Chapter Sixteen
Laric had the distinct feeling that Talia had been out here for a very specific reason, but he wasn’t sure what that was. She had been looking for… something. But what?
When he said as much to Xavier, the merchant just shook his head. “I can’t say with any certainty what she was doing out here. There was likely a purpose behind it, but it might have been as simple as her trying to set a trap to try to draw you, or both of us, into it.”
“Unless she was looking for something that would help her with what she plans once the mages come?” Rowan said.
For his part, Laric tried to concentrate on Sashaak and on maintaining some link to him, but even as he did, there remained an aspect of the connection he had to the dragon that posed a challenge for him. While he had an awareness of Sashaak, he simply could not see anything through his eyes the way that he had been able to before. It was as if Sashaak had decided to stop showing him things. Laric wondered why, and what it was that Sashaak had decided to do differently. Maybe the effort of trying to battle with what Talia had intended had been too much.
“It is possible that there is an old ruin of a place out here,” Xavier said. He glanced over to Laric. “Honestly, I haven’t spent much time out here. I did a little bit when I was younger, but not a lot. It’s pretty bleak and empty.”
“It’s like that around the town in general,” Laric said.
“Not entirely. Most of the surrounding area is suitable for farmland, and you have the quarry, but beyond that…” Xavier shrugged. He still seemed a bit shaken by what Talia had done and just how easily she had almost overwhelmed them.
Laric understood the hesitation that he had because, for his part, he also shared in some of the concern about what Talia had been able to do, and he worried about what she might continue to do to them. He knew that she was not gone. Not really. And when she reappeared, he was going to have to be ready.
Increasingly, he started to wonder what he had to be ready for. Was it to leave?
That was a very real possibility. If Talia, as well as the mages, returned to the city and came after Sashaak, Laric might not have any choice but to depart. It wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted to have an opportunity to stay. To help his sister. To help Malcolm, for that matter. And then there was Rowan.
That had been a growing friendship, and maybe a little bit more, ever since the attack. Laric had never had anybody in his life like her before. He and his sister had always had a good relationship, but it was isolating to live outside the city, and even more isolating in that Laric had never taken his education seriously, so he had always been something of an outsider. Even in his classes, he had been something of an outsider. It was self-inflicted, he knew, but it didn’t change the fact that it was still isolating.
Ever since the attack, Laric had felt connected to people, and maybe even to the town, in ways he had not before.
“Does the dragon show you anything?” Rowan asked.
“Not really,” he said. “I can see a little bit through the dragon’s eyes, but it’s more of a blur. I think part of it is tied to the fact that the dragon feels…” He shrugged.
What was it that Sashaak felt? He didn’t even know. He couldn’t feel anything from Sashaak, but he was aware of some element that seemed to come from him, nonetheless. Rowan watched him as though trying to gauge his reaction.
“I don’t know,” he finally said.
Laric tested a few things. He didn’t need Sashaak, did he? He had learned to work spellslips and spellcraft forms, even before he had ever learned that he had some sort of connection to the dragons. That was significant now, he thought. And if he could take advantage of it, then shouldn’t he?
He focused, and then he began to let the first of his spellslips flow out from him. It was a basic detection spellslip, one that his grandmother had taught him. He modified it, turning it into more of a spellcraft form, and used an element within it that seemed to be drawing on a little more of Sashaak’s potential. He had to be careful, he suspected, because he didn’t know if it was possible for him to drain Sashaak’s potential. He didn’t think so, or at least didn’t think it was possible to do so easily, because of what Malinar had claimed about the dragon’s potential and how much was there, but it was more than just that. Laric had also seen some of that potential inside the vision that Sashaak had granted him. That alone was enough reason for him to believe that it would be incredibly difficult, if not impossible, for him to tap into that power too significantly.
“There’s something up here,” Laric said.
He kicked his heels into the horse’s side, and they started forward.
Laric was not a skilled rider, and he wobbled a bit as he tried to clutch the reins of the horse. Xavier had no difficulty catching up to them, and neither did Rowan, and they both looked toward him.
“I haven’t picked up on anything,” Rowan said.
“I felt something through a detection spellcraft form,” Laric said. “It was a rippling of energy against me. It’s like there’s residual power somewhere.”
“Out here?”
“I don’t know what else to say.”
“All right,” she muttered, and then she followed him.
It didn’t take long before they found a pile of boulders that blocked the entrance to a cave on the far side of the hill. Laric climbed down from the horse, looped the reins around a small but stout tree, and stood in front of the boulders.
“This was what I was feeling,” he said. “I don’t really know what it is, but I can pick up on some element that is here, and it seems to be pushing on me.” He glanced over to Xavier. “I don’t suppose you can detect anything here?”
Xavier stared at the boulders, shaking his head.
“What if it’s another place like the cave in the mountains?” Rowan asked.
“She would’ve told me,” Xavier said.
“Unless there were certain things that she didn’t want even you to have access to,” Rowan said.
Xavier nodded slowly. “I still don’t know the purpose behind most of the artifacts she had me moving. I’m guessing that it was a matter of protecting something, but I can’t say with any certainty. When she first had me exporting them, I thought it was just a matter of moving something valuable for her. I did that often enough for others, so it wasn’t terribly surprising.”
“Smuggling,” Rowan said, watching him closely.
“Rescuing,” Xavier said.
Laric laughed. “And here I thought you wanted to make your name as an honest merchant.”
“Oh, I was—and am—an honest merchant. But there are some jobs that you take because it’s the right thing to do. In this case, it was the right thing to do. I stand by it.”
Rowan looked over to Laric. “If she was out here, and she left glyphs…”
That was his thought as well.