AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No, let me,” my mom countered.
Zita shook her head firmly. “You need to rest. You can’t do that again right away. You have to look after yourself, or no one can be helped.”
I was glad when my mom listened to her. She could be headstrong, like me, but she had a soft spot for Zita, and I was glad Rainier had chosen to send the warrior along with us.
Zita looked concerned as she studied my mom’s face.
“I’ll help one,” I told Zita, who nodded and stood reluctantly, leaving my mom’s side.
She walked to the door and let in another Conjurite servant.
This time, it was a young man—hardly more than a teenager. The darkness within him wasn’t nearly as powerful as it had been with Evanore, or some of the others, and he wasn’t very chatty, either.
I tried making conversation, but after it failed, we got right to the point.
I held his hands, and he closed his eyes.
The darkness swirled inside of him like a hurricane, a storm that threatened to break loose. I shivered, the fear clutching at my throat, scratching at my skin. I wondered absently if it would leave a mark like a feral animal.
I focused on the light within me, anchoring myself in Terra, and while I held onto the boy’s hands, I poured that light into him. In my mind’s eye, I saw him fill up with light, as if he were a cup. Slowly, as the light filled him, the darkness had nowhere to go but out, and it spilled out of him. I watched as it turned into light before my eyes, a thing of ugliness transformed into a thing of beauty.
It took a long time for all of the darkness to disappear, even though I didn’t have to fight nearly as hard as I’d thought I had to. I just had to be persistent.
Finally, it was gone. When the boy opened his eyes, they were hazel, not almost black, and his hair had become almost white, it was so blond. His skin glowed gently.
He grinned at me. “That was…cool.”
“It was,” I said with a laugh. My back ached, and I fought to stay upright.
He stood, and when he left, I lay back onto the couch, too.
“Are you okay?” Mom asked meekly from her couch.
“Perfectly fine,” I breathed.
“We might have underestimated what it would take to do this.”
We had. We’d thought it would be a piece of cake, and it was everything but. Most of the afternoon was gone, and we’d only helped a few people.
My mom sat up suddenly, as if her body had been jerked upright by an external force. Her eyes rolled back in her head, and when she blinked them open again, they were white. The color of her irises, her pupils, was all gone.
“What’s happening?” Zita cried out in a panic.
“She’s having a vision,” I answered. I’d seen my mom do this before. It had been as terrifying then as it was now, but at least I knew what it was. “She’s seeing something from Terra. A message. Mom, what do you see?”
“Stop it!” Mom suddenly shouted. “Do you think you can take away my people and I won’t put up a fight?”
“What is she talking about?” Zita asked, confused.
I frowned and shook my head. “I’m not sure.”
“If you don’t take your hands off my Conjurites, you’re in for a hell of a ride. Go back to where you came from. Terra has enough worshipers! These Conjurites aremine!”
We stared at my mom as the color came back into her cheeks and she squeezed her eyes shut. When she blinked them open again, they were back to normal.
“What was that, Mom?” I demanded. “What happened, what did you see?”
Mom shook her head and pressed the heel of her palm against her head.
