Festival of Mourn (The Dark Sorcerer Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  It was a steady pulsation within the palm of her hand. She kept her grip wrapped around it, focusing on the power, and waited for a moment before moving forward. The power within it seemed to guide her.

  Eva stayed close, looking over to her from time to time, worry creasing her brow.

  How did she seem so lucid suddenly?

  “You don’t have to follow me quite so closely,” Jayna said.

  Eva glanced over in the darkness, the pale moonlight reflecting off of her skin, and she frowned. “I want to make sure you’re tracking this the right way.”

  Jayna chuckled. “You’re just concerned about me?”

  Eva frowned at her again, and Jayna squeezed the coin she had made, feeling the power flowing through it and guiding her. It was an enchantment, but it was a very specific type of enchantment.

  In the time since she had left the Academy, Jayna hadn’t taken much opportunity to make enchantments. Not that she couldn’t—her training had taught her what was involved in making them—but because she feared releasing the necessary power to do so.

  Most of the time, Jayna preferred to use the dragon stone ring when she needed power. The ring had the kind of power that couldn’t be detected by anyone else, and the kind of magic that wouldn’t be tracked by the same people who had tracked her when she had first left the Academy.

  The steady pulsing continued to guide her, and she followed the movement along the streets, staying along the periphery, moving through the older, stone buildings on the western edge of the city. The air had far more humidity to it on this side of the city. Her breathing was heavy, and she had to take deep breaths.

  “If we have to stay here much longer, I don’t know that I could ever get used to this,” she muttered, looking into the distance. The fog of haze coming off of that humidity swirled around each of the streetlamps, creating something of a mist around them, blurring them slightly.

  “Everybody adapts,” Eva said.

  “Even to this?”

  “What is this but one more challenge? Eventually, you would adapt.”

  “Is that what you did?” Jayna asked.

  Eva said nothing.

  The coin pulsated in her hand, and Jayna stayed along the outer road. Most of the buildings were low stone buildings, the kind where she would need to duck her head as she entered, and she moved along the street carefully. It was times like this when she thought of her brother most of all. Jonathan would have loved sneaking along the streets unseen. He would have loved working with her.

  The coin started vibrating more quickly.

  Jayna put those thoughts away. She would find her brother.

  When this was over, when she had succeeded, she would take a moment to see if there were other spells in the spellbook that she could use to help Jonathan. To find him. Only then. Until she finished this, she needed to stay focused. She had no idea what she might encounter up ahead, only that if she wasn’t careful, Rendal, or any of the other sorcerers, could attack her. She had to be careful with that.

  She opened her fist, glancing into the enchantment. It didn’t glow or flicker or do anything else. She just felt a pressure pulsing against her clenched fist, as if it were something alive, twitching inside of her hand.

  “We have to be getting close,” she said.

  “Out here?” Eva asked.

  Jayna nodded. She understood her concern though. Out here, there was nothing more than rows of old stone buildings, reminding her of where she had encountered Rendal before, where she had encountered the sense of his magic. Why would he choose this place? She continued squeezing the coin, feeling its quickened pulsing.

  Jayna stayed in the shadows, near the edge of the buildings, away from the streetlights. She wouldn’t be surprised to find thieves—or worse—in this part of the city. She had to be ready for anything, but if she were to use magic—sorcery or otherwise—she might disrupt the effect of the enchantment, and she might lose her connection to it and no longer have the ability to track what it summoned her toward.

  She looked down at the coin, but there was nothing about it that told her anything more than what she felt by squeezing it. She let the pressure guide her, steering her along the street, and looked over to Eva, finding her with her brow knitted in concern, biting her lower lip. Every so often, she clenched her fists before relaxing them. She was worried, but why?

  Jayna detected no other use of magic around her. If Rendal were here, he had hidden his power, at least enough to keep anyone from discovering his presence.

  She took a few more steps, moving slowly along the road, then stopped.

  She looked behind her.

  More of Master Raollet's thugs followed.

  This was a different pair of men, and she suspected they would have different enchantments, probably designed to protect them from anything she might do.

  She glanced over to Eva. Their enchantments might not protect them from what Eva could do.

  “Can you deal with them?”

  Eva glanced behind her, frowning. “Why? Who are they?”

  “Well, it seems like Raollet has decided to keep tabs on me.”

  Eva's eyes darkened. Smoke spiraled out from around her, and it spread along the ground, quickly reaching the men, where it swirled up around them, then forced its way down into their throats.

  “Not like that,” she said quickly.

  Eva looked over to her. “You said ‘deal with them.’”

  “Not like that,” Jayna repeated.

  Eva’s actions would be approaching dark magic, which she wanted to avoid, and which Jayna wanted her to avoid.

  The men collapsed, and Eva withdrew the smoke, looking back at the fallen men.

  “Better?”

  Jayna breathed out. She had to keep an eye on Eva, especially lately. “Better. Now let's keep moving.”

  The coin had shifted.

  It was like a buzzing in her palm, which started as a rapid fluttering and decreased in intensity the moment she passed one of the buildings.

  The question now was: Which side of the road did she need to evaluate?

  Jayna looked at the buildings on either side. They were identical, at least in the darkness. Both were made of the dark stone blocks, both had the faint glowing moss growing along their sides, and both were low enough that she could practically jump up and reach the top of the building itself. One of them abutted the forest on the other side, whereas the other was closer to the city.

  “He’s in one of these,” Jayna said, waving her hand from side to side.

  “You can’t tell which one?” Eva asked.

  “I need a minute.” Jayna shifted her cloak, keeping herself concealed, but making sure that she could keep her dragon stone ring exposed. She had a knife sheathed at her side, but no other weapons other than the cane she’d stolen from Raollet. In the darkness, she wanted at least the knife, and wished she had something more. She wasn’t even a fully trained sorcerer, after all, and there were limits to magic; however, there were few limits when it came to those who pursued her kind of magic.

  She held her hand out, pointing first toward the building near the city itself. The coin still fluttered, but not nearly with the same intensity as it had. As she spun the coin toward the other building, the one facing the forest . . .

  “That one,” she whispered.

  Eva reached into her pocket, and Jayna didn’t need to see what she plucked out to know that she grabbed at least one of her enchantments, maybe more. She squeezed her fists again, but no smoke swirled from the ends of her hands. She might have accessed her unique power, but she didn’t do anything with it. Yet.

  Jayna headed over to the door of the building, sweeping the enchantment from one side to the other. “This is definitely it.”

  “Now what?” Eva asked.

  A stout wooden door blocked her from going any farther, and Jayna looked along the street before turning her attention back to the door, studying it. It was a solid door unlike some of the
others along the street, and made of a darkened wood. Not oak, as the grain was too wide, and it was almost as if it were as old as the stone itself. The heavy-looking iron lock on the door would be the real challenge.

  Her magic would work against iron, especially her Toral magic, but it would require a larger explosion of force in order for her to push past it.

  “Why don’t we circle around the building and see if there is another way in?”

  “Or we could just go through that,” Eva said.

  “We could,” Jayna agreed. “But let’s see if there are other options first.”

  Eva shrugged. “It’s your choice.”

  The buildings were too close together for her to find a way to the back side, but there was one other thing she could do. She jumped, grabbing the low top of the roof, and pulled herself up. Once on top, she crouched, looking along the street. The buildings were all of a similar level, and she thought she could almost run across the tops of them, which might be necessary if things were to turn. The enchantment still vibrated in her palm, and she pocketed it. Now that she knew where to find him, she had no reason to keep holding on to it.

  Eva tried jumping, but she wasn’t tall enough to reach the lower lip of the rooftop, and Jayna held down her arm, waiting until Eva jumped again, grabbing her wrist and swinging her up to the roof with her.

  “What now?” Eva asked.

  “Now we have to see if there’s anything here that will help.”

  “On the roof?”

  It was made of slate, and damp, much like every other part of the city. While none of the moss grew along the rooftop, that didn’t change how slippery the stone was, and Jayna picked her way carefully along it. This building wasn’t very large, and she made a quick survey, still feeling the vibration of the enchantment in her pocket. She didn’t even need to hold it to be aware of how it guided her. She reached the back side and crouched down, looking out into the darkness of the forest.

  Jayna dropped to the ground, but the back side of the building was made of the same stone, though the coating of moss along it was even thicker than it was facing the city.

  She jumped, trying to scramble back up to the top of the roof, but slipped. When she landed, her leg came down awkwardly, reminding her of the wound she’d sustained when the volar had shot her. She should have known better. She winced, biting back the pain, and then jumped again, making sure to use her good leg. She reached the lower ledge, got a reasonable grip, and kicked, her foot scraping through the moss as she came to roll onto the rooftop.

  “What was that about?” Eva asked as Jayna just lay there, unmoving.

  “That was me trying to get back up here.”

  “You didn’t have as much difficulty on the other side.”

  “Nope.” Jayna got to her feet and crouched down on the street-facing side, sweeping her gaze along it. There was only one way in or out of this building. The vibration from the enchantment told her that this was where she needed to be, and she wanted to find Rendal. If she could get a few questions answered, then . . .

  Jayna had to be careful not to get too far ahead of herself. She needed to focus on finding where the Festival of Mourn would be held, and preventing the Celebrants of Asymorn from freeing him or his power.

  One thing at a time.

  She jumped down, landing on the street. Eva jumped next to her, managing to make the move look even more graceful than Jayna had.

  Jayna turned to the door. “There’s only one way in or out.”

  “We could have saved time by doing this from the beginning.”

  “I was trying to avoid using magic here.”

  “Sometimes there is no way to avoid it.”

  Jayna nodded, knowing she was right. There were times when she couldn’t avoid magic, times when she had to simply blast her way forward.

  She held out the dragon stone ring, focusing on the lock. Iron would have posed a little bit of difficulty for her sorcery, though her ring and its connection to Ceran would allow her to break through.

  Jayna focused on that deep connection within her. It was her link to sorcery, no differently than when she pushed power out through the various patterns or components of a spell. In this case, it was more about focus and channeling that energy through the ring itself.

  A burst of energy blasted the lock.

  The lock twisted with a shriek before shattering. It sounded loud in the night.

  Eva headed forward, pushing on the door. It came open slowly.

  “I don’t know how much time we’ll have before someone knows what we’ve done,” Jayna said.

  “I wonder if you should’ve tested the door before blasting it,” Eva said.

  Jayna resisted the urge to groan.

  “Come on,” she said, pushing past Eva.

  The inside of the stone building was dark, though there was a single glowing light near the back. She stayed low, holding the dragon stone ring out in front of her, clutching it in her fist as she hunched slowly forward. Now that she had revealed herself to others who might be in the street, she knew she might need to be ready to release another blast of magic. She didn’t want to have to do it, but when it came down to protecting people she cared about and defeating the Celebrants, she was willing to do whatever it took.

  A strange, pungent aroma drifted into the air, and she looked over to see a little bit of smoke swirling around Eva, who didn’t say anything, but simply clenched her jaw as she moved forward, following her.

  Jayna hurried forward to the light.

  She found Rendal standing in front of someone lying on the ground.

  At first, she thought maybe it was one of the El'aras, but she couldn't tell.

  She hurriedly traced out the series of patterns for the blade of light, blasting them out from her. The magic struck Rendal, sending him staggering back. He slammed into the wall, where he slumped down.

  She hurried over to the figure on the ground. They were unconscious. She checked them over, looking for any injury, but didn't feel anything. She pressed her hands down and called upon the power of the dragon stone ring, hating the pain that burned through her hand as she did. When she was sent that power, it washed outward, fully working its way through the young man.

  No dark magic.

  She glanced over to Eva. “Get him out of here.”

  Eva grabbed the person, lifted them easily, and carried them out.

  Jayna got to her feet, turning toward Rendal. She held her hand out, ready.

  Rendal lifted his head. “You are going to be too late.”

  “What did you do?”

  Rendal had on dark pants and a dark jacket, and his eyes were glazed as he rolled his head upward.

  “I suppose I should thank you. I get to feel it.”

  “You get to feel . . .”

  She had interrupted the spell Rendal used. But she hadn't stopped it.

  She gritted her teeth. She hurried over to him, pressing her hand down on him, sending another wave of power out from her using the dragon stone ring. Her whole hand was burning with cold now.

  She detected something within him, but it was different than it had been with Topher.

  She tapped him on his knee, and he rolled his head off to the side, looking up at her. A soft smile peeled across his lips.

  “Even you can't stop this.”

  He coughed and spat, a disgusting bubble of bloody phlegm landing on the stone next to him.

  Light came from behind him, leaving strange shadows all around him that seemed to ripple. It pulsed, almost in time with the power of the dragon stone ring. His face looked haggard.

  She called on the dragon stone before hesitating.

  It might not work.

  She needed time. She needed to question him.

  She needed to heal him.

  Jayna had never learned healing magic as well as Char. He had always been incredibly skilled at it. It was the reason he had come to the city. While in the Academy, she had learned as much fro
m him as she had from her classes on healing.

  It was his words that came back to her now, his message about holding on to the focus she found within the individual as she worked on healing. As she probed for any injury within him, she thought for a moment that there might be a dwaring, and she continued pushing, but didn't feel anything.

  Eva remained focused on the doorway.

  “How long can we stay here?” Eva asked.

  “I don't know. The tracking spell brought us here. I thought it might lead us to Gabranth, but . . .”

  Now she wanted to act quickly before Gabranth appeared.

  They needed to take him somewhere else.

  “Grab his legs,” she said, looking over to Eva.

  “Grab his legs?”

  Jayna nodded. “Yes. I'll take his upper body. We don't have much time.”

  “Time for what?”

  “Time to get him someplace where we can heal him so that he can tell us where the festival is going to be held.”

  19

  Jayna stumbled. Rendal was heavier than he looked. He wasn’t a large man, but he was large enough. He’d opened his eyes a few times as they carried him through the streets, mostly to look in her direction, occasionally to cough, but he never said anything else. Jayna appreciated that he didn’t continue to taunt her.

  Too late.

  That was what he had said.

  She didn’t want to think about what would’ve happened if she were truly too late in chasing him down. And maybe she was, given how long it had taken them to find Rendal, and how much difficulty she had in finding the spells that she needed.

  If so, then Topher and the others were already lost, and Asymorn would be freed. But not yet.

  If Asymorn had already been freed, Jayna would’ve expected to have seen some sign of it. That dark magic would have a signature, and he would have an energy, something she could track, but there had been no indication of that out in the city just yet.

  She didn’t know what he might do, but anticipated that dark creatures and dark magic would be unleashed upon Nelar.