Summoner school 3, p.10
Summoner School 3, page 10
The door to the greenhouse swung open before I could ask her about it, and one of the professors stomped out. Her long limbs and thin hair reminded me of the willow that she was related to, but the glare that creased the woman’s bark-like skin was nothing like the kind grandmother from Pocahontas. The teacher had murder in the depths of her gray-green eyes, and it was focused solely on Sarya.
“What do you think you’re doing, Ms. Kaylen?” the tree nymph snapped. “You could’ve destroyed years worth of work if those barriers hadn’t held. I don’t know if I should be impressed with the strength of your fireballs, or if I should report this to the headmaster.”
“I apologize,” Sarya said and bowed her head in deference.
The mask of the Kaylen family slid over Sarya’s face as easily as breathing. Her father had taught the elf from birth how to save face in front of the supernatural creatures, and it was one of the few lessons that my elven girlfriend actually listened to. The pained expression made the angry professor falter, and the rest of the woman’s rage was swiftly smoothed over as the redhead flashed an apologetic smile.
“As you should,” the willow nymph sighed and ran a hand through her thin hair. “You’re just lucky that I went over the barriers this morning in preparation for the new semester. The cold has an effect on them, you know.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the redheaded elf said. “You are truly a gift to this school. I would have been devastated if I’d injured my fellow students’ chances at growing some of their fantastic plants. All under your capable supervision, of course.”
“Lady Wilna,” Ira said as the nymph preened. “You truly are the best with our nymph students. I’m glad that you were able to reinforce the barriers this morning, and I apologize for the mishap with Ms. Kaylen. She was showing us a new technique, and it got a little away from her. You know how the Kaylen family is, they are all extremely powerful, and Sarya is still in the process of learning just how to harness those abilities.”
“I’m sure you’ll be able to help her with that,” Wilna said and brushed dirt off her dress. “Who better to help with teaching fire than a dragon? Even if you’re only half.”
“My sentiments exactly,” the dragon-woman said with a tense smile.
It took all of my self-control not to say something in Ira’s defense, but the ebony-haired woman shook her head just enough for me to notice. There were far more important things at the moment than some slight from one of the other professors, and by the way Wilna said it, I doubted that it was the first time someone had made a comment like that. Professor Lovelace was an anomaly in the supernatural world since most dragon-people were killed, or hunted, and I needed to let her take care of herself.
“Well,” the nymph said and looked over all three of us. “I should get back to the greenhouse and make sure that there’s no damage on the inside. Ms. Kaylen, please be more careful with your spell casting in the future.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sarya said.
Lady Wilna twirled around and stomped back inside as if she’d just reamed us all a new one, and I shook my head in amazement. The greenhouse wasn’t damaged in the slightest, and she’d known that it wouldn’t be even as the fireball came at the windows. The tree nymph just wanted to make a fuss and put us in our place, but at least the angry woman hadn’t noticed the laser gun.
I carefully bent down and dug it out of the snow where it had melted all the way down to the grass. The steel was cold to the touch, but none of the lights went off as I picked it up, so I stuffed the weapon into the back of my pants again. I checked the area for anyone who might’ve seen the incident, but only the gate ogre was around, and he was busy with Tins.
“They’re right there!” the gnome shouted and waved a hand in our direction. “You can actually see them if you turn your giant fucking head for a second.”
“Oh, no,” I chuckled and shook my head. “I think I’ll go over there before the gnome is permanently banned from the campus.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Ira said and pulled her shoulders all the way back.
It was no secret that the gate ogre was in awe of the dragon-woman. His crimson eyes followed her whenever we passed, and the big dude had asked a ton of questions about summoning the last time that we came by. It wasn’t one of the powers that his kind usually had, but then again, humans weren’t known for it, either, and I was one of the best in the entire school.
I watched as the green-skinned man nodded emphatically and then apologized to Ira for keeping the gnome at the gate. He was like a little kid that had met his hero, and Tins rolled his eyes as the professor thanked the ogre for being such a diligent guard. I had no doubts that the dude would tell all of his friends, and it was only a matter of time before he asked for an autograph.
“--acts like he’s never seen me before,” Tins was saying as he and Ira walked over to us.
“He’s just doing his job,” Ira said and patted the shorter man on the back.
“Yeah, yeah,” the gnome grumbled. “I swear the ogres are in love with you summoners. I bet you could stab him, and he’d thank you.”
“Probably,” I laughed.
“That’s an exaggeration,” she sighed and shook her head. “Now, let’s go to my apartment, and I’ll make us lunch. We all have a lot to discuss.”
I waved at the ogre at the front gate and noticed the big man stood a little taller. The smile he flashed was unexpected, but then again, I had gained a lot of notoriety as a summoner over the last few months. It wouldn’t be too long before the gate guard asked for my autograph, and I made a mental note to ask about the spell that the green-skinned man used to blend into the shadows.
All of the ogres that guarded the underground fighting arena could blend in with the darkness in the caves, and the ones around the school seemed to have the same ability. It was like they became one with the shadows until it was time for them to materialize, and that was a skill that might come in handy as we tried to uncover what the headmaster was up to, and it might even help us with the technomages. So far, nobody had given me a straight answer about how the ogres did it, but a fanboy might be able to tell me more than his more stoic brethren.
“So,” I said as we all walked up the stairs to Ira’s apartment. “What brings you to campus, Tins?”
The teachers’ apartment building was built almost exactly like the dorms, but instead of small rooms, it had been separated into one-bedroom homes for the professors. Some of them had put out welcome mats or wreaths while others had plants growing along the doorframes. Each one reflected the professor who lived inside, and Ira’s was no different.
She’d put out a mat that neither welcomed nor warned guests away but would allow visitors to wipe their feet. There was even a small shoe rack that the dragon-woman had put in the hallway the second that the first snowflake had fallen. The only thing that Ira had that the others didn’t were the invisible wards that kept nosy neighbors from listening to her conversations or trying to take a peek at what was inside.
“I thought that I’d talk to you about that request you made,” the gnome said as Ira opened the door for us.
Professor Lovelace had to allow each of us past the numerous barriers, and I braced myself for the plastic wrap feeling that always slid over me. It was important for us to have a safe place to talk, but it was suffocating, and I took a deep breath in as soon as I was through.
“What request?” Sarya asked as the door shut behind us. “Does it have to do with that weird weapon?”
“It’s a gun,” I said and tugged the laser gun from my pants, put it on the kitchen counter, and turned to look at the elven woman. “The technomages used some just like it last night when they tried to kill Atlesia and I.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me this morning?” the elven woman asked.
Waves of heat washed over me as the redheaded elf glared angrily at me. Ira strolled over to turn the heater down with a pointed stare at Sarya and then went to work while I put my hands up in self-defense.
“I couldn’t,” I said. “You were with my grandmother. And you know that she’d freak out if she realized that the technomages not only had me on their radar, but had attacked me.”
“Who is your grandmother?” Tins asked and climbed onto one of the tall kitchen stools.
“Deloris Hall,” I said and studied the gnome’s face for recognition. “I don’t know what her maiden name is.”
“Deloris,” he said and rolled the word on his tongue like it was a breath mint. “Sounds familiar. Of course, there aren’t a lot of human mages that come to Magia Schola. And those that do flunk out pretty fast. What does she know about the technomages?”
I looked at Ira to see if the dragon-woman thought that I should share, but she only shrugged as if to leave the decision up to me. There was a lot that we hadn’t told Tins, but the gnome had proved trustworthy so far, and it would be dangerous for him to help me without knowing all of the facts. Still, if the headmaster was in on the shadow creatures’ attacks, then anyone could be, and it was becoming harder and harder to separate the technomages from what was going on around the other realms.
“We’re not entirely sure,” I said after a long pause. “She’s mentioned them in her journals. And I’m pretty sure our old neighbors were technomage spies that were sent to keep an eye on my grandmother before she went into the nursing home.”
“They’ve been watching her that long and didn’t attack?” the gnome gasped and accepted a glass of water from Ira. “That’s almost unheard of. Do you know if maybe she was part of their organization?”
“She wasn’t,” Sarya said as she pulled out my grandmother’s journals from her backpack. “I’ve translated enough to know that she didn’t trust them. And she’s told all of us to make sure that we stay away from them.”
I tugged the top journal over to me and started to flip through the pages. Sarya had included notes with her translations so it was almost a whole new book. I saw more than one reference to the technomages, but most of it talked about some guy that grandma had known before grandpa and she ever met.
There was a lot about my grandmother’s life that I still didn’t know about, and most of it had to do with who she was before my grandfather. The woman refused to tell me anything about her family, so I could have relations all over the nine realms and never even know it. I knew there had to be a reason behind it, but none of the journals had told us anything, and the ones that did talk about her past were mixed with so much ancient elven and modern elven slang that it was almost impossible to translate.
“But they kept an eye on her?” Tins said as he eyed the journals. “They must’ve had a good reason. Do you know what kind of magic she used?”
“She was a summoner,” I said. “Just like me. But she gave it up when she married my grandfather and went to the human realm. That’s about all we know about her.”
“Interesting,” the gnome said and reached down to adjust one of the gears on his fake leg. “If they thought that she might use more magic, then that would be why they were watching her for so long. And why they’ve come after you now that you’re actually using magic.”
“And dating a ‘hostile’,” I said. “That’s what they called Atlesia. They’ve never seen her without her glamour, but somehow they knew that she was a nymph.”
Ira pulled out bread, meat, and sliced cheese to make us sandwiches, and I went around the counter to help with the tomatoes and lettuce. The smooth, repetitive movement of slicing tomatoes was the perfect distraction for my mind as I worked through all of the pieces. Everything would be so much easier if my grandmother would just answer my questions, but she never did like to help me finish a puzzle.
“They might’ve realized that my cousin and his crew were gnomes,” Tins said with a thoughtful nod. “Even with the glamours. I doubt there are a lot of construction crews made entirely of three-foot-tall men.”
“Especially not ones who work so fast,” I agreed. “They were in and out in one day, so it would be obvious to anyone who knew about magic in the first place. I did have a neighbor down the street ask for the name of my handyman.”
I handed a sandwich to Sarya first and then one to Tins. The gnome sniffed it like there might be poison, and I shook my head as he took a tentative bite. I took one of my own and then fought the urge to groan at the perfect blend of spices on the deli chicken.
“I feel like I’m so behind on everything,” Sarya said. “So, you were attacked by these guys last night, took one of their weapons, and you think that your old neighbors were technomages?”
“Yep,” I said. “That about sums it up. Except that the new neighbors are also technomages and are up to something. Atlesia and I broke in and found some kind of machine. We had to leave when they came home, but I want to get back in there and take a look at the rest of the house. We were only able to check out the lab in the basement, and Mike is going to have to go through the notes that we found before we do anything else.”
“Notes?” Tins asked around a large bite of the sandwich. “You didn’t say anything about that earlier. Let me see them.”
I tugged the rolled-up notes out of my pocket and was glad that I thought to grab them. Ira’s office was pretty secure, but Professor Edinbock had managed to get in and out, and it would only cause problems if someone else came across Stacy’s equations. I wasn’t sure if Tins would be able to read them, but the gnome might understand some of the sigils that I didn’t recognize.
The gnome unrolled the stack of papers and then smoothed them out. His plate acted like a paperweight to hold down the top, and Tins frowned down at the notes like they were in a foreign language. Physics was tough to understand, and he was a salesman first and foremost, but there were a few equations that the short man nodded at with understanding.
“We’re going to need to show these to my friends,” he said after a few minutes. “And the laser gun that you took.”
“What friends?” I asked with a look at Sarya and Ira.
“Gnomes,” Tins said and rolled up the notes, handed them to me, and finished his sandwich. “They’re mostly family and friends. People who know more about what those notes were talking about. I recognize some, but I’m not exactly the science type. Sales are my purview, but I know some people who can translate that stuff and figure out just exactly how that gun works.”
I took another bite of my sandwich to give myself time to think. The gnomes were the best tinkerers in the nine realms, so if anyone was going to figure out what the hell Stacy and Charles were up to, then it would probably be them. I knew that Mike would be able to figure out the notes, but the tree-man was more into fungus than machines, so it would be good for him to have help.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll let them take a look at it, but we need to be kept in the loop. And I still need help with getting back into the neighbors’ house. They’re probably going to realize that someone was in the lab. It was left as close to how we found it as possible, but something tells me that Stacy knew exactly what angle every piece of paper was at, and I doubt that everything was in its exact place when we left.”
Tins nodded and swigged the last of his water like he was trying to buy time. The gnomes weren’t usually open to the other realms. I’d gathered from the books in the library that they liked to keep their cities hidden, so the salesman would likely have us meet in his shop, and that would mean he’d have to close for the day.
“I think I can get you clearance to come to our capital city,” the short man said after a long pause. “But only while we’re working to bring down these technomages that you found. You’ll be sworn to secrecy, of course, and once this business is done you’ll be banned from the premises.”
“Deal,” I said and offered my hand to shake. “I’ll want my friends to come with me. Atlesia has already helped me sneak into the basement, and she might remember something that I don’t. And Mike is a brilliant scientist. He’ll be able to help with the notes and figuring out the gun.”
“And I’ll burn them all alive,” Sarya said with a sugary-sweet smile that was almost terrifying. “What? They tried to kill you and Atlesia. It’s only fair that I come and act as muscle.”
“Whatever you say,” I laughed and then turned to look at Ira. “Do you think that you can come with us?”
“No,” the dragon-woman said with a shake of her head. “The rest of the teachers will be watching me after that fireball and the greenhouse. We were lucky enough that no one saw the laser gun, but if I disappear with the two of you, then the headmaster may suspect something.”
“The headmaster?” Tins asked and narrowed his eyes at us. “What does that old coot have to do with technomages.”
“Nothing,” I said before anyone else could respond.
The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife, and I wondered if the old gnome would decide we weren’t worth the risk. Tins was a good man, and he’d be very helpful when it came to the technomages, but the headmaster and the shadow creatures were on a whole different level. And we already knew that the gnome that ran the underground arena was working with the hooded mage, so it was better not to chance it and show our cards.
“Mmmhmm,” the short man grunted and rolled his eyes. “You know I’m not going to ask too many questions, but at some point you’re going to have to let me in the loop. And don’t think that I haven’t figured out why you went after that will-o’-wisp. I know that the shadow creatures have been attacking everything and everyone. And you humans like to jump in and be the heroes.”
“I just like to be prepared,” I said with a shrug. “Are you still going to help us?”
“Of course I am,” Tins huffed. “I wouldn’t turn down the chance to piss off the technomages. And if we get to ruin their plans, that’s even better.”
