Edge of Pathos (The Conjurors Series Book 4)

by Kristen Pham

  “I’ll stay with you for a while, if that’s okay,” Thai whispered as they headed to Valerie’s home.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “This is what I want, too,” Thai said. “I miss having all my brothers and sisters around to watch out for.”

  “Taking care of Emin will be good for Henry, too,” Valerie said.

  They’d reached Valerie’s house, and she gave Emin some of her dad’s tea and tucked him into her own bed.

  “You can stay in my dad’s room,” Valerie said to Thai as she shut the door to her room quietly behind her.

  “Are you sure?” Thai asked. “I’m fine with the couch.”

  “Take it. Make this your home here on the Globe,” Valerie said, turning so he wouldn’t see her blush.

  She was about to scrounge for something to eat for dinner when the ground began to rumble. She knew what this was.

  “Earthquake,” she said, and the trembling grew stronger.

  “They have earthquakes on the Globe?” Thai asked.

  “I don’t know,” Valerie said, gripping the side of a table.

  Books started falling off of shelves, and the teapot clattered to the floor. Valerie made her way back to the door to her room to check on Emin, but the shaking stopped. She peeked into her room, anyway, but he was still asleep.

  Valerie’s sixth sense was going off.

  “This wasn’t an ordinary earthquake, if they even have those on the Globe,” she said.

  Thai nodded. “It’s the Fractus.”

  “I’m going to see what Skye knows about this. Besides, it’s Henry’s night to be home. I know it’s a lot to ask, but can you watch them both? Emin’s grieving and Henry is lost. I’m scared he might try to hurt himself, especially after watching Reaper kill Cerise.”

  “I’ll take care of them both,” Thai said. “Go save the universe for a while, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Valerie gave him a lopsided smile and left before she started kissing him, because then, she’d never be able to leave.

  The Horseshoe was alive with Conjurors leaving their guilds to identify the source of the earthquake. Valerie noticed that the grass everyone gathered on was green again. Thanks to Willa, the drought was over. She was distracted from her thoughts at the sight of Skye galloping toward her.

  “It’s coming from Plymouth,” he said, halting when he reached her side. “Tiny rumblings have been coming from below the ground for days, but I did not alert you since we had no news of what was causing the problem. But after today’s quake, we must consider that the Fractus have had a major success.”

  “Or failure,” Valerie said. “Maybe something collapsed underground.”

  Skye snorted in disbelief, and Valerie agreed with him. The very air around them hummed with power. It made her queasy. The magic seemed twisted, somehow.

  Valerie stared at the ruined fountain that marked the entrance to the underground world of Plymouth, and saw that giant cracks had appeared in the hardened black substance that had spewed from the fountain after the ceasefire with the Fractus had ended.

  “We have been trying every magical means to access Plymouth since the Fractus shut us out, to no avail. But today, the loud Conjuror from the Literary Guild who built the irrigation system found me and announced that she knows of a way that we can enter Plymouth.”

  “Willa knows a secret entrance?” Valerie asked.

  Skye tossed his mane with a huff. “Nothing so dignified. I will let her explain, since the science eludes me, I confess. I’m always suspicious of scientific techniques that work where magic has failed, but I’ll let you be the judge.”

  Valerie suppressed a smile at Skye’s prejudice against science and followed him to Willa’s Guild. They found her in the library at a table with three other Conjurors. Her eyes lit up when she saw Valerie.

  “Being raised human, you’ll appreciate that we have a non-magical answer to our Plymouth problem.”

  “What are you thinking? A drill? Maybe a giant excavator?” Valerie asked, trying to remember what construction equipment on Earth would be used to dig into the ground.

  Willa and the Conjurors stared, looking at her as if she’d spoken in another language. Finally, Willa spoke.

  “You must tell us about these devices some time. They sound fascinating, but I do not think we have these items on the Globe. However, we do have dynamite,” she said with a smile.

  “That works, too,” Valerie said. “But it’s dangerous, and I’m guessing that we don’t have any experts on explosives to help us.”

  The Conjuror sitting next to Willa, a man wearing glasses, spoke up.

  “I’m Messina-born, and while we do not mine with dynamite on the island, I am very familiar with the technology. I taught a class at the university on explosives,” he said.

  “This is Steven,” Willa said. “He left Messina five years ago when he found out the Literary Guild existed in Arden.”

  “The thought of all that knowledge that we don’t have access to in Messina… I couldn’t die without seeing it,” Steven said.

  “I don’t like this,” Skye said. “This man could end up killed if his theories are incorrect.”

  Steven drew himself up. “I would gladly die for the Fist. The Fractus will destroy us all if we are unwilling to take risks in this war.”

  Skye appeared taken-aback, and he gave Steven a nod of respect.

  “Perhaps you are right,” Skye said.

  Now everyone looked at Valerie for guidance. She swallowed, wishing that she could talk to her dad, or Gideon, about what to do next. Aside from risking Steven’s life, what if creating an opening into Plymouth unleashed all of that evil Carne magic below? It could create havoc in Arden. But leaving the Fractus to their own devices might be even worse.

  “Let’s blast our way in,” Valerie said, and Willa and Steven smiled. “But first, Willa, do you have any maps of Plymouth in this library? Because we don’t want any of the civilians on the ground down there getting hurt.”

  “Excellent question,” Willa said, pulling out a stack of maps from beneath the books on the table. “Yes.”

  The preparation to break in to Plymouth went through the afternoon and into the night. Finally, they had hammered out a plan that Valerie was satisfied with, and everyone left to get some sleep before they made their attempt. Skye accompanied Valerie on their way out of the Literary Guild.

  The centaur was pawing at the ground, a sign of Skye’s uncertainty that Valerie had come to recognize.

  “What is it? Do you think the plan needs more work?” she asked him.

  “Plans always need more work, but there’s never time. It’s fine as it is. The only part that I don’t like is that you’ll be going in. It’s too risky. We need you,” Skye said.

  “I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think it was important. I don’t want to throw my life away,” Valerie said, thinking of her brother. “I go wherever the work is the hardest, because that’s where the leader of the Fist should be, don’t you think?”

  Skye bowed his head, a centaur gesture of respect. “I question many things in this war, vivicus, but never that you should lead it. And every day, you give me more reasons to continue following you.”

  Valerie briefly rested her hand on Skye’s flank before turning her steps to the dorm of The Society of Imaginary Friends.

  When she reached the tall blue building, she couldn’t help thinking about all of the times she’d seen Dulcea flying down the side on a platform. She shook her head to clear it of cobwebs and jumped on a platform that would take her to Kanti’s floor.

  The room was exactly as Kanti had left it, but without her friend, it was lonely. Valerie brushed her teeth and collapsed in her old bed for a few hours, until the sun hit her face, waking her up.

  Even though her sleep had been short, she was running late. Still, she dragged her feet as she faced her next task. She took the platform up to Cyrus’s room. Seeing Cyrus would make their lost friendshi
p more real, and knowing that the sight of her brought him misery made her want to crawl into a dark corner and never emerge.

  While the average eighteen-year-old might have the luxury of hiding, she didn’t, so she knocked on the door and forced herself to stand straighter.

  Cyrus answered, rubbing his eyes, but he tensed when he saw her face.

  “I need you for a mission. I wouldn’t have come if there was anyone else who could help,” she said.

  “I know, Val,” Cyrus said, his tone weary. “Where are we going?”

  Chapter 24

  By the time Valerie and Cyrus made it to the glade a few miles outside of Silva, Steven and Willa had already set up the dynamite and were ready to blow a hole into Plymouth.

  “Ready?” Valerie asked Steven. Steven nodded. “Then light the fuse.”

  Steven snapped his fingers and a flame appeared. But before she could ponder exactly what Steven’s power was, the little flame raced along the cable to the dynamite, which exploded and sent a mist of dirt and rocks everywhere.

  Willa jogged over to the hole in the ground.

  “It’s here, right where the map said!” she exclaimed, tugging at a rusty wheel on the outside of an ancient door beneath the ground.

  “It must have been buried when the residents of Plymouth, the Groundlings, decided to cut off ties with the world above. Reminds me a little of Messina,” Steven said. “We tried to cut off contact by being on an island.”

  “Do the Groundlings refuse to use magic, as well?” Cyrus asked.

  “The opposite,” Willa said. “They are a people who revere magic as a religion.”

  “Then hopefully, they won’t want it to be polluted by the Fractus,” Valerie said.

  She used her strength to twist the wheel, and the door creaked open. She pulled it wide enough that she and Cyrus could fit through.

  “Let’s go,” she said, and she and Cyrus stepped into the darkness.

  “We’ll make sure no one follows you in,” Willa’s voice floated behind them.

  Inside, it was completely dark until Valerie felt magic hum from Cyrus. Light spilled from his hands, illuminating a cavern that was studded with gemstones of many different colors.

  “Beautiful,” Valerie whispered.

  Cyrus touched a red gem, and the light from his hands made it glow. Then the light spread, jumping from stone to stone. Now the cavern was filled with multi-colored lights of blue, green, red, and purple. The muted light reminded Valerie of sunlight pouring through stained glass.

  “Not a bad trick,” Cyrus said with his old, cocky grin. “Not one that every lightweaver would be able to manage, I might add.”

  “No one but you would dream up such a unique use of your power, even if they could manage the magic,” Valerie said, and Cyrus’s grin widened. “Now let’s get moving before your head grows too big to fit inside here.”

  Cyrus gave her a playful shove, and Valerie flashed him a surprised smile. It was like old times, until Cyrus’s grin vanished.

  “It can never be like it was,” he said, as if he could read her mind, and then he began jogging down the hall.

  For a long time, they walked, not speaking, and Valerie began to worry that they’d taken a wrong turn, or that the maps that Willa had given them were outdated.

  But finally, they heard the distant murmur of voices, echoes of people talking or shouting.

  “Over here,” Cyrus said, waving her over.

  Valerie went to his side and saw that he’d found an opening in the wall the size of a window. She peeked through it and saw a city spread below them. There were homes carved out of the bedrock, magnificent stone structures that were elaborately detailed with columns, pillars, winding staircases, and soaring arches.

  Despite being underground, the city wasn’t dark. Orbs of light were suspended throughout the city in nooks and crannies. They hummed with power, and Valerie suspected they were powered by magic. Blankets of green moss gave the impression of well-trimmed lawns, and instead of real flowers, elaborate blooms cut from gemstones decorated windowsills and gave life to the little parks that dotted the city.

  The people were short and pale, but not out-of-the-ordinary. Certainly, in a diverse city like Arden, they wouldn’t be out of place, but even on Earth, they could pass for human, as long as they hid their hair, which shone in jewel tones that could never be achieved with human hair dye.

  “The Fractus must be close by,” Cyrus said. “Everyone’s scared.”

  Valerie had been dazzled by the beauty of the underground city, but now that she examined the people, she saw how quickly they moved through the streets, glancing around as if they were expecting to be jumped.

  Her eyes scanned the city, and she saw that there was a river running through the middle. She remembered from her earlier visits to the city that there were beautiful streams in Plymouth that children had splashed in.

  But now, the turquoise waters were muddied, and farther upstream, the water was black.

  “There,” Valerie said, pointing to a group of about a hundred tents. They were set up next to where the stream disappeared into a cave in the bedrock. The water that poured out of the opening was like ink.

  “We have to get closer,” Cyrus said. “I won’t be able to tell anything about the water down here, where it’s completely diluted.”

  Valerie nodded and scanned her map.

  “There should be stairs cut into the wall around here where we can descend, but once we’re on the ground, we’ll have to try to blend in,” she said.

  “Maybe the Groundlings will assume we’re Fractus, and vice versa,” Cyrus said hopefully.

  Valerie found a rough ladder carved into the wall, and she began descending, testing each groove before putting her weight on it. She reached the ground and looked around to see if anyone has spotted their descent, but they were in shadow. There were no orbs of light to give away their entry into the city.

  “I think we should move fast,” Valerie said. “Let’s not give anyone time to ask questions.”

  With unspoken agreement, they followed the stream. Cyrus occasionally dipped a finger in. The farther they went, the more Valerie noticed a deep humming that rattled her core.

  “That hum is coming from the river, isn’t it?” she asked Cyrus.

  “Yep. It reminds me of the magic in Reaper’s black weapons, but slipperier, somehow,” he said.

  Before Valerie could ask him what he meant, they passed a house and almost ran into a boy and girl playing with different colored gemstones, tossing them on the ground in some kind of game. They both froze when they saw Cyrus and Valerie.

  “Sorry,” the little girl said, her pale face turning even paler. “Please let us go. We won’t leave our house again.”

  “It’s okay. We won’t hurt you. We’re not with them,” Valerie said, gesturing downstream to the tents.

  “We’re the good guys,” Cyrus added, and both kids grinned when he raised his eyebrows dramatically.

  “Then can you help everyone they’ve taken?” the little boy asked.

  “They’ve got our dad and our aunt,” the girl explained.

  “Got them where?” Valerie asked, searching the tents for any signs of captives.

  “They took them into the cave where the river flows from, and we haven’t seen them since,” the girl said.

  “We’ll help,” Valerie promised, not missing the sharp look Cyrus gave her.

  They continued to follow the river.

  “I thought we were here strictly to gather information on what the Fractus are up to,” Cyrus said. “Judging by how many tents there are, there are too many Fractus to fight, even for you.”

  Valerie was distracted, squinting as she tried to make out what the activity was at the mouth of the river.

  “Of course, intel only. I remember,” she said, and then put her finger to her lips.

  They’d reached the tent city, and it was mostly abandoned.

  “Everyone must be in
there,” Cyrus said, peering in the cave. “I can check the river water out here, and we’ll head out before they’re back, if we’re lucky.”

  They hurried to the river, where the water ran the darkest. While Cyrus tested how light reacted to the black Carne staining the water, Valerie moved closer to the cave.

  She could make out the sounds of people shouting instructions, and the occasional grunt. Being so far beneath the ground gave her goose bumps if she thought about it too long, and she couldn’t imagine how much worse it must be for the people in the cave.

  “Val! I’m done!” Cyrus called.

  Valerie was peeking in the cave, unable to help herself. That was when she heard a scream of pain. Her reaction then was pure instinct.

  She launched herself into the darkness, barely registering Cyrus cursing as he followed her in. He illuminated the darkness, and Valerie saw Fractus everywhere, clearly identifiable by the black weapons they carried. They were standing over a crowd of Groundlings, who were on their hands and knees, scraping a substance off the walls that was dark and sticky, reminding Valerie of blood.

  Everyone froze, staring toward the light Cyrus had created, and Valerie took advantage of the pause to start attacking.

  The first four Fractus she took down didn’t know what had hit them, but after that, weapons were drawn. She unsheathed Pathos in a blaze of light.

  “Cyrus, take the Groundlings out of here!” she shouted.

  Then she turned back to the Fractus.

  “I’m Valerie Diaz. You know who I am. Who wants to drag me back to Reaper as your prisoner?” she taunted.

  Her words had the desired effect. The Fractus turned their attention to her, their eyes gleaming in Pathos’s light. The Groundlings were quick to take advantage of Valerie’s distraction, and they scurried to the exit of the cave, where Cyrus ushered them out.

  Valerie gave in to her magic then, and it was a kind of bliss, fighting with pure instinct, moving as fast as she could to deflect attacks. The black weapons of her enemies were a blur of metal, and she couldn’t distinguish faces in the dim light.

  After a time, part of her brain registered that most, if not all, of the Groundlings had made it out of the cave. She made eye contact with Cyrus.