Summoner Rising

by Melanie Mcfarlane

  “Have they heard of anyone else?” I ask. Chantal looks back at me confused.

  “No,” she says, “I imagine it got scared away when Tryan and that girl found you. Doubt it’ll do any more harm again before it’s caught.”

  A nurse interrupts us, and checks on my IV. “It’s time for you to go,” she says to Chantal. “We have to keep this one sedated for a little longer.”

  “No, please,” I say, and Chantal gives me a look of pity as she slips out the door. “I want to be awake; I need to be.”

  “Sorry, honey,” she says. “Doctor’s orders. You’ve got broken ribs and more. Just rest.”

  As the nurse leaves, I cover my face, wincing as pain shoots through my torso. Chantal is wrong; it’s too late; the wendigo has already struck again. And every time I go to sleep I am going to be sucked into its nightmares. Black surrounds my eyes and closes out all the sunshine in the room.

  I wake up in darkness; the skies outside my hospital window are overcast, hiding the stars behind them. I try to open my mouth to see if anyone is with me, but my tongue is so dry, I can barely swallow. I push myself up in bed and grab my glass of water.

  “Daciana,” a voice calls from the corner of my room. My heart jumps in my chest, startling me, and I drop the glass of water on the floor.

  A dark figure steps out from the corner of my room, shrouded in shadows that dance all around him. I try to call out for help, but my words catch in my throat, so instead I grab onto the side of my bed and try to escape.

  “Who are you?” I ask, pushing the words out of my dry throat.

  “I am your past, present, and future,” the dark figure says, stopping at the foot of my bed. A shiver runs up my spine, aching with every movement it makes.

  “You were in the house the other night,” I say, watching the shadows reach out from him and grab at the bed. “Why are you here?”

  “The wendigo will bother you no more.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I want only one thing,” the dark figure says, lifting its hand and pointing it at me. My heart begins to beat faster in my chest. As the figure extends his finger, a pain spreads from my abdomen up to my chest, and I cry out.

  “Who is your summoner?” I ask through gritted teeth.

  A flash of bright light interrupts us just as the dark figure opens his mouth. He screams in pain, then disappears in the blast, taking his shadows with him. In the doorway is the young blond boy, Eli, smiling ear to ear at me.

  “You saved me,” I say, panting as I lean back in my bed. Eli is still hanging out in the hallway as if he’s afraid to come near me. “What was that?”

  “A demon,” he says proudly.

  “What kind?” I ask.

  Eli shrugs, looks around the inside of my room, and steps inside. “Father doesn’t teach me about the demons yet. I just practice bending light. I’m getting pretty good, eh?”

  “I’ll say.” I smile from my pillow. “I’ll make sure to let your dad know when I see him next.”

  “Oh, no,” Eli says. “You can’t. I’m not allowed to talk to demon summoners.”

  “Really.” I raise an eyebrow. “But you’re allowed to hunt demons?”

  “I’m technically not allowed to do either,” he says, looking down at the floor, suddenly finding an interest in his shoelaces.

  “Well, then, I owe you one.”

  “I better go,” Eli says, looking out the door. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on you.”

  I smile to myself as he runs away. I’m exhausted from all my visitors today, or has it been longer than a day? The only person I want to see has yet to care enough to visit.

  True to the dark figure’s word, my dreams are no longer haunted by the wendigo. But I’m sure he’s not someone I want to be indebted. Aside from that, everything else is looking up. This morning my injuries feel less painful, and there are fewer machines beeping in my room.

  Katya is asleep in the chair beside me, and I desperately want a drink of something other than water. I slip out of bed as quietly as I can, sliding down the sheets of my bed, and wince as my feet hit the ground. I’m determined to start moving again. It’s time to get back to my life.

  As I slip out into the hall, I go on a hunt for a vending machine. I smile to myself as I think of the word “hunt”; if Constantine could only see me now. Luckily, I don’t have to go far to the vending machines. I return with my arms full of soda, chips, and chocolate.

  I’m almost back to my room when Tryan and Liana come out of my door.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know where she is?” Tryan yells, throwing his hands into the air.

  “Relax, Try,” Liana says. “She was sleeping. I’m sure Dacie is fine.”

  “I’m perfectly fine,” I say, approaching the group.

  “Daciana,” Katya says, running from the room looking frazzled. She throws her arms around me, and I wince in pain. “I thought something happened to you.”

  “Just an onslaught of hunger,” I say, holding up my treats.

  “I can’t believe you,” Tryan says. “Do you know how worried you make everyone?”

  “I was gone for five minutes,” I say, pushing past and entering my room.

  “You don’t care, do you?” Tryan says, following me inside.

  I put my food down and spin around. Katya and Liana are still out in the hallway.

  “I don’t care?” I say. “Where have you been?”

  “Busy looking for what did this to you,” he says. His eyes are bloodshot, and his clothes are dirty. A flicker of regret crosses my mind.

  “Don’t worry about me then,” I say quietly.

  “Are you serious?” Tryan throws his hands up in the air again. I jump back in surprise. “There’s no pleasing you, is there?”

  “I didn’t ask you to be here,” I say, my temper rising. “Go back to whatever it was you were doing. You’ve been here once—and didn’t even talk to me. Don’t let me keep you from wherever you’d rather be.”

  “You’re so … ” Tryan begins. “You make me … ” He twists his hands in the air. “Do you know how many people you’ve put in danger? How many lives you’re responsible for? You have no idea what’s going on out there! You’re such a spoiled little girl.”

  “Tryan,” Liana warns, but it’s too late. His words cut through my anger like swords into my heart.

  I narrow my eyes, and look straight into his. “I know more than you realize,” I say through gritted teeth. “I didn’t ask for this life. It’s not my fault I was protected from it. Look how much good it did.” I wave my arm around, then shrink back in pain.

  A look of shock crosses Tryan’s face as my nostrils flare. I’m not sure if he’s sorry for what he just said or surprised he actually said it out loud. How long has he felt this way about me?

  “There’s no way you could ever be my tovaros,” I snarl, turning away from them all. “We’re a terrible match.”

  “Dacie,” Tryan says, grabbing my shoulder.

  “Don’t touch me,” I yell, then grab at my ribs again. “Get out of here and take her with you.”

  His hand lets go of me, and I step toward the window, gripping the sill to keep myself together. Everything’s all mixed up, but I can’t let it get to me. I am the reason the wendigo is out. I am a foolish girl. But I’m not going to sit here and cry about it.

  A hand touches my shoulder again; I look up and see Katya. There’s no one behind her. Tryan and Liana are gone. I throw myself into her arms for comfort.

  After I calm down, I lie back in bed and rest. Katya closes her eyes as she sits in her chair. But I can’t relax. My mind races back to Tryan’s words, and I play them over and over again in my head.

  I change my thoughts to the wendigo in an attempt to forget Tryan for a moment. The last time I slept, I didn’t dream about the monster. Weird. I figured I’d be plagued forever. I wonder how it happened in the first place.r />
  “Katya?”

  “Hmmm?”

  “Have you ever been in a demon’s mind?”

  Her eyes pop open, and she watches me from her chair. “Yes. When I choose to be.”

  “How do you do it?”

  “It’s part of being a master summoner.” She shifts in the chair, leaning toward me. “Dacie, tell me, have you ever entered a demon’s mind?”

  “After the wendigo attacked me, I started seeing it in my sleep. I think it’s finally stopped.”

  “Hmmm.” She nods, leaning back in her chair.

  “Aren’t you worried about me?”

  “Not at all, my dear.” She smiles. “From what I’m told you hurt it before it attacked you. I imagine that by taking that little bit of power from it, you were able to access some of its power.”

  I frown. “Will you teach me more about that?”

  She pops one eye open. “Definitely not. That is for advanced summoners only. I’d keep that part of your abilities private, just between you and me. If it happens again, let me know. The longer you are away from the demon, the less it happens. It’s like me and the ifrit; I keep him near so I can access his fire if I ever need to. Sometimes I see more than I’d like.”

  I lean back on my pillow. There is so much I still need to learn about summoning. Maybe one day I’ll have to return to Romania to learn more.

  After a short nap, Katya leaves for the house to get me a change of clothes. I spend the afternoon playing my conversation with Tryan over and over again in my mind. I’m so preoccupied that I don’t notice Eli at my door.

  “Ahem,” he says, politely clearing his throat.

  “Oh, hello,” I say, smiling at his presence. “What brings you back? Are there any dark things lurking in the corners I need to know about?”

  “No.” He smiles shyly. “Just stopped to say ‘hi.’ Well, ‘hi’ and ‘bye.’”

  “Are you leaving?” I ask, letting a frown cross my face.

  “No,” he says, “but I think you want to.” He shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot. I notice his boots look scuffed, like hand-me-downs.

  “I wish.” I roll my eyes. “Unfortunately I have this whole healing thing to deal with first.”

  “I can help,” Eli says, a smile escaping the side of his mouth. He folds his hands in front of him and goes up on his tiptoes and back down again.

  “You can?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “Tell me more?”

  Eli enters the room slowly, and in the light of day, I can see that he’s skipping across the tiles on the floor, making sure not to step on any of the cracks, his blond hair bobbing with each step.

  “I can bend light, remember?” he says as he approaches my bed.

  “You mentioned that last night.” I smile. “What does light do?”

  “It gets rid of the darkness,” he says. “It can heal; it spreads love and happiness and all that good stuff.”

  “You can do all that?”

  “Not me.” A blush crosses his pale cheeks. “The light. Just watch.”

  He spreads his hands out over the top of my stomach and closes his eyes, focusing intently. He starts to rub his hands together, then holds them out from his body toward the sunlight flickering in from the window. Slowly, he begins to point his hands downward, toward my body, and the light follows them, bouncing off his hands onto me.

  A feeling of warmth fills my body, its intensity causing me to cry out. I break out in a sweat. The light fills the room for a few seconds before it disappears. I blink away the burned image from my retinas and find Eli beaming at me from the side of the bed.

  “How do you feel?” he asks.

  I sit up slowly; my aches are gone. I grab at my ribs, pressing my hand against them; the pain is gone. A smile slowly creeps across my face as I narrow my eyes at Eli.

  “What are you?” I ask. “You’re not a summoner?”

  “No,” he says. “Not the same as you, I mean.”

  “Are you an angel?”

  A smile breaks across Eli’s face as he starts to laugh.

  “Eli!” a man’s voice calls from the doorway. “What are you doing in here?”

  Eli’s eyes widen, and his mouth drops open. The man enters my room, not waiting for a reply. He grabs Eli by the arm, yanking him toward the door. Eli cries out in pain.

  “Let him go,” I yell.

  “This is none of your business, summoner,” the man says. “You should know better. Your kind isn’t allowed around us.”

  “Wait,” I say, jumping out of bed. My legs wobble as soon as my feet hit the floor. I stumble out into the hallway, chasing after the pair of them. “It’s not his fault!”

  Eli stares back at me, his face mixed with sadness and worry. The man pauses at a window down from my room, letting the afternoon sun fall over them. Then with a flash of light, the two of them are gone. I step back, grabbing the doorway of my room, in shock due to everything I just witnessed. What kind of summoners can do that?

  After a few more days of poking and prodding, Katya convinces everyone in the medical field that we have excellent family genes. The doctor releases me from the hospital in disbelief that I have fully healed in such a short time. I can tell even Katya is suspicious, but she doesn’t speak a word about it, and I decide not to share my dealings with the other kind of summoners.

  When we get home, I instantly run down to the training room. I have a renewed motivation: I am going to be the one to put the wendigo back. I know summoner law, and it’s my only way to redemption. I need to keep moving forward; plus, the dark figure said it wouldn’t bother me anymore. It’s time to put an end to this.

  Halfway through my drills, I notice Katya sitting on the stairs. I’m not sure how long she’s been watching me, but I don’t care. I continue with my session and don’t quit until I’m dripping with sweat, and my arms can barely hold another drill.

  “Feel better?” Katya asks, handing me a towel.

  I wipe my face and ignore her.

  “Don’t take your anger for Tryan out on me,” she says.

  “Ugh,” I groan. “Tryan is the last person I want to think about.”

  “You can’t avoid your tovaros forever.”

  I start to put away the weapons I trained with and wipe down my mats. Avoid Tryan? I plan never to see him again.

  “Daciana—” my great-aunt begins again.

  “Katya, listen,” I turn, feeling my anger rising from the pit of my stomach. “I’m here training, so I can clean up my own mess. I’m going after the wendigo.”

  “You must be joking,” Katya says, one of her penciled-in eyebrows rising on her face. “Leave that to Tryan and Liana.”

  “Enough!” I say, louder than I mean to. “I’m tired of Tryan and Liana. Why don’t they go back to their old lives and leave me alone? They’re perfectly suited for one another. I’ve never seen a better match.”

  Katya’s voice cackles through the training room. I’ve never seen her so jovial about anything. “A match? Two tovaroses? Don’t be silly; they can never be together.”

  I roll my eyes. It’s even worse than I thought. “How romantically star-crossed,” I say, slamming the crossbow back in its place.

  “No.” She chuckles. “You don’t understand. Tryan will never look anywhere again; you and he are connected for life. Once a tovaros finds their summoner, they are never attracted to another.”

  “Tryan had a summoner once before.”

  Katya raises an eyebrow.

  “Yes.” I roll my eyes. “I heard Liana talking about Caterina. I assume that’s his past you learned about. See, you don’t know everything.”

  “I’m afraid there’s much more to that story than what you think you know.”

  “I know if Tryan really was my tovaros he would have come to the hospital more than once.”

  Katya shakes her head at me. “Look at you. Your connection is stronger than any I’ve seen before. T
here is no other way you could have healed so quickly.”

  “This wasn’t Tryan.” I motion to my body. “You never told me I’d meet light-bending angel-people.”

  “Angels?” Katya says, her eyebrows snapped together, wrinkling her forehead. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m sure you’ve heard of them,” I say, passing by her and heading up the stairs into the den. “You know, bright beings. Like to play with light. Although I didn’t notice any feathery wings.”

  “How long have you been cavorting with them?” Katya asks, following me. I ignore her and make my way to the kitchen.

  “I asked you a question.” Katya grabs me by the wrist and spins me around. She’s stronger than I realized.

  “I haven’t been,” I say, pushing her hand off mine. There’s a fury behind her eyes that’s making me uncomfortable.

  “Tell me,” she yells.

  “No!”

  Katya eyes me up and down, stopping at my torso and staring intently where my injury once was. She begins to shake her head and turns away from me, making her way to the front door. “I’ll be back later. I have some things to look into.”

  I hear the gravel crunch under the tires of her car. What is it about the Brothers of the White Light that made her so angry? Right now, I need to focus. I pause at the doorway of Katya’s studio, then pass by it on the way to my own. I’m in search of a willing subject to practice on, and I think it might be better if it was something I had full control over.

  At my desk, I pull out my sketchbook and my charcoals. I’m not sure how this part of the job is carried out, but I know I’ve done it before. I pull out my summoner book and look up the lesser demon list. Water nymphs—that’s what I want to try.

  I start by drawing a scene that might appeal to water nymphs. My limited knowledge makes it a little tough, but in my mind I picture a serene pond, filled with lilies and other Monet-like scenery. When I’m finished, I lean back in my chair and admire my work. If I were a water nymph, I’d definitely want to hang out here.

  I stare at the drawing, focusing on the lines and the shading, allowing the picture to take over my vision. Nothing happens. I try again, this time calling to a water nymph in my mind. Still, nothing. Frustrated, I stand up from my desk and walk over to the window. What am I doing wrong? It was so easy every other time before. A splash interrupts my thoughts. I spin around and see the paper on my desk move slightly. I run over and see that something is trying to crawl out of the water. Even the paper around it is damp.