Knights of Light (The Conjurors Series Book 2) (8 page)

“I know. I think he’s
someone we would have really liked.”

He reached over to touch
her hand, but it went right through hers. He shook his head sadly.

“How are you?” she asked.

“I’m a little more tired
than usual, but a lot has been going on. And Tan has all this energy, so when I
get the body back I’m usually exhausted and I pass out.”

“I’m going to let you
rest.”

“Don’t go yet,” he said,
and she had never seen such a vulnerable look in his eyes before.

“I’ll stay till you
sleep, okay?”

He nodded, and lay back down. She lay next to him, and
he shut his eyes. She watched as his breathing slowly grew even, and wished
that she could kiss his eyelids. When at last she was satisfied that he was
peacefully asleep, she let her mind return to the Globe.

Immediately she heard a
knocking on the door, and she let Henry in. He stopped short, staring at
Kanti’s side of the room. It was painted a blue so dark it was almost black,
and was plastered with posters of Earth bands. Her bed was unmade, as if she
had just left it that morning. He walked over to her desk and ran his hands
over the cover of her journal, which had a pattern of skulls on it.

“She’s going to be okay.
I know it,” Valerie said to him.

“She has to be. I love
her, you know.”

“Of course you do. So do
I.”

“That’s not what I mean.
I’m in love with her. But I didn’t have the guts to tell her. I thought when I
was here… on the Globe… in person… that I could finally do it.”

She squeezed her
brother’s hand. “You will tell her. And I’m so happy for you. Being in love is
the best.”

“Like you and Thai?” he
said with a questioning raise of an eyebrow. She blushed. “Thought so.”

“All right, gang, let’s
get moving!” Cyrus said, coming in the open door. “I can see it falls to me to
cheer this group up. Mission accepted!”

“There’s been a change
of plans,” she said. “Henry’s going to Elsinore.”

It wasn’t hard to convince Dulcea to let
Henry visit Kanti in Elsinore. She was worried about her as well, and decided
that she would escort him personally.

“I can’t take you all,
though,” Dulcea said regretfully. “Her parents aren’t the most welcoming
people, and I’m not sure they’ll welcome us. If it’s a crowd, they’ll turn us
away for sure.”

“Actually, I have to
check in with Gideon. I promised that I would join the search for Jet,” Valerie
replied. She gave her brother a hug. “Give Kanti my love.”

“I will,” he said. With
that, he and Dulcea headed to one of the rollercoasters that led to Elsinore.
Valerie hoped he wasn’t prone to motion sickness.

“I’ll walk you to the
Knights’ Guild,” Cyrus said.

They walked through the
winding streets in companionable silence.

“So when’s the next
party here? I still can’t believe I missed the last one.”

Cyrus laughed. “There’s
nothing for a few months, but in the summer, there’s a bash that several guilds
band together to throw. It’s fun, with a play from the Actors’ Guild, and the
entire Cooking Guild brings out the latest edible creations. But nothing beats
the fireworks you missed. You’ll have to wait till next year—no going back to
Earth this time.”

“It’s a promise. Though
hopefully, a couple more people will be with us by then,” she said, thinking
that maybe Thai and Tan would be separated and able to come to the Globe in
another year.

The friendly light in
Cyrus’s eyes dimmed a little. “So you and Thai are hooking up now, huh?”

“So what if we are? You
don’t sound happy for me.”

“He’s not right for you,
Val.”

“What do you mean?”

“Right now, with the
whole Tan thing, he’s out of his element. He’s not a superstar like he was
before all this started. But once he and Tan separate, he’ll go back to being
the guy who gets the girl, is awarded the scholarship, wins the big game. What
if he wants to leave all the magic and craziness behind him?”

“You mean, what if I’m not
enough for him.”

“That’s not what I meant.
He’d be lucky to be with you. But he has a family on Earth, a life. You didn’t have
much to leave behind, and you still had to think about it before you came. It’s
going to be that much harder for Thai to say good-bye. I don’t want you to get
your heart broken.”

She was shaken by his
words. “Maybe you’re right. But I’m not sure there’s anything I can do about
protecting my heart.”

“We’re here,” he said,
stopping in front of the Guild of the Knights of Light.

She noticed the arch at
the entrance, surprised that they had already arrived. “Thanks for walking me.”

“Val…”

“It’s okay. See you
later,” she said, walking underneath the arch to the outdoor part of the
building. Suddenly weak, she sat down on a bench and watched the Knights
training. She put her hand to her chest. Her heart was pounding. Something
about Cyrus’s words rang true. What she had with Thai was too good to last.

“That ring was much more
gold when I saw you last,” Gideon said, surprising her by sitting next to her
on the bench.

The Laurel Circle was
cold and dark on her thumb. “I can’t seem to keep the fear away for long. I
used to have nothing to lose, but now there’s so much.”

“You cannot always help
the circumstances, but your reaction is entirely within your control. Fear is
part of the air we breathe, but with the right mindset, expelling it can be as
easy as exhaling.”

“I hope you’re right. I
want to start my training again right away. I don’t have much magic right now,
but it gives me an opportunity to practice my skills without it.”

“I am glad to hear you
think of it that way. You may not always have your magic, but you will have
your wits and your self-control.”

“Has there been any luck
finding Jet?”

“No. Chrome is scouring
the forest where he was last seen, but it seems to me that it is an exercise to
keep him from panic. No more will be learned there. We need a fresh
perspective.”

A little fairy buzzed
over to them, and she saw that it was Kellen, the Grand Master of the Guild. “You’re
back, excellent. We need our top recruits. But don’t expect any preferential
treatment from me. No ma’am. You’re just one of the newbies here.”

“Yes, sir, of course,”
she said, and he flew away.

Gideon shook his head. “Despite
how it may seem, he has talked of little else other than your return. He hopes
you will officially join our guild.”

She nodded. “I’m ready
to commit. I think I’ve always belonged here.”

“Then let’s begin,” he
said.

He led her to a class
forming beneath the arch, and she guessed from their ages that they were new
recruits. She was older than most of them, but there were a boy and girl around
her age.

“Are you going to train
to be the next Kellen?” the girl, who had short blonde hair and stood several
feet taller than she, asked.

“Or Azra?” a young fairy
buzzed by her ear.

“You think you’re better
than us?” the boy who was her age asked gruffly. He had red hair and assumed a
defensive stance, as if he was ready for her to insult him before she had even
opened her mouth.

“No, I—”

Perhaps today’s
exercises would best be completed silently,” Gideon interrupted. She smiled at
him gratefully.

Gideon led them through
several martial arts forms, and she grew calm as she found her natural rhythm.
The Laurel Circle warmed up a little. Afterward, they each practiced with their
chosen weapons, and Gideon led them through a series of defensive moves. She
was surprised at how heavy Pathos felt without her magic aiding her. She
promised herself that she would dedicate some time to building her physical
strength.

After practice, she
headed back to the dorm, sweaty but more at peace than she had been in a long
time. This was what she was meant to do. Hadn’t she yearned to protect people
like the knights in the legend of King Arthur? She had thought she would be on
the police force when she was on Earth, but being a part of the Guild of the
Knights of Light was even better.

She saw the gray form of
a lean wolf crossing The Horseshoe and heading toward her.

“Chrome, I’m so sorry
about Jet,” she said when he reached her side.

Images of Jet flickered
through her mind, as Chrome communicated that he had left over two weeks ago on
a special assignment in Dunsinane, and that he couldn’t find his mate’s scent
anywhere. The images were overlaid with his grief and panic, like viewing a
scene through a colored lens. Chrome was convinced that Jet had been captured by
someone powerful.

“We’re going to find
him. I have an idea that might work. Henry is developing his powers, and some
of them are psychic. I’m going to see if he can sense Jet’s mind. After all, he
found my mind even when it was a universe away.”

Chrome brushed her leg
with his body, and she understood that he was thanking her. Next, images of
faces filled her mind, the people that Chrome was suspicious of spying for the
Fractus and being a part of Jet’s disappearance.

Jet’s mission had been
top secret, and only a few of the Grand Masters knew the details. Capturing
such a powerful Conjuror as Jet would take knowledge, planning, and power.
Whoever captured him had to have connections inside Arden who had given
information about his whereabouts, strengths, and vulnerabilities. She didn’t
recognize most of Chrome’s suspects, but she saw Sanguina as well as Oberon,
the current groundskeeper on the Globe who used to be one of the Fractus.

“It can’t be him. He
left the Fractus for love, and someone capable of that doesn’t turn evil
overnight,” she said, remembering the story of the woman who had turned the
powerful Conjuror from a path of pride and obsession.

Despite her reminder of
Oberon’s past, she could sense Chrome’s deep suspicion. He sent her images of Oberon
when he was still with the Fractus, casting lightning from his hands from high
on a mountain, then towering over Chrome and hitting him in the skull and
knocking him unconscious.

The last image he sent
was of Oberon with Sanguina. Sanguina was younger, and the two stood together,
laughing. She was shaken by what she had seen.

“They were friends?” she
asked. Several more images flicked through her mind of the two of them,
sometimes with a third woman with tan skin and dark hair tied back in a tight
ponytail. This was Oberon’s love, Adelita. Valerie recognized her by the sword she
carried—Pathos. Adelita had been the last person to wield it before Valerie. She
touched it absently, checking that it was still at her side where it belonged.

“I see what you mean. Thank you for sharing this with
me.” He brushed her side again, and then turned and headed into the woods.

The next few weeks went by quickly.
Valerie communicated with Henry every day through an enchanted mirror that hung
in Dulcea’s room. Kanti was unchanged, and Henry was pale, but he still had
hope in his eyes. Valerie trained intensively with the Knights, and her magic
slowly began to return, like a puddle in the core of her being. She couldn’t
get used to being stopped on the streets by people who wanted to meet her, but
at the Knights’ Guild, they were beginning to adjust to her and she wasn’t
constantly in the spotlight.

Every night she visited
Thai, and even though she couldn’t touch him, it was the best part of her day.

“What you’ve got to do
is interview Chrome’s suspects,” he suggested one night. “You’re really
intuitive when it comes to understanding people. Maybe interacting with them
will give you some clues.”

She shuddered a little. “My
biggest suspect is Sanguina. But I don’t want to go near her.”

“I don’t get it. Why are
Azra and the other Guild Masters even letting her live in Arden?”

“She used to be very
powerful in the Guardians of the Boundary Guild—they’re the ones who defend the
barrier between Earth and the Globe,” she explained. “Supposedly she’s being
very useful in helping to block any Fractus who are projecting to Earth. But I
think the real reason is that everyone feels guilty for abandoning her after
Zunya turned her into a vampyre. And now that she’s back to her old self, they
want to let bygones be bygones.”

“Never mind that she
mentally tortured a kid!” Thai said indignantly.

“Don’t get me started.”

“I have an idea. Why
don’t you talk to Midnight and see what she thinks?” Midnight was the Grand
Master of the Guardians of the Boundary, and the Conjuror who had coached Thai
through his adjustment to magic.

“Don’t you think it
would be a little weird, showing up and asking her twenty questions?”

“It’s a heck of a lot
safer than talking to Sanguina. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“She could send me back
to Earth,” she joked.

“And would that be so
bad?” he said, and his eyes locked on hers and turned her brain to mush.

“No,” she whispered
softly. “I think I could live with that.” He touched the air next to her face,
and she could swear she felt warmth on her cheek. She drew in a breath.

“Night,” he said,
finally breaking his gaze.

She returned to the Globe, but her head was still in
the clouds.

She decided to take
Thai’s advice. The next day, she and Cyrus left the dorm to find Midnight.

“It’s good to be on
another adventure with you,” he said with a mischievous wiggle of his eyebrows.

“This is serious!” she
insisted, but she couldn’t help sharing his excitement.

They exchanged theories
about who the spy could be as they walked to the sweeping building that housed
the Guardians of the Boundary. Once they were there, she was struck again by
the magnificent structure, which reached up to the sky like a white cathedral.
Inside was just as she remembered it, with muted light through stained glass
exuding peace.

Cyrus led her up an
elegant, winding staircase to a dark wood door engraved with a crest of two
crossed swords. He knocked in a strange rhythm—knock, knock, KNOCK, knock
knock.

“It’s a code,” he
explained with a smile. “Midnight always makes time to see the kids from the
Society of Imaginary Friends who visit to tell her about Sightings of Fractus
on Earth, but sometimes she doesn’t answer for anyone else. She gave us the
knock so she’d know it’s important.”

Midnight opened the door
to an elegant office with a huge wooden desk, a blazing fire in a stone hearth,
and a globe of Earth that was spinning slowly. Magic had made cloud patterns
appear to be floating across Earth, like an image from space.

Midnight saw her staring
and explained, “It’s a true reflection of Earth at this exact time. I can zoom
in anywhere and view what’s happening in a specific location.”

“That is so cool,” she
said, shaking her head.

Midnight smiled, and
Valerie noticed that she had cut her purple hair short. It made her look
younger, though her violet eyes still had the ageless quality to them that she
remembered.

“I hope you’re here to
join us as a recruit,” Midnight said.

Valerie shook her head. “I’m
sorry, but I apprenticed to the Guild of the Knights of Light. I love what you
do here, but somehow I think that’s where I belong.”

Midnight nodded her head
briskly and hid the disappointment that flashed through her eyes. “So what
brings you here?”

Valerie was
uncomfortable. Cyrus must have sensed her hesitation, because he jumped in. “We’re
worried about Sanguina. We’ve heard there might be a spy in one of the guilds,
and there’s every reason to think it could be her.”

Midnight nodded
thoughtfully and gestured to several elegant chairs by the fire that were
upholstered in rich red velvet. They all sat down, and she said, “I can
understand your concern, given what she put you and your brother though.”

Valerie was surprised
that Midnight knew her history so well.

“Azra explained the
situation to me after you vanished from the Black Castle,” she said. “I had
guessed as much already, because one of the few loopholes to return to Earth is
for blood to call blood.”

When blood calls
blood, answer its thrumming call…
Valerie
knew the words of the prophecy she had received when she had first come to the
Globe, but she had never considered that the Guardians might also know that a
way existed for someone to return to Earth.

“But you don’t think
Sanguina’s the spy?” Cyrus said impatiently.

“I do not, but all of
the Grand Masters are still very careful about what we reveal to her.”

“Did she know about
Jet’s mission?” Valerie asked.

“Not as far as I know. No
one in this guild informed her. Sanguina seems to be genuinely trying to piece
her life back together. I once thought she would be my successor as the next
Guardians’ Grand Master when I retire, but of course, that can no longer be.
However, she has been helpful to me.”

“How so?”

“We are trying to find a
way to create a second shield that would protect Earth from anyone on the Globe
who tries to return in case the original seal is breached. It is a complicated
puzzle, and she is helping us to find a solution. It is the only way to protect
the humans from the threat that is coming.”

An image of Zaki’s blood
in the hot spring suddenly flashed through Valerie’s mind, and tears stung her
eyes. The Fractus were capable of anything.

Midnight lay her hand on
top of Valerie’s. “We will protect the humans. I swear it,” she said.

“Thank you,” Valerie said, unable to choke out
anything more.

On the way down the
stairs outside of the guild, she turned to Cyrus. “I guess that’s one person we
can check off our list of suspects.”

“Sanguina.”

“Exactly.”

“No, I mean she’s here,”
Cyrus said, and he stepped in front of her protectively.

But Valerie pushed past
him. Without even registering a conscious thought, Pathos was in her hand.
Sanguina caught sight of her and started to draw her own weapon from the sheath
at her side, but then stopped and released it.

“Sorry,” she said. “Old
habits.” Her voice didn’t have the same screech to it that Valerie remembered
from her nightmares. She even appeared different, a little older with fine
wrinkles around her eyes, but the network of purple veins in her skin had faded.
She didn’t look like a monster anymore, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t
still one in every way that mattered.

Valerie marched past
her, determined not to let her enemy see how shaken she was. But she was only a
step away when Sanguina’s hand touched her arm. Her magic surged up within her,
and she grabbed Sanguina’s wrist and hurtled her over her shoulder. She landed
on her back, groaning.

“Remind me never to
sneak up on you. I should have known. You’re just like—” she hesitated. “There’s
something I’ve wanted to talk to you about for a long time now. Alone.”

“No way,” Cyrus said,
his usually warm blue eyes icy.

“There’s nothing you
can’t say in front of Cyrus. He’s my best friend.”

She nodded. “You might
want to sit down for this.”

“I’d rather stand.”

Sanguina shook her head
in exasperation, but she had a little smile on her face. “How could I have
missed it?” she said to herself. Then her face turned serious. “Right before
you saved my life, I realized—”

“Ahem,” a little cough
came from a nearby bush.

“What the heck?” Cyrus
said. He looked behind the shrub and then dragged out Chern, who was beet red.

“G-goodness me, so
s-sorry.”

Sanguina turned pale. “We
can continue this later,” she said, and then disappeared through the silver
doors of the Guardians’ Guild. Valerie shrugged, unsure if she wanted there to
be a “later.”

“Were you listening?”
Cyrus asked Chern indignantly.

He shifted his weight
from foot to foot. “I didn’t mean to—I try to avoid that freak. Very dangerous.
When I heard you talking to her, I didn’t want to cross her path.” His hands
began to tremble.

“It’s okay, don’t worry
about it,” Valerie said, seeing his obvious agitation.

“I’m glad I found you,”
he said. “Something has been worrying me. I saw Darling a few days ago, and he seemed
sick. I tried to help him, but he scampered away. I don’t know how to find him,
but I’m afraid something might be wrong after visiting Earth. That was
certainly strange.”

“Yes, it was,” she said,
unaccountably uncomfortable as she remembered that he had witnessed Darling
healing Ming. “What makes you think he isn’t well?”

“It was just an
impression. He wasn’t his usual happy self.”

Cyrus shrugged, and she
could see that he thought it was probably just Chern’s paranoia at work. But
she owed so much to Darling; she had to follow up on the warning.

“I have no idea how to
find him,” she said.

“You reached out to him
with your mind before, maybe you should try again,” Chern suggested.

She concentrated, but he
didn’t appear. “When he came, it was because I needed his help.”

“There’s a little
Conjuror with a broken leg. He’s in the Healers’ Guild, but it’s a complicated
fracture, and it will take some time for him to get better,” Chern said.

“How do you know that?”
Cyrus asked.

“The Master Healer,
Nightingale, is a close friend. He asked if I had heard of any techniques used
in the past to help with this kind of injury.”

A tingling in her mind
suggested that something wasn’t right. Maybe Chern was right, and Darling was
in trouble. Now that she was focusing her mind on him, it seemed like her
discomfort was increasing.

“Let’s go,” she said.

Inside the Healers’ Guild,
it was very quiet and peaceful. Low music played with a complicated, haunting
melody from an instrument that she couldn’t place. All of the Healer
apprentices walked quietly and spoke softly. They were lucky that it was
visiting hours when they arrived.

“We’re here to visit
little Emin in the children’s ward,” Chern said. Without questioning him, they
were led to the bedside of a boy with dark skin that had a gold cast to it that
reminded her of Elden. Was he one of the People of the Woods, and if so, why he
was living in Silva?

“Hi, Chern! Who’re these
guys?” the boy chirped in a high, musical voice.

“They’re my friends,
Valerie and Cyrus. They want to see if they can help you get better.”

Valerie sat on the side
of his bed. He smiled cheerfully, but when she came closer, she could see the
shadows under his eyes. He hadn’t been sleeping, and his face had the drawn
look she recognized from the children in her hospital who were really sick.

Nightingale appeared at
the doorway. He was green, with long ears and sharp teeth that could be a
little frightening at first glance, but he had nursed her carefully when she
had been badly beaten by Sanguina all those months ago. She was a little
ashamed that she was so uncomfortable in his presence.

“How are you, Emin?” he
asked. “Is the pain lessening today?”

“A little,” he said,
wincing as Nightingale pulled back the bandage to examine the wound. It was red
and puffy, as if it were infected. He put some ointment on it and rewrapped it.

“I’d call Azra for help
with this one, but she is not in Arden,” Nightingale said, to Valerie’s
surprise. She knew that Azra was planning to visit leaders in other countries
to talk to them about the threats that were arising, but she didn’t know that
she had left already.

A sudden stab of concern
for Emin gripped her heart. He was really hurt. What if she couldn’t call
Darling? What if—