The Path of Giants

by B. T. Narro

  “Kataleya.” I put my hand on her back.

  “Get away from me.” She thrashed at me but fell to her knees as I stepped away.

  A couple of the guards hovered over her.

  “Lady, is there something we can do?” one asked.

  The third guard was telling the witch to turn around so he could rope her wrists.

  “Jon,” Hadley pleaded with me over her shoulder.

  I ignored her for the moment and crouched beside Kataleya.

  “Kat, no one expects you to do anything after losing your father. If you’d like, I could help you to your room right now. You could sleep all day if you want, and no one will disturb you until you’re ready.”

  “But the castle. The war…” She stopped crying for a moment as she gritted her teeth. “And this witch!”

  “There’s time for everything,” I said. “You can always meet us at the castle later. I can help you to your room, and then I will speak with your mother and take care of anything that needs to happen before I leave. But Kataleya, we’re not going to keep the witch here. She’s coming back to the castle with me.”

  Kataleya turned her head, a look of betrayal in her eyes. “After what she did to my father?”

  “Perhaps if we give her a chance to explain herself,” I suggested, “you might feel better.”

  “I tried to explain myself,” Hadley said.

  “Try harder,” I urged her impolitely.

  Kataleya said, “I will only feel better when she is punished for what she did.”

  “How about this,” I offered. “If we can confirm that she has harmed the soul of your father, then you can decide the punishment. I’m sure the king would agree.”

  “That’s fine by me,” Hadley said to my surprise.

  Kataleya was looking at Hadley from the sides of her eyes, but she didn’t say anything.

  “I am sorry this has hurt you so much,” Hadley said. “I thought you might be angry, but I didn’t know you would react this way. However, I swear to Basael that I didn’t do any harm to your father’s soul.”

  “But how can you possibly think you know that!”

  “Because…” Hadley’s features scrunched. “Perhaps if I explain more about myself, you will trust me.”

  She paused as she waited for Kataleya to reply.

  “Make it quick.”

  Hadley nodded. “When I was fourteen, I found that I had an understanding about curses that no one explained to me. My family had close ties with King Frederick Garlin, so I was eventually used by the king at a young age to curse his enemies. It didn’t take long before I realized that I had to get out of Rohaer, but I didn’t have any means of escaping. The king there is more powerful than the king here. He has loyal people everywhere across his kingdom. I had to show I was loyal for years, destroying the lives of many innocent people.”

  She spoke the words sharply, a confident look in her eyes.

  “I regret many things. I’m ashamed of what I did, which is why—when I finally made it to Lycast—I told myself I would always do the right thing no matter how difficult. I had to make up for everything I had done.”

  Hadley paused. No one spoke.

  “What I’m trying to say,” she continued, “is that I have a gift for understanding curses. What I did here was for the greater good. Jon told me I am to help Lycast win this war. To do that, I require essences along with many other ingredients. I know taking your father’s essence hasn’t harmed your father’s soul in the same way I knew how to make my first curse. I have a gift, and I have used this gift for four years. I know what I’m doing. I wouldn’t dare risk imprisonment by damaging your father’s soul. My life is too valuable for that. But rest assured that no one, witch or otherwise, could ever do anything to another person’s soul. Souls are much too powerful.”

  I checked on Kataleya. Her eyes were red, her hair a mess, but for the first time this morning I thought she looked like the smart, hopeful girl I had gotten to know so well, the person who had always managed to take an upside-down situation and turn it right side up.

  She walked over to her father’s body and touched his hand. A tear slid down her cheek. “He’s so cold.”

  “Because he’s not there anymore,” Hadley said.

  Kataleya stared a while longer, then turned around. “You must at least admit that you were patronizing me earlier when you said he’s in a better place.”

  “What do you believe?” Hadley asked.

  “Me? Like most everyone in Livea, I’m a Formist. You would have to assume that all of us believe our souls go to a better place. And you’re using that against me. I don’t like it.”

  Hadley didn’t reply. It seemed to be an admission of guilt.

  I asked, “What do you want to do, Kataleya?”

  “What do I want? I want to go back to the castle. What do I need to do, though? That is still the question.”

  “You don’t need to do anything,” I reminded her. “Come back with us.”

  Kataleya seemed to be in thought for a moment. “I will, but only because it is what I need to do. The king needs to be notified as soon as possible. I need to discuss our affairs and come to a plan. Endell has to be found as soon as possible.”

  “Wherever he is now, I imagine Eden is there as well.”

  “Yes, the two traitors are probably sticking together.” Kataleya looked closely at Hadley.

  “I don’t know who Eden is,” Hadley said, “but I am a different kind of traitor. I am a traitor to Rohaer.”

  “We will see about that,” Kataleya said. “Expect that I will tell the king what you did here.”

  “That is fine,” Hadley said.

  Kataleya turned to me. “Livea and the surrounding land are vulnerable now. There might be a second part to Endell’s plan.”

  “Valinox’s plan,” I corrected her.

  “He was here?” Hadley asked, seemingly unsurprised to hear us speak of a demigod.

  “What do you know about him?” Kataleya asked.

  But I interrupted, “We should be leaving if we hope to make it to the castle before nightfall.”

  Kataleya nodded. “That’s true. We can speak when our horses need to rest. Wait upstairs, witch. I want to talk to Jon alone.”

  “Lady?” asked one of the guards.

  “The three of us will be leaving,” she informed them. “The witch will be in our custody. You all will stay here and protect my mother.”

  They nodded and started off. One took Hadley by her arm rather roughly. “Come on.” He still seemed upset about what she had done. I figured Kataleya was as well, even if she had accepted it for now.

  Hell, even I was still angry. I had invited her here. There had to have been a better way for her to obtain the essence without betraying my trust.

  As soon as they were up the stairs, Kataleya groaned as if in pain. She nursed her right hand as she offered it to me.

  “Can you heal it?” she asked. “I struck her hard. She must be hurting worse than I am, but god above does it ache.”

  I hadn’t noticed until then that her hand was red and swollen. She clearly didn’t know how to throw a proper strike.

  I let my mana course through her to look for damage. She would probably heal in a couple of days on her own, as it was nothing major, but I was still surprised how much damage she had managed to do to her hands and wrists when Hadley hadn’t even attacked back. It made me nervous to think about Kataleya fighting beside me in the future.

  “Why the face?” Kataleya asked.

  “You are strong…mentally, but we are going to have to toughen you up physically.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Forgive me if I’ve never had to strike someone before.”

  “I can’t imagine what would’ve happened to you if you were really trying to hurt her.”

  “I was trying to hurt her!”

  I clicked my tongue and shook my head.

  “Just heal me and get it over with. It’s going to be bad enough
traveling with the witch without you teasing me.”

  I healed her hand in a matter of seconds.

  She winced a bit, then massaged her hand when it was done, though I was sure only phantom pain remained.

  “Right?” she asked. “You do agree with me, don’t you? She is a nightmare that you have brought upon us! This proves it.”

  “I’m still pretty sure she can help us.”

  Kataleya sighed in frustration. “Jon, I have never known you to be so superficial. You have to look past her appearance.”

  “I am,” I said defensively.

  “At least admit that what she did was a terrible thing.”

  Time would tell. It depended on how useful the essence proved to be, but Kataleya was hurting right now.

  “It was terrible,” I said.

  She shot me a mean look. “I know you’re trying to make me feel better by lying, but I am too pissed off at you to care. Why are you so protective of someone you just met? You know what, never mind.”

  “Kat.”

  She started to walk away. “I can’t even listen to you anymore!” she called without looking back.

  “Because we need all the help we can get!” I said. “We’ve already lost our best enchanter, and I’ve seen how powerful curses can be. We need her!”

  Kataleya ignored me as she left.

  I had no choice but to take a breath and follow after her, though at a distance behind.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Hadley was to use one of Kataleya’s horses. I found out that she also had on clothing that belonged to Kataleya when Kataleya had snidely remarked that the horse she wanted back eventually, while the clothing she never wanted to see again.

  “What happened to the horse you stole?” I asked Hadley as we were riding out of Livea.

  “I had to sell it to eat.”

  As soon as we left the walls of Livea, Kataleya pushed her horse to a quick pace. I followed suit, but Hadley’s didn’t keep up.

  Eventually, her horse fell behind by quite a distance. I checked on her many times over my shoulder, slowing, while Kataleya just rode farther ahead.

  Hadley was not a skilled rider. She seemed nervous, her horse veering off away from ours. Eventually she lost control completely and must’ve done something to startle the horse, because it started galloping at full speed.

  Hadley zoomed past me with a shriek.

  “What are you doing?” Kataleya yelled as she looked back.

  But that’s when Hadley slipped off and fell to the ground.

  “God above.” Kataleya took off after Hadley’s frightened horse, whistling to the animal. It wasn’t long before she got it under control.

  I, meanwhile, went to check on Hadley. She appeared more embarrassed than anything else, her face red, though there was fresh blood coming from her nose. She touched it gingerly.

  “Are you all right?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I’m lucky.”

  I figured I could heal her nose and any other part of her body she might’ve hurt just now, but I thought she deserved a little punishment for her actions earlier. It was just a bit of pain. I was sure she could handle it.

  Kataleya was walking back toward us with both horses in tow. “Are you just pretending not to know how to ride a horse?”

  “I wouldn’t do that.” Hadley didn’t bother dusting herself off as she walked over to accept her horse again.

  “Didn’t you ride here all the way from Rohaer?” Kataleya asked.

  “Yes, slowly. It was a long trip.”

  “I’m not sure I believe you,” Kataleya said with a skeptical look.

  “What don’t you believe?”

  “How is it that you made it from Rohaer all the way to Lycast, but you show up at my home with your clothes barely held together and not a penny on you?”

  “Because the purpose of each journey was very different. I wasn’t just trying to survive out here. I was looking for a new home, but it turns out that there isn’t a single town in Lycast with people who are welcoming of girls in my condition. I would go so far as to say that most of the men I encountered wanted to take advantage of me when they found out I was traveling alone. I received some sympathy from women, until I had to show them my papers. Afterward, most of them treated me worse than the men did. My only hope was going back to a large city. Newhaven, Tryn, even Koluk—I could blend in there, but I figured the king’s guards would be looking for me in those places. There was nowhere for me to go because I’m never going back to Rohaer!” She made little balls of her fists. “You have no idea what I’ve been through!”

  “I don’t care,” Kataleya said to my surprise, while I had sympathy for Hadley. “Are you going to be able to keep up with us or not?”

  “I’m not sure,” Hadley said with plain contempt. “I’ve never ridden quickly before.”

  “Look, witch. I need to speak to the king today and see that he sends men into the forest to look for the escaped traitors.”

  “Are you sure they’re going through the forest?” I asked.

  “I don’t imagine Endell sticking around. Soon he’ll be a wanted criminal across all of Lycast, with a large reward on his head.”

  “Then you two ride ahead.” Hadley suggested.

  Kataleya lifted an eyebrow. “I’m not leaving you alone until I can trust you. Just get on your horse and try again.”

  Hadley looked at her animal nervously, but she did climb up.

  It didn’t take long before she lost control again and fell off, her horse about a hundred yards off path.

  Kataleya and I watched her slowly lead her horse to us.

  “I think she’s doing this on purpose.” Kataleya said.

  “Why would she?”

  “I don’t know, but I have to get to the castle.”

  “Go ahead. I’ll take her.”

  “Are you sure?” Kataleya asked.

  “Yeah, it’s fine.”

  “You trust her too much.”

  “No, I’m cautious, Kat. Don’t you remember that I was the only one ready for Endell to turn on us? I’ll be ready for her if she tries something.”

  “What if she is working with Valinox and the two of them kill you after I go?”

  “Well, then I’ll be dead.”

  We were quiet a moment. Hadley had almost ridden back to us.

  “What do you want to do?” I asked Kataleya.

  “I guess I trust you to keep yourself safe as well as keep an eye on her. But I really don’t trust her, Jon. You shouldn’t, either.”

  “After what she did, she has a lot of work to do to regain my trust.”

  “I’m glad to hear you say that. Perhaps I might see you on the way back, if I decide to return for my father’s funeral tomorrow.”

  She rode off without a goodbye.

  Kataleya was not herself, her mind clearly scattered. It was understandable, but I hoped she recovered soon because I missed the old Kataleya.

  Hadley seemed to be holding back a smile as she rode the rest of the way to me. “She’s leaving?” she asked joyfully.

  “Yes. We’ll ride at your pace, but try to go as fast as you’re comfortable going.”

  “I will.”

  I was disappointed when, a bit later, that pace turned out to be just a little faster than a walk.

  The path was a dirt trail splitting the grass. Hadley and I didn’t speak over the next couple of hours, until she eventually posed a question.

  “Is that girl really going to be all right on her own?” Hadley asked.

  “She can fend off any attacker with water or fire. Unless someone comes up behind her and stabs her in the back, which isn’t going to happen, yes, she will be fine.”

  Another silence stretched on for the better part of an hour.

  “Can I have my things back now?” Hadley asked.

  I was a bit tired of carrying two bags on my back, but hers was small and light.

  “Not yet. I’m going to let the king decide what to do about
them.”

  “And me?”

  “We discussed this,” I reminded her. “I promised you are not going to be punished if what you say about yourself and your past curses is true.”

  “I just wanted to make sure nothing had changed after I took the essence of that girl’s father.”

  “I stick to my promises.”

  “Good, so do I.”

  “Her name is Kataleya,” I said, figuring Hadley already knew this. But it was the easiest way to get her to stop calling her “that girl.”

  “All right.”

  We fell silent again.

  I was fine if we didn’t speak. There wasn’t much she could say that would convince me to let my guard down. I had to see how she would behave when it came time to face our enemies. I didn’t know exactly how close a witch would have to be to curse someone, but she would have to make herself useful if she wanted to stay out of the dungeon.

  She might end up in the dungeon after all, I was beginning to realize.

  It was hard to imagine what else the king would do with her if she refused to assist us in our cause. Dteria was illegal. I had not heard of an exception until now. It was only because we were desperate that the king had made one.

  “How is Remi doing these days?” Hadley asked me. She seemed a lot more cheerful now that Kataleya was gone.

  “How well do you know her?” I asked.

  “Not very well. She mostly kept to herself, but I could tell she was hurting because of something someone did to her. That’s why I chose to offer my help.”

  “I think she’s still hurting,” I said. “And she still does keep to herself.” I didn’t see the reason why I should have to keep anything from this witch. She would find out eventually. “She was almost killed by a traitor—someone she considered a close friend.”

  “This Eden you and Kataleya mentioned.”

  “Yes, Eden Ledell.”

  “Oh, I think I know her. She was a barber.”

  “That’s the one.”

  “I also cut hair.”

  “I see,” I answered indifferently.

  She looked at me with disappointment. It seemed like Hadley was trying to get on my good side, perhaps expecting me to open up a bit more like she had, but I wasn’t in the mood.