“Lost it how? Lost it why?” Laric peered around. “Because of this war with the mages?”
Dizarn appeared as if he was going to say something else, but then he didn’t. He shook his head. “If you change your mind, you need only summon.”
“I’m not sure how to summon.”
“You know all that you need to, because you saw where we came through.”
“The glyphs. You move them,” Laric said.
“As could you.”
Laric took a deep breath. “Let me deal with what I have to deal with first. If it can be resolved, and if I can make people safe, then I will come to you. I need to learn about where my family is from.” He noticed Janear watching him, and that same look of irritation and a bit of distrust lingered in her gaze, and Laric could not ignore it. “I would also like to understand if there’s anything more that I might be able to do.”
That, more than anything else, might be what motivated him the best. He really did need to know more about what he could do, and how he could do it, and what it might look like when he did it.
Laric turned back to Sashaak.
“You’re just going to let him leave?” he heard Malik say. “After all that you went through to find him?”
“I did not find him. I found the dragon,” Dizarn said.
“Still. You’re just letting him go?”
“Could I make a dragon stay?”
Laric tensed. It had nothing to do with him. It had everything to do with Sashaak.
And as he looked from one dragon to the next, he realized that they were similarly sized. He didn’t know what sort of potential Dizarn’s dragon possessed, but he assumed that they were similar in that way as well.
He reached Sashaak, climbed up onto his back, and then hesitated.
“I would like to know more about her,” Laric said. “I thought I knew my grandmother. I really didn’t, though. So I will be back.”
“I hope so,” Dizarn said.
With that, the dragon launched into the air. They circled, hovering just above the ground for a moment, giving Laric a chance to look through Sashaak’s eyes—first at the other dragon, and then at Dizarn and Malik and Janear.
Through all of that, however, Laric felt a rising sense of unease. This was what he had been after, wasn’t it? He had wanted to know more about his grandmother. He had wanted to know more about what she could do, why she had come to his town, and why she had stayed. Wasn’t that information what he had been after? And if so, then shouldn’t he want to remain?
A part of him—a large part, he had to admit—did want to remain. If he could guide Sashaak away, if he could be sure that the mages wouldn’t follow, maybe he would. But there was no guarantee that would happen. There was no guarantee that he could keep anything worse from happening to his town. And considering that the dragon was the best weapon that they had against anything the mages might bring to them, he knew better than to remain idle and do nothing.
So as they circled, he continued to focus until Sashaak turned back east. It wasn’t long before the vast emptiness and barren land began to sweep beneath him again. They stayed low this time, far lower than they had before. Laric wasn’t sure why, but as they flew past the bony remains of a dragon, he felt the faint pop of potential coming from it. They moved on, past another one, and much like the last, there was that faint stir of potential that emanated from it. As they drifted over a destroyed village, Laric could even feel potential there, and he looked down and noticed something else.
Glyphs. He couldn’t see them clearly, but he was certain that was what it was.
These people had glyphs that had protected their village. Much like his town had glyphs that protected it. Or were meant to.
They had not been enough.
“What don’t I know about mages?” Laric asked.
“I do not know,” Sashaak said. “Malinar did not know, so I do not know.”
“But Dizarn knows?”
“I doubt it. If he knew, he would have shared.”
“I don’t think so. I think he’s still keeping something from me. They’re running from something.”
“Perhaps,” Sashaak said.
“And they need me. Or, I suppose, they need my grandmother. What is it?”
Sashaak was quiet for a long moment. “I do not know.”
“Are you sure? Or are you just saying that you don’t know because you don’t want to tell?”
“I do not know.”
Laric let out a heavy, frustrated sigh and leaned in. Once they traveled into the mountains, Sashaak picked up speed. He continued to sweep his gaze around, wondering if there would be any sign of mages or dragons or anything else. Dragons had come through here, he knew. They had to have. But coming through here didn’t necessarily mean they had lingered.
“Where is your home?” Laric asked suddenly.
“Further north,” Sashaak said. “Much further north.”
“So not the same place as Dizarn.”
“No.”
