Ten Crescent Moons (Moonquest) (34 page)

"I knew
you were there."

"I love
you, Captain Kalos." Adalginza leaned farther over the railing, wishing
her arms were long enough to reach down and touch his face. "What will you
do about Calasta?"

"Nothing.
For now." He looked up at her, his dark eyes brimming with passion. "It
is good to see you well. It has been so long."

"Come
to my room. We will make love. And then we will talk of many things."

Adalginza
felt her hair dangling against her arms, tickling her skin, as it hung over the
railing. She and Kalos gazed at each other for several long moments. Though he
had a look of wanting, he didn't move.

"Since
you are not Calasta's mother, how is that you know Benfaaro's child so
intimately?" he asked.

Adalginza
uneasily looked around. This palace courtyard was too public for confessions,
and she had just learned that Benfaaro had at least one spy placed here.

"We
share a love of animals."

"That
which the two of you share with animals is more than just love. Is this the
magic that binds you to the little girl? Or is it much more than that? I find
this all very confusing."

"I will
tell you everything, if you will come with me where we can be alone."

Kalos
regarded her strangely. "You wish only to cast a spell on me again, so
that I no longer know my own thoughts."

"These
are hardly the words of a scholar who scorns superstition."

"Then I
withdraw them." Hurt and distrust were on his face as he continued to gaze
up at her. "I want to believe in you again. If only you knew how much. But
how can I? You have lied to me about so many things. You lied about being
Calasta's mother. Why?"

"It was
to save the child by placing her under your protection. You have to believe
this. Calasta was injured by someone who meant her great harm."

"Then why
would you risk everything to save the spawn of a man as cruel as Benfaaro?"

 "Kalos,
if you would just come with me. I will explain everything.
In private
."

He gazed up
at her, his eyes full of longing. "I have to go. I have somewhere else I need
to be. Someone I must meet."

"Sagawea?"

He did not
bother to deny this. "I am already late. And there are others who await
me, too."

"So you
continue to plot with Lady Sagawea against the interests of Lady Swiala," Adalginza
said. "Against those who are working for peace."

Without
warning, Kalos unsheathed his Crescent sword and speared it into the soft
ground of a courtyard garden. The hilt vibrated with the force of his action.

"I want
peace, too. Peace through strength."

"Then arrange
a meeting with Benfaaro. Negotiate terms for his surrender. I can help do this."

"We are
way beyond that. I told you Benfaaro has become much stronger. And now his lust
for power grows. Did you know he has taken control of some of the islands of
the Crescent Houses?"

"He has
done this?" Adalginza asked incredulously.

"This,
and much more. Through the use of the ships he has stolen from us and ships he
has had built for himself, he has even attacked some of our more isolated
coastal cities on the Prime Continent itself."

"I did
not know." Adalginza again gripped the railing, wishing she could somehow
fly to the lower level to speak to Kalos more directly. "But I believe
Benfaaro will retreat if you can convince the High Command to, in turn,
withdraw from the frontier."

Kalos
grabbed the hilt of his sword, pulled it from the ground and returned it to its
sheath. "Even if we were to withdraw from the frontier, do you think
Benfaaro would stop now?"

"You
far outnumber the savages."

"Dearest
wife. You have been on the Prime Continent long enough to see us as we really
are. We have grown soft, because we have not known war in many generations."

"But
you have the Crescent knights."

"Far
too few of them. The only hardened soldiers we have are in the frontier. But
here, we are no better than barnyard chizleans. Who is the stronger? One fanged
tawnwolf? Or thousands of penned up, helpless chizleans?"

"Benfaaro
is the stronger." Adalginza thought she whispered the words, but Kalos
heard her.

"You know
him too well, don't you? And may the saints forgive you for what you have done."

Adalginza felt
the stab of guilt, but she didn't look away.

"What
is it that you accuse me of?"

Kalos regarded
her steadily. "I know only that Benfaaro had — or has — influence over
you. But you are safe here. And away from him. That is all that matters to me
now."

Adalginza
simply stared down at her husband, not knowing what to say in answer.

Kalos
softened his expression.

"You
have your mother's madness, and Benfaaro used that. I do not hold you
accountable for anything that has happened."

"What
if I told you that I am quite sane?"

"Then I
would have to kill you. Even worse, I would despise you."

"Why,
exactly, would you despise me?"

He gave her
a look so tortured that her heart felt as if it were shredding into millions of
tiny threads, never to be made whole again.

"You
told my secrets. To Benfaaro. Or one of his confederates. It is the only
explanation for how he knew of the movements of the caravans. While you were
ill, I had much time alone with my thoughts. And when I think of who knew those
kinds of details, the answer is only one other than myself.
You
."

Adalginza
dropped her head, and the tears flowed unchecked down her cheeks.

"So the
only way I can keep your love is for you to think of me as insane?"

"Oh,
wife. Dear wife."

His tone was
gentle and so very tender.

"I do
not dare imagine all the things that Benfaaro did to you as a child. But you
are
insane. Polyper assures me of this. If the High Command knew of what you did,
they would have you executed anyway. But I will not tell. I will protect you.
Because I love you. And I know that in your own way you love me."

Adalginza
reached up with the back of her trembling hand to wipe the tears from her face.

"You
cannot leave yet. You must stay and hear what I must now tell you."

"What
good would it do? I do not know any more when you speak from madness or from
truth. Even you do not know."

"Sometimes
what seems like madness is the truth."

"I must
go." Kalos turned away from her.

Adalginza
angrily straightened from where she was leaning over the railing.

"You
will not listen to me. But you
will
listen to Lady Sagawea?"

Kalos
stopped, his back stiffening, but he did not turn around. "The lady is an
old friend.'

"A very
dear
old friend," Adalginza said.

"I do
not have time to linger to soothe your jealousy. You must trust me."

"Yet,
you do not return the favor of trusting me."

Kalos still
did not turn around, as though he might weaken if he saw her face.

"Polyper
tells me there is no cure for that which afflicts you. He knows, for he has
treated other women of Lady Donzala's clan. In the meantime, you are in Lady
Swiala's good care."

He turned
his head slightly to the side, but again resisted the urge to look back at her
again.

"We
must say our goodbyes now. I will be gone for a half season. Perhaps much
longer."

"Kalos!
Why so long? And where — ?"

"Do not
ask me where. I cannot tell you."

"You
are going back to the frontier without me. Aren't you?"

Kalos didn't
answer, but instead strolled through the outer court archway until he was out
of sight.

In only a
moment, the spy posing as servant melted from a nearby shadow and quietly stood
beside the stunned Lady Adalginza.

"They
always leave us, the saktutus." The servant made a spitting noise, to
emphasize her curse on men. "And they never return, even when they promise
to."

Adalginza
pushed desperately by the servant, and bolted down the stairs to almost knock
over her grandmother in her haste.

"Where
are you going?" Lady Swiala demanded.

Not getting
an answer from Adalginza, who hurried past her, she turned to the servant.

"Where
is she going?"

"She
pursues her husband, who told her he is leaving her."

"No
granddaughter of mine pursues a man! It is his place to pursue her! Adalginza,
you will return this instant!"

Adalginza
shoved open the heavy wooden doors leading to the outside street, where
sturmons and buggies rolled by on the cobblestone street and pedestrians went
about their day's business.

Adalginza
saw her husband grab the reins of the Golden where the animal was tethered
outside the palace. She ran toward him as he swung into the saddle.

"Please!"
she shouted. She reached out and grabbed the reins of the confused Golden, who
was now prancing away from her. "Please don't go! I would rather that all
the light of all the moons in the sky fade forever, than to lose you!"

Kalos looked
down at her in despair. "Adalginza. Do not do this."

In that
moment, Adalginza knew she had won him back.

She saw
Kalos pause, about to swing off the sturmon. She knew he would have taken her
in his arms then and there, except that Lady Swiala burst onto the scene.

This caused
the now completely unnerved Golden to rear backwards, almost unseating Kalos.

"Be off
with you!" Swiala shouted. "My granddaughter deserves better than a
man who breaks his marriage vows!"

A small
crowd was now gathering, and Adalginza knew tongues would be waggling about this
scene for many moon passings to come. Lady Swiala glared around at the gawkers.

"Let it
be known that Lady Adalginza drove away a man who is beneath her. A man without
honor. He has been banished from this household. And may he never return — "

"Grandmother!"
Adalginza protested.

But Swiala
had now locked eyes with Captain Kalos.

"Well,
captain? Will you further debase my granddaughter? Or will you take your leave
now?"

The Golden
danced underneath the captain's restraining hand, as Kalos regarded Adalginza
with anguish. Swiala moved very close to him, and only Adalginza heard her
grandmother's low voice.

"Or
would you have her again beg you to stay? Would it make you swagger with
victory to see her so humbled? Stay or go. Decide which it will be. But do it
quickly. We are watched."

Kalos nodded
once, his face strained and angry.

Then he
yanked the head of the sturmon around and spurred the animal into a fast
retreat.

The Golden's
hollow, fading hoof beats seemed to vibrate within the pit of Adalginza's
stomach.

It was only
the servant on one side and her grandmother on the other who gave her the
strength to walk with any semblance of dignity back into the palace.

As the
small, murmuring crowd formed a semi-circle in the front palace yard, the door
thudded shut behind the three women.

Adalginza
angrily confronted Swiala as they entered the palace foyer propped by two
white, marbled columns. Neither woman paid any attention to the servant,
hovering from a discreet distance.

"You
drove him away!" Adalginza shouted.

"I
tested him," Swiala said calmly. "And he failed."

"It was
not your right. My life is mine to live. Do you hear me?"

Adalginza
started up the stairs, only vaguely aware that the flustered servant now
trailed after her. But Swiala defiantly called after her granddaughter.

"What
kind of a man would let an old crone like me persuade him to leave the woman he
is supposed to love? Answer me that!"

Adalginza
paused and looked back over her shoulder.

"You had
no concern for me. You were only worried about what those people on the street
thought of us."

"Of
course I was concerned. You were making a poor spectacle of yourself."

"You
have no idea what had been passing between the captain and me. You ruined
everything. You have, in fact, done more damage than you will ever know."

Adalginza
turned, hiked up her skirts, and began marching back up the stairs.

Swiala
stayed where she was, but called out to her.

"You
are beautiful. You are young. You have indigo eyes. And you will have many
suitors with far better breeding than that captain of yours. I will see to
that. You have my promise."