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

not important. I’m still far from learning ordia.” I wasn’t sure I ever would be ready, considering how much stronger my dvinia needed to be to stand against Cason.

“Very well.”

We left the tiny library, and Callie locked the door.

I bowed. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again soon.”

“I look forward to it,” she replied with a curtsy and an impish grin.

CHAPTER SIX

I awoke to Michael shaking my shoulder. “Get up, Jon. Leon is coming. Pretend I said something funny.”

“What?” I was groggy and confused. Last I remembered, I was trying to read the dense text on mana that the princess had convinced me to take. I had returned to my training quarters in the great hall and sat on one of the cushioned chairs.

I must’ve fallen asleep, but the book was closed and sitting on the nearby table. I didn’t remember doing that.

“Stand up!” Michael was whispering.

“Did you put my book—?”

“Yes. He’s coming!”

Michael pulled me out of the chair. I balanced on shaky legs as I noticed the sound of footsteps on the stairs. How long was I out? It had to have been longer than a few minutes. I actually felt a little rested.

Leon came into view from the last step and set foot on the floor of the room. Michael pretended not to see him as he spoke to me.

“And so I told her, ‘No, it’s in my shoe!’ ”

I pretended to laugh and then notice Leon. “Oh, Leon. What brings you here?”

“What was in your shoe, Michael?” Leon asked.

“It was just a joke.”

“I know. What’s the joke? What was in your shoe?” Leon folded his arms.

“My, uh.” His eyes darted around the room. “Candle…stick.”

“Explain,” Leon demanded.

“It’s a long joke,” Michael said.

“That ends with a candlestick in your shoe?”

“Yes,” Michael said confidently. “Anyway, I was just leaving. I’d better get back to training. The wind isn’t going to move itself. Oh wait…” He started to stroll toward the stairs. “That was another joke, by the way.”

“Hold on.” Leon put his hand up in front of Michael’s chest. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”

“No, sir.”

Leon stared at him for a moment. “Fine. Go.”

Michael must’ve come into my quarters to see me and found me asleep. He probably took the book from my hands, set it on the table, and then guarded the entrance until someone came. Bless him. I’d actually gotten some worthwhile sleep. I wasn’t sure Leon believed Michael’s excuse, but anything was better than the king possibly finding out I had broken the rules of the punishment. Nykal had never told me what would happen to me if I was caught sleeping, and I didn’t want to find out.

Leon walked over and picked up the book off the table near me. “Why are you wasting your time with this rubbish?”

“Thought I might learn something about mana.” Because you haven’t taught me anything in a long time, I dared not say.

Wait, why was Leon here? Was he finally about to give me some kind of instruction?

“Are you still trying to learn every note?” he asked me.

He’d made his opinion of my approach to learning mana quite clear a while ago.

“Yes, I am,” I said.

“You sound like you might’ve proven me wrong.”

I was a bit surprised. “I have.”

He grew a wry smile. “That’s a good lad.”

I might’ve appreciated the compliment if it didn’t make me feel like a dog. “Thank you, I guess.”

Leon had said it would take me too long to learn every note, that I would be better off instead learning spells: groups of notes casted at the same time. But I wanted to learn all the notes individually so I could cast any spell when I was done. Leon wasn’t going to let me at first, but then I reminded him that he also wasn’t going to let me learn dvinia. That finally shut him up, though the instructor made a point of adding one last thing.

“Then prove me wrong later, or you will regret it.”

It had been slow going because of my punishment. I’d only learned a few of the lower notes, but one was very important, lF, so that my healing spell was exponentially stronger. I hadn’t spoken with Leon since then. He didn’t know I could mend broken bones. No one knew what I could do so far, except Aliana.

Perhaps that was why Cason didn’t think I could heal a broken ankle. The knowledge hadn’t reached him because I’d never told anyone. But did the warlock even know I could cast Heal at all? I had come to learn it after the ambush to the castle. Dark mages had infiltrated with intentions to slay Grufaeragar and start a war with the krepps. Perhaps my ability to heal had never reached Cason. As far as I knew, the king still hadn’t determined how our enemies had found out so much about the sorcerers training here. It could be from a spy, or a simple mistake. The dark mages were everywhere. Someone we all trusted might not even know he or she was giving information to an enemy.

I wondered all this as I looked at Leon again. He couldn’t possibly be the one responsible. He was too much of a cynic. I supposed that was one benefit to being an ass. He would never accidentally divulge sensitive information to an enemy because he barely trusted any of us enough to handle non-sensitive information.

At least he was an ass most of the time; right now he sounded a little friendlier as he glanced over the book in his hands.

“Airinold’s taint, this is gobstobled gookamuk.”

“What?”

“What exactly.” He closed the book with finality and thumped it down on the table. “Show me what you’ve practiced.”

I supposed it was finally time for him to give me instruction, not that I was sure how he could help me if he couldn’t even cast this spell.

“I learned to strengthen Heal.”

He rolled his eyes. “You already knew Heal before the battle in Curdith Forest. Is that all you’ve been