by Terah Edun
“You mean the man who rules this entire land?” Sebastian asked in a clipped voice.
Ciardis stepped forward before anyone could come to blows. “All right, let’s tone this down. You stopped the assault, Rachael; we appreciate that.”
Sebastian fumed behind her but didn’t say anything else.
The shaman nodded. “I’m ready to introduce you to my people now.”
“Right,” Ciardis said hesitantly as she looked over her shoulder at the prince heir. She honestly wasn’t sure she wanted to meet them. Besides, this diplomatic stuff really wasn’t her specialty.
After a moment’s hesitation she felt Sebastian get a hold on his anger in order to let a cooler head prevail. He stepped forward and said formally, “We would be honored for the introduction. Let me gather my own people.”
Rachael nodded with a visibly grateful look on her face. If she thought it was odd that the prince heir needed to speak to the rest of them alone, she tactfully said nothing.
Ciardis tilted her head a bit and pondered. Why does this matter so much to her? They just about killed us. Apologies, while nice, aren’t really going to be conducive to anything.
The question you should be asking, Thanar told Ciardis softly, is not why it matters but what they plan for after the niceties have been played out.
Are you asking me? she heard Sebastian say tersely in her head, it seemed the moment Thanar was through. She got the feeling Thanar’s thought had been directed only at her. She filed that away to explore another day.
Ciardis snapped back, Well, I wasn’t, but since you seem so amenable to questions, what is with you?
Sebastian stirred. She felt his mind walling off.
Fine, Ciardis snapped in irritation. Keep your secrets, Sebastian Athanos Algardis.
Sebastian lashed out before he could stop himself. She felt his anger flash on a wave of regret and misery before he spoke the words in their minds. But that’s just it—it’s not my secret to keep.
Whose is it, then? Ciardis asked in complete confusion as she physically turned around and put a tentative hand on his face.
He was angry; she didn’t understand at what, but she got why. They all had a thousand things to be angry about in the past and in the present. The fact that the prince heir was lashing out now was the only thing that made Ciardis fairly certain he was what she was…human.
But she needed to understand, for him and for herself.
“What?” Ciardis whispered hoarsely as she searched his eyes and tried to force an answer out through their connection.
The prince heir looked back at her out of bitter emerald irises. She had to wonder what it was that had him caught up in his own world of regret and anger.
Finally Sebastian barked out a laugh and put a shaking hand up on her cheek as he said, “Oh, you don’t get it. Not yet. Future wife of mine. But you need to. For all our sakes. So I will tell you.”
Ciardis stilled and didn’t take her eyes off his face.
Sebastian flicked his eyes away and nodded to someone behind Ciardis. Whatever that nod conveyed was an order, because moments later Ciardis heard Tobias give a barking order for the shaman to bring her people towards them.
Sebastian pinned his eyes back on her and said with a small smile, “A moment of privacy.”
Ciardis snorted. “A moment is all we have.”
Sebastian swallowed and gently stroked her cheek before withdrawing his hand. “I will say this aloud, since it’s been far too long since I admitted it to myself or to anyone else.”
“What is it?” Ciardis said hoarsely as she searched his face, wondering what she would find.
A harsh laughter interrupted them.
Startled, Ciardis looked over her shoulder to see a sardonic daemoni prince lingering on their perimeter.
Anger was etched on his face—in the frown lines radiating from a tightly pursed mouth, in the arms crossed defiantly, and in the passion in his eyes. Thanar’s anger seemed to be burn from a perpetual fire of dark passion fed by the emotions of jealousy as a farrier stocked a flame with fuel but Sebastian used his anger like a shield to ward away a haze of confusion. Regardless, they both radiated hidden pain.
Ciardis knew, though, without even delving into his emotions, that what the outside world read as defiant in Thanar was truly defensive.
He is afraid, Ciardis realized with a hint of shock. Afraid of being rejected.
The darkness that haunted battlefields. The man that people quaked before in fear. The daemoni prince with no heart…didn’t want to be left out. Left alone.
Before she could say anything to assuage his worries, not even sure she could, it was Sebastian who shifted his position and held out a hand.
Thanar raised a perfectly etched eyebrow and said in a soft purr, “If you think I’m holding your hand again, Prince Heir, we need to have a talk about who’s in love with whom.”
Sebastian had slipped his other hand into Ciardis’s own. He gripped hers in anger as his face flushed, and he said through gritted teeth, “Stop with your deflections and your innuendos for once, Prince, just this once. I only offer you the same thing I offer my fiancée: the truth. If you cannot handle it, then stay where you are. If you can, then come forward.”
A tense silence descended as Ciardis watched Sebastian, searching his face for clues. Sebastian never took his angry eyes off Thanar.
She wondered what this was about. She wondered if Sebastian would even tell her without Thanar present, because for some strange reason, despite his threats, she could tell that Sebastian wanted Thanar to be present. And she wasn’t even sure he knew for certain why.
None of them knew anything, and at this moment, more than anything, she wanted to know something.
What they were fighting for. What Sebastian was descending into darkness for.
Thanar said in a detached tone, “I’m still not taking your hand.”
Ciardis felt herself curse a mental blue streak in her head, but she had the sense to block them from hearing it.
But that was all right, because Sebastian hunched over in belly-aching laughter in that moment.
Raising himself up with tears at the corner of his eyes, the prince heir said with an amused shake of his head, “Only you, Daemoni Prince, could amuse me at a time like this. Take that as a compliment.”
Thanar glared at him, his wings half-raised and his arms still crossed.
Ciardis imagined him as a petulant bat, and that she didn’t keep to herself under a mental blockade. It certainly didn’t help matters, because the daemoni prince turned his irate glare on her helpless face.
Finally Sebastian said through a renewed gale of chuckles, “Never mind, Prince, don’t be mad at your love, who is my affianced might I add. She only served to lighten a dark mood.”
Ciardis startled as she reached out instinctively to feel for Sebastian’s emotions. Was he mocking Thanar or being truthful? They were still touching so it was easy to do, and easy to see that he wasn’t in fact speaking from a dark space. His anger had dissipated like a dark cloud on a spring day.
It was…disturbing.
“I only wanted to initiate a sound barrier, which I can do if we combine our gifts,” Sebastian admitted while wriggling the fingers on his still outstretched hands. “What I need to say shouldn’t be overheard by ears or by minds. You never know who might be listening, after all.”
“Like a certain dragon,” Ciardis whispered.
“Precisely,” Sebastian said in a completely normal tone.
Thanar shrugged, dropped his crossed arms, and said, “Why didn’t you say so before? I’ll drop a sight-and-sound shield. No touchy-feely needed.”
Sebastian coughed. “That only keeps out physical eavesdroppers.”
Then Thanar smiled his trademark dark smile—one that promised mischief. “With a few additions.”
Sebastian twitched and dropped his hand with some reluctance, which Ciardis noted but didn’t comment on.
“By all means,” the prince heir said smoothly.
Thanar sauntered forward until they stood in a three-pointed triangle in the grasslands—Weathervane to Prince Heir to Daemoni Prince.
The triumvirate in one place. A bond unwillingly forged. Built of silence. Built of secrets.
Well, Ciardis thought, one of those secrets is about to come out of the darkness.
Thanar cleared his throat and dropped his right hand inconspicuously to his side. In his palm Ciardis saw darkness gathering. The magic formed like a black ball of light, invisible to the naked eye—just not to hers.
She had a moment to feel unease, but that was gone from one moment to the next.
Then the barrier was in place and silence fell.
A moment passed. Then another.
Until finally Thanar snapped, “Well? As much as I’m enjoying this moment of solitude, we’ve got things that need to be done.”
Ciardis nodded. “If you’ve got something to say, Sebastian, then please say it.”
Sebastian rolled his eyes and then spoke slowly. “I might have done something.”
“Something?” said Thanar, his voice dripping in sarcasm.
Sebastian glared at him. “Something bad. Something that affects us all.”
“Oh, this will be good,” Thanar muttered.
Ciardis elbowed the commenting daemoni prince in the side. “Stop pestering him, Thanar.”
“Sounds like he needs more than pestering,” Thanar obliquely commented with narrowed eyes. “But do tell us, shining prince, what could you have done to cause so much worry in those cancerous green eyes of yours?”
Sebastian’s mouth pursed in a thin line, a visible sign of his displeasure. But he gathered his composure and forged on. “I challenged the Emperor of Algardis.”
“About what?” Ciardis asked, flummoxed.
Sebastian spared her a censorious glare. “Don’t be naïve, Ciardis Weathervane.”
She stiffened and snatched her hand back only to find it lodged in an ever-tightening grip. “And don’t be cruel, Sebastian Athanos Algardis.”
Thanar sighed heavily. “As amusing as this little tiff is, can we get to the point?”
“The point,” Sebastian said in a huff, “is that when we get back to the city, we’re either going to be on the right of side of the courts, or the wrong side. I fear this little stunt with the plainsmen is just the start of my father’s jabs.”
Ciardis tensed. “You think he sent the plainsmen to kill us?”
She wasn’t too surprised. Maradian was nothing if not crafty, and to get someone else to do his dirty work, especially if he didn’t want to go through a public display of beheading his only son as he’d threatened to do before they’d left the city, would be just like him.
Sebastian shook his head. “This wasn’t an assassination squad. It was a test. No matter what the shaman said.”
Thanar paused. “Why don’t we get better clarification out of her, then?”
Sebastian nodded. “My thoughts exactly.”
They all eyed each other and then released each other’s hands one by one, breaking the enhanced sight-and-sound barrier as they finally turned around to view what was left of the chaos that had ensued.
The plains still looked like a rather disturbed water buffalo had rampaged through the lands. Ciardis’s various companions were standing and loitering around with expressions ranging from disturbed to angry plastered on their faces. The shaman’s people were moving among them administering light touches as they could, but most had backed off to a safe distance to let cooler heads prevail.
She couldn’t blame them. With the anger on the soldiers’ faces, Ciardis wouldn’t have brought the children closer to the travelers either.
She looked around and said softly, “So who is on trial here? The shaman’s people or our own?”
“Both,” Sebastian said with a slow gulp.
Thanar rustled his wings. “And don’t forget.”
They turned to look over at him.
A sardonic grin flashed on his face, but not his eyes, as the daemoni prince said, “That Emperor still wants all of our heads.”
4
Ciardis sighed and started to walk over to Terris.
Rachael hustled over to her before she made it more than a few steps and said, “If there’s any way we can aid your people, please don’t hesitate to ask. We owe you a debt for the pain caused.”
Ciardis eyed the shaman and then her plainspeople silently. When it was clear she had nothing more to say to her, the shaman shrugged lightly and turned. As Rachael walked away, Ciardis said hoarsely, “Thank you.”
The shaman glanced back with a small smile. “Don’t mention it.”
Ciardis turned back to her original destination to see that Christian had done his healing job well, with no worse for wear on her friend.
Sebastian seemed to be conferring with Tobias and Samuel, who had appeared out of nowhere.
“Remind you of anything?” Terris asked weakly as Ciardis knelt down next to her.
Ciardis looked at her curiously, wishing that Thanar had thought to help the other companion as quickly as he had Ciardis herself, but she knew that wasn’t in his nature. He was a conniving, selfish bastard. It was just her luck that he seemed to be more than a little fond of her or she wouldn’t be walking half as well as she was now.
“What?” Ciardis asked when nothing seemed to come to mind.
Terris gasped in surprise as she said, “Why, Ciardis Weathervane, have you forgotten our exploits so quickly? I’m hurt.”
Then Terris tapped the bandage around her arm and smiled brightly enough that Ciardis knew she only mocked her in jest. “This, my dear Weathervane, is going to double the scars I already have from some very sharp claws.”
Ciardis let out a short bark of laughter as memories of the gryphon attack on Terris in the Ameles Forest brought back memories.
“Oh yes,” the Weathervane said dryly. “You really do know how to make a girl worry.”
Terris nodded. “Did I hear right? The shaman saved us?”
Ciardis paused. “I guess she did. Though some don’t see it that way.”
Terris said, “Well, it’s clear that’s your job, then.”
“My job to what?” Ciardis asked as she looked over at the conferring soldiers and their prince heir.
“Make them listen,” Terris said with an irritated sigh. “The gods know no one else will.”
Ciardis shook her head tersely. “The shaman’s people waylaid us in the middle of an important mission and we all could have easily died. Yeah, you want us to forgive them?”
Terris tried to rise up and grab Ciardis’s arm, only to immediately wince in pain.
“Ah, not so fast!” chided Christian. “I’m not through with you yet.” His face was starting to take on the characteristics of his koreische race with sweat beading on top of his semi-translucent skin. It was clear from the concentration on his face that he was doing his best to heal Terris, so Ciardis gently shook her head at her friends. “Let him continue. Tell me what you want to say from there.”
So Terris glared up at her from her reclining position against Christian’s chest instead and said, “If anyone should be sore with them it should be me, but I’m not complaining. Not yet, anyway.”
Ciardis licked her bottom lip as she thought about it. “Why not?”
“Because it was an honest accident, and I think they have some things to tell us.”
Ciardis raised her eyebrows. “Like what?”
A wicked grin crossed Terris’s face. “That’s for you to find out, missy, and for me to sit back and recline against this chest as a poor invalid the whole way through.”
Ciardis chuckled and said, “I walked right into that one, didn’t I.”
“You kind of did,” Christian commented as he lowered his forehead to Terris’s shoulder and set about knitting flesh back together with some tersely worded chants.
Terris and Ciard
is exchanged humorous glances, but neither laughed as much as they wanted to. They didn’t want to disturb Christian’s concentration any more than they already had.
Terris rolled her eyes and then looked around. “What’s with him?”
“Who?” Ciardis asked.
“I believe she means the third brooding member of your triad,” Christian said dryly as he looked back up with a slow in-draw of breath.
Ciardis blinked, but sure enough Thanar stood off to the side looking a little perturbed. Not at the shaman’s people in particular, though.
Ciardis caught Thanar’s shifty gaze and she raised an eyebrow. Silently she was asking him for an explanation.
He didn’t mince his words.
“All right,” said Thanar. “Since no one else has asked. Where’s the damned wyvern?”
They all looked around and then back at Terris, who was sitting up unsteadily in Christian’s arms with a look of shock on her face.
The first thing Ciardis did after that was turn around so quickly she almost felt like she was spinning. She looked in all directions, her eyes searching the bodies of each individual around her. As if the ten-foot-tall wyvern was hiding behind one of them and all she had to do was spot it.
She heard Terris shuffle out of the tight grip that Christian had on her as her friend said, “This can’t be happening.”
Ciardis spared Terris a glance, debating whether or not it was appropriate to reassure her when there was nothing she could reassure her about.
She caught one glimpse of Terris’s face and decided against it.
To Ciardis’s surprise, it wasn’t a face wracked with guilt that she saw. Instead, the Kithwalker had murderous rage imprinted on every inch of her face. Terris looked like someone ready to tear the plains from end to end as she muttered loudly, “This cannot be happening. We went too far and risked too much for it to just…just disappear.”
Terris’s hands were balled into fists as she too turned this way and that searching for the wayward wyvern. Unfortunately for her and them all, it was as mysteriously gone as it had been minutes before.
Thanar ruffled his wings as Christian said, “Well, it’s not like it could have gone far.”