Lightgiver Read online

  The fog quivered and began to take shape according to the image in his mind. Walls appeared around him, and his feet echoed as they came down on a smooth stone floor. Books filled shelves that went from floor to ceiling and stretched as far as he could see. Jez allowed himself to smile as he walked toward one of the shelves and pulled out a volume. It had to be at least three inches thick. The writing on the spine had faded, and its cover was unadorned. He opened it, and his heart fell. Every page was completely blank. He tried another but found it blank as well. He sighed. This wasn’t the actual library. This was just a semblance he’d recreated using what Enki had shown him, though one a lot more complete than he would’ve thought himself capable of.

  “This is pointless,” he said.

  His voice echoed through the stacks and seemed to get louder as it passed through the chamber. On the far side, dust shook free of the shelves. It began to swirl and settled on the floor in a perfect circle. Jez’s breath caught in his throat as thunder rumbled from an outside that wasn’t there. Flames spurted from the circle of dust, and a hand covered in yellow scales reached up from it. Jez summoned his crystal sword, and it appeared in his hand, feeling heavier than it normally did. Flames from the hole brushed the nearby books and people who hadn’t been there a second ago screamed and fled in all directions. Only a solitary figure remained.

  She was tall with hair the color of storm clouds. She wore brown robes, but as she walked toward the fire, they shifted to a golden yellow. As the scaled demon crawled out of the hole, its slitted eyes focused on her. It spoke with the same sort of gravelly voice that Enki had.

  “Pharim, you must help me.”

  “I’m no pharim.” Her shoulders slumped, but she didn’t turn away from the chanori. “Not anymore, but I will not allow you to destroy this place.”

  She held out her hand, and a blade of sunlight materialized, but before she could take a step, a dozen other demons poured from the hole. Most were the horned chezamuts that formed the vast majority of the armies of the abyss, but a few wore other forms, and they were only the beginning. In a matter of seconds, that end of the library was filled with demon fighting demon.

  The afur, for she could be nothing else, reached out her hand, and with a gesture, she snuffed out the fire in a desperate effort to protect the knowledge in this place. It wasn’t enough. They were too many, and her power was too limited. Thick smoke filled the area, and Jez knew that the only reason he wasn’t suffocating was that he didn’t need to breathe in this place. In spite of that, he still smelled the smoke, and it was so strong it made him gag.

  The back wall of the library collapsed into a pile of burning rubble. Beyond, Jez saw only the fogs of Between, but everyone else obviously saw something very different. The demons poured into what Jez guessed was the city of Zandra. Then, everything began to glow.

  The afur’s eyes went wide, and she shook her head. “No, do not do this. This place can still be saved!”

  There was a rush of air and she, along with those few demons still in the library, was flung out. Jez could still hear her cries as the wall reassembled itself. Then, everything vanished, and he found himself back in the empty fog. Besis’s ward was gone, and the full weight of Between fell upon his mind. His sword vanished as he called up the image of his room at the Academy. As he felt himself falling apart, he screamed.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Jez slammed into the stone floor of his sitting room. Instantly, strong hands picked him up and deposited him in a chair. There was talking, but he couldn’t make out the words. He blinked several times to clear his vision. Osmund and Lina stood a few feet away, and Masters Besis and Linala stood over him. Linala had her arms raised, and sweat gleamed on her forehead. There was still a faint yellow glow on her hands. She let out a heavy breath.

  “That was more difficult than I anticipated,” she said.

  “What did you do?” Jez asked. His throat felt raw.

  “I summoned you when I sensed Besis’s ward fail.”

  “You can do that?”

  She smiled. “Not easily, and only because he formed a contingent with me. I almost lost you. What happened?”

  Jez’s hands went to his forehead. His head was throbbing, and his memory of what happened had already started to fade.

  “I think I saw the Zandran fire.” He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. “It was caused by demons.” He could just barely remember the afur. “You summoned me. Can you only summon beings that aren’t in this world?”

  “No, not only beings.” She looked around. Her eyes momentarily rested on Lina and Osmund, and Jez thought she wouldn’t speak. “I can summon forces and energy as well.”

  Besis raised an eyebrow. “The fires of the abyss? I thought that was a legend.”

  She winced. “That’s what we want people to think. Let the world believe the dominion of destruction is the most dangerous. It takes an extremely talented individual to manage it, and we’ve only had half a dozen mages capable of it graduate the Academy in the past half century.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Jez said. “Can you summon someone who’s already in this world?”

  “A person?” She shook her head. “Summoning magic doesn’t work on humans. If you hadn’t been surrounded by Besis’s ward, I wouldn’t even have been able to call you.”

  “Not a person. An afur. I saw one in the fall of Zandra. I think she was a Lightgiver before she rebelled.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Jezreel, until your discovery of an afur in Rumar, no one had seen one in over a thousand years. People have tried summoning them. It doesn’t work.” She raised an eyebrow. “Unless you know a name.”

  Jez shook his head, and the motion made the room spin. It was several seconds before he could speak. “I’ve seen her though. Can you make a circle for me? Maybe I can use a mental image of her instead of a name.”

  “I can craft a circle, but you can barely stand. Even if you did have the strength, you can’t use a mental picture to supplement a summoning.”

  The light made Jez’s head hurt, and he closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them, everyone in the room was staring at him. He shrugged. “Actually, I think I can.”

  “You found something,” Besis said.

  “I’m not sure. Maybe it was just something Enki put in my mind that got shaken free. Whatever the reason, I know I can use my memory of her.”

  Besis raised an eyebrow at the knowledge master and grinned. “Linala, Jez has done impossible things before.”

  “I just wish I knew how,” Linala said as she looked at the ground. A circle of blackened earth Jez hadn’t noticed before had been laid around the spot he had appeared in. She looked up. “Osmund, if you would? Most of the power in it has drained away, and I need to replace it.”

  Osmund nodded and called the wind to sweep away the dirt. Once the floor was clean, she reached into one of her belt pouches and drew out a handful of white sand. In a few seconds, she’d made a circle of it and spent the next half hour drawing elaborate runes. Jez used the time to go back into his bedroom and change, which was far more difficult than normal. Then, he went back into his sitting room and looking over Linala’s shoulder.

  He only recognized a couple of the runes. This circle was much simpler than the previous one as they knew exactly what they were trying to summon. Finally, Linala nodded and looked up at him. He stepped up to the edge and glanced down. He knelt and, with his thumbnail, he added a simple rune shaped like an inverted heart in a space between two others and connected it to several nearby runes. When he looked up, Linala’s jaw had dropped, and he shrugged.

  “Sorry, it just seems right.”

  He got into the focal point and raised his hands. The short rest while Linala had drawn the circle had been enough for him to get over his dizziness, though his head was still pounding. Even so, his power flowed easily into the circle. He felt natural, like he’d done it a thousand times before. He thought he could’v
e drawn the circle without Linala’s help. In fact, he was relatively certain he could do it better. He could see how it should be in his mind. Still, what Linala had drawn, though crude, would be good enough for his purposes.

  He started chanting, and the words flowed out of him. Halfway through the summoning, he realized he didn’t know what language he was speaking. The image of the afur came to mind, and he surrounded it with his power and sent it into the circle. Though he had his eyes closed, he knew the circle was burning with yellow flame. His voice rose to a crescendo, and the image burned in his mind. He sent as much of his power as he could into the circle, and his body ached with the pain of it. The others cried out as the flames brightened, but after a second, the light faded. He opened his eyes. The white sand had been burned to ash, rendering the circle useless. He looked around, but there was no newcomer. Jez let out a long breath. He had failed.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Though Linala didn’t think it would work, Jez tried again using one of the partial circles in the summoning house, but that attempt failed even worse than the first. The circle had been so unable to hold his power that the energy in the sand hadn’t even been burned away.

  “It was always a longshot,” the knowledge master said. “I’ve never even heard of someone using a mental image to supplement a summoning, especially a summoning meant to call something no one has ever succeeded in calling.”

  “It should have worked,” Jez said, not knowing why he felt so sure.

  Osmund slumped his shoulders. “What about Enki?”

  “What about him?” Linala asked.

  “It’s been four days. Do you think there’s been enough time for him to recover? Can we try summoning him again?”

  She let out a long breath. “Tradition says it takes a year and a day, but that’s probably due to some poet or playwright taking artistic license. There have been records of demons being summoned soon after being destroyed. The method of destruction seems to have something to do with it.” She eyed Osmund. “A scion’s blade, I imagine, would take a long time to recover from.”

  “I said I was sorry,” Osmund said.

  Linala waved off his apology. “I’m not about to blame you for banishing a demon. After all, we don’t actually know you were wrong.”

  “Yes we do,” Jez said. Osmund looked away, but Jez kept speaking. “I mean, it’s not your fault. I just wish it hadn’t happened.”

  “Jezreel,” Linala said. “Enki gave you knowledge that drove you into Between and very nearly left you trapped there. Have you considered that that was his intention?”

  Jez opened his mouth to speak but closed it again. He hadn’t thought about it, but the idea sent chills down his spine. If that had been Enki’s intention, it had almost worked. In fact, given how obsessed Jez had been with finding a way to stop Sharim, it would be a frighteningly effective tactic. Linala gave him a knowing smile.

  “You may be extremely good at fighting these creatures, but remember that they are nearly as old as the universe itself, and even some soldier demons have developed a terrible cunning in that time.”

  Jez nodded. “I’ll be careful, but unless we want to go back to the shadows, Enki is the only lead we have.”

  She nodded. “Very well. I did some research on the chanori while you were unconscious. Knowing his name and type, I believe I can summon him, provided there is enough of him that has reconstituted itself.”

  Jez nodded, and she went about drawing a new circle in the unused sand around Jez. She had apparently been getting ready to try that exact thing because she drew the circle from memory, though when she was done she did check some of her books. Then, she stepped into the focal point. After a few minutes of chanting, however, she shook her head.

  “I can’t find him. Not even a trace.”

  “You mean he hasn’t recovered yet?”

  She shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. This is a very specific working. Even if Enki had just been banished, I should’ve been able to find something, regardless of whether or not there was enough to summon.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Linala frowned at Osmund. “It probably means he’s been destroyed.”

  “I didn’t do it,” Osmund protested. “Shamarion said Enki was just mostly here. His power should still be in the abyss. He couldn’t have been destroyed.”

  “Maybe the demons that were imprisoning him did it when he got back,” Jez said. “They could’ve been afraid he would escape.”

  Linala pursed her lips. “It’s possible.”

  Jez suppressed a shudder. “Do we need to go back to the memory shadows?”

  She shook her head. “The memory shadows have always been a last resort, and after what happened last time, I would hesitate to use them again, but there are other options.”

  “There are?”

  “We know more than we did at the beginning of this.”

  “We do?”

  “We know there is a way for Sharim to get out. We know the answer was in the Library of Zandra, and we know there was an afur there. It’s just pieces, but I might be able to use them as seeds. There are other beings I can summon that may have our answers. Come back in an hour.”

  “But...”

  Besis put a hand on Jez’s shoulder, and shook his head. “Leave her be, Jez. You’ve never seen what a master working in her own dominion can do. If the knowledge exists anywhere, she can find it.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  When Jez and his friends had come into the Quarter Horse with a master in tow, Lufka practically fell over himself bowing. The masters of the Academy were well thought of by many people in Tarcai, but unlike the behavior Jez had seen toward some of the members of the nobility, they acted out of genuine respect instead of fear. In fact, Lufka paid more attention to the master than he did to Jez, a fact for which Jez was grateful.

  “Goodman Lufka, I’m sure a master isn’t such a rare sight in this inn.”

  The innkeeper’s head bobbed. “Rael favors me with a visit from time to time, but she didn’t sponsor my son’s entry into the Academy, and she didn’t train the one who saved his life.”

  Jez flushed, but Besis waved it off. “Please treat me like any other customer. If you’d please bring us each a bowl of soup as well as some of that roast I’m smelling?”

  “Oh, of course, Master Besis. I can’t promise to treat you ordinary, but I’ll see to your food.”

  Lufka practically ran to the kitchen. It wasn’t long before they’d been served. Jez scooped a spoonful of the peppery soup into his mouth. They spoke of Lina’s studies and Osmund’s training. Jez talked about forging the sword that he even now wore at his hip. Eventually, they ran out of things to talk about and ate in silence for several minutes.

  “Do you really think she can find anything?” Lina asked.

  “Almost certainly,” Besis said as he took a bite out of a crust of bread. “I’ve known her for four decades, and I’ve only known her to fail at finding information three times. She’s had some confounding mysteries, believe me.”

  “The sleeping sickness?” Jez asked.

  Besis nodded. “Both times. The third was the onset of beast mind that we had six months ago.”

  “Sharim was involved in both of those,” Jez pointed out.

  “He wasn’t stuck in the abyss last time. Are you feeling any stronger?”

  Jez took a drink of spiced cider and nodded. “My headache is almost gone.”

  Osmund grinned. “That’ll teach you to not go without eating for four days.”

  Jez raised an eyebrow. “Says the person who knocked me out.”

  “You told me to.”

  “I’m sorry, Master Besis.” Lina’s voice was exaggerated. “Sometimes, they revert to being children.”

  Besis chuckled. “A year ago, I would’ve never thought that between the three of you, Lina would be the most mature.” All three of the students glared at him, but he buried his face in his cup. Once he was
done drinking, he placed a thick gold coin on the table, easily five times the value of the food and drink they’d had. “It’s been over an hour. Linala should have learned at least a little by now. If the three of you are ready?”

  They nodded. Lufka hustled over and tried to convince Besis to take his coin, but the protection master would have none of it. He handled the argument much better than Jez ever had, and in short order, they started their walk back toward the Academy.

  Jez had thought the area around the summoning house had been packed before, but that was nothing compared to this. People crowded around the building, trying to get a glimpse inside, and it didn’t look like Jez and his friends would be able to get in without shoving their way through. Periodically, yellow lights flashed from the windows, though they were all too high for anyone to see through. That didn’t stop a couple of crows, who Jez suspected were transformed students, from peering in. Besis walked right up to the gathered people and cleared his throat. As soon as enough people noticed, the crowd parted for him, and the protection master led Jez and his friends into the building.

  Linala stood at the edge of a massive circle that encompassed the entire main chamber of the summoning house. Jez could see something inside of the circle, but whatever it was, his mind couldn’t comprehend it. His head screamed in pain. The second he looked away, all memory of it was burned from his thoughts. It focused its attention on him, and he heard a roar in his mind. The circle blazed so brightly Jez could see the bones in his hands. Then, it faded, and the presence was gone. Jez realized he was on his knees. So were the rest of the people with him.

  “By the seven,” Besis said as he rose. “Was that a void beast?”

  “No,” Linala said through heavy breaths. “It was...” She shook her head. “There’s not a word for it in human languages. Think of it as a void beast’s nightmare. I just wish it had done any good.”