L'Appel des Illustres - The Call of the Greats, book 1 summary

In the town of Liarnes, a young conductor and his orchestra finish their concert under the applause of the public. The final bow is interrupted by the apparition on the stage of a young boy, who whispers something in the conductor’s ear. They discreetly leave the audience and the musicians. The artist is Philio, the boy Blasio, they are brother and their father, Blasio, requests their presence.

Blasio, an old inventor, is chief of clan Dael, which counts about three hundred musicians, dancers and inventors – all members of the nomadic people called the Austrois – who travel Slasie, the country where the story is set. The Austrois succeed in keeping their independence thanks to the secret technology they have in their possession, the tensors, batteries able to store large amounts of energy. Blasio summons his wife Sophia and their three children to reveal he has a terminal disease and he doesn’t have long to live. Of his three children, this is his daughter Lydie that will succeed him to lead the clan. With Sophia, they decide to go south, in order to bury the old patriarch in Sihil, the Austrois’ refuge city.

A few months before, some hundred miles away in the capital city of Tandal, a gallery owner shows to a child his paintings. She is an eleven years old aristocrat and belongs to the great Spadelpietra family. A bit frail she has to use a wheelchair, but shows a genuine interest towards the paintings. At the sight of one of them however, she suffers a lethal epileptic seizure. Learning the news, the duchess Jana Spadelpietra decides to cease every paintings of the gallery, and gives a mysterious task to do to Sybille, her secret agent. She tells her to find the painter at all price. At the same time, other members of the family travel back to the city for the funeral: Bendetto, the duchess’ younger brother, and Amadi, an eccentric cousin who brings his Oriental adoptive son with him.

The painter is young Mical, he is nineteen, and is easily recognizable thanks to the colour of his eyes: one is brown, the other steel gray. He lives knowing nothing of this affair at the monastery of Meris, located in a village, lost among the hills. There, he improves his talents and begins to get famous. Asked a lot for his art, he declines the first invitations coming from the Spadelpietras. So much that they order men to go and kidnap him. Mical is saved by Cyril, a man he doesn’t know but who seems to keep an eye on him and kills all his assailants. Distressed, Mical wants to flee the monastery. To let things cool down, he decides to find the old Austrois patriarch he met some years before and helped him learn how to paint.

This is how the Daels’ path crosses with Mical’s, who succeeds to find them, scruffy and starved. Unfortunately, he is too late to see the patriarch alive. The family is upset and the clan not ready to believe in his story, least of all protect him. However, against all odds Sophia gives him shelter.

The Austrois are practical folks, shortly Mical’s talents are appreciated and used. The children of the patriarch slowly warm toward him. Along the road to Sihil, a technical problem happens that forces them to make a detour to the city of Armacita. This is a military city, hold by the strong hand of Vittor Spadelpietra, brother of the duchess and commandant of the armies of the Kingdom. Vittor is overbearing and bad tempered and forces the Daels to do a performance in return of the material they need. The performance uses Mical’s paintings as settings. The next day, when they arrive at the town’s mills to charge the tensors, they find them damaged. Lydie, who inherited her father’s knowledge, helps to fix the mechanisms. The one responsible for the sabotage, on of Sybille’s agent having recognised Mical, panics and tries to kill Lydie. Vittor Spadelpietra kills the man himself, which only proves none of the Spadelpietras are aware of the duchess’ plots. The Daels leaves the city in a hurry.

The caravan takes the road again but is taken in an ambush soon after by unknown men. This time, the clan is ready to act. Their vehicles are auto-propelled and full of hidden weapons. The Daels take care of the assailants, urging to Perto-Nevo, the great harbor of the South, from where they embark for Sihil.

In Tandal, Sybille has to revise her plans to trap the painter but she is confronted by Amadi who seems to know everything about the mystery of the paintings. He is also aware of her secret missions and disapproves. The old man doesn’t say more, leaving Sybille deep in thoughts.

The story moves five years forward. We find the Daels near Sihil, they stayed there the whole time. Mical is now perfectly included, he married Lydie who became Chief. They have a son together, called Valens, who grew up in the city refuge, surrounded by his uncles and grand-mother. Sybilles’ agents, having found back Mical’s trail, take action and kidnap Valens in order to proceed to an exchange with his father. Mical, sick with worry, agrees to meet them, secretly escorted by Basil. Once arrived, the exchange is done. At the last moment, Cyril, the stranger who already saved Mical’s life, reveals himself among the mercenaries and, with Basil’s help, kills the kidnappers before passing out, wounded. Mical and Basil take him with them. When he comes back to his senses, he introduces himself as Mical’s uncle, on mission to protect his nephew in loyalty for Jeffrey, the father Mical never knew. Indeed, Jeffrey let his son to the monastery when he was little but came back eighteen years later to ask Cyril and the reverend Father to keep Mical far from Tandal and the Spadelpietras. The Daels don’t know what to make of it but are decided to counter-attack after this aggression inside the walls of their city refuge. Soon, the betrothal between the Spadelpietras’ heir and the daughter of the King of Tandal will be an excuse to several months of celebration. This will be the perfect occasion for them. Mical, to be sure, accompanies the clan. Moreover, they find another reason to act. They have found an unknown tensor in the possessions of one of their attackers, which proves the secret of their technology has been betrayed.

Months goes by and the festivities approach. In Tandal, the heir Jiani Spadelpietra, his sister Silva and Kmal, late Amadi’s adoptive son, enjoy their last peaceful moments before Jiani’s engagement. He is the perfect young prince, beautiful and generous, but a bit naïve. His twin sister is cleverer and a bit rebellious, whereas Kmal practices as much as he can to be worthy of his adoptive family. Tandal preparing for the celebration and the whole world seems drawn to it. However, there are tensions between Jiani and his mother. Her children suspect her to play some unknown political games.

On their part, the Austrois have sent four clans to put on the show. The Daels are hidden among them and begin to infiltrate the city. Only Philio the composer is officially present, his reputation being worth an official invitation to the king’s court. Mical is undercover with Lydie and Basil, escorted by Cyril. But since they arrived, he suffers strange psychological troubles that affect his behaviour. Lydie’s attention is divided between, the investigations and her husband’s condition.

Jiani is fascinated by the Austrois, especially by Philio’s music and goes incognito to see him. He goes to see them several times, motivated by his secret passion for music. Quickly, his sister follows him. Wandering in the Austrois’ camps, she is inexplicably attracted by Mical’s caravan. Her meeting with the painter and his pieces induces the same instinctive panic as the one that killed her cousin at the beginning of the story. Frightened, she talks about what happened to her brother. They know the story of the cursed painting, even that their mother secretly ordered to find the painter. Jiani and Silva knows where the painting is and decide to go see it another time in the palace’s dungeons.

While the twins investigate, their cousin Kmal realises several things goes wrong. One of his father’s vassal comes to visit him secretly, on mission for his suzerain. In a hurry to leave the city, the man leaves him a book with annotations that should have landed in his father’s hand. It appears to relate some events that happened during the duchess and her brothers’ youth, concerning their association with someone called Eye-of-Frost. Kmal tries to learn more questioning Bendetto Spadelpietra, but he remains elusive. Kmal feels a sick atmosphere spreading in the palace. The members of the family become aggressive towards him with no apparent reasons, even Bendetto is more distant and absent.

The Daels find the organisation through which they were attacked, it’s called the Society of the Black Mass. It seems to be a network of spy at the service of the Spadelpietras. In fact, this is Sybille’s organisation. This is Basil who succeeds to get hold of a list of names. With his sister, they set up a coup to steal one of the unknown tensors. This time, it bears the signature of its designer. Lydie, appalled, recognises her mother’s.

Regarding their investigations, Jiani and Silva enter the dungeons and find the painting. Silva easily identifies the similarities with what she saw in Mical’s caravan. The two teenagers decide to go see him again in order to know more and understand what their mother has against him. A few days later, they introduce themselves under their true names. The meeting between them three is cut short. The duchess, aware of her son’s interests towards the Austrois thanks to Sybille, asked her brother Vittor to follow Jiani, circle the camp and take Mical. Vittor, who saved Lydie’s life, now seems taken by a murderous madness. With pure cruelty, under the eyes of a hidden Lydie, he kills an old Austrois who tries to intervene, before forcing Mical to follow him and humiliating Jiani. Cyril, who was away, witnesses what is happening to his nephew and rushes furiously to join the scene. At the last moment, Basil knock him out, preventing him to be killed. From this event, Lydie and the Austrois decide to begin a true vendetta against the House of Spadelpietra.

At the palace, a violent argument burst between the duchess and Sybille. The way Jana let her spy in the unknown about Mical’s capture and let free rein to Vittor, convinced Sybille that the duchess worked against her and the Society of the Black Mass’ mission – which was to prevent the Spadelpietra’s to answer the Call, a mysterious mental conditioning that consumes them all one by one, driving them crazy and malevolent. Mical could play a part in all this, however, this is now clear that Jana captured him not to use him but to make him disappear. Sybille takes flights, resolute to pursue her mission.

As for Mical, he is left in the dungeons, his gray eye torn from its socket, after a last cruel act of the duchess. Still tormented, he feels like he is becoming truly mad, until he perceives a kind of telepathic message from someone who would have thought about the possibility of his imprisonment. The voice claims to know how to prevent Mical from madness. The entity gives its name; this is an echo purposely let by Amadi, who recognises Mical as Jeffrey’s son, a man he knew well and was nick-named Eye-of-Frost when he was young.