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

was sent for the sellswords so she doesn’t have to fetch them herself, but I’m not sure.”

“Do you know who the sorcerers are?”

“Probably just the few who work in Newhaven. There are two fire mages I know of, and an ice mage.” She pointed a finger at me. “Don’t fall in love with the ice mage. I’ve heard only bad things about her.”

I’d never met an ice mage.

I knew I should be on guard, but it just didn’t feel like the castle was threatened. The king and his family were probably secured high in the keep by now. Many guards took their places on the battlements and turrets on the wall, most of them with bows. The only thing the castle was lacking now was six of my peers, and Leon. Actually, it was Leon leaving that made the most difference. He alone seemed capable of stopping Cason. I supposed the king thought Leon would be better out there arresting Luther, keeping me here instead. That meant the king thought the risk to the castle was low.

“Is there anything you can do if the castle comes under attack?” I asked Eden. “As an enchanter.”

“Not unless we are attacked by an enchantment.”

Eden always used the same tone, as if nothing she said was serious.

“I can’t tell if you’re joking.”

“Sometimes I don’t even know,” she said, rubbing her neck as if irritated by this notion.

I chuckled.

“There are some enchantments that could cause us a few problems, but it’s unlikely any of them would be used.”

“So you were joking.”

“Half.”

There was a long pause.

“Sword enchant!” Eden blurted.

“Excuse me?”

“I’ve been meaning to enchant your sword, and no, this is not a joke.” She winked. “Or is it?”

It reminded me of her joke with Michael, the difference between an enchantress and an enchanter. She had admitted to being both, but her definition of an enchantress had been quite shocking.

“You like confusing people, don’t you?” I asked.

“Eh, I’ll take confusion if I can get it. Anything is better than boring.”

“I like boring. There’s too much confusion and excitement already in my life.”

“No wonder we haven’t gotten to know each other very well,” she said dismissively. “So do you want your sword enchanted or not?”

“Of course I do, I’m not stupid.”

She looked shocked at my sudden aggression, exactly what I was going for.

I smiled.

She half pointed, half shook her finger. “Aha, Jon, you got me, and I’m not gotten easily.”

I didn’t want to admit that I was a little suspicious of Eden. As she had mentioned, we didn’t know each other very well. I was as sure as I could be that Kataleya was not the one who had helped Cason attempt to corrupt me or had used the callring to signal us leaving the castle so Grufaeragar could be attacked. It just didn’t make sense with everything that had happened since the accusation.

It was also difficult to believe that Aliana was responsible for all of that, given what had happened with her mother. Michael and Reuben were also innocent in my mind. I just couldn’t picture either of them involved in these affairs.

I knew this wasn’t a good reason to suspect someone, but I could imagine Eden looking for more excitement and coming across Cason, probably before she ended up here.

Remi was a complete mystery, still. Like Eden, I didn’t know her very well. I was a little suspicious of her, too, but not more suspicious than I was about the king’s own councilman. The very fact that the king trusted him so strongly made me not just suspicious but worried.

“Can I have your sword?” Eden asked.

If she was the traitor, could she enchant my sword in such a way that it broke when I tried to use it? No, she wouldn’t. I had learned the Identify spell recently. It should tell me what kind of enchantment Eden put on my weapon.

I took my sword out of its sheath. “You’re going to enchant it right here?”

“In my room. Want to come?”

I didn’t have anything better to do. We walked down the hall and entered Eden’s personal quarters. In the light, her room was interesting to say the least. On every surface existed a container with some kind of animal part. There were claws and teeth collecting dust in between the containers, which mostly contained pelts in some kind of drying powder, though a few legs existed as well. None was particularly large, though there was a slight odor to the room I hadn’t noticed the last time I was here, when checking on Eden’s curse.

“You can snoop around if you want,” she said, “but let me see your sword first. Put it on the bed.” She paused. “Then we can start talking about enchanting your weapon.” She grinned mischievously.

“Very funny,” I said sarcastically as I put my sword on her bed. I was tempted to snoop, but even with her suggesting it, it would be awkward. “Why didn’t you offer to enchant my sword earlier?” I asked.

“A number of reasons. The enchant isn’t very beneficial, first of all. It’s only going to make the metal of your sword sturdier. Secondly, there was a good chance before that I was going to mess up the enchantment and weaken your sword permanently, or at least until a better enchanter came around and fixed what I did.”

“How confident are you now that you won’t mess up the enchantment?”

“I promise I won’t. I have practiced many times.”

“How long does it take?”

“Not long. I’ve gotten very good at handling swords.” She raised an eyebrow.

“Do you ever stop with the crude jokes? You’re worse than Michael.”

“Speaking of, how much does he like me?”

Was she serious? Her tone was as if she was serious.

“Um.”

“Don’t insult me by pretending you don’t know.”

“I’m not pretending. I’m trying to decide what to tell you.”

“Does he like me or does he just want me for a night?”

I didn’t know how to answer, too taken aback with her direct questions.

“Come on, Jon. The two of us are never alone