Traitor's Moon

about the edges. It’s come off somebody’s boots.” Picking it up, he sniffed it and took a closer look. “Horse manure, with bits of hay and oats stuck in it.”
    â€œBeka must have tracked it in,” said Thero.
    Alec shook his head. “No, she was already here when we arrived, and this is fresher than that. And I was standing near the door the whole time we were in there and would have heard if anyone walked by. This person didn’t mean to be heard, and this bit of muck places him close to the wall next to the door—an eavesdropper for certain, one who came in through the stable yard.”
    â€œOr from it,” Seregil muttered, inspecting the corridor floor and both stairways. “There are a few other smudges here, leading to the back stairs. Not an experienced hand, our visitor. I’d have taken off my boots, but our spy just clomped in trusting to luck.”
    â€œBut how would anyone have known to come here just now?” asked Thero. “I went straight from my chamber to Klia’s. No one could have known about Magyana’s letter.”
    â€œBeka came in from the stable yard,” Seregil pointed out. “Anyone taking note of the summons could have followed her in. The approach also suggests that whoever it was, he was either very bold, very foolish, or trusted that his presence in the house wouldn’t be questioned if anyone saw him. Or her.”
    â€œNyal!” Alec whispered.
    â€œThe interpreter?” Thero said incredulously. “You can’t seriously think that the Iia’sidra would assign a spy to Klia’s staff, especially one as inept as this one appears to have been?”
    Seregil said nothing for a moment, recalling the conversation he and the Ra’basi had shared during his convalescence. Perhaps the painkilling draughts had skewed his judgment, but he hoped Nyal wasn’t their spy; the irony of the realization forced a grin to his lips. Now it was Alec who seemed ready to believe Nyal guilty.
    â€œThis isn’t the first time we’ve had cause to question his motives.” Alec sketched out the details of the tryst they’d observed between Nyal and Amali outside the Dravnian way station.
    â€œYou didn’t actually overhear what they were discussing?” asked Thero.
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThat’s unfortunate.”
    â€œSuspicion and conjecture,” said Seregil. “We’re still standing on smoke.”
    â€œWho else could it have been?” said Alec. “One of the guards or servants?”
    â€œI don’t think Beka or Adzriel would be pleased with that speculation.”
    â€œI’ll add a few spells here,” Thero said, glaring at the doorframe as if it had somehow betrayed him. “We’d better warn Klia.”
    â€œLater. She has enough to trouble her this morning,” Seregil advised. “You and Alec attend the Iia’sidra as planned. I’ll find out what our Ra’basi friend has been up to this morning.”
    Alec started upstairs to change, then turned back. “You know, Phoria trying to hide the queen’s death like that makes me wonder just who our real enemies are.”
    Seregil shrugged. “I suspect we have plenty on both sides of the Osiat.”
    Alec hurried off, but Thero lingered a moment longer, his narrow face more serious than usual.
    â€œWorried about Magyana?” asked Seregil.
    â€œPhoria will know who sent us the news.”
    â€œMagyana understood the risks. She can look out for herself.”
    Thero turned in at his own door. “Perhaps.”
    Seregil stopped in the stable yard on his way to Adzriel’s to inquire about Nyal’s whereabouts and was relieved to find Beka nowhere in sight. Steb and Mirn were standing guard duty at the courtyard gate.
    â€œHow long have you been on duty?” he asked them.
    â€œSince before dawn, my lord,” Steb told him, rubbing at the patch over his blind eye as he stifled a yawn.
    â€œAny visitors? Anyone go in or out of the house?”
    â€œNo visitors, my lord, and the captain was the first in the house this morning. Princess Klia sent for her. She told us about poor old Idrilain when she came back.” The one-eyed rider paused, touchinghis hand to his heart. “Since then most of us have been in and out of the kitchen for our breakfast, but that’s about all.”
    â€œI see. By the way, have you seen Nyal this