A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

49. Rev

Chapter 49

Rev

We spent a week searching the books in Heimlen’s study before we moved on to the books in the library. We’d found nothing. Not a single hint at how we could possibly cure a disease created from the Blight.

Pompeii grew worse daily, though I could see him fighting. He could still use his magic, and I wondered what kind of conduit he would have become if he had ever trained.

So far, Lia had not taken ill, though she was the one to initially bring food to Pompeii before his illness had gotten worse. Just as I predicted, neither Karus or I had been affected. Talon and Ilyenna showed no sign of illness either, though they insisted they hadn’t done more than leave soup on Pompeii’s table when they saw he’d been sleeping.

Philius continued to sulk in his room, and Karus was sure to be the one to bring him food and tell him that she was still well.

I had tried several different spells of healing for Pompeii with no change in his condition. I wrote to Clairannia, hoping there was something she knew, something she could tell me to try.

Karus pushed for Viridis.

She did so subtly, mentioning the idea of bringing it back every so often in our search. She’d insist that it might still hold the key to curing this illness, just as Heimlen had once discovered something there.

“The books in Viridis are mostly ruined,” I reminded her for what I was sure was the tenth time that day.

“ Mostly ruined is not all ruined. We could go together. We could head straight to the medicus section and grab what we can and run.” She held a stack of books in our current library to her chest, chewing her bottom lip.

I pulled on the back of my neck, tossing a book to the chair I’d been sitting in for hours. “Think about what you’re saying for a moment. You want to return to the place where a version of the Blight grows that we know very little about. A version of the Blight that has infected Pompeii, who’s been fighting it for more than a week now. The last time you were there, it came for you. I had to stop our excursions to retrieve books from Viridis because the Blight almost took Clairannia. It’s too dangerous , Karus. We need to keep searching and wait for Clairannia to write back.”

“But the spell, Rev. We can at least try Simulair Solum and?—”

“And what? Put some pillows down to break your fall when I have to knock you to the ground again?”

She glared my way, setting her stack of books down and storming to me. “You could do it then. You could use the spell. I’ll use Cosensian Magic to help. But this,”—she gestured to the walls lined with bookcases—“this is not working. There’s nothing here. Heimlen found his cure in Viridis, and it might still be there, waiting for us to find it, too.” She crossed her arms at her chest. “It’s the best bet we’ve got.”

I exhaled long and hard through my teeth. “Alright. We’ll practice today. Maybe we’ll hear from Clairannia and get some options to try from her. But let’s get on the same page here.” I pulled her body to mine, leaning back against the desk behind me. “You should not attempt that spell again. It’s not just about the fact that you can’t seem to break it. It’s also about how you lost your memories because of it. That’s not worth the risk and Pompeii would agree.”

She placed her hand on my chest and held the other in the air. “I promise not to use the spell without speaking to you first, Baron Revich. As your channeler in training, you can trust my word.”

Her eyes glinted in amusement, and I bent forward to kiss her forehead. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

I held an orb of blue light above my hands, glancing at seven of the people who relied on me.

Karus and I agreed that because it had been over a week since the infection had started and no one else had contracted the illness, we could release the Fortress lockdown.

Each of the channelers sat on the fallen trunk of a dead tree covered in moss and lichen. They looked relieved to be out of their rooms.

“When you channel your magic for a specific spell enhancement,” I began, my gaze flicking to each one of them, “it’s essential you know exactly what you’re trying to produce. Any wavering of any kind in your motivation can cause unforeseen results from your power.”

“Like that time Talon tried to call an owl to perch on his arm and the owl dropped a dead quiphit on his head instead?” Rell giggled, elbowing her sister who laughed, both of them watching Talon for a rise.

He had his arms folded, Ilyenna’s head resting on his shoulder. The slightest smirk twitched on his lips, but he kept his gaze on me.

“Yes, Rell, something like that. You must focus your mind on what exactly you wish to do. What is your purpose with your power in that moment? Siphon your magic and have a reason. If you do not, Felgren will guess for you.”

I took a breath, my eyes catching on Karus for just a moment, sitting at the end of the tree, her hands wringing in her lap. Her anxious energy did not help, but I exhaled slowly, focusing on what I wanted to produce.

“ Simulair Solum ,” I spoke, focusing back on my ball of light as it warmed in my hands, a defined brilliance of sunshine lighting its surface. I held it as long as I could, the heat and heaviness difficult to steady for more than a few minutes before I ended the spell, folding my hands closed to snuff out the light.

Karus and I had agreed the first thing I should focus on was the length of time I could hold the spell, not the size of the orb.

“Why don’t you just use this spell in front of Pompeii and see if he’s better?” Philius asked, sitting next to Karus, his own arms folded across his chest.

“I have. Briefly, but it was worth a try. This Black Lung illness is contained within his chest and sunlight does nothing for it.”

Karus rose and began to pace. “What was the spell like for you, Mychael? The one that cured the Black Fever. You were there. Did it look like anything? Could you see it?”

He stood as well, his hand moving to his side where, as a guard, his sword had been sheathed. Remembering he no longer wore one, he rubbed his chin instead. “I was stationed at the castle at the time, but I didn’t see anything. I remember the cries of relief throughout the city and the cheers, but…I certainly don’t remember a glowing sun.”

Karus nodded. “I didn’t see anything either. It was as if one minute Philius was on the brink of death and the next, he was just sleeping peacefully.”

The Prince slid his jaw to the side and looked my way. “How is it Heimlen was able to cure thousands of people at once and you can barely hold a spell for a few minutes? Are you less of a Baron than he was?”

It was the wrong thing to say.

Not just as a spoiled princeling to someone with greater power, but as a channeler to his Baron.

The shock had barely enough time to register to the other six of them before I called the wind to push them away from the fallen tree. The entire moss-laden piece of the forest rose, and Philius scrambled to find purchase.

He grunted in an effort to stay wrapped around the trunk as it lifted higher into the air. I tilted my head slowly, the trunk following the movement, rotating and threatening a vertical, upright position.

“Rev.” Karus came to my side and touched my arm as the other five channelers either laughed or grimaced while Philius yelled for help, now slipping down the mossy surface of the trunk a good fifteen feet off the ground. His legs wrapped around the thick of it while his blackened fingers struggled to grip the bark.

I stepped forward out of Karus’s reach, my hands shoved in my pockets, a grin on my face. I’d hoped I’d be the one to put Philius in his place.

“How is it,” I drawled, “that a Prince of Hyrithia, born into a role of privilege and diplomacy, can speak with such disrespect and think there will be no consequence?”

“Help!” he shouted, sliding another foot down the tree as it came to a forty-five degree angle above the ground.

I heard a gasp from Ilyenna behind me, but I did not look back. I’d never had to do anything close to this with any of my other channelers. Each one of them understood their role in Felgren as well as mine.

Philius would come to that understanding today.

“Put me down!” His demand was confident, full of conviction that his order would be met as it always had been in his castle.

“You’ve not yet answered my question, but I will answer yours.” I kept my eyes on him, high above me. “Heimlen took weeks, possibly months to find the cure to the illness he created from the Blight. He had access to Viridis and all of its books on medicus conduit magic. This cure will take time to find, but we will find it. And as for the Simulair Solum spell,”—I glanced back at Karus who watched Philius with unease—“even the most powerful magic wielder here cannot hold it for long, and when she does, she cannot seem to break it. It is the same spell that took her memories and would have killed her if I had not knocked her over and broken it for her.”

Sixty degrees. He slipped further.

“So, yes, I cannot hold the spell for long, but you will not doubt my power again, nor my ability to put you in your proper place in this forest, which can be up there, dangling on that tree, or down here with your fellow channelers who understand what it means to respect their Baron.”

Eighty degrees. He squeezed his eyes shut and orange sparks flared at his fingertips, singeing the dead wood as he began a slow slide downward.

I turned around to address my channelers and the most powerful one among us. “Our next task is to attempt to get into Viridis’s medicus hall. I want each of you to head to the library, and research anything you can find on it. Many of the conduit memoirs mention it in their books. Start there.”

I stepped in front of Karus specifically, ignoring the shouts from Philius that he could not hold on any longer. Her face was tight with worry, and I knew she struggled to hold her tongue. I kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear, “I’ll handle this. Go check on Pompeii, will you?”

She nodded slowly with so much she wanted to say forcing its way across our tether, but she bit her lips inwardly and turned, following the channelers back to the Fortress.

I watched them go, a thin branch from a nearby willow tree snapping taught around Philius’s ankle as his grip faltered and he began to fall. I let go of the tree trunk and heard it crash to the ground, turning back around to see him dangling a good six feet from the earth, his arms hanging, his black coils bouncing along with the rest of him.

“I hate you,” he managed to spit, his breathing heavy.

“You don’t need to state the obvious. But, since you’re feeling especially angry, this is the time to practice your magic.”

I pointed up to the willow branch wrapped around his foot. “You can come down when you break this.”

He bent his neck toward his foot to see where he was held. “How do I do it? And won’t I break something when I fall?”

I laughed. “Would you like me to get your pillow from your bed, Your Highness?”

He gritted his teeth and ignored my jab, reaching toward his foot, sparks of power flickering before sputtering out at his fingertips.

To his credit, he tried several times, ultimately failing and falling back down, his arms hanging while he closed his eyes to regain his breath.

I watched him carefully, fumbling with the rhyzolm in my pocket. It still buzzed behind me toward where Karus had left. I focused my senses and turned my power toward Philius to get another read on just how much magic he held.

The rhyzolm continued its slight pulse toward him. It hadn’t changed since we’d entered Felgren, unlike Mychael where it pulsed steady, and stronger than when he had been outside of it. Every channeler I had brought here had grown in their strength the moment they set foot on Felgren’s soil. Every one of them but the Prince.

“I didn’t know,” he mumbled, swinging slightly upside down in the breeze. “I didn’t know you had to knock her down to break the spell. And I didn’t,”—his eyes flashed open to look at me—“I didn’t know she was the most powerful one here.” He scoffed, reaching up to try to break the vine again. “Maybe she should be Baron.”

I grinned, letting go of the Rhyzolm and folding my arms at my chest.

He didn’t know how right he was.

He obviously loved his sister, just as he obviously did not really know her.

He fell back down to hang there, a grunt of exasperation sounding from his chest.

“Again,” I ordered, my stare unwavering. “Try it again.”