Guardians of the Boundary (The Conjurors Series Book 3) (23 page)

“If he agrees, I will take Cyrus
as an apprentice and train him in weaponry,” Leo said. “We can test the best
combinations of light and various materials.”

“I’m in,” Cyrus said, and
Valerie could hear the pride in his voice.

“How soon could you have the
new, light-infused weapons ready?” Valerie asked.

“I could have dozens ready in a
week,” Cyrus said. “Given a little time, we could equip everyone in the Fist
with light weapons.”

“Simple weapons, yes,” Leo
agreed. “But I think we should set our sights higher.”

“What do you mean?” Cyrus asked.

“I am sworn with a spell not to
reveal what I know of the weapons of the People of the Woods,” Leo said. “But
they have woven magic into their weapons that is many times more powerful than
anything we have created in Arden. Your sword, Pathos, is one of the few
examples that exists outside of the cities in the trees.”

Valerie wasn’t surprised to
discover that her blade was forged from powerful magic. Sometimes, it guided
her as much as she wielded it.

“First I’ll need to convince
Elden and his people to share their secrets,” Valerie said, the idea of failing
to secure an alliance with the People of the Woods already unnerving her.

“Yes. If we add light to the
People of the Woods’ weapons, it will give us a distinct advantage in battle,”
Leo added.

“What do you think?” Cyrus asked
Valerie, his eyes searching her face.

Valerie smiled. “I
think this is a game changer. Thanks to your power, maybe we have the chance to
defeat the Fractus for good.”

After Leo left to return to his
old home several miles away, Valerie turned to Cyrus, her stomach churning with
nerves.

“All right, let me have it,” she
said. “I know I deserve it.”

But all of Cyrus’s righteous
indignation was gone, replaced with that strange expression she’d seen on his
face earlier.

“You’re never going to see me
the way you see him, are you?” Cyrus asked.

Valerie didn’t need to ask whom
he was referring to. The memory of Thai’s intense gaze followed her around, and
she could never completely banish it.

“Just because I see you and Thai
differently doesn’t mean I see him as better. I’m with you, and that’s where I
want to be,” Valerie insisted.

“For now, I know that’s true,”
Cyrus said, but he didn’t sound comforted. “But admit it. You feel safer with
him than you do with me.”

“Of course not. You’re more battle-tested
than Thai. You’re probably a better fighter, too,” Valerie said.

“That’s not the kind of safe I
mean. We all know that you can defend yourself, and you don’t really need a
bodyguard to protect you,” Cyrus said, exasperated.

Valerie didn’t know what to say.
Even though Thai had betrayed her, she still remembered lying next to him in
his tent. They had been partners, and the world seemed less scary with him by
her side. There hadn’t been a struggle for power, but a sharing of
responsibility.

“We’ll feel that way about each
other, too, someday,” Valerie said.

“We’ve known each other way
longer than you and Thai ever did,” Cyrus said. “It’s never going to be the
same.”

“Why do we have to even talk
about him? I love you! I’d never destroy what we have,” Valerie said, her heart
pounding. It hurt to talk about Thai. She wanted to leave those memories behind
and make new ones with Cyrus, but he kept dragging her back to the past.

“We’re talking about him because
he’s coming to the Globe,” Cyrus said abruptly.

Valerie couldn’t think, much
less speak. Even after Thai had broken her heart, she had yearned for his
physical presence on the Globe. The idea that he would be near her, for real,
brought a profound relief. As quickly as it came, guilt followed. Cyrus was
right. Why was she so relieved that Thai would be at her side? She forced
herself to return to the present.

“How do you know? What changed
his mind?” Valerie demanded.

“I’ll let him tell you,” Cyrus
said, his expression closed. All of the usual teasing light had left his face.
It hurt her heart to see his usually irrepressible joy gone.

“This doesn’t change anything
between us,” Valerie said, stepping closer to Cyrus.

“I don’t want to waste what time
we have left fighting,” Cyrus said, and Valerie wished that it was lighter
outside so that she could read the expression on his face.

“What are you saying? You make
it sound like one of us is going to die,” she said, forcing her tone to stay
light.

Cyrus’s voice was emotionless
when he replied. “There’s more than one way for us to lose each other.”

The few hours of sleep Valerie
managed after she and Cyrus parted were troubled ones. When she awoke, Oberon
told her that Henry was already projecting to Earth. The night had been
uneventful, but Chrome was slowly winding his way through the city on Zunya’s
trail.

“You look tired, Dad,” Valerie
said, noticing the dark circles under Oberon’s eyes.

“I must be getting old,” he said
with a slight grin. “I remember going without sleep for two nights in a row and
then fighting a battle the next day. Apparently those days are not entirely
forgotten by those on Earth, either.”

“Were all of the Guardians on
Earth suitably impressed to meet you last night?” she teased.

Oberon grimaced. “It seems that
my reputation there has not entirely faded. By dawn, I wished I had lied about
my identity. These humans nowadays have no compunction about asking very
personal questions.”

Valerie grinned, glad to have a
reason to smile. “Someday you’ll have to tell me all those dirty secrets.”

A brisk knock on the door ended
their conversation. Valerie answered and Gideon immediately stepped over the
threshold.

“The time to talk to the Knights
is now,” he said, more disheveled than Valerie had ever seen him. “It may
already be too late. I was wrong not to bring you to the Guild yesterday.”

“I’m coming with you,” Oberon
said.

Gideon’s voice held no animosity
when he replied. “It will not help our cause to have you at our side. You are
trusted by neither the Fractus nor rest of the Conjurors.”

“I’ll come as the groundskeeper
and stay out of sight. If things get rough I’ll be on hand to protect you both.
It isn’t up for discussion,” Oberon said, holding his head at an imperious
angle that Valerie had come to recognize.

“Let’s not waste time arguing,”
Valerie said.

She was already dressed and
Pathos was strapped to her side, so she, her father, and Gideon began jogging
to the Guild of the Knights of Light. When they arrived, the first thing
Valerie noticed was Tan standing beneath the arches of the Guild.

Oberon saw him at the same
moment, and his expression darkened. “He will not go unpunished for putting my
children in danger,” he said, loud enough for Tan to hear. Then he melted into
the fringes of the crowd.

Valerie brushed past Tan,
deliberately knocking him off balance with her shoulder. It might have been
petty, but it eased some of the simmering rage that gripped her at the sight of
him. Tan rubbed his shoulder and glowered at her.

The mood of the Knights was
jittery, bordering on panic. Many Knights were frantically packing bags and
call boxes with weapons, while others huddled in little groups, shooting
suspicious glances around the courtyard.

“What’s going on? Has the vote
happened already?” Valerie asked.

“No,” Gideon said. “But many
fear that Kellen and the Fractus will attack any dissenters. They may not be
wrong.”

“This is madness,” Valerie
whispered. Could she really be the only thing stopping the Knights from turning
to a path of war? It seemed too slender a thread upon which to hang the fate of
two worlds.

The sight of Kellen walking over
the top of the arch at the entrance to the Guild silenced the rumblings of the
crowd. He seemed small and vulnerable without his wings, and while that clearly
unsettled Kellen, Valerie thought it might work to his advantage as he tried to
convince the Knights of the righteousness of his cause. His eyes scanned over
the crowd, and even though she wasn’t close to the fairy, Valerie could swear
that his eyes burned into hers.

“Today you decide the fate of
two worlds,” Kellen said, sounding rehearsed. He may have been tiny, but his
voice was amplified so it carried clearly over the sounds of the courtyard. Valerie
wondered if Reaper had fed him his lines, when she caught sight of Oleander
standing unobtrusively at the edge of the crowd. She mouthed Kellen’s words
along with him. “Humans have the power to destroy their world, and we have the
power not only to stop them, but to rebuild it into something better.

“What holds us back from
returning to our true home and reclaiming what should be ours? We are Knights.
We do not fear bloodshed, or even death. We are the warriors who used our might
to bring this planet to the glory that we know today, and Earth deserves the
same benefits that only we can bring.

“Even for those who do not yearn
for the forests, mountains, and seas created by nature, not magic, our
existence on the Globe is threatened as well, by those who want to stay mired
in the past. It is time to unite and use our power to create something great,
beyond what we can even imagine today, if we have the guts to seize a new
destiny. Vote today to join the Fractus and support their vision of a better
future!”

Kellen bowed his head, his
speech complete, and many of the Knights roared their approval at his words. Valerie
saw Tan cheering along, too, and wished she was closer so she could smack the
smile off his face.

“Let us vote!” Kellen said, and
the Knights began to move toward the arches.

“Wait!” a voice in the crowd
carried over the tide of movement. “The opposition has a right to speak, as
well.”

Valerie saw that it was Mira who
had shouted. Kellen turned red and opened his mouth to yell at Mira when
Valerie saw Oleander give him a little shake of her head.

“Fine. Let us vote by the book,”
Kellen said. “Who speaks for the opposition?”

Valerie stepped forward after a
last glance at Gideon.

“Rewrite the story,” he said
softly, so only she could hear.

The enormous responsibility on
her shoulders threatened to crush her. She walked beneath the arches, directly below
Kellen, and was thankful that he didn’t have any fairy dust to control her
with.

She took a shaky breath and saw
her father standing toward the back of the crowd. He gave her a single nod that
conveyed his confidence and trust in her, and all of the shaking in her body
stopped.

“I agree that staying mired in
the past can be a dangerous thing,” Valerie began, nodding to Kellen as she
made her concession. “Holding rigidly to a way of life because it has always
been so can be dangerous. But even when we move forward, there are core values
that drive the choices we make.”

Valerie pointed up at the arches
above her head. “Does anyone here no longer believe in the values we swore when
we joined the Guild of the Knights of Light? I promised to use my
Power to
protect, Courage in the face of danger, and Mercy to my greatest enemies. And
there is no doubt in my mind that if I join the Fractus, I would break the vows
I made the day I became an apprentice.

“The Fractus will use their
power to control and show no mercy to those who oppose them. Where is the
courage in that? To me, using magic against those who have none is the greatest
cowardice.

“I dream of a better future for
Earth and the Globe, as well. One where there can be more contact and travel
between worlds. But I don’t believe in using force to create that future. There
is a path that can lead us there that is rooted in peace, and that is the path
that I want to take. As Knights, we know how to raise our weapons to fight. But
do we have the courage to lay them down when we must?

“When you vote today, think of
the vows you made to this Guild when you joined.” Valerie looked up at Kellen.
“Would you ask us to abandon those vows?”

There was more she needed to
say, but an unfamiliar presence wound itself into her mind. It reminded her of
Kellen’s fairy dust in the way it insidiously crept into her thoughts,
controlling her body’s movements. All her doubts and fears swept through her mind,
leaving her muddled.

She knew that it wasn’t the
angry fairy who was controlling her. Her eyes scanned the crowd, searching for who
was keeping her silent now. Her eyes stopped on Oleander’s, and Valerie fought
to find her locus. Her enemy had a secondary power that Valerie hadn’t
suspected, and Valerie was at her mercy. She couldn’t stop speaking now, when
she was so close to convincing the Knights.

Every face was riveted on hers
as she spoke, and Valerie tried to focus her mind so that she could finish what
she had to say. Only silence followed her speech, but the change in the
atmosphere of the courtyard was unmistakable. The readiness to charge into
battle had evaporated, and something more solemn and true had taken its place.

Valerie tried to open her mouth,
but managed only a mumble of indistinct sounds. Oberon was watching her,
already moving through the crowd to her side. He knew something was wrong, but
the crowd seemed to think she had run out of words.

Then, instead of the cheering
that had greeted Kellen’s words, she heard a frightened muttering. Knights
began to point to something over her shoulder, and Valerie turned and saw
Reaper standing outside the Guild. He was wearing his full Reaper garb,
complete with a black robe, hood, and scythe. The effect was intimidating, even
for the most battle-hardened of the Knights.

His message was clear. He was
death, and he would cut down those who opposed him. Valerie could see that most
of the Knights doubted that they could stop him.

She fought even harder to find
her voice, and Oleander’s eyes narrowed on hers in concentration. She wasn’t as
powerful as Kellen, but she was strong enough to control Valerie. Sweat broke
out on Valerie’s forehead, but she couldn’t move a muscle in her body, much
less speak.

Valerie was grateful when Mira
yelled out, “Is this a threat?”

“Of course not,” Oleander said
smoothly, moving to stand beside Valerie. “Reaper is simply invested in knowing
the outcome of your vote.”

Valerie heard the false note in
her voice, and she noticed for the first time that Oleander wasn’t the only
Guardian in attendance. Clustered near Reaper were several faces that Valerie
recognized from her encounter with Oleander in the Guardians’ Guild, when she,
Cyrus, and Kanti had broken into Midnight’s office.

Oleander saw Valerie glancing at
the Guardians.

“Of course, the Guardians will
follow Reaper,” she said in a low voice so that only Valerie could hear. “But
Guardians have always been known for using their brains, unlike the Knights.”

Valerie wished that the Knights
could hear Oleander speaking now, though she doubted that it would change many
minds. She could tell that the goal of Reaper’s display was to make the Knights
vote with fear, rather than their instincts. And thanks to the weakness of her
mental wall, she could say nothing to stop it.

“No more delays,” Kellen said,
his voice rising above the muttering. “Now we vote. Cast your stone to the left
to stay mired in the past, and to the right to support a new future with the
Fractus.”

The Knights filed into a single
line, and as they stepped through the arches, each tossed a stone into one of
two piles. Valerie saw the brilliance of Reaper’s position then. Every Knight
who voted would be staring at him as they cast their stone and would have to
pass directly in front of him.

Reaper stared into the few faces
of those who cast their stones in the pile that opposed the Fractus, as if he was
memorizing their features.

Valerie tried to jostle her way
to the front of the line so that she could cast her stone and stand in front of
Reaper so that the Knights would see that they would not be executed for their
choice, but every time she tried to move forward someone seemed to bump her
farther behind.

After it happened a few times, it
became obvious that it was on purpose. Kellen had his minions corralling her
like a horse to the back of the line, and there was nothing she could do about
it without starting a fight, which would only make her earlier words seem
false.

Oleander’s hold on her mind
loosened, and she saw that the Guardian was being dragged away from the group
by Oberon. She didn’t want the Knights to see her weakness, so she didn’t
struggle, but Valerie saw the pain in her eyes at Oberon’s touch. Her father
must be using his power on her.

Valerie’s attention was diverted
as she noticed that the pile of stones to support the Fractus grew ever bigger.
Even Mira threw his stone into that pile, and Valerie wondered what had finally
convinced him to support the Fractus. Gideon was the first to throw his stone
into the dissenting pile, and Alex and Olwain, two of the Knights who had
supported Valerie in her battle at the Black Castle, followed him.

But two of the other Knights who
has joined her then, Lyonesse and Hoel, joined the ranks of the Fractus.
Valerie was tempted to close her eyes. If she hadn’t convinced even her former
allies to turn away from the Fractus, then she had already lost. Neither Knight
would meet Valerie’s eyes as her turn to pass through the arches came at last.

It was clear that she had lost,
but Valerie held her back straight and threw her stone with force into the pile
that opposed the Fractus. She walked right up to Reaper and stared into his
cold eyes. She would bet her life that he was itching to cut her down right
then, but knew it wasn’t the best strategic decision in front of a group that
he hoped to convince of the ethics of his cause.