Festival of Mourn (The Dark Sorcerer Book 1)
Festival of Mourn
The Dark Sorcerer Book 1
D.K. Holmberg
Copyright © 2021 by D.K. Holmberg
Cover by Damonza.com
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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
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Author’s Note
Series by D.K. Holmberg
1
Fighting a single banewig was never all that difficult. Fighting five was another matter altogether.
Jayna backed up and immediately began tracing a series of three overlapping triangular patterns in the air, adding the power of sorcery through those patterns, and generating what she liked to call the blade of light. It surged out from her, something like a sword, but not one that she had to hold to use. The light cascaded outward, illuminating the darkness of the damp forest, and blasted out in a band.
“You need to be a little more careful with that,” Eva snapped. Smoke trailed around her, swirling outward, though it didn’t do anything to help fight against the banewig other than keep them off Eva.
Five of the banewig snapped at them, the sudden surge of brightness that the blade of light had created giving Jayna just enough illumination to see the outline of their forms. Were it not for the line of jagged fangs that snarled at her, they might almost be considered cute. They had short, stubby fur, and reminded her a little bit of a weasel—if a weasel wanted to rip through her flesh and consume her. A single banewig wouldn’t be able to do that, though five might be able to.
The blade of light wasn’t going to be as effective as she needed it to be. A single blast of energy could only be used against one attacker. There was something she could try, but it meant she was going to have to position herself in front of Eva.
Jayna started tracing the pattern. Sorcery like this was a little more complicated. It took time to master, and these were the kind of spells she had learned while studying at the Academy.
As she pushed power out through the spell, a series of sparkling lights exploded outward, striking three of the creatures, eliciting a horrible shriek that split the air. She called this her starburst pattern, though it probably had some other name, and the destructive magic it elicited would most likely be frowned upon should anyone from the Sorcerers’ Society discover she used it.
“You could help,” Jayna snapped, looking over to Eva.
Her friend had on a pale white dress that seemed out of place here along the outskirts of the forest, though her heavy, gray cloak was probably too warm.
“I could,” she said. The smoke still swirled around her, but it wasn’t directed in the way Jayna knew Eva could use it.
She could, but her comment meant she had no intention of doing so.
Which meant Jayna was going to have to do this on her own.
Then again, it was her assignment. She was the reason they were here, after all.
After tracing another starburst pattern, she pushed power out from her, exploding it out and around, and realized that in doing so, the banewig had backed away, disappearing into the trees.
“Great,” Jayna muttered. “Now I have to chase them.”
Eva sniffed. “Isn’t that your assignment?”
Jayna glowered at her before casting a quick spell. This one required little in the way of patterns, and it led to a ball of glowing light in front of her. That was one of the earliest spells she had learned in the Academy, and though it couldn’t really be used in a violent manner—an approach she found herself needing to use with increasing frequency—there was some benefit to it.
“Are you going to come with me?”
“I will accompany you, but I have no intention of dealing with them.”
Jayna just shook her head. She tucked her deep red hair under the hood of her cloak, keeping it from getting in her eyes, and started forward. She wasn’t about to argue with Eva about any of this. She had helped as much as she was going to, and Jayna doubted she would offer any greater assistance.
The pale white stone ring on her finger pulsed.
Jayna turned her attention to it. The ring itself was nondescript. Plain stone, though it was of a pale, almost milky white. There were no symbols on it. No decoration. Nothing to indicate its power.
And now it constricted around her finger, leaving it throbbing.
She had learned to follow the pressure she felt from the ring. There was a directionality to the throbbing, and she knew better than to ignore it. It was her assignment, and the entire reason that she had the ring in the first place.
They hadn’t gone far into the trees when she caught sight of two of the banewig. They scurried toward her quickly, fangs snarling, and Jayna reacted, erupting outward with another starburst pattern. The power consumed the banewig, and they exploded in a flash of light.
“How many were left?” Jayna asked, looking over to Eva.
“I’m not going to help you hunt them.”
“You don’t have to help me hunt them. I was just asking a question about how many were left.”
Eva frowned at her before letting out a long sigh. “I don’t want to be a part of any of this.”
“You could’ve stayed back in the city.”
“I don’t want anything to happen to you either.”
It was almost enough to make Jayna smile. Eva was surprisingly protective for somebody so mysterious. It came from her fragmented memories, and from the fact that Jayna had saved her life when she’d found her injured and dying along the road nearly a year ago. Jayna had just left the Academy, taking the first steps to understanding how to use the ring that had been given to her, and had not expected to have company. She was thankful for it though.
“All I need is to know how many more might be out here.”
Eva took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, and the smoke began to swirl around her even more. Gradually, that smoke billowed out and into the forest. As it did, Eva’s eyes closed, her jaw clenching, and then they snapped open.
“There are seven more, and they aren’t very far from here.”
“A nest?”
That was surprising. Banewig were known as dark creatures. They had started as something natural, but they had been twisted by dark magic, the kind that fed on pain and sacrifice, until they were something else. They were the kind of creatures that dark sorcerers used, and they tended to be attracted to those with magic. Maybe that was why they were here. This city was a place of magic. Not potent magic, as most within the city were only capable of minor magic, but the kind that
could place enchantments upon items—nothing like true sorcery, but magic nonetheless.
“Maybe this is why Ceran sent me here,” Jayna said, following the direction that Eva indicated.
She didn’t prefer coming into the forest in the darkness, but that was when the ring had started constricting, guiding her, and she had learned early on that she had to follow it as soon as it did.
“I’m sure you could ask,” Eva said.
“He’s not particularly vocal when I ask,” Jayna said, twisting the ring absently. It connected her to his power, granting her a unique kind of magic that she drew from him, but it also hurt to use.
“You don’t have to keep serving him,” Eva said.
Jayna could take the ring off. She had many times. Especially when she felt the throbbing in her finger to be too much after using the power that it connected her to. But she served for a specific reason, and she wasn’t going to be able to find what she wanted without using the kind of magic that the ring, and Ceran, provided.
Eva held her gaze for a moment, and then she pointed once more.
Jayna slowed and stared into the darkness, her glowing orb pushing back the shadows nearby.
Her ring throbbed continuously on her finger. Whatever she was going to find would be here soon. She was close.
She moved carefully now, creeping forward, preparing the starburst pattern, when a flurry of movement surged out of the darkness.
There had to be a dozen banewig.
Some of them were quite a bit larger than the ones she had seen before—nearly the size of a fox, perhaps larger than that.
She unleashed the starburst pattern and started another, but it wasn’t going to be enough. Smoke swirled around her and Eva as Eva’s unique form of magic flowed. Jayna had one other type of spell that she was skilled with, but the fire whip, as she called it, wouldn’t be as effective as she needed against this many creatures.
Her only remaining option was to use the power of the ring.
She swore under her breath and focused on the tension within the ring. The banewig were pressing up against the smoke ring Eva had generated, and within a short period of time, they would press through it. Jayna was certain of it.
She took a deep breath, then began to access the power of the ring.
The first thing she felt was pain.
It was cold, and it burned up her finger, extending into her wrist, and soon would work its way up her arm. She rarely let it go much longer than that. She had no idea what would happen to her if she allowed herself to continue to access the power. It might destroy her. That was her concern.
As soon as she tapped into that power, she could feel the energy within it. The nature of that magic was different than that of sorcery, but they were complementary.
She re-created her starburst pattern and forced the energy of the ring through it, causing the pattern to explode outward—a wash of power that streamed away. When it slammed into the banewig, they simply disappeared.
That was the power of the ring. It was dangerous. Deadly.
And it just might be dark magic.
She pushed outward, sending the ball of light beyond the ring of smoke, and saw no further sign of banewig.
That one spell was enough.
Using the blade of light, she destroyed the collection of branches forming the banewig den, and licked her lips, turning to Eva.
“I hate using that,” Jayna muttered.
“He gave it to you to use.”
Eva was always so practical, but as far as Jayna knew, she didn’t have the same pain as Jayna did when she used her magic.
“He gave it to me to use, but he hasn’t told me the secret to ignoring the pain when I do.”
“Maybe there is no secret. Maybe it’s a matter of tolerance and dealing with as much as you can.”
“I don’t like using it,” she said again. “But it is effective.”
She started to say something more when the ring began to vibrate.
It was a quite different sensation than the painful constriction she felt when she detected dark magic around her. She had learned to follow the constriction, knowing how to use it to find the dark creatures she was supposed to follow, but it also meant that she often had to begin using power she didn’t want to use. But in this case, it was a vibration, not painful at all.
And it meant Ceran was close.
“You can come with me.”
Eva shook her head. “I might return to the city.”
“Are you sure? You always avoid it when we are summoned by Ceran.”
“We are not summoned by him. You are summoned by him.”
“He does know that you’ve been helping me.”
“And that is what I’m concerned about,” Eva said, her full lips turning in a frown. She shook her head, pulling the hood of her cloak over her raven hair, and turned away without saying anything else. She marched through the forest until she disappeared, the shadows swallowing her.
Jayna suspected that Ceran preferred Eva didn’t come with her, though he never said anything. He would have to know that she had help, given everything he’d asked of her and everything they had done; it was more than what Jayna would’ve been able to do on her own.
The ring continued to vibrate, and she followed it into the forest. She held the glowing orb in front of her, but it only pushed back some of the darkness, as if the forest itself had protections against the magic she had infused in the orb, preventing her from squeezing power out too far.
Sorcery was but one kind of magic. She had learned it while studying at the Academy and was only limited now by what she could remember. Had she stayed longer and continued her training, she might have become skilled, but other needs had changed the direction of her studies of magic.
In this part of the world, there were not as many sorcerers as there were in other parts of the kingdom, though the Society had connections everywhere. The dular, men and women who could place enchantments upon items, were far more common in the city of Nelar. It was a weaker power than that of sorcery, though most believed it similar. Rather than requiring specific knowledge, it involved emotion and intuition, but also the same connection to magic.
Others approached magic differently still. There were the Urguin who borrowed from sorcery, though perhaps not intentionally. Jayna had never met any, and she was far enough from their homeland in the southern mountains that she doubted any would travel this far. They used strange objects in their magic, like bones and leaves and dirt—objects that most sorcerers would consider barbaric, if only because they didn’t command nearly as much power as sorcerers possessed.
There were those who had natural and intrinsic magic. Sorcerers had one aspect of that, though it was augmented by the spellcraft they utilized. The El’aras who had once lived in these lands were the most well-known, primarily because their kind of magic was so different from that of sorcerers. It didn’t involve spellcraft, herbs or powders, or any patterns and incantations. It was power that flowed from within them. True and natural power.
Then there were the Sul’toral.
Jayna had not even known about them before Ceran had found her. She didn’t know how many there were, only that they were powerful and could gift that energy to others. She questioned whether Ceran and other Sul’toral pulled on the power of the gods themselves, but so far, Ceran had not answered that clearly.
She twisted the ring on her finger, feeling the humming of magic within it, the summons.
The forest continued to grow darker and deeper around her.
Then the vibration stopped.
So did Jayna.
“Here?”
“I figured I should check on you considering what I just detected.” Ceran’s voice came from the shadows, though she couldn’t see anything, which wasn’t terribly surprising.
Ceran had a rich, almost musical voice, and there was a trace of an accent that she could not determine. In the time that she had been working with Ceran, she had
never really learned where he was from, nor did she know all that much about him. She still didn’t really know why he had chosen her, other than because of the kind of questions she had started to ask in the Academy.
“You don’t usually come so quickly,” Jayna said.
“And you don’t usually draw so much energy.”
“Am I taking too much from you?” That was how she called upon the power within the ring. She borrowed from him, and the power he could access, but she believed that he had an infinite amount of power. Certainly, he had to have enough to lend it to her.
He chuckled, but he didn’t step out of the shadows. That was unusual. Usually, Ceran made sure that she saw him.
“It would be difficult for you to take too much. Besides, it is not only my power you borrow.”
“I thought the ring connected me to you.”
“It connects you to me, and it augments that connection, but there is something within you that connection unlocks.” She heard a soft rustling of leaves, but he still didn’t step forward. “What, did you think that I only chose you because you were chasing darkness while at the Academy?”
She flushed. “I wasn’t chasing darkness for myself,” she said, stepping toward him. “I still want to know what happened to my parents. And my brother.”
“I can’t guarantee those answers,” Ceran said. “I have never been able to guarantee them. All I offered was the chance to learn.”
She breathed out in a sigh, pushing the orb closer to the sound of his voice, but none of the darkness near him parted. Ceran was too powerful for that.
“What now?”
Typically, when she completed one assignment, Ceran sent her somewhere else. She had traipsed all over throughout the year she had served him—hunting creatures, containing dark magic until he could reach her. That was how he often used her. He didn’t want her to destroy all creatures of darkness, though he typically didn’t care. He had taught her to contain them, hold them, until he could destroy them. It had been like that with a shisii that she and Eva had found on their way to the city of Nelar, a creature of darkness that fed on blood. She had only held it until he had come and destroyed it.