I had my head back through the door. It was better to have company.
“How much does Ferrian know?” Sheo asked the question.
The mages Larner and Hettar exchanged guarded glances.
“How much damage can he do us?” Sheo rephrased the question more insistently. “I'm not asking for your secrets!”
Larner nodded and Hettar answered. “Not as much as we do, by a wide margin. He has ball of fire, the mustard cloud, bolt of lightning, earthquake; plus shock and some other personal offense spells.”
“Earthquake?” I asked.
“To bring down walls, localized but can be large if you have enough stone.”
I wanted to wave him to silence because I knew what he meant now. Whole cities had been leveled with that spell in the past. I knew it from history and my studies of war.
“Has he enough stone? How many stones do they have?”
Larner and Hettar exchanged glances again. “The largest was ten carats.”
“Gods,” I swore. “When were you going to use that?”
“I didn't plan to,” Hettar said mildly. “I brought it for emergencies. Used it, you may recall.”
I didn't. “Well, he has it now. I'm just glad stone isn't cumulative.”
Everyone nodded, including Larner and Hettar I was very relieved to note. I hadn't known for sure; just because it's common knowledge doesn't make it true, but if these experienced battle mages believed it that was good enough for me.
“I make it twenty stones, maybe one or two more. I don't know who had multiple stones, but doubtless the healers did,” Larner was thoughtful as he spoke. “Not that it matters to us, and we can hardly send a message home.”
No one spoke. It was true. I pulled my head back in and went to lie down.