The Society of Imaginary Friends

“This is insanity!” Kanti exclaimed, her voice high-pitched with panic. “You can’t rescue Cyrus on your own. I’m not doubting your power, but remember what Azra said? Dunsinane is where Sanguina will be at her strongest. It would be almost impossible for you to defeat her there.”

“I know,” Valerie agreed, amazed by how calm she was, her sense of purpose giving her certainty. “But if I don’t go, Cyrus and his family will be hurt. If you could have heard Zunya’s voice, you would know that he wasn’t bluffing. He’ll kill them one by one to get to me if he has to. Please, don’t make me live with that on my conscience for the rest of my life.”

“What about my conscience? Let me come with you! They won’t consider me a threat since I don’t have any magic. But at least then there will be two of us. We can watch each other’s backs.”

Valerie had never seen Kanti so desperate. Her face was flushed, and sweat beaded her forehead. There was no way that Kanti was going to let her go without coming along. Valerie couldn’t blame her. But she couldn’t bear the thought of putting another friend’s life in jeopardy. She had caused enough damage already.

Valerie had an idea. “You can’t come with me because I need you to do something even more important. We can’t leave Gideon and the others in Zunya’s control. Get Azra and as many Conjurors as you can to defeat him. Once they’re safe, you and Azra can come help me in Dunsinane without worrying that they’ll be hurt.”

“We should do that first, together, and then go rescue Cyrus!”

Valerie shook her head firmly. “I know Sanguina. She will make him suffer for every second that I delay. This will work. We both have to move as fast as we can.”

“All right. But if you and Cyrus don’t come back in perfect condition, I swear to you I will find Sanguina myself and tear her apart with my bare hands,” Kanti said with a quiet rage that Valerie had never imagined her capable of.

“So how do I get to Dunsinane fast?”

“The wind tunnel is the quickest way. But I’ve never visited the mountains before, so I don’t know how to direct you farther than that.”

“‘The castle on the highest peak,’ Zunya said. It can’t be that hard to find.”

“Azra wasn’t able to find it,” Kanti said doubtfully.

“Azra didn’t have an invitation,” Valerie replied. Sanguina would be all too eager to destroy her as soon as she had a chance. The thought made her stomach roil with nerves.

The booming sound of the knocker hitting the front door echoed through the entire house. Kanti and Valerie exchanged worried glances.

“Probably just a visitor,” Kanti said, but she kept her voice at a whisper. They crept down the hall and peered through the banister down to the first floor. Ani had transformed into Iago and hurried to open the door. To Valerie’s horror, Ani ushered one of the transparent Conjurors into the house and glanced around nervously, as if she was afraid that she would be seen.

“Wha—” Kanti started to say, but Valerie clapped a hand over her mouth.

“Could you BE any louder? They’re sure to hear you. You incompetent fools have made enough of a mess already, do you want to add blowing my cover as WELL?” Ani hissed to the man, glancing up toward the banister where Kanti and Valerie were peering. They jumped back to avoid being seen.

Kanti shook her head and then slammed her fist into the wall beside her. “How could Ani do this? She’s my family!”

“I don’t know, but we have to get out of here,” Valerie said. She pulled a stunned Kanti down the hall back to their room. “You’ve got to keep it together. We have to get out of here right now.”

Kanti took a deep breath and shook herself out of her daze. “Right, okay.” She pointed to the large gargoyles and frills that were sticking out of the wall. “Use the wide ledge and then spider down.”

“Okay,” Valerie said, gulping back her fear as she peered down the two stories. “Let’s do this!”

Quietly, Kanti raised the window and stepped out onto the ledge. Valerie followed tentatively. She couldn’t let her fear freeze her mind right now. She had to move, or Cyrus and Henry would be the ones to suffer for her spinelessness. She put one foot onto the head of a nearby stone gargoyle and one hand on the windowsill, and slowly inched her way down.

“Okay, you can jump now, Val,” Kanti whispered loudly after several heart-pounding minutes. To her relief, the ground was only a few feet below her. “Put your hood on. We don’t want any of the birds chirping our whereabouts to anyone.”

Valerie obeyed, pulling up the hood of Kanti’s coat, and then hurried after her down the cobblestone streets. For almost an hour, she and Kanti half ran, half speed-walked to avoid being noticed. Wherever possible, they took side streets and alleys. Adrenaline coursed through Valerie’s entire body, and she was alert, noticing every detail of the people on the streets, from the bright feathers in the ladies’ elaborate hairdos to the stiff nods people greeted each other with as she kept a sharp lookout for anyone suspicious.

Finally, they reached the edge of town and entered a clearing next to the snow-covered forest. “Here you are,” Kanti said, panting slightly.

Valerie was puzzled. “It’s an empty field full of snow. Where’s the tunnel?”

Kanti pointed up. A tornado of swirling air hovered above the clearing. Valerie’s eyes widened with nervous surprise when she saw her latest mode of transportation.

“Walk beneath it and jump; the wind will sweep you up. After awhile you’ll land in Dunsinane somewhere, from what I hear. Oh, and hang on to your hair.”

Valerie’s heart beat hard in her chest, but she didn’t want Kanti to know how terrified she was—not only of the journey to Dunsinane, but also what she’d have to do once she got there. “Thank you, Kanti, for everything.”

Kanti gripped her in a sudden, tight hug. “Azra and I will stop Zunya, and then we’re coming straight to you.”

“I know. It’s going to be okay.”

“It has to be,” Kanti said fiercely. Then she turned and ran in the opposite direction.

When Kanti left, Valerie called for Pathos from the callbox and strapped it to her side. Gripping the hilt in her hand lent her strength and eased some of the tension in her muscles. Then she forced herself to walk purposefully to the middle of the clearing, beneath the wind tunnel. She squeezed her eyes shut, jumped, and—nothing happened. The spinning air was still there. A few leaves blew around in circles inside of it.

She jumped up and down over and over again, but she stayed firmly planted on the ground. What was she going to do? Had she come this far only to mess it all up now? Then the air around Valerie changed, stirring the hair on the back of her neck. The breeze, gentle at first, blew harder and harder. Valerie remembered Kanti’s advice about holding her hair, but too late—the air was already swirling around her.

Her feet lifted off the ground, and suddenly she was in the middle of the whirlwind. She was spun around in circles, and thought she might vomit everything she had ever eaten. But then the spinning abruptly slowed as she was swept into the eye of the tornado, which was comparatively calm and still. She hovered a few yards above the ground. Then, like she had been shot from a cannon, she was hurtling straight through the air. Beneath her, the ground was a blur of colors.

At first, Valerie found the trip frightening. There was nothing to hold on to except for her sword, nothing to support her except the wind swirling around her. But as she got used to it, she spread her arms wide. It was like flying. She could even steer herself a little, like a bird, and she made sure that she stayed in the center of the wind tunnel. No way did she want to be whipped around at the edges again. She was free. The crisp wind and the exhilarating speed energized her. Maybe she would be able to defeat Sanguina after all, and in a few hours, she, Henry, and Cyrus would all be safe.

The jagged purple peaks of the mountains of Dunsinane appeared in the distance. The wind whisked her up higher and higher, dashing her past piles of dusty rocks in the foothills of the mountains. Gradually, she seemed to be flying more and more slowly until she finally hovered above a huge, flat rock about the size of a football field. The whirling wind eased, and she was deposited gently onto the ground.

She tried to get her bearings. Her hair was a tangled mess. The landscape was strange. Instead of the browns, greens, and grays that she was used to seeing in nature, here the land was different shades of muted purple, and the few tufts of green weeds growing between the rocks stood out in sharp contrast. Purple was usually one of her favorite colors, but here it seemed eerie and foreboding.

A prickle of fear raised goose bumps on Valerie’s arms. She was so alone here, separated from everyone who cared for her. She scanned the skyline for the castle on the highest peak, and immediately knew where she was meant to go. Towering above everything was a tall, black castle shrouded in heavy mist that looked as if it had grown straight out of the mountain itself. It had dozens of pointed, narrow turrets, but not a single window, as far as she could tell from a distance. She began to sweat as she imagined how dark it must be inside, and how hard it must be for Cyrus, as a lightweaver, to be so completely deprived of light.

As she stared, the castle seemed to flicker. Then, right before her eyes, several new spires appeared on the fortress. She stared in amazement, and a few seconds later, the castle changed shape again. This time, a large turret on the side disappeared. It was as if the castle was constantly morphing, unable to maintain one shape.

She stared, trying not to let the thought of what she was about to face intimidate her. Then she forced herself to put one foot in front of the other and begin her climb up to the castle. But before she could take three steps, a loud laugh echoed off the rocky mountainside. She froze, her muscles tense and ready to attack.

Suddenly the shadowy landscape came to life as Shade and his gang scurried out from behind the rocks like rats. Before she could ready a clever retort about her last encounter with him, an instinctive prickle of foreboding made the hairs on the back of her neck stand at attention.