Page 21 of A Baron of Bonds
I was numb in the quiet stillness of the steaming water. It felt as if I had left for the field of clover in Felgren less than a day before, but somehow, weeks had passed. I filled my lungs and sank under the surface.
I thought of Rev. I thought of screaming to him across the land that I was alright—that I would be with him again soon. I thought of all I had learned and all I had seen.
I didn’t want to think about any of it. I didn’t want to start processing the secrets that were plain in the Blightress’s words as she spoke of my parents…as she spoke of the Queen.
Rising to the surface, I inhaled sharply, refusing to cry any more tears at the choices I had made. Instead, I focused on what I could do.
I had water. I had soap. And I could scrub.
I tookmy time scouring and scrubbing away any remnants of the places I had been, and though it was too short and large on my frame, I was thankful for the clean, dry dress Vivianna had brought me. It was a rosy pink with long sleeves and a frilly collar. Brass buttons traveled up the front with a rose imprinted on each one. I was sure it complimented her pale complexion and strawberry ringlets well. I laughed at my reflection in the mirror and wondered what Revich would say when he saw me.
I padded back through the house to voices that drifted through the rooms. Curled up on a chair next to the fire was Ashton holding a carved wooden sword in his chubby fingers. His head lay against the armrest and his legs were tucked up to his chest as if he had been planning a battle and passed out before it could begin. I took the frayed blanket from the back of the chair and laid it across his small body smoothing his precious curls back from his face.
I loved him already, this child of the man I had grown up with. He looked so much like Geyrand. My heart filled with happiness knowing that the first man I had ever been intimate with had found love and companionship and made this beautiful little boy.
I wanted to introduce Revich to him. I wanted Rev to meet the people I had known as Ash’Arah. The people I had loved and lived with every day. The people who made me who I was. And though they had not given me in return what I needed to thrive, they were a part of my history and that was not something I was willing to forget.
I made my way back to the kitchen, which was warm and smelled of a rich broth. Candles were lit along a wide table as the storm raged outside.
The companions who made this dwelling a home leaned into each other, speaking low as Geyrand wrote in a book and Vivianna strung a bit of thread through a needle. She looked up to me as I silently wandered in, not wanting to disturb their time together, but urged forward by my rumbling stomach.
“Karus! Please, come sit with us. I’ll get you some food, love. You must be starving.” She began to rise when Geyrand gently pushed her back down to her seat, planting a kiss on top of her head. He headed to the pot nestled into the brick stove.
I smiled at his gesture and sat across from her, hugging my arms, thankful I had found a safe place to land, but wishing I was somewhere else.
Vivianna pulled on her needle and began to sew. She hummed in the quiet, and I watched as silver thread nestled its way into a long strip of blush fabric. She pulled underneath before the needle poked back onto the other side once again. The movements were calming in some way. I had not picked up a needle and thread since I had left Hyrithia years ago, and realized then, I missed it.
“Is that your growth band?” I asked, thanking Geyrand for the bowl of stew and water he placed in front of me.
“Yes, it is. I admit I am a little behind, but I’ve found that with one child already, I am often behind on things.” She continued her work, her needle threading in and out of the fabric with craft as the outline of a full moon took its shape.
“How far have you come?” I blew on a spoonful of brown broth and soft potatoes before eagerly shoving it into my mouth, chewing as slowly as I could convince myself to.
“This is my seventh moon, though I am actually already half-way to my eighth!” She chuckled and shook her head. “Timebreezes by in the blink of an eye these days. We still keep Ashton’s growth band woven through his bed even though his year of uncertainty is well past him.”
Vivianna laid her work down on the table and I saw where six full moons were sewn into the fabric. She would continue to wear it around her waist until her birthing day came. Then, they would weave the band through the crib of the babe in hope that it would protect the child in its first and most dangerous year of life.
I nodded, taking another bite. “I am happy for you.” I looked up to meet Geyrand’s sharp amber gaze. “For both of you. If I could have wished anything for you, Geyrand, it would have been exactly this.”
Something crossed his face and I tilted mine with a silent gesture to tell me what he was thinking.
“Ash—Karus,” he corrected, taking a deep breath. “There are things you need to know. Things about your time away.”
Vivianna smoothed her hand across his own and looked to him, nodding.
“I suppose I should start at the beginning.”
I set my spoon down in my bowl and placed my hands in my lap, suddenly cold at the thought of what could disturb him so.
“When you were…taken seven years ago, Prince Philius and I did not sit idly by.”
I took a deep breath and clenched my jaw, unsure if I was ready for this. I had just escaped news of my past and did not want to hear more of it.
“It took weeks for the Prince to recover fully from the Black Fever. When he had come to understand what the Queen had agreed to…he did not take it well. It didn’t help that I urged him to do something. I was not like myself, Karus. I loved you, and I wanted you back home. It was easy enough to convince the Prince of the same.”
I swallowed, hating hearing his words. I did not want to listen to this. I didn’t know if I could get through more blows without Revich by my side.
“The Queen was resolute. The city was healing. But they didn’t know you. They didn’t know how much you’d resist your fate like we did. So, we traveled to Felgren.”
