“I’m not so sure that I should be pleased by that little compliment,” Laric said.
“You absolutely should. Anyway, as I was saying, you need to get going. I’m going to keep muting this, but you get back to your dragon and you get out of here.”
“I’ve told you I’m not running. So where does that leave us?”
“This is a mistake,” Xavier said.
“No,” Laric said, letting out a sigh as he started to look around him, his mind beginning to work, “I think the mistake would be in leaving the mages here to harm the town. We need to find a way to make sure they don’t return. And honestly, I don’t quite know what that’s going to require, but it might involve more of these glyphs. That is, if we can understand them.”
That was one thing that Laric still didn’t know and wasn’t entirely sure how to know. But maybe Sashaak could help. At least, Laric hoped that Sashaak could help—he just wasn’t sure when he would be willing to.
“But in the meantime, we are going to deal with those that are here now. And I’m going to get my sister and my friends back from them.”
“What should I do?” Xavier asked.
It surprised Laric that he was asking him, but he answered anyway.
“You can keep holding this spellcraft form. That is, if you think you’re strong enough.”
Xavier nodded. “I think I can manage for a little while longer.”
“Good. Because I need to find Rowan.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
It actually wasn’t that difficult for Laric to travel through the town. Using his concealment spellcraft form, he was able to move through the streets in the growing shadows around him and not worry about anybody finding him. It felt remarkably similar to what it had felt like when he had been sneaking through the streets when Korthal—or what they’d assumed was Korthal—had attacked. Now that he was traveling this way, he felt as if he was trying to avoid everyone, not just the invaders.
It was strange, though. Knowing that there were mages here, and knowing how he felt about them now, he suspected that he should feel more afraid. But he didn’t. Instead, resolve worked through him.
The movement in the streets reminded him of a sense of normalcy. He passed people out on a walk, or the occasional cart moving through the street, but nothing dangerous. Nothing like what he would’ve expected had he truly felt an invasion. And to most people, he suspected, this was not an invasion to them. For most, this was just the arrival of mages.
He used a detection spellslip to sweep through the streets and pick up on any sort of power in the area. For the most part, he felt only a sense of strange energy. Then he felt the vague, unusual sensation that was all around him. It came from the lingering magic that drifted everywhere, and from something more that he couldn’t quite place.
It was coming from below, though.
He strode forward and found the source of it: one of the hidden chambers they had discovered.
Once there, he hesitated. He wanted to be ready, because there was a possibility that somebody was here, and it could be a mage rather than Rowan. And if it was a mage, then he had every intention of being careful, wanting to ensure that there wasn’t going to be a threat to him. It was difficult for him, though, because somehow he had to try to find a way to maintain his concentration on the concealment, but also to focus on detection.
He filtered power and felt the vague push of extra strength.
That was surprising. He had not expected that, but as he felt it, he realized that what he was picking up on came from Sashaak.
It was a surge of additional help. That was it. Just a little additional help.
He focused and tried to send his appreciation through to Sashaak, and he felt just a bit of that connection forming. Not much, though. He didn’t need all that much power in order to push downward.
A slight resistance worked against him, and then he used a little more of his potential to surge past that resistance. Once it collapsed, he hurried down a set of stairs that were suddenly revealed.
Rowan looked frantic until she caught a glimpse of him. “What are you doing?”
“Coming for you,” he said. “Apparently, Xavier is holding some sort of a spellcraft form that’s concealing parts of the town. I don’t know if it’s going to work, but I wanted us to move as quickly as we can to try to keep anything from happening to anyone else.”
She breathed out. “I saw him coming. I knew that I needed to get to Iveris and Joselle, but I didn’t think I could, so I came down here and waited.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “I understand.”
“I hid, Laric. I ran.”
“No,” he said, striding over to Rowan and wrapping his arms around her. “You did what you needed to do because you wouldn’t have been able to protect them. You would’ve ended up just like them. And now was a better time, anyway. With Xavier having placed his spellcraft form around the city and linking to some of the glyphs that are here, I don’t know if it’s going to mute their power that much, but it should at least diminish it a little bit.”
“How does Xavier know how to do that?” she asked.
“Sounds like my grandmother taught him more than he was letting on.”
She shook her head. “He really should have been more honest with us.”
Laric laughed. “I agree.”
“So, what now?”
“So now, I think we need to go and figure out what the mages are doing. First, however, there’s something I need to tell you.”
She waited, and he hurriedly filled her in on what he had been doing. As he did, her eyes grew wider and wider, and though she stayed quiet, he sensed her concern.
“Then there’s more to all of this? More to Korthal?” Rowan asked.
“Seems that way,” he said. “But then again, I think that we always knew there was going to be more to this.”
