‘Is your demon fighting the bindings?’ Gorbacov inquired, frowning as he looked over. Seiya wasn’t surprised he had sensed the changing power levels in her summoning. ‘That’s very unusual,’ sounding more curious than concerned he waved for her to continue. ‘Good practice though,’ he added cryptically, walking away as both Lyam and Martin put their hands up to get their completed towers inspected.
‘See,’ Hitan said smugly as Gorbacov left, ‘he thinks it’s good practice too.’ Seiya felt the surge of the demon’s power just in time to match it with her own, the bindings holding him rigidly as he tried to attack her.
‘Fine then,’ smiling at Hitan she let her power envelop the demon until the physical bindings were holding him so tightly Seiya was surprised he could still breathe.
‘Happy now?’ Seiya paused for a moment to get her point across, the bindings were so strong she couldn’t even feel Hitan’s attempts to fight them, her power completely overwhelming the demon. ‘Shall we get on with it then?’
To Seiya and Hitan’s surprise and slight disappointment both Kirinya and Freiden managed to complete the exam, if somewhat slowly.
‘You know I swear her tower looks different,’ Seiya confided to the demon as she tried to examine it without staring too closely, ‘those rods are much wider.’
‘Of course,’ Hitan snorted disdainfully, ‘they often give easier tests to the ones who would struggle to pass.’
‘Guess it helps having your father on the Council,’ Seiya winced at the cattiness in her voice and ignored Hitan’s amusement. Later at lunch though Seiya felt somewhat vindicated; Kirinya was busy declaiming to anyone who would listen that her father would never condone such a stupid exam, after all why would anyone want a demon to solve puzzles? Calvin was still acting smugly superior and Seiya was undecided if she preferred this attitude to being openly confrontational. At least the whole class seemed happy, the new green bands tied proudly round everybody’s arms.
‘So what’s next?’ Seiya asked Martin, when he wasn’t near Calvin the boy was nearly as friendly towards her as Lyam.
‘Controlling the elements,’ he laughed as she looked at him blankly. ‘Don’t worry,’ he assured her, ‘we use the demon’s powers to manipulate fire, water, air and earth. It’s much more fun than what we’ve been doing so far.’
‘I’ll take your word for it,’ Seiya agreed, unconvinced by his description. The whole concept seemed ludicrous; but then so had summoning demons only a short while ago.
Chapter Six
Seiya could feel the heat from the small thread of flame that leapt from one hand to the other like a living thing, weaving around her outstretched fingers. The dancing fire fascinated her, watching it spiral along her arms she then brought it back down to her palms again. Stretching out as far as she could Seiya let the tiniest increase in her power fuel the flickering candle-esque flame to a blaze that towered above her, basking in the fire’s warm glow on her face for a second before extinguishing it.
Martin had been right. Seiya blinked her eyes slowly as they readjusted to the dim classroom after the fire’s brilliance, her face still tingled from the heat and sent delightful shivers running down her spine. Fire was definitely in a class all of its own. They could manipulate the other elements; water held still as ice or built into huge moving walls, air whipped into strong gusting winds, even shaking the earth itself. Yet all of those required great power, far more than they would be using. Pushing tiny streams of water along small channels in sand boxes was hardly inspiring but at least they could do it relatively easily. Shifting the barest whisper of air felt like trying to move Rhianwater itself and the earth totally ignored them, only the surface sand or smallest rocks grudgingly co-operated. Fire they could create, though admittedly at the lower levels it was usually done by igniting tinder and then manipulating the flames as they burned the provided fuel. Seiya had swiftly grown bored of such limitation, her power not only controlled the fire but fuelled it as well. It may have been more difficult but her flames were never tied to any physical spot, nor left her clothes reeking of smoke.
‘Nice one.’
Jolted out her reverie Seiya looked back at Lyam over her shoulder, unaware he had been watching she noticed he was already teasing his own fire-thread round his fingers.
‘But why not go further?’ With a challenging grin Lyam sent the flame snaking up his arm, but rather than stopping at his shoulders he kept going until his head was adorned with a fiery halo.
‘You’ll set your hair on fire!’ Seiya leant over to grab Lyam’s arm, afraid the supposedly fuel-less fire would quickly torch the tempting tinder, but the boy easily dodged, smiling all the while. At first it had been fun discovering Lyam was naturally talented at elemental summoning, roughly matched in their abilities they had spent the majority of the lessons inventing their own complex tasks. But Lyam had a habit of taking it too far, especially when Seiya knew his demon couldn’t intervene if things went wrong.
‘Go on,’ Lyam urged unrepentantly, ‘you try-’
‘Don’t you dare!’ Seiya jumped and Lyam stopped abruptly as Gorbacov appeared behind them. The Master tolerated their behaviour most of the time, leaving them be in exchange for their help with the rest of the class.
‘I think your brother needs some help,’ Gorbacov eyed Lyam disapprovingly as the boy deliberately avoided his gaze. ‘And I’m certain you can find someone who needs assistance,’ he continued pointedly as he turned in Seiya’s direction. ‘I’m sure even Kirinya will be willing to listen to a few pointers with the exam tomorrow,’ Seiya looked up in time to catch Gorbacov’s lips twitch as he held back a smile. The poisonous reply and subsequent glares Seiya had received after her first misguided attempt to aid Kirinya had stopped her asking the girl since, not that it prevented her listening in whenever Seiya was helping Cynthia. Lyam ended up with the larger share; Martin was the only other one who would openly accept her guidance, the others refusing only slightly more politely than Kirinya.
‘She seems to be doing alright,’ Seiya muttered, annoyed at being punished for something she hadn’t even done. Craning her head round she watched the girl summon a rank six water elemental with no apparent difficulty.
‘Then go ask Freiden.’ Gorbacov’s soft tone warned her this was one battle she wasn’t going to win; playtime was over, she was going to be helping somebody.
‘No thanks,’ Seiya swiftly countered in a disgusted tone, at least Kirinya’s dislike was her own, not some mindless imitation. Gorbacov raised a quizzical brow at her retort but Seiya ignored him, heading over to where Cynthia and Kirinya were busy practising, preparing for the inevitable offensive rejection.
It definitely felt strange, Seiya decided as she demonstrated building a miniature whirlwind to move the dust on her desk. Kirinya had managed to catch her completely off-guard, actually requesting her help with air elemental work. The summoning was relatively simple, just adding in an extra line to specify the element required, but actually using the demon’s elemental power? That had been hard to grasp, until the demons themselves had explained where she was going wrong; the trick was to use her own summoning power through the demon’s elemental alignment, the link being formed when the demon passed through the gateway. The demon’s own magical power was restrained using bindings, though in Seiya’s case these were always relaxed.
‘Damn it!’ Seiya jumped as Kirinya kicked the desk they were both working on, her own attempt determinedly blowing across the wood rather than spinning. Privately, Seiya doubted anything so complex would be on the exam, though she couldn’t be certain. This time the demons hadn’t been able to tell her the exact exam set-up, it varied by Master preference though each element would be tested with the emphasis on control rather than overall power.
‘Try this,’ Seiya hovered her hand over the desk, extending only her index finger she made small swirling motions, ‘pretend you’re stirring the air.’ Not that it’ll help you in the exam, she added silently, all th
e demons had agreed the summoner was always forced to stand at a distance from whatever tasks had to be performed. But if Kirinya wanted to learn? Seiya shrugged inwardly as she watched the girl concentrating hard on her circling fingertip, bottom lip caught between her teeth. At least focused on the task in hand she seemed to have forgotten she disliked Seiya, acting almost friendly.
‘There!’ Kirinya exhaled with an explosive whoosh that instantly annihilated her tiny whirlwind, her face red from holding her breath so long.
‘Well done,’ Seiya smiled encouragingly as she stepped away, eager to leave while Kirinya was still feeling happy, ‘I’m sure you’ll do well in the exam.’
‘Thanks,’ flushed with her success Kirinya was already turning excitedly to Cynthia and Seiya hid her amusement at the girl’s sudden change in attitude. Perhaps the insulting snobbery was just a front and a nice person really existed underneath.
‘That’s it!’ Gorbacov clapped his hands loudly and the background noise died away, the whole class turning to face him. ‘Dismiss your demons and be here nice and prompt tomorrow for the exam. I’m even letting you go early, if you’re quick you should get to the hall before the bells chime.’ Giving an unusually humorous conspiratorial wink he gestured for them to file out. Seiya wasn’t too surprised at the Master’s high spirits, this was one exam she expected everyone would be able to pass.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’
‘Huh?’ Seiya answered the demon distractedly. She was on the first test of the four, using an earth elemental to move five pebbles inside a circle drawn on the desk. As she had expected any cheating was prevented by forcing the students to stand behind a white line several strides from the desks with the test apparatus, Gorbacov at the end to ensure nobody overstepped the mark. Seiya was already making things more difficult for herself by trying to focus on Lyam’s progress as well, so far they were still neck and neck-
‘This isn’t a race,’ the demon’s disapproving tone finally caught Seiya’s attention and she fumbled the fourth pebble, groaning inwardly as she watched Lyam sail into the lead.
‘What?’ she demanded irritably, flicking the stone into the white outline so hard it nearly sent the others shooting out. ‘Look at what you made me do.’
‘Me?’ the earth elemental snorted disdainfully, ‘surely you’d be better keeping a low profile so the Masters don’t take special notice of you? Or are you that desperate to prove you’re better?’
‘It was just a bit of fun!’ Seiya replied defensively, glaring at the demon ahead of her. ‘Why shouldn’t I-’
‘Think!’ the earth elemental demanded irritably, ‘if you rush then so will he, and if he makes a mistake who’s going to help him?’ Seiya’s frustration subsided as she saw the demon’s point, the last thing she wanted was for Lyam to fail trying to compete with her.
‘Fine,’ she grudgingly agreed, taking her time arranging the pebbles until they were neatly equi-spaced within the ring. It had suddenly occurred to her that anyone watching would be wondering why she still had the earth elemental summoned long after the test was complete.
‘Good,’ Seiya imposed the physical bindings just in time to stop the demon nodding its head, in an exam where the elementals were meant to be fully bound any movement would be suspicious.
‘Better get on then,’ Seiya announced with false cheeriness. Instantly creating the dismissal pattern she gave the startled demon no chance to reply. As the gateway faded her eyes picked out the speck of red on the floor, right by Lyam’s desk. Could he have completed the second test while she was arguing?
Damn that demon, Seiya cursed inwardly as she saw the Lyam’s water elemental appearing at the same time as she summoned her air for the second trial, now she had no chance of catching up.
By the time Seiya’s own red feather floated to the floor she was no longer annoyed with the demon, after all the exam was far more enjoyable at a leisurely pace. Not that she didn’t feel a small stab of irritation as she glanced over to see Lyam burning through the first rope on the final fire test.
Allowing her gaze to travel along the desks Seiya could see everyone else was concentrating intensely. Only Calvin was left on the earth test, and that was only because he’d lost his temper and foolishly flung the stones into each other. Luckily for him none had fallen off the desk. Gorbacov hadn’t said it would be a fail, but Seiya doubted it would be easy to lift them back up again.
The fluttering on Kirinya’s desk caught her eye, the red feather moving jerkily as the girl struggled to call a smooth controlled breeze. The test itself was simple, to blow the feather off the desk top; the only slight complication was that the two other white feathers on the desk had to stay there. The girl’s blasts of air would still get the job done eventually but Seiya frowned as the red was suddenly covered by a splash of white. Somehow Kirinya was blowing both feathers, not that it mattered since only one had to remain-
Seiya’s thought was cut abruptly short as she spotted the white fluff already standing out on the grey stone floor. One down; if the other white one fell it would be a fail. How had Kirinya managed it? The feathers had been spread out incredibly generously across the entire desk, short of actually aiming for the white feathers Seiya couldn’t see how it could happen. Perhaps I should have stopped her from practising that whirlwind manoeuvre, Seiya chewed her lower lip worriedly, she felt partly responsible for Kirinya’s difficulty. After all she had suspected that nothing similar would come up on the exam yet she had let the girl waste valuable time.
Another blast of air; Seiya jerked forward as if she wanted to reach out and grab the pale feather lofting dangerously close to the desk edge. She risked looking at Kirinya’s expression, the girl was trying hard, concentrating furiously on the problem developing in front of her but she was still going to fail. Even worse Seiya could see that she knew it, the clenched fists and gritted teeth showed Kirinya was tensing up, making the elemental magic more difficult to control. Her next attempt would probably send the white feather sailing away, though the red would also be close behind.
Gorbacov wasn’t looking as Seiya risked glancing over; as time went by his initial hawk-like scrutiny had faded away until he had dragged over one of the chairs and sat down, his eyes only flicking up occasionally to check everyone’s progress.
‘Will he sense it if I stop that feather?’ Seiya sent her thought to the air elemental, thankful she had delayed with her own dismissal.
‘Unlikely,’ the demon assured her, it too turned to look in Kirinya’s direction, ‘if I do it he certainly won’t.’
‘Oh?’ Seiya asked teasingly, ‘and what makes you say that?’
‘I’ve been doing this longer,’ the demon replied, the smile carried in his voice. ‘I assume you want to stop the white one falling?’
‘Y-’
Even as Seiya formed the first syllable Kirinya’s feathers were lifting high in the air, the red and white spiralling round each other as they drifted down, floating out over the edge of the desk. Seiya subconsciously held her breath, as if the tiniest whisper of air would make the seemingly inevitable fail a certainty. Suddenly the white feather started to change trajectory, subtle at first it gradually parted company with its red partner, gliding gently back onto the wooden top. Seiya watched the red settle on the stone floor and heard Kirinya exhale heavily, the girl must have been too scared to breathe.
‘Very nice,’ Seiya complimented the demon, ‘nobody would guess.’
‘Of course not,’ the air elemental brushed her compliment aside, ‘there’s always stray air currents hanging around.’
‘Thank-’ Seiya stiffened as Gorbacov’s head whipped up and he looked straight at her, frowning as his eyes dropped to the air elemental still in front her.
‘I think I’ve been here long enough,’ the demon murmured as Gorbacov’s gaze eventually moved away.
‘I hope it’s just that,’ Seiya wasted no time in forming the dismissal gateway, the Master was going to start g
etting very suspicious if each of her summonings hung around for ages after the test was completed. ‘But thanks again.’
‘No problem,’ the demon assured her as it vanished, ‘good luck with the rest.’
‘Oh this is ridiculous!’
Giving up on burning through the rope Seiya turned to glare at the desk next to hers, unsurprised to find it was Calvin. Hands on hips she stared pointedly at the distracting fire at the far edge.
The final test was probably the trickiest of the four, Gorbacov emphasising it was about control not power; though Seiya had felt it was unfair he had looked pointedly at her and Lyam while saying it. Most of the challenges they concocted were about control, after all they had been limited by the classroom and the other students, neither easily lent themselves to a huge inferno. In this case the control angle came from trying to burn through four ropes to drop a central red package without also setting fire to the nearby strings holding smaller white bundles aloft.
Unfortunately nobody had thought to mention that leaving a part of your apparatus on fire would also be considered a fail. Seiya could only assume that rather than igniting one of the strings which were designed to break Calvin had set alight to the cloth bundle itself. Though why he had simply left it to burn was beyond her, the flames were perilously close to the wooden frame from which everything was suspended, surely it was still a fail however the undyed bundles ended up on the desk?
Still the boy carried on; even the others from further away were beginning to get distracted, the flames leaping and crackling as the fire grew, not to mention the smoke. To make things worse Gorbacov was seemingly oblivious, utterly engrossed in whatever he was reading the whole class could have walked up to the exam desks and cheated as much as they wished.
Summoner's Call (The Summoner Trilogy Book 1) Page 6
