Ten Crescent Moons (Moonquest) (21 page)

"Are we
ready to go now?" Adalginza asked.

"Not
yet. I told you I wanted to leave Benfaaro a message. A warning, if you will.
Because the next time I return, it will be to kill."

Adalginza
watched curiously while the captain gathered together loose wood. He lit the
pile with a spark from his firestone. Then he began to fashion torches from the
looser, more supple branches.

"I will
burn down the village," Kalos said. "And I will leave in the ashes a brass
moon symbol of the Crescent knights, so that Benfaaro will know who has been
here."

Adalginza
simply nodded. She knew full well that Benfaaro would, at the most, be greatly
irritated.

The tribes
were all nomadic by nature, and often moved to access different hunting
grounds. Those who were now gone already had with them their most valued
household and personal items.

And it was
easy enough to relocate to other dwellings or to simply rebuild the village.

Adalginza
turned and walked to the captain's sturmon, where she took hold of the animal's
halter.

"I will
lead the Golden to a safer location, away from the danger of the fire."

Kalos stood
by the blaze he had already started and watched her suspiciously for several
moments, without answering.

"Captain?"
Adalginza asked innocently. "What is wrong? Did you want me to stay and
help you with the burning?"

Kalos
hesitated a few moments more, before finally waving at her to move along.

"No. It
is a most unpleasant and gritty task. I can handle it alone. You are right. The
Golden will be alarmed. He might even bolt and run away. Take the animal to a
safer place. I will join you after the huts have all been set afire."

"There
is a clearing near here," Adalginza said agreeably, pointing in the
direction she was headed. "I will await you there."

She gazed at
him as he touched a torch to the blaze to light it. And then he moved first to
Benfaaro's hut. The dwelling burst into flames within only moments.

Adalginza glanced
up at the summit of the hill, where Bruna now plainly stood in bold defiance.
She was silhouetted, looking like an ominous shadow against the blood red
horizon where the sun had disappeared. The much tinier figure of Calasta was at
her side.

Bruna held
up one hand, squeezed high above her head in a fist.

With the
captain preoccupied with his task, Adalginza risked raising her own hand in
acknowledgement. It was impossible to know what Bruna thought at this moment.
And, with any luck, Adalginza would never know.

Her deepest
regret now was that Calasta was with her mother and out of reach.

But there
would be a time in the future when Adalginza would send one of her furry
creatures through the darkness to seek out Calasta. The creature's mind would
hold a message, of where they could meet.

In this way,
Adalginza might be able to steal the child away from her mother. But not now. And
perhaps not for a long while.

Bruna and
Calasta both turned then, and dropped out of sight below the hill. They would
make their way by foot to the festival Of The Blood and report what they had
witnessed to Benfaaro.

Adalginza
would be credited with saving them, since Bruna surely would know that she had
sent the herd of prairie deer as a warning.

Perhaps because
she had taken this action, Benfaaro might be able to forgive his sister for the
cowardly act she was now about to commit.

But
Adalginza doubted it.

Again, it
did not matter. For Adalginza hoped that she would never again see her brother.
This thought gave her a strange mixture of both anguish and deep relief.

Strangely,
the parting that gave her the most pain was the one that was about to take
place without the captain's knowledge.

She lingered
to watch Kalos as he moved among the huts — systematically setting each one on
fire.

The pungent
smell of burning wood drifted through the forest, causing a stirring of alarm
that she felt in the multitudes of creatures that began to flee to safety.

Their urge
to escape grew strong in her, too, lashing her like a whip. She was also one of
the creatures of the forest. And she also had a right to safety. And peace.

She quietly
raised a hand in goodbye, without the only man she had ever loved seeing her
gesture.

"I will
take care of your Golden, Captain Kalos," she whispered. "You are a
good man. You and your family. It is the deepest desire of my heart that all of
you die cleanly and mercifully, before Benfaaro finds you. However your end may
come, I do not wish to be there to see it. And, above all, I do not wish to
cause it."

 She led the
Golden into the brush, out of sight. Then she leaped upon the animal's back and
leaned into his neck to urge him forward.

The sturmon's
long legs ate the ground, putting great distance between her and Captain Kalos.
She was leaving the Place of the Circles. She was leaving Sola Re. She was
leaving her brother.

And she
would never, ever return.

The Golden
had long, sturdy legs like the multiple trunks of the giant valayan trees found
on the highest slopes of the Mountain of Treasures where Adalginza planned to
take refuge.

She leaned
forward to help the Golden with his balance, matching the sway of her body with
that of the sturmon.

Soon the
animal's steady gait and stamina greatly increased the distance between her and
the past she was so desperate to escape. But as darkness descended, the Golden's
disposition grew more rancorous.

He
increasingly disputed commands she sent by mindlink, sometimes veering in a
direction opposite of what she pictured. At one point, he tried to scrape her
off his back by dashing under a low-lying branch.

The animal's
stubborn opposition now slowed their progress considerably. It was as though
the Golden instinctively knew its place was with Captain Kalos. And it had no
use for this stranger who had stolen the sturmon from its beloved master.

Meanwhile, in
the growing darkness, the realization of the seriousness of what she had done began
to dampen Adalginza's spirits.

Just how did
she, a woman with telltale indigo eyes, plan to survive alone in the frontier
where any savages she was likely to meet would simply kill her at once?

Without
Benfaaro's public endorsement, who would believe her true identity even if she
was granted the chance to explain who she was?

More than
ever, Adalginza wished she had been able to take Calasta with her. Her original
plan was to pretend blindness by wrapping a cloth around her eyes and allowing the
child to guide her while they were in the company of other savages.

Now, without
Calasta's companionship, she felt utterly alone.

At that
moment, her mind detected the reptilian coldness of the snake lying in wait
ahead.

Adalginza
yanked hard on the rein, steering the Golden off the game trail and into the
deepest of the prickly thickets. The Golden snorted its displeasure, stumbling
as it tried to pick its way through loose rocks and shale hidden by the
overgrowth.

"I am
trying to save your life, you ungrateful beast," Adalginza whispered. She
slapped a rein hard across the animal's withers, as it balked. "Is this
the sort of relationship we are going to have from now on?"

Fury from
the Golden's own mind swept over her. This sturmon was unusually intelligent,
but even it did not have the ability to reason or to understand with any kind
of depth the reason for its rage.

The Golden
knew only that something was terribly wrong, and its frustration was growing.

As Adalginza
steered the animal back up a steep hill and upon the trail, she sensed the
presence of the disappointed snake behind them. The monster would have to
remain concealed, waiting for the next meal.

Perhaps a
careless wild sturmon might wander by. But, for a snake, the only thing tastier
than a sturmon was soft, easily digestible human flesh.

Adalginza
shuddered at the images she was receiving from the snake's mind. It had dined
on human flesh before. Had developed a taste for it. Craved it.

 Adalginza
tried to swallow down the bile crawling up her throat, as she urged the sturmon
to move faster.

This was the
most unpleasant part of her gift. For while she could share the maternal joy of
a mother reasilicoon licking down its newborn baby or the exhilaration of a wide-winged
bird in flight, she could also sense primitive compulsions to annihilate
intruders invading territory that already had been claimed.

She often
felt raw terror, pain, hunger, and lust emanating from the invisible feathered
and furred minds surrounding her.

These
sensations had frightened her as a child. But as she matured, she had reached a
profound understanding of why the world of these creatures was sometimes as
harsh as it was.

She was not
there to change it, or even to rescue the helpless that every day were prey to
wily predators. It simply was what it was. A natural cycle.

At its most
primitive, life was about survival. If she had learned nothing else, she must
carry that lesson forward with her on this journey of solitude.

When their
progress slowed almost to a standstill, Adalginza finally noticed the awkward
gait of the sturmon. She stopped the animal, and leaned over to slide her hand
down the Golden's muscled right shoulder and upper leg, probing for the source
of the problem.

The sturmon was
lame. A most infuriating twist of fate.

The animal must
have injured or bruised its leg during their side trip to avoid the snake. She
mindlinked with the Golden, but could sense no pain. Considering their less
than amicable relationship, however, it was no surprise that she was unable to establish
much of a connection or rapport.

"All
right," she declared aloud. "You win."

She slid off
the sturmon's back, noticing only then that the hilt of the captain's sword
still gleamed from its scabbard.

She placed
her hand on it, resting it there thoughtfully. This, too, was a most unfortunate
development. This particular Crescent sword was a symbol of the captain's leadership.
It would not be easily replaced.

She wondered
if Kalos would even be able to defend his ranking now, especially considering
the way the weapon had been lost. Stolen by a mere woman, who had tricked him
and then escaped.

Adalginza
swallowed hard. First she had taken the Golden. And now she had the captain's
most cherished symbol of authority in her possession.

She was
certain that the captain's many reasons for hating her must now be multiplying rapidly.

Adalginza
took the sturmon's rein and began tugging on the animal, half dragging his
outstretched head behind her. He reluctantly followed with a slow, exaggerated
limp.

If she
planned to keep the Golden with her, progress from here on out would be
excruciatingly slow. And she was growing increasingly worried about pursuit.

Where was
the captain right now? Immediately behind her?

Anxiety
spurred her onward, though Adalginza reassured herself that there was no way
Kalos could have tracked her on foot.

For one
thing, the prints of the Golden's hooves would be just one set among many along
the numerous trails leading from the Village of the Circles.

For another,
Kalos had no sword for protection. And Adalginza had taken all the provisions
and drinking water.

The captain
had no doubt been forced to walk back to Lady Donzala's abode, where he could
secure another sturmon and enlist the aid of the other knights in his search.

It was the only
reasonable course of action available to him. So with such a delay, Kalos could
not possibly catch up with her. And he couldn't travel in the darkness that was
now setting in.

Adalginza
was grateful that most of the crescent moons were either in shadow or mere
slivers of their usual selves. With only the tiny Second Crescent Moon in its
full phase, no progress could be made in the captain's search until the next
morn.

It was a
good night to hide.

Adalginza
made camp, such as it was, beside a series of pools of crystal clear water
formed from runoff from the nearby, higher mountain range. spring fed by
underground volcanic activity

She
unsaddled then tethered the Golden, after allowing it to drink its fill from
one of the pools. Then she left the animal grazing contentedly.

Soon the
sound of its strong jaws jerking and then munching sweet grass become part of
the soothing night rhythm.

Inspired by
the ravenous hunger she felt from the Golden, Adalginza sat on a rock and took
out some of the dried meat and berries from a pouch of provisions. She ate only
enough to quell the pain of hunger.