Sworn To Conflict: Courtlight #3 (6 page)

Prince Sebastian cleared his throat and put a hand on Ciardis’s right shoulder. She didn’t feel his emotions, as the fabric of her clothes separated their skin. Whether he meant it as a warning or protection she couldn’t tell. “Shall we get started?”

She wanted to say no, to vehemently protest, to storm out of the room. But she did none of those things. She knew she wouldn’t get within a foot of the door before Vana stopped her. Ciardis hadn’t forgotten Lady Vana’s skills on the battlefield when they’d fought against the Shadowwalker, or her ability to draw a knife in seconds when confronting Barren’s treachery.

“What do I need to do?” She didn’t shrug Sebastian’s hand off of her shoulder. It was the only thing still keeping her standing.

“Stretch out your hand,” said Arabella not unkindly.

Arm slightly trembling, Ciardis did as she was bidden and felt the white-hot fire of a single dot of truth serum hit her wrist. She didn’t crumble, she didn’t shriek, she didn’t even move. Because she couldn’t. As soon as the serum’s liquid hit her skin, her body froze. She felt heat like a thousand tiny lines of fire radiate from her wrist up her arm and spread throughout her body within seconds. Horrified, she watched the lines of truth serum through her mage sight. She could only move her eyes, and standing upright as she was, she could just barely get a good look at the whole front of her body. The bright red and orange lines glowed with an internal fire as they ran up her arm and across her body like a spider web with one central point: the dot on her wrist.

She struggled to regulate her breathing. To keep breathing deeply even though she felt as if every inch of her body was covered in small lines of bright fire. It didn’t help that although she couldn’t move her body she could still feel every sensation that ran across it. Every nerve was alive with the strange hum of the fiery liquid. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t feel right, either. She guessed that she should feel grateful that she could still move her lips, but gratefulness wasn’t really at the top of her list right now. The overwhelming fear that threatened to overtake her in a mask of darkness was. She felt as if her mind was becoming one pulsing blur of anger, confusion, and fear. And then her vision began to fade. Small spots of gray and black tinged with color began to appear in front of her eyes.

The spots grew larger and larger as her mind was overwhelmed and her body responded by doing the only thing it could: allow her to slip away into unconsciousness. Curiously, Ciardis was able to watch and felt her mind begin to slip into the darkness with detachment. Before she could close her eyes, she saw Vana frown deeply. A loud curse rang out from Vana’s mouth as she practically pushed Arabella out of the way.

Vana came forward. “Breathe deeply, Ciardis. Just breathe.”

Ciardis turned fearful eyes to Vana and their gazes locked. In Vana’s eyes were endless depths—a calming, serene nothingness that Ciardis gratefully fell into. She slowly calmed as she stared at Vana. Deep breaths in and out as her chest rose and fell with a less erratic heartbeat. When she arose from those depths, she could breathe and speak.

Panting as if she had run up a mountain, Ciardis licked her lips and moved her gaze to stare towards the right corner, where Sebastian stood, to the chainmail-clad Vana directly in front of her and then to Lady Arabella, who stood calmly at Vana’s right shoulder. The Lord Chamberlain stood to Ciardis’s left and just outside her perception.

“Well done,” Vana said.

“It’s almost over,” Sebastian echoed in soothing tones.

Ciardis said, “I can’t believe this. What just happened? I thought it was a truth serum, one that would focus my thoughts and verify the veracity of my claims. My body has been bound, I can’t move and your serum drops feels like fire on my skin. What have you done to me?”

“We told you,” said Lady Arabella. “This is the truth serum.”

“Why do I feel like I’m chained in lines of fire, then?”

Vana and Arabella exchanged unreadable glances.

“The truth serum is usually administered to criminals guilty of high treason,” said Lady Arabella. “It binds their body and punishes them for lying. In effect, it prevents them from lying.”

“In effect? In
effect
?” said Ciardis, this time not bothering to lower her voice.

Vana nodded. “It’s a persuasive technique to encourage prisoners to tell the truth.”

Ciardis couldn’t believe what she was hearing. They had imprisoned her within her own body, immobilizing everything but her speech and thoughts. Not to mention the acute sensations that went along with the serum administered.

“It’s a torture technique!”

Lady Arabella gave a graceful shrug. “Some have called it that.”

Ciardis’s voiced lowered and this time the emotion behind it told them all that she was addressing Prince Sebastian. “How could you let them do this to me?”

Sebastian dropped his hand from her shoulder and pushed in front of Vana and Arabella so that he alone faced her. “The second directive from my father. In order to fetch you myself, I was required to have the truth serum issued before leaving camp.”

The serum prevented Ciardis from moving, from even lifting a hand. She knew if she was capable of movement he wouldn’t still be standing there.

“I had no other choice.” The last word held a hint of tremble. A hint of the boy she knew was in there.

She felt emotion well up inside of her at this betrayal. The last thing she wanted to feel at the hands of Prince Heir Sebastian. She couldn’t hit him like she wanted to, but the emotion had to go somewhere. Unfortunately the serum didn’t prevent the fear of fiery pain from the serum or the sorrow that Sebastian, her friend and boy she had fought for so long was the one who helped administer it, from welling up inside her and then pushing her body to respond in the only way it could while bound so tightly. A single teardrop formed at the corner of Ciardis’s left eye.

“There is always a choice,” she said, her voice dark and unforgiving.

Sebastian reached up with a finger to wipe away the falling teardrop. Ciardis lashed out with a quiet and fierce hate in her voice, “Do not touch me.”

Startled Sebastian turned his emerald green eyes to Ciardis’s golden ones and he watched the tear track down her face. She felt his emotions rise in response. He was so close that there bond was activating even without physical touch. What he felt she felt and she knew exactly what emotions were flowing through his mind now: surprise, dismay, hurt. Ciardis’s locked away his emotions in a detached, clinical manner. He didn’t deserve to have an influence on her feelings.

C
iardis’s lips thinned as she said, “You wanted me bound? I’m bound. Let’s proceed.”

“Take care, little mage,” said Lord Chamberlain in a cold and imperial voice. “We wouldn’t want to go too fast. You might inadvertently set off the magic of the truth serum.”

Ciardis hesitated and then said, “What do you mean?”

“The truth serum is keyed to the vitals in your body. The beat of your heart, the speed of your pulse, the sweat that sprouts from your skin, and the tic of your muscles as you answer each question. If it detects a lie, even one as small as an omission, the lines of fire will heat up until they burn,” Lord Chamberlain said. “The larger the lie, the hotter the flame.”

Ciardis felt a shudder move through her body.

“Will it kill me?”

“No,” said Lady Arabella in a considering tone. “But it will cause you a great deal of pain.”

Ciardis closed her eyes momentarily as she felt a wave of panic nearly overtake her.

Vana spoke, “Just be truthful, Ciardis Weathervane, that’s all we ask.” The dark melodies in her voice said she was upset about something. Ciardis just hoped it wasn’t with her. When she opened her eyes again she saw that Sebastian had moved to stand behind and to the left of Vana and Arabella. He still stood in front of her, just at a distance. The fire, the misery, the longing, and the burning in his dark green orbs wouldn’t let her eyes go. Not until she forced him to.

Ciardis fought the emotions reverberating from his presence as best as she could. She didn’t have time for his misery and his pain; he wasn’t the one about to be tortured. And quite frankly she was sick of Sebastian hiding behind protocol, behind rules, and letting her always be the one to stick her neck out in controversies. She always defended him. For once why couldn’t he be the one to defend her?

She conveniently put aside the thoughts that he had come for her and that he had tried to fight the Shadowwalker on the field of battle, giving her time to recuperate, and he had stood by her before the Imperial Courts in his own way. She was just too tired to think of all that, too scared to be rational, and too pissed to be understanding.

Ciardis broke their gaze.

She inhaled a long breath, steadied her heart, and forced herself to be relaxed.

“I’m ready.”

Arabella placed a hand on Ciardis’s shoulder where the flesh of her throat met the loose collar of her dress. “Then let us begin.”

“Is it really necessary for you to touch me?”

Irritation flashed on Arabella’s face. “The serum is for your lies. The touch is for your evasiveness; it’s my gift to ferret out the more elusive of your truths.”

“Perfect.” Ciardis managed to say it with the same rancor she might use to curse a stray dog that had peed on her favorite linens.

The frown lines didn’t ease from Arabella’s face but she didn’t respond, either, which was good enough for the Lord Chamberlain. He began.

In a cold, reflective tone he listed her crimes and asked her to deny or commit to them. He sounded like the disembodied voice of a spirit seeking her soul. She couldn’t help the small shivers than ran down her body. The lines of fire kept her from moving, and the shivers became one of the few ways for her to react, to show emotion, to show fear and to show hate. Question after question came. Answer after answer escaped Ciardis’s lips.

When he finally moved on from questioning her reasons for leaving court and journeying to the Ameles Forest to her relationship with Prince Heir Sebastian, she couldn’t help it; she laughed. It was a cold and distant sound. Lord Chamberlain paused as Ciardis fought for control.

“Forgive me.”

“This is a serious occasion, Lady Weathervane. A tie to the Imperial family and the Imperial Courts is no laughing matter,” he said.

“Oh, believe me, I know,” she replied. She was beginning to see what the duchess of Carne had meant in the gardens when she’d said the Courts were a beast that would consume her.

Vana shrugged and motioned for Lord Chamberlain to continue on.

He asked the question for a second time. “Is your relationship with Prince Heir Sebastian a true one?”

Ciardis decided that bluntness would be the easiest answer here. She wasn’t a fan of lines of pain wrapped around her bottom. “We haven’t slept together, if that’s what you’re asking.”

As soon as she uttered the words the fire of the truth serum burned bright against her skin and she yelped.

“It’s the truth! Sebastian! Tell them!” She’d left off the honorific in her fury, and damn them if they called her on it.

“No need,” Lady Arabella said. “It
was
the truth.”

“Then why did the pain flare?” Ciardis and Vana snapped in unison.

“Because it wasn’t the answer to the question,” Arabella said. “The truth serum doesn’t like roundabout truths.”

Ciardis was confused until Lady Arabella turned to Lord Chamberlain. “Please make your questions more direct and explicit, my lord. For all our sakes.” Ciardis thought she heard a hint of amusement in the woman’s voice. She could feel nothing but bitterness.

He coughed and said, “Let me restate the question, then, Lady Weathervane. Do you consider your relationship with the Prince Heir to be one of true friendship and loyalty?”

At one point in her life Ciardis wouldn’t have liked the answer she was about to give, but she had grown since then.  She had changed from the naïve young girl new to court, and she wasn’t sure what she was now. But she answered, and she answered truthfully.

“I did.”

A pause. “And when did the feelings of true friendship and loyalty change?”

She flicked her eyes from Vana’s unreadable gaze over to where she knew Lord Chamberlain was standing. She didn’t want to answer.

“Today. My loyalty still lies to the Imperial crown. But my friendship is not Prince Sebastian’s to claim. Not anymore.”

She looked everywhere but into those green eyes. Her feelings might have changed, but the emotions—they were still the same. And she didn’t want him to see that.

“Very well,” said Lord Chamberlain. He sounded chastising. Ciardis didn’t give two rabbits’ worth of luck. Her feelings were her own.

“Did you know of the Shadowwalker before you ventured to the Ameles Forest?”

“No,” she said, voice steady. “I had heard of the murders in the Ameles Forest, that a large number of
kith
were being killed with ruthless efficiency by something in forest. But I didn’t know what. Maree Amber sent me with Alexandra, ahead of her own departure, to listen and learn as they found out what was killing the
kith
. It wasn’t until later that we found out that it wasn’t just
kith
but also human victims as well. And a while yet still before the murders were linked to the Shadowwalker.”

“Did you have any contact with the Shadowwalker or his servants before you came to the Ameles Forest?”

Ciardis thought hard and swallowed. “Yes, the other Weathervane was in Sandrin.”

This brought whispers of disbelief all around.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” That exclamation came from Lady Arabella.

Ciardis answered with the truth: “I didn’t know you.” She couldn’t help but feel but a modicum of satisfaction when she said that. She had found a way around the serum—a direct and explicit truth.

Vana held up a warning hand and Ciardis turned cautious eyes to the woman clothed in chainmail. “Where did you meet the second Weathervane, for how long, and what did you discuss? The whole answer, Ciardis.” Her tone left no doubts.