The Summoning

by Robert Wingfield

  “One or the other?”

  “If you want to wake her, one of the items will work. The other will arouse everyone, be it through the noise of the clarion or the sound of steel, calling to arms.”

  “A choice between life and death,” mused Ankerita. “And these people are all pending judgement? I assume that normal folks would not be held here, so we are in the company of very bad people?”

  “You search for treasure. There will always be risks.”

  “I’ll do it.” Jo looked thoughtful. “I suppose the horn might waken Genet, but again, it might wake everyone else too.”

  “Yes,” agreed Ankerita. “I don’t want to meet my dear friend Praed again, especially here, where we have no protection at all.”

  “But the sword might call them to arms,” continued Jo. “Which to choose? It’s like fifty-fifty, so I’m going to risk the horn. I’ll blow it quietly in her ear.”

  Ankerita glanced at the old man. His face was split in a sneaky leer. “Jo, wait,” she said. “Put them back on the slab, I think I might know the answer.” She bent over to gaze at Genet’s sleeping face, took her shoulders and shook her. Nothing happened. “Right.” She gave the witch a resounding slap on the cheek. “Wake up bitch.”

  Genet gave a cry and sat up. “Fie!”

  The old man cursed, and scampered away, a lot more sprightly than he looked. Ankerita let out a sign of relief.

  “The others haven’t moved.”

  “Nice one, Kid,” said Jo. “I didn’t think of that.”

  “It was a trick of course. Both the items would have aroused the horde. I seem to remember reading about it in ancient mythology.”

  “My lady.” Genet swung her legs off the tomb and slipped to the ground. “You have found me at last. I thought you’d never do it, despite all the clues.”

  “Clues,” accused Jo. “You were sending us to Edinburgh. This is miles away.”

  “I didn’t know where I was. I’m an enchantress, not a festering cartographer. These places all look the same. How was I to know?”

  “We have found you.” Ankerita put her hand on her shoulder. “I’ve kept my side of the bargain. You owe me. Now, tell me how to properly read the Book, and where is this treasure?”

  “Let’s go somewhere more comfortable first.” Genet took a deep breath. “Have you brought Liber Manes with you?”

  “Of course.”

  “And I’ve got a score to settle with the Mynde, who put me here in the first place.” Genet rubbed her hands.

  “Sorry,” said Ankerita, “but I think you’ll find they died out long ago. There is nobody around today with that name.”

  “Curse them,” said Genet. “How long has it been?”

  “Don’t you know?”

  “Time and place are nothing when one is between worlds. Waiting could be a few minutes or...”

  “Five-hundred years,” said Ankerita.

  “God’s teeth! It is no surprise that the enemy has departed from the door. I will not have my justice.”

  “Probably best to leave it,” agreed Ankerita. “So, I need you to help with the spell to cure my friend here.”

  “What?” Jo started. “I’m sorry, I was feeling so sleepy.”

  “We should leave this place,” said Genet. “The slumber will return upon us if we do not get out. Is there somewhere warmer? I’m miserable cold.”

  “This looks like the courtyard of the castle,” said Ankerita. “I’m wondering if we go through this door here, we’ll get to where we started. Get the Earl to send us back.”

  In the Great Hall, there was no sign of the knight, but the fire still burned. Genet warmed her hands gratefully. “Bloody stone slab,” she said. “Why was I there, when everyone else had a cosy floor to lie on?”

  “No idea,” replied Ankerita, “unless it was something to do with the spell. What was that about?”

  “The custodian was trying to trick you.” Genet shrugged. “Using either of the items beside me would have woken everyone up, and you’d have both been trapped there until judgement was called. It could be forever.”

  “A bit like the US taxation service,” said Jo. “I worked in the States for six months, and they took years to refund the tax I shouldn’t have paid. We’d never have got away.”

  The other two shook their heads.

  “Sorry,” said Jo. “By the way, why aren’t you talking in some old language, if you are from the Middle Ages?”

  Genet scowled. “I might have been in here for that long, but I have listened and watched, and adapt my speech for this new era. Do you want me to revert?”

  “Only asking.” Jo backed off.

  “Then let me see the tome.” Genet settled on the bench nearest to the fire. The others joined her. Ankerita fished in her bag, brought the book out and passed it over.

  The witch flicked through the pages. “This is the one we want.” She pointed at a specific section.

  “I thought so,” said Ankerita, “but I understand nothing.”

  “Look again.”

  “Ah.” As Ankerita stared at the parchment, the marks and symbols all came together. The writing began to make sense. There was a pentagram and colours and writing, the full setup and main chant of the spell. “I see. Yes, this should do perfectly,” she said. “The items though. How will I find the items?”

  “They are the Treasures you have been seeking. We only need five, and you have those already.”

  “I only count four, and to place them at the points of the drawing is not simple; one is a motor car. How do we get that into the location?”

  “Tricky. I think, though, that once the planets align, we will manage. Look.” Genet indicated a list: “Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury; each corresponds to a point of a pentacle. Once in the right place in the night sky, the magic will run itself, as it did on the fateful night of your death.”

  “Five hundred years ago.” Ankerita put her finger on a line of text. “It says here that now is one when full alignment happens. If we miss that, how long do I have to wait?”

  “Another five hundred.”

  “One chance. I cannot miss it. There are three opportunities this year. The dates are here. We’ve missed the first one already. The next conjunction comes in the summer.” She lowered her voice. “Has Jo got that long?”

  “I’ll bloody make sure I have,” said Jo. “You’ve not been through all this, only for me to, like, keel over on you before you do your mumblings.”

  “That’s settled.” Ankerita shut the book with a snap. “Are we finished here?”

  “I should think so.”

  “Do we need to go through all those tunnels to return to actual time?” asked Jo.

  Genet smiled. “No need; we simply go out through the front gate, the portal, and that will return us to your own world. I can join you, now I am released.”

  “Of course,” said Ankerita. “How does it feel to be coming home at last?”

  “It’s strange in this new era,” the witch mused, “but I’m sure I’ll manage. I expect there is ever a need for proper healers and enchantments, these days.”

  “Too bloody right,” said Jo with feeling.

  Passing through the main castle gatehouse, the three girls stood beyond the walls. Genet went forward into the sunshine and stretched her arms out. “It feels wonderful,” she shouted. “Come on, the weather is gorgeous.”

  “But it was cold and rainy and dark when we came in.” Jo blinked in the new light.

  “I thought it was,” said Ankerita, “but look, it’s sunny, and there are leaves on the trees. What’s going on?”

  “I should have thought to warn you,” said the witch. “As I mentioned, Time goes a lot quicker for the rest of the world, compared with Kathartirion. I think you’ll find some weeks have passed.”

  The girls followed her out into the warmth. Jo’s phone bleeped. She stared at it. “My God,” she said.
“We were only in there a few hours. According to this, we’ve missed over four months.” She gave a cry. “Hell, the pain’s back! It’s worse than ever. I...”

  She folded up in agony.

  “What’s happened?” Ankerita stood bewildered, staring helplessly, as her friend writhed on the ground.

  “All the life force that Brother Francis gave her must have been used up during the time we’ve lost,” said Genet. “She’s dying as the disease takes her again. I hoped it wouldn’t happen, but while Jo was in Kathartirion, she was fine, and could have spent years there, albeit asleep. The moment she came out, that time would have caught up.”

  “You mean if I waited any longer, I might have been older than my normal life would allow, and dropped dead on the spot.” Jo spoke painfully. Ankerita kneeled down beside her, trying to make her comfortable.

  “Yes, it looks like it,” said Genet. “It would be worse for me of course; I’ve been there a lot longer.”

  “How are you still alive?” Ankerita looked up at the witch.

  “My necklace, it’s the Halter of Clydno Eiddin,” said Genet, “and the last piece you require. Look.” She pointed towards the horizon. “See that star. That’s Jupiter; the others have yet to rise. When the five planets are in conjunction, we must perform the ritual. We use this band as the missing point of the pentacle. I had hoped it would not be needed, but there is now no time to track down any of the other treasures.”

  “And that will rekindle your life, and we can save Jo?”

  “No.” Genet shook her head and her hair whirled in a cloud. “If I take it off to complete the spell, I could revert to my true age,” she said. “It might kill me where I stand.”

  “That is not an answer,” said Ankerita. “Go back into Kathartirion. Give me the necklace, and I’ll find another way to rescue you. I’ll do the spell on my own, Once I’ve healed Jo, I will find you again, and release you. I give you my solemn oath.”

  “But I’ve waited so long to return.” Genet stretched her arms towards the setting sun again. “It feels so good.”

  “Can you live with this life on your conscience? Hasn’t everything we’ve done been for my friend?”

  “It was to free me, so that I could help you,” said Genet. “The rite of the Forgotten Path is dangerous for one untrained. You might save Jo, but you could lose your own life if you are not especially careful.”

  Ankerita cradled Jo’s head, and stared at the witch. “Can you save ordinary people from death? No, I can see from your face that you can’t. I will risk it. Lend Jo your necklace, and you wait in Kathartirion until later.”

  “You may manage, if you follow the Book to the letter,” said Genet. “If I give you the artefact, you can perform the necessary enchantment. Follow the instructions, and if nothing goes wrong...”

  “You’ll wait a bit longer for me to find you again?”

  “I can’t see another answer,” said Genet sadly. “At least I’ll be asleep.”

  “Are you sure you can get through the portal?”

  “No.” The witch sighed, “but you should take the necklace. I suppose I owe it to you, after everything you’ve been through.”

  “What we’ll do is find the border between the two worlds,” said Ankerita. “You get right up to it and hand over the necklace a moment before you go in. That should work.”

  “I can’t see another way.” Genet walked up the castle gateway. A shimmering curtain of light seemed to obscure the inner courtyard. “This is it,” she said. “Take the trinket, and good luck. Here.” She unclipped it from her neck and held it out. Ankerita grabbed it, and dashed to the unconscious Jo.

  “We will meet again.” Genet pushed at the curtain, and then again, more forcefully. She did not disappear. “It’s not working,” she wailed. “It’s not letting me in.”

  “Quick,” said Ankerita, “have the necklace back.” The two young women raced towards each other. Genet reached out and gripped the chain, but it passed through her hand, and fell to the ground. The witch was gone. A cloud of dust drifted away on the light breeze.

  Ankerita stared in bewilderment, and gave a cry of dismay, as she remembered Jo. She scooped up the necklace and sprinted back to where her friend was lying. She fumbled the clasp around her friend’s neck.

  Jo rolled on to her back. “Oh my God, that was, like, awful. I’d forgotten how painful it was. This must be the right treasure? I should thank the witch.” Jo looked around blankly. “Where is she?”

  “Genet gave her own life to pass it on to you,” said Ankerita, her eyes filling with tears. “We’re on our own.”

  24. Necromancer

  J

  o settled into the passenger’s seat. “What you’re telling me is that we’ve been away for like nearly six months and the car is still here?” She patted the dashboard “Good little car. I still don’t believe it, though.”

  “It’s the Chariot,” said Ankerita simply. “It has powers.”

  “To be parked here for all that time, without being noticed?”

  “I expect nobody could see it, or something.” Ankerita lightly dismissed the subject, and opened the Book of Ghosts on her knee. She flicked through the pages. “This is it.” She pointed to a section halfway though. “Genet said I would be able to read the spell we wanted. We have to invoke a process called ‘The Summoning’.”

  Jo looked at where Ankerita was indicating. The writing was in an ancient script, runes from long ago, but as she stared, the words formed into something she could read. “The spell seems to be in the form of a song.”

  “The link is between music and magic.”

  Jo read the spell through. At the end of the page was a warning. “To petition the Summoning is a fateful risk; if it goes awry, the singer will have her life drained.”

  “It says ‘her’. How does it know?”

  “The book interprets for you.”

  “Or it’s because it belonged to Genet.”

  Ankerita smiled. “No, if I’d been a man, you’d have seen the word ‘he’, and if someone important had been planning the spell, it would have been their name; a warning that we should be on our guard.”

  “You’re going to risk your life for me?”

  “That’s what I do,” said Ankerita simply. “No risk really. I’ll be fine if I do everything right.”

  “I’d do the same for you, you know.”

  “I know, but it wouldn’t make a difference to me if you didn’t.”

  “I really would though. Do you think the spell will work?”

  “We’re going to do it, anyway.”

  “Where to start?” Jo regarded the castle. “In there?”

  “It has to be nearest to where I was buried, the abbey. And it has to be tonight, because the planets are coming into perfect alignment, as they were on that day.” Ankerita pointed to the evening sky. “Look, you can see Mars now. That’s two already.”

  “But the abbey is miles away,” said Jo. “The sun’s nearly down. We’ll never make it.”

  “I’ll drive us,” said Ankerita, firmly. “The Chariot will get us there.”

  The main gate to the castle grounds was open, and small groups of people glared at the old red car, as it forced them off the track. Ankerita concentrated on avoiding potholes, but Jo shouted apologies through the window.

  “It’ll have to be main roads,” said the driver, as she brought the car on to the lanes outside the castle. “You look after the directions. Head for the motorway.”

  “But won’t that bitch track you down if we use it?”

  “Probably, but there’s only one chance. Ready?”

  “Yup. Take a right down here and then like straight on until we hit the main road.”

  “Which way?” Ankerita brought the Escort up to a roundabout over a busy dual carriageway.

  “First exit,” said Jo, “and then we are on big roads for most of the rest of the journey. By the way, you’
ll need to put the lights on. That switch there.”

  “Hang on.”

  Ankerita pushed her foot down on the accelerator and the car leapt forward. The speed built up.

  “Be careful,” said Jo. “There is a 70 limit on these roads.”

  “Haven’t got that much time.” Ankerita went faster.

  “But the cameras...”

  “I don’t exist, remember,” said her friend, “and nor does this car. How are they going to track us?”

  “They will see my face,” wailed Jo. “I’ll get the fines and the bans and everything else.”

  “There’s a scarf on the back seat, and sunglasses in the compartment in front of you. Disguise yourself.”

  “Oh, yeah, right.”

  In a private hospital bed, Fantasia pulled herself weakly upright. Her tablet computer was bleeping frantically. She typed in a code, and locked into the feed from one of the traffic cameras. She saw a blur as a car went past it so fast that the speed did not register. Despite that, the familiar aura that accompanied it galvanised her into action. She made a call.

  “Mr Felucca, bring the limo. I’m discharging myself.”

  “Yes, Ma’am. Where are we going?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ve got her again.”

  “The anchoress”

  “Who else?”

  “But I thought she’d disappeared. It’s been months.”

  “Yes, it has.”

  “But are you fit enough to travel, Ma’am?”

  “Get Halliday out of his bed. I’m very weak and might not be able to continue because of this accursed wound, but I’m damn well going to make sure I finish her off first. I can’t do the ritual, so make sure you have your hardware. Perhaps her blood will be enough to cure me.”

  “Seriously Ma’am?”

  “I mean it. This could be my last trip out. I want to make it count.”

  “As you wish. I hope you are wrong about the injury.”

  “I wish I was, Mr Felucca, I really wish I was.”

  “Roadworks!” Jo gave a cry of dismay. “Another pointless diversion. We have to leave at the next exit.”