Summoner 5

by Eric Vall

  Gawain frowned. He knew I was right, but I didn’t blame him for having the thirst to know more about what we were dealing with. There was still something we were missing.

  “What about the Shadowscape?” Ashla mentioned. “I’d never seen or heard of anything like that black hallway before.

  Gawain looked at her, then between Orenn and me. “What black hallway?”

  “When we were trying to find you, we were lured into a swirling sandpit by the angel’s song,” I explained. “When we sank into it, it spit us out into a hallway made entirely of black marble, and there was a door with the same writing as the ciphers in it.”

  “Go figure.” Gawain sighed. “What else?”

  I shook my head. “That’s it, really. We found a cipher in there, and the light alerted the guards we were there. The rest you know.”

  “The hallway,” he replied after a moment, “you only saw that hallway? No other rooms?”

  “That’s what I said,” I told him, and he stared down at the table with hard eyes.

  “There’s more to that hallway,” Gawain muttered, “like an entire palace.”

  The three of us looked at him as though he had grown two more heads.

  “What?” I asked in a bit of shock.

  “You heard me.” Gawain flashed a glance at me. “While I was on top of the mountain, I looked out to see if there was a way down that didn’t involve me having to traverse the caves inside. There was a large black palace at the base of the mountain made of marble that didn’t seem to have any ways in or out.”

  “So what you’re saying is the place where we found the cipher is a lot bigger than we thought?” Ashla clarified.

  Gawain nodded. “And the monsters were tenfold. You were lucky to have only gotten the three cyclopes. There were others out there that were much nastier monsters I don’t think we’re ready for.”

  “That’s no good.” I shared a look with Orenn and breathed heavily. “We were barely in a position to do anything about the cyclopes as it was.”

  “To be fair, we’d done a good deal of battling before them,” Orenn reasoned. “It’s no wonder they took such a toll on you.”

  I nodded. He had a fair point, but it was still best not to get too cocky. Ten times the monsters could have been too much, even for us.

  “So, in summation,” Ashla concluded with a frown, “we learned nothing from today.”

  “But we gained a cipher, and that was the mission we set out to do,” I reminded her. “We can cross the desert one off the list.”

  “We should report to Sleet,” Gawain suggested. “He’ll want to know we were successful and that we’ve acquired Vascarti.”

  I hesitated. Sleet said not to send word via owl, so how else were we supposed to get a message along to him?

  I snapped my fingers. “I’ll write Maelor and have him meet with Sleet to go over what we’ve found. I have a feeling we’re going to be here for a few days anyway while we regroup.”

  Orenn and Gawain nodded. They knew how risky it was to send correspondence directly to Sleet these days with the Council reviewing his every move with the utmost scrutiny, and I trusted Maelor with my life and then some. If there was anyone who could get the information to the Headmaster, it was him.

  “Until then,” Ashla started as she placed the bowl of hen broth on the table for me, “come eat.”

  My stomach rumbled as the aroma hit my nostrils. Man, oh man, was I looking forward to putting food in my stomach.

  The following day brought me good news as Doc came in with the healing herb he had been in search of. He said he had a few favors to cash in on, and he was able to get what he needed at no cost which was nice. It also meant that by this time tomorrow, I’d been ready to go again without fear of doubling over every time I laughed or did something that wasn’t lying or sitting completely still.

  While I was bedridden, I took the opportunity to write to Maelor. I made sure to sugarcoat the letter with a lot of unneeded exposition as to not overload it with information. In hindsight, I wondered if using a magically imbued pen that allowed only the addressed to see the contents would have been a better option. Sleet might have thought of that, though, so maybe the council had a way of reading through the magic I wasn’t aware of. Otherwise, he would have advised we write him via magic ink.

  This was good enough, though. If anyone got ahold of this letter, there was no way they would figure out it was supposed to be classified information meant for military eyes only. Maelor would understand, though, as he was once a military brat himself. He would understand the importance of keeping the letter to himself until he handed it off in private.

  I told them where we were, how we’d gotten there, and what we had learned. It was about all I could do other than wait for a response with advice on what to do next, which had quickly become a point of contention with my comrades.

  “We already found the cipher in our file,” Gawain argued to me. “What more do you want to do?”

  “You said yourself that you wanted to learn more about the ciphers and how everything was connected,” I countered. “I want to go back to Tietra and study Sterling’s books more. Maybe there’s something in the pages of an old, forgotten book that has the answers.”

  “Or maybe you’re just looking for an excuse not to go back to Varle,” he muttered.

  I rolled my eyes. “What reason do I have not to go back to Varle?”

  “Because you’re afraid of what the council might do to you if you do,” Gawain answered smugly.

  “Not true,” I stated. “I don’t give a damn what Miriam Sharpay or the rest of the council think of me. All I want is to find answers, and Varle doesn’t have them.”

  Gawain sighed. “Let’s just wait and see what the old man wants.”

  I nodded, and the argument ended for the moment. This had been going on and off all day, so I expected Gawain to bring it up again at some point just because he could.

  It wasn’t until later that evening that I felt like the medicine Doc gave me was working, so I dressed and found myself at the pub across the street. The atmosphere was much different in Balvaan. The colors were lighter, and the décor was more of a nautical theme as opposed to the dark wood and dim lights I was used to in places like these. It was still dim, honestly, but maybe it was the open water outside the window behind the bar that made this pub seem otherworldly.

  “What are you having?” the barkeep asked me as I slid into a seat at the bar.

  “Your best pale ale,” I answered.

  The barkeep nodded, but we were interrupted as soon as the words left my mouth. The doors flew open, and there were cries for help as people surrounded the exit. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but it sounded something like, ‘she needs help.’

  I quickly stood from my stool and made my way over to the door. As I fought through the crowd with a slight wince, I felt my heart hit the ground with a resounding thud.

  Short auburn hair that had grown out in the last year was wet and matted to a petite face with a button nose. Beneath her closed eyelids were large hazel eyes that always made me shiver whenever I looked deeply into them. The girl was short, likely only up to my shoulder when she was upright, and I knew her well.

  “Layla!”

  Chapter 13

  My elbows rested on my knees, and my foot bounced as I watched Layla sleep in my bed. She looked a mess, exhausted, pale, even in comparison to the white sheets. I frowned as I wiped a hand over my face and sighed heavily.

  And she’d been that way for the last four hours.

  “How in the world did you get here?” I asked for the hundredth time, but of course, she didn’t answer. She was a far cry off from Hartmire, her first stop on her own mission, and where was Nia? A million questions rattled in my brain, but my first and foremost concern was if she was going to be alright.

  “Gryff?” Ashla’s voice sounded from the door to our room, and I glanced at her tiredly as the moca-skinned woman be
ckoned to me.

  “Hey.” I stood and greeted her at the door, which she closed behind me.

  “You should eat,” she pressed as she smoothed back one of her dark braids.

  I waved her off, determined to get back to sitting beside Layla. “Not when she needs me. I’m sorry.”

  “You’re not being reasonable,” Ashla insisted. “You’re back to full health. It’s been a full day since you took Doc’s medicine, but you can’t keep healthy if you don’t make the effort.”

  “Don’t lecture me,” I snapped, then immediately rescinded. “I’m sorry. I’m--”

  “You’re worried,” she finished for me with a concerned smile. “I know, but you won’t be able to do her any good if you’re not well yourself.”

  I looked back at the door with a frown before I conceded and allowed Ashla to lead me downstairs to the lobby. Gawain and Drew were engrossed in conversation as we parked ourselves beside them, and Drew handed me a pale ale.

  “Set one aside for you when I heard you didn’t get to have one last night,” he informed me.

  “I appreciate it,” I chuckled as I took several long swigs and emptied the mug in seconds.

  “Where’s Orenn?” I asked Gawain.

  He blinked at me as though he had to think about it for a moment.

  “He went to see his family,” he finally answered. “He left earlier this afternoon, so I suspect either he’ll stay with them tonight or he’ll be back sometime later.”

  I nodded, and it was then I realized the maps and notes that were strewn about the small round table between us. I assumed Drew, who was Ashla’s right-hand man, and Gawain had been talking about the ciphers, and I was glad to see Gawain was capable of holding an adult conversation without being a twat or needing supervision. Then again, Drew could definitely handle himself if he needed to, I was sure. He didn’t strike me as the type to let Gawain walk all over him.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “Nothing, actually.” Gawain sighed. “We sat down with the intention of discussing the whereabouts of the other ciphers, but we never quite got started.”

  “Got distracted talking about something else related though.” Drew pointed to the opened book on top of the map.

  I picked it up and turned the binding over in my hands. It was a green book that was barely being held together, and the pages were thin, brittle. The lettering was embossed with silver on the cover.

  “Veld Schymir,” I read aloud. Where had I heard that name before? I racked my brain and then almost dropped the book in shock. He was in one of the portraits in the hallway at the inn in Wildren. He was the linguist!

  “This is one of the elders’ journals?” I asked incredulously. “Where in the world did you find something like this?”

  “Shhhh! Keep your voice down!” Drew shushed me. “It was sitting outside of the rift in Ortych Sands.”

  “What?” I was stunned. I knew we had been busy with battles, but who would have thought there was something so important in those sands, just lying about? It was strange, but it felt like a small victory for our cause to be holding something like this in my hands.

  “Flip through the pages,” Gawain encouraged. “I think you’ll find there are some things of interest in this journal.”

  I nodded and did as I was told. The page I was on talked about the ciphers and how the language was a forgotten ceremonial alphabet called Jeliko that dated back well over three hundred years ago. That knowledge in of itself was a huge breakthrough. Unfortunately, there was no key to which letters were represented by which symbol, and why would there be? If he were indeed a master linguist, then he wouldn’t need a key to read it. He would just know what each symbol meant and how it translated.

  I flipped the page to even more of a surprise. Drawn on the page were six symbols, all different, and all intricately designed. I recognized them as the guardian seals that were carved on the doors at the inn in Tietra. There were only six drawn here, though, and I definitely remembered Tem telling me there were twelve in total.

  “There are seals missing,” I commented, though it was more to myself than to anyone else. “Maybe these are the only ones that existed at the time he drew these.”

  “That would make sense,” Gawain agreed and looked over my shoulder. “The book is centuries old, after all.”

  Ashla came to sit close to my other side as she looked over my other shoulder. She examined the pages and took it upon herself to flip through several of them as she skimmed through and took in the information.

  “What does all of this mean, though?” she asked, and again, it was directed more toward herself, but Drew had an actual answer for her.

  “It means we have some things to talk about,” he replied tersely.

  Gawain and I looked between one another, and I had a hunch that maybe we shouldn’t be here for this conversation. This was a matter for the Wild Reds as they were the ones who found the journal, and they were also more diversified in what they wanted to accomplish. Gawain and I knew our goals. We moved to stand up and leave them to whatever it was they needed to discuss, but Drew stopped us.

  “Sit,” he demanded quietly. “You’re involved in this as well.”

  We both sat back down, but now we were uneasy and unsure of where this was going to go.

  “Is there a problem?” I asked slowly.

  Drew shook his head as he took a swig of what looked to be a stout. “No, not yet.”

  “What does that mean?” Gawain made a face. It seemed like whatever it was they were conversing over when Ashla and I walked up had nothing to do with what Drew was about to lay on us, as he seemed to be as bewildered by the situation as I was.

  “It means whether we like it or not,” he paused, and his eyes shifted to where I noted Karn and Joshua to be seated on the far side of the lobby, “we’re after the same thing, and I think it’s in our best interest to team up from here on out in regards to the ciphers.”

  I sighed heavily and looked to Gawain, who seemed to already be on the same page as I was.

  “It isn’t that we don’t want to help,” I started as I turned my attention back to Drew, “but we’re not in a position to make these decisions ourselves. We’re still students of the Academy in Varle. We aren’t at liberty to dispense any more information to you than we already have without authorization from Marangur Sleet, and in case you haven’t noticed, communications in and out of Varle have been sketchy. I need to write a letter to someone else who has to relay the information to Sleet about this mission. The people of the Council are watching his every move, so we can’t exactly go knocking on his door asking permission to share information with freelancers, no offense.”

  Drew sat back in the tall-backed armchair that looked like something a sea-farer would have in their quarters and crossed his arms. Clearly, this wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear, but I could tell it was the answer he had expected. He pinched the bridge of his nose as he collected his thoughts and chose his next words carefully.

  “I can’t make any final decisions, either,” he admitted and then looked to Ashla. “All I can do is put in the word of the others in the group as the second-in-command.”

  “Go on, then.” Ashla crossed her legs and eyed him cautiously. “What words have you from the men in our group?”

  Drew faltered, then sat up straighter. “Some of us are afraid you’re letting your heart drive your decisions in this situation and that you aren’t seeing things clearly.”

  Ashla blinked, but looked otherwise unaffected by the words Drew said.

  “Wait just a damn minute--” I intervened with a scowl, but Ashla put her hand on my shoulder and pushed me back gently.

  “Let him finish,” Ashla commanded, and though I wasn’t happy about having to sit here and listen to someone tell her she wasn’t fit to lead anymore, I obeyed.

  “Look, Doc, Zyg, and I are behind you. We aren’t just the Wild Reds. We’re your friends, your brothers,” Drew clarified. “
I will be the first to tell you I understand the severity of the situation. I’m an ex-military man myself from the Magstrife City Enclave. I had the pleasure of working with both Sleet and Gallahar Kenefick on occasion and don’t think for one second I don’t know you’re a Madox.”

  Drew eyed Gawain, and I could feel the heat that burned the back of my comrade’s neck. It hadn’t occurred to me that Gawain hadn’t introduced himself in full when we’d gotten to Wildren because I was out cold for days after we’d arrived. Was it possible Gawain was ashamed of his name?

  No, that couldn’t be right. He had no problem throwing it around with the guards at the gate in Varle, though maybe that had been because he knew he could get away with it. With this new information in mind, I was less defensive, and I sat back. I took a few deep breaths, then sat forward with my elbows on my knees once again.

  “So what are you proposing?” I asked Drew.

  The tanned man wrung his hands together and set his eyes hard on the maps and notes strewn about the table. Silence hung in the air, and tension started to rise.

  “I think it would be in our best interests to find another shield and banisher,” he suggested slowly. “Karn’s goals are no longer aligned with what we want to accomplish. All he cares about is the money and Joshua, and sometimes, I think the latter is only out of courtesy.”

  “That’s quite a stand.” Ashla took a shuddering breath. “Are you alone in this thinking?”

  Drew shook his head. “Doc is as loyal to you as any of us, and Zyg, despite his shortcomings and distractions, wants the same thing for the Wild Reds. He doesn’t want to sit back and let the world fall apart when he can do something about it.”

  I couldn’t help but smile a little. It was nice to hear there were members of the Wild Reds who still remained by Ashla’s side regardless of the goals of the group having shifted a little.

  “It’s true we’ve taken a step back from freelancing,” she admitted slowly, “and that might not sit well with others, but they don’t have to stay if that’s the case. They’re capable of making the decision to stay or go, and I will give them that choice without any hard feelings.”