Sworn To Transfer (12 page)

Perhaps I’ll find out tonight. Before she dies.

“If you can keep something close to you, it’s better than losing it forever, or having it fall into enemy hands; it might be useful one day ,” she replied.

“By that logic, you should be keeping snakes.”

The duchess was no longer amused. “You and I are going to destroy this locket together. You see, my dear, since you inherited it and your mother is dead, that means you can destroy it.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because you don’t want to die.”

“It sounds like you want to kill me anyway.”

The duchess gave her a cold smile. “Perhaps I could use someone with your...talents.”

*****

U
neasily Ciardis thought,
Over my dead body.

Suddenly Ciardis felt a sharp slice in the palm of her hand. She held it up to see a deep cut in her palm with blood already welling up in the wound and flowing off of her hand into the grass. She looked around, but there was no one else near her. Just the duchess. Her guards stood five feet back, at attention. The duchess smiled cruelly, “Now you see.”

Ciardis stared in confusion. She could see a dark hint of mage power radiating from the duchess now. But she’d checked her at The Blue Duck Inn. She couldn’t suddenly just
have
magical talents.

The duchess laughed with mirth as she read the shocked look on Ciardis’s face. “No one has shown you how to hide a magical signature, I suppose? Ah well, now you know.”

Neither of the duchess’s hands moved but just as suddenly there was a long cut on her cheek. Ciardis brought trembling fingers up to her face as she backed away swiftly. The duchess didn’t move and the attacks kept coming. Along her back a long slice appeared, and then a shallow cut on her thigh, and another cut on her arms. And then they grew too numerous to count – cut after cut appearing without end. Ciardis fell to the ground, dizzy with blood loss. The duchess sauntered up and knelt down in front of the severely bleeding girl.

She traced a light finger over the wound on her cheek, smearing the blood. The delight on her face could have frozen Hell.

“I told you, Ciardis, you have to be wary at court,” she cooed.

As the duchess moved her finger back across the wound, Ciardis felt her flesh knit back together and the pain from that one scar ebb away.

“Just as I can give pain, Ciardis, I can take it away,” she said gently.

She sat on the ground beside the shuddering girl. “Now, why don’t we see about destroying that locket?”

Ciardis watched as the woman lowered the locket in front of her and picked up her hand, placing it above her own so that their two palms cupped the object.

“Blood of the line? Check!” the duchess said with a girlish grin. “You know, it’s nothing personal. But that locket could undo a lot of work. Work we’ve been doing to ensure this empire returns to its rightful place.”

Ciardis drew in a pain-filled breath. “The Princess Heir is dead. There is no one else to inherit.”

“This isn’t about the throne. It’s about filthy inhuman creatures with the same rights as humans; it’s about mundane people living above their station; it’s about righting wrongs done to the nobility decades ago.”

“Now I need you to will the locket open,” she said in a motherly tone. “Very simple, right?”

Teeth gritted in pain and almost unconscious from the blood loss, Ciardis prepared to do as the duchess asked. There was no alternative.

And then a roar split the skies. Out of the night air dropped a nightmarish form. The duchess lurched up and quickly looked to the sky. Shouting, she called for her guards.

The dragon kept coming.

Her vision going in and out, Ciardis couldn’t help but wonder what the dragon was doing here. It couldn’t be anyone else but Ambassador Sedaris. A rustle sounded off to the side. Stephanie and Christian crept out of the bushes to ease over to Ciardis’s fallen form. The duchess didn’t notice them; she was busy rushing towards her two guards. The dragon landed with swift wings, right between Leah of Carne and her two protectors. That didn’t stop the men from assaulting the dragon.

As Stephanie watched the battle she had to admit those guards had guts. Who stood up to a dragon and thought they would live? A minute later, her answer came. Those guards weren’t just ordinary men—they were mages. One was an Earthcaster and proved it when the ground underneath the dragon began to shake and rumble with a threatening earthquake. The dragon didn’t care too much for his tactics and targeted him.

Crouching next to Stephanie Christian used his healer’s abilities to patch up Ciardis.

Ambassador Sedaris could see magic like the entire Sahalian race. It was why she’d been attracted to the young Weathervane; not only did she have immense potential to enhance others’ magic, but she was also a powerful mage, or least she would be. Seeing the waves of power coming off the the guard who was clearly an earth mage and surmising his intent, she ate him first and followed up with his partner quickly.

When she felt a slice along her underbelly, she roared in fury. Deciding that the duchess deserved worse, far worse than being eaten alive, she transformed into her human form. By this time Ciardis was sitting up with the help of Christian. She watched in wonder as the transformed Sahalian strode across the garden like an avenging angel. When she reached the duchess, she hit her so hard that the woman flew ten feet to land in a crumpled heap before Ciardis, Christian, and Stephanie.

Reaching them, the dragon eyed the duchess with distaste. She put her heeled foot on the duchess’s midsection to keep her pinned and called up liquid fire into the palm of her hand. This wasn’t just any fire – it was everlasting. The fire would burn a person from the inside out over a slow period of time. A nasty remnant of the Initiate Wars and one not many mages could call upon. With a smile, she said, “I think being burned alive will suffice, don’t you?”

“Wait!” shouted Stephanie and Christian.

The dragon looked at all three of them with rage in her eyes.

“Please—we need her.”

“For
what
? You have the testimony. It’s enough to convict her in absentia.”

“But not the people that are threatening the throne and the empire itself. We need her in order to find and convict them,” said Stephanie.

“We want to use her to flush them out. To end the murders, the deaths and conflict,” Christian said.

“‘We?’” said the dragon coolly.

“The Shadow Council,” Ciardis said from where she stood in-between the two young people. She looked down at the duchess with anger in her eyes.

“They’re still around?” said the dragon with narrowed eyes.

“Fuck,” muttered Christian quietly.

From the woman curled up on the ground in pain came a startled laugh.

“You have no idea who you’re dealing with,” the duchess taunted. “With my death, more will take my place in the fight.”

The dragon simply ground her heel into the duchess’s bruised chest and waited for her screams to die down into whimpers.

“She tried to kill you,
sarin
,” the dragon said, ignoring the squirming woman on the ground. “Is this what you want?”

“Yes,” replied Ciardis, “and what’s more, so should you. I think she’s been working with the group behind the conflict in the Ameles Forest.”

The dragon looked at the three of them with unreadable eyes. And then she doused the flame.

“Very well,” she said. “Call your
gardis
.”

When Stephanie and Christian tried to renegotiate and get her to release the duchess to the Shadow Council, she looked at them and said, “No. This is your only chance. Call in your emperor’s men or she dies here and now.”

They spent the next two hours explaining the history of the locket, Ciardis’s mother, and the potential plot between the duchess and the emperor’s son. When the
gardis
left—saying they would be interviewing all of the duchess’s household, as well—they were exhausted. The dragon just looked irritated. The gardis hadn’t even bothered trying to question the ambassador. The look she leveled at them plus the fact that she had diplomatic immunity said that she would be more trouble than she was worth without a direct order from the emperor.

Citations for Christian, Ciardis, and Stephanie were issued, instructing them to appear in the court of magistrates tomorrow to recount their story before a magistrate, as well. And then they were bid goodnight.

Ciardis thanked Stephanie and Christian for coming to her aid. With barely a goodbye, they disappeared, muttering something about the Shadow Council coming down on their heads before the night was over. That left Ciardis alone with the dragon that had saved her life.

The ambassador looked over the girl covered in blood with measured eyes. She was contemplating her; Ciardis was far too tired to care what for. Unfortunately, that tiredness led to an increased inclination to be rude. She was fed up with running in circles and finding out that people knew far more about her and her heritage than she did.

“Why?” she asked bluntly.

“Why did I save you?”

“No, why did you call me your
sarin
?”

The dragon turned away from her and looked up at the full moon lighting the night sky.

After a few minutes in silence had passed, Ciardis began contemplating making the trek back up the palace with the dread reserved for a walk through the desert at high noon.

“Because,” said the dragon, turning back with a wicked smile, “you are the one I would choose to name my closest human companion—my
sarin
. And by surviving that attack tonight you have proved worthy of the name.”

“Right,” mumbled Ciardis. It made sense that the dragon would be as cryptic as everyone else tonight. Nothing else made sense; why would she?

“I’m just...going back to my room now,” she said as she stumbled away like the walking dead.

“
Sarin
,” said the dragon behind her with amusement, “You have much to learn. Luckily I’m in a teaching mood.”

The last thing Ciardis wanted, needed, or desired was a lesson right now.

She was therefore surprised when the dragon came up behind her and with no further words swept her off of her tired feet. The sensation of being carried was disorientating for a minute, but she soon grew comfortable. The last thing she remembered as she rested her head on Sedaris’s shoulder was that the dragon smelled surprisingly like roses.

T
he next morning Ciardis woke up in her bed when she heard a loud knock at her door. She sat up abruptly, remembering last night’s events and barely recalling how she had arrived home in her apartment. Pushing the covers back, she looked down and saw she’d been cleaned up and redressed in a nightgown. Deciding to put that thought out of her head for now, she put on her robe and answered the door. And there was Terris’s smiling face staring at her.

She took one look at Ciardis and pushed her way into the room. “What happened now?”

“What makes you think anything happened?” Ciardis asked guiltily.

Terris flashed her an amused grin. “Because it’s
you.
”

Sighing, Ciardis closed the door and hobbled her way back over to the bed. Christian had healed her last night but there were still residual twinges underneath her skin. He’d basically brought her back from death and her body was still in a little bit of shock.

“It’s...um...complicated.”

“We don’t have time for ‘complicated,’” was the exasperated response, “We have to report to Lady Vana this morning, remember?”

“Oh yeah...”

“And the last time I saw you, you were speaking with the duke of Carne, his wife, and the Sahalian ambassador. What was she like?”

“The duchess?”

“No,” said Terris with an irritated toss of her braids from in front of her shoulder to her back. “The ambassador.”

“Interesting.”

“That’s it?”

“And powerful?”

Terris gave her a disbelieving look, “I can feel you holding back from over here you know. Kind of feels like a too tight corset right?”

“All of those secrets,” she continued playfully.

Grimacing Ciardis said, “I have to appear before the court of Magistrates today. The duchess tried to kill me last night and might have tried to kill my mother eighteen years ago.”

Terris whistled in awe. “Oh, Serena is
not
going to like this.”

Flopping back on the bed, Ciardis groaned. “I know. For once, why can’t my life be easy?”

“Yeah,” said Terris. “I’ll go to Vana’s room and let her know. Serena’s already there so I’ll have her meet you at the court of Magistrates.”

With a wince and a sigh, Terris continued, “Good luck—you’re going to need it.”

Ciardis threw a pillow at her on the way out with a growled, “Thanks a lot.”

She made it on time to the court of the Magistrates and got in line with Stephanie and Christian. They looked no more happy to see her than they had the night before. In fact, Stephanie gave her a glare than made Ciardis feel like she should check to see if her boots were on fire.

Christian said affably, “Don’t mind her. She’s not a morning person.”

“And the council is pissed,” he added as he bit into an apple.

“Why?” Ciardis asked.

“Well, for one, they were hoping to personally torture the duchess themselves,” he said lightheartedly. “But lucky for them, the emperor’s best torturer is on leave now and his second is our man. So they’ll still get the information they want.”

“Torture?” echoed Ciardis in disbelief.

“What?” snapped Stephanie “Did you think they’d just put her in a room and say ‘pretty please’ until she divulged her network of contacts?”

“And,” said Christian stepping in to diffuse the tension, “they also don’t like that the dragon knows we’re back, and that is a whole different kettle of fish.”

“What about you?” asked Christian. “How’d your sponsors take it?”

Take what? The fact that I’m now a dragon’s best friend, that I was almost murdered last night, or that I’m appearing before the court of the Magistrates this morning?