A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

13. Karus

Chapter 13

Karus

Parvus took me through more swampy forest, more desolate trees with limbs encased in various fungi I had not seen before. Some of them oozed black liquid that slid down the branches, leaving streaks of discolored bark in their wake.

I leaned forward on Parvus’s back, too exhausted to sit up any longer, too angry with myself to do anything other than trust my lumen with leading me to safety.

I hoped beyond reason that Revich had found the rhyzolm. I wished more than anything that I would be reunited with him soon and that this would all be a nightmare settling into my past.

I could have warmed my skin with my power, but decided I deserved to freeze. I thought less of myself in those moments of hunger and exhaustion than I ever had before.

I wallowed in remorse for what felt like hours, fading into sleep a few times as I sunk into Parvus’s fur.

We finally stopped at the edge of a gentle river and Parvus waded in, lapping water generously with his long tongue. I slid from his back, my boots splashing as I took in where we were.

A white cliff faced us, its sandstone edges a stark difference to the dark, dreary forest of trees that encased it. Carved into its face were ornate window ledges, stairwells and flowing tresses of vines, green as Felgren after a summer storm. A palace had been carved into this cliffside and I had no doubts of who ruled there.

A howl erupted in the afternoon haze and I couldn’t help but grin as Rauca’s black and white face emerged from the landing stairwell of an upper floor. Moments later, the black form of the Blightress gracefully stood beside the lumen, patting her head in reassurance and smirking down at me.

I could kill her.

I could maim her, disfigure her, destroy her.

Any anger I felt in my own decision making was a hundred times more wrathful towards her, and before I could subside my rage, the hanging vines below her landing edge creeped upward, tangling on her gown of black, winding up her arms and chest.

“Karus, my child, I see that you have not denied yourself what you are entitled to these past few weeks,” she called down to me. Her voice filled the air and echoed over the water in an unnatural abundance. Before I could speak, the vines withered, drooping and falling to the stone at her feet.

Rauca left the landing and I saw the lumen’s body wind its way down through the various stairwells that opened to the world outside the palace.

She found her way to the river and howled again, Parvus joining her this time. The soil-encrusted roots of the trees along the river’s edge cut through the earth and wound together on each side, creating a bridge wide enough to cross.

I didn’t know if it was the lumens or the Blightress who created it, and at that point, I didn’t care.

“I want to leave,” I called out from the river’s edge, my voice a rasp and shaking. “I wish to return as you said I could when I was ready.”

Parvus licked my hand and ran across the bridge to join his mother lumen on the other side. I stared up at the Blightress, waiting for my bargain to be fulfilled.

“I will allow you to go, Karus, when you have listened. Or did you forget that part of our agreement?”

I clenched my fists, my long nails cutting into my skin. “I have tried to listen! It is you who has not spoken!”

“I’ll speak when you are ready to hear, and by the looks of it, that is now. Come, join me in my palace. You can bathe and eat if you wish. You must be hungry.” She turned and followed the same path as Rauca, descending stairs and standing in the open doorway to her realm. “One hour. All I ask is one more hour of your time, and I will see to it that you are free of this place. During that time, you will wash and eat, drink and listen.”

“How long was I in there?” I refused to step onto the bridge, forcing her to walk to the edge of it.

“In the portal? No more than two weeks’ time.”

I shook my head and bit my lips together. The pain kept me from falling as I stepped onto the rooted bridge. If I must spend one more hour with her to leave, I was going to get it over with. I was going to return to Revich.

She held a pale hand out for me to take as I neared the other side of the riverbank. I took it reluctantly, knowing I had little fight left, weak and confused at how I was still even alive.

Her grip was tight and cold as she led me silently into her white stone palace. It had been carved deep into the cliffside, the entrance expanding just as wide as the foyer of the Fortress. But as the fortress was all black stone and windowless, this palace was bright and airy. Openings to the outside graced the walls and the hazy sunlight filtered through them, warming the air.

“This way.” She held my hand still and led me up one of the many staircases that filtered off through the entrance. We climbed a few levels, winding around and around, sometimes getting a glimpse of the outside world. I followed without hinderance or complaint, the two lumens’ paws padding behind me.

We entered a beautifully furnished room with a large four-poster bed along one wall, the wood of which was peeling white birch. A massive fireplace was lit with a wooden rocking chair next to it.

A cauldron was boiling over the fire with something enticing bubbling on its surface.

“Your bath is drawn through there, and I’ve given you something else to wear.” She pointed toward the only open door in the room and began stirring the pot with a wooden ladle.

“Does my bathing count toward the hour I have left?”

She laughed, the sound coming deep from her chest. “Oh, Karus, you are quite determined to go back to him, aren’t you?” She tsked and shook her head. “I’m afraid I need the whole hour to tell you what you need to know. Surely, you can bathe quickly?”

I straightened my back and moved to the rocking chair by the fire. I refused to waste any time. Rev wouldn’t care if I returned to him smelling foul and wearing a soiled dress.

Her face erupted in a knowing smirk and she snapped her fingers, black trails of her magic leaving the room. Moments later, I heard something dragging on the floor. She smoothed her trailing dress, never taking her eyes from mine as she waited for something.

A creature entered the room, pushing another rocking chair ahead of itself. It looked almost human in its formation of a head, arms, and legs, but it was entirely made from plant material. Its legs were branches wound together. Its torso a tangle of sprouts and moss. Its long arms were covered in leaves while its head was capped like the top of a giant mushroom.

It blinked at me in surprise as I open-mouthed stared back.

It pushed the chair under the Blightress and she sat. “Thank you, Grower. Please, give our guest some food and drink.”

I stared stupidly as the creature bent down to the bubbling stew and ladled some of its contents into a carved wooden bowl. I took its offering, stumbling in my words of thanks before it nodded its capped head and poured water from the mantle into a glass for me to take as well.

Parvus and Rauca, who were stretched out on the floor, didn’t bat an eye at the creature.

“That is all,” she stated, and it left, closing the door behind it with a trailing branch from its arms.

“What…” I stared at the door in bewilderment, holding a steaming bowl of stew in one hand and a glass of water in the other.

“Have you never seen a Grower, Karus?” She tsked again and sighed, placing her head onto her fist. “My, my, the things you still do not know.”

I righted myself and closed my mouth. “I am listening and you have fifty minutes left.” I watched her as I drank heavily from my cup, gulping the cool water without a sputter. I placed the empty cup on the floor and began my descent into the soup. The flavor was rich with beef and vegetable broth, its base thickened from starchy potatoes. I’d never eaten anything so wonderful in my life.

“I’ll get to it then.” She grinned and began to rock, turning her face to the fire.

“First, I will answer the question you have not asked, but are dying to know.”

I swallowed a slice of soft, savory carrot whole, doing my best to both placate my rumbling stomach and focus on her words.

“I have always had a way with portal magic. The one you entered is of my own creation from centuries ago. In order to leave, you must be true to your innermost desires and emotions. I am not sure what you showed it to get out, but by your demeanor now, I can guess.”

“You said it was two weeks I was in that portal. How is it that I am still alive?”

“Again, I was once adept at portal magic. Please listen, Karus, and trust your instincts here. Time slows almost to a standstill in that place. It took great effort from me to do so, but I have had many years to perfect it. It is the only way to enter this land unharmed.”

I glanced to the lumens and furrowed my brows.

“It has no effect on such creatures. Lumens are not capable of withholding their innermost desires and so they left immediately, only seeking to explore.”

The last few words of each of her sentences she spoke slowly, drawing out what could be said quicker. I found it infuriating and frowned into my soup.

“Alright. What are you hiding then, there in the cavern. What was that thing hanging and pulsing?”

“Do you not listen, child?” She pursed her lips. “You must trust what you assume. Indeed, that is the heart of the Blight. Indeed, it is my own.”

I set my bowl on my lap, my meal half eaten, but remembering what I saw there in the cave, I could not take one bite more. “How—how did you end up like this?” I cleared my throat. “I mean, how is it possible that your heart has become…that?”

She began to rock again, leaning her white head of hair back on the chair, her golden crown still shining in the light. “What do we have left? Forty-five minutes?”

I nodded.

“I will stay to the important parts then, Karus.” She crossed a leg at the knee, closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. “I was born in Felgren and I was the most powerful thing it had ever seen.”