Sworn To Transfer (34 page)

“You’re wrong,” she said fiercely.

The Shadow Mage motioned for the gag to be removed from Christian’s face.

“Ask your friend over there. Am I wrong?”

Tears running down her face, Ciardis looked Christian in the face. Hoping for a denial. But he said not a word. Just stared at the Shadow Mage with hatred.

“Why?” Ciardis said. But she wasn’t directing the question at the Shadow Mage. She was looking at Christian, who was bowed on his knees.

Reluctantly, he turned his eyes to her. “Ciardis,” he pleaded, “this is neither the time nor the place.”

“Why?” she shouted in his face, tears running down her cheeks as she fell to her knees, “Why have you all been lying to me this whole time? Why is he shackled like a dog by the very man I serve?”

Christian closed his eyes in thought and opened them with bitter anger. “Because your mother didn’t just run away from court. She killed the empress when she left the court pregnant.”

Ciardis stared at him, uncomprehending.

“They found your mother midway to the North,” the Shadow Mage said thoughtfully, “A child—a boy child had just been born. They arrested her for crimes committed against the Imperial family and the death of the empress. And they took her son away from her.”

“It wasn’t meant to happen like this,” Christian said forcefully. “They were going to arrest her but somehow she used her power to control the Weapons Initiates around her. They killed their compatriots while under her control and then killed themselves. They’d already had her son dispatched with a rider back to court. He was supposed to be placed in a new home with a new family.”

“But,” interjected the Shadow Mage gleefully, “she killed them all, then escaped or died—no one’s quite sure which—and her son was forced to pay penance for her deeds.”

“Shut up!” shouted Christian at the Shadow Mage. “Ciardis, it wasn’t like that—”

Someone was lying, Ciardis knew that without a doubt. She had known her mother. It was true she had very few memories of her but she couldn’t forget the memories of the woman with laughing eyes who had raised her as a child. Many times it was the only memory that kept her going when she was found in the village alone with no family and then shuttled from home to inn as an orphan that no one wanted.

But none of the people here knew that. None seemed to know that she had known her mother – not even the man who professed to be her brother. So she put those thoughts of the past away away and focused on the pain of the present.

Standing up with hollow eyes, she said numbly, “It sounds like it was.”

Looking at the man behind the Shadow Mage, her brother, she took in a trembling breath and said, “How is this fair?”

“It’s the law,” said the Shadow Mage.

“I wasn’t asking you,” she said through clenched teeth. “Why didn’t they take me, as well?”

This time her brother spoke. “They didn’t realize that she was pregnant with more than one child. Before they arrived the maid had carried you out.”

Ciardis took a resolute step forward and the Shadow Mage held up a warning finger.

“Ah, ah, ah, Weathervane,” he said warningly.

“What am I going to do?” she said. “I’m not increasing anyone else’s powers and I can’t do anything alone.”

The Shadow Mage watched her curiously. “They haven’t taught you much, have they? I guess it’s best to keep you ignorant and dependent.”

Ciardis was heartily getting tired of everyone disparaging her lessons.  Sighing, she said while looking into her brother’s eyes, “Take me instead.”

“No,” was the simultaneous shout from her brother and Christian.

“No,” echoed the Shadow Mage with a cruel smile.

“Why?” Ciardis said desperately, spreading her hands, “Female Weathervanes are always,
always
, more powerful than males ones. I know that.”

“While that is true,” the Shadow Mage said, “you are untrained and untested. More power doesn’t mean equal finesse.”

“Please,” she said, begging.

“No,” the Shadow Mage said. “In fact, my job here is done.”

As he stepped back into the darkness of the shadows, her brother by his side, she screamed, “Wait! Don’t go.”

Laughter echoed back at her through the darkness of the shadows. “Ah, little mage. We shall see each other soon.”

With that, he disappeared and the shadow creatures dissipated.

Ciardis fell to the ground sobbing.

After a few minutes, Christian approached her. When he dared to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, she lashed out. Pushing to her feet with a strength borne of fury, she began pummeling him with her fists. Hitting him where she could and screaming in anger. He dodged her blows with the ease of years of practice and tried to keep her from hurting herself.

She didn’t calm down. She wouldn’t calm down. Not until Stephanie finally came forward and tackled her with Christian. As they held her down, she screamed even harder.

“You bastards! I thought you were my friends. Let. Me. Go!”

“No,” said Christian. “Not until you calm down.” He started to pour his healing power into her to soothe her high-strung emotions, but retracted as soon as he felt her magic swell.

Christian and Stephanie released her quickly and scrambled back.

“Enough,” snapped Stephanie. “You may be angry, but you don’t want to kill us. Stop raising your power levels and snap out of it!”

Ciardis looked at her from where she crouched on the ground. Sniveling and angry with the world.

“Did you know?” she asked. “Did everyone know?”

Stephanie raised her chin and admitted, “Most of court knew.”

Ciardis closed her eyes and choked back a sob. “And they just let me think I had no family?”

“It was an Imperial decree. No one was to talk about the other Weathervane child. Besides, many at court didn’t even believe you were a Weathervane,” Stephanie said carefully.

Ciardis stood up and turned away.

“Where are you going?” asked Christian.

“Back to camp.”

S
he walked calmly into camp, not shouting, not venting, and not screaming. Quietly and with a purpose. But without fail, every single soldier who crossed her path backed away quickly upon seeing her face.

Ciardis headed straight for Sebastian. She had a hunch where he’d be. The Prince Heir was seated on the ground with the same group of individuals she’d left him with earlier. His back was to her so he didn’t see her approach. But Meres did. When Meres saw her face he cleared his throat, stood, and stepped forward. Casually he moved through the group, putting his body in front of the Prince Heir’s.

When Sebastian stood up to see who had caused the disturbance, he looked at Ciardis quizzically with dark green eyes.

“Ciardis,” Meres spoke, his voice quiet. “What’s the matter?”

Ciardis looked at him with coldly calculating eyes. For once seeing the world and the people around her for what they were—self-serving and conniving individuals.

Ciardis lifted her hand and offered it, palm up.

“What do you see, Lord Meres?” she said.

He was silent for a moment. “An empty hand.”

She nodded. “I thought it was full until a few minutes ago. I thought I had a place to call home and friends to grasp.”

“Ciardis,” Prince Heir Sebastian said carefully. “You’re acting quite strange.”

She wanted to believe that this innocent boy becoming a man couldn’t have known. That he hadn’t deceived her, but she wasn’t a fool. Sebastian was the Prince Heir first, a friend second.

“I guess I am,” she admitted. “Wouldn’t you be if you found out you had a brother that everyone else knew about?”

The entire group of people blanched, and it wasn’t because she had practically shouted the words at the end. It was because they knew what she had said was true. She could see it in their faces.

She wished she could say it didn’t hurt the most that Sebastian had clearly known, but she couldn’t.

Holding out his hand, Sebastian pleaded, “Let’s discuss this somewhere more private.”

“Why?” snapped Ciardis. “So you can lie some more?”

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea,” said Lady Vana.

“Ciardis, it wasn’t like that,” Sebastian said. “The Imperial decree was a direct order; no one was to mention even the possibility of another Weathervane to anyone else. For secrecy’s sake.”

“So what?” said Ciardis slowly. “If he wasn’t spoken of, he didn’t exist?”

As Meres began to speak, she held up a hand. “Where has my brother been for the last eighteen years? If he wasn’t with the family that was assigned to adopt him, where was he?”

“On the northern border,” said Sebastian slowly. “At first he was fostered with an old knight family there, and since his powers came in he’s been working in the service of the emperor.”

“With that control bracelet on his arm the whole time?”

She continued issuing rapid-fire questions. This time to see if the man she had seen in the bookshop in Sandrin was the same person. “Does he have free will? Can he go as he pleases?”

“The bracelet monitors him as a tracking device would,” said Lady Vana. “If the minder allows him the freedom, he can go as he wills.”

Ciardis nodded. “And who is his minder?”

“That doesn’t matter,” interjected an advisor to Sebastian. “What we want to know is where you found this information.”

“Where I found it?” echoed Ciardis softly, fury overtaking her every limb.

“From my brother,” she snarled. “He told me.”

“In a dream?” asked Lords Meres quickly.

Ciardis looked at him as if he’d gone nuts. “He’s here and he’s with the Shadow Mage.”

Lady Vana swore and the regiment commander wasted no time in ordering a unit to form up in search of the wayward Weathervane.

Ciardis laughed with bitterness in her tone. “I take it that surprises all of you?”

Prince Sebastian reached out a cautious hand to take hers. She moved out of his reach in seconds, distaste on her face.

“Were you planning on putting me ‘in service to the emperor?’”

“No, of course not,” were the denials shouted at her from all sides.

But she knew—she knew in her heart that it had been a consideration. But was it still? As she struggled to digest all that she had learned, Ciardis felt the weight of pain enter her heart, that all of her friends had kept something so important from her.

Sighing, Meres said, “Ciardis, it is unfortunate that you found out in this manner, but it was ongoing discussion whether or not you were to be made aware of a living sibling.”

“Since you only manifested so recently – within months in fact,” ventured Lady Vana, “Lady Serena and I deemed it best, in initial discussions with Damias, to wait until your powers were stable enough for you to meet him.”

“Stable enough?” demanded Ciardis.

“Weathervanes can feed off each other in unsettling ways,” said Meres Kinsight.

“How did he get here?” questioned Vana.

Ciardis shrugged and said flatly, “I don’t know, but I do know that the Shadow Mage controls my brother.”

“Which would explain the huge increase in power beyond the abilities of a normal mage, even one with dark gifts like a Shadowwalker,” said Lady Vana.

“We will have to make inquiries in the North,” stated Prince Heir Sebastian. “This should never have happened. His minder is stationed on the border and needs him to help with the war.”

Ciardis noted that she had began to feel ill over the past few minutes. Like her stomach was upset and she wanted to throw up. Maybe it was something she had eaten?

Sharp-eyed, Alexandra asked her, “Is something wrong, Ciardis?”

“No, nothing,” she murmured, not wanting to be distracted from the topic at hand.

“If you’re unwell you need to tell us,” said Maree Amber.

“I did tell you—” protested Ciardis hotly.

“Enough with these secrets,” snapped Meres. “The girl should know. Forewarned is forearmed.”

Turning to Ciardis, he said, “We mentioned that Weathervanes affect each other in different ways. One of those effects is inducing mild illness—like a stomach ailment—when one Weathervane feels the other conducting magic. If you feel ill it could be because your brother is nearby and is acting as an enhancer or conduit for someone else’s power.”

Alarm flashed across Alexandra’s face.

Ciardis nodded, not wanting to betray the brother she never knew, but knowing that anything he did was being controlled by an outside force. “My stomach is ill.”

Maree and Vana cursed and sent out their own magic feelers. They quickly sounded an alarm and soldiers started converging. But whatever they felt also felt them, because it triggered a magic trap.

Without warning they were all transported in the shadows. When they could orientate themselves again, Ciardis saw that they were in a sunny field not far away from the village of Borden. She looked to her friends and counted off who was there: Sebastian, Stephanie, Christian, Vana, Meres, ten of the Prince Heir’s guard, Alexandra, Maree, and, Ciardis noted with surprise, someone new—a man with pitch black hair and a tall, gangly body.

“Everyone all right?” called Prince Heir Sebastian. Everyone confirmed with various nods and affirmations.

“Where the hell are we?”

“I think I can answer that,” a male voice said. As they all turned to view the speaker whose voice had startled them, many pulled out the weapons that they had. But when they turned to the eastern fields where the voice had come from, there was no one there. As they began to spread out in a tense circle to locate the person, Vana Cloudbreaker held up a closed fist, edging forward into the planted stalks of the gently blowing fields of wheat. She was looking around with both of her sights—magical and mundane.

Ciardis saw something interesting rise up from Vana when she called upon her mage core; it was like an orb with a thunderstorm of purple in it. Misty purple clouds and streaks of purple lightning fought to free themselves from the bubble as it rose in the air. And then it burst, sending the lightning and mist scattered in different directions. When it headed farther east, it struck something curious—a bubble—and like the cling of a sweater after it has been rubbed on polished wood, the purple lightning and mist clung to the new object, spreading like water over its surface.