Knights of Light (The Conjurors Series Book 2) (10 page)

Sibyl raised her eyes to
the skies as if she was searching for patience. “This isn’t the first time this
has happened. Prophetic splits are a natural part of history during times of
major change.”

Putrefus sniffed
derisively. “So you say. But I’ve never seen it, so I don’t believe it.” He
turned to the group. “If you want your prophecy from the most powerful Oracle
in the Roaming City, then you had best come with me.”

“Why, who is it?” Henry
asked innocently.

“You fool! Can’t you
feel my power? Or do you have so little magic that it entirely escapes you?”
Putrefus said, his face flushed.

He marched away from
them in a huff. Valerie watched him doubtfully as he left. “I know he’s
powerful, but we’re not really going to go to him for our prophecies, are we?”

Gideon examined her. “What
would you suggest?”

“I—I guess I think we
should ask Sibyl. We want prophecies that will lead us toward peace. Who’s the
best person to help us down that road?”

Gideon nodded at her
logic, and Valerie’s shoulders relaxed.

“I would have you come
to Pythia’s Temple and see which of the Oracles is drawn to you. The most
powerful prophecies are given rather than taken,” Sibyl said.

She led them to the
largest of the buildings. Inside was a crowd of Oracles, and they all quieted
when the group entered. Immediately, a girl in a white robe grabbed Henry’s
hand and pulled him into the middle of the three concentric circles in the center
of the room.

Her gaze was fixed on
something in the distance, as if she were already in a trance. Henry looked
back at Valerie, his eyes pleading for help, since he had no idea what was
going on. But she knew that the space inside the circles was holy, and no one
could enter after a prophecy had begun. He would have to muddle this one
through without her.

“Are you sure this is
the best idea? The white robe means she’s one of the least experienced,” Chern
whispered loudly to Gideon.

“Hush,” said Sibyl, and he sniffed and went quiet.

Over mountains, across seas,

Through despair, into bliss,

Though pain will bring you to your knees,

You’ll find the answer you
seek in a kiss.

Then the little Oracle
leaned down and whispered into Henry’s ear. He went pale, and Valerie could
sense the strangest dread wash through his mind like ice water. But before she
could understand what he heard, a door slammed in her face and she was shut out
of his mind.

“That was—short,” Chern
said.

“We have delivered
prophecies that were three words long,” Sibyl said with irritation. “That was a
powerful prophecy. Most aren’t so poetic. In fact, only a few Oracles are
capable of delivering rhyming prophecies.”

“And who cares?” Valerie
said. “He got his answer. He’ll wake Kanti with a kiss, just like a fairy tale.”

But Sibyl shook her
head. “It is rarely so straightforward. I think there is complexity to this
prophecy that will take time to unpack.”

No Oracles came forward
to pull Gideon to the circle, and Sibyl nodded briskly. “I will deliver your
prophecy myself. I warn you that I am not the most powerful, nor am I drawn to
deliver your prophecy. But I may be able to sense something of value, and my
prophecies lead to the light, to peace.”

Gideon bowed his head. “I
thank you.”

Henry left the circle,
his hands shaky. The girl immediately melted into the crowd after giving his
shoulder a sympathetic squeeze. He leaned on Valerie as if he needed her to
stand.

“What is it?” she
whispered. “What else did she say to you?”

“I didn’t understand it.
Something about a choice I’ll have to make. Shh, Sibyl’s going to speak.”

Sibyl concentrated for a
long time, and she began to sweat. Valerie worried that her friend might faint.
Sibyl gripped the edge of the stool tightly, and finally she gasped out, “Go to
Dunsinane. The Black Castle. Someone will come who will lead you there.”

Her eyes opened. “I’m
sorry, that is all.”

“It is enough, a start.
I am grateful to you,” Gideon said, and the two left the circles.

Putrefus snickered
behind them. “He should have come to a pro,” he said snidely.

Valerie was tempted to
smack him right then and there, but Chern surprised her by dragging him out of
the building by his ear. “I’ll take care of this no-good-nick,” he said.

She giggled, and even
Henry smiled. “I didn’t know he had that in him.”

The group weaved their
way out of the temple and saw Chern delivering a scolding to Putrefus at a
distance. Sibyl drooped, more tired than Valerie had ever seen her.

“Something felt wrong,
like I couldn’t concentrate,” she said. “It was most strange.”

Valerie gave her a hug. “Thank
you for everything. I hope I’ll see you again soon.”

Sibyl touched her cheek
to Valerie’s and nodded to Henry and Gideon before fluttering away. Chern
rejoined the group and they headed out of the main part of town. But as they
passed one of the nondescript huts, she heard a moan, like pain. She stopped in
her tracks and peered in the doorway.

A figure walked toward
her, and in the dim light, she could see it was a tall, bony man who was a
little older than Gideon.

“You’re here,” he said
to Valerie, his brown eyes boring into hers. “I have a message, but it is only
for you.”

“No way are you going in
there alone,” Henry said.

“It’s okay,” she
replied. She had her magic back, and she sensed that this man didn’t mean her
harm. Something important was about to happen.

“It’s not okay!” Chern
exclaimed, and grabbed her arm with surprising force. “Get away from there.
Come with us, now.”

His hand was wrapped painfully
around her arm, and she was strangely repulsed by his touch. “Let me go,” she
said, and Chern flinched away.

“Valerie makes her own
decisions,” said Gideon, and led Chern and Henry away. She nodded gratefully to
him.

She stepped into the
little hut, which had nothing more than a bed and a simple stove inside of it.

“Pythia was not the only
one waiting for you,” the man said, reminding Valerie of how Sibyl’s mother had
died immediately after delivering her prophecy. Azra said that Pythia had only
lived so long because she had been waiting to share her knowledge before she
passed on. How did he know that?

“Who are you?” she asked.

“I am Mer, and I also
have a message for you. But I was locked up when you were here last and could
not come to you.”

“Who did that to you?”

He waved her question
away. “It was my own doing. I will pay for my crime for the rest of my life. I
am banned from prophesizing for all time.”

“So you’re breaking the
law by giving me this message?”

He nodded. “Yes. Do you
still wish to hear what I have to tell you?”

She hesitated. The truth
was that she had been punished for breaking rules many times in her life, but
she rarely regretted her decisions. She wasn’t going to judge Mer for a crime
that she didn’t even know about. It was up to her to decide what she thought of
what he was going to tell her.

“Yes.”

Mer sighed in relief, as
if she had taken an immense burden from his shoulders. “Blood still calls
blood, though you have found your brother,” he said simply.

“That’s it?”

He hesitated, and then
added, “For the path of light to have a chance in these dark times, you must
connect with the rest of your family.”

Her heart pounded in her
chest as if it would burst out. “You mean, I have another brother or sister? Or
cousin?”

“Your father—lives,” he
said haltingly, as though he was hunting for the words to express what he saw. “You
know him. He’s on the Globe, and you must find him again.”

She fell to her knees
and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Who? Who is it?”

Mer concentrated, but
shook his head. “Finding him is your quest, and find him you must to follow the
path that leads to the light.”

Joy rushed up inside of
her as her shock receded. Without realizing what she was doing, she folded Mer
in a hug.

“How can I ever repay
you?”

Mer smiled a little as she pulled away, but slowly, as
if he hadn’t used those muscles in a very long time. “This is thanks enough.
Now I am at peace.”

The return trip to Arden
was a blur for Valerie. Her heart had grown in size. As soon as she and Henry
were alone, he turned to her.

“Okay, spill. What
happened?”

“Our father is alive. We
have to find him!”

Henry took a step back from
her. She didn’t see any joy in his eyes, and anger poured through their
connection, until for the second time that day, he shut her out.

“Why aren’t you happy?”
she asked him.

“I know who my father
is. Joe Jenkens. He took care of me when I was sick, went fishing with me, and
supported me through all of the terrible things that happened this year. This
man who gave us his DNA abandoned us. I can never forgive that.”

“We don’t know that he
left us! We live in a world where magic is possible. There are any number of
good reasons why he isn’t a part of our lives. Maybe he doesn’t even know we
exist.”

Henry shook his head. “It
doesn’t matter. It’s too late now.”

“Not for me.”

“You’re on your own in
this one,” he said, and stalked away.

Her spirits dipped as he
left, but beneath her disappointment was a well of hope. She had a father.

For a few days, it was back to business as
usual as Valerie continued to train with the Knights and plan how they would
infiltrate the Black Castle to find Jet and Kellen. After a particularly long
day, she returned to her dorm to find Dulcea, Henry, and Cyrus waiting for her.
Their faces were lit with excitement.

“Kanti’s awake!” Henry
said, and all traces of the worry that had creased his forehead for days were
gone.

“Guess she didn’t need
Prince Charming’s kiss to wake up after all,” Cyrus teased.

“Is she okay? Do they
know what happened?” Valerie asked.

“All we know is that
sometime this morning she emerged from whatever that cocoon thing was,” Dulcea
said. “She’s healthy and fine, and we can talk to her through my mirror after
dinner.”

Henry was so excited
that he could barely eat any of the delicious food in the dorm’s cafeteria. “I
was ready to go and see if a kiss would wake her, even though I doubted that
would help. I was planning how to sneak past her parents and everything. But
now she can come back here and everything will be the way it’s supposed to be.”

Cyrus grinned. “Even I
miss her snarky comments.”

Valerie was giddy with
relief as well. Finally, things were starting to turn around for them. Now they
just needed to bring Jet home safely and find her father.

A short while later,
they all crowded around Dulcea’s mirror with big, expectant smiles on their
faces. The glass shimmered, and a figure appeared in a long, blue cloak with
the hood pulled low, obscuring her face.

“Hi, guys,” Kanti said,
her voice a little shaky but definitely hers.

“We can hardly see you,”
Henry said. “How are you?”

“I’m fine. I’m going to
come back as soon as my parents will let me out of their sight. If I don’t get
out of here soon, I’m going to explode.”

“Do you know anything
about what happened to you?” Dulcea asked.

“I’d rather tell you all
in person.”

“But you’re okay, right?”
Valerie asked anxiously.

“You’d tell us if
something’s wrong,” Cyrus said, more as a statement than a question.

Kanti’s shoulders
relaxed a little. “It’s a long story, but I’m really okay. I’m much more
worried about who’s keeping Cy’s big head from growing so large it can’t fit
through a door.”

Everyone laughed,
including Cyrus.

Henry touched the glass.
“I’ve missed you so much.”

She touched it from the other side and whispered, “Me,
too.”

Valerie was heading up
to her room for bed when Cyrus jumped on her platform.

“I’m a hundred pounds
lighter,” she said.

“Me, too. It wasn’t
right without the whole gang together,” Cyrus agreed. “But I need to talk to
you about something.”

“Sounds serious.”

“I have an idea about
who your dad might be. That Mer guy said you know him, right?”

“Yes, but I don’t want
to go around asking every Conjuror I’ve ever bumped into if he’s my dad.”

“Maybe you don’t have
to. I remember one person we met who said that his family was lost to him.”

“Leo!” Valerie said, her
eyes shining. Cyrus nodded. “Cy, you’re a genius!”

“He must be a good
person, because they allowed him into Illyria.”

The only people who were
allowed to have immortality and be keepers of the Akashic Records were those
who had done something truly selfless. The Akashic Records held the history of
every piece of information in the universe, so only someone who had proven his worth
would be trusted with such powerful knowledge. And she had connected with Leo
as soon as she met him. She practically danced with excitement.

“How am I going to find
him?”

“I have an idea about
that, too, but we have to wait. I have to go home to Messina for a few days.”

“What for?”

“Cara is having her Where-o-Well
ceremony,” he explained. Cara was his younger sister, and the ceremony meant
that she would jump into a magic well that could spit her out anywhere on the
Globe. Then she had to make it home to prove she was an adult who officially
accepted the rules of Messina—which meant rejecting the use of any magic for
the rest of her life.

“I thought that didn’t
happen till you’re eighteen,” Valerie said.

“You’re right. But she’s
in some special honors program, and she’s graduating three years early. What a
nerd,” Cyrus replied, but she could hear the pride in his voice.

“Wish her luck from me.”

“I wish I could bring
you with me, but my dad…” he trailed off. Valerie had met his parents when she
visited Cyrus’s home, and they were furious at the trouble that she had brought
with her.

“Don’t worry, Cy. I
understand. And besides, I have my test coming up, so I couldn’t go with you
anyway.”

 “I’m really sorry I’m
going to miss that. I wanted to watch you wipe the floor with whoever they gave
you to fight,” Cyrus said

“Don’t worry, I’ll give you the play-by-play when you
get back. I’m hoping I get to spar with Claremont. I wouldn’t mind wiping the
smirk off of her face once and for all.”

Valerie couldn’t stop
thinking about Cyrus’s theory about Leo. It was going to be hard to distract
herself until he came back from Messina, so she decided to resume her search
for the spy.

“But I’m out of
suspects,” she complained to Thai that night. “I mean, Chrome has other ideas,
but no one that I could approach without looking suspicious.”

“I’m not sure what to
tell you,” he replied, and she saw that he was pale and his eyes lacked their
usual energy. How could she not have noticed right away?

“Thai, what is it?”

He shook his head. “I’ve
been getting these headaches. And I’m tired all the time. I’m sure it’s just
part of the separation. I’ll be fine once it’s over.”

She bit her lip and sat
down next to him. “I wish I were there for real.”

“I’m not used to being
weak,” he confessed. “It’s embarrassing.”

“I remember how that
felt,” she empathized. “But you aren’t going to stay like this forever.”

“Back to your problem.
What are you going to do?” Thai said, clearly wanting to change the subject.

Valerie considered her
options. “Maybe I’ll visit the Capitol building. It’s where all of the Guild Grand
Masters get together to make big decisions. I can learn who the key players are
and maybe someone will give me a bad vibe.”

He nodded approvingly. “I
love how smart you are.”

She looked away,
uncomfortable with the compliment but also glowing from it. He leaned toward
her, and she closed her eyes for an almost kiss, when he touched his lips to
hers. It wasn’t as good as the real thing, but it always left her tingling. His
face contorted, and Tan was staring at her a little mischievously.

“Miss me?” he asked with
a grin.

She smiled back, hiding
her annoyance at his interruption. “I really do. I can’t wait to show you
around the Globe once you two separate.”

He stood up and bounced
on his feet with excitement. “Me, too. I’m already thinking about what guild I’ll
apprentice to.”

“There are so many to
choose from.”

“And I’ll finally be
able to destroy Venu for what he did.”

She shook her head. “You’ve
got to let go of that, Tan.”

His face darkened. It
was unsettling how quickly his mood could change. “I don’t expect you to
understand. You know, maybe you shouldn’t visit so often.”

“What?”

“Do you know that his
headaches are always worse after you leave? I think you’re cruel.”

“Stop, you don’t mean
that.”

“Just go,” he said, glaring at her. “Go!”

Valerie’s mind returned
to the Globe, her hands cold and shaking. Was Tan telling the truth? Was she
making things harder for Thai by visiting so often? Maybe she should let him
have some space to live his life. But that wasn’t something she was going to
decide for him. She’d ask him and trust him to tell her the truth.

Instead of obsessing
about Tan’s words, she decided to put phase two of her plan to find the spy
into action. With Cyrus gone and Henry preparing a welcome home party for
Kanti, she was on her own for this adventure. But instead of being nervous, she
was excited. She was confident that it was the right course of action.

Finding the Capitol
building was easy—it was larger than all of the guild buildings and had a huge
gold dome. But she didn’t want to walk in the front door and be questioned
about her intentions for being there. So she circled the building and climbed
through a window that led to a basement room filled with boxes of junk.

She chuckled as she
peeked inside the boxes. If she had been on Earth, they would be filled with
boring things like toilet paper and cleaning supplies. Instead they held old
crystal balls, tarnished magic mirrors, and an assortment of other objects that
had been deemed junk by the Conjurors.

Returning to the task at
hand, she cautiously peeked out the door into a large hallway with a beautiful
white marble floor. Sconces on the wall provided warm, rosy light. She could
hear bustle at a distance, but no one was in the hall.

She started to
second-guess her decision. What was she going to do, put her ear against doors?
She walked slowly down the hall, passing elegant wooden doors with names
engraved on them. She stopped short when she saw Chern’s name and knocked
tentatively.

“W-who is it?” he asked,
his voice quavering.

“It’s Valerie,” she
said, and heard his sigh of relief.

“Come in.”

She entered his
cluttered office, which had books piled haphazardly and a desk that was covered
in papers. There was also a faint but nauseating smell that could only be
described as dirty gym socks. It was exactly like she imagined it would be.

“How can I help you?” he
asked.

She was acutely
uncomfortable, and suddenly decided not to tell him her reason for being there.
Knowing Chern, he’d accidentally tell someone she was there without meaning to.

“I was looking for
Midnight’s office,” she said on the spur of the moment.

“She’s two floors up.
Take the platform at the end of the hall and ride it up and then to the
opposite side of the dome. But she isn’t usually here at this time of day.”

“Thanks, Chern,” she
said, and then hurried away.

She found the platform
he’d mentioned and decided to head to Midnight’s office after all. She
instinctively trusted the Guardians’ Grand Master, and decided to see if she’d
had any insights into who the spy could be since they last talked.

The building was eerily
quiet and empty. An unsettling ticklish sensation skittered up her back, and
she was suddenly certain she wasn’t alone. She stepped off the platform into a
deserted hall. Without consciously calling for it, her magic suddenly leaped up
inside of her, and she caught an invisible fist inches from her face.

The fist had the texture
of glass, and she knew that it must be one of the men who had come after her in
Messina. Then, they were only semi-transparent. Someone had improved their
powers, because she couldn’t see a trace of her attacker this time.

She didn’t have time to
analyze the situation for long, as a fist hit her like a battering ram in her
back. She fell to her knees, a shot of pain flashing through her, making her
gasp. But her adrenaline kicked in and the ache receded. She remembered what
Gideon had taught her and channeled her pain and fear into anger. She pulled
Pathos from the sheath at her side, thankful that he had insisted that she
always keep her weapon with her.

To the right, the sound
of something tapping the marble floor alerted her, and she rolled to the left.
A blow glanced off her shoulder, but didn’t do any damage. She shut her eyes.
Since she couldn’t see her attackers, it made no sense to rely on her vision.

She heard a snicker in
front of her, and she hit the spot where the head was with the flat of her blade.
With a crunch of glass, the snickering stopped and the man was suddenly
visible. His form was milky and blurred at the edges, but she could distinctly
see that he had fallen to the floor, unconscious. Their invisibility might have
improved, but they were still breakable.

Silence again. Valerie
concentrated. She smelled something gross, like body odor. It was coming from
behind her, so in one swift move she executed a spin kick. Her attacker must
have seen it coming, because he caught her foot and she crashed to the ground.
The pain in her back flashed bright, and she grunted. Then a blow to her head
left her woozy, and for the first time, she considered that this might be a
fight that she lost.

In the corner of her
vision, she saw a flash of purple racing toward her. Midnight. A high, piercing
noise split the air, and she heard her attackers shriek. She heard a cracking,
like a golf ball hitting a glass window, followed by one-two-three thuds.