Edge of Pathos (The Conjurors Series Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

searching the
area carefully before turning back and nodding to Clarabelle that it was safe
to emerge.
    The presence of the
baby unicorn was almost as all-consuming as the first time Valerie had met her.
Peace enveloped her like a glow, and everything seemed possible—even defeating
the Fractus and ending this horrible war.
    “You’re here!”
Valerie burst out joyfully. “Welcome! Is it safe?”
    Safe or not, we had
to come. Clarabelle is drawn to you. I could not keep her away. Azra gently nudged
her baby with her nose, and Valerie heard her gentle cooing response in her
mind.
    Valerie knelt before
the little foal, who left her mother to nuzzle Valerie’s shoulder.
    “It’s so good to see
you, little one,” Valerie said.
    Clarabelle made
little noises in Valerie’s mind. They weren’t fully-formed thoughts, like
Azra’s, but Valerie understood the essence of what she was communicating.
Connection, joy, a kinship of spirit.
    Unicorns have always
been drawn to the pure of heart.
    Azra’s words made
Valerie unaccountably self-conscious.
    The youngest
unicorns are also the most powerful. To deny her instinct to find you would be
like depriving her of food.
    “But it’s dangerous
near me,” Valerie said, looking up at Azra’s eyes and seeing her own worry
mirrored in them.
    Unicorns are also
drawn to war, with an overpowering drive to bring peace. It may be why our race
is nearly extinct. I cannot fight Clarabelle’s impulses, especially since they
echo my own, so here we are.
    Despite her worry
for Azra and Clarabelle’s safety, Valerie was also relieved to have someone to
help guide her down the road ahead.
    Summer, an ancient
centaur who had helped Azra give birth to Clarabelle, emerged from the trees.
    “The woods are
clear,” Summer said.
    Summer has decided
to act as our guard. Azra answered Valerie’s unspoken question.
    “This is my life’s new
purpose. I never thought I’d have one again,” Summer said.
    Despite her age and
the painful way she moved after being tortured by Reaper, Valerie knew she
would be a formidable foe if anyone tried to hurt the unicorns.
    We are here now to
tell you that we will be hidden in a protected grove in your woods. If you
reach out with your mind, Clarabelle and I will hear you.
    The tiny unicorn
then poked her mother gently with her sky-blue horn.
    Azra’s eyes clouded .
She is trying to tell me something. That there is an offer of peace, a truce?
    Valerie couldn’t
hide her surprise. “How did she know that? Reaper offered us ten days of peace
in exchange for access to Plymouth.”
    I have only dim
memories of my own days as a foal, but when unicorns are young, they sense the
possibilities of the universe like you would smell a scent on the wind. This
offer is pleasing to her.
    “It would be safe to
accept?”
    Clarabelle’s
certainty overpowered her mind, a sensation so sweet that she could almost
taste it on her tongue.
    “It confirms
what I was already planning to do. I think I have a visit to make,” Valerie
said.
    When Valerie told
Henry that she was planning to accept Reaper’s offer on his own turf, she was
expecting resistance. But Henry embraced her idea.
    “If he isn’t willing
to honor my visit under a flag of truce, then he can’t be trusted in Plymouth,”
Valerie explained.
    “Agreed. But I’m
coming with you,” Henry said, and she knew he was deliberately opening his mind
to her so she would see that he wouldn’t change it on this point.
    “I don’t want it to
look like it’s an attack, so it can’t be anyone other than you and me, at the
most,” she said.
    “Then let’s not tell
the others. Cyrus, in particular, would never agree,” Henry said.
    “They’ll only worry,
and we have to do this,” Valerie agreed.
    Without any more
verbal discussion, they turned their steps toward the woods behind The
Horseshoe. The Fractus had made camp a couple of miles away, and Valerie knew
from the People of the Woods that Reaper had been