Page 99 of Guiding Reason
“We’re almost there. This is odd. There should be people around in the fields here.”
“These’re fields?” Taros asked.
“Their mycologist says the fungus in this area grows with the tree roots but it feeds these crops, so yeah. Fields.”
“They use fungi to help growth?” Col wasn’t even mildly interested in agriculture, but like most high-clearance operatives, he knew that each city kept a substantial amount of fungus spores in their seed banks that could be used in the unlikely case of a famine.
Hyran was looking left to right, searching for the people they had come to visit.
“It’s actually the mycelium, but I’m not an expert. I may have read a little after first learning about how they do agriculture, but that’s it.”
“Well, Col, looks like there aren’t going to be any mushroom plants in your fu—” Taros stopped, grabbed Col by the shoulder, and shoved the Conduit behind his back. “Hyran, blood.”
Hyran didn’t speak, just ran, his body blurring through the plants and trees around them. He stopped, not at all that far away, ten meters perhaps, but there, some healthy, large-leaved plants moved in the breeze.
Col could see the slashes of red on them. The leaves reached up to Hyran’s thighs, and his gaze was fixed on something on the ground, eyes wide.
Something is wrong.Col pulled his gun free.
“Taros, I’m behind you, weapon at ready. Move.”
The panoplian didn’t argue. His arms were out, fingers sharp, and he veered left while Col trailed behind him, focusing his attention on the right and their back.
“Stop. Don’t come any closer.” Hyran’s hands balled to fists. “It’s not—stay back, Col.”
“You found a body.” Col didn’t stop, neither did Taros.
Hyran’s throat bobbed. “I didn’t see anyone else in the fields. They wouldn’t leave him like this. We need to get to the town fast. Col, you don’t have to see this.”
Col made his way to the gap between rows of plants regardless. This close, there was more blood on the leaves, but the sheer amount of them had made it seem like a lot less, had hidden the carnage.
“How can you tell this is a he?” Col asked. Taros made a gagging sound when he saw and took a step back.
“I know him by his clothes. And the shoes. See? Tomo wanted—fuck. He saw my shoes, and I showed him some. Then I brought them from Ferrea, because he really, really wanted city-dweller shoes.”
And those shoes were intact still, for the most part, even if the white stripes on them were soaked with blood. The man’s head had cracked, the shape distorted, the mouth agape so a purple tongue lolled out.He bled mostly from his head. Of course he would have, that’s the only thing that’ll make this kind of mess.
Col saw, but didn’t really see. He noticed the scene, knew that he was simply assessing a situation his team had gotten into, just like he had assessed all other instances of one of them getting hurt, cut, attacked.I’ll dream about this, but not now. Now I am awake, and I need to think, not feel.
“This was a baromancer. He imploded the skull.”
Hyran’s arms came up, pulling Col away from the dead outsider. “You think a Guardian did this? Col, this boy was a Conduit.”
Taros hissed. “The fuck? Second time you are where a Conduit has been murdered, Hyran.”
But Col, this close, could hear Hyran’s heart, beating fast, and the Guardian’s arms around him held tight as if Hyran were terrified, as if he was ready to pick up Col within a second’s notice to whisk him away to safety.
Col looked at Taros. “No. This is the second time he finds a friend of his who happens to be a Conduit murdered.”
33
HYRAN
They left Tomo in the field where he’d been slaughtered. Hyran knew he wasn’t thinking straight, wanted to run, wanted to abandon Taros to get Col away from this.
But it was Col who kept Hyran calm and grounded. The Conduit gently tapped Hyran’s arms twice, like a partner would do in close combat training, and Hyran released him immediately, regretting his thoughtless strength, so much greater than a Conduit’s.
Still, Col took Hyran’s hand, pointed to the path visible at the edge of the fields, and asked, “That way?”
