The Children of the Light: Book 1: Spirit Summoner

by Matt Campbell

  “This waterfall once fed the Lourcient River,” Racall said. “Once you return the Sephir to its altar, the waterfall will be restored to its normal state. Take the stairs at the front of the passage--you will be met by one of the Divine, a good man named Herdas.”

  “A Divine? Isn’t a Divine going to want to know how I got the Sephir back? What about the laws forbidding magic?”

  “Do not worry, young Reintol,” Racall soothed. “This particular Divine knows well his place as a servant of Caeranol. He cares less about rules, than about maintaining balance. He will take good care of you.”

  Though still wary about receiving help from the Divine, Darr accepted the Sephir and squinted against its glare. Lightweight and irregularly shaped, the relic fit in the cup of his hands. He tucked it against his body to screen his vision and looked back up at Racall.

  “You’re not coming with me, are you?” he asked.

  The Archon didn’t smile. “No, Summoner. You must go on alone now. Perhaps, young Erec and little Jinn will accompany you. Having a brother and sister along on this journey would strengthen you like nothing else.”

  The Summoner glanced back at his brother and smiled. “Yes--maybe. I wish otherwise. You’ve been a good friend.”

  Racall nodded. “I will always be your good friend, young Reintol. I am always in the Currents. Let me know if you need anything.”

  ”I will,” Darr said.

  The Archon’s familiar smile flashed one last time. “Goodbye, young Summoner.”

  Racall’s body shimmered, and his flesh turned back into stone. In a grating rush, his body melted into the floor of the cavern, uniting with the earth once more.

  Darr stared into the empty space for a moment before turning his attention to Jinn. The Summoner tucked the Sephir of Water inside his tunic. The heavy cotton obscured its blinding light, but it provided enough luminescence for him to make his way to his siblings. Jinn still lay cradled in his brother’s arms. Erec’s haunted look troubled Darr, but Jinn’s condition distressed him further.

  Darr crouched down beside his brother and shook him gently on the shoulder. Erec flinched and looked up with a mix of emotions on his face. No words passed between them while the Summoner checked Jinn’s body for injuries. She didn’t appear to be bleeding, and aside from a slight bump on the back of her head, she looked to be okay. There were dangers associated with blows to the head and long spans of unconsciousness. He called her name and rubbed her hands, trying to generate some warmth while Erec sprinkled water onto her face. After a few moments, Jinn’s eyelids fluttered open, and she jerked awake.

  “Where is it?” she asked, her face panic-stricken.

  Darr shook his head and placed his hand over hers. “It’s all right. The Ovid is gone. The Sephir is safe.”

  Darr helped Jinn back to her feet. “Where is Racall?” she asked. “Did the Ovid..?”

  Darr shook his head. “He’s gone back to the Currents. He’s safe.”

  Erec stood motionless beside them, his expression vacant now. He looked lost and confused, more so than Jinn.

  Within a few minutes, Jinn had recovered enough to walk. “You have the Sephir? Show us, Darr.” She planted her feet, refusing to move.

  Reluctantly, the Summoner pulled the Sephir free from his tunic, bringing his other hand up in the same motion to shield his eyes. Jinn and Erec did the same when the Sephir’s light exploded into the cavern. After a hasty examination, the Summoner returned the relic to his tunic.

  Darr led the way back through the waterway passage. Questions tumbled from his siblings’ lips as they retraced their steps, and Darr answered patiently with whatever knowledge he could muster. He revealed everything he knew about the Currents, leaving nothing out this time. Erec held firm to his belief that the return of magic could mean nothing good, but he seemed less skeptical now.

  “I wish I could’ve spoken with him before he left,” Darr said without attempting to hide his frustration. “In some ways I feel like I made the right decision by connecting with Racall in the Currents, but I don’t know if I could do it again.”

  “Better for all of Ictar if you couldn’t,” Erec muttered.

  Jinn rolled her eyes and nudged her oldest brother. “I don’t think it matters how you did it. What matters is that you did,” she said. “Isn’t that what Racall told you?”

  Darr wasn’t certain anymore. “Sort of, I guess. He said I already knew.”

  Jinn shrugged. “So what made you go into the Currents? What made you reach out to Racall?”

  “Racall was losing the fight with the Ovid,” Darr answered. “He told me to bring my Light to his, and the Currents were the only place I could do that.”

  Jinn nodded. “And as soon as you touched, Racall had control over his element again, isn’t that right?”

  Darr widened his eyes. “That’s it! Racall’s an Archon, but in his physical form--and Nidic Waq summoned him. Ah ha!”

  “Slow down and make some sense,” Erec said, his voice laced with frustration.

  Excitement buzzed through Darr. “Nidic Waq summoned Racall into physical form so he could guide me. This allowed Racall to use only a fraction of his magic in the physical world, but that wasn’t enough to defeat the Ovid. I needed to do the rest. By combining my Light with Racall’s, together, we accessed the full power of the Earth Sephir.”

  Racall had been trying to teach him this lesson all along. Summoning meant bringing Light from the Currents into the physical world.

  “Maybe you’re right, Erec,” Darr said, breaking the silence between his siblings. “Maybe magic is too dangerous a force, but how else are we supposed to fight the Soul Seekers and the Ovids? They both have use of magic that is destroying Ictar. I think they’re much more dangerous than what I’m doing.”

  His brother shook his head. “I don’t think you know for sure. You don’t have a clue about the consequences of this summoning business. I’m willing to concede there might be Seekers out there. Now that Racall is gone, you have to rely on yourself. So what happens the next time you’re threatened?”

  Darr agreed with him. “ Those are good questions--but I have to rely on Racall’s lessons. I think he’s prepared me well enough.”

  “That’s not good enough, Darr,” Erec said fiercely, his eyes hot in the dim light. Jinn reached over and put a hand on Erec’s shoulder, but he took a step back from her.

  “I think what Erec is saying is he doesn’t want you to get hurt by relying on something you don’t understand,” Jinn said, “...and something he doesn’t fully understand either.”

  In silence, they crossed the dams and locks underneath Dacon fortress, making good time shuffling their way through the passage. The hard lump of the Water Sephir rested against his chest, its muffled glow lighting their path. In a few hours, the river would be restored. It was strange such a small relic could accomplish such a tremendous task.

  When they finally reached the passage entrance, daylight shone in through the iron grating, heralding the morning hours. With the coming of dawn and the change of guard, the grate blocking the passage had been put back, but the stairs leading up to the fortress weren’t more than a few feet from the entrance. None of the Reintol siblings could be sure exactly how long they were within the tunnel, but they were exhausted from their trek.

  Darr took the lead up to Dacon Fortress. The steps were slick with moisture, and the narrow space lacked any kind of handhold, but the three were too desperate for rest to do anything but struggle their way up. The stairs ended at a short landing after winding around several times. The Divine who would meet them was nowhere in sight.

  They gathered on the landing, huddled in front of a narrow wooden door in the light of the Sephir.

  “Now what?” Jinn asked.

  Darr shrugged and eyed the door. “Maybe we should open it. The Divine might be out there.”

  The Summoner reached down for the handle, but Erec stayed his hand.

  “I wouldn’t if
I were you. We don’t know if there are guards out there or not, and besides, they might not be aware of our presence anyways. If you walk out there, you might have a lot to answer for walking inside the fortress walls with the Sephir of Water in your possession.”

  Darr relaxed his grip on the handle and slumped his shoulders, compliant to Erec’s skepticism. He leaned on the wall behind him and it moved. The Summoner jumped back in surprise, alerted now by the slow grating of stone on stone. The wall adjacent to the door slid away on a hidden hinge, opening backwards into a darkened passage beyond.

  The hazy orange glow of a torch appeared, followed by the wizened face of an old man composed of deep winkles and billowing white hairs. His robes were white and heavy, bending his small frame over into a slight hump.

  “You must be Darr Reintol,” he said in a dry and raspy voice.

  The Summoner nodded, though he was hesitant. Then came a slight nudging sensation came from the Currents--the spirits whispering the identity of the man before him. “You’re Herdas,” Darr said.

  A smile crossed the man’s lips beneath his shaggy beard. “Good, good, yes. You’re a true Spirit Summoner, just as Racall promised. I confess, I had my doubts, but now I see everything I’ve been told is true.” The Divine touched his long white hair. “You have the Sephir.”

  Darr reached into his tunic, squinting his eyes in preparation. In a blinding blue flash, the Summoner brought the Sephir out from underneath his shirt. The Divine didn’t flinch from its light. He stared at it in awe. Then he reached out to touch it, almost lovingly, but stopped.

  Herdas withdrew his hand and cleared his throat. “It’s hard to believe, seeing it again after being gone these past couple weeks. But I had faith Caeranol would have it returned. I thank you, Summoner.” Herdas looked at Erec and Jinn and nodded gratefully to them before turning down the darkened tunnel that he’d come out of. “We must go now, to the Glass Tower.”

  The Summoner returned the Sephir to his tunic, and looked over at Jinn and Erec, hoping to see the same excitement on their faces that he felt. Both looked amazed, but neither spoke. Herdas ushered them into the narrow tunnel and slid the stone slab closed behind them. With torch in hand, he led them along the passageway through the walls of Dacon Fortress.

  “The Archon, Racall, explained to me your need for haste and discretion,” the old man whispered, but his voice was clear in the little passage. “I haven’t told the governor of the Sephir’s return, or of your journey into the waterway passage, but, someone will say something about your presence below Dacon last night. When that happens, many questions will arise. I’ll make sure you’ll be gone before that happens.”

  “Why would the governor have a problem with us bringing back the Sephir?” Jinn asked.

  “Because rescuing stolen Sephirs isn’t something Spirit Summoners normally do. The governor would be more inclined to believe you were the ones who stole it in the first place. Even if the governor did believe your story, your time would be wasted in the celebration he’d undoubtedly throw.”

  A glimmer of despair crept through Darr. How could he secure the other Sephirs if the governments entrusted with their care didn’t trust him enough to find them?

  “Herdas, is it like this everywhere?,” Darr asked.

  The Divine turned his head slightly, a puzzled look on his face.

  “Am I going to have to crawl around through tunnels like this to restore the Sephirs because the people who protect them don’t trust me to do it?”

  The Divine shook his head. “No, Summoner. You’ll come to see the race of Man is the most closed-minded of people when it comes to magic and the Sephirs. We Cortazians have little understanding of such things, even in the northern territories. The further you travel through Ictar, the more you’ll see how integrated the magic of the Sephirs has become. Not all of the Divine seek to keep magic out of the hands of men. Some of us see it as inevitable.”

  The Summoner smiled grimly at the Divine’s words. What would Herdas do if he knew Darr had control over the Sephir’s magic? Perhaps the Divine knew of a Spirit Summoner’s potential to reach into the Currents and harness the power of the Four Elements. Still, the Divine had authority by order of the Kings of Ictar to contain the forces of magic that threatened Ictar. Did that entail a potential threat from the Summoners?

  Herdas kept them moving along the dusty passage. He took them up several flights of stairs and down long corridors. Darr believed they should be well within the heights of Dacon Fortress by now, yet they continued to climb upwards.

  Herdas chose his path without deliberation and brought them to a halt at the end of a tunnel. He pressed on the wall in front of them, and the slab slid open into a brightly lit room. Two stuffed couches sat in the center of the room before a small hearth. On the opposite wall, a mattress squatted low to the floor, and the only ornate piece of furniture in the room took up the far wall, a massive desk.

  “Welcome to my quarters,” Herdas said, his face reflecting a small amount of pride. “While you’re here, this will be your home. After Darr returns the Sephir to the Glass Tower, the three of you can rest here. No one will look for you here. I lead the Divine in Stern.”

  Darr nodded in understanding, smiling. “Thank you, Herdas. When will we be able to leave again?”

  “You can rest until sunset. I’d prefer it if you left the city under cover of darkness. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll clear the hall of the other Divine so we won’t be disturbed this morning.”

  Herdas bowed slightly and departed through a door beside his giant desk, making sure to shut the door behind him. When the door closed, Erec turned towards him.

  “Are you sure we can trust this Divine?”

  Darr looked back at Jinn and she shook her head. When he returned his gaze to Erec, a look of pure sincerity graced his brother’s face.

  “The spirits are calm right now,” Darr said. “They would’ve alerted me if we were in danger. I’m sure of it.”

  Erec gave a sort of half smile before turning away. Jinn stepped around both of them and walked to a small window behind the desk. Outside, the sky lightened.

  “Do you think we’ll get some kind of reward?” Erec asked. “We could send money to Father, he could really use it now with all of us gone.”

  Darr stared blankly. The thought had crossed his mind when Herdas had mentioned the possibility of the governor celebrating the Sephir’s return, but there had never been a guarantee of a reward. And while Erec’s intentions were good, Darr hadn’t embarked on this journey for fame and wealth. Were his reasons for coming any less selfish?

  Herdas came back through the door, leaving Erec’s question hanging in the air, unanswered.

  The Divine beamed with excitement. He looked from one face to the next, settling finally on Darr. “We’re ready now,” Herdas said. “The tower awaits you.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Knowing there could be no undoing what Symdus had unleashed upon himself and the world, Caeranol struck out at the Devoid using all his considerable magic, but the Light expanding within the Devoid gave it unlimited strength and resilience. Having possessed Symdus’s body, the Devoid could manipulate the Currents in the same way its host once could. Caeranol barely escaped with his life.”

  ~From A Current History of Ictar, as told by Nidic Waq

  Darr had only seen the Glass Tower once before, as a boy on his first trip to Stern. His father brought him to the center of the city where the thoroughfare connected with the larger vineyards. On a clear, bright day, father and son had gazed up at the monstrous Dacon Fortress and the shining jewel at its peak--the Glass Tower. His father told him how the Dwarves had constructed it by intertwining glass and iron to build a home for the Sephir of Water. As a boy, the tower inspired wonder and magic, a bright star fallen from the sky and set down on top of the fortress.

  Now, as Darr stood within the sacred tower, he felt much more than wonder or magic. The Glass Tower sat outside the conf
ines of time or the material world. To Darr’s perception, he was within the Currents.

  The Glass Tower rose from Dacon Fortress’s highest tower, screening away the city of Stern and the surrounding land with its frost-etched glass. The mountains beyond the city were nothing but a dark smear. Enclosed by its walls and ceiling of glass and girders of polished iron, the tower looked small, yet it gave the impression of having vast space. They entered through a staircase in the floor, surrounded by stone and mortar one minute, and the next encased in a room not unlike the insides of a waterfall.

  Jinn and Erec huddled close to the stairwell, both their faces reflecting awe. Neither said anything when Herdas nudged his way past them and came up alongside Darr. The Divine gestured to him, pointing to a metal stand that stood in the center of the room.

  “We won’t be disturbed, Summoner,” his dry voice whispered. “Go. Return it to its altar.”

  Darr drew the Sephir from his tunic, so fragile in his hands. The intense light flared hungrily, as if the Sephir sensed its altar. Within the Currents, emotions of exhilaration and joy began to pour outward from the spirits, followed by whispered urgings to go forward. The Summoner quieted them. He took several steps across the translucent blue tiles making up the floor, like walking on water.

  The altar was a foreign object. It had a round base like a barrel and it rose waist high into an obelisk, ending at a point. Runes and other undecipherable markings were etched along the surface of the smooth, glittering metal.

  Darr reached out with the Sephir of Water in both hands. He took a quick glance over his shoulder at Erec and Jinn, their faces unreadable. Herdas nodded his head in encouragement. Gently, Darr placed the relic down against the four-cornered point of the altar thinking to balance it there...

  ...and both Sephir and Summoner were joined in the Currents.

  When the Water Sephir connected with its altar, a dam broke, its magic surged out into the Currents. The presence of an Archon pervaded his senses, but it wasn’t Racall. Like the connection he’d shared with Racall, he saw everything the Archon did. The magic of the Sephir diffused itself throughout Ictar. Ground water surged upwards through soil, nurturing the roots of plants. It froze glaciers that had melted and given way to floods, healing and controlling the natural flow of water. Swollen marshes receded to their natural state, and the evaporating moisture began to rise to rain down on dry lands.