A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

9. Rev

Chapter 9

Rev

The rain was relentless.

So was my heartbeat as it tore through my chest. I stood in a hardened calm, knowing I could snap at any moment.

Moira had led us to the field of clover and I recognized it as a place the Blight once grew.

I scanned the field’s edge, looking for any sign of a fight. Figuerah encased her hands with her golden magic, whispering to the three lumens we’d brought with us. She would be able to use her iumenta power to guide them in their hunt for Karus.

Clairannia had already run to the middle of the field, yelling her name, though it was cut short by the downpour and barely audible across the field.

I tried to think like Karus.

She would not just leave me. She would know my panic, my torment when we discovered that she had not returned.

I refused to dwell on thoughts of her death.

I would not fucking believe that she had come back to me after seven years only to die two months later.

No.

If she was hurt, if she was conscious, she would have tried to leave a sign of herself.

“Figuerah,” I called, “can you communicate to the lumens to look for a rhyzolm?”

I knew exactly what she would have done. She would have been clever, leaving behind what I could use to find her again.

“Karus’s rhyzolm?” Figuerah thought for a moment and then continued to swirl her magic in front of the three lumens sitting in rapt attention.

I felt useless.

All I could provide was rage and panic. I could move mountains, rivers, and trees if I so desired. I could move the very earth we stood upon, but that would not bring us to Karus.

I began to walk the perimeter of the soggy field, rain pouring off my face, slipping from my hair, chilling my very soul. I called her name over and over just to hear it, announcing to the world I still needed her and would not let her go.

There must be something. Some sign of struggle, some reason she had left this place. Again, my thoughts turned to her in pain somewhere, dragged off by some creature, or fallen with a broken leg and bleeding.

Figuerah gave her last command and the lumens sprinted across the field, circling around one spot in the middle. The black lumen I rode looked at me before raising his massive head to howl through the rain.

I ran to him as he caught another trail, leading all of us in a straight line to the edge of the trees. Ahead, something white lay in the clover and the lumen picked it up in his mouth.

My knees hit the ground in a squelch, and I recognized a piece of Karus’s torn dress. Some relief swept through me, though new questions arose.

I turned to the black lumen and he panted, spitting the rhyzolm onto my hand.

“Good boy,” I muttered, patting his snout before he rose his head to howl once more.

I stood and closed my eyes, squeezing the stone tightly. Its cool surface hummed, and I almost cried out, thankful that my love was not dead.

“What is it?” Moira buzzed in my ear as Clairannia and Figuerah caught up to us.

“It’s the rhyzolm. She left it here for me to find.”

“Can you sense her? Can it lead you to her?” Moira flew to the top of the lumen’s head, landing there and petting him softly.

“Yes. She is alive. I cannot tell if she is hurt, but I know she is alive.”

I turned north, scanning the tree line, knowing I had quite the journey ahead.

“Well, where is she, Revich? What direction has she gone?” Figuerah asked in exasperation.

“She is north of here.” I mounted my lumen, needing to get back to the Fortress for supplies. “She is nearing the boundaries of Hyrithia.”