Laric and Rowan finally took a seat, and when they did, they looked around. Rowan seemed to be trying to make out whether there was a danger here, and maybe he needed to do the same thing, but the room itself was fairly unremarkable. It had paneled walls, a hearth at one end, and some decorations, but nothing of note.
Why did he feel something, though?
It was more than just the artifact that Mr. Galinar was sweeping from side to side. Was he doing it because of Laric, or was it for some other reason? Was it something he had brought, or was it something that this other mage had with him? And if it was that, then why would the mage have brought something with the ability to neutralize power? Better yet, how? Laric had too many questions without many answers.
He looked over to the man he didn’t know. “This room is interesting. I’m having a little difficulty with my spellslips here.”
“Yes, well, I hear that you are quite talented with them,” the man said. “From everything that your instructors and your headmaster have shared with me, you are the one responsible for dealing with a threat in the city. A pity that Korthal would decide to attack, but a good thing that we had capable students.” He turned so that he could fully look at Laric, and once again Laric was aware of the steady buildup of pressure, and this time there was a little bit of pain mixed with it. “Students who handled Korthal.”
“It really wasn’t anything,” Rowan said.
“I wasn’t accusing you,” the mage said. “We had reports of an incursion through the valley.” He glanced over to the headmaster. Laric knew that she wasn’t the one reporting anything coming through the valley and guessed that any reports that did come had been from Talia. But then, Laric and Rowan had both been responsible for Talia having the ability to reach the rest of the mages. “That area has been notoriously difficult to navigate. We have not been able to secure it the way that we would like, but reports coming in have been increasingly dangerous.”
He took a step toward them. Laric wished he could shrink away, but since he was seated in a chair, there wasn’t anywhere he could go, and nothing he could do. All he could do was feel for any power being used.
The problem that he had, and that he didn’t have a good explanation for, was that he didn’t know what that power was or why it felt like something was pushing against him. Maybe it was what Mr. Galinar had been doing.
But there was something else here, something far stronger than he would’ve expected from the spellcraft form. Laric felt it squeezing him in a way he had not before. Certainly not when Talia had been using her power, and not even when Daelon had been wielding his—someone whose magic Laric thought was even more potent than Talia’s. So why was it that he picked up on something now?
The answer came to him immediately: glyphs. It had to be glyphs.
Could the mages have learned some way to activate them?
Laric hadn’t expected anybody to be able to do that, but if this was tied to the mage council—and given what Talia had indicated, it very certainly could be—they might actually know something. Especially since they had started to learn how to wield that power with the dragons.
Not just with the dragons. Against the dragons.
“I will have some food brought in, and we can eat and drink and be civil,” the man said. There was a hard edge to his tone that Laric didn’t like. It was commanding, but it was an odd command.
Mr. Galinar stepped out of the room for a minute, leaving them with the headmaster and the stranger before returning with a tray of food that he wheeled in.
“As I was saying,” the headmaster said to the mage, “these two students were responsible for protecting the city when it was attacked by Korthal. They worked together to bring down one of the dragons.”
“These two students did? Interesting.” He regarded Laric, and there was a weight to his gaze that made Laric uncomfortable.
“We got lucky.” Laric tried to shrug dismissively. “We knew individual spellslips that were complementary. And we did have a little help.”
“Interesting,” the mage said again.
“We train our students quite well,” the headmaster said. “And though Laric was not always the best student, Rowan has been quite skilled.”
Laric didn’t know whether he should be happy or disappointed by that comment. Maybe both.
The mage glanced at Laric. “He wasn’t the best student, but he was able to deal with a dragon? And what made you such a good student when defending your town?”
Laric didn’t know why, but irritation surged within him, and maybe a wild bit of recklessness.
“Desperation. Necessity,” he said. “I couldn’t sit back and watch my town and people I care about get hurt if there was something I could do about it. I couldn’t then, and I definitely can’t now.”
The man smiled tightly. “Oh? And why don’t we talk about the spellslips that you used?”
“Do we need to do that now?” the headmaster asked.
“It is important to understand the technique, especially if it was done by a student. Dragons are quite formidable opponents, as you all undoubtedly saw.”
“Of course,” Rowan bit out.
Laric looked at her and couldn’t help but feel impressed by the hardness to her. She was angry.
“His grandmother taught him a few different techniques,” the headmaster said, “but we helped harness them. She didn’t train at the school or the Mage Academy, but she was quite gifted.”
“It was a shame when she disappeared,” Mr. Galinar said.
The mage turned, and Laric began to feel a steady pulsation, something that was building, though he wasn’t sure what it was.
“What can we do for you?” Laric asked.
“As you must’ve heard, there are stories of a dragon. Dangerous stories. Dark stories. There have also been reports of students who have been taking action they should not be able to take.” He looked at Laric, then at Rowan. “Not you two, of course,” he said, shaking his head. “Unless it was you two.”
Laric grew cold, and he knew that he was going to have to be ready, but ready for what? They had already dealt with mages. They had survived Daelon. They had managed to overpower Talia more than once, but all of this was possibly going to come down to this mage?
“Well, Your Excellency,” Mr. Galinar said, “as we were saying—”
“Excellency?” Laric asked, glancing over to Mr. Galinar and then to the headmaster.
“This is the Grand Mage,” Mr. Galinar said. “I just assumed you knew this.”
Laric felt the buildup of power with a renewed sense of urgency, and a renewed sense of fear.
