Guardians of the Boundary (The Conjurors Series Book 3) (27 page)

“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.

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.

Valerie saw Sanguina hanging
back with the other Guardians from the Globe, clearly unsure what Valerie’s
reaction would be to her presence. Valerie gave her a nod of acknowledgment,
and some of the tension left Sanguina’s face. Henry may hate her for what she’d
done, but Valerie knew that she’d been trying to save his life.

“We have a plan for how to use
our powers in sync,” Olwain said.

Sanguina joined the
conversation. “Our magic is complementary. When the Grand Masters decided who
to send to Earth, they deliberately planned it that way so that we’d have
maximum impact. If the Fractus are thinking we’ll be an easy target, they’re in
for a big surprise.”

“Good,” Valerie said. “I trust
your judgment, and we don’t have time to revise plans now, anyway.”

“The human Conjurors are all
trained in combat,” Chisisi added. “They will not be beaten easily.”

Valerie had seen Chisisi fight,
so she didn’t doubt his words.

“This may sound crazy, but the
humans need to form the front lines rather than the Conjurors,” Valerie said
urgently. “Zunya’s power won’t work as well on them, because they don’t have as
much active magic to be stripped.”

“Makes sense,” Thai said, and he
moved to the human Guardians to explain the plan.

“Those of you with magic,
unleash from behind and engage in combat only when it’s absolutely necessary,”
Valerie said.

“Agreed, with one exception,”
Alex said. “Olwain and I will fight at the front with the human Guardians.
We’ll avoid Zunya, but we won’t do much good from the rear because our power is
our fighting skill.”

“I should also battle on the
front lines. I’m immune to the touch of most magic, and would not be of much
help in the rear,” Sanguina added.

“All right. Alex, Olwain, and
Sanguina, you’ll issue instructions to the human Guardians. They probably
haven’t seen as much fighting as you have,” Valerie replied.

Everyone had gathered around her
now, watching her with tense expectation in their eyes.

“We don’t know a lot about the
Fractus who are on Earth. Some, like Zunya, can steal magic from Conjurors.
Others can affect electronics,” Valerie said.

“That doesn’t sound too bad,”
Elisabeth said.

“They can also throw lightning,”
she added, and her words elicited nervous muttering. Still, they all pulled
weapons from various places. She saw guns, knives, and even a sword. Their fear
was mixed with determination, and Valerie couldn’t help but be impressed by
their courage.

Before Valerie could find words
to inspire the little group, Zunya appeared, cutting straight through the grass.
He hadn’t come alone. A dozen shadowy forms were a short distance behind him,
and Valerie recognized Logan immediately. So did Thai, she noticed as she
watched him narrow his eyes.

Valerie reached for Pathos
before remembering that she could do nothing to help. She saw Zunya staring at
her, and his yellow eyes were triumphant. He’d enjoy watching her suffer,
unable to help her friends as they fought the Fractus.

“Here we go,” Thai said, and he
shoved the Byway into an inside pocket of his jacket.

Valerie’s team didn’t wait for
the Fractus to reach them. Instead, they rushed forward and met the approaching
Fractus with their fists and weapons raised. Zunya took a step back, surprised
by the coordinated push. She knew the moment he recognized Sanguina, because a
pulse of rage and fear crossed his face before he could hide it.

Valerie’s heart pounded as she watched
the battle unfold, unable to fight. She suspected that many of Zunya’s team were
human, rather than from the Globe. They had powers like Venu’s, an enemy from
her past who had frog-like abilities to leap high, move fast, and emit poison
that could kill quickly.

She saw that several of Zunya’s
group had more strength than average, though not enough to completely defy
Earth’s rules. Every time she noted a skill, she quickly moved through her own
team, equipping them with more knowledge of whom they were up against. Alex,
Olwain, and Sanguina were quick to direct the human Guardians, even while they
fought the Fractus themselves. Valerie was amazed at how Sanguina’s handicap
seemed to vanish when she fought, as if she were in her element only with a
weapon in her hand.

When two of the Fractus began
throwing lightning, Chisisi shouted an order, and the Guardians from the Globe
raised their hands. The lightning sizzled in the air and fell to the ground as
sparks. The sparks landed on some of her team and Valerie heard shouting.
Everyone frantically patted their clothing to keep it from igniting, and no one
was set ablaze.

Zunya himself zeroed in on Thai
as if the Byway was giving off some signal from his pocket.

“Don’t let him touch you,”
Valerie said. Her entire body was tense as she watched Zunya approach. It was
physically painful to know that Thai was about to be attacked, and there was
nothing she could do to stop it.

Thai grunted as he aimed a kick
at Zunya’s chest. Thai was sweating heavily, and she could see that Zunya’s
pull on his magic was having an effect.

“We need light!” she shouted to
the group, remembering that Zunya’s powers worked better in the dark. It worked
to his advantage that the day was cloudy.

The Grand Master of the Flora
Guild, a man with white flowers woven in his short, dark hair, raised his hands
to the sky. Slowly, the clouds parted, enough for slivers of light to reach the
ground.

Thai ducked and tumbled as Zunya
reached for his arm, narrowly avoiding contact. A shaft of light hit Zunya, and
he winced, though it didn’t stop him from following up with a punch that hit
Thai squarely in the jaw.

At the contact with his skin,
Thai dropped to the ground. Zunya leapt on top of him, and Valerie screamed.

Chrome flew out of the air and
tackled Zunya, howling as he made contact with the vampyre. Zunya might have
done real damage to the wolf if Chisisi hadn’t followed up with a series of
blows so rapid that Valerie wondered if he was gifted with magic, as well.
Zunya expertly head-butted him, which sent Chisisi staggering backward. Despite
his success, Zunya was breathing heavily.