Sworn To Secrecy: Courtlight #4 (12 page)

It might be time for us to find another home within Sandrin
, she decided. One that was defensible, less ostentatious, and more private. Meaning few, if any, servants. That, of course, removed the Companions’ Guild hall from all consideration. She wasn’t even sure they would take Thanar in even if the need for privacy didn’t already disqualify the guild hall from the running. She also didn’t know what the members of the guild thought of herself and her mother. She had no doubt their actions wouldn’t rate very high in any of the Companion Council members’ eyes, particularly not those of the Rithmatist—the creepy man with the power to control the body and actions of another. He had been quite put out about her profound skepticism of the noble court and the Companions’ Guild before. And that was putting his displeasure with her mildly. He’d be even less inclined to like her now. Especially since the head of the Companions’ Guild wasn’t around to restrain his actions. She remembered his ability to restrict her movements and vocals with dread. Having someone else control your body wasn’t pleasant. Ever.

“I wonder whom they have appointed to replace Maree Amber,” she wondered aloud as she sat on the edge of bed to put on her boots. With a final tug she stood up and shrugged on her heavy cloak.

“At least I didn’t have to change clothes,” she said with dark humor as she snapped the cloak fastened at her throat, “Having the last watch definitely had its benefits.”

She gotten to rest longer and dawn had quickly arose. With the sun rising the servants had awoke as well, giving the manor a less creepy feel.

Then a brilliant idea appeared in her head. It might not be the sanest idea, but it might solve at least one of the many problems that she needed to address while at court. With the death of Maree Amber, who had served as the head of both the Companions’ Council and the Companions’ Guild, a void in leadership had opened up in the most important positions for one of the empire’s largest guilds. The Companions’ Guild controlled fortunes and members across the empire. Ciardis smiled in glee, thinking she might be visiting the Companions’ Guild sooner than she had previously thought, because the council might be the key to persuading nobility across the empire to join their cause against the evil coming from the north.

Putting the thought aside as she tugged on her gloves and walked downstairs she surveyed the dining room. Its walls were the only part of the room left standing, and they were barely there at all. Large holes the size of a frost giant appeared in odd places with fluttering scraps of wallpaper and plaster the only remainder of the once elegant space. Next to the dining room was the library, now a mass of broken wood, torn paper, and cracked marble floors. In both rooms, such as they were, servants were sweeping up the shattered glass and broken wood. As she emerged from the hallway overlooking the first floor, she was surprised to see someone waiting down below. Arms crossed belligerently and wings slightly spread, Thanar looked up at her with an unreadable expression on his face.

“Something I can help you with?” Ciardis said lightly as she met him at the foot of the stairs.

“Yes,” Thanar said. “Tell me how you knew about what happened in the Ameles Forest.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t play coy with me,” he said flatly. “Right before that fiery harridan appeared...”

“Hold it?
Who
?”

He ground his teeth together. “Firelancer, the one with gift of controlling fires. She appeared in a firestorm and tried to kill me the moment she arrived.”

“Oh! I
do
remember that. She certainly had surprise on her side when she threw that massive ball of flames at you before you could flee,” Ciardis said.

“And as you remember – I happened to be fusing the hole in my heart at the time. Courtesy of your prince heir.”

“I remember. One of our best moments actually,” she said, “Since you were about to tell me everything you knew about the coming god of destruction.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You and I have different recollections then.”

She shrugged. “Lucky you, I remember you surprising her as well. That shadow and mist trick you do comes in handy.”

“I know.”

Her lips twitched in amusement.

“As I was saying on the battlefield after the defeat of the wyvern and Barnaren’s death, you asked me about what I saw in the Ameles Forest.”

Ciardis narrowed her eyes and stuck her gloved hands into her own pockets. “And you said that ‘midnight fire and death flaming’ was what you saw. What did you mean by that?”

A ghost of a smile flickered on his face as he leaned down. “Good memory, Weathervane, but even if I knew what it was I saw, I still wouldn’t tell you.”

“That’s strange since I was under the impression that the daemoni prince knew everything, being a healer, a murderer, and a mage all at once. Could it be possible that even you can’t fathom what went on in the Ameles Forest?”

He leaned back and an angry tic appeared at the edge of his mouth. He said nothing further.

She folded her arms across her chest from where she stood a few steps higher than him with a satisfied look. “Then it seems we’re at an impasse. Because you have nothing of value to me without answering that query.”

Thanar snorted and ducked his head. For a moment his raven-black hair fell in his eyes and his gaze took on a darkly intense look as he studied the crumbled marble beneath his feet.

“If I tell you why I was there and what I saw before it turned to darkness, then you can at least exchange what you know,” he said.

“Why? Why is the forest so important to you all of a sudden?”

He hissed in anger as his eyebrows raised in ire. “There is no ‘all of a sudden’ about it.  The Ameles Forest was once home to my people. Before they were forced to serve and...relocate.”

Something about the way he said the last word made Ciardis uneasy, but she couldn’t pinpoint exactly why.

“And? What? You went back to reconnect with your homeland?” She could hear his teeth grinding together in ire. But he refrained from anything more than tense words.

“No. I went there to serve my people.”

“How?”

Apparently sharing time had ended though, because Thanar didn’t answer her as he stepped back with stiff shoulders. She could see it in his eyes that he wouldn’t give her any more information. But she had to press on, there was something there, something important, something Thanar was holding back and wasn’t sharing with her. So she lashed out at him, hoping for a reaction.

“So you went to your old homeland to serve your people. And by ‘people,’ I assume you mean
kith
, right? Since the daemoni are such gracious benefactors of all the
kith
races.” He could probably hear the derision in her voice.

Thanar didn’t answer her question. It was rhetorical anyway. Ciardis continued unabated.

“The same people you needlessly slaughtered?”

This time he bared his teeth in the semblance of a smile. He saw through her ruse and lashed right back with cruelty. “The death of a daemoni is always for the greater good. My subjects knew what they were doing, what they were sacrificing their lives for.”

Angered, she came down the steps one-by-one. “Did they? Did they really know you intended to take their lives? The lives of innocent children, cowed women, and beaten men? They came for sanctuary and protection only to be led to the slaughter like calves in winter by the very individuals they saw as their protectors.”

He was motionless. His face unreadable.

She continued, “And you as their ruler should have stopped them and stopped yourself. You knew the penalty for your actions in the Sanctuary. You knew that countless lives would be claimed. And you pushed on. Not only sacrificing their lives, but also lives of your daemoni kin. And you can’t twist that around. When your death sentence was announced, you welcomed the killing arrows with open arms. You didn’t resist, and neither did your fellow mages.”

“It was all for the true cause,” he said dispassionately.

“And yet,” she said her golden eyes flashing in anger, “everyone else died for the true cause. And here you stand, whole and well.”

He spread his arms and his wings. “And look what I accomplished. The first tests of the
blutgott
came forth. Proof that the god is listening to his subjects and proof to him that we serve his cause, sacrifice for him and will die for him.”

She searched his eyes and whispered, “And what could the god of death and destruction possibly give you that warrants your absolute loyalty to him?”

A chilling look of glee crossed Thanar’s face. “Revenge.”

She swallowed and looked away and then back at him. “Revenge is nothing when you lose everyone and everything you would fight to avenge. Even if you can’t fight for your people, how can you stand here knowing that I intend to do everything in my power to stop the
blutgott
before he arises? To stop you if I must.”

Thanar laughed gently, as if she were a child challenging him, a giant. His gaze became darker. The rich tones of turmoil and passion flashing through his gaze.

“Why am I here?” he echoed softly. “Because you fascinate me, Ciardis. Because I wish to possess you. And because you, being you, have yet to understand what that truly means.”

Suddenly the room felt hot. It shouldn’t have. Not with the chill breeze that wafted across Ciardis’s body.

Thanar smirked at the flash of want and fear in her eyes.

Stepping back with a knowing look, he said, “Perhaps we’re not so far apart after all.”

“I would think you were,” said a coolly elegant voice. It was like ice on the wind.

Ciardis gasped and turned around. For a moment she feared that this was another illusion. A cruel dream she would wake from at any moment. But no, there he stood – Sebastian Athanos Algardis. Smiling, she choked back a sob and stilled her face. She didn’t know if she was welcome. She didn’t know if he would try to stop her return to court, thwart her family’s plan and she had to proceed with care.

She might love the man, but he was the prince heir first. A lesson she had learned painfully in the north.

“Ciardis,” he said as he walked forward. She came down the hallway towards him. Stopping just out of reach.

“Sebastian,” she said.

He smiled and opened his mind to her.

And she felt what had been missing – his passion, his heartache and his desire to make amends.

With tears that she couldn’t hold back she threw her arms around his neck and said, “I’ve missed you.”

He whispered into her ear as he held her close. “I’ve missed you, too.”

She leaned back and looked up into his face. This close, she felt more than his emotions. Before she could pull back and get their joint mind link under control she was thrust into his head. Not just hearing his thoughts, but seeing through his eyes and hearing through his ears. It was just for a moment, but the double vision gave her a splitting headache.

Sebastian looked down at her fondly. “It’s not nice to leave a man without one word or even a goodbye.”

Ciardis choked, half-horrified and half-amused. Her tendency to leave him without a word felt like a running joke between them. Even though she had pulled back from using his sensory capabilities, she could still feel every emotion running through his mind as she stood in his arms. Nothing he thought or felt was beyond her knowledge. And she knew it was the same for him. She could feel the amusement running through him as he spoke and lightly teased her. But she also felt his worry, his pain, and his fear.

She spoke calmly but her voice hitched in regret as she said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I had to leave you. My family is here and we needed to move quickly. To put things into motion.”

His forest-green eyes flickered at the mention of her family. “Yes, I’ve heard quite a few things about your family. Your mother in particular. For one, she’s alive.”

Ciardis nodded.

“And she’s on trial, but not just any trial. One to be headed by my father in four days.”

She nodded again.

“And your brother is here. The same brother that helped shelter the Sarvinians in the sanctuary against imperial orders and helped you with the daemoni’s enchantment—once again, counter to imperial mandate.”

Her mouth thinned but she reluctantly nodded again.

“And you’ve also managed to attract a cadre of individuals to your cause. Including the one responsible for the deaths of hundreds of
kith
in the Sanctuary,” Sebastian said, looking up over her head and presumably back at Thanar, who stood at the entrance to the library.

Ciardis couldn’t miss the hardening of his tone and the unhappiness in his voice.

“I can’t really explain everything,” she said in a rush.

“Since when is that unusual?” he said with bitterness.

Quickly Sebastian amended his words. “I’m sorry, that was unfair of me. You’ve always been forthright with me. But since when have we decided to not give forewarning? To not be sure of the other’s intention before running off on another plan?”

“Since you betrayed me,” she said with no hint of anger in her voice. She was merely stating a fact.

He clenched his jaw. “I deserved that. I know that. Springing the imperial committee on you and allowing them to use the truth serum was inexcusable.” She felt true regret radiating from him alongside a swirl of emotions like anger and shame.

She raised her chin stubbornly. “And?”

“And now isn’t the time for us to be on opposing sides Ciardis. We need to be united,” Sebastian said.

“Then
be
on my side,” she said. “Trust me, work with me, support me.”

“I
am
supporting you,” Sebastian shot back. “Did you think I didn’t suspect that you were the one who freed Thanar from his cage days ago? It would have been quite the coincidence otherwise, since you disappeared in the dead of the night along with your bodyguard, your Companions’ Guild mentor, and several frost giants in your wake.”

“Well—”

“No,” Sebastian said firmly. “This time you’ll let me finish. If I didn’t trust you I would have come here with half a dozen of my men to apprehend the suspect and drag him to the bowels of the dungeon where he belongs.”