Summoner 15, p.21
Summoner 15, page 21
Suddenly, an idea struck me, and I reached into my bandolier for an essence crystal. A moment later, my arachness skittered across the stone floor between the shelves filled with books. Her beautiful feminine face peered around at her surroundings with a curious expression, but I was pleased to see she remembered to keep her paralyzing gaze away from my shapeshifting wife.
Then I transferred my spider-like summons’ web creating ability to myself, and I began to spin the bottom layer of a sack from the strands I expelled from my palms. Once I had a large, sturdy foundation, I reached up to the books, and I began to stack them on top of the sticky bag. When there was a good sized pile, I pulled the strands over the books, and I wove more webbing around to create a strong container.
I repeated this action until the entire shelf was empty, and I wiped away the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand as I counted my creations. I had twelve bags of books total, and they were heavy.
I racked my brain for another idea, and then I heard Sera’s amused chuckle. The dark-winged Archon leaned against the end of a bookshelf, and she analyzed her sharp nails with bored yellow eyes.
“What?” I demanded.
“Oh, nothing, just enjoying the view,” the Archon replied in a nonchalant tone. “It’s highly entertaining. You don’t even know what you are packing up, and yet here you are, about to lug a bunch of books through the Shadowscape.”
“You mean you are about to lug a bunch of books.” I smirked, and then I gave the Archon a pointed look. “Pile them up in the annex while I get the others. We’ll open a portal back to the human realm from there.”
“Can’t you make Utuni do it?” Sera countered with a raised eyebrow. “Or one of your other weak mortal women?”
“Do as I command,” I said as I sent out a blast of my will, and when she didn’t respond, I raised my voice. “Now!”
Sera bristled, and she opened her mouth as though she was about to argue, but then her shoulders drooped, and she turned her yellow eyes to the webbed bags of books.
“One more thing,” I added.
Sera froze, but she didn’t speak.
“Find me a book on monster identifications for the Southern continent, please.”
“Yes, master,” the dark-winged Archon murmured in a monotone voice.
“What’s wrong?” Freya asked in the language of the clans, and I realized she hadn’t understood my interaction with the dark angel-like goddess, but the warrior princess watched the Archon with apprehension in her gold-flecked eyes.
“Just reminding her who’s boss,” I said cheerfully in my wife’s native tongue, then I put my arm around Freya’s shoulder as we headed back to the hallway. “We will see what the others found, then we can get out of here.”
“I do not like the land of the shadow beasts,” my wife replied, and she shook her head full of wavy blonde locks. “Doesn’t it bother you?”
“Oh, yeah, of course.” I smiled. “I spent a lot of time on a Monster Response Squad back in my homeland, though, and we used to go into rifts all of the time. That was our job.”
“Like a raid?” The warrior princess’ voice was thoughtful as she allowed me to lead her away from the chamber of books.
“Sort of.” I shrugged. “The goal was to close the rift and prevent monsters from terrorizing the human realm.”
“You were a guardian of your realm?” Freya’s gold-flecked eyes were full of respect as she gazed up at me.
“In a way,” I laughed. “It’s hard to explain. Let’s just find the others and get out of here. We have the rest of our lives to learn about each other’s pasts.”
“True.” Freya’s lips twitched with the briefest flash of a smile. “We have the rest of our lives to grow our family, too. I’m ready to bring your children into this world and teach them to be powerful warriors just like their father.”
Suddenly, we entered the annex, and I blinked as I realized all of my friends were gathered in the glass domed room.
“Hey, guys, did you find anything?” I asked with a small wave, but as I looked over my team, I noticed the disappointed faces and downcast eyes.
“I found a small reference shelf in a sitting room,” Arwyn reported with a sigh. “It was filled with recipe books.”
I grinned and cleared my throat until all eyes were on me. “I have twelve bags of books from a shelf labeled with one of the symbols. Sera said everything we wanted to know was in that spot.”
“We can’t trust the Archons,” Nia reminded me in an exhausted voice. “There’s no way to know if she’s being honest or not.”
“It had one of the symbols Arwyn showed us,” I argued with a raised chin. “I saw it for myself, Nia.”
“Fine.” The ashen-haired mage sighed.
“I’m curious to see what you found,” Arwyn interjected, and hope returned to her amber eyes. “I trust your judgement, and your instincts. Let’s get everything back to the airship.”
“Where are these books, Gryff?” Varleth asked as he cast a pointed look at my empty hands.
“Sera’s going to bring them here,” I informed them. “I’ll open a portal by the fountain, and we’ll chuck them through. That way we don’t have to carry everything back through the battlefield.”
“Uh, wouldn’t that put us inside the ruined library in the human realm?” Cyra questioned as she looked around the group. “How is that any safer than going outside first?”
“There’s no monsters.” Braden shrugged. “I say we avoid the battle if at all possible. There’s no rift, so if we sneak back through, they can’t follow us.”
“Okay,” Arwyn said with a curt nod. “Let’s all work together to bring the books to this location. It sounds like there’s a lot, and I don’t want to leave anything behind that could prove to be useful.”
Suddenly, a loud cracking sound filled the air, and dust began to sprinkle down from the top of the roof. The floor beneath my feet shook, and for a brief moment, I thought it was an earthquake.
Then a shadow passed over the glass dome ceiling, and when I glanced up, I couldn’t understand what I was seeing. It looked like a bunch of pinkish circles sucking against the clear barrier.
“What is that thing?” Mati shouted and mirrored my thoughts.
Before anyone could respond, however, the roof of the library lifted, and long, slithering tentacles pulled the glass away from the building. My team gasped as we stared up at the humongous squid-like monster, and my jaw practically unhinged.
A giant fucking octopus had just ripped open the library.
Veopa obviously didn’t want us to have these books.
Which meant I had to do everything in my power to protect them.
Chapter Eleven
The creature was enormous, and the exposed underside of the beast was bright pink, covered in circular nodes, and ringed with barbed teeth at the very center. Then a giant orange eye in a yellow skinned face peered over the opening, and the bulbous body of the monster wobbled in the air behind it.
I’d seen it correctly. It was an octopus, but with its multiple tentacles stretching across the entire building, it was hard to judge its actual size.
It took me a moment to process what I was seeing, and I stared up at the tiny reflection of myself in its pupil like I was hypnotized.
The only sound I could hear was the crumbling of rock where the glass dome had been ripped away, and it seemed like time had stopped as the octopus and I made eye contact.
“Gryff?” Freya’s worried voice called out to me and pulled me out of my daze.
I shook my head and scanned the annex. My friends were scattered around the circular room on all sides of the fountain, and everyone stared up at the octopus in the ceiling with wide, fear filled eyes.
They needed me. I couldn’t afford to get sidetracked again.
“Get back!” I shouted to my wife and the Mistral mages as I turned away from the giant octopus.
My friends rushed toward the hallway where I’d found the chamber full of books, but as I drew near the corridor to the entrance, I remembered the minions I’d left fighting outside.
This fight was more important than whatever army was still alive beyond the walls of the library, and I had a feeling I would need all the help I could get with the squid.
So, I sent out a call to all of my summons and my Archons through our bonds, and as I directed my minions to come to my defense with a mental command, I ran a hand over my bandolier while I considered my options.
My baroquer could probably go toe-to-toe with the building sized octopus monster, but my giant fire variant summons would also demolish the library as soon as I summoned him.
While I missed my forty-foot-tall buddy, I decided to wait until I had more space for him to move around in before I called him into action. I still had six Mistral mages and my shapeshifting wife on my team, though, and I could sense the rest of my minions as they drew near.
We’d kick the ass off this octopus, then get back to the human realm before Veopa realized what happened.
Suddenly, my gut wrenched with a sickening sensation I was familiar with. It meant one of my fire imps had died. I worked the muscle in my jaw as the essence crystal returned to my hand, but a moment later, my other monsters skittered into the library. While my mana always took a bigger hit when I lost one of my summons in battle, I was proud of my monsters for managing as long as they had without my supervision.
I was also amazed at how much I could stretch my powers of concentration over the entire battlefield while also focusing on the new enemy.
“Gryff, watch out!” I heard Nia call out, and I spun just in time to avoid the long reach of the octopus tentacle as it snaked down behind me.
It was fast, but Nia Kenefick was even faster.
A bolt of electricity shot across the annex toward the appendage, and the gigantic monster let out a pained bellow that shook the walls as it jerked its limb back toward the ceiling.
I dashed toward the hallway at full speed, and my boots skidded across the smooth stone floor, but I kept my eyes on my goal as I jumped across one of the fountain benches.
Another tentacle swooped down to my left and swung toward me, and the nodes extended with a sucking motion. It was almost like it was searching around in a bucket for a toy, and the thought made me snort mid run.
Then I slid beneath the archway connecting the corridor to the annex, and I took a deep breath as I rose up to meet my friends.
That was close.
“Thanks,” I murmured to Nia once I could speak again.
“Any time,” the elementalist replied with a soft smile, and her blue eyes scanned me over like she was checking to make sure I was still all in one piece.
It was a maternal gesture, and my heart swelled with emotion, but we didn’t have time to exchange romantic words.
We had a mission to finish.
“You guys go start grabbing the books,” I instructed my team in a loud voice. “I’ll handle the squid.”
“Gryff, no,” Arwyn argued, and the worry in her amber eyes was obvious.
“I stay with you,” Freya insisted with a determined lift to her chin.
“It’s going to take all of us,” Cyra pointed out, and her chocolate brown eyes met mine with steely resolve.
“No,” I countered with a shake of my head, “we need to stay focused on the books. Veopa is trying to distract us from our mission.”
“He has a point,” Varleth added with a shrug. “If anyone can take on an octopus bigger than a building, it’s Gryff.”
“No one should have to fight alone,” Braden murmured, but I could tell the ox-like summoner was terrified.
“I won’t be alone,” I pointed out. “I have my summons and the Archons, remember?”
“I hate to admit it,” Arwyn said in a reluctant tone, and her eyes flicked down the corridor, “but he’s right. We need to get the books out of here.”
“We’ll be fast,” Mati declared in a confident voice.
“Please be safe,” Nia urged, and her blue eyes held mine until I nodded.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” Cyra warned, and her shoulders drooped as she accepted defeat.
“Me?” I smirked. “Never.”
“Come on,” the red-haired professor commanded. “Let’s hurry up.”
My friends grumbled incoherently as they reluctantly turned and followed the healer down the hallway, but my shapeshifting wife remained where she had stood before me.
“I stay with you, my husband,” the blonde hawk woman repeated firmly.
“You need to show them how to get there,” I told the warrior princess with a soft smile. “Please? Keep them safe?”
The warrior princess stared at me for a long moment, and I could see the internal struggle in her gold-flecked eyes, but then she sighed. “I swear I will protect my sister-wives and your friends.”
“I will see you soon,” I said, then I gently nudged her toward the others. “Go.”
My shapeshifting wife frowned, but then she turned and followed my friends down the passage.
As the Mistral mages and my shapeshifting wife darted down the corridor to the room full of books, they passed by Sera as she walked toward the annex with a web sac in one hand, and a single hardbound volume in her other.
My arachness followed behind the dark-winged Archon, and my spider-like summons pulled two bags of books behind her, but she kept her paralyzing gaze to the ground as she passed by my friends.
“This way,” I heard Freya say in Mistral, then the blonde hawk woman took the lead to show the rest of our team to the books.
Sera paused to give my team a wicked smile, but they moved past her without a word. Then the dark-winged Archon gazed up at the giant octopus with an amused look in her yellow eyes.
My arachness immediately leapt into action, and my spider-like summons attempted to ensnare the searching tentacles against the walls with her webbing.
“You fetched dinner,” Sera purred. “How did you know I love the taste of squid?”
“Did you find what I asked for?” I questioned as I looked pointedly at the book in her hand.
“Of course, I did,” Sera said in a proud tone, and she handed me the leather-bound volume. “Monsters Around the World. It has a huge section dedicated to the Southern continent.”
“Thanks,” I replied with a grin. Then I tucked the book into my belt behind my back.
“You’re most welcome,” Sera answered in a seductive voice. Then her yellow eyes lifted to the ceiling. “Oh, look, it wants to say hello. How sweet.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the building sized monster, and I cursed when I saw another tentacle reaching down from the open roof. I gave my kalgori the command to multiply, and my butterfly-like summons morphed exponentially until a swarm of insectoid monsters buzzed around me.
“Swarm,” I directed.
The horde of butterfly-like monsters zoomed through the annex, and then my summons wrapped the octopus limb inside their cloud of bladed wings and buzzed into my enemy’s flesh.
Chunks of octopus meat fell to the ground around me, and I jumped back to avoid the bloody debris before I called my kalgori horde back to survey the damage.
The tentacle was severed with inky black drips emitting from the wound, but as I stared up at the ceiling, the appendage pulsed, and then the octopus monster regrew its limb.
“Goblin tits,” I cursed.
My arachness was still slinging out strands of webbing at the slithering tentacles, but the appendages continued to rip free from their snares, and the long limbs were covered in dangling spider silk.
Then a creeping node covered arm snuck up behind my spider-like summons, and it slammed into her torso with shocking speed. My arachness smashed against the wall, and the bricks crumbled beneath my monster from the impact.
My stomach twisted again, and in my next breath, I held the essence crystal for my arachness in my hand.
Maker, my summons didn’t stand a chance against that thing.
“May I?” Sera asked with an arched eyebrow.
“Go for it,” I replied through gritted teeth.
The dark-winged Archon smiled wide and revealed her rows of sharp fangs before she pushed off from the ground with a powerful thrust of her legs and flew up toward the squid-like monster. She launched at the newly grown tentacle with her sharp nails extended, and the sound of her wings echoed around the chamber.
Suddenly, Phi, Miralea, and Utuni burst into the annex, and the Archons were panting with exertion, but the goddesses jostled against each other as they struggled to be the first to approach me.
“The monsters keep coming,” Miralea informed me. “My summons will hold them off for a while, though.”
“My summons devoured most of the army already,” Utuni added in a proud voice.
“You mean the ones I left for you,” Phi countered with her chin raised. “I was the first one there, after all.”
“Enough,” I commanded in a firm tone. “Right now, Sera is the one doing all the work, so why don’t you guys go help her out?”
My Archons glared at each other, then rushed forward with the same competitiveness they’d approached me with.
I shook my head in amazement at the immaturity of beings over thousands of years old.
Miralea growled as she jumped onto the end of the dangling limb and sank into the slippery flesh with claws and teeth. Phi stretched into her larger form and reached up to the open ceiling to grab one of the monster’s other appendages, and the white-winged Archon ripped into her target with teeth and nails.
“You know this is one of Veopa’s personal summons, right?” Utuni called over her shoulder as she raced toward the giant octopus. Then the snake-like goddess leapt into battle as the squid-like monster reached another limb down into the annex.
So, Veopa had sent another one of her own monsters after me. I’d already captured her ochremaun, and I could imagine how my victory had upset the shapeshifting goddess. The giant squid-like beast was certainly powerful, and it would make a nice addition to my collection, but I would need to weaken it a great deal before I could capture it inside an empty essence crystal.
