Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2)

by B. T. Narro

  “That was not a mistake, sire,” I explained. “I didn’t have time to use it until after the fight was over.”

  “What happened?” he asked as everyone around us quieted to listen.

  “There was a trap waiting for me at The Pearl. I was attacked by a powerful dark mage. He stabbed me many times, but I healed myself. I’m fine,” I assured the king, and everyone else. I didn’t want anyone to know just how close I’d come to losing my life. It was not something I wanted to admit to myself, either. “Michael and Reuben arrived and then went to fetch Byron.” I lifted the crossbow slightly. “He says our best chance at finding someone who knows Cason’s plan is by finding the man who made this crossbow. Byron says you might have an idea how to find him. And I think I should note that the bow Cason used when Leon and I last saw him was painted black as well. It might’ve been made by the same person.”

  “Set it down,” Nykal ordered, then gestured for a servant.

  I placed the weapon on the table, as far from their lunch as I could, which wasn’t very far.

  “Who was the man who attacked you?” Nykal asked, but then he put up his hand to stop me from answering as the servant arrived. “Get Barrett here,” he told the man.

  The servant nodded and ran off.

  “His name was Henrik Plumb,” I said. “Byron confirmed he was the cousin of the innkeeper. The innkeeper reached out to him for help not knowing that he was loyal to Cason. I believe Henrik killed his cousin.” I paused as I held my tongue. “Our enemies clearly expected me to come there.”

  I could only hint at the remaining issue here: I wanted to ask if the king had told anyone else about my task yesterday, someone who might be working against us, which would’ve given our enemies enough time to know I was coming.

  However, I didn’t have the authority to accuse the king of betraying me, even by accident. I had already been punished severely for going against him. I wasn’t about to again.

  He looked at me for a long while. His majesty was always a difficult man to read.

  “The rest of you may return to your seats,” the king announced.

  Then he waited as everyone slowly crept back to their spots.

  “So Byron knows everything of what happened?” he asked me.

  “Everything important.”

  “What is he missing?”

  “Just details of the fight.”

  Callie stared at me with a worried expression. Her mother, however, seemed quite skilled at pretending that no one around her existed as she dined casually.

  “It was a long fight?” Nykal asked.

  I nodded.

  “And you didn’t have even a moment to use the callring?”

  “I had to decide between using it and healing myself in the few moments I had.”

  “You were that outmatched by one man who I presume could not heal?”

  My pride made it difficult to admit, but this was the exact information I had hoped to share. “I was. That is the other matter I wanted to speak to you about.”

  “Your progress with the illusion.”

  I checked again on the queen, who had finally lifted her gaze to settle on me. She didn’t seem abashed as I met gazes with her. Like her husband, she was difficult to read.

  She looked younger than the king by perhaps fifteen years. She was beautiful, a little too beautiful for Nykal, I figured as I looked closer. Nykal wasn’t an ugly man, but he was a little on the heavy side. I guessed his age to be around fifty, the wrinkles of his face tipping me off, though his long hair was hardly graying.

  I wondered if it could be the queen who was determined to dismantle this kingdom. Had she left with the king when Grufaeragar was attacked? If so, she wouldn’t have known all of us sorcerers had left. She couldn’t have been the one. Or maybe she had remained here with Callie, which would make it possible.

  The king cleared his throat somewhat aggressively. He had a mean look on his face as I returned my focus to him.

  I wasn’t exactly comfortable describing my current skill with sorcery, along with my plan to improve, until I could trust the queen, but I was even less comfortable expressing these worries.

  “Ordia has been difficult for me to grasp,” I admitted. “I think it will take a while to cast an illusion, and even when I do, it won’t be one that I can sustain for long. I don’t believe using an illusion to spy is a realistic course of action anymore, but I can learn how to identify illusions. I’m almost there. Afterward, I’d like to resume my offensive training with dvinia. Charlie has been eager to work with me. He believes there are things for us to discover that can help everyone.”

  “Yes, he has expressed that to me. Very well. Finish training with ordia until you can identify illusions. I don’t want you leaving the castle anymore until you are more comfortable with the idea of fighting against a powerful dark mage like Cason without others at your side. We’ve been lucky so far. It would not be wise to push our luck. Time is on our side. Cason must deliver gold to Rohaer or their army will start to crumble. It is up to him to act.”

  “I was hoping I might be able to continue healing people in the city, your majesty, after I’ve trained a bit more. With a little protection, I shouldn’t be at any risk. Leon and I stopped Cason and two others before, and I’m confident we could again if needed.”

  “Yes, and I know Leon is confident about that as well. That might be the kind of bait we need to end this sooner, but that was before today, when I thought these dark mages acted on aggression rather than intelligence. This trap you described is making me second-guess myself. Allow me to speak with Byron and conduct more research. I do agree that your ability to heal should not go to waste, but only if it’s safe. I will work out something in the next few days.”

  “May I ask if Aliana’s mother has been questioned yet?” I said. The king had mentioned this when he’d last spoken to all of us in the courtyard, when the callring was found in Kataleya’s room. I was desperate to figure out who I could trust. If Aliana’s mother had been cleared of wrongdoing, I could probably rely on Aliana if the time came.

  “That is not a matter I will discuss with you, at least right now,” the king told me sternly. “Let me also remind you that I have everything under control. It is not your responsibility to do anything now but train and follow my orders.”

  I was careful not to relay my thoughts through any sort of look. The king, although he had a good heart, had failed us in many ways so far. He hadn’t had things under control before, and he didn’t seem to have things under control now.

  None of us did, though. From the start, it was as if all of us were coming to terms with our new lives, including the king. Of everyone, he had the most responsibility to keep the kingdom safe, and I wasn’t sure he was up to the task.

  I had sworn to protect him, though. I would not let harm come to him or the kingdom if I could help it. I didn’t need an oath to make me promise that. I would rather fight for a man like Nykal Lennox, who wanted the best for his people, than for most other leaders who’d gladly let thousands of innocent people die if it meant maintaining their power.

  I bowed my head. “Let me know if you need me.”

  The king nodded. I took that as my cue to leave and finally get out of these bloody clothes. I would set them outside my door, perhaps on a towel, but not in my hamper. I didn’t want them to stain anything else that needed washing.

  I wasn’t even sure what the washers would do with these clothes, my shirt torn in many places. Perhaps they were better off burned, but there wasn’t a spot designated for robes that were so mangled that they were better off destroyed. I hoped one wouldn’t have to be invented just for me.

  I shuddered as I remembered the feeling of Henrik driving a dagger through my flesh. The crossbow bolt through my hand was even more painful.

  I didn’t know how any man could go through a fight and still look forward to the next, unless he had no idea what it felt like to lose.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEENr />
  I was getting a little tired of having to take a second bath during the same day. Right now the water was very cold. Leon would not heat it for me using fire, and I didn’t feel that I knew Remi well enough to ask her to enter the boys’ bathing quarters just to heat my water.

  After I bathed, I again ate alone. At least it was daylight. I could hear my peers outside training.

  Soon I was out there with them, but it turned out I couldn’t train just yet. I spent the better part of an hour answering questions from them about the encounter. When Leon emerged from the great hall, I expected him to break everyone up. Instead, he made me fill him in on the details that I’d already told the others.

  It wasn’t easy to describe a fight that I was losing until the end. It forced me to relive the mental and physical toll it took on me, but no one seemed satisfied until I divulged all the gruesome details. Charlie and Eden had come out of the great hall to listen to the second half of the fight. I heard them asking for the beginning details when I was done and walking away to train.

  I didn’t want to be alone, and yet I didn’t feel like having company, either. I didn’t know what I needed to feel better, perhaps just time. I would focus on my training for the rest of the day.

  I didn’t blame my peers for wanting to know exactly how the fight began, progressed, and ended. They were just curious. These were enemies to all of us, after all. Hearing about the way they used sorcery in combat was beneficial.

  I still didn’t know how to counter being suspended in the air. The only thing that came to mind was to suspend my enemy as well, locking the combatant in place until he dropped me. It seemed sound enough. One day I would learn how. But first, ordia.

  *****

  I didn’t have much contact with anyone else throughout the day. Even during supper, I was pretty focused on finishing quickly and getting back to it.

  Before the sun fully set, I did manage to cast one spell of ordia, finally. I was sweating heavily by then, wondering if I was really going to have to take a third bath today.

  I was so tired that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stay awake through all of it. The water would be warm. It was heated morning and evening. My eyes wanted to shut just at the thought of soaking in it.

  I doubted any of my peers spent as much time thinking about baths as I did.

  The spell of ordia was called Identify, a strange spell. It was uncomfortable to have a thought enter my head that I did not put there, but that’s exactly what it felt like when I used it on my callring.

  The thought wasn’t translated to language. It was more like a feeling, I realized, as I used it again and again. I could feel that this ring was connected to another ring. The feeling was faint, like a soft gust of wind on my arm. I wouldn’t even notice it unless I was ready for it. Had there been any noise to my environment, a distraction of any kind, it might’ve slipped by. But the rest of my peers had retired to their rooms. Leon did not hold everyone to the long hours of training that he had before.

  When I finally called it a day and went to the apartments, I found most of my peers were chatting in the hall. The mood was austere, most of them looking as if they were only there because they didn’t know where else to go. I walked past them and gathered my nightshirt to head down to the bathing quarters.

  “Any luck?” Michael asked as I came out of my room. He and Eden were standing outside Eden’s quarters, her door open.

  “I can cast Identify now, but I still have to practice it,” I informed him.

  “Already?” Eden asked. “That spell took me weeks, and I specialize in ordia.”

  “When did you learn it?” I asked.

  “Many years ago.”

  “That’s probably why,” I said.

  The door to Charlie’s room opened. He came out into the hall. “So we’re finally experimenting tomorrow, Jon?”

  “We are.”

  The mischievous smile he flashed worried me, but then he was the one who appeared worried as I started to walk past him.

  “Where are you going? You need lots of rest for our day tomorrow.”

  “A quick bath.”

  “That’s your third one today! It’s late. Why don’t you sleep? You can’t be that dirty!”

  “Charlie, it’s going to be fine.”

  He grumbled a bit and then went back to his room.

  I finished the short trip down the hall and was about to start down the stairs, but Kataleya coming up and nearly bumping into me made me stop.

  She stopped as well, both of us staring at each other.

  I was too tired to realize, however, that I was standing in her way as she expected me to move. Of course I should, as the gentleman in this situation. What’s more, I hadn’t noticed Barrett on the turn of the stairs father down, watching.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled as I stepped out of her way so she could make it up from the last step.

  “It’s fine, Jon,” she said with a small smile.

  Barrett said, “I’ll be back later, Kataleya. Don’t go anywhere during that time.”

  She ignored him, holding my eyes in her gaze for just a short moment, but it felt like a long time before she finally gave a breath, put her head down, and slipped past me.

  I figured Barrett was returning later to lock Kataleya in her room. I had heard mutterings about a locksmith changing the way her lock worked so that she couldn’t leave her room during the night.

  I had a quick bath, just a cursory cleaning to ensure I slept as well as I could after the ordeal I’d suffered today. When I was headed back up the stairs to my room, I expected everyone to be asleep, but I heard loud arguing.

  I was surprised to see everyone clustered in the narrow hall. It was Aliana who was speaking angrily at Kataleya when I arrived.

  “You’ve been manipulating all of us since you came here! If you’d just admit it, I’m sure your punishment will be less severe.”

  Kataleya looked as if she didn’t want to fight, her head down. “Can I just go to bed, please, Ali?”

  “No, you’re going to answer me!” Aliana looked angry enough to become physical soon. I didn’t understand it, especially when Kataleya seemed to want nothing to do with the argument.

  I stepped in front of Aliana to block her. “Is that really necessary?”

  “Jon, she’s twenty years old. Twenty!”

  “So?” I asked, not surprised she was older as I had figured.

  “Most of us are only eighteen,” Eden explained to me, as if that was supposed to change anything. “Charlie and Remi are only seventeen. How old are you?”

  “Eighteen. But what does this matter? So Kataleya is a little older.”

  “It’s not a little,” Charlie said. “She is three years older than me and the oldest one here. She’s lived seventeen percent longer than I have. That is not little,” he repeated.

  “She kept it from all of us,” Aliana said.

  “Because it didn’t matter,” Kataleya chimed in from behind me, her back to the wall.

  “Eden and I have asked about you and your family many times,” Aliana said. “You never gave us many details.”

  “Because I am older and I’ve had a privileged life. I didn’t want to throw it in your face in case you might be jealous.” She was soft-spoken, clearly hurt.

  “Michael’s nineteen,” I said. “And so is Reuben. That’s not much different than twenty.”

  “Jon, why are you defending her?” Aliana asked with rage in her eyes.

  “Because I don’t see what her age has to do with anything.”

  Eden spoke more calmly than Aliana did, though there was still an edge to her tone. “It does when Kataleya has told us that she never had time to learn dteria, only water. That’s clearly a lie.”

  “Now you’re just twisting my words!” Kataleya stepped forward aggressively, pushing me into Aliana in the process. “I’m so angry I could hit you!” Kataleya told Eden as she balled her fist. “But I think that’s exactly what you want. You are t
rying to anger me by twisting my words so you can make me look guilty. Is it the both of you? Is it?” She gestured at Aliana. “Are you both working with Cason and you’ve decided to make me take the fall?”

  “That’s preposterous,” Aliana said as Eden scoffed.

  “Then why else would you both attack me?” she asked. “My friends! It’s Jon who has been in the most danger because of a traitor, and he defends me while you accuse me.”

  “Because he is stupid!” Aliana shouted, to my absolute shock. “He probably just wants you in his bed!”

  Aliana’s breathing was ragged as we all stared at her. I’d had a feeling she might’ve reverted to her old opinion about me, but to hear it in such an offensive way was still a shock.

  “What are all of you gaping at?” Eden asked with the same aggression as Aliana. “She’s right about Jon, and all of you are just as stupid as he is for not realizing the truth.” Eden stormed into her room and slammed the door.

  Aliana had a look in her eyes I hadn’t seen before, one of absolute rage. She didn’t seem like the same person, her entire face contorted.

  “Aliana,” I began.

  But she just stomped into her room and slammed the door as well.

  “Uh,” Michael said in the tense silence that followed.

  No one had a reply for some time.

  “Something’s not right,” Kataleya finally muttered.

  Remi spoke up. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that didn’t make a lot of sense. Jon is not stupid and has not given any signs he’s only interested in sleeping with me. They know that. They know the rest of us aren’t stupid, either.”

  Something slammed against the wall in one of the girls’ rooms, as if either Aliana or Eden had thrown something. There was a womanly grunt after, then another slam, this against the floor.

  “I’m going to bed,” Charlie said, and practically ran off to his room.

  “You’re all stupid!” Aliana yelled from her room.