He was simply weakened by the battle.
She released her hand and stepped back.
He needed time.
And she needed to face the Ashara dular.
If she could pull off the smoke from around her, it might give her an opportunity to attack the Ashara in a different way than she had before. She stopped at the door leading out into the hallway, listening before pulling it open. Smoke covered the entirety of the floor.
She traced her quick pattern for the wind spell, then blasted it out.
It took a moment, but gradually, the smoke began to clear.
It drifted down the hall, toward the library.
Jayna tried to direct it.
She had proven that she could direct the smoke, that she could call it toward her, and as she pulled on it, she could feel it moving again.
What if I called the smoke into the ring here, too, like I did with the smoke inside of Char?
She didn’t know if it would even work, but she wanted to try. She summoned energy up through her, and sent it streaking out and down the hallway.
She pulled.
It was a strange sensation, a strange way of using power, but the smoke came drifting back toward her as she pulled upon it. She sucked it toward the ring and power began to flow into it, filling it.
Jayna called more and more into it.
It seemed as if it went into the bloodstone itself, its crystalline appearance now cloudy.
She was holding that power, sucking it in . . . then what?
She didn’t know if she could hold on to it indefinitely, or if it would affect her own magic.
Maybe she could use it though?
She reached the end of the hall near the library and turned.
The Ashara dular stood there.
This one was different from the one she’d faced in the street. He had dark, almost black hair and an angular face, and there was something else about him that struck her as powerful, though she wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was only her imagination, but she needed to be careful with this one.
“You need to leave,” she said.
He spun to her.
She looked for signs of an enchantment, but didn’t see any of the oblong ones like those in Raollet’s shop.
He sent a streamer of smoke out, and it started to snake around her, but she held her dragon stone ring and pulled. She could feel the energy sweeping up into the ring, and it began to bulge.
How much power can the ring hold? There had to be a limit, and she feared if she pulled too much, she would overwhelm the ring’s ability to hold that power, which might cause the ring to explode.
Jayna didn’t want to do that. She needed the ring and its power. And when she was facing the dular, she was going to need the energy of the bloodstone.
She might have to pull the smoke and shift it somewhere else if it started to seem as if it was overwhelming the ring, though she had no idea where she would send it, or how.
Power built in the hallway.
Jayna spun, and she realized that they were no longer alone here. It wasn't Char. He was still back in the room where she’d left him. It was another sorcerer.
She turned briefly and saw one of the sorcerers coming toward her, his maroon cloak flowing across the ground, power continuing to build.
Across from her, the Ashara dular stood, power rising within him too.
She was going to get pinched between the two.
She braced for the impact of their power.
The only thing she could do was call upon the dragon stone ring. She let its power flow into her, filling her, and as it did, she pushed it out and swept it away from her in a spiraling ring. More and more power began to spill away from her; she tried to control it, but couldn’t find any way to do so.
She created a barrier.
Something fell off, and it took her a moment to realize what it was.
As she called power through the dragon stone ring, the smoke that she had filled the bloodstone with altered something. She could feel the way it was shifting the power within the ring, and she recognized that if she weren’t able to hold on to the smoke carefully, she would lose control over it.
It continued to tremble beneath her, a 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.
17
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.