“You are not going to lay hands on me again,” Rowan said.
“No daughter of mine will talk to me like that.”
There was another buildup of the spellcraft form. “You are not going to lay hands on me, or Iveris, again. Do you understand?”
“You do not tell me—”
As that spellcraft form was released, Laric recognized the power. A flash of heat exploded outward, slamming into her father. Laric couldn’t help but feel a measure of pride, but also a bit of alarm at the reason she was doing it and what it might mean for her.
Her father staggered back.
“Iveris,” Rowan said, “go stay with Malcolm and Joselle while I am gone.” She stormed past her father, with Iveris just behind her. She paused and looked over to him. “You will not touch me. Or her.”
With that, she stepped out, pulled the door closed with a fury, and turned to Laric. A conflicted expression crossed over her face before she shook it away.
“Are we going?” she said.
“Are you sure about this? If you need to make sure that your sister is—”
“I am fine,” Iveris said. “And honestly, Rowan didn’t even need to do that for me. It’s not like I don’t know how to form my own spellslips now. All she did was a little fancy light spellslip. You made sure that we can do the same fancy light spellslip, Laric.”
He laughed. He had, in fact, helped ensure that they could do the same fancy light spellslip, as she wanted to call it. That was an incredibly useful one, but he was concerned that she wouldn’t have the ability to do so on demand, nor as quickly as Rowan could.
“And it was good that he did,” Rowan said. “Will you go stay with Joselle and Malcolm?”
Iveris sighed. “I can, but I don’t know why you’re making me go there. I could come with you.”
“You could,” she agreed. “But not until we figure out what’s going on here.”
“If you’re going after her, I think the rest of us want to have a chance.”
“The rest of you,” Rowan said, glancing over to Laric and then back to her sister, “don’t have enough control to make sure we don’t have to keep her off of you.”
“Thanks,” Iveris muttered. She pointed to Xavier. “So what is he doing here, then?”
“I brought the horses,” Xavier said. “And while I do appreciate the opportunity, I also think that I’m a little better equipped to do some of the things that might need to be done.” He chuckled and then turned to Iveris. “Although I’ve been where you are and have had others tell me that I’m not quite ready. You know what I did?”
“Went anyway?” Iveris asked.
He looked back to the horses as if to say that without a horse, she wasn’t going to be able to keep up. Which was true, though Laric had a hard time thinking that Iveris was going to be dissuaded so easily.
“Well, that, and I pushed myself,” Xavier said. “It was only fitting, right? Take an opportunity, make it my own, and use that to become what they said I was not.” He gestured to Rowan. “While I suspect your sister has much faith in you, you’re young. There’s no doubting that. So take this as a chance to prove to her that you can do what she claims you can’t.”
“Is that necessary?” Rowan asked him. “Honestly. It’s not like I’m trying to keep her away because it makes me feel better. I’m trying to help her, and we have already seen what Talia is willing to do to get what she’s after.”
“She’s after his dragon,” Iveris said, glancing in Laric’s direction.
“Can you at least keep it quiet,” Rowan snapped.
That seemed to calm Iveris just a little. “I’m sorry.” She turned to Laric. “Sorry, Laric.”
He shrugged. “We can move faster when it’s just a few of us. I know you can help. You were great when we had to deal with her in the cavern, but we don’t want to put you in danger if we don’t have to. That doesn’t mean we aren’t going to keep teaching you and trying to get you and Joselle and even Malcolm to the place where Rowan and I are.”
“You mean where you are,” Iveris said, and her eyes darted to her sister. “Sorry, sis, you aren’t quite where he is.”
“I know,” Rowan said. “Can you go find Joselle?”
“Fine. Then she, Malcolm, and I are going to plan our own strategy sessions while you are gone.”
“Wonderful. I think that would be fantastic. So you do that, and I’m going off to do my own thing.”
Iveris stuck her tongue out and then strode down the street.
“I like her,” Xavier said. “She’d probably have made quite the merchant.”
“She would have made quite the mage,” Rowan said.
“Would have?”
“I’m not so sure that any of us want to be a mage now,” she said.
“You still want to learn what it means,” Xavier suggested.
Rowan shrugged. “We want to learn what it means, but we also recognize the danger in what they are and what they represent.”
“Interesting. Well. Shall we?”
They guided the horses to the edge of the town and then quickly got settled on them. Laric didn’t have a lot of experience on a horse, though it seemed as if Rowan was far more comfortable. She looked over, chuckling, which elicited a deep frown from him.
