Sworn To Transfer

honor. In a floor-length silk gown the color of the forest, with bronzed hair and dazzling green eyes, she enchanted all of those who stood around her. Now that Ciardis was focused on her she could pick out the woman’s laughter ringing out over the low conversations in the crowd.

Who is this beautiful woman?

When a gap opened in the crowd Ciardis decided that now was an appropriate time to approach the host and his guest of honor. Nervously, she appeared before the duke and curtsied.

His Grace stared at her surprise. “Ah, little Weathervane. I didn’t realize you were coming.”

Ciardis blushed crimson, but before she could say anything, his wife intervened. “Ciardis Weathervane?”

Peering over her ornamental glasses, she looked at the girl curtseying before her. As Ciardis nodded hesitantly in confirmation, the Duchess clasped her hands together in excitement.

“I’ve been quite interested in meeting you,” she said, her blue eyes twinkling in delight under a halo of white hair. “It’s been so long since a person with your esteemed talents has graced our courts.”

“That is true,” the duke said thoughtfully. “How are you adjusting to your new position, Mademoiselle Weathervane?”

“Fairly well,” Ciardis said, lying through her teeth.

He snorted. “Yes, of course. Your mother was the same way. She wouldn’t ask for any help until she was neck deep into whatever adventure she’d thrown herself into.”

“She was adventurous, then?”

“Oh, so adventurous,” exclaimed the duke’s wife. “I was older than her by a few years, but the stories she told of her nights out, and the escapades. Oh my word.”

Her voice dipped into a theatrical whisper. “You know your mother was very fond of...well, dare I say...commoners.”

Does this woman know where I come from? Probably just doesn’t care.

“Now, Leah, there’s nothing wrong with a dip on the other side now and then,” said the duke.

“Oh?” said his wife, her tone noticeably cooler. From the look they exchanged, Ciardis got the feeling there might be some history between the duke and the ‘other side.’

A short while later, Duchess Leah excused herself to grab a glass of wine, leaving Ciardis with the duke and his guest. The woman had been noticeably silent during their conversation, merely listening in.

Turning to her courteously, Ciardis asked, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Madame. From where do you hail?”

The woman raised a curious eyebrow and flicked an amused glance at the duke of Carne.

He chuckled.

“You do not recognize me?” the woman purred with a noticeably foreign accent. Ciardis glanced between the two of them, waiting to be let in on the joke. She noticed the woman’s eyes then. They weren’t a normal green – neither the color of a new spring meadow nor the dark of a deep forest. What’s more – Ciardis could swear she had flecks of brown or maybe gold in them. A brilliant and captivating mixture.

“My dear,” the duke said gently to his guest of honor, “Your people are so rarely guests in Sandrin. Many of the young have forgotten.”

And then the woman’s eyes flashed, and Ciardis could see the flecks of gold floating in the green. She sucked in a breath as the memory came back. The memory of speaking to the dragon on the storm-tossed ship deck just a few days ago. The woman’s voice had the same accent that had echoed in Ciardis’s head when she first met the Sahalian Ambassador.

Feeling foolish but having to know if she was right, Ciardis tentatively said, “Ambassador Sedaris?”

“Who else would I be?”

“Your mother had very much the same look of stupefied surprise on her face when she met her first dragon,” said the duke of Carne.

“So Lady Weathervane, how are you enjoying the festivities?” the dragon ambassador questioned with a hint of a hiss on the tip of her tongue.

“It’s very well received,” said Ciardis politely as she brought her drink up to her mouth and hastily took a gulp. Very well received indeed, if you counted a dragon in human form. When had that happened? Could they all do that?

Ciardis felt a wave of vertigo sweep over her as the dragon standing before her spoke into her mind again. “You are an interesting child. And yes, all of my race can transform.”

Speaking aloud, the woman smiled and said, “I admire a curious mind. Particularly by one who flatters me,” she said.

Ciardis could hear a tone of affection in the dragon’s voice. No, affection wasn’t it...it was more of a possessive overtone? The ambassador had only been here for a few days, really, but she had already turned the palace on its head. Ciardis had heard of the shouting matches between the ambassador and the emperor. She had heard that the ambassador had emerged victorious in them all. Drowning out the human courtiers in her anger and contempt with her voice alone. Until now, Ciardis had assumed it had been the dragon roaring that had cowed the courtiers.

Now, as she looked into the golden-flecked green eyes of the woman standing before her, she had to wonder if it was dragon in human form that had cowed the courtiers.

“Of course it was,” said the woman smugly. “I am Sedaris. I don’t need my birth form to cow you mere mortals.”

She felt the weirdest sensations when speaking with the woman. It was like being connected to Sebastian but more intense. It was if she was falling into the dragon’s feelings. She could feel the vast depths of her pride in being a dragon, her disgust with the overpowering smell of the human perfumes around her, and a small core inside of her that was filled with worry.

“What?” said Ciardis, feeling for that core, trying to navigate through the thick layers of memories slowly consuming her vision. If she could just see what made the dragon so upset, perhaps she could help Prince Heir Sebastian and get the people in the forest some help.

The dragon gave her gentle push out of her mind. Gentle for a dragon. Harsh for a human. Ciardis was pushed back into her body so abruptly that she stumbled and would have fallen if it weren’t for the duke’s quick arm out to catch her.

“My dear, are you well?” he questioned solicitously.

As he leaned over her he tightened his grip on her arm as he looked into her eyes. His eyes sharpened, and just for a moment, she saw a flash of surprise, perhaps even fear. “Of course I am.” His lips tightened into a thin line. He visibly got a hold of himself and made sure to steady her with a solicitous hand on her back.

The brittle smile on his face didn’t escape Ciardis’s notice. She flashed back to the dragon’s overwhelming mental presence – it had been as if she had been drowning in the mind and magic of Ambassador Sedaris. Perhaps the Duke had felt that?

“We will speak later, sarin,” was the last thing Ciardis heard from the dragon.

As the duke watched the dragon glide away, he slowly walked Ciardis over to a nearby bench to rest. His eyes opened wide in surprise and worry as he heard the Ambassador call Ciardis “Sarin” while she walked away.

“I’m too old for this nonsense,” whispered the duke as he helped Ciardis settle down on the couch. He put a sight and sound shield up around them just in case.

He looked straight in her eyes. The serious expression on his face told Ciardis she wasn’t going to like what he was going to say.

“What nonsense?” she questioned groggily as she took a sip of wine, hoping to shock herself out of whatever this was.

The duke grabbed his own glass and knocked back a shot of whiskey before he answered her question.

“A sarin. She called you her sarin,” he said, “Being a sarin, in essence a representative and companion to the dragon, would turn the Imperial