by Kristen Pham
Valerie bit her lip, considering. “I hadn’t considered that he might try to break down the rules imposed on Earth, but if he’s working with Oleander, he already has an advantage.”
“His first priority will be to turn on the Byways to allow unhindered travel between Earth and the Globe,” another Grand Master argued.
“We’ve made inroads into finding both Byways, and we think we’re getting closer,” Valerie said. “But the humans who are looking for Earth’s Byway are at a disadvantage against the magic that the Fractus have brought with them. They don’t stand a chance if it ever comes to a battle.”
“So what do you suggest?” Dasan said, his beady eyes sparkling. Valerie suspected he could sense enough of her thoughts to guess what she had in mind, and that he supported her plan.
“It’s time to have Conjurors on Earth who use their magic for good,” Valerie said. “We need to send an army of our own who can fight back.”
Her words left the room in stunned silence that was quickly followed by an explosion of questions and conversation. Next to her, Gideon smiled, and Valerie saw the approval in his eyes. Chrome brushed against her leg and sent her an image of herself lighting a fire in the woods, telling her that he took pride in her leadership. Dasan, Skye, and Calibro also gave her subtle nods, and the tension in her body relaxed.
There were many details to be hashed out, but some of the Conjurors she respected most on the Globe thought her idea was sound. Maybe she was getting the hang of leading at last.
Chapter 20
When Valerie, Gideon, and Chrome left many hours later, Valerie’s voice was hoarse from talking, but she was wide awake as adrenaline pumped through her. The Grand Masters had embraced her idea and debated who would be the best Conjurors to send to Earth and how to get them there. She entrusted Skye and Calibro with the task of managing the effort and consulting with her on the tactics. Before she left, they agreed on a time when she would introduce them to Chisisi and Thai.
When they stepped beyond the protective barrier surrounding Calibro’s backyard, the birds were back in full attack mode.
The air was thick with their wings, and Valerie struggled to see the path forward. She followed Chrome’s trail, since the birds gave him a wide birth after he flashed his sharp white teeth.
“Girl, do you go to the ice castle?” chirped one bird.
“Your name! Your name!” shouted another.
Valerie put her hands over her ears and followed Chrome, hoping he knew where he was heading. After what felt like forever, she saw the glittering towers of Kanti’s family’s spectacular ice castle. When they passed through the gates, the birds did not follow. She heard a collective high-pitched groan from the birds.
“Peace at last,” Gideon said with a sigh of relief. “Kanti’s family was wise to bar the entrance of the birds.”
Now that she could look around properly without interference from the birds, Valerie could see that the castle was full of people and light. It shone from within, casting a blue glow over the grounds.
“Chrome and I will wait here while you collect your friend,” Gideon said, stopping inside the gates.
Valerie winced, dreading facing the crowds of curious visitors who had come to the castle. She wondered for the first time what distraction Kanti had cooked up. She’d obviously been highly effective.
She had barely crossed the threshold when the silliest of Kanti’s sisters, Amaryllis, threw her arms around her. Amaryllis giggled like she couldn’t stop.
“You made it! What incredible news, huh? That sister of mine never stops surprising us,” Amaryllis said.
Before Valerie could ask what she meant, she was swept inside as another crowd of well-dressed Conjurors flowed through the front door.
Valerie spotted another of Kanti’s sisters, Peach, in lively conversation with a circle of friends. After moving from room to room, she also saw Isabelle, Kanti’s third sister, glowering on the gigantic spiral stairway that led to the upper stories of the castle.
Isabelle was joined by her sisters and parents, and she gave Kanti a withering glare before forcing herself to assume an expression more suitable to a princess. Kanti’s father raised his glass, and the room went quiet.
“Friends, we are so happy you are here on this joyous day,” Kanti’s father, George said. He pulled his wife close to his side. “Pauline and I have been hoping for this ever since our sweet Kanti left us to go to Arden. We didn’t understand then what drew her away, but she has grown into a wise and powerful young woman whom we couldn’t be more proud of.”
“And beautiful!” someone in the crowd shouted, and Valerie could see Kanti forcing herself not to make a face at the comment.
The room erupted in cheers. Next to her parents, Kanti had a smile on her face that Valerie immediately registered was fake, but she doubted that any of the guests could tell. Kanti’s eyes roamed the room and stopped on Valerie’s. Her smile slipped.
Valerie was confused by the strange expression on her friend’s face until her mother spoke.
“Kanti has agreed to spend half of each year in Elsinore, providing council to her subjects as one of its ruling princesses. All hail Princess Kanti!” Pauline said, her voice ringing with pride as she gripped her daughter’s hand and held it up high.
“All hail Princess Kanti!” the crowd echoed joyously. Everyone knelt before the royal family.
“Now let’s celebrate!” George said, and the crowd cheered again and resumed eating, drinking, and mingling.
Valerie stared up at Kanti in shock. As Kanti hurried down the stairs toward her, Valerie heard the chatter around her.
“She’s sure to be named as the next queen by her parents,” a tall woman with an elaborate feathered hat said to her friend.
“Of course. She’s the most powerful of the sisters,” her friend sniffed. “We all thought she was a by-blow of the queen’s, but she has proven that her blood is pure. She’s even more magically gifted than her parents.”
Kanti had reached her side, and Valerie gripped her hand.
“You’re leaving Arden?” Valerie asked, unable to keep the shock from her voice.
“I didn’t know how to tell you. I think I can make a difference here and help people see that there is more to life than magic, power, and bloodlines. Besides, as princess, I’ll be able to marshal support for you against the Fractus,” Kanti pleaded.
“But is this what you want? How will we survive without you in Arden?” Valerie asked, her mind crowded with questions. “What does Henry think?”
Kanti paled at her words.
“Wait, haven’t you told Henry?” Valerie asked, gripping her friend’s shoulders tightly.
“I couldn’t figure out how. You have to help me! I had promised my parents I’d come home before Henry’s father was kidnapped, and since then, I haven’t wanted to add to his problems,” Kanti said, and for the first time since Valerie had known her, Kanti’s eyes filled with tears.
In the face of her friend’s distress, Valerie pulled her into a hug. “He’ll understand. It’s only half of the year. He could stay with you part of the time.”
Kanti nodded. “The only thing is that I have to come back to Elsinore in just a few weeks. If Joe hasn’t been found by then, I can’t possibly leave Henry.”
“We’ll find him,” Valerie said. She didn’t think Henry could handle many more days of uncertainty as to his father’s safety, anyway.
“Let’s get out of here,” Kanti said, straightening her shoulders and brushing away the moisture from her eyes.
“Can you leave?” Valerie asked. “Everyone’s here for you.”
“I’m the beloved Princess of Elsinore,” Kanti said with her usual sarcasm. “I can do whatever I want.”
Pauline and George lent Kanti an ice carriage pulled by white horses that had been groomed with magic for speed to take them back to Arden. It was large and very comfortable, and Gideon, Kanti, and Chrome all quickly fell asleep as they raced a
cross the snowy terrain.
Valerie’s mind still whirled from everything that she’d learned during their journey. There was so much to do that she was afraid something would slip. She decided that she would appoint generals to organize different parts of the effort, like how Skye and Calibro were leading the Grand Masters.
With that decision made, she drifted into a troubled sleep. It seemed like she’d only been out for a few minutes when the carriage stopped in front of the dorm of the Society of Imaginary Friends. Next to her, Kanti groaned.
Instead of returning home, Valerie took a platform up to Cyrus’s room and knocked gently on his door. He didn’t answer, but when Valerie tried the handle, it opened easily. Henry slept on one bed, and Cyrus was on the other. Valerie slid into bed beside Cyrus, and he automatically pulled her close without waking up. In the familiar comfort of his arms, Valerie finally slept deeply.
It was much later when Valerie opened her eyes and looked directly into Cyrus’s blue ones, which were staring at her.
“Not that I’m complaining, but how did you wind up in here?” he asked with a crooked smile. Something seemed off about Cyrus, as if a little of the glow that usually emanated from him had dimmed.
“We got in late, and I wanted to see you,” she said sleepily. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” Cyrus said, and he buried his face in Valerie’s neck so she couldn’t see his eyes. “It’s been rough not having you here.”
“What happened?” she asked, more awake now.
“Nothing,” he replied, too quickly. “Can’t an adoring boyfriend miss his hot girlfriend?”
“Enough,” Henry grumbled from the next bed. “Save it for when you’re alone.”
Valerie and Cyrus suppressed their smiles and threw back the covers.
“It’s a big day, sunshine, so you gotta get up anyway,” Cyrus said to Henry, yanking off his blanket in one move.
“Back off,” Henry said, pulling the blanket back.
Valerie could see from the complete lack of energy in her brother’s tone that he hadn’t found an Oracle to deliver him news of his father’s whereabouts. She wanted to say something, to hug him, but he gave off a prickly vibe that made her suspect any sympathy on her part would not be appreciated. She was glad when Cyrus spoke up again.
“Elden sent a message that he wants to meet with us over breakfast,” Cyrus explained to Valerie. “And when the People of the Woods say breakfast, they mean the crack of dawn. We better hurry.”
Less than an hour later, Valerie, Henry, Kanti, and Cyrus were hurrying toward the Lake of Knowledge to meet Elden.
“This better be good,” Kanti griped, still rubbing her eyes.
“Elden doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy to waste anyone’s time,” Cyrus argued.
“Indeed, I am not,” Elden said, and Valerie saw him leaning against a tree. Until he had spoken, he’d seemed almost invisible against the brown bark that was brushed with gold.
“Is this about Babylon?” Kanti asked, skipping the greetings to get straight to the point.
“Yes,” Elden replied. “I explored the woods and found an unusual spell had been placed where I believe Babylon was once located—one I have not seen in my lifetime, though I have heard of it. Someone has bent space so that Babylon is both there and not there.”
“That sounds like Reaper,” Valerie said, dread making her stomach ache. If he had been the one to hide Babylon from the world, then the Byway on the Globe was as good as his.
“Perhaps,” Elden agreed. “But the key to opening the portal is a tie of blood. Only someone from a certain bloodline can enter the space.”
“Which means that either Valerie, Dulcea, or I had the right blood to find Babylon, since we stumbled across it?” Cyrus asked, his eyes alight.
“When someone whose blood meets the criteria of the spell crosses the place where Babylon lies, it will bend space back so that he… or she can enter,” Elden said.
“But Dulcea and I weren’t able to find it, and we looked for hours,” Cyrus said. “Which means that it had to be your blood that was the key to finding the garden that day, Valerie.”
“But Babylon vanished decades ago. So whoever placed the spell did it before I was ever born, before any of us were born,” Valerie protested.
“It must have been placed by a family member and keyed so that any of his or her bloodline could enter,” Elden explained.
“It had to be Oberon,” Henry said, his eyes tired. “Hiding a beautiful garden loved by Conjurors around the Globe so that only he and his family could find it sounds exactly like something he would do.”
Valerie loved her father, but she couldn’t help but agree.
Valerie and Henry found Oberon sweeping the path around The Horseshoe. She was struck by the sight, remembering the first time she had met him. Like now, he seemed too powerful to be doing such a human job.
“With everything that’s going on, I’m surprised you’re out here, playing groundskeeper,” Henry said.
Valerie stepped on Henry’s foot hard enough to make him wince.
“It’s my penance, Henry,” Oberon said without lifting his eyes. “It honors my wife and my promise to her.”
“I think that’s beautiful, Dad,” Valerie said, and he squeezed her hand.
“I’m glad you are safely home, Daughter. Azra has already heard from Skye about the success of your visit to Elsinore, and she told me of your plan. I couldn’t have thought of a better one myself,” Oberon said.
Valerie could have sworn that she was an inch taller after hearing those words. It wasn’t that no one had ever been proud of her before, but it was different knowing that her father thought she was special.
“We came to ask you about Babylon,” Henry said, guiding them back to their purpose.
Oberon’s brows rose, and then a soft smile replaced his usually grim expression. “I haven’t thought of that place in years. I wonder if it’s still hidden.”
“It is,” Valerie said. “Were you the one to hide it?”
A boyish expression transformed Oberon’s face, and a grin that was distinctly mischievous tugged at the corners of his mouth. “I am guilty. As a gift to your mother on her birthday, I locked the garden so that it could only be found by one of the two of us.”
“Or your children,” Valerie added, her voice soft.
“You are correct. Any of our bloodline could enter, though I did not think of it at the time. Things were different then. Chern—Reaper—and I were friends, and he helped me bend space so that I could lock Babylon away as Adelita’s and my private retreat.”
“What about Reaper? Can he get in, too?” Valerie asked, her palms sweating.
“No, the lock was done with a drop of my blood and a drop of your mother’s. Reaper wasn’t present when we performed the ceremony,” Oberon said. “Why do you take such an interest in that old relic, children?”
“The People of the Woods believe that the Globe’s Byway is located there,” Valerie explained.
Oberon dropped his shovel to the ground, and stared at them both, stunned. “I never knew the Byway was hidden there. It was merely a fit of fancy that I hoped would make Adelita smile.”
“That’s okay, Dad,” Valerie reassured him. “Now you can go with us, and we’ll find the Byway. We can return it to the People of the Woods to be destroyed.”
Oberon’s hands trembled, and all of his earlier mischief was wiped from his expression. “I can’t go back there. It’s hard enough walking these paths where she trod so often, her ghost around me, close enough to torment but too far to ever touch. To return to where we were happiest would break my heart in twain.”
He bent his head, and even Henry’s face softened at the sight of Oberon’s grief.
“It’s okay, Dad,” Valerie said, hugging his waist. “Henry and I will go.”
By unspoken agreement, Valerie and Henry went alone to the spot Oberon directed them. It might have been wiser to bring prot
ection, but after seeing their father’s grief, it seemed right that their visit be private.
“Oberon might think that Reaper can’t access Babylon, but something tells me he left a back door for himself that had nothing to do with a blood lock,” Henry said, breaking their silence.
“I know. That’s why we can’t get it out of there soon enough. If it’s even still there,” Valerie said, quickening the pace of her stride.
They found the patch of trees Oberon had described. A heavy curtain of vines hung from their branches. Valerie pushed them aside, and she and Henry stepped into what had to be one of the most beautiful spots in the universe.
There were tiers of white marble that overflowed with thousands of flowers, and waterfalls trickled between them. Even though it had been abandoned for decades, the garden was perfect. Valerie remembered how, two years ago when she’d stumbled across this garden, it felt as if it belonged to her. And in a way, it did.
Next to her, Henry’s eyes were swimming with tears. “It’s hard to believe that Mom’s dead. It’s as if some part of her is still alive in this garden.”
Valerie reached over and squeezed her brother’s hand.
“Do you remember our mother at all?” she whispered.
“No,” Henry said, his voice sounding strangled. “I have a distant memory of someone rocking me, someone I loved and trusted. But she had gray hair and her skin was covered in wrinkles.”
“Our grandmother,” Valerie said. “I remember her a little, too. I think she was trying to protect us. Then one day, there was a knock on the door, and her eyes were so scared.”
“Yes!” Henry said, and he opened his mind to her. Valerie saw the door of a small, cramped apartment open, and a shadowy figure was on the stoop. Her grandmother slammed the door in the visitor’s face and gathered them up.
“I remember running, running…” Valerie said.
“The Fractus must have found her,” Henry said, and Valerie caught a glimpse of the depth of Henry’s hate for the people who had taken his father. The darkness frightened her, and Henry’s mind abruptly shut her out.