“Good,” Rowan said. “I thought that you might actually try to bring them with us. I don’t want them involved if we can avoid it. Not with this. Not until we have a better way of ensuring that they aren’t going to get caught up in something they really aren’t ready for.”
“I don’t want that for them either,” he said. “Especially until they have a chance. Well, not even until they have a chance. I’d rather keep them out of this, and not just because of Talia.”
“Why, then?”
He had been giving it some thought, and still wasn’t entirely sure how to phrase it in a way that didn’t sound fatalistic, though he felt like he owed Rowan an explanation.
“It’s about the mages. About Talia. When they come to the town, if we haven’t dealt with Talia, there’s the possibility that our sisters might get pulled into all of this. I’d rather keep them separate.”
“You think you can protect them from Talia now?” Rowan started to laugh. “I think it’s a little late for that, Laric. She knows about them. She’s seen them with us.”
“I’d like to give them a bit more deniability. If something happens, I want them not to be a part of it.”
“You want to protect them from this, but I don’t know if you can.”
“I don’t know if I can either,” Laric said.
It took him a little while to reach Malcolm’s home, where he was helping his father make arrangements for his next trade route—and recovering the wagon they’d left behind. Laric was surprised that Malcolm’s father was heading back out again, but after Xavier had stated that the route was clear, the other merchants in town had all decided that it was important for them to get moving again. The only routes he shared with other merchants were deeper into the kingdom, which Laric wasn’t sure was wise until they knew the extent of the danger from mages.
“Of course, we need trade for our town to thrive,” Malcolm’s father explained. “We have to make sure that we get supplies and that we can send some of our ceramic and wool to other places that value it.”
“Are you sure that it’s safe?” Laric asked.
“We aren’t going unguarded. We will be taking every responsible measure for caution that we can, and we will ensure that there is nothing more to be concerned about as we venture beyond our borders. It’s not as if we have to deal with the dragons,” he said with a bit of a smile.
Laric wanted to tell Malcolm’s father more about what they were really going to have to deal with, but he also didn’t know if he could. Malcolm just watched Laric, shaking his head slightly, so Laric knew that he couldn’t, and shouldn’t, tell Mr. Essan anything.
He pulled Malcolm off to the side of the road and looked across to the wagons that were arranged.
“If you need to go with your father, I understand,” Laric said.
“Why? What are you planning?”
“I saw something north of town. Well, I didn’t see it, but I had a way of seeing it, if you know what I mean.”
“I get it. You don’t want to just say it—”
“No,” Laric said. “I don’t want to just say that.”
“You found her?” Malcolm asked, dropping his voice to a whisper.
“I think so. I don’t know. I’m looking for something, and it seems like when I use what he can see, I capture glimpses of potential.”
“Really? You can see that?”
“He can. I can’t,” Laric clarified.
“That’s fascinating. I wonder if there’s anything to that potential that you might be able to take advantage of.”
“Not that I can tell. Although if you come with me, maybe he would be able to identify how much potential you have.”
Malcolm snorted, shaking his head. “Oh, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I should stay with my father. Besides, I don’t think he’s going to, but he really has been advocating for having somebody who can use spellslips to guide him.”
“You aren’t going to stay with the girls?” Laric asked.
“They will be in school.”
“And you won’t?”
Malcolm took a deep breath, then glanced over to his father. “I’ve been giving it some thought, but I don’t know that it makes sense for me to return. I went to school, stayed in school, because I wanted to learn as much as I could to help him. And there was a part of me that didn’t want to be a merchant. At least when I first started training. I suppose that’s changed a little bit.”
“I get it.”
“Do you?” Malcolm said.
In a way, Laric was actually relieved. He had started to question what was going to happen to his friends, and to others in town, as they continued to work through all of the strangeness that they had been dealing with. Increasingly, he’d started to think that he wouldn’t be able to stay here. Even if they took care of Talia, there were other mages that were going to be a danger. And with Sashaak, Laric wasn’t positive that he was going to be able to do much with him.
He also couldn’t shake the fact that he wanted to know more.
He needed answers. He wanted to learn about his grandmother and what she had known. So maybe what he needed to do was deal with Talia, and then leave town so he could get those answers in some fashion.
“You want to have some normalcy,” Laric said.
“I don’t know if there’s going to be normalcy again,” Malcolm said. “At this point, the only thing I’m hoping for is to help my father. I know more spellslips than I ever expected to know leaving school, and considering that I have come to experience the possibility of spellcraft forms, I think that I can actually help him and some of the other merchants.” He grinned at that. “I can be… I don’t know. Something more here.”
Laric smiled. “Go with your father. I’m going to go with Rowan, and we’re just going to see if there’s anything out there.”
“Don’t do anything foolish.”
