Sworn To Conflict: Courtlight #3 (21 page)

“You make it sounds as if the Empire controls them,” she ventured.

“As much as one can control such a spirit, they do.”

“Let’s go back to Thanar,” she said softly. A lot was swirling in her mind.

Thanar stood speaking with
kith
of all races when they discovered him, but he got up when they arrived.

“It is done,” Thanar said gratefully. “Our people are safe.”

She had a brief moment of hesitation. The spell had seemed simple, too simple.

“Are you sure?” Ciardis said.

“Of course,” said Thanar with an odd glint in his eyes.

Ciardis nodded. “And now?”

“Now, Weathervane, you go home,” Thanar said with a dark gaze.

Fire burned in her eyes. “You said if we helped you wouldn’t discard Inga and me without our supplies or clothes.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I have no intention of discarding you, as you say. I want you to go back to the camp. Back to the Prince Heir. Hear him explain the mines. Hear what he has to say.”

“Why?” said Caemon abruptly. His arms were crossed angrily on his chest.

Thanar turned considering eyes on the young Weathervane. “I believe we can make a pact. One that will free the people here.”

Caemon stared him in open-mouthed disbelief, “Impossible. You know the emperor’s men will never keep their word.”

“We have to try,” said Thanar. “If there is even a chance these people can free of the ever-present threat of bondage outside of the Sanctuary, then we must.”

Caemon swore. “They will never keep their word. They will never let these people be free.”

Caemon grabbed at Thanar in desperation. “You know they’ve kept me bound my entire life. For something that they want as much as this, they will do anything to possess it.”

“We’ll keep a wary eye out for any trickery,” said Thanar blithely.

Caemon took a step back with fisted hands. “You’re being a fool, Thanar. You know this. Why are you turning your back on your people?”

“I’m not,” said Thanar with an odd note of satisfaction in his voice.

“You are.”

Thanar turned to Ciardis. “Will you at least convey the request for an understanding to the Prince Heir and the Algardis Army?”

She bit her lip, uncertain, but she knew he was serious.

“Very well,” she said, relief coloring her tone. “But does it have to be tonight?”

The Daemoni warrior threw back his head and laughed. “No, no, it does not, Weathervane. You are welcome to rest in our company.”

Caemon was upset. She could see it in the stiff lines of his body. But she would deal with that later. He had to come around and see that at least Sebastian could be trusted to keep his word.

Thanar bowed. “I’ll leave you to it, then.”

She sighed. “Great, because my bones are aching.”

She turned to her brother. “What about you, Caemon?”

His eyes were unreadable. “I must confess I feel a little weary, as well. Perhaps it would be best if we retire. I will show you and Warlord Inga to your quarters.”

“Great, perhaps we can talk on the way,” Ciardis said carefully.

As they walked over to where Inga was being held Ciardis had to chuckle. She wasn’t sure if
held
was the right word any longer. The towering giant sat on the ground surrounded by a mass of children. That’s one way to keep her busy, Ciardis thought.

She turned to her brother, “They’ll keep their word.”

“You can’t know that,” Caemon responded.

“No, but I trust Sebastian,” Ciardis said.

“The Prince Heir has nothing to do with this. He has no power. He never has and he never will, “Caemon responded with wave of his hand as he quickly picked up speed to walk ahead of her.

“Well, there goes that conversation,” Ciardis muttered.

As Inga joined her side on their way to the sleeping quarters, Ciardis hastily gave her an overview of the day’s activities. The frost giant grunted. “You certainly know how to find trouble.”

“And how did you fare?” Ciardis asked.

“I made friends,” Inga said with sarcasm. Ciardis noticed that blood no longer coated the Warlord’s face and her weapons had been returned.

They went to their beds without further words. There was not much else to say anyway. “Sorry I got you kidnapped and clubbed” really didn’t seem appropriate at the moment
,
she thought as she drifted off
.

That night Ciardis woke after the moon was high in the sky, her whole body stiff with apprehension. Something was wrong. Something deadly.

C
iardis threw off the covers on the open-air mat she lay on and looked up at the sky. It was four hours until dawn. At a glance she noted grimly that her brother was gone. That wasn’t good. She had slept ready to move—or to run—so she had no problems grabbing her knife and hurrying over to Inga’s larger pallet.

“Caemon’s gone,” she whispered near Inga’s head. Leaning over her, she reached down to shake her and nearly shrieked when Inga threw off the covers and drew the sword from the opposite side of her mat at the same time.

“Oh, it’s you,” said Inga, staring at her grumpily.

Ciardis’s heart was still racing a mile a minute, but she fought to keep her voice low. “I said Caemon is gone.”

Inga’s eyes sharpened in clarity as she lowered the sword and looked around. She didn’t bother asking where.

“Let’s go,” she said harshly. Inga didn’t have to know where he’d gone to know that the disappearance of their friendly disappearing Weathervane wasn’t a good thing.

Ciardis put a halting hand on the frost giant’s shoulder. She could only do that because Inga was still sitting up instead of standing.

“How can we find him in the dark? Can you track him?”

Inga snorted. “Don’t insult me. Of course I can. Give me your hand.”

“Why?” She wasn’t ready to be thrown onto Inga’s back in a sling again.

Warlord Inga smiled as if reading her thoughts and finding amusement.

“He is your blood—I can track the blood of anyone using their closest relatives. Family connection is the next best thing to a blood trail,” she said as she got up.

Ciardis held out her hand without protest. Inga drew the very tip of her smallest knife along the center of Ciardis’s palm. Red blood welled up and she staunched it with the cloth that she pulled from her breast band. Holding the cloth streaked and dotted with bright red blood to her nose, Inga took a deep sniff.

“Let’s go,” she said, her voice deeply satisfied.

They set off into the night, ducking around tents and heading deeper into the interior of the sanctuary. They weren’t able to be completely noiseless, thanks to Ciardis, but they were pretty quiet. 

They kept moving northward and up. Climbing the walls of the valley until they got to a ledge. At the corner of the ledge was an exit. A deep, dark hole that Ciardis could sense led outside of the great crystal barrier. She felt uneasy. What if the Daemoni warning system went off while they were crossing the barrier? What would they do?

Her answer melted out of the darkness like shadows as the Daemoni warriors and others materialized in a circle around them. From the air a dark form landed.

Thanar stepped forward. “I’m disappointed, Weathervane. We really had all intention of letting you go once dawn rose.”

Ciardis said quickly, “Why do you care what time we leave? We’d been promised that we could go.”

“In the middle of the night?” said Thanar lightly.

“We weren’t doing anything wrong,” pointed out Ciardis.

Thanar snorted.

Maniacal laughter sounded from behind her. She did not want to turn around and see what had caused the creepy shiver down her back. It hadn’t sounded anywhere near human.

“Then what are you doing out in the middle of the night?”

She didn’t see any other choice but to tell the truth. “My brother is missing. We tracked him here.”

Darkness slid into Thanar’s eyes. “Caemon ran here?”

“Yes,” she replied.

“I wasn’t asking you, Weathervane,” Thanar said softly. “
Blutschwester
, is what the human says true?”

“It is,” Inga replied from the wary crouch she had assumed.

“Then we must hurry,” Thanar said.

“We?” squeaked Ciardis.

He threw her an irritated glance. “This is about more than just you, Weathervane. I fear your brother will endanger us all with his actions.”

“What might those actions be?”

He stared at her with calculation in his eyes. For a moment Ciardis was certain he wouldn’t tell her what he knew. Impatience must have outweighed caution, though.

He looked to his right at the opening in the wall. “This path is a gateway to the Sarvinian mines.”

Ciardis froze.

“What?” said Inga. “How could they be so close?”

“The mines themselves lie hundreds of miles away. Deep in the Northern Mountains that flow through the wastelands of Sarvinia,” Thanar said. “But a gateway appeared many weeks ago linking this place to the mines. We call them
geisttor
. It appeared like magic—a portalway to other parts of Algardis and within Sarvinia itself. Because of this we have spirited many of our comrades through it.”

“Why aren’t there any guards placed here?” Inga asked angrily.

“How do you control it?” said Ciardis at the same moment.

Thanar paused in turning toward the door and looked over his shoulder with a pleased smile. “The
geisttor
has interesting ways of protecting the
kith
who journey through. Any enemies have been known to spontaneously combust upon crossing. And Lady Weathervane, we don’t control it.”

Ciardis raised an eyebrow. “And what makes you think my brother went through?”

“Based on the anger in his argument last night, I fear he believes that the only way to keep
kith
free of the bondage is to destroy them,” Thanar said honestly.

Ciardis swallowed deeply. “Second question: What makes you think he’s still alive?”

“Because he’s been through before,” Thanar muttered as he traced sigils on the valley wall.

“Third question,” Ciardis continued with a nervous look at the entrance.

Thanar shot her a sharp and irritated glance.

She ignored his expression. “What makes you think I’ll make it through alive?”

She hadn’t bothered asking if she could come.
Of course
she was going.

“I don’t think you’ll make it through alive,” murmured the Daemoni, “which is why you’re staying here.”

“That’s not happening,” Ciardis said flatly. “I’m going. He’s my brother.”

Inga shifted uncomfortably. “On this I agree with the Daemoni lord. It would do us no good if you perished in the attempt, Ciardis.”

“I don’t think you understand,” Ciardis said resolutely. “I’ve lived my entire life without a family. I would do anything—
anything
—to make sure that the only family member I have left is still living.”

No one could persuade her and Thanar didn’t want to spend a ton of time arguing.

“Fine,” he said, and without a word his guards followed him into the darkness.

Exchanging glances with Inga, Ciardis went just behind them and Inga came right after her.

For a moment darkness consumed her. She couldn’t see her hand in front of her face, hear Inga next to her, or tell up from down. Luckily she only had to take a step and she fell through the other side. Straight into the arms of the Daemoni mage, who looked fairly intrigued that she had come through alive and whole.

They heard the ominous clash of metal upon metal and Thanar promptly dropped her. He and his guard crouched low, eyes looking everywhere trying to spot the enemy until one guard called out, “Chain cart snapped.” Slowly they rose from their fighting stances.

“The Daemoni warriors and I will survey the area,” Thanar whispered quietly from where he crouched over Ciardis’s body. “You and Inga wait here.”

He looked over at three
kith
guards that stood at attention. “You two guard the gates. Arachna, make sure our path stays clear.”

The creature that had the fangs of a half-dozen spiders and the eyes of flies opened her maw with delight. “With pleasure.” Arachna rushed off on eight legs down into the mine foreyard.

“But,” Ciardis whispered, horrified, “she’ll get caught
.
” It wasn’t so much that she feared for Arachna’s life as the blowing of their cover. If they captured her she would talk; if they killed her they would still search the area for others with her.

“Arachna is the night itself,” he said. “None can catch or kill her while she rides in darkness because none can see her.”

Inga said, “We’re losing time.”

Thanar threw her a laconic look and stood up over Ciardis without a word. He held out his hand to pull her up and managed to keep the grip long after he was done. She didn’t think that was unintentional. But now really wasn’t the time to have romantic thoughts about a Daemoni mage. He grinned. “So you do like me.”

She gaped up at him as a blush spread on her golden brown face. How had he known that?

Growling, Inga tapped him none-too-politely on the shoulder. “Get going
.
” He took a few steps backwards with a wicked grin and took to the air in the direction of the only object in the near distance.

“And you,” said Inga, rounding on Ciardis with a fierce look. “Daemoni mages are off limits. Especially that Daemoni mage.”

Ciardis poked her lip out. “Well, I don’t think—”

“Not another word on it,” Inga advised. “I’m not your mother. I don’t have time to be your mother. Don’t trust the Daemoni, and certainly don’t mess with them.”

to scout the perimeter. Stay with the two guards.”

Ciardis sighed and wondered just what she had stepped into this time. She decided to see what she could about the mines from a small rock outcropping that she spied just above the
geisttor
entrance. Just as the Sanctuary was in a valley hidden on all sides by the Northern Mountains, the mines of Sarvinia were concealed by the natural height of the surrounding behemoths. All similarities after that ended. Where the sanctuary was a fertile and inviting sanctuary, the Sarvinian mines looked like the entrance to Hell on a good day. A broad, flat plain surrounded on three sides by crags of dirt and stone was her first assessment of the geography. Then she took in the large, cave-like opening in the ground that took up the westernmost point. Smoke poured out of the depression in the ground and
kith
toiled in chains over small carts filled with dark ore on the easternmost corner.