Sworn to Sovereignty Read online

  Ciardis didn’t have time to be offended or jerk away, though.

  She felt him whisper softly under his breath as heat radiated from his spread palm. She looked down through what seemed like a curious haze. She could feel his hand on her thigh, but she couldn’t feel her leg itself. It was a weird dissociation, one that she wasn’t used to. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t process what had happened.

  She saw what destruction the blasts had done.

  Something had torn through the flesh just below her knee.

  Maybe rock torn from the earth or the snapped buckle on a lead line. Whatever it was, blood was pooling at her foot and her lower leg looked like mincemeat.

  She had to wonder how she was still standing. How she had even been able to crawl over to Terris’s side as wounded as she was. Even now why she wasn’t blacked out from the pain was a mystery, but Thanar’s chanting was distracting her from coherent thoughts. In more ways than one.

  “Ciardis,” she heard Sebastian say in a worried tone.

  She flicked her attention away from her fascination with the torn flesh and met his frantic gaze.

  As if standing at the end of wind tunnel, she heard him say faintly, “It’ll be all right.”

  “What?” Ciardis had the presence of mind to ask. She had wanted to say what will, but just as her blood was draining from her body, so was the strength to do more than the bare minimum.

  She couldn’t even stand on her own. They were both holding her upright. Why, she didn’t know, but it must have been important. She’d have rather been sleeping on the ground, thank you very much.

  As black spots began to gather in her vision, she watched frantic concern flood Sebastian’s face as he looked up into someone’s face behind her own.

  Must be Thanar’s, she thought fuzzily.

  Just as she was about to black out from the curious lack of pain but the all-too-present blood loss, she heard Thanar grunt, “I’m almost done. Keep her awake, for crap’s sake!”

  Sebastian snapped his gaze back to Ciardis’s own, and he didn’t even hesitate to swing back a hand and slam it hard against her cheek.

  That she felt.

  “Oww!” she howled.

  “Yes, that’s it!” the prince heir said grimly as he gripped her face tightly between his hands and stared into her eyes desperately. “Stay awake! I command you.”

  Ciardis couldn’t help it. She laughed.

  But the sheer focus on Sebastian’s face was no laughing matter.

  Her giggles subsided with a shudder and she let her eyes waver from his face.

  “No, sweet dear,” Sebastian said as he refocused her head gently. “Keep looking at me.”

  Ciardis croaked, “Are you going to keep me awake by sheer force of will?”

  “If I have to,” Sebastian said gamely.

  She smiled. “You would if you could.”

  “I can,” clarified Sebastian.

  She shuddered again. Not deliberately. It was like her body wasn’t her own to control anymore. And it was shivering from a cold that was leeching into her skin like a winter night. She could feel Thanar’s magic rushing through her. She didn’t know what spell he was doing, but she could hazard a guess. He was trying to save her life. She had to wonder why him, why it wasn’t Christian, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.

  Musing aloud, Ciardis said, “I keep shivering. I think it’s the blood loss.”

  “It’s shock,” she heard Thanar say from behind her. “Don’t worry. I’m almost done.”

  Sebastian’s gaze flickered and then strengthened. He nodded.

  “Thanar’s right,” Sebastian said in a confident tone. “You’ll be laughing about this in the morning.”

  Ciardis smiled. “Words I never thought I’d hear from you. ‘Thanar’s right’.”

  Sebastian snorted and shrugged.

  Then Thanar released his tight grip on her thigh and plunged talon-sharp fingers into the grisly remains of her lower leg.

  She screamed. She couldn’t help it. That she felt. Like a fiery rush, all the pain returned at once. Ciardis thought she would faint from the misery.

  “What do you think—” Sebastian shouted before something happened.

  Thanar’s magic erupted in a crescendo and disappeared. So did her pain.

  It was like lightning flashed and a switch went off in her mind.

  She had a moment to revel in the gloriousness of a pain-free existence, and when she looked down again, her leg was whole.

  Sebastian’s irate shout sputtered off and Ciardis gasped in delight.

  Before she could explore more about what she assumed had been a broken and mangled leg, he was gone. They both were. As quickly as they had come.

  She collapsed to her knees in the mud, gratefully whole and a little bit frustrated at their sudden departure. No words. Just gone.

  Ciardis looked over her shoulder and saw Thanar making a beeline after the prince heir. Off, presumably, to confront the enemy.

  Ciardis winced, and then looked over to Christian who was still busy hovering over a fallen Terris. She didn’t have time to check on her friends; she just hoped the woman was still alive.

  Ciardis had the presence of mind to yell at Christian, “Take care of her!” before she refocused her attention and she too took off to face the enemy.

  It didn’t take long before she reached what she judged as the stand-off line. The soldiers had survived the assault with relatively few wounds and were standing tensely with pikes in hand as they stared across the plains at a mound of dirt that seemed to be the new ridge of choice.

  Prince Heir Sebastian, unsheathed sword in his hand and anger on his face, stood to Tobias’s left. Beside Tobias stood Samuel, and to Samuel’s right and a tiny bit back to give his wings room to breathe stood Thanar with a conjured ball of dark magic floating innocently in front of him.

  Ciardis briefly studied the daemoni’s face before taking her place in the middle between the two soldiers. A brief glance was all she needed. The tense and brooding look in Thanar’s eyes promised pain to whoever came across that ridge.

  Ciardis had a moment to wonder if the shaman would be among them. If Rachael was even still alive. But a moment was all it was.

  Take care of the living first, Ciardis told herself grimly. Grieve for the dead later.

  She planted her feet firmly in the waving grass and braced herself for anything. Another blast of magic seemed as likely as the first: highly unpredictable.

  She didn’t have to wait long as the bow-and-arrow-carrying invaders surged over the ridge and down into their field. It wasn’t a dozen warriors. It was double that. But Ciardis didn’t feel concerned.

  She didn’t have to. Because they weren’t alone.

  Normally that wouldn’t have been something she would have rejoiced about. Reinforcements weren’t going to help her odds, but these additional people weren’t reinforcements. They were civilians. Ciardis watched as the warriors of both sexes were joined by children and elders and unarmed individuals.

  With Shaman Rachael trotting at their head.

  “Well, well, well,” Thanar said softly as he started pacing forward. “Looks like she didn’t get herself killed or captured after all.”

  Ciardis felt her shoulders relax. “A hunting party?” she asked.

  “With that much mage power,” growled Thanar. “Not a chance.”

  Ciardis spared him a glance, but she could tell just from his tone that he was pissed.

  At being attacked or being caught unawares, she wasn’t sure, but knowing Thanar, probably both.

  “Looks like more,” Sebastian said, mystified. “Much more.”

  They waited silently as the group came toward them at a quick pace. Their weapons were lowered and none of the warriors were conjuring magic, so they let them continue their approach. Rachael kicked her clearly tired horse into a trot when she saw how disheveled the group she’d left behind remained.

  Ciardis snorted in iro
ny. Her hand twitched as she gathered the ambient magic that she’d been slowly learning to use and control.

  Right now she felt less like being in control and more like throwing enough lightning at the shaman and her people that it would leave their ears ringing and their clothes singed.

  There are children, Ciardis, warned Sebastian.

  I see them. Their parents should have considered that before attacking us. I just plan on giving them a warning, nothing more, Ciardis thought with a pained wince.

  Steady there, tiger, Thanar thought back at her with an amused tone. If anyone’s going to tear them apart, it’ll be me.

  Despite his cavalier wording, he didn’t move from his position and he didn’t call in his magic to do the approaching band of people any harm.

  Which for Thanar was a miracle.

  Ciardis twisted her neck to ease the tension in her sore muscles and relax a bit.

  If Thanar could control his response to an attack that had nearly killed them all with concussions to just words, then so could she.

  Rachael didn’t even bother asking them all what happened.

  Instead she jumped off her horse with a grimace, and went from person to person touching each one once on the cheek.

  When she approached Thanar, he backslapped her hand away with a dark look.

  The shaman gave him a look of her own, but she didn’t reach for him again. Instead she passed on to the soldier who was leaning his whole weight on the pike in an effort to stand instead of lying flat on his back like he should have been, judging by the wounds on his torso that Ciardis could finally see now that she got a good look at him.

  Ciardis watched as each person Rachael touched radiated visible relief—either with a brief smile or a subtle shifting of weight—before the shaman moved on.

  When Rachael stood in front of Ciardis, the Weathervane gritted her teeth and set her shoulders. Her ears were still ringing, various cuts and open wounds were clearly still on her face, and she felt a torn muscle in her left side. Nothing that would stop her from fighting, but enough to slow her down.

  When Rachael reached for her, Ciardis said, “Why should I trust you?”

  “Because I’m trying to help,” the shaman replied with honest grief in her eyes.

  Ciardis didn’t say anything else, but she wasn’t sure she liked what else she saw in those eyes.

  She wasn’t happy that the shaman so obviously knew what ailed them all and how to alleviate it. It spoke of prior knowledge. Wisdom of an attack that none of them had seen coming…except for a shaman who had been running headlong for the hills in the minutes before.

  Nevertheless, she didn’t stop Rachael’s touch from landing on her. When her ears finally stopping ringing and the dizziness had left her vision, her fierce Weathervane glare met the shaman’s contrite expression.

  “I didn’t know you were a healer,” Ciardis said through stiff lips.

  “I’m not,” Rachael said with a wistful tone in her voice as she looked over Ciardis’s shoulder to what Ciardis presumed was Christian working his koreschie magic on their prone friend.

  “But you know what caused the thunderous roar which threw us off our feet?” Sebastian said in a tight voice as he walked over.

  Rachael nodded and waved her hand to the individuals who had gathered a few feet away.

  Ciardis cocked her head to eye them. They hadn’t been standing there moments before.

  They transversed that distance quickly, she thought with concern.

  Too quickly, Sebastian confirmed in an unsettled voice.

  I was watching them, Thanar said. They didn’t just walk across the plains.

  Ciardis blinked. “Then what did they do?”

  Thanar paused for a moment and ruffled his wings in concern. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they went across the realms.”

  Ciardis heard a frown in Sebastian’s voice as he said, “Like the spatial realms?”

  “Like the Aether realm,” said Thanar with a note of finality.

  Ciardis looked between one and the other. She didn’t understand why either was so concerned. She’d been hopping into and out of the Aether realm since she’d come to court. In one memorable occasion, Sebastian had dragged her from her home at the Companion’s Guild and back in a single night.

  Well, dragged was a bit of a euphemism. She hadn’t been too unwilling.

  Sebastian’s mouth pursed into a thin line. “They aren’t supposed to be able to do that.” His tone was conflicted as he muttered, “Especially not so many at once.”

  Ciardis sighed and rubbed her forehead. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to know what had their knickers in such a bunch. Thinking over all the other problems they were surrounded with, she decided she could sit this one out for now.

  As long as they did and so did the shaman.

  Clearing her throat, Ciardis looked at Rachael who had walked forward. “Have an explanation?” Ciardis asked delicately.

  “For?” the shaman asked with a raised eyebrow.

  “Illegal magic within imperial boundaries,” said Christian with a bland expression.

  Ciardis looked over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow. She was surprised he was even aware of the problem. Though she supposed anyone with eyes could have seen and detected what the plains people had done.

  But not everyone, including she herself, knew exactly what that action meant.

  The shaman narrowed her eyes. “It’s only illegal if you say it is.”

  “I do,” the prince heir replied with a steely look.

  “And what about what your dragon friend did to get you across the plains in the first place?” Rachael said with a raised chin. “Was that illegal?”

  “It was…necessary,” Sebastian admitted with a brief pause for the right choice of words.

  The shaman nodded. “And so was this. That is, unless you wanted another cascade effect to be set off by my people.”

  “Accidentally, I hope?” Ciardis heard Christian mutter sarcastically.

  But the shaman replied with steely eyes, “Deliberately, in fact.”

  Ciardis heard Sebastian suck in a harsh breath as swords were unsheathed on either side of the conversing parties and as a throbbing headache erupted in her temple.

  This was going to be a long morning.

  3

  They what? Ciardis heard Sebastian ask at the same time she protested as well.

  He didn’t have time to expand his question. From the frustration emanating from Thanar, Ciardis wasn’t precisely sure he knew wouldn’t tear apart the people standing there limb from limb regardless of the explanation put forth.

  The shaman spread her arms and said, “You must understand that the initial blast was an accident. My people meant no harm.”

  “And yet they still caused it,” Sebastian declared.

  “It could have been a lot worse,” Rachael said in a low voice.

  “How?” the soldier asked, in a tone that indicated clinical analysis rather than defensive reaction.

  He probably wants to know tactically what else they could do, Ciardis thought. She couldn’t blame him.

  The shaman raised her chin. “The thunderous wave you encountered was merely the preceding effect. If I hadn’t stopped them, the wave would have fractured you all like clay dolls under a hammer.”

  “And that’s why you went over the ridge?” Ciardis asked slowly. “To stop them?”

  Her tone was flat and judging. She didn’t care. They had nearly died and her leg had felt like a very large chunk was being bitten off by a ravenous wolf, so she’d be damned if she was going to be polite about it. The anger was justified.

  The shaman chuckled. “My, how cynical you’ve become, Weathervane.”

  Ciardis glared. “Better that than dead.”

  Rachael nodded in wry admiration. “My people have an act first, ask questions later policy towards invaders. And with what regularly comes out of the desert, I believe you can understand why.”
>
  “And you speak for your people in this matter?” Christian called out in a disapproving tone.

  They all turned to look at him where he still crouched by his patient. The disturbed look on his face was enough for even Ciardis to question Rachael’s roll in this.

  “Yes,” the shaman said in a definitive voice. “I am more than just a mage among the plains’ people. I am a leader.”

  Her voice brooked no argument and none of the people behind her stepped out of line to argue her choice of words, so they let it go.

  Sebastian grimaced. “It may be that your people have an ‘act first, ask questions later’ policy, but that assault was unwarranted. And if you hadn’t been here we might all have been dead.”

  Ciardis nodded. “And for what crime? Walking through a meadow.”

  The shaman turned her gaze on the prince heir. “That is so.”

  “Yet you still say they meant no harm?” Sebastian scoffed with raised eyebrows.

  “To you, Prince Heir,” the shaman clarified. “To anyone else, yes, we protect what is ours.”

  Sebastian shook his head over crossed arms. “This is the Empire of Algardis. We don’t sanction unprovoked assaults.”

  Except at court, Ciardis thought bitterly as she remembered one memorable assassination attempt by the Duke of Carne’s household. They’d been in the middle of the street and hadn’t known what was coming until arrows began raining down on their heads.

  Rachael gave him a clipped smile. “You don’t provide protection either.”

  Sebastian dropped his arms in astonishment. “All lands outside of the Aerdivus-plagued centers receive regular sentry patrols, and garrison attachments are located within fifteen-mile perimeters of all major cities.”

  “Except those lands that are conveniently in the periphery,” the shaman said in a clipped voice. “The lands your emperor likes to forget.”

  Ciardis felt her eyebrows raise in surprise. What is this? she wondered. Do they mean Kifar…or something more?

  Sebastian, however, didn’t appear to care. She could feel anger, dark and hot, rising in him like a miasma.

  Ciardis shivered as he focused on the one part of the shaman’s sentence that seemed to matter to him.