Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer Book 3) Read online

  Smoke and Memories

  The Dark Sorcerer Book 3

  D.K. Holmberg

  Copyright © 2021 by D.K. Holmberg

  Cover by Damonza.com

  All rights reserved.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Author’s Note

  Series by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  Jayna crouched down in the small clearing in the forest and traced a circle on the ground, preparing herself to perform the complicated pattern for the spell—first, she drew a star shape, then added several triangles around it, using the dirt and leaves to make markings in the earth. The combination of shapes had obvious benefits, though she didn’t need to think about what those benefits were. She needed to focus on making the pattern first, and afterward she could contemplate how and why it worked.

  “You have to keep moving steadily,” Eva said.

  Jayna looked up from making the pattern in the dirt, a mixture of dusty earth and rotting leaves. Some of the leaves were still damp from a rain that she didn’t remember having fallen in the forest any time recently. “I am moving steadily. I’m just trying to wrap my mind around the pattern here.”

  “What is there to wrap your mind around? Just make the shape.”

  Eva rested her head back against the tree trunk, her eyes barely open. She sounded annoyed, which was probably because she didn’t have her typical glass of wine. Jayna had dragged her out into the forest before Eva was given that opportunity.

  “Sorcery is complex,” Jayna said, smiling to herself as she recited the words she had learned in her earliest days at the Academy. “It takes a mixture of knowledge and understanding, but it also takes some potential. I can influence the potential by augmenting the knowledge and understanding that I possess.”

  “It looks to me like it’s a series of patterns and shapes that have to be drawn carefully,” Eva said.

  “Do you want to try this?” Jayna asked.

  Eva arched a brow. “You have got to be kidding.”

  “You do have your own kind of magic. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could do the same thing.”

  “Just because I have some innate potential doesn’t mean I can use your kind of sorcery.”

  Jayna smiled to herself. “I think you’re scared.”

  She continued tracing the last of the interlocking triangles that would create a link around the star. They were designed to contain the power that she pulsed through the star, and once she solidified the spell, she then had to add several different ingredients that she had brought with her: a strand of horsehair, the powder from bristenfruit, and the oil of lirnat leaves. Those hadn’t been terribly hard to acquire, but difficult enough that she didn’t like the idea of wasting them if she didn’t create the pattern correctly in the first place.

  “I’m not scared,” Eva muttered. “I just think all of this is useless. You’ve even said yourself that your connection to the Toral ring has increased. Why bother with all of this when you have more power than you’ve ever possessed before?”

  Jayna paused, though she shouldn’t have. Pausing while making the pattern was a mistake, much like Eva said. Not that she disrupted the pattern, but she invited the possibility of irregularities appearing in it. “It’s because I have more power through that ring than I ever had before that I’m doing this,” she said. She twisted the dragon stone ring on her finger. Ever since trying to enchant the bloodstone, a powerful stone that had proven capable of drawing even more power, the dragon stone had altered. There was a layer around the pale white of the dragon stone, a crystalline, almost reddish hue that had formed around the ring and changed the way it worked for her.

  “You understand why I’m doing this,” Jayna said.

  Eva sat up, dusting her hands across her white dress. Somehow, even in the forest, Eva managed to keep her dress clean. She kept all of herself clean. Her pale skin took on a hint of a glow, and only her raven-dark hair carried the shadows of the forest.

  “I understand that you’re doing it because you’re afraid.”

  Jayna just shook her head. “It’s not fear. It’s preparation. I need to be ready for Asymorn. Norej. Sarenoth.” She looked around as she said each of the names. She had no idea if they had any way of tracking any mention of their names and she wanted to be careful. The closest she had come to any of them was when she had encountered sorcerers who served them—and another Toral like herself.

  Then there was Sarenoth.

  Jayna started forward, dragging her toe a little deeper through the earth, kicking up a bit of leaves and debris as she did. Outside of the city, she didn’t fear the Society detecting her magic, though even if they did, she no longer knew if that posed a problem for her. She had helped the Society.

  “I could use your help,” she said. “Rather than sitting there, commenting on how little I know and how much I’m afraid, you could offer me some assistance.”

  “How can I help? You made it quite clear that I’m not a sorcerer.”

  “I think it’s the opposite. Every time I’ve asked for you to participate in any type of sorcery, you tell me that you aren’t a sorcerer.”

  “I’m not,” Eva said, leaning back.

  “See?”

  “What am I supposed to say? There’s no doubt that I’m not a sorcerer. There’s no way for me to use the kind of magic you possess. Even if I wanted to—and I don’t—I don’t have the years you’ve trained at the Academy to fall back on the same way you do.”

  Jayna breathed out slowly. Years. When Eva said it like that, it brought home the truth of what she’d gone through, and the truth of what Jayna had abandoned by accepting this new responsibility. Years. That was what she had traded. All the time she’d spent at the Academy learning how to be a sorcerer, intending to rise within the Society so that she could use her abilities to suit their needs. Now all of that was gone. All of that was wasted. If she had remained at the Academy, she might have taken a post much like Char had taken—then what?

  Jayna wouldn’t have been content. Even when she’d been at the Academy, she had a certain restlessness about her. It had come from a need to get moving, to keep digging, to learn more than what the instructors were willing to teach. It had come from her desire to try to find the answers that seemed just out of reach.

  “You don’t have to look so sullen like that,” Eva said.

  Jayna smiled slightly. “That’s funny coming from you.”

  “I have reasons for my sullenness.”

  “Just because you don’t remember wha
t happened before we met? That isn’t an excuse.”

  “I’m sorry, I thought my emotional trauma was a good enough reason for me to act this way.”

  “Everybody has emotional trauma,” Jayna said. She flicked her gaze to the open spellbook resting on the ground nearby, and made a mental note of the pattern she needed to complete. She was close enough now that she thought she could hold on to the pattern, but she wanted to finish powering through the outline before she attempted the next part of it. It slowed Jayna quite a bit to have Eva sitting nearby, making comments, but she still thought she had enough control with this.

  She neared the end of the pattern, then stopped.

  She heard something. Jayna wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but she was certain it was out there. She looked up, out into the forest.

  “Did you detect anything?” Jayna asked Eva.

  Eva scarcely lifted her head. “If this is some way for you to delay things . . .”

  The ring on her finger started to constrict, and Jayna frowned, starting off without even hesitating.

  “What now?” Eva’s voice carried too loudly through the trees, but Jayna ignored it.

  A dark creature.

  There had to be one here.

  They had come across quite a few different dark creatures in the forest since she had come to Nelar, but none over the last few weeks.

  The ring stopped constricting.

  So Jayna stopped. She was in a denser part of the forest, darkness surrounding her.

  She waited, but the constricting didn’t return.

  When a surge of heat came from behind her, she spun to see Eva approaching, practically floating as she made her way toward her.

  “Did you find anything? You’ve been so restless these days, maybe it would be good for you to come across another dark creature. Perhaps not one of the dwaring,” Eva said with a hint of a smile, “but maybe hitarin or covis or—”

  Jayna frowned. When the constricting still didn’t return, she started back the way she came.

  “I haven’t been restless.”

  “It’s only been my imagination,” Eva said, shaking her head.

  She paused at the clearing, then returned to the pattern she had been working on.

  There was no point in delaying this anymore.

  Rather than trying to drag her foot through the rest of the pattern, she stepped away from it and onto a large boulder near the edge of the clearing, looking down upon what she had created.

  As much as she hated to admit it, Eva might’ve been right. She had created a bit of irregularity with her halting movements. For the most part, the star looked to be relatively intact, as did most of the triangles that ringed it, but there was an uneven spot along the border of one of them that she worried wouldn’t hold the contents of the spell as she powered through it.

  She either had to try it and hope it was effective, or she had to erase the triangle with the uneven spot and start again, which might mean that she would need to erase all of them and start from scratch. The patterns had to be layered in a consistent manner or everything reset.

  Of course, they didn’t have a whole lot else they were doing today. They didn’t have a whole lot else they were doing these days in general. Preparations. That was about it. They had spent their time in Nelar getting ready for additional attacks—at least the possibility of additional attacks—in addition to chasing down the occasional dark creature.

  But Jayna was happier doing this for now. She didn’t need to go running after dwaring or shiisii or any of the other awful things Ceran had her chasing down.

  “What are you waiting for?” Eva asked.

  Jayna shook her head. “I am debating whether or not I need to redo this one.”

  “Redo it? You have been standing there for the better part of five minutes thinking about what you’re going to do.”

  “Sorcery can’t be sloppy.”

  Eva snorted.

  The entire purpose of all of this was for her to practice making these larger patterns so that she could eventually transfer and use that same level of control to make enchantments in a more skillful manner. That was one part of what she needed.

  There was more to it, which she suspected Eva knew. It was probably the reason Eva taunted her a little bit about everything. Jayna wanted to know if she could do it—if she was capable. After having left the Academy, and having abandoned what she had trained for so long to do, she still wanted to know whether or not she could be a sorcerer. She believed she had the necessary skill, but at the same time, having not had the need to do it, she didn’t know if she could.

  Sloppy.

  Though a sorcerer’s magic needed to be neat and tidy, there was a time when a little bit of a mess didn’t matter. There was an advantage to simply attempting a spell, rather than fumbling around, waiting for perfection. There was an advantage to simply getting that magic out into the world.

  Eva watched her, almost as if she knew Jayna’s thoughts.

  Jayna jumped down and reached into the leather pouch she had slung over her shoulder. She grabbed the strand of horsehair, along with the other two ingredients, and carefully placed them into the center of the marking. Once they were situated, she leaned her hands forward, pressing outward with just a hint of power within her.

  “Are you doing it?” Eva asked.

  Jayna ignored her. At this point, she needed to focus on her concentration and control over her magic. If she lost that concentration because of Eva, there was no telling what might happen with the spell. It was more likely than not that it would go awry, and she would end up with magic streaking off in ways she didn’t intend, possibly hitting buildings—or people.

  She called upon the power from some place deep within her.

  Sorcery had always been a part of her. She had known it since she was young. Maybe not in the same distinct ways that she did now, but she had always known she had magic. It had come when she was very little. Things had happened that shouldn’t have. At first, it had been small accidents. Unintentional spells. That was the way it started with all sorcerers. It came as a burst of power, and she remembered her parents’ reaction when she had first demonstrated magic by opening a cabinet. Both of her parents had potential, though Jayna didn’t think that either of them were within the Society. Dular, more likely than not, but they had not revealed that themselves.

  She had to push those thoughts aside.

  The training from the Academy always came to her as she focused on the magic within her. The Academy had taught her that there was a bubble of magic within her, and accessing magic was a matter of accessing that bubble. Most of the time, it happened instinctively. When she used the Toral ring, however, she simply summoned the power within the ring, letting that flow out from her. It came from something else, the Toral ring connecting her to a greater magic that she couldn’t access otherwise. When she used other power, such as sorcery, it required that she channel her power in a very specific manner.

  In this case, Jayna needed to harness that energy and send it flowing through the pattern, which would then envelop the other ingredients and fold it all into the spell. Together, it created something more potent than each one individually. Her magic acted like an oven, adding heat to the ingredients she mixed.

  “If you wait long enough, you’ll find some dark creature here.”

  Jayna looked over, shooting her a hard stare. “You’re going to help me if I do anyway.”

  Eva shrugged. “No, but I would watch.”

  The power poured out of her in a trickle, easing up, and flowing distantly, slowly, into the pattern.

  It tracked around the perimeter of the pattern before finally settling upon the star where she could practically see the magic shimmering into the spell, then it folded. There was something about that shape that caused it to not only hold on to her magic, but also to fold the power upward and turn it into something else.

  She waited a moment, then another, and finally the power explod
ed through, coalescing and twisting, shrinking down. With a burst of pale-white light, the spell expanded before collapsing back downward again.

  When it was done, the pattern had erased from the ground. The oil and the powder were gone. The only thing remaining was the strand of horsehair, and that had thickened, looking now like a small twig.

  Jayna stared at it. “I think it worked.”

  She reached down, picking up the horsehair twig. While it felt smooth and warm, it was also a little bit unpleasant and somewhat slippery; strangely enough, she could feel the energy within it. There was a sort of earthy quality to it, as if the spell had taken on some of the magic of the forest that she had used in its creation.

  “It doesn’t look like much. You could have done that back home,” Eva said.

  Jayna snorted. “I’m not sure I could have used a pattern like that. Besides, I’m just practicing. And there’s a reason I came out here anyway. Now that we know the forest itself has a natural defense to it that disperses sorcery so they can’t detect it, I can practice more openly.”

  There was something about this forest that served to contain magic, holding it inside. She had no idea if there was something special to this forest, or whether it was simply the fact that it was here, outside of the city, distant enough from Nelar. Whatever it was, the magic dissipated quickly, and didn’t reach the city.

  Which meant that it didn’t reach the Society.

  “And I don’t have to worry about him scolding me for my unregulated sorcery,” Jayna continued.

  “Aren’t you past that with him?”

  “I thought so, but I don’t know.”

  “So you don’t know if Char would report you to the Society either.” Eva started to laugh, getting to her feet and wiping her hands on her dress for a moment before coming over and leaning down to evaluate the branch that had formed with the spell. “He’s your friend, isn’t he? I thought that connection you two shared would keep you safe.”