Vidar followed Alvarn into the front of the house where the shop was located when a bluish translucent shimmer flashed in the front window.

  Alvarn's voice was shrill when he called out after Vidar. "What was that?"

  "Algiz!" Vidar growled, throwing the door open. Someone was attacking them.

  Pieces of colored glass were strewn about in the snow in front of the window, and the snow itself was on fire. At first, Vidar thought someone with access to the logiz rune had attacked them, but he thought better of it when the smell reached him.

  "Booze, strong alcohol," he muttered. Someone had thrown a bottle full of flammable liquid at their house, and the burning piece of fabric told him how they'd made the whole thing light up.

  "Come help me, Alvarn!" Vidar shouted as he began kicking snow at the flames, putting them out. If not for the barrier rune on the window, that bottle would have gone through and into the shop.

  Alvarn joined in and together they extinguished the flames.

  A pair of men stood off to the side of a small crowd of onlookers, and something about them caught Vidar's eye. Both kept their hands in their pockets, and both looked a little too disheveled for this part of town. But there was something else, too.

  "They're coming," Vidar said, grabbing Alvarn's arm with one hand and pointing with the other at the two men now approaching.

  The men, wearing clothes he associated with thieves, clutched daggers despite so many people around.

  "Get the hell out of here!" Vidar shouted at the gathering crowd. "Our rune shop, Runes of Plenty, will open soon! Barrier runes for protection are available to everyone!" He flashed what he hoped was a convincing smile before turning his focus back on the approaching thieves.

  People noticed the attackers and shuffled away, not wanting to be entangled. The street was almost empty in a matter of seconds, with only a few people watching from afar.

  Vidar dug through his pockets and found what he was looking for. If it came to that, he would not be without weapons. Then he blinked, recognizing the man on the left.

  "Harald?" Vidar called out, raising his voice to ensure the thief heard him.

  The set expression on the leftmost thief's face crumbled. He blinked, looking at Vidar with recognition in his eyes. Then his gaze shifted over Vidar's shoulder, his eyes going wide with surprise. Both men turned and ran in the opposite direction.

  Vidar scratched at his cheek, not sure what to think. Harald was one those he'd taught that lesson in rune craft to, the one with the genuine love for runes. He wondered what'd happened to the others in the small group of thieves.

  "Vidar," Alvarn said, poking his arm.

  "Hmm?"

  Turning around, Vidar saw what frightened the thieves. Four guardsmen, not guild guards, but proper city guards flanked a group of two men in the robes of the rune scribe's guild.

  It didn’t take a genius to figure out what they wanted, but Vidar saw no reason to make this exchange pleasant. He kept hold of the runes he'd prepared for clashing with the thieves as he barked, "What do you want?"

  The guardsmen all looked to the rune scribes. It was the one on the right, the younger of the two, who spoke first. He had black hair streaked with white in an uncommon hairstyle for a man, long, past his shoulders but held together with a thong at the back. The man’s features were soft, almost feminine, though the scowl on his tired eyes and the set of his mouth suggested he wasn’t pleased.

  He pulled back his shoulders, drew a breath, and focused on Alvarn, surprisingly. "Is this the sort of company you have chosen to keep, Alvarn? I am... disappointed."

  "I'm right here," Vidar said.

  But the soft-featured rune scribe didn’t react or turn his attention from Alvarn, who replied in kind, "Master Karl."

  "May we have a moment alone with our runaway student, Alvarn?" Karl asked.

  Alvarn glanced at Vidar. "I think it best I remain."

  "Very well," Karl said, acknowledging Vidar. Turning his attention to him, he said, "It is against your pledge to leave the rune scribe's guild grounds as a student."

  "I am no longer a student," Vidar interrupted. "You can strike me from the ledgers."

  Karl raised both eyebrows, his mouth opening before he caught himself. "You have attended two lessons after gaining access to one of the most sought-after educations in all of Sveland, and you wish to leave?"

  Vidar's cheeks burned. For a moment, he hated his height. Looking up to see the faces of almost everyone, always, put him at a disadvantage, and made him seem small. But in reality, Vidar was larger than all of them.

  "That’s correct," he said.

  "Very well," Karl said, as if unsure how to continue.

  But he didn’t need to, because the other man took charge of the conversation. The taller, wider, more muscular rune scribe was altogether bald, with a face full of wrinkles. Despite this, he radiated strength. His hawkish nose twitched as he spoke down to them all in a deep voice.

  "The mistress of our guild made it known to us that you possess the runic symbol of logiz. As it belongs to the rune scribe's guild, you will provide its design to us and then forget you ever happened upon it."

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  "No," Vidar said. "I don’t think so."

  The giant’s hands balled into fists and his voice grew deeper still. "No?"

  "No," Vidar repeated. "I have no such rune. It was a ploy."

  "A ploy?" the older man growled.

  "Yes," Vidar said. "A trick. To fool the guildmistress into thinking I had something to bargain with."

  Karl and the still unnamed, older scribe exchanged a glance. "Johan, we should take our leave for now."

  Johan, so that was his name, looked from Vidar to Karl, then glanced at Alvarn before his authoritative gaze flickered and died, replaced by uncertainty.

  "My apologies for deceiving the guildmistress," Vidar said, pressing his advantage, "but I hope my resignation from the academy is enough to mend any feelings of betrayal. I see now that it was wrong."

  The two rune scribes looked at each other, then back at Vidar, and nodded, full of confusion. Johan remained silent while Karl spoke, again directing his words to Alvarn.

  "Your father would be disappointed to see you like this. Still, we expect you to uphold the written tenets of the rune scribe's guild as long as you are a member, as well as work in the spirit of our creed. Do you understand?"

  "I understand," Alvarn replied.

  Karl nodded. "We will be watching, young scribe."

  Both men turned and walked off as one. The guardsmen hurried after the departing scribes.

  Perhaps having a fixed location where everyone knew where to find you wasn't all positive. Thieves and the rune scribes' guild both found him almost immediately and now knew how to reach him. Guards. They'd need proper guards. Erik would not do for such an important task.

  "You can't imagine such a deceit will fool them for long," Alvarn said, still looking down the street at Dmitr and Johan, the two rune scribes who'd come for the logiz rune.

  "Not at all," Vidar said, turning to where the thieves ran off to. Finding no sign of them, he stepped over the window and rejuvenated the algiz rune. It only lost a sliver of its essence, but he'd rather be safe than sorry if it came to a full-on assault.

  Finished with the barrier rune, he opened the door and held it for Alvarn to pass through.

  "Today might buy us some time, but they'll return," Vidar continued. "Viktoria-"

  "Guildmistress," Alvarn corrected.

  "The guildmistress," Vidar allowed. "She knows."

  "So what'll we do?"

  "I'll figure something out. I always do."

  Alvarn sat with a thud on a stool and rested his elbows on the counter, putting his head down to pull his fingers through his messy hair. "I wish you hadn't found that rune."

  "You must be joking? I crawled into a dragon's throat while the world around me burned to get that rune. It's powerful beyond any of the others!"

  "No, you're right," Alvarn sighed. "Unearthing a new rune is a momentous thing. New knowledge is never something to bemoan. I just worry about its application."

  "Sometimes you talk like I'm reading a book," Vidar complained.

  "Sorry," Alvarn chuckled. "Perhaps I do spend a little too much time reading."

  "Anyway, don't worry yourself. I'll deal with the rune scribes' guild."

  "And the thieves' guild?" Alvarn asked.

  Vidar nodded. "And the thieves' guild! Speaking of the dragon and new knowledge reminded me of something I haven't had the chance to tell you about."

  "What's that?"

  "Dragon's essence."

  Alvarn sat back, blinking. "Dragon's what?"

  Vidar told him of what Rend had directed him to do, drawing essence from the dragon with the styrka rune in the palm of his hand, of how it filled the circular area around his heart and how using it brought with it a power eclipsing anything a human could muster even at the peak of his strength.

  "Is this another joke?" Alvarn asked, his face blank.

  Not sure how what he'd just described could be interpreted as funny, Vidar shook his head. "No?"

  "So you not only rescued the dragon rider, you did so by draining the dragon's essence with the styrka rune that burned into the palm of your hand when you touched a spear resting inside the skeleton of a different dragon. And this was after you climbed into the dragon's throat to find the logiz rune?"

  "Yes?"

  "Don't you hear how utterly unhinged that sounds?"

  Vidar crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, when you put it all together like that, maybe, but each step made perfect sense at the time."

  "Of course," Alvarn said, nodding as if he agreed, before sighing and hanging his head with a groan. "And now you are the first person in the fallen angels knows how long who has filled their dormant essence space, which you did by sheer happenstance."

  "Dormant essence space?"

  "That's the name. Well, one name. It also goes by 'inner circle'."

  "Because of the shape?"

  "Just so."

  Alvarn then stood and paced back and forth across the small shop, forcing Vidar to squeeze back against the wall to get out of his way.

  "What does this mean?" Alvarn asked.

  Vidar blinked and climbed up and over the counter to put some distance between himself and Alvarn's nervous energy. "What do YOU mean?"

  "Scribe scholars have experimented with trying to awaken the inner circle in a person for as long as the guild has existed. There are countless theories and libraries full of tomes on the subject."

  "But they haven't managed it?"

  Alvarn shook his head, dumbfounded. "No."

  "Well, aren't I amazing."

  "This is an important discovery," Alvarn said, ignoring Vidar's proclamation of greatness. "I wonder if this is reproducible with the dragon's corpse. When the guild hears of this..."

  "You won't tell the guild a thing."

  Alvarn looked up at Vidar then, his face tight. "The rune scribes' guild is an organization filled with academics and artisans who want nothing more than to provide and to learn. It is not our enemy, Vidar."

  "Perhaps it isn't yours, but the guild sure is my enemy."

  "You're being antagonistic."

  "If they gave me a writ and left me alone, all would be well," Vidar argued.

  "You are not entitled to a writ."

  Vidar breathed in deep, preparing a loud retort when he stopped himself, frowning. "Hey, I've seen dragon's essence somewhere else."

  "Seen?"

  "You know what I mean."

  "Where?" Alvarn asked, his interest piqued.

  Vidar pointed down to the floor. "The sewers. That skeleton I told you about. It's surrounded by styrka runes. I didn't understand it at the time, but they were full of dragon's essence."

  Something else clicked in his head then, and Vidar's eyes widened with realization. "That's what the dragon must've been digging for!"

  Alvarn shook his head and let out a grunt, saying he didn't understand.

  "The skeleton!" Vidar shouted, gesturing with his hands. "The place where it dug its claws into the ground! It was trying to dig down to the skeleton. That has to be it! The beast was trying to reach its long-lost ancestor!!"

  "So?" Alvarn asked, not as excited about the revelation as Vidar.

  "So," Vidar began. "That has to be where Rend is! If the dragon rider knew, he'd try to find it."

  "Really?"

  "I have to go!" Vidar shouted, hurrying to the door.

  Alvarn shouted after him. "Wait! We're not done talking about the dragon's essence!"

  "Later!" Vidar shouted, turning as he ran, almost slipping on a patch of ice.

  Now that he figured it out, he felt dumb for not getting it earlier. Of course, the dragon was after its long-dead friend. His search of water basins would eventually have led him right, since one of them was right next to the skeleton, but it would've taken him some time. The dragon's digging must've meant there was another one, another dead dragon, near the keep, or perhaps it had a different reason for digging there. Either way, Vidar now had a good idea about where to find Rend. It was time he got some answers.

  The hatch down to the sewers closest to the dragon skeleton wasn't far, but he needed to cross the square around the church of the fallen angels to get there. What he saw outside that damned church made Vidar stop despite the feelings of excitement and hurry, pulling him toward the entrance to the underground. No. As much as he wanted to, his curiosity would not allow him to just hurry past this.