The Novice Read online

  ‘As you’ve probably guessed, these four are the Lovetts. This is Fergus, Carter, Arthur—’

  ‘And I’m Elaine!’ the girl piped up, beaming up at Arcturus. ‘I love your demon! Is it a boy or a girl?’

  ‘A girl, her name is Sacharissa.’ Arcturus smiled at her. She looked far too young to be a summoner, thirteen at most. Perhaps her parents had sent her there early, to be with her brothers.

  ‘She’s so cute!’ Elaine said, snatching some bacon from the table and holding it out for Sacharissa to eat. The greedy demon immediately forgot her animosity to everyone who wasn’t Arcturus, and lapped it up shamelessly.

  ‘Elaine, that’s not polite,’ said Fergus, the oldest of the Lovett boys.

  ‘Oh all right. You’re such a worrywart, Fergus,’ Elaine moaned, before sneaking a rasher from Arcturus’s plate and dropping it surreptitiously to the floor. A few seconds later, Arcturus heard snuffling and chomping from under the table.

  ‘That’s OK. She’s barely eaten in days. I wasn’t even sure that demons ate our food.’

  ‘Gosh, you do have a lot to learn,’ Edmund laughed, standing up. ‘Good thing you’re here! Come on. It’s time for our first lesson of the year. Let’s find out who our new spellcraft teacher is.’

  8

  Arcturus was expecting them to lead him up one of the winding staircases when they left the dining hall, but instead they only took a few steps out into the atrium, where the others stopped and began to talk among themselves. It was very dark in the room, for one of the servants had put out the torches. The only source of light came from the dining hall behind them, and a broad column of light from the glass dome embedded in the atrium’s ceiling.

  As he wondered at the darkness of the room, the other students pointed their fingers into the air, releasing balls of strange blue light that floated around the room, drifting this way and that as if they had a life of their own. They cast a dull cobalt glow in the darkness of the atrium, shifting the shadows and illuminating the gloomy cavern above their heads.

  It was the first time Arcturus had seen a spell, and he stared wide-eyed as the strange blue lights glided around the darkness like fireflies. He stared at his own fingers, wondering if he would ever be capable of creating such wonders. Sarcharissa whined, frustrated at his lack of attention. He tore his eyes away from the spectacle and put his hands to better use.

  ‘What happens now? Shouldn’t we be getting to the lesson?’ Arcturus asked, rubbing Sacharissa’s head.

  ‘This is where all the spellcraft lessons are,’ Elaine replied, crouching in front of Sacharissa and examining her with unashamed interest.

  ‘I love her eyes, they’re so blue! Can I pet her?’ she asked, reaching out a hand.

  ‘Elaine!’ Fergus snapped, jerking her away. ‘You know you’re not supposed to touch another person’s demon, especially if it’s a boy’s!’

  ‘Why not?’ Arcturus asked, wide eyed.

  ‘It would be . . . unbecoming,’ Fergus said, his face reddening. Even as he said it, Arcturus could feel the waves of pleasure from Sacharissa as he scratched her between the ears. Fergus was right. It would be . . . strange . . . if Elaine was to do the same.

  ‘Sorry . . .’ Elaine said, kicking the ground with the toe of her boots.

  ‘Cheer up, I’m only looking out for you. You’re far too young and even if you weren’t, well . . . it’s a commoner’s demon,’ Fergus frowned. ‘No offence,’ he added hastily.

  Now it was Arcturus’s turn to redden.

  ‘None taken,’ he replied, though his insides seethed with anger. He had no interest in the little girl, she was only about thirteen after all and romance was the last thing on his mind. Still, it hurt. His ineligibility as a suitor did not need to be pointed out so bluntly.

  ‘Why don’t you play with Valens. You only got him yesterday,’ Edmund interrupted, strolling over from the others and giving Arcturus a sympathetic smile.

  ‘I thought we weren’t allowed to have our demons out, unless it was a lesson,’ Elaine said, sticking out her bottom lip.

  ‘Well, the teacher’s late, but the lesson’s started. I’m sure they won’t mind, whoever they are,’ Edmund replied.

  She looked to Fergus for permission, who rolled his eyes before giving her an exasperated nod.

  ‘Brilliant!’ she grinned, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a Mite, half the size of Obadiah’s Rubeus and brown as an autumn leaf, yet clearly of the same species.

  ‘Hey, you’re supposed to have him infused, not just out of sight!’ Fergus remonstrated.

  ‘What’s the point of having the smallest demon here if I can’t hide him in my pocket? Come on Valens, let’s practise hunting!’ Elaine giggled, letting the demon fly from her palm to hover in front of her face.

  Arcturus couldn’t help but smile as the impudent girl capered around the room, leaping and dodging as she and her Mite, Valens, played a strange game of tag.

  As she neared the front doors, they blasted open and swung against the stone walls, sending Elaine scurrying back to the others.

  For a moment Arcturus’s heart leaped when he saw a Peryton outlined against the harsh light from outside, but his joy was short-lived as he recognised the icy beauty who sat astride it.

  ‘Oh no,’ Arcturus muttered, shuffling behind Fergus and Edmund.

  Lady Faversham clopped into the room, her back ramrod-straight as she surveyed the students. She dismounted, before slapping her Peryton’s rump, sending it swooping back out of the front doors in a thunder of beating wings.

  ‘So many familiar faces. It brings me such joy to see you all again.’ Lady Faversham said, though her cold eyes showed only disdain as they skipped over Arcturus and the Lovetts.

  ‘Aunt Ophelia,’ Prince Harold said, walking over and shaking her hand. ‘I had no idea you would be our replacement! Welcome to Vocans.’

  Arcturus felt a growing fear as he realised that the prince had called Lady Faversham his aunt, which meant she was closely related to the king. He knew it was only the king’s curiosity that kept him safe. If she were able to convince him otherwise, Arcturus was as good as dead.

  ‘I’m not your only teacher, Harold. I have brought an assistant teacher, Captain Elizabeth Cavendish. The silly girl has managed to get herself pregnant by a common servant, so she might as well make herself useful. She can teach the youngster,’ she nodded at Elaine, ‘and the commoner. The rest of you are already far too advanced, so we will focus on the four battle spells of shield, lightning, fire and telekinesis in my classes. Please stand in a line over there.’

  ‘Golly, she’s something,’ Arcturus heard Edmund whisper as they hurried to do her bidding. ‘She’s not even unpacked and she’s already getting started.’

  A second Peryton swooped through the front doors, wheeling around the atrium before landing with a clatter of hooves beside Lady Faversham. Elizabeth grinned at Arcturus, before dismounting and sending Hubertus out again with a click of her tongue.

  ‘Elizabeth, take the little one and the common boy to the summoning room and teach them the basics. I shall remain with the older students.’

  ‘I’m not a little one,’ Elaine pouted, scowling at Lady Faversham. ‘I’m thirteen years old. Me and Arcturus should stay!’

  The noblewoman’s nostrils flared, but before she could respond, Elizabeth swiftly took Elaine by the arm and led her through a set of heavy doors a few steps away. Clearly, Lady Faversham did not take kindly to being contradicted.

  ‘You too,’ she snapped, clicking her fingers at Arcturus, ‘and infuse your demon while you’re at it. Don’t you know you’re not allowed your demon out other than in your room and in lessons. If I catch you again, I’ll have you sent to the punishment room to think about what you’ve done.

  ‘I don’t know how to in
fuse my demon yet,’ Arcturus replied matter of factly, ‘and the bedroom I’ve been given is the punishment room.’

  Lady Faversham’s eyes narrowed and she took a step towards him. Arcturus met her gaze as calmly as he could, though his heart thundered in his chest. Sacharissa bumped her side against his thigh, but he calmed her with a thought before she could let out a growl.

  ‘I don’t like your tone, boy,’ she snarled, jabbing her finger at him. ‘You will call me Ma’am when you speak to me. Is that understood?’

  ‘Yes, Ma’am. Should I go now, Ma’am? I wouldn’t want to keep Captain Cavendish waiting, Ma’am.’ He didn’t know why he was antagonising her. It could only do him harm, for she held all the power and he had none.

  ‘Get out,’ she hissed, pointing at the door, ‘and take that stinking mongrel with you.’

  Arcturus hurried to the summoning room, his courage suddenly failing him. He had been very stupid, to speak to her that way. But it had felt good to fight back. Give as good as you get, that was what Elizabeth had told him.

  As he and Sacharissa passed by Lady Faversham, she darted forward and drew him close, so he could feel her hot breath on his ear.

  ‘The king’s curiosity will only last so long,’ Lady Faversham whispered. ‘When it wanes, I’ll have the skin whipped from your hide, and more besides.’

  Arcturus tore himself away, trying to stop himself from sprinting out of the room.

  ‘See you later, dog breath!’ Rook called after him.

  9

  Arcturus stumbled into the summoning room, slamming the door behind him. He leaned against it with his eyes closed, taking a deep breath. Sacharissa nuzzled him and he buried his face in her fur, waiting until his heartbeat returned back to normal. After a few moments, he lifted his head to find a bemused looking Elizabeth watching him.

  ‘You know, when I said stand up for yourself, I didn’t mean to the teachers!’ she chuckled, walking towards him. ‘Lady Faversham is the king’s cousin, not to mention her husband is the king’s best friend . . . well, second best, after Provost Forsyth. Then again, it’s not like she was particularly fond of you to begin with, what with you taking her son’s demon.’

  ‘I had to show everyone I have a backbone. Who better to make an example of than Lady Faversham?’ Arcturus said, more to himself than to Elizabeth.

  ‘Let’s just hope she doesn’t make an example out of you,’ Elizabeth whispered softly, lifting him to his feet.

  The summoning room had a high ceiling, with heavy oak floorboards covered in a spiral of pentacles, varying in size and shape, from the size of a man’s hand to twice the length of a horse. There were lockers lining the walls on either side, and Arcturus could see leather gloves and aprons on hangers inside. The only source of light came from flickering torches in embrasures above the lockers, giving the room a smokey scent.

  ‘Elaine tells me her brothers got most of the attention when her father taught summoning and you’re completely new to all this, so I think it only right I give you both a crash course in summoning,’ Elizabeth said, sending a wyrdlight into the air and allowing it to float aimlessly around the room. Elaine was sitting cross-legged on the floor, stroking Valens’s carapace.

  ‘Elaine, please explain to Arcturus how to create a wyrdlight,’ Elizabeth asked, crouching in front of the young girl.

  Elaine groaned and sent Valens fluttering into the air, then scrambled to her feet.

  ‘Every demon has a source of mana within them. Mana is the power source for all spells and every demon has a different amount, depending on their species and how experienced they are,’ she spoke in a bored voice, as if reciting from a textbook. Arcturus stared in rapt attention, trying to memorise as much as he could. If King Alfric considered him a threat he might need to escape from Vocans and go on the run.

  ‘A wyrdlight is just a ball of raw mana. The summoner must transfer mana from the demon to their own body via a mental link, then push the mana through their finger, like so,’ Elaine continued, brandishing a finger in the air. For a moment, nothing happened, and Arcturus wondered whether she knew what she was doing. Then, in the blink of an eye, there was a blast of light that illuminated the ceiling above her, beaming from her finger.

  ‘The summoner must then control the mana and make it into a ball. By concentrating, they will be able to manage the size, shape and movement of their spell, in this case, a wyrdlight. If they do not, the spell will come out in a blast, wasting a whole lot of mana, as I just showed you.’

  ‘Very good, Elaine!’ Elizabeth said, smiling at the girl and holding her hand up for a high five. Elaine rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Valens, who has settled on her shoulder.

  ‘Well . . . er . . . let’s move on to more advanced spellcraft,’ Elizabeth said, dropping her hand with disappointment. ‘As Elaine said, a wyrdlight is just a ball of raw mana, which can be controlled with a bit of practice. It’s only real use is a light source, a flash to blind your opponent and occasionally, target practice. It disappears as soon as you touch it.’

  Elizabeth snuffed out her wyrdlight with a snap of her fingers, which also served to return Elaine’s attention back to her once again.

  ‘The real power we summoners wield comes from etching. Please watch closely. I send the mana to my finger, rather than through it.’ Elizabeth held up her hand. Her fingertip glowed a dull blue, growing steadily brighter until it burned almost white and Arcturus had to shield his eyes.

  ‘When your finger is bright enough, you draw a symbol, like so!’ Elizabeth sketched a strange, jagged triangle in the air, leaving glowing blue lines, like the afterglow of a cinder being waved in the air.

  ‘This is the shield spell. It is one of the four battle spells that every summoner uses when fighting. The others are Fire, Lightning and Telekinesis.’ She demonstrated by drawing each in succession, the first a flamelike, curling symbol, the next a zigzagging bolt and the final a hypnotic swirl. Arcturus wished he had pen and paper to draw them, but instead focussed on memorising the shield spell. Better to be able to protect himself than hurt someone else.

  ‘You must hold your finger in the very centre of the symbol until it fixes,’ Elizabeth continued, putting her finger in the middle of the shield symbol. It pulsed once, and as she waved her finger in the air, it followed the tip. It was as if it were fixed there by an invisible frame. This time, Elaine watched closely, her eyes wide as she took it all in. Arcturus grinned, glad that this was all new to the young girl. It seemed he wasn’t as far behind her after all.

  ‘You need to maintain a steady flow of mana to your finger, otherwise the spell will disappear,’ she said, nodding at the other symbols as they faded in the air. ‘The most difficult part is pushing mana both to and through your finger at the same time. Like so.’

  Elizabeth frowned with effort, then a thread of opaque material streamed from the symbol, pooling in the air like frogspawn underwater. Sacharissa growled at the strange material, but Arcturus hushed her with a ruffle of her ears.

  ‘You then shape it as you wish, in this case, like a shield.’ The pool shifted, then folded itself into an oval that floated in front of her. ‘This will protect you from projectiles and other spells, even a sword blow.’

  The shield dissolved into a floating globule once again, then she sucked it back in through the symbol.

  ‘You can conserve mana by absorbing the spell once you’re done with it.’

  ‘Why don’t you make it bigger?’ Elaine asked, passing her hand through the space the shield had been in.

  ‘The thicker your shield, the more punishment it will take, before it cracks and eventually shatters,’ Elizabeth replied. ‘If you make it too wide, you lose durability. Too thick and you waste mana.’

  ‘Maybe I can practise with Sacha,’ Arcturus murmured, rubbing the demon’s head fondly. Sacha
rissa was his most powerful weapon. He would make sure it was not just he who benefited from his training at the academy. He looked up to see Elizabeth shaking her head.

  ‘Unfortunately, shields are useless against a demonic attack, nor do attack spells do them much damage either. Should you be attacked by an orc’s demon, or any other for that matter, you will be better off using that dirk I gave you than a spell.’

  Elaine gave a horrified gasp, holding her hands up to her mouth.

  ‘Not that this should happen any time soon,’ Elizabeth said swiftly, as even Arcturus’s face paled. ‘It will be years before you graduate as a battlemage and face the orc shamans on the frontier. Not to mention that most of their demons are low-level. You and Sacha shouldn’t have much trouble fending one off, even now. You too Elaine, although your Mite is quite young. I can see it hasn’t developed its stinger yet. When it does, you’ll be able to paralyse an opponent . . . although an orc takes a few stings before they go down.’

  ‘Does that mean that a low-level demon is a weak demon?’ Arcturus asked, remembering that as a Canid, Sacharissa was a level seven demon. A Mite was only level one.

  ‘Yes and no. The level a demon is, simply refers to what level of summoner you need to be to summon them: A level ten summoner can summon a level ten demon, or two level five demons. As a rule of thumb, the higher a demon’s level, the more powerful it is, both in mana, size and strength. That being said, as a demon becomes more experienced, they can improve in all these counts. A well trained Canid might be able to take on an inexperienced Griffin, which is level ten.’ Elizabeth brandished her fingers as she said each number, as if Arcturus might be incapable of counting. He forgave her for assuming – there were plenty of commoners his age incapable of reading or writing, and older besides.

  ‘Then there’s the fact that some demons are simply more powerful than their level might indicate, even if it is roughly accurate. A level seven Felid will beat a level seven Canid almost every time, despite them being the same level. It’s even capable of beating some higher level demons. There are also anomalies, such as Golems, which are level eight. When they are young, they are small. But after a few years they can grow to be as tall as nine feet and just as wide, but they will always remain level eight. So you see, it’s just a rough rule.’