Summoner 8

by Eric Vall

  “That mystery may have to remain for now,” Sleet mused as he considered the situation. “Any other determinations, Professor Lle’shenne?”

  “There is some great news,” Lle’shenne replied, and her face grew warm as she spoke. “Based on sightings of Phi that coordinated with monster attacks, we can assume Phi’s presence was at least partly responsible for the increased numbers of rifts lately. With Phi captured, I expect for us to see a decrease in monster attacks anywhere from twenty percent to eighty percent.”

  Gawain whistled as he shook his head in astonished amazement.

  “Eighty’s a damn good number to hear,” the fire mage commented with a firm nod. “I’m not so sure about the exact percentage of decrease, but I was with Phi a few times when she gathered monsters. I think she was responsible for a large number of the recent attacks, whether or not she actually showed up. More than twenty percent, for sure.”

  “Good to hear,” Lle’shenne breathed in relief. “I’ll make a note of that, though we won’t be able to come to a more accurate observation for another month or two. With that said, I think that’s all our academic findings so far.”

  “Sounds like there’s some important data to gather,” Grand Mage Kenefick observed as he ran a hand across the stack of paper reports in front of him. “Schedule another meeting for three days from now, and we can decide what our next moves are at that time.”

  The meeting dispersed slowly as various people split off to discuss things with each other. Lle’shenne talked over reports with Kenefick, and Braden and Gawain mingled with Cyra, Layla, and Erin as they all caught up on various events of the last week.

  I wanted to do the same, but something drew me over to Headmaster Sleet instead.

  “I have something to ask you about,” I started hesitantly as I met Sleet’s cloudy eyes. “It’s about why Phi and Sera both want me so badly.”

  “Ah,” Sleet hummed out, and he nodded slowly. “It may have escaped the notice of others, but you’re concerned about the fact Phi wanted you after all, and not Sera.”

  “Exactly,” I confirmed in a low voice. “There’s some kind of power in me the Archons want to get a hold of.”

  “What do you think that is?” Sleet questioned.

  “Opening permanent rifts,” I replied honestly. “The only time Phi almost managed to do it, she was taking control of me. Then she attacked Njordenfalls to lure me in, partly because it’s my hometown. I think she wanted to use me again.”

  “I suspect you may be right,” Sleet admitted. “However, permanent rifts are not the only odd thing that has happened around you, Gryff. You have to consider the way in which you subdued Sera and added her full marking to your skin. You seem to have a singular talent for controlling Archons.”

  “Maybe anybody could control an Archon,” I debated, “with the right circumstances.”

  “Perhaps,” Sleet mused. “Perhaps not. There is something special about you, Gryff, and only time will tell exactly what that is.”

  “You don’t sound very concerned about this,” I pointed out. “What about that prophecy? Maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to go out and fight with Sera under my control. What if-- “

  “Don’t worry about possibilities,” the Headmaster interrupted. “Keep doing what you think is right, Gryff, and that’s all you should be concerned about.”

  My protests died within me as I looked at Sleet’s serious expression.

  “If you say so,” I agreed reluctantly. “I do want to help against the monsters as much as possible, but there’s so much I just don’t know about myself.”

  “For now,” Sleet suggested, “you should just relax. Take the time to rest and recuperate while you have the chance.”

  I nodded in response and filed away my concerns for later as I left the meeting room. My friends followed me in good cheer, and I joined their conversation about the sandwyrm as we wandered down the cafeteria.

  “When it opened its mouth, it smelled exactly like an earthworm,” Braden decided. “Kinda like wet rain, or rotting leaves.”

  “This was in the middle of the desert, though,” Gawain argued. “Plus, it’s a carnivore. Did you not see those thousands of teeth? Smelling like earthworms doesn’t make sense at all.”

  “That’s what it smelled like!” Braden protested. “I’m sure you had to smell it, you were right there.”

  “I didn’t smell a thing,” the fire mage retorted as he crossed his arms.

  “Maybe Braden was just smelling Gawain’s perfume,” Layla suggested as a wicked grin stretched across her petite face.

  The fire mage scoffed and jerked his head up in a proud huff.

  “You’re so low to the ground,” Gawain retorted, “you’d probably need a ladder to smell anything but dirt and grass.”

  “Hey,” Layla whined, and she elbowed Gawain in the stomach lightly.

  The fire mage rolled his eyes and pushed her away slowly.

  We went to the cafeteria for an early dinner, since all of us were starving from the long day of fighting. The past twenty-four hours were one large blur to me at this point. Had I really woken up in an ice hut with Erin just this morning? I was certainly feeling the long day in my muscles, and almost every part of my body felt sore and battered. Mana could be recovered easily with an elixir, but it didn’t change the level of exhaustion felt in a mage’s body and mind.

  “I hope Arwyn and Ashla are doing okay,” I said during a lull in our dinner conversation.

  “I’m sure Arwyn is busy with all these new patients to take care of,” Erin reassured me.

  “Maybe you should go see Ashla today,” Cyra suggested. “I know we just saw her, but you’ll worry all night long if you don’t.”

  “I just want to know how her condition is,” I defended myself. “It’s a normal concern.”

  “It’s a broken leg, Gryff,” Gawain sighed as he rolled his eyes. “You’re going to tense up so hard, your face will never go back to the way it used to be.”

  I suddenly realized how hard I was frowning, and my expression melted away under a sheepish look as I tried not to seem self-conscious.

  Gawain snickered anyway, and Layla giggled loudly in tandem.

  “I’ll go see her, then,” I relented as I blocked out the snickering noises of my friends. “Just for the record, I liked it better when you two were enemies.”

  I jabbed an accusatory finger at Gawain and Layla in turn, and they both wrinkled their faces in disgust.

  “Oh, we’re still enemies,” Layla asserted with alarming force as she pounded her tiny fist on the table. “I’ve got plans for wrecking him, just you wait.”

  “Layla’s my least favorite person in this school,” Gawain grumbled, “and that includes the maid who doesn’t fold my bedsheets correctly.”

  “His bedsheets,” Braden groaned as the big summoner put his head in his hands. “I can’t believe I just heard that.”

  “Well,” I commented lightly as I stood up with my empty tray, “this was enlightening. I’m going to be off before I spur on any more declarations of war. Take care, guys.”

  My friends said goodbye, and I dropped off my tray before I made my way down to Meridan’s clinic. I knocked on the door quickly before I entered, and my eyebrows shot up in surprise at the scene inside.

  At least a dozen injured soldiers were set up in the lobby area on makeshift cots, and my eyes fell to a healer’s assistant who bustled around the room with a harried expression.

  “Excuse me,” I asked in a hushed tone, “do you know where I can find an ice mage named Ashla?

  “Do you have a description?” the assistant asked without looking up at me, and he darted efficiently through the room of patients to recover a paper file from the desk.

  “Dark hair, pointy nose, broken leg,” I started off hesitantly. “Is that enough?”

  “I guess so,” the assistant muttered under his breath. “She’s in Healer Arwyn’s lab, I think. They’re friends or something, so Arwyn l
et her in to clear up some space.”

  He snagged another clipboard at the end of a patient’s bed and began scribbling quickly on it without a single glance up at me.

  “Thanks,” I said gratefully to the overworked assistant. “I’ll get out of your way, now.”

  The assistant didn’t respond, which was just fine by me. I squeezed through the cots and hurried down the hallway toward Arwyn’s lab, and I felt a flash of gratefulness that the healer had the foresight to move Ashla away. I was sure she knew it would be impossible for us to discuss secret topics while the ice mage was confined to a room surrounded by other patients.

  I knocked on Arwyn’s lab door before I opened it, and Ashla responded in a muffled voice to say I could come in.

  “Just me,” I announced as I opened the door.

  “Gryff!” Ashla exclaimed as her eyes lit up with pleased excitement. “I’m so glad to see you. I’ve been dying, here.”

  “You don’t look close to death,” I observed with a warm smile as I closed the door behind me.

  “Death by boredom,” Ashla corrected. “I really need a drawing pad and a pencil, but Arwyn doesn’t keep any good paper in here.”

  “In that case, I’ll find you something,” I promised. “Should I go now or wait until after we’re done talking?”

  “Go now,” Ashla urged. “I’ve got the best weapon idea ever, and I’ve gotta put it on paper before it disappears from my brain forever.”

  “Got it,” I responded, and I began to back out the door.

  “One more thing,” Ashla added hurriedly before I could leave. “Since we have this private room … maybe you should come back with some things to stay the night.”

  The ice mage gave me a suggestive look, and my breath caught in my chest at the fire smoldering in her chocolate eyes.

  “That sounds like an excellent idea,” I breathed, and Ashla grinned as I darted out the door immediately to hurry back to my room.

  There was no time to waste. This was going to be a very good night.

  Chapter 19

  I spent the next ten minutes on an uneventful trip to fetch drawing supplies and a change of clothes, and I hurried back into the clinic with everything tucked into my arms. The assistant raised an eyebrow as I passed, but he remained focused on his task of bandaging a patient’s arm.

  “Drawing supplies are here,” I announced as I opened the door into Arwyn’s lab room again.

  “Thank the Maker,” Ashla breathed as she held out her hands impatiently. “Hand it over, quick, quick.”

  I gave Ashla the sketchbook and bag of pencils and pens I’d picked from my room. The ice mage quickly flipped the sketchbook open, and she rifled through it impatiently to a blank page without any class notes.

  “Is it another axe?” I asked as I watched Ashla begin to scribble quick sketch lines onto the page. “I’m so sorry about Bessie, by the way.”

  “It’s fine,” Ashla dismissed as her pencil flew across the page. “I miss her, but I never would have improved on my original design if she was still intact. Once I got over mourning the loss, I realized I could do so much better.”

  “What’s different?” I asked as I examined the shape she was etching out.

  “Bessie was symmetrical and double-bearded,” Ashla explained, “and quite heavy, but she really bit deep into monster hide. I want to keep the good parts but add a little bit more. If I thin both blades out at the base, I can reduce the weight, and then add a third metal piece to the very end. A long spike here, emerging from the head of the weapon, would be useful for spearlike stabbing to keep lunging monsters from getting the upper hand on me.”

  “Uh-huh,” I murmured as I frowned at the design. “Like a halberd, right?”

  “Sure,” Ashla agreed excitedly, “if you ignore all the other parts of a halberd that make it one.”

  I laughed at her comment, and I had to admit I was far out of my depth when it came to knowledge of weapon types. I preferred simple, utilitarian weapons that could be used as tools in daily life, like a lumber axe or my daggers. Maybe it was just my country upbringing, but the thought of trying to lug around a battleaxe was out of the question.

  “You’re happy with your design, though?” I asked as I looked at the weapon she was finishing in her sketch.

  It looked dangerous, that was for sure. The arched twin blades were more wickedly curved than the ones on Bessie, and the spike emerging from the center could easily stop a shadowcat or a bandersnatch in its tracks. The main disadvantage of a battle axe was its slow speed against smaller, fast monsters, and the spike would do a great job of negating that.

  “I’m extremely happy,” Ashla gushed as she held the sketchbook back at arm’s length. “She’s going to be a beauty, for sure.”

  “What are you going to name her?” I asked curiously.

  Ashla sent me a scolding look as she narrowed her eyes.

  “You can’t name a weapon before it’s made,” Ashla chided me seriously. “A design means nothing compared to what actually comes out of the forge.”

  “Oh,” I replied as I grinned in amusement. “Of course, why didn’t I realize that?”

  “You’re a country yokel,” Ashla told me dramatically, “of course you didn’t know.”

  “Mmhm,” I hummed as I walked over and slouched into Arwyn’s desk chair.

  “You brought clothes for tomorrow?” Ashla asked as she perked up to see the folded bundle in my lap.

  “I sure did,” I confirmed with a lingering look at Ashla’s thin white clinic gown. “I don’t know how you’re planning to work around your broken leg, though.”

  “I’ll figure it out,” Ashla purred with a slow, sultry voice. “It can’t be any harder than battling a demigoddess.”

  “I don’t think it will be,” I agreed with a knowing smile. “We just have to hope nobody walks in on us.”

  “Maybe we’ll just have to keep the door locked,” Ashla suggested teasingly. “After all, we could be talking about Mistral government secrets.”

  “Maybe we could be,” I agreed as I played along.

  Then I got up and clicked the door lock to the side before I turned back to face Ashla.

  To my surprise, Ashla had unbuttoned the back of her clinic gown, and she gave me a heated look of desire as she dropped the thin fabric off her shoulders. My eyes locked on to her full, voluptuous breasts, and lust pooled in the pit of my stomach at the sight of her rosy pink nipples.

  The essence crystal lamp on the wall let off a bright, white glow, and her skin shone like cream in the light. I reached for the lamp distractedly and turned it to a lower setting, and Ashla’s skin took on a golden bronze color in the dim room.

  “Like what you see?” Ashla asked in a quiet, seductive voice.

  “I could never get tired of this sight,” I admitted as an appreciative smile broke over my face. “I have to say, you make the clinic gown look damn good.”

  “By barely wearing it, you mean,” Ashla corrected as she teased the gown off her waist entirely before she dropped the garment on the ground.

  “You might be right on that one,” I replied as I crossed the room over to the ice mage’s cot.

  I ran my hands appreciatively over Ashla’s bare thighs, though the bandages over her injured leg stopped me in my tracks.

  “Just checking my wound?” Ashla asked teasingly. “Very doctorly of you.”

  “I might have some ulterior motives,” I replied huskily, “though I’m also trying to figure out how to do this without hurting you.”

  “Maybe I like it rough,” Ashla said suggestively as she trailed a hand along the front of my shirt.

  I complied and tugged my shirt off over my head before I threw it to the floor without care.

  “I could agree with rough,” I murmured as I reached over and ran my hands over the pliant flesh of Ashla’s breasts.

  The ice mage’s eyelids fluttered, and she made a pleased sound deep in her throat as I squeezed and teased around
her nipples.

  “Pants too,” she demanded as her eyes hung heavily on my hips.

  My cock strained against the fabric visibly, and I unbuttoned my trousers before I pulled them and my shoes off completely.

  “There,” I said, “now we’re both naked.”

  “Just the way I like it,” Ashla replied, and she trailed a hand down my stomach to the tip of my cock.

  “Me too,” I agreed breathlessly as my cock jumped against her touch. “Definitely better this way.”

  “I don’t think there’s room on this cot for two,” Ashla hummed as she arched her back enticingly. “You might have to stand.”

  “Then I will,” I agreed, and I shifted her sideways until her good leg hung off the cot entirely. “Feeling good?”

  “Better with you inside me,” Ashla answered in a sultry tone.

  I smiled and teased a finger inside her to test how wet she was. She gasped as I slid into her entrance, and I crooked my index toward the front of her pussy.

  Ashla gasped and twisted around as she reacted immediately to my movements. She reached a hand down to tease at her clit, but I stopped her before she got too far. I held her wrist as I bent my face down to her clit, and I teased it with my tongue before I started sucking eagerly.

  Ashla moaned deeply as I worked my finger in and out of her in conjunction with licking and sucking her clit. I traced idle patterns over her pink folds before I grazed her lightly with my teeth, and the ice mage hissed a desperate breath in response.

  Slowly, her pussy became more slick and wet, and the skin on her stomach and chest flushed pink with blood as Ashla’s arousal increased. Her gasps grew louder as she got close, and I sped up until she was nearly shouting my name.