Knights of Light (The Conjurors Series Book 2) (22 page)

“I’m sorry, my dear,” Midnight
whispered. “The separation of an amoebiate can be very traumatizing. Thai and
Tan will settle into their new lives soon. I’m here if you want to talk.”

Midnight’s words
reminded Valerie that she wasn’t truly alone any more, and never would be. The
tears came, and the ball in her throat dissolved.

Valerie decided to give Thai the space he
obviously wanted. Saying goodbye to his family would be difficult, so she’d
make sure to be there when the time came. But in the meantime, he could bond
with Tan and maybe distance would give him a little perspective on her motives.

Luckily, she had a
distraction—it was the day of Henry’s initiation to apprentice at the Empathy
Collective. She hoped it would be a little less stressful than her own had been.

“I’m curious to see the
inside of the Guild,” Valerie said to Kanti as she watched her friend get
dressed. It was strange to be back in her old room. Her bed had been stripped
of sheets, but the wall was still green. She was surprised that she wasn’t
homesick. Somehow, her home with Henry and Midnight had more than made up for
what she’d lost, even if she did miss Kanti’s witty remarks.

For once Kanti was
taking care with her appearance, putting on a fitted green dress and brushing
her glossy hair. “The ceremony isn’t inside. The Empathy Collective always has
a big party for each new apprentice in the middle of The Horseshoe. Everyone is
invited—they’re big on not excluding anyone.”

“That sounds nice.”

Kanti nodded. “It is. The
Empathy Collective has a reputation for being kind of strange, but I like most
of the Empaths I’ve met. They’re into promoting peace at all costs. Usually
they’re not too crazy about me, though.”

“Why’s that?” Valerie
asked curiously.

“They’re all about
cutting out negativity from your life, which means no sarcasm. I couldn’t turn
off my sarcasm even if I wanted to. Which I don’t.”

“Yikes, you without
sarcasm would be like Cyrus without his ego. Unimaginable.”

Kanti grinned. “Exactly.”

“His Guild Master saved
my life when someone threw me out of my bubble when I met the Grand Masters in
the Capitol building, so he must be a nice guy,” Valerie said, remembering her
fall with a shudder.

“Dasan, the Grand Master,
is a Feng, just so you’re prepared.”

“What’s that?”

“He’s a giant bird, and
when he dies, he’s reborn again a few days later. With each life, he’s a
totally different person with no memories of his past lives.”

“This place never stops
amazing me,” Valerie said.

“Me, either, and I was
born here,” Kanti agreed.

“Ready?” Valerie asked
as her friend checked her appearance in the mirror.

Kanti twirled around. “How
do I look? Wait, don’t answer that.”

“You’re hideous. How’s
that?”

“Thank you,” Kanti said.
“In that case, I’m ready to go.”

The ceremony was at the
end of the day. Like Earth at sunset, everything was pink and gold as they
walked to the courtyard. Cyrus met them there, and even seemed a little dazzled
by Kanti, who was radiant dressed up and highlighted by the rosy colors of the
sky.

“Stop it or I’ll smack
you,” Kanti said.

“There she is,” Cyrus
said. “Good to know your temper wasn’t improved along with your looks.”

“Cy!” Valerie said,
smacking his arm.

But Kanti laughed. “Nope,
it’s worse if anything. So watch out.”

Their banter was
interrupted as a giant purple bird flew overhead. Only when he came closer did
Valerie see that he was holding Henry in his talons. He gently dropped him into
the giant fountain at the center of the courtyard and then perched on top of
it. Henry landed with a splash right in the water, but he emerged dripping and smiling.

Henry was dressed in a
white tunic. It must be some kind of Empath uniform, because the fountain was
surrounded by creatures similarly dressed.

The Empaths shut their
eyes, and a low hum of power in the ground traveled through Valerie’s bones, alerting
her to an outpouring of magic.

She watched, astonished,
as one part of Henry’s head glowed red, then another part glowed blue, followed
by yellow, green, and purple.

“What the…” she started
to whisper to Cyrus, but then her own mind was filled with the delicate perfume
of a rose. Next, she could swear soft petals brushed against her fingertips.
She heard wind whispering through a meadow, and tasted a sweet, light flavor on
her tongue that reminded her of sunshine and freshly turned dirt. Last, an
image exploded in her mind of a dazzling yellow rose in full bloom. It was
bright and beautiful, and somehow with the image came a sense of how precious
life could be.

“Whoa…” Kanti whispered.

“Welcome, Henry,” Dasan
said, his deep voice resonating across the crowd. “We accept your gift and
welcome you as an Empath. Come in peace and stay in love.”

A jolt of pure
relaxation passed through Valerie’s mind, calming every muscle in her body. For
the first time in her whole life, she was worry-free and totally at peace.

“I love you guys,” she
said to Cyrus and Kanti a little dreamily.

“Sooooo much,” Cyrus
agreed.

“I know Dasan is taking
my worries away, but I don’t care one little bit,” Kanti said.

Henry made his way over
to them, happy and starry-eyed. “Did you like my gift?”

“The rose?” Kanti asked.

He nodded. “I saw it in
a windowsill the day before my mom died. I tried to recreate it with every one
of my senses as well as the feeling she always gave me. I made the moment in my
mind and sent it to everyone. Dasan showed me how.”

“It was beautiful. I
wish I knew her,” Valerie said, but somehow Henry’s grief didn’t touch her
inner sanctum of peace. She could empathize without being sucked into his pain.

But Henry didn’t seem
sad—he was staring at Kanti with reverence. “You’re an angel. Your outside
matches the inside now.”

Valerie had never seen
Kanti blush—until now. “That’s the only right thing anyone has said to me about
how I look.”

Henry took her hand and
they wandered off.

“Are we on some kind of
magical drug?” Valerie asked, curious but not concerned.

“No, Dasan flooded your
mind with the hormone you release when you’re happy. And he somehow takes your
worries and puts them in a little box inside you for awhile, so you can have a
break from them.”

“It’s like the box that
Gideon taught me to put my pain in. Best magical power ever.”

Cyrus and Valerie weaved
their way through the crowd, which hadn’t dispersed much even though the
ceremony was over. People sat around chatting and laughing. She did a double
take when she saw Claremont making a daisy chain and putting it on her head
like a crown.

“Unreal,” Valerie
whispered.

“This is always a fun
ceremony to go to, but it’s better when the Conjuror who’s joining the Guild has
a strong power. Henry must be the strongest yet, because I’ve never seen a
crowd of this size affected for so long.”

“Help,” a voice croaked
nearby.

Normally this would send
Valerie into high alert, but now she didn’t assume the worst. Maybe someone
needed the bathroom.

“Please, help,” the
voice said again, and she heard a wet cough.

The crowd began to hush,
and a bedraggled boy stumbled into their midst, knocking against people on
unsteady feet.

“Valerie. Do you know
her? I gotta find her,” he said.

The box of worry in the
corner of Valerie’s mind jiggled a little. “Here I am.” She walked over to the boy
and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Can I help you?”

“It’s me,” he said. “Jack.”

Her peace of mind cracked
and the box of worry inside of her exploded open, almost choking her with the
intensity. It sickened her, overwhelmed her.

“Shade? What happened to
you?” she asked, horrified.

He had a long gash that
went from his cheekbone down his neck and disappeared under his shirt. His arms
and face were covered in bruises. But he sighed in relief at her recognition
and promptly collapsed. She barely had time to catch him before he hit the
ground.

A kiss of wind blew against
her face and saw that Dasan had landed next to her.

“His mind is very
muddled,” Dasan said in a light, musical voice. “It isn’t only bones that are
broken.”

Valerie’s magic surged
inside of her, and sharpening her focus.

“We can’t heal his mind
until we fix his body,” she said, and lifted him easily, thanks to her burst of
power. She began running with him in her arms toward the Healers’ Guild. Cyrus
and Dasan followed.

She crashed through the
doors of the Guild. “Nightingale!”

Lights in the hall
flickered on, and Healers poked their heads out of the doors to see what was
causing the commotion.

Valerie carried Shade up
the stairs to the ward where Nightingale worked, brushing aside people who
tried to stop her with questions. When she reached his floor, he was already
hurrying down the hall.

“What is it?” he asked,
and then saw the boy in her arms. “Ah yes. In here, please.”

She was surprised to see
that a half dozen of the beds were filled with recuperating Conjurors. In the
past, she’d never seen more than one visitor at a time. Nightingale gestured to
a bed, and she lay Shade down gently. He murmured in pain, but didn’t wake up.

“I must insist you
leave,” Nightingale commanded.

“No,” Valerie said, but
Cyrus pulled her backward.

“There are rules,” Dasan
explained.

“I want to make sure
he’s okay. This is my fault,” she insisted.

Nightingale turned to
her, his face calm and focused, but also determined. She barely had time to
register the buzz of magic before she was pushed out of the room by a giant,
invisible hand. The door slammed in front of her eyes.

“If we don’t leave now,
they’ll kick us down the stairs and out the door the same way,” Cyrus said in a
low voice. “It’s woven into the magic of the building that no visitors who are
unwanted can stay.”

“Better to go
peacefully,” Dasan said, but she heard a hint of worry in his voice that
troubled her.

“What’s wrong?” Valerie
asked him after they had left the building, his dark, fathomless eyes piercing
hers.

“The Healers’ Guild is
compromised.”

“What do you mean?”

He cocked his head to
the side, examining her like a little robin she had once seen on Earth. “I can
hardly tell myself, except that something rotten has been inside. But it isn’t
there right now.”

“Then Shade isn’t safe!”
Valerie said, and began to pound on the door, which was locked against her now.

“For now, I sense no
danger for your friend,” Dasan tried to assure her.

“Nightingale was trying
to help him, Val, I’m sure of it,” Cyrus said. “Besides, there’s no way you’re
getting back in there.”

She sank down on the
steps and put her head in her hands. The aftershocks of all her worry had given
her a pounding headache, but she knew she had to act.

“Your troubles are meant
to return to you slowly, leaving you refreshed and ready to face them anew,” Dasan
said.

“Are you reading my
mind?” Valerie asked, unable to keep the suspicion out of her voice.

“I am only receiving
what you are sending out,” Dasan said, and she slammed the door of her mind
closed against him, like she did with Henry.

He fluttered his wings
as if she had caught him off guard. “Your mind is as powerful as your
brother’s. There is much you could learn at our Guild. You should come and take
some classes, even if you don’t join.”

Valerie could hardly
process his words, her mind racing through potential scenarios and next steps. Dasan
watched her with his beady but gentle eyes, and for the second time that night,
peace took over her mind. She resisted, but Dasan’s power slipped through the
cracks of her defenses, and again she fell under its spell. Next to her, Cyrus
slumped, his muscles obviously relaxing as well.

“We shouldn’t…” she
said, but couldn’t remember why her worries were so pressing. There was nothing
she could do for Shade right now.

“You must take this
break from your worry and fear,” Dasan said. “Even for a mind as strong as
yours. Without rest, it will break.”

She nodded. “You’re
right. Thank you.”

“Come and visit us any
time,” Dasan said, and then took off into the air.

The sight of him soaring
away was imprinted on Valerie’s mind, and the peace he had given her sank
deeper into her bones. She sighed in relief. Had she ever been this weightless
in her life?

“Come on. I wanna show
you something new I can do with my power,” Cyrus said with a glint in his blue
eyes.

He led her to the other
side of The Horseshoe, and they stopped in front of a building she hadn’t paid
much attention to before. It was one of the smaller guilds, but it looked
strange. There were no sharp corners, every window was a circle, and all the
edges of the building had been rounded off. It was only two stories high. Cyrus
led her around back to a beautiful garden.