Traitor's Moon

to figure out a way to get out of the city without being seen.”
    â€œThe moon’s in our favor, at least,” said Alec. “With Aurënfaie clothes and horses, we shouldn’t attract much attention. It could be morning before we’re missed.”
    â€œPerhaps longer, if I can manage a few tricks,” said the wizard.
    â€œYou could go out as escorts with one of my dispatch riders,” Beka mused. “Steal different horses once you’re well away from the city, while the rider takes yours with her and leaves a false trail.”
    â€œSometimes I forget whose daughter you are,” chuckled Seregil. His smile faded as he continued, however. “We have to keep this among ourselves. Except for the rider, no one else can know, not even our own people, since anyone who does will be forced to lie sooner or later.
    â€œPlay up Klia’s illness, Beka. Keep the Iia’sidra away from her as long as you can. If you do get trapped here, Adzriel will protect you, even if it means claiming you as hostages.” He shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll see Bôkthersa before I do.”
    â€œThat still leaves us penned in here with a spy.” Thero shook his head in disgust. “Ever since I read that letter, I’ve been wondering how someone could have been spying on us under our very noses. If they’d used magic, I swear I’d have sensed it!”
    â€œTorsin managed to carry on his business without our tumbling for quite some time,” Seregil reminded him. “That didn’t take any magic.”
    â€œBut with Klia’s knowledge,” the wizard countered.
    â€œWhen I find out who it is, they’ll wish for poison!” hissed Beka, clenching a fist against her thigh. “There must be some way of flushing them out.”
    â€œI was thinking about that earlier,” Alec said. “You’re not going to like this, but what about the dispatch riders? It would be easy enough for them to slip a message through, since they’re the ones carrying them. They’re also the last ones to handle the pouch before it’s sealed.”
    â€œMercalle’s decuria?” Beka snorted. “By the Flame, Alec, we’ve been through Bilairy’s gate and back together!”
    â€œNot all of them. What about the new ones? Phoria could have turned one of them.”
    â€œOr had them placed in Urgazhi Turma before this ever started,” added Seregil. “In her place, that’s what I’d have done. Knowing Phoria, she’d want eyes and ears anywhere she could get them—especially among Klia’s troops.”
    Beka shook her head stubbornly. “We lost half of Mercalle’s decuria during the battle on the way over here. Ileah, Urien, and Ari are all that are left of the new recruits, and they’re just pups. As for the rest, Zir and Marten have been with me since the turma was formed. I know them. They’ve saved my life a dozen times over and I’ve done the same for them. They’re loyal to the marrow of their bones.”
    â€œJust let me speak with Mercalle,” Alec persisted. “She’s closer to them than anyone. Maybe she’s seen something, something she didn’t even know was suspicious.”
    But Beka still hesitated. “Do you know what even the hint of this could do to the others? I need them united.”
    â€œIt won’t go beyond this room,” Alec promised. “If anything doescome up, Thero can deal with it with total secrecy. But we have to know.”
    Beka cast an imploring look at Seregil but found no help there. “All right, then, send for Mercalle.” She looked down at Klia. “But don’t question her here. Not here.”
    â€œWe can use my room,” said Thero. He flicked a tiny message sphere into being and sent it skittering through the wall with a wave of his hand.
    The cooler air in the wizard’s chamber seemed to clear Seregil’s head, enough for him to feel chagrin at not having arrived at Alec’s conclusions himself.
    Alec had been right all along—and the rhui’auros, too. Since he’d come back to Aurënen, he’d been too wrapped up in his own past, his own demons, to be of much use to anyone. Perhaps it went back even further than that. In rejecting Rhíminee, had he buried the man he’d been there, the Rhíminee Cat?
I’d have been dead a hundred times over, or