There was no other sign of smoke. There was only the persistent energy that filled her, giving her a distinct awareness of the power that still lingered. The man had gone, but his presence hadn’t faded altogether.
She looked over to Eva, and found her staring out into the street, an unreadable expression on her face. She was distraught, which Jayna understood.
“We’ll find him again,” she said. She twisted the Toral ring, spinning it on her finger, feeling the power flowing through it, still hating that she had felt forced to draw upon the dark energy.
“That’s my concern,” Eva said.
“What do you remember about him?”
Eva shook her head again. “Nothing. Just emotion.” She looked over to Jayna. “Does that make any sense? I feel like I should know more, but there are holes in my memory—ones that seem like I could fill but can’t.”
“I understand,” Jayna said.
“You don’t understand.” She couldn’t get over the distraught look on Eve’s face, but she felt as if there was something she could offer her, even if she didn’t know what it was quite yet.
“I’m not going to stop helping you.”
Eva looked like she was going to argue, but she bit back anything else she might say. Finally, she took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. A bit of smoke drifted out of her mouth, and Jayna realized just how nervous Eva had been. It wasn’t often that Eva used her power so directly like that, had left that power circling around her, but now she had done so continuously.
“I thought for a long time about what it might be like when I finally found somebody who was like me,” Eva said, turning back and looking toward where they had left the man. A wisp of smoke swirled around her, and she held herself rigid, completely stiff, the tension building within her. “I never expected he would have attacked us.”
“He didn’t know.”
“He did.”
Jayna shook her head. “He didn’t. I could see it on his face. When he realized you had a similar power to his, he hesitated.” It was the only time during all of it that he had hesitated. Excepting that, he had been far more willing to attack, as if he didn’t care whether he harmed them.
She didn’t want Eva to know that she suspected this man was responsible for the attack on Char, but she believed that likely. With the smoke that had been around the fallen sorcerer, she couldn’t help but feel as if he were responsible for that too.
She didn’t know his motivation though.
Sorcerer. That was what he had called her. He had recognized her as one.
And had she not had the Toral ring, she might not have had enough power to stop him. Even with the Toral ring, she hadn’t really stopped him—only delayed him.
For all the power the Toral ring afforded, it still hadn’t provided enough for her to overpower somebody with Eva’s magic.
That told her just how powerful Eva was. Or could be. Jayna had known that Eva possessed an incredible amount of power, and had seen it herself, but seeing how easily this being had managed to overpower Jayna left her knowing just what he could do—and, perhaps, what Eva could do as well.
She hesitated a moment, looking over to Eva.
“We’ll keep finding information,” she said.
“I’m afraid of what the answers might be,” Eva said.
“Don’t be. We’ll find the information you need.” She had Char looking, or she could.
Having seen the man, having faced that power, she knew it was necessary for them to keep looking, to find that understanding and knowledge. If they didn’t . . .
Eva might never know who and what she was.
Eva just nodded and started forward.
“Where are you going?”
“We need to speak with Master Raollet, don’t we?”
“We don’t have to do that now.”
“That’s why we came out. I’m not letting this deter us from what we need to do.”
Jayna followed her, heading through the street. As they approached Master Raollet’s shop, she swept her gaze around the street, looking for any signs of smoke, anything that might suggest the attacker had returned. He obviously had some reason for heading out here in the first place, and whatever it was, whatever reason he had for targeting Master Raollet, Jayna needed to find out.
“Why do you think he came here?”
“I don’t know. Hopefully Master Raollet isn’t injured,” Eva said.
“If he is . . .”
They pushed open the door, and found Master Raollet inside, leaning on the counter. He was an older man, with narrow eyes, graying hair, and deep wrinkles in his brow. He had on a blue, flowing robe, and his face was battered, blood streaming from one cheek.
“You!”
Jayna braced yourself, holding on to her power, and shook her head. “This wasn’t our fault.”
“Are you sure? It was your fault the last time.”
“We helped. So you don’t need to send more of your hired thugs after us. Again.”
He glowered at her. “You helped?”
Jayna looked around and nodded. “We came here and found the man using that strange smoke energy, and we drew him off.”
Master Raollet frowned and leaned down, picking a plate up off the ground before setting it on a fallen shelf. He almost fell over.
Jayna hurried forward, catching him, and guided him back to a chair behind his counter. He fought for a moment, but seemed to relax as he realized Jayna didn’t intend to hurt him. “Can you tell us anything about what happened?”
“There is nothing to say,” he said.
“Something happened,” she said.
“I don’t know what it was. I just know an attack came through here. I did everything I could to defend my shop, but there are limits. I have plenty of enchantments here in order to protect it, but . . .”
Jayna could imagine Master Raollet using some of these enchantments to defend himself, but she wondered just how effective they might’ve been against somebody like that attacker. She had seen just how powerful he was, had felt the strength he possessed. No enchantment would be strong enough to withstand that kind of magic.
“Do you know why he was here?”
“I thought he was here with you?”
“He wasn’t.” She looked over to Eva, and she thought she understood why Master Raollet would believe the attacker was with them. “We just came upon him. We were coming for information.” She watched him as he wobbled in his seat before sitting up, looking around for a moment, and finally relaxing again.
“I should have known there would have been difficulty,” he said. “We have seen far too many enchantments like that recently.”
When she had faced the man earlier, it seemed as if he controlled the smoke the same way Eva had, but there were enchantments that could do incredible things. It was possible that was all it had been.
“Why like that?”
“I don’t really know why anyone would want to make it seem like the Ashara attacked, but . . .” He waved his hand.
Jayna frowned. “What do you mean, ‘the Ashara’?”
He shrugged. “That’s what the smoke is supposed to look like—at least, that’s how the stories make it seem.”