Sworn To Secrecy: Courtlight #4 (26 page)

Ciardis said to Raisa, “Can’t we let bygones be bygones? I certainly hated my foster brothers. Isn’t it the same in a clutch, friendly rivalries and all that?”

“He was also my suitor,” snarled Raisa.

Unless they mated
, added Thanar with a touch of reluctance.
Damn it
.

Ciardis felt dismay cloud her thoughts until she heard another voice in her head.

He was not my mate
, said Raisa in Ciardis’s head.
Merely a suitor.

Wide-eyed, Ciardis remembered the first time Raisa had spoken in her mind at the duke of Carne’s outdoor gala. With dread she was beginning to wonder how many people could just invade her thoughts so nonchalantly.

Many. You’re not shielding very well,
said Raisa.

Ciardis?
asked the tense Thanar by her side.
You’re thinking strangely.

Can Thanar hear your thoughts, Raisa?

No, only you.

Can you hear his?

Only if I choose to,
was the carefully measured response.

Ciardis!
snapped Thanar.

Aloud, Ciardis growled, “All right, enough—both of you! You’re giving me a headache. Everyone talk out of their mouths.”

Thanar looked at her askance.

She whispered out of the side of her mouth, “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

“I take it you’re not here to kill us,” said Thanar.

“And why would you assume that, Prince?” said Raisa.

“You already would have. Dragons are swift on retribution.”

“That is true,” she said as she stepped farther into the light with lidded eyes.

“Then what happens now?” Ciardis said.

Raisa looked to her. “Balash was a fool. He bargained with the wrong group and left his dragonkin to suffer for it.”

“What do you mean?” Ciardis said sharply.

“She means that big black menace of a dragon was a hired killer,” said Thanar with a hiss.

Raisa didn’t argue with his statement.

“By the duke of Carne,” said Ciardis. It was more statement than question.

“Most likely,” agreed Thanar.

“You’re probably right,’” said Raisa.

Ciardis stepped forward, ignoring Thanar’s warning gestures. “Well, we need answers too. Starting with where you’ve been and why you’re here.”

Raisa turned to look out over the building ledge where the glare of the setting sun descended over the city.

At last she spoke. “I went to see your emperor. To hear his words about the mines of Sarvinia. He told me a harsh tale.”

Thanar stepped forward with a triumphant grin.

Raisa held up a swift hand, silencing him in mid-step. “Tales which I will not repeat here. Suffice it to say I believe what you have said about the
blutgott
. My initial belief has not changed, though; there is nothing we can do to stop his advance if he is indeed coming.”

Ciardis scoffed, “There is
always
something—”

“However,” Raisa said with a chilly look, “I am willing to try. But before that can be accomplished, this sordid tale of the princess heir must be finished. You must bring the Emperor of Algardis what he seeks. Because I will not have my people fight for you, knowing your emperor does not stand by your side.”

“I understand. I truly believe that together we can end this threat before it truly arises,” said Ciardis.

“You misunderstand me, Weathervane. The
only
way I am onboard is if your emperor issues a call to arms. Is he ready to do that?”

“Well, no, but he will be.”

“We shall see.”

Then Raisa stepped back and disappeared into the darkness.

Ciardis asked Thanar, “Did she just leave?”

“Umm.”

“No,” was the hiss from the doorway.

They both jumped.

“Let’s go,” the ambassador said in irritation from the darkness.

They followed without a word, a bit chastened.

As they descended down the rickety staircase inside one-by-one, Ciardis looked around the cobwebbed hallway and decaying wallpaper all around. Whatever this place was, it hadn’t been in use for years.

They came to a black door at the base of the winding staircase. Raisa stopped and Ciardis watched her reach up with an open hand to lay her palm flat against the doorway. In her mind’s eye she flipped on her mage sight and watched as Raisa’s hand heated up with the glow of fire, red spreading from her hand in a surrounding aura until the lock on the door clicked open.

“It’s safe,” said the dragon ambassador without turning around.

As the door swung open, she proceeded through with Ciardis and then Thanar following closely behind.

What they saw when they went through the door took their breath away. It was a large warehouse chamber with no windows and no other doors. The vast building extended quite far in the distance, with rafters high up above them. Ciardis stepped forward to the edge of the railing where she could look down upon the object that rested on a wheeled platform in the center of the room.

A ship rested there. At least one hundred feet high and hundreds of feet in length it was a mighty vessel with three masts and sails still in place.

“What in the world?” asked Ciardis astonished.

Thanar came up by her side and placed his hand on the railing. His gaze looked troubled. He didn’t answer.

Walking past, Raisa came up on Ciardis’s left and Ciardis strained to get a good look at the right side of the ship whose prow faced them. There, in brilliant gold letters, was the ship’s name:
The Marde
.

Staring in wonder, Ciardis felt faint. What could this all mean?

“It’s a
kasten
ship,” said Raisa abruptly.

“A what?” said Ciardis.

“A
kasten
ship,” echoed Thanar mutely. “One of the few ships that are built to withstand the cross-ocean travel from Algardis to Sahalia.”

Ciardis stared at it and then back at him in perplexity. “So the princess heir had a ship built?”

“No,” whispered Raisa.

Ciardis felt like screaming in frustration at their short answers.

Keeping her tone level, she said, “It’s here in her warehouse. Surely it’s hers?”

Thanar said, “The ownership is not in question. It’s her ability to build one.
Kasten
ships are unique. They can only be built by a master mage shipbuilder, and the art has been lost for over three hundred years. The last one to be built was said to have been destroyed on the rocks of the isles decades ago. It was this very ship.”

Ciardis stared at
The Marde
. “Then how did it come to be here?”

“I think the more important question is
why
,” said Raisa in a clipped tone. “Humans have not traveled to dragon lands for many years for a
reason.
”

“And what reason is that?” ventured Ciardis.

“If you don’t know, child, it’s not my place to tell you. Let’s go.”

“‘Let’s go?’” said Ciardis, astonished. “We need to see what’s on there.”

“We’ve seen all we need to,” snarled Raisa.

Thanar shook his head. “There doesn’t need to be anything else onboard, Ciardis. This is obviously the second part of the princess heir’s plan.”

“Destroy Kifar and board a ship to Sahalia?” Ciardis said skeptically.

“Kifar?” said Raisa in shock. “What do you mean destroy Kifar?”

Ciardis turned uneasy eyes on her. “Exactly what I said. Princess Heir Marissa had a plan to destroy the city of Kifar.”

Raisa was pale. “One you thwarted?”

“No, unfortunately,” Thanar said with crossed arms and a glare. “The attack is still scheduled to proceed.”

“When?” snapped Raisa.

Ciardis and Thanar exchanged strange looks. “In less than three weeks.”

Raisa said, “It must be stopped.”

“Why?” demanded Ciardis. “Why is Kifar so important to you?”

Raisa turned darkened eyes on the Weathervane. “Kifar is sacred to my people. It is where dragons first landed in Algardis.”

“Not in Sandrin?” said Ciardis with skepticism. With good reason, Sandrin was the first port of call from the open sea. Kifar was hundreds of miles inland.

“No,” said Raisa.

With that, she turned and hurried back through the doorway they came. Ciardis and Thanar had no choice but to follow.

As they reached the rooftop entrance, Ciardis whispered, “The emperor needs to know of this.”

She felt wary calculation running through Thanar’s mind, but it wasn’t like she could read his thoughts and emotions. Unlike Sebastian, Thanar remained a locked box to her unless he directly spoke to her and let something slip.

Reaching the roof, Ciardis wasn’t surprised to see that Raisa was already gone. She had a way of disappearing like a ghost when she wanted to.

“To the palace or Lord Steadfast’s manor?” she said over her shoulder fretfully.

When Thanar didn’t answer, she turned to see him looking at her with an unreadable expression on his face and his arms crossed.

“Well?” she said in frustration.

“I don’t know,” he answered as he paced the roof. “There are advantages to both. But whatever you do, the emperor needs to be informed of this ship at once. If you keep it from him there will be hell to pay and there’s no telling when Ambassador Raisa will next speak to him. She could be on the way now to force his hand in her bid to save Kifar.”

“You’re right.” Ciardis was miserable. “Either way we have no choice. It’s best that we go now.”

The sky rumbled with the warning of oncoming lightning and thunder. Thanar held out his arms to pick her up. Reluctantly she went to him and allowed him to scoop her up as before. With a running leap, he jumped from the roof and was in flight once more.

To her horror she saw the eye of the storm was over the imperial palace.

“I think we should go back to the manor,” she shouted in Thanar’s ear.

“I agree,” he said as he dipped his wings subtly and they flew away from the maelstrom over the palace walls.

When they dropped in the courtyard, everyone, including Stephanie carrying a large sack, was on their way out. When Sebastian saw her being set down from within Thanar’s arms, she felt his anger spark from across the cobblestoned yard. Grimacing, she rushed over to him.

“What’s going?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” sniped Sebastian.

“Children,” chided Lillian as she walked down the manor steps.

“Ciardis, I thought you agreed not to leave the manor?” Caemon said as he walked down the steps behind their mother.

She flinched in guilt. “Um, yeah, about that...”

The others gathered in a semi-circle around her and Sebastian with expectant looks on their faces. She turned back to see Thanar standing at distance near the fountain. His smirk said he was in no way going to help her dig herself out of this situation.

She nearly stuck her tongue out at him but restrained herself in time.

Turning back to the group, she reluctantly said, “There’s good news, bad news, and worse news.”

“Is this
new
news?” Vana said, sharpening a knife on a wet stone. “Because if it’s just adding on to the pile of horse manure we’ve already got, I don’t want to know.”

Ciardis stared at the whetstone Vana was using to sharpen the sharp blade uneasily. There was something wrong about a person sharpening a blade in the middle of the courtyard where the sound echoed like the grate of a chain against metal.

With a sigh she said, “It’s all new.”

“Fantastic,” said an already tired Christian.

“Do you want to go inside and sit?” murmured Ciardis sympathetically.

“No.”

She looked at Caemon.

“We were preparing to leave the manor as soon as you arrived,” Caemon said, “Everything’s packed. Including that weird, clanking contraption of yours.”

“The what?”

Christian explained, “The mechanical thing that arrived this morning.”

“Oh!” Understanding dawned in Ciardis’s eyes.

“I felt it would be best if you explained to everyone else about it,” Christian said.

“Right,” said Ciardis. With everything else that had happened she had forgotten about it. 

“So if you could get on with telling us your news, daughter,” Lillian said, “we can move to a more secure location.”

“Well,” said Ciardis, easing in slowly, “which news do you want first?”

To save them time, Stephanie said, “Good news first, worse news second, and bad news last.”

“Right,” Caemon said.

Ciardis spat it out in a rush of words. “The Ambassador of Sahalia’s on our side, we killed a dragon, and Princess Heir Marissa hid a
kasten
ship called
The Marde
.”

“
Another
dragon,” said Christian flatly.

Ciardis nodded.

Christian looked up at the sky. “Just checking.”

“Dragon? What dragon?” said Vana.

“A big black male named Balash.”

She didn’t even bother being insulted when every head turned to Thanar for confirmation and swiveled back to her upon receiving it.

“Did you say
The Marde
?” demanded Lillian.

“Yes,” Ciardis said. “Why?”

Sebastian gripped her hand tightly. “That was my Uncle Maradian’s nickname, or so I was told. I never met him.”

“Neither did I,” said Lillian. “He tended to be away from court for long periods when I was a young woman.”

“A
kasten
ship named
The Marde
? Where did you find it?
How
?” asked the lord chamberlain.

“Through the emperor’s package that arrived while you all were out,” said Ciardis, “It more or less had directions to a warehouse of the princess heir’s in the Weavers’ District. The ship was docked inside.”

“
Kasten
ships haven’t been seen on the high seas in decades,” muttered the lord chamberlain, “and they’re only useful for one thing.”

“Which is?” Caemon quickly asked.

“Traversing the magical perils of the ocean from Algardis to Sahalia,” Lillian said darkly.

Ciardis nodded in agreement.