“And you are from Korthal,” Laric said.
“From what remains.”
“So if there are dragons in your land, and dragons in Dizarn’s land, what is the difference?”
His dragon didn’t have an answer.
As they traveled, Laric struggled to understand what it was that he was missing, and he was feeling as if there was some puzzle that remained. They streaked through the sky, Sashaak drawing upon his potential and heading quickly back toward the town, and staying high enough in the air that the townspeople wouldn’t know that they were there. When they finally came to land outside his grandmother’s shed, it felt as if both no time had passed and an eternity had passed. Much had changed, at least for Laric.
“I need to get back to the others.”
“Yes. And I need to eat.” The way Sashaak said it was almost amusing.
“Be careful,” Laric said.
“As should you.”
“Do I really need to be careful when I can call on your potential?”
“There are limits to even my potential.”
Sashaak took off again. Laric was able to see through his eyes, and as he did, he noticed a surge of brightness—a bubble of potential that he hadn’t noticed before, but now did. And as he looked, seeing that clearly in his mind, he wondered if it was another aspect of potential that his grandmother had left, or if this was potential that came from something else. A mage, perhaps.
He needed to know, so he set off, moving farther south to make sure that there were no other surprises.
Chapter Twenty-Four
It turned out that it was not a mage. Instead, what he found were glyphs on a single boulder. Had Sashaak not shown him, Laric wouldn’t have even been aware of it, but having been able to see it from above, he could make out the contours of the glyphs on the stone. He wondered if there was some element of power within them that he could and should be able to identify, or if it was simply about something else. Regardless, he focused and tried to make sense of what he was picking up on, but could not. Not easily.
He traced his hand along the stone, feeling the indentation of it, and questioned whether there would be any way to use the glyphs, or if it was just power that remained elusive to him. Perhaps that was what it truly was—elusive power. If so, then Laric should leave it alone.
He couldn’t shake the feeling that his grandmother had left this here, though.
And if she had, then there had to be something to it.
What, though?
That was the problem Laric had with all of this. Glyphs were scattered in places they should not have been. There had been an egg in one of the other places, but even that had not been all that helpful for him. And though Laric believed that the egg was designed to help him understand, and perhaps translate, some of the glyphs, it had not made that much of a difference.
Why now, then?
That was a danger, he felt. Maybe it was tied to the mages, but if that was the case, then the real question was what the mages were looking for out there. And were they actually looking for anything, or had they just found something they were suspicious of?
Laric didn’t know. At this point, he wasn’t sure it even mattered. The only thing he knew with much certainty was that what he had found out here was a glyph.
What had Rowan said? He had a universal key.
He quickly formed the spellslip and pushed down on it. Laric didn’t know what he had expected to happen. What he had not expected was for the entire stone to begin to collapse, becoming flatter and flatter, and for more glyphs to cover it. It was as if he had unlocked a different surface altogether.
Laric froze.
Why was this all the way out here?
He studied the glyph-marked stone, but nothing made sense. He couldn’t identify or interpret any of these glyphs, and he certainly didn’t know how to activate them. Not without any guidance. He focused on the connection that he had to Sashaak and tried to push an image of the glyph-marked stone to him. Laric thought that if nothing else, maybe Sashaak could help him understand what was here, but the dragon remained silent.
So much for his help.
Of course, Sashaak was likely busy eating or drinking or doing whatever it was that dragons did. Laric wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He had not asked Sashaak what he ate, and considering that he had not had glimpses of Sashaak hunting, he assumed that was probably a good thing.
Laric had to push those thoughts away. There was no point in wondering what a dragon needed to eat. Too much, probably.
He focused on the transformed stone again. Could he use the universal key on this as well? When he tried, it didn’t work.
Maybe there was another key. And if so, then he was going to have to try to unlock it differently. Unless it wasn’t the key at all. Maybe this represented some portal, but a portal to where? And why would it be all the way out here?
According to Dizarn, these portals could be configured and adjusted, so there was no reason for him to believe that his grandmother would’ve left a portal all the way out here and completely alone.
So…
So, Laric wasn’t going to get an answer.
Just more questions.
When it came to understanding his grandmother and what it was that she had been doing, those questions posed a real challenge. They also posed something of a danger to him, he had to admit.
Other people probably knew things about his grandmother and about what she had been part of, and they knew to follow the glyphs. Glyphs that Xavier knew about.
That was where Laric needed to go.
