Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,49
hallway.
And then something pushed back.
Power slammed into her.
Jayna was tossed onto her backside. She dusted herself off as she got up, bracing for another attack. She pulled several of the concussive blasts out of her pocket. Those might be effective.
The girl had been working on them, hopefully perfecting them, and even if she hadn’t, Jayna had used them effectively before. Having that kind of power available to her would limit her need to throw up an offensive spell. She could focus on defense.
She stepped forward.
“Is it safe to come up?” Raollet’s voice called from below.
“I don’t know,” Jayna shouted back.
“I figured you would have destroyed everything by now.”
He sounded as if he were closer. Could the fool truly have been climbing the stairs?
He had been cowering down in his room, only emerging now that she had begun to make her way along the hallway, fighting her way through whatever spells had been placed there.
Raollet poked his head around the corner, through the open doorway.
“I’m not keeping you safe,” she said.
“I will wait here until you tell me it’s clear,” he said.
Jayna sighed then crouched down, tracing out the pattern for spell detection once again. The last one had ricocheted backward, sending her across the hall, and she feared the same thing would happen this time. At least she would be prepared for it.
When she touched the Toral ring to it, adding a hint of different power, she heard a soft gasp from behind her. Jayna ignored him and pressed power out from her that flowed into the pattern.
It streaked outward, washing in a wave of white light.
She braced herself. Unlike the last time, Jayna created a barrier around herself with the magic ball spell. Thankfully, when the spell tracked through something again this time, it merely triggered it without releasing a blast of violent power. Jayna stood and waited until the energy dissipated, leaving her. Finally, she breathed out.
“An enchantment,” Master Raollet said.
“That was just an enchantment?”
“Well, it was my enchantment. It was meant to be triggered if there was an attack.” He frowned at her. “I never would’ve expected that you would have . . .” He shook his head. “No matter. You have released the enchantments in the hallway.”
“You could’ve warned me about them.”
“I didn’t think they would have been activated.”
He pushed past her, but Jayna grabbed him and shoved him back.
She moved forward, holding on to power through the dragon stone ring and readying another spell with her free hand, tracing a flare of fire. It would be brutal and potentially violent, but it would also keep her from danger.
“Is that really necessary?” Raollet asked, looking past her.
“It’s necessary if I want to live.”
“If they wanted to attack you, they would’ve done that by now.”
“Unless they’re after you.”
He harrumphed and she ignored it, slipping along the hallway, moving carefully, quietly, until she had a chance to see the open shop.
Once she did, she frowned. A haze of smoke hung over it. It was the same sort of haze that had been in the hallway when she’d first emerged from the stairs.
“Another enchanted attack,” he whispered. Raollet pointed. “See how the smoke drifts? They wanted to look like the Ashara, even if these lands are not conducive to them.”
Jayna started forward before glancing back and frowning. “What do you mean, they aren’t conducive to them?”
“Well, if the stories are to be believed, they need dry heat, not the humidity we have here. That humidity should be protective.”
Jayna shook away the thoughts that came to her about Eva’s desire for overwhelming heat.
If she was one of the Ashara—and Jayna increasingly began to question if that was the case—he didn’t mean that she was some shape-shifting creature. Those were stories. That was it.
Jayna crept forward, then she traced a spell with a bit more restraint and tapped on just a little bit of energy from the ring. The wind gusted, heading through an open door at the end of the shop, carrying the smoke out.
The shop was empty, but there were shelves tipped over and items scattered all around. Raollet darted forward before she had a chance to grab him, keeping him from heading through the mess.
“I’m not able to protect you if they attack.”
“They have already attacked,” he said.
“Could they have been after anything in here?”
Raollet shook his head, sweeping his gaze around the damaged shop. “What is there to take? All of these are enchantments.”