Ten Crescent Moons (Moonquest) (46 page)

This was a
man who knew how to handle a warrior's sword with confidence.

"Zartos!" 
Kalos said, jerking his head in the opposite direction. "Go! I can handle
this!"

"No, Uncle.
I have something to report from last night's scouting."

"Later!"
Kalos took a step toward Adalginza and Benfaaro, his posture menacing.

Adalginza
had no weapon. But Benfaaro struggled to his feet, holding his own dagger
threateningly.

"A
dagger against a sword?" Kalos asked mockingly. "Surely you make a
joke."

Kalos paused
to examine both of them as though they were excrement on the bottom of his
boot.

"I have
long dreamed of meeting you in battle, Benfaaro. Now that I see you, I am
disappointed."

"Benfaaro
is no match for you, Kalos," Adalginza said. "He has been ill for
quite some time."

"And
this is supposed to stir my pity?"

Benfaaro
suddenly charged forward.

"I do
not need your pity, Captain!"

With the
dagger aimed straight at him, Kalos reacted as would any soldier — with a swift
uppercut of the sword.

But it was Benfaaro's
last minute hesitation that had allowed the captain to stroke so easily. The
leader Of The Blood fell forward to one knee. He grasped his chest, which was
now sliced open and spewing blood.

"You
have done me a favor, Captain. For I choose to die in battle rather than in my
own bed."

As he fell
forward, Benfaaro reached out and grasped the captain's arm. He held himself
upright for one more moment.

"Do not
kill her...She loves you..."

Then, he
pitched forward.

Adalginza
dropped down to her knees beside the still body of her brother, who she had
once admired like no other. He had never been a god. He had been only a man — and
greatly flawed.

Her tears
flowed freely, even though she knew Kalos was watching.

"I will
allow you another moment for your grief. And then you will come with me."

Adalginza
did not look up. She merely nodded. She knew she was about to die, and she did
not want him to see her face. She did not want Kalos to know how much she still
cared about him.

"Uncle..."

"Zartos,
I told you to go! Go back to the unit. It is dangerous here."

"But I
have something to tell you."

Adalginza
felt rather than saw Kalos grab her hair and yank her to her feet.

She did not
look up as he wrapped her hands in the rope. He roughly jerked the bonds tight,
then wrenched the end of the snare to pull her after him.

Adalginza
kept her eyes squeezed shut as she stumbled forward. She still did not want to
look at him, though she dared speak.

"I
thought Lady Redolo did not want Zartos to belong to the Crescent knights. She
must be very displeased. He is still so young."

"We
need all the men we can recruit. And my mother is dead. As you should well
know."

"Dead?"
More tears found their way down Adalginza's cheek. "I did not know. I am
so sorry."

"Tell
me no more lies!"

The rope was
snatched forward viciously, almost causing her to fall to her face.

"You
told Benfaaro about the tunnel of the Seventh Crescent Cave, leading into Sola
Re. We had blocked the entryway from the city cemetery, of course, once we knew
you were a spy. But the savages found the wilderness entrance, and caught her
working there."

"I
never told."

"I told
her to stay away. Because of the danger. But she could not resist studying the
writings of the Seventh Crescent found on more of the walls. They tortured her.
Do you want to know the details?"

"No!
Please..."

"Uncle!
No!" Zartos was somewhere behind them, following.

Adalginza
finally forced open her eyes, but could only see the captain's back as she was
dragged along after him.

"I did
not tell about the tunnel. You must believe me."

"How
did the savages know then?"

"If
Lady Redolo no longer had access from the city, she must have been seen going
back and forth from Sola Re to the entrance in the wilderness."

"A
convenient explanation."

"If I
wanted you all to die, why would I have released you back in Faradera?"

"Listen
to her, Uncle."

"Zartos!
I told you to go! I have grim business with this woman. And I don't want you to
watch."

Adalginza
opened her eyes in time to see Zartos thrust himself physically in front of the
captain.

"I was
hidden in the brush last night. I watched their ceremony. Lady Adalginza is now
their new leader — the Leader Of The Blood. Do you understand what this means?"

"Is
she?" Kalos threw Adalginza a sardonic look over his shoulder. "Congratulations.
Too bad the honor will be so short-lived."

Then, he
tried to push by Zartos. But the boy refused to budge.

"She
wants peace with us, Uncle! I heard her say she wants peace."

"Peace,
but not surrender," Adalginza said defiantly. "On terms both sides
agree to. I tell you this because I want you to know that I will always speak
the truth."

Kalos
stopped then, and whirled to face her.

"You
cannot possibly believe that you are in any position to bargain with me."

"I will
only be in a position to bargain with you if I am alive."

"
When
you are dead, the savage tribes will fall into chaos. You said so yourself."

"Not
while Calasta lives. She is Of The Blood. And the tribal leaders will support
her, even if she is not yet of age."

"Lady Adalginza
is telling the truth," Zartos said. "I saw it all. Calasta is only
thirteen, but she is strong."

"Damn
me!" Kalos looked infuriated. "I should have killed the child the
instant I found out who she was."

"Uncle!"
Zartos took several horrified steps away from the captain.

Now that
Adalginza finally had a close look at the captain's face, she saw the changes
etched there in the hollowness of both cheeks and eyes.

The humor
she had remembered, which had been so much a part of his charm, was erased.
Only bitterness remained. In fact, she barely recognized this wrathful thing pretending
to be a man.

"Never
mind then, captain," Adalginza said coldly. "You have more than made
up for your oversight with the murders of the children
you
have
exterminated in your attacks on our villages."

"Do not
take that tone with me!"

Kalos
covered the distance between them in only seconds, and lifted his hand as
though to strike her. But he held himself back.

"Who
are you to talk of morality?"

"Someone
whose soul is stained with the blood of innocents, as yours is. You are
suffering, too, Captain Kalos. I see it in your eyes."

Kalos backed
away from her.

"No. I
will listen to you no more. I will put you out of my heart, forever."

At that
moment, several Crescent knights thundered up on their sturmons. One man held
the reins of the Golden.

"We
have driven the savages back, sir," said the knight. "They have
disappeared into the wilderness."

Kalos
grabbed the reins of his sturmon, and gestured behind him.

"You
will find Benfaaro's body back there. Take it somewhere and bury it, so that it
cannot be recovered and revered. And take this boy with you. I have grisly
business to complete."

"Please,
Uncle Kalos. Don't kill her," Zartos begged.

But Kalos
grabbed the boy's arm, and half pushed him up on a sturmon behind one of the
knights.

"Go.
And do not come back for me. I will catch up to you later."

As the
knights galloped away, Kalos swung onto the back of the Golden and dangled one
hand that still clutched the rope. Then he urged the Golden forward, as
Adalginza was pulled behind.

She stared
straight ahead, watching the sturmon's tail moving back and forth in a rhythm
that was almost mesmerizing.

It was
strange the things that went through a person's mind, when one was condemned to
die.

She thought
of the times they had made love — really made love, in the wilderness and under
the crescent moons that had grinned so brightly with delight. She watched the
familiar shape of his back. And she felt the love still burning within her.

She forgave
him, even before he did whatever it was he was going to do to her.

Then, she
thought of Medosa.

Medosa had
forgiven Benfaaro, even before he was murdered. Perhaps the holy man's way
really was the key to salvation.

After much
passage of time, Adalginza's feet were growing blistered and sore.

She fell a
few times, and was dragged each time until finally she managed to pull herself
back up to stumble forward.

She looked
down in dismay at her ceremonial wedding dress, passed down through the
generations. Worn by all those great women before her. All Of The Blood.

Now it was
getting snared by the brush, and ripped and torn. After all the care of this
symbol by so many of different generations, it was beyond repair now.

It was a
symbol of her failure. She had been unable even to preserve a piece of precious
cloth, much less an entire race of people.

It was no
longer possible to work for peace. No longer possible to be redeemed. When she
died, which would be soon, she would be forever damned.

It was this
realization, finally, that caused her to groan aloud in torment.

It took a
while for her to realize, though she was still swaying on her feet, that they
were stopped. Kalos was still on the Golden, though he had not turned around as
yet.

"I
suppose we have gone far enough," he said hoarsely.

Kalos swung
off the sturmon, and coiled the loose end of the rope attached to her as he
approached.

She smiled
at him stiffly. "Will you hang me? Or will you flay the skin from my back?"

"Damn
you, woman! I loved you!"

"I love
you, too, Kalos."

Her words
served to infuriate rather than console him. He grabbed the rope and yanked her
toward him, where an elongated shard of rock jutted from a sheer cliff. 

"I will
tie you here!"

"And
then what?"

He forced
her against the rock, and began to wrap the rope tightly. He used his heavier
body to pin her against its rough face.

"I will
leave you to burn in the sun until finally you die."

"You
could kill me cleanly."

"I want
you to suffer as you have made me suffer. As my sisters suffered. As my friend,
Luzicos, suffered. And finally my own mother."

"Kalos,"
she whispered. "You cannot possibly know how much I have already suffered."

He then held
up a flask, retrieved from the saddle pack.

"Do you
know what this is? Do you?"

She shook
her head "no" as she blinked back tears.

"This
is the end of you. The end of all of you. The end of your very existence."

"The
plague," Adalginza whispered.

"All I
need do is give the order at an appointed time, and it will be released
everywhere at once throughout the frontier. This way, there will be no chance
that any savage will live long enough to develop immunity. Or produce another
child."

"Kalos.
Please do not do this."

"Benfaaro
has brought us to this."

"You
saw what my brother had become. Did it make you proud to kill him?"

Against her
willing, she began sobbing.

"Do not
bother to weep again. Your tears cannot move me now."

"I do
not weep for myself. I weep for you. For this slaughter you are about to
commit, your soul will be damned for all Eternity."

"Please.
You cannot possibly know what will happen to me or anyone else in Eternity."

"This
plague you are about to release will destroy not only the savages. But your
people, too. Everyone. It is foretold in The Prophecy."

"The
same Prophecy that speaks of a woman with indigo eyes?"

"Yes!"

"Pure
superstition."

Kalos ripped
what was left of the dress from her back, leaving her bare skin exposed to the
sun that already had climbed higher in the sky.

She thought
she heard a muffled sob, but she was bound so tightly against the rock she
could not turn to look at his face.