by Kristen Pham
“I thought the cities were sealed during voting,” Valerie said, confused.
“To everyone else. But the People of the Woods can freely come and go,” Cyrus explained.
“What message was so important that Elden came to find you?” she asked.
“He wasn’t looking for us, he was trying to find you. When you weren’t at your home, he came to Leo and me.”
“What’s so urgent?” Valerie asked.
“He says he’ll only talk to you about it,” Cyrus said, his mouth pursed in annoyance.
They left the dorm and quickly wove through the streets of Silva and into The Horseshoe. She guessed where they were heading before they arrived. The Weapons Guild was the second largest building next to the Capitol building. The lawn was adorned with massive statues of warriors, and the doors stood twenty feet tall.
Cyrus led Valerie around the side to a smaller, less imposing door. The inside of the Guild resembled a medieval castle, with torches mounted on stone walls that cast strange shadows through the corridors.
“I know, it’s creepy,” Cyrus said. “And I’m going to have to do something about the lack of light when I join the Guild.”
“You’re leaving the Society of Imaginary Friends?” Valerie asked, more surprised that she didn’t know that Cyrus was contemplating such a major change than by the fact that he was choosing to leave. She hadn’t been as involved in Cyrus’s life as he’d been in hers for a while now.
Cyrus walked a little faster. “I don’t need a lecture. When Leo brought me to this Guild, I knew it was where I belong now. He thinks I could be the Grand Master someday.”
“I think you’d be a great Grand Master, Cy,” she said, and Cyrus slowed to a normal speed and met her eyes.
“Nobody’s ever seen potential in me before,” Cyrus said. “My parents think I’m a disappointment, and my friends think I’m comic relief. Leo says that I’m gifted and have the right mindset to be a leader. He’s sure I’m meant to do important things.”
Valerie’s heart ached at the neediness in Cyrus’s voice. She’d always known that he had a good-sized ego, but she could see now that it was more than that. He wanted to be destined for greatness.
They reached a small room that reminded Valerie of the biology lab at her high school on Earth, except the walls were covered with dozens of weapons, many of which Valerie had never seen before, instead of periodic tables.
But the high tables, beakers, and sink were familiar, and Leo presided over a glowing, bubbling concoction that he was gently stirring. Next to him, Elden was completely absorbed in observing the process and didn’t even notice her enter.
“What do you think, Elden?” Cyrus asked.
Elden straightened, masking his fascination. “The work has potential. Even my own people have never tried such advanced techniques with light.”
Cyrus beamed at Elden’s words.
“Cyrus said that your people are still voting. What made you leave?” Valerie asked, now that she had Elden’s attention.
“I wanted you to have word of the decisions that have already been made so that you can prepare for battle,” Elden said. “Several items have already been voted on, and you need to know the outcome.”
“Will your people destroy the Byway?” Valerie asked.
“That is being debated as we speak, and it promises to be a lengthy discussion. We allow any who would speak on the matter to have a chance to be heard, and it will take time before everyone has had their say,” he replied.
“Two other items were more quickly decided than even I had hoped,” Elden continued. “The first is that the People of the Woods have agreed to an alliance against the Fractus, as long as you meet two conditions.”
Valerie nodded.
“First, you must be the one to lead the Conjurors for as long as this war lasts,” Elden said. “They believe that only your heart is immune to corruption because of your power as a vivicus.”
Elden held up a hand as Valerie moved to interrupt him.
“It will help no one for you to disagree with their assessment. If it weren’t for your status among us because of your gift, the People of the Woods would never support the Conjurors, even against so powerful an enemy,” Elden said.
“I agree to that condition,” Valerie said, not allowing her fear to enter her voice. “What’s the other one?”
Elden looked out the window as he spoke, as if he’d rather not meet her eyes. “The People of the Woods want to send a contingent of people to Earth.”
“Their help would be welcome. We’ll be waging a battle there, too,” Valerie agreed.
“The representatives would stay on Earth after the war with the Fractus is over,” Elden added.
Valerie abruptly sat down on one of the stools in the room. “I don’t know if I can promise that.”
“Then the People of the Woods will withdraw their offer of an alliance,” Elden said firmly, though Valerie suspected that he did not agree with this condition. But he wasn’t a king or even a president. He had to abide by the wishes of his people.
“Without the People’s numbers and weapons, the war with the Fractus won’t last long,” Leo spoke up. “We’ll be annihilated in a single battle. I’ve studied war long enough to know how to recognize a lost cause.”
“How do we know that the People of the Woods won’t become as corrupt as the Fractus if they’re left long enough on Earth? Ideals change, crumble, and we could be saving humans today only to doom them tomorrow,” Valerie said, thinking aloud.
“What we need is a contingency plan,” Cyrus said. Everyone’s eyes turned to him. “A measure in place to ensure that the People who are sent don’t abuse their powers.”
Elden nodded slowly. “I think the People of the Woods could agree to that.”
“They would have to regularly check in with an unbiased council that monitors them,” Valerie said after some thought. “And we’d need to have a device in place that could force them to return to the Globe if their behavior didn’t meet certain conditions.”
“That magic existed when the Globe was first created,” Elden said. “It could be established again.”
“If those conditions are met, then I agree,” Valerie said. “The People of the Woods can send representatives to return to Earth.”
Even Elden couldn’t keep the joy from his usually serene face. “The People of the Woods will never forget this gesture. Watching our mother planet wither under the rough ministrations of its current occupants is a source of pain to us.”
“I hope that there will be lots of ways that we can open up communication between the worlds once the Fractus are defeated,” Valerie said. “Earth could really benefit from the Globe’s magic. The environment, the medicines… We just need to do it right, so that power doesn’t get abused.”
For once, the ideas tumbling through Valerie’s mind inspired her, rather than filling her with dread. Once the horror of the war was all over, the possibilities of how to help humans with magic were endless. She thought of Dr. Freeman and all of the children at the Oakland Children’s Hospital.
“What about the People’s weapons?” Leo asked, interrupting Valerie’s daydream.
“That is the other item the People of the Woods voted on. As allies, we will share our weapons with you for the duration of the war,” Elden said. “However, we will not reveal the secrets of how we weave magic into our weapons except to you and Cyrus, so you can marry them with light. You must both swear to take this knowledge to the grave, and never to use it again after the battle is over. We will bind your promise so you may never break it.”
“Where’s the trust? You’d think you guys didn’t like Conjurors or something,” Cyrus joked.
Leo smiled and even Elden had a glint of humor in his eyes.
“I will begin sending weapons to you within the hour,” Elden said. “For now, I must return to the voting.”
“Can you send us a message when you’re within a few hours of being
finished?” Valerie asked. “We want to have our forces on hand to protect you against the Fractus.”
Elden removed a small seed from his pocket and placed it in Valerie’s hand. “When you see this seed begin to grow, it will mean that the final voting is beginning. By the time it blooms into a flower, the shield guarding the cities in the trees will have fallen. It should give you about a day’s notice.”
Valerie examined the little seed, which was brushed with gold, with awe. “Where should I plant it?”
Elden smiled indulgently. “That won’t be necessary. Keep it with you, and the proximity to your magic will be enough to nourish it.”
Valerie left an elated Cyrus and Leo at the Weapons Guild and turned her steps home. It was time to begin planning for the battle in earnest, and she knew she was lucky to be able to consult with a master at fighting difficult wars, her dad.
The walk home cleared Valerie’s mind, and it was too soon when she passed through the garden and into her house.
A strange sight met her when she entered the kitchen. Oberon and Gideon were bent over the kitchen table, which was covered in maps and pages of paper with strange writing. She was startled to see them working together, without even a hostile glance between them.
Oberon immediately stood and gave Valerie a hug. “Your loss is my loss.”
“I love you, Dad,” she whispered, and his grip on her tightened. It was the first time Valerie had said the words, but seeing Henry lose Joe had reminded her how lucky she was to have Oberon in her life.
“And I love you, Daughter,” Oberon replied, and he rested his head on top of hers for a moment.
He released her from his grip and turned to Gideon and the table overflowing with papers.
“Gideon and I began creating a battle strategy last night after we discovered what had happened to Henry’s father. We weren’t sure if either of you would want to lead, that is, you are both children…” Oberon trailed off.
But the gesture touched Valerie. “I wish I could hand this over to the two of you,” she admitted.
“The war will be waged best under your direction,” Gideon said, and the confidence in his voice bolstered Valerie’s own. “Oberon and I are both battle-hardened, and our experience can be an encumbrance.”
“What do you mean? Surely experience is exactly what we need right now,” Valerie said.
“We have both won and lost many battles, and made many mistakes. We have stopped seeing new possibilities, mired in what has and hasn’t worked in the past. Much of what we know is common sense, but what we can’t bring is a new perspective,” Oberon said.
“I watched your decisions when we battled at the Black Castle,” Gideon said. “You made choices that would not have occurred to me. Your method of empowering your army to alter their plan if they saw the necessity struck me as disorganized. But it was that flexibility that allowed us to succeed.”
Valerie sat down, considering her father’s and mentor’s words. Whether they were right or wrong, the time for second-guessing herself was over. She was the right person to end this war and find the path of peace—she had to be.
Chapter 28
After hours of strategizing with her father and Gideon, and a long shower, Valerie was starting to believe that there was a way to defeat the Fractus, as least on the Globe. They had to take each battle as it came, and they could only focus on one front at a time.
She decided to check in on Thai, or, rather, the progress of the Guardians on Earth with finding the Byway, she reminded herself firmly. She slipped Thai’s crystal over her head and gripped it, and was briefly completely disoriented.
Instead of the electronics shop or a hotel room, she found herself standing in an abandoned playground. It clearly hadn’t had any visitors in a long time. The swings were broken and rusted over; a slide had been tipped over; and various other broken, unrecognizable toys lay half buried in the weeds. A light drizzle falling from the gray sky added to the eerie atmosphere.
Chrome was circling the playground warily, his ears perked. Thai and Chisisi watched him, and Chisisi motioned her over when he saw her.
“Your talented friend has found the location of the Byway,” Chisisi said, his eyes never leaving Chrome’s pacing form. “He’s now assessing the nature of the magic that has it locked away.”
The dilapidated playground was the last place Valerie could imagine finding powerful magic. “I thought it would be somewhere much older, like Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid. How can the Byway be here? This playground can’t be more than a few decades old.”
“If we understood him right, Chrome said that the appearance of this location adapts over time. It is meant to be a forgotten, boring place that no one would ever suspect,” Thai said.
Chrome’s intelligent eyes moved from Thai to Valerie. He nodded once, confirming Thai’s words.
“It makes sense. If it were located at some awesome structure, people would always be poking around. I’m surprised the launch room at the Great Pyramid stayed hidden,” she said.
The sound of a vehicle approaching made them all turn their heads sharply, but Chisisi relaxed when he saw three black vans parking nearby.
“I called for the rest of the Guardians and the Conjurors you sent from the Globe to aid us in this critical time,” Chisisi said. “We will need to protect the Byway with our very lives.”
Valerie glanced around the playground for any signs of danger, but it was still. She wondered why she had the strange sense that it was not as deserted as it seemed, but decided it must be the distinctly creepy vibe that any old, broken-down playground would have.
Chrome stopped near the old swings and began to dig. An image of a treasure chest buried in the ground appeared in her mind, and Chisisi and Thai picked up the shovels that they had brought with them.
Another image appeared, this one of everyone digging, and the chest began to glow.
“He needs everyone to dig for the Byway,” Valerie explained. “I think he’s saying that we need to pool as much magic as possible to be able to find it.”
“I get why the Conjurors you sent should help, then, but what good will we do?” Elisabeth asked, joining them with the group from the vans. “None of us has any magic.”
“We all have the potential for magic inside us,” Valerie explained. “On Earth, it might never express itself, but it could be encouraged to grow on the Globe with the right help.”
The human Guardians stared at her in amazement, and wide grins broke out on many of their faces. Valerie couldn’t help smiling back. To find out that you had potential magic inside you was a heady thing, she remembered from experience.
“Also, you’re all here for a reason. It is your latent magic that calls to us, which is how we recruit you to join the Guardians,” Chisisi explained.
Everyone began digging in earnest now, and those who didn’t have shovels scooped dirt with their hands. Finally, they turned something up. It was a dirty old toy train, made of rusted metal. The colors were no longer distinguishable.
Chrome nosed the toy and then flashed the image of the treasure chest.
“You’ve found the Byway,” Valerie interpreted.
The Guardians glanced at each other with a mixture of disbelief and disappointment.
“Shouldn’t it be bigger?” Elisabeth asked. “And glowing, maybe?”
“It’s disguised for a reason, isn’t it, Chrome?” Thai asked, and the wolf nodded once.
Thai picked up the Byway. At his touch, the illusion of the old toy melted away and revealed a golden, glowing key. Now it had everyone’s rapt attention.
“That’s more like it,” Elisabeth muttered.
“We should waste no time. The Byway must be relocated and destroyed,” Chisisi said.
A rustling in the trees made Valerie’s eyes snap up, and her uneasy sense that something was off suddenly sharpened.
“Something’s wrong. Everyone needs to get out of here, fast,” Valerie said.
Chisisi and Thai didn’t question her.
“Everyone move to the vans. Every driver take a different route back to the rendezvous point, as we discussed,” Chisisi commanded.
“Maybe they’re not here to hurt us,” Elisabeth said doubtfully, her eyes scanning the empty playground.
“I don’t think they’re here to negotiate,” Valerie said. “You need to run.”
The Guardians raced to their vans, but as the drivers jumped in and started the engines, they only sputtered and died. Valerie remembered the stories she had heard from Dulcea about electronics going mysteriously awry when the Fractus had attacked important people on Earth. It was further proof that they were close.
Valerie projected herself to Chisisi’s side, where he was trying to hotwire the van.
“It won’t work,” she said. “You can run on foot, or stand and fight. But you won’t be driving anything electronic out of here.”
“I await your orders,” Chisisi said. Valerie was reminded of how he had abided by her decision to help Joe before finding the Byway, and it amazed her that he still valued her input after her decision had jeopardized getting the Byway out safely.
It almost killed her to say the words, but she knew it was the right call. “You have to stay and fight. I don’t think you will be able to escape on foot, at least, not without surrendering the Byway.”
“You can trust her decisions. She is wise in battle,” said Alex, a Knight from the Globe who had fought with her at the Black Castle. Her spiky hair had grown a few inches since she had seen her last, but her fierce confidence was exactly as Valerie remembered it. Valerie knew that a few Knights had been sent to Earth, but she didn’t know that Alex was among them.
“I can’t tell you how glad I am to see you here,” Valerie said.
“It’s practically a reunion,” Olwain said, and Valerie could have hugged him. He had also fought with her, and both Knights had openly defied Reaper at the voting of the Knights of Light.
“We’ve been discussing battle tactics with the Grand Master of the Flora Guild and a few Guardians from the Globe who were sent with us,” Alex said, nodding to each person as she spoke.
