The Novice: Summoner, Book 1

Working in the market selling weapons with his adoptive father one day, 15-year-old Fletcher is intrigued by a seller across the way -- a veteran of the orc wars come to town selling different kinds of old soldier equipment. He spins a yarn for each object in front of a crowd and leaves a book for last, one he claims was written by a battlemage with instructions for summoning a demon. Only nobility and a few commoners can even summon demons, so Fletcher is not tempted to buy. But after befriending the veteran over drinks, the book ends up in his hands anyway. Fletcher takes the book to the graveyard, not realizing he's been followed, just to try the summoning spell. After a demon appears, so does trouble. A boy named Didric and his hired goons go after Fletcher, threatening his life, and Fletcher finds out just how tough his demon is. Fletcher runs away from an unconscious, burned, and possibly dead Didric and skips town, taking his demon with him. In the big city of Corcillum more trouble finds him, but so does a man named Arcturus, one of the teachers at Vocans Academy, a school that trains those who can summon demons to be battlemages. With that, Fletcher enters the academy and discovers a world far outside his small town -- one where dwarves, elves, and humans -- old enemies -- need to work and train together, or the growing power of the orcs will defeat them all.