The Path of Giants

by B. T. Narro

  I held here, nervous to go higher. I looked down at my horse as he looked up at me. He no longer seemed nervous about this strange occurrence as he once did.

  Once the spell was cast, I no longer needed to focus on the individual notes. Casting a complicated spell was like getting my body ready to hoist up something heavy. Once I had lifted it, I only had to pour my focus into strength, not technique.

  I knew I was reaching my limit when it felt like I was losing my hold on the spell, my mind jittery. But I noticed something that forced me to hold myself up longer. There seemed to be a group of people rushing out from Granlo, many of them with weapons. I grew nervous when I noticed one with a bow. They would be upon me soon.

  I let my spell go. I fell quickly. The ground came at me fast as I laid out a sheet of dvinia between me and the grass. I still hadn’t gotten used to the feeling of breaking through my own spell. The force at which my body tore through the dvinia that I was trying to hold together with my mind always gave me a sudden but brief headache.

  It was much better when I actually caught myself, as I had failed to do this time.

  At least it slowed me enough not to break anything as I landed on my arms and knees. A horrible pain traveled through all my limbs. I quickly healed myself using three notes of F, but I could only heal one limb at a time. I had just gotten rid of the last pain in my legs when the group came up to me.

  One man stood in front of the rest, a sword in hand. He spoke first. “Come with us and don’t put up no fight, or we’ll kill you dead here.”

  They think I’m a dark mage. “You have me mistaken,” I said.

  The lead man ignored my statement. “The king decreed that it’s up to him and the people to keep dteria from spreading, and dteria is exactly what we’ve seen. I’m the sheriff of Granlo. You’ll stay with me until one of the king’s men arrives. I don’t know what they’ll do with you once they take you to the capital, but your best chance of living is by cooperating.”

  “There’s something else besides dteria that can lift someone into the air.”

  “Hell there is!” shouted one man with a distended belly as he pointed his pitchfork at me. “We ain’t gonna believe your lies. I say we stab him dead now and save us the trouble.”

  I finished healing by then and slowly stood up with my palms out. One man aiming an arrow at me made me especially nervous.

  “I’m a sorcerer of the king, and I have the papers to prove it.”

  “And I have papers proving I’m the lord of Livea,” said the pitchfork-wielder. “I say shoot him, Earl.”

  “Sheriff?” asked the bowman.

  “Hold on,” said the sheriff. He was tall and thin, with a scraggly beard that he pushed his hand through to scratch his chin. “That water mage said another sorcerer of the king was coming through, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah,” said the archer as he let down his bow.

  “Ain’t no dark mage on the king’s payroll!” The big-bellied man shook his pitchfork in my direction.

  “It’s dvinia,” I informed him. “I’m a wizard, not a dark mage.”

  “Now hold on a minute,” the sheriff said. “We were told a healer was coming.”

  “That’s me. I’m a wizard and a healer.” I was technically a bladedancer, given my ability with sword, but that wasn’t pertinent.

  I could see from their faces that they didn’t believe me.

  The man with his pitchfork took a confident step toward me. “I don’t care who you say you are. I don’t trust you.”

  “I’m getting out my papers.” I reached into my bag but stopped as the sheriff interrupted me.

  “Could be falsified. That water mage never mentioned dvinia, and I ain’t ever heard of it doing something like them dark mages can do, with them flying all about.”

  Normally I might be bothered by how difficult it was to convince these men of the truth, but I was glad to see them take a stand against a potential dark mage. There still could be some around.

  “Perhaps a demonstration?” I proposed. “Shoot me in the leg, if you wish,” I told the archer.

  “Really?”

  “Really,” I confirmed.

  He raised an eyebrow at the sheriff.

  “Why not?” the sheriff said with a shrug.

  I got closer to make sure the archer would not miss. We were just a few yards apart when I stopped.

  “One moment,” I said as I pulled up my pants. “No point in ruining a good pair of trousers. All right, go ahead.”

  “You’re really sure?” the archer asked.

  “I am.”

  “All right. It’s your leg.”

  He loosed. The arrow went deep into my calf. It hurt like hell, but I didn’t make a sound.

  Calmly, I used one hand to brace my leg as I grabbed the shaft of the arrow with my other and ripped it out.

  The group edged closer to me and gaped at my bleeding wound. I put both hands around it and healed. It was almost as painful as pulling out the arrow, but my skin and tissue healed quickly, and soon I was done.

  There was just a bit of blood left running down my leg that I dabbed with my handkerchief. There wasn’t much light with night soon approaching, so I made my own using a simple light spell Leon had taught me. It was basically the spell for Fire, but one note was missing so that it was just C and Em. The men seemed surprised at the light coming out of my hand, but they were really shocked when they looked at my completely healed leg.

  The sheriff stood upright, turned to the large man beside him, who now seemed embarrassed about his pitchfork in hand, and smacked the man on the back of his head.

  “You would’ve had us killing the only healer in Lycast! Get back to town, all of you. Go on!”

  They all hustled off, but the large man stopped and turned around. “My brother’s still gonna have his bad leg healed, right?”

  “Of course, it wasn’t his stupidity that almost led to the murder of an innocent man!”

  Soon I was alone with the sheriff. I had hoped he would go back with the others, leaving me more time to practice, but he went over and untied my horse.

  “You’ll be staying with me and my daughter tonight. I won’t have it any other way.”

  “I don’t want to be a bother.”

  “It’s no bother at all!”

  With him leading my horse and expecting me to walk beside him, I didn’t have much of a choice. I gathered my belongings and hurried to catch up.

  “Everyone’s ready for healin’ tomorrow,” said the sheriff. “There’s a few skeptics among them, but you’ll straighten them out. How old are you, young man?”

  “Eighteen.”

  “A fine age. Wait until you see my daughter. She’s beautiful, but there ain’t a boy good enough for her in our small town of Granlo. Now a king’s sorcerer, and a handsome one at that, I’m sure you’d make a fine match. I’ve saved up a nice little dowry. Don’t get too excited, now. I expect you to be a gentleman when you meet, if you know what I mean.”

  “I do, sheriff, but I should warn you that I’m not in the business of marriage.”

  “The business of…? Marriage ain’t a business, wizard.”

  “It is, sheriff, when a transaction is involved and overseen by a third party.”

  He stopped and scratched his head. “Well, all I ask is you meet, all right? Ain’t got to be no business to it.”

  I held back a sigh. I had met many daughters of men like this, most too young to marry, in my opinion. It was always a waste of everyone’s time.

  The kingdom was preparing for war. We needed to appease the people of Lycast before taxing them, or the king could be looking at a rebellion just like the one he’d led against the last ruler.

  I tried to remind myself that there was so much good to be had in healing everyone who needed my help in each town, but after weeks of this…it was beginning to feel like a chore.

  It’s almost over, I thought.

  “I’m actually looking for someone
,” I said as I remembered my other task. “A witch who goes by the name of Hadley, though she might’ve given a false name.”

  “About your age, dark hair?”

  “You’ve seen her?”

  “Yeah, she came by looking for food and shelter, but I thought her to be suspicious. I snatched her bag for a look. We struggled. She didn’t want me to see. She grabbed a knife. I thought she might use it, but I could see in her eyes that she didn’t want to. ‘Now you don’t wanna do something you might regret,’ I warned her. ‘Just let me have a look to make sure I can trust you.’ She 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,” he interrupted. “You’re just going to get to know each other.”

  “I hope I don’t offend, but I would prefer to get some rest. It takes a lot out of me to heal, and I plan to offer my healing to everyone in the town who might benefit from it.”

  “You plan to just stay the day?” the sheriff asked.

  “It’s all the time I can afford.”

  “But we got some folks coming in from afar just to see you. They might not be here till the day after. We sent word right after that water mage came by, and they couldn’t get here any sooner.”

  I nodded. “I’m glad you did, but I’m sure Kataleya also mentioned that if they couldn’t make it to Granlo by the end of day tomorrow, they should plan to visit Livea if they need healing. That’s my destination after this.”

  “Livea is too far for them. There’s one old man, a horse breeder—I see his daughter every month. He doesn’t live in one of the main towns, and it ain’t easy for him to get anywhere these days, but he’s planning on making it here tomorrow. Now his daughter would be heartbroken if she brought her father all this way and you had skipped on over to Livea. At least promise me you’ll wait for him. He’s sick, all the time getting worse. And that water mage said you can cure sickness just as well as you can cure broken bones.”

  “I will wait for him,” I answered without hesitation, thinking of my father who had died from an illness. “Let’s just hope he gets here tomorrow.”

  “Well if he doesn’t, I’m sure Pilla will keep you entertained. Won’t you, sweetheart?”

  “I will.” She sounded eager, but it might’ve been for show.

  “Now show the sorcerer to his room.”

  Pilla led me up the stairs, down a short hall, and into one of the bedrooms. I was glad to see that Pilla wasn’t as young as some of the other girls I’d been introduced to, but I was still not inclined to make any conversation.

  She had a beautiful face, but she looked uncomfortable. I assumed it wasn’t just from this awkward situation but from the corset squeezing the air out of her lungs.

  “I hope this room is to your liking,” she said.

  I was just happy to h
ave a mattress. I’d spent many nights sleeping on a bedroll atop the grass. “It’s just fine, thank you.” I sat on the bed and took off my boots. “You don’t have to stay,” I advised her. “In fact, I am quite tired.”

  She started to leave but stopped. “Can I ask you something before I go?”

  “Sure.”

  “Do you not find me pretty?”

  I let out my breath, unsure how to answer.

  She went on. “I have been told I’m pretty, but I think people are just being nice. I don’t see it myself. I want to know the truth. Are you not interested because you don’t like the way I look?”

  “I’m just not interested in marriage.”

  “That’s really the truth?” She seemed bewildered.

  “Is it normal for girls here to become engaged so quickly without knowing the boy very well?”

  “Oh yes, it ain’t strange at all. Most girls are engaged even earlier than my age. I’m seventeen.”

  It reminded me of my conversations with Remi about this place. It was disconcerting to think about how Remi’s parents shared a surname with the family of the older boy she had been forced to marry. What had she said their relationship was? Something about her great grandfather was his grandfather?

  I didn’t know how I could find out how Gerald was treating his new wife if he didn’t require healing, but maybe Pilla could help me.

  “Tell me something, if you don’t mind. Are there any marriages that don’t last very long?” I asked. According to Remi, she had run away after the first night.

  “Not often,” Pilla said. “A few have divorced because of infidelity, and one young bride ran away. Everyone else is happily married.”

  I doubted they could all be that happy considering that many of these marriages started with the brides at such a young age, but it wasn’t my place to argue. “Someone ran away?” I prompted.

  “Yes, she was a strange girl. Nobody liked her, anyway, so we were all glad when she left, except for her husband. He went looking for her for a while, but he never found her. He’s remarried and much happier now.”