by Kristen Pham
“We’ll feel that way about each other, too, someday,” Valerie said.
“We’ve known each other way longer than you and Thai ever did,” Cyrus said. “It’s never going to be the same.”
“Why do we have to even talk about him? I love you! I’d never destroy what we have,” Valerie said, her heart pounding. It hurt to talk about Thai. She wanted to leave those memories behind and make new ones with Cyrus, but he kept dragging her back to the past.
“We’re talking about him because he’s coming to the Globe,” Cyrus said abruptly.
Valerie couldn’t think, much less speak. Even after Thai had broken her heart, she had yearned for his physical presence on the Globe. The idea that he would be near her, for real, brought a profound relief. As quickly as it came, guilt followed. Cyrus was right. Why was she so relieved that Thai would be at her side? She forced herself to return to the present.
“How do you know? What changed his mind?” Valerie demanded.
“I’ll let him tell you,” Cyrus said, his expression closed. All of the usual teasing light had left his face. It hurt her heart to see his usually irrepressible joy gone.
“This doesn’t change anything between us,” Valerie said, stepping closer to Cyrus.
“I don’t want to waste what time we have left fighting,” Cyrus said, and Valerie wished that it was lighter outside so that she could read the expression on his face.
“What are you saying? You make it sound like one of us is going to die,” she said, forcing her tone to stay light.
Cyrus’s voice was emotionless when he replied. “There’s more than one way for us to lose each other.”
Chapter 24
The few hours of sleep Valerie managed after she and Cyrus parted were troubled ones. When she awoke, Oberon told her that Henry was already projecting to Earth. The night had been uneventful, but Chrome was slowly winding his way through the city on Zunya’s trail.
“You look tired, Dad,” Valerie said, noticing the dark circles under Oberon’s eyes.
“I must be getting old,” he said with a slight grin. “I remember going without sleep for two nights in a row and then fighting a battle the next day. Apparently those days are not entirely forgotten by those on Earth, either.”
“Were all of the Guardians on Earth suitably impressed to meet you last night?” she teased.
Oberon grimaced. “It seems that my reputation there has not entirely faded. By dawn, I wished I had lied about my identity. These humans nowadays have no compunction about asking very personal questions.”
Valerie grinned, glad to have a reason to smile. “Someday you’ll have to tell me all those dirty secrets.”
A brisk knock on the door ended their conversation. Valerie answered and Gideon immediately stepped over the threshold.
“The time to talk to the Knights is now,” he said, more disheveled than Valerie had ever seen him. “It may already be too late. I was wrong not to bring you to the Guild yesterday.”
“I’m coming with you,” Oberon said.
Gideon’s voice held no animosity when he replied. “It will not help our cause to have you at our side. You are trusted by neither the Fractus nor rest of the Conjurors.”
“I’ll come as the groundskeeper and stay out of sight. If things get rough I’ll be on hand to protect you both. It isn’t up for discussion,” Oberon said, holding his head at an imperious angle that Valerie had come to recognize.
“Let’s not waste time arguing,” Valerie said.
She was already dressed and Pathos was strapped to her side, so she, her father, and Gideon began jogging to the Guild of the Knights of Light. When they arrived, the first thing Valerie noticed was Tan standing beneath the arches of the Guild.
Oberon saw him at the same moment, and his expression darkened. “He will not go unpunished for putting my children in danger,” he said, loud enough for Tan to hear. Then he melted into the fringes of the crowd.
Valerie brushed past Tan, deliberately knocking him off balance with her shoulder. It might have been petty, but it eased some of the simmering rage that gripped her at the sight of him. Tan rubbed his shoulder and glowered at her.
The mood of the Knights was jittery, bordering on panic. Many Knights were frantically packing bags and call boxes with weapons, while others huddled in little groups, shooting suspicious glances around the courtyard.
“What’s going on? Has the vote happened already?” Valerie asked.
“No,” Gideon said. “But many fear that Kellen and the Fractus will attack any dissenters. They may not be wrong.”
“This is madness,” Valerie whispered. Could she really be the only thing stopping the Knights from turning to a path of war? It seemed too slender a thread upon which to hang the fate of two worlds.
The sight of Kellen walking over the top of the arch at the entrance to the Guild silenced the rumblings of the crowd. He seemed small and vulnerable without his wings, and while that clearly unsettled Kellen, Valerie thought it might work to his advantage as he tried to convince the Knights of the righteousness of his cause. His eyes scanned over the crowd, and even though she wasn’t close to the fairy, Valerie could swear that his eyes burned into hers.
“Today you decide the fate of two worlds,” Kellen said, sounding rehearsed. He may have been tiny, but his voice was amplified so it carried clearly over the sounds of the courtyard. Valerie wondered if Reaper had fed him his lines, when she caught sight of Oleander standing unobtrusively at the edge of the crowd. She mouthed Kellen’s words along with him. “Humans have the power to destroy their world, and we have the power not only to stop them, but to rebuild it into something better.
“What holds us back from returning to our true home and reclaiming what should be ours? We are Knights. We do not fear bloodshed, or even death. We are the warriors who used our might to bring this planet to the glory that we know today, and Earth deserves the same benefits that only we can bring.
“Even for those who do not yearn for the forests, mountains, and seas created by nature, not magic, our existence on the Globe is threatened as well, by those who want to stay mired in the past. It is time to unite and use our power to create something great, beyond what we can even imagine today, if we have the guts to seize a new destiny. Vote today to join the Fractus and support their vision of a better future!”
Kellen bowed his head, his speech complete, and many of the Knights roared their approval at his words. Valerie saw Tan cheering along, too, and wished she was closer so she could smack the smile off his face.
“Let us vote!” Kellen said, and the Knights began to move toward the arches.
“Wait!” a voice in the crowd carried over the tide of movement. “The opposition has a right to speak, as well.”
Valerie saw that it was Mira who had shouted. Kellen turned red and opened his mouth to yell at Mira when Valerie saw Oleander give him a little shake of her head.
“Fine. Let us vote by the book,” Kellen said. “Who speaks for the opposition?”
Valerie stepped forward after a last glance at Gideon.
“Rewrite the story,” he said softly, so only she could hear.
The enormous responsibility on her shoulders threatened to crush her. She walked beneath the arches, directly below Kellen, and was thankful that he didn’t have any fairy dust to control her with.
She took a shaky breath and saw her father standing toward the back of the crowd. He gave her a single nod that conveyed his confidence and trust in her, and all of the shaking in her body stopped.
“I agree that staying mired in the past can be a dangerous thing,” Valerie began, nodding to Kellen as she made her concession. “Holding rigidly to a way of life because it has always been so can be dangerous. But even when we move forward, there are core values that drive the choices we make.”
Valerie pointed up at the arches above her head. “Does anyone here no longer believe in the values we swore when we joined the Guild of the Knights of Li
ght? I promised to use my Power to protect, Courage in the face of danger, and Mercy to my greatest enemies. And there is no doubt in my mind that if I join the Fractus, I would break the vows I made the day I became an apprentice.
“The Fractus will use their power to control and show no mercy to those who oppose them. Where is the courage in that? To me, using magic against those who have none is the greatest cowardice.
“I dream of a better future for Earth and the Globe, as well. One where there can be more contact and travel between worlds. But I don’t believe in using force to create that future. There is a path that can lead us there that is rooted in peace, and that is the path that I want to take. As Knights, we know how to raise our weapons to fight. But do we have the courage to lay them down when we must?
“When you vote today, think of the vows you made to this Guild when you joined.” Valerie looked up at Kellen. “Would you ask us to abandon those vows?”
There was more she needed to say, but an unfamiliar presence wound itself into her mind. It reminded her of Kellen’s fairy dust in the way it insidiously crept into her thoughts, controlling her body’s movements. All her doubts and fears swept through her mind, leaving her muddled.
She knew that it wasn’t the angry fairy who was controlling her. Her eyes scanned the crowd, searching for who was keeping her silent now. Her eyes stopped on Oleander’s, and Valerie fought to find her locus. Her enemy had a secondary power that Valerie hadn’t suspected, and Valerie was at her mercy. She couldn’t stop speaking now, when she was so close to convincing the Knights.
Every face was riveted on hers as she spoke, and Valerie tried to focus her mind so that she could finish what she had to say. Only silence followed her speech, but the change in the atmosphere of the courtyard was unmistakable. The readiness to charge into battle had evaporated, and something more solemn and true had taken its place.
Valerie tried to open her mouth, but managed only a mumble of indistinct sounds. Oberon was watching her, already moving through the crowd to her side. He knew something was wrong, but the crowd seemed to think she had run out of words.
Then, instead of the cheering that had greeted Kellen’s words, she heard a frightened muttering. Knights began to point to something over her shoulder, and Valerie turned and saw Reaper standing outside the Guild. He was wearing his full Reaper garb, complete with a black robe, hood, and scythe. The effect was intimidating, even for the most battle-hardened of the Knights.
His message was clear. He was death, and he would cut down those who opposed him. Valerie could see that most of the Knights doubted that they could stop him.
She fought even harder to find her voice, and Oleander’s eyes narrowed on hers in concentration. She wasn’t as powerful as Kellen, but she was strong enough to control Valerie. Sweat broke out on Valerie’s forehead, but she couldn’t move a muscle in her body, much less speak.
Valerie was grateful when Mira yelled out, “Is this a threat?”
“Of course not,” Oleander said smoothly, moving to stand beside Valerie. “Reaper is simply invested in knowing the outcome of your vote.”
Valerie heard the false note in her voice, and she noticed for the first time that Oleander wasn’t the only Guardian in attendance. Clustered near Reaper were several faces that Valerie recognized from her encounter with Oleander in the Guardians’ Guild, when she, Cyrus, and Kanti had broken into Midnight’s office.
Oleander saw Valerie glancing at the Guardians.
“Of course, the Guardians will follow Reaper,” she said in a low voice so that only Valerie could hear. “But Guardians have always been known for using their brains, unlike the Knights.”
Valerie wished that the Knights could hear Oleander speaking now, though she doubted that it would change many minds. She could tell that the goal of Reaper’s display was to make the Knights vote with fear, rather than their instincts. And thanks to the weakness of her mental wall, she could say nothing to stop it.
“No more delays,” Kellen said, his voice rising above the muttering. “Now we vote. Cast your stone to the left to stay mired in the past, and to the right to support a new future with the Fractus.”
The Knights filed into a single line, and as they stepped through the arches, each tossed a stone into one of two piles. Valerie saw the brilliance of Reaper’s position then. Every Knight who voted would be staring at him as they cast their stone and would have to pass directly in front of him.
Reaper stared into the few faces of those who cast their stones in the pile that opposed the Fractus, as if he was memorizing their features.
Valerie tried to jostle her way to the front of the line so that she could cast her stone and stand in front of Reaper so that the Knights would see that they would not be executed for their choice, but every time she tried to move forward someone seemed to bump her farther behind.
After it happened a few times, it became obvious that it was on purpose. Kellen had his minions corralling her like a horse to the back of the line, and there was nothing she could do about it without starting a fight, which would only make her earlier words seem false.
Oleander’s hold on her mind loosened, and she saw that the Guardian was being dragged away from the group by Oberon. She didn’t want the Knights to see her weakness, so she didn’t struggle, but Valerie saw the pain in her eyes at Oberon’s touch. Her father must be using his power on her.
Valerie’s attention was diverted as she noticed that the pile of stones to support the Fractus grew ever bigger. Even Mira threw his stone into that pile, and Valerie wondered what had finally convinced him to support the Fractus. Gideon was the first to throw his stone into the dissenting pile, and Alex and Olwain, two of the Knights who had supported Valerie in her battle at the Black Castle, followed him.
But two of the other Knights who has joined her then, Lyonesse and Hoel, joined the ranks of the Fractus. Valerie was tempted to close her eyes. If she hadn’t convinced even her former allies to turn away from the Fractus, then she had already lost. Neither Knight would meet Valerie’s eyes as her turn to pass through the arches came at last.
It was clear that she had lost, but Valerie held her back straight and threw her stone with force into the pile that opposed the Fractus. She walked right up to Reaper and stared into his cold eyes. She would bet her life that he was itching to cut her down right then, but knew it wasn’t the best strategic decision in front of a group that he hoped to convince of the ethics of his cause.
Reaper’s hand shot out and caught Valerie’s in his grip, looking to an outsider as if he were shaking it. He squeezed, and something pricked her palm. Then he released her hand and turned away.
Valerie joined the group of a couple dozen or so Knights, including Juniper and Gideon, who had the courage to oppose the Fractus, rubbing her palm, which was bleeding.
Reaper turned to the Knights who supported him. “I thank you all today for voting to make the hard choice, but the right choice, to save the humans from themselves,” Reaper said. “As a show of good faith, though your vote means that the entire Guild should follow in the path chosen, I will excuse the dissenting Knights from joining the cause if they wish.”
The Knights who had chosen to follow the Fractus relaxed a little. This was proof that Reaper wasn’t a madman and the day wasn’t going to devolve into a battle between comrades. Valerie could practically see the hope emanating from them that they had made the right choice.
Soon they would all realize the magnitude of the horror that Reaper planned to visit upon Earth. By then, they would wish that they had given their lives rather than witness so much bloodshed.
Valerie was still rubbing her palm, and she looked down at it for the first time. The place where Reaper had pricked her was no longer bleeding, but dark tentacles of some kind of poison were spreading from the wound.
As soon as she registered the injury, Valerie’s muscles turned to jelly and she could barely remain standing. Only the knowledge that if she collapsed
, the hope of the Knights who had supported her would collapse with it, kept her standing.
“We will not delay in helping the Fractus build the future,” Kellen said with authority. “The Knights will trek to the Fractus’s stronghold at the Black Castle this very day. It will be our headquarters until this mess is under control.”
The Knights were uneasy. Being separated from their families and country was more than they had signed up for. But Valerie doubted anyone would back out now.
The Knights began to scatter, including those who had opposed the Fractus. Valerie knew she should rally those who were brave enough to support her words, but her wound was sending burning needles of pain into her palm that left behind something cold and empty in their wake.
Juniper gently squeezed her shoulder, and she knew he saw she was about to fall apart, even if he didn’t know the reason. “Go ahead and leave,” he said. “I’ll get everyone’s names and ask them if they are willing to join the Fist as part of your army.”
Valerie tried not to show the depth of her relief. “Thank you. I know you’re only an apprentice, like me, but would you take the lead in organizing the Knights who support us? I’m appointing generals to help me on different fronts, and I think you’re the right person for this.”
“Me?” Juniper asked. “What about Gideon or Chrome?”
“Chrome’s on Earth now, and Gideon will be pulled in too many directions to lead this,” Valerie said.
“How about Alex or Olwain? They’re Knight Masters,” Juniper said.
“If you really don’t want to do this, I’ll ask one of them,” Valerie said, trying to focus on Juniper’s face as the edges of her vision went fuzzy. “But I think you’d do the best job, and I also know you and trust you.”
Juniper stood a little straighter at her words. “You can count on me.”
Valerie nodded and gave him her best attempt at a smile before she left. She wanted to collapse out of sight of the crowd. Reaper had left, and she tried to ready herself for an attack from him now that she was weak.
