Summoned to Defend

by C L Walker

“Don’t be bad guys.” I approached Bec and Roman.

  “But without gods how will we know what is right and wrong?”

  “Watch the humans,” I said. I lifted Bec – against her will – and started walking to the gate back home.

  “But they—”

  “Go away, angel,” I said.

  They passed us as we walked, flying through the barely visible gate back to earth, until the plains of this heaven were empty of the interference that had almost destroyed it. The souls who were meant to be there started getting up to continue their endless walk.

  I took Bec and Roman through the gate and left them to it.

  Epilogue

  “I’m not sure,” Bec said. We were standing in ACDCs. She hadn’t opened the place since she’d come back from the hospital and we had it to ourselves.

  “We can make this a safe area,” I said. Suggesting a plan to my master was a new experience for me, at least one that didn’t involve them dying quickly so I could go back to my prison.

  “It didn’t go well for me the last time I got in the middle of vampire politics.”

  “Things will be different now. I’ll be there to make sure everyone behaves. And to keep you from doing something stupid.”

  “Like setting the witches on the vampires.”

  “Exactly.”

  She was thinking about it and that was all I needed. It was a vague thought in my head, the first thing I came up with when I considered staying in Fairbridge. I needed to be useful and all I knew how to do was fight; if I could use my only skill to stop others from fighting, to scare them into behaving themselves, then that might be a path for me now.

  The end of days wasn’t waiting for me at the end of my journey. There would be no end to my journey. Eternity waited for me and I would have to find some way to fill the years. Starting here, in this world, with these people, seemed like the best idea.

  “You’re not exactly diplomatic,” she said. She was leaning against the bar and trying not to touch her wound. She said it itched horribly but I knew it was too soon for her to be healing. It was in her head.

  “I’m not, but you can be. More importantly, you know all the players and they’ve heard of you. After what happened with Jeremiah and Artem everyone has heard of you. If you give them a place to be safe, to talk without the risk of a double cross, then maybe you can bring some peace to the city.”

  “And make some money while I’m at it.”

  “Just think about it while I’m gone, alright?”

  She nodded and I found myself smiling. I was happy, even after everything. Even finding out my future was gone and my past – the gods I’d killed and the heavens I’d sealed – was coming back, I was happy. All I needed now was to find Erindis and bring her here. We could be together again, an immortal couple.

  We walked to the room with the posters of strange bands on the walls and stood in the door while Roman finished his work. He was drawing the circle that would summon me, doing it with a finesse and care that made me happy. It meant he was serious about letting me come back when I’d seen my wife, that he’d decided to trust me.

  “We almost ready?” I said.

  I was more excited than I’d been on my first hunting trip, or the first time I lay with a woman. I was going back into my prison, but only so I could find her. Then they were going to summon me again and I could begin my new life. It would be brief, probably no more than eighty years or so if I protected Bec and she didn’t do anything stupid, but it would be wonderful.

  “We’re good,” Roman said. He put a stick of chalk down on a table and rearranged a doll made of dirt on a shelf; one of many. He didn’t need the dolls and other magical knickknacks he’d dotted around the room, but he said it was for safety.

  I walked to my spot and waited for Bec to stand in the circle. She didn’t need any ritual to return me to the locket but she planned on summoning me out again immediately. I’d be gone from the world for a few minutes and return with clues to my wife’s location.

  I had been dragged into the world kicking and screaming, the same way I was always brought here, but I left it hopeful. Things were changing, as they always were. Over millennia I had seen more change than anyone and I had become immune to its charms. Civilizations rose and fell and I was always the same.

  Now, for a little while, I wouldn’t be. I wanted to create a new Agmundr, one that made a positive difference. I could never undo all the harm I’d caused and I could guarantee my next master wouldn’t have me do it again, but in this place and at this time, I could do my best.

  It helped that I was human again, even if I was a big guy who scared people by looking at them. The temptation to swat at my enemies and see them fall had been taken from me. Now if I wanted to hurt someone I had to watch their faces while I did it; I had to see what my actions wrought. It changed a man.

  “Are you ready?” Bec said.

  “I’ll see you soon,” I replied, hoping it was true. I still didn’t know if she could summon me again, if my prison would allow me to leave now that the elder god’s power was no more. I hoped, though.

  “Agmundr,” Bec said, holding the locket out in the palm of her hand. “Return.”

  The world ran away from me. It felt like I was falling and the room kept getting bigger and bigger, Bec and Roman getting farther and farther away. Reality stretched like cheese in the sun until it broke and I fell into darkness.

  Erindis appeared in the dark. She was frightened, sneaking beside a wall, looking around her for whatever was chasing her. I waited for the world to resolve, for me to see what she could see.

  She was being hunted, I was sure. Sweat covered the perfect skin of her brow and her blonde hair hung in dirty strands around her head. Her clothing was torn and there were scratches on her arms.

  I wanted to roar, to let my rage out and destroy whoever had dared to harm her this way. My perfect wife, the one-time vessel of an elder god, was reduced to creeping around with fear in her eyes.

  I knew what I was going to do when I returned. I was going to kill whoever had made her feel this way. And despite my new humanity, I was going to enjoy it.

  I tore my eyes away from her to try and get an idea where she was. If I had enough detail, especially if I could spot a landmark, Bec swore she could help me find her.

  Something was wrong. I recognized where she was. I knew the location without the need of landmarks or magical internet machines. Erindis was outside ACDCs.

  She cracked open the front door and snuck inside. Roman had taken his wards apart to form the circle and I knew there would be no alarm sounding within. She closed the door quietly behind her.

  My view shifted to the empty bar. Erindis drew a knife from her back pocket. It was small, not suited to fighting, but it could do some damage. She walked to the back, to where Bec and Roman still were.

  What was she doing? I wanted to scream at her that I was fine, that she didn’t need to rescue me from this master. This one didn’t deserve to die. I wanted her to live.

  I had no mouth with which to scream and she wouldn’t have heard me anyway. She made it to the open door to the back room and looked inside.

  Roman and Bec were talking. He was telling her what to do to summon me, the simple part I knew and the closing words of the ritual that I had never heard. They were working to complete what they’d promised, to bring me back into the world and let me be free.

  I’m coming to you, I wanted to say. We’re going to be together.

  The vision was fading and the locket was calling. Erindis had paused at the doorway, gripping her knife, afraid to move any further.

  “You got it?” Roman asked Bec.

  She nodded and held the locket out as she had when she’d told me to return.

  “Agmundr,” she began. Then Erindis struck.

  The world was going dark as I was forced back into my prison, and there was nothing I could do about it. I fought and raged and tried to will the tattoos to action, but it
was pointless and I knew it. I watched for the final few seconds, hoping what I was seeing was wrong.

  Erindis, moving with no finesse, stepped into the room and stabbed Roman in the back. Bec turned to face her and my wife slammed the back of the blood-covered knife into her face. She fell to the carpet, unconscious.

  “What?” Roman said. He coughed and there was blood in his mouth. “Who are you?”

  Erindis took the locket from Bec’s hand and held it up to the light. She glared at it, sneering, then turned to Roman.

  “This is mine,” she said in our native language.

  The words meant nothing to the hedge-mage. They wouldn’t have meant anything to anyone so many years after the last of our people had died. He stared at her, scared and bleeding, confused at the sudden change of fortune.

  She stepped toward him, raising her small blade again. The world finally disappeared and I was left for a moment in the absolute black between summoning.

  And then her voice spoke to me, calling me. Summoning me.

  “Agmundr, vochex.”

  Author’s Note

  The Summoned series continues with Summoned to Destroy, then Summoned to Rule, and concludes with Summoned to Die.

  If you liked Summoned to Defend, please consider letting others know. A review on Amazon goes a long way, even if it’s just a couple of lines. More people are willing to take a risk on a new author if they know others have enjoyed their work, so your voice matters.

  Check www.colinlwalker.com for a full catalogue of my work.

  To sign up for the New Release Newsletter, check out http://eepurl.com/bTKrqL

  When you sign up you’ll get a collection of prequel stories (including how Fletcher got his hands on the locket and the first time Roman and Agmundr met). You’ll also find out about upcoming releases. I’m too busy writing to bug you with anything else (no spam), and you can unsubscribe at any time.

  Thanks for reading.

  Colin

  Read on for an excerpt from Summoned to Destroy

  Summoned to Destroy

  Chapter 1

  “Agmundr, vochex.”

  Her voice in the darkness was almost more than I could bear. It was music I hadn’t heard in thousands of years.

  “Agmundr, vochex.”

  The world formed around me, a blurry mess of angles and light. Erindis was the last to form and the only shape I wanted to see.

  “Agmundr, vochex.”

  With the final words my wife summoned me back into the world and finally I could see her.

  She looked as she had when she’d attacked my former master and stolen my prison. She wore the torn clothes of a peasant and had bruises and scrapes on her skin. She looked tired and worn down, nothing like the god-queen she’d been when I was last in her presence.

  She shuffled out of the carefully drawn circle around her feet and made her way around me. She had none of the hesitation or wonder that most of my masters had when they saw me; she kept her eyes down, refusing to see who she had summoned.

  I wanted to shout with joy, to grab her and never let go. My arms ached to hold her but there was a ritual to perform. She was my new master and she had to complete her side of the summoning before we would be free to speak.

  She returned to her circle and mumbled the final words under her breath, completing the summoning.

  “My love,” I said as soon as she was done.

  She didn’t raise her head, didn’t acknowledge my words at all.

  “Erindis, my wife.” I was shaking, too excited to bear and yet afraid of her reluctance to speak to me. “I am here.”

  She finally raised her eyes to see me and my hands curled into fists at the red in her eyes. Something was wrong; someone had hurt her enough to make her weep. I was ready to kill whoever that was.

  I checked the room: we were in a cavernous space, an old warehouse by the look of it. Steel supports rose from the cracked concrete and up into the darkness above. A dozen soldiers stood around us with automatic weapons ready to fire.

  “Where are we?” I said as I glared at our captors.

  Still she wouldn’t talk to me. She was angry and scared, and I didn’t know what to do. What did she want from me? She was my master now and I was hers to command, yet she held her tongue and allowed me to fill the emptiness with images of my own creation. I imagined her forced to steal the locket that held me prisoner, and being made to summon me. I imagined her a slave as well, subject to the whims of the men surrounding us.

  “Should I kill them?” I said. It seemed like the right thing to do.

  She shook her head and it staid my hand. One of the soldiers approached as though her movement had been his signal. He grabbed her arm and she shook him off.

  “Don’t fight me, woman,” the soldier said. He was a head taller than her and built like a warrior. She was small and thin, built like the royalty she was.

  I was the same barbarian I had been when I was cursed, seven feet tall and built to conquer armies by myself. And I didn’t have to let him speak to my wife that way.

  I dashed forward as fast as I could. The blood-tattoos adorning my skin didn’t react, couldn’t react now that their power source was gone. But I didn’t need magic to defend my woman, not from a mere human.

  “Stop,” Erindis said, raising her hand and freezing me in place. Her words were the greatest power in the world and her simple command froze my muscles.

  “Good girl,” the soldier said, treating her like an animal and making my heart beat faster. I was going to kill him when she allowed it.

  He dragged her out of her circle and into the darkness. I couldn’t follow as long as she didn’t want me to. The blood-tattoos obeyed her word over mine and until she released me I was stuck.

  “Erindis,” I called.

  I didn’t understand. One moment I was in the bar my former master owned, ACDCs, preparing to find my love and rescue her, and the next she was there, stabbing and beating my master before stealing my prison and running away. Now I was somewhere else, and it could have been hours or years later. It could have been centuries, and I had no idea what was going on.

  “On your knees, big guy.” One of the soldiers was behind me, aiming his rifle at me. I was still naked and would seem defenseless to him.

  “She told me to stay here,” I said. It wasn’t strictly true, but he wouldn’t notice.

  “On your knees or we’ll put a bullet in her head.”

  I didn’t know where she was. She could be in danger right now and I was stuck dealing with these humans. I couldn’t attack them yet because they hadn’t actually harmed her, and I couldn’t obey them because she’d told me to stop. Normally I would have interpreted her words and done what I wanted – the word stop could mean anything I wanted it to, it was so vague – but it was an order from Erindis. I couldn’t disobey.

  “Get down, freak,” the soldier yelled.

  “Unless she tells me to do it, I can’t,” I replied. “She has ordered me to stay here.”

  Did they know who I was, what I was? Did they understand my slavery to my master or was I a surprise to them?

  The soldier retreated and spoke to another. I searched the darkness for her while I waited, desperate to be with her and make sure she was safe.

  “Bring her back,” the soldier said into a radio. “The djinn won’t do as he’s told.”

  I wasn’t a djinn, but by calling me that he’d let me know how much they understood. They might not know who I was specifically, but they understood the basic rules.

  We stood in silence for minutes, waiting on her return. I spent my time glaring at them and they spent it aiming down their sights at me. I was confident I could kill them if I had to, and I would probably only suffer minor injuries in the process. I had learned that firearms were amazing but limited weapons.

  She appeared from the darkness again. The soldier behind her pushed her and she stumbled forward. I almost ran to her aid and gave away the extent of my actual bound
aries. She could tell me what to do but if she was in danger I could do whatever I needed to in order to protect her.

  “I can’t,” she said over her shoulder. She received another shove in response and fell to the floor. Her face bounced from the concrete and she moaned.

  I wasn’t waiting anymore. I had to act while their guns were trained on me. If she made it back to the light then she could be their target and I wouldn’t know.

  The soldier helped her up, roughly tugging on her arm to get her on her feet. Her hands were now tied in front of her and she wobbled as he righted her.

  “I can’t,” she said again.

  Her escort pushed his rifle to the side and pulled her close, hissing into her face. “You’ll do it or you’ll face him.”

  That was the final straw. I turned to the soldier behind me and snatched his gun from his hand before he realized what I was doing. He went for a pistol on his belt and I clubbed him with the rifle in response. His face caved in under the assault.

  The soldier pulled Erindis back as his squad mates moved in to deal with me.

  Chapter 2

  I expected bullets to fly. They’d held the rifles since my arrival and at first I couldn’t imagine why they weren’t using them.

  A soldier moved in with his rifle lowered, as though the act of approaching me would make me stop fighting. I used the blood-covered rifle in my hands to club him too. He raised his own weapon to block me and they both ended up smashing into his head. He fell to the ground.

  Erindis was getting further away. The soldier was dragging her, his arm wrapped around her chest. She wasn’t fighting him and the first thing I thought was: she has become so used to this abuse that she doesn’t even struggle.

  It fueled my rage, blinding me to anything but the fight.

  Another attack and I barely avoided the knife aimed at my arm. The soldier wielding it grunted and tried again. I grabbed his arm out of the air and snapped it, bending his elbow the wrong way with a sickening crunch, then kicked him in the chest and took him out of the fight.