Summoner 5

by Eric Vall

  Gawain scoffed and examined the map a little while longer before he finally lifted his arm and pointed to the road dead in front of us. “That one.”

  I sagged a little and leaned heavier on Eva. “You mean the one we’ve been sitting in front of for the last several minutes?”

  “I needed to be sure!” he argued.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I drawled as I forced myself into an upright position again. “Let’s just get a move on before I end up falling off this horse from lack of sleep.”

  I clicked my tongue and Eva trotted onward into the thicket. As we breached the threshold between plains and trees, I took my canteen out and splashed some water on my face. I needed to be alert in here. It was already a risky ride in the daylight. It was no wonder Tietra didn’t get a lot of travelers from the other side. This was the perfect spot for bandits and other unsavory folks to slip in and hide out until their prey walked straight to them.

  “You coming?” I called over my shoulder to Gawain, whose horse remained still at the edge of the thicket. “Don’t tell me she’s afraid of it.”

  “Of course not,” he defended, and he clicked his tongue to push her onward. Holly responded immediately and walked along as though she had been simply waiting on him. Maybe she had been.

  “Are you feeling alright?” I asked him with mild concern. It wouldn’t do us any good if he was tired. I knew we should have stayed another night in Tietra, but Gawain hadn’t left me much room for argument. It was too late to turn back to town now. By the time we got there and slept our fair share, we would have wasted an entire day with no forward progress. Unless Gawain wanted to sleep with the leaves and use rocks as pillows, we had to force ourselves to keep going until we reached Wildren.

  “I am quite fine,” he assured, and I had to take his word for it as he and Holly trotted past Eva and me.

  As we traveled, I hummed to myself. My voice was anything but melodic, and I couldn’t sing to save my life, but I could at least carry a soft leisurely tune. This one was one I’d learned from Maelor when I was about a decade younger. He wasn’t much of a singer himself, but if pumped with a few drinks, he could sing as well as any drunkard with a story to tell. I didn’t remember the lyrics nor did I know where it originated, but he’d hum it to me on nights when sleep had been hard to come by, whether it be from nightmares or other troubles.

  I’d gotten well into the second verse before Gawain called back to me.

  “What is that you’re humming?” he asked.

  I stopped and smiled to myself. “I’m not sure. It’s just a tune I’d heard when I was little.”

  Gawain turned his head forward again before he continued. “It’s nice.”

  I was barely able to resist the gasp that crept up from my throat. Gawain had been full of surprises lately. That or maybe I had simply been too hard on him in the first place. I supposed there was quite a bit of truth in that though, in my defense, there hadn’t been much to like upon our initial meeting or the time leading up to our epic duel.

  “You like music?” I asked cautiously. If Gawain was willing to open up, I didn’t want to ruin it with questions he deemed stupid, but I figured it was a simple enough question to keep the conversation rolling.

  “Not especially,” he answered quietly, “but my mother used to sing to me when I was much younger, and she had a beautiful voice.”

  I smiled wider. “She sounds lovely. You must really love her.”

  Gawain scoffed at that, but it was more in embarrassment than anything. “I am lucky to have a kind mother, yes.”

  “I don’t remember my parents,” I admitted, and the air of the conversation stilled and thickened like soup.

  There was a beat of silence before Gawain replied, “I am sorry to hear that.”

  “It’s nothing,” I covered quickly. “I mean, it’s hard to miss someone if you don’t know what you’re missing.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t think of them fondly.” Gawain sat taller on Holly and kept his eyes trained forward.

  I nodded. I understood what he meant, but I preferred not to think of them at all if I could help it. I didn’t want to be swept away in an image of them that wasn’t necessarily what they were. What if by some miracle I learned more of them, and I had built up expectations they didn’t meet?

  No, it was better to simply cast the thoughts of them aside. Maelor was my family. My friends were my family. At the end of the day, that was all I needed. I never responded to Gawain, but I went back to humming, and he didn’t seem to mind the change.

  We continued to ride in relative quiet for a long while. Every so often we would stop to examine a noise or comment about some of the birds that sang their night songs from the treetops.

  “If you find that being a mage isn’t for you, you could come to the woods and sing with the birds,” Gawain joked.

  I snorted. “Are you saying I have a nice voice?”

  “Don’t be stupid,” he sneered. “The birds are annoying as shit. It’s the perfect outlet for your, uh, hidden talent.”

  “Gee, thanks.” I rolled my eyes. Just when I thought I was on the brink of a breakthrough with Gawain, he had to say something like that. I knew he was likely saying that to poke fun at me, but it was still pretty harsh.

  We took a few more steps before we both stopped. My spine went rigid, and immediately my hand flew to my crystals. The scent of rotten flesh and death wafted past our noses. It was a stench I was all too familiar with.

  It was the smell of the Shadowscape.

  Several feet from the main path, in the trees, a large rift sprung open. Trees shattered like glass, and bark and branches alike were sent flying along a rush of chilled wind in all directions. I shielded my eyes and turned Eva away from the blast to protect her as best as I could. The splinters felt like needles as they tore up my cloak and pants and pricked my skin.

  The horses whinnied as Gawain and I leapt from them. We were mages. We couldn’t just turn our backs to it. We would do everything we can to keep whatever came out at bay until a banisher arrived.

  I turned to Eva and patted her snout. She’d sustained a few injuries, but nothing that would hinder her from escaping while she could.

  “Go,” I muttered to her quietly.

  The horse snuffed at me and ran off full speed with Holly beside her. As soon as they were out of sight, I turned to Gawain.

  “Ready?” I asked and smirked as I readied my dagger in one hand and an essence crystal in the other.

  “Always,” Gawain replied with a similar look to my own as he ignited his palms and waited for whatever was going to creep out from the other side.

  We didn’t have to wait long. The rift gate fluctuated and grew in size as a large giant emerged from the Shadowscape, followed by a handful of imps.

  The giant was a type I’d only seen in textbooks before now. I could see and feel the chill roll off its massive form as the humid air of summer hit its fat body. Ice shards that resembled fangs hung over the fat bottom lip of the beast, and its eyes were whited out like blizzards trapped in glass. A thick, icy armor coated its arms, legs, and chest, and icicle spikes lined the giant’s back. It was pretty cool to look at if you took away the fact that it wanted to dismantle us limb from limb and probably eat our remains.

  “An ice giant?” Gawain’s smirk grew wider as the flames in his palms burned brightly. “Piece of cake.”

  I chuckled. “A little cocky, aren’t you?”

  “You might as well go wrangle the horses and let me take care of this.” Gawain then slung a melon-sized fireball from each hand, aimed at the ice giant before it realized we were here to challenge it. The fireballs hit the giant square in the chest, and it stumbled upon impact. There was definitely some damage done with only the two blasts alone. They had melted a deep hole in the giant’s icy armor, but Gawain’s attack hadn’t penetrated deep enough to wound the giant proper.

  The giant turned, and its snowy white eyes landed on us. I
mps chattered and bounced around its legs as though they awaited the giant’s command before they led their charge. Sure enough, as the ice giant roared, the imps scattered through the trees and brush.

  “Shit,” I swore, “we need to keep them rounded up and get rid of them before they bring down the whole thicket.”

  Gawain seemed to sense that issue as well and nodded as he charged another fire spell to launch at the ice giant. “Take care of the small fries. I’ll hold his guy off the best I can,” he declared.

  “That’s what I was about to order you to do,” I snickered. Then I grasped at my crystals and felt around until I located the one I needed. I crashed the crystal to the ground in front of me, and my kalgori faithfully appeared by my head.

  “Multiply!” I commanded, and the little butterfly monster became two, then four, then eight, until there was an entire swarm of them fluttering their razor-sharp wings behind me.

  There was a clearing up ahead. It wasn’t very large, but it might have been enough for me to get a better vantage point of where the imps had taken off to. The trees there towered over me, so much so that I almost couldn’t make out the tops of them from the midnight sky overhead. Without light, I would have to rely on pure instinct to track down the imps.

  I skidded to a stop in the middle of the clearing and threw my arms out to my sides.

  “Scatter!” I yelled to my kalgori. “Seek and destroy every imp you find!”

  The kalgori obeyed my orders, and I closed my eyes to keep as focused as I could. In the distance through the trees, I heard the screams and cries of the imps as the kalgori tore their flesh and bled them out before they moved on to the next. I just had to hope the imps hadn’t gotten so far away that I couldn’t control the kalgori anymore. The further away I was from my monsters, the less control I had over them. In hindsight, having them scatter like that was perhaps risky, but it was the best option available to me with the monsters and resources I had.

  There was a long stretch of seconds where there was nothing but silence. Maybe the kalgori had done everything they could and all of the imps had been destroyed. I recalled them with that hope, and that was when I heard the ice giant roar and Gawain’s shrill scream from behind me.

  “Gawain!” I called out, and I hastily pulled a speed slug crystal from my bandolier and smashed it to the ground. Then I scooped it up and attached it to the back of my neck, and I felt my mana drop significantly as I tried to maintain control of the thousands of kalgori that trailed behind me as I sped back through the trees.

  I retraced my steps and before I knew it I was right back where I started, only this time, Gawain’s face was covered in blood, and the ice giant was missing the majority of its jagged, frigid armor. The kalgori stopped behind me as I rushed to Gawain’s side. Blood dripped down his cheek and neck and started to seep through his cloak at the shoulders. I was reminded of when I found him in the Shadowscape only a few days ago, only this time there was fury in his eyes.

  “What happened?” I asked as I knelt in front of him. The ice giant stomped closer to us, so I knew there wasn’t much time to chat.

  “Nevermind that,” Gawain growled and smeared the blood across his face in a poor attempt to wipe it away. “Let’s take this icy asshole down.”

  He stood and pushed me aside, and I would have sworn I saw something unnatural in his gaze as he marched by. It was probably nothing, though. I followed after him and recalled both the kalgori and the speed slug. I had just the duo in mind for this big guy.

  I grabbed the crystals I wanted and smashed them to the ground simultaneously. At my side, my bullet bass and my gastrotoad appeared. I ordered my bullet bass to cover my gastrotoad to give it armor and then commanded the gastrotoad to attack.

  The slimy, venomous amphibian launched itself at the ice giant and clung to an area of its chilled, flabby arm that had been exposed by Gawain melting through the armor. I just hoped my bullet bass could withstand the extremely toxic fluids the gastrotoad secreted long enough for my idea to work. I didn’t think the toad would need the armor, but just in case the giant decided to send it flying, it would be protected. My mana could take the hit if my bullet bass died before I could recall it, but the gastrotoad would have been much harder to bounce back from. I knew the plan was a risky one, especially since gastrotoads also expelled toxic gases that could potentially affect both the bullet bass and the ice giant, but it was a risk I was willing to take for the greater good.

  Sure enough, the skin where the gastrotoad had attached to began to change from a white-blue color to a sickly purple. The ice giant finally took notice and howled into the night something fierce. It began to thrash and swing its arms wildly, desperate to shake the gastrotoad off. Even if it had managed to succeed, however, it was too late. The damage was done, and my plan had worked.

  The poison started its process of seeping through the ice giant’s flesh and was absorbed into its circulatory system drop by drop. I watched as the toxin split through veins and began to fill its body. As the ice giant flailed, trees began to crack, and branches were soon tumbling to the ground over us. I leapt out of the way of one of the longer branches that surely would have caused a good bit of damage. Gawain narrowly dodged a few himself, but he looked more winded than he had moments ago.

  I looked to the gash on his face. He’d lost a lot of blood. Even in the dark of night, I could see the difference in color between the spots of his clothes that soaked up the blood and the spots that hadn’t. I quickly and blindly searched my bag as I tried to keep concentration on my monsters. The more toxins the toad could pump into the ice giant, the more effective the poison would be, and the quicker we could end this battle.

  However, that didn’t solve the issue of the rift. We had no way of closing it, and no way to communicate to know if there was anyone being deployed from Varle or any of the other Enclaves to take care of it. All we could do was wait it out until someone came. If that took all morning, then we would wait all morning.

  Finally, I found what I had been looking for. It was the only tincture I’d carried on me. Everything else was still in my pack, which was on Eva, who was not here, and likely wasn’t going to return. I rushed to Gawain and observed as the fire and fury in his eyes dimmed along with the flames in his palms. He was losing energy and mana fast.

  “Drink this,” I muttered as I shoved it into his hands. “It’ll stop the bleeding for now, but we’re still going to have to get you patched up right and well.”

  Gawain puffed, and he wavered on his feet before he leaned heavily into me. I took the tincture back from his palm and uncorked it myself before I put it to his lips. He made a face of disdain but didn’t verbally argue with me. I didn’t think he had it in him to argue at all right then.

  Immediately, the color started to return to his face, and the blood clotted. He was still heavy on his feet as he tried to stabilize himself, but he looked better all the same.

  “Thanks,” he muttered with a short nod, and the fire in his palms ignited brightly once more. They weren’t up to snuff with his magic not at one hundred percent, but he had more of a fighting chance this time.

  Before he could take off to rejoin in the fight and deliver a finishing blow to the ice giant, the monster was finally able to shake the gastrotoad lose, and it came sailing right for us. We both leapt in opposite directions to avoid any contact with the poisonous creature, and my mana dropped again as my bullet bass died and returned to its crystal.

  I fell to my knees, suddenly winded. Controlling the mass of kalgori had been draining, and we had been pushing on without sleep which only aggravated the issue. Mana exertion was no joke, and I didn’t have any items on me that would aid in replenishing it. All I could hope was the toxin would do its job, and this would all be over soon. I used some of my remaining strength to recall my gastrotoad before it could sustain any more damage, and I felt some of my mana return to me, though I was still not in the best possible shape.

  The ice gia
nt stomped about frantically as it tried to fight against the poison that had taken hold of it. Soon enough, the entire left side of its body turned sickly looking, and its once snowy white eyes were now glazed with vibrant violet ooze. It was obviously getting weaker and weaker, but it was a giant, and its size could still kill a man if it stumbled onto them.

  With several uneven steps, the ice giant wavered, and it swung the arm that was still in relatively good health. More branches and debris fell from the sky, and Gawain and I kept dodging them as they plummeted to the ground.

  “Take it down!” I yelled to him after I’d narrowly avoided a particularly large branch. “What are you waiting for?”

  Gawain looked at me, then back to the ice giant. The flames in his hands flickered, and then he set his jaw. He muttered something under his breath, likely a spell, and the fires began to circle his hands. He twitched his fingers, swung out his arms, and then clapped his hands together hard. The sound echoed through the trees, and the flaming circles spiraled out from his hands toward the ice giant.

  The tremendous blast landed just above its chest and scorched its neck. With a broken pitch, the ice giant roared. Its skin bubbled, and the toxic parts of it released an awful stench of rotting death.

  I pinched my nose shut and wished I’d had the foresight to put my mask on, but that was gone, along with my medicines and other belongings. Then again, the gastrotoad’s gas was so toxic even the standard issue military grade masks couldn’t always withstand the toxicity. Erin had been proof of that.

  Gawain followed up with another spell of the same kind. That one hit the ice giant in its ugly face. Again, it screamed. It clawed at its own face to try and ease the pain of the burning, poison-infested flesh, but it was no use. The ice giant stumbled, now blinded, and it lost its footing.

  I watched with horror as the ice giant fell toward Gawain in slow motion. It was true what people said about the bigger they are, the harder they fall, but they also failed to mention how fast something the size of a giant fell. Even in my winded state, there was no way I was going to let this fight be Gawain’s last. He’d frozen in fear, and I could only imagine what his thoughts were as he watched, shellshocked as the ice giant came barrelling towards him. He looked like he’d all but accepted his fate when I darted for him with what little energy I had left.