Summoner school, p.15
Summoner School, page 15
“There are quite a few options,” the dragon-woman said and seemed to be happy to change the subject. “I can come up with a list of occupations for you. It’ll be ready by Monday. I suggest you take the time this weekend to research the jackalope. You might even become an adventurer, since plenty of the realms are untamed and wild with creatures. But remember, Mr. Hall, some things are better left alone. Remember what I said: most summoners die trying to catch a beast that is out of their league.”
Professor Lovelace gave me another intense stare like she wanted to say something else but then turned and hurried out of the classroom. I watched her go, half-mesmerized by the sway of her hips, and half-irritated that she was hiding something from me. She and Sarya both knew more about the shadow creatures than they wanted to tell me, but there was still one person that could help me.
I just hoped that she was coherent enough to remember me.
For the entire walk back to my dorm room, I mentally sorted through the list of questions that I had for my grandma. The shadow creatures were creepy, but they weren’t a priority, so I decided to put those off for the moment. First, I needed to find someone who could convert the gold into cash, or even a few gems that I could use for spells, and then I needed to move my grandmother to a better retirement home that might be able to operate on her brain tumor.
It didn’t take long for me to pack an overnight bag and my textbooks. I glanced at my watch, did the math to figure out if grandma would be in her room, and then decided it would be better to drive Sheila over. The old beater was at the Victorian manor, so I teleported into my childhood house and then trotted out to the car.
The nosy neighbors waved as I started the old green Cherokee and pulled out of the driveway. Their front porch was a favorite spot, and I was almost tempted to ask if they’d seen anyone lurking around, but visiting hours would be over soon. I lifted my hand in greeting and then headed toward Cozy Acres.
“Mr. Hall,” Nurse Johnson said as I walked into the retirement home. “It’s so good to see you. I’m afraid that your grandmother isn’t having a very good day. It might be best if you came back tomorrow.”
“Andrew!” my grandmother shouted and ran toward me from the back porch. “Andrew, you have to help me.”
“What’s going on?” I asked and glanced at the frizzy-haired nurse, turned back to my frantic grandmother, and noticed the crazed fear in her hazel eyes.
“He’s coming,” she said and gripped my arms so tight that there would be bruises later. “I have to stop him. Do you have the amulet?”
Chapter 10
“Grandma, what are you talking about?” I asked and tried to free my arms.
The old woman had an iron grip on my forearms, and I could feel my bones move against each other as she yanked me closer. Nurse Johnson had hurried off toward one of the carts where they kept the medicine, and one of the other women stood next to me and mimicked taking deep breaths. Grandma completely ignored both women and focused all of her attention on me.
“I have to stop him,” she repeated and then seemed to realize our audience, collected herself, and slapped a serene smile on her face.
“Deloris, how are you feeling?” Nurse Johnson asked and hid a syringe in her pocket.
“Just fine,” grandma said and released my arms. “Did you see that Andrew is here? He’s such a good young man. He’s going to make our family proud.”
“I’m going to try,” I said with a reassuring smile.
I could almost see the tension drain from the nurses, and grandma looked around with that vacantly happy grin, but I was pretty sure that was just an act for the nurses. My mind raced with more questions than when I’d first walked into the nursing home, but it was clear that the nurses weren’t going to give me any time alone with her after an outburst like that. I nodded to Nurse Johnson and led grandma back to her room for some rest.
“Andrew, dear,” grandma said as she climbed into bed. “I think that you should move into our old house. It’s not good for a young man to live in one of those small apartments. Especially not with school starting. You need somewhere safe to study and rest your head.”
“I’ll think about it,” I said as I tucked her in.
It was an argument that we’d had since I’d moved out on my own, but soon the gray-haired woman was in a deep sleep, and soft snores filled the room. I watched her for a few seconds and then snuck back out into the hallway where Nurse Johnson waited for me. There was a look on the woman’s face as she watched my grandma, and I was sure that this wasn’t the first outburst that the old woman had had in the last few days.
“Mr. Hall,” the frizzy-haired woman sighed as the door shut behind me. “We need to talk about your grandmother’s medications. I know that you don’t want to sedate her, but look at your arms. She’s becoming more violent with each crazed outburst. We can’t risk her injuring the other residents or our staff.”
“My grandma isn’t crazy,” I said. “She’s just passionate. I don’t want her sedated or to be one of those braindead zombies that just sits in a recliner and stares at a wall all day.”
“Take the night to think about it,” she said as we walked toward the front of the building. “We’re not going to make her into a zombie. One extra dose will only help with her more violent tendencies. I really do like Deloris, but these episodes are getting out of hand. She keeps talking about some man that’s going to kill us all. It’s starting to scare the others. Do you know who she could be talking about?”
“No,” I said and shook my head. “She hasn’t talked about anybody like that before. But she’s not crazy. If she says that someone is a problem, then they are.”
“Okay,” Nurse Johnson said in a tone that said she was just humoring me. “She has another treatment earlier tomorrow that might help her to be more aware of her surroundings. That tumor may not be getting any bigger, but it might be pressing on her brain a little more. Why don’t you come back tomorrow and try to talk with her again?”
“Fine,” I said. “But I want to know what the doctor says tomorrow. If it’s getting any bigger, then we may need to rethink on finding someone to operate.”
“Of course, Mr. Hall,” she said and then shut the door behind me.
I walked back out to my dark green Cherokee and noticed that the sun had already started to set. The Victorian Manor still had power, but my apartment was closer to the city, and my rent was paid through the end of the month. I had to crank the engine three times before it finally caught, but Sheila stayed on, and soon I was heading home.
My mind raced with every story that my grandmother had ever told me, but most of them had some evil villain that the hero had to stop, so that wasn’t helpful. I needed to talk to her when she wasn’t in the middle of an episode and would be calm enough to actually talk to me. She’d slyly taught me how to control my mana and how to write spells, but the stories about big bad guys were as different as night and day, and there was no way to know which one was this guy that she needed to stop.
I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment building, grabbed my stuff, and then headed inside. The place wasn’t fancy enough for a working elevator, so I hoofed it up to my floor and let myself inside. My apartment was exactly how I’d left it, but it felt wrong somehow, like it wasn’t actually home anymore.
“Alright,” I said and dropped my stuff on the couch. “Let’s clean and make some dinner. I think I have some ramen noodles around here somewhere.”
I turned on the radio, pulled out my favorite orange-scented cleaner, and then rummaged through my cabinets for something to eat. The fridge and pantry were almost completely empty since I’d planned to be at school, but there was chicken-flavored ramen, and there was a bagel place down the street for breakfast. I put a pot of water on and then looked around for the first thing to clean while I sorted through my thoughts.
“Yo, yo, yo!” someone shouted into the radio. “This is Candyman Chris at your service. Come down to my sto’ and get you something sweet. You have an anniversary? Boom. I got you. Your lady’s birthday coming up? Boom. I got you. Come visit me today. And yo, if you got some gold you need to unload, then I got you.”
I looked up from the kitchen counter and stared at the radio. Candyman Chris was famous around the world for the jewelry he made for rappers and celebrities that wanted to drip in diamonds, but I’d never paid much attention to his ads before because I’d never had the means or the interest in buying anything from his store. But maybe Candyman Chris was exactly the person I needed now. I pulled my cell phone out of my junk drawer, turned it on, and googled his store’s address.
It was only a few miles away, though that would be half an hour on Saturday morning, but his website confirmed that he bought gold. I was sure that he wasn’t the type to ask a lot of questions, especially if it meant a lot more money for him, and I could even trade him for some jewels I could use for summoning. It was the perfect solution to at least one of my problems, and I could move grandma to a better nursing home where they wouldn’t immediately want to sedate her and could operate on her tumor so that she’d get better.
I finished my dinner and then plopped down on the couch with a textbook. The one that Professor Lovelace had given me was so interesting that I lost track of time, and two in the morning snuck up on me like a ninja assassin. I stretched and yawned, put my notebook on the table, and then stumbled to bed and passed out.
Something woke me up near dawn, and I thought that a shadow moved near my coffee table. My eyelids felt like they were full of sand as I blinked, but it must’ve been a trick of the light because my apartment was empty. I hadn’t been so tired since the NyQuil incident when I’d passed out and woken up twelve hours later, but it had been a crazy week, and my dreams were so pleasant.
I finally woke up sometime in the late morning, and buttery light poured in through the slitted blinds to warm my face. My watch said that the jewelry store had opened half an hour ago, so I threw off my blankets and got ready for the day. I wasn’t sure if Candyman Chris would take the entire bag of gold, but it was a start, and my plan was to bargain for enough cash to set my grandma up in a new retirement home and then buy enough gems for the jackalope.
The line at the bagel place down the street was short since it was almost lunchtime, and soon I was in my old Cherokee on the way to the jeweler. I went over the plan several times in my head until it was practically second nature, and tried to ignore the sirens and police cars that seemed to be more prevalent the closer I got to the store. The place was in one of the more dangerous neighborhoods, and there were always news reports of shootings or violent robberies.
I had a spell in my pocket that would summon another swarm of wasps, but the human dimension didn’t use a lot of magic, and someone would definitely want to burn me at the stake. My pocket knife was in the glove compartment, but I decided to leave it behind. I didn’t want to give the notorious jeweler any reason to attack me and steal the gold, or to think that I was there to rob him.
The jewelry store was a stand-alone building with its own parking lot and a ton of cameras pointed in every direction. The sign out front was almost as big as the billboard down the street and had Candyman Chris’ face plastered across it with a gold and diamond-encrusted toothed smile. There were even security guards out front in black suits with guns strapped to their hips and enough muscle that I wouldn’t be surprised if their diet was mostly steroids.
“What you doin’ here?” the guard on the right asked as I walked up.
“I’m here to see the Candyman,” I said and held up the bag of gold. “I have some business for him.”
“Sure you do,” the man on the left said and motioned for the bag.
His expression was hidden behind a pair of extra-dark sunglasses, but I did see his eyebrows shoot up when he looked inside the satchel, and he glanced over at the other guard. They shared an entire conversation without a single word, and then the man on the right went inside. The man on the left kept my bag of gold, and I shoved my hands in my pockets to wrap around the spell just in case there was trouble.
“Should I follow him in?” I asked and glanced at the door.
“Nah,” the beefy man said. “You stay here until the Candyman invites you in.”
“Doesn’t his ad say that he can help anyone out?” I asked and watched a couple walk in after a quick visual inspection. “And why do they get to go in there?”
“Cuz they ain’t a threat,” the security guard said. “And you smell like trouble.”
“Me?” I muttered and wondered what gave that impression.
I wasn’t a tank like the big man, but there was some muscle under my jeans and t-shirt. The years at my warehouse job had made sure that I wasn’t weak, but it’s not like the gym was my favorite place, and the guy didn’t seem like a mage. I was pretty sure that I gave off unassuming white guy energy, but maybe my newfound power was more obvious than I’d realized.
It was something that I’d have to work on if I wanted to make money in the underground fights. I’d won my first fight by the skin of my teeth, but everyone would still bet against a mere human, and I planned to use that to my benefit by being as bland as possible. At least until I was well-known enough to earn bigger payouts from whoever ran the fights, and then I could flex as much as I wanted.
“The Candyman is interested in talking to you,” the other security guard said as he reappeared.
“Great,” I said and held my hand out for the satchel of gold. “Can I have that back? Or are you coming, too?”
“Yeah,” the guard handed the bag to me.
“Right,” I said and followed the other man inside.
The couple that had passed me earlier was over in the diamond section, and the woman had on an impressive ring that was almost as bright as her smile. Her boyfriend shook his head as he looked at the price tag, but the small grin that tugged on his lips told me that he’d pay whatever they asked. They weren’t the only ones in the store, and there were even more bodyguards behind the glass cases.
“You plan on buying something?” my escort asked as I took everything in.
“I guess that depends on if we can make a deal or not,” I answered and tore my eyes away from a poster of the Candyman.
My personal security guard grunted, typed a code into a keypad, and then let me through into a long hallway that led to the back of the building. The beige walls and cream-colored floors were a shock after the gold-plated decorations in the main store, and there wasn’t a single picture of the smiling owner. There were three rooms on each side of the corridor, and each one had its own keypad.
“Don’t try anything stupid,” the beefy man said as he knocked on the door to the office.
“Come in,” someone called from the other side.
Candyman Chris looked exactly like his pictures, and I had to press my lips together to keep from smiling at the masterful advertising. It was as if he’d decided to live out every rapper stereotype that he’d ever heard or seen, from the thick gold chain around his neck to the gold teeth. But the businessman had a sharp look in his dark brown eyes, and I had the feeling that he’d kill me without a second thought if I tried anything.
“Good morning,” I said and took the seat he gestured to.
“Mornin’,” the well-dressed man said and folded his hands over the desk. “I hear you have some kind of trade in mind?”
“I do,” I said. “Your ad says you buy gold, and it just so happens that I have some.”
“I only accept the finest,” the Candyman said and tugged on the gold chain around his neck. “My customers deserve the best. If you think you’re going to pull one over on me, then you got another thing comin’.”
“Dude, I just want to sell some gold,” I said and pulled out the satchel of coins. “I’d like to trade them for some gems and the rest for cash.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” the businessman said as he tugged open the strings. “This is a lot of gold. James, can you bring my testing kit? I need to make sure that this white boy is for real.”
“Sure thing, boss,” the beefy guard said.
I leaned back in the chair and waited for the test to be over. The Candyman dumped the golden bullion out into a thin tray and used a liquid. I’d seen tests like this done on TV before, but never in person, and the whole process was interesting.
“So?” I asked as the man finished.
“Not bad. I think we might be able to do some business.”
He made eye contact with the muscular man behind me, and I heard the click of a lock as it slid into place. My heart started to race, and a dozen scenarios ran through my head at once. The jeweler wasn’t likely to kill me with customers in the store, and I had the wasps, but that was only a last resort since the security guard still had a gun.
“You’ll take it all?” I asked and shifted in my seat.
“Of course,” the businessman said. “It’s 24k pure. I can offer you ten thousand dollars.”
“I wasn’t born yesterday, and I have the fucking internet. That’s almost a pound of gold. The going rate is about fifteen hundred per ounce. I’ll give you a deal and take twenty thousand.”
“You did your research,” the jeweler laughed and pulled out two stacks of cash. “Most people aren’t that smart. I’ll give you fifteen thousand.”
“Eighteen thousand,” I countered as he took his seat again. “And five of your best emeralds.”
“Done,” the Candyman said and banged his hand on the desk like a gavel. “James, go grab that new batch of emeralds.”
“Yes, sir,” the armed man said and left us alone.
The Candyman handed me a stack of money with a ten thousand dollar band around it and then started to count out the other eight thousand. It was more money than I’d ever seen at one time, and excitement raced through my veins as plans for my future unfolded. I wasn’t likely to win as much during the next fight since people already knew that I wasn’t completely incompetent, but after a few more wins, the pay for winning would be higher, and I could always bet on myself to boost my earnings.
