Summoned

by C L Walker

  “I need you to find someone for me, when you’re done.” Phil was squirming but he managed to keep his shoulder still. “The bastard needs to pay for this.”

  “You know I want to help,” the doctor replied. “But you need to tell me what’s going on first. I don’t want to get caught up in something I can’t control.”

  “Just do what I ask. I’ll make sure you get paid.”

  The doctor stopped working and sat back on his stool. “I’m not going to help you unless you tell me what’s going on, man. I don’t want to do something that’s bad for my health.”

  Phil looked ready to punch the man, his teeth clenched and his eyes shooting a murderous glare. He glanced in my direction and I could see what he was thinking, what order he wanted to give me.

  Phil took a breath and closed his eyes. “Fine, Roman,” he said, though his tone said it was anything but.

  “Start with who the large guy in the holy robe is.”

  “Agmundr.”

  “Weird name,” the doctor – Roman – said as he leaned over and continued his work. “Sounds like old Norse. Maybe even older.”

  “Where are you from?” Phil said to me.

  “From a world that no longer exists,” I said, just loud enough for them to hear.

  “He’s a weird guy.” The doctor chuckled and raised his head from his work to look at me again. “You look familiar.”

  “I doubt it,” I replied.

  “No, there’s something about you…” He trailed off and I saw the moment he realized what Phil had brought into his house.

  “Yes,” I said as his eyes grew wider and his breath quickened. “That’s me.”

  “Agmundr,” Roman whispered. Sweat had broken out on his forehead. His head whipped round to Phil. “What did you do?”

  “He’s mine to do with as I please,” Phil said. I chuckled and he glared at me. “You shut up. I know how you work now.”

  “No, you don’t.” Roman stood and backed away from Phil. When he realized he was moving closer to me he changed direction and knocked over a short table. An empty glass bottle fell to the dirty carpet.

  “I don’t know what you’re getting so worked up about,” Phil said. He began to gesture with his wounded arm and grimaced at the flash of pain from his shoulder. When it passed he continued, keeping his movements to a minimum. “I told you I was looking for something like this. You gave me the leads.”

  “Not something like this,” Roman said. His eyes were wild, flying from me to Phil and back as though he was having a seizure. “Do you know what he is? What he’s done?”

  “No,” I replied for him. “Why don’t you tell him?”

  I was enjoying this too much; Roman’s fear was like nectar to my ego and there was a chance the witch doctor could get through to Phil where I hadn’t been able to. I had to suppress a smile for fear of sending the man running in terror.

  “I told you to shut up,” Phil snapped. I nodded and waited to see if my master paid any more attention to his doctor than to me.

  “He’s killed every person who has summoned him for ten thousand years,” Roman said breathlessly. “And their families, friends, slaves. Everyone associated with them.”

  He was wrong; I’d only killed the pitiful men who thought they could control me. Their associates and family weren’t to blame for their stupidity.

  Roman continued: “He’s uncontrollable and unstoppable, and you brought him into my house, man.”

  Phil shook his head, glaring at Roman. “Agmundr,” he said without looking at me. “Stand on one leg.”

  I lifted my right leg.

  “Agmundr,” he continued, “bash the back of your head against the door as hard as you can.”

  I felt the tattoos tracing their way along the muscles of my neck come alive as those on the back of my head set up protection for what was coming.

  I leaned forward, then whipped my head back with all my might. The door exploded away behind me, the metal warped and hot as the hinges gave way. It smashed into the brick wall opposite in the hallway and embedded itself there.

  “What the hell, man?” Roman said. His curiosity got the better of him for a moment he and stepped toward me to get a better look at the damage.

  “I control him,” Phil said, barely hiding the surprise in his voice. He hadn’t expected what I was capable of. “I know how he thinks now and I can keep him on a short leash.”

  Roman was biting his lip. “You’re crazy, man.” He looked up at me for a moment before lowering his eyes. “I apologize for any part I had to play in this, my lord.”

  “When he is dead you will have to live with the consequences. He is too stupid to know what he’s unleashed, but you, hedge-mage, should have known better.”

  Roman looked up at me again, every muscle in his body pulled tight as he fought the urge to run.

  “Roman,” Phil called, trying to drag the man’s attention away from me. “If you don’t finish fixing me I’m going to have him tear your arms off.”

  Roman didn’t break eye contact with me, didn’t move at all. He was transfixed, and I found myself feeling pity for him. I didn’t like it.

  “You should go fix him,” I said.

  My words were enough to release him from his panic. He turned stiffly toward the chair and his patient, sparing a moment to stare at Phil as though he’d only just seen who he was dealing with.

  I remained in the empty doorway, big enough to fill the space and keep anyone from looking in, though the commotion I’d caused hadn’t brought anyone out into the hall. I got the impression the building was a haven for the kind of people who didn’t notice when an explosion happened next door.

  “What are you going to do,” Roman said as he worked on the wound, “when you’ve taken out the poor guy you’re after?”

  “Go home and get some sleep, probably.”

  “No, with him. What’s your plan for him?”

  Phil looked at me as though he was examining a fine statue, a possession of which he was proud. He took in the sight of me for a while in silence before a smile spread on his lips.

  “How much damage do you think he can take before he dies?”

  I could see the world Phil was imagining. I’d lived it already, in ages past. He saw war and conquest with me as his only weapon, an escalation of his petty desires to new and unbelievable heights. I would be the sum of his army and he would have everyone bow before him to make me stop.

  “No idea,” Roman said. He shot me an apologetic look. “I don’t know that much about him. Just stories.”

  “What do you think?” Phil said, raising his eyebrows at me. The smile on his face was making my fists itch.

  “You won’t live long enough to answer your question.”

  Phil laughed. “Watch this,” he said to Roman. “Agmundr, I order you not to harm me or through inaction allow me to come to harm. This order stands forever, no matter what I say or what happens in the future.”

  I don’t think he expected me to smile at the words. He thought he’d crafted a clever order that would leave me crestfallen at the sound of his genius.

  “What’s so funny?” he said.

  “Do you want to tell him, hedge-mage?” I said.

  Roman whispered his answer as he hurried to finish his work on the wound. “You can’t treat this like a contract. You can’t catch him with words.”

  “Bullshit,” Phil said, though his smile was fading. “He follows orders, and I’ve now given him an order that protects me forever.”

  “Define the words ‘come to harm’,” Roman said. “No, don’t bother, because you didn’t do it before you gave the order. He gets to interpret them now.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Roman was finished with his ministrations and stood quickly, stepping back away from Phil before answering. I was starting to like the little hedge-mage; at least he was showing some respect.

  “Remember when I offered to walk you through the nuances of deal
ing with captured spirits? You told me to leave you alone. Which was stupid.”

  Phil pulled his bloody shirt closed over the patched hole in his shoulder. “Watch yourself.”

  “No,” Roman replied.

  He was watching me more than my master. I could see what he was planning and I liked it.

  “Agmundr,” Phil said, glaring at Roman. “Put my doctor through a wall. Face first.”

  I started moving, raising my hand to grab the hedge-mage by his neck.

  He held up a hand and spoke quickly. “Your master doesn’t understand what he’s doing with you and without that understanding he’s going to get himself hurt. I am his best chance of avoiding that.”

  I stopped a foot from him and turned my grin on Phil, whose expression was a mix of confusion and anger. It was a glorious sight to behold after the evening I’d had.

  “Kill him,” Phil said, trying to put a little authority into his voice and failing. “Tear his head off.”

  “But then you might come to harm,” I said, relishing every word. “Besides, you are friends, after a fashion. Killing him might hurt your feelings in the long run.”

  “Bullshit.” Phil pushed himself out of the chair and advanced on Roman himself, his fist pulling back as he telegraphed the punch he was planning.

  “No,” I said, grabbing his arm and holding him in place. “You might regret it later.”

  “This isn’t what I meant.” Phil pulled against my strength, trying to free his arm in vain.

  “But you didn’t specify that in advance,” Roman said. He stepped closer and raised his own hand to slap Phil.

  “No.”

  My voice froze the hedge-mage in place, which was the correct response to the situation.

  “Let go of me,” Phil said.

  I let him go and he stomped toward the door without another word. He was beaten and he didn’t like it, but he wasn’t going to embarrass himself further.

  “Be careful, little hedge-mage,” I said as I turned to follow my master. “I might grow to like you.”

  “I have all the friends I need, my lord. Thanks.”

  I laughed as I stepped through the permanently open doorway and sped to keep up with my angry master.

  Chapter 9

  “If I told you to kill everyone,” Phil said from the back of the car as I drove us out of the city. “Could you do it?”

  He was scrying, hanging a crystal above a map of the area and trying to get Fleming’s location. He was terrible at it but it wasn’t that complicated; he’d work it out eventually.

  I explored the information I’d received when I was summoned, checking the figures to determine if I could complete the order if he gave it.

  “No,” I replied at last. “There are three or four new people being born every second. I cannot maintain such a rate of destruction.”

  I was amazed at the figures even as I spoke; the world I had found myself in was vast and full, far greater than I had seen before. To think that man had advanced to such a degree made my head spin.

  Despite my words I knew how I could complete his order, if he was ever crazy enough to give it. Images of nuclear weapons dominated the hasty planning in my mind, weapons capable of destroying hundreds of millions in moments.

  Phil didn’t know much about them so neither did I, but it was a topic I could master if required. The thought of that much destruction made my heart beat faster and caused a few of my tattoos to brighten.

  Phil continued as though my answer was of no importance. “I want you to know that what I ask you to do tonight is necessary for my continued survival. I’m going to need Fleming dead if I am to continue breathing.”

  He was working out a new verbal contract, trying to put together a sequence of words that could compel me to kill for him. Phil wasn’t stupid, just compulsive; he knew he had to plan better going forward.

  “Your friend Roman tried to teach you a valuable lesson,” I said. “You would be wise to heed him.”

  “There is no place I can run that Fleming can’t find me. There is no hole I can hide in that would keep me safe if he survives tonight.”

  “I will guard the hole,” I said, unable to keep the grin from my face.

  “Dammit.” He dropped the crystal and glared at me in the rear view mirror. “Being made to hide would harm me psychologically. Only by putting an end to my enemies can I feel safe.”

  I shrugged; there were other options to make him feel safe but I felt no urge to tell him what they were. Not yet.

  We continued in relative silence. Phil would bark a direction at me from time to time and I’d comply, but otherwise I had some peace to think. All too soon we began the final approach to our target’s refuge, an hour out of the city, in a quiet wooded area.

  It was a large house, a manor in a style I recognized from a former summoning. Large grounds surrounded by a high wall, all centered on a home fit for royalty. My tattoos reacted to the residence even at a distance.

  “This place is not safe for you,” I said. “It isn’t safe for any human.”

  The magic being worked within was great, on par with the witches of old. I wasn’t sure how easily I would fare if he ordered me inside but I was sure he’d be destroyed immediately.

  “Then part of your job will be to make it safe.” Phil’s glare from the backseat was getting irritating. “Go inside and destroy anything that might harm me.”

  “This didn’t work out well for you last time.”

  “If Fleming is a threat to me then kill him too. Don’t wait for me if you think I might be in danger.”

  “You will regret this,” I said softly, knowing it wouldn’t do any good.

  “Take care of my enemy for me, Agmundr, and make me happy.”

  I shook my head and got out of the car, astonished at how careless he remained with his orders. The manor waited for me, bristling with dangerous, invisible energy.

  I looked up at the clear night sky and the few stars on display, shook my head, and began the assault.

  Chapter 10

  Take care of my enemy for me, Agmundr, and make me happy.

  Phil’s final order rattled around in the back of my head, nagging at me to solve it like a riddle. Take care of the enemy could mean any number of things, even when the words stood in the shadow of his earlier orders. Make him happy was so open it practically begged for a reinterpretation.

  The gate opened with a simple push, the lock deactivated as though Fleming knew it would do him no good. The real protection was invisible and surrounded the grounds, a force I couldn’t see but rather had to feel through the reaction of the tattoos that bound me.

  The night was clear and dark. No moon shone down to obscure the stars and yet there were barely any visible, as though the world was surrounded by a curtain that blocked out all but the brightest. The smell of an ancient flower carried on the slight breeze, something Phil didn’t have a name for but that I knew as Lover’s Lament.

  The first defense was waiting for me at the midpoint between the gate and the front door, a powerful point often utilized by the weavers of magic.

  “You can feel the anticipation in the air,” Seng said from the darkness, his voice formed of the cooperation of leaves rustling and my own footsteps in the gravel driveway.

  “He is prepared,” I replied. “But I am more powerful than he can ever be.”

  “So much ego,” the dead god said, chuckling. “I meant the anticipation of the thing you’ve been waiting for all your long life. The end of days.”

  I couldn’t feel it, not the way the god could. I knew I was closer to that blessed moment, could feel the tingling in the marks on my skin at the thought that the end times might be approaching. But they often reacted to the world around me, leading me astray and making me think my long captivity might soon be at end.

  I grunted, noncommittal.

  “Your wife is safe and happy, out in this busy world, but there is something coming for her. A scheme that is building tow
ard realization, and it will be soon.”

  If I ever were to pray it would be for that day, when she would regain her power and destroy the world. Seng’s words woke the desire in me, stoking the flames of my desperate need for it all to end. The manor stood before me and I had my orders, but suddenly all I could think of was seeing her again.

  It was a trap for my mind, the first defensive layer marshalled against me, and I hadn’t seen it. I had grown distracted and had lost focus on the goal, leaving me open to a more powerful attack.

  The gravel at my feet erupted around me, blasted small stones into my flesh and tossing me aside like a child in a hurricane. I crashed to the ground and cast my eyes at the sight of the intrusion.

  A being stood in the smoking, glowing crater where I had been standing. It was a creature of darkness, a silhouette made solid, and it had a form I recognized.

  It was me. A copy of me, anyway, wrought from some dark magic and thrown in my path. I could hear Seng’s laughter as I scrabbled to my feet to prepare for the attack.

  It approached silently, it’s feet making no impression on the driveway, displacing none of the stones it had thrown at me as it was born.

  “Is this the best he has?” I asked the night, knowing it wouldn’t be. This was the first of many, I was sure. It would be powerful, in the hope that it could defeat me before bringing the fight into Fleming’s home, but it wouldn’t be the best he had to offer.

  The shadow version of me attacked, its fist of solid darkness moving faster than I anticipated. It connected with my face, sending a blinding explosion through my head and driving me back to the ground.

  To anyone else it would have been terrifying. To any other attacker it was the perfect adversary, a copy of me that perfectly matched my strength and ability. We were both berserkers, both driven by rage and violence. We were a matched pair, and the battle should have lasted until we were both so hurt that any further advance on the house would be foolish.