“Did your parents love you?” I didn’t know why I asked him this question, but it suddenly seemed very important to me.
“Excuse me?”
“Did your parents raise you?”
“No.”
“Were they forced to give you up when they discovered that you were unable to turn?”
“I became a ward of the state shortly after my birth. It was after my blood had been diagnosed by the government,” he replied. That had definitely been under the Edison dynasty, a long line of dictator presidents who were either fools or cruel lunatics. It seemed as if the entire country was holding its collective breath to see what kind of president Alice Newton would turn out to be.
I looked over the sigil. He was correct in that it didn’t require a sacrifice of even a palmetto bug, which I might have been willing to sacrifice since there was a nest of them hiding in the corner. It did require certain conditions: a new moon, a DNA sample of either the person we were searching for or one of their minions, a gyrocompass, and an assistant of the opposite sex. I didn’t think it was a coincidence that the phase of the moon was perfect for tonight.
“I presume the sample you took is the one needed for the sigil to work.”
“Yes,” he told me.
“Do you have a gyrocompass?”
“Yes, and I will be your assistant.”
“What if Calidum doesn’t want to do this?”
“Then I will volunteer to be the one to go,” he calmly replied.
“That would be sending a lamb to the slaughter.”
“You think so?” he asked intensely.
I was slightly taken aback and said quickly, “I guess not.”
“If we have to close the portal before Calidum can return and he becomes trapped, would you be able to summon him back here?”
I eyed the spell. We didn’t know where it would send him. If this spell involved him going to a dimension that was higher than a ten, I didn’t think that I would be able to summon him back. If it indeed turned out that we were creating a land bridge, then it was even chancier, since I had never attempted to summon a demon from somewhere else in the same world that I was also located.
“I don’t know,” I honestly told him.
“Give him a Verlangen Teufel token then. That should work,” he said.
I eyed him suspiciously. How did he know I could craft a token? The disc I had made for Wendy wound up being used on Dorian’s mother. That was an interesting day when I summoned the Queen of the Autumnal Fairies to this side of the lines. But of course, Colin was mistaken on how it worked, so I educated him on the finer points of using the Verlangen Teufel spell.
“If I was on another plane of existence I could summon him back out, but I probably won’t be.”
“I heard that you could travel to other dimensions. If you travelled to another plane and then summoned him from there, then when you came back to this plane you should be able to bring him back here as well.”
“Who told you that I could do illegal Summoner spells anyway?”
“It was in a filed report. So can you do the black spell or not?” he asked.
“For the record, it is a gray spell,” I said sullenly, as I let the sigil sink to my lap.
He made sure he had my complete attention when he said, “Basil, I will never pass judgment on anything that you may decide to do or not. I might give my opinion, but you will always be free to do whatever you will.”
His words were contrary to everything my parents had instilled in me from a young age. Everyone was judging you all the time when you were part of the Beckenbauer family, so said Juniper Beckenbauer. Besides, no one was incapable of not judging another entirely.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked, because I certainly wasn’t being very nice to him. “Is it because you would like future assignments away from your post in the library, and if you do well here, then the likelihood of that happening again would shoot up?”
“I think you have built a hard shell around yourself. I simply choose to see beyond that.”
“Don’t you want to leave the library?” I asked tentatively. A Summoner’s life was always full of travel. Jobs were few and far between, and there were even fewer Summoners to do them. I couldn’t imagine any other way of life.
“What about that sigil, can you do it?” So he was going to evade my question. Maybe he didn’t know the answer to it.
“Colin, the token is supposed to be used from one plane to another, and not between two distances on the same plane.”
“Have you tried using it in the same plane? I’ve researched this spell’s origins, and with a strong enough Summoner, it should work.”
There was a chance he was right. I finally said, “There are a lot of coincidences that have lined up for this to work tonight, and if Calidum is willing, then we’ll do it after dinner. I’ll make the tokens.”
I folded up the scrap of paper and shoved it into my pocket. “We’ll need the moon out first, so we may as well eat, drink, and be merry until it does.”
I was the product of a long held tradition where people celebrated life during one of the most severe forms of weather: cyclones. Why should I let demons, who apparently could possess people, bother me?
Chapter 6
Sigil Snarls
Rule number five: Triple the ring, makes you king.
“I would like some more please,” Calidum asked.
“You have already had a whole catfish Cali,” I told him.
“I didn’t know that it could taste like that.”
“It is only because they didn’t break every spice bottle I own. You may not have any more of the fish tonight, but you may have some more of the bread.”
He made a face and said, “Blekh.”
“Suit yourself.”
I put one filet on Colin’s plate and then placed the other on my own, adding a hunk of the bread next to them. Then I sat down next to him at the kitchen table. The sun was starting to set, but it was difficult to tell since we had boarded up most of the windows and propped up the front door.
While we worked side by side hammering nails, I had to tell myself several times that he did not smell like cedar and spice, even though he did. It was pointless looking at the way his hair moved as he hammered the nails into the boards. I had bigger fish to fry this evening than some pointless attraction I felt for someone who was unattainable. I should have been mourning over Captain Carlisle’s death still, but he wasn’t the one sitting next to me now, was he?
I looked out the kitchen window, whose glass was miraculously still intact. The sky was a burnt brown with slashes of violet snaking through the low hanging clouds. Soon the mists would drift in from the bayous and creep across the lake to hug the house. Even though Colin had repeatedly warned me that we were going to be attacked tonight, I doubted it. Why would Mrs. Basquiat do that? It wasn’t as if she had a family to protect anymore. Her children had all moved away, with the closest one I heard in New Paris.
Before I knew it, the fish and bread were gone, and Colin said, “I’ll catch more in the morning. Look over the spell, full moonrise is only about an hour from now.”
I almost slipped up and asked him how he knew that, but caught myself. While wolves didn’t necessarily change with the full moon, they were reputably in touch with the slight gravitational pull it emitted upon the earth. I’ve always imagined that it was similar to Users who could sense the natural electromagnetic resonances of the Earth.
He cleared the plates for us and I went back up to the attic to check the sigil. I needed to check the Verlangen Teufel spell to make sure that it was compatible with the one that Colin had given me. There was bound to be a few modifications to ensure that both sigils could work together. This was level nine stuff, so precision was key.
There came a knock from the front door, and I heard Calidum advising Colin on the merits of not answering it. Finally, I heard the door being dragged open, its hinges scraping along the floor
with a soft moan. Then I heard an exchanging of words between Colin and another man. Calidum quickly found his way back to me in the library.
“It is your cousin,” the little demon told me.
“Nigel?”
“So he claimed.”
“Since I have no money, food, spirits, or women, I wondered what he could possibly want.”
“He left with a warning.”
“Oh did he? Do tell,” I said.
“He said, ‘They’re coming for you, so you better leave now.’”
“That’s all,” I said with false bravado.
“That’s what I thought too,” Calidum replied. I couldn’t tell if he had simply sensed my unease and agreed with me in order to make me feel better, or if he really thought there wasn’t anything for us to worry over. Suddenly, there was a loud splash from outside.
I went to the vent flap and opened it. There was only a little light to see by now, but I could still make out many dark shapes lumbering about in the water at the back of the house. They must have been draugs, water zombies for lack of a better word.
There used to be only the occasional sightings of draugs, but lately their numbers had been growing, invading the Louisiana waterways. While deaders and revenants were made and controlled by Necromancers, draugs were more like infected living hosts. Usually a water witch had to infect you, but once you were diseased, you could in turn transfer that infection through bodily fluids. Some even said they could spawn young, but I hadn’t seen any evidence of that myself.
After a close observation, I estimated that there were at least thirty draugs down there. I set the sigil down on the only cupboard in the attic, and then opened up its bottom cabinet. Inside it was a Colt Lightening slide action rifle and a drawer full of .401 caliber bullets. I didn’t like using guns, excepting shotguns, and I wasn’t a particularly great shot, but I had been trained on this one. It could only hold ten rounds at a time, but I could reload it in less than a minute. I estimated my odds. Judging by their numbers, the sad truth was that there was a high probability that they could take the house even using the gun.
Dash it! This was my house, broken and run down as it was. No one was going to take it away from me. I waited for them to advance, but they held still, shuffling from foot to foot. What were they waiting for?
Then I heard it. Off in the distance there was the baying of wolves, most likely a rogue pack of Loup garou roaming the area. Could they have been the ones that tore apart my home?
Colin climbed the ladder up and asked, “Do you see them?”
“I can the see draugs, but none of the wolves yet. Did you hear them too?”
“Yes,” he said sourly. “Do you have the sigil?”
I grabbed the scrap of paper with the sigil on it and said, “Yes, I think this should work.”
“You aren’t certain?” Calidum asked.
“I’m certain that if you become lost somewhere in the in-between spaces, I’ll be able to call you back.” I picked an old wooden poker chip and added, “With this coin, but only once I adequately prepare it.”
“I am all right with that,” he said as he reached for the wooden token in my hand.
I snatched it back and said, “Not yet. I still have to draw the appropriate markings on it first. “Colin, do you know how to use this?” I said as I shoved the rifle at him.
“They required practice with the revolver before I was allowed to come here, but never a rifle. I do understand the mechanics of how one works however. This is a Colt Lightening, is it not?”
“Yes, just give it to me when it needs to be reloaded,” I told him and then I shoved it into his arms.
He took it, slid open the vent, and peered down across the back yard. Then he said, “Make the tokens and cast the sigil. They aren’t moving much now, but they might soon. I will shoot them when they do.”
“What do you think Calidum?” I asked.
“I trust him. Do as he says,” Calidum replied.
If he thought he could hold off an aquatic horde of bloodthirsty fiends, have at it. I grabbed a wood burner stylus off of a shelf and set to work on making both of the Verlangen Teufel discs. This process required a second matching one be made in order to activate the other. It had been a while since I made them, and I had only made this bit of magic once previously. There was a lot of room for error.
The smell of burnt cedar filled the small space, which caused Colin to sneeze several times. Calidum was staring at Colin over my shoulder, while sitting on top of the cabinet. I noticed that he was clutching the paper with the sigil written across it.
“You’re sure you can call me back should I become stuck in the portal?” Calidum asked me.
“Yes, yes, now leave me to my work. I have to finish the token before I can work on making the sigil on the floor.”
“You like him, don’t you?”
My hand slipped, and I barely kept it from altering the design. I looked up at Colin, but he was paying us no mind, or at least he was enough of a gentleman to pretend that he hadn’t overheard us.
I carefully said, “Colin has done nothing to deserve my disapproval, so thus far there is nothing to not like about him.”
“Oh my,” Colin said. Was he replying to my statement? “Look down there. There must be about forty Loups hugging the shoreline, making a barrier between the house and the draugs.” I breathed a sigh of relief, since he had been referring to the situation outside.
I knelt down on the floor next to him in order to look through the vent. He leaned back and I took in the view. It certainly appeared that the wolves were attempting to keep the draugs from reaching us.
“I like you too,” he said smugly.
I froze, blushed, and then as I slowly stood up, I said, “Keep watch, while I start drawing the sigil.”
He nodded his head and lifted up the nose of the gun in the vent again.
I looked down at the engraved sigil set into the floor. It had several concentric loops and swirls, intended for containment. I would activate the one first and then the sigil he gave me would follow, which had to be hand drawn on the floor inside it. There was one symbol on another inner ring of his drawing that I had never seen before, so I decided to ask Calidum about it before I actually drew it.
“Say Calidum, what is this marking here for?” I asked as I pointed to the circle with a squiggle and three arrows spiraling outward from it. There was also a trident overlaying the entire thing.
“I don’t know. It is beyond my realm.”
“It’s a twelfth dimensional seal,” Colin calmly replied.
I didn’t even know how to respond to that. I was nowhere near a twelfth level Summoner.
“Calm down,” he told me.
Calm down? It was only our lives I was risking if this blew up in our faces. I released my clenched fists, and attempted to uncross my eyes.
“We can do this together,” he said, obviously referring to the part of the ritual that necessitated a male counterpart. But something told me that his comment was more meaningful than that.
There was a loud whinny, followed by a horse screaming outside, and then we all dashed for the vent. It wasn’t big enough for all of us to look through, and as Colin was closest, he got the first glance. A minute went by and I attempted to nudge him out of the way, but he wouldn’t budge.
“What is it?” I asked impatiently.
“It’s nothing,” he replied.
“Of course it was something. What?”
“Your horse came back.”
“Oh! That is good news then. Does she still have her saddlebags?”
“Your saddlebags appear to have survived, and better yet, they have been thrown off of the animal. They are currently beyond the reach of the bayou,” he said gloomily.
“You don’t sound happy about it.”
The whinnying abruptly stopped and Colin winced.
“What is going on?”
“I fear that you will have to pay for the horse Basil. Th
e Loups were apparently quite hungry.”
I frowned, pushing the guilt over the poor mare’s death for a later time. “Are those wolves out there guarding the house, because you are in it?”
“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” he said, sounding honestly surprised. Ultimately, it didn’t matter so long as they held off the draugs long enough for me to do the casting of the sigil. Then I would pick them all off one by one, if I had to.
I drew out the remaining mark of the sigil inside the floor’s engraved ring, stopping just short of the last line. I said, “Are you ready?”
He turned away from the slit in the roof and said, “I hope so.”
“Calidum?”
“Not especially, but if I must,” he replied glumly.
“Good. Calidum, come over here and stand right there,” I told him as I indicated the center of the sigil. He dutifully came and stood where I had pointed. He looked forlornly up at me. I felt a crippling fear take my breath away. I couldn’t even take care of a Ninny, so what made me think I could be responsible for a demon?
Without warning, my lungs compressed, as if I couldn’t get enough oxygen into them. My vision swam, and then I turned away from Calidum, not certain if I might lose the catfish from our dinner earlier or not.
Colin grabbed me by my shoulders and said something to me, but I couldn’t exactly hear what he was telling me. All I could hear was a roaring sound in them. Finally, my breath returned, and I heard him telling me, “Everything will be all right. Relax. Take deep breaths. Calidum will be fine. He’s a demon after all. If we lose him, you will summon him again. We can do this. You’re not alone. He’s our responsibility now, not just yours alone.”
“Do you really believe that?” I finally asked him.
“I believe you just had an anxiety attack, because you thought that you were going to somehow kill Calidum.”
“Are you?” Calidum asked.
Was I? Could he die from this ancient spell? I couldn’t think past the rapid beating of my heart.
The Summoner's Sigil Page 8