Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2) by B.T. Narro (chapter books to read to 5 year olds .txt) 📕

“Are you saying he’s a demigod?”

“I am,” she told me confidently.

“But Pearson has lived in Newhaven for a while, hasn’t he? He’s interacted with many people?”

“Yes, my father is investigating his recent past, looking for any evidence of his abnormal strength. People will be questioned. It may be proven later, but I already know the truth. He is not human, Jon. I could feel it when he picked me up.” She paused, her voice breaking. “I don’t know why he didn’t just kill all of us. Maybe the rumors are true. He’s scared of Gourfist finding him if he uses too much power. We do know Gourfist is real. Don’t you know, Jon?”

“Leon has said that, and I’m inclined to believe him.”

“I’m almost certain the rest of the demigods are real too.”

A silence passed. I felt inclined to believe Callie as well. The simplest answers were true most of the time. It was the easiest explanation for Pearson’s strength, but it did bring up many more questions that I was too tired to think about now.

“Not just that,” Callie added. “They are involved.”

“How do you think the other demigods are involved in this?”

“Think about the blizzard that began before winter and has continued this whole time.”

“Callie!” called Nykal from the doorway of the keep. He gestured for her, anger on his face.

She gave a sigh. “It is past my bedtime. I’m sorry if I wasted your time. I just needed to talk to someone, and I have no friends in the castle besides you.”

“You could never waste my time, princess. I do hope you feel a little better after speaking with me.”

“I do.”

“Besides, I think you might be right about all of this,” I told her.

She didn’t smile about that as she wiped her eyes, then gave a quick curtsy. I bowed.

She ran off to her father, who looked at me as if I had done wrong. I bowed to him, but he was already entering the keep before I straightened my back. I didn’t let his disapproval of talking with Callie past her bedtime get to me. There were more important things to consider.

Callie had seemed confident that Pearson was a demigod. Which demigod could he be if it was true? He was known as a fire mage before today, but clearly he was powerful with dteria. It was the demigod Airinold who gave up his strength to bring dteria to the world, and it was only Airinold who had power over it. However, some stories said that Airinold had since lost control of both dteria and his mind years after he became Gourfist, a massive flying creature that slept for decades at a time in the center of Curdith Forest.

When asked about other demigods, Callie had referenced the blizzard that prevented travel between Rohaer and Lycast. I didn’t know the odds of the constant snow occurring naturally, but I trusted that Callie did. She could be right, and it was Failina—the demigod of erto—aiding us by delaying the march of Rohaer’s army. It was a nice thought, especially considering that another demigod was clearly working against us.

If Pearson wasn’t Airinold, then who was he? Clearly not Failina. Was it even possible that Pearson was one of the female demigods? I hadn’t thought to use my Identify spell on him to see if he might be cloaked with an illusion. But again, he had lived in Newhaven for many years. He had spoken with countless people. If the rules of sorcery applied to the demigods the same way that they did to us, then he shouldn’t be able to modify his voice.

That meant he was male, and so there was only one demigod he could be.

It wasn’t Nijja, the goddess of the fae world and the creator of ordia. It wasn’t Souriff, either, the creator of dvinia and the goddess who supposedly made contact with the krepps. Like Failina, we owed a lot to her. She had already proven to be on our side, stopping the krepps from engaging in war with Lycast because of the actions of the previous king, who had ordered the killings of a group of krepps who’d come here to trade.

Pearson had to be Valinox, the firstborn demigod and the creator of mtalia. According to legend, Valinox had been jealous of his siblings who created more powerful sorcery and received more praise from their father, Basael.

There was so much to think about that I started to wonder what the point was of wasting my energy. What could I do about any of this right now even if it was true? I had to trust that the king knew best, but I was starting to doubt all of us had a fighting chance serving a leader who was so financially crippled. Was it really possible to fight a war against the dark mages without enough coin to pay for an army?

I was beginning to agree with Callie. Her father had put too much trust in us.

But there was a more important point to consider. What else could he have done that would’ve been better? Like the rest of us, he was making the most out of the dire situation.

I was glad he had put so much trust in us. It was a risk that I was going to make sure paid off.

If not, then all of us were going to die.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The morning of the next day started off normally, with breakfast in my room before my bath in the boys’ bathing quarters, where I greeted my friends. That’s where the normality ended, however. While the four of us bathed somewhat privately, a curtain around our tubs, Michael was usually quite chatty, with the rest of us keeping up the conversation during moments of pause. However, the bathing quarters was completely quiet this morning, save the sounds of water sloshing.

Out on the courtyard, Kataleya was already at work, a large wall