The Path of Giants, B.T. Narro [the speed reading book .TXT] 📗

seemed to notice at the same time that Michael and Reuben were sprinting away from the encampment together, and neither seemed to be chasing one of our many fleeing enemies.

“Go help them,” I advised Kataleya. “I’ll heal everyone I can.”

She nodded and took off.

*****

Eden followed after the elf, but she couldn’t keep up. Eslenda seemed to be as fresh as when the fight began, while Eden barely had the strength to put one foot in front of the other.

“Hurry up, human!” Eslenda yelled over her shoulder.

“I can’t…go any faster.” Eden struggled for breath.

Eslenda said something in Elvish that sounded mean, then faced forward again. A gust of wind swirled around behind the elf, scooping her up and propelling her forward about twenty yards before she landed again. She picked herself up once more, and soon there were too many trees blocking Eden’s view to keep track of her.

Eden hoped the king’s sorcerers were faring well without her and the elf. It wasn’t long ago that Eslenda had felt the presence of the demigods nearby and had announced fearfully that Souriff likely needed help. She wanted the rest of their allies to come with her, but everyone refused to leave. It was Aliana who told Eden to go with Eslenda and make sure Souriff survived. No one else put up an argument, all too busy dealing with a swarm of dteria-casting swordsmen in their faces.

Since then, Eden had been trying to keep up with Eslenda. The elf ran as if her life depended on it. Considering how tired Eden had become from all the fighting, she couldn’t push herself to go quicker than a jog now.

She stuck to one direction as she scanned the forest to each side. Eventually she caught sight of someone in the distance, but they were too far for Eden to tell who it was. Knowing she was close, she pushed herself to go a little faster.

A short time later, she stopped when she realized what she was seeing. Eslenda was on her hands and knees. Eden couldn’t see her face, but she was clearly injured as she tried to get up. Eden hurried forward again and saw a nearly invisible silhouette standing over the elf. Off to the side sat Souriff against the tree, her face a bloody mess. She wasn’t moving.

Valinox must’ve kicked the elf, because she groaned in pain as she flipped over and landed on her back. There was a gash across her forehead, blood leaking out.

“So you made it back,” Valinox said, addressing Eden. She could faintly make out that he was facing her. “You impress me, human. You will have to tell me at a later time how you got here so quickly. First you must prove yourself.” He spoke calmly. He probably thought the battle between humans was long over and that his followers had won.

“What would you have me do?” Eden asked.

“Kill Souriff with that dagger of yours. Stab her in the heart, and then the elf. Afterward, I’ll forgive you for all your failures and make you more important than you could possibly dream of. You’ve always wanted that, haven’t you?”

Eden looked at the dagger in her hand. It actually belonged to Eslenda. Eden hadn’t used it once during the fight. Instead, she’d acted more as an agent of defense for the rest of her friends by making walls of dteria to protect them from arrows. She could’ve propelled her dagger into the chest of an enemy during the fight, but that would’ve only stopped one man and left her weaponless. There had been too many of them for her to take the chance.

It had been Michael and Reuben who had slain the most enemies with their swords, while Aliana had wounded even more with her arrows.

It turned out that Eden hadn’t ever actually killed anyone, given that Remi hadn’t died. She supposed she could start with a demigod and work her way down.

You’ve never known what I wanted, she spoke inwardly to Valinox. I didn’t even know what I wanted until now.

She wasn’t nervous, surprisingly. She knew what had to be done, even if it killed her. She wrapped a small amount of dteria around the hilt of the dagger, as Valinox had taught her to do. Then she let go of the weapon, suspending it in the air with her mind and tilting it, blade out.

Eden walked closer to Souriff. She didn’t want to miss. She lifted her arm as if she was going to throw.

“Don’t…” Eslenda wheezed, then coughed out blood.

“What?” Valinox said in confusion. “The other sorcerers are coming. Hurry up, so I can deal with them.”

Eden motioned as if she was tossing the dagger at Souriff, but turned at the last moment and hurled it at Valinox. It stuck into his nearly invisible form somewhere around his chest. He grunted from what sounded to be equal shock and pain. Blood ran down the dagger, giving shape to his hand as he pulled the dagger out of his chest.

But as he took hold of the dagger, it disappeared, cloaked by his spell. It was only his dripping blood that remained visible.

She thought she saw him fall to a knee, the blood dripping from a lower area. He groaned. For one blissful moment, Eden thought she might’ve gotten him in the heart where she’d been aiming.

“You bitch!” he yelled as he thrust his hand out at her.

The forest warped around her as she was propelled backward at blinding speed. Her back and head struck something hard.

Intense pain was the last thing she remembered.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

We had captured a few of our enemies, but many more had escaped. We had lost a handful of our new allies, but many more I had saved. Considering the situation we’d been put in, I thought that result was rather good.

The rest of our enemies were dead. I had just finished healing the last of my allies’ wounds when I heard Gourfist in the distance. The roar of the