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

a blast of dteria that rang through my head like an alarm bell. This was too much power. Wouldn’t Gourfist come awake again? More importantly, how the hell could we stand against it?

Michael was lifted up by the invisible force. He thrashed and screamed and slipped out of Valinox’s hold while passing through the doorway, falling to the floor. I had my sword ready by then as I charged. I stabbed above Michael’s head as he was getting up.

I felt my sword connect. Success! But then it was ripped out of my hands and tossed into the corner. I realized what had happened as Valinox was now escaping out of the doorway with Michael on his shoulder again. Valinox had made a shield of dteria, and my sword had stuck into it before he’d thrown the shield of energy away.

“Move!” Aliana yelled from behind me.

I knew why she was yelling and dropped out of the way.

An arrow zipped by and embedded itself in the invisible body of Valinox as he started to make it up the stairs. He let out a yelp, and still, he did not appear.

With a visible arrow in his leg, he disappeared up the stairs quicker than we could run, no doubt flying with dteria. I was met with a gust of wind as I made it to the top of the stairs and nearly toppled back down, grabbing the railing as I teetered. Michael was no doubt casting as hard as he could.

I found my footing and ran past the curtain and down the hallway. I saw Michael squirming on the ground of the dining hall as if he had fallen again. Then his body jumped up as he let out a grunt of pain. It looked as if he’d been kicked in the stomach.

He gasped for breath as the invisible Valinox scooped him up and put him on his shoulder again. I chased after Michael as he struggled for breath, hearing the rest of my peers behind me. I thought I might catch up and jump onto Valinox’s body as I had before, when he had taken off with Cason. It had led to Cason’s death, when Souriff had come to help me. Why wasn’t she here now? But I had no hope of catching up to Valinox even as he carried Michael. He flew out of the tavern like a bat out of hell, but not before ripping the arrow out of his leg. It fell off of his nearly invisible silhouette in the middle of the doorway.

He was already fifty yards into the air with Michael by the time I made it out. So I stopped and picked up the arrow with his blood on it.

Hadley was right there behind me. “Hold it over this, Jon. Hurry.”

She had a small vial ready. I held the arrow upside down as she wiped her fingers down across the arrowhead, collecting a few drops of blood. Then she fell to all fours and started attempting to scrape up the blood that Valinox had left behind. There were only a couple spots of it here, but soon she was darting back to where we’d come from, no doubt expecting more blood where the arrow first found a home in his leg.

“Now what?” Reuben asked. “He’ll come back for the rest of us.”

“The basement is better than outside,” Leon said. “Everyone get back there.”

We rushed back to the basement. With the door broken off its hinges, I was sure I wasn’t the only one who felt vulnerable.

“What is he doing with the people he captures?” Reuben asked.

“There’s no time for that,” Hadley said as she handed him her red diamond. “Here, take this.”

“Your cursed stone?” he asked dubiously. At least he seemed to trust her as he did take it from her hand.

“As an enchanter, you have the best ability to speak to us through mana once you are captured.”

Reuben’s face went white. “Nox’s blade.”

“It should be small enough for you to fit it inside your sock in case they search your pockets. Just leave more room at the top of your boot. It can sit on top of your foot.”

“Do as she says,” Leon demanded. “He’ll be back soon.”

Reuben frantically knelt down and unlaced the strings of his right boot.

“Are you sure he’s coming for Reuben and me?” Aliana asked Hadley fearfully.

“I’m not sure of anything,” Hadley answered. “I didn’t think he would take Michael. I thought the wind mage would make it too difficult for Valinox to take him.”

“He tried,” I said.

Once Valinox had him high in the air, Michael couldn’t cast any longer or he would drop to his death. I figured Hadley was right and that Valinox hadn’t planned to take Michael but changed his mind after the wind mage had sent him into the wall and I had nearly cut him with my sword. That’s when he’d decided Michael had to go.

I might’ve been able to stop Valinox from taking a single one of us if he’d used dteria to snatch us up instead of physically picking us up. My grab spell of lG, G, and uG had done well to disrupt his mana in the past. But my grab spell didn’t work well against anything that wasn’t a spell. With Valinox lifting us up with his hands, our only hope of stopping him was through sheer force.

And maybe one other thing. “Is there a curse you can use?” I asked Hadley. She was sitting on her heels as she rummaged through her bag of ingredients.

“I’m working on it.”

“What’s the plan, Leon?” Reuben asked with a shaky voice. He and Aliana stood behind the rest of us.

“First of all, take this.” Leon handed Reuben a dagger. “You know what to do with it if he grabs you. Stand in front of Aliana and try not to show the dagger. We want you to be the target this time, not her.”

“Oh, Nox’s blade.”

“Find your courage, dammit. I’m going to wait until he grabs