by Terah Edun
Ciardis leaned into his side as she soaked up his presence and carefully shut away the stray thoughts that threatened to enter Sebastian’s mind. It was harder to do that than she would have thought, but considering that they were standing side-by-side, not especially surprising.
Behind the mask of her thoughts, she knew he was right and she was wrong. What was more, she felt guilty. Because Ciardis Weathervane was honestly unsure what she would have said if Sebastian had asked her the same question in regards to Thanar, daemoni prince, and hell-raiser.
It wasn’t everyday one fell in love with the prince heir of realm while a dark prince of questionable reputation resolutely declared his intentions to have you—marriage or no marriage.
For now, she thrust thoughts of Thanar out of her head. She would deal with him later.
But not much later, she thought fretfully, I need him as an ally but I cannot let this come to a head. If Sebastian challenged him to a duel of all things, and lost, I would never forgive myself.
“Ready?” Sebastian whispered into her hair.
“Ready.”
Straightening with a calm smile on her face, Ciardis Weathervane moved a few inches away from her beau and smoothly linked her arm with his.
Together they walked out of the door of her chambers and into the empty hallways of Empress Ryana’s former palace residence. Or what she thought had been empty.
Surprised, Ciardis’s back stiffened at what awaited them in the courtyard.
Lining the colonnade to the left and the right were the palace servants. The same shifting, giggling mass that had greeted them in the morning of their entrance. But they all stood straight and professionally coiffed now. Ciardis had to hide a smile behind a quick hand before she dropped her hand to her waist and smoothed her face.
“Well, this is a surprise,” she whispered to Sebastian.
“Would you expect any less from Mary Marlstone?”
Ciardis admitted, “I guess I wouldn’t. I don’t know her like you do, though.”
“Don’t worry—you will,” Sebastian said while he formally laid his left hand on her left hand that resided in the crook of his right elbow. “You will.”
Ciardis wisely held back her reservations on that and they strode forward into the sunlight and down the long path of servants to the carriage that awaited to take them to the main entrance hall for the emperor’s audience chamber.
Sitting in the wheeled conveyance that was only big enough for two seated inside across from one another and a driver up top, Ciardis took in the scenery that flashed by. Pale white marble extended for as far as the eye could see in rapidly descending grand staircases and broad bannisters high above. Their carriage circled the palace on a specially made brick pathway of rich-brown tones laid in an elegant crisscross pattern. As she stared up at the palace walls that seemed to grow higher and higher into the sky as the path they were on sloped down to flow around a perfectly groomed hill to arise on the entrance pathway to the main palace.
Ciardis leaned forward a bit more than was elegant to peer out the glass-pane window into the distant. In front of her Sebastian chuckled. “Something caught your attention.”
“The palace is divine,” she said dreamily.
“That’s one way to put it,” Sebastian muttered. “It’s been the seat of my family’s rule for over three centuries. We’ve murdered, raped, pillaged, and plundered from its depths.”
“And ruled, cared for your people, instituted law and order, and made sure the empire prospered,” Ciardis said turning away from the window at Sebastian’s dark tone.
Sebastian gave her a blank look. “How can you defend my family’s history? It was you that discovered the wrongs done to the kith in the Sarvinian mines under orders from my own family.”
“It was you that sought to right those wrongs, ordered the kith freed and an investigation started,” she said soothingly.
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel like enough. Coming in after the deed has been done and the people are dead.”
“I don’t think it ever would feel like you’ve done enough,” Ciardis said thoughtfully, “but it’s important not to ignore your duty because you realize the problems too late. It’s your job to ensure that those circumstances don’t come around again.”
Sebastian looked out the window at the massive palace. “No, that’s the emperor’s job.”
“What about when the emperor refuses to rule fairly?” she said hotly. Ciardis remembered her own run-ins with the man who sat on the imperial throne. All three times had been decidedly unpleasant from the first time she had met him when she and Sebastian tumbled out of the Aether Realm together to the emperor’s decision to preside over her mother’s trial for regicide.
“Then the people will suffer blindly,” Sebastian said sharply, “because no one crosses them.”
Ciardis leaned forward. “What would happened if they did?”
“Did what?”
“Cross a corrupt ruler?” she said softly with defiance in her eyes.
Sebastian gave her an indecipherable look. “I may challenge my uncle’s place on the throne, but I will not challenge his divine right to rule. There’s a difference. As long as my father is alive, there always would be.”
Ciardis sat back and didn’t say what they were both thinking: What if he wasn’t?
A few more minutes passed before Sebastian broke the silence again just before their carriage came to a halt in the long line for nobles attending the emperor’s open audience session.
“Did you know that my tutors whipped me because I couldn’t call on my magic? They said it wasn’t abuse, just encouragement.”
Ciardis raised an eyebrow as she rearranged her skirt nervously as they prepared to dismount their carriage. “I thought nobles had whipping boys for that.”
“Whipping boys are for noble children who did something wrong. Bleeding the back of a servant does nothing to draw out the magic of the mage noble boy standing in front of him.”
“Draw out?” she said, horrified.
He shrugged as he carefully studied the nobles preceding before him with a hawkish eye. “There goes the Marquis of Dormier. He has a rather large guard of centaurs on his land. He’s also one of the few nobles that allow the kith to live peacefully with citizenship rights in return for hard work.”
She waited for him to get back to the original conversation. Instead he continued, “Instead of being serf-like vassals, they’re upstanding creatures. They share rights to parcels of land with the marquis himself and build their own homes. I’ve been told they’re fanatically loyal to him because of that.”
“Sebastian,” hissed Ciardis. Any other time a history of the empire’s powerful nobles would have delighted her. Not now. He couldn’t drop a statement like that and not explain further.
“It means to force the magic to rise in protection of the mage. It’s generally how an unmarked mage learns of their gifts. It rises to the occasion,” he answered in a carefully unemotional tone.
“How long?” she choked out. “How long did this go on?”
“Too long.”
Ciardis reached forward and gripped his knee. He turned to look over at her then. “Well, you are a boy no longer and they will burn in fiery brimstone by my hand if any so much as lay a finger on you.”
Sebastian smiled as he leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “That’s why I love you.”
“My wicked right hook?”
“Your fiery determination against all odds.”
Satisfied she leaned back. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a footman approach and she watched as Sebastian stepped out of the carriage first into the sunlight and the sharp-eyed gaze of the nobles of the realm.
Then Ciardis took a deep breath and stepped into the sunlight as well. For a moment she was blinded. She resisted the immediate temptation to throw up a hand and shield her eyes from the glare of the sun. Instead she tightened her secure grip on the footman’s arm as he help
ed her down the carriage steps. Three steps later, she was on the ground and the glare was still overwhelming, but her eyes were adjusting fast from the gloom of the carriage to the bright, airy day of the palace courtyard.
Pasting a smile on her face Ciardis gripped the edge of her skirt in her left hand, Mary Marlstone had been good but even she couldn’t magically summon a perfect dress in less than an hour for a woman she had never met before and knew no measurements for. So they had compromised. The dress was a gorgeous emerald green that fell in folds of silk layers. The empire waist flattered her figure and her curled hair fell down her lower back where a delicious slice of skin showed as Ciardis had asked Marlstone to keep the becoming modification that opened the dress from the top of her neck to just in the middle of her lower back.
It was simple and beautiful. The only downside was the slightly long hem-length. The young servant girls had worked their magic and done their best to hem it, but too late Ciardis and Mary Marlstone learned that the dress hadn’t been designed and given life by any ordinary seamstress. No, just as all attire that came from the late empress’s collection, this particular piece was sumptuous and luxurious. Honestly, it felt like heaven on her skin. But unlike the majority of the empress’s collection, this particular piece had been hand-woven by a very special seamstress who specialized as a silk runner. In other words, the seamstress had been a mage with the power to harness magic in cloth and weave. The seamstress or tailor had designed the gown to accommodate the slightly taller figure of Empress Ryana and had woven it in magic that prevented the fabric from tripping the empress.
Ciardis wasn’t sure if that particular enchantment would work on her but she wasn’t interested in finding out either. So she cautiously hiked up the two inches of fabric that made the dress just a little too long for her shorter legs and swiftly placed her right arm in the crook of Sebastian’s left elbow.
Fabric secure, they walked forward with their heads held high.
Sebastian didn’t bother steering Ciardis into the line of waiting nobles. Instead they walked down the center of the red-carpeted aisle and the nobles waiting parted like an ocean wave to either side. As she glanced in their faces, she saw distaste and shock lining their gazes. And she didn’t think it was because she and the prince heir were skipping the line.
Do you think they know?
About the Duke of Carne, he said grimly, most likely. News would have spread across the city like wildfire.
Ciardis took in the shocked looks on faces. Some looked angry. Some looked surprised. As if they couldn’t believe the prince heir and Weathervane would dare show their faces at court.
One lady downright snarled at her. Ciardis had to fight the urge to shrink against Sebastian when they passed her.
If they knew about the wedding, would they challenge us?
They wouldn’t make a move until my father has signaled his approval or disapproval. Going against a united imperial family is an unpleasant experience.
He hesitated.
She prodded him on his underarm with her finger. It was invisible to the crowds around them but an effective tactic between them.
They could challenge it, though.
Challenge it? Challenge what? Tell me you don’t mean what I think you mean.
Sebastian admitted in her mind, They could challenge our right to marry. Which is why I want to have father’s approval and hopefully the guild’s support before we go to the nobles’ convening. If they see that the deck’s stacked against them, they might not revolt.
For a moment Ciardis was silent. Processing this news. Wondering why he hadn’t told her sooner. Wondering why it had never occurred to her to ask. She had just assumed it would be done if the emperor approved and she and Vana would go over marriage protocols later in the evening. She also wondered why in the seven hells the imperial court was always so insanely difficult.
We want to get married. Why do they have any say in it?
Reluctantly, Sebastian spoke, The imperial line is the conduit to the land. Through our blood and seed their lands prosper. Without us, it is rumored that the bond between land and people would perish. Algardis would not be the place it is without it.
And?
And therefore the person we take to our bed for heirs would have the direct responsibility of either bearing our future connection or siring that child.
Sebastian paused and clarified, It doesn’t really matter if the spouse is a mage or a mundane though. Either will work.
Lovely.
Ciardis and Sebastian stopped at the head of the crowd. Nobles stood three deep to either side. They stared straight ahead at the large and ornate golden doors that marked the entrance to the emperor’s audience chamber. Neither blinked. Neither twitched. Their faces were like marble masks. None around them had an inkling they were having the most furious and private conversation of their lives as they stood side-by-side.
Is this a requirement just for the wives who enter the Algardis line? Ciardis asked, flummoxed.
It’s an equal opportunity rule. I’m aware of three empresses who were forced to remarry after their children were born without that connection. Their husbands, mages and mundanes, weren’t able to sire a child with that special ability so the female rulers had to choose someone who could. Quite a few emperors had to remarry, as well. At least two. Although in both cases, some chose to keep their chosen spouses and hire a surrogate birth parent for the heir.
Ciardis wasn’t sure what she found most offensive about the entire situation—the idea that she would be considered an imperial broodmare or that the nobles had any say in it.
Then a thought occurred to her. You didn’t have any powers and your father didn’t replace you with a new heir.
Sebastian smiled internally. I was born with the gift to connect with the land. The nobles couldn’t dispute that, but oh, how they wanted to. My father had proof that I was a legitimate heir with ties to the land until I was five. What happened after that was the speculation of the court for the next decade. But they couldn’t call a re-marriage vote because of that technicality.
And now? she questioned.
They will do everything in their power to see that their connection to the land isn’t jeopardized, Ciardis. The nobles don’t care about my happiness, they don’t care about yours. What they want to be sure of is their happiness.
Great, she grouched. So that’s a no on the support?
On the contrary, it might be a yes. They know how powerful you are. They know you brought my magic back. They also know they can’t get rid of me even though they’ve been trying to for years. If you will bear the heirs that will give them more power, they’re all for that.
Ciardis snarled, Let’s get something straight—I’m not a broodmare and I don’t intend to bear any heirs. Not yet anyway.
He didn’t answer. So she pinched him. Sharply.
Of course! he hastily said. Just don’t tell them that.
Her lips twitched outwardly into a grimace. Just for a second, and in the next moment it was gone. Luckily the doors to the emperor’s inner sanctum opened, because Ciardis felt like whirling around and snarling at the next misogynistic bastard who so much as looked at her.
Chapter 15
As the giant doors swung inward on silent but solid metal hinges, Ciardis stared straight ahead. Unlike the packed antechamber of hushed nobles this formal audience chamber was brimming with moving and talking people. Although they were careful to stay on the boundaries of the red-carpeted path up to the throne. A bald servant with kohl-lined eyes that carried a thick staff swiftly banged his instrument against the marble floors as he announced, “His Imperial Highness Prince Heir Sebastian Athanos Algardis and Lady Ciardis Weathervane, first of her name.”
Ciardis nearly jumped as she heard him say “first of her name” in his deep, booming voice. In her mind the phrase warped into ‘daughter of the traitor.’ Sebastian squeezed her arm affectionately. He wasn’t the only one who was nervous.
As she stared into the sea of individuals on all sides, she was surprised at the diversity of classes and statuses that met her eyes. Nobles mingled with commoners, mages with mundanes, even kith with humans. Ciardis felt an odd buzz over her skin the moment she and Sebastian started walking down the bare path to the throne that she had last visited when she was alone with the emperor.
Ciardis tried to speak to Sebastian mind-to-mind and found out that she couldn’t. She almost stumbled when she felt nothing but a disturbing blank buzz in her head. Sensing her distress, Sebastian whispered, “Look up.”
She did. She glanced out of the corners of her eyes that had enough mascara on their lashes to make her vision bisected by sweeping black lines. What she saw intrigued her. To her right, three robed mages stood fifteen feet in the air. They hovered on what looked like platforms of air, very similar to Thanar’s tricks. The mages’ arms were outstretched and she felt a similar aura from all three.
“The mirror image of those three on our right also stand to our left,” Sebastian whispered as they continued to walk forward.
“What are they?” she asked. Not who—what. She knew they were doing something to her magic and she wanted to know what she was up against.
“The emperor’s pet silencers,” said Sebastian as they reached the halfway mark between the audience chamber entrance and the throne.
Sebastian stopped and put pressure on her hand to let her know that he wanted her to follow his lead. Now that they couldn’t speak to each other mind-to-mind, they needed to be attuned to each gesture and touch of the other to figure what they wanted without speaking aloud. They went to their knees and awaited the emperor’s signal to approach the throne further. Ciardis knew that she was required to give a deep bow to the emperor but Sebastian’s hand pressure warned her that he wanted her to stay as she was—upright and unbowed. So she did. Although her eye twitched, signaling what she thought of such bravado. She wasn’t married to him yet. She wasn’t even technically a ‘lady,’ although many extended that courtesy to her in introductions. She had yet to take the oath of the Companions’ Guild and gain the title. And no matter her mother’s family line, Ciardis had heard it whispered as they walked that quite a lot of the Weathervane fortune and titles had been stripped from them when her mother had been imprisoned. She hadn't spoken to Lillian in the day and a half since then, and the family inheritance wasn’t at the top of her list of priorities anyway.
