“What?”
“You said you were going to be gone for six months.”
“Well, yeah. You knew this. I told you. And then you acted like a chump and didn’t speak to me for two weeks.”
“You never said how long. You said it would be for a while.”
“That is a while.”
“Why?” he asked, finally looking at me. There was something in his eyes I couldn’t quite figure out. The closest thing I could make it to be was anger, but that didn’t seem right.
“Why what?”
“Why do you have to go? What are you leaving for? Where are you going?”
I hesitated. This was dangerous ground. He knew nothing of cornerstones, much less the fact that he was one. I couldn’t tell him that he was a big part of the reason I was leaving, because the longer I stayed, the more difficult it would be as he didn’t belo
ng to me.
“Away,” I said. “I’m going away because I have to. To learn better control of my magic.”
“Morgan’s your mentor,” he said, like he was trying to argue with me. “He can teach you.”
I shook my head slowly. “Not everything. Not this.”
He took a step toward me and his eyes were so green, like the trees in summer, and all I wanted to do was to tell him this. To tell him that when I stood by his side, I felt right. I felt even. My head was clear and my heart was clean.
He said, “What is this?”
A question that could be taken so many ways.
I took the easy way out. “It’s a wizard thing,” I said. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“Where?” he said.
I looked away. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Randall,” he said.
I turned to walk away. And made it three steps.
“Sam.”
I didn’t turn back around, but I stopped.
“The King told me,” he said.
I said nothing.
“About what happened. About how you ended up at the sparring fields.”
“Ah,” I said.
“Is it true?”
“No,” I said. “I lied to the King because I could.”
“Don’t do that. Just… don’t. You deflect. You always deflect.”