Edge of Pathos (The Conjurors Series Book 4) (20 page)

Nothing else had
reached Henry, but those words did. Maybe it was the love behind them. Henry
hesitated, and then ran.

Reaper struggled to
follow Henry, as Henry used his magic to create a shield around himself.
Occasionally some of Reaper’s magic would slip through his defenses, and Henry
would stumble as Reaper tried to dissolve him again, but he was gaining
distance.

Valerie saw Henry’s
target. He was running toward the tree that led up to Arbor Aurum.

Henry gained a
foothold and hauled himself up. But before he could make it far, Reaper reached
the tree, grabbed Henry’s ankle, and threw him to the ground. Then Henry’s pain
started in earnest, and his screams filled the forest.

Valerie tried to
tear herself from her brother’s consciousness so that she could send someone to
help him, but he wouldn’t release her.

“Don’t let me die
alone,” he murmured, blood on his lips.

“I won’t let you die
at all,” she said.

There was a flash of
green, and Henry’s pain abruptly diminished. Someone had dropped down on
Reaper, and was tackling him.

“Emin, no! Get away
from here!” Henry croaked, recognizing the little form before Valerie did.

Reaper tossed Emin
aside like a doll, and he hit the side of a tree with such force that he was
instantly unconscious.

Before Reaper could
turn back to Henry, vines grew from the ground and wound around Reaper’s arms
and legs. He yelped as sharp thorns pierced his skin, digging in.

His face contorted
as he fought off the vines.

“You hurt my son,”
Cerise said, her voice calm as she stepped from behind a tree. “You will die
for that.”

Whatever magic was
in Cerise’s thorns was turning Reaper green, and he squirmed as the vines
tightened.

“Not here, or by
you,” Reaper said, and stopped moving.

He became still, and
then a rumbling shook the ground. Reaper corralled his magic, and when he
released it, the vines holding him dissolved, along with everything else within
three feet of him, including Cerise.

Henry turned,
looking for her.

“Cerise!”

“She’s gone,”
Valerie whispered, unsure if Henry could hear her. It had only been hours since
she’d hugged Cerise goodbye, and already the fate she feared had become
reality. Death had finally found her, and this time, he did not fail. Valerie
pushed down the pain that rose up in her throat.

“She is no more than
particles in the air you breathe,” Reaper said, but he didn’t renew his attack
on Henry.

Whether Cerise’s
vines had weakened him or the effort of releasing his power had drained him,
Reaper’s gray face reminded Valerie of her own after she expended her vivicus
power.

Now would be the
perfect time to kill him.

Henry had the
thought at the same time Valerie did, but it was too late. Reaper had vanished through
one of his portals.

Henry
tottered over to Emin, and lifted the boy from the ground. He buried his face
in Emin’s jacket and began to cry. As his tears fell, he released his hold on
Valerie’s mind.

Valerie was in a bed
in the Healers’ Guild, Thai on one side of her and Nightingale on the other,
checking her pulse. She pushed herself up so she was sitting.

“I’ll explain
everything later, but can you go help Henry?” Valerie said. “He’s by the tree
that leads to Arbor Aurum.”

Thai kissed her
forehead and left.

“I’m okay, but
thanks for looking out for me,” she said awkwardly to Nightingale. Then she
thought of something. “I know you can cure almost any disease on the Globe,
right?”

“Most of the
diseases that a human might face, perhaps. But we are not gods. We cannot stop
aging, or death, or terrible wounds like the ones that Reaper’s black weapons
inflict,” Nightingale said. “There are also magical diseases with no cures.”

“What about mental
diseases?” she asked.

Nightingale examined
her narrowly. “What is wrong with your mind?”

“Not mine,” she
said. “But I think my brother is suffering from depression. Can you help him?”

Nightingale’s
expression cleared as he considered her question. “I am not the expert on cures
of the mind. But there is a Grand Master who may be able to help you.”

“Dasan,” Valerie
said, and Nightingale nodded.

“He is
your best hope for helping your brother.”

Valerie found Dasan
at the Empathy Collective. The giant Feng was teaching a class to novice
Empaths, and Valerie waited until he finished before approaching.

He cocked his head
to the side, watching her with beady eyes.

“You must know why
I’m here,” Valerie said.

“Your brother is
growing sicker,” Dasan replied.

“You told me once
that he might lose himself after his dad died. And I’m afraid he is. Can you
help him?”

“His is a case I
have considered more deeply than any other in this life,” Dasan said. “There is
nothing I can do to help him.”

“What about magic?
There has to be some way to save him,” Valerie said, not letting herself give
into the desperation that made her want to scream and never stop.

“Henry will always
struggle with the dark beast that has sunken its fangs into his spirit, no
matter what direction his life takes now. However, he could fight its hold on
him if he could live a normal life. Up until now, this beast within him has
been fed and fed and fed by years of mental torture, losing his father, and now
the guilt of aiding an enemy in murder. The beast is strong now, stronger than
any I’ve known in the many minds I’ve touched in this life.”

“But there is
nothing normal about our lives. So is Henry doomed?” Valerie asked, and her
very soul shrank from Dasan’s answer.

The bird’s eyes were
gentle as he replied. “I am a creature that believes there is always the
possibility of new life. Henry is no exception. There is one thing that starves
this beast within Henry. Can you guess what it is?”

Valerie thought for
a long time. She knew there was a beast like the one Dasan described within her,
too, and she knew the only thing that kept it at bay.

“Love,” she
whispered.

Dasan
nodded. “Your love, my love, and the love of all his friends will starve the
beast. But until Henry finds love for himself, the beast will never die.”

Valerie was leaving
the Empathy Collective when she saw two figures approaching from a long
distance away. She recognized Thai, but it wasn’t until they were closer that
she identified the boy whose hand he was holding.

Emin looked little
and lost, and he broke out in a run when he saw Valerie.

“It isn’t true. Mom
isn’t gone forever!” Emin said, launching himself into her arms.

“I’m sorry, Emin. I
saw her die,” Valerie said simply, and she held him as he was racked with sobs.

She made eye contact
with Thai over Emin’s head, and she saw that Thai’s eyes were filled with tears
of his own. She couldn’t break down right now, when Emin needed her, so she
forced her own grief into the box inside her.

Emin’s sobs turned
to sniffles, and he finally lifted his head from Valerie’s shoulder.

“Who will make my
dinner now? Who will make sure I go to school, and don’t skip bedtime, and hug
me when I fall?” he asked, his voice desperate.

“I will,” Valerie
promised. “And your Uncle Elden and all your friends, too.”

“Can I live with
you?” Emin asked, his enormous eyes pleading.

“Yes,” Valerie
promised. “You can stay at my house with me and my brother for as long as you
want.”

“And me, too,” Thai
said.

Valerie gave his arm
a grateful squeeze. There was no way she could take care of Emin by herself in
the middle of leading a war, and he knew it.

“I’ll stay with you
for a while, if that’s okay,” Thai whispered as they headed to Valerie’s home.

“Thank you,” she
said.

“This is what I
want, too,” Thai said. “I miss having all my brothers and sisters around to
watch out for.”

“Taking care of Emin
will be good for Henry, too,” Valerie said.

They’d reached
Valerie’s house, and she gave Emin some of her dad’s tea and tucked him into
her own bed.

“You can stay in my
dad’s room,” Valerie said to Thai as she shut the door to her room quietly
behind her.

“Are you sure?” Thai
asked. “I’m fine with the couch.”

“Take it. Make this
your home here on the Globe,” Valerie said, turning so he wouldn’t see her
blush.

She was about to scrounge
for something to eat for dinner when the ground began to rumble. She knew what
this was.

“Earthquake,” she
said, and the trembling grew stronger.

“They have
earthquakes on the Globe?” Thai asked.

“I don’t know,”
Valerie said, gripping the side of a table.

Books started
falling off of shelves, and the teapot clattered to the floor. Valerie made her
way back to the door to her room to check on Emin, but the shaking stopped. She
peeked into her room, anyway, but he was still asleep.

Valerie’s sixth sense
was going off.

“This wasn’t an
ordinary earthquake, if they even have those on the Globe,” she said.

Thai nodded. “It’s
the Fractus.”

“I’m going to see
what Skye knows about this. Besides, it’s Henry’s night to be home. I know it’s
a lot to ask, but can you watch them both? Emin’s grieving and Henry is lost.
I’m scared he might try to hurt himself, especially after watching Reaper kill
Cerise.”

“I’ll take care of
them both,” Thai said. “Go save the universe for a while, and I’ll see you
tomorrow.”

Valerie
gave him a lopsided smile and left before she started kissing him, because
then, she’d never be able to leave.

The Horseshoe was
alive with Conjurors leaving their guilds to identify the source of the
earthquake. Valerie noticed that the grass everyone gathered on was green
again. Thanks to Willa, the drought was over. She was distracted from her
thoughts at the sight of Skye galloping toward her.

“It’s coming from
Plymouth,” he said, halting when he reached her side. “Tiny rumblings have been
coming from below the ground for days, but I did not alert you since we had no
news of what was causing the problem. But after today’s quake, we must consider
that the Fractus have had a major success.”

“Or failure,”
Valerie said. “Maybe something collapsed underground.”

Skye snorted in
disbelief, and Valerie agreed with him. The very air around them hummed with
power. It made her queasy. The magic seemed twisted, somehow.

Valerie stared at
the ruined fountain that marked the entrance to the underground world of Plymouth,
and saw that giant cracks had appeared in the hardened black substance that had
spewed from the fountain after the ceasefire with the Fractus had ended.

“We have been trying
every magical means to access Plymouth since the Fractus shut us out, to no
avail. But today, the loud Conjuror from the Literary Guild who built the
irrigation system found me and announced that she knows of a way that we can
enter Plymouth.”

“Willa knows a
secret entrance?” Valerie asked.

Skye tossed his mane
with a huff. “Nothing so dignified. I will let her explain, since the science
eludes me, I confess. I’m always suspicious of scientific techniques that work
where magic has failed, but I’ll let you be the judge.”

Valerie suppressed a
smile at Skye’s prejudice against science and followed him to Willa’s Guild.
They found her in the library at a table with three other Conjurors. Her eyes
lit up when she saw Valerie.

“Being raised human,
you’ll appreciate that we have a non-magical answer to our Plymouth problem.”

“What are you
thinking? A drill? Maybe a giant excavator?” Valerie asked, trying to remember
what construction equipment on Earth would be used to dig into the ground.

Willa and the
Conjurors stared, looking at her as if she’d spoken in another language.
Finally, Willa spoke.

“You must tell us
about these devices some time. They sound fascinating, but I do not think we
have these items on the Globe. However, we do have dynamite,” she said with a
smile.

“That works, too,”
Valerie said. “But it’s dangerous, and I’m guessing that we don’t have any
experts on explosives to help us.”

The Conjuror sitting
next to Willa, a man wearing glasses, spoke up.

“I’m Messina-born,
and while we do not mine with dynamite on the island, I am very familiar with
the technology. I taught a class at the university on explosives,” he said.

“This is Steven,”
Willa said. “He left Messina five years ago when he found out the Literary
Guild existed in Arden.”

“The thought of all
that knowledge that we don’t have access to in Messina… I couldn’t die without
seeing it,” Steven said.

“I don’t like this,”
Skye said. “This man could end up killed if his theories are incorrect.”

Steven drew himself
up. “I would gladly die for the Fist. The Fractus will destroy us all if we are
unwilling to take risks in this war.”

Skye appeared
taken-aback, and he gave Steven a nod of respect.

“Perhaps you are
right,” Skye said.

Now everyone looked
at Valerie for guidance. She swallowed, wishing that she could talk to her dad,
or Gideon, about what to do next. Aside from risking Steven’s life, what if
creating an opening into Plymouth unleashed all of that evil Carne magic below?
It could create havoc in Arden. But leaving the Fractus to their own devices
might be even worse.

“Let’s blast our way
in,” Valerie said, and Willa and Steven smiled. “But first, Willa, do you have
any maps of Plymouth in this library? Because we don’t want any of the
civilians on the ground down there getting hurt.”

“Excellent
question,” Willa said, pulling out a stack of maps from beneath the books on
the table. “Yes.”

The preparation to
break in to Plymouth went through the afternoon and into the night. Finally,
they had hammered out a plan that Valerie was satisfied with, and everyone left
to get some sleep before they made their attempt. Skye accompanied Valerie on
their way out of the Literary Guild.

The centaur was
pawing at the ground, a sign of Skye’s uncertainty that Valerie had come to
recognize.

“What is it? Do you
think the plan needs more work?” she asked him.

“Plans always need
more work, but there’s never time. It’s fine as it is. The only part that I
don’t like is that you’ll be going in. It’s too risky. We need you,” Skye said.

“I wouldn’t do this
if I didn’t think it was important. I don’t want to throw my life away,”
Valerie said, thinking of her brother. “I go wherever the work is the hardest,
because that’s where the leader of the Fist should be, don’t you think?”

Skye bowed his head,
a centaur gesture of respect. “I question many things in this war, vivicus, but
never that you should lead it. And every day, you give me more reasons to
continue following you.”

Valerie briefly
rested her hand on Skye’s flank before turning her steps to the dorm of The
Society of Imaginary Friends.

When she reached the
tall blue building, she couldn’t help thinking about all of the times she’d
seen Dulcea flying down the side on a platform. She shook her head to clear it
of cobwebs and jumped on a platform that would take her to Kanti’s floor.

The room was exactly
as Kanti had left it, but without her friend, it was lonely. Valerie brushed
her teeth and collapsed in her old bed for a few hours, until the sun hit her
face, waking her up.

Even though her
sleep had been short, she was running late. Still, she dragged her feet as she
faced her next task. She took the platform up to Cyrus’s room. Seeing Cyrus
would make their lost friendship more real, and knowing that the sight of her
brought him misery made her want to crawl into a dark corner and never emerge.