The Summoning (Custodes Noctis)

by Muffy Morrigan

  His room was quiet, this late at night there was very little traffic on Sixth Avenue and their bedrooms faced the parking area behind the shop rather than the street. Rob made sure the window was open enough for Dor to get in if he wanted to and laid down. He focused on his breathing trying to enter an “aware” dream state, as Billy had suggested, but he'd been up too long and before he managed to take his third breath he was asleep.

  He was trapped in the dark, silent tomb, unable to breathe, every nerve in his body was screaming in terror, but he couldn't fight free of the place. It was death, but unlike the other death he'd known, instead of fighting it, he tried to sink into it. And suddenly he was through.

  A dark landscape opened in front of him, rolling hills, and the scent of dust and dried grass was all around. The sweep of land had a dark path running through it, Rob stopped in shock when he realized that the path was bathed in an odd shine. He was seeing with his Gift, and the trail with its oily dark shine led along the hills towards a deep slash in the land. Bending down, he laid a hand on the ground. The path was pulsing, a slow, slow beat and as he stepped onto it, the entire world around him shivered. At the edge of his awareness, he thought he could hear a sound grating through the air. For an instant he thought he could hear his name being called. After waiting for a moment, he continued on.

  “Rob!” He was physically yanked back and slammed against something hard. “Rob!” This time the word was accompanied by a hard shake.

  “What?” Rob muttered, opening his eyes to glare at his brother, then feeling his breath catch in surprise. He was in the main room of the apartment at the top of the stairs. “How'd I get here?”

  “You tell me,” Galen said, stepping back. His dark green eyes were flashing with a combination of anger and fear. “You damn near went down the stairs. I caught you just in time.”

  “Huh?” Rob was completely disoriented, still caught partially on that path. When he looked down, he could see it shimmering at his feet, black oil running down the stairs.

  “You almost went down the stairs,” Galen repeated and pulled him, none too gently, across the living room and shoved him into a chair. “Want to tell me why?”

  “Why?” Rob felt lost.

  Galen frowned, his eyes narrowing. “What has you?” he asked, more to himself than Rob. He laid a hand over Rob's heart and one on his head in the Traditional healer's touch and the next moment Rob was flooded with the white light of the healing. It blasted the dream and confusion away. “Are you with me now?” Galen peered into his eyes.

  “I...” Rob looked around. “I'm in the living room.”

  “We covered that.”

  “What happened?” Rob remembered the dream, the path and following it.

  “I heard a noise and got up, lucky for you I did, because you were about to take a swan dive down the stairs.”

  “There weren't stairs in the dream,” Rob said.

  “You don't sleepwalk either, but you were, and those are stairs.” Galen emphasized his point with a sweeping hand gesture towards the other side of the room. “Falling down them would kill him,” he said firmly, as if he were talking to something else.

  “Who are you talking to?”

  “Whoever the hell it is who is messing with your dreams. I thought they should know!” Galen paced away.

  Rob watched him. His brother wasn't usually quick to anger, so this reaction seemed a little off. He wasn't sure why, but something was worrying. There was a line of tension in Galen's back that spoke of a man going into battle, not someone standing in his home. That's what it was. His brother was already preparing for battle. He knew Galen was worried, the ravens were too. The four of them had talked during dinner, and Dera and Dor had passed along the concerns of the Hunt. That was worrying. Considering most things ran in fear from the Hunt, and they had defeated the armies of the feorhbealu, the fact they were worried was more than a little scary.

  Without realizing it, Rob drifted back into sleep. One minute he was in the living room, watching Galen pace, the next he was back in that landscape, the dark path in front of him.

  “Is someone here?” he asked, trying to take control of the dream.

  “Come to me.”

  Rob wasn't sure if he heard the voice or if it was more a compulsion, something tugging at him, pulling him along the path. There were other sounds, now that he paused to listen—sounds of the night, the rustle of some creature through the grass, the cry of an owl, a shrill sound that he was unsure of, some night predator, maybe one that didn't walk his world but only this one.

  “Where are you?” He tried again.

  “Come to me.”

  Were they words? He still wasn't sure. The message was clear, he understood it, but he wasn't quite sure how. The path seemed to stretch forever, idly he wondered how long the journey would take. Dream time was different than waking time, and what seemed like hours in one could be an instant in the other. The oily black glow of the path bothered him, it shone with power, but it wasn't the quicksilver light he remembered surrounding Galen, or the supernova of color around Stephen Blake, a member of the fae. This black glow was that of Darkness.

  “Come to me.”

  Rob tried to hurry, tried to follow that call, when suddenly, in a brief instant of shining pain, everything went black.

  There was a weight on his chest when Rob woke. He stared up at the slow sweep of the ceiling fan for several minutes, trying to figure out what had happened. The voice had called him, then what? The weight on his chest moved and the next moment, Dor was peering into his eyes, one foot resting gently on his chin.

  “How do you feel?” Dor asked softly, concern in his deep bass voice.

  “I'm... not sure.” He shifted to indicate he wanted to sit up and the raven hopped off him and sat on the table beside the bed, still focused on him. “Why are you here? Shouldn't you be destroying Flash's car or something?”

  “I serve My King,” Dor chided.

  “Oh.” Rob felt a blush creep up his cheeks. “Sorry.”

  “Yes, Galen called, we have watched since his call.”

  “I'm going to take a shower.” Rob stood, still trying to piece together what had happened. He'd been dreaming, then nothing.

  “Good.”

  When Rob went to close the door to the bathroom, Dor hopped in and sat on the sink. “I don't need a babysitter.”

  “We disagree.”

  Rob sighed. He wasn't going to win that argument, so he turned on the shower to let the steam heat the small room, then stepped under the spray, hissing when the water hit a sore spot. Looking down, he noticed a bruise on his thigh that hadn't been there the day before. What had happened? He closed his eyes, recalling the dream, and its abrupt end. Galen. It had to be Galen. Custodes Noctis could ease people into sleep to prevent shock on the battlefield, and healers' abilities were even more finely tuned. Galen's Gifts were a step above that, among other things he could use the healing like a weapon, and Rob suspected it was something like that which had happened to him. That would explain the faintly nagging headache.

  The scent of coffee was filling the apartment when he opened the door, and he could hear Galen singing, his baritone pure and strong. Rob stopped to listen, easily translating the Latin, so when he walked into the room, he wasn't surprised to see candles burning on one of the shelves or several bags with small charms hanging from them on the windowsills, marking the boundary of a protective wall. He slipped past his brother, poured himself a cup of coffee and looked in the refrigerator. There was a container of leftovers from Flash, he pulled them out and set them on the counter for Dor, then leaned back and waited for Galen to finish.

  Listening to the words of the spell, he wondered what prompted it. From what he could tell, it was a Bolting spell, creating a protective wall—but the apartment and shop were already protected. Generations of Emrys Custodes Noctis had been building on the wall. When Rob had returned home. he'd added a few less common protections and Galen had
added his own stamp, which was more than all the others combined. His brother denied it regularly, but Rob knew—had even seen—that his brother had power. Galen had torn down the Veil between the worlds and allowed their motley army through to help the Hunt fight the feorhbealu on the fields of the Between World.

  When he finished, Galen went and got himself a cup of coffee, silent for a moment. “How do you feel?” he asked, turning to Rob.

  “I have a headache.”

  “You deserve a headache,” Galen growled. Dor coughed an agreement and from the top of the bookshelf Dera added a croak of his own.

  “What's going on?” Rob sat at the table. Dor hopped over and clung to the back of his chair. “That was a Bolting spell.”

  “Yes, it was. I have no idea if it's going to help, but I thought we should do something.”

  “The place is protected.”

  “Not well enough, apparently,” Galen snapped, then took a deep breath. “Sorry.” He dropped into the chair across from Rob.

  “I was dreaming again?”

  “If that's what you want to call it.” Galen looked at him. “You were... Sleepwalking all night. Scared the hell out of me.”

  “Oh.”

  “We put you back to bed, more than once. I couldn't sleep, so I was in the kitchen when you showed up again. You were bound and determined to get out of here!” Galen got up and paced over to the large plate glass window that overlooked the parking lot and garden. He stood with his back to Rob, leaning his forehead against the window for a long moment before turning back and sitting at the table again. “I decided I had to put you out before something happened.” There was something in the way he said it that led Rob to believe it was closer than his brother was letting on.

  “I guessed that.”

  “It was harder keeping you out than it should have been.” Galen stared into his cup. “I want to know what we're dealing with, Rob.”

  “I do too, I have no idea, Galen. I think it called me. I think it said 'come to me', only it was less words and more like a compulsion, like I was being summoned and had no choice.”

  “We don't like this,” Dor said.

  “No, we don't,” Galen agreed. “I asked Dad for help last night, because I was having such a hard time keeping you down, I thought a boost would help.”

  “Yeah?” Rob took a drink of coffee. He hadn't sensed his father's presence and usually he did. The elder Keepers had been killed years before, but Galen had called them back into service to face the Old One, and since then, his father and uncle “hung around haunting the place” as his uncle was fond of saying.

  “Yeah. There was a little problem, when I called Dad to help, and he tried to get here , he couldn't. Whatever is messing with you is also blocking him from getting to us. The First Emrys couldn't even come through. I tried. I was desperate enough to try the formal ritual of Calling, and they still couldn't get here. Whatever we are dealing with can stop that.”

  “Which is a very bad thing,” Dera said softly.

  “Very,” Dor agreed. “We are concerned.”

  “I'm not concerned, I'm terrified,” Galen said firmly. “I've done my best to cast something stronger around our home, but honestly, I don't think it's enough.”

  “No,” Rob said hesitantly. “I guess I don't get to go to Becci's?”

  “You don't get to leave the apartment. Not until we know what this thing is. Flash is coming over to play shopkeeper.”

  “We'll help!” Dera chuckled.

  “Help destroy his car?” Rob asked, taking the hint and trying to dispel the tension in the room.

  Rob could tell Galen was worried to the point of frantic, and he rarely got that way. One of the things he admired most about his brother was the focus that he brought into any situation. It wasn't really calm, though it might read that way to some people, it was more an intense focus. People often made the mistake that the soft-spoken shopkeeper and guitarist was not a fighter. It was a mistake they only made once. Galen's abilities were remarkable, and since Rob had lost his Gifts and their bond had become muted, they had worked on their fighting technique until they were smoother than many more seasoned Keepers. Rob tried to bring his Gift to bear—sometimes he could get a glimmer from it—and just for a moment he could see the dark wash of worry bordering on fear around Galen. The bond hummed, for an instant that reassuring comfort was there. Rob caught the edges of the exhaustion from his brother—the effort it took to keep even the small spark of the bond alive.

  “Come to me.” The words were suddenly there, blotting out everything else. Rob could still see Galen sitting across the table, but it was like he was seeing him through a dirty window or curtain. The landscape of his dream was slowly filling up the waking world. “Come to me.”

  “Rob!” Galen said, getting up.

  A sharp nip on his neck brought Rob back to the apartment. He blinked and turned to look accusingly at Dor. “Did you bite me?”

  “No.”

  “So that's not blood I feel running down my neck?”

  Galen had disappeared, he was back with a towel and bandages. “It's nothing serious,'” he said, swiping it with alcohol. “It shut down the bond, I couldn't reach you at all.”

  “But I...” Rob began.

  “Yeah, as soon as you forced your Gift, it was there, I felt it right before it shut me out.”

  “What was it?” Rob asked, watching his brother's face. “Galen?”

  “It felt like death.”

  “That's how my dreams were at first. Last night I tried to guide it, and for the first time, I saw more, a landscape, a path. I could see with my Gift there.”

  “Are you sure it was your Gift?”

  “It felt like it.” Rob sighed and got up. Galen tensed and both ravens rustled their wings. “Coffee. I am just getting coffee. Then I am going to walk over there,” he pointed at the table by the bookshelves, “and I am going to see if I can find out anything more.”

  “Hey!” The downstairs door banged open. “I'm here!” Flash stomped up the stairs and looked into the room. “I stopped by the stand. Becci said no one had been by this morning. She was worried.”

  “Rob's grounded,” Galen said, smiling.

  “Huh.” Flash carried a paper cup to Rob and handed it to him. “What'd you do?”

  “He tried to fly down the stairs.”

  “He what? You what?” Flash looked from Galen to Rob. “Right. So, things are worse than I thought. Okay. Right. Here's your mocha. I'll go open the shop. No flying down stairs,” he said to Rob. “And you two leave my car the hell alone.”

  “Who, us?” Dera said, cocking his head to the side. “You're helping today, the car is off limits.”

  “Yeah, well it fucking well better be.” Flash headed downstairs.

  “I didn't say anything else was,” Dera said, dropping off the shelf and flying down the stairs.

  “I'm going to see if I can track this down a little more, Galen, you can go downstairs.”

  His brother gave him a searching look. A crash sounded from below. “It wasn't anything important!” Flash called.

  “Okay, I'll be right back. Dor's going to keep an eye on you.”

  The raven nodded. Rob waited until Galen was gone before opening the book again. It was early to start in on the ancient text, sometimes it was harder to get his brain to switch on and read the older languages. It usually happened when he was tired. He grabbed the Latin translation of the work and looked at the passage, there was a word he was sure was wrong, so he dragged the modern work over as well, Barry had used the Latin and had the same word, Satan, and that wasn't right. Rob turned back to the original and stared at the vellum, carefully going through the entire page.

  “Come to me.” The page began to blur, the words becoming the oily black shimmering path. He tried to shake it off, but the harder he concentrated, the clearer the path became. Somewhere far away, he thought he heard the concerned call of a raven. The path bid him to follow, the lands
cape rolling towards a great cliff, he could see it clearly now. It was huge, dark against the rest of the surrounding hills, the scent of the land filled his senses. “Come to me.” There was no denying the summons. Rob could only answer.

  Pain suddenly cascaded through his body, jarring him, pulling him away from that dark land. Rob tried to struggle up through the pain, he could hear Galen shouting his name, but his brother's voice seemed to be coming from a distance. Something was running over his face, soft droplets of warmth. The harsh call of the ravens was there as well, and he could hear Flash's panicked swearing in the background.

  "Rob, what the hell?" Galen said from beside him.

  "Galen?" Rob asked, confused. He had no idea where he was, all he knew was pain, everywhere, there were sharp pains and a dull, throbbing ache. There was a small warmth of the healing easing through him, enough to stop what he thought might be the beginning of shock, but he could sense Galen was having trouble.

  "I'm going to put you out before I move you."

  "Move me? What happened?"

  "You went out the window, Rob." Galen's voice was completely calm. Warmth and the sound of a heartbeat filled Rob and he was carried away into a silent, soft darkness.

  Five

  Galen

  Galen hadn't seen it coming, had never suspected the attack to come in broad daylight. He felt a tiny something, he would never be sure what it was, but something buzzed through the bond, and he was moving towards the back of the shop at a full run before the sound of breaking glass shattered the silence of the Apothecary, cursing himself the whole time for leaving his brother at all.