Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,108
her in place.
“The El’aras have been clever in how they hide them, then they used the dular to work with them. And the Ashara.” He spat the last. “Now we will remove the seal, and we will be one step closer.”
“One step closer to what?” Char asked.
Dorian turned to him. He raised his hand, creating a quick whip of power, and Jayna recognized the spell.
“Shield yourself,” she shouted, making a point of getting her voice heard through the barrier.
It was something that would affect his memory. It might even control him.
Char raised his hands, crossing his arms in front of him, and he threw them down with a sharp crack of thundering energy.
He had grown more skilled.
Dorian’s spell struck and bounced off, disappearing harmlessly.
Jayna looked around. Where was Eva?
Smoke filled the clearing, though she couldn’t see where Eva had gone.
Dorian just chuckled. “Perhaps I will have you stay here and watch as I destroy this great enchantment. And then I will dispose of you.”
He marched away, and Jayna focused, holding on to the energy within her, trying to borrow power from the dragon stone, using the augmentation of the bloodstone, but that power as it came through her wasn’t enough. She could feel its energy within her, but she couldn’t do anything with it.
They were blocking her.
It was some sort of spell designed to cut her off from power.
She had a way past it though. She had done it before.
She focused on the linking spell with Char. He was there right in front of her, their connection stronger than before.
She pulled on it, and through the energy within the spell, drawn across it, she could feel a tie to sorcery. It was like pulling through mud, slow but steady, and as she called on it, she could feel it gradually drifting into her.
Jayna pulled on more power.
Then she could feel the Toral ring filling with energy.
Strangely, there was still a hint of smoke within it.
No, not just a hint. A flood.
Somewhere, Eva was pushing power into the bloodstone.
Smoke swirled around Jayna, up her legs, chest, and arms, then out through her. That smoke gave her a strangely solid connection to the bloodstone.
She focused.
The power was out there, that edge of energy she always saw tinged with darkness, but this time there was no nearly incapacitating pain. There was only a cloud of smoke, as if Eva somehow protected her.
Jayna called that energy to her. She breathed it in, and with her connection to Char, she created a pattern. This time, the pattern was only in her mind, and as she pushed it down, creating a ring of power, it erupted outward, and she tossed the two sorcerers away.
They went flying to either side.
Jayna sent her hands out, and a burst of power streaked from her, smoke twirling along it, as if Eva were helping guide her magic, and it struck both sorcerers.
She stormed forward.
Where was Eva? She still wasn’t here, though she had felt her power, and she knew Eva must be around here somewhere.
Jayna found Dorian in front of the fountain. She used a burst of power, sending it streaking toward him, but it bounced off of a protective spell.
He glanced over his shoulder. “You really are a nuisance.”
“I’m going to be more than a nuisance.”
“And you brought one of those lovely Ashara with you. You know, I thought that one was already dead.” He nodded, and Jayna glanced behind her to where Eva stood.
“Why?”
“We came across her on our way to Nelar.”
Dorian was responsible for what had happened to her?
“You aren’t going to complete this,” Jayna said.
“Oh, that is where you’re wrong. You see, I have already made my preparations, and all I need to do is this.” He flicked his wrist, and a spell began to build.
Jayna could feel it building, rising up with power, and the ground began to rumble around her. There was something she could do that she hadn’t yet tried, but why not use the ring to fortify herself? It was something Dorian wouldn’t anticipate.
She darted forward, pulled on power from the dragon stone, and brought her fist around, connecting it with Dorian, catching him in the chin.
With the power she held, he went flying.
Jayna followed him and grabbed him by the shoulders, slamming him down again, holding on to the power of the Toral ring.
“I bet you weren’t expecting that.”
She got up and made a quick circle around him, pouring power into it, holding him in place.