Hunted Sorcery (Jon Oklar Book 2), B.T. Narro [digital book reader txt] 📗

quickly whether or not we address them. That is good enough for me right now. We can decide what type of announcement to make, if any, depending on how the rumors manifest.”

Barrett nodded and left.

“Now you may tell us what happened, Jon.”

“All right.”

I felt a little uncomfortable going through all the details, especially as dozens of people had come into Michael’s room to listen. Even a few of the castle workers had squeezed in and packed the room.

It wasn’t a long tale, fortunately. Soon the king was thanking me and ordering everyone back to work. He was the last to leave the room, besides me and Michael.

He stopped and told us, “Take the rest of the day off, and tell the rest of the sorcerers the same when they return. I’m sure they will want to hear all about Souriff.”

“Does that mean we’re permitted to leave the castle?” Michael asked.

“Not yet,” the king said sadly. “I still believe someone here could be working with Valinox. I need just a little more time, Michael.”

“I understand, sire.”

I started to worry that maybe the king was out of ideas as to how to weed out this person. But I appreciated his earlier advice. It was important to appreciate moments like this when they came. I wasn’t going to worry myself right now. It was time to rest, finally. We had months before Rohaer’s troops would be able to march.

Michael and I were the last to leave his room, and we did so together.

He smiled as he shook his head. “I can’t believe that was really Souriff.”

I still hadn’t given myself a moment to figure out what I thought. I supposed it was a relief to know that at least two of the demigods were on our side, even if one wasn’t. I did wonder about Nijja, the creator of ordia. According to legend, she lived in the fae world, its entrance in Curdith Forest guarded by Gourfist.

I was still stunned by it all, I figured, as I still didn’t seem to have any reaction. I would have to wait to see what happened before I could really figure out what I thought about all of this.

“I wish I could tell my father what I saw today,” Michael said.

That put a sad smile on my face. “Me, too.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Later that night

It had been difficult for Remi to stay up late into the night. She had been careful not to drink too much during tonight’s celebration. She was fearful the king might curse them again, but it hadn’t seemed to be the case.

It had been hard the first time for Remi to keep her secret. She had wanted to divulge it to Charlie the entire time she was dancing with and kissing him. She didn’t know what to think of her behavior that night. It seemed that Charlie had wanted a repeat this night, asking her to dance a few times, but she politely declined as she kept as much distance from him and the others that she could without arousing too much suspicion.

The rest of them had spent the evening in the dining hall, quietly sipping on ale at first, though it soon descended into boisterous laughter as the night had dragged on. Remi couldn’t enjoy herself, not when she had to sneak out of the castle and feared what might happen if she was caught.

But this was too important to pass up.

She had devised this plan for a while now. It was finally time to act now that everyone was asleep. She climbed out of her window. It was a somewhat far drop to the ground if she was to fall, but if that happened, she would just claim to have made a drunken decision to walk around the courtyard and asked Jon to heal her. They shouldn’t suspect that she was the traitor from just that.

She didn’t fall, fortunately, and soon she’d climbed up to the roof of the apartments. There was already a rope coiled up that she had stashed here a while ago, hidden against a chimney where it could not be seen by the guards who patrolled the battlements or from the windows of the keep nearby.

This whole plan was made possible by one guard in particular who was lazy in his duties. Soon it would be his shift, and it wouldn’t be much longer before he was dozing off.

She waited for that moment. It didn’t take long. Then she secured the rope around the chimney and threw the other end over the back wall of the castle.

Remi started to climb down carefully. It would be a long drop now if she were to fall. With her heart thumping in her chest, she made her way down a little quicker now, as she could no longer provide an excuse if she was to be seen.

She wished she didn’t have to do this right now, but there was not going to be another opportunity. Everyone had been relaxed this night, celebrating the end of their struggles against the dark mages in Lycast. She ran down the empty streets, the capital’s curfew still in effect even with just about all of the dark mages gone.

Just about all, she repeated in her mind. The king was probably aware that a few were scattered around, but he didn’t know who they were or what they intended to do. Remi knew of one of them, however.

Soon she arrived at her destination. The witch’s house wasn’t large or extravagant in any way, and that was partly how Remi knew to trust the woman. Remi liked to think that she had gotten to know the witch well.

Remi had met this woman long before Remi had any idea that she might be a sorcerer of the king later. But like every witch, the woman needed something from Remi in order to perform her spell, and it wasn’t just payment. On the outside of Remi’s pouch in black ink was the simple symbol the woman had