Guardians of the Boundary (The Conjurors Series Book 3) (17 page)

“But perhaps not the world we
all wish to live in,” Gideon said, speaking for the first time.

“He’s right, Dad,” Valerie said,
her eyes connecting with Oberon’s. She thought he might be annoyed that she
wasn’t taking his side, but instead he nodded.

“You are your mother’s
daughter,” he said instead.

“Let’s gather as much help as we
can in the next twenty-four hours,” Valerie said. “Then we’ll advance to the
Roaming City and overthrow Putrefus.”

The conversation turned to
tactics, and Valerie barely noticed Tan slip away from the warmth of the fire
and vanish into the woods.

By the next night, Valerie and
her friends had assembled a powerful group of Conjurors that she was certain
would easily overpower Putrefus and his friends. Henry brought Elle and Will,
his friends from the Empathy Collective, and Gideon and Juniper brought Chrome.
They weren’t able to contact Elden, but Valerie was surprised that Cerise,
Emin’s mother, agreed to come in his place.

These recruits, along with
Cyrus, Kanti, Henry, Juniper, Oberon, and Gideon, were a small enough group not
to attract notice when they left, but their combined power was formidable.

Instead of taking the roller
coasters to the edge of Arden, Cerise allowed them access to the cities in the
trees. She led them up the trunk of an inconspicuous tree near the Lake of
Knowledge, and they quickly clambered up. At the top, instead of a thriving
city, they found a network of branches that formed bridges between trees, but
no other signs of life.

“Where are we?” Cyrus asked.
“This isn’t Arbor Aurum, but it can’t be far away.”

“Distance in the trees has been
spelled to be larger in some places and smaller in others,” Cerise explained,
and then sealed her mouth as if she regretted sharing the information.

“Sort of like the Shortcut in
Plymouth,” Cyrus said, naming the underground city where they had traveled in
the past.

“How do you manage that? Doesn’t
it take powerful magic?” Kanti asked.

“Enough questions. The secrets
of the People of the Woods are not yours for the taking,” Cerise said, but the
harshness of her words was softened by her obvious pride in their amazement.

Behind her, Gideon looked like
he was struggling to repress a smile, and Valerie knew he would have answered
Kanti’s and Cyrus’s questions if Cerise hadn’t been there.

As they traveled, Valerie shared
her plan for how to remove Putrefus and his friends from power. She didn’t
think Putrefus would have the means to fight a physical battle, so she planned
to set up one of the buildings as a makeshift jail. They would split up in
groups of three according to their complementary powers and approach the major
buildings in the Roaming City. Then they would forcibly take Putrefus and his
friends prisoner.

Oberon brought a charm that
could be placed on a dwelling to lock those they wanted to capture inside. The
Oracles could try them and determine sentences on their own.

Cerise led them expertly along
the winding paths and stopped at a platform with a view of the desert.

“Let’s hope it’s as easy to find
the Roaming City as it was to get to the desert,” Henry said. “Is our need
great enough?”

“I don’t think Sibyl would have
asked us to come if she didn’t think we would find the city,” Valerie said, and
then she stepped off the platform and into the desert.

Her feet had barely touched the
ground when she saw the outline of the Roaming City in the distance. She’d not
found it so quickly on her previous visits, and her heart rate sped up. Their
need must be strong, indeed, for the city to appear without any searching.

“I always dreamed of seeing this
place someday, but I never believed I would,” Juniper said as he landed beside
her. His eyes were wide as he took in the low, simple huts in the distance.

Valerie squinted, and she could
see that one of the pillars that surrounded the pool of water at the edge of
the city had been toppled over.

“Is there any way to approach
without being seen from miles away?” she asked Gideon and Oberon.

Gideon shook his head. “The
tactic I recommend is to approach swiftly. There can be no element of
surprise.”

Oberon nodded in confirmation.

“Let’s go,” Valerie said, even
though the back of her neck prickled apprehensively. The Roaming City was empty,
without the bustling of Oracles in their long robes to give it life. Despite
the fact that many were likely hiding, something still seemed amiss about the
absolute stillness. Without thinking, she drew Pathos from its sheath.

They had barely reached the pool
when Valerie saw that the light around them was refracting strangely. Little
rainbows appeared everywhere, like shining light through a crystal.

That’s when she smelled unwashed
bodies and heard a low muttering that seemed to come from the air around her.
Her magic leaped to the surface, and she embraced it.

“The invisible Fractus are
here!” she managed to shout before an arm crashed down on her back with enough
force to bring her to her knees.

She had fought these Fractus
before and knew that they were breakable.

“Dad, see if you can kick up
some dust so we can see who we’re fighting,” Valerie managed to gasp as she recovered
from the blow.

Her friends were just behind
her, and the breakable Fractus set upon them. She heard Juniper grunt as a fist
hit his gut. He lashed out with a Knight’s speed and threw off his invisible
attacker.

Oberon’s face darkened, and the
wind picked up, blowing dust everywhere. As she had hoped, the sand in the wind
showed the indistinct forms of the Fractus, lessening the power of their
invisibility.

Listening for movement, Valerie
let her instincts guide her and caught a wrist in her grasp. It was hard, like
glass, and she threw the Fractus over her shoulder. She had barely dispatched
her attacker before she heard a grunt to her left. She lashed out with a kick
that she estimated would hit her new attacker’s chest, and heard a satisfying
crunch that let her know her blow had landed.

Henry, Cyrus, and Kanti fought
together, fighting off their attackers to the best of their ability. A blow hit
Henry in the face. Cyrus held out his hands, and light shot out of them
brightly. The Fractus who was attacking must have been blinded, because Kanti
kicked the breakable that had hit Henry and let out a little yelp of triumph.

Gideon and Chrome had no trouble
taking on the invisible Fractus, attuned as they were to using senses other
than sight to locate and disable their attackers.

Even Cerise held her own,
calling forth vines from the barren desert sand to wind around the Fractus and
pin them to the ground, where Oberon quickly dealt a stunning blow.

Valerie had begun to think that
they would win the fight when the doors to the huts opened, and Oracles in
different colored robes spilled out into the sunlight.

“They’re armed!” Valerie cried
as she continued to turn and weave in order to evade the endless stream of
blows that were glancing off of her back and arms.

She caught a glimpse of Putrefus
in his violet robe, wielding his sword wildly. His companions seemed equally
inexperienced with their weapons.

“Elle, Will! Now!” Valerie
shouted. Then she made eye contact with Gideon and Chrome. “Focus on disabling
the Oracles.”

Elle and Will were hiding behind
the fallen pillar by the pool, staying out of the fray. Neither had any
training or skill in fighting, but their magic would still be invaluable.
Valerie knew the moment that they used their psychic powers to confuse the minds
of their enemies, because the constant rain of attacks on her body was more
sporadic.

Gideon and Chrome moved
strategically, taking full advantage of the Empaths’ distraction to move past
the line of dusty forms to the advancing group of Oracles. Chrome leapt upon
the first Oracle, and Gideon aimed for a pressure point in his neck that made
him collapse. They were an efficient team, and the Oracles fell like dominoes.

“Run!” a high, shrill voice made
Valerie look up.

Sibyl fluttered above them,
flying as swiftly as her dark wings would carry her. “There are more coming,
and they can’t be fought!”

“Who’s coming?” Valerie asked,
but before Sibyl could answer, an invisible hand snatched her out of the air,
and her tiny body was slammed against the ground hard. Her childlike form lay
on the ground like a broken doll.

Valerie tapped into her magical
reserves, and she moved faster than she would have thought possible. She rolled
to dodge a blow from an invisible fist and then ducked beneath the knife of a
snarling Oracle. She reached Sibyl’s side an instant before a fist would have
smashed into her skull.

She pulled Sibyl close,
shielding her from attacks with her body.

“More Fractus. They’ll take your
power. Run,” Sibyl said weakly.

Valerie squinted as something in
the distance moved closer, and then understood what Sibyl was trying to tell
her. A gang of young boys who had been hideously mutilated by Reaper and Zunya
were coming silently down the streets. Black stitches marked their throats, and
their eyes were white and blank. They didn’t carry weapons because they didn’t
need any.

Instead, they opened their
mouths, and Valerie’s power was siphoned away. Only Gideon would be able to
fight off the boys effectively because he did not channel magic, and no matter
how skilled a fighter he was, there was no way he could take on the now
formidable group of Fractus that had assembled.

“Fall back!” Valerie cried.
“Cerise, lead us to the trees!”

No one hesitated to follow her
instructions. Valerie continued to fight as her team rushed past her, using
Pathos to knock weapons from her attackers’ hands. There was no way she was
leaving anyone behind. When Oberon, who was the farthest away when she had
shouted, reached her side, she began racing away, too, cradling Sibyl in her
arms.

As she made her way through the
sand, she knew that the Fractus boys were advancing, because a screaming pain
seared through her bones as her little reserve of magic was ripped away. There
wasn’t much magic left for them to take, and soon they were draining her
energy, her very life, which was even worse. Next to her, Oberon stumbled, and
she gripped his elbow to keep him from falling.

The tree line seemed far away,
but Sibyl’s quick, shallow breathing against her chest stopped Valerie from
giving in to her exhaustion. Finally, it was as if they had burst through the
range that the boys’ magic could reach, and Valerie was able to breathe again.

Her legs moved faster, and next
to her, Oberon gained color in his face. When they reached the forest, Valerie
had to force herself not to collapse to the ground, like she wanted to.

Instead, she followed Cerise
deeper into the woods, and then up a tree to safety. As soon as she reached the
top, Valerie’s eyes scanned over her friends, searching for signs of injury.

Bruises were already beginning
to swell on almost everyone, and Henry cradled his arm in a way that made
Valerie guess that it was broken. Several of them were bleeding, herself
included. But no one seemed dangerously injured other than Sibyl, whose eyes
were shut.

“We have to get her to a
Healer,” Valerie said. Sibyl was tiny and frail in her arms, and both of her
wings were torn. The Oracle had always seemed powerful, larger than her size,
but broken as she was, it was like holding a little child.

Elle shook her head. “We won’t
make it in time. She has internal bleeding.”

Valerie didn’t question how she
knew that. “What about the fairies? Can’t they help her?”

Oberon examined Sibyl. “She is
half fairy, half human. Their magic will not help the human part of her.”

Valerie nodded and drew in a
breath, ready to call upon her power as a vivicus to save Sibyl.

“Daughter, wait. It isn’t safe.
With the dark dust in your system, you may do more damage to your friend than
good,” Oberon said.

“I won’t let her die,” Valerie
said, her voice fierce.

“What about Darling?” Cyrus
said, kneeling beside her. “Call for him. I don’t know if it’s because you’re
both vivicus, but for some reason, when you need him, he always comes.”

Valerie thought of her little
friend, wishing that she didn’t have to pull him into more danger. The thought
had barely crossed her mind when he appeared, a gleaming ball of golden fur.

Darling sprang into her arms,
and all of her minor aches and pains eased.

“Don’t waste your energy on me,”
Valerie said, but Darling smiled and gave a little twirl. His eyes sparkled,
and Valerie was glad to see that he had fully recovered since she had seen him
last after they had rescued him from the Black Castle. His hair was a little
shorter than it had been before Reaper had taken it, but he was as full of life
as he had been when she first met him.

Darling scampered over to Sibyl
as if he immediately sensed who needed him the most. Her breaths came unevenly
now, and her eyelids flickered as if she were dreaming. He burrowed next to
her, and his heart glowed red. Every other time Darling had healed someone,
they had recovered right away. But Sibyl didn’t move.

The light in Darling’s chest
faded, and then glowed again. He whimpered, and Sibyl sucked in a deep breath.
Her eyes opened, and she saw Darling at her side.

“I am sorry, vivicus,” Sibyl
whispered to Darling, cradling him in her arms. “I have taken too much from
you.”

Valerie leaned closer and saw
that Darling’s fur was dull. His eyelids drooped, and he didn’t so much as
twitch when Valerie took him from Sibyl’s arms.