As her eyes traveled from the base of the tower and over the expansive garden, she saw the villa wall to the north. It was made of smooth stone blocks and to her naked eye, looked almost too strong of a barrier for a city villa. What did a gregarious duke who threw lavish parties every season have to be afraid of, after all? The occasional thief or pickpocket that would steal over his walls would be her normal answer. But after tonight she was beginning to think the Carne family had more secrets than a back-corner thief dealing in forged coins. This wall alone would hold back the onslaught of most of the inhabitants of Sandrin in addition to a small invading army.
“So, Master SaAlgardis, how do you suppose we get from here to there?” Ciardis asked.
The old man let satisfaction flow into his voice. “The same way I got up here. We fly.”
Ciardis didn’t bother turning to look at Jason. Sebastian stood on his left. She could feel the steady thrum of anticipation running through him. Occasional flashes of awareness would drop into her mind from second to second. Through those flashes she could feel Sebastian as if his body was an extension of her own. She knew that his hand gripped his sword’s pommel so tightly that it was as if metal and flesh had become one with the blade pulled a few inches out of its leather-wrapped sheath. She could feel the tension in Sebastian’s back like the hot fire of anticipation lit at a steady burn. His muscles bunched as he readied himself to spring into action at any second and the pit of his stomach had butterflies in it. Or, rather, what she would call butterflies. Sebastian probably referred to it as something like ‘nervous anticipation’ if he acknowledged it at all. Whatever the case he was ready to take Jason on if he so much as stepped the wrong way. She stood to Jason’s right with her glaive gripped in her right hand. She was confident she could swing her body away from him and attack with the glaive as she did so. He’d taken them by surprise once. He wouldn’t do so again.
Even after such a long day, from the trial to the altercation in the duke of Carne’s bedchambers, she felt light on her feet. There was almost a bounce in her step and she felt the ridiculous urge to rock back and forth on the balls of her heels.
Where’s this energy coming from?
she wondered.
She was getting better at her resistance training but even for her this much enthusiasm was unusual. Ciardis gulped audibly as she opened her mage sight and looked inside at her mage core briefly. Briefly enough that she wouldn’t get distracted if Sebastian needed her, but long enough to have a sense of disbelief cloud her mind.
Her mage core, usually an orb as effervescent as the sun, had
changed
. From what she was able to take in at a glance, she’d say it now resembled a golden orb with chains wrapped around it. Two very distinct chains. One that even now snaked from her own power to Sebastian’s in a silvery loop. The other chain looped around her core was the color of onyx and was weaker. The links of the onyx chain felt less substantial. To her eyes even the luster was less clear. She surfaced for a moment to take stock of her options. She wasn’t sure if the onyx chain was weaker because it was being forced to stretch farther toward its end goal or because it was just a weaker connection. She didn’t really care, either. Neither belonged around her mage core.
Taking a deep breath, Ciardis dropped back down into her magic. Whatever these loops were they couldn’t be good. She had time to wonder when Sebastian’s power source had become the silver color of a molten coin, but she angrily pushed that thought aside for a moment. Ciardis wasn’t a trained mage. What she knew she had learned from experience and sheer dumb luck.
Mainly because my tutors have had a habit dying or disappearing too quickly along the way,
she thought wryly as she flashed back on memories of all of those former instructors. Damias, the tutorials instructor with the witty repartee. Maree Amber, the head of the Companions’ Guild and Council. Last but not least in Ciardis’s memories was Lady Serena, her Companions’ Guild sponsor and mother in disguise.
Damias Lancer and Maree Amber were dead. Serena, now revealed as Lillian Weathervane, was imprisoned. Which left Ciardis fumbling for answers to unlock her own gifts. But this time was different. She may not have been classically trained or had gone to a mage school, but she knew a mage binding when she saw one. Those links were draining the power from her core just as Sebastian’s aunt had done so over the years with the locket that hung around the emperor’s neck. Ciardis refused to the think of her ruler as Sebastian’s father. Mostly because it was no longer true. No one knew how long Maradian had been posing as the emperor in his brother’s place. There had been no time to really speculate in the half day since the truth had been uncovered. But Ciardis had the feeling it was a lot longer than any of them wanted to have to admit to.
But for now, in this moment, her problem was with these two syphoning links to her core. She knew the links could have other properties but with time to only take glimpses of it, she couldn’t be sure. She wasn’t sure she would have cared even if she did have time. Even if they made her immortal, they were one intrusion too many. It was enough that she had to share her mind with Sebastian. She didn’t love him enough to give him her power with no restrictions on access. This didn’t make her uneasy. It made her downright fearful. The fact that these two links were draining her of power, even small amounts, didn’t sit well with her. Her brother had been used as a pawn of the imperial court’s will his entire life. She wouldn’t be a victim of the same treatment. Not for anyone or anything. She had agreed to build a relationship with Sebastian, she
hadn’t
agreed to be his slave. So with the determination only a frightened young woman with the power of weathervane could summon, she grabbed the silvery loop and yanked hard. It lifted.
For a moment the world was still and Ciardis forgot how to breathe. She watched the sun rise in the distance and heard the chatter of birds in the garden below. She didn’t move. She couldn’t move. If Jason decided to attack at that very moment, she was going to be defenseless. The moment stretched into seconds. Her chest tightened and her heart stopped for a brief moment in time. Not in a good way, like the moments time had stopped when she and Sebastian had locked into a heated kiss. No, this was in an oh-so-bad she-was-going-to-die-if-she-didn’t-let-go-of-the-loop kind of way.
Her entire body felt like it was straining to lift an inexplicable weight. Her muscles strained. Her posture tensed. But her struggle wasn’t physical. She was however struggling for control of her magic and her soul. Except for the fact that she might be turning blue, nothing showed on her face. But she knew Sebastian felt it. She could tell. He rolled his shoulders as if there was an itch down his spine at the uncomfortable sensation. He was too well trained to turn to her. Not unless she fell out on the ground or started bleeding but that didn’t stop him from speaking to her mind in alarm,
What just happened? Are you all right?
She didn’t answer. Not because she didn’t want to but because she couldn’t. Her lips wouldn’t speak and she couldn’t project her thoughts. Her body and mind felt frozen. Alone in its thoughts. It scared the hell out of her. She didn’t like it. One bit.
Ciardis?
His voice was tense with worry.
Ciardis dropped her internal grip on the silvery loop and let the small portion she’d managed to tug away from her core drift down to resettle along its surface. She gave up. But she’d rather give up one small battle to win the war. She’d figured out what it was and she’d eliminate it in her own time. For now, she concentrated on feeling normal again. She could move her muscles. She could project. She sucked in a long breath and her mouth felt like it was on fire. Ciardis realized that she had bitten her lip when she first grabbed the loop. The reflexive movement had nipped her flesh so hard that she’d drawn blood and the scrape burned when the cool air touched the flesh of the laceration.
Sebastian nudged her again.
You’re worrying me over here.
I’m fine. I’m fine
, she said. Her thoughts were shaky. She felt anything but fine. What was this? What had Sebastian done to her?
How
had he done it to her? In addition, she had to wonder whom the blasted onyx loop belonged to.
She had a sneaking suspicion of the answer to that last query but she’d keep her thoughts to herself until she could prove it.
As she turned her focus outward, she saw that Jason was now holding a small stone in his hand. Smoothed from time, she stared in partial wonder. It was a fire opal. The stone’s rounded exterior glimmered with the natural radiance of reds, yellows, and white stones sparkling through a sheer glaze-like surface. As the fire opal glittered in the dawn’s light, the pulse of its internal fire grew greater. It began to glow with a rhythmic pulse. Bright. Dim. Bright. Dim. Bright. Bright.
“It’s a signal,” she said aloud.
“Yes, it is,” said Jason
His vision was focused on something in the distance as he overlooked the city to the east of the Duke of Carne’s wall. As she looked up and away from the opal’s hypnotic pulse, a sharp wind hit all three individuals on the rooftop in the face. The night sky was giving way to the light of a morning sky. But it wasn’t full morning. Not yet. The sun rose, but the chill of a cold night and deep clouds lingered in the air. Giving the whole city a sleepy, darkened feel. The feeling just before everyone woke, before carriages took the streets and hawkers began to shout their wares.
She thought about all of the time that had passed. Just as the distance from the duke’s bedchambers had grown once she had last seen the outside, time seemed to have passed by just as quickly. They had entered the Duke of Carne’s villa intent on setting up a truce in the darkness of night. Now the paleness of day threatened to steal over them as they left.
Reluctance in his voice, Sebastian asked, “How do you suppose we fly from here, then? As far as I can see, none of us have wings.”
Although she wasn’t sure if the reluctance was due to the fact that Sebastian wanted to question her more or he was really afraid of the answer Jason would give.
The man pointed to the sky. Ciardis squinted. It looked like little black dots were coming towards them. Even if the sun wasn’t yet a fourth of the way into the sky, it still put the figures into shadow. As they drew closer Ciardis saw wings, large ones, flapping back and forth. A weird mixture of relief and dread filled her stomach. One of those winged figures was familiar to her. It wasn’t just the shape of the figure she recognized. She couldn’t make out their features from a distance like this anyway. It was that figure’s soul. The soul that connected to her mage core with an onyx rope like a chain strangling her heart. But she didn’t love this person. She knew that without a doubt.
With an indecipherable sigh, she said, “Thanar’s coming.”
She felt Sebastian’s shoulders lose some tension. She knew he was relieved that Thanar had survived the collapse and even more relieved that they might have another ally by their side soon. It was a depressive state of affairs for Ciardis personally that two of the people she was supposed to be able to count on were nearby and she had more doubts about
them
than the suspicious lunatic who stood watching the two strange winged figures approach with anticipation.
“My life is not what I wanted it to be,” she grouched under her breath.
Sebastian said from Jason’s other side, “None of ours is.”
Jason grunted. “Lass, if you mean you weren’t supposed to be stealing into a duke’s villa in the dead of night, I’d agree with you. If you meant that you weren’t supposed to turn the court on its head, yes, I’ve heard of your exploits, then I’m quite glad your life isn’t how you planned it to be.”
Ciardis was silent. She didn’t feel like explaining the storm of emotions in her heart right now. Partially because she might end up putting a blade through Sebastian’s shoulder if she did. She wasn’t fool enough to try to kill him. She was sure he had a perfectly rational explanation.
He always does.
The echo of her voice in her head sounded painfully sad even to her.
Hurting him like he was hurting her felt justified. But acting irrationally at the moment did not. So she let out a frustrated sigh, tightened her hand on her glaive and watched Thanar descend on the winds. If thoughts of shooting the other irritating male in her life out of the sky crossed her mind, she didn’t voice them.
W
hen he was two city blocks away, Thanar banked his wings so they flowed behind him in an elegant sweep. He came towards them prepared to land as he dove down in a controlled descent. Even now she envied his grace. She couldn’t mount a horse without falling flat on her bum. Flying was worse. It made her feel like a sack of potatoes. In contrast, Thanar looked like a dancer in the air. He had long ago outdistanced the two forms flying behind him and now he floated just above the stone of the rooftop. He didn’t land. Instead he hovered with the power of his magic, calling in dark winds to hold his form aloft as he spread his black wings majestically.
He was silent for a moment. Like an avenging god hovering over them all, with wings that she knew from experience felt like smooth leather to the touch and spread out like a delicate copy of a bat’s wings behind him. She also knew from experience that those wings were quite capable of taking some damage. The same kind of damage that an irate dragon could inflict. They might look fragile but his flesh was quite resilient.
As her gaze flicked from the expansive wings to the central figure between them, she noted with dark amusement that his chest was bare again.
He seems to enjoy the no-clothes thing
. Even furious with him, she couldn’t say he didn’t look great in his chosen
au naturel
state. Then she looked at his crossed arms with a frown. His muscles bulged, but that wasn’t what she was looking at. For the first time, Ciardis noticed tattoos on his upper arms.