A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

48. Karus

Chapter 48

Karus

“ The four women who first trained with Baron Adaynth became the first mentors of the conduits he would produce, and it is said that most of them would continue on to become the first in lineage as the rulers of the isle.

The medicus conduit becoming the first Lady of the Spire, mentoring future healers. The first iumenta conduit becoming the Madame of the Mountains, raising livestock and connecting with animals of the region. And finally, the first Queen of Hyrithia is said to have been an agricola conduit and no doubt the reason Hyrithia is known for its finely grown grains and fruit trees.

It is unknown what happened to the first lapis conduit. Some sources say she ended up in the Hallow Marshes, her ability to find precious stone leading to the first discovery of rhyzolm.”

I flipped back to the cover of the book. To Train a Conduit: A History of the Conduit Trials by Thalia Lighton. The book had been one of the three Revich had brought to me in the bath. One was about fishing, one a romance that tied music and magic, and this book, which was currently the most intriguing.

I flipped through the rest of the pages quickly, scanning for any sign of the Blightress. Already there had been more in this book about the first Baron, Baron Adaynth, than I had ever been able to find in Viridis.

If nothing else, I figured this book would be useful in my own preparation for the trials. I continued from my place.

“ This tale would fit neatly into the story of the first four trained conduits by Baron Adaynth, but this author wonders, how often is history molded to fit neatly into a box that we all can wrap our heads around? Which of these stories are true, and which were created out of convenience, allowing the following generations the ability to hold onto something that cannot hurt them? Something that is easy to believe and accept with no doubts crossing their minds as they go on with their lives, raising their children, working in their towns, unaware that what they have been told may not be the truth—or at least not the whole of it.”

I shivered despite the warmth of the bath. Everything I’d learned about the Blightress had been exactly this. Her truth, regardless of how much I hated it, was not what we were told as children.

Her wrath was not born from wrath itself as we all were led to believe. She’d told me as much, and I closed my eyes, thinking of some of the last words she’d said to me: You are ever much a part of me as you are to the woman who bore you or the woman who raised you, Karus, and one day, you will be ready to truly listen.

I wondered if what really mattered was where I had come from or who I would become. The woman I’d meet by the end of my life, a woman so changed by then, would I recognize myself now? Or would I look back at this woman and all she was, wondering which turns I had taken to become so changed.

The truth of my future would remain undiscovered until I lived it. I knew that. But what I didn’t know, what I couldn’t deem to understand, was how much the woman I was now held the direction of my fate. If I hadn’t gone down that tunnel, if I had said no, refusing to follow the Blightress, would my future already be set on a different path?

And could the paths of our lives detour before finding themselves right back to where they had originally led?

Some things in life were certain.

My hatred for Heimlen and the path he had chosen was heavy in my chest each day I woke, and yet, I knew full well that some part of me was thankful.

If he had not taken me, if he had not found Rev and given him the task to find the most powerful channeler on the isle, would our paths have ever crossed?

I liked to believe they would. I liked to believe our lifelines had been linked the moment I had come into this world and that we would have found each other, regardless of the circumstances of our lives.

I chose to believe it.

I chose to believe some things were certain.

“This is Baron Revich.”

His voice echoed through the washing room and tendrils of his magic floated toward me like smoke of an extinguished flame.

Startled, I looked for him, realizing quickly he was somehow amplifying his voice. I closed the book, setting it aside and rose from the bath, grabbing my towel and hurrying to the wardrobe to dress.

I donned my channeler skirts, white linen shirt and green vest, taking care to prepare my undergarments for my bleeding.

I braided my hair quickly down my back as the last of Revich’s announcement faded from the room.

We had so much to do.

But first, I needed to head to the tallest tower because if I knew Philius at all, I knew he was headed down that endless staircase that very moment in search of me.

“Turn around ,” I ordered, pointing back up the black stone steps where Philius was indeed hurrying down, now dressed in traditional channeler clothing.

“What the fuck is going on? Where exactly have you brought us to, Karus?” He stopped on the landing, folding his arms across his chest.

Ignoring his questions, I retorted, “Stop with the dramatics. Turn around and get back to your room. You are not a prince of Hyrithia here, Philius. You are a channeler and you must listen to your Baron.”

He leaned against the stairwell, his golden brown eyes challenging me just as they had as children. “And if I don’t? Do we need to leave? Isn’t the Blight the thing that almost killed you? What if you contract this illness and die, Karus? You should be in your rooms.”

“I swear, Philius, if you do not get back to your room, I will force you there and seal your door.”

He scoffed, “Like you could.”

“She can.”

I jumped, surprised by Revich’s presence behind me in my attempt to get my brother to follow orders—something he’d never excelled in.

Philius’s arms fell to his sides and he glared behind me.

“Your sister is right. You need to be in your room. We won’t hide anything from you. As soon as we know more about this illness, we will inform you and everyone else here. I do not keep such secrets from the people under my care.”

“But you’ll risk her .” Philius pointed to me and took a step down, closer to where I stood.

“If I thought Karus was in danger of contracting this illness, she would not be here on these stairs speaking to you.”

It was my turn to glare. Like he had a choice.

“Revich thinks we cannot succumb to what Pompeii has due to where our magic comes from. Something”—I held up my hand to stop Philius from his next question—“you don’t need to know about right now, but something I will tell you later. Now please, go back to your room and let us handle this. We’re wasting time.”

Revich didn’t respond to my order, but waited with me to see what the Prince of Hyrithia would do.

He scraped his teeth together and gave short nod, turning and heading back up the stairs. He called over his shoulder, “I want Karus to bring me my food. If I don’t hear from her specifically, I’ll find a way to get to her and leave .”

I muttered an assembly of curses under my breath.

“That princely charm is endearing,” Revich remarked, watching him leave.

“It always worked well on the Queen.”

He slid his fingers through mine, turning us around and back down the enormous staircase. “How are you feeling?”

“Better. But worried. Let’s get to Heimlen’s study.”

“We’re eating first in our rooms.”

“Forget food, we need to start our search.”

“Oh, and you function so well on an empty stomach, don’t you?” His dark eyes glinted with a playful smile.

“Fine,” I relented, my stomach giving a well-timed grumble.

After we’d gone through all the cinnamon buns and egg pastries filled with salty bacon and cheese, we stood before the solid black door with the emerald glass knob.

The alcove on the black stone staircase was easily missed, dark and eerie, even more so now that I knew exactly the kind of man who had occupied it.

I felt Rev’s apprehension along with mine before he turned to me. “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” I nodded, squeezing his hand.

He turned the key in the door and murmured, “For Felgren.”

The lock clicked and he pushed the door open, more darkness greeting us like a past we could never escape.

We stepped inside, and I lit the lantern without a word, my green wisps of power flying to the wick, illuminating the room in a dim glow.

Rev’s emotions were in complete turmoil, spilling from him endlessly in a cascade of anger, guilt, and betrayal.

“I never wanted to come back here,” he whispered, his eyes scanning every inch of the room he had trained in with Heimlen to become Baron of Felgren.

“I hate that you have to,” I replied, my heart only filled with wrath for the man who had sat at the desk in front of us.

I took the key and stepped around the desk, lowering to the floor and inserting it into the hidden lock below the worktable. It clicked loudly and I rose to push the table forward, opening the secret door to this room I had discovered seven years ago.

I stepped inside, my magic again leaving my fingers to light the fireplace. It took longer than I expected, but eventually lit, filling the room with a low light.

It reeked of mold and dust, but I ignored the smell and ignored the looming memory of the night I had discovered the truth of Heimlen’s manipulation. The walls were littered with portraits of barely clothed women, the canvases dark with a think layer of dust. I avoided the gaze of each of them, especially the one above the fireplace.

I moved quickly to the desk, snatching a journal off its surface. I remembered placing it there so long ago. I began sifting through the shelves of the bookcases, looking for any journals I had missed when I had originally ransacked this room for answers.

I knew Sylva, Heimlen’s lover and life source, had burned most of them, but I held hope that she’d missed some.

Something here must allude to how he cured the Black Fever. I flipped open a journal and scanned the page. Seeing Heimlen’s long scrawl, I wanted nothing more than to slam it shut and burn it, as the others had burned in that very fireplace where Revich now stood.

I turned my attention to him as he studied the portrait of a young Sylva.

“There’s so much I should have questioned.”

“Rev,” I started, “we can take some of these and leave. We don’t have to search for the answers here. We can take them to our rooms and?—”

“No.” He turned to me, his irises black as night, continuing, “No part of him leaves this room. I won’t have him anywhere else in the Fortress.”

“Yes, sir,” I agreed.

A small smirk lit his mouth, and he came to the bookcase, reading their spines, thick with dust. Pulling a few, he headed back to the fire, sitting stiffly in one of the chairs. Dust puffed around him and he coughed into the stale air.

“Here, let me,” I said, murmuring, “ Nitidus” and watching as the chair’s thick layer of grime disappeared immediately, the black fabric looking newly upholstered.

“Neat trick,” he chuckled, leaning back to its surface and opening the book in his lap.

We stayed like that for hours, neither of us finding anything useful, checking in with each other every so often.

I had to stop myself from being consumed by a journal full of Heimlen’s remarks on Revich’s first days in Felgren as he trained in the Baronship.

“The boy shows much promise. His spirit is light and humorous, and his power is harnessed in his full heart. Already he makes friends with the Overseer and some of the channelers. They will go through the conduit trials soon, and I will bring the next few, hopefully including the one who can help me fight the Blight.

He is learning to use his rhyzolm properly. It led him to several channelers back in his home, but he needs more practice, more focus to really hone in on the one we need.

He has sworn to me he will be able to do this. Alas, I feel I myself am softening toward him. He will one day make a great Baron if I can just mold him into the man I know he can become.”

I gulped at the lump forming in my throat, raw and painful. Furious, I wiped at the tears that fell onto the page, refusing to sniff at what ran from my nose and alert Rev that I was crying.

His head shot to me across the room and he rose from the tidy black chair. “What is it?”

Fuck, I’d forgotten about the bond for a moment—there was no hiding from him.

I wiped my sleeve under my nose and shut the journal. It had no use to us right then anyway. “It’s nothing.” I rose and added the journal to the pile of books I’d already skimmed through, adding, “He was just a bastard.”

Rev turned my chin to meet his gaze as a flicker of blue traversed its surface. He cupped my cheek, leaning down to my lips, placing a soft kiss before a simple whisper of, “I love you, Karus.”

My sobs came without invitation or welcome as I reached for him, falling into his chest, unable to do anything but cry there.

He wrapped his arms around me, and as my body shook against him, my mind whirled with all the pain Heimlen had put him through. I could face my own hurt. I could manage my own wrath and hatred for that man, but I could not take Rev from his. I could never protect him from those feelings of betrayal, and so, I felt I could never be the rock he needed.

“What’s all this?” He tucked some of my loosened hair behind my ear. “Your emotions are something to be studied. They’re changing so rapidly.”

I laughed into his chest, breathing in his warmth. “I can’t seem to help it. I just…” I squeezed my eyes shut and drowned out Heimlen from my thoughts. “I’m just…Rev, I’m so thankful for you. Please tell me you know that. I don’t say it enough—not nearly enough.” I pressed my lips back to his and pulled away to whisper, “I’m so thankful you found me.”

His smile was brilliant, an utter perfectionist ode to all that was beautiful in a man, his now dark blue eyes looking at me like I was the absolute answer to everything.

“We deserve each other, remember? You live, I live.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and shuddered as I inhaled, forcing my body to calm. I nodded, running my fingers through his black waves. “You breathe, I breathe, Rev.” I smiled above his lips chuckling as I whispered, “A fucking lifeline .”