Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,6

her, to be carried out on the wind, and to do that, she had to place a marking, a binding of sorts, onto the wind and then push her power out through it in order to carry it.

“Grab me a bit of dirt from where we saw that paw print,” she said to Eva. As Eva collected it, thankfully not arguing, Jayna held on to the pattern. This was a flicker of several lines of energy that she pushed outward, and as soon as Eva brought a fistful of dirt, Jayna nodded. “Throw it right there.”

“Throw it?”

When she nodded, Eva tossed the fistful of dirt at the pattern Jayna held.

For a moment, there was nothing.

Then she surged power into it.

She could feel the spell taking hold. It was incredible. There was something quite relaxing about drawing upon the magic she had learned at the Academy, using power like she had once used, and now that she had the books, she would much rather use that kind of magic when she had the opportunity rather than pulling through the Toral ring.

The spell took hold.

She pushed outward, away from her, and let the energy carry on the wind.

Jayna wasn’t sure what to expect, but as that spell began to sweep away from her, she detected its energy. It flowed. Strangely, it seemed almost as if there was something within the spell that was designed to ignore her urging. There was something that pushed against her, sliding away from her.

Jayna fought, and she added more power into it. She found that she needed even more power, and ultimately had to add some of the painful energy from the Toral ring.

“What are you doing?” Eva asked.

“I’m trying to—”

“Release it.”

“What?”

Eva came over and a bit of smoke swirled around her hand as she grabbed Jayna’s wrist, then it began to swirl up her arm, into her chest. The energy rubbed up against what Jayna was trying to hold, as if Eva were trying to combat her.

“Release it,” Eva said.

“What are you doing?”

“Something’s not right,” Eva said. “Can’t you feel it?”

“I can’t feel anything.”

“It’s burning.”

Jayna looked over, holding Eva’s gaze for a long moment before shaking her head. “Fine. I’ll release it, but you’re going to help me search for whatever was here.”

She withdrew her power, and the remainder of the spell drifted away. It faded completely, leaving her with nothing.

“What was it burning?” Jayna asked.

This was new territory for them. They’d never found anything like this, and Eva had never had such a struggle.

“I felt it burning inside.” She looked to Jayna, shaking her head. “I don’t know how else to describe it.”

Jayna took a deep breath, letting it out as she looked around her. “Then can you search?”

“I will do my best,” Eva said.

She closed her eyes, and smoke began to swirl around her.

As it drifted outward, a pattern began to form.

It flowed on the wind, fading away from them.

They said nothing.

After a while, Eva glanced over, shaking her head. “I don’t detect anything.”

Jayna contemplated opening the spellbook and beginning to work through it, trying to find another spell she could use for tracking purposes. Whatever she had used the last time had burned Eva, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be something else in one of these spellbooks. She had two advanced spellbooks, the kind she never had access to at the Academy, yet none of the magic was truly beyond her. She could keep attempting to work through them, trying to find answers, but as she flipped the pages, she wasn’t sure if any of their contents would provide her with the answers she wanted.

A strange vibration in her pocket caught her attention.

“What is that?”

Jayna reached for the vibration and pulled out the coin. “That’s Topher.”

“What’s he doing to me?”

Eva pulled out a coin of her own from her pocket and almost threw it, but Jayna shook her head.

“That’s from his enchantments. He’s calling to us,” she said.

“Why would he call to us?”

That was a good question. Topher had never summoned them before. Something had him concerned.

Jayna looked around the strange landscape, and though some part of her did want to continue looking, if Topher were asking for their help, then she needed to get moving and provide it.

“We should get back for him.”

She could return another time. Not only to continue her spell work, but also to track whatever might have been here. Jayna worried that she was leaving something dangerous behind. If it was one of the dark sorcerers, then