The Novice is the first novel in the Summoner Series by Taran Matharu.
When blacksmith apprentice Fletcher discovers that he has the ability to summon demons from another world, he travels to Vocans Adept Military Academy. There, the gifted are trained in the art of summoning. Fletcher is put through grueling training as a battlemage to fight in the Hominum Empire’s war against Orcs. He must tread carefully while training alongside children of powerful nobles. The power hungry, those seeking alliances, and the fear of betrayal surround him. Fletcher finds himself caught in the middle of powerful forces, with only his demon Ignatius for help.
As the pieces on the board maneuver for supremacy, Fletcher must decide where his loyalties lie. The fate of an empire is in his hands. The Novice is the first in a trilogy about Fletcher, his demon Ignatius, and the war against the Orcs.
In the world of the Summoner, the Nobles hold all the power; money, trading and summoning: which is the ability only known to be in the Noble bloodlines but every now and again, a commoner becomes a summoner.
One night after receiving a journal of a Summoner, a summoning book and summoning leather, Fletcher snuck out to the graveyard in his town, Pelt. Soon after Fletcher manages to summon a demon, Ignatius. Fletcher was confronted by a gang of three people, the leader happening to be, Didric, the town leader's son.
Didric wants revenge for being humiliated in front of a bar full of people by Fletcher. However, Ignatius is summoned and saves Fletcher by scorching Didric's face. Fletcher runs away from the town, taking only a few possessions with him. After arriving at Corcillum, Fletcher tries to get a job at a dwarven blacksmith, but the dwarf, Athol, kindly refuses Fletcher's request, stating that dwarven blacksmithing isn't a job for a human. Fletcher then runs into a group of people who were at the tavern he stopped at before. Fletcher runs from them only to find himself in a dead-end. Arcturus, a Battlemage and teacher, turns up just in time to save him. Arcturus mistakes Fletcher for a student at Vocans Academy, which is the place that Arcturus teaches. Fletcher tells him that he is not and Arcturus becomes Fletcher's sponsor. He gives Fletcher a place to stay and later sends him to Vocans.
After arriving at Vocans, Fletcher was greeted by a commoner, Rory, who shows him his room. As the first-year commoners start to head to breakfast, Fletcher asks if there are anymore people. Rory said that there was one more and pointed Fletcher to the direction of their room. Fletcher knocks on the door, only to find it swing open and a demon pouncing on him. Fletcher meets an elf, Sylva, who angrily tells him to leave.
After his run in with Sylva Fletcher heads out to breakfast where he meets, Othello, the only dwarf Summoner. Fletcher befriends the dwarf and the two sit together with Fletcher's other new friends and eat breakfast. Fletcher's new friends all head back to bed but Fletcher is taken on a tour of the castle with Jeffery, a servant who Fletcher met on the first night he arrived. The two walk into Sir Caulder, the weapons master of Vocans. Sir Caulder beats Fletcher in a mock fight, and Fletcher loses consciousness at the end of it. After regaining consciousness Fletcher heads to his room, and after some time he finds that he can't sleep. He then heads down to the common room, only to see light coming from the stairwell. As Fletcher hurries to follow the light, he catches sight of the nobles Tarquin and Isadora arriving at the Academy. Fletcher then sneaks back to his room, disgusted by the nobles' attitudes.
Upon waking up, he hurries down for breakfast. Unexpectedly, the second-years arrive early for breakfast as well. Provost Scipio enters the room with 3 other teachers; Major Goodwin, Captains Arcturus and Lovett, and Sylva. He then announces that this year's tournament will be held between first-years and second-years, much to the disappointment of Fletcher, who wanted to befriend the second-year commoners. He then explains about the peace-talks with the elves, which lead to the sending of elven warriors to be trained as soldiers. After that, he calls Fletcher to his office.
Scipio then reminds Fletcher again to send James Baker's diary to the librarian. They discuss its contents and Fletcher hands over the book to have it photocopied. Later, the first-years have their first lesson with Arcturus, which is learning about spellcraft. Seraph and Atlas arrive with their new demons.
The group of commoners and Othello decide to travel to Corcillum in the afternoon. Fletcher goes with Othello to the Dwarven Quarter while the rest go to a perfumery. There, Fletcher meets Othello's family and Athol once again. Fletcher proves to Uhtred, Othello's father, that he is able to work as a blacksmith. As they leave and head towards Valentius Square, they come across a big crowd. A man called Grindle shows up on a platform dragging Sylva, who was blindfolded. They save her, and make a run for it back to Vocans as all the carriages had left. Ignatius attacked some men and burnt Grindle. When they finally make it out, they walked for 2 hours before taking refuge in a shed .
They arrive back at Vocans in the morning and made it in time for Lovett's lesson. the trio enters Lovett 's lesson room when Seraph asks them where they had been. In which Fletcher replies it was a long story and he would tell him later. Tarquin and Isadora seem surprised at the fact that Sylva made it through the night to have made it back to Vocans academy. The lesson then starts as Lovett begins speaking. Because the nobles already know infusion Lovett separates the nobles so they can practice and she can teach the Commoners. Sylva demonstrates with her demon and Fletcher tries and, for the first time has his demon infused within him. Lovett then demonstrates how to use a healing spell on Sylva and Othello as they had been injured during there fighting At the end of the lesson Lovett says she must get them prepared so they can begin to enter the eather.
The next lesson is demonology with Major Goodwin when Fletcher disappoints him because of his lack of knowledge on demons. Even the nobles are not able to impress Major Goodwin. During lunch, Fletcher is called to Scipio's office and turns in Baker's diary to the librarian.
Chapter 34: Fletcher sizes up his friends compared to the nobles when Lovett has a huge stone brought in to the center of the room. Lovett creates a bond between the stone and her mite so the students can see through the mite's eyes. Lovett then creates a portal and sends the mite through so the students can see what the ether looks like. Unfortunately, the mite gets attacked by a bird-like demon called a shrike and Lovett is forced to go through the portal to retrieve her mite. She puts on a Protective suit as the ethers air is poison to humans. She however gets attacked by the shrike and gets aether poison, the students manage to get her back through the portal but the shrike enters after her. Tarquin summons his demon to fight it off and Fletcher summons his as well. Fletcher scares it off and Tarquin gets angry and the pair begin to duel until they are interrupted by Arcturus who gets insulted by Tarquin for being a bastard son of Lord Faversham.
Full (without detail):
Fletcher is first seen in the book hunting for an Elk in Pelt's forest. After the successful hunt he arrives back at the gates of the Pelt only to find them closed and his enemy, Didric was the guard at the time. He refused to let Fletcher in unless Fletcher gave the Elk horns to him, which was one of the most expensive parts of the animal. Fletcher eventually gives in, cutting off the head of the Elk, only to discover that Didric wasn't the guard. The real guard soon arrives, opening the gates for Fletcher after an hour of bargaining for a deal. Fletcher eventually gets let in after agreeing to buy the guard a drink.
Fletcher soon arrives home tired and then having to wake up early in the morning having to prepare for trading day in the Pelt, which was very important as Fletcher and Berdon earned most of their money selling weapons to soldiers going through town.
Fletcher then receives the journal of a battlemage called James Baker from a traveling soldier that he befriends nicknamed Rotter. He goes, in the middle of the night, to the town graveyard and tries the book. A very rare salamander demon appears but then Didric and two guards come to kill him. His demon breaths fire on Didric to allow him and Fletcher to escape. He eventually makes it to the capital of Hominum, Corcillium. He almost gets robbed and killed but an officer from Vocans Academy saves him and enrolls him in Vocans.
In the academy, Fletcher makes new friends and enemies. He learns more about demons and undergoes combat training. He also helps to stop a Dwarven rebellion. After a whole year, the first-year batch Fletcher is in participates in a tournament. Fletcher trains hard and eventually wins the tournament.
However, after the tournament Rook arrives with two Pinkertons and they arrest Fletcher, having learned of the attempting murder of Didric.
