It happened suddenly. And with that, he knew that Rowan had finally reached Xavier, and he had stopped holding on to the protections that he had been. There was no more masking.
And so Laric radiated out the detection spellcraft form. He drew upon his own potential, and after apologizing to Sashaak, he used Sashaak’s potential too, hoping that he didn’t drain too much. Never before had he been all that concerned about it because it had seemed as if Sashaak had a vast store of potential and there was no reason for Laric to be concerned that anything worse would happen. But now he knew that Sashaak did not have an unlimited supply, and after seeing what the Grand Mage was able to do, it was clear to Laric that the finite supply was significant.
The sense of the Grand Mage was still there. Still on the school grounds, of all things.
Laric moved into the central courtyard. He saw the Grand Mage, the only figure standing there.
“Far more capable than I would’ve expected,” the man said, “especially considering how short a time you had with this power. You really could have been useful.”
Laric looked around, and as he did, he had Sashaak looking down with him. In that moment, something occurred to him, something he hadn’t seen before but mostly because he had been looking at it from the wrong angle.
“Oh?” Laric asked. “Because you want the dragon so you can slaughter other innocents?”
The Grand Mage laughed. “You make it sound as if you understand the workings of the world, child. You are too inexperienced to know anything. If we did not do this, another one would. This power is too vast to be held by those who do not understand what it is that they possess.”
Laric took a step toward him. He was aware that the Grand Mage’s magic was potent, and he was aware that if he wasn’t careful, the Grand Mage would be able to neutralize anything he might do. That was his gift, and the spellcraft form he had mastery over. But Laric had something he thought the Grand Mage did not.
“When I was younger,” Laric said, “the stories about Korthal said they didn’t know the power of spellslips or spellcraft forms. The stories made it sound like the people of Korthal were barbarians.”
“They are,” the Grand Mage said.
“But that’s not what I saw. I saw destroyed villages. I saw places just like this town. I saw dead dragons. All because mages were chasing power. And I’ve seen what Daelon and Talia and presumably the other three members of your council were all trying to do. They were trying to claim the power of the dragon. And they failed.”
“They were not me.”
“No,” Laric said. “And the people that you faced before, the dragons that you faced before, were not me.”
The Grand Mage sneered. “You think that I fear you? A child?”
“No. Actually, I’m quite certain that you don’t fear me. You shouldn’t. But there is somebody that you should fear.”
The Grand Mage looked around, his gaze darting everywhere before coming back to settle on Laric. “If you’re suggesting that this person is coming to your rescue, I’m afraid that it is not happening.”
“No,” Laric said, nodding. “She’s not. She was here before, and she made preparations. I didn’t understand it, and I didn’t see it, but I think they were always here. Power has always been here. Potential has always been here. And she wanted to make sure we knew it.”
All around him, Laric began to feel the flare of different glyphs igniting. They were potent, but there was something interesting about them. They all led here. He had noticed it when he had been atop the tower, the way that the energy weaved its way toward the school, but he had thought that it was tied to what Xavier was doing.
Now he could feel it differently. Now he could feel the way that power was slowly converging and coalescing, and he could feel how that energy began to work toward this place. He could feel the potential.
But more than that, Laric understood. This was a glyph.
The buildings were shaped in a glyph.
He assumed that his grandmother had been aware of it, even though she had never said anything about it. But she had shown him a key. She had shown him how to enter her space. She had shown him how to do that on a smaller scale so that maybe he could do it on a grander one.
Like now.
Laric used his potential, the potential that he felt flaring from the glyphs around him, and that of Sashaak overhead. Then he triggered the key. When he did, the buildings all around him began to blaze with a strange, dark energy.
The Grand Mage arched a brow at Laric, then looked at each of the buildings, and he started to laugh. “This was your great plan?”
“No,” he said. “I don’t know what the glyph does, honestly. But that’s my great plan.”
Laric pointed as a darkened shape came hurtling out of the sky, straight toward the Grand Mage, and flames erupted from Sashaak’s mouth.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
He sat in the courtyard, unmoving. Rowan had joined him, as had Malcolm, though Joselle and Iveris had gone off to get some rest at Malcolm’s urging. Laric was thankful that they had because he wasn’t sure he wanted to talk to anybody. Sashaak was circling, little more than a shadow in the sky, but Laric could feel him.
“What now?” Malcolm asked, looking around the courtyard. “You know that there’s a glyph here. You know how to activate it. So what now?”
“I have no idea what this glyph does,” Laric said. “I thought maybe my grandmother was trying to show me something, but I really think she just placed glyphs to help augment potential. Maybe that was what this was for. Still, I don’t know.”
“So now we have destroyed the mage council,” Rowan said, sounding incredulous about it, which Laric fully understood, “and we have to do what, exactly?”
Laric had been giving it some thought. All along, he had wanted to ensure the safety of his town. He didn’t know if they had, but he believed that it was possible that they had.
The mages were less likely to be a threat. He didn’t know what the headmaster intended. She obviously was still connected to the mages and to the Mage Academy, but maybe she saw things in a different way. Maybe she would understand things in a different way.
“Well, first we make sure everything is settled. We make sure the school is fine. That the others who are here are fine. We give people an opportunity to learn what they need to learn, and we—”
“Are you sure we can do that?” Malcolm asked. “I mean, with that?” He pointed upward, where Sashaak was circling.
Laric shrugged. “I don’t know. I hope so, but I don’t know. Honestly, I’m not even sure if that is the biggest concern. If mages return and if they decide to attack, there may very well be nothing we can do to stop them. Not without bringing a real force to bear, and I don’t really have any interest in doing that.”
Rowan watched him. She didn’t say anything, but he sensed her unease with all of this. He felt the same.
“And eventually, I need other answers,” Laric said.
