Laina looked up from her conversation and smiled maliciously. “There you are. I was just telling Lawrence here that they shouldn’t let too many unsavory types in the building. Your presence is liable to spoil the potions the same way you curdle milk at home.”
“Curdling milk sounds more like you,” returned Will, glancing at the window beside the doors. It was pitch black outside. “Your father let you run off by yourself?”
“Darla is here too, keeping watch.”
“Still, the question stands.”
“I hid at the last moment, while they were going in. By the time they had everything locked down and did a head count, I was already on my way here. Father wouldn’t be foolish enough to abandon everyone and search on his own.”
“You hope! What if he does?” countered Will.
Tiny groaned audibly. “Janice will be twice as mad now.”
Will glanced to his friend. “We didn’t allow her to join us on purpose.”
“For a married man, you don’t understand women much. Do you think that will matter when it comes to her feelings?”
Laina snickered. “See, even the ogre has more sense than you.”
For some reason, that set Will’s temper ablaze. “He’s not an ogre. He’s just a regular person.”
Tiny set a hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right, Will. She didn’t mean it harshly toward me.”
Will’s half-sister looked regretful. Looking up at Tiny, she apologized. “No, he’s right. That wasn’t fair of me.” Her eyes bored into Will. “I shouldn’t drag others into it when I’m putting this jerk in his place.”
He did his best to ignore her and showed Tiny where the leftover bread was kept. When he stepped back out, he looked at Laina. “We’re going to be here all night. I suppose you should join us.”
She lifted one brow. “You’re not going out to fight the forces of darkness?” Her words were heavily laden with sarcasm.
“Not a chance,” said Will. “That’s tomorrow. Tonight, I’m just making some preparations. You ditched the family lockup for nothing.” It was well hidden, but he could almost imagine she looked relieved to know that nothing dangerous would be happening. Not that I blame her, he decided. It’s incredibly brave and stupid of her to insist on coming when she thought I might be in the thick of things.
It didn’t occur to him that the same reasoning applied to him as well. As they started up the stairs, he asked about her bodyguard. “Is Darla outside?”
Laina nodded. “She insists on keeping watch. Don’t worry. She’ll spot anything before it gets close and come warn us. As tough as she is, she knows better than to fight those things alone.”
Will led her up the stairs and showed her to his small, rented laboratory. “Welcome to my lair,” he said, waving his hand in a flourish as he opened the door for her.
Laina wrinkled her nose as she entered. “It smells.”
Chapter 41
Since he was done brewing potions, there wasn’t much for Laina or Tiny to see or do. Will stepped out and borrowed a couple of chairs from across the hall, then returned.
Laina looked back and forth between the two of them. “So, this is it?”
Tiny nodded. “Exciting, huh?”
“I’m actually planning to try to attune a relic, but I don’t have much for either of you to do,” said Will.
Laina straightened up. “Actually, if you don’t mind, you could write out a few spells for me. After seeing what happened a few nights back, I couldn’t help but think I might need to expand my repertoire.”
Relying on elementals for everything isn’t good enough anymore, eh? thought Will, but he kept his opinion to himself. Laina was willing to learn; he wouldn’t drive her away and miss the opportunity.
“Which spells are you interested in?” he asked.
“The force spells you used were pretty handy. The way you stopped the sword when Dad was about to put Darla out of her misery was fairly impressive,” admitted Laina.
“What force spells do you know already?”
“A simple wall and the force-dome,” she answered immediately.
“Can you reflex cast any spells?”
“Pardon?”
“Have you practiced any to the point of being able to cast them just with barely a thought?”
“Oh. No. I stuck to the basics in school and I always figured my elementals would be better when quick, dirty magic was needed,” she explained.
“Well, the spell I used for Darla was called a ‘point-defense shield,’ and it’s really small. That makes it handy because it doesn’t use much turyn normally, but until you can reflex cast it there’s not much point in having it ready. You’ll have to practice it daily for a long time before that happens.”
“How long?”
“Weeks, months maybe? For the present, the force-dome is more likely to be useful if you’re planning on having a spell prepared in advance.”
Laina sighed. “I’d like to learn it anyway, and the force-missile spell you used.”
“Force-lance,” he told her. Summoning his journals, he used one to supply a couple of sheets of paper and copied the two spells out for her. Then he dismissed the journals and brought out Ethelgren’s Exhortation.
Everyone’s eyes locked onto the rod of iron and silver. Tiny said nothing, but Laina had questions. “First, I’d love to know how you’re making things appear and disappear, but more importantly, is that it?”
Will nodded, holding the rod in his hand. It wasn’t very large, but it had a substantial heft to it. The silver runes glittered as he rolled it between his fingers. “I’ll let you go over those spells while I figure out how to use this.”
“You’re just going to pray over it?”
“Meditate,” he corrected her. “I’m also going to be talking to an old friend, so try not to interrupt. You’re going to hear voices.”
Tiny smirked, and Laina frowned. Will activated the limnthal and addressed the ring as he sat down cross-legged on the floor. He could have used a chair, but he worried in case something happened. It was a shorter fall if he was sitting on the floor rather than a chair. “I’m ready to start trying to attune this relic.”
“And you want me to hold your hand?” asked Arrogan derisively. Laina’s eyes widened when she heard the unfamiliar voice appear, but Tiny shook his head ‘no’ before she could interrupt.