Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,72
listened for a moment, tipping her head to the side, and didn’t hear anything either.
“Char?” She kept her voice pitched low, little more than a hiss, carrying it on just a bit of power that she sent down the hallway.
There was no response.
Where would he have gone?
She tiptoed across the hall, heading down the healing section and looking into each of the rooms. Since most of the doors were open, she could see that each room was very similar. It looked like a hospital ward, cots resting along each wall, tables with stacks of different medicinals, and a cabinet that she couldn’t see inside. Each room was a mirror of the others. The outpost was fairly boring that way, but then again, it was designed to help with healing, to help the people of Nelar, and that was the reason Char had come here in the first place. He had wanted boring. He had wanted to learn and study and practice healing, and he had wanted to be around the power of Master Agnew, to learn what he could teach.
And now Jayna had brought him into something else, something more dangerous, something that forced him into risks he didn’t want to take.
It was selfish of her.
A scraping sound caught her attention and she spun.
Jayna had reached the door at the end of the hall where Char had brought her and the others one time—the room that was meant to contain dark magic.
The sound came from the other end, closer to the library.
Could that be Char?
She hurried back along the hall, and when she reached the other end of it, she found the door to the library still open. With the light inside, Jayna would’ve expected to see shadows moving, something to suggest Char’s presence, but there was nothing.
“Char?”
She didn’t like calling out his name, but she also didn’t like being here alone, not knowing what was taking place, feeling the energy that was around her, and questioning whether she was in any sort of danger.
She turned, looking toward the back of the outpost.
Her breath caught.
Smoke.
It shimmered across the ground, looking like layers of fog hovering there.
Another of the Ashara enchantments.
There were protections all around the outpost, but somehow someone had overpowered them.
If she could figure out who was responsible, she might be able to figure out why they were using enchantments designed to look like the Ashara. Like Eva’s magic.
It was the kind of magic she was going to need to understand, if only so she could learn how to defeat it—that was, if she couldn’t get them to work with her.
Jayna traced a quick pattern using sorcery. In the outpost, there was no need to restrict her access to sorcery. It wouldn’t be traced back to her. A hint of wind picked up, carrying the smoke away.
A body lay motionless in the center of the hallway.
Char.
Jayna darted forward, quickly wrapping Toral power around her, creating a barrier. She didn’t care whether any of the sorcerers were aware of her, didn’t care if the person who had to be some sort of Ashara dular recognized her presence; all she cared about was getting to Char.
“Char?” She shook him, but he didn’t come around. “I need you to get up.”
He still didn’t rouse, though she continued shaking him. She looked for breathing, terrified he was gone.
“Come on,” she said. “I need you to get up. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m going to need your help.”
Char moaned.
Whatever the Ashara dular had done to him had incapacitated him.
Jayna had seen the Ashara dular kill sorcerers before; it was a wonder Char wasn’t killed by that power.
She scooped him up, struggling under his weight, and used a bit of the dragon stone power to fortify herself. She staggered down the hall until she reached the healing wing, then headed into the first room. She lowered him onto the cot and touched his cheek, trying to get him to come around.
“Char. I need your help.”
He moaned again.
The color had drained out of his face, leaving him pale. She pulled back his Sorcerers’ Society robes, revealing his jacket and pants beneath. No wonder he was sweating so much in the library.
“Come on,” she said. “I need you to come around.”
He wasn’t moving, and he wasn’t making any sound.
Jayna had to try something else.
She traced a symbol along his chest then pushed. There was something stirring within him. It was unusual, and it seemed to float.