Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,24

skills before everything was finished.

“What are you doing?”

Jayna glanced over to see Eva sitting up, tracing her hand through her long black hair. Her skin glowed subtly from the fire, the warmth radiating off of her, but she had no sheen of sweat on her like Jayna would have had if she were to lie in front of the fire for that long. Given all the smoke magic Eva put off, she would’ve expected the woman to absorb the heat.

“I’m just studying,” Jayna said.

“Studying.”

Jayna closed the book and slid it across the table, turning to look at Eva. “Well, I was waiting for you.”

“Why?”

“We were going to visit your contacts,” she said carefully. “Remember?”

Eva took a deep breath. “I suppose we could do that. I do need to go out and find more wine.”

“Why does it always have to be about wine?”

“Don’t you think it should be?” She inhaled deeply, looking around the room. “Where’s the other one?”

“Don’t tell me you actually miss Topher?”

“It’s not that I miss him, it’s just . . .” She shook her head. “I’m hungry.”

“You could get up and make your own food.”

“He’s been cooking for me.”

“That’s why you like having him around?”

“‘Like’ is such a strong word.”

“That’s why you tolerate having him around?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head. “I’m sure he will be quite pleased to learn that.”

“I don’t care what pleases him.” Eva stood, wiping her hands along her dress, and frowned at Jayna. “Are we going?”

Jayna just chuckled. She took the books back to her room, slipping them under the bed to hide them, figuring that was better than the cabinet in the kitchen where she had kept the other spellbook, and joined Eva before stepping out in the street. The evening air was cool—at least, cool for the usually warm city of Nelar—but the heavy humidity remained, making it difficult for Jayna to take a deep breath.

“Everything feels so wet,” Eva said.

“Maybe because you were sitting by the fire all afternoon.”

“Not sitting.”

“Lying,” Jayna said, laughing. “And whatever else you were doing. I wonder if perhaps that has made it more difficult for you to tolerate the humidity of the city.”

“I tolerate it just fine.”

They hadn’t gone very far before Jayna felt a tightness around her skin. It was similar to the precursor she felt when she detected magic, though she wasn’t sure that was what she felt now.

“Do you detect anything?” she asked Eva.

Eva glanced over to her. “What am I supposed to detect?”

Jayna frowned, shaking her head. “I’m not exactly sure.”

There had been such strangeness in the city that she didn’t even know what to make of the sensation, and the strangeness was not only with the attack on Char, but the actions of the dular since the attack on the manor homes.

“Just stay alert.”

“I’m always alert,” Eva said.

“Other than when you have a full bottle of wine.”

“I’m alert enough,” Eva said.

They continued making their way through the streets, though every so often, Jayna would turn, looking around her, searching for any signs of something suspicious but finding none. She couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a strange energy out there, nearby, though she had no idea what it was or if it was anything to even be concerned about.

They moved quickly, but soon a flicker of shadows caught her attention. She pointed to it. A pair of people moving near a darkened building.

“What do you think they’re doing?” she asked, motioning to Eva.

“Stealing, most likely,” Eva said.

Jayna shook her head. “That’s odd.”

In this part of the city, it was unusual for there to be much in the way of theft. Mostly because there wasn’t much here that was all that valuable. They were in the older section of the city, the stone covered by thick layers of moss that glowed with the dim light in the growing darkness.

“Come on. I want to see what’s going on,” Jayna said.

“You’re going to get us in trouble, aren’t you?”

“We can go visit Telluminder anytime.”

“He was expecting us,” Eva said.

“At this time?” When Eva didn’t say anything more, Jayna shook her head. “Let’s check on this, and then if Telluminder is still even open, we can visit with him this evening. Otherwise, I’m going to need you to wake up earlier tomorrow.”

“You’re going to need me to?”

“It would be helpful if you could be a participant in this,” Jayna said.

“I am a participant,” Eva said.

“An active participant.”

“I can’t promise that.”

They turned down another street, following the dark shadows she’d seen and pausing every so