by Terah Edun
Ciardis stood up and turned away.
“Where are you going?” asked Christian.
“Back to camp.”
Chapter 34
She walked calmly into camp, not shouting, not venting, and not screaming. Quietly and with a purpose. But without fail, every single soldier who crossed her path backed away quickly upon seeing her face.
Ciardis headed straight for Sebastian. She had a hunch where he’d be. The Prince Heir was seated on the ground with the same group of individuals she’d left him with earlier. His back was to her so he didn’t see her approach. But Meres did. When Meres saw her face he cleared his throat, stood, and stepped forward. Casually he moved through the group, putting his body in front of the Prince Heir’s.
When Sebastian stood up to see who had caused the disturbance, he looked at Ciardis quizzically with dark green eyes.
“Ciardis,” Meres spoke, his voice quiet. “What’s the matter?”
Ciardis looked at him with coldly calculating eyes. For once seeing the world and the people around her for what they were—self-serving and conniving individuals.
Ciardis lifted her hand and offered it, palm up.
“What do you see, Lord Meres?” she said.
He was silent for a moment. “An empty hand.”
She nodded. “I thought it was full until a few minutes ago. I thought I had a place to call home and friends to grasp.”
“Ciardis,” Prince Heir Sebastian said carefully. “You’re acting quite strange.”
She wanted to believe that this innocent boy becoming a man couldn’t have known. That he hadn’t deceived her, but she wasn’t a fool. Sebastian was the Prince Heir first, a friend second.
“I guess I am,” she admitted. “Wouldn’t you be if you found out you had a brother that everyone else knew about?”
The entire group of people blanched, and it wasn’t because she had practically shouted the words at the end. It was because they knew what she had said was true. She could see it in their faces.
She wished she could say it didn’t hurt the most that Sebastian had clearly known, but she couldn’t.
Holding out his hand, Sebastian pleaded, “Let’s discuss this somewhere more private.”
“Why?” snapped Ciardis. “So you can lie some more?”
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” said Lady Vana.
“Ciardis, it wasn’t like that,” Sebastian said. “The Imperial decree was a direct order; no one was to mention even the possibility of another Weathervane to anyone else. For secrecy’s sake.”
“So what?” said Ciardis slowly. “If he wasn’t spoken of, he didn’t exist?”
As Meres began to speak, she held up a hand. “Where has my brother been for the last eighteen years? If he wasn’t with the family that was assigned to adopt him, where was he?”
“On the northern border,” said Sebastian slowly. “At first he was fostered with an old knight family there, and since his powers came in he’s been working in the service of the emperor.”
“With that control bracelet on his arm the whole time?”
She continued issuing rapid-fire questions. This time to see if the man she had seen in the bookshop in Sandrin was the same person. “Does he have free will? Can he go as he pleases?”
“The bracelet monitors him as a tracking device would,” said Lady Vana. “If the minder allows him the freedom, he can go as he wills.”
Ciardis nodded. “And who is his minder?”
“That doesn’t matter,” interjected an advisor to Sebastian. “What we want to know is where you found this information.”
“Where I found it?” echoed Ciardis softly, fury overtaking her every limb.
“From my brother,” she snarled. “He told me.”
“In a dream?” asked Lords Meres quickly.
Ciardis looked at him as if he’d gone nuts. “He’s here and he’s with the Shadow Mage.”
Lady Vana swore and the regiment commander wasted no time in ordering a unit to form up in search of the wayward Weathervane.
Ciardis laughed with bitterness in her tone. “I take it that surprises all of you?”
Prince Sebastian reached out a cautious hand to take hers. She moved out of his reach in seconds, distaste on her face.
“Were you planning on putting me ‘in service to the emperor?’”
“No, of course not,” were the denials shouted at her from all sides.
But she knew—she knew in her heart that it had been a consideration. But was it still? As she struggled to digest all that she had learned, Ciardis felt the weight of pain enter her heart, that all of her friends had kept something so important from her.
Sighing, Meres said, “Ciardis, it is unfortunate that you found out in this manner, but it was ongoing discussion whether or not you were to be made aware of a living sibling.”
“Since you only manifested so recently – within months in fact,” ventured Lady Vana, “Lady Serena and I deemed it best, in initial discussions with Damias, to wait until your powers were stable enough for you to meet him.”
“Stable enough?” demanded Ciardis.
“Weathervanes can feed off each other in unsettling ways,” said Meres Kinsight.
“How did he get here?” questioned Vana.
Ciardis shrugged and said flatly, “I don’t know, but I do know that the Shadow Mage controls my brother.”
“Which would explain the huge increase in power beyond the abilities of a normal mage, even one with dark gifts like a Shadowwalker,” said Lady Vana.
“We will have to make inquiries in the North,” stated Prince Heir Sebastian. “This should never have happened. His minder is stationed on the border and needs him to help with the war.”
Ciardis noted that she had began to feel ill over the past few minutes. Like her stomach was upset and she wanted to throw up. Maybe it was something she had eaten?
Sharp-eyed, Alexandra asked her, “Is something wrong, Ciardis?”
“No, nothing,” she murmured, not wanting to be distracted from the topic at hand.
“If you’re unwell you need to tell us,” said Maree Amber.
“I did tell you—” protested Ciardis hotly.
“Enough with these secrets,” snapped Meres. “The girl should know. Forewarned is forearmed.”
Turning to Ciardis, he said, “We mentioned that Weathervanes affect each other in different ways. One of those effects is inducing mild illness—like a stomach ailment—when one Weathervane feels the other conducting magic. If you feel ill it could be because your brother is nearby and is acting as an enhancer or conduit for someone else’s power.”
Alarm flashed across Alexandra’s face.
Ciardis nodded, not wanting to betray the brother she never knew, but knowing that anything he did was being controlled by an outside force. “My stomach is ill.”
Maree and Vana cursed and sent out their own magic feelers. They quickly sounded an alarm and soldiers started converging. But whatever they felt also felt them, because it triggered a magic trap.
Without warning they were all transported in the shadows. When they could orientate themselves again, Ciardis saw that they were in a sunny field not far away from the village of Borden. She looked to her friends and counted off who was there: Sebastian, Stephanie, Christian, Vana, Meres, ten of the Prince Heir’s guard, Alexandra, Maree, and, Ciardis noted with surprise, someone new—a man with pitch black hair and a tall, gangly body.
“Everyone all right?” called Prince Heir Sebastian. Everyone confirmed with various nods and affirmations.
“Where the hell are we?”
“I think I can answer that,” a male voice said. As they all turned to view the speaker whose voice had startled them, many pulled out the weapons that they had. But when they turned to the eastern fields where the voice had come from, there was no one there. As they began to spread out in a tense circle to locate the person, Vana Cloudbreaker held up a closed fist, edging forwa
rd into the planted stalks of the gently blowing fields of wheat. She was looking around with both of her sights—magical and mundane.
Ciardis saw something interesting rise up from Vana when she called upon her mage core; it was like an orb with a thunderstorm of purple in it. Misty purple clouds and streaks of purple lightning fought to free themselves from the bubble as it rose in the air. And then it burst, sending the lightning and mist scattered in different directions. When it headed farther east, it struck something curious—a bubble—and like the cling of a sweater after it has been rubbed on polished wood, the purple lightning and mist clung to the new object, spreading like water over its surface.
“Very good,” said the voice again as they dropped their complex shield. Its duty completed, Vana’s conjured sightstorm of lightning and mist that had clung to the bubble dissipated.
Several individuals stood facing Ciardis’s group. None of them looked particularly friendly. Prince Heir Sebastian’s guard stepped forward to face the threat.
Ciardis squinted in the bright sun and swore. Was that who she thought it was? What in all the gods’ names was the Weather Mage doing here?
The Shadow Mage in the lead smiled a cold smile at Prince Heir Sebastian and the small retinue that stood around him. He had an uncanny resemblance to the strange, stork-like man who stood to their side.
“And who are you?” asked Prince Heir Sebastian with ice in his tone.
“Milord Prince Heir,” said the Weather Mage from the man’s left with sweat dripping from his brow, “may I present Lord Kastien?”
“Lord Kastien of?” said Meres Kinsight in a dangerously soft tone. To strangers he might sound as if he were at just another dinner party, but Ciardis didn’t miss the tight grip he had on his dagger and the surge of power she felt coming from him.
“Borden,” said the addressed man simply.
At that moment everyone turned to look at the tall, gangly man standing by Alexandra, Meres with more suspicion than all of them.
“What is the meaning of this, Darius?” demanded Prince Heir Sebastian.
“I don’t know, Milord,” the man called Darius said with more aplomb than Ciardis would thought him capable of. “But I intend to find out.”
He strode forward, breaking ranks, ignoring the protests from Vana and Maree. As Ciardis watched him approach the man who could almost be his twin, she looked for her brother among the figures. He wasn’t there. Where was he? She didn’t want him at the Shadow Mage’s side but the alternative meant that he was probably back in the encampment of soldiers.
Why would the Shadow Mage only transport such a select few?
She took in the Weather Mage’s form. He looked worse than the day that she and Linda Firelancer had first met him. His form shook where he stood and sweat poured down his face.
Then he turned to look directly at her. Even with the distance between them she could see his eyes. They were black.
“Oh no, oh, for the ever-loving gods, no,” she said with her voice rising.
Julius turned aside partially, his body still primed for a battle in front of them, and muttered caustically, “What?”
“He’s shadow-touched, the Weather Mage is shadow-touched!” she said with a touch of hysteria.
“Are you sure?”
“How can you not see the black depths in his eyes?”
“Brother,” said Darius authoritatively, “what are you doing here? Why are you not at watch over the farm in Borden?”
The man in question sneered, “You. I’m here because of you. You never considered me worthy...”
Dread shifted down Ciardis’s spine. She’d heard that before.
“You went off to that school of mages and left me to rot in Borden,” said the man.
“Timmoris, don’t—” said Darius, holding up a placating hand.
“Don’t call me that!” shouted Timmoris. “How dare you call me that. Belittling me.” Spittle was flying from the incensed man’s face and Darius had finally halted, seeing that something was wrong, very wrong with his brother.
“Let’s talk about this,” Darius said firmly. Waving his hand to encompass the people behind Timmoris, he said, “You’ve certainly made some powerful friends.”
“Them?” said Timmoris with derision.
“The time for talking is over,” said Prince Heir Sebastian. “Incapacitate him. Now, Ashlord!”
Ciardis swore, not because she’d just learned that the tall, gangly man was the one and only Ashlord, a necromancer with dark powers, but because dark clouds were gathering on the horizon.
The necromancer paused and turned back to Prince Heir Sebastian with uncharacteristically pleading eyes. “Please, Milord. He’s all I have. Let me speak to him. I assure you, he means—”
“Watch out!” shouted Ciardis, pointing frantically at the sky.
Before the necromancer could finish his sentence, a bolt of lightning arced down from the gathering storm. It hit the Ashlord straight on and he slumped to the ground unconscious with grave wounds.
“I guess that’s where those burn marks on the bodies came from,” said Meres grimly.
Before Vana could lose an arrow into the Weather Mage, Ciardis shouted hoarsely, “Wait, it’s not him. It’s the Shadow Mage—he’s controlling them.”
“How?” asked Alexandra. “He’s not wearing a control bracelet.”
“It’s the eyes,” Ciardis said. “The shadows are in his eyes just like Barren before Vana released him.”
Timmoris sucked his teeth and smiled. “Well, well, such a smart girl.”
Then he turned to Prince Heir Sebastian and said, “You are right, Milord. The time for talk is over.” Suddenly the gathering clouds became so thick that they blocked out the sun, and the last thing Ciardis heard before a natural darkness descended and the ring of metal against metal began was the maniacal laugh of the Shadow Man.
Prince Heir Sebastian’s men had engaged with the Shadow Mage’s followers, but with their sight limited to a few feet in front of them, they couldn’t extend their defensive perimeter very far.
Maree Amber stepped up with Meres Kinsight to take on a group of the Shadow Mage’s followers, including the Weather Mage. They were all shadow-touched and they were all mages by the look of it. They didn’t speak; they just fought.
Anxiously, Ciardis looked for her brother. He had to be nearby to enhance the Shadow Mage’s powers. But she couldn’t see him. Where was he?
Meanwhile Maree Amber grabbed two trees with her mind. She uprooted those, roots and all, and flung them directly at the mages. The trees took out two of the mages. One of the four shadow-touched cohorts lifted his hands and fire flowed from his fingers directly toward them. The Weather Mage called in lightning and they merged their two natural elements to push a deadly mixture of their elemental powers at everyone in their paths.
Maree didn’t pause. She threw up a mage shield and kept going.
Behind her, Vana said, “If I can get close enough, I can break their feed to their master.”
“How close?” Maree said calmly.
“Touching,” Vana said. “And I’ll need a minute with each.”
“Not going to happen—not now. We don’t have enough trained people here to hold off fully-trained mages while you break the holds on their minds.”
“Suggestions, then?” Vana called out as the shield went down and they rushed the shadow-touched.
“Knock them out if possible,” said Maree Amber with a grunt as she kicked the Fire Mage in the throat swiftly. “Incapacitate them if not.”
A different mage had spotted Ciardis and was bearing down on her with the grim intensity of one preparing to kill. She pulled out a knife and glanced around for another weapon. There was nothing in reach, and the glow of the protective barrier from Maree Amber had failed.
Ciardis’s opponent called on the plants in the ground to capture her, and suddenly the earth beneath Ciardis’s feet was sinking and roots were dragging her hands down.
Scrambling, she pushed up with her hands and feet as much as she could, but her face was already being pulled into the soft soil. He’s going to suffocate me, she realized. But just as suddenly the plants released her, and she looked up to see Maree Amber’s deadly grip on the man’s throat.
He was struggling, but she had him at a disadvantage with his face pulled back in her grip and on his knees as he desperately tried to stop her from strangling him. She did stop, but only when he fell unconscious.
Ciardis looked over to thank her while spitting out dirt, but Maree Amber beat her to it.
“Get behind Lady Vana now,” she said in disgust. “If you’re not going to be useful, at least try not to get in the way.”
As Vana dodged opponents, she shouted, “We need a sun mage.”
“What do you want to me to do about that?” Ciardis asked as she desperately dodged a sword aimed at her head and came up face to face with the Weather Mage.
Hefting the rock in her hand, she quickly apologized and walloped the Weather Mage on the head. He slumped onto the ground, out cold. The darkened skies immediately opened as clouds disappeared and the sun shone through.
“That’ll do!” shouted Lady Vana with a grin.
Ciardis was tempted to say something snarky, and then she saw a long staff weapon discarded by a soldier on the ground. She needed a weapon and that would serve perfectly. Scrambling over with quick feet, she grabbed it off of the ground and turned around to face the person she heard coming up behind her.
Unfortunately it was the Shadow Mage.
He wasted no time having his shadow creatures pin her to the ground and relieve her of her weapon. They began to twist her arms in unnatural directions as she screamed in pain. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Sebastian came from behind him. Wielding a sword, he tried to cut off the Shadow Mage’s head. Hearing Sebastian coming up behind him, the Shadow Mage had enough time to duck and knock Sebastian’s legs out from under him. The sword swiped the side of his face, but only enough to create a shallow cut through the edge of his nose. A shadow creature turned itself into black vines and wrapped thick ropes around Prince Heir Sebastian’s legs, dragging him away.