And that was the thought that stayed with him. How could he learn from anybody at the school any longer?
Laric hadn’t even been a student at the school for a while, ever since Talia had come, and ever since she had recognized that he had a different sort of potential. Why should he stay when there was so little for him here?
But it was more than just that, he knew. It was about more than him staying, learning, and trying to uncover something that no longer felt like it fit him. It was… Well, Laric wasn’t exactly sure what it was, just that he started to wonder if perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if he were to take out one of his former instructors.
“Why have you been looking for us?” Laric asked, turning his attention to Mr. Galinar.
The man stepped closer, and he was sweeping his arm from side to side while holding on to something. Laric wasn’t sure what it was. Maybe some sort of a relic. Whatever it was that he was doing seemed to disperse the concealment that Laric had been using, and the technique was far more potent than Laric would’ve expected.
“There has been word of a threat,” he said. “A dragon was spotted.”
Laric’s heart hammered, and he focused on Sashaak. He was pleased that he could still feel him and that there did not seem to be any sort of danger to the dragon, but there was a part of him that remained on edge about all of this, concerned that perhaps Sashaak was not nearly as safe as Laric wanted. Could he keep the dragons safe?
That was something he didn’t know.
“A dragon?” Rowan asked. To her credit, she made her confusion sound convincing.
“Yes, yes, a dragon,” Mr. Galinar said, stopping in front of them. He was still sweeping his hand from side to side. Did he know about what Laric was doing, or was he doing this because he was trying to disrupt whatever Xavier was holding on to? “But of course, we haven’t seen it, just reports of it. I can share more with you when we get into the school proper.”
Laric looked over to Rowan. They had a choice here: They could try to fight this off—and he suspected that they would be able to do so because he didn’t think that Mr. Galinar was all that skilled—or they could go with him and see what he had been doing, and maybe find some answers.
At this point, Laric wasn’t positive what they needed to do, but he knew he needed answers.
He nodded, and Mr. Galinar led them toward the great hall. It was one of the more ornate buildings on the grounds, stretching two stories high and featuring stained-glass windows. Several tall steeples set it apart from the nearby buildings. There was a simplicity to it, despite its decorative elements. Glyphs marked the base of the building, much like there were in other places throughout the city. As Laric passed it, one aspect of that glyph seemed to call to him. He had seen it, he was certain, and recently.
He pointed, trying to be discreet, but didn’t think he was doing so successfully. Rowan nodded but kept her gaze fixed straight ahead of her.
As they reached the entrance of the great hall and stood in front of the pair of well-worn oak doors that had been oiled over the years to keep their appearance, Rowan leaned over to look at the glyphs.
“What about them?” she hissed.
“I don’t know. I just feel like I’ve seen them before,” Laric said.
She looked over, but then she pushed him forward. “If we’re going to go, then we need to go.”
He knew she was right, and so they headed in.
The great hall was a gathering place for students at the school. Supposedly, it had once been some sort of temple, but that had fallen out of favor over the years, and it no longer served that purpose. Now it was a place where the school would hold various meetings or ceremonies and the like.
There were several smaller rooms off the great hall, and that was where Mr. Galinar guided them. He paused at a closed door, then knocked.
“Are we meeting with the headmaster? Or are there other—”
Mr. Galinar raised a hand, cutting him off. “Just a moment, Mr. Mason.”
Laric frowned. But even as he did, he focused on his surroundings and began to feel something.
Pressure. He was certain of it. Somebody was using power, and a considerable amount. It was nearby.
He reached for Rowan and grabbed her wrist. He nodded to the door and mouthed, Be ready.
And when the door came open, he did not recognize the person on the other side. He had anticipated that it was going to be Talia and had feared that it might be. But the mage—and they were definitely a mage—who opened the door was not her.
That didn’t mean they weren’t powerful. They most certainly were.
So who were they?
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Have a seat,” the man said, his voice unfamiliar to Laric. His tone was demanding, and he had a hint of an accent.
A sense of pressure began to build behind Laric’s ears again, the telltale sign of a mage using magic. It wasn’t surprising that there would be a mage here, or that they would be using power around him, but what was surprising was that it seemed as if they had anticipated his and Rowan’s arrival.
“I prefer to stand,” Laric said.
“You will sit,” the man said. “And we will talk.”
“Talk about what?” Rowan asked.
Someone who was afraid enough might go running from the potential danger, but she certainly wasn’t acting afraid here, even with a mage. But then, maybe this was just her trying to put on an act, which he certainly understood.
“We will sit, and you will talk,” the man said again, before twisting and looking from Laric to Rowan. “Because we have been waiting to have words with both of you.”
“We?” Laric asked.
The man nodded, and Laric noticed another figure in the room, seated at a table nearby. The headmaster. She frowned at him, and he caught a look of worry in her eyes, but it was not just worry. Maybe it was fear. Or perhaps disappointment. It was difficult for him to parse out what emotions the headmaster might be experiencing.
Mr. Galinar pushed Laric forward. Laric glanced back, noticing that Mr. Galinar was sweeping the strange item in his hand from side to side. Any attempt that Laric had at trying to focus on a spellslip, or even a spellcraft form, was disrupted because of that. It was potent, whatever it was.
