Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,21

look into it.”

Eva arched a brow. “Is that safe?”

“It might not be,” Jayna agreed. “I didn’t know what to do. He has access to records that we don’t. And . . .”

“And what?”

“And I tried to reach out to Ceran, but he’s not answering. Again.” Jayna shook her head, letting out a brief sigh. “I figured that if I could ask him, I might find out something more. We have to have answers. We keep dealing with this uncertainty, and unfortunately, the uncertainty is only going to end with one of us getting hurt.”

“By ‘one of us,’ you mean you.”

“Fine. I mean me. I don’t want to end up hurt just because I don’t understand everything that’s taking place.”

“Do you have any alternatives?”

“No. That’s just it. Short of digging back through what we’ve learned, I don’t know where to start.” She leaned back, closing her eyes. “We have names though. We didn’t have that before. We have Asymorn. Norej. Sarenoth. Knowing those names should give us a way of learning about them. Even rothand, which Char said was here before us. They’re all tied to Nelar, of all places.”

Eva gave no indication that she recognized the word.

It felt almost as if they were floundering. She’d been trying to patiently wait on Ceran, but that wasn’t Jayna’s strength. What they needed now was to dig in and get a hold of more information. Ceran had provided her with some, but not nearly enough for her to make any headway. There had to be a way to learn more while in Nelar.

“Why are you so concerned?” Topher asked, carrying over a sheet with biscuits on it.

He held it out, and Jayna took one carefully. They were warm, not too hot, and she bit into one, savoring the buttery flavor.

“Gods. I think you’re getting better each time you make something.”

Topher smiled. “See? I can be useful.”

“I never said you couldn’t.” She took another bite, chewing slowly. “As to your question, before Nelar, I never stayed in a place all that long. A couple of weeks at most. I would go somewhere, complete the task assigned to me—though never anything like what we’ve faced here—and move on.”

“What sort of things had you done before?” Topher asked, leaning against the wall and propping one foot up. He held on to the tray, and Jayna worried he would drop it. She wanted another one of those biscuits.

Even Eva looked as if she were enjoying the food, chewing it slowly and carefully. A serene look had crossed her face.

“There was the first time that I was assigned to track down the oronok. They’re small creatures, feisty, and this one was apparently tainted with dark magic.” Jayna shook her head. “I think it was a test, more than anything else. As far as I know, Ceran might have tainted it himself.”

Eva glanced over. “In order for him to do that, he would need to have access to dark magic himself.”

“I’m not saying he has dark magic,” Jayna said. “Only that I suspect he was testing me. He needed to know whether I was capable of capturing it.”

“I’ve never heard of one of those things,” Topher said.

“They look like a small fox. All black fur. Almost inky black. You have to chase them at night, which of course is a challenge given how black their fur is. They have teeth that are nearly as long as their snout,” Jayna said, mimicking teeth protruding downward with two fingers. “If they bite, you might be dead before you know it.”

“He wouldn't have tested you with something poisonous, would he?”

Jayna shrugged. “This is Ceran. It wouldn’t surprise me.”

There was another possibility, and it was that he truly did want her to gather the oronok. It had been particularly difficult for her to capture. The Toral ring had given her power, and she’d been able to use that to create a containment, but she had to use sorcery to trap it.

“You were only assigned to track down creatures?” he asked.

“Creatures at first,” Jayna said. “Until we got here. Then it changed.” She took another bite, chewing slowly, savoring it. “Ceran tells me there has been a darkness in the world for centuries,” Jayna said. “And it is my responsibility to ensure the darkness is contained.”

“I thought sorcerers protected us from dark magic users.”

“That’s what they want everyone to believe. Yet I’ve seen that the sorcerers aren’t particularly well-equipped to deal with this kind of power.”

There were ways that sorcerers could deal with dark