Sworn To Transfer

from the bartender, he said, “And a lot of women have known me. What’s it to you? You my daughter?”

Ciardis grimaced. “I hope not. But I was hoping you could help with some information on her.”

He snorted. “Well, who was this mysterious woman?”

“Lily,” Ciardis said quietly. “Lily Weathervane.”

He turned as pale as a sheet. “You...you cannot be here.” With urgency in his tone, he turned his full attention to her. “Be gone.”

“I can’t,” Ciardis said. “I need to know what you know.”

Ignoring her protests, he opened his instrument case and reached in for a cloak. “Take this and go. I’ll be in my room, number five, in a half hour. Meet me there.”

“I’m not meeting you there,” she protested. “Tell me now.”

“If you truly want to know about your mother,” he said grimly, “you’ll do it.”

Then he walked back onstage without another word.

Chapter 10

Ciardis had no choice. She was not going to miss a chance to get answers from him. But she wasn’t foolish enough to meet him alone. She stepped outside The Blue Duck Inn and took out the mechanical lighter Stephanie had given her. Holding it down by her waist and shielding it from view, she flicked it open and closed it, hoping the girl would come.

Ten minutes passed, then twenty, and suddenly a cloaked figure emerged out of the evening fog. Walking toward Ciardis with a confident stride, the figure pulled the hood back and Ciardis could see her clearly. It was Stephanie in tight pants, a white shirt, and, oddly enough, with a sword at her waist.

“Thank you for coming,” said Ciardis.

“Let’s go inside,” said Stephanie, looking around the street quickly.

Going in, the two grabbed the nearest table. A waitress came up immediately and asked for their order. As she was preparing to go back to the kitchens, the waitress snapped her fingers at Stephanie to get her attention, “No hidden magical weapons. Tavern rule.”

Stephanie didn’t comment. She simply took out the dagger out of her sleeve and placed it on the table. The waitress didn’t seem interested in making any further fuss and left to get their order ready.

Stephanie traced the edge of the blade with her fingertip. “Why’d you call me here?”

“There’s a minstrel here. He knows my—”

“A minstrel? Is he trying to kill you?”

Ciardis lifted a brow. “Well, no, not precisely.”

Stephanie sheathed her dagger and got up to leave.

Rising quickly, Ciardis latched a desperate hand on her sleeve. “Wait!”

Stephanie looked pointedly at her grip and Ciardis released her quickly—she might lose her hand otherwise.

“I said to only contact me in an emergency,” she hissed, “What about ‘emergency’ don’t you understand?”

“He knew the last Weathervane. Apparently pretty well,” Ciardis said.

“You mean your mother?”

Ciardis nodded, “And the duchess of Carne said I should see him.”

At the mention of Leah of Carne’s name, Stephanie paused. The duchess was one of the most influential women of court and one of the most diabolical. She had her fingers in every pie and was crafty like a spider sitting in a web. Stephanie had yet to figure out if she had been behind Princess Heir Marissa’s scheming, but she suspected so, and so did the Shadow Council. The Princess Heir and Leah were close friends as the Princess Heir grew up and had bonded while the duchess was in the empress’s service. Would that woman be after Ciardis Weathervane? Not unless she had something she wanted.

“All right,” Stephanie said reluctantly. “What’s his name?”

“I don’t know,” said Ciardis, blushing red in embarrassment.

Stephanie didn’t bother commenting.

“But he’s agreed to meet us in his room in five minutes,” Ciardis rushed to add.

“Then let’s go.”

When they reached the ministrel’s room he was already there, waiting with the door cracked. As Stephanie pushed open the door with a cautious hand he looked up from where he was re-stringing his lute on his bed. He stood up slowly and set the lute in his case.

“So you are the one they call the new Weathervane?” he said, “Or at least that is what you’d have me suspect. And who is your partner?”

He looked toward Stephanie, whose hand loitered dangerously close to the sword pommel at her waist.

“Doesn’t matter. Just think of me as an interested party.”

He raised his eyebrows and looked back at Ciardis.

“I could ask you the same question,” she said.

“It’s you who has sought me out.”

“There is only one way to prove I am a Weathervane.”

“A way that would not work on me. You can’t enhance something that I don’t have. I believe your mage kind call us ‘mundane,’” he said, wiggling his fingers.

“My eyes aren’t enough?”

He gave a sharp smile, “Can be faked.”

“Would this convince you, then?” Ciardis said, opening her hand to display the locket.

He turned as pale as a ghost and shook his head. “That...that is a locket I haven’t seen in over thirty years. Where did you get it?”

“From another interested party,” she said.

He swallowed and sighed. “What do you want to know?”

“Why was she planning to run?”

“Why wasn’t she, you mean? Your mother had enemies,” he said. “Just like you.”

Ciardis frowned. “The duchess said that she was loved by everyone.”

“The duchess? Which duchess?” he said in a voice as cold as frost.

Ciardis exchanged a glance with Stephanie before saying at last, “The duchess of Carne.”

“And she sent you here?”

Ciardis nodded.

He began muttering to himself.

“She knew where you were,” Ciardis said. “She was only trying to help.”

“If you think that woman was helping, you need your ears checked.”

Stephanie interrupted, “What do you know about her?”

“I know the Duchess has been scheming for the throne since the last emperor’s reign.”

“Can you prove it?”

“Ha! You want proof?” he said. “There’s your proof!” He was pointing at the locket in Ciardis’s hand.

“What?” said both Stephanie and Ciardis in confusion.

“It holds records of conversations between the duchess and the first-born son of Emperor Cymus. The one who also disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Leah told me he had been scheming to take the throne from his father. He disappeared one night but there was no proof that the duchess had been involved. After he was gone she turned her attention and friendship to the Princess Heir.”

“And my mother?” asked Ciardis softly. “How would the duchess have gotten this locket from her?”

He sighed heavily. “The night before your mother disappeared, she was supposed to bring the locket to a mage of wind magic and me. The key to opening it takes a mundane and a mage working together in concert. But