Into the Dark (The Conjurors) (25 page)

Cyrus’ jaw dropped, and Valerie sank to her knees.

 “That’s not all,” Kanti continued. “A few years ago, in front of hundreds of witnesses, he turned someone into a vampyre against their will. As punishment, his powers were taken away by the justice council. But what they didn’t know was that when a vampyre’s powers are torn from them, it has a strange effect. They start being able to absorb other people’s powers.”

“You mean like that power-eater that Shade used on us?” Cyrus asked.

“Yes – he’s the one who invented the power-eater. I think Shade and his gang work for Zunya.”

“And now he’s after me,” Valerie whispered.

“We have to report this to the Knights and the Contego,” Cyrus said.

At that moment, the door burst open with a bang, and Valerie jumped a foot into the air. Dulcea stormed in. “There is NEVER an excuse for what you three did! I haven’t slept a wink since you left. Do you know what kind of people hide in the fringes of the forest of Arden?”

    “Actually, yeah, we met this gang–” Cyrus began, but he quickly shut up when Kanti shot him a look.

    “A gang?! You’re lucky to be alive! I ought to lock the three of you up for the next year.”

    “Look, we’re really sorry. But you’re not going to believe what just happened. Valerie could be in–” Cyrus started to explain about Zunya, but Dulcea interrupted him.

    “I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to hear anything from the three of you right now.”

    “But–” Cyrus began.

    “Not now, Cy,” Valerie said. She had been in enough trouble with her foster parents to know when to stay quiet. Who knows – if Dulcea was angry enough may she’d kick them out. And Valerie didn’t relish the idea of living on the streets again – even on the Globe.

“This will never happen again!” Dulcea ranted. “The three of you are forbidden to leave the dorm without signing out and saying exactly where you will be going to and when you will be back. And for the next month, you are not to go anywhere other than your guild without my express permission!”

    “A month!” Cyrus cried.

    “I’m not done. You will clean each and every bathroom in the dorm for the next three weeks by hand – no magic.”

    “Oh, eew,” Kanti said.

    “Go to your rooms, right now. I can’t even look at you.”

    “But Dulcea, we need to go–” Cyrus began.

    “Not another word,” Dulcea interrupted, her voice trembling.

    Valerie saw the tears standing in Dulcea’s eyes, and guilt hit her like a punch in the stomach. Dulcea really cared about them, and they had scared her. Despite all that, she hadn’t so much as threatened to send them away. Valerie felt that she had been ungrateful, repaying Dulcea’s kindness by sneaking away without talking to her first. “I’m going to make this up to you,” she murmured to Dulcea before heading up the stairs to her room.

    That night, it took Valerie a long time to fall asleep. By the light of Cyrus’ flower, she read her prophecy over and over until she knew it by heart, but she still couldn’t glean any clues from it. When she shut her eyes, the golden letters floated behind her eyelids. But as much as Henry’s fate preoccupied her, the last image that she saw before she entered the world of dreams were a pair of yellow eyes.

    The next day, after getting grudging permission from Dulcea, Valerie walked to the Round Table Knights guild while Cyrus and Kanti went to the Contego to alert them to the fact that Zunya was projecting to Earth. After much discussion, they realized that they couldn’t tell anyone that Zunya might be after Valerie without revealing that she was from Earth.

For protection, Valerie carried her sword, Pathos, with her everywhere she went. She noticed people looking at her strangely as she carried the naked weapon around the streets of Silva. When she arrived at the Knights guild, it was bustling as usual, full of Conjurors of all ages practicing their skills and taking lessons.

    Valerie wandered around and soon found Gideon teaching what looked like a karate class full of Knight apprentices a few years younger than she was. He nodded to acknowledge that she had arrived, and motioned her to join in. He said little, demonstrating graceful martial arts forms that the class mimicked.

She fell into a rhythm, and her body moved naturally through the forms. She experimented with allowing her power to supplement her strength, and then stopping the flow of magic so that she was relying only on her own body and mind.

    All too soon, Gideon bowed to the class. “Excellent. You are all progressing well. Practice what you have learned each day, and I will see you next week,” he said in a soft, low voice that hummed with power.

    As the class departed, Valerie approached him. “Thank you for letting me join your class today. It felt wonderful.”

    “You have a talent for this,” he replied.

    “Because of my power, you mean.”

    “Not only your power. You have the spirit of a great warrior.” She flushed, deeply flattered yet embarrassed by his compliment. “But you did not come here today to take this class. What would you like to ask me?”

    “First, I wanted to tell you that yesterday I saw Zunya. I heard that he is a wanted criminal, and I thought the Knights should know that he’s in Arden.”

    Gideon’s face darkened. “This explains much. We have suspected that someone has been spying, watching the Knights’ every move. It may be that Zunya has been observing us undetected. I will tell Kellen what you have seen.” Then, seeing the expression on Valerie’s face, he said, “Is there something else?”

    “Three days ago, my friends and I were attacked in the forest by Zunya’s gang. We were outnumbered, but as I fought them, my power rushed through me, and I felt like I could take them all on and win – easily. But then the leader brought out a power-eater. It didn’t even touch me, but for a moment when he turned it toward me, I felt all of my magic abandon me. It was scary. I felt so weak and defenseless, and I realized how vulnerable I am without my power, not only to Zunya and his gang, but to anyone or anything that could take my power.”

    “You are wise to realize this so young.”

    “I wondered if you could teach me to fight both with and without my power. I want to know that I can defend myself, even if my power fails me. I wouldn’t take up too much of your time. Would you give me permission to participate in the classes you teach – even if I decide that I don’t want to become a Knight?”

    “Yes. And my classes are open not only to you, but to anyone who wishes to learn combat for self-defense.”

    “Oh thank you! I think my friends might come too.”

    “I will tell you this, because I can sense that your spirit is old, though your flesh is young: a battle is brewing. The Fractus attack us more frequently, and they even dare to attack us in the heart of Arden, not only on the borders. There will come a time when we will need everyone who is able to defend our land. It would be my honor to train you and your friends as warriors.”

    Valerie was thrilled that she would have the chance to train with a teacher as skilled as Gideon, but the thought of Sanguina and Zunya having such powerful allies at her command dampened her mood. She was determined to make the most of every day to build her fighting skills, so she lingered at the guild until dinner so that she could attend Gideon’s afternoon class on swordplay. The class was made up of craftsmen who were older and more experienced than the apprentices in the class that she had attended in the morning. Gideon patiently taught her the basics of how to use her sword while the rest of the class sparred.

    “Someday you’ll have to tell me how you inherited the Edge of Pathos,” he said. “Its last owner was a master of the craft. She was a fine warrior and an exceptional person.” Hearing the obvious emotion in his voice, Valerie looked up at him in surprise, but before she could ask him about the sword’s history, he moved on to correct the way that another student held the hilt of his sword in his hand.

    By the end of the class, Valerie’s shirt was soaked with sweat and her arm and leg muscles felt knotted and tight. Gideon had given her a temporary sheath for Pathos, so that she wouldn’t accidentally hurt anyone when she carried it around. Having the elegant sword strapped to her side made her feel like a warrior, and dreams of rescuing Henry in a duel with Sanguina flashed through her mind. In her imagination, she fearlessly, effortlessly defeated her arch enemy, but in the back of her mind Valerie knew that fighting Sanguina would be much more difficult.

As Valerie headed back to the dorm, she remembered to pick some pink flowers from the edge of the forest for Dulcea. It wasn’t much, but she wanted her to know that she hadn’t forgotten what she had done. It was easy to apologize to someone, but it was much harder to truly earn forgiveness. Valerie didn’t want to be like the people who had disappointed her in the past, so she vowed to show Dulcea that she meant it when she said she was sorry.

    Dulcea accepted her gift graciously, but after a quick dinner she sternly reminded Valerie, Kanti and Cyrus that they had to clean the bathrooms before bed. Starting at the top, the three began the arduous process of disinfecting showers, toilets, and sinks.

    “I knew Dulcea wasn’t one to cross, but I never imagined she’d make us do this,” Cyrus said disgustedly as he pulled a hairball out of a shower drain.

    “I gotta admit, I never knew how spoiled I was until this moment,” Kanti said, scrubbing a toilet. “I never thought I’d see the day when I got this close to a stranger’s skid marks.”

    Valerie was tempted to laugh. This was definitely not the nastiest bathroom she had ever cleaned, she thought, remembering the time she lived with four boys in a foster home that was so filthy that she waited to go to school to use the toilet. When her foster mother finally made her help clean the bathroom, she had almost gagged. Compared to that, these bathrooms were hardly dirty at all. Kanti had explained on her first morning on the Globe that the bathrooms were completely sterilized every three days by magic, so not a lot of dirt had accumulated for them to clean yet.

    “Guys, you don’t get it. Dulcea’s not only mad at us, she’s hurt. We really scared her. And with good reason – look what happened to us. We weren’t gone for more than a few hours before Shade attacked,” Valerie explained.

    “I know, I thought about that. And I feel really bad,” Cyrus said, repentant.

    “Me too. And this is definitely a punishment I’ll never forget,” Kanti added.

    “I think that’s the point,” Valerie replied. “But let’s take our minds off the grime. I had an idea I wanted to ask you guys about.”

    “What’s up?” Kanti asked.

    “I hate the thought of waiting around while Azra looks for answers. So I was thinking that I could make Thai one of those protective charms so that no one from the Globe could find him except for me. At least I’d be doing something, not sitting around waiting for Azra to find a solution. And I don’t want Sanguina hunting Thai down like she hunted Henry,” Valerie said, wincing at the thought of her brother still being tortured by Sanguina, while she, his own sister, couldn’t do a thing to stop it.

    “Sure, we can do that. There are some caves on the southern edge of the forest that have the crystals that are needed to make the charm. We can collect some tomorrow,” Cyrus said.

    “I’ve got a class tomorrow morning that I can’t skip,” Kanti said, obviously disappointed to be missing out on the adventure. “You guys should wait till I’m done – strength in numbers, after all.”

    “How will we ever survive without you to protect us?” Cyrus said sarcastically.

    Kanti was about to snap back at him, but Valerie interjected, “I don’t want to delay this, even by half a day. If I wait too long, he could be lost to me, like Henry.”

    Kanti’s expression softened. “I understand. Anyway, at least I can help after you find the crystal. I know someone back home who can help craft the charm for it,” she offered.