Page 56 of A Conduit of Light
Iwas waking, suspended in that first moment of consciousness when you stir from a long dream, when all of your thoughts are colliding as you begin to sort them piece by piece.
Hewas going to tell meeverythingbefore the night was through.Iwouldn’t go back to whatIhad been forseven years.Ideserved the truth.
Allof it.
Iprepared myself inwardly with each breathIdrew becauseIalready knew this truth: whatever had happened between us, whatever he had apologized for, it was going to be painful to relive…for both of us.
Ifollowed him out of the study whenPompeiiappeared, andIwondered ifRevichhad summoned him.Hebowed slightly, waiting to hear a request.
“PleasebringKarussome dinner.Shewill be eating in her room tonight.Andstart a fire as well.”Hepaused and stepped forward, his voice low and quiet. “Weare going toViridis.”
SurpriselitPompeii’sface as he responded similarly, “Doyou think that’s wise?”Heglanced over at me, narrowing his eyes slightly with a question on his face.
“I…Iknow you.”Ismiled faintly, recognition pulling from a place, still locked, that held all my knowledge of this life.Somethingtold meViridiswould help open it further.
“Karus.”Hissmile was brilliant in the flickering light of the sconces on the walls in the grand foyer.Hiseyes pulled upward, aligned with that familiar black kohl coming to a point at the sides of his face.
“Wewon’t be long,”Revichdismissed hisOverseerand nodded to me. “Thisway.”
Ifollowed, a sense of urgencyIcould not explain in my heart.
Viridis.
Atthe description in his story of my life here,Icorrected things in my mind.TheMagicalLanguageHallwas not on the first floor, but the second.Thesettees were not carved into the talons of a hawk, but bestial claws, like a monster from a tale of caution and woe, grotesque in their shape and detail carved into the wood.
Revich’sblue light adorned the walls, flickering before us as we began our trek to the doors ofViridis.
Had‘Karus’ worked on them?Ash’Arah, or evenAsh,had felt so unfamiliar as he told my story, andIdidn’t doubt that the name had never fit me properly.
“Didthe doors…did they accept my new name?Yousaid they wouldn’t acceptAsh—didKaruswork?”
Hechuckled and turned his head back at me as we walked. “Theydid.Youbrought me with you the first time you tried.Yousaid, ‘Ifanyone should see this work, it’s you.Letme show you thatIcan actually give a name toViridisthat it will accept.’”
Inodded and pulled my hair over one shoulder, hands wringing on the skirt of my ruined dress, caked with black earth from kneeling in theBlightthis morning.
Hestopped abruptly andIalmost ran into him, his body solid and warm. “Youneed to brace yourself,Karus.Viridis…it’s not what it was.”
“Whatdo you mean?What’swrong with it?”
“TheBlight—it got through the small door and…”Hefurrowed his brows, looking down at me.
Panicshuddered through me, my heart a wild thing, pulse rising rapidly in fear.Igrabbed his hand in mine and raced forward, running down the dark halls, dread of whatIwould find chilling my blood as my feet took me through the right paths to the great doors.
“Karus,”Ipuffed, placing my hand on the massive rhyzolm for just a moment.Theviridescent portal bloomed andIlet go of his hand asIstepped through it.
Istumbled out of the opening, falling to my knees, catching myself on white marble inlaid with bits of gold, dull and dirty, the stairwell cracked in places.
Iclosed my eyes, unwilling to look.
Icouldn’tlook.
Iheard him enter behind me, silent, a replication of the lack of sound thatshouldhave surrounded me.
Ishould have heard birds and the light breeze as it ruffled through the leaves of the trees in the courtyard, echoing throughout the golden halls.
Ishould have smelled the roses blooming full and the air sweet with the scent of a forever summer garden.
Icoughed, choking, an unwilling participant in the reaction my body had asIinhaled the scent of decay—of death.
