Summoner's Call (The Summoner Trilogy Book 1)

by Sarah Anne Piddock

  ‘Thank you-’

  ‘Felix,’ the small boy replied as Seiya smiled at him gratefully. ‘Why are you hiding anyway?’

  Seiya explained her predicament to the pair as they walked, although she neglected to mention why the Council was treating her this way she was surprised at their support. Seiya stayed with them as they queued for food, blushing with embarrassment as the loud complaints from her stomach had Felix in fits of giggles. As they left Seiya found herself sandwiched between the pair, with no chance to slip away as they headed to the table where the rest of the class were already sitting.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  Seiya paused with her tray hovering in mid-air, her head turning towards Amaran’s icy demand. He was pointing to the white band tied around his sleeve, proof of passing the level five exam and being recognised as a full summoner. Seiya wore none, having torn off her red for a level four student when she was imprisoned in her room no-one had offered the dark grey given out for passing the level four exam.

  ‘This table is full,’ Seiya refused to look away as his eyes stared into hers, an awkward silence settling over the table. There were several spare seats, with smaller class sizes at higher levels one of the benefits was no longer having to cram round a table to eat. Belatedly realising she had gotten involved in a childish staring contest Seiya deliberately let her gaze wander away from Amaran’s hostile expression; unsurprisingly Jamen was smiling at the confrontation but both Tooks and Felix looked uncomfortable. Havir was the only one who looked at Amaran disapprovingly and Seiya was surprised at the unsubtle rebuke in his eyes. With no armband trying to go elsewhere would only cause more arguments and she needed to start eating, the level five instructor would soon come to find her. As she looked across the room she thought she caught a glimpse of Calvin and Lyam, the sight of her former classmates a shocking wake-up call. A couple of days ago she’d been trying to stop the Masters murdering students, this morning she’d been planning to make a desperate escape, now she was worried over where she was going to sit to eat? This time when she looked back at Amaran she felt only disgust, more at herself than anyone else for being lulled back into a sense of normality.

  ‘With your ego I’m surprised there’s room for anyone at all,’ Seiya retorted, placing her tray firmly in the gap Havir and Felix had left for her. Directly across from Amaran she held his gaze long enough to make her point before dropping her eyes, deliberately ignoring the stunned silence from the others as she began eating. There was no immediate response but she could feel the tension building, if only she had just kept quiet rather than being provoked over something so petty. If Amaran told Youally about her summonings… Suddenly the oppressive atmosphere broke as Tooks gave a loud snort, laughing so loudly people on other tables turned to stare. Caught completely by surprise Seiya choked on her mouthful of food, Tooks leaping to her “rescue” to join Havir pounding her back as she tried to bat them away.

  ‘Stop it!’ Seiya eventually managed to get the words out through the streams of coughing, caused by their eager assistance rather than the original choking. She winced as she put a hand to where Havir had tried to “help”, she didn’t need anymore bruises.

  ‘There you go Amaran,’ Tooks gestured towards her, still smiling broadly, ‘we’ve finally found a girl who won’t follow you round like an adoring puppy.’ He raised his glass in a mock toast and Seiya didn’t know how to respond, at least Amaran was now splitting his glares equally between her and Tooks. At least it had lightened the mood, Seiya sighed inwardly, she really should take advantage of the opportunity Tooks had provided. She couldn’t afford to have Amaran as an enemy.

  ‘Sorry for being rude,’ Seiya forced herself to smile apologetically in Amaran’s direction, hoping it sounded more sincere than it felt. ‘I’m having a bit of a rough time but I shouldn’t take it out on you.’ Only now did she risk raising her glass to answer Tooks’s still upheld toast, successfully resisting the temptation to add “even though you started it”. For a moment she thought Amaran wasn’t going to let it go but after a quelling look from Havir he shrugged and started to eat.

  It was a peace of sorts, which Seiya was only too eager to accept. At the moment anything below open confrontation was a bonus, even if it wasn’t by much. It was Felix who nudged her in the ribs and pointed towards the hall entrance, standing in the doorway and scanning the room was the same Master she’d seen approaching Paudry. The lower level students were jostling him as they flowed in and Seiya was disappointed when instead of giving up he entered the hall properly, looking over every table. Thankfully they were near the back in one of the quieter areas and the Master still had to cross a sea of people rushing round in a hectic mess. She grinned as he narrowly avoided a collision with a small girl waving across the room, tray precariously held in the other hand. A good helping of food down his front would certainly help to dissuade him.

  Still he came inexorably onwards, methodically working his way along, inspecting every student he passed. Seiya ducked down until her head hovered only inches above her plate, hoping that those seated opposite would block her from view; if she got up now she would only draw attention to herself.

  ‘What are you doing now?’ Amaran demanded irritably. He had stopped eating and was frowning as he watched her attempts to shovel food in faster than she could swallow. Seiya knew it was only a matter of time before the Master spotted her but it was hard to eat quickly bending over the table, hopefully it wouldn’t give her bad indigestion.

  ‘That Master is meant to be giving her level five lessons,’ seeing she wasn’t going to waste any valuable eating time Felix answered for her, pointing towards the instructor in such an obvious way Seiya cringed inside. He didn’t notice though and was thankfully still looking the other way when Amaran, Jamen and Tooks all turned around to stare.

  ‘So you won’t be joining us this afternoon?’ Amaran’s brows almost met as his frown deepened, obviously the only thing worse than her being dumped into their class was attending it part-time. She supposed from his point of view that would be rather insulting. Seiya shook her head and swallowed, gulping water as the food lodged in her throat through lack of chewing.

  ‘Lunch, dinner, evening, night,’ she said quickly before her next mouthful. It would be only a matter of seconds now, he could hardly fail to notice her with all the others sat on the table continuously turning to stare.

  ‘During lunch and dinner?’ Tooks asked incredulously as she nodded. ‘But when will you eat?’

  ‘I would imagine that’s the point,’ Amaran drawled and Seiya looked up sharply to see he was smiling. Trust him to find the situation amusing, the others didn’t seem to know whether to take his comment seriously or not.

  ‘Are you Seiya?’ a voice behind demanded irritably. ‘You were meant to wait for me after your lesson.’ Ramming in the final mouthful Seiya reluctantly turned to face the man standing behind her, oozing disapproval.

  ‘Sorry,’ she forced him to wait while she finished chewing, ‘I thought you would be coming to my room this evening.’ Hearing her own poor phrasing she couldn’t stop the involuntary smile, though the Master didn’t seem to notice anything wrong with her choice of words. Tooks and Felix had suddenly found their food incredibly interesting, though she could feel Felix shaking with suppressed laughter next to her. Havir was bit more restrained, a tiny smile twitching the corners of his mouth. Jamen’s face seemed fixed in a permanent scowl whenever he was around her but Amaran at least seemed mildly amused. Though she wasn’t certain if the raised eyebrow was for her inadvertently propositioning the Master or the way she had blatantly lied.

  ‘No,’ the Master replied firmly with no hint of humour, ‘I will be teaching you through lunch and I will be at your lesson to collect you before dinner.’

  ‘There’s no point in starting now,’ Seiya pointed out, she was fairly sure they were nearly half way through lunch, by the time they started-

  ‘You will waste no more time.’ The
Master’s annoyed reply instantly dashed any hopes Seiya had of escaping. ‘Come on,’ he spun on his heel and walked back towards the hall entrance. Seiya sighed as she watched him go, wondering what he would do if she slipped away in the crowd.

  ‘I wouldn’t aggravate him any further,’ she looked at Amaran suspiciously, irritated he had known what she was planning. ‘If you hurry he may not even report to the Council you were being wilfully disruptive.’ Seiya bit down on an angry retort, what did Amaran know about her run-in with the Council? Though she supposed Youally’s comments had probably been enough for him to make some educated guesses, the way he was smiling gave her the impression he was enjoying seeing her forced to do things against her will.

  Grabbing her tray she pushed her way over to the side of the hall taking as much time as she dared piling her plate, tray and cutlery in their respective places, ready for washing. The Master was already standing impatiently at the doorway but it was hard working against the flow of students coming in; lunch had barely started so no one was leaving. She was going the wrong way in a one-way system and hungry people pushed harder.

  ‘What’s your name?’ Seiya asked as she finally made it, no longer caring if she sounded rude.

  ‘Master Demar,’ he answered after a pause. ‘But you will address me as Master.’ He turned and strode off down the corridor so quickly he didn’t see Seiya’s jaw drop in amazement. None of her other instructors had insisted on such ridiculous nonsense. She followed after him grimly, she couldn’t afford to keep causing trouble or Amaran was right, the Council would take action. But one thing was certain, she and Demar were not going to get on.

  It was Seiya’s private opinion that sometimes short men reacted badly to their lack of height, though Gorbacov was certainly a welcome exception. Some were louder or more aggressive, forcing you to notice them; others would exploit any tiny amount of power they had over other to ensure people to make their mark. Demar was the latter, his eyes were only level with Seiya’s shoulders and everything about him yelled stocky, stubborn and thick-headed. His jaw was so square Seiya could hardly believe it was natural and the man appeared to have no neck, his head just spreading and merging into his shoulders.

  ‘Do it again,’ the flat and monotonous voice interrupted her summoning for what must have been the fifth time at least. Seiya gritted her teeth against the screaming frustration that threatened to erupt.

  ‘I promise you it works perfectly well,’ she ground out, ‘Master Gorbacov never had a problem with it.’

  ‘Full pattern visualisation isn’t practised until level six, if at all.’ Demar seemed able to repeat himself infinitely without hearing his own stupidity. ‘You are in a level five lesson and must weave the gateway-’

  ‘Why would I take time doing that when it can just appear!’ Seiya tried to lower her raised voice, shouting at him would only make matters worse. Five times she’d tried to summon and on each occasion there had been something wrong in the ritual. The lines were woven in the wrong order, the incantation hadn’t been spoken at an exact speed so specific parts matched with certain points of the weaving process; the whole thing was insane. Each time she pointed out that her summonings had worked fine up until now, but no, Demar insisted she do it properly, or to be more precise, as he wanted.

  ‘What was wrong this time?’ Seiya grated, telling herself to remain calm however ridiculous the answer.

  ‘Your points were not equi-distant.’

  ‘That’s because I’m used to seeing the pattern as a whole, not building it piece by piece.’

  ‘You can’t do that until level six,’ Demar insisted stubbornly.

  ‘It’s not taught until level six!’ This time Seiya did shout, the grip on her temper slipping away, ‘which means it’s a better but more difficult technique. Why would you care if I made things harder? Why would I start doing something that takes longer and is less reliable?’

  ‘This is a level five lesson,’ Seiya wondered if the Council would feel smashing her own head open on the stone floor would count as “wilfully disruptive”. ‘You will not use more advanced techniques.’

  ‘But what you’re insisting on isn’t even necessary.’ Seiya spoke slowly and deliberately, as if to child struggling to understand. The whole charade was so pointless she was starting to feel that continuing to argue with the man was some strange form of masochism. ‘Each of those gateways would have worked, you don’t need to do it at a set speed or order-’

  ‘It is the correct way,’ Demar interrupted her, ‘I will not let you complete the summoning unless the ritual is correct.’

  Groaning inwardly Seiya could feel she was losing the will to fight. She had no idea where the Council had dragged this man from but he was certainly no teacher, never would he have been inflicted on normal students. Their intent was unmistakable, even if their motivation remained a mystery, she would never make it through level five.

  Chapter Fifteen

  ‘How did it go?’ Felix called out as she rejoined the group. Demar had escorted her back to the level six class, assuring her he would be returning to collect her before dinner. Seiya hadn’t trusted herself to reply, by the end of lunch she had still failed to weave a summoning gateway to his satisfaction.

  It didn’t seem a good idea now either, not with Amaran casually listening in. She gave a non-committal shrug and Felix grinned sympathetically, ‘that bad was it?’ She was saved from expanding further by Paudry calling the class to attention.

  ‘Now then, Amaran has suggested working with wild demons. He feels a refresher is a good idea since none of you will have called them since level four and I completely agree. Since we now have an even number,’ he nodded towards Seiya, ‘you can all pair up, the level of wild summoning will be decided in the pairs depending on what you’re comfortable with; however you will be going one group at a time and I expect the rest of you to be ready to summon if any get loose. Is that understood?’

  Seiya knew the rest of the class was happily nodding away but she wasn’t even listening to Paudry. Amaran had been staring at her the whole time to gauge her reaction, this idea had to be aimed at her.

  ‘I’ll pair with Seiya,’ Amaran’s voice easily carried across the group. Paudry looked surprised, as did the other students. Seiya didn’t miss the mocking tone or the chilling smile as Amaran continued to stare at her.

  ‘How about rank twelve?’ Even though Seiya had prepared for something high this knocked her back; the equivalent of a normal rank thirteen, the highest recognised. She looked over at Paudry, surely he would intervene? Following the pattern from all the other levels the rank twelves should be used in the exam.

  ‘Surely rank twelve is for the exam?’ Seiya was forced to speak up when Paudry remained quiet. She could hear the others talking among themselves, surely the fact they were shocked as well was a good sign?

  ‘Level six doesn’t work that way,’ she tried to ignore Amaran’s condescending tone. ‘We can summon as high a level as we want, so long as a Master supervises.’

  ‘What about the exam?’

  ‘There is no exam.’

  ‘Wh-’ Seiya abruptly cut off, now she understood the Council’s plans with Demar. Youally had said she’d have to pass level five to be a full summoner and be allowed to leave but Demar would never pass her; assuming the level five followed the same format as one through three where the Master had assessed their own students. If there was no level six exam then she couldn’t use that as an alternative measure to escape, effectively trapping her at the school indefinitely.

  ‘Make it a rank eleven,’ Paudry compromised. From Amaran’s triumphant expression Seiya knew this was what he had been aiming for all along. A fresh wave of nausea added to her already strained nerves, the immediate challenge giving her no time to deal with her spiralling emotions now she truly appreciated her situation. Though it was hardly a welcome distraction, her stomach flipping at the significance of what she was being asked. Even with her limited knowledge m
ultiplying the difference between rank seven and eight to bridge the huge divide separating eight and eleven it was obvious she would be summoning a demon nearly twice as powerful, and that was without taking the increasing gaps between ranks into account. Seiya steeled herself to meet Amaran’s gaze, every logical part of her brain called for retreat, instinctively quailing from the ludicrous demand. How could he be so confident in safely summoning a rank eleven wild demon? There was no uncertainty in his face, either he was supremely arrogant or he’d been practising summoning through the ranks, working his way from nine to eleven.

  ‘Seiya?’ she hadn’t noticed Paudry calling her name. ‘Are you agreeing to this?’

  A leading question, would refusal still count as being uncooperative? After all it was Amaran’s suggestion, not Paudry’s. Could she ask for a lower rank? She looked across at Amaran, his look of utter contempt stinging her like a slap to the face.

  ‘Just a moment,’ Seiya called out, striding purposefully to where Amaran was standing.

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ she asked softly, they were far enough away the others couldn’t hear.

  ‘To find out what you really are,’ his voice was equally low but the vehemence left her stunned. ‘One moment you’re so weak you can only summon the demons by letting them do what they want; the next you’re controlling a rank eight wild whilst summoning another demon.’

  ‘How do you know about that?’ Seiya was shocked, as far as she was aware the Council was keeping it secret.

  ‘I sit in on the Council, it was infuriating seeing how powerful they thought you were holding two bound demons. Of course we both know that’s not the case.’

  ‘I never told you I was weak,’ Seiya deliberately avoided answering the question, distracted trying to think of a reason why a student would be present at Council meetings. ‘You just assumed.’