Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2)

by B. T. Narro

  Leon, Jennava, and the councilman entered the dining hall together. They grabbed their bowls of porridge from the table near the entrance and came over to sit with us.

  “Barrett just told us what happened,” Leon said. His gaze stopped on my neck. “That’s Remi’s blood on you?”

  I couldn’t see it, but I figured it had to be. I nodded.

  Leon took a slow breath, stared at the table for a while, then looked up again. He glanced at each of us, looking as if he was going to speak. It seemed that everyone had stopped eating as they waited.

  “Although this isn’t the first time that—”

  “Oh my god!” Kataleya interrupted as she bolted from the bench. “Remi!”

  Remi entered the dining hall on shaky legs, two servants offering support.

  All of us ran toward her as the king shouted from his royal table, “She should be in bed!” He rushed over as well.

  “We told her,” said one of the servants, “but she refused.”

  We all asked Remi if she was all right, possibly overwhelming her as fear was evident in her eyes. She looked as if she might collapse at any moment as she weakly clutched the servants holding her up.

  Then her face broke as she started to weep. She practically fell into Aliana’s arms as she hugged her friend.

  “Thank you.” She cried on Aliana’s shoulder. “I remember you coming for me.”

  “Oh Remi, I hardly did anything. You should be thanking Jon. He’s the one who saved you.”

  “I’m thanking you first,” she muttered softly.

  “You’re so welcome, of course.” Aliana held her gently.

  They stayed like that for a long time. Eventually, Remi parted.

  She wept openly as she embraced me next.

  “Thank you, Jon,” Remi said amid her sobs. “I owe my life to both you and Aliana.”

  “You don’t owe us anything,” I said as I carefully embraced her. “The king’s right, though. You should be in bed.”

  “You lost a lot of blood,” Aliana added.

  Remi finally parted. “No, I’m going to be fine. I want to sit down and talk about what happened. Help me to the table.”

  We supported her over to the bench, everyone soon returning to their spots. The king stood behind me, his daughter and wife at his sides. Even the servants who usually stood off to the side and awaited orders had come close to listen. There wasn’t a single person in the large room who wasn’t hovering around us.

  “I need to admit something, sire,” Remi said as she sipped on juice. “Why I was on the roof.”

  “You should eat, Remi,” the king advised. “You can tell me later.”

  She had a small spoonful. “I’m not going to be able to rest wondering what kind of punishment is waiting for me.”

  “What did you do?” the king asked.

  All of us were shocked as we stared at Nykal. Even Barrett looked to be admonishing the king with his eyes.

  “I will be lenient,” the king added. “What did you do, Remi?”

  “I had to make sure Josef wouldn’t force himself on anyone else, as he had on me.”

  She put her hands over her eyes as she cried.

  Kataleya put her hand on Remi’s back, but Remi shook her head. “I’m all right,” she said as she wiped her eyes. “I took one of his hairs and a gold coin to a witch. I had to do it before he traveled too far for the curse to take hold. I needed to make sure he couldn’t do that to anyone else. The witch disabled that part of his body.”

  The king was silent for some time as Remi took a few more bites of her porridge with a shaky hand.

  “You will not be punished, Remi,” said the king to everyone’s relief. “But we will need to investigate this witch.”

  “She doesn’t curse anyone unless they deserve it. I’ve done research, sire.”

  “I believe you, but she still must be investigated.”

  “Can you promise you won’t put her in the dungeons?”

  “I can promise that, if what you say about her is true, she will not be imprisoned.”

  “Thank you.” Remi covered her eyes as she started to weep. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know why I’m crying so much. I’m embarrassed.”

  “It’s completely understandable,” Kataleya said.

  Charlie hugged Remi while standing behind her. “I’m very happy that you’re all right,” he said. “I was crying when I thought you might die.”

  Remi sniffled and stopped her crying. She put on a smile and touched his arm. “Thank you, Charlie.”

  She seemed to be more in control of her tears when Charlie sat back down.

  “I take it you saw Valinox when you were returning from your visit to the witch?” the king asked.

  “Yes, but he had an invisibility spell on. I couldn’t see what he was doing very well. I eventually realized he flew off. That’s when I investigated and found he had put a callring on Eden’s windowsill. I was about to notify a guard, but he must’ve seen me from the sky. He came back and muffled me. He clearly wanted to kill me, but he was worried he would wake up his brother. Eden must’ve put on the callring before he signaled her, because she—oh, oh no.”

  “What is it?” Nykal asked.

  “Eden floated up onto the roof. I think she picked herself up and that it wasn’t Valinox who lifted her.”

  “She’s apparently much stronger than we realized,” the king said.

  Remi nodded somberly. “Before she tried to kill me, she made it sound as if she had no choice but to join Valinox because she thought he would be winning this war. But she also apologized, and I wanted to believe her.”

  “I doubt it was genuine,” Barrett commented. “If she has enough power to lift herself, she’s been using dteria for quite some time.”

  “I still can’t be sure that she actually lifted herself,” Remi said.

  Leon asked Jennava, “You spent more time with her than I did. Did you have any idea she was the traitor?”

  “None,” Jennava answered with a guilty look. “I’m sorry, your majesty.”

  “If anyone should feel bad about this,” Aliana said, “it’s me. I was the closest with her.”

  “You?” Michael asked incredulously. “She slept with me, and I still had no idea! I even thought I was falling in love with her! No one should feel worse about this than me.”

  “If someone was to blame,” the king said, “it would be me for allowing her in the castle in the first place, but blaming is not going to do us any good. Barrett, find out what you can about Eden Ledell, something we might have overlooked. I want to know how she could’ve come into contact with dteria and why she chose it over us. She’s still alive and now one of our primary enemies.”

  “She was planning to kill you, sire,” Remi said.

  He didn’t seem too frightened, or surprised, about this. “As powerful as she might be, the contract she agreed to would’ve prevented that.”

  “Yes, but she was working on breaking it.”

  “She can’t be that strong,” Barrett said. “A deninger has to have far greater power than a harbinger to break their contract. I don’t mean to brag, but there are not many harbingers who are stronger than I am.”

  “Yes,” Remi said. “She was planning to kill you first, and then the king. It was what she told Valinox when he asked her why she hadn’t killed the king yet.”

  A silence passed.

  Charlie asked, “So our contracts do go away completely if you die, councilman?”

  “That’s right. The ordia binding you to the contracts would no longer hold.”

  “But the oath still exists,” the king said. “All of you agreed to protect me at all costs. Even if something was to happen to Barrett, I expect you all to fulfill that oath.”

  Remi started to waver on the bench seat. Kataleya grabbed her.

  “I’m fine,” Remi said as we all looked over with worry. “Just a little lightheaded.”

  “You must rest,” the king s
aid. “Everything you need will be brought to your room, and Jon will visit frequently to see if his healing might be able to help.”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I added.

  “Just one last thing,” Remi said. “It had to have been Eden who put the callring in Kataleya’s room.”

  “Oh, of course!” Charlie exclaimed. “She could un-enchant the callring when it’s not in use and re-enchant it later so Barrett wouldn’t be able to sense it. I should’ve thought of that. She probably had that callring for a while.”

  “What about the curse—no, curses?” Michael corrected himself. “Eden and Aliana were cursed first when they threw a fit, remember? If Eden’s the traitor, how did she end up cursed then?”

  Barrett answered, “She was probably experimenting with curses and accidentally cursed herself in addition to Aliana. It’s common for inexperienced witches, and it would also explain why the curse faded as soon as she fell asleep. Alternatively, she could’ve cursed herself on purpose to take us off her scent.”

  “She seems to have some skill in withholding the truth even when cursed,” the king said. “I questioned her like everyone else, and she lied to me. I take that to mean that she had cursed herself many times before.”

  “We were lucky,” I said. Many gave me doubtful looks as if they didn’t agree. “It sounds like the traitor was more prepared than any of us realized. If Remi hadn’t encountered Valinox, Eden would still be here. None of us would know it was her, and she might’ve found some way to kill Barrett, and then the king. That’s why we’re lucky Remi was on the roof tonight.”

  “Jon’s right,” Michael said as most everyone began to nod.

  “All right, Remi,” the king said in a fatherly tone. “I’m officially ordering you to rest now.”

  She had finished her breakfast at least. Kataleya and Aliana helped her stand.

  It was a sad, destitute feeling to look around as I realized this was everyone in our group now. Of the small number of people who were completely loyal to the king, there were only nine who had any skill with sorcery: Three girls, four boys, and two instructors. I knew we had lost only one member, but it still felt like we were so much smaller than before.

  I wasn’t sure any amount of time would be enough to prepare for Rohaer. Something needed to be done rather than face them head on in battle. There had to be some way of increasing our chances of getting through this.

  I could almost feel my peers thinking the same thing. There was a void, everyone desperate for something to be said. We needed a small bit of hope, something to cling to.

  “Sire, can you bring another sorcerer here to replace Eden?” Kataleya asked.

  Remi stopped to listen.

  We all stared as we waited for an answer.

  “It’s difficult to find a sorcerer who is willing to pledge themselves to fight,” Nykal answered. “If you remember, all of you came here without the knowledge that there might be war. I’m not sure how many of you would’ve come at all had you known the chances.”

  “So you tricked us?” Charlie asked.

  “No. I also was unaware just what kind of strife we were looking at. The biggest threat to the kingdom at the time was its own corruption. We have cleansed ourselves by now, and you all should be proud of how you’ve contributed, but this is far from being over. Yes, I will look for someone to take Eden’s spot, but I don’t believe we need another enchanter. Isn’t that right, Reuben?”

  He nodded and told the rest of us, “Yes, I completed my first enchantment yesterday thanks to Jennava’s help. I was hoping to continue focusing more on contracts, but I believe an enchanter is more valuable than a harbinger, as we already have Barrett with us.”

  “And henceforth you will be called an enchanter,” the king decreed.

  “Well done, Reuben,” Michael said. “So what enchant can you perform?”

  “It’s only a practice enchant. It is useless.”

  “What is it?” Michael asked.

  Reuben seemed a little embarrassed. “It makes a surface more reflective, but I hope to complete a callring soon enough,” he quickly added.

  “Of course your first enchantment would be to make things shinier,” Michael teased. “As if all your rings aren’t shiny enough.”

  “Will the new sorcerer be another girl?” Remi asked the king.

  “I will try to keep equal numbers of genders if possible.”

  “So Kataleya’s right, you are intending to create a dynasty of sorcerers?” Remi asked.

  Kataleya looked shocked. “It was only a theory, sire.”

  He put up his hand. “It’s all right. I’m glad to address that. I didn’t bring you all here thinking I would impose a relationship between any of you, but if one was to occur naturally, then I would not oppose it. That’s all I’m going to say. Remi, you have to give yourself time to heal. I now demand you rest. I will stop by later in case you have other questions.”

  A new sorcerer. I hoped she would be powerful.

  I felt flakes of Remi’s blood falling down my chest as I got up. Suddenly a bit disgusted with myself, I was more than ready to take a bath and start my day. It was time to wash away everything Eden and Valinox had done and prepare for the future.

  And not a moment too soon, as the entire group of krepps then boisterously entered the dining hall, all of them seemingly unaware of what had happened last night.

  END OF BOOK 2

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