Page 1 of A Conduit of Light
PartOne
Chapter1
Ash
Taken.Stolen.Deniedthe choice to stay or go—whatever she wanted to call it, the outcome was just the same.
Ash’Arahwould be whisked away as payment while the evening sun lay drowsily upon the distant horizon.Thescent of spring wove through the air to kiss her face, playing with the loose strands of her dark braid.
Sherecognized the irony, of course.Thesun was leaving her home and so was she.Butit would return shortly, and she would not.
Sheclosed her eyes and grinned.Amadwoman, perhaps, but the insanity of the future she was forced to face was taking hold in her heart, and the only other option was to panic.
Ashthought she’d be stolen away in the middle of the night.Shethought theBaronwould come when the moon was already high in the starlit sky and the entire exchange would be a secret, hidden from the people ofHyrithia.
Thatwas not the scene that played before her.TheQueenhad amassed her guards in their finest, and she would be taken in waning sunlight for all the people to see.Thosesame people who had suffered so greatly would see the cost of their cure.
Theroyal guards stood in rows wearing their fullHyrithianarmor.Silverplates gleamed on their shoulders and torsos.Thedeepest of blue silk draped elegantly across their chests.Apattern of thistle had been embroidered lovingly through each one.Ashwould know—she had taken her own needle and thread to some of them.
Shecould feel the eyes of her people, hear their stilted whispers, as they gathered to witness the price to be paid to theSaviorofHyrithia.Asshe finally stepped out of the castle’s shadow, her worn shoes scraping along the dusty path, she searched for the ones she loved.Hereyes stung, but the hollow heart residing in her chest refused to let the tears fall in this moment of her last goodbye.
Mylast goodbye for now, she reminded herself.
Shewas determined to return one day.Aftershe had proven to theBaronofFelgrenthat she was worthless to him, she would find her way back home.
WhentheBlackFeverclaimed its first victim, the medicus conduit assigned to his case was baffled.Shehad never seen such a disease in all her years of service toHyrithia.Theman inflicted had been old, loved, and died three days after his fever started.Thetips of his worn fingers had turned black with a dark filigree of lines that coursed down to his wrists.Herconduit magic had done nothing but ease his pain.
Mystified, the same medicus conduit met another case just a day later.Itwas a young mother this time.Shehad the same high fever, the same blackened fingers.Therewas no connection that could be made between the two victims, and as news of the ailment began to spread, a dark cloud rained panic across the great city ofHyrithia, coursing as wildly as the disease.
Ashhad done what she could.
Allher life, she had been unsure of the extent of her channeler power.Shedid not know if she was prone to medicus magic or not, but her presence and the words she whispered to the victims in the castle seemed to ease their pain—if only for a short while.
Thedisease moved randomly, infecting someone in one household and no others, before jumping across the city to inflict itself there.Theseven medicus conduits ofHyrithiahad met withQueenRina, and thoughAshhad not been present, she saw the rage in theQueen’seyes as she left the meeting, storming across the castle halls to the guard’s tower to send yet another message across the grasslands toFelgrenForest.
ToBaronHeimlen’sforest.
Somechannelers, likeAsh, were trained there before becoming true conduits.Whenthey passed the trials and were given their conduit title, they were allowed to begin their professions anywhere throughoutArcaynenIsle, using their magic siphoned fromFelgrenForestfor the good of the people.
ButunlikeAsh, they were all given anOffering.
Achoice.
Eachchanneler either made the decision to leave their homes and train or they refused.Ifthey declined, they were willing to live their lives as channelers only, using what magic they possessed until it inevitably died, leaving their bodies without the proper understanding of how to harness more power from the forest.
Itwas rare to refuse anOffering, but it’s exactly whatAshwould have done.Shehad no desire to pursue the extent of her power, and noBaroncould change her mind—of that, she was certain.
Onthe ninety-first day, after thousands of lives had already been lost, thePrincefell victim to theBlackFever’srampage through the city.Ashremembered being called to his side in the dead of night, the realization of his fate pounding through her chest as she clasped her closest friend’s hand, tracing the mass of blackened veins and the dark tips of his once unmarred, elegant fingers.PrincePhiliuswas her brother in all but blood and she poured everything she could into willing him to live, for him to survive even though no one else did.
TheQueen’sface that night had been pained.Herusual mahogany skin looked tight and sickly on her face as she gazed at her only son, the future regent ofHyrithia, the sole path to a female heir,laying on his bed, fevered and tossing in anguish.
Herdark eyes, brimmed with tears, landed on her ward.Emotionscrossed her face thatAshcould not identify in that moment.
Nowshe knew.
Sheunderstood that theQueenhad made her decision as her only child grew weaker by the hour.
Itwas either her son’s life or her ward’s ability to choose her own future.
