Read Sworn To Transfer for Free Online Page A

in surprise at the blissful spring surroundings. She sat on a stone bench in a bower filled with honeysuckle - the small, delicate flower that had a trumpet shape and a sweet smell. As she broke a handful off at the stem their smell wafted into her nose and she felt the slight stickiness of resin on her hands.
    This was much more pleasant than the winter weather in Sandrin. The Aether Realm was a dangerous place, which could drain your magic if a mage wasn’t careful, but it had it’s upsides as well – beautiful spring weather in the dead of fall being one of them. She heard a twig snap behind her and quickly turned toward the only way in or out of the bower: an entrance with a rounded trellis surrounding it. It, too, was adorned with honeysuckle. Underneath the blooming arc of white flowers stood Sebastian, an awkward smile on his face. Ciardis quickly stood and moved around the fountain that took up the bower center.
    Grasping his hands before he could speak, she laid a chaste kiss on each of his cheeks.
    “It’s good to see you, Prince Sebastian.”
    He grinned and returned the cheek kisses. “What—you’re not still mad at me for ignoring you on the ship?”
    She snorted. “Was I supposed to be?”
    Narrowing her eyes and stepping back, she regarded him carefully.
    Sighing, he walked around her and towards the water fountain in the center of the garden.
    “I don’t want to have an argument, Ciardis.”
    “Good, neither do I.”
    “I don’t want to be nagged, either.”
    All of this was said with his back turned to her, so he didn’t see it when her hand came flying out and slapped him on the back of the head.
    “I don’t nag,” she snapped. “And, quite frankly, I’m not your wife, your lover, or your court flunkie. I’m your friend . So I suggest you treat me with some respect.”
    He turned around chagrined and sat down on the fountain’s edge as he looked up her towering over him with her hands placed angrily on her hips and a stormy expression on her face.
    Continuing, she said, “You asked me to come here as I recall.” She was staring down at him, her stomach knotted with anxiety, trying to hide the sickened dismay and the feeling of her heart in her throat.
    He rolled his shoulder at an uncomfortable angle – nervous in the face of her ire.
    “So I did.”
    He swallowed as he said, “When did this happen?”
    She raised an eyebrow.
    “This...weird conflict between us?”
    “Oh, I don’t know. When you walked in five minutes ago?”
    “No,” he protested. “You’ve been weird for months ...”
    “Wrong, Sebastian,” she said fiercely. “It’s you that’s been avoiding me. Every time I requested an audience over the summer it was denied. Not a letter or a word for months.”
    He wilted. It was true. “You don’t understand.”
    “Make me understand!”
    For a long moment his dark green eyes and her golden ones held each other’s gaze. Turmoil in one gaze. Fierce pride in the other.
    And then she collapsed to her knees in nervous laughter so that he, seated, looked down upon her. Reaching forward with trembling hands, she gathered his in her own.
    “You’ve been busy doing the emperor’s work, Sebastian,” she said quietly. “I know this. But I also know about the rumored attempts on your life. I’ve been busy with functions of my own, but I never stopped worrying about you. And wondering why...why we aren’t still friends.”
    Squeezing her hands with slight pressure, he licked his lips. “We still are. But I don’t know whom to trust. The Imperial Guard, my father...hell, even the nobles are acting oddly.”
    She gave him a wry grin. “Aren’t they always?”
    “More oddly than usual.” With a pause he continued on with a tenseness in his voice.
    “The dragon was right, Ciardis. There have been deaths,” he said.
    “Where?” she questioned, alarmed.
    “Murders, we think. In the Ameles Forest.” He amended, “So far they’ve been scattered occurences.