Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,77
from striking, solidifying the barrier just in time to keep him from harming her.
“I’m trying to help you,” she snapped at him. Turning back to the Ashara, she focused on the smoke, trying to draw some of that into her ring. “You don’t need to do this. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, and I don’t know why you’re attacking, but he’s not your enemy.”
“Sorcerer,” the Ashara repeated.
Jayna took a deep breath, and using the dragon stone augmented by the bloodstone, she called power to her. She summoned as much as she could, siphoning off the smoke, and squeezed it down into the ring.
It cleared the room just a moment, but long enough for her to turn her attention to the Ashara and ignore Master Agnew. He was there, she could feel his power, but she needed to avoid him focusing on her. She had to solidify the barrier, and there might be one way for her to do it.
She pushed outward, expanding the energy she held, squeezing it out between her and Master Agnew, and settling it in between them and the Ashara.
The Ashara turned and sent smoke streaking toward her. Jayna absorbed it, pulling it into her.
“No,” she said. “Whatever you’re doing isn’t going to work. I’m not trying to harm you. I just need to know. My name is Jayna Aguelon. Who are you?”
She needed to work with him.
Especially if he was like Eva.
He could provide answers she didn’t have.
The Ashara turned to her, looking at her for the first time, and there was a moment of uncertainty in his eyes. She recognized that uncertainty, as she had seen the same look in Eva’s eyes.
“Asaran Rasolth.”
She nodded to him. “We can work together.”
Power began to build again, and it came from Master Agnew.
Asaran turned his attention to him now, his dark brow furrowing, and smoke streaked outward. The smoke continued to build, swirling toward her with the same sort of violence he had used on her before. Each time he attempted to assault her with that smoke, Jayna reached for it, using the bloodstone to pull it off and tamp it down. He continued to call upon more and more power as he stood at the fire, using its heat and energy to his advantage. She had to find something to overwhelm the Ashara, though she didn’t know if there was anything more she could pull upon to do so.
“I’m not trying to hurt you.”
He looked past her and started toward Agnew. Jayna attempted to use power through the Toral ring, but a burst of energy struck her and she was thrown back.
Asaran glanced in her direction, his gaze lingering on her briefly, before he turned again toward Agnew.
He was going to harm the sorcerer.
Jayna didn’t know Agnew very well, only what Char had told her. She’d had just a few interactions with him in the time she’d been in Nelar, but it was enough for her to know he had helped. Without him, the fires in the homes of the seven dular would have caused total destruction and burned the houses to the ground.
She needed to help him now. Whether or not he would react poorly because she was no longer a sorcerer, she didn’t know, but she knew she had to call upon more energy. The dragon stone could help.
Jayna tried calling on that power, but it came slowly.
She looked down at her ring. The smoke she’d been calling into the bloodstone had filled it, giving it a murky appearance again, but the most recent attempt at drawing off the smoke had changed something. Jayna could feel that smoke had flowed into the bloodstone.
She grabbed her pouch and found the one that the girl from the market had given her. She focused on it, triggering it, then tossed it toward Asaran.
When the enchantment struck, it blasted, striking him and tossing him back toward the fire, but it also struck Agnew. The shock of the waves of energy slammed into both of them.
Agnew had erected some sort of barrier around himself, though Jayna suspected it wouldn’t be enough to withstand Asaran coming toward him. Still, it wasn’t even that which troubled her. Power radiated toward the fire, toward the heat that fueled him.
As he landed in a crumpled heap near the fire, Jayna reached into her pouch to grab another enchantment. If she could focus on Asaran, if she could use that blast and get him away from the fire . . .