“I’m not so sure that they try to keep it hidden as much as it is that the mages try to keep that truth hidden,” Xavier said. “For everybody who is learning spellslips or some of the more basic magic, it is meant to keep you believing that what you have learned is going to be effective.”
They rounded another hillside, and in the distance, the ground became rockier.
“So mages have been hiding from that? What else did you find in Korthal?” Laric asked.
“I found welcoming people. I was generally kept to the periphery of Korthal. It wasn’t safe, they claimed. I always believe that it was tied to the dragons, but when I encountered anybody who was connected to the dragons—such as Malinar—I came to learn that didn’t seem to be quite right. I wasn’t exactly sure why that was, but I avoided pushing too hard because I didn’t want to upset anyone or be seen as overstepping.”
“Because you didn’t want to lose your access to trade,” Rowan said.
He shrugged again. “No. I did not. Korthal made me successful. My access to those lands made me valuable. And while I’m not the only person who has that access, I certainly am one of the few who was welcomed among their people in ways that many others were not. That’s how I knew that Korthal was not the enemy we were often told they were. Though you know that as well now.” He breathed out, and he shifted in his saddle. “Which is my roundabout way of saying that my education has come from Laric’s grandmother, mages, and even a few people in Korthal who tried to deny the fact that they knew things, but they obviously did.”
Xavier fell silent.
Laric wondered if Xavier would show him what he had learned, but he also didn’t know if it made any difference. Even if Xavier tried to demonstrate any of the spellslips that he knew, or even the spellcraft forms, none of them would really be all that significant for Laric, especially since there were other patterns, and forms, and lessons that he could glean from Sashaak. He did not need to have someone like Xavier, or even Talia, show him such things.
Assuming that Sashaak would keep talking to him and keep demonstrating certain abilities.
“Does your dragon know where Talia is?” Xavier asked. “Because the last time that you told me anything, we were getting close. I would like to believe that we are nearing where we will find her, and then we can deal with her.”
Rowan arched a brow. “You’re so eager to do so?”
“Eager has nothing to do with it. I would just like this task dealt with.”
“You’re worried about what might get back around about you, as well,” she said.
Xavier glanced in her direction. “Yes. I won’t deny that.”
“But in order to do that, you’re going to have to keep Talia from reporting anything.”
“Yes. And?”
Laric thought he understood what she was getting at. In order to keep Talia from sharing anything, they were going to have to kill her.
And maybe Xavier had assumed that was what they were going to do.
Laric still did not know what he planned on doing with Talia. Truth be told, he had not really planned anything. He had come out here thinking they would capture Talia, but perhaps capture was not going to be possible.
“Let’s just find her first,” he said. He looked over to Rowan, who was quiet, then glanced over to Xavier, who just stared straight ahead and also said nothing. “And the dragon makes it seem like she shouldn’t be very far from here. I don’t quite know, but it seems like there is a flash of potential not far.”
“If she’s not far, then we must start making our own preparations,” Xavier said.
“And what are those going to be?” Rowan asked.
“Those are going to be you setting some traps, maybe facilitating them, and perhaps the dragon dealing with her.” He glanced up at the sky. Sashaak was so high up that none of them could really see him, though Laric did have that vague sense of awareness that connected him to the dragon, and that made it so he felt like he should be able to pick up on something. “But in order for us to do it, we need to identify where she is and be ready.”
As Laric prepared to ask how they could do that and what that was going to look like, he noticed something.
The ground around them felt odd. At first, he thought that he had only imagined it, but increasingly, he realized that was not imagined. There was something unusual here.
A strange sense of pressure.
Rowan looked up, and her eyes widened at the same time that Xavier stiffened. Then they both slumped in their saddles.
Laric tried to move and found that he could not. Even the horses came to a stop.
It was a trap, but it was Talia’s trap. And they had fallen into it.
Chapter Fifteen
There was little that Laric could do. He felt the overwhelming sense of the pressure that he had been detecting before, and everything within him went cold, as if a wave of ice water had washed over him. He could scarcely think of doing anything other than just staying where he was, despite the fact that he felt as if he needed to move somewhere else. Anywhere else.
Motionless as he was, he attempted to summon the power that he had, trying to find some way to create a spellcraft form, or even a spellslip. But without the ability to move, none of what he tried would form as fully as it needed. He was held helpless, and he couldn’t help but feel frustration building within him.
Distantly, Laric was also aware of Sashaak, and he felt the creature circling high overhead, but even though he was aware of the dragon, Laric did not think there was anything he could do to tap into that power or connect to it the way he felt he needed to. It was there, like a taunt that lingered, just out of reach.
He tried to cry out through the strangeness that he was feeling, but he could not even move his lips to talk.
He tried to see where Rowan was, but even as he looked in her direction, he was not aware of anything more than what he had already seen. She was there, but she was not there.
What of Xavier?
He didn’t know where Xavier had ended up. Laric couldn’t hear anything from him, and the fact that Xavier was next to him, either still mounted or not, might not even matter. He wasn’t able to reach the other man.
And then he heard movement.
It was close, getting closer.
Laric had little doubt that this was Talia’s doing. This had to be some way of trapping them based on her awareness of what they had been doing, and of using them in some fashion.
