Traitor's Moon

vote.”
    â€œAnd if guilt is not proven?”
    Säaban spread his hands. “Then teth’sag cannot be carried out. How do you mean to proceed, if you do not find what you are looking for in the forest?”
    â€œI suppose we begin with anyone who had the most reason to hurt Klia. The way I see it, that brings in the Virésse first of all, since they’re the ones with the most to lose. Then there are the Khatme, who hate us because we’re Tír, outsiders.”
    Säaban considered this. “There’s sense in what you say, yet you are thinking with the mind of a Tír. This outrage was committed by an Aurënfaie. Their reasons might not be what you suppose.”
    â€œYou’re saying I should think like an Aurënfaie?”
    â€œAs you are not one, I doubt that’s possible, any more than I could think like a murderer. It’s madness to kill another. How can one think like a madman unless you are mad yourself?”
    Alec smiled. “Seregil claims that Aurënfaie have no talent for murder. Where I’m from, it comes a bit easier to most—whether they’re doing it or just thinking of it.”
    They reached the clearing at midmorning and found everything as it had been the day before. The ash in the fire circles was damp and undisturbed. Flies buzzed lazily over the piles of offal left where hunters had cleaned their kill.
    Alec could still make out Klia’s footprints beside the cascading series of pools. “It was here that I found her and Emiel,” he told Säaban, showing him the spot.
    The Bôkthersan draped Klia’s tunic over one shoulder and began a tuneless humming.
    The pool Alec had found her beside yielded nothing. However, a few yards downstream Säaban halted suddenly and plunged his hand into the water, bringing up a sodden arrowhead pouch. An ivory plaque on one of the drawstrings showed the flame and crescent device of the Skalan royal house.
    â€œIt’s Klia’s, all right,” Alec said, examining it. “It must have come loose during the struggle.”
    Säaban held the pouch in one hand, concentrating. When he spoke again, his voice had a high, singsong timbre. “Yes. Her legs gave way and she fell, choking on water. Her face—her eyelids were heavy, stiff.”
    â€œEmiel?” Alec asked hopefully.
    Säaban shook his head. “I’m sorry, Alec. It is only Klia I feel on this.”
    They spent the next hour searching but turned up nothing but a few lost buttons and a Skalan amulet.
    Searching the edges of the main clearing, Alec looked up to see Säaban on the far side, rubbing wearily at his forehead. He’d made no complaint, but Alec guessed that even for the ’faie magic took a toll on the user.
    He slowly retraced the way Klia and Emiel had taken down to the stream, poking into clumps of dead leaves and bracken along the way. Reaching the spot where he’d overtaken them, he looked around again. The only other marks were those left by the soldiers who’d carried Klia up the slope to her horse, a steeper but more direct route than the path. Following this, he cast back and forth as he worked his way up the hillside. The ground here was covered with dead leaves and fresh new undergrowth; an easy place to lose a small item. Säaban followed, humming softly to himself as he searched in his own fashion.
    Reaching the top, Alec turned and started down again, knowing that things always looked different with a change of direction. Halfway down, his patience was rewarded with a glimpse of something in a clump of tiny pink flowers.
    Alec went down on one knee, heart suddenly beating faster. It was an Akhendi bracelet, half trampled into the soft ground. Pulling it free, he saw that it was the one he’d watched Amali make for Klia that first night in Sarikali; there was no mistaking the complicated pattern on the band. The ties had broken, but the bird-shaped charm still hung from it, coated in mud. Alec used the hem of his shirt to clean it, then let out a low whistle of triumph.
    The pale wood had gone a telltale black.
    â€œAh, no wonder I missed this,” Säaban said, though he looked a bit chagrined. “The magic on it interferes with my own. Are you certain it is Klia’s?”
    â€œYes, I saw it on her yesterday morning.” He touched the charm. “And this was still white. I don’t suppose you can tell anything from