Prince of Magic (35 page)

Sian's sigh of disgust was unmistakable.

"I would love to be beside each and every one of you when you fight again, but I am just one woman, and I can only pray that I will be guided to those I need to heal when the time comes. I love you all. You have become my brothers, and I wish you the blessed guidance of your ancestors and an abundance of good fortune.

"We will meet here, at the site of our first victory, two full moons from today." That would give them about six weeks to accomplish their goals, if she was correct in her figures.

The murmurings from the sentinels seemed less cautious than they had been before she'd begun to speak, and more than one of them wished her good fortune as well.

She wasn't finished. "While this army is separated, while you speak to others of the war we can no longer hide, remember this… and share this bit of truth with all those you meet. We cannot fear so fiercely what might come that we forget to enjoy the beauty of life. This war goes beyond one soldier meeting another, it goes well beyond sword to sword. This is a war of souls, brothers. It reaches every man and woman who treads upon this earth, no matter where they might be. With every scream of terror, Ciro wins another battle. Every time a good person hides, every time hope is lost, every time a soul shrinks and surrenders, Ciro wins. We must fight, yes, but we must also love, and laugh, and trust. Most of all, we must hope, and we must share that hope with all those we meet."

That statement was met with a round of war cries. It was a good enough place to end the speech. She'd said what she came here to say.

As the men turned to Merin for their assignments, Ariana caught the eye of one of the younger sentinels, and nodded her head crisply. Taran looked as if he was not much older than twenty years, but he fought well, and she liked him. His long hair was almost as fair as hers but was much more manageable, and he had pale blue eyes.

Taran saw her signal and all but ran to her, and Ariana smiled at him as she hopped from her perch. He blushed prettily. "I have a special assignment for you," she said.

He bowed in a courtly manner, sweepingly and with a manly elegance, as if she were a palace lady in a fine gown, not a grubby witch who had not seen a proper bath in much too long.

"Such formalities are not necessary," she said gently, offering him her hand. He took her hand and held on easily, as if he were afraid she would break. She led him away from the others. Sian made as if to follow, but Ariana shooed him back with her free hand. If he was going to all but ignore her, as he had in the past couple of days, she would not allow him to inject himself where he was not wanted. Indignant eyebrows arched, but Sian did cease following her and Taran. Her shooing did nothing to ease his glare.

"Your assignment is a very special one," Ariana said in a lowered voice. "It requires a most ardent discretion."

"Of course, sister," Taran said, a touch of excitement in his voice.

"Are you familiar with the Southern Province?" From his accent, she had deduced that he hailed from there, as she had.

"Yes." His eyes lit up. "I come from a small town near the coast."

"Are you familiar with Shandley?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "I know where it is, but I have never visited."

Good enough. "North of Shandley there sits a small mountain. It is not like these mountains before us, but is a very large, green hill. It is called Fyne Mountain."

Taran simply nodded.

"I want you to find my mother on that mountain. There is only one house, and it is my family home."

"You wish me to warn your family," Taran said, believing he understood his mission.

Ariana sighed. "No. Well, yes, since you will be there, you should tell them what's happened, but that is not the purpose of this task." She suspected danger to the Southern Province would not come for some time in any case, and if Ciro could be defeated, violence might not reach Shandley at all. Was he able to reach that far for his Own? She hoped not, but in truth she still knew next to nothing about the Isen Demon. She did know it was those who had the misfortune to lie between the Anwyn mountains and Arthes who would be the first in the path of danger.

Taran waited impatiently, and finally asked, "What is my task?"

Ariana steeled her spine. "Do you have a good memory, Taran?"

"Yes, sister."

"Good. This message is for my mother, and my mother alone. Repeat after me." Ariana took a deep breath. The question had to be worded just so, so that if Sebestyen's claim was true, Sophie Fyne would know what her eldest daughter asked, and why, but no one else would. "Ariana inquires as to the location of her father's sister and that sister's two children. It is of the greatest importance that she locates her…" The words caught in her throat, but she forced herself to continue. "Her cousins. There is a task ahead that only they can accomplish. A task they were born to."

Taran blinked. "That's it?"

"Yes. Repeat it, if you please."

He did so, very neatly.

"Again," Ariana ordered.

Without so much as a pause, Taran repeated the message. After he had done so four times, Ariana was satisfied.

"When you get your answer, do not write it down. Memorize it as you have memorized this inquiry, and when we meet here, you will give me and only me the answer."

"I don't understand," Taran said. "This is a family matter. Would I not be better utilized in informing the nearby villages of the dangers to come or in protecting the emperor?"

Ariana laid her hands on Taran's arms. "You do not see the import now, but trust me, brother, this is no family matter."

A light shone in his eyes. "It's a secret code, isn't it?" he whispered.

Ariana sighed and dropped her hands. "Near enough, brother. Near enough."

Sian packed his few belongings in his saddle bag, as the sentinels did the same. They were energized, and no longer afraid of their
sister
who had come back from the dead. They smiled and joked, and they wished one another well if their assignments took them in different directions. One would think they were riding off to a tea party instead of rushing into what would be certain death for some of them.

Perhaps Ariana was right and Ciro could be defeated, but that victory would not come without a high price. That price would surely include the lives of some of these soldiers… or all of them.

Ariana readied her horse, as the sentinels did. Sian muttered vile words beneath his breath. If she thought she was going to travel alone, without
him
, she was sorely mistaken. He understood why she had chosen to do so, and the tasks she had given her men were necessary ones. But still, to travel alone was not only unnecessary, it was foolish.

He had been avoiding her for two days, since she'd slept naked in his arms. Since she'd told him that she loved him and hinted very broadly that if their liaison led to a child, it would not be a disaster. Two days since he'd stroked his hands down her naked back and kissed her. If there was a medal for restraint, he had certainly earned one.

As he stalked toward her, he could not help but wonder if her words this morning had been directed at him. Did she believe that he gave Ciro's darkness a hold when he abandoned hope? Did she think he fed the demon when he refused to take the chance that he might lose the woman he loved again?

When he was close enough for her to hear, he said, "I'm going with you."

She did not seem surprised. "If you'd like. I thought you might want to return to Arthes with Merin and his men, or take up residence in a nearby village to assist in making preparations for fighting Ciro's men, or… or go home." She continued to ready her horse, and did not so much as look at him. "Isn't that what you always said you'd do when I marched off to fight? Go home and wait it out?"

"You're a maddening woman," he said in a low voice.

"Me?" She spun and glared at him, completely unaware that her transformation made her even more beautiful than she'd been when she had the attentions of palace seamstresses and personal maids. He loved her hair down this way, wild and free. Even the too-large uniform was fetching on her body, and the flush on her cheeks and the fire of determination in her eyes made his heart clench. "You love me when you think I'm dead, but when love means dealing with a live, flesh-and-blood woman, you turn tail and run.
That's
maddening."

"I did not turn tail and run," he insisted calmly. "I'm right here."

The flush of her cheeks deepened. "You didn't run from Ciro or duty or the unpleasantness to come, but from me, Sian. From
me
."

He had explained his reasoning to her as best he could, and did not wish to discuss it again.

"I told you, I feel it is my duty to protect you."

Her face became impassive. "I release you from that obligation."

His jaw clenched. "I do not release
you
."

Even without his impossible feelings for this maddening woman, turning away from her now was impossible. There were still portions of the prophesy to be deciphered, and if he was able to discover something new, Ariana would need to know immediately. He doubted that there was anything he could teach her, magically speaking, since she had returned from the dead with heightened senses and healing abilities. Still, his strengths were different from hers. She might have need of his parlor tricks, as she called them, before she reached the Anwyn Queen.

He also wanted to speak about another matter, once they were well away from the sentinels. Most of the men seemed to have forgotten that Ciro had invited Sian to join his court. Why? Had it been a taunt or a serious offer? He did not want to consider the possibility that his soul was so badly damaged that he was fit to become one of Ciro's Own.

Those were the things that mattered. The war. The prophesy. The possibility that he might end up on the wrong side of this conflict. He could not conceive of joining forces with something so evil as the Isen Demon, but he imagined the sad and soulless man who'd died longing for a bloody kitchen knife had never thought of himself as a fiend either.

No, he would not stand by and allow innocents to be harmed, as those in Lilia's village had been, much less join in the violence. He would not allow anyone or anything to harm Ariana either. He was as much a soldier as any sentinel in this camp, but his strengths were different from theirs.

With all that on his mind, with the world on the brink of taking a dark turn, what did love matter? What difference did his feelings or hers make? What Ariana wanted, what he wanted, didn't matter at all.

"I'll escort you to your cousin, the queen," he said, turning away from Ariana. "Once you're there and she has been informed of the prophesy and her part in it, her soldiers can escort you back to this place and your men, if there are any of them left by the rise of the second full moon."

"Don't say that," she whispered. "Don't stand there and tell me that everything I'm working for is going to come to nothing."

"I didn't say that."

"Didn't you?"

Sian took a deep, stilling breath. "No. If we face them before Ciro grows too strong, I believe his army can be defeated. Those we fought were merely human, after all. Soulless, violent men and women who can die, just as your soldiers and the people of Lilia's village can and did die. Anwyn soldiers will be a great asset, as will your cousin Lyr's Circle of Bacwyr. The war can be won, but it won't be bloodless. You musn't forget that, Ariana."

"Believe me, I can't forget."

"So I'm coming with you, whether you like it or not. I will protect you as best I can, until this part of your journey is done."

"What then?"

He hesitated. In truth, he didn't know
what then
. At the moment, he could not bear to look beyond today.