Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,70
time. Coming here, spending time with Char, had simply wasted her afternoon. And she still needed to keep looking.
There was something taking place. Maybe it didn’t have to do with one of the twelve whom Ceran wanted her to look into, but whatever it was, she felt increasingly certain that it was bound to drive the Society and the dular against each other.
And she didn’t understand how this enchantment designed to look like the Ashara was involved.
“I was telling you about Eva,” Jayna agreed. “And I guess the key is that she’s lost part of her memory.” She shook her head. “To hear her talk about it, she says it’s like holes in her memory, or gaps, and from time to time, those gaps are filled, giving her flashes of knowledge she once had, but then they fade, disappearing in a way that leaves her uncertain.”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” he said.
“I haven’t either.”
“No,” Char said, turning to her, crossing his arms over his chest. “I work in healing magic, Jayna, and I’ve heard of people losing their memories—there are dozens of ways that could happen. I’ve seen head injuries where people have amnesia afterwards. I’ve seen trauma where part of a person’s mind stops working. I’ve even seen magic that confounds people, stealing their will and taking some part of them away. What caused her to have this piecemeal memory?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
Char tipped his head, frowning at her. “You’ve been looking into it.”
Jayna nodded. “I have. I wanted to see if there was anything I could do for Eva. I’ve spent time at each stop where we go researching, talking to healers and as many people as possible in order to find out something that could help her.” She just hadn’t consulted sorcerers—at least, not before Char.
“You care about her.”
“She’s been helpful,” Jayna said.
“Just helpful?”
“It’s more than that,” Jayna agreed.
“What is it?”
She held Char’s eyes for a long moment. “Ever since leaving the Academy, I haven’t had too many friends. She’s a friend.”
Char turned away. “You didn’t have to leave the Academy.”
“I did, though.”
“You didn’t. You didn’t have to leave me.”
“I didn’t leave you,” Jayna said. She pushed the book that she’d pulled off the shelf back into place and grabbed his wrist, forcing him to turn to look at her. “I left the Academy. Not you, Char. Had it been only about you, I would’ve stayed. You . . . you’ve been more than just a friend.”
“I haven’t.”
“You have. We have this link between us, this connection, and it’s bridged us.”
“I wish it would help me understand you,” he said softly.
“You need a linking spell to know me? You need something like that to know what’s in my heart?” She shook her head, but still hadn’t released his wrist. “You’ve known me, Char. You’ve known me ever since we first came to the Academy, and you’ve known the person I am—the person I’ve become. You’ve known me in a way that nobody else has. Do you really think I’m a dark magic user?”
That was what it came down to. That was what bothered Char the most, and that was what Jayna had to get past. If she could find a way to help Char bridge that concern and get beyond the fear of her using some dark magic, then maybe she could finally get to him. Maybe she could even do more than that—maybe she could connect to him, get him to understand her, and she could . . .
“No,” he said, looking away.
“I’m not saying that some of the things I’ve done aren’t dark.” She shook her head, turning away from him and staring at the bookshelf. “The gods know there’ve been times I’ve used magic in ways we were taught not to at the Academy, but I’ve also used magic in ways I feel we needed to learn at the Academy.” She breathed out slowly. “Does that make sense?”
“It does.”
“And now, I’m concerned about my friend. I’m concerned that someone—or several someones—are trying to make it look like her or someone like her has been attacking.”
“Wait. There’s somebody else like her?”
“No, but there are enchantments that are designed to look like her magic.”
“Why didn’t you just start with that?”
“Because I didn’t know how,” she said.
“You start by telling me that there’s somebody else in the city, something else with that kind of power, and then we go from there. You don’t talk around it,” Char said.