“And how is it, then, that they still were able to reach dragons?”
“You have not yet seen what they have lost.”
“But all I see are dead dragons, broken villages. This is Korthal?”
“This is a part of what was known as Korthal.”
“Was known?”
“Was. Korthal is no longer,” Sashaak said. “And has not been for nearly a decade.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
They continued flying for a while, circling over the landscape and maneuvering in such a way that Laric found himself straining off to the side so that he could view things from Sashaak’s vantage. He tried to see what Sashaak did, tried to understand what was down there, but every time he peered down from Sashaak’s back, he found that things tended to blur past him in such a way that it became difficult to truly identify anything.
And he didn’t need to. Not really. Sashaak gave him images that flashed in his mind.
More than anything, Laric suspected that was the key. Sashaak had wanted him to see what he saw and had wanted Laric to know what he knew.
“How far are they going to take us?” Laric asked.
They had been flying west, deeper into the Korthal lands. Laric had not seen any sign of life, at least not this far north. How had Xavier traveled here, then? That was an aspect of all of this that Laric still didn’t understand. Xavier had made it seem as if he had gone to some of these places, traded with them, and been able to return. What about this was different?
“What changed?” Laric finally asked. “They were killing dragons, but suddenly they stopped?”
“They killed many. But not all. And it took quite a bit out of them.”
“And the people of Korthal?”
“Retreated to safer places,” Sashaak said.
“But I felt your potential,” Laric said, sensing that this conversation was one of the more important ones that he could have. It felt like this was what he needed to know so that he could fully understand what was going on here. “How is this even possible?”
“How many mages do you think exist?”
“I don’t know. Many?” Laric said.
“Many.”
“But they don’t know glyphs. They can’t control dragons. Or they couldn’t.”
“No,” Sashaak roared.
“Something changed,” Laric said.
“Something changed.”
“I don’t know what it is.”
All of this felt troubling to Laric, yet as he flew alongside Dizarn and the others, he found himself with other questions.
Eventually, Dizarn’s dragon descended, landing on a rolling hillside that looked down into a valley. In the distance, Laric could swear that there were signs of life, but when he attempted to look through Sashaak’s eyes, he couldn’t see anything. It was as if it was all blurred from him. He tried a detection spellslip, then shifted into a spellcraft form, but even as he did, he could not identify anything. That power, such as it was, stretched out and away from him, but he could not pick up on anything else.
Dizarn climbed off his dragon, as did Malik and Janear, who stayed behind him. Laric hesitantly got down from his dragon’s back, then made his way over to join Dizarn.
There was a part of Laric that remained on edge. If Sashaak were suddenly to leave him, he would be trapped here, and he couldn’t even imagine what it would take to get back to town. He was so far from everything he had ever known that the idea of being able to return seemed insurmountable and impossible to him.
“You see it, don’t you?” Dizarn asked.
“I saw it,” Laric said. “The dragon made certain that I did. Is that what you wanted me to know? That your people have suffered?”
“Not all were my people. In fact, most were not my people. But we suffered, nonetheless.”
“So if they were not your people, then who were they?”
“The better question is why this happened,” Dizarn said.
“I’m guessing it’s because the mages want dragons,” Laric said. “They want the knowledge that you have.”
He snorted. “They cannot have it. They do not have the patience for such knowledge. Even my people do not always have the patience for such things.”
“So what, then?”
“I do not know. I knew that my mother was after something, but she never spoke of it. She was looking for answers, looking for a way to find…”
He trailed off, and as he did, Laric had the distinct sense that he was keeping something more from him. But even if he was, there wasn’t anything that Laric would be able to do about it.
“So why bring me out here?” He looked over. “Obviously you thought that something out here was important for me to see. Was it the dead dragons? The destroyed villages? Or was it just the emptiness? Because all of it is impressive in its own depressing way.”
