of peace.
Calm.
She needed Eva’s help. Eva was the secret weapon. She was the one the others feared. But Eva was concentrating, trying to draw the flames off of the house. Eva was doing everything she needed to, but she had already grown weak, diminished by the strength of the attack.
Jayna couldn’t draw on Eva. Eva needed to be left alone.
Jayna took another deep breath, and she pulled upon more power, sending another blast of the same strength at Daratha. As Daratha blocked it, Jayna had a chance to get to her feet.
“I’m getting tired of this. You have been interesting to play with, but your delays have only complicated the matter.” She waved a hand. “Now I have to deal with Agnew, and that foolish student who was with him.”
A City in Ruin (The Dark Sorcerer Book 2) Page 28