Author's note: Thank you for reading! Please vote, comment and like! Sworn To Raise is the first in my YA series - Courtlight. With that, I'll be publishing the entire book on Wattpad but if you don't want to wait you can grab a copy for $0.99 on Amazon today.
Copyright belongs to Terah Edun.
Chapter 11
The next morning Ciardis decided to take advantage of the seasonal opening of the Imperial gardens. Once every four months the Emperor decreed the court gardens were open to all who desired entrance. Ciardis scribbled a note to Serena and Damias to inform them of where she’d gone and that she’d be back in time for this afternoon’s lessons in the gardens.
Taking the tuk-tuk she came to the garden’s gate. Seeing the sign that asked for a bit of coin to offset the cost of repairs after public displays, she gave the garden assistant a few shillings as she passed through the entrance. Deciding she wanted the freedom to wander alone with her thoughts she avoided the group of newcomers heading for a servant who would guide them around.
Soon she was walking on a path that was empty except for the rustle of winds and the beautiful plants that adorned it. An hour into her wandering, she noticed that she was in an older part of the gardens with huge sycamore trees that had roots that arced from the ground. Ducking under a root the height of a human, she found an old palace gate leading to a door on the other side - rusted over but unlocked.
Deciding to take a peak Ciardis walked through the hallways occasionally touching a marble bust with cobwebs caked over it and fabric draped from the windows which had long ago begun rotting.
I must be in the old Imperial Palace.
Just before she turned a corner she heard voices up ahead. Deciding now was not the time to make her unsanctioned presence known she ducked back around the corner and into an unused nook behind a very large suit of dragon armor.
The voices came closer.
“Milady, the time is almost near,” said a man, “Soon the boy will be fully discredited. You will take your rightful place.”
“With you by my side – I assume Marcus,” said a woman’s calculating voice.
“I live only to serve, milady,” he said.
“Yes, do remember who you truly serve here. It is not my fool brother and certainly not that brat of a nephew.”
As they passed her Ciardis only saw their backs. They reached the far end of the corridor from where Ciardis hid and parted ways.
Ciardis waited quietly for a long time before she emerged from her spot behind the armor. Rushing back she ran out of the gate and under the sycamore’s roots. Her dress was ruined with the trailing cobwebs and dust but she didn’t even consider that.
As she slowed her fast pace down upon reaching the normal gardens she tried to recall exactly what she had heard. She really wasn’t sure. Who was that woman? A feeling of fear crept up Ciardis’s spine until she almost screamed aloud when she felt a hand grip her wrist.
She did startle and whirl around though.
“Easy lass,” said a man who stood in front of her, “I mean you no harm.”
He held his hands out to show how harmless he was. It didn’t help – he was a man with towering stature. But her training kicked in.
“Of course milord,” Ciardis, “It is I who should be apologizing. I was merely startled.”
He gave her a grin and bow, “Lord Aaron, at your service my dear.”
Ciardis couldn’t have been more mortified. Here she stood with cobwebs on her dress and dirt in her hair – before quite a handsome man. Once just ONCE why can’t I be like Patricia? Perfectly presentable every minute of every day.
