Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2) B.T. Narro (book reader for pc .TXT) 📖

“Jon, you should practice that spell on yourself first, because Eden is too much of a daisy to tolerate even a little pain.”

“A little!?” she said. “Never mind.” She folded her arms. “It’s pointless to complain to you about anything.”

“Ah, the sweetest thing to an instructor’s ears,” he said. “Let’s call it a day. I hope you enjoyed a day off, finally, Michael. You won’t have another for a while.”

“Oh come on. That wasn’t a—”

“Remember what Eden said,” Leon interrupted. “It’s pointless to complain.”

“Damn, that’s true.”

Leon wore a victorious grin. “I have a feeling things are going to go a lot more smoothly from now on. Thank you, Eden, for helping everyone realize something they should’ve realized a long time ago. Kataleya, it’s finally time we start working on fire with you.”

“But I want to focus on water for a while longer.”

“Didn’t you hear?” He gestured at Eden.

She put her hands on her hips. “Let me rephrase so it’s not a complaint. You can’t force me to start learning fire.”

Leon opened his mouth but nothing came out. He closed it again.

Looks like things are not going to go so smoothly after all.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The next day, Charlie wanted me to keep experimenting. The next note to test as octaves was A: specifically lA, A, and uA. Not even Leon had a clue what A added to spells. He had told Charlie it probably wouldn’t be very useful, as there were no spells he knew of that used A, so experimenting with it was a low priority.

I was shocked that Leon didn’t know of a single spell with A. I had to admit to Charlie that I was curious like he was as to what it might do, but I had no practice with any octave of A. It would probably take me at least a few days just to cast the spell one time, and I needed a break from learning new notes. I still had to practice the notes I’d learned the day before. One in particular, G, would be incredibly useful and might even save my life.

At least Charlie understood after I explained all this to him. Besides, he had a lot to work with from what we’d discovered yesterday. I didn’t know what that was exactly, maybe spell composition of some kind, but I didn’t need to ask. I was sure I’d find out when he was done. He left me to practice on my own in the courtyard.

I was accompanied by Aliana and the usual erto mages: Michael, Kataleya, and Remi. I could almost feel everyone’s annoyance at another full day of training ahead. No, I could see it from Michael’s reluctance to start his windy spells as he leaned against the apartments and read a scroll, to Aliana’s chatting with Kat near the target where she was usually shooting arrows. Even Remi looked as if she wasn’t looking forward to the long hours of training ahead, as she took up some water from the well and relaxed as she drank.

I had gotten used to the idea of Kataleya letting her excess water fall into the well during her practicing. All of us had drunk from that well at some point. We’d all allowed Kataleya’s water to sustain us.

I was beginning to think less and less that she was using her charm to manipulate me. Remi seemed the most likely to be the traitor, if I had to pick someone right now. I didn’t know how she would’ve come into contact with a noble, like Kataleya’s father or this Luther Prigg, but maybe they found her.

Aliana was next on my list. I couldn’t forget what Kataleya had said about Luther possibly being Aliana’s father. She had asked Barrett two nights ago, when she was coming off her curse, why Barrett wouldn’t tell her what he’d asked her mother. What had happened with Gwen Forrester? I could only assume it wasn’t good, otherwise Aliana would’ve been informed by now.

Letting that go for the moment, I set my mind on my task. I would learn how to grab people today. Hopefully I could practice on myself, as Leon had implied, and then safely test it on others later.

It didn’t take long, unfortunately, for me to realize that it was a lot harder to practice on myself than on anyone or even anything else. Telling dvinia to grab me was not like telling my mana to heal me. It was awkward and unintuitive, like trying to use my sword with my left hand. I couldn’t just target my waist, think about what I wanted my mana to do, and cast the five notes. I had to really pinpoint where it was to touch my body, then focus on how it would spread, and lastly, what it should do after. All of this trouble came from my mana not wanting to hurt me and needing some extra encouragement.

I went into the apartments and searched through my room. I needed something I could practice grabbing. Everything was too nice, downright fancy, even. I didn’t want to take my wooden chest into the courtyard, nor the bedside table. Not only would they get dirty, but they would likely suffer damage when they dropped and hit ground. There had to be something in this castle that no one would mind chipping or scratching, something that could stand upright.

There was no point in looking through the great hall. I had a better idea. I went to visit the princess in the keep.

On the third floor of the keep, Callie was with a tutor, a different woman than I had seen with her before. A guard was stationed outside Callie’s large room.

The princess and her tutor were not speaking when I stood in front of the door. Callie had her head in a book at her desk as her tutor wrote something on another desk. Neither noticed me, but the guard let me enter.

I knocked softly on the inner wall to her room. She