The Summoner's Sigil

by Renee Sebastian

  “Still didn’t answer my question.”

  I paused and looked into his eyes. My lopsided grin belied my truer feelings. “I didn’t, did I? Each one of these is a building schema showing its security systems and wardstone placements. Maybe on those plans, there are also bound to be some that contain secret entrances. It’s been rumored that they would sell those to thieves, if the price was right.”

  “How did you know about this room and their illicit affairs?”

  “Grandfather used to renew the wardstones for various families through this office. I came with him several times and spied this room often. Since it holds all the security plans for the town, I’m betting their blueprints will give us an idea as to how to infiltrate the cult’s stronghold, the hotel, and I need to see where those wards are located.

  “Demon ghost, now that you are free, would you be willing to find out who is in the mayor’s house for us?” Then more for my benefit than anything, I added, “It’s also important to know where the mayor is, doubly so if he is the one behind all of this.”

  Again, we were faced with taking out the kingpin first and hoping the rest would fall like dominoes, or eliminating the smaller villains in the hotel first. That way we would be cutting his legs off, causing him to hopefully give up and surrender. If he went to ground, it would only be a matter of time before we caught him.

  I wanted desperately to believe that Blake Jr. was not involved in all of this, but it certainly was looking unlikely, if his father was. Of course, he might simply be following his father’s orders. It would make sense for the one in charge to be the one who sees the least action. I just couldn’t make up my mind yet.

  “Yes, I’ll go,” the ghost told me. “Will the man go with me?”

  I glanced at Colin and said, “I think not. Calidum however will, won’t you?”

  He jumped down from a loosened ceiling tile and landed with a thud in front of me. He looked up at me with big doe like eyes and said, “Of course Mistress.” Really, I wanted him to keep an eye on the ghost, so if he stepped out of line, Calidum could tattle of him.

  “The both of you go now, and return to me soon.”

  The demon ghost gave a last withering stare at the twin bird demons and then went through the front door. Calidum loped behind him. I forgot to ask if they knew their way, but since neither asked for directions, I had to trust the ghost did.

  Colin and I turned back to the task at hand. We worked in companionable silence looking for the correct cylinder, until Colin asked, “So was that what he looked like?”

  “Who?” I asked, knowing full well whom he meant. I, however, was not going to make this easy for him, since I emphatically did not want to discuss the dead captain. Besides, it seemed unlikely that Stephen would know enough about Summoner magic in order to help me when we were back at the lake house. But then again, he was a jack of all trades. I had thought Stephen had the potential to become the master of my heart, but when I looked at Colin, I now knew the relationship I had with Stephen was not my manifest destiny.

  Stephen and I used to have an oil and water chemistry. Every time something shook us up, we’d grow closer together, but deep down, when the world stopped being against us, it was inevitable that we would drift apart. We had nothing in common, except Wendy and Dorian, and staying alive.

  When I looked at Colin, I could see us spending some serious time together, when he wasn’t in the library. Maybe he could research during the day and then… and then what? Would he help me in the business of banishing demons at night? Whom was I kidding? This might work, if I moved to Washington D.C. Was I ready to live in a town that would have hung me by my toes to tar and feather me just last month?

  I was doomed to eke out a lonely existence.

  “Is that what Captain Carlisle looked like?”

  I looked at Colin and found him painfully handsome. I said, “Yes. It was.”

  He nodded his head and asked, “Basil, is this it?” He then handed me a three foot long tube, with the words Hotel Château Cyprès clearly written across the end of it.

  “Bullseye!” I took it from him and I brought it to the unbroken display cases in the main room. Colin followed close behind me, almost crowding me. I didn’t know why he was suddenly so clingy, but I figured allowances had to be made for wolves in men’s clothing.

  I popped off the lid, pulled out the papers, and uncurled them on the case. I was looking for the building’s wardstones, which should have been indicated by a series of gold embossed stamps. It would have guaranteed the stone’s efficacy from the state licensed ward makers. However, being in a territory, we rarely received anything of the sort. If there had been some on this schema, they were missing now. Since I knew hardly anyone in this town had their stones recharged, it would be anyone’s guess as to the efficacy of the stones today.

  My plan wasn’t to dismantle the wards they already had in the building. Rather, it was to reverse their polarity, in effect trapping all the demons in the building, allowing those not afflicted to escape. Of course, many of the people that were not possessed might be dangerous Users, who worked for the Mayor. This was all a calculated chance, but one that had to be taken.

  “I’m going to get something that might help us,” Colin said. He got up and went to Gertrude’s pockets, where he removed some salt from her pockets.

  When he returned, he threw some of it onto the map. Then he lifted the sides of the map to shift the salt around. After doing that, he shook off the excess.

  “Look, there was where one used to be,” he said as he pointed out a circle of salt crystals located at the western corner of the building, the one closest to Station Street.

  “Yes, it would appear so. It was probably a counterfeit stamp from an illegal Geomancer.” Which might mean they had wardstones or not.

  “I also don’t see the entrance leading into the basement. How were you planning on using them to encircle the hotel?”

  “I’m going to reverse their polarity,” I told him.

  “Have you ever done this before?”

  “No, but it can’t be much different from casting a circle to protect people, versus trapping a demon.” He leveled a disbelieving look at me.

  A tube fell out from its slot, and Colin and I looked at each other. It was swiftly followed by three more.

  “Is the ghost back?” he asked.

  “I don’t see Calidum or him, but it could be another ghost, one that isn’t a guardian.”

  “Looks like someone has something to tell us, so I believe a séance is in order,” he said.

  “Well, aren’t you full of surprises.”

  Chapter 17

  Séance

  Rule number seven: Three athames are better than one long sword.

  “I am not a Tomb Talker Colin, remember,” I dutifully reminded him.

  “Not needed. We have a strong enough connection, so it should work for the two of us.”

  I was skeptical to say the least. I wondered how strong a connection had to be in order to do the impossible. Séances were all the rage, mainly due to the popularity of the premier Tomb Talker, Mr. Houdini, who had popularized it again a few years ago during his travelling act. As was his custom, he would invite audience members to participate in the show’s antics, which led to his fame. Now though, he only booked appointments for the right price and the right referral, and you had to go to him, not the other way around.

  I took a loose tendril of my hair between my fingers and worried it. If Stephen were here with us, what would he have to say about Colin and me? What could he say? He wasn’t coming back. He didn’t get a say in how I lived the rest of my life. My conscious, however, wouldn’t let me forget that he had sacrificed his life to save ours from Peter. I owed my life to him. I certainly was fickle, as I couldn’t reconcile my conflicting emotions.

  Colin abruptly took my hands, and I startled from my memories, which were haunting me. He could have said, “I’m here for you if you need me,” or “Stop
worrying,” but he didn’t. He did say to me in a low and husky voice, “You’re perfect.” What an odd thing to say.

  “Far from it,” I muttered. I felt moisture gather on my eyelashes, and I tried to bat them away before he noticed.

  “Nonsense. I can understand why he would want to follow you, even after death. But right now, we need all the help we can get, to save the town, or at least what is left of it. If he has something to tell us, we need to try and learn what that is.”

  I knew what he said made sense. I knew he was right, but was I ready? What would Stephen say to us, to me, if we were to reach him? I collected the map, folding it three times in half, and then said, “All right, let’s do this. Won’t we need a clear drinking glass and an Ouija board?”

  “No, we can write down the alphabet on a broken board or glass pane, and if that doesn’t work, then we can write out what we need on the floor. It is certainly dirty enough in here for us to just write the letters in the dust if we had to.”

  “All right.”

  “I would like to use something other than dust to draw the characters though.” He took an aluminum lid from where we had popped open the document tube, and then he went towards the door.

  “What did you have in mind?” I asked.

  “I’m going to fill up the cap using the rain water. With the way it has been falling, we’ll be lucky if the town isn’t flooded by morning. Then we’ll add a bit of blood to it and use that to write the letters.”

  I approached him, but just before I opened the door for him, Colin pushed me down to the ground. He then reached over me and peeked through the curtains.

  “What is it?” I whispered.

  “Someone was just outside the door. Looks like it is several juvenile demons. Thankfully, they continued walking past us.”

  “What kind of demons were they?”

  “They were level ten demons, babaleeks I believe. Maybe we should use the back room.”

  “The door’s locked.”

  “That hasn’t stopped us thus far.”

  I smiled and said, “They are going to send someone to look for Lucas soon,” I reminded him. “He was going to be a big payload for them.”

  “Then let’s be quick about this, before Calidum and the ghost report back what they found.”

  After Colin broke the door knob off with a piece of wood from the front room, we travelled through a storeroom that was strangely devoid of anything other than empty shelves. By travelling deeper into the room, we were rewarded with finding an egress door.

  Once we took the security bar off, it opened right up to a back alley with an overflowing gutter nearby. I went and filled up the canister and then brought it back into the building.

  I next unsheathed one of my athames and asked, “Are you ready?”

  He stared blankly at me for a moment, and then took off his coat. He rolled up his sleeve and then scratched a gouge into his forearm with a fingernail. That must have smarted.

  I shyly brought the canister lid to his dripping wound and caught some of the blood in it.

  “You really aren’t afraid of catching anything from me, are you?”

  I looked up into his face and asked, “Like lycanism? Hardly. I know that you can’t catch it like a cold Colin.”

  “Some people…”

  “Do? Ridiculousness.” I then shucked off my own coat and rolled up a sleeve.

  “After you add your own to the mix, then we’ll use it to paint the letters. I’ll find a board to write the letters upon and two chairs.”

  “Great. We’ll use my smallest knife as a pointer,” I said.

  I put the blade against my skin, but he didn’t get up to find the board. Instead, he grew very interested when the blade broke through my skin and blood pooled to the surface.

  He said, “Our combined blood should strengthen our hold on the séance. Even though this technique may lack finesse, we should have enough raw ability between us to power our way through it.”

  I nodded my head in agreement, and then added my blood to the container.

  He quickly gathered up two chairs. After I finished situating them, he brought in a thick pane of glass into the backroom that wasn’t broken. It must have been from a display case. Then it was finally show time.

  I sat down in one of the wooden chairs. Then Colin followed suit and sat in the one across from me. He laid the pane across our laps, making a bridge of sorts, and then he said, “We should paint the letters together, since both of our bloods were involved in creating the blood paint.”

  I nodded my head and he took my hand. With his hand over mine, we both dunked our pointer fingers into the blood and then he guided both our fingers in making a bloody Ouija board that faced himself. Since we didn’t have room to write out the words yes and no, he added a plus sign to represent yes and a minus symbol for the word no.

  “We should wait a moment for it to dry,” he said before releasing my hand. I wiped my hand on my pants, whereas, he stared at his finger with our combined blood still on it for a tad too long to be polite.

  I told him, “Go ahead. It won’t disgust me, if that is why you are holding back.”

  He startled and then stared at me. He shook his head, as if the clear his mind, and then he wiped his finger on his arm. I took what was left in the lid, and put it on the ground next to my foot. For all I cared, he could drink it afterwards, if that was what he wanted to do.

  “What was it like growing up without parents?” I asked him.

  “I was not put in school like most children were, but I was far from without guidance. My elders in the library system took it upon themselves to teach me all they knew, and there were easily a million other teachers too.”

  “Books?” I asked.

  “Precisely.”

  “So you’ve been cloistered away for all your life?”

  “In a manner of speaking, yes.”

  “So when you’re done with this assignment, will you return to the library?”

  He looked away and said, “That is what is expected of me.”

  “That was not an answer.”

  Nothing.

  “They know by now that you aren’t going to change into a wolf, so what’s the problem? If you want to leave, then leave.”

  “There is always that. I’m not sure they will let me leave after all I have learned over the years, and besides, what would I do if they allowed me to leave the Library?”

  “Anything you would want to do. Maybe become the head of a small town’s library somewhere, far away from the central government’s influence.” I all but said be the librarian for Assumption parish to him.

  “And no longer have access to some of the most powerful and rarest books on Earth?”

  “Haven’t you read your fill of those yet? There’s more to life than simply acquiring knowledge,” I told him, although lately, I had begun to question my own aspirations. Where was I going? The most powerful Summoner of this generation, with no direction or aspirations of my own.

  “Be demoted?” he asked me next.

  I hadn’t thought of that. I guess leaving the most important library in our nation would be a demotion.

  “I would need more than just a job to make me leave my post,” he said with far more intent than I found comfortable. I squirmed a little in my chair and then he added, “Basil, there is something I need to tell you…”

  A shelf fell behind me and we both jumped in our seats. “It looks as if someone else needs to say something first. Let’s get this séance over with, since they usually give me the creeps.” I did not tell him that it didn’t prevent me from using Tomb Talkers in the past however.

  He grimaced and said, “Take athame and lay it on the pane of glass. We’ll each grab the corners of the glass and then we will ask our first question.”

  “We’ll not touch the knife?”

  “No, the glass is a unique conduit; just try to gather electromagnetic resonances into yourself, as much as you can. It will hel
p with the accuracy and speed,” he said.

  It was my turn to frown, but I did as he asked. After a couple of minutes of trying to pull as much of the Earth’s natural electrical and invisible emissions into myself, I noticed that Colin’s hair rose from the top of his head.

  “Do you want to ask the first question?” he asked me.

  I took a steadying breath and prepared for the worst when I replied, “Yes, I will. Is Captain Stephen Carlisle here with us?” Despite observing Colin wince, I refused to put off the inevitable.

  We waited for the little knife to move, but it didn’t.

  “Is there something wrong?”

  “Wait.”

  I looked back down and sure enough, there was an almost miniscule vibration about it. We stared at it for about thirty seconds, but it refused to budge away from its position.

  “Ask it again.”

  “Is that you Stephen?”

  It shot off the pane of glass, passing clearly over the plus sign, on its way to an empty wooden crate on the floor behind me. I didn’t really know if it was truly Stephen who had responded, but whoever it was, they were definitely claiming to be him. Colin shifted the weight of the glass pane my direction and retrieved the knife. He returned and repositioned the glass sheet between us again, before placing the knife back on it.

  “Maybe we should each put a finger on it,” he said.

  I complied and then asked, “If you are Stephen, then you know my favorite gem stone. What is it?” I told him which one it was when we were in the West Indies, which prompted him to promise me a huge gray spinel for helping him to look for lost treasure. We were using his treasure map to find Captain Bartholomew Robert’s lost booty. We never did find it, having been called back to London to help Wendy and Dorian.

  The knife vibrated again and then its bone handle scraped across the glass, so the tip of the blade pointed at the letter S. It began to move again, but I interrupted it, and asked, “What color?” The S it indicated was good enough for me. It again vibrated and went to the G.