The Path of Giants

by B. T. Narro

  “First of all, take this.” Leon handed Reuben a dagger. “You know what to do with it if he grabs you. Stand in front of Aliana and try not to show the dagger. We want you to be the target this time, not her.”

  “Oh, Nox’s blade.”

  “Find your courage, dammit. I’m going to wait until he grabs one of you before I burn him alive this time, so I don’t blow everything I have on a miss.”

  “You’ll burn me also!”

  “So Jon will heal you.”

  “That’s—”

  “What about the arrow I put in his leg?” Aliana interrupted Reuben.

  “Demigods heal quickly,” Hadley said.

  Leon asked, “Are you sure he doesn’t have a healing spell?”

  “It’s my understanding that only Souriff can heal.”

  “No wonder he risked so much to keep Cason alive,” Leon said. “But these demigods can die, can’t they?”

  “It is believed that they can. Got it.” Hadley pulled out what looked to be a small snake fang.

  Without warning, I was struck by dteria and thrown across the room. There was a clatter as my peers struck the walls and furniture around me. Before I was up, I noticed Reuben flying off toward the doorway. He must’ve dropped the dagger. I didn’t see it in either hand.

  Leon sent a jet of fire after him, but it was too slow to catch up. No one else was ready to do anything, most of us still collecting ourselves.

  “Fuck!” Leon yelled.

  My peers collectively had a number of injuries I had to heal, mostly battered limbs, but Hadley had broken a finger, and Kataleya had a welt on the back of her head.

  “I think he’s too fast for me to curse him,” Hadley announced.

  “Can’t you do it right now while you have time?” Aliana asked her.

  “I could, but all I can hope to do with these ingredients is slow him down. There’s no point of doing that until he’s here with us. Otherwise, he’ll just wait until he recovers before coming back for you, and I assume demigods recover very quickly, especially seeing how fast Gourfist recovered from my blind curse.”

  “What about with Gourfist’s blood?” I asked.

  “I can’t be absolutely certain it will do anything with my ingredients at hand. I’m not sure if I should choose it over a curse I’m sure will at least do something.”

  “Don’t risk it,” Leon said. “Do what you know will work.”

  “Damn him! I’m sick of this.” In a rage, Aliana started firing arrows through the open doorway.

  “Stop,” Leon said.

  She didn’t, so he pulled on her arm.

  “You’re just wasting arrows!”

  “What the hell else are we supposed to do?” she yelled.

  Remi had her fists balled as she walked toward the doorframe, stepping over the broken door on her way.

  “Remi, what you doing?” Leon asked.

  “I’m not letting him leave with Aliana.” She stood with her back against the wall next to the doorframe, facing toward us. “I suggest you do the same.”

  “I’ll be on your other side,” Jennava said.

  I still wasn’t quite sure what Jennava’s specialty was. I didn’t know if she had lost touch with dteria after turning on Cason, or if she had skill with erto, like Leon. All I knew was that she had been a much calmer and more reasonable instructor than Leon had, even offering me pointers about dvinia when I was learning how to lift myself.

  Leon said, “If he grabs you, Aliana, jam this into his groin.” He handed her his dagger. “Don’t drop it like Reuben did.”

  “I won’t.”

  Leon took his spot next to me at the center of the rectangular room. Kataleya and Hadley stood behind us, with Aliana all the way against the back wall of the basement. Remi and Jennava faced us as they stood with their backs against the same wall as the doorway. Valinox would have to get through them on his way out if he managed to snag Aliana.

  “It’s been a while,” Leon said to me, “but do you remember how to resist?”

  “When I’m ready for it.”

  “Get ready.”

  We fell silent. I concentrated on tensing my mana as if forming an invisible shield. My fear made it nearly impossible to keep up my concentration, though. How could Valinox remain invisible during this time? And was he taking my peers into the forest to be murdered by his waiting army? Was that the last time I would see Charlie, Michael, and Reuben? And might it soon be the last time I saw Aliana?

  I forced my inner voice to shut the hell up. He was not getting Aliana if there was anything I could do about it.

  I suddenly felt a presence in front of me.

  Leon sent a stream of fire out in front of me while Remi casted from behind Valinox. I didn’t know what the demigod was doing standing in between all of us without attacking, but I didn’t care. Fire bathed him from both sides, but all it did was wrap around an invisible cylinder. He had dteria shielding him from all angles, the fire completely useless.

  The roar of the flames was near deafening until Remi let her fire come to an end. Leon stopped soon after, both of them panting.

  A voice came out of the gap between us. “Are you done?” Valinox asked with mirth, still invisible. I squinted my eyes. There, I could make out his camouflaged form like heat waves in the shape of a tall man.

  A small scroll dropped out of the form and bounced on the floor. “Read that when I’m done,” he said.

  I charged at Valinox, ignoring the scroll. I knew he would hit me with dteria, and I couldn’t be more ready.

  It turned out that it didn’t matter how ready I was. I was flung back, the blow against my chest so powerful that I thought my heart had stopped. I gasped for breath as I sat against the far wall. Aliana was pulling me up as I healed myself.

  Neither fire nor water could touch Valinox, a continuous shield of dteria blocking everything. I couldn’t hope to help, as one of the erto mages would have to stop casting just for me to approach the demigod. But then I saw all my peers blown away by an invisible force.

  Aliana didn’t bother to have her bow equipped. She held her dagger behind her back. I could see Valinox coming toward us, deflecting fire and water from behind as Remi, Leon, and Kataleya got back up. There 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 blur
ry.

  “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, but I had a more important question to ask. “Are you saying that Valinox is stronger than Gourfist?”

  “In regard to resisting dteria, yes.”

  “Jon Oklar!” a woman yelled from somewhere outside the tavern. Her powerful voice was familiar.

  I gasped as I realized who it was.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  I rushed outside. Souriff was zipping across the sky as she called out.

  “Jon Oklar!”

  “I’m here,” I shouted.

  She made a quick rotation in the air, her control of dvinia incredible. She flew down and landed before me. Souriff was a tall woman, with luminous blonde hair and sky-blue eyes. There wasn’t a blemish on her face. She was built with muscle, though still lithe and shapely. Most of the times I saw her, she opted for robes that weren’t loose or hanging. Now, she had on a sleeveless tunic, close-fitting and open at her collarbone.

  “What’s happening here? I felt my brother.”

  “He took four of our sorcerers into the forest,” I explained. “He’s threatening their lives if we don’t let him have Koluk.”

  “How could you let him take them?”

  I scoffed accidentally, too surprised by her accusation to keep it in. “What do you mean let him?” I blurted.

  Leon answered from behind me as the rest of my peers arrived. “What the hell are we supposed to do against an invisible demigod?” he asked bitterly.

  A vertical line formed between Souriff’s eyebrows. “You’re saying Valinox was invisible?”

  “The entire time!” Leon answered.

  Souriff looked away as she seemed to be in thought. Her mouth fell open. “He must’ve taken Nijja’s stone! I thought I felt the rift open to Fyrren. Now I’m sure if it.”

  “What is this stone?” Leon asked.

  “It will maintain any spell of ordia that the holder casts.”

  “Such a thing exists?” Leon sounded more angry than curious. “How could Nijja be so stupid?”

  “That stone is one of my sister’s vices. It’s not important right now. What is your plan to retrieve your sorcerers? I will join you and attempt to take Nijja’s stone from my brother.”

  “Well, about that.” The confidence was gone from Leon’s voice. “We need some assistance.”

  “I already told you I would help.”

  “Not just from you. There’s a whole mess of soldiers, sorcerers, and probably a bunch of traps. Not all of us can fly, you know. We need to get word to…” He waved his hand down at Souriff. “It will require too much explanation. Just leave it to us.”

  “Leon,” Remi said as she pointed at a group of five people who were briskly walking toward us.

  Besides this group, there were many citizens of Koluk standing back to watch, most sharing words of amazement as they pointed nervously at Souriff. But there was obvious fear in many of their gazes.

  The small group approaching us was different. There was purpose behind their movement as they came toward us at a quick pace, a woman at the front. She looked capable, a bow on her back and a quiver attached to her belt. There were four men behind her, none of them with a threatening look. They were thin, not particularly tall, but they moved with the same graceful confidence as if they thought themselves to be important.

  Jennava muttered, “My word, I think that’s Syrah Fielder.”

  “Who?” Leon asked.

  “Her husband was the head of the Thieves’ Guild before Cason killed him. I heard she had taken control, but that was years ago. We were friends before that. I thought she’d left the city because I hadn’t heard anything about her for a long time.”

  “Is she in charge now?” Leon asked.

  Souriff complained, “These are thieves you are wasting time with?”

  “It’s difficult
to explain,” Jennava said as she broke out from my group. “I’m not sure if you remember me, Syrah—”

  “Jennava,” Syrah interrupted. “Of course I do. You’re one of the reasons we haven’t resorted to dirtier tactics. You must think you have a very good reason to get rid of us if you’re putting up with this dolt.” She gestured at Leon.

  “Who are you to call me a dolt?” Leon challenged.

  “Don’t you recognize these men behind me?” Syrah said. “You spoke to two of them personally.”

  Leon’s neck craned as he leaned forward. “Airinold’s taint.” He stomped toward them as he pointed. “You liars. The thieves have been hiding out in your pubs this whole time?”

  “Some,” Syrah answered for them.

  “Wait,” Remi interjected. “When were you visiting pubs, Leon?”

  “All the time,” Syrah said.

  Remi showed her anger in a glare.

  “I needed some way to get out my frustration,” Leon insisted. “You didn’t want me yelling at you, did you?”

  “You yell all the time!” Remi retorted.

  “And I would’ve yelled even more without a few ales in me!”

  “I don’t care anymore. I’m done.”

  A quick silence passed.

  “What do you mean you’re done?” Leon asked.

  “I’m done listening to you,” Remi elaborated. “Jennava, what’s the plan?”

  Leon’s mouth fell open. “Remi…” But he didn’t go on.

  Jennava showed him an apologetic look before turning to Syrah. “I need to know something before we continue. Why did you end up coming here now, Syrah?”

  “We’ve known you’ve been staying at the Groovewater for some time now. We weren’t planning on meeting face to face, but our opinion changed this morning when we witnessed your sorcerers flying off into the forest, screaming. Needless to say, we were a bit confused. After some investigating, we found troops gathered in the woods. They’re from Rohaer, I presume?”

  “Yes,” Leon said.

  “Excuse me,” Syrah scolded. “I’d rather speak with Jennava.”

  “Leon and I are in agreement,” Jennava explained as Leon smirked and folded his arms.

  Syrah Fielder looked to be in her forties, if I had to take a guess. It didn’t seem as if the years were kind to her, deep wrinkles branching out from the corners of her eyes. She had gray hair, thin and short. It was her eyes that spoke of her capability, dark and brimming with determination.