Sworn To Defiance (28 page)

Ciardis licked her dry lips and said, “It’s all right, Mother.”

Lillian’s mouth thinned in a silent refusal.

Ciardis put her hands on Lillian’s shoulders. “Please, Mother, move aside. I can handle myself.”

Lillian looked deep in Ciardis’s eyes. Whatever she saw must have convinced her because she stepped aside to let Ciardis face him. Then, side-by-side, the four of them faced the most powerful man in their empire. And Ciardis knew she couldn’t be the only one wondering if now was the time, the time to strike and remove Maradian from power for good.

Then he spoke again and the moment passed. His face like stone except for his eyes glittering with excitement, the emperor said, “Do you want to know what reason that was, Ciardis?”

Ciardis lifted her chin as thoughts flashed through her head. What had he wanted to know—if they knew who he truly was, if she had the power to protect her mother or if the men surrounding her had the power to take him down?

“If I would collapse in a weeping ball of pain at my mother’s debasement?” Ciardis said with a snarl.

He threw back his head and laughed. “No, that wasn’t it.”

Beside Ciardis, Sebastian slipped his hand in hers and squeezed tightly as he said, “To mercilessly push her through a level of pain I didn’t think you were capable of...Father?”

The pause was deliberate. The emperor flicked curious eyes to his son but he didn’t take the bait.

“To see,” the emperor said with delish slowness. “If the change I felt was true.”

Ciardis furrowed her brow. “What change?”

The emperor smiled. “Why...your own. You see, little Weathervane, I’ve been aware of your gifts since the day you fell into my audience chamber out of a Aether Realm portal, my son by your side.”

Ciardis filed that information away while she flashed back to the time she and Sebastian had emerged from the Aether Realm after restoring the Land Wight’s bond with the prince heir so long ago. She and Sebastian hadn’t
meant
to journey to the audience chamber, but it didn’t matter now. What mattered was that according to Maradian he had been posing as Sebastian’s father for at least a year back. In fact, Ciardis remembered that he had had a mysterious illness then.

“And then I met you again when you returned from your surprise visit to the northern battlefields,” said the emperor. “You had changed. Your aura was brighter and your will stronger. But more than that I felt the hint of an Algardis strain in your gifts. Usually not seen outside a mated pair of the imperial family. I wondered if you and my son had been up to things even my spies hadn’t been made aware of.”

Ciardis flushed. Despite the situation it was still embarrassing to think the emperor had people spying on her personal life with his son.

“But then I received negative reports. That you hadn’t consummated anything. Although even if you had, this wasn’t the type of gift that came so easily,” the emperor said with narrowed eyes, oblivious to her discomfort. “That kind of bond comes once every few generations and disappears again from the family line just as quickly. It can be forced, but...”

Lillian snarled, “My daughter didn’t force your son.”

The emperor sent her an amused look as he continued on unabated, “I highly doubt it seeing as it’s an intrinsic tying of souls. Not many would be willing to be bound mind and soul to another for eternity, especially someone they forced into the bond.”

Ciardis was beginning to wonder if the emperor had a point in this rambling mess. Although he hit on several points accurately, very much to her surprise.

The emperor continued, “But imagine my surprise
again
when you return to my audience chambers yesterday and your magic had metamorphosed again. Its power sharper. Its edge refined to a dangerous hone. I had to wonder if you were keeping secrets from me, Ciardis Weathervane. But I couldn’t understand how such gifts could have manifested. It took me all day. But then I realized I could test you. To see if my theory was true.”

Ciardis’s eyes were wide at the emperor’s words. Her mother had been a guinea pig, then? All that anguish, all that sorrow, so that he could test his bloody theory?

He concluded, “And here we stand...with the proof I needed. You have forged a
seeleverbindung
with my son and the daemoni prince, haven’t you?”

Ciardis felt her mouth open as she said without thinking, “And what if I have? What’s it to you?”

An undercurrent of rage and pain flowed through her words.

She heard Thanar curse under his breath and Sebastian tense on her right. They waited to see what the Emperor of Algardis would say in return.

T
he emperor and the youngest Weathervane watched each other for a tense moment.

Then the emperor spoke. “I would congratulate you, Lady Companion Weathervane, on successfully forging the most powerful bond in the land and becoming the second-most powerful person in my empire in one fell swoop.”

Ciardis raised an eyebrow. He sounded like he thought her actions had been
deliberate.

She opened her mouth to correct him. “Well, actually it was a mi—”

Then Thanar and Sebastian cut her off as both of them subtlety pinched her back. She nearly jumped at the double pinches of pain but kept her expression from jumping...barely.

She had to wonder why they’d pinched her instead of mind-speaking with her but she got the message. Keep her mouth shut about the
seeleverbindung
. She’d been about to tell the emperor it had all been a misunderstanding.

She swiftly changed that sentence to, “—mistake not to do it sooner. I’ve just been so busy and we’ve been running around crazily.”

She knew she sounded like a simpering idiot, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say on such short notice.

The emperor turned and sat back down on her throne.

“Now that I know, this has implications for my rule,” said the emperor.

“Implications, Father?” asked Sebastian softly. Only Ciardis understood that the soft timber of his voice hid a deadly undertone. He was ready to rip the man to shreds with her bare hands.

“Implications,” repeated the emperor.

“Such as?” asked Thanar tightly.

The emperor flicked curious eyes to the daemoni prince. Then he leaned over eagerly. “I don’t believe we’ve been properly introduced.”

Thanar started to move forward as he said, “No, we haven’t.”

Only Ciardis’s out flung arm kept him from proceeding forward.

The emperor raised a curious eyebrow. “It looks as if your bond mate wants you to stay right where you are.”

Ciardis didn’t give a right fig if Thanar tore the hated man limb from limb, but she knew that in their weaker states they wouldn’t get out of the palace alive. Even
with
Vana and Terris waiting outside.

So she waited and she watched as Thanar said, “I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“And I yours,” said the emperor smoothly.

“Now,” said Lillian, “perhaps you can tell us why you’ve brought us here aside from that spectacle?”

The emperor turned cold eyes on Ciardis’s mother. “Watch your tone, Lady Weathervane. You are still imprisoned under my terms. I am kind now, but that can change in a minute.”

Ciardis shivered at the obvious threat in his words and wished she could wring his neck without consequence.

The emperor then steepled his hands while resting his chin on the peak. “So what shall I do with your triad?”

“Do?” said Sebastian stiffly.

The emperor turned curious eyes on his son. “Well, I can’t have my own son more powerful than I am.”

Ciardis snarled. “Sebastian’s been more powerful than you his entire life. You’ve just been siphoning that gift for a good dozen years.”

She was speaking as if Bastien Algardis stood before them, but she knew she could accuse Maradian Algardis of far worse and be just as accurate. She wouldn’t live past the end of the day but it would be the truth.

“I’d watch your tone and words, girl,” the emperor said coldly. “I am fond of your...unique abilities...to stir trouble now and don’t intend to harm any of you, but that can change quickly.”

Sebastian put a warning hand on her wrist and she slowly dropped the restraining hand from across Thanar’s chest.

Ciardis frowned. Knowing the emperor wanted something. Not sure what else she had to give.

“How can we serve you?” Lillian said with her hands outspread, palms up in a sign of respect.

A smile flickered on the emperor’s face. “Your daughter and her compatriots here can
serve
me by leaving my city and not coming back...without the head of a wyvern from Kifar.”

Ciardis blinked. He couldn’t be serious. It couldn’t be that easy. Well, easy was a matter of relativeness. There was nothing easy about capturing a wyvern. But it felt oddly suspicious that the emperor
wanted
them to journey to Kifar.

“Why?” she croaked out harshly.

“Because it was Marissa’s pet and I despised Marissa,” said the emperor. “And I’m genuinely curious at how my western cities have fared under quarantine.”

“You mean banishment?”

The emperor smiled. “I meant what I said. So go, Weathervane. Go with my son and the daemoni prince. Find the wyvern, and if you return with it alive, I will allow you entrance back into my court.”

“And if we don’t?” asked Thanar.

“I’ll have your heads on pikes lining my city gates,” the emperor said blithely.

Ciardis paled. “Sebastian is your only heir.”

The emperor gave her an amused look. “I can always make more.”

“He’s your
son.
”

Again, the emperor said, “I can always make more.”

Uncomfortable silence descended until Sebastian bowed at the waist. “Very well, Father, we will do as you have commanded.”

“I know,” purred the emperor satisfied.

“May we have leave to exit the city after tonight’s burial?” said Sebastian.

“You mean your send-off for Barnaren?” said the emperor.

Sebastian nodded.

“Permission granted.”

With no more to be said, they all turned to leave.

“And my son,” the emperor said.

Sebastian turned back. “Don’t expect to ever make such a spectacle again without my approval. I will preside over this send-off with my blessings, but don’t push your luck.”

Sebastian said nothing, the safest way to not offend his father once more.

“Weathervane,” said the emperor as they were almost out the door, “I would like a private word.”

Ciardis flinched and turned.

Thanar didn’t mince his words. “Not a chance.”

Ciardis wasn’t feeling too welcoming of the initiative either. But she knew enough not to resist. She figured it would do no good and the emperor’s eyes were already flashing with anger. Ciardis Weathervane had been prepared to kill the man a few minutes before without a backwards glance, but that was when she had almost lost her mind and her will to live after seeing what she thought he had done to her mother.

Then Lillian stepped forward. “Perhaps I can be present, Your Imperial Majesty?”

The emperor flicked a disinterested gaze to her.

Lillian hurried to add, “To be assured of her virtue.”

For the second time that morning, the emperor threw back his head and laughed. Ciardis was beginning to think he was insane.

“Her virtue?” he chortled. “What would I want with her virtue? But very well, stay, Lillian Weathervane. You may witness this conversation, but my son and the daemoni prince will leave.”

Ciardis felt Sebastian trembling with visible anger by her side but he couldn’t disobey his father. Not like this.

Ciardis made it easier. She reached over and pushed both of males through the opening doors.

“Go,” she whispered. “I’ll be along.”

Through the open doors she glimpsed Terris’s tense face. She didn’t have time to explain the destruction in the room, the torn chairs, and the dead bodies. She just shook her head at the questions in her friend’s eyes and pushed at the unmoving males in front of her.

“If it will make it easier for you,” said the emperor dryly, “I will make a gesture of good faith. One of my guards will exit as well.”

Sebastian and Thanar looked at him and the emperor gestured for one of his guards to leave his post. The man walked out the door with no complaint. Ciardis watched as Thanar’s eyes met Sebastian’s. Reluctantly Thanar nodded, and with brief touches of Ciardis’s cheeks, they left her alone with the emperor, her mother, and the emperor’s guard.

Ciardis turned around. Wondering what the emperor could possibly want now.

“I’ll be quick and to the point, Ciardis Weathervane,” the emperor said with narrowed eyes. “You’ve risen in my court rapidly. Made enemies faster than I can blink and tossed threats aside like old news.”

Ciardis stared at him warily.

“But make an enemy of me,” he said, “and I promise you that day will be your last.”

Ciardis stiffened. “Know that was never my intention, Your Imperial Majesty.”

“Intentions and actions are two very different things. Make sure you know that,” he admonished softly.

“I do,” responded Ciardis Weathervane just as softy.

She was careful not raise her voice in alarm or back a threatening gesture when she continued, “But I will no longer be blackmailed. I will not cower in your presence and I do not fear you.”

The emperor replied, “We all know only two of those things are true. Wishes will not make your dreams of strength and courage a reality.”

“No,” she agreed, “they won’t. But desperation might.”

“Careful, Weathervane or I’ll take that as an idle threat.”

For a moment emperor and Weathervane eyed each other across the room.

Then Ciardis lowered her eyes. She had to know something and she knew the emperor would answer her truly. If only because he had nothing to lose and nothing to gain by lying.

“Was your intention to just threaten your son or your will to act on it?”

She didn’t like how he’d spoken to Sebastian. She wondered if was merely the gesture of an uncle masquerading as a father trying to intimidate a powerful son or an emperor truly afraid to lose his dominance at court.