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

he will agree that she’s only here to help.”

“Are you telling the truth that you weren’t romantically involved with her on the way here?” Reuben asked.

“I am telling the truth.”

“After her heinous crime to Kataleya’s father, I sure hope not,” Reuben said.

“What did she do?” Charlie asked.

So Kataleya had told Reuben while Charlie and Aliana were unconscious from the poison. I wondered if it was just because Kataleya wanted to get it off her chest, or she knew Reuben would take her side in this.

“Jon, it’s difficult for me to speak about. Will you tell them?”

“What she did was wrong,” I said, glad for the chance to explain it instead of having Kataleya do it. “I found it hard to trust her after, but she changed my mind when she helped me take on Valinox.” I tried to quickly breeze through what she had done to Whitley’s body. “She took the essence of Kataleya’s father without permission.”

Charlie dropped his fork. “But how?”

The problem with describing it quickly was that I had skipped over a very important detail—that Kataleya’s father had been killed.

Kataleya excused herself from the table with a shake of her head.

“Kat?” Aliana asked.

“I’m sure she just doesn’t want to hear it,” Reuben explained. “Go ahead, Jon. Tell them what happened at her house. Then tell them what your witch did.”

Without much of a choice, I gave Aliana and Charlie the brief version of Endell’s visit ending in the murder of Whitley Yorn. Aliana muttered a few phrases of shock as she looked over at Kataleya, who was leaving the dining hall and had probably left her appetite here. I went on to briefly explain the dream I had when I’d first spoken with Hadley, and how she showed up the morning after I requested her to come to Yorn Manor. I concluded with the details about her taking the essence from Whitley’s body.

Aliana muttered a few more phrases of shock, while Charlie wore a look of concern.

“So what does this mean about Endell?” he asked.

“It means I’m going to kill him myself if I get the chance,” Reuben said. “Whitley was an honorable man who did great things for this kingdom. Hell if I’m going to let his cousin get away with this.”

We all stopped to listen as the sounds of Kataleya’s aggressive voice echoed through the dining hall.

“But she must have told you what she did to my father!”

We all quickly left the table to rush out of the dining hall, finding her at the entrance to the great hall. She must’ve bumped into the king, who seemed to be coming in with Hadley, a retinue of guards behind him, including the king’s councilman.

“She explained everything, Kataleya,” the king replied with a calm and collected tone. “And she has taken an oath to stand against Rohaer and Valinox.”

“She could still betray us in other selfish ways without aiding our enemies,” Kataleya said. “Accepting her like she is one of us is an insult to my father.”

“You will come to understand why I did it,” Hadley said.

Please just keep your mouth shut right now, I tried to tell her with a look. She seemed to get my point as she tensed up and stopped talking.

“Sire,” Kataleya pleaded. “How can we possibly benefit from a witch, anyway?”

“Kataleya, you will give her a chance. If she causes more problems than she is worth, then she will leave.”

“You must at least punish her!” Reuben said. “To dishonor Whitley Yorn like that…it’s a dishonor to every noble!”

Barrett stepped forward. “Reuben, there’s more to it—”

But a woman entering the great hall stopped him. Not a woman, I realized. An elf.

“Excuse me,” she said with her accent.

“Eslenda?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

The king spun and suddenly appeared worried. “What is it?”

I wasn’t sure they had met before, but I knew the king must’ve recognized Eslenda’s name.

Eslenda always seemed to have the same expression, like something was deeply bothering her. She was a beautiful elf, with a slender face and a hair color unseen on any human head—white but blushed faintly pink. It matched her rosy cheeks, as she was partially out of breath.

Eslenda valued watching Curdith Forest above all else. She had made that quite clear plenty of times when we’d asked for her help and she had denied us. If she was here instead of in the forest, then something was amiss.

“There is a large number of troops headed toward Koluk,” she told the king. “Many of them came from Rohaer and joined the dark mages who escaped from your cities.”

“Is the size and strength of this group similar to the last one?” the king asked.

“I believe they are stronger. However, I could not get close enough to witness their group in its entirety. I was detected by a powerful mage of order. The last group had no such mage. Currently, they are still many miles from Koluk. However, I cannot return to spy on them without risking death.”

She was referring to her spell of invisibility. Like my healing spell, it was one of the most demanding spells known. She couldn’t keep it up for long, and she certainly couldn’t move very quickly while it was up. Cason had mastered the same spell, and even he had the same limitations.

I had spent many hours with Eslenda, trying to learn how I might be able to identify an enemy who was cloaked with invisibility. Unfortunately, my skill with ordia hadn’t been good enough for my Identify spell to pick up her illusion, and I imagined I wouldn’t have much luck these days, either. My spare time had not gone into practicing Identify because I didn’t seem to have a knack for ordia. I didn’t progress very quickly, like I did with dvinia.

“Do you know their intention?” the king asked Eslenda.

“No. I had to flee before I could find out anything, but I suspect they have come to aid Valinox with something.”

“Yes, I agree. Are you sure they are headed for Koluk?”

“They were traveling in that