Traitor's Moon Read Free Page A

Traneus?” suggested Aralain with her usual lack of imagination.
    Phoria spared her a withering glance. “Or perhaps we should begin with someone Klia trusts, someone she’ll speak openly around.”
    â€œAnd someone in a position to send dispatches,” Korathan added.
    â€œWho, then?” asked Aralain.
    Phoria arched a knowing eyebrow. “Oh, I have one or two people in mind.”

2
A N U NEXPECTED S UMMONS
    B eka Cavish paced the ship’s foredeck, scanning the western horizon for the first dark line marking Skala’s northeast territories. It had been a week since they’d ridden out from Idrilain’s camp; it might be another before they rejoined Klia for the voyage south and she didn’t take well to inactivity.
    She plucked absently at the new gorget hanging at the throat of her green regimental tunic. The captain’s brass seemed to sit more heavily against her chest than the plain steel crescent of lieutenant. She’d been perfectly content leading her turma and they’d made a name for themselves as raiders behind the enemy’s lines: Urgazhi, “wolf demons”—bestowed on them by the enemy during the early days of the war. They wore the epithet as a badge of honor, but it had been dearly bought. Of the thirty riders under her command today, only half had come through those days and knew the truth behind the silly ballads sung across Skala and Mycena, knew where the fallen bodies of their comrades lay along the Plenimaran frontier.
    The turma was at full strength now for the first time in months, thanks to this mission. Never mind that some of the newer recruits had only just lost their milk teeth, as Sergeant Braknil liked to say. Perhaps, Sakor willing,they could be taught a thing or two before they all found themselves back in battle.
    Less than a month before, Urgazhi Turma had been slogging through frozen Mycenian swamps, and even that was better than some fighting they’d seen.
    Fighting across windswept sea ledges, the waves red with blood about their feet
.
    Beka leaned on the rail, watching a school of dolphins leaping ahead of the prow. The closer she came to seeing Seregil and Alec again, the more the memories of their last parting after the defeat of Duke Mardus rose to haunt her.
    That brief battle had cost her father the use of his leg, Nysander his life, and Seregil his sanity for a time. Months later she’d had a letter from her father, saying that Seregil and Alec had quit Rhíminee for good. Now that she knew the reason, she wasn’t so sure arriving with a decuria of riders was the best way to coax them home.
    She gripped the rail, willing those thoughts away. She had work to do, work that for at least a little while was sending her back to those she loved best.
    Two Gulls was barely large enough to merit the title of village. One poor inn, a ramshackle temple, and a dicer’s throw of shacks clustered around a little dent of a harbor. Micum Cavish had spent a lifetime passing through such places, wandering on his own or on Watcher business with Seregil.
    These past few years he’d stuck close to home, nursing his bad leg and watching his children grow. He’d enjoyed it, too, much to his wife’s delight, but this journey had reminded him just how much he missed the open road. It was good to find out that he still knew instinctively where to show gold and where to guard his purse.
    Five days earlier a mud-spattered messenger had ridden into the courtyard at Watermead, bearing news that the queen required his service and that of Seregil and Alec. It fell to him to talk his friends out of their self-imposed exile. The best news, however, had been that his eldest girl, Beka, was alive, whole, and on her way home from the war to act as his escort.
    Within the hour, he was on the road with a sword at his side and pack on his back, heading for a village he’d never heard of until that day.
    Just like old