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

was no point in charging him, I figured. Instead, I gave him everything I had with a blast of dvinia.

My energy struck his shield of dteria, bouncing off and creating a wave of power that blew me back. But I wasn’t the only one to be thrown off my feet. His invisible form—outlined by Leon and Remi’s fire, finally took shape as the demigod let out a scream of pain.

His shield had fallen from my spell, and so had he. Valinox now slid back toward my peers as they continued to bathe him in fire.

The sweet sound of his pain only lasted a moment before he blasted them away with dvinia, and their spells came to an end.

He was finally visible, pieces of his clothes falling off as little black specks. I went to blast him again, but I was picked up by my throat and lost my concentration. I pried at the dteria around my windpipe, feeling as if my neck was about to snap.

“Your time will come, Jon.” There was subdued rage in his voice. “As soon as I don’t have to worry about Gourfist anymore.”

He tossed me. I slammed into Aliana, both of us rolling over each other.

He picked her up off me. Coughing but trying to ignore my burning throat, I started to get up after him, but he threw me back once more. I struck my head, and my world faded to black.

*****

I could tell people were talking to me, but I couldn’t respond. I felt like I was trapped in a dream, my head throbbing. Suddenly I was sitting up and speaking, but I didn’t remember how I got there or what I was saying.

“Heal?” I was asking.

“Yes, you have to heal yourself,” a beautiful girl was telling me. I couldn’t remember her name.

“He needs time,” said someone else. His voice was familiar, but I couldn’t make him out. He was too blurry.

“Hold on,” said the beautiful girl.

Suddenly I was sitting in a chair. How did I get here?

“Drink this,” said the beautiful girl.

Then the last sip was gone. “There isn’t any left,” I complained. God, my head hurt.

“Give it time,” she said.

Then I was standing, and everything started to become clear again. It was Hadley who had been helping me. She seemed so small standing close to me, her hands up as if worried I might fall over.

“You seem better,” she said, her hands dropping. “Can you heal yourself now?”

I squinted to concentrate through the pain. “Yes.”

A moment later, the last of my mind’s fog had dissolved.

“What did you give me?” I asked Hadley.

“Just a potion to clear the mind.”

“No curse can do that, right?”

“No curse can,” she agreed. “There are many concoctions that are just as powerful as sorcery, if you know how to use them.”

“Thank you.”

She hugged me and rubbed my back sweetly, making me feel like I was cared for.

I looked around. The mood was somber. There weren’t many of us left.

Aliana was gone.

Most everyone was crowded around Leon as he read the scroll Valinox had dropped. Kataleya approached us.

“Are you all right?” she asked me with a hand on my shoulder. “You hit your head pretty hard. We were worried.”

“All better. What does the scroll say?”

Leon handed the scroll to Jennava and marched over to me. “The bastard is threatening us. He says the sorcerers will remain his prisoners until the end of the war. At that time they will be released unharmed, so long as they bow before him. He says the rest of us have to do that as well, and give up the city. He’s a fool if he thinks we’re going to cooperate.”

“He’s no fool,” Hadley says. “There’s no way he believes you’re going to cooperate. He wants to lure us into the forest. Then he will kill them, and us.”

“We need support,” Kataleya said. “We’ll wait for the rest of our army. They are on the way.”

“They won’t be here in time,” Jennava said as she held up the scroll. “And he knows it. We have until tomorrow morning to leave the city, or they die. That’s why Valinox took them today. Because our army is coming.”

“If we lose Koluk, we might very well lose the war,” Leon said. “They’ll continue to receive troops from Rohaer through the forest. Then they’ll march on the capital.”

That sounded like it was probably true. The only reason Rohaer hadn’t marched on us already with a large army was because they wouldn’t make it through the forest without losing many of their troops. They were waiting for the endless snowstorm to clear so they could take the road near the mountains. But if they had Koluk, they could streamline support into the city and bolster their army there.

“I’m sure Endell is with them,” Kataleya said. “This kind of tactic sounds just like him.”

I could hear from her voice that she was eager for us to face this army. I was, too.

“Now we have absolutely no choice,” Leon said. “We need the thieves. This is going to be embarrassing, but it’s time to spread the word as fast as humanly possible. We’re going to march outside, and we’re going to tell everyone we pass by that we need the help of the Thieves’ Guild. We’re that desperate.”

I could see that no one liked the idea as we all hung our heads, but no one voiced a complaint, either.

“What happened with the curse?” I asked Hadley.

“It didn’t take. He’s too strong for probably every curse except the most powerful I can conjure. However, I don’t have ingredients for a curse stronger than the one I attempted. Most of the ingredients I would need are difficult to come by, and I stopped searching for them when I came to Lycast. Only one such ingredient came into my possession recently.”

“The cursed essence of Whitley,” I realized.

“Yes, but the curse made by the moonstone that holds his essence is more likely to hurt us than help. It’s completely indiscriminate.”

I wondered what it did,