A Baron of Bonds (Conduit of Light #2)

60. Rev

Chapter 60

Rev

Karus chewed on her bottom lip, her arms folded across her chest, one leg over the other at the knee with her foot jostling up and down. She stared across the kitchen at the dough tucked into a cold tray for Lia’s morning cinnamon buns.

I had never paid much attention to Lia’s magic. I’d assumed she was simply a channeler, brought to the Fortress to train, but not passing the conduit trials, had stayed to use her magic as the Fortress cook.

I had not guessed she was the sister of an ancient, evil woman who not only plagued my forest, but plagued my love, and threatened our home.

I paced, eyeing all of her tools, all of her stone slabs and gold utensils, coming to the conclusion that by not paying more attention, I had not figured out that she used lapis magic in her cooking.

“It’s a bit early for you two to be up and about.” Lia’s voice came through the door to the servant’s quarters.

I turned from studying the stone oven to address her, tossing the book in my hands across the counter. “Lia, we need to talk.”

She read the title, To Train a Conduit: A History of the Conduit Trials, and sighed heavily. She bundled her thick, black hair back into a knot at the top of her head, a dark contrast to her pale skin, and picked up the book. “How do you know about this?”

“The book you wrote as Thalia Lighton or the fact that you’re Visalia’s sister?” Karus asked indignantly.

“She told you?” Lia shook her head, closed her grey eyes, and raised her brows. “That was not her secret to tell. Though, I’m not surprised. Why did she tell you this?”

“Lia, are you working with the Blightress? Are you helping her in any way?” I doubted it, but I needed to ask.

She huffed and moved to her tray of cold dough, lightly touching the round pastry and then whispering a spell to the metal tray to begin to warm it. “Of course not. I have not spoken to my sister in five hundred years. I am simply the cook in the Fortress.”

“You are much more than that.” Karus rose from the small table and came to Lia’s side. “You have lived for how long, Lia? You’re a lapis conduit? A powerful one?” She shook her head. “I don’t think you’re malicious at all. I think you’re hiding.”

“I am not hiding, I am merely living. I have done great things, seen terrible things. I just want to feed people and be left to live.”

I cleared my throat, shoving my hands in my pockets to feel the rhyzolm. I’d never once used it to gain knowledge of Lia’s power, but it hummed now in my palm as I faced her and said, “We don’t wish to change that, but we ask for your help. The Blightress insists on telling Karus her story through their connection. Is it true she gave her magic to Felgren? To you?”

Her shoulders dropped and she bent her head. “Go sit down, both of you. I’ll make us a nice cup of tea and something quick to eat, and we’ll get this out of the way. I won’t talk about my past on an empty stomach.”

Karus frowned at me, and I shrugged one shoulder.

She slumped over the table, her chin in her hand, her fingers drumming on the surface while she gazed out the window at the smallest sliver of sun peeking over the earth.

I clasped my hands in front of me, watching Lia put things together. She set down a kettle, three cups, and a plate of dried meat along with Karus’s favorite cheese.

Lia handed each of us a plate, pouring tea into our cups and taking her own bits of food, chewing on a strip of bacon and sitting back in her chair, staring out the window.

Once she had finished, she look a long sip of tea and a deep breath. Neither Karus nor I touched any of the food or tea, both waiting to hear her story.

“Visalia was born five years before me. By then, our parents were touting her around our village in the forest as a show, having her perform bits of magic here and there, using her to make money curing ailments and growing crops. Before I came along, she had no one to love, and I think that’s why she took such a protective role in my life. She hoped I’d grow to love her, and I did.”

She took another sip of tea, and I glanced to Karus, watching her struggle not to speak—to ask the many questions I myself wanted to say.

“We were inseparable, Visalia, Adaynth, and I. We did everything together in the spare time our mother and father gave her. She’d show off for us, too, of course, and we loved it. We’d spend time in the forest running among the trees, swimming in the stream. She told us one day she would give some of her power to the forest so that it could live with us, it could play as we did. And one day, she did it.

“She came home that morning exhausted, covered in dirt, waking me in my bed to tell me what she’d done. And so, Felgren lived. The first true channeler was born not long after that.”

“So people were able to pull from the magic of the forest?” Karus asked, adding sugar to her cup.

“From what I know of it, I believe Visalia woke the forest. It became its own living thing, had its own soul. At that point, she did not control any of it and my guess is that the forest chooses those it gives power to.” She shrugged again, as if this was all something simple to discuss over early morning tea.

Karus continued, sipping her own, “What about you? What about Adaynth?”

“Adaynth I know less about. I was not there when he convinced her to share some of her power with him. And I did not ask her to share it with me, if that’s your next question.” Lia took a bite of cheese and chewed. “Visalia was afraid of being alone. She told me she was going to live forever and that I had to, too. She couldn’t imagine living without me. So, one night when I was twelve and she was seventeen, she gave me some of her power. It formed as lapis magic, and I’ve wielded it ever since.”

“But how, Lia?” Karus asked, pleading in her voice. “ How did she give it to you? She says mine also comes from her, but how?”

Karus’s knee jostled under the table, rocking it slightly. I reached out and opened my hand for her to take. She did, stopping her rocking and inhaling through her nose with me, exhaling out of her mouth.

Lia’s eyes darted back and forth between us, and she hid a smile under her cup. “To be honest, I don’t know how she did it. I don’t know how she does anything with her magic, really. It’s not like mine. It wasn’t like Adaynth’s. Though…” she trailed off, watching me for realization.

I gritted my teeth and squeezed Karus’s hand. “She gave Adaynth the power of Baron.”

“She did. And it has passed down from one Baron to the next over centuries, settling from one man to the other.”

I watched Karus. She didn’t know I was working on the Baron trial, and I wondered if I should just tell her. Perhaps it was just a stupid tradition that the next Baron could not know they were being considered for the Baronship.

I kept quiet instead. I wasn’t willing to risk it. I wanted her to be given the choice—one of the only things I felt I really could give her, was this. I could give her love and a happy life, but I also wanted to give her the choice of wielding the Baronship with me.

“She said Baron Adaynth betrayed her and killed their child. Is that story true?” Karus interrupted my thoughts, and I looked back to Lia.

“That story is…complicated. I do not wish to tell it.”

“Did you and Adaynth…” Karus trailed off, her implication clear.

“No, nothing like that. I just don’t care to relive the memory this morning, and I don’t think it’s relevant to what you need to know.”

Karus continued her barrage, “What about the heart? Do you know about the enormous heart she keeps in a cave in the north? Do you know how she has been capturing the Queen’s channelers and taking their magic, returning it to her?”

Lia shook her head. “I don’t know about any of those things.”

“Oh! Good morning Baron Revich, Karus,” Jesslyn said as she entered the kitchens. “You’re up early.”

“Start on the cinnamon buns, please,” Lia replied, rising from her seat. “I can answer more of your questions later. For now, I have people to feed.”

Jesslyn got to work as I rubbed my face with my free hand, then snagged a piece of bacon.

Pompeii entered the kitchens, and to my surprise, Mychael followed. Not even attempting to suppress a grin, I sat back in my chair and chewed, watching Mychael kiss his cheek and leave, avoiding both of our gazes.

Karus caught my eye, biting her lips as Pompeii joined us at the table. His black hair, littered with gray, was pulled neatly into a bun at the back of his head. His golden eyes were lined in kohl as usual, which complimented his olive skin. “What is on the agenda today, Baron Revich? More trial preparation?”

I leaned in, just enough so Karus could still hear. “Are we not talking about that , Pompeii?” I nodded toward the door Mychael had just left.

His lips twitched and tilted upward. “I like him. He makes me smile. And he makes good soup.”

Karus burst out laughing, unable to hide her excitement. “He won your heart with soup!” She covered her mouth with her hands as more servants entered the kitchens to begin their day.

“He has not won my heart, Karus, I just like him.”

“It’s alright, Pompeii. I think Karus has a crush on him, too,” I teased.

She gasped and threw her napkin at me. “I do not! I can just see how handsome he is, that’s all.”

“Something anyone with working eyes can see,” Pompeii murmured under his breath.

She looked across the table at me, shaking her head and heaving a heavy sigh. “Well, I’ll leave you two to your trial preparation today. I have some channelers to train.” She rose from the table and walked around it to kiss me goodbye, holding onto me longer than usual.

I didn’t let go first.

“Meet me in Viridis for lunch?” she asked.

I nodded, and she left, giving Lia one last furrowed glance.

I leaned forward on the table, rubbing my face.

“She’ll be ready.” My Overseer saw right through my facade, and I wondered if he guessed about the Baron trial.

I set my eyes on him, my hand over my mouth in a frown. “I know she will be. She probably could’ve passed these trials the first day she entered Felgren.”

He took another bite and poured himself some tea, nodding. “She’ll make a great conduit.” He rose a brow at me.

I sighed and drained my cup.

“The first two trials are prepared?” he continued.

“Three. Only the agricola trial is left.”

“Ah. It almost seems pointless, doesn’t it? All that work and she’ll breeze through each, especially that one.”

“She wants to prove she can. She wants to be treated like any other channeler and given the chance to prove she can become a conduit.”

“She is much more than that.”

“I know,” I agreed, now convinced he knew I was working on more than just those four trials. I was glad he didn’t ask me. I’d have to lie. “I just want to give her the choice.”