Summoner 19, p.8
Summoner 19, page 8
part #19 of Summoner Series
As we picked our way across the Shadowscape’s barren wasteland, my thoughts again turned to Carth. I knew she wasn’t going to make this easy on us, but I hadn’t expected a full trek through the unknown hillside of the Shadowscape. Where was she? And where were all of the monsters? This dimension was home to all sorts of creatures, and still we had yet to run into any of them. So, if they weren’t here, where were they? Did Carth have them all surrounding her castle? Were we about to walk into an enormous trap?
And what about Hunnah and Quilla? I was desperate to know if the remaining Archons would be fighting against us with their sister. I knew my fellow mages could handle anything thrown at them, but I knew the fight was going to be even more unpredictable if another two Archons were present.
We roamed around the Shadowscape for a while, and I tried to entertain the idea that somehow, the location of the portal got messed up. Even though it seemed unlikely Sera would make such an error, there had to be something more to the situation. I wasn’t entirely sure what the Archon was playing at, but I hoped Sera’s mistake hadn’t been completely intentional.
Gawain kept a fire ball aglow in his palm as we walked through the dark landscape, and I kept my eyes peeled for anything familiar. I sifted through my memories and tried to remember any other specific landmarks that set Carth’s palace apart from other locations in the Shadowscape.
Aside from the fact it was a beautiful, carved, marble palace, of course.
While our enthusiasm waned with every moment, I tried to keep morale as high as I possibly could. Every so often, I would prompt a conversation topic for the rest of the group, and while we kept our eyes peeled for stray monsters, we shot the shit and caught up after nine months of not speaking.
“So, Braden, when are you and Mati finally tying the knot?” Gawain prompted the summoner. “It’s been nearly a year since you got engaged.”
“Well, we were waiting for Gryff’s return,” Braden mused. “But I suppose now that he’s back, we should probably resume planning it. We aren’t really sure what we want in terms of a ceremony. Mati’s sister is trying to convince her to have some big elaborate thing, but Mati’s not too sure that’s what she wants.”
“The biggest priority is doing whatever that girl wants.” I grinned at the ox-like summoner. “You know the saying: happy wife, happy life.”
“And that’s coming from the man with two wives, and like… what? Five girlfriends?” Almasy chuckled. “Gryff basically wrote the book on marital satisfaction.”
“What about the other girls, Gryff?” Orenn wondered. “Do they want to get married, too?”
“I’m not really sure.” I shrugged. “The only one who’s really mentioned it is Cyra, and it was a while ago. Either way, marriage doesn’t change the way I feel about any of them. If they want to remain unmarried, that’s fine with me, and if they want to make it official in a legal sense, I’m okay with that, too.”
Gawain shook his golden-haired head slowly. “The fact that you can juggle so many women without difficulty astonishes me.”
“You’d probably be able to handle it if you cut back on the perfume, Maddox,” Varleth teased the fire mage, and I was surprised it had taken this long for the surly gypsy to come back around to Gawain’s cologne. “You basically exude your own Shadowscape air.”
“Ha, ha, Prost,” Gawain scoffed at the banisher. “And where is your harem of sexy women, pray tell?”
“Okay, okay, knock it off, guys,” Orenn chuckled. “I swear, you two act like you’re a married couple.”
“Yeah, maybe you two should just go ahead and wed each other,” I offered. “Save us all the grief of listening to you pine after one another.”
“What do you say, Maddox?” Varleth lightly punched Gawain’s arm. “Shall we finally reveal our hidden love to the world?”
“Sure thing, Prost.” Gawain rolled his emerald eyes. “We can just go ahead and elope right here in the Shadowscape, amongst the fecal smell and the encompassing darkness.”
“How romantic,” Almasy noted, and the rest of us cracked up as Varleth and Gawain murmured to themselves.
“Hey, Mur, did you have a lot of ladies back home?” Orenn asked Mur, and the moose shapeshifter’s eyes grew large as the attention fell to him.
“Well… ” Mur trailed off, and he fidgeted with the antlers that rose out of his dark curly hair. “I don’t know about that--”
“C’mon, you didn’t have any girls to flirt with?” I teased the shapeshifter.
“There were a few,” the boy admitted finally. “But none that I was particularly interested in--”
“Oh, I don’t believe that for a single second,” Orenn objected with a chuckle.
“Yeah, Mur, spill the beans,” Braden chimed in. “Tell us about your mystery girl.”
Mur let out an exaggerated sigh, and after lightly scuffed the ground with his boot, he met our gazes. “Okay, there was girl from Moose Clan called Yulie--”
“There it is!” I grinned.
“Yeah, Mur, tell us about Yulie!” Almasy encouraged the shapeshifter, and Mur’s cheeks darkened even further.
“Gryff, will you translate to them?” the kid asked me softly in his native tongue. “I don’t want to be rude, but I can’t say all of the words in Mistral.”
“No problem, Mur.” I smiled at the shapeshifter.
Mur smiled back, and then, without further prompting, he began to rattle on about this girl he had a crush on in the Clans, a moose girl named Yulie who’d been his childhood friend, and I translated to the rest of the group.
“She had the best smile,” Mur recounted. “And the most infectious laugh. If she laughed, you laughed right along.”
As he told us all about the sparkle in her eyes when they would talk, I noticed Mur’s shoulders slumping. At first, he’d seemed happy to talk about her, but something had changed. His large brown eyes suddenly filled with tears, and then he stopped speaking altogether as his chest wracked with sobs.
“Is he alright?” Braden asked me gently.
“I don’t know,” I whispered back to the other summoner, and then I placed a hand on Mur’s shaky shoulder. “Mur, what’s going on?”
“I’m s-s-sorry,” he whimpered. “I… I didn’t realize how much I missed her.”
“Aww, Mur, don’t be sorry,” I assured him. “There’s nothing wrong with missing someone.”
I wondered if the sudden memories of Yulie made the moose shapeshifter homesick, and if maybe this sadness was enough to make Mur want to return to the Clans.
“I miss her a lot,” he admitted as he adjusted his mask and wiped a tear away from his cheek. “I thought talking about her would make me feel better, but it didn’t.”
“Look, I know you want to be a warrior and train at the Academy, but no one would blame you for wanting to go home,” I said as I squeezed my hand tighter on his shoulder. “If you want to return to your family, to Yulie--”
“Yulie died,” Mur interrupted me in a gentle voice. “During a raid between the clans. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
My heart dropped at this revelation, and the rest of the team watched me with confused expressions.
“Gryff, what did he say?” Almasy asked as he looked between me and the shapeshifter.
“Yulie passed away,” I translated quietly, and the rest of my friends’ shoulders dropped at the news.
“Oh, Mur, I’m so sorry,” Orenn apologized with sincerity. “I wouldn’t have asked if I’d known--”
“It is okay,” Mur said in gruff Mistral. “You did not know.”
“I’m sorry, too, Mur,” I apologized to the moose shapeshifter. “I can only imagine how difficult that was to go through, and we didn’t mean to tear at old wounds.”
Mur gathered his composure and wiped away another tear. “It’s alright, Gryff. You didn’t know, and while I’m sad, Yulie is a big reason I’m here. I want to be strong for her, be the type of man she would’ve wanted as a husband. I don’t want to go back to Moose Clan and be a lowly cook my whole life. I want to be a fighter. I want to be a great warrior like you.”
While his words saddened me, I had to admire the shapeshifter’s passion. He’d been through so much, and yet, he’d chosen to come after Carth with us.
“You’re already way stronger than you know, Mur,” I encouraged him. “We’re happy to have you here with us.”
“Really?” Mur inquired.
“Of course,” I replied, and then I looked around at the rest of my team and inclined my head slightly at Mur.
The others caught my intention and immediately began to reassure the kid.
“Glad you’re here, moose boy.” Orenn winked. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Definitely,” Almasy agreed. “It’s not every day we get to hang out with a shapeshifter.”
“We’re happy to have you, Mur,” Gawain added in shortly.
“Same here,” Varleth agreed with a firm nod.
“Thanks, everyone,” Mur gushed, and then he straightened out his spine. “Now, let’s go find that horned lady!”
We continued through the Shadowscape, and after a while, I noticed my team was getting a bit restless, so when we came upon a small forested area, I gestured for the team to follow me. We all took a break and perched on the rotted wood of a giant log, and while it wasn’t exactly comfortable, it was nice to get off my feet for a second. It was hard to tell how much time had passed since we began scouting out the castle, but if my aching muscles were any indication, it’d been a while.
Almasy rooted around inside his travel pack until he retrieved a little bottle. The pilot opened it up, lifted his gas mask, and then took a hearty swig of it. To anyone else, it would seem like the earth mage was drinking, but those who knew Almasy well knew he was diabetic and the container was full of fruit juice, not alcohol.
“Doing alright?” I prompted him once he wiped a bit of liquid from the corner of his mouth and replaced his gas mask.
“Of course.” The pilot winked at me. “Just felt my blood sugar taking a bit of a hit. I don’t want to be a liability later.”
“Oh, fuck off with that,” Orenn laughed at the mage. “You aren’t a burden, Almasy.”
“Hey, speak for yourself, metallogue,” Varleth teased.
The pair of mages began to push each other, and I couldn’t help but laugh at my friends’ shenanigans. The way my team could find humor in such a dark situation was touching, and it was nice to have some laughter while surrounded by such destruction.
As we continued to catch our breaths and get our bearings, I thought of my family. Sure, I hadn’t been gone for long by Shadowscape standards, but there was a chance things could be radically different by the time my team returned.
“Gryff, are you good?” Braden interrupted my musings, and when I looked up from the point on the ground I’d been fixating on, I saw the other summoner’s gray eyes were watching me with concern.
“I’m fine,” I assured him with a nod. “Just trying to think of what to do next. I should have planned this out much better than I did. Of course, I didn’t think we’d end up lost.”
“This was pretty unexpected,” the ox-like mage pointed out to me. “And besides, when do things ever really go to plan around here?’
“I suppose that’s fair,” I laughed. “You sound just like the girls. They’re always telling me to look on the bright side, too.”
Then I reached into my mind and asked Sera and Xan for assistance.
“Does any of this look familiar?” I prompted the goddesses. “I feel like we’re going around in circles.”
It looks somewhat familiar, Sera noted.
It doesn’t look like the grounds, though, Xan argued softly. I think the key is locating the graveyard. Once you find the graveyard, you should be able to find the castle.
The graveyard.
I had an idea.
I reached into my bandolier and retrieved a medium-sized magenta essence crystal. I threw it to the ground, and after a plume of blue-black smoke rose up into the air, my maripor appeared.
The creature was a four-legged being that appeared part feline, part canine, with silky black fur and intense magenta irises. Its ears were shaped like butterfly wings, but the most notable feature was its long, corkscrew-shaped tail lined with wicked-looking barbs.
My summons stretched out like a cat who’d awoken from a nap, and then its eyed me with a playful expression. Aside from my fight with the quartzriel, the maripor and I really hadn’t had a moment to bond or practice attacks together, but its origin led me to believe it knew how to find the graveyard.
When I’d first met the creature, I’d been roaming the grounds of Carth’s palace, and the monster appeared out of nowhere and threatened me. We’d gotten into an intense fight that ended with me capturing the beast, but not before it’d sunk its poisonous fangs into my arm. Luckily, Xan had healed me up, but the bite almost killed me.
But now, the maripor and I were on friendly terms, and I had a favor to ask of it.
“Can you lead us to the graveyard?” I asked my summons in a hopeful tone, and the maripor tilted its large head to the side as if it were a dog.
It narrowed its pink eyes as it considered my words, and then it let out an odd bark.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” I laughed.
“Whoa, what is that thing?” Braden asked as he studied the monster closely.
“It’s called a maripor,” I explained. “I captured it during my week with Carth. It was living on the grounds of her palace, and more specifically, it dwelled inside the broken-up graveyard. I’m hoping it can lead us to the grounds.”
“It seems unlikely a monster would know this place better than the Archons,” Gawain noted in a skeptical tone. “Not to be a downer or anything, I just… don’t understand why this place is suddenly so hidden.”
“I don’t know, either,” I answered him truthfully. “I don’t even know if this is going to work. But we have to try anything we can, or else we’re going to be wandering around the Shadowscape aimlessly until we give up.”
“Sorry, summoner,” Gawain apologized.
“Don’t apologize.” I shook my head. “I appreciate the feedback.”
I sent the official command to the monster, and like a domesticated hunting dog, the maripor sniffed along the blackened ground, and we followed the beast as it trailed down the seemingly never-ending field. Every so often, the creature would pause, look around, and then resume sniffing, and each time, I felt a surge of hopefulness rush through me, only for it to be quelled moments later.
Almasy, Gawain, Varleth, Orenn, and Mur followed along behind me, and I could tell they felt similar spikes of excitement with every brief stop, but I began to hear soft groans as the number of circumstances rose.
At one point, the maripor let out a frustrated bark as it scanned the area, and while I wasn’t happy the creature was having a poor time, it was also somewhat validating to know the monster was also unsure of where we were.
Suddenly, the maripor stiffened, and I followed its magenta-eyed gaze until I caught sight of a flash of black.
Oh, fuck.
A monster?
I narrowed my eyes in an attempt to focus on the sight, and once the black blur took shape, my stomach plummeted. It wasn’t just any swath of black. It was a cloak.
And that cloak belonged to just the person I didn’t want to speak with right now.
“Uh, Gryff, who or what is that?” Orenn wondered as he squinted off in the distance.
“Not someone you wanna meet,” I sighed.
“Who is she, and what is she doing here?” Varleth asked with a quizzical expression.
“Crystyn?” I called out to the hooded figure despite my disdain. I removed my gas mask so the Guardian could recognize my face, though if I knew her as well as I thought I did, she likely already knew who I was.
“Crystyn?” Braden repeated back, and the rest of the group shared confused looks with each other as they tried to place her name.
At the mention of her name, Crystyn turned around, and with hastened strides, she approached the group. Once she reached us, she removed the hood from her face.
Crystyn had been the twin sister of my father, Relaude, yet somehow, she didn’t look like she was any older than her mid-thirties. She had wavy, shoulder-length caramel-colored hair and wide hazel eyes that studied me cautiously as she came over to us.
“Gryff?” She frowned. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” I replied with a raised eyebrow. “The Shadowscape isn’t exactly a small place, and it’s a little suspicious you’re somehow in the same area as me yet again. Are you still stalking me?”
“Not stalking.” Crystyn shook her head. “I’m not following you, I promise--”
“Sure.” I rolled my eyes at my aunt. “Somehow I find that hard to believe.”
“I told you the last time we spoke, I live here,” the Guardian pointed out. “So, if anyone is following anyone--”
“Gryff, who is this?” Gawain interrupted her, and the fire mage stood beside me with his hands in his cloak pockets. While his posture was casual, his tone of voice was not, and I could tell by the way his emerald eyes studied the Guardian that he wasn’t going to let Crystyn fuck with us.
“This is… my aunt,” I admitted to him.
“Your aunt?” Gawain frowned. “I thought you didn’t have any living relatives.”
“I didn’t find out until recently,” I informed the fire mage, and then I glared over at Crystyn. “Someone decided she wanted to keep that information from me, for reasons she still hasn’t fully explained.”
“Gryff, we don’t have time to get into this right now,” Crystyn sighed. “And besides, the real question is what are you doing here? And why is there a whole group of mages with you?”
“You made it pretty clear the last time we spoke that you didn’t want anything to do with me or my actions,” I reminded the Guardian with a raised eyebrow. “Remember the whole speech you gave me about ‘falling from grace’ or whatever.”
