A City in Ruin (The Dark Sorcerer Book 2) Read online

  Energy and power practically buzzed within her as she focused.

  The temperature in the room suddenly dropped even more. Jayna looked around. As the temperature shifted, she could feel something changing. Energy built around her, and Jayna braced for what was coming next.

  A massive explosion tore through the room.

  It struck the back wall. Thankfully, there wasn’t much there other than a table that Jayna had not used. The explosion ripped through the stone, and a pale, almost purplish flame began to creep along the walls. It didn’t pass through the spell she’d placed around the perimeter of the room, thankfully, so whatever preparation she had managed to make was enough.

  The explosion woke Rosal up. He stirred, looking around, blinking. “What happened?”

  “An explosion. Get moving.”

  “Where . . . where am I?”

  Jayna shook her head. Could he really not know?

  How unmemorable was she?

  “Just get going. Out of this room, down the hall, and out the door. I don’t know what’s taking place”—well, she suspected it was dark magic, but she wasn’t about to tell some stranger that—”but you need to get moving.”

  He staggered to his feet, standing there dumbly for a long time.

  Energy began to build again, and Jayna ignored him, turning her attention to the now open section of the wall.

  Now that she could look outside, she noticed the darkness swirling, shadows moving, and at least one figure. She couldn’t tell what they were doing, but the way the Toral ring constricted on her finger suggested they were using some form of dark magic.

  If they were one of the Celebrants, she was going to have some difficulty defending herself.

  Dark sorcerers were a challenge for her. She was accustomed to fighting dark creatures, and though she had thwarted Gabranth’s plan, that didn’t mean she wanted to deal with more of them.

  First, she had to put the flames out.

  They were crackling along the walls, raging through the stone, and the longer she waited, the more likely those flames would continue to work their way inward and begin to rip through the entirety of their home.

  Rosal remained fixed in place, gazing out at the opening, his eyes wide as he stared at the flames. Jayna grabbed him and pushed him, sending him staggering down the hallway.

  Once he was gone, she faced the flames.

  There was a particular sorcery spell that might be effective in extinguishing them.

  Jayna summoned the spell, tracing out the pattern in the air. It was a series of interlocking lines, with an irregular, oblong shape surrounding it. It was designed to capture and constrict. She had learned this spell from the spellbook she had stolen from Char and the Society. The spellbook had uses, especially with the kinds of things she and Eva did. She didn’t know what the Society would call it, but Jayna liked to refer to it as the magic ball.

  She had never used it on fire before, though she suspected it would work. What was fire but something that expanded when it had a chance to do so?

  Jayna finished the spell and sent it at the nearest of the fires.

  It touched the fire and nothing happened. Jayna tried something else, shifting the spell itself just a little bit, and adding a hint of a different sort of power to it.

  This time, she tried to cool it. She didn’t know if that would even work. At this point, having felt the strange temperature drop, she had to wonder if perhaps the flames were made entirely of dark magic.

  If they were, traditional sorcery wasn’t going to work, as it was rarely effective against dark magic. She could feel energy continue to build around her.

  Jayna shifted to a different approach.

  She decided to use the dragon stone ring.

  As she focused on the power within the ring, Jayna swept her gaze along the fire. It was moving quickly, continuing to burn through the stone. That left no doubt in her mind it was a dark magic. There was no way a natural fire would burn that way, not like this.

  It was heading toward the other part of the home, and pretty soon, it would continue stretching outward until the entirety of the home burned down, leaving nothing.

  Jayna opened herself to the power from the dragon stone ring, connecting to the power Ceran granted her. She tried not to think about how it tapped into something darker. It had to, as that was what she glimpsed at the edge of her magical vision every time she attempted to pull upon that power. It lingered there, just at the edge of her awareness.

  She pushed that power out from her and around the flames, an uncontrolled sort of energy. Jayna needed to be closer.

  Suddenly, the flames exploded, pressing upon her. They had more heat than they had before, and now the purplish flames began to dance, rising with an increased intensity. Jayna pushed outward again, drawing through the dragon stone ring, using the Toral power, but it didn’t do anything.

  This dark magic was too much for her. She blasted at it anyway.

  “Get out of the way.”

  She glanced over to see Eva grabbing her by the shoulder, tossing her off to the side.

  Eva stood with her hands clenched at her sides, blood dripping from the enchantments—or whatever they were—in her hands and creating steam. Smoke drifted around her, swirling steadily, working its way up and through Eva before flooding outward again and surrounding the flames on the wall. The flames danced for a moment, crackling where the smoke touched the fire, as if they attempted to burn through the smoke itself, but then the flames started to fade. Eva remained motionless, hands locked at her sides, holding them there for a long time, the power within her constricting the flames.

  Eva had a vastly different kind of magic than Jayna, though Jayna was still trying to come to grips with just how powerful Eva was. She had seen her using her abilities many times, but she’d never seen anything quite like this.

  Gradually, the smoke started to push forward, and the flames constricted even more, until they died down altogether, leaving nothing but a smoky haze layering over the room. There was nothing left in the room, no sign of the fire, and no sign of who had attacked.

  Once the fire was out, Jayna stepped forward, looking out into the darkness, but she didn’t see the attacker. She glanced back at Eva, but she had already stumbled toward the front of the home, leaving Jayna there alone.

  She assumed it was the Celebrants, but Gabranth was gone. More than that, this was a different kind of magic than they had used before, a strange sort of fire she couldn’t contain. Raollet might use enchantments, but Jayna couldn’t imagine any enchantment that powerful.

  Jayna couldn’t help but wonder: Who had attacked her now?

  3

  The morning sunlight streamed in through the opening in the room, and Jayna sat in front of it, working on a spell to create a layer of power that would seal the opening off. Jayna had traced patterns into the ground along the wall, both on the inside and the outside of the home, and within those patterns, she intended to try to rebuild the stone. That was complicated magic, but not so complicated that she didn’t think she had the ability to do it. The complex part was in trying to hold the stone in place while she reset the fragments that had shattered, exposing her home to the alley behind.

  She had the spellbook resting on the bed, open to another spell that she would never have learned had she not borrowed the spellbook from Char. Knowledge like this would’ve been kept from her. This kind of power was beyond the Toral magic, at least the way she knew how to use it. She was thankful for the spellbook.

  She couldn’t focus though. Rosal had run off as she asked him to, but now she had to wonder why this attack had come now.

  “Jayna?”

  She looked over to the voice coming from the doorway. Topher stood there, holding on to some charred object in his hand, and he twisted it while he fidgeted, waiting for her. He seemed like a restless child, which he often acted like, especially since he had recovered from the dwaring attack, dark parasitic creatures that tr
ied to feed on those with magic. Jayna didn’t know what he had been like before then.

  He ran a hand through his long hair, smoothing it back.

  “What is it?”

  “Eva suggested I show this to you. I was going to let you keep working, as I know you’re busy with . . . whatever this is.” He took a step into the room, sweeping his gaze around, his eyes widening. “You’re trying to rebuild the wall?”

  “I’m trying,” Jayna said, muttering as she focused on the stone again. Not only would she rebuild it, but she needed to build it stronger and more fortified than it had been before. She had to force even more power into it. She used only sorcery, and a trace of sorcery at that—nothing with much power that would reveal her presence. “What do you need?”

  “Well, I’ve been trying to help figure out what happened.”

  “I was attacked,” she said, turning her attention back to the stone. She didn’t need to deal with somebody like him this morning. It was times like these when she just wished Topher would go back to wherever he came from, but he had stayed. She hadn’t the heart to kick him out—not after what he’d gone through. The dark magic wasn’t his fault, and had he not shown up at her doorstep after his first encounter with the dwaring, she might not have uncovered the dangerous plot anyway. “That is what happened.”

  “I know you were attacked. I went outside to see if I could find anything. I figured there might be some evidence of whatever, or whoever, had attacked you, so when I searched . . .”

  Jayna turned her attention away from the stone. She still held on to the spell, but if she diverted her focus too much longer, she was going to lose that control. As it stood, she didn’t have enough control over her magic to afford to lose that focus too often. The spell would collapse on her.

  “What did you find?”

  “This.” He held out the item in his hand, and he shrugged. “I found this resting outside in the alley by your wall. It didn’t look like much. First, I thought it was nothing more than debris from the wall. There was certainly enough of that. Well, there had been until you started rebuilding this, but as I looked at it, I recognized there was something to it.”

  Jayna was careful not to grab the item too quickly. Anything that she might do, any movement she might make, might disrupt the magic she attempted to pull upon now. She needed to maintain her focus, but at the same time, if he had found something that the dark sorcerers had used in their attack, then she wanted to see it.

  “What is it?”

  Jayna tore her gaze away completely, and the section of the wall that she’d been building collapsed.

  “I can’t be certain, but . . . Well, you know I have a talent with enchantments.”

  “You’re a dular,” she said.

  “That’s not what they used to call me, but sure. If you want to call me a dular, then fine.”

  “That’s what we called people with your skill set at the Academy.”

  “They used to call us sezaren.”

  Jayna frowned, focusing on the enchantment for a moment before looking up at him. “I haven’t heard that term before, but it has some connotations in the old language.”

  “It seems a bit offensive.”

  Jayna smiled, taking the item from him, and she probed at it with a bit of sorcery. There came a reverberation of energy within it. It definitely was an enchantment, though she couldn’t tell what it was or why it worked.

  “What if there isn’t anything offensive about it? It’s mostly just a title.”

  “You know what sezaren means?”

  Jayna looked up, frowning at him again. He didn’t say anything. “I thought I did.”

  “It’s an old word. Sezaren. One who can do little.”

  Jayna shook her head. “That wouldn’t be the full distinction,” she said, turning her attention back to the enchantment. “I learned the ancient language in my studies, and the derivative terms for sezaren would not denote one who can do little, but one who focuses.” She looked up at Topher. “And you do focus. You don’t have the breadth of skill that a sorcerer has, but you’re a focuser of skill.”

  “It’s still offensive,” he muttered. “And it’s meant to be hurtful.”

  Jayna looked up from the enchantment, focusing on Topher for a moment, and shook her head. She wasn’t trying to offend him, and she certainly didn’t want to upset him.

  “Do you have a different title you’d like to be called?”

  “I just want to be called Topher. Is that too much?”

  “What do you think of dular?”

  It was the title she had used for those who created enchantments when she was at the Academy, but she wondered if maybe there was something she had missed. Sorcerers certainly revealed an element of arrogance when it came to enchanters. Those who were only able to create enchantments didn’t have nearly as much power as full sorcerers, and it was easy for her to see how somebody like him would be upset by that distinction, especially if it were codified.

  “I don’t know anything about that term, so I suppose it’s fine.”

  “I don’t mean any disrespect by it. Dular doesn’t even have any implications in the old language, so if that’s your concern . . .”

  “That wasn’t my concern, but . . .” He shook his head, forcing a smile. “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For taking my concern seriously.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “I don’t know. There are quite a few people who have no problem with insulting the dular.” He said the word strangely, with a bit of an emphasis on the first part rather than the last. “All we want is to use the power that we have available to us. Is that wrong?”

  “I suppose not,” Jayna said.

  “Anyway. Can you determine anything about it?”

  Jayna shook her head, studying the enchantment. There was definitely power within it, but it was going to involve her calling upon more than just sorcery to understand it. The detail on the enchantment was exquisite—swirling lines that looped together, creating an intricate pattern—which suggested it was either from an incredibly gifted dular or a sorcerer.

  For it to create fire like it had, it wasn’t going to be a traditional type of enchantment. Dark enchantments were not only difficult to create, but also to hold. Unlike enchantments created with sorcery, dark enchantments tended to fade fairly rapidly. They didn’t last long enough to be of much use. That finite lifespan was beneficial to Jayna in that they couldn’t be carried over great distances, but also created a difficulty in tracking them.

  “I can feel something in this,” she said softly, holding on to the enchantment and looking over to the opening in the wall. Jayna traced the enchantment in front of the wall, pacing in the opening, feeling the power within the enchantment, wondering if perhaps it was responsible for what happened. If the enchantment had anything to do with the fire, then she had to see if there would be any way for her to discover the key to it.

  The power that had exploded her wall had been more than she had managed to put out. Had Eva not been there . . .

  The entire home would have burned.

  Thankfully, her barrier had held.

  Jayna gritted her teeth as she started to draw through the dragon stone ring, feeling the cold power as it coursed through her. She turned that energy upon the enchantment.

  There came a surge of power that flowed outward, and she let it into the enchantment. Gradually, there came even more of a reaction. For a moment, the same purplish-hued, dark flames crackled along the enchantment, but then it faded again.

  “Are you trying to activate it again?”

  Jayna looked over to Topher, shaking her head. “I’m not trying to activate it, but I am trying to understand it.” She looked down at it. It had burned enough she couldn’t even make out much of the details, only the faint striations along the surface, the carving that told her it once had been exquisitely wrought. “Whatever this is created enough of a challenge for me that
I couldn’t even put out the fire.”

  “Eva put it out?” He turned, looking toward the living quarters, a hint of a smile coming to his face.

  “She did,” Jayna said.

  “She really is amazing, isn’t she?”

  “She’s something,” Jayna said.

  She stepped through the hole in the wall.

  She had to block this off. She didn’t want anybody to just walk into her home, and she didn’t like the idea of being exposed like this, but at least it opened up into the alley. She had time to repair it—time to figure out just who had attacked her.

  Now that she knew there were volar, servants of dark sorcerers, enchantments involved, she could try to uncover whether there was something more to those enchantments, something she could track and understand. Maybe there was more than only this one left behind.

  Jayna continued using the dragon stone ring rather than sorcery. She was using it more often than she preferred. Ceran would know. Maybe he would come and check on her, though it had been several weeks since he had visited.

  Her hand throbbed, and cold radiated almost up to her shoulder.

  She tensed, looking around her.

  Could there be another enchantment? If there were, she didn’t want to leave it lying around, and she might need it in order to investigate.

  Jayna swept along the darkened alley, moving slowly.

  The building on the far side of the alley was made of a black, slick stone, dampened with the moisture and humidity of the air. A hint of moss trailed along its edge, not nearly as prominent here as it was in another part of the city. At night, the moss would glow softly, luminescent in a way she’d never found comforting.

  The explosion had tossed debris into her room, where it smacked into the barrier she had created. That was how she thought she could re-create the wall, using the debris to rebuild, but some of it had fallen out into the alley. Jayna searched along the length of the alley, looking for anything similar to this enchantment.