Summoner school 5 a reve.., p.3
Summoner School 5: A Reverse Portal Fantasy, page 3
“Like the gnomes that build directly into the mountain rock,” Rina said with a nod. “That makes sense.”
“Especially if they don’t want to be found,” I said and flashed Stacy a reassuring smile. “We should be careful looking around. There might be booby traps and explosives hidden under piles of leaves that have nothing to do with mages and everything to do with conspiracy nuts who think that the government is out to get them.”
One of the guys that I used to work with had gone on an entire rant once about government surveillance and how we were all being monitored at every turn. There’d been a huge argument when I pointed out that most of our electronic devices literally listened to our every word in order to answer our commands and questions. I’m pretty sure he actually went off the grid shortly after he left the warehouse, and I wondered if we might even find his new house in the windy mountains.
“There are a lot of technarchs in government positions that keep an eye on any magic use,” Stacy said absently and then looked mortified at having given away a secret.
“Not surprising,” Sarya said with a shrug. “We’re pretty sure that there’s a traitor in the magical council. It is not strictly a human issue for people to betray each other.”
“The technarchs don’t plan to hurt humans,” the scientist said. “Joe and Charles may have gone off the deep end, but at their core, the main purpose of the organization is to protect humans. Even if that has become misguided.”
“I promise you that most of us abominations want nothing to do with you humans,” Atlesia huffed and flipped her lavender hair. “You lot are usually the kind to shoot first and ask questions later whenever we show our true forms.”
“Atlesia has a point,” I said and moved toward a break in the trees. “How many wars have been started because someone was different from someone else? And all of our movies about aliens usually perpetuate the idea that anything that isn’t human just wants to kill and subjugate us.”
Stacy turned bright red as she clamped down on another comment, and I could guess that it involved all of the technomages in the film industry. It would be in their best interest to keep the general public afraid of what the other species would do if they ever came back. There were plenty of movies and TV shows that showed fantasy creatures as evil, and even more with diabolical wizards like the headmaster, though in Enzaron’s case, there actually was an evil plot.
“You’re right,” Stacy said. “The perpetuation of others as evil is a problem.”
“I think this is a trail,” I said to change the subject before it became a philosophical conversation. “I think you’re right about the point on the map being just a little off. Come on. We can talk about nine realms relations later. For the moment, we should try to find the location of the last shadow creature attack. I don’t really want to be wandering around here once the sun sets.”
“Are there creatures that can kill us?” Mike asked and glanced around at the trees. “The forest does not seem concerned with our presence. There may be more supernatural creatures like the one you found in the South American village, but there is nothing that the trees would consider unusual.”
Stacy turned her attention from the trail to the trees and then to Mike like she wasn’t sure if the tree-man could actually talk to the plants that surrounded us. It wasn’t a surprise that the technomages didn’t know much about the supernatural creatures from the other realms since they’d cut themselves off from them completely, but Ents had been shown on TV and in movies for years, though my roommate would lose his mind if the blonde called him that. The scientist seemed to decide her questions could wait until later because she shook her head and stayed quiet.
“There are plenty of stories about weird monsters in the mountains,” I said and started forward. “Usually from people that’ve had one too many drinks, but then again, a year ago I would’ve thought someone who told me about mages and shadow creatures was completely crazy.”
I walked through the forest of yellow birch and kept my eyes out for any sign of civilization. The part that we were in was definitely high enough that most eco-tourists wouldn’t run into us. I didn’t hear the sounds of cars or a freeway, and there weren’t even planes flying overhead, so the only people that we’d run into would be mages or backwoods country folk that would hopefully give us a warning shot before they tried to kill us.
“I don’t want to run into another monster,” Stacy said with a nervous glance around. “I saw one in South America that was large and hungry like it wanted to devour me.”
“She did,” Sarya said.
“Andrew caught her, and she works for him now,” Atlesia said and slipped her hand into mine.
Stacy stopped in her tracks and stared at me like I’d grown a second head. It had to be hard for the technomage to realize how much she didn’t know and all of the things her people had missed out on by being afraid of the supernatural creatures. Of course, the fact that I’d tamed a tapir-boar probably didn’t make her feel any safer around mages. It probably just confirmed that we magic users could come and take over the human realm if we wanted to.
“Works for you?” she asked and forced her feet to move forward again.
“It’s complicated,” I said. “I’ll explain later.”
I led the way down the trail and then stopped when the trees opened up into several acres of cleared land. There was a barn that looked like it had been burned from the inside out and the remains of a large country house with a collapsed roof. I spotted a couple of smaller buildings in the back that reminded me of tiny houses, but there wasn’t a single living person, or even a body to show what had happened.
A garden like the one at Mike’s parents’ house sat off to the right, but most of the vegetables had been turned to ash and the rest was being eaten by pigs that had escaped their pen. Shotgun shells were scattered across the gravel driveway that led into the trees on the left, and there were freshly dug graves next to the ruined barn that had been marked with hastily made wooden crosses. If this was the place where the Appalachian mages had lived, then they definitely didn’t go out without a fight.
“That’s a lot of crosses,” Stacy whispered as she stopped on the other side of Atlesia. “My people wouldn’t have taken the time to bury the bodies.”
“The shadow creatures are not capable of it,” Sarya frowned. “Someone else must’ve come to bury the dead.”
“It might’ve been their neighbors,” I said and carefully picked my way across the lawn. “The people in South America had all disappeared, too. I think the shadow creatures were able to suck all of their mana out and turn them to dust. Though anyone who wasn’t sucked dry was probably eaten by Abby and the other animals. If someone happened upon the bodies before that happened, then they probably would’ve buried them and then gotten the hell out of here before whoever killed their friends came back.”
“It’s so sad,” Atlesia said and squeezed my hand. “They shouldn’t have had to die that way. We have to stop them.”
“We will,” I reassured her.
I bent down to pick up one of the shotgun cases and smelled something other than the sharp gunpowder that I’d expected. It reminded me of the scent that always wafted out of the spell lab where Professor Quintin taught us how to properly mix potions. I turned the casing over to see that there was a spell sigil carved into what remained of the plastic and marveled at how the Appalachian mages had managed to cast the spells and potions over a long distance.
It would work even better than the light bombs that Mike had made since it would have the added bonus of the firing mechanism, and the instant heat could even bring a potion up to the right temperature in a matter of seconds. I pocketed one and then bent down to grab a few more for Mike and Rina. The two geniuses would definitely be able to make something out of it, and the gnomish woman practically drooled when she realized what I’d handed her.
“This is so brilliant,” Rina said and bounced on her toes. “It’s not quite as high-tech as the technomages, but it’s definitely a better delivery system for potions that need to be warm. Mike, do you think that you could make your bombs into these casings?”
“It’s possible,” the tree-man said in a thoughtful tone. “I’d have to see what the original device was. We use the grenades in my father’s nursery sometimes to fight off wild animals without being torn to shreds, but we don’t have these kinds of weapons.”
“You use grenades to fight off wild animals?” Stacy gasped. “That seems excessive.”
“So does caging people and experimenting on them,” Atlesia said.
“You haven’t seen what kind of creatures they have to fight against,” I said with a shrug. “Besides, Mike doesn’t use grenades like we think of them. They’re more like pouches with a small exploding mechanism that releases light or sleeping potions. They won’t kill. Unless it’s a shadow creature.”
Stacy nodded like she understood, but I could see the gears start working. The scientist definitely had more questions but managed to squash them and focus on the matter at hand. Her curiosity would just have to wait, and I doubted that Mike was about to talk shop since the technomage still wasn’t officially an ally.
I tore my attention away from Stacy to look around the farm. It was a big plot of land with some older buildings hidden in the treeline that looked like they’d been patched up over the years, and the ruined barn had some kind of metal contraption that might be a distillery. I didn’t know enough about moonshine to know how to make it, but the device looked just like something that I’d seen in an episode of CSI: Miami.
“I don’t think that house is actually ruined,” Rina said and pulled her glasses down.
The gnomish woman had invented the complicated spectacles for her work with varying devices. Some of the lenses could show her different light spectrums while others acted as high-powered magnifying glasses. Rina always looked a little crazy as she worked through the different combinations until she found the right one, but I couldn’t argue with the results.
“Do you think it’s an illusion?” I asked and reached into my pocket for my jackalope.
Flop Flop was well rested and would be ready to fight. The sky above us was clear blue with no clouds, but the jackalope didn’t need rain clouds to create the lightning he used to attack. He could also just jab people with the razor-sharp antlers on top of the mutated bunny’s head.
“It is,” Rina said. “It’s still very damaged, but the roof isn’t caved in, and someone could be living inside.”
“Someone is,” a deep country voice said from behind us.
I whirled around to see a six and a half foot tall mountain man with a beard that draped down the front of stained overalls. His dark green eyes sparked with rage, but it was the loaded shotgun aimed right at my chest that had me worried. I carefully pulled out the emerald that held my jackalope and walked forward so that I was between the big guy and the others.
“We don’t mean any harm,” I said with a friendly smile.
“She does,” the big man said and pointed the barrel of the shotgun at Stacy. “Her people are the ones that killed my family.”
“What do you mean ‘her people’?” I asked as I tried to play coy.
“Ya think I can’t spot a tech wizard no matter what they wearing?” he growled.
“They wouldn’t kill your family,” Stacy said with a defiant glare.
“You sure ‘bout that?” he snapped and showed a wound on his side.
The big man put the butt of his shotgun to his shoulder like he was about to shoot, but I didn’t give him a chance.
I’d practiced with Flop Flop enough that I could summon him without much mana, and the mutated bunny leaped out of the emerald as if he was thrilled to be free. His antlers glinted in the late morning light like the tips of a spear, and lightning raced across them as the jackalope readied himself for a battle against the Appalachian mage.
“I don’t know what happened,” I said and motioned for Flop Flop to move in front of Stacy. “But I can guarantee you that none of us had anything to do with it.”
“Bullshit,” he spat and unloaded the shotgun right at Flop Flop with a thunderous crack.
The shotgun shells split open as vines rapidly grew from the seeds that had been stuffed into it. By the time they reached my jackalope they’d already become a full net of woody vines that managed to trap Flop Flop like he was a wayward bear. I’d never seen anyone grow plants that fast, except for Atlesia, but I’d summoned the wasps the second that he’d squeezed the trigger, and the little insects had already swarmed around the angry mage.
“We don’t want to fight,” I repeated as I ordered the wasps not to sting, but not to give him a chance to aim again. “We just came to find out what happened here.”
“Did you see the shadow monsters?” Stacy asked as she tried to free Flop Flop. “They’re the ones that killed your family. Though Charles and Joe would’ve done it if they’d known where you lived. But I can guarantee that the technarchs didn’t know you even existed until the attack.”
The Appalachian mage let out a frustrated shout that shook the trees around us, and I reached into my pocket for the diamond that held my will-o’-wisp. Summoning her required more mana than Flop Flop and the wasps, but my natural mana stores had started to increase with all the spells that I’d cast. The real struggle would be the mental battle that the pixie-like woman always wanted to go through to establish who was in charge. I always won, but it was still a pain, and it wasted valuable time that we didn’t have.
“Are you tellin’ me that those fluffy demon clouds are the ones that killed my family?” the mountain man snarled and tried to get away from the wasps. “And get these damned things away from my face.”
He’d dropped the shotgun’s barrels so that they faced the ground, so I pulled the wasps back enough that we could actually see the man. The buzz of their wings was so loud that it was hard to hear, but once the swarm was high enough above our heads we were finally able to talk, and Stacy, Sarya, and Atlesia had managed to release Flop Flop without hurting him.
I motioned for the mutated bunny to guard the girls while Mike and Rina circled around the back of the man so that he couldn’t run. Flop Flop plopped down and glared daggers at the Appalachian mage like he was waiting for the order to fry him with lightning. I could feel my creature’s irritation through our mental link, but the jackalope was the most obedient of my pets and wouldn’t try to kill anyone without my permission.
“Like I said, we didn’t kill your family, nor do we have any association with the creatures,” I said and held up my hands.
“What do you have in that there diamond?” the Appalachian mage asked and pointed with his shotgun.
“A will-o’-wisp,” I said.
“Yer lyin’ through yer damn teeth,” he said in awe.
The rage drained out of the man like he’d forgotten that we were in the middle of a fight, and I sighed with relief that the battle was over without any casualties. It sounded like the mountain man had actually seen one of the shadow creatures and survived, so we needed to be able to ask him what actually happened.
“It’s true,” I said. “We all went together. Minus Stacy. But we caught it in the mountains of my roommate’s home realm.”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” the man whistled and then offered his hand. “The name’s Bubba. You sure that little lady didn’t have nothin’ to do with my family?”
“Positive,” I said.
“I’m pretty sure their appearance on your farm is the reason that I had an opportunity to escape,” Stacy said and showed the red marks on her wrists. “They were so distracted that they didn’t realize that I was faking my death.”
“And those fluffy demon clouds were the ones that did it?” he asked and put the shotgun on his shoulder again.
“They’ve killed a lot of people,” I said. “They’re going after powerful mages to steal their mana.”
“Well, my family’d definitely qualify fer that,” he sighed and then sniffed away tears. “I shoulda been here for ‘em.”
I blinked in confusion as I tried to decide if the mage had actually seen the shadow creatures or not. Maybe he’d only witnessed the attack from afar? Either way, I needed to talk to him about the creatures, and that meant I should probably show I was a friend. So I released the wasps and Flop Flop back into their stones.
Besides, there was no point keeping them around if the fight was over, and the earth mage seemed to have lost all the rage as soon as he’d realized that we weren’t an actual threat. I even put the diamond back into my pocket as a sign of good faith, though the girls and Mike would be able to buy me a few seconds to summon the will-o’-wisp if things went sideways.
Though it was scary how easily the big guy had managed to sneak up on all of us even with Sarya and Atlesia’s advanced hearing, so I’d have to watch him closely. His shoulders were wide enough to give a linebacker a run for his money, and his thighs were as thick as some of the larger trees.
But Rarus and Ramis were pretty decent at sneaking when they wanted to, so maybe it wasn’t such a surprise, especially if the Appalachian mage had a spell that would make it easier for him to hunt whatever creatures lived in the mountain range.
“And I promise that I have no plan to attack you,” Stacy said.
“Sure, sure,” he said and glared at the blonde. “I’ll let it go for the moment.”
“Really?” she gasped like she’d expected the mage to attack her.
He reached up to scratch the back of his neck with his free hand, and it showed that there was some blood on the stained overalls near the opening on the side, and a patch of gauze was taped to his ribcage. He’d definitely been wounded by something, and the shadow creatures didn’t usually leave their targets alive, but then again, neither did the technomages. He must’ve caught them off guard and managed to hide as they left.
“That’s what I said, little lady,” he grunted and ran a hand down his long beard. “Course, I didn’t even have time to bury my family before those freaks in neoprene started shootin’ at me like some government lackeys. Managed to land a few rounds myself, before they got me. If it weren’t for my little friend here, then I’d be six feet under with all of my family.”
