The Path of Giants by B.T. Narro (best novels to read .txt) 📕

there was something else in her eyes. It surprised me to see. Fear.

She really was afraid I would do something…like force myself on her?

I supposed we would be sleeping near each other tonight, and it wasn’t as if anyone else would be around. I hadn’t thought about it too much until then, but it had probably been worrying her for some time now.

“Please,” she said.

I wondered if she had been a victim in the same way Remi had. I suddenly felt bad I hadn’t considered it earlier. I didn’t want to make any girl worry about that.

“If you tell me what you could do with one of my hairs and swear that you wouldn’t unless I endanger you, then I will give you one,” I said.

“And some blood?” she asked.

“Now you’re going too far.”

“It was worth a try. I swear I won’t curse you unless necessary. I can do many things with one of your hairs, but nothing more debilitating than temporary blindness or a form of paralysis. Ride your horse close to mine and give me a hair.”

“What do you mean by a form of paralysis?” I asked as I rode up to her.

“Like your legs or arms. I don’t think I could paralyze an entire body, though I haven’t tried to paralyze someone in a while, I’ll admit. I might’ve grown stronger.”

We were riding next to each other by then. She held out her hand.

“I’m trusting you,” I said as I took a hair from my head.

“And I’m trusting you,” she said, keeping up her hand.

I put my hair into her palm.

She ran it between her fingers and put it up to her eyes for a close look. Then she stuffed it in her pocket.

I was a little nervous, but I asked myself, what’s the worst that could happen? She wasn’t going to run off, and she wasn’t going to kill me. I could deal with pretty much everything else.

“You seem to have some skill with ordia, but not a lot,” she said. “Did you know that when you use Identify, your mana communicates with you?”

I figured this was the beginning of her explanation about the red diamond. “Yes, I did know that. But I learned more about communicating with my mana from my healing spell.”

“Well, a callstone uses mana to communicate as well. Part of my mana is trapped in that diamond. It is able to listen to your mana and relay the messages of your mana all the way to me.”

“How far?”

“That has to do with the limitations I was talking about. The range of clear communication is much shorter than with a signal ring. Additionally, it only works with me. You couldn’t use my callstone to communicate with someone else. There is one trick that extends the range, but don’t ask me how it works because I don’t know. If you sleep near the callstone and I am asleep elsewhere, it seems that the clarity of communication between us is better.”

“So you were dreaming as well the first time we spoke?”

“I was. I didn’t mean to contact you. It just sort of happened.”

“But you did something when we were speaking. You compelled me to answer somehow.”

She seemed confused. “I think you are mistaken. My mana was communicating with your mana. Any urges you found happening to your mind or body had to do with your mana. I couldn’t possibly control or elicit any feelings from you.”

So it was my mana that compelled me to help her?But why would it do that?

If she was being honest, then this attraction I had for her had nothing to do with a spell of any kind but had started when my mana communicated with hers.

“Because of my experiences with a callstone, I assume that our mind’s connection to our mana is stronger while asleep,” she went on, “but again, I don’t know why or how that is.”

“I had figured there were other ways mana could communicate with our minds. Do you know of them?”

“Perhaps,” she said with a bit of a sly tone.

“But?”

“But we don’t know each other very well, still. I’m sorry.”

“I understand.”

“You do?” she asked, confused.

“Yes, why?”

“Oh, I just…I’m not used to that.”

We rode for a while longer. The sun would be setting in a couple of hours. At this pace, we might arrive at the castle before noon tomorrow. I wondered if Kataleya was just arriving now. I couldn’t imagine having to tell the king what happened, if it was my father who had been murdered.

I recalled having to tell my neighbors that my father had finally passed. I had asked them to tell the other people of our small town so I wouldn’t have to. Many people came by to offer their condolences and see if I needed anything. I had greatly appreciated that, as I couldn’t bring myself to get any food together for about a week.

Kataleya was stronger than I had been after losing my father. I hoped the king would give her anything she required.

As my mind shifted to Hadley, I started to wonder if I was missing something about her. Could there be a more sinister reason she had come to me so willingly? I had assumed she was just sick of running and realized she couldn’t keep it up her whole life, but after meeting her, she seemed a little too confident in herself for that to be the case. It was as if she didn’t think something bad could happen when she spoke to the king. It was as if she thought she had leverage.

I started to realize what it was. She must be a more powerful witch than I had thought previously. She must really have a lot to offer.

I started to notice Hadley’s head drooping as she seemed to be falling asleep on her mount.

“Hey,” I said to wake her.

She gasped and straightened up, luckily not scaring her horse.

“It’s dangerous to fall asleep on a horse,” I told her.

“I know; I’m just very tired.”

There were still a