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

pleaded for me to let her keep her bag and she would leave peacefully. But the king’s decree—I wasn’t going to let a criminal and potential dark mage just waltz around Lycast freely.”

“Is she still here?”

“No, she dropped the knife and darted off. Fast little girl. No one could catch her. She stole one of our damn horses. She’s not much of a rider. Made a hell of a scene as she was trying to get away. But she threatened us with curses if we got close, and none of us knew better to tell if she was lying.”

“When was this?”

“Just yesterday. I still have her things with me. It’s no surprise she’s a witch. There’s some dark stuff in there, wizard. Maybe you might be able to make sense of it. I’d be happy for you to take it off my hands. Is it true, though?”

“Is what true?”

“Could she curse us if she wanted to, maybe already has?”

“It is possible, as far as I know. But I can get rid of any curse. If someone doesn’t feel right, make sure they come to me when it’s time for me to start healing.”

“Now that’s marvelous!”

CHAPTER TWO

Granlo was a small town. From my experience, everyone knew each other in places like this. There was just one road through the town with a number of beaten-down paths branching off. There were a few large fields, many farmers with animals present, but it was the mine to the northern side of the town that Granlo was most known for. Most of the men worked there, starting at a young age. There were sure to be a lot of injuries to heal, but it was the contents of the witch’s bag that I was most interested in right now.

The sheriff’s home seemed to be the only building that was two stories tall, from what I could see while entering the city in the late evening. He sat me down in his dining room with a bit of bread that was still warm from dinner. I was happy for it, even if it wasn’t much. I received a lot of kind hospitality during my travels, and it was the one thing that hadn’t gotten old during this trip.

He went to go speak with his daughter. I knew it would be awkward when he introduced me to her, as it always was in situations like this, but I would try to get through the encounter as quickly as I could. At least the sheriff had left the witch’s bag with me. I stuffed my mouth as I started taking things out and setting them on the table for a look.

Remi had told us that Hadley would never harm anyone who was innocent. I had been inclined to believe that, especially given the sheriff’s testimony about his encounter with Hadley, but looking at the contents of this bag made me wonder if Remi could be wrong.

There were a great number of animal claws and vials of blood. I didn’t know whether the blood belonged to man or beast, but it gave me concern. Besides that, there were maybe a dozen pouches that I was hesitant to start opening, but I decided to check one out.

I opened a pouch at random to find a dust of some kind. I cautiously gave it a sniff. It was some sort of spice, it seemed. I tried another pouch. This one was full of small animal fangs. The next contained small beastly nails, like the ends of claws. The next pouch was light and stuffed full of small feathers.

Was this a witch or an enchanter? A lot of these ingredients were the same as what I’d found looking through Eden’s room. Perhaps there were many similarities between the two classes. But I knew one thing: Witches used dteria for their spells, while enchanters didn’t.

Then again, Eden had proven to be a witch in addition to an enchanter. She had cursed some of us, including herself. This confused me even more. I really didn’t know much about witchcraft, but I was inclined to keep everything in Hadley’s bag organized. It seemed that she had put a great amount of care into collecting these various ingredients and separating them from each other. I reckoned I would return this bag to her at some point, but only after I could be sure she wasn’t going to hurt anyone undeserving.

The thought made me pause. When did looking to recruit a witch become something so casual? I supposed it was the king’s attitude. Remi had done a fine job convincing him that Hadley was good. Not only that, she was powerful at what she did. I was inclined to believe Remi, but I had to ask myself, again, if Remi could be wrong about Hadley’s nature. All of us had been wrong about Eden, after all.

I decided to open one more pouch. “Ugh,” I groaned as a tuft of human hair expanded out from the opening. Not knowing what part of the person these many short hairs came from, I pushed it back in and pulled the string to close it tightly.

Eventually, the sheriff returned with a pretty girl, though all I felt for her was pity. She was dressed not for comfort, not for sleeping, but to show off her body. A suede corset emphasized her bosom, and her combed hair was long and flowing.

It was awkward as we stared at each other, but I didn’t want to speak first. I found it best to be curt in these situations so as not to lead anyone on.

“Don’t you want to introduce yourself?” the sheriff said with a little push to his daughter’s back.

She curtsied before me. “I’m Pilla. My father said you were the healer sent by the king himself. It is an honor to meet you.”

I bowed. “I hope your father also mentioned that I can’t possibly think about marriage in a time like this. We are at war—”

“Yes, I told her,”