Smoke and Memories (The Dark Sorcerer #3) - D.K. Holmberg Page 0,75

shifting sort of power that struggled against her.

She held the Toral ring away from her.

As she did, an explosion thundered along the hallway.

It slammed into her, sending her careening to the side of the hall, but she was protected with the dragon stone barrier around her; she wasn’t injured, though she had fallen over.

She blasted outward, pushing with the energy of the Toral ring, creating a magic ball of power that started to spiral outward. She traced a pattern with it, using sorcery and mixing it with the power of the Toral ring, and slid her own barrier away from her, trying to stretch it out and toward the attackers. She could feel an energy squeezing upon her, could feel something in the air, some power snaking through.

It was racing toward her and pushed against her. The power of the Ashara dular.

Or an actual Ashara.

Another explosion thundered and was followed by a scream, but the smoke around her made it difficult to see anything.

Jayna focused on the Toral ring. She could feel the connection to the bloodstone within it, and she pushed power out. Strangely, the smoke compressed within the ring and the bloodstone cleared, no longer clouded. The ring itself began to grow warmer, though not hot.

Jayna continued to focus, pulling on the smoke that swirled around her.

She drew it into the bloodstone, dragging it off.

When she did, she heard another scream from down the hallway.

As the smoke around her cleared, she found a fallen form. Jayna raced over and checked the sorcerer. He wasn’t moving. She looked back, but saw nothing.

She did what she had done with Char, pulling the smoke off of him. She didn’t know if it was going to be enough for him to recover, but it was the only thing she could think of. She started to press sorcery down into him when she heard another shout.

She darted down the hallway, nearly stumbling over another fallen sorcerer.

Much like the last, she pulled the smoke off of him and held it within the ring. She focused on it, compressing it, and readied for the power that was out there, but didn’t know if she was going to be strong enough to withstand the attack.

A blast struck her, sending her skittering across the stones.

The Ashara dular was heading toward the back of the outpost.

She had seen several other sorcerers now, along with Char, but there was one she hadn’t seen.

The head of the outpost.

Agnew.

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Jayna darted forward, continuing to call smoke off from around her. The use of magic caused a faint shimmering in the hallway.

The power of the dragon stone combined with that of the smoke seemed to complement each other. They balanced each other enough so that she could hold the smoke within the ring. She had no idea if she were damaging it. She could use the power of the dragon stone without the bloodstone. The bloodstone offered a little bit more control and power, but it didn’t change anything for her beyond that.

More than that, now that she understood the features of bloodstone, she wondered if she might be able to seal another ring of it around her dragon stone if she needed to.

Those were thoughts for another time. Right now, she had to focus on getting to Master Agnew and stopping whatever attack the Ashara dular intended.

Yet another sorcerer lay unmoving near her.

Jayna crouched down, checking him. Unlike the others, when she tried to pull smoke out of him, there was nothing.

She checked for his pulse, but he was already gone.

Jayna got up and focused on pulling more smoke off from around her. There was a muted sort of quality to the air, a silence that was almost chilling. She struggled to move forward, worried about what she might encounter, but as she headed through the smoke, calling it into the ring, she continued looking everywhere around her, watching for the Ashara dular.

He was still attacking sorcerers.

Why had one died, but the other two had not?

Three.

She couldn’t ignore Char.

Maybe she’d gotten to them in time, or maybe there was something else to it. Could it be that the Ashara dular had targeted specific sorcerers?

She didn’t know. She couldn’t know.

Not without capturing the Ashara dular, trying to understand what he was after and what he intended.

She slipped along the hallway a little farther then stopped.

The hall widened here.

She had never been in this part of the outpost before, and though she could feel the power around her, an energy that suggested significant sorcery