Festival of Mourn (The Dark Sorcerer Book 1) Read online

  “Oh,” she muttered.

  “What?” Char asked.

  “It’s wrapped around his mind. The rest of it streaks out from there.”

  “That is what I feared,” Eva said. “It’s probably a dwaring. It’s a creature of darkness. A creature of danger.”

  Jayna had chased dangerous creatures in her time working with Ceran, but hadn’t heard of a dwaring. When this was done, she’d definitely need to call Ceran.

  “If it’s a creature, I might have an enchantment that will work,” Char said.

  “No enchantment will hold a dwaring.” Eva’s face looked troubled.

  How much did she remember about these creatures—and how much of what she knew had holes in it?

  “What can you tell me?” Jayna prompted.

  Eva shook her head. “They should have been expelled from these lands long ago.”

  “How would it be here?”

  Eva shook her head. “I don’t know.”

  “What do I need to do?”

  “You have to wrap your magic around it. All of it. Once you do, then you can compress it. It will fight, but if you can separate it from what it’s feeding on, you should be able to weaken it. You will need to be prepared for it to fight incredibly hard, and know that only then might it loosen up enough.”

  “Once it’s loose, what do I need to do?”

  “We need to have a place to put it,” she said.

  “Do you have anything?” Jayna looked over to Char, and found him frowning at her, though he didn’t say anything. He simply stared, glancing from Jayna to Eva, before turning his attention to the man.

  “You’re asking if I have something to hold dark magic? This is an Academy outpost, Jayna. This isn’t some sort of dark magic stronghold.”

  “I understand,” she said. “But as a Sorcerers’ Society outpost, there’s probably something here that could contain dark magic.”

  And more than that, it was probably the best place for them to have come, especially given the uncertainty about what was going on. Jayna wouldn’t have been able to trap the dwaring on her own. She might not even have known to go searching for it. She’d have to think about why the man had ended up on her doorstep later.

  “Let me see what I can find.”

  “You’re going to have to make it,” Eva said.

  “I’m going to have to what?”

  “Make an enchantment,” Eva said, turning her attention back to the man, and holding her hands out on either side of him. It was almost as if she were trying to contain the possible escape of the dwaring, though Jayna couldn’t detect any power coming off of her. Yet.

  “I’m not able to make any enchantments that quickly,” Char said.

  “You know how to do it,” Jayna said. She had been there when he had learned. And given his experience and knowledge, he was far better equipped to create an enchantment like that than she was. She might be able to come up with some way of using an enchantment, but making one was a very different thing. She definitely didn’t have that skill. She didn’t have the need either.

  Enchantments were typically created by those who didn’t have complete control over magic, and used by those who had none. The making of enchantments was taught at a later stage within the Academy, but now that Char had finished his training, he would have learned the technique.

  “I know how to do it, but what you’re asking is for me to create an enchantment to contain dark magic.”

  “It’s not to contain dark magic,” Eva said. “It’s to contain a dark creature. It’s a different thing. Do you know how to create an enchantment to hold wild creatures?”

  “Of course,” Char said.

  “Then do the same, but add in protections that can prevent dark magic from entering—or exiting.”

  “I can’t just do that,” Char said.

  “You can, you just don’t want to,” Jayna said.

  “Did you come here knowing what this was?”

  Jayna looked over to Char. “If I had known what this was, I wouldn’t have brought him here.”

  “Where would you have brought him?”

  She let out a long sigh. “Not here.”

  They didn’t have much time. She could feel the dwaring starting to constrict. It was pressing in upon the man’s mind, and the longer she left it alone, the more likely it was that it would continue to squeeze.

  Once it finished, she suspected the man would be gone.

  “What happens when it finishes feeding?” Jayna asked.

  “I don’t remember everything about them, but I know it moves on,” Eva said.

  “To a new host?”

  “To a new host, and from there . . .”

  “What?” she asked.

  Eva closed her eyes. Smoke circled her the way it did when she tried to concentrate. “Eventually, it will break free.” Her voice came from a distance. “This is a juvenile dwaring,” she said. “I have never seen one, but then, I’ve never seen a fully grown one either.”

  “How do you know about it?” Char asked.

  “Can you make the enchantment or not?” Jayna asked.

  He frowned, glancing from her to Eva, before turning to the counter. He started working, muttering under his breath, but hopefully doing what Eva suggested.

  “How would a creature like this get here?”

  “I don’t know,” Eva said. “A creature like this should not be here. Others have protected against beings like this spreading outside of their natural habitats.”

  She looked over to Eva, waiting for her to explain, but she didn’t. It was one more question she had about the woman, one more thing that went into the mystery of Eva, and one more thing she doubted she would ever get an answer to. Not that she could push Eva too much. There were things she claimed not to remember, and given the damaged way she had been when Jayna had come across her, she couldn’t blame her for some uncertainty.

  “It’s done. At least, as much as I can do,” Char said.

  “Hold it over him,” Eva said.

  Char stepped toward her, but then hesitated.

  “Char? What are you doing? You said you would help. He’s dying!”

  “You said this is dark magic.” He glanced toward the door, then to the still convulsing man with the dwaring writhing within him. “I’m going to get myself in trouble. If you want me to put my neck out, you need to tell me what happened when you left, or I’ll destroy this right now.”

  6

  Jayna shared a look with Eva.

  The man spasmed. The power inside of him was almost more than she could withstand, though she had it controlled using the power of the ring—for now.

  “Please,” she whispered. “Let’s trap this, then I’ll tell you.”

  Char watched her, but didn’t hand over the enchantment. “How long can you hold it?” he asked. “I can get Master Agnew. We can do this another way if you’d prefer.”

  She clenched her jaw for a moment. This was a side of Char she hadn't seen before. Shouldn't he want to help? The man was dying, and he was holding something back from her out of spite.

  He still watched her.

  “I bonded to a Sul'toral as his Toral, took on this ring so he could lend me some of his power” she said, waving her hand toward him irritably, “and have been fighting dark creatures in the year since I left the Academy. I will tell you more when you hand over the enchantment.”

  The pain in her hand was becoming incredibly intense.

  It didn't matter how much power she drew through the ring. The duration also made a difference. And now it was starting to creep up her forearm, a cold, burning sort of pain. She wasn't going to be able to withstand it much longer. When she lost control . . .

  No. She would not lose control.

  She held Char's gaze, forcing him to meet her eyes.

  Finally, he relented.

  Jayna started to focus on the power buried within the man. She squeezed. She poured energy out from her, down through his mind, throu
gh his chest, and out through his legs. She used the energy of the dragon stone ring, summoning the dangerous power it commanded, and let that flow out from her, into him, and beyond. As she connected to that power, holding on to that energy, she could feel the dwaring starting to fight. It wriggled beneath her power, and the more she constricted, the more the dwaring attempted to struggle free.

  Jayna had to focus.

  “Can you help?” she asked Eva.

  “Not with this.”

  “But you’re standing there—”

  “Not like this,” Eva said.

  Jayna glanced over to Char before turning her attention back to Eva and nodding.

  “I almost have it.”

  She continued squeezing, pulling on the power that worked within the man, and then started to constrict it. It was the wrapping of power around his mind that had been the most difficult. That involved stretching beyond what she was normally comfortable doing, and straining with far more power than what she normally possessed. Once she did that, though, she could press outward even more, and she could push that energy from her, wrapping it outward in a way that allowed it to drift out and around, squeezing the power from inside the man. The dwaring continued to fight as she constricted, wiggling against her; gradually, that wiggling turned into something more: a thrashing as it battered against her.

  “Keep going,” Eva said.

  “I’m trying,” she muttered. “It’s not easy.”

  The dwaring continued to fight her, and Jayna struggled against it, squeezing down. She found herself drawing on all the energy within her, and pushing as much as she could through the dragon stone ring, but even with that, she didn’t have enough power to combat what was happening. She continued pushing, letting more and more power out from her, and suddenly tapped into something different.

  She almost stopped.

  “Keep going,” Eva whispered.

  The power she detected from the ring was larger than anything she had ever accessed before. It terrified her, mostly because it sat on the fringes of her awareness, a vast emptiness, a reach of power unlike anything she had experienced, a great, dark kind of energy that left her troubled. Still, it provided her with more than what she had on her own, and she used it.

  She squeezed, suddenly empowered, emboldened by what she had drawn upon, and she pressed inward, constricting that power around the dwaring. As she did, she could feel it shrinking within the man, and she dragged it away from his mind and up from his legs, then concentrated in his chest. It seemed the right place for her to focus on. When she was done, she started to pull.

  The enchantment Char had fabricated was a circular container made from an old silver pan he’d taken from a cabinet. There were shapes worked around the metal—shapes that appeared as he forced the magic of the spell into the enchantment—and hopefully they would be enough to contain the dwaring. She dragged the dwaring out of the man and squeezed it into the enchantment, forcing it down into the confines of the enchanted container itself. As she did, the dwaring started to fight, but even that fighting began to fade once it realized it couldn’t get free.

  “Now what?” Char asked.

  Jayna looked down at the man. His breathing had eased, there was less sweat dripping from his brow than there had been before, and thankfully, he no longer trembled, but she could tell he remained sick. “Now we wait.”

  Eva took the enchantment from her, pressing her hands onto either side of it. A soft smoke swirled around it, and if she hadn’t been looking for it, Jayna doubted she would’ve even noticed it. As it was, she could feel a faint tracing of power from her, though it didn’t seem as if Char were aware of what Eva had done.

  “Why don’t you tell me more about what happened after you left?” Char asked.

  She didn’t know what he’d do if she didn’t, but at this point, she didn’t want to risk it. Jayna took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She glanced over to Eva, who continued cupping the enchantment. The smoke swirling around it left her wondering exactly what Eva was doing, but she suspected she had added her own unique connection to it. The enchantment now carried not only a sorcerer’s touch and a Toral’s, but whatever it was Eva happened to be.

  A part of Jayna wondered if that were even enough to contain the dwaring. She had felt its power pressing against her. Had she not had access to that strange, vast, empty, dark power through the ring, she might not have had enough strength to withstand it.

  Eva looked at her, a darkness in her eyes for a moment, but then it faded. She tipped her head toward Char. “I’m going to take this outside.”

  Jayna nodded slowly. “I will be there soon.”

  Eva smiled tightly a moment, then headed out the door.

  “Who is she?” Char asked after she left, leaning on the table. He didn’t look down at the man, though his breathing had eased, and he didn’t look as if he suffered in the same way he had when they’d brought him in.

  Jayna shook her head. “I came across her shortly after I left the Academy. She was injured. Nearly dying. I helped her.”

  Char arched a brow at her. “You helped her?”

  “I’m not without my own abilities,” she said.

  “I never said you were.”

  “You were hinting at it,” she said.

  “I was hinting at nothing.”

  Jayna took a deep breath, letting it out slowly before turning her attention back to him. “I suppose I don’t even know. She’s been staying with me.” Jayna let out a heavy sigh. “Do you have any place I can sit?”

  He pulled open the door, stepping out into the hall for a moment before returning with two stools and sliding one over to her. “Sit. You’re not done talking.”

  Jayna sank into the stool, resting her elbows on the table next to the still-unconscious man, sweeping her gaze over him. Her Academy training told her his breathing was regular. She checked the artery in his neck to make sure his circulation was still good, and she noticed the sweat that had been streaming from him had also lessened. He was no longer burning up the way he had been either, so she suspected that was good. These were all signs of improvement, though she didn’t know if he would continue to improve, or how long he would be unconscious. Maybe she would need to leave him here with Char, and let the sorcerers continue their healing. Now that she had removed the dwaring, she didn’t have to worry about anything else keeping him from recovering.

  “I told you what I’ve been doing and where we’ve traveled, but not why.” She held his gaze. “I’ve been looking for my brother.”

  “Jonathan? That’s what this is about?”

  She looked at Char. That might be easier for him to understand. “That’s why I left the Academy,” she said softly, looking over at the man. She wasn’t able to meet Char’s eyes. “I thought he’d just taken some job. He did that from time to time, you know.” Char was one of the few people who knew what kind of man her brother was. Of course, Jayna wasn’t even sure what kind of man her brother was. He got involved in dangerous work, stealing items of power, but he had never managed to be gone this long before. He had never disappeared like this from her, leaving her without any sign of where he could be found. “I didn’t know what happened to him.”

  “He didn’t even like you studying at the Academy. Why did you even care?”

  She turned and looked at Char. “He’s all I had. You know what happened to my parents.”

  “Not really,” Char said. “You only told me they disappeared.”

  “Not disappeared. They were killed.” And by a dark power that she wanted to better understand. This wasn’t only about finding Jonathan. It was about understanding the power that had taken her parents. “Jonathan took care of me.”

  “By stealing.”

  “By stealing.” She nodded. “I didn’t say I approved of it, only that he took care of me.” She squeezed her eyes shut. It had been a source of contention between them. Jonathan had always been smart, and she often claimed he was smarter than her
, which he tried to refute. She might be book smart, but Jonathan was clever. A planner. He had a way of anticipating things that she simply could not. “He’s never left me for this long before. He’s never disappeared completely without sending word.”

  “I hate to say it, Jayna, but you know what might’ve happened.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I keep hearing word of him crop up from time to time, even if he’s never around.”

  “What sort of word do you hear of him?” Char asked.

  “I hear snippets from people who had worked with him. Members of his team. They don’t know what happened to him either, but I know he’s not dead.”

  “If he’s not dead, then it should be pretty easy to find him.”

  “You would think so, but . . .” She breathed out a sigh of frustration. “I’ve been searching this entire year, and only recently have I heard anything useful. Friends of his described somebody who worked with him. I’ve been chasing that information.” She almost mentioned the symbol she’d seen in the tavern, but didn’t. It was the first new information about Jonathan that she’d had in a while. “You remember the kind. Thieves,” she said.

  “I see,” he said.

  “I know something could’ve happened to him. I’m not naïve. I understand the work my brother does, but I also understand just how capable he is. He wouldn’t just disappear. Not after the letter he sent me.”

  “What letter?”

  “He sent a letter that suggested he was going to take care of us. That he was finally nearing the end of taking jobs.” And there was the symbol she now knew tied to dark sorcerers.

  “That’s why you disappeared?”

  “I had a feeling he needed help,” Jayna said.

  “A feeling?”

  “I went to the others who worked with him.” That had been the first thing she had done. She had gone to men she had known for most of her life, men she had known to be thieves and worse, men who had adored her brother, or so she had thought. “I asked them if they would help.”

  “Let me guess. They weren’t willing to do it.”

  Jayna shrugged. “Not entirely.”