There must have been close to a hundred raiders in the Academy attack and they hadn’t bothered to take anything except her father. The nagging question of why so many men would come to kidnap her father and not bother to take the spoils made her head spin. The raider Klaarg had indicated that Rhodella was not supposed to have been killed and was quite angry about her apparent death. Rhodella had also mentioned the raiders’ need for a hostage to make Master Malafar do something evil. Clearly, they wanted him for his magical knowledge, but the who and why of it escaped Lyra.

They entered the forest and Lyra immediately felt the air cool as the trees shielded the summer sun. The sunlight filtering through the trees created a mosaic of light and dark patches and Lyra let her eyes adjust as her mind started to wander away from the brutality of the attack. The scent of sevemor cones was a pleasant reminder of her younger years and Lyra’s tense body started to relax. The forest was quiet except for the sounds of the horses plodding along the trail and the rhythm of their hooves was pacifying.

Lyra let her mind drift to thinking of anyone who might want Master Malafar for some evil use. There were plenty of mages in Omunga and probably quite a few who would do whatever they were asked to do as long as they were properly paid. Whoever kidnapped her father must need an extremely skilled mage because Master Malafar was known as one of the best in Omunga. If they didn’t need his level of skill, it would be cheaper to hire another mage than to send a hundred raiders to attack the Academy. Lyra wondered what kind of research her father had been involved with which might be considered revolutionary. She mentally kicked herself for not paying more attention to what he was studying, but Lyra found her magic lessons too easy and quite boring. She tended to push magic out of her life at every opportunity and had no idea what research was going on at the Academy.