by Terah Edun
Ciardis waved a hand around weakly. “And this?”
“For your protection, Companion Weathervane,” the duchess said with a bitter sigh. “You have more enemies than you know.”
“Oh, we know,” said Sebastian, Terris and Raisa in chorus.
The Duchess of Carne raised an eyebrow in surprise.
Ciardis just grimaced at the irony.
Finally the duchess said, “Then why are we standing here? We must get to shelter before more of your enemies show up. Trust me, they won’t be offering promises of allegiance.”
12
Sebastian held up a hand and said, “No one move.”
“Trust me,” Terris said flippantly. “We had no intentions of just going off with this snake.”
Ciardis spoke up in a playful tone. “That’s an insult to the nature of snakes, you know.”
The Duchess of Carne apparently didn’t see the irony, however. She was practically vibrating in anger. “You ungrateful, insolent bunch of…” the woman snarled.
“Silence,” the prince heir said coldly. “So speaks your emperor, and you will obey him, won’t you?”
Ciardis glanced at Sebastian out of the corner of her eye in astonishment. He wasn’t actually taking her offer seriously, was he?
The Duchess of Carne froze, and then a mask descended over her face from one moment to the next.
In a careful manner she said, “I acknowledge you as the only rightful emperor of these lands, Sebastian Athanos Algardis, but until you are crowned, you are still a young man in dire need of protection. My orders from the council supersede your wishes in this matter.”
“And what are my wishes?” Sebastian asked softly.
The woman blinked in confusion, and even Ciardis was wondering what was going on.
“You don’t know, do you?” Sebastian said. “None of you do.”
The Duchess of Carne spluttered, “Well, surely you wish to take the throne yourself?”
Sebastian smiled. “In due time. For now my priority lies in defeating a god and not being arrested for treason.”
“Those sound like reasonable requests,” Raisa said as she sauntered forward with her hands in her pockets. “And as enlightening as this little series of revelations has been, I suggest we get off the streets of the city.”
They all looked in surprise at the ambassador, who until now had been a rather silent observer.
“Do you know something that we do not?” the Duchess of Carne asked carefully.
Raisa turned narrowed and unreadable eyes on the duchess. “I know many things, but for now, suffice it to say it’s the middle of the night and even standing in the shelter of the palace walls won’t protect us from brigands.”
The soldiers that everyone had forgotten about rustled in objection but didn’t dare speak.
The ambassador turned a bright smile in their direction. “No offense, guys and gals. But the things that go bump in the night in a city by the sea are more than even a dragon would like to stumble upon.”
The messenger from before decided at that moment to make his presence once more known.
“Apologies for interrupting your conversation, Prince Heir, Duchess, but the lady is right. We should go while the cover of darkness still aids us,” the man spluttered. “That is, if you still wish to join the others in this ruse.”
The duchess gave a deep frown and sighed. “About as much I wanted to join these fools, but choices are limited in an insurrection.”
Ciardis twisted her mouth at the back-handed slap. The duchess was turning out to be quite good at those.
Sebastian said, “I’m aflutter at your vote of confidence, Duchess.”
The Duchess of Carne said sarcastically, “You should be flattered, Prince Heir. I like the others even less than I like your cohort.”
Ciardis stirred and asked in puzzlement, “Why do you dislike us so?”
The duchess turned to her. “How can you ask that? You who destroyed the very order of the imperial courts and swept so many altered plans in motion.”
The duchess’s tone wasn’t really hateful, just oddly without emotion.
Ciardis opened and closed her mouth. “I only tried to stop people from doing the wrong thing.”
The Duchess of Carne shook her head. With a voice dripping in condescension, she said, “And in doing so you did all of the things that were right for you, and perhaps even for some small voices at the courts. But for the powerful, you made us weak. And we don’t like being weak.”
Ciardis stirred. “I can’t say I’m sorry.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” the duchess said, turning away with a sniff. “But I do expect a true member of the imperial family to be more careful in the future.”
“She really doesn’t get your motivations. Your sense of loyalty and honor,” Sebastian said to Ciardis while speaking about and looking at the duchess with an interested air. “Which I think works in our favor.”
“How?” Ciardis asked.
Sebastian said, “The element of surprise is a powerful one.”
Ciardis nodded.
“So shall we go?” the messenger said while gesturing wildly.
Terris asked a simple question: “Where?”
Surprise crossed the man’s face. He looked over at the Duchess of Carne who was busy glaring at the palace wall like it was the true source of her ire.
So the messenger turned back to Terris and said in a pitched voice, “To join the rebellion.”
“Quieter, you idiot,” snapped a soldier. “Or do you want the entire city to hear your confession?”
Ciardis blinked. “I’m sorry, did you say the rebellion?”
“Yes,” the messenger said in an apologetic tone.
“The same one that couldn’t find its head if it was on its shoulders the last time we were in Sandrin?” Ciardis asked incredulously.
“Well, yes,” the messenger said nervously. “But they’ve improved.”
“In a week?” Sebastian asked while doing his best not to laugh in the man’s face, Ciardis could tell.
The messenger cleared his throat. “Well, they had help.”
“And who might that have been?” the ambassador said quietly.
The Duchess of Carne looked back at them all. “Why, the Lady Companion Vana Cloudbreaker. I’ve been told you’re looking for her. You’ll have a lot to chat about after you see all that she’s done.”
Ciardis said indignantly, “She was just supposed to keep an eye on them!”
“And she did,” the messenger assured her. “But things got rocky right around the time you left.”
“Rocky?” said Sebastian, rubbing tired eyes. “What does that mean?”
“It means that the emperor issued orders to round up everyone who had a tangible connection to your precious Companion and the rest of your cohort,” the Duchess of Carne said bluntly. “It wasn’t just your twin brother. It was the Kithwalker’s husband. It was the bookbinder from the east district. It was the maids who served you when you stayed with the Chamberlain. It was your seamstress. It was your mother. It was my son.”
“But why?” Terris managed to gasp out in a breathless sob.
“For the same reason he took your husband in for questioning,” the duchess said numbly. “Leverage.”
Ciardis asked numbly, “Did he give an actual edict for these arrests?”
The duchess gave her an angry glare. “He’s the emperor. He didn’t need to. Besides, I’m told you just spent a few precious minutes in his august presence. Did he bother to tell you of his arrests then?”
The censure in the woman’s tone was unmistakable. Only Terris’s sniffles broke the silence.
The duchess snapped at Terris, “Stop crying, child. He won’t kill them all. Not yet.”
Ciardis bristled.
“Jason SaAlgardis sent us here to fetch you,” the Duchess of Carne said in a resigned tone. “But if you don’t want to come, I cannot force you physically.”
&nb
sp; Sebastian stilled. “Jason did, did he?”
The duchess grimaced. “I’d hoped you would be more receptive after hearing his name. But no matter. You must make a choice, Prince Heir. To stay or to go. But if you go, know that the city won’t welcome you back. You’ve been running for far too long, Prince Heir. Running from your destiny to far-flung corners of this empire. It’s time to face your birthright. It’s time to save your empire.”
Sebastian stirred and finally said, “I wasn’t running.”
The Duchess of Carne gave a pointed sniff.
Raisa asked a genuine question. “If Jason, a mere peon and a bastard one at that, is in charge of this rebellion, why are you taking his orders? As far as we can all tell, you have no love for the common folk.”
The duchess smiled. “And yet I know when I’m beaten. The Shadow Council has done its best to defeat the imposter emperor on our own terms, through assassinations and dark plots, but he has bested us every time. From Ameles til now, we have not won. My fellow council members suggested it was time that we acted openly, as it were. We have no other choice. After all, a god is bearing down upon us and we are no better prepared than lambs before a slaughter.”
“And an old soldier is going to prepare you?” Sebastian asked in a suspicious tone.
The Duchess of Carne replied, “No, you will. We are simply bringing all the forces we can bear together under one banner. The assassin, after all, insisted on that.”
Ciardis, not Sebastian, slowly turned around. She said with doubt in her voice, “What did you just say?”
The woman squared her shoulders. “Jason SaAlgardis is not the only one who told us to come here. The assassin was very clear on his or her instructions. Not that I was there to hear those words myself.”
The duchess actually looked put out at the idea that she hadn’t.
“Then who has seen her condition?” Sebastian asked quietly.
“I, sire! She’s hurt bad,” blurted out the messenger.
The Duchess of Carne sighed loudly. “One more word out of you and I will cut out your tongue myself.”
Terrified silence began to emit from his general direction.
“All right, enough about this assassin,” Sebastian said with a dismissive motion. “What else did this Jason say?”
The duchess raised a curious eyebrow. “Not another question about the assassin’s health? I’m surprised. I may not recall much about them, but I know that they were your friend.”
Sebastian smiled. “She’s not my friend.”
Ciardis stirred. He was up to something. Or maybe he just didn’t want to give their hand away by walking into a situation where Vana was bait and they all became hostages.
The Duchess of Carne eyed Sebastian for a long moment before saying, “The rebellion leader said that you’ll want to come. Something about reversing what was done to that woman.”
“Vana,” said Ciardis softly.
“Yes, that’s the one,” the Duchess of Carne said with a flippant wave of her hand.
Sebastian raised an eyebrow at Ciardis and took her aside. “What do you say, Ciardis?”
She folded her arms crossly and said, “It doesn’t seem like we have much choice. Help a rebellion that could be cut off at its knees at any second or lose Vana. We need Vana.”
The ambassador sniffed. “Not as much as you would think.”
Ciardis gave her an irritated glare out of the corner of her eye.
I wish Thanar was here, she thought. And I never thought I’d say those words. But he would know what to do.
But he wasn’t. She knew that. So she and Sebastian rejoined the party, minds made up.
Terris asked in a hopeful tone, “Does your plan with Jason include a jailbreak?”
“No,” said the duchess in disgust. “We don’t even know where the prisoners are all being held. Or I wouldn’t be here.”
Sebastian and Ciardis exchanged startled glances.
Ciardis said, “Well, we might be able to help with that location.”
The duchess looked at her curiously. “Would you now?”
Ciardis smiled—one rival to another. “We have an…acquaintance who happens to tend to the emperor’s wounded. If anyone knows where he’s keeping political prisoners, he would.”
“Excellent,” purred the duchess.
Sebastian slapped his hands together in a loud clap to get everyone’s attention. “If I wasn’t sure then, I’m quite sure now that I don’t like you or your motivations, Duchess of Carne.”
The woman stiffened, and then the façade she wore seemed to crumble before their very eyes. She didn’t collapse in distress so much as had an intense air of sadness come over her. It was quite uncharacteristic for the woman that Ciardis Weathervane had come to know as coldly malevolent.
But not out of character if she’s just being a deceptive liar, she thought.
They waited as the duchess carefully closed her eyes and then regrouped her appearance.
“Forgive me, Prince Heir,” she said quietly. “But I don’t care. I don’t care if you like my attitude. I don’t care if you like my actions. I don’t even care if you like me. But right now you are my only hope—the only person who can actually take the throne if it is vacant. Without you we are lost, so I am asking, begging, pleading with you. Come with us. Help us.”
Sebastian and Ciardis exchanged glances. The words rang with a core of truth to her that she couldn’t shake. Which was too bad, because Ciardis really just wanted to ditch the woman on the street then and there.
Finally Sebastian said in a weary tone, “Right now, I want to do this even less than you want to be here, but if you know where Vana Cloudbreaker is, it’s time we found her. It’s time we got some answers.”
Ciardis bit back a denial. He was right. They had to go.
Instead Ciardis sighed and said, “So where exactly is this rebellion located?”
Some of the aforementioned soldiers chuckled in the dark night. It was a fairly sinister sound when you were surrounded on all sides by men with steel in their grips.
The messenger popped up out of their midst and quipped, “You’ll like this answer, Princess Heir-in-Waiting.”
Ciardis lifted an amused eyebrow as she watched him quail under the glare of an apoplectic Duchess of Carne.
One soldier walked through the half-circle and produced a jangle of keys. Inserting it into the lock, he opened the gate.
With a gesture the man said, “We’re going back into the palace, ma’am.”
Ciardis felt surprise filter through her, but she was done with hesitation. So she walked forward.
Terris came right behind her and Sebastian after that.
As they walked Ciardis heard, “I’m sorry!” yelled all the way from the street.
She couldn’t help it. She laughed.
13
They were quickly back in the outer bailey. Ciardis looked around.
It was a little less deserted this time.
Ciardis noted that servants of all ranks and orders were striding in and out of the palace carrying debris from the inside. Broken pieces of plaster and furniture, dirty drapes, and odd bits of structure that had clearly fallen to the ground in the man-made earthquake started by Prince Heir Sebastian.
As Sebastian stepped up beside her, the servants nearest them who were currently building what looked like the base of a bonfire out of large wood fragments from the staircase to the upper floors turned to stare.
When they saw soldiers pouring through the opening in the palace gates behind the prince heir and princess heir-in-waiting, they straightened up, stepped forward, and grabbed wood pieces that were large enough to double as clubs.
Ciardis’s eyes widened. This was a disaster. Those soldiers would kill the servants, not to mention the fact that the Duchess of Carne would learn of their allies on the inside of the palace walls.
Before they had gotten too far, however, Sebastian raised a subtle hand in front of him. His body blo
cked the soldiers and the duchess from what he was doing, so he acted quickly.
With subtle hand motions and a fierce expression, he called the mob of servants off.
The servant in the lead, a smart-looking butler, recognized the prince heir’s expression first.
Whether it was because he was versed in the art of reading opponents or knew the intricacies of nobles who liked to use expressive faces to say lots of things while saying very little aloud, mostly out of a fear of appearing uncouth, he understood what Sebastian was trying to say.
Smoothly and with subtleness the butler got the servants to back off without looking like he was defraying a mob. Instead, he collected a piece of wood here or there and sent them on their way in different directions. Then he took the wood remaining in his arms and started a secondary bonfire pile. To the soldiers forming a cordon around Sebastian and Ciardis, it merely looked like he was being pro-active about making sure the first fire wouldn’t grow too large within the confines of the palace bailey.
As Sebastian relaxed beside her and they continued walking forward at a slight angle to the right, Ciardis whispered, “That man deserves a raise.”
“Undoubtedly,” Sebastian said as he glanced over his shoulder at the butler who was quickly moving out of sight. “A raise, a promotion, and a nomination to the Actor’s Guild of the city.”
Solemnly Ciardis promised, “He’ll have it. All of it.”
The soldiers guided them across the bailey, through the imperial palace gardens and back along the palace walls.
When they reached a side entrance that Ciardis was fairly certain the fishmongers used and walked up a steep bank of stone steps, she was almost fed up.
Tired and with aching feet, she climbed the last step to a semi-deserted stretch of street closed by the buildings overhead. There were definitely quite near the fishmongers’ wharf. A territory run by ruffians and fishwives.
She turned to the Duchess of Carne who emerged up the stairs behind her and said crossly, “Why are we here?”
The duchess smiled. “You wanted to meet Jason again, didn’t you? Well, he’ll be here soon.” The duchess then glanced over her shoulder. “Or rather, right now.”