Edge of Darkness ~ A Darkness & Light Novel Book Three (2 page)

"I'm sorry, Thadeus, but no," he said, raising a finger to quell the mage's imminent rejoinder. "Hear me out. Donovan claimed to have bound this witch to him, and so her magic as well. If it lingers in me, it certainly must remain in him, if he still lives. That means I can use it to track him when I return, just as I have before. Regardless of whether you view him as a threat or not, he has committed high treason against the empire and must be brought to justice. It is my duty to see that happens."

"At what cost to yourself?" Thadeus's demeanor softened, and he gusted out a resigned sigh. "As long as I have known you, you have thrown yourself into the jaws of our enemies."

"And have I ever not emerged?"

"No. But you have rarely done so unscathed. I fear for you, Bolin. I fear for the rest of us should you fall."

"That won't happen," he said, and hoped Thadeus didn't hear the slight tremor of doubt trickling beneath the conviction in his words. Donovan had nearly broken him more than once. At one point, Bolin even prayed for the Goddess to take him rather than allow him to be used for Donovan's twisted purposes. Bolin had been weak then, and caught off-guard. That wouldn't happen again. "If you've nothing else, Thadeus, I really need to go."

"There appears to be no stopping you without a fight."

A fleeting rush of excitement coursed through Bolin at the comment, as though Thadeus had thrown down a gauntlet in challenge and part of him yearned to snatch it up. The mage's brow furrowed, but the desire left Bolin as quickly as it had appeared. He tipped his head in silent farewell and left the library.

CHAPTER THREE

Mid-morning found Ciara in the midst of one hundred soldiers in full uniform. They waited in loose groups in the barrack's yard, chatting amongst themselves, or making final adjustments to their gear. Bolin's fingers tightened around hers as they neared the carriage bearing Nialyne's body. Garlands of white flowers decorated the four horses drawing it. The same blossoms draped the gold-edged, deep green cloth covering the casket. A glimmer of strong mage magic encased it all, meant to stave off the effects of a prolonged journey. An honor guard of six riders wearing plumed helms surrounded the carriage. They saluted as Bolin drew near and he nodded, his expression carefully neutral.

A shifting in the ranks forewarned them of Garek's approach as both men and horses moved out of the burly commander's way.

"You're certain you don't want me and the lads coming?" he asked Bolin.

"They're due some time. Besides, with me and Dain both gone, someone will need to see to things here. Besides," he angled his head in Ciara's direction. "You've other duties."

Ciara slipped her hand from Bolin's and settled her fists on her hips. She fixed both men with a hard scowl. "Excuse me? Did you just refer to me as Garek's duty?"

Bolin blew out a sigh. "It's commonplace for a Lady of the Empire to have her own guards. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, that is the position you now hold."

"I'm quite sure I have no idea what a Lady of the Empire is supposed to do," Ciara said.

"Which is why it's a good thing I'll be staying until my brother returns," Ariadne said, she and the Emperor arriving together. She stopped beside Ciara and linked arms with her. "I will be more than happy to instruct you in all the finer points of courtly behavior."

"That gives me something to look forward to." Ciara smiled at the Emperor's sister. She knew so few people in Nisair, it gladdened her that Ariadne wouldn't be returning to her own home any time soon.

"If you like that sort of thing," Garek rumbled under his breath.

Ariadne shook her head in resignation. "It is a good thing not everyone detests life at court as much as you and our Lord General."

"And me," the Emperor said. "But don't let Ellyanna hear that."

"I'm sure the Empress is well acquainted with your opinion, Brother."

"Then why is it she insists on throwing those grand galas four times a year, which I am forced to attend?"

"Purely to annoy you, I'm certain."

Ciara glanced Bolin's way. The playful banter between the royal siblings served to lighten the overall mood, but did nothing to diminish the heaviness lingering in Bolin's eyes.

"We should be on our way," he said, and leaned to look past Garek. "Captain Everyn, are we ready to move out?"

"Aye, General," came the reply. "Just give the word."

Bolin directed a questioning glance the Emperor's way. "Your Majesty?"

"As you will, General." The Emperor turned to his sister. "Try not to be too bossy in my absence. It makes me look weak."

"Whoever believes that is a fool," Ariadne said with a light laugh.

The yard erupted into motion as the command to mount up got passed down the line. Ciara moved back to allow Bolin room to swing onto Sandeen, but he surprised her by catching her around the waist. He pulled her into a tight embrace, his mouth seeking hers for a deep, lingering kiss that stole her breath. By the time she got it back, he was in the saddle, and moving to the front of the line to join the Emperor.

As the escort started out of Nisair, Ciara gathered her skirts and ran towards the wall. She took the steps two at a time, her thighs aching and lungs burning by the time she reached the parapet. Ariadne joined her in a much more dignified manner, and they stood, side-by-side, watching the procession.

When it reached a curve in the road Bolin turned Sandeen off to the side and halted to look back toward the city. Ciara knew he couldn't see her from that distance, but he stayed there for some time. Her fingers went to her throat where the phantom weight of the pendant Bolin wore warmed her skin, and a smile crept across her face. Then Sandeen spun and cantered out of view, and Ciara blew out a long sigh as a sudden feeling of loneliness washed over her.

"I'm looking forward to tutoring you in the ways of the court while Bolin's gone," Ariadne said. She turned to lean her back against the parapet, the wind playing with the loose strands of her long black hair. "Ellyanna and I are eager to spend some time getting to know you better. I think she's secretly hoping you'll allow her to help plan your pledging."

Ciara jerked her attention from the receding column of riders. "My what?"

Ariadne frowned. "Tell me Bolin asked you."

Ciara's cheeks warmed, and she averted her gaze. "No. We…he told me he wouldn't hold me to a pledge. He's afraid I'll wake up one day and think I made a mistake, or that I'll find someone else."

"And you agreed?"

"I would never force him into anything he doesn't truly want."

Ariadne stared at her in disbelief for a moment, then let out a laugh. "Oh, the two of you are perfect for one another. Don't ever doubt he wants you. He's made a point of letting everyone of account know what your position here is. Officially pledged or not, my dear, you are the recognized consort of the second most powerful man in the empire."

"Oh." Ciara glanced back over the wall, a new sense of panic creeping up on her. "I think that's going to take some getting used to."

"For everyone," Ariadne said. "In any case, I'm afraid I'll have to beg your indulgence for a few days. Things are a bit unsettled, especially in the Council. To be perfectly honest, I'm surprised Dain went with Bolin. It isn't the best time for him to be gone. I'm certain I'll be called upon to act in my official capacity in his absence. From the whispers I've been hearing, the Imperial Mages are not in the best of tempers."

Ciara chewed her lip. "I'm guessing I'd better stay out of their sight, then."

"They have no reason to hold anything against you."

"Donovan wouldn't have come to Nisair if not for me."

The Emperor's sister laid a gentle hand on Ciara's arm. "Donovan's actions were his own. As were those of Arnok and Reinhold. As I recall, you fought as hard as anyone to see they did not succeed."

"Hopefully, the Council sees it that way as well."

"Excuse me, Your Highness." A page came up to them and bowed low before Ariadne. He adjusted his amber sash as he straightened, and awarded Ciara an openly curious appraisal before turning his attention back to the Emperor's sister. "I was sent to advise you that Lord Vaedryn requires your presence in the council chamber, at once."

Ariadne rolled her eyes. "You see? My brother is barely out of sight, and the mages have started in already." She pushed from the wall and leaned in to give Ciara a hug. "If you need anything, just find a servant. I'll try to get away and join you for dinner. Will you be all right until then?"

Ciara nodded. "I'll be fine. I'd like to spend time in the gardens, if I may?"

"You need no one's permission to do so, Ciara. This is your home now." Ariadne hooked her elbow through Ciara's and turned her toward the stairs, gesturing the page ahead of them. "I'll walk you down, and then you can wish me luck and the Goddess's blessings. I'm going to need both to deal with the Council."

Ciara smiled but kept her thoughts private. Perhaps the Goddess would bless Ariadne, but in her experience, the deity's benevolence seemed confined to a very few. Even the man most claimed to be her son seemed unworthy of her compassion and, if anyone deserved it, Bolin certainly did.

CHAPTER FOUR

Ciara spotted Berk on her way to the castle gardens, and her steps faltered. She hadn't seen him since the day after Donovan's attack, when she visited him in the infirmary. The after-effects of the magic Donovan had used on him, combined with a nasty blow to the head, had laid him flat. When Ciara went to check on him the next morning, the sergeant in charge told her he'd gone back on duty.

As they surveyed one another from across the yard, Ciara got the distinct impression Berk would have bolted if she hadn't seen him first. She lifted her hand in a tentative wave. He hesitated before waving back, then turned away to say something to the man beside him. Ciara frowned, and fought down a pang of hurt and disappointment. She was a fool, she supposed, thinking Berk would see her as a friend when she was indirectly responsible for putting him through hell.

Almost to the garden gate the sound of fast approaching steps brought Ciara around. Berk trotted up, but stopped several lengths away.

He started to say something, shook his head, then tried again. "I owe you an apology."

Ciara shook her head. "You don't owe me anything. Your life hasn't been exactly pleasant since meeting me. It's understandable you'd want to stay as far away from me as possible."

"I don't." He swiped a hand through his hair and looked away, sucking in a deep breath before drawing his eyes back to Ciara. "Is that truly what you think?"

"It's pretty obvious you've been avoiding me."

His brow furrowed and the corners of his mouth tugged down, but he didn't deny it. Deep shadows lingered around his chestnut eyes, dimming the playful light so often dancing there, and a few days' worth of stubble littered his usually clean-shaven jaw. The easy, dimpled smile had vanished as well. Ciara closed the space between them and laid a hand on Berk's arm, leaving it there even when he flinched at the touch.

She tipped her head toward the garden. "Walk with me?"

He hesitated before giving a quick nod.

"You're right," he said as they followed the winding paths through the ornately trimmed shrubbery. "I have been avoiding you, but not because of anything you've done. My actions toward you were unconscionable."

"In what way?" Ciara drew Berk to a halt and turned to face him though Berk tried his hardest to avoid meeting her gaze. "Berk?"

He refused to meet her eyes. When he spoke, his words came quick and low. "Have you forgotten what I tried to do in that marauder camp? Goddess knows, I wish I could. If the general ever found out, he'd run me through, and not a soul would blame him."

"As I recall it, you saved my life. Despite being tortured and drugged by their chieftain."

"I tried to force myself on you." Berk darted a look around, as though fearing someone might overhear. "And if that wasn't enough, I betrayed you and the general, both. I don't know how you can look at me with anything other than loathing."

"Donovan used you just as he used the mages," Ciara said fiercely. "You would never have willingly taken me to him. I know that. I was there. I know how hard it was for you. Donovan uses people without regard. He's taken so much already. Don't let him take you as well."

Berk looked about to argue further but, after a moment, shook his head and huffed out a short breath instead. "I don't know how you always manage to take the fight out of my arguments."

Ciara gave him a small shrug. "Part of my healer's gifts, I suppose."

She laid a hand on his arm and an unbidden barrage of scenes flashed through her mind--the marauder chieftain leering over Berk, him doing the same to Ciara, having to kill the macabre specter that had once been his friend. So much heaped on him in such a short space of time. All of it kept carefully hidden in the light of day, but haunting his nights with regularity.

"Oh, Berk."

He stiffened when Ciara flung her arms around his neck, then reached up to take her by the wrists and draw her arms down.

"You shouldn't do that," he said.

Ciara screwed up her face. "What? Comfort my friend?"

His gaze darted past her, and Ciara turned her head, expecting to see someone.

"People might think it's something it's not," he said, looking down at her, a dullness lurking in his eyes. He took another step back. "Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for everything. If there was a way I could change any of it, I would."

Ciara studied him a moment longer. He'd changed so much since returning to Nisair. She missed the easy friendship that had grown between them on the road.

"Do you think you would have time to show me around Nisair?" she asked on a sudden whim. "It seems Ariadne's going to be busy for a few days, and I don't know anyone else."

"I'm on duty."

Ciara frowned. "I thought you'd get some time to rest. Surely you're not on duty every day?"

"Pretty much." A bell tolled deep and clear, resonating across the city. "I have to get back."

Ciara smiled. "I'll ask Commander Garek directly, about enlisting your company. I'm being told it's commonplace for a Lady of the Empire to have her own guards."

Berk inclined his head in reluctant compliance. "As you wish, my lady."

She was going to chide him for being so formal, but he turned and left her standing by the fountain before she could say anything further. Ciara watched until he disappeared through the gate, then drew in a deep breath, exhaling slowly. In the stillness of the gardens, with only the erratic burble of water and the flitting of small song birds, a sudden heaviness settled over her. She felt like she'd been running full-tilt up a steep hill and, for the first time, could stop to catch her breath, but when doing so, found herself utterly alone.

You are never alone,
Andrakaos's voice sounded in her head, and warmth enveloped her as the manifestation of her power settled around her.

Ciara sank onto a nearby bench, drew her legs up, and wrapped her arms around her knees, burying her face in her arms and giving in to the tumult of emotions she'd had no time to face until now. The fear and anger, the grief, the frustration, and the overwhelming sense of loss: her aunt Meriol, Nialyne, her own sense of who she was and where she belonged.

We belong as we are.

Andrakaos no longer resembled the unknown power her aunt had called 'the wilding'. The more she embraced him and the power they shared, the more substantial he became. Where once he had been nothing more than an essence, he now could shift easily between the hazy, ethereal form he currently wore, and the corporeal creature of iron-like scales and rippling muscle, all sharp fangs and deadly talons.

Donovan once told Ciara she had made Andrakaos what he was, but she couldn't see how. She'd never seen anything like him, not even in books. She could never have imagined such a glorious and altogether terrifying creature.

I do not terrify you,
Andrakaos said

Ciara sniffed and wiped a hand across her damp cheeks as she lifted her head. "Not anymore, but you used to."

Ciara couldn't really say when that changed. Although she still didn't have a clear idea how to use the power they shared, it no longer scared her. Well, not as much as it had. She still worried she would lose control and be the cause of more deaths.

We do what we must.

"We didn't have to kill any of those men." Four in all. Two bandits on the road the day she first met Donovan, and two marauders after that.

They would have killed us.

"We could have knocked them out or something."

Andrakaos snorted.
We do what we must.

"We're never going to see eye to eye on that point," Ciara said.

Andrakaos's shadow form filled her vision, his shape a dark haze, his huge muzzle resting on his forelegs, obsidian eyes partially lidded.

"Did I create you?" Ciara asked.

No. Once there were many like me. They are all gone. Only I remain.

"How did Donovan find you?"

Andrakaos considered that for a long time. So long Ciara thought maybe he meant not to answer.
I… do not know. I slept for many ages of men. When first I woke, there was much I did not remember. As we grow, I remember more.

"What are you then?"

He tipped his muzzle, his confusion washing over Ciara.
I am. As you are.

"No. I mean, I'm a person. A woman. Those," she gestured toward a group of finches flitting from branch to branch in one of the nearby trees. "Are birds. What are you?"

I…am.

"People must have called you something."

His muzzle wrinkled, his lips pulling back over razor-sharp teeth.
Glorious and terrifying.

Ciara chuckled despite herself. "I see you're developing a sense of humor. Nice."

It makes you…
He projected a feeling of happiness so strong Ciara couldn't help but smile.

"Yes, it does."

She allowed the sensation to chase away the melancholy gripping her, but the memories accompanying all her happiest moments were all bittersweet, and overshadowed by the specter of Donovan. Ciara wondered what had become of him, and how Bolin would ever find him.

He exists,
Andrakaos said
.

The proclamation sent a trickle of excitement through her. "Do you know where he is?"

He is hidden. I will search for him if you choose.

"Yes." Ciara didn't give it any more thought than that. "But if you find him, don't let him know. Can you do that?"

I believe so.

"But you'll let me know?"

I should not have to. We are one.

"Right, but I'm still trying to figure out exactly how that works."

It is. We are. That is all.

Ciara blew out an impatient sigh. "Fine. We are. When can you start looking?"

Now.

He vanished with no other warning. Ciara waited, expecting… something. She could still sense him, though his presence seemed far off.
We are one,
she repeated to herself to quell the brief flush of alarm that gripped her. The thought of being without Andrakaos, after all this time, filled her with unreasonable dread.

I am here.
His mental voice sounded impossibly faint, and could as easily have been nothing more than Ciara's imagination.

What if something happened? What if he decided he enjoyed his freedom too much to return?

We are sworn
.

"What does that mean?"

A sense of completeness and belonging trickled over Ciara, the surety she would never be alone again, the knowledge that, even if physical or ethereal space separated them, she and Andrakaos would still be connected. His strength belonged to her, and hers to him.

Ciara stood, letting her gaze trail across the city walls and the formidable castle that was now her home. Her life had become something someone else was meant to live, and lately it felt like something she had little control over. Yet, there she stood, apparently possessed of incredible power, sworn to a creature she didn't understand or even have a name for, a Lady of the Empire of all things.

She had lost too much of late. Mostly at the hands of a man blood made her father and ambition made her enemy. She had scarce little left to lose, and she'd be damned if she'd let any more of it slip through her fingers.

"Find him,"
she sent silently to Andrakaos.
"My
father
has much to answer for."