Traitor's Moon

claim I had an omen
, he thought.
    Ill or not, Torsin moved as if he had a purpose more serious than taking the night air. The taverns were busier than ever, and music seemed to come from all directions. Aurënfaie were out in pairs and groups, enjoying the night. He stopped now and then to exchange a greeting with some person he knew but didn’t linger to chat.
    Leaving Bôkthersa tupa, he led Alec down a succession of streets that took them past boundary markers of Akhendi and Haman. When he slowed at last, Alec’s heart sank. This street was marked with the moon symbol of Khatme. Thankfully, there were fewer folk abroad here, but Alec was careful to keep to the shadows of doorways and alleys. He wasn’t nightrunning, he told himself, hoping he never had to justify that to anyone else. He was just keeping an eye on an ailing old man.
    Torsin stopped at an imposing house Alec guessed rightly to be the house of Lhaär ä Iriel. A brief slice of candle glow from inside illuminated the old man’s face as he entered, and Alec was close enough to read what looked like resignation on Torsin’s haggard features.
    There were no obvious ways into the house, even for Alec. The well-guarded villas of Rhíminee possessed a comforting symmetry of design by comparison. There might be walls to climb, dogs to avoid or charm his way past, but you could almost always find some aperture to wiggle through if you knew your business. Here there were only barred doors and windows out of reach.
    He was further stymied by the fact that this building, whatever it was, abutted several others, all of which presented equally blank faces. He was about to give up when he caught the sound of several voices somewhere overhead.
    Looking up, he made out the dark jut of a balcony. The voiceswere too soft for him to catch the gist of the conversation, but the erratic punctuation of Torsin’s coughing left no doubt in Alec’s mind that he’d found his man again.
    There were at least two others with him, a man and a woman—Lhaär ä Iriel herself, perhaps.
    The conference did not last long. The unseen conspirators soon disappeared back into the house. Alec waited a few minutes to see if they’d return, then headed back to the front of the building to wait.
    Torsin emerged a few minutes later, but not alone. A man walked with him for several minutes before turning in the opposite direction.
    Alec was still trying to decide which one to follow when a familiar shape emerged from the shadows beside him.
    â€œSeregil?”
    â€œYou take Torsin; I’ll follow this other fellow. Watch out for Khatme along the way. You won’t be welcome here.” With that, Seregil disappeared as quickly as he’d come.
    Torsin led Alec straight back to their own door, the front one this time. After exchanging a few words with the sentries, he went inside.
    Looking up at the colos, Alec saw lights still burning there. Not knowing what excuses had been made for his absence or Seregil’s, he went in through the stable yard and up the back stair. Halfway up, he heard Klia’s voice, and Torsin’s.
    â€œI thought you’d turned in already,” Klia said.
    â€œA short walk in the night air helps me sleep,” Torsin replied. No mention of where he’d been.
    Alec waited until he heard two doors close, then continued on to his chamber and settled in to wait for Seregil so they could get their stories straight. That seemed a safe enough plan, far more attractive than being the one to tell Klia that her trusted minister has just been consorting with their opposition behind her back.
    Seregil’s man was not wearing a sen’gai, but he guessed from the cut of his tunic that he was from one of the eastern clans. He was soon proven right. The man led him to the house of Ulan í Sathil.
    Lurking in a nearby doorway, Seregil pondered the possible connections. Intractable Khatme and worldly Virésse; the two clans were divided as much by their ideology as they were by the spur of mountains that lay between their ancestral lands. The only uniting factor he knew of was their opposition to the Skalan treaty.
    The greater question was whether Torsin knew of the connection.
    He returned to the guest house to find the colos dark, the music stilled. Entering by the back gate, he found Korandor and Nikides on guard duty.
    â€œHas anyone else come or gone this way tonight, Corporal?” he