Sworn To Transfer

of electricity, but also swung wide open of its own accord.

Squeezing her hands together, she walked inside, slightly unsettled. She was getting used to magic, but only a fool would trust unseen magic. Inside was a wide foyer with a floor of marble, bookcases that lined each wall, and plush chairs arrayed in a sitting room style. Seeing no one there, she continued forward into the next room. There was a short hallway that made a sharp right into the council head’s office. Ciardis walked around the corner and immediately stopped in her tracks.

Maree Amber, Head of the Companions’ Council, sat perfectly composed behind her large desk. A few objects sat on the desk, but for the most part it was blessedly empty. She gave Ciardis a pointed look over the wire-rimmed glasses perched on her nose.

Ciardis wasn’t paying the woman the least bit of attention. The beast in front of the desk sitting sedately, but Ciardis wasn’t fooled, had her full attention. She began focusing on controlling her breathing, trying not to hyperventilate, and edging backwards through the door as fast as she could. Reaching it after three tenuous backward steps she put her hand back to find the corner for the turn. What she found instead had her nearly swearing a blue streak. The way was blocked by a barrier. It felt like the wind barrier on the ship, but she wasn’t turning around to make sure.

She had to keep an eye on that monstrosity sitting in the middle of the room. It was practically salivating as it waited to attack her.  It was covered in white fur and was easily the size of a horse. Pointed ears with tufts made of her think of a big cat, but its broad, curved tail and fluffy fur said it was a dog. Whatever it was, it’s long and powerful legs would enable it to reach her in a single bound.

She wasn’t fond of dogs or big cats. The former were mangy mutts with fleas and all manner of diseases. The latter were hunters that killed with impunity in the great forests of the North. She had some experience with big cats from her time in Vaneis. All the villagers had to some extent. The snow leopards there were so brazen that they’d been known to hunt the large oxen in the outlying farms and then kill the farmers who retaliated against them.

Looking at Ciardis with distaste, Maree Amber said, “Ranger, come.”

The dog...cat...thing obediently stood and came and sat next to her desk.

“Better, Miss Weathervane?” she said caustically.

“Not really,” said Ciardis.

“The dog is not leaving, so I suggest you take a seat.” Her tone brooked no argument.

Wishing she were anywhere but here, Ciardis sat as she was told. For a few moments they just stared at each other. One a young woman who wished she were napping in her room. The other an older woman, wondering if this petulant girl could really be the answer to their problems. Ciardis was everything that the Companions’ Guild wanted in its candidates: beautiful and talented. It was a guild of young men and women destined to serve as the partners of spoiled noble Patrons. For many of the companions the guild accepted into its halls, it was no more than that. But Crassius, for some reason, saw something more in this girl.

*****

He had seen past the soft and pretty, willful and obstinate exterior; apparently to a girl with some spine. Right now, to Maree Amber that spine seemed to be encased in sullenness.

Sitting back, Maree Amber knew it would take more than the usual to undo the damage done by rich food and a soft summer of parties and court functions. She needed to go from sullen girl to a warrior who could use her skills to fight. According to her portfolio she’d grown up in poverty; they would use that to their advantage. Strip her back to the basics.

With an inward smile Maree Amber knew what she had to. The girl would be going on a mission – a mission to Ameles. Perhaps after they completed their training in a few weeks.

Any other year Maree Amber would have told Crassius he was insane and to go out and find someone that wasn’t so soft. She would have turned a primped and finished Ciardis Weathervane out to pasture, found her a suitable, perhaps even Imperial, Patron and washed her hands of her.

But the girl’s powers stilled her hand. Unfortunately, they needed the Weathervane skills. The war in the North was only growing worse, and they were losing. The girl’s adventures with the Prince Heir in the Aether realm had only served to further incapacitate their side. That blasted elemental, the one called the Land Wight, had been subdued for a reason. Now it was loose and wreaking havoc on both sides of the battlefield, fiery infernos showing up at unknown times, cracks in the earth turning into chasms, and crops turning to dust for miles. Unfortunately, there was no one to control it—not even the emperor, and certainly not his son. Maree was just grateful the elemental was content to leave its meddling to the North for now.

But it wasn’t just the creature. Maree wished it were just that. The enemy on the other side of the northern barrier was growing stronger. They needed powerful mages to fight them. Maree wasn’t foolish or starry-eyed. She didn’t think Ciardis Weathervane was someone who could walk onto a battlefield and kill scores of soldiers. What she did think was that if the girl were properly trained and vetted, she could have the potential to be a part of the cohort they were amassing. If not, if they failed to train her...then other measures would be taken.

The idea of magically cauterizing the girl or killing her didn’t hold any appeal to Maree Amber. But she was practical. That practicality had earned her a seat on the Shadow Council. She was a Shadow member, through and through. And she would do what she had to in order to ensure that everything that was threatening her civilization would fall.

She focused back on the girl who now quietly fidgeted in her seat. Starting with her. It’s time for you to succeed or fail, Miss Weathervane.

“Have you ever been outside in the midst of a winter storm, Miss Weathervane?”

“Yes, many times, ma’am. I—”

“Yes or no is fine. What did you think of it?”

Not a yes or no question. “It was cold.”

Maree Amber cracked a smile. “I suspect it was frigid.”

*****

Ciardis lifted her head, wondering if she was being mocked. “But you’re right, cold is an apt description. It’s never nature’s intention to make you cold or uncomfortable. It’s just the way it was—natural. But nature has its limits, and those limits are broken when it comes to mages. Mages can manipulate anything and anyone. They manipulate people, objects, and the elements around them to their benefit. Do you manipulate those things to your benefit?”

“No.”

“You don’t think so? You didn’t push that mind reader’s talent over the summer? Just enough to spread his reach to a certain room? It exposed the Duke of Cinnis’s infidelities to the world and made his wife a laughing stock.”

Looking at Ciardis’s flaming face, she laughed softly. “Oh, I see. You think what you did was for the greater good?”

“It was!”

“You did what you thought was best?”

“Yes!”

“Without training, without supervision...”

“There was no one else.”

“There’s always someone else.”

“Of course.” She snarled it.

Maree Amber didn’t look as if she believed that Ciardis was agreed with her. She peered at her with a finger tapping on her desk occasionally.

Finally she said, “You have potential but it needs to be cultivated in service to the crown. Which will mean some sacrifices.”

Ciardis looked at her uncomprehending. “Sacrifices?” she said.

“You can’t be trusted amongst court officials for now,” said Maree Amber, “So I’ll ask you to stay away from the Imperial courts and I’m forbidding travel to the Aether realm.”

Pulling out a box Maree Amber held out a hand, “Give me the bracelet, Ciardis.”

Ciardis automatically clutched a hand over her wrist protectively. Her fingers hid a golden bracelet intricately designed with butterflies. What could the woman want with it?