by Terah Edun
She grumbled, “If we must.”
“We must, my lady, because those fools hold more than just their own lives in their hands,” Sebastian said before nudging his horse back into a harder pace. They were already falling behind.
Sometime later Ciardis was trotting beside Christian, who looked deep in thought. The koreschie was staring straight ahead. Ciardis didn’t want to interrupt his concentration, so she said nothing. And as the city grew closer and darkness grew on the horizon until the sun was gone, they rode at a slowed pace under the guidance of starlight, and she felt both at peace and worried.
Worried at what she had left behind at the emperor’s request. What she would find. She had the feeling there would be no easy solution to whatever was coming. The imperial courts, whether the lords and ladies that floated amongst the palaces knew it or not, was sitting on a powder keg set to blow. All that remained to be seen was which explosion would erupt first.
So when they reached the city gates to see them manned just by the normal rotation of night guards, she was surprised. She had expected the emperor’s soldiers or a least a group of imperial mages—as word had surely already been sent from the posts they’d rode past. They had seen and waved down at least one imperial rider on their way back to Sandrin in haste, and the female imperial rider had clearly seen the wyvern that trotted amidst their group like a scaled obedient dog.
But the man who approached them past the watch tower was a lowly official who quickly trotted up to Samuel’s horse with whispered instructions.
When he left, Samuel looked over to the prince heir and said in a voice loud enough for them all to hear, “They’re expecting us, sir.”
Sebastian frowned and glanced up at the moon high in the sky.
In a suffering tone the prince heir said, “Where?”
“The imperial palace, sir.”
“I don’t suppose they are a bunch of bureaucrats and this can wait til morning?”
Samuel ducked his head. “No, sir. Emperor’s orders. No deviation.”
Sebastian pulled off his riding gloves with a wry chuckle. “I thought so.” He looked back over his shoulder at Ciardis. “What say you, fiancée?”
Ciardis dipped her head wearily but graciously. “If our emperor commands, so must we obey.”
Sebastian flicked his gaze over to Thanar, who landed to stand upright in the street not far from the side of Ciardis’s horse.
Thanar shrugged his wings and gave the hapless tower guard a merciless glare in the process.
“Orders are orders,” Thanar replied. If his tone was put out, the soldier didn’t dare reprimand him. Insolence that would have gotten another guard demoted, got overlooked when it came to a dark mage with a history of torture and oppression.
Ciardis let her horse wander forward until she was in the lead. For some reason unknown to her, Thanar decided it would be best to trot by her side. It would have been a comical sight, to see him half-flying, half-running in the night soil that littered the streets, if his eyes weren’t already glittering with malice and he wasn’t disappearing and reappearing like a ghost in the night.
Ciardis glanced down at his feet to be sure she wasn’t seeing things, and sure enough, not a bit of muck dared to soil his boots. Thanar was definitely using his magic to phase in and out. This realm or this reality. Ciardis wasn’t sure it mattered which one. As they got closer to the palace, her hands were so tight on the reins that her horse’s head was thrown up in the air and the stablemen couldn’t reach far enough above to catch the prancing, anxious gelding.
It was only mirroring the mood of its mistress, so Ciardis couldn’t blame the horse.
And she wasn’t quite ready to calm down.
When a minute had gone by and her horse still wasn’t settled, Sebastian expertly sidled his own horse right next to her own and grabbed her clenched hands.
Ciardis looked over at him and with a tremor in her voice said, “I don’t like this at all.”
“None of us do,” the prince heir said, his voice flat. “But Father has commanded our presence, and so we must obey.”
Ciardis replied with a wry cough, “It’s the middle of the night, and the last time we left these palace gates it was with a death threat hanging over your head. Surely he hasn’t forgiven or forgotten that.”
“No,” Sebastian said softly with a squeeze of her hands. “Nothing has been forgiven. But from the moment I was born, it seems as if my imperial father has had it in for me.”
Ciardis frowned and looked over at him. “You think that even then it was Maradian?”
Sebastian shook his head. “I don’t know what to think anymore. But I know I cannot have this…this malevolence hovering over my head anymore. Our mission is clear.”
This time Thanar strode over and said without prompting, “What mission is that?”
A cold bleakness flashed over Sebastian’s face. “Secure this throne. Because we cannot have a dagger at our backs and a sword at our throats. Not anymore.”
A dark smile graced the daemoni prince’s face. “And how should we do that?”
Dark green eyes met pitch black irises. “I don’t know,” whispered the prince heir.
He looked tired. Worn down.
Ciardis swallowed harshly. She knew how difficult this was for Sebastian. Regardless of Maradian Athanos Algardis’s crimes, he was still blood, he was still family. And regardless of that connection, no matter what they did, the mere action of removing an emperor from power threatened to throw the entire empire into turmoil just when they needed to unify the most.
“Fortunately for you, Prince Heir,” the daemoni prince purred, “I know just what to do.”
Sebastian straightened up from a hunched posture with hope and concern in his eyes.
“What does that mean, Thanar?” Sebastian asked bluntly.
The daemoni prince cocked his head coyly and said, “What? Don’t trust me, Prince Heir?”
“Not the least little bit,” Sebastian said. “We may be a triumvirate now, but I am well aware that you are deadlier than a black adder serpent when disturbed.”
“Aww,” said Thanar. “I was beginning to think you were coming around to like me.”
Sebastian’s jaw dropped in shock.
Then Thanar chuckled. “You should see your face, Prince.”
Sebastian blinked. “Yes, well, I think we’re all a bit surprised here.”
Thanar smiled. “Don’t be. I may have taken a shine to you, but I’ve killed friends with centuries more of history.”
Sebastian’s voice softened, not in weakness but into a more thoughtful territory. “And am I one of those oh so fortunate friends?”
By this time Ciardis’s heart had calmed and she sat perfectly still on her mount’s saddle. She barely registered the groomsman finally grabbing hold of the restless gelding’s head and slipping a lead onto its halter.
But as Sebastian’s words registered in her head, she had to wonder about her other friends. Ciardis looked around for the others as the stableman patted the gelding with soothing touches.
The courtyard was empty.
She frowned and gestured to the stableman. “Our friends?”
Her tone was careful. She wasn’t accusing him or the imperial palace men of anything just yet. But this was the second time in as many days that a wyvern had disappeared under her watch in the blink of an eye, and she would be damned if she would just let that slide.
“Escorted to the distant stables for magical creatures, milady,” the groom whispered discreetly as he looked over at the princes by her side with wide eyes.
Ciardis cleared her throat. “Perhaps we should have gone with them.”
Sebastian snapped back without even looking at the groomsman, “Perhaps not. Though I am interested in Thanar answering my question. So I’ll rephrase: are you looking to kill me, Daemoni Prince?”
“I have yet to decide,” the daemoni prince said carefully. “But what I have decided tonight is that
it’s time to make a move. You two have been nothing but pawns in your emperor’s game.”
Ciardis huffed. “Excuse me?”
Thanar reached up and gripped her tightly by the waist. “If you please, I’m tired of being looked down upon.”
Ciardis didn’t protest as he forcefully helped her dismount and Sebastian decided to follow suit.
As the groomsmen led their horses away, Thanar said in a low, calm tone, “Within months of coming to these courts, Ciardis Weathervane, you were sent away by the side of your mistress with vital orders to investigate deaths in the Ameles Forest.”
“Well, yes,” Ciardis said.
“Deaths the emperor orchestrated,” Thanar accused.
“Now hold on,” said Sebastian angrily.
Thanar held up a hand and pierced the prince heir with an angry look of his own. “Or at the very least, abetted by the empire.”
“What’s your point, Thanar?” Ciardis said while folding her arms across her chest smartly.
“And you, Prince Heir,” Thanar said with a smooth segue, “were targeted by assassins and fools within these courts from the moment you failed in your sole duties as the heir apparent at court. You failed to connect with the land.”
Sebastian’s eye twitched. “We know all this.”
“We also know that this too was sanctioned by the emperor,” Thanar said.
Sebastian frowned. “A fair choice of words,” the prince heir admitted.
The daemoni prince dipped his head in acknowledgement. “Should I go on? The trial and torture of one Ciardis Weathervane by assassin, heir apparent, and—”
Ciardis said in a pleading and disgusted tone, “All right, all right. The emperor is a rotten man.”
“No,” said Thanar quickly and fiercely. “That is what you don’t understand. The empire itself is rotten. Rotten to its core.”
Sebastian shuffled his feet. “There is nothing wrong with this empire.”
This time both Ciardis and Thanar gave him an incredulous look.
Sebastian glared back at them both defiantly. “Well, nothing that can’t be solved, anyway.”
“With a little cleaning,” Thanar said magnanimously. “The empire is only rotten because its core is. Empire and emperor are one and the same. The man is the land. The land is the people. The people take orders from their emperor. To change one, we must change the other.”
Ciardis rubbed her temple to soothe the headache that was forming in her brow.
“What precisely are you suggesting, Thanar?” she asked.
The daemoni prince smiled. “Simple.”
Sebastian looked at him with an irritated question on his face.
Ciardis gave him a tired look. “Well?”
“We kill the Emperor of Algardis,” Thanar said with a chuckle, “and his heir takes his place.”
Sebastian and Ciardis exchanged panicked looks.
“What? No,” said Ciardis.
“Absolutely not,” said Sebastian.
Thanar gave them both disgusted looks. “Oh, ye of little faith. I can’t believe you didn’t think of this before.”
Ciardis threw up her hands. “Of course, why didn’t we think of this before? Regicide just before deicide. It makes perfect sense.”
Thanar rolled his eyes. “Don’t get snippy with me.”
“This is not on the table, Thanar,” Sebastian said firmly with punctuating gestures from his hands. “We cannot.”
“Why not?” said Thanar smugly.
Ciardis dropped her hand from her temple as an icy cold chill went down her back. Thanar was being too appeasing. Too…argumentative. He didn’t argue. He just did what he wanted and damned the consequences.
“Thanar,” Ciardis said slowly with dread in her belly. “Why are you so set on this?”
Thanar smiled and then lovingly patted her cheek with a firm hand.
“Because, my dear,” he said slowly, “it’s already done.”
7
If Ciardis Weathervane had felt chilly before, she felt virtually on fire now.
“What do you mean ‘it’s done’?” she tossed out at Thanar in an irate hiss.
“What’s done?” Sebastian asked frantically as their words fell over each other.
Thanar rocked back on his heels with a smug grin. “Oh, you’ll see quite soon.”
Ciardis had had enough of Thanar’s vague declarations. She lunged at his throat and gripped his shoulders, her sharp nails digging into his flesh. Her face was a pained grimace with frantic worry lacing every word as she said, “What have you done, Thanar? Please. Please tell us.”
Thanar let his dark eyes slowly search her own, then he reached up to leisurely grip both of her hands.
“I’ve only done what you two have been too craven to do,” he said in a soft whisper.
Not soft enough.
“Craven!” shouted Sebastian as he reached between the two of them and forcefully pushed Ciardis out of the way. “First you initiate a plan without our knowledge, then you call us cowards for having no part in it?” Sebastian said incredulously.
Thanar glowered. “As much as I admire your spunk, I’d advise you to take a couple of steps back, Prince Heir. You’re too close.”
The last words were punctuated by the glow of red amber growing in Thanar’s eyes. The glow warned of something worse to come. Much worse.
Ciardis put a tight grip on Sebastian’s shoulder and pulled back.
“Let him breathe,” Ciardis said with a glare over Sebastian’s shoulder at Thanar.
Thanar smirked. Ciardis swung herself forward with the momentum she gathered from pulling on Sebastian’s shoulder.
Sebastian stumbled back under her weight just as she landed a knee directly in Thanar’s crotch.
Both princes were obviously shocked as Sebastian stumbled back under the weight of her pull then push, and Thanar didn’t dodge out of the way in time.
When he looked up from the crouch he’d instinctively backed into, flames were emitting from the corners of his eyes and his hands were engulfed in fire.
To put it mildly, Thanar looked pissed. That was all right, she was just as infuriated.
Ciardis danced back like a prize fighter in a ring and brought up her fists.
“That was for lying to me. To us!” she yelled. “We have done nothing but be supportive of you, and yet time and time again you come back with betrayals and lies.”
A dark laughter emitted from Thanar. “You think this was betrayal,” he said in a rough voice. “Little girl, you haven’t seen betrayal.”
Ciardis snarled.
“I did this in your best interests,” Thanar went on.
“Of course you did,” Ciardis said with a sad shake of her head. “You just forgot to tell us what that interest was. More power for you? Or does it even matter to you?”
Thanar smiled bleakly as Sebastian came up to stand side by side with Ciardis.
“Tell us,” the prince heir commanded.
Thanar sent him a cold look, one that would have sent someone lesser than Sebastian fleeing.
Thanar straightened his bent shoulders with impressive decorum and finally said, “I sent an assassination team.”
“A team,” said Sebastian flatly.
Thanar shrugged. “Of one.”
“Who?” demanded Ciardis. Her heart was already breaking. Because she knew what he was going to say before he said it.
Thanar looked away and then back at her. When he did, the flickering flames had disappeared from the corners of his eyes.
“Who?” screamed Ciardis Weathervane.
It was a whisper on the wind, but Ciardis heard the name just fine.
“Vana Cloudbreaker,” Thanar said with a spark in his eyes. “And she’s either dead by now or she’s succeeded—there is no in between.”
Ciardis felt herself start to breathe hard. She couldn’t help it. It was like being in the middle of a wind tunnel but not reaching any air. She couldn’t catch her br
eath. Words wouldn’t form.
When she turned to look at Sebastian, he looked just as shell-shocked as she did.
More so. This was never in the plan. Never.
“You sent Vana alone, unaided, against the most powerful man in the empire,” Ciardis questioned harshly.
Annoyance flickered across Thanar’s face. “I sent the empire’s most preeminent assassin to take care of a problem.”
“A problem who happens to have the best security on this side of the Sahalia Sea,” Sebastian said with an emphatic gesture. “Are you nuts?”
“Not to mention the fact that this is the emperor,” Ciardis said in exasperation. “You don’t just assassinate the leader of the greatest nation on earth. Not without a plan.”
“Who said I didn’t have a plan?” Thanar said smugly.
Sebastian threw up his hands, paced away, and then paced back just as fast.
He thrust a pointed finger into Thanar’s chest, a gesture uncustomary from a normally composed prince heir, and said, “Judging by the fact that it’s you, me, and one woman standing in a courtyard in the dead of night whispering about insane assassination attempts, I’d say your plan began and ended with sticking a knife in the man.”
Thanar pushed Sebastian’s finger away with a gentle nudge. Gentleness that belied the controlled force in his touch. “A knife is much too gauche.”
Sebastian froze. Ciardis could see that he was doing everything he could to restrain himself from fighting Thanar physically. A move that would be as unwise as it was futile.
Ciardis shook her head fiercely while tears of frustration stung in her eyes.
She wasn’t about to cry. Not now. Not because of this.
So instead she lashed out.
“Is this what you want, Thanar?” she asked stonily. “To pit us against you?”
Thanar gave her an impassive look.
Ciardis forged on. “Or is this about something more? About me making a choice?”
Something flickered in Thanar’s eyes. Passion, fear, she wasn’t sure. She didn’t care.
Sebastian put a calming hand on her shoulder, but Ciardis was beyond caring. She was practically vibrating in anger at the moment. Thanar would feel that wrath just as well as she did.