Summoner 6

by Eric Vall

  “Whatever his name is. It matters not to me,” Antoine dismissed me and began to stalk around us.

  “Gryff, what in the world is he talking about?” Nia asked. “Who is Penny?”

  “Do not speak her name!” Antoine shouted, and everything in the Narufey fell silent. He continued to circle us, and I watched in mild horror as the rest of his henchman started to surround us. They eyed us like prey, like they were waiting for just the right moment to strike.

  “Imagine my delight when I found the gypsy boy had wandered right into my arms,” Antoine cackled. “I thought, what a perfect way to draw out Gryff of Njordenfalls. Surely he would come for his friend, and the big one was simply a bonus.”

  Braden. He meant Braden.

  “Where are they?” I growled. “Where are my friends?”

  “Oh, you have no need to worry,” Antoine drawled. “You’ll be reunited soon enough.”

  He raised his right arm as high as he could and stopped cold. There was a brief moment when all I heard was the heavy, frantic pounding of my heart against my ribcage, and then I felt lightheaded. I tried to keep my eyes open, but it was so nice to just rest them after a long overnight journey.

  Arms encircled me, and I tried to wiggle my limbs to push them away, but my body felt as though it had been injected with lead. I thought I’d tried to scream, but my voice sounded off, like my tongue had gone numb.

  What kind of magic was this?

  Through my bleariness, I was able to make out Antoine’s figure. He was blurry, but there was no mistaking the smell of that violet perfume.

  “To think someone as dimwitted as you was able to murder my sweet little Penny,” Antoine said softly and brushed his fingers along the line of my jaw. “Take them to the camp. I’m sure they’re dying to see each other after two very long months.”

  I was slung over someone’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and just about as useless as such. I could see the blurry outlines of my friends also being toted off under the same spell, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.

  The last thing I saw before I slipped under completely were the henchman and Antoine phasing through the vines and thorns that had blocked off the clearing. It didn’t make sense, and I thought I’d maybe imagined it. After all, whatever spell was put on us was a doozy.

  What I saw when I opened my eyes again, however, was downright terrifying. Pitch darkness surrounded us, save for weak candle light and an eerie green glow that seemed to emit from the people sitting around said flame. The stench of rotting flesh was foul enough to knock a herd of belials on their asses, and I rolled onto my side to vomit what little I had in my stomach.

  “Gryff?” a familiar voice whispered. “Gryff?”

  I stirred slowly and strained my eyes to see in the dark. My vision was no longer blurry, but it was still hard to make out faces and figures in the dark.

  “Gryff.” A boot rolled me back onto my other side, away from the vomit I had expelled, and I heard the quiet shuffle of leaves as Varleth shifted into what glimmer of light he could.

  I could barely make out his face, but I knew it was him. His hair was matted with dirt and leaves, and his cheeks looked hollow from malnourishment. There were bags under his eyes that were nearly as dark as his hair, and what looked to be bruises along his jaw and lips.

  “You’re alive,” I whispered, and I sagged in relief.

  “Something like that,” he joked as he sat back on his haunches again. “Are you okay?”

  “A bit groggy,” I answered, “but yeah. Where are the others? Is Braden with you?”

  “They’re all nearby, Braden, too,” he told me. “Tied to trees like us along the perimeter of the camp.”

  That was a relief. At least the rescue mission hadn’t been a total loss. Now, we were all together.

  “What happened?” I pressed. “How long have you been here?”

  “Don’t know,” Varleth huffed, “as long as you’ve been on the run, I guess.”

  “On the run?” I questioned, and then I realized he wouldn’t have known that Gawain, Nia, Layla, and I had been trapped in the Shadowscape for two months.

  “Tell me later,” Varleth cut in. “We need to get out of here.”

  “Oh? You got a plan?” I asked enthusiastically.

  Varleth narrowed his eyes, then looked downcast.

  “You don’t have a plan?” My eyes widened. “What were you thinking?”

  “That you were going to come here with a plan!” he hissed, and we both huffed at one another.

  “I don’t even know where here is,” I muttered under my breath indignantly. “You’ve been here all this time. Didn’t you figure something out?”

  “Don’t put this on me or I swear I will kick your ass when we get out of here,” he threatened as he sized me up in the dark.

  “Okay, okay,” I conceded. I knew I could kick his ass, probably. I’d done it before, but now was not the time to be making personal threats. He was my friend, and I knew our sharp words were just because of the stressful situation. “I’m assuming they took all of your weapons?”

  “More than that,” Varleth sighed. “We can’t use magic in here at all. They put up a barrier that forbids the use of magic beyond a certain point. Spellwise, nothing can get in, and nothing gets out.”

  “Barrier magic?” I groaned. This was looking to be more and more impossible by the second.

  “See now why we haven’t been able to make our escape yet?” Varleth asked.

  “Yeah, I see your point,” I sighed. “Don’t suppose you could use those coy gypsy moves and bat your lashes at them or something?”

  “Don’t whore me out!” he whispered loudly and kicked my shin. “What do I look like to you?”

  “Ow! Okay!” I snickered. I still didn’t even know what this was, but as Varleth said, it was maybe easier to find out after we escaped.

  “Look,” he sighed. “I wish you weren’t here, but I’m glad you are. I know that the two of--”

  “We are going to get out of this,” I cut him off. “Don’t worry.”

  “Well, well, if it isn’t my favorite toy and his little playmate,” I heard Antoine’s slick voice from behind me.

  “What do you want?” I asked as I scrambled back against the tree we were tied to. “Where are we?”

  “Oh, still in the Narufey. Don’t you worry. I didn’t take you too far,” Antoine chuckled and pranced around the tree. “As for what I want, I want the pleasure of sucking out your soul while your little friends watch.”

  “What?” My breath caught in my throat, and I choked as I tried to gasp.

  “Poor, poor boy. Do you really not know who we are?” Antoine stopped in front of me and leaned over. “We are the Animandu people. We live here in the Narufey and prey on the poor lost mages who wind up in our forest.”

  “Prey? What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Do I have to spell everything out for you?” Antoine huffed as he stood upright again. “Very well.”

  He clapped his hands, and the camp illuminated with a white green light. The people who mulled about, his henchmen, I assumed, blended in with the light, so much so that they looked nearly invisible. Carcasses, human and animal alike, were scattered around the camp, and beyond the trees I could see small signs of a habitat. There were homes, small, hut-like, and made of the same bioluminescence that the forest itself was comprised of.

  Though there was a small part of me that thought the idea of forest dwellers was cool, it was also eerie, but I could at least see across the other side of the camp.

  “Gryff!” Nia called out as she struggled against the rope she was bound with. She was tied almost directly across from us, and I could spot Orenn a few trees behind her to my left.

  “Nia!” I yelled back. “Are you guys okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she replied, and her voice broke, “but Braden … ”

  No. No.

  “Braden!” I called out and searched around frantically. “B
raden!”

  “He’s alive, Gryff,” Arwyn’s voice reached me, though I couldn’t see her. “He’s breathing, but I don’t know for how much longer.”

  “Well, well, now that you’ve all been reunited, allow me to familiarize you with our customs,” Antoine drawled. “You see, there’s a bounty on your head, and we’re bounty hunters. We’ve established that, yes? Good. Now, you killed my little Penny, so I used the gypsy’s cards as bait to lure you into the clearing. Unfortunately, I ran out of cards so I had to use one of the big boy’s crystals.”

  My heart sank. Everything had been a set-up. Had Gallahar known about this? Sleet? They never mentioned these animandu people before.

  “Anyway,” Antoine continued, “you made quite a name for yourself amongst our people by ending Penny’s life. Shame that we’ll lose out on twenty-thousand gold by sucking out your soul, but now that we have acquired most of your little friends, and the General’s daughter no less, it’s only a matter of time before the rest of them come running.”

  “I didn’t want to kill her,” I defended. “I’m not a murderer. It was kill or be killed, and I was stronger. Maybe Penny was just too weak to go against me.”

  “Enough!” Antoine bellowed, and his face twisted into an ugly snarl. “Don’t you dare disgrace my love like that!”

  He paced around dramatically, and his long braid bounced with each purposeful step he took while his henchmen watched in silence.

  “You … I will show you how it feels.” He stopped in front of me again, this time with a malicious grin. “I will take your lover away from you and then devour your soul as you mourn her.”

  My eyes flew open in fear as Antoine motioned to his henchmen. Then they hustled to a tree I couldn’t see.

  “Get off me!” Arwyn screamed as she was handled by the henchmen and brought before me.

  No, no, no. They’d seen us in the waterfall. They led us there and waited for us in the trees and saw everything.

  “Gryff?” Varleth’s voice registered in my ears, but I couldn’t look at him.

  Was it fear? Maybe, mostly. Was it shame? No, because I wasn’t ashamed of my love for Arwyn, but no one was supposed to know, and now half of my friends had this over my head, over Arwyn’s. If we made it out of this alive, there would be consequences to deal with. I didn’t want to see the disappointment on Varleth’s face.

  As the henchmen handed Arwyn off to Antoine, our eyes locked. My breath stuttered, and I froze. My jaw was set firm.

  “She’s not my lover,” I denied flatly as I stared into those beautiful eyes.

  “Oh, isn’t she though?” Antoine cooed and ran his fingers along the curve of her breast. “Shame. She is rather beautiful, and I know you agree.”

  “Gryff … ” Arwyn’s lip trembled as she tried to stay strong. “It’s okay.”

  “Killing her will mean nothing. She isn’t my lover, and you’d be out another twenty-thousand gold if you did,” I reasoned.

  “You make a very interesting point, Gryff of Njordenfalls,” Antoine purred, and his lips grazed the shell of Arwyn’s ear. “So, tell me then, what was it we saw at the waterfall, if not passionate lovemaking?”

  I closed my eyes. There was no way around this. Nothing that I could say to convince them they hadn’t seen it.

  “Sex isn’t love,” I declared as I opened my eyes and looked Arwyn straight on. “I don’t love this woman.”

  My heart felt like it had been ripped out of my chest as the words left my mouth, but I forced myself to keep a straight face, to not show any depth of emotion outside of uncaring nonchalance, and it was killing me.

  What killed me more was the sob from Arwyn as she tore her gaze away from mine.

  Antoine froze for a moment, then released her from his grip. He threw her to the ground like she was nothing more than garbage.

  “Take her back to her tree,” he ordered his henchmen, and he turned his back to us without another word.

  As the henchmen approached Arwyn, I saw the fire in her eyes ignite. The tears that had yet to be shed only made them burn brighter, and she looked at me for a split second before she rolled onto her back and lunged herself into a standing position. In one swift move, she kicked down one of the animandu and swiped his weapon to plunge it into the heart of another with an animalistic growl.

  Then she turned to me quickly and sawed the rope from around my wrists without a word. I hoped Arwyn knew I was lying to save her life, and I knew we would work it out later, but right now, it was time to fight for our lives.

  Chapter 8

  By the time Antoine realized what was happening, I had already freed Varleth and had him on his feet. He wobbled a bit as he stood since it had probably been a long time since he’d needed to really use his legs, but he managed to keep upright on his own despite his weakness. I did note it would likely slow us down, but that was a bridge we’d cross when the time came. For now, I just wanted to find our belongings and get beyond the barrier.

  “Fools!” Antoine bellowed and stomped his foot. “Don’t just stand there! Stop them!”

  His henchmen started to close in on Varleth and I, which I wasn’t overly fond of. The eerie green light around them still gave me the creeps, and the closer they got to us, the more and more the area smelled of the same death that I’d woken up to.

  Maybe I could kill them by projectile vomit? I was sure that would go over well.

  “Looks like I’ve got to run,” Arwyn muttered, and before I could turn to her and argue how bad of an idea that was, she had disappeared into the trees.

  A handful of Antoine’s men sprinted to the side and into the treeline, probably in an attempt to cut Arwyn off, and I wanted to run after them, but Varleth’s hand on my shoulder reminded me of the threat looming toward us. I huffed, but I knew how strong Arwyn was. She didn’t need my help to take out a few henchmen.

  “So, any bright ideas now?” Varleth asked in a bored tone like he had expected this rescue to go completely and terribly awry.

  “Nope, didn’t get the chance to get that far,” I replied with false chipperness. I then took a deep breath and hoped that what I was about to do worked.

  “Hey, Varleth, wanna play a game?” I asked in a tone loud enough that he and Antoine’s henchmen would be able to hear as they slowly advanced on us. I had thought they would just rush us, but it seemed like they were assessing us first to see what we would do.

  “A game?” Varleth mimicked, and I could tell he’d caught on to my ruse. He played into it seamlessly.

  “Let’s play ‘How many weirdly green men and women can we kill without any weapons,’” I suggested with a grin.

  “That name needs work,” Varleth laughed loud enough for everyone to hear, “but I’m listening.”

  “It’s very easy.” I grinned mockingly as the henchmen continued to advance. “There’s no rules, just take out however many you can before time runs out.”

  “And how much time do we have?” Varleth cracked his knuckles and took a fighting stance. Whether he was actually in any fighting condition … well, the truth was that he wasn’t, but he knew as well as I did that he had to play the part, if only for a few minutes.

  “I think five minutes is a more than suitable amount of time.” I stretched my arms and locked my eyes onto Antoine’s.

  “Five minutes,” the gypsy mimicked. “Ready when you are.”

  I counted down from three in my head, and at the same time, Varleth and I lunged at the henchmen. One of them immediately swung a punch at my head, and I was forced to duck almost as soon as I’d stepped away from Varleth. I countered quickly with an uppercut to the man’s jaw, and he staggered backward but didn’t fall.

  “So how many have you taken out?” Varleth asked over the commotion.

  “Uh … ” I responded brilliantly as I backhanded a second guy who collapsed to the ground with a resounding thud. “One.”

  “Is that all you’ve got, summoner?” the gypsy teased.

 
“We just started,” I replied cockily and dodged another quick punch from the first guy. “Give me some time to get into a rhythm.”

  Varleth hummed, but he said nothing else as he continued to kick ass.

  I chanced a quick glance to where he’d taken his fight to find two of the henchmen already incapacitated in a heap some feet away. Even underweight and significantly weakened, Varleth packed a serious punch, and I remembered what Arwyn said about how powerful a mage had to be to consort with faeries. Maybe there was some truth to that after all.

  There was no time to celebrate that small victory, though.

  Immediately after I’d brought the first man to his knees and knocked him out, three more came at me from all sides. I ducked and whirled and punched, I even threw in a few kicks for good measure. Two of the men went down easily enough, but the third was a hulking brute probably twice my size.

  He lumbered toward me with his teeth bared and his arms outstretched, but he was a slow as well as an ugly bastard, and I quickly darted out of his reach and ducked behind him.

  As he tried to turn around, I lashed out with my foot and connected with the side of his knee with a jarring force. There was a resounding crack, and the man screamed in pain as he buckled. Before he could regain his balance, I jumped up and drove my knee into the front of his skull, and I heard his nose cave with a dull crunch before he toppled face first into the dirt.

  I grinned as I straightened, but then from the corner of my eye, I saw a woman of small stature and jet black hair hiss at me and lunge for my neck like a cat with its claws fully extended. I tried to dodge her, but her nails were impossibly long, and she dug them into my skin.

  I cried out as she curled her fingers deeper into me, and I swung my arm out to knock her away. It was effective, and she did stumble back, but not without dragging her nails and ripping into my skin to leave three giant gashes. Blood trickled down my neck, but I ignored it as I eyed what was coming for me next.

  Two more of Antoine’s men came at me from either side. One of them drew their arm back for what I was certain was going to be a powerful punch, while the other swung their hips and readied themselves to land a nasty kick.