Valerie hurried to catch up to Sanguina, her magic lending her legs a speed she had never known she possessed. She caught a glimpse of Sanguina's red hair, and they went to a part of the castle Valerie had never seen. The farther they went, the more the walls around them flickered. Doors appeared and vanished, and even more terrifyingly, when she looked down at herself she could see that she and Sanguina flickered too.

"Hurry. If we're caught in a part of the castle as it disappears, we will go with it—no one knows where," Sanguina said with urgency. At last, she stopped and knelt on the ground by a trapdoor. She shut her eyes in relief. "It's still here."

Valerie threw the trapdoor open and Gideon, followed by his six Knights and Peach, poured in silently.

"Any trouble?" Gideon asked, eyeing her closely.

"None that we couldn't handle."

"Maybe we'll get out of here without much trouble," said one of the Knights, a redheaded man named Hoel who was constantly biting his fingernails.

Valerie didn't reply, but she gave what she hoped was an encouraging nod. Hoel was a little green at the sight of the flickering walls around him.

"Come," Valerie said. She knew she had Sanguina to guide her, but she didn't need it. Instinct and memory reminded Valerie of the route to the dungeon.

She and most of the Knights had crossed the threshold and were already heading down the staircase to the dungeon when a voice from the darkness made her stomach clench.

"The prodigal daughter has returned," Zunya said. Valerie turned and saw that he had grabbed Sanguina's arm. Sanguina winced and pulled her arm roughly out of his grasp. Valerie knew from experience how intensely painful Zunya's touch was, but Sanguina must be somehow protected from it, like she was with Venu's poison, or she would be writhing on the ground.

"I was doing Reaper's bidding; you know that."

"I heard you brought our favorite little plaything with you."

Valerie and the Knights tried to melt into the shadows, and she hoped that somehow Zunya hadn't seen them.

"Come, and I'll show you," Sanguina said, trying to lead him to the isolation chamber.

Zunya raised an eyebrow. "I should probably do something about the intruders you've helped slip past our gates first."

Without any further warning, he reached out and tackled the nearest Knight, Galahad, to the ground. Galahad briefly screamed at the contact, and then went silent. The rest of the Knights drew their weapons to rush Zunya, and the hall blazed with light. Zunya shaded his eyes, and Valerie saw that behind him were fifteen men—boys, really.

Their eyes were completely white, and she could see black stitches across their necks, like they had been clumsily opened and sewn back together. With a sickening twist in her stomach, she realized that they were familiar—it was Jack's former troop of boys who robbed people of their magic.

"Don't kill them!" Valerie shouted to the Knights.

"You!" Zunya shouted.

Valerie drew Pathos, since she had already blown her cover. "You and me. That's the fight you really want, isn't it?"

Her words were too late. The boys were armed with pathetic weapons like pickaxes and knives, but one opened his mouth and a hollow sound came from him. Valerie's magic slipped away. Zunya had somehow turned the boys into weaker versions of himself, so they didn't need a cone to rob Conjurors of their powers.

She frantically reached out with her mind for Henry, to see if he and the other two Empaths could do anything to confuse Zunya and his gang. But she could sense nothing and fear swept through her. Even when he had blocked her from his mind, she had taken it for granted that she could sense her brother's presence.

She didn't have time to analyze the possibilities. Gideon was pushing her aside, down the stairwell that led toward the dungeons.

"His power won't have the same effect on me, Alex, or Gawain," he said hurriedly. "We have all renounced our magic, so there is less for him to take."

"I won't leave you," Valerie said resolutely. She quickly disarmed one of the boys who approached her, flicking his axe to the ground and elbowing him in the head. He collapsed, and knelt by his crumpled body, fighting a bone-deep guilt. The boys needed to be rescued, not hurt.

"We can handle this. Take the rest and get Darling and Oberon. That's our top priority, by your own orders." Gideon then rushed at Zunya, and Valerie had the satisfaction of seeing a flicker of surprise as Zunya raised his own weapon—a gleaming machete. He had relied on robbing Conjurors of their magic and strength so often that she hoped he was rusty when it came to real hand-to-hand combat. The light of Valerie's and her comrades' weapons was clearly weakening him enough to make him vulnerable to an attack from a Master Knight.

Gideon's sword flashed, and Zunya squinted against the brightness of the blade. Gideon missed his enemy by a hair's breadth, and his sword nicked the wall, setting off a shower of sparks.

As much as it seemed like a betrayal to leave Gideon now, he was clearly better equipped to fight Zunya than she was. If, as the leader, Valerie couldn't follow her own plan, it would dissolve into chaos.

Alex and Gawain let out battle cries as Valerie and the rest of the group raced down the stairs toward the dungeon in a blaze of light. They weren't even halfway down when Valerie crashed into an invisible wall and fell to the ground, hitting her head on the stone step.

"Peach!" she yelled. "Invisible guys!"

A hand pulled her up by her hair, and Valerie lashed out blindly. Her magic hadn't been completely taken by Zunya, but it seemed buried inside of her, not giving her the advantage that it usually did. She was never more thankful than at that moment that she had trained without her magic, because she used her logic to judge the distance that her attacker's face was from where he held her and lashed out with a swift uppercut to his jaw. Something crunched, and he dropped her with a howl of pain.

Immediately, a beautiful song filled the air. Valerie, Sanguina, and the other three Knights all flattened themselves against the walls and stuffed earplugs in their ears. It wasn't fancy, but it did the trick. They were immune to Peach's hypnotizing song, under which the princess wove the urge to be perfectly still and bathe in the sound.

Peach's fists were clenched at her sides, and Valerie knew that she must be absolutely terrified. This horrible castle was about as far as you could get from the ice palace where she had grown up in luxury. But she sang on, and gave Valerie a nod to let her know that the men were under her spell.

"Now!" Valerie yelled, and she, Sanguina, and the three Knights who were with her began lashing out.

Valerie shut her eyes and sheathed Pathos, not wanting to inadvertently kill one of her enemies. As she and the Knights erupted into motion, it seemed to break Peach's spell. But the advantage was theirs. Sanguina was at the base of the stairs, so the Fractus were surrounded.

Valerie summoned her remaining magic and let it guide her arms and legs. She heard a crunch like breaking glass and a scream as she kicked in a knee of one of her attackers. Beside her, she saw that Hoel and the other two Knights, Lyonesse and Olwain, had also sheathed their weapons and were fighting hand-to-hand. All three had fighting powers, like she did, and she was glad that, in the heat of the moment, they were still following her plan to not let anyone die on this mission if it were possible—even their enemies.

Hoel was thrown against a wall, and Valerie leaped through the air and tackled his invisible attacker. They tumbled down the stairs, past Sanguina, whose back was against a wall as her blade flashed.

Valerie landed on top of the man, and she was about to deliver a stunning blow when he groaned. "Please stop! It's me, Blake."

Her mind spun. She remembered him—he had followed her through the Where-o-Well to Elsinore and begged to be released.

"It was a mistake to have let you go," Valerie said grimly, and raised her hand again.

"I didn't know it was you and your friends. I swear! I'll help you."

She didn't know what to think, but couldn't take the risk of trusting him now, with so much at stake. "If that's true, make your way to Arden when all this is over and we'll try to help you."

Then Valerie head-butted him, and Blake spoke no more.

The rest of the team was racing down the stairs. Olwain had Hoel slung over his shoulder, and Lyonesse and Sanguina were steps behind him.

"Where's Peach?" Valerie asked, and was met with blank stares.

She saw a flash of blonde hair and ran back up the stairs, tripping on an unconscious invisible attacker on the way. Peach was gripping her weapon, a jeweled knife, with a trembling hand, her eyes wild.

"It's okay," Valerie said softly.

"No it isn't. One of them attacked me, and I lashed out, and I think I killed him. I didn't mean to."

There was blood on Peach's blade. "His blood isn't on your hands," she said. It was an appalling fact that they were all fighting for their lives, and some would die. From now on, blood would be on her hands. The thought made her sick. She couldn't think about that now, or she would crumble.

Instead Valerie grabbed Peach's hand, and they went down to the dungeon. The Knights were chopping at the locks on the cells, but they wouldn't give.

"Try Pathos," Sanguina said. "The locks are spelled, and brute force will do nothing to break them."

Valerie drew her blade and sliced cleanly through the first lock, which offered little resistance. She briefly stared at her blade. She was only beginning to understand its power.

"I'm Valerie, and with me are Knights. We're all here to help you escape." she shouted to the prisoners in the dungeon, and her voice echoed off the stone walls.

"Are you another dream?" someone called.

"No," Valerie said. "Whatever has happened to you, it's almost over now."

She quickly broke the locks of all of the cells, of which there were more than twenty. She glanced in each one quickly to see that the inhabitant wasn't Darling or Oberon, and moved on, telling each person to follow the Knights to safety. She noticed that there were several prisoners who were People of the Woods, and she hoped that all of Elden's people who had been kidnapped were now free.

Finally, in the corner cell, she saw a shivering little creature. She didn't recognize Darling at first because all of his beautiful, golden hair had been shorn off.

"No," Valerie murmured, and in a flash, he was in her warm arms. He whimpered and snuggled close to her. There was a little peach fuzz growing back, but she doubted that he had any of his powers. They had hoped he might be able to heal anyone who was hurt on the mission, but he was in no shape to do anything of the sort.

Valerie tucked him inside her shirt, and he clung to her and burrowed close.

"You're safe now. We're going to get you out of here and no one will ever hurt you again." She swallowed a lump in her throat. It was strange to be saying the words to Darling that she had always yearned to hear herself when she was a child.

His little body was warming from its contact with hers. She made her way back to the stairwell, checking each cell to make sure no prisoners had been left behind. But everyone was leaving, the stronger helping the weak along.

There wasn't a trace of Oberon in the dungeons, and when she asked the other prisoners if they had seen him, she only received blank stares. That left only two possibilities. One was that he had miraculously escaped. The other she refused to contemplate in the middle of a battle.

Valerie quickly passed everyone so that she would reach the top of the stairs first, her heart thrumming fast in her chest in terror at what she would find. A face popped in front of her, and she bit back a scream. It was Alex, one of Gideon's Knights.

"It's safe. We took down nine of the boys and the rest fled. Zunya ran with them, deeper into the castle."

"Should we follow?" Gawain said, and his eyes glittered eagerly in a way Valerie didn't entirely like.

"No. This is a search and rescue mission. There aren't enough of us to take on everyone who's guarding this castle. Where's Gideon?" Valerie asked.

"Here," Gideon said, his voice weak. He was cradling Galahad in his arms. "He's gone. Past saving," he added, obviously for her benefit. Even a vivicus couldn't bring back the dead.

Before Valerie could choke it back, a sound of pain escaped her. But everyone was looking at her. More would die if she didn't hold herself together, she knew. The guilt could eat her alive later.

"Let's get out of here," Valerie said.

Alex and Gawain sighed with relief. Gideon held out his arms for Darling, and reluctantly Valerie released him. According to her own plan, she would be the first one to emerge from the castle, and Darling had to be protected in case they encountered any stray Fractus guarding the castle from the outside.

Sanguina went over to the crank that let down the drawbridge. Because of the magic Reaper had woven into the castle, she was the only one who could open it, and probably for the last time. After today, it would likely be re-spelled to not respond to her touch.

Despite the horror of one enemy and one friend dead on the mission, not to mention a missing Oberon, a guilty relief that it was almost over made Valerie suck in a deep breath of air. That was, until the drawbridge crashed down and revealed over a hundred Fractus in black robes—the ones who could control electricity—waiting for them on the outside.

"Draw the bridge back up!" Valerie yelled, but it was too late.

Lightning crackled from the Fractus's hands and rushed toward Valerie and her army in a blaze of light. Acting on pure instinct, she drew Pathos and held it high in the air, hoping it would divert the path of the electricity.

The lightning hit her sword, sending her staggering backward. Pathos glowed blue, and a wave of heat shot through her palm into her body. It passed through her heart and she fell to her knees.

"Listen to me," Henry's voice was back, calm in her brain. "You have to use your vivicus power to save yourself."

Part of her wanted to ignore him. She hadn't been able to save Zaki or Jet or Galahad—did she really have the right to use her power on herself? But her magic seemed to be following Henry's order without her consent. It rushed through her in a torrent, catching her up in it. She let herself be drawn away by its current, and it would have carried her away if Henry's mind hadn't forced her magic to subside.

She sagged, and Sanguina caught her before she hit the ground. Valerie forced her eyes to remain open. She saw the Knights, and even some of the stronger prisoners, fighting the Fractus.

"We must press our advantage," Sanguina said. "It will take them time to recharge and release the lightning again, but one more burst of electricity will kill us all."

Valerie nodded, and reached for her magic for strength. It was completely gone, burned out from saving her life. So she drew on something else, a strength she had before she even knew about her power.

With a battle cry that she didn't know she was capable of making, she rushed into the fight. The prisoners only had the weapons they had taken from the boys who had fallen in the threshold of the Black Castle, but they fought with a fierce hatred that seemed to give them additional strength.

Many of the Fractus seemed confused, walking around in circles or voluntarily throwing their weapons to the ground. This must be the effect of Elle, Will, and Henry. Her plan had been for them to use their psychic powers to deter anyone who followed them out of the castle—she had no idea that the enemy would be waiting for them. Ceru took advantage of their confusion, and called winding vines to emerge, tying the Fractus's ankles tightly to the ground.

Amidst the growing confusion, a majestic centaur came racing through the battlefield, trampling Fractus beneath her hooves. In battle, Summer was nothing like the old, defeated shell Valerie had met a few days ago. Even with her handicap, she had an innate skill for battle, stepping carefully so that she caused maximum damage.

Valerie saw that Kanti and Cyrus had also joined the battle, each pairing up with a Knight. They were only supposed to join the fight in a worst-case scenario, but they must have decided this was it.

Cyrus was paired with Alex, and they were an effective combination. Cyrus blocked blows from the enemy and blinded them with his shield of light and then Alex knocked them unconscious.

Kanti and Hoel fought back to back. She had a staff that she had been practicing with, but she used it more as a diversionary tactic than a weapon, shooting flowers and rainbows while Hoel took out their distracted attackers.

Valerie was thankful to see that Gideon gave Darling to Peach, who slipped through the fray toward the place where Henry and the Empaths were hiding. Peach was in no condition to fight, and her voice probably wouldn't be heard over the sounds of battle. Relieved of his burden, Gideon was immediately set upon by two Fractus, but Valerie could see that even their combined effort would be no match for her mentor.

Chrome, powered by his rage and grief, leaped on his enemies and tore at their flesh with a ferocity that was terrifying to behold.

As for herself, Valerie fought next to the last person she ever expected to have her back—Sanguina. Together, they deflected blows from the robed Fractus, who wielded metal staffs with pikes on the ends.

Valerie was running on pure adrenaline, and had the strangest sense of floating above the battle, watching it, as she fought. She saw herself duck beneath a gleaming staff which crackled with electricity. Though the attackers might not be able to cast lightning again yet, their weapons were dangerous.

Luckily, Pathos didn't conduct the minor current, and Valerie was able to chop through the Fractus's weapon. Her attacker cast aside the useless staff with a grunt and leaped at her with his bare hands, directly at her sword. She was startled and dropped Pathos just in time. Another instant, and he would have killed himself on her blade, and she would have another death on her hands.

"Cut me down!" her attacker yelled, holding his arms wide and leaving his heart exposed. She didn't understand. Why would he want to die? "Kill or be killed, that's what Reaper's orders are. It's better to kill me now than to leave me with him after a failure."

Valerie shook her head, uncomprehending, and missed the crackle of electricity that would have warned her that a blow was coming from another source. Sanguina deflected the staff inches from her head. But saving Valerie cost her—the Fractus quickly regrouped and stabbed her in the side. Sanguina crumpled to the ground.

Valerie tried to lift her, but her adrenaline had run out.

"Sorry, Henry," Valerie said, touching her brother's mind as another Fractus raised his pike and prepared to cut her down.

A fierce, protective wave of emotion passed through Henry. Valerie almost lost her connection with his mind as a blast of magic passed through him like a tornado. It reminded her of when she was using her power as a vivicus—as if he would be carried away by it, never to return.

All around her, the Fractus dropped to their knees and then completely collapsed, some of them onto their blades. She watched in horror. Surely this wasn't what Henry had intended. The power continued to course through him, threatening to sweep him away. She had to help Henry stem the tide, just as he had helped her.

She concentrated, imagining a funnel with his magic pouring through it. She forced the funnel to become more and more narrow, slowing the flow of his magic. At first, it was like trying to tame a hurricane, but gradually he pushed back against his power with her, and they forced it to subside.

Only then did Valerie realize that she wascurled in a ball next to Sanguina, unable to move or even open her eyes.Vaguely, she knew that someone was lifting her, grunting, and carrying her awaybefore she passed out.