Gavin sat with his back turned to the room, having grown tired of the furtive glances his way. He saw Lillian glance over his right shoulder. Gavin almost reacted to the threat, and it took all of his will to remind himself there were no threats here.
After two deep breaths, Gavin found himself near the calm happiness that had been his mindset just a few moments before, and he turned to see what made Lillian glance.
Sera, Valera’s assistant, stood some five feet away. She worked her lower lip between her teeth as she wrung her hands. When Gavin met her eyes, Sera jerked her eyes to the floor.
Gavin sighed, saying, “Sera…I thought we were past this.”
“Va-that is, the Magister of Divination-asks a few moments of your time, Milord,” Sera said, still staring at the floor.
Gavin turned back to the table and said, “I should go see what this is about. Do you want to meet later, once I’ve had time to work up the new plan for training?”
Gavin’s apprentices gave a chorus of nods, mixed with “Sure,” “Yes,” or “Sounds good.”
Gavin stood and pushed his chair to the table before turning to Sera and saying, “After you, Sera, and my name is still Gavin.”
Sera led Gavin to the Office of the Collegiate Justice and indicated the door to Valera’s office as she said, “The Magister is waiting for you.”
Gavin walked to the door, knocked twice, and entered.
“At least you knock,” Valera said, a slight smile curling her lips. “Marcus never did.”
“Yes, well, I’m not my mentor,” Gavin said.
Valera gestured for Gavin to take a seat, as she said, “Oh, yes; I’m aware. Tauron would probably be dead by now if you were.”
“Don’t think the thought hasn’t crossed my mind,” Gavin said. He moved to sit in the armchair off Valera’s left. “But I don’t think you asked me here to discuss whether I’m like Marcus.”
“No, I did not. The Council is not at all happy with you, Gavin, but Tauron was unable to get even one other magister to support calling your bluff.”
“Valera…”
“Yes, Gavin?”
“It wasn’t a bluff.”
Valera sighed and looked at Gavin in silence for a few heartbeats. At last, she said, “I didn’t think it was, and neither did Kantar. In truth, the Council is not what’s on the forefront of my mind.
“Gavin, I considered telling you a convenient fiction to explain what I’m about to say, but I need your trust…and your help. Since I was little, I have had visions from time to time. Sometimes, they are visions of the present, sometimes insights about a person, and sometimes, I see glimpses of the future. I had such a vision a short time before you set out to confront Sivas’s mercenaries.”
Valera fell silent and looked down at her hands.
“What is it, Valera? Are you well?”
“Yes, Gavin, I am, but my homeland is not. I don’t know what help you can be, but I would like for you to go to Vushaar, present yourself to King Terris Muran, and save him if you can at all. The vision…I…I saw the fall of Vushaar.”
“Would Marcus have helped him?”
Valera smiled, saying, “Oh, yes. In fact, Marcus tended to watch over the Muran line, in much the same way he watched over the descendants of his apprentices. The King of Vushaar during the Godswar saved his life.”
Gavin took a deep breath and let it out as a slow exhale, before saying, “Then, it looks like I’m going to Vushaar. Was there something else, or may I go prepare?”
“No, that was why I wanted to see you. Thank you, Gavin.”
“You’re welcome, Valera,” Gavin said, as he stood. He started to open the door but stopped, turning back to face Valera. “Does he know?”
“Does who know, Gavin? And about what are you asking?”
“Does Terris know you’re a blood relative to him?”
For the briefest moments, a terror Gavin had never seen before flashed through Valera’s eyes, followed by sorrow.
“No, Gavin,” Valera said. “He does not. All records of Muran wizards were expunged from the genealogies many years ago.”
Gavin frowned, remembering a very old volume of the Muran Genealogy in Marcus’s private library upstairs, and said, “If he did know about you, who would you be to him?”
Valera sat in silence, staring into Gavin’s eyes for several moments. The silence dragged on until Gavin thought she wouldn’t speak.
“I was his grandfather’s youngest sister,” Valera said, her voice soft and quiet. “He thought I was representing the Council and Society when I attended his father’s funeral. I shouldn’t have gone…but there was no one still alive who remembered me or what my father did.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
“It was a long time ago, Gavin. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It might, if another wizard is born to the Muran line.”
“I pray to Bellos every night for that never to happen again. To the best of my knowledge, he has granted my prayers thus far.”
Gavin wanted to ask more. He wanted to know what Valera’s father had done, but he didn’t have time for that. Perhaps, he could learn more in Vushaar.
“Valera, I wish you well, and I will do what I can for Terris. I give you my word.”
“Thank you, Gavin. It means a lot to me.”
Gavin nodded once and left, closing the door behind him.
Gavin returned to the dining hall and found Kiri and his friends still sitting at their table. He approached and leaned on the back of his chair.
“That was fast, Gavin,” Lillian said.
Gavin nodded, saying, “I’d like to speak with all of you in the suite as soon as possible. I’ll be there as soon as I find Declan.”
Lillian and the others frowned but nodded. Gavin turned and left the dining hall.
A short time later, Gavin led Declan into the suite and found Kiri and his friends waiting, and he gathered everyone to sit at the dining table.
“What is this, Gavin?” Mariana asked.
“We’re a little worried,” Lillian said.
Gavin scanned the faces of the people he had come to think of as friends, and the left side of his mouth curled in a half-smile. At last, he said, “Valera has asked me to travel to Vushaar to help however I can with the situation there. I don’t know what I’ll be walking into, and I can’t in good conscience drag the lot of you with me. We’ll have to put the training on hold for a time.”
“Gavin,” Lillian said, “that’s not how it works. We’re your apprentices. We go where you go. Besides, just think of what all we’ll learn and see if we’re with you.”
“We’ll be riding into a civil war,” Declan said. “Two months ago, a rebel army under the command of one of King Terris’s own generals, a Sclaros Ivarson, laid siege to the capital. There are roving bands of slavers operating with impunity throughout the Vushaari countryside, and no one wears a banner to show which side he or she supports.”
“Besides all that,” Gavin said, “you are the heirs of your respective Houses. I don’t want to risk any of you.”
“Gavin,” Braden said, “Roshan, Wygoth, Cothos, and Mivar were the last of their lines when they followed Kirloth to the Godswar, and there was even less reason to think they would survive that. Our place is with you.”
Lillian, Wynn, and Mariana nodded their assent as Gavin looked to each in turn. Gavin shifted his gaze to the tabletop and sat in silence for several moments. In all truth, he wanted them with him. He felt more at ease with his friends nearby.
When he lifted his eyes from the tabletop, Gavin found everyone looking at him. He turned to Declan and said, “We’re going to need at least seven horses. We will leave for Vushaar once we’ve packed.”