Sworn To Raise: Courtlight #1 (15 page)

“They don’t seem too far off the mark.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Sebastian grimaced. “I understand their fears, and I’m afraid, too. But I also know something they don’t.” Ciardis looked at him silently, inviting him to continue. “Despite what they think, I’m not completely ignorant of the land; I can feel every vibration, every forest, every mountain, every vale, every swamp. It’s only my ability to manipulate that connection that has dwindled.”

He slumped forward with a hangdog look in his eyes. “I can sense the land, but my ability is out of focus.” Looking at her with a pleading expression—though Ciardis wasn’t sure if he was pleading with her, or some invisible god to answer his prayers—he continued, “The land is there for me, but it’s too powerful for me to grab by myself. If I were still a child, the Land Wight would help me as I slowly regained my heritage, piece by piece. But now, as a man, I must do it without its help.”

Ciardis felt like muttering some choice words about a boy who had yet to shave calling himself a man, but held back. Some clans marked the thirteenth year as the beginning of manhood, and apparently Clan Algardis was one of them. Ciardis looked Sebastian in the eyes and said, “Fine. Let’s say I believe everything—the Land Wight, the heritage, the threat. Why didn’t Lady Serena recognize you for who you really are? She’s been to court plenty of times. You wear no glamour.”

Sebastian shifted uncomfortably as he wrung his hands, much as Serena herself had done earlier. “Actually, I do. It’s not one which effects the actual physical perception, but rather the mind’s understanding of that visual.”

Pulling back a sleeve, he exposed his wrist. A thin bracelet encircled it, similar in make to Ciardis’s moonstone and sapphire anklet. The gemstones were a bit different, but just barely. In fact, it was so similar that Ciardis reached down to pull up her skirt to compare the ornament on her ankle to the one he wore. “I used it to interrupt the connection between what Serena’s eyes saw and what her mind perceived,” Sebastian said. “Rather than change my physical appearance, the Mindas bracelet that I wear on my wrist replaced it.”

“I see. So if you’re the mystery patron who gave me this bracelet, why didn’t you believe me in the Aether Realm?” she said with an angry gesture at the twin piece of jewelry that encircled her ankle.

“Wouldn’t you have doubts about some woman who’d shown up in a forest with no way to verify her claims? Even one who was wearing the correct bracelet? I had no idea what you looked like.”

Ciardis nearly rolled her eyes as she thought,
Great minds think alike, eh?

“Now that I know you are indeed the Weathervane who has all of high society rubbing their hands with glee we can move forward.”

“Move forward?” Ciardis murmured smoothly, taking another sip of tea. “And what, pray tell, would we move forward with?”

“As a prospective patron, I intend to court you and win the contract,” he said with the full arrogance of youth.

“And if I have no intention of being shackled to a fifteen-year-old boy?” she shot back.

“I’ll be sixteen in a month,” he said. Sebastian seemed honestly taken aback by her implied refusal. Most companions would consider it a credit to the Companions Guild to be so hotly pursued, or at the very least suitably impressed to be courted by one of noble—let alone Imperial—blood. “I assure you,” he said curtly, “I can make it worth your while.”

“No, you can’t,” said Ciardis flatly. “I may be inexperienced, but I’m not stupid. Your own courtiers are trying to kill you, and your social standing is next to nil. Any of my other prospective Patrons would be a much more suitable pick, in particular because they want me for me. You need me, but for how long?”

Sebastian opened and closed his mouth. He bit his lip, thinking, apparently trying to come up with something that would convince her to accept his proposal. Then, hesitantly, he said, “You’re right—I’m not offering you a marriage, a family, or a warm hearth to crochet by. I’m offering you an adventure
,
and a chance to save your Kingdom. Everyone needs something to inspire them, an you really say that managing household accounts will do that for you?”

Ciardis swallowed hard and looked away. His little speech had hit close to home; that was exactly what she had to look forward to if she accepted Barnaren’s proposal, and no doubt many of the other proposals. Household accounts, birthing baby after baby, and decorating. Homemaker and broodmare. Her face twitched slightly as she thought with guilt,
Is this any different from what would have awaited me as the wife of Fervis Miller?

Snapping out of her reverie, Ciardis grabbed Sebastian’s wrist, and turned the Mindas bracelet back and forth to look at it, “So you have enough wealth to buy a fancy trinket. What makes you think this will save you?”

Sebastian said stiffly, “These aren’t trinkets. They’re Royal Armory treasures imbued with Residual Magic. You can’t just saunter down to the Fifth Street market and ask for five at a time. With all the spells woven into them, it takes dozens of mages to create either one. It did, in fact.”

“I’m tired of this game,” he announced. Reaching over his shoulders to grab the button flap tying his jacket at his neck he took the cloth from his left shoulder, under his right arm and over his left shoulder revealing bare skin. He turned his back and bared his right shoulder to her. “If I can’t convince you to help me out of loyalty to king and country, perhaps you’ll take legtimacy.”

On his shoulder, Sebastian bore the sigil of the Imperial Courts: a lion rampant before a stone wall. But this sigil was more than it seemed, for in the lion’s mouth was a giant ruby. As he turned back to her, she almost squirmed. Sebastian said, “Before my mother died, she had my father sign an agreement in blood that stated that I could choose and marry whomever I desired. The blood-red marriage stone symbolizes that. If you really want marriage, I can give that to you.”

Ciardis was touched, but her voice was wary as she said, “As sweet as that sounds, we’re going to have to think of something else. Given your age, some would say that I…influenced you unduly as an older woman. Nevertheless, I swear to you, Prince Sebastian Athanos Algardis, that I will help you in your quest to vanquish your enemies.”

He refastened his waist jacket, looking pleased, as Ciardis said, “If I’m to help you, Your Highness, I’ll need to know exactly what you desire of me. Surely a beautiful woman on your arm is not enough to ward off assassins.”

“As you remember from our time in the Aether Realm, it certainly isn’t. What I need from you is not your beauty or grace, but your talent. As the only Weathervane born in nearly four decades, you are my only hope to harness the Land Wight’s gift and restore my power.”

“My talent is to raise another person’s power, Your Grace. You said that you have none.”

“’Your Grace’ is what you call a duke,” he corrected her. “At the very least, you must call me ‘Your Highness,’ or better yet, ‘Your Imperial Majesty.’” Her eyes flashed, and he quickly said, “Joking—just joking. Okay? And as much as it pains me to say so, you’re wrong about my power. I didn’t say I had none, I said I can’t
access
it. I know it’s there, and bountiful. If anything, the jump to my palace apartment from the Aether Realm proved that. You enhanced what I thought had been permanently locked away. Otherwise, we would have never gotten out of the Aether Realm alive. After all, the bracelet you wear is keyed only to you, not to myself. And before you ask, no, Weathervanes cannot enhance the power that already resides in residual magical objects – whatever level of power it has been imbued with is the one it will stay with.”

She got up and began to pace again. “So are you offering Patronage or asking for a one-time boost?”

He rubbed his head tiredly. “Gods, I don’t know. I need to search the royal libraries again. I don’t think you’ll be able to enhance my powers permanently without a constant link, but I’m not sure. Do you know if a link is needed?”

“I will have to ask around,” she said.

At that moment, the clock tolled the half-hour, and Lady Serena came back into the room, true to her word. Beaming, she said, “I do hope you two had a productive conversation.”

Ciardis nodded primly. Sebastian bowed and said, “Yes, very. I’m eager to see Ms. Vane again during the Hunt.”

“Very well, Viscount Marce,” said Lady Serena. “Shall I escort you out?”

He nodded in agreement and took Ciardis’s hand, kissing it lightly. She couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose as he left. Prince Imperial or not, Sebastian’s hand-kissing technique, a bit too much saliva was involved, left a lot to be desired.

Deciding to take a peak Ciardis walked through the hallways occasionally touching a marble bust with cobwebs caked over it and fabric draped from the windows which had long ago begun rotting.

I must be in the old Imperial Palace.

Just before she turned a corner she heard voices up ahead. Deciding now was not the time to make her unsanctioned presence known she ducked back around the corner and into an unused nook behind a very large suit of dragon armor.

The voices came closer.

“Milady, the time is almost near,” said a man, “Soon the boy will be fully discredited. You will take your rightful place.”

“With you by my side – I assume Martieaus,” said a woman’s calculating voice.

“I live only to serve, milady,” he said.

“Yes, do remember who you
truly
serve here. It is not my fool brother and certainly not that brat of a nephew.”

As they passed her Ciardis only saw their backs. They reached the far end of the corridor from where Ciardis hid and parted ways.

Ciardis waited quietly for a long time before she emerged from her spot behind the armor. Rushing back she ran out of the gate and under the sycamore’s roots. Her dress was ruined with the trailing cobwebs and dust but she didn’t even consider that.

As she slowed her fast pace down upon reaching the normal gardens she tried to recall exactly what she had heard. She really wasn’t sure. Who was that woman? A feeling of fear crept up Ciardis spine until she almost screamed aloud when she felt a hand grip her wrist.

She did startle and whirl around though.

“Easy lass,” said a man who stood in front of her, “I mean you no harm.”

He held his hands out to show how harmless he was. It didn’t help – he was a man with towering stature. But her training kicked in.

“Of course milord,” Ciardis, “It is I who should be apologizing. I was merely startled.”

He gave her a grin and bow, “Lord Aaron, at your service my dear.”

Ciardis couldn’t have been more mortified. Here she stood with cobwebs on her dress and dirt in her hair – before quite a handsome man.
Once just ONCE why can’t I be like Prima? Perfectly presentable every minute of every day.

Gathering her pride and displaying a sunny smile took a lot of courage but Ciardis managed it. “It’s a pleasure to meet your acquaintance milord. I am Ciardis Weathervane and I do believe you’ve caught me on a bad day.”

“Well,” he said, “I do believe I have.” He eyed her while rubbing his chin.

“Since we’re here together,” he said “Shall we make a wager?”

“A wager milord?” she asked.

“Perhaps it would be better to call it a promise. If you can boost my power enough for me to lift both of our bodies in the air,” he said, “I will make sure not to inform your mentors of your…disheveled appearance.”

“And how would you know my mentors?”

“There’s only one Weathervane in all the land my dear.”

“Then I think I can handle that milord.”

“Well then,” he said as he reached for her hand, “Let’s see what you can do.”

Dipping in to her mage core Ciardis noted with surprise how powerful Aaron’s power look to be. Why he needed her help in this was mystery to her but who was she to doubt his intentions.

Upon tapping into the core she released her power and boosted his in the process. Feeling her efforts he called to the wind to pick them up. They rose softly in the air one foot, two feet, three feet on a thick cloud of compressed air. When they stopped and levitated where they were Ciardis smiled in wonder. She could see the garden for miles. It helped that she was also holding the hands of a handsome man.

He set them down minutes later and walked off whistling.