Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,79

more intensely through the dragon stone once again, and barely in time.

Agnew strode toward her, and another one of his lances of light that snaked out and around her barrier had erupted, starting at her feet, and now the two beams of light were working around her, twisting and trying to squeeze against the power she held. Agnew then sent a beam of yellow light streaking across the floor, once again starting to twist around her barrier.

“The dular have gotten away with far too much in this city for far too long,” he said.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. The dular haven’t—”

Agnew didn’t give Jayna a chance to finish. Yet another beam streaked out from him.

He was powerful, and he used blasts that were designed to overwhelm, limiting her ability to react. Jayna tried to thrash at him, struggling to fight against the energy he poured at her, but she couldn’t.

The only thing she could do was attempt to hold out and try to increase her resistance, but even that became more of a struggle.

He continued to force power upon her.

She reached into her pouch. She didn’t want to fight Agnew, but at the same time, she wasn’t about to let him hurt her. She slipped out one of the concussive enchantments, activating it while she did, and it exploded.

Agnew wrapped a shell of power around it, somehow absorbing the enchantment.

That’s impressive.

She’d seen sorcerers using considerable power before, but having that kind of control, being able to wrap that energy so quickly around the enchantment, especially one like that, impressed her.

Here she thought Agnew had only been a healer. This kind of magic was far more potent than what she had expected from him.

She had to be careful. She figured she could get past him, but doing so would involve her using the kind of power she wasn’t interested in using. She didn’t want to blast him and risk harming him. All she wanted was to keep him from further attacking her.

And now that Asaran was gone, Jayna really had no reason to even stay here.

Another blast streamed out from him.

It was followed by another, then another.

Agnew used a quick series of powerful blasts, and each one began to swirl around her feet. Jayna forced them down, holding on to the dragon stone, using the power of the bloodstone through it, and tried to penetrate the restriction that he used around her, but the energy within it was far too much. As it constricted around her, Jayna tried to force her way back, attempting to push him down, but she could not.

He came toward her. “You will see what we do to the dular,” he sneered at her.

Jayna looked back. She needed to get out of here.

The doorway wasn’t very far from her, and was close enough that she thought all she had to do was back away from Agnew. She tried reaching into her pouch, but suddenly couldn’t move. She cried out.

There had to be something she could do.

The power that filled her wasn’t going to be enough. She struggled with it, trying to call upon the energy of the dragon stone ring, using her Toral magic, but Agnew was right there. He pressed up toward her, then he began to make a pattern around her.

He worked quickly, especially for a man of his age, but then, this was a powerful sorcerer.

Jayna strained against his attack. Nothing she could use was enough, not even her connection to the dragon stone.

Agnew was there, right in front of her, and he continued to circle around her. As he did, he poured power out from him, letting it slip toward Jayna, sliding up and around her, somehow cutting her off from sorcery.

She had no idea how he managed to do it, but he seemed to separate her from her connection to that type of magic. Activating the dragon stone ring required a connection to sorcery, and despite having the ring encircling her finger, despite the control she thought she had over it, she found she couldn’t access that magic as easily as she wanted.

He stepped forward. “You will tell me what the dular intend.”

“I don’t know anything. I’m not with the dular.”

How could he not remember her helping before?

He glared at her, a dark expression on his bearded face. “You will tell me, and then I will ensure they do not attempt this again.”

18

Jayna looked around the room. The hearth crackled with less heat than before. The desk Agnew had used