Knights of Light (The Conjurors Series Book 2) (29 page)

Henry shook his head,
and Kanti seemed to accept that she wasn’t getting an explanation right now.
Instead, she helped Valerie to her room and wrapped a blanket around her.
Valerie shuffled over to her bed and lay down. Kanti tugged off her shoes. Henry’s
gentle presence in her mind turned up the buzzing somehow, sending her to sweet
unconsciousness.

The next day, Valerie was awakened by a
deep ache in her palm. She was clutching Thai’s charm so tightly that it had
cut into her skin.

The full impact of his
betrayal tried to tug her back into the darkness. To blindside her like this,
he could never have truly loved her. And she had fallen in love with an ideal
of Thai instead of the reality—a guy who would cheat and abandon someone whom
only weeks ago he said he loved.

Without realizing what
she was doing, she ripped the charm off her neck and threw it across the room.
She was startled by the ugly thoughts that came to her mind. She had the sudden
desire to make him suffer as much as she was.

The thought sickened
her. No matter what had happened, she wouldn’t be on the Globe now had he not
risked his life to get her here. She walked to the corner of the room and
retrieved the charm. She couldn’t bring herself to tie it around her neck, so
instead, she slid it into her pocket.

Kanti peeked out from
under the covers of Henry’s bed. Henry was there, too, asleep in a chair in the
corner. Her heart squeezed, but this time because she was touched.

“You okay?” Kanti asked.

“She’s going to be,”
Henry said, rubbing his eyes. “I’m proud of you, sis.”

She wanted to tell him
how much he meant to her, and how grateful she was. “Henry…”

“It’s okay, I can feel
it. And right back at you.”

She nodded briskly, forcing
herself to focus on the other big news she had faced last night. “Our timetable
for attacking the Black Castle has moved up—we’ve got one week to save Darling and
Oberon before the Excision.”

“Aren’t we close to
ready?” Kanti asked.

Valerie nodded. “Can you two let Gideon know? There’s
one more person I want to talk to before we leave.”

Valerie knocked on
Azra’s door, hoping she wasn’t abroad on business. She was in luck, and the
door opened at her touch. Azra stepped off the patch of grass in her office, and
Valerie was stunned at her appearance.

It had been a few weeks
since she had seen Azra, and something was different about her. She was always
beautiful, but now she seemed to glow, as if a spotlight lit her from behind,
turning the fine white hairs on her body silver. She radiated life.

At first, Valerie was so
taken aback by the sight that she didn’t notice that Azra’s eyes had tears in
them.

“What is it? Tell me
what’s wrong and I’ll fix it.”

Azra dipped her head
forward and her silver horn glinted. When she looked back up, her eyes had
regained their usual peace.
As always, you humble me with your pure,
unselfish heart. I have had some surprising news of a personal nature.

Valerie waited to see if
she would continue, but when Azra didn’t say any more, she decided it would be
rude to push her for more information than she was ready to give.

“Would you like me to
leave you alone?”

By no means. I
welcome your presence. Gideon and I have consulted on the new effort to seek
the Black Castle, and I believe with your leadership you will succeed.

Valerie shook her head. “I
can’t be the leader. I’m bringing my magic and Pathos.”

I wish it were not
so, but I am afraid the time has come for you to put away such thoughts. Though
you never sought it, leadership is in your blood, and it is time to embrace it.

“I was thinking—hoping—that
maybe if you came with us, people would turn to you and Gideon. And no one is
better at leading than you, surely.”

Azra’s laugh in her mind
had a wistful note.
You do not see how alike we are. Neither of us wishes to
lead, which is perhaps why we are so well suited for it. In you I see a bud that
will flower into a leader to inspire us all.

“But not yet!” Valerie
said, her panic rising and hating the desperation in her voice.

Azra stepped closer to
her.
I had hoped to shield you from such a burden for a time. It weighs on
my heart that I cannot join you on this quest. But this is how it is meant to
be. I trust you to find a strength and confidence in yourself that will enable
you to lead us all into a better future. And you are not alone.

“I know,” Valerie said,
but dread was forming in the core of her being and it would swallow her up if
she let it.

Though I cannot fight
this battle with you or for you, I am still here to support you. Please believe
that, and forgive me.

Impulsively, Valerie
threw her arms around Azra’s neck and buried her face in her mane. If she shed
a tear, it didn’t show in her iridescent hair. “There could never be anything
to forgive. I’ll make you proud.”

You already have.

Henry’s mind briefly
touched hers as she left the Capitol building, and she knew that she would find
him with Gideon, Kanti, and Cyrus at the Lake of Knowledge. She hurried to
them, knowing that they had to break Sanguina out of the Knights’ holding cell
today if they were to have any chance of saving Darling and Oberon before the Excision.

“They transfer Sanguina from
the Knights of Light to the Justice Guild today,” Gideon said after Valerie
arrived. “We need to grab her in transit, because the Justice Guild is
completely impenetrable. No one awaiting trial has ever escaped.”

“This is what we planned
for,” Kanti said. “Are we ready?”

Valerie saw that they
were all looking at her, and she remembered her promise to Azra. “We can do
this.”

The mood lightened with
her words, and she knew that she had said the right thing. They really did
trust her. It was a heavy responsibility to carry.

“Who’s guarding Sanguina
when they transfer her?” Cyrus asked.

“Myself, Kellen, and two
other Knights whom he trusts,” Gideon said.

“I don’t want any
Knights getting hurt to save her. She’s not worth it,” Henry spoke up, unable
to keep his bitterness from his voice.

“It would help if we
could alert her to when the escape will be taking place. But I cannot speak to
her again without creating suspicion,” Gideon said.

“We could send her a
message,” Valerie said, turning to Henry.

Henry turned pale. “It
would mean touching her mind.”

“You don’t have to do
it,” Kanti said quickly. “We can find another way.”

“Kanti’s right,” Valerie
agreed. This was no time for Henry to become unhinged.

Two bright red spots
appeared on his cheeks. “I can do this. The Empaths encourage us to face what
we fear most.”

“If you’re sure…”
Valerie said, wishing now that she had never suggested contacting Sanguina’s
mind.

“I am,” he said, and
abruptly opened his mind to her.

Valerie absorbed his
panic and tried to keep a tight hold on her own self-control in hopes that it
would rub off on Henry. He took a shuddering breath and the level of his fear
dialed down enough for them to concentrate.

Locating Sanguina’s mind
was harder than it had been finding Jet or Chrome. Even though they both knew
Sanguina as a vampyre, they had never really understood her as a person. Henry
searched for the dark, twisted mind he knew too well and didn’t find it.

Valerie forced herself
to send him other images, of Sanguina sending Oberon to help her against Reaper
and apologizing for what she had done. Henry didn’t want to let these
contradictory thoughts in, but she kept nudging him, reminding him of how
Sanguina had yelled at her to duck so that Zunya could be chased off by
Oberon’s lightning. Henry had witnessed that himself.

Finally, a glimmer of
Sanguina’s mind flickered in the corner of their consciousness. Once they
spotted it, they drew closer. Her mind was confused and angry, and there was
still darkness in it. But she didn’t have the crazed, almost maniacal hatred
emanating from her that they both associated with her presence. Her mind was
tortured. Sanguina had known pain, both physical and emotional.

Almost as soon as they
sensed her, she tried to push them out of her mind. Quickly, Valerie sent her
an image of their faces, and the resistance stopped. She ran through the basics
of the plan she and Gideon had developed to help her escape, showing her at
what point she should run.

As soon as the message
was delivered, Henry cut their contact with Sanguina. As Valerie refocused on the
world around her, she saw that the color had drained from his face again.

“She’s different than I
thought she’d be. That makes it worse, somehow,” Henry said.

“What do you mean?”
Valerie asked.

“In a weird way, it was
comforting to think she was psycho. But she isn’t, and she did what she did to
me anyway.”

“I think she was crazy
when she was a vampyre.”

Henry shrugged,
doubtful. Kanti took his hand and squeezed, and he managed to give her a brief
smile.

“Henry, you gave us a
distinct advantage today,” Gideon said. It was the right thing to say, because
Henry’s shoulders relaxed. “Do you all know where you’re supposed to be, and at
what time?”

Everyone nodded.

“What about the rest of
the group?” Cyrus asked. “We should touch base with everyone who will be
joining us to double check that they know what they’re doing.”

“Agreed,” Valerie said. “And if you can get some rest,
do it. The next time we’ll all be safe and sound could be awhile.”

Despite the advice she
had given her friends, Valerie knew that she couldn’t rest—yet. Even though she
would rather be burned with a hot iron, she had to talk to Thai. She settled
herself on a rock beside the lake after her friends had left. She decided to
give herself one minute, and only one minute, to give in to the pain.

Anguish blasted through
her body, leaving her trembling, as she absorbed the fact that she had lost
him. She would never hold his hand or kiss his lips or lie with him under the
stars again. Then came the anger at his betrayal, which brought a kind of dark
relief from the torture of missing him. When the minute was over, she felt a
little better.

She had her pride and
wouldn’t let him see the extent of the damage he had caused. With her emotions
tightly reined in, she touched Thai’s charm in her pocket.

Thai sat on a twin bed
in a small room, and thankfully he was alone. He was reading a large calculus
textbook. He must be visiting or attending the university in America that had
accepted him. What a wonderful coincidence that Logan was either at the same
school or close enough to visit him.

Thai set his book down
next to him on the bed when he saw that she’d arrived. His jaw muscles were
tense, and his eyes were wary.

“I thought you might
never visit me again,” he said, and his voice sounded a little rough. “I’m
sorry you had to see that yesterday.”

“I’m not here about you
and Logan. I get it, and there’s nothing to talk about. I came to tell you that
Midnight and I have done our best to buy you and Tan time to make your decision
about whether or not you want to come to the Globe, but you’ve only got six
days.”

“What happened?”

“The Grand Masters are
worried that the Fractus are going to come back to Earth at any moment. They
didn’t even want to wait a week.”

“Then why did they? Not
for my sake, I’m guessing.”

“It doesn’t matter why.
I wanted you to have as much time as possible to decide.”

He seemed to be
struggling to say something, but when he opened his mouth he sounded cold. “Thanks
for the heads up.”

She nodded, but the
distance in his voice made her flinch.

He took an involuntary
step toward her, and color rushed into his cheeks. “Valerie, I swear—”

The door opened, and Tan
stepped in the room. “Hey bro, let’s get going or we’ll miss class,” he said to
Thai. Then he noticed Valerie. “Oh, she’s here. Again.”

“You’ll tell Tan what he
needs to know?” Valerie asked, not sure she could stand another minute in
Thai’s presence. He nodded.

It was a sweet relief to let her mind return to the
Globe and to wrap herself in the numbness that was allowing her to function.
Even her terror about leading this enormous mission seemed smaller now. It
might be wrong, but she was thankful that she had so many distractions from the
hole in her heart.

Gideon sent a message that Sanguina would
be moved an hour before dark, so Valerie hurried to her hiding place behind a
large statue of a chimera, a creature that was part lion, part snake, and part
goat. It stood in front of the Disguises Guild, which was next door to the
Knights, and offered her a perfect view of Sanguina being transferred as she
was led to the Justice Guild.

Kellen was the first to
emerge from the arches of the Knights’ Guild, and she was surprised to see that
there were five guards flanking Sanguina, including Gideon, which was more than
there were supposed to be. From the tightness in Gideon’s step, she could see
that he was worried about the change in plans.

Two of the Knights
Valerie recognized. Mira, who she had met at her test, had the ability to
change his form, and Claremont had magic similar to her own—fighting. The other
two Knights she had seen around, but didn’t know much about. They were both
tall, burly men, the kind you would expect to find in the Knights of Light. But
this was the Globe, so who knew what kind of magic they wielded in addition to
being expertly trained fighters. She noticed that one had a sword strapped to
his side, and the other carried a bow and arrow.

Before Valerie could
even consider calling off the plan, she saw that Kanti was already walking down
the colored path with a little sway in her step. From the grumpy frown on her
face, she wasn’t very happy about being a distraction—or bait, as she referred
to her role.

Kanti stepped
respectfully aside as the group came past, and Valerie saw that the two large
Knights were staring at her. She gave them a little wave, and they both
grinned. Valerie had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. She was beginning
to understand why Kanti found the attention so irritating.

Then Kanti raised her
arms and an explosion of red flower petals burst from her palms. “Oops!” she
said with a giggle.

“It’s a trick!” Kellen
shouted angrily. “Get your heads together!”

Everyone was stunned—except
for Sanguina and Gideon, who knew what was happening. Sanguina began to run
toward the meeting point—the fountain at the center of The Horseshoe. Her hands
and feet had been tied with a strange, glowing rope, so she wasn’t moving
quickly.

One of the large Knights
chased after her, knocking Kanti to the ground in the process. Her head hit a
rock.

Chrome sped across the
green lawn and pounced on the Knight with the bow and arrow. They were a blur
of fur and fists, but knowing how much rage was fueling Chrome, Valerie wasn’t
worried about him.

Gideon turned to Kellen,
trying to swat the fairy out of the air. But he moved so quickly that even
Gideon’s lightning reflexes didn’t stand a chance. Before Valerie had even made
it to the melee, Gideon had collapsed in a strange, glittering cloud of brown dust
that had burst from Kellen’s fluttering wings.

“Get away from him!” Valerie
shouted as she launched herself at Kellen. The hum of magic was strong, but she
reached out with her mind to find Henry, who was racing toward Kanti. They
bombarded Kellen’s mind, trying to confuse and overwhelm him. But they couldn’t
sense him at all—it was as if he didn’t exist.

“You won’t get in that
way,” Kellen sneered. Valerie guessed that fairies minds must be blocked like
the Illyrians’ were.

Kellen wasn’t their only
problem. Cyrus was keeping Claremont at bay—barely—by using flashes of light to
temporarily blind her. He landed a few punches, but even without her sight, she
was much more powerful than he was.

In Henry’s mind, Valerie
could see that he was testing his ability to mentally shove Kellen the way he
had done to Ani. His magic hummed loudly, and Valerie suspected that his
protective instincts were fueling his abilities. He was standing in front of
Kanti, who was conscious but bleeding from her temple, and Valerie knew with
certainty that Henry wouldn’t let Kellen through, even if it killed him.

She saw that Sanguina
had been dragged back, and the Knight hauling her kicked her so she fell to the
ground. Once Sanguina was subdued, the Knight turned to Valerie with fierce
determination in his eyes. Next to him was Mira, who transformed himself into
Zunya again, which had the desired effect of freezing Valerie with fear. Her
lapse was all that the other Knight needed to land a stunning blow to her right
shoulder. But the resulting pain was a blessing, focusing her and flooding her
with magic.

Sanguina took the
opportunity to run again, and the large Knight growled and tackled her.

Seizing her chance,
Valerie launched herself at Mira and they collapsed to the ground. They
wrestled, shoving each other’s faces into the dirt. He managed to get on top of
her, pinning her to the ground.

“Surrender and stand
trial for the crime of treason,” Mira said, out of breath.

In response, Valerie hooked
her leg around Mira’s and experienced a guilty pleasure in seeing Zunya’s
likeness crumple to the ground. She followed up with a swift elbow to his head,
and his eyes closed. As soon as he was unconscious, Mira returned to his small
brown form, and Valerie hoped that she hadn’t caused any serious bruising. He
was only doing his job.

Without turning around, Valerie
knew that the other Knight was racing toward her. He must have restrained
Sanguina. She let her magic whisper to her, and, sensing his position, threw
herself forward while reaching up to grab the Knight. She used his momentum
against him and he tumbled over top of her head and hit the ground, hard.

Valerie was ready to
press her advantage, but that was when she realized what the Knight’s power was—he
was a Master swordsman. He drew his sword from its sheath and she barely had
time to draw Pathos before he charged her.

His dark brown eyes were
filled with anger and confusion, and Valerie’s guilt was a disadvantage,
dampening her magic. The Knight had no idea why Valerie and her friends had
attacked.

Valerie was completely
on the defensive, barely blocking each of his strikes. Still, she could see
surprise replacing some of his confusion. Her skills as a vivicus were well
known, but not everyone was aware of how well she fought.

Out of the corner of her
eye, she saw that Henry had somehow forced Kellen into the cloud of dust he had
created to incapacitate Gideon. It didn’t knock him out, but Henry appeared
safe, and was turning his attention to Cyrus and Claremont. But first, his eyes
connected with hers, and his confidence in her ability to win her battle blasted
away her guilt.

With renewed energy, Valerie
let her magic fill her. Her thrusts and parries came more quickly, and the
Knight’s muscles strained to meet her blows. Pathos flashed in the sun, and
when Valerie brought it down with all her might, the Knight’s sword shattered
under the force of her blow. He threw the useless hilt at her, and it bashed
into her forehead.

She barely registered
the pain. Instead, she let her magic guide her to use exactly the amount of
force she needed to hit the nerve beside his neck with the heel of her hand. He
collapsed to the ground, unconscious, but she knew he wouldn’t suffer much when
he woke up.

Sanguina was struggling
to her feet nearby, and Valerie helped her.

“Your sword will cut
these bonds,” Sanguina said, holding out the glowing ropes that bound her hands.

Valerie didn’t have time
to question how a sword could cut through ropes clearly laced with powerful
magic. Instead she sliced through them like they were ribbons, and they fell to
the ground, dull and powerless.

“Go to the meeting
point,” Valerie commanded.

“I can help,” Sanguina
said, and Valerie could sense how badly she wanted to participate in the fight.
Which was the very reason why she wouldn’t let her.

“No. Go now,” Valerie
commanded, picking up the sliced ropes and giving them to Sanguina. Sanguina took
the ropes and raced toward the fountain.

The worst of the fight
seemed to be over. The Knight fighting Chrome was bloody and unconscious, but
breathing. Claremont was on her knees, glaring at Henry, who was holding her
back with the telekinetic power he used against Kellen and Ani. Claremont
struggled against his invisible restraints, but his concentration was focused.
Still, Valerie came over and executed the same move she had used on the Knight
she had just defeated, and Claremont collapsed to the ground.

The cloud around Kellen
and Gideon had dispersed, and thankfully Gideon was returning to consciousness.

“You’re all traitors and
will stand trial for what you’ve done,” Kellen said, his voice filled with
rage.

“We’re not the only ones
with things to answer for,” Valerie replied. The little fairy turned a dark,
angry red, and flew away toward the Knights’ Guild.

“Let’s get out of here,”
Kanti said wearily. “We need to be gone before he gets reinforcements.”

Henry tenderly wiped
away the blood on Kanti’s temple. He shot an angry glance at the Knight Valerie
had just defeated. “I’ll make that oaf suffer for doing that to you.”

Kanti gave him a half
smile. “You’re too late. Valerie already did. Besides, it was an accident.”

Cyrus and Valerie helped
Gideon to his feet, but he still seemed unsteady. Chrome flashed an image in
her mind of the tall tree in the forest where the rest of the group was gathering
for their journey. With the permission of the People of the Woods, Chrome would
lead them to their meeting spot in Dunsinane. He raced across the courtyard and
was out of sight.

“That dude has some
serious energy to burn,” Cyrus said, staring after Chrome with wide eyes.

“Things didn’t go as
planned, but we are all accounted for?” Gideon managed to mumble.

“Yes, we’re all okay.
But what about you?” Valerie asked her mentor.

“The magic will wear off
in a few days. What happened?” Gideon asked.

“I’ll tell ya,” Cyrus
said with a big grin. “These slackers all hid in a corner, and I took on all
four of the Knights and Kellen myself. Naturally, they were quickly defeated.”

“Yeah, they didn’t stand
a chance against all that bright light. It was terrifying to behold,” Kanti
quipped.

“If you’ve found your
sarcasm, then you can’t be that hurt,” Cyrus retorted.

A knot of tension melted
in Valerie’s lower back as her friends all laughed. Aside from some bruises, the
first part of the plan had been a success. Everyone was alive, and Sanguina was
free.

They reached the fountain, where Sanguina waited for
them. Gideon pulled the stem of one of the jeweled roses, and the staircase
leading to the underground city of Plymouth opened.

The residents of
Plymouth had chosen to be shut off from the world above, and in return for
secrecy, they allowed Masters of the Guilds to travel using the Shortcut, which
was a series of clear tubes that had been enchanted to reduce the distance of
every one hundred miles to one mile.

The group sped on a
plush platform through the clear tubes toward Dunsinane. The familiar
uneasiness that always haunted Valerie when she was trapped inside turned her
knees to jelly. After all of the things she’d faced, why did this still bother
her? She twisted the Laurel Circle on her thumb, as if she could make it warmer
from the friction.

Traveling through the
clear tubes would allow them to get to Dunsinane in a matter of hours, but she
wished that she were aboveground with Chrome and the rest of their little army.
Ceru had arranged for their travel with the People of the Woods. He knew of
another ladder that would send them close to the border of Dunsinane, and if
all went according to plan they would meet in the morning.

“You’re allowed to relax
now, you know,” Cyrus said to her.

She scanned everyone’s
faces. Kanti was snuggled against Henry, and her cut was shallow. Gideon was
asleep, but he appeared peaceful. Even Sanguina appeared calm as she stared
over the edge of the platform, watching the city cut into the bedrock with wide
eyes, more human than Valerie had ever seen her.

“I can’t relax until
this is all over,” Valerie replied. “Even though we’re all okay for now,
everyone will be waiting for me to tell them what to do.”

“It’s what you were born
to do, I think,” Cyrus said.

The Laurel Circle was a
little warmer on her thumb. Maybe Cyrus was right. She must have nodded off in
spite of herself, because before she knew it, the platform was slowing,
stopping in front of a staircase that was in much worse shape than the one they
used when entering the underground city in Arden.

“We must proceed with
caution,” Gideon said. “The entrance to Dunsinane hasn’t been used in centuries
and upkeep has been neglected.”

“I’ll go first,” Valerie
said, leaving no room for debate in her voice.

To her surprise, no one,
not even Gideon, argued with her. It was simultaneously terrifying to see how
easily they accepted her authority and comforting to know that she had the
power to put their welfare ahead of her own.

Valerie climbed off the
platform and examined the staircase. There was a very low hum of magic
emanating from the top stair.