“Rowan,” he hissed, jumping to his feet. “Something’s here. Or at least, something’s coming.”
He wished that Sashaak were still here. At least with Sashaak, there was a measure of protection that he didn’t have otherwise. But without the dragon, Laric didn’t know if there was going to be any way they would be able to keep themselves safe.
Rowan glanced at him, and then she shrugged. “I don’t feel anything.”
“Go to the entrance.”
“Come on, Laric. I’m tired. I think we all are tired. And we should be heading back. I don’t like being here, anyway. This is where Daelon and Malinar died.”
“And it’s where my grandmother was leaving relics that we need to at least understand.”
But she wasn’t wrong. He didn’t like the idea that they were stuck inside a cavern where people had died. Not only had they died, but Laric had been a participant in killing them. That was a strange thing to think about, but Daelon was somebody that he had a hard time feeling much sympathy for, especially considering everything he had done and how much he had been willing to injure others to get what he wanted.
The pressure continued to build, yet he didn’t quite know why he was feeling that.
Laric moved up the shaft leading out. He had intended for them to leave anyway, but now, more than any other time, he felt an urgency for them to get moving. Rowan joined him, and they looked up at the skyline, then down to the rock.
“I don’t see anything,” she said. “And…” She created a spellslip, moving quickly with it, and far faster than she ever would have been able to do before. As that spellslip formed, Laric felt it as her connection washed outward, giving her an opportunity to detect anything that was sweeping away from her. He focused as well, maintaining his own concentration as he attempted to see if there was anything out there that he could find.
He felt nothing, but there was still that pressure building up.
“Somebody is using a spellcraft form,” he said, keeping his voice quiet because he didn’t know if the others were coming up behind him. “And if we use this path to head back to the city, we might get caught.”
“Mages,” Rowan said.
Laric nodded.
“But it’s not Talia, is it?” Rowan looked behind her, toward the main part of the cavern. “Malcolm said that the symbols had moved. If they were moving, it’s possible that Talia might’ve figured out some way of escaping.”
“I don’t think that’s it,” Laric said.
He focused again, and then he noticed the movement.
Or better yet, he supposed that what he detected came through his spellcraft form, a modification of what his grandmother had taught him a long time ago. It was a simple detection spellslip that Laric had added a spellcraft form to. The combination allowed him to probe much greater than he would’ve been able to do otherwise. It was something he had demonstrated to Talia, unfortunately, so now she would know what he was capable of doing, though he didn’t know if it would make much of a difference to her. As he probed, feeling that strangeness as it swept outward, he recognized that there was a power that was there.
“More mages,” he said. “So do we try to shield this place?”
“Can you?” Rowan asked.
“I think—”
Laric didn’t get a chance to finish.
Surprisingly, he felt as if he were moving. He swayed in place until he felt Rowan’s arms on him, holding him. He was distantly aware of her voice, but even then, he didn’t know what she was saying to him. Instead, he felt everything shifting, and then he saw through Sashaak’s eyes. He was certain of it.
Anger erupted from Sashaak, who was flying nearby. Laric hadn’t even seen him, nor had he been aware of Sashaak as he had been circling. But now Laric could feel him. That was strange, but stranger still was how he could see the outlines of three figures moving along the rock. They glowed with an orange light.
He was seeing the way Sashaak did. Not just with enhanced eyesight, which the dragons were reported to have, but Sashaak could see heat. Then again, Laric had known that to be the case because when they had dealt with the dragons before, they had needed to shield themselves so that they did not get discovered.
In this case, Laric wondered if it was Xavier, or perhaps somebody else, coming at them.
Still, there was Sashaak’s anger. That seemed significant.
Then Laric felt another buildup of pressure. It came from the connection he shared with Sashaak, as if Sashaak wanted him to be aware of what he was doing and how he was doing it. Sashaak was summoning his potential, and then focusing it.
“Fire,” Laric said, not able to move.
“What?”
“Fire,” he repeated.
And then flames exploded.
They spilled out along the mountainside, near enough to them that there was a burst of fire only a couple hundred yards from where they were standing. The heat of it was enormous, and as it rushed toward them, Laric staggered back, though it didn’t even matter. He could still see what Sashaak saw. He could still feel the heat.
When the flames dispersed and the heat began to dissipate, he saw that the orange figures that had been moving along the rocks were no more.
Chapter Four
Getting back to the city was taking longer than Laric had anticipated.
He had considered asking Sashaak to give them a ride, partly because he was curious what it would be like to ride on top of Sashaak’s back, but partly because he also knew that it would be a much faster means of returning. Still, having seen what they had, and knowing that it would be difficult for the people in town to see them coming, he understood that it was not something he should do. It would only draw the wrong kind of attention to them.
Plus there was the issue of what the dragon had done to the figures who had been getting closer to the cave. Sashaak had attacked before Laric and the others had a chance to even understand who had been out there.
“I wish Xavier would’ve left us with a wagon, or horses, or something,” Iveris said, her irritation getting worse with every mile they traveled.
Laric glanced over. They had reached a flatter section of rock and were now making their way through the valley toward town. It wasn’t really that bad of a walk, he didn’t think, and he was surprised that Iveris was making such a stink about it. Then again, she had made most of the things that they were doing difficult.
