A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

58. Rev

Chapter 58

Rev

Toying with the rhyzolm in my pocket, I puffed air from my lips, leaning against the stone wall of Ilyenna’s room.

No fever, no bruise across her chest, no sign of the Black Lung that had buried into Pompeii, but still, she was not well.

Talon pulled hair back from her face, his own full of fear.

“It’s nothing. Really, you two don’t need to hover over me like this.” Her voice was firm, at least, and not raspy as Pompeii’s had been.

Talon squeezed her hand tightly. “We’re just concerned after what infected Pompeii.”

I’d never seen him like this. I supposed even the strongest of men were soft to the ones they loved most.

I tried to voice his reasoning. “Ilyenna, I don’t wish to worry you, but you’ve fallen ill not long after the Black Lung. We believe we’ve cured the disease, but we could very well be wrong.”

A light knock came to the door, and Karus poked her head inside. “I heard Ilyenna’s ill?” She looked at me with the same concern.

“I’m fine ,” Ilyenna grumbled, taking her hand from her companion and crossing her arms at her chest in her bed. “Just tired.”

“And nauseous. You couldn’t keep your dinner down last night,” Talon added, looking back at us.

Karus cocked her head, eyes narrowing. She opened her mouth to say something and hesitated. “Talon, Revich, I need a minute alone with Ilyenna please.”

Talon sighed, bending his head forward, his two long black braids following the movement. He rose and left the room, an exasperated look on his face just for me.

I turned and left as well, waiting with Talon right outside the door. He paced back and forth across the hall.

“She’s probably right. I’m sure it’s nothing, Talon. Something she ate didn’t sit well.” I did my best to convince him, attempting to convince myself just the same.

“What if it’s not? What if it is the Black Lung? You said you destroyed the Blight that caused it in the first place and?—”

“We did. Pompeii is cured. This must be something—” I stopped my reassurance, confused. Karus was relieved, excited, and stern all at once in that room.

I pulled myself from the wall and waited for her to exit.

A brilliant smile lit her face as she opened the door. “Talon, Ilyenna has something to tell you.” She was practically beaming with joy as she moved aside and let him enter.

She took my hand, pulling me down the hall to the staircase.

“What is it? What’s wrong with Ilyenna?” I asked.

We got to the bannister that looked down many levels below to the foyer and she kissed me. “Nothing is wrong. Ilyenna is growing a child.”

“ What? ”

She laughed, falling into my chest. “In eight months or so, the Fortress will host its first baby.”

Relief and shock sifted through me as I wrapped my arms around Karus, shaking my head.

“How…how did this happen?” I murmured in disbelief.

She pulled back to look at me. “You know very well how this happened.”

“Talon assured me they had styris tea.”

“Ilyenna assured me that their first night as companions, they did not.”

I huffed, trying to process what I’d never had to think about before. When a child came in several months, Ilyenna would still not be ready for her conduit trials. She’d need time to rest and they’d need help taking care of the baby. Maybe some of the staff would be willing to help take care of the child. We’d also need to move her and Talon to a room on the first level?—

“Revich,” Karus interrupted my thinking. “Say your thoughts aloud. I’d love to know what you’re thinking.”

“What does she need? What can we do to help her right now?” I pulled my hands through my hair, leading Karus down the stairs. “We need them to choose a room on the ground floor. She can’t be walking up all these stairs several times a day. And what about her nausea? I’m sure Lia knows something that can help. She won’t be ready for the conduit trials by the time the baby comes, so we need to enlist help from the staff so she can take breaks to train. Unless of course, she wants to spend more time with the baby, and?—”

Karus was glowing.

I realized this when I finally glanced at her as we hurried down the stairs to get to the kitchens. Her joy had always shown itself as green. There was a warmth in the color that radiated from her fingers, often forming over her shoulders as well.

I stopped, pulling her to me. “You’re glowing.”

She laughed. The sound was the purest flutter of beauty I’d ever hear. “I don’t know if you know this, my love, but you make me glow. It’s almost always you. I know joy from you.”

She kissed me, wrapping her arms around my neck, and I didn’t hesitate to pull her chest against mine.

“You are the best Baron Felgren has ever seen.” She kissed my cheek and pulled herself into my neck.

“I’m sure better ones will come along,” I whispered into strands of white and chestnut hair.

“I mean it, Rev. You love and protect your channelers, your Overseer, and the people under your care better than any other Baron in the history of Barons. I know. I’ve read all about them. You’re doing it. You’re changing the Baronship for the better.”

“We.” I pulled her in front of me to smile at the glow still hovering over her. “ We are doing this. Together.”

She pressed her forehead to mine. “You breathe, I breathe.”

“You live, I live,” I promised.

Rauca greeted me with her usual nips on my arm. I inspected her for more evidence of what Karus had pointed out to me.

A new growth of vines wound under her belly, deep within the white fur. I glanced to Karus who inspected Parvus as well.

“Here,” she sighed, pointing to a spot behind his ears which was sprouting small brown thorns.

“On Rauca’s belly, too,” I remarked, patting her head in reassurance when she whined at me.

“When Figuerah arrives with Clairannia, we need to discuss this with her.” She laughed as Parvus jumped up, licking her face and almost knocking her to the ground. “At least their behavior hasn’t changed.”

Philius stood nearby, already saddling his own lumen, waiting in uncharacteristic patience.

I hopped on Rauca’s back, past the need for a saddle to keep myself on. “Let’s review this one more time. We ride to the edge of the Blight. We say nothing. We do nothing but observe. Save your questions for when we return, Philius. You do not touch the Blight, and neither does Karus. Agreed?”

“Yes, sir,” Karus called, while Philius nodded.

I loved when she did that.

I turned Rauca, whispering directions to her, and she took off, her massive paws bounding over brush and branches, leading the other two on the quickest path.

She howled into the afternoon air, the other two lumens returning her call in a cacophony of wolfish reports I couldn’t comprehend.

When we reached the edge of the Blight, my heart thudded in a heavy apprehension. The line of dull black had been forced back by Karus seven years ago and here we met the extent of what her power had destroyed. Very little of the Blight had grown since then, including this particular acreage.

I had not returned to this edge of dark mist with her at my side, but she squeezed my hand in assurance that she would heed my words.

Philius dismounted, his face an open book of disbelief.

The Blight was monstrous yet remarkable in its expanse of black vines that wove over the trunks of trees, curling around each one in the maze of dark, smothering the life and beauty of Felgren.

Philius glanced at us and took a breath to speak, but Karus shook her head, reminding him of his agreement.

Karus and I watched him walk to the line where abundant green clover met the sharp thorns of black, spongy wood. He gazed out into the dark as if taking in what had inevitably been the beginning of all his life turned upside down.

He stood like that for some time, and I held Karus’s hand so tightly, she flexed her fingers in a silent plea to ease off.

Our lumens hovered behind us. Philius’s paced in obvious agitation while Rauca and Parvus rested nearby, drifting into a mid-day nap.

After giving him a few more minutes, I whistled and Philius looked back at us with an unreadable expression across his face. But rather than speaking his thoughts, he walked to his lumen to leave.

Karus and I headed to ours just as Parvus suddenly stood, alert, his snout sniffing toward the Blight, his ears swiveling in that direction.

Karus patted his head and moved to hop on his back when he bolted, bounding into the thick of the black trees and over thorns catching on his fur.

“Parvus!” Karus called, quickly slapping a hand over her mouth, running to the edge of the Blight.

I was not far behind, immediately wrapping my hand around her waist, not willing to risk her running after him.

She turned to me and shook her head, a silent promise she was not intending to follow.

We squinted into the mist, Rauca at my side, her tongue lolling out of her mouth in indifference. Confused, I pointed to Rauca and Karus shook her head, biting her lip and staring back out into the black abyss.

We waited for what felt like forever, but I knew was only a few minutes as Parvus’s brown and black form bounded back over the thick branches, something hanging from his mouth.

He spat it out after clearing the last bit of thorns and returned to Karus’s side, panting and looking to her for praise.

We stepped back, both of us staring at what he had brought.

A red rose, so dark the tips of its petals were black, lay on the earth, its thorny stem a deep green.

Philius shook his head. “Looks like the Blightress sends her regards.”