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

create a lie just for me to have a new name.”

“Couldn’t you go back to your old name?” I asked, not knowing the rules of divorce here. Where I came from, only adultery or death could dissolve a marriage legally, but then the name of the woman was changed back.

Remi looked down as if embarrassed. “My name was Ryler before I married.”

“Oh god!” Michael repeated again.

“Are you saying what I think you are?” I asked.

She shook her head. “The only way we’re related is because Gerald’s grandfather is my great-grandfather,” she said. “We don’t share anyone else in our family tree.”

“So what does that make you?” Michael asked.

“It doesn’t matter. I won’t see him again. He came to Newhaven eventually to look for me, but he didn’t try very hard. I’m sure he’s given up by now.”

“So the king let you go by Remi?” I figured.

“Yes. I never planned on telling anyone any of this, but I had to tell the king and Barrett because my identification papers have my birth name. I prefer the name Remi now, and I would appreciate if you all continued to call me that.”

I didn’t want to think of her as Veronica anyway. The name didn’t seem to suit her.

“You still haven’t explained how you learned magic,” Reuben said. “You already knew you would specialize in fire before you were tested. I remember.”

“I remember that as well,” Charlie echoed.

Remi looked down again.

“Stop delaying and answer,” Reuben demanded. “You’ve always been too reticent, just like someone who is trying to hide their traitorous ways from us. Explain yourself already! How did you learn how to make fire with sorcery if you were homeless and couldn’t afford lessons?”

“I got lucky.” She glanced at Reuben from the tops of her eyes. “I met a fire mage who needed a servant.”

“Which fire mage?”

“Josef Webb.”

“Him?” Reuben asked incredulously. “You can’t be telling the truth.”

“I’m getting tired of you doubting me,” she warned him in a cold tone. “Everything I’m saying is true. At least wait until I’m done to spew your nonsense. Yes, Josef Webb. I happened to run into him when he needed someone to wash and clean up after him when his last servant unexpectedly quit.”

“Who is he?” I asked.

“A well-known fire mage,” Michael answered for me. “Well-known for his attitude, at least.”

“Yes, it didn’t take long for me to realize that he didn’t care about anyone or anything but money and fame,” Remi said. “But he let me stay with him, and he paid me. It was a better life than I’d had for a long while.”

“I did hear that Josef had hired a young servant girl,” Kataleya said. “Everyone was talking about it for a while. It didn’t look good for him, but soon we’d all forgotten.”

“Oh that’s right,” Reuben said. “They said she was fifteen.”

“I was sixteen,” Remi corrected him. “That’s when I started to feel mana for the first time. I immediately knew what it was, because I had learned a few things watching Josef go about town and provide fire for money. He spoke about mana and sorcery frequently to his clients, but only to make himself seem like a more powerful sorcerer than he was. I tried to learn what I could from him. I requested lessons when he had time, but…”

She started to chew on her thumbnail as her gaze drifted. “He wasn’t going to teach me anything, so I taught myself,” she told the ground. “I learned from him and then taught myself,” she repeated, looking up again. “It wasn’t hard. Like Eden said about enchanting, I found that I had a knack for fire.”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Reuben said.

“I’m not!”

“You are!” he countered.

I actually agreed with Reuben. Remi had not taught herself, that part was a lie.

“Who taught you?” I asked.

“You too, Jon?” Aliana asked me. “She’s being honest.”

“I am!” Remi said, looking like she wanted to cry but couldn’t.

“I don’t believe her,” I admitted.

“Yeah, I agree with Jon and Reuben,” Michael said.

“You don’t have to tell us, Remi,” I said, then lifted my hand as Reuben started to interrupt me, “But,” I continued, “we will consider you a suspect unless we can trust you.”

She held my gaze for a long while before she swung her head around in a quick rotation. “All right, I lied about one thing because I really don’t want to talk about it. I offered a trade to Josef, for his instruction. Can we just leave it at that?”

“What did you trade?” Charlie asked.

“Oh, Remi,” Kataleya said pitifully.

“I was desperate to learn more,” she told the ground again.

“What did she trade?” Charlie asked again.

Michael whispered something in his ear.

“Why is that so bad?” Charlie asked when Michael was done.

“It’s bad that Josef would put a girl in that position,” Michael said, then told Remi, “He should’ve taught you without that. I’m sorry.”

She nodded. “It didn’t take me long to realize that he didn’t have much to teach me anyway, but I did learn the basics of mana and spell casting. I left and found other work as I practiced. I was working at an inn a year later when Barrett showed up one day asking the innkeeper if he knew of any young sorcerers who were looking for an opportunity. I was lucky I overheard, because the innkeeper lied about me. He said he didn’t know of any even though he was aware I could make fire, but he didn’t realize I was listening. So that’s it.”

It was more than I’d heard Remi speak in all the time I’d known her. But from the breath of relief she blew out, it seemed like she might go a long while before sharing that much again.

I still felt like she was keeping something in. It might’ve been a small piece of her story that didn’t matter, that only made her feel bad to remember, or it could’ve been something more dangerous to the rest of us. But could she really have a connection to Kataleya’s