Sworn To Secrecy: Courtlight #4 (32 page)

They stalked like reapers to the Duke of Carne’s bed. A single form rested in it, and they moved to surround the massive four-poster with white silken sheets. The person sat up as they surrounded the bed. It wasn’t the Duke of Carne, but a battle-hardened man with blond hair, fit shoulders, and a beard. As the sheet fell back Ciardis saw a sword in either hand.

“Uh oh,” she said. She had a moment to wonder where the duke was before she saw the glint of steel around her as weapons raised in all corners of the room. She froze in place.

As her whole group turned from the bed, they saw a ring of soldiers surrounding them, all of them wearing menacing faceplates with hauberks covering them. She guessed they hadn’t been suits of armor, after all. The young man in the bed quickly got up and joined his fellow soldiers. From the doorway the loud sound of clapping demanded their attention.

In the doorway with his evening robe on stood the infamous Duke of Carne.

“Come to murder me in my sleep, have you?” he said jovially. “Ah, Prince Heir Sebastian, I thought better of you. At least send a trained assassin to do your dirty work.”

“I
am
a trained assassin,” snarled Vana as she strode forward with her knife in hand.

Before she’d moved four steps, five guards had moved in place with the steel-tipped edges of their pikes conveniently placed inches from her throat. She froze.

“So I see,” the lord of the manor said.

Ciardis stepped forward, curls falling down her back and her glaive in hand. She realized how she looked and quickly placed the weapon on the floor. “My lord Duke of Carne, do you remember me?”

“Of course I do, Weathervane,” he said, surprised. “How could an old man forget such a pretty face?”

She gave a brief smile. “Then you know who I am.”

“I know much about you. I know much about your mother, too,” he said.

“Yes, so you explained at your garden ball as well as in the emperor’s tribunal. But you didn’t explain one thing.”

The man narrowed his eyes. “And what is that?”

“Why you are trying to kill us.”

He waved a hand. “Not you in particular. Just your evil mother. But I’d say I did well targeting you all, since you’ve clearly come here to finish me off.”

“We didn’t come here to hurt you,” Ciardis said. “We came to make peace. To have you take our offer to the Shadow Council and end this battle of wills.”

“Peace?” said the duke with a faltering smile. “There will never be peace. I don’t care what the council says. Not after your mother left my Leah for dead on the floor of the empress’s chambers.”

“What?” said Ciardis in confusion.

“Lillian tried to kill Leah on that night of the empress’s death long ago,” he said sharply, “and you’ve been trying to finish the job with your harassment ever since.”

“Harassment? We haven’t been harassing you.” said Ciardis.

“You dragged the Carne name through the mud and had my wife
arrested
. My poor Leah is beside herself. Unable to sleep and gets more ill by the day under constant torment for the anguish you’ve caused us. Well, I have news for you: Two can play that game.”

Thanar said dryly, “I assume you’re referring to that menace of an under-dragon and beast of a real dragon you set upon us in the skies.”

“You assume rightly,” the duke said proudly.

Ciardis sighed. “Okay, let’s put aside the trial aspect for minute. We didn’t set a dragon on you.”

“Oh?” said the duke. “Not according to the signed testimony you gave the court of magistrates two seasons ago.” His voice was triumphant. He had proof of her lies this time.

Ciardis stiffened. “You can’t be serious. That was the Ambassador of Sahalia. No one commands her.”

“Commands, no. Infatuates, yes. She certainly seems taken with you. Just as the male dragon was with your mother close to two decades ago.”

Ciardis shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Sebastian stepped forward. “As much as Ciardis tends to attract trouble like flies, on this I think she’s right. We never asked the dragon to interfere in our affairs with your wife.”

“I don’t believe you,” said the timorous duke.

Before they could push some sense into him, another voice said, “Well, that’s too bad, Cornelius. Because they’re right.”

They all turned in surprise as two guards flanking an inner sanctum door stepped aside and in walked the duchess of Carne.

“Leah?” said the duke, shocked. “You shouldn’t be here. It’s dangerous, and you should still be on bed rest. With the stress of the trial, the healer commanded you not to exert yourself.”

“You old fool,” hissed the duchess. “Did you
really
think I was resting for months on end?”

Dismay crossed the duke’s face. “You must be feeling ill, Leah.”

“I’m feeling fine,” she said simply, “but the time to hide is over. Now we rise in glory.”

“We?” questioned the duke weakly.

She gave him a poisonous glance. “Oh dear, of course I don’t mean you and I.”

“No,” said Sebastian grimly. “You mean you and Uncle Maradian...or should I say the emperor?”

The duchess turned to Sebastian. “So you know about that, then? Good, this will make this so much easier.”

Unease rolled down Ciardis’s spine.

“Maradian?” said the duke in shock. “Leah, what’s going on? What does the prince heir mean? Maradian is dead.”

The duchess turned a spiteful look on her husband. “No, he isn’t. But you are.”

The duke looked at his wife in confusion.

She turned to the guard nearest him and said simply, “Kill him.”

The man turned his sword on the duke and sliced clean through his neck. His body dropped with a thud while the head bounded across the bedroom floor leaving a trail of blood in its wake. The duchess smiled gleefully. “I’ve wanted to do that for the past decade.”

No hesitation. No regret.  And none of the guards surrounding them murmured a protest.

The prince heir stepped forward as the blood of the duke pooled in his bedchamber, “Why did you help Maradian? We know you were there and watched as he murdered the Empress of Algardis.”

“But there was no reason for you to be there,” said Ciardis.

“There was every reason,” hissed the Duchess of Carne, “The plan wasn’t Maradian’s alone. Nor was it Marissa’s. I was the mastermind behind finishing off Bastien and his insipid wife. Although even I admit Maradian moved too soon.”

Ciardis interrupted her. “I thought you said months ago that this wasn’t about the throne. I quote: ‘It’s about filthy inhuman creatures with the same rights as humans; it’s about mundane people living above their station; it’s about righting wrongs done to the nobility decades ago.’”

The duchess gave her a rare smile. “It’s about all that and more dear. Because Bastian was weak. His father was
weak
. I, I and Maradian, will restore the rightful order of all things.”

“You and the emperor orchestrated all of this? The hunt for the princess heir’s artifacts and plans? Why, when you knew the princess heir’s secrets all along?” said Ciardis.

The duchess turned cold eyes on her. “Because I didn’t. Not then. Princess Heir Marissa guarded her secrets well up until the moment she died. When Maradian took Bastien’s place and refused to name her Empress Consort, she drifted away from us.”

Ciardis shivered,
Marissa’s his sister. I would think that would be the first problem with naming her his consort.

I don’t think they care,
said Sebastian in her thought.

“Oh, Marissa kept Maradian’s secret, but she was always scheming to gain the throne herself. We knew she had ulterior motives, but never what they were. You were the perfect pawn to find out what she was up to,” said Leah of Carne.

Ciardis swallowed harshly. “And the attacks against us?”

The duchess shrugged. “Me. I had to give my husband a reason to ‘protect’ me.”

“What now?” said Sebastian.

“Well, now you die,” said the duchess, considering. “I can’t have tall tales told about my involvement with the emperor. And besides you’re the perfect reason my husband is dead. You murdered him in cold blood while the poor old duke slept peacefully.”

They all tensed. Suddenly a blast in the distance echoed.

The duchess turned in surprise. She snapped to her guard, “Find out what that was.”

He hadn’t moved away more than a few steps before a mighty blast overtook the building and Ciardis saw the bedroom ceiling fall over their heads.

P
laster shattered as wood beams fell down with a crash. Ciardis and Sebastian fell to the floor under the deluge of dust and debris falling over their bodies.

“Ciardis?” called Sebastian as he fought to stand. She heard him push a thick slab of something off him in the distance through the ringing of her ears. When she finally felt as if her body would respond she pushed up on all fours – allowing the dust and debris to fall away harmlessly as her fingers dug into a floor covered in bits of grey rubble.

Standing up, Ciardis caught sight of the duchess of Carne. She was unharmed. She couldn't say the same about two of the duchess's men who had shielded her with their bodies.

“Kill them,” the woman shouted while pointing at Sebastian and Ciardis. 

Two guards leapt for Thanar and he threw them back with a blast of grey mist. Thanar took advantage of their fall to reach for a bronze pole sticking up out of the debris and speared one man through the heart before turning to face the other.

Vana threw her knives in rapid succession at another opponent while Ciardis quickly traded blows with a soldier who came for her.

When the soldier slashed at her arm with a broadsword, she saw an opening. She jabbed her glaive into his neck while his arm was extended. He fell to the floor with blood gurgling out of the wound.

“Ciardis!” snapped Vana.

Ciardis looked up to see Vana struggling with another soldier. Vana crouched behind him with a long piece of rope wrapped tightly around his neck. His desperate struggles for air became thrashes as he died.

“What?” Ciardis said while dodging a blade coming at her left eye, rolling on the floor, and bringing her glaive straight up. Unfortunately for the soldier, he was almost on top of her at that point. Ciardis speared him in the crotch and he collapsed over her weapon.

As she jerked the glaive out of his body, Ciardis watched him fall into a fetal position on the floor. He was as good as dead. In front of her Sebastian finished off two men by decapitating them. He turned to Ciardis and quickly looked her over from head to toe. She did the same. They may have been at odds emotionally, but they still cared for each other.

“That bloody woman is getting away!” said Vana.

Turning around, Ciardis was startled to see that Vana was right. The duchess was escaping through a hidden tunnel in the wall. As Ciardis watched, the trail of her dress was disappearing into the tunnel corridor. Ciardis took off after her with Vana and Sebastian hot on her tail. As they stepped inside the tunnel entrance, seven guards leaped into the bedroom from the hallway. As a unit they moved forward. Thanar grabbed a discarded spear and lunged to fight three at once.

Ciardis hesitated and turned back to help with Sebastian by her side.

Vana was closer to the unit of soldiers. She waved them back.

“You two, go!”

“But there are seven of them!” said Ciardis.

“We can handle it.” Vana grabbed a dagger and rushed into the fray.

Sebastian and Ciardis turned away—reluctant. They ran in pursuit of the fleeing duchess of Carne.

The tunnel was dark. As Ciardis stumbled into the tunnel first, she discovered that instead of a corridor, it was filled with ascending stairs. Ciardis stretched her hands out to either side and felt cold stone wall.

“Where does this go?” said Ciardis.

“Probably the roof,” said Sebastian.

She kept her glaive out in front of her as she struggled to keep her footing in the darkness. But she pushed on. Then a third blast rocked the villa. The tunnel walls shook and Ciardis heard the ominous sound of falling stone at the entrance behind them. Then the shaking stilled.

Sebastian cursed behind her. “It’s over. We have to keep going.”

As soon as he spoke another blast rocked the corridor. This time it threw them to the ground with the force of its intensity. She fell back into Sebastian and he grunted as he threw his hands to the wall to brace both of them.

“What in the world
is
that?” she said.

“I don’t know,” he said as they stumbled up.

She heard Sebastian grab his sword off the ground.

“Do we keep going?” she said.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” he said with a cough, “The way back sounds like it closed off with that last blast.”

“Let’s make sure.”

He didn’t argue. Just turned and cautiously made his way back the few steps they had come. Ciardis couldn’t see very well but she certainly felt the wall of fallen stone blocking their path when Sebastian stopped and she reached around him.

“You’re right, we don’t have much of a choice,” she agreed.

She couldn’t see the expression on his face. She didn’t know what he was thinking either, with the mind link between them shut down.

“We need to get out of this tunnel,” he said, “If there’s another blast it’ll fall in on us.”

With nowhere to go but up, they turned around and raced back up the stairs as fast as they could in the darkness. When they came to an open room, they paused. There was no sign of the duchess. Just more stairs on the opposite side of the room with mage lights outlining the exit.

“This is so strange,” she murmured.

“There’s nothing here,” he said, “Just stone and steps.”

“But should we keep going?”

“We don’t have a choice. I’ll take lead position though.”

“No,” she said, “My glaive would be useless if I’m behind you. I’ll stay in front.”

His face tightened and she could see he wanted to argue.

“We don’t have much time,” Ciardis said, “The duchess could be anywhere by now.”