“So… how will that spellbook help us?” Estelle asks, her eyebrows furrowing.
“It’s simple really. The sorcerer won’t be able to cast any spells from it,” I declare proudly.
It’s a well-known fact that sorcery and magic don’t mix. A person cannot serve both a demigod for their powers and the goddess Meruna, patron of magic. There is a price to be paid for such a sacrilege and such faithlessness. Those who try to wield both could very well be struck dead on the spot. And those who survive are driven mad by the power they were never supposed to wield.
It’s why I’ve avoided spells since my deal with Likho. With the demigod keeping me alive, I doubt I’ll die, but my mind is in a fragile enough state that I wouldn’t want to risk any magical backlash causing me to go mad.
Or maybe a part of Likho’s hold over my subconscious is driving me mad already… after all, I did use spells and then I switched to sorcery like a jetting turncoat.
For all I know, Likho’s voice in my head is actually my own.
I wait for some sort of smart retort from Likho, but only silence rings in my ears.
I swallow hard as I run my hand down the spellbook. “We make any potential sorcerers read from this book and just like that, we know whether or not they are sorcerers.”
Father raises his eyebrows and then shrugs. “I doubt I’ll be good at it, but I’ll give magic a go.”
I pull the book away as he reaches for it, a strange territorial urge overcoming me when it comes to this random spellbook. I clear my throat as my father looks up at me confused. “You weren’t in the room with us. You are not in question right now.”
Father reaches up to scratch his sideburns. “Well, I guess that’s good.”
“Which leads us to the second matter of business. Where are you and the girls going to hide while we do our sorcery hunting?”
“Me?” father splutters.
“Someone has to protect them,” I say my eyes darting to Vera who is sitting behind the counter with a far-off haunted look in her eyes. My carefree cousin has seen too much for a girl her age. My aunt and uncle entrusted her to our care, and we are failing them. Mika lies curled up in her arms, blinking sleepily and probably trying to calculate the loss of the wine.
That should be the only loss she experiences tonight.
Father glances at the girls, and I know that I said the right thing. I’m a grown man. I don’t need him like they do, and he knows it. He turns to me. “You’ll be careful, son?”
“The carefullest.”
“That isn’t a real word,” Talyria grumbles. She apparently has it in her head that my throwing myself in front of some glass shards to save her was a poor move. I’m not entirely sure what she expected me to do, watch her get cut to pieces? Especially since I knew that I would be fine after a little bit of pain.
“You should go with them, Talyria, I would rest easier—”
“Shut your mouth right now, Victor Andreev. You’re mad if you think I’m hiding away while you’re out here risking your life to find a sorcerer.” She folds her arms and gives me a look that says that if I want to move her, I’ll probably have to lift her up and carry her off.
I release a frustrated sigh. “Estelle?”
“Not on your life,” Estelle says, her eyes are starting to spark with enthusiasm. “This is the adventure I’ve always craved.”
I definitely made the right choice when I stopped pursuing her. She would have driven me to an early grave,again. No matter what Likho’s power does to keep me alive, that girl would have found a way to get me killed a second time.
She’s a madwoman.
I turn back to my father. “Where should you and the girls go? It has to be somewhere the sorcerer wouldn’t think to look.”
Father glances around as if determining that we’re still alone in the room. The other straggler guests have not returned to this main room and I don’t think they intend to. We’ll probably have to search the whole inn to find them and get them to read a spell to prove their innocence. I suppose it’s well enough, it gives us a chance to confront whoever the sorcerer is alone without other innocents in the room.
“I know a spot,” he whispers then he steps behind the bar.
I reach up to rub my brow. “You can’t just duck down there, it’s too easy to spot—” I trail off as my father bends over and pulls off a plank of wood. Then another one. My mouth drops open as Mika hops out of Vera’s arms and rushes over to help. They clear enough space to reveal a cavern there under our inn floor. It’s very clearly a…
“A smuggler’s stash?” I choke out. “Why do you have a smuggler’s stash under your inn?”
Estelle looks just as stunned as me, but Talyria looks impressed. “I’d wager it’s because they’re smugglers.”
