Ten Crescent Moons (Moonquest) (24 page)

He lowered
the sword to the ground, and then reached out his hand.

"Come,
my love. It is time for us to go home."

***

Adalginza
was sure that Kalos misunderstood the tears of despair she cried on most of the
journey back to the Place of the Circles. He, instead, suffered under the
delusion that she had been purged by the truth.

He spoke to
her soothingly a time or two, but mostly just held her in front of him on the
Golden. Though the sturmon limped slightly, his leg had recovered enough to
carry them at a slow pace.

After a while,
the tears dried. And emptiness took their place.

Emptiness then
was replaced with a grudging sense of obligation as the familiar environs she
saw reminded Adalginza of her duty to her brother.

Somehow,
some way, she must see this travesty through to the end.

"I must
stop and reapply my masque," she said dully. "The knights cannot see
me with such a plain face."

"A
beautiful face," Kalos insisted.

"To
you, my husband. But a lady of the Fifth House without her masque is viewed the
same as a lady without her sash. She would be seen as lewd, and without
modesty. Especially here in the frontier."

Kalos
sighed. "You are right."

He stayed
seated atop the Golden, both legs thrown over the side as he curiously watched
her careful attentions to the cosmetics.

She then did
what she could to smooth the folds of the heavy skirt, and scrape off the dirt
from the trail.

When she
again resumed her position in front of him, she felt fortified somehow — as
though the falseness of the masque somehow excused the falseness of her own
heart.

"You
will win no compliments from me," he said, as he wrapped his arms around
her again. "I think the masques are hideous."

"You
have made your feelings known before."

"And
the masque changes you. I hate that the most."

"You
have such an imagination."

"You
will now wear this masque to our bed?"

"I
must. It is the law of my House."

"Your
voice is cold now. Your heart is distant now. This is not my imagination."

"At
least my tears are gone now. You should be grateful for this."

"I
prefer the tears. At least they are authentic."

All
conversation ceased, however, when the Golden rounded the lane where the abode
of her mother at the Place of the Circles came into full view.

What
Adalginza saw caused her to leap from the sturmon, with one hand taking charge
of the hilt of the captain's Crescent sword in the same motion.

Nausea tore at
her stomach as she raced toward the circle of Crescent knights.

They
surrounded the young girl, Calasta, who was collapsed on the ground. Nearby was
the suckleberry thicket, and Herol's grave.

Adalginza
surmised that Calasta must have come back to visit the grave of Herol, and to
mourn her beloved pet.

The child had
been captured. When? Last night?

As Adalginza
ran, half stumbling with the weight of the Crescent sword, her mind replayed
the nightmare of Calasta's mother who had been taken as a small child so many
years before by another troupe of Crescent knights.

Then, Adalginza
saw the fresh blood...

An errant
gust of wind whipped through the Canyon of Despair, causing the distant
campfire to spit angry sparks into the night sky.

Guided by
the red glow, Adalginza tied her bonnet more securely around her ears and
summoned more strength from her depleted muscles to keep going.

Harsh gusts
whipped at her, tearing at her skirt, as Adalginza forced herself to climb over
the last of the huge boulders.

These craggy
monuments were the remnants of an enormous rock slide that once crushed an
entire village of the Tribe of the Sands more than a hundred full seasons ago.

Because the
lives here had ended so unnaturally, the Canyon of Despair was rarely visited
by her people. Its reputation for hauntings also discouraged the presence of citizens
of the Crescent Houses who lived in nearby Sola Re.

It was a
perfect hiding place for the clandestine, pre-appointed meetings with Benfaaro
and Bruna that Adalginza now so dreaded.

Nearly
exhausted from the exertion of her strenuous climb, she at last staggered into
the flickering circle of firelight. She wrapped her shawl tightly around her,
shivering as she stood before them.

Though it
had been almost a quarter season since she had last seen her brother, Benfaaro
did not rise to greet Adalginza or show any other sign of affection.

He simply
nodded his head toward a flat rock next to him, where Adalginza quietly took
her seat.

"What
story did you give your captain this time?" he asked.

"He
knows I sometimes like to ride alone. I told him that I must do so late at
night, when other Crescent House citizens cannot see me."

Benfaaro was
dressed in his usual tunic and leggings made of snakeskin. But, this time, his
clothing was tattered and unkempt. The red strip of cloth tied around his head
and knotted in back was soiled.

Adalginza was
struck by how her brother's once proud green eyes, ordinarily full of passion for
his cause, were now devoid of any emotion at all.

Benfaaro had
been this way, ever since he had lost Calasta.

At the sight
of her brother's hollow expression, Adalginza began to doubt everything she had
conspired to do thus far. But her resolve was strengthened when she shifted her
gaze to Bruna, who sat at Benfaaro's side.

Bruna's
dark, spiteful eyes captured the glitter of firelight as they regarded Adalginza.

"I am
surprised to see you here, little one. I thought by now you would forget all
about us, now that you are so indulged as a newly married third lady of the Ninth
House. And an officer's wife, too. How nice. The lifestyle has no doubt made
you soft. And comfortable. Maybe too comfortable?"

"I knew
you would come," Benfaaro interrupted.

He reached
out to a blackened iron pot and dipper, to pour a steaming brew of herbal tea
into a large ceramic cup. He handed it to Adalginza, before speaking again.

"The
winds that bring warning of the coming of winter are cold tonight. Drink, and
be warmed. We have much to talk about." He must have seen the furtive look
she cast in Bruna's direction. "Never fear. I made the tea myself."

Adalginza
did, indeed, appreciate the heat of the cup nestled between her trembling
hands, almost as much as the steaming brew placed to her lips. The scent of the
tea was of an aromatic mint, and the taste was deliciously flavorful.

As she drank
deeply from the cup, she was aware that Bruna watched her every move.

"So. Do
you miss me?" Bruna asked.

"Not
especially."

"Oh,
but surely you miss my cooking." Bruna turned to Benfaaro. "I still
doubt Adalginza's word that it was Captain Kalos who insisted I be sent away. I
think it was Adalginza who wanted me gone. I think she is lying to us about
many things."

Benfaaro
said nothing in his sister's defense, leaving it up to Adalginza to answer.

"You
brought this on yourself. The captain now suspects it was you who breached the
net, causing the snake to invade upon the first night of our meeting. Once I
joined the household of Captain Kalos as his wife, it was no wonder he banished
you. As I told you before, you were lucky he didn't execute you for being
caught in the act of spying."

"Would
you have protested?" Bruna asked tauntingly.

Benfaaro
held up one hand, interrupting the argument. "Little sister, what do you
have for us this eve?"

As Adalginza
gazed down at tea leaves in the steaming, hot liquid, she wondered what she
should say this time that would cause the least damage.

Since her
impromptu marriage to Captain Kalos in the wilderness more than a full season
ago, she had lost far too much weight. Her appetite was practically
non-existent and she could no longer remember the last time she had felt any
real joy.

And it was all
because of forced meetings like this one.

"Adalginza?"
Benfaaro promoted, this time more sternly.

"Please.
Give me a moment to warm my hands and collect my thoughts."

It would be
much easier to fill this role if Adalginza had discovered during the early days
of her marriage that Captain Kalos was unworthy of affection. She had in some
ways hoped to be disappointed in him. But quite the opposite had occurred.

She grew to
love Captain Kalos deeply. And with each passing moment, she respected him
still more.

He, on the
other hand, had no idea of the treachery she was committing as his trusted
wife. If he ever found out, she knew that the goodness within him that she so
loved might be forever destroyed.

And she
would be to blame.

Yet, the
fate of her own people depended on the information she routinely provided to
Benfaaro, passed along through couriers she met with in secret near Sola Re.

Most of the information
she provided involved the movements of Crescent House caravans transporting more
settlers deep into the interior of the frontier. These people were like swarms
of ants, as they debarked from the steady influx of ships sent from the Prime
Continent.

They had no
respect for the tribes they were displacing. But in the subsequent ambushes of
these caravans, many of those killed were innocent women and children. They
were on their way to join the men who had already arrived at remote frontier
settlements to serve as Crescent knights, farmers, merchants, miners, trappers,
and hunters.

It was true
that those from the Crescent Houses did not hesitate to slaughter her own
people if they dared to resist while they were being pushed out of traditional homelands.

Yet, the
guilt of what she was doing sometimes seemed more than Adalginza could bear. She
had no easy answers, and no idea anymore of exactly what was right or wrong.

She looked
down at her hands gripping the cup, and imagined that they seemed bloodied in
the red reflection of the firelight.

"You
look ill." Benfaaro sounded unusually concerned. "More so each time I
see you."

He turned
and gave Bruna an accusing look.

"I have
done nothing!" Bruna protested. "How could I poison her? I have been
gone from Adalginza's presence for more than a full season."

"Then
give her something that will make her better. We must have the information she
provides us."

Bruna stared
for a long time at Adalginza, assessing her.

"No
herb or potion will heal what troubles her. It is all in her mind. And it is
her mind that makes her body so ill."

Adalginza laughed
without humor.

"Captain
Kalos, too, believes that you poisoned me, Bruna."

Bruna looked
genuinely indignant. "I tell you, I did not! I swear by every saint of
every tribe of all our ancestors, I did not. Why would I?"

"There
are other ways to poison people." Adalginza regarded her with distaste. "You
know full well that your very existence is toxic to those around you."

Bruna jumped
to her feet and turned to Benfaaro.

"How
dare you allow her to address me in this way? As though I were the enemy?"

Benfaaro
merely shrugged his shoulders and allowed them to sag forward. He stared into
the fire, and took a sip of his tea, as though no longer hearing the words
around him.

Bruna
regarded him with open disgust.

"If
Talan were here, he would strike Adalginza for showing me such disrespect."

"Perhaps
it is
Talan
you should have wedded." Benfaaro now spoke in a
dangerous monotone.

"What
an absurd idea. Talan is not Of The Blood."

Benfaaro's
eyes now seemed menacing, as he perused his wife.

"I have
no illusions left about why you chose me. There is no love in you. But did you
ever consider that all the power you have now dies when I die? What will you do
then?"

"If you
die, Adalginza will marry Talan." Bruna smiled at him, taunting. "And
Talan will do as I say."

Benfaaro's
eyes shifted to his sister.

"I see,"
he said, without emotion. "So you do have your reasons for keeping
Adalginza alive. I should have recognized this long ago. It would have spared
me much worry on my sister's behalf."

"But I
far prefer to see you strong and healthy and long-lived, dear husband,"
Bruna said with exaggerated, false sweetness.