Summoner school, p.16
Summoner School, page 16
“I only use lab made gems,” the businessman said as the guard rejoined us. “The mined ones have too much blood on them, and I can’t support using enslaved kids. I’m sure you understand.”
“Of course,” I said with a nod, and I was a bit surprised that he was so ethical. “As long as they’re structure is identical.”
“Interesting request,” he said and opened the box of emeralds. “Pick out the five that you want.”
“Great,” I said as I poked through the gemstones.
They were all a dark green and were already cut into various shapes the size of my thumbnail. I found five that looked fairly similar, held them up to the light, and then stuffed them into my pocket. My research into gemstones was still new, but lab made and natural should work the same for a spell, and I had more than enough to test my theories and capture a jackalope.
“If you have any more gold you want to trade in the future, then you know where to find me,” the Candyman said and held out his hand. “James here will see you in.”
“Thanks,” I said and shook his hand. “I’m sure you’ll see me around at some point.”
James walked me back out through the store and then took up his position by the front door. I waved goodbye, headed to my old Cherokee, and then tugged my phone out. There were more cars in the parking lot as people stopped by during their lunch break, and I had no plans to stick around.
There was a really nice nursing home closer to my grandparents’ house, but I hadn’t been able to afford it before even with her Medicare paying for most of it. I called ahead to make sure that someone could see me, stopped in, and arranged for my grandmother to be moved in by the end of the day. The administration at Cozy Acres wouldn’t be happy about giving up one of their patients, but the new nursing home said that they’d take care of everything.
The only thing that I needed to do was pick up my grandmother, a few of her clothes, comfort items, and her meds. I had to pay a little extra to have everything else packed up, but the moving crew was supposed to have it done by the end of the day, and my grandmother’s new room came fully furnished so she could settle in quickly. The money that I’d made at the fight would cover a couple of months, and I’d have more money before the next bill came through.
I finished up at the new nursing home, stopped by the old house, and picked up a few extra outfits for my last surviving relative. Grandma already had the crochet blanket that she’d made, but the quilt she’d sewn with mom was in a box in the back of her closet, and I added it to the stack. It was already afternoon by the time I’d finished up and headed to Cozy Acres to pick up grandma.
“Mr. Hall,” Nurse Johnson said as I came in. “I heard that Deloris is moving today. I hope that it’s not because of the medication.”
“No, no,” I reassured her. “I just want to move her a little closer to me. And they have a doctor that specializes in removing tumors like hers. You’ve all been amazing.”
“She’s headed to Serenity Valley, right?” one of the other nurses asked. “That place is really nice.”
“It is,” I said with a nod. “How is grandma today?”
“I’m just fine, Andrew,” grandma said as she walked into the lobby. “Although, it would’ve been nice if you’d called ahead and told me that I was being moved. I had to hear it from the nurses.”
“I wanted to tell you when I came to get you,” I said. “I picked up some clothes for you. And the movers are going to pack up the rest of your stuff and bring it by this evening.”
“Mmmhmm,” she said and then broke into a bright smile. “I’m just teasing you, Andrew. I’ve already said goodbye to everyone and packed a bag.”
“And I have her meds,” Nurse Johnson said. “You’ll just have to sign them out.”
“Sure,” I said.
It didn’t take nearly as long as I’d expected to load grandma into the car, and the nurses were as nice as always. I almost felt bad about taking the old woman away from the place, but the new nursing home had better facilities and specialized in dealing with brain tumor patients. It would be exactly what she needed, and no one would try to keep her sedated.
“Andrew,” grandma said as we pulled out of the parking lot. “How’s school?”
“It’s fine,” I said and glanced over at her. “I was surprised to find out that you’ve been training me for magic my whole life. The breathing techniques and the puzzles.”
“You’ve always been brilliant,” the older woman said and patted my arm, looked at the fingermarks she’d made earlier, and shook her head. “I used to be a summoner. That was before I met your grandfather and gave it all up. Your mom didn’t have any interest in magic, and your father was as normal as they came. I suppose that the rumors are true. If you stop using your magic for long enough, then you lose your connection to it.”
“Then why don’t you use it?” I asked. “It’s not like there’s anyone around to stop you.”
“Andrew,” she started and then stopped herself like she’d almost told me a secret. “Things are always more complicated than they seem. Now, I’m not going to ask you how you got the money for this new place. Mages always have their ways. But I do want you to move into the old manor. It’s safer for you to stay there.”
“Because of the barriers?” I asked. “I saw something outside the other night. It wanted in but couldn’t get past the fence.”
I pulled into the parking lot at Serenity Valley then, parked near her building, and finally looked over at the gray-haired woman. She ran a hand over her dress, nodded, and then turned her attention to me. I waited for an explanation but only received a smile and a pat on the arm.
“I’ve always done my best to keep you safe,” she said. “You’re a smart boy. I’m sure that you’ll be just fine. Now, take me to my new room and then go home and study. You have a lot to learn if you’re going to be the best mage in your class. The other creatures have a bias against us humans, but we’re just as good at magic as they are. Never forget that.”
I studied her for a few seconds and then shook my head, climbed out, and grabbed her bags. The old woman was as stubborn as a mule and clearly didn’t want to talk about the creepy shadow creatures. I’d have to figure out what she was hiding on my own, or wait until she was ready to talk.
The new head nurse, a Ms. Polinski, greeted us the second that we walked through the door and led us to grandma’s new room. It was bigger than her last place and had a sitting area that faced the lake and a pretty garden. Grandma plopped down on the bed and bounced a few times while Nurse Polinski told her all about the schedule and meal times. She also told grandma and I about the new oncologist and the treatment plan, possible surgery, and the aftercare that they provided.
“You need to head home and study, Andrew,” grandma said and shooed me toward the door. “Ms. Polinski and I will be just fine. And don’t you come back here and check on me all the time. You need to focus.”
“Alright,” I said and gave her a hug. “If you need anything, then you call me.”
“Take good care of that amulet,” she said with a sweet smile. “I think that jewelry is just a little too much for an old woman like me, but it’ll suit you.”
“Okay,” I said.
I studied her for a few seconds, nodded to Nurse Polinski, and then headed out to my car. My grandmother had clearly changed her mind about the amulet, at least for the moment, but that left even more questions unanswered. I needed to figure out what she’d been into and who the man was that had supposedly come back, and I had the feeling that I was going to be on my own for that research.
At least the trip to the Victorian Manor was a lot shorter since the new nursing home was closer, and I made it back just as the sun started to set behind the trees. There was still half an hour before dark, but I had no intention of being outside the barrier at night. I’d brought the rest of the ramen from my apartment, my books, and my overnight bag.
My main priority was to finish the research on jackalopes and to go through the attic. There was only one naked bulb to illuminate the boxes, and it cast too many shadows around the boxes and stored furniture to be really useful. Every horror movie that I’d ever watched flashed across my mind, but the spell for the wasps was still in my pocket, and I reminded myself that the shadow creatures couldn’t come inside.
I made my way past the dusty memories of my childhood, the remnants of my parents’ lives, and stopped at my grandmother’s things. She’d gone through several purges throughout the years in an effort to clean away the clutter, but there had always been a few wooden chests that she would never let any of us touch. I’d asked grandpa about them once, but he’d just told me that women had to have their secrets, and said that I should let grandma tell me hers when she was ready.
But the old woman didn’t seem like she’d ever tell me everything, and I needed answers right now. I popped open the first trunk and found her old wedding dress carefully sealed and preserved, though the lace was still eaten by moths and yellowed with age. There were letters from grandpa and a few recipe cards, but nothing that would shed light on her life as a mage.
I shifted my attention to the next trunk, squatted down, and tried to lift the heavy lid. The wood groaned as I tried pushed upwards, but the damned thing wouldn’t give. There wasn’t a locking mechanism anywhere, and it was too heavy for me to move, so I tried again with no luck.
A flash of yellow light raced around the seal of the lid, and runes appeared in the thick wood. Whatever grandma had in there, she’d protected it from anyone who might try to look inside. I swore under my breath, tugged my phone out of my pocket, and then took a picture of the symbols. There had to be a book that would tell me what they meant, and then I could figure out a counter-spell.
I was tempted to drive back down to the nursing home and demand answers, but the older woman would clam up tighter than the trunk, and it was all another puzzle that I was supposed to figure out on my own. The last thing that I needed was another mystery, especially since it might all be part of the brain tumor, and whoever the man was could’ve been taken care of a long time ago.
“Alright,” I said and headed back downstairs. “I’m just going to study, eat dinner, and figure everything else out later.”
The ramen didn’t take long to make, and I settled down at the dining room table with my books and some chopsticks. A shadow moved near the fenceline, but there was no sign of the hooded figure, and the barrier seemed to still be in place. I watched for a little while, but whatever it was had moved on, and I shook my head.
“You’re being paranoid,” I said. “You’re a human studying at a school of magic, you’re bound to see new creatures, and they’re not all going to be out to kill you.”
I pulled the leather-bound textbook to me and opened it to the jackalope section. The emeralds would be perfect to hold my summoned creature, but I still needed to gather the materials. The book had a spell that would call it forward, but it said that I’d need some of the jackalope’s antlers.
The illustration made the bunny look like something from Monty Python with bones scattered around its feet. I almost choked when I read the section about its powers and realized that it could summon lightning on a rainy day. Professor Lovelace was right about it being more dangerous than the human version.
A plan had started to brew in the back of my mind, but I’d need backup to pull it off.
And I knew just the tree-man to help.
Chapter 11
I spent my entire Sunday in my childhood home with a duster. The place was covered in a thick layer after six months with no one to clean it, and there was a long list of repairs that would need to be done to make it livable again. I wrote everything down, googled how much it should cost to fix it, and then made a mental note to see if there were any spells that could help.
The nursing home said that I could visit grandma for lunch, and she spent the entire time talking about the new friends that she’d made. We both knew that it was mostly a stalling tactic so she didn’t have to answer my questions, but it was good to hear that she’d already started to fit in. I left her to a bridge game in the late afternoon and had just enough time to go to the store for dinner before the sun sank behind the trees.
Our nosy neighbors waved from their front porch as I unloaded my old Cherokee. I was tempted to ask if they were mages and kept an eye on the house because of the creepy hooded figure, but they’d just look at me like I was crazy if they weren’t, and neither of them had ever been talkative. It was best to leave them to their own devices like I’d always done.
I tried to use the amulet to reach Mike, but it barely reacted to my request. The closest that the stone came to actually working as a communicator was the sound of wind that came whistled so loud that it hurt my ears. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort after the fourth try and shoved it back in my pocket as I started on my homework.
The book that Professor Lovelace had given me had a lot of notes on the dangers the other mage had faced, but not enough about the furry creature to feel like I could hunt it right away. The tip about the emeralds was the best advice that it gave, but the mention of the jackalope summoning lightning was more like a warning in the footnotes. I’d have to hit the library as soon as I was back to campus, but luckily that was where I was most likely to find my roommate.
I ate dinner in a hurry, packed up my bags, and then headed back to campus right as the last rays of sunlight disappeared behind the horizon. My dorm room seemed to have even more plants than when I’d left, so Mike was probably already back, but no one answered my tentative greeting. I watched the trees that grew around my roommate’s bed for any signs of life and then dumped my overnight bag in my closet.
“To the library I go,” I said.
The seams of my old backpack tore as I shifted it on my shoulder, and so I added a new bag to my list of supplies to buy in town. I needed a few more crystals as well, some highlighters, and wasp stingers. The ones from the woods had been decent enough for the fight with Ramis, but the spell adaptations were minimal, and I’d need something a little more venomous for the next battle.
I looked through the books to figure out what could be left behind and decided to take the notes, my grandmother’s journal, and the textbook from Professor Lovelace. Mike might know what a jackalope was, but the legends of them in my world had been wrong, and the myths in his dimension might be different. I wasn’t sure that the tree-man would actually come with me, but he’d been down to go to another underground battle, and a hunt would be more fun.
“Hey, human,” Onet greeted me as I left my room. “I heard that you figured out how to create a whole swarm of wasps. That’s actually impressive.”
The tiny pixie flitted around my head as she talked, and I couldn’t help but notice her sharp teeth. It was like she was a demented tooth fairy that hadn’t decided to eat me yet. She flapped her glittery wings and watched me with pupiless eyes as she waited for a reply.
“Thanks,” I said with a shrug. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.”
“Obviously,” she said and flipped her hair. “Be careful out there, human.”
“Andrew,” I sighed and started toward the tall building.
I knew that there were other humans on campus, but it seemed like the moniker was assigned to me. Everyone seemed to have accepted my presence as a summoner, but I wondered how Onet had heard about the wasps. It might’ve been from my talk with Professor Lovelace because Sarya wouldn’t have admitted that we were at the underground fights, but I still had to be careful about who found out about my abilities and the spells I was casting.
The school would kick me out in a heartbeat if they found out about the illegal battles, so I needed to come up with a plan for why I needed more dangerous spells ahead of the curriculum. Professor Edinbock had mentioned the battle magic program would have sign-ups soon, and that it would help us to have a higher rank. That would put me in the direct path of that psycho, Rarus, but at least it would explain any influx of powerful magical creatures.
I pushed it to the back of my mind as I opened the door to the library. My first order of business was to talk to Mike and see if he’d be willing to come with me on the jackalope hunt. I felt like we were about to embark on a magical quest and couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear.
The tree-man was in the middle of the first floor with books all over his table. The leaves that acted as his hair fluttered like they did when he was frustrated with something, and I pulled out the chair across from him. Mike glanced up with an irritated expression in his black eyes, blinked, and then flashed a small smile.
“How was your weekend?” he asked.
“Good,” I said and set my bag down. “Grandma has settled into a new place and made friends. How was your meeting?”
“It went well,” he said with a glance around as if someone might realize he’d met with a smuggler. “We may have some new plants soon.”
“Of course,” I chuckled. “If you get any more, then they’re going to spill over onto my side of the room. Which is okay as long as I don’t wake up with a mushroom growing out of my forehead or a ficus trying to cuddle me.”
“I’ll do my best,” the tree-man laughed.
It was late enough that most of the tables around us were empty, but Mike wasn’t the only study fanatic on campus, and I didn’t want anyone else to hear our conversation. I tugged the book from Professor Lovelace out of my bag and slid it across the table. My bookmark made it easy to find the place with the jackalope, and the stack of books around us made it easier to hide it from nosy onlookers.
“Wanna come?” I asked as I tapped my finger on the page.
“You’re kidding, right?” Mike asked and glanced around, leaned over, and stared at the colorful rendering. “Do you know how dangerous that thing is? It could gore you in five seconds flat. Those antlers aren’t just for dramatic effect.”
