Edge of Pathos (The Conjurors Series Book 4) (4 page)

“Truce! Tell Reaper truce!”
she called desperately, considering for the first time that this might be a
fight she and Henry wouldn’t win.

Beside her, Henry
managed to head-butt his attacker, and she swept her foot in front of her. Her
attacker stumbled, but didn’t fall. He must already be channeling her magic,
which had been absorbed by his black weapon.

“Stand down,” Reaper
said, and the two Fractus who were still conscious dropped their weapons and
stepped back, their eyes returning to normal. Abruptly, light returned to the
woods.

“Good puppies,”
Valerie said, struggling to keep fear from entering her voice. Reaper couldn’t
know how close he’d come to defeating her, or he might decide that having her
dead or captive was more important than having access to Plymouth.

The men scowled at
her, and she was glad that her words had found their mark.

“Enough,” Reaper
said. “You are here to accept my truce?”

“Yes,” Valerie said.

As her heart rate
reached a more normal pace, her loathing for the monster in front of her surfaced.
It would be so easy, so tempting to kill him in one move.

But that was what he
wanted. He’d done everything he could to provoke her into killing him, and he
must have a powerful reason for doing so.

“Tell me how to gain
entrance to Plymouth,” Reaper commanded.

“No. I will allow
you to enter on my terms, or not at all,” Valerie said. “Gideon will let you
in, and he will monitor your movements while you are in Plymouth.”

Reaper considered
her words. “He may watch from the ground. I won’t let you see what we are
doing, or this truce is worthless.”

“Agreed. If anyone
in Plymouth is so much as contacted by the Fractus, never mind hurt, the deal
is off. The Fist will attack you full force.”

“I do not break my
word,” Reaper said, his eyes flashing.

“We have allies
among the people of Plymouth who know secrets of that land you can’t imagine,”
Valerie bluffed. “We’re almost hoping you attack us down there, because you
will be decimated.”

Reaper looked thrown
by her words, and Valerie gloated inwardly. He didn’t have to know that she was
lying.

“After ten days,
you’re out of there. You never learn the secrets required to enter. Gideon will
let you in and out,” Valerie said.

Reaper was glowering
at her now, but he nodded. “Truce begins now.”

“Good. Henry, let’s
go,” Valerie said, glad that Reaper’s power wasn’t being a mind reader, which
would have allowed him to sense her profound relief that the truce started now
and she wouldn’t have to fight her way back to the relative safety of Silva.

Because
with Reaper’s powerful new weapons, she wasn’t sure she’d make it back.

As soon as Valerie
was confident that they were out of earshot, she turned to her brother.

“Who were those
guys? I’ve never heard of powers like theirs. Do you think that’s common in Elsinore?”
she asked, stunned.

Henry shook his
head. “No. Those powers are new.”

“This changes
everything. Our weapons are useless once their power drains them of light,”
Valerie said. “We’ll have no protection against their black weapons.”

“I know,” Henry said
miserably.

But he didn’t look
surprised.

“Did you know about
this?” Valerie asked.

Henry’s jaw worked,
as if he was trying to choke back the words. “Yes.”

Before
she could question Henry further, he turned and fled. Valerie could have
followed but enough of his pain seeped through the defenses that he’d built
around his mind to let her know that he couldn’t handle any more contact with
her. But why?

When Valerie visited
Chisisi that night, he looked more rested than she’d seen him in a long time.
He was at a safe house in India, deep in conversation with a man who had his
back to her. His eyes crinkled in a real smile when he saw her.

“Young miss must
have sensed that we were speaking of her from across the universe,” Chisisi
said.

The man turned. It
was her former physician, Dr. Freeman.

Without thinking,
she gave him a hug, and he returned it without hesitation.

“Is it Commander
Diaz now?” he teased her, his dark brown eyes twinkling.

“Whatever you like,
as long as you do what I say,” she joked back, surprised at how much the sight
of her friends lifted her spirits.

“We won’t waste
these ten days of peace,” Dr. Freeman said. “I’ve been working on a rather
clever way to identify other children who might be sick from the rules of this
world binding their magic. I am a bit of an expert on the symptoms.”

“That’s a great
idea,” Valerie said. “Maybe we can find a way to bring them to the Globe.”

“Perhaps,” he said.
“But most of these children only suffer mild discomfort, not life-threatening
illnesses like you did. Ripping them away from everything they know might not
be the best solution.”

“What are you
thinking, then?” she asked, curious.

“I told you that
young miss doesn’t mind having her ideas overturned for better ones,” Chisisi
said, his pride in her unmistakable.

“What if they’re our
backup plan? Hopefully, we’ll be able to protect the charm binding magic on
Earth until the Fractus have been driven out. But if we fail, we would know the
human children who have magic that will be set free.”

“You can’t be suggesting
that we’d ask these kids to help us fight the Fractus in a worst-case
scenario?” Valerie asked, her back stiff.

Dr. Freeman gave her
a stern look that she recognized from her years as his patient when she didn’t
take all of her medicine. “Of course not. But if magic is tied to genetics,
then their families may have more magical potential than average. We can reach
out to their parents and ask them to form a kind of reserve militia as a last
line of defense against attacks.”

“That’s brilliant,”
she acknowledged. Dr. Freeman flashed her a smile. “But it’s terrifying to
imagine the Fractus destroying enough of the Fist for those people to be
needed.”

“Hope for the best,
prepare for the worst,” Chisisi said.

“Dr. Freeman, will
you lead a campaign to educate and train the families you identify as having
magical potential?” Valerie asked. “You already know how to lead a team, and
you’ve faced tougher problems than this one.”

She could almost
swear that he stood a little straighter at her words.

“I won’t let you
down.”

“You
never have before. I doubt you ever could,” she said.

Her kitchen was
still command central on the Globe, even though there were bigger offices in
the various guilds in Silva. Somehow, working there tricked a part of her mind into
thinking that her father was
watching
over her as she made plans
, lending her his strength.

“Cerise sent a
contingent of the People of the Woods to Silva today with a new supply of
water,” Gideon said. “But even with this stopgap, if we don’t find a way to win
back the Stewardship Guild, we will lose the city.”

Valerie’s mind
worked through the possibilities.

“Can you get me a
meeting with Al?” Valerie asked. The Grand Master of the Stewardship Guild had
sworn loyalty to Reaper, but Valerie hoped it was more from fear than from
embracing his ideals.

“Skye sent him a
note, but there has been no reply,” Gideon said.

“Then it’s time for
me to visit him personally. Do we know where he’s located these days?”

“You must not
challenge fate too often. Reaper let you go when you went to his camp last
time, but next time, he may decide to capture you instead,” Gideon cautioned.

“What’s the
alternative?”

Gideon paused for a
few heartbeats before replying. “Send an emissary he trusts.”

“Who? He isn’t
talking to Skye.”

“Track down his
friends, family,” Gideon said. “Perhaps they might be easier to convince.”

Valerie considered
his logic. “Okay. I’ll try that first.”

The door opened and
then slammed shut loudly, and Claremont stomped into the kitchen.

“You’re not a queen.
Do I always have to come visit you at your castle? It’s a great way to get me
marked as a traitor and killed,” she grumbled, searching through Valerie’s
pantry for food as if it were her own.

“Make yourself at
home,” Valerie said.

“It’s the least you
can do,” Claremont shot back, stuffing her mouth with chocolates that Dulcea
had sent over.

“Maybe you’re
right,” Valerie said, barely able to hide her grin at the chocolate smeared all
over her ex-enemy’s face.

“You’re gonna love
me soon, anyway. Guess who I convinced to see the light? Mira. He’s been on the
fence a while, but thanks to me, he finally sees that Reaper is too nuts to
follow,” Claremont said triumphantly.

“Well done!” Valerie
admitted. Mira was an influential Master Knight, and his power of shapeshifting
would be invaluable. Her mind already raced through the possibilities.

“Before you get any
brilliant ideas, Mira can’t trick Reaper. His power has to do with affecting
the mind, and Mira says Reaper has the best-protected mind he’s ever encountered,”
Claremont said, guessing Valerie’s train of thought.

“He could not
penetrate my mind, either, to my knowledge. His power will be useful, but what
is more valuable is his ability to rally others,” Gideon added.

“And we’re going to
need the help, because the rest of my news isn’t good,” Claremont continued. “A
ton of soldiers from Elsinore showed up to support the Fractus.”

Valerie nodded.
Kanti’s negotiations must not be going well. She wished that she could speak to
her friend about what was going on in her country. Could Reaper be transporting
soldiers from Elsinore through Plymouth? She wished that she’d asked Kanti for
her advice before accepting this truce.

Cyrus burst through
her door then, out of breath and flushed.

“Come
now!” he said, out of breath. “There’s going to be a riot!”

Without waiting for
details, Valerie took off after Cyrus with Gideon on her heels. She was still
half a mile from The Horseshoe when she heard the shouting.

She cleared the
trees and saw that a crowd of Conjurors was swarming two People of the Woods
who had arrived with giant casks of water. They had both drawn their weapons,
and were back to back, barely keeping the mob at bay.

“What’s going on?”
Valerie shouted, pushing her way through the crowd. “Are we allies or are we
Fractus?”

“They brought half
the water they promised!” A man standing several feet taller than her shouted.

“And they want to
ration it out to us like we’re children,” screeched a woman.

Valerie reached the
center of the group and made eye contact with the People, who lowered their
weapons at her approach.

“I’m sorry,” she
said to them. Then she turned back to the crowd. “The People of the Woods are
our allies, and they’re doing us a favor. If they hadn’t agreed to cart water
from the far reaches of Arden, we would all be forced to move. We owe these
people our thanks.”

“Barbarians. No more
than I’d expect,” Valerie heard one of the People mutter beneath his breath.

She decided not to
try to change his opinion right then.

“We thank you for
your help,” Valerie said through clenched teeth. “Please leave with our
gratitude.”

The People of the
Woods scowled, and the one who had spoken spat on the ground in front of the
crowd before they turned and left.

At the insult, the
mob started to surge forward. Valerie, Gideon, and Cyrus shoved anyone back who
tried to follow the People, forming a kind of human wall. The tall man pushed
his way to the front of the crowd and shoved Valerie hard—or tried to.

But on the Globe,
with nothing binding her magic, he wasn’t a threat. Before Cyrus could
overreact, Valerie pushed the man back, sending him reeling like a bowling ball
into the people behind him, knocking them down.

Valerie had to stop
herself from wincing at her overly enthusiastic display of strength. Instead,
she glanced behind her and saw that the People of the Woods had disappeared
into the dry, brown forest.

Robbed of its
initial target, the mob turned its anger on her.

“This is what comes
of allowing a child to lead us,” the giant man said. “We should make our own
rules.”

“Maybe the Fractus
are the better option. At least they aren’t thirsty,” said a centaur, pawing
the ground and stirring up the dust.

“And perhaps Reaper
would send you to be slaughtered on Earth, fighting to consolidate power for
him,” Gideon said. “In your dying breath, you may wish that your worst problem
was having to bathe every other day instead of every day.”

“Valerie and the
Fist are devoting every ounce of their energy to save all of you!” Cyrus
shouted, his eyes blazing. “Do you want to live under a dictator who decides
that those with the most power should rule over those with the least?”

The crowd began to
disperse, and a few Conjurors even hung their heads. Cyrus squeezed her hand.

“They don’t understand
what you’ve sacrificed for them. But they will,” he said.

“They are unused to
hardship,” Gideon said. “This will not be the last of the unrest. Peace is a
beautiful thing, but it makes the realities of war unfathomable for those who are
distanced from it.”

Valerie nodded.
“They aren’t wrong. We’ve won some battles, but I’m failing to win this war.
How many fewer soldiers will we have the next time we fight the Fractus on a
grand scale? So many people are losing faith in the Fist—and in me.”

“We have to rally
them,” Gideon said. “We need a way to release their energy in a positive way.”

“Are you talking
about a party?” Cyrus said, a glimmer of humor sparking in his eyes. “Please
tell me you’re talking about a party, Gid, because I am your man.”

Gideon laughed.
“Cyrus, I do indeed mean a party.”

“You’ve got your
mission, soldier,” Valerie said. “Let’s remind the Conjurors about the way of
life we’re fighting to save.”