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

“Whitley Yorn.”

I stopped my horse. She stopped as well.

I let my anger come out. “How dare you!”

Hadley seemed disappointed as she gazed at me. “Your reaction tells me that you didn’t know him as well as you think.”

“I knew him better than you did!” I couldn’t believe her audacity. How could she claim Kataleya’s father was corrupted when she hadn’t even met the man?

“Fine. You’re entitled to believe that,” she said, then gave her horse a little kick.

I was in disbelief for a moment before I gathered my wits and caught up to her.

I had to make sure of something before I unloaded my rage. “Have you ever met the man?”

“No.”

“So you are basing your opinion entirely on rumors?”

“No, not that, either.”

“Then what? How could you claim he was corrupted?”

“Because he was rich, healer!” she snapped.

“That is not reason enough to dishonor the dead by claiming they are corrupted. And I prefer Jon or bladedancer.”

Her gaze went to the sword on my belt, then to my face. I couldn’t stand the tone she’d used when calling me healer, as if that was all I was and all I’d ever be. I was sick of being addressed like that by Whitley, and I wasn’t going to take it from her.

“I don’t wish to call you bladedancer until you prove that you are one, Jon.”

“Not all rich men are corrupted, Hadley. You can’t make judgments like that about the recently deceased.”

“It’s not a judgment. It’s the truth. When men are that rich, they are always corrupted. The rumors I heard about the healer seem to be true of you, Jon. You are from a small town up north. You probably have not met many nobles. I have encountered more than I’d like to admit, most of them in Rohaer, sure, but enough of them here as well to know what I’m talking about. A person cannot obtain that level of wealth and power without corrupted morals. It just doesn’t happen.”

Before debating her, I thought a little test was in order. I needed to see just how much she really knew.

“So you must believe the king himself has corrupted morals?”

Her eyebrows lifted. “The king is poor, Jon. I’m surprised you don’t know that.” Her mouth fell open for a moment. “Or are you testing me?”

“It was a test,” I admitted. “But I still think you claim to know things that you couldn’t possibly know, and I don’t appreciate that.”

“And I still think you don’t know things that you should know.”

I felt anger wanting to twist my words, but I controlled myself. “Perhaps it’s best if we don’t speak.” I somehow managed to keep my insults from coming out and was quite proud of it, considering the difficulty.

“Fine by me.”

*****

We didn’t speak for the rest of the day, even when we stopped and ate much of the bread I had brought with us. We passed by a good hundred or so people during our trip, more so when the path took us nearby to the towns I had visited. I recognized maybe a quarter of them, all seemingly happy to see me and wishing me safe travels.

I would’ve been fine with the silence between me and Hadley, except that it eventually started to feel like a waste. She had so much knowledge in that little head of hers. If she didn’t end up joining us, which seemed like it might be the case considering her troubles with Kataleya, I should at least learn something from her.

“How does the red diamond work?” I asked when there were no other people ahead of us for a while.

She eyed me for a moment. “It’s called a callstone,” she answered.

“Like a callring?”

“You mentioned that word before. What is that?”

I wished I had a callring with me so I could show her, but Charlie had taken the pair of callrings to Koluk with Leon and the others. They needed them more than I did.

“Rings enchanted with the essence of bat, and maybe something else.”

“Oh, you mean a signal ring. I didn’t know you called them callrings in Lycast. They are very different from a callstone, however. A signal ring is like hearing a whistle. A callstone is like having a conversation, but it does have its limitations. Are you interested in knowing how it works?”

“Of course I am.”

“What will you give me in exchange?”

I let out my irritation with a breath. “Nothing.”

“Then why should I tell you? At least give me one of your hairs. Then I will tell you everything you could want to know and more.”

“You’re not getting one of my hairs. Isn’t it clear to you by now that we’re going to be fighting against Valinox, Rohaer, and dteria together?”

“I will do no such fighting,” she said with a bitter laugh.

“You will not fight in any form? Not even to curse our enemies?”

“I will do everything I can in exchange for my freedom, but that does not mean entering the fray at any point.”

“You said you wanted to help us,” I reminded her. “You said you came to me not just because you were tired of running but because you have wanted to help for some time.”

“That is the truth. I do want to help, but in my own way. I will speak to the king about what I can and cannot do and leave it up to him. Now if you would like to know about the callstone, I’m going to need one of your hairs. It is the only way I can trust you with information that you can use against me.”

I rolled my eyes. “If I wanted to harm you in some way, it wouldn’t be through information. I told you, I’m your protection. It’s better that you realize that sooner rather than later. I might be the only one on your side when we get to the castle.”

“So let’s start building this trust between us by you giving me one of your hairs.”

I could see she wasn’t budging, but