by Kristen Pham
“Illyria has been compromised by the Fractus,” Leo said without preamble.
“How can that be?” Kanti asked. “Only those with the highest integrity are allowed into Illyria.”
“Information in the records has been leaked that the magical ties between Earth and the Globe are weak. If they snap, both worlds will be plunged into darkness,” Leo said.
“That sounds like a riddle,” Henry said, biting his thumbnail.
“Most of the knowledge in the Akashic Records is like that. The information isn’t always concrete, and it is historical knowledge. It can’t predict the future. That leads to a lot of speculation about what might happen to Earth and the Globe if the tie breaks. Many Illyrians are saying that the destruction the Fractus would cause by returning to Earth would be better than a complete break between the worlds,” Leo said.
“If the Fractus get their army to Earth, humans and Conjurors alike will be plunged into a different kind of darkness,” Valerie said, her heart pounding with her conviction.
Leo nodded. “I agree. The records suggest that the Fractus plan to be ruthless as they grasp for power, but many Illyrians believe that is the better option than annihilation. Their fear is being fostered by Gabriel, whom I believe is Fractus.”
“Something has seemed off about him over the last year,” Cyrus agreed. Cyrus knew Gabriel through his role as an ambassador for the Society of Imaginary Friends. Gabriel was also a kind of ambassador for Illyria, and Valerie had thought he seemed cold when she had met him.
“What do you ask of us?” Elden’s grave voice cut through the night.
“There are two things you need to know. The first is that the Fractus have new weapons that you have not encountered, and they will carve a path of destruction unless they are stopped. They will attack soon,” Leo said.
“What kinds of weapons?” Cyrus asked.
“The exact nature I cannot discern,” Leo said. “But I think that if you work with Elden to infuse the People of the Woods’ weapons with light, you will be able to counter the Fractus’s weapons.”
“We do not share our weapons with Conjurors,” Elden said. “They cannot be trusted with so much power. You knew when we worked together that there were secrets of my people that I would never share.”
Valerie remembered that Leo had been the Grand Master of the Weapons Guild before he became an Illyrian.
“It’s time to set aside your prejudice to fight against a common enemy,” Leo said. “Without your help, Valerie will not succeed in leading another victory over the Fractus.”
Elden’s eyes darkened, and Valerie quickly asked a question to try to diffuse the tension. “What’s the other thing we need to know? Is it about the location of the Byways?”
Leo shook his head. “I am not trusted with that information yet. But I do know that both of the Byways must be destroyed to stop the Fractus from returning to Earth.”
“I thought we only needed to shut one down,” Valerie said.
“Reaper has found a way to send his army to Earth using one Byway if he channels enough magic. The amount that would be required to achieve such a feat would be enormous, but it would not be impossible for him to access it.”
“Have you searched Babylon yet?” Elden asked Valerie and her friends.
Kanti shook her head. “We haven’t been able to find it. Are there any clues you could give us that would help us uncover it? Or do you know who could lift the spell that’s hiding it?”
“I will visit the woods of Arden myself and see if I can sense anything,” Elden said. “If I can identify the nature of the magic, I may know who can undo it.”
“I must leave,” Leo said. “If they catch me surfacing, I will be banished from Illyria. Don’t rely on any other Illyrians to give you information from the Akashic Records. I don’t know who can be trusted.”
Without another word, Leo slid beneath the surface and vanished with several strong flicks of his tail.
Valerie had the sensation that someone was watching them, and her eyes scanned the trees. It only took a cursory glance to find the spy that was crouching in one of the branches.
“Emin, your mom will be upset if she knows you’re out here alone,” Valerie called to him.
Elden turned sharply and caught sight of the boy.
“I followed you,” Emin said gleefully to Elden.
Valerie thought Elden would be angry, but instead he held up his arms and Emin jumped into them.
“Even I did not know you followed. Such tracking is no small feat for one so young,” Elden said, and Emin glowed at the praise. “But Cerise will be lost without you at home.”
Emin wrinkled his little nose. “She won’t know if you don’t tell her.”
Elden laughed, and it was a low, musical sound that made him seem more human to Valerie. She remembered that he had a daughter of his own, and it seemed that he liked children. “Run home now, little one, and if you beat me there, your secret will be safe.”
“But I want to stay and play with Valerie!” Emin said, turning a summersault in the grass.
“Soon,” Valerie promised. “I think the People of the Woods will be working closely with us, so we’ll have lots of chances to see each other.”
Elden tensed. “Go now, Emin.”
Emin sighed dramatically, and raced off into the woods.
“I have not agreed to share the knowledge of my people’s weapons with you,” Elden snapped.
“I know,” Valerie said. “You have no reason to trust us yet. But when we bring you the Byway, I want your word that we can discuss sharing that information, since Leo believes that it will be critical.”
Elden considered her words and then nodded. “It will not be me alone you will have to convince. The People of the Woods will vote. And while they may trust you, vivicus, it will be hard to persuade them to trust the corrupt hearts of other Conjurors. They may not see that the stakes are high enough to make them take such a risk.”
“Then we’ll convince them,” Valerie said.
Elden nodded and then disappeared into the woods, and Valerie followed his form until it was indistinguishable from the shadows.
Chapter 15
Valerie woke at sunrise the next morning and decided to find Azra. The unicorn’s advice always grounded her, and she also wanted to make sure that Azra’s pregnancy was progressing well. She knew that Azra lived in the woods of Arden, not far from the Lake of Knowledge, so she headed there alone.
Tramping through The Horseshoe, she didn’t see a soul awake yet, and she had a rare moment of peace. Being alone was different when she was choosing it, instead of all the years it had been forced upon her in foster care.
The hairs on Valerie’s arms rose, and her adrenaline spiked. She whipped her head around, looking for the threat that her body sensed, but she didn’t see anything.
She continued through the winding streets of Silva and saw a few Conjurors who were awake as well, but no one paid any attention to her. She couldn’t shake the nervous energy that filled her, making her palms sweat and the magic she had been collecting at Oberon’s instruction bubble to the surface. If someone was after her, they were in for a surprise.
When she was just inside the tree line, she stopped and turned around. If she was being silly, there was no one to see her.
“I know you’re there. Come out and tell me what you want,” she said in her strongest voice.
It was almost a relief when Rastelli stepped out from behind a tree that was several yards away. Her entire body hummed with magic, and she knew that she wouldn’t need Henry this time to defeat Rastelli.
“You don’t belong here,” Rastelli said, his voice strained. The wildness she remembered from when he attacked Cyrus was back in his eyes, but he was muttering quietly, as if he were having an inner argument with himself.
“Leave her alone, this isn’t who you are,” he said, but his eyes burned with hate as he stared at her.
Valerie didn’t let her
pity slow her reaction this time when Rastelli shot lightning from his staff to her chest. She ducked and rolled, and the bolt missed her and hit a tree.
She gracefully leapt to her feet and wrenched the weapon from his hands. Rastelli hummed with power, but with her own magic singing in her veins, he couldn’t touch her.
“It’s true. You ARE getting better,” Ani’s voice made Valerie turn, and Rastelli tried to hit her in her still bruised face.
But with her magic at full power, dodging the blow, even while distracted, was simple. She elbowed Rastelli in the gut while she responded.
“What are you after?” Valerie asked, hoping to delay Ani before she used her power. Ani was a siren, so her power would attack Valerie where she was weakest—her mind.
“I thought that would be obvious,” Ani said.
Valerie reached for her locus. She only needed a minute to knock out Rastelli and then reach Ani with her mind at her own command in order to disable her. She doubted that the siren had the ability to withstand Valerie’s fighting power.
As quickly as she had the thought, she wrenched Rastelli’s staff from his hands and hit him in the head. He crumpled to the ground.
Ani had begun singing, and Valerie focused on an image of Pathos in her mind as hard as she could. But the beautiful notes of the song were haunting, even if she didn’t understand the words. It was as if Ani was singing about Valerie’s deepest longing, absorbing her loneliness. Trying to block out the song was like staying cooped up inside when it was a beautiful, sunny day.
Valerie couldn’t remember why she was fighting the song, but she trusted herself. She’d made a plan, and she was sticking to it. But what had it been? The sight of Rastelli, unconscious and bleeding on the ground, gave her a reality check. She gathered up the magic that she had been pooling inside of herself during her training with her father and hurled it outward.
The burst of magic freed Valerie’s mind. She charged at Ani, who was stronger than Valerie anticipated. Ani managed to use Valerie’s momentum against her and she flipped her over her shoulder. Valerie landed on the ground, hard, but Ani’s song had temporarily stopped.
Ani moved faster than Valerie would have guessed she was capable of. As she dodged Ani’s blows, she began to get a sense for her enemy’s rhythm. Ani was a good fighter, but Valerie knew she was better.
Quickly, she had Ani on the defensive, landing a crippling blow to her abdomen. But before she could knock her unconscious with a swift blow to a nerve in her neck, Kellen fluttered into her view.
“Never send a siren to do a fairy’s job,” Kellen muttered. “I told him.”
A mist of fairy dust enveloped Valerie, and she held her breath. Maybe if she didn’t breathe it in, it wouldn’t affect her. But her skin tingled, and she could swear her pores opened to let the magic in.
Before Kellen had control of her mind, she landed another blow to Ani’s neck, but she missed the spot that would have rendered her unconscious. If she’d known Kellen was coming, she wouldn’t have used so much magic to throw off Ani’s attack. Her little pool had shrunk considerably.
Valerie had faced Kellen’s magic before. This time, instead of attacking, she turned and fled. She let her magic propel her, and her legs moved faster than they ever had.
Valerie spared a glance behind her and saw nothing, but her instincts told her otherwise. Ahead, the track of the rollercoaster leading out of Arden glinted in the sunlight that made its way through the leaves, and she registered that a car was on its way and would be there in seconds.
Her remaining magic made her fast and strong enough to jump into one of the cars as it flew by. There were two passengers already in the car, and they gasped at her sudden entrance.
“She’s a traitor! On the run from the law!” Kellen said, fluttering near her head as if flying at such speeds was effortless. He must have been keeping up with her the entire time. How fast could fairies fly?
Before the passengers had to choose whether or not to throw her off, Valerie leaped from the car as she approached the Lake of Knowledge and dove under the water. The sun turned the magical lake into a thousand brilliant sparkles, so Valerie swam blindly, her sole focus on getting away, hidden until she could escape Kellen’s magic.
Her lungs begged for air, and eventually Valerie had to surface. She didn’t know which way was up. She registered the flick of a tail of a passing Illyrian, who smacked her in the backside with enough force to send her rushing to the surface. She didn’t know whether the Illyrian had meant to help her or kick her out of a lake where she didn’t belong, but as she gasped for air she decided to be grateful.
Unfortunately, Kellen was waiting for when she emerged from the water, and he hit her with another blast of dust.
She gathered up what magic was left inside of her, determined to use every last ounce to prove to Kellen that he couldn’t control her. At the same time, she reached out with her mind to Henry.
But the distraction cost her. Before she could contact her brother, Kellen’s magic swept through her mind like a strong wind, kicking up all of her fears. She fought images of Henry kneeling before Reaper, Cyrus lying unconscious, and Oberon’s eyes filled with tears of loss.
But while her mind struggled for control, her body obeyed Kellen’s magic. She swam to shore and the sand crunched beneath her knees. She was at his mercy. For several long minutes, Kellen’s magic attacked her mind and Valerie struggled against it, trying and failing to focus on Pathos.
She didn’t know how much time had passed, but she was still on her knees and under Kellen’s complete control when Ani stood over her, her teeth bared and a little bloody from a blow Valerie had landed on her jaw.
Then, as if thinking of it made it appear, Kellen dropped a little glitter over Ani’s hand, and Pathos manifested itself in her grip. Ani turned the weapon over, her admiring eyes taking in every detail.
“Seems only fitting that she should be held hostage by her own mind and her trusted weapon,” Kellen said, his beady eyes full of glee and hate.
Valerie stared at Pathos, unable to reach out and touch the gleaming handle. She yearned for the security of it in her grip. Ani drew the tip of the blade lightly along the delicate skin below Valerie’s neck, hard enough to draw beads of blood.
Valerie shuddered, not from pain, but from the wrongness of Pathos being used against her. She knew she’d never look at the sword quite the same way again, even if she ever managed to regain it.
But instead of stabbing her with Pathos, Ani kicked Valerie’s chin so hard that her head snapped backward and she collapsed on her back. Instead of fighting back or lying there, her traitorous mind made her body move back to her former position—kneeling before Kellen.
Kellen examined his fingernails as if he was bored, but the excited triumph in his eyes told a different story. He wanted to kill her, now. Another burst of dust drifted from his wings, but it was different from what he had used before. This dust was black.
When it touched her, pain ripped through Valerie in a torrent. Every hair on her body was on fire, she was sure of it. The magic was burning tiny holes in her skin, and eventually it would consume her. With her mind locked in Kellen’s control, she wasn’t able to look down at herself to confirm if what she was feeling was true. Kellen forced her to stay on her knees, facing him. She couldn’t even scream.
“No,” Ani said sharply. “You can’t kill her. Reaper may need to channel the release of her magic into the universe through her death if he can’t find both Byways.”
“I know that!” Kellen snarled.
The fire that was consuming Valerie’s body eased a fraction. Seeing her enemies distracted, Valerie fought for her locus, struggling to regain her hold on her mind. But she couldn’t even remember the name of her sword while the pain ripped through her. On her thumb, the Laurel Circle was cold.
“We bring her to the Black Castle alive,” Ani said. “But that doesn’t mean she has to be conscious.”
Vale
rie had one second to register Gideon’s determined face as he drew a sword from a sheath at his side before Ani’s foot connected with Valerie’s temple, and she collapsed.
Valerie couldn’t have been unconscious for long, because when she struggled to open her eyes, Gideon was fighting Ani. The two were well matched, but Gideon had the upper hand in spite of the fact that Ani was wielding Pathos. She was reminded of what Gideon had told her: In the wrong hands, Pathos is simply a well-crafted piece of metal.
The sweet notes of Ani’s siren song had no effect on her mentor, and Kellen fluttered nearby, screeching.
“I’ll see you kicked out of the Knights of Light for this! No! I’ll see you dead!” Kellen yelled.
Gideon’s sword sliced Ani’s biceps, drawing blood. She yanked her arm back with a yelp and dropped Pathos. Her song ceased. Faster than Valerie could follow, Gideon hit Ani with the flat of his sword, and she crumpled to the ground, clutching her side and groaning.
In one swift motion, he yanked out a woven, silver net from his pocket and hurled it at Kellen. The fairy let out a yelp when it closed over him, and Gideon immediately cinched it closed.
“Where did you get this?” Kellen spluttered. “The People of the Woods have made any enemy today! The fairies will never forgive this offense.”
“Your people gave it to me, not the People of the Woods,” Gideon said calmly. “They don’t approve of your behavior.”
Kellen moved more and more slowly, his wings fluttering erratically. Within seconds, he was a silent heap in the bottom of the net. The second he fell, Valerie’s pain lessened considerably, though it didn’t vanish.
Gideon went over to Valerie and knelt beside her. “I saw him use the dark dust. You will not recover quickly from that magic. Its use is forbidden by fairy law. We need to get you to a Healer right away. Some do not survive the dark dust.”
He helped Valerie get to her feet, and then hung the net containing Kellen over a nearby branch.
“Is he alive?” she asked weakly.
“Yes. I will leave him to the justice of his people. We don’t have time to bring either of them with us. The sooner we get the dust purged from your veins, the better your chances for a quick recovery.”