Summoner 20, page 34
Just before nightfall, we set up a few smaller tents and then worked together to create a small fire for our makeshift campsite. We’d dressed warmly for the occasion, but the darkness brought an extra chill, and I wasn’t about to risk hypothermia while we waited for Hunnah and Quilla to arrive.
Once tendrils of flame raised up into the air and filled the space with an aura of warmth, we settled around the fire and nibbled at our food rations. Not long after we ate and discussed a bit of strategy, we prepared to retire to our tents.
We paired off as Gawain went with Mur, Freya with Vahla, and Nia with me, but Braden was so large that it made sense for him to have his own space.
Before I headed to my tent, I called my familiar over to me. The housecat-sized saber-tooth tilted his head once he approached, and he stared at me with curious yellow eyes.
What’s up, boss? Dio asked. Do you need help with something?
“Dio, I’m going to need you to stand guard tonight,” I instructed him. “Keep an eye out for the Archons and warn us if you see anything suspicious.”
I’m on it! Dio declared, and after he crossed to an empty spot in the clearing, he stretched out to a form that was closer to the size of a mountain lion. It wasn’t as physically imposing as his normal height, but it was still large enough to be intimidating. You can count on me, Gryff!
“Thanks, buddy.” I smiled at the tawny monster.
Once Dio found a post for his patrol, I climbed into my tent and settled in with Nia. After we wrapped a thickly-woven blanket around us, I took the multi-elementalist into my arms. Nia’s head settled on my chest, and I ran my hands through her silver hair.
“Do you think Hunnah and Quilla will come at daybreak?” Nia mused.
“It’s hard to say,” I replied. “If I were them, that’s what I’d do.”
“Are you nervous?” she continued as she wrapped her arm across me.
“I’m fine,” I said, but the moment the words left my lips, I wasn’t exactly sure.
“You can tell me,” Nia soothed me. “You can always trust me with the truth, Gryff.”
“I know I can.” I smiled down at her as I stroked her cheek. “You’re always so intuitive, Nia. It’s a quality of yours that makes me insane, but I appreciate it. To answer your question, I am a little nervous, but I’m ready.”
“We’re going to win,” Nia assured me. “I know we will.”
“Me, too,” I replied, and I pulled my wife in closer. My eyelids had grown heavy, and I was ready to drift off to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a big day, and I needed whatever rest I could manage.
Unfortunately for us, Hunnah and Quilla didn’t appear the following morning, or even throughout the day. We sat around with weapons at the ready, but there wasn’t a single sign of the remaining Archons anywhere.
When two days passed by, I could tell my teammates were antsy, and so was I.
“Would it be best to remain here?” Nia wondered as she rested her chin in her hands. “It doesn’t feel like we’re making any progress. Hunnah isn’t falling for the bait.”
“I figured she would’ve taken it by now,” I sighed. “I don’t understand why they haven’t appeared yet.”
Suddenly, Nia perked up, and her motion was so fast it startled me.
“I know it’s newly captured, but do you think summoning the mistwolf you caught would help speed anything along?” the elementalist proposed. “I don’t know if that would impact literally anything…”
“I’m not sure it would, either, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to try.” I shrugged, and I reached into my bandolier and retrieved my newest essence crystal. The smooth stone was cool to the touch, and as I sensed the monster’s power flare in my hand, I wondered if I was about to make a huge mistake.
I’d wielded the other Archons’ monsters before, but Hunnah’s summons were different from all of the others. As far as I could tell, the pack was all connected through a similar thought process, like a hive mind, and I didn’t know if my capturing the monster alone was enough for me to be able to control it in the same way I controlled my other monsters.
Still, I had to try.
I threw the essence crystal on the ground and said a quick prayer to the Maker as plumes of blue-black smoke rose from the gem. This was either going to be really great or a really bad idea, and I didn’t know which it would be until the monster appeared before me.
When the smoke cleared, I faced the eyes of my new summons, and the she-wolf looked angry.
Fuck.
Her ears were flat against her head, and her lips curled back into a fearsome snarl. The monster’s iridescent fur had a spiky appearance, and her tail flicked back and forth just as it had before I’d captured her.
“Gryff, what the fuck are you doing?” Gawain hissed, and his green eyes darted from me to the wolf. “Do you really think this is the best idea?”
“I don’t see anyone else making suggestions,” I hissed right back.
The she-wolf flexed her toes and claws, and a low growl filled the air. She was going to attack me, there was no doubt about that. My capturing her had not been enough to tame her, and even though I possessed much higher-grade monsters than her, she had a stronger will.
I debated my options. I could attempt to recall her, or I could try to send Dio after her before she could tear my throat out. I could try to take her on again myself, but that option didn’t seem very viable.
As a last-ditch effort, I sent a wave of my will to the monster and tried to appeal to her in a gentle voice.
“I know you have a mistress to serve, and a pack you’re loyal to,” I began slowly. “I also know I’m just some human who locked you away in a crystal cage and is now attempting to give you orders. But I don’t want you to think of me that way. I want us to work together, even if I initially captured you for my personal gain. You’re a beautiful creature, and I’d be honored to have you as my companion. So, what do you say? Will you help me?
The she-wolf took a step toward me, and though my heart pounded like a drum, I kept my features soft and my eyes calm to appeal to the creature.
The iridescent monster blinked at me slowly, and I was hypnotized by the molten silver color of her eyes.
I slowly blinked back at her and crouched down so I was eye-level with the mistwolf.
“Gryff, what are you--”
“Shhh…” I whispered as I continued to keep eye contact with the she-wolf.
The wolf took another step over to me, and I watched her upright tail curl between her back legs.
Finally, she took a few more steps until she was about a foot away from me, and I held my breath as I waited. She was technically my monster now, but there was still a chance I wouldn’t be able to control her. She wasn’t as physically powerful as a monster like my sun giant, or the belial, but there was a strength about her energy that was just as immense.
“You can trust me,” I murmured.
The mistwolf narrowed her eyes and stared at me.
Her muscles flexed as she went to move, and my hand hovered near my sheathed dagger in preparation for attack, but to my surprise, the mistwolf dropped to the ground and rolled over so her belly was facing me.
A grin spread across my face as her bright pink tongue lolled out, and I fought the urge to laugh.
Did she want me to rub her belly?
I cautiously reached out my hand, and the mistwolf gave me a look that said ‘hey, can you hurry up and pet me already?’, so I obliged. The mistwolf’s fur was soft, almost like a rabbit’s, and much denser than I’d expected. The pack of monsters had looked somewhat transparent, so I’d expected a different sensation, but their translucence might have been an illusion.
“Gryff, are you seriously giving that monster a belly rub right now?” Braden chuckled as he shook his head back and forth. “You continue to amaze me.
“Hey, she knows what she wants.” I shrugged, and the mistwolf let out a contented sigh as I found the exact spot. After such a ferocious display, I’d expected her to rip my hand off, but her submissive position told me she’d taken my assurance to heart.
“She’s beautiful,” Nia remarked as her blue eyes trailed over the mistwolf.
“She is, isn’t she?” I agreed with a small laugh.
The iridescent monster let out a yawn, rolled over, and then rose to her feet. Her expression had shifted from cautious and agitated to calm and curious, and she delicately sniffed the air.
“What’s wrong?” I asked the creature as I sensed a shift in mood through our bond.
The mistwolf perked up, and her tail went from a curled position to completely upright. A growl rippled through her body, and her rainbow-tinted fur had an almost prickly quality about it.
“Did she sense something?” Gawain wondered as he crossed over to us. Braden, Vahla, Mur, and Freya followed suit, and each of my friends craned their necks to get a closer look.
“What’s going on?” I tried to ask my monster again, but the mistwolf’s silver eyes fixated on a specific point ahead of us.
“Gryff?” Freya called out to me. “I think I hear--”
The hawk-princess’ voice caught in her throat, and she rushed over to Vahla’s side as my mistwolf’s growls grew louder. A rustling sound came from the forest in front of us, and suddenly a pair of figures emerged from the emerald expanse of trees.
My breath halted in my chest as the pair came into focus.
Nia stiffened beside me. “Gryff, is that--”
“Hunnah and Quilla,” I finished for the ashen-haired elementalist.
The Archons gracefully stepped into the clearing and shot twin looks of arrogance our way. The sheer amount of energy the goddesses exuded with every motion was enough to send adrenaline through my veins, and my hands shook from anticipation when they finally stopped just forty feet from where my friends and I stood.
This was it.
They were finally here, and our final battle was imminent.
“Well, if it isn’t the Beastmaker,” Hunnah scoffed as her fist tightened around the hilt of her gilded sword. “I believe you have something that belongs to me.”
Chapter Eighteen
Hunnah’s sterling-gray eyes were calculated and focused as she lifted her chin, and her full mauve lips pressed into a hard, thin line as she waited for my response.
The warrior goddess’ wolf-like ears rose high into the air, and just like her mistwolves, they reflected every shade of the rainbow. Her tail had the same translucent quality about it, and both appendages reminded me of the surface of a bubble when it was hit by light.
“Hunnah and Quilla,” I greeted the pair of Archons with my own uptilted chin. “I was wondering when you two would show up.”
“My she-wolf,” Hunnah continued on in a cool tone. “You stole her from her pack. Return her to me at once.”
While Hunnah’s icy expression sent a chill down my spine, there was no denying how beautiful the goddess was. Her skin was extremely fair, and it only made her straight copper hair look that much brighter. She was tall, and her tightly fitted white dress put her long, lithe legs on display while the low neckline accentuated her high, well-rounded breasts. Even more striking was the golden armor that encased both shoulders and was connected on either side by long golden chains. The harness cinched her waist and perfectly matched the hilt of her impressive sword.
“You’ll have to pry her away from me yourself,” I chuckled, and I crossed my arms over my chest in an arrogant way. Hunnah wasn’t the only one who could play aloof, and I wasn’t about to let the warrior goddess intimidate me with her lackluster threats. “She isn’t going anywhere of her own accord.”
“Gryff, you’re making this harder on yourself than it has to be,” Quilla spoke up as she leaned against her sister, and the high-pitched, almost musical tone of her voice took me off guard just as it did the first time we’d met in Carth’s palace.
Quilla’s petite, almost fairy-like body was outfitted in a tight, cleavage-bearing blue military jacket, and thigh-high black boots with silver chains encased her legs. Her skin had a slight tan, and her golden-brown hair fell well past her tiny waist in perfect waves. The Archon’s enormous navy-blue eyes were doll-like in their innocence, but the fine, delicate features of the right side of her face were disrupted by bone. It was almost as if the goddess wore a half mask, only instead of concealing her face, her skull rested on top of it.
She was still impossibly lovely, but something about the pale white bone was unnerving to look at for too long.
“I want the mistwolf back,” Hunnah growled again. “She’s mine--”
“Actually, she’s mine now,” I scoffed. “And I have no intentions of giving her back to you.”
“You know, Beastmaker, from the first moment I met you, I’ve wanted nothing more than to wipe that cocky smirk off your face.” The copper-haired Archon narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re always so smug, so overly confident. You think you’re so much better than everyone else just because you can claim things that aren’t yours--”
“Does this speech have a point?” I interrupted, and I let out an exaggerated yawn. “It’s getting late, and there are things I’d much rather be doing.”
“I should kill you where you stand!” Hunnah hissed.
“You’re welcome to try.” I shrugged. I was being overly childish on purpose, but it was clearly getting under Hunnah’s skin, so I couldn’t stop.
“Gryff, we don’t want this to lead to violence,” Quilla sighed as she rested her hand on her hip. “Your friends and family don’t need to be implicated in our squabble. If you’d just give us the book and the mistwolf--”
“Oh, please,” I scoffed. “You don’t want violence, and yet you want to merge the realms together and plunge the world into chaos? Something about that story doesn’t line up for me.”
Hunnah and Quilla’s faces blanched of any color they held, and they both looked at me with surprised expressions.
“How did you--” Hunnah began, and I could practically see the gears in her head shift around as she stammered.
“We have the book, remember?” I reminded the wolf-eared Archon. “Isn’t that why you and your pack arrived in Mistral in the first place? To reclaim it and continue your so-called mission to thrust the worlds together?”
“I didn’t expect you and your pathetic human lot to translate the ancient text,” Hunnah sniffed. “I should be more agitated, but it doesn’t matter. Knowing our plan doesn’t disrupt it in any way. In fact, I’m glad you’re all caught up so I don’t have to explain myself further. Here’s how this is going to work, Beastmaker. You’re going to return my wolf, and then you’re going to surrender the book. Should you cooperate, I’ll consider sparing you and your friends--”
“That’s awfully big of you,” I said. “But I don’t cooperate with ancient goddesses bent on trying to destroy the world.”
“Destroy?” Hunnah repeated back with an incredulous look on her face. “Oh, no, no, no. We’re not going to destroy the world. We’re going to restore it to its natural state, the way it was before those wretched Guardians separated the realms.”
“Monsters should not be kept separate,” Quilla chimed in with an uptilted chin. “Nor should we. Being bound by these rules, these magics… we can no longer stand back idly. It’s time to return the world to how it once was, before human corruption had to go and decimate everything.”
“I can guarantee that whatever actually led to the divide had nothing to do with humanity’s wrongdoings.” I narrowed my eyes at the skeletal Archon. “I won’t sit here and listen to whatever bullshit narrative you’ve crafted to justify your agenda. We have the book, and I have no intention of giving it back to you willingly.”
“Then how about we just take it from you?” Hunnah smirked. “There’s only what, six of you, compared to two goddesses? Do you really think you and your mortal human companions could take us on?”
“The book isn’t even with me,” I said, but the moment the words left my lips, I wished I could take them back.
“Ah, so it’s back in the Enclave,” the wolf-eared Archon mused, and she arched a copper eyebrow. “I’d hoped you’d keep it on your person for safekeeping. No matter, I’ll just send my pack ahead to Varle as planned. It was the next stop on our journey anyways--”
“Like hell you will,” I growled. “This ends now, Hunnah.”
“Indeed it does,” the warrior goddess snarled right back. “For too long, you’ve disrupted our plans, Gryff. My assumptions upon meeting you in the Shadowscape were correct. You’re nothing but an arrogant human summoner who keeps getting in my way. If you aren’t going to surrender my wolf or the book, there’s no other option than to take you and your pathetic friends out. It will be one less obstacle in my way.”
Hunnah’s sterling eyes brightened until they were nearly white, and she raised the hand that wasn’t wrapped around her sword high in the air.
My hand instinctively flew to my bandolier, and adrenaline burned through my veins.
With a snap of her fingers, Hunnah’s pack of mistwolves suddenly appeared.
The pack seemed to have increased from our last encounter, and if I had to guess, I would estimate there were about thirty wolves in the clearing. Each of the iridescent creatures pulled back their lips to reveal their sharp fangs, and their chorus of growls filled the air like a low hum.
My own mistwolf’s ears fell flat against her head, and I sensed a tug of confusion through our bond. The iridescent monster was torn: was she supposed to stay loyal to her pack and her former mistress, or was she supposed to follow my orders and fight against her brothers and sisters?
I sent her a wave of reassurance. I knew my monster was in a bind, but I reminded her of our newfound bond and promised I wouldn’t hurt her in the same way her mistress did. I wasn’t actually sure if Hunnah was abusive toward her pack, but if her intimidating aura was any indication, I had a feeling the Archon used fear-based training techniques on the wolves.
