by Kristen Pham
Instead of taking the roller coasters to the edge of Arden, Cerise allowed them access to the cities in the trees. She led them up the trunk of an inconspicuous tree near the Lake of Knowledge, and they quickly clambered up. At the top, instead of a thriving city, they found a network of branches that formed bridges between trees, but no other signs of life.
“Where are we?” Cyrus asked. “This isn’t Arbor Aurum, but it can’t be far away.”
“Distance in the trees has been spelled to be larger in some places and smaller in others,” Cerise explained, and then sealed her mouth as if she regretted sharing the information.
“Sort of like the Shortcut in Plymouth,” Cyrus said, naming the underground city where they had traveled in the past.
“How do you manage that? Doesn’t it take powerful magic?” Kanti asked.
“Enough questions. The secrets of the People of the Woods are not yours for the taking,” Cerise said, but the harshness of her words was softened by her obvious pride in their amazement.
Behind her, Gideon looked like he was struggling to repress a smile, and Valerie knew he would have answered Kanti’s and Cyrus’s questions if Cerise hadn’t been there.
As they traveled, Valerie shared her plan for how to remove Putrefus and his friends from power. She didn’t think Putrefus would have the means to fight a physical battle, so she planned to set up one of the buildings as a makeshift jail. They would split up in groups of three according to their complementary powers and approach the major buildings in the Roaming City. Then they would forcibly take Putrefus and his friends prisoner.
Oberon brought a charm that could be placed on a dwelling to lock those they wanted to capture inside. The Oracles could try them and determine sentences on their own.
Cerise led them expertly along the winding paths and stopped at a platform with a view of the desert.
“Let’s hope it’s as easy to find the Roaming City as it was to get to the desert,” Henry said. “Is our need great enough?”
“I don’t think Sibyl would have asked us to come if she didn’t think we would find the city,” Valerie said, and then she stepped off the platform and into the desert.
Her feet had barely touched the ground when she saw the outline of the Roaming City in the distance. She’d not found it so quickly on her previous visits, and her heart rate sped up. Their need must be strong, indeed, for the city to appear without any searching.
“I always dreamed of seeing this place someday, but I never believed I would,” Juniper said as he landed beside her. His eyes were wide as he took in the low, simple huts in the distance.
Valerie squinted, and she could see that one of the pillars that surrounded the pool of water at the edge of the city had been toppled over.
“Is there any way to approach without being seen from miles away?” she asked Gideon and Oberon.
Gideon shook his head. “The tactic I recommend is to approach swiftly. There can be no element of surprise.”
Oberon nodded in confirmation.
“Let’s go,” Valerie said, even though the back of her neck prickled apprehensively. The Roaming City was empty, without the bustling of Oracles in their long robes to give it life. Despite the fact that many were likely hiding, something still seemed amiss about the absolute stillness. Without thinking, she drew Pathos from its sheath.
They had barely reached the pool when Valerie saw that the light around them was refracting strangely. Little rainbows appeared everywhere, like shining light through a crystal.
That’s when she smelled unwashed bodies and heard a low muttering that seemed to come from the air around her. Her magic leaped to the surface, and she embraced it.
“The invisible Fractus are here!” she managed to shout before an arm crashed down on her back with enough force to bring her to her knees.
She had fought these Fractus before and knew that they were breakable.
“Dad, see if you can kick up some dust so we can see who we’re fighting,” Valerie managed to gasp as she recovered from the blow.
Her friends were just behind her, and the breakable Fractus set upon them. She heard Juniper grunt as a fist hit his gut. He lashed out with a Knight’s speed and threw off his invisible attacker.
Oberon’s face darkened, and the wind picked up, blowing dust everywhere. As she had hoped, the sand in the wind showed the indistinct forms of the Fractus, lessening the power of their invisibility.
Listening for movement, Valerie let her instincts guide her and caught a wrist in her grasp. It was hard, like glass, and she threw the Fractus over her shoulder. She had barely dispatched her attacker before she heard a grunt to her left. She lashed out with a kick that she estimated would hit her new attacker’s chest, and heard a satisfying crunch that let her know her blow had landed.
Henry, Cyrus, and Kanti fought together, fighting off their attackers to the best of their ability. A blow hit Henry in the face. Cyrus held out his hands, and light shot out of them brightly. The Fractus who was attacking must have been blinded, because Kanti kicked the breakable that had hit Henry and let out a little yelp of triumph.
Gideon and Chrome had no trouble taking on the invisible Fractus, attuned as they were to using senses other than sight to locate and disable their attackers.
Even Cerise held her own, calling forth vines from the barren desert sand to wind around the Fractus and pin them to the ground, where Oberon quickly dealt a stunning blow.
Valerie had begun to think that they would win the fight when the doors to the huts opened, and Oracles in different colored robes spilled out into the sunlight.
“They’re armed!” Valerie cried as she continued to turn and weave in order to evade the endless stream of blows that were glancing off of her back and arms.
She caught a glimpse of Putrefus in his violet robe, wielding his sword wildly. His companions seemed equally inexperienced with their weapons.
“Elle, Will! Now!” Valerie shouted. Then she made eye contact with Gideon and Chrome. “Focus on disabling the Oracles.”
Elle and Will were hiding behind the fallen pillar by the pool, staying out of the fray. Neither had any training or skill in fighting, but their magic would still be invaluable. Valerie knew the moment that they used their psychic powers to confuse the minds of their enemies, because the constant rain of attacks on her body was more sporadic.
Gideon and Chrome moved strategically, taking full advantage of the Empaths’ distraction to move past the line of dusty forms to the advancing group of Oracles. Chrome leapt upon the first Oracle, and Gideon aimed for a pressure point in his neck that made him collapse. They were an efficient team, and the Oracles fell like dominoes.
“Run!” a high, shrill voice made Valerie look up.
Sibyl fluttered above them, flying as swiftly as her dark wings would carry her. “There are more coming, and they can’t be fought!”
“Who’s coming?” Valerie asked, but before Sibyl could answer, an invisible hand snatched her out of the air, and her tiny body was slammed against the ground hard. Her childlike form lay on the ground like a broken doll.
Valerie tapped into her magical reserves, and she moved faster than she would have thought possible. She rolled to dodge a blow from an invisible fist and then ducked beneath the knife of a snarling Oracle. She reached Sibyl’s side an instant before a fist would have smashed into her skull.
She pulled Sibyl close, shielding her from attacks with her body.
“More Fractus. They’ll take your power. Run,” Sibyl said weakly.
Valerie squinted as something in the distance moved closer, and then understood what Sibyl was trying to tell her. A gang of young boys who had been hideously mutilated by Reaper and Zunya were coming silently down the streets. Black stitches marked their throats, and their eyes were white and blank. They didn’t carry weapons because they didn’t need any.
Instead, they opened their mouths, and Valerie’s power was siphoned away. Only Gideon would be able t
o fight off the boys effectively because he did not channel magic, and no matter how skilled a fighter he was, there was no way he could take on the now formidable group of Fractus that had assembled.
“Fall back!” Valerie cried. “Cerise, lead us to the trees!”
No one hesitated to follow her instructions. Valerie continued to fight as her team rushed past her, using Pathos to knock weapons from her attackers’ hands. There was no way she was leaving anyone behind. When Oberon, who was the farthest away when she had shouted, reached her side, she began racing away, too, cradling Sibyl in her arms.
As she made her way through the sand, she knew that the Fractus boys were advancing, because a screaming pain seared through her bones as her little reserve of magic was ripped away. There wasn’t much magic left for them to take, and soon they were draining her energy, her very life, which was even worse. Next to her, Oberon stumbled, and she gripped his elbow to keep him from falling.
The tree line seemed far away, but Sibyl’s quick, shallow breathing against her chest stopped Valerie from giving in to her exhaustion. Finally, it was as if they had burst through the range that the boys’ magic could reach, and Valerie was able to breathe again.
Her legs moved faster, and next to her, Oberon gained color in his face. When they reached the forest, Valerie had to force herself not to collapse to the ground, like she wanted to.
Instead, she followed Cerise deeper into the woods, and then up a tree to safety. As soon as she reached the top, Valerie’s eyes scanned over her friends, searching for signs of injury.
Bruises were already beginning to swell on almost everyone, and Henry cradled his arm in a way that made Valerie guess that it was broken. Several of them were bleeding, herself included. But no one seemed dangerously injured other than Sibyl, whose eyes were shut.
“We have to get her to a Healer,” Valerie said. Sibyl was tiny and frail in her arms, and both of her wings were torn. The Oracle had always seemed powerful, larger than her size, but broken as she was, it was like holding a little child.
Elle shook her head. “We won’t make it in time. She has internal bleeding.”
Valerie didn’t question how she knew that. “What about the fairies? Can’t they help her?”
Oberon examined Sibyl. “She is half fairy, half human. Their magic will not help the human part of her.”
Valerie nodded and drew in a breath, ready to call upon her power as a vivicus to save Sibyl.
“Daughter, wait. It isn’t safe. With the dark dust in your system, you may do more damage to your friend than good,” Oberon said.
“I won’t let her die,” Valerie said, her voice fierce.
“What about Darling?” Cyrus said, kneeling beside her. “Call for him. I don’t know if it’s because you’re both vivicus, but for some reason, when you need him, he always comes.”
Valerie thought of her little friend, wishing that she didn’t have to pull him into more danger. The thought had barely crossed her mind when he appeared, a gleaming ball of golden fur.
Darling sprang into her arms, and all of her minor aches and pains eased.
“Don’t waste your energy on me,” Valerie said, but Darling smiled and gave a little twirl. His eyes sparkled, and Valerie was glad to see that he had fully recovered since she had seen him last after they had rescued him from the Black Castle. His hair was a little shorter than it had been before Reaper had taken it, but he was as full of life as he had been when she first met him.
Darling scampered over to Sibyl as if he immediately sensed who needed him the most. Her breaths came unevenly now, and her eyelids flickered as if she were dreaming. He burrowed next to her, and his heart glowed red. Every other time Darling had healed someone, they had recovered right away. But Sibyl didn’t move.
The light in Darling’s chest faded, and then glowed again. He whimpered, and Sibyl sucked in a deep breath. Her eyes opened, and she saw Darling at her side.
“I am sorry, vivicus,” Sibyl whispered to Darling, cradling him in her arms. “I have taken too much from you.”
Valerie leaned closer and saw that Darling’s fur was dull. His eyelids drooped, and he didn’t so much as twitch when Valerie took him from Sibyl’s arms.
The faintest red glow still shone from his chest, and Valerie reached out with her mind, like she did when she connected with Henry. With his defenses lowered, she caught a glimpse of the inside of his head and couldn’t prevent a gasp from escaping.
Darling had no clear understanding of who he was. He was a creature of pure feeling, drawn to pain like a magnet, determined to heal it. Even now, exhausted as he was, he would have gone to Henry to heal his arm if he had been able to. It was as if Darling was absorbing everyone else’s physical and mental suffering. His life was one mad dash from trauma to trauma, and every time he failed to save someone, it was torment.
Tears rolled down Valerie’s cheeks for the life that Darling lived. Since he could heal himself as well as others, this could be his life for eternity. She saw that there were moments of peace and joy when he saved a life, but soon, the nagging urge to save the next person in pain consumed him.
Valerie knew that this would eventually be her destiny, too. Every time she used her vivicus power, it burned away a piece of who she was. Eventually, she’d be a shell of herself, existing more as a force of magic than a human being.
Oberon gripped her shoulder, and Valerie met his eyes. “He will find his peace someday. He is not the universe’s first vivicus, and neither are you. There are other paths.”
Valerie nodded, and the light, warm weight of Darling in her arms disappeared. Already, he had left, called to the next soul in need.
After Valerie and her team had eaten and rested, Sibyl spoke up.
“I brought you into more danger than I knew, and I can never express my sorrow,” she said gravely. “You could have easily overpowered Putrefus, but this morning, a flood of Fractus were upon us, and I had no way to warn you.”
“I don’t understand, why did they come to the Roaming City now?” Kanti asked as she wrapped Henry’s wrist tightly in a white bandage.
“Someone informed the Fractus of what we were planning,” Oberon said, his voice certain.
Valerie turned to him sharply. “No one but us knew of our plan. It had to be a coincidence.”
“There was one who knew who is not with us today,” Gideon said.
“Tan,” Cyrus said, and for once, there was no gleam of humor in his eyes. “I’ll wring his neck personally.”
“We could have been killed,” Henry said, shaking his head with disbelief. “I find it hard to believe that he’d knowingly put us in serious danger. He seemed cool most of the time when we camped with him last summer.”
Valerie and Henry had spent several months camping and hiding from the Fractus on Earth with Thai and Tan, before the two had separated. Tan had always had a temper, but she wouldn’t have thought him capable of putting them in serious danger, at least not then.
“He changed a lot after he separated from Thai,” Valerie said, thinking of the black handprint on Tan’s neck that was a remnant of the poison that had entered his system when Venu had attacked him two years ago. He’d been determined to murder his nemesis, and anyone who wouldn’t help he considered an enemy.
“If we see Tan again, he will answer for this,” Oberon said with a dangerous glimmer in his eye that Valerie didn’t like.
She put a restraining hand on his arm and then turned to Sibyl. “We’ll have to go back to rescue the rest of the Oracles who oppose Putrefus.”
Gideon nodded. “With the city crawling with Fractus, we will need to bring a smaller team in to facilitate their escape with stealth. Sibyl, do you know of a way to enter the Roaming City undetected?”
“My friends have managed to escape,” Sibyl said. “We would have left sooner, but we did not want to surrender the city to Putrefus when we thought there was a chance that he could still be defeated. But when the Fractus arrived,
I evacuated everyone.”
“How did you manage that?” Valerie asked.
“Through the pool by the pillars,” Sibyl explained. “Leo convinced the Illyrians to give us safe access through their realm to the shores of the Lake of Knowledge in Arden. I was checking to make sure that no one was left behind when I saw you arrive.”
“Does Putrefus know you’re gone?” Kanti asked.
“He was triumphant,” Sibyl said, narrowing her eyes. “He and his friends chased us through the streets when the Fractus arrived. They threw rocks at even the youngest novices. It was something I never thought I would see in our city. When Pythia was alive, decades would pass without violence.”
“They let you leave alive,” Gideon said, and Sibyl’s face resumed its usual calm.
“For that we must be grateful. Perhaps someday we will regain our seats in the Roaming City,” she said.
“You will,” Valerie promised. “The Fractus will eventually have to divert their resources to other parts of the Globe, and we’ll help you unseat Putrefus.”
“I know that the other Oracles and I would be glad to be of service to those who support the path of light,” Sibyl said. “Perhaps in this time, we were meant to leave our isolation to join you in your battle.”
Valerie was taken aback. She’d never considered the Oracles as potential partners in the upcoming battle, but Oberon’s advice to make allies wherever she could flashed through her mind.
“We would welcome your help,” she said.
“I think Dulcea would be willing to give you shelter while you’re in Arden,” Kanti offered. “Rastelli’s in jail now, and without him, the Society of Imaginary Friends is once again a place that welcomes those without a home.”
“Maybe you and your friends might also be able to give us a prophecy to help with some problems we’re having,” Henry jumped in, forgetting his arm in his excitement. “I have to find where the Fractus are holding my dad, and I hoped you could help.”
“I’m sorry, Henry, but I am not being drawn to deliver your prophecy,” Sibyl said gravely. When his face fell, she added, “But one of the other Oracles may have words for you.”
