“I’m not sure,” said Will. “It certainly resembles me a little.” Then he asked, “How did you do that?”
“The spell identifies the residual turyn people leave behind when they handle objects, showing their faces to the caster. It only works if the user already knows the people being identified, though. Fortunately, I had already met you,” explained Isabel. “Who are the other ones?” she asked, pointing at Erisa’s and Arrogan’s faces.
Will leaned forward, squinting. “A woman I’ve never seen before, an old man I don’t recognize—” He pointed at Isabel’s visage last. “This one, I’m not sure who it is, but I’m sure I would recognize a beauty like that if I had met her before.”
Isabel blushed slightly, then scowled. “That’s me, idiot.” She studied him for a moment, then went on, “You’ve given yourself away. I know you’re a mage of some sort now.”
“No, I’m not,” lied Will.
She smiled. “First, those images are completely invisible to non-mages. A regular person would have seen nothing. Second, you know all those faces. When I said the user had to already know the people shown, I didn’t mention what they would look like if you didn’t know them.” She pointed at Arrogan’s face. “For example, you said this one is an old man, but I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman. It’s just a blur to me.” She pointed at Erisa next. “This one I could see, but I don’t remember meeting her. Who is she?”
Flummoxed, Will clamped his mouth shut. Damn it! He’d been outsmarted, mostly because of his inexperience, but he had to admire Isabel’s cleverness. Then another thought came to him. When would she have met Mom?
“Are you determined not to answer?” she asked. “You realize my patience won’t last forever, don’t you? If you don’t cooperate, I’ll have the baron’s men back in here. Is that what you want?”
He said nothing.
Isabel surprised him by getting down on her knees so she could meet him eye-to-eye. The expression on her face was full of emotion, though he couldn’t have identified what moved her. “People like me can do anything we want to people like you. You realize that, don’t you? We don’t need proof or approval for our cruelty, either. Justice is irrelevant when you deal with nobility. Please talk to me.”
Something in her eyes made his heart catch. “Why?”
Her eyes left his for a second, stopping on his scarred cheek, then they returned. “Because I don’t approve of those who abuse their power. I want to help you.”
“So, you have me arrested and threaten me?” said Will.
Isabel sighed. “Do you have any idea how disconcerting it is to wake up and discover that someone has broken into your quarters and rifled through your things? And I was there when you did it! It’s the stuff of nightmares, especially for a woman. I had already raised the alarm when I found your identity with my spell. I regretted it when I realized it was you.”
“I didn’t rifle through your things,” protested Will. “I just put the letter down and left.” And looked at you for a little bit, he added mentally. That’s not weird, is it?
“I need some answers if you expect me to help you get out of this without serious harm,” said Isabel. “Trust me. I’m a friend of Terabinia too.”
He released the air from his lungs in a long exhale. “What do you want to know?”
“How did you get that information about Barrowden?”
“Next question,” he replied. When he saw the angry look in her eyes he added, “I really want to answer. Just ask me something different, please.”
Isabel’s eyes narrowed. “Who are the other people my spell showed?”
“My mother, my grandfather, and me,” said Will.
“Are they in Branscombe?”
He shook his head. “My mother is hiding in the wilderness near Barrowden.”
“Is the information in the letter accurate?”
“Yes,” said Will emphatically.
“How did you remove the ward in my tent without waking me?”
Will frowned. “The what?”
Isabel’s visage showed a curious expression, but she answered, “The ward. A ward is a protective spell. It was set around the boundaries of my tent. Anyone crossing it should have been paralyzed, not to mention it would have awakened me.”
“Oh,” said Will. “I don’t know. It just vanished after I touched it.”
“It just vanished,” she repeated slowly. “You expect me to believe that?”
Will shrugged. “It’s the truth.”
Isabel didn’t say anything for a while, then she asked, “Who trained you as a mage?”
“My grandfather,” said Will. “But he’s dead now. The Darrowans killed him. I didn’t have a chance to learn much.”
“Was he a sorcerer?”
If only you knew, he thought to himself dryly before shaking his head. “No. Just a wizard.”
“Did he teach you a spell to remove wards? Such a thing might be valuable if you could share it with me.” She looked hopeful.
“No. I don’t actually know any spells. I can see turyn and that’s about it.” A sudden inspiration struck him then. “Oh, and sometimes spells fall apart when I touch them. Grandfather said it was some sort of ‘spell anomaly.’ It caused him a lot of frustration.”
“Spell anomalies generally only happen when you first learn to express your turyn,” explained Isabel. “I’m sure he was mistaken.”
“I’m telling the truth,” insisted Will, as he lied.
“I can find out if you’re lying,” she warned.
Will doubled down. “Please do.”
A tiny spell construct appeared above her palm, and knowing what to look for, Will recognized it. Lun, sarcat, kolbet, it’s the same source-link spell that was in the book, he noted. A green line shot from her hand to his chest and vanished as his body absorbed the turyn. Isabel frowned as her spell fizzled out. “That shouldn’t happen.”
“Told you.”
She repeated the spell, and this time Will made a conscious effort not to absorb the turyn. The green line passed through his chest but just as it had the time his father had tried, it failed to connect to his source. He managed to suppress the smile that threatened to show on his lips.
“Are you doing something?” asked Isabel suspiciously.
“Not on purpose,” said Will innocently. She tried twice more, and he practiced changing tactics, letting his body absorb the first and deliberately letting the second pass through him. He was glad to see that he could control his turyn absorption. He didn’t know enough to be sure, but he suspected that being unable to stop absorbing turyn would probably be inconvenient in certain circumstances.
“That last one should have worked,” muttered Isabel. “How long did your grandfather train you?”
“A couple of years,” said Will truthfully.
“And you never learned a single spell?” she said incredulously.
“He always said he’d get to it later,” answered Will. Then he added, “You have no idea how mean he was.”