Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,9

way, but all around her the shouts continued to build as Char continued to struggle making his way through the street.

Jayna tried to keep toward the front of the crowd. If she let the crowd slip around her, she wouldn’t be able to see Char.

That worried her more than anything else.

Another enchantment exploded in the street, bouncing off of the barrier around Char. This one was a spark of flame, but it ended with a soft explosion. Char turned toward the explosion, his eyes wide. He jerked his head from side to side as he looked around him.

Jayna could practically see the way his thoughts were going. Char attempted to hold back on using his power, as there were limits to how much of it he could use. The barrier itself was one such limit, but there was something else constraining him.

If he were to attack, he could potentially push back one layer of the crowd, but the rest would come flooding forward. One man against an entire throng of people added up to terrible odds. One sorcerer against a crowd was a little better. Still, when the crowd consisted of dular—and an unknown number of them, along with an unknown number of people who carried enchantments—Jayna didn’t like his chances.

The crowd’s energy began to build. A steady murmuring came from behind her along with a hint of excitement nearby.

Something was going to happen.

She looked back, trying to gauge where the activity came from, but couldn’t see anything.

As that pressure continued to build around her, all Jayna could make out was a sea of angry faces—young and old, men and women, children and elderly. All of them were angrily shouting at Char—not at Char the person, but at Char the sorcerer. They were blaming him for what happened to them.

And if she did nothing, or if Char didn’t take enough caution . . .

The energy continued to build as power pressed through it. It was a strange sort of energy. The Toral ring began to squeeze around her finger.

Dark energy.

Crap.

Not only was this crowd attempting to attack Char, but there was a dark sorcerer here trying to instigate it.

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The pressure continued to build around her, and Jayna looked behind, trying to figure out where it came from, but she couldn’t tell. She only knew that an energy continued to build and the Toral ring continued to throb.

She shoved her way forward.

Somebody shouted at her, but she ignored it.

She had to wrap the power of the Toral ring around her as a layer of protection. It provided enough of a barrier that she could feel it sealing around her. Each time she drew upon this power, she wondered what Ceran was aware of. He’d never said. Since the last attack in the city, he hadn’t visited much either.

Char continued turning in place, his head swiveling as he looked at the crowd, then he pushed out with a surge of energy.

He was testing his barrier.

How much longer before that barrier failed him?

Jayna might be able to add something to his barrier, but she also didn’t know if she dared reveal herself as a sorcerer. She could, however, help him from a distance, and others might not even be aware of what she was doing.

She didn’t need sorcery—not the way Char did. She could use the Toral ring.

Even using that power, there was still the possibility it wouldn’t work completely. There was also the possibility Char wouldn’t want her to use the power within the ring.

But she had to act.

Reluctantly, she pulled on the power of the ring, and could feel the flow of it. She pushed it in an invisible circular cage, slipping it around the barrier that Char held. She tried to do so slowly, using a bit of energy at a time so that he wouldn’t be completely aware of her assistance, but at the same time, she needed to help fortify him. The people in the crowd continued to shout, and there was a steady buzzing of energy.

That buzzing was dangerous. She recognized the crowd’s energy in the air, the vibrancy here, and she feared an explosion of violence from the crowd if she didn’t act.

More than that, the Toral ring started to constrict even more.

The dark power suggested something was about to happen.

Violence. Danger.

Jayna needed to be ready for it.

She glanced over her shoulder, again looking into the crowd for any sign of whoever was responsible for the darkness she felt—the same darkness that was triggering a reaction