Edge of Darkness ~ A Darkness & Light Novel Book Three (7 page)

CHAPTER TEN

Muted sunlight streamed in through the high windows of the Council Chamber, spreading in rippled waves across the polished tile floor, and glittering off the inlaid Imperial crest at its center. Three men and two women in amber robes sat in high-backed chairs behind a narrow table. Outside of Thadeus and Lady Honval, Ciara knew none of them. She stood with her hands clasped in front of her to keep them still. A ward surrounded her, making the air shimmer in her vision. Berk stood to her right, just outside the shimmer's edge, in direct defiance of the captain of the Council Guard who ordered him to remain in the corridor.

Ciara let her gaze pass across the mages. All of them, Thadeus included, were stern-faced. Some wore their disdain openly, others tried to mask it, but Ciara could feel it directed at her. They hadn't even met her before now, yet all had made up their minds to dislike her.

"I am Lord Vaedryn," said the man to the left of an empty chair at the center of the table. Slender and bald-headed, his skin had a light, powdery sheen, which made his dark eyes look like deep pits in the composed mask of his face. "You have been brought before us to answer charges of treason against the --"

"You know who I am, yes?" The loud rumble of Garek's voice rose from beyond the closed doors. "I'll give you one more chance to stand down, before I have you scraping horse dung out of the cracks in the yard until it's spotless."

A moment of silence preceded a sound like a kettle being struck against stone, then an echoing clatter, followed by the doors opening. Garek stepped over the prone form of one of the door guards, and strode into the chamber. He flexed the fingers of his right hand as he stepped up beside Ciara.

"What is the meaning of this, Commander?" Lord Vaedryn asked.

"Strange, I was wondering the same thing myself," Garek said. He looked Ciara's way. "Are you all right, lass?"

"This is a closed hearing, Commander. You and your man need to leave."

Garek scratched his chin. "The thing about it, my lord, is that Lady Ciara is under the protection of the Imperial Guard by order of the Lord General. As such, she'll go nowhere but the privy without one of my men by her side. I'd like to see your warrant, if you'd be so kind."

"Do you intend to stand as representation for the lady?" Vaedryn asked, his voice dripping scorn.

"Oh, love of the Goddess, Vaedryn, let the man see the warrant." A woman seated beside Thadeus leaned forward and gestured, and a page hastened over to hand Garek the folded parchment.

The commander took his time reading, chewing on his mustache, 'hmming' and 'huhing' over parts. Vaedryn shifted in his seat and started to say something but Garek held up a finger to silence him, muttering under his breath. Ciara watched the mages intently. Vaedryn and Lady Honval, seemed the most impatient of the lot. A younger man, at the far end of the table beside another vacant chair, studied the goblet in front of him, chin supported on one fist, idly picking at something on its base.

Footsteps sounded on the tile floor behind them, and Garek grinned. Ciara turned to see who else had joined them, and a flush of relief ran over her as Ariadne entered the chamber and walked serenely to the fore of the room, flanked by two of her personal guard. Another two took up positions at either end of the table.

"I sincerely hope someone in this room has a very good explanation as to why a Lady of the Empire, consort to the Lord General, and personal guest of His Majesty the Emperor, has been dragged here, against her will, and now stands bound within a ward?"

If ever the combination of beautiful and deadly existed, Ariadne personified it, and Ciara noticed that very few of the mage's would meet her gaze in anything more than a passing glance.

She turned to the one who would. "Lord Thadeus, perhaps--"

"Lord Thadeus has declined appointment as the head of our order," Vaedryn said.

The room stilled. Ariadne's head turned ever so slightly in Vaedryn's direction, and the hair on Ciara's arms stood on end even through the shimmer.

"My Lord, you overstep yourself."

"No, Lady," Vaedryn said, "I believe it is you who have overstepped yourself. This Council is the ruling authority in the Emperor's absence."

"Not when another of Imperial blood is within the city. Remove the ward."

Ariadne's shoulders drew back when no one moved to comply. In the next instant, the shimmer vanished from around Ciara.

Vaedryn shot to his feet. "How dare--"

"Sit down." Ariadne's voice snapped across the room like a whip and Vaedryn dropped back into his chair as though someone had shoved him there. "I will not be spoken to in that manner by any member of this Council. Explain your actions here."

Color rose beneath the pallor of Vaedryn's cheeks and his jaw tightened. "It is the belief of this Council that the
Lady
Ciara willingly conspired with Lord Donovan in his attempt to breach the wards of this city, and, as such, shall be held accountable in the death of Lord Arnok."

"That's ridiculous," Berk said before anyone else could respond.

Ciara reached for him. "Berk, don't."

He brushed her off and stepped forward to stand beside Ariadne. "Lady Ciara wouldn't even have been on that wall if I hadn't taken her. I handed her over to Lord Donovan against her will."

"Then perhaps you should be tried alongside her," Vaedryn said, his fine nose wrinkling.

"She shouldn't be tried at all."

Ariadne laid a hand on Berk's arm to still his next comment. Her voice, when she addressed the mages, had all the warmth of river ice. "You are aware, I trust, that Arnok died by the Emperor's own hand after turning against him."

"Because of her." Vaedryn extended a slim, pale finger in Ciara's direction.

"Were you there?" Berk asked. "Any of you?"

"Commander Garek," Vaedryn said, his deep gaze not leaving Berk. "You will silence your man, or I shall have Captain Marshall put him in chains and remove him to the dungeons."

"Stand down, Berk," Garek said.

"Commander, I won't--" Berk snapped his jaw shut with an audible clack, flinching and giving Ariadne a startled look as though she had pinched him. The Emperor's sister, however, appeared not to notice, her attention on the mages, and Berk moved grudgingly back to stand close beside Ciara.

"Is it the unanimous belief of this Council that Lady Ciara is to be tried for these charges?" Ariadne asked, her gaze sweeping once more across the mages.

"It is not," Thadeus said.

Vaedryn scowled. "It is the belief of the majority."

"A scant majority." Thadeus gestured to the woman beside him who had ordered the warrant be given to Garek. "Laryn stands with me."

"A scant majority, as you term it, is still a majority."

"You will have a scribe provide me with your evidence, Lord Vaedryn," Ariadne said. "As well as a thorough accounting of each Council member's standing on the matter, and the reasons for the position they have chosen. If I find your decision bears merit, we shall talk again. Until such time, Lady Ciara shall remain free, and under the continued protection of Commander Garek. Should your guard approach her again, they do so in violation of an imperial edict, and shall be dealt with accordingly. Is that understood?"

Vaedryn looked as though he had a mouthful of rocks, but whatever thoughts ran through his head remained there. "As you will."

Ariadne remained pointedly motionless.

Vaedryn shifted in his chair, then bowed from the shoulders. "Your Highness."

The Emperor's sister smiled. "I shall expect your accounting by tomorrow evening, my lords and ladies. Good day."

Ariadne turned, her gaze sliding Garek's way, a signal Ciara couldn't interpret passed between them. Garek gestured Ciara to follow Ariadne, and he and Berk fell in slightly behind and to either side of her. Ariadne's guards took up the rear of their procession. No one said a word until they were well away from the Council Chamber, and then it was Ariadne who finally broke the silence.

"The impudence of them," she said. "And how considerate of them to wait until Dain and Bolin are well out of the city." She fell back to slip her arm around Ciara's shoulders. "Are you all right?"

Ciara nodded. "Yes. Though I can't blame them for feeling how they do."

"I can. It was my brother and the Council who demanded you be brought here, if I recall correctly. Bolin was against it from the beginning, but none were willing to listen to his warnings. I could have done more in that regard, I suppose." She sighed, her focus growing distant as they walked. "Dain put too much weight on what the mage's were saying because of his irritation with Bolin over some other matter. I should have stood up for Bolin. Still, the Council need look no further than each other if they want to lay responsibility at someone's feet. Not at you." Ariadne looked past Ciara's shoulder at Berk. "Or you."

Berk held her gaze for a moment before looking away, a frown pulling down the corners of his mouth. Garek gusted out an exasperated sigh and Ariadne drew them all to an abrupt halt.

"The two of you are quite the pair," she said to Berk and Ciara, her hands on her slim hips, head cocked. She studied them both for far too long, then turned her attention Garek's way. "Commander, will you escort Ciara to her rooms please."

Berk started to say something but stopped at a shake of Garek's head. "You're off. Get back to the barracks."

Berk nodded silently and started away, but the commander stopped him with a hand across his chest.

"We'll be talking later, so you're aware."

"Commander--"

"Later."

"Aye."

Berk headed down the corridor, and Ciara turned her attention back as Ariadne said, "I owe you an apology for not seeing this sooner. I need to sneak Thadeus and Laryn aside and have a word with them. Go with Garek. I'll join you before dark, and we'll discuss how best to proceed."

She gave Ciara with a quick hug, then headed back toward the Council Chamber. Garek watched her go, his thumbs hooked behind his wide belt, a frown wrinkling the parts of his face not hidden behind the mass of his red beard. His right index finger tapped the grip of a knife at his belt in a steady rhythm.

Ciara gave him a moment to work through the thoughts playing behind his eyes before pointedly clearing her throat.

"Yes, lass?" he asked, without looking her way.

"I think we should go," Ciara said. "Before the Council decides to send someone after me again."

Garek grunted. "They wouldn't dare. Not till they've had time to work through the lady's threat leastwise." All the same, he turned and gestured Ciara ahead of him.

They walked a while in silence. Bolin's rooms, her rooms now, she thought with a flush of warmth, were situated at the top of the north tower, as far from the main areas of the castle as one could get and still be inside it. Ciara didn't mind. She liked the solitude. A trait thought would prove beneficial if the Council had its way. Only, their idea of solitude would come courtesy of a dungeon cell.

Ciara sucked in a calming breath and turned her thoughts to other things. She had Garek on her side, and the Emperor's sister, Thadeus as well. That had to count for something.

Garek's eyes flicked her way. "What's on your mind, lass?"

"You don't think they'll arrest Berk, do you?"

That got her a solid, lingering look, followed by a heaving of the big man's broad chest. He forced his fingers through his beard, scratching at his chin. "Best you save your worry for yourself."

The words weren't said in an unkind manner, but they riled nonetheless. "I would think you'd care about what happens to him."

Garek tugged a handful of his beard down, bending slightly toward Ciara as though to give her a better look. "See the grey here? Think it's years alone that put it there?" He straightened again, hooking his thumbs back behind his belt. "I do nothing but worry about each and every one of my lads, some more than others. But that's my burden. Not yours."

"I consider him a friend," Ciara said. "If I can do anything to help him, I will."

Garek blew out another sigh as they started up the winding stairs of the north tower. Ciara hadn't gone more than four or five steps when he stopped her, turning her with a heavy hand on her shoulder. He stood a step or two below her, putting them just about on level, and for the first time Ciara was able to look him straight in the eye. His were deep green with just a tinge of hazel, clear and bright, but with an underlying shadow that told of much he kept to himself. The corners were deeply creased, as much from laughter as worry.

"The best you can do for Berk right now is keep your distance," he said softly. "Truth of the matter is, you see him as a friend, and that's all well and fine, but he'd like to see you as something more. Now, he knows that's a lost cause. At least, I hope he does. I've told him as much, and he's no fool. He's got eyes of his own. But he needs to clear his head and move forward, and I'm not sure you coddling him is going to be a help."

"Coddling?" Ciara rolled her shoulders back and Garek's hand dropped to his side.