Last of the Light Read online

  She strode along the hall, her footsteps echoing loudly on the tile. Jayna frowned. She looked behind herself and noticed her assistant following her, his gray slippered feet sliding along the smooth marble far more easily than her boots.

  “You don’t have to trail after me,” she said, nodding to Peltar. He was an older man with a thin mustache and dark eyes that took in every detail. She wouldn’t be surprised if he knew secrets about her that even she didn’t know. Probably pointless rumors that had spread, but rumors in the palace always had some meat to them.

  “Why, Ms. Aguelon, it is my responsibility to ensure you reach the meetings that are asked of you. I’m sure you don’t want to miss any of your appointments.”

  She snorted to herself. She could do without going to some of those appointments, though she wasn’t going to tell him that. It would only irritate him. Probably offend him as well. Honestly, she had no interest in being at any appointments.

  It was times like these that Jayna started to question what she had really been thinking. She had forced her way into the palace, insisting she personally serve Lodeth, and for what?

  She had thought she could use it to her benefit to find information about Jonathan, but so far Lodeth had not helped nearly so much as she had hoped he would.

  “If you serve me well, you may use my resources,” he had promised.

  Jayna had stood across from him, forcing a tight smile, feeling no pleasure in it. He had agreed to allow her to work with him after she had proven the depths of deceit within the city and the dangers of the Society. She was an outsider, though she didn’t mind being considered as such. It suited her as well as anything else.

  “It’s a simple ask,” she had said. “I need for you to use whatever resources you have to dig into—”

  The king had cut her off, and that had been the end of it.

  That day, she promised herself she would serve until she got the information that she wanted. Ceran had been quiet, which was even more reason for her to dig for information about her brother, now that she wasn’t as preoccupied searching for dark sorcerers as she once had been. And staying close to the Society gave her an opportunity to dig into the Sul’toral. Answers were here. She just had to find them.

  With the Fates gone, Jayna no longer knew which of the Sul’toral might still be active within the Society. There had been twelve—thirteen if she included Ceran—but now there were at least four fewer.

  “He merely asks that you meet with him this morning. The king thinks it will be beneficial for both of you to have that meeting. Given your role in the city, Ms. Aguelon, I can’t help but agree with Lodeth on this.”

  She hadn’t been paying as much attention to him as she knew she should have, but there was something in his tone of voice that irritated her.

  “Why is it beneficial to both of us?”

  “Why, you will need to work together on the assignments Lodeth has for you.”

  Jayna could easily imagine the kind of assignment Lodeth might have for her, and none of them were appealing, though she wasn’t going to admit that to Peltar.

  “I first have to meet with the Society representative,” she said, waving her hand and motioning for Peltar to leave her.

  “Of course. It was on your schedule for the morning.”

  Was it?

  She didn’t remember putting that down, so for Peltar to have known what she was planning suggested to her that he was somehow digging into more aspects of her life than she had realized. None of this was what she was supposed to be doing though. That thought was what stuck with her more than anything else.

  Ceran had other assignments for her. Chase down dark magic. Find dark sorcerers. Be prepared to defeat them and the Sul’toral who are leading them.

  But she had done that. And now, without Ceran communicating with her, she wasn’t sure what she needed to focus on.

  She strode along the hallway and Peltar continued to follow her. It annoyed her, but she had grown accustomed to his behavior. She reached the door near the entrance to the palace, and veered off into one of the side chambers, pushing the door closed behind her. As soon as she did, she drew upon the power of her Toral ring, the cold bursting through her, a hint of pain forcing her to clench her jaw and traced the pattern on the door before sealing it behind her.

  When she was done, she turned to face a visitor to the palace.

  “Char,” she said, grinning at him in his maroon Society robes.

  Char got to his feet as Jayna entered further into the room, his eyes looked wide, as he had been concerned about who was entering.

  “Jayna,” he said, sweeping his gaze over her. “You look like…”

  “Say it,” she said.

  Char ran a hand through his long brown hair, shaking his head. “I’m not going to say anything. I know better than that.”

  “You know better than to keep something from me too. So go ahead and say it.”

  He breathed out a heavy sighed. “You look like you belong here.”

  Jayna looked down. She smoothed her hands across the fabric of the navy-colored jacket and shrugged. “I can’t say I mind the quality of the clothes,” she said. “Besides, it is perfectly acceptable for me to be wearing this.”

  “Because you forced your way here,” he said.

  She shrugged again. “You say forced, and I like to think I did what was necessary to gain access to the power I need for answers.”

  Char watched for a moment but didn’t argue. Jayna supposed she should be thankful for his silence.

  “I keep waiting for you to come visit me at the Society,” he said.

  Jayna breathed out slowly. “I’m not exactly sure I’m wanted there. I did what was necessary to cleanse some of the danger within the Society, but I figured I would give you your space.”

  She motioned for him to sit, but Char remained standing. He was taller than her, and lean. When she had first met him, he’d been heavier. She didn’t know if it was his time in Nelar or here at the palace that had thinned him out.

  “You need to come see me at the Society House.”

  “You want me to formalize the testing,” she said.

  He frowned at her. “You don’t think I should?”

  “I planned on doing that when I thought I needed access to the Society to find the Sul’toral, but I don’t need to now. Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything to antagonize the Society. Not yet.”

  He arched a brow at her. “You aren’t?”

  “No. Well, that’s not exactly true. I’m not going to do anything that would harm you. I am not concerned about the Society, as I have made it abundantly clear. At this point, the less that I care about is—”

  “The only thing you care about is finding information about your brother.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Well, that is really all that I care about.”

  “What about why you’re here? What about the Sul’toral?”

  “I’m still looking for them. There are at least eight remaining, though the danger to the Society isn’t gone. That’s part of the reason I’m here.” Jayna had to be careful. She had no idea how many people were listening in on their conversation. It was possible Peltar had his own spies lingering, waiting for her to reveal some secret that could be used against her. And Lodeth had spies everywhere. She had to be careful she didn’t draw their attention; she wanted to keep her secrets.

  “You got on my schedule and obviously needed to see me, so here I am. What is it?”

  “I wanted to talk about Lodeth’s intentions with the Society.”

  That was all he was ever concerned about. It always came back to the Society with Char.

  Even when she had revealed the dangers within the Society, Char had struggled with what that might mean, both for him and for the Society. He was always the faithful servant.

  But she had promised she wouldn’t tear it down, regardless of how dangerous it might be. There might even be parts that could be restored.

/>   She regarded him for a long moment before sitting down. “Did you bring me any other spell books?” Jayna looked around the room. “Any spell books at all? I was hoping maybe you would’ve brought something more for me. I’ve been working on my spells like you taught me before, but it’s slow going.”

  “You have all that you need to do it,” Char said, his gaze drifting around the room before returning to her. “I told you that you just have to piece it together. You have the basics. That’s what the Academy taught. You were far enough along in the Academy to learn that much, and the rest is just a matter of experience. Practice, really.” He sniffed and turned his attention back to her, holding her with his intense gaze.

  Jayna knew it was more than that. And she wasn’t sure she needed to study quite as much as she once would have. With her linking spell to Char, she could use the connection to understand things she would not have otherwise. She wasn’t sure how much of that Char knew.

  “You don’t have to worry about Lodeth’s interest in the Society,” she said. “He still has one of your Society lackeys here. I’ve been trying to get rid of her, but she’s burrowed too deep. Like a tick.” Jayna laughed at her own joke, but Char simply watched her. “You know her. Karina. I don’t think she was involved in Melinda’s plan with the Sniffers, but I don’t necessarily care for her either. She has been something of a pain in my backside ever since I’ve been here.”

  “Because you aren’t a full member of the Society. Provisional. That’s it.”

  “And you can change that,” Jayna said, leaning toward him. “Now that you have your own authority within the Society, you can influence them.”

  Char shook his head. “You know, Jayna, you make it awfully hard to help you.”

  “Is that why you’re here?”

  “It wasn’t why I initially came, no, but seeing as how you are making this as difficult as you are, I think I’m going to need to do more than I’ve done already. I suppose it’s time to remove the provisional nature from your rejoining of the Society. I’m not sure the others will agree, so you are going to have to submit yourself for a formal testing. Are you willing to do that?”

  “I should think my service to the Society should be enough that I wouldn’t need a formal testing.” Jayna shot Char a hard-eyed look, though she hadn’t really expected he would let her off that easily. She suspected she would have to go through far more rigorous testing than others were she to join the Society, especially as she had left both the Academy and her training behind.

  “It’s not that easy, Jayna, and you know that. I’ve been around you enough over the last few months to know that your knowledge of sorcery is sufficient to make you a member of the Society. You might have rudimentary knowledge in some areas, but overall—”

  “Rudimentary?” Jayna asked, and she leaned forward as if to strike him. “I’ll show you rudimentary.”

  “I’m not saying that as an insult. I refer to your knowledge as rudimentary because you don’t have the necessary experience. That’s all I’m trying to tell you.”

  She couldn’t argue with that. As much as she might want to tout her knowledge, there were certain things that she didn’t know, skills she hadn’t gotten the opportunity to acquire. And despite what Char said, she knew that it irritated him that she had not fully returned to the Society, embracing it the way he wanted her to do.

  It was part of the reason she had pushed to gain access to spell books. Now that she had helped the Society, Char had been more accommodating with her desire for knowledge. Jayna had claimed it was so she could study for testing, but she suspected Char knew the truth; that she had an ulterior motive. She needed access to the spell books to see if there was anything that might help her in her fight against dark sorcery—and the Sul’toral in particular.

  “I’m going to do it eventually, but I don’t know when I’m going to have time.” Jayna looked around and was thankful that no one seemed to pay her much mind, though inside of the palace she wasn’t sure she would know if anyone was watching her. It was part of the politics of the palace that she very much disliked. “In between dealing with the Fates, the residual fallout from Melinda, and trying to understand my role here in the palace, I haven’t had the kind of time that I had hoped I would.”

  “The Fates are dead, Jayna. You don’t have to deal with them. Melinda died during the attack. The only thing you’ve really been doing has been dealing with Lodeth.”

  She wanted to argue, but she wasn’t quite sure what to say. Melinda had died, but that didn’t mean Jayna hadn’t been digging into the kind of power that she’d mastered. She tried to understand it, and though she knew it was tied to a particular natural power that came from volantinkar, she had hoped to try to make more sense of that power. Unfortunately, Melinda had hidden her research in a way Jayna hadn’t managed to find.

  And the Fates had been of no help. Melinda had targeted them with her decay magic, draining them far more rapidly than Jayna had anticipated, and they had died within a matter of days. Jayna had been unable to get any more information from them, other than that the Sul’toral were not done with whatever they planned.

  “I’m dealing with powers that the Society should have been dealing with, Char. Or have you forgotten that?”

  “I’ve not forgotten,” he said. She felt a faint tugging through the linking spell and didn’t know if it was a warning or if it was his irritation. Maybe both? “And the Society has not forgotten. I know it’s difficult for you to believe, but things are changing. Let me prove that to you. And you proved to them—”

  “What do you think I’ve been doing ever since I left the Academy?” she asked Char. “You say I need to prove myself, but that’s all I’ve been doing since I left you. I’ve had to prove myself. Not to you, not to the Society, and not to anyone who you might think important, but to those who matter, those who might actually influence what I can do.”

  Char regarded her and finally he let out a slow, steady breath laced with frustration. “Why do you always have to make things so difficult?”

  “I didn’t realize I was making things difficult for you. To me, you and the Society are separate. And I have my own Society issues to deal with here in the palace with Karina.”

  She probably should be a bit more careful with how she spoke of Karina, and she shouldn’t be quite so flippant about Char and the Society. She viewed them separately, but she wasn’t convinced Char viewed himself the same way.

  Char frowned. “You don’t care for her?”

  “You know the woman?”

  Char shrugged, waving his hand. “Only peripherally. I would’ve figured the two of you would’ve gotten along. From what I understand, she is skilled. Powerful, even.”

  “But you know why she was here,” she said. “You know who she was serving.”

  “There are quite a few sorcerers within the palace, Jayna. Not all of them are corrupted the way you worry they are. Most of them work. Most of them wanted nothing more than to serve the Society. They did what they thought was necessary in order for the Society to thrive.”

  “Or they were just power hungry,” she said.

  Char shook his head. “You know, the same argument could be made for you. If the Society were to learn about how you connected to magic and the way that you used it, it’s very possible they would view everything that you have done as dark magic. I certainly felt that way.”

  “Felt?”

  “I’m still not convinced it’s not dark magic,” Char said, shrugging. “If you want me to be honest, there it is. I have tried to be honest with you about everything.”

  “Of course, you have,” Jayna said.

  “Why do you see it like that?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like there is something terrible about me wanting to serve the Society. As if you view the Society poorly. You do realize that there was a time when you wanted to be a part of the Society.”

  She suppressed her irritation with him and shook her
head. “I suppose I should be grateful for you and your willingness to work with me.”

  “And I should be grateful you aren’t still trying to tear down the Society from the inside.”

  “Who’s to say I’m not?” Jayna whispered. She looked over to Char and found him frowning at her. “I’m not doing anything to harm your precious society,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Besides, I think it might be useful.”

  “You do?”

  “I’m not saying it will be. Only that I can see certain circumstances where there may be a role for the Society.”

  Jayna had been trying to work through that aspect but hadn’t managed to figure out how the Society would be of any use to her. There were so many people who still served it. And it did aid in coordinating the kind of magic that sorcerers possessed. The problem for her was that there were so many people within the Society, and she didn’t trust any of them. She only trusted Char. That was it.

  “There are some within the Society who are taking steps to ensure that it is safe,” he said.

  “Is that right?”

  He peered at her. “You don’t have to look so pleased.”

  “And you don’t have to sound so sour at the idea that your precious Society had been corrupted. You saw what happened. Gods, Char, you were very nearly destroyed by it. I would think that you, of all people, would have wanted to make sure that anybody who came in contact with the Society did so in a way that would avoid corruption.”

  Char regarded her again and finally shook his head. “As I said, steps are being taken to ensure that the Society is safe. That’s all I can tell you. And hopefully that will be enough to convince you it’s time for you to return to the Society.”