The Path of Giants by B.T. Narro (year 7 reading list .TXT) 📗

an eerie sight, some of the bodies jittering during the process. It was moments like those that gave me hesitation when I thought about how I might show my interest in her.

Not wanting to take the stone she was offering, I asked, “Wouldn’t it be better if you held onto that?”

“All the mages of order should have one,” she said. “I brought it up with the king, and he agreed.”

“I’m not exactly a mage of order.” I said, hoping she might change her mind. “My skill with ordia is at a basic level.”

She cocked her head one way, then the other. “Jon, if your mana is telling you to stay away from this, you’re going to have to ignore it.” She gestured with the black stone. “The curse will only take effect when you want it to. You just have to disenchant the stone. That’s it.”

I had heard the term “disenchant” a few times before. I knew that the opposite—enchanting—was the process of imbuing a stone with a spell. Then that stone held your spell for a long period of time, maybe for an eternity? That’s how little I knew. But I didn’t know until now that disenchanting was the process of removing the spell from the stone.

I trusted Hadley, so I took the black stone from her hand. “I thought these stones of yours were cursed, not enchanted.”

“They are cursed,” she said with proud smile. “But disenchanting works the same on a cursed gem as it does an enchanted gem. Just like with some enchantments, there are some curses that, when removed from a gem, activate in the air. In fact, that’s the only way to activate this curse that I know of. It is a curse that sits in the air, not in a person’s body. It disables all mana it comes into contact with during the time it is active. It’s for this reason that no spells can get rid of it, at least in theory. You can’t heal it gone, like you might a curse in someone’s body. You can’t cast anything while standing within the invisible cloud.”

“What about using dvinia or wind to move the curse away?”

“It destroys mana that touches it. Only natural wind will disperse it eventually, so it’s more effective indoors than outside.” Hadley pointed at the stone I held. “This one is much more powerful than the one you threw at the archers today because it contains many essences of corrupted souls. Reuben, Eden, Barrett, and I all have one just like it. You’re the last to receive one from me, and I have none left after that. Barrett believes each one should be strong enough to not only remove Valinox’s spell of invisibility but to prevent him from using mana just like it does for us.” She didn’t sound very sure of herself, like she usually was.

“You don’t agree?” I asked.

“Well, I had figured a curse like this wouldn’t work on a demigod’s powerful spell, which is why I didn’t try to use the stone with the essence of Kataleya’s father to disable Valinox when he was stealing our sorcerers. I feared it would just disable our mana and not his. For the record, Barrett agreed that a stone with a single cursed essence probably wasn’t strong enough to have disabled Valinox, but Barrett seems to be quite wise about these matters. He’s confident these new stones will disable Valinox’s mana, and I’m choosing to believe him.”

I looked down at the stone, feeling better about it now. “Valinox might not be aware we have these,” I realized. “Maybe we can use them to set a trap for him.”

“I discussed the exact same thing with Barrett and the king.” She had a hopeful tone, her gaze settling on the stone. The way she looked at it made me look at it in the same way, that this could be our chance.

But then our eyes met. I lowered my hand, closing my fingers around the stone and forgetting about it for the moment. I wasn’t very good at hiding my feelings. I could almost feel my face telling Hadley that her luscious lips were on my mind.

“Thank you,” I muttered, wondering what I might be able to say to keep her here longer.

“You’re welcome, but I should be thanking you, Jon. I don’t think I ever would’ve had the courage to approach the king with my gift of curses. I was too scared, but then I spoke to you through our mana, and I knew right away I could trust you. So thank you. I feel like I’m going to have a home here now, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be. I only wish I’d taken more of my family’s coin before leaving.” She chuckled a bit.

“You’re welcome,” I said with a smile. “You’re one of us now, and I’m glad for it.”

She looked at the door, then back at me. “I almost forgot,” she said as her gaze fixated on the stone in my hand. “To cast the spell of Disenchant, it starts just like any other spell of ordia. You need the four notes of the school of ordia, then the rest is up to your thoughts. Just think about removing the curse from the stone. You will be physically pulling it out with your mana when the spell is successful. I wish you could practice, but the curse cannot be set back into the stone once it is in the air.”

“I think that shouldn’t be a problem,” I said.

A silence followed. She looked at the door again.

“Well, good night,” she said. I didn’t know if it was wishful thinking again, but her tone sounded a little reluctant to me.

It was just a few steps to my door. I walked beside Hadley. We stopped at the door handle. She turned to me. I put my arm around her for a brief embrace as she leaned against me. Our arms slid down, her fingers interlocking with mine as I opened the