The Summoning (Custodes Noctis) Read online

  “What?”

  “Our turn is coming up, if I'm right. We need to go about seven tenths of a mile past the next marker.”

  “Okay.” Flash slowed the car to thirty, his eyes moving between the road and the odometer. “This is seven.”

  “There's the road,” Galen said, pointing to a tiny track to their left.

  Flash turned onto the road. About a quarter of a mile up, there was a cattle grate and a gate marking the boundary of public lands. Galen got out and opened the gate. He could smell dust on the air, a car had passed through not long before, the scent was still sharp in the hot sun. Getting back in, he smiled. “I think we aren't as far behind as I thought we were.”

  “I got us here fast,” Flash boasted.

  “And Rob was probably trying to fight as much as he could.”

  “Dor!” Dera cried. “Open the door!”

  Galen did as he was told, and before he even spotted the other raven, the bird was swooping into the car. “Are you okay?”

  “I am. We have to hurry! How did you find us?” Dor asked, looking at the three of them.

  “He used my map,” Flash said smugly.

  “How far is it?”

  “I don't know, I flew,” Dor said.

  “Not very helpful, you know,” Flash muttered and started up the road at a speed that had the tires sliding on the rocks. “Fucking washboard road. That's what happens when idiots who shouldn't be driving out here try driving out here.” He had his hands on the wheel and Galen could see his knuckles were white.

  “Idiots like you?” Galen joked. He knew Flash was afraid. That was one of the things he admired most about his friend. He was terrified half the time he walked into a fight like this—probably most of the time, and still he was there, backing them up. When he had insisted on riding with the Hunt, he had no idea if he'd survive, and still he stood with them. Galen nudged him gently. “Or other idiots?”

  “Other idiots, of course.”

  They were making turns onto increasingly narrow roads, finally giving way to something that resembled a game track more than a road. Galen heard Flash swear as something dragged along the bottom of the car with a tremendous screech. They were traveling between two huge walls of lava, the way getting harder and harder to navigate. Flash was fighting the steering, trying to keep the SUV up on the narrow track, while the walls got closer and closer.

  “If I wasn't sure Rob had gone through here in that Jeep of his, I would stop,” Flash said as a rock scraped along the driver's side door.

  “He did, with his eyes closed,” Dor said.

  “Oh, that makes me feel better. Shut up.” Flash nearly lost control when one wheel dropped into a deep hole as the road made a hairpin turn. He wrenched the car back up onto the track. Galen breathed a sigh of relief. He had never fully realized how good a driver Flash was until that moment. The walls got closer and closer until Galen was holding his breath, listening to the scrape of metal against rock as Flash negotiated the road. When he was sure they couldn't go any further, it suddenly opened up into what at first appeared to be a box canyon, with dark basalt walls all around. It was only when Galen took a second look at the south-facing wall that he noticed a crevasse and the dark sheen of glass.

  “Galen,” Flash said softly. “There's the Jeep.” He pulled up beside it.

  It took all of the discipline Galen had to keep from jumping from the car and searching for his brother. No Custodes Noctis would walk into a situation like this one blind and unarmed. They needed a plan, and probably a contingency plan. Dera nudged him.

  “Flash, Dor, Dera, I need you to wait here until I call,” Galen said firmly.

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “No.”

  “I need you to stay behind me to back me up, until I need help.”

  Flash looked back at the ravens. The three of them looked at Galen, then nodded. “Okay, but if anything looks even a little wonky, we're coming in,” Flash said.

  “Wonky?” Dor said. “Always eloquent.”

  “It's a technical term, I wouldn't expect you to know,” Flash said haughtily.

  “We need to go, where is Rob, Dor? Do you know?”

  “He went towards the wall of glass.”

  Galen stepped out of the car. The power bubbling beneath his feet boiled up his legs and knocked him to the ground. He felt the sharp bite of stones as his knees hit the earth. Flash was out of the car and dragging him to his feet before he had a chance to even process what was going on. Once he was standing, he tried to ignore the dark pulse beneath him. It filled the whole area, beating in time with his heart, twisting at the scar the Old One had left in his body. His first step was more a stumble, but he leaned on the side of Flash's car and walked around to the back.

  Flash opened it and Galen grabbed the Emrys Sword that was his and buckled it on, the baldric holding it tight against his back, its soft song a counterpoint to the dark beat in the stones. He buckled Rob's on as well, his brother wore his Sword in a belt, preferring to carry his every day blade—a massive bastard sword—in a scabbard on his back. Galen had a feeling they might need the power of the blades for what was coming. Flash grabbed the medical bag and his own weapon of choice, a massive war hammer. He'd chosen it when he'd discovered he lacked the patience to become proficient with a sword. However, as he was fond of saying, finesse was not needed for “whacking things.”

  Galen smiled at Flash and set out across the broken rock, aware that each step was harder to make. As he reached the opening, he got his first look at Rob. His heart nearly stopped. His brother was standing against a massive wall of obsidian, shining dark in the sun. His face was bloody, there were cuts on his forehead and hands, his t-shirt had dark red stains as well. Rob's arms were outspread and he was pressed against the surface, almost like he was hugging it. Galen slipped silently up beside his brother. Rob's eyes were closed, his face a mask of agony.

  As he drew closer, Galen realized the stone, while it looked like volcanic glass, was something else. It glittered in the sun, sparkling like the rainbow on an oil slick, and the warmth he felt was coming from the rock, not the sun. All around him the wind was sighing, and then it hit him. It wasn't the wind. It was the sound of the mountain. It was breathing.

  The power here was immense. It thrummed through Galen, a deep bass note rattling through his bones. Rob was speaking softly, words Galen didn't understand, and the mountain was distracted. Without drawing attention to himself, Galen started to carefully siphon off some of the energy that was under his feet, that was filling the scar in his chest and beating in his head with a searing intensity. With each slow breath he took, he drew a little more, not much at any time, and as he did so, he crept as close as he could to Rob without his brother becoming aware of him. When he thought he had enough strength to do it, Galen reached out and with a hard, violent grasp, yanked his brother from the wall.

  The soft sighing whisper of the wind—the breath of the mountain—changed to a roar of rage. “What have you done?” The rocks grated together, creating the sound. Galen looked up in shock. Before he'd only heard the voice in his head, but now the sounds hammered against his ears in with painful beat. Stones broke loose and rained down on them.

  “Rob?” Galen looked into his brother's eyes. There was nothing there, the slate-blue focus was gone. Galen drew on the mountain again, using his own healing and the creature's energy to force his brother free psychically as well as physically. He saw a spark of recognition in Rob's face. “Rob?”

  “Galen?” Rob asked, confused. He looked around. “Where?”

  “You with me?” Galen insisted, dragging his brother's gaze back to his own.

  “Yeah, I think, I...” The focus began to flicker out again, Rob pulled away, took a stumbling step and before Galen could stop him, was drawn to the wall again with enough force to tear through the fabric of Rob's shirt and leave a deep gash.

  “No!” Galen shouted. He drew on the power that was rumb
ling around him, the rock of the mountain was shifting with anger. Stepping back to Rob, he used a needle-sharp shaft of the healing to wedge himself between the living stone and his brother. As soon as he felt the light touch his brother's mind he pulled Rob away, shoving him as far as he could from the massive glass wall that towered hundreds of feet over their head. Galen kept the sharp focus of the healing, blocking the thing from his brother. Great stones were slamming together just under the surface, the floor of the canyon had begun to shake with the fury vibrating around them. With a final breath, Galen broke his brother free. Rob blinked and his eyes focused on him again.

  “How did you do that!” the wall screamed. Galen ignored it.

  “Rob?”

  “Galen!”

  “How did you do that!” the wall shouted again.

  Galen tugged at his brother's arm. “We have to get out of here.”

  “I need to stay,” Rob said in a dreamy voice. “I'm of no use anymore, here I can be.”

  “What?” Galen shook him, hard.

  “I can help here, without my Gifts I am a liability.”

  “Rob!” Galen growled. “Listen to me. We are Custodes Noctis, Keepers, and two, always two.”

  “Yes, your life will be lost,” the stones around them said.

  “No! You said he wouldn't die!” Rob walked to the wall and stared at it.

  “If you die, Rob, I die. It's the way it works.”

  “The bond is mostly gone, Galen, and he said that I would be here, alive...”

  Galen grabbed his brother's arm and yanked him around to face him. “No, Rob, that's not alive.”

  “It is why I summoned him. I need his heart, his soul, to sustain me. I have waited long, long millennia for him. The one who lives yet does not.”

  “He is alive,” Galen growled.

  The mountain laughed at him.

  “Rob comes with me.”

  “You cannot leave,” the stones grated.

  “Galen,” Rob began, edging closer to the wall again.

  “No!” Galen snapped then took a deep breath, and shoved his brother away again.

  “How did you do that?”

  “Do what?” Galen finally demanded, growling at the wall.

  “Stop him. You should not be able to stop him.”

  “I'll stop him again, too,” Galen vowed.

  It was suddenly quiet. The wind sighed as if the mountain was taking slow breaths thinking about something. A small tremor ran beneath their feet.

  “Get out while the getting is good!” Flash shouted.

  “No, we must wait,” Dera said.

  “Galen Emrys,” the mountain said. “I have a question for you.”

  “Yes?” Galen asked suspiciously.

  “You know what I am?”

  “An Ancient One.”

  “The Ealdféond,” Rob said.

  “That is what they call me, I have another name,” the wall said with wry humor. “They encased me here because I chose a different path.” Something buzzed though Galen like the touch of lightning. He dropped to one knee, gasping for breath, a pulse of pain slamming in the scar left by the Old One. “You have met something like their kind.”

  “I have.” Galen struggled to his feet. “And I destroyed it.”

  “Tell him about the other things,” Flash said, sounding like he was much closer.

  “Other things?” The voice was curious now.

  “He means the feorhbealu, we fought them with the Hunt,” Rob said quietly. “One of them took my Gifts.”

  “Ah, yes, I think I know which one it would be, where is it?”

  “The feorhbealu?” Galen laughed. “We killed it.”

  “I will ask you then, Galen Emrys, you do not wish your brother here with me?”

  “Well, that's a dumb ass question,” Flash muttered.

  “Not helping,” Galen said over his shoulder, then gazed up at the wall of glittering stone. “Of course not.”

  “Would you free me?”

  “What?” The question came from four throats, Galen, Flash and the ravens.

  “I believe that you can free me, Galen Emrys, I believe that the time has come, finally it has come, not for me to continue here, but to walk in the light again.”

  “That so doesn't sound like a good idea,” Flash said.

  Galen walked past Rob, making sure he kept himself between the mountain and his brother and laid his hand on the wall. Closing his eyes, he opened himself a tiny bit to what was there. He understood that the Old things that walked the earth had different morals, and were not bound by the ethics of humanity, but he had to know that what he let loose would not destroy the world. Galen had long suspected the world was changing, and every encounter they had pointed to those changes. The things that the world had forgotten—that the Custodes Noctis had forgotten—were rising. They would need allies. Or, if not allies, those that had once stood against the other forces, the darkness that was coming. Galen sensed this was one such creature. Perhaps not good by the definitions of the world, but a potential enemy of his enemies. Satisfied, he stepped back.

  “I will free you, Ancient One, as long as I have your word that my brother is free.”

  The stones laughed. “My word? It is given, for all that it means.”

  “Fuck no, Galen!” Flash shouted, the ravens were calling too, but Galen didn't know if it was encouragement or anger. All he knew was Rob was fading before his eyes, he could see it, sense it when he made contact.

  “Are you sure, Galen?” Rob asked him.

  “If you have a better idea? Saga?”

  “No.”

  “Then this is what we do.” Galen took off the belt and handed his brother his Sword, then drew his own. The stones around them began to hum in anticipation.

  Words began flowing into his head. The power in the earth responded to them as they formed, before they even became sound, the thought itself became a pattern. He stepped closer to Rob and began siphoning the power again, this time openly, drawing it into himself. Galen lifted his sword and cut his arm. “This blood flows, and seeks the earth.” He nodded to Rob and his brother repeated his movements and the small incantation. The world shifted, he thought he felt Rob's hand on his shoulder. The words continued in his head, then broke loose, building around them in a song. Images and sensations began to pierce him, the land around them bubbling with fire, agony as the liquid stone flowed over his body, the slow creeping cold of ancient ice, crushing down, stealing his breath until every second was an eternity, and eternity a second. All of it wafted through him like the sighing breeze in the canyon.

  It was too late to stop when Rob reached out and placed Galen's left hand over Rob's heart.

  “No,” Galen said, trying to pull away.

  “Only way, Galen,” Rob answered with a small, knowing smile.

  The power hummed through the stone, filling them both until they were nothing but a small note in the overall song.

  The song began to change and Galen began to sing, words so ancient their meanings had long since been lost drifted from his lips. He could feel pain radiating out of Rob, flowing into him as their bond snapped into place, as it had always been. For a brief moment, Rob was there, completely present with him. The bright white light of Rob's heart glowed, the dark scars Galen had healed years before, shadows in the bright sun. The power built, Galen continued to draw it up, he could feel it spiraling around them, rising above them like a tornado to the height of the massive wall. Galen held on, until finally when the vortex was whipping around them, blocking all else from them, Galen let it go, grabbing the swirling power and, using the power of the earth and the bright light of the healing and Rob's heart, forced it outwards into the breathing stone in front of them.

  Time stopped.

  For an instant everything stopped. The world, the lazy drift of clouds over their head, their hearts. It all stopped for an instant of agony.

  “Rob!” Galen said, snapping back to the world. “No!”
Rob's heart hadn't started again. “Rob!” The spell had pulled the Gift from Galen, he tried to start Rob's heart but the healing wouldn't respond. “Flash!” he shouted. “CPR!” Flash was there an instant later and they began working on Rob. Gods dammit, Rob. Come on! The bond was gone again, only the merest whisper left in the back of his head, but he shouted nonetheless, hoping to reach his brother somehow.

  The hum was still filling the canyon, the tone changing, a deep bass grating against a higher note, the single note becoming a chord that made Galen's bones ache. He stayed focused on Rob, counting the compressions, anxiously waiting for the first glimmer of life—or his healing—to return. He thought he caught movement out of the corner of his eye, but dismissed it as just a shower of small rocks.

  “Galen!” Flash gasped between breaths. “The fucking mountain is moving.”

  Galen looked up, the entire wall of stone was undulating, moving as if something was drinking in huge gulps of air.

  “Oh shit, Galen, this is...”

  “Run,” Galen said, dragging his brother up. Flash pulled Rob's other arm over his shoulder and they ran. They made it as far as Rob's Jeep before the hum reached a point of physical pain and there was a huge crack, as if the earth were tearing itself open. They stopped and turned, still supporting Rob's lifeless body, in time to see the whole mountain move. Galen was entranced as the stones shifted, shimmering in the sunlight. Small rocks began falling to the ground in a slowly building shower. He was holding his breath when the wall fell completely away. A huge piece bounced down too close for comfort and smashed into Flash's car, spraying them with glass from the windshield. Flash didn't even comment. He was staring up at the mountain as well.