Sworn To Defiance (5 page)

His selfishness was astonishing. More importantly, she wanted to know how this false bond was happening and
why
. There was only one other time that Thanar had spoken into her mind and had been able to use his gifts to sync with her own powers so simultaneously.

Her mind flashed back to the time that they had flown in the skies together.

She felt Sebastian’s unease through their bond.
Ciardis
?

She realized abruptly that Sebastian couldn’t understand the storm of emotions running through her head because of Thanar. He just felt her emotions skyrocket with no corresponding source of concern appearing in front of him. In his eyes, she was having a panic attack for no apparent reason.

He wouldn’t know
, said Thanar smugly.
You and I are bonded on a separate link. He can’t hear what he can’t feel.

“Interesting,” Ciardis muttered aloud, her heart pumping a mile a minute. She really needed to figure out who could and couldn’t access her mind quickly. And what’s more she needed to do it fast. She’d gone over the lessons she had had with Lady Maree Amber over and over again in any spare moment she could after the warehouse incident. She was desperately trying to cut off access to her mind but shielding wasn’t working as well as she’d hoped.

It wouldn’t, seeing as it’s not supposed to be used against bond mates,
Thanar said.

Ciardis was heartily tempted to ignore him. Out of sight, out of mind kind of thing. But she couldn’t. She needed answers and right now he could give them.

Reluctantly, she said,
Sebastian can block me. So your argument is invalid.

Amusement wafted through their bond before he deigned to answer.
I said bond mates, not bonded idiots. Two different concepts. Two different connections.

Ciardis’s shoulders tensed. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know. She would deny a bond with Thanar to her last breath if any soul asked her. But she couldn’t deny that he had both a link to her power and the key to enter minds at will. If she wanted to shut off either of those connections, she needed information.

What do you mean
?

Look it up.

Ciardis wanted to slap him. She wouldn’t. Because she didn’t believe in airing her dirty laundry in public, something she had learned the hard way in the gossip mill of the laundress facilities in Vaneis. Besides he was floating so high up that she
couldn’t
reach him. But that was all right. She believed in payback and Thanar would certainly pay for his transgressions, all of them, at a later date of her choosing.

Just answer one question for me,
she said, letting a pleading tone enter her voice.

What is it?
he said while looking down his patrician nose at the entire group.

Is this a permanent bond linking mind and spirit
?

He didn’t hesitate.
Absolutely.

Ciardis felt like cursing up a storm. If she had known she’d be stuck with this before he conjured the sigils in order to save them from death, she would have chosen death.

There were some types of people you bound yourself to for life.

Sebastian was one of them.

Thanar, daemoni prince, murderer, and spiteful hell-raiser, was not.

She remembered when this bond between them had first come about. It hadn’t been that long ago. A day. Maybe two. Time seemed to be dragging on for her this week. She and Thanar had been racing through the skies on their way to a warehouse, when their race to see the princess heir’s secret became a race to save their lives in mid-flight. A big black dragon by the name of Balash had appeared behind them, intent on burning them to a crisp or eating them or both. She actually wasn’t sure if dragons ate food cooked, but she wouldn’t put it past them to char their kills or have their human servants do it for them. She wasn’t crazy enough to ask the Ambassador from Sahalia that question, though. It would happen when hell froze over.

At the time of their frantic dash through the skies it had just been her and Thanar, with Thanar doing his best to outfly and outfight a beast forty times his size. The tables had turned when Thanar had conjured the net of Sauras, a bit of arcane magic that he had only been able to bring about because he had used a melding of her weathervane gifts and his own daemoni mage powers. The powerful arcane spell was one that he had said “could only be created between two individuals in perfect unity.”

She still doubted that perfect unity part. But she didn’t doubt that Thanar wouldn’t have been able to conjure it without her assistance. That assistance had come with a price. A semi-permanent one if she had anything to say about it. His disturbing access to her mind would need to be cut off as soon as possible.

“Well, two can play that game,” she muttered under her breath. It might be time to really test the daemoni prince’s worth...and loyalty to the god of destruction.

She felt some relief that Sebastian didn’t yet know about this bond. Not because she didn’t want Sebastian to know on principle but because the moment he did she was certain he’d put his sword through the daemoni prince’s throat. Whether or not she still needed him in her quest to defeat the
blutgott
.

Thanar sighed.
A pity. I was hoping you’d give up that silly quest.

Ciardis’s golden eyes opened wide and then she narrowed them as her hands balled into fists in frustration.
Never.

She wanted to hit him so badly.

Careful, Golden Eyes
,
we wouldn’t want your prince heir knowing you were thinking amorous thoughts of me.

I was not!
she thought, scandalized. Flashes of his chest came back to her in that moment.

No
, he agreed,
but it’s fun to push you to think about it
.

She couldn’t say anything to that. Now that he’d planted the thought in her mind just by mentioning it, she
was
thinking about him.

Arghh. Get out of my head
.

Impossible, my little Weathervane. Now that I almost have you. I’m not giving up
.

You don’t almost have anything
.

You keep thinking that
, Thanar said as he shut down the conversation by sending a delicious shiver of anticipation through her mind. His own anticipation.

Ciardis didn’t deign to respond. Mostly because she couldn’t. She was battling for control over her own emotions...and losing. Damn him.

The daemoni prince’s mouth slid into a satisfied smile as the two creatures caught up to their speedier winged brethren and landed on the rooftop.

Then Ciardis’s breath caught in her chest. Griffins. Two proud and strong ones stood behind Thanar.  A black one and a golden one. She hadn’t seen
kith
of that variety since her last adventure with Terris. With their wings outstretched, the griffins in front of her filled the rooftop with their massive forms. Ciardis had a moment to wonder where they had come from, the kits in the Ameles Forest were as of yet too young to bear riders.

Atop the back of the black one sat Vana, her hands gripping the reins confidently. Atop the other sat a child. Ciardis took the girl in with surprise. She was small and scruffy. Couldn’t have been more than twelve. Her red hair was cut in a messy bob.

“Seraphina,” said Jason SaAlgardis in a growl, “you were ordered to stay at the base.”

The child raised a stubborn chin. “The guards were coming for the woman and the daemoni. We had to go get them.”

Seraphina hurried to quickly add, “Skar said we could trust them.”

Jason shifted a sharp glance to the black griffin.

Ciardis guessed that was Skar.

Her theory was confirmed when the black griffin opened his beak and spoke. “They are on the side of the prince heir. They are needed. I would not endanger Seraphina.”

Jason nodded. “We will speak of this later.”

His tone said they might do more than just speak. Seraphina’s shoulders hunched in a sulk, but she didn’t say anything back.

Another explosion happened in a distant part of the villa. The golden griffin said, “That is our cue to leave.”

Vana spoke. “Ciardis, with me. Sebastian with Jason and the girl.”

Ciardis frowned. “I don’t think that is wise.”

Jason turned to her with a frown of his own. “I would not harm the prince heir. Particularly not while the same griffin carries my daughter.”

“Still,” Ciardis said, “I could ride with Jason and Sebastian with Vana.”

She didn’t bother putting up the idea of her riding with Thanar. Sebastian wouldn’t have heard of it...and besides she wanted to stay far away from Thanar and his mind-controlling abilities as humanly possible. She didn’t need further complications right now.

This time Sebastian objected. “No.”

Thanar repeated the same word within half a second. She didn’t take orders from either one of them, but as a second blast rocked their perch, this one much closer, she didn’t see the point in arguing.

Ciardis rolled her eyes. “Then
you
ride with Thanar, Sebastian. While I ride with Vana.”

Both males looked at her in flat-out disappointment.

Vana swore and dismounted. “Sebastian and Ciardis on Skar.
I’ll
go with the bat-winged idiot.”

A smile cracked Sebastian’s face as he fought not to chuckle.

Embarrassed at the argument, Ciardis hurried to take Vana’s place astride Skar. She saw leather straps tied to a loose collar hanging from his neck.

“Good day,” Ciardis said quickly.

Skar looked to her. “Good day to you. Mount up. We must fly fast and quickly to our destination. The straps are to help you.”

She nodded. Before she mounted him, she quickly gave a neat bow and said, “Thank you for carrying me up from this place, winged brother.”

Skar gave a nod. “Wind beneath my wings is wind beneath yours.”

H
umming with satisfaction, Ciardis did her best to climb up on the stiff muscles of Skar’s shoulder carefully and quickly. The feathers felt stiff while the muscles underneath were sinewy. She knew he had powerful muscles in his shoulders and forearms. More than enough to carry her form easily. But no creature liked someone climbing all over them—human or
kith
. That was just instinctive knowledge. But her awareness of his body and its strength was from her time with Terris and her rescued orphans. She had learned something in her time with the griffins of the Ameles Forest after all. Although this would be her first time riding one.

Settling between his wings with her legs dangling to either side of his neck, Ciardis held out a hand to Sebastian. He gripped it without hesitation and swung up on to the griffin’s back behind her. Ciardis barely had time to grip the straps over Skar’s neck as she saw Vana approach Thanar before Skar leapt forward into the skies with a powerful push-off with his hind legs.

She let a delighted whoop escape her mouth as they cleared the tower wall, flew over the garden, and exited the villa’s stone perimeter. Ciardis felt Sebastian’s grip around her waist tighten reflexively.

A tremor of fear went from his mind to hers. Was the imperial heir actually scared of flying? It never occurred to her that she had anything to fear. Flying felt like freedom. As long as one wasn’t being chased down by fire-breathing dragons, that is.

With one hand gripping the long feathers on the scruff of Skar’s neck with determination, she reached down to her waist and affectionately clasped Sebastian’s hand in her own.

“Scared?” she asked.

“Not a chance,” he shouted back. She wouldn’t have expected a young male to declare anything less. It seemed that bravado ran in their veins. Whereas a woman would be smart enough to assess the situation, admit her fears, and get as close to the ground as quickly as possible.

A slight over-exaggeration,
said Sebastian in her head as he leaned forward with his lips next to her ear. He didn’t kiss her. In fact he didn’t say a word aloud. But she felt his presence surrounding her like a warm glove on a cool evening’s night.

Perhaps
, she admitted with a stifled giggle. She turned her face away from his and directly into the wind to calm her mind. With his arms around her, she felt as giddy as a young woman with her first crush. Half of her wanted to relax and just ride the wave of first love. The other half was scolding herself for feeling remotely happy in the circumstances that surrounded them.
Besides,
Ciardis grumbled to herself,
he still has a lot of explaining to do.
As content as she was to ride this wave of love, she knew their personal tribulations weren’t over. Far from it.

But still when she felt the movement of his arm and he grabbed her hand she couldn’t evade the slight touch. The truth of the matter was she didn’t want to. So with his arm locked around her waist like a bracer, Ciardis Weathervane intertwined her fingers with Sebastian Athanos Algardis. For a moment, they were at peace high in the sky.

They flew four blocks into the western part of the city before Ciardis noticed something odd on the ground. She couldn’t make out exactly what it was. It looked like one large sheet of metal. The glare of the sun bouncing off it was unmistakable as the metal stretched to fill the width of a street that could easily accommodate a full horse-drawn carriage.

Speaking mind-to-mind, as they had no time for banter, Ciardis asked,
Sebastian, do you see that? To our left on the ground
.

Then the metal shifted like...a living creature. It moved and suddenly the single sheet was dozens of square rectangles. The rectangles had spread apart so space showed between them and as one they lowered to the ground in a vertical movement that exposed the men beneath the metal. They were shields.

Shock rocketed through Ciardis. Soldiers, soldiers in the streets of Sandrin. She felt Sebastian move his head to peer down over her shoulder.