“You will go to your grandmother and Prince Kaliq one day for training,” Lara said. “Not yet, but one day, my son.”

“When?” he asked eagerly.

“When you are twelve,” she answered.

“I should go sooner,” he protested. “That is almost three years away.”

“The fact that you cannot accept my decision in the matter but proves to me that you are not yet mature enough,” Lara told him.

“Ah, you are too clever, mother,” he said with a chuckle.

“Aye, I am clever but I am also wise, Dillon. Anoush has no magic in her I can yet see and I cannot yet tell if Zagiri will have magic. But you, my son, from the beginning I could see the magic in you, but I said nothing and let you discover it for yourself. With the proper training you will be a great sorcerer one day. But you also need time to be the little boy you are now. You need long summer days feeling the sun on your back, picking berries and eating them until your tongue is blue, swimming in the lake, riding your horse and lying on a hillside at night looking up at the stars. Your summers must feel as if they would go on forever and ever. For now, you must be taken unawares by the summer’s end and your return to lessons,” Lara told him. “When you feel the summers going quickly, then I will know you are growing up and we will begin to discover how much magic is in you. Then and only then will you go to study with Prince Kaliq and your grandmother. You will be old for far more years than you are young, Dillon. Enjoy these years.”

“Mother, you are wise and I know your words are truth,” he told her.

Lara smiled. “Tell me of your sister now,” she said. They began to walk again.

“Our grandmother infects her with discontent,” Dillon said.

“And your cousin?”

“Cam is cunning and sly,” Dillon replied. “He panders to Anoush’s every whim, and he does it, I believe, to bind her close to him.”