The Summoning of The One

By Royce Bond

Andrew Weatherby, a bullied computer nerd from Central Queensland is ripped from his world to lead The Knights of Katesch in their direct attack on Maligor the Destroyer. In the midst of the battle in Mountain City, he rescues princess Katarin to find he has been betrothed to her since birth.

This feisty young lady risks her life to save Andrew. The Knights believe that have finally defeated Maligor after ten thousand years of conflict. In an attempt to escape the fanatic red guards seeking revenge for the death of their god, Agmar accidentally releases a monster army: the Kazdoom.

But... have they really defeated the cause of evil in the universe?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Morris Publishing Australia
• Release date: Jun 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9780992505202

Book preview

Book Two of

The Chronicles of

The Knights of Katesch

© Copyright Royce Bond Australia 2014

Smashwords edition

ISBN: 978-0-9925052-0-2

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Morris Publishing Australia

Published by Morris Publishing Australia

464 Mt Kilcoy Rd

Mt Kilcoy, 4515

The right of Royce Bond to be identified as the

author of this work has been asserted by him.

© Copyright Royce Bond Australia 2014

ISBN: 978-0-9925052-0-2

All rights reserved.

This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permissions of Morris Publishing Australia.

This is a work of fiction. Names, character, places, incidents, and dialogue are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Morris Publishing Australia

www.morrispublishingaustralia.com

DEDICATION

To Karen, my darling wife,

without whom I would never

have completed this book.

Book Two of

The Chronicles of

The Knights of Katesch

PROLOGUE

These are the chronicles of the Knights of Katesch, who for time out of memory have fought the wizard Maligor, across all the dimensions of the known universe.

Two legendary kings and a warrior queen led an alliance against Maligor’s armies in a battle that ended the thousand year-long Sathian war.

Pursued by the kings and queen, Maligor fled into the Ice Fields of Akradem on his home planet Katesch, where he mortally wounded his pursuers in a treacherous attack.

Maligor’s wife, Legonin, secretly rescued the kings and queen, passing their essences into the bodies of three local ice people giving them the ability to move from one human host to another, so they could continue the war against Maligor through all time and space.

She also gave them special powers to enable them to defeat Maligor’s plans.

CHAPTER ONE

A huge eagle perched on the windowsill and hungrily watched Andy’s every move. Its black talons dug deep into the timber. The young student tumbled off his bed and crawled quickly towards the open door, his heart beating a loud tattoo in his chest. Suddenly, the bird dived backwards.

The raptor screeched. The clash of steel on talon followed the sound. Against his better judgement, Andy raced to the window. Below, the eagle ripped at the swordsman’s face. The man slashed at the bird in vain. His scimitar carved empty air as the raptor’s wings smashed him into the ground.

A white snake slipped from the man’s chest and slithered quickly towards Andy’s home. The bird broke off the attack, and with a flick of its massive wings pounced on the creature and tore it apart.

The swordsman screamed in pain and disappeared, while the raptor devoured its prey.

The eagle gave a final screech, and then flew to the upper branches of the tree near the road.

Andy slammed the window shut and pulled the curtains closed. He stumbled into the bathroom, as waves of nausea flooded his stomach. A quick shower would relax him. He convinced himself that it was the stress of exams next week that had made think he’d seen an eagle fighting a swordsman, and then eating a snake that came from the man’s chest.

When he passed the mirror, he stopped, shook his head, and went back. The reflection couldn’t be him. Long blond hair fell to his shoulders, and he had a short beard. How could his hair and beard grow like that overnight?

His eyes were blue yesterday, but now they were jade.

Andy ran his fingers through his beard and smiled. ‘It isn’t a bad look,’ he thought. Then he snapped back to reality. He had to be hallucinating. He pinched himself, hoping to wake up from this nightmare. A jab of pain and a red welt showed he wasn’t dreaming.

Instinctively he reached for the razor, but he’d never shaved a full beard. After twenty minutes, he had it down to smooth skin, spotted with half a dozen cuts that bled profusely. He’d seen on television that you could use toilet paper to stop the bleeding, so he tore up strips of tissue and stuck them on the cuts.

By the time he’d stemmed the bleeding, his hair had fallen into his eyes. Something had to be done about it. He didn’t dare cut it himself or he’d become an even bigger laughing stock at school. Opening his cupboard, he pulled out one of his sports joggers. The sole was held together with half a dozen of his mother’s hair elastics. One bunched his hair into a ponytail and the rest stayed on his shoe. It was getting late, so he packed his bag and headed down for breakfast.

Waves of nausea and dizziness sent him tumbling to the wall for support, so he wouldn’t fall down the stairs. It took a few minutes to calm down enough to think about going into the kitchen to ask for help. Normally, he smelt the buttered toast and heard his parents chatting over the paper, but this morning it was deathly quiet.

Andy placed his school bag near the front door and quietly walked into the kitchen – well, where the kitchen had been last night when he went to bed.

The room swayed before him and then came slowly into focus. Where he had eaten a roast dinner with apple tart the previous night, was now a lounge room, strewn with children’s toys.

The entire ground floor had changed. He ducked through an archway into what should have been the lounge room – only now it was a study. An obsidian desk sat against the wall, where last night he’d watched a movie on the family’s home theatre screen.

Then he turned to what had been the family trophy wall. His mother’s composite bow still hung where it had been last night, but now it was surrounded by a deep red aura. He tried to touch the bow, but his hand passed right through it. The rest of the trophies had disappeared.

Andy shivered. Maybe this wasn’t his home. Maybe he had sleep-walked during the night and ended up in someone else’s house. But then he remembered his bedroom was the same, only the rest of the house had changed. He was about to race upstairs to wake his parents, when he heard a man’s voice roll down from above. That definitely wasn’t his father.

Who was the strange man upstairs, and how could the ground floor have changed overnight without waking him?

Fearing he may be accused as a thief, he rushed for the front door and grabbed his bag on the way.

Green lightning cut spider webs across the sky in front of a thunderstorm that rolled over the town, its dark clouds blotting out the sun.

Andy shivered in the icy wind that blew from the storm. He needed a jumper but there was no way he was going back inside the house. There had to be something wrong – even the lightning was weird.

With a deep breath, he swung his bag onto his back and ran for the bus shelter, taking furtive glances over his shoulder at his house, just in case.

Then he heard the eagle screech above him as it circled, watching him. He stopped. No, the eagle wouldn’t attack him. It had actually saved him from the snake. Then he remembered the swordsman. How could that man disappear?

When he heard the school bus approach, he breathed a sigh of relief. He would soon be cocooned in the safety of the tech building away from all this weirdness. His mates on the net would help him.

As the bus turned the corner, Andy picked up his bag, but instead of the old red school bus, a pink mini-bus rolled down the road. Red warning lights blinked as it drove past him. The students inside totally ignored him – at least that hadn’t changed.

He considered chasing the bus down the road, but decided against it. The next stop was at least five blocks away – at least that is where it was yesterday.

His school bag dropped to the ground and he looked around. The eagle was now perched on a low branch on the opposite side of the road. As he watched it, the bird shivered. Its head sunk inside its body and then grew again. This time, its beak had lengthened and was lined with row after row of razor sharp teeth.

Its wings became leathery like a bat’s, and its talons morphed into hands that gripped the branch like a monkey. The creature shook its head, and with a pain filled screech, it toppled off the branch and fell in a shivering mess onto the ground.

Andy wasn’t brave at the best of times, but this was something he had to see close-up. He crossed the road, held his bag up as a shield in front of him, and bent down to look at the quivering mess. The eagle changed again, but now it didn’t seem to know whether it was a bird or a lizard.

Finally, after a few minutes, the creature looked up at him. Its one red eye glistened with tears. Seek out Lin, it squawked, Trust him.

The bird convulsed. Its head sank to the ground and it lay still.

A shiver of fear raced through Andy’s spine He turned to run back to the shelter, but it had disappeared, replaced by a giant eucalypt.

Andy freaked out. He ran down the road towards where he thought the next bus stop should be. How could the bus shelter disappear in the time it took him to cross the road? It was impossible. And trees don’t grow in a few seconds.

His home wasn’t his home anymore, the bus shelter was gone, and that eagle had changed into a monster and then spoke to him. He had to get out of there. He was going off his brain. He had to get help.

School buses usually ran every half hour – well that’s what they had done yesterday, but now he wasn’t quite sure. It was an unusual feeling to run. Normally, the only exercise he ever got, or even wanted was to click the buttons on his mouse. Even that was a little too much like hard work sometimes.

With a sigh of relief, he noticed that there was now a bus stop not more than one block away.

A school bus turned into the road behind him. Thankfully, it looked normal. With the speed generated from nerves, Andy raced down the road just in time to reach the stop as the bus arrived. He pulled out his weekly pass and scanned it, then walked automatically to his usual back seat.

A bunch of noisy primary schoolers had taken his seat and laughed at the paper that stuck to the cuts on his face. Andy tore the strips off in frustration and moved to the front of the bus, to sit behind the driver. The trip to school dragged on. The bus took turns and made stops that he didn’t remember. When they finally arrived at school, he felt happier, everything seemed normal. The usual groups milled around the grounds, and off to the right behind the grove of trees should be the technology building.

Andy moved quickly away from the rest of the students. His mates usually logged onto the net at 8 every morning, so he had just enough time to chat to them before his first class.

As he rounded the grove of trees, he stood in absolute horror. The technology building was now an art complex, complete with murals and outdoors sculptures. The waves of nausea and dizziness hit again, as he rocked on the balls of his feet. When would this nightmare end?

A shiver of fear raced through his body. The storm had returned with the green lightning crackling above him, yet no one else seemed to notice it.

A quick dash to the tuckshop offered him some protection. He cowered with his school bag on his head.

The school counsellor may be able to help. No, he remembered the last time he’d been to Mrs. Williams. He had tried to convince her that he had a nervous breakdown, so he could get out of the swimming carnival. There was no way she’d even let him in the door now.

Maybe his friends? No, that wouldn’t work either. The only friends he had were on the net, and since the tech building was now an art complex, there was no way he’d go inside. The other solution was to skip school.

Weatherby! Get over here now!

Andy turned to see Mr Thackery, the school P E teacher, standing next to the notice board. You’re late for P E Get a move on! Now, mister!

He tried to jog with his bag on his head, but stopped as soon as his P E teacher turned his back. At least that was normal – Thackery still hated him. When he got to the notice board, he saw that the school had a new teacher, a Mr Lin Chow from China, a Kung Fu master who was going to teach martial arts.

‘Oh great,’ thought Andy, ‘That’s all I need, someone who’ll choose me to be the human punching bag. Maybe I can pretend I’m sick and miss out on those lessons.’

Then he remembered what the dying eagle had said, Seek out Lin. Lin was a Chinese name.

‘This is a perfect way to continue the weird morning,’ he thought, as he looked around for a way to sneak out of the school grounds.

Before he could move, the school bell rang. He joined the general drift of students towards the undercover area near the sports oval. One end housed storage rooms and a stage on which the school concerts were held, while the other had drink taps. The large bitumen surface was laid out with the lines of a basketball court as normal.

Beyond the undercover area, the sports ovals stretched out to a barbwire topped wire fence that surrounded the school.

The students milled around the centre of the basketball court. Andy moved towards the stage where he could quietly slip behind one of the roof supports. No one would see him there, and Thackery would be too busy with the Kung Fu demonstration to miss him. When the bell rang, he found out how silly that plan was.

Thackery guided the new teacher to the base of the steps leading to the stage. The Chinese teacher brushed past Andy’s shoulder and then stopped. Their eyes met silently for a second. Then the visitor moved quietly up the stairs, and onto the stage.

Andy felt like the teacher knew him, but that was impossible.

Lin Chow and Thackery talked quietly, until the students had all moved closer to the stage. Andy peered around the roof support, as the Chinese teacher turned to look at him. Lin was short and bald with strange vibrant jade eyes. He wore traditional black Chinese clothes, but with fluoro red joggers.

Andy moved quickly to the back of the student group, and slipped behind two basketball players, where he could wait out the lesson unnoticed.

All right people, shouted Thackery from the stage, to quieten the noise that rolled up from the students below. Mr Lin Chow is here for the rest of the year. He’s an expert in Kung Fu and will take your sports’ lessons. To begin with, he’d like to give a demonstration of the skills he’ll teach, so we need two volunteers to go head on head with him for a few minutes.

Andy wasn’t surprised when Gavin Buckmeister stood up, flexed his muscles, and walked up the stairs. Gavin was the school boxing champ, and loved to practise his skills on Andy whenever he got a chance. Three more of his gang stood, wanting the chance to show off in front of their classmates.

Thackery was about to select one of the boys when Mr Chow whispered in his ear. A frown creased the sport’s teacher’s face to be replaced by a grin. He scanned the students but couldn’t see Andy. Weatherby, he shouted with obvious humour in his voice. Andrew Weatherby, get up here now!

Shocked out of his daydreams, Andy stood motionless for a second, until the stares of his classmates, mixed with his name being chanted, brought him hesitantly out from behind the basketball players.

He walked up the stairs and stood by himself, as far from Gavin as possible, without it being too conspicuous that he was afraid of the bully.

All right boys, you are to try to hit Mr Chow. Don’t worry about hurting him – just do the best you can. Buckmeister, you’re first – then you Weatherby. You both have thirty seconds.

Andy moved back from the two fighters. He wouldn’t put it past Gavin to take a couple of swings at him, just for good measure.

The students screamed in support, as Buckmeister took up his boxing stance and bounced around Lin. Gavin tested the little man’s defences with feints. The Chinese teacher simply stood and watched, showing no sign of