Sworn to Sovereignty

by Terah Edun

  Jason SaAlgardis led them to a small round house on a ledge. It was as red and as dusty as their surroundings, which was beginning to remind her of the abandoned sections of a city across the Algardis Empire in the farthest reaches of the western lands. The only difference between this and that one on an intrinsic level was that this city had been built underneath the very heart of the empire and its rulers.

  The old soldier held out a welcoming hand. “Inside you’ll find the person you seek.”

  Ciardis stopped at the simple door and eyed the markings etched into the frame above it.

  “A ward?” she guessed.

  “If it is,” Jason replied, “it is one that every house in this city bears and all the tunnels leading in and out.”

  “There’s more than one?” the ambassador asked in surprise.

  “Several,” said Jason SaAlgardis in a weird tone. “And hidden in the oddest places.”

  “Such as?” questioned the Duchess of Carne.

  Jason smiled and said, “Such as underneath a pile of straw behind a mansion abandoned for more than half a year at a time.”

  Sebastian wisely didn’t question him further on the topic. It didn’t seem that Jason wanted to give up the secret entrances to his lair any more than the prince heir wanted part in a rebellion.

  “Regardless,” said a man loitering nearby that Jason didn’t bother to introduce, “those ruins don’t seem to do much of anything. Most people don’t even notice them as they’re the same color as the rock and nothing happens when you pass beneath them.”

  Ciardis filed that away for future reference. They certainly were glimmering for her. She just didn’t have any idea what that meant.

  As Sebastian, Terris, and Ciardis prepared to go inside, Jason SaAlgardis said, “A moment, please.”

  The prince heir looked over at the man with a patient expression on his face. Ciardis was sure her expression was more in line with a grimace.

  SaAlgardis winced. “I just…do you remember my daughter, my lord?”

  Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “The girl with the gryphon for a pet?”

  “For a friend,” Jason said quickly. “But yes.”

  Terris murmured, “Sounds like a girl after my own heart.”

  Sebastian nodded. The older man continued in a sad tone, “The emperor captured her along with a few others days ago. I don’t believe he knows who she is or how important she is to this.”

  Sebastian’s gaze immediately filled with sorrow. “My apologies. I can’t imagine what the loss of your child must be doing to you.”

  Jason SaAlgardis nodded. “I only keep going by knowing I am doing everything I can to bring the waif home safely.”

  The affection in his tone was clear. Ciardis saw the other man who had spoken up about the symbols earlier pull out a hunting knife and begin to clean his nails. He, however, didn’t look so concerned.

  “So I just wanted to ask,” the old warrior continued nervously, “could you ask Vana Cloudbreaker if she’s seen her? Heard anything? I just need to know where she is. If she is safe.”

  Sebastian paused, then nodded. “Of course, we will ask.”

  “Thank you, Prince Heir,” the man said gratefully. “It’s just that we swept your assassin off the streets as soon as the emperor released her yesterday, but she hasn’t been the same since. Won’t even talk or give a report on her actions.”

  “I think she’s been through a lot,” Terris commented defensively.

  Jason shrugged in a weary way. “We all have, and I’m not blaming her. If this was just reticence, I would order a day’s rest and good food. This…is different. She’s not just physically ill, it’s like…he broke her. And I don’t know how. That woman is tough as nails. All of my people feared her, but until now there was also a healthy respect. Now it’s hard not to just fear her.”

  Ciardis felt something settle in her heart like a warning.

  Whoever waited for them in that small house, Ciardis knew the person would be different from the Vana that she once knew.

  So Ciardis took a breath, nodded, and said, “Thank you for your warning, Jason. We’ll take it from here.”

  He nodded and said after a brief hesitation, “I’ll leave you here, then.”

  Turning to the Duchess of Carne, he said in a tone that brooked no argument, “Shall I escort you to your sleeping quarters, Duchess?”

  The woman hesitated, but she couldn’t protest the arrangement. Vana was no friend of hers, and she was a guest in the rebellion’s headquarters, not a mistress presiding over her own home.

  So she and her men left with Jason SaAlgardis.

  All but one of Jason’s men did the same, and the remaining person nodded companionably at them while lowering his hood.

  “I’ll wait outside to take you to your quarters until you’re done,” he said.

  Ciardis said, “Thank you, but I think we’d rather stay with our friend. No matter the outcome.”

  The man didn’t blink. “The commander surmised as much. There are pallets inside, and underneath those a stock of drinking water and some food we keep on hand in key locations.”

  Ciardis smiled her thanks.

  Terris said, “Lovely. That should keep us sustained til morning.”

  The hint was more than enough. The man composed his face, bowed, and left without another word. Sebastian, Terris, Ciardis, and Raisa stared at each other wearily.

  “After you,” Sebastian said quietly.

  Ciardis hesitated and swallowed deeply. She was scared. She could admit that. She didn’t know what she’d find, and she wasn’t prepared to see another friend mutilated or dying, not after what had been done to Caemon in the same day.

  Fortunately, Raisa had no such compunctions.

  She said, “For heaven’s sake!”

  Then the dragon rushed into the small house. They all followed meekly after.

  15

  When Ciardis Weathervane entered the home, she had to wait for her eyesight to adjust to the gloomy darkness before she could truly understand what it was that she was seeing. Even then, it was hard to comprehend right away.

  The ambassador stood solemnly over a form lying on its side on what looked like a bench that doubled as a bed-shelf in this home. Otherwise, the place was empty of all other souls. Ciardis walked over silently until she stood just behind and off to the side of Raisa. She didn’t say anything. Not yet.

  She didn’t want to disturb the silence. At the moment Vana was curled into an almost ball-shape and facing the wall, which was unlike her. She was the first to tell individuals to always be prepared for an attack coming from any direction. As such, it would have been much better for her to have her back against the wall, facing outward. That was the first of many things that felt wrong to Ciardis.

  Where was the Vana who would face down death with two knives in hand, smiling all the while?

  When she still didn’t move even though she must have sensed their presences standing over her sleeping form, Ciardis had to surmise that something was truly wrong. Beyond pain. Because pain wouldn’t stop the Vana she knew. But she couldn’t really see enough to tell what the problem was. Vana wasn’t moving, and everything below her neck was covered by a thick woolen blanket.

  Even her hair shielded her face.

  The only way Ciardis even knew that it was Vana was the fact that the ambassador hadn’t stalked right back out the door the way she’d come and roasted some individuals along the way. No one deceived a dragon and got away with it, not as far as Ciardis was aware. They were sticklers for the truth and as slippery as eels when cornered with it.

  Ciardis took a deep breath and looked around. The small circular room served both as Vana’s bedroom and seemed to be the entrance to a larger living space inside the home. Seeing a door, she raised an eyebrow at Terris and pointed her chin at it with a questioning look.

  After a nervous look at Vana’s still form, Terris walked over to the door and with a stiff jerk pulled it o
pen. It protested every inch of movement with loud determination, but open it did.

  Ciardis was relieved to see magical sunlight pouring inside the area they now stood in and what she was now sure was the interior foyer of the home. It turned the cramped, gloomy space into one that was mildly pleasant. As she turned back to Vana, Ciardis noticed large empty trays with dead husks that resembled vines all along the walls around them.

  As Terris walked over and dusted a very large and flat object off with her own clothes, Ciardis raised an eyebrow. She soon saw why, though. As soon as Terris did so, the sunlight hit the newly revealed mirror and arced around the room to hit smaller mirrors hung along the upper levels of the walls. Those mirrors were still dusty but not as cobweb-strewn as the one that Terris now stood beside.

  The light they reflected lit up the room in a prism of sunlight.

  Smiling, Ciardis turned to Vana, knelt down, and called her name.

  At first the assassin didn’t stir. Ciardis wanted to shake her lightly, but when she reached for Vana’s arm, Raisa grabbed hers in a lightning-fast grip and hissed.

  Pale, the ambassador said, “Don’t touch her. Whatever you do. Just wait for her to rise.”

  Ciardis looked at Vana and then back at Raisa.

  “How long do you think that will take?” Terris blurted out.

  Raisa spared her a glance. “A while.”

  “Perhaps,” Sebastian said, “we can take shifts. Some of us can prepare to eat and rest, and when she’s ready, we’ll all return.”

  Ciardis nodded and looked to Raisa, who seemed satisfied with that answer.

  “Just don’t touch,” the dragon said shortly. Ciardis grabbed Terris by the shoulder and propelled her into the larger portion of the home in front of them.

  Left behind, Sebastian’s and Ciardis’s eyes met over the still body of a sleeping Vana. Or Ciardis assumed she was sleeping, anyway.

  Finally Ciardis said, “You should get in there. I’ll take first watch.”

  Sebastian frowned. “By yourself?”

  Ciardis shrugged. “She’s not going anywhere.”

  She turned to look at the door. “And that door is sealed shut.”

  Sebastian gave it a cursory glance. “Very well. I’ll bring you back something to eat.”

  “Something light,” Ciardis begged. “I mostly just want to sleep not while keeping watch but later.”

  “Yes, I understood,” Sebastian said.

  He nodded and walked away after a brief hesitation. Alone with the woman they had been looking for all across the city, Ciardis sat on the floor and waited. She could be patient. She had to be.

  It felt like hours later, but it had to be mere minutes when Vana stirred. It was like watching a bee emerge from a hive, in fits and starts. She would be resting one moment and then her body would twitch under the covers. She still for a few more seconds or even minutes, and then she did it again. Sometimes sound would emit from her head facing the wall, but never words.

  The first time she had mumbled something Ciardis had leaned close, but she couldn’t make anything out, and she quickly sat back when she remembered Raisa’s admonishment. The tone when she said it was something Ciardis hadn’t heard from the dragon before. It almost sounded like guilt.

  Standing and stretching, Ciardis began pacing.

  When she turned back around, Vana was no longer where she had left her.

  She was standing two feet away and Ciardis couldn’t help it, she screamed.

  Or at least she tried to. But in a lightning-fast move that was inhuman, Vana slapped a hand over her mouth. As one minute passed, then two, Ciardis heard Sebastian coming back into the room.

  Vana whispered in a harsh voice, “Please don’t scream.”

  Ciardis trembled. She didn’t know what was going on. But she could tell something was off without even hearing more than three words from Vana. Still…she needed to know what it was.

  Vana gently pressed against Ciardis’s mouth until she stumbled back, trying not to bow under the pressure. As Ciardis kept moving back, Vana kept pressing forward until Ciardis’s back was against the brown-red wall of the door. Then, to her astonishment, she passed through it.

  No spell. No magic. At least none that she had conjured, and as far as she could tell, neither had Vana.

  When they had reappeared outside in the streets of the underground city, Vana repeated her directions, “Don’t scream.”

  Ciardis whimpered, but she nodded in understanding. Vana slowly dropped her hand.

  “Well, it’s good to see you, Ciardis Weathervane,” Vana said calmly.

  Ciardis stared at a woman she didn’t know. The features were the same. Her skin was much paler, though, almost as if she had lost a lot of blood recently and had yet to regain the blush in her cheeks. Her eyes were dark with rings around them but her lips were full and plump. It was Vana Cloudbreaker and yet it wasn’t.

  Ciardis searched her head and shoulders, stared at her skin, wondering what the emperor had really done to her. Why she didn’t see any physical wounds. But nothing popped out to her. She just didn’t know.

  “What, what happened to you?” Ciardis asked breathlessly.

  Vana searched her eyes. “Do you really want to know?”

  Ciardis nodded.

  Vana replied, “Then let’s take a walk.”

  Ciardis gave a nervous glance back at the sealed door. “Sebastian will be looking for me.”

  Vana replied, “No, he won’t. The magic of this place runs deep. Only the dragon would notice, and she already slumbers.”

  Ciardis opened and closed her mouth, mystified. She wanted to object, to run back into the house, but she sensed somehow that this was important. That even if the Vana she knew was gone, the Vana that stood before her had some of the answers that she desperately needed if they were to survive the coming days.

  So Ciardis bit back a horrified yell, squared her shoulders, and said, “Lead on.”

  Vana smiled.

  They didn’t walk very far. In fact, Vana took her just two streets away to a wide courtyard that housed a fountain with a dry well in the center.

  The assassin did something Ciardis had never seen her do before. She sat on the lip of the fountain and relaxed back. Blinking, Ciardis looked at her dubiously and sat a foot or two away.

  “It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?” the assassin said with arms spread at her sides. She even dipped her head back and lifted her face into the little bit of dry, dust-laden wind that was reaching them this far underground.

  “If you say so,” Ciardis said, not taking her eyes off Vana. The underground city wasn’t really her idea of beautiful, but if Vana could appreciate it, Ciardis could at least go through the motions of acknowledging that appreciation. However briefly.

  Vana took her eyes away from scanning the upper parts of the city that moved up the walls in terraced layers and said, “You know we’re close to the dead center here.”

  “Does that matter?” Ciardis asked, mildly curious. Mostly wondering what Vana’s end game here was. The assassin usually wasn’t one to beat around the bush when it came to saying something.

  Vana sighed. “It does, but not at this moment.”

  “So,” Ciardis said. “I heard you faced down the emperor.”

  Vana nodded. “I did. It was an interesting experience to be on the receiving end of his torture tactics. Usually I’m the one holding an individual down.”

  Ciardis shivered at that tidbit of information.

  Vana smiled sadly, and for a moment her eyes went distant. If Ciardis didn’t know any better, she would have said the woman was thinking of better days.

  Whatever the case, she snapped out of it when Ciardis cleared her throat.

  Then Vana said, “Just old memories. But that’s not where this story begins.”

  Ciardis raised an eyebrow and then waved a hand in an exaggerated gesture. “Then by all means, start at the top.”

  She was trying to be hum
orous. Apparently it worked.

  Vana laughed darkly and then leaned over until her elbows rested on her knees. Her hands were folded in front of her in a simple fashion.

  In a musing tone, Vana said, “Do you remember us traveling through the alleys the other week? On the way to the Kasten ship.”

  “Yes,” said Ciardis hesitantly.

  “And do you remember what I said about Thanar?”

  “Yes, but what does that—”

  “I said he was bad for you, Ciardis,” Vana said in a tired voice. “The worst.”

  “We’ve been over this, Vana,” Ciardis said, groaning and standing up in frustration. “We’re not here to talk about Thanar. We’re here to talk about the empire!”

  Vana gave her a smile and patted the fountain space behind her.

  Ciardis reluctantly sat back down. Vana said gently, “But don’t you see, Ciardis Weathervane, Thanar is the empire.”

  “What?” Ciardis said, genuinely confused. “What do you mean?”

  “To save the world, save the monster from itself,” Vana muttered almost to herself.

  Ciardis rolled her eyes. “Well, you’ve got one part right. Thanar is a monster, and I was wrong, okay? I admit it. I should never have let the flirtation, the infatuation go so far.”

  Vana shook her head and turned fast. Like a striking snake, she reached up and gripped Ciardis’s head between her two hands in a lightning-fast move.

  Ciardis blanched. The hold was like being gripped in an iron vise. Unmovable. Unshakable. Not to mention the fact that Vana’s gaze was quite unnerving. Now that Ciardis could see her easily with no distractions, she noticed that her irises had turned into tiny pinpricks of darkness. She didn’t know what that meant, but it didn’t bode well. Ciardis had to wonder if her eyes and unsteady demeanor were side effects of the emperor’s personal attentions or something more sinister.

  Ciardis tried to shake Vana loose, but the woman wouldn’t budge. She just studied Ciardis’s face like she was memorizing every line and crease in front of her. Ciardis did the same and tried to keep a calm demeanor externally. Internally, she was really getting tired of the woman taking liberties with her person.